Death of Ellen Walton

Ellen Walton appears in my genealogy file as the second child of Abraham and Mary (Polly) Walton, born 1802 and died 1805. The death of a three-year-old child was not uncommon in those days. I knew nothing more of about Ellen's story.

Isaiah Walton, Rhoda's father, was the sixth child in the family born in 1812. So we are talking about Rhoda's aunt here.

In researching Oxford County, ME, I bought a copy of The History of Woodstock, written by Wm. Lapham and published in a small edition in 1882. It was republished in 1983. It relates the story of the first death in Woodstock, Maine, a story I told the couple at the funeral home in South Woodstock and a story they hadn't heard.

The original being a pre-1923 publication, copyrights have expired and I'll quote the relevant passage:

"The first death in town was that of a child of Abram Walton. Mr. Walton settled on one of the lots in the east part, which was run out by Smith. He felled trees and burned them in the autumn. The next spring, he built a log hut and moved in with his family. He junked and piled his piece in early summer, and set fire to it. While it was burning, his little daughter, three years old, wandered away from the house, and was burned so severely that she died. Her name was Ellen Walton. It is said by some that this occurred the year before the Bryant brothers made a settlement in the west part, upon the grant to Dummer Academy. Walton and Hutchinson, who came in with him, did not remain many years, but moved away, the former going west and the latter building a mill at North Paris."

Elsewhere in the book Lapham credits the Bryant's with being the first settlers in Woodstock but acknowledges that E. Hutchinson and A. Walton may have been there earlier but both left so the Bryant's are credited with being founders of the community. Abraham Walton had married Ebenezer Hutchinson's daughter Mary (Polly) in 1799 - New Year's Day. There were other family members - a Walton brother and at least one other Hutchinson nearby.

The Hutchinson's, Walton's and another family, the Jordan's all migrated from Oxford County to Ohio and then to Jefferson County, Indiana. Isaiah was the last child in the family born in Woodstock (1812). The next child was born near Cincinnati (date unk) and the last two in Jefferson Co., Indiana after 1823. My records show Ebenezer Hutchinson died in Ohio in 1828.

I hadn't made another connection until this Maine trip. in 1999, Rita and I spent a few days in Jefferson County, Indiana looking for Rowlison, Walton, Hutchinson, Evans and Kinnear traces. There are two communities called Paris and Paris Crossing in the area just North of Deputy where the Walton's settled and where Rhoda was born. Could our ancestors have been responsible for naming those towns for the Maine towns they came from? Circumstantial at this point, but entirely credible in my opinion. Even likely.