New Jersey roots, Indiana-to-Ohio migration, and Mormons – my Pickens ancestors

I continue to pay greater attention to the migration patterns of my ancestors. I’ve been especially interested lately in patterns that took families living in New Jersey in the second half of the 18^th century to southern New York or northern/central Pennsylvania in the late 18^th or early 19^th centuries and then onward to the Northwest Territory after 1800.

My great-grandmother, Violet Marie Weaver (1905-1973) was born out of wedlock to Catharine Jane Wolfe (1887-1967) and a Frank Weaver in the vicinity of Lima, Ohio. Both Catharine and Frank’s families had roots in Indiana and came to Ohio around the turn of the century. Frank’s family is rooted in Huntington County, Indiana, while Catharine’s roots are a bit further west in Fulton and Marshall Counties, Indiana.

Indiana Roots

Catharine Wolfe was the daughter of Beneville Wolfe (1858-1894) and Lillian Mae Pickens  Wolfe (1869-1934). “Lillie Mae” died in Van Wert, Ohio. Her parents, William Pickens (1847-1927) and Isidora “Dora” Burns Pickens (1850-1928) resided near the communities of Kewanna and Bruce Lake in Fulton County, Indiana, for most of their married lives, raising eight children, of whom Lillie Mae was the eldest.

Dora Burns Pickens was the daughter of Benjamin Burns (1820-1867), a Civil War veteran, and Cynthia Cordner Burns Overmyer (1826-1892). The Cordners settled in Cincinnati/northern Kentucky in the early nineteenth century, where Cynthia’s father, Andrew Cordner, worked in the Cincinnati textile mills before his death between 1830 and 1840. His wife, Hannah Andrews Cordner (1787-1861) is of Connecticut roots, and lived for a time in Dayton, Ohio before moving onward to Marshall County, Indiana, where she died. Benjamin Burns is likely tied to the large Brethren Burns family of Montgomery and Miami Counties, Ohio, many of whom also settled in Marshall County, Indiana.

Ohio Roots

The Pickens family also has strong roots in the Miami Valley of Ohio. William Pickens was the son of Jacob Pickens (1809-1888) and Mary Wimmer Pickens (about 1817-early 1860s). According to his obituary in the Argos Reflector, published 2 February 1888, Jacob was born in Ohio but spent most of his life in Indiana. He was likely born in Colerain Township, Hamilton County, Ohio on 28 December 1809, one of the younger children of William and Sarah Pickens, whose other children included Elias Pickens (1800-1888, who married Jemima Wimmer and lived in Henry County, Indiana); Clarissa Pickens (about 1802-after 1850, who married John Featherling and died in Henry County, Indiana); William Pickens (who married Parmelia Johnson and died in Hamilton County, Ohio); and probably George Pickens (1803-1834), who died in Hamilton County, Ohio. The father, William Pickens, was a native of New Jersey, born about 1777, according to the 1850 census. He likely settled in Hamilton County, Ohio about 1808. His wife, Sarah, is buried at the Bevis Cedar Grove Cemetery in Colerain Township. She died on 6 June 1843 at the age of 71 years.

With the exception of the William and Parmelia Pickens family, which remained in Colerain Township, the Pickens family of Hamilton County largely migrated to Liberty Township, Henry County, Indiana between 1830 and 1840. The 1884 History of Henry County, Indiana indicates that Elias Pickens, son of William, settled in Liberty Township of Henry County in 1833. His younger brother Jacob apparently accompanied him, as he married Mary Wimmer in Henry County on 15 August 1833. The John and Clarissa Pickens Featherling family settled in Henry County after 1850. It is possible that their father, William Pickens, died there sometime after 1850, since there is no stone for him in the Bevis Cedar Grove Cemetery, where Sarah Pickens is buried.

The Wimmer and LaBoyteaux Connection

The movement of the Pickens family from Ohio to Indiana is closely tied to the movements of two other families with their roots in New Jersey, the Jacob Wimmer family and the Peter LaBoyteaux family. Mary Wimmer Pickens, wife of Jacob Pickens, was a daughter of Peter Wimmer and Elizabeth Shirley Wimmer. Peter and Elizabeth probably married in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania around 1800, where Peter’s father, Jacob Wimmer, was living in 1800. It appears that Jacob Wimmer’s family moved there from Somerset County, New Jersey after 1794, when Jacob appears on the tax list of Hillsborough Township, Somerset County. Jacob had married Jemima LaBoyteaux in New Jersey. She was the daughter of Peter LaBoyteaux and Keziah Sebring LaBoyteaux of New Jersey, who were later pioneers of Hamilton County, Ohio. Peter LaBoyteaux died in Hamilton County in 1813 and Keziah died in 1814. Both are buried in the LaBoyteaux-Cary Cemetery there. Elias Pickens also married into the Wimmer family. His wife, Jemima Wimmer Pickens, was an aunt to her sister-in-law, Mary Wimmer Pickens. Jemima was the youngest child of Jacob and Jemima LaBoyteaux Wimmer.

The Wimmer and LaBoyteaux families migrated to southeastern Ohio by the middle part of the first decade of the 19^th century. Jacob and Jemima Wimmer sold property in Hamilton County as early as 1810. They may have also lived for a time in nearby Butler County, Ohio. It seems likely that they migrated together with the LaBoyteaux family. They may have also come together with several other New Jersey families into which they intermarried, including the Pickens, Runyans, Stouts, Mullens, etc.

Several of Peter and Keziah Sebring LaBoyteaux’s children and grandchildren migrated to Henry County, Indiana. This included Jacob and Jemima Wimmer, who purchased property in Liberty Township, Henry County in 1826.

Jacob Pickens and his wife, Mary Wimmer Pickens, lived in Henry County until the mid 1850s, when they moved north and west to near Argos, in Marshall County, Indiana. They had a total of nine children before Mary’s death in the mid-1860s, eight of whom survived into the 20^th century. After Mary’s death, Jacob married Sarah (Rogers) Brockus and had three more children, two of whom lived to adulthood. Sarah died in 1877. Most of the Pickens children remained in Marshall, Fulton, or St. Joseph County, Indiana.

Mormon Connections

Mormonism arose in the 1820s and 1830s in New York State and began to spread in the Midwest in the 1830s. Several secondary sources indicate that Elizabeth Shirley Wimmer joined the Latter Day Saints in 1832 in Henry County, Indiana, with Peter joining in the 1840s. They later moved west with other Mormons to Adams County, Illinois. In 1850, they trekked with other Mormons from Iowa to Salt Lake, where they settled in Springville, Utah County, Utah. Peter and Elizabeth died there. The majority of their children also affiliated to the Latter Day Saints and settled in Utah (with some passing onward to central California). Several members of the family appear not to have affiliated with the Mormons and remained in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

Although Mary Wimmer Pickens’ relationship to Peter and Elizabeth Shirley Wimmer is attested by several secondary sources, including some dating to the 19^th century, I remain somewhat skeptical. It is clear from Jacob and Mary’s marriage license in Henry County as well as later marriage records of several of their children that Mary was indeed a Wimmer. I remain surprised that neither Peter nor Elizabeth appear among the names of the Pickens children (although some two are known to have died young, names unknown). Further proof of this relationship is needed.

Summary

The Pickens, Wimmer, and LaBoyteaux families all have their roots in New Jersey. The Wimmers and LaBoyteaux are rooted in Middlesex and Somerset Counties, and it seems reasonable to assume that the Pickens likely originated from there as well and may have been linked to these other families in the 17^th or 18^th centuries. These families clearly intertwined further as they passed through the Miami Valley of Ohio and into Indiana. Although my own line, the family of Jacob Pickens, remained largely in Indiana, a significant part of the Wimmer family became well known Mormon pioneers of Utah. More research is needed to untangle the roots of these various families in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.