William Myers
Co-Founder of Sunbury

By Polly Horn, Curator of the Myers Inn Museum

use Plat Map to locate Village Lots
 

William and his wife Betsey Myers were teenagers when they bought in Delaware County in 1814, 1815 and early in 1816.  William Myers was twenty years old when he and his brother Lawrence founded Sunbury in 1816.

In 1991 when Sunbury celebrated its 175 birthday, I knew very little of William and Betsey’s children. Their son Phillip died in infancy in 1822 and is buried in burying ground on the plat map now know as Sunbury Memorial Park. It seemed they had 4 or 5 girls; Patty, Amy, Ellen, Elizabeth and maybe a Polly.

A grandchild’s descendant, Gene Chamberlain, visited Sunbury with the correct spelling for Aimee and the story of Mary S. and Eliza B. Thanks to online records I now know Aimee Myers was born in December 1817, Mary S. was born February 7, 1819, both Phillip and Ellen W. in 1822, and Eliza Brown on July 4, 1824. It is possible Phillip and Ellen were twins.

The tanning business was good. William sold a tract of land outside the village in 1818 to Ary Hendrick and another in 1821 to Alverus Hendrick.  In 1824 they sold Lot 72 on the plat map to Benjamin H. Taylor.

While surveying land for their new home possibly on Lot 59 (across Granville Street from the Myers Inn), William Myers caught a fever and died on July 30, 1824, three weeks after the birth of their 5^th child. This left Betsy probably in a log cabin with four little girls, the oldest of which was 6, and many unsold lots. Even with help from Lawrence and Eliza Myers she would have been struggling. She relied on Rufus Atherton who was appointed executor of her husband’s estate to lead her.

On October 18, 1825, David Armstrong bought 100 acres from William’s estate for $4.55 an acre. On January 30, 1826, the acres were deeded back to Betsey Myers for $400.

I do not know how Betsy and Rev. Artemus Cutler from Blendon-Lewis Center area met but they were soon married giving him the access to her lands and a home for her daughters.

Randall Rice Arnold wrote in his diary, "On March 9, 1825, I began work with Artemus Cutler for six months at nine dollars a month learning carpenter work. He was living on the west side of Alum Creek, in Blendon Township, about one mile south of the Franklin/Delaware County line. Our labor that summer consisted chiefly of carpenter work."

In Franklin County History it talks about "Artemus Cutler, a farmer, miller, builder and exhorter in the church, who, being chidden for a rather unministerial tendency toward exaggeration, proved the charge against him by declaring that he 'had shed barrels of tears over his weakness,' but who withal was a very useful man among the immigrants into this wilderness."   I see no signs of his being interested in selling the lots for the family.

On April 21, 1828, Lawrence Myers conveyed 29 acres to William Myers estate. These were to be sold to pay Hezekiah Rodgers, Sr. for land he and William had purchased in June 1816 before laying out the town.

There were still debts to be cleared so after trying to sell the land at a sheriff sale, on June 5,1828, the Cutlers of Franklin County, sold 100 acres conveyed by Gideon Osterhout to William Osterhaut and from William Ousterhaut to William Myers for $800 and from Sheriff of Delaware County to David Armstrong for $670. This included all but lot 72 (which already belonged to Chase and Taylor) and Lot 77.

Also in June 1828, they sold Sunbury Lots 51, 52, 67 and 68 to Charles Armstrong for a total of $35.50 in the Myers Inn.

By 1840, Betsy Cutler is head of household on the census with two white females between 15-19 who would have been Ellen and Eliza. I assume Artemus died but have not found when or where.

Aimee Myers: 1817-between 1914 and 1916
On August 15, 1835, Norman Patrick purchased lot 32 (for $70) with others from Lawrence Myers estate. This lot is in the middle of the block on the south side of Cherry Street between Vernon and Morning Streets. Aimee Myers purchased the lot from Patrick for $325 in 1840 then on November 1843 sold it to her sisters Mary, Eliza , and Ellen for $325.

Aimee married John M. Taggart. A stone cutter, on Nov. 14, 1843. They moved to Illinois where 5 children were born. By 1860 the family lived in Nebraska where another daughter was born and John became a Baptist minister. After John died in 1887, Aimee married Amos Pratt whose wife had died in 1888. He was formerly a Morrow County, Ohio, resident. Unfortunately he died before 1901 when widow Aimee Pratt lived in Omaha. She was 96 when her daughter Aimee Taggart Kenny died in 1914. But was not mentioned in Eliza Chamberlain's obituary in 1916.

Mary S. Myers: 1816- 1845
In 1844, William’s oldest daughter, Mary S. Myers, married Hosea W. Chamberlain on December 23, 1844. Hosea was a dry goods clerk in the early 1840s and a director of Sunbury School (there will be a tale of this next week). They had a son Henry M. born December 16, 1845 then Mary died six days later on December 22. This time a father was left with a new born. Apparently Mary’s mother and sisters helped with the infant.

In 1848, Ellen sold her 1/3 of Lot 32 to her sister Eliza for $50.

Eliza Brown Myers : 1824-1916
On May 12, 1848 Hosea married his first wife’s youngest sister, Eliza Brown Myers. On the 1850 census they were the parents of Susan Brown Chamberlain and had Eliza’s mother and Ellen living with them. In November 1850 Mary Elizabeth was born and named after both of Hosea’s wives.

Because Mary S. died without a will, her baby son Henry M. inherited her third of Lot 32. Hosea had to file suit in order to sell it in his son’s name in 1854. The house became the parsonage for the First
 

Baptist Church in 1863 and was moved behind the church to 15 Morning Street when the new parsonage was built on Lot 32 in 1898. Both parsonages and the church are now gone. Olde Church Park sits where the Baptist Church was before moving to the new facility in 1999. The building which was frequently hit by semis making the Route 37 turn, was town down in 2004.

Photo at left from 1966 aerial by Bill Whitney.

On August 23, 1857 Betsey Myers Cutler died and is buried as Betsy Myers with William in Sunbury Memorial Park.

The Chamberlain family moved to Delaware where Hosea became Delaware County Treasurer and then Auditor. They had two more girls who both died under the age of 5 and then two sons in Delaware. Son Hosea R. was born in 1858 and James B. in 1860.

Sadness hit again when the daughter Susan died in 1867. The family took some financials upsets fought some legal suits, and finally sold out and moved to Humbolt, Kansas, where their properties were kept in the Eliza Chamberlain’s name. Hosea W. died in 1892 and Eliza on March 2, 1916.

Four of the seven  Chamberlain children  lived to be adults. Henry W. seems to have disappeared around 1860 so we do not know if he died or perhaps was in the Civil War  but he was not seen with the family again. There was a Henry Chamberlain who was drafted for three years into the 122nd Regiment of the Ohio Infantry in Zanesville on May 25, 1864.  He mustered out with his company June 26, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

Hosea R. died in Chicago in 1921 and James B. died in Los Angeles, CA in 1927. Mary Elizabeth followed in the family business of buying and selling land. She died a spinster in 1936 in the home in Humboldt and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery there with her parents.

Ellen W. Myers: 1822- 1903
After selling her part of Lot 3 to her sister, Ellen lived with her mother until her death then with her sister when she moved to Delaware. When the Chamberlain family moved to Kansas, Ellen Myers boarded in Delaware until her death December 28, 1903. She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Hosea R. died in Chicago in 1921 and James B. died in Los Angeles, CA in 1927. Mary Elizabeth followed in the family business of buying and selling land. She died a spinster in 1936 in the home in Humboldt and is buried there with her parents.

Many thanks to Valerie Eves and Gene Chamberlain for their contributions.

. . . . And Now You Know

2. Marriage of Aimee Myers and John Taggart.  Delaware County OH  Marriages 1835-45  
     by Connie Huddlestun Minor. 

2. Census Records from Ancestry.com

3.  Recorder’s Office Delaware County, Ohio. Deeds.

4.  Artimus Cutler.    Diary of Randall Rice Arnold Jr. (1806 - )  posted on Ancestry.com 
       http://hardentimes.blogspot.com/search?q=randall+rice +arnold
"On March 9, 1825, I began work with Artemus Cutler for six months at nine dollars a month learning carpenter work. He was living on the west side of Alum Creek, in Blendon Township, about one mile south of the Franklin/Delaware County line. Our labor that summer consisted chiefly of carpenter work. It was thus that I began my first lessons in carpenter work. The prominent notion in my mind was to become a skillful mechanic, a profession which might give prominence in life and a worthy good patronage. After fulfilling my engagement with Mr. Cutler, in the autumn of 1825, my enterprise became very successful and I became a subject of much skill and my work was in good demand in the community. Consequently, I became a member of the society of good families. It was while thus employed as a mechanic in constructing plain dwellings and other out-buildings that I contracted with Mr. Israel Baldwin, who was a farmer in the community, to do the carpenter and joiner work on a house he wished to build. The location was about midway between Mr. Culter’s house and the county line."

5.  History of Franklin County, Ohio. Volume one. Chapter XXX. Townships and villages, page 474.  In Community Library.
"Artemus Cutler, a farmer, miller, builder and exhorter in the church, who, being chidden for a rather unministerial tendency toward exaggeration, proved the charge against him by declaring that he 'had shed barrels of tears over his weakness,' but who withal was a very useful man among the immigrants into this wilderness."

6. Obituary for Aimee Taggart Kenny from Valerie Evers found in  Pilot
Newspaper, 10 JUN 1914: MRS. F. W. KENNY IS DEAD
Died Sunday Afternoon at the Family Residence of Cancer of the Stomach.
FUNERAL FROM THE HOME TUESDAY AFTERNOON
The community was not unprepared for the sad news that came Sunday afternoon of the death of Mrs. F. W. Kenny at 3:25, though the end was hardly expected so soon. Only four weeks ago she went down to Excelsior Springs thinking she was simply run down from the hard work of caring for her mother. She was there two weeks and came back to Omaha, where it was definitely decided that she was suffering from a cancer of the stomach. She was in Omaha a week and was brought home only a week ago, fully realizing that there was no help for the disease. Mrs. Kenny accepted the verdict of the physician with great courage and fortitude and was ready and even happy that she was so soon to be with the Master she loved and served and her husband, whose death occurred February 18, 1911. She was unconscious for two days before the end came as peacefully as normal sleep. A short and simple funeral service was held at the home at 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon and was conducted by her pastor, Rev. F. E. Volek, of the Baptist church, which church she had been a faithful worker in for many years. All the children, except Fred, were present. The pallbearers were John Kenny, Dr. Paul Howard, Burtis Smith, Lyman Peck, T. E. Stevens and Chris Schmidt. Interment was made in the Blair cemetery. Miss Aimee Taggart was born at Jacksonville, Ill., Jan. 24th, 1853, and came to Fontanelle with her father, Rev. John M. Taggart, a Baptist missionary, who was afterwards a member of the Nebraska territorial legislature in 1857. The family moved to Nebraska City in 1867 and to this city in 1870. She was married to Fredrick W. Kenny May 2nd, 1871, and of this union eight children were born, one dying in infancy: Fred, of Plattsburg, N.Y., John M., of Lewiston, Mont., Mrs. Paul Howard, of North Bend, Mrs. Lyman Peck and Mrs. Burtis Smith , of Omaha, Miss Sue, of Portland, Oregon, and Miss Maude who lived at home. Mrs. Kenny’s mother, Mrs. A. M. Pratt, 96 years of age, has made her home with her for several years and is very feeble. Three sisters and one brother survive her also, Mrs. A. W. Clark, of Los Angeles, Calif., Mrs. Jeanette White, of Denver, Colo., Miss Mary Taggart, of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Robert Taggart of Nebraska City. For many years Mrs. Kenny had been an interested worker in the W. R. C., having been state department president and president of the local Corps for six years. She was past Matron of the O. E. S., past regent of the D. A. R. and one of the charter members of the Monday Afternoon Club. She was an ideal wife, mother, neighbor and friend, and her sudden passing will be a severe loss to her many friends, as well as to the children, who have received so much of her unselfish love and devotion. They have the sympathy of the entire community, also the memory of a beautiful life spent in the service of others.

7.  Obituary for Aimee Taggart Kenny from Valerie Evers found in Blair Tribune, 10 JUN 1914: MRS. F. W. Kenny
Mrs. F. W. Kenny, aged 61 years and a pioneer of Blair, died Sunday afternoon at the family home of cancer. She was the widow of the late F. W. Kenny, who at his death was president of the Blair National bank. Mrs. Kenny was widely known throughout the state, having been state department president of the Woman’s Relief Corps and president of the local corps for six years. She was past regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution and past matron of the Eastern Star and charter member of the Blair Women’s Monday Afternoon club, which was organized about 1873. Mrs. Kenny was born at Jacksonville, Ill., January 24, 1853, and came to Fontanelle, Nebr., with her father, Rev. John M. Taggart, a Baptist missionary, who was afterwards a member of the Nebraska territorial legislature in 1857, and to Blair in 1870, where she was married to Frederick W. Kenny, May 2, 1871. To this union was born eight children, on dying in infancy and seven surviving: Fred Kenny of Plattsburg, N. Y., John of Lewiston, Mont.; Mrs. Dr. Howard of North Bend, Neb.; Mrs. Aimee Peck and Mrs. Burtis Smith of Omaha; Miss Sue Kenny, late of Portland, Ore., and Miss Maude, who has made her home with her mother. Mrs. Kenny’s mother, Mrs. A. M. Pratt, 96 years of age, has made her home with her for several years and is very sick at this time. Three sisters also survive: Mrs. A. W. Clarke, whose husband was a former Omaha pastor, now of Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. Jeanette White of Denver, Colo., and Miss Mary Taggart of Colorado Springs, Colo., and a brother Robert Taggart, of Nebraska City, Nebr. The funeral was conducted by Rev. F. E. Volek, of the Baptist church from the residence at 5 o’clock Tuesday afternoon and the remains were laid to rest in the Blair cemetery beside her husband, who preceded her to the Great Beyond.

Source: Ruth Moss, Washington County Genealogical Society