Pioneers of St. Clair County, Michigan - Person Sheet
Pioneers of St. Clair County, Michigan - Person Sheet
NameEber WARD 
Birth10 Aug 1782, Wells, Rutland, Vermont1623, p 1,2486, p 3; date only
Death5 Jun 1855, Marine City, St. Clair, Michigan1623, p 1 Age: 72
Occupationlighthouse keeper, Bois Blanc Island, Lake Huron1649, p 473
FatherRev. David WARD (1761-1822)
MotherAbigail PRAY (1755-1817)
Individual Notes
• In the autumn of 1818 I started with my family from Vermont to go to Kentucky. When we reached Waterford, Pa., my wife was taken sick and in twenty-four hours was a corpse, leaving me grief-stricken among strangers with four little children to care for, Emily the oldest only nine years old. I had relatives at Conneaut, Ohio, and concluded to go there; so I took my motherless children and went as far as Erie in wagons, then hired a small boat and went on to Conneaut. I went to housekeeping and got along very well through the winter. The following spring my brother Samuel was going to Michigan, so I made him the best arrangement in my power for my children to remain at Conneaut, and came to Newport on St. Clair river with my brother and his family, early in May, 1819.
In the autumn of 1822 I moved my household goods from Conneaut to Newport, bringing with me two of my motherless children, Emily, and Eber B., leaving my other two daughters with their friends in Ohio. We were three days making the trip from Conneaut to Detroit in the steamer Walk-in-the-water. We went from Detroit to Newport in an open boat, and I told the children they would probably live to see a line of steamers on the river.
My brother’s fmaily invited us to move in with them. I accepted the invitation for a short time, and then moved into a little log cabin. I soon built an addition to it, which gave us two rooms to our house, and we were very comfortable. At that time there were at Newport, William Gallagher, James B. Wolverton, Bela Knapp, Samuel Ward, and myself and our families. Five families at Newport and on Belle River there were five or six French families, all enterprising people, and all owners of farms.1649, pp 471-2
• E. B.’s and Emily’s father was an intelligent, scholarly man of rather quiet, sedate habits, of natural good sense and sterling principles who hated meanness and loved justice when not influenced by his children, Emily and E. B.1643, p 65
In the autumn of 1822 I moved my household goods from Conneaut to Newport, bringing with me two of my motherless children, Emily, and Eber B., leaving my other two daughters with their friends in Ohio. We were three days making the trip from Conneaut to Detroit in the steamer Walk-in-the-water. We went from Detroit to Newport in an open boat, and I told the children they would probably live to see a line of steamers on the river.
My brother’s fmaily invited us to move in with them. I accepted the invitation for a short time, and then moved into a little log cabin. I soon built an addition to it, which gave us two rooms to our house, and we were very comfortable. At that time there were at Newport, William Gallagher, James B. Wolverton, Bela Knapp, Samuel Ward, and myself and our families. Five families at Newport and on Belle River there were five or six French families, all enterprising people, and all owners of farms.1649, pp 471-2
• E. B.’s and Emily’s father was an intelligent, scholarly man of rather quiet, sedate habits, of natural good sense and sterling principles who hated meanness and loved justice when not influenced by his children, Emily and E. B.1643, p 65
Census
Spouses
Individual Notes
• E. B. and Emily appeared to take after their mother (a Potter) who died in straighened circumstances in their youth and whose “make up” and reputation, so far as her short life and limited sphere permitted, was that of a treacherous virago, no better naturally, perhaps, than her notorious son and daughter.1643, p 65
Marriage17 May 1807, Wells, Rutland, Vermont1623, p 1