Zenas ROOT

  General Notes:

Olentangy Gazzette 14 Feb 1835.
Mrs. Abigail Root, consort of Zenas Root of Peru township, Delaware Co., came to her death on Monday morning last. Husband and son discovered her lying on the fire, her head and shoulders shockingly burned. For several months Mrs. Root complained of pain in the region of her heart. Leaves bereaved husband of 43 years. She was a mother of eight children and 23 grandchildren. On the 10th inst. a funeral discourse was delivered by elder Thomas W. Wigton. (Editors of N. York State are requested to copy the above)

Records of a Zenas Root married to Mary Whitney. Not sure if this is the same Zenas Root. Also not sure if all of these children are his. They did live in the Peru township area when he did but could be nephews. ( This is due to the birth states of some of the children being in Vermont.)

The birth of Spafford was previous to the date of the documented marriage of a Zenas to Mary Whitney in Mass. 1799. Also Spafford was born in Vermont. The Obituary for Abigail seems to place her as the mother of all these children. Zenas and Abigail would have been married in 1792 if the fact that she had been married to him for 43 years when she died in 1835 is factual. It is also possible that Mary and Abigail would be the same person and that she was called Abigail at the time of her death.

Root genealogical records. 1600-1870: Comprising the general history of the ... By James Pierce Root (1870)

Page 774.
Zenas Root, son of Thomas (547), grandson of Thomas (429), b. a. 1768, and m. 1799, Mary Whitney of Lenox, Mass. He lived in Washington and Lenox, Mass., and in Delaware Co. He d. March 17, 1850, ?. 82.

Children: (Born in Lenox, Mass.)

1337. I. Mark Whitney, b. Sept. 14, 1799.

1338. II. Solomon Sackett, b. Feb. 25, 1808. There were also daughters.

The history of the descendants of Elder John Strong, of ..., Volume 2 (1871)
Page 954.
17812- 3. iv. Zenas Root b. about 1768, m. Mary Whitney, of Lenox, Mass., where he resided for some years. He d. March 17, 1850, aged 82. He had several children.

Vital records of Washington, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 By Washington (Mass.) (1904)

WHITNEY, Mary of Lenox, and Zenas Root, Apr. 14, 1799, in Lenox.*
FARNSWORTH, Eunice and Zenas Root, Dec. 15, 1787.*

History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts - Vol. 1

Source Citation: Year: 1820; Census Place: Peru, Delaware, Ohio; Roll M33_89; Page: 204; Image: 120.

Source Citation: 1830 U S Census: Brown, Delaware, Ohio, Page: 60; NARA Roll: M19-130; Family History Film: 0337941.

Source Citation: Year: 1840; Census Place: Brown, Delaware, Ohio; Roll 391; Page: 211; Image: 966; Family History Library Film: 0020163.

According to a paper contributed by Bartorn Whipple, Esq., of Peru, in 1817, contained the following families, viz., Israel Dagett, Otis Dagett family, Walter Dunham, Harlock Dunham their families, Nathan Clarke and family, Solomon Smith, Jesse Champlain, Zenas Root, John Thatcher, Henry Fleming, William Fleming, and Isaac Fleming, all of whom had families and re settled along Alum Creek. Still further up were Jacob Van Deventer, Abram Vanduser and their families, Nathaniel Earl, William Benedict, Aaron Benedict, Joseph Keene, Ezra Keene, David born, Andrew Buck, Reuben Benedict, Daniel Wood, John Gardner, Jirah Smith, Peleg Bunker,

Another settlement was composed of Zenas Root, John Eaton, John Thatcher, Jesse Champlin, Henry Fleming, Stein Sackett, Jacob Vandeventer, Nathan Clarke, and Smith (who was the first blacksmith in the township), Noah Agard, Asa Deford, Joseph Eaton and Asahel Potter.

(1880 History of Morrow Co., OH. L.H.Baskins)page 429

In 1836, the Methodist Episcopal Church had an organization, but no church building until 1840, when one of very moderate pretensions was erected in South Woodbury. Hitherto schoolhouses had been used instead of churches. But this was in the days of the rifle, the ax, and the saddle-bags, of "shad-bellied " coats and drab bats. The preachers of that era were not the ministers of to-day, in that they had not the education nor the dress, nor did they ride in carriages and buggies through or along wood-trails, or ford high waters and swim swollen streams; nor could the modern divine, with his black, long coat, and white necktie, sit down to a clapboard table, and say grace over a meal of pork, hominy and corn-dodgers, together with a tin cup of milk, odorous with the taste and fragrance of wild "leeks " or "ramps," take a dram of shilling whisky, to prevent malarial attacks, and with such a breath, hasten to meet the sisters in class-meeting, without being shocked or making a face at the severity of his lot. In the large log schoolhouse on the lands of Zenas Root, the gigantic Gilruth preached. Large in stature, eccentric in his oper. ations, and a man of some powers of mind, he was oftentimes wont to slyly watch the actions and conduct of his parishioners, and on one occasion, like Stephen of old, he was made the target, by two of the citizens, at which to cast stones ; but, unlike Stephen, he got angry and indignant.

Source Citation: Year: 1850; Census Place: Burlington, Kane, Illinois; Roll M432_112; Page: 79B; Image: 271.
Living with Joel

Zenas married Abigail GREENE in 1792. (Abigail GREENE was born in 1768, died on 8 Feb 1835 in Delaware Co., Ohio, United States and was buried in Whitehall Cem., Stantontown, Peru, Morrow Co., Ohio.)