My goal, this past spring, was to research as many of the gravestones as I could that are in the old Presbyterian Church graveyard. One of my research tools is the extensive website that Pete Shew has constructed. It was with dismay that I discovered that that website was unavailable. It had been "down" for several months. Just recently it is now up and running. Even with Pete Shew's website and with my access to ancestry.com. I have only found out information about a small number of the graveyard "residents". I learned all about George Osborn and that information was made public on my Facebook page in June of this year. But I wondered why that was the only Osborn gravestone in that cemetery. Where were the other family members buried? So I did research on George's wife, Mary Anne Paul Osborne. Please note: the Osborn spelling sometimes has an e on the end, and sometimes not. Many times it is due to a hastily scrawled name on a census form.
George was listed as a farmer on an 1850 census. His farm was near the vicinity of Osborn's Bridge (now underwater). I have not been able to connect George to the original Osborn's Bridge settlers,,,perhaps cousins, perhaps not. George died at the young age of 38, Mary was left to raise four children, all under the age of ten. She continued to stay on the farm until after 1860. The 1865 census has her living in Johnstown with her three daughters. The son, Robert, would have been around 14 at the time, if he was still alive. But he was not on the census.
Doing more research on Mary Paul Osborne I discovered that she ended up in Nebraska! What would have motivated her to move all the way out there? My guess is that it was due to the Homestead Act of 1862. Nebraska allowed women to own land for free. Much of the Nebraska Territory was populated due to that Homestead Act.
As far as I can tell, Mary brought her children with her to Nebraska. Her oldest daughter, Lucy, died in 1929 Missouri. I have not found any information of the other three. Did Mary continue to farm? I do not know. She never remarried. She died at the age of 62 and is buried in Cairo, Nebraska.
It is so easy to just look at birth dates and death dates when doing ancestry research. But when I start to delve into people's lives, I start to realize the challenges that people faced. What an amazingly strong and brave woman Mary Paul Osborne had to have been. The inscription on her gravestone is from a hymn. There Are No Partings in Heaven.
George was listed as a farmer on an 1850 census. His farm was near the vicinity of Osborn's Bridge (now underwater). I have not been able to connect George to the original Osborn's Bridge settlers,,,perhaps cousins, perhaps not. George died at the young age of 38, Mary was left to raise four children, all under the age of ten. She continued to stay on the farm until after 1860. The 1865 census has her living in Johnstown with her three daughters. The son, Robert, would have been around 14 at the time, if he was still alive. But he was not on the census.
Doing more research on Mary Paul Osborne I discovered that she ended up in Nebraska! What would have motivated her to move all the way out there? My guess is that it was due to the Homestead Act of 1862. Nebraska allowed women to own land for free. Much of the Nebraska Territory was populated due to that Homestead Act.
As far as I can tell, Mary brought her children with her to Nebraska. Her oldest daughter, Lucy, died in 1929 Missouri. I have not found any information of the other three. Did Mary continue to farm? I do not know. She never remarried. She died at the age of 62 and is buried in Cairo, Nebraska.
It is so easy to just look at birth dates and death dates when doing ancestry research. But when I start to delve into people's lives, I start to realize the challenges that people faced. What an amazingly strong and brave woman Mary Paul Osborne had to have been. The inscription on her gravestone is from a hymn. There Are No Partings in Heaven.
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