LAND FAMILY

Samuel Land, "the Immigrant," who was the Land family immigrant was born in Westminster, Middlesex County, in the United Kingdom in 1652. After being baptised at the St. Martin's In the Field Church, he immigrated to the British Colonies at 12 years old, in 1664, settling in New Castle, in the then Pennsylvania Colony with his family. While he only lived 33 years, he was married to Dorcas Williams, and fathered 6 children between 1675 to 1683. Samuel was buried in an unknown location.

Watercolor of New Castle Green 1805

Most of his children lived and died in New Castle as well.

The Land family moved around the eastern British Colonies, with Joseph Land, Jr. seeming to settle in Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina. Many have called him "Col." Joseph Land, but no evidence has been found of his having a military record. Joseph's connection to the Land's of New Castle is assumed but unclear. Further information about this connection is needed. Was Joseph a direct decendent of "the Immigrant?" If so, why did he come to Pendleton in Anderson, South Carolina?

Pendleton Historical Marker

The current Lands' are only Lands as a result of a naming convention that existed before the American Revolutionary War. The Land surname comes from the son of Anna Land, Abraham Land, was born "out of wedlock" in 1781, in Pendleton, Anderson, South Carolina, right after the American Revolutionary War. In order to give this boy a proper identification, he was given the last name of his mother's, Anna, father, Joseph. He was named Abraham Land. However, that same year, when Anna was 16 years old, she married Jonathan Reeves and had at least 3 other children before she died in 1787 at 22 years old.

The other Lands are decended from Abraham, who was only a Land as a result of his being given his grandfather's last name. Who was his real father? Was it Jonathan Reeves or someone else? More on this later.

Old Farmer's Hall in Pendleton 1940

After growing up in Pendleton, and marrying his first wife, Sarah Wofford, and having 4 children, Abraham and his family moved to Hickman County, Tennessee, where they had 2 more children. While living here Abraham joined the Army and fought alongside Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Most notably, he was in the Battle of New Orleans.

Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans, 1815

Battle of New Orleans battleground

Upon returning from the War, his wife died, and he relocated to Gibson County, Indiana, where he remarried to his second wife, Sarah Edwards. They had 6 more children before Abraham died in 1844, at the age of 63. He is buried in Gibson County, where he died.

Princeton Court House as Judge Land may have seen it

One of his sons, William "Judge" Mangrum Land became a judge in the 1st Circuit of Indiana, in 1872, after serving in the Mexican American War. He had a long and illustrious legal career in the Princeton area.

Judge Land's son, Silas Marion "Sam" Land, became a local politician in Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas where he settled and married Emma McElroy in 1885. His one child, William McElroy Land, Sr. was born in Fort Scott. Sam died in this town in 1935, where he is buried.

William McElroy Land, left Ft. Scott for Yonkers, New York, where he settled and married his wife, Hazel Ware in 1924, when he was 38 years old. When he was 42, his only child, William McElroy Land, Jr. was born.

Judge William Mangrum Land

Silas Marion "Sam" Land in Princeton

Emma M. Land and William M. Land, Sr.

HAMILTON FAMILY

The Hamilton family is decended from a couple that immigrated to New York in about 1867, from a village in Northern Ireland called Fivemiletown.  William Hamilton and Selina Beattie Hamilton married in Ireland and had 3 of their 5 children there: George A. Hamilton, Susan Maria and Ella Jane Hamilton.  After immigrating, they had two more children, William Hamilton and Selina Hamilton between 1871 and 1875.

Tyrone County Ireland

Old picture of town

The family struggled as William was a carpenter and probably had a hard time supporting his family.  William and Selina seemed to have become separated at some point, and Selina had taken out a court order to keep him away from her.  However, as she returned from court, she was hit and killed by a Long Island Railroad train around 1886.  This left her children without their mother and estranged from their father.  At the time, all 4 children took up residence as a family, with the older children, George and Susanna (who were in their 20's) acting as parents to their other siblings.  They lived together as a family, while their father still survived, but lived elsewhere.  In 1893, he too was killed by a Long Island Railroad train after visiting his son who was the station manager in Newtown, New York.  His son witnessed his being hit by the Flushing Express train.

In 1887, Ella Jane Hamilton married Leslie Ariel Ware, whom she worked with at the EB Cushman Bakery in New York.  They had three children, Ralph Ware, Hazel Avery Ware and Rosalind Ware while they lived in Yonkers, New York.

Hamilton/Hickson Reunion 1919

Selina Beattie and Ella Hamilton 1870

Continued in column 2...

WARE FAMILY

The Ware family decends from Robert Ware, who moved to Dedham, MA from his birthplace in Great Britain.  He was recorded as living in Deham in 1642, at 17 years of age, when he purchased land in the area.  Two years later he married his first wife, Margaret Hunting(e).  Over the next 21 years, they had 10 children: John, Nathaniel, Margaret, Robert, Esther, Samuel, Ephraim, Elizabeth, Joseph and Ebenezer.  All children were born in Dedham, MA.

Robert Ware II Headstone

In 1662, Robert II (the aged) was part of "The Proprietors of Wollomonopoag," who purchased a portion of the outskirts of Dedham from King Philip (Sachem) (of the Wampanoag Tribe). The land was given to his young sons Robert, Nathaniel and John who settled the area that was later incorporated as Wrentham, MA.

Map of Wrentham, MA 1888

Robert Ware (II) had 8 children in Dedham and Wrentham, MA.  The second born of the clan was Robert Ware (III).  Robert (III) had 10 children with his wife Elizabeth Wight, whom he married in 1710 in Wrentham, MA.  Their 6th child, Henry, born in 1722, was listed in the Second Military Company of Wrentham during the American Revolutionary War.  Because he died in 1776 at 53 years old in Wrentham, MA, he may have died while fighting in the War. 

Uniform of the 2nd Military Company of MA

Prior to his death, he and his wife, Esther Cheever, had 5 children in Wrentham, MA.  Their second son, Asaph, married his first wife, Mary Clark in Wrentham, MA in 1775, before moving west to Vermont.  In 1776, they began their family of 12 children in Wilmington, Vermont. 

Their second son, Ariel Ware, was born and died in Wilmington, VT, and was a well known figure in that village.  He married twice, first to Esther Chandler, with whom he had 3 children.  Later, he married Lovisa Boyd in 1809, having 6 more children.  Of these children, their fourth child, Charles Ware had 6 children in Wilmington, VT.  He was born and raised in the town, where he also died.  He was a farm laborer according to the census.

Charles's 5th child, Leslie Ariel Ware, was born in Wilmington, VT in 1861.  He married Ella Hamilton in 1887, whom he met while working at the Cushman bakery in New York City.  He later ran a successful bakery in New York City for many years.  Together, they had 3 children, Ralph Ware, Hazel Avery Ware and Rosalind Ware between 1888 and 1900.  Their middle child, Hazel, married William McElroy Land Sr. ("Mac") in 1924, in New York City and they had one child, William McElroy Land Jr. in 1928 while they lived in Yonkers, New York.  

MCELROY FAMILY

The McElroy family decends from Moses McElroy, who was born in Antrim County Ireland in 1839.  His parents, Henry McElroy and Mary, had 4 children, of which he was the second. 

Antrim County N. Ireland

The fate of his family is unclear, but when he was 19 years old, he was living in Springfield, Illinois.  Interestingly, a young Abraham Lincoln lived in the town at the same time and there was a thought that they might have been friends.

When Moses was 21 years old, in 1861, he travelled back to Everton, in the United Kingdom, to marry his wife, Elizabeth Grover in St. George Church.  He moved with her back to the United States and lived in Quincy, Illinois where the couple had their first child, George, in 1863.  This child only survived for 16 months before passing away in Quincy.  Here they had 4 more children: Eliza, Emma, Mary and Henry.  

St. George Church, Everton, Liverpool

By 1870, the family had relocated to Ft. Scott, in Bourbon County, Kansas.  Moses was able to establish himself as a grocer in this town, and he and Elizabeth had 8 more children: Sarah, Moses, Hilda, Daisy, William, Henry, Isabell and Ethel. 

By 1870, the family had relocated to Fort Scott, in Bourbon County, Kansas.  Moses was able to establish himself as a grocer in this town, and he and Elizabeth had 8 more children: Sarah, Moses, Hilda, Daisy, William, Henry, Isabell and Ethel. 

Moses McElroy

Elizabeth Glover in Fort Scott, Kansas

Several of the children died young, while they lived in Ft. Scott, however.  Of all 12 children, Eliza, Emma, Mary, Henry, Moses, William and Ethel survived into adulthood.  Moses himself passed away at 41 years old in Ft. Scott, in 1881.  His wife, affectionately known as "Big Mama" lived until 1914 and was the matriarch over the whole group.  Of the boys, Moses and William McElroy had children and continued the McElroy line in to the present.

Moses and Elizabeth's daughter, Emma, married Silas Marion Land (Sam) in 1885.  The couple had one child, William McElroy Land Sr.

McElroy Family, Fort Scott 1908