Winchester 1843-1855: ROOD, KNIGHT Families

ROOD, KNIGHT, JAMESON

Posted By: Patricia Tharp (email)
Date: 6/4/2008 at 07:15:13

A family history buff or historian out there knowledgeable with Winchester in Union Township? If anyone has additional information on these families, I would be delighted to hear from you. I would also be very interested in knowing what route they probably took in 1843 to get from New York state to Iowa. Their story as I know it: Cyrus and Susan (Pettingill) Rood and their grown children, Adaline, Isaac, Maryette, Calista, and James came to Iowa in about 1843 from Wyoming County, New York. The first documentation I can find for them is a 1847 land deed, Elisha Tumbleson to Syrus [sic Cyrus] Rood, Town Lot 6, Block 1, Town of Winchester. Thereafter they appear in the 1847, 1849, 1850, and 1852 censuses. On 10 May 1847, daughter Adaline Rood married Volney Knight at Winchester. He had previously been a resident of Des Moines County. The 1850 U.S. Census states that Cyrus Rood's occupation was a [stone]mason and Volney Knight's a wagon maker. I believe that Cyrus also farmed. In 1853 son James Rood married Isabella Jameson, daughter of Robert and Emily Jameson. In July 1854, Volney Knight and family left Van Buren County settling in the newly opened Webster County, Iowa, near Fort Dodge. The following year the entire family followed and moved to Webster County, where they lived until the 1870s, at which time Cyrus and Susan Rood and their married children moved to Polk County, Iowa near Grimes, except for Isaac and his family who after a short stint in Kansas were in Oregon by 1880 where they died. Any diaries or journals of Winchester folks that might mention these people? All help or advice gratefully appreciated. Thank you.