Re: Family information
HORTON, WATTS, VAN ZANT, VANZANT, SHERWOOD, FROST, FROSS, MORRISON, WINTERRINGER, MEYER
Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email) In Response To: Family information (Barbara Bearden)
Date: 5/4/2014 at 14:29:28
I found quite a bit for you and your sister for future research. Lots of new names, dates and clues. Hope it helps.
World War I Draft Registration:
Gordon William Horton, born January 17, 1888 in Oto, Woodbury County, Iowa&&&
Woodbury County, Iowa Marriage Records
January 1, 1885William Henry Horton, age 22 to Laura Belle Watts, age 18
Groom's Parents: James Horton and Julia Sherwood
Bride's Parents: John Charles Watts and Rachel Van Zant&&&&
William Henry Horton
Born 6 December 1863 in Maquoketa, Jackson, Iowa, Died 15 August 1936 in Sioux City, Woodbury, IowaLaura Belle (Watts) Horton
Born May 1867
Died 26 December 1941William Henry Horton was the son of
James Simon Horton who was born 4 January 1836 in Simcoe, Norfolk, Ontario, Canada and died 15 March 1923 in Oto, Woodbury, Iowa; He was a Civil War Veteran.Link to his gravestone in the Oto Cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=HOR&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=14&GScntry=4&GSsr=2921&GRid=34866261&and Julia Ann (Sherwood)Horton who was born 17 July 1840 in Pennsylvania and died in Smithland, Woodbury, IA; They married December 29, 1856.
Dates on online databases say she died in 1907 but I do not believe they are correct due to information on his second marriage from the county history below.
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James Simon Horton's parents [Elias and Mary (Frost) Horton] are also buried in the Oto Cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=horton&GSiman=1&GScid=95745&GRid=34851119&Link to the Horton Family tree:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/33GH-3SD&&&&&
Laura Belle Watts' parents are buried in the Little Sioux Township Cemetery in Smithland, Woodbury, Iowa.
Her father, James Charles Watts
(June 29, 1833 - December 11, 1888) was also a Civil War Veteran.Watts, John C. Age 29. Residence Smithland, nativity Kentucky. Enlisted Sept. 28, 1862, as Company Commissary Sergeant. Mustered Nov. 14, 1862. Reduced to ranks at his own request March 20, 1863. Discharged for disability April 24, 1865, Davenport, Iowa.
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Link to John C. and Rachel (VanZant) Watts' gravestone:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=60050823&&&&&
History of the counties of Woodbury and Plymouth, Iowa, including an extended sketch of Sioux City, their early settlement and progress to the present time, 1890, page 893:James Simon Horton, miller, Oto, was born in Canada, January 4, 1836, and is the elder of the two children born to Elias and Mary (Fross) Horton, natives of England. He learned the mason's trade, at which he worked until he came to Iowa in 1869, when he located on a farm in Oto Township. In 1875 he went into the milling business and has since been working at that. He married Julia Anna Sherwood, who died leaving him a family of ten children. February 5, 1886, he married again, his second wife being Alice Morrison, of Galena, Ill. Mr. Horton was one of the earliest settlers of this county and relates many interesting incidents of its early time. He votes the democratic ticket.
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Information posted on the Woodbury County, Iowa Biographies Message Board on the Watts and Van Zant Families:
Jacob and Sarah Vanzant
By Muriel C Winterringer MeyerWhen I inquired of the Vanzant family of Ralph Vanzant in Greenfield, Fayette County, Ohio, I was told and I quote, ‘At his time there appears to have been four separate Vanzant families that came to America between 1650 and 1670 from Holland. They arrived in or around what became New York City. Some stayed there, some moved to the north through the Mohawk Valley, and others went south into Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. My ancestors were of the latter group, who came to Ohio in 1824 and we have been in the same county (Fayette) since that time.’ He also wrote, ‘I found only one reference to a Jacob Vanzant, who was in Rutherford County, North Carolina between 1780 and 1790. He later moved to Franklin County, Tennessee. In his will he is listed as Jacob, Sr, which gives rise to the possibility of a Jacob, Jr.’
Jacob Vanzant was born in Pennsylvania in December of 1803. His occupation was that of a shoemaker. His wife, Sarah, also was born in Pennsylvania about 1805.
They made their home in Ohio as early as 1826, as their oldest known daughter, Hannah, was born there in March of that year. Jacob and Sarah had five known daughters, all born in Ohio. The daughters were: Hannah, born March of 1826; Mary Ann, born in November of 1830; Rachel C, born in March of 1833; Anna M, born in April of 1835; and Elizabeth Y, born in 1840.
Hannah, was married on January 15, 1848, in Knox County, Ohio, to Jesse Nelson Winterringer, the son of John and Sally (Byram) Winterringer. Hannah’s children were: Sarah Ellen and Willis born in Ohio and William and Charles born after coming to Iowa. (See Jesse Nelson Winterringer.)
The Vanzant family was in western Iowa as early as 1857, when there is a record of the marriage to Rachel C Vanzant on October 24, 1857, to John C Watts. The marriage license was issued in Monona County at Onawa.
On November 2, 1858, Anna M Vanzant was married, at her parents home to Washington Vandorn of Monona County; however, the license was issued in Woodbury County.
The next Vanzant marriage was Mary Ann’s on 7 October 1859, in Woodbury County, to Daniel P Billings.
At the time of the 1860 census, Jacob and Sarah Vanzant were living in Little Sioux Township, Woodbury County. Elizabeth was still living at home.
Elizabeth Y ‘Lizzie’ Vanzant was married in Woodbury County on 23 January 1861 to E Smith, I have found no further record of her, Smith, being a hard name to trace.
Sarah Vanzant, the mother, died 13 February 1861. She was buried at the Little Sioux Township cemetery at Smithland. Jacob died 12 April 1866 and he is buried beside his wife at Smithland. His marker gives his age as sixty-three years and four months.
Rachel and John C Watts are listed in the 1870 census of Little Sioux Township. I learned John ran a flour and saw mill. They had three children: Louis Clayton, Larua B [Laura] and Frank B. There were other people in the house: Martha Dikus, a domestic servant in Ohio and thirty-two years of age; George Miller, a general laborer born in Ohio and twenty-three years of age; Cyrus Woods, a general laborer born in Vermont and forty-three years of age; and Ada Woods, born in New York and seventeen years of age, a school teacher.
In 1880 they were still in Little Sioux Township and John was then a farmer. I learned he was born in Kentucky, his father was born in Virginia and his mother in South Carolina. Louis Clayton was twenty-one years old, Laura B was thirteen, and Frank, ten years of age. In the 1900 census, Rachel was living in town of Oto, next door to her son, Louis and his wife, Sarah. Louis and Sarah had been married eighteen years. Sarah had given birth to three children, but only one was living; apparently that was John C, their son, was born in June, 1884. Sarah had been born in December, 1861, in Iowa. Her father and mother had been born in Pennsylvania. Louis was born in July, 1858, and he was then a contractor, and owned a home. Rachel lived next door in a house which she owned. She was widowed and three of her four children were living at that time. In the Smithland cemetery, graves are marked for J C Watts, 29 June 1833-1 December 1888, Rachel, w/o J C, 1833-1902, and Mary, d/o J & R C died 7 September 1862, age 21 days. In the 1910 census Louis and Sarah were still living in Oto and he was house mover. I have not researched this family further.
Anna M and Washington VanDor or Vandorn also lived in Little Sioux Township in 1870. They had two children: Mary, five, and Arthur, two. Then in the 1880 census I learned Washington had been born in Ohio, his father was born in New Jersey, and his mother in Kentucky. May was fifteen, Arthur Virgil was twelve. By 1900 Arthur V VanDorn was thirty-two, still single and had been born in February, 1868. He was a farmer with a mortgaged farm. Ann, the mother, was living with him. She was widowed and two of her three children were living. Florence Mary, his sister, was born in May of 1865. She was single and living in the same house. In the cemetery at Smithland I found graves marked VanDorn, Washington, 6 May 1830-17 January 1898, and Clark, Florence M VanDorn, w/o W L Clark, 3 May 1865-14 May 1904. I have no further research on this family.
Mary A and Daniel P Billings are listed in 1870 in Sioux City; he was a general merchant and had been born in Massachusetts. They had three children: Walter, age six, Benjamin, age four, and Nellie, age two. In the 1880 census, Daniel had become a minister as well as farmer. It told his father was born in Massachusetts and his mother in Vermont. Walter was sixteen and farming at home and Nellie was twelve and going to school. In the 1900 census I learned Daniel had been born in November, 1840, and by then he had been married forty years and was retiring owning a farm. Mary A had two living children of three born. In Little Sioux Township I also found Walter P Billings, their son, who was born in December, 1863. He had been married two years to Lida, she had been born in May 1872, in Missouri. Her father was born in Kentucky and her mother was born in Missouri. She had one living child, Randal E, born in January 1900. In the Smithland Cemetery, I found grave markers for: Daniel P Billings, 1830-1908; Mary A Billings, 1830-1903, and Ben Kirk, 1865-1877. In another section of the cemetery I found: Lida C Billings, Mary 12, 1871-29 April 1956; Walter P Billings, December 1, 1863-September 27, 1906; and Wilma Billings, October 10, 1901-September 28, 1902.
http://iagenweb.org/boards/woodbury/biographies/index.cgi?read=303120
Woodbury Queries maintained by Greg Brown.
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