Jacob Ramsdell was born on September 8, 1806 in Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, about twenty miles southeast of Boston.[1] Jacob was the seventh child of Noah Ramsdell and Mehitable (Hitty) Whitmarsh. The Ramsdells trace their heritage back to the Mayflower. Descendants of Jacob Ramsdell have joined the prestigious “Society of Mayflower Descendants.”
More important to our study is the relationship between Jacob Ramsdell and Fayette Lapham. Jacob was the first cousin of the first wife of Fayette Lapham, Lucy Ramsdell Lapham, her father being the half-brother of Noah Ramsdell, the father of Jacob Ramsdell.
Jacob resided in Egypt, New York—so did Fayette Lapham
At a time of scarcity, Thomas Ramsdell had been so successful in growing large crops of corn that settlers came from far distances to purchase his produce. This led to the name of the hamlet “Egypt” after Joseph of Egypt, who provided food for the famine-stricken Israelites. At one time, it was speculated that the Ramsdells and Laphams owned all of Egypt.
In 1820, hoping to catch the prosperity wave of his half-brother Thomas Ramsdell, Noah Ramsdell moved his family to Egypt, a fertile valley nestled between foothills in what became the township of Perinton. At the time, his son and our suspect, Jacob Ramsdell, was age fourteen. The Noah Ramsdell family did not enjoy the same prosperity of the Thomas Ramsdell family but they did experience some of the comforts offered in Egypt’s growing economy in the 1820s. Egypt was a rest stop on the stagecoach road between the county seat of Canandaigua and Rochester. The Ramsdells also benefitted by having their farm near Perinton known for its mills, blacksmith shops, taverns, and inns. The family especially benefitted from the Irondequoit Embankment, the Abner Cole ambitious undertaking on the Erie Canal. The mere fact that Cole hired men to build his iron forge and employed iron workers provided employment for some in the Ramsdell family. As for our suspect Jacob, he found employment as a schoolteacher.
Between Jacob’s arrival in Egypt at age fourteen and his marriage at age twenty-four, he and Fayette Lapham became friends. Whether it was strictly a familial friendship, or Jacob helping Fayette when he took over the Abner Cole forge is unknown. But it is known their friendship did not end when Fayette’s wife (Lucy Ramsdell Lapham) died in childbirth, or when Fayette married a second wife, Sophia B. Bortles, in 1828 in Perinton.
The “Friend” in the 1870 Fayette Lapham Article
In 1830, at age twenty-four Jacob married Sally Richardson, four years his junior. Sally was from Perinton like the second wife of Fayette Lapham. Jacob and Sally Ramsdell became the parents of six children. It is assumed that after their marriage in 1830, Fayette and Jacob journeyed together to Palmyra. Fayette wrote that he went with his “friend Jacob Ramsdell” to interview Father Smith. Historians point to Jacob Ramsdell being a brother-in-law of Fayette Lapham through his first wife Lucy Ramsdell Lapham. In searching for the brothers of Lucy Ramsdell Lapham, she had no brothers by the name of Jacob. She had no uncles by the name of Jacob. It is assumed the Jacob Ramsdell of this sketch is the “friend” of Fayette Lapham.
Fayette Lapham wrote of the reason for their journey to Palmyra:
I think it was in the year 1830, I heard that some ancient records had been discovered that would throw some new light upon the subject of religion; being deeply interested in the matter, I concluded to go to the place and learn for myself the truth of the matter. . . .
I set out to find the Smith family, then residing some three or four miles south of the village of Palmyra, Wayne County, New York, and near the line of the town of Manchester.[2]
Upon visiting the Smiths, Fayette learned that “Joseph, Junior” was “not being at home . . . we [Fayette and his “friend” Jacob] applied to his father for the information wanted.”[3]
Fayette wrote about the interview with Joseph Smith Sr. Did schoolteacher Jacob Ramsdell write about the interview or discuss it with others? This question is the sole reason for putting together his life sketch.
Jacob Ramsdell in Pavilion, Michigan
In the early 1830s, Jacob’s extended family began to move away from Egypt, New York. Jacob’s siblings, Dyer and Gannet Ramsdell, moved to Plymouth, Michigan. As for Jacob, in 1831, after the birth of his first child, he was also lured to Michigan. On September 4, 1831, he purchased 80 acres at a public sale in the “east-half of the north quarter of Section 13” in Detroit.[4] He then moved his young family to Detroit.
By September 1835, Jacob had sold his property in Detroit and moved to Pavilion, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. In the histories of Pavilion, Jacob is referred to as the “first settler” in a vast wilderness. Being a talented mathematician and surveyor, he laid out the thoroughfares of Pavilion.[5] His child, Rosetta Ramsdell, was the “first white child” born in the township. In a cash sale, a homestead parcel from the Federal Land Patent Office was issued on September 10, 1838 to Jacob for 160 acres in the northeast area of Section 21, located today on East Q Avenue in Pavilion.[6] Through the passage of time, Jacob’s property bordered the Pavilion center, the town hall, and schoolhouse #4.
At a meeting of Pavilion electors on the first Monday in April 1837, Jacob was elected township clerk, school inspector, overseer of highways, and assessor.[7] In the next ensuing years, he was again elected assessor, township clerk, and school inspector.[8]
During his years in Pavilion, Jacob became a firm advocate of the Republican Party, and a strong opponent of Masonry. He acquired a modicum of fame for being the designer and architect of a huge chair placed in a hard-cedar cabin opposite the Pavilion courthouse.[9]
In 1838, Jacob was elected supervisor of the Pavilion Township, equivalent to being mayor. He was reelected in 1842 and on July 4, 1842 to the Kalamazoo Board of County Commissioners. He was reelected to the office of Pavilion supervisor in 1845. In 1849, he became a schoolteacher in Fractional District No. 1 which included the townships of Climax and Pavilion.[10]
When the US Federal Census for the Pavilion Township was taken on August 3, 1850, Jacob was listed as a forty-three year old farmer (not a schoolteacher) living with his wife Hitty and five children, ranging in age from nineteen to one year.[11] The Production of Agriculture for 1850 revealed that Jacob had a farm valued at $1,200 and farming equipment valued at $110. His livestock (consisting of 2 horses, 3 milk cows, 2 oxen, and 15 swine) was valued at $200. His produce consisted of 125 bushels of wheat and 200 bushels of Indian corn.[12]
On September 3, 1856, his daughter Rosetta Ramsdell wrote of Jacob being a guest teacher in her schoolroom and of his membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Kalamazoo: “Order of exercises. Grammar, singing taught by E. Daily, & general discussions on the mode of teaching. Father [Jacob Ramsdell] was there & took part in speaking. He was an esteemed charter member of the I.O.O.F. in Kalamazoo and always held high offices in the fraternity.”[13]
Edmund Chase, brother of Sally and Willard Chase, resides in Pavilion, Michigan
Edmund Chase, brother of Sally and Willard Chase, arrived in Pavilion on July 1, 1842. He and his family were hospitably entertained and invited to join a large assemblage of Latter-day Saints in town. Edmund was dismayed to find himself again in a center of Mormonism.[14] It did not take long before Edmund, like Jacob Ramsdell, became involved in civic affairs in Pavilion. In 1846, he represented Pavilion on the board of supervisors and became a magistrate (justice of the peace). From 1847 to 1852, Edmund was the supervisor of Pavilion, taking the place of Jacob Ramsdell.[15]
Sometime following his public service, Edmund began to act “strange” and was sent to the State of Michigan Asylum. His name appears on three probate court records. The legal issue was who would pay for his stay in the asylum.
Did Lorenzo Saunders, who also moved to Michigan, learn about the peep stone of Sally Chase and the seer stone of Joseph Smith before or after Edmund had been in the asylum? In an interview on November 12, 1884, Lorenzo Saunders said:
Willard Chase claimed his sister Sally had a peep stone. The Lord bless you I have seen her peep stone a hundred times; It was a little bit of stone & it was green & she would hold it before light. . . . Jo. Smith when he dug one out of a well on Chases Farm in the Shape of a baby’s foot. . . . I knew all about the stone; Edmund Chase told me all about it, He lives here now, this side of Kalamazoo. He is a man older than I am. His name is Edmund Chase.”[16]
I can link Jacob Ramsdell, Edmund Chase, and Lorenzo Saunders to Michigan. I can link Jacob Ramsdell and Edmund Chase as supervisors of the Pavilion Township. As of yet, I cannot link the three men together in a conversation.
Jacob moves to Ionia County and then Kent County in Michigan
After twenty-five plus years in Pavilion, Jacob sold out and moved to Orange Township, Ionia County, Michigan. On September 10, 1858 at the General Land Office in Bronson, Michigan, Jacob purchased 160 acres of public land in the northeast quarter of Section 21 in Orange Township.[17] The US Federal Census of 1860 lists 54 year old Jacob residing in Orange as a farmer with a real wealth of $2,900 and a personal wealth of $500. From a wealth standpoint, Jacob bettered himself by moving to Ionia County.
In the county, Jacob again showed a strong preference for the Republican Party. His daughter Rosetta wrote on October 14, 1856, “Father, mother, & Sol[omon Ramsdell] went to Ionia to a Republican mass meeting. They had a great meeting. They thought there were about three thousand people. They had badges to wear, which consisted of a white and red satin ribbon 10 inches long, topped with an eagle.”[18] At another Republican meeting in Ionia, Jacob was invited to speak when the expected speaker did not show up. Jacob was elected a county delegate to the state Republican Convention that supported the election of John C. Fremont as US President.[19]
Within a few years, Jacob sold his property in Orange Township and moved to Lowell, Kent County, Michigan. There, he was engaged as a saddler and harness manufacturer. It was in Lowell that his wife Sally Richardson Ramsdell died on January 12, 1866 and was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery.[20] Two years after her death, at age sixty-one Jacob married Eliza Root (Hunt) on May 21, 1868 in Lowell.[21]
Death of Jacob Ramsdell
Jacob Ramsdell died at 2 o’clock on August 12, 1873 in Lowell at age 67 years, 11 months, and 5 days. In the eulogy given by a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, it was said of Jacob, “We as his brethren deeply feel his loss, and heartily sympathize with his family in their bereavement.”[22] Jacob was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Lowell.[23]
Children of Jacob Ramsdell and Sally Richardson
1. Rosette Ramsdell (May 5, 1831- ) was born in New York. She became a teacher in the counties of Kalamazoo and Ionia in Michigan, before moving to Fargo, North Dakota.
2. Solomon K. Ramsdell (May 23, 1833-January 7, 1916) was born near Detroit, Michigan. He married Jennette S. Watson (1841-1901). To their union were born three children. After the death of Jennette on July 12, 1866, Solomon married her sister Calista D. Watson on March 23, 1867. Five children were born to their union. Solomon had a 160 acre farm in Kent County, Michigan. He died in Grand Rapids, Kent County.
3. Diana Ramsdell (1836- ) was born in Michigan.
4. Ellen Ramsdell (1844- ) was born in Michigan.
5. Jerome J. Ramsdell (February 3, 1848-1927) was born in Michigan. He was a tinsmith in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
6. Franklin Ramsdell (1852-) was born in Michigan. He became a prominent lawyer in Deerfield, Michigan.
[1] Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, 1:177, in the City Hall at Abington, MA.
[2] “The Mormons. Interview with the Father of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, Forty Years Ago. His Account of the Finding of the Sacred Plates by Fayette Lapham, Esq.,” Historical Magazine 8, no. 5 (May 1870), pp. 305–308.
[3] Ibid.
[4] E. Gray and Ethel W. Williams, First Land Owners of Wayne County, Michigan (Battle Creek, MI: Michigan Heritage Publication, 1964).
[5] The City of Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan; containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens (MI: A. W. Bowen & Co.), p. 962.
[6] Gregory A. Boyd, J. D., Family Maps of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Deluxe Edition. With Homesteads, Roads, Waterways, Towns, Cemeteries, Railroads, and More. Arphax Publishing Company. www.arphax.
[7] Town records of Pavilion, MI.
[8] History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Philadelphia: Everts & Abbott, 1880), pp. 417–418.
[9] History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, p. 421.
[10] History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, pp. 109, 337.
[11] US Federal Census, 1850.
[12] Production of Agriculture in Pavilion, Michigan, emulated on August 29, 1850.
[13] Rosetta Ramsdell Journal. In author’s possession.
[14] Helen Chase Koliehor and Herron R. Atkins, An Introduction to the Study of the Family of Edmund and Hannah Brown Chase and Their Connected Families.
[15] Koliehor and Atkins, An Introduction to the Study of the Family of Edmund and Hannah Brown Chase and Their Connected Families.
[16] Lorenzo Saunders, Interviewed by E. L. Kelley, November 12, 1884, pp. 8–9, E. L. Kelley Papers. Church History Library.
[17] US Land Grant Jacob Ramsdell. Signed by Alvin Boren Jr., secretary, September 10, 1858.
[18] Rosetta Ramsdell Journal.
[19] Rosetta Ramsdell Journal.
[20] Howard Richardson Bible, Perinton, NY; Oakwood Cemetery Records in Lowell, Michigan; Worksheet application for membership in the Society of Mayflower Descendants of Richard E. Deye Brooks.
[21] Return of Marriages in Kent County, MA.
[22] Obituary “Died.” In author’s possession.
[23] Oakwood Cemetery Records; Return of Deaths in Kent County, MI.