Country Facts and Folklore
By Andy Reddick

Elizabeth Ross Chapter of DAR Contributes to Settling Area

Several members of Ottumwa’s Elizabeth Ross Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution contributed to settlement of our region.  The chapter recognizes that there were daughters of the Revolution that were not members of the DAR, such as Jane Gibson Wilson.  Her father entered the war at age 15 and served three years under Captain John Moor.  She died in Ottumwa in 1863, and the DAR dedicated a marker on her grave.

The national motto of the DAR is “God, Home and Country.”  Their national theme is “The spirit of hospitality opens doors of opportunity,” and the 2006-2008 Iowa theme is, “Iowa daughters live our Revolutionary heritage from the Mississippi to the Missouri River.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Bradley Stinson is buried in Davis County.  Her father Francis led the Patriots in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Mrs. Mary Spader Van Kirk’s father served as a Private in the Revolution.  She is buried in Davis County.  And Phoebe Moore Pollard lived southwest of Bloomfield.  She was the daughter of William Moore, a private in the Virginia Continentals for three years.  Her husband’s father was also a Revolutionary soldier.

Joseph Carberry’s daughter Elizabeth married James Pike, brother of the great adventurer and explorer, Zebulon Montgomery Pike.  Joseph Carberry was a Revolutionary soldier as well.  Pike was a member of George Washington’s staff and was a personal friend of Lafayette.  The Carberry couple settled in Wapello County in 1847.

Elizabeth Babcock married Noah Smith and settled in Van Buren County.  A few years later, they moved to Davis County.  They operated a small hotel for travelers along a travel line from Keokuk to Des Moines.  A marker was placed on her grave by the DAR.

Edith Wells of Virginia was the daughter of Henry Wells, Sergeant in the Revolution under Col. Burgess Ball’s Company of First Virginia Regulars.  Edith married Joshua Pumphrey, and lived in Des Moines Twp. In 1846.  She is buried in Gonterman Cemetery in Jefferson County, near Batavia.

Sarah Osborne’s father Ephraim served in the Revolution, for several officers including Capt. Thomas Cowdin and Col. Sam Denny.  She married Sam Fuller and is buried in Ottumwa.

Rebecca Smith was born in Mount Pleasant, PA Dec. 26, 1809.  Her father was Sergeant in Capt. Josiah Lacey’s Company of Col. Philip Bradley’s Connecticut Regiment and was wounded in the Battle of Monmouth.

A few years after Smith married Edward R. Tylee in 1829, they moved to Van Buren County.  He was a delegate to the convention in Burlington in 1838, which formed Iowa Territory.  During the following year (1839) they built the first brick house in Keosauqua.  Rebecca, a Methodist, was in one of the first Sunday School classes at Purdom’s cabin near the river, along the creek which runs around Purdom Cemetery, then later at the Courthouse, then at the Methodist Church.  She died in 1905 at age 95, in Superior, Wisconsin at her daughter’s home. 

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Contributed to the Van Buren Co. IAGenWeb Project by Andy Reddick
http://iagenweb.org/vanburen/