Ambrose Hunt MERRY

  General Notes:

DIFFERENT BIRTH/DEATH DATES: One source Unknown: Ambrose Merry was born in 1770 - died in 1864. Different birth/death dates are listed in Find a Grave and History of OH, Vol IV.

VT CENSUS, 1790-1860:
Name: Ebenezer Mery
State: VT
County: Bennington County & Rutland County
Township: Dorset & Danby
Year: 1788
Page: 030
Database: VT Early Census Index

1790 VT CENSUS, Rutland Co, Orwell Twp:
Ebenezer "Murray:
2 m. under 16
3 m. 16 & older
4 females

U.S. & INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGE RECORDS, 1560-1900:
Name: Ambrose Merry
Gender: male
Birth Place: NY
Birth Year: 1770
Spouse Name: Margaret Wickham
Marriage
Year: 1795
Number Pages: 1

THE EARLY HISTORY OF NASSAU VILLAGE, 1609-1830 WITH BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS by Paul R. Huey & Ralph D. Phillips, Second Edition, Nassau, NY, Nassau Free Library, 1976:
p. 39-40: "The following list of names is believed to be from an inventory of the estate of Archibald Shannon and represents a list of people from his accounts. The list is here presented exactly as copied from the original which, unfortunately, is presently unlocated. Births and deaths of individual have been supplied by Ralph D. Phillips and are included in brackets.
Book Accounts - Estate of Archibald Shannon 1806. Philipstown, Rens. Co., N.Y. - on page 40 are Ebenezer Merrey and Ephram Farranton. (Farrington?).
(Note from Frances Merry: Apparently Mr. Phillips could find no tombstones or probate records for Ebenezer Merry or Ephram Farrington, since no dates are supplied.)

THE HISTORY OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD by Dr.Charles Banks: Vol. III Family Genealogies: pp. 330-334: "The Merry Family of Matha's Vineyard" -
24. JOHN MERRY (John,3 Samuel,2 Joseph1), b. 28 Mch. 1720; res. T.; prob. rem. to Kent, Conn. where he was admitted to church 1744 and later rem. to Pittsfield, Mass. 1782, where he d. after 1790. By wife, SARAH _____ who was b. 1723 the following children are credited to him on the church and town records of Kent:
50. EBENEZER, bapt. 25 Mch. 1744.
[Bernice Schiller writes,"Ebenezer Merry went to NY and married Elizabeth Hunt in Dutchess Co. His son Ambrose moved to OH and started the first orchard there." Contact Bernice (Merry) Schiller <BSchil6192@aol.com for more information about this family.]

EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MILFORD AND OTHER PARTS OF OTSEGO CO., From 1773 to 1903 by Ezra Stevens - Section II.
Chapter 14 - "Ephriam Farrington Settlement":
"The next year after Mr. Farrington arrived at his place three other families migrated from Columbia and settled in the same neighborhood. Warren Wickham, the Balis family, and the Merry family all raised large families. About the same season Garrett Van Valkenberg from Schoharie County settled a little east.
The reader will see it constituted quite a colony.
Royal Merry when a young man and in company with other young men in about 1815 went to the river to practice their horses to swim, and was accidentally drowned. His horse became entangled with the bridle and before they could save him he drowned."

1800 NY CENSUS, Otsego Co, town of Milford:
Ambrose H. Merry:
1 m. under 10 (Royal?)
1 m. 16-25 (Ambrose)
1 m.. 26-44 (father Ebenezer Merry?)
1 f. under 10
1 f. 16-25 (Margaret)

OH LAND RECORDS, Certificate 9532, Noble Co:
Ambrose H. Merry of Monroe Co, OH - Twp 7, R8 SW 1/4 of Sec 30, 41.83 acres - 5 Aug 1837

1850 OH CENSUS, Monroe Co, Union Twp:
"Ambros" Merry, 87, farmer, $650 real estate, b. NY, married within the year;
Eve Merry, 60, b. PA, married within the year.
(Listed next to Cory Wells, age 25, on census.)

1860 OH CENSUS, Noble Co, Center Twp, Olive P.O.:
Rouse Merry, 57, farmer, $3,000 real estate, $2,000 personal property, b. NY;
Mary Merry, 57, domestic, b. OH;
Ambrose Merry, 88, retired, b. VT, cannot read/write;
Eve Merry, 78, retired, b. PA, cannot read/write;
Margaret Margaret Darnell, 24, domestic, b. OH;
Elijah Darnell, 18, farm hand, b. OH.

FIND A GRAVE:
Name: Ambrose Hunt Merry
Birth Date: 21 Sep 1772
Birth Place: Otsego County, New York, USA
Death Date: 5 Sep 1865
Death Place: Noble County, Ohio, USA
Cemetery: Devol Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Caldwell, Noble County, Ohio, USA Has Bio?: Y
Spouse: Margaret Merry
Children: Samantha Balis; Benson Merry; Rouse Merry

HISTORY OF NOBLE CO, OHIO, 1887, Center Twp, p. 340:
Calton Merry, youngest child in the family of Ambrose Merry, was born in Belmont Co, OH, September 27, 1817, and died June 27, 1878. The elder Merry immigrated from the state of New York to Belmont County in the spring of 1817. The journey was made by wagon. The family consisted of nine children - Rufus, Rouse, Benson, Calton, Samantha, Maranda, Amanda, Betsey and Hannah - all born in New York State excepting Calton. For a time he was employed upon the national pike, then being constructed, and in 1819 came to this township, settling south of Perryopolis where he lived until his decease, which occured in 1864, at the age of ninety-four. He was a typical pioneer and it is said that he had the first bearing orchard in what is now Noble County. The Merry family are noted for longevity; his father-in-law died at the age of one hundred and six; his second marriage was at the age of one hundred and two.

HISTORY OF OHIO, Vol. IV, p. 44:
William Duncan Merry. Representing a family that has been prominent in Noble County for a century, William Duncan Merry in his individual career - - - .
Mr. Merry, who is president of the bank, was born on a farm near Sarahsville, Noble County on August 1, 1867. His grandfather, Ambrose Merry, was born in New York in 1762 and in 1817 came West, overland, to Belmont County, Ohio, and in 1823 settled in Noble County. He was a farmer and stock raiser, entering Government lands in Center Township and was one of the influential pioneers who permanently impressed their character upon the county. He lived to the remarkable age of one hundred and six years, dying in 1868. As a boy he experienced the War of the Revolution, and he lived through three other wars, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and saw the Civil War fought to an end. Ambrose Merry married Samantha Wickham, whose brother, William Wickham, was a Revolutionary soldier.
Calton Merry, father of the Caldwell banker, was born in Belmont County, Ohio, June 30, 1817, was reared from childhood in Noble County, and became a prosperous farmer in Center Township. - - - - - -

History of Noble Co, OH, 1887:
Around 1817, the Protestant Irish arrived and in 1836, the German settlement began. Ambrose Merry, John Lanam, John Brown, James Ogle, and Richard Duvall among those that signed the formation of Noble County on December 1849. The Act was passed on March 11, 1851.

1991 LETTER FROM CHUCK & FRANCES MERRY, Waterford, PA:
"Ambrose himself in 1850 & 1860 said he was born in New York or Vermont ca. 1772, and either would have been correct concerning Danby, Vt. The Proprietors' Records for Danby are at the Vermont State Archives. They show that the Danby Settlement was comprised mainly of people from Dutchess County, N.Y. Ambrose and at least some of his sons could not sign their names, which further strenghtens our belief that they were frontier people, whose compelling need was survival and not education."
Although listed in the 1800 & 1810 census in Otsego Co, NY Ambrose Merry "does not appear in the land records of Otsego Co, however. Otsego County was also part of the old 'Manor of Rensseaerwyck', as were Rensselaer Co, and parts of Albany, Columbia and Schokarie Counties.
Much of the land was only leased from the Van Rensselaer family, who actually owned it, so it is quiet difficult going since the Conventional land, probate and vital records are often not there. "

LETTER TO GERALD WICKHAM from WALTER H. WILLIAMS, Rockford, IL, before 1990:
Walter is a descendant thru Margaret Wickham, dau. of William and Catherine Wickham.
Family Sheets:
Ambrose Merry
b. 1770, NY near Perryopolis
md. Margaret Wickham, dau. of William & Catherine Wickham (Wm b. 1735) b. 1768 NY
Ch:
1. Miranda Merry - b. 27 Mar 1804-d. 21 Mar 1878, md Elisha Fogle 20 Sep 1821
2. Rufus Merry - b. NY, d. May 1878 m. Sarah Fogle

Ambrose married Margaret WICKHAM, daughter of John WICKHAM and UNKNOWN, in 1795 in Mohawk, Montgomery Co, NY.^{1 2} (Margaret WICKHAM was born in 1770 in NY,^{2 5} died on 21 Mar 1828 in Monroe Co, OH ² and was buried in Devol Cem, Caldwell, Noble Co, OH ².)

Ambrose next married Eve (---) about 1850 in OH.³ (Eve (---) was born about 1790 in PA ³.)