Vital Records - January 1851

 Oxford Times, January 1, 1851

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 26th of Oct., by Rev. Wm. Reddy, Mr. Erastus Burroughs to Miss Irena Hinman, both of Greene [Chenango Co., NY].

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 11th ult. by Rev. A.W. Bruce, Mr. Derrick H. Wells to Miss Christina Hill, both of Smithville [Chenango Co., NY].

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], ont he 29th ult., by Rev. Dr. Paddock, Mr. Henry A. Robinson of Oxford, to Miss Fanny Smith of New Berlin [Chenango Co., NY].

Married:  In Preston [Chenango Co., NY], 28th ult, by Rev. A.W. Bruce, Mr. Jared Redfield to Miss Maria L. Smith of McDonough [Chenango Co., NY].

In Triangle, Broome Co., on the 11th ult. by Rev. J. Woodruff, Mr. Reuben Hall, aged 68 years of Triangle to Miss Sarah Myrick, aged 25 years of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Oxford Times, January 8, 1851

Married:  In Oxford [Chenango Co., NY], on the 31st ult., by the Rev. J.C. Ransom, Mr. William T. Robinson to Miss Mary B. Gilbert, all of Oxford.

Married:  In Preston [Chenango Co., NY], by Rev. M. Stone, Mr. Lloyd French of Norwich [Chenango Co., NY], to Miss Louisa Graves of Preston.

Oxford Times, January 15, 1851

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY] on the 4th inst., by the Rev. A.W. Bruce, Mr. Joseph L. Smith of Norwich [Chenango Co., NY] to Miss Mary A. Hunt of Oxford.

Married:  In this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 4th inst., by the Rev. H. Callahan, Mr. A.T. Lyon of Bath, Steuben Co. to Miss Sarah Ann Gibbs of Guilford [Chenango Co., NY].

Married:  In Norwich [Chenango Co., NY] on the 1st inst., by Rev. D. Clark, Jr., Mr. Samuel Z. Hammond to Miss Mary E. DeForest, daughter of Sylvester N. DeForest, Esq. all of Norwich.

Married:  In Smyrna [Chenango Co., NY], on the 27th ult., by Rev. L. Pomeroy, Mr. J. Muirhead of New York City, to Miss Helen M. [Strew], daughter of John Strew, Esq. of the former place.

Died:  In Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], on the 25th ult., Mary Virginia [Dickinson], only daughter of Charles F. and Mary A. Dickinson, aged 5 years.

Oxford Times, January 22, 1851

Died:  At Whitney's Point, Broome Co., Dec. 3d, Mr. John M. Myres, aged 54 years.

Died:  In Lisle, Broome Co., Dec. 17th, Mr. John Peck, aged 72 years.

Oxford Times, January 29, 1851

Married:  At the M.E. Church, in this village [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY], on the 21st inst., by the Rev. Dr. Paddock, Charles G. Hart, Esq., of Binghamton [Broome Co., NY] to Miss Mary Jane [Paddock], daughter of Dr. Paddock, of this village.

Married:  In Franklin, Delaware Co., on the 22d inst., by the Rev. N.H. Adams of Unadilla [Otsego Co., NY], Dr. C.H. Eccleston of Oxford, Chenango Co., to Miss Amanda N. [Foote], daughter of I.C. Foote, Esq., of the former place.

Married:  In South New Berlin [Chenango Co., NY], Dec. 29th, by E. Simmons, Esq., Mr. Darius Andrews of New Berlin to Miss Bulina R Carter of Columbus [Chenango Co., NY].

Died:  In Columbus [Chenango Co., NY], on the 18th inst., after a short illness, Bulina [Andrews], wife of Darius Andrews, aged 17 years.

Died:  In Addison, Steuben Co., N.Y., Dec. 31st, 1850, of consumption, Fanny L. [Folger], wife of Mr. Ebenezer Folger, in the 25th year of her age.  The deceased was formerly of this town [Oxford, Chenango Co., NY]; she has left a large circle of relatives and friends to mourn her death. She bore her protracted illness without a murmur, was conscious of approaching death, and met the King of Terrors with Christian meekness.

From the Wilkesbarre (Pa.) Journal, January 8th:  Died at the residence of Mr. Madison F. Myers, her son-in-law, in Kingston [Ulster Co., NY], on the 4th day of January, A.D., 1851, after a brief illness, Mrs. Martha Myers, consort and relict of the late Philip Myers, at the advanced age of about eighty-nine years.  Mrs. Myers was the last of that generation who witnessed the horrors of the Indian Massacre.  Her father, Thomas Bennett, was one of the forty white men who built the Stockade called Forty-Fort, a name blended with one of the deepest tragedies, that marks the pages of American history. She was about sixteen years old when she saw the fated band of patriots, the fathers, husbands, sons and brothers--the last hope of the Valley, march forth from this feeble shelter to meet the savage foe who were laying waste to their fields and giving their dwelling to the flames. They marched forth to defend their mothers, their wives, their daughters, their helpless children and feeble aged from the ruthless tomahawk. They went forth, most of them, "To return no more forever."  "Alas! nor wife, nor children, more shall they behold."  For of that band of near four hundred, not more than seventy escaped to tell of the fate of their companions. She was among those who heard the rattling crash of the conflict, and after hours of agonizing suspense, between trembling, hope and fear, they saw the miserable remnant of their friends escaping from the field of blood to tell the dreadful tale of woe. Then arose a wail of human agony, which would pierce the ear of Heaven--the wail of mothers, of wives, of sisters, of daughters, of helpless infancy, of feeble age for fathers, husbands, sons and brothers, slain in this merciless butchery. For butchery it truly was, since Butler, who commanded the British and Indians on that occasion with cold blooded audacity, declared in his official report after the battle, that the Indians brought in after the action as the trophies of the victory, "two hundred and twenty seven scalps of the Rebels!"  Then followed a fight of unspeakable horror, heightened by the tracts of lurid glare defined upon the overhanging mists of the Valley, which pointed to truly where some unhappy victim, spared from the carnage of the day, to glut the ferocity and complete the frightful orgies of savage triumph, were offered up at the stake, or on the burning pyre. She also on the morrow of that day saw the band of hedious savages fresh from that field of slaughter and reeking in the blood of their victims, enter the feeble asylum, and mock and enjoy with savage glee. the fears and terrors of its wretched inmates.

But enough of this, for the heart recoils at the attempt to portray this sad and heart sickening picture.  In brief, the subject of this poor tribute to departed worth survived these horrors, and has lived down through the eventful history of our Valley and has witnessed the darkest, as well as the brightest, day that ever lowered or smiled upon it.  She was truly a historical character, to whom historians and others who have taken an interest in the thrilling events of the Valley, have referred for the most important facts. She has witnessed those scenes of desolation and won, changed to the halcyon reign of unrivalled prosperity and peace; and although war, in its most hedious aspect, for a time deformed the face of this goodly land, yet we may ow say:

"A lovelier scene the eye ne'er rested on, / Nor fancy painted in its dreamy story-- / When summer has her richest robes put on, / than Wyoming in all her pride and glory."

She lived to see a numerous progeny; and herself the centre of their respect and veneration.  In all the relations of life she was all that a woman should be.  As a wife she was faithful, dutiful, and respectful, as a mother, kind, provident and affectionate, and as a neighbor, obliging. charitable and generous to a fault--and take her all in all, we shall seldom look on her like again.

She was followed to her long home by a large and most respectable concourse, of relations, neighbors and friends--and committed to her mother earth full of years, and the respect of a wide community, within sight of that very same Forty-fort, near which she has spent the last seventy-five years of her life, where among the fore-fathers of the Valley she sleeps well.  And let no vane and presumptuous tongue invade the sanctity of death and the grave, and imaging that naught but rest and eternal peace abide her.