Written by Sandy Kinter, from Waterford Genealogical Society E-Newsletter Volume 14 Number 5
Section 20 of Waterford Township is mostly residential. The northern edge of the section is on Highland Road, aka M-59, and is now commercial property. The western side of the section is on Hospital Road, to the east is Airport Road. The southern boundary is Elizabeth Lake Road. Pontiac
Lake Road takes the traveler through the middle of the section going east and west. Waterford Center Cemetery, where many of Section 20’s residents are resting, is located on Pontiac Lake Road just a little to the west of the road’s intersection with Airport Road.
At this same intersection, the 1872 plat map of Waterford Township shows School No. 4. The school property is still on the northwest corner of Pontiac Lake and Airport Roads. The building is from the 20th century and no longer a school. It is now owned by a church.
Jacob Rowland
Emma Crosby
In the southeast corner of Section 20, Jacob Rowland owned an eighty acre farm. This property is bounded on the north by Highland Road (M-59) and on the south by Pontiac Lake Road. The 1870 census, page 594, Waterford Township, Oakland County, Michigan, says the Rowland household consisted of Jacob Rowland, age 32; wife Emma, age 30; Lana (Zana), age 9, and Willis, age 2, all born in Ohio. The Oakland County deed index shows that Jacob Rowland purchased the land from L.S. Brooks in 1869. (1) The family did not reside long in Waterford Township for in the 1880 census they are residents of Ashtabula, Ohio. (2)
Jacob Rowland was born 8 October 1837, in New York. (3)(4)(5) He was the son of Robert Rowland and Alzina Winchester.(4) On 4 January 1859, in Lake County, Ohio, Jacob married Emma Crosby, born in 1839, daughter of Morgan Crosby and Esther Dutton. (3)(7)(8) Jacob served in the Civil War as a Quartermaster Sergeant in the 2nd Regiment, Ohio Heavy Artillery. (9) He received a Civil War pension in August of 1896 and, after Jacob’s death, his wife received a widow’s pension. Jacob died 13 March 1916, in Perry Township, Lake County, Ohio. (4) Emma died 19 August 1935, (10) very probably in Westfield, New Jersey. Emma is recorded in the 1930 census, residing with her daughter and son-in-law, Henry and Zana Lockwood, page 169B, 1st Ward, Westfield, Union County, New Jersey. Both Jacob and Emma are buried in the Perry Township Cemetery, Lake County, Ohio. (3)
Robert Rowland, father of Jacob, was born 5 May 1812, in Pittstown, New York. (3)(4) He died 4 October 1891, in Lake County, Ohio. (3) Robert’s wife was Alzina Winchester, born 1 November 1815, in New York. (11) She died 20 May 1875, in Perry Township, Lake County, Ohio. (11) Both are buried in the Perry Township Cemetery, Lake County. (3) Alzina’s Winchester family can be traced back to the immigrant ancestor, John Winchester who arrived in Boston, 1635, on the ship Elizabeth, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. (11) The Winchester family of the Winchester rifle company are descendants of John Winchester.
The full birth date of Emma (Crosby) Rowland could not be found with online sources. The picture of her tombstone found on Find A Grave shows that the headstone only has the years, 1839-1935. (3) Emma was the daughter of Morgan L. Crosby and Esther L. Dutton, married 1 January 1837, in Geauga County, Ohio. Morgan Crosby died 25 April 1875 and his wife, Esther, died 27 March 1878, both in Lake County, Ohio. (10) They are buried in the Perry Township Cemetery, Lake County, Ohio. (3)
Sources
- Oakland County, Michigan, Deed Index, Volumes 5-7, 1866-1879; Volume 5,
1866-1870, no page numbers, 1869, Image 154, Film #0975558,
DGS#8190342, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - 1880 Census, page 305B, Ashtabula Village, Ashtabula County, Ohio,
Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Perry Township Cemetery, Perry Township, Lake County, Ohio, Find A Grave,
www.findagrave.com - Death Certificate, Jacob W. Rowland, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953, FamilySearch,
www.familysearch.org - 1850 Census, page 241, Perry Township, Lake County, Ohio, reported as
Robert Bowland, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com - Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013; Lake County, Marriage Licenses, 1854-
1872, Volume C, page 218, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - 1850 Census, page 236, Perry Township, Lake County, Ohio, Ancestry,
www.ancestry.com - Death Certificate of sister, Ellen (Crosby) Patchin, Ohio Deaths, 1908-1953,
FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org - General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, Ancestry, www.ancestry.com
- Obituary Index, Morley Library, Painesville, Ohio, www.morleylibrary.org
- “John Winchester of New England and Some of His Descendants”,
Henry Winchester Cunningham, New England Historical and Genealogical Register,
Volume 78, pages 7-139, AmericanAncestors, www.americanancestors.org - Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013; Geauga County, Marriage Records,
1833-1842, Volume C, page 204, FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org