CROUSORE, SMITH [REEL, REEDER]: For several years, just about every family tree posted online gave my ancestor Jacob Crousore's wife as Anny Ice. A study of Ice webpages and trees turned up zero likely candidates for Anny. The Salt Lake Institute once again came to the rescue. [The day by day progress of the search is featured in my posts of 23-27 January 2012.]
I knew that Jacob was in Ohio in 1820 and online censuses were incorrectly indexed. That left the 1820 hardcover index. The Crousores appeared in Clinton County, Ohio. Next came marriage records. Jacob Crousore married Jemima Smith on 29 August 1822. [Here's where the obvious began to fail me, but shouldn't have.] I tracked the family into Delaware Co., Indiana, where Jacob and Ama Jemima Crousore were named in a deed. CLICK! How could I have missed it! Jemima! That was my great-grandmother Simmons' middle name! Ama was her first name!
The surname Smith did not hold much promise, but the Clinton Co., Ohio marriage records were a God-send! Jacob's father was confirmed. Ama Jemima's brother was named [John, of course]. John Smith also married in Clinton Co. - his father, William, and spouse, Elizabeth Crousore, were named. [Jacob's sister!] Further investigation led to William's wife - Elizabeth Reel.
The Crousore, Smith and Reel families, along with the Reeders [Elizabeth Reel's maternal line] were a package deal. Those families had traveled from Pennsylvania or Virginia to Ohio and moved on to Rush, Delaware and Howard Counties in Indiana. A few family members left the pack on the way.
Jacob and Amy, as she was referred to most frequently, had quite an adventure. I had been unable to find them after 1870 and guessed the couple died in Howard County. WRONG! Jacob and Amy were not through! The majority of their 10 children had died by 1870. William and Edith were their surviving children. They took in the two youngest sons of daughter Julia Pugh. In 1873, William decided to head west, taking his parents and nephews with him.
The Crousores settled in McPherson Co., Kansas. Amy died about1876 and Jacob about 1877. William moved on after Jacob's death.
It had been quite an adventure for Jacob Crousore and Ama Jemima Smith. Jacob was born in Fayette Co., Pennsylvania and married in Clinton Co., Ohio. He and his wife resided in Rush, Delaware, Madison and Howard Counties in Idiana before spending his last years in Kansas. Ama Jemima was a Virginia native.
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