Isaac and Ann: Unanswered Questions

PRALL & RHODES: When Pathiah/Bathiah Cunningham Porter and her orphaned niece, Ann Bathia Rhodes, moved from Baltimore to Harford Co., Maryland, the stage was set for some interesting family relationships. Bathiah had been the wife of sea captain Ralph Porter. They took in her niece, Ann, following the death of Bathia's sister, Harriet about 1818. [Ann's father, Zachariah Rhodes, had died at sea in 1815.

In 1827, Bathia married Cornelius Prall, Jr. The following year Ann married Cornelius' son, Isaac Rittenhouse Prall. Isaac was named for his maternal grandfather.

Fortunately for the family tree, Cornelius and Bathia did not have any children. Isaac and Ann, on the other hand, had ten.

The family spent a couple of years in Harford Co. before moving to York Co., Pennsylvania. Nine of the ten children were born in York Co.

A short biography of Cornelius Prall, the third son, appeared in a York Co. history. That bio was the only clue to the deaths of Isaac and Ann. According to the entry, Isaac died in 1880 and Ann in 1865.

Deeds helped narrow Ann's date of death. She probably died in January of 1865.

Isaac was a different story! He seemed to vanish after Ann's death. The Prall children had begun heading west by the end of the decade. Only Cornelius Prall and Harriet Cunningham Prall Grove remained in York Co.

By 1870, the remaining eight kids had moved to Illinois, Missouri and Ohio. The 1870 census had been a mystery of sorts during the early 1990s. In those pre-online index days, you had to rely on the census index in book form. It took awhile before the 1870 volumes were published.

Thanks to the hardcover 1870 index, I was able to track down Isaac and his youngest son, Hugh McDonald Prall [my great-grandfather]. Isaac was living with daughter Anne and her 2nd husband Leander Kohler in Clinton Co., Ohio. Hugh Prall was living with older brother Charles Wesley and his family, in Highland Co., Ohio.

Once again Isaac seemed to vanish. He was not living with any of his children in 1880. The Kohlers had moved on to Paulding Co., Ohio. Had Isaac died in Clinton Co.? Had he died during the move to Paulding Co.? Had he returned to York Co. and died there? Where was he buried, Ohio or Pennsylvania? Did Isaac die in the months preceding the 1880 enumeration or was Cornelius' bio in error? As of yet, none of these questions have been answered. Isaac has not been located in the 1880 Mortality Schedule.