Peggy Mershon: Meet Josiah Hedges

In genealogy, when an ancestor proves elusive, you can sometimes sneak up on him through his relatives. They're called collateral lines: aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers, cousins by the dozens.

While your multi-great-grandfather may be faceless and voiceless and seems to have come from nowhere, this kin sometimes leave his picture in their albums, letters in their attics and, if you're really lucky, years of research that has taken the family back 10 generations.

Meet Josiah Hedges, big brother to Gen. James Hedges, government surveyor, War of 1812 hero and one of the founders of Mansfield.

Josiah hung around the newborn (1808) Mansfield for awhile and then eyed the wilderness farther west (and north). When the land opened up for settlement, he founded his very own town, filing the plat map in Seneca County in 1822 and naming it after his fellow Virginian and traveling companion (so they say), Edward Tiffin, who also happened to be the first governor of Ohio. Since James named Mansfield after his boss, the U.S. surveyor general, there are no Hedgesvilles to honor either man.

But Tiffin did have the courtesy to put a photo of Josiah in a county history, hang his portrait in the county museum and erect his statue on the courthouse lawn. The statue was moved to the entrance of Hedges-Boyer Park before they tore down their beautiful, historic courthouse — see, Tiffin and Mansfield have more in common.

I can say that because Tiffin happens to be my birthplace and Mansfield, sometime in the 1970s, became my adopted home, following Josiah in reverse.

I can't say, however, I was overly disappointed to find no statue to James Hedges here until, 40 years later, I bumped into the frustration of not being able to locate his picture for this column. I have found, among the riches of the Mansfield Memorial Museum, a photo in a family album of what might be the Hedges' little brother, Ellzey — that's right, two "ls" — don't misspell it or receive the wrath of his son, Henry Clay Hedges, who wrote a newspaper column about it. Dad was named for a family friend back in Virginia.

Out of all his 10 siblings, Ellzey seems to be the only one with descendants still living in Mansfield. They married everybody. While the bodily remains of James are in Mansfield Cemetery, his wife, Nancy Neff, is a bit of a mystery, and their only known son, William, born 1812, was brought here from Belmont County by his father. He also went westward to take advantage of his father's land investments in Whitley County, Indiana.

The complete list of James' Hoosier heirs can be found in the April 1978 issue of the Ohio Records and Pioneer Families, an Ohio Genealogical Society publication that can be found at OGS out there on Ohio 97 between Lexington and Bellville, along with lots of other info of lots of other Ohioans. Visit www.ogs.org for details.

Unfortunately, no photograph of the late, great Gen. James Hedges could be uncovered there. The closest I have come so far is the photo of Josiah accompanying this column — after all, they were only 2¹/₂ years apart and were described with similar physical traits.

According to nephew Henry, James was "tall, broad-chested, large framed, a massive man, his eye was bright and clear and keen and far sighted. His mental equipment was excellent. He was a generous man, generous in all things, but specially so in bringing about a condition of things when any man coming into the new county from the older states or foreign countries, it mattered not whence he came, if he brought with him habits of industry and a heart of honesty, might successfully establish a new home. In Gen. James Hedges the humble and lowly always found a faithful friend."

Josiah's 1858 obituary in the Seneca Advertiser said he was "a stout, athletic, vigorous man and retained to a remarkable degree in his old days, his manly sense and energy of mind . . . he was generous and just in his dealings with his fellow men and scrupulously honest . . ."

Ah, it pays to be a founding father. One thing about Josiah not in James' homage was his outstanding traits as a husband and father. More about that later.

If you find a photo that claims to be the good general, be very careful and check it out beyond someone else's identification because there is a picture floating around on the Internet of a sleepy-eyed little boy in a Civil War case claiming to be the real Gen. James Hedges born in 1780 and died in 1854. Think about it.

But if your picture — for varying, better reasons — just might be him, be very happy, because you're among the few living persons to look at a Mansfield founding father in the face. You can forget about the other one. Jacob Newman had the audacity to catch pneumonia and die in 1813. But I think I might have found a photo of his daughter, Harriet, who just happened to marry Ellzey Hedges.

It's all in the family.

Genealogy is a valuable skill for historians. Other Mansfield names on the Hedges family tree that still might have old photos are Keating, Ott, Purdy, Mason, Todd, Houston, Williams, Zimmerman ... and that doesn't include the Indiana or Tiffin bunch.

But there also are some Hedges in Iowa who caught my eye, descendants of a man who very well may be James' second son nobody recognizes. More about Christian Hedges next week.

Peggy Mershon is a retired News Journal editor who also wrote columns on genealogy and antiques. Contact her at marwelmer@aol.com.