Sarah Brush (1815-1896)

I just love sharing information and having information shared with me.  This past week I received an e-mail from a distant cousin and was able to get some valuable information about Mary Ann Doyle’s mother, Sarah.  Up until this point, I had no idea what her maiden name was, but now I can happily report what information was provided to me in the Centennial History for Susquehanna County by Stocker.  It is located on page 829 in the section about Ararat.

JUSTIN LEE DOYLE.-His parents, John and Ann (Snow) Doyle, came from Connecticut about 1816, and settled in the western part of Ararat, where D. Hines now resides, the tract taken up comprising now several farms adjoining.  Here they resided until 1835, when the father and his son John went to Illinois, where the father died and his son John went to Illinois, where the father died and John settled subsequently in Kansas, where he resides in 1887.  The children of John and Ann Doyle were Thomas L. (1799-1870), cleared up a farm in Ararat, and resided in the township until his death; he has one son, William, a resident here; Justin Lee, born in Connecticut, May 30, 1803, died in Ararat June 27, 1876; Mary, married Abram Wrigley, and both died in Abington, Pa.; Fanny, wife of Joseph Bloxham, of Ararat; John married Sarah Brush, a daughter of his step-mother, and went west with his father; Julia married Gardner Avery, and resided in Ararat; and Abby became the wife of  Phillip Matteson, of Abington.  John Doyles’s second wife was the widow of Ard Brush, formerly Mary Treadwell, and the mother of Samuel Brush, of Brushville, in this county, by whom he had no issue.  Justin Lee Doyle was thirteen years old when his parents came to Pennsylvania, and settled in the then wilderness country of the present township of Ararat.  During his boyhood he acquired a fair education from the meager opportunities offered and learned the trade of stone-mason, which he followed more or less during his early manhood.  In 1833 he married Lydia Ann Ward Avery, who was born in Ostego County, N.Y. in 1817, and whose parents John (1744-1884) and Eleanor Griffith (1772-1840) Avery, settled in Ararat from Ostego County in 1826, whose sketch can be found in this volume.  Mrs. Doyle survives her husband and is a woman of  known benevolence in the community, possessing those characteristics of her sex which make her useful member of society and a benefit to all with whom she may be associated.  Their children are Lucetta M., born in 1836, was a teacher for several terms, and married in 1856, Leonard O. Baldwin, a farmer of Ararat, whose parents settled in the township from Connecticut in 1816; and Emeline D. (1841-65), also a teacher, became the wife of Alfred W. Larrabee in 1862, but only survived her marriage three years.  Two years after his marriage, Mr. Doyle bought fifty acres of land, partly improved, the present residence of his widow, upon which he erected, five years afterwards, in 1840, the present house.  Here he spent the remainder of his life, an industrious, kind hearted and honest man.  Mrs. Doyle added to this homestead some sixty acres, the whole of which she conducts in general farming.

This was quite a great find for me.  I am so grateful for this person contacting me and sharing his information.  He lives close enough that he has been able to drive around the area and explore the roads and farms where the Doyles lived.  My distant cousin also provided with a map showing where families lived in the area at the time that this record was written.  Anyone interested in it, I will gladly share it with you!

The key things that I was able to glean from this document were Sara’s maiden name, Brush.  Also, I found it so interesting that John S. Doyle marries his step-sister!  His father, John, marries Mary Treadwell, a widow and Sarah is her daughter.  Mary Ann names her son Ard Church and Sarah Brush’s father is Ard Brush.  So now I know where the name comes from!

Ann(e) Snow is John Doyle’s mother and she dies before he marries Sarah Brush.  These are HUGE discoveries.  I was content with the information that I had but no I am overjoyed to have discovered another generation and connect with cousins who live back East still!