Phelps, Zerviah

1773 - Abt 1853  (79 years)

• Name	Phelps, Zerviah
  Birth	16 Nov 1773	Mansfield, Tolland, Connecticut   [1, 2]
  Christening	3 Oct 1784	Second Congregational Church, Mansfield, Tolland, Connecticut   [2]
  Gender	Female
  Residence	1850	Conneaut, Crawford, Pennsylvania, USA   [3]
  	Home in 1850: Conneaut, Crawford, Pennsylvania, USA Household Members: Name Age Jedediah Phelps 67 Fanny P Phelps 32 Arthur F Phelps 29 James L Phelps 34 Eleanor Phelps 26 [James wife, Ellen on gravestone] Orlande J Phelps 17 James and Ellen's son. actually born abt 1849] Sophia Walker 76 [prob Zerviah Phelps Walker]
  Death	Abt 1853	Crawford County, Pennsylvania, USA   [4]
  Burial	Penn Line Cemetery, Linesville, Crawford, Pennsylvania   [4]
  	Named as Sophia Walker on the Phelps monument with her brother Jedediah.
  Person ID	I1224	Martin-Bloom
  Last Modified	26 Jul 2019

  
  

  Father	Phelps, Paul (2nd),   b. 19 Oct 1748, Lebanon, Connecticut d. Bef 1820 (Age 71 years)
  Mother	Calkins, Zerviah,   b. 18 Oct 1748, Lebanon, New London, Connecticut d. Prob Aft 1800, Vermont, USA (Age 52 years)
  Marriage	18 Feb 1768	Lebanon First Congregational Church   [5, 6]
  Notes	There are important errors in the description of Paul and Zerviah's family in Phelps Family of America by Oliver Phelps and Andrew Servin. Phelps and Servin incorrectly state that Zerviah died in 1776 and that Paul then married Theodosia Root of Westfield, Massachusetts. Phelps and Servin list Paul's last four children (John, Solomon, Jedediah and Paul 3rd) as Theodosia's children. However, they actually were Zerviah's children as shown by Dimock's transcription of the records of the Town of Mansfield and the Second Church of Mansfeld, and by an image of a page from Willington Town records for the births of Jedediah and Paul 3rd. Regrettably, Phelps and Servin acknowledged the birth records showing Zerviah as the mother, but chose to list the children as Theodosia's without providing any evidence or supporting argument. There were two Theodosia Roots in Westfield at the time, neither of whom could have married Paul in 1776. Theodosia(1) was b. 28 Oct 1757 in Westfield, the daughter of Solomon Root and Mary Church Root. Her father bequeathed his "daughter Theodosia Root 30 pounds" in his will written 1 Aug 1786 and proved the same year (ancestry.com erroneously says the will was proved on 1 Aug 1786). The use of her maiden name indicates that she was not yet married. She appears to have married a Solomon Phelps soon after her father's death. In 1804, the widow Theodosia Phelps of Westfield married Ebenezer Williams. The deceased was not Paul, as he was still living in Swanton, Vermont. Theodosia(2) was b. 1 Jul 1759, to Martin Root and Eunice Lamb Root. She married Gad Root, a brother of Theodosia(1) on 19 Jun 1779. Theodore, their last child for whom there is a birthdate was b. in 1797. Theodosia (2) d. 23 Aug 1812 and Gad Root died 13 Nov 1824. Phelps and Servin state that after Zerviah’s death Paul moved to Westfield and then to Pennsylvania where he died. Paul’s known movements do not fit that scenario. Paul was still living in Windham, Connecticut in December of 1794 when he advertised that he was going to grind salt, and he (“Paul Phelps of Windham, Windham County Connecticut”) bought land in Woodford, Vermont in 1795 where he resided until about 1803 when he moved to Swanton, Vermont. He lived in Swanton until at least 1814. There is no record of him moving to Pennsylvania after this. (All of his sons and his daughter Zerviah lived in New York for many years after 1814, and a man of his age very likely would have stayed near or with one of his children.) Phelps and Servin also state Zerviah " was probably daughter of John and Sarah (Huntington) Calkins", but that is incorrect. Zerviah, the daughter of John and Sarah, did not grow up in the Lebanon Connecticut area, as her family moved to Dutchess County, New York when she was five or six. Her mother died in Dutchess County in 1744 as did her father in 1769. If she had married Paul, the marriage would have been very unusual, as she was thirteen years older than Paul. Also, she would have been 50 when Paul 3rd was born, a very late (although not impossible) age to give birth. Zerviah, the daughter of Solomon Calkins and Zerviah Dewey, was the same age as Paul and would have been 37 years old when Paul 3rd was born. Finally, Paul and the younger Zerviah were first cousins, lived in the greater Lebanon area, and almost certainly would have known each other. [emphasis mine] [2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
  Family ID	F75	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Walker, Daniel
  Marriage	Bef 1800	Woodford, Bennington, Vermont
  	The date is based on the fact that Zerviah was not living in Paul's household in the 1800 US Census. The location is assumed. Daniel Walker witnessed one of Paul Sr.'s deeds in 1802; this was Daniel's first appeared in a record associated with the Phelps family. Zerviah was 22 years old when the family moved to Woodford in 1795.
  Notes	No record of the marriage of Zerviah Phelps and Daniel Walker has been found, but the following facts suggest that Daniel was Zerviah's husband. 1. The children of Zerviah's brother Elijah had an Aunt named Walker as shown by an 1853 letter to his children in which Elijah wrote "I saw a letter from Uncle Jed a short time ago he and Aunt Walker were well." 2. In the 1850 US Census, Sophia Walker was living with Jedediah Phelps, her presumed brother. 3. Sophia Walker appears under Jedediah on the Phelps monument in the Penn Line Cemetery. (Sophia is an easy misinterpretation of Zerviah, as seen in other cases, but the fact that Sophia appears on the grave monument suggests that Zerviah simply took the more modern name Sophia.) 4. In 1802 Daniel Walker witnessed the sale of land in Woodford by Paul Phelps to his son Elijah. At that point he probably had already married Zerviah. 5. Daniel Walker lived in Swanton, Vermont at the same time as Paul Phelps and his sons Solomon, Jedediah, and Paul, Jr., and Daniel leased land adjacent to land leased by Paul in the cluster of properties leased by the Phelpses. 6. Daniel Walker sold his leases in Swanton in 1814 (as did Paul Phelps) and moved to Dryden, New York where he appears in the 1820 US Census on the same page as Jedediah and Solomon Phelps.
  Family ID	F767	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Sep 2019

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 16 Nov 1773 - Mansfield, Tolland, Connecticut Residence - Home in 1850: Conneaut, Crawford, Pennsylvania, USA Household Members: Name Age Jedediah Phelps 67 Fanny P Phelps 32 Arthur F Phelps 29 James L Phelps 34 Eleanor Phelps 26 [James wife, Ellen on gravestone] Orlande J Phelps 17 James and Ellen's son. actually born abt 1849] Sophia Walker 76 [prob Zerviah Phelps Walker] - 1850 - Conneaut, Crawford, Pennsylvania, USA Burial - - Penn Line Cemetery, Linesville, Crawford, Pennsylvania  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Headstones		Grave Monument for Jedediah Phelps and his family. Named on the front face: Jedediah Phelps and Sophia Walker. Right face: James L. Phelps and Ellen W. Phelps. Back face: Arthur Phelps. Left face: E.B. Bennett Aged 92, [A. or M.] E. Bennett Aged 63 or 68, W.H. Bennett Aged 28, T.H. Bennett Aged 59, A.E.Bennett Aged 81.
  		Inscription for Jedediah Phelps and Sophia Walker on the front of the Phelps monument. The year of Jedediah's death is unclear in the inscription (prob 1854, poss 1851). If was 1851 his age 68 would have agreed with his birth year (1783). If Sophia's age (80 years) is correct she died in 1853. Note that she is listed on Findagrave as Sophia Walker Phelps, but it almost certainly should be Sophia Phelps Walker. See note on her marriage.

  
  

• Sources

  [S179] (database on-line, familysearch.org), Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1646 - 1906. [S254] Susan W. Dimock, Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths in Mansfield, Connecticut, (The Baker and Taylor Company, 1898), pp. 140, 437, 974.64 M28. [S93] 1850 US Census, (National Archives and Records Administration), Conneaut, Crawford, Pennsylvania; Roll: M432_770; Page: 102B; Image: 211. [S202] findagrave.com, Memorial # 128074876. [S100] Connecticut Church Record Abstracts, Vol. 57, Lebanon First Congregational Church, p. 158. [S177] Kenneth W. Calkins (Ed.), Calkins Family in America, (Calkins Family Association, 2000), p. 27. [S253] Oliver S. Phelps and Andrew T. Servin, Phelps Family of America, (Engle Publishing Co., Pittsfield, MA, 1899), Vol. 2, p. 1350, 929.2 P537. [S276] James Pierce Root, Root Genealogical Records. 1600-1870., (R.C. Root, Anthony & Co, New York (1870)), pp. 329, 334, 361. [S177] Kenneth W. Calkins (Ed.), Calkins Family in America, (Calkins Family Association, 2000), p. 19. [S202] findagrave.com, Memorial # 94417621 (Grave of Sarah Huntington Calkins). [S202] findagrave.com, Memorial # 94417240 (Grave of John Calkins).