Once upon a time, about 1840,
There was a young girl named Keziah,
Who fell in love with a young man named Daniel.
They got married.
Within a year they had a daughter, Aurelia.
Twenty months later they had another daughter, little Adelaide.
Two years later, Keziah died of consumption.
Daniel and his little daughters moved
In order to live near relatives that could help them,
Or perhaps because the grief was just too present where they lived.
A little over a year later,
Daniel remarried to a woman named Susan.
They had several children,
Who they raised along with Aurelia and Adelaide.
Adelaide married in 1859, at age 16 to Wes.
Three days later, her father, stepmother, sister and step-siblings moved overland from upstate New York on to Wisconsin.
After the Civil War, Adelaide and Wes followed them in 1872.
None of them ever returned to New York.
Keziah's name became a memory in a family Bible.
Her birth and death dates recorded but fading.
Daniel died in 1881.
The information he knew about Keziah seemed to have died with him.
Who were her parents, her siblings?
Where was she born?
Where did she die?
And where was she buried?
No one knew the answers anymore.
For years after I started family history research, my family had only the birth and death dates and a name for my 3rd-Great-Grandmother. And the name that was "remembered" was Hezekiah Gould. The name and dates had supposedly come from an old family Bible, but like so many things once owned and cherished, the Bible was long gone, and no one knew where it had gone to.
The name Hezekiah never felt right to me, historically it has been a man's name but like the dates that we had, I took them as good hints and kept looking. To not confuse the issue, at this point I will say that eventually I was able to prove that her name was Keziah.
According to the information that had been shared with me, Keziah was born 28 Jan 1825 and died on 20 Jun 1845 at age 20. She married Daniel Crane Purdy on 11 March 1841. The locations are not known for where Keziah was born or where she married Daniel.
Two daughters were born to Keziah and Daniel. Aurelia A. Purdy was born 19 Nov 1841 in Wyoming County, New York. Her sister, Adelaide Fredora Purdy, was born 20 July 1843 in Allegany County, New York, possibly in the Town of Allen. According to family lore, Keziah died of "Consumption", known today as Tuberculosis, just two years later.
While also looking for information on Keziah, I noted that her mother-in-law, Daniel's mother, Abagail (Crane) Purdy died just a few months after Keziah on 1 October 1845 in Allegany County, New York. I found information on alleganyhistory.org that said that Abagail was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Town of Hume in Allegany County. I contacted the Town Historian, Rondus Miller, and she was kind enough to send me copies of the Cemetery Sexton's Plot book and another page that listed graves that had been "removed" from other cemeteries to Pine Grove Cemetery.
It showed on the "Removed" list:
Abigal Wife of James Purdy Jr. Died Oct 1st 1845, Age 53y
removed on May 13, 1887 and buried in Lot #139.
and to my great excitement:
Keziah wife of Daniel C. Purdy, Died Jun 20 1845, Age 22y
Removed May 13, 1887 and buried in Lot #139.
Pine Grove Cemetery Sexton's Book, p.10
Filmore, Town of Hume, Allegany County, New York
Removals from other cemeteries reburied in Pine Grove Cemetery.
Note: Click on the photos to look at full size images.
The name or location of the cemetery that Keziah and Abagail were originally buried in is not known. Rondus speculated that they may have been moved from the Mills' Mills Cemetery which had been located near a school, or possibly from a private grave on family property, but no record so far has been found that clarifies this. Pine Grove Cemetery was established in 1860 and Keziah and Abagail's graves were moved on 13 May 1887. By 1887, Keziah's husband, Daniel, was deceased. It is unknown who had the graves moved.
This record from the Sexton's book also documents the marriages of Abagail to James Purdy, Jr., and that of Keziah to Daniel C. Purdy. It lists Keziah's age at death as 22 years old which would indicate she may have born in 1823 instead of 1825. While family lore says that Keziah's maiden name is Gould, no documentation has yet been found to support that.
Keziah and Abagail are buried in Lot #139 in Pine Grove Cemetery with seven other graves. There is no grave marker for Keziah, but there is a grave marker for Abagail.
Abagail (Crane) Purdy, 1791-1845
Pine Grove Cemetery
Filmore, Town of Hume, Allegany County, New York
Others buried in Lot #139 with Keziah and Abagail are shown in the burial recording section of the Sexton's plot book, below. Margarette Purdy and Sara A. Purdy (daughter of William Slagel) are relatives of the Purdy family. Other than Abagail Purdy, none of the others have grave markers listed in the current cemetery survey.
Pine Grove Cemetery Sexton's Book, Lot #139
Filmore, Town of Hume, Allegany County, New York
Abagail Crane was married twice, first to Gideon W. Sowle about 1808. They are shown in the 1810 census in Camillus, Onondaga County, New York. They had two children, the only one who survived to adulthood was Aaron C. Soule. Gideon died in 1813.
From 1813 - 1823, Rev James D. Purdy Sr, father of James Purdy Jr and grandfather of Daniel Crane Purdy, served the Scipio Circuit of the Methodist Genesee Conference.
Rev. James D. Purdy Sr., lived in Camillus at the time of the 1820 census and possibly the entire time he was serving the Scipio Circuit from 1813-1823.
Abagail remarried in 1813 to James D. Purdy Jr. in Camillus, Onondaga County and they had six children, one of which was Daniel Crane Purdy.
James Purdy, Jr. died in 1830 in Elbridge, Onondaga county when Daniel was 9 years old. The only adult male in the family at James Purdy's death was Aaron Soule and it appears that Abagail lived with Aaron and his family from then until her death.
By 1840 Aaron Soule was living in Warsaw, Genesee County, New York with eight people in his household with ages appropriate to his mother, Abagail, and his half-brothers, Augustus, and Daniel C. Purdy.
It is unconfirmed where Keziah and Daniel were married. The date from the missing bible says they were married 11 Mar 1841 and locations that they lived in indicate strongly that it could have been in Genesee County.
Their oldest daughter, Aurelia, was born in (then) Wyoming County, New York on 19 Nov 1841. Wyoming County was formed from Genesee County on May 19, 1841. Wyoming and Genesee counties are adjacent to each other with Genesee county to the north, so it is likely that Keziah was living in early Genesee County when Daniel met her, possibly near Warsaw where he was likely living with his mother and older half-brother.
Adelaide was born on 20 Jul 1843 in Allen, Allegany County which was directly south of Wyoming County indicating that Daniel and Keziah had moved between Nov 1841 and early 1843.
Aaron Sowle was living in the Town of Caneadea, Allegany County at the 1850 census, but given that Abagail is buried in the Town of Hume, Allegany County it is likely his family moved there prior to her death on 1 Oct 1845.
Pine Grove Cemetery in the village of Filmore, Town of Hume, Allegany County is where Keziah and Abagail are buried. It is less than 10 miles from Allen, making it likely that Abagail and Keziah died in 1845 in the immediate area of the adjacent Towns of Caneadea and Hume.
Nothing more has been found about Keziah. Still to be confirmed is her maiden name, who her parents were, and where she was born.
My line of descent from Keziah, my 3rd-Great-Grandmother:
Keziah (Gould) Purdy, mother of
Adelaide (Purdy) Kenyon, mother of
Louis Avery Kenyon, father of
Charles Martin Kenyon, father of
Kathleen (Kenyon) Von Fumetti, mother of
Karla (Von Fumetti) Staudt
© Karla Von Fumetti Staudt
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