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Hannah Townsend

Generation 5 back

Descent: Meghan Jane Leineweber ← Catherine Raye Lobb ← Patricia Jane Loomis ← Beulah Grahm ← Jay Charles Grahm/William James Walker ← Hannah Townsend

In brief

1820s–1830s

Born 11 June 1820 in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, to John Townsend and Elizabeth Shoemaker, one of eleven children. Married James Walker in 1838.

1840s–1860s

Raised about a dozen children on the Walker farm on Pine Run, among them William James (later Jay Charles Grahm).

1870s–1890s

Moved about 1870 to the 175-acre Townsend homestead, where her mother and brother Joseph lived with the family. Widowed in 1884. Died in Washington Township on 9 January 1893.

Family

Father
John Townsend
Mother
Elisabeth Shoemaker
Spouse
James Walker

Children

  • Nancy Walker
    b. May 23, 1839, in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
    m. Robert McGinley in abt. 1853
    d. September 10, 1913, at 7749 Baxter Street, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania due to chronic catarrhal gastritis
  • Elisabeth Walker
    b. May 10, 1841, in Pennsylvania
    m. ____ Long
    d. February 2, 1916, in Vandergrift, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, due to a pulmonary hemorrhage
  • Mary Ann Walker
    b. c. 1843, in Pennsylvania
  • Rachel Jane Walker
    b. October 4, 1846, in Pennsylvania
  • Jane Walker
    b. Abt. 1848 in Pennsylvania
  • Martha S Walker
    b. c. 1850, in Pennsylvania
  • Robert A Walker
    b. c. 1852, in Pennsylvania
  • Samuel Hill Walker
    b. July 25, 1856, in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
    m. Martha J. Rowe in 1880
    m. Laura Belle Wolf in 1895
    d. June 8, 1935, in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania due to a coronary occlusion
  • Daniel H Walker
    b. Abt. 1862 in Pennsylvania
  • Margaret H “Maggie” Walker
    b. Abt. 1864 in Pennsylvania
  • John Townsend Walker
    b. January 8/2142, 1949, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
    d. August 24, 1908, in Washington, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania due to a strangulated hernia
  • Jay Charles Grahm / William James Walker · in this line
    b. Abt. 1856–1862 (records vary) · Apollo, Pennsylvania
    m. Anna “Annie” Frances Brown, Abt. 1879
    m. March 4, 1890, in Yuma, Colorado
    d. May 10, 1934 · home in Puyallup, Washington

Siblings

  • George Townsend
    b. February 20, 1812
  • Mary Townsend
    b. October 6, 1813
    m. Andrew Adams
  • Susanna Townsend
    b. February 15, 1816
    m. John Barbour
  • Isaac Townsend
    b. February 15, 1818
    m. Rebecca P. Dickey
    d. April 6, 1844
  • John Shoemaker Townsend
    b. August 10, 1822, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
    m. Susannah/Susan Dickey, March 1, 1842
    d. November 14, 1908, in Tama County, Iowa
  • Rachel Townsend
    b. December 22, 1824
    m. Henry Rose
  • Joseph Townsend
    b. January 20, 1827, in Pennsylvania
  • William H. Townsend
    b. April 27, 1829, in Pennsylvania
    m. Hanah E. Vansant
    d. June 9, 1855
  • Eliza Jane Townsend
    b. April 15, 1831, in Pennsylvania
    m. Simon Peter Townsend
    d. 1913
  • Daniel W. Townsend
    b. April 29, 1834, in Pennsylvania
    m. Elizabeth M. Kier
    d. Abt. 1902

Life story

A Westmoreland County Life

Hannah Townsend, sometimes called Anna, was born on June 11, 1820, in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of John Townsend and Elizabeth Shoemaker. She was one of eleven children: George, Mary, Susanna, Isaac, John Shoemaker, Rachel, Joseph, William, Eliza Jane, and Daniel. Her brother John later moved west to Tama County, Iowa.

In 1838 Hannah married James Walker, a farmer on Pine Run in the same township. Their children were Nancy (1839), Elisabeth (1841), Mary Ann, Rachel Jane (1846), Jane, John Townsend, Martha, Robert, Samuel Hill (1856), William James, Daniel, and Margaret (Maggie). About 1870 James bought the 175-acre Townsend homestead, and that year Hannah's mother and her brother Joseph were living with them.

James died in January 1884. The next year Hannah's son William left his wife and children and went west, and in 1889 the Pittsburgh papers carried a false report that he had been sentenced to hang in Colorado; he came home that February to clear his name. He later took the name Jay Charles Grahm and raised a second family in Colorado. Hannah died in Washington Township on January 9, 1893, after six weeks of paralysis, and was buried with James at Poke Run Cemetery.

Sources (8)
  1. 1860 United States Census, Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, page 125-126, dwelling 928, family 870, Family of James Walker; NARA microfilm publication M653; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4293564_00579 : accessed 8 November 2023).
  2. 1870 United States Census, Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, page 16, dwelling 119, family 116, Family of James Walker; NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 1466; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4276467_00707 : accessed 8 November 2023).
  3. 1850 United States Census, Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, page 410b, dwelling 472, family 472, Family of James Walker; NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 836; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4205399_00278 : accessed 9 November 2023).
  4. John W. Jordan, compiler, History of Westmoreland County Vol. III: Genealogical Memoirs (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), 578; digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/26787/images/dvm_LocHist011286-01184-0 : accessed 9 November 2023), image 2102.
  5. Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, “Registration of deaths, 1893-1906,” 1893-1900 section, digital images; entries relating to Hannah Walker, image 170; FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9V5-PVHR?i=169 : accessed 9 November 2023).
  6. Lillian (Shumaker) Lankerd, compiler, Genealogy of Three Loudon County Virginia Shoemaker Lines (Vandergrift, Pennsylvania: Lillian Lankerd, 1962), 112; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/genealogyofthree01lank/page/2/mode/2up : accessed 13 November 2023).
  7. Membership application, Jay Russell Townsend, no. C8784, The Indiana Society of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revoultion, Volume 344; digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2204/images/32596_242293-00400 : accessed 21 May 2024).
  8. 1850 United States Census, Washington Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, page 423b, dwelling 650, family 650, Family of John Townsend; NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 836; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4205399_00304 : accessed 22 May 2024).
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