Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 44 (part 2)

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, featuring the family lines of Oregon pioneers who descend from Mayflower passengers John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” featuring the family lines of Oregon pioneers who descend from Mayflower passengers John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley, William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton.

To recap: My last story featured Abigail (Howland) Ball (1812-1900) and Isaac Ball (1812-1895), who made the journey on the Oregon Trail, arriving in Oregon in early October 1848. They built a log cabin four miles east of the Willamette Valley in a locale that would be named Ballston, after Isaac Ball. See the full lineage and history in “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 44 (part 1).”

I tracked another Mayflower connection to the Ball line when I came across this 1931 newspaper article. In it, Emeline Blair (Connor) Woodley (1851-1939), daughter of Oregon Trail pioneers, was interviewed by Fred Lockley of the Oregon Journal. Information about Isaac Ball was revealed in the interview. This family has a slew of scions!

Emeline is a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers William Bradford, Richard Warren, Edward Doty, and Isaac Allerton. Her sister married Isaac Ball’s grandson (see more below).

This article reads:

Issac Ball was born in England in 1812. He was one of a family of 12 children. He came to the United States in 1833, working in a brickyard near Albany, N. Y., and from there moving to New Orleans. Later he lived for a while in Wisconsin and still later in Illinois. In 1838 he married Abigail Howland. They moved to Missouri in 1840 and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1848. Mr. Ball served as county commissioner of Polk County for some time.

A son born to Isaac and Abigail, William Henry Ball (1838-1873), married Mary H. Fawk (1844-1905). Their son, James Isaac Ball (1860-1904), married Jerusha Buell Connor (1861-1903), sister to Emeline. The couple had children and left descendants.

Below is lineage for Jerusha and her sister Emeline.

Lineage:

• Richard Warren and Elizabeth Walker
• Joseph Warren and Pricilla Faunce
• Mercy Warren and John Bradford, grandson of Mayflower passenger William Bradford
• Mercy Bradford and Isaac Cushman, great grandson of Mayflower passenger Isaac Allerton
• Pricilla Cushman and Israel Holmes, great grandson of Mayflower passenger Edward Doty
• Samuel Holmes Buell and Jerusha Griswold
• Elias Buell and Sarah Hammond
• Elizabeth Buell and Nathan Connor
• Jerusha Buell Connor and Emeline Blair Connor

Here is a photo of Jerusha and Emeline’s grandparents Elias Buell (1797-1891) and his wife Sarah (Hammond) Buell (1800-1885), daughter of Robert Lot and Elizabeth (Davis) Hammond. Elias was the founder of Buell, Oregon, located in Polk County about 8 miles south of Sheridan.

Here’s some more from the interview of Emeline Blair (Connor) Woodley printed in the Oregon Journal, and I added some photos and more genealogy.

This article reads:

I [Emeline] was born in Polk County on March 16, 1851.

My father, Nathan Connor [(1821-1888), son of Robert Earl Connor (1792 -1862) and Nancy Ann (Maxon) Connor (1791-1841), and husband of Elizabeth Buell], was born in Virginia, July 16, 1821.

My father and mother [Elizabeth (Buell) Connor] had two children when they started across the plains in 1847. My mother’s father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Elias Buell, and her mother’s brother and six of her sisters and an uncle were in the same wagon train.

Below are photographs of two family members who made the journey across the plains.

Here is Melissa (Buell) (Hinshaw) (Van Horn) Conlee (1831-1923), who married pioneer Isaac Hinshaw on 1 January 1850. Thirteen children were born to this marriage. After Isaac’s death in 1873, she married 2nd Isaac Van Horn and 3rd James Reuben Conlee.

Here is Samuel Buell (1811-1886), brother of Elias Buell, and his wife Mary (Seward) Buell (1814-1884), daughter of Philip and Esther (Scofield) Seward. Six children were born to this marriage.

My brother, Joseph Kirk Connor, who was born at Vancouver on March 5, 1848, is at the Odd Fellows home here in Portland. My sister, Caroline, who married Noah Gregg, lives at Ballston. My brother Elias, who was named for my mother’s father, Elias Buell, lives in Oklahoma.

My father took up a donation land claim two miles west of Ballston. I went to school at the schoolhouse 2 ½ miles west of our place. I attended one term of school each year from the time I was 7 until I was 15. No, I didn’t go after that because I got married and I had to take care of my home.

I married Ben Hosbrook. We had three children, two of whom are living. After Ben died I married Homer Adkins of Kansas. We had four children, two of whom are living. I moved back to Kansas with him, where I lived for some years. I married my last husband, Thomas Woodley, in 1899. He was a widower, but his children were all grown and lived back East. With the exception of the few years I spent in Kansas I have lived all my life, so far, in Polk County, Yamhill County, and here in Portland.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Related Article:

• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 44 (part 1)