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Note: Walker family Bible entry reads
"John Walker and Eliza Ann Tetwiler was married this 16th day of February, 1844, by Henry Flu[rs)? Esq. of Bedford County, Penn."
The Walker family Bible marriage entry shows her name as Eliza Ann Tetwiler The census almost always records her as Eliza A. except for 1850 where she is Elisa.
The 2nd Bible entry for births reads "Eliza Ann Walker was born April the 22nd day A.D. 1823"
Her maiden name could also have been spelled Tetwiler/Tetweiler/Detwiler/Detweiler.
We have only the family Bible as a source for the Tetwiler spelling
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Here are various other people of that surname I ran across in the vicinity any of which might be related but there is no way to be certain without further research.
There was a family of a Joseph Detwiler, 29, in the Clay Township census of 1860 and also in the 1870 Crowmwell(Orbisonia PO) census pg 565-B (there he is 44?). This could have been a younger brother of Eliza's.
Also in 1860 a Christian Detwiler (Female), 36, with 5 children ages 4 through 17, the 1860 census does not show marital status, she had no occ listed, and had a fairly valuable amount of real estate and property.
1850 census Bedford County, Middle Woodbury Township has a Jacob Detwiler, 30, farmer; wife, Liddy, 29; children John,4; Mary,3; Susan,2; Levi,4/12. This might have been an older brother of Eliza. But there were large numbers of Detwilers in many nearby counties of PA in 1850 so it is impossible to make any connection.
Also the 1860 Census for Bedford County, South Woodbury Township includes a Jacob Tetwiler, 66, cooper; wife Sarah, 55; and next door a Wm. Tetwiler, 25, day laborer; wife Mary,23; son Wm.T., 2; sister? Caroline, 19, house maid.
In the 1850 census of South Woodbury, they are listed as Jacob Detwiler,56,cooper; Sarah;45;with children Henry,11; Jacob,9;Reba (or maybe Rebecca), 7. Nearby in 1850 living with another family was a Christian(?) Detwiler,(female), 20. No sign of William in 1850
This is another good bet to be Eliza's parents and a younger brother and sister.
There is also another family Samuel Tetwiler,38, further on in that census (pg 613). That is the same age as Eliza in 1860 but Eliza was enumerated in Huntingdon Co in October and the South Woodbury census was enumerated in June, so if this is another brother they were apparently about a year apart in age. No sign of Sanuel in the 1850 So. Woodbury census.
Obviously the spelling Detwiler/Tetwiler depended on how the enumerator thought the name should be spelled.
In census indices, the problem is sometimes compounded by transcription misinterpretations
In 1790 in PA the spellings are Detwaller, Detweiler and Detwiler.
In 1800 in PA the spellings are Detweiler, Detweler, Detwiler, Detwiller
In 1810 in PA the spellings are Detweiler, Detwiler, and Tetwiler
In 1820 in PA the spellings are Detweiler, Detweler, Detwelier, Detwerler, Detwiler, Detwiller, Detwitter, Tetwiler
In many of the above cases, the same individual is spelled differently from one census to the next
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1850 US Census, South Woodbury Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, page 213-B, Dwelling #41, Family #42, ancestry.com image #4 of 26, enumerated October 15, 1850.
John Walker, head, age 41(or40)!, occ: laborer, born in PA
Elisa(sic),(wife), age 38, born in PA
Hannah, (daughter), age 10, born in PA
Jacob, (son), age 7, born in PA
Joseph, (son), age 5, born in PA
Sarah, (daughter), age 3, born in PA
John W.,(son) age 1, born in PA
(John's age is way off here he must have been about 55, and Eliza must have been 28 not 38, son John W. apparently died in childhood because he does not appear in the 1860 census. Ages of the children are all a bit off as well. This enumerator did not mark the column for "attended school" for anyone on this page, but did mark that column on other pages.
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1860 US Census, Clay Township (Post Office : Shirleysburg), Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, page 44 (stamped 164), dwelling #305, Family # 297, Roll 1115, Book 1, genealogy.com image #26 of 27 for Clay Twp), enumerated October 27, 1860.
John Walker, (head), age 65, real estate $150, personal property $300, occ: blank, born in PA
Eliza A., (wife), age 38, born in PA
Jacob, (son), age 15, born in PA, attended school
Sarah A., (daughter), age 15, born in PA, attended school
Joseph, (son), age 14, born in PA, attended school
Charles A.(?), (son), age 10, born in PA, attended school
Henry A., (son), age 8, born in PA
Margaret, (daughter), age 5, born in PA
Barton D., (son), age 2, born in PA
Note: almost all the people in this Township were dittoed as born in PA which is a bit suspicious. No occupation was given for anyone in the family. Immediate neighbors were farmers, others in the immediate area were laborer, mill wright, shoemaker.
Barton D. is clearly the same child as the "Bartin" age 10 listed in 1870 but he should have been 12 there. Barton might actually be Bartin here but there is no clear dot over the letter i. He should have only been 11 months old here, not 2, but it is possible that the ages were supplied by a neighbor or one of the children.
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1870 US Census, Crowmwell Township, Post Office : Orbisonia, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, Roll 1349 Book 1, page 564-A, genealogy.com image # 13 of 30 for Cromwell Twp, Dwelling # 86, family # 90, enumerated Aug 22, 1870.
John Walker,(head), age 70, occ: laborer, value of real estate $50, value of personal estate $200, born in PA,
Eliza A.,(wife), age 47, occ: keeping house, born in PA, could not read or write,
Sarah A., (daughter), age 24, at home, born in PA, could not write,
Charles, (son), age 19, occ: laborer, born in PA,
Henry, (son), age 18, occ: laborer, born in PA,
Margaret, (daughter), age 14, at home, born in PA, attended school
Bartin, (son), age 10, at school, born in PA, attended school
David,(son), age 8, at school, born in PA, attended school,
Mary, (daughter?), age 3, born in PA,
Bertha E., (daughter?), age 1/12, born in PA, born in May
(Note: If John's age is correct here, he would have been born about 1800 not 1795 as the Bible states
Bartin is probably James B. D. Walker.
the 2 youngest girls, Mary and Bertha E. apparently died before 1880. There is no entry for either their births nor their deaths in the family Bible or they may have been granddaughters (parents unknown). The 1870 census did not record relationships. Eliza at 47 would have been a bit old to have had a 1 month old or even a 3 year old child.
The handwriting of this enumerator is quite neat and clear)
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1880 US Census, Orbisonia Town, Cromwell Twp, Huntingdon Co, PA. visit 28, family #32.
Eliza A. Walker, 57, widow, head, could not write
Sarah A. Walker, 34, daughter, single, could not write
Henry A. Walker, 27, son, single
James B. Walker, 20, son, single
David C. Walker, 18, son, single
Lilly M. Walker, 9 granddaughter [it is unknown who her parents were]
unnamed Walker, 8 months, born in Oct 1879, grandson, [parents unknown]
none of the above people had any listed occupation,
all were shown as born in PA with both parents also born in PA
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Note: The blank occupations and the PA birth locations for all and the lack of a name for the baby make me suspect that the data was supplied by a neighbor or by Lilly and that the missing (or incorrect) data was unknown to them.
family lore says that Eliza(beth) Walker's deceased husband John was born in England, but many of their children's later census entries say both parents were born in Pennsylvania. It seems to be common for there to be errors in the parents' birthplaces especially if they had died long ago and the details were being supplied by an in-law who may have never known the person.
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The granddaughter Lilly M. and the unnamed grandson are a puzzle. Since all the males listed in the household in 1880 were shown as single, we assume none of them was the father. Ditto for unmarried Sarah.
The other possible parents would have been :
1) Joseph Walker and his wife Rebecca, but we had no information about any children in their family and Joe lived to an old age, so they are not likely unless Rebecca had recently died. (We don't know where they were living)
2) Charles Walker and his wife Phoebe,
1900 census shows that Phoebe had had 4 children, with 2 living, Amanda and Wesley, and they had a grandchild living with them named William E. Walker who had been born in 1895. That child's father was not shown in the 1880 census, only Amanda was shown, but if he had been born after 1880, he would have been rather young (abt 14) to have been siring a son if he had been born after 1880, so we now suspect that the 8 month old unnamed grandson listed with Eliza in 1880 was the son of Charles and Phebe.
Lilly could also have been Charles and Phoebe's daughter. But if so it seems odd that the 9 year old and the 8 month old were living with the grandmother but the 3 year old was living with Charles and Phoebe ?
The mysterious 9-year old granddaughter Lilly M. Walker and the unnamed grandson listed in the 1880 census may also possibly have been a child of one of the possible older children John may have had before he married Elizabeth ??? (See note on John)
If the census data had been supplied by a neighbor or by 9-year-old Lilly herself, it could be possible that Lilly and the grandson were not surnamed Walker. If so they could have been children of :
3) Amos Donelson and Hanna Walker, we have been unable to locate this family as yet.
4) Margaret Walker and an unknown husband, Margaret had died in 1872 though according to family data, so she could have been the mother of Lilly, but not of the 8 month old infant. (Also possible that Margaret was unmarried and had died in childbirth)
5) the grandson might have been the son of Jacob Walker and Hannah, the grandmother and other uncles and aunt Sarah might have been caring for the baby if Jacob had just recently died since Hannah already had 5 children from age 3 to 13 to look out for by herself. If Lilly was also Jacob and Hannah's child it is unclear why she alone among the older children would have been living with her grandmother.
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