|
George Ulmer, (believed to be the Son of Jacob Ulmer, b. 1758), was born, Nov 27, 1789 in Kentucky. The Kentucky location is from information he provided for the various U.S. Census Records. He married Elizabeth Wardell March 26, 1815 per Indiana Marriage Records. He died Jan 5, 1863 in Scott County, Indiana. He is buried in Vienna Twp., Estil Cemetery, Scott County, Indiana. We have good information on where Jacob & George Ulmer and other family members lived in Scott County, Indiana in the 1815 to 1863 time period. (Check in this website, under Jacob Ulmer's information, for a map showing where various family members lived.) Prior to1815, we do not have exact family locations for Jacob's family, but we do have a lot of circumstantial evidence for the general areas where his family may have lived. Tracing back in time from the 1820 Census, we find, George, his father (believed to be Jacob Ulmer), and other members of his family living in the Vienna, Scott Co., Indiana area. Many of the referenced documents used to compile this record of the Ulmer family indicate the birth of some of Jacob Ulmer's children to have been in Ohio, others in Kentucky. Records for this time period are scarce and mainly consist of tax, militia, and land records. This frontier area was remote and many families, like Jacob's, moved west of the Appalachian Mountains, and stayed a few years in one location and moved on. Many settlers never bothered with trying to establish land ownership. Some just "squatted" and when the land ownership was contested, they simply moved to another unoccupied piece of land. This tendency to move plus the natural scarcity of records in the pioneer communities makes it difficult to trace people with certainty, without direct references in history books, Bibles, diaries, tax records, land records or letters, which we do not have or at least have not discovered, yet. Some of the scarcity of records might be attributable to being remote from government centers. Other reasons might be the various Indian troubles, the War of 1812, the Civil War and natural disasters, like fires, etc. According to some historical accounts of the time period (1783-1785), of Jacob's most likely move to the area west of the Appalachians, the principal migration route from the Shenandoah Valley and Pennsylvania and other Eastern Colonies/States was down the Great Valley Road, from Winchester, VA to the area of where Roanoke, VA is today, and then down the Wilderness Road to the Cumberland Gap, and then into the Kentucky region via a historical Indian Trail, known as the Great Warrior's Path. The alternate path, when you look at a map of the U.S. today, would be west over the mountains from Virginia and then down the Ohio River. According to early accounts of travel patterns, this path was not favored, due to travel difficulties and Indian troubles, during this time period. When Jacob moved from the Winchester/Shenandoah Valley, VA area sometime after 1783, where we find him in 1783 tax roles, and where he served in the Revolutionary War Army per his pension request, the Cumberland Gap was not accessible by wagon. Per the 1783 tax records in the Shenandoah Valley, we find that Jacob owned many horses. We do not know if he raised and sold horses or if he used his horses to haul freight, but the horses would have been valuable in the move over the Cumberland Gap, which was only assessable with pack animals or on foot, at the time of his move. Present day Winchester, KY, near Lexington, KY, was settled by immigrants from Winchester, VA, who traveled through the Gap. They named the new town after their formal home town. The historical report of these settlers moving from Winchester, VA to the area that became Winchester, KY is the circumstantial evidence, that leads us to believe that Jacob moved from the Shenandoah Valley (Winchester, VA) area to the Winchester, KY area. Further reinforcement to this theory is that George Ludwig (Lewis) Ulmer, Jacob's father, Will was written in Winchester in 1792 per Richard Elliott James, who inherited the Will and an old family German Bible that contain some early family records. Until the discovery of the two towns named Winchester, mentioned above, we assumed the will was written in Winchester, VA. We have been baffled by how Jacob Ulmer could have known about his father's Will when it was written several years after he left the Winchester, VA area. It now seems likely that the Will was not written in Winchester, VA, but was written in Winchester, KY, instead. This would explain how Ludwig/Lewis would have known about his "three year old grandson, George", mentioned in the Will, because Ludwig/Lewis was likely living with Jacob's family or at least near them, in Kentucky, instead of staying back in Winchester, VA, as we had previously thought. However, we have found no records of the Ulmer name in this time frame in Kentucky. Investigations of tax records, militia records and land records have produced no mention of the Ulmer name, at least to the date of the revision to this essay (Dec, 2008). Jacob stated he was born in Winchester, VA in his Revolutionary War Pension request. We now think that by the time George was born, in 1789, that Jacob, and his father, George Ludwig Ulmer, were living in or near where Winchester, KY was founded in 1792, by early settlers that were from the Winchester, Virginia area. This is based on historical accounts of the town's settlement and naming. Therefore; our present known information, (based on this "sketchy" historical information), leads us to believe that George Ulmer, born in 1789, was likely born near where present day Winchester, KY is today. Remember, George's census records list George's birthplace as Kentucky. The date of the will suggests that George Ludwig (Lewis) Ulmer, grandfather of George Ulmer, could have died in or near Winchester, KY. In the past we had thought George Ludwig Ulmer had died in Winchester, VA.. We believe he died in 1793, and that Jacob's family moved to Ohio shortly after that, maybe for the following reason. In this same time frame Daniel Boone (his village of Boonesborough was south of Winchester, KY) was having serious land troubles that plagued him for most of the rest of his life. Several parcels of land that Daniel sold were challenged relative to his ownership at the time of the sale. Daniel was not the only settler to have ownership problems, according to accounts of the period. Several Kentucky settlers, involved in ownership issues, moved to newly opened land in Ohio. Since Jacob said he lived in Ohio, in his Revolutionary War Pension Request, and since Richard Elliott James said his ancestor Barbara Ann Ulmer was born in Oho in 1813 per records in his possession, we think Jacob lived most likely in the southwestern part of Ohio within 100 to 150 miles from where he settled later in Indiana. Further evidence for the move to Ohio is provided by Richard Elliott James documents. Richard reports that he inherited a Bible, printed in German, which he thinks could be a Bible of Jacob's, or one of his direct descendants. Richard is related to Jacob Ulmer, by being a descendant of William Ulmer, born 1787. William was an older brother to George Ulmer (the subject of this article). That Bible has entries in it pertaining to the births and deaths of some of the people mentioned in this article. It is possible that the Bible was Jacob's, and it was passed down to his granddaughter, Barbara Anne (Ulmer) Wolf (or Wolfe); the daughter of William Ulmer. Barbara Anne Ulmer was born in Ohio, Oct.13, 1813. Her father would have been 26 at the time she was born. The Bible also indicates Mathida, Jacob's wife as having died in 1809. It also mentions the death of another son of Jacob named John. By 1815 there is recorded proof of the marriage of George Ulmer, William's younger brother, to Elizabeth Wardell in Clark County, Indiana. After 1815, records exist, that include Jacob, and also his children, living in Clark, County, Indiana and the later Scott County, Indiana, which was partially formed from Clark County. All the above mentioned information, and more clues indicate the birth of another child that was born in Ohio (Jacob's last born), that was also named John. John was born in about 1809, the year his mother died. The same name coincidence of the two "John"s supports the belief that the later John was a son of Jacob and Matilda, because of the tradition of German families naming the next born child, after the death of another, the same as the deceased child. Matilda likely died giving birth to the later John in 1809. This John has a long descendant line. He migrated from Scott County, Indiana to the northeastern part of Arkansas. This is where he and many of his family's line are buried, and some still live today.
When George Ulmer, and others of his family lived in the Scott County
area, they lived a few miles north of Vienna. They actually lived
almost in present day Scottsburg, Indiana. However, the town of
Scottsburg was not formed until 1870. Up until that time Vienna was
used for a reference point for those living in that area of the
county. In 1833, the Indiana Gazetteer, a newspaper, mentions Vienna
as having a tavern, a post office, and about 50 inhabitants. A photo
of the kind of a house built in the time period that George and
Elizabeth lived around Vienna, 1839, can be viewed on this site When doing research on George and others in his family, I found that earlier census indicate that he was in the Vienna, Indiana area. Later information shows Scottsburg, Indiana. Records also show that he was in Clark County, and later in Scott County. All this would appear as if he moved during this time period covered. But Scott County's boundaries were changed in 1820, and part of Clark County was taken to form the new Scott County. Also the town of Scottsburg was not there till after 1870. George did not move, the county lines changed, and a new town (Scottsburg) was formed right next to the land he owned. Today, part of the land he owned is in the town limits, on the east side.
A map showing the location of George's land, and his son, Thomas's
land, can be viewed on another page.
A photo of George's headstone is available here
A copy of the probate records of George's Estate available Elizabeth Wardell was born, July 4, 1792 in Virginia. She married George Ulmer, March 26, 1815, in Clark Co., (in an area of the county that later became part of Scott Co., Indiana.) She died, December 1, 1870 in Scott County, Indiana. At the time of her death, she was most likely living with her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and John Wesley Clark, in Scott Co., Indiana. The 1870 census indicates her living there then. Mary and John Wesley Clark are buried in Zoah Church Cemetery. It is assumed that Elizabeth is buried near her husband, George Ulmer, in Estil Cemetery, Scott Co., Indiana. George Ulmer, her husband, died in 1863, see his info above.
Her father most likely was Robert Fowler Wardell. (See
A photo of Robert Fowler Wardell's headstone is available here George and Elizabeth were married, 26 Mar. 1815, in Clark, Indiana. This area, that they lived in of Clark County, later was changed, it became part of the newly formed Scott County, of Indiana in 1820. George and Elizabeth were the parents of Thomas G. Ulmer.
For a list of all the children of George and Elizabeth
click |
