Keturah Ellen Vrooman
ID # 1626, (1852-)
| Father | Adam Vrooman (1828-1864) |
| Mother | Elizabeth Jane Bartlett (1832-1865) |
| Birth | Keturah Ellen Vrooman was born on 8 November 1852 at Rush Twp., Jo Daviess Co., Illinois. |
| Marriage | She married John Davenport. |
| Note | On a form entitled Declaration of Minor Children for Pension dated January 4, 1866, Andrew Simmons, of the town of Nora, age 46, guardian of Keturah Ellen Vrooman, makes application for Adam's Civil War pension on behalf of Keturah. The process apparently went on to November of the same year when a deposition was filed by family friends, Wm H. Burbridge and Edmond Tefft who testified to their long acquaintance with Adam and Elizabeth to a time predating their marriage. The paperwork states that Keturah was born on 8 November, 1852, and that her mother, Elizabeth, died 24th September, 1865. (Elsewhere on the paperwork, Elizabeth's death is dated as the 23rd September, 1865.) The paperwork clearly states that Adam and Elizabeth had but one child living. Andrew Simmons makes application to be Elizabeth's estate administrator on February 2, 1866, at Jo Daviess County. This document provides Keturah's middle name as Ellen. We must believe that Keturah Ellen Vrooman remained with Andrew Simmons and his wife Elizabeth at least for a time, but, by guesswork, it seemed at least possible that by the time of the 1870 census Ellen (by this time she had ceased to use the name Keturah) age 17 was the wife of John Davenport, age 19, farm labour, and that they were enumerated in Rush, Jo Daviess County, on 18 August 1870. The census shows them as married in the previous December. John is shown as 'working on a farm.' He is also shown as having real estate valued at 3,000.00 and a personal estate worth 650.00. This may represent Ellen's inheritance. We are taken past coincidence, however, when we find Ellen and John Davenport in Graham Township, Graham County, Kansas, in the 1880 census. There, they are enumerated in the household immediately preceding that of A.B. Vrooman and his wife Serena. Abraham Bolton Vrooman was Ellen's uncle. With Ellen and John are sons William, age 9, born Illinois, and Elmer, age 3, born Iowa. It should be said that Ellen shows her father as being born in Ontario. As we may now safely identify her as the daughter of Adam Vrooman, son of George Laws Vrooman, this will be correct. Find-a-Grave presents us with an undated gravestone for Ellen (Davenport, it is claimed, though this is not evident on the photo) in Nicodemus Cemetery in Graham County, Kansas. Meager evidence suggests that the John Davenport who appears in Delta County, Colorado, with wife Cora in the 1900 and 1910 census is Ellen's husband. An Elmer Davenport appears in another household as the same page as John in 1900. Cora's maiden name was Short, but she was a widow by the name of David when she married John Davenport. That John Davenport of Delta County, Colorado, was the husband of Keturah Ellen Vrooman, isn't proven, but does now seem likely. |
Children of Keturah Ellen Vrooman and John Davenport |
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| Last Edited | 22 Mar 2018 |