Jennings Family

Jacob Smith Jennings was born about 1793 in New Jersey. His parents were natives of England. They came to Ohio when Jacob was a child and settled in Warren County, Ohio.

Jacob married Osea Blackford, a native of Warren County and then went to Seneca County, Ohio and entered land. He entered a farm in Henry County for each of his sons later. Jacob died of cancer in February, 1857 at the age of sixty four years, and is buried in Seneca County. Osea Blackford was the daughter of Ephriam Blackford, a native of Virginia, who lived in Kentucky before coming to Warren County, Ohio, in 1796. Osea was born in 1799 and died on August 3, 1876 at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Laura Miley, Wauseon, Ohio. Osea was a member of the United Brethren Church. Jacob was a Whig in politics, and a member of the United Brethren Church.

Ephriam Blackford settled in Clear Creek Township, Warren County, Ohio and is buried in Clear Creek Cemetery near Ridgeville, Warren County. He raised a family of six sons and four daughters, of which seven settled in Indiana and three in Ohio.

Jacob and Osea Blackford Jennings had seven sons and six daughters as follows: John M. Jennings; George Newton Jennings, born November 21, 1821, married Sarah Jane Morrison and resided in Liberty Township; Milton Jennings, born 1826, married Mary Jane Davidson, and lived in Damascus Township; Ethan A. Jennings; Jackson Jennings; Justin Jennings, born 1828, married Catherine Powell and lived in Damascus Township; Barkley Jennings; Martha Jane Jennings married John Wesley Meyers, and Mary Am.m Jennings, twin to Martha, married Ebenezer Wolfe and lived in Damascus Township; Sarah Ellen Jennings married in October, 1857 to Shepherd Cowdrey Harmon and lived in Harrison Township; Laura A. Jennings, born 1836, married Henry Miley, lived near Wauseon, Ohio; Cynthia Jennings, born 1838, married Benjamin Reeme, lived in Seneca County; and Susan Jennings, married Mr. Monson, lived at Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio.

George Newton Jennings was born on November 21, 1821 in Warren County, Ohio. He married Sarah Jane Morrison on November 30, 1850. Sarah was born on July 26, 1830 in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

George Newton Jennings was a farmer and in 1840, came to Liberty Center and entered a claim for a homestead of 160 acres in Section 21, Liberty Township. In 1852, George and Sarah came to Henry County in a covered wagon, drawn by oxen, with two young daughters and settled on their homestead. Their homestead was a wilderness with the low ground undrained. Much of it was covered by water a great part of the year, while heavy timber blocked the way to cultivation. They built a log cabin so rudely constructed they could look up through the roof and see the stars as they lay in bed at night. Later this home was replaced with a frame house built of choice timber. The house had eight rooms. It is occupied today by the Wallace Badenhop family.

George and his wife had five children. He was a Republican and at one time a township trustee. After retirement from the farm, they spent their last years in Liberty Center where George died on April 22, 1894 and Sarah died on April 12, 1907. They were members of Liberty Chapel United Brethren Church and are buried in Morrison Cemetery, west of Liberty Center, Ohio.

Parents of Sarah Jane Morrison Jennings, John H. and Charlotte Morrison, were natives of Chester County, Pennsylvania where they were married. They came to Seneca County, Ohio in 1837 and remained there the rest of their lives. They were the parents of seven children. Rachel

Ann, born October 10, 1823, married on December 7, 1843 to Henry Davidson and had six children, Mary A., Arthur J., Henry C., George W., and an infant, deceased young. Sarah Jane Morrison was born on July 26, 1830 and married George N. Jennings and had five children, Alice Adelia, Florence Emily, Cyrus Bricker, Sylvia Caroline, and Alfred Bennet. John N. Morrison, born 1834, married Ann Matilda Grinder and had Carlotta, and George who married Minnie Hahn, parents of Mable Hardy, Clayton Morrison, Helen Johnston and Josephine Dodd. George G. Morrison, born 1838. Josiah W. Morrison, born 1846. James A. Morrison, born 1848.

John H. Morrison, the father, born 1802 died on November 17, 1857. Charlotte Morrison, his wife, was born 1808 and died on August 16, 1883. They are buried in Seneca County, Ohio.

Alice Adelia Jennings, daughter of George Newton and Sarah Jane Morrison Jennings, was born on May 25, 1851 and died in 1919. She married Arthur Davidson and lived in York Township, Fulton County, Ohio. THey had a son, Byron Davidson, who married Cora Gray.

Florence Emily Jennings was born on February 24, 1853, and died on September 20, 1877, unmarried.

Cyrus Bricker Jennings was born on December 12, 1854 and married Electa Leist and resided in Liberty Township, then Long Beach, California. Their issue were Arthur Jennings who married Eva Metzger and resided in Clyde, Ohio, and had four children, Thelma, Kenneth, Pauline and Doyle Jennings. Pearl Jennings married Fred Whitman, resided in Liberty Township, later in Long Beach, California, and had one son, Weldon Jennings, father of Kurt Jennings. Sylvia Caroline Jennings, born January 9, 1859, married David Leist, lived in Liberty Township and had a son, Frank Leist, who married Virgie Whitmer. Beryl Leist married Guy Gilson and had three sons, Delmar, Selwin, and Leo. Hazel married Ed Segrist and had a daughter, Genevieve. Aletha married Howard Segrist and had daughters Treva and Corabel. Alfred Bennet Jennings was born on May 24, 1865 and died on October 18, 1948, married Melissa Catherine Leist and lived in Liberty Township. They had a daughter that died in infancy; Florence Oneta Jennings married John Matthias Gramling: Nellie O. Jennings married Lewis Shoemaker.

Alfred Bennet Jennings was born on the homestead in Liberty Township. He was united in marriage with Melissa Leist. Melissa was born on January 7, 1864, and was the daughter of William Leist, Jr., and Mary Ann Hartman Leist who were natives of Fairfield and Pickaway Counties and early settlers of Henry and Fulton Counties. Alfred and Melissa were married on November 28, 1886.

Mary Ann Leist was the daughter of John and Catherine Winters Hartman who immigrated to America in 1831 from Wurtemburg, Germany, with a family of three children and settled near Wauseon, Fulton County. They are buried in Ruppert Cemetery in York Township. They were the parents of eleven children including John, Barbara, Martin, Mary Ann, first to be born in Ohio, Daniel, Rebecca, Jacob, a Civil War soldier, William, and Catherine.

Alfred and Melissa Leist Jennings had three daughters, one died in infancy.

Florence Oneta Jennings was born on May 13, 1888 and died on July 27, 1962. She married John Matthias Gramling of Washington Township on Thanksgiving Day November 30, 1911. Their children were Ruth Oneta Gramling, born December 13, 1917, married first to Cecil Strock, then divorced, and married second, Albert Bristol, and lives in Toledo. Glenn Alfred Gramling was born on May 29, 1919 and married Ruth Arlene Ziegler and lives in Liberty Township. Nina Mae Gramling was born on February 27, 1921 and married Robert Travis and lives in York Township, Fulton County. Harry Jennings Gramling was born on December 11, 1924, and married Rowena Imogene Fraizer and lives in Washington Township. Phyllis Eileen Gramling was born on January 15, 1929 and married Billy Lee Sharpe and lives in Liberty Township.

Nellie Opal Jennings was born on August 6, 1898 and married Lewis Shoemaker, now deceased. Nellie lives in Dunkirk, Ohio. Her children were Grace Shoemaker, unmarried, a school teacher in Hardin County, lives with her mother. Robert Shoemaker, is a music teacher in Anthony Wayne Schools, is married and lives in Bowling Green, Ohio.

After the death of his first wife, Melissa, Alfred Jennings married Sophia Segrist, daughter of William Segrist. Alfred spent most of his life on the farm where he was born, retiring to Liberty Center a short time before his death on October 18, 1948. Alfred and Melissa were members of Liberty Chapel United Brethren Church and are buried in Young Cemetery, Liberty Center, Ohio.

Melissa Catherine Leist Jennings was born in Liberty Township on January 7, 1864, and died on May 15, 1920 after returning from a winter spent in California. She was the fourth child of William Leist, Jr. and Mary Ann Hartman Leist, and had three older sisters and a younger brother. Electa Leist, born 1856, married Cyrus Bricker Jennings, a brother of Alfred Jennings. Their children were Pearl, who married Fred Whiteman, and Arthur Jennings, who married Eva Metzger. Martha Leist, born 1858, married Jasper Shaw and had a step-daughter, Nora Shaw Pontious. Marietta Leist, born 1859, married Watson Davidson, had son, L. Erle Davidson, and a daughter, Inez, who married Charles Reisz. Hubert Leist, born 1859, married Bertha Whiteman, had a daughter, Bernice, who married Howard Roberts. Bernice married a second time to William Abbey and had a daughter, Joyce Abbey, who married Richard Myers. After the death of William Abbey, Bernice married Oliver Blue.

Melissa's father, William Leist, Jr., and her grandparents, William Leist, Sr. and Sarah Nye Leist, came to Henry County, about 1850, from Circleville, Ohio. William Leist also had two daughters: Sarah Leist married Larkin Linthicum whose son, Lewis Linthicum, was the father of Albert Linthicum and Mary Linthicum Silveus.

Elnora Liest, daughter of William Leist, Sr., married Joseph Fink who was the first preacher of the Liberty Chapel United Brethren Church. The church was built in 1854.

William Leist, Sr., was the son of David Leist, born 1774, and Cathryn Spade Leist who came to Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1805 from Berks County, Pennsylvania. David's father, Andrew Leist, born 1755, was a Revolutionary War Soldier.

Submitted by: Robert E. Travis