Eli Ward Family

Eli Ward was born on April 30, 1802, in Massachusetts. He married Aurilla, born July 10, 1801, in Vermont.

They had the following chilren: Ira Ward born June 17, 1828; Isaac Ward born November 15, 1829; Lucy M. Ward born September 10, 1831; Maranda Ward and Marvin Ward, twins, born on August 17, 1833; Samuel Ward born October 20, 1835; Mary Ward born May 17, 1838; Hannah Ward born August 17, 1840; Sarah Ward born March 2, 1842; Eli Ward born April 22, 1844; and Aurilla Ward born March 24, 1847.

Miranda Ward married David Edwards, son of the Ohio Hunter, Samuel E. Edwards. They had a son Owen Wilson Edwards and Miranda died when he was a few months old. As was the rule in those days, some member of the family would step in to help with the work. Mary Ward, Miranda's sister, stepped in to help, and later married David Edwards. She raised Owen Wilson, Wilson as he was called, and then had two sons of her own, Samuel Warren and Squire Edwards. Squire died while a young man in a fire. Mary Alice was born on April 15, 1874. Mary Alice Edwards married Ellis Rayle. See the Edwards history in this book, and the Rayle history.

Albert Ward, son of Marvin Ward, married Lavina Sturdevant. She was the daughter of Philo Sturdevant, an early settler of Harrison Township. Albert and Lavina had a family of daughters, and finally, a son, Albert, Jr.

Ab, as he was called, was a cousin to Mary Alice Edwards Rayle, and the families visited back and forth the Rayle home in Benzie County and Boone, Michigan, where the Wards lived, until the death of Mary Alice in 1927.

Ab Ward used to joke that the Lord owed him a grudge, and paid him off in sons-in-law!

In 1936, Ellis Rayle married, as his second wife, Ketora Ward Michaels. She was the widow of William Michaels and had raised a large family. She had one son, named Philo, after his great-grandfather Sturdevant. Orley Sturdevant was right when he said in Volume One that Philo's descendants are scattered to the four winds.

Albert Ward and Warren Edwards went to Michigan in the 1880's. They kept their families in Clam River, now Cadillac, Michigan, while they worked in the lumber camp.

Warren must have taken after his grandfather, Samuel E. Edwards, the Ohio Hunter, because he started shooting deer to feed the lumberjacks. One Saturday night, late in winter, he and his cousin started in to see their families. They came onto fresh deer tracks and Warren, being more interested in the extra money, went back to camp to get his rifle. This episode ended his selling deer meat, as they were kept in yards and fed cedar browse — making the meat unpalatable to the lumberjacks.

Submitted by: Lynn Rayle