Elmore genealogy

ELMORE FAMILY TREE Written by my father, William Cronk Elmore

1. EDWARD ELMER (ca. 1610-1676) = Mary ---?---
John (1646-1711); Samuel; Edward (1654-1725); Joseph (1656-1657)
Mary (1658-1720); Elizabeth (1649- ?); Sarah (1664-1758)

2. SAMUEL ELMER (1647-1691) = ---?---
Samuel (1677-1759); Edward; Jonathan; Daniel (1689-1755); others?

3. JONATHAN ELMER (1685-1758) = ---?--- (m. ca. 1704)
Eliakim; Martin (1705-1778); (Col.) Samuel (Elmore); Jonathan (1727-1807); David; Daniel; Mary; Elizabeth; Abigail

4. DAVID ELMER or ELMORE (ca. 1725-1784) = Gemima Curtis (?-1784) (m. 1748)
David; Thaddeus; Jonathan D. (1763-1884); Eliakim (1764-1834);
William Curtis (b. 1769); Sally Gemima; Mary; Abba; Beth; Bille

5. THADDEUS ELMORE (1752-1807) = Elizabeth Waldo (1754-1842)  (m. 1775)
James; Elizabeth; Talitha; Zaccheus Waldo; John; Thaddeus Jr.; William R.

6. JAMES ELMORE (1775-1836) = Lydia Percival (1779 -1852) (m.1800)
David; Eliza Ann (1805-1884)

7. DAVID ELMORE (1801-1884) = Charlotte Rose (1802-1888)  (m. 1825)
Thaddeus Waldo; James Percival (1830-1852)

8. THADDEUS WALDO ELMORE (1837-1919) = Meriba Updike (1843-1917)  (m. 1864)
Emily Rose (1867-1957); May Terry (1869-1957); Thaddeus Percival;
Henry Terry (1878-1978)

9. THADDEUS PERCIVAL ELMORE (1871-1917) = Grace Cronk (1878-1972)  (m. 1899)
Mary (1902-1907); William Cronk; Eleanor (1912-2010)

10. WILLIAM CRONK ELMORE (1909-2003) = Barbara Page (1917-2003) (m. 1936)
Mary-Leigh (1939- ); David; Elizabeth (1947- ); (Barbara) Page (1959- )

11. DAVID ELMORE (1945- ) = Janet Louise Fox (1949- )  (m. 1968)
Andrew James (1974- ); Steven Brice (1977- ); Amanda Grace (1991- ); Emily Louise (1993-)

 

ELMORE HISTORICAL NOTES

The historical notes compiled here by William C. Elmore are numbered to agree with the generation numbers starting with 1 for Edward Elmer, the first in America, and pertain to Elmer­ Elmore ancestors in a direct line back to Edward through his son Samuel. The notes for the first four generations have been adapted mostly from "Family Memorials" published in 1880 by Theo. J. Elmore, who was a direct 7th generation descendant of the 4th generation David Elmer, making him a 2nd cousin of David Elmore, my great grandfather. Family records and information supplied to my father by his father around 1915 have been used as a basis for notes pertaining to Thaddeus, James, David and Thaddeus Waldo. I have in my possession a number of papers, deeds, etc. that were in James Elmore's estate when it was settled by his son David in 1836, and have been in the family since then.

1. EDWARD ELMER (Edward Ellmer on the passenger list) came to America in the ship "Lion", which departed the Port of London on June 22, 1632 with Captain Mason master and arrived in Boston on September 16, 1632 (on September 11 in another account.) Edward was one of 47 who comprised the church of Rev. Thomas Hooker. He came from Braintree, county Essex, and probably was born around 1610. He first settled in Newton, now Cambridge, MA, but in 1636 was one of the company who went with Rev. Hooker at their head through the wilderness to the Connecticut River and settled Hartford, CT. Mrs. Hooker was carried in a litter and they drove a herd of 160 cattle for the sake of their milk and to stock a new settlement. Edward was one of the original proprietors of Hartford and lived on what is now Main Street, near the site of the North Church. In 1655, on the occurrence of the grand schism of the Hartford Church, he joined the settlers of Northampton, MA, and during that and the succeeding year, was one of the commissioners "to end small causes." He returned to Hartford in 1()6(), and soon purchased a large quantity of land on the Podunk river, east side of the Connecticut river, in what is now the town of South Windsor. He appears to have resided there until killed in 1676 by a straggling band of Indians during King Phillip's war. He was probably engaged in some kind of trade. His inventory, taken on June 6 and 7, 1676, is reported to be on file in the Probate office, Hartford. In value it amounted to a bit more than £102 in Hartford, and £417 in Podunk, and was distributed to his widow and children. John, his eldest son, and Edward, the youngest, appear to have lived in South Windsor.

2. SAMUEL ELMER, his second son, lived and died in Hartford, where he was buried in 1691. His estate was settled without the aid of the court.

3. JOHNATHAN ELMER resided in Wilton, then a part of Norwalk, CT. His name first appears in the town records of lands in 1712. In 1716, he was rated an inhabitant, and drawn as a grand juror. He conveyed land to Edward Elmer (a brother) in 1735. In 1733, he was a deacon in the church. In a history of Sharon, CT, by Gen. Chas. F. Sedgwick, it is stated that Deacon Jonathan Elmer came to Sharon from Norwalk in 1746, and resided there until his death in 1758. Several of Jonathan's children accompanied him to Sharon. One of them, Samuel, became a Colonel in the Revolutionary army. Col. Samuel Elmer adopted the spelling Elmore for his name, it having been so spelled in his commission, and he was also told by some British officers that Elmore was the way it was spelled in England. He appears to have persuaded some of his brothers, nephews and nieces to adopt this spelling. (About 1801Samuel moved to Vermont, where the town of Elmore was named after him, and presumably the mountain and state park bearing the name Elmore that appear on a map of the state.)

4. DAVID ELMORE was born about 1725, probably in Norwalk, CT, and afterwards went with his father to Sharon, CT. It is unlikely that he adopted the spelling Elmore at the time his brother Col. Samuel Elmer (Elmore) did, but it appears that his boys adopted the new spelling. David was a soldier in the revolutionary war. A granddaughter of David wrote to Theo. J. Elmore in 1880 that her grandfather's name was David Elmore, and that he had died tragically from an accident while felling a tree for firewood. It seems likely that this David Elmore was a brother of Thaddeus (5), a son of David (4). My father seemed to know that both David and his wife Gemima had died in a smallpox epidemic of 1784.

5. THADDEUS ELMORE was the second son of David, and a prosperous farmer in Canaan, NY. I have a map showing how his land in Canaan was divided among his seven children when his estate was settled in 1807. The map is among papers once belonging to his son James Elmore. Both my grandfather and father were named for Thaddeus.

6. JAMES ELMORE, his sister Elizabeth and brothers Zaccheus Waldo and Thaddeus Jr. moved from Canaan, NY to Sherburne, NY, in Chenango County, around 1800. Sherburne had been settled in the early 1790's, and celebrated its centennial on June 21. 1893. A souvenir volume of the celebration contains brief sketches of James, as well as mentioning his brothers and sister Elizabeth (who married Sylvester P. Scoville, another merchant in Sherburne). James married Lydia Percival in 1800, soon after getting established in Sherburne. Her father, also an early Sherburne settler, had been a soldier of the revolution. The souvenir volume refers to the "eminently respectable Elmores from Columbia County, NY". It states that James was of Sherburne as early as 1798; that he was the first merchant and Postmaster; and that he built the first frame house in Sherburne where he also kept an Inn. (The sign for the Inn has remained in the family, and at present is incorporated under glass in a small coffee table.) It is reported that an address honoring George Washington on his death in 1799 was delivered at the store of James Elmore. James was appointed Town Clerk in 1804, an office he held for fourteen years. In July 1914, my father and grandfather visited Sherburne by train, and visited the house built by James around 1798. Both David (7) and Thaddeus (8) were born there, and the present owner welcomed them with dinner. My grandfather found that he still knew a few residents of Sherburne that he had known as a boy.

7. DAVID ELMORE, the only son of James, was named after his great grandfather. He married Charlotte Rose in 1825, and was executor of his father's estate in 1836. He continued to live in the family homestead in Sherburne until he moved to Elmira, NY around 1850, where he bought a house at 109 West Chemung Place. (In the 1830's the Chenango Canal was built passing through Sherburne, connecting "the big ditch" at Utica with the Susquehanna River at Binghamton. David's household goods presumably went by this canal to Elmira ) In Elmira he immediately went into the crockery business with a cousin, under the name J. N. and D. Elmore. This firm was succeeded by David alone or for a time in a partnership of Dexter and Elmore, and later with his son (and my grandfather) Thaddeus Waldo, as successor. As a small boy, perhaps in 1914, I recall visiting what had been my grandfather Elmore's china store in Elmira, and being sternly warned by my mother not to touch anything. I now assume that this was the store first opened by David. I recall several visits and meals at the house on West Chemung Place where my grandmother and grandfather Elmore continued to live after David's death in 1884. At the time, Elmira was connected to Montour Falls by a dirt road (the present route 14), and a trip there in my grandfather's touring car, which had acetylene head lights and leather straps supporting the windshield, was a real experience.

8. THADDEUS WALDO ELMORE, my grandfather, was named for his great grandfather and great grandmother (5). When I knew him he had a rather severe spinal curvature. He retired from the crockery business in 1898, many years before I was old enough to recall a visit to 109 West Chemung Place. He was a life deacon in the Park Church in Elmira, and for many years a director of the Y.M.C.A. My grandparents celebrated their Golden Wedding on November 16, 1914, in the same house where his father and mother had also celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1875. My father and mother, baby sister Eleanor and I were present at the celebration, and my carefully drawn signature appears on the list of those present. The crockery business must have been sufficiently successful for his children to attend college.

9. THADDEUS PERCI VAL ELMORE, my father, was named for his father and his great grandmother. He was in the class of 1894 at Lehigh University, and obtained a degree in civil engineering. He then worked for a subsidiary of US Steel, and at the time of his death, early in the World War I influenza epidemic, he was staying in New York City, and was involved with the steel used in building subways. I never really knew my father well, or precisely what he did. At the time of his death my mother was keeping house for her father (my grandfather Cronk) in Montour Falls, NY, and periodically my father would come for a visit to Montour Falls by train, having reached Elmira by overnight sleeper from New York. My parents had evidently decided that Montour Falls was a much better place for my sister and me to grow up, instead of in a big city. Had my father lived, his job no doubt would have taken him to other locations where steel construction was taking place.

10. WILLIAM CRONK ELMORE was named for his maternal grandfather William Cronk.  He was born in Montour Falls, NY where his mother was keeping house for her father , having moved there in 1907 after the death of her mother (Mary Ann Brink, b. 1837, d. 1907) and her young daughter, Mary (b. 1902, d. 1907).  He graduated valedictorian of his class from Cook Academy in 1928, earned a BS from Lehigh University in 1932, and a PhD  in physics from Yale University in 1935.  During WWII he designed electronic circuits for bomb triggers as part of the Manhattan  Project at Los Alamos, NM.  Following the war he wrote a book, Electronics: Experimental Techniques, with Matthew Sands, documenting the knowledge obtained during the project regarding the then infant field of electronics.  Though now out of date, that book is still well known among physicists.  William (Bill) taught at Swarthmore College from 1938 until 1974 and was head of the department of physics for 20 years.  He married Barbara Helen Page (b.  1917, d. 2003) in New Haven, CT June 6, 1936.  Bill died in 2003 (21 days after his wife of 66 years).