THE THIRD GENERATION

THE GRANDCHILDREN OF JOHN & CATHERINE WIANT

3E. THE CHILDREN OF JAMES & CHRISTIANA WION

revised october, 2007

CATHERINE appears for the first and only time in this family's record in a court document of 1900 relating to the settlement of Christina Wyon's estate. In this document she is listed first amongst the heirs who are, in terms of the rest, listed by known age. (These heirs numbered 11, or thirteen children minus John and William who had died without issue.) She is described as married to Sham Brenneman and resident of Venango County. In the 1860 census this couple is listed in the same township as James and Christina Wyon - Chambers Brenneman (33), Catherine (32), Eliza (9) and Deborah (8). As Cham Brenneman was listed as single in the 1850 census they must have married soon after. This census age places Catherine's birth around 1828, some three years before James and Christina were married. James would have been about seventeen. It is not known if she was a natural child of this couple, or of one or the other, or someone, related or not, whom they adopted. It is of particular interest that Christina, in her pension application, did not mention Catherine and specifically says she had twelve (not thirteen) children. Catherine does not seem to be listed with the family in 1840 when she would have been about twelve, nor in 1850 when she was still single. She died after Christina Wyon's estate was settled in 1900.

1. ANNA was born about 1832 (25), being one of two daughters listed with James Wyan in Half Moon Township, Centre County, between the ages of 5 and 10 in 1840. By 1850 she had already left home as she was not listed with the Wions family of Elk Township, Clarion County, in that year's census. According to her mother's estate papers researched by Steve Heasley (see 9 below) she married Reuben Botts and had 12 children including Catherine, Lydia, George, Gardner, Sarah, Joseph, Rachel, and Charles. The family was listed in 1860 in Piney Twp, Clarion Co.,
Reuben Botts, 38, Teamster, Anna, 29, Lovina, 11, Lydia, 8, George, 6. In 1880 Elk Twp the children listed were George 22, James G 18, Sarah C 17, Joseph 15, Rachael 12, and Charles 10. Anna died after her mother's estate was settled in 1900.

2. ELIZA JANE was born March 20, 1833 "east of Boones Mountain", according to her descendent, Barbara Buehrer, and grew up in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. According to her mother's estate papers researched by Steve Heasley she married first Andrew Billman and had Andrew, Peter, James, Katherine, Sophia. The family was listed in Beaver Twp in 1860 -
Andrew Billman, 42, Collier, Eliza J., 28, Andrew, 8, James, 5, Catharine, 4, Peter, 2, Sophia, 6/12. She married second William Thompson with whom she had a daughter, and third Abraham Wiant Bish with whom she had David (1872), Tina, Eliza. She died January 4, 1899.

3. MARY was born January 1835 in Mifflin or Centre County, and grew up in Elk and Beaver Townships, Clarion County, Pennsylvania. She was listed in neither the 1850 census (when she would have been about 13) nor that of 1860 (when she would have been about 23). Mary was listed as being born about 1836 in an affadavit attached to her mother's pension application (25). According to her mother's estate papers researched by Steve Heasley (where she is called NANCY) she married Andrew Borts. Andrew (48) and Mary Bortz (45) was listed in in 1880 Beaver Twp with William 14, Carl 12, and John 10 and Lillie 1. She died after 1910 when she was listged in Kellettville, Forest Co, PA.

4. JAMES GARNER (GARN) was born January 29, 1839, (16,24) in Centre or Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Elk and Beaver Townships, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, where his parents moved about 1846. Although in later life he gave his year of birth as 1836, 1835, and finally 1834 (24) the1850 census listed him as an eleven year old. On July 25th, 1861, this 5' 8", fair complexioned, blue eyed, brown haired, twenty two year old enlisted at Callensburg, Clarion County, and was assigned to Company E, 10th Pennsylvania Reserves of the Union Army. He was captured at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on September 13, 1862, and paroled the following month. On May 14, 1863, on leave at Callensburgh, Clarion County, he married Candace Lucretia Dunkle (June 8, 1844 - August 23, 1932) and left three days later to join his company at Washington. He was wounded in the left leg at the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1863 and, after being released from hospital, was discharged at Pittsburgh on September 1, 1864. His only child, Rhoda Pearl, was born May 19, 1871 (24). He opened a general store at Callensburg Bridge in 1885 (26) but after the turn of the century moved to Kentucky and Florida. He settled in West Palm Beach in 1910 and died there on January 5th, 1926 (24). He was buried at West Evergreen Cemetery.

5. JOHN C was born about 1840, presumably being the younger of two sons listed with James Wyan in the 1840 census of Half Moon Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Elk and Beaver Townships, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, being listed as a 9 year old in the 1850 census. He enlisted on February 26, 1862, at Shippensville, Clarion County, and was mustered into Company H of the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was hospitalized in June, then sent home to recuperate in July and August. In September he rejoined his company and was "Appointed from ranks, January 14/63, for good behaviour at Kinston." On April 20, 1864, Corporal Wion was captured at Plymouth, North Carolina, and paroled at Charleston, South Carolina, on December 10th. He died of bronchitis in the hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, on December 29th, and was buried in plot 307, Ashgrove Cemetery (54).

6. MELINDA was born about 1843 (16) and died in 1864 (25). According to her mother's estate papers researched by Steve Heasley she married James Shay and had one son, John.

7. WILLIAM was the third and youngest son of James and Christiana Wion to enlist in the Union Army. He was born about 1844, along with twin sister Penina, being listed as a five year old in the 1850 census of Elk Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania. Thus he was barely seventeen when he volunteered on September 7th, 1861 - 5' 8", fair complexion, grey eyes, and light hair (25). He was assigned to A Company of the 103rd regiment, where he served until his capture at Plymouth, North Carolina on April 20th, 1864. He was sent to the Confederate prison at Florence, South Carolina, where he died on November 24th (23).

8. PENINA, the twin of William, was born about 1844 (16) in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Elk Township, Clarion County. She married James Thompson on October 1, 1861, and bore him two children (John in1862 and Mary Lavina in 1864) before his death (October 24, 1864) at the infamous Andersonville prison, along with 13,000 fellow soldiers (59). Penina, who gave her age as 21 in September 1865, cared for her aging mother, dying on September 15, 1893 (59). Penina had two more children, Jacob and Elizabeth, after the death of her husband, according to ancestor Peninnah Houser.

9. FRANCES REGINA was born February 14, 1844 (death certificate) in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. She moved to Clarion County with her parents, being listed as a 3 year old in the 1850 census of Elk Township. She was married 3 times, first to John Smith, with whom she had Harrison E. Sep 7,1865 and Lilly Sep 30,1867. After his death she married in 1869 Samuel Heasley (1811-1884). They lived in Farmington Twp, Clarion County, near Tylersburg, where they had 7 children - Christopher Columbus (1870-1958), William (1871-1928), Mary (1873-1883), Laura (b. 1876), Lydia (b. 1878),James Garner (1879-1936) and George Isaac (1881-1946). When Samuel died in 1884 Frances married William Norton. He was dead by the 1900 census. She lived near Crown, Farmington Twp, Clarion County until her death on January 20, 1920 (death certificate).

10. RACHEL was one year old when the 1850 census was taken and was still living at home in 1870 (27). She was listed in the 1870 Census of Farmington Twp, Clarion County living with her sister Frances Heasley. According to her mother's estate papers researched by Steve Heasley she married Joel Zerbe and had James, Clyde, and Gertie. She died before her mother's estate was settled in 1900.

11. BARBARA was born about 1851(18) in Elk Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania. Accoring to research by Steve Heasley she married first Mr. Bailey and had Laura in 1869 and Sally in 1871. She married second James Branson, settled in Frankfort Kentucky, and had John (1876), James (1877), and Lampton (1888). She died after her mother's estate was settled in 1900.

12. HARRIET was the youngest child of James and Christiana Wion, being born February 1852 in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. According to her mother's estate papers researched by Steve Heasley she married John Zerbe and had Loril (1874), George (1875), William (1879), Lillian (1881), Franklin and Fannie (1885). She lived in McKean and Clarion Cos. and died after 1910.

As James Garner Wion, the only son of James and Christianna Wion to have a child, had no sons, this branch of the family has no succession.

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