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A 23-year-old Iowa native, Ora Green Prewitt, wed Mary Jane Taylor at her family's Van Buren county, IA, home at Birmingham on 30 Nov 1872. Mary Jane was born 20 years earlier on 3 Aug 1852 at Wilkes-Barre, PA. This Prewitt family would eventually wind up in Nebraska. Both of Mary Jane's parents, James and Mary (Robertson) Taylor, were born, raised, and married in Orkney, Scotland. A daughter, Isabelle Taylor, was born 25 Nov 1846 and christened in Orkney on 2 Jan 1847. Subsequently, the family immigrated to Pennsylvania in the late 1840's. James worked as a ship's hand on his way to America in 1847; and about one year later, Mary brought their year-old-daughter to the USA while the little girl learned to walk during a six-week voyage in 1848. James and Mary would go on to live many years after raising their children at Birmingham, IA. Aunt Isabelle Robertson perhaps came along with Mary Jane's sister, little Isabelle, and mother Mary on that same international journey to Pennsylvania. The elder Isabelle later wed James' brother Robert Taylor on 18 Oct 1848 at Wilkes-Barre, PA, and this Orcadian couple would spend most of their remaining days in Pawnee county, NE. Ora Prewitt was born right there at Birmingham, IA, on 24 Jul 1849. Ora's father, Thomas Prewitt, was born 27 May 1812 down in Kentucky. His mother, Mary Jane Bickford, was one of Moses and Ruth Bickford's 12 children; and she was born over at Sandusky, OH. In the latter part of the 19th century, Ora and his father each had a wife named "Mary Jane," women who were otherwise unrelated. Ora's uncle Anthony T. Prewitt, born in Kentucky about 1810, had married into the Rutledge family who were longtime friends of Abraham Lincoln since their days back at New Salem, IL. Anthony, a Van Buren county farmer, wed young Nancy Camron Rutledge and made her the step-mother of Goldson, Ann, David, and James Prewitt, who were all born in Iowa. Nancy was born in White county, IL, on 10 Feb 1821, and as Anthony's second wife she gave birth to A. M. Prewitt (who would serve as a minister in Downey, CA), Will S. Prewitt, and two other children. Anthony's son Goldson Prewitt later became the father of Belle Warner Price, who would reside at York, NE. Years later, Nancy (Rutledge) Prewitt's brother Robert Rutledge would recall the winter of 1831-32 when young Abe Lincoln regularly attended meetings of the New Salem Debating Society: "As he rose to speak, his tall form towered above the little assembly. Both hands were thrust deep into the pockets of his pantaloons. A perceptible smile at once lit up the faces of the audience, for all anticipated the relation of some humorous story, but he opened up the discussion in splendid style, to the infinite astonishment of his friends. As he warmed to his subject, his hands would forsake his pockets, and would enforce his ideas with awkward gestures; but would very soon seek their resting place. He pursued the question with reason and argument as pithy and forcible that all were amazed. The president [of the debating society], at his fireside after the meeting, remarked to his wife that there was more than wit and fun in Abe's head; that he was already a fine speaker; that all he lacked was culture to enable him to reach the high destiny that he knew was in store for him." Nancy (Rutledge) Prewitt's celebrated elder sister, Ann Rutledge, died in 1835 after having become the first sweetheart of 26-year-old Abe Lincoln. Abe had roomed at the home of Ora's grandparents, James and Mary Ann (Miller) Rutledge. Nancy well remembered the young store clerk Lincoln, being familiar with the excellent character of this great man as he was a frequent visitor to the Rutledge home and later a permanent boarder there. Nancy and Ann's mother, Mary Ann [or Maria], had been born back in South Carolina about 1787. Nancy's father, James Rutledge, was a miller at New Salem, IL, and he died three months after grieving the sad Aug 1835 death of his daughter Ann. Nancy's widowed mother, Mary Ann (Miller) Rutledge, was around 49 when she took her remaining six Rutledge children to Fulton county, IL, where her nephew John Miller Camron also relocated his family in 1836. Before long, the Camrons and Rutledges moved onward to Birmingham in Van Buren county, IA. When Abraham Lincoln became US President, Mary Ann's eldest son, Robert B. Rutledge, was serving as the Van Buren County Sheriff. Having known Robert very well since the New Salem years in Illinois, President Lincoln then appointed him to be Provost Marshall of an Iowa congressional district. Robert moved to Oskaloosa, IA, and later to western Iowa. The marriage of Ora and Mary Jane (Taylor) Prewitt went on to produce these ten children: Anthony 3 Jan 1874 -- 1 Jan 1875 Ellie Etta 25 Jul 1875 -- 26 Nov 1894 Lillian Agnes 16 Apr 1878 -- xx Aug 1889 Leroy 4 Apr 1880 -- xx xxx 1962 Rally 13 Mar 1882 -- 8 Aug 1942 Mary 6 Jun 1884 -- xx xxx xxxx Minnie 9 Apr 1886 -- 28 Feb 1963 Mabel 9 Dec 1888 -- xx Jun 1978 Edith 19 Aug 1892 -- 21 May 1979 Pearl Ray 27 Aug 1894 -- 6 Mar 1895 Mary Ann (Miller) Rutledge, mother of a one-time potential First Lady of the land (the departed Ann Mayes Rutledge), herself died on 26 Dec 1878, about 91 years of age, at her daughter Nancy Camron (Rutledge) Prewitt's Birmingham, IA, home. Mary Jane (Bickford) Prewitt, mother of Ora Green Prewitt, died on 8 May 1886 at Birmingham, IA. Mary Jane (Taylor) Prewitt lost her father, James Taylor, and infant daughter, Pearl, on the very same day, 6 Mar 1895. And then only four days later, on 10 Mar 1895, mother Mary (Robertson) Taylor also passed away. Mary Jane's husband, Ora Green Prewitt, died at the age of 66 at York, NE, on 19 Mar 1916. Mary Jane (Taylor) Prewitt herself died of paralysis at age 76, over at Wood River, NE, on 2 Feb 1929. |
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