Bartholomew, William E.

Pioneer, Farmer, War of 1812 Veteran

Birth: May 6, 1786 or January 16, 1788, Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut
Death: June 12,1868, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Burial: Vienna Township Cemetery, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Find a Grave memorial

Military Service: Lieutenant William E. Bartholomew served in Captain Asa Hutchins' Company, 3rd (Hayes') Regiment, Ohio Militia, from August 24 to November 11, 1812. Capt. Hutchins' company contained many men from Vienna Township.[1]

William E. Bartholomew was the second of three children of Abiel (1764-1805) and Mary Hungerford Bartholomew (1764-1834), who settled in Vienna in 1804. (Abiel, injured while felling a tree, died in January 1805 and was the first burial in the Vienna Township Cemetery.)

William married Mary Boyd (1791-1859) on February 25, 1813. They had three children. The family lived in Vienna Township until at least 1850, when the Federal Census records the farming family living in Youngstown.

Obituary, Western Reserve Chronicle

The following transcribed obituary, written by Reverend Xenophon Betts, appeared in the Western Reserve Chronicle on June 24, 1868, on page 3. The digitized original may be seen here at the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website.

For the Chronicle.

Another Pioneer Fallen.

Died in Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio, June 12; Mr. William Bartholomew, aged 80 years and 6 months. Mr. B. was born in Watertown, Connecticut, though in infancy removed to Waterbury, where he was brought up with his parents till, in 1804, in his 17th year, he came with the family, in company with others, and settled in Vienna. In about three months after they came in, the father was killed by the falling of a tree. This was the first adult death in the settlement. It was early in January, 1805. The burial was at the center, in the midst of a dense forest. Then William, with his widowed mother and an aged grandmother, was left, at about 17 years of age, as the man of the family. Although there was an older brother, yet he was married and had a family by himself.

Mr. B. was among the soldiers of 1812, who went out to the Huron River and the Peninsula, and with the few who were in the block house when it was fired upon by the enemy.[2] He returned in safety to his friends and the young settlement. In 1813 he was married to Mary Boyd, with whom he lived nearly half a century, having three sons who survive them, and to whom he ever made himself an affection husband and kind father. He, with his wife, united with the Presbyterian church in 1817, in connection with which they walked as consistent members, till death removed them to the church of the first-born, whose names are written in Heaven.

Mr. B. passed through many changes, and some severe trials, during his life. He had a native mechanical genius which led him to engage with machinery. He was a wool carder by trade; but feeling disposed to engage farther in machinery, after some other experiments, he invested his property in machinery and mills in Youngstown. In this he was unfortunate, and sacrificed much of his property, and also his health. After an absence from Vienna of some years, with his wife, he returned and invested the remains of his property in a little farm directly in sight of the fine farm they had left, and there they lived with their youngest son. Then he lost his wife in 1859, leaving him lonely but not disconsolate. He still made himself useful in the family and in the community, and sought and found comfort in Christian fellowship, and in the word of God. With all his change of circumstances and loss of property he never lost character, or friends, or his cheerful confidence in God. Any employment which was honest and useful he regarded as honorable. Industry was his habit, and cheerfulness his disposition. Whether as a proprietor of a farm or a mill, a canal boat or a peddler’s wagon, he was always the same; honest, industrious, useful and contented; loved and respected by all who knew him. His closing scene was like a clear sunset after a day of toil, with changing clouds and sunshine, with reason perfect to the last, suffering much pain, yet without a murmur; surrounded by friends, and grateful for every act of attention, he sank into the arms of death as a messenger to take him to a better rest. “Great peace have they which love thy laws, and nothing shall offend them.”

[N.B Editors of the Mahoning Register and the Portage County Democrat will confer a favor on many by noticing the above.] X. BETTS.