1780 - aft 1830
New York - Pennsylvania
Mary Polly, 5th child, 1st daughter, of Jonathan Owen and Catherine Eleanor Kortwright, was born 11 November 1780, in or around Orange County, New York. (Many genealogies posted online give the birthplace as Middletown, Orange Co, but that area was in Ulster county until later.) Both her parents had also been born in the county, although Jonathan's parents (whoever they were) had started out in Long Island. I have done only minimal work on Eleanor's family, but it was enough to find that her exact parentage is a matter of controversy - she did name one of her sons Aaron Kortright, so that might be a clue.
Mary was presumably one of the 5 females with her father in the 1790 census in Walkill, but before 1800 she married. There apparently was a little confusion with some of the DAR applications, and you will occasionally see Mary given a first husband, Dunbar Auble. This is probably a mistake (a later DAR application gives her husband as Moses Brown, and her father's will refers to her as "Polly, wife of Moses Brown.") Mary and Moses's first child, Jonathan Owen Brown, was born in 1797, when she was 17 - so an earlier marriage would have had to have been very early.
Be that as it may.
Together Mary and Moses had 9 children (that we know of)
Jonathan Owen (named for her father) - born 23 November 1797
Archibald Caine (named for his father - and his mother? (maiden name?) - born 30 November 1799
George Fosset (named for a neighbor - no known relationship) - born 9 May 1801
Thomas Jefferson (named for . . .) - born 3 January 1803
Jesse (named for her next-older brother) - born 18 June 1805
Julia (named for ??? there are Julias in the Owen family) - born 2 November 1807
Moses jr (our next ancestor) - born 5 Feb 1809
Andrew Jackson (named for . . . ) - born 28 April 1815
Mary Jane - born 25 January 1818
[Una Bowman sent me the names and birthdates of the children, but I also found them in the Pennsylvania Traveler V. 3, #1 Nov 66
"Moses Brown Bible Record
(This Bible record came from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the records were verified at the Bull Creek Cemetery, north of Tarentum, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania)
Moses Brown married Mary Owen
born June 28, 1775 born November 11, 1780"
. . . then the list of children]
Her father received a grant of land (for his service in the Revolutionary War) in the "Military District" - the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. [Possibly husband Moses received a grant as well, but I have no record of it, and I do have some confirmation of Jonathan's grant. Landmarks of Tompkins County says that Jonathan received one square mile - imagine that.] Older brother Nathaniel went to the District in the summer of 1798, and moved his family there the next spring - and apparently Mary and Moses made the move about then too. In 1800, they are not far apart on the census listing:
1800 New York, Cayuga, Ovid
p. 564 Moses Brown 20010 00100
2 males under 10 b. 1790-1800 Jonathan Owen b. 1797, Archibald Caine b. 1799
1 female 16-26 b. 1774-1784 Mary Owen b. 1775-80
1 male 26-45 b. 1755 - 1774 Moses b. 1775
p. 566 Nathaniel Owen 10010 10010
(Nathaniel is the only Owen in Cayuga County in the 1800 census)
Ovid is in the center of what is now Seneca County (formed from Cayuga in 1804), but after a while the Browns and Owens apparently lived in town of Ulysses - I haven't been able to find it on the map, but it is in Tompkins County, (which was formed from part of Seneca in 1817). [Was the name was changed to Trumansburg? - Moses 2 was born there.]
In about 1804, the rest of her family (except brother William) had moved to central New York, but by the time of the 1810 census, Mary and Moses had moved on - to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. [In 1811, Jonathan and Eleanor Owen sold some property in Ulysses, one corner of which was "the Southwest corner of a certain forty-acre lot lately in the possession of Moses Brown, now belonging to Jesse Owen." - quotation from Una Bowman's Brown Family History] They must have moved not long before the census - their son Moses jr, who was born in 1809, is said to have been born in Tompkins (actually Seneca at that time) County.
As far as I can tell, they moved more or less on their own. This is rare for the time - people usually moved in family or friendly groups. Possibly some of the Browns in the county were relatives???
Plum (or Plumb, as it was spelled in earlier documents) Township is where Moses and Mary's family eventually settled - but in 1810, although there were three Browns in Plumb Township, Moses was in Pittsburgh.
1810 Pennsylvania Allegheny Pittsburgh 111 /4/214
Moses Brown 51010 10010
5 males, 1 female under 10 born 1800-1810
Archibald 1799 / George 1801 / Thomas J. 1803 / Jesse 1805 / Moses 1809
Julia 1807
1m 10-16 born 1794-1800
Jonathan 1797
1m, 1f 26-45 born 1765 - 1784
Moses 45, born 1775; Mary
Two more children were born after the move to Pennsylvania - Andrew Jackson in 1815 and Mary Jane in 1818 - but Moses may have died not long after (if not before!) Mary Jane's birth. Marey Brown is on her own for the 1820 and 1830 censuses.
1820 Pennsylvania Allegheny Indiana 217/8 [117]
Marey/March Brown 221300 1101
2 m, 1 f under 10 (1810-20) Mary Jane 1818 Andrew 1815, Moses 1809
2 m, 1 f 10-16 (1804-10) Julia 1807 Jesse 1805,
1 male 16-18 (1802-4) Thomas 1803
3 m16-26 (1794-1804) George 1801, Archibald 1799, Jonathan 1797
1 female 26-45 (1775-1794) Mary 17801830 Pennsylvania Allegheny Plum 173
Mary Brown 001011 00100001
1m 10-15 b. 1815-20 Andrew Jackson 1815
1f 10-15 Mary Jane 1818
1m 20-30 b. 1800-10 [Moses 1809; Jesse 1805]
1m 30-40 b. 1790-1800 [Jonathan 1797; Archibald 1799]
1f 50-60 b. 1770-80 Mary
on the same page - George 100001 10001
1m, 1f under 5, 1f 20-30, 1m 30-40 = b. 1790-1800 - our George b. 1801
in Wilkins Twp - George 164 100011 120011001
1m, 1f under 5, 2f 5-10, 1m, 1f 20-30, 1m, 1f 30-40
- Thomas J 155 00001 0001
1m 20-30 b 1800-10, 1f 15-20 b 1810-15 - our Thomas b. 1803
Mary may have died between the 1830 and 1840 censuses - at any rate, she is not listed under her own name in the 1840 census, but it is possible that she is the older woman living with Jesse (whose wife had just died), next door to Moses
1840 Pennsylvania Allegheny East Deer - 87 (next to Moses)
Jesse Brown 000001 1000001
male 30-40 (Jesse 35) female under 5 (daughter Margaret?)
female 40-50 - mother Mary? Mary was 60 at the time, however . . .
And that's all I have about Mary Polly.
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Questions, comments, additons, corrections? contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com
Page last updated 21 July 2007