Elihu Beckwith Kingsley and his wife Mary Sophia Harvey-- Life Sketches

Elihu Beckwith Kingsley was born into a prominent family in Tionesta, Allegheny, Pennsylvania on 8 May 1818.  His family came to the area in 1802 as some of the first settlers.  Elihu’s father Ebenezer is credited with naming many of the streams and hills in the area.  Ebenezer was well known in the area for his hunting exploits.  He must have trained his many sons to be expert hunters and able frontiersmen.

Mary Sophia Harvey about 1848

No information is known of Mary’s parentage or if she had any family in Sheffield, Warren, Pennsylvania, where Mary was supposedly born on 12 Oct 1834.  Lack of information could be the result of her parentage in the Quaker community nearby or within the Indian population.  Or she may have been an orphan or an indentured servant child from a disadvantaged family. 

Marriage notice from 25 December 1849 issue of Warren Ledger, the local newspaper

Before 1849, Elihu moved up to Sheffield, Warren, Pennsylvania with his brothers Elijah, Eleazer, Elias and Ephraim, and a sister Clarissa.  (His father and brothers Perry, Edward and Orrin moved to Eagle, Sauk, Wisconsin.)  Interestingly, the siblings settled in Sheffield, which had first been called the 'Forks of Tionesta.'  This is where Elihu presumably met Mary Sophia Harvey.  At the time of their marriage, Elihu was 32 and Mary 15, although they may have not been truthful on their marriage application.  Would anyone let them marry if they knew how young Mary was?  Some sources claim that she was born in 1836, making her only 13 when she was married. 

1850 Sheffield, Warren, Pennsylvania census.

The 1850 Sheffield, Warren, PA census shows them as newlyweds.  Note the box checked on the right—‘married within the year.’  

They lived in a rough wilderness area in Sheffield, Pennsylvania.  Dirt roads, log cabins, woods for hunting and rivers for logging were their surroundings.  Elihu’s brother Elias built a house for Elihu and Mary to live in.  It was the second house built in the town of Sheffield.  The next house Elias built, the third house in Sheffield, he built for himself.  In a few years time, Elihu and Mary had eight children to care for.  (Their third child of nine, Francis, died before 1860.)  It was hard work to raise such a large family in that era.  That’s a lot of children to keep clean and well fed.  The cabin would need to stay clean of dirt tracked in all day.  Without our modern medicines, homes needed to be scrubbed clean or one disease could wipe out a whole family. 

1860 Sheffield, Warren, PA Census

The 1860 Sheffield, Warren, PA census shows their growing family.  The box at the right shows that their school-age children attended school.  

In 1864, Elihu sold the family land to some oil prospectors[1].  They were drilling wells in the area since the logging industry had moved on westward.  Flush with cash, the family must have celebrated for a while.  One doesn’t know how this fits with our story, but it must have had some bearing to the events that would follow.

Between 1866 and 1869, Mary took her youngest child Archie and left for Michigan, where she remained for over 30 years.  Surprisingly, Elihu didn’t seem to know where she went or what she was doing there. 

1870 Sheffield, Warren, PA census

In the 1870 Sheffield, Warren, PA census lists Mary and Archie as living there, but they were not there when this census was taken.  Mary and Archie never came home from Michigan.  She had married another man, as if she had never had a family in Pennsylvania. 

1870 Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census

In the 1870 Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan census, Mary and Archie are seen with Mary’s new husband Levi Leonard.  Note the box on the right, ‘married within the year.’  December is written in, indicating the month they married.  Archie is listed correctly as age 4, while he is listed as age 2 at home in Pennsylvania.  Like Elihu, Levi is markedly older than Mary—about ten years older.  

Michigan was an even newer frontier than Pennsylvania.  The pine forest with the lumber drew men to the area, then families settled in.  Most towns had several saloons to accommodate the mostly young, male population.  About this era, Stanton newspaper editor warned women to stay off the streets in Lakeview because of all of the drinking men that were out of control.  Both Stanton and Lakeview were near Reynolds.  There were no laid out roads, the trails following the rivers and branched off to settlers’ cabins.  It was all forests.  The only roads were within the towns and they were difficult to navigate, being muddy most of the time.  It was not a place for a woman to go unaccompanied, especially with a small child or infant.[2] 

Detail of 1897 Plat Map of Reynolds and Pierson Townships, joined at boundary, marked to show where the family with the surname 'Harvey' lived in relation to each other.

To pause for a moment, several questions arise.  How did Mary manage to leave her family seemingly without a trace?  Was this a premeditated escape or a visit with a friend, upon which she was offered a new life and thus she never returned?  Although Elihu had cousins in Livonia, Montcalm, Michigan, it’s unclear whether Mary knew them.  And had she, would she have eluded Elihu by staying in the home of his cousins?  An Edmund/Edward Harvey is a close neighbor to Levi Leonard—did he orchestrate her escape like a business deal?  Although research has not confirmed a link between Edmund and Mary, the coincidence of them sharing the same last name and owning land so close to each other is remarkable.  

As time wore on and Mary’s absence persisted, Rose probably took over the roles a mother had, of rearing the children and caring for the home.  She was a young woman and had probably been a great help to her mother over the years.  

The oldest child Herbert married at age 17 in 1866.  Emma died at age 6 in 1871.  Rose married Richard Bloss and started her own family in 1871.  

Belle Barnes Conquer, granddaughter of Elihu and Mary, explains how Katheryn Emily was given away in a letter to Mary Schian Jensen, my grandmother, dated 1988. This detail comes from page 2.

 At some point, Elihu gave Katheryn Emily to the Barnes family to live.  That left three brothers Fremont 15, George 12 and Charles age 10 with their father in 1871.  Perhaps Rose and Richard made their home with her family to help care for the children and the farm until the kids got a little older.

Levi Leonard's Homestead application #3133

The same year, back in Michigan, Mary’s husband Levi Leonard died on 29 June 1871.  They had only been married about a year and a half.  He had willed to Mary a homestead he had begun in 1867, where they were living.  Note the location of the 80 acres:  the north half of the southwest quarter of section 34 in Township 12 North (Reynolds) of Range 10 West.

This allotment of land gives rise to the idea that Mary was offered a chance to escape to Michigan with this bargain-- care for a sick man prior to his death and receive his land.  Perhaps he was good friends with a relative of Mary’s named Edmund Harvey…

Soon after Levi’s will was probated, Mary married a third time to William M. Amey.  They married on 30 September, 1871, just two weeks after probate. 

Detail of marriage record of William Amey and Mary S. Harvey, Montcalm County Marriages, Book A, p. 32,   30 Sept 1871.

“Record 104, Sept 30, 1871, in Reynolds, William Amy of Reynolds, age 35 married Mrs. Mary S. Leonard. widow, age 35 maiden name Mary S. Harvey.”  Montcalm County Marriage Records Vol. A, p. 32.

Mary S. Amey's Homestead Application #3133

In 1872, Mary bought the land that Levi had been homesteading.  Note that the location is identical to the original homestead paperwork of Levi Leonard, and the identification number is the same.  Also note that she purchased it in her name, not in the name of her new husband. 

William and Mary Amey made their home on Levi Leonard’s homestead for the next several years.  In the 1880 census we find the family together. 

1880 Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census

Note that in the 1880 Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census, young Archie is called by the last name of his step father. 

Meanwhile back in Pennsylvania, Elihu realized he was alone.  He had moved in with his brother Elias bringing his son George with him.  Fremont married in 1879 and Charles had probably moved out.

1880 Sheffield, Warren, PA census

The 1880 Conewango, Warren, PA census shows Elihu and his son George living with Elihu’s brother Elias.  Note the box checked by Elihu’s name:  Widowed.  Elias and George have checked ‘Single.’  It appears that Elihu has concluded by Mary’s long absence that she is dead.

Rose and Richard began having their own children soon after their marriage.  They named them typical names from that era.  But in 1886, Rose named her 8^th child ‘Archie.’  It might have been about this time that Mary reconnected with the family she left behind.  It is a nice thought that Rose would honor her newly rediscovered brother Archie in this manner.  In 1893, Archie married, using his actual last name, not the last names of his mother Mary’s husbands.  No earlier document has been found in which he is listed as Archie Kingsley. 

Detail of Marriage Record of Archie Kingsley and Susie Kendall, Montcalm County Marriages, Book C, pg. 122, 20 Oct 1894. 

“Archie Kingsley, 24, of Howard City, born PA, Farmer, married Susie Kendall, 17, of Howard City, born Mich, at home.”  Date of marriage was 20 Oct 1893.  

Detail of 1894 Michigan State Census Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan

In this Michigan State Census of 1894, Archie uses the last name Kingsley again.  Archie learned of his family in Pennsylvania prior to 1893 by either meeting them or through correspondence.  Through this reconnection, Archie would have learned that he was one of many children in a large family.  And Mary would have learned that Emma had died shortly after her departure, Katheryn had been given away, and that several of her children had married.  Elihu and the other children would have learned that Mary was alive, but had married two other men.  He had thought that Mary was dead.  Perhaps they all thought that, as it had been almost 20 years since Mary and Archie had left.  

One wonders if the family attempted to meet together and reestablish their relationships.  Clearly such a meeting would be awkward at best, but potentially it could have been violent and divisive.  Within a few short years of whatever reconnection took place, Elihu died.

Evening Democrat 17 May 1900, Warren, PA

Evening Democrat 24 May 1900, Warren PA

When Elihu died on 14 May 1900, although Mary was alive, she was not included on his will as an heir. 

Detail of Elihu Beckwith Kingsley, Warren County Register of Wills 1892-1908, Family History Library Salt Lake City, Film #1314328

Note the living children are listed as heirs but not Mary on this portion of the probate record of Elihu Beckwith Kingsley.  Note that Archie’s residence is unknown.

1900 Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan Census

Mary is found in the 1900  Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census with her husband William Amey, still residing on the land derived through the land grant to Levi Leonard.  

Detail of 1897 Plat Map of Reynolds Township, Montcalm, Michigan

Note that Mary parceled out some of the 80 acres to her husband and son as seen in this 1897 plat map of Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan.  Note the number 34, indicating the section on the Reynolds map as indicated on the homestead application.

A year after Elihu died, Mary’s husband William Amey died on 23 May 1901.  At some point, she went to live with daughter Rose on Bloss Hill in Sheffield, Warren, PA.  Mary died in Rose’s home 21 May 1902.  On the death record, Rose reported that Mary was a resident of Michigan but died in Pennsylvania.

Although Mary and William had owned many acres of land, it had been mortgaged and Rose was never able to recover any proceeds from the distribution of their estate. 

Herbert raised a family and later became a minister.  Rose raised a family of 13 children.  Francis died before 1860, before all of this happened.  Fremont married at age 23 and raised a family.  George was institutionalized in the Conewango State Hospital for the insane.  Charles married his sister in law at age 31, they had no children.  Katheryn Emily married a son in the home in which she was raised and had a large family.  Emma died shortly after Mary left the family.  And Archie, the son she took with her to Michigan, married at age 24, but left his wife and daughter before his second daughter was born.  

Clearly Mary Sophia Harvey’s decision to leave her husband and children had far-reaching effects on her posterity, not the least of which is the choice Archie made to leave his wife and daughters.  One wants to understand what could compel a mother to leave her family as Mary did.  Was her home life so bad that this was her only choice?  Perhaps one day these and many other questions will be answered.  

Disclaimer:  This was written using documents related to Mary Sophia Harvey Kingsley Leonard Amey, and Elihu Beckwith Kingsley and their children.  Remarkably, none of the above story has been found in any oral or written history passed down through Mary’s descendants.  The author did her best to reconstruct the history in good faith but cannot guarantee its’ accuracy.  

Additional Source:

Kingsley, William Arthur, ed.  Kingsley Family of America.  Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 1980.  312, Print.

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[1] See History of Warren County Chapter 18, “History of Sheffield Township.”

[2] Van Patten, Mrs. F. W. and Mr. J. N. Clement.  Recollections of Pioneering Days in Douglass Twp.  22 Feb 1935.  Stanton Clipper Herald.