Robert Armstrong (1763 - 1843)

Discovering My Paternal Third Great-grandfather
Robert Armstrong

In retrospect, it is difficult to put together the chronology of events that took place that led to discovering my paternal 3rd great-grandfather because it is a process that evolves over time and not a formula for discovery. It was a difficult and a time consuming task but which produced great dividends. However, the evolutionary process may be of interest to the family.

This journey began with a descendant of our subject, James Potter Armstrong, my 2nd great-grandfather. He was born in Pennsylvania, married in Virginia and finally settled in Ohio in Marion County with many children born along the way. A Farm was conveyed to him in Marion County through the will of James Potter, probably an Uncle. In the process of following his life, it was found that he lived in the Goshen Township of Mahoning County, Ohio in 1850 (US. Population Census) before settling in Marion County, Tully Township of Ohio where the James Potter Farm was located. Discouragement due to the lack of progress in finding the Parents of James Potter Armstrong led to a decision to study all of the Armstrong families in both Marion County and Mahoning county of Ohio. The following is an incident related to this study that occurred in this process. This was previously reported in one of my blogs.

“Anita and I had lunch in a little restaurant near Lake Oswego immediately across the street from a used bookstore. The lunch was delightful and at the conclusion of lunch, Anita made the comment and suggested that we go across the street and see what used books the store had to offer. She often visited this store when she was out away from home by herself, so she was well acquainted with it. I made my usual comment that it would be interesting, but we are supposed to be in the Family History Center at 1:00 so should we really take the time now, maybe later would be better ( It is husband trick to avoid shopping). I finally gave in and so off we went across the street. As I began to browse for interesting books, my eye caught a locked book case standing near the check out desk. It was labeled: “Rare Books”. As I viewed the back spines of the books inside, one caught my attention, “The History of the Upper Ohio Valley” , Columbiana County, Volume II. I asked the store keeper, if I could have a close look at the book. After she opened the case, I observed the book to be in excellent condition. It was dated 1890 with a leather cover and gold edged pages. As I opened the cover, the price was noted as $75.00. My immediate reaction was: “well, that settles that, too expensive!” I continued to thumb through the book and noted that there were some biographical sketches of individuals that lived in the Goshen Township of what is now called Mahoning County. Umm! No, it is too expensive! I said to myself. The nagging continued in my mind and I called Anita over to show it to her. Her reaction was to go ahead and buy the book as it looked to her to be under priced. We love books as evidenced by our book case in the den at home where there is not room for any more books. Umm, “Go ahead you old tight wad and buy it, it looks like a good deal”. Anita had several other books she found that were out of print and so we bought them along with the rare Ohio book.We arrived at the Family History Center on time and I took the Ohio book into the Center to show it off to the other staff who were there. They oohed and awed over it and said what a nice book. I scanned over the book again and after we finished our duty at the center we went home and I found a spot in the den book case to store it.Over the years as I have been trying to extend my Armstrong ancestors back another generation, I have found a great deal of evidence that many of the Armstrong’s noted in the vicinity of my research may be related but no positive connections could be made. In recent days, I have been reviewing the research I have conducted over these past years as I believed that some key information was hidden in this research data. On July the 2nd (Sunday), I was reading in the Gospel according to John and contemplated the first two miracles that the Savior preformed and the discussions he had with the Pharisees where they heard His words as he spoke to them symbolically, but they understood him not. I began to think about my linage and the gift of the Holy Ghost that I received when I was twelve years old. My thoughts were carried to the research on the Armstrong’s and to the history I was reconstructing of my second great grandfather, James Potter Armstrong. In my previous scanning of the Ohio rare book, I had noticed a biography of an Armstrong that lived in the same vicinity of James Potter Armstrong in 1850. I decided at this time that I should include this reference in the history I was writing, so I went to the book and reread this reference noted earlier. I began to see that this reference may indeed hold a key to extending my research back several generations. It was at that moment that I saw the hand of Elijah leading my wife to discover a reference of incomparable value at the bookstore I was so reluctant to go and to buy.”

The following is the quotation from the reference noted above which eventually led to the discovery of Robert Armstrong, my 3rd great-grandfather.
“Sylvester Armstrong, a well known farmer of Goshen Township, was born in Columbiana county, now Mahoning county, Ohio, September 26, 1846, and is the son of Joel and Mary A.(Thompson) Armstrong, the father a native of Ohio, and the Mother of Pennsylvania. ……………….Mr. Armstrong’s paternal ancestors came originally from Ireland, in which country his grandfather Robert Armstrong, was born and raised. Robert Armstrong in company with three brothers and a sister came to America in the latter part of the last century and settled in Pennsylvania. He afterward moved to Mahoning county, Ohio settling in Goshen township, on the farm now owned by the subject of this sketch (Sylvester Armstrong) and Robert Lewis, the stone residence of the latter having been erected by Mr. Armstrong in the year 1826. One of the brothers of Robert Armstrong was impressed into the service of the crown and was never afterward heard from. James, another brother, settled in Virginia, and became a prominent planter. William located in Louisiana, and became a general in the war of 1812. A sister, Mary, married a Mr. Burnside, and was the mother of Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, who served with distinction in the war, afterward became the governor of Rhode Island. Joel Armstrong, the father of Sylvester H., was a farmer by occupation and a well known citizen of this county. He was a prominent member of the Friends Church, and to him is due the credit of establishing one of the first Sunday-Schools in this part of the country, of which he was many years superintendent. He was born August, 1808, and died February, 1865. His wife was born in 1823, and departed this life May, 1880. These parents had eight children, six of whom are living at this time.” History of the Upper Ohio Valley, Vol II, Illustrated; Madison, Wis; Brant & Fuller, 1801 ".

The next significant event in this journey of discovery occurred in the Family History Library in Salt lake City. It was here that I was able to study the probate and guardianship records of the Armstrong’s in Mahoning County. All were very interesting with some clues where a James Armstrong was mentioned in the probate summary of a John Armstrong, a prominent farmer, who died at an early age and left a widow and several children. Also noted in these probate records was a Joel Armstrong noted in the reference above. After seeing no immediate research connection to a parent of John or Joel, I resorted to browsing the book shelf where histories of Ohio counties were located. I found a county history book for Mahoning County, Ohio. Upon opening it and going to the section on “Biographical Sketches”, I found a reference to the same Sylvester and Joel Armstrong noted in the rare book that I purchased in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Except this particular volume gave a biography of the grandparents of Sylvester Armstrong with all the aunts and uncles along with their birth dates and in some cases who they married.

The following is the text found in “The History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Ohio” The biography of Sylvester H. Armstrong.

“Sylvester H. Armstrong. For more than a century a tract of land in Goshen Township of Mahoning County has been the home and the scene of activities of members of the Armstrong family. One portion of the old tract is highly improved and developed and is widely known as the Walnut Grove Farm, the proprietor of which is Sylvester H. Armstrong, who has spent all his life on this land and is a grandson of the man who acquired it from the government.
Walnut Grove Farm is twenty six miles southwest of Youngstown, six miles northwest of Salem and six miles east of Sebring. Robert Armstrong was a native of Ireland, of Scotch stock, and about 1803 he came to America with three brothers and one sister. His brother, William, went to Louisiana, another brother to Virginia and his sister, Mary, became the grandmother of General Burnside, one of the noted Union leaders in the Civil war. Robert Armstrong remained in Berks County, Pennsylvania until 1805, when he came to Eastern Ohio and selected a home in the wilderness. The Walnut Grove Farm is part of the land he acquired, the deed to which was signed by Thomas Jefferson. The original farm was the northeast quarter of section 19 of Goshen Township and extended close to the banks of Mill Creek. Robert Armstrong erected a pioneer cabin and in 1823 built a substantial stone house, which is still standing in good preservation. The stone is largely field sandstone and the walls were laid with clay mortar, being painted over with lime. While it is a two-story house, the cost of the mason work was only $63. This old stone landmark stands along the old Pike Road which was laid out by John Strawn from Wellsville on the Ohio River direct to Cleveland. The portion of the pike through the Armstrong farm was improved by Robert Armstrong. The road passes diagonally through the farm, dividing it almost equally. The pike was constructed prior to 1823 since the house was located purposely at one side of the road. In this old home, Robert Armstrong died January 14, 1843. He was born March 3, 1763. He married Ann Potter who was born June 16, 1779 and died August 27, 1826. Robert Armstrong’s children were: William, born July 23, 1800, who went to Illinois and died in Virginia in that state at the age of eighty; James, who acquired part of the old homestead and was born November 11, 1802; John, born September 27, 1805 in the original cabin home of his father in Ohio and died in 1859, his son Clark now being a resident of Atwater in Portage County; Joel, whose record is taken up in the following paragraph; Mary Ann, born November 12, 1811, became the wife of Dr. William Clark of North Benton, where she died in old age; Lydia, born March 17, 1813, died at the age of twelve years;
Rebecca, born July 31, 1815, became the wife of Stacey Haynes and died in Portage County when past ninety;
Robert, born December 8, 1817, became a physician, practiced at North Benton and his son Theodore is now living at Mount Union; Sarah, born July 21, 1820, first married Samuel Duball and after his death became the wife of John Duball, and lived in Wisconsin, where she died in 1858.
Joel Armstrong, father of the proprietor of the Walnut Grove Farm, was born in Mahoning County, August 9, 1808. September 14, he married Mary Ann Thompson, who was born in Pennsylvania and came as a child to Smith Township with her parents, William and Elizabeth Thompson, who in 1852 went further west to Cedar County, Iowa. Joel Armstrong had the active management of the old farm until 1843. At the death of his father he secured the south half of the farm, that portion south of the old Pike Road above mentioned and in the same year built a home in which his son Sylvester H. Armstrong was born in 1846. In 1862, Joel Armstrong built the house in which Sylvester is now living. The half of the farm containing the old stone house was acquired by James Armstrong. Joel spent his active lifetime in the operation of the farm and also working the stone quarries on his land. He supplied much of the material for construction of the railroad bridges and continued quarrying operations until concrete largely took the place of stone. Joel Armstrong was a Whig and afterwards a republican. The Armstrong’s were Quakers in religion. About 1823, the Friends Church at Goshen two miles from the Armstrong home was established. The first church was built of brick and later was replaced by another brick edifice. Both Robert and his Joel were active in the Sunday School. He was also for many years a director in the local schools. Joel Armstrong died in February, 1865. His wife was only fifteen at the time of her marriage, and for sixty-five years she lived on the old Armstrong farm. Besides the land he acquired in 1843, Joel also bought twenty-five acres of the other half of the place.
Eight of the children of Joel Armstrong reached mature years. Ann the oldest, was first married to Evi Stratton, who was killed in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in 1862, and she afterwards became the wife of Joseph Haycock and spent her last years in Iowa. Elizabeth T. is the widow of James Templin, living at Patmos in Goshen Township. William T. was a member of the same battery as his brother-in-law Stratton, and died of wounds received at the battle of Perryville. Martha D. lives in Nebraska, widow, a civil war veteran. The next in age is Sylvester H. Sarah S. became the wife of William Arnold, lived in Michigan and Indiana, but died at Canfield, and her sons Edwin and Sylvester are residence of Canfield. Robert L. who became owner of the old farm with the stone house which has since been sold out of the family was killed at the train crossing near Sebring at the age of Fifty, and his wife, Judith Ann Stanley, is now the widow of Peter Buford and lives in California.
The seventy-four years since his birth Sylvester H. Armstrong has spent with few intervals on the farm that was his birth place. He acquired a good education in the local schools and one term at Mount Union College and at the age of nineteen began teaching in the home district. He taught there for eight terms, and also helped his mother carry on the farm at the same time. His school work altogether included twenty-three terms, all but one in Mahoning County. During those years he was a leader in educational affairs, taking part in teachers meetings, literary societies and other organizations. Besides the operation of the Walnut Grove Farm he has had other business interests. For six years he operated portable sawmills, both on his own farm and at Patmos and in other tracts of timber which he bought. He also operated the sandstone quarry and got out the material which he used in the construction of several bridges.
At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Armstrong was elected township clerk, serving two terms. For thirty-six years, continuous except for one interval of two years, he was Justice of the Peace of the locality, and performed his duties, including marriages, with a singular fidelity and efficiency. He finally refused to qualify again for this office. He has done much party work in conventions. Mr. Armstrong is not a birthright Quaker, since his mother became a member of the church after her marriage. For many years, Mr. Armstrong has been affiliated with the Methodist Church, still teaching the young men’s class in Sunday School, and has participated in Sunday School conventions. He was formerly a Granger, is a member of the Farm Bureau, and for two years was president of the Goshen Fair, which continued as a display and exhibit organization for over ten years.
One of the pupils in the first school that Mr. Armstrong taught was Adriana Johnson. In 1873, she became his wife. Her parents, Mathew and Susan Johnson, had come from Columbiana County to Goshen in 1863, and Mrs. Armstrong grew up here. To their marriage was born four children. William who operates a general store and is postmaster at Garfield on the Pennsylvania Railway three miles from the old homestead is married and his daughter Carrie is the wife of Park Sampson of Churchill, Ohio. Mary Armstrong became the wife of Ira Stanley, a contractor and builder at Beloit, Ohio, and her children are named Walter, Robert, Charlotte, Gertrude and Leroy. Stella is the wife of Ernest Riley, a Goshen Township farmer, and their family consists of Edna, Mildred, Elnora and Martha. Robert J. Armstrong married Hattie Snyder and has a daughter Margaret, now three years of age. Robert J. Armstrong is now the active manager of Walnut Grove Farm and is doing a successful work as a livestock man, keeping dairy cattle and breeding Belgian horses and Berkshire swine”

The portion of the above text noted as: “Robert Armstrong ……. came to America with three brothers and one sister. His brother, William, went to Louisiana, another brother to Virginia and his sister, Mary, became the grandmother of General Burnside, one of the noted Union leaders in the Civil war” remains to be proven especially regarding the sister Mary who became the grandmother of General Burnside.

Here is some additional information which I have put together that seems to be consistent with the research data.
“Robert Armstrong came to Pennsylvania, Berks County, with his wife Ann Potter and their son William born in Ireland 23 July 1800. Upon leaving Berks County and in the process of moving and settling into Eastern Ohio, a second son was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania (1802). His name was James Potter Armstrong, my second great grandfather. By 1805, Robert and his wife Ann had settled in the Goshen Township of Columbiana County, Ohio where a third son, John was born (1805). Robert came to Goshen, Ohio and obtained 165 acres of land (about ¼ of a section) and built a log cabin to raise his family where six more children were born. In 1823, he built a substantial stone house. The stone came from field sandstone and the walls were laid with clay mortar and then painted over with lime. While it was a two story house, the cost of the mason work was only $63. Before the home was built, a road (Pike) was built as a main road to Cleveland which cut the farm in half diagonally. The stone house was built on one side of the road (Pike) where it stood most of the 19th century. Robert came to Goshen as a Quaker (Society of Friends) and in 1826 the “Upper Springfield Monthly Meeting” was established at Damascus, a few miles from Goshen. Most, if not all, of his children married outside of the faith and as such were disciplined by the Monthly Meeting.In 1810, Goshen was incorporated on September 11. At one of the organizational meetings in 1812, Robert Armstrong and Asa Ware were chosen as “Fence-Viewers”. During the period of 1820 -1825 he served as Treasurer and in 1824 to1825, Robert served as Trustee for the Township. Later his two grandsons would serve as Clerks for that organization.Ann Potter died in 1826, six years after her last child was born leaving Robert to live in the stone house with his children. Sometime before 1833, James Potter Armstrong went to West Virginia probably to visit or to live with his uncle James and while he was there he married Catharine Taggart on March 3, 1833. He and his family later returned to Ohio and finally settled in Marion County, Ohio where other children were born and raised. James Potter Armstrong may have returned to Goshen in time to see his father, Robert, before he died in 1843. His youngest son, John was born in Limaville, Stark County (the county adjoining Mahoning County) in 1848 and in 1850 the census finds him in Goshen of Mahoning County. The old farm at Goshen was not passed on to James Potter Armstrong upon the death of his father, but to Joel the forth son. It would be interesting to learn of the circumstances which caused James Potter Armstrong to leave Goshen, marry in Virginia and then return and not receive an inheritance. After the death of Robert Armstrong, his family remained on the farm which was called “Walnut Grove Farm” for most of the 19th century, the farm being passed from one generation to the next. Almost all of this information came from what family historians call a “Mug Book”. Late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century mug books are collections of biographical sketches, a curiously rich source for genealogists and historians alike. Typically these books were published only by advance subscription. If a person had the funds to subscribe, he or she (more often he) would have a biographical sketch in the book. For an extra fee, a photograph or sketch would be included. The publishers also might include sketches of presidents and governors. These biographies of the rich and famous helped publishers sell books to buyers who hadn't subscribed—and who weren't included among the sketches. The cost of a subscription varied by location and publisher. A subscription, biographical sketch, and portrait could have cost up to sixty or seventy dollars. The story given above for Robert Armstrong probably came from his grandson Sylvester H. Armstrong who lived in the old stone house when the biography was written. I believe it is reasonably accurate in that the birth dates for all his children were given to the exact day they were born which may mean that they were transcribed from the family bible.
An aerial view of the old “Walnut Grove Farm” showing the old stone foundation for the early pioneer home may be seen with Google Earth. ( Lat: 38.752521 N. Long -86.733261)
RHB