Here is the line of descendancy from our Mayflower ancestors, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley:
1. John Howland m. Elizabeth Tilley (1624, Plymouth)
2. Hannah Howland m. Jonathan Bosworth (1661)
3. Ichabod Bosworth m. Mary ________ (after 1710)
4. Benjamin Bosworth m. Anne Collins
5. Benajah Bosworth m. _____________.
6. Joseph Bosworth m. Lucinda Hopkins
7. Orlando Marcus Bosworth m. Eliza Ann Applegate
8. Eva L Bosworth m. Augustus D. Allen (1883)
9. Ethelyn (Teresa) Allen m. Horace C. Crofford (1926)
10. Virginia Crofford m. John Zaun (1950)
11. Teresa Zaun m. Michael Austin (1976)
I would like to give a brief summary of each of these lives and follow their migration through the generations across our country.
John Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, England to Henry and Margaret (____) Howland. Elizabeth Tilley was born to John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley and baptized in 1607 at Henlow, Bedfordshore, England. Elizabeth sailed to Plymouth on the Mayflower with her parents when she was only 12 years old. Gov. Bradford wrote an account of the voyage, telling about John being thrown into the sea during a storm. John managed to hold onto a line and was pulled back on board with a boat hook. John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley married on March 25, 1624 at Plymouth. Their children were: John, Jabez, Isaac, Desiree, Hope, Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, and Ruth. John died at Plymouth in 1672/3. Elizabeth died at Swansea in 1687 at 79 years old.
Hannah Howland, born in Plymouth, married Jonathan Bosworth in 1661. They had 8 children: Mercy, Hannah, Elizabeth, Jonathan (died at age 10), David, John, Jabez, Ichabod, and Jonathan.
Ichabod Bosworth was born in March 18, 1676 at Swansea. He first married Sarah Stacey and had six children, the first three children dying in infancy. After Sarah died in 1710, apparently in childbirth, Ichabod married Mary ______ and had four more children: Sarah, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Joseph. Ichabod was a blacksmith in Rehoboth for a time, near the border of Bellingham, Mass and Cumberland, R.I.*
Benjamin Bosworth (Bozworth) was born in either Mendon or Bellingham ca. 1716. He married Anne Collins at Providence, R.I. on October 23, 1743. Benjamin owned land in Scituate, R.I. He died on November 16, 1790. His son, Benajah, was his eldest and administrator of his estate.
Benajah Bosworth was born ca. 1744. He enlisted in the army in 1775 and joined Crary's troop from Rhode Island. His wife is unknown (perhaps Bucklin), but the 1800 census shows a wife, 5 sons, and 6 daughters.
Joseph Bucklin Bosworth was born in Providence, R.I. in 1790, the 3rd or 4th son of Benajah. He is by far the most interesting character in this family line! He served as a musician in the War of 1812. He migrated to Ohio and became a highly respected minister in the Mormon church, directly under Joseph Smith (see Joseph Smith's diaries). He married Lucinda Hopkins on May 17, 1815; they had eleven children: William, Elvira, Albert, Miles, Giles, Carlos, Orlando Marcus, Omer, Benejah, Malon, and Joseph Bucklin, Jr. Joseph and Lucinda lived most of their lives in Copley, Ohio. Joseph died in 1850 of cholera while visiting his son Miles in Peoria, Illinois.
Orlando Marcus Bosworth was born April 19, 1825 in Summit, Ohio. He joined the military and fought in the Mexican War. He married Eliza Ann Applegate on February 3, 1853 in Schuyler, Illinois. They had three children: James (died at infancy), Richard, and Eva. Orlando and Eliza resided in Littleton, Illinois. Orlando died on November 6, 1884.
Eva L. Bosworth (middle name Louise according to family lore) was born in June 1867 in Littleton, Illinois. Her story is perhaps the saddest. She married Augustus D. Allen of nearby Hancock County, Illinois on November 25, 1883 at age 16 (Augustus was 24). They moved across the river to Keokuk, Iowa, then to Wichita, Kansas in 1900. Their only child, Ethelyn was born in July 1893. Eva died in a mental institution at Old Fort Supply in Woodward, Oklahoma in 1911.
Ethelyn Allen (named later changed to Teresa Marie) was born in July 1893, location unknown. Family lore places her birth in Chicago, but that is unlikely. According to the timeline, she could have been born in Hancock County or Schuyler County, Illinois, or possibly in Keokuk, Iowa. Ethelyn lived with her parents in Wichita until around 1903. Sometime after that she was sent to an orphanage or boarding school in Paris, Texas. Her mother was living alone in Wichita in 1904; her father remarried in 1905. There is no further documentation of "Ethelyn" after 1903. The first mention of "Teresa" is in 1916 in Sherman, Texas, where she worked as a student nurse. She graduated from nursing school in 1919 at which time she attempted unsuccessfully to locate her father. She worked as a nurse in Oklahoma City according to the census in 1920. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she married Horace Calvin Crofford in 1926. They resided in Waukegan, Illinois where Teresa worked as a private secretary/assistant to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. There they had two children, Horace Calvin, Jr. and Virginia Maude. The family moved to Virginia in search of employment in the early 1940's. Teresa died in 1966 of breast cancer. She never knew anything about her family history or what became of her parents. She never even knew her birthday or birth year.
Virginia Maude Crofford was born on March 3, 1932 in Waukegan, Illinois. She attended school there until 5th grade when her family moved to Norfolk, Virginia. She married John Beverly Zaun in 1952; they had two children, Teresa Jacqueline and Holly Diana.
From England to Plymouth to Ohio to Illinois and Iowa, to Kansas, then Oklahoma and Texas; back to Illinois and then to Virginia... almost full circle.
*Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, v. 23, pt. 1
