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Mt. Hope Pioneer Cemetery ~ Abner S. Willard
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Willard, Abner S.
LAST: Willard FIRST: Abner MID: S.
GENDER: M MAIDEN NAME:  TITLE: 
BORN: 23 Oct 1827 DIED: 11 Jul 1851 BURIED: 
OCCUPATION:  
BIRTH PLACE:  Madison Co., Ohio
DEATH PLACE: Marion Co., Oregon
NOTES: 

MARRIAGE: Married – February 13, 1851, by the Rev. William M. Simpson, Mr. A. S. Willard, Jr. to Miss Mary J. Frye, all of Marion County.
Oregon Statesman 11 Apr 1851 3:2. BIOGRAPHICAL (Source - Davidson, Loretta Miller, Colvers and Kin in Oregon, Medford, Oregon, 1988): "Next of the clan to arrive was Ralph C. Geer, who had married Mary Catherine Willard, daughter of Hulda Colver and Abner Spencer Willard. Hulda was a daughter of David Colver, Sr., a son of Nathaniel. Ralph’s father Joseph and other members of the Geer family left Illinois in June 1847 and joined a wagon train captained by Joel Palmer. They followed the Old Oregon Trail across the Cascades, over the Barlow Trail. Ralph took up a claim near Silverton in the Waldo Hills, settled September 13, 1848.
Amos Colver, son of Charles and another grandson of Nathaniel, arrived in Oregon November 1, 1850 and settled a claim November 16, 1852 in Linn County. He married Mary Jane Fry November 15, 1852. Amos is shown in the 1850 census in the household of Ralph Geer but we have found no further reference to him.
Abner Willard, brother of Mary Catherine Geer and great-grandson of Nathaniel Colver, is also shown in the Geer household in the 1850 census. He married Mary J. February 13, 1851, settled a land claim in Marion County March 15, 1851, and died four months later, on July 11, 1851".
BIOGRAPHICAL (From A History of the Silverton Country, pg 42):
A notable body of men were those pioneers of 1847 who settled in the Silverton and Waldo Hills. Ralph C. Geer has already been named. A brother, Heman J. Geer, was the father of Theodore Thurston Geer, governor of Oregon. His mother was Cynthia Ann, the daughter of John Leonard Eoff, who settled near English's mill on Howell's Prairie. Abner S. Willard was a relative and near neighbor of the Geer's. George P. S. Riches, an Englishman, took a claim which had been first settled by William Rankin McCord, who relinquished to him. King Hibbard and John S. Hunt would be outstanding men in any community. When they are added to the already noteworthy group which has began in the Waldo Hills settlement of Daniel Waldo, it begins to be apparent why this section in an early day was able to contribute so much to the history of the state."

OBITUARY: 

Willard A. S. Jr., died July 11, 1851, at residence of Ralph C. Geer, Marion County, of consumption, son of Col. A. S. Willard of Madison Co., Ohio.
Oregon Statesman 19 Jul 1851 3:2.

Abner Willard died Friday, July 11, 1851, at the age of 24. He was born in Madison County, Ohio, in 1827, and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1847. On February 13, 1851, he was married to Mary J. and on March 15th, the young couple settled onto a donation land claim of 640 acres three miles south of Silverton, where he died about four months later.
[source - Scrapbook in Silverton Public Library]

INSCRIPTION: 

Farewell
A. S. Willard
Born
in Ohio
Oct. 23, 1827
Died
July 11, 1851
Erected by his sister Mary C. Geer

SOURCES: 

Hellie, Mader & Rickey
Saucy Survey and Photographs
Davidson, Loretta Miller, Colvers and Kin in Oregon
Down, Robert Horace, A History of the Silverton Country, pg 42
OS 11 Apr 1851 3:2
OS 19 Jul 1851 3:2

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