Aaron Stout: New Jersey Stouts Scatter

Aaron Stout 1780-1864

Last time, I talked about a great uncle (Josiah Stout) of my great-great grandfather Isaiah Stout (1822). Another brother, Aaron Stout wound up closer geographically to the location of my great-great grandfather Isaiah, but Aaron traveled from New Jersey perhaps before Isaiah was born. Aaron Stout’s children scattered throughout the Midwest.

To keep the generations consistent, I am using the system of numbering starting with Richard Stout, the founder of this Stout family in North America. The generations are (1) Richard, the first to come to North America, (2) David, (3) Freegift, (4) my ancestor Isaac and his brother Obadiah (5) Isaac’s children including my ancestor Isaiah and his brothers Josiah and Aaron, (6) Josiah’s and Aaron’s children.

Generation FIVE: The Children of Isaac Stout (1740) – Aaron Stout

The birth of Josiah in 1780 and Aaron in 1781, might have come as a surprise to parents Isaac Stout (1740), and Mary Quimby Stout. The couple had reached the top edge of middle age, as reckoned in that period when the two were born. The two youngest boys turned out to be the restless ones in the family of six children. Their elder brother Isaiah(1740) (my ancestor) and their sisters all remained in New Jersey.

I have found it difficult to find official records of Aaron’s life. that no doubt at least partly stems from his migration to the still wild lands of Ohio about 1820.

The Historic and Genealogical Miscellany compiled by John Edwin Stillwell from the mid 1850s into the early 1900s provides most of the information I have about this family.

Stillwell tells us that Aaron, son of Isaac and Mary Qumby Stout, married a daughter of Nathaniel Hixson, Mary, but I have not found a record with the exact date. I believe the name of his wife is correct, because Nathanial Hixson’s will was administered by Aaron Stout, and the oldest son of the couple bore the name Nathaniel Hixson Stout. Nathaniel (the son of Aaron) born in 1806, leads me to assume that the couple married about 1805.

Aaron Goes to Ohio

Five of the children of Aaron Stout and Mary — Nathanial (1806-1867) Moses (1808-1887), Ebenezer (1810-1877), Isaac (1817-1891), and Theodore (1819-1907) list the birthplace of New Jersey on Census reports. A sixth child, Rachel Hixson (Biggs) (1824-1876) is recorded as born in Okeana, Butler County, Ohio. Stillwell (mentioned above) also says there was another daughter named Tacey and a daughter named Mary. I cannot verify either of these. Stillwell lists Mary and Rachel as the two youngest children, both born in Ohio. Logic says they would name a daughter Mary, but because there are so many Mary Stouts, I am not willing to spend the time it would take to verify her information.

The birthplaces of the children gives us a clue as to when the family moved to Ohio. It had to be between the birth of Theodore in 1819 and Rachel in 1824 (or earlier if Stillwell is correct and daughter Mary also first appears in Ohio.) Aaron’s biography in Find a Grave states that he migrated to Morgan County, Ohio in 1820, but I do not know their source.

Okeana in Butler County grew up on the Western side of Ohio, not far from Cincinnati.

Aaron Stout gravestone
Presumed gravestone of Aaron Stout in Butler County, Ohio

Whenever he specifically arrived, Aaron stayed put in Okeana, Butler County Ohio for the rest of his life. His children on the other hand, inherited his wandering gene. The two oldest sons wasted no time becoming independent.

Generation SIX: The Children of Aaron Stout

Missouri, Tenessee, Illinois, and Kansas

On this map, I have added the migration of Aaron and his children to that of his brother Josiah and his children. As we have seen, Aaron went to Ohio, from the Stout home base in New Jersey which is marked in red. If you follow the link to the map, you can click on each marker and see the name of the place, the name of the person who settled there and the year that I believe they first settled. I left out some locations where the stay was brief, and left out most of the stopping places of the rolling stone, Isaac Stout.

Nathaniel: Born in New Jersey, according to Find a Grave bio, he moved to St. Louis in 1828 when he was 22, and on to Memphis Tennessee in 1833. He died in Memphis Tennesee in 1867, and his wife is listed as a widow in the Memphis city director in 1883.

Moses: Born in New Jersey, Moses succeeded as a merchant in St. Louis. According to Find a Grave his move to St. Louis occurred in 1828 at the age of 20. In 1830 he married in St. Louis. One book says that Nathaniel and Moses went into business together in St. Louis, and in 1833, Moses bought out his brother Nathaniel. That is when Nathaniel supposedly moved to Memphis. Moses lived as a widow with a daughter’s family in St. Louis in 1880. He died in St. Louis in 1881.

Ebenezer: Born in New Jersey, he would have been about ten when his parents moved to Ohio. Like his brothers, his interests ran to commerce rather than farming. Records show that he married in Fayette Illinois in 1843. By 1850 when he was 40 years old, he and his family lived in Springfield, Illinois, where he worked as a store clerk. His brother Isaac and his mother-in-law live with his family. By 1855 he had moved to Bloomington Illinois. In the 1860 census, that job designation has changed to Merchant. He died in Bloomington in 1877 and his widow still lived in Bloomington when the 1889 city directory was published.

The Rolling Stone, Isaac Stout (1817)

Isaac: Born in New Jersey, Isaac Stout had more trouble finding himself than any of the other children of Aaron Stout, judging by the census record trail he left behind. We first see him aboard a ship sailing from Galveston Texas to New Orleans at the end of November 1839. The ship’s manifest lists the young adventurer (twenty-two years old) as a merchant. In 1850 we see him living with his brother Ebenezer and working as a clerk in Springfield, Illinois. In 1860, he has returned to Ohio, where he works as a merchant in Preble, Washington County, Ohio. He lives with his mother Mary, who is 76. His mother died at 78 years old, and Isaac, the rolling stone, returned to Illinois.

Before he showed up on the 1870 census, however, he married Matilda Montgomery, probably soon after his mother died, and they had three children. The family on the census includes a boy named Benjamin Stout, 13, but Matilda is too young to be Benjamin’s mother. Besides, at the time she was born, she was still living with her family. I have no idea who Benjamin belongs to. Isaac has reached the age of 53 before he has established a family with his much younger wife. Matilda is now 27. They live in McLean, Illinois and Isaac has fallen on bad times. He works as a laborer.

You might think things are looking up for Isaac, the rolling stone, when you see that in 1880, at 63 years old, he has found work as a school teacher. However, school teaching in that period was women’s work, and for men, teaching school probably came as a last resort to someone who couldn’t succeed at anything else. The family has grown by three–now six children. and they have moved to another town, Mt. Pulaski, Illinois.

St. Anthony Home for the Insane and the Aged, Dubuque, Iowa

The sad end for Isaac comes in 1900 when the census shows him listed as an “inmate” a Catholic Institution, St. Anthony Home, located in Dubuque Iowa. St. Anthony’s was Home for the Insane until 1897 when it was expanded to include a Home for the Aged. Those listed at the address include a lot of Sisters and then a list of inmates. Isaac died in 1901. Why Dubuque? I am puzzled because his wife proves hard to trace and I would have expected her to outlive him by many years. I cannot find her in the records after 1880, but perhaps she remarried when or even before Isaac died.

The Daughter, Rachel Stout

Rachel: Not to be outdone, the daughter in the family, Rachel Hixson Stout (Biggs), the only child of Aaron that I know for a fact to have been born in Ohio, ended life in Missouri. Rachel married Hamilton Biggs in 1842 in her family’s home county of Butler in Ohio. However, by 1850 she and her husband had moved a short distance away to Israel Ohio and then moved to Eaton Ohio. She lived in Fairview Kansas in 1870 and died at the age of 52 in Medoc Missouri, in 1876.

P. S. If I were following this family for one more generation, I would have to add Oklahoma to the map. But I am not.

How I Am Related

  • Vera Marie Badertscher is the daughter of
  • Harriette Anderson Kaser, who is the daughter of
  • Vera Stout Anderson, who is the daughter of
  • William Cochran (Doc) Stout, who is the son of
  • Isaiah Stout (1822), who is the son of
  • Isaac Stout (1800), who is the son of
  • Isaiah Stout (1773) who is the son of
  • Isaac Stout (1740), who is also the father of
  • Aaron Stout (1780)

Notes on Research

U. S. Census 1830, 1840 Morgan, Butler County Ohio; 1850 Israel, Preble, Ohio; 1850 Bloomington, Sagamon, Illinois; 1860 Bloomington, McLean, Illinois; 1860 Eaton, Washington, Preble, Ohio; 1860 & 1870 & 1880, St. Louis Missouri; 1870, Bloomington, McLean, Illinois; 1870 West Township, McLean, Illinois; 1870, Fairview, Labette, Kansas; 1880, Mt. Pulaski, Logan, Illinois; 1900, Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa;

New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1945 The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1820-1902; NAI Number: 2824927; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Record Group Number: 85; Isaac Stout, Departure from Galveston Texas; 28 Nov 1839 . Accessed at Ancestry.com

New Jersey, Marriage Records, 1670-1965 ; Hunterdon County, New Jersey; Nathaniel Hixson Stout and Catherine Brewer, 25 Sep 1833 . Accessed at Ancestry.com

Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993; Butler County, Ohio; Rachel Stout and Hamilton Biggs; 29 Apr 1842 . Accessed at Ancestry.com

Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920 ; Fayette, Illinois, Ebenezer Stout and Huldah Briggs, 18 Apr 1843. Accessed at Ancestry.com

Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008 ; Probate Records (Shelby County, Tennessee); Author: Tennessee Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Shelby County); Probate Place: Shelby, Tennessee Nathaniel Hixson Stout, 11 Oct 1867 Accessed at Ancestry.com

Missouri, Wills and Probate Records, 1766-1988: Author: Missouri. Probate Court (St. Louis City); Probate Place: St Louis, Missouri : Moses Stout, 3 Feb 1881 , Case Number 13863. Accessed at Ancestry.com

Historic and Genealogical Miscellany : Data Relating to the Settlement and Settlers of New York and New Jersey, Vol. IV, John Stillwell M.D. , Self Published, New York: 1903 , Digital edition available at archive.org

Stout and Allied Families,Vol. I, Herald F. Stout, Capt. USN , Dover Ohio: Eagle Press:1951, Accessed on Ancestry.com

The history of the Stout family : first settling in Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey, Nathan Stout, 1823. Accessed at Ancestry.com

Find a Grave website Aaron Stout; Mary Hixson; Nathaniel Hixson Stout; Moses Stout; Ebenezer Stout; Isaac Stout; Rachel Stout.

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3 thoughts on “Aaron Stout: New Jersey Stouts Scatter

  1. Jennifer Page

    Hello, I joined your website yesterday evening after I wrote about growing up on Indian Cornbread/ fry bread. Then I found out we are distantly kin. I am a descendant of Richard Stout and Penelope Van Princis of Monmouth Co. Province New Jersey through their son James Stout and wife Elizabeth Truax. James died in 1714 in Amwell Hunterdon co. N.J. through their daughter Penelope Stout and her husband William Merrill. They married 1729 in Hopewell Hunterdon N.J. and William Merrill died by lightning at Burlington N.J. I come from their son Captain Benjamin Merrill and wife Jemima Smith and they married about 1748 in Hopewell Hunterdon N.J. Captain Benjamin Merrill was born about 1730 in Hopewell Hunterdon N.J. and died at Hillsboro N.C., a Revolutionary War soldier who was hung for treason on 19 Jun 1771. He was a patriot who died for our freedom. Then I come from their son Charles Merrill their 5th son, born November 1761 in the New Jersey Settlement in Rowan N.C. and died in Pendleton co. S.C.. His wife and my ancestor was Elizabeth Easley Merrill and she died in Marshall County Alabama in 1843 in the home of their son and my ancestor Benjamin Merrill . Benjamin Merrill was married first to my my ancestor, a Cherokee woman Nancy Thompson, the daughter of Cherokee John Thompson who was an interpreter for the Cherokee Treaties. They lived at Creek Path Alabama and John Thompson, Nancy and Benjamin Merrill each had a 640 acres Reservation there. Then I come from their Daughter Eliza Merrill and William Polston through their daughter Nancy Ann Polston Brooks, my Grandmother’s great grandmother. They were on some the Cherokee roll books. My grandmother and my mother was born nearby in Jackson Alabama which Marshall County Alabama was part of Jackson county Alabama originally. Now you know where the Indian cornbread recipe came from that I wrote to you about yesterday. Hello Cousin!

    Reply
  2. Patricia Bickel

    How wonderful! I descend from Richard and Penelope’s son John who married Elizabeth. Their son Richard who married Mary Tilton; their son Jonathan who married Leah White; their daughter Leah who married first a Taylor and then my ancestor Isaac H Wamsley, Sr; there are 5 Isaacs and then my grandmother. Isaac and Leah Stout Wamsley moves from New Jersey to Ohio. Their son William establishes Wamsleyville OH and then their son Isaac moves to Southern Indiana for a few years and then on to Northern Indiana. This Isaac was killed by Indians in Arizona. This family stayed in Indiana. The last Isaac Isaac V Wamsley Jr only had daughters (one of them being my grandmother).

    Reply
    1. Avatar photoVera Marie Badertscher Post author

      Thank you so much for sharing your family line. I will email you after I have checked through my one. Incidentally, I have just been looking at your Johnathan (SO confusing with Johns and Jonathan names both in the same families for a couple of generations!) As you may have read, I have Isaacs alternating with Isaiahs. They sure did like the name Isaac, didn’t they?
      I MUST know more about the Isaac killed by Indians in Arizona. Was he a soldier fighting Apaches or a settler? I look forward to talking to you.

      Reply

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