I wrote about Col. William Cochran (1793) in June 2014. Researching and writing on a (self-imposed) deadline can lead to errors.  I hope that fewer of those happen as I get more experienced at genealogical excavations, but all family history stories and family trees are works in progress. The next week, month, or decade may turn up new evidence that changes assumptions made earlier.

Although I got most of the story right, including the background of the war of 1812, it turns out that my interesting history of Col. Cochran in the War of 1812 actually belongs to some other William Cochran.  Since writing “Would I Lie To You?“, in which I admitted I wasn’t sure of some of the facts, I have come into a great deal more information about the Cochrans. I’ve shared information about Col. Cochran’s father and grandfather, and about several of his children, the siblings of my great-great-grandmother, Emeline Cochran Stout.

I have returned to that first post about William and highlighted wrong information and explained new information. I did not delete the superfluous information, because it does apply to SOME William Cochran, and might be of some assistance to someone else who stumbles upon it. Additionally, I am going to redo William’s history here, with the old information that was correct, and the new information that has surfaced recently, most notably an article about  his political activity, his obituary, and a copy of his will.

Col. William Cochran 1793-1898

Growing Up in the Wilderness

It is interesting to contemplate how our ancestors wound up living where they did and how cities grew around them.  The picture is clear in Guernsey County.  It is all about road building.

Zanes Trace was later extended from Zanesville to Columbus to become part of the National Road. Image from Roots Web.

William Cochran, father of Emeline Cochran Stout, was in the first generation of the Cochran clan to move to Ohio. He is my 3x great-grandfather.  Born in Hickory, Pennsylvania, he got to Ohio about 1802 when his family moved to a settlement along the National Road in Southeast Ohio making them one of the earliest families to settle in that county in frontier Ohio Territory. As an old man, one account says he claimed there were only 25 families in the county in 1802, and this one says 15 families.  [ See Alexander Cochran Arrives in Guernsey County]

A Correspondent writes from Hamilton, Butte County, California 1874 (Probably in the Cambridge, Ohio newspaper–I have only a transcript given to me by a cousin).

“Old Tippecanoe”, William Henry Harrison, painted by Rembrandt Peale in 1814

Note: General William Henry Harrison gained his fame and nickname “Old Tippacanoe” fighting Indians in 1811 along the Ohio River.  See political implications to William below.

William’s obituary in the Cambridge Jeffersonian in 1878 also described the territory.

What an exciting place for a little boy to grow up.

Military Service

As a young man, William enlisted in the Ohio Militia.  According to an article in The Guernsey Times (1893) “He received his title of colonel in the Second brigade of the Fifteenth division of Ohio Militia, General James M. Bell commanding the division.”

Although none of the articles about him, including his obituary refer to the War of 1812, there is a War of 1812 marker with his gravestone in the Stout farm cemetery in Guernsey county. And there is a Pvt. William Cochran listed as being a member of Captain Cyrus Beatty’s Company from Guernsey County who served from October 23, 1812 to February 22, 1813. William would have been nineteen at that time. I assume that was his company, but how he got from private to Colonel, I’m not sure. And I have found no evidence that William, Captain Beatty, or Major General Bell saw military action during their time in the militia.

Marriage and Family

At the age of twenty-four, after working on his father’s farm,  he married Martha Henderson, who lived on a neighboring farm on February 20, 1818. Their own farm on Zane’s Trace, became quite prosperous.

Martha and William were said to have had thirteen children. I have evidence for ten (UPDATE 2021: I have added Hamilton, so now have eleven). However, in William’s will he mentions 6 living children and 3 deceased with children. I have to assume if they had 13, that three died in infancy or young childhood. In the case of the son William, he may have died before his father and left no children, and thus is not mentioned in the will.

• 1818: John Henderson Cochran, who moved in 1857 to California and spent his life there.
• 1822: Jacob Cochran who went to California in the Gold Rush, then settled first in Iowa and then in Kansas.
• 1823: Birmingham, who relocated in Christian County Illinois, where William invested in property and when he was a widower, moved to Oklahoma.
• (UPDATED 2021)1824: Hamilton. This is from historic records and I have no more information, including death, so he may have died young.
• 1828: Emeline, who married neighbor Isaiah Stout, my 2x great grandparents.
• 1830: William H. Cochran, listed in the 1850 census living with his father and mother, but not in the will.
• 1832: Alexander, who went to California for a few years as a young man and then returned to found Quaker City in Guernsey County.
• 1834: Thomas W. Cochran, listed in the 1850 census and in the will, but I have no other information.
• 1838: Joseph Cochran, who died one year before his father, leaving children.
• 1842: Martha A. H. Cochran. William states that Martha’s children are to receive no part of his estate as “having made advancements to her in her lifetime of one thousand dollars or more being her full share…”  Sounds like some family trouble there!
• (UPDATED 2021) Mary Elizabeth (Nellie). Although one source gives her death as 1911, I list her as died Aft. 1878. In William’s will she is listed as one of eight children and he leaves a share of his estate to her children.

See Early California for more information about some of these Cochrans descendants.

Community Involvement

In 1825, William became a member of the first Masonic lodge in Guernsey County “The Old Guernsey Lodge,” Cambridge.  Later in his life he was a member of the Eureka Masonic Lodge in the village of Washington. He was a member for more than 50 years, and was the last living member of the “Old Guernsey Lodge.”

William was active in the Disciples of Christ church, a believer in reform Protestantism.

In addition to being a busy and successful farmer, WIlliam took part in affairs of the community. He held the title of Tax Collector for four terms, personally collecting taxes.  “He knew every man in the county.  He grew up with and noted the coming of people into it and watched its growth and development and lived to see the territory it then embraced rise from a mere handful of persons to a population of thirty thousand souls, and from a wilderness of woods and swamps to a region filled with farms and doted with twenty towns.”

I will talk more about his political involvement in a later article focusing on the political activities of various ancestors and family, but the high point for him was working for the election of William Henry Harrison of the newly formed Whig party in the 1840 Presidential election.

Maturity

By 1850, William’s very prosperous farm contained a total of 460 acres (300 under cultivation), worth $4,000. He owned 16 horses, nine milk cows, 15 other cattle and 330 sheep.  Crops he raised included wheat, corn and oats.  Since he instructs in his will that there be no “appraisement and no sale of my personal property” we are denied the pleasure of pawing through his personal effects to learn more about him.

We do learn from his will that he owned land in Illinois, probably related to the fact that his son Birmingham settled there.

In 1851, his wife Martha died, leaving children 9, 11, 15, 17 and older. In the same year, William’s father, Alexander Cochran died. Within a year, William had married his second wife, Ruth Hazlett. She bore him no children in their 16-year marriage. They moved from the farm to the town of Middlebourne in 1863.

Ruth died in 1868, and two years later, at the age of 79, he married his third wife, Mary Moore.

His obituary sums up the personality of this man who contributed so much to his community affairs and so many successful and adventurous offspring to the world. He is an ancestor to be proud of.

Col. Cochran’s impressive tombstone, with its Masonic emblem and War of 1812 medal, stands in the overgrown and overlooked old cemetery on what was once the farm of Isaiah and Emeline Cochran Stout (William’s daughter).

William Cochran Tombstone in the Stout Cemetery, Guernsey County, Ohio

Wm. Cochran Grave Marker, with War of 1812 Marker Stout Cemetery

And that’s the truth.

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 Stout, who is the son of

Emeline Cochran Stout, who is the daughter of

Col. William Stout and Martha Henderson Stout

Notes on Research