THE ORMSBY FAMILY

The original spelling of this name was Ormsbee, and so continued till within a few years past; but is now by general consent as above given.

The first man of this name who settled in this vicinity was Ichabod Ormsby, from Woodstock, Conn. We have not the exact date of his coming, but it was within a few years after the first settlement of Fairlee, where he purchased real estate to a considerable extent, and became a permanent resident. Having determined on removal, he returned to Woodstock, and gave his friends a glowing description of the fertility of the soil in this locality, and the prospective advantages of early possession, representing that the lands were not only very productive but cheap; that the meadows for quite a distance above Fair-lee Mountain had been cleared up by the Indians, and in times past planted with corn; that rows of corn of a mile in length might be planted in that rich soil, he might truly add, without a stone of any size to interfere with the ease of cultivation.   Several families removed about that time from the old State of Connecticut to homes in this happy valley. On the return of Ichabod Ormsby he settled on the farm now owned and cultivated by Captain Benjamin Celley, and his son William, a little North of Fairlee Mountain. Two of Ichabod's brothers, namely, Joseph and Thomas, came with him, and settled on lands which he had previously purchased. In the account of Fairlee in the Vermont Historical Magazine it is incidentally mentioned that the town meeting held there, August 2, 1774. Ichabod Ormsby was elected one of the Assessors of the sum of two hundred and fifty-seven pounds, eight shillings, voted by the town to be raised "to defray the expense of allotting the township, cutting out and clearing roads, and other necessary expenses." And also to be, with Israel Morey, Esq., and Jonathan Child, a committee to lay out and make the necessary roads through the township," in 1780. He was also one of a committee " to provide necessary materials, erect and complete a House of Public Worship, at the expense of said town." By these records it is manifest that he was an influential and well esteemed member of that community. Of the time of his decease, or of his family, we have no account.  They were not inhabitants of this town.  Rufus F. Ormsby, eldest son of that Joseph who was a brother of Ichabod, moved with his family into Bradford in the year 1817. He was a native of Woodstock, Conn.  His wife was Elizabeth Young, of Piermont, N. H., and died here February 6, 1847, in the seventieth year of her age. Mr. Qrmsby's farm was on the West side of Wright's Mountain. He died in the family of Lewis Jenkins, his son-in-law, at Fairlee, October 22, 1861, at the age of eighty-seven years. He had a family of ten children, namely:

1 Timothy Ormsby, born November 14, 1799.

2 Mary, born August 18, 1802, married a Mr. Cate.  Years after his decease she went with her son into the Western country, and at this date is still living. 

3 Eliza, born October 6, 1804, married Lewis Jenkins, of Fairlee, and there resides, having a pleasant family and situation. She and her sister Mary when young became members of the Congregational church in Bradford. 

4 Nancy, born February 28, 1807, married Daniel Rowe, and died at Manchester in 1870. 

5 Emily, born March 20, 1809, married Sanborn Corliss, and lives in Missouri.

6 and 7   Charlotte and Annah died in childhood. 

9 Charlotte, born July 27, 1818, married John Row-land, and settled in Topsham, Vt.

10 Joseph, born September 7, 1820, married Orissa Dickey, who died in 1850. He subsequently married a Miss Daniels.

8 Rufus F. Ormsby, Jr., born October 7, 1815, married December 14, 1848, Mary H. Colby, daughter of Curtis Colby, of Bradford, where they at this date continue to reside, blessed with four daughters. 

Sarah E., born December 8,1849, married April 7,1873, Gregory B. Durgin, of this town, where they continue to reside.

Jennie N., born January 21, 1852, married Horace P. Emerson, January 2, 1871.   They have one son.

Emma M., born November 2, 1854.

Etta C, born May 8, 1857.

Mr. Rufus F. Ormsby, Jr., and family, lived for several years on the farm which his lather had occupied before him, west of Wright's Mountain; but in 1860 moved to the meadow farm, which he at this date still occupies, called the Albee place, in the southeast corner of Bradford, and bordering on Connecticut River. In that some what retired but pleasant location, Mr. Ormsby enjoys the esteem and confidence of his fellow townsmen, and is at this date one of the Selectmen of Bradford.  Another son of Joseph, and brother of Rufus, the first of that name above mentioned, was Thomas Ormsby, born Jan. 13, 1784. He married Susan Leslie, of Bradford, December 4, 1806. They had four children, namely, Charity, born October 2, 1807, died September 11, 1854.  Christiana, born February 2, 1810;  Joseph W., born February 2, 1812, and died September 3, 1857, and Susan M., born December 11, 1815. She married Lorenzo Tabor, Esq., of Bradford, and removed with him to Adrian, Michigan, where they at this writing are still living. See account of the Tabor family. Mr. Thomas Ormsby was by occupation a farmer, a man of decidedly christian character, and withal quite a poet. A specimen of his versification, styled " The Bower of Prayer," may be seen in the last chapter of this book. He died at Bradford, May 21, 1824, in the forty-first year of his age.  His widow died at Adrian, February 13, 1863.  Joseph Ormsby, M. D., a skillful physician and man of ability, who practiced for several years in Corinth, and died there, was a brother of Thomas, last named.

ORMSBY

Robert McKinsley Ormsby, attorney-at-law in the city of New York, was a native of Corinth, Vermont.  His father, Dr. Joseph Ormsby, for several years a practicing physician in that town, was a son of Joseph Ormsby, of Fairlee, who was a son of Ichabod Ormsby, of Woodstock, Conn. Dr. Joseph Ormsby married Miss Martha Soule, of Piermont, N. H., October 29, 1809, and at Corinth continued to reside during the remainder of their days. They were a couple of decided talent, vivacity, and energy of character. The doctor was esteemed well read and skillful in his profession. They had a family of six sons, all natives of Corinth. Of these two died in their childhood.   Thomas, the eldest son, died unmarried, in his twenty-ninth year. Rufus, the fourth son, died some five or six years later, at about the same age.  Robert McKinsley, of whom we now propose to speak somewhat more particularly, was born June 29, 1814. On the death of his father, which occurred September 6, 1822, in the forty-sixth year of the doctor's age, this son, then in his ninth year, went to live with Mr. Ezra Childs, of Bath, N. H., where he remained, receiving the advantages of common school instruction, till fifteen years of age. In 1831 he attended Bradford, Vt., Academy three terms. In 1833 he went toMassilon, Ohio, where he remained till 1836, when he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and resided there till 1842. At Louisville he studied law with the late Hon. I. I. Marshall, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. In 1842 the death of his mother occasioned his return to Vermont. She died on the 14th of July, 1842, in the fifty-ninth year of her age, having remained in widowhood nearly twenty years.  Esq. R. McK. Ormsby opened a law office at Bradford, Vt, in 1844, and there continued in successful business for more than twenty years, when in 1866 he removed to the city of New York.   The year in which he commenced business in Bradford, at the request of Mr. Asa Low, a large dealer in school books, Mr. Ormsby prepared a spelling book which has been used to some extent, especially in Vermont. Desirous that Mr. Webster should be nominated for the Presidency in 1852, Mr. Ormsby for a short time previous to that date published in Bradford a news-paper called the Northern Enquirer, and in 1859 he published in Boston a volume of some 370 12mo. pages, entitled "A History of the Whig Party," a work prepared with painstaking and ability, but, like the party itself, now almost forgotten amid the tumultuous strife of later organizations. Since the publication of the work last named, the author has devoted his attention more exclusively to the appropriate business of his legal profession.  On the 14th of September, 1857, Robert McK. Ormsby and Miss Lucy Jane Murphy, of Bradford, were by Rev.  S. McKeen united in marriage. There have been born to them two sons and two daughters.

Edward Everett was born November 11, 1858.  Laura Arabella and Lucy Malvina, twin sisters, were born July 22, 1860. The last named died February 14, 1861.

Charles Arthur, born January 9, 1863, died April 25, 1864.

Edward E. Ormsby, when in his fifth year, was by scarlet fever rendered totally deaf. His health has since been delicate. He is a bright and pleasant boy, in whose due education his parents feel deeply interested. He is a pupil in the Institute for the deaf and dumb in New York city, and his parents have established themselves so near that they can have him with them two days in a week.  He is understood to be making fine improvement, and to be quite a favorite with his Principal and Teachers.  Such institutions are surely among the richest blessings of the age in which we live.

John Bliss Ormsby, M. D., the youngest son of Dr. Joseph and Martha S. Ormsby, of Corinth, was born there January 2, 1821. Before he reached the age of two years his father died, and he remained with his mother till ten years of age, when he was taken to a friend of family in Bath, N. H., where he resided till sixteen. In 1838 he commenced work at the carding and cloth dressing business, at which he labored till 1846, when, at the age of twenty-five, he commenced the study of medicine. He entered the private class of Prof. Benj. H. Palmer, of Woodstock, Vt., and graduated at the Vermont Medical College in June, 1849. In October of that year Dr. Ormsby began practice in his native town of Corinth, and in February, 1850, he married Miss Malina L. M. Baker, daughter of Enoch Baker, Esq., of Shipton, Canada East.  The consumptive condition of his wife rendering a change of climate necessary, he removed in 1854 to Wisconsin.  In 1865 occurred the death of his wife. In 1867 his own health, under the malarial influence of that climate, having failed, he returned East, and in 1868 came to Bradford, where he has continued to reside, in the practice of his profession, esteemed a skillful physician, but in feeble health. He has at this writing three children, namely :

Clara Martha, born March 31, 1852 ; Thomas Edwin, born April 13, 1855; and Robert Silas, born November 26, 1865. Dr. Ormsby is at this date (1874) President of the Bradford Scientific Society.  Biographie Index

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