The Bazil Phelps Family

 

Well, we will call this part two of the Bazil Phelps saga. 

This is a family account of the Phelps family that came into Grand Traverse County from Pennsylvania in and around 1866.

The Bazil Phelps Family
Bazil Phelps was one of three sons born to Benjamin Phelps & Priscilla Reynolds Wheat, in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He was baptized there March 31, 1799. When his father died around 1807, his mother moved with her sons Robert, Levi and Bazil Phelps and Thomas Wheat to Steuben County, New York following her oldest grown son Jonathon Wheat.

Bazil met Phebe Johnson, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Johnson, in New York where she was born. They married and moved to Harrison Township in Potter County Pennsylvania soon after, and Bazil’s brothers Robert and Levi followed them there. Nine children were born to Bazil and Phebe in Harrison Township, six of them survived to adulthood;

Priscilla, Elisha, Ruth Ann, Sarah Ann, Thomas and Emily.

Most of them came with Bazil and Phebe to Grand Traverse County in 1866 or soon after.

Priscilla Phelps was born in Pennsylvania in 1826. She married Henry Youker and they had four children born in Harrison before moving to Grand Traverse in 1866;
Catherine, Ann Eliza, John George and Phebe Ann; Catherine married John Bradshaw in Grand Traverse; Ann Eliza married Lavern O. Sackett, and they moved to Grand Traverse in 1866. John George married in Grand Traverse. Phebe Ann was killed by a falling tree in Benzie in 1869 at 11 years old. All are buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery except John who is buried in Maple Grove in Grawn.
 
Elisha Phelps was born about 1830 in Pennsylvania. He married Eliza Jane Carr and they followed Bazil and Phebe to Grand Traverse in 1866. Elisha was a veteran of the Civil War. He died June 2, 1866, in Grand Traverse County before he could secure a Homestead Act claim. We believe Elisha was buried on the farm of Bazil Phelps, now known as Mt. Hope Cemetery. Eliza Jane remarried Jonas Youker a year later.
 
Ruth Ann Phelps was born in May of 1835 in Pennsylvania; she married Alfred Ellis c1851 in Harrison Township. Ruth and Alfred had nine children; 

Levi, Mary Almira, Eliza who died young, Loren and Harrison were all born in Pennsylvania, Charles, Emily and Emery were born in Iowa and their last child Phebe was born in April of 1874 in Grand Traverse County.  

Ruth Ann died a few months later in October of 1874 and Alfred was overwhelmed with raising the children alone. Most were sent to live with relatives. Both Levi and Mary Almira married soon after their mother’s death. Phebe moved in with her aunt and uncle, Sarah and Harrison Johnson. Emily moved in with aunt and uncle, Priscilla and Henry Youker and her twin brother Emery lived with his sister Mary Almira and her new husband Joseph Hessler. Charles was taken in by John Bradshaw and wife Catherine (Youker) and Harrison stayed with his father. Loren is still unaccounted for in that short time frame but remained in the area all of his life and is believed to be buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery along with his parents Ruth Ann and Alfred.
 
Sarah Ann Phelps was born May 9, 1837, in Pennsylvania and married Harrison Johnson, a Civil War Veteran. They lived in New York and had two sons, Calvin Amos and Thomas Benjamin before moving to Grand Traverse County. Another son Stacy Johnson was born in Grand Traverse in 1871 and died in 1879 and is buried in Mt. Hope with his parents.
 
Thomas Phelps was born in and died in Harrison, Potter County Pennsylvania. He married Sarah Louisa Johnson, and they had three sons, Benjamin, William and Franklin. Thomas died August 30, 1870, at age 30 in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Sarah Louisa moved her family to the Grand Traverse region soon after. She married William Armstrong in Leelanau County in 1872. Sarah died in 1909 in Leelanau and William Armstrong in 1914 in Traverse City. The Phelps boys remained in the area.
 
Emily Phelps, the youngest daughter of Bazil and Phebe Phelps was born in Harrison November 9, 1841. She died in Harrison on November 24, 1861, at 20 years of age and is buried in White’s Corners Cemetery along with her brother Thomas in Potter County Pennsylvania.