Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Stephen VAIL
Among the first settlers was Steven VAIL and his large family of sons and daughters. These were all New Jersey people. Mr. VAIL was born October 19, 1739, and was married three times, his first wife living but a short while after the marriage. Her name was Rebecca JACKSON. To Mr. VAIL were born ten children, who grew to maturity and were a part of this new settlement. These were Samuel and Moses, whose mother was Sarah SMITH VAIL, and Rebecca, Shobal, Aaron, Sarah, Rachael, Hugh, Mary and Catherine, children of Mary FITZGERALD VAIL. These were all potential in the social, industrial, educational and moral development of Middletown. Mr. VAIL was reared in the Quaker faith and his children drank in this pure faith in their father's home and its influence was noticed in the bearing and conduct of all during their lives. No family connected with the early days of this settlement made a more kindly impression on men and measures than did these Quaker folks.
It is probable that in the plans made in the New Jersey home of the VAILs, it was decided that the sons, Shobal and Aaron, should come to this place a little in advance of the father, Steven, and that they were actually here before he arrived, for it may be noted that Shobal was married to Miss Mary BONNELL, of Warren county, in 1799, a year before Steven VAIL arrived, according to best authority. Mrs. Shobal VAIL was a sister of Samuel BONNELL, an early settler in this new county, and was a very lively lady, full of jokes and fun, an exactly [sic] opposite of her Quaker husband. They lived and reared their family in a home situated on the sixty-one acres patented by Mr. VAIL and coming off the north side of section 28. The house was located where the Catholic Sisters now have their home, on Clark and Crane streets.
Aaron and Randal VAIL began their careers on the west side of the Miami. Aaron subsequently went to Warren county. Others of the children after marriage drifted to nearby points, but Hugh, the youngest, remained in Middletown and out of lands bought and inherited added important additions and improvements to the town and was more a part of the new and advancing community than any other of the children. The new town had no better citizen. He was twice married. Miss Lydia WEBSTER, of Monroe, Ohio, came to his home first and latter Mrs. Jane PORTER, of South Carolina, became his wife. His daughter, Lydia J., married to L. D. DOTY and still lives in this city, while the daughter Ida lives in or near Chicago with her daughter, Lulu FLENNER. Ida became the wife of C. F. GUNCKEL, who is now dead.
from: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio edited by Hon. Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider and others, B. F. Bowen & Co., publishers 1905. pages 286-287.
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