Ambrose Martin, the second child of John
and Sarah (Stanley) Martin, was born in Athens County,
Ohio, on 16 Dec 1812. He died 18 Feb 1900 in Douglas
County, Illinois, and is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Camargo,
Illinois.
On 18 Aug 1831 he married Phebe May Stewart in Clark County, Ohio.
Her parentage is unknown, but it is likely she came from Clark
County. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why she and
Ambrose were married there (as the Martins, so far as we know,
never resided there). The 1820 and 1830 censuses of Clark
County show several families of Stewarts in the county.
Ambrose
and Phebe moved to Camargo, Illinois, along with Ambrose's
parents and siblings, about 1836-37. They apparently
resided there for the rest of their lives, although it is not
certain that Phebe died there or is buried there. Her name
and dates are inscribed, along with Ambrose's, on a marker at
Oak Ridge Cemetery in Camargo, but in 1995 a separate headstone for Phebe was found
lying about on private property in Camden County,
Missouri. The Camargo tombstone gives only the years
1809-1875 for Phebe's dates of birth and death; the one in
Missouri records that she "Died Sept. 6, 1875, Aged 66 years,
eight months and 15 days." That translates to a birth date
of December 22, 1808 — not 1809. Despite this slight
discrepancy, there seems little doubt that the two tombstones
refer to the same person, which leaves us to wonder whether:
- Phebe actually died
in Missouri (perhaps while visiting or just traveling
through?), she was buried there, and her name was later
engraved on Ambrose's stone back in Camargo, in her memory,
but her body isn't really there; or
- The individual
headstone originally marked Phebe's grave in Illinois, was
discarded or set aside when it was replaced by the newer
double headstone after Ambrose died, and then it was somehow
transported to Missouri for some unknown reason.
Ambrose clearly
remained in Camargo until his death in 1900, as noted in the obituary written for him by J.T. Irwin.
The obituary mentions five children born to Ambrose and Phebe
Martin, who would be the following:
We know of two others
who died in infancy, however, from the following inscriptions
noted on tombstones at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Camargo:
- Infant son of A.
& P. Martin, d. Jan. 10, 1849
- Wm. Reed, son of A.
& P. Martin, d. July 15, 1851, aged 1 yr, 3 mo., 12 d.
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