Individual Page

Person Info

• Name: Owen TODD
• Sex: M
• Birth: 20 Apr 1762 in Providence Twp, Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania ^b
• Death: 6 Dec 1817 in Vevay, Indiana ^d
• Burial: Vevay Cemetery, Vevay, Indiana ^u


Parents:

• Father:
  
• David TODD Birth: 3 Apr 1723 in Co Armagh, Ireland Death: 8 Feb 1785 in Lexington, Fayette Co, Kentucky
Mother:

• Hannah OWEN Birth: 25 Oct 1725 Death: May 1805 in Lexington, Fayette Co, Kentucky

Family:
Marriage:

• Elizabeth SMITH on 1782 .^m1
  
• Elizabeth SMITH Death: 1783

Children:

1. Hannah TODD Birth: 4 May 1783 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Death: 1876 in Indianapolis, Indiana

Marriage:

• Maria Jane PAXTON on 9 Jun 1790 .^m2
  
• Maria Jane PAXTON Birth: 22 Apr 1771 Death: 1834 in Madison, Indiana

Children:

1. Owen Kentucky TODD Birth: 23 Oct 1791 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, Kentucky Death: Jul 1864
2. Maria Jane TODD Birth: 28 Jul 1793 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, Kentucky Death: 31 Dec 1880 in Marhall, Illinois
3. Paxton Warren TODD Birth: 1 Apr 1795 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, Kentucky Death: 14 Feb 1837
4. Robert William TODD Birth: 28 Apr 1797 in Cane Run, Fayette Co, Kentucky Death: Tenessee
5. David Andrew TODD Birth: 7 Oct 1799 in Loveland, Ohio Death: 15 Feb 1864 in Vernon, Indiana
6. John Hawkins TODD Birth: 14 Oct 1801 in Clermont Co, Ohio Death: 1824 in Vevay, Indiana
7. Isabella Ramsey TODD Birth: 24 Nov 1803 in Clermont Co, Ohio Death: 2 Feb 1879 in Vevay, Indiana
8. Nancy Smith TODD Birth: 12 Oct 1805 in Warren Co, Ohio Death: 20 Aug 1831
9. Levi Wesley TODD Birth: 18 Aug 1807 in Warren Co, Ohio
10. Eliza Jane TODD Birth: 12 Nov 1809 in Warren Co, Ohio Death: 27 Feb 1863 in Kansas City, Missouri
11. Elijah Smith TODD Birth: 6 Jul 1811 in Warren Co, Ohio Death: 1 Jun 1864 in Wright Co, Missouri

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p90, Johnson TODD]

1762 [Ref: Chamberlain TODD p35],

place:

[Ref: Helm TODD p90, Johnson TODD],

parents:

[Ref: Chamberlain TODD p35]

Sources for death Information

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p90],

place:

[Ref: Helm TODD p90]

Sources for burial Information

place:

[Ref: Helm TODD p90]

Sources with Information about marriage to Elizabeth SMITH

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p93, Johnson TODD],

child:

[Ref: Helm TODD p265, Helm TODD p93]

Sources with Information about marriage to Maria Jane PAXTON

date:

[Ref: Helm TODD p93],

names:

[Ref: Chamberlain TODD p35],

child:

[Ref: Helm TODD p266, Helm TODD p268, Helm TODD p269, Helm TODD p270, Helm TODD p271, Helm TODD p272, Helm TODD p93]

Research Notes:
Owen Todd was educated in such schools as his township afforded. According to family tradition he left home at the age of seventeen and took part in the storming of Stony Point, July 15 1779, under Gen.. Anthony Wayne, who was a neighbor and friend of his father. It is said that his conspicuous bravery on this ocasion drew forth from Wayne the warmest praise, and would have gained him a commission but for his youth. It is probable that his presence with the Pennsylvania troops on the Hudson, in 1779, was without the knowledge of his parents, as in 1780-81, hs was with his brother-in-law, Roger North, a member of Capt. Alexander Johnston's company of Volunteer Light Horse, of Chester county. In 1794, Owen Todd, with his parents and the family of his brother-in-law, Elijah Smith, migrated to Kentucky, whither his three elder brothers, John, Robert, and Levi, had gone before the revolution.
Land was bought on Cane Run, a branch of the North Fork of Elkhorn Creek, Fayette Co., at a point nine miles from the village of Lexington. Here the parents took up their residence and their children and relatives found homes in the vicinity. Like many of the adventurous and better educated young men of that day, who found their way to the west, Owen Todd had familiarized himself with the duties of a land surveyor. For this occupation his education, his physical constitution, and his tastes eminently fitted him. He had brought with him the implements of his profession, and his services were soon in requisition by the settlers on the rich soil of Kentucky, with each of whom his earliest wish was realized only when had secured a home for himself and some friend left behind in the "old country", as they termed the place from which they had migrated. For several years he was thus employed in private and government surveying, at first in Kentucky and later on the waters of the Little Miami River in South-western Ohio, where a stream known as Todd's Fork of the Little Miami still bears his name. In 1786, then being a resident of Kentucky, he accompanied the expedition of Gen. George Rogers Clarke against the Indian towns on the Wabash River, but in what capacity is not known, probably as a private. He was commissioned by Gov. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, to take rank from Sept 9, 1789. During the years following he was engaged in frequent expeditions against the Indians. In August, 1791, he commanded a company under Gen. James Wilkinson in the second expedition again the Indians on the Upper Wabash River, and Aug. 20, 1794, fifteen years after his boyish adventure at Stony Point, he again fought under General Wayne, commanding a company of Kentuckians in the brigade of his elder brother, Gen. Robert Todd, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee River, Ohio, generally know as "Wayne's Victory."
In 1797, Owen Todd moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, locating on the east bank of Little Miami River, on O'Bannon's Creek, one mile east of the present town of Loveland, whither his wife's family, the Paxtons, had preceded him two years before. When the county of Clermont was organized, Dec 6th, 1800, the Todd and Paxton families found themselves citizens of Clermont County, and, indeed, were the first actual settlers in that county. Owen Todd was presiding Judge of the first Court of General Quarter Sessions convened in the county, on the first Tuesday in February, 1801, at Williamsburgh, then the county seat, which position he held until December, 1803. During the occupancy of this home, a period of six or eight years, he did a great deal of private surveying. In much of this work he was associated with William Lytle, afterwards Major General of the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812, and later Surveyor General of the public lands of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, whom he had known from boyhood in Kentucky. In the meantime he had acquired considerable bodies of land on Todd's Creek, in the adjoining county of Warren, where his business of surveying frequently led him. One tract of two thousand acres lay not far from the present town of Clarkesville, Clinton Co, where he built a blockhouse for the protection of his surveying party. A few miles below this, on the left bank of the Little Miami River, in Warren Co., he had a smaller tract on which he lived for a short time when he purchased the well-known farm lying on the north east corner of the crossing of the Waynesville and Morrow, and the Lebanon and Fort Ancient pikes, one and a half miles west of the last named place, and now occupied by Cephas Guttery. Here he lived for many years and until his removal to Indiana.
Jodge Owen Todd was one of the notabilities of the "Miami Country." In person, he was five feet, ten inches in height, compact and muscular and weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds. His bodily activity and powers of endurance were remarkable, and incredible stories are told of his leaping and other athletic feats. In form he was erect and in movement graceful. His complexion was fair and his head, which was large, was covered with dark, brown hare that hung to his waist, but which he wore as a queue, put up in a silk or leather bag. The queue was cut off a short time before his death, and is now (1883) in possession of his grand-daughter, Miss Jane Todd, of Chattanooga, Tenn. His jaws were heavy, but a beautifully curved mouth and large brown eyes relieved the face of all harshness, and gave instead an expression of the utmost kindness; he had indeed an excellent presence, and was called a handsome man. He was temperate in all things, and regular in his habits of living; but was somewhat fastidious in his dress, preserving on all suitable occasions, till within a short time of his death, the costume worn by gentlemen of education and culture in the days that preceded the War of Independence. He was a man of great courage; indeed, it may be said of him that he was utterly without fear. In his affections he was warm and demonstrative. To his wife and children and other near relatives, he was charmingly tender and gracious. Another of his children, Mrs. Madison, says of him that he never left home for the shortest time without kissing his wife farewell. He was confiding and generous to weakness. His willingness to serve his friends gave him much trouble in his later days, dissipating the ample earnings of a lifetime and bringing him almost to the verge of bankruptcy.
Though a slave owner while living in Kentucky he was always an advocate of the abolition of slavery, and before leaving that state he gave freedom to all his slaves, about fifteen in number. Seven or eight of these refused to be left behind and were taken to Ohio, where their wants were well supplied, all the women receiving twenty acres of land on their marriage.
Though descended on the paternal side through a long line of Presbyterians he early attached himself to the Methodist Church as did his wife, and died in that communion. Early in 1817, he followed some of his children to Vevay, Indiana, buying a farm two miles below the town on the banks of the Ohio River, and died the same year, at his town home, the site of which is now occupied by a Baptist Church edifice. He is buried in the Vevay Cemetery, where a stone with suitable inscription marks his grave. He was eloquent of speech, but was not ambitious of political distinction and never sought office, yet during his short life he filled many places of honor, and it is now known that he ever betrayed a public or private trust. [Ref: Helm TODD p90-93]



Pedigree of Owen TODD
                            /-----John Or James TODD
                   /-----John TODD
                  |         \-----Isabelle PARKER
          /-----Robert TODD
         |         \-----Isabelle BODLEY
 /-----David TODD
|         \-----Ann SMITH
Owen TODD
 \-----Hannah OWEN



Descendants of Owen TODD

2nd generation


3rd generation