But it's not easy to understand right away, with so many great-great-greats and relationships between the families that go back to the 1800s. "Genealogy is something that confuses the dead, and something that irritates the living."That's how the 70-year-old Jacoby of Indiana describes family trees. She said it can be frustrating sometimes, such as when she looks through her photo albums, because she can recognize the faces in photographs as family, but they aren't identified.
"Oh my, I wish so much somebody would have put some names on some of these," she said, paging through her aunt Minnie Etta (DeLancy) Pierce's old photo album. "They're familiar and so many of the features look familiar, but I don't know for certain any of them."
Jacoby, wife of the late Charles Stevens Jacoby, has had time to straighten the Lewises and DeLanceys out; she's been recording her family history since she was 16 years old. She said she's done her best to sort the photos and label what she can as she finds more information.
She has discovered that a relationship between the two families dates back to at least 1863 when one man from each family built the Old Mahoning Baptist Church together. Lt. Jacob Oliver DeLancey, a carpenter and former Civil War lieutenant, teamed up with Captain Even Lewis, a mason and "one of the best known residents of northern Indiana County," as he was remembered in his obituary.
DeLancey, the fourth of eight children to Jacob F. and Susanna (Knepper) DeLancy, was born in 1834 in South Mahoning Township, married in Indiana and later moved to Plumville.
He was a contractor and builder and served in the Civil War with Company M, 5th heavy artillery unit, in 1864. He married Sarah May Moorhead, with whom he had nine children.
Captain Even - "that's what he was always called in Smicksburg," Jacoby said - was born in 1829 in West Mahoning Township and was the fourth child and only son of Samuel and Abigail (Hallowell) Lewis. Captain
Even's great-grandfather, David Lewis, was the first Lewis to move into Indiana County.
Captain Even's father died just two years after Even's birth, leaving his mother unable to care for all four children. She gave Even to her sister to raise in the Hallowell family, which was "of more than moderate means," according to Jacoby's details of her mother's stories. In turn, Captain even grew to good standing, serving in the Civil War and working as a mason.
Because masons couldn't work in the winter, he also did some farming.
Jane said her mother remembered that Captain Even's fruit cellar was always filled with good smells from the different apples set aside for winter eating.
One generation later, the families were united through marriage. John Newton Lewis - who also grew up to be a mason and helped construct the stone tower of the McCormick mansion near Smicksburg - and Lula Ella DeLancey, Jacoby's grandparents, met at the church built by their fathers and were married by Lula's brother, Preston DeLancey, who was a Baptist minister.
Jane's mother, Grace Leone Lewis, was also married by Preston Delancey to Thomas Monroe Taylor and had four children. Jane has two sons, Michael Stevens Jacoby, 46, and Thomas Leroy Jacoby, 49, and a granddaughter, Savannah.
The Lydicks, the Griffiths, the McCulloughs: Recognize any of these family names? If you know Indiana County history, you know they are families that have resided in the county for hundreds of years.
Indiana County's bicentennial celebration has been bringing to light many historical people, places, events and dates for county residents to be proud of.
Have you or do you know anyone who has already found that their family tree roots are in Indiana County soil?
In coordination with the bicentennial celebration, the Gazette has been highlighting families with roots in the county for a hundred years or more.
If you would like to participate in these stories, call Stephanie Bernat at the Gazette at (724) 465-5555, ext. 311.
