45. Sarah O'Neill of Garryhill, Carlow

    Sarah was the second daughter of Hugh and Deborah O'Neill.  I have updated Sarah O'Neill's mini-bio since the 2005 genealogy was printed. That update appears below, but there is still more work to do!

Sarah O’Neill

Sarah (Sallie), born in Garry Hill, February 26, 1796

            Uncle Richard states…”Sallie married an Osborne and lived and died at Summerfield, Ohio.”   [This is from the 1937 genealogy.]

            Garryhill in County Carlow is in the Parish of Dunleckny, Barony of Idrone East. Hugh may have been teaching in that area at the time Sarah was born. There is a National School at that site even today. Hugh’s brother Morgan lived in Dunleckny, and other members of his family may have also.

            Sarah came to the United States with her family around 1806 and found herself in Monroe County before the 1820 Census, as she seems to appear with her sisters Esther and Deborah on that record. This is surmised from the age groupings of Hugh’s children.

            Sarah married William Osborne ca 1827, probably in Monroe County, OH. Those marriage records went up in smoke in the famous courthouse fire of 1867. An odd fact of this relationship is that William’s mother Ruth married Sarah’s father Hugh just about this same time and both went to live at Zanesville in Muskingum County.

            Sarah and William’s oldest daughter Deborah was born in 1828; daughter Ruth in 1830; daughter Narcissus in 1832; daughter Catherine in 1834; daughter Mary R. in 1836; and daughter Ann in 1838.

            Having six daughters may have been too stressful for William, as he died in 1840, leaving his wife with a houseful of girls to rear to adulthood. William’s will was probated in the October 1840 term of the Monroe County Court, with Sarah’s brother William O’Neal and her brother-in-law Joshua Craig, Jr., as witnesses, and with Sarah and Samuel Osborne as executors.

            Sarah appeared on the 1850, 1860, and 1870 Censuses of Monroe/Noble Counties as the Head of Household, so she never remarried after the death of her husband. On the 1850 she is listed as a 57-year-old widow farmer, with children Deborah, Ruth, Nessy, Catharine, Mary, and Ann.

            On the 1860 Census, Sarah (who seemingly only aged three years since the last census!), had Ruth, Catharine, and Mary in her household, with Deborah, Nessy, and Ann  missing, probably by marriage. On the 1870 only Mary is still with her mother, but also living with Sarah were Martha Osborne, age 63, born in Ireland, and Rebecca K. Osborne, age 23, born in Ohio.

            Daughter Deborah married Joseph Stillwell; Narcissus (or Nessy) married James M. Rownd on Sep. 20, 1857; Mary R., aged about 33, married Cleggett D. Robertson on Jan. 30, 1870 (I question this as Mary was still with Sarah on the census.); and Ann Osborne married William H. Rownd. [These marriages came from Osborne researcher Stephen Botney, but only that of Narcissus can be found in the Noble County marriage records.]

            Sarah died on 26 Jun 1872 in Summerfield and is buried in the Eastern Cemetery of that town.