[Ancestor] Oatman

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Husband [Ancestor] Oatman

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       Marriage: 

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Wife

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Children

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1 M Jacob Oatman ¹

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           Born:  - eastern Pennsylvania
     Christened: 
           Died: 12 Sep 1835 - Water Street, Huntingdon Co, PA 2
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Mary McReady (1779-1850) 2

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General Notes: Husband - [Ancestor] Oatman

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The following letter written by C. L. Oatman Oct. 1, 1885, from Lake Geneva, Walworth County, Wisconsin, gives a brief history of the Oatman family to which he belongs:
"My grandfather, George Oatman, had three brothers, Benjamin, Isaac and Joseph. Their father was a Hollander; came from Germany and settled in the town of Old Milford, Connecticut, about seven miles from New Haven, where the family were born and reared. My grandfather and his brother Isaac came to Vermont. George (my grandfather) settled in Rutland county, and Isaac in Bennington county, and Benjamin settled in Jefferson county, New York. Joseph, the other brother, was called the lost Oatman; went from home south and was supposed to be dead. Now you will know which you descended from-either George, Isaac, Benjamin or Joseph.
"In 1836, at Beardstown, on a steamboat on the Illinois river, going up the river, my name was called and it seemed to startle one of the passengers who said that was his name and that that was the first time he had ever heard it outside of his own family. Comparing notes it was shown that we were cousins and he a son of Joseph Oatman, with family who afterward settled in Kane county, Illinois. He and a portion of his family left here and went to Texas and are large cattlemen and rich. Edward and Frank Oatman reside at Dundee, Illinois. Joseph Oatman, the lost one, went to Kentucky and settled near New Albany on the Ohio river, and this branch of the family came from Kentucky. Eli Oatman, my father, was George Oatman's son; had two brothers, Lyman and Eliakim. Royce Oatman, son of Lyman Oatman, started for California in the fall of 1849 with a family of seven children on the southern route and were massacred by the Apache Indians. Olive and a little sister were taken prisoners. Olive, I believe, was some twelve years old, and her sister younger, who died-could not stand the hardship. Lorenzo, a brother, was left for dead on the ground, and recovered, but afterward died. Olive was rescued in 1856, after a captivity of some six years. She became since her captivity finely educated, married a man from near Detroit, Michigan, by the name of Fairchild, and he is now or was last year a banker in the city of Sherman, Texas. She is badly marked (tattooed) about the face. I have a book of their history. . . . A little more history would show that the name was not originally Oatman, but Hoatman, and (there) being two of the same name but no relation at Old Milford, to separate their progeny they cast lots, or drew cuts, as to which should leave out the 'H' and our side got beat and left the name 'Oatman,' as we write it." In a postscript he adds: "Joseph lived in Kentucky, was a large slave owner, died and was buried near New Albany on the Kentucky side of the river and a large monument raised to his memory. A little more history of the massacre-when they were murdered on the southern route to California. The ground has been enclosed and monuments to their memory erected by the government, and is now one of the stop-off places of excursionists."

A similar story is told by the family of Joseph Oatman of Indiana County, Pennsylvania. The names of the three brothers of their grandfather, Jacob, are, however, John, George and Royce; these went to California in 1849, but it was John's family that was massacred. They say there was a copy of the history mentioned in the possession of their family, but that it was loaned out and lost; that it was published in 1850.

This book is available on-line, to read it, click here.

1 J. T. Stewart, Indiana County, Pennsylvania - Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1913), Pg 746.

2 J. T. Stewart, Indiana County, Pennsylvania - Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1913), Pg 747.