The Hart Family   Ohio, West Virginia by Sheri Siebold, sherigen@yahoo.com

For those who are researching the Hart Family in America, I would suggest that they go to www.ultranet.com/~harts/family/harts, where Richard Hart has made a wonderful site. He has placed a major portion of Alfred Andrews, Genealogical History of DEACON STEPHEN HART and His Descendants, 1632 - 1874* online.

Due to his efforts I was able to unravel a portion of our oral history.  I include here only the direct ancestor, by marriage, and two brothers who were intermarried with other family members.

Individual Number 1912

Watertown, Marietta, Ohio

Deacon Benjamin Hart, New Britain, fourth son of Jehudah Hart, of the same place, and his first wife, Mary (Munson), born November 20th, 1781, at New Britain; married July 28th, 1805, Honor Deming, of Watertown, Ohio, daughter of Colonel Simeon Deming, of Wethersfled, Conn., born September 28th, 1789. She died December 19th, 1825, aged 36 years, when second he married August 26th, 1826, by Rev. Jacob Linsley, Mrs. Esther Miner, whose maiden name was Esther Wilson, born August 25th, 1795. She died at Watertown, August 9th, 1833, when third he married October 15, 1834, Widow Lawrence, whose name was Rebecca White, born November 11th, 1802. She died September 19th, 1856. Mr. Hart settled in Watertown, Washington County, Ohio, about 1820, and was chosen a deacon of the Presbyterian Church there at its organization.  From thence he removed to Marietta in 1852, and died at the house of his youngest son, by his second wife, Henry Converse Hart, December 24th, 1867, aged 72 years and 4 months.

Children by his first wife, being the seventh generation (from Deacon Stephen Hart):

1. Austin, b. March 4, 1808; married April 9th, 1842, Clarinda Star 2. Columbus, b. July 7, 1810; married September 10th, 1833, Nancy Proctor 3. Mary Ann, b. May 24th, 1813; married September 25th, 1833, Joseph Hayward 4. Lucy Wolcott, b. December 2nd, 1815; married October 12th, 1836, Samuel Payne; second 5. Simeon Deming, b. August 13th, 1818; married July 24th, 1846, Minerva Lawrence 6. Sally Emeline, b. Sept. 20th, 1820; died Sept. 19th, 1828, aged 8 years. 7. Benjamin Franklin, b. January 5th, 1823; married October 19th, 1848, Sally Maria Alcock, of Marietta,Ohio. 8. Joel North, born September 4, 1825; died October 5th, 1825, aged 1 month.

Children by his second wife:

1. Esther Minor, b. May 8th,1827; married ____________, Charles Stratton. 2. Henry Converse, b. March 4th, 1833, at  Watertown, Ohio.

Page 512, Hart Family

The Three Brothers

Doctor Simeon Deming Hart, Marietta, Ohio, third son of Deacon Benjamin  and Honor (Deming) Hart

Married July 24th, 1846 to Minerva Lawrence, of Watertown, Ohio, before Rev. Lucien Ford. He is superintendent and she is matron of the Children's Home in Marietta, Ohio. He is also a physician. They had no children in 1874.  pg. 400.

[Note:  The 1870 Population Census, Muskingum, Washington Co. Ohio shows this information: Childrens Home Directors,

S.D. Hart, age 61  (partial paralysis of Gastrive nerve); wife, Lydia, age 56].

Doctor Benjamin Franklin Hart, Marietta, Ohio, fourth son of Deacon Benjamin and Honor (Deming) Hart, b. Jan. 5th, 1823, at Watertown, Washington County, Ohio. He left home when he was eleven years old, and took the responsibility of caring for himself. Being determined to acquire an eduction, he worked for $4 per month, went to school winters, and paid his board by doing chores night and morning; but when he became older he paid his expenses by sawing wood and shoveling coal, or any work he could find. He united with the Congregational Church at Harmar, Ohio, April 3rd, 1840, at the age of seventeen, and began the study of medicine with his cousin, Dr. Seth Hart, of Harmar, Ohio, but taught school in 1841-2. He worked in a sawmill one winter, took daguerreotypes for a time, and then worked on a farm, but all the time was studying for his profession. In the fall of 1843 he took his worldly goods, consisting of scanty clothing, one sheet, one blanket, two comfortables, and a few cooking utensils, on the deck of a steamer and went to Cincinnati. He hired a room in the third story of a house on Vine Street, did his own cooking, washing, and ironing, heard six medical lectures per day, and ran in debt for half the lectures. He started for home in the spring of 1844 with $1.50, paid $1 for deck passage to Harmar, and for lack of funds went thrity-six hours without eating, when he landed, and found Dr. Seth Hart very sick. He took care of him and his patients the best he could, and in November went four miles up the Ohio River to the mouth of the Muskingum, where he began business, soon had a large practice, and in two years had paid all his debts for tuition, horse, house, library, and office. Having a large practice over the Ohio [River], in Virginia, he relinquished his business in Ohio to his brother, Simeon, and removed to Bull Creek, Wood County, VA, where he remained two years. He married October 19th, 1848, Sally M., daughter of Thomas Alcock, of Marietta, Ohio, and his wie, Sally Holliday (Wells), b. December 27th, 1830.

Henry Converse Hart, last son of Deacon Benjamin Hart, and his second wife, Esther (Wilson), born March 4th, 1833, at Watertown, Ohio; married September 4th, 1860, Hannah Rood (b. May 30th, 1829). They live near Marietta, Ohio, where he is a farmer.

Seth Wilson Hart, b. August 17th, 1861; died January 2, 1926, Washington County, Ohio  (Ohio Death Certificate Index,  Volume No. 4948, Certificate No. 6443. Lived in Yankeesburg area for all of his life.

[Note: after this biography was written another son was born: Hiram Hart, b. 14 Dec 1874, Newport, Washington Co. Ohio. Last heard of in the 1910 Census in Joplin, Missouri and again in 1912 when mentioned as living in Missouri in his mother's obituary]