Busch wrote: > > Can anyone familiar with Licking Co. history tell me if there were any major > events in the 1850s that would have killed a lot of people? Epidemics? > Fires? Storms? > > I just found the answer to the question I posted here a few weeks ago--yes, > my great-great-grandmother, Irena Margaret NEIGHBARGER, was married to > someone other than my gg-grandfather (Valentine L. SPAWR) at the time of the > 1850 census. In fact, I've learned that she married John GRIFFITH in 1848 > and that they had two children in about 1850 and 1852. About 1857, she > married my gg-grandfather. I had never heard of the first husband or their > two children until now, which makes me suspect they all died, and probably > about the same time. > > I'd welcome any clues, suggestions, theories, whatever. > > Laurel Busch > lsbusch@accutek.com Laurel, In the Licking Lantern, quarterly publication of the Licking County Genealogical Society, Volume XXIII, Number 3, September, 1998, page 59 is an article on "The Cholera Epidemic of 1854". Original source for the article was the Newark Weekly newspaper article of 18 March, 1894. Early in the article it states that there were nearly 100 deaths in Newark. The article also states that it swept over the country in 1854. Perhaps this would explain some of the deaths in the 1850's. -- Bill Johns, library staff volunteer and member of Licking County (Ohio) Genealogical Society, Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Visit the LCGC Web Site at: http://mocin.licking.oh.us/libraries/lcgs/index.html Visit the Licking County USGenWeb site at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohlickin/ Visit my Home Page at: http://pages.prodigy.net/billjohns/index.htm and also at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/j/o/h/William-A-Johns/index.html