General Notes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ below is from Dennis Collver's www.collver.org  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John's son Gabriel (b. 1792, d. 8 April 1849) was born in New Jersey, as an infant during their move to Canada and it is said that he was carried there in his mothers arms. He was issued the degree of master mason by his lodge, No. 26 at Townsend in Upper Canada, May 18, 1815, then was said to have moved to America with his sister Elizabeth ( From my limited understanding of the Masons, I wonder if the Gabriel achieving Master Mason was more likely his Uncle Gabriel as this Gabriel would be only 23 years old). Various Collvers were charged with treason during the war of 1812, and some of them had to prove their loyalties by oath or by their actions, for example Rev. Jabez Collver had to take an oath of loyalty to the crown and renounce his American citizenship. Apparently several Collvers did leave for the states because of this, but whether Gabriel was one of them was unclear.

After the war of 1812 and various Indian wars, the US Government offered land at extremely cheap prices to get people to settle in Ohio and Illinois, to counter the British influence of the region. Gabriel, having been born in America, he may have retained his US Citizenship ( or citizenship wasn't important then. ) and moved to Ohio to take advantage of the new policies. The crux of these new policies was the treaty of Ghent. Ohio in particular had been hard hit by these wars, and little or no immigration or expansion occurred there until the signing of the Treaty. The period of 1816 through the early 1830's was a boom cycle for the frontier and especially Ohio.

Gabriel appears in Cuyahoga County Ohio, in the Township of Warrensville, in which is located south east of Cleveland and is near the shores of Lake Erie and due south of Norfolk Ontario. Also a Marshall/Micheal Culver appears by examination of land and census records about the same time.

He married on 3 April 1819 to Philura Brown daughter of Peleg Brown, a prominent figure in early Warrensville. According to the book "history of the Mc Intosh Family" located at the Eva Brook Donly Museum in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, Gabriel's sister Elizabeth married into the Mc Intosh family and in a letter she mentions her brother Gabriel as having married Philura, Daughter of Peleg Brown and had a son Alfred. Upon cross-checking for alternate Gabriel Collvers, I ran across a branch of Collvers from upstate NY, but not a Gabriel Culver, but if he had been a young man, his name would not appear anyway as they only listed the name of the head of family and not the children. From what I understand about names in the early to late 1700's, Gabriel was not an extremely common name for puritan descendants, as they tended to use biblical names (i.e.: John, Paul, etc...) but not the names of Angels and other holy persons (i.e.: Jesus) as they considered this rather tactless.

Gabriel was considered one of the earliest residents and was elected to the board of trustees in 1818, 1822, 1824 and 1830, as was his neighbor Beckwith Cook. The northern part of the Township had a small community of Shakers, who operated and sawmill and a grist mill. Apparently there was also a community of Quakers as well, but the majority of the county was Protestant and Methodist. I'm guessing by saying this, but he was probably one of the latter as the Quakers and Shakers largely kept to themselves and since he was active in local affairs, he was probably not one of those two groups. Philura Brown apparently passed away, some sources say in childbirth with Alfred, but the facts don't bear this out. He re-married in 1829, and he already had 3 children by then, this is also supported by the 1820 and 1830 census:

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1820:
MALES                      FEMALES
10 and under     16-26     16 - 26   Occupation farming
     1             1          1
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1830:
MALES                            FEMALES                   slave   Free-color
under 5   6-10   11-15   30-40   under 5   16-20   21-30   24-36   36-55
    1      1       1       1        1        1        1      1       1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If Philura was born in 1797, then she would be 33 in the 1830 Census, and if she died in childbirth with Alfred (1819), then why would a 16-26 year old female be in residence (his future wife Brazilda(Berzilda?) would only be 11 years old in 1820) Now lets get a little bold with the census figures for 1830. Lets say that Philura died in the birth of the 3rd child Emily in 1827, then Gabriel would need a nanny to care for the children , thus: female slave 24-36 and free colored female 36-55. He marries Berzilda which accounts for the 21-30 female in the census.

Gabriel re-married to Brazilda(Berzilda?) Rosalin Cook (b. 1810) daughter of Beckwith Cook on 7 July 1829 and it assumed that she is the mother of four more children in Ohio. There is talk of a Cornelius Collver born in Iowa in different charts, so he is a little hard to verify.

The late 1820's were an interesting period of expansion and also heralded the arrival of the Mormons to Ohio. The articles written then spoke of numerous persons that left the township, having been "taken by the Mormons". Joseph Smith passed through that area and started communities and set up a large one in Missouri, I believe. Also either Warrensville, or one of the neighboring townships, was credited with having the first Mormon Temple.

A canal was put into Lake Erie from a nearby River and a fever caught on as Cleveland was going to be a big port town and land prices jumped and over spending and borrowing started to occur. The federal government had been selling land on credit , which also spurred over expansion. In 1832 Andrew Jackson took office and by 1835 had dissolved the federal bank which popped the economic bubble. The government was also cashed strapped and changed it's policy of cheap credit to cash only for land transactions, and when people tried to sell their lands, the value became seriously depreciated and many foreclosures followed. Thus almost every single business in the township (as well as the frontier) failed and went into bankruptcy.

Cuyahoga County had no industrial base at that time, and the land was not self sufficient for agriculture, thus a mass exodus of people left Ohio for points west. The economy did not recover until 1840-41, the older states weren't hurt as badly as the frontier states, as the established families had more equity in their land unlike the frontiersman. Many families through out the frontier banded together and went as trains. The Culvers, Rices and Cooks formed a train in 1839 and headed for Iowa.

The Three families traveled together to Iowa, and many of the sons and daughters of these families married each other after reaching Iowa and some of the parents as well, Beckwith Cook married Mary Rice (the mother of Ruth Rice, Alfred's wife) and Gabriel married Brazilda(Berzilda?), the daughter of Beckwith Cook. Gabriel is mentioned several times in Cedar County documents, most notably he was a juror in the murder trial of a young woman who was acquitted of killing her child by exposure to the elements. He died 8 April 1849 and is buried at the Virginia Grove Cemetery, Cedar Co. Iowa. It appears that Rosalin re-married and she is also buried in the Virginia Grove Cemetery. In the 1850's many of the Collvers, Cooks and Rices, packed up again and headed for Oregon. The descendants of Alfred's brother, Orace Collver stayed in the area as he appears several times in histories of the county and court documents in the latter 1800's.

The Children of Gabriel and Philura and/or Brazilda(Berzilda)

Alfred Bainbridge Collver, born 12 Dec. 1819, Warrensville Ohio.
Orace Micheal Culver, born 14 Jun. 1821/3, Ohio.
Emily Culver, born 1827, Ohio.
Darius Culver, born 1830, Ohio.
Charles Culver, born 1832, Ohio.
Hiram Culver, born 1834, Ohio.
Orrin Culver, born 1837, Ohio.
Cornelius A. Culver, born 1844, Iowa.

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  Burial Notes

Virginia Grove Cemetery

  Recorded Events in His Life

• Moved: from New Jersey, to Ontario, Canada, to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to Cedar County, Iowa.

• He has conflicting birth information of 20 November 1792 and New Jersey, USA.

• He has conflicting birth information of 20 October 1797 and New Jersey, USA. ⁸

• Fact: Received certificate for degree of Master Mason from his lodge, Number 26, in Townsend, in the province of Upper Canada, on 18 May 1815.

• He appeared on the 1820 US Federal Census on 7 August 1820 in Warrensville Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA. ⁸
  
  1820 census — Gabriel Colvier household:
  Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA
  1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, (8 blanks), 3
  
  1 male under 10 [Alfred]
  1 male 16-26 [Gabriel]
  1 female 16-26 [Philura]
  1 person engaged in agriculture
  household total: 3

• Moved: to Cedar County, Iowa, USA, 10 September 1839.

• He appeared on the 1840 US Federal Census on 1 June 1840 in Cedar County, Iowa Territory, USA. ⁶

• He has conflicting death information of 4 August 1849 and Tipton, Center Township, Cedar County, Iowa, USA.