Hit a wall with Socrates Townsend in Manlius, NY

Question

I have good sources on Socrates and have been to his grave site as well. My wall is with his father, the 1820 census shows a Richard Townsend in Manlius, NY and shows him with sons in that age range but I cannot with certainty prove it is him. Does anyone have other ideas to prove this source. In the book " Onondaga's Centennial: gleanings of a century" on file at Cornell University it states that Socrates was born in Manlius in 1810 and is of Dutch/Holland descent. I also believe they traveled from Massachusetts via Albany / Saratoga / Baston Spa and then into Manlius and Syracuse area. If anyone has any insight on this family I would be love to hear it.

Comments

Just a side note. The 1855 New York, State Census, would show a Richard Townsend living in Syracuse City, Ward 4, Onondaga, New York, USA he is listed as the father in law and born about 1782 however at this point I have found no other information that would authenticate that Birth Year. It appears it may be a relative however I not sure it's enough information to say emphatically that its the father

Household Members:

Name	Age
John Raymon	30
Sophia Raymon	27
Daniel Raymon	5
John H Raymon	1
Louisa Townsend	65
Richard Townsend	73

---

Look at the census image for birthplace. If NY county is identified

---

I have seen this as well and I agree that it is a very good possibility as many did move to the city as it developed for more opportunities. Also Sophia does fir into the age range. Thank you for sharing.

Answer 1

Although I didn’t see Ambrose, you might also want to try

 Professor W. W. Clayton, History of Onondaga County, New York: Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. Some of its prominent ment and pioneers. (Syracuse, N.Y.: D. Mason & Co, 1878), p. 424; digital images, Internet Archive; Library of Congress, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/

It’s a long shot to find anything at fultonhistory.com but you might find newspaper articles about descendants 

Comments

Oh yes indeed, fultonhistory.com has been a favorite of mine for several years. I have found many many articles on there for my tree. Question should I be posting those articles I have found onto the profiles here on wiki? or is that over doing it? Thank you for sharing.

---

I think if it adds to the story, yes. For example, see the obituary for https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sands-1869 or the real estate/probate for https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whiting-2417

I've also got one that I found where GrandDad paid for the farm with two cans of milk a day. That was just to interesting to let pass by.

Answer 2

Here's another possible answer that's not directly an answer. It's from a 1903 newspaper, but it concerns the earlier history of Cape May, New Jersey.  (I retyped some of the below, so watch for typos)

http://vdls.cmclibrary.org/cgi-bin/capemaycounty?a=d&d=CMH19030131.1.1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------
Cape May County History Online -- Chronicling Our Past

Cape May Herald, Cape May City, NJ Saturday, January 31, 1903

Article name "In Local Methodism"

First Church Here a Leading Congregation of Cape May.
"Previous to the introduction of Methodism into this city the morals of the people were distressingly low, and but few religious meetings were held...." (I just liked this sentence, so I had to quote it.)

"In 1837 Rev. Israel Townsend, a devoted man of God, and very highly esteemed and useful local preacher, was invited to come here and preach.  He and his brother, Rev. John Townsend, both came and preached at different times in the school house, on Franklin Street...."

"A class met regularly at the house of Jeremiah Church. Prayer meetings were also held there, and at Carson Swain's Lemuel A. Shaw's, Smith Church's, Obadiah Shaw's, William Corgie's and Israel Leaming's, as was found suitable.  Socrates Townsend, then a young man 19, was appointed the first class leader."

Although this article does not state who Socrates Townsend was related to, his name emerges not long after the above Reverend Israel Townsend and his brother, the Rev. John Townsend, so I thought there might be a connection there to follow.  I also listed the people at the meeting house because there was a Lemuel. It was probably a common name, but in case it influenced the naming of Socrates' son, I thought I'd throw it in there.

Reba