Mary E (Hickox) Gates (1805 - 1886)

Born 19 Nov 1805 in Utica, NY

Ancestors

Wife of Eliphaz B. Gates — married 23 Nov 1828 in Utica, Oneida, NY

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1886 at age 80 in Delavan, Walworth, WI

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Catharine MacMillan [send private message]

Mary was born to Preserved Hickok and Rachel Brown in Utica, NY on 19 Nov 1805. Two older siblings are known, Samuel b.1787 and Salla Mariah b.1789. There were several other children between those two and Mary, names unknown, and whether she had younger siblings as well is also unknown.

• Mary Hickock is my maternal ggg grandmother. She married Eliphaz B Gates 28 Nov 1828 in Oneida County, NY and both she and her husband are buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Delavan, WI. The couple is found in federal census data in Frankfort, Herkimer, NY 1830,1840, and in Walworth County WI 1850,1860,1870.

Preserved Hickock is given as Mary's father in memoirs written by Jerome Gates, a great grandson, a copy of which is in my possession. In those same memoirs the date of Mary and her husband Eliphaz's arrival in Wisconsin is given as about 1844 or 1845, when their son Jerome Eliphaz was 10, which is consistent with census records.

Mary Hickok's grandfathers, both paternal, Abraham Hickok and maternal, Hezekiah Brown were Loyalists during the Revolution. Both these men died in service of the British Army in 1777. Mary's husband's family had been Patriots, serving with CT troops.

An article "Loyalists During the American Revolution" by US Department of State, online states that "Recent estimates suggest that half the population of New York (Colony) was Loyalist". Central New York was an area more friendly to Loyalists following the Revolution, and it was this acceptance that may have encouraged Preserved and Rachel to move to Oneida County, NY from Waterbury, CT before 1800.