Almira (Olmstead) Ambler (1806 - 1891)

Born 15 Jul 1806 in Wilton, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Edward Crosby Ambler — married 1 Nov 1825 in Connecticut, United States

Descendants

Died 26 Jun 1891 at age 84 in Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

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Biography

Almira (Olmstead) Ambler was a Connecticuter.

Almira Amelia was one of the first women to volunteer as a nurse during the Civil War, and one of the first women to receive a pension for her service. Honored for eternity: In Memoriam

Almira was born in Wilton, Fairfield County, Connecticut on 15 July 1806 the daughter of Jasper Olmstead and Esther Bennett.

She married Edward Ambler, a Baptist Minister, and they had six children:

1. Mary Amelia, b. 1824, d. aft.1900; m. William Armstrong
2. Caroline Elizabeth, b. 1826, d. 1907; m. Norman Baldwin
3. Robert Turnball, b. c.1836
4. Jane Gregory, b. 1838, d. 1876; m. Curles White
5. Starr Hoyt, b. c.1841
6. Josephine Rachel, b. c.1845

In 1850 they were living in Bernardsville, Somerset County, New Jersey. Edward (35) and Almira (44) and their children Robert (14), Jane (12), Starr (9), and Josephine (5) were in school. Also in the household was Almira's sister, Caroline Olmstead (47), Harriet Gregory (9) relationship unknown, and Mary Langdon (26) who was born in Ireland.^[1]

By 1860 the family had moved to Mansfield in Burlington County, New Jersey. The family has dwindled with the other children having moved on to their own homes.^[2];

Amelia was one of the first women to volunteer her services as a nurse and one of the first women to receive a pension from the Federal government for her service. ^[3]Almira's husband was Baptist chaplain to the 67th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers and went to the military hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, and entered the nurse's life, working for nine months to care for her wounded husband -- a job that required courage, tenacity and endurance. ^[4]

Edward had taken a position at a new church in Milan, Dutchess County, New York before 1870. He was 64 as was Almira. Josephine, now 25, was still living with them, as was Carrie White, age 8, who is their granddaughter, Jane's daughter.^[5]

Now retired by 1880, Edward and Josephine, both 73, returned to live in his home town of Danbury, Connecticut. In their household were granddaughter Francis White (24) and her brother Robert White (7), children of Jane and Curles White, Amelia's deceased daughter and son-in-law.^[6]

Almira applied for an invalid pension on 3 March 1887, originally denied but accepted when the amount per month was changed from $25 to $12 in the House of Representatives 49th Congress, First Session by Report No. 3024. House of Representatives Report No. 3024, 49th Congress, First Session.^[7]

Edward had died on 18 Mar 1891in Manhattan, New York City. Amelia reunited with him on 26 Jun 1891 and is interred next to Edward in the Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut.^[8]. Their daughter, Jane, and Jane's husband, Curlis White, are also buried in the Wooster Cemetery.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6M5-638 : 23 December 2020), Almira Ambler in household of Edward C Ambler, Bernards Township, Somerset, New Jersey, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6M5-638 : 23 December 2020), Almira Ambler in household of Edward C Ambler, Bernards Township, Somerset, New Jersey, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
3. ↑ Connecticut History
4. ↑ Newstimes Article
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8FP-41L : 29 May 2021), Almira Ambler in entry for Edward Ambler, 1870.
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFCZ-W52 : 19 February 2021), Almira Ambler in household of Edward C Ambler, Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States; citing enumeration district ED 113, sheet 118C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,094.
7. ↑ "United States Civil War and Later Pension Index, 1861-1917", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4BT-5Z2 : 24 March 2016), Almira Ambler, 1887.
8. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/14220346/almira-ambler : accessed 17 June 2021), memorial page for Almira Olmstead Ambler (15 Jul 1806–26 Jun 1891),Find A Grave: Memorial #14220346, citing Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA ; Maintained by sweetpea (contributor 46617400) .

See also:

• Olmste(a)d files of Walt Steesy
• Genealogy of the Olmsted Family in America by Olmsted, Henry King, M.D., (A.T. De La Mare, New York, 1912); pg. 223, #4841
• Mann, Conklin. Richard Ambler of Watertown, Mass., and Stamford, Conn., and His Descendants, NYGBR (NYGBS, 1934) Vol. 65, Page 368.