Hezekiah Gorham I

Hezekiah Gorham, I lived in Yarmouth, Massachusetts for part of his life.  He was born 22 September 1807 in Yarmouth and died 18 April 1874, Perrysville, Ohio.  Not much is known other than he was a merchant shipper like his brothers Josiah, Thacher, John, Joseph and Oliver.  He married about 14 October 1833 in New York City.  The problem is New York City marriages were not recorded until about 1847.  The date I gave is approximated subtracting out 9 months from the birthdate from the first born child presuming it was a normal pregnancy.  The first two sons were born in Flushing, New York in the mid-1830s, the third son was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and the rest of the children were born in Perrysville, Ohio, including my Great-Great Grandmother Harriet Eliza Gorham.  The family arrived in Perrysville in 1843 based on Charity Gorham's obituary in the Ashland Press paper in 1887.  Between 1843 and 1850, Hezekiah went West and became a wealthy 49er, but lost most of his money (Abraham J. Baughman, History of Richland County, Ohio from 1808 to 1908: Also Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens of the County, 2 volumes (Chicago, Illinois: The S. J. Clarke Publishing, Co., 1908), 2:746).   He appeared in the 1850 census as a 22 year old man, he was much older and worked the mason's trade in addition to farming.

Hezekiah made a Will (Ashland County, Ohio, 5th District Court of Appeals, 3: 326 Hezekiah Gorham Will; Ashland County Probate Court, Ashland, Ohio) requesting his property be sold to take care of debts.  His widow moved to be with her son James and his wife in Perrysville.  Both Hezekiah and Charity are buried in the Perrysville Union Cemetery (Perrysville Union Cemetery (Perrysville, Ohio; corner of East Bridge and East Church Streets), Hezekiah Gorham, Section 2, row 3, lot 99; read and photographed by Lee Martin, 25 May 2015; Jane Ellen Bechtel Fitting, compiler, Perrysville Union Cemetery, Perrysville, Green Township, Ashland County, Ohio: A Revision of "Old Perrysville or Old Presbyterian Cemetery" Records 1812-1966 (Cincinnati, Ohio: private, 1 October 2003), ix, xi, 78, 101, 135).

I hunted for their tombstone through the years and did not find it until recently on Memorial Day last year in 2015 because I searched through the wrong part.  I made the presumption they would be buried near their children close by the large family stone marked "GORHAM," but they are not buried near there.  Instead, both of them are buried in the third row about 10 meters west of the family stone.  The grave next to Hezekiah and Charity's is their young daughter, Lucy T Gorham.  Lucy died as a child and their is no death record for her in the court records.  On the third face of Hezekiah and Charity's stone is the inscription of their daughter Cordelia who is buried next to her parents in the same plot.

The stone is located N 40° 39' 21.1"  W 82° 18' 43" and Hezekiah is the only one on my direct Mayflower line who came to Ohio.  All his siblings lived in died in Massachusetts.  In fact, Hezekiah's parents are buried in Woodside Cemetery in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts right there on the Cape.