Joseph Philip Greenwood was born in Kentucky in 1798. His
father, Philip (born 1755), is listed in the 1810 Kentucky Census with
a male (son) listed between the ages of ten and sixteen. Our Joseph would
have been twelve. When Charles E. Greenwood researched that census, he
noted that there were also two females listed in Philip's household, one
under ten, and one between ten and sixteen years old. He said, "Seems
your Joseph may have had two sisters!" Perhaps so, but we have yet to find
them. We don't even know what happened to his half-sister, Catherine, who
was born in 1782 to Philip's first wife, Mary.
Joseph married Mary E. "Polly" Wright in Monroe County,
Indiana, on April 2, 1829. In Indiana Marriages Through 1850, they
are listed as Joseph and Polly. The 1830 Indiana Census places Joseph in
Monroe County. The 1850 Indiana Census leads us to believe that Polly was
born in Indiana around 1812. Joseph said he was a farmer on that census.
By 1832, Joseph and Polly had moved to Owen County. A Land Patent
Report from the Vincennes Land Office of the Bureau of Land Management,
Eastern States, dated March 20, 1837, places their 37.14 tract of land
at 1 NWNE Sec 1, Township 9-N, Range 5-W, Fract. Sect. N, 2nd Principal
Meridian, Owen County, Indiana.
Polly died in Owen County on April 14, 1855. Joseph married
again at the age of fifty-nine to Mary Magdaline Arney. They did not have
any children that we know of. We don't know when Mary died. There
are at least a dozen Mary Arneys in our files and we haven't figured out
which one she is.
On November 19, 1870, Joseph and Mary Magdaline deeded their land
to their youngest son, Simon Peter for the sum of $350 . The tract of 27.17
acres in Jefferson Township was supposedly the same land passed down to
Joseph Philip by his father, Philip Greenwood, the Revolutionary
War soldier born 1755 in Maryland. How can this be true, though,
if Joseph held the patent? Or is this the same land tract? Must ask cousin
Dixie!
Joseph died on February 22, 1876, and is buried in Dutch Bethel
Cemetery in Arney, in Owen County.
Joseph and Polly had seven children who were my great-grandaunts
and -granduncles.
*Simon Peter Greenwood was my great-grandfather.
Joseph Wright Greenwood
Nancy Ann
John R.
Louisa
Harriet "Elizabeth"
*Simon "Peter"
Mary J.
