Silas C.Walterhouse
Born 1836 in Fingal, Elgin County, Ontario Canada Silas was the first child of Philip Benjamin and Mary Alice Morris Walterhouse.
He immigrated to the United States about 1850 when his father also left Canada for Ohio.
On the 14th day of July in 1861, Silas C. Walterhouse married Amelia I. (or J.) Martin in Defiance County Ohio. Amelia was born 28 December 1844.
The couple had four children:
Cora Marilla born 18 December, 1863 at Cecil, Paulding Co., OH
Leona May born 11 April 21 1871 in Mark Township, Defiance Co. OH
Ida Emmeline born 7 March 1876 in Mark Township, Defiance Co. OH
Lilla Adda born 18 February 1879 in Mark Township, Defiance Co. OH
This photograph shows Silas with his wife Amelia, both seated in the front, and his daughters, left to right, Leona, Cora, Addie, and Ida.
The 1870 Census for Crane Twp.of Paulding County OH shows Silas, a day laborer, with Amelia and Cora and Joseph, age 20 who is probably Silas' brother, Joseph Lewis.
One of the Jackson descendants, Josephine, was told by another cousin that he remembered Silas as a "big man who had a cane and he used to shake it at the grandchildren when they were misbehaving".
On September 24, 1900 Silas was committed to the Hospital for the Insane at Toledo OH. The physician's certificate dated 19 September states that for 2 to 3 weeks he had suffered from "Nervous trouble. Some paresis of right side". And "Mental weakness. Absent mindedness. Melancholy. Ridiculous enterprises which are ruinous to family possessions. Schemes of buying building, etc. which are unreasonable". The physical cause is listed as "General debility" and the predisposing cause as "Paralysis". The document also gives his previous occupation as "General laborer" and his religion as "United Brethren".
Silas died at the State Hospital in Toledo, Lucas Co. OH on 7 February 1901. He is buried in the Colby Cemetery in Defiance Co. OH.
Amelia died 12 December 1915 in Harrison Twp. And is buried in the Colby Cemetery in Defiance Co. OH.
There are no markers on either grave.
FAMILY STORIES from letters of Louise Lahmann, Silas' great granddaughter.
A family story told by Silas's descendants is recounted in a letter dated 9 January 1977 and written by Elizabeth, daughter of Olive Jackson Durfey who was the daughter of 1. Cora Walterhouse and Stephen Orlando Jackson. In this account she refers to Silas as "Frank".
"Grandpa Walterhouse was Canadian - born of English extraction and he married a girl (Amelia Martin) of purely English heritage. Grandpa Walterhouse's grandmother was the daughter of English gentry. Her parents were wealthy and she fell in love with the gardener's son. Upon parental orders to cease seeing each other, they eloped to Canada. Romantic isn't it?"
In Silas' family the belief is that Philip had two wives in Canada. The first is unknown and she is the mother of Silas, Margaret and William Lafayette. She was thought to have died in childbirth in 1839 at age 25. Then he married Mary Alice Morris who was the mother of Mary M., Eliza, Isreal, Sarah and a Louis. This Louis is not Joseph Lewis according to this version of Philip's families.