On April 8, 1798 he married Hannah Hatcher. They had 10 children while living in New Jersey but one, John E. died.
Moving his nine children to Ohio was no easy task for Stokes. The children ranged in age from Rebecca, the oldest at age 18 years to Elizabeth Ann, the youngest at one year old.
The family left New Jersey in two lumber wagons in May of 1817. The journey was made on dirt roads. They forded many rivers without bridges and traveled through thick forests. The trip took two months before the family arrived in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio on July 4, 1817.
Their first home was on a farm about one and one half miles south of Lebanon. In the spring of 1818 Stokes bought a 160-acre farm near Utica in Clear Creek Township of Warren County. He paid 17 dollars per acre. The farm had a double log house, a log stable and about thirty-five acres were already cleared for planting.
The Stokes family belonged to the Society of Friends. William was described as “strong physically and mentally, full of life and energy…of a jovial nature and happy turn of mind” by a relative in an address given at a family reunion. Hannah was described in the same address as also “with a strong mind and body…possessed many rare qualities.”
Two more children were born to the Stokes’ after moving to Ohio, bringing their offspring to a total of six sons and five daughters who grew to adulthood.
Stokes died on August 17, 1838. His wife, Hannah, continued to live on the farm until her death on April 18, 1858. Both are buried in the Turtlecreek Cemetery on State Route 48 north of Lebanon.
Information was taken for this column from an address delivered by William J. Worth Stokes at the Second Annual Reunion of the Ohio branch of the Stokes family, held on September 30, 1899.
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