Is there a connection between Susan Zeluff Ames and Joseph Zeluff?
Branch County, Michigan - In 1860, Cyrus Ames, wife Susan Zeluff, and their children William, Marinda, Minerva, Benjamin, Helen, and Mary E., were living in Bronson, Branch County, Michigan.
Little is known about Cyrus and Susan's origins. A Joseph Zeluff and his wife Betsy Burnett, along with Elijah Dewater and his wife Mary Ann, arrived in Michigan in the mid-1830s. The Zeluff family settled in Ovid Township, Branch County, while the Drinkwaters settled their family in Fawn River Township, St. Joseph County. Children of both couples intermarried. Could Susan Zeluff, wife of Cyrus, be related to Joseph Zeluff in some way?
Lagrange County, Indiana - Susan Zeluff apparently died sometime between the 1860 census and 1866, when Cyrus married Susannah Booher in Lagrange County, Indiana. By 1870 Cyrus and Susannah were living in Clay Township, Lagrange County with Cyrus' son Benjamin Ames, Susannah's children James Booher and Isabelle Booher, and Charles Ames, the son of Cyrus and Susannah.
Some information indicates that Elijah Dewater and his wife Mary Ann were also living in Lagrange County, Indiana shortly after 1860. After Elijah's death early in that decade, Mary Ann returned to Branch County, Michigan, and married Joseph Zeluff, a widower at this time, in 1867.
Minerva Ames, a daughter of Cyrus Ames and Susan Zeluff, was living as a domestic in Lima Township, Lagrange County in 1870. A year later, Minerva married Eppah Robbins, who served in the 35th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The couple resided in Lagrange County until Eppah's death in 1902, except for a brief period from 1879 to 1883 when they resided in Kansas. Minerva died in Lagrange County about 1923 and both are buried in Miller Cemetery in Newbury Township.
Howard County, Nebraska - Daughter Emma Helen Ames married Robert Harvey, a noted historian and surveyor in Nebraska, around 1870. This couple lived in various places in Nebraska. Both died during the 1920s and are buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Howard County, Nebraska.
Auglaize County, Ohio - Daughter Mary Elizabeth Ames married John F. Musser in Allen County, Ohio in 1878, eventually establishing their home in Auglaize County, Ohio. John F. Musser served with the 6th California Volunteer Infantry, Company C, enlisting as a bugler at age 14, and in the 8th US Cavalry Volunteers, Company H, from which he was discharged at Fort Tularosa, New Mexico in 1872. Their son John Henry Musser went on to serve as a Prosecuting Attorney for Auglaize County, Ohio from 1915 to 1919, and was a prominent local attorney until his untimely death in a railroad accident in 1924.