Ira Akin
b. circa 1776 White Creek, Washington County, New York, United States
d. 1843 (62-71) Crawford, Wyandot County, Ohio, United States
Son of Edward Akin and Elizabeth Akin

Husband of Anna Akin; Mercy Ann Akin and Elizabeth 'Betsy' Moore, Akin, Sheley (Washburn)

Father of Ebenezer Akin; Isaac Akin; John Akin; Edward Akin; Ira Akin, (Jnr); Sybil Ann Akin; Girl Akin; Lafayette Akin and William Henry Akin

Brother of Armida Akin; Ethan Akin; James Akin; David Allen Akin; Phebe Pool; Rhoda Akin; Abraham Akin; Amy Wells; Sarah Wells; Consider Akin; Patience Dodge; Rhoda Akin and Susannah Akin

Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Akin Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Gardner Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Gautier Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Edwards Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Holden Web Site)
Ira Aiken in MyHeritage family trees (SULLIVAN Web Site)
Ira Aiken in MyHeritage family trees (Hill Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Wells Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Kleparek Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Covell Web Site)
Ira Akin in MyHeritage family trees (Falk-Schaitel Family Tree Web Site)

Anna Akin wife
Ebenezer Akin son
Isaac Akin son
John Akin son
Edward Akin son
Ira Akin, (Jnr) son
Sybil Ann Akin daughter
Mercy Ann Akin wife
Elizabeth "Betsy" Moore, Akin, S. wife
Girl Akindaughter
Lafayette Akin son
William Henry Akin son

He m1. @1775 Anna Allen, daughter of Ebenezer Allen and Sybil Dwinnell of White Creek, Washington Co., New York. Anna was b. 22 June 1782, probably in White Creek, and d. 10 Jan 1823, Scipio Twp., Cayuga Co., New York; buried Gould-Akin Cemetery. According to a biographical sketch of a grandson Morgan Jacob Akin:

Ira Akin was born in New York, of Scotch-Irish descent. His father owned slaves, and he was his father's overseer; the slaves were freed by the State when New York blotted that shame from her statutes. Ira Akin grew to manhood, married in New York, and reared a family of six children. When his wife died he broke up his home and journeyed West to Sandusky, Ohio, where he made a new beginning, married again, and died in middle life.'

The slaves, four in number, belonged to Ira’s father Edward Akin and were sold in 1813 for a total of $450 when the estate was settled. This was a decade before New York State abolished slavery. There is no evidence that the Akin family owned slaves after 1813.

As newly weds, Ira and Anna probably resided in White Creek near their parents. In 1803, Ira moved to Montgomery County, New York, where his father Edward Akin purchased the 700 acre farm and manor house built in 1763 by Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies. When Edward died in March 1813, Ira Akin resided at Mayfield about 20 miles northeast of Johnstown. A few years later (@ 1816) Ira and his family moved to Cayuga County where they were enumerated in the 1820 census. Ira and Anna sold a tract of land (parts of Lots 32 and 33) on 31 August 1821 to their son Isaac; the deed was witnessed by Ira Akin, Jr., but was not recorded until 29 July 1824, after Anna's death. The 1820 census suggests that Ira Akin and Anna Allen had six sons and one daughter; only four sons were mentioned by Jas. H. Smith in his 1879 History of Cayuga County: Ira Akin came from Johnstown, Fulton County, about 1816, and settled one mile south of Scipio Center, on the farm now owned by Alson Hoskins, where he resided till the death of his wife, when the family broke up and he went west and died there. His children were Edward, who married a daughter of Nathan (sic. should be Jacob) Morgan, and removed to Janesville, Wisconsin: Ira, who married Olive Tone, and settled a little over a mile north of Scipio Center, where he died, leaving two children, Yale, living in New York City, and Whelpley, in Auburn; John, who removed to Ohio (should be John died in New York); and Deacon Isaac, who married Phebe Tompkins, and settled about two mile north of Scipio Center, on the farm now owned by Artemas Ward. He afterwards removed to Scipio Center, where he died April 9th, 1877, and his wife, October 22d, 1878. They leave seven children, viz.: John W., William, Morrell J., all of whom are living in Scipio; Ann wife of Horace Allen, in Nevada; Mary Jane, wife of Harden Brayton, in Chicago; Caroline, wife of Philo Sperry, in Michigan; and Harriet, wife of Henry Slocum, in Scipio.

He m2. Dec 1823 Mrs. Mercy Ann Wells (maiden name unknown) in Johnstown, Fulton Co., New York. She was the widow of John Wells. Ira's sisters, Amy and Sarah were married to John's brothers, Eleazer and Nathan, respectively. Nathan Wells witnessed the ceremony. This marriage did not last. On 15 November 1828, the following legal notice appeared in the Cayuga Republican, a few days before Elizabeth (Russell) Akin's will was probated:
NOTICE: To whom it may concern: my wife MERCY ANN has left my house & my protection & has chosen to go among her relations & strangers for support. I in person requested her to return to my house, my house is open for her reception, that meat, drink, lodging, washing, medical attendance & all other necessaries suitable for her state & condition it is my wish that she should return and enjoy them & further that she shall have all control of my house, her room & herself, to which my wife is entitled. She has refused to accept this offer and return ... I shall not support ... maintenance - etc. Scipio, 15 Nov. 1828, Ira Akin.

He m3. Mrs. Elizabeth (Washburn) Moore between 1830 and 1835 in New York or Ohio. She was b. 17 April 1804 in Westchester Co., NY, daughter of James Washburn and Judah Griffin; and d. 18 February 1877 in Burt Co., Nebraska; buried Decatur Cemetery as 'Elizabeth Sheley.'

Their son William Henry Akin/Aiken swore on his Civil War Pension application, that he was 'born May 4, 1840, in Crawford Co., Ohio.' William's Idaho death certificate listed his father as 'Ira Akin.' and the Nebraska death certificate for his brother Lafayette Aiken, gave their mother as 'Betsy Washburn.' The 1840 Ohio Census Index shows only one Ira Akin for the State, in 1840 Ira Akin was located in Tymochtee Township, Crawford County (now Wyandot County).

Was information given by Ellen Benedict, my mother if you could please give her credit for the research and information in the bio for Ira Akin.
Gladly give credit! Thanks for contact! Owlisnapp #46878071 on 15 Dec 2020

With this information, brother Wayne Earl Stephens who moved to Boise, Idaho, in August 1957, visited Great Aunt Agnes (Aiken) Weston (1882-1975). Who enjoyed talking about her family. Agnes verified that Ira Akin was her grandfather, and Elizabeth (Washburn), her grandmother whose last husband was John Sheley. Agnes recalled the names of five of her aunts and uncles (Elizabeth's children): David Moore, Rosannah (Moore), Lafayette Akin, William Henry Akin and Sally Ann (Sheley) Bailey, wife of Austin B. Bailey. The Baileys had moved from Illinois to Nebraska, and then to Idaho with the Aikens, and taken up land on the same day near Meridan where Agnes was born. Her grandmother was buried in the Decatur Cemetery in Nebraska. When Ben and I visited the Decatur Cemetery in June 1985, we found the headstone for 'Elizabeth Sheley' inscribed with her full birth and death dates, the same birth date given by Mildred J. Smith Parkinson's book on the Washburns of Huron County, Ohio:

1.9.7. Elizabeth b. 4-17-1804
Elizabeth (Betsy) Washburn d. M. _Aikins, lived in Richland, Ohio.
As a child, Mildred Parkinson had been impressed by the visit to her grandfather's home of William Henry Van Benschoten who was gathering information for his 1907 Van Benschoten Family History. As it happens one of Elizabeth's brothers married into the Van Benschoten family. Also John Sheley's mother was a Van Benschoten; consequently the book contains a concise biographical sketch of John Sheley with a list of his Bailey grandchildren.

He m2. Mrs. Betsy Aikens, sister of Walter Washburn, b. Apr. 17, 1805 (sic.), d. in Feb. 1877.
Child by the second wife: Sarah Ann, b. Sep. 21, 1843 m.24 May 1860 at Sycamore, Ill., Austin B. Bailey. He was a farmer and lived at Boise, Idaho.

Agnes called her grandmother a woman of 'many husbands.' One husband, an old Quaker, gave Elizabeth (Washburn) a divorce by saying in Meeting three times, 'Me and Thee do not suit.' Could the divorce be the one Ira gave his second wife Mercy Ann? So far have not discovered a record of Elizabeth (or one of her husbands) attending a Friends Meeting, but she had numerous Quaker relatives including her brothers Walter and Joseph Washburn, and her Griffin grandparents. Ira also descended from a long line of Quakers; in fact Elizabeth and Ira were sixth or seventh cousins through their Briggs and Connell ancestors.

Elizabeth's son Wallace Washburn (1819-1868) was born in New York, when she was 15, and then she and Daniel Moore had two children born in New York (David in 1823, and Rosannah in 1825). It is even possible that Elizabeth had another husband between Daniel Moore and Ira Akin, but the extant records are sparse. In 1830 or thereabouts, Elizabeth moved to Ohio from New York, where her ancestors had lived for nearly two hundred years. Her ancestor William Washburn came to America from England with his wife and children before 1646, and his brother John was in the Plymouth Colony by 1633. It is thought that Elizabeth was a descendant of Mayflower passenger Elizabeth (Howland) Dickinson, daughter of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. The Washburns settled on Long Island, living there until Elizabeth’s grandfather Joseph Washburn removed himself to Westchester County, where she was born in 1804. The early generations of Washburns and allied families were Quakers. Between 1820 and 1837, Elizabeth’s siblings migrated to Ohio. It is unknown when, or with whom, or under what surname, Elizabeth moved to Ohio.

Elizabeth was Ira's third wife, and he, her third or fourth husband. When they got together, she was in her late 20s or early 30s, and Ira, in his mid to late 50s (old enough to be her father). He has not been located in the 1830 census. Ira resided in Tymochte, Ohio, by 4 April 1832, as evidenced by the letter to his sister-in-law, Mercy (Slocum) Akin. In 1834 and 1837, Ira purchased land from Joseph and Rebecca Chaffe at the edge of the Tymochtee Village site. "Ira Aikens" and Joseph Chaffe are credited with opening the first tavern in Tymochtee. In 1839, Ira leased land to the School Directors. Ira was enumerated in Tymochtee in 1840.

Judging from the 1840 census, Ira and Elizabeth had a daughter born between 1830 and 1835, unless she was Elizabeth's child by another husband. Lafayette Akin was born in 1838, and William Henry Akin in 1840. Very likely David Moore and Rosannah Moore were the male and female in the 15-20 year age class. On 14 August 1841, Ira and Elizabeth sold their real estate to Henry St. John. Later that year (19 December 1841) Rosannah Moore married Amos Watson in Clay Co., Missouri. This couple next appeared in Huron County, Ohio, where Rosannah had so many Washburn kin. On 11 April 1843, Cooper Watson was appointed as the Administrator of the deceased Ira Akin's estate, but no papers were filed.

*1776 Birth of Ira White Creek, Washington County, New York, United States

°1796 Age 20 Birth of Ebenezer Akin Washington Co., NY (?)
°December 9, 1798 Age 22 Birth of Isaac Akin Washington Co., NY - Date Derived Fm Tombstone
°1800 Age 24 Birth of John Akin Washington Co., NY
°April 18, 1803 Age 27 Birth of Edward Akin Johnstown, Fulton County, New York, United States
°1806 Age 30Birth of Ira Akin, (Jnr) NYork
°1812 Age 36 Birth of Sybil Ann Akin