Discrepancies re date of birth: Hiram's date of birth is anything but certain.

He was listed by name and age in three Federal Censuses:

1850 census, in which he was listed as age 29, suggesting a year of birth of 1820 or 1821.
1860 census, in which he was listed as age 38, suggesting a year of birth of 1821 or 1822.
1870 census, in which he was listed as age 50, suggesting a year of birth of 1819 or 1820.

Absent a family bible page recording the birth and absent a government record of the birth at the time it happened, conventional wisdom would be that the earliest government record (i.e., the one closest to the birth) is the one most likely to record the birth correctly. There seems to be general agreement that Hiram was born near the end of July in whatever year he was born. The 1850 census page on which Hiram Elwood is listed shows that the census enumerator visited on 23 Aug 1850, meaning that Hiram's July birthday had already occurred. So, if Hiram was born in July 1821, he would indeed be age 29 on 23 Aug 1850.

The creator of this F.A.G. memorial (Jay Wright) had, long before F.A.G. existed, a date of birth for Hiram of 27 Jul 1821 entered in his own computer file and thus used that DOB for this memorial. That date is most likely to have come from the late Frances Camille Hansen Ehrig (1915-2002), whose husband, Jack, was a great-grandson of Hiram. Frances provided information on Hiram and his descendants through a lengthy correspondence about the Elwood and Worley families in the 1960's and 1970's. Whether she relied on a family bible or other record for Hiram's date of birth is unknown, but she was an extremely careful researcher. The date she had for Hiram's death was 23 Dec 1878.

Reading the date of death on Hiram's tombstone from the photo thereof presents a challenge. His age at death seems clear enough -- 57 Yrs., 4 Mos. & 27 Dys. -- but does the inscription say he died on Dec 23rd 1878 or does it say he died on Dec 23rd 1879? An Internet date calculator, using the 1878 possibility, arrives at a calculated DOB of 26 July 1821 or 27 July 1821, depending on whether one subtracts the days first and then the months/years or subtracts the months/years first and then the days. Using the 1879 possibility, it arrives at a calculated DOB of 26 July 1822 or 27 July 1822.

For the following reasons, I am continuing (as of 10/28/2018) to use the July 1821 DOB on this memorial, even though we can't be certain of it:

(1) Following the conventional wisdom, it uses the earliest census age for him.
(2) An 1821 year of birth represents the mid-point or average of the three different years suggested as year of birth by the ages in all three census in which he was listed.
(3) It respects the likely accuracy of Frances Ehrig's careful work.
(4) As of 10/28/2018, there are 15 listings for Hiram Elwood on RootsWeb/WorldConnect. Fifteen of the 15 list his year of birth as 1821. That's not to say that it's a good idea to rely on such listings. Without sources cited, some may be no better than genealogical gossip -- some of it true and some of it untrue. Of the 15 listings for Hiram, most have his place of death correctly listed as Red Oak, Iowa, but some people apparently misread an abbreviation for Iowa as meaning "Red Oak, Indiana," and a couple more list "Red Oak, Louisiana." Another example, perhaps, of the need to "trust, but verify." Five of the listings say Hiram was born in "Lexington, Richland Co," OH, but actually he was born in/near the village once known as "New Lexington" (sometimes shortened by the locals to "Lexington"). It's name was changed because the fact that there were multiple villages in Ohio with that name. It became the village of Highland in Highland County. Hiram's parents are buried in Highland Cemetery, and they never lived in Richland County.

All that said, many thanks to fellow Find A Grave member David Horton , who reads the photo of the tombstone differently and suggested (Oct 2018) changing the year of birth to 1822 and the year of death to 1879. He may yet turn out to be correct. His help is much appreciated.

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Hiram Elwood
mentioned in the record of Hiram Elwood and Phebe Horten
Name Hiram Elwood
Event Type Marriage
Event Date 26 Nov 1844
Event Place Highland, Ohio, United States
Spouse's Name Phebe Horten

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Hiram Elwood
United States Census, 1850
Name Hiram Elwood
Event Type Census
Event Year 1850
Event Place Fairfield, Highland, Ohio, United States
Gender Male
Age 29
Race White
Birth Year (Estimated) 1821
Birthplace Ohio
House Number 944
Hiram Elwood M 29 Ohio
Phebe Elwood F 29 North Carolina
A W Elwood F 4 Ohio
Scott Elwood M 2 Ohio

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Hiram Elwood
United States Census, 1860
Name Hiram Elwood
Event Type Census
Event Date 1860
Event Place Fairfield Township, Highland, Ohio, United States
Gender Male
Age 38
Race White
Race [Blank]
Birth Year (Estimated) 1822
Birthplace Ohio
Page 283
Hiram Elwood M 38 Ohio
Phoeba Elwood F 39 North Carolina
Alwilda Elwood F 15 Ohio
Winfield Elwood M 12 Ohio
Eyler Elwood M 9 Ohio
James A Elwood M 6 Ohio
Emma Elwood F 3 North Carolina
Jacob Thorton M 79 North Carolina

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Hiram Elwood
United States Census, 1870
Name Hiram Elwood
Event Type Census
Event Year 1870
Event Place Iowa, United States
Gender Male
Age 50
Race White
Race W
Birth Year (Estimated) 1819-1820
Birthplace Ohio
Page Number 10
Hiram Elwood M 50 Ohio
Phebe Elwood F 50 North Carolina
J E Elwood M 19 Ohio
J A Elwood M 15 Ohio
Emma Elwood F 12 Ohio
William Elwood M 8 Ohio