MANCHESTER, Benjamin
Husband of
1. Phoebe Hannah "Nancy" nee DODDRIDGE – m. 16 Jan 1806 in Washington Co. PA
2. Margaret nee MCGOWEN – m. 1821 in Washington Co. PA
Son of Isaac and Phoebe Hannah (Taylor) Manchester
B. 29 Aug 1786 in Newport Co. RI
D. 8 Apr 1857 in Dublin, Canfield Twp., Mahoning Co. OH at 71y 7m 26d
Burial – Apr 1857 in Canfield Village Cemetery, Section C Row 01, Canfield, Mahoning Co. OH

Note: War of 1812, Capt. David Hine's Co.

New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1948, Vol CII, p. 20
"The Manchester Family of Rhode Island
By Alden C. and Rita C. Manchester, of Takoma Park MD.

Baldwin Vol III, p. 119 22 Sep 1906
"Manchester, Benjamin
B. 1786
D. 8 Apr 1857 at 70y 7m 11d.
Soldier, War of 1812"

Ancestors of Hugh and Helen Manchester by Hugh Wallace Manchester, 1970

Republic Sentinel; Canfield, 17 Apr 1857
"In Canfield, on Thursday the 12th (sic) inst., Benjamin Manchester, one of the pioneers of this township, in the seventy-first year of his age."

History of Trumbull and Mahoning County, 1882, Vol II p. 16

"Benjamin Manchester, whose ancestors came from England to America in 1638, was born in Newport county, Rhode Island, in 1786. Thomas Manchester, the progenitor of the Manchester family in this country, was one of the company that purchased the Island of Aquiday, afterwards called Rhode Island, from the Indian sachem, Miantonomah, in 1639. Benjamin Manchester moved with his parents to Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1797. In 1805 he married Phebe Hannah Doddridge, born in 1788. In April, 1809, they settled on a farm in the southern part of Canfield township. They reared four children, three of whom are now living. James, born in 1806, resides in Illinois; Philip, born in 1808, resides in Indiana; Isaac, born in 1810, now living in Canfield; and Mary Ann born in 1812. She married George Ranck of Wayne county, Indiana, and died in 1852. The wife of Benjamin Manchester died in 1813. In 1821 he married Margaret McGowen, who also bore four children – Phebe Jane, Eliza, Robert, and Martha. Eliza and Martha are dead. Phebe Jane, the widow of Elijah Jones, lives in Missouri. Robert resides in Canfield. Benjamin Manchester was a soldier in the War of 1812. He held various township trusts, and was one of the township trustees twenty-seven consecutive years. He was a man of the strictest morality and integrity. He died in 1857."

Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 1898 Jan 28 - Article No. 52
Re: Manchester Family

CANFIELD IN EARLY TIMES.
HISTORY COMPILED BY AN AGED PIONEER.
THE CHANGES OF A CENTURY NOTED.
ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF AN INTERESTING SERIES
Written in a Highly Entertaining Style
By Dr. Jackson Truesdale of Canfield.
ARTICLE NUMBER 52.

"The Manchester family of Canfield from an early day to the present, has been intimately and prominently connected with our history in its material, social and political development. To pass the family without special notice in our successive historical sketches would be a strange omission. We are told that the Manchesters by name are numerous on American soil - but whether all of the names can be traced to one common origin has not been demonstrated. We are informed that one of their members is now engaged in an effort that may solve this question. It is enough for our present purpose to say that so far as the Manchesters of Canfield are concerned they are of English extraction, and are descended from one Thomas Manchester, who came from England in 1638, and settled first at New Haven, Conn. This would make his arrival in America only some 18 years after the first landing of the Puritans upon Plymouth Rock in December, 1620. It is quite probable that the persecutions to which the Puritans were then subjected in England had much to do in bringing Thomas to this country. Mr. Manchester did not remain long in New Haven, and desirous of the largest degree of civil and religious freedom identified himself with the followers of Roger Williams, and attached himself to the company led by ‘Wm. Codington and John Clark made the first settlement at Newport in what is now known as Rhode Island. Ever since most of his descendants have continued to live there and in the adjoining states of Connecticut and Massachusetts.'

Benjamin Manchester, the subject of our present sketch, was of the sixth generation, descended from Thomas, and was born in Newport, Rhode Island, Aug. 13, 1785. His father, Isaac, with his family, left his New England home, and in 1795 settled among the fertile hills of Washington county, Pennsylvania, then as much of a wilderness country as the Reserve was some ten years later. Benjamin was then a lad of some 10 years, and we may easily suppose, had but very limited school privileges. But he was taught and learned what was more useful to him in the line of life he pursued than a college degree would have been. Pioneer life above all other teaches that best of manly qualities, self reliance. They had but little over what they could produce or make for themselves. We learn that in after life Benjamin Manchester, while opening up a farm, possessed the skill necessary to build a shop or stable, make a door or cupboard - if a log-chain was broken, instead of going miles and spending much time for a few moments work, he could in a few moments repair the broken link and go on with his work. If a pork barrel or cask was needed, he could supply the want by his skill. The long winter evenings were utilized in repairing or making shoes for his family. While the family remained unbroken in Washington county, we are not left to suppose that the children grew to manhood and womanhood untutored. On the contrary, we are led to believe they were thoroughly instructed in the principles of honesty, industry, economy and the virtues that make good men and women. In the midst of such surroundings Benjamin grew to manhood and ‘at the age of 20, married Phoebe Hannah Doddrige, a descendant of Dr. Phillip Doddrige, a distinguished divine of England. It is no mean honor to be able to point to the green turf in our modest village cemetery that covers the remains of a near descendant of such a good and celebrated man as Phillip Doddrige, who was born in 1702 and died in 1751, when yet comparatively young. If he had lived to the age of 84 or 85 he and Phebe Hannah would have been living at the same time, and would indicate that Mrs. Manchester belonged to the second or at the fartherest, third generation of Dr. Doddrige, whose prose writing remains to this day as standard religious literature, affording instruction and comfort for the devout and pious, as well as rich thought for the theologian. In the field of sacred poetry, he composed verses that will never cease to be sung by melting hearts. Millions of voices in the past, and more millions in the future have or will join in singing such hymns as the one beginning with ‘O, happy day that fixed my choice,' or ‘The King of heaven his table spreads.'

Thus married and prepared for future duties and struggles, the young and hopeful couple made their way to Canfield in the spring of 1805. Mr. Manchester purchased 220 acres of land 2 1/2 miles southwest of the center and mostly on the east side of the road leading from Canfield to Salem. A greater part of this purchase is now owned by R. J. Crocket. On this a cabin was erected and the usual struggles and hardships of pioneer life commenced. By dint of hard persevering toil, aided by fire and the patient ox, the forests were made to give away to fertile fields and growing crops. But this prosperous and promising condition of affairs was rudely and unexpectedly checked by the shameful surrender of Gen. Hull at Detroit in the very beginning of the war of 1812. By this pusillanimous act, there was not an armed man left to defend the wide frontiers of the northwest against an active and aggressive enemy. There was no disagreement and could be none as to the absolute necessity of calling out the entire militia forces of northern Ohio. This Mr. Manchester saw and promptly responded to the call to arms. He was a member of Capt. Hines' company of militia, and followed him to the Maumee swamps. Rugged a man as he may have been he was no match for the malarial and camp fevers that prostrated the most of the provisional soldiers of that campaign. Being thus disabled he returned to his home and placed in the ranks as a substitute, his brother Peter. Soon after his return, perhaps the greatest calamity of his life occurred. His wife added one more to the long list of victims of the plague of 1813. The registry of deaths in Canfield, at first faithfully kept, makes her death to have occurred April 17; aged about 25 years. On the same day we note the death of Ensign Chubb, aged 30 years.

The death of Mrs. Manchester left four motherless children, to-wit: James, Phillip, Isaac and Mary Ann. Soon after the death of his wife, Mr. Manchester with his children ‘moved back to his father's home in Washington county, Pa., where he remained for about nine years when he married his second wife, Margaret McGowan. Immediately thereafter he returned to his Ohio home, where he lived to the time of his death in March, 1857. The fruit of the second marriage was four children named Phebe, Eliza, Robert and Martha. Mr. Manchester's eight children are all dead, but they lived to maturity, married and raised families of their own, and his descendants are now to be found in six different states.'