Deep sadness must also
have been a part of this man's life.
His beloved wife, Mary Ann Rutherford, died Sept. 25, 1850, two weeks after
their son Henry was born.
Thomas's mother, Elizabeth Moore, died 2 months after Thomas was born.
Thomas remarried in 1851
to Ann Amanda Kinnear.
They had two daughters, Ellen Pauline and Nora Adell
In the Centennial Biographical
History of The City of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio of 1901
this was written of Thomas Moore Hess:
Thomas Moore
Hess, deceased, was for a number of years a representative farmer and valued
citizen of Franklin County.
He was born on the old Moore homestead in Clinton township July 25, 1825,
being the eldest son of John Moses and
Elizabeth (Moore) Hess. His mother died at his birth, and he was left to
the care of his maternal grandmother, who also
died when he was yet an infant.
He was then
taken to the home of his aunt, Mrs. Katy Oller, of Delaware county, Ohio,
with whom he remained until
his father's second marriage, which occurred when he was five years old.
He then remained
with his father in Clinton township until he went to the home of his grandfather
Moore in Indiana,
where he attended
the public schools until fifteen years of age. On the expiration of that
period, he returned to his father's
home and began work on the farm, assisting in the cultivation of the fields
until the spring of 1849, when he was united in
marriage to Miss Mary Ann Rutherford, of Delaware County, Ohio, who died
in 1850, leaving a son, Henry Rutherford Hess,
now a prominent citizen of Clinton township.
After the
death of his first wife, Mr. Hess was again married, his second union being
with Amanda Kinnear, a daughter
of Samuel and Ellen (Hill) Kinnear, pioneers of Franklin County. By this
marriage there were two children: Ellen, now the
wife of Charles Woodrow of Champaign County, Ohio and Nora Adell, wife of
Peter Ramlow.
Throughout
his entire life, Mr. Hess manifested a deep interest in the welfare of orphan
children, a fact which probably
arose from his own experience. He gave to four different orphan children
a home from early childhood until they had
reached self-sustaining years. (Note: perhaps these may have been his 3
stepbrothers and 1 stepsister who lost both
parents at an early age.)
He was a man
of great kindness and broad sympathy and was very popular with his neighbors
and friends, numbering the
latter by the score. His death was therefore universally regretted. Whatever
was of interest and value to the public he
cheerfully espoused, giving liberally of his means to all worthy enterprises.
He was a very
successful farm, his labors bringing to him a handsome competence and he
accumulated a large landed estate.
He died suddenly of heart failure on the 28th of May, 1889 and his remains
were interred in the Union Cemetery opposite
North Columbus, where a suitable monument has been erected to his memory.
More
information gathered:
Since finding
the (above quoted) Centennial History book written in 1901, I have acquired
a copy
of 'History of Balser Hess 1747-1806 and Descendants' compiled by
Frank E. Hess of Goshen, Indiana in 1950.
From the Hess book, a more comprehensive history of the Hess family is understood
and
it serves to correct some information that was given in the Centennial History
book.
From the Frank
E. Hess book:
Thomas Moore
Hess was born July 25, 1825, the only child by his father's first marriage.
His mother died when he was an
infant and his father took him to the home of his sister, Catherine Oller
(Aunt Katie) in Delaware County, Ohio.
Aunt Katie cared for him the first five years of his life.
His father remarried
the second time in 1830 and Thomas returned to the parental home at Columbus.
The next year,
his stepmother died and he was an orphan again. Since his father did not
marry the third time for seven years, Thomas
spent much of the next ten years with his grandfather Moore, who had moved
to Indiana. Here he attended school until
he was fifteen, when he again returned to the parental home, where he worked
on the farm and grew to manhood.
Because of early
life as an orphan and the many changes and homes it involved and because
he never experienced that
affection called 'Mother Love', he always manifested a great interest in
orphan children. He was well prepared to assist
in the rearing of his brothers and sister after the deaths of their mother
and father.
Thomas Moore
Hess married Mary Ann Rutherford in 1849, daugher of Henry Rutherford of
Bellpoint, Delaware County,
Ohio, who was born March 25, 1828. Their son, Henry Rutherford Hess, was
born September 9, 1850 and Mary Ann
Rutherford Hess died two weeks later, September 25, 1850. She was buried
in Oller Cemetery in Delaware County on
the Scioto River.
Thomas Moore
Hess remarried on October 2, 1851 to Ann Amanda Kinnear, a daughter of Samuel
Kinnear. They had two
daughters, Ellen Pauline Hess and Nora Adell Hess.
He was a kindly,
sympathetic man, mellowed by experience. He was a successful farmer and
business man, a good financier
and acquired a large land estate.
He died May 28, 1889 and is buried in Union Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio.
Noted
events