Ellen Walterhouse

Ellen Walterhouse was the second child of Philip Benjamin Walterhouse and Rebecca Mapes and was born about 1851 in Blanchard Twp. Hancock Co. OH. The 1860 census of Washington Co. Paulding Co. OH does not show an "Ellen" in the listing for the Philip Walterhouse family. There is an "Almina", age 6.

Ben S. Jackson, a grandson of Silas Walterhouse, wrote in a 1969 letter to Allen Potts that "Aunt Ellen told me that she and her brother Charles were put out by their step-mother [Laura Mapes Walterhouse] during the Civil War when their father Philip was away fighting in the war."

Ellen married Nathan A. Philo on 12 May 1872 at Defiance OH and they were the parents of seven children: Nellie, Charles R., Eveleth, Estella, Nathan, Harrison Luther and Clarence Merle. After Nathan's death about 1921, Ellen married James Lewis.

Again, in the letter from Ben S. Jackson "Aunt Ellen was claimed to be 96 when she died, about 1946. I am unable to figure out chronologically how certain ages can be accurate as claimed. I lived with Aunt Ellen Philo in the 20's when she was supposed to be past 70". She is buried in Six Corners Cemetery, Hicksville, Defiance Co. OH.

This is a copy of a news clipping, undated, that is titled "Five Generations" that shows four women and an infant. The caption reads "Pictured above are five generations of Ohioans in direct descent, with ages ranging from 87 years to six weeks. All natives of Defiance county and residents of the New community, they are: Front row (left to right), Mrs. James Lewis, 87; Mrs. John Ridenour [nee Nellie Philo] age 65; Sharon Dawn Moar, six weeks" and the two women in the back row are unidentified because the article was cut off. The young woman on the right must be Mrs. Moar, mother of the infant and the older lady would then be the infant's grandmother and Sharon's mother.