The question is: "Who was the father of Zalmon?" Zalmon Rush was my grandfather. This question has been haunting me for years. The answer has been eluding us. The Rush family history took a new turn the first part of this year.

I have been probing on the Internet for some time now. Much of the information "out there" is excellent, so I thought I would try and get some information from his old "alma mater". Zalmon had graduated from Denison University, in Granville, OH., on Wednesday, June 25^th 1865. The alumni association would regularly publish a catalog tracking where and what their graduates were doing. When I e-mailed the University, the University Archivist, Florence W. Hoffman sent me a copy of this catalog for each period from Zalmon’s graduation until his death . In the catalog of 1893 appeared the information I had been looking for. It stated he was the son of Jacob Rush and Elizabeth (Colborn) Rush. ^1.

After receiving this "Fifth Alumni Catalog, of 1893" I again e-mailed Florence Hoffman, at Denison University. I wrote "Is there any way you can determine just where the information that Jacob Rush was Zalmon’s father came from?" She answered me on 7 Apr 1998, " **Regarding the source of information about Zalmon Rush’s father. Almost certainly, it came from him and would have been given when he registered. Procedures were much less formal then and there were no applications for admission. The usual procedure would have been a chat or interview with the President or one of the senior professors, who recorded the students name on a register. These registers and the lists copied from them in the alumni catalogs, are most often the only evidence we have of a student ‘s presence here." She went on to say, " we know from associated lists of students in each course, that he was enrolled in Anology, Intellectual Philosophy, Hebrew Grammar, Astronomy, History of Literature, Arithmetic, and Algebra I."

Sincerely,

Florence W. Hoffman, University Archivist.

The catalog named his father as "Jacob Rush", so let me review a little of my past research which, points directly at which "Jacob Rush" we are talking about.

When I became involved in this project in 1983, I knew my father Joseph Benjamin Rush, was born in Mt. Pleasant, PA. and his father’s name was Zalmon. We had a break in Salt Lake City, at the Family History library, where we found the book, "Rush & Skinner Families," by Harry Rush. In this book, as a footnote to the marriage of Elizabeth Colborn and Jesse Hyatt, it stated " Before she married Jesse Hyatt, Elizabeth Colborn was the mother of Rev. Zalmon Rush, who became a Baptist minister. He later lived at Madera, California." This was a direct tie-in . My father had grown up in Madera, CA, where his father was a minister in the Baptist church. Now we knew who his mother was. In 1987 Marylynn and I took a trip to Pennsylvania and Ohio, trying to locate his father. I was sure it would be an easy job--what a dreamer! On this trip we looked up "Rushes" -"Skinners"- "Colborns", by the dozens. We made scads of copies of things, land records, probate records, wills, etc. We put as much of this information as possible into the computer. Then we tried to see who would qualify as his father. Over the years I have zeroed-in on who was Zalmon’s father. When you are looking for such an elusive bit of information all you can do is sort out options. Track each one down until it is proved this person could or could not be him. May I throw in a bit of advice at this point. When you are working in genealogy, getting the information is important, but a highly critical thing is to record where this information came from.

Now we had a number of very positive facts to work with, but as each new fact emerged it seemed two more questions would appear. The one positive fact was: We knew who his mother was.
 

When Zalmon was born, we think she was living in Confluence, which is in Lower Turkeyfoot Twp., Somerset Co. PA. Elizabeth was the daughter of Jonathan Colborn [b.20 Feb 1784] [d. aft 1860] and Susan [Skinner] Colborn [b. abt 1790] [d. aft 1870].
 

Elizabeth’s father, Jonathan, was the son of Robert Colborn [b.11 Jan 1753] d. [15 May 1835] and Effie Wortman [b.25 May 1753][d. 25 Nov 1825].
 

Elizabeth’s mother, Susan Skinner, was the daughter of Samuel Skinner Jr.

[b. abt 1755][d. 25 Aug 1825] and Mary Drake (b. abt 1760][ d. 18 Apr 1858) .
 

Zalmon was born 13 Dec 1833. Elizabeth married Jesse Hyatt, sometime after his birth. She later divorced Jesse, who in turn married Hannah Firestone.
 

Elizabeth [Colborn] Hyatt, gave birth to Almira [Elmira] Hyatt on 12 Oct 1835, Elmira first married Henry Heinbaugh and then Peter Lenhart.
 

Just a few notes to establish the time sequence of Zalmon’s name "Rush". We believe his given name was Zalmon Colborn. We don’t know if he was ever given an additional name, but we do know his mother was Elizabeth Colborn. It would follow that the baby would at least take her name and that of the father, if there were a legal father. We know that Zalmon took the name of Hyatt during his youth. We have no records at this time that he ever went by the name of Zalmon Colborn, or if he had his name legally changed, at any time. These notes are significant in analyzing when his change of name occured, and possibly why.

In the settlement of Elizabeth’s estate, Zalmon Rush, then residing in Boone Co., Nebraska, was included in her list of heirs. This information was retrieved from court records in Somerset Co. The will of Jesse Hyatt, her husband, was also reviewed and it showed all the children Elizabeth had borne of him, but did not include Zalmon. This proved she was Zalmon’s mother, but Jesse Hyatt was not his father.
 

Dr. Jacob Rush and his wife Nancy owned some lots in Draketown, Somerset Co. and they sold these lots to John Johnson on 28 May 1853.

On 14 June 1858 It was recorded that Zalmon bought property from John Johnson and wife Sarah Ann, which was conveyed to the said John Johnson by Dr. Jacob Rush and wife Nancy Rush on 28 May 1853.

I do not know why these land transactions occured in the sequence and why there was the long delay between the sale and final recording date. Did it have any significance on Zalmon and Dr. Jacob’s relationship?  Those were my thoughts as I worked, whether it meant anything or not I don’t know..

In summary I find it hard to believe I have been working on our family history over 15 years. It has been a discouraging project, but addictive. We had so little solid information to work on. We had to continually search in new pastures for we didn’t know who we were looking for. As we progressed I was confident that Dr. Jacob Rush held some of the secrets we were looking for. Maybe he was his father, maybe a mentor, or friend, but at all times he seemed to be around. He also qualified as being available, for Dr. Jacob was in-between wives. In March 1998, when we received the envelope of information from Denison University, I was so grateful. It seemed, I had been waiting a lifetime for this.

In conclusion, I believe Zalmon in his application, to attend Denison University, stated the correct names of his mother and father. I have no doubt that Dr. Jacob Rush is the father of Zalmon Rush. If at any time we have PROOF this is wrong, I will be the first to acknowledge it.  For now I am proceeding on as this is a fact.

So the answer to my initial question is:

Zalmon Colborn Rush, was the son of:

Dr. Jacob Rush, Jr . b. 1797 d. ; Son of Jacob Rush Sr. b. 1755 d.1850 and Mary Skinner, b. 1761 d. 1825, both buried in Jersey Baptist Church cemetery, Ursina, PA.

Richard Lyle Rush, b. 1920

01/20/99 10:41 AM

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