A life in Marion and Morrow Counties, Ohio
Temperance Gilson was born 29 July 1823 in Ohio, the daughter of Samuel Gilson and Dolly Clark.¹ Her early years were spent in a family that was part of the movement from New York into central Ohio, a migration reflected in the birthplace of her sister Sally Jane about 1828.²
Marriage to James Lawhead
On 20 January 1840, Temperance Gilson married James Lawhead in Marion County, Ohio.³ The original marriage entry records that the couple was legally married on 28 January 1840 by Michael Hedges, J.P.⁴
A family register page preserves their birth dates and repeats the marriage date, providing an important piece of corroborating evidence.⁵
Five children were born to James and Temperance:
- Cynthia Alice Lawhead, born 2 September 1840, Marion County, Ohio⁵
- Margaret Ann Lawhead, born 13 May 1842, Pennsylvania⁵
- Susannah Gilson Lawhead, born 8 September 1843, Morrow County, Ohio⁵
- George Washington Lawhead, born 10 February 1845, Westfield Township, Morrow County, Ohio⁵
- James Lawhead, born 26 October 1846, Morrow County, Ohio⁵
The change in the recorded birthplace of the children from Marion County to Morrow County does not represent a move. In 1848, Morrow County was created from portions of Marion, Richland, Delaware, and Knox Counties. The Lawhead family remained in the same locality — the jurisdiction changed when the new county was formed.
James Lawhead died 19 July 1846 in Morrow County, leaving Temperance a widow with five young children, the youngest born just three months after his death.¹
Marriage to Charles Conlon
Temperance married again on 7 May 1849 at Cardington, Morrow County, Ohio, to Charles Conlon.¹
The 1850 census shows the blended household in Cardington:
- Charles Conlon
- Temperance Conlon
- Her Lawhead children
- Their infant son, Charles G. Conlin⁶
Two children were born to Charles and Temperance:
- Charles G. Conlin, born March 1850⁵
- Robert Conlon, born 8 May 1851⁵
Death
Temperance (Gilson) (Lawhead) Conlon died 20 May 1851 in Morrow County, Ohio, at only twenty-seven years of age.¹ She was buried at Cardington.¹
Her death came less than two weeks after the birth of her youngest child.
The Conlon Will: Proof of the Lawhead Children
The 1871 probate of Charles Conlon’s will provides explicit, primary-source evidence naming Temperance’s children from her first marriage:
“the children of my late wife Temperance, children of James Lawhead — Cynthia A. Lawhead, George W., Margaret, Susannah and James Lawhead …”⁷
This document firmly ties the Lawhead children to Temperance and James and confirms that she had died prior to the writing of the will.
After Temperance’s Death
Following her death, her widower Charles Conlon later married Hannah Frost in 1853, a fact also recorded on the family register page.⁵
Her children grew to adulthood in Morrow County and beyond, carrying the Lawhead and Conlon lines forward.
Sources
- Ancestry, Family Tree profile for Temperance Gilson, with attached Ohio death and burial data.
- Ancestry, Family Tree profile for Sally Jane Gilson.
- Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774–1993, Marion County, James Lawhead–Temperance Gilson.
- Marion County, Ohio, marriage record, 1840, original entry for James Lawhead and Temperance Gilson.
- Lawhead–Conlon family register (manuscript), privately held.
- 1850 U.S. census, Morrow County, Ohio, Cardington Township, Charles Conlon household.
- Morrow County, Ohio, Probate Court, will of Charles Conlon, proved 24 June 1871.