Staggs Family History

My ancestors in the United States

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      Elnora Adelaide Keen (1846-1880)

      BIRTH: 29 Dec 1846, McGraw, New York, USA
      DEATH: 15 Jan 1880, Valparaiso Indiana, USA
      FATHER: Zebulon Keen (1811-1897)
      MOTHER: Hannah Jane Webster (1816-1889)
      SPOUSE: Wharton Massillon Crowe (1846-1886)

      When Elnora Adelaide Keen was born on December 29, 1846, in McGraw, New York, her father, Zebulon, was 35, and her mother, Hannah, was 30. She married Wharton Massillon Crowe on December 6, 1865, in Porter, Indiana. They had six children in 15 years. She died as a young mother on January 15, 1880, in Valparaiso, Indiana, at the age of 33, and was buried there.

      The life of Elnora Adelaide Keen

      A Mayflower Descendant on the Midwestern Frontier

      Elnora Adelaide Keen was born on 29 December 1846 in McGrawville, Cortland County, New York, the seventh child of Zebulon Keen and Hannah Jane (Webster) Keen. Her birth placed her at the intersection of two of New England’s oldest colonial families: the Keen line descending from Josiah Keen (1620–1710) and Abigail Little, granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren, and the Webster line descending from Governor John Webster, one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. Though she grew up far from the rocky shores of Plymouth or the Connecticut River Valley, Elnora carried within her the legacy of families who had shaped the earliest chapters of American history.

      Her early childhood unfolded in rural New York, where her father worked as a farmer and laborer while her mother managed a bustling household of growing children. The 1850 census captures the family in Cortlandville, with Elnora listed as a four‑year‑old among siblings Asher, Achsah, Lydia, Mary, and infant Martha. Sometime during the 1850s, the Keen family joined the great westward movement of New England descendants, leaving New York for the expanding communities of Porter County, Indiana. By 1860, they were settled in Valparaiso, a thriving railroad and agricultural town where several Keen siblings would eventually marry and raise families.

      It was in Valparaiso that Elnora met Wharton Massillon Crowe, a young man whose family had migrated west from Montgomery, Massachusetts. Their marriage license was issued on 2 December 1865, and they were married four days later, on 6 December 1865, in Porter County. Elnora was nineteen; Wharton was the same age. They began their married life in the Crow household, as shown in the 1870 census, living with Wharton’s parents, Massillon and Betsey Crow, while raising their first children.

      Elnora’s life in Indiana was shaped by the rhythms of a young frontier household. She kept house, tended children, and supported her husband’s work as a farmer and railroad employee. Between 1867 and 1879, she gave birth to six children: Alice Geraldine, Ella Amelia, Anna Belle, Melvin Adelbert, William Orson, and Elsie Elnora (the last born after Elnora’s death to Wharton’s second wife, Emma Keen). The Keen and Crow families remained closely intertwined, with Elnora’s sister Emma Wilhelmina Keen marrying Wharton after Elnora’s passing, a common practice in the nineteenth century to preserve family stability and ensure the care of young children.

      Elnora’s life was not long. She died on 15 January 1880 in Valparaiso at the age of thirty‑three, leaving behind a husband, five young children, and a family network that would continue to carry her memory forward. Her death preceded the 1880 census by only months, and her absence is felt sharply in the records that follow. Wharton remarried later that same year, and the blended Crowe–Keen household continued to grow, but Elnora’s place within it remained foundational.

      The following is an excerpt from Staggs Genealogy – Harold Wareham Staggs – His Book

      Grandfather Zebulon and Hanna had twelve children. He was a wagon maker and lived most of his life on a farm near Valpariso, Indiana.

      Grandmother Elnora Adelaid Keen (1846) was their seventh child. She married Grandfather Moseland Warton Crowe (called Warton by his friends). Warton was a farmer who became an engineer on the Grand Trunk Railroad. He was born in Montgomery, Mississippi in 1846. These two had five children. When Elnora died, Warton married her sister Emma Wilhelmina Keen. They had one child.

      Warton died in a train wreck. His and another train met head on. Warton and his fireman jumped but he was killed in the wreck. Warton and Elenora’s first daughter was Grandmother Alice Geraldine Crowe. She married Grandfather William Hawthorn Wareham. William was an electrician for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

      ELNORA A. WIFE OF WHARTON M. CROW DIED JAN. 15, 1880 AGED 33 Y’s. 17 D’s.

      The following is an excerpt from The John Keen(e) (1578-1649) and Associated Families, by Mr. and Mrs. Archie Timothy Keene, 1971

      Elnora Adelaide, 7th child of Zebulon and Hannah Keen, born 12-29-1846, McGrawville, N.Y.; died 1-15-1880, Valparaiso, Ind.; married 12-6-1866, Valparaiso, Moseland Wharton Crowe, farmer and R.R, employe, born 10-5-1846, Montgomery, Mass of Massilon and Betsey Crowe. They had five children. He married 2nd 8-24-1880 Emma Wilhelmina Keen, sister to his first wife. They had 1 child. He died 3-18-1886 and his widow Emma married 2nd Sylvester Miller, 9-1-1898 who died 9-29-1904

      Legacy of Elnora Adelaide Keen

      Elnora Adelaide Keen’s legacy is woven into the fabric of the families she helped unite. Through her, the bloodlines of Richard Warren of the Mayflower and Governor John Webster of Connecticut entered the Crowe family, linking centuries of American settlement — from Plymouth Colony to the Indiana frontier. Her children carried forward the Keen, Webster, and Crow traditions into the twentieth century, spreading across Indiana, Nebraska, and beyond. Though her life was brief, the documentary trail she left — census records, marriage entries, genealogical histories — preserves her story with unusual clarity for a nineteenth‑century woman. In the Keen and Crowe genealogies, she stands as a bridge between colonial New England and the American Midwest, a reminder of how deeply the nation’s earliest families shaped the generations that followed.

      Parents

      Father: Zebulon Keen (1811-1897)

      Mother: Hannah Jane Webster

      Married

      Wharton Massillon Crowe (1846-1886). Married December 6, 1865, in Porter, Indiana.

      Children

      • Alice Geraldine Crowe (1867-1948) married William Hawthorne (1856-1928)
      • Ella Adelaide Crow (1868-1888)
      • Anna Crow (1875-1962) married Robert Elmer Denton (1873-1914)
      • Melvin Crow (1878-1935) married Katie Claire Jones (1882-1973)
      • William Crow (1880-1881)
      • Elsie Elnora Crow (1883-1961) married Charles W Hall (1884–1932)

      Documents

      • Birth Records
      • Marriage records
        • Indiana, U.S., Marriages, 1810-2001 – Marriage Date 2 Dec 1865, Marriage Place Indiana, United States, Spouse Wharton Crow, Page 182, FHL Film Number, 001686156
        • Indiana, U.S., Marriage Certificates, 1960-2012, Marriage License Date 2 Dec 1865, Marriage Date 6 Dec 1865, Marriage Place Porter, Indiana, USA, Spouse Wharton Crow
      • Death records
      • Census Records
        • 1850 United States Federal Census Page 1  Page 2 > New York > Cortland > Cortlandville > Elnora Keen, age 4 living with parents Zebulon Keen (carpenter, 39) and Hannah Keen (34) and siblings Asher Keen (15), Achsah Keen (13), Lydia Keen (11), Mary Keen (8), and Martha Keen (4/12)
        • 1860 United States Federal Census > Indiana > Porter > Valparaiso > Elnora Keen, age 13 living with parents Zebulon Keen (carpenter, 49) and Hannah Keen (44) and siblings Martha Keen (10), Flora Keen (7), Ellen Keen (5), Emma Keen (4)
        • 1870 United States Federal Census > Indiana > Porter > Center > Elnora Crow (keeping house, 22) living with parents Maraiton Crow (farmer, 60) and Betsey Crow (keeping house, 59), husband Wharton Crow (farmer, 22) and children Alice Crow (4) and Emma Crow (0)
      • Other

      Relation of Elnora Adelaide Keen to Steven Barry Staggs: 2nd great-grandmother

      Page last updated June 25, 2026

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