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John Stark Edwards is a known name in the Warren community.
His house, which once stood where the Tribune Chronicle parking lot is today, is now at 303 Monroe St. Many have visited this house and have learned about Edwards and his family. Recently though, new details have emerged regarding Edwards' family, including another John Stark Edwards.
The more well-known John Stark Edwards, or as his family called him "Starks," was an early settler in Trumbull County. He was born to Pierpont Edwards and Frances Ogden in 1777. His grandfather was the fire and brimstone preacher Jonathan Edwards. Within the Edwards family line, there are many notable names, including Aaron Burr, former vice president of the United States, as well as Eli Whitney who was the inventor of the cotton gin.
Now this is where things get even more interesting and complicated. The collections team at Trumbull County Historical Society was recently sorting through reference papers on the Harmon family at the Morgan History Center. Within the folder of Harmon family information, was a genealogy paper for "John Stark Edwards born in 1833."
As we examined the page that had many familiar names on it, we thought that the genealogy paper was wrong since the John Stark Edwards we know of was born in 1777 and died in 1813. This led us down a very deep rabbit hole, which led us to this answer: there are two John Stark Edwards and they are related. But as any genealogical research goes, it just gets more and more complicated, especially due to names being reused throughout the generations. Thus, we spent hours searching through online databases and the Local History & Genealogy Center at the Warren-Trumbull Public Library where we finally pieced together this puzzle.
In order to understand where the second John Stark Edwards comes into the picture, we needed to go back several generations. So we began our search with Rev. Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierpont Edwards (grandparents to the first John Stark Edwards). Jonathan and Sarah had 11 children together.
The two focus points in our research were: Pierpont (the first John Stark Edwards' father), and their daughter named Lucy Edwards. Lucy married Jahleel Woodbridge and they had three children together. We focused on their daughter, Lucy Woodbridge. This Lucy married another Jonathan Edwards (b. 1764). Lucy and Jonathan had 10 children, the one we focused on though was another Jonathan Edwards (Jr.) who then married a woman named Lucy. It was this Jonathan and Lucy who had the second John Stark Edwards. Our conclusion was that the two John Stark Edwards are first cousins twice removed.
All of this came about because we opened a folder for the Harmon family and found the genealogical paper for the second John Stark Edwards. Now you may be wondering, what is the connection between the Edwards family and the Harmon family? Well, that answer is way more simple: the second John Stark Edwards married Margaret Kibbe Harmon in 1860. This all goes to show the adventure you can go on when you do genealogical research.