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Jeffrey Ferris

Revision as of 21:15, 3 March 2022 by Doug Engle (talk | contribs) (→‎Sources)

Revision as of 21:15, 3 March 2022 by Doug Engle (talk | contribs) (→‎Sources)

Jeffrey Lockwood Ferris was born in 1610 in Leicestershire, England, and died in 1666 in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, and therefore an early American. He was also the forefather of a minimum of three different lines of families significant to the history of the Plymouth Brethren movement in the 20th century in North America and Asia.

Contents

Paternal Ancestry

  • Richard Ferris (b. 1585 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng. - d. 1616 Leicestershire, Eng.)
    • Humphrey Ferrers (b. 1558 Tamworth Castle, Warwickshire, Eng. - d. 1608 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng.)
      • John Ferrers (b. 1514 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng. - d. 1576 Ashbourne, Derbyshire, Eng.)
        • Sir Humphrey Ferrers (1493-1553 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng.)
          • John Ferrers (1461-1515 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng.)
            • John Ferrers (b. 1442 Hambleton, Rutland, Eng. - d. 1498 Tamworth, Eng.)
              • Sir Thomas Ferrers (b. 1420 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng. - d. 1498 Staffordshire, Eng.)
                • Thomas Ferrers (b. 1395 Groby Castle, Leicestershire, Eng. - d. 1459 Tamworth, Staffordshire, Eng.)
                  • William De Ferrers (b. 1372 Groby, Leicestershire, Eng. - d. 1445 Woodham Ferrers, Essex, Eng.)
                    • Henry De Ferrers (1355-1388 Groby, Leicestershire, Eng.)
                      • William Ferrers (b. 1332 Newbold-Verdon, Leicestershire, Eng. - d. 1371 Stebbing, Essex, Eng.)

PB relevant Descendants

  • John Ferris (b. 1639 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT - d. 1715 Throgs Neck, Westchester, N.Y.) was among the first five founders of Westchester Co., New York, after his father purchased 40 acres of land there for him after relocating from Greenwich in 1657 (or 1665) involving two years of public shame when he was caught swearing on a Sunday, as well as other allegations as a minor, which is said to have lent itself to his eventual conversion to a Quaker. His will left properties to his children including a family burial ground. Harriet Scofield reported that John's father, Jeffrey, was in Westchester as early as 1657 with his brother Jonathan assisting with a settlement known as Oostrdorp, which is presently near Westchester Square, and acquired initially by Thomas Pell in 1654 from Native Americans.
    • John Ferris (b. 1660 Throgs Neck, Westchester, N.Y. - d. 1729 Westchester Co., N.Y.)
      • John Ferris (b. 1723 Westchester Co., N.Y. - d. 1808 North Castle, Westchester, N.Y.)
        • Daniel Ferris, Sr. (1752-1831 Bedford, Westchester, N.Y.) & Hannah Banks Ferris (b. 1752 - d. 1824 Bedford, N.Y.), daughter of John Banks (b. 1720 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT - d. 1785 Westchester Co., N.Y.). John Banks' ancestry: Samuel Banks (b. 1686 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT - d. 1743 Banksville, Westchester, N.Y.), John Banks (b. 1641 Windsor, Hartford, CT - d. 1699 Greenwich, CT), & John Banks (b. 1619 Moreton, Essex, England - d. 1684 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT), married Marie Taintor (1614-1667) in 1633 @ Windsor, Hartford, CT, daughter of Charles Taintor (b. 1593 Monmouthshire, Wales - d. 1654 Fairfield, CT lost at sea).
          • Daniel Ferris, Jr. (1785-1830 Bedford, N.Y.) & Mary Ann Holmes Ferris (1793-1858 Bedford, N.Y.)
            • John Banks Ferris (1814-1898 Bedford, N.Y.) & (2nd wife) Hannah Elizabeth Reynolds Ferris (b. 1843 North Castle, Westchester, N.Y. - d. 1928 Bedford, N.Y.); 1st wife: Mary Jane Ferris (b. 1825 - d. 1859 Bedford, N.Y.).
              • John Edward Ferris (1865-1928 Bedford, N.Y.)
                • Infant Son (1858 Bedford Hills, N.Y.)
                • John Ferris (1859-1860 Bedford Hills, N.Y.)
                • Flora Etta "Flossie" Ferris-Wingler – Bedford, New York, USA – 1905 (b. 1890 Bedford, Westchester, N.Y. - d. 1980 Mount Dora, Lake, FL).
                • Ida May Ferris-Kinkel - Bedford, New York, USA - 1905 (b. 1893 Bedford, Westchester, N.Y. - d. 1963 Danbury, Fairfield, CT)
                • Edith Chasmar Ferris (1894-1901 Bedford, N.Y.)
                • John Banks Ferris, Jr. (b. 1895 Bedford, N.Y. )
                • Russel McCastin Ferris (1898-1987 Bedford, N.Y.)
                • Jacquanetta Ferris (1902-1982 Bedford, N.Y.)


John Edward Ferris' daughters Flora & Ida were recognized in May 14, 1905 in Messages of Love, a children's magazine published in St. Louis, Missouri by Bible Truth Publishers, now in Addison, Illinois, affiliated with the exclusive (TW) brethren. Also see Messages of Love in New York and Messages of Love Around the Globe.


  • Peter Ferris (b. 1633 Kent, England - d. 1706 Stamford, Fairfield, CT)
    • Joseph Ferris (1657-1733 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT)
      • Peter Ferris (1700-1764 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT)
        • Samuel C. Ferris (b. 1720 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT - d. 1790 Kingston, Ulster, N.Y.) & Mary Pardee Ferris (b. 1724 Stamford, Fairfield, CT - d. 1790 Kingston, Ulster, N.Y.). Served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War.
          • Joshua Ferris (b. 1767 Kingston, Ulster, N.Y. - d. 1858 Grand Gorge, Delaware, N.Y.) & Margaret "Peggy" Denton Ferris (b. 1773 N.Y. - d. 1854 Deposit, N.Y.)
            • William Denton Ferris (b. 1803 Roxbury, Delaware, N.Y. - d. 1847 Albany, N.Y.) & Margaret Becker Ferris (b. 1804 N.Y. - d. 1883 Buffalo, N.Y.)
              • Peter Joshua Ferris (b. 1831 Mooresville, Delaware, N.Y. - d. 1906 Buffalo, Erie, N.Y.) & Mary E. Barton Ferris (b. 1832 N.Y. - d. 1885).
                • Jay Floyd Ferris (b. 1856 Buffalo, Erie, N.Y. - d. 1919 Detroit, Wayne, MI) & Reubey Statira Tomlinson Ferris (b. 1858 Sylvania, PA - d. 1945 Baldwinsville, N.Y.). Further up:
                  • John Tomlinson Ferris, Sr. (b. 1893 Grand Rapids, MI - d. 1975 Loudenville, N.Y. & Charlotte Louise Geyer Ferris (b. 1895 Berlin, Germany, lived 1916 @ Orange, N.J., m. 1922, d. 1987 Albany, N.Y.).
                    • John Tomlinson Ferris, Jr. (b. 1924 Detroit, MI - d. 2016 Dallas, TX). 1st wife: Betty Annette Allgood Ferris (b. 1924 Plainview, TX - d. 1994 Flower Mound, TX).
                    • Robert Haldane Ferris (b. 1926 Dearborn, MI - d. 2009 Leesburg, Lake, FL).
                    • Charlotte Ruth Ferris Merrill (b. 1932 N.Y.). 1955 @ Albany, N.Y. married Donald E. Merrill.

John T. Ferris, Sr. was the youngest of seven children, and studied at the Chicago Art Institute, where two of his sisters, Mary and Reubey, served as instructors prior to his attendance, and also were among the first women to hold an art exhibition in China. Mary Lydia Ferris (b. 1887 Grand Rapids, MI - d. 1974 Pearblossom, Los Angeles, CA) married Dr. Alfred Hjalmar Swan (b. 1883 Omaha, NE - d. 1959 Los Angeles, CA), who was a medical doctor, and was served as a Secretary and Physical Director for the YMCA starting in 1912-1921 in China, as well as in Japan and Hong Kong. Reubey Statira Ferris (b. 1886 Grand Rapids, MI - d. 1955 Stevens Point, Portage, WI) married Harlo Hakes Ferris, Sr. (b. 1886 Whitewater, Walworth, WI - d. 1983 Wild Rose, Waushara, WI) in Bombay, India in 1919, where he was serving as Secretary of the Madison St. YMCA (in NYC), and a chaplain for the British Forces. Dr. Ferris was also a Congregational pastor, with his last pastorate of nine years at a community church in Hancock, WI.

John also served with the Coast Guard during WWI (1917-1919), commissioned on a destroyer in the Mediterranean. He earned the rank of Quartermaster on the USRC Yamacraw. According to the wiki for the Yamacraw, "She served as a patrol vessel in the Chesapeake Bay to Nantucket Shoals area until called for convoy duty to Europe. During convoy missions escorting merchant vessels she performed a rescue, saving four survivors of a torpedo attack. On escort duty Yamacraw cruised over 36,000 miles."

In 1922, John married Charlotte C. Geyer in Orange, New Jersey, her parents later resided in Quakertown, Bucks, PA. Dr. Franklin "Boyd" Edwards (b. 1876 Lisle, N.Y. - d. 1944 Arlington, Bennington, VT) officiated the wedding, who later (1922-1928) served as the 5th headmaster of The Hill School for boys in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Edwards was a descendant of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a gggg-grandson.

Their son John T. Ferris Jr. was born in Detroit (1924), but shortly afterwards the family relocated to Dearborn, then to Bloomfield, N.J., then to Harrisburg, PA where the elder John was working as an architect on state government buildings, then back to New York to assist with the design of the double-decked suspension George Washington Bridge, which was opened in 1931, and connects Washington Heights, Manhattan, N.Y. with Fort Lee, N.J. That bridge was the longest main bridge span in the world until the Golden Gate Bridge was opened in 1937, according to the GWB wiki. His base for employment in New York was at the Rockefeller Plaza.

John, Sr. served as an elder at (OB) Bethany Chapel (1904-present) in Yonkers, New York, and designed its structure built in 1938.

Then the family relocated within Westchester County to Crestwood, N.Y., then to Ardsley, N.Y. thru part of John's high school years, then to Hastings-on-the-Hudson where he served three years as captain of the baseball team, and a catcher, coached by Cochrane, who also oversaw the football team where John served as a center. Switzer, the math teacher also served as an assistant coach, he and John attempted to start a hockey team, he also played tennis. John applied to the U.S. Navy while a Senior at Hastings High School in New York but his hay fever kept him from the Navy, so he applied for and was accepted in the Army Air Corps, which he was sent to basic training right after graduating, a week after Mother's Day in 1943, to a week of basic training at Atlantic City, N.J., then to the University of Vermont in Burlington for academics and ten hours of flying time on Piper Cubs, then for a few weeks in the summer at the 526th AAF Base Unit, the Aviation Cadet Classification Center in Nashville, TN.

His primary flight training was at DAR Aerotech in Albany, GA on a Stearman Boeing PT-17 for a couple months, trained by a civilian named Mr. Casler, a GM executive who enjoyed flying and put aside his career to train war pilots. Then he went to Greenwood, MS (two hours south of Memphis) for basic flying school, then to Napier Field in Dothan, AL to fly T-6's in training as a fighter pilot. While in Dothan, he was involved with a local Baptist church. Then home for a month of furlough, then to Courtland, AL to await being assigned as a fighter pilot, but he and his crew was assigned as bombers instead, and sent to Harlingen, TX. In the Fall of 1944, he transferred near Springfield, MA to Westover Field to train on flying B-24's with Pratt & Whitney engines, then he was transferred in 1945 from West Virginia by ship to Naples, Italy, and stationed in Lecce, the first base to close as the War wound down, after they finished the fifteen missions. A good friend, Steven Drost, from the Yonkers Chapel with the 8th Air Force lost his life when his plane was hit by another plane shot down.

His first and thirteenth combat missions were the toughest ones, in Vienna, then Lenz, Austra with the 98th Bomb Group, 415th Squadron, the latter started on March 22, 1945, with several B-24's in groups of threes, and the first two groups were shot down on the 31st of March, and he flew the lead plane in the third group which was spared. Those killed included:

  • 2LT William Fowlkes (Terre Haute, IN)
  • FO Glenn Day (Wilmington, IN)
  • 2LT Charles Roe (Memphis, TN)
  • 2LT John E. Mentzer (Lowellville, OH)

Ultimately he did fifteen aeronautic bomb runs out of Italy. Then he flew two missions with the 465th Bomb Group in the 780th Squadron, with a base in Pantanella, Italy, before WWII ended, his last mission was April 25, 1945. He served 22 more years, being recalled and restationed throughout the world including the Korean Conflict, and was stationed in Germany until 1952-1954 where he served as an instructor in Oxford, Ohio at Miami University, and was then an early instructor in Montgomery, Alabama 1954-1961 at Air University on Maxwell Air Force Base, then served in the Vietnam War, being eventually honorably discharged in 1968 as a Major. He initially developed an interest in flying, inspired by Charles Lindbergh when he was a child, who he had opportunity to meet in 1949 in the 36th Fighter Wing, he was good friends with their wing commander.

After WWII ended, he attended Colgate College in 1946, and on Sept. 10 of that year at Taylor, Texas, John married Betty Annette Allgood (b. 1924 Plainview, Hale, TX), a daughter of Henry Arnold Allgood (b. 1900 Forestburg/Stoneburg, TX - d. 1984 Jasper, TX) & Lucile Ballard Allgood (b. 1898 Killeen, TX - d. 1982 Tulia, Swisher, TX). At the time of Annette's birth, Henry was employed in Lockney, TX as a teacher. In the latter part of 1946, John Sr. and his wife Charlotte tired of NYC life, and removed to upstate New York, to Geneva.

He and his family was commended by Gallion Bible Chapel in Alabama to the Lord's work in South Korea in 1970, and subsequently to open brethren (OB) assemblies in Dallas, Texas, including Glenview Bible Chapel (North Richland Hills, TX), founded in 1968, which was formerly known as Meadowbrook East Bible Chapel, and subsequent to 1984 known as Summerfield Community Chapel, then in homes. John was then the primary founder of Believers Bible Chapel in Lewisville, founded in 1994, now known as Edmonds Lane Bible Chapel.

In 1996, John remarried Edna Elizabeth Cutler Aaron (b. 1933 - d. 2022), who was previously married in 1955 to Waldo Aaron, associate director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, serving the Lord in Brazil where they had been since 1961. In 1970, two months prior to a planned promotion to a director, Waldo was killed in an auto accident in Brazil, leaving his widow with two small children. In spite of the death of Waldo and John, Edna continued in faithful service with Wycliffe, and Wheatland Bible Chapel in Texas, where one of John's son-in-laws served in the late 1980's as an elder. She was promoted to Glory on Jan. 27, 2022 at the age of 88.

John T. Ferris Sr., had another son, Robert Haldane Ferris, born in 1926 in Dearborn. A year after John entered the Air Corps, Robert entered the Navy and went to Dartmouth in the B-12 program, and was stationed with Admiral Bird in 1946 at the South Pole, then was stationed in England and Japan as a supply officer on an aircraft carrier. He also served in the Vietnam War, eventually retiring as a Commander. In 1952, he married Margaret Doreen Lee (b. 1925 Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Eng. - d. 2000) at Chelsea, London, England. She was the daughter of Albert Edward Foster Lee (1891-1971 Ilkeston, Derbyshire, Eng.) & Doris May Sheppard Lee-Loak (b. 1906 Coventry, Warwickshire, Eng. - d. 1987 Nottingham, Eng.). Charlotte Ruth Ferris Merrill was born in 1932 in N.Y., and in 1955 @ Albany, N.Y. married Lt. Donald E. Merrill, USMC in 1954.


  • Joseph Ferris (b. 1635 Wethersfield, Hartford, CT - d. 1699 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT)
    • John Ferris (b. 1657 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT - d. 1735 Stamford, Fairfield, CT).
      • Elijah Ferris (b. 1718 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT - d. 1753 Dutchess Co., N.Y.)
        • Jedediah Ferris (b. 1735 Crown Point, Essex, N.Y. - d. 1790 Ticonderoga, Essex, N.Y.)
          • Amos Ferris (b. 1762)
            • Amos Ferris (b. 1790)
              • William Canfield Ferris (b. 1820 Tioga Co., N.Y.) & Frances Caroline Hopper Ferris-Fergerson (b. 1845)
                • Christopher Columbus Ferris (b. 1874 Herrick, Shelby, IL - d. 1943 Des Moines, Polk, IA)
                  • Harry Eldon Ferris (b. 1918 Pana, Christian, IL - d. 1997 Des Moines, IA) & Mary Edith O'Brien Ferris (b. Baldwin City, Douglas, KS - d. 2004 Marion, Linn, IA).
                    • Jim Ferris (b. Sept. 27, 1945 Kansas City, Clay, MO - d. Nov. 24, 2020 Cedar Rapids, Linn, [[Iowa|IA)


Central Gospel Chapel, the earliest open brethren assembly in Des Moines, Iowa, now a non-denominational Bible church known as Creekside Church in nearby Urbandale. In the 1930's, while in fellowship with Central Gospel Chapel, Dale Inhofe and Harry Ferris, with help from E.F. Washington of Troost Avenue Gospel Hall in Kansas City, held Gospel meetings on the east side of Des Moines in a multicultural neighborhood, and subsequent to several conversions, an assembly was planted at W. 12th Street, near University, until 1940 when they purchased a lot and constructed what would become De Wolf Street Gospel Hall. An addition was built eventually to accommodate a growing Sunday School, and others served in leadership including Jack Bell, Carroll Connett and others. The assembly folded in 2005

Harry's son Jim served as a correspondent at Marion Gospel Hall (OB) in Linn County, Iowa for many years, from which believers from that assembly and others founded Linn Manor Care Center, a local nursing care facility, in 1979. Jim's mother Mary's family was involved with early days of open brethren assemblies in Baldwin City, Kansas City and rural areas of Kansas, and includes Rockhold, Thomas, Wakefield, Price and others.


Honorable Mention

  • James Ferris (1643-1726), another son of Jeffrey Ferris. One of the first ten promoters of Throggs Neck, Westchester, N.Y. Quaker.
    • James Ferris (1699-1739 Greenwich, Fairfield, CT)
      • Silvanus Ferris (b. 1737 Greenwich, CT - d. 1824 South Salem, Westchester, N.Y.)
        • Silvanus Ferris
          • George Washington Gale Ferris, Sr. (b. 1818 Norway, Herkimer, N.Y. - d. 1895 Riverside, CA)
            • George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (b. 1859 Galesburg, IL - d. 1896 Pittsburgh, Alleghany, PA) designed the original "Ferris Wheel" for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago that became its tallest attraction, with a height of 264 feet, and was subsequently dismantled and rebuilt in Lincoln Park, Chicago in 1895, then for the 1904 World's Fair, before it was demolished in 1906. The 45 ton axle was rediscovered in 2007. See the wiki.

Other PB's

  • "Mrs. Ferris" (1889-1981), saved in 1904 at 14 years of age in Lurgan, Northern Ireland under the ministry of John Monypenny, was promoted to Glory while living at an assembly retirement home in N.I. known as Eventide.
  • Richard Ferris Varder (b. 1858 Harberton, Devon, England - d. 1933 Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio) emigrated as a carpenter in 1881 to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to preach to Cree Indians, and then in 1924 to Chicago, Illinois. In 1930, he was residing in Winnipeg. He authored books from PB publishers. See Wikitree note.

Also See

Sources

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Last edited on 9 March 2022, at 05:34