John Depuy

Summary of the records found on

John Depuy

by Allyson H. Wood, 2-2001

Aurelius lies east of the foot of Owasco Lake, southeast of the center of the county. The ground is a rolling clayey loam and inclined as you move further away from the lake. This part of the area only has two streams: Owasco Creek and Millers Brook. The first settlements were made in 1792 as early settlers moved into the area. The part of the community where John was born later changed the town name to Owasco¹

John Depuy was born in a small frontier community of Aurelius, Cayuga County, New York on December 1, 1798 to Benjamin Depuy Jr. and Arriaantia Van Auken. By the time John was born, his mother Arriaantia had Americanized her name to Arena. Benjamin and Arena had moved from Mamakating , Orange, New York to Aurelius sometime before his birth. He was probably the fourth child born to this family following Moses, Elias, and Samuel.

The Depuy family was one of the earliest in the Aurelius/Owasco area. Benjamin and his brother Samuel, together with their families, were among the first settlers to the area. The two families, with others, worked hard to make this new frontier land into a community they could be proud of. One of the first things on their mind was to see that a proper church was built so that they may worship God as they believed they should.

John’s father and mother bought a great deal of property and seemed to move fairly often once they got a taste of settling the new land. In 1802, the family moved to Marcellus in Onondaga County, New York. Then in 1804, the family moved again - this time to the booming town of Lysander. Here they stayed while John grew into a strong young man. More children were added to the family over the next few years as James Benjamin, Elizabeth S., Ann, Sarah, Margaret, Eleanor, Esther, Cornelius, Horace, and Catherine were each born. The family grew in size and love. Soon other siblings of the father, Benjamin Jr., also moved their families to Lysander and to the surrounding communities in Onondaga County.

The Dutch Reformed Church was such an important part of their lives, that I assume they remained faithful through the growing up years of the children. The little church in Owasco burned down and many records of these years were destroyed. The Lysander Dutch Reformed Church was not built until 1828, which leads me to believe that when John met and married his sweetheart Lucy Lonsberre Roberts they were probably married in that little Owasco church around the year 1823.

The family lived and worked in Lysander and soon children began blessing the home of John and Lucy Depuy. Elizabeth Story was born 10 July, 1824; Philena Arena on 2 October, 1828; James Harrison on 10 November, 1830; Lanerett (or Leverett) John was born on 18 January, 1833. The family then moved to nearby Baldwinsville where their final child, Lyman Moses Benjamin, was born on 9 May, 1836. Lyman was named after his two grandfathers - Benjamin Depuy and Moses Roberts.

After the birth of Lyman, the family migrated to Williams County, Ohio. John and Lucy moved their family with John’s older brother Elias and his wife Judith to West Buffalo, Ohio. The two families pooled their resources and purchased pieces of land together.

Within five years, John and Lucy’s oldest daughter Elizabeth met and married David Canfield, a Mormon. Even though Elizabeth did not join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before they were married, David’s religion must have made John and Lucy very nervous. As long as their families had been in America, they have been staunch Dutch Reformed members. Here was their oldest and beloved daughter, marrying a Mormon. They were not happy, and they made sure she knew of their disapproval.

From 1838 until his death, according to his daughter Elizabeth, in 1849, we know nothing of John. Rumor has it that he worked on the railroad, and was pretty well to do. Also, it is believed that he spent some time in Chicago but it is pretty hard to find records to support this because of the big fire in Chicago, where many of the area records were burned.

In a time when women were treated as second class citizens, John took great care to see that all of the property he purchased also included his wife Lucy’s name on the records. That was not a practice that occurred very often and it appeared John took great pains to include his wife in all transactions.

When Elizabeth, John’s oldest daughter married David Canfield, she began to gain a testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ and decided to be baptized. It so devastated her parents that they threatened to disowned her, or act as if she were dead to them. Yet her faith in her new religion was strong enough she left the home of her parents and siblings and went with David to join the Mormon’s. True to their statement, John, Lucy and the rest of the family no longer had anything to do with Elizabeth.

As a result, not much is known to the descendants of Elizabeth about the family she left in Ohio so many years ago. Elizabeth returned one time to again try and make contact with her parents and brothers and sister but she was not received well. Her mother would not tell her the whereabouts of the rest of the children and it was a very sad trip for Elizabeth.

Years later, in 1879, Elizabeth, David and their children went to the House of the Lord to see that John and Lucy and their family had their temple work done for them. Both Baptisms and Endowments were done for many, many of the Depuy family at that time. However, one note of interest: when Elizabeth served as proxy for her mother in receiving the endowment, the register was signed that the relationship was “friend”. Was this an oversight, or was this out of respect to try and respect the fact that her parents did not want to claim her? That will be a question that can only be answered in the after-life.