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Submitted: 7/17/12 • Approved: 7/17/12 • Last Updated: 4/29/23 • R168689-G168688-S3
Birth: Aug. 28, 1805
Death: 1888
On July 28, 1930 Betsey Hickcok Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, placed a brass marker, which was mounted on a slab of Dell Rapids granite, on a previously unmarked grave in the Dell Rapids Cemetery. The grave was that of Mrs. Abigail Hosford Ervin, daughter of a Revolutionary War Soldier. It had taken the chapter a year to find the details concerning Mrs. Ervin.
Abigail Hosford, fifth child of Joseph and Mary Hosford, was born in Tioga County, New York on Aug. 28, 1805. Her maternal ancestors were Puritans, first inhabitants of Cambridge and other settlements near Boston. Abigail married Joseph Clark Ervin in Livingston County, N.Y. in 1826. When she was 31 she was widowed with six children. Shortly after her husbands' death she moved to Illinois, then to Iowa and in 1873 she came to Dakota Territory where her son Edwin had settled near Dell Rapids. He remained her until her death.
Her father enlisted in the service from Nunda in Livingston County, N.Y. on Dec. 18, 1778 and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. After the ware he was presented with a piece of land by the Honorable Amos Patterson as a token of esteem. He settled on the land and a street in Nunda, N.Y. was named for him. He died Jan. 5, 1847.
Mrs. Ervin is one of the few daughters of Revolutionary War Veterans buried in South Dakota.
Contributed on 7/17/12 by dellsfig68
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Record #: 168689