Jane Ayers creates some confusion among researchers of the descendants of Mayflower Compact signatories.

Our "Jane" may have descended from George Soule, a signer of that seminal American agreement. Or, she may have been descended from a similarly-named forebear. (A couple of "Rhoda Ayers" around the year 1700 span a husband or two in New Jersey and it's difficult to ascertain which is the direct line. That, and the confusing record of cousins naming their children after the same parents and grandparents has muddied our Patrician lineage.)

At any rate, though the historical record has become confused as to the familial link to that founding American Document, our Jane Ayers, it seems, didn't put much stock by any patronymic connection to the Massachusetts Colony or New England, or any of the alternate pre-1640 lineages available to her whatsoever, since the Templeton family "legacy" history as told by her grandchildren doesn't highlight a connection.

What we do know is, she was born in New Jersey on December 31, 1767, and her father was Michael Ayers, who was one of the above lively Rhoda's, issue. (A trusted online correspondent says, "her grandparents were Nathaniel and Rhoda Ayers."1)

Our Jane Ayers married Robert Hampson (who may also have been known or christened as "Michael", as her Templeton grandchildren recorded their deceased grandfather as "M. Hampson" and "Michael"). Jane bore her first husband five children, and was a determined pioneer wife. The young couple moved their burgeoning family from central Pennsylvania to the Ohio frontier in a Conestoga Wagon drawn by oxen across the mountains and rills of the settled valleys of Pennsylvania wilderness, and cleared a place outside the protection of the newly-minted United States in the Connecticut Reserve frontier, sometime mid-1790s.

Jane lost her husband, Hampson, soon after arriving in Ohio. But, she stayed on and married another man — John McCollum, a hero of "Mad Anthony's" Indian Wars — on June 10, 1798. The family record and published histories say that John McCollum bought land around Austintown in 1798, "[erecting] a cabin upon it the same year", and moved his family onto the land in 1800.2

Jane Ayers proceeded to bear Mr. McCollum eight more children.

A history of the region published in 1882 records, "Mrs. McCollum was a woman of industry and economy, and largely assisted in paying for the [McCollum] farm by taking weaving to do. In the midst of an almost impenetrable wilderness, whose silence was unbroken save by the howling of wolves and the wild cries of bears, this worthy couple lived and completed their self-appointed task of securing a home for themselves and their children."

Mrs. McCollum's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Hampson, married William Templeton (II), the mail carrier, salt refiner, and an even earlier settler of the neighborhood.3

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NOTES:

1. 0067-Jones, Tom, "Re: 'Templeton' from PA to OH" email, 01 July, 2001.
2. History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Vol.  II, H.Z.  Williams & Bro., 1882, Cleveland.
3. 0015-FHT-GLT Papers, "Streator-Templeton Family History," compiled by Fanna Streator Wright and  Gertrude Inez Streator, June 23, 1944.