Edward E. Way

Edward E. Way is Chuck’s maternal three-times-great-grandfather through the Davis line: Edward E. Way → Victoria Anna Way Davis → Homer Edward Davis → Dorothy Marie Davis Wildermuth → Terrie Lee → Chuck.

He was born 14 May 1851 in Noble County, Ohio, the eldest known son of Edward Taylor Way (1812-1879, Isle of Wight, England) and Anna Ellison (b. 1821, Coppull, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom). The Way and Ellison families were both English-immigrant farming families that crossed the Atlantic in the early-to-mid nineteenth century and settled in Noble and Morgan counties, southeastern Ohio.

The Matthews marriage and ten children

On 11 April 1872 at Noble County, Ohio — one month before his 21st birthday — Edward married Tacy Elizabeth Matthews (1848-1902), of Washington County, Ohio. Tacy was three years older. After Tacy’s death in 1902 he married a second time, to Mrs. Lovina (Shuman) Taylor, per Robert Earl’s genealogy, which also gives his full name as Edward Ellison Way.

The marriage produced ten children in the GEDCOM record, the older ones bearing the brunt of the late-nineteenth-century farm-family pattern of large rural households:

• Victoria Anna Way (b. 27 January 1874; d. 26 June 1903) — Chuck’s direct ancestor, who married William Armstrong Davis
• Nora Angie Way (b. 23 February 1876; d. 1939)
• A child (I214) (b. ?)
• Belsora “Belle” A. Way (b. 19 December 1880; d. 1912) — the bride of the 1901 Wickens wedding portrait
• A child (I225) (b. ?)
• Emma Maude Way (b. 3 July 1883; d. 1917) — would die in Lost Springs, Converse County, Wyoming
• Angie Nora Way (b. 26 July 1884; d. 1938)
• Three further siblings (I220, I227, I229)

Tacy died on 29 January 1902, four months after Belle’s September 1901 wedding to Howard Wickens — making the 1901 wedding portrait one of the last photographs taken of her. Edward E. survived her by twenty-two years, dying on 2 November 1924, age 73, and was buried two days later at Crooked Tree Cemetery, Noble County — the same ground where Tacy and several of his daughters (Victoria, Belle, Emma, Nora Angie) had been buried.

In the 1901 wedding portrait

Edward E. Way is figure #8 in the family’s identification legend for the Belsora-Howard Wickens 1901 wedding portrait — labeled there as “Edward E. Way (great-grandfather)” from his granddaughter Dorothy Davis Wildermuth’s perspective. The legend mistakes that have circulated on this page in earlier passes — conflating him with his father Edward Taylor Way — were corrected on the basis of the GEDCOM trace and Dorothy’s family-papers annotation, which is unambiguous.

Why the 1924 death matters

Edward E. Way outlived his daughter Belle by twelve years, his daughter Victoria Anna by twenty-one years, and his wife Tacy by twenty-two years. By the time of his own death in 1924, his great-grandson Homer Edward Davis was twenty-four and had just had his first child Mary Davis (b. ~1923) — Edward E. Way had lived to see his first great-great-grandchild. The Crooked Tree Cemetery line that ends with him on the Way side begins again two generations later with Chuck.

Sources: Eesley/Wildermuth GEDCOM tree (June 2026 trace) — FamilySearch tree ID L4L5-1PJ for Edward E. Way confirms birth 14 May 1851 Noble County Ohio, parents Edward Taylor Way and Anna Ellison, marriage 11 Apr 1872 to Tacy Elizabeth Matthews, death 2 Nov 1924. The Belle-Howard Wickens wedding portrait family identification legend (from Chuck’s keeping) puts Edward E. Way as #8, labeled “great-grandfather” from Dorothy Davis Wildermuth’s perspective — settling the generational placement.