Eesley · Wildermuth
Elsie (Chenoweth) Borror

Elsie (Chenoweth) Borror

also known as Elsie Chenoweth, maiden

Elsie Chenoweth was the second of Joseph Hill Chenoweth and Mary Ohio Timmons Chenoweth’s five children — the older sister of Scioto Mafry “Aunt Ota” Chenoweth Smith, of Chuck’s great-grandmother Lillie Dale Chenoweth Eesley, and of Dwight Kennedy Chenoweth. The full sibling order — per Roberta Burnes Walker’s June 2026 reconstruction — is Howard Glen, Elsie, Scioto Mafry, Lillie Dale, Dwight Kennedy.

Her birth and death dates and her specific place of birth are not yet recovered from this archive’s holdings. Given her place as the second of the five children — older than Scioto, who was born in 1871 — her birth most likely falls in the late 1860s.

Marriage to Jonas Borror

Elsie married Jonas Borror. The 1985 Bean register and the Chenoweth Family Association’s online tree both carry the marriage, though the dates of the marriage itself are not yet in this archive. The Borror surname is the marker that distinguishes her line within the wider Chenoweth tree.

The c. 1905-1910 family group portrait

The single photograph this archive currently holds of Elsie arrived in June 2026 from Roberta Burnes Walker’s keeping, with Roberta’s caption: “Lilly’s sister, Elsie Chenoweth Borror and her husband Jonas and two children.”

Elsie Chenoweth Borror with her husband Jonas Borror and their two young children, outdoors in front of a wire fence in a field of wildflowers. Jonas seated at left in light suit jacket with white shirt and tie and what appears to be a small boutonnière, dark moustache; Elsie seated at right in a long high-collared white Edwardian dress with a tied hair bow, holding a toddler with very fair hair in a white dress on her lap. Between them, slightly behind, an older child (perhaps four or five) peers out, head and shoulders visible. c. 1905-1910. From Roberta Burnes Walker's keeping.

A formal outdoor family portrait, c. 1905-1910, dated by the style of Elsie’s dress (the high-collar Edwardian Gibson-girl line, with elaborate puffed shoulder and decorative trim at the chest) and by her hair (parted center, swept up with a white ribbon bow at the back of the head — the standard 1905-1910 American matron’s coiffure). Jonas wears the light summer suit and stiff white collar with thin necktie of the same period.

The setting is outdoors against a wire fence, with wildflowers and grass at their feet — almost certainly a farm or rural-Ohio backyard rather than a studio. The choice of an outdoor setting was common in the period for families who wanted to capture young children naturally rather than in studio formality.

The two children the photograph shows are part of why this portrait matters: their names, ages, and whether other Borror children came later are open research, but their physical presence in the frame is now documented:

  • A toddler in a white dress with very fair hair, seated in Elsie’s lap. Probably one to two years old at the date of the photograph.
  • An older child — the age and gender harder to read from the cropped position — peering out from between Elsie and Jonas, behind their shoulders. Roberta’s caption confirms there were two children visible in the original frame.

What’s open

  • Birth and death dates — Elsie’s specific birth year (c. 1872-1875 most likely), her marriage year to Jonas Borror, and her death year and place.
  • The names of the two children in the c. 1905-1910 portrait — their first names, their birth years, and whether other Borror children followed later.
  • Jonas Borror’s own background — his parents, where his family was from, and what he did for a living. A separate page for him would be the next research-task once the dates land.

Sources: Roberta Burnes Walker, June 2026 email batch (photograph and identification of cast as “Lilly’s sister, Elsie Chenoweth Borror and her husband Jonas and two children”). Chenoweth Family Association online tree for the sibling-position reconstruction within the Joseph Hill Chenoweth + Mary Ohio Timmons Chenoweth household.