There he died in 1811, leaving his wife Ann Pardee, (known for many years as grandmother Pardee) a widow, with nine sons and two daughters.

The eldest daughter, Sarah Pardee, was there married in 1813, to Phineas Butler; and there my father, who was the second of seven children, was born, March 9, 1816.
In the autumn of 1818, Phineas Butler, of whom I shall hereafter speak as grandfather Butler, went to Wadsworth, Medina Co., Ohio.

There a settlement had been begun three years before in the heavy timber, and there were only a few small clearings here and there in the woods.
My grandmother came on with her brother the following spring.

She had three small children, but they made the journey in a sled, in bad weather, cutting their own roads, and camping in the woods at night.
Grandmother Pardee came on later.

She was a woman of great energy, and brought up her sons so well that they all became leading men in the communities in which they lived.