Kingsbury New York

Another stop on our genealogy vacation was Kingsbury, New York. This is where the Bond family lived before they moved to Oswego. This is also where Barnet Bond’s wife Lovina Miller’s family lived. We visited four cemeteries, drove around to see the land where they lived, and the waterway they used for transporting their goods. Barnet Bond and Lovina Miller were my husband’s 3 times great-grandparents.

Not being from New York I will never understand their weird naming conventions. They have towns and then within those towns there are villages and often there is a village with the same name as the large town geographic area. So I think most of the pictures in this blog post are from the town of Kingsbury, but they are in different villages such as Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill), Fort Edward, near Smith’s Basin,Kingsbury, Moss St, Dunham’s Basin, and who knows where else.

The first stop was actually in Queensbury at the Friends Cemetery. Lovina’s sister Louisa Miller Langdon and her husband Henry Langdon are buried here.

We then drove to Hudson Falls. At the time they lived there the village was called Sandy Hill. We went to the house where Orzo Bond and his family lived in 1853. Orzo was Barnet and Lovina’s son, my husband’s 2 times great-grandfather. I know from an 1853 map that the Tefft family lived diagonally across the street. I am not sure if the house we found is their house or if their house was torn down to extend the street which was not there at the time of the map.

 

Next stop was Union Cemetery in Fort Edward. This is where Lovina Miller Bond is buried. We spoke with the office manager there who was very helpful. She looked things up in books to try to find out more information for us, but there wasn’t much info to be had. The plot was purchased in December 1847 around the time the cemetery first opened. The purchasers were listed as Bond-Tefft. We assume that at the time they bought the plot that the Bond family had planned to stay in Sandy Hill, but they moved to Oswego and Lovina is the only Bond buried in that plot. There are several Tefft family members buried there as well as several members of the Trumbull family. I have not found any evidence that there was any blood relationship between these families. We are assuming that since the Bond and Tefft families were neighbors that is why they bought the plot together. Sarah A Bond Rogers (Ozro and Phebe’s daughter) and her husband Harper Rogers are also buried in this cemetery.

 

 

 

We then drove to where Barnet Bond owned land and where Bond Creek flowed near it. We don’t have any proof that Bond Creek was named after my husband’s ancestors, but since the creek was by land that they owned, it certainly seems like that would be the case.

 

Next stop was where 3 of Lovina’s brothers (John Jr, Sidney, and Nelson) owned land southwest of Smith’s Basin. It’s still mostly farmland over 160 years later.

 

Then on to the third cemetery stop of the day, the Kingsbury Cemetery. There are quite a few Millers buried here including John Miller and Betsey Hicks Miller (Lovina’s parents and my husband’s 4 times great-grandparents). Also here are Sidney Miller and his wife Lois, John Miller Jr and his wife Deborah Bentley, and Frederick H Bond (Barnet and Lovina’s son).

 

 

 

 

And the final cemetery of the day, the Moss St. Cemetery.  We went here to find Nelson Miller and his wife Amanda Bentley. Amanda and John Jr’s wife Deborah were sisters. It took quite a while to find them. The information I had said that they were in Row 3. It really should have been called Section 3. I was expecting a small cemetery since it said row. But it was a rather large cemetery and there were no signs marking the sections like many of the other cemeteries that we visited had. However while searching for them I found some other people I didn’t know were there. First I found Lewis Johnston. I recognized that name. He was the father of Fanny Johnston Gillis Bond, Barnet Bond’s second wife. I wrote about their interesting relationship in this previous blog post, https://myfamgen.com/2017/07/07/barnet-bond-war-of-1812/.  And then two tombstones away from Lewis there was Fanny. Her tombstone lists her as Fanny Gillis, not Fanny Bond. I still need to try to find out more info about what happened. Another mystery with this family is that I really thought that Lewis had died before Fanny and Barnet married. They were married on Christmas Day in 1855, but Lewis’ tombstone says he died March 24, 1856. I have to go back to check on the probate records I found a while back.

So while still looking for Nelson and Amanda, I found Samuel Dunham and his wife Laura. They were Phebe Ann Dunham’s parents. Phebe was Orzo Bond’s first wife. My husband is descended from Ozro’s second wife Harriet, so these aren’t relatives, but it was still an interesting find. Laura’s maiden name was Dibble and I did also see several Dibbles buried in another part of the cemetery.

And finally my husband found Nelson and Amanda!

 

 

 

 

 

We then took a long drive on the gravel Towpath Road. This goes along the old Champlain Canal where Barnet Bond had boats that carried the lime he harvested. As I discussed in the blog post I mentioned above, he had problems with his boats more than once due to the lock system having issues. I have no idea where the locks were. Today there is a newer canal with locks on it. The old canal has water in it in some places, but is overgrown with vegetation in other places. Towpath Rd ended in Dunham’s Basin. I am not sure if this was named for Phebe’s family, as I think there were also other Dunhams in the area, but they may have been related in some way.

 

 

Our final stop was in the middle of the road. I couldn’t get out of the car to take a picture, so my husband stopped and I rolled down the window. There weren’t any cars behind us. It’s where Bond Creek flows under Rt 196 and we found a sign that said Bond Creek. You couldn’t see the water from that vantage point, only the sign on the bridge.