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Another English Connection

by TerryB on December 22, 2017December 20, 2017 in Blizard

As I mentioned in my last blog post I was contacted via Ancestry by another 3^rd cousin of my mother-in-law’s. This person is descended from a sister of Emma Burke. Emma was the wife of James Lawder.

Emma had an interesting life. Her parents were Grace Watson and Peter Burke. Grace was born in Liverpool, England and lived in Preston, England. Peter was born somewhere in Ireland, but had moved to England. Peter and his father Michael were both tailors. Grace’s father Richard was a saddler. Grace and Peter were married in Preston in 1840. It is believed that they had 8 children. Apparently Peter left Grace several times during their marriage and left for good when she was pregnant in 1859. Both Grace and her child died at the time she gave birth. It is thought that Peter also sometimes went by the name Phillip Brown, so perhaps he also had another family that hasn’t been discovered yet.

After Grace died some of her children ended up in workhouses and some died there. From the cousin in England: “Preston in the 1860s was struck very very hard by the cotton famine in the American Civil War. The cotton workers supported the blockade of the cotton from the south at the cost of their own lives and the poverty in Lancashire at that time was dire.” You can read about the Lancashire Cotton Famine at http://revealinghistories.org.uk/the-american-civil-war-and-the-lancashire-cotton-famine.html.

Between the cousin in England’s research and my research we think that Grace and Peter had the following children.

Jane – Feb 26, 1843 (Assume she died young and her younger sister was named after her)
Emma – April 13, 1845
Ann Amelia – Sept 2, 1849 (She may have been called Hannah)
Richard Watson – Dec 28, 1851 (He may have died in the workhouse in the early 1860s)
Jane – Nov 20, 1853 (This is who the English cousin is descended from)
Eleanor – 1856 (Haven’t found any birth records for her yet. She may have died in the workhouse in May 1861)
John Henry – July 11, 1858
William – Sept 12, 1859 (Baby who died with his mother Grace when he was born)

Peter Burke died in 1862, but before that, when he became ill, a letter was written presumably intended for Grace, not knowing she had died. It is not known what that letter said, but Hannah Watson, Grace’s sister, wrote back explaining that Grace had died and mentions some of the children. If you go by the children listed in the letter, Emma was the “eldest daughter” who was living with Peter’s sister (Mary) in Manchester. Hannah (Ann Amelia) was the “second girl” living with an unnamed sister of Grace’s (We think the unnamed sister was Jane Watson Baines who was married Feb 7, 1861 and in her mid 20s). The “boy and next girl at the workhouse” would seem to be Richard and Jane. And “the baby and next youngest” who had died would be William and John. Or had John already died before Grace did and Eleanor is the “next youngest” referred to in the letter? There is definitely room between Jane and John for Eleanor to fit, but no christening record for her has been located yet. If the letter was written in 1862 then Richard must have still been alive at that point. Note: Emma’s second oldest son was named John Henry, possibly after her brother who had died young.

When her mother died, Emma went to live with her father’s sister Mary in Manchester, England. Emma married James Lawder in 1866 and according to the 1900 US census he came to the US in 1867 and she followed in 1868, so not all that long after the Civil War ended in 1865. Emma may have been pregnant when James left because their son John was born in 1867 or 1868. Thankfully her husband didn’t abandon her like her father did to her mother. Another little tidbit of information: It does look like Emma was pregnant with their first child Edward when she and James got married. Looking at the marriage and birth certificates, they were married on June 17, 1866 and Edward was born on November 25, 1866, making her 4 months pregnant when she got married. Good thing James was a good guy.

Emma and James went on to have 15 children. I have only been able to identify 7 of them so far, so I assume that the other 8 died young. By the time Emma passed away in 1926 at the age of 81, only 3 of her 15 children were still living.

James and Emma’s son Charlie died after falling from a tree in 1901. Besides the tragic story about Charlie, the newspaper article I found about this yielded two other interesting pieces of information. First it confirmed that Emma had indeed had 15 children. The US census record from 1900 said she had 15 children with 6 who were living and the 1910 US census said she had 15 children with 5 still living. But the newspaper article confirmed that those numbers were indeed true. (Emma’s sister Jane had 12 children, 9 of whom lived to adulthood.) The second revelation in the newspaper article was a big shock. The article states that Emma had been blind for 30 years! That would be since 1871. Her oldest two children Edward and John were born in England and possibly one more of the 15 children, but at least 12, maybe 13 were born in the US. I know her son James was born here in 1870. So at least 4 of the 7 children I know about were born after she went blind in 1871, and most likely several of the other 8 I haven’t yet identified were also born after she became blind.

Emma and James traveled back to England, presumably to visit with family, in 1904 with their daughter Mary(Mamie) and again in 1907 with their daughter Katherine. On the 1907 trip they were listed as being “Third Class” passengers so I did some digging and found some information about what the conditions would have been like. Apparently third class(steerage) conditions greatly improved in 1907 and the cost went down. Maybe that’s why they decided to go back again. They sailed on the Cedric, a ship on the White Star Line. From the website https://www.gjenvick.com/Brochures/WhiteStarLine/WSLServices/1907/ThirdClassAccommodations.html “In former days, the accommodation consisted entirely of what might be termed open dormitories, whereas now it includes good separate airy cabins; and the Third Class passenger is better off in most respects than the Intermediate of twenty years ago, while the fare is not more than was paid by his predecessor in the Steerage.” I think the conditions when they first sailed to the US in the late 1860s must have been much worse. The 1907 trip took 8 days. They left on July 18 and arrived in Liverpool on July 26.

James died in 1911 and Emma died in 1926. By the time she died she had been blind for 55 years. I don’t yet know what caused her blindness or what illness she died from. I haven’t been able to locate an obituary for her yet, but I plan to keep searching. The people listed as her heirs in her probate records were her 3 surviving children, Edward, Joseph, and Mary, and the children of her son John. I assume her other grandchildren were not given anything because their parents got money. Since John had already passed, what would have been his portion went to his children.

She must have been a very strong woman to survive her less than pleasant childhood and then have 15 children, only 3 of whom outlived her, and to have lived so many years without her eyesight. I think she is now my favorite family member on my mother-in-law’s side of the family right up there with my fascination with Peter Doxtater on my father-in-law’s side.

I’ll be taking some time off from blog writing until I have something new to post. Happy Holidays!

My Blog Finally Paid Off

by TerryB on December 15, 2017December 14, 2017 in Blizard

So one of the main reasons for starting to write these blog posts, besides sharing what I have found with family members, was the hope that distant cousins out there in cyber space would find it and contact me. It finally happened! I got an e-mail back in September from my mother-in-law’s 3^rd cousin in England!

He is descended from Jane Lawder. My mother-in-law is descended from Jane’s brother James. I knew James had 4 sisters and 1 brother, but I wasn’t sure what happened to any of them, if they came to the US like James did or if they had all stayed in England. Well we don’t know what happened to Patrick or Mary, but the 3 other girls apparently all stayed in England.

One of the rather interesting things is that it appears that two of the girls went by different names than their birth names.

Teresa was apparently called Jessie by her family. She married John James Fisher. I already knew she had married him.

Florence Jenny was called Jane. I had her listed as Jane from census records. She married Henry Collingwood Fisher the brother of Teresa’s husband John.

Annie Florence married Thomas Chambers.

I have written a previous blog post about the Lawder family at https://myfamgen.com/2017/05/19/the-lawder-family-from-england-actually-they-were-irish/.

Here’s the new information that I was told by the cousin in England. Some of it is very tragic.

On the 1891 census Edward Lawder and his wife Mary Farrall were living in 20 Greenside Road, Shepherds Bush, London with their daughter Annie Florence and their son-in-law Thomas Chambers. Thomas was a theatre treasurer in Manchester and then moved to London to work at the Lyceum. (I have confirmed that Mary died in 1891 and Edward died in 1895) Annie and Thomas had split up by 1896. In 1896 Annie died at her Greenside Road address. She took in lodgers and one, a midwife, was allowed to have her ex-convict son stay with her. Unfortunately, when his mother was away he became insolent and difficult and on January 20, 1896 he murdered Annie while some of her children were home from school for dinner. (It was actually what we would call lunchtime) The murderer was arrested and convicted insane and sent to Broadmoor. After this the children were found families to live with. Financial help was given by Sir Henry Irving, the famous actor, because of his links with Thomas Chambers and the Lyceum. The Chambers family have disappeared except for the eldest son who emigrated to California. (I know Thomas, the eldest son, did for a time live with his uncle James Lawder in Middletown, New York in June of 1890. I am not sure how long he stayed there and I haven’t yet located him in California.)

To read more about Annie’s tragic murder you can read the transcript of the trial at https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18960224-254-offence-1&div=t18960224-254. Some of her children testified.

Meanwhile Florence Jenny Lawder was called Jane Lawder (Jane Lander in the marriage registry). She met her husband Henry Collingwood Fisher in Manchester probably through her sister Theresa (known to her family as Jessie) who married Henry’s brother John James Fisher. Henry and Jane probably followed John back to London. The Fisher family originates from Paddington. They had one child Florence Maude Josephine Fisher (known as Maudie) on January 31,1884 in London. They both worked in restaurants and catering. Tragically Jenny died on June 23,1886 from alcohol poisoning. Then in January 1887 Henry died from similar circumstances. Maudie went to live with her aunt and uncle in Yorkshire and eventually returned south to marry a rather dour bank clerk and they had three children –Jean, Evelyn, and Arthur who was an RAF bomber command crew member and was killed over Berlin in 1943.

Jean and Evelyn never knew about their grandparents’ misadventures with booze and believed that Jenny was murdered by a madman who ran into their house in Shepherds Bush and that Henry had died of a broken heart soon after. If only they knew the real story and the amazing murder connection with their grand-aunt.

Jenny and Henry are both buried in Hanwell Cemetery whilst Annie and the Lawders are buried at St Marys Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green (but there are no visible headstones).

Theresa Lawder married John James Fisher in 1873 and by 1881 they were living in Chelsea with their three daughters Adelaide, Florence Evelyn, and Mabel Theresa, and one son Edward Fisher. Their income was from the Court of Chancery (very Dickensian) which came about because of John’s mother’s death and inheritance disputes. There is another interesting family mystery which is that John had illegitimate children with a Welsh woman called Elise (or looked after Henry Collingwood Fishers illegitimate child/children), but that hasn’t been solved yet. Adelaide never married and died in Sussex in 1961. Mabel Theresa died in 1959 in Wandsworth. Florence Evelyn married James Davis who died in Western Australia in 1912. Edward went to Canada and married Mabel Slater and had three children Edward, Richard and Eilen. John James Fisher died in 1902 of heart failure in London. At the time he was a licensed victualler – more alcohol. (I had to look up the definition of victualler – a person who is licensed to sell alcoholic liquor) Theresa lived until 1944 and died in Wandsworth at the age of 94!

John James Fisher’s death certificate has his wife’s name is listed as Elise, not Teresa, so that whole story about him having illegitimate children with a woman named Elise sounds plausible. The poor Lawder sisters didn’t have much luck picking husbands. If Annie’s hadn’t left her and their children, she probably wouldn’t have been murdered.

And as exciting as this person contacting me through my blog was, another of my mother-in-law’s 3^rd cousins, who also lives in England, contacted me because she found my tree on Ancesty. Stay tuned for my next blog about what I found out from her.

In and Around Oswego, New York

by TerryB on November 24, 2017November 9, 2017 in Bond

In the last blog post I talked about the cemeteries that we visited in Oswego, New York. While we were in Oswego, we also drove around the city to find the places where the Bond and Doran families lived. I had information from census records.

Our first stop was on the east side of the Oswego River. Orville Bond was living at 150 East 2nd St on all census records from 1900 through 1940.

The 1880 census says Ozro Bond, his wife Harriet, and their two sons were living at 115 East 7^th St, but looking at the house that is at that address now makes it appear that the houses must have been renumbered at some point between then and now. We have a drawing from a book that is a picture of their house. It looks like the same house whose address is now 137 East 7^th St. Actually the house has been changed into a multi-family house so 135 East 7^th St is also part of the original house.

We then went over to the west side of the river. I am not sure when the family moved into the house at 332 West 5^th St, but that is where my husband’s aunt lived as an adult.

St. John’s Catholic Church at the Corner of West 3^rd and West Erie is the church that the Doran and Kelly families attended. Several funeral masses were held here. It is no longer a church.

251 West 5^th St is where Patrick Doran, his wife Anna Kelly, and their son Vincent were living in 1930 according to the US census. Their daughter Marie, her husband Harold Bond, and their two oldest children were all also living there renting the other part of this two family house from Patrick and Anna.

By the next year, Harold and Marie were living at 263 West 4^th St at the time of her death in 1931.

Then in 1940 (maybe sooner), Harold and his children were living at 254 West 5^th St. This house was across the street from where they had lived with Patrick and Anna back in 1930. The house is no longer there. Based on the numbers it looks like 3 houses were torn down and were replaced with one house that is now there.

The West Baptist Church at 39 West Mohawk St. is the church that Orzo Bond and his family attended.

Orville Shepard Bond and his son Harold John Bond owned a store at 209 West 1^st St. The name of the store was China Hall. Here is an ad for the store and a picture of what is currently occupying that storefront, The Port City Café and Bakery.

The last stop was Charles H Bond’s house at 49 West 5^th St. This home has a historic plaque on it. There are several large homes on this street. It is near the lake and close to where the lumberyard was that he and his father Ozro had.

Oswego New York Cemeteries

by TerryB on November 17, 2017November 9, 2017 in Bond

Oswego, New York is where the Bond family moved to when they left Kingsbury, NY. It’s also where the Doran/Kelly family lived. While visiting there we visited two cemeteries, Riverside where the Bonds are buried, including Harold John Bond (my husband’s grandfather) and St. Peter’s Catholic Cemetery where the Doran and Kelly families are buried including Marie Alice Doran Bond, Harold’s wife (my husband’s grandmother).

Our first stop was Riverside Cemetery. The Bond family have a center monument with the graves around it in a circle in Section Q of the cemetery. Ozro M Bond and both of his wives, Phebe Ann Dunham and Harriet Shepard, have inscriptions on the large center monument.

Bond Family Plot at Riverside Cemetery, Oswego, NY

Ozro’s father Barnet Bond is here. (Barnet’s wife Lovina Miller is back in Kingsbury.) It really makes me sad to see the deterioration of his tombstone. I took a picture of it back in the late 1980s and it looks so much worse now.

Barnet Bond Tombstone back in the late 1980s

Ozro and Harriet’s son Orville Bond and his wife Antoinette Cooper are also buried there as is their son Harold John Bond. Harold’s wife Marie Alice Doran is not. Other family members include Ozro’s sister Sarah Jane Bond, Ozro and Harriet’s other son John M Bond and his wife Carrie Lewis and their son Lewis R Bond, two young daughters of Orville and Antoinette (Ethel Lena and Mary Esther), and the young grandson of Orville and Antoinette who was the child of their son Orzo George Bond and his wife Florence Tibbetts. Three of Harold and Marie’s children are also here.

Unknown child of Ozro George Bond and Florence Tibbetts

One interesting person buried in the Bond plot is Mary A Conlee, 1857-1884. I don’t think she is a relative, I think she was a servant in the household of Ozro and Harriet. There is a Mary Ann Connors age 20 listed on the 1875 NY Census living with them. Then on the 1880 US Census there is a Mary A O’Connell age 23. So I am assuming that her age is exaggerated by two years on the 1875 census and that her name was listed incorrectly, but close to correct, on both census records. She was listed as a domestic who was born in Canada in 1875 and as a servant born in Ont (think this would mean Ontario) in 1880.

There is another Bond section, Section U, also in the cemetery. Thankfully I had contacted the cemetery beforehand and told them when we would be there and was left a map taped to the office door pointing to the sections we wanted to visit. This section was up a hill and even once we drove up there we still had a problem finding it even though I knew there was a large stone that said Bond on it. Turns out it was behind a tree blocking our view initially, but we found it. This is where Charles Bond and his family are buried. Charles was the son of Ozro Bond and his first wife Phebe Dunham. Buried here are Charles H Bond, his wife Julia Phelps, and their son Montcalm Bond. Also there are Jean P Wadhams (although there is no death date on the stone, so she may not actually be buried here) and Darius T Wadhams. Montcalm’s wife’s name was Jean Tainter. Is Jean Wadhams the same person? Is Darius her second husband? I need to do more research on this.

Maybe Jean Tainter who was Montcalm Bond’s wife

Darius Wadhams – maybe Jean Tainter’s 2nd husband

After we got home I realized that Charles and Julia had a son Charles Phelps Bond who died as a baby and is buried in another part of Section Q. According to what is on the Find A Grave website there is quite a large monument there, https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Bond&GSiman=1&GScid=65813&GRid=140579416&. It does seem strange that he appears to be the only one in that plot.

Our next stop was St. Peter’s Catholic Cemetery. I had e-mailed back and forth with someone from there who had sent me a detailed map with arrows drawn on it and we still had trouble finding people.

The first people we found are actually from the Bond side. Pauline Bond and her husband Richard Burden. Pauline was the daughter of Orville and Antoinette.

Next up was trying to find the Dorans/Kellys and they were not easy to find, but we finally did. Patrick Doran and his wife Anna Kelly were my husband’s great-grandparents. Their daughter, Marie Alice Doran (my husband’s grandmother) is also here, not in Riverside with her husband Harold John Bond. Buried next to Marie is Ethel Wells who is the women who ended up raising Marie’s 3 young children after she passed away at the age of 36. Also here is Patrick and Anna’s son Vincent Doran and Anna’s sisters Margaret Kelly Davis and Nora Kelly.

Anna’s brother John B Kelly and his wife Rose Donovan are buried in another nearby section.

Stay tuned for the next blog post which will be about our trip around the city of Oswego looking for houses, churches, and stores connected to the Bond and Doran families.

Kingsbury New York

by TerryB on November 10, 2017October 26, 2017 in Bond

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.

Friends Cemetery – Henry Langdon and Louisa Miller Langdon

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.

Ozro Bond House, Hudson Falls (Sandy Hill), New York

Possible Tefft House, Hudson Falls (Sandy Hill), New York

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).

Kingsbury Cemetery – John Miller and Betsey Hicks Miller

Kingsbury Cemetery – Sidney Miller and wife Lois

Kingsbury Cemetery – Deborah Bentley, wife of John Miller Jr

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!

Moss St Cemetery – Fanny Johnston Gillis Bond

Moss St Cemetery – Laura Dibble Dunham, wife of Samuel Dunham

Moss St Cemetery – Nelson Miller, wife Amanda Bentley Miller, and some children

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.

Election Day Bonus Blog – Ozro Martin Bond – Politician

by TerryB on November 7, 2017September 28, 2017 in Bond, Bonus Blog

Being as today is election day I thought I’d throw in an extra bonus blog about a politician in my husband’s family. Orzo Martin Bond was my husband’s great-great-grandfather.

In September 1876 he was appointed as the Secretary of the Prohibition Congressional Convention. At the convention on the second ballot he was nominated as the Prohibition Party candidate for the US House of Representatives from the 24^th District in New York. There had been a tie on the first ballot. In the election in November he also had the support of the Democratic Party. It doesn’t really seem to make any sense why the Democrats supported the Prohibition candidate, but apparently the person they originally nominated for their own ticket decided not to run. So I guess they needed to throw their support behind someone other than the incumbent Republican. I have read in a newpaper article from November 6, 1876 that “Every Democratic saloon-keeper in the city is expected to vote for O.M.Bond”. Why saloon keepers would vote for the Prohibition candidate is beyond me. Another newspaper article says “It is not likely that Bond will be elected, but if he should be, his election would be claimed as a “glorious Democratic victory” over which the usual amount of intoxication would be allowable.” He lost the election, but he did get 11,708 votes which was 40.63% of the vote. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=737019

His name is spelled incorrectly on this website, Orzo not Ozro, but I assume that is just on the modern day website and it was spelled correctly during the actual election.

He ran again in 1882, but this time he was only backed by the Prohibition Party. It was the 24^th District again. He only received 594 votes which was 2.64%. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=730140

Then he ran again in 1884, but this time in the 27^th District. If you look at the maps on the linked pages, you can see that Oswego was moved into the 27^th District. The district location changed a great deal between 1882 and 1884. This time he received 1308 votes, 2.83%. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=729485

In 1886 he was the chairman of the County Prohibition Convention and he was nominated for County Treasurer.

In 1893 he was the Chairman of the County Committee of the Prohibition Party. He was also a delegate to the State Convention of the Prohibition Party.

In 1894, at the age of 78, he ran as the Prohibition Party candidate for County Clerk in Oswego County and the next year in 1895 he ran as the Prohibition Party candidate for County Treasurer in Oswego County.

At the Prohibition Party convention in August 1895 there was a group of younger members who were trying to take the leadership of the party away from Ozro and the other older members. The convention ended up splitting up into two groups. He was named chairman of the second convention.

According to his obituary he was also involved with financially supporting the Prohibition Party for many years at the city, county, and state levels. He was very committed to their cause.

The Coopers in Adams

by TerryB on November 3, 2017October 24, 2017 in Bond

My last blog post was about the long trek to Adams taken by the Doxtater family. The Cooper family also settled in Adams originally being from Connecticut and then Durham, New York. (Hoping to get to those places on next year’s vacation.) While we were in Adams on this year’s vacation we did attempt to find some places significant to the Cooper family.

Our first stop was the Adams Rural Cemetery. Many members of the Cooper Family are buried there.

Miles Cooper and Asenath Cowles, my husband’s 4 times great-grandparents and 3 of their daughters.

George Cooper and Roxina Doxtater, my husband’s 3 times great-grandparents and their daughter.

George Doxtater Cooper, my husband’s 2 times great-grandfather.

Mary Esther Reed Cooper, my husband’s 2 times great-grandmother.

Mariette Cooper Stillman, daughter of George Cooper and Roxina Doxtater.

John Stillman, husband of Mariette Cooper.

Lodema Cooper Redway, daughter of Miles Cooper and Asenath Cowles.

Chauncey Redway, husband of Lodema Cooper

Nancy Cooper and husband Eber Cowles. Nancy was the daughter of Miles Cooper and Asenath Cowles. Both Nancy and Eber were the 3 times great-grandchildren of Samuel Cowles and Abigail Stanley.

John Cowles Cooper and family. He was the son of Miles Cooper and Asenath Cowles. This tombstone was very hard to read because it’s an odd color.

DeAlton Cooper, son of John Cowles Cooper. He died during the Civil War.

I believe Miles Cooper and his wife Asenath Cowles had a house at the corner of North Park and East Church Streets. Unfortunately I think the spot where their house was is now the parking lot of a Family Dollar store. Their son John Cowles Cooper was also supposed to have a house at that intersection, but I think that house is gone too.

The Historical Association of South Jefferson office was closed the day we were there, so we couldn’t find out some info I was hoping to find. According to the 1870 US Census George Cooper and his wife Roxina Doxtater owned a hotel. (George was the son of Miles and Asenath). The census also lists George and Roxina’s son George Doxtater Cooper as a hotel keeper. I have read about the “Cooper House Block”. I assume the Cooper House was the hotel. I was really hoping to get some information about it at the Historical Association. According to the 1905, 1910, and 1915 census records George D was living on North Park St. The 1915 census did list house numbers, but they were missing for some of the houses on North Park St. So the conclusion was that George Sr was living with his daughter Marietta Cooper Stillman somewhere between house #24 and #36. On the 1910 census siblings George D Cooper, Marietta Cooper Stillman, and Charles C Cooper were all living on North Park St. Specific house numbers were not listed on that census. We walked down North Park St and took some pictures of some houses that looked old. Not sure if any of them were Cooper houses or not, but some of them may have been.

We believe that Miles and George Sr also owned farmland. In a land deed from 1810 Miles bought land in Lot 54 and in 1824 he sold land in Lot 55. I have a map from 1864 showing G Cooper with land in Lot 55. So we drove out of town to the area where those lots would have been and took some pictures.

We also stopped at Fisher’s Landing on the St Lawrence River. John Cowles Cooper had a house on an island in the Thousand Islands across from there. I have no idea exactly where the house was, or if it still exists, but I took pictures of the area.

Retracing the Long Trek to Adams

by TerryB on October 27, 2017October 24, 2017 in Bond

A while back I wrote about the Long Trek to Adams taken by Peter Doxtater and his family, https://myfamgen.com/2017/08/18/the-long-trek-to-adams/. Peter was my husband’s 5 times great-grandfather. From the booklet Revolutionary War Veterans who settled in the Sixtown Area of Southern Jefferson County – “He came to Adams in 1802 with his wife and six children. They came up the Mohawk River in a flat boat, thence to Oneida lake, through Wood’s Creek to the Oswego River, to Lake Ontario to Big Sandy Creek and inland 2 miles.”

I had also written about Peter’s earlier life in this blog post https://myfamgen.com/2017/05/05/peter-doxtater-and-the-french-and-indian-warrevolutionary-war/.

So on our recent vacation my husband and I visited the places involved in Peter’s life.

Our first stop was where Peter’s grandparents George Adam Dockstader and Anna Stahring lived on Hickory Hill just outside the current town of Fonda, NY. Briggs Run courses through the property. (The residence and barns receive their water supply from never failing springs while the fields are abundantly supplied by a stream (Briggs Run) fed by springs which course through the farm from the northeast to the southwest corners. The farm name is derived from the mammoth hickories which grow near the residence.) I couldn’t manage to get a picture of Briggs Run up by the hill, but I did get a picture of the farm land, and a picture of Briggs Run closer to where it flows near the Mohawk River.

Eventually Peter’s parents Johan George Dockstader and Maria Magdalena Weber ended up moving to German Flatts in Herkimer County, NY. This is where the family was living during the French and Indian War when Peter was taken to Canada by the Native Americans(according to the guide at Fort Stanwix it was most likely the Algonquins). We visited the Fort Herkimer Church which is where I believe some of Peter’s family including his mother had fled to during the attack.

After his return from Canada, Peter settled back in German Flatts and was still living there with his wife Elizabeth Cunningham and some of their children during the Revolutionary War. Their son George, my husband’s 4 times great-grandfather, was baptized at the Fort Herkimer Church (also known as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of German Flatts).

Peter fought with the Tryon County New York Militia at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777. He was with the 4th (Kingsland-German Flatts) Regiment under Col. Peter Bellinger. The whole militia was under the command of General Nicholas Herkimer. We visited the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site and General Herkimer’s Home. We also found Peter Bellinger buried in the Fort Herkimer Church cemetery. We also visited the Herkimer Historical Society. There we found out that Peter’s sister Catharina is buried across the street at the Herkimer Reformed Church graveyard, but we couldn’t find her grave. The tombstones there are in very bad shape and mostly unreadable.

We took a cruise on the Erie Canal which in part goes on the Mohawk River. There are parts of it that go around the river through a man-made portion. So that begs the question as to how when Peter and his family were traveling to Adams did they navigate the portion of the river where there were rapids, since the current man-made portion of the canal didn’t exist back then.

We learned when visiting Fort Stanwix that there was at one time a piece of land called the Oneida Carry where people traveling west by boat would have to go over land between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek. The stretch of land could range from one to six miles depending upon the time of year and how the water was flowing. However in the 1790s there was a man-made canal built between the two bodies of water so by the time Peter and his family were traveling west the waterway was connected. Wood Creek eventually emptied out into Oneida Lake. We went to visit the lake at Verona Beach State Park.

On the other side of Oneida Lake they would have gotten onto the Oswego River and then to Lake Ontario. We visited the city of Oswego.

Next we stopped at the point where they would have gone from Lake Ontario into Sandy Creek.

And finally we got to Adams. Not sure how they navigated Sandy Creek to get there since there are definitely parts of Sandy Creek in town that don’t look navigable. We visited the Adams Rural Cemetery and found Peter’s grave. His first two wives Elizabeth Cunningham and Susannah (don’t know her maiden name) and his father are also buried there. I am not sure when his father made the trip to Adams or if his mother ever came to Adams or if she died in German Flatts. We spent about two hours at the cemetery. We also found the graves of Peter and Elizabeth’s 3 sons, George, William, and Peter Jr and their daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s tombstone is really cool. It’s a big boulder taken from Peter’s farmland. We also found Doxtater St which I assume was named after the family. I believe Peter’s land was up the hill from where the street is today.

Top of Elizabeth’s tombstone: Peter Doxtater Sr bought in 1801 the first farm deeded in the town of Adams. These boulders came from said farm.

I don’t know why I am so fascinated with Peter. Maybe because I know so much about his life, but of all the tombstones we found in all the many cemeteries we visited on this genealogy vacation, I felt the most connected to his.

Was Hartford Connecticut Really Named for My Husband’s Ancestor?

by TerryB on October 6, 2017September 27, 2017 in Bond

So every once in a while Ancestry sends out an e-mail about possible hints for people in my online family tree. I got one a while back which pointed me to “pictures” other people had posted to their trees. I put the word pictures in quotes because they weren’t all what you would typically think of as pictures. Some were pages that were copied out of books. So I searched online for the whole books and found them and downloaded digital copies of them. But I also then purchased them on Amazon because when you are trying to add people to your tree you often are going back and forth between generations and it’s so much easier with a physical book then trying to do that with a computer file.

The two books that I found were Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn and The Stanley Families of America. The books contained info on the Hart, Stanley, and Porter lines in addition to the Cowles family who I wrote about in a previous blog post.

I knew from the Cowles book that Sarah Cowles had married Stephen Hart. They were one of my husband’s sets of 7 times great-grandparents. I also realized that I had Sarah in my tree twice, once as her parents’ daughter because my husband is descended from Samuel Cowles and Abigail Stanley, and once with her husband because my husband is descended from their daughter Abigail Hart. Abigail Hart’s daughter, Abigail Cole, married John Cowles, who was the grandson of Sarah’s brother Samuel Cowles. That all makes perfect sense right? Yeah, not to me either. I had to create the chart below to help figure it all out. Turns out the parents of Asenath Cowles were second cousins on the Cowles line. Asenath was the wife of Miles Cooper, who I wrote about in a blog post several months ago.

AND Asenath’s parents were also each other’s third cousins on the Hart line. See chart below.

Then I discovered another book, A Genealogy of the Descendants of Richard Porter. I didn’t buy that book because it wasn’t really about this branch of the Porter family, although it did mention a few things about the Porter brothers, Thomas, Robert, and Daniel. Turns out the Asenath’s grandparents, John Cowles and Mary Porter were also second cousins.

Thank goodness Miles and Asenath moved to the northwestern part of New York state and their son George married Roxina Doxtater to get some German DNA to mix in with all the English DNA of people marrying their cousins! You should see how confusing our online tree looks now that I have all of these people in it; lines going all over the place!

So to get back to the title of this blog post, the Steven Hart at the top of the second chart above is the man after whom Hartford, Connecticut was supposedly named. According to the Ecclesiastical and Other Sketches of Southington, Conn book, he was supposed to have come from Braintree, Essex County, England. The company he came with first settled in Braintree, Massachusetts. He then moved to Newtown (which is what present day Cambridge, Mass was called at the time). He “constituted the church of which Rev Thomas Hooker was invited from England to become their pastor”. I assume “constituted” means he founded the church. He was in Cambridge in 1632 and was admitted a freeman there on May 14, 1634. He went to Hartford in 1635 with Mr. Hooker’s company and was one of the original proprietors there. There is a tradition that the town was named for a ford he discovered and used when crossing the Connecticut River at a low stage of the water. So from Hart’s Ford the name transitioned into Hartford. I have however seen a picture online of a plaque at the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford, CT that states that the town was named after Hertford, England. Hertford is about 37 miles from Braintree where Stephen Hart was supposed to have come from, so who knows.

The Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford, CT is another place we need to go visit, theancientburyingground.org. Some of my husband’s ancestors are buried there including Timothy Stanley. He died in 1648 and his grave is listed as the oldest one in the cemetery. Timothy was the father of Abigail Stanley who married Samuel Cowles listed in the first chart above. Samuel’s mother Hannah is also buried there.

The Stanley, Hart, Porter family trees can be found here https://myfamgen.com/stanley-hart-porter-families/.

How Ancestry DNA Reconnected Me With Grammar School Friends I’m Not Related To

by TerryB on September 22, 2017September 15, 2017 in Bonus Blog

In a previous blog post “New DNA Connection Info” I mentioned how through Ancestry DNA I had connected with a 3rd cousin I didn’t know about. We ended up becoming friends on Facebook. I then noticed that she was friends with a 2nd cousin once removed(2C1R) that I went to grammar school with so I asked how she knew her. Turns out they went to high school together. I had moved after grammar school. If I hadn’t I would have met this long lost 3rd cousin many years ago. I wonder if we would have realized at the time that we were cousins. When the 2C1R cousin had come to grammar school she told me one day that her mother had told her we were related. Even though we both had Italian last names we were related through our Irish mothers. That was on the Doyle side of the family. The 3rd cousin is on the Murtha side of the family. So even though they are both related to me these two women who went to high school together aren’t related to each other.

So I then ended up getting to be Facebook friends with the 2C1R. She mentioned it to another woman who we had gone to grammar school with and then that person friend requested me. Looking at pictures she had posted on her Facebook page I got to see pictures from her high school reunion that contained a bunch of people from grammar school. That got me to post some pictures I had from third grade on her Facebook wall which then prompted a bunch of other people we went to grammar school with to comment trying to figure out who people were. I also then found our 8^th grade graduation group photo with us all in our long white gowns in a box in my mother’s closet so I posted that too. Amazingly people were able to figure out who everyone in the picture was even after all these years. It was really fun seeing all the comments from people I haven’t seen in years.

Oh and those long white gowns we were wearing; my mother had to make mine because I was so tiny that we couldn’t find one to buy. I think most of the girls got bridesmaid dresses made in white fabric, but I didn’t fit into any of them. She made a test dress first out of a bold flower print fabric which I wore as a Halloween costume the following fall dressed as a hippie.

It was a lot of fun taking a stroll down memory lane for a few days.

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