West in New England

JOHN BARNES OF PLYMOUTH PT2: "...ABOMINABLE DRUNKENES"

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Tue, 21 May 2013 05:46:00 +0000

My ancestor John Barnes must have really perplexed the leaders of Plymouth
Colony. He apparently drank to excess often and in such a way that it was
impossible for the authorities to just ignore it. Yet he was also too important
a member of the Colony to be punished by exile or imprisonment. Finally, in
March of 1657, some limit must have been reached because they tried a
new tactic:

2March 1657
John Barnes, for his frequent abusing himselfe in drunkeness, after former
punishment and admonition, is fined fiue pounds ; and in case any shall
entertaine him in theire house in a way of drinking, shallbee fined the sume
of twenty shillings ; and if any of the towne of Plymouth shallbee found
drinking in his companie, eury such to pay two shillings & sixpence.
Plymouth Court Records v3 p128

I think they were trying to use the modern bar tactic of "shutting him off "
but there was a very large hole in it: John Barnes was a merchant, and there
must have been things like wine and rum among the goods he stocked. He
would also have been traveling to Boston for business where he could find
someone to drink with him. The attempt to curb his drinking problem
failed.

Next the Colony government turned to a different method:

6Oct 1659
Att this court, John Barnes, William Newland, and Henry Howland appeered,
being sumoned, and were convicted by law, and sentanced by the Court to bee
disfranchised of their freedome of this corporation ; the said John Barnes, for
his frequent and abominable drunkenes, and William Newland and Henry Howland
for theire being abettors and entertainers of Quakers, contrary to the aforesaid
order ; likewise Richare beare of Marshfeild, for being a grossly scandalouse pson,
debaughed having bine formerly convicted of filthy, obseane practises, and for the
same by the Court sentanced ; as alsoe faling vnder the breach of the aforsaid law,
was summoned by the Court psonally to appeer to receiue the said sentance of being
disfranchised as aforesaid, but he appeered not. Notwithstanding his facts and
course of life being pspecuouse and mannifest, hee was likewise sentanced to bee
disfranchised of his freedome of this corporation. V3 pp176-177

This time, John and the others named were now denied the right to vote in Colony
affairs. Even this did nothing to keep John away from drink, because two years later
a new stricter version of the first Court order was issued:

10Jun 1661
The ordinary keepers of the towne of Plymouth are heerby prohibited to lett John
Barnes haue any liquors, wine, or strong drinke, att any time, within dores or without,
on the penaltie of being fined fifty shillings if they shallbee found to doe, to bee
to the vse of the collonie. V3 p219

Up until now it looks like there was a pattern: the Colony's leaders would try something
to deal with Barnes' public drunkenness and it would seem to work for about two years. But
either this last time was more successful than the other times, or John finally learned
how to be a discrete drinker. Whatever the case, this time it was four years before the
next appearance in Court for John:

3Oct 1665
John Barnes, being lately detected of being twise drunke, is fined twenty shillings.

Gyles Rickard, Senr, for suffering John Barnes to bee drunke in his house, is fined
five shillings. V4 p106

This was the next to last mention in the Plymouth Court Records of John Barnes'
drunkenness. The last one came six years later and that was on the occasion of his death.

But John had other affairs that needed to be brought up in Court, and we'll discuss those
next.

JOHN BARNES OF PLYMOUTH PT1 : "DRANKE SOE MUCH..."

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:14:00 +0000

As I wrote in an earlier post, my 9x great grandfather John Barnes was known as
a drunk in Plymouth Colony. It was such a problem that the authorities took
stern measures to deal with the problem, which will be the subject of another
post. But whatever the may have thought about his excessive drinking, John
was also a productive member of Plymouth society. I doubt they would have
been as lenient with someone who was a a layabout alcoholic.

This particular incident caught my attention first because it involves another
of my ancestors, 8x great grandfather Samuel Dunham. The case was originally
about an accusation against a John Smith, Sr. that he had received stolen property
from a servant of John Barnes, but Smith may have tried to get some revenge om
Barnes by bringing up one my ancestor's recent escapades where he arrived at
Samuel Dunham's house after a drinking binge at the house of another neighbor.
It was sort of a "he said that he said" story.

Two things should be explained about the meaning of two phrases in Smith's
accusation. The first is that it was common to say "drink a pipe" rather than
"smoke a pipe" in the 17th century.

The second is that I'm not too sure exactly what John meant about "two rodds"
except that a rod is a unit of measurement, and I think he is referring to the
end result of drinking a lot of beer.

The case is in Volume Three of Records of the colony of New Plymouth in
New England , page 27.

2May 1653
A neager maide seruant of John Barnes, att this Court accused John
Smith, Senr. of Plym, for receiueing tobacco and other things of her which
were her said masters, att sundry times, in a purloining way. The Court
what could bee said on both sides, and because sufficient testimony could
not be at psent produced for the clearing of the case, it was ordered, that the
said pties should attend the next Court of Assistants for further hearing, and
then produce what testimony the haue for the clearing thereof.

Upon occation of the difference betwixt the said neager and the said
John Smith, the said Smith accused John Barnes in open Court, and said that
Samuell Dunham said , att the house of Gorge Watson,on Tusday last past,
before the date heerof, that there was soe much liquore drunke att the house
of John Rickard the same day, whereof John Barnes dranke soe much as hee
coming into the house of the said Samuell Dunham, and assaying to drinke a
pipe of tobacco, hee filled his pipe and could not light it, and that he should
in a threatening way say hee had two rodds in pise for him and Goodwife
Whitney.

Smith was to be disappointed if he'd thought to get John Barnes in trouble
that day. I suspect the Pilgrim version of eye-rolling took place as they heard
another story of my ancestor having too much to drink because there is no mention
of any punishment being handed down to Barnes at that particular court session.

As to the original case of John Smith and the servant, a final judgement was given
later that year, on 2Aug 1653 before Gov. William Bradford:

Wheras a contravercy depending betwixt John Smyth, Senr, of Plym, and a neager
maide maide servant of John Barnes, was refered, for want of clearer euidence,
unto this Court bee ended ; and accordingly whatsoeuer could bee said on either
side was heard ; and with admonission, both pties were cleared. -p39

John Smith Sr was cleared of the charge against him. His attempt to cause trouble
for John Barnes hadn't worked but my ancestor was wearing the patience of the
authorities thin, and as I'll show, there would be consequences.

MOTHER'S DAY PART2

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:11:00 +0000

In honor of Mother's day, here are pictures of some of our Dad's female ancestors.

First, on his mother's side:


Amos H Barker & Betsey J (Moore) Barker

Our 2x great grandmother Betsey Jane Moore was born on 16 Aug 1842 at Waterford,
Oxford, Me. She married Amos Hastings Barker in 1856 and they raised a family of
12 children, 11 of whom survived to adulthood. Betsey died 12Mar 1924 at age 82.


My great grandmother Charlotte Lovenia Barker is the lady on the right.

Our great grandmother Charlotte Lovenia Barker was youngest of Amos & Betsey's
12 children. She was born on 3 Aug 1879 in Albany, Oxford, Maine and was known as
":Lottie". She married her first cousin Frank W. Barker on 16Oct 1898 and they had
4 children before Frank died in 1905 from pneumonia caused by "La Grippe" (the flu).
She was married three more times before her death on 3Jan 1944 at Bangor, Maine.


Cora Berthella (Barker) West & her great granddaughter Mindy Sue West

Our grandmother Cora Berthella (Barker) West was born 27Oct 1899 and was the eldest
child of Frank and Charlotte. She preferred the name Bertha, although it was given as
Cora on her marriage certificate. Bertha married Floyd E.West Sr on 24Mar 1919 and
had 5 children, one of whom was our Dad.

On his Dad's side of the family:


Arvilla (Ames)West

Our 3x great grandmother Arvilla Ames was born in Livermore, Androscoggin, Maine
on 25Jan 1810, one of 10 children. She married John Cutter West on 23Sep 1827
at Sumner, Maine, and five years later they moved to Letter B Plantation (later renamed
Upton), Oxford, Maine. She had 10 children, 3 of whom died in a diphtheria outbreak
in 1862. She died at age 97 at Hermon, Maine.

Louisa A.(Richardson) West

Louisa Richardson, our 2x great grandmother was born in Wilton, Maine on
23Jun 1837 at Wilton, Maine. She was the second wife of Jonathan Phelps West,
whose first wife had died in the 1862 diphtheria outbreak. Louisa and Jonathan
married on 31Jan 1865 and had 4 sons. She died 4Oct 1925 at age 88.

Florilla (Dunham) Ellingwood & Asa F Ellingwood

Our other paternal 2x great grandmother was Florilla Dunham who was born 29Aug 1832
at North Paris, Oxford, Maine. She married Asa F. Ellingwood on 10Aug 1850 at Woodstock,
Oxford, Maine and they had 11 children.(She was one of 11 children herself.) She died in
Paris, Oxford, Maine on 21Feb 1917.

Clara (Ellingwood) West

Finally, our great grandmother Clara Ellingwood was the 8th child and youngest
daughter of Florilla and Asa. She was born 6Mar 1865 in Dummer, Coos, NH.
Her first marriage with Charles Tidswell ended in divorce and she married our
great grandfather Philip J West on 25May 1894 at Shelburne, Coos, NH. She had
three children by her first marriage and two by her second, including our grandfather
Floyd E West, Sr. Sadly, Clara died young after an illness in Augusta, Maine on 10Apr
1901. She was only 36 years old.

And those are the pictures we have of the mothers in our family.

Happy Mother's Day!

MOTHER'S DAY PT1

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sun, 12 May 2013 06:13:00 +0000

For Mother's Day this year I thought I'd share some pictures of the mothers from
both sides of our family. For our Mom's side we don't have very many since her grandparents
immigrated here from Ireland and Germany in the 19th century.

John McFarland & Annie (Kelley) McFarland

First there's Anna Kelley, born 1Oct 1858 in Kiltrustan, Roscommon, Ireland. She married
my great grandfather in Edinburgh Scotland on 16May1879 and shortly after they came
to America and settled in Boston. She had 17 children, 10 of whom survived to adulthood.
Anna died 15Feb 1945 at Boston,Ma, at age 86.

Pauline (Offinger) White

Our other maternal great grandmother was Pauline Offinger, born 17Dec 1873
in Cambridge, Massachusetts to German immigrant parents. She married Edward J.
White on 27Nov 1895 in Boston, Ma. and had 9 children.

Agnes (McFarland) White

Our grandmother Agnes (McFarland) White was born 7Oct 1898 in Boston, Ma, the
14th of John & Annie's 17 children. She was known as "Aggie" in the family. She married
Edward F.White, Sr. and had two children, our Uncle Ed and our Mom Anne Marie. She
died 12Feb 1957 in Malden Ma.

Anne M. (White) West

Finally, our Mom, Anne M. (White) West. She was born 7Jul 1927 at Boston, Ma and
married our Dad on 29Jun 1947, also at Boston. To her McFarland cousins she was
known as "Red White".She died on 28Jul 1999 at Weymouth, Ma and she is missed
my brother, my sister, myself and the rest of the family.

STEPHEN HOPKINS OF THE MAYFLOWER PT2

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:38:00 +0000

Among the entries in the Plymouth Court Records Volume 1 1633-1640, there is
this entry for a trial on Sept.3 1638 that would have consequences for my ancestor
Stephen Hopkins:

Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, Richard Stinnings, and Daniell Crosse were indicted
for murther & robbing by the heigh way. They killed and robd one Penowanyanquis,
an Indian, at Misquamsqueece, & took from him fiue fadome of wampeux, and three
coates of wollen cloth.
The jurys names that went vpon them were these:-
Sworne                                         Sworne
Willam Hatch,                          John Paybody,
John Winslowe,                      Richard Sillis,
Willm Pontus,                          Humfrey Turner,
Edward Foster,                        Samuell Hinckley,
Richard Derbye,                      Giles Rickett,
John Holmes,                           Gabriell Fallowell,

They found the said Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings
guilty of the said felonius murthering & robbing of the said Penowanyauquis,
but say that they, nor any of them, had any lands or tennements, goods, or cattles,
at the tyme of the said felonie comitted that they know of ; and so say they all.
Daniell Crosse made an escape, & so had not his tryall ; but Peach, Jackson, &
Stinnings had sentence of death pnounced ; vizt, to be taken from the place from
whence they came, and thence to the place of execucon, and there to be hanged
by the neck vntill their bodyes were dead, wch was executed vpon them accordingly.
pp96-97

Now Stephen had no part in that trial, either as a witness or a juror. The consequences
didn't become apparent for a few months, but eventually they couldn't be ignored
and they led to a few tense days in court the following February. The year is still recorded
as 1638 because under the old English calendar March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation
was the first day of the new year. That was changed to January 1st in 1752 when the
Gregorian Calendar was adopted by England and all its territories:

4Feb 1638
Concerning Mr. Stephen Hopkins and Dorothy Temple, his servant, the Court doth
oder, wth one consent, that in regard by her couenant of indenture shee hath yet
aboue two years to serue him, that the said Mr Hopkins shall keep her and her child,
or puide shee may be kept wth food and rayment during the said terme; and if he
refuse so to doe, that then the collony ;puide for her, & Mr Hopkins to pay it. p111

Mr Steephen Hopkins is committed to ward for his contempt to the Court, and shall
so remayne comitted vntill hee shall either receiue his servant Dorothy Temple, or
els puide for her elsewhere at his own charge during the terme she hath yet to serue
him. p112

The connection with the murder trial was that one of the defendants, Arthur Peach,
was the father of Dorothy's child. I don't know the exact reason for Stephen's
refusal to fulfill his responsibilities under the terms of Dorthy's indenture contract
with him. Perhaps he may have know the victim since he had dealings with the
Indians on the colony's behalf. It could also be he felt that Dorothy's association
with a murderer reflected badly upon him as her master. Whatever the reason,
the issue was resolved four days later. The Court Record doesn't say if Stephen
spent that whole time in the jail:

8Feb 1638
The 8th of Februar., 1638. Memorand : That whereas Dorothy Temple, a mayde servant
dwelling wth Mr Steephen Hopkins, was begotten wth child in his service by Arthur
Peach, who was executed for murther and robbery by the heigh way before the said
child was borne, the said Steephen Hopkins hath concluded and agreed wth Mr John
Holmes, of Plymouth, for three pounds sterl., and other consideracons to him in
hand payd, to discharge the said Steephen Hopkins and the colony of the said
Dorothy Temple and her child foreuer ; and the said Dorothy is to serue all the residue
of her tyme wth the said John Holmes, according to her indenture.p113

So Stephen paid John Holmes 3 pounds and some other items to take over Dorothy's
contract. While that ended his legal problems, it wasn't quite over for poor Dorothy.
Premarital sex, or fornication as the Pilgrims called it, was sternly dealt with in
Plymouth Colony. By the following June her baby was delivered and Dorothy was back
in court:

4June 1639
Dorothy Temple, for vncleanes and bringing forth a male bastard, is censured to be
whipt twice ; but shee faynting in the execucon of the first, thother was not executed.
p127

I haven't found any mention yet of the fate of Dorothy and her infant son. I hope she
found a husband to take care of them that they lived out the rest of their lives
uneventfully.

STEPHEN HOPKINS OF THE MAYFLOWER PT1

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:41:00 +0000

I've always had a soft spot for my Mayflower ancestor Stephen Hopkins. He was
the only man known to have been both at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia
and at Plymouth Colony. He was one of the "Strangers", a Mayflower passenger
who was not part of the Pilgrim congregation but a representative of the men
in London who had invested in the new colony. His experience at Jamestown
with the Indians was supposedly the reason that the Pilgrim leaders had Samoset
sleep in the Hopkins house when the Indian leader visited, but I suspect that
as a Stranger he was viewed as expendable.

Despite his status as an outsider, Stephen did quite well in the settlement and
was given a position of authority as an Assistant to the Governor. He was also
given a license to serve liquor, and that, along with perhaps a bit of temper,
led to some difficulties and appearances in the General Court. They were
recorded in the Plymouth Court Records Volume 1 1633-1640:

7th Jun 1636
"At the same Court an accon of battery was tried between John Tisdale,
yeoman, plaintiffe, & Stephen Hopkins, Assistant to the governmt, deft,
wherein the deft, Stephen Hopkins, was cast in five pownds starling to our
sov. lord the King, whose peace he had broken, wch he ought after a speciall
manner to have kept, and also forty shillings to the plaintiffe. both wch he
was adjudged to pay." p42

2Oct 1637
"Presentments by the Grand Inquest
Mr Stephen Hopkins, first presentment, (for suffering men to drink in his
house upon the Lords day, before the meeting be ended, and upon the
Lords day, both before & after the meetings, servants & others to drink more
then for ordinary refreshing) is respited untill the next Court, that the testimony
of John Barnes be had therein."

"Mr Stephen Hopkins, psented for suffering servants and others to sit
drinkeing in his house, (contrary to the orders of this Court,) and to play at
shovell board, & such like misdemeanors, is therefore fined fourty shillings.
p68"

5Jun 1638
"Mr Stepheen Hopkins is presented for selling beer for 2 pence the quart, not
worth one pence a quart. Witness Kenelme Winslow." p87

4Sep 1638
"Mr Steephen Hopkins, upon two psentmnts against him the last Court, and three
psentmnts this Court, for selling wine, beere, strong waters, and nutmeggs at
excessive rates, is fynd 5li.". p97

Hopkins seems to have settled down after that last fine, because I didn't find
any incident involving alcohol after 1638. But there is one other incident
involving a servant, which I'll discuss in the next post.

MY BAD BOY PLYMOUTH COLONY ANCESTORS

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:47:00 +0000

One of the best sources I've found of family stories since I began working on my genealogy
has been the Google Books editions of the Essex County Court Records. I've found a lot
of blogpost material from them, too! I hadn't been able to find equivalent Plymouth
County online records for my ancestors from that area of Massachusetts, But then last week
I found the Plymouth Court Records on Caleb Johnson's MayflowerHistory.com website. I
don't know how long they've been there but this was the first time I'd seen them. (If you
have Mayflower or Plymouth Colony ancestry and haven't visited Caleb's site before I highly
recommend you do so now.)

Of course, if your ancestor is in a court record and he isn't on the jury, he's involved in a
court case. He's either the defendant on criminal charge or he's involved in some civil suit
over a piece of land or over livestock. My Essex County ancestors were mostly involved
in the civil suit sort of cases and some were part of the witchcraft trials. My Plymouth
ancestors, on the other hand, seem to been a rather rowdy lot, given to getting drunk
and causing scenes. One of the earliest posts here was one about my 9x great grandfather
John Barnes who was a well known drunk and whose bizarre death was cause in part from
drink. I've found court records of other incidents that would make you wonder why Gov.
Bradford and other officials put up with him. Apparently John Barnes might have been
a drunk but he was a rich drunk, proof that between drinking bouts he was an industrious
member of the community.

I also found cases involving my Dunham ancestors. My immigrant ancestor John Dunham
might have been a sober pious man but he seems to have a hard time keeping his sons Benajah, Joseph, and John Jr. on the straight and narrow. My Mayflower ancestor Stephen
Hopkins was involved in brawls and was the host on some evenings where his guests
drank too much. (Today we'd call him an "enabler").

And then there are the ancestors who were charged with fornication, even after they
were married to each other!

So like many other Pilgrims, my Plymouth Colony ancestors were naughty boys and girls,
and I'll be telling you all about them here.

THE THIRD AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CHALLENGE BLOGPOSTS ROUNDUP

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:24:00 +0000

Welcome to the Third American Civil War Blog Challenge roundup. This year I decided
to post the Challenge entries today on May 6 in commemoration of the six day Battle of
Chancellorsville which concluded on 6May 1863. It was the second bloodiest battle of the
Civil War and was where Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was fatally wounded
by his own men.

These were the questions I posed in the Challenge:
"Did you have ancestors in America during the Civil War? If so, where were they
and what were their circumstances? How did the Civil War affect them and
their family? Did the men enlist and did they perish in battle or die of illness?
On which side did they fight, or did you have relatives fighting on BOTH sides?
How did the women left at home cope, or did any of them find ways to help
the war effort? Were your ancestors living as slaves on Southern plantations
and if so when were they freed? Or were they freemen of color who enlisted
to fight?"

There are nine blogposts this year but I think the quality makes up for the lack of
quantity. There are posts based on letters, eyewitness accounts, music, a diary, and
documents, and they cover events ranging from Gettysburg to El Paso. So sit down
with your beverage of choice, relax, and read!

Civil War Monument, Hobart Park, Whitman, Ma

Sara Campbell says this about her post "My research goal is always to personalize the
individuals and gain an understanding of their lives beyond the bare dates and places found
in the records. After developing a profile of this family for a talk at the Chicopee Library
in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I have 'adopted' them and
want to know more " You can read what Sara learned in her blogpost entitled
Civil War Research - Holyoke's Richard Wall at her Remembering Those Who came
Before blog.

Diane MacLean Boumenot recently discovered some fascinating letters written by
a relative who served in the Union Army . She shares them with us, along with the background
of the soldier and how the letters were preserved at her blog One Rhode Island Family.
The post is entitled The Civil War Letters of William Wilberforce Douglas .

Heather Wilkinson Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy had done many posts about her distant
relatives The Hutchinson Family Singers She says " As the first celebrity musical act in
American history, the Hutchinson Family Singers used their fame to advance progressive
causes. They sang about women’s suffrage, abolitionism, temperance, Native American
causes, and worker’s rights. They are most famous for their Civil War Era songs." You
can read the lyrics to some of the songs and learn more about the Hutchinsons in
Hutchinson Family Singers Civil War Song Lyrics

Civil War Monument, Marshfield Hills Cemetery, Marshfield, Ma.

From A to Zophar is Wendy Grant Walter's blog devoted to her 2x great grandfather
Zophar Skinner. He was another soldier in the Union Army and kept a diary of his
experiences during the year 1863 which included being present at the Battle of Gettysburg.
You can read his entries for July 1st to July 5th 1863 and see pictures of Zophar and his
diary in Zophar Skinner and the 2nd RI Infantry at Gettysburg

LindaRe shares family stories and history from Copiah, Jefferson, and Lincoln Counties
in Mississippi at her Between the Gate Posts blog. Her contribution to the Challenge
deals with what happened during April 1863 when Union cavalry under the command of Col.
Benjamin Grierson came raiding through the area. The story is told through the eyewitness
accounts of the slaves working that day when they saw A Body of Cavalrymen Coming up the Road .

Like many of us Caroline Cohoe Shultz has some families and relatives that are hard nuts to
crack as far as information about them goes. Her 2x great granduncle Ralph Fielding was
one such person for Caroline. Then a record in Ancestry.com's lead her to a Civil War
Pension file, which not only yield answers about Ralph but provided more information
about the rest of his family, Follow Caroline's investigation. at her Calling all Cousins
blogpost, Third American Civil War Challenge - I Found Him! The Elusive Ralph Fielding!
It shows why pension files are a valuable resource for genealogists.

Civil War Memorial Bridge, Abington, Ma

Over on her genealogy musings blog, Holly Timm takes a look at the whereabouts of her
family in the late great unpleasantness... It illustrates that while you may not have ancestors
who fought in some great battle, they still were effected someway or another by events that
happening hundreds of miles away from where they lived.

Carol A. Bowen Stevens' 2x great grandfather Peter Preston Holsinger was a Virginian and
a Confederate cavalryman who twice was captured in battle and sent to a prisoner of war
camp. Carol shares the details of Peter's experiences along with some documents she
found about them at her geneablog Reflections From the Fence. Read all about it in
Peter Preston Holsinger, Civil War Veteran, Third American Civil War Challenge

Finally, during my research on the family of my great grandmother Clara Ellingwood West
I've discovered a number of Ellingwood men who fought on the Union side during the War.
The most colorful story I've found so far is that of my distant cousin Ralph Everett Ellingwood
He was a farm-boy from Ohio who has seen more adventure by the time he was twenty-one
than most men see in an entire lifetime.

Inscription, Civil War Monument, Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, Ma.

And that concludes this year's American Civil War Challenge. There will be two more
before the Challenge ends in April 2015 on the 150th anniversary of the War's conclusion.
So if you have any Civil War family stories to share, please blog about them and share them
with us next year in the next edition of the American Civil War Challenge!

JONATHAN PHELPS AMES (1781-1863) OF OXFORD COUNTY, MAINE.

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sat, 04 May 2013 18:26:00 +0000

My 4x great grandfather Jonathan Phelps Ames was born on 20Apr 1781 in
Groton Ma., the second of the five children of John Ames and Lydia Phelps.
The family moved to Oxford County, Maine between 1790 and 1810, where
John made his living as a farmer and blacksmith in several towns. It was inone
of those towns, Hartford, Maine, that Jonathan met and married his first wife,
my 4x great grandmother Mary "Polly" Griffith on 6Sep 1807. They were married
twenty seven years and produced ten children, seven boys and three girls.Polly
died in 1834. Three years later Jonathan married Polly's sister Sarah Griffith and
the couple had two more daughters. Jonathan died on 16Dec 1863 at Canton,
Oxford, Maine, at age 82.

I've been lucky with many of my New England lines; they lived in towns that have
had books written about their history and those books have provided me with a lot of information and stories. But with a few like the Ames and Coburn lines the information
dries up after the families moved north to MaIne, so I piece together what I can with
whatever records and documents I can find online. Recently I found the 1860 U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Agriculture Schedule for Canton Maine and Jonathan's farm was
one of those enumerated. It gave me a little insight into what his life was like as it was
drawing to a close. Here's a transcript:

Acres of land: Developed-75 acres
Undeveloped-25 acres
Cash value of Farm- 1500 (dollars)
Value of farming Implements and Machinery- 53 (dollars)
Livestock:
Horses-1
Mules and Asses-0
Milch Cows-3
Working Oxen-2
Other cattle-3
Sheep-15
Swine-0
Value of Livestock-280 (dollars)
Wheat, bushels of -0
Rye, bushels of- 5
Indian Corn, bushels of -5
Oats, bushels of-4
Rice, lbs of-0
Tobacco, lbs of-0
Ginned Cotton, bales of 400lbs ea-0
Wool,lbs of-65
Peas and Beans, bushels of-4
Irish Potatoes, bushels of-75
Sweet Potatoes, bushels of-0
Barley, bushels of-0
Buckwheat, bushels of-3
Value of Orchard Products, in dolls.-0
Butter, lbs. of-150
Cheese, lbs of-50
Hay, tons of-20
Clover Seed, bushels of-0
Grass seeds, bushels of-0
Hops, lbs. of-0
Hemp:
Dew Rotted, tons of-0
Water Rotted, tons of-0
Other prepared Hemp-0ItalicFlax, lbs of-0
Flaxseed, bush. of-0
Silk Cocoons, lbs, of-0
Maple Sugar, lbs of-0
Cane Sugar,hhds of 1000 lbs,-0
Molasses, gallons of and from what made-0
Beeswax, lbs. of-0
Honey, lbs.of-0
Value of Homemade Manufacture-0 (dollars)
Value of Slaughtered Animals-58 (dollars)

Looking at this, the first thought that struck me was the livestock. We tend to think
of a farmer using a horse to draw his wagon or plow, but nearly all the records I've
seen of ancestors from this period shows them owning at least two pair of oxen. I
think given the rocky New England terrain and the winter snows oxen did most of the
heavy farm work until modern machinery came along. The horse was probably more
for transportation than work. Also, the number of cows is lower than what we think of
when we think of New England farms, but remember, back then there was no milk
pasteurization yet, no refrigeration to transport large amounts of milk to city dwellers.
"Milch cows" were more valuable for the amount of cheese and butter that could be
made from their milk. So while Jonathan had a total of six cows, he had over twice that
amount, fifteen, in sheep. I checked the rest of the entries for Canton and there were
over 1200 sheep on the farms in town. In 1860 the New England textile mills were in
their heyday and wool would have been in demand to make into clothing.

Then I looked at the crops grown on Jonathan's farm and how much he harvested. For a
farm of its size the amounts are low. Jonathan's son -in-law, my 3x great grandfather
John Cutter West farmed fewer acres than Jonathan, forty acres, and had a harvest of
500 bushels of potatoes compared to the 75 on Jonathan's farm. In every crop planted
on both farms, the yield at Jonathan's farm was smaller.

I don't think it was because Jonathan was a poor farmer. I think the answer is simply that
he was old, nearly 80! All his sons were gone from the farm: Jonathan Jr. had moved to
Illinois, Ezekiel was in Massachusetts. Generous, Hezekiah and Atwood were running
their own farms, and two sons, Ephraim and Americus, had already died. The regular
1860 Census shows Jonathan and Sarah living on the farm with a Henry and Emily Potter.
I believe Emily is their daughter, although I haven't found a record of her marriage yet.

So for the moment that's all I know about Jonathan Phelp Ames, my 4x great grandfather,
but I'm still hoping to find more!

RALPH EVERETT ELLINWOOD

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:12:00 +0000

The westward movement of some members of the Ellinwood?Ellenwood/Ellingwood
family began back in the early 18th century. While my 6x great grandfather Ebenezer
Ellinwood moved north to New Hampshire, his younger brother Thomas moved
westward to Brimfield, Massachusetts. Eventually,one of his descendants would
move even further west, first to Orange County, New York and then to Rock Creek,
Ohio.

My 4th cousin 4x removed Ralph Everett Ellinwood was born in New York on 28Apr 1838
before his parents moved on to Ohio. He was the eighth out of ten children(seven of
his eight sisters died before age 21)and on 21Sep 1858 he enlisted in the U.S.Army. It
must have been exciting for a twenty year old son of a farmer to be in Company I of the
Eighth Regiment, stationed in the Southwest in New Mexico and Texas. Ralph must
have been a good soldier because he had been promoted to Sergeant by Sept 1860.
He was in Texas when the Civil War broke out and he was taken prisoner by Rebel
forces, then sent to a prison camp on the Saladas River near San Antonio. It
seemed Ralph was out of the War, but he was a very determined young man.

He escaped.

I read about Ralph in Leonard Ellinwood's The Ellinwood (Ellenwood/Ellingwood)
Family 1635-1963 (1963) pp194-198. He simply says that Ralph made his escape
through West Texas to Mexico, then crossed over to Havana, Cuba where the U.S.Consul
arranged passage to New York City. Think about that: he'd just turned twenty-three
when he'd been imprisoned in April and then escaped. He'd already seen and done
more things than many men three times his age!

Ralph reached New York by October 1861 and reported to Fort Columbus on New
York Harbor and commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd Infantry. He joined
the Union Army in Virginia. In letters to his brother ohn, Ralph talks about nearly
being shot by a Rebel sniper just outside of Yorktown in April of 1862, and of some
grueling conditions during a march on Richmond in May. The Union Army was within
25 miles of the capital of Confederacy and Ralph was confident that the war would soon
be over. He writes of going to Mexico with his wife Eugenia after the war's end. By
July he's recovered from dysentery and been promoted to first lieutenant of Company
C.

Then on 30Aug 1862 the 2nd Infantry took part at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Ralph
was wounded in the right ankle and evemually was taken to an hopital at Alexandria, Va.
Although the wound hadn't seemed serious at first, it soon worsened. He died on 25Sep
1862. The term used for the cause of death on the Union Army record I found on Ancestry
was "vulnus sclopet", a shortening of "vulnus slopeticum", a fancy Latin term for "gunshot
wound". But what really killed him was infection and Ralph's own fear of amputation. A
fellow officer wrote to Ralph's brother John and told him that Ralph "had a horror of being
a cripple and often in conversation had expressed himself to this extent, that if he was
ever was wounded that death was preferable to being a cripple for life."

Ralph Everett Ellinwood died with the rank of Brevet Captain, a battlefield promotion
at Second Bull Run. He'd risen from the rank of private to captain in just four years from
his enlistment date.

He was just twenty four years old.

MY SNOWSHOE SOLDIER ANCESTORS PT5

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:16:00 +0000

This is the final part of Rev.Wilson Waters' listing of men who served as "snowshoe soldiers"
under William Tyng. I found it in his History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, pp139-143. Two
of the men in this part are related to me and their names are in boldfaced italics. My
comments explaining how we are related is in red italics.

45. Judge John Tyng, son of Major William and Lucy (Clarke) Tyng, born in Chelmsford, January 28, 1704-5, and graduated from Harvard University in 1725. He lived in Tyngsboro', where he died in 1797, aged ninety-two years. He was a colonel of the militia, a representative of Dunstable, Mass., which then included Tyngsboro', and speaker of the house. He was a delegate to the convention at Boston, in 1768, "for the preservation of the public peace and safety," and a delegate to the Provincial Congress, which assembled at Cambridge and Watertown in 1775, but he is best known as a judge of the courts of Middlesex county, which office he held many years.

46. Col. Eleazer Tyng, Dunstable, son of Col. Jonathan and Sarah (Usher) Tyng, was born in the part of Dunstable now called Tyngsboro', April 30,1690, and graduated at Harvard University in 1712. He was a magistrate and a colonel; an active and useful man. He was buried in the Tyng burial ground, about one mile below Tyngsboro' Village. Upon a broad, horizontal tablet is" inscribed, "Underneath are entombed the remains of Eleazer Tyng, Esq., who died May 21, 1782, aged 92; Mrs. Sarah Tyng, who died May 23, 1753, aged 59; John Alford Tyng, Esq., who died Sept. 4, 1775, aged 44." John Alford Tyng, Esq., was a son of Colonel Eleazer. Fox's Dunstable is in error in calling him Judge Tyng. The judge, John Tyng, is No. 45.

47. Thomas Colburn, son of Edward Colburn of Chelmsford, was born in 1674. He lived in Dunstable, where he died November 2, 1770. The committee of the General Court were instructed to admit six men who served under Capt. John Loveweil and were omitted in the grants of Pembroke, N. H., and Petersham, Mass. In the same connection there appears in the Massachusetts Archives the petition of Zaccheus Lovewell, Thomas Colburn, Peter Powers, Josiah Cummings, Henry Farwell, Jr., and Nicholas Crosby, alleging that they served against the Indian enemy under Captain Lovewell, either on his first or second march, and that all the other soldiers of Captain Lovewell's companies have been rewarded in grants of land. Thomas Colburn appears to have been the only one of the six petitioners who was made a grantee of Tyngstown.
((My 7x great granduncle))

48. John Colburn, Dunstable, son of John and grandson of Edward Colburn, was born in Dunstable. John, the father died December 1, 1700, and John, the son, was the representative of his grandfather, Edward Colburn of Chelmsford, who was killed in an ambuscade in King Philip's war.
((A cousin. His grandfather Edward was a brother to the above Thomas Colburn and to my 7x
great grandfather Joseph Colburn))

51. Jonas Clark, Esq., Chelmsford, son of Rev. Thomas Clark of Chelmsford, was born December 20, 1684. He was a colonel and a magistrate. Several meetings of the proprietors of Tyngstown were held at his house in Chelmsford. He died April 8, 1770. His sister, Lucy or Lucia, was the wife of Major William Tyng, and his sister Elizabeth married Rev. John Hancock of Lexington, and was grandmother of Gov. John Hancock, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

53. Thomas Parker and William Reed. In a description of lands belonging to this right, the first name is written "Rev. Mr. Thomas Parker." He was a son of Josiah Parker of Groton, Woburn and Cambridge, and he was born in Cambridge, December 7, 1700. He graduated from Harvard University in 1718. At nineteen years of age he was ordained and installed over the church in Dracut early in 1720, and there labored and preached until his death, March 18, 1765. He attended several of the meetings of the proprietors, and was moderator of one or more meetings.

This concludes my series of posts about the "snowshoes soldiers". I'm glad that I was able to find
relatives among them thanks to Google Books, and I hope that by posting all the names here someone else will discover their "snowshoe soldiers" ancestors as well.

MY SNOWSHOE SOLDIER ANCESTORS PT4

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:24:00 +0000

This is the second part of Rev. Wilson Waters' partial list of the men who served as
"snowshoe soldiers" under the command of William Tyng. Again, the names of
those I am related to are highlighted in boldface italics and my comments in red
italics. I had originally intended to post this in two parts, but because of the length
of the list there will be a third:

27. Peter Talbot [or Talbird], Chelmsford, was an emigrant from England. He lived several years in Dorchester, but at the time of his service in the snow-shoe company, under Capt. William Tyng, he was a resident of Chelmsford. At that time he must have been fully fifty years of age. His right in the township was given to his son, George Talbot, who lived several years in Stoughton.

28. Stephen Keyes, Chelmsford. There is no record of his birth and it has been thought that he probably was a son of Elias Keyes of Sudbury. He received land in Chelmsford in the right of Solomon Keyes, and it is possible he was a son of Solomon and Frances (Grant) Keyes. He was married March 7, 1706, by Jonathan Tyng, Esq., to Anna Robbins. He died in Chelmsford, February 6, 1714.

29. Benoni Perham, Chelmsford, lived in Chelmsford. He was living in 1722 and died a short time after that date [1723]. His son, Samuel, represented his interest in the grant of Tyngstown.

32. Josiah Richardson, Chelmsford, son of Capt. Josiah and Remembrance (Underwood) Richardson, was born in Chelmsford May 18,1665. He was a town clerk and selectman of Chelmsford, where he died October 17, 1711. His wife was a daughter of Deacon John Blanchard.

36. Henry Farwell, son of Henry Farwell of Chelmsford. Mass., was born about 1665. He was one of the early settlers of Dunstable. In the later years of Queen Anne's war his house was one of the seven garrisons in Dunstable. His son, Oliver was one of the victims of the Indian ambush at Naticook, September 5, 1724. His son, Josiah, was a lieutenant in Captain Lovewell's Company, and was killed by the Indians in the fight at Pigwacket, May 8, 1725.

38. John Richardson, Chelmsford, son of Capt. Josiah and Remembrance (Underwood) Richardson, was a brother of No. 32. Josiah Richardson was born in Chelmsford, February 14, 1669-70, where he died September 13, 1746.

40. Ephraim Hildreth, Chelmsford, removed from Chelmsford to Dracut in 1712, and there died September 26, 1740. He was town clerk of Dracut, a major of the militia, and an active man in town and business affairs. He was one of the proprietors of Concord and an influential factor among the proprietors of Tyngstown. At one time he was the owner of the saw-mill.
((My 8x great granduncle. His sister Elizabeth (Hildreth) Stevens is my ancestor))

41. Samuel Chamberlain, Chelmsford, son of Thomas and Sarah (Proctor) Chamberlain, was born in Chelmsford, January 11, 1679. He was a prominent citizen and styled Capt. Samuel Chamberlain in Chelmsford records. He died April 12, 1767. There was a Samuel Chamberlain of about the same age, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Chamberlain, who was styled in Chelmsford records Lieut. Samuel Chamberlain. The Tyngstown proprietors' records call the grantee Capt. Samuel Chamberlain, which makes it reasonably certain that the Samuel first named was the soldier and grantee.
((My 7x great granduncle. His sister Elizabeth is my ancestor))

42. Stephen Pierce, Chelmsford, son of Stephen and Tabitha (Parker) Pierce and grandson of Thomas Pierce of Woburn, was born in Chelmsford in 1678. He lived in Chelmsford and was the owner of many acres of land. He died September 9, 1749This Stephen Pierce was the grandfather of Gov. Benjamin Pierce of Hillsborough, who was the father of President Franklin Pierce.
((A cousin))

43. Timothy Spalding, Chelmsford, son of John and Hanna (Hale) Spalding, was born about 1676. He lived in the part of Chelmsford now Westford, where he died April 14, 1763. He was a brother of No. 13.
((A cousin.His father is my 7x great granduncle))

44. Paul Fletcher, Chelmsford, was the son of Joshua. His father was twice married: First, in 1668, to Gussies Jewell; second, in 1682, to Sarah Willey. I cannot state which of the wives was the mother of Paul. The Fletcher genealogy states that Paul Fletcher was a snow-shoe man in 1724. The date is an error.

MY SNOWSHOE SOLDIER ANCESTORS PT3

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:59:00 +0000

My task of identifying possible relatives among William Tyng's "snowshoe soldiers"
was helped a bit by Rev.Wilson Waters section on them in his History of Chelmsford,
Massachusetts, in which he gives a bit of family background of some of the soldiers.
I'm posting his list in its entirety in two parts. Those soldiers I believe am related are
in boldface and I've put my comments in red. Here's part 1 of Waters' list:

1. John Shepley, son of John, was born in Chelmsford, Mass., in 1677. A few years
later the family removed to Groton, Mass., where the father, mother and all the
children except John were killed by the Indians, July 27, 1694. John, then seventeen
years of age, was carried into captivity where he remained three and one-half years,
when he returned to Groton. In memory of the massacre of his kindred, undoubtedly
he was a willing recruit in Captain Tyng's company. Subsequently he was prominent
in the town and church affairs of Groton. He was a representative nine years. He died
September 14, 1736. Among his descendants is the late Ether Shepley, a former
United States Senator and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine.

2. Joseph Parker, Groton, son of Capt. Joseph and Margaret Parker, was born in
Chelmsford, March 30, 1653. The family removed to Dunstable in 1675, where Joseph, Sr.,
was a constable seven years. Joseph, Jr., had considerable experience in Indian warfare.
He removed from Dunstable to Groton and there died about 1725, leaving a large estate.
((Related by marriage, I think.))

10. Joseph Perham, Groton, son of John and Lydia (Shepley) Perham, was born in Chelmsford, December 22, 1669. He lived in Dunstable and, by revision of town lines, in Nottingham
West, now Hudson. At the time of his service in Captain Tyng's company he was a resident
of Groton.

11. Joseph Butterfield, Dunstable, son of Joseph and Lydia (Ballard) Butterfield, was born in Chelmsford, June 6, 1680. He removed early in life to Dunstable, living in the section of the town now Tyngsborough, where he died in 1757. His daughter, Deborah, was the wife of Col. Samuel Moor of Litchfield.
((Both a Ballard & Butterfield cousin. His parents are my 8x great granduncle & grandaunt.))

12. John Spalding, Chelmsford, son of Andrew and Hannah (Jefts) Spalding, was born August 20, 1682. He lived through life in Chelmsford. He died March 7, 1760.
((My 6x great grandfather))

13. John Spalding, Jr., Chelmsford, son of John and Hannah (Hale) Spalding, was born in Chelmsford, February 15, 1659. Late in life he removed to Plainfield, Conn. His son, Samuel, born August 5, 1686, represented his father's interests in Tyngstown.
((I have my ancestor John Spaulding married to a Mary Barrett. This is probably a cousin.))

14. Henry Spalding, Chelmsford, son of Andrew and Hannah (Jefts) Spalding, was born November 2, 1680. He was a brother of No. 12. He married a daughter of Thomas Lund, Sr.
((My 6x great granduncle))

16. Ebenezer Spalding, Chelmsford, son of Lieut. Edward and Margaret (Barrett) Spalding, was born January 13, 1683. He lived in Chelmsford and later in Nottingham West, now Hudson.
((A cousin))

17. Samuel Davis, Groton, son of Samuel and Mary Davis, was born in Groton, January 8, 1669-70. He removed from Groton to Chelmsford in 1707. Many of his descendants have resided in New Hampshire.
((Possibly a cousin))

22. Nathaniel Butterfield, Chelmsford, son of Nathaniel and Deborah (Underwood) Butterfield, was born about 1676 [1673]. He lived in Chelmsford, where he died in 1749.
((A cousin. His father is my 8x great great granduncle))

23. Jonathan Butterfield, Chelmsford, was probably a son of Nathaniel and Deborah (Underwood) Butterfield, and a brother of No. 22.
((Same as above))

26. Jonathan Parker, Chelmsford, son of John and Mary Parker, was born in Chelmsford, January 2, 1683. His right appears to have been improved by Thomas Parker. I do not find that he had a son Thomas but he had a brother of that name.
((Another possible cousin by marriage,))

To be continued.

MY SNOWSHOE SOLDIER ANCESTORS PT2

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:55:00 +0000

It took me a few days to find the roster of men who served under William
Tyng. I started a Google search for the Granite State Magazine Vol 1 mentioned
by Wilson Waters but couldn't find it at first, and when I did, it didn't have the
list. Finally I changed the Google Search to "Granite State Magazine" + "William
Tyng" and found it. It was in Volume 5, not 1, and it was part of a text of a speech
entitled "The Snow-Shoe Scouts" given by George Waldo Browne before the
Manchester Historic Association. (Browne was a historian and novelist whose
novels were based in New England history and melodramatic in the style of the
ate 19th and early 20th century.) I immediately recognized some of the last names
as names on my family tree. First, here's the list, with the name of the towns where
the soldiers lived in boldface, and men who I thought could be my relatives in boldface
italics:

Chelmsford
John Shepley
Peter Talbird
Josiah Richardson
Saml. Chamberlain
Ebner. Spaulding
Henry Farwell
John Spaulding
Jona. Butterfield
Stephen Keyes
Timothy Spaulding
John Spaulding, Jr.
Benony Perham
John Richardson
Paul Fletcher
Nathaniel Butterfield
Stephen Pierce
Henry Spaulding
Jonathan Parker
Ephraim Hildreth Groton
Nathaniel Woods
William Longley
Jonathan Page
Joseph Parker
Nathl. Blood
Thos. Tarble.
Richard Warner
Saml. Davis
Joseph Guilson
Joseph Perham
Joseph Lakin
James Blanchard
William Whitney
Eleazer Parker
Saml. Woods
John Longley
John Holden Dunstable
Thomas Lund
Joseph Blanchard
Joseph Butterfield
John Cumings
Thomas Cumings Billerica
John Hunt
Jonathan Hill
Jonathan Richards
- Granite State Magazine Vol5 p14-15

Out of forty four men under the command of William Tyng, there were eighteen
with last names on my family tree.

Now the question was how might these men be related to me?

To be continued.

MY SNOWSHOE SOLDIER ANCESTORS PT1

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:51:00 +0000

I've been lucky finding information about a good number of my colonial
New England citizens but there are a few family lines where I haven't been
as fortunate. One of those are my Butterfield ancestors who lived in the
Middlesex County, Massachusetts towns of Chelmsford and Dunstable. So
last week I was Googling the Butterfield name in conjunction with the town
Chelmsford and came across a surprising bit of information: some of my Butterfield
and Spalding relatives had been "snowshoe soldiers".

I'd run across references to the snowshoe soldiers before; they were militiamen
who'd adopted Native American methods in their fighting with the local tribes.
Benjamin Church had set the precedent back during King Philip's War. Historian
Wilson Waters gives this account of their creation in his History of Chelmsford :

"QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
This war began in 1702 when England declared war against France and Spain. The
French had the sympathy of the New England Indians, who made constant vigilence
necessary in the frontier settlements to guard against raids and massacres. "For
the first time the Indians were well armed and guided by a superior intelligence."
The war ended in 1713 by the treaty of Utrecht. Newfoundland and Acadia came
into the possession of England, whose prestige was strengthened in North America.

1702. November 19. A bill was passed providing snowshoes for the men of the frontier
towns at the charge of the Province. The Indians were more active and troublesome
in the winter, and companies were organized for service upon the snow. William Tyng
commanded the first Massachusetts company, and received for services from December
28 to January 25, 1703-4, £71. 11.0, 25 shillings of which was paid to a "chyrugion." The
company brought back five scalps and received as bounty £200. In the Granite State
Magazine, Vol. I, is a list, with personal sketches, of forty-four men in this company,
who, in 1735, with sixteen others named, were the grantees of Tyngstown, which
included the greater part of the present Manchester, N. H. The adjustment of the
province line in 1741 voided this charter, and Massachusetts gave the grantees the
township now Wilton, Maine." (p138-139)History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts
(Google eBook) Wilson Waters, Courier-Citizen Company, Lowell, Ma. 1917

Another well known New England historian, Samuel Adams Drake, gave more details of
some of the combat. The "Old Harry" he mentions was the name the colonists gave an
enemy whose Indian name actually was "Black Plume":

"In the winter of 1703 Captain William Tyng, commanding a company of "snow-shoe men,"
made a successful expedition to the headquarters of "Old Harry," near Lake Winnipiseogee.
They succeeded in killing six of the enemy, among whom was the traitor, " Old Harry himself,"
who had led the assaults on Dunstable. For this act of bravery the General Court subsequently
granted to the heirs of those composing this company a tract of land, at first called "Old Harry's
Town," then Tyngstown, and afterwards Manchester.

In the winter following, Captain John Tyng, with another company, made an expedition to
Pequawkett, or Pigwacket, and took five Indian scalps, for which they received £200. In 1710
the gallant commander of this company was mortally wounded by the Indians between Concord
and Groton, and was buried, August 18, at the former place. The celebrated Joe English,
grandson of Masconomo, sagamore of Ipswich, was shot by the Indians, near Holden's Brook,
in what is now Tyngsborough, on the 27th of July, 1706. He was acting as a guard to Captain Butterfield and wife, who were travelling on horseback. Killing the horse and taking Mrs.
Butterfield captive, the Indians then pursued Joe English, firing at him and wounding him
while attempting to shelter himself behind a clump of trees. To escape the torture of the
savages, he insulted them with taunting words, when they at once despatched him with their tomahawks. His widow "and his two children received a grant of money from the government, because "he died in the service of his country." "
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts: Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of
Every City and Town in the County, Volume 2 (Google eBook), Samuel Adams Drake
Estes and Lauriat, Boston Ma. 1880 p393

I'll discuss what I've been able to discover so far about my snowshoe soldier ancestors.

To be continued

A REMINDER ABOUT THE THIRD AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CHALLENGE DEADLINE.

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:47:00 +0000

Just a reminder, there's only a week left to the deadline for submissions
to the Third American Civil War Challenge.

This is how you can participate:

Did you have ancestors in America during the Civil War? If so, where were they
and what were their circumstances? How did the Civil War affect them and
their family? Did the men enlist and did they perish in battle or die of illness?
On which side did they fight, or did you have relatives fighting on BOTH sides?
How did the women left at home cope, or did any of them find ways to help
the war effort? Were your ancestors living as slaves on Southern plantations
and if so when were they freed? Or were they freemen of color who enlisted
to fight?

If your ancestors had not emigrated to America as yet, what was their life
like around the time of the Civil War?

The 150 year celebration of the Civil War is a great source for those of us
blogging about our family history. So, let's do a little research over the coming
weeks between now and April 30th . Find out the answers to the questions
I asked and write about them. Or if you think of another topic to do with your
family history and the Civil War, write about that. Send me the link when you
publish it on your blog, and on May 6th I'll publish all the links here.

I'm looking forward to some interesting blogposts!

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY MAINE PT4

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:50:00 +0000

My 5x great grandfather Amos Upton had a good memory for a 90 year old
man when he applied for his Revolutionary War Veteran's Pension in August
of 1832 but unfortunately that was all he had with which to make his case. His
friends who had witnessed his service were all dead so they could not testify
in his behalf, nor did he have any documents he could produce as proof, either.
His statement was termed "traditionary evidence" on the brief filed with his
application. Now according to Black's Law Dictionary, traditionary evidence is
"Evidence derived from tradition or reputation or the statements formerly
made by persons since deceased." Amos was not dead, but the term was the
closest to his defining statement. The next step was an inquiry into the
military records of Massachusetts where Amos had been living during the
Revolution. The answer came back in April 1833 and it was not good news:

"Boston Sec. Office, April 24, 1833
Thomas Clark, Esq.
Sir-
I send you a certificate of all that can be found as (pertains?) the service of
John Lombard. Amos Upton I do not find at all. There is one Roll of Capt.
Asa Prince's company, but Upton's name is not on it.
Yours,
Edward S (Bangsby?)"

But Amos didn't give up. The rely had been written on April 24th and most have
taken two or three days to get from Boston up to Norway in Western Maine. A
few days after that, Amos reapplied for hs pension:

"State of Maine, Oxford SS May 1, 1833. Personally appeared before me, the
undersigned, a Justice of the Peace, in and for the county of Oxford, Amos
Upton who, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, that by reason of old age,
and the consequent loss of memory, he cannot swear positively as to the
precise length of his service , but according to the best of his recollection
he served not less than the period mentioned below, and in the following
grade: viz. For six months I served as a sergeant and for such service I
claim a pension.
Amos Upton."

There's none of the names of officers Amos mentioned in his first application.
His signature looks shaky and the "t" in Upton looks as if he forgot it and had
to add it after the original signature. Looking at this statement, with even less
information than on his already rejected first application, it's hard to think that
Amos would have any success this time around. But he did. I believe that someone
in the Massachusetts state government finally found the records for this entry in
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution:

"Volume 16
page 226
Upton, Amos, Reading.List dated Reading, 2d Parish, May 15, 1775, of men who
enlisted under Capt. Asa Prince, of Danvers, as returned by Capt. John Flint to Col.
David Green; also, Sergeant, Capt. Prince's co., Col. Mansfield's regt.; order for
advance pay, signed by said Upton and others, dated Cambridge, June 8, 1775; also,
Capt. Prince's co., Col. John Mansfield's (19th) regt. commanded by Lieut. Col.
Israel Hutchinson; company return dated Oct. 6, 1775."

A certificate of pension was issued on August 2 1833. Amos Upton was to receive $30
a year, a good amount of money in those days, beginning the following year of 1834. But
he also received $75 immediately, $60 of which was in arrears.

Amos lived for another five years, finally passing away at the age of 95 on 3Apr 1838.
He had been probably the last surviving Revolutionary War veteran in Norway, Maine.

PATRIOTS DAY, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:08:00 +0000

Today Massachusetts celebrates the Battles of Concord and
Lexington.and in remembrance of that event I'm once more
posting the names of my Revolutionary War ancestors.Some of
them were Minute Men who responded to the alarm that day.

The italicized names are those whose Pension Files I've found.
If any one reading this shares my descent from these men, I'll be
glad to share the files with you if you don't already have them.:

Jonathan Barker Jr.
Was a Minuteman from Methuen Ma with the rank of Sergeant. He
was at Lexington and Concord with his sons Jonathan (see below)
and Samuel. Served in Captain Samuel Johnson's Company in
Colonel Titcomb's Regiment for 2 months in 1777 in Rhode Island
and then with Nathaniel Gage' Company in Colonel Jacob Gerrish's
guards from Dec 1777 until April 1778 guarding the captured
troops of General Burgoyne.

Jonathan Barker 3rd
Enlisted on 19 Apr 1775 in Continental Army, Capt. John Davis'
Company, Col. James Frye's Regiment, in the Massachusetts line
for 8 months in Cambridge, Ma. At the conclusion of the term, he
reenlisted for another 3 months in Capt John Allen's Company,
Colonel John Waldron's Regiment, General Sullivan's Brigade in
the New Hampshire Brigade at Charlestown, Ma. He then enlisted a
third time in June 1778 at Methuen, Ma., joining Captain Samuel
Carr's Company, Col. James Weston's Regiment, in General Lerned's
Brigade at White Plains, N.Y. and serving for another 9 months.

John Ames
Was a Minuteman under Capt. Asa Parker on April 19th, 1775. He
subsequently enlisted in the Continental Army under Captain Oliver
Parker, Col. William Prescott's Regiment and in the Brigade that
was commanded in turn by Generals Putnam, Lee, and Washington.
and served for 8 1/2 months.

Asa Barrows
A member of the militia from Middleborough , Ma. (south of
Boston) in the Company of Captain Joshua Benson, in Colonel
Cotton's Regiment, and General William Heath's Brigade for
8 months during the siege of Boston. In December 1776 he
joined a militia Company commanded by Captain Joshua
Perkins and marched to Barrington, R.I. and was stationed there
for 6 weeks. In July 1780 he again enlisted, this time in a militia
company commanded by Captain Perez Churchill that marched
to Tiverton, R.I.

Moses Coburn
Moses Coburn got into the War late and by reason of being
"hired by a certain class of men in the then town of Dunstable
to go into the Continental Army in the summer of 1781." When
he reached Phillipsburgh in New York he was placed in Captain
Benjamin Pike's Company, in the Regiment of the Massachusetts
line commanded by Lt. Colonel Calvin Smith in which he served
for nearly two years until it was broken up. He then transferred to
the Company of Judah Alden in the Regiment commanded by
Colonel Sprouts until his discharge in 1783.

Samuel Haskell
Samuel served in Captain Joseph Elliott's Company in Colonel
William Turner's Regiment and then under Captain Hezekiah
Whitney in Colonel Josiah Whitney's Regiment.

Amos Hastings
Amos responded to the Lexington Alarm as part of Captain
Richard Ayer's Company and Colonel William Johnson's Regiment.
He later served in Captain Timothy Eaton's Company in Colonel
Edward Wigglesworth's Regiment and was at the taking of the
British General Burgoyne at Ticonderoga.

Elisha Houghton
Enlisted at Harvard Ma as a Private in May of 1777in the
Massachusetts militia and was at the Battles of Bunker Hill
and Stillwater. He then enlisted for three years in the infantry
company commanded by Captain Joshua Brown in Colonel
Timothy Bigelow's 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts line.
and took part in the Battles of Monmouth and Newport and was
at Valley Forge. He twice was promoted to Sergeant and twice
was busted down to the ranks.

Amos Upton
Responded to the Lexington Alarm and marched there from his
home in Reading. He later joined the militia company commanded
by Captain Asa Prince as an orderly sergeant and then enlisted
for eight months in the Continental Army under Colonel Mansfield
He was at the Battle of Bunker Hill and was discharged in October
of 1775.

John Griffith
Enlisted in 1781 as a Matross (he swabbed out the barrel of the
cannons after they fired, or so I've been told) in Captain William
Treadwell's Company in Colonel John Crane's Artillery Regiment.

Reuben Packard
A Sergeant in Captain Josiah Hayden's Company in Colonel Bailey's
militia. They marched to Lexington at news of the Alarm. He also
responded several more times as a Minuteman for a total of nearly
8 months duty.

Jonathan Abbot
Served as a Sergeant in the Militia under Captain Henry Abbott
and responded to the Lexington Alarm

Besides those direct ancestors, these other relatives fought
in the Revolution:

Moses Barrows, brother to Asa Barrows.

Samuel, Jesse, and Benjamin Barker, sons of Jonathan Barker,
Jr. and brothers to Jonathan Barker 3rd.

James Swan, brother in law to Jonathan Barker 3rd.

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY MAINE PT3

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:51:00 +0000

When my 5x great grandfather Amos Upton appeared in court in August 1832
to make application for his veteran benefits, he was two months short of his
90th birthday.His contemporaries, the men he had served with and those with
whom he had helped build the town of Norway, Maine were all dead. Despite
whatever physical weaknesses old age might have given him, it doesn't seem
to have lessened his memory as his statement shows:

STATE OF MAINE
County of Oxford SS.
ON this 25th day of August A.D. 1832, personally appeared in open
Court, before the Court of Probate, now sitting, Amos
Upton a resident of Norway, in the county of Oxford
and State of Maine, aged 90 years, who being first duly sworn according to law,
doth, on his oath, make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the
act of Congress, passed June 7, 1832. That he entered the service of the United States
under the following named officers, and served as herein stated.

On the 19th day of April 1775, on the alarm given of the enemie's being at Lexington,
he marched from his then residence, in Reading in Massachusetts, as a volunteer
with others to Lexington, and soon after joined a company of Massachusetts Militia,
commanded by Captain Asa Prince, was appointed an orderly sargeant, and
enlisted into the service of the U.S. in said company in the regiment commanded by
Col.Mansfield, for the term of eight months, with orders to enlist others- and he
accordingly enlisted Stephen Curtis, late of said Norway, a pensioner now deceased-
& Job Bancroft likewise deceased- he marched to cambridege near Boston, where he
was stationed, he was at the battle of Bunker hill on the 17th day of June 1775, he
well recollects among many other officers at Cambridge, Gen Heath, Col.Ward, &
Gen. Putnam. He served till about the last of October following, at which time he
was under the necessity of returning to Reading, and with the consent of his officer,
he gave a young man whose name he does not now recollect, his gun and equipments
to take his place as a substitute, and was thereupon verbally discharged from the
service. He has no documentary evidence to prove his service, & and he knows of no
person whose testimony he can procure, who can testify to his service. He was born in
the North parish in said Reading on the 30th day of October in the year 1742 and has
a record of his age in his family bible, made by his father. He resided at said Reading
when he entered the service, and removed from thence to Norway aforesaid his
present residence forty one years ago. He is the oldest inhabitant of the town in
which he resides and is personally known by the principal inhabitants- and here
names the Rev. Henry A. Merrill and David Noyes, Esquire, likewise the selectmen
of said town of Norway all of whom can testify to his character for veracity and their
belief of his services as a soldier of the revolution.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the
present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any
State.
Sworn to, and subscribed, the day and year aforesaid.
Amos Upton
Before Stephen Emory, Judge

So Amos didn't have anyone nearby who could testify for the veracity of his statement
of service and looking through the rest of the file there is no collaborating documents,
either. Would he be awarded his pension?

To be continued.

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY MAINE PT2

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:13:00 +0000

More stories about my 5x great grandfather Amos Upton from the book
The History of Norway [Me.]: Comprising a Minute Account of Its First Settlement,
Town Officers, Interspersed with Historical Sketches, Narrative and Anecdote
(Google eBook) by David Noyes.

I think this is my favorite story about Amos: his cure for being struck unconscious
by lightning:

"Previous to 1800, Amos Upton had built a large one-story house, and in January
of that year Ward Noyes moved from Andover, Mass., into Mr. Upton's house,
and lived there until the next fall. In July there was a terrific tempest of lightning,
thunder, rain and wind. The house was struck by lightning at the easterly end of
the ridge-pole; the electric fluid ran down the rafter and other timbers, and went
almost over the whole house. Seven persons were knocked down by the shock,
and Ward Noyes was insensible for a long time; probably he never would have
recovered had it not been for the application of cold water, which by Mr. Upton's
direction was poured upon him by pail full—he having, a short time previous,
seen in a newspaper an account of its efficacy. Large spaces of thick forest were
prostrated by this wind, and considerable damage done otherwise."-p41

Our pioneer ancestors often worked at various professions to earn a living. Besides
being a blacksmith and carpenter, Amos was a miller. His carpentry skills came in
handy here as well:

"In 1801, Amos Upton built a grist-mill on a brook .about three-fourths of a mile
westerly of Fuller's Corner. It was rather a rudely constructed thing, as he did almost
all the work himself, even to the making of the mill-stones. His oldest son, Francis
Upton, afterwards owned said mill, and tended it for many years. In the drought of
summer there was not sufficient water to grind; but at other times it did considerable
business, and was a great convenience to the settlers in the northwest part of the town.
Amos Upton, Jr., another son of Amos Upton, succeeded his brother Francis; he built
a new mill on the same stream, a little above the old one; and did considerable business
in grinding. Jonathan Swift, some twenty-five years age, succeeded Amos Upton, Jr.,
and afterwards built a new mill, which is still in operation."-p44

Finally, in 1802 the citizens of Norway organized a Congregational Church and Amos was
involved in that as well:

"It appears that the church records were to be kept in the house of Amos Upton, who had
previous to this time built himself a large house for that day, and for many years it was used
as a place for religious meetings. He was a zealous professor, and spent much time in fitting
his house with seats to accommodate those who attended meeting on the Sabbath. On Saturday
afternoon he would bring in blocks and planks, or boards, and arrange seats in his long kitchen,
in preparation for meeting the next day. Mr. Joseph Martin was a good singer, and understood
the rules of church psalmody well for that early day. Occasionally a missionary would come
along, and stop and preach a few Sabbaths with the church and people; and sometimes a
minister was hired to preach a Sabbath or two, or a month, and once or twice for three months...

...Thus it appears that we were not entirely destitute of the preached word; and when there was
no minister, the people assembled in Mr. Upton's house, and held what used to be called a
Deacon's meeting; there would be a sermon read, (the writer has read many in our Sabbath
meetings,) and prayers offered up by some of the more gifted members of the church, and
singing, good enough. There were many good singers of the old school method of singing, and
uncle Jo Martin (as we used to call him) would give us the pitch of the tune with his pitch-pipe,
and we could make first-rate church melody of such tunes as Old Hundred, St. Martins, Wells,
&c."- pp75-76

By 1802 Amos was 60 years old, an age far past the average lifespan in that era, but only
two-thirds of the way through his life. Thirty years later, at age 90, he would apply for his
Revolutionary War Veteran Pension.

I'll discuss that next.

AMOS UPTON OF NORWAY, MAINE PT1

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 23:09:00 +0000

My 5x great grandfather Amos Upton died on this date at Norway, Maine in 1838
and I wanted to do a blogpost about him. I already have his Revolutionary War
Pension file (which has the best handwriting I've seen so far on a document)
but I also did a Google search to see what else I could find online about him.

There's something about my ancestors named Amos on the Barker side of
my Dad's family. I've done posts about Amos Hastings, Amos Hastings Barker,
and now I've found some interesting stories about Amos Upton. I found them
in the book David Noyes wrote and self-published in 1852, The History of
Norway [Me.]: Comprising a Minute Account of Its First Settlement,
Town Officers, Interspersed with Historical Sketches, Narrative and
Anecdote (Google eBook).

It starts with Amos' arrival in the Norway area from North Reading Massachusetts
where he was born:

"This year Amos Upton came down from Reading, Mass., and felled trees on the
lot south of Fuller's Corner, and moved his family in Sept., 1790." p16

Within a few years Amos was well established there and helping newcomers
as these next two excerpts about the year 1793 show:

"Fuller agreed with Amos Upton, (who was a kind of carpenter, and also partly a
blacksmith) to erect a house and barn for him, early in the spring and summer of
1794, with the intention of moving his family to his new home." p23

Apparently there was some delay in the house construction:

"I said that Mr. Fuller moved his- family to his house; but Mr. Upton had not yet
erected the house as Fuller expected; therefore he went into- Mr. Upton's house,
and there remained till late in the fall. After Fuller's arrival, Mr. Upton commenced
in good earnest about the buildings. They went into the woods and cut timber, and
erected a barn in season to put in his grain, and a house as fast as they could. Fuller
procured boards at Rust's mill, and rafted them up to the head of the pond, and then
hauled them up to where they were to be used. The barn was thirty-two feet by fifty,
and the house twenty feet by thirty-eight, and a story and a half high—the largest
establishment in the Cummings Gore; they got the house so as to move into it, in
November." p24

In the early days of the settlement, Amos had another important distinction: he owned
the only horse in the community. This story included his son Francis, who is my 4x
great grandfather :

"Previous to this time there was but one horse in the Cummings Gore, and that an old
white-faced mare, owned by Amos Upton; and she was used by all the neighbors to
go to mill. They used to lash the bags on to the saddle, a huge, coarse thing made for
that purpose, and let the old mare plod her way along the little pathway. Aaron Wilkins
says (and he knew all about it) she would crook around the trees and rocks very carefully,
so as to avoid hitting the bags against them. Before they had any other practicable
conveyance to Portland, Francis Upton, the oldest son of Amos Upton, went to Portland
with the old mare, and carried a small hog to market, having it laid across the pack saddle,
and strongly lashed on with cords; he went on foot himself, leading or driving the old mare,
and only reached Dudley Pike's the. first day, and put up there that night". p31

LOUISA

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 06:58:00 +0000

My paternal 2x great grandmother Louisa Amata Richardson was born on 23Jan1837 to Phillip and Esther(Laughton) Richardson at Wilton, Me. She was one of 16 children, nine of them from Phillip's marriage to his deceased first wife Eunice Richards. He must have moved from Wilton to Letter B Plantation(later Upton)Maine sometime before 1850 when he is listed on the 1850 Census there as a farmer. It was a small town, and one of the other families there was that of my 3x great grandparents John C and Arvilla (Ames) West and their son Jonathan P. West.

I've written before about how Jonathan's first wife Orpha V. Reynolds died a few months after their marriage during a diphtheria outbreak in 1862 which also took his brother, two sisters, a nephew and three nieces. all children. I don't know when or how he met Louisa, but I do know they were married on 31Jan 1865. It may have been a difficult situation for Louisa, succeeding a wife who had died so young and suddenly. The marriage seems though to have been a good one and a prosperous one as well. According to material sent me by Norman Mitchell, Jonathan owned two lots of land, and a tract of 37 acres, while Louisa herself owned land. Jonathan was pretty well off for a farmer, although probably not as wealthy as his brothers Asa and Hiram.

Louisa and Jonathan had three sons, John, Paul, and Philip(my great grandfather).
John became a civil engineer, and Paul and Philip worked in various jobs in the
lumber trade. They also gave Louisa and Jonathan twelve grandchildren.
They had been married 52 years when Jonathan died in 1917. Louisa followed
him in 1925.

John & Philip West

Louisa & her son Paul West

Louisa & Jonathan with family & friends.

I believe a marriage that lasted that long has to have been a happy one.

.

SHARING STORIES

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:12:00 +0000

I wasn't able to physically attend Roots Tech last week, but like many others I
was able to see some of it thanks to the livestream webcasts. (And thank you
to the corporate sponsors and the Roots Tech organizers for making it possible!)
These included the excellent keynote speakers each morning. On the first day,
the three speakers really touched me. They were Dennis Newhall, Syd Liberman,
and D.Joshua Tyalor. I'm sort of paraphrasing and summarizing here: Genealogy is
more than just names and dates, it's the stories behind them; that we should
find those stories and once we do, we should share them. That really resonated
with me.

I was lucky when I first started getting serious about climbing my family tree because
I already had some stories. I had my Aunt Dorothy West Bargar's research and her
handwritten account of growing up in Maine during the Depression. I also had
my distant Ellingwood cousin Florence O' Connor's book The Ancestors and
Descendants of Asa Freeman Ellingwood and Florilla (Dunham)Ellingwood which
has all sorts of information and stories on our branch of the Ellingwoods. And
finally there was another book The History of Wilsons Mills and the Magalloway
Settlements which has some pictures of my West relatives and my Granduncle
Clarence's memories of his career as the manager of the Azicoos Dam.

So I already knew that I had Salem Witch ancestors and that 2x great grandfather
Asa Ellingwood was a Civil War veteran and I had some Mayflower ancestors as
well. As time went on I made more and more use of the internet and made
contact with Barker family cousin Howard Kaepplein who shared his knowledge
of the Barkers' history with me and West cousin Lewis Wuori who sent me a
treasure trove of West and Richardson family pictures. By now I had discovered
genealogy blogs and had started my own here so I could share with others the
stories and pictures I'd found or that had been given to me. I found out that there
were other bloggers out there who were related to me and again stories and
information were shared. Meanwhile, I posted my research(warts and all) as a
public tree on Ancestry.com. Doing that, and writing this blog, put me in contact
with distant cousins I might not have ever found. More stories and information
were shared.

You know that Ancestry.com tagline that annoyed some of us when they first
started using it, about not needing to know what you are looking for when you
first visit that site? It's true in a way, You do need to know who you are looking
for at the start, along with some essential information like where and when,
but the what is information you find on the censuses and military records and
other documents you discover there and elsewhere. Armed with that and with
effort, patience,and luck you can find the stories behind the information.

Once you find those stories, don't keep them to yourself like some treasure.
Share them, because if you do, you may encounter a few people who will just
take them, but you'll also find others who will share back and become your
friends. That is how the geneablogging community began.

So, to all those who have shared with me, thank you!

ADAM HAWKES AND THE SAUGUS IRON WORKS PT3

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 06:35:00 +0000

Despite the testimony given about the damage done farmland and the bridge
by the overflow from the dam, the jury found in favor of the Iron Works. There
are two reasons why the jurors might have made this decision. The first and
less sinister reason could have been that they felt the company had been fair
with my ancestor Adam Hawkes in their previous settlements and that Adam
was too eager to go to court every time the dam overflowed. The other, less
honorable reason was that the Iron Works was a power and had made Lynn
an important town in the still young Massachusetts colony, even if it had not
been very profitable as yet.

By now, Adam Hawkes was in his sixties and the struggle with the Iron Works
passed on into the hands of the next generation, to my 9x great grandfather
John Hawkes. John was more inclined to taking direct action rather than
going through the judicial system. Ironically, he ended up there anyway in 1663.
I ran into a bit of a roadblock here, because the volume of Essex County Court
Records his case appears in was only available as a snippet view on Google Books:

"John Hawkes, sr., and Moses Hawkes; trespass, for that John Hawkes, sr., was
the only plotter, contriver and secret manager of the cutting or breaking of the
great dam at Hamersmith or the Iron works in Lin"-Records and Files of the
Quarterly Courts of EssexCounty, Massachusetts , Volume 9 p12

Luckily I was able to find more details in a genealogy of a related family:

"Evidently there no attempt was made to draw off the water, and in the face of
tardy justice the Hawkes family probably had taken down a part of the dam, since,
in 1663, suit was brought against John Hawkes, Sr., and his brother Moses, by
Samuel Appleton and his son Samuel, in an action of appeal from the County Court
at Salem to the Court of Assistants in Boston. Judgment was given in favor of the
plaintiffs for .£30 damages, and "the defendants shall make vp the great dam as Good
as before in twelue months time next ensuing or pay £250 "and costs. John Hawkes
appealed ; and on March 4, 1663, "the Jury brought in their verdict they found for
the plaintiff [Hawkes] Reuersion of the former Judgment & costs of Court nine pounds."

-Lora Altine Woodbury Underhill Descendants of Edward Small of New England, and the
Allied Families, with Tracings of English Ancestry , Volume 2 (Google eBook)Priv. print.
at the Riverside Press, 1910 p570

This was a reversal of more than just a court case. The Iron Works had not proven
profitable and in fact the company wasn't paying its debts. Some of the company officers
were even jailed or fugitives. Apparently things really reached a head in 1671:

"The Iron Works for several years were carried on with vigor, and furnished most of the
iron used in the colony. But the want of ready money on the part of the purchasers, and
the great freedom with which the company construed the liberal privileges of the court, caused their failure. The owners of the lands which had been injured, commenced several suits against them, and at last hired a person to cut away the flood gates and destroy the works. This was done in the night, when the pond was full. The dam was high, and just below it, on the left, stood the house of Mac Callum More Downing. The water rushed out, and flowed into the house, without disturbing the inhabitants, who were asleep in a chamber. In the morning, Mrs. Downing found a fine live fish flouncing in her oven. The works were much injured, and the depredator fled to Penobscot.

The suits against the Iron Works were protracted for more than twenty years. Mr. Hubbard says 'that instead of drawing out bars of iron for the country's use, there was hammered out nothing but contention and law suits.' The works were continued, though on a smaller scale, for more than one hundred years from their establishment. But they have long been discontinued, and nothing now is to be seen of them, except the heaps of scoria, nearly overgrown with grass, and called the 'Cinder Banks.' Alonzo Lewis The History of Lynn: Including Nahant (Google eBook) Samuel N. Dickinson, Boston 1844 p154

It doesn't say who the perpetrators of that second breach of the dam were, but given the
past history of my Hawkes ancestors and the Saugus Iron Works, it wouldn't surprise me
in the least if there were a Hawkes or two involved that night!

ADAM HAWKES AND THE SAUGUS IRON WORKS PT2

noreply@blogger.com (Bill West) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:35:00 +0000

For seventeen years, starting in 1643, my ancestor Adam Hawkes had a less
than cordial relationship with the operators of the Saugus Iron Works over
damage done by a dam built and operated by the miners. In 1660 Adam had
finally reached his breaking point and he brought suit against company at
the Essex County Court:

"Mr. Adam Haukes v. Mr. William Paine and company of undertakers of the Iron
works of Lynn and Mr. Oliver Purchass, their agent. Trespass. For damming their
waters so high, which was the cause of floating his lands, well and bridge, to
his great damage for several years. ..."

In the testimony from various witnesses, evidence was given about the previous
agreements between Adam and the miners, as well as to the harmful effects the
overflowing dam had on the Hawkes farm.

"Writ, dated, 4mo: 1660, signed by William Longley for the court, and served by
Theophylus Bayley, constable of Lynn, by attachment of meadow on the west
side of the river to the Long Poynt, to the value of one hundred pounds.

Oliver Purchis" bill of costs. To Major Wm. Hathorne, Joseph Jencks, sr., Henry
Leonard, Jno. Vinton, Nicholas Pinnion, Macam Downing, Charls Phillips,
Thomas Browne, Daniell Salmon and George Darline, witness fees.

Thomas Wellman and John Knight, appointed to appraise the damage, reported
that it amounted to 10li . a year, for the meadow, plow land and in floating a bridge;
in the corn field, the corn had suffered much from the water; the wells were
sometimes floated with the waters of the Iron works, so that when the pond was
up with the waters standing in the wells, the well water was not fit for use on
account of the dirt that fouled it; the damage in the orchard, in the English grass
and in the tobacco lands was also great, etc. Sworn in court.

Charles Phillopes testified that he had kept the water at the Iron works since Mr.
Purchas came, and that the latter told him to keep it low in order that it might not
damage Mr. Haukes. This deponent did, and gained the ill-will of the workmen
thereby. Sworn in court.

Agreement, dated, Oct. 31,1652, between John Giffard. agent for the company of
the Iron works, and Adam Hawks: Whereas there was an agreement made, 20: 4:
1651, by Capt. Robert Caine and Capt. William Hawthorne, arbitrators for said Giffard
and Hawks, in consideration of oertain damages that said Hawks had received, from
the first erecting of the said works by raising a dam for the works, whereby he had
lost the use of three acres in one place and since then, six acres, besides the
overflowing of certain feeding ands, for all of which said Hawks was allowed eight
pounds; now in consideration of that causeway which should be made him good
by the company with sixteen loads of hay to be allowed him yearly, besides two
hundred cords of wood granted said Hawks to cut and carry away; also in consideration
of ten acres of ground now sold by Hawks to the Iron company, lying near the works
among those ten acre lots which lay near Thomas Errington's house, and in full
satisfaction for any future damage that may occur, the said Giffard conveyed to
said Hawks, that fresh marsh called Farmer Dextor's marsh, which adjoined the
house of Adam Hawks, which was in full satisfaction of the arbitration. It was further
agreed that for the future the water should be so kept that it would not ascend the
top of the upper flood gates in the pond or higher than a foot and a half from the
top of the great rock that lay in the middle of the pond before the gates. Wit:
John Jarviss* and Daniel Salmon.*

Joseph Jencks, sr., deposed that he spoke with Adam Hawks about the damage and
the latter told him that he had satisfaction from the old company, etc. Sworn in
court.

Daniell Salmon, aged about fifty years, deposed that, being servant to the Iron
works under Mr. Geffards, he laid out the marsh given to Mr. Hauckes for damage,
and Hauckes was with him at the time, etc. Sworn in court.

Henorey Lenard, aged about forty years, Nicklis Pinnion and John Vinton deposed
that ever since Mr. Porchas came to the works, the water had been kept low by his
order, so low that it caused a great deal of difference between the workmen and
the water drawer; that the waste had been dug wider and deeper since he came, etc.
Sworn in court.

Francis Hutchinson deposed that the flowage of water over Mr. Adam Hauckes' land
made the ground unfit for use; that the bridge in front of the house, which was the
usual passage to and from the house for both man and beast, a herd of cattle passing
over twice each day, had been broken by the water and the timbers raised up ; that
the cattle were in danger of falling in and breaking their legs; that sometimes it had
been repaired, and then the water would break it so that horses going over had fallen
in, etc. Sworn in court. "

-Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts,
Volume 2 1656-1662 (Google eBook) Essex Institute, Salem Ma. 1912

Given the amount of damage to Adam Hawkes' land and to a bridge used by the

general public, it would seem certain the jury would rule in Adam's favor.

I'll discuss the outcome of the trial and what happened afterward next.

To be continued...