Wordless Wednesday: Up On Sugar Creek

Wordless Wednesday: Rutty Cemetery, Canton, Pennsylvania

Wordless Wednesday: Pail Factory Cemetery, Towanda Pennsylvania

Saturday Challenge: Revolutionary War

Here's a Saturday Challenge from Randy Seaver's GeneaMusings that I didn't get to until now from earlier this year:

1)    Find an ancestral line that atretches back to the time of the US Revolutionary War (1775-1783), about 240 years. Define your person-to-person connection (the person actually met the next person on the list) back to a historical figure from that time (doesn't have to be famous).

2) Tell us about it on your blog, in a note or comment on Facebook, or in a comment on this post.

Marion J Wooster

1-I, born 1965, knew my grandfather. Marion J Wooster (1896-1976).

2-Grandpa knew his grandmother, Elizabeth (Tifft) Wooster (1826-1906),

3-she the daughter of Reuben Tifft (c.1791-1855-1859 time period)

4-who knew his father—Robert Tifft (1761-1799).

Robert served in Capt. Thomas Arnold’s Company, Col. Christopher Lippitt’s RI Regiment. Re-enlisted as private, March 16, 1779, Col. John Tophan’s regiment. Re-enlisted April 30, 1782, and January 30, 1783, in Col. Olney’s Regiment.

I’m not sure of any specific historical figure, but he grew up and lived most of his life in Exeter, Rhode Island which, being not far from Providence probably saw its share of troops with famous leaders either in or near the area.

In later years, he went to Stephentown, New York.  Stephentown today is a small rural area between Albany and the Massachusetts border. There isn’t much there except fields and woods. However, there is something about the area that I haven’t figured out yet. I have said a few times before to people that have told of ancestors settling briefly in eastern New York in Rensselaer County, “Let me guess, Stephentown.” Only once was I wrong. Perhaps, it was a popular pass through the Berkshires that landed people there. I don’t know, but I have found far more people with events happening there than a sleepy little town should warrant. Robert surely met some historical figure that passed through on his brief time in Stephentown.

Saturday Challenge- Badly Behaving Relatives

Randy Seaver’sGeneaMusings Saturday Night Fun Challenge:

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):

1)  Who is one of your relatives (ancestor or not) who behaved poorly during his or her life?   It can be any time period.

This took a little contemplation as I could think of a few candidates depending on how you define behaving poorly. However, I decided probably the most notorious ancestor and the one I wonder what he was actually guilty of, would be my ninth great-uncle, Joshua Tefft (1646-1676).

Who else can claim a person hung for High Treason in New England during the Colonial era? Knowing nothing else, but the fact that you raised your hand, I know we are related. That’s because Joshua is the ONLY person.

How and why did this happen? We will never really know.

Coggeshall Farm as Joshua's farm might have looked

What we do know is that Joshua fell in love and married a woman named Sarah. Who was Sarah’s father? He likely was Major John Greene, a prominent citizen of Rhode Island. That was the rumor, but the only truth of her parentage known is that she was Indian. Wampanoag Indian. The Tefft family had lived on the frontier of Rhode Island for 14 years in peace with their neighbors, so it is not all that surprising that Joshua knew and fell in love with an Indian woman.

Sarah gave birth to a son, Peter, in March of 1671/2 and died two days later.

Joshua was a man with a baby and no wife caught between two cultures. It was during this time period that he got in trouble. He did not attend the Baptist church services near his home. He was associating with Indians. It was said that he fought with the Indians (this was during King Phillip’s War) against the colonists. Any of these things would put others at odds with him. Combined, they meant trouble, deep trouble.

During the Great Swamp Fight he was with the Indians, having stayed behind to defend his land and livestock while others fled. He apparently fought along side them. He claims he was a slave of the Indians and was not even armed. Others testified that he was a marksman that willingly shot and killed several people. Which side was right? In the end it didn’t matter. The colonists were believed over Joshua.

A 1647 Rhode Island statute reads: "For High Treason (if a man) he being accused by two lawfull witnesses or accusers, shall be drawn upon a Hurdell unto the place of Execution, and there shall be hanged by the neck, cutt down alive, his entrails and privie members cutt from him and burned in his view; then shall his head be cutt off and his body quartered; his lands and goods all forfeited."

And so Joshua made history, gory history in Rhode Island. But what was he guilty of? We will never know for sure. Treason? Love? Not attending church? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Stubbornness in not fleeing with the rest? All of the above?