In Honor of Nurse's Day

 

Wordless Wednesday: 1948

 

Research & Lineage Societies

 Quite often when talking with somebody that doesn’t do genealogy, I get asked how far back I’ve researched my family. Now, most of us that have done genealogy for very long, realize how difficult a question this is to answer. Many of us are more interested in doing thorough research that is well documented. We want to know more than just the names and dates of people. Fleshing out people’s stories and learning about their lives takes time and is more interesting than how many generations we can add on behind them.

There’s also the question of which line when we say how far back we have gone. Some are easy to find and document. Those we’ve probably traced back a long way rather quickly. One day I was bored and noticed a line on my particular tree that ended in the mid-1800s. In an afternoon, I was able to trace this woman’s ancestry back from northern New York to the immigrant landing on the shores of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I had gathered just the basic facts using mostly published sources that I could find on Ancestry.com, but I had the line back several generations. It also solved my curiosity that had arose as I started tracing: this line did not lead to a Mayflower ancestor.

Some people think if you mention a Mayflower ancestor you feel superior to others. Indeed, there are undoubtedly some that do. I don’t, I just find it interesting to find people that were involved in a certain well-known event. I do have at least six ancestors that arrived on the Mayflower but have not joined the Mayflower Society. Part of telling people this is that although others may not have researched their ancestors, they remember studying about the events in school.

I actually have many early settlers in my lines, both good and bad. For example, do you know that there was only one Englishman ever executed for high treason in New England history? Joshua Tifft (1646-1676) during King Phillip’s War. I do not descend from him. However, his father, John, who died trying to rescue him, and his brother Samuel are my direct ancestors. I’ll claim them all, the good and the bad. Often it is the bad who make the more interesting stories to tell!

Another common event that people ask about is the Revolutionary War. The popularity of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) has made people well aware of the connection between this war and genealogy. Lesser known is the male society, the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution). Both have requirements of being a direct descendant of a participant in this war. On the correct side, of course. If your only direct descendant was a Loyalist, you do not qualify for these! However, there are other societies that you would qualify for.

That is the thing with lineage societies. There are so many that someone that researches multiple lines in their family could spend a fortune trying to join and maintain their membership in each society!

Another one that I find interesting is the Flagon and Trencher Society. To belong you must be a direct descendant of a tavern keeper during the Colonial period of what is now the United States. I can probably qualify a couple different ways as I have two known tavern keepers prior to the Revolutionary War, although one may not count as she was a tavern keeper in the Dutch New Netherlands.

It is all an interesting mixture of people when you start researching the various lines.

When asked about my immigrant ancestors, I mention those on the Mayflower. Also, others that helped found some of the early settlements of Milford and Derby in Connecticut. Some people who have more recent ancestors may feel a little put-out about that. I laugh and say, but don’t forget my Grandmother who arrived here at age 19 in 1912! Incidentally, she married my Grandfather, who is a descendant of those early arrivals.

Yes, most of us if we research far enough, will find that we are quite a mixture of people. Early immigrants and recent immigrants. The famous and the unknown. Good upstanding citizens and criminals. All different nationalities are likely to be involved as well.

Wordless Wednesday: July 1945

 

Wordless Wednesday: Saint James Church, Skaneateles

 

Catamount Tavern

 

The Catamount

 “Ethan needs us at Ti! Ethan needs us at Ti!” 

The shouts rang out throughout the countryside. But what did this mean and where was it?

Ethan Allen needed troops to take Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York State. The time was May 1775 along the border of New York State in what would become Vermont. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys would mount a dawn attack taking back the fort from a British garrison. This would be the first battle won by the Americans in the Revolutionary War.

Why were riders sent out across the countryside with such a cry? The Green Mountain Boys were not a regular army. They were more like Bo and Luke Duke from the 1970’s tv show The Dukes of Hazzard. They were good old boys— a group of men coming together for a cause they believed in. Originally formed in 1770, their initial goal was to defend the rights of property owners. They were mostly farmers with tradesmen thrown in as well. They came from the farms in the hills and mountains of Vermont as well as some areas in the easternmost part of New York. All of them rallied under the leadership of Ethan Allen.

Only about a hundred men were rounded up for that early dawn siege. However, it was enough and the British fell. Not only a strategic spot at the south end of Lake Champlain but cannons from Fort Ticonderoga were also used the following spring in the successful siege of Boston. It was a morale booster and provided key artillery for the Continental Army.

How was this all planned and where was it all planned? Men met in a small tavern on the hill on the edge of Bennington Vermont. It was the headquarters for Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. The tavern was the Catamount tavern owned by Stephen Fay and originally called simply Fay’s Tavern. However, when New York was trying to take over the land of present-day Vermont, a stuffed catamount was placed in front of the tavern and it became better known by that name. What is a catamount? It is a mountain lion, a wildcat, or a bobcat, or probably at least a dozen different names in different regions of North America.

Bennington, Vermont is better known today as the site of the battle of Bennington, which actually took place across the border in New York You will find on the street that leads to the famed Bennington Monument a granite and copper statue of a catamount. Looking away from the street, you will find a stately house built likely during the Victorian period. The tavern was built on this site in 1769 and stood until a fire destroyed it in 1871. General John Stark planned the Battle of Bennington in this tavern. As well, in 1775, the Vermont Council of Safety— Vermont's only independent form of government— met here.

The Catamount Tavern was an important part of the Revolutionary War in this part of our new country. For me, the tavern has some different connections that make it important.

The first connection is that of the tavern keeper, Stephen Fay. He was the grandson of John Fay and his first wife, Mary Brigham. John would later marry Susanna Shattuck and one of their four children was David. David who was the father of Deacon John Fay. Deacon John surely must have at least known of his cousin in Bennington. He lived in Southborough, Massachusetts in the eastern part of the state. Did these cousins ever meet? I wonder because Deacon John was my 5th great-grandfather.

And that battle that John Stark planned. The battle, that before it he famously stated: 

"There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" 

Spoiler alert: Molly Stark slept just fine, she was not a widow that night. The Battle of Bennington took place a few miles west of the tavern in an area known as White Creek in present-day Washington County, New York. There is a park there today, and the land touches on the land once owned by Seth Chase. His tavern is less than a mile off the battlefield, and they must have seen at least some of the battle that day. Seth Chase is yet another of my 5th great-grandfathers.

Seth Chase's Tavern today

So much history is tied up in that one tavern that existed during the Revolutionary War, both the countries and my own personal history.

Titus House

The Titus House

Where did people stay when they traveled in the early United States? People were traveling by land in stagecoaches and wagons as well as on foot and horseback. Some people were migrating and others were moving about on business. Many could not reach their destination in a day. Some would camp out along the route, but this was very uncomfortable, especially in wet or cold weather. Thus, inns sprung up along the trails and routes that crisscrossed through the wilderness to settlements, towns and cities. Many were spaced the distance apart of a days travel. Others were placed near where travelers would stop such as the edges of cities, near ferries or even just before a toll bridge.

One such inn was known as the Titus House. It was on the Genesee Trail going across New York State. Originally situated fairly near the ferry on that road, it was an ideal place to wait. The ferry took travelers across Cayuga Lake at the north-end, just short of the swampy area that leads into the Montezuma Marshes. Later the long bridge was built near this ferry as a replacement. It was at one time the longest bridge in New York State. How near to the bridge was the Inn? A traveler looking out the front windows of the could gaze out over Cayuga Lake and slightly to the north, the bridge. It would take less than one minute to reach the east-end of the bridge from the front door of the Inn.

It had various owners over the years, however the most well known was David Sands Titus. Born in Dutchess County of the Quaker family of Gilbert and Jane (Hoag) Titus, he migrated westward in 1829. His somewhat unusual name comes from a son of a Presbyterian minister. The original David Sands joined the Quakers at Nine Partners meeting in Dutchess County and was instrumental in the founding of Cornwall monthly meeting in Westchester County. Many Quaker boys were given the compound name of “David Sands” in his honor. It was not unusual for a Quaker to settle in Cayuga County. A meeting, their name for a church, was just south of Cayuga in the village of Union Springs. In fact, they later moved the Oakwood Seminary (a Quaker boarding school) from Dutchess County to Union Springs.

David Sands was a farmer originally, but had also been a butcher while living in Beekman in Dutchess County. Here he opened the inn, but was often absent from there.He also had another job collecting tolls on the Erie Canal at nearby Montezuma. While gone from the tavern, his wife, the former, Julia Coapman, and son, Hiram would run it. He also held office in a training regiment for the district for about three years.

A story that has been told about the determination of Julia is the following: David Sands was going to Albany on business and wife, Julia, wanted to go with him. Now, David Sands Titus was a strong-willed man and didn’t hesitate to tell her “no.” He left without her, went to Weedsport and caught a Canal boat to Albany. Checking into the hotel at Albany, he opened his hotel room door to find sitting there, waiting for him, none other than Julia who had arrived earlier by train!

Hiram who helped in his father’s tavern, became a farmer as an adult. He owned a great deal of acreage in the town of Aurelius. He raised prize-winning cattle and horses, His home, a house on the Genesee Road with massive columns across the front, still stands today,

An older brother, Daniel Titus, was postmaster in Aurelius, from 1835-1841. Primarily a farmer, he owned land in Aurelius. He was killed in a rather grizzly railroad accident when tried to race his horse and buggy across the tracks late at night as a train approached. The train was much closer than he apparently realized. The Cayuga Chief newspaper printed the story of his demise in detail and blamed alcohol for it. They later retracted some of the blame which leads me to believe that a weary Daniel was trying to reach home and urged his horse on thinking he had more time than he did. Daniel was 53 when he died, leaving his wife Maria (Lockwood) Titus to care for their 9 children ranging in age from Samuel, 24, down to Marion, three. Samuel was my great-great grandfather.

Hiram Titus' Home

Ancestors Behaving Badly: Maria Du Trieux Viele Peek

 

Not Her Tavern, But Typical of the Architecture

 Randy Seaver with his GeneaMusing’s column has posted before about relatives behaving badly. I have another one that has popped up on my family tree.

I can picture my great-grandparents talking about their ancestors. In reality, they probably didn’t know anything about the ones as far back as I’m thinking of. However, it is fun to imagine the following conversation:

Grandpa John: my 7th great-grandmother was quite a character. She ran a tavern in New Amsterdam and after her first husband died, she married who would become my great-grandfather and continued to run it.

Grandma Maria: That’s funny, my 6th great-grandmother was a tavern keeper in New
Amsterdam as well. I wonder how many there were?

Grandpa: Well, mine was quite a character. Not only did she run it herself, but she got charged with serving alcohol not only on the Sabbath but during prayers! Then in 1663, she got banished for selling alcohol to the Indians!

Grandma: Gasp! Mine did too! She went to Fort Orange after that and lived with her son. I wonder if they knew each other….

Hmm, we wonder at the coincidences, don’t we? Would these women have known each other? Grandpa would have said his grandmother was Maria Peek. Grandma would have said her’s was Maria Viele. The truth of the matter was that each would have been often referred to by her maiden name of Du Trieux. The same maiden name? The same first name? Something is happening here.

Yes, it is true, my paternal great-grandparents are actually distantly related through that great-grandmother, Maria Du Trieux Viele Peek. Every once in a while when searching back in the tree, I find some odd relationships popping up in the database. This one came to my attention when I noticed that while Cornelius Viele was my 10th great-grandfather; his wife, Maria Du Triuex was my 9th great-grandmother. They should, of course, be the same number as they would be the same generation. Further investigation found two sons from which descent occurs. Following the lines down, I found where John and Maria (Titus) Ward, my paternal great-grandparents were both descendants of this woman through her two husbands.

Was this woman actually behaving badly? As what seems usual for my relatives, it depends on how you look at it. As with many people’s ancestors, the “bad” depends on the context of the period and its culture. Short of something like murder, or armed robbery, I think we can all see where the “behaving badly” is a subjective decision.

In New Amsterdam during the mid-1600s, church attendance was definitely the norm for people. Ones who did not attend services were looked at askance. These weren’t the services that we experience today. Church services were for most of the daylight hours on Sunday. There was no time for recreation on a Sunday, it was a religious day to be spent in solemn activities: church, Bible reading, prayer. As little work as was necessary to feed man and beast was allowed. However, absolutely no frivolous activities were allowed.

Maria, no matter how religious she might have been, had a business to run. We don’t know if she was deeply religious, or if she agreed with the laws and customs in general. What we do know is that for whatever reason, she made the decision that she had to open her doors on the Sabbath and serve those thirsty men who wanted alcohol instead of being in church.

The fact that she opened up at least occasionally on the Sabbath was bad enough, but at some point she perhaps knowingly, perhaps quite innocently, sold alcohol to at least one person who was an Indian. This was too much for the local lawmakers and she found herself banished from New Amsterdam (present-day New York City). Luckily for her, an adult son lived at Fort Orange (present-day Albany). She fled up the Hudson River to him while her husband, apparently stayed in New Amsterdam. Although some records show that he disappeared in 1663, the same year she was banished.

I have seen references to the existence of legal records on this ancestor of mine and how she behaved badly. However, I haven’t had a chance to look into them yet to get all the real details, but have relied on published records only at this point. Hopefully, I will soon get a chance to investigate where these records are and find more details on her scandalous history.

Wordless Wednesday: The North Pole

 

Wordless Wednesday: Wooster Children

 

Wordless Wednesday: Snowstorm March 1940

 

Wordless Wednesday: Marion & Alice WWI and Shortly After

 

Wordless Wednesday: More Unknown People

 

Wordless Wednesday: Grandma Ingalls-- Mary Fay Ingalls?