Carl Johan Nelson (1839-1911) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 45) Theme: "Bearded"

When I sit to spend time on my family history, my Dad's two sets of grandparents watch over my shoulder, as if trying to ensure that I tell their stories fairly. They gaze at me rather sternly, seemingly rebuking me for some failure on my part. How I would love to have a nice chat with them to get more detailed stories in their own words so that I could truly do them justice!

My Dad, Ken Bardahl, really appreciated family history. When he found these two pictures at the Bardahl homestead farm, abandoned  and unframed, he scoured the antique and collectibles shops until he found the two domed-glass frames. After Dad passed away, my siblings graciously agreed that I should take possession of these treasures, and that's how they come to watch over my shoulder, admonishing me to get their stories right.

 

Although both of Dad's grandfathers are bearded in their photographs (as was the fashion in the late 1800s), this time it's Carl Nelson's turn to be featured. Dad never met this maternal grandfather who appears in the top picture on the left. In fact, he only ever met one grandparent, namely Anna Elton Bardahl, and that just during one visit when Dad was 4. The stories about his other grandparents can be found here: 

• Karen Nilsdatter (upper picture, right)
• Anna Elton (lower picture, left)
• Hans Bardahl (lower picture, right)

Carl Johan Nelson c.1890
(No picture has been located for Carl without his beard)

Carl was born 26 August 1839 in Norderhov, Ringerike, Buskerud, Norway to Nils Olsen and Guri Larsdatter. His parents never married, and his baptism was unusually delayed, for almost a year, until 8 June 1840.

Baptism and birth record for Carl Nelson from the Norwegian kirkebok for Norderhov, Buskerud

As was traditional, he was confirmed into the state Lutheran church when in his mid-teens. On 25 June 1854, his confirmation appears in the Kirkebok for Norderhov.

1854 Confirmation record for Carl Nelson from the Norwegian Kirkebok for Norderhov, Buskerud

The next time we find Carl in an official record is in the 31 December 1865 folketelling (census) for Norway. He is unmarried, 27 years old and working as a hired man on the farm of Anders Engebretsen in Norderhov. Living conveniently nearby, listed on the same page in the census, is a 24 year-old woman named Marie Nilsdatter. 

Carl married Karen Marie Nilsdatter on 3 July 1866 at Norderhov. Their daughter Gunhild (Julia) was born the following month. They were only married a few months when Carl, Karen and Gunhild joined thousands of their countrymen in emigrating to America. Bundling up their possessions and leaving all they knew to sail across the Atlantic in the dead of winter must have been challenging and at least a bit scary. 

Uttflyted record from the Norderhov Kirkebok
showing the family leaving the parish for America

At first, they settled in Salem Wisconsin but soon moved to Douglas County, Minnesota where they remained for 9 years.  While there, Carl became a naturalized American citizen on 3 October 1872.

1872 Carl Nelson American Naturalization

(It is interesting to note that in making this application, Carl had to renounce all allegiance to the King of Sweden and Norway. Norway at that time was under the reign of the King of Sweden in a rather complex relationship between the countries.)

Carl and his family made one final move in 1876 to the area of Erdahl, Grant, Minnesota where they lived out their lives.

Carl Nelson's land just southeast of Erdahl, MN
Erdahl Plat 1900

Carl and Karen had a family of 8 children, 7 daughters and one son. Most of the children were born during their time in Douglas County, MN, but the two youngest, Josephine and my grandmother Louise, were born after the move to Grant County.

Carl and Karen's Family c.1890 with identification of some of his daughters in Carl's fine handwriting
(Note the daughters' surnames are all given as Carlsdatter in the Norwegian patronymic tradition)

The following photograph is from 1898 at Carl's farm at Erdahl where he appears in his trademark beard working the land with son Nels.

1898 image of Carl (right) with son Nels, farming at Erdahl

One final photograph shows an apparently older Carl on his own, once again in his signature full beard.

Carl Nelson c.1910

Carl died at the age of 72 at 2:00 a.m. on 4 December 1911, after an illness of more than a year. From his obituary, we learn that "Mr. Nelson was an old member of the Pomme de Terre lake congregation of the Synod Lutheran Church, and took an active part in its work. His death is a distinct loss not alone to the congregation but also the community of which he was a part." His funeral was on Friday, 8 December and interment in the Synod Cemetery.

1992 - Carl's grandson Ken Bardahl and his wife Elinor visit Carl's grave

Some Resources:

• BBC History Magazine article on the History of Beards accessed 18 October 2020 at https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/a-brief-history-of-beards/
• Norwegian digital archive records for Norderhov, Buskerud Kirkebøker (church books) accessed online at https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/kb/browse

Ichabod Crane's Neighbor: Henry Christian Vought (1760-1842) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 44) Theme: "Scary Stuff"

The Headless Horseman chasing Ichabod Crane through Sleepy Hollow is scary stuff indeed!

"The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane"
John Quidor, oil painting 1858, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Public Domain image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-US

In the story, superstitious school-teacher Ichabod Crane is vying for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, but rival Brom Bones has his own agenda. After a night of ghost stories (many told by Brom), Ichabod is chased home through the spooky countryside and disappears after the "head" is tossed at him. All that is to be found the next day is his trampled saddle and a shattered pumpkin.  

Ichabod Crane was a fictional creation by Washington Irving in his 1820 gothic tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  My 5X great grandfather Henry Christian Vought was a flesh and blood man who lived in the place and time of Ichabod's scary ride. 

Irving's Headless Horseman was believed to have been based upon a real Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a canonball during the Battle of White Plains in the American Revolution around the time of Hallowe'en in 1776. Sleepy Hollow was inspired by North Tarrytown (now renamed "Sleepy Hollow"), a Dutch settlement where Irving had fled as a teenager to escape a yellow fever outbreak in nearby New York City. 

About a dozen miles from Sleepy Hollow is another Dutch settlement where my 5X great grandfather Henry Christian Vought was born, lived his life, fought in the American Revolution, died and was buried. This is the area around Peekskill and Courtlandt. If there is something homogeneous in the nature of the Dutch settlers and of the brutality of American Revolutionary War battles in Westchester County, Henry Vought is notionally Ichabod's neighbor.

Google Earth - Henry Christian Vought and Sleepy Hollow locations Westchester, N.Y.

Although Ichabod is an almost unknown name today, it comes from the Hebrew meaning "without glory" and appears in the first Book of Samuel in the Bible.  Certainly Ichabod Crane was aptly named for his ignominious disappearance from Sleepy Hollow.

Henry Christian Vought, on the other hand, did achieve glory for one particular event during the Revolutionary War.

 According to an Affidavit sworn by Henry in his application for a pension for his Revolutionary War service: 

I was born in the year 1760 according to the best information I have on the subject, in the village of Peeks Kill Town of Courtlandt County of West Chester and State of New York. My age is recorded in the Church Books of the Dutch Reformed Church in the town of Courtlandt to which Church my parents belonged.

The full US Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty - Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900 is available for Henry C Vought of New York, West Chester. From it we learn that Henry was a private in the Company of Captain Slows commanded by Colonel Van Duyck for 2 years. He was paid his pension at the rate of $80 per year commencing 4 March 1831. His pension application was made when he was 72 years old (actually indicated he would be 72 on 16 February 1833). In his affidavit, he described his service as follows: 

I first entered the service of the United States by enlisting in the service for the period of one year under Capt Slow in Col. Hughes Regiment in the regular line of the State troops of New York and served out the period of my enlistment at Kings Ferry in the County of West Chester and Rockland being constantly employed in ferrying across back and forth, the Army Cattle and Provisions for the army and such like services. This enlistment was in the year 1778. - I again enlisted in the year 1780 in the same service for 12 months (twelve months) in the Company of Capt. Bond in the same Regiment and served out the time at Kings Ferry aforesaid in the same services as before detailed. - My next enlistment was in the same year Cornwallis was taken into a Company of Rangers commanded by Capt. Jacket in the Regiment of Col Van Duyck in the State troops of New York for the period of nine months during this enlistment some part of my time I was stationed with the standing Army at Pines Bridge in the County of West Chester; at other times we ranged from the North to the East River in different parts of the County of West Chester. - During this enlistment I was in the skirmish at Mile Square near the town of Bedford in the County of West Chester where Col Holmes with a Party of Tories surrounded us and we cut our way thro' killing one man and wounding fourteen. - I served my time out and was regularly discharged with the rest of my company. - Besides these services while regularly enlisted I was frequently called out in the Militia in Alarms and Scouting Parties. 

His service would seem to range from the mundane ferrying of provisions to taking part in what must have been a very scary skirmish. In addition to the possibility of death or serious injury, if taken prisoner of war, a soldier's fate would have been possible death by starvation or disease aboard the notorious prisoner of war ships anchored in New York Harbor. The skirmish is described further in his October 1842 obituary in the Peekskill Highland Democrat newspaper.

Highland Democrat October 1842

Unfortunately (as can be seen in the above image) some crucial wording cannot be read in this version of the obituary. However, piecing this together with another transcription located in the Wadsworth history leads to the following description: 

Mr. Vought belonged to a corps of men sent out on a scouting party, commanded by one Lieut. Mosher, with a heart of oak. While the Lieut. was at breakfast with his men somewhere in the vicinity of  Whiteplains, he heard the alarm of the approach of a Squadron of British dragoons. In haste he formed his little band of about twenty men, into a hollow square, the soldiers dropping down with one knee on the ground, elevating their pieces with fixed bayonets to a angle of forty five degrees. The Tory Col. Holmes commanded the Squadron, determined with his horsemen to surround and take these wanderers with him to the British. He offered Lieut. Mosher the most honourable terms of capitulation, which were cordially reciprocated by the Americans, but promptly declined on both sides. Col. Holmes, sure of success, made a violent assault upon this more than spartan band, but the phalanx after repeated assaults still remained unbroken. The assaulters were at last drawn back with disgrace and loss, while the brave Lieut. brought off his men in safety and in triumph.

Gen. Washington gave an account of this gallant and unparalleled affair in his communication and Congress passed a voice of thanks to this distinguished Corps for their valorous achievement.

Henry Christian Vought married Rebecca Nelson in about 1781. They had several children, including daughter Margaret Vought, my 4X great grandmother (whose quilts feature in another story).

He lived out his life in the same vicinity as shown on the map above, dying in Cortlandt 7 October 1842. His obituary in the Highland Democrat begins:

DIED At Annsville, Cortlandt Town, on the morning of Friday the 7th inst., Mr. Henry Christian Vought, aged about 84 years. Mr. Vought belonged to a Revolutionary - Whig family! He was himself a soldier in the Revolution, throughout the war; and lived long and respectably for better than half a century in the full possession and enjoyment of the peace and prosperity won by his valour and that of his companions in arms, and died at last full of years and full of honour. Mr. Vought bore a most conspicuous part in one of the remarkable skirmishes that tried American skill and bravery in the whole war.

He was buried at the Old Episcopal Church of St. Peter's at Cortland. Certainly his was a  much happier and dignified ending than that met by his "neighbor" Ichabod Crane!

Photo Courtesy Gene Baumwoll CSW on www.findagrave.com
Plaque indicates that 44 known Soldiers of the American Revolution are buried here -
Henry is in good company

 

Some Resources:

• Borkow, Richard, Westchester County, New York's Role in the Revolutionary War, Westchester Magazine 2013, accessed online 12 October 2020 at https://westchestermagazine.com/uncategorized/westchester-county-new-yorks-role-in-the-revolutionary-war/
• History.com website accessed 6 October 2020 at https://www.history.com/news/legend-sleepy-hollow-headless-horseman
• Lee, Francis Bazley, Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910.
• Wadsworth, John Ogden, Walcott, New York, Old and New, photocopy of pages 510-511 in possession of the author.

Kenelm Winslow (1599-1672) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 43) Theme: "Quite the Character"

Does the name make the man? Call a  man John or Edward and he may grow into the upstanding conventional sort of man those names seem to evince. Call a man Kenelm and it's quite possible he will be just a wee bit eccentric. At least that's my theory about why he among his Winslow brothers is the one who grew up to be quite the character!

Kenelm (my 8X great grandfather), born 30 April 1599, was  the fourth child born to Edward Winslow and Malgdalene Ollyver of Droitwich, England.  The names of his seven siblings were: Edward, John, Eleanor, Gilbert, Elizabeth, Magdalene and Josiah. Kenelm was named for his paternal grandfather, though we don't know whether the grandfather also had proven to be a bit of a character.

The Winslow family was quite well-to-do with father Edward owning a salt production business. The family home called Kerswell is still a magnificent home. My husband had made prior arrangements with the owners who graciously allowed us to have a tour inside the home on our 2004 visit to England. 

The old Winslow family home - Kerswell, photo taken 1998

It felt like such a tangible connection to be able to touch the ancient exposed beams that would have been touched centuries ago by Kenelm and his family. 

Lovely old beams from the time Kenelm grew up here at Kerswell, photos 2004

Of the five Winslow brothers, oldest brother Edward is the best known. He and younger brother Gilbert were both passengers on the Mayflower that arrived in America 400 years ago. (Gilbert returned to England within a few years and little is known of him.) Edward apprenticed as a printer and joined the Separatist religious group in Leiden, Holland, where he was involved in the underground printing activities of the dissident congregation. Once in America, Edward was one of the first signers of the Mayflower Compact, was a well-respected leader in the colony and is renowned for his report about that well-known first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony. 

Brother John Winslow (my 10X great grandfather) followed on the ship Fortune in 1621. He was a ship owner and respected businessman and took an active role in civic affairs like his older brother Edward. 

Another brother, Josiah, also arrived in Plymouth Colony in its early years, but he is sadly remembered for making a total shambles of trying to straighten out the financial affairs of the Colony. 

And then there was Kenelm.

He would have been about 30 when he arrived, unmarried, in Plymouth Colony. Unlike older brother Edward, his was not primarily a move for religious reasons. In fact, he sometimes found himself at odds with the church in his new home community, as we shall see. 

In 1634, he married the widowed Ellen (Newton) Adams. At the time of this marriage, Kenelm Winslow put up security to pay James Adams, Ellen's son from her first marriage, 5 pounds when he came of age. Kenelm was a man of his word: this was done and recorded on 26 December 1651. He and Ellen would have four children of their own, the oldest of whom was another Kenelm Winslow, my 7X great grandfather. 

In many ways, Kenelm was, like his brothers, an upstanding man and a major contributor to his new community. Having completed his seven year apprenticeship to Abraham Worthington prior to leaving England, he had been admitted to the Joiners' Company of London, England in about 1624. As a joiner, he would have designed and built much of the furniture needed by the colonists.  Kenelm was also known as the colony's coffin-maker.

Langdon (pp. 28 and 32) describes the significance of joiners to the community:  

The early settlers also made chests for themselves. They had joiners or cabinetmakers as they called them rather than carpenters, who did any work with wood for them that required skill in the mortise and tenon construction from building a house to making a chest or stool.  John Alden and Kenelm Winslow were the "joyners" of Plymouth.  They made chests and chairs and other furniture no doubt for the Pilgrims. . . .  From Plymouth Colony mostly there has come a type of chair, or two similar types of chair which are indeed instinct with dignity and certain formality but not so repellent in their magnificence.  These are the Carver Chair and the Brewster Chair.  It seems reasonable to believe that  John Alden  and Kenelm Winslow made quite a number of these, especially for the older leaders of the Colony.  There are chairs of these types extant ascribed to the ownership of Governor Carver, Elder Brewster, Captain Miles Standish and Edward Winslow.

Examples of Plymouth Colony furniture of the period can be found at the Plymouth Hall Museum website. 

In addition to his contributions to making the necessary furniture and coffins for the colony, Kenelm also took an active role in civic life. In 1635 he was one of the men chosen to assist the governor and council to set rates on goods and wages. In 1638 John and Kenelm Winslow were witnesses against Stephen Hopkins for selling wine at excessive prices. One might assume that they were just doing their rate-setting jobs, but it may equally have presaged Kenelm's propensity to take matters to court.

He was elected the town's highway surveyor where we get an early glimpse of him marching to the beat of his own drum. On 1 December 1640, he was fined 10 shillings for neglecting those surveying duties.

The following year, the Winslow brothers moved their families to Marshfield where Kenelm was living in 1646 when he was jailed for four weeks for for  using "approbrious words" against the church of Marshfield, calling them all a bunch of liars.

Memorial to the Early Settlers of Marshfield
Kenelm Winslow and wife Ellen listed between brothers Edward and Josiah and their wives

While resident in Marshfield, Kenelm was Deputy to the General Court 1642 - 44 and 1649 - 53. On 1 June 1647 he was chosen constable for Marshfield.   He served on juries and committees, but one sometimes gets the sense that he might have been granted these respected positions based in large part on the success and reputation of his older brothers. 

Stratton describes the many instances of Kenelm's litigious nature (pp. 376-77):  

On 4 June 1645 a committee examined his complaint of injustice and found it to be untrue.  He had said that he could not be heard in a case between himself and John Maynard, but the committee found the judge and jury without fault and ordered Kenelm imprisoned and fined 10 pounds.  On his petition the same day in which he acknowledged his offence and sorrow for same, he was released from imprisonment, and his fine was suspended for one year, and then if he showed good behavior, it would be remitted.  

On 5 May 1646 Kenelm was sued by Roger Chandler for detaining his daughter's clothes on pretense that she owed him further service, and the court ordered Kenelm to return her clothes immediately.

On the same day the court ordered Kenelm to find sureties for his good behavior for uttering those approbrious words against the Marshfield Church, having called them all liars. When he refused to do so, he was sentenced to prison, where he remained until the next month's court. 

Perhaps his month in jail taught him a valuable lesson for he seems to have gone quiet for awhile after these episodes. Still, one can imagine him in his workshop laboring over the next piece of furniture while fuming over some perceived slight, but he held things in check, at least for awhile.

Old habits die hard. On 7 March  1653/54 Kenelm complained against John Soule for speaking falsely of his daughter Eleanor by scandalizing her in carrying reports of her and Josias Standish. John Soule's father George requested that the matter be referred to another court to be tried by a jury of twelve of his equals, but  there is no further mention of the matter so perhaps the complaint was simply dropped. And that seemed to mark the end of Kenelm's public complaints.

Kenelm may have been a character who got himself embroiled in controversy, but he was not alone. People then were much like people now, notwithstanding their Puritan reputation. Cullity (p.9) recounted a couple of lawsuits involving my 7X great granduncles Joseph and Nathaniel Turner in nearby Scituate (spelling in the following as in the original): 

Consider the language and behavior reported in the suit brought by Charles Stockbridge and his wife, Abigail against Joseph Turner of Scituate in 1669. The two charged Turner with slander and defamation for reportedly saying that "the said Charles Stockbridge is a coocally rogue, and that Abigail, his wife, is as very strumpet as an in New England, and that the said Abigaill is a brasen faced whore, and that her husband is a coocally raskall, and he would prove him soe." Turner was fined 100 pounds. Another case in the same year involved the same Charles Stockbridge, but on the other end of the stick: "Mr. Joseph Tilden (1657-1712) complained against Charles Stockbridge, of Scituate, in an action of slander and defamation, to the damage of 1000 pound, for saying and reporting that Nathaniel Turner and Joseph Turner could kisse Elizabeth, the wife of the said Tilden, as ofte as they listed, and doe something else too, and that the said Nathaniel Turner knew her, the said Elizabeth Tilden, as well as her owne husband knew her.

Yes, this is of more than prurient interest in connection to today's story. Kenelm's great granddaughter Sarah Winslow would in the course of time marry James Whitcomb, the granddaughter of Nathaniel and Joseph Turner's sister Mary Turner. 

In any event, Kenelm lived another couple of decades, apparently in greater harmony with those around him. His eldest brother Edward died in Jamaica in 1655 while on colony business. Brother John had moved his family to Boston by then. No longer having his more successful brothers in  Marshfield may have put an end to much of his community involvement. 

Kenelm signed his will dated 8 August 1672. He must have had a premonition of his impending death which occurred 12 September while he was visiting his daughter at Salem; he was buried there the following day. His wife Ellen was named sole executrix of his estate which included real estate, money, goods and movables including a Bible and 7 other books. 

Some Resources:

• Anderson, Robert C., The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, 3 Volumes (Boston: New England Genealogical Society, 1995–1996), Vol.3  pp. 2033-2036.
• Cullity, Brian (Chief Curator), A Cubberd, Four Joyne Stools & Other Smalle Thinges: the Material Culture of Plymouth Colony, Printed for the Loan Exhibition May 8 - October 23, 1994, Heritage Plantation of Sandwich.
• Follansbee, Peter, Connecting a London-Trained Joiner to 1630s Plymouth Colony article accessed online 15 October 2020 at https://www.incollect.com/articles/connecting-a-london-trained-joiner-to-1630s-plymouth-colony
• Langdon, William Chauncy, Everyday Things in American Life 1607-1776, MacMillan Publishing Co., 1981.
• Roberts Gary Boyd, Mayflower Source Records: Deaths and Burials from the Early Records of Marshfield, accessed 9 October 2020 on ancestry.com, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1986.
• Stratton,  Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691, Ancestry Publishing 1986.
• Williston, George, Saints and Strangers, New York: Reynal and Hitchcock 1945.

Plain Wickenden (1650-c1695) (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2020 Week #42) Theme: "Proud"

Being pious Baptists and perhaps afraid that their newborn daughter might grow up to be too proud, her parents sought to ensure humility by naming her "Plain". 

1999 photo of present-day First Baptist Church, Providence R.I.

My 8X great grandmother Plain Wickenden was born about 1650 in Providence, Rhode Island to Reverend William Wickenden and his first (unnamed) wife. Reverend Wickenden was associate pastor along with Reverend Chad Brown for the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, and after Reverend Brown's resignation, he took over as sole pastor for several years. William is best known as one of the signers of the Providence civil compact in 1637 which is credited as being the first  document in America to enshrine separation of church and state. Wickenden Street in Providence is named in his honor.

Providence Lots at the time of Plain's Birth
William Wickenden's lot highlighted in pink
(another ancestor Stukely Westcott also highlighted)

Toward the end of his life, he also preached in New York City, a location not as tolerant of Baptist religious beliefs as was Rhode Island. William was imprisoned for 4 months and returned to Providence in broken health. He died 23 February 1670/71 at a place called "Solitary Hill".  

Because of her father's position and education, Plain would have been a well-educated woman for those times. It is possible that her privileged life could indeed have gone to her head, but her given name and character seemed to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground.

She grew up knowing Samuel Wilkinson and married him about 1674 in Providence. With both her parents now being deceased, it isn't clear if anyone in her family objected to her marriage outside the Baptist faith. In any event, her down-to-earth nature stood her in good stead as the newlyweds moved out of the comfortable town of her youth to live on their farm in the wilderness about 10 miles north. 

Samuel was a Quaker, one of those who aspire to plain dress and plain talk. Perhaps her Plain name had attracted Samuel to her, but one might guess that she was actually a very attractive young woman. Especially if one is inclined to believe all the flowery language contained in the Reverend Israel Wilkinson's 1869 Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family in America. Like so many histories of that time, it is difficult to ascertain how much is factual and how much is inserted for over-the-top wordy effect. The language is anything but plain. For example, on page 327: 

Plain was an accomplished young lady of a sprightly disposition, and was discreet and prudent in her conduct notwithstanding her fearlessness and boldness, and was highly esteemed by all who were acquainted with her. She was possessed of more than ordinary executive ability, and performed feats that would astonish, and perhaps shock the exquisite sensibilities of modern ladies of fashion. Her education in consequence of her father's position in society, and the excellent opportunities of home instruction, was far superior to many of her day and sex. 

Notwithstanding being a peace-loving Quaker, Samuel was commissioned as captain in the provincial militia of Rhode Island and took part in King Philip's War.   When the war broke out, he sent Plain and their first-born child Samuel to Providence for greater safety while he performed his duties as a soldier. After the war ended, they returned to their farm. There they raised their family of six children, four sons and two daughters. Their fourth son, Joseph (1682-1740), was my 7X great grandfather. 

Samuel was active in civic affairs, acted as a surveyor and justice of the peace.

Plain did her part too, as described in 1869 by Reverend Israel Wilkinson, page 329: 

Plain was a decided character, and some traditional anecdotes are still related concerning her. After they were well established in their new home, she assumed and performed the duties of a pioneer housewife with an energy that bespoke the former training she had received at the hands of a Baptist minister of the primitive days of Rhode Island Colony.. . .

Cattle, sheep, swine and horses were soon raised, and luxuries began to flow  into their wilderness home, not however, without the toil and perseverance of Plain. Sugar, tea, coffee, raisins and the groceries so common now in every country store could not at that time be so easily obtained. Providence was ten miles away, and was but a small town. Boston was about forty miles distant, and abounded with the much coveted articles. Samuel could not leave his farm and stock long enough to do the shopping, and like a sensible man allowed Plain to do the small business of this kind. Mounted upon her own mare with panniers filled with the veal of the well fatted calf, killed the night before, and such other articles of farm produce as would find a ready sale by way of barter -- at three o'clock in the morning she might be seen wending along the bridle-path I have described, making her way to Boston. Winding through the forests, descending the hills, through the vales; turning now to the right, now to the left, as the blazed trees would indicate, till she came to the river at "Martin's Wade," when gathering up her feet to keep them out of the water, she would cross and arrive at what is now called Attleboro at sunrise. After breakfast she would remount and pursue her journey to "Shawmut," "the City of Notions," alias Boston; exchange her cargo, receive her longed for luxuries, and return home next day, and none the worse for wear! Now there's a wife for you! No wonder her husband valued her above rubies. 

Undertaking such a journey alone through the wilderness to conduct the bartering for groceries is indeed a remarkable feat. In addition to the potential perils of the wilderness trail, Boston itself posed significant danger for anyone of a Baptist or Quaker religion. It was common at the time for members of such faiths to be whipped or imprisoned. (For example, in addition to her Baptist father's treatment in New York mentioned above, another Quaker ancestor Herodias Long was whipped 10 lashes in Boston because of her faith.)  It is not known if or how Plain remained able to make these journeys to Boston after all the children started arriving.

No other anecdotes have been found, but she clearly had a self-reliant streak.  

Samuel died 27 August 1727 but no actual record has been found as to when Plain died; Family Search gives an unsourced date of 1695. 

Again quoting Reverend Israel Wilkinson, p.328:

The precise location of the old house of Samuel Wilkinson is at this late period (about 200 years after its first settlement) difficult to ascertain. The "Great Road" leading from Providence to Worcester is known to pass through his lands.. . .Within this solitary enclosure, by the side of a thrifty growth of at least the tertiary forest -- surrounded by a thick stone wall, may be seen some very ancient mounds of earth nearly leveled with the surrounding land, and marked by rough, unhewn, moss-covered stones. No inscription informs the passer by who sleeps beneath them, and the uncertain index of tradition hesitatingly points to them as being the last resting place of Samuel and Plain Wilkinson. 

She may have been called Plain and she may have refrained from feeling proud of herself. Nonetheless, she was a woman whose descendants can be justifiably proud to claim her as an ancestor.

 

Some Resources:

• "The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Providence: National Biographical Publishing Co., 1881, p. 57 accessed online 26 September 2020 through Internet Archive at https://archive.org/stream/biographicalcycl00nati/biographicalcycl00nati_djvu.txt
• Wilkinson, Rev. Israel, Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family in America, Jacksonville, Ill: Davis & Penniman, Printers, 1869 accessed online 4 October 2020 through Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/memoirsofwilkins00wilk/page/476/mode/2up

Over a Brick Wall: Nicholas Louis Saum (1735-1809) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 41) Theme: "Newest"

Background - Discovering Nicholas through DNA

Copious hours of DNA analysis have moved me past my toughest brick wall to discover the paternal line of my great grandfather Charles Francis Edwards. I can say with some certainty that his father's paternal line leads back to immigrant ancestor Nicholas Saum who came to America from the Rhine River Valley in 1752. This whole branch of my tree is my newest genealogical discovery made possible by the newest genealogical tools.

When Charles Francis Edwards was born in What Cheer, Keokuk, Iowa on 22 February 1869, his mother Barbara (Hoover) Edwards was between husbands. Her second husband, Lewis Edwards, had died at the end of the Civil War on 18 February 1866. She did not marry her third husband, George W. Payton, until 1873. With no record of who his father was, it is certainly easy to understand why Charles went through life claiming to be an orphan. I don't know whether his mother ever divulged the name of his father to Charles, but, if she did, he did not pass that information down in the family. Without any written records, we were stymied. 

Stymied, that is, until DNA became available to family historians. For good or ill, many carefully hidden secrets have been revealed in the past few years, often much to the surprise of the tester! 

After just a bit of persuasion, a cousin of my mother's who is a male descendant of Charles Edwards agreed to take a Y chromosome test. Since the Y chromosome is passed down almost unchanged from father to son to grandson, generation after generation, it can yield strong evidence of the male line of ancestors. Just 2 surnames were indicated by his DNA results with a Saums match being the closer of the two. That match indicated a likelihood of my mother's cousin and his Saums Y DNA match sharing a common male ancestor within a handful of generations. I created a tree for the extended Saum(s) family and expanded it as much as possible (it now has some 900 individuals in it). 

Next, I moved on to analyzing all the autosomal DNA matches of various family members who have tested to see if any of the other 22 sets of chromosomes led to DNA matches to anyone in the extended Saum tree that I had created. Bingo! Dozens of our matches were indeed descendants of Nicholas Saum! 

There was one particular family that represented DNA lines for both Saum and Henderson families, two names that kept cropping up regularly in a group of our family matches, sometimes together and sometimes just one or the other.  This family had three sons born between 1822-1834 who were possible candidates for being the unknown father for Charles. Two of them lived in Iowa and the third in Kansas. All three brothers are possibilities. In jumping over my brick wall to find immigrant ancestor Nicholas Saum, I am breaking a genealogical rule: I am skipping a generation. I don't know for certain which brother is my ancestor, but am quite sure of our descent from Nicholas. 

(One of the genetic analytical tools available is called "What are the Odds" on the DNA Painter website. This gives mixed results, depending on which family tester's results are being used. One gives the greatest likelihood to the oldest of the 3 brothers, also named Charles. Another tester's results show all three brothers about equally likely. With no clear answer,  I will certainly continue to use all the tools as they become available in genetic genealogy to try to pinpoint who fathered Charles.)

Nicholas Saum is almost certainly Charles Edwards' 2X great grandfather and my 5X great grandfather. Not a single document has been found (or is ever likely to be found!) to confirm this relationship.

Nicholas Saum's Story

Nicholas Louis Saum was born 1735, in Miesbach, Bayern, Germany. 

Bavarian birthplace of Nicholas Saum (green pin)
Google Earth image

Nicholas would have been about 17 when he and his two older brothers boarded the ship Richard and Mary at Rotterdam and headed to Pennsylvania, where they landed on 26 September 1752. The passenger list spells the 3 brothers names differently - Samm/Saamm. The other passengers were also German men, all probably young and coming to America to improve their fortunes. 

 

After arriving, Nicholas served five years as a redemptioner, as did about half the German immigrants at that time. This was the old apprenticeship system allowing immigrants to reimburse  passage money and expenses through a specified period of indentured servitude.  We don't know exactly who Nicholas worked for, but he does show up in both Pennsylvania and Maryland prior to his move to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where his family founded the small village of Saumsville. 

Location of Saumsville west of Washington D.C.

Nicholas was married at least three times. His marriage to Frances Deupes about 1760 in Maryland led to a family of six children: Frederick, Catherine, Mary, Magdalene, Jacob and Maria Elizabeth. After Frances's death in about 1781, he married Margaret Helmic on 14 September 1781 in the Shenandoah Valley; they had one child, Adam prior to her death in 1784. For his third wife, Nicholas married Mary Ann Shaver on 8 September 1784, also in the Shenandoah Valley, and by her he had four more children: John, Daniel, Christian and Eve.

Nicholas died on 1 April 1809 at Saumsville; he was 74 years old.  My newest family line descending from him has been found thanks to the newest genealogical tools available. 

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