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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Oldest Mayflower Passenger: James Chilton (1556-1620) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 40) Theme: "Oldest"

400 years ago (at the time of this writing) James Chilton, my 11X great grandfather, was somewhere out on the Atlantic Ocean, probably enjoying pleasant September weather aboard the Mayflower while anticipating the adventure of a new life for his family in America. 

James was the oldest of the 102 passengers to make that epic 66 day journey to America. The average age of the 50 men aboard Mayflower was 34. James was almost double that at age 64.

Most likely born at Canterbury, Kent, England, to Lionel and Edith Chilton, James grew up to be a tailor by trade. At some point in his life he adopted a Protestant Separatist belief system, considered radical and definitely at odds in many respects with the state-mandated Church of England religion. 

The author enjoying the empty streets of Canterbury early morning 11 August 2016

Photos of Canterbury taken by Graham Barnard August 2016
Buildings that would have been familiar to the Chiltons

He married, probably about 1583, and started to have children baptized in Canterbury, but his wife's name remains unknown. Even when she got in trouble with the Archdeaconry Court for attending the secret burial of a child (because her religion was against "popish" burial ceremonies required by the Church of England), she was still denied a name and is referred to obliquely as "wife of James Chilton".

By the time their eighth child was baptized in July of 1601, the family had moved from Canterbury to Sandwich and were attending St. Peter's Parish Church. This was also where their 10th and final child, Mary (my 10X great grandmother), was baptized on 31 May 1607.

Google Earth Street View Image of St. Peter's Church, Sandwich

The Chiltons would have been joining a group of Huguenots and Flemish Protestant refugees from the Netherlands who had moved to Sandwich in 1560 and had made St. Peter's their church. There was probably a sympathetic connection between the English and continental European Protestant religious dissidents. Sometime after "the wife of James Chilton" was excommunicated on 12 July 1609, the Chiltons moved to Leiden, Holland to join a contingent of about 500 like-minded English religious dissidents living there. The Chiltons were living in Holland at the time of their daughter Isabella's marriage there to Roger Chandler on 15 July 1615 and continued to enjoy more religious freedom there than they would have had back in England. Even in Holland, however, storm clouds were gathering: there was fear that the Spanish would once again exert their influence and make life there untenable too.

It may have been an attack on James Chilton  by about 20 boys in April 1619  that provided the actual impetus for the move to America. James was hit in the head with a stone and required medical attention. One of his daughters had been with him at the time of the attack. With the English group no longer feeling quite so welcome in Leiden, plans were formulated to move a portion of the congregation to the perceived safety of America.

Hence we find 64 year-old James Chilton, his wife,  and their 13 year-old daughter, Mary, aboard the Mayflower when it departed from Plymouth Harbour in 1620. 

Area of old Plymouth associated with the Mayflower passengers preparing to embark for America

James Chilton, Tailor of Canterbury
About halfway down the list

Commemorative plaque in the area where the Pilgrims spent their final night in England

Plymouth Harbour, Devon, England 2016
Mayflower passengers would have had a similar view as they left from here in 1620

Mayflower II Replica ship docked in Plymouth, MA 1999

Problems encountered by intended sister ship Speedwell had caused the voyage to be delayed beyond the ideal sailing season. Although the weather had started off pleasantly enough, conditions  soon became very unpleasant with storms lashing Mayflower's leaky hull. Some 130 people were crammed into a ship that was only about 100 feet long. The passengers' living space was on the gun deck (approximately 50 feet by 25 feet and a ceiling just 5 feet high). There would have been no privacy whatever. Seasickness was common among the passengers, most of whom were not experienced sailors. There was the added worry about possible attack by pirates and privateers . Three of the women were pregnant and about one-quarter of the passengers were children, providing some extra challenges.

During one of the storms, another of my ancestors, John Howland, fell overboard and had to be rescued. 

It was very late in the year when they arrived at Cape Cod with no welcoming committee or accommodations to greet them. They had actually been aiming for the existing English settlement known as "Virginia" but conditions caused them to land north of there. James Chilton had survived the lengthy and arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to be one of the signatories of the Mayflower Compact on 11 November 1620. This was a document agreed by the men in the group (not women, children or indentured servants) about how the colony would be governed, given the lack of any other law that would apply in this new area.

Mayflower Compact Plaque in Plymouth, MA
James Chilton is third man listed on right side

James never actually got to live in the new Plymouth Colony. The newcomers had not had time to build any shelters by 8 December when James died aboard Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor. It might be speculated that it was his age that made him more vulnerable, but five other passengers also died that month. His unnamed wife died sometime that first winter too, along with nearly half the other newcomers. 

Daughter Mary was among the survivors. Four years later, at age 17, she married John Winslow and had a family of ten children with him, ensuring the survival of James Chilton's dreams of a new life for his family in America. 

Some Resources:

• Deetz, Patricia Scott and James F., The Plymouth Colony Archive Project, "Passengers on the Mayflower: Ages & Occupations, Origins and Connections", 2000 at the following website: http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/Maysource.html
• Evans, James, BBC History Extra Podcast, 24 September 2020 which can be accessed at https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/the-mayflower/
• Johnson, Caleb H., The Mayflower and Her Passengers, Xlibris Corporation,2006 and Caleb Johnson's Mayflower website located at http://mayflowerhistory.com/
• Roser, Susan E., Mayflower Increasings 2nd Edition, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1989.

Murder in Minneapolis: Frederick Wescott (1867-1912) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 39) Theme: "Should Have Been a Movie"

Frederick "Fred" Wescott was one of my great grandmother Mary Jane Wescott's older brothers, making him a great granduncle to those in my generation in the family. He was born in Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin 12 May 1867 a couple of years after his father George Garner Wescott returned home from fighting for the Union in the American Civil War. That may have used up most of Fred's luck; things did not end well for him as this tragic murder mystery will reveal.

Fred Wescott 1895

Place

• Rising Sun Restaurant, a somewhat seedy establishment at 208 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnestota

Time

• 1912, beginning on the evening of Saturday 1 June

Cast of Characters 

• Frederick Wescott, age 45, cook in the Rising Sun Restaurant, the victim
• Mrs. Isabelle Getsman, age 35ish, otherwise known as "Scotch Maggie", owner of the Rising Sun Restaurant
• John Getsman, her husband, age 56, a horse dealer and sometime saloon owner
• Daniel Moon, clerk in the Grand Central hotel, 110 Second Street South, Milwaukee 
• Minneapolis Police Chief Mealey, Captain Smith and Detectives Crummy and Johnson
• Hubert Jacobs, possible witness, age 23, height 5 ft. 3 inches, walks with a slight limp

Synopsis

The headlines shouted out the tragic news on the front page of the Monday 3 June 1912 edition of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune:

Headlines 3 June 1912 Star Tribune, Minneapolis MN, front page
accessed from Newspapers.com 

The lengthy story that followed was conveniently broken into sections since there was so much to report. It continued:

     Fred Wescott, cook in the Rising Sun restaurant, 208 Second avenue south, was murdered Saturday night by being stabbed in the back, either shortly before or immediately after entering the restaurant at about 10 o'clock.

    Mrs. Isabelle Getsman, formerly better known as "Scotch Maggie", her husband, John Getsman, a horse dealer and Daniel Moon, clerk in the Grand Central hotel, 110 Second street south, are being held in Central station pending a further investigation.

    Although Wescott must have been stabbed before 10 o'clock, it was not until after 3 o'clock in tho morning that the police were notified of his death. Then it was said he had died from heart disease, and it was not until detectives and the coroner arrived that the stab wound under his left shoulder blade was discovered.

From there, the article reported how the stories told by Mr. and Mrs. Getsman contradicted one another. First, they reported her version verbatim:

"Wescott has been cooking for me for the last two years. Last night, at about 8 o'clock, he said he was going out to get a shave. I gave him a dollar, asking him to buy some groceries. It was about 10 o'clock when he returned. He hadn't had a shave, nor did he have any groceries. Tho dollar was also gone. 

   "He took off his coat and sat down in the kitchen, cocking his feet on the kitchen table. I noticed there was blood on his vest and asked him about it. He said it didn't amount to anything. 

   "I left him there and went to bed. My husband came in about 11 o'clock and I told him about Fred. He talked to him a moment and then also went to bed. It was some time afterward that I heard Wescott walking about. Shortly after I heard a peculiar gurgling sound and awakened my husband, who went to investigate, and then hurried out to find a policeman."

There were some differences in the versions of husband and wife. He said the door was locked when he got home while his wife had said it not been locked. (The policeman on the beat who had made his rounds between 10 and 11 p.m had found the door locked.) She said that when her husband came home she prepared supper for him and they shared a bottle of beer; he denied eating anything after he got home. Each claimed to be the first to go to bed that night. 

According to Mr. Getsman, when he found Wescott in distress, he went to find a policeman and wandered up and down Washington Avenue both directions but was unable to find one. When he got home, still not having obtained assistance, he found that Wescott was dead.  Finally, Getsman ran to the National Hotel and telephoned police headquarters saying there was a dead man at his place, probably having suffered a heart attack. (The police were, understandably, suspicious that Getsman, who had lived int he city for many years and knew the area well, would have known where police headquarters and the patrol barn were located and would have easily been able to find a policeman had he really wanted to.)

The third person arrested was Daniel Moon, clerk at the nearby Grand Central Hotel. He had been in the Rising Sun Restaurant that evening and was supposedly the last man to have seen Wescott alive and well. Mrs. Getsman tried to focus blame on Moon saying that Moon and Wescott had planned to open a saloon together but must have fallen out; Moon denied all of this. He said he had seen Wescott shortly after 8 o'clock that evening when Wescott had left to go to 28 First Street North to feed the dogs at Getsman's barn. That was the last Moon saw of him.

The Coroner's autopsy found that Fred's death had resulted from internal hemorrhage caused by a sharp object such as a stiletto or double-edged knife; two such knives were found at the scene (nor surprisingly since this was a restaurant). 

Other evidence found by the police included a white cook's apron, covered in blood and rolled up in a ball in the back yard. It was noted that the stab wound had penetrated Fred's shirt and vest but there was no damage to his jacket, leading the police to the conclusion that the stabbing had occurred indoors and not out on the streets as implied by Mrs. Getsman. 

Newspaper stories over the next while often tended to the lurid but do give a sense of what transpired in the investigation. 

It seems that after the confusion of the first night, Daniel Moon was released, as was Mr. Getsman. One witness by name of Hubert Jacobs had been located after a 24 hour search by Detective Crummy. Jacobs stated that he had just been leaving the restaurant on the fateful night after hearing Mrs. Getsman and Wescott arguing about the necessity of  peeling more potatoes. He said he had seen a struggle ensuing, culminating with her stabbing Wescott in the shoulder with a knife. 

Mrs. Getsman remained in jail and remained silent on advice of counsel. When the papers learned of her stage moniker "Scotch Maggie", the opportunity proved irresistible to the reporters.

Star-Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 5 June 1912, p.10
Newspapers.com

Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Tuesday 4 June 1912, page 2

The article was not kind to "Scotch Maggie", describing her and her establishment in very unflattering terms:

 

Seated moodily in the woman's ward last night, the woman, now known as Mrs. lsabelle Getsman, gave little evidence of the girlish charm that had made her name a sort of  power to be reckoned with a score of years ago. She had not only beauty of face and figure then, according to those who knew her, but a voice of remarkable quality as well. It was her voice, in fact, that caused her to be sought for a certain class of entertainments. And always she sang Scotch songs with Scotch dances accompanying. ''Scotch Maggie" they called her and the name clung through the years that became more and more sordid until, as the keeper of a sordid little restaurant in sordid part of the city she is said to have, in the heat of anger, thrust a knife through a man's back.

It got worse when describing the ravages that time and tough living had wrought on poor Maggie:

The woman whom the police came to take away from the restaurant and lock up was an over stout, frously-haired, hard faced woman. For years she had catered to a patronage of rough men in an eating place surrounded by pawn shops and employment agencies. It had taken the light out of her eyes and the color out of her cheeks and made hard lines come about her mouth.

The article then compared this to her enticing beauty of eyes, clothes, and aura of perfume in years gone by. She was said to have laughed at the world in those days.

"The boys used to have some great fights over Maggie," said the old time

detective. "And in those days she had a temper that, was as hot as her face

was beautiful." 

 

But now, the article concluded, she had a sodden brain that might only vaguely remember her days as the belle of her set 20 years previously. Strong drink had robbed her voice of its sweetness and Maggie of her charm. Her establishment, it said, catered to down-and-out strangers who had lost their grip, as had she. The word "sordid" was used numerous times. Was it really as bad as all that or was the paper playing it for all it was worth to boost readership?

It should be pointed out that the 1910 U.S. Census had given Maggie's age as 33; presumably this should be taken with a grain of salt - or life had indeed been very hard on her for her earn the description of an over stout, frously-haired, hard faced, sodden-brained middle-aged woman!

The Rising Sun was, of course, closed immediately. However, two canaries and a parrot were left behind. The parrot was quoted as calling out "Maggie! Where's Maggie?" Mr. Getsman kindly took it to keep her company in prison (although a cynic might think he was just trying to rid himself of the nuisance!)

Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 9 June 1912
Newspapers.com

The disappearance of Hubert Jacobs, the only witness, led to the discharge of all charges against Mrs. Getsman. Jacobs was later arrested in Louisville in February of 1913 on a charge of grand larceny and running a sweat box operation. (Internet searches have not enlightened me on exactly what sort of crime this is.) He at one point confessed to the murder of Fred Wescott, but later repudiated that confession. 

Then on 2 April 1913, Mrs. Getsman was rearrested and indicted by the grand jury. A few days later Jacobs was also indicted. It seemed they were both to be tried for the murder in April of 1913.

Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN 2 April 1913, p. 9
Newspapers.com

But in the end, both were released due to lack of evidence.

13 June 1913 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, p.11
Newspapers.com

This marked the end of the investigation. Was "Scotch Maggie" guilty? We might speculate as to whether there was some sort of conspiracy to confuse matters to the point where no one could be brought to justice. Today, forensics could likely come up with ample incriminating evidence from such a murder scene, but apparently not in 1912.

How did Fred end up in Minneapolis? - Flashback Scenes to Fred's Life in Wisconsin

• Happier scenes can be found from Fred's childhood in Kaukauna, Wisconsin with his parents George Garner Wescott and Sarah Catherine Bullen and his siblings - 5 brothers and 2 sisters. They were a musical family and played for dances; father George conducted an old-fashioned singing school.

1895 Wescott Family (colorized) - Fred is standing on the left side of the group of siblings

• On 11 October 1894 at age 27 he married German immigrant Josephine ("Josie") Nikodem and started a family with her. They had 6 children, 3 sons and 3 daughters born between 1895 and 1908. 

Fred Wescott on the right beside wife Josephine with 4 oldest children (in white shirts), estimated date 1903

• In August of 1904, Fred purchased and operated the Spotted Dan Saloon (located on the road to the asylum in Chippewa Falls) - perhaps providing him with experience that led to his future at the Rising Sun in Minneapolis a few years later. 

• The plot muddies when we see the newspaper report of Fred and Josephine's  1906 divorce on the basis of his cruelty and violence toward her which says that they weren't married until 10 October 1903.  

Marshfield Times, 26 December 1906, page 6

• Apparently they had a change of heart just a year later (assuming these two reports relate to our couple; so far no actual records have been located to verify these reported events).

Chippewa Herald-Telegram, Chippewa Falls, WI 
11 January 1908, accessed from Newspapers.com

• The Chippewa Herald-Telegram newspaper of 7 June 1908 tells how Fred Wescott had been fishing in the river opposite the Central Depot when he found a watch and chain with locket attached; he turned this in to the authorities. In the midst of such a sad tragic life story, it is nice to find evidence of Fred being an essentially honest man who liked to fish in his spare time.

• The 1910 census for Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin gives some clues that life was not easy for Fred and Josephine; he was supporting his family of 8 by doing odd jobs and they lived in rented property. No mention is made of his ownership or operation of the Spotted Dan Saloon.

• It isn't difficult to visualize how marital problems could lead later that year to Fred's desertion of his young family for a fresh start in the bigger center of  Minneapolis. It would prove to be a tragic decision.

• Fred found work as a cook in the Rising Sun Restaurant at 208 2nd Street South in the Bridge District (now called the Gateway District) of downtown Minneapolis. This was right in the hub of all the action near the Mississippi River. Newspaper accounts from the time describe the area as "sordid".  Licenses for establishments at 203 and 205  2nd Street South had been denied by inspectors just the year before; we must assume Fred was not working in a high-end establishment.

John Getzman license denied - Minnesota Star Tribune 3 July 1911, p.7
accessed from Newspapers.com

• The area, including the Rising Sun Restaurant where Fred was murdered has been  totally demolished and the area modernized since then. 

Google Earth image showing modern Minneapolis
highlighting location of the Rising Sun Restaurant 1912 

Follow-up Information for the People Most Affected:

• No one has ever been charged for the murder of Fred Wescott. He was buried without fanfare or marker at the Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery in Minneapolis. 
• Mrs. Isabelle Getsman ("Scotch Maggie") disappears from the records after 1913; one might assume the publicity and notoriety caused by the murder destroyed what was left of her life and her marriage.
• John Getsman later married for a second time and died at the age of 67 on 10 June 1927; he is buried at Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis. His Find a Grave memorial highlights his connection to the Fred Wescott murder. 
• Daniel Moon was still a clerk at the Grand Central Hotel in 1916.
• Hubert Jacobs has proven difficult to find; he had married Florence Northern the year before the murder. There was one divorced man of that name located in the Missouri State Penitentiary at the time of the 1930 U.S. Federal Census, but we cannot know for certain if this is the same man.
• Fred's widow Josie must have struggled financially for many years; several of her children worked in the shoe factory by 1920. By the time of the 1930 U.S. census she had remarried to a man named Joseph Lavigne and we hope was living a more comfortable life with him. 
• Earl Wescott, Fred's oldest son, died at age 33, unmarried.
• Garner Wescott, Fred's son, died at age 39 but had been married and left a widow and young children.
• Lyda Wescott, Fred's daughter married and had a family; she lived to the age of 92.
• Margaret Wescott, Fred's daughter, married and had a family; she lived to age 69.
• Vera Wescott, Fred's daughter, married and had family; she worked most of her life in the Chippewa Shoe Factory and died the day before her 103rd birthday. 
• Albert ("Manny") Wescott, Fred's youngest son, was injured in a tragic accident while the investigation into his father's death was still ongoing. What a terrible blow this must have been to his poor mother and the extended family! He grew up to get married but, like his brothers, died relatively early at the age of 54.

Chippewa Herald-Telegram, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin 3 May 1913, p.3
Newspapers.com

Irvin D. Yalom (When Nietzsche Wept) said that "if we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic", but I know of no height that would diminish the tragedy surrounding the seemingly senseless murder of Fred Wescott.

David Bullen (1788-1872) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 38) Theme: "On the Map"

My 3X great grandfather David Bullen, the son of John Bullen and Mary Whitcomb, was born at Paris Hill near Clinton, Oneida Co., N.Y. in about 1788. His father John Bullen had served in the American Revolution. After the War, John participated in the uprising known as Shay's Rebellion. To avoid capture and prosecution, he fled with his family from Massachusetts to Clinton, N.Y. His pregnant wife Mary gave birth to their seventh child en route, supposedly under a bush. It was about a year after this that David was born in what had to have been much more comfortable circumstances.

1895 Map of the Clinton area of Oneida, New York from the David Rumsey Map Collection,
David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries
More than a century after David's birth the area has become quite developed

In 1823, at the age of 35, he married Jane Murdie and started a family with her that would eventually include 8 children, the youngest of whom was my great great grandmother Sarah Catherine Bullen. The earliest years of their marriage were spent at Hannibal, Oswego, N.Y.

Google Earth - showing New York locations for David Bullen at Paris Hill and Hannibal

Hannibal's Masonic records tell us that a petition for a Masonic Lodge at Hannibal was signed by John Bullen, David Bullen, and others on 20 July 1824. John Bullen was the first Master and David Bullen was the first Senior Warden. The Charter was later forfeited in 1832 when the Lodge decided to go with the Morgan times (which would be another whole story, no doubt, and would have little to do with putting David "on the map"). This serves, however, as just one example of the usual pecking order between brothers, with David generally playing second fiddle to his older brother John. 

With the multitude of John Bullens in the family, there has at times been confusion between David's brother John Bullen and his brother's son, John Bullen, Jr.

The Bullens were among those interested in exploring the opportunities for establishing new settlements in "the west" fueled by glowing reports of rich fertile soil and bright sunny skies. In December of 1834, a supper meeting was held at the Hannibal home of John Bullen, Jr. To spread out the financial burden, those in attendance expressed an interest in setting up a venture with shares to be sold for $10 each. In February of 1835, "The Western Migration Company" was formed with Reverend Peter Woodin, a respected Baptist minister, as chairman and John Bullen, Jr. as secretary. An exploration committee of three men headed west in March of 1835.

It should be remembered that there were no established transportation routes to the western shores of Lake Michigan at the time. This was the area that was meant by "the west" in the 1830s. When the men from Hannibal set off in search of land for their new settlement, they proceeded from Hannibal by way of Lake Erie to Detroit and then across country to Chicago. This is where they discovered that there was no road north to Milwaukee so they set out by land, mostly following the beach of Lake Michigan, and eventually finding a small sailing vessel that took them to Milwaukee. There they found the property far too expensive for the funds their share sales had generated. They headed back toward the south, eventually choosing an area south of Racine. 

Western Emigration Company General Migration Route to WI 
Google Earth

The exploration committee ran into numerous problems in acquiring lands. John Bullen, Jr. was then made the sole representative of the group to finalize matters.  He is generally regarded as the founder of what is now Kenosha, WI. The area was originally known as Pike Creek, but by 1837 it was called Southport and then in 1850 renamed Kenosha (a Native American word again reflecting the plentiful pike). They had chosen the name of Southport because of its location in the very southern part of Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. 

John Bullen, Jr. built the first framed building in the new settlement in 1835-36. He was a merchant who focused on providing the necessities in the new community.

Southport Telegraph 1 December 1840
David's nephew John, Jr. opens his new store

David and his brother John Bullen moved to the Kenosha area in 1836 to join John, Jr. Apparently, David made the journey overland in the winter in a covered sleigh. His family followed by boat, "The Michigan", owned by his brother John.  At Milwaukee the boat drifted ashore in a storm.  From there they proceeded south by wagon.  

David is credited with being one of the first settlers of the town of Salem in the Kenosha area in 1636, along with John Dodge, John Bullen and Amos Gratton. David's brother John Bullen located on Bullen's Ridge. He was very active and influential in the community. Fortunately, he was appointed General of the Militia by Governor Dodge and can therefore be differentiated as "General John Bullen".

Early Wisconsin land deeds show us two parcels of land acquired by David Bullen (one in conjunction with one of the John Bullens) in the area west of Southport (now Kenosha) between the new settlements of Bristol and Salem. He owned some 310 acres in sections 6 and 7 of Township 1N, Range 21E pursuant to land grants dated 1840/12/10 and 1843/03/03. (The area has been highlighted on the following map in aqua colour in Range XXI just above the word "Bristol".) 

1845 Morse et al map of Southern Wisconsin from the David Rumsey Map Collection,
David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries
David Bullen's lands highlighted in aqua colour

David was also said to have had a farm near Paddock Lake just a couple of miles to the west of his Salem land, but a deed has not been located to pinpoint that property.  

By 23 July 1860, David was 70 and a farmer, but Jane had passed away. David's real estate was valued at $1500 and his personal estate at $280; he was living at Farmington in Washington County, WI, north of their previous home near Kenosha. The census tells us the value of his real estate but does not tell us exactly where it was located. Did he retain his lands in the Kenosha area or had he acquired some in the Farmington area? Two of his sons are listed in the same household but I'm not sure who Catherine is. More sleuthing is required here!

When the next US Census was taken ten years later, David was said to be 84 and at that time was living with daughter Jane, her husband Nelson Hull and their 4 children at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Several of his sons had moved to the Arlington, Wisconsin area and David lived with their families during his final years.

A letter from daughter Jane Hull in Arlingtonbury dated 5 August 1872  is quoted in the  Nelson Dunlop Papers: 

"Dear Sister and Brother: - It is  with a heavy heart, that I seat myself to write a few lines to you. Our poor father is no more.  He died last Monday afternoon.  He was taken sick the Wednesday before.  Win sent for the doctor.  He came and called it the typhoid fever and said the chance for him was very small.  They done all they could for him but could not keep him.  His work was done. He was called and must go. Gladly would we have kept him, but not our will but His be done.  He has left this world and gone to a better world where he will not have to say any more, "I am sick."  May we all be so happy as to meet him, and her that went before him. Little did we think when Mother died that he would live 14 years.  It was a little over 14 years.  I have forgotten the day of the month that she died.  . . . He died in the afternoon the day before we got here.  All I could see of Father was his cold form.  His funeral was Wednesday at the school house.  . . . I will send you some of father's hair."

David Bullen's stone in Arlington Presbyterian Cemetery, Arlington, WI
Photo Courtesy "Grave Walker" (L Kopet) Findagrave.com

Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, WI
Photo courtesy Steve Seim of Findagrave.com

The final map location where we can place David is at the Arlington Presbyterian Cemetery just a couple of miles west of his sons' Arlington properties. 

Google Earth - David Bullen burial location at Arlington Presbyterian Cemetery -
Not far from lands owned by his sons in the area (circled in red on the old plat overlay) 

Some Resources:

• The History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, Wisconsin, Chicago: Western Historical Company 1879, 781 pp., accessed online through Google Books
• Nelson, Myrtle Bullen and Dunlop, Ruth H., Nelson/Dunlop Papers (aka Source Book for the Bullen Family), compiled in the 1930s, privately printed, a photocopy of which is held by the author.
• David Rumsey Historical Map Collection located at https://www.davidrumsey.com/.