Martha Hancock Wheat

 In a previous post about my great-great-great-grandfather, Ammon Goode Hancock, I mentioned his sister Martha. Martha's journal about her religious experiences was the focus of an article by historian Cynthia Kierner (Kierner 1992). Dr. Kierner kindly pointed me toward the archive where her transcriptions of the journal could be found and I was able to obtain them from the UNC Charlotte. She had originally obtained them from a descendant of the Wheat family.

Martha Hancock Wheat's journal is not gripping material, unless you are particularly interested in conversion stories, although it is fascinating how much her testimonies mirror modern evangelical testimonies. I'm not a scholar of religion, however, so my interest was entirely in the references to her family. 

For copyright reasons, I can't post the entire transcript here, but I will send it to you if you are interested Just email me! I'm going to quote parts of it and add in commentary that places her journal in the familial context.

She began writing her journal in 1850:

I was born in Bedford County, Virginia February 12 1823 -- and for several years thereafter neither of my parents made any pretention to religion, so I did not have the advantages of early religious training.

Martha's parents (the ones she throws under the bus here in her first line) were Justus Hancock and Harriet (Walden) Hancock. 

Family documents -- and public documentation in Virginia -- give Justus's birth as May 19, 1791 in Bedford, Virginia. Bedford is just outside of Lynchburg, where the Hancock family lived until at least the mid-20th century, and presumably still do, although our line moved to the west coast in the late 1800s. His family had been in Virginia since before the Virginia Muster of 1624/25 and he was also the descendant of early Huguenot settlers who arrived in the early 1700s. One of those settlers gave his mother her maiden name of Ammon, which was where his son's name came from.

Harriet Walden Hancock was the daughter of John Walden and Martha Hopkins, which is where Martha's name came from. She was born in 1795, also in Bedford, and her family also had been in Virginia since before the Muster. 

In 1820, around the time Martha was born, Justus Hancock's household was listed in the census with five enslaved people, suggesting they were moderately prosperous landowners (and, well, morally complicit). Martha had four siblings: her older brothers Ammon and Jonathan, and her younger brother and sister, Daniel and Lucy. 

Martha's statement about her parents' lack of religion seems to reflect her very specific definition of religion, since the very next sentence in her journal is as follows:

But when quite a child, I was sent to a school, taught in an old church called Antioch. Here the circuit riders preached every two weeks, and I had frequent opportunities of hearing them.

I honestly don't know where, exactly, is/was the "old church called Antioch." I'm pretty sure the Hancocks were Methodist, however. My guess is that Martha didn't consider them sufficiently evangelical. Antioch must have been in -- or close to -- Bedford County, since Martha is clearly living at home and mentions that her family was not encouraging her to attend the church. I have searched for some of the names of preachers and congregants that Martha mentions, including "Brother Peyton", "Brother John R. Bennits" and "Sister Jane Tate". There was supposedly a "Mary Jane Tate", daughter of Zachariah Tate, born around 1809 in Bedford County, VA. She never married. I have no information about which church she attended, but she may be related to Henry Tate, who was buried in the Patmos Methodist Church in Huddleston, VA, which is in Bedford County. Patmos's webpage claims the church was founded in 1834, but there's no mention of the "Antioch" name.

She was baptized by a "Brother Nathaniel Thomas" who was preaching on the Bedford circuit. He also asked her to lead a prayer, which I thought was an interesting commentary on the role of women in the church. She also mentioned attending a women's prayer meeting at "Sister Thurman's". There were a number of Thurmans in Bedford County in the late 1700s and early 1800s, but no idea where they went to church. 

Skipping over a bunch of religious commentary, the next interesting paragraph from a family history perspective is this:

Years past by and I had not obtained that which I sought [religious enlightenment, I think]. When twenty three years old I was united in holy wedlock, to him whom I had chosen, in preference to many others, as one who loved and served God.

Martha's chosen groom was Zachariah Wheat. They were married July 7, 1845, in Bedford County. Martha would have been twenty-two if she married in 1845 and was born in 1823. However, I'm pretty sure she's lying about her age, both here and in the very first sentence of her journal, where she gave her birth year. 

In the 1850 U.S. Census for Bedford County, Martha is listed as 30 and her husband Zachariah is listed as 38. (U.S. Census 1850). This would be a birth year of 1820. In the 1860 U.S. Census, her age is given as 36 -- a birth year of 1824 -- while her husband is 48, since he, unlike his wife, actually aged ten years over the previous decade (U.S. Census 1860). In 1870, her age is given as 46 -- consistent with a birth year of 1824 -- while her husband is only 52 (U.S. Census 1870). At her death, on August 21, 1874, her age was given as 53, which would make her birth year 1821. Our family records suggest 1821 is the correct date. 

Zachariah Wheat was born Dec 17, 1811, so he was around ten years older than Martha. He had been previously married to Clementine (Early) Wheat, who died April 21, 1844, about a year before Zachariah married Martha. Zachariah had three children from that previous marriage: Jonathan Wesley, Ann R, and Mary Louise. At the time of the marriage, Jonathan would have been around seven and Mary Louise about three. Martha seems to have had some concerns about stepping into the role of wife and mother, as she noted: 

When my Husband addressed me soon after we became acquainted, I thought there was an  insuperable barrier to our Union. He was a Widower, and I had often thought I would never be a step mother, as I had seen many who seemed to be very unhappy. But as I believed him to be a good man, I again went to my Heavenly Advisor, and the more I prayed for guidance the more I became satisfied that I should not reject him on account of his children. With streaming eyes I told my objections, how could I take so much responsibility upon myself, as to undertake to raise those motherless children. But then as clearly as the words had been spoken the answer would come. You wished to be useful and you wished to be a Missionary, and now that a door of usefulness has been opened to you, you refuse to enter in. My love for Him increased and I felt that at last I had my makers approbation and could marry the Man I loved.

Martha says that Zachariah "addressed" her soon after they "became acquainted". I don't know if this phrase refers to the beginning of courtship or if they truly hadn't known each other before. Zachariah's family had lived in Bedford County for generations, as had Martha's. Zachariah's mother, Edith Chastain Wheat, was a descendant of a prominent Huguenot family that had arrived in Virginia in 1699. Edith's niece, -- Zachariah's first cousin -- Charlotte Hewitt, married Ammon Hancock, Martha's oldest brother, in 1851. 

Martha and Zachariah had four children together:

Harriet J. Wheat - born 1846

Sarah L. Wheat - born 1848

William R.B. Wheat - born 1856

Otis P. Wheat - born 1860

I found this online as a picture of Martha Hancock Wheat and Zachariah Wheat, so I can't guarantee it's truly them. I don't have any pictures handed down through the family. If this is their oldest child, then this picture should be from 1846 or 1847. Gotta say, she's out of his league.

This blog post is getting long, so I will stop here and discuss Martha's children and later mentions of her family in the next post.

 

Bibliography

Kierner, Cynthia A. 1992. Woman's Piety within Patriarchy: The Religious Life of Martha Hancock Wheat of Bedford County. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 100:79-98.) 

"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M88P-YLD : accessed 28 December 2015), Martha A Wheat in household of Zachariah J Wheat, Bedford county, Bedford, Virginia, United States; citing family 496, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.)

"United States Census, 1860", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M41M-JJY : accessed 28 December 2015), Martha A Wheat in entry for Z J Wheat, 1860.

"United States Census, 1870", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFLJ-8YZ : Tue Mar 05 12:43:43 UTC 2024), Entry for Z J Wheat and Martha A Wheat, 1870.

What, Exactly, is a Farm?

A colleague with whom I share both anthropological and genealogical interests pointed me toward this webpage of Washington history. I didn't find much specifically about our ancestors, but this post about the origins of Oak Harbor in January, 1851 was interesting. It hits both my family history interests and my anthropological research on land use and historical ecology. Note this section:

Norwegian shoemaker Zakarias Martin Taftezon (also spelled Toftezen and Taftsen, among other variants) (1821-1901), Swiss Ulrich Freund, and New Englander Clement W. "Charlie" Sumner met each other at New Orleans while en route to the 1849 California gold rush. They did not strike it rich in the gold fields and headed north to the Oregon Country. In late 1850, they landed in Olympia and with the help of Samuel Hancock, took an Indian canoe north down Puget Sound to find available land....

According to pioneer Jerome Ely, Taftezon cut steps into the steep bluff at the mouth of the inlet the Skagits called Kla-tole-tsche to climb up and view the area to the north. He spied the Oak Harbor prairie free of the dense stands of trees that covered so much of the region....Much of Puget Sound was covered by dense stands of timber, but the grass-covered prairies where the Indians dug their camas roots offered good prospects for farming.

I love "the grass-covered prairies where the Indians dug their camas roots offered good prospects for farming." Yes, they did. Because they were farms! You will generally see these roots classified as "wild" foods but the boundary between "wild" and "domesticate" or between "prairie" and "farm" is a lot fuzzier than most people realize. Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest created fields of camas and manipulated soil and roots to make camas more productive. These prairies were created and managed ecosystems for growing camas. Sounds kinda like a farm, doesn't it?

Other crops grown by the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest include various fruit-bearing trees, berries, and (my personal favorite) shellfish in aquaculture beds.

So why didn't the Euro-American settlers arriving on Whidbey Island mention that it was covered in farms? Partly because they did not recognize them. These Indigenous fields didn't look like European farms, with fences and plow furrows and red-pained barns. The settlers' ethnocentrism only allowed them to see Europe-style farms as "true" farms. 

But also, settlers often refused to recognize the farms right in front of their faces because that would mean recognizing that they had stolen someone's land. Land grabs in this time period were based on the idea that Euro-Americans were hard-working people who improved and built upon land while Indigenous people were not. As "proof" of this, Euro-Americans pointed to the fact that much of North America was made up of unsettled or unimproved land. And where that wasn't true (which it mostly wasn't) they pretended it was true.

Now for the genealogical connection: note the reference to Samuel Hancock and the implication that he's working with Indigenous people to transport settlers to Whidbey island. Some thirty years later Mr. Hancock helped his great-nephew, E.J. Hancock, to move to Whidbey island, where E.J. married Julia Kinney, the daughter of a local ship captain. They became my great-great-grandparents.

Mary Jane Robinson Houghton. Maybe

 My great-great-grandmother is Julia Kinney Hancock. We have a lot of documentation about her mother, Mary Elizabeth Houghton Hancock. Mary Elizabeth's parents have always been difficult to securely document. There are a number of family trees out there on the intertubes that make various claims for her parents, but actual proof is sparse. 

Here's what we know for certain:

• There is a marriage recorded for Mary Elizabeth Houghton, age 26, and Thomas F Kenney (we spell it Kinney), age 28, in Boston, MA, for March 20, 1858. This records her parents' names as William and Mary J. Houghton. Hopefully, this is true. I only express doubt because some of the information on the record is clearly false. Both Thomas and Mary Elizabeth claimed to be born in Boston and to be the children of parents born in Boston. In fact, both were born in Nova Scotia and all of their later census records list English Canada as the birthplace of their parents. [Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC6Q-MCX : accessed 15 February 2016), Thomas F. Kenney and Mary E. Houghton, 20 Mar 1858; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 818,099.]

These are the transcribed marriage records for the city of Boston in 1858. Thomas Kenney/Kinney and Mary Elizabeth Houghton are second from the bottom. I really wish she had included her mother's maiden name and/or that we had the original documents

• The obituary of Julia Kinney Hancock, daughter of Thomas Kinney and Mary Elizabeth Houghton, states that she was born in Hall's Harbor, Nova Scotia, in 1859. Since Thomas Kinney was a mariner, he was away from home frequently. He had grown up in Yarmouth, 150 miles away from Hall's Harbor. If Mary Elizabeth was in Hall's Harbor when her daughter was born, it suggests that her family may have been from the area. Also, Hall's Harbor is small. It's not likely she was there because it was a major hub. The 1861 Canada Census has Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Kinney in Kings County (where Hall's Harbor is located). ["Nova Scotia Census, 1861," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQQD-MY2 : 8 November 2014), Thos F Kenny, Kings, Nova Scotia, Canada; citing line 17; Library and Archives Canada film number M-881, Public Archives, Halifax; FHL microfilm 865,126.]

My Great-Aunt Lilian, who is always proven right in the end, has Mary Elizabeth Houghton's mother's maiden name as Robinson. I don't know if that information was handed down in the family or if she found documentation. 

Finding a William and Mary J Houghton living in Kings County, Nova Scotia around the time of Mary Elizabeth's birth in 1831 has been a challenge. The names are quite common. I may have finally come up with a breakthrough, though, and it leads to an unexpected reason why we may know less about Mary Elizabeth's family than we do about the Kinney side, as well as why she and Thomas lied about their birthplaces: it looks like Mary Elizabeth was Catholic. Perhaps the couple eloped in order to avoid familial or religious barriers?

I base this on the most likely records I can find of her parents, a William and Mary Houghton living in Hall's Harbor around the time that Mary Elizabeth would have been living there with her newborn daughter:

• There is a William Howton in the Canadian census in Kings County, Nova Scotia, in 1861. ["Nova Scotia Census, 1861," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQQD-9K4 : accessed 18 November 2015), William Howton, Kings, Nova Scotia, Canada; citing line 10; Library and Archives Canada film number M-881, Public Archives, Halifax; FHL microfilm 865,126.]
• William Howton and his wife Mary J. are recorded in Kings County, Nova Scotia in the 1871 census, along with two daughters, Teressa and Louisa, ages 19 and 17. [http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/1871/pdf/4396663_00061.pdf]. William is listed as 63, Roman Catholic, a farmer, and born in Ireland. Mary J is 60, Roman Catholic, and also listed as born in Ireland. However, when her daughter, Louisa Frances Murphy, died in 1934, her death certificate states that her mother was born in Canada. 
• In the 1891 census, William is recorded in Woodville, Kings, Nova Scotia, as an 87 year old widower. Woodville is about 10 miles from Halls Harbor. ["Canada Census, 1891," database, FamilySearch [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW23-4FX : accessed 18 November 2015), Wm Houghton, Woodville, Kings, Nova Scotia, Canada; Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario; Library and Archives Canada film number 30953_148119.] 

Unfortunately, it's hard to tie this William Houghton and Mary J. to Mary Elizabeth Houghton Kinney. There are indications, however, that Mary J.'s maiden name was Robinson, which is the name in Aunt Lil's records. 

In the records of the Catholic church, St. John the Evangelist, in Windsor, Nova Scotia, I found the baptism of Patrick Houghton, son of William Houghton and Jane Houghton nee Robinson. It would not be at all surprising if Mary J went by her middle name. That's incredibly common in Catholic communities where every other woman is named Mary. Patrick's baptism was sponsored by Michael Donahue and Bridget Houghton. Patrick was baptized September 29, 1835. This would make him a perfect age to be the brother of Mary Elizabeth. Windsor, however, is about 30 miles from Hall's Harbor. ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DQJQ-D4MM : 27 May 2021), Patrick Houghton, 1835.]

The baptismal record of Patrick Houghton from the 1835 records of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The relevant record is in the upper right corner

The same church records have evidence for a likely sibling of Patrick's, Jane. Again, the parents names are listed as William Houghton and Jane Robinson. She was baptized August 27, 1837. Her sponsors were Patrick Lyons and Elizabeth Doye (or Dolyle?) ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DXMX-4SMM : 27 May 2021), William Hauton in entry for Jane or Janne Hauton, 1837.]

The record of Jane Houghton's baptism at St. John the Evangelist in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1837. Her record is on the bottom right of the page.

OK, but if these are siblings of Mary Elizabeth's, this begs two questions: 1) why isn't Mary Elizabeth's baptism in the records?; and 2) why are these records from a church so far from Hall's Harbor?

The answer to the first question is just depressing: the records don't go back far enough to catch Mary Elizabeth's birth. The answer to the second question, though, may be that Kings County didn't have a church of its own and relied on an itinerant priest. Another possible sibling of Mary Elizabeth's is listed in the baptismal records of the same church, St. John the Evangelist in Windsor, in 1840. This record book, however, actually lists the locations in which the weddings, funerals, and baptisms took place. They are from a variety of areas around Windsor, such as Kentville and Horton. The record for the baptism of Lavinia Houton [sic], daughter of William Houghton and Jane Robinson, specifically states it took place in Cornwallis. Cornwallis was one of the original townships of Kings County. She was sponsored by James Houghton and Mary Porter ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DWHV-8JMM : 27 May 2021), William Houton in entry for Lavinia Houton, 1840.]

Baptismal record of Lavinia Houghton, March 24, 1840, in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Her record is on the right near the center.

Other children baptized at the same church to William Houghton and Jane Robinson include:

• Henry, on July 1, 1849, at 10(?) months old, sponsored by James Lyons and Mary Sullivan ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DWHG-V6N2 : 27 May 2021), Wm Houghton in entry for Henry Houghton, 1849.] 
• Agnes (baptized at 5 months old on May 30, 1850), sponsored by Joseph Henderson and Bridget Thompson ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:D7BM-YY2M : 27 May 2021), William Haughton in entry for Agnes Haughton, 30 May.]
• Theresa, on October 17, 1851, sponsored by . In this record, the mother's name is listed as Mary Jane Robinson and the location is Cornwallis. Her sponsors names are hard to read, but I think it says Patt Sarsfield and Johanna Sulivan. ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DW2P-9DMM : 27 May 2021), William Haughton in entry for Teresa Haughton, 1850.] 

Are Henry, Agnes, and Theresa from the same family? Are they all (or any of them) siblings of Mary Elizabeth? It's hard to tell. I suspect not, though, since they do not show up in the census with our "target" William and Mary J. Houghton in 1861. With such common last names, though, it's hard to tell. 

One last record that might be relevant:

The baptism of Anne Houghton, lawful daughter of William Houghton and Janet Robinson, on Oct 22, 1833. She was sponsored by Neil Kelly and Bridget Lyons. Note that Patrick had been sponsored by a Bridget Houghton and Jane Houghton was sponsored by a Patrick Lyons. Could these be relatives? Or just frustratingly common Irish names? Anne was not baptized in the same church as the others. She was baptized in St. Gregory, Liverpool, Nova Scotia, which is on the opposite side of the peninsula from Kings County. ["Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DH6S-SPMM : 27 May 2021), Wiliam Houton in entry for Anne Houton, 1833.]

Here's what I'd really like for Christmas: a baptismal record for Mary Elizabeth Houghton herself. Short of that, I'd at least like the baptismal records for the daughters listed in the 1861 census (Theresa and Louisa) so I can directly connect them to the same family. 

Killers of the King

I just finished an interesting book called Killers of the King by Charles Spencer. It follows the history of the men who were directly involved in the execution of Charles I and what happened to them afterward. (Spoiler alert: they were mostly killed in horrible ways. To quote the immortal Omar Little, "You come at the king, you best not miss.") 

The book is interesting in its own right but I kept thinking about the relationship this history had to our own genealogy. A large chunk of our ancestors -- the Kinney line but also some on the Manary side -- came to New England through the Great Puritan Migration. That migration took place in the context of the English Civil War, the Protectorate, and the Restoration. After the Restoration, some of the regicides fled to the Massachusetts colonies where they were protected by the authorities and population alike. The colonists were mostly not big fans of the Stuarts. 

Wikipedia has a list of all the regicides here. They were all major supporters of Parliament in the Civil War and many of them were Puritans, so I ran the names through Wikitree to see if we're related to any of them. Not surprisingly, we are, although mostly not in the ways I had expected. Many of our colonial ancestors were 2nd-5th cousins of these men, but in most cases it was our ancestors in colonial Virginia, not Massachusetts. My guess is that is because our colonial Virginian ancestors (the Hancock line, essentially) was more "aristocratic" and the leaders of the Parliamentarians were still fairly aristocratic/wealthy, despite their opposition to the king. By marriage, however, we're more likely to be related to these men through our Kinney or Manary connections, since their family members often ended up moving to the Massachusetts Puritan colonies.

We're distantly related to many of the regicides, but here are a few who have closer ties:

General Edmund Ludlow was my 12th great-uncle and one of Cromwell's great supporters. Cromwell named him military commander in Ireland until he objected when Cromwell declared himself Lord Protector. Ludlow was a member of the jury that convicted Charles I and he signed the death warrant. His brother Gabriel's grandchildren moved to Virginia and became our ancestors. Ludlow fled England after the restoration and lived the rest of his life in Switzerland. He was the only regicide who is known to have survived long enough to see the downfall of the Stuarts. He kept chronicles and letters and so his work is one of the main sources cited in the Killers of the King. He's the only regicide with anything like a direct relationship to us. Sara Ludlow Carter, my 10th great-grandmother, who moved with her brothers to the Virginia colony sometime around 1660, was the great niece of Edmund Ludlow. Her descendants married into the Hancock family.

Edmund Ludlow

Colonel Adrian Scrope is a 2nd cousin many times removed, again through our relationship to Edmund Ludlow, who was his uncle (or maybe great uncle?). Cromwell appointed Scrope head of security during the trial of Charles I, and he signed the death warrant. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing Cross in 1660. Parliament had originally just fined him for his role in the trial, but was executed after Richard Browne, Mayor of London, testified that he had confessed that he was unrepentant. Browne, incidentally, was a distant relative of ours by marriage. We're related to his uncle's wife. 

Adrian Scrope

Adrian Scrope in more difficult times (he's being disembowled in the lower picture)

Edward Wallop, another signatory, was found guilty but sentenced to life in prison and to a trip by sledge to the gallows at Tyburn. The sledge ride was the foreplay to execution at that time period, but Wallop was merely dragged through the city on the sledge and shown the gallows before being returned to prison. He was also some kind of 2nd or 3rd cousin of Edmund Ludlow, and therefore of ours, but it doesn't seem worth figuring out the details since he's even farther from us than Adrian Scrope. Spencer quotes a Dutch visitor's letter about January 27, 1662, "We walked with thousands of people to Tyburn and saw there Lord Monson, Sir Henry Mildmay and Mr. Wallop lying in their tabards on a little straw on a hurdle being dragged through under the gallows, where some articles were read to them and then torn up. After that they were again dragged through the streets back to the Tower." (p. 245)

My husband and children are first cousins (many times removed) of the wife of Colonel John Dixwell. Dixwell escaped by claiming to be unwell and asking Parliament for an extension before he handed himself into the court. He was granted the extension but he used it to liquidate some assets and flee to Europe. He was mistakenly reported as dead to the Royalists so he moved again to the Americas and managed to live a long and happy life in Connecticut under the assumed named of James Davids. Joe and the kids to are related to Dixwell through his third wife Bathsheba Howe.

They are also direct descendants of Augustine Garland's brother in law, William Newbold. Augustine Garland was a lawyer and the first committee chairman for Charles I's trial. Surprisingly, he was granted life in prison, perhaps because he pleaded he had no real choice. In his own trial he told the judge, "My Lord, I did not know which way to be safe in any thing, without doors was misery, within doors was mischief" (Spencer p.244). He forfeited his estate and was transported to a prison in Tangiers where he died.

We're not really related to the Big Cheese, Oliver Cromwell, but we do have connections through marriage. The Manary line is descended from Sarah Bucknam Dexter, who lived in the Massachusetts colony in the mid-1700's. Her brother Samuel was married to one of Cromwell's sister's descendants, Deborah Sprague. Through that same connection to Cromwell's sister, Frances, we are related by marriage to two other signatories of the death warrant: her husband Colonel Edward Whalley and their son-in-law, Lieutenant William Goffee. Both had been powerful members of Cromwell's inner circle. Whalley and Goffee fled to Connecticut after the Restoration and lived in hiding for the rest of their lives.

Death warrant of Charles I

Julia Kinney Hancock, painter

When she visits, my mother often brings a treasure-trove of genealogical materials from my grandmother's stored belongings. This week, she brought this oil painting. On the back it says "Painted by Julia Kinney as a girl". Julia, who was my great-great-grandmother, was born in 1859. I'd guess her "girlhood" to be anytime before 1880. Before she reached the age of 20, Julia had lived in Nova Scotia, Boston, San Francisco, and Whidbey Island, Washington. This landscape doesn't particularly remind me of any of those areas, but it's more "east coast-y" than west. On the other hand, she very well may have copied some other painting and not seen this landscape in real life.

If you look closely, you'll see that the human figures are a bit stiff but the animals and landscape are quite good. Joe wanted to know if she kept painting, and if the family has any of her other work. Honestly, I don't know. Maybe some of my cousins do?

Deans and the Whiskey Rebellion

I was reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton when I was struck by his description of the Whiskey Rebellion, specifically, of its epicenter as west-central Pennsylvania. The Whiskey Rebellion took place from 1791-1794, and guess who was living in west-central Pennsylvania at that time? The early Dean family! Specifically, my 6xgreat-grandfather, James Dean, who died around 1795 (his wife was probably already dead by this point), and his son and daughter-in-law, my 5xgreat-grandparents, Abraham and Sarah Stewart Dean.

The Whiskey Rebellion began in the Appalachian area, among the Scotch-Irish small farmers, who were enraged by a whiskey tax that was far more punitive and inconvenient to them than to the larger distilleries of the coast. Many small farmers made whiskey as a more efficient way of transporting their crops for sale across poor roads. The tax was detrimental to one of their primary money-making enterprises and the required inspections were problematic given their dispersed farmsteads and difficult traveling conditions.

The resistance to the tax had its most formal expression on July 27, 1791, when a group of community leaders gathered at Redstone Old Fort in Fayette County and signed a proclamation declaring their grievance. The most prominent politician present was Albert Gallatin, later Thomas Jefferson's secretary of treasury. Among those who signed the statement was one "John Canon", possibly from Washington County.

There is a John Canon (or Canan) who was the son-in-law of James Dean, husband of Abraham's sister, Margary.  Could he have been the signatory? We do know he was a civic leader, according to this biography of his son, also named John, who was a Pennsylvania representative:

John Canan, his father, was born in Ireland in 1746; his mother, Margery Dean, also born there, came to America before the Revolution, and they were married here. John Canan was second lieutenant in the 2d Pennsylvania Regiment in 1777. In 1786 and '87 he was a member of the general assembly from Bedford county. He was also a member of the supreme executive council from 1787 to 1790. Under the constitution of 1790 he was appointed an associate judge and he was again a member of the assembly from Huntingdon county from 1791 to '94, and senator from Huntingdon and Bedford from 1795 to 1799. He owned a large estate in land, and late in life entered the forge and furnace business, being unfortunate in his investment. He died in 1831, at the age of 85 years. Margery Dean Canan died in 1815, when she was 55 years old.

Neither this John Canan or his son were from Washington county, but they were definitely from the area.

I haven't had a lot of time to do genealogy this summer, but I hope to look into this more in the future. Regardless of which side of the Whiskey Rebellion our ancestors supported -- if we ever know -- they definitely lived through the heart of it.

A Little More Rooney Info

I have written previous blog posts (here and here) about John and Eliza Rooney, my 3xgreat-grandparents. When I first got interested in genealogy, I was surprised to find that they had died and were buried in Osakis, MN, which is only about 45 minutes from where I live now.

Today, I went to the Douglas County Historical Society, which has a lot of really lovely people who help do genealogical research. On their webpage, it said they had a family file on John and Eliza Rooney. It turned out they didn't have much, and they weren't able to find any obituaries. They did have a page from what is clearly one of those county history books that were so popular in the U.S. in the early 20th century. The page had an entry for A.A. Rooney, John and Eliza's youngest son. Here's what is says that's of interest to the wider family:

A.A. Rooney, one of the well-known and successful farmers of Osakis township, Douglas county, was born in Dodge county, Wisconsin, on September 17, 1870, the son of John and Elizabeth (Kelly) Rooney, who were born in Ireland and there received their education in the common schools, grew to manhood and womanhood and were married. In 1848 they decided that they would leave the land of their birth and seek a home in America, where so many of their countrymen had come. After landing in New York they decided to locate there, and for the next seven years that was their home. In the fall of 1854 they removed to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where they lived until 1887, when they became residents of Minneapolis, where they resided for the next two years. In 1889 they located in Austin, Minnesota, and lived there three years, after which they removed to Farmington, where they remained until 1901. They then removed to Osakis township, Douglas county, and there Mr. Rooney died in 1907. They were the parents of the following children: Patrick, Thomas, Isabelle, Lizzie [This is Elizabeth, who married a Cunningham and is my direct ancestor], Anna, Frank, Stephen, Margaret, Isabelle, Jennie, and A.A. [his name was Ambrose Aloysius]. The first-born Isabelle is now deceased. The family are devout members of the Catholic church.

A.A. Rooney received his education in the public schools of Dodge county, Wisconsin. As a young man he started farming for himself, at Austin, Minnesota. In 1901 he moved to Osakis township, Douglas county, where he is now the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land, which is well developed and improved with good and substantial buildings.

The genealogy volunteer at the historical society asked me if I was related to the Rooney family that owned the hardware store in town. I had to say "I don't know!" Maybe I'll find out as I trace more of Ambrose's descendants.

The useful new information in this biographical sketch is the description of their movements, which were too frequent to be caught in the census. They moved to Minneapolis around the same time as their daughter, Elizabeth Rooney Cunningham. The Cunningham's stayed, but the Rooney's moved on. Perhaps I'll be able to find more information at the historical society.