Carnegie Hill Neighbors - On Waldron Farm

Here I go again.

I have found many references to Baron Resolved Waldron on the Internet. I was particularly disappointed when I came across a website www.carnegiehillneighbors.org that included a history of the Carnegie Hill area of New York City. The site included sentence that said, "The area was known as Waldron Farm after a Dutch patent conveyed the land to Baron Resolved Waldron, who owned it until he died in 1705."

I sent the following email message to the organization:

On the page accessed from http://www.carnegiehillneighbors.org/history/index.htm you refer to a Baron Resolved Waldron. This person is the grandson of Barent Nagel after whom he was named. Your Baron Resolved Waldron is actually named Barent Resolveert Waldron. It is not a title but a common given name. His father was Resolved (Resolveert) Waldron. Typical of the time in which Barent Waldron was born people were identified with a patronym. In this case, Resolved (Resolveert).

After sending the message, I noticed another glaring error in the first paragraph under the heading "On Waldron Farm." It refers to a Peter Van Ogliensis. I sent a message to inform the organization that Peter's name is written in the records of the time as van Oblinus or van Oblenus.

Although, I was alarmed that the organization made an erroneous reference to a Baron Waldron, I did not include the fact the Barent Waldron was not the individual who was granted the land patent as the site claims. It was Barent's father, Resolved Waldron who received the land patent along with several others. This patent is known as the Harlem Patent and this patent and those included in the patent are well documented.

In a future blog entry, I will discuss the alleged Lady Tanneke Nagel and Baron Rudolph Von Waldron.

Peter Stoutenburg's Tower of Babel

Each year, I put together an annual newsletter for the Stoutenburgh-Teller Family Association. The following is based on an article entitled, "The Tower of Babel" that I included in the 2006 Newsletter. The source I used for the newsletter article is the "Illustrated History of Collingwood Township." I have added some additional explanatory comments to this article.

Collingwood Township was a township in Grey County, Province of Ontario, Canada but in 1998, it became a part of the Town of The Blue Mountains.

Grey County is on the western side of Nottawasaga Bay. In the early days of my research, I was not aware that there were two Collingwoods and that Stoutenburgs lived in both. One was a township and another was a city in Simcoe County. After a little research, I realized that it is not surprising that their were two places named Collingwood in Ontario.

Lord Cuthbert Collingwood was an admiral under Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in the Napoleonic Wars. He assumed the role of head of the British fleet upon the death of Lord Horatio Nelson.

The Tower of Babel is about a structure that Peter Stoutenburg built in the community of Kolapore. Peter, a grandson of Jacobus and Margaret (Teller) Stoutenburgh, was born near Toronto. The book erroneously claims that he was of Pennsylvania Dutch origin.

His parents moved from Hyde Park, NY, settling in Ontario just before the turn of the 19th century. Having reached adulthood, he married and raised a family. By 1860, Peter made the decision to move. He was the second settler in the settlement of Paradise (Kolapore) in Collingwood Twp. A Milo Parks was the first settler in Paradise. Peter had purchased Lot 9 of Concession 9.

By 1865, Peter erected the first sawmill in Kolapore at Lot 10, Concession 8, on a branch of Mill Creek. This sawmill was moved out of the area by 1880 and the only sawmill in operation was Archibald McKean’s sawmill, on Lot 7, Concession 8, on another branch of Mill Creek. It was run by Archibald and his son Andrew until the early 1900s when it burned.

Archibald McKean married Peter’s daughter Ellen. They moved to Pasadena, California in early 1904 for health reasons, but Archibald died there in April 1904.

Peter’s son, Peter, built another sawmill that was purchased in 1890 by Johnston, White and Company. At this time, I do not know where this sawmill was located nor have I found any information about the Johnston, White and Company.

The elder Peter Stoutenburg built a wooden tower that was called the Tower of Babel. The article did not explain why it was called this. He apparently built it on his property as a hobby and for the purpose of seeing the town of Thornbury from its top. Although the tower was four stories high, it was not high enough to see Thornbury.

There were windows on each floor and a winding stairway, which took visitors to the top where a railing gave some protection. It was still standing in 1934 but was dismantled sometime later.

Reverend J. Vickery was the 1st minister of the Kolapore Methodist Church. The early families that supported the church included the Lawsons, Stoutenburgs, Longs, Parks, McAteers, McEdwards, Wilsons, Collins, McKeans, Allcocks, Peggs, Teeples, Sayers, Clemens, Johnstons, Craigs, Carefoots, Smalls, Moores, Winneys, Shaws, McDermitts, Saggetts, Hallets, Ranshaws, Gardiners, and Strongs. Peter Stoutenburg's children and descendants married into many of these families.

Paradise Settlement was renamed to Kolapore in 1884. The book did not offer a good explanation as to why the name changed. However, in 1881, a Scottish born Ontarian, Col. John Gibson, led the Canadian team to win the Rajah of Kolapore Cup at Wimbledon. You may note that in the list above a number of the names of the early settlers are of Scottish origin. I will let you draw your own conclusions.

Peter’s nephew, Alfred Stoutenburg was postmaster of Kolapore in 1912.

The picture of the Tower of Babel and other pictures that included members of the Stoutenburg family are not clear on the copy I received. In attempting to locate a copy of the book, I found that the appears to primarily be available in libraries in Ontario.

Source: Illustrated History of Collingwood Township, William Shannon. Collingwood, Canada: Council of the Township of Collingwood, 1997. Pages 167-170 Chapter 17 Kolapore.

Family Lore

I have been researching my ancestors for many years and often come across information and stories that are full of erroneous facts and false information. In most cases, the persons relaying the information are not lying. The persons simply have facts confused. Unfortunately with the Internet, this erroneous information is found and disseminated as fact over and over again.

However, I have found that there is usually a grain of truth in what you may find on the Internet. Use that information as a starting point and validate it before accepting it as fact.

My mother told me that her grandmother was born in Dennison, Minnesota. I had no reason to believe that my mother would trick me. However, as I began researching my family, I learned that my grandmother was born in Cottage Grove, Minnesota and had never lived in Dennison. Cottage Grove is near Wisconsin and Dennison is near South Dakota.

Eventually I figured out why my mother thought that her grandmother was born in Dennison. Some of my grandmother's mother's family had moved to Dennison and my mother remembered her grandmother going to Dennison to visit her relatives.

After my father's eldest sister passed away, my cousin gave me copies of a family tree that her mother had written. She had listed the city in which my children were born as Sherman Oaks. That is where we lived, not where my children were born. She simply did not know the facts.

As you research your ancestry, be willing to look beyond the stories you've been told.

Happy family hunting!

Lanaii