Aunt Eleanor's Journal - October 12, 1983

This entry was to be the last entry that Aunt Eleanor wrote to Patti, but a year and a half later Aunt Eleanor wrote another entry.

Oct. 12, 1983 1:15 A.M.

I wasn’t going to write any more in here but I talked with you on the phone this evening and you mentioned how you would like to have me write about my past and give it to you, and you said that story you remembered me telling was about the beautiful radio we had to trade of for feed for the cattle.

I couldn’t remember if I had written about it or not so I had to dig my little memory book out and check and it was all in here. There are several more awaiting me on the other side Ferd, Raymond and others. God bless and keep you one and all. When you read this I’ll be gone but I know I’ll not be forgotten. All my love. Goodbye Grandma. M. M

May 20, 1985

Here I am adding another line or two. You were here this evening reading what I had written in the Grandmother’s book, and remarked how I hadn’t said much about you. It is funny because when I wrote it I was thinking of so much I wanted to say but I have been told that I’m so partial to you that I thot keep it cool. After all I have written a whole book to you, and you know how very special you are, and always have been. So if all I said about you was that “you were so uncomfortable” it wasn’t what I was going to write, that would have taken too much space. My “Patti Wats” little Pixie Doll.

Since I wrote in here last I have made another move. I now live right across the street from you and see you just about every day. Its great. And we still go to the baseball games together. What fun we have. And our coffee breaks.

It is now 1:50 AM May 21, 1985

It was hard not to tell of this little book that I have written just for you.

Great Grandma

I don't know why Aunt Eleanor signed this entry as Great Grandma. She was Patti's grandmother. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Patti visited her grandmother with her children.

To be continued ...

My sister has been dealing with settling the estate of her son who died suddenly and unexpectedly this year. In her latest email message to me talked about moving the last of Collin's possessions from his home. My sister's message caused me to think about how our mother handled the death of our brother over 40 years ago.

My brother was 21 years old when he died in an automobile crash the night of his bachelor's party. He was not drunk according to the autopsy report. He suffered a heart attack and died of a cerebral hemorrhage when his car entering a freeway plunged off of the on-ramp.

My mother's reaction to the death of her second child was to discard everything that belonged to him. My father discovered this and retrieved some of the items that she discarded. He kept some of them for himself and hid them from her. At that time, I was the only one of their children living away from home. My father gave me a sculpture that my brother had created.

Of some of the items that our father retrieve, he was able to convince our mother to keep a few of our brother's belongings. My brother was an artist. She kept another sculpture and some paintings. After my father passed away, one sister and I sent the paintings to our brother in New Jersey and this sister took the funny square, yellow clay pot.

Shari's message to me about the handling of her son's belongings made me think about the upside-down carrot that my brother made and what will happen to it when I pass on. My children have grown up with this sculpture in their home. I don't recall ever telling my children about this piece and its history. I guess that they don't see the importance of that piece and only view it as another piece of art that is in the house.

I took pictures of that carrot and labelled it as Brother Craig's Carrot Sculpture view 1 et al.

How many things in your home that have a special meaning to you may not have that same connection to your children?

Think about it!

Who is Pieter Van Stoutenburgh? Part 2

This post is a continuation from the one I posted July 9, 2010 concerning the errors I found in "Monmouth Families, Volume II." I concluded that post with the children of Pieter Stoutenburg and Aefje Van Tienhoven, his wife. This post begins with the children of their son, Tobias Stoutenburg, and his wife., Anneke Van Rollegom.

ISSUE, 11-21 (of Tobias #10):

11-PIETER bp. 4/26/1685 d. pr. 1720 md. ANN ERLE

12-TRYNTJE bp. 11/1686

13-JAN bp. 9/26/1688 d.y.

14-JOHN bp. 10/27/1689 d.pr. 12/1716

15-LUCAS bp. 9/20/1691 md. HELENA VAN PELT bp. 5/29/1695 dau. of ANTHONY VAN PELT & HELENA JOOSTEN

Comment: Tobias Stoutenburg #10 and Anneke Van Rollegom had 12 children, several of them died young. Ann Erle was known as Anna Erle and Hannah Earle. Ann was not a name that was in use when she lived. Based on the naming traditions, John (#14) probably died between December 31, 1692 and February 13, 1694/5. There were two sons, Lucas and Jacobus, born between John (#14) and Johannes. The baptismal record for John (#14) gives his name as Jan.

ISSUE 22-23(of Lucas #15):

22-TOBIAS bp. 6/7/1713 S. I.

23-ANTHONY 1720-1783 md. 7/26/1745 MARY SEQUIN

16-JACOBUS bp. 12/31/1693 d.y.

17-TOBIAS bp. 3/1698 d.y.

18-EVA bp. 10/15/1704

19-JACOBUS bp. 6/7/1696 d 1772 md. 5/25/1717 MARGARET TELLER dau. of WM. & RACHEL KEERSTIDE

20-TOBIAS bp. 12/22/1700 d. pr. 1767 md. MARY TEN BROCK GOLDSMITH

21-CORNELIUS bp. 5/23/1703

Comment: Lucas Stoutenburg had four children that included Tobias (#22) and Anthony (#23). Sara Bearing, Lucas’ first wife, was the mother of Tobias. Anthony was the son of Helena Van Pelt. Issue #16-#21 are the children of Tobias Stoutenburg (#10). Anthony married Mary Seguin. Margrietje Teller is the daughter of Willem Teller and Rachel Kierstede. Toward the latter part of her life and as the English were influencing the American Dutch, her name was recorded as Margaret. I also was finding more records in which Stoutenburg was being recorded as Stoutenburgh. Tobias Stoutenburg (#20) was a silversmith and goldsmith. His wife was Maria Ten Broeck.

pg. 204
23-ANTHONY STOUTENBOROUGH 1720-1783 Will pro. 6/9/1783 of Colts Neck md. 7/26/1745 MARY SEQUIN (SEGANG) of S. I.

Comment: Anthony’s surname was spelled many different ways in the various records that I encountered. Stoutenborough eventually was the spelling that Anthony and his descendants used. Mary Seguin was also known as Mary Seguine and Segang.

ISSUE 24-30 (of Anthony #23):

24-Capt. JOHN bp. 9/1/1754 a. 5/6/1839 @ 84-9-5 @ Bpt. Holmdel md. CATHERINE HOLMES b. 11/18/1765 d. 5/1/1838 @ 72-6-13 Holmdel

25-ELIZABETH md. EPHRENS JOHNSON

26-MARY bp. 10/21/1764 md. JAMES LATURETTE

27-LENNAH

28-JAMES

29-ANTHONY bp. 4/4/1762

30-STEPHEN d. 2/20/1818 @ 47-2-20 Christ. Ch. Shrwsby. of Colts Neck md. HANNAH LAWRENCE d. 12/1/1849 @ 72-8-4

Comments: Elizabeth married Ephraim Johnson. Mary married James LaTourette. I have seen the name spelled Latourette and La Tourette. No. 27 is Leanah, Leana, and Elenor. Her name is spelled Leanah in her father’s will, Leana in her first husband’s will, and Elenor in the marriage entry for her first marriage. Shrwsby refers to Shrewsbury, NJ.

ISSUE 40-46 (of Stephen #30):

40-ELIZA d. 3/31/1866 @ 66 Chrst. Ch. Shrwsby. un md.

41-JAMES H. d. 5/7/1814 @ 1-  -

42-JOHN L. d. 12/22/1850 @ 47-2-6 un md.

43-JOHANNAH 4. 5/27/1844 @ 30-9-23 un md.

44-STEPHEN HENRY d. 8/24/1828 @ 20-2-20 un md.

45-MARGARET d. 6/15/1838 @ 42-4-3 un md.

46-MARY b. 3/20/1794 d. 1/18/1836 md. 11/21/1821 CHARLES BUCK (or BURK)

Comments: James H. was 1 year, 6 months and 12 days old when he died. The New Jersey Marriage Index indicates that Mary married Charles Burk. Her gravestone reads “MARY wife of Charles Burk and daughter of Stephen and Hannah Stoutenborough.

24-Capt. JOHN STOUTENBORO bp. 9/1/1754 d. 5/6/1839 @ 84-9-5 @ Bpt. Hlmd. md. 4/19/1785 CATHERINE HOLMES b. 11/18/1765 d. 5/1/1838 @ 72-6-13 @ Bpt. Hlmdl. dau of DANIEL HOLMES & LEAH BOWNE

ISSUE 31-39 (of John #24):

31-DANIEL md. 10/3/1805 ELLENOR SCHENCK

32-JOHN b. 12/8/1791 d. 12/25/1867 bur. Franklin, Ohio md. 11/1815 JANE SCHENCK b. 11/7/1796 d. 3/28/1888/3 (to Ohio in 1815)

33-WILLIAM of N. Y. City

34-ANTHONY of Alabama

35-MARY b. 4/1/1787 d. 4/29/1861 @ 74-0-24 Bible md. 3/9/1807 CORNELIUS R. COVENHOVEN b. 5/3/1783 d. 4/11/1817 Bible son of CORNELIUS & JANE DENISE

Comment: Jane Schenck died in 1883. I cannot confirm anything about William. Stephen Stoutenborough and Hannah Lawrence had a son named William who lived in New York at least until 1835. By 1850, he is living in Brooklyn. Anthony moved to Alabama near Selma about 1821. Cornelius R. Covenhoven’s mother is Jannetje Denyse. Hlmd refers to Holmdel, NJ.

ISSUE 32A-32C (of Mary #35):

32A-HOLMES b. 1/9/1809 d. 5/22/1860 @ 52-4-13 Bbl. md. CAROLINE CRAWFORD d. 8/28/1843 @ 24 Hlmd.

32B-LEAH b. 12/2/1810 d. 6/28/1895 Bible Hlmd. md. WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD b. 8/18/1809 d. 12/19/1874

32C-JANE b. 10/19/1807 d. 8/15/1869 Bible Hlmd. md. Capt. C. D. EMSON

36-LEAH md. 6/22/1807 HENRY CROCHERON

37-ELIZABETH d. 1/30/1872 @ 78-10-28 Holmdel md. JOHN S. LONGSTREET d. 6/20/1847 @ 56-10-17 Hlmd.

38-MARGARET d. 4/6/1833 @ 94 md. 2/16/1818 SAMUEL HERBERT

39-JANE ANN

Comment: Margaret married Samuel Hubbard.

I am surprised at the number of times the surname of the spouse is completely wrong. I will continue in another post with that last section of the information from the book.

Lorenzo Dow

As I researched my family, I would periodically come across a male cousin whose given name is Lorenzo Dow. I really did not see a reason to wonder why Lorenzo Dow was a given name until I found cousins named Lorenzo Dow all over the United States and now recently in Canada.

At this point, I began to wonder why Lorenzo and, in particular, why Lorenzo Dow? I looked at the information that I had about each of my Lorenzo Dow relatives. They were distant cousins, not only in relationship but in physical proximity. Some were related to me but not to each other. The only pattern that I could discern was that these relatives were born between 1810 and 1857.

Like many others whose ancestors lived in the United States in the early days of its existence, I have many relative with given names of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, etc. Most have no connection to the men after whom they were named. I suspected that Lorenzo Dow was man of some renown who apparently was a man of note at least by 1810.

So it seems that there was a man named Lorenzo Dow who was a circuit preacher. I found a book entitled The Eccentric Preacher or A Sketch of the Life of the Celebrated Lorenzo Dow. The book is an abridged version of Lorenzo Dow's journal and was published in 1841 in Lowell, Massachusetts by E. A. Rice & Co.

Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834) was born in Connecticut. He had developed an intense interest in preaching at the age of four. This interest grew as often he had dreams of himself in the role of an itinerant preacher. Limited by the lack of a horse, Dow preached primarily in Connecticut and Rhode Island. His parents attempted to dissuade him from becoming a preacher but by 1796, they gave in and provided him with money and clothes.

By this time, Lorenzo Dow had become a Methodist and hope to become a Methodist preacher. He was turned down by the Methodist Conference but was accepted in 1798 as a circuit preacher with his first circuit in Pittstown, New York. He did not stay on the New York circuit long before being transferred to a circuit in Pittsfield, Massachusetts followed by one in Essex, Vermont.

As I read the book, I found that Dow suffered with poor health from childhood and throughout his life. He had become ill while on his circuit in Vermont. He requested to be sent to Ireland. Instead the Methodist Conference assigned him to Canada. It was from Canada that he sailed in October, 1799 to Ireland, intent on converting the Catholics.

He returned to the United States in April, 1801 and began preaching in the South. He made another trip to Ireland and England in 1805. By the end of his life, Dow had traveled throughout the United States and in Canada

Lorenzo Dow did not practice personal hygiene and pictures of him on flyers, pamphlets and books show him with long hair and beard. His appearance reminds me of the pictures of Rasputin who managed to captivate the Czarina Alexandra.

Reading his journal, I found his sermons to be full of fire and brimstone. He often wrote about those who disagreed with him and many times placed curses upon his critics. Between his manner and his appearance, some called him "crazy Dow" or "crazy Lorenzo."

He had as many who reviled him as those who loved him. The US Census from 1790 through 1840, only identified the head of household. I searched the indices for each of these years and found the occurrence of Lorenzo as a given name to be extremely rare until 1830 when there were 246 people with the name Lorenzo. In 1840, the number grew to 970.

The 1850 US Census was the first census in which all the members of a household were identified. In that year, I found 8,595 people named Lorenzo in the index. Ten years later, 10,346 Lorenzos are in the index. It would seem that Lorenzo Dow's popularity and influence was waning. While the population in the United States was growing, the number of people named Lorenzo in the indices from 1860 through 1930 remained about the same from decade to decade.

Moving to California in the 1950s and 1960s

As we grow older, we don't realize that so much time has passed. Things that were commonplace to us are unknown to the later generation(s). I know why my parents moved our family to California from Minnesota but my children do not. Why? Because the subject did not come up in conversation.

As I spend time trying to piece together my family tree, I often wondered why did my ancestor move from one place to another. Then I realized that my descendants may not know why my parents moved unless I document it.

When we moved to California, hardly any of my classmates were born in California. We all had moved from some other place. I had never seen so many different license plates until we lived in Orange County, California. At that time, an automobile owner did not have to re-register a car until the registration from the state in which the owner left expired. Everywhere I looked, I saw a license plate from another state. My classmates were mostly born in some other state, Canada or Mexico. I erroneously assumed that most people living in California in the 1960s were born elsewhere.

Thirteen years ago, my husband and I moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. I made many friends, most of whom were born in California. So much for my theory that most people in California in the 1960s were born somewhere other than California. Then the question for me was why are there more native born Californians of my generation in Northern California and so few in Southern California?

I don't have all the answers but I know what was happening in Southern California when my family moved there. The aerospace industry was very strong in Southern California at that time. My father was a machinist and found work at Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City, CA within a few weeks of our moving from Minnesota to California. My father had lived briefly in California around the World War II years as did other men who served in the Pacific in that war. He saw much opportunity for himself and his family by moving to California.

I am the eldest in a large family. My father had hoped that he could provide the opportunity of a college education for each of his children. When I entered the University of California at Berkeley my annual tuition was $240. The tuition at the University of Minnesota at that same time was $900 a year. My dad told me that the cost of higher education in Minnesota versus the cost in California was a primary reason that he moved us to California.

My father's parents and two sisters were already living in California when we moved. It was a very hard move for my mother as she left so many of her close relatives behind. Most of the family events centered around my mother's family and not so much around my father's family. My father had wanted to move to the Bay Area but my mother's aunt and sister had moved to Southern California. So as a concession to my mother, my father moved the family to Orange County, California.


Even though my mother's aunt and sister were living in California, my mother complained about California. California was too dusty and dry. After I married, my mother and father took a trip back to my mother's beloved Minnesota. That was the end of her complaints about California. I guess the humidity and mosquitoes in Minnesota proved too much for my mother.

Hooky and the Dutch Connection Part 2

I mentioned in Part 1 that I had found an article, "The Dutch Origin of Play Hookey" by John Ralph Sinnema printed in 1970 in the American Speech magazine. Unfortunately at the time I posted Part 1, I could only view the first page of the article. In order to view the remaining pages, I had to pay a fee.

I found that I could access the article at one of two Universities that were nearby. Since I had some other items I wanted to study at the Stanford University, I made a trip to Palo Alto. The delay in being able to post part 2 was worth it. I found the entire article to be most interesting.

Dr. Sinnema passed away in 1999. He was a professor and chairman of the German department at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio. Although, Dr. Sinnema seems to have been well regarded, I checked on a few of his source citations before proceeding with part 2 of my blog on the word "hooky."

He makes a reference to the Anthology of New Netherland by Henry Cruse published in 1865 regarding a complaint in 1656 by Nicasius de Sille, attorney, concerning the boys playing hoeckje in the streets. I found confirmation of this on Page 286 of Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York: One Hundred and Forty-First Session, Vol. XXIX, No. 62 (Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, 1918).

Hoeckje seems to be a diminutive of Hoeck or Hoek. Hoek was a geographical term, meaning a small cape, that the Dutch used and was Anglicized to Hook. It also meant corner. The boys playing hoeckje in 17th century New Amsterdam were playing a game like hide-and -seek. The difference from hide-and-seek being an object was hidden while the players (seekers) were awaiting around the corner rather than players hiding and one or more seekers trying to find them all.

Dr. Sinnema's article goes into detail about the how a hoekje spelen evolved from a game of hide-and-seek into play hooky.

Hooky and the Dutch Connection

Yesterday, I blogged that a few days last week I played hooky from writing in my blog.

I got to thinking about the word "hooky" and what it really means. The definition at Princeton University WordNet Web site is "truancy, failure to attend (especially school)." Well, I knew that, but why is it called hooky?

Using Google Search I found several online dictionaries that referenced the etymology of the word. It seemed to me that many of the online dictionaries are copies of each other. Most claimed that the term "play hooky (or hookey)" was derived from hook it, hook or a Dutch game played in 17th century New Amsterdam.

Since each of these dictionaries provided a list with a choice of three possible origins and no information about the source(s) of this information, I continued my quest.

I looked for dictionaries that included the etymology of words. I found the following on page 345 of Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, Volume III - Fla. to Hyps. (Compiled and edited by John S. Farmer and W. E. Henley and printed in 1893)

Hookey. To play hookey, verb. phr. (American). — To play truant; to do Charley-wag (q.v.).

1876. Clemens [Mark Twain], Tom Sawyer, p. 100. Took his flogging . . . . for playing hookey the day before.

The book did not tell me anything about the origin but it did indicate that the term was in use when Samuel Clemens wrote Tom Sawyer. I found a copy of Tom Sawyer that was published in 1875. The term used twice in Chapter 1 and twice in Chapter 10. Thus, I could confirm that playing hooky was in use by 1875.

I happened upon an article that John R. Sinnema authored entitled "The Dutch Origin of Play Hookey" (American Speech, Vol. 45, No. 3/4, Autumn-Winter 1970. Durham, NC: Duke University). He writes, "Bartlett correctly states that play hookey is a "term used among school-boys, chiefly in the State of New York," dating its appearance about 1848." [p. 205]

Mr. Sinnema indicates that Bartlett included a citation from Samuel Clemen's Mark Twain that included the phrase "playing hookey." He references John Russell Barlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, 4th ed. (1877) in a footnote on Page 205.

Luckily, I came across a copy of Dictionary of Americanisms. A Glossary of Words and Phrases, Usually Regarded as Peculiar The United States, by John Russell Bartlett. (New York: Barlett and Welford, 1848) "HOOKEY. To play hookey, is to play truant. A term used among schoolboys." appears on page 180.

So it seems that the term was in use at least by 1848 when Mr. Bartlett published his dictionary. Still there is no mention of the origin of the word. However, on page 179, Mr. Bartlett includes the following:

HOOK. (Dutch, hoek, a corner.) This name is given in New York to several angular points in the North and East rivers; as Corlear's Hook, Sandy Hook, Powle's Hook.

The definition of hook and of hookey in Bartlett's 3rd & 4th editions (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1860 & 1877) is changed a little from that in the 1848 edition.

Hook. (Dutch, hoek, a corner, a cape.) This name is given, in New York, to several angular points in the North and East Rivers; as, Corlear's Hook, Powle's Hook, Sandy Hook. [p, 201; p. 293]

Hookey. To "play hookey" is to play truant. A term used amount school-boys, chiefly in the State of New York. [p. 201; p. 294]

I wasn't getting anywhere in finding the Dutch connection to playing hooky except that I found another book that seemed to be based on Bartlett's dictionaries. In 1902, Sylva Clapin published A New Dictionary of Americanisms Being a Glossary of Words supposed to Be Peculiar to the United States and the Dominion of Canada.

He published a dictionary of Canadian French in 1894. Between 1873 and 1899, Mr. Clapin lived in the US, Quebec, Paris, Montreal, and Boston. So it seems that Mr. Clapin was interested in the differences between American English and British English as well as American French and the French as spoken in France. Unfortunately as you will see in the definitions below taken from his dictionary that I was no closer to finding a connection to a colonial Dutch children's game and playing hooky.

Hook (Dutch hoek, a corner, a cape). An old word designation certain corners and angular points in the Hudson and East Rivers, as Sandy Hook, Kinderhook, etc. [p. 231]

Hookey (to play). To play truant, chiefly current in State of New York, among school-boys. In England, "playing the wag." In New England, the form to hook Jack is used in preference. [p. 232]

To be continued...

PS - My husband thinks that I made up "Charley-wag" to tease him. Not so...I found Charley-wag was used 1876 in C. Hindley's Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 57.

On Becoming a Part of History

The furthest thing from my mind was the possibility that any part of my family could be a part of history in my lifetime. Someone who is a head of state is a part of history. But we are just ordinary people.

I suppose I should have considered this possibility almost twenty years ago when my daughter asked me to help find an artifact of the 20th Century to bring to school.

It was the 1990s and I had some old stuff I had purchased from antique stores that I was sure would qualify. However, not much of it was small enough to fit in her backpack or for her to easily carry. I did have a cast iron, hand-cranked coffee grinder that was manufactured about 1910.

I used it a few times when I first acquired it, but the electric coffee grinder was faster and easier to use. To me it fit the bill. It was quite lovely, painted black with gold leafing, but very heavy. My daughter refused to take it to school. So back to the drawing board,

I started going through some boxes looking for something that she could manage. Then I spied a slide rule that I had from college. I hadn't used it in so many years that it wouldn't move.

How could something I used in high school and college be an artifact? Completely unfathomable after all I am not that old! My daughter had not even heard of a slide rule. She'd never seen one. Since it was lightweight and something she could put in her backpack, she decided to take it. My husband, with a little WD-40, got the slide rule working and showed her how to use it.

Neither of us could believed that we had become old enough that something we regularly used not all that long ago was an artifact. As shocking as that notion was to us, neither of us conceived of a day in which one of us might be included in a history book.

But now it's nearly twenty years past.

Last fall, my husband was interviewed by the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. His interview is part of an oral history exhibit that the museum is creating. Forty years ago, he was a graduate student working on an interesting project. The students were having fun and no one thought what they were doing would make history.

Fifteen years ago interest in the beginnings of the Internet was just emerging. In 1996, Katie Hafner published her book, "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet." She interviewed him and there is a brief mention of him in the book.

Ten years ago, interest in the evolution of the Internet, again emerged. Dr. Leonard Kleinrock, at UCLA, waged a successful PR campaign to identify the beginning of the Internet as October 29, 1969. As a result, my husband was interviewed by San Francisco Bay Area newspapers and radio stations concerning his involvement on that date.

The fall of 2009 was a different story. Maybe it was shocking to people to learn that the Internet was germinated over forty years ago. It is so 21st Century! How can it be a product of the mid 20th century?

More people seemed to be interested in how the Internet came to be. In October, my husband became a mini-celebrity. He was incredibly flattered when someone asked for his autograph. He was on Cloud-nine after an Office Depot employee recognized him and asked to have his picture taken with my husband.

Several months have passed and he is just a regular guy again. No more requests for photos or autographs. But I am still shocked that my husband's voice, image and story is preserved in a museum.

Culzean Castle and American Aristocracy

Around the beginning of the 20th Century, as the influx of immigrants, particularly from Eastern European counties, was reaching its apex, native-born Americans seemed to have had need to distinguish themselves above the immigrants. This behavior was more evident in the eastern states.

Organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, Sons of the American Revolution, Mayflower Society, etc. were founded at this time. While some people were proving lineage to join such societies, others were looking to find a connection to European royalty.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of those who came to America in the early days of European colonization of North America were common people seeking a chance for a better life. A whole industry of finding one's "family crest" emerged to take advantage of this intense interest in finding a connection to important families of Europe in the 1600 and early 1700s. This desire still exists today. I typed my maiden name and the words "family crest' and voila a page with my "family crest" appeared. However, none of the facts relate to my father's family.

Most Americans who can trace their family to the pre-Revolutionary days of the United States have no connection to the aristocracy of Europe. However, there are a few Americans who have become titled. One of the most recent is Queen Noor of Jordan and Grace Kelly of Monaco. A colonial American who inherited both property and title was Archibald Kennedy. He married Arent Philipse Schuyler's granddaughter, Catherine Schuyler. Archibald inherited his cousin's estate in Scotland and became the 11th Earl of Cassilis and owner of Culzean Castle in Scotland.

The castle is pronounced culain. It was designed by the Scottish architect, Robert Adam, and was completed in 1792 as the home of the 10th Earl of Cassillis who died that year. The title then passed to Archibald Kennedy of New York who was a Captain in the Royal Navy. His townhouse in New York, No.1 Broadway, was requisitioned by George Washington after the War of Independence.

The castle remained in the family until 1945 when the 5th Marquess gave it to the National Trust of Scotland with the stipulation that an apartment in the castle should be given to General Eisenhower for his lifetime to show Scotland's gratitude for his role as Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. Today visitors can see an exhibition on the life of General Eisenhower as well as rent the suite for the night.

What is Canada West?

During the American Revolution, Canada consisted of the maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) and New France (parts of the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario). The eastern part of Quebec was mostly French speaking. Loyalists, fleeing the United States around the time of the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1783), settled in the western part of Quebec.

Having been a French colony, Quebec used the French civil law model. Loyalists settling into Quebec were used to the British common law model. Thus a conflict arose. Quebec was guaranteed the survival of civil law in the Quebec Act of 1774. To resolve the conflict between the larger French-speaking population and the newly arrived, smaller population of English-speaking refugees, Quebec was split into Upper and Lower Canada in 1791. Lower Canada used civil law and Upper Canada used common law.

The Act of Union in 1840 created the Province of Canada from Upper and Lower Canada.The two areas were called Canada East (Lower) and Canada West (Upper). The separate Upper and Lower Canada legislatures were abolished and a new unified legislature was established. The Act of Union was passed in July 1840 and was as a result of the Rebellions of 1837.

The two rebellions occurred in the same time period but in different parts of Canada. The rebellion in Upper Canada was a reaction of the populace to the control wielded by the wealthy, conservative, Anglican elite that afforded preferential treatment to the Anglican Church to the deteriment of Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians and Methodists. The rebellion in Lower Canada was a reaction of the French-speaking majority and the English-speaking working class to the economic powers held by a few predominately English-speaking persons. Lord Durham was sent from England to assess the situation who recommended the consolidation of the two legislatures.

The first time I heard of Canada West I assumed that it must refer to British Columbia and Alberta. But, I came across a letter written in 1862 to my great, great, great grandmother from her sister in Cornwall in Canada West. However, I knew from what my mother told me that Cornwall is in the eastern part of Ontario on the Saint Lawrence River east of Lake Ontario. I wanted to know what comprised Canada West.

When Quebec was split into Upper and Lower Canada in 1791, Upper Canada contained most of what is the Province of Ontario, but not all. The northernmost portion of Ontario was not controlled by the British government but by the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1670, King Charles II of England granted a huge tract of land in Canada to the Hudson's Bay Company.

In 1867, the Dominion of Canada was established and Canada East was called the Province of Quebec and Canada West was called the Province of Ontario. A few years later, the British government added territory to these two provinces and formed the boundaries as we know them.

In 1869, Canada purchased Rupert's Land North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company. Rupert's Land encompassed all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, the southern part of Alberta and the northern parts of Ontario and Quebec. The North-Western Territory covered a small portion of Saskatchewan, most of Alberta, all of the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut Territories. British Columbia, the westernmost province, was not included. Although controlled by the British, it did not become a part of the Dominion of Canada until 1871.

In context of the provinces and territories that comprise Canada of today, Ontario as Canada West makes no sense. However, when you look at the history of the formation of the Canadian provinces and territories, Canada West makes sense. In 1840, Ontario was the westernmost part of Canada. The lands to the north and west of Ontario were controlled by the British government and the Hudson's Bay Company.

Click here to see an interactive Territorial and Provincial Formation Map of Canada.

My Fascination of Local Histories

I was asked today about why I was so interested in local histories of the places in which my relatives lived. My answer is I want to make these people more than names on a piece of paper. I cannot go back to meet these people and talk to them. So by investigating the historical records of the time in which each lived, I can understand the local events that may have contributed to the decisions these people made. There is one thing that I know for sure. Change is very difficult for most people. This has been true throughout history. I want to know what caused my ancestors and relatives to make decisions to uproot and move to an unfamiliar place. This all started when I began to make a family tree on my mother's side. My ancestors settled in the Dutch colony of New Netherland in the 1600s. In September of 1664, New Netherland was conquered by the English and became the Provinces of New Jersey and New York. The family remained in the Province of New York for more than 100 years. But a little before 1800, a branch moved to the Province of Ontario in Canada, also known as Upper Canada. That is the branch from which I sprung. Early in my family history research, I somehow thought Luke Stoutenburg was a Loyalist (or Tory depending on one's point of view). Many loyalists who lost property when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 were given land grants in Canada by the British government. As I delved into my research, I learned that Luke was born in 1772. It is hard to believe that he was a soldier in the American Revolution on either side at the age of 4. So what made him take his family from New York to the wilds of Upper Canada? That is another story. However, in trying to figure this out, I became fascinated with learning about the history of a place at a specific time that might explain why a family might uproot itself and go to a place that is not known or familiar to them. This has become my passion and has earned the nickname by my friends and family of Sherlock.

Vice President Schuyler Colfax and Others

In 2007 I wrote an article for the Stoutenburgh-Teller Family Association Newsletter about various descendants of Anneke Jans, Pieter Stoutenburg and Willem Teller. The people in my article range from the famous, not so famous and infamous. Back in those days, it wasn't surprising that there was much intermarriage. Willem Teller was the great-great-great grandfather of Robert Bogardus, a general in the War of 1812. Robert’s great-great-great grandmother was Anneke Jans. Willem Teller’s daughter Helena married Anneke Jan’s son from her second marriage Cornelis Bogardus.

Willem Teller’s daughter Jannetje married Arent Schuyler. She died in New York City in 1700 after which Arent moved his family to Pompton Plains, NJ where he discovered copper. The mine made him very wealthy.

Arent and Jannetje’s great-great grand-daughter Hester Schuyler married General William Colfax. Hester’s son Schuyler Colfax fell on hard times and died of tuberculosis in 1822 leaving a pregnant wife, Hester Stryker. Her son Schuyler Colfax, Jr. was born 4 months later on March 23, 1823 in New York City.

When Schuyler was ten, he left school to work while his mother ran a boarding house. In 1836, she remarried and the family moved to New Carlisle, IN where his step-father George Matthews opened a store. Schuyler worked as a clerk for his stepfather. Like Abraham Lincoln, Schuyler had little formal education so was self-taught. He read everything he could get or borrow.

Schuyler became a legislative correspondent for the Indiana State Journal and purchased an interest in the South Bend Free Press. He was then elected to Congress and served from 1855 to 1869. He was Speaker of the House in the last three years. Schuyler was elected Vice President under Ulysses S. Grant on the Republican ticket. He served from March 4, 1869 to March 3, 1873.

Schuyler died January 13, 1885 at a train station in Mankato, MN. He had walked three quarters of a mile to the station but the temperature was 30 degrees below zero. Five minutes later he died of heart failure.

Another relative did not have a chance to make his mark in the world. Martin Ringo, Pieter Stoutenburg’s great-great-great-great grandson, accidentally shot himself to death on July 30, 1864 near Glenrock, WY. He was 43 years old and suffering from tuberculosis. It is believed that the family was moving to California where his wife’s sister and her family lived in hopes of his recuperating.

His grave marker is at the site, one of the few found along the Oregon-California trail. Mary Peters Ringo’s journal was published in “Covered Wagon Women” Vol. 9, edited by Kenneth L. Holmes. It was heart wrenching to read her account of his death and her struggle to get her young children to California. She was pregnant at the time of Martin’s death and subsequently miscarried in Nevada.

The information on Schuyler Colfax was taken from the "Life of Schuyler Colfax" by O. J. Hollister.

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