Oldest House in Hyde Park - William Stoutenburgh Home

The Stoutenburgh-Teller Family Association is the proud owner of the oldest house in Hyde Park, New York. The house was built in the latter half of the 18th Century by William Stoutenburgh, son of Jacobus Stoutenburgh, the first settler of Hyde. Park. The area was known as Stoutenburgh and Stoutenburgh Landing.



William Stoutenburgh Home - Photo at FDR Presidential Library
Oldest home in Hyde Park, NY

Donations through the years have helped to support the maintenance of this old house. This year this old house needed more maintenance than expected. A member of the Family Association offered to match donations to the Association between now and October 31st up to $25,000.

If you are a descendant of Jacobus Stoutenburgh, descendant of his grandfather, Pieter Stoutenburg, or a person who loves to preserve pieces of colonial history, please consider sending a contribution, however large or small, to the Stoutenburgh-Teller Family Association, PO Box 365, Lenoir City, TN 37771-0365. Your donation is tax-deductible.

Make the check out to the Wm. Stoutenburgh Historic Homesite and write "Challenge" in the memo area of the check. Although the matching offer expires on October 31, the Family Association is happy to receive donations at any time.

The Man with An Identity Crisis

When I add a person to my family tree by marriage, I like to include his/her parents. When a female is added through marriage, I ofttimes find it a challenge to identify her parents. Once I identify her parents, I like to include some basic information, such as, when and where her parents were born and died.

My relative, Harry E. Richardson, was married to Frances by 1930. Trying to identify her parents was a challenge. As I dug deeper in, I learned the names of her parents. It wasn't easy because her father seemed to have an identity issue.

Christian Strohm was born 1871-1872 in Michigan. He was enumerated with his parents 1880 in Elmwood Township, Leelanau County, Michigan at the age of 8. His father was born in Wurtemburg, Germany and his mother, in Baden, Germany.

In the 1900 Census, he was enumerated as Christ Strohm and born in November 1871. He had been married for 2 years at that time. The young couple were living in Elmwood Township.

In 1910, the family was living in Blair Township, Grand Traverse County, Michigan. In the 1910 Census, was he recorded as Christopher Srohm (sic) and is a farmer who owns his farm outright. Frances is the youngest child in the household.

I found the change in his name a bit strange and credited it to the enumerator. But then I found that he was enumerated as Christpher in 1920 and in 1940. However in the 1930 Census, his name was written as Chris J. Strohm.

His obituary in the Traverse City Record-Eagle in entitled, "Christ Strohm, Pioneer, Dies." and his gravestone reads, " Strohm, Chris J. 1872 - 1958."

He used the name Chris In the 1903-1904 Traverse City and Grand Traverse County Directory. But by the next directory, he is recorded as Christopher Strohm. Christopher Strohm is listed in the various directories between 1904 and 1927.

Christian, Christopher, Christ, Chris Strohm may you rest in peace.

How Did Frederick E. Hyde Fjord Get Its Name?

The trustees of the Stoutenburgh Family Burying Ground in Hyde Park, New York, are mapping the location of gravesites and identifying how those buried there are connected to Jacobus Stoutenburgh and his wife, Margaret Teller. I was asked if I could find out more about Frederick E. Hyde and his wife, Susannah Stoutenburgh Hyde, who are buried in the cemetery.
 
The task was an easy one for me as I already knew who she was and her connection to Jacobus and Margaret. However, I really didn’t have much information about her husbands. Frederick Hyde was Susannah’s second husband. The things that I learned about her first husband will make for a post another time.
 
I located the couple in the 1925 New York State Census and also in the 1930 and 1940 US Censuses. He had no occupation indicated in any of the three censuses. The 1940 Census indicated he had income from sources other than wages and that he had completed five years of college. The couple traveled to Europe often as I found them on the passenger list of several sailings.
 
When I searched for Frederick E. Hyde at Google, I received several hits but not what I expected.
 
There is a fjord on Greenland called Frederick E. Hyde Fjord. It is at least 150 kilometers in length (a bit over 93 miles in length). The fjord is the northernmost fjord on the island with its mouth on the eastern side of the island opening on the Arctic Ocean. The shores of the fjord are apparently ice-free during the summer as seen in photos on the Internet.
 
Frederick E. Hyde Fjord is located on a peninsula known as Peary Land. The 28th Meridian West crosses through the fjord.

Peary Land

 
The Peninsula is defined by the Arctic Ocean to the north, east and west and by two fjords to the south. The mouth of Victoria Fjord is on the western side of Greenland, and the mouth of Independent Fjord is on the eastern side. Frederick E. Hyde Fjord divides Peary Land into North Peary Land and South Peary Land.
 
Other than physical descriptions of the fjord, I wasn’t finding anything that told me how the fjord got its name. Some of my earlier research revealed that Dr. Frederick Erastus Hyde and his sons, Benjamin Talbot Babbitt Hyde and Frederick Erastus Hyde, Jr., were members of several scientific institutions.
 
Dr. Frederick Erastus Hyde was member and benefactor of the Linnaean Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the American Association for the Advancement of Science among others. Frederick Erastus Hyde, Jr. and his brother, Benjamin Talbot Babbitt Hyde, were also members of the some of the same organizations as their father. They also financed explorations in the American Southwest between 1893 and 1907. I found no evidence that the brothers were involved with explorations elsewhere.
 
I recalled from my school years that Robert E. Peary had been the first to reach the North Pole. Given that the northernmost part of Greenland is called Peary Land, I decided to see what I could find out about Peary and his expeditions. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Robert Edwin Perry explored the area in 1892, 1895 and 1900.
 
Searching in Google Books I found many recently published books about Peary’s expeditions and also some that studied whether Peary was or was not the first to reach the North Pole. I was delighted to find a digitized book written by Robert Peary himself entitled, Nearest the Pole: A Narrative of the Polar Expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S. S. Roosevelt, 1905 -1906.
 
Reading page 329, I learned how Frederick E. Hyde Fjord got its name.
 

EXPEDITION OF 1898—1902

"Arrived here at 10:30 P. M., May 20^th, from Etah via Fort Conger, and north end of Greenland. Left Etah March 14^th. Left Conger April 15^th. Arrived north end of Greenland may `3th. Reached point on sea-ice latitude 83° 50’ N., May 16^th.

On arrival here had rations for one more march southward. Two days dense fog have held me here. Am now starting back.

With me are my man Matthew Henson; Ahngmalokto, an Eskimo; sixteen dogs and three sledges.

This journey has been made under the auspices of and with funds furnished by the Peary Arctic Club of New York City.

The membership of this Club comprises: Morris K. Jesup, Henry W. Cannon, Herbert L. Bridgman, John Flagler, E. C. Benedict, James J. Hill, H. H. Benedict, Fred’k E. Hyde, E. W. Bliss, H. H. Sands, J. M. Constable, O. F. Wyckoff, E. G. Wyckoff, Chas. P. Daly, Henry Parish, A. A. Raven, G. B. Schley, E. B. Thomas and others.

R. E. Peary

Civil Engineer, U. S. N."

 

The book includes a chapter on the Peary Arctic Club. Frederick E. Hyde was one of the founding members and was elected as its first vice president. Morris Jesup was elected President and apparently is the person for whom Cape Morris Jesup is named. The cape is located at the northernmost part of Greenland.

 

Most of the founders of the Peary Arctic Club were born between 1830 and 1850. Frederick E. Hyde was born in 1844 while his son, Frederick, was born in 1874. Based on the ages of the founding members, I believe that the Dr. Frederick E. Hyde was one of the founding members and that is for him that the fjord is named.

Klondyke Bogardus

One of the surnames that I trace is Bogardus. Anneke Jans married Evarudus Bogardus in the early half of the 1600s in Nieuw Amsterdam after the death of her husband, Roelof Janszen. Roelof and Anneke had a daughter from whom I descend. After the death of her first husband, Anneke Jans married Domine Bogardus and had four sons. That makes the Bogardus descendants my cousins.

The other day, I came across a Tomás Andrew Morales Bogardus. I was so intrigued with this name because it was not typical of names that I had encountered as I researched the Bogardus family. Based on Hispanic naming traditions, I suspected that Tomás Andrew Morales Bogardus was born in one of the southwestern states in the United States.

Indeed he was. He was born in California around the same time as my own children were born. So I was curious to figure out how Tomás was connected to Everardus Bogardus. I still have work to do to make the connection, but as I was doing my Google searches, I came across a Klondyke Bogardus.

What an odd given name! I found lots of things about him. He spent his life in Lima, Ohio. One of his great-granddaughters fell out of a second or third floor window in Cleveland when she was the age of three.

Klondyke seems to have been a clerk at the Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company. He was born in 1897 in Lima, Ohio.

I learned that the Klondike gold field in Alaska was opened in 1896. So it looks like Klondyke was named from this gold mine. At this point, I haven't been able to ascertain if any close family member had participated in the gold rush in 1896 or if he was named Klondyke as a joke.

A Stranger in the Cemetery

There is a gravestone in the Stoutenburgh family cemetery in Hyde Park, New York that doesn't seem to be a relative of that family. The deceased is Joseph Teel. So I began the quest to figure out who this person is and why he is buried in this cemetery. This is what I know:

He married Elizabeth Searle at Stoneham, Massachusetts on November 12, 1767 by Rev. John Searl. He was living in Medford, Massachusetts and she was living in Stoneham. Rev. Searl was the minster in Stoneham and apparently took his records with him when he was dismissed so I haven’t found any information for Elizabeth Searle.

I did find a 1919 Rhinebeck, New York newspaper article that mentioned him. The article is titled, “The last Survivors of the Revolutionary Pensions in Dutchess County,” by George S. Van Vliet. Apparently the 1840 US Census identified all the living pensioners of the Revolutionary War or surviving widows. Joseph Teel’s name is included in the list. He was 95 in 1840 and living in Hyde Park.

 The article indicated that he was a captain who fought at Bunker’s (sic) Hill, was in the Massachusetts line and was present at the surrender of General Burgoyne.

It said that Joseph Teel was an elder at the Hyde Park Reformed Church for many years. He died at the age of 98 in Hyde Park on February 14, 1843. The article also indicates that he was buried in the Stoughtenburg (sic) burying ground in Hyde Park.

The following is taken from Pages 406-407, Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Dutchess and Putnam, New York

This book also claimed that he was a captain in the Revolutionary War. I suspect that the writer of the newspaper article in 1919 obtained  that information from this book.

Joseph Teel and his wife, Elizabeth Searle, had a daughter, their only child. She was known as Elizabeth Dunbar Teel and married Cyrus Braman on December 25, 1793. She died at Hyde Park December 4, 1801. Joseph Teel apparently continued a close relationship with his son-in-law as he died at Cyrus Braman’s home. (A Census of pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services with Their Names, Ages, and Places of Residence, Returned by the Marshals of the Several Judicial Districts under the Act for Taking the Sixth Census, Page 105.)

Cyrus was born in Norwich, Connecticut on November 28, 1766 and died at Hyde Park, October 10, 1850 at his son-in-law’s home.

Joseph Teel purchased property at Rhinebeck in 1786. He apparently moved to Dutchess County about that time. His daughter and son-in-law were living in Norwich, Connecticut at the time but moved to Hyde Park around 1799 as Cyrus and his wife purchased property in Hyde Park from Phineas Eames November, 1799.
Cyrus and Elizabeth had four children: Joseph Teel Braman, Elizabeth Dunbar Teel Braman, John Adams Braman, and Cassandana Braman. The sons never married and Cassandana died 8 days after her mother at age 14 months. Elizabeth Dunbar Teel Braman married John Church of Yates County, New York.

There is conflicting information about Joseph Teel.

I found a house in Norwich, Connecticut named the Teel House. It was built as a hotel in 1789 and completed in 1790 by Joseph Teel of Preston. Both Norwich and Preston are communities in New London County, Connecticut. History of Norwich, Connecticut, from Its Possession by the Indians to the Year 1855, Page 535, says that Joseph Teel died and the hotel was run by his son-in-law, Cyrus Bramin, who put it up for sale in 1797. That house is currently for sale for $330,000.

It looks like Joseph moved to Rhinebeck in 1796 and his son-in-law was given the task of disposing of the property.

Then I found Joseph Teel’s application for a pension as a Revolutionary War soldier. The application claims that he was born April 4, 1745 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. It also indicated that he was not a captain. He served under 3 different Massachusetts regiments during the war. He was private and was elevated to that of a guard in the last regiment he served. Richard DeCantillon Stoutenburgh represented Joseph Teel in his application for a pension in 1832.

Cyrus Braman married Ruth Hitt after Elizabeth Dunbar Teel died. I looked at their offspring to see if I could find a connection to the Stoutenburgh family. I did not find any connection but I did note that their son, Samuel Hitt Braman, married Helen Van Vliet. The article in The Rhinebeck Gazette to which I reference above was written by George S. Van Vliet.

As it turns out, George S. Van Vliet is the first cousin once removed to Helen Van Vliet, wife of Samuel Hitt Braman. George included notes regarding some of the names in the 1840 list of pensioners. As I was piecing together the Braman and Teel families, I noted that several of the names for which notes were added also appeared in the Commemorative Biographical Record referenced above.

At this point, I think that Joseph Teel is buried in our cemetery because of his or the Braman family's friendship to the Stoutenburgh family. Cyrus Braman's property was between that of Dr. Bard's property and that of the Stoutenburgh family's property.

Edwin Bruce and his widow, Leona Ringo

The State of Missouri some time ago posted searchable images of death certificates from 1910 into the 1960s. A branch of an ancestor settled in Missouri well before the Civil War. I searched for the surname Ringo and was rewarded with many hits.

The female hits were either of unmarried women who were Ringos or women who married a Ringo. As I matched up the death certificates with names in my family tree, I found that I was missing death certificates for Ringo daughters who married. One such woman was Leona Ringo.

She was 3 years old when her family was enumerated in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1880. The 1890 Census was mostly destroyed in a fire. The next intact federal census was in 1900. She was not enumerated with her parents and some of her siblings in the 1900 US census. At the age of about 23, she was likely to have married.

Her father was a prominent lawyer in St. Joseph, Missouri and much of the family seemed to have remained in St. Joseph, I took a chance and searched the State of Missouri death certificates for a Leona in Buchanan County. Fortunately she married a man whose surname began with the letter B.

After looking at a half a dozen death certificates, I found her. She was Leona Bruce and died in St. Joseph, MO in 1961. Her son, John, was the informant and he provided the name of her husband. I then found the couple in the 1900 census. She was born in August 1878 and he was born in November 1878. They had been married a year.

Next I found an entry in a register of their application for a marriage license and the record of their marriage. Their marriage license was issued in Buchanan County, Missouri on December 31, 1898. They were married by Rev. C. M. Chilton on January 2, 1899 in St. Joseph, MO.

In 1910, Leona and her husband were living in Lamar, Barton County, Missouri where he was in the lumber business. They had a son, John, who was 6 years old and born in Missouri. In 1961, John was living in Norman, Oklahoma at the time of his mother's death.

In 1920, I found Leona and her son living with two of her sisters in St. Joseph, MO. She was identified as a widow. She was a widow at the time of her death in 1961 so I assumed that Edwin died before 1920. But to my surprise, I found the death certificate for Edwin Beldon Bruce who died in 1951 in St. Joseph, MO and was born November 25, 1878 in Princeton, Missouri. Leona was the informant for his death Certificate and was living in the same rural route number as was Edwin at the time of his death.

So confused...

I then found a World War I draft registration card for Edwin Beldon Bruce in Missouri who was born November 25, 1878. He was living in Jackson County, Missouri at the time and his wife was Edyna. Edwin and Edyna were enumeration in Jackson, Co. in 1920. I then found the register of their marriage in 1917.

It would appear that Leona and Edwin were divorced by 1917. However, in 1930, Edyna Ringo was divorced. She apparently did not remarry as she died in 1981 and the Social Security Death Index includes Edyna Bruce who was born on December 14, 1888 and died in September 1981. He last residence was Springfield, Greene County, Missouri.

At this time I have not found either Leona or Edwin in the 1930 or 1940 census, but at some time the couple reunited before his death in 1951

Where are the oil wells of Southern California?

A sight that had never seen in Minnesota when I was growing up was an oil well. I recall seeing pictures of oil wells in Texas and Oklahoma that looked a lot like the windmills over water wells.

When my parents moved us to California, we settled in Orange County in Southern California. The first oil wells I saw were the oil wells off the coast south of Santa Barbara near Summerland as my father drove us north to visit his sisters and parents.

I mostly noticed them when we were driving south at night after a visit with my dad's sisters and parents. It looked like a city on the ocean, all lit up. As it turned out, the city that I thought was on an island was a series of oil platforms that were not connected to each other.

The oil wells on the "island" looked like the pictures of oil derricks that I saw as a kid.

A few years later I got my driver's license and had a former classmate who was living near Long Beach, California. On one trip to visit her, I had a chance to see the oil wells on Signal Hill. The oil in these wells was being extracted by a pump that resembled a grasshopper, like the image I found below.

 

 

Occasionally I saw one with eyes painted on the head. After my in-laws moved to Carmel, Charley and I would drive up California 101 to visit and along the route, I saw many of the grasshopper oil wells especially near Paso Robles.

 

There was even an oil well on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. I drove by it often and could see it from my doctor's office in Century City, California. Unlike the other oil wells I saw in Southern California, this was camouflaged.

 

 

I don't know when it happened but the oil wells that dotted the landscape along Highway 1, Highway 101 and Interstate 405 began to disappear from view.

 

The oil fields are ugly but I sort of miss the grasshopper pumps with eyes. These pumps have a name, pumpjack.