Beeks line: Samuel Demarest 1656-1728, Immigrant

Technically, hard working David Demarest, Samuel's father, was the immigrant of the family, but Samuel was about 7 years old when he arrived in America so he also immigrated.  The difference of course, is that he had no choice in the matter, although he would certainly have chosen to come with his family had he been asked.  The Demarest family (seen in several different spelling variations) was French Huguenot, with Samuel's parents, David and Marie Sohier Demarest, having been married in the Netherlands, and Samuel and his siblings born in what is now Mannheim, Germany.  Being a Huguenot wasn't easy economically, even though physically the family was certainly safer there then they had been had the earlier generations stayed in France.  

Some of the Mannheim Huguenots began to go to New Amsterdam, where the Dutch were in control and there was no religious persecution.  The Demarest family joined this exodus in 1663, and soon moved from New Amsterdam to Staten Island and then on to New Harlem, where other Dutch and French families also had prosperous farms.  They may have thought they had finally found a congenial home, but the very next year, the English took control of the Dutch colony.  Still, the family stayed in New York until 1678, so Samuel's adolescent years were spent there.  He would have learned to farm, and he would have watched his father become a leader in the community, at one time a constable.  Lessons of good citizenship were modeled by David, both in the government, the school, and the church.  

In 1678, the Demarests moved to what was known as the French Patent, on the Hackensack River in Bergen County, New Jersey.  Two of Samuel's brothers were married, and they also moved west, to settle near their parents.  Samuel soon married Maria De Ruine on August 11, 1678.  Maria was the half sister of the wife of Jean Demarest, Samuel's older brother, so the two were well-acquainted.  

Samuel and Maria had eleven children together, so they were kept busy raising their family and planning for their future.  Samuel helped run his father's mill business, and when his father died in 1693 he received 1/3 of the mills (presumably one mill), with instructions as to what was to happen to the entire business if there was a water shortage (equal water, taking turns).  Since Samuel's home was on the Hackensack River, it stands to reason that he had a wharf there and could conduct trade for the grains at the mill, as well as produce raised at the farm, and whatever textiles the farm might have produced. 

The family originally worshiped at a French church, but when the Dutch church acquired a full time pastor, they transferred membership there.  One wonders how many languages Samuel would have spoken.  Surely he spoke French, probably Dutch (or why transfer to that church), perhaps German, and probably at least some English.  We don't know whether he could read and write in all of these languages, but he probably at least could make out legal terms, for contracts, and he may well have been able to read letters written by family members and friends in any of the above languages. 

Samuel never had an easy or secure life until his later years, when it probably still wasn't easy.  He lived in several frontier areas and there were tensions with the native Americans at various times in both New York and New Jersey.  We have no indication that he was in the militia but there is a possibility that he was. 

 Maria died in 1704 and Samuel died October 19, 1728, when seven of his children were still living.  I have seen indications that he had a will which was probated but I have not been able to locate it.  That would surely give us additional information about this remarkable ancestor.

The line of descent is:

Samuel Demarest-Maria De Ruine

David Demarest-Matie DeBaun

Samuel Demaree-Lea Demarest

Sarah Demaree-Benjamin Slot

William Lock-Elizabeth Teague

Sally Lock-Jeremiah Folsom

Leah Folsom-Darlington Aldridge

Harvey Aldridge-Margaret Catherine Dunham

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants

Holbrook line: Benoni Clough 1675-1757

 Benoni Clough (pronounced Cluff, probably) was the grandson of immigrant John Clough, and the son of John Clough and Mercy Page.  His grandfather had settled in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, and his parents lived their entire lives there.  (Well, Mercy had been born in Haverhill but she spent her married life in Salisbury.) Benoni was born at Salisbury on May 23, 1675, and if he had wanted to make this descendant's life a little easier, he would have stayed there his entire life also.  But apparently he wasn't thinking about me!

What Benoni did was to move to New Hampshire.  We have a few, a very few, ancestors who also were to be found in New Hampshire, but this still feels like new territory to me.  I'm not really sure how far he moved.  His father and his grandfather are both listed as buried at the Salisbury Plains burying ground in Amesbury.  Amesbury and Salisbury lie very close together, so likely they lived close to the border of the two Massachusetts towns.  Kensington, New Hampshire, where Benoni lived for many years, is just a few miles north of Amesbury and Salisbury, so he may very well have lived within just a few miles of his birthplace, but it was enough to put him in another state.  

Benoni married Hannah, usually seen as the daughter of Nathaniel and Joanna Kinney Merrill, probably about 1694 as children started arriving in 1695.  Hannah's birth date is given as 1672, so Benoni, at age 19, may have married a woman three or so years older than he was.  All 10 of their children are shown as having been born in Salisbury, with the last being born in 1712.  Hannah was a busy woman!  

Benoni bought land from Caleb Webster in what became Kensington, New Hampshire in 1715, and that may be when the family moved there.  I haven't traced all the children, to see how many moved with him but there were plenty of Cloughs in both Kensington and Salisbury, and the family likely stayed in close touch.  Kensington wasn't actually formed as a town until 1737; up to that time it had been part of Hampton. This entire area is just a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but probably was a farming rather than a maritime economy.  

Based on Benoni's residence and age, it is likely that he served in the militia and very well have been involved in some of the many wars, battles, or skirmishes that took place when he was a young to middle-aged man.  The Britsh (and their colonists) were regularly at war with the French and their native American allies, such as King William's War, Queen Anne's War, and other named conflicts.  It is not likely that the family ever felt entirely safe, even though their area had been (sparsely) settled since the 1630s.

I've not been able to locate a will or inventory for Benoni, nor any other details that would help bring him to life.  He was likely a church member, at least in Salisbury, and he would have been knowledgeable about the arms of the day.  He probably farmed and hunted, but whether he had an additional occupation is not known at this time.  We do know he had children, and one of them became our ancestor.  For that, he earns a place in our family history.

The line of descent is:

Benoni Clough-Hannah probably Merrill

Benjamin Clough-Faith Hart

Lydia Clough-John Whittemore

Josiah Whittemore-Lucy Snow

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

Harshbarger line: Hans Jacob Kestenholtz 1700-1768

 Regretfully. this is another blog post which has minimal information in it.  Even some of what we think we know is confusing.  But we can plce Jacob in definite places at definite times, and that, at least, is something.  

Part of the difficulty in researching Jacob is his name.  I've found several different spellings for it, and he may have also used the name Chestnutwood, which his granddaughter and probably his son definitely used.  Chestnutwood is the translation for Kestenholtz.

Jacob was born October 21, 1700 in Sissach, Basel Canton, Switzerland, the son of Abraham and Barbara Itin Kestenholtz.  The religion of his family is not known, except that he was baptized in Switzerland.  His parents may have been part of the state church, or it's possible that they were Mennonites, or Lutherans, and had their child baptized in order to comply with regulations.  Some Mennonite4s fled to the Palatinate rather than have their children baptized, but we don't know whether that was the case here.  They may have been perfectly happy to support the state church.  

We know nothing of Jacob's childhood, except that his mother died in 1713.  THe next record we have of Jacob is his arrival in America.  Whether it was for religious or for economic reasons, the Kestenholtz family, arrived here in 1738.  That's when Jacob was reported to have arrived on the snow Enterprise, in Philadelphia.  It's also when Jacob, along with his wife Anna Maria Glintz (also seen as Blintz) and their children Sepastian, Barbara, Hans Jacob, and Hans George arrived in "Carolina".  Jacob had married Anna Maria, who may have been the daughter of Emmert Glintz, on July 7, 1726 at Sissach, Basel, Switzerland.  

Currently I am unable to reconcile the two records.  Did the family first land in Carolina, and then made their way to Pennsylvania?  If so, I wonder what the story was behind that.  Were they driven off course by a storm, or did they perhaps first settle in New Bern, or is there another twist I've not yet thought of?  At any rate, they were in Pennsylvania, in what was then Bucks or Philadelphia County but later became Berks County.  The only mention I've found of him was in Union Township of Berks County, at the end of his life.

If Jacob lived in Union Township for most of his residence in America, I've not found him in tax records of the time.  Nor have I found his male children.  This makes me wonder whether Jacob may have been a merchant or a tradesman of some sort, not owning land or a dwelling.  Perhaps the records are just missing.  

It seems reasonable to place Jacob in Berks county at the time of the French and Indian War, and during the times of other unpleasantness with the native Americans.  The family, like many of their neighbors, may have had to leave their home to go to a larger city for protection, if they didn't already live in a town like Reading.  It would have been a time of tension and we don't know how it affected the family's livelihood.  

I've not found church records for Jacob, either.  He is said to have died at Union City, but that was not yet a town when Jacob died on September 5, 1768.  I've not found a grave site for him, nor have I found a will or inventory.  So there is much we don't know about Jacob, but we do know he was part of the Harshbarger family line, and we know he was brave enough, and adventurous enough, to come to America to start a new life. 

The line of descent is  

Hans Jacob Kestenholtz-Anna Maria Glintz

Sebastian Kestenholtz (referred to as Chestnutwood in his brother Abraham's will)-Christina Glintz

Christina Chestnutwood-Matthias Bruder or Brothers

Barbara Brothers-David Brown

Elizabeth Brown-William Cook

Barbara Cook-William Withers

William Withers-Della Kemery

Goldie Withers-Grover Harshbarger

Cleveland Harshbarger-Mary Beeks

Their descendants

Beeks line: Harvey Homer Aldridge 1857-1930

 I've posted a couple of articles about Harvey Aldridge before, one transcribing his obituary and one an article about the celebration of his (and Margaret Catherine Dunham's) 50th wedding celebration.  But I've not really outlined his life, and I'm reminded I needed to do that as I've seen obituaries for two Aldridge-related cousins over the past couple of weeks.  

Harvey was born August 13, 1857 near Kempton, Tipton County, Indiana.  Less than two years later, his father, Darlington Dart Aldridge, died, so he was raised mainly by his mother, Leah Folsom Aldridge.   After about twelve years of widowhood, she married Asa Sewell in 1871, when Harvey was 12, and he probably lived with the couple, although we don't know for sure.  Harvey was the youngest of the nine Aldridge children.

The next record I can find for Harvey is his marriage to Margaret Catherine Dunham, daughter of Samuel G and Eliza Matilda Reese Dunham, on April 1, 1880 in Kempton.  When the 1880 census was taken on June 1 of that year, the couple was living with her parents, and Harvey worked on her family's farm.  Of course, the 1890 census is missing, but in 1900 Harvey was living on his own (mortgaged) farm in Jefferson township, Tipton County, along with all 7 of the couple's children.  He apparently lived in several locations in Tipton County, because I've seen him referred to as of Goldsmith, and Ekin, also.  He moved to Ekin not long before he moved to Huntington County, where we find him in the 1910 census on "Thomas Road" in Polk Township.  Once again, he owned his own farm and it was mortgaged.  5 of the couple's children were living with them, the other two having died during that ten year period.

By 1920, all of the remaining children were living on their own.  Bertha's death in 1909 left two children who were living with their grandparents, and they lived on Berry Street in Andrews, Dallas Township, Huntington County.  Their home was mortgaged, and Harvey was working at a lumberyard, probably Wasmuth's, in Andrews.  It's possible that they had moved to town so their grandchildren, now 15 and 12, could more easily attend school. Harvey had just an eighth grade education and may have wished for better for his grandchildren.  

There are newspaper references to him as living near Bippus, Warren Township, Huntington County, Indiana during the mid 1920s so perhaps once the grandchildren had finished their education, the couple once again turned to farming.  In 1930, the couple, now just the two of them, lived on "Long School House Road" in Polk Township.  They rented this property, where he was a farmer.  The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on April 1 with a large, mostly family, open house, and sadly, Harvey died a few months later, on August 1, 1930.  His wife lived until May 7, 1942.

I've learned a few other things from reading the gossip columns of Tipton and Huntington County newspapers.  The Aldridge family was quite close knit, and they visited back and forth often.  At lease one of Harvey's siblings lived in Huntington County also, and there were quite a few nephews and nieces who were in the area.  It seems a bit odd that although I've found a lot of mentions of Mr. and Mrs. Aldridge visiting other Aldridge members, I haven't seen any that I recognized as being relatives of Margaret Dunham.  As far as religion, Harvey seems to have been a Methodist (that was the only church near Kempton in Tipton County, and that's where his funeral was held) but I'm not sure how active he was, or what church, if any, he attended in Huntington County.  

Harvey Aldridge was a man on the move, probably striving always to better provide for his family with his many residence changes.  He was a caring man, as he raised grandchildren, and definitely was a family man.  It must have been heartbreaking for him to see six of his Beeks grandchildren die, and to watch Wilbur go to World War I.  There are family members still alive who may remember hearing stories about Harvey from his widow, and I'd love to hear those stories!

The line of descent is

Harvey Aldridge-Margaret Catherine Dunham

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants

Holbrook line: John Eames 1668-1735

 Here's another John Eames, our ancestor, the first John Eames in our line of three men by that name, but to have a blog post devoted to him.  (I have a strange way of choosing subjects for a blog post, mostly akin to throwing darts at a dart board, sometimes missing entirely!)  He may actually be the most interesting of the three men, although all have their own stories to tell.

John Eames (also seen as Emms, Emes, and Ames) was born May 9, 1668 in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Robert and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown) Eames.  He was one of at least eight children born to the couple, with at least two and possibly three siblings dying as infants.  John was the next to the youngest child, so he would not have had memories of the deaths of his siblings.  Either he heard the sad stories, though, or he heard nothing at all.  We don't know how his parents dealt with their losses as more children arrived, whether they communicated or held their sorrows inside.  

We don't know anything about John's childhood, whether he attended school, was taught at home, or even whether his was a Puritan family, because his father's history is murky.  Fortunately, we do know a little more about John's life after he married.  John married Abigail Rosemorgie, later known as Morgan, on February 1, 1698, in New London, (or Groton, across the river) Connecticut.  Abigail's parents were Richard and Hopestill Merrick Rosemorgie, who had Welsh ancestry.  John had been in New London since at least 1695, but we don't know how or why he settled there.  

John and Abigail had at least five children before Abigail died, probably in childbirth, on February 25, 1713.  He soon remarried, to Paltiah Stebbins, on July 30 of that same year, and they had three children together.  It would have been quite a household, with the oldest children just entering their teen-aged years when they lost their mother and acquired a step-mother in very short order.  

John then pretty much disappears from New London's story, although we have no reason to think that he ever lived elsewhere.  We don't know whether he was caught up in King William's or Queen Anne's war, and we're not even sure what his occupation was, although we do know he owned land and farmed.  Most of the additional information we have, sadly, is from his will.

John died June 1, 1735 at New London, having just turned 67 a few weeks earlier.  He is buried at the Ancient Cemetery there.  Information we can glean or infer from his will:  He was a religious man, because his will opens with more than the typical verbiage about returning the body to the earth and the soul to God.  He commends his spirit to God, "humbly beseeching Him to accept it in and through the mediation of His Beloved Son my only Saviour and (can't read) Redeemer."  

He left half of his home and farmland to his wife during her widowhood (more than the law required), and one third of his moveables to be hers forever, so that she could give them to whomever she wished.  His two older children received ten shillings each, because he had already given them what he intended to earlier in their lives, and a daughter received five pounds because she also had received a deed of gift earlier.  Sons Samuel and Robert received land, and daughter Hannah received 80 acres of land at "Vollington". which would be Voluntown.  Most of the land at Voluntown was granted to men, or their heirs, who had fought in King Philips War, which gives us a clue that perhaps Robert had fought in the war.  It's also, of course, possible that John had simply purchased this land from someone else.  

John's inventory is hard for me to read, although someone with better eyesight than mine may be able to make out more words than I can.  It includes books, spinning wheels, farm animals and tools, and an unnamed Negro woman, among other "items".  (I had speculated in an earlier post about his son John as to whether the son was a slave holder, and now here is evidence that his father was such a man. The unnamed woman was valued at 20 pounds.)  The inventory isn't totaled but appears to include mostly small items, supporting John's statement in his will regarding earlier "deeds of gift" to his older children.

I would love to know more about John, especially his occupation, and whether the "Negro woman" was the only slave he had held.  But this is enough to put him in a particular time and place, and to give him a place in our family history.

The line of descent is:

John Eames-Abigail Rosemorgie

John Eames-Rachel Comstock

John Eames-Elizabeth Longbottom

Hannah Eames-James Lamphire

Susan Lamphire-Joseph Eddy

Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

 

Beeks line: William Lee of Maryland, died about 1726

 

William Lee of Prince Georges County, Maryland, is something of a mystery.  We don't know where he came from, or when, nor do we know for sure who his wife, the mother of his children, was.  But we can place him in Prince Georges County through church and land records, and there is record of his estate, so we do have a few ideas about his life.

There are records from Queen Anne Parish Records that show that William's children included Mellona, John, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Martha, so this seems definitive. There may have been other children as well.  In the book "Captain James Hook of Greene County, Pennsylvania," it states that Martha Lee married Abraham Lakin on October 30, 1717, also at Queen Anne church (also known as Barnabas, and Church of England.)  

William seems to have owned or controlled a part of Cold Springs Manor from about 1691 to 1705, but it was only about a tenth of the total acreage there, so he most likely didn't live in the manor house.  The other option, of course, if that he owned the manor house and a bit of the land around it.  William was a witness to several land transactions in the same general area, but we don't know where he may have lived after selling the 165 acres in 1705.  Perhaps he had always lived nearby, and those acres were land that he determined to be excess.  As is most of William's life, it's a mystery.  

William died in 1726 and had his estate inventoried in 1727.  Since his first known child was born in 1689, William may have been born about 1665, but that is just a guess.  He may have been older, and may be the same William Lee of Charles County who was granted 250 acres in Charles County for transporting himself, Thomas Gee (could this be Lee?  I haven't seen the manuscript), Ann Granger, George Green and John Ealwood in 1675.  If this is our William, he would have been at least 18 and perhaps 21 to have been granted the land, so that would make him older than we've thought.   Prince Georges was split from Charles County in 1696 so it's not impossible.  Perhaps our William was the son or other relative of this William, which is also a plausible theory.  

A lot of sites list William's wife as Ann Grainger, but I've found no documentation for that.  The fact that a William transported Ann, though, is intriguing.  More research needs to be done.  

The picture we have of William is that of a planter or farmer who never hit it rich but who also was not dirt poor.  He probably raised some tobacco as well as crops to feed his family and animals, and we know he was part of the Church of England.  Did he take part in any military exercises or battles?  We don't know, just as we don't know many of the details of his life.  But we do know he is part of the Beeks family line, and contributed to our country's history.

The line of descent is:

William Lee-Ann

Martha Lee-Abraham Lakin

Joseph Lakin-Elizabeth Fee

Mary Lakin-John Simpson Aldridge

John Simpson Aldridge-Lucinda Wheeler

Darlington Aldridge-Leah Folsom

Harvey Aldridge-Margaret Catherine Dunham

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants

 

Holbrook line: Joseph Nation 1750-1803 Revolutionary War veteran

 I'm always glad to find an ancestor acknowledged as a Revolutionary War veteran, because there is a good chance that, if his records or pension application can be found, there will be good information in it.  That is the case with Joseph Nation.  However, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Family trees disagree regarding his parents, because some of the same first names are used over and over in the family and it gets confusing.  However, based on birth and death dates, I am going to eliminate John Nation and Bethia Robbins as his parents.  I believe they were his grandparents.  Joseph's parents are most likely to be Christopher and Elizabeth Sharpe or Swaim (there's a dispute about that, too), since Joseph was born in 1750.  Unfortunately, Christopher's will seems to have one illegible name in it, and that name would, according to my theory, be Joseph.  

Christopher was born in New Jersey but by the time of his death in 1779 he was in Randolph County, North Carolina, which is where Joseph was born in 1750.  He was one of at least 10 children.  We don't know anything about Joseph's childhood but can imagine that he worked hard and probably also learned to hunt and fish.  He married Jerretta or Jereter Vickery, daughter of Marmaduke and Elizabeth Nation Vickery, at Christmas time, 1770, when she was not quite 16 years old, and their first child, one of 11, arrived soon after.  Yes, Joseph and Jerretta appear to have been first cousins, which was not unusual for that time and place.

Joseph was 29 years old, with small children at home, when he first served in the North Carolina militia, in a unit from Randolph County.  His widow's pension application says that he was a calvaryman or mountain man during both of his terms of service.  The first enrollment was for 6 months of service and seems to cover the time period that included the battle of Stono Ferry and the Siege of Charleston, as well as numerous small skirmishes and battles.  We don't know how many of those Joseph actually participated in but it was a difficult time in the Revolutionary War.  The battleground had shifted from the New York-Philadelphia area to the south, and war was particularly vicious there.  The pension application says that Joseph fought the British and the Tories, but there was no mention of the Cherokees, so perhaps Joseph wasn't involved in those battles.  He apparently re-enlisted, in either 1780 or 1781, for three months service, and may have been involved in Camden or King's Mountain, also.  If he wasn't there, he certainly would have heard stories from his friends and neighbors who were there.  I would love to hear his stories, because this was a vital part of American history.  He entered as a private and left as a private.

Sometime between 1790 and 1799 Joseph and some of his family left their home and moved to what is now Claiborne County, Tennessee, in the mountains and part of the area that tried to form the state of Franklin.  By the time Joseph arrived, though, the issue was settled and he would have known he was in Tennessee.  Joseph died there on April 12, 1803, when he was just 53. 

 Several of the Nation children moved north to Preble County, Ohio, and Jeretta traveled with them, probably before 1820.  In 1840, she applied for and received a pension based on her husband's service,  although there is correspondence in the file indicating that she may have not received what she was due, because of an agent's actions.  "Agents" were people who did the paperwork of applying for a pension, generally pocketing some percentage of the amount awarded.  Jeretta was almost 96 when she died July 30, 1849.  By 1855, all of their children except Joel were dead, and Joel was still trying to get the pension issue straightened out.  

I think Joseph led a hard life, farming land that may not have been the best, and taking time from raising his family to fight in the war.  But Jeretta likely had it even harder, as she lived so many years as a widow.  We can be grateful to both of them for their sacrifices to make a better life for their family and for their country.

The line of descent is

Joseph Nation-Jeretta Vickery

Elizabeth Nation-Christopher Myers

Phoebe Myers-Adam Brown

Phoebe Brown-Fremont Holbrook

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants