Women In My Family History: Part 13

Mary Adams Maverick 

1818 - 1898

Mary Adams was born in 1818 in Alabama and in 1836 married Samuel Maverick.   At the end of 1837 they migrated to Texas and she may well have been the first American born white woman to live there.  She is credited with giving birth to the first American white child born in Texas.   She made a significant contribution to Texas in that she kept diaries and journals of her experiences.  During her life time she was present at Comanche raids,  battle times of the war with Mexico fought in order  for Texas to become a state of the United States,  and she was active in the confederate relief effort.  She also attempted to revive the dying art of home spun cloth production in order to supply the need of the Confederate cause.  In 1895 her son helped her consolidate her diaries and have them published.  Her words are often quoted in studies of Texas pioneer life.  For those interested in reading her memoirs they are available online for free HERE.  Mary Ann's mother was Agatha Lewis whose father was William Lewis.  William's mother was Elizabeth Givens and she had a brother named John.   John Givens had a son named William who had a son named Robert.   Robert Givens  had a daughter named Mary Polly and she married George Duffield.   George and Mary had a daughter named Isabella who married Robert Norvell.   They had a daughter named Emma who married Bert Coffman.  Bert and Emma gave birth to my children's great grandmother on their father's side who would have been  my ex father in law's mother.  Please follow the link in the text above to read Mary Adams Maverick's memoirs and enjoy the short video that follows.

Women In My Family History: Part Twelve

(photo source:  http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/106/6/1307/F8.large.jpg)

Mary Etta Hildebrand Funk

1875 -1959

Mary Etta Hildebrand was born in 1875 and married Harry Funk in 1900.  They had six children,  the youngest of which was my mother's mother.   While Mary was pregnant with my grandmother,  her youngest child at the time was a son named Wayne.  In July of 1911, two year old Wayne was playing outside with his older brother Harold.  When Harold was called to the house, Wayne climbed up a fence that was adjacent to the watering trough for the cows.  He fell from the fence face first into the cement water trough and drowned in 13 inches of water.  Every time I read this story my heart goes out to my great grandmother who I never knew but was named after.  Anyone who has ever walked a cemetery,  as family history buffs often do, knows  it is impossible not to be struck by the amount of children who passed away in earlier times.  Every family in the 19th and early 20th centuries seems to have multiple tragedies related to losing children.   The following quote can be found HERE and explains some of the caused of childhood deaths in our history:

 At the beginning of the 20th century, the leading causes of child mortality were infectious diseases, including diarrheal diseases, diphtheria, measles, pneumonia and influenza, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, and whooping cough. Between 1900 and 1998, the percentage of child deaths attributable to infectious diseases declined from 61.6% to 2%. Accidents accounted for 6.3% of child deaths in 1900, but 43.9% in 1998. Between 1900 and 1998, the death rate from accidents, now usually called unintentional injuries, declined two-thirds, from 47.5 to 15.9 deaths per 100 000.

I feel very fortunate to have raised my children after the discovery of antibiotics and to have gotten them to adulthood without a mortal wound from an accident or a fatal disease.  It must be the most severe angst that exists to lose a child.   Please feel free to follow the link in the text and to enjoy the quiet moment of the video that follows.  

Early Warning by Jane Smiley

Early Warning

by

Jane Smiley

The Last Hundred Years Trilogy by Jane Smiley begins with the book Some Luck which I reviewed in January.   Last night I finished reading Early Warning which is the second book in the series.  In this second book.  the children that were the main focus of the first book, are having  children,   who are growing up,  and by the end are having their own families.  The book begins with a lot of people feeling paranoia about the possibility of a nuclear bomb landing in their back year and next, moves through Vietnam.  One of the grandchildren of the original couple in the first book is killed in Vietnam.   The book relates one character's near miss brush with the cult of Jim Jones.  And continues while various family members divorce,  come out of the closet,  get cancer,  have affairs,  have mental breakdowns and some die.   I am really enjoying this series and have downloaded the third one on to my kindle to begin this pm.    Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.

Women In My Family History: Part Eleven

Mary Fleming Maitland

1542 - abt 1578

(source info of picture can be found HERE)

Mary Fleming was one of the "four Maries"  who were childhood playmates of Mary Queen Of Scots and grew up to become her ladies in waiting.   Mary Fleming married William Maitland,  and although William's loyalty to the queen often seemed to be in question,  he and his wife were residing in and refused to surrender, Edinburgh Castle, which was held in the party of Mary Queen of Scots, during  a siege to capture it by the opposing regent to the throne.  William Maitland and his wife Mary Fleming Maitland were charged with treason.  He died before coming to trial and she was stripped of her personal diamonds and rubies which were given to her by her queen.   Mary Fleming was born in 1542 and her mother was Lady Janet Stewart who was the illegitimate daughter of King James the IV by Isabelle Stewart.  Isabelle Stewart later married Sir Thomas Whipple and they had a son named Thomas who also had a son named Thomas.  This third Thomas had a son named Matthew who had a son named Matthew whose son was Captain John Whipple.  Captain John immigrated to American and married Sarah Hutchinson and they had a daughter named Abigail.   She married Stephen Dexter and they had a son named Major John Dexter who had a son named Jeremiah.  This Jeremiah had a son named Jeremiah who had a son named Willoughby.  Willoughby's son was named Ira and Ira's son was named Duncan.  Charles Edward Dexter was Duncan's son and my husbands grandfather.  There is much online to read about Mary Flemming Maitland.  Some of the sites I found interesting can be found HERE,  HERE, and HERE.   There is an old Scottish folk song entitled Four Marys that has some interpretations online that I don't agree with on its origin and meanings but nevertheless is an appropriate and interesting song.  Please watch the video that follows which is of one of many performances of that song.  

Women In My Family History: Part Ten

Anne Marbury Hutchinson

1591? - 1643

     Any family relationship between Anne Marbury Hutchinson and my family is somewhere between iffy and no place, but I wanted to honor her in this part of my Women's History series because there is that remote possibility of a connection and besides, she is the mother of Women's Rights and Religious Freedom in America.   Anne Marbury was born somewhere around 1591 in England.  She married William Hutchinson sometime before 1634 when they immigrated to Boston with their eleven children.  Anne was a preacher's daughter and a nurse midwife.  She was very educated for a woman of her times.  She disagreed with the church and political leaders of Boston about their church doctrine of good works and rules and was an advocate of free grace.  She held studies in her home.  She became a popular religious leader among the citizens of Boston so  the leaders of the church and government who didn't think anyone should disagree with them had her arrested. They also didn't think a woman should be allowed to say any thing critical.  They excommunicated her for heresy and she fled to Rhode Island which was a more liberal environment.  After her husband died she moved again to New York where all of her family but one daughter were killed in an Indian raid on their cabin.  Please click HERE to read more about her.  

     Since only one of her children lived she doesn't have a lot of lines of descendants but any connection to my family would have been through her husband William's family anyway.  In reading the family linage books of the Hutchinson family it is clear that there are a lot of mistakes.  It is my personal conjecture that the person that traces down to my family is through her husband William's brother Edward.  My Catherine Hutchinson's father being Edward is based on conjecture.   The book "Direct Forefathers And All The Descendants Of Richardson Sands" byBenjamin Aymar Sands states on page 55 that Catherine was the daughter of Captain Edward and Sarah Hutchinson.  Captain Edward Hutchinson was not married to Sarah but his uncle Edward who was a baker was married to Sarah.  So I am basing placing my Catherine as Edward the baker Hutchinson's daughter based on that source and the fact that there doesn't seem much information about Edward the baker Hutchinson's children to prove or disprove Catherine's place among them.  I will continue to look for more information to substantiate or disprove this theory.  Catherine married John Walker and had a child named Sarah who married James Sandys.  They had a son named James Sands who had a daughter named Bathsheba.  Bathsheba Sands married Thomas Everett.  They had a son named John who married Maria Holder.   For a long time I believed that Peter Moyer/Meyer of my lines married John and Maria Everett's daughter Maria,  based on the following sources - LEHIGH COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA AND A GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF ITS FAMILIES BY CHARLES RHOADS ROBERTS, REV. JOHN BAER STOUDT, REV. THOMAS  KRICK, WILLIAM  J. DIETRICH,  Vol III  and also  - Anniversary History of Lehigh County, Vol. III, Copy write 1914.  But new information came to light in the form  of a compilation of pastoral records of a Rev Hilffrich.  I ordered and viewed  the microfilm of those records and conferred with other researchers whom I trust and I decided that based on the other family members included in the pastoral records the Peter mentioned in them is ours and his two wives were Magdalena Schmidt and after her death, Anna Maria Frey.  Never the less,  the Everette family,  the Moyer family,  and the Frey family were neighbors and friends and most likely there is a marriage connection in there somewhere,  probably with a different Peter and Maria.  In fact upon the death of a Frey couple the Everett's raised one family of Frey children.  So I have left Ann Marbury Hutchinson in my tree - although disconnected - because I think I will eventually find a place to plug that line back into.   To move on down from Peter Moyer/Myer that is ours to my line, Peter and his first wife Magdalena Schmidt had a son named Peter Moyer who had a daughter named Amelia and she married Solomon Zelner.  Amelia and Solomon had a daughter named Sarah Amanda who married Herman August Funk.  Their son was Harry Elbert and his daughter was Thelma Funk who was  my mother's mother. 

     There is a lot of great information online about Anne Marbury Hutchinson in addition to the link that I provided. Those that are interested can easily google more information.   Please enjoy the video that follows.  It is one of many videos that can be found on YouTube about her life.  

Women In My Family History: Part 9

Elizabeth Bair Rairigh

1789-1868

Elizabeth Bair was referred to as a "Southern Lady"  in the biography of her husband that is contained in the book "Two Centuries Of the Church Of The Brethren In Western Pennsylvania 1751-1950".  I have never been able to locate who her parents were.  Bair is a common name with many spelling variations and,  is often the case,  the women in family histories are poorly documented.  I am not quite sure when she married her husband George Rairigh but the first child that I have for them was a son named Samuel who was born in 1816.  George and Elizabeth had a farm in  Cowanshock Township, Armstrong County Pennsylvania.  On the map above of Pennsylvania,  Armstrong County is red.  On their farm,  George and Elizabeth  had a log house, a log barn and six children.  As if that was not hard enough on Elizabeth,  George decided he was "called"  to be a circuit rider preacher.  Since he could not read she taught him to read German so he could read aloud the scripture text. And when his congregations requested he read in English she taught him to read in English too. He traveled his circuit some on horseback but mostly he had to walk it so it took him 26 weeks.  It was up to Elizabeth to manage the farm while he was gone.  I chose to honor Elizabeth in this blog series because she amazes me that she would be so supportive of her husband in something that would cost her so much sacrifice and hard work.  It makes me wonder if there was any way she could have put her foot down or if she had no choice.   My mother's maiden name was Rairigh so this is a direct line of mine.  My mother's father was Loyd Rairigh,  his father was William Harvey Rairigh,  his father was James Quinter Rairigh,  and his father was Samuel Rairigh.  Elizabeth and George were Samuel's parents.  Since George died at age 63,  Elizabeth went to live with Samuel and died in his home in Darke County Ohio in 1868.  I was unable to find a good video on the area of Pennsylvania that is west central.  But I did find a couple of excellent ones on the Pennsylvania Dutch community that is located in South Eastern Pennsylvania.  This is the same group that some of the members migrated on west to where Elizabeth and George were.  I am sure there farm was much more humble than the ones on the video but the culture would be similar.  Please enjoy the videos and view the photos of the  book that has the biography of George.

Women In My Family History: Part 8

Mary Draper Ingles

1732-1815

Mary Draper was born in 1732 to Irish Immigrant parents in Pennsylvania.  In 1750 she married William Ingles and they migrated to a small Scots Irish settlement in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  In July of 1755 while she was heavily pregnant with her third child and the men were out in the fields the community was raided by Shawnee.   Some of the settlers were killed and some were taken captive.  Mary was one that was taken captive.  The Shawnee took their captives 500 miles away.  One day Mary grabbed her chance to escape.  Using the Ohio River as her guide she walked home.   You can learn more about Mary's ordeal HERE.  An Indiana author named James Alexander Thong wrote a book about her.  To prepare for the book he donned his back pack and walked in her foot steps.  It is a wonderful book which I reviewed a few years ago HERE.  There has also been a TV movie made about Mary Draper Ingles.   She deserves to be honored in this blog for her courage and her amazing survival story.   She is not a direct ancestor of mine.  She is very indirectly related to my children.  But I am proud to have her information included in my family history even if the connection is very remote.  My children's father's paternal grandmother, Hazel Fan Coffman Lyle,  has many famous lines in her tree which have interesting historical men.  This is the line that also traces indirectly to Mary Draper Ingles.   Hazel's mother was Emma Norvell,   Emma was the daughter of Isabella Givens Duffield and she was the daughter of Mary Polly Givens.  The father of Mary was Robert Givens and he was the son of William Givens.  Captain John Givens was William's father.  John was the brother of Elizabeth Givens and she was married to Brigadier General Andrew Lewis. whose brother was Thomas Lewis.  Thomas had a daughter named Agatha and she married Colonel John Stuart.  One of their daughters was Jennie Lewis Stuart who married Major Robert Crockett.   Robert Crockett's sister was Jane Crockett and she married John Draper  whose father's name was also John Draper and he was the brother of Mary Draper Ingles.  Please take time to follow the two links in the text above and enjoy the video that follows and can also be found HERE.