Our ancestors at the first Thanksgiving

I think the first Thanksgiving feast was a great event first because a religious people showed gratitude to God for their blessings.  But also because it showed that two peoples who were very different could help each other and get along.

After the Mayflower landed in the New World in December 1621, sickness claimed more than half of the group.  The Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans lived nearby and could have finished off the weakened survivors.  They were short on supplies too.  Although the Wampanoag had been treated badly by the first groups of settlers who came to their area, they didn't harm the Pilgrims.  Instead they tried to become friends.  After many discussions among the two groups' different leaders, they made a treaty.  This was mutually beneficial.  The settlers gained from the knowledge of the helpful Wampanoag, and it seemed as if they had the better deal.  But the Wampanoag tribe gained by the alliance with the English in their relations with the other Native American tribes.  Feared English weaponry kept any other tribes from attacking the Wampanoag tribe.

After that first year, with the help of the Wampanoag tribe, they had a good harvest.  The Natives knew how to farm the land.  Massachusetts soil was very different from English soil.  The Wampanoag were skilled farmers, fishers, hunters and gathers.  English seeds didn't do well there.  The Wampanoag showed them how to plant native seeds with herring as fertilizer so that they could harvest corn, pumpkin and beans.  They taught the children to look for berries and nuts.  And they showed the men how to hunt for deer, bear and turkey.  Since they didn't have grocery stores, what they harvested and gathered had to keep them alive through the long Massachusetts winter.   This next winter would be much better than their first. 

It was natural for the Pilgrims to want to celebrate.

One settler named Edward Winslow wrote,  

"We set last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas. According to the manner of the Indians we manured our ground with herrings (alewives) which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase in Indian corn. Our barley did indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering. We feared they were too late sown. They came up very well and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together, after we had gathered in the fruits of our labors. They four in one day killed as many fowl as with little help besides, served the Company for almost a week, at which time, amongst our recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their great king the Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. They went out and killed five deer, which they brought in to the Plantation, and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. Although it not always be so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. -- We have found the Indians very faithful in their Covenant of Peace with us; very loving and ready to pleasure us. Some of us have been fifty miles into the country by land with them. -- There is now great peace amongst us; and we, for our parts, walk as peaceably and safely in the woods here as in the highways in England. - I never in my life remember a more seasonable year than we have enjoyed." (Mourt)

They all had so much to be grateful for.

We have ancestors who were at the first Thanksgiving.  The Billington family was on the Mayflower, and didn't lose anyone over that first deadly year.  They were the only family untouched by the sickness that claimed so many.  John, Ellen, John Jr and Francis feasted with the Native Americans along with the other colonists.  They had a lot to thank Heavenly Father for.  It's an amazing feeling having this connection with the first Thanksgiving in America.

The Pilgrims were successful at settling this new land because of their alliance with the Wampanoag tribe.  They could have fought over their differences.  But the Native Americans made peace with the newcomers, and both sides worked hard to keep good relations.  Wars with the Native Americans weren't a problem until many years later, when the descendants of these settlers took this peace for granted.

Thanksgiving today, like that first one, gives us ample opportunity to express gratitude for all that Heavenly Father gives us, and it also can remind us that people of all backgrounds can get along and help each other.

Clines, Duane A.  "Part 5:  The First Pilgrim Thanksgiving."  The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony 1620.  2 Nov 2006. n. page. Web.  23 Nov 2012.

Mourt, G.  Mourt's Relation.  1622: London.  Print.  p. 38

Philbrick, Nathaniel.  "Thanksgiving."  Mayflower.  2006: New York.  Print.  pp.  104-120.

Bridget Bishop, My Favorite Witch Ancestor

To celebrate Halloween, I thought I’d tell the story about one of my favorite ancestors.  She was thought to be a witch!  Isn’t that a fitting story to tell for the holiday?  Her name was Bridget Bishop and she was the first 'witch' executed during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.  If you visit Salem, you’ll see that her memory is alive and well there within the tourist industry.  

She had come to Salem about 1664, presumably with her husband Samuel Wasselby. But he died before 1665.  Now she was a young widow in a strange land among uptight Puritans.  To boot, her children died sometime before 1666.  That’s a lot of sadness and difficulty in a short amount of time.  

There was no good way for a single woman to earn money in Puritan New England.  To survive, Bridget married an older man named Thomas Oliver in Salem in the summer of 1666.  Thomas was abusive and often beat Bridget bloody, black and blue.  They fought often and publicly, which resulted in their punishment and censure more than once.  One time they were forced to stand back to back in the public square for an hour, with writing pinned to their foreheads describing their offenses.  In Puritan times, no sympathy was given to the abused in this situation, in fact, the abused were believed to deserve whatever punishment they got.  In spite of their fighting, they had a daughter Christian together in 1667.  Most women would cower and submit, but laudably, Bridget stood up for herself.

After Oliver died in 1679, Bridget inherited his property and land.  Shortly thereafter she was accused as a witch.  The charges were dropped.  Scholars have confirmed that accusations that a widow was a witch often followed the situation in which Bridget found herself—widowed without a will but sizeable property to inherit.  Belief in witches came to Salem from superstitious England, so this was not unusual.  Bridget married again to a man named Edward Bishop several years later, about 1685.  

What distinguished Bridget was her well-known manner of dress-- a red paragon bodice on her dress.  ‘Paragon’ refers to everyday clothing; it was usually made out of dark bland colors, not red.  Not only was her bodice red but she had embroidered it with multicolored patterns.  It was showy for a Puritan society and caused her to stand out and be associated with anti-Puritan behavior.  Bernard Rosenthal, noted historian, said,  "The notoriety Bridget gained because of her feisty temperament, brushes with the law, reputation of being a witch, and her three marriages made her a ready target as the witch hysteria began brewing in January 1692."  

Although Tituba was the first accused in January 1692, accusations against Bridget followed on April 16.  Bridgett was arrested two days later and hauled to Boston, a one day journey.  The Boston jail was infested with lice, freezing cold and stank of excrement and tobacco.  She was shackled at her ankles to a wall and imprisoned with pirates, prisoners of war and thieves in the same room.  The jailer billed her for her stay, transportation back and forth to Salem and even blankets.  

After 3 days in jail, she was hauled back to Salem to be examined in court.  The accusing girls fell into fits as she entered the courtroom, although she had never seen them before.  The girls could have only known Bridget by her reputation, perhaps overhearing pious parents gossiping about her.  

On June 2nd, the first witch trial was held, for Bridget Bishop.  The courthouse was directly across the street from Bridget's home with Edward Bishop.  That morning, she and the other accused women underwent physical examinations, including their private parts.  This degrading invasion of privacy was especially upsetting in those Puritan times.  An examiner saw a supposed ‘witches mark’ on Bridget, then when she was examined again later, it was gone.  This only added to the evidence against her.

This, along with the fits the girls exhibited, and testimony given of 'spectral evidence' added to the mounting evidence.  ‘Spectral evidence’ was testimony of people who said they had seen her in spirit hurting animals or people.  Her tell-tale red bodice was mentioned to strengthen their testimonials.  This was the first time spectral evidence was accepted in a court of law.  Others testified of finding Voodoo dolls in her walls or making their money disappear.  The worst testimonial was from her brother in law, who said she stayed up all night talking to the devil.  That must have hurt Bridget terribly.  She must have wondered if the whole town was against her. 

Bridget denied the accusations, saying, "I am innocent to a witch.  I know not what a witch is.  I am as innocent as a baby."  Later as she began to sense the gravity of the accusations, she became irritated, "I am clear; if I were any such person you should know it."  What we consider laughable evidence today was enough to convict her then.  She was the first to be convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to die.  

On June 10, 1692, Bridget was forced-marched down Essex Street to the gallows at the top of Gallows hill.  There she was hung alone from a tall oak tree.  Nineteen more were executed for witchcraft before the end of the hysteria.  And sadly, over a hundred of the 400 accused died in prison.  

Historian Barbara Morrell wrote, "One thing that is crystal clear about our feisty and colorful Grandma Bridget:  She was a survivor.  She had lost her husband Samuel and possibly her first two babies immigrating to America.  She survived spousal abuse, the death of Thomas and her first arrest for witchcraft and then remarried again before she died as an innocent victim of the Salem Witch hunt.  Bridget Bishop may be an unlikely heroine, but her descendants can be proud to have her as an ancestor-- one who died for the truth.  It is possible that her strong and feisty spirit came down the generations… giving them the courage to leave their ancestral home to gather with the [Latter-day] Saints."  

I honor Bridget similarly.  She had a rough life and yet lived her life well.  She didn’t care what people thought of her, daring to be a little different from everyone else as seen in her colorful clothing.  Her defining moment came when she stood up to her accusers and boldly defended her innocence.  She could have lied and confessed to save her life, but she chose the truth.  That is heroine status for me, in a way, like Abinadi of the Book of Mormon.  

So there’s a witch story for Halloween, a sober story for what should be a fun holiday.  Ummm, sorry about that…  

I couldn’t quit before I added some additional fun stuff.  I’ve got a correction for historians, tourist recommendations and another literary work to mention.  

If you visit Salem, you’ll note that Bridget is used as a ‘tourist attraction’ as the ‘ultimate scarlet woman’ in the taverns, wax museum and several ghost tours.  There are extremely incorrect portrayals of Bridget.  She is confused with another ‘Goody’ Bishop who owned a tavern and played illegal games late at night at that tavern.  That tavern is still standing and they claim that Bridget haunts it.  That just goes to show you that historians sometimes get things wrong.  

Careful research revealed this error showing that the two were confused, even during the witch trials.  In fact, the ones who did own it (Edward and Sarah Bishop) were arrested and jailed for witchcraft too.  Both 'Goody' Bishops were married to Edward Bishops, and knowing Bridget wore pretentious clothing, some must have made the connection that she would be the one to own the tavern.  

So if you go to Salem and want to look her up, don’t bother with the Bishop Tavern.  If you go to the wax museum, she’s shown as a provocatively dressed bad woman.  Ignore that, as it’s the other Bishop woman again.  

What you might want to see is an interactive play performed by the Gordon College drama department called, “Cry Innocent.”  They reenact Bridget’s trial with more accuracy of her character.  The audience gets to participate in it… that’s so cool!  And you can go to her grave, where her now famous denial is inscribed on the top.  

This error crept into even a famous play written in the 1800’s.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about her in his play ‘Giles Corey of the Salem Farm’ of 1868.  Note the reference to the tavern and the illegal game of ‘shovel board.’  Character Giles Corey comments on Bridget’s accusation of witchcraft early in the play: 

Poor soul!  I've known her forty year or more.
She was the widow Wasselby, and then
She married Oliver, and Bishop next.
She's had three husbands… I remember well

My games of shovel-board at Bishop's tavern

In the old merry days and she so gay
With her red paragon bodice and her ribbons!

Ah, Bridget Bishop always was a witch!

Then later, Giles comments on her sentence to death: 

A melancholy end!  Who would have thought
That Bridget Bishop e'er would come to this?
Accused, convicted, and condemned to death
For Witchcraft!  And so good a woman too!

You’ll note this error in almost all of the things written about her.  Even school textbooks may have this wrong.  As her descendant, somehow it matters to me.  So I had to write this additional stuff down for clarity.  And in case you ever make it to Salem…

Barbara Morrell adds, "The real Bridget Bishop was a colorful and controversial enough character without the illegal tavern and shuffleboard.  She apparently drew attention for her trademark red paragon bodice and for being married three times.  She had been punished by the strict Puritan courts for public fights . . . She was arrested. . . for witchcraft 12 years before the witch hysteria.  But that doesn't tell the whole story of Bridget.  She was also a mother and grandmother.  She had property and financial means at a time most women had no independence.  Both Thomas and her third husband Edward were men of status in Salem. . . She stands shoulder to shoulder with the more reputable victims of the witch trials. . . Despite immense and ongoing pressure to confess, [she] proclaimed [her] innocence to the end. . . Bridget stands with those who died for the truth."

Sources: 

Morrell, Barbara.  The True History of Bridget Bishop.  14 pages.  This is an excellent, well-researched paper.  Found at http://www.josephtoronto.org/?page_id=411

Sutcliffe, Katherine.  Salem Trials Homepage: Biography of Bridget Bishop.  Found at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BBIS.HTM

Photo courtesy of  Wikipedia Commons.  The copyright has expired.

Harriett Middleton's life sketch with Thomas Kendall and Abraham 'Harry' Baker

(Updated December 3, 2015)

For 10 glorious days this summer, I was able to walk around and see where Harriet Middleton lived and worked in Towcester.  I have to update this post now that I have been where she lived.  It was amazing.

Harriet Middleton was born the 5^th and last child of Samuel and Ann Middleton.  They lived in Abthorpe, Northamptonshire, England, where Samuel worked as an agricultural laborer to support his family.   

1841 Abthorpe, Northamptonshire Census, where Harriett is listed last in Samuel Middletons family. 

Abthorpe is a lovely little hamlet that centered around a small medieval era church on a hill.

It's still an agricultural area with rolling grassy hills.  Harriet's father worked as an agricultural laborer, probably taking his sons out to work with him in the fields when they were old enough to help. Harriett may have attended a small school nearby the church with her siblings.

This small school house in Harriet's childhood now serves as the village hall.

On 28 November, 1847 when she was about 17, Harriett married Thomas Kendall from Weston Favel, age 19, who was training to be a Wheelwright.  Although Harriett was only 17, she was already working as a seamstress.  They made a home in Abthorpe near Harriet’s family. 

Five children came to the young couple.  We know of a daughter born in 1851 who the couple named Susana after Thomas’ mother.  She was a little girl when she died.  Benjamin was born in 1853 and survived, as well as their last daughter Susannah (2) who was born in 1855.  Two other children were born to the couple that don’t appear in any records. (See end notes for leads.)

1851 Towcester Census shows little Susana before she died a few years later.

Thomas and Harriett moved to Towcester before 1851. Towcester is the oldest town in Northamptonshire, right on a major road that runs to London.  It's just a few miles away from Abthorpe.  Perhaps Thomas sought work making wheels and repairing them along this trade route. The family settled on this main road in house number 176 at the end of a row of houses.  It was called High street then; now it is called Watling street.

Here I stand in front of Harriet's old home at 176 High/Watling street.  Today it's aptly named 'Cobblers End.'  

(This photo courtesy of Google Maps)  We didn't think to take a long view like this one.  

When Harriett and Thomas lived at 176 Watling Street, it was a very cold and drafty home.  Walking in, one would enter a large room with a fireplace to the left and a small spiral staircase to the back and right.  What served as a kitchen would be at the back-- a table and basin.  Water had to be carried in from outside.  A back door led to the grassy yard and alley where an outhouse would serve the family as a bathroom.  Harriet would have cooked her meals in the fireplace.  The staircase let upstairs to one or two rooms where the family slept at night.  The only source of heat would have been the fireplace, and without insulation (and being the end of the row) this home would be cold most of the time.  Harriet would have sewn by the windows by day, then sewn by candle light in the evenings, probably bundled up in blankets.  As a 'plain sewer' Harriett hand sewed simple essentials, like pillowcases and bedding.  She probably sewed clothing for her immediate family, but not for others.

  This Police Station is across the street and down a ways from the Kendall home.  It was built in 1852 and also served as a courthouse when Harriet and Thomas lived here.  They would have heard the occasional ruckus being so closeby.   

A view from near the Kendall home towards the medieval era Seracen Head Inn, 

Harriet joined the North End Chapel on 6 September 1854.  It is just a block or two up the street in the other direction.  It still stands as a carpet store.  Benjamin was christened in this church.

This is the North End Chapel where Harriett worshiped, just a block or so from her home.  

After Thomas died in 1858, Harriett was left with Benjamin and Susannah to raise alone.  Benjamin was only 5 years old, Susannah was 3.  Life must have been hard for the grieving young mother, still in her twenties.  Fortunately, her parents lived nearby in Abthorpe and probably helped her support her small family with her sewing.

Harriett, widow, shows in the 1861 Towcester Census with her two living children.  Note that they are attending school.

In time, Harriett met a young widower named Abraham Baker, although most people called him Harry.  They married in 1864, both about 34 years old.  Harry was a shoemaker and had previously been married to another dressmaker, Ann Stone.  She had delivered 6 children, two of whom were born out of wedlock before her marriage to Abraham.  These two, Joseph and Mary Ann Stone, were raised by others.

Harry's family with Ann shows in this 1861 census, before his wife Ann died.

Harriett helped to raise Harry’s four children in addition to her two.  At the time of the marriage, the children ranged in age from 11 to 4, with oldest being Harriet’s son Benjamin.  

The shoemaking trade was threatened by automation with the industrial revolution; Harry's family also fished and hunted.  In some of the censuses, Harry lists his trade as 'hawker of fish.'  Indeed, in subsequent generations, the Bakers owned a store that sold fresh meat and fish.  

This photo taken in 1920 shows the Seracen Inn across the street from the Baker store.  Note the advertisement on the side of the building:  "Arthur Baker Game Salesman.'  Arthur was Harry's nephew.  Compare this photo with the one above of the Seracen's Head Inn taken today.  The Baker store was demolished; the building isn't there anymore.  This print of the 1920 photo was purchases in the Gowlings carpet store.

Blending two families is always difficult.  Within a few years, Benjamin ran away to America at the age of 14.  He worked his way across the sea on the ship called the ‘City of Paris’ arriving on 30 Nov 1867.  Granddaughter Grace Levina Kendall recalled that her grandmother 'wept for her runaway son.'  Fortunately, Grace said the family corresponded overseas regularly and that she wrote to her grandmother in England until she died.  

Before the next census in 1871, Susannah had gone to work as a servant in the Coles home In Birmingham county, Annie went to live with her half sister Mary Ann, and young Abraham is gone as well.  

Note the blended family in the 1871 Towcester census. 

In the 1871 census, we see Abraham and Harriet, with Fanny 15 Lacemaker, William 13 Assistant Shoemaker, and Sarah Ann Crutchley, a niece, age 5, Scholar.  Family is still living on High Street in Towcester.  Harry joined Harriett’s church on 6 Sept 1874, exactly twenty years after she joined the North End Chapel Church. 

1881 Towcester Census

In the 1881 census, we see Abraham age 51, now a Hawker of Fish, Harriett age 50, dressmaker and Fanny, Dressmaker.  Family is still living on High Street in Towcester.    

1891 Towcester Census

In the 1891 census, we see Abraham age 61, Shoemaker and Harriett age 60, no occupation listed.  Family is still living on High Street in Towcester.

In the 1901 Kettering, Northamptonshire Census, the old couple are listed as paupers, although they rent a room to the Humphrey family.

Harry and Harriet stayed together for many years.  At some point they moved 25 miles north to 188 King street in Kettering.  Harriet died in April 1903 in Kettering, and Harry died in April 1907, also in Kettering.  Fanny died in 1902 in Kettering; perhaps they all moved there together.  

Research notes:  Disclaimer-- I did my best to construct the story using family letters and original documents.  I can't guarantee I got it right, but I did my best.

Possible child to Thomas and Harriet Kendall who may have died between censuses:

Thomas Kendall b. Oct-Dec 1857 (Vol 3b p. 18) died Jan-Mar 1858 (Vol 3b p. 17) Towcester OR July-Sept 1859 (vol 3b p. 17 again) Towcester or Oct-Dec 1858 (vol 3b p. 35) Northamptonshire.

Will have to get the birth or death certificate to confirm parentage.
Thanks to researcher Mary Taylor for finding and sharing so much information and helping us see these places when we were in England.

Elihu Beckwith Kingsley and his wife Mary Sophia Harvey-- Life Sketches

Elihu Beckwith Kingsley was born into a prominent family in Tionesta, Allegheny, Pennsylvania on 8 May 1818.  His family came to the area in 1802 as some of the first settlers.  Elihu’s father Ebenezer is credited with naming many of the streams and hills in the area.  Ebenezer was well known in the area for his hunting exploits.  He must have trained his many sons to be expert hunters and able frontiersmen.

Mary Sophia Harvey about 1848

No information is known of Mary’s parentage or if she had any family in Sheffield, Warren, Pennsylvania, where Mary was supposedly born on 12 Oct 1834.  Lack of information could be the result of her parentage in the Quaker community nearby or within the Indian population.  Or she may have been an orphan or an indentured servant child from a disadvantaged family. 

Marriage notice from 25 December 1849 issue of Warren Ledger, the local newspaper

Before 1849, Elihu moved up to Sheffield, Warren, Pennsylvania with his brothers Elijah, Eleazer, Elias and Ephraim, and a sister Clarissa.  (His father and brothers Perry, Edward and Orrin moved to Eagle, Sauk, Wisconsin.)  Interestingly, the siblings settled in Sheffield, which had first been called the 'Forks of Tionesta.'  This is where Elihu presumably met Mary Sophia Harvey.  At the time of their marriage, Elihu was 32 and Mary 15, although they may have not been truthful on their marriage application.  Would anyone let them marry if they knew how young Mary was?  Some sources claim that she was born in 1836, making her only 13 when she was married. 

1850 Sheffield, Warren, Pennsylvania census.

The 1850 Sheffield, Warren, PA census shows them as newlyweds.  Note the box checked on the right—‘married within the year.’  

They lived in a rough wilderness area in Sheffield, Pennsylvania.  Dirt roads, log cabins, woods for hunting and rivers for logging were their surroundings.  Elihu’s brother Elias built a house for Elihu and Mary to live in.  It was the second house built in the town of Sheffield.  The next house Elias built, the third house in Sheffield, he built for himself.  In a few years time, Elihu and Mary had eight children to care for.  (Their third child of nine, Francis, died before 1860.)  It was hard work to raise such a large family in that era.  That’s a lot of children to keep clean and well fed.  The cabin would need to stay clean of dirt tracked in all day.  Without our modern medicines, homes needed to be scrubbed clean or one disease could wipe out a whole family. 

1860 Sheffield, Warren, PA Census

The 1860 Sheffield, Warren, PA census shows their growing family.  The box at the right shows that their school-age children attended school.  

In 1864, Elihu sold the family land to some oil prospectors[1].  They were drilling wells in the area since the logging industry had moved on westward.  Flush with cash, the family must have celebrated for a while.  One doesn’t know how this fits with our story, but it must have had some bearing to the events that would follow.

Between 1866 and 1869, Mary took her youngest child Archie and left for Michigan, where she remained for over 30 years.  Surprisingly, Elihu didn’t seem to know where she went or what she was doing there. 

1870 Sheffield, Warren, PA census

In the 1870 Sheffield, Warren, PA census lists Mary and Archie as living there, but they were not there when this census was taken.  Mary and Archie never came home from Michigan.  She had married another man, as if she had never had a family in Pennsylvania. 

1870 Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census

In the 1870 Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan census, Mary and Archie are seen with Mary’s new husband Levi Leonard.  Note the box on the right, ‘married within the year.’  December is written in, indicating the month they married.  Archie is listed correctly as age 4, while he is listed as age 2 at home in Pennsylvania.  Like Elihu, Levi is markedly older than Mary—about ten years older.  

Michigan was an even newer frontier than Pennsylvania.  The pine forest with the lumber drew men to the area, then families settled in.  Most towns had several saloons to accommodate the mostly young, male population.  About this era, Stanton newspaper editor warned women to stay off the streets in Lakeview because of all of the drinking men that were out of control.  Both Stanton and Lakeview were near Reynolds.  There were no laid out roads, the trails following the rivers and branched off to settlers’ cabins.  It was all forests.  The only roads were within the towns and they were difficult to navigate, being muddy most of the time.  It was not a place for a woman to go unaccompanied, especially with a small child or infant.[2] 

Detail of 1897 Plat Map of Reynolds and Pierson Townships, joined at boundary, marked to show where the family with the surname 'Harvey' lived in relation to each other.

To pause for a moment, several questions arise.  How did Mary manage to leave her family seemingly without a trace?  Was this a premeditated escape or a visit with a friend, upon which she was offered a new life and thus she never returned?  Although Elihu had cousins in Livonia, Montcalm, Michigan, it’s unclear whether Mary knew them.  And had she, would she have eluded Elihu by staying in the home of his cousins?  An Edmund/Edward Harvey is a close neighbor to Levi Leonard—did he orchestrate her escape like a business deal?  Although research has not confirmed a link between Edmund and Mary, the coincidence of them sharing the same last name and owning land so close to each other is remarkable.  

As time wore on and Mary’s absence persisted, Rose probably took over the roles a mother had, of rearing the children and caring for the home.  She was a young woman and had probably been a great help to her mother over the years.  

The oldest child Herbert married at age 17 in 1866.  Emma died at age 6 in 1871.  Rose married Richard Bloss and started her own family in 1871.  

Belle Barnes Conquer, granddaughter of Elihu and Mary, explains how Katheryn Emily was given away in a letter to Mary Schian Jensen, my grandmother, dated 1988. This detail comes from page 2.

 At some point, Elihu gave Katheryn Emily to the Barnes family to live.  That left three brothers Fremont 15, George 12 and Charles age 10 with their father in 1871.  Perhaps Rose and Richard made their home with her family to help care for the children and the farm until the kids got a little older.

Levi Leonard's Homestead application #3133

The same year, back in Michigan, Mary’s husband Levi Leonard died on 29 June 1871.  They had only been married about a year and a half.  He had willed to Mary a homestead he had begun in 1867, where they were living.  Note the location of the 80 acres:  the north half of the southwest quarter of section 34 in Township 12 North (Reynolds) of Range 10 West.

This allotment of land gives rise to the idea that Mary was offered a chance to escape to Michigan with this bargain-- care for a sick man prior to his death and receive his land.  Perhaps he was good friends with a relative of Mary’s named Edmund Harvey…

Soon after Levi’s will was probated, Mary married a third time to William M. Amey.  They married on 30 September, 1871, just two weeks after probate. 

Detail of marriage record of William Amey and Mary S. Harvey, Montcalm County Marriages, Book A, p. 32,   30 Sept 1871.

“Record 104, Sept 30, 1871, in Reynolds, William Amy of Reynolds, age 35 married Mrs. Mary S. Leonard. widow, age 35 maiden name Mary S. Harvey.”  Montcalm County Marriage Records Vol. A, p. 32.

Mary S. Amey's Homestead Application #3133

In 1872, Mary bought the land that Levi had been homesteading.  Note that the location is identical to the original homestead paperwork of Levi Leonard, and the identification number is the same.  Also note that she purchased it in her name, not in the name of her new husband. 

William and Mary Amey made their home on Levi Leonard’s homestead for the next several years.  In the 1880 census we find the family together. 

1880 Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census

Note that in the 1880 Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census, young Archie is called by the last name of his step father. 

Meanwhile back in Pennsylvania, Elihu realized he was alone.  He had moved in with his brother Elias bringing his son George with him.  Fremont married in 1879 and Charles had probably moved out.

1880 Sheffield, Warren, PA census

The 1880 Conewango, Warren, PA census shows Elihu and his son George living with Elihu’s brother Elias.  Note the box checked by Elihu’s name:  Widowed.  Elias and George have checked ‘Single.’  It appears that Elihu has concluded by Mary’s long absence that she is dead.

Rose and Richard began having their own children soon after their marriage.  They named them typical names from that era.  But in 1886, Rose named her 8^th child ‘Archie.’  It might have been about this time that Mary reconnected with the family she left behind.  It is a nice thought that Rose would honor her newly rediscovered brother Archie in this manner.  In 1893, Archie married, using his actual last name, not the last names of his mother Mary’s husbands.  No earlier document has been found in which he is listed as Archie Kingsley. 

Detail of Marriage Record of Archie Kingsley and Susie Kendall, Montcalm County Marriages, Book C, pg. 122, 20 Oct 1894. 

“Archie Kingsley, 24, of Howard City, born PA, Farmer, married Susie Kendall, 17, of Howard City, born Mich, at home.”  Date of marriage was 20 Oct 1893.  

Detail of 1894 Michigan State Census Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan

In this Michigan State Census of 1894, Archie uses the last name Kingsley again.  Archie learned of his family in Pennsylvania prior to 1893 by either meeting them or through correspondence.  Through this reconnection, Archie would have learned that he was one of many children in a large family.  And Mary would have learned that Emma had died shortly after her departure, Katheryn had been given away, and that several of her children had married.  Elihu and the other children would have learned that Mary was alive, but had married two other men.  He had thought that Mary was dead.  Perhaps they all thought that, as it had been almost 20 years since Mary and Archie had left.  

One wonders if the family attempted to meet together and reestablish their relationships.  Clearly such a meeting would be awkward at best, but potentially it could have been violent and divisive.  Within a few short years of whatever reconnection took place, Elihu died.

Evening Democrat 17 May 1900, Warren, PA

Evening Democrat 24 May 1900, Warren PA

When Elihu died on 14 May 1900, although Mary was alive, she was not included on his will as an heir. 

Detail of Elihu Beckwith Kingsley, Warren County Register of Wills 1892-1908, Family History Library Salt Lake City, Film #1314328

Note the living children are listed as heirs but not Mary on this portion of the probate record of Elihu Beckwith Kingsley.  Note that Archie’s residence is unknown.

1900 Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan Census

Mary is found in the 1900  Reynolds, Montcalm, MI census with her husband William Amey, still residing on the land derived through the land grant to Levi Leonard.  

Detail of 1897 Plat Map of Reynolds Township, Montcalm, Michigan

Note that Mary parceled out some of the 80 acres to her husband and son as seen in this 1897 plat map of Reynolds, Montcalm, Michigan.  Note the number 34, indicating the section on the Reynolds map as indicated on the homestead application.

A year after Elihu died, Mary’s husband William Amey died on 23 May 1901.  At some point, she went to live with daughter Rose on Bloss Hill in Sheffield, Warren, PA.  Mary died in Rose’s home 21 May 1902.  On the death record, Rose reported that Mary was a resident of Michigan but died in Pennsylvania.

Although Mary and William had owned many acres of land, it had been mortgaged and Rose was never able to recover any proceeds from the distribution of their estate. 

Herbert raised a family and later became a minister.  Rose raised a family of 13 children.  Francis died before 1860, before all of this happened.  Fremont married at age 23 and raised a family.  George was institutionalized in the Conewango State Hospital for the insane.  Charles married his sister in law at age 31, they had no children.  Katheryn Emily married a son in the home in which she was raised and had a large family.  Emma died shortly after Mary left the family.  And Archie, the son she took with her to Michigan, married at age 24, but left his wife and daughter before his second daughter was born.  

Clearly Mary Sophia Harvey’s decision to leave her husband and children had far-reaching effects on her posterity, not the least of which is the choice Archie made to leave his wife and daughters.  One wants to understand what could compel a mother to leave her family as Mary did.  Was her home life so bad that this was her only choice?  Perhaps one day these and many other questions will be answered.  

Disclaimer:  This was written using documents related to Mary Sophia Harvey Kingsley Leonard Amey, and Elihu Beckwith Kingsley and their children.  Remarkably, none of the above story has been found in any oral or written history passed down through Mary’s descendants.  The author did her best to reconstruct the history in good faith but cannot guarantee its’ accuracy.  

Additional Source:

Kingsley, William Arthur, ed.  Kingsley Family of America.  Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 1980.  312, Print.

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[1] See History of Warren County Chapter 18, “History of Sheffield Township.”

[2] Van Patten, Mrs. F. W. and Mr. J. N. Clement.  Recollections of Pioneering Days in Douglass Twp.  22 Feb 1935.  Stanton Clipper Herald.