U is for United family of Anna Eliza States

Anna "Eliza"  States married  twice, as did her second husband Benjamin Heffner.   But it was out of necessity,  as they both had unfortunately lost  their first spouse. Today, we would call their united families a blended family.

Eliza  was twenty years old when  she married John  Simpson on   February 24th, 1853,   and with him  had four children.  They had been married 7 years when John  died on December 4, 1860,  one month before the birth of their daughter, Jennie.   Wow!!!  It must have been very difficult for Eliza to loose her husband when she had three small children to care for and another on the way.   The 1860  Census Record for John and Eliza Simpson shows  that he was a foreman on the railroad.  They had three children at the time of the 1860 census; Abraham, 6, George, 4 and Cate Simpson, age 2.  They were  living in Walker township, Huntingdon Co., Pennsylvania. 

A widow with 4 young children in 1860  needed to have a husband to help her support her family, but it was six years before Eliza  married a second time to Benjamin Heffner  on August 14, 1866.  Ben Heffner's first wife was Eliza Lichenthaler with whom he had nine children; Samuel, John, Joseph, Allison, James, William, Franklin, Marshall and Jennie before she died in 1865.   His  children were still young  when their mother died.  Ben needed a wife to help him care for his large brood.

Benjamin Heffner was said to be a very progressive farmer, cultivating over 200 acres.   He built an impressive brick house and barn on his property to provide for his large family.

Picture Copyright 1978 by Lewis E. Heifner from his book The Heifners 1764 - 1976.

Eliza  had three more  children with Ben Heffner.   They were Anne, born 1867,  Ella Mae, born 1869 and Mary,  born in 1871 when Eliza was 39 years old.     Eliza  was  the mother of seven children.

Pictured above are Jennie B., Abraham, George, Ella Mae, Annie and Mary.  Cate is not here.

Ben was the father of a total of twelve children.   Eliza's daughters are in the front; Ella Mae, Annie and Mary.   Altogether there were nineteen off spring in this huge blended  family.  They were truly  a Yours, Mine and Ours family!!   Both  Ben and Eliza had daughters named Jennie.   It must have been interesting for my Great Grandmother,  Ella Mae Heffner Long  to have two sisters  with the same name.  I remember my grandmother, Eliza Long McEwen, talking about her Aunt Jennie, but now I don't know which Aunt Jennie she meant. 

The Benjamin Heffner Monument in the McConnellstown Cemetery in Huntingdon Co., Pennsylvania  is engraved with the names of both of Ben's wives.
          Eliza Heffner  5/25/1820 - 12/20/1865  on the left face of the monument.
          Benjamin  Heffner  12/6/1820 - 2/2/1894  on the center face
          Anna Eliza   5/28/1832 - 2/12/1896  on the right face

Anna Eliza States was the daughter of  Abraham States (1807 -1875)  and Catherine Mumper  States (1808 - 1888).    Anna Eliza States Simpson Heffner was my Great, Great Grandmother.

                                                                   This page and all contents © 2012 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                                                Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com  
GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com

T is for Thankful Hitchcock, 1707 - 1801

Traveling back to 1707  to witness the birth of Thankful Hitchcock.    Here is  a photocopy of the exact  entry in the "Massachusetts, Springfield Vital Records, 1638-1887"  for her birth registration.

Her family lived in the  Springfield area of Massachusetts where Indian hostilities were an everyday possibility.  In 1704 the attack on nearby Deerfield, Massachusetts, by French and Native Americans during Queen Anne's War (1701-1713), resulted in more than half of Deerfield's residents being killed or captured.  Thankful, (I love her name!),  the daughter of John Hitchcock and his wife Mary Ball, was born October 1, 1707.   I would believe that they were very thankful that the Mohawk Indian attacks on settlements in western Massachusetts had spared their family.  You can learn more about the raid on Deerfield  and this time period here.  It was pretty rugged living in the wilderness of Western Massachusetts in the beginning of the 18th century.

Thankful grew up in a family of ten siblings.   When she was 24 years old she married Jonathan Scott.  On April 30, 1731 he  registered his Intentions to marry Thankful  as was required.

They were married  on June 9th, 1731.  Record of their marriage was recorded in the volume "Massachusetts, Springfield Vital Records, 1638-1887".

Thankful and Jonathan had at least eight children who were:
Thankful, Mary Mercy,  Isreal, Martha,  Jonathan,  Matthew,  Daniel and Eunice.   Sometime around 1760 the family moved to Bennington, Vermont where they lived the remainder of their lives.

In a time period when the life expectancy was less than  50 some years,  Thankful lived to be 94 years old!  Isn't that amazing?    Her  obituary  appeared in "The Vermont Gazette" in 1801.

It states -  "Died in this town (Bennington, VT) on Friday pm, Mrs. Thankful Scott, relict., of the late Mr. Jonathan Scott age 94 y, 3d."   That calculates her death date as October 4, 1801, three days after her birthday.  I have not found a picture of her gravestone.  Her husband Jonathan is buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery  where I suspect she was also buried.

Thankful was the great great grandmother of Hosea Phillip Scott, the  husband of  Sarah Angeline Chauncey Scott.  Thankful was my 5x's great grandmother.  I used the website Familysearch.org to discover the photocopies of the Massachusetts records pictured above.

                                          This page and all contents © 2012 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                          Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com  
GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com

S is for Sarah Angeline Chauncey

Her grave marker on Armenia Mountain, Bradford  County, Pennsylvania is a simple one: Mother, Sarah A. Scott, 1820 - 1921.  That's all?  She lived to be 101 years old! 

Sarah Angeline  Chauncey Scott was the daughter of Russell Chauncey and his wife Mable Porter.  Born in Ghent, Columbia Co., NY on April 24, 1820  she lived on Armenia Mt., Bradford Co., Pennsylvania  her entire married life time.  She was my great, great grandmother: the pride of the family tree,  for it is her ancestry that  goes back to the Mayflower.  I grew up knowing that I descended from John Howland, Mayflower pilgrim,  her  5x great grandfather.   WOW!    I have heard it said that we are a reflection of those who came before us.   Sarah Angeline Chauncey saw to it that  her descendents  knew their family history. The amazing thing about Grandmother Scott is that  she knew all the family history of her life time and  that of those who came before her, right back to John Howland the pilgrim.   She passed her knowledge on to her  daughter Helen and grand children. And they in turn passed the family history on to the rest of us.

Sarah Angeline  Chauncey was thirty years old when she  married Hosea Phillip Scott on March 2, 1850 in East Troy, Bradford Co., Pennsylvania.  They were married for 49 years when he died in  1899.  Hosea, born August 7, 1820 did service  in the Civil War.  They were the parents of two daughters: Mable,  born in August of 1855 and  Helen Florence,  born Nov. 5, 1860,  both of whom lived to mature years.  There was also a daughter named Laura who appears on the 1860 census report. Laura was born about 1858  and must have died before the 1870 census report as she does not show up on any other reports except the 1860 one. 

Perhaps this picture was taken on the occasion of her 98th birthday.  On the back  it says "Grandma Scott and Esther, taken at East Troy before the house burned."  The following newspaper article mentions that Esther was at the party.  The house in East Troy burned down on June 10, 1920. 

Volume LV, #17, Thursday, April 25, 1918-
Troy Gazette – Register, Troy, Bradford County, PA

"Mr. and Mrs. Clem Loomis, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Youmans and families, and Miss Esther Estep of Elmira, were week-end guests of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Estep and attended a birthday party for their grandmother, Mrs. Ann Scott, who was 98 years old.  Mrs. Scott is a very remarkable woman for her years as she has retained her faculties and still reads and knits a great deal."

This picture was taken when  Sarah Scott was about 60 years old.  The picture was given to me by Aunt Angie,  Grandmother Scott's granddaughter and name sake.  Sarah Angeline Chauncey Scott was  known through out her life time  by several names.  Sometimes I see Sarah, other places Ann,  but family always seemed to refer to her as Sarah Angeline.   In the letter below, written to her grandson Francis Estep in 1920,  she signs her name Sarah.

In the letter she professes her love for her family and the Lord, expressing that she will meet us in Heaven one day.  She was 100 when she wrote this letter and nearly blind.   Sarah Angeline  Chauncey died at the home of her daughter Helen Estep in South Port,  New York on  May 21, 1921.  Her death certificate states that the cause of death was due to apoplexy and arteriosclerosis.  She lived a long and useful life, well loved and remembered by her family.   I look forward to meeting her in Heaven one day.

Sources:

• Family records of Cynthia Hughes Smith 
• http://www.joycetice.com/tgr/1918etro.htm

                                                                                     This page and all contents © 2012 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                                                      Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com 
GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com

R is for Rachel Enyeart

Rachel Enyeart Heffner  is one sweet grammie!   I love this picture of her  that I found in the 1924 reunion booklet of the Heffner family. I wish I knew where to find the orginal pictures.   I am sure that Rachel and John were beloved  parents.  Rachel was twenty years old when she  married John Heffner on December 30, 1819.   The Heffner brothers were sweet on the Enyeart sisters;  three of them married Enyeart  girls.  

This page, highlighting the history of the Heffner family  was also taken from the 1924 reunion booklet.  The names of  the 13 children of John and Rachel who lived to maturity  are given.  Two of Rachel's children, Nina Elizabeth and William, died in infancy.  Their son, Benjamin  Heffner,  was the grandfather of my grandmother Eliza Long McEwen.

Rachel Enyeart was the daughter of William Enyeart and his wife Jane Norris.  The Enyeart's were a huge family in   Marklesburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.  William  had married twice and  was the father of 21 children.  Rachel, born July 20, 1800  was one of 16 children of the second marriage.  So Rachel was  accustomed to large families!   She gave birth to 14 children over the course of 23 years, being 43 years old when her last child was born.  She lived to be 71 years old.

Rachel Enyeart Heffner  and John are buried in the McConnelltown Cemetery  in  McConnelltown, Pennsylvania.  The cemetery is next to the old German Reformed church they attended.   The inscription says,  "Rachel wife of John Heffner  died  Oct. 7, 1871  71yrs. 3mo.  20 days." 

                           
                                                                               This page and all contents © 2012 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                                                Email to chsmith47@yahoo.com
GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com

 

Q is for Query... What ever became of the husband of Catherine Davis?

Do you remember what happened in 1849?   It was the gold rush in California and men from all over the country fled to California to seek their fortune.   One of those fellows was Catherine's husband, Davie Hayton.  The stinker never came home!  Speculation is that he wrote her a letter saying he was not coming back.  No one ever heard from him again.   Well, OK... she was a little scary looking, but that is no reason to leave a woman!

Catherine Davis was born in Orange Co., New York on Nov. 2, 1816.  She was the daughter of James Davis of Orange Co., New York.    Catherine was 19 when she married Davie Hayton on the seventh of December, 1835.  They had seven children before Davie skedaddled.  

Their first,  Mary Elizabeth was born December 21, 1836.  She died in the spring on April 27, 1837.  Another girl, also named Mary Elizabeth was born December 4, 1838 and only lived 16 months before passing away in April of 1840.   Daughter Mary Catherine  proved to be of hardier constitution.  She was born  August 2, 1840  in Clyde, Wayne Co., New York and lived to be 81 years old.   Another daughter, Jane Augusta, my great, great grand mother,   was born June 3, 1842.  A son, David Truman was born February 11, 1844 followed by Ann Eliza on February 20, 1846.  Catherine had been married to Davie 14 years  by the time  James Henry was born on April 10, 1849.   That  year  gold rush fever was spreading all across the continent and Davie Hayton left town to try his hand at prospecting, never to return.

Catherine waited 10 years for Davie to come home from California  before she married a second time to Houghton Knapp, on Oct. 20, 1859 in Southport, New York.   Catherine and Houghton never had any children together, but a descendant of Catherine's,  Jeanette Brown,   remembers  the older people in her family talking about Grandmother Knapp, as she was known then.   After Catherine and Houghton were married they moved down to Daggetts, Jackson Township, Tioga County,  Pennsylvania,  which is south of the Elmira, Southport, New York area.

Catherine  died in Daggetts.    My father remembers that when he was a child he lived one winter in a house in Daggetts.    His Grandfather, Sim Hughes,  provided the house, a cow and hay for the cow  so that he and his sister would have milk that winter.  They may have lived in the house which had been Catherine Davis Hayton Knapp's.   Catherine was the grandmother of  Dad's grandmother, Fannie Westlake Hughes,  wife of Sim. 

“Meet me loved ones
Up in Heaven,
There is room for one and all;
There’ll be no death
Nor parting,
This is mother’s last farewell.”    

Her obituary contained  the above poem.  She lived to be 79 years old, often working to take care of others, making her home with her children or grandchildren after Houghton's death in 1876.  She  died May  18,  1896, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lewis Parmerter, (Mary Catherine) of Daggett, Pa.  The obituary notes that she was a consistent member of the Baptist Church  for many years.  The funeral was held  May 20th at Daggett,  Rev. Dunham officiating,  Interment at Judson Hill.

                                  This page and all contents © 2012 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                          Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com
GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com

P is for Pritchard, Elizabeth Pritchard.

 

Elizabeth, who was born on August 16, 1824, grew up in Wales, the daughter of William Pritchard and his wife Elisabeth Charles.  Her family lived in Breconshire, Wales, pictured below.   At the age of  21 she married JamesEstep  on the 2nd of November, 1845.  Their marriage certificate described her as a spinster.  Now that is a strange  title  to be given to a young woman, but maybe back then in Wales it didn't carry such a derogatory meaning as it does today.  

 

She was working in the village of Llanover as a servant at the time and James was employed as a farm servant living in Pistill Parish of Llanfihangel Talyllyn.  Neither of them could write as they signed their names to the document with an X.

Elizabeth’s children,  Sarah, Lewis, John, William and James were all born in Wales before the family made plans to emigrate to the United States.  She  was by then 36 years old.  They are the most recent immigrants in the family.  Many came before them, but I do not have an immigrant ancestor who arrived after 1858.   She must have been a woman of great strength and character to have left her  home in Wales with several small children and travel under difficult circumstances to a new land. 

They traveled from Wales on the ship, The Sparkling Wave. Please take a minute to read that fascinating story.

They arrived in New York on October 29, 1857 and settled first near  Bloomsburg, Pa.   where James found work in the coal mines.  Insight into what their lives may have been like is found in a newspaper account of her son John’s life.  At the age of seven, John began working in the ore mines around Bloomsburg and continued to work in the Fallbrook Coal mine when the family later  moved to Fallbrook on Armenia Mountain in Tioga county.  It is very likely that all the sons  also began working in the mines at a young age.

Several more children were born  in the United States while they were living in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. David was born March 2, 1859, Rebecca in 1861, George in 1863, Charles, my great grandfather who married Helen Scott was born in 1865 and Elizabeth in 1866.    In 1869 the family relocated to Covert, on Armenia Mountain in  Tioga County, Pennsylvania.

 

Picture of James and Elizabeth Pritchard Estep. Their daughter Elizabeth is standing  behind them.  The little girl in front is their adopted daughter Martha. You can read more about the  Estep Family on my web page.

 

James and Elizabeth Estep are buried in Arbon Cemetery in Blossburg,PA. In October of 1993, Lucille Henderson, great grand daughter of James and Elizabeth,  told me that the graves were moved from the cemetery at Covert to the Arbon Cemetery so that perpetual care could be provided. The tombstone gives these dates.

James Estep

May 12, 1818 - Aug. 3, 1901

Elizabeth, his wife

Aug. 10, 1826 - ( no death date engraved ) May 27, 1912

Elizabeth Pritchard Estep, mother of ten children, died on May 27, 1912 at the age of 87.  Five of her children preceded her in death.  She was survived by five of her children, fifty- two grandchildren, thirty-eight great grandchildren and one great grand child.  And in all these years no one has engraved her death date on  the grave stone. She was my great great grandmother. I am aware that there are conflicting dates  regarding her birth date.  Different documents give varying dates, but we do know that her  death date was May 27, 1912.

I often think of the arduous journey Elizabeth and her family made to reach the United States.  She must have been a women of great strength and character. It is a shame that her death date has not been engraved on her tombstone. Several older relatives promised to get that taken care of, but I have not been back up to the Blossburg  in several years to see if that is so.  If any one has a recent picture of the tombstone showing her death date please send me a copy. 

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GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to enjoy. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

                Email address--- chsmith47@yahoo.com