#TBT – Throwback Thursday
Born This Day in 1846 ~ Margaret HECKATHORN
Born This Day in 1942 ~ Darlene Lois MOORE ~ Happy Birthday, Mom!
52 Ancestors: #6 In Search of Elizabeth, wife of David WITHROW
I don’t know how many of you faced the same situation as I did when you read about the optional theme for Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge for this week, but I have had Carole King’s So Far Away stuck in my head since the first reading of the February themes. The Tapestry album takes me back to the time of junior high school (and, yeah, that was so far away also!). This was the first album that I owned that I memorized every lyric and every note of the piano. Remember how disappointed you would be when you bought an album because you liked a song from the radio, and then found that you didn’t really care for the rest of the album? For me, at least, that wasn’t the case with this one. I LOVED. Every. Single. Song. I usually either listen to NPR on the radio or play some music while I’m writing; and because the dogs were tired of hearing me sing, I chose Carole King’s Tapestry as my soundtrack for today. How fitting then, that today is the 44th anniversary of the release of that album?
This year I wanted to make it a priority to track down more information on my direct maternal line. Because finances were an issue, I opted to have the autosomal DNA test done instead of the mtDNA test. I may have found more answers to the maternal direct line with the other route, but after discussing with others – perhaps not. I tested with Ancestry originally and when doing a search for the surname Withrow within the trees, I find I have many matches within locked trees and, alas, so far no responses.
As it turns out, I am spinning my wheels at my 5th great-grandmother, Elizabeth, wife of David Withrow. What I do know about Elizabeth are a bunch of probably and maybes. She was probably born around 1782 and maybe in Pennsylvania. She probably died somewhere around 1830 in Columbiana (now Carroll) County, Ohio. She probably married David Withrow around 1795, maybe in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. David was probably born between 1765 and 1771 in Pennsylvania. Precious little is known about him also. I know that there were was a Withrow that came over from Scotland in the early eighteenth century, but so far I haven’t been able to connect to that line.
This past week I have centered my researching on Beaver County, Pennsylvania and, once again, in East Township, Carroll County. At some point, I imagine that I just might become an expert on these two areas! We find David Withrow in South Beaver Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in 1804 where he has signed a petition asking for the township to be split because it is too large to easily attend township meetings or to work on the public roads without travelling a far distance.
We also find two other familiar people that have added their names to the petition, Charles Phillis and Jacob Hackathorn. Charles Phillis was the father of Catherine Phillis, mother-in-law of Mary Amna Myers. Jacob Hackathorn, who signed, was the father of Christian Hackathorn and son of Reinhard Jacob Hackathorn. It is quite apparent that these ancestors of mine rendezvoused in Beaver County, Pennsylvania at the edge of the frontier and hopped on land in Ohio as soon as it was relatively safe to do so and as the land started to open up to settlement. And, it seems, they beat feet to the area around what is now East Township, Carroll County.
In my search for Elizabeth, I have been forced to concentrate on finding where her husband, David Withrow was. We see that he is still in Beaver County, Pennsylvania during the 1810 census.
David Withrow also fought in the War of 1812 in Findlay’s Battalion of Pennsylvania Volunteers, so we have to assume that they were still in Pennsylvania at that time.
And although I haven’t found David and family in the 1820 census as of yet, we do find him in an 1821 tax record in Columbiana County, Ohio (now Carroll).
Here we see the land patent (along with two others entered into with a Hardgrove, not pictured) and a land plat, although it appears from the dates that he was living in this area before he owned the land.
While looking at the household members in the 1830 and 1840 censuses, it appears from the ages of those listed that Elizabeth passes away some time between those censuses. I have yet to locate the graves of David or Elizabeth, but there are Withrows at Glade Run and Mechanicstown (in nearby Fox Township) cemeteries. Following are family group sheets detailing the children of David and Elizabeth Withrow:
I methodically started researching each of these children in a search for clues about Elizabeth and was quite happy to find something in a book about Knox County, where son, James had moved to with his family because this answered the question of when David and Elizabeth had relocated and also proved to me that David’s wife was, indeed, named Elizabeth.
At this rate, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trace my direct maternal line back to one of the “Seven Daughters of Eve”. In the meantime, I’ll keep searching for Elizabeth and her family. If you see her, let me know. I feel as if I’m so close to finding her, but yet…so far away.
Sources:
Hill, N. N., and A. A. Graham. History of Knox County, Ohio, Its past and Present, Containing a Condensed, Comprehensive History of Ohio, including an Outline History of the Northwest; a Complete History of Knox County … a Record of Its Soldiers in the Late War; Portraits of Its Early Settlers and Prominent Men … Biographies and Histories of Pioneer Families, Etc. Mt. Vernon, O.: A.A. Graham, 1881. 838-39. Print.
Bausman, Joseph H., and John Samuel Duss. History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania: And Its Centennial Celebration. New York: Knickerbocker, 1904. Print.
Ancestry.com, 1810 United States Federal Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), http://www.ancestry.com, Year: 1810; Census Place: Ohio, Beaver, Pennsylvania; Roll: 45; Page: 458; Image: 00031; Family History Library Film: 0193671. Record for David Withrow. http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1810usfedcenancestry&h=412141&indiv=try.
Born This Day in 1855 ~ Hannah Lauretta HECKATHORN
Born This Day in 1886 ~ Charles Roy WOLERY
#TBT – Throwback Thursday
Elsie Marcella Hackathorn taken in Bergholz, Ohio probably circa 1916.
52 Ancestors: #5 Pieter Claessen WYCKOFF – Plowing Through
For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the un-climbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the un-plowed ground.
~ Lyndon B. Johnson
The optional theme for Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks Challenge, “Plowing Through”, brings to mind the many generations of farmers that grace my family tree. Pieter Claessen Wyckoff, my 9th great-grandfather, fits this bill rather nicely.
Wykoff, M. William. What’s in a Name?: History and Meaning of Wyckoff. Rochester, N.Y.: CreateSpace Independent Platform, 2014. 23. Print.
Pieter Claessen was born circa 1623 in Norden, Ostfriesland (East Frisia) near Marienhafe. Pieter’s birth would have taken place during The Thirty Years War time, a time of great unrest and changing of borders in Europe. Marienhafe was located not far from the bay of the Ems River near the southeastern shores of the North Sea. East Frisia has long been associated with the sea-faring trade and with farming (think Holstein cows). This area now lies in the Lower Saxony region of Germany.
Meanwhile, back in the New World, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, diamond merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company, had his eye on the area around Fort Orange (now present day Albany, New York) and after a deal was struck with a handful of Mohican Indians, Kiliaen commenced to setting up a patroonship (of which he had control) on that newly acquired land. After hostilities with the natives and many set-backs and delays concerning the company, the patroonship of Rensselaerswijck was ready to be farmed and settled. When Kiliaen had not obtained the required fifty people to settle the colony by 1633, it seemed as if Rensselaerswijck might cease to be. In 1636, with three farms within Rensselaerswijck producing and Kiliaen needing supplies and the balance of the required number of people to settle, he and two other merchants, purchased, financed, and equipped a ship – De Rensselaerswijck.
This is where our very own Pieter Claessen enters the picture. Pieter is among the passengers and supplies that set sail from Texel on 8 October 1636 bound for the New World and, in particular, Rensselaerswijck, along with Simon Walischez – who would be overseeing Pieter as a laborer in the patroonship. The journey did not go as well as planned and after stormy weather and five weeks of floating, the ship finally arrived at Plymouth where it was forced to remain until January 9th. By March 4th, the ship had reached Manhattan, where it lingered for three more weeks until the ice in the river had broken up enough for passage up the Hudson. The ship finally arrived at Rensselaerswijck on 9 April 1637.
![New Amsterdam -Nicolaes Visscher (I) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://relativityitsallrelative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/map-novi_belgii_novc3a6que_anglic3a6_amsterdam_1685-1.jpg)
After Pieter worked off his contract, approximately six years, he rented a farm for himself and his new bride, Grietje Cornelis van Ness, in that area where their first two children were born. It appears that Pieter and Grietje relocated south to New Amsterdam during the years 1649 through 1655 after which time they signed a contract with Peter Stuyvesant (yes, THAT Peter Stuyvesant!) fellow Frisian and last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland, infamous for his wooden leg and handing New Netherland over to the British in 1664.
![Rensselaerswyck Original Map - By Unknown (but most likely not Gillis van Schendel, as is typically assumed) [Public domain] Copyright has Expired, via Wikimedia Commons.](https://relativityitsallrelative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/rensselaerswyck_original_map_small.png)
![The Fall of New Amsterdam - Jean Leon Gerome Ferris [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://relativityitsallrelative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2048px-the_fall_of_new_amsterdam_cph-3g12217.jpg)
Pieter’s contract with Stuyvesant was for superintending the bowery (farm) belonging to Stuyvesant in New Amersfoort, an area located currently in Flatlands, Brooklyn. The home that they moved into is currently known as the Wyckoff Homestead and is a National Historic Landmark. This is where Pieter and Grietje raised their family of eleven children (6 boys and 5 girls) and where they lived out the remainder of their lives. Pieter never owned the house that the family lived in, but he did purchase and own other land in the area.
![Historic American Buildings Survey, E.P. MacFarland, Photographer May 8, 1934, VIEW FROM NORTHWEST. - Peter Wyckoff House, 5902 Canarsie Lane, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.](https://relativityitsallrelative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/historic_american_buildings_survey_e-p-_macfarland_photographer_may_8_1934_view_from_northwest-_-_peter_wyckoff_house_5902_canarsie_lane_brooklyn_kings_county_ny_habs_ny24-brok.jpg)
At the time of the British take-over and the renaming of New Netherland to New York. It was required that families take surnames that they could be identified with. It was at this time that Pieter Claessen and family assumed the surname of Wyckoff. The why of how this particular surname was chosen, contrary to popular belief, can be explained no better than by M. William Wyckoff in his book “What’s in a Name? History and Meaning of Wyckoff”.
“If one looks for the history of the compound wyck + hof, only in Dutch, it will not even be found. It will be found in Swedish and Frisian. Unfortunately, the false etymology for Wyckoff is the one that is most frequently encountered in the literature of 20th-century America and now on internet. It has been accepted by many, but it is false. The surname actually came from Friesland and was not created in America. Whether the immediate proximal meaning was a household, or settlement on a bay or waterway, or a place of refuge, it was surely not located in the Netherlands, but in Friesland where it was usually written Wyk- (not Wijc-, Wijk, or Wyck-). As all types of evidence indicate, the name Wykhof, no matter how it is spelled or how it is interpreted, is Frisian rather than Dutch. The fabricated meaning of Wijk + hof being a Dutch word interpreted as a “town clerk” was neither an established meaning in any speech community nor a correct and true meaning.”
The above passage excerpted, with permission, from:
Wykoff, M. William. What’s in a Name?: History and Meaning of Wyckoff. Rochester, N.Y.: CreateSpace Independent Platform, 2014. 44-45. Print.
It is quite clear that Pieter Claessen Wyckoff’s origins are Frisian and, at this point in time, his parentage is not known. It is quite probable that Pieter was an orphan given the history of war and disease at the time of his birth. It is also quite likely that he may have been an illegitimate child. What we do have a lot of documentation of are his descendants here in The United States. His and Grietje’s marriage record is believed to have been lost in a fire, but they were probably married in Beverwyck before 1646. Their first born son, Nicholas, was born circa 1646 in Beverwyck. This is the line that I am descended from. Pieter died on or before 30 June 1694. Grietje died between 1699 and 1703. Both are buried in Flatlands, Long Island.
There are thousands of Pieter and Grietje Wyckoff descendants spread across The United States today. I suggest that you might check out the blog of one the descendants, Denise Dahn, at:
http://www.dahndesign.com/2014/06/04/the-pieter-claesen-wyckoff-story/
Here you will find her striking watercolor renditions of the history of the Wyckoff story. For those of you who would like to know more about the very well-researched and documented history of the Wyckoff surname, I highly recommend M. William Wyckoff’s book, “What’s in a Name? History and Meaning of Wyckoff” that can be found at Amazon. This little book is a treasure!
SOURCES:
Wykoff, M. William. What’s in a Name?: History and Meaning of Wyckoff. Rochester, N.Y.: CreateSpace Independent Platform, 2014. 23;44-45. Print.
Venema, Janny. Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664. Hilversum, the Netherlands: Verloren, 2003. Print.
Venema, Janny. Kiliaen Van Rensselaer (1586-1643): Designing a New World. Hilversum, the Netherlands: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2010. Print.
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. New York: Doubleday, 2004. Electronic, Kindle.
The Wyckoff Family in America: A Genealogy in Two Volumes. Third ed. Vol. One. Baltimore, MD.: Gateway, 1980. Print.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_fall_of_New_Amsterdam_cph.3g12217.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARensselaerswyck_Original_Map_Small.png
http://www.library.ucla.edu/yrl/reference/maps/blaeu/frisiae.jpg
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14648b.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manor_of_Rensselaerswyck
RELATIVITY 
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