Miller, Faber b. 1905

Elizabeth Bulkeley b. 1637

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Bulkeley my first cousin 10x removed on RootsMagic tree

Elizabeth Bulkeley was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1637. Her grandpa, Reverend Peter Bulkeley migrated from England and founded Concord in 1635. Peter was the first pastor of First Parish Church in Concord. Elizabeth’s dad Edward was the 3rd pastor. Elizabeth married a pastor, Joseph Emerson who also migrated to America from England.

Elizabeth and Joseph married in Concord and had 6 kids all born there. One son Edward Emerson married Rebecca Waldo, whose 3rd great grandson was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson wrote a poem Hamatreya mentioning his 5th great grandpa Peter Bulkeley, a few lines, worth reading the full poem:

“Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm.
Saying, T’is mine, my children’s and my name’s.
Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds. 
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys.
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Mine and yours; Mine, not yours.
Earth endures Stars abide -.

In 1680, Elizabeth was a widow and married John Browne. Elizabeth died in 1693, she and John Browne are both buried at Old Burying Ground in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth and John’s gravestones are art, chiseled from stone with winged skulls, grapes, vines. John’s is more decayed than Elizabeth’s. A sign at John Browne’s Find a Grave memorial, “The gravestones in this semi-circle were originally located in the town’s first Burying Ground, near the present site of the Bandstand. These stones represent some of the oldest expressions of Puritan gravestone art in New England”.

Bulkeley, Elizabeth headstone
Elizabeth Bulkeley Emerson Browne gravestone via Lucius Beebe Memorial Library Digital Heritage collection.

Inscription: Memento Mori “remember you will die” Fugue Hora “the hour flees” Here lyes ye body of Mrs. Elizabeth Browne wife to Cap’n John Brown Esq and former wife of ye Reverend Mr Joseph Emerson of Mendon who deceased Septemb’r ye 4th 1693 in ye 56 year of her age.

Sources

Edward Bulkeley b. 1614

/ Kirstin Miller

Edward Bulkeley 8th great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Edward was born June 17, 1614 in Odell, England to Peter and Jane Allen Bulkeley, the oldest child of 9. Edward’s dad Peter was a Puritan pastor in Odell and was harassed by Archbishop Laud, so looking to leave England. The Buckeleys sailed to America in 1634 or 1635, secretly, “No doubt the long drawn out enrollments and lack of effort to standardize spelling of the names were reflections of the family’s attempt to board the ship without being apprehended. Son Edward preceded the rest of the family, becoming a member of Boston church on 22 March 1634/5”. Archbishop Laud’s story didn’t end well, He was sent to the Tower of London, then executed in 1645. King Charles would regret putting ’too much trust in Laud’.

Bulkeley, Edward house 1967Once they were in America the Bulkeleys lived in Concord where Edward was a freeman on May 6 1635. He married Lucien, last name unknown, in 1640 and they had 6 children. Around 1660 Edward built a house in Concord, on Main Street. “А deed referring to the property, with a dwelling on it, records the 1663 transfer of 10 acres of land located on today’s Main Street to Edward Bulkeley by his mother, widow of one of Concord’s founders and its first minister, Peter Bulkeley.” Today this home is at 92 Sudbury Road in Concord, a private residence, the house was moved in the 1800s. Edward died in 1696, his wife Lucien died in 1690. They are both probably buried at Old Hill Burying Ground in Concord, no headstones remain.

Edward, like his dad, was a Puritan pastor and was known for his ‘fiery’ sermons. When his dad died, Edward followed as pastor of the First Parish Church in Concord. This church is also still there in Concord, Massachusetts, now a Unitarian Universalist church. Each Sunday the congregation ends their service with this benediction:

Go out into the world in peace

Have courage

Hold on to what is good

Return to no person evil for evil

Strengthen the fainthearted

Support the weak

Help the suffering

Honor all beings

Sources

Elizabeth Fryberger b. 1786

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Fryberger 4th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Elizabeth was born then baptized on October 22,1786 in the Bern Church in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The Bern Church was a German Reformed Church. Elizabeth was a 2nd generation American, her grandparents migrated from Germany. Berks County, PA was a farming community 20 miles NE of Philadelphia. Around 1814 Elizabeth married Henry Miller, he was from Pennsylvania too. Their first son John was born in Pennsylvania, then the family was in Stark County, Ohio by 1820. Elizabeth’s dad Johann and mom Anna Kryder and siblings all moved to Stark, Ohio. In Stark, Elizabeth and family were members of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and at least 3 children were baptized there. Elizabeth’s sister Magdalena was a sponsor at a baptism. From the book, Portrait and biographical record of Stark County, Ohio, in the bio about son William Miller, “The maiden name of our subject’s mother was Elizabeth Freiberger, and she was a native of Pennsylvania. By her union with Mr. Miller she became the mother of fifteen children, twelve of whom grew to mature years. She preceded her husband to the better land, dying when only thirty-eight years of age.”

Miller, Wm bio with mom

Elizabeth, mom of William Miller

Elizabeth probably did not have 15 children, probably closer to 12, with 8 living beyond childhood. Elizabeth did die at age 38 in 1835. She is buried in Maplegrove Mennonite Cemetery Stark, Ohio. The Find a Grave memorial has no photo of her headstone but an inscription and description, ” 38y 21d (Broken Stone-Name missing)”.

Sources

Joseph Gaines and Abigail Tubbs b. 1756

/ Kirstin Miller

Joseph Gaines and Abigail Tubbs, my 5th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree.

The Gaines and Tubbs families came to America, separately, in the 1630s from England. Joseph Gaines was the 5th generation of his family in America. Abigail Tubbs was the 4th generation of her family in America. Joseph and Abigail married on March 21, 1779 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. They moved to Guilford, Windham, Vermont where they had 9 children: 3 daughters and 6 sons. Obed, their 7th child was the only one to leave Vermont and the New England area. Obed went to Bremer County, Iowa to join his son William Gaines. 

Joseph died on November 13, 1843, Abigail died May 17, 1841. They are buried in Maplehurst Cemetery in Windham Vermont- they have matching headstones. Joseph’s brother David Gaines married Abigail’s sister Elizabeth Tubbs, also buried in Maplehurst Cemetery with matching headstones.

Gaines, Joseph and Abigail Tubbs headstone

Sources

  • Vermont, Vital Records, 1720-1908
  • New England historical and genealogical register volume 85 page 52, Descendants of Henry Gaines of Lynn Mass., several pages at American Ancestors

Michael Young b. 1787

/ Kirstin Miller

Michael Young 4th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Micheal Young was born in 1787 in Pennsylvania, his ancestors were probably German and their name may have been Jung. Michael married Mary -her last name not known. Michael and Mary had at least 5 children. Michael was a farmer and active in local politics.

The Stark County Democrat newspaper of April 24, 1841 show Michael and son in law Isaac Dickerhoof as administrators on Baranabus Weller’s will. Michael and Isaac offer up lands and a log chain. Barnabus may be a son in law of Michael’s. And no relation but of this time, Valentine Rinehart offers a six cents reward for a runaway apprentice, about 16 years old, five feet, stout, fair complexion, clothing not recollected.

The 1850 US agricultural census records Michael’s farm. The farm had 106 acres of improved land, 70 acres of unimproved, the farm’s value was $7000, machinery valued at $75. The farm had 7 horses, 8 milk cows, 5 sheep and 16 swine; and produced 290 bushels of wheat, 30 bushels of rye, 250 bushels of Indian Corn and 300 bushels of oats. In 1855 on the New Map of Stark, Ohio his lands were nearby family and in laws: Bairs Bowmans, Bryans, Dickerhoofs, Essigs, Grubbs, Harters, Kryders, Millers and Shrivers. Michael’s land is above the M in Marlboro.

Young, Michael 1850 land in Marlboro screenshot

M. Young 1855 Marlboro Township

Michael was a widow in 1857 and shortly after moved to Randolph about 30 miles north of Stark. Michael’s daughter Susannah married Isaac Dickerhoof, she died in 1851. Michael’s son Isaac married Susannah Shriver, Isaac died in 1852 and he and Susannah’s sons died in 1851 and 53. There was a major cholera epidemic in Ohio at this time, It’s probable that Michael’s wife, daughter, son, and grandsons died in this epidemic. Michael’s son Peter married Catherine Truby they moved to Elkhart, Indiana. Michael’s daughters Hannah and Esther both married in Ohio. Esther married Peter Miller they moved to Waverly, Iowa. Hannah married John Bryan they stayed in Stark. A son of Hannah and John Bryan visited his aunt Esther and uncle Peter Miller in September of 1887, recorded in the Waverly (Iowa) Democrat newspaper.

Sources

 

Samuel Druckenbrod b. 1833

/ Kirstin Miller

Samuel Druckenbrod 3rd great grandpa on RootsMagic tree.

Samuel was born in Pennsylvania on May 6, 1833. He was baptized July 14, 1834 in the German Lutheran church at Warwick, PA. Samuel’s great grandpa Matthias was probably the first of his family in America, arriving in the early 1700s during upheaval in Germany and William Penn’s German communities in Pennsylvania. By 1850 his family had moved west to Plain City in Stark County, Ohio.

Samuel married Elizabeth Harter Bair in Stark in 1854. Samuel and Elizabeth had 12 kids and they stayed in Stark, Ohio, they were farmers. On the 1900 US census Samuel and Elizabeth are still farmers. Their son Ivy recorded this census, his name is at the top as ‘enumerator’. In the future Ivy would be superintendent of the Stark County Infirmary. Daughter Fianna Druckenbrod is the only child to move from Ohio. Fianna moved to Bremer County, Iowa with her husband William L. Miller, also from Stark, Ohio, grandparents of Faber Miller.

Samuel was a widow in 1902 and he died on February 14, 1905. At his death his home was in Stark, Ohio, he was on a visit to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 35 miles north, where his two daughters Lidia Druckenbrod Crist and Adeline Druckenbrod Miller were living with their families. The area in the 1800 and 1900s provided “recreation for urban dwellers … the Valley Railway became another way to escape urban industrial life”. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park was established in 2000 and has 100 waterfalls, trails, 250 species of birds and more.

Sources

 

Mary Ella Gaines b. 1855

/ Kirstin Miller

Mary Ella Gaines, my 2nd great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Gaines, Mary Ella photoMary Ella was born June 3, 1855 in Bremer County, Iowa to William Gaines of New York and Sarah Swain of Illinois. Mary Ella grew up near Janesville, Iowa. She was the oldest of 8 brothers and sisters, three siblings died young. At age 23 Mary Ella married James Miller on November 13, 1878, in Waverly, Iowa. They had 2 boys William and James and the family farmed in Bremer and Butler counties in Iowa. The 1895 Iowa census shows Mary Ella, her husband, her 2 sons, her dad William Gaines, her niece Clara and James’s brother Jacob Miller living in the house. The 1900 US census has Mary Ella, her husband and 2 sons, James’s brother Jacob and another niece Jeanette Gaines. Both nieces were daughters of Mary Ella’s brother William and wife Virginia Gaines from Minnesota.

Lewis and Clark expo 1905Mary Ella’s dad, a brother and 2 sisters moved west to Junction City, Oregon about 50 miles south of Portland. In 1905 Mary Ella and James visited Junction City and attended the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland. The Expo lasted 4 months, had more than 1 million visitors and took close to 3 years to build.

Mary Ella was an artist, and one of her paintings survives. According to a note written by her grandson, “The pond was on their farm near Janesville, Iowa. The tree leaning over the pond was a Honey Tree (partially hollow with bee hives in it).”

Sources

John Jones b. 1594

/ Kirstin Miller

John Jones 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

John Jones was born in 1594, in England. A minster, on December 19, 1613 he was ordained as Deacon of Peterboro and by 1619 he was the minster at Abbot’s Ripton in Cambridgeshire, England. In 1630 the courts removed John for not following rites and rituals of the Church of England. In 1635 John and family left England for America. They sailed with another minister Peter Bulkeley- also a Miller ancestor, John and Peter’s children married in Connecticut in 1640.Jones, John suspended

Jones and BulkeleyOn 6 April 1637 the church of Concord ‘kept a day of humiliation, chose Mr Bulkeley teacher and Mr. Jones pastor’. In August 1637 John and other minsters held an Ecclesiastical Council- they worked on their new religion: beliefs, requirements, practices in the new world. In 1644 another council was held and this time Peter Bulkeley and John Jones split- they couldn’t agree so John Jones and family left Concord and went to Fairfield Connecticut where John was the 1st pastor of the Congregational Church of Fairfield. John and Peter’s kids were married by this time, Peter’s son Thomas, married to Sarah Jones, Thomas and Sarah Jones Bulkeley went with John, to Fairfield.

John Jones as minister in Fairfield is shown in a book, Prime Ancient Society of Fairfield, Connecticut, summarized: ‘It is Lord’s Day. Sabbath hush pervades the air. At nine o’clock the drum summons the people, the meeting-house is a plain low structure, as people enter the men go to one side women go to the other. The children are put under the care of the tithing-man. Mr. Jones begins the service with a long prayer, then a longer sermon, a short prayer and the benediction. A brief intermission at noon then the afternoon service. At close of service people walked home and devoted their hours to the reading of the Bible and religious conversation in the family. The minister was expected to be vigilant, observant, energetic in respect to the innumerable details of town affairs. He had a sort of censorship in respect to matters of public import. His influences were far reaching’.

John Jones died and was buried in 1664. His burial place is in Old Burying Ground Cemetery in Fairfield, CT, about 10 miles north of the Long Island sound. His original headstone is long gone, there’s a monument added in recent times.

Sources

David Dewey b. 1721

/ Kirstin Miller

David Dewey 7th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

David Dewey was born January 3, 1721 in Stonington, Connecticut. His parents were Jabez and Deborah York Dewey. This Dewey family includes Admiral George Dewey, 1837-1917, as a distant cousin, so the family is documented in published sources. This David’s 2nd great grandpa, Thomas, was the original American ancestor, he arrived in 1631 or so. David was the 4th generation of Deweys born in America.

David and his brother Jabez both joined and were baptized on July 5, 1741- in their 20s. They joined the First Congregational Church, known as The Road. The church was the 1st in Stonington, organized in 1674, it still stands in the same location with a newer building after a fire in 1829. The plain Puritan design, beams and box style pews were built in to the new building. The church doors open to the front of the church so walking in a person faces the whole congregation.

First church Stonington

On September 28, 1741 David married Deborah Tracy in the same Stonington church. David and Deborah had 7 daughters and 4 sons. Three sons were in the Revolutionary War: David Jr was a minuteman, Jabez was in the Battle of Harlem Heights and Christopher was the fife-major in the War of 1812. 

David’s granddaughter Sarah married John Connable, their daughter Leydia Connable and husband Obed Gaines moved west all the way to Iowa where their granddaughter Mary Ella Gaines married James Miller, grandpa of Faber Miller, husband to Gladys Cable.

Sources

Jacob Miller b. 1808

/ Kirstin Miller

Jacob Miller, my 3rd great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Jacob was born in 1808 in Virginia, not much is proven about his childhood or parents. On April 18, 1833 in Jackson, Ohio he married Sarah Davis, also from Virginia. Sarah’s siblings were in Jackson too. Jacob and Sarah had their first child in Ohio then moved to Elkhart, Indiana and had 9 more kids. On the 1840 and 1850 US censuses, Jacob and his family farmed in Baugo Township, 50 miles east of Lake Michigan, near Elkhart and South Bend, Indiana. In 1850, Jacob and Sarah’s oldest daughter Mary married Moses Mitchell. Moses and his family were from New York, neighbors to the Millers. Mary and Moses moved to Chickasaw County, Iowa after their marriage. 

Jacob died in 1854 at age 46 and there’s a pretty good chance he was hit by a train after a night of drinking. The Peru (Indiana) Wabash Valley Olio newspaper of January 13, 1854 shows detail.

This newspaper of Miami County, Indiana named intoxication, “the scourge of mankind”, as the cause of death. In 1854 the temperance movement was pretty well established in America. Maine passed the first prohibition law in 1847. The movement blamed immigrants and industrialization, big cities and alcohol for the moral decline spreading across the country.

At Jacob’s death, his widow Sarah, with 8 kids still at home, decided to move 400 miles west to Iowa, where her daughter Mary Mitchell and family lived. Jacob and Sarah’s kids set up homes in California, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.

Sources

  • 1850 US Census at FamilySearch
  • Public Ancestry photo “LanceL_Ferris originally shared this 24 Dec 2013”.
  • Newspaper Archive, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Peru (Indiana) Wabash Valley Olio 1854 Jan 13