William Lewis b. 1594

/ Kirstin Miller

William Lewis 10th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree

William Lewis was born in Cardiff, Wales January of 1594. In 1620 he married Felix Collins also of Wales. On June 22, 1632 William, Felix and their young son William Jr. sailed from London to New England, arriving in Boston on September 16, 1632.

Lewis, Wm and family

Page 101, Planters of the Commonwealth by Banks, an Ancestry . com source

John Winthrop of New England kept a journal in 1630s and 40s, one thing he recorded was ships arriving and leaving. “He brought one hundred and twenty three passengers whereof fifty children, all in health, they had been twelve weeks aboard and eight weeks from Land’s end.”

Winthrop the Lyon

Volume 1 page 92 The Winthrop journals at HathiTrust

The Winthrop Journals are at HathiTrust  more info on John Winthrop at Wikipedia 

William settled first in Cambridge and was a freeman on Nov 6, 1632. He moved to Hartford then Farmington, Connecticut where he was a selectmen, constable and deputy. As a selectmen William would have helped put his new town together, selectmen explained at Wikipedia  “In most New England towns, the adult voting population gathered annually in a town meeting to act as the local legislature, approving budgets and laws. Day-to-day operations were originally left to individual oversight, but when towns became too large for individuals to handle such work loads, they would elect an executive board of, literally, select(ed) men to run things for them.”

William wrote and signed a will August 30, 1683, his estate was settled December 18 1683, his son William was executor. “I William Lewis, being stricken in years, do think it meet to set in order the Estate which God hath graciously given me.” Volume 1 page 331 A digest of the early Connecticut probate records at HathiTrust.

William Lewis 1594 – 1683
William Lewis 1620 – 1690
Mary Lewis  1645 – 1690
Hannah Judd  1681 – 1747
Hannah Smith  1711 – 1785
Prudence Risley  1735 – 1816
Joseph Gaines  1756 – 1841
Obed Gaines  1793 – 1877
William Newcomb Gaines  1825 – 1907
Mary Ella Gaines  1855 – 1917
William E Miller  1879 – 1949
Faber W Miller  1905 – 1957

369 North Main Street, the Whipple house

/ Kirstin Miller

At 369 North Main Street in Providence Rhode Island.

369 glory

ca 1912 Howard W. Preston, “369 North Main Street,” in Virtual Exhibits, Item #370, http://sos.ri.gov/virtualarchives/items/show/370 (accessed November 23, 2018).

These two photos and the description are from the ebook at FamilySearch.org:

The 1912 house likely reflects additions built by Captain John’s granddaughters and their husbands, the Crawford brothers, wealthy merchants, who lived there in the eighteenth century. The 369 property stayed in the Crawford-Whipple (and allied families) family for over 150 years. See the chapter on Joseph Whipple for details. The house was damaged in the New England hurricane of 1938 which devastated much of Rhode Island. It disappeared shortly thereafter.

Whipple, Charles M. A History of Captain John and Sarah Whipple of Dorchester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, 1617-1685: A Multigenerational Study of the First Whipple Family in America. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Pub, 2007369 1912

369 2002

Elbert Howard b. 1791

/ Kirstin Miller

Elbert Howard 5th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree

Elbert Howard was born in Georgia around 1791. In 1811 he was in Knox, Kentucky, in 1820 Lawrence, Indiana, 1840 in Lake, Illinois and by 1855 in Floyd County, Iowa. Elbert married Phone McNeil in 1811 in Kentucky, after her death he married Rachel Burlingham. Rachel and Elbert’s marriage was ‘the first marriage license granted by the County of Lake issued out of the Commissioners’ Court under date of September 10, 1839’. A history of Lake County, Illinois page 71 a free ebook at HathiTrust.

On June 15 1855 Elbert purchased 160 acres of land. Certificate 23,975 Elbert Howard of Floyd County, Iowa, 160 acres, 15 June 1855. Howard, Elbert 1855 land purchase

In 1857 he was appointed postmaster of Howardville, Iowa. Elbert Howard and some of his family are buried in the Howardville Cemetery. 

Ancestry . co sources: U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971, Kentucky, County Marriages, 1783-1965 and U.S. General Land Office Records, 1796-1907.

 

Annie Henrichs b. 1869

/ Kirstin Miller

Annie Antje Henrichs, my 2nd great grandmother, on RootsMagic tree

Henrichs, Annie, Ebenezer ChurchAnnie saved her church. Pastor Siegfried Siefkes came from Germany to Butler Center, Iowa a historical town no longer around. He worked to organize a new congregation, The Kirchenbuch der Evangelisch Lutherisch Eben-Ezer Gemeinde or Ebenezer Church. The pastor wrote a letter to the actual German Kaiser asking for help, that wasn’t successful so he started asking the local German community to contribute and successfully all but $100 which was borrowed from the bank. The pastor and congregation understood they had a year to pay back this loan but within a month the bank and contractor came for payment. The pastor begged for a week to raise the $100 and it was granted. At Sunday’s service the pastor and congregation met and talked about ways to raise $100 in a week. A farmer offered to sell seed oats, but that wasn’t enough.

Frerichs, Enno with Mary and Annie

Enno Frerichs, Mary Frerichs Roose and Annie Henrichs Frerichs on their porch.  

“Another young lady who was the daughter of one of the members came forward. She had been working for some time as a hired girl and had managed to save nearly all of her wages. She even had the amount with her in her hand bag. The amount was $80 which she offered to loan to the congregation. Seeing this as a voice from heaven, the remaining $20 was raised in short order.”

The whole story in the Greene (Iowa) Recorder via the Greene Public Library.
2003 Feb 5 Greene Recorder page 5, column 5 top

Annie, birth name Antje, Henrichs was born on January 14, 1869 in Osteel, Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany. When she was 14 years old she and her mom & dad and 8 siblings sailed from Bremen, Germany to Baltimore, Maryland in March 1885. Annie and her family lived in Iowa where they farmed.

Annie married Enno Frerichs on May 26, 1890. They stayed in Butler County Iowa and had 10 kids. On May 30, 1940 Annie age 71 and Enno age 75 celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends “During the day seventy eight relatives and friends called to offer congratulations.”

Annie was a widow in 1944 and she died in 1956. Both she and John died at heir farm, both are buried in Butler Center Cemetery, near the where the Ebenezer Church once was.

Sources

Jake Miller b. 1841

/ Kirstin Miller

Jake Miller 3rd great uncle,  on RootsMagic tree

Jacob Miller was born August 6, 1841 in Elkhart, Indiana the 3rd child of 9. The family farmed, the kids went to school. Jake’s dad died when he was 13 and soon after the family moved to Iowa close to where his older sister, now married, was living near Nashua, Iowa.

Jake stayed single. In his later years he lived with his bother Jame’s family, then with his nephew James Archard Miller and family. When his brother James D married Mary Ella Gaines, Jake is on the marriage record testifying to the bride and groom’s ‘competent age and condition’. On census records Jake is a farmer, a horse breeder and a horse trainer. He lived in Janesville, Bristow and Greene, Iowa and was a welcome guest in the Janesville Waverly area. On the 4th of July 1885. “Mr Jacob Miller was down from near Bristow to spend the 4th with his friends around Janesville. Jake is always a welcome guest in these parts.”

Miller, Jake obituary

 

Christian Roos b. 1859

/ Kirstin Miller

Christian Roos 3rd great uncle on RootsMagic tree
Christian (named for his grandfather Christian Renistra) Roos was born in Harlingen, Netherlands or maybe Germany. In early August 1862 he was 3 years old and sailed, on the Adler, with parents and 3 older siblings to New York, arriving on August 18, 1862. From New York the family went to Ogle County, Illinois and then in 1880 they were living in Butler County, Iowa.

screenshot 2screenshot

Roos, Chris potetntial politicsIn 1885 Christian ‘Chris’ married Geske ‘Grace’ Lubberts and they both owned farm land including the Riverside Stock Farm run by their sons, Bertus (named for his Lubberts grandfather) and George. Chris and Grace also had 3 daughters who married and then farmed in the area. Chris lived to age 92 in the Aplington, Iowa area. He and his wife are buried in Pleasant View Cemetery.

There may be more to Chris’s story. August of 1912, a Chris Roos is elected Supervisor of 2nd district, Albion Township, maybe at the Democratic (state or county) Convention. In the Iowa Recorder of August 21st is the National Ticket with presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson at the top of list, then vice president, governor, etc. and Chris Roos Supervisor at the bottom. Probably this Christian Roos.

1917 Atlas of Butler County, Iowa (Mason City, IA: Anderson Publishing Co., 1917); image 17 of 48 shows land owned, image 33 of 48 lists businesses in Monroe township.

Sarah Swain b. 1838

/ Kirstin Miller

Sarah Swain 3rd great grandmother on RootsMagic tree.

Sarah was born March 19, 1838 in Waukegan, Illinois to Benjamin and Polly Howard Swain, some of the first settlers in the area. Polly was from Kentucky, Benjamin from New England. Benjamin died when Sarah was about 10 and her mom Polly remarried Jacob Montgomery, also a widow then the family moved to Chickasaw, Iowa, where Sarah married William N. Gaines in 1854 at age 16. Sarah and William had children, 5 lived to adulthood. Sarah kept house and helped her husband with farming, running a hotel and being a postmaster. She was active in her church and was known for her generosity and ‘ministering to the sick and the afflicted’. Sarah Ann Swain Gaines is buried at Oakland Cemetery near Janesville. The headstone from 1889 is fading fast. Inscribed: Sarah A. (wife of) Wm N Gaines born Mar 19 1839 died Sep 21 1889. There were probably carvings along the top edge, flowers or swirls and maybe something at the bottom.

Swain, Sarah 1889 obituary“Janesville
Mrs Gaines whose serious illness I have mentioned several times died last Saturday night. Was buried from the house on Tuesday Rev. Hoekyn officiating. In the death of Mrs. Gaines the community has lost one of its most valuable members. Naturally generous and kind her greatest pleasure was in doing good. In ministering to the sick and the afflicted she had but few equals. She leaves a husband and four children to mourn her loss, all of whom were with her at her time of death. Her brother Mr. Montgomery of Wadena Minnesota and her uncles, John and James Howard, from Charles City and Nashua were down to attend the funeral services.”

Swain, Sarah 1889 funeral card

Sarah Gaines d. September 21, 1889

Sources 

Eleazer Arnold House

/ Kirstin Miller

screenshot

Eleazer Arnold 9th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.
“Eleazer Arnold builder of the noted 17th century stone-end chimney house was a typical representative of second generation Rhode Islander settlers … Such were the conditions in Rhode Island as pictured by travelers of a period only fifty years after Eleazar Arnold created his mansion in 1687 on the Great Road to Mendon. The land he built on was fifty acres left to him by his father at “Worlds End” near Scott’s pond”.

Image 10 of 19, page 81. Eleazer Arnold House July 1952 Volume 2 No. 3 at Rhode Island Historical Society link to the publication page with an explanation of the journal. Link to the actual journal.

 

Source citation newspaper

/ Kirstin Miller

was:

Ancestry.com, Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) (Name: Online publication – Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations  Inc, 2006. Original data – Oakland Tribune. Oakland, CA, USA. Database  created from microfilm copies of the newspaper. Original data: Oakland  Tribune. Oakland, CA, USA. Database created from microf;)

is:

Ancestry.com. Oakland (California) Tribune. Online publication, Provo, UT, Ancestry.com 2006. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.