Tag Archives: Stone

Surviving on the Frontier: Israel Stone

Israel Stone 1749-1808

Although I would not usually relate the story of as distant a relative as a remote cousin, but Israel Stone and his two wives are just too interesting to ignore. According to Ancestry.com he is my 7th cousin 3x removed.  But he is also my 1st cousin 8x removed, if that’s better.]

Israel was born on April 15, 1749 in Rutland, Massachusetts. His parents were cousins. Deacon John Stone was the son of Nathaniel Stone  (whose parents I haven’t worked out yet) and Elizabeth Stone (Stone) who  was the daughter of Capt. Samuel Stone and sister to Nathan Stone, my 5th great grandfather.

  [ADDED May 2016] The lines go like this:

Israel Stone → Deacon John Stone (1702) →Nathaniel Stone (1660)→ John Stone (1618) →Gregory Stone (1592) and his 1st wife. (Note: My line is descended from Gregory Stone’s 2nd wife)

Israel Stone→Elizabeth Stone Stone (1713)→Capt. Samuel Stone (1684)→Samuel Stone, Jr. (1656)→Samuel Stone (1630)→Gregory Stone (1592) and his 2nd wife.

Modern view of Buckley Island in the Ohio River near Marietta, Ohio.

  Modern view of Buckley Island in the Ohio River near Marietta, Ohio. The settlers were forced to try to pasture animals on islands to keep them safe from Indians. But then wolves got them.

Israel and Lydia Barrett

The couple married in 1767 in Rutland, MA and had ten children in Massachusetts. They are an interesting bunch, especially Sardine Stone, who became an Ohio Senator. One of the younger brothers, Benjamin Franklin Stone (1782-1873) became a teacher. In his eighties (finishing at 91) he wrote an autobiography, which gives wonderful details of life in early Ohio territory.

Israel was a militiaman, and when he had been married only 8 years, The record shows:

  • On April 19, 1775, Israel marched to the alarm at Lexington and fought at Cambridge (probably was at Bunker Hill), a duty that lasted 12 days. He served under Cpt. Thomas Eustis.
  • Later, still a private, he served in the company of Cpt. David Bent, Col. Nathan Sparhawk’s Regiment and marched from Rutland to Bennington,8-20-1777, serving for eleven days. In these two companies, he was with his cousin Jeduthan Stone, the Minuteman I wrote about earlier.
  • In 1777, now a Corporal, he served for three months with Capt. Samuel Hubbard’s company, Col. Job Cushing’s Regiment. He entered September 5, 1777 and was discharged 29 November 1777.

Israel’s son, Benjamin Franklin Stone, who was ten when they moved to Ohio, remembered from the Massachusetts days when his father would drive a wagon to Boston (presumably with farm produce.) They lived on the “old Stone farm” until 1786 when he sold that farm and moved to another one. After the Revolution, currency became so devalued that he was having a hard time getting by. This spurred his move to Ohio with the Ohio Company.

Israel was one of the men of Rutland who followed General Rufus Putnam to Marietta, Ohio. In 1789, according to Benjamin Franklin Stone (whom I will call B. F.), Israel set off for Ohio with another man to survey the prospects. His son Jasper (1774-1830) followed a year later. Two daughters stayed with their mother in Rutland, but all the other children were scattered to live with other families in Massachusetts.

In September 1790 a group of 26 people, including Lydia and most of her children — Sardine, Matilda, daughter Lydia, son Israel, Augustus, Christopher Columbus, Polly Buckley and Benjamin Franklin — set out in a train of 3 ox carts with General Putnam’s family. I cannot believe that Lydia was happy to have to make this journey with her huge family.

B.F. says that his brother Israel kept a detailed journal of the trip, but it was unfortunately lost.

Mother Lydia took a cow and Putnams had three cattle.  They traveled through Massachusetts into New York and across Pennsylvania. When they reached the Ohio River, they took a barge to Marietta. The journey took a total of 8 weeks. When they arrived, they were met by their father Israel, whom they had not seen for a year and a half, brother Jasper and sister Betsy who had traveled ahead with another family.

A tragedy of sorts befell them along the way when 100 pairs of socks were lost.  Knowing they would not have sheep for a while, hard-working Lydia and her daughter had knitted the socks to supply the company for a year or two. They were left with only two pair of socks each.

LATE BREAKING: A contributor to the Ohio History & Genealogy Board on Facebook, brought to my attention a site focused on Marietta History.  A search for the Stone name brings up an article called “First Settlement of Rainbow” in the September 7, 1876 issue of the Marietta Register with additional information about Israel’s family.

Bigger tragedies lay ahead with a five-year war against hostile Indians, the death of the young son Israel by drowning in the Ohio River and the death of the mother Lydia.

Picketed Point, reminder of the Indian Wars along the Ohio River 1791-1796 Photo by Photo by Richie Diesterheft, Flickr.

Picketed Point, reminder of the Indian Wars along the Ohio River 1791-1796 Photo by Photo by Richie Diesterheft, Flickr.

The Indian raids made going into the fields or woods dangerous. There was a massacre of several of their group in 1790, and they were disheartened by the defeat of General St. Clair in November 1791 in a battle with 1000 Ohio Miami, Shawnees and Lenape with Potawatamis from Michigan. The Indian forces were known as the American Indian Confederacy. Only 48 of about 1000 American troops escaped death.

I will return to talk about the Ohio Indian wars later, but the underlying problem was that the treaty ending the American Revolution with Britain treated the American Indians as part of the defeated, and although they were not part of the treaty talks, their lands were given to the American government. Understandably, they disagreed.

But life went on among the settlers and on February 27, 1792, little Harriet Hubbard Stone was born, Israel and Lydia’s eleventh child. Lydia died when her baby was only eight months old.  B.F. says that his mother had told him “her constitution was much impaired by excessive hard work even before she was married.”

In March of 1794 Israel was granted a patent of 100 acres of land out of the 1000 that the government had given to Putnam and his company. After living in blockhouses within a fort at Marietta, Israel Stone and a few others moved in 1795 upriver to build another garrison which was known as Farmer’s Castle in the settlement of Rainbow.

Israel and Mary Broadbent Corner

Meanwhile, in England, Mary Broadbent, who was born in Cheshire England in 1764, had married William Corner in 1783.  In 1795 William and Mary Corner and their children — William, George, Sarah and Mary — sailed to America and joined a group that started the Westward trek.  However, unlucky William died of a fever in the mountains of Pennsylvania  and was buried there.

Mary, who must have been an intrepid soul, buried William in Pennsylvania and continued west with the children.  Wherever she had intended to go, she stopped in Marietta. Although the Ohio Company was offering free land to settlers, as a woman whose oldest child was still under twelve, she did not qualify.  But she met Israel Stone and they married in August 1796.

So Israel Stone added three step-children to his family, and he and Mary had one more.

Israel, who is sometimes referred to as Capt. Stone, died July 3, 1808 and is buried in Rainbow. How poetic to pass away in Rainbow! And how peaceful it sounds compared to the life of Israel Stone with his wives Lydia and Mary.

Mary lived with her son George after Israel died at Corner’s Mills, later Cornerville.

 How they are related to me

  •  Vera Marie (Badertscher) is the daughter of
  • Harriette Anderson (Kaser), the daughter of
  • Vera Stout (Anderson), the daughter of
  • Hattie Morgan (Stout), the daughter of
  • Mary Bassett (Morgan), the daughter of
  • Elizabeth Stone (Basset), the daughter of
  • Elizabeth Howe (Stone), the wife of
  • Jeduthan Stone, the son of
  • Nathan Stone, the brother of
  • Elizabeth Stone (Stone), the mother of
  • Israel Stone

Additionally, Lydia Barrett is the step-sister of Jeduthan Stone’s wife Elizabeth Howe (Stone).

Research Notes

  • Israel Howe’s Revolutionary War service record is from a compilation found on ancestry.com sourced from the Massachusetts State Archives and Revolutionary War Rolls.
  • Most information about the family comes from Benjamin Franklin Stone’s autobiography. An excerpt appears in “From Rutland to Marietta: Leaves from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Stone”, New England Magazine, New Series Vol 16 (1897) p. 210 ff. Both the entire book (1873) and magazine available for search at Google Books. [NOTE: It does not seem to be available for search at Google books any longer. Check WorldCat.org for a library near you.]
  • Information on St. Clair’s defeat in WIkipedia.
  • History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by Martin R. Andrews, M.A., Biographical Publishing Co. (1902) Available free on line

 

Born at the Wayside Inn: Elizabeth Howe Stone

Elizabeth Howe (1744-1829)

Wayside Inn

Wayside Inn, Sudbury MA, Photo by Noelle Gillies from Flickr

I grew up hearing from my mother that Elizabeth Howe Stone, my 4th great-grandmother, was born at the Wayside Inn. She was not just making up this family legend. We have DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) research papers that gave us the information.

Nevertheless, I may have to let go of this little family legend.  The historian at the Wayside Inn tells me she can’t verify that information. But I still believe it is possible.

The Howe Family Sudbury Taverns

Various members of the Howe Family operated an inn in Sudbury Massachusetts between 1716 and 1861.  It gained fame in 1862 when Longfellow published “Tales of the Wayside Inn.”  You’re going to be hearing a lot more about the Wayside Inn throughout the summer as I lead up to my trip to Sudbury in September. It is now a historic site run by the Ford Foundation, but still functions as an Inn–the oldest in the country.

When Elizabeth was born, in 1744, her uncle, Ezekiel Howe, had taken over the original Howe’s Tavern and renamed it The Red Horse Tavern [according to some accounts–others say it was just known as “The Howe Tavern”].  The baby Elizabeth’s father was Israel Howe, Ezekiel’s brother.

 Some secondary sources such as the history of the family of Gregory Stone, erroneously state that her father’s name is Capt. Paul How {John (pioneer)-Isaac-John} rather than Israel How {John(pioneer)-Lt. Samuel-David}. It was an easy mistake to make.

Both Paul and Israel were married to women named Elizabeth. Both lived in Rutland (or Paxton, a town formed from part of Rutland).

Paul How did have a daughter named Elizabeth, but it is NOT this Elizabeth who married Jeduthan Stone. The two Elizabeth How’s are listed in the hand written town records from Rutland on the same page. Paul’s daughter was born in June. Israel How’s daughter was born in November.

See the fact page of her profile for complete references on these sources.

Tombstone (as pictured on Find a Grave_ seems to say she died October 8, 1839 at the age of 85. However, that would mean she was born in 1754–after her father, Israel, died in 1748. Find a Grave erroneously attributes her father as Paul.

More importantly, Massachusetts Vital Records, Rutland, says both Elizabeths were born in 1744. Massachusetts Vital Records (Rutland) says Elizabeth Stone, wife of Jeduthan, died in 1829.

Genealogical Notes by Mary Augusta Stone (1862-1953) writes that her grandmother and three great-aunts, who were adults at the time of Elizabeth’s death, testified that Elizabeth How , daughter of Israel How, married Jeduthan Stone, and died in 1829. Mary Augusta Stone’s grandmother, would be my 3x great grandmother, and one of the great-aunts would have been my great-great grandmother.

The family story also has been that she was born at the Wayside Inn (How’s Tavern). That would make her related to the family that ran the Inn . Israel, who I believe was her father, was the son of David, the first innkeeper there.

“Old Northwest” Genalogical Quarterly, Volumes 5-6, p. 99 ed. by Lucius Carewell Herrick, available at Google Books and “A History of Rutland”, pg. 146-147, both list Elizabeth How married to Jeduthan Stone

A HIstory of Rutland, pg. 146-147, says Jeduthan Stone married Elizabeth How.

I believe this is a case where a family history got the father wrong because they missed the 2nd Elizabeth on the Vital Records page, and the mistake was passed on. As to the tombstone, it is in very good condition for the age, so I’m guessing it was erected many years after her death, and the date of death was copied erroneously from the family historys rather than the Vital Records.

Perhaps by coincidence, Elizabeth was to grow up and marry Jeduthan Stone, who probably was related to Ezekiel’s wife, Bathesheba Stone.  The town of Sudbury was knee-deep in families that are in my background — particularly Stones and Howes — so there are a lot of interwoven skeins of family lines.

According to the Massachusetts Town Records (1620-1850)–a summary rather than the original records–Elizabeth Howe was born in Rutland, Massachusetts.  Later records show that her family must have lived in a portion of Rutland that later split off to form the new town of Paxton.

Her father, Israel, grew up around the How/Howe family tavern on the Boston Road in the small town of Sudbury. She was named for her mother, Elizabeth Hubbard Howe (whom I will introduce next week) who came from Marlborough, a few miles west of Sudbury along the Boston Road. [ EDIT 8-8-2014: Actually she came from Concord also near by]

Elizabeth Howe was the third child in the family. The first, Israel Jr., died when  Elizabeth was just one year old (he was only four). She also had an older sister Lucy. She also had younger sisters Ruth and Rebecca.

When Elizabeth was only four years old,  Israel Howe died.  Soon after, her mother married Stephen Barrett. Consequently Elizabeth had a half sister, Lydia Barrett and three half-brothers, Stephen Barrett Jr., Israel Barrett and Benjamin Barrett [EDIT with additional information 8-7-2014].

In January 1773, at age 28, Elizabeth Howe married Jeduthan Stone, who was four years younger.  As we have seen in looking at Jeduthan and their oldest daughter Elizabeth Stone (Bassett) , she was pregnant when she married Jeduthan. Hot blooded at 28 and pursuing a younger man?

When her baby daughter was a year and a half old, Jeduthan marched off to participate in the American Revolution. It must have been worrisome days, but Elizabeth continued to give birth fairly regularly between battles and after Jeduthan returned to farm in Massachusetts. [EDIT 8-7-2014: Her three half-brothers were also fighting in the war, and one was held captive for 9 months in Quebec.]

  • Elizabeth, the first child of Elizabeth and Israel, born in 1773, married William Bassett in 1804 and moved to Ohio. (Elizabeth’s step-Aunt Lydia Barrett married a relative of Jeduthan Stone named Israel Stone who also was an Ohio pioneer. See what I mean about tangled skeins?)
  • Willard, born 1776. He married Polly Merriam in 1801, and after she died in 1829 married a woman named Nancy. He seems to have stayed in Rutland.
  • Augustus, born in 1777, would have been a particular concern because he was nearly blind from birth. He did not marry until he was 31, in 1809. He married Thankful Banks and lived out his life as a productive farmer in the Rutland area and father to ten children. He married a second time in 1843.
  • Patty, who never married was born in 1780. I speculate that she may have had health problems.
  • Calvin was born in 1781. Married Elizabeth Estabrook in 1810.
  • Lucy was born in 1783, and married Herman Foster in 1806 and remained in Rutland the rest of her life.
  • Sally was probably a surprise,  born in 1786  when Elizabeth was forty-two years old. Sally married Taylor Estabrook (possibly the brother of Calvin’s wife) in 1809. They also stayed in Rutland.

Although I have not yet traced the families of each of the children of Elizabeth How Stone, it is fair to assume they had large families, and since they all stayed in the area, Elizabeth probably enjoyed huge family gatherings with her grandchildren.

I imagine the women cooking over the open hearth, or perhaps in an attached kitchen building or outdoors as they celebrated holidays.  I imagine that Independence Day was a very special occasion for them, since Grandpa Jeduthan had been a fighter in the Revolution, and many other men of Sudbury had fought for Independence.

The Tie to Sudbury

It makes sense to me that Elizabeth Howe’s mother and father were visiting Sudbury when her mother went into labor, and the trip back home would have been too lengthy. Thus, the baby was born at the family Inn in Sudbury, but the birth was registered in their home town of Rutland.

Throughout her life, Elizabeth no doubt also traveled frequently to Sudbury, where many of their relatives lived. She would have visited the Wayside Inn with her family and they heard tales of how their mother/grandmother Elizabeth Howe was born there. I like knowing that when I first heard the story, it had been floating down through my family for more than 200 years.

Elizabeth Howe Stone died at the age of 85 in the town that by then was called Paxton. Her son Calvin had died at 46 years old in 1827. Jeduthan had passed away in March of 1829, and her first daughter–Elizabeth Stone Bassett–had died in September 1829 in far off Keene Ohio. Elizabeth Howe Stone, who had survived the death of one son and her husband, only lived one month after her daughter Elizabeth. But the story of her birthplace in a family inn stays alive.

 How I am Related

  • Vera Marie Badertscher is the daughter of
  • Harriette Anderson Kaser, the daughter of
  • Vera Stout Anderson, the daughter of
  • Hattie Morgan Stout, the daughter of
  • Mary Bassett Morgan, the daughter of
  • Elizabeth Stone Basset, the daughter of
  • Elizabeth Howe Stone.

Notes on Research

  • Cemeteries of Ohio, Genealogical Publishing Com pg. 116 reproduces the words from the gravestones of several members of Stone families.
  • Other details of relationships, birth and death dates come from records found through Ancestry.com NOTE: There is a record at FindaGrave that says Elizabeth’s Howe’s father was Capt. Paul Howe, and that misinformation is found in some other family trees as well.  Capt. Paul Howe did have a daughter named Elizabeth based on a birth record,and she was born in the same year, but in June, rather than November when my Elizabeth was born. Paul’s child was NOT the Elizabeth that married Jeduthan Stone.
  • “Old Northwest” Genealogical Quarterly, Volumes 5-6, p. 99 and 144 ff,  ed. by Lucius Carwell Herrick, available at Google Books.
  • Gregory Stone Genealogy : Ancestry and Descendants of Dea. Gregory Stone of Cambridge, Massachusetts : 1320-1917, Joseph Gardner Bartlett, Boston 1918. Available on lne at Google Books.
  • Massachusetts Compiled Marriages 1633-1850, Elizabeth Howe and Jedutham Stone, Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp, Ancestry.com 2005
  • Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, Roxbury, 1620-1988, J. Mack Holbrook, Holbook Research Institute, Oxford MA, at Ancestry.com, Elizabeth Stone death.
  • Massachusetts Town Birth Records, 1650-1850, Rutland,  New England Genealogical Historic Society, published by Ancestry.com 1990. Elizabeth Howe, birth
  • Massachusetts Town Marriage Records 1620-1850, Jeduthan Stone and Elizabeth Howe, January,1773 and Marriage Banns, Dec. 25, 1772, New England Historic Genealogical Society published by Ancestry.com, film index at Family Search.org
  • Research notes from Daughters of the American Revolution, prepared for my grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson probably in the 1930s or 1940s.
  • Longfellow’s Wayside Inn, A Historama Booklet, (1975;2nd printing 1977) by Carole J. Maconi with Barbara Deveneau.
  • Family tales and Bible records