Saturday, October 12, 2024

#52Ancestors52Weeks...Week 41 Theme...Most....A Most Thrilling Story! But Was It a Tall Tale or True?


   Daily Morning Union October 12, 1904
Grass Valley, California
Goldfield was otherwise known as New Mining Camp in 1904, the height of the boom. 

    This week's theme is Most....John Hansen (my great grandfather) was a natural born storyteller.   He even wrote a complete manuscript telling of his many adventures in Central America in 1910.  Those stories blurred the line between reality and tall tales but were non the less very fun to read!

    I do believe this story was one of the first stories of John's to be published and shows his ability as a storyteller. He wrote it for the local paper, whose readers  wanted to know what John was up to in Goldfield, Nevada when he should have been home in Grass Valley  with his new bride Vere.  But...was his story made up or true?  A most confounding question.  You decide! 











   John Hansen was in Goldfield, Nevada, scoping out gold mines and opportunities to make some money during the boom of 1904.  He even purchased shares in several gold mines a few years later in 1906 and 1907.  Goldfield was at one time the largest town in the state, fueled by a feverish goldrush which quickly dried up by 1910.  John may have been lured by the promise of easy riches during the boom; instead of gold he came home with this intriguing story of his journey in the desert.  But, like the rest of his stories, there must have been a little truth in there somewhere! 


  
 John purchased 700 shares in the Manhattan Combination Mining Company in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906. We don't know if he saw any returns for his investments in Goldfield mining adventures. 

 
 
   Click on the link for Central America (under labels) for more stories written by John Hansen. Click on the link for John Hartwig Hansen to learn more his life. 

Thursday, October 3, 2024

#52Ancestors52Weeks...Week 40 Theme...Least...Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump and Hulda Pierce Warren Bump Were Little People

 


Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump 
B. 1841 Middleborough, Massachusetts - D. 1919 Middleborough, Massachusetts
(Performed as Lavinia Warren for P.T. Barnum)
Wikipedia



      This week's theme is least...I went with Merriam and Webster's definition of "smallest in size or degree" to describe the Bump sisters.  Several years ago I came across the stories of Mercy and Hulda (Minnie) Bump while researching my husband's paternal New England lines (Alden/Warren) and thought this would be a fun story for this week.  Who ever said family history is boring? 



   The Bump sisters were certainly the smallest in size in the Alden/Warren family tree, as Mercy grew no taller than 32 inches and her sister Minnie grew no taller than 27 inches.  They were born with proportionate dwarfism; their condition was caused by a pituitary disorder which, in modern times, is now treated with hormone injections during childhood. The girls were descendants of five Mayflower families including John Billington, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Stephen Hopkins and Richard Warren.  

   Mercy's life didn't seem to be adversely affected by her short stature.  She was a well-respected school teacher at the age of 16 and then went on to become a dancer on a showboat before she came under the management of P.T. Barnum in his American Museum in New York.  Her stage name became Lavinia Warren, and from all reports, she loved performing in front of audiences.  She met Charles Stratton (also a little person with proportionate dwarfism) and the two were married in 1863.  It was front page news for three days straight, even in the midst of the Civil War.  Stratton was  known by his stage name General Tom Thumb, and had performed with P.T. Barnum since the age of 5.  They became the power couple of the times and met Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria.  



The marriage of Charles Sherwood Stratton (General Tom Thumb) and Lavinia Warren (Mercy Lavinia Warren  Bump) in 1863.  Mercy's Maid of Honor was her sister Minnie. 
Public Domain

    Both Mercy and Charles became very famous under Barnum's management during their marriage. They also became very wealthy.  After Charles' death in 1883 Mercy married an Italian little person, Count Primo Magri. Together they operated a famous roadside stand in Middleborough, Massachusetts which featured other little people, and they often toured around the world with this troupe.  The two also appeared in a 1915 silent film The Lilliputian's Courtship.  



 Hulda Pierce Warren Bump (1849-1878)
Known by her stage name as Minnie Warren.  She was a singer and performer for P.T. Barnum. 

    Though the Bump sisters knew fame and had accrued wealth because of their condition,  there were downsides to their tiny statures.  The women had to deal with the general public thinking of them as children.  P.T. Barnum's advertising strategy was to present his little people as children to gain public sympathy and sell more tickets.  Many people wanted to pet them and hold them, instead of treating them as the adults they were. Even though Mercy was not fond of how the public viewed her, she continued to perform.  She said, "I belong to the public".   Minnie also married a little person, Edmund Newell, and soon became pregnant.  Tragically, she and her baby girl died from childbirth complications in 1878.  The full sized baby weighed 6 pounds.  

     The Bump sisters were some of the most famous little people in the world because of P.T. Barnum.  They were certainly exploited by Barnum, who presented other curiosities such as the conjoined twins Chang and Eng as well as the Bearded Lady to the public. But they also profited from their physical differences.  

    Looking beyond their physical appearance that put them in the public eye Mercy and Minnie were first and foremost daughters, sisters, cousins, aunts and wives and a mother within their own families.  We can remember the Bump sisters on their own branch as a part of our Alden family tree. Which is a very, very,  large tree. 

   

 The Alden connection to Mercy and Minnie Bump (Ancestry.com screenshot)
Hannah Warren Hall and Sylvanus Warren were brother and sister.  

   

 Continuing the line down from Thomas Jefferson Alden and Juliann Weston, also of Middleborough, Massachusetts.  They were in the same generation as the Bump sisters.  I wonder if Juliann even knew she was related to the famous sisters? Their shared common ancestors were Benjamin Warren and Jedidah Tupper, making Juliann and the sisters third cousins. 


   References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavinia_Warren

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Warren

https://www.healthline.com/health/dwarfism

Friday, September 27, 2024

#52Ancestors52Weeks...Week 39 Theme...Homestead....Albion Howard Boothby Built a House in Prospect Oregon


 The Albion Howard Boothby Home
Prospect, Oregon
Shared on Ancestry.com by DRaack 2013.


   This very faded photograph was shared by a DNA relative on Ancestry.com awhile back; it shows the 1889 homestead built by Albion Howard Boothby in the little Oregon town of Prospect.  Prospect is located on Highway 62 halfway between Medford and Crater Lake National Park. As Crater Lake became a popular tourist attraction,  Albion's home was changed over time to accommodate travelers visiting the majestic water-filled caldera up the road.  This property is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently on the market for 3 million dollars.  I wonder what Albion would think of that? 





 Albion Howard Boothby (1841-1925)
Shared by MimiTorchiaBoothby on her Boothby Genealogy website.


  Albion Boothby was born in Athens, Maine on January 11, 1841; his parents were Bradford and Rebecca Boothby.  Albion's great great grandfather Nathanial was the brother of Josiah Boothby, my fourth great grandfather.  Albion's older brother Adney built a home and farm in Livermore, Maine, which continues to this day as the Boothby's Farm Market and Orchard.  




   Albion came to Oregon as a young man and became involved in timber and farming.  He married Margaret Jenny Nolan in 1872 and they had seven children.  He and Jenny built the home in 1888-9, right on the main street of Prospect and a short distance from the primitive road which led to Crater Lake.  During the 1870's William Gladstone Steele began his 17 year quest to see Crater Lake become a National Park, which in turn increased interest in the area.   Travelers coming from Medford, eager to see this newly discovered spectacle, would spend two full days going by carriages and wagons before they reached their destination.  



 Crater Lake National  Park
getsready.com

  The Prospect area and the Boothby homestead were natural halfway points for the new tourists who often stopped at the Boothby homestead and stayed for a good home cooked meal and a bed. Albion and Jenny soon realized their home needed to be bigger to accommodate the increased traffic.  They decided to add on and build a "roadhouse" and hotel which catered to tourists and locals alike with Jenny's cooking skills.  The Boothby House became the center of the community, hosting dances, parties and town events.  Albion was appointed the Prospect U.S. Postmaster in 1892. 



 The Boothby Hotel in 2010,  now called the Prospect Hotel.  You can see the wrap around porch which was added in 1915. 
Wikipedia

  
   In 1897 the Boothbys sold the hotel and moved to Klamath Falls.  The hotel went through several changes with the advent of the automobile (new owners added a gas station) but the home cooking remained the same. Tourist cabins, a fishpond and an aviary were also added. Crater Lake became a National Park in 1902 and the guest books after this showed travelers coming from Italy, France, Germany and Russia.  The hotel also attracted the likes of William Jennings Bryan, Zane Gray, John Muir, Jack London, President Roosevelt and President Hoover.  The hotel remained the only lodging and dining establishment along the Upper Rogue River for some time. 

   As road conditions improved, less guests stayed at the hotel.  The Depression and WW II also took a toll on the business and the hotel deteriorated.  In 1985 new owners committed over a million dollars to restore the hotel.  The newly refurbished hotel and dining room  were opened for customers exactly 100 years after the Boothbys first opened their homestead to guests in 1889.   Efforts to place the hotel on the National Registry of Historic Places were successful in 1989. 




     If you visit these days, you can step back in time and stay in the period furnished Boothby Room!  Or the Roosevelt Room, or the John Muir Room or the Jack London Room.... Signature dishes from the kitchen are prime rib, roasted salmon and the 19-layer 5 cheese lasagna. Wild mushrooms and hand picked berries are served in season.  The dinner house also hosts murder mystery dinners and wine tastings.  Or, you can purchase the entire property for 3 million dollars from Sotheby's, as the current owners are retiring!

    It is truly amazing that this home still stands, and that the additions, upgrades and restorations have not altered the original building much.  It still serves the Prospect community as well as  those traveling by 62 on their way to see one of our spectacular national treasures. I think that Albion and Jenny would be happy to see their family home/hotel still being used as they meant it to be.  My family has been to Crater Lake several times, and we have unknowingly driven right by Prospect and the hotel, not knowing its family significance.  As I have had time to research our family history, and our Oregon history, I have learned more about Albion and his home which I didn't know before. Time to take another drive and visit this family treasure.  And maybe stay in the Boothby Room! 

   Albion Boothby is buried in the Nye Phipps Pioneer Cemetery near Prospect, Oregon with his wife Jenny and two of his children.  A cemetery visit is also on my to-do list.  



 Albion Boothby's relationship to Josiah Boothby (1738-1804)
Screenshot from Ancestry.com



Josiah Boothby 1,2,3,4.  Josiah T. Boothby (no. 4) was the father of Sterl Boothby, my grandfather. 
Screenshot from Ancestry.com



References:  

The Oregonian    June 7, 2024 by Janet Eastman
https://www.oregonlive.com/realestate/2024/06/historic-hotel-near-crater-lake-is-for-sale-at-3-million.html

Mimi Torchia Boothby's Genealogy Page http://www.sersale.org/aboothby.htm 

The Prospect Historic Hotel     prospecthotel.com

National Registry of Historic Places-Inventory Nomination Form for the Prospect Hotel https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OR/80003327.pdf  

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 34. Theme...Member of the Club...John Hansen Peels Potatoes For the Grass Valley Sportsman's Club


  Caption on the bottom right hand corner reads:
"Peeling Potatoes for Dove Stew July 16, 1913"



John Hartwig Hansen, my great grandfather.  He was 48 years old in 1913. 


   This picture was found in Vere Hansen's photograph album, pasted on the inside of the back cover and surrounded by several smaller photographs.  Why was John Hansen peeling potatoes for dove stew in 1913? 
 



  With a little sleuthing and some help from our local Facebook site You Know You're From Nevada County If You Remember...  I was able to put this photograph into context.  My great grandfather was photographed peeling potatoes at the annual Dove Hunt and Camp Stew put on by the Grass Valley Sportsman's Club.  This was a yearly hunt which began with breakfast and ended with dove stew dinner in the evening.  It was attended by many residents of Grass Valley (since 1880) and was a popular event. I suppose they needed quite a lot of peeled potatoes and John Hansen volunteered for the job!



 From The San Francisco Examiner July 5, 1891
Newspapers.com
Indian Springs was in the vicinity of Rough and Ready California. 


    The Grass Valley Sportsmen's Organization (formally the Grass Valley Sportsman's Club) has been in existence since 1880, according to their website, making them the oldest sportsmen's club West of the Mississippi. They were "pioneers in field and stream".  I don't know if John Hansen was an actual member of the Sportsman's Club;  he was a popular and  gregarious resident of Grass Valley and may have been invited to take part in this well known event by friends or neighbors.  At that time membership in the club was very large, so it could be possible he was a member.  Membership is now restricted to only 100 members and is by invitation only from an existing member.  Dove hunts are no longer on the club's events schedule; current and upcoming events are the beer booth at the Nevada County Fair, the annual Steak Feed, the Lyon's Lake Kid's Trout Derby and a Crab Feed.  Very different from over 100 years ago! 

  If you visit the Searles Historical Library online you can search their photograph archives (type "dove" in the search bar) for past pictures of dove stew get-togethers.  I learned that the Nevada City Gun Club had their own dove hunting and stew gatherings also!   I have added the Searles Historical Library as a favorite link on the right side bar, under labels. 


   
   Cooking dove stew over the fire? According to an archived photograph on the Searles Historical Library website this is how the club cooked their stew.  

  Dove hunts and gatherings for dinner afterwards are still popular around many parts of the country.  I'm sure John Hansen enjoyed the day with his friends and neighbors helping out the Grass Valley Sportsman's Club with this annual get-together.  It was fun discovering the picture and adding another piece of the puzzle to John Hansen's life story. 

Relationship Reference:
Me->Margaret Hansen Boothby->Harold Hansen->John Hartwig Hansen = Vere Burrows Hansen

Thursday, August 15, 2024

#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 33...Favorite Discovery.... Lester Hayes Was Buried With the Showfolks of America in Colma, California


Olivet Gardens of Cypress Lawn Memorial Park
Colma, San Mateo County, California
Show Folks of America section J, lot 2A.
Find A Grave
 

   Colma, California, is known as San Francisco's City of the Dead, or the City of Souls.  Olivet Memorial Park is just one of 17 cemeteries located in Colma, located south of San Francisco.  In the back section of the Olivet Cemetery you will find a Show Folks memorial, dedicated to clowns, circus and carnival performers.  Imagine my surprise several years ago when I looked on Find A Grave and saw that my great grandfather Lester Franklin Hayes was buried here in 1969! This was quite a mystery, as no living family members knew why he chose this spot as his final resting place.  This summer I had time to go through his papers that my great Auntie Dot saved after his death.  I discovered the reason for his burial in this particular cemetery; it was written on the back of  a Prudential Insurance Company Request for Beneficiary Change form.  It was my favorite discovery this year!





   Lester Hayes and my great grandmother Emma King Hayes (Nana) divorced in 1924.  Lester kept a somewhat close relationship with his daughters Dorothy, Fran and Betty but Nana never talked about him or their marriage after the divorce. He continued to live in San Francisco, and Nana lived in Grass Valley.  Lester passed away on April 5, 1969 and his oldest daughter Dorothy (Auntie Dot) closed out his estate in San Francisco. After that, he was never mentioned or referred back to in the family.  As a result, I never really knew my great grandfather's story until I began to research the Hayes side of the family several years ago. 

   When I added Lester Franklin Hayes to my family tree on Ancestry.com, the Find A Grave memorial was a complete surprise and obviously brought up quite a few questions! Was he a clown? Did he have connections to the circus? Was he a performer?  Did he dabble in theater? If so, no one had heard anything about it!  And Auntie Dot, sadly, was no longer here to tell me, either. 



Lester F. Hayes 1882-1969
His marker looks like the others placed on "Showman's Rest" row.
It is located in the OM-Section J,  Lot 2A, Niche 162. 
Find a Grave 



A program cover for a service held at the Olivet Memorial Park in 1968.   Annual memorial services are still held every January by Show Folks of America, Inc.   This was in Lester Hayes' papers and raised some interesting questions in the family! 

      

   Doing a quick search through some of Lester's papers several months ago I found a program for a memorial service that was held in the Olivet cemetery on January 6, 1968.  Did he attend? Why did he hang on to this? Several weeks ago I found an envelope stuffed with all kinds of papers and cards that I hadn't looked at yet. Inside, I found a membership card for the Show Folks of America Inc. with Lester's name on it.  Interesting!  With the membership card was a small booklet of Constitution and By-Laws for the Show Folks of America, Inc. San Francisco Chapter No. 2.  Oh my! 



A membership card for the year 1969 for Lester F. Hayes. He was a regular member, not an Honorary member or Associate member per the by-laws. 



A pocket-sized booklet for the Show Folks of America, Inc., San Francisco Chapter No. 2


    Also inside that envelope was an insurance company form.  Lester requested a change in his beneficiary on this particular policy. 


front

   Lester changed the beneficiary on his paid policy to the organization Show Folk of America, a non-profit organization, on April 20, 1967.  Bonnie Townsend , listed as a friend, was the secretary-treasurer for the organization.  On the back, under remarks, was the reason for the change...."reason for change is the daughters live a long way off and are hard to get in contact with".   


back

    My great grandfather died on April 5, 1969.  I found several letters and typed papers in the envelope that explained the rest of this mysterious business. 


The bill for Lester's burial and headstone.  




This was enclosed with the bill, and explained the arrangement Lester made with Show Folks of America, Inc. 


   Lester must have had a close relationship with Bonnie and this organization to make an arrangement like this.  I found another little note and two letters that helped tell the rest of the story.  Or, almost the rest of the story!



As Auntie Dot was closing out the estate and cleaning out the furniture, she found a spinning wheel which Lester was going to repair for Bonnie Townsend at some point.  It was returned to Bonnie. 



This letter was written to the  President of Show Folks of America, Inc., Mr. Gene Cardoza, by my Auntie Dot.  Apparently, Lester had a long time relationship with this organization!  



This letter was written to Auntie Dot from Bonnie Townsend, telling her of the final payments made for Lester's funeral expenses.  That letterhead is amazing!

    My great grandfather worked as a carpenter for most of his life and may have gotten involved with this organization that way. However, the little Constitution booklet states that membership is confined to "theatrical and show people, circus, carnival, free acts, stage, radio, advertising, music, fair and park personnel, or any person identified with any and all forms of entertainment of theatrical or out-door show nature and their allied professions."   In that last letter Bonnie Townsend mentioned "Santa suits"....why did Lester have Santa suits?? Was this why he was a member? And why did Bonnie Townsend want his Santa suits? 

   The current by-laws of the organization state that any paid up member can purchase graves in "Show Folks Rest" for his/her self,  spouse, parents or children.  I could not find this article in Lester's By-Laws booklet, but it must have been the same at the time of his death.  It looks like he was a regular member, and not an Honorary member or an Associate member according to his membership card.  How he qualified as a member remains a mystery. 

     From these letters it appears that Lester made friends and spent time with people in this group and was a member for sometime. He obviously was a qualified member and requested to be buried in their section of Olivet Cemetery; he made special financial arrangements to simplify things for his daughters after his death.  The Show Folks of America, Inc., San Francisco, is still going strong and is a proud supporter of several causes in the community.  My great grandfather's connection to this organization was a wonderful discovery, but there are parts of his story that are still untold.  Hum...those Santa suits.....!

   

Bonnie Townsend was buried in the same cemetery as Lester Hayes.  Her obituary stated that she was a dedicated member and  secretary of Showfolks of America for over 50 years. 
Find a Grave

   I  contacted the Show Folks of America, Inc. through email to see if they may have any records from that time period that may shed some light on my great grandfather's participation.  I haven't heard back yet! 


 https://www.showfolksofamerica.com/


 Relationship Reference:
Me->
Margaret Hansen Boothby->
Margaret (Betty) Hayes Hansen->
Lester Franklin Hayes = Emma King Hayes (daughters Dorothy, Frances and Margaret)


 

Wednesday, August 7, 2024

#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 32...Free Space...Henry Hayman Named His 200 Acres "Second Choice" and Became a Planter on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1666



 A tobacco crop growing in an ACLT field on Scientists Cliff Road, 1998
Scientists Cliffs, Calvert County, Maryland
American Chestnut Land Trust 
https://www.acltweb.org/


    The theme for this week is Free Space.  I am going back in time, all the way to 1666, when Henry Hayman set foot in Somerset County, Maryland and was granted 200 acres of free land as a head right.  He named his first piece of land "Second Choice" and became a planter of tobacco in the area.  The Hayman family in Maryland continued on with a strong tradition of land ownership; it  all began with Henry's "Second Choice".  Here is his story....




 What was a headright?

     To encourage settlement in the colony of Maryland,  Lord Baltimore offered grants of acreages of land for each settler.  This privilege was called "headrights", as it literally  meant a right to land for every head settled in the colony.  Headrights were common in other colonies as well and helped increase the labor force and profitability of large plantations. Henry Hayman was thought to have come from Devon, England with his family.   He was granted a patent of 200 acres on Great Monie Creek in Maryland; 50 acres for himself, his wife Elinor, and his son Henry Jr., as well as another 50 acres granted by a Lieutenant William Smith.  The headright system offered Henry a unique way to own land, something he may have not been able to do back in England where land was controlled by the nobility. 


 Monie 
Somerset County, Maryland
Google Maps 2024

Land names... 

   Henry applied for a warrant from the Provincial Land Office to obtain his patent for the land.  His warrant was excepted and the land was surveyed and then named, as was customary in Maryland.  Henry may have named this parcel "Second Choice" after a previous land survey fell through.  The land was then patented and Henry had full rights to the land.  Every step of this process appears in a set of records known as the "Patent Record", and the original records are now held in the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis. These land names followed the land parcel from the creation point forward, and were often the only way used to describe parcels instead of using traditional metes and bounds. 

  Henry continued to acquire land as his family grew.  His next land acquisition was in 1672 and was also located at the headwaters of the Great Monie Creek.  He named his 150 acres "Washford".  This acreage may have been resurveyed from a property called "Shapleigh's Neglect".  His next acquisition was for 200 acres which he named "Castle Haven".  This acreage was located 10 miles from the Monie Creek land and was about 4 miles west of Salisbury, Maryland on the Wicomico River.  

   In 1685 another tract of land was surveyed for Henry's son Henry Jr. in Monie and was named "Henry's Enjoyment".  Eventually, "Second Choice" and "Henry's Enjoyment" were resurveyed into "Covington's Conclusion".  


 What did Henry do with all that land?

    When Henry died in 1685 all of his land holdings passed on to his son Henry Jr.  and his wife Elinor was appointed executrix.  An inventory was taken of Henry's assets and 8150 pounds of tobacco were appraised.  In Elinor's last appraisal before her death in 1688 she recorded 5,000 pounds of tobacco worth 20 pounds, 16 shillings in coin.  Henry was a typical Maryland planter, growing tobacco as his cash crop.  His sons, grandsons and great grandsons would continue in his footsteps, eventually acquiring more land and also the needed labor force to work that land....slaves.  

     Haymans of the Eastern Shore of Maryland 1666-1800, written by Douglass F. Hayman, has been the primary source of my Maryland Hayman family information.  The book was a result of meticulous research into the Maryland State Archives and other original sources to compile a comprehensive genealogical history of the Haymans in Maryland, based on their property ownership, tax lists, wills and other records.  The author added a wonderful description of the typical Maryland planter on page 17.  In this description we can get a sense of who and what Henry Hayman was as a person.   I have excerpted this passage...



 Istock photo of the Eastern Shore of Maryland

    "From freed servants and other immigrants with slender resources came the much misunderstood 'planter' of early Maryland, who established his type in the tidewater during the second half of the seventeenth century.  His plantation, literally a planted place, consisted of a few acres cleared from the ubiquitous hinterland that extended from the bayside back into the hinterland and almost unpenetrated by whites.  Here he built a rude dwelling, usually a single room, and planted his corn and his market crop, tobacco. From the beginning the Maryland planter practiced commercial agriculture and his wellbeing depended on a few hogsheads of tobacco he marketed each winter. With the proceeds he bought, first of all, necessary implements---axes and hilling hoes, guns, needles and the like, then whatever luxuries he could afford----sugar and occasionally rum. For the rest he lived off his own cornfield, vegetable garden and orchard, supplemented by hunting and fishing....Nearly every planting family kept chickens, cows and pigs.  Part of his living he made with his own hands: cups and bowls from dried gourds, plates and trenchers from slabs of wood, benches and bedsteads from hewn logs, even his mattress from corn shucks.  These were the realities that appeared in the thousands of inventories of their modest estates preserved in probate records.....nearly all were unlettered....and illiterate...they made their marks. ....The small planter had...the opportunity to rise in the economic scale.  He and his kind cleared the forest, made the roads, planted the orchards. All this he did with his own hands, aided by the simplest tools....capital formation was the beginning of a different style of life".  


  The tax list of 1783 named 15 families headed by Haymans, owning nearly 1500 acres of land  mostly clustered in a small area then called "Hayman's Savannah" in today's Somerset, Worchester and Wicomico Counties. They were all descendants of Henry and Elinor Hayman.  Most made their living through agriculture.  Some could write their names, but many signed by mark.  Some among the third generation owned slaves by 1748 and by 1783 the combined Hayman families owned a total of 27 slaves. 

    The Revolutionary War created divided loyalties among the Hayman families ....some fought in the war against England, and then there were family members that remained stanchly loyal to the British Crown and fought with the  Maryland Loyalists.  The Loyalist branch of the family ended up in New York, and from there landed in New Brunswick, Canada to start a new life.  The British offered them.....free land! Martin Hayman was granted 100 acres on the St. Croix River as well as farming tools, building materials and army rations for 3 years from the British government.  He came with Captain Nehemiah Marks and this group formed the town of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. 

  This is the branch that our Maine and Oregon Haymans came from!



 Martin Hayman was given land on the St. Croix River, bordering Maine,  in 1784.  He was my 5X great grandfather. 
Canadian Heritage Rivers System/St. Croix River

 *Fun land names from other Hayman family members: 

"Hayman's Exchange"
"Friend's Goodwill"
"Hopewell"
"Little Profit"
"Adley's Chance"
"Fat Arse Quarter".......my personal favorite!
"Paul's Folly"
"Hayman's Hardship"
"Hayman's Purchase'
"Hayman's Addition"
"Hayman's Outlet"


 Google Maps showing Monie and Hayman Drive in Somerset County, Maryland.  A reminder that the Hayman family was there way back when. 



References:

Haymans of the Eastern Shore of Maryland 1666-1800  by Douglass F. Hayman, Jr.  Publisher Douglas F. Hayman Jr.; 1387 Stonecreek Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21403 February 1993.  
Accessed on FamilySearch 640017 August 2024.  

Archives.com Essential Records for Finding Your Colonial Maryland Ancestors by Michael Hall October 16, 2012    https://www.archives.com/experts/hait-michael/records-for-finding-ancestors.html

American Chestnut Land Trust --Tobacco Landscape 
  https://www.acltweb.org/index.php/the-land/cultural-history/tobacco-landscape/

Loyalist Settlements in New Brunswick  based on an article by  Linda Hansen Squires 
  https://www.uelac.org/education/WesternResource/303-NB.pdf