Always call ahead...and don't forget the local library

The tale of Penelope Stout (good) and my wasted afternoon (bad)

I learned a little lesson today. And was rewarded for remembering another one. First, here's the lesson I learned today: Although you may think the library or archive you are about to drive two hours to visit will be open, (because their website says they are open Monday through Friday 9:00-5:00) you should always, always call ahead...just to be sure. Here's why.

The Bad News

You may have seen on the news or experienced first hand the storms that rolled through the east coast last week. Well, in addition to leaving a trail of broken tree limbs and downed power-lines all over New Jersey, evidently one of them set off the fire alarm at the Alexander Library at Rutger University in New Brunswick. This happens to be where the special collections are stored, and genealogy is a very special collection. Unfortunately it happened to be especially inaccessible today because when said storms set off the fire alarm, a chemical powder was released and coated the holdings. This caused someone to have an asthmatic reaction this morning and so they closed it a few hours before I arrived. Drat!

The Good News

Which brings me to my second lesson, the one I was rewarded for remembering: Don't forget the local library. In my quest for locating the Sartor family I found myself in New Jersey examining a possibility that my Sartor family is related to the New Jersey colonial Salters. (The Sartor surname has also been spelled Salter, as shown in Revolutionary War pension application files and other documents) Ergo the attempted visit to Rutger Special Collections. Since I was in the area, I stopped in Hopewell, New Jersey. It was here that Benjamin Merrill is believed to have been born about 1731. Benjamin is claimed by some sources to be the father of my Nancy Merrill who was born about 1756. I am well aware of the fact that I haven't followed up on Nancy since my visit to North Carolina when I discovered that although Benjamin did have a daughter named Nancy, it doesn't look like she was my Nancy. So I'm not even certain Hopewell is still relevant, but since I was here I decided to check it out. Since the settlers of the Jersey Settlement in North Carolina came from Hopewell, I have a hunch that place is going to prove relevant, Benjamin Merrill or not. And I want to feel its local flavor, drive its back roads (and believe me, I did!) and all in all, I just plain wanted to go there. So I did.

Hopewell, New Jersey Cemetery

It was delightful, and although I still don't know who Nancy's parents really are, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to this charming town. There are two cemeteries. (Note: I don't see either of them at Find A Grave) The first was rather small, perhaps a quarter of a block, and was located behind the Catholic church. The other was large, old, and fabulous. Except I don't think any of my people have headstones there. I was hoping to consult the cemetery index in special collections at the library at Rutgers. (such disappointment...I should have called ahead!)

I made a stop at the local library, the Hopewell Public Library, where I was ably assisted by a cheerful and extremely helpful librarian. The library is quite small but it does the job. It has local histories of the area which were interesting and informative. I haven't had time to digest everything I copied yet, because I was in a rush to get to Rutger. (darn it...what a complete waste of time...I should have called ahead!)

The Tale of Penelope Stout

Of note is the fact that Nancy Merrill's paternal grandmother was alleged to be Penelope Stout. (once again, I have to reiterate this is probably not true...but it's still an interesting story for the real descendants of Benjamin Merrill!) The first book the librarian handed me told the story of a Penelope Stout. Not my Penelope by any means, but I secretly wish I could claim her. Hopewell Valley Heritage, by Alice Blackwell Lewis, gives the astonishing account of Penelope Stout:[1]

[Penelope] was born in Amsterdam about the year 1602, by the name Penelope Vanprincis. About 1620 she sailed with her first husband for New York (then New Amsterdam). This husband's name is not known. The vessel became stranded at Sandy Hook but the crew and occupants got ashore and started marching toward the said New York. Because Penelope's husband had been hurt in the wreck, they could not march with the others. As they tarried in the woods, Indians came upon them and thinking they had killed them both, stripped them to the skin. However, Penelope came to. Her skull was fractured and her left shoulder hacked so that she could never use that arm like the other. Also, she was cut across the abdomen exposing her bowels, and she had to hold them in with her hand.

For seven days she continued in this condition, taking shelter in a hollow tree and eating berries and whatever she could find; then two Indians appeared. She was glad, as she thought they would put her out of her misery. The older Indian prevented the younger one from violence, and throwing his matchcoat about her, he carried her to his wigwam and cured her of her wounds and bruises. After she was well, he took her to New York and made a present of her to her people. He expected to receive a present in return.

While residing there she met an Englishman whose name was Richard Stout. Their romance resulted in marriage and she bore him seven sons and three daughters, viz: Jonathan (founder of Hopewell), John, Richard, James, Peter, David, Benjamin, Mary, Sarah, and Alice. There were many children born to this family through good marriages. The mother, Penelope, lived to the age of 110 and saw her offspring increase in number to about 502, in the time of about 88 years.

So, I guess my afternoon could have been worse. Although it was pretty much a complete waste of time after leaving Hopewell, at least I was not attacked by Indians and I have a nice clean comfy hotel room to sleep in and get ready for another adventurous day tomorrow. I hope Lower Merion Historical Society proves as fun as Hopewell!

Sources:

1. Alice Blackwell Lewis, Hopewell Valley Heritage (Hopewell, New Jersey: The Hopewell Museum, 1973) Hopewell Public Library, p. 8.

Benjamin Merrill is not my grandfather?!?

Libertarian that I am, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that the semi-famous Regulator Benjamin Merrill may not be my ancestor after all. Sentiment about government aside, it's just plain sloppy genealogy. During my trip to North Carolina for the NGS conference in Raleigh last month, I did quite a bit of personal on-site wandering. I mean researching. Since the Merrill family was among the list of neglected North Carolina ancestors I decided this was the perfect time to make amends.

Also researched during this trip were the Hill, McClelland, Clark, and Lowe families. Stanfield, Bennett, and Smith were also on the list, but these were women’s lines which required investigation into their husbands first. (Lowe, Clark, and Merrill respectively.) I’ll write about each of these families later.

The trip began with getting lost. As usual. Actually, the trip began with the sudden realization that my flight was in two hours and frantic packing and phone calls while waiting for the taxi. But that is another story. Upon my arrival in Greensboro, I picked up the rental, bought a map, and pretended to know where I was. The drive from Greensboro to Asheboro and Asheboro to Lexington was very scenic along the back roads and I imagine that based on the sheer volume of square acreage covered and number of u-turns performed, I saw much of the territory my ancestors explored anyway. So it was ok.

First I went to the Guilford County Courthouse battle site. As usual, I was deeply moved to stand where so many men took bullets so that I could be free to appreciate their sacrifice. I had hoped to find a list of men who fought in the battle such as the series compiled by Bobby Gilmer Moss which I purchased at King’s Mountain and Cowpens a year or two ago. But no one has done that for the North Carolina battle sites yet, so I put it on a mental list of things to do.

From there I went to Asheboro, visited the library, tromped around in cemeteries quite a bit, and generally spun my wheels and achieved no measurable result other than happiness. Next on the list was Salisbury, the seat of Rowan County. I highly recommend the Rowan County Library in Salisbury. The librarian in the History Department upstairs was extremely knowledgeable about the area and founding families. She recognized Benjamin Merrill's name right away and confirmed what I knew about his death. Which is that he was hung for being a Regulator.

In order to appreciate Benjamin’s death, an understanding of his life is required. In 1763, following the French and Indian War, the British crown found itself feeling rather broke. To their minds, they had just spent ghastly sums of money defending the Colonies, and the Colonies should therefore pay for it with taxes. To the Colonists, they had paid with blood, sweat, and tears. And anyway, they were broke too, especially on the frontier. Many families found themselves starving in the face of outrageous tax bills, while men such as Governor Tryon built luxurious houses and threw lavish parties. (which to the Governor’s mind was a pitiful attempt at maintaining the lifestyle he was born to) Adding insult to injury, corrupt government practices such as over-charging for marriage licenses, deed filings, etc. were rampant, unavoidable, and arbitrarily enforced.

Underscoring this was the fact that the people had no say in their government. There was no representation in parliamentary affairs in far-off London. By about 1764 the Carolina people had had enough, and wisely or not, they decided to regulate the government. Thus the Regulators were formed. Things came to a head at the Battle of Alamance in May 1771, where the Regulators were ultimately defeated and disbanded. Wikipedia even states “Delays prevented approximately 300 reinforcements under Captain Benjamin Merrill from arriving in time to help the rebel cause.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alamance)

And so the life of Benjamin Merrill came to an end. He was hung, and although he surely thought that his name would go down in history as a disgrace as he stood at the gallows, I feel exactly opposite. I’m proud of him...whether he’s my ancestor or not.

And here is where my blog pertains to my genealogy. I had previously believed that Benjamin Merrill had a daughter named Nancy born about 1756 who married Joseph Clark about 1778. After Joseph Clark’s death about 1793, Nancy remarried to Benjamin Mendenhall.

I believed Nancy was the daughter of Benjamin Merrill and Jemima Smith because published sources said so. Oops. I will name, and go into detail about necessary corrections to these publications, after I’ve finished and documented the correct ancestry of my Nancy Merrill.

At the Rowan County library I found a book Captain Benjamin Merrill and the Merrill Family of North Carolina by William Ernest Merrill, M.S. (which I probably had in Salt Lake all along, but that is beside the point. The point is that I failed to verify what was printed elsewhere). According to this source, Benjamin was married to Jemima Smith, as I had believed, but they did not have a daughter named Nancy. Uh-oh.

Since it was interesting, I went to the Jersey Settlement near Lexington anyway. (http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/mckstmerjersey.htm) Although it was looking like Benjamin might not be my ancestor after all, I was right there. Couldn’t pass it up. Again, I tromped around the cemetery happy as a clam and took pictures of the remaining Merrill family headstones just in case.

From there I went North working on other lines, but several days later stopped at the historical site of the Battle of Alamance on my way over to Raleigh. (http://www.nchistoricsites.org/Alamance/alamanc.htm)

Aside from being such an interesting place, the man there was incredibly helpful.

He pulled out a vertical file on Benjamin Merrill and although his photocopier was not working well, he made a copy of the whole file for me on his ink jet printer. What a pain for him, but I’m so super grateful and I promise it will not go to waste.

The documents in this vertical file include:

• Family Group Sheet of Capt. Benjamin Merrill compiled by B.J. Patterson in 1990
• “Captain Benjamin Merrill: A Pre-Revolutionary Revolutionist,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol LIX 1928, pages 215-217.
• “A Narrative History of Merrill Ancestors” by Thea M. Fabio Merrill of Houston, Texas. This document directs to other Merrill sources online including http://genealogy.patp.us/bio/davidson.aspx, and another site which was hosted at geocites but whose link is now broken.
  
• Transcribed manuscript of letter 16 Jul 1844 in Ripley County, Missouri, possibly written by Elizabeth Merrill (maiden surname unknown), second wife of Douglass Merrill. This letter documents the known whereabouts of Merrill family members at the time of its writing. The file copy source is undocumented. It appears to have been addressed to Jacob Malone of Illinois State, Fulton County, Cuppola [illegible]
• Descendants of Richard Merrill (printout from Genealogy Software) contained in email to Battle of Alamance Historical Site from Suzy Parker on 1 Apr 2006, as well as another email from Suzy with same date.
  
• Photocopy from “The Regulator Papers” page 528-529. (No cover page showing publication information; title printed on page header.
• Contact information for various descendants of Benjamin Merrill who have visited the site.
  

Based on the information contained in this file, it does appear that Benjamin did have a daughter named Nancy, but she did not marry Joseph Clark. This Nancy married Boyd McCrary. Not Joseph Clark or Benjamin Mendenhall.

So, I have my work cut out for me. What can be gleaned from this trip is that Benjamin Merrill was probably not my direct line ancestor. There were several Merrill family members in the area; my job is to figure out which of them really was mine. Benjamin was probably an uncle or cousin. Although he’s not my distant grandfather, I still appreciate him and look forward to setting the record straight.

More adventures still to come. It will be expensive, I’m sure, but there’s really not much I’d rather be doing.