Revolutionary Forefathers.

 A quick breakdown of ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war.

MAINE
From the Old Broad Bay Bund and Blatt, 1995 Vol 4, Issue 4, pages 92-98
"Waldoboro in the Revolution"

1776      4 Jul The Declaration of Independence was printed and sent to all the ministers of the Gospel in the State, to be publicly read by them on the first Lord's day after its reception, and to be recorded by the town clerks in their respective books. Neither of these requests were carried out in Waldoboro. Dr. Schaeffer ... was the minister at the time and would neither read it nor allow it read in the old meeting house, the only public place then in Waldoboro.

1776      July Through the influence of Jacob Ludwig and Andrew Schenck, it was translated into the German language and by them read to the people, who everywhere received it with rejoicing.

Captain Ludwig commanded troops throughout the war, and that included his younger brother, Joseph Henry Ludwig.  Joseph is my 5th great-grandfather.
   MARYLAND

While I can't actually connect our family to him, in 1776 Lieutenant James Tibbitt of the Maryland Privateers sailed a brigantine called The Wild Duck from the Dutch West Indies to the head of the Elk River (now Elkton Maryland). The ship was packed with gunpowder and shot; most of that was sent to support General Washington's activities in New Jersey.  The ship itself was taken to Philadelphia for a refit by joseph Humphries, and was re-christened as the USS Lexington.  Tibbitt carried letters of Marque throughout the war, for the sloop Independence, and the brigantine Sturdy Beggar.

James is a Tibbitt family name in our lineage; and my Tibbitt line lived between the Sassafras and Elk rivers in Maryland (Cecil County).  He is certainly a relative, if not a direct ancestor.

PENNSYLVANIA
Godfrey Felten served in Captain Phillip Waggoner's Company of the 2nd Regiment of Foot.  Godfrey is my 5th great-grandfather.

There was a John McDermond of Chester County; he is the leading candidate to being the father of James McDermond, and John collected a Revolutionary War pension.  But that's all I've managed to uncover. If this is an ancestor, this would be the sole entrant from my father's line.

Martin Rouse, an Irish Success Story

Martin Rouse was born on May 12, 1829 in Maugherabrack, in the parish of Kilglass, in county Sligo, Ireland. He was the son of Thomas Rouse and Margaret "Peg" Taylor.  His brother John was born two years later, and then around 1837, the family immigrated to America.

In the 1850 United States Census, he was still living with his parents in New York City.  He was working as a cooper, while his brother was a cartman. A year later, he was sworn in as a naturalized citizen of the United States.

36 & 38 Whitehall Street

By 1860, he had married Sarah Douglas and moved to Jersey City.  Although still listed as a cooper, by this time he had partnered with a tallow chandler named Goulard.  By 1870, the firm of Goulard, Rouse & Company had offices on Whitehall Street in New York, as well as Kansas City and Chicago.  He was a founding member of the New York Produce Exchange, and also served as the Chief Weigher for the Port of New York.

As Chief Weigher, his job was to set the value of cargo coming in the port. In the days before container shipping, cargo was packed into barrels to be worked into every nook and cranny of a freighter.  Actually weighing each individual piece as it came off a ship would have taken days, if not weeks. Instead, a weigher would examine the size of the ship, count barrels, consider the contents, and make a calculation that became the official figure for port fees and taxes.

Besides his business interests, Martin was also a long time member of Passaic Hose Company #4 of the Jersey City Volunteer Fire Department, and represented them in the Exempt Firemen's Association.

He died in January of 1894, after suffering from a long illness.  According to his obituary:

"He had been ailing for a long time before his death, his sickness really dating from the day after Grover Cleveland's election in 1892.  A huge game cock from Indiana was presented to him on the floor of the (Produce) Exchange by a friend, in token of the triumph that the result of the election was to Mr. Rouse, who was a fervent admirer of the President.  The fun-loving brokers took advantage fo the presentation to escort the old gentleman to the rostrum and prevailed on him to make a speech.  The rickety old structure gave way, and Mr. Rouse got a bad fall, from the shock of which he never wholly recovered." -- The New York Times, Jan 31, 1861

His death certificate notes that he died of blood poisoning.  He was interred at Arlington Cemetery in Kearny NJ on February 1, 1894.

Update: Our Family Veterans

Memorial Day is the day we remember the American veterans who fought and died in wars.  I've updated this post from 2008 to reflect new findings.

The Revolution

First in our line of veterans is Joseph Henry Ludwig, a hero of the Revolutionary War. I've already written about him. He and his brother are bonafide war heroes.

Family tradition has long held that Godfrey Felten fought in the revolution, and finally I can say that in fact he did.  He served as a private in the Pennsylvania Militia.

I can't find a record of Joslins actually fighing in the war, but Isaac Joslin was listed on the muster rolls for the 1st Regiment, 7th Company Of the Cumberland County Militia in 1793.

Finally, while I can't actually connect our family to him, in 1776 Lieutenant James Tibbitt of the Maryland Privateers sailed a brigantine called The Wild Duck from the Dutch West Indies to the head of the Elk River (now Elkton Maryland). The ship was packed with gunpowder and shot; most of that was sent to support General Washington's activities in New Jersey.  The ship itself was taken to Philadelphia for a refit by joseph Humphries, and was re-christened as the USS Lexington.

The Civil War

Joseph Henry Ludwig's  grandson, Captain Joseph William Ludwig, commanded a steamship for the Union Navy during the Civil War. Born in Waldoboro, Maine, he was living in New York City at the start of the War. After the war, he lived in Jersey City.

William James Tibbitt of Elkton, Maryland, also served in the Union Navy; he served as a Landsman, which was the lowest rank at the time. But his service record indicates that he spent most of his enlistment in the Pacific Ocean. His gravestone in Elkton Cemetery has a GAR emblem.

James McDermond also served in the Civil war, as a sergeant. Like most able-bodied men in Pennsylvania, he was pressed into service in 1862 when rumors of a Confederate invasion spread. Any male able to carry a rifle was drafted to do just that. After a few months, almost all of them were released back to civilian life. But Sergeant McDermond was "Awarded for Distinguished Service" for his time with Company D, 21 Pennsylvania Vol. Infantry.

Samuel Hudson Fisher II was only 17 years old in August 1862 when he enlisted as a drummer for the 114th PA Infantry, Company D. In December of 1863 he incurred a rupture while in Virginia, and was transferred to a Veteran's Hospital in Chicago. He was discharged in October 1864.

The Twentieth Century

By and large, most of the conflicts of the twentieth century spaced out such that the men of our family were either too young or too old to be called into wartime service. But we did have soldiers and sailors in the family;

Fred Jahn, our beloved Uncle Butch, served in the Coast Guard through the 1960s and 1970s.

Winfield Tibbit served in Germany during the Cold War of the 1950s; S. Stewart Joslin III served there twenty years later as a tank commander. And my brother Timothy served in the army.

We should be thankful for the sacrifices made by each generation; they bought us our freedom.

“The Bridal – The Burial!” - Sophia Swain Fisher

Along with the Fisher family bible, and all the unexplained obituaries pasted inside the front cover, the family has a newspaper clipping from an unidentified newspaper.

On the occasion of the demolition of “the old Fisher house” at Brady and Third Streets, someone is moved to write a column titled “The Bridal – The Burial!” about one of the house's former residents, the beautiful Sophie Fisher, who apparently died just before her wedding. The column notes that Sophie Fisher “rests entombed in Monument Cemetery, Philadelphia,” and indeed, this was where many of the Fishers in our family were buried, and she was in fact interred there.

Brady and 3rd streets never meet in Philadelphia, but they do in Davenport, Iowa. And a Sam Fisher did live there in 1845, according to The History of Scott County, Iowa, 1882. It's describing a painting by John Caspar Wild:

"The third figure is Sam Fisher, as he was familiarly called by every acquaintance. He then lived the house now owned and operated by Mr. George L. Davenport, at the corner of Brady and Third streets Sam Fisher was the best fisher in the town, a good story teller, and had a most marvelous memory of past times and incidents, facts and dates, which united to some peculiar eccentricities of character exclusively and honestly his own, made him a conspicuous character.He is standing with his pants drawn up to the top of one boot, and down to the sole of the other,using a favorite gesture, and is evidently doing the talking, of course.” - The History of Scott County, Iowa (1887), page 648 

So we have an address that is in the article, and that Sam Fisher was the head of the household. The history notes that the painting “came into the possession of Judge G.C.R. Mitchell”, and was passed onto the State historical society (from which I've ordered a print - available online scans are not very good).

Here are the names of “the hearts gathered there” to remember Miss Sophie:

Judge Mitchell

James Thorington

L.A. Macklot

A.H. Miller

George L. Davenport

Col. Evans.

George L. Davenport is the son of the man for whom the city is named (George Sr. was murderd in 1845). Thorington was the mayor of Davenport. Macklot was a partner with Davenport in a mill. In the 1860 city directory, his address is the NW corner of 2^nd and Brady – a block from the former Fisher residence.

With Davenport and these few names in mind, I was able to search more thoroughly for Sophia Swain Fisher, 1827-1847.

She moved to Iowa sometime after 1840 (her sister Martha was born in Philadelphia in 1840, and the family is on the census there), and made enough impact that we find her mentioned in several accounts of the early days of Davenport.

Andrew W. Griffith of Keokuk mentions her in is 1882 autobiography, according to The History of Scott County, Iowa. He describe the first and only duel to be fought in Davenport:

“The difficulty grew out of Mr. Hegner's and Mr. Ralston's being engaged to dance the same set with a young lady by the name of Sophia Fisher.  Mr. Ralston held the fort and Hegner challenged him to fight a duel.  Ralston accepted and selected pistols at twenty paces, the battle to be fought on Iowa soil on the bank of the father of waters one mile below what was then the town of Davenport, but now in the city, at sunrise the second morning following the challenge.  Mr. Ralston selected Flinch for his second and Mr. Hegner selected Sperry; Dr. Craig of Rock Island, surgeon. Jack Evans, of Davenport, and myself being anxious to see the fun, were on the ground at sunrise, found the combatants on the ground, thirsting for blood. “ You may recall “Col. Evans”; in an 1859 edition of the Davenport Gazette, the editors note that their old friend, Col. Jack Evans, had become a “government officer” in Minnesota. 

Her death is noted in passing on page 498 of the History of Scott County:

Old citizens well remember that year, for in it occurred the death of Mr. David Hoge and Miss Sophia Fisher. 

After some digging around, I found David Hoge, born in 1808, died October 8, 1847 in Davenport. He died just a few weeks before Ms. Fisher.

Her death notice was published in the Davenport Gazette on November 4, 1847:

Died
In this place, on Thursday morning last, Oct. 28th after an illness of one
week, Miss Sophia S, daughter of Samuel H and Eliza B Fisher, aged 20 years.

She was memorialized in the Davenport Gazette on December 2, 1847:

Miss Sophia S. Fisher, who [sic] death we were called to mourn a few days since, was born in the city of Philadelphia, removed to this place in the year 1840, where she has since resided up to the time of her death, except during a few months prior to last spring, which she spent in her native city. She grew up among us from childhood, and her lovely, kind and amiable disposition endeared her to every one who knew her. By nature frank, open hearted, generous and possessed of the kindliest feelings of human nature, none knew her but to love her and it may safely be asserted that she had not an enemy in the wide world.

Suddenly cut off in the flower of youth, with the brightest prospects in life before her, how mournful her fate!

Her death has created a void no easily to be filled.

If the sympathies of the entire community and the deep and lasting regret al all who knew her can afford consolation to the relations of the deceased, they will be consoled.
Many die and are soon forgotten, but the subject of this obituary will live in the memory of her friends long after her form has moldered into dust.

Her body was received for burial by Monument Cemetery in Philadelphia on May 2, 1848. There is a notation that the body was received from New Orleans, which makes sense, as the most direct route was by steamboat down the Mississippi, then by ship back to Philadelphia.

Samuel Fisher and his family were enumerated in the 1850 census of Philadelphia.

Here are scans of the newspaper clipping:

Thanksgiving Stories from Both Sides

The worst Thanksgiving in family history is undoubtedly Thanksgiving 1898.  On that day, William James Tibbitt, my mother's great-grandfather, left the house to go walk the railroad tracks running through Cecilton, Maryland.  That was his job, walking the tracks, looking for possible damage.

And he'd probably have been fine if he hadn't taken a jug of whiskey with him to fight the cold and celebrate the day.  At some point, he passed out on the tracks.  A short time later, a train ran over him.  He was 56. 

William was my great-great grandfather.  The rest of the family moved away, and he lies alone and forgotten in the Elkton Cemetery.

On a lighter note, the other side of the family regales us with the year Uncle Bob brought the meat.  This took place before I was born, but it lives on in family lore.

 

Mom-mom and Pop-Pop Jahn were living in Ventnor City, NJ, at the time.  I'm not sure that they were called that yet; my cousins may not have been born quite yet, or they might have been very young.  So they were just Fred and Dorothy, with their youngest son, Lou (my father), possibly Uncle Butch, my dad's older brother, and Aunt Dorothy, the eldest, was home for the holiday.  She Uncle Bob were living in Philadelphia at the time, where they both worked.

The day before Thanksgiving, Uncle Bob Grant called from Philadelphia to check in, and to give some news.

"Don't buy a turkey," he said. "I'll bring the meat!"

Uncle Bob was working at the Philadelphia Zoo at the time.  Then, as now, native fauna would find its way into the zoo, and cadge free food from the enclosures.  Squirrels, native birds, and.... domestic ducks.  The duck population grew every year, crowding the waterways inside the zoo.  So every year, zoo maintenance would round up most of the the ducks and give them to staff to take home.

So Uncle Bob was selected for the benefit this particular year, the recipient of two well-fed domestic ducks. 

When he showed up in Ventnor that Thanksgiving morning, my grandmother was shocked - and a little annoyed - to discover that the ducks were, well, alive and quacking.

The maintenance staff didn't kill or dress the ducks, they simply captured them and stuffed them in a cloth sack.  Which Uncle Bob had taken onto the bus with him, riding the two hour trip holding a bag with two extremely angry ducks struggling for freedom the whole way.

My grandmother was not pleased.  If the ducks didn't go in the oven, there was no meat on the table for Thanksgiving.

So Uncle Bob was sent out into the back yard to take care of things.  Which went badly; Uncle Bob is about the gentlest human being you will ever meet, and killing the ducks was just beyond him. So my grandmother
came out, gave each duck's neck a wring, and set Uncle Bob to plucking.  My dad remembers helping him find pliers to help him grasp the feathers.  It took a long time, and it left the ducks covered in a fine coat of down with the occasional shaft of a feather sticking out.  Eventually, my grandfather got home from whatever chore he'd been doing (he always had something going on), and fired up a blow torch to burn the rest of the feathers off.

I don't know that anyone ever commented one way or the other about the taste of the birds; my grandmother sort of shrugged it off.  She really liked to cook, and I think that she'd long concluded that the results had been taken out of her hands when my uncle boarded the bus with live ducks.

But Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Bob still make it a point to serve duck every Thanksgiving without fail.

Surname Fun

Dynastree allows you to map out your surname. Apparently, Jahn is the 5,584 most common name in the USA.

Memorial Day; Our Family Veterans.

Memorial Day is the day we remember the American veterans who fought and died in wars.

First in our line of veterans is Joseph Henry Ludwig, a hero of the Revolutionary War. I've already written about him. We might have other Revolutionary War veterans in the family, but he's the only one I've been able to document.

His grandson, Captain Joseph William Ludwig, commanded a steamship for the Union Navy during the Civil War. Born in Waldoboro, Maine, he was living in New York City at the start of the War. After the war, he lived in Jersey City.

William James Tibbitt of Elkton, Maryland, also served in the Union Navy; he served as a Landsman, which was the lowest rank at the time. But his service record indicates that he spent most of his enlistment in the Pacific Ocean. His gravestone in Elkton Cemetery has a GAR emblem.

James McDermond also served in the Civil war, as a sergeant. Like most able-bodied men in Pennsylvania, he was pressed into service in 1862 when rumors of a Confederate invasion spread. Any male able to carry a rifle was drafted to do just that. After a few months, almost all of them were released back to civilian life. But Sergeant McDermond was "Awarded for Distinguished Service" for his time with Company D, 21 Pennsylvania Vol. Infantry

Samuel Hudson Fisher II was only 17 years old in August 1862 when he enlisted as a drummer for the 114th PA Infantry, Company D. In December of 1863 he incurred a rupture while in Virginia, and was transferred to a Veteran's Hospital in Chicago. He was discharged in October 1864.

Interestingly, while he returned to Philadelphia to marry Josephine Weis, and definitely lived there, his son Samuel Hudson Fisher III was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1873. He died at age 45 at his home on Dean Street in Philadelphia.

By and large, most of the conflicts of the twentieth century spaced out such that the men of our family were either too young or too old to be called into wartime service. But we did have soldiers and sailors in the family;

Fred "Butch" Jahn, served in the Coast Guard through the 1960s and 1970s.

Winfield Tibbit served in Germany during the Cold War of the 1950s; S. Stewart Joslin III served there twenty years later as a tank commander.

We should be thankful for the sacrifices made by each generation; they bought us our freedom.