Name: Aaron
Kimble ATEN
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Birth: 18 Feb 1812 Erie Co, Pennsylvania
Death: 9 Sep 1901 Garden Grove, Iowa
Father: Cornelius ATEN (1766-1857)
Mother: Sarah (Sally) BELL
(1770-1856)
Misc. Notes
His obituary
is found in the "Allerton News", Allerton, Iowa, September, 1901:
“Mr. Aaron
Aten, an aged and respectable citizen of Wayne county, breathed his last at the
home of his daughter, Mrs. Moody Robinson, in the northwest part of Clay
township on Monday 9 September after a long illness of a dropsical nature. He
had reached a ripe old age, having passed his 89th birthday in February last.
Deceased was born in Pennsylvania and lived in Ohio and Illinois before moving
to Iowa, settling on a farm near Garden Grove in 1871. His companion with whom
he lived nearly sixty years died about 8 years previously. They had thirteen
children, eight still living. Five of them were present at the funeral, Mssrs,
J. W., T. G. and A. K. Aten and Mrs. Moody Robinson and Mrs. W. S. Rilea. Three
of the children, William and E. D. Aten and Mrs. John Robinson, whose homes are
in Illinois, were not present. Burial was by the side of his wife in the
cemetery at Garden Grove on Wednesday 11 September.”
Memo: One of
the windows in the old Methodist church in Garden Grove was dedicated
(presumably by Aaron) to his wife Dorcas, and her name was part of the window.
(Fred)
1850 Census, Stark Co., Illinois:
Aaron
(farmer), Dorcas, Samuel (farmer) and all children down to Ellen (ex Alvina who
died young) are listed. Parents Cornelius (age 84) and Sarah (age 81) live with
them. Cornelius is retired. Aaron and Dorcas were born in Pennsylvania, Sam/Mary/Sarah in Ohio, other kids in
Illinois. Cornelius and wife born in New Jersey. All kids over age 5 have
attended school within year. (Birth places suggest they moved from Ohio to
Illinois between 1837 and 1841.)
Note:
Elizabeth was born in 1841 in Illinois. However 1840 census (see notes with
father) has them in Ohio. Therefore they must have moved from Ohio to Illinois
in late 1840 or early 1841. (See also census notes with his father, Cornelius.
It appears that until his parents died Aaron always lived close to them. He
also tended to live very close to his sister Sarah, and her husband Samuel
Stevenson, who are next door in 1850. The families moved around together.
1860 CENSUS, STARK CO., ILLINOIS:
Aaron is a
farmer, with $2000 of real estate and $250 other. There are 11 of their
children still living at home. (The census taker ran out of space, and children
Aaron Kendall (age 3) and Luella (age 10 months) appear to have the surname
“Kendall”!)
1870 Census, West Jersey, Stark Co.,
Illinois:
Aaron and
Dorcas are still farming, have personal property worth $5000 and land worth
$1550. Six kids (William, Ellen, Thomas, Edward, Aaron, and Luella) are still
living at home. All except William have attended school within the last year.
However the four eldest also list occupations: William is a farmer, Ellen (our
ancestor) is a school teacher, and Thomas and Edward are farm hands. William
owns land (value number hard to read, could be $300 or $800).
1880 Census, Garden Grove, Decatur
Co., Iowa:
Aaron is 68
and still farming. Dorcas is 66. The two youngest kids still live at home: A.
Kimball is 24 and a farmer while Luella is 20 with occupation listed as “At
Home”.
1885 Iowa Census:
Aaron &
Dorcas are living on “Main Street” in Garden Grove.
1900 Census, High Point, Decatur
Co., IA:
Aaron K.
Aten, born Feb 1812, is found living in the home of John H. Cowden (born Oct
1873) and his wife Lillie D. Aaron is a "Boarder".
Marriage: 2 May 1833
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Spouse: Dorcas
GLASS
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Birth: 25 Jan 1814 Pennsylvania
Death: 20 Nov 1892 Wayne County, Iowa
Burial: Garden
Grove Cemetery?
Father: Thomas GLASS (abt 1793)
Mother: Mary KIRK
Misc. Notes
SEARCHING FOR
DORCAS GLASS' FAMILY
BY FRED COFFEY
AND TIM PETERMAN
NOVEMBER 2005
I spent a long time working with my cousin Tim Peterman to try to pin down the ancestry of Dorcas (Glass) Aten, the wife of Aaron Aten. Dorcas is one of our common ancestors.
While we know a good deal
about the Aten branch of our family, and about the marriage and descendents of
Dorcas, the ancestors of Dorcas have been something of a mystery. Tim had
worked on it for many years before I got involved – the largest
percentage of the material below comes from Tim's files. Please think of Tim as
the joint (or maybe the primary) author of the following:
The purpose of this report is
to discuss what we have learned to date, and to identify what mysteries and
theories remain. This gets complicated, so pay attention! J
PENNSYLVANIA GEOGRAPHY
The following offers a quick
perspective on the Pennsylvania counties this report will be discussing:
_files/image002.png)
The area under consideration
is in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. Washington County (#12) is where
many of the court records are found, with the participants living in Smiths
Township (near North end of county). Allegheny county (#19) contains
Pittsburgh, and some research has focused on Glass families living in Robinson
Township (west of Pittsburgh, about 1 township removed from the Washington
County border) in 1820. We also find some relatives living in Beaver County
(#29) in 1820 and later. Note that this is an 1820 map – Beaver County
did not exist until then, being formed from parts of Allegheny and Washington
Counties. Erie county (#32) in the far north will also be referenced. Also note
that there is a strip of Virginia (now West Virginia) that projects up just to
the left of Washington County. We will find Aten connections there, in Hancock
County, WV.
WHAT WE KNOW WITH CONFIDENCE
Dorcas Glass was born on 25
Jan 1814 in Pennsylvania. She married Aaron Aten on 2 May 1833. Dates and children
are as follows. (Tim Peterman is descended from daughter Martha Jane, and I am
descended from daughter Ellen Arminda. Martha and Ellen's husbands were
brothers:)
Aaron Kimble ATEN (18 Feb 1812 - 9 Sep 1901) & Dorcas
GLASS (25 Jan 1814 - 20 Nov 1892)
Samuel Harrison
ATEN (20 Feb 1834 - 28 Apr 1900)
Mary Ann ATEN (27
Feb 1836 - 7 Mar 1859)
Sarah Caroline
ATEN (18 Oct 1837 - 7 Sep 1880)
Alvina ATEN (10
Sep 1839 - 16 Aug 1843)
Elizabeth ATEN (9
Sep 1841 - 2 Dec 1862)
Martha Jane
ATEN (26 Mar 1843 - 3 Oct 1917) & John Kivett ROBINSON (14 May 1839 - 21
Jul 1926)
John W. ATEN (2
May 1845 - 22 Aug 1910)
William Jefferson
ATEN (6 Sep 1847 - 27 May 1905)
Ellen Arminda ATEN (17 Dec 1849 - 6 Mar 1919)
& Moody ROBINSON (11 Dec 1850 - 22 Mar 1938)
Thomas Glass ATEN
(16 Dec 1851 - 1937)
Edward Dwight ATEN
(25 Jan 1854 -)
Aaron K. ATEN (11
May 1856 - 5 Jul 1914)
Clara Luella ATEN (20 Jul 1859 - 24 Nov
1936)
Aaron was born in Erie County PA, with his father Cornelius
having previously lived in Washington County and also in the strip of (West)
Virginia just to the west of Washington County. His family lived in Erie County
PA for many years, and they then moved to Ohio. However we believe Cornelius
maintained relationships with a cousin in Beaver County, PA.
We don't know how Aaron met
Dorcas, but the Beaver County connection is interesting. Dorcas had an uncle,
Matthew Glass, living in Beaver County. And Matthew's wife Abigail (Aten) Glass
was a second cousin of Aaron. The opportunities for Aaron to meet Dorcas in
Beaver County seemed good, but there may have been a better opportunity as
follows:
We know that Aaron was living in Richland Co. Ohio with
his parents in the 1830 census, and after their marriage Aaron and Dorcas are
again found living in Richland in the 1840 census. While we have not yet
conclusively shown where Dorcas was living before her marriage to Aaron in
1833, we believe she had living relatives in the Kirk families in Richland
County, and we also believe she may have been raised by the Kirks. See
discussion below.
By 1850 Aaron and Dorcas had moved to Stark Co., Illinois.
They are still in Stark County in 1860 and 1870. However by 1880 they had moved
to Decatur County, Iowa. They lived there until their deaths, and are buried in
Garden Grove, Iowa.
The real issue has been
Dorcas' ancestry. We have recently firmly established (see below) that her
father was Thomas Glass, and that her paternal grandfather was Robert Glass. We
also have good evidence that Robert Glass married Jane Hillis, and that she was
the mother of all of Robert's children.
We do know that Robert Glass
had six children, and that he died in 1798 when these children were still
young. The children, and their approximate birth years, were as follows:
1. Elizabeth Glass (born ca. 1787)
2. Sarah Glass (born ca. 1789)
3. Jane Glass (born ca. 1791)
4. Thomas Glass (born ca. 1793)
5. Mary Glass (born ca. 1795)
6. Matthew Glass (born ca. 1798)
And we now know
that Thomas Glass was the father of Dorcas.
BUT WHO WAS DORCAS' MOTHER?
After
a long search involving several candidates, we now believe that Dorcas' mother
was Mary Kirk, the daughter of James and Dorcas Kirk. The Kirks were from
Washington Co., PA, and Thomas would have married Mary Kirk there. The Kirks
and Thomas Glass then moved to Richland County, Ohio. We believe that Mary
(Kirk) Glass died young - - we don't know if she died before or after Thomas
moved to Ohio. We believe that Thomas then remarried to Margaret McMillen and had
8 more children.
A big
remaining mystery has been "Who raised Dorcas?" We believe that she
was actually raised by the Kirk family, and not by Thomas and his new family.
THE INVESTIGATION:
The
following will first focus on the information that we developed about Dorcas'
actual family, and the paths that led us to that information. We'll introduce
some of the clues that led us astray, and at the end, for background, we will
discuss some of the tortured paths the bad clues led us down.
NAMES, NAMES, NAMES:
We're
ready to start looking at the evidence. Unfortunately, with so many choices and
so much uncertainty, we will have to introduce a lot of people in the following
analysis. We'll try to carefully identify each and keep them organized. But we
beg the reader's patience.
The first few pages of the
following discussion will focus on discussing what we have learned about Robert
Glass, and then move on to his son Thomas Glass and to Dorcas:
EARLY EVIDENCE OF ROBERT GLASS
Later in this report we will introduce a published report that
claims Robert was born in Ireland. (This particular report is most relevant to
identifying the wife of Robert.)
The earliest evidence I have found to date of the presence of
Robert is in the tax records for Smith Township, Washington County,
Pennsylvania. This shows that Robert Glass paid state taxes in 1786 in the
amount of 1 pound, 11 shillings and 6 pence. This was one of the larger amounts
paid in that township for that year, and would suggest he was reasonably
wealthy?
AN INVESTIGATOR: ELISHA B. IAMS:
No,
Elisha isn't family. He was a genealogist, who spent a lot of time in the
1930's and 1940's, going about in Washington and Allegheny Counties in
Pennsylvania, and abstracting information from wills and estate settlements. He
published his abstracts, and they are available (see Mormon Family History
Center Film #1888963, also see Washington County web site at www.pa-roots.com/~washington/partitions.html
).
Here's
the literal record of what Iams abstracted about the estate of Robert Glass:
NAME/PLACE:
GLASS, Robert - Smith Twp.
TERM:
Oct Term 1813
WIFE:
Widow Jane,
formerly the d/o Samuel McFARLAND, and has since married William LAUGHLIN.
CHILDREN:
Thomas, Elizabeth, w/o John STEWART, Jane, w/o
Joseph BOYD (Marion Co., OH), Mary STEWART (of Beaver Co., PA, had children -
Alexander FLANNAGAN, and Margaret A. CRESSWELL), Mathew (who lived at
Hookstown, Beaver Co., PA) Sarah JEFFREY (of Beaver Co., PA. - had children -
Alexander & Mathew H.). John & Elizabeth STEWART had children - Robert
& James. Thomas GLASS had a dau.
Doras, w/o Aaron ATEN of Stark Co., IL.
A "Google" search for 'Aaron Aten' and 'Glass' found
this abstract, and it was our first solid evidence about the father and
grandfather of Dorcas. It was a great start to our current search, and we have
now found the supporting documents (see below).
(Most of Iams' data is now supported, but he did miss at least one
item: He says "John & Elizabeth Stewart had children – Robert
& James". However a more careful reading of the source data actually
shows that Robert and James belong to Mary Stewart, not to Elizabeth Stewart.
However given that two of Robert's daughters married men named Stewart, it's an
easy mistake.)
Another challenge arose because two of Robert's daughters married
"Stewart" men, and we knew from other sources that there was a Thomas
Glass in Allegheny County who married a Rebecca Stewart. It seemed to make such
a good story that the Glass and Stewart families were intermarrying, and
therefore this was surely OUR Thomas Glass also marrying into the Stewart
family as well! We spent dozens of hours before that theory fell apart!
Finally,
one of his other statements drove us up the wall: He says Robert's Widow, Jane,
was "formerly the d/o Samuel McFARLAND". We struggled with that
statement to no end, and we are now convinced Iams was WRONG. Our best current
guess is that Iams (1) knew the Glass and McFarland families were close, (2)
knew that Robert's widow was named Jane, and (3) knew that McFarland had a
daughter named Jane. In his haste to move on to his next abstract, he jumped to
conclusions and declared the two "Janes" to be one?
THE WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Tim tried to obtain the
supporting documents for the above directly from the Washington County
courthouse, but could not get a response. I then started making enquiries for
someone in Washington Co. who might be able to help. One researcher provided
the advice "…haven't been to Washington for a while, (but) I can tell you
their records are a mess, they have no genealogist on staff, and their clerks
are absolutely surly… I would contact the Washington County Historical
Society."
I found the Society at www.wchspa.org , and their coordinator
Charlotte Davidson found a researcher who spent a very productive day on our
project. Following is the information WCHS found:
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS ON THE ESTATE OF
ROBERT GLASS
WCHS sent to me about 50
pages of receipts, promissory notes, and inventories related to the estate of
Robert Glass. Items of particular interest were as follows (some are just
curiosity items with little direct bearing on our search, but they help see
Robert Glass as a real person):
We tried to deduce when
Robert Glass actually died, but I did not see any document with a death date.
However Robert himself was still signing promissory notes on 2 October 1797.
And in the file there is a court document dated 25 April 1798, which binds Jane
Glafs and James Edgar to act as administrators of his estate. So that narrows
his death down to about a 7-month window. Tim advises that the court documents
are usually filed within a matter of days, so that suggests Robert's death was
in April 1798.
Currency: Many of the statements are in pounds, shillings and
pence - - while others are in dollars and cents. I found that the conversion
from "Pennsylvania Pounds" to "U.S. Dollars" for currency
transactions began in 1795 and took several years to complete. By 1798 about
65% of the transactions were in dollars.
The estate inventory (see
image below) was done in dollars (actually the clerk started to write the
symbol for pounds, and then scratched it out), and the total was $372.62. A
later document accounting for the net value available to the heirs shows that
inventory as 169 pounds, 14 shillings, 6 pence. This suggests they were using
an exchange rate of about $2.20 per Pennsylvania Pound.
Following is a copy of
Robert's estate inventory – it's always interesting to see what goods a
person has. Robert Glass also had land holdings, and presumably a house, and
those were apparently handled separately. (Note: to get to year 2005 dollars,
multiply the 1798 amounts by roughly "15".
_files/image004.png)
And from another document we
know that his coffin cost 2 pounds, 12 shillings, and 6 pence. After settlement
of debts, there was a balance remaining from his estate of 28 pounds, 4
shillings and 11 pence available to distribute to his heirs. (I don't believe
this included land or buildings.)
The administratrix of
Robert's estate was his wife, Jane/Jean Glass (always written "Glafs"
in the old style), and also one James Edgar, Esq. The names Jean and Jane are
used interchangeably, and it is apparent she could not read or write. There are
only two documents that required her signature, and those are marked "Jane
(her mark) Glafs" – the mark is variously a circle or a vertical
squiggle. Her co-administrator, however, does seem to be able to write.
The condition of many of the
promissory notes is interesting: The promise to pay was written on whatever odd
scrap of paper that was available, and these scraps were then folded multiple
times and filed in a pocket or wallet. Payments were noted on the back side.
Some of them were quite tattered by the time the debt was settled. Following is
the front and back image of the last note he signed:
FRONT:
_files/image006.png)
BACK
_files/image008.png)
There was also a promissory
note, signed by Robert Glafs on 24 October 1796, for "one hundred &
ten pounds ten shillings current lawfull money of the state of
Pennsylvania", payable 6 October 1797 to Jofiah (Josiah) Allen. This would
have been part of the financing of a land purchase from Josiah Allen, which we
will introduce later in this report.
There was also a public auction,
or "vendue", of his property. A very interesting receipt reads as
follows: "Received from Jean Glafs Administratrix of the Estate of Robert
Glafs deceased the sum of sixteen shillings and ten pence half penny for
whiskey for his vandue." And we have evidence that this 16 shillings may
have been a very good investment. The final accounting of the estate shows a
gain versus the original estate appraisal, accompanied by the note "The
said accountants also charge themselves with an advantage gained in the sales
at vendue exceeding the appraisement", with a gain shown of 31 pounds, 16
shillings, 4 pence. Bidding must have been quite "spirited". (By the way, this part of Pennsylvania was the heart of the
"Whiskey Rebellion" of 1794, when President George Washington sent
the militia to put down riots over the imposition of a whiskey tax.)
ORPHANS COURT DOCUMENT
Now, getting back to
seriously useful documents: The WCHS researcher provided a copy of the
following from the Washington County Orphans Court:
"November Orphans Court
1801"
"Per the Petition of
Jean Glafs widow and (?) of Robert Glass dec'd. Setting forth that at the time
of the decease of the said Robert he left six children to wit Elizabeth above
the age of fourteen years who applies to the court for a guardian; Sarah, Jean,
Thomas, Mary and Matthew who are under the age of fourteen years. Whereupon the
Court appoints John McGibbin of Smith Township as guardian for the person and
property of the said Elizabeth agreeable by her choice, and appoints Thomas
Hays of Smiths Township as guardian over the persons and properties of the said
Sarah, Jean, Thomas, Mary and Matthew until they severally arrive to the age of
fourteen years."
"Came into Court Jean
Glafs and James Edgar, Administrators of all and singular the goods chattels
and credits which were of Robert Glafs late of Washington County dec'd and
Elizabeth an account of their administration by which there appears to be a
balance of twenty eight pounds five shillings and eleven pence, duly penned in
the hands of the said Administrators subject to distribution of which said
Account the Court approves and orders that the said distribution be made
according to Laws."
In due course all these
children came to age 14. (Combining the above information with census data
suggests Elizabeth the oldest was born in about 1785, and that the youngest,
Matthew, was born in 1798.) At the time they all reached the magic age, son
Thomas came back to the court with a proposal regarding some of his father's
land. Note that from this following document we learn that Robert died
intestate – meaning he wrote no will:
"October Orphans Court
1813"
"On the petition of
Thomas Glafs, eldest son and one of the heirs of Robert Glafs, late of
Washington County, deceased, setting forth, that his father lately died
intestate leaving six children, towit your Petitioner, Elizabeth intermarried
with John Stewart, Sarah, Jane intermarried with Joseph Boyd, Mary, and
Matthew, that he also left a certain tract of land in Smiths township, said
county, containing one hundred and fifty acres, which by the laws of this
commonwealth should be equally apportioned to and among the said heirs. Praying
the court to award an Inquest to make partition of the said land, if the same
can be done, but if the said land cannot be divided without prejudice or
spoiling the whole to make a just appraisement or valuation thereof. Hereupon
the court grants the prayer of the Petitioner and grants an Inquest to be made
according to law " (Closing illegible, but think report is due back for
December Term 1813.)
The follow-up report to the
court reads:
"An Inquisition indented
(?) and taken at the house of the late Robert Glafs, dec'd in Smith township
Washington County before me George David Esquire, high sheriff of the county
aforesaid, upon the advice of (12 persons named), twelve good and lawful men of
their bailiwick, who respectively do say, about the land mentioned in the above
annexed Writ will not divide among the heirs due and legal representatives of the
aforesaid Robert Glafs deceased. And in the further execution of the directives
of the above, have valued the aforesaid tract of land, containing one hundred
and fifty acres, (illegible) at eight dollars per acre. In Testimony whereof as
well as the said Sheriff, as this Inquest aforesaid have hereto (illegible) set
our hands and seals this thirteenth day of November in the year of our Lord,
one thousand eight hundred and thirteen." (Signed by the sheriff and 12
men.)
This document is then
followed by another, dated March 14, 1814. It is hard to read, but the Court
appears to approve that Thomas Glass can take over the 150 acres of land in
return for payment of proportional value to the other heirs (presumably based
on the above valuation of $8 per acre).
Now we come to a final
document, with a date of September 16, 1850. As usual, when Robert died
intestate the law gave one third of his property to his widow, Jane. This is
referred to as the "Widow's third". It would appear that when his
widow Jane died (on 13 Dec 1849) it came time to distribute the remainder of
Robert's estate among his children. Their appropriate powers of attorney and
receipts for the settlement are filed with the court. "R. J. Cooper,
Clerk", signs all of the following entries:
"December Orphans Court
1813" (The following is filed with the 1813 Court documents because the
following links to earlier events, even though the notes below are dated 1850
and 1851.)
"And now, September 16,
1850, filed a power of attorney from Matthew Glass to William Smith, and the
receipt of the said Matthew by the said William, for his full share in the
Widow's third, and by virtue of a power hereto attached, I hereby enter
satisfaction on the Recognizance of Thomas Glass for the share of the said
Matthew in full. See papers filed."
"Same time filed the
Receipt of Elizabeth Stewart, late Elizabeth Glass for her share in full of the
widows third; and by virtue of a power thereto attached, I hereby enter
Satisfaction on the Recognizance of Thomas Glass for the share of the said
Elizabeth in Full. See papers filed."
"Same time filed power
of Attorney from Alexander Jeffery and Matthew H. Jeffery, heir of Sarah
Jeffery, late Sarah Glass deceased, to William Smith, and the receipt of the
said Alexander and Matthew K. by the said William for the share of the said
Sarah in full of the Widow's third; and by virtue of a power I
hereby enter satisfaction on the recognizance of Thomas Glass, for the
share of the said Sarah in full. See papers filed."
"Same day, power of
Attorney from Alexander Flannegan and Margaret A. Creswell, two of the heirs of
Mary Stewart, late Mary Glass, deceased, to William Smith, and the receipt of
the said Alexander and Margaret, by the said William; and also the receipt of
the said William Smith for Robert and James Stewart, of whom he is a guardian,
the remaining heirs of the said Mary, in full of the said Mary's share in the
Widow's third. And by virtue of a power thereto attached, I hereby enter
satisfaction on the recognizance of Thomas Glass for the share of the said Mary
in full. See papers filed."
"Same day, filed power
of Attorney from Jane Boyd, heir of Robt. Glass, to Matthew Glass, and the
Receipt of the said Matthew for seventy two dollars and fifty cents ($72.50)
being the share of the said Robt. Glass in the Widow's third."
"Same day filed power of
attorney from Aaron Aten and Dorcas
his wife heirs of Thomas Glass, to M. Laurence, and order of said M.
Laurence in favor of William Smith and Receipt of said M. Laurence by William
Smith, to Thomas McFarland, devisee of Samuel McFarland, dec'd, for fourteen
dollars and sixty seven cents ($14.67) on account of the share of the said
Thomas in the Widows third. See papers filed."
This paragraph is the proof we have been looking for, that our ancestor Dorcas Glass Aten was the heir* of Thomas Glass who was the son of Robert Glass. They only got $14.67 from the estate, but it was apparently worthy of a special tribute to Dorcas' father, Thomas Glass – the next and tenth child of Aaron and Dorcas, born 16 Dec 1851, was named "Thomas Glass Aten". Perhaps the settlement proceedings made Dorcas aware of her ancestry?
*(I would interpret "heir" to mean "daughter", but that is not strictly necessarily true. However later we will show evidence that she was "daughter".)
There was one final entry in
the record, dated somewhat later: "And now to wit: March 12, 1851 filed
receipt of J (illegible) and James Stewart, Administrator of the Estate of John
Stewart, deceased, for fifty eight dollars and fifty eight cents, it being the
amount of debt and interest of judgment obtained by said John Stewart on docket
of James McCreary, Esq. against Samuel McFarland, Administrator of Thomas
Glass, deceased."
This
paragraph suggests another avenue for further investigation: We know now that
Thomas Glass died before 1850, and know that his estate was administered by
Samuel McFarland. (We believe McFarland died in 1846, so that narrows it
farther.) Finding records of Thomas' estate remains on our priority list. Also
the above lawsuit may contain items of interest, but to date we haven't sorted
it out.
Why did one heir get $72.50,
while Aaron and Dorcas only got $14.67? I think the final paragraph shows
settlement of a lawsuit against Thomas' estate, which claimed the missing odd
$58? One theory is that Thomas had a second family, and they may have been
involved? We don't know (yet). The amount of $14.67 is about one-fifth of the
$72.50, perhaps suggesting that Thomas' share was being divided among four
other heirs? We'll come back to that later.
Note: We now know quite a lot
about the life of Robert Glass, but his son Thomas remains more of a mystery.
We have learned from the above that Thomas was under age 14 in 1801, when the
court petition was entered. Therefore he cannot have been born before 1787. And
since he was petitioning the Orphans Court in October 1813 that probably means
he had then reached the legal age of 21 (or had gotten married - - daughter
Dorcas was born in early 1814). That means he likely wasn't born after about
1793. The year 1793 might be a good best guess for his birth year. Further, we
have some census information (see later), and might presume that the petition
to Orphans Court (above) named the children in order of their birth. That brings
us the following likely birth year distribution:
1. Elizabeth
Glass (born ca. 1787)
2. Sarah Glass
(born ca. 1789)
3. Jane Glass
(born ca. 1791)
4. Thomas Glass
(born ca. 1793)
5. Mary Glass
(born ca. 1795)
6. Matthew Glass
(born ca. 1798)
INTERPRETATION OF COURT DOCUMENTS:
Again, I'm weak on 19th
century Pennsylvania Estate Law, but there are some questions in the above
language that invite interpretation. Here goes:
Several times in the above
1850 documents we find the phrase "I hereby
enter satisfaction on the recognizance of Thomas Glass." But Thomas is
dead by 1850, so what does this mean?
My (modern)
dictionary defines 'Recognizance' as "in law, (a) a bond or obligation of
record entered into before a court or magistrate, binding a person to do or not
do something… (b) a sum of money pledged and subject to forfeit if this
obligation is not fulfilled."
My thought that
the person giving the recognizance would not necessarily be still living in
1850, and therefore the statements probably do refer to our ancestor Thomas
Glass, deceased at the time of the partition? At some point Thomas gave the
court a pledge of money (or perhaps a cash deposit?), and his estate was bound
to honor Thomas' promise even though he was then dead?
My guess is that
this "recognizance" relates to the 1814 land sale, and Thomas somehow
became the trustee of the "widow's third" resulting from this sale.
Further, I'm guessing that when Robert's Widow Jane finally died this amount
came up for grabs. And quite possibly the estate of John Stewart had to sue the
estate of Thomas Glass (perhaps on behalf of all the heirs) to get this money
recovered?
ROBERT'S DAUGHTER: ELIZABETH
While we are most interested in Robert's son, Thomas, we
can find some other clues by digging into his other children. I would like to
touch briefly on each of them, hitting the highlights of what we know, starting
with Elizabeth:
The above 1813 petition tells
us that Elizabeth had married John Stewart by that date. Also page 554 of
Beers, J. H. and Co., "Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington
County, Pennsylvania" (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893) confirms this
marriage,
Elizabeth (Glass) Stewart was
still alive in 1850, and collected her share of the estate directly. She had
children (see below) but there was no reason to name them. There are two
reasons to believe she was still alive. First, the above documents do not refer
to her as deceased and do not name any heirs. Further, while there are dozens
of Elizabeth Stewart's in the 1850 census for Pennsylvania, there is one in
Bedford County of exactly the right age living with the family of Jesse Ling
(who probably married Elizabeth's daughter), and in the household there is also
one William GLASS, age 22.
Other documents will be
introduced later that will tell us a bit about their children.
ROBERT'S DAUGHTER: SARAH
From the partition, we know
she married a "Jeffrey", and had children Alexander and Mathew H. Tim
Peterman suspects that she may have lived in Beaver County, presumably near her
mother Jane (Hillis, Glass) Laughlin (see later discussion) and brother
Matthew. In a will book he found wills for Matthew H Jeffrey (1855, D-14),
Sarah Jeffrey (1838, B-173), and John Jeffrey (1872, E343). Also he gleaned
from a newspaper that "Sarah Jeffrey, Hanover Twp., decd, estate notice
Robt McFerran, H. Wallace, Exrs 16 May 1838.
These are leads we can
investigate if they are determined to be of interest.
ROBERT'S DAUGHTER: JANE
The partition names Jane
(Glass), wife of Joseph Boyd. They were married before the 1813 court petition.
She was still alive to collect her inheritance in 1850. I can find information
on the descendents of Jane Glass and Joseph Boyd on Ancestry.com. Following is
a portion of the data available:
Joseph BOYD (6 May 1791 - ) & Jane GLASS (30 Dec 1791 -
13 Mar 1869)
Mary BOYD (19 Mar
1814 - aft 1870)
Robert G. BOYD (30
Aug 1816 - 1 Dec 1906)
John Mc. BOYD (1
Feb 1819 - 28 May 1851)
Thomas G. BOYD (15
Sep 1821 - )
James H. BOYD (15
May 1825 - 9 Apr 1858)
Jane Hillis BOYD
(31 Dec 1827 - 9 Aug 1830)
Elizabeth G. BOYD
(7 Apr 1830 - 2 Sep 1831)
Joseph F. BOYD (4
Oct 1832 - aft 1900)
Of particular interest is
Jane's exact birth and death dates, which were taken from grave markers in
Marion County, Ohio. Also note the names of the children, particularly if you
assume the initial "G" stands for "Glass".
ROBERT'S DAUGHTER: MARY
The court records show that
Mary was not yet married in 1813, but by 1850 she was deceased, was named
"Stewart", and had children Alexander Flannegan, Margaret A.
Creswell, Robert Stewart, and James Stewart. The latter two were young enough
to need a guardian in 1850. William Smith, the guardian of Robert and James,
also had power of attorney for Alexander and Margaret.
Mary must have first married
a "Flannegan", and had a son and a daughter, with the daughter later
marrying a "Creswell". She then remarried a "Stewart", and
had two more children. From the same J. H. Beers report as quoted with
Elizabeth above, we believe she married Richard Stewart, a brother of John
Stewart.
ROBERT'S SON: MATTHEW
The above partition named
"Matthew GLASS" as a brother of Thomas. I was able to keep track of
Matthew through census records for 1820, 1830, 1840 and 1850. He was born about
1798, and his wife Abigail was born in 1795. They lived all their married lives
in Hookstown, Beaver Co., PA, and were active in the Mill Creek Presbyterian
Church there. They had no children – and therefore probably took a keen
interest in the welfare of their niece Dorcas (perhaps particularly so if our
suspicion that Dorcas was orphaned when young is proven). In the 1860 census,
Abigail is apparently a widow, but has “Kate Aten” age 18
born in Virginia living with her and attending school. (We will later show
Abigail was an "Aten", and a second cousin of Aaron. And “Kate” was
Abigail’s niece.)
Tim looked at books of Beaver
County, PA, wills, and finds Matthew Glass (1851, C-253) and Abigail Glass
(1860, D167). He also found a newspaper reference "Matthew Glass, Esq.,
Hookstown, died 20th ult, aged 54. Estate notice, John Moody &
Wm Smith, Exrs, 11 Oct 1851."
From Beaver County
Genealogical Society: Reported Matthew buried in Old Mill Creek Church
Cemetery, tombstone inscribed "died 9/20/1851 age 54/1/11". This
would place his birth date at 9 Aug 1797. I have taken this as his birth date.
Importantly, Tim visited the
Beaver County Courthouse and read the will of Matthew. In it he left
"…$200 to Dorcas Eaton, daughter of my brother, the late Thomas
Glass." Note that "Eaton" is a common spelling variation of
"Aten", Dorcas' married name. This is a clear statement that Dorcas
is the DAUGHTER of Thomas, and not just his "heir" as stated in the
1850 Partition. This will was written in 1848 (Matthew died in 1851).
ROBERT'S WIFE: THE WIDOW JANE
Jane's maiden name was
Hillis, but we'll leave the proof of that for later. For now, let's see where
she went after Robert's death:
She was still on her own in
the 1800 census. The 1800 Census for Washington County, Smith's Township, lists
Jane GLASS. Jane is now the head of the household. She is in the 26-44 age
range, and she has six children. There are 2 males under age 10, 2 females
under age 10, and 2 females ages 10-15. These ages are in perfect agreement
with all the above.
Iams says that she
subsequently married William Laughlin. I found one William Laughlin in
Washington County, Strabane Township, in the 1810 census. There are children
present who look like they could be the remaining Robert Glass' kids. However
Tim Peterman found data on the will of this William Laughlin (who died in
1821), and that will shows he is the wrong person.
However we believe that Jane Glass did in fact marry a William Laughlin, and
that they moved to Beaver Co., PA (or rather the part of Allegheny or Washington
County that became Beaver) and apparently lived in the neighborhood of Jane's
son Matthew Glass and her daughter Sarah Jeffrey.
The 1820 census of Hanover
Twp., Beaver Co., PA shows William Lauglin, born before 1775, with a wife born
before 1775, a male age 16-18, and 4 females age 16-26.
The 1830 census
of Hanover Twp., Beaver Co., PA shows Matthew Glass on p. 278 and on p. 277
shows Jane Laughlin. Her household contained one female born 1760-70
(Jane??), one male born 1780-90, one female born 1780-90, one female born
1815-20, and one male born 1820-25.
Most important,
Tim visited the graves of Jane (Glass) Boyd and her husband Joseph Boyd. This
Jane is the daughter of Jane (Hillis, Glass) Laughlin. And he found Jane
Laughlin's tombstone lying on the ground, right beside the upright stones for
Joseph and Jane Boyd. Jane Laughlin died December 13, 1849, age 82 y, 4 m, 19d.
She is buried in Mounts Cemetery, Pleasant Township, Marion County, Ohio.
ROBERT'S WIFE: JANE HILLIS
The above refers to Robert's
wife simply as Jane Glass. Iams says she was Jane (McFarland) Glass. At best,
Jane McFarland was his SECOND wife, but we'll address that shortly.
We do have good evidence that
Robert's first wife was Jane Hillis. We'll address that case first:
The “History of Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania” published in 1889 has a biography on page 433 of a Henry
Aten (haven’t yet determined if these Atens are related to Aaron Aten’s
family). Henry Aten married Jane Hillis Stewart, “...a daughter of John and
Elizabeth (Glass) Stewart... Elizabeth (Glass) Stewart was born in Washington
county, Pa., daughter of Robert and
Jane (Hillis) Glass, both Presbyterians, from Ireland.” The same
source, page 502, has a biography of Levi J. Stewart, who is a grandson of the
same John and Elizabeth (Glass) Stewart.
This (if it is true) makes it clear that the mother of Robert's oldest child, Elizabeth, was Jane Hillis.
Also, the will of Matthew Hillis (Jane's father) written in 1790 and probated 30 Dec 1803 names his daughter "Jean (Jane) Glass". At least when the will was written in 1790 Jane (Hillis) Glass was alive and married to Robert.
Further, there is reason to
believe that Jane (Hillis) Glass was the mother of most of Robert's children,
even if we could believe Iams was right about Jane (McFarland) Glass being
Robert's wife at the time of his death. We find on page 957 of "Beers, J.
H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County,
Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893)" that "Samuel
McFarland, who was born in Northern Ireland, and was married to Jane Fulton. He
…emigrated to America about the year 1793, first living in or about
Philadelphia, Penn., then coming to Washington, Penn., and settling in Smith
township."
If we assume that our Jane
McFarland came to America with her father in 1793, then she could NOT be the
mother of Thomas Glass who (per the above analysis) had to have been born no
later than 1793.
This would suggest that if
Robert Glass EVER married a Jane McFarland, it must have been after 1793 and
before his death in about 1798.
If you believe he was married
to Jane McFarland, there is an interesting problem regarding Robert's youngest
son, Matthew. According to the 1850 census, Matthew must have been born in
about 1798. And Robert died in about 1798. If Robert was indeed married to Jane
McFarland when he died, then it is most likely that Matthew at least is the son
of Robert Glass and Jane McFarland - - there is hardly enough time for his son
to be born, for his first wife to die, for him to remarry, and then die
himself! In this scenario, then, Matthew and Thomas would likely be half
brothers. But as will be seen, that doesn't work either:
ROBERT'S WIDOW WAS NOT JANE
"MCFARLAND"
So now let's investigate the
case whether Robert could indeed have been married to Jane McFarland, the
daughter of Samuel McFarland, as claimed by Iams.
On the positive side, we know
that Samuel McFarland was close to the family, or at least to Robert's son
Thomas. As mentioned above, he was the administrator of Thomas' estate. It's
worth knowing something about him, for various reasons.
And there were connections: I
found an on-line transcript, taken from page 957 of "Beers, J. H. and Co.,
Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago:
J. H. Beers & Co., 1893)."
It discusses "Samuel
McFarland, who was born in Northern Ireland, and was married to Jane Fulton. He
…emigrated to America about the year 1793, first living in or about
Philadelphia, Penn., then coming to Washington, Penn., and settling in Smith
township. On April 6, 1804, he bought 159 acres of land of Thomas Glass, and on
September 3, of the same year, purchased 102 acres of Ephraim Chidester. He
settled upon the former piece of land."
Another extract, taken from Boyd Crumrine’s "History of Washington County,
Pennsylvania", Page 912:
Among the officers who
received grants of land for their services in the Dunmore was Lund Washington,
a distant relative of George Washington. A patent of the State of Virginia,
dated Nov. 20, 1779, was granted him by which two thousand acres of land were
conveyed. This tract lay on the head-waters of the middle branch of Raccoon
Creek, and in the townships of Smith and Mount Pleasant. On the 8th of June,
1791, Washington sold three hundred acres to John McKibben. This tract is now
owned by Charles Provines, the heirs of Ebenezer Smith, and the heirs of Robert
Smith. On the 20th of January, 1792, Washington conveyed all of the remainder
of the tract to George McCormick. In the deed to McCormick a statement is made
concerning the large tract granted by the Virginia patent as follows:
"Said to contain two thousand acres, but in fact only one thousand acres,
and is bounded," etc. A part of this tract was sold by George McCormick, Feb.
7, 1792, to David Hays, who left it by will to his son, Joseph Hays. The latter
conveyed it to Josiah Allen on the 3d of February, 1795, and two years later,
May 4, 1797, Allen conveyed it to Robert Glass. Upon his death this portion of
his estate fell to his son, Thomas Glass. He retained it till April 6, 1804,
when he sold one hundred and fifty-nine acres of land to Samuel McFarlane. In
this deed it is recited that it is part of the tract conveyed by the Virginia
patent to Lund Washington. A small portion of the tract conveyed to McFarlane
formed parts of two other tracts, one of which was patented to Thomas Edwards
April 3, 1797, and the other to Andrew Swearingen Aug. 15, 1787. “...Samuel McFarlane settled upon the tract
purchased of Thomas Glass... He lived here many years and died at an advanced
age at the residence of his daughter in Cross Creek.”
(There is something of a
problem with the "1804" land sale from Thomas Glass to Samuel
McFarland in both of the above. Tim suggests, and I agree, that this land was
probably the same land discussed in the 1813 court petition from Thomas, and
that "1804" is a typo and the land transaction was probably one
recorded in "1814". In any event, Thomas would have likely been too
young to make land deals in 1804. The 1814 land sale is important to another
part of our analysis, to be discussed later.)
McFarland was a neighbor (or
at least in the same township) of widow Jane Glass in the 1800 census, only a
short time after Robert's death. He probably clearly at least knew Robert and
Jane Glass, even if he was not Jane's father.
However there is solid
negative evidence regarding the possibility that Samuel McFarland was the
father of Robert's widow Jane. Most important, cemetery records show Samuel was
born 1772-73 (he died 16 Feb 1846 in Washington Co., and is buried in Cross
Creek Cemetery), and census records in 1800 and 1810 show his oldest daughter
was born AFTER 1790. Since Robert Glass' youngest son, Matthew, was born in
about 1798, there is no way that Jane could be his mother (she was at most 8
years old) or Samuel could be his grandfather (he was about age 26).
We conclude that Jane
(Hillis) Glass was Robert's one and only wife.
DORCAS PARENTS: THOMAS GLASS AND MARY KIRK
From the above we know that
Dorcas' father was Thomas Glass. But there are so far no clues about her
mother, and very little about the life of Thomas. A major complication is that
there were at least THREE people named Thomas Glass with roots in southwestern
Pennsylvania who were of the right age to be Dorcas father. We've spent
hundreds of hours trying to pin one of them down. We now firmly believe we've
found the right one. Let us start with the "success" – and tell
you a bit about the other candidates later:
The breakthrough came when
Tim Peterman visited the Washington County, Pennsylvania, courthouse in October
2004 and asked to examine the deed from the 1814 land sale mentioned above.
He found the deed for this
land sale made by Dorcas' proven father, Thomas Glass, dated 6 April 1814 (less
than 3 months after Dorcas' birth on 25 Jan 1814). That deed clearly showed
that Thomas wife was named "Mary"! It's MARY. For the first time we
knew her given name. Now the question was "Mary WHO?"
Were we back to zero? Not
quite. I reminded Tim that two of the ancestry.com web sites showed the name
"Mary Kirk" as Dorcas' mother. But those sites offered no source or
other documentation, and at the time we first saw the name we thought we had a
better candidate, so we dismissed it. But maybe they knew something we didn't?
Maybe someone in the Aten family had written the name on a scrap of paper, and
they just recorded it as a given? And if they got the "Mary" part
right, isn't there is every reason to suspect they also were right about
"Kirk"?
Tim then asked, "Were
there any 'Kirk' families in Washington County that Thomas might have married
into?" We both dove into the census records to see what we could find.
There was of course no hope of directly finding "Mary", because prior
to 1850 the Census only named the head of the household, and just counted all
the other family members. We needed to find a nearby "Kirk" family,
with at least one daughter of the right age to marry Thomas Glass and give
birth to Dorcas on 25 Jan 1814.
The census showed there were
six Kirk families in Washington County. And five of them were easy to eliminate
because the head of the household was too old, or too young, or had no
daughters.
That left us with one "James Kirk", of Cross Creek Township, Washington County. Tim reported that James Kirk bought land in the 1780’s from Henry Graham & operated a tannery with him. James was in the County in the 1790 census. In 1800 he was still there, with four daughters - - two ages 10 to 15, and two under age 10. (He also had 4 sons in 1800.) In 1810 he is still there, and has two daughters left - - one age 10-15, and one age 16-26. Either of these would be a prime candidate to marry Thomas Glass before 1814. And Cross Creek is in the neighborhood of our Glass family.
However we find that James is
missing from the Washington County census in 1820. Tim then looked at the
census index for nearby Ohio, and found a James Kirk had popped up in
Vermillion, Richland County (now part of Ashland County), Ohio, in the 1820
census. This was VERY interesting, because Cornelius Aten ALSO lived in
Richland County, and he was the father of Aaron Aten, Dorcas' future husband!
Now, Tim had long noted that
"Dorcas" was an unusual name, and had suspected that when we found
Dorcas Glass' family we would find she was named after her grandmother or other
close relative. And guess what? Tim found the will of James Kirk, written on 1
Mar 1829 and probated in May 1829. In it James named his wife - - and her name
was "Dorcas"!
It might not stand up in
court, but it now seemed very convincing that Dorcas Glass' mother was Mary
Kirk, the daughter of James and Dorcas Kirk. And there's more:
To digress a moment, Tim
checked the Pennsylvania Revolutionary War Military Card File and found that
the above James Kirk served in the war. He was recorded as a Private from
Washington County, PA, who was in the 3rd battalion of the 4th
company. If we can prove conclusively that James & Dorcas Kirk were the
grandparents of Dorcas Glass, our family will have one more claim to membership
in the SAR or DAR.
Before proceeding, let's also
pause and "speculate" for a moment: We have long believed that Dorcas
Glass might have been raised by another family, perhaps because her father died
young and her mother remarried. One interesting "clue" is that she
did not "recognize" her father by naming a son after him, until AFTER
she received a cash inheritance from him in 1850 (or more correctly from her
paternal grandparents' estate through the estate of the deceased Thomas). And
guess what - - the fourth son born 16 Dec 1851 is named "Thomas Glass
Aten". The inheritance must have reminded her that her father was
"Thomas Glass" - - perhaps she never really thought about him until
then?
(To digress on another side
issue: Her first son was named "Samuel Harrison Aten" - - we
are still wondering who the heck was "Samuel Harrison"?)
But documents below suggest
another possibility about Dorcas' life. Perhaps it was her mother, Mary, who
died young, and maybe Thomas was unable to care for and raise a small child by
himself? And maybe Dorcas was therefore raised by the Kirk family, and had only
limited relationship with her father? Let's go on:
To back up a bit, before Tim
left Washington County he checked records there, and found two deeds for land
sold by a James Kirk, and his wife Tabitha, in 1815. We now believe that this
was James Kirk Jr., one of James Sr.'s sons. It suggests that 1815 was the year
the family sold out of Pennsylvania in order to move to Ohio? Note that it is
close in time to the 1814 land sale by Thomas Glass, and maybe Thomas was
looking toward Ohio as well?
And, with dates just a few
months later, Tim found that one Thomas Glass, of Washington Co., PA, sought a
patent on land in Richland County, OH (Sec. 22, T 20, R16). It was entered on 8
Sep 1814, and granted on 13 Mar 1818. It now seems obvious that Thomas Glass,
and his wife Mary (Kirk) Glass, intended to move to Ohio. The sale of this same
Ohio land is discussed below.
Tim also found that our James
Kirk of Washington Co., PA, sought a patent on land in Green Twp., Richland
County, Ohio, on May 24, 1815, for the NW quarter of Sec. 22, T20, R16. This
land is only 2 miles from Thomas' land. The patent was issued 27 Sep 1826.
James and his wife Dorcas are on record as deeding portions of this land
in 1827, 1828, and 1829 (latter deeds to family members, near the time of James
death).
In his 1829 will, in addition
to his wife Dorcas, James Kirk also named a son-in-law William Brian, a
grandson John Cunningham, and a granddaughter Mary Cunningham. Executor was
Oliver Sloan. Another deed made it clear that James Kirk's son-in-law was
Robert Cunningham, his daughter was Nancy Cunningham, and his Cunningham
grandchildren were named "Mary, Jane, Dorcas, John, and Martha."
(Again, the names Mary and Dorcas are being handed down the family!)
Why the interest in the
Cunningham's? On 6 Sept 1819, Robert Cunningham made a deed to Thomas Glass of
lots in what was then Petersburgh (now Mifflin) in Richland County. This shows
Thomas was remaining in close association with members of the Kirk family.
However Tim found that Thomas was listed in the transaction as being "…of
Washington Co., PA", so perhaps he hadn't yet moved?
Now things get even more
interesting. In 1829, one Thomas Glass and MARGARET his wife of Columbiana Co.,
OH, sold 160 acres of land. And this land was the same land patented by the
Thomas Glass from Washington Co., PA (see above). It seems certain that this
was OUR Thomas Glass. Tim found that this Thomas Glass had married Margaret
McMillen in Columbiana County, OH, on 25
Nov 1823. Also Thomas was taxed on this land as a "non resident" in
1825, suggesting that he had moved away by at least this date (or never lived
there).
The connections are
convincing: It now appears nearly certain that it was Dorcas' mother Mary Kirk
who died young, and that her father Thomas remarried in 1823.
This Thomas Glass and
Margaret were still in Knox Twp., Columbiana Co. in 1833, when they sold 10
acres of land. Tim also found another deed dated 1834, proving that Thomas was
still alive on this date. And the 1830 census of Knox Twp. does contain a
Thomas Glass, probably the same one. He was age 30-40, with a wife age 20-30,
and with one son and two daughters age 0-5. But there is no one listed the right
age to be daughter Dorcas, who would have been age 16 (she was not married
until 1833, so she should have been listed if living with her father). Best
guess is that she remained with the Kirks?
(This is stretching for
theories, but Tim noted that James Kirk (who died in 1829) apparently had a son
John Kirk living nearby. And the 1830 census shows there is indeed still a John
Kirk age 50-60* living in Vermillion, Richland County, in 1830. And in his
household there is one female age 15-20. This female could of course be John's
own daughter - - or maybe it could be Dorcas Glass, living with her Uncle John,
her mother's brother?)
*(Cemetery records show John
Kirk died 28 Aug 1863, is buried next to Nancy Cunningham, and compute to a
birth date of 16 Mar 1780. The Cunningham connection proves a relationship to
our James Kirk, and the birth date is consistent with age 50-60 in the 1830
census. This is almost certainly the right John Kirk.)
There is also a Thomas Glass
in Wayne Twp., Columbiana Co., OH, in the 1840 census. We can't be sure this is
the same Thomas Glass, since Wayne Twp. is a good distance from Knox Twp. But
the ages and the county are right. And this Thomas now has seven children. Are
they the half-siblings of our Dorcas?
We speculate that Dorcas'
mother Mary Kirk died not long after Dorcas' birth (at least certainly before
1823), and father Thomas sent the child Dorcas to live with the Kirks. Thomas
later married Margaret McMillan, and Dorcas never returned to live with Thomas
and his new family. If this scenario is correct, she would probably have
thought of the Kirks as her real family. And they indeed lived much nearer to
her future husband, Aaron Aten.
When did Thomas Glass
actually die? We know for sure that he was party to a land transaction in 1834
(see above). He may have been the Thomas Glass counted in the 1840 census, but
we can't be absolutely sure. We also know that the administrator of his estate
was one Samuel McFarland, and we believe Samuel died in 1845. And the will of
his brother Matthew written in 1848 referred to him as deceased. Bottom line:
Thomas was definitely alive in 1834, probably alive in 1840, probably dead in
1845, and definitely dead in 1848.
Regarding Thomas' Glass
second family with Margaret McMillan, We note that a "Margaret Glass"
of exactly the right age appears in every Ohio Census from 1830 through 1870.
She was married to Thomas in 1830 and 1840, but by 1850 Thomas was dead and she
was on her own. Tim found a Columbiana County newspaper report showing she died
13 Sep 1874 at age 71, meaning she was born in 1802 or 1803. Using ages and
names from the census reports, and ancestry.com files on the marriages of
Harriet and Emeline (see below), I think we can reconstruct that Thomas and
Margaret actually had EIGHT children as follows:
1)
"Harriet",
born 18 Oct 1824. A daughter of the right age is counted in the 1830 and 1840
census, and by the 1850 census Harriet has married William Whirl and is found
in Butler Twp., Columbiana County. A Margaret Glass of exactly the right age
and born in Pennsylvania is living with Harriet's family in Allen County in the
1870 census. Ancestry.com files show Harriett An Glass born 18 Oct 1824 and
married to William Henry Whirl on 14 May 1846, show they had 7 children, and
name her parents as Thomas Glass and Margaret M????.
2)
"A
Daughter", born about 1827. She is counted in the 1830 and 1840 census,
but apparently has gotten married before the 1850 census starts naming family
members, so we presently have no idea what her name was.
3)
"John",
born about 1829. He fits the count of sons in 1830 and 1840, and is named in
1850. In 1850 he is listed as the head of the household in Salem Twp.,
Columbiana County, and living with his mother Margaret and three of his younger
sisters. He is not (yet) married.
4)
"Emeline",
born about 1831. She appears in the 1840 count, but apparently was living
elsewhere by 1850. In the 1860 census she is married to Jonathan Dutton of
Wellsville, Columbiana Co., and has two children. Living with them in the 1860 census
is our Margaret Glass. An ancestry.com site shows Emeline's maiden name was
Glass, and that she married Jonathan Dutton on 25 May 1854, but shows no data
on her parents.
5)
"A
Son", born about 1833. He is needed to complete the count of sons in the
1840 census. By 1850 he has apparently moved away (or maybe died), and he is
not among those named in 1850.
6)
"Elizabeth",
born about 1835. She is counted in the 1840 census, and named in 1850, when she
is living with her mother, her brother John, and two sisters.
7)
"Margaret",
born about 1838. She is counted in the 1840 census, and named in 1850, when she
is living with her mother, her brother John, and two sisters.
8)
"Martha",
born about 1841. She is too young to have appeared in any earlier census, but
she is found and named in 1850, when she is living with her mother, her brother
John, and two sisters.
This leaves one curious
problem: If Thomas had 8 other children, why are they not named in the Estate
Partition in 1850? Or, since second wife Margaret is still alive in 1850, why
are ANY of his children getting an inheritance - - his widow would have
normally been the sole beneficiary of his estate. One speculative thought is
that perhaps they did get a share, indirectly. One of the other 1850 partition
heirs got $72.50, but our Dorcas only got $14.67. There seemed to have been
some sort of dispute that consumed the missing $58. Maybe that went to Dorcas'
stepmother, or to Dorcas' surviving half-siblings? Again, it's speculation.
Maybe some day we'll pin it down. Anyway, her $14.67 share was still enough to
persuade Dorcas to name her next son "Thomas Glass Aten".
Based on all the above, we
think we have a good handle on Dorcas' family. However there are obviously a
lot of loose ends to tie up with future research.
FAMILY IN BEAVER COUNTY, PA:
As background for future
research, it is worth reviewing family connections in Beaver County in the
1820's and 1830's. There may be additional clues to be found there:
We have already seen that
after the death of Robert Glass his widow Jane remarried and lived in Beaver
County. So we have Dorcas' grandmother, Jane (Hillis Glass) Laughlin living
there. And we find Dorcas' aunt, Sarah (Glass) Jeffrey in the county. And we
also find Dorcas' uncle, Matthew Glass.
And we are finding the
Aten family there as well, and in fact now believe that Matthew Glass' wife,
Abigail, was an Aten and a second cousin of Dorcas' husband Aaron. The family
connection seems to be as follows:
Adrian ATEN (4 Sep 1695 - 10 Dec 1757) & Jacobje MIDDAGH
(24 Oct 1693 - 16 May 1782)
Dirck ATEN (22 Aug
1721 - 8 Sep 1809)
Adrian
"Aaron" ATEN (1753 – 20 Apr 1837) & Martha BAER (or NEER)
(1754 – 1837)
Abigail ATEN (abt 1793 –
abt 1860) & Matthew GLASS
(Abt 1798 to abt 1851)
John (Jan?) ATEN
(22 Dec 1732 - 1790) & Elizabeth BADYN (1733 - )
Cornelius ATEN
(18 Jan 1766 - 21 Mar 1857) & Sarah (Sally) BELL (13 Feb 1770 - Jun 1856)
Aaron Kimble ATEN (18 Feb 1812 - 9 Sep
1901) & Dorcas GLASS (25
Jan 1814 - 20 Nov 1892)
This conclusion is
supported in part by some handwritten notes that Tim Peterman collected from a
Mrs. Jack Aten about 25 years ago: Those notes show that the above Adrian
"Aaron" Aten, born 1753, died Apr 20, 1837, buried Hopewell Cemetery
in Allegheny Co., PA, settled in Beaver Co., PA 1785, along with brother
Richard and cousins Thomas and George. In 1776 he married Martha Baer
(1754-1837). (Memo: Some internet sources say his wife was actually
"Martha Neer", some "Beer".)
Children:
1. Mary (1777-1792)
2. Richard
(1778-1801)
3. Catherine
(1780-1783)
4. William (17
Dec 1779 - 1860), (married Jane Anderson, then Catherine Wycoff (15 Dec 1808 -
))
5. Elizabeth
(1787-?), mar James Kulykewall (? sp)
6. Abigail (19 Oct 1793?-Dec 1860?),
lived in Hookstown, PA, married Matthew
Glass
7. Robert Aten
(1796-1884), mar Jane Burns"
The idea that Abigail was
an "Aten" is supported by the fact that in the 1860 census the widow
Abigail is found living with a “Kate Aten” (age 18, born in Virginia, and
attending school). I am convinced that “Kate Aten” is Catherine Ann Aten, the
daughter of Abigail’s brother, William Aten, and his second wife Catherine
Wycoff. Here are family details:
William Aten (17 Dec 1779 - ) and Catherine Wycoff (15 Dec 1808 - )
Martha Jane Aten (12 May 1837 – 9 Jan 1929)
James Aten (abt Mar 1839 – 16 Mar 1867) Early Flats
Graveyard, Hancock
Catherine Ann
Aten (Jan 1841 – 1870)
Abigail Ada Aten (abt 1842 – abt 1842)
Matthew Glass Aten (abt Nov 1844 – abt 1861)
Children’s names like
“Abigail Aten” and “Matthew Glass Aten” leave no doubt this is the RIGHT
family. William and son James are reported buried in Flats Graveyard, New
Manchester, Hancock, WV, just across the line from Beaver County, PA. Census
shows there are lots of Atens living in Hancock County. And New Manchester, WV,
is less than 10 miles from Hookstown, PA.
1850 Census for Hancock, VA, gives Wm Aten (65), Catherine Aten (41), Martha J
Aten (13), Jas Aten (11), Catherine Aten (9), and Matthew Aten (5), Robt Aten
(35), and Nancy Aten (19). (Nancy is William’s daughter by his first wife
– I can’t figure out Robt.)
1860 Census for Hancock, VA, gives Wm Aten (80), Cath Aten (52), Nancy Aten (30),
James Aten 21), and Mathew Aten (15), and Nancy Aten (40). Daughter Catherine
“Kate” isn’t there, because she’s with her aunt Abigail (Aten) Glass, (wife of
deceased Matthew Glass), in Hookstown, PA. And Nancy is William’s daughter by
his first wife.
Found following note from
Mrs. Lysle H. Morrow (Gladys Morrow) in package from Beaver County Genealogical
Society. "My Great-great-Grandfather, William Aten and his first wife,
Jane Anderson are also buried in Flatt's Cemetery. At the Hancock County Court
House I had copies made of his will and other papers. In them I discovered that
his sister, Abigail Aten, wife of Matthew Glass had lived and died in the
Borough of Hookstown, County of Beaver, Pennsylvania. I wrote for and received
a copy of her will (October 1860) in which she named her brother, William Aten
of Hancock County West Va, her brother Robert Aten of Northampton County, PA,
and the children of her deceased sister, Elizabeth _____."
There are land
transactions involving an Aaron Aten (this would be the older "Adrian
'Aaron' Aten" above, not the Aaron that married Dorcas) that support a
close relationship. In applying for an Ohio land patent on 2 April 1829 he is
described as "Aaron Aten of Beaver County Pennsylvania". This land is
near where Cornelius Aten lived, suggesting that Cornelius may have told his
cousin about the land and got him involved.
Tim also found the
following: In Jan. 26, 1837, Aaron Aten of Beaver Co., PA sold 160 acres for
$500 to Matthew Glass of Beaver Co., PA. The land was 160 acres described
as the SW quarter of Sec. 22, T 25, R 17 in Richland Co., OH -on waters of
Mohican Creek. Aaron Aten had acquired this by patent. He signed
the deed, making his mark. The witnesses were Thomas J. Hewit and David Patten.
FAILED THEORIES ON IDENTITY OF DORCAS' MOTHER:
I would like to very
quickly comment on some of the theories about Dorcas' mother than have proven
wrong.
Theory
#1 – Jane McFarland:
We
showed above that Jane McFarland, the daughter of Samuel McFarland, could not
be the wife of Robert Glass because she was much too young. However she would
have been the right age to marry Thomas Glass - - perhaps Iams just tied her to
the wrong "Glass"? Even before the discovery that Thomas' wife was
named "Mary", this theory was dead because we found that Jane
McFarland had married one James Farrar on 15 May 1812, well before Dorcas was
born.
Theory
#2 – Rebecca Storer:
This
is our oldest theory, initially identified by Tim. We know that there was a
Thomas Glass living in Monroe Twp., Guernsey County, Ohio in 1820. We know he
was born in Pennsylvania, and his wife was Rebecca Storer. We spent a lot of
time chasing this one, including studying the genealogy of the Storer family,
and corresponding with another living descendent of this Thomas Glass.
However
once again, even before we knew our Thomas' wife was "Mary", this theory
was eliminated. We found that the Thomas Glass who married Rebecca Storer was
still living in the 1850 census, and we knew for certain that OUR Thomas Glass
was dead by that time.
Theory
#3 – Rebecca Stewart:
This
theory was our favorite for quite some time. We have reports of a daughter of
William Stewart, named Rebecca, who married a Thomas Glass. We also found that
two of Thomas' sisters married Stewart men. We're pretty sure this Thomas and
Rebecca were living in Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania, in 1820, which is the right
part of the state.
We
thoroughly explored the genealogy of this Stewart family, even to the extent of
tracing down to living a matrilineal ancestor of Rebecca Stewart in the hope we
could arrange for an mtDNA test (see discussion below) to confirm the
relationship. We spent dozens of hours digging for information.
The
theory, however, was severely damaged when we discovered (1) the Thomas Glass
who married this Rebecca Stewart was living in close proximity to a totally
UNRELATED Glass family, and (2) we proved that the Stewart family that our
Thomas' sisters married was totally UNRELATED to Rebecca Stewart's family
(until a Stewart-Stewart marriage a couple of generations later). It began to
look very improbable.
And of
course the discovery that our Thomas' wife was "Mary" put a final end
to it.
(There
is, however, a distinct possibility that the two "Thomas Glass"
candidates found above are ultimately related to OUR Thomas Glass. The
connection may have been back in Ireland, with ancestors that handed the name
"Thomas" down through parallel generations.)
ROBERT GLASS' PARENTS
We don't have any data,
but Tim offers a possibility, based on Robert's wife Jane having parents named
Matthew and Elizabeth:
" Are you familiar with Scottish naming patterns? I think this
pattern is called such because it is supposedly most prevalent in Scottish/
Scots-Irish families. I have seldom seen it applied perfectly.
1st son -named
after paternal grandfather
2nd son -named
after maternal grandfather
3rd son -named
after father
1st daughter
-named after maternal grandmother
2nd daughter
-named after paternal grandmother
3rd daughter
named after mother
Since we know the
most likely order of the children of Robert and Jane Glass, we can make a prediction
based on this naming pattern:
1. The parents of
Robert Glass were named Thomas and Sarah
2. The parents of
Jane were named Matthew and Elizabeth
Were Robert and Jane
intentionally adhering to the Scottish naming pattern?? I don't know, but
they obviously got it right with Jane's parents. I consider this to be a
moderately strong clue that Robert Glass was the son of Thomas Glass and Sarah.
MITOCHONDRIAL DNA TESTING:
Back in 2003 Tim suggested
another tool that might help us: "Do you know if any granddaughters of
Gertie (Robinson) Coffey are living; that is daughters of her daughters? I ask this because they should have the mtDNA
of Dorcas (Glass) Aten & this would possibly assist us in determining who Dorcas'
relatives were. I would like to remind everyone that the ancestry of Dorcas
Glass remains one of the most persistently untraceable aspects of our ancestry.
If we get a mtDNA signature for the Dorcas line, we could then, in the future,
compare it with matrilineal descendants of other purported sisters or aunts of
Dorcas & see if they match."
A little further research
taught me the following: The mtDNA is "mitochondrial DNA" that is
passed down only from the mother. We all have it -- but what we have came only
from our mother, who got it from her mother, etc. The mtDNA changes only very
slowly over time. If there is a close match of mtDNA between two people, it
suggests strongly that they have a common matrilineal ancestor sometime in the
perhaps not too distant past. DNA experts can provide probabilities of that
ancestor having occurred within a given number of generations.
And in response to Tim's
question, there are indeed both daughters and granddaughters of Gertrude still
living. His question prompted me to persuade her daughter Dorothy (Coffey)
Smith to scrape the inside of her cheek for a DNA sample. The results of that
DNA test are now available, and the first part of this note discusses what it
means to us:
The results for Dorothy can
be expressed with just a few cryptic numbers: HVR1 Haplogroup is
"J1", and the HVR1 Mutations are "16069T, 16126C, 16145A,
16325C". The HVR2 differences are "73G, 150T, 185A, 228A, 263G, 295T,
309.1C, 315.1C, 462T, 582C, 489C, 522-, 523-". Let's examine these one at
a time.
Haplogroup "J1"
tells us some very interesting things. A good discussion is in the book
"The Seven Daughters of Eve", by Bryan Sykes. Here's a quote from the
book's dust cover:
"After plotting
thousands of DNA sequences from all over the world, (Professor) Sykes found
that they clustered around a handful of distinct groups. Among Europeans and
North American Caucasians, there are, in fact, only seven."
"This conclusion was
staggering: almost all people of native European descent, wherever they may
live throughout the world, can trace their ancestry back to one of seven women,
hence, the Seven Daughters of Eve. Naming them Helena, Ursula, Xenia, Velda,
Tara, Katrine, and Jasmine, Sykes has created portraits of their disparate
worlds by mapping the migratory patterns followed by millions of their
descendants."
The names Sykes used are
based on the first letter of the Haplogroup. Therefore, Dorothy and her mother,
her maternal grandmothers, her sisters and her daughters are all "J"
group and descended from his "Jasmine" -- who Sykes believes lived
about 10,000 years ago and who is the youngest of the seven “daughters”.
The web site
“www.oxfordancestors.com” has this to say about Jasmine: “The clan of Jasmine
(Persian for flower) is the second largest of the seven European clans after
Helena and is the only one to have its origins outside Europe. Jasmine and her
descendants, who now make up 12% of Europeans, were among the first farmers and
brought the agricultural revolution to Europe from the Middle East around 8,500
years ago.”
Now we come to the second
result from the mtDNA test, the "HVR1 Mutations". DNA consists of a
string of base pairs, which are labeled (A) Adenine, (G) Guanine, (T) Thymine,
and (C) Cytosine. Any segment of your DNA can then be described by a sequence
of these bases, for example "ATTCTAATTTAAACTATTCTCTG....". The full
sequence for mtDNA in humans is 16,500 base pairs long.
There is a published
Cambridge Reference Sequence for mtDNA which starts at a location numbered
"16001", and runs through "16540" – that is, it is
540 segments long. What the list of "mutations" for Dorothy (see
above) means is that her DNA differs from the reference sequence in only four
locations. For example, the mutation "16069T" means that whatever is
in location 16069 has been replaced with a "T" (it was originally a
"C"). This variation is called a polymorphism.
If we find someone who is an
exact match to Dorothy's mtDNA, it will suggest a 99% likelihood that person
has a common ancestor with Dorothy. However mtDNA changes only slowly over time,
and that exact match only means that there is a 50% likelihood that common
ancestor was within the last 52 generations (i.e., within the last 1000 years).
By itself the data can never pin down an exact ancestor. The test rules out
people, it doesn't prove them. However a very large percentage of the US
population can be ruled out.
We also did a higher
resolution test, "HVR2". The results were shown earlier. Because the
number of HVR2 mutations is unusually large, it is quite likely that if we ever
find another person with the same sequence that person will be a close
relative?
But without anyone to compare
it to, Dorothy's DNA test proves nothing. That brings us to the second part of
the "Dorcas Glass" problem – can we find any
"candidates" for her ancestors, who have living matrilineal
descendents available for testing? It's hard to trace matrilineal ancestors and
descendants – they change their names every time they get married!
We had a success with the
candidate "Rebecca Stewart" mentioned above. After extensive digging,
we found a matrilineal descendent of Rebecca's mother, Martha Walker, alive and
well in Chautauqua, NY. However she was reluctant to be tested, and the records
finally proved that "Rebecca" was not a viable candidate.
However all hope is not yet lost. Dorcas' presumed
grandmother, Dorcas, had daughters and granddaughters. Perhaps someday we can
chase this down to another living descendant, and make the mtDNA comparison.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
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