William Roark And A Jersey Boy In The Revolution

The fictional story of A Jersey Boy in the Revolution:

Captain Joshua Huddy, whom Tom had now recognized as his captor, spoke sternly, and the lad could see that he was regarded with suspicion by the doughty leader in the Monmouth militia. In the advance which Washington had made in the preceding summer into the county, Captain Huddy had been of great assistance in the troops of General Maxfield; but after the battle he had left the army and remained to aid the scattered people in their defense against the marauding bands of Tories and refugees. Tom Coward knew him well, and the rugged zeal of the famous Jerseyman had strongly impressed him, as it had all the people of Old Monmouth.


The authentic affidavit of William Roark, soldier in the American Revolutionary War:

That he was drafted into service in the county of Sussex, state of New Jersey first under Captain John Fleet and served a tour under him during which time we were marched to Amboy in said state.

The next tour of a similar service was under Capt. Mark Thompson, during which time we were marched to a place called Bound Brook.  The next tour was under Capt. John Maxfield [Maxwell?].  These several tours comprised a time of...

I do not recollect many of the United States officers excepting those mentioned and General Washington who was about this time in New Jersey and General William Maxfield [Maxwell?] the brother of my captain.  Some where during this time Capt. John Maxfield [Maxwell?] received a commission of captain in the regulars, and enlisted a company at the Grand Camps and I enlisted in it under him.  I was at the battle of Millstone and took a prisoner at or near the settlement of Monmouth.  I had lived with an uncle who was acquainted with the General and he came down and got me off from further service at this time.  

Resources Explaining Sullivan's Expedition

Sullivan's expedition against the Indians of New York : a letter from Andrew McFarland Davis to Justin Winsor, corresponding secretary Massachusetts Historical Society : with the Journal of William McKendry byMcKendry, William, d. 1798; Massachusetts Historical Society; Davis, Andrew McFarland, 1833-1920; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897

A compilation of journals/diaries regarding the Expedition:

Excerpts from McKendry's Journal:

Ditto 11 th 1778. Moderate Snow storm.

Ditto 12* T. Taylor Rec d 400 Lashes for striking Cap* Too Good
with his Gun ; he belongs to Col Putmans Reg*

Ditto 28* Majr Whitting left Albany on furlow for New England.

Ditto 29 th Nothing new.

Ditto 30* Cap* Day & Cap* Warren Arriv d in Camp in Albany
with y? Clothing for y e officers ; Sarj* Dickerman and Corp 1 Pettingill
arriv d ditto.

February 1 st 1778. Ensign Parker arrived from furlow at Albany.

Ditto 2 d Nothing new.

Ditto 6* A Brittish Soldier Rec d 30 Lashes at y e City Hall in Al
bany Put on by an Indian.

Monday, September 6th, Sullivan's Expedition

Source

The Duel

Source

"Aaron Burr had a fine mind, personal charm, and the knack of winning votes. These qualities carried him to the United States Senate, and almost to the Presidency. In 1800 the federal electors divided their votes equally between Burr and Jefferson for thirty-six ballots before they finally named Jefferson President and Burr Vice President."

"In his political activities Burr had incurred the enmity of Hamilton, although outwardly the two men were friends. In 1804, during the course of a hot campaign for the governorship of New York, the ill-feeling came to the surface. Hamilton, it was said, had asserted that Burr was a 'dangerous man and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government.' Burr demanded an explanation; Hamilton made an evasive reply. Burr issued a challenge; Hamilton accepted, though reluctantly. The duelists met at Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804."

William Richardson Davie

Map Of Kings Mountain Battle Showing Catawba River

Rev. William Richardson was a Presbyterian clergyman, who, in the year 1763, resided in the Waxhaw settlement, on the Catawba River, in the present State of South Carolina. He married a lady named Davie, the sister of Archibald Davie, who came from the village of Egremont, near Whitehaven, a seaport on the Irish Sea, in the county of Cumberland, England.

Source

 Mr. Richardson had no children of his own, and therefore adopted his wife's brother's son, named for himself, William Richardson Davie, who thus became heir to his large estate. He was born at said Egremont, June 20, 1756.

Young Davie was a regular and successful student at Nassau Hall College, Princeton, N. J., where he graduated with honor in the autumn of 1776. Having chosen the profession of law, he began his legal studies in Salisbury, N. C. But in December, 1777, he left his books for a while to engage in the military service of his country. Commissioned as lieutenant of dragoons, he soon rose to the rank of major, and was in Pulaski's legion. He was in the army of Lincoln, engaged in the defence of Charleston; was in the battle of Stono Ferry, near that city, June 20, 1779, where he was badly wounded, and in several other severe actions. He was hastening to join the army of Gates, when that army received a total defeat at Camden, Aug. 16, 1780. While the American forces were mostly driven from the field, Davie, now a colonel, continued to harass the enemy to the utmost, and not without success. [Source]

Study God's Word In The Morning

"My practice was this: I devoted the forenoon of every day, except Monday, to the preparation of my discourses. My motto was: 'Study God's Word in the morning, and door-plates in the afternoon.' I found the physical exercise in itself a benefit, and the spiritual benefits were ten-fold more." 

 Recollections of a Long Life  An Autobiography, by Theodore Ledyard Cuyler.

Source

"Washington Irving has somewhere said that it is a happy thing to have been born near some noble mountain or attractive river or lake, which should be a landmark through all the journey of life, and to which we could tether our memory. I have always been thankful that the place of my nativity was the beautiful village of Aurora, on the shores of the Cayuga Lake in Western New York. My great-grandfather, General Benjamin Ledyard, was one of its first settlers, and came there in 1794."

"During the summer of 1840, when I was a college student at Princeton, I went with a friend to the office of the Log Cabin, a Whig campaign newspaper then published in Nassau Street, New York. It was during the famous Tippecanoe campaign, which resulted in the election of General Harrison. I was introduced to a singular looking man in rustic dress. Horace Greeley, for it was he, who sat before me, has been often described as a man with the 'face of an angel, and the walk of a clod-hopper."'

One of the number [of young ladies in church] happened to be a young lady from Ohio who had just graduated from the Granville College, in that State, and had come East to visit her relatives in Philadelphia. The young lady just mentioned was Miss Annie E. Mathiot... .  My courtship was rather "at long range;" for Newark, Ohio, was several hundred miles away, and I have always found that a man who would build up a strong church must be constantly at it, trowel in hand.

George Washington Doane

The Life and Writings of George Washington Doane ... By George Washington Doane, William Croswell Doane:

George W. Doane as well as his father, Jonathan Doane, are part of the Doane family book that includes descendants of Deacon John Doane.  The book was published in 1902, so even though I am a descendant of Deacon John Doane, I'm not included(!).

Ungovernable Fury

A Rebel war clerk's diary...:

April 8th, 1861.  BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY.---The expedition sails to day from New York. Its purpose is to reduce Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, and relieve Fort Sumter, invested by the Confederate forces. Southern born, and editor of the Southern Monitor, there seems to be no alternative but to depart immediately.

And I must depart immediately; for I well know that the first gun fired at Fort Sumter will be the signal for an outburst of ungovernable fury, and I should be seized and thrown into prison.

I must leave my family--my property--everything. My family cannot go with me--but they may follow. The storm will not break in its fury for a month or so.

The Revolutionary War Brought Military Success And Financial Ruin

The story of Colonel Oliver Spencer embedded in the story of his son Oliver's capture by Native Americans.

The most prominent settler of Columbia [Hamilton County, Ohio] was Colonel Oliver Spencer, father of our narrator. Colonel Spencer was not only of the best English descent, but, a point of greater importance, he was entirely worthy of his ancestry. A native of Connecticut, he removed at an early age to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he married the daughter of Robert Ogden. 

Colonel Spencer engaged in the tannery business with his father-in-law and was rapidly acquiring wealth when the Revolution came to alter his whole future course of life.  We need note in this connection only that while he served with credit throughout the war, rising to the rank of colonel in the continental service, he found himself at its close a ruined man, his capital dissipated, and his home and tannery (the latter one of the largest in America) gutted. Under such circumstances he turned a ready ear to the project for colonization on the Ohio, with the prospect it held out to men of energy of beginning life anew under more favor able circumstances than the settled East could offer. [Source]

Oliver Spencer is not an ancestor of mine, but is a distant cousin. He was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, into the Spencer family who were among the first settlers there in 1662.  My ancestor was Gerard Spencer (1).

Oliver Spencer's ancestry:
 Samuel(4) Spencer (Isaac(3), Samuel(2), Gerard(1), born at East Haddam, 10 Jul 1708, died there 4 Sep 1757...child:
iii. Oliver, b. 6 Oct 1736; d. 22 Jan 1811

The Life And Death Of Jane McCrea

From "The Life of Jane McCrea, with an Account of Burgoyne's Expedition in 1777":

In the history of the Revolutionary War, perhaps no single incident is recorded which, at the time of its occurrence, created more intense sympathy, or aroused a spirit of more bitter indignation, than the massacre of Jane McCrea.

The murder of Miss McCrea was one of the incidents of Burgoyne campaign. Her affianced husband [David Jones] accompanied him from his arrival at St John's until his surrender at Saratoga. Her biography is so intermingled with the history of his expedition that it was found impossible to separate them.

Jane Mc Crea was born at Lamington, New Jersey, about the year 1757. Her father, James McCrea, was a Presbyterian clergyman. He was a native o£ Scotland... . At an early age, she met with an irreparable loss in the death of her mother... . [She had brothers, including Creighton McCrea]

Among her father's neighbors in New Jersey, was the family of Jones, consisting of a widow and six sons, Jonathan, John, Dunham, Daniel, David, and Solomon.

"...on the 29th of June, Burgoyne sent forth that famous proclamation by which he thought to overawe the Americans...".
"I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction, and they amount to thousands, to overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain and America. "To...those who persisted in rebellion, he threatened with terrible vengeance... ."

Terrible vengeance fell upon Jane McCrea.

Source

Mr. Sill's Underground Railroad Records

William Sill

"This once slave [William Sill's father] but now freeman was Levin Steel--afterwards changed to Still the better to escape identity by Southern claimants and pursuers of his family. Being free he could not breathe an air tainted by slavery, nor brook the surroundings of bondage. So, severing the sacred ties of family, bidding good bye to his wife, Cidney, and the four children she had borne him--two boys and two girls--and trusting under God to a future which should be brighter for himself and loved ones than the past, he started North and located in the neighborhood of Greenwich, New Jersey."

William's mother escaped and joined her husband, but was captured and returned to slavery.  She escaped a second time, leaving the boys behind with her mother and taking the girls with her.  William, born 7 October 1821, was the youngest of 18 children.

Source

Arthur Stringer And The Gibson Girl

A search for an unrelated "Howland" in the Saginaw County, Michigan, Library's Obituary Index revealed the following entry:

Obituary Index

Index: SAGINAW DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, May 21, 1912 (9)

Name: STRINGER, ARTHUR

Spouse's Name: JOBYNA HOWLAND

Married: 00/00/1900

Death Date: 05/20/1912 [sic]*

Death Place: NIAGARA FALLS, NY

Misc: FORMER SAGINAW RESIDENT/AUTHOR

*September 14, 1950

Now who was author Arthur Stringer (1874-1950) and his wife, Jobyna Howland?  Arthur John Arbuthnott Stringer was born in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.  They were married in 1900 in New York City.

New York, Marriages, 1686-1980

groom's name: Arthur John Arbuthnott Stinger

bride's name: Jobyna Lulu Bird Howland

marriage date: 02 Oct 1900

marriage place: Manhattan, New York, New York

groom's father's name: Hugh A. Stinger

groom's mother's name: Sarah Dehuzes

bride's father's name: Job Howland

bride's mother's name: Mary Benstiry

Several photographs of Jobyna Howland (1880-1936) can be seen at the photo gallery of the NYPL's Billy Rose Theatre Collection.  She was an actress and a Gibson Girl model.  Jobyna can be seen here at YouTube.  Ms. Howland's brother, Olin, was an actor.  Jobyna Howland's father, Joby, was "the drummer boy of Shiloh," the youngest enlisted drummer boy in the Civil War at age 11.

Jobyna and Arthur Stringer were divorced.  She was single and living in California in 1930:

United States Census, 1930

event place: Los Angeles (Districts 0001-0250), Los Angeles, California

marital status: Single

birthplace: Indiana

estimated birth year: 1882

relationship to head of household: Head

father's birthplace: New York

mother's birthplace: Illinois

Household Gender Age

  Jobyna Howland F 48

Germaine Gerard F 32

Arthur was remarried and living in New Jersey:

United States Census, 1930

event place: Mountain Lakes, Morris, New Jersey

Household Gender Age

  Arthur Stringer M 55

spouse Margaret Stringer F 36

child Robert Stringer M 12

child Hugh Stringer M 11

child Arthur John Stringer M 2

Ethel Terry F 24

A picture of Arthur Stringer as well as a partial list of his books can be found here.