Vacationing At Avon Springs

Cyrus and Nettie McCormick's vacation:

"The next summer included a stay at Avon Springs, New York, known to both, since there in his bachelor days...

Avon Twp., Livingston County, New York - LOC Map

...Mr. McCormick had drunk the waters and Nettie Fowler had more than once visited this town while she was in school at near-by Lima. Both had at least slight sentimental associations with the place." [Source]

A Cousin's View Of E.B. Ward

Source

The scathing description of E.B. Ward in The Autobiography of David Ward:

"After Uncle Samuel's death, his willed estate, in addition to a considerable property possessed before by Eber B. Ward, mostly given him by Uncle Samuel before his death, constituted Eber B. Ward comparatively a very wealthy man at about 1855, considering the poverty of the then new West. Thus, at about 44 years of age, it came to pass, though he was largely so before that age, that E. B. Ward became an overbearing, egotistic, vainglorious, dishonest, tyrannical, vindictive, aggressive, energetic, selfish man, largely devoid of conscience. "...[he]...soon spread out his then comparatively vast fortune in some legitimate investments, but mostly in illegitimate, dishonest schemes in view of showing his financial ability, power and consequence."

Story Of My Life And Work

Story of my Life and Work....George Frederick Wright

Grandfather Enoch Wright

"Another political bit of wisdom illustrates how mistaken political shibboleths are wont to be. I do not know how I should remember it since I was so young when it was made, but I do remember that one of my uncles berated Lewis Cass in my presence for asking for appropriations to improve St. Clair Flats. The contempt that he threw into the words St. Clair Flats was most impressive. When now I pass Detroit and go through St. Clair Flats and note that the tonnage passing through the canal which Cass with such forethought promoted, is many times that passing through the Suez Canal, this mistaken political shibboleth always comes to mind."

John Brown's Grave

An excerpt from the Autobiography of David Ward:

Veteran Of Point Pleasant Battle Marched To The Aid Of General Washington

One of the first companies that marched to the aid of Washington when he was at Cambridge in 1775 was that of Captain Michael Cresap, which was raised partly in Maryland and partly in the western part of Virginia. ...his company may be taken as a fair sample of what the riflemen of the frontiers of our country were, and of what they could do. We will therefore give the words of an eyewitness of their performances. This account is taken from the Pennsylvania Journal of August 23rd, 1775.

Battle In Lord Dunmore's War

"On Friday evening last arrived at Lancaster, Pa., on their way to the American camp, Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, consisting of one hundred and thirty active, brave young fellows, many of whom have been in the late expedition under Lord Dunmore against the Indians. They bear in their bodies visible marks of their prowess, and show scars and wounds which would do honour to Homer's Iliad.

"At night a great fire was kindled around a pole planted in the Court House Square, where the company with the Captain at their head, all naked to the waist and painted like savages (except the Captain, who was in an Indian shirt), indulged a vast concourse of people with a perfect exhibition of a war-dance and all the manoeuvres of Indians; holding council, going to war; circumventing their enemies by defiles; ambuscades; attacking; scalping, etc. It is said by those who are judges that no representation could possibly come nearer the original. The Captain's expertness and agility, in particular, in these experiments, astonished every beholder. This morning they will set out on their march for Cambridge." [Source]

Journal Of Major John Hawks

Source

Wikitree entry for John Hawks here.

Fort Levis

Source

Fort Levis (Fort William Augustus)

1768 Map With Fort Levy Now F. William Augustus (LOC)

Mr. And Mrs. General Scott At Batavia

Source

General Winfield Scott's entry at Wikitree

Queenstown And The Falls

"Queenstown is the key to the trade of the Western Lakes...".

Source

Circa 1812 Map (Queenstown In The Middle) (LOC)

Works In The Northern Army For 1776

Source

Memorandum from Jeduthan Baldwin, Engineer of the Northern Army, whose diary description is online:

"Apparently one of Baldwin's last major constructions was an attempt to build a bridge across the narrow water passage between Ticonderoga and what he first called Independency (later Independence) Point. He seems to have designed it and supervised it for some time. Construction began on March 1, 1777. By the time he left Ticonderoga in early July, construction was still under way, and the Americans were in retreat again, so the bridge probably was never finished...  ."

Source

My ancestor, John Backus was At Mount Independence:

John Backus's Revolutionary War Pension:

...Ticonderoga has been then but a short time when he was placed in a redout a short distance from the main fort as an artillerist together with others of the same regiment.

During the winter there was much work done in making something like a bridge across a marsh or a part of the lake from the fort to the foot of mount independence... . 

Monday, September 6th, Sullivan's Expedition

Source

The Old Holland Land Office

"The Holland Purchase Historical Society, of which Mrs. Dean Richmond is President...".

Winning His Way to West Point

Winning His Way to West Point,  By Paul Bernard Malone:

McMillan Genealogy

 "McMillan genealogy and] history; a record of the descendants of John McMillan and Mary Arnott, his wife, who were born and married in Scotland, removed to the north of Ireland and thence to Washington County, New York, about the middle of the eighteenth century":

See John McMillan (1)'s profile at Wikitree.

Jane McCrea's Story

Was Jane related to my McCrea cousins?  So far there is no known relationship between James Bigham McCrea (the cousins' father) and Jane McCrea, according to Wikitree.

Source

*Fitch's History of Washington County [New York] (and area of Jane McCrea's murder)

Maria Smith Wait And Letters From Van Dieman's Land

"The book from which the most of this story is derived is a rather rare one. "Letters from Van Dieman's Land...".

A Wife's Devotion (transcript):

"The story of the heroic exertions of Maria Wait during four years, first to save the life of her husband and next to obtain a full pardon or some amelioration of his sufferings when a prisoner in Van Dieman's Land ( Australia)...".

The story of Maria Smith Wait, who saved her husband from a traitor's death (from an earlier blog post): "Unfortunately, Benjamin had participated in the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion and in August of 1838 he was sentenced to hang."

Famous Canadian Women website:

The final execution was stopped with only one half hour to spare!! Benjamin was sent to Tasmania, Van Diemen’s Land for life.

Benjamin escaped from prison in 1841 and two years later the family was reunited in New York State across the boarder from Canada. Marie died a short time later giving birth to twins. [Benjamin remarried and died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the age of 82.]

Maria was an heir of Robert Randall, who also had an interesting life (see Robert Randall's heirs):

Frederick Smith, of Willoughby, aforesaid, farmer, and his children, Thaddeus, Maria, Frederick and William, Edwin and George, 3/10 of the whole.... .  

Robert Randall's documents for probate and his influence on William Lyon McKenzie can be seen here.

Dutchess County Divided Into Seven Precints

The History of Dutchess County, New York...:

Backus's In The Genung--Ganong--Ganung Genealogy

Source

John Taylor, son of Thomas Taylor and Nancy Ganong, married Adelaide Backus.

Source

Other Backus's mentioned here.

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."

Corporal 'Lige's Recruit...

...A Story of Crown Point and Ticonderoga,  By James Otis (Juvenile Fiction):

Source

A reference to Ticonderoga was found in an ancestor's (John Backus) Revolutionary War pension papers here.  In a supporting affidavit for his father's pension application, John Backus's son stated that he "Often heard him say on his return that he was at Ticonderoga under Gen'l Wayne in Captain Douglas Company."