Saturday, November 04, 2017

 

Wenona, Marshall, Illinois and the Abiathar Smith Robinson Family Who Lived There


Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                 
When the town was laid out in May 1855 it had nine houses and a population of 50.   The land was drained and trees were planted and the town began to grow.

By 1856, there were 1,200  people, 300  homes, 2 churches,3 schools, a hotel and a sawmill. The  town was incorporated in 1859 by a vote of 28 to 3.  The first trustees were Solomon Wise, George Brockway, John B. Newburn, F.H. Bond and Emanuel Weltz.

In 1858 an "academy" was built in the east part of Wenona, in LaSalle County.  This facility was shared by Marshall County citizens and was a  non-sectarian seminary at the high school level.  The seminary was later to include a grade school.

 In 1863, a two story school building was built in the northwest end of Wenona. A wing was added to this building in 1866.

Coal was discovered in 1865 and for many years a valuable community product. The mine employed an average of 200 men and a nearby zinc smelter employed 50 more.
                                                                             
The first mention of Abiathar Smith Robinson (Abiath) in Wenona, Illinois was on the August 11, 1870 census which said that Abiathar, a 41 year old laborer, lived there with his wife, Julia Ann (Tuller) age 35.  Both were born in Vermont.  Their son, Edgar, also born there, was 17.  The next 3 children were born in Canada and were Nellie 11, Emma 9, and John 7.  William was born in Illinois and was 1.  They lived next door to Julia Ann's brother and his family, Albert who was 27 and a brick mason.

In 1870, the Chicago and Alton Railroad was completed from Wenona to Lacon.  Wenona now had 4 grain elevators, a stockyard, a brickyard, flour mill, wagon manufacturing store, dry goods store, drug store, grocery store, hardware store, furniture store and implement store.  One of Wenona’s early showpieces was the Union Township Fair, organized in 1871, which for a decade rivaled the State Fair.

On May 18, 1870, the center block of the business district was destroyed by fire and 45 business establishments were lost.

By 1873, new brick buildings were built to take their place.  The Wenona Fire Department was organized in 1884.
                                                                         
Frank Hugh and his father, Abiathar 
On June 7, 1880,  A. Roberson, a 52 year old teamster born in Vermont was listed with his wife, Julia who was 45.  Also living with them was their 17 year old son, John, who was born in Canada,  and the other Illinois born children, William age 11, Frank age 8 (my grandfather), Minnie J age 5 and an unnamed baby (Arthur Roy)  born in May (May 30, 1880) showing the fraction of 12/30.   Julia Ann died on December 2, 1887. Much later, her children living in the area got together and bought a tall headstone for her.                                               
                                                                     
Grandfather Frank Hugh and Unknown 
Frank had spoken about trying to find records about his family as he had left home in a huff after his father and he had had a spat over Frank's horse.  He said the records were destroyed in a fire and he couldn't locate any siblings.

 In 1890, the entire south block of Wenona's business district burned. 

 It was rebuilt with brick buildings and a fire wall was placed between every 2nd building.

 The school  burned down around 1896 and a one room school, Phoenix, rose from the ashes.  The building was later expanded to a two story building.   In 1881 this building was used for seventh and eighth grades and for high school.  Another wing was added to it at that time for the lower grades.
In 1891, a three story brick building was built where the Wenona City Park shelter presently stands.  The first floor was used for the grammer school, the second floor was used for the high school and the attic provided room for the playing of basketball.  The grammar school floor consisted of four rooms, two grades sharing one room.  The high school had one large assembly room and three class rooms.                         

 By 1896, Abiathar had married a widow, Mary Jane Defenbaugh Walters.  He was 66 and she was 63.  Mary Jane had had 11 children, but only 8 were alive.

By the June 7, 1900 census, Abiathar, age 70 was only living with Mary Jane, age 67.  He was a teamster, but was listed as being born in New York with parents from there as well instead of Vermont.  Abiathar said he could read but not write, and that he owned his own house free and clear, and that it was not a farm.

When Frank Hugh Robinson, his son, had spoken of their life, he spoke about a farm and his horse who was in the pasture one Sunday where the bull had entered, and that his horse was threatened and his father wouldn't let him get his horse out because it was a Sunday.  Evidently Abiathar had given up the farm for a home in the town. 
Frank Hugh, Augusta, Ed and Millie
Frank Hugh b: 1870 on right with white hair; on left is his son, Edward Kenneth b: 1915.  Standing with crutches is Frank's wife, Augusta b: 1870  and behind her is daughter Mildred b: 1913 with me.  Ed's wife, Eleanor b: 1914 is standing by Frank.  In front are children David Goldfoot , Charlotte and Dianne Robinson.  
                                                                   
Franks's son, Kenneth Arthur Robinson
.
His last son, Arthur Roy Robinson. 
Abiathar Smith Robinson died October 7, 1904.  He has no headstone.
Mary Jane Robinson died  July 5, 1918 in Streator, LaSalle, Illinois.

                                                                               
The family from Oregon had a reunion  at Oregon's Coast and Kenneth's sister, Mildred Elizabeth  was there as the head matron. Mildred passed away October 7, 2005.




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Tuesday, October 10, 2017

 

Robinson Tree Discovers Missing GGGrandparents Through DNA Testing of Y Haplogroup Match

Nadene Goldfoot
Abiathar Smith Robinson's parents are found

Abiathar was born in 1829 in Vermont or maybe even New York but  married in 1852 in Tunbridge, Vermont to a Royalton, Vermont lady, Julia Ann Tuller.  Abiathar's father evidently was a James Robinson b: January 24, 1777 in Deerfield, Rockingham, New Hampshire.  He died in Mt. Vernon, Kennebec, Maine on March 26, 1857.  It was around then that Abiathar and Julia had moved to Canada, for 3 of their children were born there. 

Now, counting myself as the 1st generation, have gone back 10 generations to John Robinson b: 1611 and Elizabeth Pemberton of Meppershall, England.    


Abiathar's great great grandson, Ken, took a DNA test and found his Y haplogroup (male line) was R-L21 with a rare DYS of 12, not the usual 13.  He had one other match that had also tested with 67 alleles that was the same as he was.  It was another Robinson with a history of New Hampshire and Maine.  I had his tree.  The problem was that I knew we connected in our families, but how to figure who the connecting person was.  I finally used dates and took an educated guess, creating another set of parents for Abiathar from this tree.  That's all I had; a guess.  

This time while working on a Robinson-Wilson genealogy search, I accidentally connected with a supposed brother from this guess to the Maine Robinson tree.  I had the probable father already from the Maine tree without a wife, and found him and his wife on a burial reference with his wife bearing the surname of the middle name of Abiathar's supposed brother.  I had Abiathar and this supposed brother attached to the wrong father and quickly adjusted it to the information on the burial reference! It's easy to do on my software. The burial reference listed both parents and gave the birth town of each.  It coincided with the Maine-Robinson tree!   I had done it so many times before for poor Abiathar.  I had created 15 different sets of parents for him thinking each one was correct.    I hit paydirt this time.  It all matches the DNA evidence of belonging to the Maine Robinson line that leads to  John Robinson of Meppershall, England, the tree of our Robinson DNA match. 
                                                                     
ChrStart LocationEnd LocationCentimorgans (cM)SNPs
134,033,53547,454,60415.33,046
28,6748,693,55319.72,715
2121,630,925137,946,31117.93,476
 Example of a few of Ken and myself segment matches of chromosomes #1, #2 and another in #2.

The disappointing factor is that my cousin Ken and James A Robinson of the original Meppershall tree, though matching in the Y haplogroup, do not match each other in shared DNA segments.  They are too far apart to be related to each other via DNA.  My brother and I do not have a match with him, either.  That doesn't mean that another of Ken's siblings wouldn't have a match if they were tested, though, but it's improbable.  

There is one more match to us and it also happens to be an  R. A Robinson whose Y haplogroup is R-M269, the same tag we had had in the beginning of Ken's test.  He is also using the Meppershall tree.  We have some matching people from this tree.  Again, he is not a match to Ken with any chromosomal segments.  Both men, JAR and RAR, have a distance of 5, which means the common ancestor  at 12 generations ago for JAR was 90.99% sure and for RAR was 80.16% sure. Twenty-five years is usually considered a generation.  The connection thus goes back about 300 years to 1717.  
                                                                         

On is Meppershall tree, this can take me back to Captain James Robinson born in 1711 in Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire and his wife, Mary Gilman.  On the Reverend Robinson tree with Israel Robinson of Kattelville, New York, I have Abiathar being the brother of  Ebenezer Ganong Robinson, an ancestor of one of our lady matches, another DNA piece of evidence.  Around 1717, this could go back to either Peter Robinson, Sr, or his son born in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay.  You see, all roads to our early ancestors lead first to Massachusetts in this exodus from England to America.  

One problem I have is that my father was Jewish, and Robinson is also a surname used by many Jewish people.  We have a few other Robinson matches but are of the Jewish line, so this is something I have to check out first.  Which side of the family matches these Robinsons?  
                                                                       
   Two ladies who are a match to my Robinson cousin and my brother and myself do not have Robinson surnames.  They match with Robinsons from New York and Vermont only.  Their Robinson line leads to Reverend John Robinson who told the Pilgrims to board the Mayflower.  This causes me to think that the DNA- Y haplogroup clue is the wrong one.  Whoever connected to this NH-Maine line?  I must have every Robinson of New England ever born on my tree?  It's hard to think I've missed a few.

Descendants of JOHN ROBINSON, Sr.
1  [1] JOHN ROBINSON, Sr. b: February 09, 1611/12 in Meppershall, Bedfordshire, England d: September 10, 1675 in Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire
.. +Elizabeth Trickley b: 1623 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts d: December 24, 1715 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire
*2nd Wife of [1] JOHN ROBINSON, Sr.:
.. +Elizabeth PEMBERTON b: Abt. 1623 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts d: December 24, 1715 in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire

                                            Maine Winter   
                                                                                                
                                                   


 The only disappointment is that there still remains the fact of not having any paper evidence of his birth to any parents.  He had been born in December 1829.  It could have had something to do with it.  
I have been searching for years for the clinching evidence of who Abiathar Smith Robinson b: 1829 I thought in either Vermont or New York was and it turns out he was from the New Hampshire-Maine line of Robinsons!  Sometimes it turns out that an ancestor evidently never knows for sure where they had been born  Maybe it wasn't that big a deal back then. I had census information from 1870 and 1880 and they both said he was born in Vermont.  The 1900 census said he was from New York. Then he died in 1904.
                                                                         
My male cousin, son of my mother's brother had his DNA tested and his Y haplogroup has tested to 67 alleles and more to the point where it is now tagged as R-L21.  It had been called R1b1a2a1a1b4.  You can see why it was changed to something easier.  The dys of the first allele was a 12-something a little rare.  Most other R haplogroup people had a 13.  There was one man who matched my cousin but his Robinsons were from Maine.  That wasn't on any census.  As it turns out, they were from New Hampshire before they went into Maine.  I thought from other possible lines of Robinsons that we had been in New Hampshire as well.  This was New England and New England was full of Robinsons.  This genealogy is like trying to find the needle dropped in the haystack.  Everyone was a Robinson!  It was Reverend John Robinson who sent the Pilgrims on the Mayflower to America!  He never made it himself but his son, Isaac came over and fathered a whole flock of Robinsons.
                                                                     
Because of this one man that we have connected to through Family Tree's Y haplogroup test, I had procured his genealogy tree, and tried blindly to connect Abiathar to it without any knowledge.  Since then I undid this with ease, using my Old Family Tree Maker software program one now downloads.  I had to have my son put it in my computer for me years ago.

1  Samuel Sherbourne Robinson b: January 15, 1810 in Mt. Vernon, Kennebec, Maine d: October 21, 1892 in Mt. Vernon, Kennebec, Maine

1  [1] James ROBINSON b: January 24, 1777 in Deerfield, Rockingham, New Hampshire d: March 26, 1857 in Mt Vernon, Kennebec, Maine
.. +Phebe Sherbourne b: Abt. 1777 in Wakefield, New Hampshire d: in prob. Mt Vernon, Kennebec, Maine
                                                       
 I found a death certificate from Maine for Samuel Sherbourne Robinson and on it listed his parents.  Oddly, I had been playing around with possible parents and had connected Abiathar as a brother to this man by utter chance.  I saw that Abiathar was now this man's brother by the way I had fooled around, experimenting and realized I was holding his death certificate, so I undid the wrong parents I had him connected to and put in James Robinson, the name on the certificate.  Then I looked in my vast name bank and had about 100 James Robinsons and guessed at the age by the other name I had had erroneously as his father, and anyway, found a man without a wife but from the right town in New Hampshire!  It was Deerfield, Rockingham, New Hampshire.  I was able to type in the mother's name.  It was Phebe Sherbourne.  Good grief!  I had the death location for her on the certificate and it fit.  I looked at the five children on the list and the brother I had been working on who had died with the death certificate was Samuel Sherbourne Robinson.  It all fit.  She was from Wakefeld, New Hampshire.  Her husband was already in my computer.

As I look at my evidence in the light of the next 5am morning, I am depending on Abiathar's present sibling, Samuel Sherbourne Robinson, to be an actual sibling.  It's a most logical connection, unverified still.  Yet we do have this matching DNA on the Y haplogroup that is a rare match and the tree.  I still wonder why Abiathar didn't go into Maine or even New Hampshire, and why he went into Canada in those 10 some years in the 60's.  Was he ostracized from the family?  Did they have a bru-ha-ha like Abiathar had with my grandfather, Frank Hugh Robinson?  Did they just lose touch with each other?  Questions still remain.  How do fathers get separated from their sons?  

As it turns out, our Robinsons are not one of Reverend John Robinson who sent the Pilgrims from Holland onto the Mayflower. In this case, their DNA's Y haplogroup is unknown, though an R.   Now, my next challenge will be to connect my three female dna matches that I have found through 23&;Me, Family Tree DNA and GedMatch.com.  Maybe it will now be easier. I'll be checking out the Meppershall Tree.   Whatever, with Abiathar's oral history of his ancestor coming to America not on the Mayflower but the next ship, we know we originated in Massachusetts, and wandered through Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and now can add Maine to our New England Robinson family.  Like grandfather Frank had said, he was A BLUE BLOODED YANKEE!

Notable people from this part of Maine are:

The First Town-Meeting. - The first legal meeting was held at the house of Samuel Leavitt on Thursday, the 30th day of January, 1766; Wadleigh Cram was chosen moderator; Thomas Simpson, Esq., parish clerk; Samuel Leavitt, John Robinson, Eliphalet Griffin, selectmen; Benjamin Batchelder, constable; John Gile, Jacob Longfellow, Daniel Ladd, Obediah Marston, and Nathaniel Maloon, surveyors of highways; Jonathan Glidden and Samuel Tilton, assessors; Abram True and Jeremiah Eastman, auditors; Jedediah Prescott, Jeremiah Eastman, Samuel Tilton, Benjamin Folsom, Thomas Burleigh, Capt. Samuel Leavitt, Thomas Simpson were chosen "a Committee to look out for a Suitable Place to Sett a meeting-house upon and a Return att the next anual Meeting from under the major part of their hands and the Same to be received or Rejected by the Parish as they Shall think proper."

It would help to have several or more claimants of belonging to Reverend John Robinson's line to have the same Y haplogroup as my male cousin.  Otherwise, my connecting to people of the same haplogroup looks like the better choice.  Y haplogroup has very small mutations over a period of time.  It's a way of telling who is on the same branch.  Genealogy is showing one thing, yet science is showing another with science's DNA evidence in both.  This is one big conundrum for me!

Post Script:
Another look at Peter Robinson on the Reverend John Robinson tree showed an amazing fact!  Peter Robinson, son of Peter Robinson, Sr. was born October 25, 1717 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts in 1717 but died in Londonderry, Rockingham, New Hampshire!
                                                               

That's where my searching on this line stopped.  I think I've found the connection to both trees, if that's possible.  Oh my.  Maybe it has helped to write all this out.  Halleluhah! I need to find more Robinsons now.  

Peter Robinson's brother, already on the tree, is Ebenezer Robinson, Major in the Revolutionary war who had moved from Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts to Roxbury, Delaware, New York.  He is the father of Daniel Robinson, Reverend b: 1771 in Carmel, Putnam, New York who died in Kattellville, Broome, Schoharie, New York in 1866.  He was the father of Israel Robinson b: 1800 in Roxbury and died in Kattellville in 1867 who was the father of Ebenezer Ganong and most likely, ABIATHAR SMITH ROBINSON (1829). 

Peter Robinson 1695-1785 and wife Elizabeth Sabin's 2 sons fathered the 2 different branches. He was born in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts and died in Barnstable, Massachusetts.
Major Ebenezer was born in 1735 in Rehoboth and he died in Roxbury, Delaware, New York.  His wife was Anna Stone.

John was born in 1742 in Rehoboth and he died in Otsego, New York.  His wife was Phoebe Clapp.  It was his son, Jacob H Robinson born in 1790 in Vermont and died in Bakersfield, Franklin, Vermont that leads to a chromosomal match.  

Thus we have the connection between the two trees.  Rockingham, New Hampshire shows up in both trees.  This is it.  Who Abiathar's parents are doesn't really matter.  He must be on both lines.  DNA has proved that through the Y haplogroup of being R-L21 and also by finding actual chromosome matches of segments from people connected to the John Robinson-Pilgrim line.  Whew!  Think I'll keep him on the latter line with Ebenezer Ganong as a brother and Israel Robinson as his father. My Jewish bloodline and being a defender of Israel draws me with a smile to this ggggrandfather of mine.  My father, Maurice Goldfoot, was a buyer of cattle.  He would smile thinking that Israel lived in Kattellville.   

Resource: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mecreadf/mtvernon.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Sherburne
https://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Sherburne-22/890
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1877095
http://history.rays-place.com/nh/deerfield-nh.htm

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Sunday, April 16, 2017

 

Civil War Era and Where Was Abiathar Smith Robinson? Found in Wenona, Marshall, Illinois

                                                                       
Nadene Goldfoot                                          
GGrandfather Abiathar Smith Robinson with son Frank Hugh Robinson.
Frank is sitting on a haystack.  
Greatgrandfather Abiathar Smith Robinson b: December 1829 was found on the August 11, 1870 census in Wenona, Marshall, Illinois at age 41.  I note that an A. Robinson was on theWenona  1850 census in 1850 at age 23 living with the A. Hankinson family.  Was it he?    Was he there, possibly a wandering about teen exploring life before "returning" to Tunbridge to marry at age 23 in February 1852?  No, he was 23 in 1852 when he married Julia.  He was not on any census with even his 1st name of Abiathar.  I might add that usually the middle name reflects the surname of his mother.

To be a man of 23 in 1852 was to be an American under  our 13th president, Millard Fillmore of New York, a Whig.
We know that Abiathar lived in Tunbridge, Orange, Vermont in 1852 when he married Julia Ann Tuller February 29th there.  She was from Royalton Windsor, Vermont next door about 5 miles away. She was on the 1850 census at age 15 in Royalton living with her Tuller family.  Not Abiathar.  I couldn't find him listed.
                                                                     
Then, we have the Civil War starting on April 12, 1861 and lasting until May 9, 1865.  During this time, they seemed to disappear into Canada.  No record is found in the lower 48 of Abiathar and Julia Ann during the 1860s.
                                                                       
A grand home in little Wenona, Marshall, Illinois.  
"Wenona was established as a shipping point for the Illinois Central Railroad.  Before the railroad was built in 1852, the area was uninhabited.  The first house was a shack for the track men on the Illinois Central Railroad that was put on on the site in 1852 along the eastern edge of the township.
In 1853, after the railroad was completed to LaSalle, the passenger station and freight house were built on the site. The home of G.W. Goodell, the station agent and first postmaster was also built in 1853. The post office was also established the same year.  In June of 1854, the first church in the future Wenona, the Presbyterian church was organized.  The winter of 1854, William Brown opend the first store.
Wenona was laid off on the 15th of May 1855, by the Illinois Central Railroad company, on one of the altenate sections granted by congress for the construction of the road.  The site was on low, wet ground. When the town was laid out in May 1855 it had nine houses and a population of 50.   The land was drained and trees were planted and the town began to grow.
By 1856, there were twelve hundred people, three hundred homes, two churches, three schools, a hotel and a sawmill.

   The town was incorporated in 1859 by a vote of 28 to 3.  The first trustees were Solomon Wise, George Brockway, John B. Newburn, F.H. Bond and Emanuel Weltz.
Coal was discovered in 1865 and for many years a valuable community product. The mine employed an average of 200 men and a nearby zinc smelter employed 50 more.
In 1870, the Chicago and Alton Railroad was completed from Wenona to Lacon.  Wenona now had four grain elevators, a stockyard, a brickyard, flour mill, wagon manufacturing store, drygoods store, drug store, grocery store, hardware store, furniture store and implement store.  One of Wenona’s early showpieces was the Union Township Fair, organized in 1871, which for a decade rivaled the State Fair.            
                                                                   
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, was born in Royalton, Windsor, Vermont on December 23, 1805. Abiathar Smith Robinson was religious, but I believe his descendants have been Methodists.  I will say he was a severe follower, as nothing was allowed to be done on the Sabbath, causing my grandfather to leave home.  Was this the man he was named for as a middle name?  I don't think so as Smith was as common as Robinson.  It should be on his mother's side of the family.

 In Vermont, Westward migration continued in the 1850s.   The economy soared during the Civil War with people working in factories and farm girls working in the mills.  Women's suffrage grew during the Civil War.  Dairies were replacing sheep farming.  The first butter creamery was established in 1871.  The railroad had been expanding Vermont.  Woolens, munitions, machine tools and mining industry expanded with growing knowledge in the industrial revolution.
                                                                               
When my brother and I met our 2nd cousin in Wenona about 8 years ago in 2009, we found one restaurant open on a Sunday and it had the best food I had had, more like home-made.  We had hamburgers and soup.
                                                                             
Abiathar's great grandsons, one from son Frank Hugh on the left, and one
from Arthur Roy on the right.  Tom showed us around as we drove from Wisconsin.  
 We had been walking through the cemetery viewing Abiathar and Julia's sites plus any others that might be related.                                                
                                               Wenona's cemetery was the prettiest spot I've ever seen.  They
                                                        had a lovely view up there.
Frank Hugh Robinson, our grandfather, born in Wenona
on June 21, 1870 as the 8th child with unknown, possibly his younger brother, Arthur Roy,
number 10 and the last.  they were 9 years apart.   With that mustache, he looks like he's in his 20s at least. 
On May 18, 1870, the center block of the business district was destroyed by fire and 45 business establishments were lost. By 1873, new brick buildings were built to take their place.  The Wenona Fire Department was organized in 1884.  In 1890, the entire south block of Wenona's business district burned.  It was rebuilt with brick buildings and a fire wall was placed between every 2nd building."
                                                                   
Wenona's men liked to hunt. This was near the Canadian border in the 1880s.
Seated left to right:  Bayard Washington Wright, Mr Clark?, unknown, Edwin Wright

Great grandmother Julia Ann Robinson nee Tuller was born December 18,  1834.  Her 1st child, Edward Rix, was born in about November 1852 when she was 18.  Her 10th child was born May 1879, and then she died in 1887 when Arthur was only 8 years old.  Frank was 17.  He had run away from home at about age 16 or a little younger over an argument with his father over moving his horse out of a field where the bull had entered.  It was the Sabbath and his father wouldn't let him do it.  You see, teens had their problems in those days, too.  We're always butting heads with our elders.  
Resource: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/marshall/Township/EvansTwp.html#Wenona
https://vermonthistory.org/images/stories/articles/timelineera5.pdf

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