COLONIAL NORTHWEST FRONTIER
Two Families before and during the Revolution
--Stone and Mabee
and descendants: West, Beardsley, Cady, Hatch, Hibbard, Hunt, Hudson, and Van Rensselaer.
- Caution: copyrighted material
- Acknowledgements
- Confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson
- Stones of Litchfield CT and Lenox MA
- Mabee of Mohawk Valley, NY
- Revolution
- Migration to Northfield NY
- Family Group Sheets and Pedigree Charts
COPYRIGHT.
The following narrative is part of a a copyrighted report--"The Desendants of Oringh Stone and Elizabeth Mabee of Brighton,
New York." It was originally accepted by the Board for Certification of Genealogists in satisfation of the category "Certified Genealogist"
in 1999. It may not be reproduced and distributed by any means, including electronically, or on the WWW without permission of the author. ©
Marilou West Ficklin, 1999. All rights reserved
Return to Menu
FOOTNOTES
Numbered footnotes are located on a separate page. Go to footnote page
Confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson
The scenic and strategic confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers had been the focus of exploration and warfare for decades if not centuries. Sachems, warriors, voyagers, explorers, traders, settlers, and speculators had all claimed some right to the land.
The River People--Mohicans--struggled to live there against the powerful Six Nations. But Dutch fur traders seduced them with spirits and brought settlers who exploited them and expropriated their land. Remnants of the tribe retreated to their hunting grounds in the easterly hills, only to run into speculators swarming in from Massachusetts. In their depleted condition they sold their hunting land for 460 pounds, three barrels of cider and 30 quarts of rum.
Thus spins an invisible thread that ultimately binds the two families, the subjects of this report.
The Stones of Lenox, Massachusetts
For three generations Orringh Stone's ancestors had moved west with succeeding waves of settlement pushing the frontier into land of indigenous peoples. He probably descended from an English non-conformist preacher named Rev. Samuel Stone of Hereford-on-Wye, England. The Reverend's sons, William and John, sailed to America with the company of Rev. Henry Whitfield in 1639 to establish a plantation at Guilford, Connecticut on Long Island Sound. An Enos Stone descended from the emigrant William Stone. Said Enos Stone, born in 1709 in Guilford, married a Sarah Munson in New Haven in 1731, and has been documented by several authors.6
Orringh Stone may have descended from the above Enos of Guilford, but it has not been proven. Regional histories suggest that many Guilford families migrated to Litchfield, Connecticut about 1720. After the Peace of Utrecht the earlier Indian troubles had eased and the colonial government at Hartford approved the sale of western land in 1719. Many Guilford Stones, Orringh Stone's antecedents probably among them, joined the migration.7
Nevertheless, the ancestry of Orringh Stone cannot be documented prior to his father, another Enos Stone, born on August 5, 1744 in Litchfield.8 Orringh's father--later referred to as 'Capt. Enos Stone'--was the third child of an unidentified Enos Stone of Litchfield and his wife 'Mary' --not 'Sarah' as some authors state.9
As (Capt.) Enos Stone reached adulthood, he followed the path of pioneer-investors to the Berkshire Mountains--the former hunting grounds of the River People. Wisely, the Sachem Yokun had not exchanged all his people's land for spirits-- he had reserved some of the very choicest ground for his people and called it 'Yokuntown'. When finally he relinquished that too in 1767, settlers incorporated it and renamed it 'Lenox'.10 Enos Stone married Sarah Stoddard who gave birth to Orringh, nine months after the Lenox incorporation.11 The Stones may have settled on land near the southern limits of Lenox in the vicinity of Rattlesnake Hill.12 Although some claim that Orringh was born in Litchfield prior to the migration to Lenox,13 Orringh's birth is recorded in the records of Lenox, not Litchfield. The next Lenox record book entry for the Stones is when Enos was elected "Hog Reef" in 1772. 14
Jacobus Mabee of the Mohawk Valley, New York
Little is known of the ancestry or life of Jacobus, the father of Elizabeth (Leisje) Mabee/Mebie. Of the few remaining records, a letter to the British agent, Sir William Johnson in 1765, contains a complaint by the Mohawks that Jacobus and his brother Joseph were selling alcohol to the Indians in order to obtain grant deeds from them while intoxicated. The Mohawks demanded that the agent run the Mabees off the land--or they would go to war.15
Jacobus is probably related at least indirectly to the Mebie family of Schenectady and Rotterdam Junction. Dutch fur trading companies had sent settlers into the Mohawk Valley in the 1620s. Fifteen Dutch men purchased 28-square-miles known as the ' Schenectady Patent' from the Mohawks in 1661 and divided the land into several 'flats'. Each settler received a house lot in the village, a farm, a pasture east of the village and a garden lot.16
The early settlers of the Mohawk Valley lived in a volatile state of nearly continuous hostility with their Iroquois neighbors. Jan Pieterse Mebie of the woestyn (wilderness) came to Schenectady about 1784 and married the daughter of one the original patentees. His first house on Church Street in the village of Schenectady was burned to the ground February 16, 1689/90.17 The villagers organized a militia in 1695/96. In 1697 a Mohawk Sachem granted Jan a parcel on Schoharie Creek some ten miles to the west of Rotterdam Junction.18 Jan Mebie furnished timbers for a stockade, and his sons joined Schenectady's Second Company of foot soldiers.
Jan acquired considerable land, the most prominent being a 127-acre farm with a gabled stone house, which stood on a southerly bluff overlooking the Mohawk Rive at Rotterdam Junction.19 In 1716 he bought more land directly across the river. He died April 4, 1725.20 His will devised the stone house and farm to his son Jacob. (It stands today, an historic farm managed by the Schenectady Historical Society.) To his eldest son Pieter he devised land directly across the River and the Mohawk land on Schoharie Creek.
Some suggest that Jacobus Mabee descended from the above Jan Pieterse Mebie and lived at the stone house at Rotterdam Junction.21 This is doubtful. No "Jacobus" is found among the known descendants of Jacob who inherited the farm.22
A Reformed Dutch Church record shows that a Jacobus, born to a Jan Pieter Mabee and his wife Dorothy Pickert, was baptized in Schenectady 3 October 1731.23 However the ancestry of said Jan Pieter Mabee is a mystery.24
Jacobus married Christiena Van de Eerwaerds 5 December 1763 at Canojoharie, New York. 25 Their first three children were born between 1764 and 1768 according to the family Bible.26 Their fourth son was baptized in 1770 at Stone Arabia some forty miles west of Schenectady. Their daughter Elizabeth (Liesje) the subject of this report, was born in 1772 perhaps at the same location. After 1770 Jacobus joined a Dutch emigration which moved west along the river to German Flatts some forty miles east of Fort Stanwix.27
See picture of Mabee Farm Rotterdam Junction, New York--at the web site of the Schnectady County Historical Society,
The Revolution
Jacobus Mabee of the Mohawk Valley, New York
Little is known of the ancestry or life of Jacobus, the father of Elizabeth (Leisje) Mabee/Mebie. Of the few remaining records, a letter to the British agent, Sir William Johnson in 1765, contains a complaint by the Mohawks that Jacobus and his brother Joseph were selling alcohol to the Indians in order to obtain grant deeds from them while intoxicated. The Mohawks demanded that the agent run the Mabees off the land--or they would go to war.15
Jacobus is probably related at least indirectly to the Mebie family of Schenectady and Rotterdam Junction. Dutch fur trading companies had sent settlers into the Mohawk Valley in the 1620s. Fifteen Dutch men purchased 28-square-miles known as the 'Schenectady Patent' from the Mohawks in 1661 and divided the land into several 'flats'. Each settler received a house lot in the village, a farm, a pasture east of the village and a garden lot.16
The early settlers of the Mohawk Valley lived in a volatile state of nearly continuous hostility with their Iroquois neighbors. Jan Pieterse Mebie of the woestyn (wilderness) came to Schenectady about 1784 and married the daughter of one the original patentees. His first house on Church Street in the village of Schenectady was burned to the ground February 16, 1689/90.17 The villagers organized a militia in 1695/96. In 1697 a Mohawk Sachem granted Jan a parcel on Schoharie Creek some ten miles to the west of Rotterdam Junction.18 Jan Mebie furnished timbers for a stockade, and his sons joined Schenectady's Second Company of foot soldiers.
Jan acquired considerable land, the most prominent being a 127-acre farm with a gabled stone house, which stood on a southerly bluff overlooking the Mohawk Rive at Rotterdam Junction.19 In 1716 he bought more land directly across the river. He died April 4, 1725.20 His will devised the stone house and farm to his son Jacob. (It stands today, an historic farm managed by the Schenectady Historical Society.) To his eldest son Pieter he devised land directly across the River and the Mohawk land on Schoharie Creek.
Some suggest that Jacobus Mabee descended from the above Jan Pieterse Mebie and lived at the stone house at Rotterdam Junction.21 This is doubtful. No "Jacobus" is found among the known descendants of Jacob who inherited the farm.22
A Reformed Dutch Church record shows that a Jacobus, born to a Jan Pieter Mabee and his wife Dorothy Pickert, was baptized in Schenectady 3 October 1731.23 However the ancestry of said Jan Pieter Mabee is a mystery.24
Jacobus married Christiena Van de Eerwaerds 5 December 1763 at Canojoharie, New York. 25 Their first three children were born between 1764 and 1768 according to the family Bible.26 Their fourth son was baptized in 1770 at Stone Arabia some forty miles west of Schenectady. Their daughter Elizabeth (Liesje) the subject of this report, was born in 1772 perhaps at the same location. After 1770 Jacobus joined a Dutch emigration which moved west along the river to German Flatts some forty miles east of Fort Stanwix.27
See picture of Mabee Farm Rotterdam Junction, New York--at the web site of the Schnectady County Historical Society,
The Revolution
Berkshire County, Massachusetts had supported the patriot rebellion against England vehemently from the outset. In 1770 upon hearing the news of the Boston Massacre it had immediately raised two regiments.28 The First Continental Congress had passed resolutions enabling towns to muster troops and appoint Committees of Correspondence by September 1774. Lenox voted on October 16, 1774 to comply with the resolutions and chose Orringh Stone's father, Enos Stone, to serve on the Committee.29
On Tuesday, April 18, 1775, the Lexington Alarm turned the rebellion into Revolution. Word reached the Berkshires two days later at noon. The county mobilized its regiments. Enos Stone was assigned as sergeant under Col. John Paterson and deployed to the East on April 21 to join the Continental Army.30
In 1776, 32-year-old Enos Stone, an elected Selectman of Lenox, voted for independence from England.31 No sooner had the Declaration of Independence been signed than an epidemic of smallpox struck Lenox killing seven people. Enos's five year-old son, Daniel, died August 27, 1776.32 On September 30th Enos voted in favor of the new federal constitution and representation of the State of Massachusetts in the House of Representatives.
In January 1777 Enos Stone became Captain in the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment.33 Now also a magistrate and probate judge, he led a company of the Northern Army stationed at Fort Ticonderoga and joined the Green Mountain Boys deployed in the New Hampshire grants to cut off Burgoyne's foraging forces.34 On July 7, 1777 the Continentals faced the British at the Battle of Hubbardton. Enos wrote in his journal that the battle began at 7 am and lasted an hour and ten minutes. He further stated: "it was as hot a fire as was ever kept up. Many fel on Both sides."35 Enos was captured and taken to Quebec.36 A month later the Green Mountain Boys defeated Burgoyne at the Battle of Bennington raising the morale of the Berkshire troops. The campaign took a turn in favor of the Americans but Enos Stone remained in prison.
The Mohawk Valley was more divided. Enclaves of Loyalists allied with the Six Nations created a climate of civil war. The British implemented a strategy of diversion to divide the Patriot resources. Colonel St. Leger would beseige Fort Stanwix (renamed Schuyler) and Sir John Johnson with the aid of the Mohawks under Joseph Brant was to ambush General George Herkimer's patriots near Oriskany. Families in the western wilderness were split. Jacobus and Joseph Mabee were Whigs and served in the Tryon County Militia. A Lewis Mabee, thought to be related to Jacobus--was perhaps his brother--was a Tory serving in Butler's Rangers under Sir William Johnson.37
When the Whigs under Herkimer showed unexpected strength the Mohawks abandoned the cause. The British diversion unraveled.
Meanwhile on the Hudson, Burgoyne's arrogance continued to fire Berkshire hostility. Towns literally emptied, the number of volunteers was so high.38 Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga October 1777.
Captain Enos Stone was released from prison in December and returned by sea to New York City. Jacobus' eighth child was baptized 25 July 1779 at German Flatts. The sponsor was George Herkimer.39 It is likely that Jacobus continued to live at German Flats.
After the War the new United States government negotiated many peace-for-land treaties with the Six Nations. Little by little the Indian lands in New York disappeared and the west country was divided up and sold. The team of Oliver Phelps and Nicholas Gorham secured a massive tract of Genesee country when a jurisdictional dispute between Massachusetts and New York was resolved. They surveyed the land, divided it into ranges, townships and sections and opened a land office at Canandaigua. The system became the model for all future western land division.40
Migration to Northfield/Brighton New York
General Caleb Hyde of Lenox purchased 1500 acres of the Phelps and Gorham tract between Irondequoit Bay and Genesee River. Capt./Judge Enos Stone joined a group of Lenox investors who purchased Township 13, Range 7 of Hyde's tract, and had it surveyed into farm lots.41
In the spring of 1790, Judge Enos Stone came to the Genesee wilderness.42 His party drove oxen, cows, hogs and a few sheep past Utica to Lake Cayuga and then loaded their stock in two Durham Boats and continued by water for another treacherous four days. Satisfied at having stocked his land, Judge Stone returned to Lenox and persuaded his eldest son, Orringh, to follow his route west, take up the land and farm it.43
Orringh did so the following spring and built himself a cabin on an Indian trail next to an imposing rock--a rock he later learned was a 'council rock' of the Seneca.44
Orringh had been hard at work many months hacking out a little clearing in the dense woods--a little patch of sunshine to grow some crops and pasture his father's stock--most of which had already gone wild and escaped into the forests. He was alone in the wilderness except for an occasional visit by a Seneca or a rare visit from his brother. Once his brother brought Joseph Brant, the great Iroquois warrior chief, to his cabin.45
Then one day he saw a small party coming toward him, pulling a boat on wheels down the Indian path from the landing on Irondequoit Bay. Orringh provided shelter was his custom. His cabin being the only habitable place around, was called, optimistically, a tavern. His guests were the aforesaid Dutchman, Jacobus Mabee from the Mohawk Valley, and some investors from Vermont.46
The investors joined Jacobus Mabee in the Mohawk wilderness. He was over 60 years old. They had oared up the Mohawk River in a small barge to Wood Creek, and then crossed Oneida Lake to Mud Creek. When they had gone as far as they could on water, Jacobus put wheels on the boat. They came through the dense forest to the 'Indian landing' on Irondequoit Creek and followed the path to Orringh Stone's tavern. Jacobus settled nearby in what became "Penfield".47 Jacobus is thought to have died within a year or two.48
MORE ON THE STONES: THE DESCENDANTS OF ORINGH STONE AND ELIZABETH MABEE ARE THE SUBJECT OF A REPORT IN THE GENEALOGY SECTION OF THIS WEB SITE. SEE Stone Genealogy
Berkshire County, Massachusetts had supported the patriot rebellion against England vehemently from the outset. In 1770 upon hearing the news of the Boston Massacre it had immediately raised two regiments.28 The First Continental Congress had passed resolutions enabling towns to muster troops and appoint Committees of Correspondence by September 1774. Lenox voted on October 16, 1774 to comply with the resolutions and chose Orringh Stone's father, Enos Stone, to serve on the Committee.29
On Tuesday, April 18, 1775, the Lexington Alarm turned the rebellion into Revolution. Word reached the Berkshires two days later at noon. The county mobilized its regiments. Enos Stone was assigned as sergeant under Col. John Paterson and deployed to the East on April 21 to join the Continental Army.30
In 1776, 32-year-old Enos Stone, an elected Selectman of Lenox, voted for independence from England.31 No sooner had the Declaration of Independence been signed than an epidemic of smallpox struck Lenox killing seven people. Enos's five year-old son, Daniel, died August 27, 1776.32 On September 30th Enos voted in favor of the new federal constitution and representation of the State of Massachusetts in the House of Representatives.
In January 1777 Enos Stone became Captain in the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment.33 Now also a magistrate and probate judge, he led a company of the Northern Army stationed at Fort Ticonderoga and joined the Green Mountain Boys deployed in the New Hampshire grants to cut off Burgoyne's foraging forces.34 On July 7, 1777 the Continentals faced the British at the Battle of Hubbardton. Enos wrote in his journal that the battle began at 7 am and lasted an hour and ten minutes. He further stated: "it was as hot a fire as was ever kept up. Many fel on Both sides."35 Enos was captured and taken to Quebec.36 A month later the Green Mountain Boys defeated Burgoyne at the Battle of Bennington raising the morale of the Berkshire troops. The campaign took a turn in favor of the Americans but Enos Stone remained in prison.
The Mohawk Valley was more divided. Enclaves of Loyalists allied with the Six Nations created a climate of civil war. The British implemented a strategy of diversion to divide the Patriot resources. Colonel St. Leger would beseige Fort Stanwix (renamed Schuyler) and Sir John Johnson with the aid of the Mohawks under Joseph Brant was to ambush General George Herkimer's patriots near Oriskany. Families in the western wilderness were split. Jacobus and Joseph Mabee were Whigs and served in the Tryon County Militia. A Lewis Mabee, thought to be related to Jacobus--was perhaps his brother--was a Tory serving in Butler's Rangers under Sir William Johnson.37
When the Whigs under Herkimer showed unexpected strength the Mohawks abandoned the cause. The British diversion unraveled.
Meanwhile on the Hudson, Burgoyne's arrogance continued to fire Berkshire hostility. Towns literally emptied, the number of volunteers was so high.38 Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga October 1777.
Captain Enos Stone was released from prison in December and returned by sea to New York City. Jacobus' eighth child was baptized 25 July 1779 at German Flatts. The sponsor was George Herkimer.39 It is likely that Jacobus continued to live at German Flats.
After the War the new United States government negotiated many peace-for-land treaties with the Six Nations. Little by little the Indian lands in New York disappeared and the west country was divided up and sold. The team of Oliver Phelps and Nicholas Gorham secured a massive tract of Genesee country when a jurisdictional dispute between Massachusetts and New York was resolved. They surveyed the land, divided it into ranges, townships and sections and opened a land office at Canandaigua. The system became the model for all future western land division.40
Migration to Northfield/Brighton New York
General Caleb Hyde of Lenox purchased 1500 acres of the Phelps and Gorham tract between Irondequoit Bay and Genesee River. Capt./Judge Enos Stone joined a group of Lenox investors who purchased Township 13, Range 7 of Hyde's tract, and had it surveyed into farm lots.41
In the spring of 1790, Judge Enos Stone came to the Genesee wilderness.42 His party drove oxen, cows, hogs and a few sheep past Utica to Lake Cayuga and then loaded their stock in two Durham Boats and continued by water for another treacherous four days. Satisfied at having stocked his land, Judge Stone returned to Lenox and persuaded his eldest son, Orringh, to follow his route west, take up the land and farm it.43
Orringh did so the following spring and built himself a cabin on an Indian trail next to an imposing rock--a rock he later learned was a 'council rock' of the Seneca.44
Orringh had been hard at work many months hacking out a little clearing in the dense woods--a little patch of sunshine to grow some crops and pasture his father's stock--most of which had already gone wild and escaped into the forests. He was alone in the wilderness except for an occasional visit by a Seneca or a rare visit from his brother. Once his brother brought Joseph Brant, the great Iroquois warrior chief, to his cabin.45
Then one day he saw a small party coming toward him, pulling a boat on wheels down the Indian path from the landing on Irondequoit Bay. Orringh provided shelter was his custom. His cabin being the only habitable place around, was called, optimistically, a tavern. His guests were the aforesaid Dutchman, Jacobus Mabee from the Mohawk Valley, and some investors from Vermont.46
The investors joined Jacobus Mabee in the Mohawk wilderness. He was over 60 years old. They had oared up the Mohawk River in a small barge to Wood Creek, and then crossed Oneida Lake to Mud Creek. When they had gone as far as they could on water, Jacobus put wheels on the boat. They came through the dense forest to the 'Indian landing' on Irondequoit Creek and followed the path to Orringh Stone's tavern. Jacobus settled nearby in what became "Penfield".47 Jacobus is thought to have died within a year or two.48
MORE ON THE STONES: THE DESCENDANTS OF ORINGH STONE AND ELIZABETH MABEE ARE THE SUBJECT OF A REPORT IN THE GENEALOGY SECTION OF THIS WEB SITE. SEE Stone Genealogy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Orringh and Elizabeth Stone played a key role in creating the community of Brighton, New York, setting the stage for the emergence
of the City of Rochester, New York. Their farmhouse and grounds were purchased in 1956 by the Society for the Preservation of
Landmarks in Western New York. The Landmark Society restored it and placed it on their tour of historic Rochester homes.1
Early local histories provide colorful anecdotes about the Stone and Mabee settlers. The earliest source literature for the
Mabees consist mainly of folklore and a family Bible.2 A more detailed history of the Stones can be constructed from
a wealth of written reminiscences, public records, news articles and local histories published in the mid-1800s. Most recently the
Monroe County Historian published a valuable local history entitled Northfield on the Genesee which includes references to both the
Stones and Mabees drawing on all of the above sources. It contains many transcripts of historical civil records. Unfortunately its family
records do not provide source citations to distinguish factual genealogy from folklore.3
The Landmark Society provided the author with two unpublished documents: (1) a photocopy of an anonymous set of Bible records for the
Stone and West families4 and (2) a manuscript written by Jackson Alward after 1907 giving the ancestry of Belle Cameron Coleman,
great granddaughter of Orringh and Elizabeth.5 (The Bible records appear to be copied in one hand from other sources except for the
last entries. The Alward manuscript contains no citations for data on specific individuals.)
This report attempts to authenticate the origins of Orringh and Elizabeth Mabee Stone, to identify three generations of descendents and to
document their lives.
Full Report
The above narrative is only a part of the full report. The full report contains 48 pages as follows:
- Descendancy report for three generations with children in the fourth generation.
- Table of Contents
- Illustrations
- Complete citations for every item
- A cross-reference to citations
- Index
- Topics for further research
- West Family Bible (also available here
To obtain the full report send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with 18 U.S. first class postage stamps to cover costs to:
Transcripts, 107 Carriage Lane, Grass Valley, CA 95949
OR order through PayPal online
Inquiries welcome: CONTACT HOST