John Calvin Gordon & Helen King Gordon

My great grandparents, John Calvin Gordon & Helen King Gordon, were married on June 18, 1882 in Brooklyn, New York.  One of the witnesses to their marriage was Helen’s brother, Thomas F King. 

 

John & Helen had six children during their marriage between 1883 and 1902 including Charles, Walter, Lillian, Jean, Clifford and Helen, and a baby, Dorothy, who died at birth. 

John Calvin Gordon was born in 1861 in Brooklyn, the son of John C Gordon & Mary Elizabeth Snedeker Gordon.  In the 1880 Census, at 19 years of age, he was listed by occupation as a carpenter.  And before he was 30 years old, John was noted as a builder in the 1887 Brooklyn City Directory.

Below is a compilation of newspaper ads placed in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper between 1893-1900 for homes built by John Calvin Gordon.

The only photo that I have of John Calvin Gordon is a snapshot of him and Helen taken circa 1900 at a park or fair, however you really can’t see what he looks like at all.

 

Helen Teresa King Gordon was born circa 1860/1861 and we have conflicting documentation on her birth information.  Helen was the daughter of Thomas Patrick King who died during the Civil War and Margaret Smith King, an Irish immigrant who arrived in New York with her family at 15 years of age.  Early documentation shows her name as Ellen or Ella and later documents show her as Helen.  The 1880 Census even has her as Nellie, and she was working as a “saleslady” at that time.

Helen was the youngest of four children and was just a toddler when her father died in a Civil War battle [see the blog post, Lost Soldier Found in Arlington Cemetery, published on August 19, 2021].  Helen's mother struggled to provide for her young family doing ironing & washing and also cooking, not an easy life I am sure.

 

Helen Teresa King Gordon died in Washington D.C. in 1919 during a visit to the home of her daughter Lillian Gordon Lenehan.  According to the death certificate, she died of influenza and pneumonia at a time near the end of the Spanish flu epidemic. After Helen’s death, the youngest Gordon child, Helen Marie who was 17 years old, went to live with her older sister, Jean and her husband, Harry.

John Calvin Gordon later married a widow named Elizabeth Dorothy Berry McAuliffe. John died in 1945 at 84 years. 

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Key Individuals:

     John Calvin Gordon  (1860 – 1945)

     Helen Teresa King Gordon  (1861 – 1919)

- Jane Scribner McCrary

Honora Rouen Hart

One of my 2^nd great grandmothers, Honora Rouen, is someone on our family tree for which there is a lot of family lore and speculation, but I have not found any documentation to be able to verify anything prior to her marriage to Samuel Hart sometime around 1858.  She definitely is one of my brick walls.

Let’s start with her name.  Unfortunately I have found a multitude of different ways in documents that either link to her or could possibly link to her such as Honor, Honore’, Honora, Hannora, Hannah and of course, Mrs Hart.  And her maiden name is just as problematic as I have found many possible versions to include Rouén, Rouen, Rowan, Rowen, Rougen and Roughan.  Her name is noted on her son Frank’s death certificate as Hannah Roughan.  However, her daughter, Mary Ann’s death certificate records her as Honora Rouen.  For the purposes of simplification, I have chosen to refer to her as Honora Rouen. 

Census information over the years indicates that Honora was born between 1825 and 1830.  And we don’t know exactly when she died.  Not for lack of trying, I haven’t found her death certificate to help with her story.

We do know that Honora emigrated from Ireland to either the U.S. or Canada in the mid-1800’s probably as a young woman.  I have not been able to link an immigration record for her, though I have found a few possibilities in the years of 1848, 1851 & 1854.  One family story is that she arrived as a “lady in waiting for a well-to-do Irish family.”  That she arrived as a servant or nanny for a wealthy family has merit because Honora was known to be educated, well read, and fluent in French as well as English.

While we don’t have a photo or image for Samuel Hart, I do have a cased tintype image of Honora wearing a spoon bonnet and a large shawl.  This image is believed to date to the 1860’s. and had belonged to her daughter, Mary Ann.

There is no information available on any of Honora’s family members.  That probably supports the belief that she likely did not emigrate with her parents.  I have, however, speculated that she could have had a brother named Patrick simply because a Patrick Roughan lived nearby in the 1855 NY Census, next door in the 1865 NY Census, and a Patrick Roughen is listed as a boarder with the Hart family in the 1875 NY Census.

While we don’t know what part of Ireland Honora hailed from, it is said that her mother was Irish and her father was French.  This seems reasonable as we know that she was bilingual.  Also, her husband, Samuel Hart, was originally from Canada and he primarily spoke French; and Honora remained fluent in French all of her life.  Lacking specific marriage information for the couple, we don’t know if they met in Canada, or upper New York where they lived and raised their family.  It also seems probable that having French language in common might have been how they first met.

Honora and Samuel Hart had two children both born in Saratoga County, New York.  Francis (Frank) Hart was born in 1861 and Mary Ann Hart, my great grandmother, was born in 1862.

A news story in the Mechanicville Mercury newspaper on June 17, 1899 notes that in Stillwater, New York “Mrs. Hart, the aged wife of Samuel Hart, whose home across the river was recently destroyed by fire, owing to excitement, is seriously ill at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Frank Hart” [see the blog post dated July 18, 2020, “Lost Line from Canada”].

I haven’t been able to find a date or place of death for Honora Rouen Hart, however it appears to have been after mid-1899 when the news story noted above was published.  Family notes indicate that she died in August of 1900 in New York – possibly Troy where her son Frank and his family lived.  Unfortunately, multiple New York death certificate searches have not turned up a death record for her.  And I also haven’t been able to a find cemetery location or gravesite information for either her or Samuel.

A possible 1902 death certificate for a Samuel Hart indicates that he died in Troy but was buried in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer, NY.  Census data shows that Schaghticoke is where Honora & Samuel lived between 1865 and 1880.  If that is indeed our Samuel Hart, it indicates he was married  – i.e. Honora was still alive in 1902.  And we might speculate that Honora might also be buried in Schaghticoke with Samuel.  However, I have not found a burial site for either of them there.  I wish I lived in that area and could really bear down and apply some time to that possibility.

And one last tidbit about Honora:

“About Grandma [Mary Ann Hart] … I know her Mother was a Rouen and her father a Hart, who was a French Canadian.  Sounds like he was at least partly of Irish extraction with the name Hart.  A lot of the Irish came to Quebec.  Grandma’s Mother Rouen was also half Irish.  Her father left France – about the time Napoleon was recruiting, I figure, and went to Ireland.  Believe he married there.  Whether he and his wife emigrated to this country or whether it was first the daughter, I do not know.”

 – Source:  Maurice Eugene Nash [great grandson of Samuel Hart & Honora Rouen Hart] family letter; 1963.

Note:  Maurice Eugene Nash (above) indicates in his letter that he thinks that Honora Rouen’s mother was Irish and her father was French.  The only other source for the birthplace of Honora’s parents is the 1880 census that indicated that both of her parents were born in Ireland…

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Key Individuals:

Samuel J Hart  (abt 1830 – 1902?)

Honora Rouen  (abt 1830 – unknown)

       Francis/Frank Hart  (1861 – 1916)

       Mary Ann Hart Nash Watson  (1862 – 1926)     

Notes:

My mother remembered Mary Ann Hart, her grandmother, also as a great reader with a fondness for books and says that Mary Ann was raised in a home with a love of books.  One of Mary Ann’s books is titled Scott’s Poems, the Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott.  The book is inscribed in the front cover “Mary from Mame, Dec.25.98” though the cover page indicates that it was published in 1899 in New York.  Mame was Mary Nash, a sister of Mary Ann’s husband, Maurice Nash.  Another of Mary Ann’s books was The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

For more about Mary Ann Hart, the daughter of Honora & Samuel, and my great grandmother, see the blog post about my grandmother, My Granny – Nina Cecelia Nash Hughes, posted on 28 June 2021.  Nina's mother, Mary Ann Hart divorced her unfaithful first husband, Maurice Nash around 1900, and then married Joseph Edward Watson – an uncommon event at that time for a Catholic family!          

- Jane Scribner McCrary

Scribner photos that are a bit different

Since my last blog post was about family photos, I am going to continue with my usual format of telling a story about one or more of my ancestors, and share a few photos with you that I feel are fun or a bit different.  

In the past I have often bemoaned my lack of an identified photo of Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner, however I do have a generous collection of photos that belonged to Virginia and her husband, Captain David Alba Scribner.   All of the photos in today’s blog are from the collection of photos belonging to them, some coming from a family photo album that belonged to David.  As a ship’s captain in the second half of the 1800’s, David traveled widely and photography was becoming popular.   

 

This photo of a dog, clearly a family pet, was taken in Brunswick, Maine.  It was included in Captain Scribner’s photo album and doesn’t have any information written on it, front or back.  I can only assume that it was a much loved Scribner family pet.  The photo appears to have been taken in a professional photo studio and was probably done when several members of the family went to the studio for photos.  In today’s time, we would think that the dog was just out with the family and a photo of the dog might have been an afterthought.  Yet in earlier days, I doubt that the dog would have accompanied the family to a studio unless the dog photo was intended.  Conclusion, I believe that this dog was a very much loved member of Capt David A Scribner’s family!

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David A Scribner is the dapper looking gentleman leaning on the table.  This photo was taken in Hamburg probably in the early 1870’s.  Captain Scribner, on the right and wearing a top hat, appears to be a young man.  Hamburg was a significant European port, and I suspect that the two other gentlemen in the photo were friends and fellow ships’ captains visiting the city on a day in port.

__________

 

Above we see Capt David A Scribner with unidentified people at The Great Buddha of Kamakura located at the Buddhist temple of Kotoku-in, in the city of Kamakura, Japan.  I’ve gotta admit, that I had to search the internet to find the location for this photo.  The Great Buddha is a huge statue first completed in wood in the 13^th century, and later rebuilt in bronze during the 14^th century. 

I believe that this photo was possibly taken in the 1880’s.  And while Capt David is easy to spot in the center position, the others could either be friends, family or crew members.  Virginia “could” even be one of the women in the photo, though beginning in 1880, Virginia stayed in Brooklyn with the children in school so it is doubtful. 

Needless to say, no one would be allowed to climb on this beautiful national treasure in today’s time!

__________

  

Ella, Mary & Harry Scribner in front of a Scribner family Topsham, Maine home at 5 Frost Lane, circa 1890.   The original of this photo belongs to a Scribner relative, who sent me the copy because it is a group of my grandfather, Henry (Harry) Scribner and his two sisters, Ella and Mary.  The young Scribner family spent much time in Topsham, Maine when not at sea with Capt David and during summers when they later lived in Brooklyn, New York.  It’s possible that Capt David purchased the carriage on the same voyage to Japan when he also visited The Great Buddha of Kamakura.

The carriage being pulled by the miniature donkey is charming, and can now be found in the collection of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine. 

https://maritimeme.pastperfectonline.com/bysearchterm?keyword=jinriksha

The carriage, a black lacquered wood jinrikisha rickshaw, was purchased by Captain Scribner in Japan, and brought back to Topsham for the family to enjoy.

__________

 

 

Ella Virginia Scribner.  I don’t have the original of this photo, just a copy from one of my aunts; however she wrote that she believed it to be Ella Virginia Scribner.  And I have always been confused about whether this was actually Ella Scribner because the clothing seemed older than would be right for Ella’s period of time – though she does look much like Ella in other photos that I have.  Thus in 2012, I asked Maureen Taylor, a photo dating expert, for help on dating this photo.

According to Maureen Taylor, this photo is very interesting because she believes that the subject, Ella, is in a costume – possibly for a play or school program.  She feels that the photo dates to around 1900, which would have been when Ella was about 15 years old.  However, Ms Taylor notes that Ella is dressed in clothing typical of the 1820's, and she believes that young Ella’s hair is powdered to look like that of an older woman.  

Ella Virginia Scribner (1885-1935) became a school teacher, and never married.  Ella lived with her parents and sister in their brownstone home in Brooklyn for all of her adult life. 

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Key individuals:

     Capt David Alba Scribner  (1840 – 1911)

     Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner  (1848 – 1940)

          Wallace Flint Scribner  (1877 – 1882)

          Henry (Harry) Dickinson Scribner  (1880 – 1943)

          Mary Islethera Scribner  (1882 – 1959)

          Ella Virginia Scribner  (1885 – 1935)

 

- Jane Scribner McCrary

David Alba Scribner thru Time

If you spend any time working on your family history, then you will understand when I say that finding a photo of an early ancestor is like striking gold.  Prior to mid-1800’s and the advent of photography, the most likely type of an image would be a painting, and that was typically only if your ancestor was wealthy or notably famous, and not likely for most of our ancestors.

By the mid to late 1800’s however we can sometimes find a photo of a family grouping or even a wedding photo.  Each one of those becomes a gem to any family historian.

I am lucky to have multiple photos of one of my ancestors dated from the second half of the 1800’s through the early 1900’s.  David Alba Scribner enjoyed a career as a ship’s captain and we ended up with several photos of him during his lifetime.  I expect that it was a fun thing to visit a photographer when in a foreign port, and am sure that the family left behind was delighted to get a new photo.

Below are some photos of David A Scribner through time.  It is unusual to see how an ancestor aged, and especially how fashion and his facial hair changed over the years.

 

 

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Key Individual:

       David Alba Scribner  (1840 – 1911) 

Notes:

If you wish to know more about David A Scribner, there have been more than half a dozen earlier posts on this blog about David and his family and career beginning in August 2020.  

And as I have noted in an earlier blog post [July 30, 2021, Why Can’t I Find a Photo of Virginia], I find it amazing that I have so many portrait or studio photos of Capt David Scribner throughout his life, but none of his wife Virginia other than one poor snapshot that I have been able to identify as her late in her life.  Surely she would have had a portrait taken as a young wife for David to have with him on his many long voyages without her ...

- Jane Scribner McCrary

Our Connection to Nathan Hale – a Patriot

I mentioned in the end notes of the blog story Henry Hale Unsolved posted on September 21, 2020, that verbal family stories tell that “we are somehow related to Nathan Hale” the American patriot and spy who was captured and hanged by the British during the Revolutionary War.  The family’s assumption was that Nathan Hale fit somehow into the family tree of our Henry Hale, my 3^rd great grandfather.  And since I don’t know anything about the parents or siblings of Henry Hale, it was a mystery how our HALE family might connect to Nathan Hale’s family.

In my last blog post, I shared that Henry Hale (b.1773 or 1745 – d.1841) descends through the HAILE family of Baltimore, and earlier of Virginia.  I had previously checked to see how our HALE line might connect to the family of Nathan Hale, but with no luck.  So, maybe Nathan Hale, the patriot, was not related to our line through the HALE / HAILE family at all, but some other way.  Nathan Hale was from Connecticut, and he lived in New London where he worked as a teacher just prior to the beginning of the Revolution.  I decided to check and see if the connection might be through one my many family lines in New London, CT. 

Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was born in Coventry, Connecticut to parents, Deacon Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong Hale.  He had brothers, Joseph and Enoch, and a sister, Elizabeth. 

     Deacon Richard Hale (1717-1802) m. Elizabeth Strong (1728-1767)

         1) Joseph Hale (1750-1784) m. Rebecca Harris (1746- ? )

         2) Elizabeth Hale (1752-1813) m. Samuel Rose (1748-1800)

         3) Enoch Hale (1753-1837) m. Octavia Throop (1754-1839)

         4) Nathan Hale (1755-1766) never married

Nathan Hale attended college at Yale and graduated when he was 18 years of age.  He then became a school teacher first at East Haddam, CT and next he taught school in New London.  Nathan joined the Connecticut militia in 1775.   And in 1776 he moved with the Continental Army to New York to defend New York City against an anticipated British attack.  George Washington called for a spy to get behind enemy lines and report on troop movement. Hale was the only volunteer.  The British eventually discovered his identity and captured him.  He was only 21 years old when he was hanged by the British as a Colonial spy in New York City.  Nathan Hale’s last words before he was hanged were said to be “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”.

 

I found that our family connection to Nathan Hale probably comes through the HARRIS family of New London.  The HARRIS family links with our ROGERS family line through at least two marriages with everyone sharing decendency from my 8^th great grandparents, James Rogers (1615-1687) and his wife Elizabeth Rowland Rogers (~1620-1709).  Below is the connection that I found with Nathan’s family:

1)  Nathan Hale’s older brother, Joseph Hale (1750-1784) married Rebecca Harris (1746-?).  And Rebecca’s sister, Phebe Harris (1736-1803) married James Rogers (1733-1803).  The Rogers children would have all been 1^st cousins to the Hale children, and Joseph & Rebecca’s children would have also been nieces and nephews to Nathan Hale.

James Rogers (1615-1687)

    James Rogers (~1653-1714)

        James Rogers (1674-1733)

            James Rogers (1704-1754)

                James Rogers (1733-1803) m. Phebe Harris

2) Also Rebecca & Phoebe’s aunt, Grace Harris (1707-1787) was married to a different James Rogers (1701-1754), further blending the Harris and Rogers family relationships. This Rogers line also tracks back to the same early ancestor, our common immigrant James Rogers (1615-1687).

James Rogers (1615-1687)

              John Rogers (1648-1721)

                  John Rogers (1674-1753)

                      James Rogers (1701-1754) m. Grace Harris

By comparison, our Rogers family line runs like this:

James Rogers (1615-1687)

              Joseph Rogers (1646-1697)

                  John Rogers (1675-1739)

                      John Rogers (1716-1779)

                          John Rogers (1760-1796) m. Hannah Smith

[For more information on our Rogers line, see the blog post James Rogers, a very early immigrant, dated July 15, 2022.]

Finding our family connection to the patriot Nathan Hale proves that there is often at least a thread of truth in oral histories and it is sometimes not exactly what is stated or implied.  The verbal history told to me by my father that “we are somehow related to Nathan Hale” didn’t actually mean that our HALE family descended from or shared ancestors with Nathan Hale’s family, but more accurately our family was linked through marriage to Nathan Hale’s family.

A much more remote possibility is that we could also be related through our male HALE line, but it appears that if that is the case, it is probably in England prior to immigration to America and not easily traceable.  One online accounting of Nathan Hale’s family tree takes his family back to an immigrant ancestor named Henry Hale who was born about 1575 in England and died in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1659.  Whereas the HAILE genealogy for our Henry Hale [see the recent blog post titled Henry Hale Unsolved – an update] has the first immigrant ancestor as Nicholas Haile who was born in England in 1645 and died about 1670 in Virginia.  It is always possible that those two immigrant ancestors are somehow related; however I doubt that it can be proven.

As genealogists we must step back and look at our oral histories and verbal tales for clues about what has been said, what it means, and even what it doesn’t say.  It can be hard to pick oral histories apart and research the possibilities – but so very satisfying when you finally do see some truth in them!         

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Key Individuals:

My 8^th great grandparents:

James Rogers (1615 – 1687) born in England & died in New London

Elizabeth Rowland (~1620 – 1709) born in England & died in New London

 

Notes: 

Because so many branches of our early family lived in New London, CT for multiple generations, it is likely that there are plenty more times when our family line intersected with the New England family of Nathan Hale.  Noted below are two times when my research has come across other New London HARRIS family members: 

1)  Temperance Harris married David Bill (1751- ?) in 1776.  Upon their marriage they settled in Boston, MA.  This David Bill was an uncle of our Elisabeth Bill Dickinson; and a brother of Elisabeth’s father, Samuel Bill.  See my blog post dated March 1, 2023 titled The Bill Family for more on this line.

2)  Thomas Harris (dates unknown) was the sole survivor of a July 1796 voyage aboard the sloop Polly that left New London for the West Indies and the port of Hispaniola.  The ship arrived at Cape St Nicholas Mole in Haiti with sickness aboard and it was condemned.  The ship’s captain, James Deshon, died in Cape St Nicholas as did most of the crew.  Nathaniel Dickinson (my 4^th great grandfather) who was also aboard the Polly was taken ill and recovered somewhat.  Later he took passage home on another vessel with Thomas Harris who was the only other survivor of the crew of the Polly.  Nathaniel Dickinson died at sea on that return voyage, making Thomas Harris the only survivor that left New London on the sloop Polly and returned to New London.  For more on Nathaniel Dickinson, see my blog post Aboard a Prison Ship in the Revolution dated June 27, 2020.

- Jane Scribner McCrary