Joseph A Bond's Birthday

Joseph A Bond was born on April 29, 1857 in Lane County, Oregon Territory, two  years before Oregon became a state.

To check my research done about Joseph, see his page on my website:

http://www.joanneskelton.com/p1116.htm

Relationship

You will see that he is listed as my 1^st cousin 3 times removed. In other words, he was the grandson of my 3^rd great-grandparents, John Bond and Sarah Chastain. His father George and my 2^nd great-grandfather Solomon were brothers. However, his parents were 1^st cousins so he is also my 2^nd cousin 3 times removed as my 3^rd great-grandfather John and Joseph's grandmother Selia were siblings. It does get rather confusing.

Deaf and Dumb

You can see that Joseph was listed as deaf and dumb on the 1860 and 1870 census. I thought it was interesting that the census taker in 1870 added the comment smart to Joseph's entry. According to the history of Oregon Deaf School,

http://www.salemhistory.net/education/oregon_school_deaf.htm

there were at least 30 deaf children in Oregon in 1870, so a state school was started. Did Joseph attend this school? Are there lists of students available? His sister Sarah who was also deaf and dumb did attend this school and met her future husband. By the 1880 census, Joseph's entry has a mark in the deaf and dumb column, but not in the cannot read or cannot write columns. In 1900 when Joseph was living with his brother James, the census taker wrote “yes” on Joseph's line on the columns can read and can write. So apparently someway Joseph did learn to read and write. However the census taker wrote “no” for the column can speak English. How could Joseph speak English when he was deaf and dumb? I really don't think that's what the designers of the census had in mind with that question.

More about Dummer Jewett

On their website, www.americanancestors.org, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has an interesting article about Dummer in the Harvard section of a database called Colonial Collegians. From this article, I learned that “except for cutting a few classes, he was a model undergraduate.” After his marriage to Mary Staniford in December 1757, they moved to Ipswich and Dummer opened a store and practiced law on the side. He served in the community as a feoffee of the Ipswich Grammar School (I had to look that word up and Wikipedia informed me that “in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the Feoffees of the Grammar School have been trustees for a piece of land deeded to the town since the 1600s.

The modern equivalent of a feoffee to uses is the trustee, one who holds a legal and managerial ownership in trust for the enjoyment of the beneficiary.”) Dummer was a justice of the peace for Essex County and by 1775 he was sent to the Provincial Congress where he took an active part. Then in 1779 he was sent by the town to the Constitutional Convention. It was in 1784 that he was elcted to the board of trustees of Dummer Academy. (Another sidetrack to check the history of Dummer Academy. It is still in existence under the new name of The Governor's Academy. See http://en.wikipedia.ore/wiki/The_Governor's_Academy ) Dummer's life came to a sad end in October 1788 when the Ipswich First Church Records states: “20th. D. J. being in a melancholly desparing State of Mind leap'd out of his garret window, which was about 30 feet from the Ground..” Within a week he had died from his injuries. So far I have been unable to find any record about his burial.

John Smalley and Rachel Hemphill Wedding Day

My 2nd great-grandparents, John Wilson Smalley and Rachel Ann Hemphill, were married on the 26th of April 1856 in Adams County, Ohio.  The marriage records of 1856 were among the few marriage records of the 1850's which survived the courthouse fire of 1910. The Adams County Genealogical Society has republished these. Their marriage information shows that John and Rachel were married in Oliver Township. Both resided in and were born in Adams County and had not been previously married. John was age 23, the son of Wm and Elizabeth Smalley, and Rachel was 18, the daughter of John and Eliza Hemphill.

You can read more about my family at my website  www.joanneskelton.com.

Dummer Jewett's Birthday

I decided to begin a blog today because my genealogy program calendar showed that today was Dummer Jewett's birthday back in 1732. However as I thought about it I remembered that this was before the calendar change in 1752, so I'm not sure what date Dummer would have considered his birthday after he graduated from Harvard College in 1752.  He was the grandson of my 7th great-grandfather, Jonathan Jewett, and the son of Jedediah Jewett and his wife Elizabeth Dummer. So you can guess where his first name came from. These relationships make Dummer my 1st cousin 7 times removed.

I find Dummer interesting due to his name. Reading more about him in the Jewett Family History published in the early 1900's, I discovered that after he married Mary Staniford in 1754 he settled in the town of Ipswich where he was a lawyer and merchant. He was a representative to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1776 and 1780