He Had Everything; He Lost Everything

Left: Painting of the "Angel Gabriel" during the storm. Right: Path of the hurricane (from source 2)

 When our forefathers came to America, whether it was in the earliest time of settlement or a later time, it meant starting over – many times with just the clothes on one’s back. This is what happened to my husband’s 11th great-grandfather – John Francis Cogswell (1592-1669).

John Cogswell inherited a large estate from his father, Edward Cogswell (1554-1615). Edward Cogswell was an owner of a woolen manufacturing business that made wool cloth and woolen clothes; he was also a landowner in England.

In 1635, prior to emigrating to the New England Colonies, John disposed of his inherited estate. However, he did take with him cattle, farming implements, furniture, housekeeping utensils, and money (sterling coin) – everything was valued at about £5,000. It is hard to convert Colonial currency from that far back; but, a good estimate of that £5,000, in today’s dollars, would be $945,000. John Francis Cogswell was coming to Colonial New England with a fortune. 1  

John, his wife, Elizabeth Thompson (1594-1676), eight of their nine children, and several servants sailed from Bristol, England, on May 23, 1635, on the Angel Gabriel. The Angel Gabriel was a 240-ton ship. It had originally been Sir Walter Raleigh’s ship, the Starre, on his last trip to America in 1617. It was described as being “stout and built for combat armed with 16 guns.” The Cogswells were the primary passengers on the Angel Gabriel.  2

Painting of the "Angel Gabriel" - Google Images

Despite the ship being “stout,” it ran into the path of one of the most intense hurricanes in the history of New England off the coast of Maine:  Today it is referred to as “The Great Hurricane of 1635.” The Cogswells, along with others on the ship, were able to make it to shore near Pemaquid, Maine, along with some of the wreckage. Though they were able to salvage some furniture, a Turkish rug, embroidered damask curtains, table linens, and silver plate, much of their belongings had been lost. However, they were about 149 land miles from their original destination of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Google Image

John and his family eventually made it to Ipswich. John started with everything in England, lost almost everything due to the hurricane, but ended up as a very “well-to-do land” owner in New England. Upon arriving in Ipswich, John Cogswell – by virtue of his reputation, social standing, and relative wealth – was recognized as a valuable asset to the colony and was granted over 300 acres of land and became a leading citizen of the town.

Upon John’s death, the inventory of value of his estate was revealed to be only £115. This £115 represents only 2.3 percent of the wealth that he originally departed with from England. So, in a sense, he was not certainly well-to-do. However, keep in mind, that most estates at this time consisted of acreage, log houses, and furnishings that certainly did not match those left behind in England. But, there are other types of wealth, and it would seem the John Francis Cogswell found those in the new land named Massachusetts.

Painting of the "Angel Gabriel" - Google Image

1 – “North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000.” Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. www.ancestry.com. Cogswell Family.

2 – Harris, Gordon. “The Great Colonial Hurricane and the Wreck of the Angel Gabriel, August 25, 1635.” Historic Ipswich, 2014, historicipswich.org/2014/08/27/the-great-colonial-hurricane-and-the-wreck-of-the-angel-gabriel-august-25-1635/.

The First White Settlers in Tennessee

It is not often we have an ancestor who has been thoroughly and historically documented. I am fortunate to have 6^th great-grandparents (and their immediate descendants) – William Bean (1721-1782) and Lydia Russell Bean (1726-1788) – whose frontier life in Tennessee has been thoroughly examined.

William and Lydia are known as the first permanent European-American settlers in what is today Tennessee.  William was of Scottish descent, and Lydia was of English descent. They were both born in Virginia, a crown colony, and married in 1741.

Daniel Boone was no stranger to the Bean Family, having hunted before with members of William Bean’s family. Both were frontiersmen and longhunters.

Longhunter - Google image

William Bean was a known associate of Daniel Boone and a fellow longhunter. A longhunter was an 18th-century explorer and hunter who made expeditions into the American frontier wilderness for as much as six months at a time, collecting animal skins and drying meat to sell in the colonies. Most “long hunts” started near Chilhowie, Virginia (found in the southwest corner of the state). The hunters were, for the most part, land owners. They would be gone for as much as six months at a time, usually over winter. The information gathered by the longhunters were critical in the early settlement of Tennessee and Kentucky.  Many times, the long- hunters would be employed by land surveyors and to guide settlers into the new lands. [1]

Grainger County Tennessee Historic Society

The picture to the right shows two hunters standing together looking over a valley below Clinch Mountain. The men depicted are supposed to be William Bean and Daniel Boone. The hunters were looking for fresh water and a place to camp for the night. Both men liked the valley because of its wildlife, fertile soil, and tall timber. 

In 1769, William built a cabin close to the junction of Boone's Creek and the Watauga River, near what is today Johnson City, Tennessee. Bean had visited the site with Boone when they were exploring as agents for Richard Henderson, a land speculator who later played an important role in the early settlement of Tennessee. [2] Later that year, Russell Bean, the first child of permanent European-American settlers was born in Tennessee, was born there. [3] The location of the Bean cabin became important in the development of the area. Major roads (highways 25E and 11W) came through the location that became known as Bean Station.

Google image

William was considered one of the best gun makers of his time. His sons inherited his talent. Together they founded a dynasty of gunsmiths, horseshoes, wedding rings, well pumps, and many other items that were all done in the Bean’s blacksmith shop in Bean Station.

As we can imagine, frontier life was not easy – it was dangerous. One of William’s daughters, Judy Bean, was killed by Cherokee Indians; and his wife, Lydia, was captured by Indians. She was later released. However, those are stories for another time.

Today's view from the top of Clinch Mountain - Google Image

[The Bean family is my biological family.]

[1] - Hamilton, Emory L. Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia 5: The Long Hunters. Historical Society of Southwest Virginia, 1970.

[2] Grady, J.A. William Bean, Pioneer of Tennessee, and Hist Descendants. Grady, 1973. 

[3] William Bean's Cabin - 1A5 | Tennessee Historical sign. www.waymarking.com. Retrieved 28 November 2017.

The Bow Tie Lives!

When was the last time you saw someone wearing a bow tie? I do watch the reality TV series 48 Hours, and one of the featured detectives wears a bow tie. He always stands out from the rest of the detectives because of his elegant sartorial difference. However, this is not why I’ve been thinking about bow ties: It was a very recent family picture that made me wonder about the bow tie and who in the family might have worn them. Now, I use the term “family” loosely, as I also include in-laws as part of the group. I decided to look at photographs I have accumulated to see if I could find men wearing bow ties. But first, some information on bow ties.

There is more than one spelling for bow tie. The site “Bow Ties 101: An Introduction to Bow Ties” spells the term with two words. However, the site “Bowtie Origin and History” spells the term as one word. Whether you spell it as one word or two, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a bow tie as “a short necktie tied in a bowknot.”

So, how did the bow tie come to be? According to the site “Bowtie Origin and History,” the bow tie developed in the 1600s during the Prussian wars (the Prussians fighting the Swedes and Turks for territory). The Croat mercenaries needed to keep their shirts closed, so they used a scarf tied around their necks. The French upper class adopted this “fashion statement” calling it a “cravat” – the French term for “Croat.” From this humble beginning in the 1600s, we now have the necktie and the bow tie.

Now that I had some background on the bow tie, I started going through family photos to see if I could find any men wearing bow ties. I found more pictures than anticipated; however, more often than not, the men were wearing neckties. I had to wean the list to make it manageable. It was hard to pick, but I finally chose six men: two each from my husband’s family (Jim Oliver), two from my daughter-in-law’s family (Melissa Murphy Oliver), and two from my family. Plus, there is one extra-special surprise at the end of this blog:  It is the photo that inspired these musings.

JIM'S BOW TIE WEARING ANCESTORS

Richard Lee Taylor (Jim’s 4th cousin 6 times removed) 1744-1829. Taylor was born in Virginia and died in Kentucky. In 1769 he explored the Ohio River and Mississippi River from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. During the American Revolution he fought in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth:  He was a lieutenant-colonel. Additionally, he was the father of Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, and the father of Joseph Pannell Taylor, a general in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Francis Dale Knippling (Jim’s uncle by marriage) 1916-2011. Knippling was born in Iowa and died in Texas. He attended Michigan State University and graduated as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1950. In addition to being a practicing veterinarian, Francis worked at Merck Pharmaceuticals in their research laboratories, as a USDA meat inspector, as a professor at the Tuskegee Institute, and as a quarantine inspector in Hawaii.

MELISSA'S BOW TIE WEARING ANCESTORS

Walter Perry Weyand (Melissa’s 3rd great-grandfather) 1853-1931. Weyand was born and died in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. According to the 1880 U.S. census, Walter started out his working life as a cooper in Somerset County. A cooper is an individual who makes and/or repairs wooden casks, tubs, and barrels. By 1900, per the U.S. census, Walter had settled on farming in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and continued in that profession through the 1920s.

James Bernard Murphey (Melissa’s great-grandfather) 1882-1927. Murphey was born in Maryland and died in West Virginia. James enlisted with the U.S. Army on October 7, 1904, for a three-year stint; and, in the process, the Army change the spelling of James’ last name to Murphy. He was stationed at Fort Douglas, Utah, which had been built to protect the overland mail route and telegraph lines. In 1906 he was transferred to Fort Riley, Kansas. He was discharged from the Army, at Fort Riley, on May 23, 1906. James returned home and became a coal miner. Coal mining was, and still is, a dangerous profession. James died in a coal mine explosion at Federal Mine 3 in Everettville, Monongalia County, West Virginia.

LINDA'S BOW TIE WEARING ANCESTORS

Herman Jacob Newhouse (Linda’s 2nd granduncle) 1843-1919. Newhouse was born in Holland and died in Idaho. Herman arrived in the United States with his parents in 1844. He enlisted February 1864 in the U.S. Army, Co. H, 8th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment. On May 15, 1864, the regiment made a trip across the plains after the Sioux Indians. In the fall of 1864, the regiment came back to St. Paul, Minnesota, and was ordered to go south to join Sherman’s Army. On July 11, 1865, the regiment was discharged at Charlotte, North Carolina, and came home to St. Paul. Newhouse then mustered out and headed for home in Pine Island, Minnesota. Before and after the war, Herman was a farmer.

Frank George Newhouse (Linda’s father) 1906-1972.  Frank was born in Goodhue County, Minnesota, and died in Olmsted County, Minnesota. Newhouse was an attorney and examiner of real estate titles. He was also a “Special State Attorney” for the State of Minnesota (1939-1940), a municipal judge (1945-1951), and a county attorney (1951-1954). He was also in the U.S. Army from 1942-1944. Despite neckties being the fashion of the day, Frank always wore neckties; and, they were always some shade of red or a red pattern.

And now, the reason for the title of this blog “The Bow Tie Lives!”: Tyler Gabriel Oliver.

Tyler is the son of Patrick and Melissa Murphy Oliver. He is Jim’s and my grandson. He loves bow ties!