ALMANAC! January 16, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Saturday January 16, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Ruben Weed buys a 1768 Almanack

250 years ago today only two persons visited the Colden Store. Maybe this was one of those blizzardy January days where it was better to stay at home. On average January 18th is the coldest day of the year in this area of New York. 1768 was a cold winter in America according to diaries of the time, but short and with less than normal snowfall.

This article is the second installment of a daily accounting of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

Adam Vispart (166-03) and Ruben Weed (166-04) purchased a few common items 250 years ago today: Linen, Cotton, Rum, and Pins. However, a couple of Weed's purchases are a bit more mysterious.

Weed purchased 3 pairs of heels. What these actually are and what they were used for will be in a future blog (if I figure it out.)

He also purchased an Almanack. There had only been about six purchases of Almanacks in the prior months by other patrons, so it appears to be somewhat of a luxury item. The literacy rate in this area is unknown, but  it contained many well-educated citizens and a Boys Academy (founded by Colden). Store items which indicate some literacy include the sale of Bibles and about 30 quires of paper (24 sheets in a quire) in the prior four months. On the other hand, despite the word "Almanack" printed in large letters on the item in question, the clerks consistently failed to spell it correctly. Or perhaps they were just following their habit of dropping vowels if they appeared late in a word...."Almanck."

At this date there were several Almanacks available in New York. These annual publications had been popularized by Benjamin Franklin who published his first "Poor Richard's" in 1732. New York City published at least four Almanacks targeted at New Yorkers: Poor Roger's (Roger More), Poor Thomas improved (Thomas More), New-York Pocket Almanack (Richard Moore), and Freeman's New-York Almanack (Frank Freeman).

It is likely that Ruben Weed purchased one of the four mentioned above. Copies of these appear to exist, but I could not find any on-line. The 1767 version of Roger's can be viewed on-line here: https://archive.org/stream/poorroger1767ame00more  It gives an idea of what Weed may have been reading by candlelight 250 year ago tonight.

"Kind Reader....When I published my last year's Almanack the most gloomy prospect appeared, that ever threatened our American lands. --Slavery and impending ruin shook their baleful rods; the Stamp-Act..."

INTRO! January 15, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Friday January 15, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

For the next few weeks I will be writing a daily blog on "what happened 250 years ago on this date at the Colden Store." The store was in what is today the Town of Montgomery, New York. The exact location of the store is not known, but it is believed to have been on the Colden Estate as the records of the store have page headings of "Coldengham." Colden had just built a new home at about this date. The ruins of this home are visible at 17K and Stone Castle Road.  Perhaps the store was close to that structure? (also see https://www.facebook.com/ColdenPreservation)

A DayBook of the Store has been preserved in the New-York Historical Society. Volunteers have started to transcribe the DayBook. All of the names in the book have been transcribed and can be searched at http://www.orangecountyhistoricalsociety.org/Colden_DayBook.html.  The transcription of the items purchased is still a work in progress. Those items give us a glimpse into the lives of the people who lived in this area before the War for Independence.

The store was not some small enterprise operated as a hobby. Monthly transactions included hundreds of gallons of rum and molasses, yards of fabric, pounds of lead/shot/gun powder, along with luxury items of handkerchiefs, bonnets, snuff/pipes, and even lottery tickets (no joke). On the other side of the ledger the store bought wheat, flaxseed, honey, walnuts, hogs, skins, hats, and leather from the locals. Colden must have maintained almost a daily cartage from his store to the docks at Newburgh/New Windsor to maintain this trade.

On Friday, January 15, 1768, 250 years ago today, the store had nine customers. In at least two cases, the customer was represented by his son, and in another two cases by a neighbor. (See below.  You can do the search yourself here.)

If you know the 18th century history of this area of New York, you many recognize a few of the names. McClaughrey was a colonel during the war and married into the Clinton family. Gallatian was an influential farmer whose 1798 map of the area hangs in the Montgomery Town Center. The Graham family was also influential, many of whom were officers in the militia. A few sided with the British in the war to come.

The image above is a transcription of the purchases of Josiah Talket (Talcott) (ID=165-02). Benjamin Wood was the person in the store on his behalf. Both items, silk thread and Buckram fabric, were likely used to make clothes for his family.  I have found no instances of clothes (other than hats) being sold back to the store. If you are not familiar with some of the names of items sold at the store, I maintain a dictionary here.

John McClaughrey (165-03) was a carpenter, so his purchase of brads and nails (see above) is not surprising. Rum was one of the most common purchases at the Colden Store. In the prior four months, Colden had sold over 400 gallons of rum.  There were two types:  Y Rum and W Rum, the second being more expensive, but consumed in almost equal quantity. More on rums in a future blog.

The image below show purchases of Carskadan, Henyon, and Gallatian.

Gun powder, lead, and shot were common items purchased at the store. This ammunition was undoubtedly used in militia drills as well as for hunting. A few deer skins were sold to the store.

Robert Graham (166-02) wins the prize for most items purchased...10. (See below) His selection includes many of the favorites that were bought again and again at the store.

Although rum was a popular item, the community spent much more on sewing goods such as the fabrics, buttons, and mohair purchased by Graham. Tea was more expensive and yet much more popular than coffee. A pound of tea was 7 shillings, more than the price of a days labor. Sugar and molasses were also common items. Domestic rum or beer manufacture is a likely use.

If you are still puzzled by Shalloon and Buckram you can go to DayBook Dictionary or wait until a future blog.

On a personal note, my 5th great grandfather lived in this area and shopped at this store. On this date he was about 33 years old. He probably never imagined on this date that he would live another 60 years. According to family tradition (in otherwords this is probably not true ;-)) he died 190 years ago today, January 15, 1828.

DNA of Jemima Campbell Tice (daughter of Joel Campbell, 1735-1828) - A match in North Carolina

As many of you are aware, I have been on the search for the real identity of the mother of Joel’s children. See my earlier post.  One route that has intrigued me is the use of mtDNA. You should read the prior articles for the details, but the gist is this:

Pieces of mtDNA are passed on from mother to daughter virtually unchanged for several generations.  Therefore any maternal descendants of Joel’s wife will carry the same mtDNA signature as she did.  In fact, so would any maternal descendants of Joel’s wife’s sisters or of her mother’s sisters. If a descendant of one of Joel’s wife’s sisters or maternal aunts could be found, that would lead to more info about the mother of Joel’s children.

The first challenge to this route is finding a maternal descendant who would willing submit for mtDNA testing and share the results. That descendant has been found and I will call her Cousin C.  You can read about Cousin C here.

The second challenge is to find an mtDNA match.  FamilyTreeDNA provides this service. Because the testing is relatively new, not many people have been tested. So far only one person has been an exact match to Cousin C. A second person is a match with a genetic distance of 1.  Eight more are matches with a genetic distance of  2. Because we are looking for a recent common ancestor, a very close genetic distance is desired.

The third challenge is getting the maternal genealogy of the match. Unfortunately the exact match (0 genetic distance) provided no genealogy for the maternal line. That is pretty common. People tend to research their surnames so the trees tend to be lop-sided towards the paternal lines. Maiden names fade into history.

Recently, I became impatient for the ideal match: one that had close genetic distance and a well-researched maternal line.  So...I decided to do someone else’s maternal genealogy. I was surprised that it was relatively easy. I did rely on the genealogy of others, but every link in the relationship is supported by at least one primary source.

The FamilyTreeDNA person who is an exact match is presumably still alive, so I will not list the name given on FamilyTreeDNA. I will refer to that person as Cousin M.  Cousin M’s mother and her maternal ancestors are given below:

Cousin M is the daughter of...
Ida Mae Smethers 1922-2005 daughter of...
Emma A. Hill 1897-1931  daughter of...
Sarah Ida Holcombe 1877-1953  daughter of...
Martha Ann Britt 1846-1924  daughter of...
Dicey Ann Turnage 1815-1866  daughter of...
Sarah Ann Wade 1785-1849  daughter of...
???

The good news about Cousin M’s maternal line is that it remains in the U.S. That gives me some confidence that no mistake has been made in the genealogy of Cousin C. If the maternal line of Cousin M had immigrated to the US after 1750, it is likely that I had somehow erred in determining the genealogy of Cousin C (ie that she is not really a maternal descendant of a woman who lived in NJ in the 1750s).

The bad news is that Cousin M’s maternal line leads to North Carolina.  I was hoping I could trace the line to New Jersey where Joel’s wife had lived...and maybe that will still happen.

In conclusion, the easy genealogy work is done.  Now I need to dig deep into the Wades of North Carolina and how they got there. I am encouraged because....

1) It appears Sarah Ann Wade’s father is Obediah Wade (mother yet unknown). Sarah Ann was supposedly born in Duplin, NC in 1785 and Obediah was living there as early as 1800.

2) Wade was a common name in Newark where Joel and his wife lived....IN FACT on the 1764 Ball map that shows Joel’s home near what is now Livingston, NJ and was then known locally as Canoe Brook, shows two Wade homes, Samuel and Nathaniel.

1764 Ball Map showing Joel's home and homes of the Wade family. Dark lines are the branches of the Canoe Brook after which the area got its name.

3) A 1790 militia formed in Canoe Brook, NJ contained a Lt. Obediah Wade. Clearly this could not be the same Obediah who was in North Carolina at the time? Or could it be the birthplace of Sarah Ann is incorrect with the move from NJ to NC occurring circa 1795?

All of this is speculation at this point, but I am optimistic that this route will turn up some clues to the identity of Joel’s wife. The ideal find would be to identify Sarah Ann Wade’s maternal grandmother as a “Leonard.” That would give additional credence to the traditional identity of the mother of Joel’s children being Nancy Leonard.

[2020_11_24 Note by author: Pension record of Obadiah Wade of NC states that he was born in Carteret, NC Oct 1761.  Therefore not same Wade family as in NJ. Additional information from the estate of the step-brother of Sarah Ann Wade (Axum Morris) indicates that she did NOT have a daughter named Dicey. Interesting theory, but the Recent Common Ancestor bewteen these two lines is still unknown.]

Are Campbells "Immigrants?"

"We're all immigrants," declared former President Obama during a townhall in Florida in 2015. That phrase, or some variant on it, has been spoken for centuries for a variety of purposes

Barque at the Port of Leith, Scotland where Robert Campbell embarked for the British colony of New Jersey.

First let me say that this is obviously a phrase whose recent purposes are political. The phrase plucks at the emotional truth that we all have roots elsewhere if we go back far enough in time. Only a fool would be tempted to try to respond to it rationally. I am that fool.

The Oxford dictionary defines an immigrant as "a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country."

I am fairly sure that I have never lived permanently in a foreign country, so I am not an immigrant. Therefore the above statement ("We're all immigrants") is not factually accurate (as most political slogans).

A common variant is "We are all descendants of immigrants." I like to look at this phrase in a statistical fashion. Consider how many ancestors you have from twenty generations ago (17th g-grandparents). If you do the math, each one of us has over one million 17th great-grandparents. If a "generation" is about 30 years, they lived in the 14th century. There is a good chance one or more of those million, migrated from one "location" to another. Statistically, the response to "We are all descendants of immigrants" should be "duh" or "so what."

There is one caveat to the above. "Country" is a fairly recent concept in the millions of years of human existence. A country is usually defined as a geographical area with common government. If the definition is expanded to include "kingdom" or "tribe," the concept is a bit older. Still, it is likely that early ancestors migrated as families or tribal units to "non-countries" and would have considered themselves "settlers," not "immigrants."

In British colonial America, did inhabitants consider themselves in a "foreign country?" People of British origin, who made up 90% of the population, did not! They were not immigrants, they were settlers.

Our Robert Campbell (grandfather of Joel) came to colonial America in 1685, not to a foreign country, but to a colony of the kingdom he was a subject of. Therefore, he did not come as an immigrant.

When the "country" of the United States was formed, Robert was long dead.  His grandson, Joel, was living in what would shortly be the State of New York (vs. Province of New York). He probably did not care if he was called a "Settler" or an "Immigrant" or a "Yorker" or a "Rebel," but as a third generation American, this land was his home. Interestingly, he continued to move from place to place with his extended family, mimicking the tribal migrations of centuries past.

Yes, I am a fool, but not foolish enough to try to answer the title question: "Are Campbells Immigrants." We are not a homogenous group, each of us descending from a different set of one million 17th great-grandparents. Each of us has a unique answer.

DNA of Jemima Campbell Tice (daughter of Joel Campbell, 1735-1828) PART IV of IV

The difficulties in learning more about the mother of Joel Campbell's children were discussed in Part I of this series. Part II discussed the use of mitochondrial DNA to confirm recent common ancestors in the maternal line. Part III told the tale of locating a maternal descendant of Jemima Campbell.

This Part discusses the results of that descendant's mtDNA testing.

The DNA of Carol Anne Baker, a maternal descendant of Jemima Campbell, was obtained using the normal "cheek swab" and analyzed by Family Tree DNA using their “Full Sequence” test. [That test includes HVR1, HVR2, and Coding Regions.] Her results were then compared with others to determine common ancestors.

Mutations in certain parts of the DNA are common to many participants. Those common mutations happened thousands of years ago and the date and location of some mutations can be estimated. Of course a mutation happens with a specific person who then is a node (or branch) in the mtDNA tree. Every living person with that mutation in their maternal DNA came from that same woman long ago where it first occurred.

Jemima’s Haplogroup

Yes, each mutation denotes a "special mother."  In Jemima’s case, there was a woman who lived about 50,000 years ago in the Near East whom the geneticists have labeled "J". She is our (Jemima’s) super grandmother, and her maternal descendants are said to be in her "Haplogroup." (“Haplo” is the greek word for “single” meaning that everyone with that genetic signature is related back to a single person.)

The haplo subgroups can be further refined as more people are tested. For example, a subgroup of "J" known as "J1b" is thought to be part of a group that migrated to the Mediterranean about 6000 years ago. The woman that carried that "J1b" mutation is another one of our "grandmothers." The haplogroup for Jemima is further refined to "J1b1a1." The timing of this last mutation and its location appears to be in Great Britain in the last 1000 years, but that needs to be refined.

mtDNA Matches

Carol Baker’s mtDNA results should be identical to those of Jemima Campbell Tice. The chance of a mutation to the mtDNA over those six generations is a possibility, but small. Other maternal descendants of Jemima should share the exact same mtDNA signature. In fact, this mtDNA signature is likely unique to a “grandmother” up to 22 generations in the past. A match would identify a person with whom Carol and Jemima share a common ancestor.

Unfortunately there are not a lot of mtDNA results with which to compare.  Carol has one “match” with genetic distance of “1” meaning that all of the markers are the same except for one. FamilyTreeDNA does not calculate the probabilities of such a match having a common ancestor, but my crude estimate is that there is only a 50% chance of that person sharing a common ancestor with Carol after the year 1600. In this case, the match had no genealogical information on their maternal line prior to 1900, so there was little to be gained anyway. One path of research might be to collaborate with this person on tracing their maternal line to see if it leads back to Newark.

A second “match” had a genetic distance of “2” meaning two of the markers did not match. This decreases the possibility of a very recent common ancestor, but indicates the likelihood of a common ancestor perhaps 15-40 generations in the past. The maiden name of the person in this line that lived in the early 1700s is Elkins, which is a name with English origins.

Conclusions

The maternal ancestry of Jemima's mother is European and highly likely out of Great Britain. As more people with known genealogy are tested, the possibility of “exact matches” with Carol’s mtDNA increases. The data from those matches will yield more information about recent ancestors of Jemima's mother. Carol's test results will undoubtedly help other genealogists as our line of known maternal ancestors extends about ten generations which is relatively long for "known" maternal lines.

DNA of Jemima Campbell Tice (daughter of Joel Campbell, 1735-1828) PART III of IV

The difficulties in learning more about the mother of Joel Campbell's children were discussed in Part I of this series. Part II discussed the use of mitochondrial DNA to confirm recent common ancestors in the maternal line.

Finding a maternal descendant of a person born in the 1700s is easier said than done. Most of that is due to the name changes and the paternalistic nature of record keeping in the early days.

I began my effort by offering $500 for someone to do the work for me. To quote that blog from May of 2015, "The Abigail DNA Project will award $500 to the person who can identify a living maternal descendant of the mother of Joel's children and convince that person to submit a sample for mtDNA testing."

When it became obvious there were no takers, I dived into it myself, descending the maternal tree of Jemima Campbell, hoping to find a researcher on ancestry.com who might know a living descendant. I hit some dead ends, but in the process I probably did a lot of genealogy that someone will find useful. I finally thought I was close and left a few messages for people managing family trees on ancestry.com. One was a woman who manages a wonderful tree called appropriately "The Karie Sexton Family Tree." I left a note in February of 2016 inquiring about the maternal lines that descended from Emma Mourhess (see tree below). She did not see the "You have a message" icon on ancestry.com until October, but her reply was encouraging. Her husband had a cousin who was a maternal great-granddaughter of Emma Mourhess.

Soon Carol Anne Baker (my long lost 6th cousin) and I were talking. She is the 5th great-granddaughter of Jemima's mother with an unbroken maternal line. She submitted a sample for mtDNA testing and has agreed to share the results with her "cousins." Interestingly, Carol's maternal ancestors of the last six generations, all lived in the general area where Joel spent his last years.

Mother of Jemima Campbell (name traditionally given as Nancy Leonard)
Jemima Campbell
Rebecca Tice (daughter of Jemima Campbell)
Sally/Sarah Crowl (daughter of Rebecca Tice)
Emma Mourhess (daughter of Sally Crowl)
Frances Leona Crane (daughter of Emma Mourhess)
Frances Emma Colburn (daughter of Francis L Crane)
Carol Anne Baker (daughter of Francis E Colburn)

Part IV will discuss the results of the mtDNA test.

Nancy Campbell - Discovery of the first primary document containing this name?

I came upon the name of 'Nancy Campble' in the DayBook of Cadwallader Colden's store.  The store was located in Coldengham, New York.  The date of her visit to the store was October 1, 1768.

Many of you know I have been quite skeptical of the traditional names of Joel Campbell's wives. The main reason for my skepticism is that I have not seen any primary sources for them.  By 'primary sources' I mean original documents that were created by someone in her presence or at the time she lived.  In fact, I have not even seen any secondary documents. I consider 'secondary documents' to be records of people who might have seen a primary document or talked to a person who knew her. I would consider the legendary Benajah Campbell bible to be a secondary source, but I have never seen it.  It appears to be missing for the time being.

What we are left with are family genealogies that give a Nancy Leonard as the mother of Joel's children referencing missing secondary sources.

By 1768, Joel Campbell and his family were living close to Coldengham, New York. Joel was about thirty-three years old.

Cadwallader Colden Jr. kept a store that is believed to have been located close to his new mansion (the ruins of which still exist) in Coldengham, New York. Today, Coldengham is a hamlet in the Town of Montgomery. A DayBook of the transactions at that store in the years 1767-1768 resides in the New-York Historical Society. See recent post on the transcription of this document.

Joel Campbell, his brothers, and a sister were recorded as shopping at Colden's store in the 1767-1768 period.

Each store entry lists the person whose account would be charged and the person who picked up the items. In the entry for Nehemiah Carpenter of October 1, 1768, Nancy Campble was the recipient of the items (which were oddly not enumerated). The items were "p[e]r order" and cost 13 shillings and 6 pence.

October 1, 1768 Entry in Nehemiah Carpenter Account.  See top entry.

The majority of the Campbells who shopped at this store, are known to be related to Joel. So it is likely that this 'Nancy' is also related. Could she have been the mysterious Nancy Leonard?

Many other questions remain about this transaction.  Why was she picking up items for Mr. Carpenter who was a relatively wealthy member of the community? Could it be she was picking up cash from Carpenter's account in payment for a service? Based on other entries, I think not, as the clerks typically indicated when cash was disbursed.

Even more confusing is the last entry before this one. It was on the same day, immediately prior to Nancy's 'pick-up.' It was, however, recorded by a different clerk as the handwriting shows. The person visiting the store was the wife of Nehemiah Carpenter.  She picked up 3 pounds of cotton wool and 1/4 pounds of an illegible item.  [Feel free to add a comment below if you recognize this item.]

The entry just prior to Nancy Campble's entry. is also to Carpenter's account.

Did Nancy visit the store together with the wife of Nehemiah? It seems likely due to the proximity of their entries. Could Nancy have been in the employ of the Carpenters? Could she have been a seamstress who was to work with the 'cotton wool' purchased by Mrs. Carpenter? Caulfeild's dictionary describes the manufacture of cotton wool as follows: "The raw cotton, after having been passed through the 'willow,' 'blowing,' and 'scutching' machines, is spread out into broad, soft, fleece-like wadding, when it is wound on a roller. It is employed for lining garments, quilts, &c, being placed between the material and its lining, and then sewn and kept in position by diagonal runnings at even distances, called 'quilting.'" Perhaps Nancy was making some winter garments for the Carpenters using this material?

In summary, it appears we are related to a 'Nancy Campble' who could very well be the 'Nancy Leonard,' wife of Joel Campbell as given in traditional genealogies. This is the first time I have seen this name in a primary document, so I am quite elated.