In The Name of the Lord

November 02, 1631, The Lyon, the first ship of three hired by Rev. Thomas Hooker and the Braintree Company of Braintree, Essex County, England, arrives in Boston Harbor.  Immigrants aboard were prepared to do battle with the savages in the name of the Lord.   Among those landing were William Westwood, and Deacon Stephen Hart.    These were very wealthy men.  William Westwood, although only thirteen years old, held title as Yeoman.  They were the first to settle Braintree Massachusetts, but soon there after formed Newtowne, which today is Cambridge.  Rev. Thomas Hooker had been invited by the Puritans to come from England to be their pastor.  Approximately 350 Immigrants arrived in the Braintree Company to the shores of New England.  They brought with them smallpox. During the twelve week voyage many died of smallpox and were buried at sea.  When they arrived, the smallpox quickly spread and was wiping out the Native American Indians.  The puritans saw this as Gods work to clean the new land of the savages.

May 14, 1634, Deacon Stephen Hart was admitted as a freeman in Cambridge.  Then in 1635 he moves with Rev. Hookers group to and area now called Hartford.  He was one of the original proprietors and built his home near the ford he discovered where you could cross the Connecticut river at a low stage of the water.  Thus the town was named "Hartsford," which soon just became Hartford.  Born in 1605, Hart was now thirty years old, and along with Hookers group had taken much of the cleared pasture and meadow from the Indians. On March 04, 1635, Westwood takes the freemans oath at Newtown, and on September 05, 1635 was sworn in as constable of the Plantation Connecticut.  Then by March of 1636 Westwood was given a commission to govern the people of Connecticut in the first court. The first general court had great power.  It acted as both the court and the legislature under the Mosaic Laws of the Church.

July 1636, on Block Island just off the coast of Connecticut, members of the Narragansett tributary tribe kill Captain John Oldham.  In retaliation, John Endicott sets sail out of Boston for Block Island and he and his men spend two days setting fire to the Indian huts, destroying food reserves and shooting their dogs.  By winter of 1636 the Indians return the white mans attack, and besiege Fort Saybrook and attack the Wethersfield settlement.

In the winter and early into 1637 Westwood and his court declare war on the Pequot Indians.  On the 10th of May Captain Mason set sail down the river with three ships and seventy men.  Then on May 26, 1637, under the command of Captain John Mason the Puritans joined with 90 men from the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes to surround the Pequot Village of Misstuck (Mystic).  Within one hour 700 men, women and children are put to death by sword and burned to death as the entire village was burned.  On there return the Puritan soldiers were granted a lot known as a Soldiers field.

Why am I telling you this story about The Pequot War?  Because Deacon Stephen Hart is my ninth Great Grand Father and he was there killing the Pequot Indians and burning down Misstuck village in the name of the Lord. 
He had a daughter, Mary Hart who married John Lee.  We are descendants from this branch of the Lee family.  Not from Robert E. Lee of  the Virginia Lee's, but that story is for another posting.

Here is the pedigree which links me to Deacon Stephen Hart, my 9th Great Grand Father, the proprietor of Hartford Connecticut, and to the Lee family descendants of John Lee.

Deacon Stephen Hart (1602 - 1683)

is your 9th great grandfather

Mary Hart (1631 - 1710)

Daughter of Deacon Stephen

David Lee (1674 - 1759)

Son of Mary

Jedediah Lee (1697 - 1749)

Son of David

Elias Jedediah Lee (1723 - 1795)

Son of Jedediah

Daniel Lee (1753 - 1806)

Son of Elias Jedediah

Ede W Lee (1791 - 1867)

Son of Daniel

Dorothy Ann Lee (1824 - 1885)

Daughter of Ede W

Helen Desdemonia Rider (1857 - 1927)

Daughter of Dorothy Ann

William Rider Howie (1882 - 1965)

Son of Helen Desdemonia

Donald James Howie (1927 - 2005)

Son of William Rider

Richard Scott Howie

You are the son of Donald James 

I want to thank Google for making available on Googlebooks the Lee Family Genealogy 1634 - 1897 By: Leonard & Sarah Marsh Lee.  The book is more than 700 pages, but if you get a chance, at-least read the introduction. 

 

Mayflower Ancestor Francis & John Cooke

I received a message on Friday night from someone on Ancestry.com informing me that I had some incorrect dates on the Harlow side of my tree.  The message was from a Helen, and she went into such depth, and effort to explain my error that I then spent many hours this weekend correcting the Harlow Family Tree.

If you have read one of my prior postings, my aunt Evelyn May Harlow has many ancestors that share links with the Howie's!

While doing more research to correct the dates of marriages, deaths and so on, I was able to discover many new ancestors who we share links.  The first name I found was Thomas Taber who was the son of Philip Tabor and Lydia Masters.  Upon more research into the Taber family, I found a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Colonial Ancestors.   This in turn helped me find that the Harlow's and the Howie's are related to Francis & John Cooke of the Mayflower.

Here is my pedigree:

Lost Rider Family Found

I guess you can say I love a mystery, but I love a challenge even more.
I have been reading through old correspondence that I had received over the years, some dating back to 1983.  There are just some clues that jump out and catch my attention.  In one letter from my Aunt Helen she wrote, "James Howie was William George Howie's brother.  They had another brother which went "west" as a young man and was never heard from again - it is believed he met with disaster of some kind."  Doesn't that leave you intrigued? It does me.  Was he traveling by train, or stage coach? Was he attacked by Indians, or did he join the gold rush?  It turns out that William George Howie and James Alexander Howie were just two of seven children.  There are three confirmed boys and three girls.  One un-legible name.  So Helen was correct.  His name was John S. Howie, and I still can't find him.  Without more details, I probably never will with a common name like John.

The other mystery is very new to me, "The Lost Rider Family."  I was recently put in contact with my third cousin Lillian Madelyn Rider.  She had sent me a family tree of the RIDERS of Fitch Bay.  It begins with the progenitor of the Canadian family, Ezra Bartlett Rider.  Who happens to be my 2nd Great Grand Father.  He was Helen Desdemonia Rider's father.  Prior to this I knew that Ezra had two wives, however I never knew that he had children by his first wife Fanny Chandler.  On this tree, RIDERS of Fitch Bay, there is a box that just says 8 children moved to Illinois & Kansas in 1844.  I passed over this without much thought as they would be no blood relation to me, and there were no names, until this Thanksgiving holiday when I received an email.  Prior to this, I had sent out some requests to get information on locating a Masters Thesis, titled "The RIDERS of Fitch Bay."  I was looking for more information on my fourth Great Grand Father Seth Bartlett Rider, as there is over a hundred year gap in the national registry.  I had contacted the University for a copy of the thesis in hopes that it might have a missing link that would help me locate the parents and siblings of Seth Bartlett Rider who would be my 3rd great grand father.  The University was very prompt with a response; they held two copies of the thesis, and to contact my local library for an international exchange.  Which I did, but this will take sometime.  They also gave me the email address of the author, so I shot and email off to Stephen Moore.

So, over Thanksgiving Stephen Moore responded to my request, and also said he had questions of the Lost Rider's who went west, did I have any information?  Now again I was intrigued.  Here is someone who wrote their Masters Thesis on the Riders of Fitch Bay and he was asking me for information.  He stated that his source for the thesis was Lillian Rider, and they both were looking for information of eight Rider's who moved west.  Being the great investigator that I am, I quickly got on it to find the lost family.  I went on Ancestry.com and found that there was nothing except other genealogists also looking for clues on this family of eight children.  So I posted a thread to a message board that I was also looking, and off to the library I went.
I had a copy of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register which had a story on Samuel Rider, so that was my first stop.  Since I am a member of the NEHGS, I went online first with no luck.  Then at the library I went to the index for the NEHGR.  Found some information, but nothing new.  So back to my family tree to get more clues.  It is amazing that three months ago I barely knew the name of my 2nd great grandfather and today I have well over six thousand aunts, uncles, cousins and so on.  I add everyone, as this has been the biggest help for me.  Many times on a census form or death certificate of a cousin or brother's uncle I find the name of another family member I was looking for.  Truly I am so lucky that our family immigrated from Massachusetts up the east coast and into Canada.  Back in the early 1980's I hated this fact as I did not have the resources to contact Canada.  Now, I am so glad because so much work has already been done, and many Churches in Quebec Canada kept wonderful records.  Although the French documents are difficult to read.

So I have a story of a female farmer with three young boys, and I have a story of settlers to Stanstead Quebec.  Well my local San Antonio downtown library has an extensive genealogy area, it fills the entire top floor of the library.  So I started looking for one of these books written about the settlers of Stanstead, and lucky for me they had a copy.  Now I understand that books are secondary sources, and not the most reliable to a true genealogist, however, this book has so much detail.  The book title is: "The History of Stanstead County", by Hubbard, ISBN:1-55613-123-2.   There in the pages was my great grandmother Helen D. Rider and my 2nd great grand father Ezra B. Rider.  It listed both his wives and their issue (children).  I entered the names and birth-dates of the eight missing children of Ezra and Fanny into my family tree on Ancestry.com.  Then through U.S. Census data I was able to follow some of their movements from Illinois, to Kansas, Wisconsin and one son even moved back to Canada with his wife.  Anyway my prior hunch that whatever the reason they moved, they had probably changed their name.  I was so correct.  These eight children changed the spelling of their last name to Ryder, stayed in the United States and moved west in 1844.  Their mother Fanny Chandler died in 1843.  Then in October of the same year Ezra re-married Dorothy Ann Lee, of the settler Lee's of Stanstead.  They married and settled in Fitch Bay, Quebec during the time of the mass exodus from Canada.


Between 1784 and 1844, the population of Quebec increased by 400 percent.  However, between 1840 and 1930, more than 900,000 French-Canadians left Canada and immigrated to the United States and Australia.  Canada did not have enough inhabitable land for the rapid growth and they were moving from a rural economy to an industrial one.  Manufacturing was replacing the farmer, and this is probably the reason these Riders chose not to follow their father into Canada.  Going from what they knew, being a farmer, to working in a factory probably was not on their bucket list.   A story for another day, but these eight farmer's probably were able to get land grants in Illinois and Kansas.

Le Château Witch Bay

Ghosts, Goblins and Witches, oh my!

Isn't Halloween a wonderful time of year?

If you believe in them or not is another story.  The history is a story that will be told again and again.
In my last post I introduced to you Stephen England and took you back to the late 1700's.  Today we just might go back a bit further.  Hold on tight!

This post is titled "Le Château Witch Bay,"  I thought this would be appropriate not only for the season, but for the story I am about to tell.  Above you will see a photo of a very beautiful castle.  Note the weather vane, it is a witch riding her broom stick.   Does this castle look familiar to you?  Well if you are a Howie maybe not so much, but if you are a Rider it should.  This castle was once the home of Timothy Byron Rider.  He built this home in Fitch Bay Quebec, where it still stands today.  The Rider family still owned it until the year 2000 when it was sold.  The new owners have really put some love and hard work into the restoration, which was completed in just over 8 years.  The home is more than just an attraction for those Harry Potter fans.  This home stands as a museum to the once booming town of Fitch Bay and the Rider family.  I am told by Penny, the manager of the property that the furniture though not original,  is antique Victorian and correct for the era, and there are photos of Ezra Rider hanging on the wall.  (Pictured on left)   Now that name should ring a bell to a Howie.  Ezra Bartlett Rider was the father of Helen Desdemonia Rider.  Ezra B. Rider was from Haverhill New Hampshire, born in 1798.  He married Fanny Chandler and had three children in New Hampshire before Fanny died at forty-two years old in 1843.  Ezra moves north to Quebec to start his grist mill and meets Dorothy Ann Lee.  They are quickly married on October 18th, 1843. (That was 167 years ago to the date).   Together Ezra & Dorothy had four children.  Two sons and two daughters.  Timothy, Hamilton, Helen and Clara.  Timothy, the oldest of the four was a hard worker.  He had a farm, a saw mill, a grist mill and was buying up real estate, and built the home pictured below in 1880 after his children had grown.  Timothy was also the postmaster and joined political office.  He was elected to the House of Commons in the Parliament of Canada on March 5th, 1891 and held this office for 1,937 days.  That is 5 years, 3 months and 20 days.

Mr. Timothy Byron Rider was a very wealthy and influential man, also an inventor which I have located his government patents and a business man.  He was a merchant in the area, and when his sister Helen D. Rider married William George Howie, he gave William a job as a store clerk.  According to the the 1881 Census of Canada, William & Helen were also living in this beautiful new Château. From this early photo above on the right you can see how big it is compared to his brother Hamiltons' house behind.
 
Timothy amassed his fortune by acquiring real estate. He purchased the saw mills, the grist mills and two mercantile operations.  Like many of my ancestors, Timothy Byron Rider was also a Mason, the Masonic order I do not yet know at this time.  A secret society that I know very little of, other than it is a social organization. By 1912, Peoples telephone of Canada then became Peoples & Rider.  In 1933 Mr. Rider was one of the first wealthy people that could afford to have electricity in his home.

Penny informed me that Timothy was also friends with Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada, and who was also a guest in the home.   Timothy B. Rider went on to become Mayor of Fitch Bay and served for 19 years.

When I received the email this week from Penny with the photos of the house with a witch for a weather vane I could not be more surprised nor wait to reply to tell her about his ancestors.   Turn back the time now to 1688 Salem Massachusetts.  In November, Rev. Samuel Parris preaches in Salem Village for the first time.  October 1691, Joseph Porter, Joseph Hutchinson, Joseph Putnam, Daniel Andrew and Francis Nurse become the elected majority to the Salem Village committee.  January 20, 1692, Samuel Parris' nine year old daughter, Betty, falls ill. More young girls in Salem Village also fall ill.  The Salem Village physician, Dr. William Griggs, concludes the girls are bewitched. Parris' servant/slave, Tituba, and her husband, John Indian, are advised by Mary Sibley to bake a witch cake.  She hopes the cake will help the girls identify the person(s) who are bewitching them. On March 1st Tituba confesses to witchcraft. Later, Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good and Tituba are sent to a Boston prison.  Then one of the afflicted girls, possibly Mercy Lewis, accuses Elizabeth, wife of John Proctor of witchcraft. On April 11, 1692 Sarah Cloyce and Elizabeth Proctor appear before the Salem Magistrates.   John and Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Cloyce, Martha Corey and Dorcas Good are sent to a Boston prison on this night. Then on May 21, an arrest warrant is issued for John and Elizabeth Proctor's daughter, Sarah and two days later their son Benjamin. Then on May 28th an arrest warrant is issued for John and Elizabeth Proctor's second son, William.  By now almost the entire wealthy Proctor family are in prison for witchcraft.  In September nine accused are put to death.  Elizabeth and the children are later set free.  However Elizabeth Proctor does not inherit her late husbands wealth and continued to fight in court over the property rights.
John Proctor is my link to the Salem Witch trials and ends my story.  If you want to research more on the Salem Witch trials there are many good websites from which I took the above time line.  If you want to know more about the Rider and Howie family continue to follow my blog.  For avid research you can also check for this book:  According to Moore, Stephen A., T. B. Rider and the Rider Family of Fitch Bay, 1850-1960 . . ., M.A. Thesis, Bishops University, Lennoxville, Quebec, 1992 (especially Chapter 10, pp [218]-232) the Rider family was involved in a number of social groups to include the Masons.
In conclusion my Great Grand Uncle, Timothy Byron Rider who built "Le Chateau Witchbay" is related to John Proctor of Salem MA, who was put to death by hanging during the witch trials in the late 1600's.

Timothy's mother was Dorothy Ann Lee, wife of Ezra.  Her father was Ede Lee of Willington, Connecticut, and his father was Daniel Lee, who's father was Elias Jedediah Lee.  Elias' mother was Lucy Dodge, her father was Josiah Dodge (1665 - 1714) of Beverly Massachusetts.  His mother was Sarah Proctor of Salem and her brother was John Proctor (1632 - 1692).  He was hung on Gallows Hill, Salem, Massachusetts on August 19, 1692 for witchcraft.

Historian's and genealogists are still working on proof at this time and more source documentation.  More data is always coming forward on John Proctors descendants.  A new reference book was just published titled: Records of Salem Witch-Hunt, by: Bernard Rosenthal. 2009.  I used this book to verify my data.

Sarah Proctor Dodge is believed to have lived from (1646 - 1706) and by the way was later married to Captain John Dodge who served in King Philip's war of 1675. But that is a blog for another day.