Genealogist- Newsletter- October 5, 2024

06 Oct Genealogist- Newsletter- October 5, 2024

ACCORDING TO THIS GENEALOGIST THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME A MAYOR OF NEW YORK HAS BEEN CHARGED WITH A FEDERAL CRIME WHILE STILL IN OFFICE

There has been a lot of press lately about Eric Adams, the first Mayor of New York City ever to be indicted for a crime while in office. However, I doubt Adams will face execution.

My wife’s sixth-time Great-Uncle, David Mathews, was appointed Mayor of New York City in February 1776 by the British Governor of the Province of New York.

That same year, Mathews was implicated in a plan to kidnap George Washington, the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. Mathews and William Tryon, the governor of the Province of New York (likeness shown above), were also accused of being involved, as was a member of Washington’s Life Guard, Thomas Hickey, who would eventually be executed for his role.

After John Jay (later Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court) interviewed many witnesses regarding the payments made by the British to recruits, he as head of the Committee of Conspiracies of the New York Provincial Congress, and after consultation and approval by Washington, ordered Mathews’ arrest for “being engaged in a Conspiracy against the Authority of the Congress and the Liberties of America.”

Accordingly, Mathews was arrested. On July 8, the New York Provincial Congress, after Mathews was found guilty of treason and subversion, was sentenced to death and was to be executed on August 25.

Unfortunately, he escaped from custody. On November 27, Major Seymour placed the following notice in the Connecticut Journal seeking help recapturing Matthews for the reward of $50 ($1,568.98 as of 2021). The notice read as follows:

On the night after the 20th instant escaped from Litchfield, David Mathews Esq., late Mayor of the City of New York, who was some months since taken from hence, on being charged with high crimes against the American States, but on giving his parole was admitted to certain limits, which he has most basely and perfidiously deserted. He is well made, about 6 feet high, has short brown hair, is about 39 years old, and has a very plausible way of deceiving people. It is supposed he will endeavor to get to Long Island, where his family now resides. Whoever takes him up and returns him to the subscriber in Litchfield shall receive the above reward and necessary charges.

Later that year, New York was again firmly under British control. Mathews resumed his office as mayor. In addition, British General Howe awarded Mathews all of the profits from the city’s ferries, markets, and slips for his personal use. Mathews was also given command of two military units, the Loyal Volunteers of the City of New York and the Mayor’s Independent Company of Volunteers, and was often referred to as Colonel.

The New York Assembly, on October 22, 1779, in the act of Attainder, declared Mathews to be one of 59 state felons who were to be executed if found in the state. His property, which totaled nearly 27,000 acres, and two house was confiscated. He was not mentioned in his father Vincent Mathews’ (my wife’s 6th times Great Grandfather) will, and only his children were listed as inheritors.

On or around Evacuation Day, Mathews left with other Loyalists for Nova Scotia. Failing to gain an appointment as that province’s attorney general, he traveled to Cape Breton Island, which in 1786 was administered as a separate colony. He was appointed Attorney General of Cape Breton and a member of the Executive Council. Even then, he caused discord.

Mathews died on July 28, 1800, and was buried in Sydney. His funeral was well attended. A letter to the editor of the Halifax Journal noted that “if he had any foibles…they were the offspring of an openness of manners and a liberal unsuspecting disposition.”

A New York City playground in the Bronx, operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation called the Mathews Muniler Playground, is in part named after David Mathews. Part of the inscription related to Mathews says, “… the British-born Mathews was installed as the Loyalist mayor. Mathews was known as a thief, an embezzler, and a spendthrift.”

---

ACCORDING TO THIS GENEALOGIST THE FIRST TIME ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS SHOT; HE WAS NOT THE PRESIDENT

One day in May 1786, Abraham Lincoln (the president’s namesake grandfather) was working in his field with his three sons when he was shot from the nearby forest and fell to the ground. The eldest boy, Mordecai, ran to the cabin where a loaded gun was kept, while the middle son, Josiah, ran to Hughes’ Station for help. Thomas (Honest Abe’s father), the youngest, stood in shock by his father. From the cabin, Mordecai observed a Native American exiting the forest, and he stopped by his father’s body. The Native American reached for Thomas, either to kill him or to carry him off. Mordecai aimed and shot the Native American in the chest, killing him. It’s a good thing Mordecai was a quick thinker, or we would not have had a President Lincoln!

Other things we learned while visiting President Lincoln’s birthplace:
– Lincoln’s grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, came over the Cumberland Gap with Daniel and Thomas Walker. We covered Walker’s exploits in an earlier edition. Thomas Walker, explorer

▪ Lincoln was NOT born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky. The log cabin is correct, but his father was in the county’s top 20% of taxpayers, so he was closer to the upper middle class.
▪ Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, died of milk sickness, which came from ingesting milk which came from cows that had eaten the white snakeroot plant, which contains the poison tremetol.
▪ There is a large stone memorial (pictured above) with a cabin inside that was supposed to be the original. It was discovered in 1948 that the original log cabin that Lincoln was reputed to have been born in was dismantled sometime before 1865. Local tradition held that some of the logs from the cabin were used to construct a nearby house. New York businessman Alfred W. Dennett purchased the Lincoln farm in November 1894 and used the logs from this house to build a cabin similar in appearance to the original cabin where Lincoln was born. Soon, the cabin was dismantled and re-erected for exhibition in many cities.
Eventually, the logs for this cabin, along with logs incorrectly reputed to have belonged to Jefferson Davis’s birthplace and possibly a third cabin, were purchased by the Lincoln Farm Association (LFA), which believed they had acquired only Lincoln logs. When workers tried to reconstruct the cabin, they discovered the problem. The LFA bought a one-room cabin similar to the one reconstructed by Dennett. When the last rebuilt cabin was placed in the Memorial Building, its size made visitor circulation difficult. The LFA reduced the cabin’s size from 16-by-18 feet to 12-by-17 feet. The logs were later dated to 1848 (Lincoln was born in 1809), so they were not “Lincoln Logs”. So, now, they call it a “symbolic cabin”.

The heading picture:
“I’m sitting next to a Lincoln impersonator at the airport bar. He’s watching MSNBC reporting on yesterday’s assassination attempt. This is easily the most surreal thing I’ve ever witnessed.” Abe Lincoln impersonator

---

HUFFY BIKES AND THE FIRST EXTENDED MANNED AIRPLANE FLIGHT INTERESTS THIS GENEALOGIST

In my previous 42-year career, our company was owned for more than a decade by Huffy Corporation, which most people would know as Huffy Bikes. We were sold, and Huffy went out of business long ago, a victim of 50 cents per hour labor in Chinese Bicycle factories. The company went bankrupt in 2004, and the name was sold. You can read more about their history here: Huffy Bicycles – Once An Old America Bicycle Company circa 1892 (bicycle-and-bikes.com)

We recently visited the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, including the Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop. During the bike shop tour, the ranger mentioned George Huffman, one of the most famous bicycle manufacturers of the day in Dayton, Ohio. In 1892, Huffman converted his sewing machine factory to bicycle production, founding what would later be known as Huffy Bikes.

By his death at the early age of 35, George Huffman had studied law and dealt in real estate, served as president of the Kratochwill Milling Company, the National Improvement Company, the Davis Sewing Machine Company, Huffman Publishing Company, and the Miami Valley Elevator Company, vice president of the Crume & Sefton Manufacturing Company, treasurer of the Cooper Hydraulic Company, director of the Third National Bank, director of The Homestead Aid Association, the Consolidated Coal and Coke Company of Cincinnati, and the YMCA.

In 1922, George’s son, Horace M. Huffman, and his cousin John M. Huffman formed Huffman Manufacturing Co. (pictured above) opened a factory employing 100 to manufacture “high-grade bicycles.”

So, what does this all have to do with the Wright Brothers? The brothers had tired of the trips to North Carolina to accomplish a 12-second flight. They needed a place closer to home in Dayton, where they could apply their efforts full-time to developing flights.

George and the Wright Brothers knew each other. The younger Huffman cousins heard of the brothers’ need for a place and introduced them to their Uncle Torrence.
George’s brother Torrence Huffman served as president of the Fourth National Bank, owned the Buckeye Iron and Brass Works, was a director of the Dayton Street Railway and Columbia Insurance Company, and was a director of Denison University.

Most importantly, Torrence also owned an 84-acre pasture on which, in 1904, the Wright Brothers built their catapult hangar and, after many attempts, flew for 38 minutes.

Today, the field is known as Huffman’s Prairie Flying Field (below) and is part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

---

ELI LILLY AND THE CIVIL WAR INTERESTS THIS GENEALOGIST

Eli Lilly is a household name, as it is the name of the founder of Eli Lilly (above) and Company. As of 2024, Lilly is ranked 127th on the Fortune 500 with revenue of $34.12 billion. It is ranked 221st on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s largest publicly traded companies and 252nd on Forbes’ list of “America’s Best Employers.”

The following are excerpts from one day’s entries in my Great-Great Grandfather Henry Smith Adams’ Civil War Diary.

28 Memphis, TN July 5, 1862.
The weather is pretty warm, but I guess we can stand it. This is a fine country, well improved, and with good water.

We have moved our camp into the city and are now camped in the Charleston Depot. Our company, Co. E, is in the roundhouse. We are on patrol duty and are called provost guards. It is our duty to walk the streets, dispose of crowds, and pour out all intoxicating liquors. For me, a part of this is rather unpleasant. I never liked to be continually in the presence of those who hate me.

Last evening, Sargent Snodgrass, Eli Lilly, and I were sent to a fine mansion to arrest the owner and visitor (a Mr. King) for selling whiskey to soldiers and drinking toasts to Jeff Davis in this case. Lilly took one and I the other. I took Mr. King, but we had to force them along. They tried to delay us in every way. I feared a crowd that seemed to be gathering around us, but we hurried up a little, and all went well. We took them to the Irving block, where the Provost Marshall’s office was. As I turned Mr. King over to the prison guards, he gave me half a silver dollar and asked me to go and inform his wife where he would stay the night, as it was dark then. I knew where he lived and went and did as he requested me. When his wife opened the door, she appeared a little frightened but thanked me politely when I told her that Mr. King had asked me to inform her that he would stay in the Irving Block that night.

Below is what appearing in the official biography of Eli Lilly, and what he was doing in 1862:

In early 1862, Eli turned his attention to seeking support for organizing a new unit. Throughout the next few months, he besieged Governor Oliver P. Morton for permission to organize an artillery battery of Hoosier soldiers. “Meanwhile,” he wrote, “I studied artillery practice. I recited my lessons and learned the theory of maneuvers.” By summer, the governor awarded young Lilly his commission as a captain and granted permission to start a battery. Upon approval to proceed with his new unit, Captain Lilly recruited 156 men. The Eighteenth Indiana Battery of Light Artillery was established on August 6, 1862, at Camp Morton (now the Indianapolis Fairgrounds).

It does not sound like Eli Lilly was in Memphis with my grandfather. However, I checked the 1860 census records, and there were only two Eli Lillys, one of whom was a child. Reconstructing military service records can be confusing, so I wonder if an error was made.

I learned there is a Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum in Indianapolis, so I’ll have to visit next summer when we are going through Indy.

---

THIS GENEALOGIST ASKS COULD BOTH V.P. CANDIDATES SOMEDAY BE PRESIDENT?

The other night, while watching the VP debate, I thought to myself, what we’re judging here is whether either of these people could serve effectively as president. As 15 of our prior vice presidents later became president, a third of our presidents were former vice presidents.

A few days later, at Warren G. Harding’s Presidential Library, I saw the campaign posters for Harding and Calvin Coolidge running against James Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In that case, both of the V.P. candidates later became president- Coolidge through Harding’s death and his reelection in 1924, and FDR getting elected 12 years later in 1932.

I then went and looked, and that was the only time in history that it has occurred.

Coolidge and FDR met in person at least once. In February 1919, when Coolidge was Governor of Massachusetts, then-President Woodrow Wilson landed in Boston when returning to the United States after his first trip to Europe for the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference. President Wilson was accompanied by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was his Assistant Secretary of the Navy, when landing in Boston, and Roosevelt and Governor Coolidge met at that time.

---

ACCORDING TO THIS GENEALOGIST IF HARRIS WINS, WE WILL HAVE OUR SEVENTH PRESIDENT THAT HASN’T HAD A NATURAL CHILD, WELL SORT OF…

Presidents are, for the most part, a fertile group, having produced 160 or so children. However, six presidents, have not had biological children:

GEORGE WASHINGTON likely contracted and what might explain his infertility is tuberculosis. Washington’s likely exposure was via his brother Lawrence, who was dying of the disease when George accompanied him to Barbados in 1751 at age 19. While in Barbados, Washington contracted smallpox and was very ill, a circumstance that would have weakened his immunity considerably. On his return from Barbados, Washington spent several months combating pleurisy. Given the timing and duration of this illness, it was quite probably an initial pulmonary infection with tuberculosis contracted from his brother. Shortly after Washington’s recovery from pleurisy, Lawrence died from tuberculosis. George recovered from his illnesses.

Of course, Washington did serve as a stepfather to Martha Dandridge Custis’ two surviving children from her first marriage; John Parke Custis was four when they married, and Martha was three. They were so young that they likely only had memories of Washington as a father. Sadly, both preceded their parents in death; Martha died at age 17 from seizures, and John, at 26, from camp fever, acquired as Washington’s aide at Yorktown. They are pictured above.

JAMES MADISON never had children with Dolley, he adopted her one surviving son, John Payne Todd (known as Payne), after the couple’s marriage.

ANDREW JACKSON and his wife, Rachel Donelson, had no children together but adopted Andrew Jackson Jr., the son of Rachel’s deceased brother, Severn Donelson. The Jacksons were guardians of Donelson’s other children: John Samuel, Daniel Smith, and Andrew Jackson. They were also guardians for Andrew Jackson Hutchings, Rachel’s orphaned grandnephew, and the orphaned children of a friend, Edward Butler – Caroline, Eliza, Edward, and Anthony – who lived with the Jacksons after their father died. Jackson also had three Creek children living with them: Lyncoya, a Creek orphan Jackson had adopted after the Battle of Tallushatchee, and two boys they called Theodore and Charley.

JAMES KNOX POLK suffered from frail health as a child, a particular disadvantage in a frontier society. His father took him to see prominent Philadelphia physician Dr. Philip Syng, Physick for urinary stones. James’s severe pain broke off the journey, and Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville, Kentucky, operated to remove them. No anesthetic was available except brandy. The operation was successful, but it may have left James impotent or sterile.

JAMES BUCHANAN never married. Harriet Lane, the daughter of James Buchanan’s sister Jane and Elliot Toll Lane, lived under her uncle’s guardianship from age 11 in 1841. During that time, Harriet and her Uncle James developed a father-daughter relationship.

WARREN HARDING is the “well-sort of”. While Warren and his wife, Florence, never had children, DNA has proven that Elizabeth Ann Britton was the daughter of Harding’s mistress, Nan Britton. We wrote in July 2023 about Harding’s love child- Harding’s affair

Kamala Harris became a stepmom to Cole and Ella Emhoff when they were 20 and 15.

---

WHAT ABOUT YOUR DESCENDANTS KNOWING ABOUT YOUR ANCESTORS?

Reach out to Dancestors Genealogy. Our genealogists will research, discover, and preserve your family history. No one is getting any younger, and stories disappear from memory every year and eventually from our potential ability to find them.

Preserve your legacy and the heritage of your ancestors.

Paper gets thrown in the trash; books survive!

Ready to embark on your family history journey? Don’t hesitate. Call us at 214-914-3598, and let’s get your project started!