52 Ancestors # 26 Alexander Negley, Revolutionary Soldier

     Alexander Negley was one of the founders of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  In that city there is a Negley Avenue named for him. He was born about 1734, probably in Frankfort am Main, Germany. His parents immigrated to America in 1739 but his father, Jacob Negley, died on the way over.  His mother, Margaretha, and her three children (Alexander, Caspar, and Elizabeth) settled in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.  Margaretha married Felix Leh, a blacksmith there. Alexander learned this trade from Felix Leh.

     In 1758, as a young man of 22, he fought in the French and Indian Wars. He served with General Forbes' forces at Ft. Duquesne. This was a fort built by the French at the point where the Monongehala and Allegheny Rivers join and form the Ohio River. The British defeated the French and built a new fort at the spot, called Fort Pitt. Alexander was much taken with the country in this area.  He returned to Bucks Co. and married Mary Ann Berkstrasser in 1762.  Their first 6 children were born there but in 1777 he moved his family west. They first settled in Westmoreland Co., near Ft Ligonier. Here they had to fight Indians and run for shelter in the fort. The story is told of Alexander and his oldest son, Felix, holding the Indians off with gun fire as they ran for the fort while Mary Ann (pregnant with her seventh child) drove the wagon, with the other children in it, ahead of them. They all made it and their son, John, was born in the fort.

     In 1778, Alexander joined Capt. Samuel Moorehead's Independent Company, 8th Pennsylvania Regiment  in the Revolutionary War.  This was a frontier militia and they are described at the time as wearing buckskin breeches. Here he fought to take Fort Pitt from the British which they did and it became the western headquarters during the war. He was then stationed at Fort Ligonier and the above incident with the Indians may've taken place at that time. At any rate in 1778 he moved his family to the area of Fort Pitt. He settled in what is now East Liberty but then was called "Negleytown". It is also simply "Pitt" in the 1790 Census. He had a farm of 300 acres on what is now Highland Park in Pittsburgh which he named "Fertile Bottom". He first built a log house but eventually built a red brick house with "look" holes for rifles for protection from the Indians.  It was said to be the finest house west of the Alleghenies at the time. There were orchards and groves, he was quite a prosperous farmer. They were supposed to be the first white settlers in the area. At first they had few neighbors but eventually other pioneers joined them. He and his sons established a grist  mill and a fulling mill.  He was instrumental in founding the first church in Pittsburgh, the First German Evangelical Protestant Congregation. He was a smart businessman judging by the fact that he was able to purchase a farm for each of his children.

     He died Nov 3, 1809, aged 75. His wife died in 1829.  He left 8 surviving children. He and Mary Ann were buried on the farm in what is now Highland Park along with about 50 other pioneers.  It is now marked with a monument and referred as "Negley circle".
    

52 Ancestors #25: John (Johannes) Delamater, Revolutionary Soldier

     John Delamater was born 26 Feb 1758 and baptized 14 May 1758.  In the Dutch ReformedChurch of Rhinebeck records he is called Johannes but this is the Latin version of the name, he called himself John in his pension application. He was born in "the Oblong" in Dutchess County and baptized in Rhinebeck, New York.  His parents were Isaac Delameter and Eva Kip.

     In 1776, John fought in the Revolutionary War.  I obtained his records from the National Archives in 1979.  Here is his description of his experiences in the War from his pension application:

     "I resided in the town of nine Partners in the County of Dutchess and State of New York and enlisted at that place in May 1776...I volunteered with a part of our company to go to White Plains under Capt. William Chamberlain from Sharon, Conn. and I marched with that Company as Orderly Sergeant to White Plains and I was engaged  in the battle at that place.  I was in the thickest of the fight. Several of my countrymen fell ...I recall the names of Elias Bailey Jacob Crapser and Isaac Baldwin who were killed by my side. I had a ball pop through my hat within half a n inch of my head.  It struck the fore part of my hat. The battle was about the first day of October 1776. (Note: this is the Battle of White Plains, 28 Oct 1776." Later he describes , "During the aforesaid eleven months I ranged through Hopewell, Dover, Nine Partners, Rhinebeck and Poughkeepsie for the purpose of taking up Tories and horse thieves and I succeeded in capturing as many as thirty enemies of my country in the shape of Horse Thieves and Tories and [they} were afterward sent to Nova Scotia." "If I an incorrect in the details I am positive and clear in this that I served twenty four months of actual service during the Revolutionary War."

     On 17 Jun 1778 he married Maria De Graff, probably at Poughkeepsie.  They had a son, Jacobus(James) born 6 Feb 1779.  They may have had two daughters as well as in the 1790 Census he is listed in Fishkill, New York, with 1 male under 16, 1 male over 16 and three females. Appaently, Maria died as on 17 Jul 1791 he married Betsy (Elizabeth) Lester and moved to Coeymans, Albany Co., New York.  In 1793 the Delamaters moved to Odeltown, Lower Canada. I had rouble finding this place but it turned out to be a rather loose settlement started by a man named Odel in Quebec, Canada near the border of New York. According to the pension claim, on 24 Sep 1811 their house burned down , destroying the family Bible and his discharge papers. Not long after this they moved to Champlain, Clinton, New York, near the borders of Quebec and Vermont. the part of Champlain where he lived was formed into the town of Mooers and in the 1820 Census we find him on pg. 420 listed as Delamater, John, 1 male 10 and under 16, 1 male 16 and under 26, 1 male over 45, 1 female 16 and under 26, and 1 female over 45, occupation agriculture." In 1830, we find his household as " 1 male under 5, 1 male 40 under 50, 1 male 70 under 80, 1 female 20 under 30 and 1 female 60 under 70."

     On 13 Nov 1833, John Delamater submitted his petition for a pension.  He is called a resident of Mooers, Clinton Co., NY and is listed as age 73.  He is described as "very infirm and just barely able to hobble about with a cane." It looks like he spelled his name "Delammeter", the clerk spelled it "Delamarter".
John died on 1 Jan 1834 as stated by his wife, Elizabeth. He didn't get his pension as the government felt there wasn't enough proof of service.  But it certainly was a thrill for me to read his description of his Revolutionary War service!

52 Ancestors #24: Johannes Kells, Revolutionary Soldier

     Johannes (John) Kells was born on 24 Feb 1741 in Claverack, Columbia, New York and baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of Linlithgo. He was the son of Hendryk or Henry Kells and Anna Margaretha Eswein. Her family were German Palatines from Pfalz, Germany. His antecedents we are not sure of currently. On 20 Dec 1763, Johannes' marriage to Maria Elizabeth Ennes Anderson is recorded in the same Linlithgo Church.  They had eight children, two girls and six boys.

     In the Revolutionary War, Johannes was a private in Capt. Andrew Finck, Jr.'s Company in the First Battalion of New York Forces. He enlisted on 12 Mar 1776 for a period of three years.  In Oct of 1777 he was Fort Schuyler in the Mohawk Valley of New York. This fort played a key role in helping the Americans defeat the British in Western New York.

     Johannes Kells is enumerated in the 1790 Census as the Head of a Household in Claverack, Columbia, New York. An interesting part of the Census record is that it says that he owned 5 slaves. I hadn't realized that people in New York owned slaves at this time but it was very common. New York passed a law in 1799 for gradual freeing of the slaves and in 1827 slavery was abolished fully. I don't know if I mentioned this to my mother who would have been shocked that any of her ancestors had ever owned slaves! Johannes died between 1798 and 1800 in Claverack.

52 Ancestors # 23: John Hudson, Revolutionary Soldier

     John Hudson was born about 1713 in Massachusetts. According to Charles Hudson, his descendant, he is presumed to be the son of Nathaniel Hudson and Rebecca Rugg.  this is because he arrived in Marlborough, Massachusetts with Seth and Nathaniel Hudson who are known to be sons of Nathaniel and Rebecca. Charles Hudson makes this speculation in his History of the Town of Lexington, published 1868.  As far as I know this has been accepted by everyone researching this family yet no actual evidence has ever been found. I think this is the weak link in the Hudson line but I have not been able to find better evidence so far.  I did find a John Hudson born to a Moses Hudson about the same time. John had a son named Moses, this name is not found in any other Hudson family that I've seen.  But I haven't fully investigated this. I just want to mention it here.

     John settled in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts. In 1739 he married Elizabeth McAllister of Northboro, Mass. They had eleven children: Elijah, Elizabeth, Elisha, Miriam, Moses, Aaron, Hannah, Ebenezer, John, and Stephen.  All seven of their sons fought in the Revolutionary War on the American side, two of them, Ebenezer and Charles, dying during it.

     Charles Hudson in the book mentioned above says this," There is one peculiarity in the whole family.  They seem to have a taste for a military life. Few families of the same number have furnished as many soldiers for the old French and Indian Wars, and the Revolutionary War, as the Hudsons..." John and his sons Elijah and Elisha fought in the French and Indian Wars between 1755 and 1760.  John served under Captain Samuel Howe in the expedition to Crown Point in 1755 and was one of the "alarm men" in Col. Abraham Williams' company in March 1757.

     In the Revolutionary War John enlisted on May 29, 1775 and was in service for 2 months and 8 days.  He later also is noted on muster sheets on 1 Aug 1775 and 7 Oct 1775. He was in Capt, Samuel Wood's Company in Col. Jonathan Ward's regiment. At this time he was 62 years old! In 1790 he received a Bounty Land Warrant as a Corporal for his service.  This was good for 100 acres "in the West", usually New York or Ohio. This land was set aside by individual states for their veterans. I have a copy of this land warrant that I got from the National Archives in about 1979. There is very little data on it, though as the files were burned in the War of 1812. His sons Elisha and Aaron both ended up in Western New York State so one of them may've used it.

     Elizabeth died on 16 May 1786 and John remarried Bethia Wood on 28 Mar 1787. He and Bethia moved to Berlin, Worcester, Mass. shortly before 1790. In the first u.S. Census of 1790 he is listed as the head of a household consisting of "1 free white male and 1 free white female" in Berlin. John Hudson died at Berlin on 6 Aug 1799, aged 83 years. Bethia survived him by quite a few years.  She died in East Bridgewater, Mass., on 23 Feb 1825m aged 78 of a "great cold" and was buried in the Hudson tomb off Plymouth St.

     I am writing this on the Fourth of July 2014 in honor of an ancestor who fought for his country at the age of 62 and sent seven sons into battle as well! He enlisted in May 1775 which was only a month after Concord and Lexington.

52 Ancestors # 22: Giovanni Luigi Stefani

     Giovanni Luigi Stefani was my Great Grandfather Frank Stefani's father.  Frank hated him. Frank was named after his father, Giovanni Francesco Stefani is what his birth record says. But his school final report card and all records after say, "Francesco Giovanni Stefani" so I think he switched the order and called himself Francesco and Frank so that he would NOT be called Giovanni like his father. Frank told his children that his father was a drunk who used to beat Frank.  His father was a peddlar who made Frank push the cart and go with him to the various surrounding villages. Giovanni would spend the money he made on booze so Frank used to hide as much of it as he could.  He would then give this to his mother in secret so that she could buy food.  I have memories of Frank from three of his children and they all say pretty much the same about his father.

    So, I am researching the family tree and I looked up his father as part of it, naturally.  Here's what I found.  Giovanni Luigi Stefani was born on 23 Mar 1821 in Sporminore, Tyrol, Austria. His father was Ferdinando Stefani, born in Sporminore, and his mother was Maria Domenica Maddalena Conci, born in the nearby town of Torra. Reading on we find that his father died on 19 Oct 1822, age 29, of a malignant fever ("febre maligna"). Giovanni was only 19 months old when his father died! His mother remarried Giuseppe Weber on 10 Feb 1824 and they went to live in Mezzolombardo, not far south of Sporminore. So we have a boy whose father died when he was very young, whose mother remarried and then is raised by a stepfather. Chances are that Giuseppe preferred his own sons to Giovanni, quite possibly they did not get along. I don't know this, however, Giovanni did not stay in Mezzolombardo but returned to Sporminore as a young man.

     In Sporminore he married on 20 Oct 1849, Elisabetta Maria Cattarina Wegher.  She came from a prosperous family of blacksmiths and owned the house they lived in. So quite possibly he felt embarrassed that she had more assets than he did. His mother was already dead when he married Maria, although Giovanni was only 28. He and Maria had 7 children.  The oldest son died at the age of 11. Three of his daughters died very young and his second son died at the age of 12. Only one daughter and his youngest son, Francesco, lived to adulthood. Imagine the loss of these children! I think by the time Francesco came along Giovanni probably didn't want to care for him as he likely felt he would just die like the others. I think he must have felt that life had treated him very badly and drink was his only consolation. It is a common enough story.

     Giovanni died on 1 Jun 1881, age 60. It says "marasma" or decline but I can't read the second word. Perhaps if he had lived longer and Frank had stayed in Sporminore they may have been able to reconcile. Since that didn't happen he is forever known as the drunkard, no good father. I think having the facts of his life I can find room in my heart, anyway, for understanding and a more compassionate view.

52 Ancestors # 21: Giovanni Tinetti

     Giovanni Tinetti was born on 14 Jul 1825 in San Giovanni Canavese, the son of Giuseppe Tinetti and Maria Magdalena Pastore. He married Domenica Catterina Zanotti-Cussio on 27 May 1846 in Cuceglio, a nearby town.  Their first two children, Giuseppe and Antonio, were born in San Giovanni but by 1852 the family had moved to Torre Canavese. Here their daughters, Maria Teresa, Maria Teresa Emilia and Virginia , were born.  Also, there were two stillborn children, one before and one after Virginia. Perhaps affected by this, Domenica died on 3 Apr 1863. This left Giovanni a widower with 5 children, ages 4-17. To help out, Domenica's younger sister, Maria Catterina, came to help look after the children. the family story is that he became concerned that it would not look right for her to be living there with him. So he offered to marry her in name only for the sake of propriety. She replied, (my paraphrase) "No, Giovanni, I won't accept, I WILL marry you but only if I can be your wife in full". This made him very happy and they were married.

     That's the story. I have to say, though, that I could only find a marriage record dated 14 Aug 1878.  This is after all their children were born. This was in Torre Canavese.  I found none in Cuceglio.  It's possible they were married in another town.  It's possible the marriage wasn't recorded and the later marriage was to get a proper record of it. It's also possible they didn't get around to it for 15 years! Don't know!

     They were contadini, i.e. peasants.  They farmed and grew herbs behind their house which they sold. The house still exists, my sister and I visited it recently.  It is in Vallia, a "frazione" (small community attached to a larger one) of Torre Canavese. The map of Vallia is one line, one road going up and over a hill. It is a pretty good sized house. The view behind the house is quite lovely of the valley and mountains. There is a cherry tree still growing which apparently was there then.  There is a little lake next to the house. It looked like a good place to raise children. Giovanni and Catterina had several children: a son, Giuseppe Secondo, who died in infancy, and five daughters. These were the twins, Maria Teresa Domenica ("Minnie") and Maria Teresa Rosa. They were followed by Maria Teresa Allbina, Angelina Margarita and Adele Secondina Maria Teresa.
 
     Giovanni's son, Antonio, got into some sort of financial trouble and Giovanni had to bail him out. Because of this he had to sell the house and they were poorer so three of the daughters had to go to America (this is according to my cousin, Marco Coltro, who is descended from the daughter who stayed, Albina). In America, Minnie married Pietro Peretti and they raised a large family in Illinois. Rosa married Louis (Luigi) Bonino and they raised a large family in Oklahoma. Angelina married Frank Stefani and they raised a smaller family in Issaquah, Washington. Virginia died in Torre Canavese at the age of 23. Maria Teresa, daughter of Giovanni and Domenica, died at age 28 having married twice but with no children. Maria Teresa Emilia married Domenico Faletti and they had four children. Albina married Carlo Bonatto and they had four children as well. It is descendants of these last two who are our cousins in Torre Canavese and Torino today.

     Giovanni died on 11 Oct 1904, I assume in Torre Canavese but I don't know. We have a picture on a card with data on the back. His daughters remembered him fondly and kept

in touch with each other both in America and in Italy. This was passed down the generations and many of the descendants of Minnie, Rosa and Angelina have gone back to Italy and visited the old home and area. I think this is a tribute to Giovanni!

52 Ancestors # 20: Adelaide Maria Anna Stefani

     Adelaide Stefani was my Great Grandfather's older sister.  She was born Adelaide Maria Anna Stefani on 29 Aug 1853 in Sporminore, Tyrol, Austria. Her parents were Giovanni Luigi Stefani and Elisabetta Maria Cattarina Wegher (generally known as Maria). She was the third child but her older sister had already pre-deceased her. By the time her youngest brother, Francesco, was born ten years later, her oldest brother and two younger sisters had all died. The one other brother between them in age died three years after Francesco was born. So, Adelaide and Francesco were pretty close as brother and sister.  At some point in her childhood Adelaide had an accident that damaged her spine. She took quite awhile to recover and it left her with a bit of a hunchback. Her brother was quite solicitous of her and as a teenager and young man took great pains to provide for her and his mother. Their father died in 1881 and in 1884 their mother followed. Adelaide married Federico Friedle on 27 Aug 1887. At this point her brother, Francesco, seeing her settled, left for America, where he became Frank Stefani.

     Federico Friedle came to Sporminore in 1885. He was born in Hoeselgehr according to Sulle Sponde Dello Sporeggio as an illegitimate child and raised in an orphanage in Trento. Federico learned "the shoemaker's art" in Tres and came to Sporminore to ply his trade.

  He and Adelaide had 6 children but only 3 survived more than a year: Guido, Onorio Giuseppe or Dionigi, and Orazio Firmo Luigi. Orazio was born 24 Nov 1899. Adelaide died on 4 Mar 1900. She was only 46 years old. According to her death record she died of "nefrite cronica" or chronic nephritis. This is a kidney disease and perhaps was aggravated by the childbirth, at any rate she left Federico with three small children and he remarried by 1905.

    This is all I know about Adelaide. However, her son, Guido, sent his Uncle Francesco a postcard in 1915 which I have, so Francesco (Frank) kept it. Adelaide must have told her son about her brother and perhaps Francesco corresponded with her as well.  Recently, in preparation for a trip to visit Sporminore I wrote to the three Friedles listed in Trentino in the Italian White Pages. Vittorio Fridle responded to one of my letters. The name is no longer spelled with the first "e" by the family but one of the people who got my letter gave it to his sister and she gave it to

him. We were able to get together in Sporminore and, in fact, he got most of the Fridle family to welcome my sister and I. Adelaide has three grandchildren still living and many great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and on. She and Francesco would've been happy to know this and to see them all now!