A THEORY TO IDENTIFY

JOSEPH HASKINS’ WIFE

 

By Robb. Gorr

 

Editor’s Note: The following article is speculation, as the author notes in his final paragraph . However, his thesis is well documented and very convincing.

 

      Joseph Haskins, the pioneer of Wolford Township, is well documented as one of the first settlers there as early as the summer of 1797⁽¹⁾. He was a prosperous man, called by Leavitt “one of the wealthiest farmers in the district”⁽²⁾, who founded a large and prolific family. And while much is known and has been written about him, very little is known about his wife and life partner.

 

Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Haskins, is how she is generally referred. Her name, her death and her age appear on her tombstone in Wolford Rural Cemetery. According to that grave marker, she died on 19 March 1833, aged 89 years, which would make her born about 1744, a year before her husband. But beyond that we know very little about her. The only other records in which she is named are her husband’s will⁽³⁾ and some early township census⁽⁴⁾. Her maiden name, her birth date and place, and her family are all unrecorded and unknown.

 

      There may be a clue, however, to Elizabeth’s identity in the name of one of her grandchildren. Only three of her seven children named a granddaughter after Elizabeth but it was daughter Miriam Haskins, wife of John Butterfield, who added an extra name. She christened her tenth and youngest child Elizabeth Olmstead Butterfield in 1824⁽⁵⁾. At first glance, it might be assumed that she had named the child after her sister Elizabeth who had come to Canada as the wife of Israel Olmstead, but he had been dead for over twenty years and for almost that long she had been the wife of Solomon Edmunds⁽⁶⁾ . So, who then was the Elizabeth Olmstead for whom Miriam had named her child? Could it have been named after her mother?⁽⁷⁾

 

      The Israel Olmstead who had married Elizabeth Haskins had come from the area of Washington County in New York⁽⁸⁾ where it has been established that Joseph and Elizabeth had lived, along with several of their other sons-in-law’s families⁽⁹⁾. He was the son of Jedediah Olmstead by his first wife Mehitable, whose family was also in that part of New York state by the Vermont border⁽¹⁰⁾ . Was there perhaps some connection to that Olmstead family and the wife of Joseph Haskins? Israel’s father Jedediah Olmstead had a sister named Elizabeth Olmstead, born 31 July 1741 in Brookfield, Massachusetts⁽¹¹⁾ . Her age is close, a bit older perhaps, than the age indicated on Elizabeth Haskins’ tombstone. That age, however, differs slightly from the age given in seven early township censuses.

 

      Elizabeth Haskins’ age in some of the early census would indicate that she had been born in 1742⁽¹²⁾ instead of 1744. And, in two of the early census she is clearly four years older than her husband showing that her date of birth was in 1741⁽¹³⁾ and that was the same year that Elizabeth Olmstead had been born. The date on the tombstone, having been erected at some time after her death, must have been incorrect.

 

      If you examine the names that Joseph and Elizabeth Haskins gave to their seven known children, there may be more clues. Eliminating the two children named after themselves and also Tabitha and Nicholas who bore Haskins family names⁽¹⁴⁾ , the three remaining children are Lurana, Gideon and Miriam. Could one or more of those names be from Elizabeth’s side of the family? Coincidentally, two of that Elizabeth Olmstead’s siblings were named Gideon Olmstead and Lurana Olmstead, both of whose families were recorded in that same area of New York state⁽¹⁵⁾ . Her oldest brother Jabez Olmstead had also been married to a woman named Miriam Husse⁽¹⁶⁾ . Could the youngest Haskins daughter have been named for her sister-in-law?

 

      But there is another interesting name coincidence between the two families. Elizabeth Olmstead also had a sister named Silence Olmstead⁽¹⁷⁾ . In fact, that unusual name Silence is used fairly commonly in the Olmstead family. Besides a sister, Elizabeth Olmstead also had an aunt named Silence Olmstead⁽¹⁸⁾ (wife of Ephraim Brown) and at least one cousin named Silence⁽¹⁹⁾ . Now, go back to Miriam Haskins who had named her youngest daughter Elizabeth Olmstead. She had given her oldest daughter the unusual name of Silence Butterfield in 1798. This was definitely not a Butterfield family name and appears nowhere in that family. Did Miriam Haskins name her oldest daughter Silence at the request of her mother, perhaps in memory of a sister, a cousin, an aunt? And, later then, did Miriam name another daughter after her mother and provide the only clue to her identity?

 

      All this is pure speculation and hypothesis, however, because that same Elizabeth Olmstead is recorded as having married on 26 October 1759 in Berkshire County, Massachusetts to Isaac Richardson. Elizabeth and her Richardson husband do disappear from the records after this and so it may be possible that a widowed Elizabeth married Joseph Haskins sometime in the next ten years before their first daughter Lurana was born around 1769. If this connection were correct, though, it would mean that their daughter Elizabeth Haskins had married her first cousin Israel Olmstead. And that is also a plausible possibility⁽²⁰⁾ . There was also a William Richardson in Wolford Township who received a patent on his land on the very same day as did Joseph Haskins⁽²¹⁾ . Could he have been a son of Elizabeth from her first marriage?

 

      Speculation and theorization, however, should not be confused with fact. The lack of primary source documents is missing for this theory, so it should not be considered as fact, however plausible the case may seem. A preponderance of the evidence, circumstantial though that evidence may be, however, can sometimes decide a legal case and, in this case, there is a mounting file of circumstantial evidence. Researchers should be warned not to jump to any concubinary decisions about the identity of Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Haskins. For the meantime, her true identity must remain another of those fascinating genealogical mysteries. The author, however, invites Haskins and Olmstead researchers to speculate or castigate with him on the theory presented herein. Your opinions, thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Robb. Gorr

4 Sandy Drive

Petawawa, Ontario

Canada K8H 3E6

e-mail: gorr9900@yahoo.com

 

Footnotes

 

1.     Return of the Persons Names who are Settled in the Town of Wolford, on the River Rideau July the 29^th, 1797, Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

2.      History of Leeds and Grenville, Thad. W. H. Leavitt (Recorder Press, Brockville, 1879)

3.     “my beloved wife Elisabeth”, will of Joseph Haskins, Wolford, dated 25 February, 1823, Johnstown Wills, Archives of Ontario, Toronto

4.     Regular census were taken of the inhabitants of Wolford, Oxford, Montague and Marlborough Townships at various periods between 1802 and 1819. Elizabeth is listed with Joseph in all of them.

5.     Elizabeth Olmstead Butterfield, daughter of John and Miriam Butterfield was born 9 September, 1824, Rideau Methodist Circuit Registers, National Archives of Canada, microfilm C-3030

6.     Israel Olmstead died 7 February, 1802 and his widow Elizabeth remarried on 5 July, 1803 to Solomon Edmunds. Dates from family bible of Rebecca Edmunds McCaw currently in the possession of her great-granddaughter Alice McGrath Hughes, Merrickville, Ontario.

7.     Naming a child after a grandparent and including the surname was a common practice. John Butterfield and Miriam Haskins would each have a grandchild named after them- Miriam Butterfield Rose (born 1829), and John Butterfield Earl (born ca 1847).

8.     “The Petition of Israel Umstead late from Hampton in the State of New York…” Upper Canada Land Petitions “U-V” Bundle Miscellaneous 1784-1794 (RG 1, L 3, Vol. 513), National Archives of Canada, microfilm C-2842

9.     Joseph Haskins is called “the first settler of the town [of Putnam in Washington County]” in the History of Putnam, New York by Thomas W. McArthur (privately published, 7 September, 1901). John Hutton, husband of Tabitha Haskins, was the son of William Hutton, a Scottish emigrant and a pioneer at Putnam [five page document proving the parentage of John Hutton by Donald Spencer published in Joseph Haskins 1745-1823 Pioneer of Wolford Township by Alice M. Hughes (self-published, Merrickville, August 1990), pp. 78-82]. John Butterfield, husband of Miriam Haskins, was the son of John Butterfield, also an early settler at Putnam. Both William Hutton and John Butterfield are mentioned in the McArthur history.

10.  Correspondence with Doreen Dolleman, an Olmstead descendant and researcher “Did I ever tell you that Jed. and family had been living in Shaftsbury, VT before their arrival in Hampton?” (e-mail, 15 January 2000), and “…families settled in Cayuga Co NY” (e-mail, 4 February, 2000)

11.  Elizabeth Olmstead, born July 31, 1741, d. of Jeremiah Olmstead and Elizabeth Litten, Ware Vital Records, Corbin Collection, p. 56, (TR-I-12), and Brookfield Vital Records, p. 168.

12.  1803 census “Elizabeth Haskins 61”, April 1804 census “Elizabeth Haskins 62”, 18 April 1805 census “Elizabeth Haskins 63”, and 7 April 1806 census “Elizabeth Haskins 64”

13.  28 May, 1817 census “Elizabeth Haskins 76”, and 24 April 1819 census “Elizabeth Haskins 78”

14.  Nicholas was the name of Joseph’s father according to his 1823 will. Both Nicholas and Tabitha are names given to children of Abial Haskins of Augusta Township, who is believed to be a brother or cousin to Joseph Haskins of Wolford Twp.

15.  Correspondence with Doreen Dolleman, “Elizabeth’s brother Gideon Olmstead and sister Lurana Olmstead Van Surdam…and their families settled in Cayuga Co. NY” (e-mail, 4 February, 2000)

16.  Correspondence with Doreen Dolleman,  “Jabez [Olmstead] married Miriam Husse in Sheffield Town, 11 July ,1858…[and lived] in Hebron, NY where the family settled in the late 1780s” (e-mail 29 August, 2002)

17.   Silance Olmstead, born 30 September, 1749, in Ware, Hampshire Co, MA, d. of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Litten, Ware Vital Records, Corbin Collection, p. 56, (TR-I-12).

18.  Silance Olmstead, born 30 November, 1728, in Brookfield, Worcester Co. MA, d. of Jabez Olmstead and Thankful Barnes, Brookfield Vital Records, p. 168.

19.  Silence Brown, born 19 October, 1737 in Brookfield, Worcester Co. MA, (Brookfield Vital Records, p. 53), was the daughter of Elizabeth Olmstead’s aunt, Thankful Olmstead and her husband Timothy Brown.

20.  Correspondence with Doreen Dolleman “As far as first cousin marriages go the Olmsteads did that a lot and I have found it in many other branches of my family also so it must have been an acceptable practice in those days.” (e-mail, 15 January, 2000)

21.  A William Richardson obtained a patent on Lot 14 Concession 2 of Wolford Twp on 17 May, 1802 although he does not appear in the township census that was taken on 1 May, 1802. Coincidently, Joseph Haskins received the patent for his land on Lot 25 Concession A of Wolford Twp on the same day in 1802.