#13 – Unsnarling Snarls: Getting a few things straight,
like names and dates
In our previous two posts, we were gaining context for
the dates these posts toss around. Now we will get a few things straight, like
names and dates; try to unsnarl some of the inconsistencies we find along the
way, or at least acknowledge they exist.
George and Anna Margret arrived
in the Drums Valley probably in the mid to late 1790’s. Here is a picture of them taken shortly after they
arrived.
OK, I lied. This is not George and Anna Margret. These
folks are my folks, Mom (Eleanor) and Dad (Harry). They are all dressed up for
a Bicentennial Parade in which the Sugarloaf Valley 4-H Club marched in 1976,
in Freeland, PA. Mom and Dad were 4-H Volunteers who worked with the Sugarloaf
Valley 4-H Club. But they COULD have been George and Anna Margret, right? OK, I
guess not. HERE is the REAL picture of George and Anna Margaret.
Man, you guys won’t ley me get away with ANYTHING! You
are right, AGAIN! This is not their picture either. This is something I drew
when I was 10. I like the sound effects (woof, tweet, meow).
 |
| Anna's grave. |
George and Anna Margret had eight children; six boys and
two girls. Laura Helman tells us there were seven children (five boys and two
girls)[1],
however, a visit to Anna’s grave site in the St. Johns Cemetery exposes the
error. In the oldest corner of the cemetery, beside the road and under a huge,
old pine tree, we find Anna's Grave.
Resting to her left, is a child not mentioned by Helman.
The stone gives his name as "Isaac
Drum.” Born in 1799, he was five-years-old when he died.
Anna’s stone includes an intriguing inscription. It
appears to read: “hier
ruhen in gott die gebeine von Anna Margretda
Drummen“.
Here rest in God the mortal remains of Anna Margretda Drummen. If this is what the stone says, why does her
name appear this way?
My first
impression was that it was a humorous play on words. However, logic told me
that made no sense. This IS a gravestone, after all! Therefore, it must be how
they intended to present her name, but that made no sense, either!
Perhaps the
inscription does not refer to her name. If written this way: “Anna Margret da
drummen” it could be translated to mean “Anna Margret is there”. Is the
inscription actually saying that Anna Margret’s mortal remains are here but her
soul is there with God? If so, what a coincidence it is that her last name was
Drum causing our “English-reading” eyes to see the name and not the meaning.
Alternatively,
perhaps it is both her name and a statement of belief combined on purpose. After
giving this some further thought, I remembered that early stone carvers did
upon occasion take shortcuts. An example of this can be seen at the St. Paul’s
U.C.C. Cemetery in Cherryville, PA. According to information
on their website, the 1789 stone carver who carved the stone
marking the grave of ANA BARBARA APPIN, took advantage of “Barbara” ending in “A” and “Appin” beginning with “A”,
so carved “ana
barbarappin”. Another example is found on Anna Margret’s stone where it lists
her birth date. She was born October 29. The stone reads "Octobr 29”.
After all, it isn’t easy
carving stone.
It isn’t easy pinpointing specific dates for these early
Drums, either. It was most likely after George’s service with Cpt. Peter Hays’s
Company ended that he married Anna Margret Woodring, probably sometime between
1783 and 1786. Perhaps they knew each other before he went to war or did he
meet her after his return? No diaries or letters are known to exist that can
give us a clue. It is believed they were in or near Williams when their first
son, Philip, was born in 1787.
We surmise the family then moved to Allen late 1789 or
early 1790 prior to August 2, 1790 when the collection of data for the first
national census took place. Jacob is born next, in 1791 followed closely by
their third son, George, in 1792, both probably born in Allen. It is still
fairly certain on this timeline that this family has not yet made it to the
Drums valley.
This is part of a road map
Texaco put out in 1975 as a service to their customers. It is included here as
a service to you, the reader, to help gain perspective of where locations of
interest to this family are located. I’ve marked Drums in the upper left-hand
corner with a heart. Also marked in the lower right corner is Williams Township
which is just South of Easton. I’ve also circled Allentown. Moore Township is
North of Allentown. Circled is Mooretown. Cherryville is circled and has a star
added to mark the grave of Jacob (whom I believe is “our” Jacob Drum. for more information see the post entitled "Jacob's Story".).
George and Anna’s next child was born in 1797, another
boy, and they named him Abraham[2].
It seems likely that it was during these five years, the time between George’s
birth in 1792 and Abraham’s birth in 1797, that the Drums finally made it to
the valley that would eventually take on their name; Anna and the children probably
arriving first with the Woodring’s and then followed by George a few years
later. If so, it marks Abraham as being the first Drum child to be born in what
would become known as the Drums Valley. George and Anna’s next child is another
boy, the five-year-old Isaac, who died in 1804 and rests beside his mother in
the St. Johns Cemetery.
Anna must have been very happy when their next child was
born in 1801, for finally, after five boys, she was given a baby girl; a girl
whom they named Mary Elizabeth[3].
This child’s name was most likely of Anna’s choosing; probably named after her
own mother, Maria Elizabeth.[4]
Mary Elizabeth is followed by yet another girl whom they named Ann Margarett but who grows up being called Peggy, and
later, Aunt Peggy.[5]
Again, Helman does not give birth or death dates but Margarett was probably
born in, or before, August of 1804 (at least 10 months before William was
born). She is listed as age 45 in the 1850 census so probably had not yet
reached her 46th birth anniversary at the time the data was
collected.[6]
Ann Margarett’s name is of some interest. Helman gives
her name as “Margaret” (one “t”), which is also how she appears in the 1860
census. However, she is listed in the 1870 census as “Ann Margarett”. She is
listed as “Peggy” in the 1850 census. In an article[7]
about her nephew, George W. Drum(George, George, Jacob, Philip),
published at the time of his passing in 1913, she is listed as “Peggy Ann”.[8]
Given her name as recorded by Helman and the 1860 census, it is reasonable to
assume she preferred Margarett or Peggy to Ann, Ann Margarett, or Peggy Ann.
After Margarett, Anna was to give birth one last time, in
1805. Her eighth and final child was a boy they named William. The 1850 census
lists Mary Elizabeth as being age 49 placing her birth year as 1800 or 1801.
William is also listed as being 49 years of age in 1850. Could William and Mary
have been twins?
They are not. It appears the 1850 census data is
incorrect on the issue of William’s age. After locating his grave, the stone
confirms his birth date as June 24, 1805 making him 45 in 1850. His death was
recorded on the gravestone as Oct. 1, 1857.
By 1807, two-year-old William’s oldest brother, Philip,
had celebrated his 20th birth anniversary. He was, therefore, 21
when he bought his land in Conyngham in 1808; perhaps that was also the year he
married for the first time. There is some question regarding his first wife’s
name, however. Helman just leaves a blank. Other sources say she was either
Mary Wotring (Woodring)[9]
or Magdalene Beisel[10].
If one of these is correct, the likelihood is it is Mary
Woodring. William Drum was probably named after an uncle named William
Woodring. When William Woodring died in 1815, and George’s wife, Anna Margret Woodring Drum had also died (June 23,
1821), George married Anna Margaret’s sister, William Woodring’s widow, Rosanna[11].
The likelihood therefore is that Philip was just keeping it all in the family
by marrying Mary.
Mary/Magdalene would have been proud of Philip’s first
mill, a carding-mill,
built in 1810. In 1835 he built the valley’s first woolen-mill a short distance
away.[12] A
visit made on April 9, 2018 to the site where their home once stood along the
Little Nescopeck Creek found only a half-filled in cellar-hole, still lined
with foundation stones; surrounded, here and there, by Daffodils, Irises, and
Lilacs.[13]
Together Mary/Magdalene and Philip started their family.
Helman does not provide us with birth dates for their first three children but
she does give us their names: Anna, Sarah, and Jacob.[14]
Once again it is from Census data that we learn their birth years, in two cases
confirmed by grave stones.
Jacob’s age is given as 38 in 1850 (therefore born in 1812)
but 46 in 1860 (therefore 1814). However, the grave stone clears the matter
giving his birth as 1814 and death occurring in 1878. From Anna’s grave we
learn she was born Oct. 26, 1815 and died January 2, 1877. Sarah has been
difficult to locate in the census. An 1850 listing that seems to be her has her
listed as being only 26. The 1860 census seems more accurate giving her age as
41 putting the birth year at 1819. Her grave has not been located.
None of the three siblings would know their mother for
very long. Mary/Magdalene apparently died shortly after Sarah was born. Philip
was left to care for these three children by himself, but only for two or three
years. In 1822 he married for a second time. We know his second wife’s name was
Magdalene, Magdalene Beishline.[15]
Return to the Drums of Drums, PA on December 17, 2018 to
find out just how many Drums there were in Drums, PA because, as we’ll soon
learn from the next post, #14, There were
a lot of Drums in Drums!
[1] Helman,
Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA:
Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927) p 3
[2]
The Helman book lists Abraham as the sixth child to be born, not the 4th,
and gives the birth year as 1804 (no month or day). Most likely she arrived at
this birth year by subtracting his age at death, 65, from the year she thought
he had died, 1869. It seems she got his death year from an article she found in
“Philip Drum’s Bible” (probably John’s son, Philip Alonzo) and copied for her
notes. However, she copied the date of death as Nov. 9, 1869, but his grave
stone lists it as Nov. 9, 1862.His grave stone also indicates his birth date as
October 11, 1797, a difference of 65.
[3]
Helman’s book gives this name as “Elizabeth”, however, she appears in the 1850
census as “Mary E.”
[4]
Drum, Nora, Miss; Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, Drums
Methodist Church and Valley Notes (Drums, PA: St. Paul’s Methodist Church,
1953)
[5]
Helman, p. 3
[6] It
should be noted that her age is given as 62 in the 1870 census putting her
birth year at 1807 or 1808. The age listed for her in the 1860 census at first
seems to be 52. However, upon closer examination, one realizes that the entry
was made with great haste, the age actually being 56. The 1850 census has her
as 45 years of age. If, however, the 1807/8 birth year is correct, Margarett
would be Philip and Magdalene’s youngest child.
[7] “Conyngham’s
Grand Old Man Dead, Honorable George W. Drum is no more – was the town’s oldest
native citizen” Valley Vigilant, November 14, 1913. P 23
[8] That
same Valley Vigilant article lists Mary Elizabeth as “Betsy” and fails
to include Abraham and Isaac.
[9] Research
conducted by Eleanor Drum in the 1970’s.
[10]
Drums, PA, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Drums,_Pennsylvania&oldid=726559076
accessed 9/20/2016
[11]
Helman lists the name as Rosanna. Information found on the web site “Find a
Grave” lists her as Rosina, however, does not provide a photo of the grave
stone and says she is buried in Easton. If this is true, it begs the question
of why she is buried in Easton when George was clearly living in Drums at the
time. Her grave, to my knowledge has not been located in Drums, however.
[12] Bradsby,
H.C., ed, History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: S.B. Nelson
& Co., 1893). Chapter XXI (continued): Butler Township. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/luzerne/1893hist/
accessed 6/7/2016
[13]
Stupid me failed to take a photo the day I visited the location. I’ll do that
the next time I drop by.
[14]
Helman, p 3
[15]
Helman, p 5
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