Book Reviews

Book Reviews The Descendants of the Four Grandfathers of Walter Samuel, Jr., and Mary Louise (Wooten) Carpenter. Compiled for Walter Samuel Carpenter, Jr. by George Valentine Massey, II. (Privately printed, 1970. xii, 9 p. Coats of arms, charts, index.) Ease of reference and ease of handling, frequently absent from printed family histories, are both found in this tabular genealogy prepared for and in collaboration with Walter Samuel Carpenter, Jr., by his fellow Delawarean, George Valentine Massey, II, F.A.S.G. This Carpenter book is a compendium of 48 charts which trace six generations of posterity of the four grandfathers of Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter- The charts, well and clearly printed, are presented in an expandable loose-leaf binder, accompanied by a short narrative introduction and a full name index. By its very title, Four Grandfathers is not an orthodox genealogy for it neither traces all descendants of a given progenitor nor all ancestors of an individual. It has been conceived for use by a cousinship, the living members of a family circle. In any family it is rare to have up-to-date information on all the current descendants of one's four great-grandfathers; usually one or two "sides" of the family are more familiar, the others less so. Thanks to their father, the Carpenters cannot claim to have lost touch with any of their cousins within a five-generation span. Mr. Carpenter's patronage of genealogical research is but the tip of an iceberg. A large number of cultural interests 'm the Delaware Valley owe much to his concern and unfailing generosity. Mr. Massey introduces the charts with a sketch of the family background of each of the four grandfathers: Benjamin Gardner Carpenter (1827-1889), a plumbing magnate in Wilkes-Barre, descended from a Massachusetts immigrant of 1638 and married to a Fell, a collateral ancestor of Adlai Stevenson; Robert Ruliph Morgan (1821-1895), a mining magnate in Wilkes-Barre, son of the master of a Susquehanna riverboat whose ancestory Mr. Massey has previously published; John William Wesley Wootten (10281912), a coastal shipmaster, printer and amateur architect from Sussex County, Delaware, whose ancestors settled in Somerset County, Maryland, in the seventeenth century; Edward Fowler (1835-1907), a country doctor also descended from Colonial planter families in Somerset and Wicomico Counties, Maryland. The documentation of the four sketches includes works of various degrees of reliability and one would like to see the narrative expanded, but that is not the purpose of the present work. The compiler also includes a chart of all the direct progenitors of grandfathers Wootten and Fowler (but not of grandfathers Carpenter and Morgan): this has been prepared by another person and is not accompanied by a critical evaluation by Mr. Massey. The book is available from Mr. Carpenter, 9034 Du Pont Building, 'Wilmington, Delaware, 19898. FRANCIS JAMES 206 DAttErt Book Reviews 207 History of the Maymaker Ferally. Compiled by Henry Cochran Slaymaker 1909. Revised by Clyde L. Groff and Samuel It. Slaymaker, II, 1969. (Lancaster, Pa.: Lancaster Press, Inc., 1970. ix, 325 p. Coat of arms, facsimiles, photographs, maps. $30.00.) No doubt many descendants of Mathias Slaymaker will welcome this new edition of the long out-of-print Slaymaker family history. But many will be disappointed if they expect to find new data in it and all lines up-dated, for although efforts were made by the authors to contact known descendants, not all responded to inquiries sent them, nor was full use made of records currently available to the researcher. The progenitor of this family, Mathias Slaymaker (originally Schleiermacher) is reported to have emigrated from Strasbourg to Pennsylvania about 1710, and settled in that part of present day Paradise Township (formerly part of Strasburg Township) in the Pequea Valley of Lancaster County. Regretably no evidence to support this claim, or to amplify the meager information in the 1909 edition about the progenitor has been included. In his will, dated 25 November 1762 (and proved 18 December 1762), Mathias named his children as Lawrence, then deceased, his eldest son, daughters Margaret and Barbara, Mathias, John, Henry and Daniel, his youngest son. The descendants of most of these are treated in separate sections which repeat the format of the 1909 edition, including its outdated and unclear numbering system. As in the earlier edition, no attempt was made to trace descendants of Margaret Slaymaker, probably the eldest daughter, who was reported in the 1909 edition to have married Michael Fickel (and who is now known to have emigrated to Pennsylvania on the ship Hope Galley in 1734, and took up land immediately adjacent to Michael Slaymaker by warrant in 1736). And the descendants of Henry Slaymaker, the next to the youngest son, appear in two sections: Part I (pages 8-83), which is devoted to the successive Slaymaker owners of "White Chimneys," purchased by Henry in 1779, and now the ancestral home of the author, Samuel It. Slaymaker, II, and also in Part V. which gives the genealogical record of Henry's descendants. Part I is profusely illustrated with facsimiles of documents I torn the voluminous family records of the present owner, as well as with photographs of family portraits, some of which were reproduced in the 25 August 1967 issue of Life Magazine in the featured story of "White Chimneys." Part V, reproduced from the 1909 edition, duplicates the record as given in that edition, with only a few lines updated. Following Part I and its history of "White Chimneys," Part II goes back in time to Lawrence Slaymaker, the eldest son who died about 1747, and reprints data from the 1909 edition. Descendants of Mathias Slaymaker, Jr. (1728-1804), the second son, are covered without updating in Part III. Part IV gives the descendants of John Slaymaker (1730-1796), and includes extensive updating. Part VI, covering the descendants of the youngest son Daniel (c. 1736-1799), who received the original homestead, includes some updated lines, while Part VII, listing the descendants of Anna Barbara (1726-1794), who married Hieronimus Eckman in 1744, repeats only the data in the 1909 edition. While it is evident from the text that recourse was made to some early wills, tax lists, court and land records, none are identified precisely, and it is not always possible to tell whether the information has been merely repeated from the 1909 edition, or has been newly introduced. No solid picture arises of the lives of the children of the pm, - The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 208 genitor — where they lived, how they acquired land or what they did, all of which could have been culled from readily available sources, and introduced before the record of their children. Unquestionably a tremendous amount of work has gone into the preparation of this new edition, but it remains a not too happy marriage of the history of a home and the genealogical record of a family which deserves a more comprehensive treatment. The lack of an index makes it a difficult work to use intelligently. The book is available for sale from Clyde L. Groff, 713 Columbia Avenue, Lancaster, Pa., 17603. 1-IANNAH BENNER ROACH A List of Alien Passengers, bonded from January 1, 1847, to January 1, 1851, for the use of the Overseers of the Poor in the Commonwealth, prepared under the direction of the Auditor of Accounts by J. B. Munroe, Superintendant of Alien Passengers for the Port of Boston. (Baltimore, Md.: The Genealogical Publishing Company, 1971. [Facsimile of the original Boston 1851 publication.] 99 p. $7.50.) This very useful little book has long been unavailable. As stated "to the Overseers of the Poor of the Commonwealth" of Massachusetts by the Auditor, David Wilder, Jr. in his instructions (p. 3) the purpose of the book is to assist in the identification of indigents on public assistance, and in the completion of the necessary documents which must show name, age, birthplace, date of arrival in the state, and the time when the person's up-keep became chargeable to the Commonwealth. The arrangement is columnar, with month, day and year of arrival on the left, followed by surname, given name, age, country of birth, and the name of the vessel on which the person arrived. Arrangement is roughly alphabetical, all surnames with the same initial letter being listed together in the order of the first letter of the given name. To the genealogist this book is one more reminder of the tools that may be uncovered in state archives. Although developed for the assistance of the managers of alms houses, it will be clear that these records are primary keys for the identification of immigrants during this period. Probably only a very small proportion of those listed required assistance. It is to be hoped that the Genealogic al Publishing Company will be able to locate and republish more lists of this nature. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR. They Called it Strasburg (18th and 19th Centuries), By Charles D. Spotts. [Community Historians Annual, Number Seven.] (Lancaster, Pa.: Schaff Library, Lancaster Thtological Seminary, 1971. ix, 92 p. Illustrations, maps, appendices, index. Paper, $2.50.) Strasburg Township lies a little to the south of central Lancaster County. The borough of Strasburg, in the northern sector of the township, is situated in a limestone valley through which flows the Pequea Creek. This area was settled by Swiss Mennonites who arrived in Pennsylvania in September, 1710, and a month later obtained warrants for land along the old Conestoga Road. These warrants were for Martin Ken. dig, Jacob Miller, Hans Herr, Hans Graelf, Christian Herr, Hans Funk, Martin and Book Reviews 209 Michael Oberholtzer and John Rudolph Bundeli. As early as 1711 land records call the area Strasburg, or New Strasburg, and road records in 1730 mention Strasburg Township, but the township was not erected until later out of Leacock Township, and the earliest known mention of the infant village is the 1759 Strasburg Township tax list where rateables appeared under the heading "Bettie Houses in Strasburg Township." The monograph sketching the history of the borough of Strasburg and its immediate area is divided into four parts. The first discusses the early settlement of the area, and describes the early houses and taverns, many of which are illustrated with photographs or sketches. In Part Two, education and culture — teachers, schools and academic societies — are treated, while Part Three covers the various religious organizations in the area. The last part is devoted to the history of Strasburg after it became a borough in 1816. Although the references cited at the end of the monograph are all secondary sources, it is evident that deeds, wills and tax lists were studied in order to identify buildings and individuals, even though specific references to them were not included. On the whole, it is a readable and interesting account of the development and growth of a typical Lancaster community evolving over the years from individual farmsteads. Two appendices conclude the work. The first is a biographical sketch of the late Mabel (McComb) Ferguson (1884-1968). She was a Lancaster county teacher whose "enthusiasm created increasing interest in local history" in Lancaster County, and whose own researches inspired the present monograph. The second appendix is devoted to a short genealogical study of the early Herr family of the area. Its purpose obviously is to refute the long established tradition that a venerable Bishop Hans Herr (1639-1725) was the leader of the 1710 Mennonite colony to Lancaster County. A chart of the early generations of the Herr family conclude the study. Copies of the monograph are available from Clyde L. Groff, 713 Columbia Avenue, Lancaster, Pa., 17603. HANNAH BENNER ROACH The "Mary and John," A Story of the Founding of Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1630. By Maude Pinney Kuhns. (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1971. [Facsimile of 1943 edition.] xii, 254 p. Bibliography, index. $12.00 boxed.) Facsimile editions are a great boon to publishers and to the pocketbook of the buyer, but unfortunately they preclude any systematic improvement of the original publication. This volume, being an exact duplicate of the original, retains all its faults as well as its virtues. The work is divided into two parts of unequal length. Part I contains four sections. The first section gives a four-page sketch of the voyage of the Mary and John, of the two ministers and their congregations who were passengers on the ship, the founding and settlement of Dorchester, and the split in the settlement which resulted in the early settlements in Connecticut. The second section contains a two-page list of the passengers whom the author has identified (her evidences are not cited). There are 160 names of which 61 were adults. The third section of 83 pages is entitled "The Passengers." In this she gives short biographical sketches of each, together with the records as she had them from their immediate families. The last section of Part I ends with a brief account 210 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine of "Midway Church in Georgia," said to have been established by descendants of the passengers of the Mary and John. Part II, entitled "Descendants,' consists of tabular pedigrees of a number of persons who were living when the book went to press, and traces their ancestry to passengers on the Mary and John. In a few cases, notably White (p. 95), Robinson and Grosvenor (p. 96), Holcomb (p. 159), Gibbs (p. 173), Pinney (p. 192), and Griswold (p. 202), the names of all or most of the children in a generation are also supplied. The quality of the sources given varies from good — references to family bibles, manuscript materials and town records in areas apparently of interest to and researched personally by the author — to poor — inaccurate or indifferent genealogies, and material given to the author by descendants whose pedigrees the author apparently included without verification. The book does have value for the material supplied about the original colonists, but it should be used with caution. The index is adequate. The book is well produced on good quality paper, and has a four-color dust jacket. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR. Now available in the Reading Room of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, for use by interested searchers, are two indices compiled in 1971 by Delmar L. and Elizabeth S. Cottle, 702 Abbott Street, Highland Park, N. J. One, of 78 pages, is a carbon typescript of their Index to Wall mop of Washington County, Ohio, by William Lorry and published by Edward P. Gardner, Philadelphia, 1858. Photocopies of the Wall Map itself (to which the Index refers), and which are listed as No. 686 in the booklet on Land Ownership Maps — A Checklist, compiled by the Library of Congress, may be obtained from the Photo-duplication Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540. The second index, of 116 pages, is entitled Index to Atlas of Washington County, Ohio, by D. J. La/re et al, Titus, Simmons Of Titus, Philadelphia, 1871. This Index is published and for sale by Mayhill Publications, P.O. Box 90, Knightstown, Indiana. Both indices include not only the personal names appearing OD the map and atlas, but occupations, villages, towns and cities, streams, etc., with the location of each on the maps. Information Wanted Mrs. Thornton Price, 336 E. Concorda Drive, Tempe, Arizona, 85282, is preparing a biography of GEORGE GIUY (1725-1800) and his wife MARTHA IBBETSON (1734 1781). She wishes to correspond with descendants and others who may have letters, documents, or other information relating to them or other members of the Gray, Coultas, Ibbetson, Syng and Leipee families.