Caveat Lector!
mail comments to: Jim Spickard
There has long been a concern about the identity of Mary Dawson' ancestors. The Nichols family tradition, as reported in Arthur Clark Nichols II and Evelyn P. (Swenson) Nichols, Nichols - McHargue - Loveland and Allied Families in America, lists her mother as Elizabeth Harrison and claims that she was President William Henry Harrison's sister. This is surely wrong, as W.H. Harrison's siblings are well established, and do not include any Dawson marriage.
World Family Tree, Vol 16, #1609 lists Elizabeth as the daughter of Virginia Governor Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. So does an extensive tree at the LDS website. This is also wrong, as Frank Willing Leach's manuscript on the descendants of Benjamin Harrison (available through the LDS Family History Center) indicate that his daughter Elizabeth was twice married, but neither time to a John Dawson.
Dawson family researchers have failed to connect Mary to the John Dawson (who married an Elizabeth Harrison). Charles C. Dawson: A Collection of Family Records with Biographical Sketchs and other memoranda of various families and individuals bearing the name Dawson. Albany: Joel Munsell, 1874, lists four anonymous daughters. Lee O. Dawson: Thru Three Centuries with a Dawson Family, Moline, IL, 1974, names three of these daughters, none of them a Mary.
Yet our Mary Dawson is indeed the daughter of John Dawson and Elizabeth Harrison -- the latter the daughter of Lawrence Harrison, who is only remotely connected to the famous Harrison line! The previously mentioned Nichols volume (p24) contains the following references to Harrison County Court House records:-- Marriage Bond #247: Ninian Nichols "intent to marry Mary Dawson" was given 3 Sept, 1800 in Cynthiana, Harrison Co., Kentucky. This "intent bond" was sealed with Ninian's mark, x, and the signature of Lawrence Harrison [Mary's brother]. On the same date, John Dawson signed a note of "consent" for "marriage of Ninian Nichols and my daughter, Mary Dawson."
-- Marriage: Ninian Nichols to Mary Dawson, 4 Sept. 1800, Harrison Co., KY, by Wm. Robinson.The Harrison Repository Web Site confirms the marriage of John Dawson and Elizabeth Harrison -- and tells us the latter's actual line. Thus we can confirm the Nichols family tradition about Mary's mother's maiden name, though they presumed the wrong Harrison family for her!
There is some question about this middle name. Frank Fisk reports the name as I give it here. Martha Flora, following some descendants of his son Benjamin Franklin Spickard, gives the name as "John Matthew Spickard". Edith Coffeen also found references to Benjamin's father's name as "Matthew", but without the "John". His great-great-grandson Roland Spickard notes that John's son was definitely "John Smith", but that this son never signed his name "Jr.", nor did the father sign anything "Sr." All references (including his will) are simply to "John".
Roland notes that John's father George was friendly with a Smith family in Ohio, and that John's sister Nancy married a George Smith in 1817. This may or may not be relevant for the name of a man born in Virginia in 1798, but Roland states his belief that both his great-great-grandfather and his great-grandfather were named "John Smith Spickard".
Sources differ as to whether Eleanor Squires was the daughter of Ebenezer or Andrew Squires, both sons of Ebenezer Squire(s). Wesley Keeler, in his Keeler Family: Ralph Keeler of Norwalk, CT, and Some of His Descendants, says that Eleanor was the daughter of Ebenezer and Ann Pierce. Cathy D. Barry-Orth, at the Squier-Atwell Family Reunion Family Tree Web Site, lists her as the daughter of Andrew and Huldah Bronson. Normally, I would trust Keeler's research more than any family reunion web site, except for two things.
- First, Keeler lists the following names as among Elijah & Eleanor's children: Bronson Keeler (twice) and Andrew Squires Keeler -- but no Ebenezer! This leads me to think that family names were being passed down.
- The LDS Family History Website lists records from Louis Barbour's Connecticut Vital Records before 1850 showing an "Eleanor Squier" born to "Andrew and Huldah Squier" on the right date and in the right place.
It was the discovery of this latter fact that led me to change Eleanor's parents on the charts.
This reference comes from a family tree drawn up by Martha Haeberlin Keeler on the birth of her daughter, Sanno Keeler. There is extensive existing research on the Taft family, in which I have been unable to locate either an "Edmund" or a "Grace" with the appropriate dates. I thus wonder whether this might be an "Edward" or some similar name.
Peter Thompson & Thomas Thompson:
We really don't know for sure who Thomas Thompson's parents were. Diane Mattheisen's Thompson Web Page contains an excellent discussion of the problem, and presents the data on which she bases her (current: 1999) conclusion that Peter Thompson (a Danish immigrant) is the current best bet as Thomas & Rachel Thompson's father. I suggest visiting that site for details and for other possibilities.
Connection between Wrightson & Laidlaw:
I got this connection from Francis Tocco (my 3rd cousin) and Dee Aldridge (my 2nd cousin), both excellent and cautious genealogists who work from paper, not rumor. I am concerned, however, about the marriage date -- 8 years after John Wrightson's birth. This would indicate to me that Margaret Laidlaw was Arthur Dixon Wrightson's second wife.
Francis, who discovered the Laidlaw connection, descends from Arthur Wrightson & Margaret Laidlaw's son Arthur, who was born in 1856. Margaret is thus certainly his ancestress, though I am not sure that she is mine.
Is Rachel or Sarah Allis the wife of Jesse Murray?
Some sources list Sarah Allis as Jesse's wife; others list Rachel Allis. After examining the various records, especially Alvan Talcott's, Families of Early Guilford, Connecticut, I have decided to list Rachel as his wife.
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