By Teresa Martin
Klaiber 2002
“It
takes a village” was a phrase often heard in the mid 1990’s. It takes many research cousins from many
villages to recreate the lives of our ancestors in documented detail. When I put my name on an article it is not
because that ancestor belongs to me; it is because I want to share my findings
with future researchers to continue to remember, honor, and, yes, research more
about that person. P.S. remember to use a citation. It takes long hours to compile the evidence.
I
had been given bare bones information on my third great grandfather,
Philip/Phillip Bartlett when I began researching him in the late 1960’s. By now everyone, knows the drill. Order
microfilm, wait. Crank microfilm machine and hope you find the target. Hope you find your target. Pinpoint person’s location and travel the distance to said courthouse. A far cry from doing research in 2020 where,
thanks to places like FamilySearch you can sit at home in pj’s and download
digital microfilm from federal and court records in minutes. But I digress.
Phillip Bartlett, [Phillip¹] was born 05
November 1789 in Waterbury, Chittenden County, Vermont, the son of Phillip and
Lydia Everest Bartlett.
When I first began researching Phillip and his
wife Tapher[i], they were in Saranac,
Clinton County, New York, where Phillip’s father, Phillip, had died in 1816.
Saranac, on the river of the same name, is about 17 miles west of Plattsburg
which lays on the lake. Clinton County is the northernmost County bordering on
Lake Champlain with Vermont on the other side of the lake.
Mother, Lydia Everest Marsh Bartlett had filed
for a Revolutionary widow’s pension 18 August 1836 listing son Phillip along
with brothers John and William. Lydia
stated she had married Phillip Bartlett at Royalton, Windsor County, Vermont,
11 June 1784 as the widow of James Marsh.[ii]
Phillip appears as an adult in Plattsburg,
Clinton County, New York on an assessment roll listing him as “ Barlett, Philip
Jr.” with a house and farm assessed for 100 acres in 1811.[iii] According to the author of the quoted history
it is taken from an “assessment roll of the real and personal estates in the
town of Plattsburgh between 1 May and June 1811 by John Baker, Charles Marsh,
Martin Winchell, Daniel Hillyard and MF. Durand”. To date I have not located any further entry
for this 100 acres.
The following year, 1812, he is in Saranac.
Phillip (Jr. b. 1789) was allowed $50.00 on the Claims of Soldiers of 1812.[iv] He is listed as a Private in the 36th
New York Militia[v]
and is mentioned in his brothers
application for bounty land with the following letter dated 1850 “In the two cases (John Bartlett and Phillip Bartlett) the
papers were made out before I had known of any presidents for making them out.
I hope there is enough to make the applications successful with a reference to
muster rolls, etc. The papers have been executed before the county clerk...Geo
A. Standish.” Brother John Bartlett
migrated to Arena, Iowa County, Wisconsin.
Brother William eventually migrated to Iowa County, Wisconsin where he
died in 1874.
Phillip is listed as Philip Bartlett,
Jr., a volunteer, Corporal, in Capt. Lyman Manley's Company September 9-13 1814.[vi] My sleuthing shows that Phillip remained in
Saranac and in October 1853 he purchased [vii] a town
lot in Saranac known as lot #7 of the old military tract from Major Philip
Kearny. Kearny had made the military his career seeing service in Algiers and
France. One flowery article states French comrades called him Kearny Le
Magnifique. Phillip paid $77.66 for
the lot and sold it for a nice profit in May 1866[viii] to
Martin Kelly of Saranac. Phillip’s wife
Tapher, as his spouse signed the sale.
Phillip and Tapher had eight known Children.
The eldest Almira (1820-1885) married Edmund Geer (compiler’s 2nd
grandparents) and crossed the border to Canada later migrating to
Minnesota.
Phillip and Tapher named their first son
William (1822-1892), possibly after Phillip’s brother. William stayed in Saranac with his wife
Emaline/Emily.
Next came Esther (1823-1904) who married
Godfrey Phillip Hoyt. Godfrey Hoyt was
in the military and was one of Lincoln’s Avengers known as the Secret
Service. He was in the 16th
Cavalry as was Martin Kelly who later purchased the lot from Phillip
Bartlett. On April 24, 1865 Hoyt was on
the patrol headed by Edward Doherty that tracked down John Wilkes Booth to the
Richard Henry Garrett farm in Caroline County, Virginia and stood guard there.
Emeline Bartlett (1827-1918) married Benjamin
Vaughan in 1852 Clinton County, New York.
Vaughan was involved in a sheriff’s sale in the Supreme Court for lands
adjoining the Military lands. It appears
that Emeline’s uncle William Bartlett (brother of Philip) had purchased the
land May 1837 from Elizabeth Bean and there was a dispute concerning the
property from various sales[ix].
A son Phillip may have been born according to
notes left by my grandmother but never substantiated by this compiler to date. The next child Oliver was born about 1832/3
married Mary Benson and migrated to Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin. Daughter Lydia born (1839 -1915) married first
Andrew Otis and 2nd Joel Brewster. She died in Wisconsin.
The youngest child of the family was Almeda
(1841-1891), who married Edwin P. Lee. Almeda died in Winnebago County,
Wisconsin.
At the time I began researching Phillip and
Tapher, I was residing in New Jersey, raising three sons and managing a
research business. I had established son
and father in military service which I tucked away to share with my sons when
they were older. I had searched for a
death record for Philip, who was 76, when he sold the property. He was not with Almira and no record or
tombstone was published for him the Saranac area. I had established the children had moved on and
with limited resources at my fingertips did not see an elderly family with
them. For many years the story of both Phillips laid dormant in my collection. As
the old saying goes about the cobbler and his shoes I was busy and my own
family history was patiently waiting for this compiler’s retirement.
Time ticked on. Those sons grew up; we moved
several times ending with a migration back from whence we came; the internet
erupted; Find-a-grave took on a pulse of its own; and retirement allowed
concentration on personal research.
Genealogists all know the moment of discovery. A very special someone
had placed a photograph, on Find-a-grave of Phillip Bartlett’s tombstone in Portland
Cemetery, Brant, Calumet County, Wisconsin.
What a beautiful sight to behold.
Phillip between the age of 76 and 79 had migrated
west to Wisconsin and died there 13 June 1869, where son Oliver, and daughter
Lydia Bartlett Brewster were living at the time. Oliver is buried in Portland
Cemetery along with Phillip. Lydia would move to another county with her
family.
I had found my village of cousins thanks to
the person who generously decided to share her photograph. The photograph was taken by Brenda Sosnovske,
descendent of Almeda. Brenda travels, on
the road, trucking, a spirited gal. This also linked me to Diana Franco and
others researching the history of the Bartlett/Lee branch. Brenda and I have talked several times over
the past few years and she even made a trip to Clinton County but that is her
story. As time marches forward more
“cousins” have surfaced via online technology and DNA.
Phillip (as stated in paragraph #3) was born 5
November 1789 in Waterbury, Chittenden County, Vermont son of Phillip and Lydia
Everest[x] Marsh Bartlett. After Revolutionary military service the
elder Phillip married 11 June 1784 Lydia Everest Marsh in Royalton, Windsor
County, Vermont[xi].
Phillip Bartlett (Jr) is accounted for with Sr. on the Waterbury, Chittenden
census for 1790.
After the 1800 census was taken, the family
moved to Saranac. Phillip was 50 years
old. The Vergennes Gazette 31 July lists him on letters remaining in the
post office in Chittenden, Vermont.
Lydia states in her widow’s pension that Phillip died 12 May 1816 in
Saranac.
Phillip (Sr.) served in the Revolution in
several units. He was six feet two/three
inches tall and his first duty was October 1775 in Brewers Company from
Belchertown, Hampshire, Massachusetts.
Belchertown is close to Ware, British America where Philip was baptized 24
May 1745.[xii]
[xiii]This compiler believes
that Phillip (Sr.) is the son of Benjamin and Thanks Reed Bartlett who married 1 January
1728[xiv] at Brookfield,
Worchester, Massachusetts and grandson of Joseph Bartlett and wife Hannah[xv].
Besides Phillip (Jr.), John and William this
compiler knows of one daughter of Lydia and Phillip also named Lydia. She was
born in Vermont in 1792 and Married Talmadge Benedict. Judy Burritt told this compiler in 2004 that
she had seen the tombstone of Talmadge who is buried in Hinesburg Village
Cemetery along with first wife Hannah. Talmadge died 23 November 1854. Lydia remained in Chittenden and sometime
between 1860-1870 she removed to Irena, Iowa County, Wisconsin where she is
living with her niece in the Sanford Hatch family in 1870. Sanford B. Hatch had married (2x m) Minerva
Bartlett (born 31 Aug. 1834, Jericho, Chittenden, VT d/o Wm., Lydia’s brother)
16 October 1856 in Iowa County, Wisconsin. Lydia died 12 March 1879 and is
buried in Arena Cemetery, Iowa County, Wisconsin.
As with most biographies that are recreated by
research, there are some raveled strings that need further investigation. The Descendants of Andrew Everest of York,
Maine list five children for James and Lydia Everest Marsh prior to her
marriage to Bartlett. Continued research
should include their half siblings by Lydia.
William clearly states “his brother” in John
Bartlett’s pension. But as DNA emerges
this compiler’s results only list William (b. 1797) as a half brother to
Phillip (b. 1789) via the Hatch line. William’s
age at the time of his death state he is 77 years old in 1874. Low dna can have false positives but implied evidence
urges confirmations.
I take great pride in my American heritage and
those that stood up for what they believed. Phillip Bartlett (Sr.), as I have
stated in this article, was on the rolls of Brewer’s Company from Belchertown,
Massachusetts under Jno. Bardwell in 1775. He was at the Battle of Lexington. He re-enlisted several times and according to
the pension, once taken prisoner and carried to Montreal, again taken to the
Tories at Fort Niagara where he escaped and yet again (3rd) taken
near Lake Superior and released at the end of the war. That is quite a tale.
I hope that a village of researchers continue
to honor and research, and remember our Bartlett ancestors.
[i]
Daughter Almeda death gives Thomas as
surname.
[ii] American Revolutionary
War Rejected Pensions, (Washington, D. C.:), R584 and Lydia Bartlett 7988, Phillip
Bartlett application by widow Lydia.
[iv] New York
Index of Award on Claims of the Soldiers of 1812 (N.p.: New
York Adj. General Office, 1860
[v] : Phillip
Bartlett, compiled military record (Pvt 36th Miller NY Militia), Index to
Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the War of
1812, M602 (National Archives & Record Commission:), Record Group 94
[vi]
New York, War 1812, Payroll Abstracts NY State Militia. Roll 1956
[vii] New York,
Clinton County, Volume 24 page 454, Courthouse, Saranac, New York.
[viii]
New
York, Clinton County, Volume 54 page 76, Courthouse, Saranac, New York.
[ix] "Sheriffs
Sale," Feb 1848, Plattsburg Republican, 26.
[x]
Lydia/Daniel and Lydia Moss Everest/ Benj.
Everest and Hannah Jones/Isaac Everest/Joanna/Andrew Everest)
[xi] Abby Maria
Hemenway, Vermont Historical Gazetteer: A Local History of All the Towns in
the State; vol IV the Towns of Washington County (Montpelier, VT: Vermont
Watchman and State Journal Press, 1882), Page 821
[xii] Boston,
Massachusetts; Vital Records of Hardwick, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850,
Hardwick Births page 17
[xiii]
Philip Bartlett (Sr) age is estimated in the pension records and off by several
years to the actual baptism.
[xiv] Dodd,
Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850.
[xv] Aldis
Everard HIbner, A genealogy of the descendants of Joseph Bartlett of Newton,
Mass (Rutland VT: Tuttle Company, 1934), pp 15, 16.
