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Note: This genealogical
page was done mostly with Google, with a little help from people from the
internet whom I emailed and will properly credit shortly. It will be of
greatest interest to the descendants of Albert Emerson and Mabel (Hiams) Emerson
(of Rowan, Iowa) and Jacob Christian Hospers and Cecile (Knittel) Hospers of
Sheldon, Iowa.
Emerson - Hiams - Hospers - Knittel Genealogy
Update, January 2005:
I have updated this on the basis of my late father E.E. Emerson's research, which was
in turn indebted to the researches of his late cousin James L. Emerson.
Miscellaneous tidbits:
One of our ancestors, Thomas Cornell, was hanged for
murdering his mother and burning her body. The clinching testimony came
from a man who had been told in a dream by the victim's ghost that her son had
murdered her. Not everyone today finds this strange: see the third link.
http://members.aol.com/tnash74528/marycolestestimony.html
http://www.mindspring.com/~tvcornel/rebecca.html
http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-02/author/
Another ancestor, Hannah Emerson Dustin / Duston,
achieved fame in 1697 by killing and scalping 9 Abnakis who had kidnapped her.
Her sister, Elizabeth Emerson (a legally-documented victim of violent abuse as a
child) was hanged for "whoredom" and for possibly murdering her illegitimate
twins (she also had a third illegitimate child). Cotton Mather
counselled her while she was in custody and personally accompanied her to
the gallows. (A third sister had been publicly whipped for the crime of fornication, afterwards marrying her partner in crime).
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~wprokasy/Emerson2.htm
http://search.eb.com/women/articles/Duston_Hannah.html
I am not sure of our exact relationship to either
Thomas Cornell or to the Emerson sisters.
Our belief that the Puritans were prissy and correct
seems to be entirely unfounded -- apparently they were quite a rough lot.
If we were to encounter two murderous sisters (one good, one bad) in an oral
tradition, we would normally assume that we were dealing with some sort of
mythic stereotype, but there is a considerable written record of the doings of
Hannah and Elizabeth.
Below
GENEALOGY:
Charles C. Emerson
(m. Judith Morton, b. 1800, f. John L. Emerson, b. 1797)
Charles C. Emerson, born on May 22, 1835 in
Salisbury NH (his father John L. Emerson, born 1799, is in the 1840 Salisbury census).
In 1850 he
moved with his father to Massillon, Cedar County, Iowa (after some time at Lowell, MA), and married Mary Ann Wohrer there on April 23, 1857. He then moved to Rowan,
Iowa, which had been founded two years earlier. He was the father of our
grandfather Albert Emerson.
John L. Emerson's grandfather Samuel, b. 1750, was a
Revolutionary War veteran who died during or shortly after the war. His widow
(Mary Philbrick) was denied a military pension late in life, though
documentation has been found proving that she deserved one. The connection
between John L and his father John, Samuel's son (born 1773, married Lydia
Webster), was disputed at one time, but as I understand this was settled and the
girls in our family are eligible for the DAR. There is some evidence that John
L. was born in Sutton, Quebec, rather than in Sutton, N.H., giving the
possibility that Samuel and/or John L's father John were not completely in the
good graces of the new American government. (In 1873 one John J. Emerson was
born in Sutton Junction, Quebec.) According to Bruce Lincoln in
Discourse and the Construction of Society, during the Revolutionary
period New Hampshire (not one of the original colonies) was a haven for
apolitical millenarians -- presumably including draft-dodgers and
deserters.
The Emersons came to New England during the middle
seventeenth century, but not on the Mayflower. However, through through Charles
C. Emerson's mother Judith Morton our family can be traced back to Richard
Warren and Edward Doty, passengers on the Mayflower, and we are all eligible for
membership in the Mayflower society (which Dad did join. We are also eligible
through Dad's grandmother Susan Minerva Church Hiams).
Cedar County, Iowa (Cedar Falls) apparently was
the jumping off place for Iowa pioneers, and it seems likely that Charles C.
Emerson and his wife-to-be Mary Ann Wohrer, who had travelled west with her
father, met on the westward journey or in Iowa, getting married in Cedar Falls
or nearby, just as Alpheus D. Hiams and Susan M. Church did (below). Hiram
Emerson (Charles' brother) and John C Wohrer and his wife Dorotha remained in
the Cedar County area and are buried at Massillon.
Through Albert Emerson's brother William Oscar (b.
1869), who settled in Yellville and moved to Turkey, we have a large
number of cousins in Arkansas and Missouri,
http://iagenweb.org/wright/1870_index.htm
Charles Emerson, 1870 Wright County census,
from "MA"
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nhcsalis/cen1840index.htm
There was a John Emerson in Salisbury NH
according to the 1840 census.
http://homepage.mac.com/aldrichtreefarm/RowanCemetery/
Rowan Cemetery: Charles C., Albert, Mabel
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/wright/history/rowanhis.txt
History of Rowan, a lot on the Emersons.
Mistakes? Mary Ann Wohrer is listed as Mary Ann Wehren Bingham.?? Possible
second marriage?? (Probably misremembering of similar names of unfamiliar
people).
http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/nhamp.html
N.H geneological resources
http://www.kinyon.com/iowa/cedar1878/massillon1.htm
Hiram, brother of Charles C. in Massillon.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iacedar/Massillon.html
Hiram buried in Massilon, but not John L.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mamiddle/may01.htm
John L. Emerson query married in Plainfield?
(NH?).
http://www.interment.net/data/canada/qc/brome/westover/
John J Emerson born Sutton Junction, Quebec, 1873.
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=story_line&fl=&lg=English&ex=00000188&sl=3309&pos=15
Sutton Junction, Quebec, was originally called "Emerson".
Mary Ann Wohrer
Mary Ann Wohrer's father John C. was an
immigrant from Germany who lived first in Philadelphia, then in Illinois, and
finally settled in Massillon, Cedar County, Iowa, where he and his wife are
buried. Mary Ann Wohrer, who had accompanied their parents in the western
movement, married Charles C. Emerson in Cedar County and then proceeded to
settle in Rowan.
"John C. Wohrer, farmer, Section 15; Post
Office Massillon; was born in the town of Lahr Grand Duchess of Baden, Germany,
April 6, 1803. He emigrated and arrived in New York, November 12, 1824; located
in Philadelphia and remained there thirteen years; and then moved to Plano,
Illinois, in 1837; he lived there eighteen years, and then came to this county;
owns 113 acres. He married Miss Dorotha Voldan, November 28, 1828, a native of
Germany; they have two sons and three daughters--William, Caroline, Mary A.,
George H. and Susan E."
http://www.kinyon.com/iowa/cedar1878/massillon2.htm
http://members.aol.com/ia24th/page101.htm
Mary Ann's brother George H., Civil War
Veteran:
"Wohrer George H. 1841 1918 Family stone Co. I
26th Iowa Inf. Br St 8-9-62 6-6-65 5 Corp Veteran".
http://iltrails.org/kendall/1850_littlerock.htm
1850 census, Kendall Co Ill: Wohrer family
there
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iacedar/Massillon.html
Massillon cemetery, Cedar County: Dorothy
Wohrer (~1806Mar. 1, 1881) buried. Also J.C. Wohrer, "age 20" in 1883 perhaps
a misprint for "age 80".
Alpheus Dumbleton Hiams / Dumbleton
A.D. Hiams pioneered in Rowan, Iowa. He was
born in Berlin, Rensselaer County, NY, near Troy and Albany -- the beginning of
the Erie canal. His parents were Solomon Hiams and Anna Dumbleton, both born
1775, and his grandparents were Spink Hiams, (b. 1723 / 1737?), Elizabeth
Richmond (b. 1735), Nathaniel Dumbleton (b. 1740?) and Anne Ferre (b. 1748).
Through Spink Hiams the Hiams (Himes, Hyams) family can be traced back through
Benjamin (Rhode Island) and James (married to Sarah Spink) to David Hiams from
Scotland, reportedly a prisoner of war. This would put the Himes family in
America by the middle of the seventeenth century.
www.ideocentrism.com/dumbleton.htm
Alpheus Dumbleton Hiams was presumably named
after Alpheus Dumbleton, perhaps his uncle through his mother Mary Dumbleton. I
have a separate page for the Dumbletons, who were in American by 1660.
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sam/spink.html
Spink / Hiams genealogy.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/a/y/Gene-A-Taylor/FILE/0014page.html
Hiams line back to the American beginning. Spink was
Benjamin's son, I think. This genealogy traces a branch of the family which,
like the Dumbleton family, settled in Michigan.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/HIMES/1999-01/0916592567
Another Himes branch
http://iagenweb.org/wright/1870_index.htm
Nathaniel Hiams, 1870 census; Elsie Godfrey,
age 95, from NY (mother of Irena, grandmother of Alpheus, b. 1775, husband Ira
Godfrey b. 1772; mother Elsie Braman, b. 1775).
http://searches1.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/ia/wright/vitals/wrideaths3.txt
Nathaniel Hiams death record; questions about
place of burial (see next)
http://homepage.mac.com/aldrichtreefarm/RowanCemetery/
Rowan cemetery: Nathaniel Hiams, Irena Godfrey
Hiams, "Elsie Godfrey Hiams", Alpheus's grandmother.
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/wright/history/rowanhis.txt
Early Rowan history. Hiamses came to Rowan in
1857
http://www.google.com/search?q=Gloucestershire+Hiams&hl=en&lr=lang_nl|lang_en&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&safe
=off&start=20&sa=N
There is a Hiams Lane in Gloucestershire. The
village of Dumleton and town of Grafton are in Gloucestershire.
Susan Minerva Church
Susan Minerva Church was the daughter of
Charles C. Church of Vermont (b. August 20, 1799?) and his second wife Calista
Smith (b. Oct. 30, 1814), who may have been from Vermont or may have been from
St. Lawrence County NY, where Charles' first wife, Sally Dutton, died after
bearing two children. Susan was born on Jan. 12, 1839 in Belvedere, Lorain
County, near Elyria, where the family stayed for a time, as they did in
Illinois, before finally settling in Hancock County, Iowa. Susan and Alpheus D.
Hiams apparently met during the westward journey or in Cedar County Iowa, where
they were married on May 25, 1863. Charles and Calista are listed on the 1860
census as living in Hancock, near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Our father
suspected that Alpheus D. Hiams worked on the Erie canal and met Susan Church
when she took the canal west with her family.
The Church family also traces back to Doty and Warren on the
Mayflower.
A Charles Church is listed in the census for
1840, the year after Susan's birth, as a resident of Meigs Co. in SE Ohio (not
near Lorain County). This probably was a different man, but I list it because
Salisbury twp and Rutland twp, names which appear elsewhere in the genealogy,
in that area suggest migration from Vermont and NH. This would just have been an
additional stop: Vermont, New York, Lorain County, [Meigs County], Illinois,
Iowa. Quite a restless guy.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~neresour/OLLibrary/pbco/pages/baco0114.htm
[Charles and Sally (Dutton) Church] were both
natives of Rutland County, Vt., born near the town of that name. The paternal
great-grandfather [of Charles Church's son, who is the subject of this piece --
i.e. Charles Church's grandfather] carried a musket in the Revolutionary War,
while Grandfather Church -- Charles Church's father -- served in the War of
1812. The family is of English ancestry, and the first representatives it is
supposed settled in the Green Mountain State during the Colonial days. [Charles
Church and Sally Dutton] were married in New York State, and settled on a farm
in St. Lawrence County, where they lived until 1835. Thence they removed to
Ohio, and thereafter for a time lived in the vicinity of the Black River, in
Lorain County [where Susan Minerva was born]. The father, however, in 1848, not
yet satisfied with his surroundings, pushed on still further westward with his
family, locating first in DeKalb County, Ill. Later he crossed the Mississippi
into Iowa, and settled upon a farm in Hancock County, where he was greatly
prospered in his labors as an agriculturist and accumulated a flue?? property. He
lived to the advanced age of eighty-four years, and died at the homestead in
Iowa, Dec. 25. 1884...... Charles Church after the death of his first wife
[Sally Dutton, who died at age 23-- year not told, but a son was born in 1826]
was married again, in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., to Miss Calista Smith, and to
them were born eleven children. The stepmother and her children are still living
in the Hawkeye State.
[The above edited from an account of Charles'
family with his first wife Sally Dutton].
http://homepage.mac.com/aldrichtreefarm/RowanCemetery/
Rowan cemetery, "Susan M. Hiams"
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ia/hancock/census/1860/indx-a-z.txt
1860: Calista and Charles Church of Vermont in
Hancock, Iowa (near Council Bluffs)
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohmeigs/census/1840_famnum.html
A Charles Church in Meigs County SE Ohio. In
Salisbury twp, near Rutland twp. Probably not our guy.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohmeigs/census/census.html
In 1850 there were several adult Churches in
Rutland and Salisbury twps. In Meigs county, but no Charles. Most township names
suggest NH or Vt settlement.
http://www.thewarof1812.com/Warof1812scrapbook/PensionList.htm
Two Churches from NH on War of 1812 veteran
list, one of whom may have been Charles' father. None from Vermont.
Willem Hendrik Hospers
Willem Hendrik was born in Hoog Blokland, the Netherlands, Aug. 19, 1844 and died in Orange City,
Iowa, Aug. 22, 1909. His parents were Jan Hospers and Henrietta (Hendrika) Middelkoop. Dutch
settlement in Orange City, Iowa was promoted around 1870-71 by our ancestor's brother Henry, working
with his Middelkoop maternal relatives. Henry had come to America before 1857 and settled in the older
Pella community (founded by one H. P. Scholte in 1847, and apparently settled primarily by conservative
religious dissidents called separatists or "Afgescheidenen"). Most Dutch immigration to Iowa took place
before 1870; Orange City was populated mostly by Dutch already in America. I haven't found much
information about W.H. Hospers in Iowa so far; his brother Henry overshadowed him.
The Dutch apparently didn't have the drinking habits of the Germans: "Scholte, himself a minister of the gospel,
insisted it would be difficult 'to find in the United States ten beer-shops kept by Dutchmen; they are commonly
Germans."
If you trace the Hospers name back it disappears, with fathers having different surnames than their sons. Lucassen,
Luix, or Van Lucas may be a Scottish connection -- supposedly the Hospers family traces back to Scottish
Jacobite exiles (followers of Bonny Prince Charlie). There's a lot of speculation about Dutch, Flemish, or Scottish
villages named Haspres, Hospers, or Haspre. The Hospers family seems to have specialized in textiles, and one
branch did business in Russia.
Genealogy:
Willem's father Jan; Jan's father Henrik b. 1761; Mother Cornelia Roschar b. 1767 d. 1804.
Henrik's father Jan Gerrits Hospers b. 1728. Mother Swenigjen Lucassen b. ??
Jan Gerrits Hospers' father Gerrit Harmsen b.??
Mother Geertje Janssen.
Gerrit Harmsen's father Harm Luix b. ?? d.
1683. Mother ??
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iasioux/births/OrangeCity_ek.htm
Hospers births in Orange City
http://www.xs4all.nl/~siem/p_6_2_1_2_3_4.html
Father Jan. H, Mother Henrietta Middelkoop
(Henrietta's father Klaas, Hoog Blokland)
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bev4732&id=I2705
Hospers lineage back to seventeenth century.
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bev4732&id=I3212
Middelkoop genealogy: Klaas here may be Grandpa
Jacob Hospers' great grandfather
http://iagenweb.org/history/hoi/HOI4BioH2.htm
Henry Hospers, the leader of Dutch settlement
in Iowa, may have been our ancestor's older brother.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iasioux/books/hollanders/hollanders_23.htm
Henry Hospers worked with a Middelkoop, who
would be his mother's relative.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iasioux/index.htm
Tons of information on Iowa Dutch here.
http://www.hope.edu/resources/vri/publications/quarrels.html
Separatists or afgeschneiden
http://members.lycos.nl/ahospers/amfibie/amfrepnl.htm
A Dutch Hospers with an interest in Hospers genealogy and
also in Slovenian amphibians and bugs. My kind of guy.
http://www.sleyster.nl/netherlanders.htm
Review of Netherlanders in America.
http://www.iowaoldpress.com/IA/Sioux/1895/SEP.html
Newspaper excerpts from about 1890 in Iowa.
Maria Helena Korteweg
Grandpa Jacob's mother Maria Korteweg was born
in Klundert in the Netherlands in 1855 (d. 1908 Orange City) and came to America
in 1866 with her father Jacob C. Korteweg (b. April 20, 1814, d. Sept. 29, 1898)
and two sisters. Her mother, Sija or Sya Anna Vogelaar, had apparently died in
Holland in 1860. The Kortewegs and the Vogelaars can be traced far back in Dutch
history, but I haven't found out much about them.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~siem/p_6_2_1_2_3_4.html
Father Jacob, Mother Sija Anna Vogelaar, Sija's
father Sijmon, mother Helena
http://www.xs4all.nl/~siem/g_6_2_1_2_3_4.html
Kortewegs back to 1638
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iasioux/cemetery/cem_kooiker.htm
Jacob C. Korteweg buried in Iowa.
William Frederick Knittle
Grandma Hospers' father William Frederick
Knittle was born in Hawley, Pennsylvania in 1857. His father John was from
Bavaria, born 1824; his mother Hannah was from Baden, Germany, born 1835. John
and his family are listed in Scranton, Luzerne County, PA, in the 1870 census.
Wm. Frederick is listed in Woodbury County, Iowa (Sioux City) in the 1880
census.
A Knittel coat-of-arms shows two crossed clubs, cudgels, or knouts. I have no
idea what that's all about.
There is are large, pre-Revolution Knittel
families in Schuylkill Co. Pennsylvania and the Roaring Creek area in
Pennsylvania to whom we are not closely related, if at all. Another Knittel family came to
the US from the Crimea during the nineteenth century.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iabiog/woodbury/ppw1904/ppw1904.htm
Index to Sioux city history, Selzer and Knittle
(spelled Knittel)
Census Searches for William Frederick Knittle
Thanks to
t-horton@comcast.net
1930 Census, Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa (Ancestry.com)
--------- Place of Birth--------
Name
M/F, Relation, Age Date Self Father Mother
Knittel, William F.
M Head 72 1858 Penn. Germany Germany
Emma
F Wife 71 1859 Iowa Germany Germany
1920 Census, Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa (Ancestry.com)
--------- Place of Birth--------
Name
M/F, Relation, Age Date Self Father Mother
Knittel, William F.
M Head 61 1859 Penn. Germany Germany
Emma
F Wife 60 1860 Iowa Germany Germany
Francis
F Daugh 28 1892 Iowa Germany Iowa
John L.
M Son 26 1894 Iowa Germany Iowa
1910 Census, Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa (Genealogy.com)
--------- Place of Birth--------
Name
M/F, Relation, Age Date Self Father Mother
Knittel, William F.
M Head 51 1859 Penn. Germany Germany
Emma
F Wife 50 1860 Iowa Germany Germany
?
F Daugh 23 1887 Iowa Germany Iowa
Francis
F Daugh 20 1890 Iowa Germany Iowa
John L.
M Son 14 1896 Iowa Germany Iowa
1900 Census None Found
1880 Census, Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa (Ancestry.com)
--------- Place of Birth--------
Name
M/F, Relation, Age Date Self Father Mother
Knittel, William F.
M 23 1857 Penn. Bavaria Baden
1870 Census, Scranton Ward 8, Luzerne, Pa (Ancestry.com)
--------- Place of Birth--------
Name
M/F, Relation, Age Date Self Father Mother
Knittel, John
M Head 46 1824 Bavaria ? ?
Hannah
F Wife 35 1835 Baden ? ?
William
M Son 13 1857 Penn Bavaria Baden
Catherine
F Daugh 9 1861 Penn Bavaria Baden
Frank
M Son 7 1863 Penn Bavaria Baden
Josephine F
Daugh 4 1866 Penn Bavaria Baden
Emma Selzer
Emma's father Rudolph, was born in Giessen,
Oberhessen, Germany, on Sept. 8, 1828. In 1853 he married Emma's mother Theresa
Wasser or Vasser (also of Germany, b. Aug 1825, d. June 4, 1903), and in this
year came to America and started a brewery in Omaha. In 1860 he moved to Sioux
City and started a brewery there. He had a long and successful career in Sioux
City and died on July 11, 1899. Sioux City was a frontier town when he arrived
there, and as late as 1886 a prohibitionist was murdered there by John Arensdorf,
who happened to be the foreman of Selzer's brewery. Arensdorf was immediately
acquitted and was seen later having a beer with members of the jury.
http://freepages.books.rootsweb.com/~cooverfamily/western_33.html
Brief bio of Rudolph.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:VT5YVX6a05cJ:www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.
com/gedcom/gedr5076.ged+Selzer+Wasser+Iowa&hl=en
A lot of other Selzers
http://feefhs.org/fdb1/jf-iager/iager-az.html
A sketch bio of Rudolph; wife named "Vasser";
married in Germany, May 2, 1853; 5 children: Charles, Emma (m. "William Knittler"),
Otto, Louis (died 2 May 1897), and Fritz; resident Sioux City, Iowa. [p.728]
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iabiog/woodbury/ppw1904/ppw1904.htm
Index to Sioux City history, Selzer and Knittle
(spelled "Knittel").
http://www.siouxland.net/index.cfm?cat=57&subcatid=58&artid=365
History of Sioux City brewing, includes murder
of a prohibitionist
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iawoodbu/Wahkaw_Winter_1982.htm
Woodbury County Geneological society
http://feefhs.org/fdb1/jf-iager/iager-az.html
Selzer, Rudolph - born 28 Sep 1828 in Giessen,
Oberhessen; immigrated with wife 1853;
Not These Knittles:
I spent a lot of time researching the
pre-Revolutionary Knittel/ Knittle family in Schuylkill County, PA. But
our ancestor W.F. Knittle came from Germany in the early nineteenth century.
Conceivably he was a distant cousin of the other Knittels.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3916/cwpa/schuylkilldead.html
Frederick Knittle of Schuylkill Co. PA killed
in Civil War.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3916/cwpa/cwpa48b.html
Frederick Knittle was in 48 Reg, Company B,
Pennsylvania Volunteers from Schuylkill Co.
http://www.awriteshop.com/knittlefrederick.htm
Different Frederick Knittle in Revolutionary
War
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en%7Clang_pt&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff
=1&q=Palatine+Knittle&btnG=Search&lr=lang_en%7Clang_pt
Walter Allen Knittle wrote the book on the
"Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Migration" which brought the Pennsylvania
Germans (not Amish) to the US. I've seen his name mispelled Knittel and Allan
and his first name as William, and he's the author of a book. No wonder
generalogy is hard.
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/schuylkill/bios/h-kenihist.txt
Index to history of Schuylkill Co., Knittle
origin. 3 Fredericks listed.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~paberks/
Joseph Knittel. First in America 1753
All original material copyright John J.
Emerson
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