Big Family Secret: Dunkers

Still considering myself a newbie to this genealogy stuff, and am imagining that will continue for years. I constantly feel as though I'm simply stumbling from thing to thing even though I do make lists that outline my research goals. But often as not, in following a line of inquiry there's a bit that demands my attention as though it's calling my name. Look here, it shouts. So I do. Then stumbling I go into a fact that shines a completely new light on a tiny branch of the family tree. Suddenly I feel that I understand what happened to the ancestors in a completely different way! Things start to make sense.

And so it was with the Samuel Albert House situation. This blog post is a continuation of one you'll find below, entitled "Big Family Secrets." Here's the link, if you want to catch up:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-family-secrets.html

Got thinking about the Biggerstaff family, especially after making contact with Cousin William through Ancestry.com Messages. Noticed that we share our 2nd GGF, SA House. He has a nice big tree in Members Public Trees and I messaged him about the SA House info he had there and the Biggerstaff line. He shared some web sites and other stuff.

As you seen in the previous post, Samuel Albert was illegitimate and every indication is that Isaac Biggerstaff was his father. But why didn't he marry Rebecca House, Samuel Albert's mother? Cousin William's info kept me thinking.

Can't even tell you how I got there but I found a web site about the Tarvin Family, and many thanks to them! Here's the link: http://www.tarvinfamily.org/ As you see, it's beautifully done and a wealth of information even if none of our people are Tarvins!

There are two links on the main page that caught my eye. First is the PDF of the book, "Allegheny Passage: Dunkards on the Cacapon." The description reads: "We have received permission to scan and re-publish a key reference work on the history of the Brethren religion in the western area of Maryland and Virginia. The chapter that contains references to Rev. George Tarvin's family is posted here online."

I looked at the PDF and found about a full page on the Biggerstaff family as well as mention of the Longstreth family, both Church members. William and Samuel are mentioned by name, William being Isaacs's GF and Samuel his father. It also mentioned William's will, with which I was recently familiar due to the good graces of Cousin William.

As you might note from the previous post, Isaac Biggerstaff married a Longstreth girl instead of Rebecca House, mother of Samuel Albert. Mystery solved: he was expected to marry within his faith. I copy the following from a wonderfully lucid presentation by Rev. George Tarvin in 1988 at a Tarvin family reunion.

Here's the link: http://www.tarvinfamily.org/brethren.php  I have taken the liberty to quote at length here and hope that it does not offend. It's of such importance that I can't help myself... and I'm forever grateful to the Tarvin Family for this text! The bolded portions have been added by me to emphasize the importance of marrying within the faith.

To more fully understand our ancestor, a person must first look at the history and doctrine of the Dunker Church. The German Baptist Brethren, called Dunkers, grew out of the Pietist movement of Germany in the late 17th century. The Church of the Brethren was officially organized at Schwartzenau in 1708 by Alexander Mack, a miller. There were eight original members baptized by triple immersion (hence the name Dunker) in the Elbe River. Their belief was to live as close to Bible teachings as possible. They found themselves a persecuted people and by 1719 the first group came by ship to Pennsylvania to seek a refuge where they could worship as they pleased. This first group settled in Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia. In 1729, Alexander Mack led the remainder of his group from their native Germany to America.
During these early years, several Brethren communities were founded in southeast Pennsylvania and two in Maryland. The Dunkers were progressive farmers and tried to live simply, hence they were invariably included among the so-called "plain people" of Pennsylvania. They were often on the frontier, locating in the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and later extending south to the Carolinas and Tennessee and west to Virginia and Ohio.
The Dunkers were one of the historic peace churches. Most Dunkers have been conscientious objectors to military service. On the frontier, this went as far as not carrying guns and being friends with the Indians.
Some of the distinguishing beliefs of the Brethren were (1) baptism by triple immersion, previously mentioned as the reason for being called Dunkers; (2) full communion service including a meal and a footwashing service; (3) "Fellowship of Believers" which in the early days meant marriage primarily within the membership of the church; and (4) simplicity, meaning to dress plainly and to avoid any extravagance in spending. There was no official church creed and the main emphasis was on living as close to the teachings of the New Testament as possible. It was said, "A Dunker's word is as good as his bond."
Their beliefs which set them apart, and especially their emphasis on marrying within the faith, led to a close-knit group with a tremendous number of intermarriages among the few well-known family names.

Now I'm adding score points to the theory that Issac might have married Rebecca had they been of the same faith.


Photo of the day from my Archive:

Elizabeth Longstreth Biggerstaff's stone,

Cherry Orchard Cemetery,

Magnolia (or what's left of it) WVa,

She was Isaac's wife.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/07/big-family-secret-dunkers.html

Big Family Secrets

When Uncle Tuck found out that Mom was doing genealogy he told her, you might not like what you find out! Now Mom is way cool about family scandals... she doesn't care what the ancestors did as long as her brood stay out of trouble;)

Mom didn't think much about what Uncle Tuck said because he wasn't specific, but it did seem to her that there were secrets to be had if one looked hard enough. Some time went by and Mom discovered what Uncle Tuck was talking about. It looked like her great grandfather, Samuel Albert House was illegitimate!

After due research Mom wrote this in her Notes in Family Tree Maker:

"Samuel Albert House was born ot of wedlock to Rebecca House. There is every indication that his father was Isaac Biggerstaff.

Two reasons for this thought being that the 1850 cenus of Morgan Co.,W.Va. has a Samuel Biggerstaff living with Rebecca House Caton. His age is 16. Samuel was born 11 Feb 1832.

The other reason was that in his death certificate his daughter, my grandmother, listed his father as Issac House and his mother as Rebecca Biggerstaff but in that time period there was no Issac House and no Rebecca Biggerstaff in the Morgan Co. W,Va. area where he was born. There was a Rebecca House and an Issac Biggerstaff."

OK, so there you go. Big-deal family secret: Who da baby-daddy? All evedince points to Isaac Biggerstaff. Samuel Albert is even going by Samuel Biggerstaff in the 1850 US Census. And if you look at all the available male Biggerstaffs in Magnolia, West Virginia at that time, it points to Isaac.

So that's our starting point. I don't know what it is about all this but I smelled a really interesting story here beyond the usual who-slept-with-who tale. I have also just been back east to visit Mom and we all went to Magnolia, West Virginia, or what's left of it. The recent placing of my feet on the very soil of my ancestors back in the deep woods of West Virginia got me thinking.
(See posting below at http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/let-me-take-you-to-magnolia.html )

I have a big basket of information, random facts and thoughts surrounding this issue. So here in the best order I can make of it is what I know, or think I know. Please, feel free to jump in with thoughts and ideas about this saga. I'd love some help here:)

The Biggerstaffs were a landed family. Isacc's grandfather William left numerous acres of land to Isaac in his will of which I have a copy. Isaac also enjoyed additional land through inheritance from his father, Samuel. Isaac was land wealthy. The Houses on the other hand were, as Mom likes to put it, dirt poor. He did marry Elizabeth Longstreth who came from a prominent Pennsylvania family.
Thought: The marriage of Isaac to Rebecca House would not have been a good match in the eyes of the Biggerstaff family, especially Isaac's grandfather, William, from whom he stood to inherit. Did his grandfather step in?

Isaac Biggerstaff's first child in his marriage was named "Rebecca". Interestingly, this first child in his mariage to Elizabeth Longstreth arrived just about the time Rebecca House gave birth to Samuel Albert. We can conclude that Rebecca House and Isaac Biggerstaff were intimate right up the time he was married.
Thought: It's not unheard of back in this place and time for couples to get pregnant so as to force the parents to give them a blessing. Heck, my great grandparents did it because she was from a Lutheran family and he a Catholic family. They had to have a couple of kids to get the parents to cave:)

Rebecca and Isaac's child was named "Samuel". Samuel was Isaac's father's name.
Thought: Was this an effort to curry favor with the landed grandfather of Isaac by honoring Isaac's deceased father?

Rebecca House married Patrick Caton one month after Isaac Biggerstaff died. Rebecca House waited 12 years to marry and did so only after Issac's death on 24 March 1844. She married Patrick Caton, a man from Ireland, on 13 April, 1844.
Thought: Mom thinks that Rebecca and Isaac were true lovers and that she did not want to marry anyone else. Only after Isaac was finally gone did she feel free to mary.

Early 1900s House Family Reunion. In the early years of the 1900s and before 1910 there was a House Family Reunion in Ohio. Mom has a copy of the memories shared there and written down by all in attendance. It resided, gathering dust, in Mary's attic until one day Mary said to Mom, Hey you want to come over and see those old papers in my attic? You don't need to ask Mom a question like that twice:) She borrowed and copied them. In the papers of the House Family Reunion someone stated that it was commonly known that Samuel Albert House's father was Issac Biggerstsaff.

Isaac and Rebecca were possibly first cousins, once removed. Mom and I need to verify this but it looks like it could be correct. Yeah... it's West Virginia;)

Picture of the day from the Archive:

Samuel Albert House,

1832 - 1917

Other posts about the exploits of Samuel Albert House can be found on this blog at : http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/07/another-drinking-man.html

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-family-secrets.html

Please Note: Blogger is hay-wire today so I couldn't do a spell chack. I'm flying without a net for the time being. So sorry!