Analysis of Franklyn Bearce's Genealogy

The Following Historical and Genealogical Notes and Facts is A true record of our correct line of descent and is Based on Correct Information Handed down from generation to generation by my ancestors and imparted to me by word of mouth by my grand father William Henery Bearce [etc.] and the written Narrative Codgial [sic] of Zerviah Newcomb's Diary--written by the hand of Zerviah herself--after the death of her husband by law Josiah Bearce lst at New Fairfield Conn.

The original Diary and supplement was handed down to James Monroe Bearce after Josiah 3rd his grandfather went to sleep at Penfield N.Y.My great aunt Mary Caroline Bearce Roe married a cousin Elisha Rau, was a dear old squaw when I was a boy, knew the contents of the Diary and had a fac-simil copy of the supplement A True Chronical of The Bearce Family written in the old shaky hand of Josiah Bearce 3rd at Penfield N.Y. I saw this copy when a boy, and my grandfathers fac-simil copy written by the hand of my grandmother Mary Ellen Tuttle Bearce at Allegan, when I was a young man of I9 years of age and went through and discussed the contents with my grandmother Mary Ellen shortly before she migrated West to Puget Sound country ; Josiah Bearce 2nd and Josiah Bearce 3rd both went to school to Zerviah and received instructions from her at New Fairfield Conn; Zerviah lived to be close to 90 years old.

The evidence as to the identity of the wife of Austin Bearse is found in an unpublished manuscript, entitled: "Who Our Forefathers Really Were. A True Narrative of Our White and Indian Ancestors," by Franklin Ele-watum Bearse (a Scaticoke and Eastern Indian). This manuscript is a certified copy of an original sworn statement now on file in the office of the Litchfield County District Court, in Connecticut, and accepted by the State Commissioner in Charge of Indian Rights and Claims as an authentic and legal declaration of lineage. It bases its claim as to the identity of Austin Bearse's wife upon statements in the original diary of Zerviah Newcomb, who married Josiah Bearse, a grandson of Austin, and who wrote from personal knowledge of the facts. Her diary is called, "A True Chronicle of the Bearse Family."

It is said that the above manuscript is deposited in the Congressional Library, and states that Austin Bearse married by Indian rites at the Mattachee Indian village Mary, daughter of John Hyanno, a Mattachee Sagamore, and son of the Sachem lhyannough who befriended the Pilgrims on their first arrival. In Zerviah Newcomb's diary Austin Bearse was said to be of the Romany or Gypsy race, and the name was originally Be Arce. He belonged to a family of Continental gypsies who had emigrated to England. There was great persecution; for some minor infraction of the English law Austin was deported to the colonies. On arriving at Plymouth, Austin was the only prisoner allotted to Barnstable. No Puritan girl at that time would marry a gypsy, as there were eligible Puritans to select from. It was therefore natural that he should marry an Indian Princess.

Further it is said that Mary Hyanno was a lovely flaming-haired Mattachee princess.

This story had within itself such improbabilities that a genealogist familiar with the place and period would hardly give it serious consideration, were it not for the two facts that it has been published in a reputable periodical, and that the claim of documentary evidence was made. The present writer therefore made an attempt to locate this evidence. The Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Litchfield County, Conn., had no knowledge of it; neither had the State Librarian, Hartford, Conn.

A letter directed to the State Commissioner in charge of Indian Rights and Claims, Hartford, Conn. was referred. to the State Park and Forest Commission, which is authorized to act as Overseer of all tribes of Indians residing in the state. An official of this agency has replied:

Mr. Franklyn Bearse (Ele-wa-tum) has filed with us a copy of “Who Our Forefathers Really Were” which he claims is a true history of his ancestors. During the past two years I have spent some time in looking up the genealogies of families now living on the three Indian Reservations in the state and in a very few instances have found connections with the persons mentioned in Mr. Bearse's paper. In every case, as I recall, there has been no conflict and although we have no proof that his statements are all correct we have no reason to doubt them.

Mr. David C. Means, Acting Superintendent of the Reading Rooms, Library of Congress, prepared a careful memorandum, which states:

We find no record of a diary of Zerviah Newcomb Bearse in our collections. We do have in the Rare Book Room two manuscripts, both by F. E. Bearse. One is entitled "Who Our Forefathers Really Were," 1933 (CS71.B42 1933) and the other "From out of the past," 1935 (CS71.B42 1935). Both of these works say that Austin Bearse married Mary Hyanno, a daughter of John Hyanno, a full blood Wampanoag Indian. The Library of Congress has no means of checking the authenticity of the statements contained in these books.

The memorandum further states that the 1933 manuscript contains an affidavit on the first page signed by Franklin Elewatum Bearce and gives additional particulars. The manuscript not bearing claim of copyright, it was possible to obtain photostatic copies of two pages, which we shall discuss shortly.

It will be noted that none of the agencies addressed had knowledge of the alleged original Zerviah .(Newcomb)* Bearse diary, nor possessed either the original or a photostatic or certified copy of it. Until the diary can be examined and its exact statements considered, it can hardly be cited as evidence for the statements made in Mr. F. E. Bearce's manuscript account. The present writer must state emphatically that he has no knowledge of and is not concerned with Mr. Bearce’s immediate ancestry, which is presumed to correct as stated. Our sole concern is with the alleged Indian ancestry of the wives of Austin' Bearse, of his son Joseph 2, and of his grandson Josiah3. Austin was born over 300 years ago, and his grandson Josiah died in 1753, nearly 200 years ago. Any statement as to their wives cannot therefore be based on personal knowledge, and any tradition passing by word of mouth through several generations requires verification from contemporary record sources before it can safely be accepted.

Married summer of I639 to Machattache Village Cape Cod, under pagan Indian ceremonial rights, to Mary Hyanno full blood Wampanoag Princess dau of John Hyanno Sagamore at Cummunaquad Barnstable Harbor. She was a grandaughter of Highyannough Sachem of all the Cape Tribes;

Mary Hyanno,s mother was a daughter of the ruling Sachem at Gay Head M.V.I. of that period. At the time of the marriage of Austine and Mary, some of the best land in Barnstable County was ceded verbally and held jointly by old HighYannough, to Austine and Mary, and was held by the family for three generations, without any written deed;

Augustine Bearce had committed no crime, but was deported for life to the Colonies, because he was of Romany Blood, and was caught on British Soil; In those days at Plymouth no Puritan maid would marry a Romany, on account of religious and racial scrupples, so Austine took to wife, lovely flaming haired, Mary Hyanno, (my tradition states that Mary Hyanno had red hair) who had just reached the age of puberty;

Austain joyned the Puritan church in I650 for the protection afforded, and Mary joyned the church that same year; Austine was made a freeman in I652. Austine and Mary had Two Sons and Nine Daughters; First child Mary born I640, Martha I642. Highyannough's wife was a daughter of the ruling Narragansett of that period;

Austine and Mary lie sleeping at Barnstable, Highyannough and Squaw up the Cape, and John Hyanno Sr and his son John Yanno Jr at Gay Head M.V.I.The marriage of Austine and Mary was a powerfull factor in preventing Hyannough and the Cape Tribes from attacting the English; HighYannough went to sleep in I64I past 87 years of age;

So states Zerviah Newcombs Diary.

This is a great deal of detail to be handed down by word of mouth for three centuries. What is actually known about Austin Bearse? He is named as Augustine Bearce, aged 20, in the shipping list of the Confidence of London, which sailed from Southampton the last of April, 1638. Most of the passengers on this ship came in family groups, and a large number of these families settled in Essex County, Mass. The name Augustine (of which Austin is a corruption) is, be it noted, a Christian name, in good usage in England. There is no evidence whatever that any of the passengers on this ship were deported criminals. There is no evidence whatever that Austin was sent to Barnstable as a prisoner. On the contrary, he came to Barnstable with the first company in 1639; he became a member of Mr. Lothrop's church, 29 Apr. 164,3, and he is the first person named on the present record of those who joined the church after its removal to Barnstable, He was proposed to be admitted a freeman, 3 June 1652, and was admitted 3 May following. He was called Goodman in the records, bespeaking his good standing. He was a grand juror in 1653 and 1662, and a surveyor of highways in 1674.

To quote “Barnstable Families”-(1888) by Amos Otis (vol., 1, pp. 52, 53), "He appears to have been very exact in the performance of his religious duties, causing his children to be baptized on the Sabbath next following the day of their birth........... He was one of the very few against whom no complaint was ever made; a fact which speaks well for his character as a man and a citizen." The wife of "Brother Berce" joined the church, 7 Aug. 1650 [New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register, vol. 9, p. 281].

To suppose that a Gypsy, a deported criminal, and the husband of an Indian, would have enjoyed such standing in a Puritan community is absurd. In explanation of his marriage to an Indian, the story is told that he was a Gypsy and hence the Puritan girls would not consider him in marriage; yet his children married into the best families of Barnstable and Yarmouth. But would the children of the girls who allegedly stuck up their noses at a Gypsy, have married the half-breed children of that Gypsy and an Indian?

Obviously, although the actual evidence is strongly in favor of the conclusion that Austin Bearse was an Englishman and a strict Puritan, and that his wife was one of his own people, it is not possible, until his wife is identified by record proof, to make the negative declaration that she was not an Indian. Unfortunately, any person can claim that the unknown wife of any early colonist was Chinese or Hottentot or Malay, and improbable or impossible as such an assertion might seem, it cannot be absolutely disproved until the real identity is established by records. The burden of proof, therefore, must fall on the person who makes any positive assertion to sustain it by evidence. No such evidence has been presented for the claim that the wife of Austin Bearse was an Indian, and until it is presented, it is the part of discretion to pronounce it unproved and extremely unlikely.

One brother went back to England and one and Gaberial stayed in the Colinies; It was many years before Gaberial was made a freeman, and he went outside the jurisdiction to become one: I am a direct descendant of Massasoit through his daughter Amie- and her husband Wastuspuquin, Benjimine Tuspuquion and his wife Weecome, dau of Wee-tmo and Quinipin, Mary Tuspuquion and Isaac Sissell, and Mary Sissell who was the mother of all of Josiah Bearce Ist,s children, and two of Massasoits younger brothers who were born Sagamores;

I know the name of both of these Indians but cannot remember whitch one was the father of Mary Mitchell old age wife of Experience Mitchell, who acquired much land by marring her, she was full blood and an anscestor of my grandmother Mary Ellen Tuttle; and whitch one was the father of Ruth Wheldons mother Margaret;

Joseph Bearce became a praying Indian.

There are two errors of date in this statement. The birth of Martha Taylor on a precise date in 1650 has appeared in print, presumably from the Yarmouth records; and she died 27 Jan. 1727/8 aged 77 [Barnstable records in New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register, vol. 2, p. 316], which also places her birth in 1650, not 1659. Her parents married on or shortly after 27 Oct. 1646, at which date Gabriel "Whelding" gave (consent to his daughter Ruth's marriage. to Richard Taylor [Plymouth Colony Records, vol. 2, p. 110].

According to "Early Wheldens of Yarmouth," by J. W. Hawes (Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy, No. 43], Gabriel Whelden, born in England, first appears in Plymouth Colony in 1638, hence he could hardly have come in 1628 as claimed, for the very full records of that region and period did not ignore a settler’s presence for a decade. To quote from Mr. Hawe’s account: "His children were no doubt born in England and were probably by a first wife. When he died in 1654 his wife was Margaret, who, it seems clear, was his second wife and not the mother of his children. He apparently came to Yarmouth about 1639 with a family of grown children. He left Yarmouth about 1648."

Another account is found in "The History of Malden" (1899), by D. P. Corey, p. 158: "Gabriel Wheldon, or Welding, who appears to have been a personal friend of Mr. Matthews, was with that minister at Yarmouth, and took the oath of fidelity with him. He came here [i.e., to Malden] with Mr. Matthews, and in his will calls himself 'of the 'Towne and church of Mauldon.' With his youngest son, John, he sold . . . four parcels of land in Arnold, county Nottingham. Essex Deeds, i. 24. This forbids the conclusion that he was a fellow countryman of Mr. Matthews; but from the apparently close connection of the parties, I am inclined to believe that his wife, Margaret, was from Wales, and perhaps owned a relationship with the pastor.",

Further, as to Gabriel: "He died in Malden in January, 1653/4. . . With the exception of a legacy of ten shillings to the Malden church, his estate, valued at £40,11,8, was left to his wife; but the claims of his elder children caused a contention. . . . The widow, who may have been a second wife, returned to England. " She went back in 1655 with Mr. Matthews.

Now since Gabriel Wheldon first appears in New England in 1638, and his daughter Ruth was married to Richard Taylor eight years later, it is almost certain that Ruth was born in England. Yet according to the Bearse manuscript, the mother of Ruth Wheldon was Margaret, an Indian princess. (Strange, how every Indian ancestress was a princess!) Did Gabriel Wheldon, one wonders, find the Indian girl straying about the British Isles? And why should the widow Margaret, if born an Indian, return to England with her pastor ? It is also to be noted that two independent students reached the conclusion, from the record sources examined, that Margaret was most probably a second wife, and hence not the mother of Ruth. No conscientious investigator, with any knowledge of conditions in colonial New England, could accept-the statement of the Bearse manuscript, totally undocumented, that the wife of Gabriel Wheldon was an Indian.

This is true as Zerviah herself stated in the codgial she wrote in her old age after the going to sleep of Josiah Bearce Ist at New Fairfield Conn, whitch she chose to tittle A True Chronical of The Bearce Family. This documnet was a supplement of Zerviahs Dairy. Josiah moved in I743 to Greenwitch Conn, and then in I747 to New Fairfield Conn where and Zerviah lie sleeping Second he married under pagan Indian rights at Mashpee Cape Cod the mother of his II children, Mary Sissell born at Freetown Mass, full blood dau of, Isaac Sissell,Momenet Sagamore, of praying Indian Town; Isaac Sissell was a full blood son of a M.V.I.Sachem, and Mary Tuspuquion, dau of Benjiman Tuspuquion, and his wife Weecome squaw Sachem; Mary Tuspuquion was a grandaughter of the Black Sachem and Amie dau of Massasoit;

Mary Sissell was a full blood and my tradition states very comly and fair to look upon, with finely chisseled features, and endowed with second sight, an Indian clairvoint, a spiritualist medium who could tell the future. She was 5 years younger than Josiah Bearce Ist, and lies sleeping at Mashpee Cape Cod where she passed out in child bed, and but for this Manuscript, unknown and forgotten, this dear Indian anscestor of ours;

Note Josiah BeArce Ist had II children with Mary Sissell and none with his legal Wife, Zerviah Newcomb. Zerviah was steral as she stated in her supplement, and accepted her lot as an act of providence and the will of God. In his early life Josiah Ist followed the sea and traded between Barnstable and M.V.I. where he met and married Zerviah in I7I6, who lived most of her life at Edgartown;

The church dismissed her to the Cape in I742, Josiah and Zerviah quarreled, Josiah wanted Zerviah who taught school to reside at the Cape, she refused; Josiah wanted children Zerviah could bear none; Zerviah,s kin and the whites at M.V.I. did not like Josiah Ist on account of his Romany and Indian blood and his religeous beliefs; He was a seperatist, and dissenter; Zerviah was orthodox; Josiah was jelous and in a fit of rage he left Zerviah; They consented to separate and live apart; For some years Zerviah continued to reside at M.V.I. where she taught school; She was a fairly well educated woman of her time; Josiah resided for some years at Mashpee, where Mary Sissell passed out in childbirth and lies sleeping;

After Mary Sissell went to sleep at Mashpee, Josiah Ist left with a family of young and half grown children pached up his differences with Zerviah, who consented to live with him again,and be a step-mother to his children; He left the resavation at Mashpee with his family and settled at Barnstable; There was much unfavorable talk at the time by people at the Cape, and in order to escape the scandle and wagging tongues, Josiah and Zerviah desided to migrate. Zerviah orthodox obtained a transfer from the church at the cape, and with their family they removed first to Greenwith Conn, and finally settled at New Fairfield, where under the clever management of Zerviah who was an able woman with a good head for buisness head, the material property holdings of Josiah Ist and Zerviah,s stepchildren increased; Zerviah,s Dairy was written on several differant typs of paper some of not very good quality; The codgial supplement was on the same kind of paper and in fairly good condition when Mary Caroline Bearce sister of Iron Face was a girl and lived at Penfield, N.Y. with her brother James Monroe Bearce, at the home of their Grandparents Josiah Bearce 3rd and Freelove Canfield;

Bearce Newcomb lays great stress on the grave marker at New Fairfield Conn whitch reads July II,I7I9 Ann Bearce dau of Josiah Bearce and his wife Zerviah,; This is true Zerviah was the legal wife of Josiah and the step mother of Ann, but the blood mother of Ann and the rest off Josiah,s children was Mary Sissell; July IIth I7I9 was the birth year of Ann Bearce at old Barnstable; Ann Bearce assisted Zerviah in the compiling of Zerviah,s supplement and was of much assistance to her as she herself stated in her Dairy. Bearce is also incorrect on Mary Wilder who with her mother come in the Confidence on the same trip that brought Austine to these Shores , she married an Underwood in I640 the year the first child of Austine and Mary Hyanno was born; See records at the Cape Puritan Church.

Now it is true that Otis in "Barnstable Families," vol. 1, pp. 55, 59, states that Josiah Bearse married first, 2 Nov. 1716, Zerviah Newcomb of Edgartown, and second, Mary --, and that he had no children by his first wife. Whether or not this was one of the numerous errors of Otis, the Newcomb Genealogy (1874) by John Bearse Newcomb gives a different account which is repeated in the revised edition of this work (1923), p. 21 in both volumes.

According to this account, Zerviah Newcomb. Daughter of Lieut. Andrew and Anna (Bayes) Newcomb, married 2 Nov. 1716, Josiah Bearse. He resided at East Barnstable but was dismissed from the church there 29 Dec. 1734 to the church at Greenwich, Conn., to which place he soon after moved. In 1738 they removed to New Fairfield, Conn., where he died 31 Aug. 1753. The inscription on his wife’s gravestone reads: In Memory of Zerviah Bearss died Sept. 5th in the 91st year of her age 1789." The eleven children are then given, born between 1719 and 1741. No mention is made of an alleged second wife, Mary, and the children are all attributed to Zerviah.

It will be noted that Zerviah was married in 1716, survived her husband, who died in 1753, and died herself in 1789. Josiah could not therefore have had a second legal wife. Mr. F. E. Bearce admits this in his reference to Zerviah "after the death of her husband by law." The story therefore is that Josiah Bearse either committed a bigamous marriage, or kept a concubine, and that in spite of this his legal wife accompanied him on his removal to Connecticut. Such a story cannot be accepted, and is seemingly based on an error, either in the book by Otis, or in an original record at Barnstable. Both offenses were serious in the eyes of the law, and although committed occasionally, ,resulted in legal action against the sinner and usually also in divorce. Yet here we find that the church, after the birth of many of Josiah's children, gave him an honorable dismissal to the church in his now home. This proves that he remained in good standing with his church, as had his grandfather before him. If the story were true, he would have been cast out of the church. The vital and land records of New Fairfield were unfortunately destroyed. However, the Danbury Probate records (vol. 2, pp. 43, 45 and files at the State Library) afford quite conclusive evidence:-

1 Oct. 1753. "Josiah Bearss & Zurviah Bearss are appointed Administrators on the Estate of Josiah Bearss late of Newfairfield in sd District Deceised."

3 Dec. 1753. ".Joseph Bearss son to Josiah Bearss Late of Newfairfield in sd District Decesd Being of Lawfull, age to Chouse his Gardian and having maid Choise of his mother Zurviah Bearss to be his Gardian the Court Doth allow and approve thereof ."

Distribution of the estate was not made until I July 1791, in other words after the death of the widow (Zerviah Newcomb). This distribution of "the Estate of Josiah Barss late of Newfairfield decest"; was made to "the heirs of Josiah Decst who was the eldest son of the Decest"; "Thomas Barss the second son of the Decst"; "Martha"; "Anna late wife of Benjamin Stevens her heirs"; "Mary the wife of Gideon Beardsley"; "Josep the third son of the Decst"; and "Benjamin Bars the fourth son of the Decest."

So! Are we to believe that the legal wife and widow served as co-administrator on Josiah's estate with his eldest son by a concubine? Are we to believe that one of the younger sons by the concubine chose the legal wife for his guardian, calling her "his mother," and that Zerviah and the Court accepted the choice? And are we to believe that distributors, appointed by the Court, distributed Josiah's estate after his lawful widow's death to his illegitimate children? Such preposterous conclusions are forced upon us if we accept the statements made in Mr. Bearse's manuscript, "Who Our Forefathers Really Were."

The children of Josiah and Zerviah (Newcomb) Bearse honored their mother by names which were bestowed on the next generation; “Zerush Bearse" and "Newcomb Bearss" both, married at Danbury in 1778 [Danbury Vital Records, 1-442, 406). It is not our province to inquire why a later descendant prefers to disown Zerviah Newcomb in favor of an alleged Indian concubine, and to besmirch the character of Josiah Bearse by making bastards of all his children. Not an atom of evidence has been adduced to show that Josiah ever had an Indian concubine or secondary wife; and the records quoted above prove conclusively that Zerviah Newcomb was his only wife and the mother of his children.

John Baldwin Ist, half blood Conn Indian (Nau-a-soe) father of Caroline- Mary- Rebecca- John Baldwin Jn2nd,was the son of Richard Baldwin a white man of Old Mildnor, Conn and Ann warrups, Ist dau of Sam Mohawk, or Chicken Warrups Ist father of Captain Thomas Chicken Warrups 2nd, and grandfather of Reading Warrups:

There was three generations of Ann Warrups; Ann Warrups 1st, mother of Nau-a-see or Indian John, Baldwin;Afterwards married a Mauwee;As did Ann Warrups 2nd, dau of , Capt Thomas Chicken Warrups, son of old Chicken Ist, whos wife was a daughter of Ca-too-na, Pamapon Sachem, of a band of Delawares, who had been forced out of New Jersey by the encroachment of the Dutch settled in Conn. Chicken Warrup Ists father was Kyne war Sagamore of the Mohawks, and his grandfather was Ko-is-ti-ne head Sachem of the Mohawks in I640; Ko is-ti-ne,s was a grandson of Do-kan-a-wid-ah, great Madican Sachem and Law giver of the Mohawks of the 5 nations of the Me-do-na-sa-ne,s in I640. Sam Mohawk or Chicken Warrups Ist was the 4th generation from De-kan-a-wid-ah, direct male line Chicken Warrups Ist was a brother of Tach-an-uh-tie or the Black Prince, and his mother was a dau of De-kan-a-sor-ia Onondaga Medican Sachem.Historians state that Old Chicken committed a murder in Conn before going to Schagticoke? This is incorrect; In his youth Chicken first killed an Onandaga youth of nonroyal blood over a girl, and the Grand Council banished him from the Five Nations; Had he not been of Noble Iroquios blood he would have paid with the Murder, with his life. After he was banished and took the trail he drifted into Conn, and being of the Ho-do-na-sa-ne,s, was captured by the Ramapoas, and his life was saved when the daughter Catoona claimed him for a husband; Old Chicken was born about I650-5 and passed of out I749 nearly I00 years old. Capt Thomas Chicken Warrups, son of old Chicken passed out at Schagticoke I769 also past 96 years old. Chicken Ist was a young man and first appeared in land deals in Fairfield Co Conn in I687.

John Baldwin 2nd son of Nau a see went to sea when a young man and his son John Baldwin 3rd, nearly a full blood through marrying back with full blood woman of the Ho do na sane, took to wife a full blood woman of the Onandags His son John Baldwin 4th of the Indian family of Baldwins, was one of the delagates from the Onandaga,s that attended the last Grand Council of the Six Nations on the Ton a wan da Resavation in the year of I848. My grandfather,Iron Face,then I9 years of age, with two other Schagticoke Indians, were fraternal delegates one would call them in English) from the Schagticoke,s to that historic Grand Council When a boy I remember my grandfather William Henery describeing the proceadings of that famous Grand Council, and telling of meeting with his blood kinsman Delegate John Baldwin from the Onandagas, of the Indian family of Baldwins of my line.

Caroline and Mary Baldwin were born some years ahead of Rebecca who was a middle age child; There was something like 23 years differance between the ages of Mary Baldwin who married Azaraha Canfield father of Oliver Canfield Sr, and Rebecca Baldwin who married Josiah Bearce 2nd. This is nothing strange for the old generations.; There was I6 years difference between the birth year of my youngest uncle Fred Bearce born I868, and the birth year of my father the oldest of the children of Iron Face and Mary Ellen Tuttle;

Oliver Canfield was the father of Freelove Canfield whos mother was Sarah Mauwee, dau of Joseph Mauwee. Rebecca Baldwin,s mother was Mercy Caroline dau of Were a ma ug Sachem at New Milford Conn. Mercy Caroline was a sister of CHERE. Rebecca Baldwin was educated at the Moravian Mission at Pau ch ga ta gauch, by the Moravian Brothers; She was famous for her knoweledge of Indian Medicann, as was her mother Mercy Caroline,dau of Werea maug; Rebecca Baldwin stood 6'-2" in her moccasins, and was a powerfull built woman, big rawboned, dominante, proud and haughty;

Her husband Josiah Bearce 2nd had aquired much book knoweledge and could read and write, from his stepmother Zerviah Newcomb, and proud corageous Rebecca, after her marriage to Josiah Bearce 2nd, desided to also aquire some book learning whitch she did from the Moravians. My tradition states that Rebecca,s mother Mercy Caroline,was a half head taller than her husband Indian John Nau a see, who stood over 6' and was a well set up Indian, and that Caroline was big agressive, dominate, and that she had an extreemly violent and explosive temper, and that no member of the Tribe cared to brook her displeasure; She was a great Tribal Orator, and famous medican woman and crude surgeon; It was said of her that she could lift her husband Nau a see of the groung with one hand; Such was her strength; And althou a squaw, an Indian Princess who stood high in the councils of the Schagticook Tribe; I have heard my great aunt describe her on more than one occassion. She lies sleeping at Schagticoke

As for the family of John Baldwin, it fails scrutiny, because Bearce has linked it, in detail, to Mary Baldwin. Azariah Canfield's wife was actually shown to be Mercy Bassett, daughter of Sarah Baldwin and Thomas Bassett II. This seems to indicate that he's once again fabricating his "genealogy", and showing us that he's using old genealogy books, that contained some errors, and not oral tradition, or a diary.

When a boy he was educated by Zerviah Newcomb and his aunt Ann Bearce at New Fairfield Conn, and could read write and figure; At the age of I0 years, Mary Caroline sister of Iron Face with her older brother James Monroe Bearce, went to live with their grandparents Josiah 3rd and Freelove Canfield at Penfield N.Y. At the age of I5 years Mary Caroline Bearce returned to New Milford Conn, to live with her oldest brother Fredrick Canfield Bearce, who had returned from captivity in the North of Canada,where she only stayed a year when she again went back to her grandparents at Penfield where she resided untill she married her cousin Elisha Roe at the age of I8 years She knew all about the family history and was well aquainted with the facts relating to her white and Indian anscesters.She sucked mullin leaves mixed with tobaco

Freelove Canfield wife of Josiah Bearce 3rd was a ¾ blood Schagticoke Indian and was born on Long Mountain New Milford Conn; She was the dau of Oliver Canfield Sr of Long Mountain and his house servant Sarah Mauwee, dau of Joseph Mauwee who was Sachem at Choostown and his wife Ann Warrups of We quan dauch Conn. Tabitha Roberts wife of Oliver Canfield Sr was not the Mother of Freelove of this fact I am positively certain:(See full written Manuscript, Our White And Indian Ancestors) Oliver Canfield was a 3/8th blood Conn Indian through his mother Mary Baldwin of the Indian family of Baldwins;

Sarah Mauwee was born at Choostown Conn, and was both a Warrups and a Mauwee; She afterwards married a Schagticoke Indian I remember of my grandfather Iron Face and aunt Mary Caroline talking in the Schagticoke dialect on several ocassions; On one of these ocassions I ask aunt Mary Caroline what they were talking about and she said they were discussing Sarah Mauwee and Freelove Canfield and told me the history of Freeloves parentage, Aunt Mary visited my grandfather Iron Face at Allegan when I was three years of age and gave me my Indian name; She also named my sister her Indian name of Fern, that beautifull high colored dark green of the woodland; When I was a growing boy I0 years she again paid my grandfather a protracted visit of over two years and I was always with her when she gathered wild herbs and Mullin leaves whitch she dried and smoked in her pipe; She talked often about our white and Indian ancesters and knew all about them She lies sleeping in Arkensaw at Eureaka Springs

The division of property of Thomas Bassett II, indicates that Azariah Canfield's wife, was actually Mercy Bassett, Daughter of Thomas II Bassett and Sarah Baldwin (no known native connections). It seems that, somehow, her mother's maiden name was recorded as her maiden name. This totally negates having to even discuss Mary Balwin's alleged native connections, as she and the "Indian family of Baldwins" aren't related.

At the age of I6 years Gideon Noble Bearce who lied about his age he was a big boy , enlisted in the Indian Scouts under his Indian name War of I8I2, He said he was I9 years of age at the time; After he married Margaret Ann and had several children by her he went to Hartford Conn , and when Iron Face was 6 year old he married a white woman by the name of Ann Saylor and left his family and Margaret Ann Rau; Who did not stay single long on account of her growing family of children to feed, married another Schagticoke Indian by the name of Timothy Odd-ee and went to live on the resavation at Kent Litchfield Co Conn to live;She took the youngest children with her;

Frederick Canfield Bearce her oldest son was aboard a British Whaler at the time where he lived for three years after he had swum the icy waters of Hudson Bay, and escaped his Northern Canadian Indian Captors(See written Manuscript) His captors treated him kindly as he was only a boy and also an Indian. He was kidnaped by a Mohican half blood as an act of vengence against Gideon Noble Bearce , who had threw him at Lagrangeville Dut Co and cut the tendon in his right wrist in a quarrel over Margaret Ann Roe; My family does not know where Gideon Noble Bearce sleepes perhaps others do; Iron Face only spoke of him on one occassion that I remember and then with condemnation. Mary Caroline Bearce Rau his daughter and my great aunt related to me his family historyShe knew much about her father and her mother Margaret Ann Roes history;

Margaret Ann Rau, wife of Gideon Noble Bearce born July 9th I794 on the Eligha Rau Farm Dutches Co N.Y. She was a ¾ blood Schagticoke Indian with mostly Mohican Wappanger, and Manhattan Indian strains; Her mother was Ann May full blood dau of Sampson May, Sagamore at She ko me ko N.Y. and Indian Mohican Moravian Preacher. And Johanna full blood dau of Prince Mannessah of She co me co N.Y. Johannas mother was a Warrups, and Prince Mannessah a famous Indian medican man; Many Indians and white men bitten by chuck-heads and rattlers, owed their lives to the skill in Indian Medican of Prince Mannessah the Mauwee; Who with his sons and others of my May and Mauwee anscesters, migrated to Pine Plains North Allegan Co Michigan, where they lie sleeping on the banks of Swan Creek , near where I was born and played and caught speckled trout and frogs when a boy, and was nearly bit by a massasagur snake while walking the banks of that narrow but deep stream at the old Indian Villiage of the Pottawatimie hunting stone arrow heads and other Indian relicks. I was I9 at the time. Anna May wife of Eligha Roe was bornI772 Wequandauch New York Side; She was both a Warrups and a Mauwee; The Indian family of May were full blood Mohicans of She co me co N.Y. Margaret Ann Roe,s father Eligha Roe married Anna May at Bethel Church I786 She was only I4 years of age and just at puberty;

Eligha Roe was born on the Mattice Rau farm Dut Co N.Y. I754. He was a 5/8th blood Schagticoke Indian, and son of Mattice Rau, born I735 on the John Rau farm , Pine Plains Dut Co N.Y. and married by a Moravian Brother at We-qu-an-dau-ch Mission I753, to his wife Caroline, ¾ blood Mohican Indian dau of Sullivan ½ blood squater of Dover N.Y. and his wife Margaret , full blood Mohican and dau of Josuah a Mauwee,a son of Gideon Mahu wee hu, or Mau-wee; Josuah was a brother of Chuse Mauwee, and a famous Indian Preacher of the Moravian Church; Then there was , Josuah Mau-wee Ist a brother of Gideon Mauhuweehu, who was baptized by the Moravians in I742 at old She ko me ko , and also an Indain Moravian Brother and Josuah Mau-wee 2nd son of Josuah Ist born I74I at She co me co., was educated to preach for the Moravian Church by the Brothers;

Mattice was a son of Moravian John Rau a german carpenter of the Palintates, settled at Pine Plains Dut Co N.Y. I7I5 married I72I under pagan Indian rights , his wife Cathern full blood Piquot and Mohegan woman born at She co me co N.Y. and a dau of Isaac Siem, Sachem at She co me co , and sister of Gideon Mau-hu-wee-hu and his brother Josuah Mau-wee Ist; Isaac,Siems wife was a Piquod woman and a grandaughter of Tot-ban or Sascusus; The Moravians say a daughter, it should be a grandaughter; The son of Sow-he-ag, Mo-ko-me-ce married a daughter of Sassacus n a daughter of this union was the squaw of Isaac Seim, and the Mother of Gideon Mau-wee,and Josuah Mau-wee Ist but not the mother of Siems other Children; Siem had more...

Catherin ½ sister of Gideon and Josuah Ist and wife of Moravian John Rau, had Mohican mother, dau of a Mohican Sagamore.

"Mattice Rau" is John's son, Matthias. Born about 1737, Matthias Rowe purchased the family mill from his brother, Peter. Matthias' first recorded wife was Catherine Rowe, daughter of Philip Rowe, according to headstone records. She was born about 1747, and died on November 29th, 1786. His second wife was a much younger woman, named Dolly. There is no record of a Caroline.^[12]

There doesn't seem to be a record of Matthew having a son Elisha/Elija, or of Margaret Ann Rowe, prior to her marriage. An old notebook, of one Layton Rowe, b. 1875, suggests that this Elisha Rowe is from a different line of Rowes who may descend from Hessian Germans of the Revolutionary War. Verification in progress.

Gideon did remarry, to widow Lydia (Goodrich) Shaylor.

Margaret remarried, as well. Only she married Nehemiah Smith Odell, not Odee, grandson of Captain Nehemiah Smith, an Indian War veteran, and son of Captain William Odell, a Revolutionary War veteran.^[13] She, and Nehemiah, can be found living with daughter, Mary Caroline Bearce, and son-in-law, Elisha P Rowe, in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 1850 US Census. They are living with Elisha and Mary, again on the 1860 US Census, in Roxbury, Litchfield, Connecticut.

Like John Rowe, this Elisha/Elijah P. Rowe is from a line of German Palatines. Born about 1819, he is the son of Wilhelmus/William Rowe by his first wife, Elizabeth Murray. William's second wife was Caroline Bearse, daughter of Josiah Bearse and Freelove Canfield. William, born February 13th, 1789, was the son of Jacobus/James Rowe, and Annatje Leeman.

The closest this German family ever came to being Native Americans, was when Tory, Jacobus Rowe disguised himself as an Indian, and kidnapped his neighbour, David Abeel, and his son Anthony. This, according to The Abeel And Allied Families.^[14]

William Jeffway has pointed out a passage from History of Little Nine Partners, under the Frazier family: ^[15]

"Frazier family — colored people —"

The Frazier family is indeed an African American family, with a long history in the area.

"Some members of these Frazier families intermarried with a family called May, of pure Indian lineage of the Mohican Shacomeco clan, and proprietors of the lands in this vicinity. Mannessah, Indian name, was a "medicine man," had a son and daughter, and they claimed to be the last of this tribe of pure blood Indian. Joanna, so called, the daughter, married a man named May, They had two daughters, half blood, ..."

Please note that, if Joanna, daughter of Mannessah, married a May, of "pure Indian lineage", and their children were "half blood", that would make Joanna, her father, and her brother, the zero blood part of the equation.

"She is authority that three chiefs of her tribe or clan were buried on the east side of now Pine Street in the village near the old pine tree now standing there. The mounds of these graves were plainly to be seen years ago, and to that extent corroborate her tradition. (See Pine Tree Lineage. )"

"Her brother called "Prince" — Mannessah, Indian name — lived about a half mile north of Hoffman's Mills to the right of the road near the boundary line between Duchess and Columbia Counties. He acquired knowledge of the Indian medical practice by herbs and roots, from his Indian ancestry, and applied it whenever called upon. In derision the regular medical profession called him a " quack," and his medicines "quack medicine. " Patrons of the regular profession and others used the epithet freely and so he was universally known as "Prince Quack.""

Prince, "Black", in New York State, 1850. ^[16] Prince, "Black", in Michigan, 1860. ^[17] Prince, "Black", in Michigan, 1870. ^[18] Prince, "Black", died in Michigan, 13 Apr 1875. ^[19]

Franklyn appears to have plucked a part of his "genealogy" from the pages of Huntting's book and applied it to the Rowe family. Little did he seem to know that "Prince Quack" was either also a charlatan, passing off a fake Native heritage, or was accidentally caught up in some local myth. Either way, the "full blood" heritage that Franklyn stole, appears to have been from a full blooded African American.

He lived with his mother and stepfather Odd-ee on the Schagticoke Resavation At Kent for some years when a boy, and spoke the Schagticoke dialect, as well as the Pottiwatimie tongue fluently. as did his sister Aunt Mary Caroline Bearce. His brothers and sisters were, Fr edrick Canfield Bearce, born Jan 26 I8I8 near Hartford Conn, James Monroe Bearce, born Apr 7th I820 on Weara maug Lake Washington Township Litchfield Co Conn, Mary Caroline Bearce, born May IIth I82I, Bethany Mission Litchfield Co Conn, John Daniel Bearce, born June 3rd I826 New Milford Conn, Eli Harvy Bearce born, Sept I9th I826 New Milford Conn, William Henery Bearce born, June 18th I823 Love (Lower ?) Dut Co N.Y. and was the youngest child of Gideon Noble Bearce and Margaret Ann Rau.

In the spring of his I9th year Iron Face, had a terrific physical encounter with another half drunken Schagticoke Indian at the resavation at kent; William Henery took a terrific hammering from his opponent on the head and face, but was not knocked off his feet. He finally wore the other Indian down after taking his knife away, and knocked him insensable; As a result of the encounter, he received his Indian name of Rin-khor-top-san-me-ce, Man with head hard like Iron Stone.

The following fall he was a fraternal delegate with two other Schagticoke Indians to the Grand Council of the Six Nations at the Ton-a-wan-da Resavation; He was a strong hater of slavery and an active member of the Garrison crowd of Abolitionits; Many a runaway chattle slave owed his life and freedom to the skill, courage, and woodcraft of Iron Face; He was baptized first in the Moravian Church, and then as he told me one time in the Congresonial Church, the early Puritan Church, after he migrated the second time to Allegan Co Mich, with his father inlaw Sullivan Masters Atwater Tuttle, and family,s because there was no Moravian Church at Allegan and no Moravian Brothers to preach; Mary Caroline Bearce Rau was a pagan, and passed out still retaining the pagan faith of her aboriginal anscesters, The great Manito, and the spirit world ;

I to am an Indian Pagan.

William Henery Bearce was the treasurer of the Allegan Lodge of I.O.O.F. for many years, and a second degree Free Mason; He was stopped from taking his third degree by a white a Dr. Thomas, a horse doctor who hated Indians and said that he did not want any dam Indians in the Allegan Lodge; Iron Face, a proud man, out of chagrin at the affront never went inside the Lodge room door again;

The trouble started some time before when Iron Face, badly manhandled Dr Thomas in a physical encounter over the refusal of this horse Doctor to help Iron Face doctor some 400 Pottowatimies of the old Swan Creek band with some Chipawas on their way west who were camped on Williams Henerys Home Lot many of them dying from a scourage of small pox; Some of these Indians, stragglers of the old Swan Creek band were blood kin of my grandfather from the old She co me co migration, and had come to Iron Face for help. Dr Thomas had refused to help Iron Face Doctor them and said, let them die the quicker they die we will be rid of them that much sooner and will get their land for settlement; Dr Thomas was a badly beaten man; Some of the survivors of that epidemic still resided on the Dowagok Resavation when I was a boy near Dowajack Mich. Dr Thomas was still so spitefull over the affair that he used to sic his big white bull dog on a big mongrel hound dog of my fathers, old trip, when Noble Sullivan Bearce was driveing by out the old chesire road on his trips to buy stock from surrounding farmers; Dr Thomas wrote a history of Allegan Co and although William Henery was at Allegan on pine hill when the nearest white man was at Otsego I2 miles away, and built many of the substantial buildings around Allegan, the Bearce Family was not even mentioned in Thomases History, except once William Bearce Treas Allegan Lodge I.O.O.F.

Over twenty members of my family lie sleeping in the semitray on pine hill, on the two Bearce Lots, provided for the family by my grandfather Iron Face. William Henerys word to pay or do was more reliable than most mens bond; He was a big silent man of few words, with a violent temper, jet black hair and eyes, and a swarthy copper colored skin, and very much Indian, and one of this earths finest men. He sleeps at Allegan(See written M.S. for more detailed information)

Mary Ellen Tuttle wife of Iron Face was a dau of Sullivan Masters Atwater Tuttle, direct descendant of Titus and Kaleb Tuttle Salem Mass, I623 Experience Mitchell, I620, Plymouth, and many other old Mayflower families; Of Pilgrim and Puritan Stock; Mary Ellen Tuttle was born at Litchfield Co Conn, June 26 I83I, she was an I/8th blood Wee-paug or Paugusset Indian through her"Cockfield"strain; And had another slight Indian strain through Mary Mitchell old age wife of Experience Mitchell, whos mother was a daughter of a younger brother of Massasoit; Mary Ellen Tuttle was very proud of her descent from massasoits family, and her Mayflower anscesters; She named one of her sons Daniel Taylor Mitchell Bearce after some of these early anscesters, of mixed white and Indian blood; She was a wonderfully good courageous pioneer woman, who visited the sick and layed out the dead who had passed out; She lies sleeping on the family plot at Allegan.

Mary Ellen Tuttles mother was, Eliza Cockfield Parmalee, of Walcotville Conn, a ¼ blood Paugusset Indian through her"Cockfield" strain. Her mother was a half blood dau of, Sargent Cockfield of the British Light Horse,who was killed in action by Colonial Troops during the Rev War in Fairfield Co Conn, and a full blood Paugusset Indian Princess of Fairfield co Conn, dau of a Weepau Sagamore, and a grandaughter of Wampanoag Sachem on M.V.I. Tuttle migrated with my Grandfather Iron Face to Allegan Co. Mich from Conn, and settled first at Gun Marsh and then at Otsego Mich in Allegan Co, where he and Eliza Cockfield Parmalee lie sleeping.

When I was 6 years of age we resided that summer up over the Post office at Otsego Michand My father worked at Lagrange Indiana; And with my mother we were frequent visators at my greatgrandparents home in Otsego Villiage on the old Tuttle place. I also attended the anual reunion of my greatgrand-parents at Otsego with my grandfathers family; I remember my great grandmother Eliza Cockfield Parmalee; She was very Lovely in her old age, grey eyes, and bright,light copper colored skin;

After my grandfather William Henery Bearce passed out at Allegan, my grandmother Mary Ellen Tuttle gave my grandfathers riffels (rifles ?) and his colletion of Arrow heads, and stone spear heads to her brother Uncle Homer Tuttle who still resided on the old Tuttle Place in the Villiage of Otsego Mich. Most of those Old Indian Relics, were licked up at the old Pottowatimie Town out on the old sand hill road Pine Plains Allegan Co Mich, on the banks of Swan Creek where I used to play when a boy;

The children of Iron Face and Mary Ellen Tuttle were, the oldest my father, Noble Sullivan BeArce born Sept the 5th I852, Washington Township , on Wearamaug Lake, Litchfield Co Conn; Elanor May Bearce, she was named May after her Mohican Indian anscestors, Anna May full blood) born June 15th I854 Washington Township , on Wearamaug Lake, Litchfield co Conn. William Edgelbert Bearce born april 3oth I857 Hope Berry Co Mich. (At the time of my grandfathers first migration to Michigan) He returned again to Litchfield Co Conn; Daniel Taylor Mitchell Bearce born May 3Oth I858, Bethany Mission, Litchfield Co Conn, Alsace Margaret Bearce, born Mar I0th I86I Semere, Litchfield Co Conn. Franklyn Tuttle Bearce-Frances Tuttle Bearce,(Twins) born, June 30th I863 Bethany,s Mission,Litchfield Co Conn. Frederick Walter Bearce, born May 9th I868, Allegan Co Mich. Infant dau, born Allegan Mich Dec 24th I870. Passed out Feb I87I of Small Pox;

William Henery Bearce, learned his trade of carpenter and mill right,from his mothers brothers and uncles the Rau Boys at Dover Dutchess Co N.Y. (For further information see original written manuscript on deposit at the(Congressional Library Wash D.C and public Library New York City N.Y.)

Noble Sullivan Bearce can be found, on the 1860 US Census, living with his parents, "William H Bearce", a 31 year old wagon maker, and 28 year old "Mary E Bearce", in Washington, Litchfield, Connecticut. Also living with them, are siblings "Mary E" (not May), "William A", "Daniel T M", and "Alice".^[22]

On the 1870 US Census, "Noble Burce", a 17 year old white labourer, is on his own, in Allegan, Allegan, Michigan.^[23] His parents, "Wm C Bierce", a 41 year old white carpenter, and "Mary E", a 38 year old white housewife, are also living in Allegan, Allegan, Michigan, along with 6 of Noble's white siblings, "Mary E" (not May), "Willie A", "Danl T M", "Alice M", "Fanny F", and "Frederick".^[24]

On the 1880 US Census, "Wm H Bearce", a 50 year old white carpenter, and wife "Mary E", a 47 year old white housewife, are living in Allegan, Allegan, Michigan, along with 5 of Noble's white siblings, "Wm A", "Danl T M", "Alice M", "Fanny F", and "Fredk W".^[25] "Wm H Bearce", a 67 year old white carpenter, then passes away on June 16th, 1896, in Allegan, Allegan, Michgan.^[26] His parents are listed as "Gideon N Bearce" and "Margaret Bearce".

"Mary E Bearce", a widowed 68 year old white mother-in-law, is living in Marysville, Snohomish, Washington, with her daughter "Frances B", formerly "Fanny", and son-in-law, "Marcus L Solomon", on the 1900 US Census.^[27] Then, on the 1910 US Census, "Mary Bearce", a widowed white 78 year old grandmother, is living in Meadowdale, Snohomish, Washington, with Nina R Marsh, the daughter of Alice M Bearce, her own daughter, and Henry H Marsh. On the census, "Nina R" is the 28 year old white wife of "William H Hamby".^[28]

On May 20th, 1916, "Mary E Bearce" passed away in Lincoln City, Lincoln, Oregon.^[29] She likely moved with Nina, as "Nina M Hamby" is found in Oregon, a 38 year old white widow, on the 1920 US Census.

Eliza Cockfield Parmalee died, November 26th, 1878, in Orangville, Barry, Michigan.^[30] She is listed as "Eliza Tuttle", a 70 year old white married housewife, just as she was listed on the 1870 US Census, except for being 61 years old, at that time.^[31]

Apparently, none of these proud descendants of Indian princesses, were proud enough to actually call themselves Indians on primary documentation...not his siblings, not his parents, not his aunts and uncles, not his grandparents, not his great-grandparents, not his grand uncles and aunts, not his great-grand uncles and aunts, not any of his cousins, of any kind, no, not even Franklyn Bearce himself.

Did Franklyn Bearce have the remarkable ability to remember his great-grandmother, Eliza, from before he was 7 months old, when she died? No, he lied, and led us to believe he met her, when he was 6 years old. Was Franklyn a pagan? The only documented religion, for him, is on his marriage certificate, which states he's a white Presbyterian, of Detroit, born in Londonderry, Ireland...quite a jump from being a pagan Native American. He also lists himself as white, in 1915, 1920, 1930, and 1940.

Was "Eleanor May" Bearce named after the May Indians? No, her name was apparently Mary Eleanor, very much similar to her mother, Mary Ellen.

Was Daniel T Mitchell Bearce named after distant Native American ancestors, and Mayflower descendants? No, he appears to have been named after a nice old man, that took Mary Ellen in and gave her first job.

Did Homer Caleb S Tuttle live on the "old Tuttle place", in Ostego? Heck, I don't know if Sullivan Tuttle lived on the "old Tuttle place", in Ostego. He did die in Ostego, September 20th, 1888, listed as a white 82 year old widowed moulder.^[32] In 1860 he had moved from Litchfield, Connecticut,^[33] to Orangeville, Barry, Michigan.^[34] Then, by 1870, he had moved from Orangeville to Gun Plains, Allegan, Michigan,^[35], where he was still found in 1880^[36]. He only appears in Ostego, to die.

Homer was also living in Orangville, in 1860, and then Gun Plains, in 1870. In 1880, he's living in Wayland, Allegan, Michigan. Then he's living in Hopkins, Allegan, Michigan, in 1900, and 1910, where he dies, "Homer C S Tuttle", a 75 year old married white farmer, on May 8th, 1911 (Michigan, Deaths and Burials Index, 1867-1995). Homer doesn't appear in Ostego, at all. If either of them actually lived at the "old Tuttle place", in Ostego, it wasn't long enough for the place to be old, to them, or to get themselves recorded as living there.

In his day he was one of the best loved and the most popular men in Allegan County. He was in the Wholesale and Retail Meat and Provission Business on Hubbard Street across from the old Sherman House, and was burnt out in the great Allegan Fire. He rented the circus grounds at Allegan to Showman, supplied them with meats and provissions and was a personal friend of P.T. Barnum and Adam Forepaugh.

He had his hat shot off byburgarulars the night after the big Allegan Fire at the ally on N,Hubbard St, between the back of Sherwoods and Griswolds Store,and the old Sherman House; He had been deputized and was patroling the buisness section without any fire arms; The next day when he was reproached by citizans for accepting such dangerous duties unarmed, he said that he did not need any arms that he could protect himself with his hands if necessary;

On another occassion he Jumped into his buggy, and went out the old sand hill road to rescue and prevent the lynching of a negro cook who worked at the old Chaffe house, who was accused of causing the pregnancy of a I9 year old girl, who jumped into the Kalamazoo River and drowened herself; The mob was stringing the Negro up when Noble Sullivan arived at the scene of the lynching; He jumped out of his buggy pulled out his pocket knife, strode over to the hanging Negro, cut him down, and struck and broke the jaw of a citizan armed with a shot gun who tried to stop him walked over and dropped the uncontious Negro into his buggy, andturning to the mob told them that there would be no mob murder in Allegan Co while he was around,and drove of with the Negro to the County jail, where it was afterwards proven that, the Negro was innocent of any wrong doing. Such was the prestige of Big Nobe Bearce in Allegan Co that not a man in the Mob interfered. He sleeps at Allegan Co Mich. He was a wonderful kind man to his family and well loved by all who knew him Noble Sullivan Bearce was not quite a half blood Indian,7/I6ths Schagticoke, and Eastern strains, and 9/I6ths white blood. He never had only two taken that I no of

Mary Ellen Blaine, my mother,wife of Noble Sullivan Bearce, was a dau of James Gillispee Blaine and Nandachine Hoover. My grandfather James G. Blaine was a son of John Blaine and his second cousin Elizabeth Ann Blaine. My grandfather James G. Blaine, was a first cousin of Games G. Blaine, American diplomat, and Sec of State and one time canidate for President of this commonwealth; There (Their ?) fathers were brothers, and they were both named after their Grandfather, James Gillispe Blaine. My grandfather Blain was a studious man and a scholar; He was a slave owener at Preston,N.Carolina, and built wagons and gun carriages for the Confederate Govt, during the cival War. He was pauperized by the collaps of the Southern Confederacy, and come North, first to Whitly Co Indiana, where with several Negroes ex-slaves he bought land, and from there to Allegan Co Mich , where he lived for some years and lies sleeping.He married Nandachine Hoover at the Quaker settlement of West Milton,Miami Co Ohio. He was North Irish stock,------- -----------------

Nandachine Hoover and her sister Millicent Hoover were of old American Quaker and Indian Stock.And were born at the Quaker settlement West Milton, Miam Co Ohio. They were both of the Quaker faith; The ancestrial history of my grandmother Nandachine Hoover, and her sister aunt Millie, were handed down to me by word of mouth of both these women when I was a young man, and verified on the back and was a 7/I5th blood Shawnee, (*The typing here is not legible)

truthfull, dominate, woman of old pioneer stock; The history of Yaunt-ka-ha, or John Third River, the first John Yaunts; Some of the Yaunt family from N.Carolina would imply that the family name of Yaunts, is a variable way of spelling the Dutch name of Yaundt,,Yundt; And as there was no imigrant entry record of families from Europe bearing the name of Yaunt, the name must be some variable way of spelling some family name. Nothing of the sort, The Yaunts are native born descent for generations;

This explanation would sound plausible untill one knows the truth of the Yaunt descent; The family name of Yaunt is an abreavation of the Delaware or Munsee Indian word Third River. And the first John Yaunts, or Yaunt-Ka-ha, called himself by the name of John Yaunts, by dropping the last sylables Ka-ha, from the Indian name Yaunt-ka-ha. Yaunt in old delaware New Jersey dialect, John River, and with the addition of ka-ha, John Third River;

As a genealogical fact the family name is Frank-an-eur, and Yaunt-ka-ha,s father,s first name was John Frankaneur; Nandachine Hoover was a dau of Jesse Hoover and Rebecca Yaunts, who were both in the old Hillsborough district North Carolina; Rebecca Yaunts was a dau of John Yaunts,jr son of Yaunt-ka-ha , and Jesse was a son of John Hoover, the following is a true historical and genealogical record of my my grandmother Nancy Hoovers Indian strains, and the people involved, and is to the best of my knoweledge correct. John Hoover father of Eli, Jesse, and other children, owened slaves in N.Carolina, and out of religeous scruples, freed them in I80I shortly before he with other Quaker families from N.Carolina migrated north to West Milton, a Quaker settlement in Miami Co Ohio. They arrived at West Milton in I802.

In order to trace the name of Yaunts, and their connections with the old Francaneur, and Chartier families of French blood, the Welch Engils and the Dutch Masts; It is necessary to go back to the Hackansack Tribe of Delawares in the State of New Jersey, to the year I7I8. That year an Indian boy was born at the Hackansack villiage in N.central N.Jersey His father was a young man by the name of John Fran can eur, who had went inland to acquire land and settle a homestead. Johnathan Francaneur was the son of a French Pioneer by the name of Francaneur; My grandfather pronounced the name as if it were spelled in English, Frank an oer; The mother of this Indian boy afterwards named Yaunt-ka-ha,orJohn Yaunts first, was a fuul blood Delaware Indian girl of the shatered, Hackensack tribe, who had driven inland by the encroachments of the Dutch and had merged with another Delaware band; Yaunt-ka-ha,s mothers father was a Capt of Shawnee,s blood,whos father was a ruling Sachem of the Penn Shawonees;of that period, and her mother was a dau of the Hackensack Sagamore. In Yaunt-ka-has early teens, the tribe was camped on the banks of the third river; It seems that the tribe made anual pilgrimages to the Third River to hold ceremonies and trade at old Newark; up untill about the year of I750.

At the I728 ceremonies, this Indian boy after wards named John Third River, or Yaunt ka ha, fell into the mouth of the third river by overturning of a canoe,and nearly drowned.Oweing to the incedent this Indian boy was given his second name of Yaunt ka ha, or Third River, pronounced in English Yaunt-ta caw. In I743 this Indian family with others in order to escape the encroachment of the Ducth, migrated to Shawenee Town, Berks Co Penn, and shortly after Yaunt-ka-ha was taken into the family of Quakers from Lancaster, where he lived for some time, and was given considerable book learning by this Quaker Preacher, and converted to the Quaker faith,and adopted the English name of John Yaunt, by droping the Ka-ha from his Delaware Indian Name of Yaunt-ka-ha.

In I750 Yaunt ka ha married under the Quaker ritual his wife, Nadachine (Nancy) Chartier,s, whos father was Francois Chartier ½ blood Canidian French and Indian, a Squaw man and fur trader with the Shawenee,s; Her mother was a dau of the ruling Shawenee Sachem of the time Back-sin-osa; Nancy Chartiers was born at the Shawenee villiage Berks Co Pa, in the year of I734; In I76I -2, Yaunt ka ha with Nandachine Chartiers, and a growing family of children, migrated into the Hillsborough Quaker District, of N Carolina, where they raised their family of several children. In i787 Yaunt ka ha with one of his sons migrated north again to Lancaster Pa where they were in the Ist U.S.cencus of I790 and listed as white, as were many other families of mixed blood; Nancy Chartiers lies sleeping at Lancaster Pa, and Yaunt ka ha married again and olny lived a short time after;

Frederick Yaunts a brother of Rebecca, and his wife Fredrick was a grandson of Yaunt ka ha , settled and took land in the Shawenee country in Ohio. Other settlers built a block house and slept their nightly for months in fear of the Shawenees; Not Fredrick Yaunts and his wife who both had Shawenee blood, spoke the Shawenee dialect, and were under the protection of the Shawenee Council; They were never molested, John Yaunts jr son of Yaunt ka ha, mar, (married ?)Mary Mast, who was a sister of John mast that married Mary Kurtz. John Mast was a son of Jacob Mast who come to these shores from Switzland. Jacob Mast married, about I757, a mixed white and Indian woman by the name of Ingles,in southern Berks Co Pa. In I760-I Jacob Mast migrated to the Quaker settlement in North Carolina with his family; He was of the Quaker Faith; He come North again and sleeps in Sou Berks Co Pa.

Nandachine Hoover lies sleeping with James G Blain near Allegan villiage , aunt Millie with her second husband near Eau Clair Berrian Co Mich. My mother Mary Ellen was a good daer woman with a tempermental Irish temper andloved by all who knew her, she lies sleeping at Allegan Mich. My sister is a gifted and brilliant woman with three Academic Degrees in the field of Pathologhy, My wife Marie a good mother and sterling wife. My dear son Mark Carl lies sleeping at Allegan Mich; (see written manuscript for more information (illegible word) on family Notes and facts)

From John Quinn Doer:

"Quite a bit is known about Rebecca Yount and Jesse Hoover; they were the great grandparents of President Herbert Hoover, and both the Yount and Hoover families have a proud and careful tradition of keeping family history through the generations. Jesse and Rebecca had nine children before he died in 1856, a short time after the family migrated to Cedar County, Iowa. Rebecca lived another 40 years, well into her 90's, and never remarried, but reportedly adopted another 19 children over the years. She was a true family matriarch."

"The problem is that she never had a child named Nandachine, Nancy, or even any variation such as Agnes. In addition, all of her children and their marriages are accounted for, and none married a James Blain. Neither she nor any of her children ever lived in Whitley County, Indiana. This is not just a case of an unlisted child."

"Rebecca Yount lived to the age of 96, and counted her children, grand children, great grandchildren, and great, great, grandchildren as closely as a hen counts her chicks. She had nearly 300 descendants when she died and one of her passions was genealogy. She was part of a very close Quaker community, and the suggestion that one of her children is unaccounted for is not to be credited."

Secondly, Franklyn's great-grandmother, Rebecca, wasn't even a Yount.

We can find Franklyn's mother, Mary Ellen Blaine, with her parents, on the 1860 and 1870 US Censuses. In 1860, they are in Noble, Indiana,^[37] then, in 1870, they are in Allegan, Michigan.^[38] The father's name is "James Blain", and the mother's name is "Nancy J".

Nancy Jane Hoover can then be found with her parents, "Jesse" and "Rebecca" on the 1850 US Census, in Whitley, Indiana. However, the parent's surname is listed as "Hand", not Hoover. It is also the surname of 4 out of the 8 children, the other 4 having the surname "Hoover". The Hand children's and the Hoover children's birthdays also overlap each other. This is the blended family of two widows, with 4 children each.^[39]

On June 24th, 1899, in Eau Claire, Berrien, Michigan, "Michael Maloy" marries widow "Nancy J Hoover Blaine".^[40] "Nancy Jane Maloy" died on June 14th, 1910, in Bertrand, Berrien, Michigan (Michigan, Deaths and Burials Index, 1867-1995).^[41] Her parents are listed as father, "Joseph Hover", and mother, "Rebekah Hooper".

On January 1st, 1860, "Amelia Hoover" (Not Millicent) marries "Moses Daisey" in Kosciusko, Indiana.^[42] Then, in 1886, widow "Millie Daisy" marries "Samuel J Bonewit", in Hagar, Berrien, Michigan,^[43] where most of the Daisy children are also living. We can then find death and cemetery records for "Millie Bonewit".^[44] She died on October 5th, 1906, in Pipestone, Berrien, Michigan (Michigan, Deaths and Burials Index, 1867-1995). Her parents are listed as father, "Joseph Hoover", and mother, "Hooper".

No surprise, but Franklyn didn't even get his non-native, Blain, genealogy correct...

From John Quinn Doer:^[45]

"Bearce's great grandfather John Blain was a half-brother to Ephraim Lyon Blain, (the father of James Gillespie Blain). Since it was Ephraim Blain who m. Maria Gillespie, neither the grandfather, the great grandfather, nor the great great grandfather (James Blain) of Franklin BeArce would have carried the name Gillespie. Franklin BeArce was related to the politician and statesman James Gillespe Blaine as a half-second cousin 3 times removed."

"Bearce's grandfather James Blain was the son of John Blain, who came from Cumberland, PA and was an early settler in Noble County, Indiana. He never made wagons or cannons, either for the Union or the Confederacy, never owned slaves, was never rich enough to become impoverished, was not married in West Milton, Miami, OH, and in fact, never lived in North Carolina. His quiet life in Noble County near his family is as well accounted for as can be expected. The only time he "come north" was when he moved the 100 miles or so to Allegan, Michigan, where he lived near the residence of his daughter Mary and her husband Noble Bearce."

"His background: James Blain was from childhood a resident in Noble County, by trade a blacksmith, and at age 24, on May 22, 1855, married, in Whitley County, Indiana, Nancy J. Hoover. (In 1860 several dozen residents of Noble County, the Blains among them, petitioned for the township they lived in to be transferred to Whitley County. They were successful in this petition, and the county boundaries were moved.)"

"He lived near his parents and brothers, and at the outbreak of the Civil War, the 1860 census shows him there, a blacksmith, his wife a "domestic" with a one year old daughter. There are no slaves or Negroes in the enumeration district, and it's doubtful he could have afforded one, even with his wife working.His estate is 200 dollars."

"Conclusion: Since Mr. Bearce emphatically states that he received this "true and historical genealogical record" from his grandmother and aunt, then we are faced with an unpleasant judgement."

"We can only conclude, bluntly, that someone is lying, either Bearce, or his grandmother and aunt. And this is no casual lie. The account he gives is elaborate, lengthy, and follows enough of the vague outline of historical fact to show familiarity with it. The liar would have to have had some knowledge of the Hoover and Yount families. Common sense would suggest that it was indeed, Mr. BeArce who was the liar."

"In compiling the manuscript he shows a familiarity with the basics of genealogical research, remarking that there is no Passenger Record for the Yount immigrant ancestor, (Not true by the way.). Had he been deceived, even the barest research would have alerted him to that fact. There can be little doubt that he was the perpetrator of this hoax."