Benjamin Tubbs (abt. 1773 - abt. 1850)

Born about 1773 in Vermont or New Hampshire [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Lurana (Searles) Tubbs — married 1792 in Whitehall, Washington County, New York

Descendants

Died about Feb 1850 at about age 77 in Westfield, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, United States of America

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Biography

Probably the most detailed information we have about Benjamin Tubbs comes from his grandson Frederick Henry Tubbs in 1887. In Tubbs Family Records he states: “Benjamin Tubbs my grandfather lost track of his ancestry. His mother died when he was seven years old and was bound out in Vermont and when he was fourteen he run-away and stoped [sic] in Washington Co. N.Y. He remembered only one brothers name out of 6 or 8 brothers, that brother was Ezra….Grand father's father moved to Canada, that was the last knowledge we have of him.” ^[1]

On Frederick’s own page in this collection ^[2] he states that Benjamin was born between 1770 and 1775 near Green Mountain, Vermont. This could refer to a Green Mountain halfway between Rutland and Manchester on Google Maps, or to the Green Mountain range in general. In any event, in the 1790 census a Frederick Tubbs, most probably his father, is listed in Whitehall, Washington Co. N. Y., with a wife and four male children under age 16.

According to the research of Louis M. MacCartney, ^[3] Frederick (1748-1820, of the line Joseph, Isaac, Samuel, and William), is the most likely candidate for Benjamin’s father. ^[4] His mother would have been Frederick’s first wife, Huldah Peterson, whom he married September 3, 1772. Some possibly conflicting information comes from some genealogical information about the family of one of Benjamin’s daughters. It states that Benjamin’s birth date was May 14, 1772 and his wife Lurana’s was December 10, 1776 (birth date before parents' marriage?). ^[5]

In 1800 Benjamin appears in the census in Whitehall, N. Y., ^[6] with both he and his wife over 26 years of age. They had two boys and one girl under ten at the time (Simeon, Levi, and Huldah). N. Y. Tax Assessment Rolls for 1800 show a Benjamin Tubbs in Whitehall, Washington County, and one in 1804 in Hampton, Washington County. ^[7]

By 1810 Benjamin had moved to Cortland County, N. Y., which is stated by Frederick Henry, and which is listed as the birthplace of two children. There is no surviving census for the county in that year, but there is a Benjamin listed in the compiled census substitute list. A county history book ^[8] also mentions a Benjamin Tubbs as having the first store in the hamlet of Solon, a small place east of Cortland village.

From there on, Benjamin is listed in the following censuses: ^[9]
1820 – Troupsburg, Steuben Co. N.Y. (along with son Levi)
1830 – Harrison, Potter Co. Penn.
1840 – Harrison, Potter Co. Penn. (along with son Frederick)

In Frederick Henry’s family record, ^[10] it states that Benjamin died February 1850 in Westfield, Tioga Co. Penn., where his son Hiram was living at the time. (No record exists in the mortality census, however.) There is no mention of his wife’s death, although she was presumably alive in 1840 but died before 1850. No graves or burial records have been found for either. (In 1850 Frederick Henry, as well as his uncle Frederick, were living in Woodhull, Steuben Co. N. Y., just across the border from Tioga Co. Penn.)

A note on Benjamin’s children – sometimes a son Benjamin is listed as being in the family. The listing of children given by grandson Frederick Henry does not include a Benjamin. Louis MacCartney did include one, although labelling it a guess. There is mention of a Benjamin Tubbs being the first death in the town of Woodhull, Steuben Co. N. Y., ^[11] but there were also two other Tubbs families in the area at the same time, and no information is given on the age of the one who died or his parentage. A Benjamin Tubbs on Family Search^[12] is listed as being born about 1809 in Woodhull, Steuben Co., and dying in Hedgesville, Steuben Co. [same area] around 1820. This does not fit with data for this Benjamin as his proposed father, who was not in the area in 1810.

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.flx-nygenealogy.org/tubbs/tfr/famly17.html#p167A
2. ↑ http://www.flx-nygenealogy.org/tubbs/tfr/famly17.html#p168
3. ↑ http://library.nehgs.org/search/X?SEARCH=william+tubbs&SORT=D
4. ↑ Personal communication
5. ↑ Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Family History of Western New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. United States: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1912, p. 593.
6. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LL49-K8Z
7. ↑ Ancestry.com. New York, Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
8. ↑ History of Cortland County: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. United States: D. Mason and Company, 1885, p. 415.
9. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LL49-K8Z
10. ↑ http://www.flx-nygenealogy.org/tubbs/tfr/famly17.html#p168
11. ↑ Gazetteer and Business Directory of Onondaga County, N. Y., for 1868-9. United States: Printed at the Journal office, 1868, p. 114.
12. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KV25-YZM