WHY THE TREE IS A BAD METAPHOR

Hess-Nickson Family History

WHY THE METAPHOR OF A TREE FOR A FAMILY ANCESTRY IS BAD

Family ancestries are commonly referred to as family trees.  It is based on observing nature where the branches of a tree will split to form new smaller branches, and those branches in turn split to form more branches.  As the number of long lost relatives began to grow it became apparent that the metaphor was just not up to the task.  For example, if you were able to trace back all your grandparents to 20 generations you would have discovered 2,097,150 of them.  In the 20th generation alone there would be 1,048,577 grandparents.  If you were to add another generation the number would increase by more than 2 million people.  These aren't uncles, aunts and cousins--just grandparents!  It is not hard to see that if you continued back the number of unduplicated grandparents would quickly exceed the number of people who ever lived.  Certainly, the world's population was never larger than it is now, so what gives.

I have come to the conclusion that a river delta is a better metaphor for a family ancestry.  In a river delta streams branch off, but just as often as not, they flow back into the larger branch.  In the same way a family ancestry branches off, but at some point it can come back in to an existing line.  This is an important point to keep in the back of your mind as I proceed with my family narrative.  As you will see, we have relatives who we are related to in more than one way.  Allow me to illustrate.

Consider the case of our 10G Grandparents, Lieut. Samuel and Elizabeth Smith.

In April of 1634, Lt. Samuel Smith, at the age of thirty-two, set sail for America on the "Elizabeth of Ipswich" with his wife Elizabeth and their four children; Philip aged one, Samuel aged nine, Elizabeth aged seven and Mary aged four. At first the family settled in Watertown, Massachusetts then moved to Wetherfield, Connecticut. Finally, because of church disputes in Wetherfield they moved to Hadley, Massachusetts, where two more sons, Chileab and John, were born.

In Hadley, because of his integrity and soundness of judgment, Lt. Smith was chosen for town affair's management. For many years he was deputy to the Massachusetts General Court, Associate Magistrate at the Hampshire County Court and Lieutenant of the Hadley Company from 1663-1673. He also held important offices in his church and was chosen a Townsman (Selectman) many times. He died at the age of seventy five and his wife died in 1686 at the age of eighty-four.

My initial research established that we were related on the Hess side through the son Chileab (b: 1636, d: 1731).  The begats look like this:  Chileab begat Hannah, who married John Montague and they begat Samuel.  Samuel married Elizabeth White and they begat Samuel Montague, Jr.. Samuel, Jr. married Elizabeth Montague (and, yes, they were cousins) and begat Elizabeth who married Reverend Eleazar Harwood.  Eleazar and Elizabeth begat Lucretia who married Brig. Gen. Amos Kellogg, and you know the rest.

Subsequent research, however, established that Samuel and Elizabeth Smith's other son Phillip (see that little story about Phillip at the end of this discussion) was my great grandparent through my mother's side of the family (Nickson).  Those begats go like this:  Phillip Smith married Rebecca Foote and begat Samuel.  Samuel married Mary Church and begat Mary who married John Kenney.  John and Mary begat David, who married Martha.  They begat John Jonathan Keeney who married Mary Ramsey Burkhalter, and they begat Capt. Jonathan Keeney (who, along with Jim Bridger, established the Oregon Trail).  Capt. Jonathan married Mary Catherine Shoemaker and they begat Eli J. Keeney (who died infamously at the famous "Shootout at the Headquarters Saloon" in Bozeman, Montana) but not before marrying Nancy Ellen Swank and begatting Annie.  Annie married an Irishman named Willard David Nickson and begat a son Fredric Willis Nickson.  Fredric married Pearl Schenck and they begat Maryellen who married William Hess.

Just to put a bottom line to this.  My parents are also my 10th cousins once removed.  For Gary and Kathie, that makes Maryellen both your aunt by marriage and your 10th cousin once removed.  That also makes all brothers and sisters cousins as well.  Welcome the the family stew.  Now you can appreciate how a tree makes a poor methaphor.

In my research I have uncovered some interesting stories about some of our family members, and the following story involving our 9G Grandfather Phillip Smith is one of the most notable.  Read it and see if you don't agree.

Lieut. Philip Smith was born about 1633 in England.  He moved, in 1635, to Wethersfield, Hartford, CT.  He resided on 9 Nov 1659, in Hadley, Hampshire, MA.  Philip was an original proprietor of Hadley, but did not permanently live there until 1662.  However, he took a freeman's oath on 26 Mar 1661.  He died on 10 Jan 1685, in Hadley, Hampshire, M.  Philip was appointed as one of the "ten troopers" of Hadley, appointed by John Pynchon of Springfield. They were part of the Hampshire Troop or Company of Horsemen. He is reported to have rendered service in King Philip's War and in May 1678 was appointed Lieutenant of the Hadley Foot Company and in the same year made Lieutenant in the Hampshire County Troop of Horseman.  He also was active in the politics of Hadley, being elected a selectman and a Deputy from Hadley to the General Court.  He was also on the school committee and was chosen Deacon of the church in 1680.

The following was written in the Smith family genealogy:

On March 27, 1683 he served as a Judge in the County Court at Northampton, where Mary Webster, wife of William was placed on trial as "being under strong suspicion of having familiarity with the devil or using witchcraft". She was acquitted.

After the trial the health of Philip Smith began to deteriorate and since neither he nor his friends could account for the illness in any other way concluded that the evil power of Mrs. Webster was at the bottom of it.  In what certainly became delirium in his illness, he imagined the most fantatstic influences working, which his fellow townsmen believed, one farmer declaring that a load of hay he was delivering to market took a notion for no good reason to fall off his wagon as he passed Mrs. Webster's house and then, after he had remonstrated to Mrs. Webster, to load itself back on again. Even the pious and intelligent Rev. Cotton Mather took notice of the strange happenings and wrote a vivid description of them in his "Magnalia" which Sylvester Judd reproduced on page 230 of his "History of Hadley". He said in part:

"Mr. Philip Smith, aged about fifty years, a son of eminently virtuous parents, a Deacon of a Church in Hadley, a member of the General Court, a Justice in the County Court, a Selectman for the affairs of the Towne, a Lieutenant of the Troop and which crowns all, a man for devotion sancity, gravity and all that is honest exceeding exemplory. Such a man in the winter of the year 1684 murdered with a hideous witchcraft that filled all those parts of New England with astonishment". Parents: Lieut. Samuel Smith and Elizabeth Chileab.

He was married to Rebecca Foote about 1658.  Children were: Samuel Smith, [son] Smith, John Smith, Jonathan Smith, Philip Smith, Rebecca Smith, Nathaniel Smith, Joseph Smith, Icabod Smith.

NEXT INSTALLMENT:  The Keeney Family, exploring the west, and the famous "Shootout At The Headquarters Saloon".