Clan William: The Newcombs and Mayflower Immigrants.

Governor Wm Bradford

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson > Amos Munson m Mary Ann Kerney

The children of Amos & Mary Ann Munson married into the Newcomb family of Pennsylvania and here and read more here. Their immigrant was Capt Thomas Munson, founding father of the Munson's of America, who arrived in the US in 1637.

Caroline married Uri Clark Newcomb and sister Julia married Frederick Porter Newcomb. Caroline and Frederick died and Julia married her sister's widower, Clark. To top it off, Almira Munson married George Ball. Their daughter married Arthur Gilman Newcomb, a nephew of Clark and F.P. Newcomb. Now, we're going to have a quiz. Or not.

Anyway, my point is, the Munson's ties to the Newcomb's are very deep and complex. The Newcomb's time here in America is also quite long. It even includes a marriage within the the family of one of the original Mayflower immigrants - a great granddaughter of Governor Bradford  of Plymouth with Hezekiah Newcomb. There are 35 million claimed descendants of this relatively small group of Mayflower settlers.

Capt Andrew Newcomb was born in the East of England, possibly Devonshire, about 1618. He was a sea captain. He died in Boston in 1686. The descendant Newcombs are in the millions - but our Newcombs are descended from LT Andrew Newcomb, the eldest son of the first wife (Andrew is not mentioned in his father's will and there is some contention over his parentage).

According to The Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family by John Bearse Newcomb, it is believed that Lt Andrew Newcomb came to America as early as 1666. He was also a sea-faring man in his younger life and his earliest recorded mention in writing is regarding a meeting he attended to help set the price of fish in the new colony. Andrew ultimately settled on Martha's Vineyard and does not appear to have felt the call of the sea for many years. He owned a number of pieces of land and served as constable during his lifetime. He died intestate.

Fishing in the New England colonies dates back to the early 1600s when the first Pilgrims made the journey across the ocean to the New World. The poor farmland caused the fishing industry to become vital to the success of the 13 colonies. 

Early fishing vessels

USA Today

Simon Newcomb born about 1666 and believed to have been born at the Isles of Shoals in Maine before his father moved to the Edgartown area on Martha's Vineyard. Simon later moved his family to New London, Connecticut, where he remained until his death in 1774. Simon's son Hezekiah was born in 1693 in Edgartown and married the great granddaughter of Governor William Bradford, of the original Mayflower immigrants.

Jerusha Bradford was born in 1692 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. They married 14 Nov 1716 in Norwich. Jerusha's line from the Governor is: Thomas, Maj William, Gov William Bradford. Jerusha's aunt Hannah Bradford married into the Ripley line when she married John Ripley in 1684. That tells you just how tied in those New England folks intermarried!

Hezekiah's son Silas was the father of  Capt John Brewster Newcomb, born in 1760. According to the Lineage Book, Vol 19 of the DAR, Newcomb was a, "conductor of trains for the transportation of supplies from Lebanon to the Continental Army," during the Revolutionary War.  John was the grandfather of Uri Newcomb - the father of all the "modern" Newcombs who pioneered west to Iowa and South Dakota.

The great grandfather of Uri, Silas Newcomb, was born in 1717 and married Submit Pineo in Lebanon Crank (now Columbia), Connecticut. His wife's family were French Huegonots. Old Silas died suddenly of a stroke while sitting under a tree, 24 May 1773. His wife was described as, "having a remarkable attachment to her children and grandchildren. " Five of their sons were coopers and three were physicians. Uri's grandfather, Captain John Brewster Newcomb, was born in Lebanon, Windham County, Connecticut. He and his family lived for many years on "Metcalf Hill," which he had received from his father Silas' estate in 1774. After the birth of their last child, they moved around quite a bit in New York, moving to Oxford, Owasco Flats, Oswego, Moravia, Owego, where his wife died. He then moved to Scipio, where he remarried in 1818, to Reliance (Ticknor) Strong, widow of Daniel Strong. He held various offices in New York, including justice of the peace, as a captain in a calvary company, and was a prominent member of a masonic fraternity. He was described as "an intelligent and an eminently good man," in the Newcomb Family History. ~ Me, Here, Right Now

Clan William: Those Munson Girls - Julia Anna Munson

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson > Amos Munson > Julia Anna Munson
 

Amos Munson, who I wrote about here, is my 3rd great grandfather. My 2nd great grandmother was his daughter Mary Ann who married William Custer Smith and resided in the Butler/Bremer/ Chickasaw counties area of Iowa after leaving Grant County, Wisconsin in the 1860s. Amos' daughter Henrietta Munson Woodington is well-chronicled here.

This is the last of the four posts about these remaining daughters.

JULIA ANNA MUNSON

Like her sister Caroline, I don't have a definitive birthdate for Julia, but it probably occurred between 1846-1849 and again, I like the earlier, rather than the later date for a number of reasons. A native of Trumbull County, Ohio, she traveled with her family to the Eastern District Grant County in Wisconsin in 1849/1850. She married her sister Caroline's husband's brother, Frederick Porter Newcomb on 22 Jan 1869 in Delaware County, Iowa.

In 1870, the young couple and their eldest daughter, Cora, were living in Perry Township in Tama County, Iowa. Like his brother U.C., F. P. Newcomb also plied his trade as a harness maker.

In 1880, F. P. is listed on two Census enumeration sheets. He is clearly counted as a duplicate in the one that has him living in Perry, Tama County with his wife and three children. In the second census, he is listed as a resident of the Iowa State Hospital for the Insane in Washington Township in Buchanan County (Independence, Iowa).  His business is listed as "harness maker" and he has epilepsy. The fact he had epilepsy didn't make him crazy, but as I've discussed before, people with conditions like epilepsy were highly likely to end up institutionalized.

The duplicate having FP Newcomb living in Tama County in 1880

The actual Census location at the State Hospital for the Insane, 1880

Frederick Porter Newcomb died while institutionalized on 27 Aug 1883. He was buried near his stepmother, Hannah Huntley Newcomb in Delaware County, Iowa. This is a case where I so wish there was an 1890 Census that would allow me to track Julia and solve the next mystery.

THE MOST INTERESTING 1900 CENSUS.
The 1900 Census has Julia living with a translated "Feril" Newcomb (this translation is nebulous at best and highly unreadable), age 66. The adults and the children line up with both Julia and U.C. Elma is where U.C. and Caroline were living (Caroline having died in 1893) until both of their deaths. 

Julia is listed as his wife, but the date of marriage is 1867, which is not possible. There is no 1900 Census available for Uri, so despite the many errors on this Census, I believe that this is Julia, living in the home with U.C., her mother Mary Ann Kearney Munson and a mixture of some of their children. There is no record of any "Feril" Newcomb in any other record available. It would totally been normal for Julia to assist U.C. after his wife's death in maintaining the home, especially in her widowhood.

But, she may have actually married him. The two pieces of evidence to support this are U.C.'s obituary, which refers to his "wife," and the 1900 Census which lists him as married and Julia is his spouse. I just don't have a marriage record or they may have been living in common law.

Julia had moved on at some point since brother-in-law/husband U.C. died in 1902. In 1910 she was living with U.C.'s daughter Nellie and her son Lewis in Woonsocket, South Dakota. Lewis and Nellie had no children. Julia passed away 31 Jul 1911 in Woonsocket.

UPDATE: Definitive proof of the marriage of U.C. and Julia exists in the probate records at Howard County, where Julia is listed as the wife and administrator of the estate.

Clan William: Those Munson Girls - Caroline Amanda Munson

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson >  Amos Munson > Caroline Amanda Munson m Uri Clark Newcomb

Amos Munson, who I wrote about here, is my 3rd great grandfather. My 2nd great grandmother was his daughter Mary Ann who married William Custer Smith and resided in the Butler/Bremer/ Chickasaw counties area of Iowa after leaving Grant County, Wisconsin in the 1860s. Amos' daughter Henrietta Munson Woodington is well-chronicled here.

These four daughters will be the basis for the next few posts.

CAROLINE AMANDA MUNSON

I still haven't pinned down a date of birth for Caroline - various census say anything from 1838-1842. I tend to like 1838 or 1839, but still need to prove it. She was born in Trumbull County, Ohio and came with her family to the Eastern District Grant County in 1849/1850 when a teenager. While living in Glen Haven in Grant County, she married Uri Clark Newcomb in on 01 Sep 1860 in Grant County.

"U. C." was part of the sprawling Colonel Uri C. Newcomb family of Montrose, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.

In 1870, the Newcombs resided in Tama City, as it was then called, in Tama County, Iowa, In 1873 he had moved to Traer in Tama County and set up its first harness shop and built one of the town's first buildings in which to house the shop. He sold his interest in to his nephew A. G. Newcomb in 1883. In the Iowa State Census of 1885, they were living in Bradford (now part of Nashua) in Chickasaw county where, it appears as though he was keeping a restaurant. Quite a departure for a family of harness makers.

They soon after departed for the young town of Elma, in Howard County, just north of Chickasaw County. It is presumed, based on newspaper items, he plied his harness-making trade while there.
Caroline died at a relatively young 55 on 08 Apr 1893 in Elma. She was buried in the Howard Cemetery in Elma.

The U. C. Newcombs' had seven children in total: Lilla May (died at age 2 in Tama), Della Josephine Breckon, Edgar Clark (died at 22 in Tama), Orion Alburn, Nella Mae (who married Lewis Porter Newcomb, her first cousin and child of Frederick Porter and Julia Munson Newcomb), Effie Bell (died as infant), and Howard Clifford.

Another marriage of cousins

*In 1900, I believe he was living with his sister-in-law and later wife, Julia Munson, a mixture of some of their children, and his mother-in-law in Elma. Please see the discussion of this here.

We find U.C. still around in this amusing 1901 article from the Nashua Reporter:

A Former Nashuaite Skunked

UC Newcomb had about made up his mind to quit the harness business and "go trapping," so he commenced operations at home, setting a wire trap in the cellar for a rat that had been raising "hob" there. The next morning the trap was occupied, not by the rat but an animal that "Newc" pronounced to be a spotted mink. It was a beauty so he decided to tame it and he kept it in the cage trap for some time, fed it bread and butter, etc., and with considerable pride exhibited it to his neighbors. One of the neighbor's children, a little girl of six or eight years came over to see the "kitty" as she called it and proceeded to prod it with a stick. That was too much for the "kitty" and it resented the act in a  way that made the little girl's mother look cross. "Newc" killed the "spotted mink" and to visit the place now makes one think that fourteen drug stores had all used that spot as a place to dump their stock of perfumes. Mr Newcomb has given up the fur business and is again at the old reliable shop making harness. He got "skunked" in his first game of trapping. - Elma Vidette

Nashua Reporter November 28, 1901

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U. C. continued on working in his shop every day until his own death on 24 Apr 1902 in Elma, when he died suddenly while on the way to work.

Clan William: Those Munson Girls - Lamira Munson

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson >  Amos Munson > Lamira Munson m George W Ball

Amos Munson, who I wrote about here, is my 3rd great grandfather. My 2nd great grandmother was his daughter Mary Ann who married William Custer Smith and resided in the Butler/Bremer/ Chickasaw counties area of Iowa after leaving Grant County, Wisconsin in the 1860s. Amos' daughter Henrietta Munson Woodington is well-chronicled here.

These four daughters will be the basis for the next few posts.

LAMIRA MUNSON

Lamira did not live a long life. She was born in about 1834 in Trumbull County, Ohio and came with her parents, Amos & Mary Ann Munson, to the Eastern District of  Grant County in 1849/1850 when she was 16.  She married George W. Ball, in Grant County on 10 Aug 1851.George was born in New York State about 1831.  The couple had two surviving children, Mary Josephine Ball, born in 1852 and Walter Scott Ball born 17 Nov 1861, both in Grant County. She died at age 31 29 Oct 1865.

George would marry again to Caroline Key McCallister, originally of Canada and the widow of Nathan McCallister. She had two children. The Ball's would go on to have Henry, Ida, Dora, Lenna, Forest, Wyman, and Lee Ball. Caroline died prior to 1900 and George died after 1910 in Seattle, Washington where he lived with his daughter Ida and her family.

I'll cover the Uri Sr. Newcomb family of Montrose, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in more depth in a coming post as they play an important role in the Munson history.

Mary Josephine Ball "Josephine," born in 1852 in Grant County, Wisconsin, married 26 Oct 1873 in Tama, Iowa to Arthur Gilman Newcomb (born 10 Apr 1851 in Montrose, Susquehanna, Pensylvania), a harness maker and farmer and son of Marvin Alonzo Newcomb (and wife Amanda Pratt). His father M. A. was brother to Frederick Porter and Uri Clark Newcomb, husbands of Julia and Caroline Munson.

This bio was published prior to son George's death:

A. G. Newcomb, harness maker, now owns the business which was established by himself and father, November 23, 1874. This is the longest established business of the kind in Traer. The present building was erected in 1875; and in October, 1879, M. A. Newcomb, father of A. G. and senior member of the firm, retired and left the business entirely for his son. M. A. Newcomb came here, from Tama City, in the spring of 1873. He was one of the early settlers of that city and its first Mayor. A. G. was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1851. He came to Tama City with his parents in 1867, and there learned his trade. His uncle, U. C. Newcomb, opened the first harness shop in Traer, in the spring of 1873. A. G. worked with his uncle till the spring of 1874, then opened a shop in Dysart, which he ran till in November, when his father and himself opened their shop in Traer, as above stated. M. A. Newcomb removed from Perry township to Waterloo, thence to Waverly, Bremer county, this State, and from there moved to Michell, Dakota. A. G. Newcomb married Miss Josephine Bull (sic), a native of Wisconsin, and daughter of G. W. Bull (sic), now of Minnesota; her mother is deceased. They have had four children, three of whom are now living: Myrtle C., Earl and George M. Maud is deceased.

History of Tama County, Iowa, 1883, Union Publishing Company 

By 1900, they were living in Silver Creek, Sanborn County, South Dakota. By 1910, they had joined several other family members in Woonsocket.  Arthur died in 31 May 1912. The 1920 Census has Josephine living in Spokane, Washington with son Earl's family. And, in 1930, she was back in South Dakota, living with her granddaughter Mary Ferne Cox McDonald in Washington Springs in Jerauld County. She continued living with Ferne and family through the 1940 Census. She died 29 Jun 1941, presumably in South Dakota. They had four children: Myrtice "Mertie" Newcomb Cox, Maude (who died as an infant), Earl Aubry Newcomb, and George Martin (who died at age 11 in 1891 in Tama County, Iowa).

Walter Scott Ball was born 17 Nov 1861 in Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin. On 16 May 1889, he married Cora Ann Newcomb (born 29 Dec 1869 in Tama County), daughter of Frederick Porter Newcomb and Julia Munson in Woonsocket, Sanborn, South Dakota. In 1900, they lived in Woonsocket and Walter was a dry goods salesman. He continued as a commercial salesman in 1910 and they lived next to sister Josephine. In 1920, he was back in the harness making business and owned his own shop in Woonsocket. He was retired by 1930, but two of his sons and his wife resided with him. In that year, he died:

WS BALL DIES AT HIS HOME IN WOONSOCKET

WOONSOCKET, April 14 - Special - WS Ball, a resident of Woonsocket since 1883 died at his home here Saturday night following a paralytic stroke. Mr Ball, who ws 68 years ago at the time of his death had been in apparently good health, bud had suffered strokes previous to the one that caused his death. He had been up town earlier in the evening. 

Surviving Mr Ball besides his widow are six sons, Harry of Minnesota, Arthur, Earl, George, Clifford, and Carroll of Woonsocket and a daughter Mrs Cleo Roach, also of Woonsocket. Funeral services will be held Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock from the family home with the Rev Mr Hoyer of the Methodist church in charge. Interment will be in Eventide.

Evening Huronite April 14, 1930

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Cora lived until some time after 1940 and lived with daughter Mrs Harry (Chloe) Roache as of the 1940 Census.

Note: Woonsocket was a little boom town when it was first settled. It was noted for its many artesian wells, which provided ample water for the farmers in the area.