The Maryland State Houses

During our recent travels, my wife and I revisited Historic St. Mary's City, the first colonial capital of Maryland between 1634 and 1695. We were there for the first time during our honeymoon three decades ago. Since then a lot of work has been done to excavate the archaeological sites and even to rebuild some of the buildings that once stood there. To our delight, our distinguished hosts, Dr. Henry Miller and Ruth Mitchell, treated us as honoured guests and devoted an entire morning to us, guiding us through the most important places that had once served the early English colonists. Nancy and I were most favourably impressed by what is being done to bring Maryland's history alive for a 21st-century public. Indeed, while we were there, we saw a group of school children touring the site. I rather imagine that these constitute a large portion of the visitors.

Mid-Atlantic sojourn

My wife and I have recently returned from a visit to the mid-Atlantic states, where we both had ancestors prominent in their communities during the colonial era. Our travels combined more than one purpose. First, it has been thirty years since we were married, and this trip was something of a second honeymoon. Second, I was participating in the semiannual board meeting of the Center for Public Justice just outside of Washington, DC. And third, my wife, Dr. Nancy Calvert-Koyzis, undertook research in Baltimore and Annapolis, exploring the activities of her ancestors, the Barons of Baltimore, who founded Maryland in 1634. During our travels I discovered previously unknown history of my own ancestors, who, as it turned out, were closely associated with, and possibly opposed to, the Calverts during the late 17th century.

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

In 1908, John Fox, Jr. (1862-1919), wrote his best-selling book, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, a romance novel set in the Appalachian region amid two fictional feuding families, the Tollivers and the Falins. Outsider John Hale wants to transform the area by mining the coal and bringing prosperity to the community and to himself, but he finds himself falling for the young and lovely June Tolliver, complicating his ambitions. 

Fox was born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where Nelson and Lucy Jane Hyder and family were living at the time the book was published. During our honeymoon, my wife and I visited John Fox's house, which is now a museum. We also attended a stage version of the novel performed at the Barbara Polly Theater in Big Stone Gap.

In 1913 Harry Carroll (1892-1962) and Ballard MacDonald (1882-1935) wrote a popular song based on the novel. It was sung in the recording posted below by Albert Campbell (1872-1947) and Henry Burr (1882-1941). Although the novel was set in Kentucky, the song brings the action to "The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia," located somewhat to the east of Big Stone Gap. The girl's name is June in the song. June was also the name of one of Nelson and Lucy Jane's younger daughters (1916-2001), who was born in Michigan on the first day of June.

The Beans of Tennessee, Virginia, and Scotland

Russell Bean's headstone

My generation's 2nd great-grandmother, Mary Hyder Shepherd (1844-1925), was the daughter of Jacob Hyder (1814-1881) and Elizabeth Bean (1812-before 1868). We know rather a lot about her Hyder ancestors going back to the American War of Independence and to 16th-century Germany.

Mary's mother's family has origins extending back to the first European settlements of Tennessee and before that to 17th-century Inverness, Scotland. Elizabeth's father was named William Russell Bean, or Russell Bean (1769-1829), and her mother was Rosamond Robertson (1770-1850), reputed to be "the first white child born in Tennessee."

Sam Jack Hyder (1892-1970)

I recently corresponded online with someone I've known for slightly more than twenty years. He lives in Carter County, Tennessee, where our Hyder ancestors took up residence sometime after arriving in America. I mentioned that my forebears had come from there, and he told me that Milligan University, formerly Milligan College, located near Johnson City, has a Hyder Auditorium and a Hyder House. Figuring that these were likely named for a distant cousin, I did a little research and learned that a Professor Sam Jack Hyder (1892-1970) taught mathematics at Milligan and appears to have made a singular impact on the university, which not only named two campus sites for him, but also issues an award in his name to faculty. Sam and his wife, Mary Ellen Thomas Hyder (1892-1984) are pictured here in 1915.

Using Find a Grave for reference, I discovered that Sam's parents were Nathaniel Henry Hyder (1847-1935) and Mary Isabell Williams Hyder (1851-1921). Nathaniel's parents were Samuel Washington Hyder (1817-1897) and Lavicia Elizabeth Edens Hyder (1824-1870). Samuel's parents were Michael Hyder II (1767-1861) and Sarah Eisenberg Zimmerman Hyder (1780-1865), from whom our line of the family is also descended. Michael's father was also named Michael and fought in the War for Independence. His parents, Hans Michael Hyder and Katherine Chasteen Hyder sailed from Germany to America by way of Rotterdam and Philadelphia in 1729. This makes Sam my second cousin three times removed.

Incidentally, Milligan University is a Christian university in the Restorationist (Stone-Campbell) tradition of the Christian Churches, Disciples of Christ, and the Churches of Christ. Sam's great-uncle Jacob Hyder (1814-1881), my third great-grandfather, was a trustee of the Union Church of Christ, located in nearby Washington County, in 1876. That two members of the extended Hyder family were associated with the Churches of Christ suggests that others might have been as well, but I've not found concrete evidence of this.

The Booths of Stratford, Connecticut

Lucy Jane's grandparents were David and Nancy (Elkins) Wells. Recall that, according to the story making its way down through two family lines, David was murdered by "the Raiders or Ku Klux Klan as they were sometimes called" on the day the Civil War ended. Nancy Jane Elkins was born in 1822 and died from complications of measles in 1887, more than two decades after her husband's death. Nancy's father was Joseph Elkins (1789-1865), who, according to Lucy Jane, "died suddenly after being caught in a wind storm." Joseph's father was named Elijah (1760-1850), and his mother was Jerusha Booth (1771-1856). This brings us to the ancient Booth family whose origins appear to extend back to the 14th century with Sir Thomas de Booth (1330-1368). Several members of the Booth family, including our direct ancestors, were knighted by the king and thus had their names prefixed with "Sir."

The Booths lived in the northwest part of England near the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, more specifically in Lancashire, Cheshire, Trafford, and Staffordshire. Our line of the family crossed the Atlantic and were amongst the first settlers in and founders of Stratford, Connecticut, named after Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's birthplace. The first arrivals landed in 1639, possibly escaping the troubles in their homeland just prior to the outbreak of the English Civil War, or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (i.e., England, Scotland, and Ireland). Because the community was founded by Puritans, it is reasonable to assume that the Booths themselves were Puritans.

Seeking our roots

Lucy Jane with three of her children

Here is an article on genealogy which I recently published with a local periodical called Christian Courier: Seeking our roots. An excerpt:

Since childhood I have wanted to know who my ancestors were and where I came from. This flowed out of a general interest in history. I knew the major milestones such as the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the exploration and settlement of the Americas. But where did my own family enter the picture?

Fortunately, my maternal great-grandmother, Lucy Jane Bentley Hyder (1875-1948), had the foresight to record two reminiscences of her own forebears extending back to the late 18th century. These included her grandfather David Wells (born c 1815), of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, who, on the day the American Civil War ended, was murdered by “the Raiders or Ku Klux Klan as they were sometimes called.”

Read the entire article here.

Piney Prospect

One of our ancestors was apparently responsible for building this house between 1790 and 1800. His name was Henry Hines (born around 1750, my 5th great-grandfather), whose wife was surnamed Williams and whose first name was either Elizabeth or Catherine (or perhaps a combination of the two). Their daughter Sarah Hines (1770-1856) married Squire Bentley (1770-1851). They were great-grandparents to Lucy Jane Bentley Hyder, my generation's great-grandmother.

 

The house was recently restored and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This 2015 article in Home & Garden tells the story of recent owners who restored the house and moved it to its present location: Homeplace: Piney Prospect. The house is located in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and is "[o]ne of the finest examples of federal architecture within North Carolina."

• Henry Hines (c 1750—?), married Elizabeth (Catherine) Williams 
• Sarah Hines (1770—c1856), married Squire Bentley (1770, North Carolina—1851), son of Benjamin Bentley (1747—1839, North Carolina) and Jane (1750, Rowan County, North Carolina—?)
• Benjamin H. Bentley (1814—?), married Mary Davis (1815 Alexander, North Carolina—?), daughter of Jeremiah Davis (c1796 Virginia—1882 Cave-In-Rock, Hardin, Illinois) and Nancy Bridgeman (Madcap?) (09 May 1796 Wythe, Virginia—1873 Hardin, Illinois)
• Squire Benjamin Martin Bentley (15 November 1849 Yancey County, North Carolina—11 March 1903 East Stone Gap, Wise, Virginia), married Virginia Elizabeth Wells (1854 or 1857 Virginia—8 Dec 1917, Big Stone Gap, Virginia), daughter of David W. Wells (1815, Virginia—9 April 1865) and Nancy Jane Elkins (1822 Russell, Virginia—22 December 1887 Wise County, Virginia)
• Lucy Jane Bentley (1875—1948), married Nelson Hyder (1875—1959)