Here’s where we resume the story of Grandma Rejonnah Haley’s family -- the Pierson side, which is the Colonial line. Eric went on a field trip with Lisa and Emily when they were working on the 4-H Genealogy Project, to scout out and visit the now 210-year-old Abraham Patmore home. It’s kind of like “... and Jacob dug a well there, which remains today.” The owner of the house invited them in, and even gave them a bit of the mortar from over the original fireplace.
PATMORE/PIERSON
The Patmore family first settled in America before the American Revolution. Abraham Patmore, son of Henrick Patmore and Maria Dorothea Zimmerman, was born in Ulster County, NY in 1772. He married Elsie (Velde) Felter in 1796 at the Hopewell Presbyterian church in Crawford, which was a part of the town of Montgomery, Orange County, NY. Their son, Mathias Felter Patmore was born in New York in 1803. Shortly afterward, the Patmore’s moved to Montgomery, in Hamilton County, Ohio which the Felter Family had recently founded. Abraham bought land from one of his neighboring relatives and built a house there, which still stands today.
The Abraham Patmore home in Montgomery, OH -- photo by Eric Haley
Mathias Felter Patmore later married Elizabeth Felter, his first cousin. Together, the families helped to establish the Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, Ohio and many of them are buried in the Hopewell Cemetery. The Felter’s in America were descended from Johannes Maximillian Velde, who arrived in America before 1732 and married Margaret Hendricks. This line developed into a variety of surnames including Velde, Velden, Velten, Velte, Felten and of course, Felter. They were mostly associated with the Brick (Dutch) Reformed Church of Orange County, NY. It is uncertain why or how they became Presbyterians.
Mathias Patmore was the father of Andrew Patmore, who married Sarah Jane Pierson, daughter of a wealthy local merchant, Lewis Pierson. Lewis Pierson was the son of Samuel Pierson, an early Ohio settler who is thought to have received land in exchange for military service during the American Revolution.
Samuel Pierson was born in 1762 in Morris County, New Jersey. As a boy he followed the events leading up to the American Revolution and enlisted at the young age of 15, in time to be with Washington at Valley Forge. He belonged to the 5th New Jersey Regiment and was severely wounded a few months later at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. He partially recovered from his wounds and continued the fight until the British surrender at Yorktown.
Returning home, Samuel found that his house had been used to quarter Hessian soldiers (German soldiers who fought for the British) and it was left in shambles. So, he packed up and moved, to build a new home in the Ohio wilderness now known as Cincinnati.
Samuel’s father was Captain Wyllis Pierson, born in 1728, the son of John Pierson and Ruth Woodbridge. From here, the family genealogy branches out to include many of the greatest men in American colonial history.
JOHN PIERSON
John Pierson, born in 1689, was the son of Abraham Pierson Jr. He was what was referred to as a “New Light” Presbyterian vs. an “Old Light” Presbyterian. The “New Lights” believed in a personal experience with God and were considered “Evangelicals” by the “Old Lights,” who were against any type of personal evangelism. He was one of the four founding fathers of Princeton University in New Jersey, along with Aaron Burr Sr., the father of the more famous Aaron Burr.
ABRAHAM PIERSON JR.
Abraham Pierson Jr. was born around 1643 in Southampton, New York. He was the first Rector of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut (1701-1707). The first semester was attended by only one student, with Mr. Pierson serving as the instructor. By 1704, there were twenty students, and most of them were boarders at the Pierson home with Abraham’s wife Abigail (Clark) serving as hostess. Abraham died in 1707. A statue in honor of him was erected in the later years of the 19th Century, on the old campus, which was originally known simply as The Collegiate School.
Tribute to Abraham Pierson Jr. at Yale University
ABRAHAM PIERSON SR.
Abraham Pierson Sr. was born in 1609 in Yorkshire, England, and according to the Yale Office of Public Information, immigrated to Boston in 1639 to escape the hostility of Archbishop Laud. He was a Cambridge-educated minister of the Church of England, and after arriving in The Massachusetts Bay Colony, spent a brief time as pastor at Lynn, Massachusetts, then moved to Long Island, where he helped found the town of Southampton. Not long after that, he moved to Bradford, Connecticut to pastor there.
In 1640 or 1641, he married Abigail Wheelwright, the daughter of the early Puritan judge John Wheelwright and Mary Hutchinson. It is, however, uncertain if this was the mother of Abraham Jr. There were apparently two Abigails in the life of Abraham Sr., and the records of which one was John Jr.’s mother are in dispute.
Abraham Jr. was born a short time later, and father and son worked together for many years in the ministry in Newark, New Jersey. Abraham Sr. also ministered to the Native Americans, translating the Scriptures into their language.
Ministers, non-conformist Puritans escaping persecution for their beliefs, founders of theological seminaries, Bible translators and teachers of native Americans, governors, battle-hardened soldiers ...
These were educated people who fought bravely for what they believed in: freedom and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the heritage from Eric’s mother’s family. You only have to reach beyond the drunken grandfather and find the forefathers who inspire, who will be waiting “on the other side,” and whom you can emulate with pride. These, my children and grandchildren, are a part of the Great Cloud of Witnesses.
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
“For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.”
~Hebrews 12:1-4
Will you make these ancestors proud as you courageously fight the battles of the 21st Century?
Go and do likewise!
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