52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 36 – September 2 – 8, 2024
“We Don’t Talk About It”
Are there a lot of interesting facts that you do not know about your ancestors? I’m sure there are! I know there are many of those intriguing facts in my family. Some facts were just lost to time, the stories not passed on. But I believe that some facts about our ancestors were just not discussed or transmitted through family stories.. Maybe they were scandalous or maybe they were not the type of facts that certain descendants of our ancestors did not want others to know. Eventually, as some ancestors wanted, those facts would just die a natural death after many years, so to speak. I know that my parents kept some things from me so perhaps our long-ago ancestors did the same.
This post is about my maternal 4th great-grandfather, Mathis or Matthew Weaver. Born on 20 September 1781 or 1784, depending on which documents you view from New Hackensack, Dutchess County, New York or in Pennsylvania. Actually in 1781 or 1774 New York was not yet a state, not until 1788 when it became the 11th state of the United States of America.
Each person has 64 fourth great-grandparents so the not-so-wonderful information may have become quite obscure in the present day. But had I had a maternal great-grandmother who just loved stories! She was particular in what she shared and sometimes embellished those stories, but she would never have shared dishonorable or disreputable family tales with children or young people in the family. That was until she became an old woman!
Some of the anecdotes she told me when I was thirteen years old were almost “R” rated, often they made me blush and feel uncomfortable at that age. I remember my grandmother, her daughter-in-law, telling her not to talk to children about such things. Which is why I wonder that she never shared the story about her own great-grandfather with me since she did not like to listen to her daughter-in-law! They tended to squabble a bit as I remember.
I’ll add here that this is a not a blush-worthy story. A bit of a background clue: my maternal great-grandmother, Elsie Goble Lord, was a teetotaler. My great-grandfather, Irvin O. Lord, her husband, was not. But I digress.
Matthew was of Dutch or Swiss ethnicity as far I can discern. He was born to Michael (Michel Jacob) Weaver (Wever), and Margareth Buys Weaver. His baptism occurred at some time in 1784 in a Dutch Reformed Church in New Hackensack, in the former New York colony according to the church records of New Hackensack and Greenbush. Book 28 of the Records of the R.T.D. Church of New Hackensack, N.Y. records.
The Weaver or Wever lineage in Colonial America goes back well into the 1600s when Johann-Anton Ruggin Weber who born in Switzerland immigrated to the colonies. The Buys family lineage goes back to 1629 to Jan Cornelis Buys who was born in Breille, Amsterdam, Netherlands. That was eight generations ago.
When I first find Matthew in the 1820 U.S. Census taken on 7 August 1820, a census that only lists the name of head of household and the residents with tick marks in columns according to age, he is living in Exeter, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the northeast area of the state. He would be about 39 years old with two males under ten years of age, one male between the ages of 10 thru 15 years, one male between the ages of 16 thru 25, one male between the ages of 26 thru 44, and two females ages 10 thru 15 years. All males and females for a total of seven residents. But where is the female who we would imagine that would be between the ages of 26 thru 44, approximately the same age as Matthew? I have not found evidence that Matthew was married more than once or that a first wife may have died leaving him with a total of six children. Probably not true, as I did find a marriage document
that records the date of his marriage to Anna Montross as 30 April 1811 in New York when she was 19 years old. The answer may have been that Anna was at her mother’s home or another relative's home to bear a child, as often was the case with women in the 1800s.
By 1830 the census records Matthew as living with nine other people, eight of them under 20 years old. There is one female listed on the record as being between the ages of 30 thru 39 years of age. This list records two more children, one male and one female between the ages of five thru nine. The female at that point most probably was his wife, Anna Montross Weaver. His wife Anna Montross was born in 1792. She fits into the age group of 30 thru 39 years.
By 1833 Matthew and Anna had had eleven children, one did not live to adulthood. One of the children, Catherine M. Weaver, who became the wife of Joseph C. Goble, was my maternal 3rd great-grandmother and my Great-Grandma Elsie's grandmother.
Matthew was a farmer by trade and by 1840 he was already about 59 years old, probably at an age where he did not work as much on his farm. Matthew was known to frequent the few inns and taverns in the immediate area.
The political climate in the United States was changing in the 1840s and 1850s. Local, state, and federal politics were often discussed in the inns and taverns of America, sometimes civilly, and sometimes not. Wyoming County, Pennsylvania was no exception to those conversations. Unfortunately, Matthew probably engaged in more than a few of those possibly heated discussions while imbibing of the local intoxicating spirits in those taverns.
The following information was gleaned from the microfilm files of the Wyoming County Historical Society, Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania according to a local researcher.
Here is the untold story of Matthew Weaver, my maternal 4th great-grandfather:
Note: The 1850 U.S. Federal Census of Northmoreland Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, even though taken in September 1850 included any residents as of June 1, 1850.
In late August of1850, when Matthew was approximately 68 years old, being a man of intemperate habits, visited the Public House owned by his next-door neighbor Asa Keeler, an innkeeper, an influential lawyer and large landowner in Northmoreland Township, Wyoming County. According to newspaper articles in several newspapers, some as far as Philadelphia and New York City, after Mr. Keeler refused to serve more alcohol to Mr. Weaver partly due to Mr. Weaver's offensive words, a political contention also arose between them. It seems that both parties became excited due to the offensive words. Keeler ordered Mr. Weaver to leave the Public House but Mr. Weaver did not comply. Mr. Weaver then said he would comply but wanted to continue the argument outside. Mr. Keeler reportedly then employed a chair and brandished it upon the face of Mr. Weaver. A scuffle ensued forcing Mr. Keeler and Mr. Weaver outside of the tavern. It was at that point when the throwing stones began by Mr. Weaver and Mr. Keeler. Mr. Keeler, still brandishing the chair then reportedly struck Mr. Weaver upon the back of the neck which caused almost instant death.
Note: The 1850 U.S. Federal Census of Northmoreland Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, even though taken in September 1850 included any residents as of June 1, 1850. Matthew died on August 31, 1850. This clears up any discrepancies regarding the date of Matthew Weaver's death.
Coroner Newman of Wyoming County summoned an inquest the next day and after an investigation the jury returned a verdict that Mr. Weaver came to his death by a blow inflicted by Mr. Keeler. Mr. Keeler, a resident reportedly worth over $100,000, was arrested and held in the sum of $10,000 for his appearance at court.
A trial ensued and Mr. Keeler was found guilty of Mr. Weaver’s death.
This story about my 4th great-grandfather was never discussed in our family. There are more forbidden stories in my family tree, and I’m sure you may find some in your own tree. It’s always best to know the truth about our ancestors so we can learn the truth about their successes and failures. Just as history sometimes repeats itself, generational trauma, a fairly new theory, may be passed down in our genes.
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