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The Beebe Line
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The Beebe line presents
a line that leads to
Eliza Keys's mother, Alethea Beebe. A temporary division
intrudes, since Lizzie's maternal grandfather married
his first cousin's daughter on the Beebe side. We'll deal
with that in due course.
Meanwhile some Beebe material
may be found in the Keys
Family monograph.
Lizzie's 5th great grandfather
was John Beebe, Jr., born in England in 1599, who attempted to
emigrate with his children to the Colonies in 1650. John perished on the
voyage, however (Rebecca's fate is disputed; she probably died in
England before departure).
One source explains their departure from England:
John Beebe [III], who fought
in the Parliamentary [the
English
Civil War] wars at age 19 alongside his father John
and brother Samuel, was hurriedly put aboard a ship to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1649, with a price on his head.
He and his brother, brought before the king's governor of
Warwick to take an oath of allegiance to the regime, defiantly
refused. His father at once was forced to emigrate from their
Broughton home to the province of York and John and his brother
escaped on a ship bound for America.
Another source clarifies this by noting that John (III) and
Samuel preceded their father to America in 1649 or 1650, so were not
on board at the time their father died.
John (Jr.) executed
a will just before dying on board ship:
It being agreabl to Civill
and religious Custome as required by God upon the occation of
his hand upon the sonnes of men as a forerunner of death unto
them therefore to sett theyr house in order; wherefore I John
Beeby, Husbandman, late of Broughton in the County of
Northampton, being by Gods good hand bought on a voyadge towards
New Engl'd to sea and there smitten by the good hand of God, so
as that my expectation is for my chaynge, yet though mercy as
yet in perfect memory and understanding; doe hereby (my just and
dewe debts being fully and dewely discharged); give and
bequeathe unto my seven children, to say John Beeby, Thomas
Beeby, Samuel; Nathaniell, Jeames, Rebecca and Mary Beeby all
and every such moneyes or goods of what spetia or kynde somever
as all the proper estate belonging unto me the above sayde John
Beeby, to be equally divided between the sayd John, Thomas,
Samuel, Nathaniell, Jeames, Rebecca and Mary Beeby in equall
parts and portions, Further I the sayde John Beebe doe will that
my faure elder children to say; John, Thomas, Samuel and Rebecca
shall have that part of the sayde monnies and goods belonging
unto the three younger to say, Nathaniel Jeames and Mary, in
their hands as wel as theyr owne proportions, and that the sayde
John Thomas Samuell and Rebecca shall take care for the
provition of the three younger till that they the sayde
Nathaneill Jeames and Mary be of adge, at wh tyme they are to
have theyr proportions payde in unto them by my sayde sonnes &
daughter John Thomas Samuel and Rebecca Bebe, whom I appoint as
execurors of this my last will and in case that any of the three
of my younger childdren shall dye before they come at adge that
then theyr proportion of estate so dyeing to be equally divided
amongst all the survivors; Further I John Beeby doe will and
desyor that loving friends Mr. William Lewis, and John Cole; be
overseers of this my will; and that all my sayde children be
advised and counselled by my sayde overseers for ther future
desposal whether upon chaynge of theyr condition by marriage or
otherwyse for the good of my sayde children: Lastly I will that
it be understod that my daughters be at full adge for receyving
theyr proportion of estate at ye adge of eighteen yearses; As a
testimony that this is my last will and testamt I have this
eighteenth day of May one thousand sixe hundred and fifty sett
to my hand and seale. John Beeby, Witness, William Partridge,
John Partridge.
Samuel Beebe, mentioned above,
survived his voyage and is our ancestor. Here is the lineage:
Samuel Beebe (1633-1712), Jonathan Beebe (1674-1761),
William Beebe Jr.
(1705-1788), Asa Beebe Sr. (1730-1813),
Paphiras Beebe (1780-1868), and
Alethea Beebe (1813-1892), Lizzie's
mother.
William Beebe Jr. is one of the family ciphers -- born, married,
had children, and died, all within a distance of about 30 miles in
Connecticut.
About Asa
Beebe Sr. we know the following:
He studied theology
and also medicine, and settled in his native township as
a physician. He was also employed from 1766 to 1774 as
lay reader to the Episcopal families in the village of
Millington, in the same town, and to those of Middle
Haddam, in a neighboring town.
Asa Beebe, a member
of the class of 1759, had deep family roots in East
Haddam, Connecticut. Although he also studied theology,
he made the medical arts his profession. He practiced
medicine in his hometown, but also served as a lay
reader in the Anglican churches of Millington and Middle
Haddam. When dissent against the king's government grew,
Beebe became an outspoken supporter of Great Britain. In
September of 1774, the local Sons of Liberty seized the
good doctor and applied their own form of medicine to
rid the colony of the loyalist contagion -- a good dose
of tar and feathers [in September 1774]. Beebe's name
drops from the public records after his public
humiliation, and it was assumed that he "went to the
British Provinces."
Which, of course, we know he
didn't, instead sticking around to sire seven more children,
including his son Paphiras, my 3x great grandfather
And in fact,
another source notes:
Although once tarred
and feathered as a Tory, [Asa] was a soldier in the
Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Vermont
Governor's Colonial Council in 1796 and served as town
Clerk of Winhall, VT, for 25 years. .... Virkus: "First
Families", Volume IV, 1930, page 142: Asa (1730-1813),
Winhdall [Winhall], VT. Sold cattle for Army during
American Revolution.
Whether he converted to the
cause out of expediency or true belief, we do not know. In
any case, the Daughters of the American Revolution have
authenticated him, describing him as having "furnished
supplies for Army."
Asa's son, Paphiras Beebe
married Lucy Day, daughter of his father's first cousin, Diadema
Beebe. (Which also provides us an alternate path back through
the Beebes (Diadema daughter of Silas, son of William Jr., above.)
In fact, the Beebe family had rather an affinity for daughters of
the Day family. Asa's eldest son, Asa Jr., married another Day
cousin, Sarah. A few notes:
-
Paphiras moved his family to
Holley, NY, from Winhall, Vermont, (where his father had moved
his family from Connecticut). We have this account
of the migration:
Sometime after the
marriage [of Paphiras Beebe and Lucy Day], Darius Sprague, a
friend of the Day family, left Winhall, and took a claim of
land in Western New York near what is now the Village of
Holley. He succeeded in clearing up an acre or more of his
forest land, and partially completing a log house, before
rumors of approaching war between England and the United
States were circulated, and becoming frightened at these
reports, he returned to Vermont just before hostilities
broke out in the War of 1812.
Paphiras Beebe bought out his claim, and about the 1st of
March, 1815, started to take possession of his purchase. He
was accompanied by his wife, Uncle Oliver Day [SLH Note:
or father-in-law?] and three of their children; Alethea, the
remaining child, was only a year and three months old; and
not being well when they were ready to go, was left behind
with her grandfather and grandmother Day [SLH Note:
this is impossible, as both were dead by then]. The children
who went were Huron, Marietta and Aram; Aram was but six
weeks old. Uncle Oliver was unmarried.
Their farm implements and household effects were loaded in a
cart, drawn by two yoke of oxen, and a horse and wagon led
the procession, and the family cow was tied behind the cart,
to provide milk on the journey for the family, and after
they reached their destination. There were very few roads in
those days, and for much of the the way their only guide was
to follow marked trees through the forest. Uncle Oliver
would often get impatient at the slow mode of travel, and to
relieve the monotony would take Aram in his arms and walk on
ahead until he was tired, and if they came to a house or an
opening in the forest would stop and wait until the slow
procession came up. They were four weeks making the trip,
and reached their destination about April 1st, 1815.
The unfinished log house on the land was a poor protection
from the cold and storms of early spring, but they set to
work at once to better conditions; they made a temporary
roof out of bark, stripped from trees, and hung up blankets
over the doors and window spaces. At first they had to sleep
and sit on the floor, and eat from the chests that had
contained their household goods.
[SLH Note: This paragraph written by Lucy Beebe,
granddaughter of Paphiras, may not have been part of the
original narrative:] Father's description of their first
supper at the new home was interesting. A stump in the year
[rear?] was the stove. A hole in the side and one in the top
furnished a draft. Grandmother put a kettle of water on top,
and made mush. Three of father's uncles, Dudley, Oliver &
Hardin [SLH Note: Dudley and Hardin being sons of Asa
Beebe Sr., and therefore were brothers, not uncles], came
out from Vermont later and settled in Ill., stopping in New
York on the way.
After the spring crops were planted, consisting of corn,
potatoes and beans, the men folk had a little time to make
some rude stools to sit on, and other conveniences. A little
later Grandfather Beebe went to Clarkson and bought lumber,
out of which he made a table and some chairs.
After they had been settled in the new home about three
years, Grandfather & Grandmother Day came to make them a
visit, and brought Alethea with them; she had become so
attached to her grandparents that when they left she was
lonely and homesick for some time.
The years that followed brought much hard work and
hardships, which the present generation knows nothing about.
More children were born, until they numbered 12. Paphiras
Beebe ws very industrious and a good manager, and was able
to give his large family as many advantages as others of his
class, at that time.
-- from a document,
"Genealogy of the Beebe Family," found among files
coming from Myra and Beulah Jackson, undated.
Paphiras, of course, was father
to both of Horatio Nelson Keys's wives, first Marietta, and second,
Alethea
Beebe. We know next to nothing about Alethea except through
her children (and those of her Marietta, raised by Alethea as her
own). Both women -- and Horatio -- are memorialized by the
monument in the Hillside Cemetery in Orleans County, NY:
Finally, handed down to the
present as a keepsake, a braid of Alethea's hair -- a curiosity,
certainly, but then hair is virtually ageless and indestructible
when stored well:
Finally, see the map at "The
Allure of Western New York" for a record of the
concentration of my families' ancestors in the 19th century.
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