The Hand Family

Alida Electa Hand is my great-great grandmother, the mother of Lizzie Whipple Brown. In this post I will share information about the Hand family.

John Hand (1611-1661) came to America in 1635, landing first in Lynn, Massachusetts, and then by 1644, moving to Long Island. He lived first in Southampton and then in East Hampton.

View of a farm in Richmond, Mass.

My fifth great-grandfather, Abraham (or Abram) Hand, was born in East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York, on September 22, 1764. At some point he moved with his half-brother Daniel Hand to western Massachusetts, settling in Richmond, in Berkshire County. There he enlisted in the Continental Army in January 1781, when he was sixteen years old. He served in an artillery unit, mostly along the Hudson River, until October 1783. His discharge was signed by General Henry Knox, who is well-known to students of Revolutionary War history.

After the war, on October 21, 1784, Abraham married Mary West in Richmond. Mary was born in Tolland, Connecticut, on March 6, 1767. She was descended from Francis West, who was a resident of Duxbury in Plymouth Colony as early as 1640. Abraham and Mary had eight children. The third-born, Abner, was my fourth great-grandfather. He was named after his mother’s father, Abner West.

By the time of the United States census of 1790, Abraham and Mary were living in the town Rensselaerville, in Albany County, New York. They were still living there when the 1800 census was taken. By 1820 Abraham and Mary had moved to the town of Galen, in Wayne County, in west-central New York. They lived there until 1838, when they moved to Fitchville, in Huron County, Ohio, to be near three of their children and their families. Both Abraham and Mary were listed in the census of 1840. Both died later that year, Mary, on September 18, and Abraham on November 4.

Abraham Hand's discharge from Continental Army

We know quite a bit about Abraham because as a Revolutionary War veteran, he applied for a government pension provided by an Act of Congress in 1818. His first application was in 1819, when he was 54 years of age. The application stated that “he is in reduced circumstances and stands in need of the assistance of his country for support.” Apparently this application was rejected because Abraham had some property. In 1827 Abraham again applied for the pension. This application includes a “schedule” listing all of his property, along with the amounts he owes others and the amounts others owe him. According to the schedule, Abraham owned one cow, eleven sheep and six hogs. He owned a plough, an axe, a pitchfork and a shovel. Household items included three kettles and one pot, one tea kettle, and one stone jug. He owned two books. In the application he stated, “I am in reduced and indigent circumstances and unable to support myself without the assistance of government or the aid of public or private charity; that I have been thus indigent and reduced, since the year 1817-- that I am aged and infirm, being sixty-two years of age the twenty second day of September last past, and my health much impaired; that I have a wife aged sixty years, who is also oppressed with divers infirmities, that prevent her from doing but little slight and light work, and that the assistance of a hired servant is necessary to her constantly; that I have two grandchildren that I am bound to provide for and sustain, and who live with me, one of whom is about three years of age, and the other about seven years of age and I am a farmer by occupation.”

Abraham Hand's signature, 1827

Documents that accompanied the 1827 application indicate that in 1820 Abraham took out a mortgage for $500 and bought 180 acres of land in Galen. They also state that “shortly thereafter” Abraham was “embarrassed by misfortunes” and “lost the land.” Abraham is described as “poor & unfortunate but industrious and honest and of fair character as a man for truth and moral conduct.”

My fourth great-grandfather, Abner Hand, was born in Rensselaerville, Albany County, New York on January 27, 1790. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving from August of 1812 until the following February, when he was discharged at Sackets Harbor, New York. He married Mary Ann Petteys on February 14, 1814, and they had several children, including my third great-grandfather (Abraham) Henry Hand. Abner's wife Mary Ann died on September 17, 1824. On May 20, 1825, he married Abigail Tuttle and together they had two children. Abner was a farmer, said to be 5 feet 8 inches in height, with dark hair, light grey eyes and a light complexion. According to one report, he had a still. In the census of 1850 he is listed as a “laborer.” He died on December 17, 1854.

I know very little about my third great-grandfather, (Abraham) Henry Hand. He was born about 1820 and is listed in the 1850 US census as having a wife Catherine, and two daughters, Alida Electa (my second great-grandmother) and Margaret Ann. His occupation is listed as “clerk.” By the 1860 census, it appears that both Henry and his wife had died. Alida Electa was then living in Rose, New York, with a farmer named Philander S. Lewis, his wife Ann, and their two children. Margaret Ann was living in Galen with a glass cutter named Daniel Watson and his wife Elizabeth.

Clearly our family's "Hand" roots are humble, but two "Hands" did serve their country. And although Abraham was reduced to seeking government aid, at least he was known as a man who was both "honest" and "industrious."

A "Character": Martha Davis

This is the second of two posts I am writing about fifth great-grandparents on the Whipple branch of the family. Martha Davis Reed appears to have been a "character" in every sense of the word.

How is Martha is related to the Brown family? My great-grandmother, Lizzie Whipple Brown, was the granddaughter of Jonathan Whipple and Lucinda Kentner. Lucinda’s parents were John George Kentner (son of George Kentner) and Clarinda Reed. Clarinda was the daughter of William Reed and Martha Davis. Thus Martha Davis Reed is my fifth great-grandmother.

Martha Davis may have been born around 1750 and was married to William Reed. The first record I have of their family is the US census for 1790, which shows that William Reed was living in Charlotte Township, Vermont, on the east side of Lake Champlain. He was living with his wife, two sons and three daughters. Two of the daughters were Clarinda (born in about 1780) and Lucinda (born in about 1782). In about 1800 Reed and his family moved from Vermont to the area of Canada north of the New York State border and south of the St. Lawrence River.

The following material comes from The History of Huntingdon and the Seigniories of Chateaugay and Beauharnois from Their First Settlement to the Year 1838, by Robert Sellar, published in Huntingdon, Quebec, by The Canadian Gleaner in 1888. Sellar was the editor of a local newspaper, The Gleaner. He obtained his information on early residents of the Huntingdon area primarily by means of interviews.

Robert Sellar

According to Sellar, William Reed first settled on the Chateauguay River across from Ste. Martine, Quebec. From there he moved farther west on the river to North Georgetown. But when he learned that he would have to pay rent to live there, “in 1807 he moved up to the first concession of Hinchinbrook and settled on the Burnbrae farm (lot 25). His departure was regretted by the settlers of the Chateaugay settlement on account of losing the society of his wife [Martha, our fifth great-grandmother], who was a clever and very eccentric woman, and who spent a good deal of her time in visiting, being welcome at every house, for she supplied the place of a newspaper and had an inexhaustible flow of caustic and humorous small talk, which she varied by songs. Her visits she generally made on the back of a bull, whose horns were ornamented with ribbons, and with which she even made trips to Montreal. She was, despite her birth, a loyal British subject. It is related of her that she fearlessly visited relatives in Vermont during the war [of 1812], and on returning found no canoe wherewith to cross the Richelieu to the Canadian side. Presently the British sentry saw something white waving on the opposite shore, and taking it to be a flag of truce reported, when the guard turned out, and a canoe was sent off, to find Mother Reed standing alone, and chuckling at the success of her ruse.”

Chateauguay River near Ste. Martine, Quebec

Sellar continues, quoting the testimony of an early settler named James Wright: “When I was a boy, she came in late one evening, when we were all in bed, and told my father she had made a song on the war. He asked to hear it, when she replied he would have to get up. He retorted he could listen as well in bed. We boys, who had risen on hearing her, sat beside her at the glowing chimney-nook, and she began, snapping her toothless jaws, to bawl out her ballad, of which I do not remember a word, but it amused us highly. On a subsequent visit, my father hailed her as Mother Reed, when she sharply responded that was no longer her name; she was Mrs. Turner. Turner was a shiftless, drunken Englishman and she was, when she married him, of the mature age of 72!”

From 1825 census, Hinchinbrook, Quebec

In the Canadian census of 1825, a James Turner is listed as living with his wife in Hinchinbrook, Quebec. He is listed as being over sixty years of age. Martha may well have been his wife at that time. The name that follows Turner’s on the census list is John Kentney (probably John George Kentner, married to Clarinda Reed; they are our fourth great-grandparents). John Dennis (the son-in-law of John George Kentner, married to his daughter Sarah) is living next to John. The name of James McLetchy (should be McClatchie) is a little farther down the list. James was a Scotsman who married Lucinda Reed, Martha’s daughter and Clarinda’s sister).