Tompkins County - Day 4

Wednesday, 2 July 2008


Wednesday was an interesting day. It seems each day we find at least one tidbit to fill in the picture of the Strong families of Tompkins county. We talked to the Newfield historian, Alan Chafee, who is a wealth of information. He knew both Reuben Strong and John Abbott. He has been doing the history of this area for a long time and seems to know the whole area. He had talked to another researcher who was working on a doctor and had a list of names of people who had owed the doctor money. Reuben's name was on the list. He also knew that Reuben had been hired to repair the Kellog School House in 1830. John Abbot(t) was know as a Revolutionary War veteran and he and his wife Anna had sold their property to the School district in 1840. We were able to find the deed in the court house which confirmed the sale and the price of 10 dollars and the wife's name of Anna, who made her mark with an X . This fits nicely with Reuben and Mary's first daughter who is named Anna. The 1840 census shows John as head of household and, from the numbers and ages, it appears that Mary and her kids are living with them.We will need to do some work on John as to where he served in the War but it is likely they came from Connecticut, perhaps via New Jersey since both Mary and her son Reuben were born there according to the census. Alan also knew where both John and Reuben lived and gave us directions to the site. We drove through the little town of Newfield, saw the covered bridge that had been built in 1853 and the little creek that runs through the town ( there is a Newfield website with a picture of the covered bridge). The property where they lived is about a mile and a half out of town and John's house was at the corner of a four way intersection at the foot of a hill. The area is quite hilly and active farming continues on today with tractors and animals in the fields. Their is a new house on John's property and the School House has been moved into town and a plaque is posted in front about the move.
We spent a couple more hours at the Cornell Library reviewing the Helen Finch papers. She was a genealogist who had done a lot of research on the Benejah Strong family that settled in Lansing. This seemed like a good lead since Alan said that about 50% of the people who settled in Newfield had come from Lansing. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of Reuben despite the many names identified and several families that resulted from Benejah's move. He was quite prominent in Lansing and we did learn that he had come into the area by way of the Susquehanna river to the south and that this whole area was assigned for Revolutionary war land grants. Each soldier appears to have received 600 acres. It is still possible that Reuben was related to this family as a grandson perhaps. There is a Strong cemetery where Benejah and sons are buried but Reuben is not there.
Thursday will include a trip to Danby and Owego, the county seat of Tioga County. Friday, the 4th, we will meet with Alan and he is going to show us where the Foster and Messenger families are buried in Danby. Apparently it is hard to find. He is genuinly interested in our research since it adds to his knowledge of the area. All in all a successful day. The grandkids agree, having spent the entire afternoon at the swimming pool. We also watched a big fireworks display at the local Ithaca College campus and were impressed at the number of fire trucks called into duty as a result.