|
March 26, 1701 - July 21, 1776
Birthplace
|
August 6, 1699 [?] -Death Date
Birthplace
|
Charles DeWitt
1727 - August 2, 1787
Birthplace
Buried in Old Hurley Burial Ground, Hurley, New York
(see photo below)
|
|
Married December 20, 1754
1731 - November 4, 1765
Birthplace
|
John Charles DeWitt
October 22, 1755 - December 31, 1833
Birthplace
Cornelia Cantine
Margaret (Marguerite?) DeWitt
July 2, 1758 - September 26, 1827
Birthplace
Johannes Bruyn
Mary (Maria?) DeWitt
September 22, 1760 - July 18, 1798
Birthplace
Jacobus Hasbrouck
August 8, 1762 - February 5, 1846
Birthplace
Catharine Ten Eyck
Ann DeWitt
November 11, 1764 - Death Date
Birthplace
Peter Tappen
|
Notes
Charles DeWitt was a U.S. Revolutionary War hero, with many achievements fighting for the United States. (Many DeWitts were involved supporting the Revolution in various ways. DeWitts let the army use their farms in distant valleys to store arms and supplies, and DeWitts provided some of those arms and supplies too.) Charles DeWitt ran a mill that may have been working since the days of his great-grandfather Tjerck, and Martha Washington apparently preferred flour from the DeWitt mills, specifying it when a contractor sent a letter asking for more flour for the troops at Valley Forge. Charles also served in various legislatures on both state and continental levels.
For more on the DeWitt mills (text and pictures), click here.
Charles DeWitt in his mid-20s served as caretaker for the estate of Robert Livingston, a gentleman of some note in the early colony. He kept a sporadic journal of accounts during that time and the following years. The journal can be found in the library of the New-York Historical Society. Its card reads as follows:
December 15, 1749 - June 12, 1780, but mostly 1751-54 when he was the manager of Livingston Manor. The entries for this period include store and mill accounts, as well as those of the Ancram ironworks. Scattered entries after 1754, mostly concerning his activities as a farmer in Hurley, Ulster Co. Also included are recipes, formulas, etc. 4x8, 127 pp.
I saw this frail little book on February 5, 2000. It’s written in English, and the handwriting is not too difficult. Many entries were rather mundane, a recipe for ink or the following tidbit:
A cord of wood is
8 foot long
4 high &
4 broad
2 cords wood yields about a load of coal or 100 B[???]
Charles writes a few notes about the harsh winter of 1763. On a final leaf or two are a couple of entries, in a different hand, from the early 1800s—one dated July 9, 1816, another sometime in February 1818, another March 12.
Then there are the more interesting entries. For example, the following, from January 30, 1754:
January 30, 1754. Then I
signified to Mr. Robert Li-
vingston Junr. that I intend-
ed to leave him in the
Spring. He ask’d me whether
I could not stay with him
one Year Longer. I told him
that I had not intended to
& that I had also thought
he had Expected it for that
I had told him so, last Spring
when we agreed. He said
it was true, but he thought
I was not in Earnest, and
that he would be glad if
I stay’d another year, with
him.
Note. he had offer’d
me last Spring when I
told him I would Go away
this Spring, to put in
a Joint Stock with me
if I set up at a place
Livingston was in fact as good as his word, and the journal goes on to detail the arrangements by which he invested in Charles’s further career in Ulster County.
The journal is a remarkable personal record, including occasions when Charles’s father comes along to bargain with Livingston about Charles’s pay and other arrangements, as well as various other episodes of significance in Charles’s life. A year before Charles leaves Livingston, he describes riding all over Ulster County for a couple of days with a companion, arriving eventually at the DuBois house, where he makes an illegible notation, followed by, in emphatic Greek letters, with double underline, the name Blandina DuBois. In September 1754, after he leaves Livingston, he makes another entry in Greek letters (spelling out English words), again double-underlined:
Very exciting times indeed. (As noted above, they were married December 20 of the same year.)
|
Pix
(Photo by Mary Sarah Bradley)
Somewhere I have the full text of this written out. I'll add it here when I run across it.
(Photo by Doug Bradley)
Meanwhile, this version is a little more readable.
(Photo by Doug Bradley)
This is a relatively new monument for Charles DeWitt. It stands out in a burying ground filled with old colonial grave markers. The original markers for this family plot stand behind the big gray one:
- On the left is a white stone with black iron braces running up the sides; this is the marker for Garret DeWitt (see his page for a larger copy).
- Between Garret and Charles' stone stands the stone for Garret's wife, Catherine Ten Eyck (see her page for a larger copy).
- Unfortunately obscured by the giant massif is the stone for Blandina DuBois, Charles' wife, which has a sweet poem inscribed on it from her children (see her page for a picture).
- Last but not least, poking around the right side of Charles' large marker is his original, more traditional marker.
To see a much larger rendition of this scene, with letters on most stones that become legible, or nearly legible, or tantalizingly close to legible but still really impossible to decipher, click here (the picture will open in a new window).
The big stone at least will finally be easy to read.
(Photo by Mary Sarah Bradley)
Presumably it is this Charles DeWitt for whom this Masonic council is named. We saw these markers holding up flags in July 1998 in the New Hurley Cemetery (where this picture was taken), but we did not learn the story behind them.
|
Sources
Sources go here.
|
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Send E-mail about this site
Back to MrJumbo's genealogy home page
|