Re: Additions & Corrections to my message # 3968
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In reply to:
New info for McKee & Keech families of New York State
Nora McLean 11/24/06
As an addition to my previously posted message of November 24, 2006, please read the following:
It has already been pointed out to me by Gloria Reynolds that I made a booboo in surname of the Barsheba who was married to Stewart Keyes Senior- her last name was TAYLOR not Allen, but there was a Barsheba Allen married to a Jeremiah Burtch. I had a momentary lapse of insanity as I was trying to get my names correct.
Plus, Stewart Keyes Sr. did not die on August 16, 1852 as per that transcribed headstone info- he was still alive and kickin' in town of Western, Oneida County at age 94 years in July 1870/on that census. Gloria Reynolds believes the date of death was for Stewart's first wife, the same Barsheba Taylor mentioned above.
The following excerpt from my previously posted message of November 24, 2006 was taken from the source listed below it, from the biography for Marshall D. Spencer, M.D., who was a great grandson of Jonathan Spencer and his first wife Ruth Mudge. The excerpt is referring to Martha Keech Spencer, second wife of Jonathan Spencer and sister to 1763 James Keech:
“She was a woman of remarkable bravery, as is shown by the following: When the Indians, led by the noted Chief Brant, made a raid in the vicinity of the settlement, and the men were away fighting, the frightened women sought refuge in old Fort Plains (sic), and she stood guard. She came from a family well known for their bravery and fighting ability. James Keach, one of her brothers, in a raid on Johnstown, during the Revolution, captured the suit of clothes in which Sir William Johnson was knighted. When a band of Tories made a raid on the home of her sister, Margaret Burch, in search of Mr. Burch, the redoubtable pioneer woman met them half way and repulsed them with a red hot poker. Another sister, having been driven from her home in the Wyoming Valley, fled across the country on foot, carrying an infant son in her arms.”
Online source:
CHENANGO COUNTY NY RESIDENTS,
MONTGOMERY COUNTY NY CONNECTIONS
Source: Book of Biographies. Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Chenango County, N.Y.
Buffalo, N.Y.: Biographical Publishing Company. 1898.
This next excerpt as posted in same message of November 24, 2006 was taken from the source listed below it-
“Following them were several Families to whom they were related by marriage, sisters of Jonathan being the wives of Jeremiah Birch, Jonathan Stark and Jeremiah Thornton .... Jeremiah Birch as well as the Spencers had served in the Revolution in the Third Regiment of Tryon County Militia and probably at Oriskany. ...Another relative of Jonathan Spencer was Jalleal Billings, who was a son of one of his sisters. He settled near the bridge that now crosses to Shaver's Corners.”
Source:
The Pioneers of Unadilla Village, 1784-1840, by Francis Whiting Halsey pub. 1902 by the Vestry of St. Matthews Church, Unadilla, NY.Francis Whiting Halsey is the author of a number of books about the early history of this area of New York state. The section, which includes the material quoted, is in Chapter VIII: Pioneers In Tributary Neighborhoods, 1784-1823, and starts on page 106.
Nora J. McLean