Captain John's Service (Cont)

Capt John was, on the organizational chart, the commander of the 6th company of the 6th battalion, led by Col. Ross.

But according to this, he was

Captain John's Service

The Pennsylvania militia has a confusing history and organization.  What we know about Captain John Rippey is that he was elected Captain of the 6th Company of the 6th Battalion of the militia in 1777.  The company was one of three raised from Chanceford township, the 7th Company was headed by  Captain Joseph Reed, Esq.  and the 8th by Captain Thomas McNarry. The Battalion was led by Colonel Ross.

There's an extensive discussion of the historical background here but I'll try to summarize.
Between 1775 and March 1777 the PA militia were only semi-official, due to the pacifist ideals of the Quaker founders.  In March 1777 the militia became official, so the table of organization  I relied upon for the first paragraph reflects the initial establishment.  This lasted for 3 years, with a new establishment in 1780, when Rippey, Reed, and McNarry were not re-elected as Captains.

Each member of  militia could be called up for 2 months of active duty at a time, therefore they were divided into "classes" with all members of the class being called,. A call-up would find  neighbors still serving together, but their colonel would be different and their battalion designation would be different.  (Read the historical background for an explanation.)

When and where was Captain John on active duty?  Can't tell at the moment,  Here's what the historical background says:

Most of the service rendered by members of the Pennsylvania Militia fell into one of three categories. They were either used to augment the operations of the Continental Line such as when some of the Associators accompanied General Washington in crossing the Delaware in January 1777. Other examples of this type of service include the large numbers of Pennsylvania militia employed in the summer and autumn of 1777 to oppose the British invasion at Brandywine and on the flanks at the battle of Germantown, though in neither case did they actually see action. The militia did provide a significant defensive force patrolling the south side of the Schuylkill River and engaged in occasional clashes with British outposts and scouting parties including heavy skirmishes at Whitemarsh on December 7. Due to the sixty-day turnover, however, none of the men who were at Brandywine in September would have been present at Whitemarsh in December. It is known that no Pennsylvania militia served at Valley Forge, Monmouth, or Yorktown. The second type of service was duty on the frontier in Northumberland, Northampton, Bedford and Westmoreland counties. Occasionally, militia reinforcements from Cumberland, Lancaster, and York counties would be brought in to reinforce these frontiers as occurred in the summer of 1778. A third type of militia duty was in providing guards for supply depots located in Lancaster, Lebanon and Reading and at various prisoner of war camps.

What Rev. William's NYC Was Like

William Harshaw's church in the 1890's was on E. 86th street.  Today's NYTimes has an article on a long time resident of E. 84th Street.  Obviously William and family had long since departed for West Pittston by the time Mrs. Jacobs arrived:

WHEN Lillian Jacobs was 2, in 1911 or ’12, her family moved from the Lower East Side into a tenement building on East 84th Street, just off York Avenue, then known as Avenue A. Her parents ran a candy store on the building’s ground floor, catering to the newly arrived immigrants from Germany, Hungary, Austria and Ireland.

People came and went over the years; apartment houses were built and tradesmen’s shops disappeared, along with the family candy store. But the character of the area, and specifically this part of East 84th Street, has largely remained the same. The brownstones, built at the turn of the 20th century and flanked by trees planted in more recent years, have stayed true to the block. 

We don't know whether William was trying to evangelize among the new immigrants, or was serving those good Presbyterians who'd moved from points south, trying to keep ahead of the influx of immigrants.

More on William Rosborough

Marjorie and I have entertained the theory that William Rosborough was a relative of Margaret McCloskey, reasoning from our grandfather's being named after him and what we knew of his history.  But I finally got smart and did a search on his wife, which led me to this ebook republishing a history.(I've corrected obvious problems in the scanning. )

WILLIAM ROSBOROUGH was a represent-
ative business man of Randolph County,
and well deserves representation in its
history. He was born in Ballymena, Ireland, in 1802,
and when a youth of sixteen crossed the Atlantic
to America, locating in Cincinnati, Ohio. There
he entered the employ of a Mr. Mahard, who was
engaged in the commission business, and with
whom he continued until 1833.

In that year Mr. Rosborough married Miss Mary
Mahard, a sister of his employer. To them were
born five children. Elizabeth is now residing in
the old home in Sparta. Robert H., a railroad con-
tractor and auditor, and also a dealer in coal,
married Elizabeth McCutcheon, and they have
five children: William J., a railroad conductor;
Rachel, Robert H., Jr., .John and Allen. Martha
R., the third child of the family, is the widow of
Dr. ?eeper, who was born in Beaver County, Pa.,
in 1832, and there grew to manhood. He pursued
his literary studies in .lefferson College, and studied
medicine in the State Universily of Pennsyl-
vania at Philadelphia. He began practice in Ches-
ter, Ill., and afterward removed to Coulterville,
where he followed his profession for twenty - flve
years. His name is always mentioned in the high-
est terms of praise by all who knew him. He
won an enviable position in his profession, and
was a liberal and public-spirited citizen. Anna
J., another member of the Rosborough family, is
the wife of Daniel P. Barker, of Sparta, Secretary
and Superintendent of the Sparta Natural Gas
and Oil Company. He served in the Union army
as a member of Company K, One Hundred and
Forty-second Illinois Infantry, and at the close of
the war returned to Sparta, where he has since re-
sided. Mr. and Mrs. Barker have four children:
Albert M., now connected with the Rocky Moun-
tain News; Lewis, a student in Champaign, III.;
Mary R. and Elizabeth. Mary M., the youngest
member of the Rosborough family, is the wife of
the Rev. Hugh Y. Leiper, of Pravo, Ohio. They
have had five children: William, Hugh. Earl (de-
ceased), Donald and Mary.

In 1833 William Rosborough came to Illinois,
locating in Randolph County, where he at once
embarked in merchandising. In 1840 he removed
to Sparta, and continued general merchandising
in connection with the manufacture of castor oil.
He also engaged in the packing business, and later
in the flouring business. In 1882 he laid aside
all business cares, and after living retired for three
years, he was called to his final rest, at the age
of eighty-three. In the accumulation of property
he was very successful, but at no time did he sac-
rifice his honor for temporal benefit. He had the
confidence of his entire circle of acquaintances,
who regarded his integrity as above question.

Margaret and Michael: Their Meeting

Margaret McCloskey was about 24 in the 1840 census--she and her mother were living in Allegheny, PA, which was the town/city north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers ("Pittsburg" was the city south of the Allegheny and north of the Monongahela, so Allegheny was just across the river.

The area seemed to Ben Franklin's correspondent an unlikely place, a pig in a poke, according to this history.

    With less than 300 inhabitants in 1800, Allegheny Town grew modestly when a glass works was started on out lot 13 (opposite the head of Brunot's Island) and a rope "walk" (factory) on Lynndale Ave. Twenty-five years later it was a struggling country village of 85 houses, thirteen of them brick, and a population of 792. To the Western Penitentiary, the Western University of Pennsylvania, the Western Theological Seminary were given parts of the Commons. In 1828, the year before the canal to Leechburg was opened, the territory "across the river" was made a borough, and on July 17, 1839--two years after the accession of Queen Victoria in England--it was made a full-fledged city. [Actual date Allegheny finally made a city was not July 17, 1839, but April 13, 1840.]

    source  The above explains how Michael and Margaret met--Western U was there.:-P
    From further down: ctually the history of Allegheny City from 1850 forward is the history of not one city, but two. To the west of Sandusky St. grew up a city of a few Irish Catholics, many Scotch Presbyterians, a hundred or more steel millionaires. Along Canal St., Irwin, Western, North and Beech Aves., and, above all, Ridge Ave., there millionaires--the Snyders, the Robinsons, Laughlins, Alexanders, Chalfants, Painters, Olivers, Byers--built immense and astounding feudal castles, owned their coaches-and-four, entertained in the grand manner. The A. M. Byers house at Ridge and Galveston, for instance, built in 1898 at a cost of $500,000, contained 90 rooms and 15 bathrooms.

Helen's Obit

link

UCC in Middletown, RI

From the 2008 April newsletter for the United Congregational Church, Middletown, RI:

"In 1930, Mrs. Ralph Gold, the wife of the new secretary of the YMCA, spoke on China where she had lived for  15 years.  She was immediately elected President of the Foreign Missions Department and served in that capacity until 1954."

and, from a description of the history of a group of wives who started by helping Navy officer wives in WWII and evolved:

"In 1970 the group became THE SERVICE LEAGUE.  They wanted to furnish the kitchen in the new church and by 1975 when we moved into the new building they had achieved their goal and named it in honor of Helen Gold, a longtime and very active church member."

The Smiths: Once More Into the Breach

What do we know about the Smiths:


In 1793 William Smith Jr. is elected an overseer of highways.  Link  From that I can argue that his father is still around.  If

William and Leonard are listed together, which might imply they're brothers. They are--see below.

When Elizabeth marries Joseph Rippey, she's accompanied by her brother, Captain William.  From that I can argue her father is no longer around. On the other hand, the will of William Smith shows Elizabeth as one daughter, he designates Joseph as an executor, and he's buried in No. 9.  So perhaps the transcription is wrong, and it was father Captain William.

So one possibility is three Williams: grandfather (Wm sr), father (Wm Jr) and brother (Captain wm).  This stumbles on the idea that Wm Jr is buried in No. 9 with a date of death of 1831, meaning he's still alive when she's married.  So maybe he was an invalid, or estranged when Elizabeth was married?

It looks to me as if her tombstone says she died in the 33rd year of her life, Mar 5, 1838

William Smith writes his will in 1830, meaning he's likely the William Smith who died in 1831 and is buried

He's married to Mary, his son is Leonard, his daughters are Mary, Isabel, Elizabeth, Katharine, Amy, Margaret,

His executors are John McIntire and Joseph Rippey.

Henry Smith, father of William and Leonard, dies at 92 in July 29, 1820 link

David Pomeroy

Thanks to a message through ancestry.com I now know more about a second cousin: David B Pomeroy.

My grandmother, Ada Rippey Harshaw, had an elder sister Mary, who married F. Crawford and had children, including Ada Vere Crawford.  Ada Vere married a Pomeroy and had 6 children, with David Pomeroy her youngest.  Ada's husband died in 1918, 2 years after David was born.  David grew up to be enlisted in the Army in March 1944.  (Enlistment record says he had one year of college and was separated with dependents.) After training he was shipped as a replacement to the 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division which had been fighting since early July. 

He was one of the volunteers for the "Baby Patrol", which rescued 80+ young children from a chateau between the American and German lines.  He was later captured and served out the war in a POW camp.

Scottish Harshaws

In 1841 a 16-year Margaret Harshaw was in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland

In 1851 there was a 19-year old Helen Harshaw visiting in Wigtownshire, Scotland, in 1861  a 61 year old Ann Harshaw living in Argyll, 26 year old Thomas Harshaw in Renfrewshire, in 1871 there were no 'In 1881 a family in Ayrshire and a family in Lanarkshire, in 1891 2 families in Ayrshire and again in 1901

West Pittston Photos

Found this website with photos of West Pittston.

West Pittston Flooding

Apparently West Pittston was flooded by tropical storm Lee. The parsonage was very close to the Susquehanna. [Updated: NYTimes article.]

Ralph in Foochow

Inspired by word that Yale is digitizing mission records, I did a search for Foochow YMCA and got this hit, a picture showing the board of directors in 1920, with Ralph second from left in rear row. According to this, Ralph was also the photographer.  There's also this picture of the building, with the note it was donated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.  And this photo of the YMCA Boy Scout troop (Ralph's not in the picture--he took it).

And this story has no connection with the Golds, but I can't resist it:

"The congregation in a small rural Fujian country church decided to repaint the church, but only had enough money for about ten gallons of paint.  They did it anyway, in faith, praying that the paint would not run out, even as the oil did not run out in the Old Testament story of Elijah and the widow.   When the paint ran low, they added paint thinner, but managed to complete the entire wooden church with just ten gallons of paint!

But no sooner had they finished, a very untimely (for that season) thunderstorm broke upon the church, washing off much of the paint that had been thinned.  And a voice from heaven said, "Repaint, and thin no more!"

West Pittston School

If memory serves, Rev. William Harshaw and family moved to West Pittston from NYC in 1898 and to Minneapolis in 1909.  That means Helen was 13, John 9, and Mac 4 when they moved.  So Helen and John graduated from West Pittston High School and Mac had most of his schooling there.

I bought a copy of the 1892 West Pittston school manual, which I'll scan and put online.