Moses and the Queen City
AND THE MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS OF RUTH FULLER FRANCISCO
As always, terribly unedited.
You know, I really wasn't going to go here, at least not yet. There didn't seem to be any reason to do so. After all, I pretty much figured that outside of some preternatural vital record, deed, will, or court record showing up from Whitehall or Washington County or its surrounds from the 1790s or so, that, well, I'd exhausted all my means of connecting Ruth Fuller Francisco to the Mayflower Fullers of Whitehall. While what I've dug up may never be good enough for the Tribunals of Plymouth, hey, if they aren't smart enough to see the writing between the lines on Ye Olde Plymouth Rock-- that Ruth Fuller, wife of Henry Francisco was a Mayflower descendant, what else can I do?
However, it was about then that there was a big "information dump.' :) It was about then that when I discovered author Ward J. Roylance's, The Remington's of Utah. After looking at the Fuller lines vetted out in this book, I realized that in my haste to connect the Mayflower Fullers of Whitehall to Ruth, I'd definitely overlooked something -- and many thanks to the Remington family for pointing it out.
You see, I hadn't bothered to see what else was out there that might help "cinch it up" so to speak. I'd been too focused on just the Fullers, and connecting Ruth to them, and she to Henry Francisco. I hadn't bothered to look at "page 2" of Doris Begor Morton's account of Skene's list. You may recall it. It's the list of Whitehall's original inhabitants and when it was first called Skenesborough.
No, I'm the dumbass too preoccupied waiting on a Mexican-American War Pension file for Clark Cisco to pay proper attention. Duh, Jeff. (Well, it is kinda important to get.)
So I went back and took another look at the list. (Granted, I'd been prompted to do so by The Remingtons of Utah...) There on the list were a couple of other names, those names being Moses Sawyer and Moses Sawyer, Jr.. And those really lit it up.
Okay, so I know you will be clueless who "Moses and Moses" were. (And rightfully so) Heck, I even had to remind myself. You see "Moses Sawyer" was Ruth Sawyer's father. I know you're thinking Moses, who? Ruth, who? You see, Ruth Sawyer was Ruth Fuller's mother. Ruth Fuller Francisco's mother. This meant that the whole of the Ruth Fuller's (Ruth, born November 15, 1747), that her living extended family as mentioned in the Silver Books - they being the family of Aaron Fuller and Ruth Sawyer - her parents came to Whitehall together.
Just in case you need a reminder, here's that Silver Book Holy Grail Image of the family again. Check out "Moses Sawyer."
Straight outta Plymouth Rock.
And while I had concentrated on connecting Ruth Fuller Francisco to the Mayflower Fuller family I had failed to look at Ruth's mother's family "The Sawyers." It is the Sawyers who further cement and place Ruth in the Whitehall community. The lineage of Ruth Fuller Francisco, well, it literally could not be someone else unless there were two Ruth Fullers living in Whitehall in the 1760s at the same time. In a community that had a fluid population of 100-200 people having two "Ruth Fullers" seems to be pretty small.
"In a town of 30 households, you don't have 'spares.' The Ruth Fuller who married Henry Francisco wasn't a duplicate; she was the only one. The 'other' Ruth Fuller exists only in the ink of mistaken genealogists who didn't understand the scale of the Whitehall Haystack."
Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. "Enough of Ruth Fuller!" right? And the truth is, with the Sawyer and Fuller families in Whitehall at the same time, and with them being the same folks in the Mayflower Silver Books, Yawn. "Ruth Fuller" wife of Henry Francisco is too boring to not be true. Moving on.
Still, I wanted to connect the two. You know, to revisit "the second step." This article seems to do that the best and brings Paige's Mayflower line right to where we need it to be in the Queen City - Cincinnati.
It isn't so much the genealogy here that's interesting - though of course it is. It the journey to Cincinnati and the year of 1811. What a frickn' year!!!! In 1811 "The Great Comet" was also streaking across the sky in October of that year. The family of Solomon Francisco, arriving in Cincinnati on November 1st means that they would have watched it as they moved south, and as the flatboats moved toward their destination. People thought the comet was a fulfillment of Tecumseh's Indian prophecy about the world ending. In addition to this, one of the largest recorded earthquakes in our country's history, The New Madrid Earthquake (8.0) occurred two weeks after their arrival there. While it was far off, it was still so massive that it even would have left our heros shaking in the Queen City.
I mean, can you imagine leaving your home in New York with a giant "End of the World" sorta comet over head only to arrive at your destination to get the bejesus shaken out of you? It seems a certainly startling and prophetic beginning for this new generation of Mayflower descendants and descended from one of the country's oldest recorded people - Paige's forefather, Old Henry Francisco.
All right, enough about earthquakes and comets. I want to get back to the line. I want to get back to what else is there is out there that tells this generation's story. I think the best thing I found was an account of Solomon Francisco's wife, Mary (Maria) Freeman and her family. Think of it like a "mirror image" of her husband's family portrayed in the article above:
This account - that of the Freeman family is actually found next to the one for Solomon Francisco's, so in truth, it isn't so much of a corroboration of facts as a complimentary story. Nevertheless, it ties the Whitehall families together as they made their way to the Queen City. I think the only thing that would have helped here (and it's a notion I want to continue to explore) is the possibility that a Fuller family member was also on this journey with them south.
There is however one clue to that possibility on this mix. That is the name of Sophia Bigelow. There are some accounts (unsubstantiated thus far) that her mother was Elizabeth Fuller, daughter of Aaron Fuller, and a first cousin to Ruth Fuller Francisco. This is all conjecture at this point - but it would place "A Fuller" family member, albeit a Bigelow, with our gang of heros journeying and arriving on the Queen City.
The trouble is, Sophia Bigelow hasn't left any records to go on - or even to be certain of which "Mr. Bigelow" she married. We only know that she was a kinswoman of the Freemans.
Good stuff. Good mystery under that Big Comet in the Sky.
So right now, I'm going to go back to wait mode. I gotta get that Mexican-American Pension file. I think with it we can connect the dots.
I think with it I will be able to (gently) harangue the Tribunals of Plymouth and cause an earthquake or comet to fly over head.
I think I can get them to look at Ruth.
For now, I need to get up to Oregon, and make arrangements to bury my father.
Old Mayflower descendants the lot of us, one and all.
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