The Communicator (In Color!), Doctor Quack
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MAYBEE SOCIETY Communicator July 2021 ISSUE 125 The President’s Corner Dear Cousins, if a family detail is wrong! And this is worth reading! I have 3 items to highlight this quarter! The first, sadly, is the passing of our cousin https://dailygazette.com/2021/06/09/bill- Robert Quackenbush. He lived a long and buells-electric-city-archives-a-316-year- eventful life! In 1999, he wrote the look-at-rotterdam-junctions-mabee- children’s book Daughter of Liberty about farm/?fbclid=IwAR1kLPm5L4X3qPLI- the adventures of Wyntje Quackenbush cP2ZXspTNgQSp7e19a7fTrhPIcckRhelGr Mabie in support of General Washington SkQYkgOU during the Revolutionary War. Robert’s website is still in operation. The 3 rd item I wanted to share is, as I mentioned in the last Communicator, the http://www.rquackenbush.com/ honoring of our ancestors that was postponed from last year due to Covid 19. The second item is a terrific blog article in While July 11, 2020 is the date on the the Daily Gazette by my friend Bill Buell. plaques, our Schenectada DAR chapter We got to know each other over 30 years held a ceremony to honor the 2 ago when as a sports writer he wrote Revolutionary War soldiers in the Mabee articles about our son’s and daughter’s Farm Family Cemetery on May 18, 2021. soccer and lacrosse exploits! (Speaking of We formed a 3-way partnership with the which, I just did a post on my Facebook Schenectady County Historical Society page on granddaughter Alexandra being in since it was on their property, and of course the Rhode Island state lacrosse our Maybee Society which actually paid championships on Father’s Day. The most of the cost of the brass plaques. Thank Barrington Eagles lost to private school you so much for your generosity!! And of Moses Brown.) course, the DAR whose national headquarters in Washington DC approved Even though he is now retired, Bill writes and put their logo on the plaques as official. feature and history articles for the gazette. It turned into a beautiful evening as the rain He is very careful to try to avoid held off, and Gary and I had cleaned, raked, controversy. He knows I will let him know mowed, and polished the cemetery the Issue 125 July 2021 week before. So, we were gussied up for first lieutenant, was born March 18, 1741, the event. We were so surprised and and died May 10, 1789; he served from pleased that not only did our NY State 1775-1782. John Mabee was born January Regent Patrice Powley Birner attend, but 10, 1728, and died November 24, 1796. also our national President General of During the Revolution, John attained the Beacon NY, Denise Doring Van Buren. rank of Corporal. The Schenectada Chapter She was able to make it, along with District had painstakingly researched these Patriots IV Director Heather and Tim Mabee, State and had planned to dedicate the markers Senator Michelle Hinchey, Assemblyman last July – until the pandemic intervened. Angelo Santa Barbara, Town of Rotterdam The postponed date actually provided a Supervisor Steve Tommasone, Executive perfect spring evening to remember these Director of SCHS Mary Zawacki and men and their courage, and I was delighted several other Rotterdam officials. to be a small part of it. I express particular appreciation to Kim and Gary Mabee for Kim Mabee hosting me for a delicious dinner (with a President great view of the Mohawk!) afterward. The story of the Revolution in the Mohawk Valley is certainly one worth learning about This is from the DAR President if you enjoy reading military history. General’s Blog describing the event: Research Update By Steve Mabie Vice-President In our next Communicator scheduled for early October, I plan on addressing the current status of the search for the European roots of our ancestor, Pieter Casparszen van Naerden. In preparation for that article, it’s necessary for everyone to have a good understanding of the naming conventions in use in New Amsterdam in the 1650s. By naming conventions, I’m Historic Mabee Farm and Cemetery, referring to two different things. One is the Rotterdam Junction use of Patronymics and Toponymics in lieu of surnames by the majority of adults. Later that evening, I joined with nearly 50 Another is the common practice among members and community leaders to members of the Dutch Reformed Church dedicate two new Patriot grave markers at for naming one’s children, with specific the c. 1705 Mabee family stone farmhouse reference to the first two children of either on the banks of the Mohawk River. Cousins sex. John and Cornelius Mabee both fought at the Battles of Saratoga as members of the When discussing the use of Patronymics Albany County Militia, Captain John van and Toponymics versus surnames, it’s Patten’s 3rd Company of Col. Wemple’s important to remember that for most of its 2nd Regiment. Cornelius, who became a existence, New Amsterdam was not a very 2 large town. In Affairs and Men of New grandparents. Thus, the first two males Amsterdam (1843), J. K. Paulding born to a couple would be named after their estimated the size of New Amsterdam in grandfathers, and the first two females 1647 as 150 houses and perhaps 600 – 800 would be named after their grandmothers. people. That is the year our Pieter This convention was in widespread use by Casparszen first appears in the records. adherents of Calvinistic religions such as The population grew to perhaps 1,000 the Dutch Reformed Church and the people by 1650, and then to an estimated Scottish Reformed Church, but not by the 9,000 in 1664, the year that the city was English, Lutherans, nor the French captured by the English and became New Huguenots. We know for certain that this York City. Much of this growth has been convention was used by Pieter and his wife, recently attributed to the efforts of Adriaen Aechtje Jans, for their sons, Jan (named van der Donck, whose A Description of after his maternal grandfather) born in 1654 New Netherland was first published in and Caspar (named after his paternal Europe in 1655 and expanded in 1656. grandfather) born in 1660. This book is credited with creating a significant increase in emigration to the Now, we know that their first two New World in the late 1650s, thus daughters were named Marritien (born in accounting for much of the 9-fold growth 1652) and Engeltje (born in 1656). Thus, it between 1650 and 1664. is reasonable to conclude that Pieter’s mother was named either Marritien (a form The point of this is that for most of the time of Mary), or Engeltje (a form of Angelica). that Pieter was documented in New Can we eliminate one? Well, it is thought Amsterdam (1647 – 1662), it was a very that Aechtje Jans was from Norden, a town small city at best. And in small cities in the in Frisia. And I have been told that, of the 1650s, the use of one’s Patronymic or two female names, Engeltje is “more Toponymic was usually all that was Frisian”. But for now, let’s keep an open necessary to identify people in official mind and consider both cases. records. Thus, in the baptism records for his 6 children, we have Pieter’s name as Therefore, when we go looking through Pieter Casparszen once (in 1652), Pieter European records, what we are looking for van Naerden 4 times (1654, 1656, 1658 and is a male named Pieter, born between say 1660) and finally Pieter Casparszen van 1610 and 1625, whose father is named Naerden in 1662. Caspar and whose mother is named either Maria or Angelica, and who left Europe by His name tells us everything we know 1647. about Pieter: (1) that his father was named Caspar and (2) that he was from a town The J. E. and L. E. Mabee called Naerden (in all likelihood, the modern town of Naarden.) Foundation By Ann Christmann So, we know the first name of Pieter’s And Steve Mabie father, but what about his mother? That is where the second naming convention If you live on either coast of the US, or in becomes useful: the naming of the first two Canada, its likely that you never heard of children of each sex after their John Elmer Mabee or of the Mabee Foundation. But if you have spent any time 3 in middle America, there is a very good were living in Tulsa, and his occupation chance that you have. So, who was John E. was listed as an oil well drilling contractor. Mabee, and what is the story about the The success enjoyed by John and Lottie is foundation started by he and his wife Lottie evidenced by the 1940 census when their in 1948? Tulsa home was valued at $25,000. At that time, John’s occupation was listed as Stated simply, John Elmer Mabee (1879- Petroleum Producer and Employer. 1961) (Maybee Society ID#19373) was an oil millionaire and later a philanthropist in This photo of a sign identifying a well on a Oklahoma. lease owned by John Mabee, with the well operated by The Texas Company (the But his life story really exemplifies the predecessor of Texaco), was recently seen American Dream. One thing is certain: for sale by Ann. John was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. A detailed biography on FindAGrave states that John was born in rural Cedar County Missouri, near Jerico Springs. However, in the 1880 census, his family was enumerated in Kingston, Caldwell County, Missouri.