A REPLICA of the SHIP LYON This Was the Ship in Which Stephen Hart Migrated from Braintree, Essex County, England to Newton, Later Named Cambridge, Mass
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A REPLICA OF THE SHIP LYON This was the ship in which Stephen Hart migrated from Braintree, Essex County, England to Newton, later named Cambridge, Mass. A replica of this ship may be seen in the Town Hall in Braintree, England. GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF LOVIRA HART, SR. AND HIS ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS 1605 - 1976 With the addition of excerpts from the Tuscola County History, printed in the early 1880's., Hart's Corners. Statistical History of Lovira Hart Family. Reprints of Lovira Hart letters written between 1837 and 1853. Spouses and their parents. Military service records. Wedding Bells and Donors. BY HILDRED JAY HART, B.Sc. CENTREVILLE, MICHIGAN 1i'1"i' Library of Congress 79-52467 l.S.B.N., 0-9602794-0-7 Copyright, 1979 Dedicated to my brothers Newell Ashe Hart Raymond Caley Hart Ted Stanley Hart (deceased) Table of Contents Page Early History of the Area .. 7 Religious Background of the Lovira Hart Family 10 Hart's Corners 12 Would You Believe?. 13 Information on Descendants . 17 The Albert Henry Branch . 30 The Lovira Jr. Branch .. 31 The Orlando Branch . 86 The Anna Branch . 125 The Nancy Branch 126 The George Branch 136 The Lovira Hart Family Vital Statistics . 138 Branch of Albert Henry . 138 Branch of Lovira .... 138 Branch of Orlando ..... 156 Branch of Anna . 168 Branch of Nancy . 168 Branch of George 173 Lovira Hart Letters ... 174 Spouses - Persons who Married into the Hart Family ......... 192 Military Service Record of People Connected with the Hart Family . 199 Wedding Bells . ....... .. 207 Family Record 212 Donors .. 214 Respectfully, Matilda Hart . 215 Index 217 Illustrations Page A Replica of the ship Lyon Frontispiece Residence of Lovira Hart 11 Genealogical history of Deacon Stephen Hart . 14 Hart Memorial 15 Branch of Thomas . 16 Material from the Archives of the office of Surrogate, County of Green, Village of Catskill, State of New York . 21-27 Bronze Plaque on top of Meeting House Hill 28 Anna (Hotchkiss) Hart, wife of Lovira Hart, Sr .. 28 Lovira Hart, Jr .... 31 Esther Marie (Parker) Hart, Lovira's second wife ... 31 Mortgage .... 33-34 Ann Jeanette (Hart) Johnson . 36 Leicester Johnson 36 Farm home of Leicester and Ann Jeanette (Hart) Johnson . 3o Marshall and Mary Jane (Hart) Lamson . 37 Robert and Mary Jane (Hart) (Lamson) Shaw. 37 Hannah Emeline Hart .. 37 Emery Delroy and Sarah Delana (Hart) Palmer . 38 Lemuel Parker Hart .. 39 Lemuel Parker Hart wedding picture . 39 Clarabelle Rachael (Hoyt) Hart, wife of Lemuel Parker Hart . 39 Clarinda Walker (Lamson) Hoyt and daughter Clarabelle Rachael 39 Tax paper. 41 Elwood Z. Shaw .. 42 Carrie E. (Shaw) Newman and her children. 43 Edward Lovira and Mable (Townsend) Palmer . 43 Lemuel Jay and Esther Marie (Ashe) Hart 45 Four Generations of Harts: Richard Jay, Ronald Jay, Lemuel Jay and Hildred Jay. 45 James and Annie Belle (Hart) McPherson 46 Elsie (Hart) Colman wedding picture 46 Wesley Jesse Colman wedding picture . 46 George Scott and Nellie Viola (Colbeth) Hart 47 Alice Alma (Hart) Hoard and her children . 48 Esther Jane (Hart) Van Cleve and husband Loren 49 Manley and Wilma (Kettle) Newman golden wedding . 49 Roy and Dorris (Parker) Palmer golden wedding .. 52 Lester and Marie (Gunell) Palmer .. 53 Hildred Jay and Naomi P. (Welch) Hart golden wedding 55 Raymond Caley and Martha (Latta) Hart. 56 Ted Stanley Hart .... 56 Anna Vere (Colman) Lennox 57 ILLUSTRATIONS Edward W. Hart and wife Maye (Crosby) (Cardine!) Hart ............. 59 Four children of George and Nellie Hart: Nelson, Dorothy, Lola and Viola 60 Orlando Hart . 86 Wolf trap made by Orlando Hart . 86 Orlando Hart's 100th birthday .. 87 Elijah Baldwin, husband of Lora Elizabeth Hart. 88 A carpentry scene 89 Seth Henry Averill, husband of Martha Ann Hart 89 Julia (Hart) White 90 Aaron Baker White 90 The Aaron White farm home, San Jose, Calif.. 90 William Orlando Hart 90 James Haviland Hart and wife Jeannette "Nettie" (Allen) Hart 91 Ralph and William Hart, sons of James and Nettie Hart .. 91 Lora Elizabeth (Hart) McClay and husband Arthur Rae 92 Etta (Baldwin) Fenton and husband Robert R. golden wedding. 94 Leona Lora (Baldwin) McKee and husband Walter. 94 Herbert "Bert" Isaac Baldwin 94 Walter Elmer White and wife Laura Adele (Cummings) White 95 Walter White, rural mail carrier, Dos Palos, Calif. 95 Edith W. (White) Edmondson ... 96 Frederick Newton and Nellie Hannah (Hart) Selby 96 Roy Hugh Hart and Lucille Nelson (Thomas) Hart . 97 Hazel Vivian (Hart) Gerdts and husband Henry . 97 Henry Gerdts ranch, San Jose, Calif., 1971 . 98 Dorothy (McClay) Kuehn and husband Max 99 Florence (McClay) Wool and husband John "Jack". 99 Helen (Hart) Davis and husband Gene 100 Leonard Orlando and Alice (Powell) Hart 101 Leland B. and Louise (Ormsbee) McKee .. 102 Charles Floyd White 104 Dorothy (White) Coyle and husband Kenneth . 104 Helen (Selby) Decker. 105 Citation from President of United States to Jesse J. McDonnell .. 106 Phyllis (Selby) Kestenholtz and husband Lynn . 107 Doris (Hart) Blankenship 109 Daniel and Anna (Hart) Miller .. 125 Nancy (Hart) Thurston ... 126 William Henry Thurston and Nellie (Shaw) Bigelow) Thurston 127 Ruth (Thurston) Carlson and husband Glenn .... 130 Sue (Thurston) Fuller and husband Norman . 130 Myron Colegrove and wife Hilda (Bennett) Colegrove . 131 Audrey (Crout) Smith and husband Frank. 131 Barbara (Thurston) Kincaid and husband John, also children Nancy and John, Jr. 132 George Hart and wife Margaret Elizabeth (Libb) Rone .. 136 George Hart marriage certificate 137 Matilda Hart Quilt . 216 PREFACE ----•---- This history of the Lovira Hart Family was actually started by me while I was still in high school. My interest in family history was aroused by listening to my father tell about earlier generations of Harts. Two stories which always intrigued me were: that I am a descendant of Honest John Hart, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and that one of my ancestors owned a farm on the Connecticut River, that a fording place was found in the river on the Hart farm and that the ford was called Hart's Ford. Later, when a village was established there, it was named Hartford. The latter of the two stories proved to be correct. At least the story of the naming of Hartford is included in the genealogical history of Deacon Stephen Hart. I have read two other stories about the naming of the city of Hartford; both of which sound plausible. In the beginning, I worked on the family history at family reunions only. After I became county 4-H Club agent, I occasionally had an evening to myself. I spent a few of those evenings in the genealogical section of the university library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It wasn't until I had retired that I began to think seriously about putting together the information I had gathered. One day, I was asking my brother, Newell, questions about our early family. His answer was, "I haven't the slightest idea. I remember hearing you and Dad talking about those things; but being just a kid, I couldn't have cared less about them." I suddenly realized that there were many things about our early family which I seemed to be the only one alive who knew. The thought came to me that if I didn't write them down, they would shortly be lost to the world forever. At that moment an author was born and I got busy. Since that time, I have walked miles and miles in cemeteries, read volumes and volumes of birth, death, divorce and property records and written hundreds of letters to cousins from California to Texas to Florida to New York and many other states in between. I have studied records in fifteen different county courthouses; besides state and city genealogical libraries in Kalamazoo, Flint and Lansing, Michigan, in Hartford, Connecticut and in Albany and Catskill, New York. Sometimes the results were very disappointing and at other times most gratifying. Following are some of the more gratifying. At age eleven, I attended the one-hundredth birthday party of a great great-uncle, Orlando Hart. In 1970, I was reading some old news clippings about the birthday party and Orlando's subsequent death. I found that Orlando's son, Isaac, had started west by covered wagon and ox team in 1860; and that his sister, Julia (Hart) White, had followed several years later. They had settled ia Santa Clara County; just south of San Francisco. I put an ad in the San Jose Mercury News asking for contact with descendants of those two people. Two days later, I had an air mail letter from Florence (McClay) Wool, and I quote: "Dear Mr. Hart: What a thrill for me to find your request for family history in yesterday's paper. I am the only one working on family history on our side, but I am needing help from Michigan. I am Florence McClay Wool, daughter of. ... " Two weeks later, I received a letter from Dorothy (White) Coyle, saying, "I am a granddaughter of Julia Hart White. I will be glad to help you all I can." From those two contacts, we were able to add eighty more families to bring the total families to write about to over five hundred. HILDRED JAY HART PREFACE In about 1968, a teacher in the public school system of the area of my birth was researching Tuscola County, Michigan, early history. She came across a folder of 26 original letters written by great grandfather Lovira Hart, Jr. and his wife, Hannah Emeline, and his brother-in-law, John Abbey; written from their farm in Tuscola County, Michigan, to his wife's parents, the Lyman Abbeys in South Avon, New York.