The Story of the Halsteads of the United States ---0-0-0--- By 0 WILLIAM LEON HALSTEAD -o-o- Inscribed to W. P.H. -o-o- An Edition of One Hundred Copies Privately Published by William L. Halstead 41 7 East Washington Street Ann Arbor, Michigan ii CONTENTS Page AUTHOR'S FOREWORD • 111 Part One !--DISTINGUISHED HALSTEADS 1 II--HALSTEADS IN THE VOCATIONS 12 III--JAMES HALSTEAD, THE PIRATE 18 IV--THE HALSTEAD HEfililTS OF MINNETONKA •• 22 V--ANDREW BOWNE 1 S SILVER BUTTONS 24 VI--EARLY HALSTEADS AS ADVERTISERS • 26 VII--HALSTEADS AS SOLDIERS AND SAILORS • 29 VIII--THE SURNAME 1HALSTEAD 1 • 42 IX--THE ENGLISH HALSTEADS • 44 X--PRE-COLONIAL AJ.lERICA 50 XI--THE NEW ENGLAND HALSTEADS. 52 XII--THE NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY HALSTEADS. 56 XIII--THE VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA HALSTEADS 67 Part Two 1--JOHN AND REUBEN HOLSTE.AD • 77 2--THE GREAT WESTERN MOVEMENT 81 3--JOHN AND RUTH HOLSTEAD • 84 4--REUBEN AND ELIZABETH HOLSTEAD 89 5--GENEALOGY OF ALL THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN AND REUBEN H0L5TEAD • • 97 INDEX • • • 115 I 1 l u s t r a t 1 o n s Murat Halstead ••• l Murat Halstead As a Youth •• 4 Doctor William Stewart Halsted •• 6 Colonel Benton Halstead •••••• 9 The Reverend William Riley Halstead, D. D. 11 Captain William Kidd ••••• 20 The Route of Captain Kidd's Expedition 20 Rear-Admiral Alexander Seaman Halstead 29 Colonel Frank Halstead. • • 30 Colonel Laurence Halstead •••• 30 Colonel Benton Halstead As a Soldier •••• 38 Design of the Coat of Arms Granted to Laurence Hallsted ••••••• • •••• • 46 Design of a Crest Granted to Vice-Admiral Lawrence William Halsted • • • • • • • • • • • 46 New Amsterdam, Now the City of New York, in 1650 • 56 The Bland Map of "New Brittaine" in 1651 ••• 68 Revolutionary War Map of Eastern North Carolina, Showing the Plantation Owners ••• 78 Artist's Sketch of the John Holstead Farm ••• 83 Artist's Sketch of John Holstead as a Pioneer Hunter 86 Graveyard on the John Halstead Farm 87 Colonel Griffin Halstead •••••••• 88 William Wilson Halstead and Rhoda Coyner Halstead. 93 Reuben Halstead, Jr. • • 94 Sarah Halstead Roberts. • 104 John A. L. Halstead •• • 107 CoP7right, 1954, William L. Halstead. All rights reserved. This book, or part.a of it must not be reproduced in any form without the permissiou of William L. Halstead. AUTHOR'S FOREWORD ---0-0-0--- Pride of ancestry has always been both fully and honorably. There have been very praised and ridiculed. The two points of few harmful or worthless persons among them. view have been thus expressed: The Halstead tradition will be found to be a creditable one, in which all those who are By asc~ to an association with our ances­ interested in, or attach significance to, an­ tors; by contemplating their example and study­ cestry will be able to take warrantable pride. ing their characters; by partaking or their senti­ The Halsteads of ancient England and those ments and imbibing their spirit; by accompanying who followed them in medieval and modern them in their toil; by sympathizing in their suf­ times, appear to have been excellent people ferings and rejoicing in their successes and in the inherent qualities that make for good their triumphs, we mingle our existence with citizenship and fair repute among their fel­ theirs and seem to belong to their age. We be­ lowmen. Their sons who came to the early come their contemporaries, live the lives which American colonies, and, in turn, their prog­ they lived, endure what they endured and partake eny here, were made of such virile stuff that in the rewards which they enjoyed ••• Tbere may be, the stock progressively preserved its own and there often is, a regard for posterity which hereditary integrity, while battling with the only disguises an habitual avarice or bides the many diverse conditions it encountered in the working of a low and groveling vanity. But there New World, and after admixture by marriage is also a moral and philosophical respect £or our with many other stocks, both to its advantage ancestors which elevates the character and im­ and disadvantage eugenically. Likewise, the proves the heart. Next to t.be sense o.C rel.igion present generations seem to be the equals, at and moral feeling, I hardly know what should bear least, in manhood and womanhood of their his­ a stronger obligation on a liberal and enlightened toric ancestors. The positions of the family mind than a consciousness or alliance with ex­ in English society, that of its members gen­ cellence which is departed; and a consciousness, erally in the American colonies and in the too, that, in its acts and conduct, and even in present era are surprisingly alike. In Eng­ its sentiments, it m~ be actually operating on land the most typical individuals were yoe­ the happiness of those who come after it. men, merchants, churchmen, naval officers and DANIEL WEBSTER artisans. In the colonies, with only one One that is proud of his birth is like a turnip known exception, they were freeman planters, -nothi.Dg good of him but that which is under­ merchants, physicians and clergymen. Today ground. they are largely lawyers, doctors, teachers, S.AYUEL BUTLER military officers, journalists, ministers, -o-o- farm owners and craftsmen--the most substan­ This accoimt of the family that is identi­ tial classes of our people. fied by the surname of 1 Halstead 1 reveals, so It is an interesting question as to what it is believed, that it is, and has been for extent, if at all, physical and mental char­ the seven himdred years over which its history acteristics, good and bad, such as have been can be traced, an intelligent, enlightened, traced in other families, persist· consistent- ambitious, energetic and worthy body of peo­ ly in any considerable Il'l;lI!lber of the Halsteads ple. The individuals belonging to it are from generation to generation and from branch generally conser~ative in caste of mind to branch. Some maintain that many of them, and stable in moral character. As a rule, even those of widely separated lineage, look they are robust of body, often large in sta­ and act something alike. Do the pictures in ture and healthy and long-lived. While no this book of the individuals of different exalted figures have arisen from them to groups and generations exhibit unmistakable arouse boastful conceit, a goodly number of breed resemblances? Does the temperamentally the Halstead men and women are justly cele­ aggressive, six-foot male with square shoul­ brated for achievement. In all the walks of ders, blue-gray eyes, white skin and brown life in which they have been placed, most of hair, that is so common among the descendants the Halsteads have lived successfully, use- of John and Reuben Halstead, occur re~ularly ii.i FOREWOBD iv in other branches? A woman of the family steads and with Halstead descendants of other writes the author that the handwriting of his names everywhere. signature is strikingly similar to that of The oddities of expression, and the poor the signatures of many other Halstead men she spelling and punctuation in the quoted writ­ has seenl Is there a pure-bred type of the ings of the early Halsteads,-and in the docu­ Halstead "homo sapiens", male and female, and, ments to which they were parties, are not if so, what are they? Until someone charts indicative of any less degree of literacy on and analyses a sufficient number of specimens their part in such matters than of the people to determine the matter, who can tell? of their own class and of the times generally. Everything of an important and interesting These irregularities abound in all the writ­ nature learned about the Halsteads in the ings of their time. At the end of the course of this study of them has been incor­ Eighteenth Century, only about half the adult porated in the manuscript without conscious people could sign their own names. Grammar bias or emphasis. Luckily, the horse-thief and orthography were not standardized or a few generations back, which, according to stressed in education then as they are today. the old yarn, a genealogical explorer must It is usually impossible to avoid errors always be prepared to find, did not appear in and omissions in a family history, especial­ this case. No Halstead was ever hung, al­ ly in its first publication, such.as this one though one who was a blood-thirsty pirate, as is. No other general account 0f the Halsteads will be seen, narrowly escaped that fate. If has ever been prepared or published. Such a a Halstead was ever convicted of a felonious record has to be perfected by the additional crime, no record of it was found. The only researches which it inspires. Full care as deliberate omission of facts has been in the to accuracy has been exercised, involving case of several Halstead soldiers in the much painstaking labor. Nevertheless, errors early wars, who were marked as deserters in doubtless will be detected, but it is confi­ the military records. Not only was desertion dently expected that they will meet with in­ common then, being one 0£ the most di££icult dulgence, in the light of the obvious di££i­ conditions the authorities had to deal with, culties of the task. It was not possible to but that record was often made when the cause bring every part of it up-to-date in rela­ of nn 1nniviclrncil's t.r:>mprYr:i-ry :ih~PnCP f-rom t.hP. tion t.o t.hr:> timr:> o~ publication.