The Best Family of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania by Robert MacAndrew Best 5100 S. Cleveland Ave, 318-325 Fort Myers, FL 33907 August 2005 – 1 – Table of Contents Page Foreward 3 Chapter 1 Summary of the Life of James Best 7 Chapter 2 The Bests in History 9 Chapter 3 James Best the Immigrant and Catherine Cruson 15 Chapter 4 Children of James and Catherine 26 Mary Best p 26 Elias Best p 28 John Best p 33 Jacob Best p 37 James Best Jr. p 40 Peter Best p 41 Catherine Best p 42 Samuel Best p 43 Jane Best p 43 Chapter 5 Robert Cruson Best, Sr. and his descendants 44 Appendix I Family Tree Charts 64 Appendix II Will of James Best Sr. 68 Appendix III Records of Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church 69 Appendix IV The story of Joseph and Jacob Best 72 Appendix V James Bests in Colonial America 74 Appendix VI Arguments 79 Appendix VII Best Family Legends 90 Appendix VIII The Cruson Family 95 Appendix IX Sources 98 Appendix X German Bests in Westmoreland County, Pa. 113 Appendix XI Genealogies of Unrelated Bests 115 Appendix XII Maps of land owned by Bests in West. Co. PA 123 – 2 – Foreward Nature must endow us with a kernel of strong motivation directed toward family matters that ensures survival of the species. As a result, we are much more indulgent toward family members than we would be toward strangers. While writing this book I phoned many distant third and fourth cousins who gave me generously of their time, because I was family, even though a minute earlier I had been a stranger. This kernel of motivation has pushed me to search out the roots of the Best family that have been buried for two centuries. After I began writing and calling my distant cousins and leaving my name and address at historical societies where other genealogy buffs could find it, I unexpectedly encountered a network of people who were all descended from the same ancestor I was. Each person in this network told me about still other people in the network. It was only then that I learned of the legends of James Best and Catherine Cruson that had not been passed down through my branch of the family. This network led me to genealogist Helen Brodine who during the 1950’s had collected a large – 3 – amount of unpublished material on the Bests, mostly by writing dozens of letters to elderly cousins, some of who were into genealogy and had collected material from earlier generations. It was my good fortune to have reached Helen only a few days before she died. Her son Ernest then permitted me to make photo copies of her files which included more than 300 family group sheets and 2000 descendants of James Best. This priceless material might have been lost forever had I waited only one more week before calling her. I have added more than 1000 names to the 2000 collected by Helen Brodine and have sent these names and family group data to the Mormons who have included them on their Ancestral File. I never would have begun this book if I had known how much time would be spent on it. It started as a few pages of notes I gathered as a teenager and letters from my late aunt Lucy. Like a crossword puzzle fanatic, I couldn’t put it down until the next, then the next, then the next gap in the story was searched out. Once you get infected with this genealogy bug, the sicker you get the more you enjoy it, and I have indeed enjoyed it. And it has changed my life in ways I could not have foreseen. When I began this book I was a confirmed old bachelor and had long ago given up on marriage and children. Likewise my brother David and Sheila his wife had decided not to have any children. But after I began digging through the records of other people’s families and tracing the growth of their children through the years, I began to feel an emptiness in my life that only a family could fill. One thing led to another and now I have a wife and daughter. I am very happy with the results of this exercise in “applied genealogy”. But family matters are infectious. After I sent baby pictures to my brother every few months, he and his wife changed their minds about having children. And so our branches of the family tree that were close to becoming extinct, have sprouted new branches. Robert M. Best – 4 – HEREDITY Somebody labored years ago Whose name I do not know, Who ploughed the ground or sailed the sea And loved a maiden That I might be. Two centuries ago or more A woman at an English door Looked fondly at a lilac tree And passed that bit of pride to me. One stood enraptured when she heard The music of a singing bird. And now, with each returning spring, I find I do the self same thing. Could we untangle all our lives And learn how much in us survives, We might discover just how far Goes back that makes us what we are. Edgar Guest PLEA TO AN ANCESTOR Ancestor, Ancestor, why be elusive, When all that I seek is of you proof conclusive? Your birth date, the place, the time of your passing, Your wedding, with whom? That’s all I am asking. I spy and I pry into family tradition. Old letters I read - they’re in awful condition! Court records were burned in the War (as you know). To graveyards in brambles and briers I oft’ go. Somewhere and somehow I’ll find you one day, With “preponderance of evidence” as we like to say. Then, Eureka! Rejoice! I’ll write me a book. I’ll cite all my sources, be you gentle or crook. So help me, do please; neither shy nor coy be. I wish I could send you an S.A.S.E. Winston De Ville Ville Platte, LA – 5 – NO FOOTPRINTS IN THE SANDS OF TIME or Oh, For a Court Record on Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa It’s nice to come from gentle folk Who wouldn’t stoop to brawl Who never took a lusty poke At anyone at all, Who never raised a raucous shout At any country inn Or calmed an ugly fellow lout With a belaying pin, Who never shot a revenuer Hunting for a still, Who never rustled cattle and Were pleased with uncle’s will, Who lived their lives out as they ought, With no uncouth distractions, And shunned like leprosy the thought Of taking legal actions. It’s nice to come from gentle folk Who’ve never known disgrace. But oh, though scandal is no joke, It’s easier to trace. Virginia Scott Miner “Those who do not treasure up the memory of their ancestors, do not deserve to be remembered by Posterity.” Edmund Burke – 6 – Chapter 1 Summary of the Life of James Best The Best family whose history is recorded here are descended from James Best a Scotch-Irish immigrant from England who was born 1740-1750 in Ireland or England. He was about 18 years younger than George Washington and about seven years younger than Thomas Jefferson. On July 6, 1773 at an age between 23 and 27 James sailed for America from the Port of London, England on a sailing vessel the Snow Sally and landed at Philadelphia on August 31, 1773. James and 60 other servants were indentured to the ship’s Captain Stephen Jones in lieu of money for travel fare. To be indentured was to be a slave for a fixed term. James Best’s term of indenture was 3 years. James was sold for 15 British Pounds by Captain Jones on September 18, 1773 to David Rittenhouse the famous clock maker and astronomer of Philadelphia. Rittenhouse had a successful clock making business near Philadelphia and was a friend of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. There lived nearby a teenage girl named Catherine Cruson, of Holland Dutch descent. The Cruson family was wealthy according to family legend. James Best and Catherine Cruson ran away together in late 1773 or early 1774 and Catherine became pregnant in March 1774. Their first child Mary Best was born on December 11, 1774 in Pennsylvania. It seems likely that Catherine and her baby stayed with relatives in Philadelphia while James was away during the Revolutionary War. Although Best family legend says James Best was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and was captured by the British, in fact no record has been found of James’s activities during the war, either on the American side or the British side. James may have been recorded under a variant spelling of Best such as Bast, Bess, Byst, Baest, etc. thus making him difficult to trace. After the war, James and Catherine were reunited after being separated for four years or more. They traveled west up the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers to a wilderness settlement near present-day McAlisterville, Pennsylvania where James’s unmarried brother? Samuel Best had become a private in the Pennsylvania militia in March 1778 and a frontier ranger. McAlisterville was then in Cumberland County and both Samuel and James Best appear in the Cumberland County tax roll for 1779. Catherine became pregnant again and James and Catherine’s second child Elias Best was born in early 1780. In 1779 James Best owned 2 horses and a cow but no land.