CUSHMAN GENEALOGY AND GENERAL HISTORY Including THE DESCENDANTS OF THE PAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, AND MONONGALIA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, FAMILIES. By ALVAH WALFORD BURT Cs ALVAH W. BURT Author and Compiler "'THDRAWM 3031 Temple Avenue Frnm +k_ r- Westwood T?™ Fam"y Cincinnati, Ohio nisrory Library 1942 GENEALOGICAL DEPARTMENT CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS Press of WM. MITCHELL PRINTING COMPANY Greenfield, Indiana 1942 ALVAH WALFORD BURT Dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother EJIILY PRANCES CUSHMAN BURT "0 ye, who proudly boast, In your free veins, the blood of Sires like these, Look to their lineaments. Dread lest ye loose Their likeness in your sons. Turn ye to Plymouth Sock, and where they knelt, Kneel and renew the vow they breathed to God." —SlGOURNEY. APPRECIATION The publication of this volume has been possible only through the assistance and cooperation of many, and to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, for without their assistance I feel I would have failed. I, therefore, desire to express a pre-word of appreciation and sincere thanks to all those who have so kindly in person, in conference, correspondence, contribution, and permission to use and to quote : First—To my beloved wife, Ida Keaten Burt, then to : Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass. Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York City, N. Y. New England Historical & Genealogical Society (Register), Boston, Mass. Messrs. Houghton-Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass. John Grant, Booksellers, Ltd., Edinburgh, Scotland. Mrs. Estella M. Shroyer (sister of the author), Lake Park, Iowa. Mr. Theodore Parker Adams, Plymouth, Mass. Miss Jessica Ferguson, Genealogical Librarian, State Li­ brary and Museum, Harrisburg, Pa. Prof. Oren E. Frazee, LaCrosse, Wis. Mrs. Dicie F. Donley, Carmichaels, Pa. Mis. Mary Bolander & Family, Fortville, Ind. Mr. Ernst Wynn, R, F. D., Danville, III. Miss Dea Carter, Danville, 111. Miss Carmine Collier, Murfreesboro, Tenn. Mrs. Mary Cushman Donnell, R. F. D., Greensburg, Ind. Mr. William W. Garlow, Maidsville, W. Va. Miss Cora L. Garlow, Maidsville, W. Va. Mrs. Frances Dixon Ball Goggin, Germantown, Ky. Mrs. Annie M. Hiday, Inglewood, Calif. Mrs. Dayse Whitecotton Proctor, Kansas City, Mo. Mrs. Rosa E. Pence, Rossville, 111. Miss Anna Rose Pence, Rossville, 111. Mr. Jouett M. Hoffman, Mt. Sterling, Ky. Mrs. Clara Lane. Mrs. Henry Lloyd, Lexington, Ky. s CUSHMAN GENEALOCÏY AND GENERAL HISTORY Clara Jane Lane, Ottumwa, Iowa. Mrs. Lenore Chumlea Jones, West Lafayette, Ind. Mr. Ralph Burdsal Woodmansee, Cincinnati, Ohio. Mrs. Ivanilla Dunham Ball, Clinton, 111. Mrs. Michael J. Gibbons, Dayton, Ohio. Mrs. Emza H. Godsey, Anderson, Ind. I also wish to express a kindly and appreciative thought for the many library attendants who have extended me service and courtesy; also to the various state house, county court house and town record clerks, in the different localities of the United States, who so cheerfully assisted me in my search for material needed. The following abbreviations at times are used : B. born, M. married, D. death, @ at, C. child or children, Abt. about. INTRODUCTION To MY READERS : A much better understanding of the purpose and intent of tliis work will be had by taking time to carefully read this foreword. On page one of Henry Wyles Cushman's "Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans" he starts with: "Robert Cushman, the ancestor of all the Cushmans in the United States, was born in England" etc.; and further, on page 85 in footnote No. 3 he writes: "From Thomas Cush­ man and his wife, Mary, and their descendants have come all the Cushmans in the United States; they are therefore of full blood Puritan stock, both their paternal and maternal an­ cestors having been among the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth." Throughout the generations our descent from Robert Cush­ man has been regarded and esteemed a family heritage, and in my own family it has been taught with studious and dili­ gent care, almost religious care. Tn my early childhood I re­ call the devotion of my mother to instill into my young mind and that of my brother and sisters, the value of the Cushman birthright and heritage that was ours. At an early date in life I recognized the neglect of our branch of the family to have in print and record these facts concerning us from the sixth generation on, as there seemed to be no publication of Cushman general history after the year 1855. The clear and broad knowledge with the unusual ability to tell of our history, possessed by the brother of our beloved mother, Melandez Woodmansee Cushman, found in mc a ready listener with an eager ear, which in after years, when I found myself in retirement from active business pursuits, caused me to feel that in this knowledge of family history there was excellent worth and value for the generations from the Sixth on down to the present (which in some instances is the four­ teenth generation) I began to feel it a duty slowly developing into a determination, to try to compile the old and accepted 10 CUSHMAN GENEALOGY AND GENERAL HISTORY historical facts relating to the Cushmans, and as nearly as possible to obtain the names and other vital statistics neces­ sary for a genealogical record, together with such biographical features of interest as available for me, for the purpose of making a printed record of Cushman history and genealogy ; adding to this such photography as possible for me to secure which I felt would assist in completing my work in book form in the belief that it would strengthen morale, build character, and be of more than usual worth and value to the Cushmans of the present and the future. Therefore, with intrepid spirit and a seeming uncontrollable and unconquerable desire to correct in some manner the neg­ lect of the past by others in not having made and put in printed and proper record form, our lineal descent from Rob­ ert Cushman, I have devoted myself seriously to investigation, photographing features of Cushman interest, traveling to confirm the things I had heard, and slowly and surely com­ piling for print that which I considered a reasonably depend­ able record of our branch of the Cushman family. In recording and making of copy I have endeavored to make my record and copy as free of error as possible ; also, I have hoped that the spelling of given names as furnished me might be free from error and that birth dates, marriages and death dates were free as well. Tn copying family records from old-family-records and books where there were several children in a family, a slight mistake is not only possible but very easy to make in the day of the month and even in the correct spell­ ing of a given name ; however, I have given special care when­ ever doubt arose concerning either, to seek and secure satisfy­ ing evidence concerning the doubt and to establish the facts. With all this care it is likely that in some instance a name may have been mis-spelled or the exact day of a month not absolutely correct. In view of my radical departure from the form or style and abbreviations usually employed by writers, authors and pub­ lishers of genealogical work, I may have invited severe criti­ cism from the professional. Here in this work I have made record up to the fourteenth generation in some families, and have found so many Roberts, Thomases and Isaacs and have CUSHMAN GENEALOGY AND GENERAL HISTORY 11 further noticed in some families the use of the same given- first-name through three successive generations, that should the name happen to have been George, there would have been quite a few Georges and confusing as to which George was meant when the name was pronounced or written ; therefore, I felt the necessity of giving to each a definite expression of relationship to parentage, so that in tracing back there could be no mistake made as to just which George and to which family some certain George belonged. If in doing so I transgress your ethical sense of custom and propriety, I trust my attempt to clarify and eliminate doubt will compensate and assuage your irritation. In my desire to establish our line of descent from Robert Cushman, I discovered the effort made by others to correct the error printed in the Historical and Biographical Genealogy of the Cushmans, by Henry "VVyles Cushman, which effort estab­ lished the existence of Thomas Cushman, the grandson of Elder Thomas Cushman, which resulted through research of James Thomas Cushman and Theodore Parker Adams. Through correspondence with Mr. Theodore P. Adams, A. B., of Plymouth, Mass., I found that Thomas Cushman, son of Elder Thomas Cushman, who first married Ruth Howland, and secondly Abigail Fuller, did have a son named Thomas, which fact was confirmed from existing records, and in further correspondence with Mr. Adams he suggested to me that most likely we belonged to the Lebanon, Conn., branch. After re­ flecting upon the fact that my great-grandfather, Isaac Cush­ man, with his elder brother Thomas, did come down to Mo­ nongalia County, Va., and Fayette County, Penn., from Essex County, New Jersey, it was easy to trace back through to Lebanon, New London County, verifying the suggestion of Mr. Adams. Then making contact with the descendants of Thomas Cush­ man, the elder brother of my great-grandfather, a few fam­ ilies, the descendants of Thomas, now living in eastern Ken­ tucky, in Mason County and Fleming County, and these de­ scendants having established their descent from the Lebanon branch, and they having been admitted to membership in both the Society of the Mayflower and also in the Daughters 12 CUSHMAN GENEALOGY AND GENERAL HISTORY J?tto «Englanb ^iátorit «genealoaítal ê>rjcíttj> 9 AsHBURTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS.