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Roots and Migrations What do we know about where
our family’s ancestors came from, when they came to this country, and
how and when they ended up in Michigan? (We know a great deal about some
branches of the family before they came to the New World, but that is
written up in other places.) How does the history of our family fit in
with the history of the United States? What was happening in different
branches of the family at certain points in time? EUROPEAN ORIGINS We can trace
ancestors to a number of European countries: England (Hawkins, Porter, Champlin, *Compton, *Hutchinson)
Switzerland (Stauffer *Hefflefinger, *Zug, *Shupp)
Germany (Moneysmith,,
*Diefenbach, Weiss/Wise) Holland (*Post) Ireland
(Sullivan) Scotland (Huntley) *Married early into another family line. For a long time we could only
suspect that two major branches of the family, the Hawkinses and
the Porters, came from England, but we didn’t have
records to confirm it. Now in 2011 we have records for both these
families going back to at least 1000 A.D.! EARLIEST ARRIVALS 17th Century We can trace more than one of
our family lines back to the days of the Puritans and the earliest
settlements in New England. · In 1630, John and Roseanna Porter arrived with several of their fourteen children as part of a huge migration with the Massachusetts Bay Company. A Huntley ancestral mother was born in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. · Edward and Anne Hutchinson with their large family arrived in New England in 1634. ·
The first Jeffrey Champlin moved to Roger
Williams’ Rhode Island (1636
or after), where his descendants lived for many generations. · John Clark Hawkins came to America in 1651 and settled in Virginia. 18th Century · Johann Conrad Diefenbach came to the New World with his wife and their first two children between 1705 and 1708. · In September 1727, the Zug family arrived from Switzerland. ·
The Stauffers arrived in the American colonies
in the later 1730s when
George Washington was a boy. ·
The Hefflefingers
came over from Switzerland in 1740. ·
Between 1747 and 1753,
Johann Adam Weiss with his wife and
the first of seven children came from Hessen, Germany, and settled in
central Maryland. ·
Christian Mahnenschmidt came from Germany
between 1715 and 1720 and settled in PA. ·
In 1753 German
John Heinrich Shupp
arrived in Pennsylvania. ·
We know that Squibbs were being born in
Pennsylvania as early as 1761. ·
Comptons > Orange County in the Hudson Valley of New York; one died
in the war. ·
James Hawkins > just across the river in
Dutchess County, New York ·
Porters
>
western Connecticut; one fought in the war. ·
Stauffers, Hefflefingers, Zugs
> just west of Philadelphia; as Mennonites, they did not fight in the
war. ·
Mahnenschmidts
> in Berks Co., north of Philadelphia ·
Champlins > still in Rhode Island ·
Diefenbaches > east central Pennsylvania; one fought in the war. When I first wrote this, we knew
of only two families who were in the colonies by the time of the
Revolution (Comptons and
Stauffers). Now we know of
these and a few lesser lines.
MICHIGAN BEGINNINGS Meanwhile, Michigan had been a
battle ground between European powers and a pawn in the conflicts of
war. It was explored first by the French but later controlled by the
British. Both groups built forts to defend the area, but neither made an
effort to develop settlements. The British prized the territory for its
valuable fur resources. In fact, Michigan was one of the “trophies”
fought over in the French and Indian Wars in the mid-1700s. At the close
of that war, the French lost the area to the British. At the end of the Revolution a
quarter of a century later, the area—on paper at least—was part of
the “Northwest Territory” that the British had to relinquish in the
treaty settlement with the newly independent Americans. FIRST SET OF
MIGRATIONS – Leaving the Colonial Tidewater With the opening of more western lands to settlement in the decades following the War, our predecessors joined the migrations away from the eastern seaboard and toward the frontier. 19th Century ·
Jeffrey and Ellis Champlin were both born in
Rhode Island around the turn of
the century, but very soon after, both their families moved to
eastern New York. ·
Also at the turn of the century, the Huntleys
moved from Connecticut to New York. · In 1805 the Stauffers moved from Pennsylvania to eastern Canada (Stauffer History). ·
Curtis Porter,
who had been born in western Connecticut, was married at age 19 in
Hamilton, New York, in 1811. ·
William Compton Jr. and family moved from Orange
County NY west to the southwest Finger Lakes area between 1812
and 1818. ·
In the early 1800s,
the Hawkins family moved from eastern New York to Yates
County on the northwest side of the Finger Lakes, just north of the
Comptons. · While Henry Moneysmith’s son William was born in Pennsylvania in 1824, William’s son Emery was born in Ohio in 1847. ·
In 1851,
following a few years in Pennsylvania, the Wise
family moved to Ohio. ·
The Sullivans
didn’t come over (to Canada) until 1861.
SECOND SET OF
MIGRATIONS– Heading for Michigan Though the British had in theory
given the Michigan territories over to the Americans after the
Revolution, they continued to ply the fur trade. Eventually, the
Americans did gain practical control, and the area was opened up for
settlement. The opening of the Erie Canal in
1825, through central New York from Albany to Buffalo, contributed
greatly to efforts to settle the areas beyond. We know that the Porters
used the canal for their move to Michigan, and it is possible others in
New York did also (Champlins?
Hawkinses? Wells?). In 1837, Michigan became the 18th
state. Meanwhile, the early 1800s
had found the … ·
Porters in central New York ·
Comptons in western New York ·
Stauffers in Ontario ·
Before 1800, our Diefenbachs
had by marriage become Shupes. ·
From our scant information on Charles Wells
who married Hannah Compton, we know his parents were American born (PA and CT) and
by 1814 the family was in
northwest PA. ·
Between 1826 and
1843, the Huntley
family had ten children in four states, the last in Mich. ·
James Hawkins died in Steuben County, NY, in 1839. ·
Jeffrey Champlin’s daughter Delilah (who would
marry a Porter) was born in Delaware County in eastern New York in 1839.
·
Harrison Hawkins,
James’s great-grandson who would marry Delilah’s granddaughter, was
born in Yates Co., New York, in the early 1840s.
Within a decade of each other in
the middle of the century, several branches of the family began making
their way to Michigan and other locations westward. ·
Curtis Porter with his wife and 15-year-old son
George set out from Hamilton NY in 1847
(following the footsteps of an older son)
and ended in Grand Rapids. ·
David Hawkins, son of James and grandfather of
Harrison, was in the Jackson area of Michigan for the 1850 census. ·
By 1852, our Squibbs
were settled in Noble County in northeastern Indiana. ·
In 1854 the Wells
family (Hannah Compton and husband Charles) with their four daughters
moved from Painted Post NY to Grand Rapids, Michigan. ·
Also in 1854,
Abraham G. Stauffer, grandson of the Abraham Stauffer who
went to Canada, along with his wife Magdalena Shupe,
left Ontario and moved to the Grand Rapids area. Several of his siblings
did the same. ·
In the 1850 census, the Champlin family
was listed in Delaware County NY, but in 1855
Delilah married George Porter
in Michigan (Grand Rapids area). ·
Meanwhile, the Mahnenschmidts
descendants, now with several different versions of the name, fanned out
into various Ohio counties, the Moneysmiths finding their way to Van
Wert County. ·
Between 1865 and 1866,
the Sullivans moved from
Canada to northern Indiana. BRINGING THEM
TOGETHER By the time the Civil War began,
all the major Michigan branches of the family were in place, all but one
in or around Grand Rapids; the Hawkins were in Jackson County. The
Moneysmiths, Squibbs, and Sullivans were in northern Indiana. The first marriage to begin
uniting those branches took place eight years after their arrivals in
Michigan when
Samuel
Stauffer
married Roxy Wells in 1865. 20th Century In the early 20th Century, George Porter died the same year
that Mont Hawkins had a life-changing experience that led him to spend
the rest of his life as a minister of the Gospel. In the first decade of the new century, Jacob and Minnie Moneysmith had
four children (one died in infancy). In the second decade, Mont Hawkins attended Bible school, took his first
pastorate, and met his life partner in Fern Porter. By the time of the Great Depression, the Sullivans were gone, as well as
Minnie Moneysmith (the last Squibb), and Esther Porter (the last
Stauffer), and Florence Hawkins Waite (the last Huntley). Finally, a third of the way into
the 20th century, Virgil
Moneysmith and Esther Hawkins tied
all the branches together
by marrying each other. Looking at it another way… Hutchinson>Champlin>Porter Diefenbach>Shupe>Stauffer>Porter Hefflefinger>Zug>Stauffer>Porter Post>Compton>Wells>Stauffer>Porter>Hawkins Mahnenschmidt>Moneysmith [?] Sullivan>Squibb>Moneysmith Huntley>Hawkins Wise>Moneysmith>Hawkins Hawkins>Moneysmith! |