A 19th-Century Religious Enthusiast and His Memoirs

A Sketch of the Life and Travels of Elder Andrew Jackson Norton

My great-grandfather Ernest John Andrews was researching his great-grandfather Asa Norton in 1924 and came across this account of the life of Andrew Jackson Norton, one of his mother’s cousins. I cannot find a copy of the original; what I inherited was a photocopy of a typewritten transcript. I copied it word-for-word but changed the punctuation to make it more readable and added paragraph breaks. He rarely used punctuation at all, and when he did, often it was in the wrong place; sometimes I have left it as he wrote it to give the flavor of his style. Anything in square brackets was inserted by me. Ernest J. Andrews was a careful and thorough genealogist and found evidence that proves some of what Andrew Jackson Norton says about his father’s family is incorrect; my notes at the end explain where the errors are and what the records prove to be true. It is not surprising that he made errors; both his parents were dead by the time he was seven years old, and most of his siblings were also dead. From the little he wrote, it seems that when he was a young man he was not much interested in knowing family details. But the things that occupied his thoughts were quite interesting enough.

Hampton, November 25, 1873.

My grandfather, Stephen Norton, was born in the State of New York near the city in the year 1755; his wife, two years younger, was born in 1757. Both of English descent, they were married in the year 1776. They settled near the city on 160 acres of land and remained there till the year 1815. He sold his farm for four thousand dollars, removed to and settled in Ohio, near where Springfield now stands, with the view of helping his children, five boys and three girls. They all married but two.

The eldest, Asa [see note 1], was in merchandise in the city for several years; when the War of Twelve broke out, he enlisted and served with honor as a quartermaster general. My Father was the next—Benjamin Franklin Norton [see note 2] and Reuben were rather weakly. They were educated and graduated at the Yale College with honor, received their diplomas and proved very successful in the practice of medicine. My Father bought a tax title to six hundred and forty acres of land, a soldier claim, four of them built there and Father and Grandfather built a mill on a stream; the dam washed out, they rebuilt, and the mill dam and all washed out soon, and the heirs to the land came on, they paid again, other heirs claimed, they lawed them till they spent nearly all they had and had to pay twice more, then sold it to two of my uncles for four horses and two wagons.

Father and Grandfather drove to the Ohio River, shipped aboard a family boat for Illinois going down the Ohio River, landed on the Kentucky side opposite Vevy, Indiana where I was born in the year 1818, March the 13th. They crossed over to Vevy and lived there till fall, then moved west to a town called Washington, where mother died the next March, leaving five living children, four boys and a girl [see note 3]. There were seven boys dead, one fell on a knife—it entered his brain, one drowned, one scalded. We were scattered. My father’s sister Lydia Goodrich that never had any children to live took me to raise as one of her own [see note 4].

My father married again when I was five years old. By this union he had one son and he died in the town of Palmyra, Illinois. At his death I was seven years old. My Grandfather Stephen Norton lost nearly all his property by sickness and bad luck and died when I was three years old [1821]. His wife died the next year [1822].

My uncle [Goodrich] settled in Crawford County, Illinois, fifteen miles above Vincennes, Indiana. The settlers were few and far between. Very little schooling could I get, my uncle paying nine dollars per quarter, I going two or three days and staying at home to work. He was born and brought up in the State of Vermont near Montpelier with sufficient education to teach schools. He taught me more at home than I received at school. He and me read the Bible through before I was twelve years old. I read aloud he correcting me, they kept me very strict and moral not allowing me to swear nor practice any bad habits. They were kind and corrected me often as I no doubt needed it. I had to bow to and reverence older persons and be attentive to and respectful to all religious assemblies, they being Predestinarian Baptist.

My parents and grandparents on both sides were of that order. My father and grandfather on my mother’s side were both ordained ministers, also an older brother but I cared for none of those things—had I been permitted would have spent much time in worldly amusements, till I was in my twentieth year in the month of December.

While at school in the evening we were told to inform all we saw that Elder R.N. Newport would preach at that house at candlelight, it being a Predestinarian Baptist house built of hewed logs. Was a good house of the kind, it was used for schools also; as we left the house my cousin and chum said, “Uncle Dick has come again and he will catch a good many this time.” I said I did not know how many he would catch but one thing I did know, he would not catch me. Three of us returned with young ladies to see and to be seen, caring not for spiritual things as our natural minds could not discern them. We would not have exchanged conditions with any professor present, thinking we was as good and even better than some, but had respect to age and then as a religious assembly.

About the middle of the discourse there was something came over me that I could not account for, similar to electricity, that opened my eyes to behold myself a greater sinner. I had from a small boy believed I was a sinner and intended when settled in life to reform and God would pardon and I would be saved. I know I felt the force of Paul’s language to the Ephesians: you hath he quickened [Ephesians 2:1] the eyes of your understanding being enlightened [Ephesians 1:18]. I now could feel as well as see that I was a sinner.

I did not want anyone to know what had occurred and tried to be lively but before I had gone one and a quarter miles I left my company and went into the secret grove, there tried to pray for the first time in my life that God to give me an ease of mind, expecting by prayer and reformation to appease the wrath of God, but all my tears, prayers and reformations brought no relief. Christ says, “Ask and ye shall receive.” I began to wonder and enquire for the cause I read the thoughts of foolishness is sin, and I think foolish all of the time. Christ said, “from the heart proceeds all manner of evil” [see Luke 6:45]. Oh what shall I do or whither flee to escape the vengeance done to me. I then wandered alone in the secret grove and tried to pray in many secluded spots, my prayers to be a chattering noise so mixed with sin and evil thoughts that a thrice holy God would not deign to hear.

I thought the Lord would hear the holy man of God, a faithful minister in my behalf, this failed also. I had a dream that showed my doom. I visited my only sister and a brother fifteen miles distant to bid them farewell, could not enjoy their company and returned the next day, expecting to die on the road. When I got home I thought I would go to a secluded spot and try to pray once more. I dared not kneel and wandered to where no mortal eye could see. I knelt, in the midst of my petition heard a noise behind me and I sprang to my feet, saw a wounded deer and dog close to it. I knew it must die and the dog ready to kill it, yet it had no soul to suffer forever. I would have gladly exchanged conditions with it or anyone of the brute creation.

I returned and went to see a brother, distant half mile, having no idea of living to see the sun rise again, while hearing them sing “Amazing Grace” my breath seemed to grow shorter. I thought I was breathing my last, but Oh what a miracle of grace for as they sang “tis grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home,” as quick as thought my trouble left me; I could read my title clear to [a] mansion above; I could shout for joy, could have embraced my enemy and pointed to Jesus’ blood and said, “Behold the way to God.”

I was foolish enough to think I could convert others, but when I tried I failed. I now say it was by grace I was saved, and not by works. I thought my trouble all over, felt like I could fly, but in less than an hour the Devil told me, You have dreamed or imagined it, it may be you are mistaken, for Christians are changed soul and body, think no evil, do no wrong, you had better not tell it yet for three days and two nights.

I tried to get my trouble back and mourned because I could not mourn, as I did before, being greatly troubled as the sun went down; while all alone the Lord appeared or lifted upon me the light of his reconciled countenance. I clapped my hands for joy and said I never will doubt it again, but Oh how far short have I come of keeping the ordinance blameless before God. I often doubted having met the necessary change; two days after the above occurred I told the Little Village Church a few of the dealings of the Lord with me and was received and baptized by Elder Thomas Young. I lived a very happy life and not feeling willing at any time for years to lay down to sleep without returning thanks to God and asking his protecting care.

In the year 1839, December 19th I united in wedlock with Miss Mary Ann Jeffers, in Jessamine County, Kentucky. She was born there in December 19, 1818. She was the eldest daughter of Elder Robert Jeffers, former resident of Henry County, Kentucky, but at the above date a resident of Crawford County, Illinois, near where I was raised. We commenced keeping house one week after our marriage in a house on my uncle’s land. I worked at the carpenter and joiner trade. I had learned of it of my uncle who was a first class workman. I had studied considerable but being poor was not able to graduate and get a diploma and resolved to gain a living at my trade which I did principally for thirty two years.

At the birth of our eldest, a son, my wife remained almost helpless for eight months. She was in trouble of mind similar to the way I described my trouble and when not expected to live; she raised up in bed to tell me she was dying in her sins, but the Lord moved her load of sin at that moment and instead of saying she was dying in her sins, she clapped her hands for joy and said, “The Lord has forgiven me all my sins.” We then were very happy.

The Devil soon made her believe that she was mistaken, telling her she was so low and weak that she imagined it. She was not changed at this time. Elder T. Young the pastor of our church called to see her and asked her to give a relation of her hope in Christ. She said she had none. He laughed. She thought he was wicked for laughing at her condition, but Christ revealed himself again, and she could tell what the Lord had done and as soon as she was able, she told some of the exercises of her mind to the Little Village Church and she was received and baptized by Elder T. Young.

I was then very happy and thought my troubles over, but Oh many troubles have I seen since.

In June 1841 I was engaged all alone framing timber in the woods and thinking of my brother’s qualifications for a minister, who the church had licensed to preach a few days before. I wondered if the Lord had called him up to preach. I could not see any signs of a preacher in him and could see more qualifications in many of my acquaintances and even more in myself than in him. While exalting myself about him the Lord spoke to me with such force that it rang in my ears for weeks, that I heard little else nor cared for nothing but to erase it from my mind in the following words: “Thou shalt also preach the gospel: be instant in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke with all long suffering and doctrine, and then see which will be beloved of the Brethren.”

I was then ready to acknowledge the Lord knew best and perfectly willing he [my brother] should preach or anyone but me at that time. I had a wife and one child, and scarcely anything but my daily labor for their support, and preaching salvation by grace was then, as now, not popular, and my family would suffer. That I could not bear, so I thought I would engage in steady business and work it off, but it only gave momentary relief. I prayed God to remove my trouble and send someone else, but alas! no relief could I get; it pressed me with such weight that I could not live and bear it any longer. I must preach or die. Oft it would ring in my ears: “Preach the word, preach the preaching I bid.” I was like Moses, slow of speech and stammering tongue, so unworthy, unqualified in every sense it looked like, almost burying my family, and to go and preach! I finally prayed the Lord to give me an ease of mind till I could gain by honest labor five hundred dollars, then I could with my labor support my family and preach some; then I would submit.

After this my mind was not weighted so great, was more easy at times, but when I was at meeting, or I could not stay away, I could not leave without saying a few words. I seemed I would die if I did not face my mind; the church granted me license to preach or exercise my gift wherever God in his providence cast my lot, [and] the Lord prospered me or blessed my labor so that I owned forty six acres of heavy timbered land. I built a comfortable log house, cleared fifteen acres, and I remained there until May 1846 when I moved to Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin.

[There] I thought I would not let anyone know I was a professor [of religion] and I could work it off, for I often thought it was all a whim of the brain, but Elder Jeffers went with me which I did not expect. It annoyed me very much, he would call me up and I would free my mind. We constituted a church of seven members and called it the First Predestinarian Baptist Church of Beloit. The Lord blessed my labors so that I had more than I had asked and yet was not ready in the fall of 1847. The only horse I had died, soon after the only hog I had of two hundred weight died, soon after all cows I had died. That winter myself and family spent visiting in Crawford County, Illinois, our old home that I yet owned, was at several meetings, returned to Rock County, Wisconsin, March the 7th 1848 still unwilling to obey my Lord.

In the fall of 1849 I had a comfortable home, owed no man anything, had money on interest, felt independent, only spoke in public once in a while. My youngest young son came down with lung fever, was very low, and as soon as he could sit up my elder son was taken with the typhoid fever and he was not expected to live from one hour to another for fifteen days and nights, and when he could sit up my wife was taken sick and her youngest daughter was born. My wife was helpless most of the time for over two years. I sat by her bed at night in my rocking chair where she could touch me. I became so used to her moans and wants that almost every move would wake me. I watched and waited on her for three months and during that time I never took off my clothes to lay down to sleep.

It made me think it was better to obey than to sacrifice and hearken than the fat of rams. I was like Jonah thrown on the shore of the ocean of love nearly destitute. I then moved in February 26, 1851 to Scales Mound in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. I now exercised my gift often in public. I was ordained in June of that year by Elders Robert Jeffers and William Long and Deacon S.V. Allison. I remained there until November and in company with William Conly carried on a wagon and Blacksmith shop. While there I assisted to constitute a church at Carnarecha, Iowa. When I got off the boat at Galena, [I] tried to save a dollar and walked home, twelve miles, and bruised my foot so I done nothing for six weeks.

I then moved to the town of Wayne in La Fayette County, Wisconsin, where I had bought eighty acres of land and improved it. The church we had constituted in Beloit all moved and settled adjoining farms in my neighborhood. We then changed the name from Beloit to Mount Pleasant retaining the Predestinarian. I built a small house of worship and held our meetings regular once or twice a month, also held a prayer meeting once a week, at night in winter at 4 o’clock p.m., for three years at one time without intervention. The church increased in number so that three entire churches and a goodly number of two more have been constituted from members lettered off from it. I remained there seventeen years and traveled in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, and once in Kentucky, preaching at Associations and churches with great success.

The Lord filled my mouth with arguments by his spirit so the gainsayers acknowledged the Lord was with me and the brethren were comforted and strengthened which encouraged me and I continued traveling to fill requests and had I done nothing else could not have filled one half the requests nor can I now. This caused me to trust the Lord for all I needed, working when I could always get plenty to do tried every way to please my employers so I could get work when I needed it and was very lucky in getting my pay, the Lord giving me abundant crops, increasing my herds, blessed me in my basket and in my store in accordance with my faithfulness in what was revealed to be my duty; when I slackened in duty, my comforts lessened in proportion.

To illustrate, I had promised to attend a church meeting 18 miles distant, when the day came to go my wife said I had better stay at home. I knew had better stay at home and I knew I ought to go and felt I ought to stay for my house had to be plastered before cold weather, my plowing had to be done and if I took my only span of horses neither could be forwarded till Monday. I resolved to stay and sent my two boys for a load of sand. When they got in a mile of home one of the wheels mashed down and I could not get it home till I filled the wheel. I sent them after the wheel and they broke the buggy. I told my oldest son to go to plowing—I had a new plow—and he soon broke the beam out. I sent him to digging potatoes and he soon broke the hoe handle, and then I told him to go to bed as he had broke all the tools; it took two days to get where I started in the morning, so I lost more than I had gained. I always lost in like manner when I failed to obey or do as I agreed.

During the seventeen years of my residence in La Fayette County, Wisconsin, I visited many churches in Illinois, distant by rail from one hundred and fifty to two and three hundred miles, from one to four times a year, being absent from two to six weeks at a time. When on one of these tours going from one Association to another I tried to preach at the schoolhouse in Knox County, Illinois, where the Henderson Church held their meetings at two o’clock and Brother Deans at night, the next morning Brother Loverage was taking me ten miles to the train where I was to meet others going to another Association. We had not time to lose, before we had gone one mile I was met two different men in great agony. They requesting me to stop and pray for them one half a mile a part, I spoke comforting to them, told them I was nothing but a man, that the Lord alone could do them good and repeated some of his language: “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst for they shall be filled,” no mistake, he is able, he is willing, doubt no more. I was there requested to stay a week for they believed the Lord was with me. I told them the Lord could work over the head of all opposition and would bring the blind by a way they knew not and paths they never knew when the appointed time came.

My duties called me hence; had a pleasant interview at the other Association and tried to preach day and night until I got home and found all prospering and my wife smiling, not crying as she was when I left for fear we would be ruined. The Lord opened the hearts of the people to take what I could spare to give me work so I paid all I owed, three hundred and fifty dollars to one man, that fall and winter so I was content to serve him two months.

Two months after the above mentioned tour I visited the Henderson Church again in November and preached twice a day and once at night for two weeks. I never had seen such a manifestation of the outpouring of the spirit of the Lord and for ten and even fifteen miles around the people of all classes and denominations were drawn together to see and hear for themselves, acknowledging the Lord was doing a marvelous work among the people; during this time a poor unworthy servant was permitted to baptize eighteen willing and I believed gospel subjects at that church and also many others; at other places in Illinois and Wisconsin I labored almost day and night either in the gospel field, at my trade or on the farm of 70 acres under the plow and all this time without receiving one dollar as a salary.

I never did hire out to preach neither would I now if they would give me a million a year. I was always ready to accept freewill offerings but not as hire. My R. Road fare has been partly paid by my brethren, I having paid out hundreds of my own. The salary system is a great inducement to many lovers of filthy lucre to adopt the ministry as a profession, who God has not called to the work nor qualified and they having learned in one school and Paul in another, they learned of men, Paul of God, they quote the language of their teachers, Paul his qualifications 1st and 11th and 12th but I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man for I neither received it of man neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ [Galations 1:11–12] 16th vr. to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood [Gal. 1:16]. 3 ch. 7 vs. whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power [Gal. 3:7]. Gal. 1 ch. 1 vs. Paul, an Apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father [Gal. 1:1]. 8th vs. but though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed [Gal. 1:8]. Now unless God called and also puts the words in their mouth, how can he preach like Paul? If we could we are to be accursed; we should read and examine for ourselves and compare what men preach with what Paul preached, or how can we know what we receive? If the Lord has not called and qualified me to preach Jesus Christ as the way of the truth and the life [John 14:6], the master, the husband that loved his bride with an everlasting love, and the stronger than death who paid the last farthing of her immense debt. Justice says let the prisoners go free, I have found a ransom the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come to join with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads [see Isaiah 51:11], and when he who is our life shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory [Colossians 3:4]; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away [Isaiah 35:10]; when they see him they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is [see 1 John 3:2]; she shall be brought in to the king in raiment of needlework [Psalms 45:14] and wrought gold; he is to present himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing [Ephesians 5:27].

The speakers of the above language speak of those having authority and not as the scribes [see Matthew 7:29 and Mark 1:22]; if I speak not like the above it is because there is no light in me and I have no business in the field. There are thousands of living witnesses that I have not shunned to declare salvation by grace not for price nor reward, but to the honor of my King and to feed the flock over the which the Holy Ghost I trust hath made me overseer. I am like Paul: if I seek to please men I cease to be the servant of Christ [Galations 1:10]; I try to please my King.

But to return to my farm. I had two good boys to work and with my wife to manage though in poor health for many years, having two good girls to help her in the house, they with what I done managed to get a comfortable living. I educated my oldest son and two girls so they could teach and the oldest girl taught five quarters before she married A.H. Minor. He had some means from his father’s estate, and I gave them forty acres of rough gruly [sic] land, he paying fifty dollars and they improved it, and I also gave my oldest son forty acres and he paying fifty dollars income once. Those fortys I valued at two hundred each and gave my two younger children two hundred each in good property when they married. My two youngest were each married in one day. My sons and sons in law were all in the Army of the Rebellion and came out discharged honorably. H.D. Brown was a veteran with two discharges and he married my youngest daughter in 1865 while she was teaching her first term.

I rented my farm to my youngest son and went to Freeport, Illinois and worked at my trade and attended three churches once a month by rail paying my own expenses, also two Associations in December 1866. I came back to my farm and my wife and we went south in Illinois and visited four churches, five weeks from home and had a very pleasant trip. The next summer H.D. Brown tended my farm and I worked at my trade and tended many churches and two Associations; in November 1867 my wife and me went south as far as Vincennes, Indiana. I was engaged most of the time in the Gospel field and had pleasant interviews and returned in March 1868.

There was much more of this, but nothing of value to me.

[This is a penciled note by Ernest John Andrews at the end of the typescript, indicating that there was no more genealogical information in the rest of the life story, so he stopped copying at this point.]

Notes
1 Asa was not the eldest of the children of Stephen and Sibyl Norton; the children were probably born in this order: Benjamin Franklin, Asa, Olive, Theodore, James, Delia, Samuel, Joel, Reuben, Stephen, Lydia, Sarah.
2 Benjamin Franklin Norton was positively older than his brother Asa Norton.
3 Mary Kelsey Norton (Andrew’s mother) died in March 1819 in Washington, Indiana. It is not known who Benjamin Franklin Norton’s second wife was. Andrew Jackson Norton’s known siblings include Benjamin F. Norton, born in 1810; Alonzo Norton, and Mary Ann Norton. The names of the rest of the children are unknown.
4 Lydia Norton married first Sewell Goodrich (or Goodridge), and after he died in the 1840s, she married James Grimes. Sewell Goodrich was the uncle who helped Andrew Jackson Norton learn to read the Bible. Lydia and Sewell took in Andrew’s older sister too, although Andrew does not mention the fact. It is recorded on the 1830 Census. In 1840 the Census shows that Andrew, his wife, and his older sister were all living with the same aunt and uncle.

A Little Trip into the Past

I spent a week in the Chicago area this month and looked up the house that once had belonged to my great-grandfather Ernest John Andrews, a patent attorney with an office downtown in the Monadnock Building in Chicago. I pulled out a piece he had written in a nostalgic mood after having gone with his wife on a little trip around Illinois and into southern Indiana to visit scenes important to his father and grandfather during their lifetimes. He wrote it for his children, Fred, Roger, Helen Andrews Hinkley, and Glenn, and their cousins, John B., Rex B., Elizabeth Andrews French, Mae B., and Charles Francis Andrews. But I think it may be of interest to more than just his descendants. He is an interesting writer, and as I want to make this information available to all the descendants of Asa Norton, Asa Piper, and Anson Seeley Andrews, here it is.
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The Dominions of Our Ancestors

I am sending a copy of this article to each of the grandchildren of my father so that each may have a record, of some portion at least, of the lives of some of their ancestors, not only for their own use, but to preserve and hand down to others.

It is becoming more and more desirable to have sources of information of this nature with reference to our ancestors. There are many who, at some time in their lives, are particularly interested in matters of this nature and they will be unable to obtain much information that this article contains if it is not preserved in some form. Merely as illustrating what I have in mind I will say that, much as I need the money for other uses, yet I would gladly pay a hundred dollars merely for a good photograph of your great grandfather Andrews [Note: In 2015 his $100 would be worth more than $1300]. This is only one little item of my ancestry and yet it shows how highly I would prize the information of this article if I had no other sources for such information.

The article is not intended for pleasant reading; much of it may not be at all interesting and may be omitted. But there are certain portions that no doubt will be of interest and that you will, I think, find well worth a careful consideration. Perhaps a few suggestions will clarify my meaning.

You have all been intimately acquainted with your grandfather Andrews. In a general way, you know of his character and manner of living and his relations to others. This article tells much with reference to his boyhood days, years before you were born, and hence, in a way, it completes your knowledge of his life.

As to your grandfather’s character, if all were as he was, we would have no need for police or jailers, and little need for courts. We would have no need for sumptuary laws. The present controversy over the eighteenth amendment would have no place in our lives. Life perhaps would be too easy, too free from troubles to be good for the race, but certainly it would add much to the satisfaction of living.

While it may not have impressed you particularly, yet one of the strongest impressions that I have of your grandfather Andrews is as to his constant employment at something worthwhile. I have often felt, and even now, looking back over a period of sixty years, I still feel that your grandfather was the hardest working man that I have ever known. Not a drudge, not a slave, but always actively carrying out some useful plan. He took delight in his work and for sixty years or more, I presume he averaged at least ten or twelve hours a day, mainly at manual work, not excepting Sundays. While on Sundays he changed his work, more or less, from his vocation to his avocations, yet he was always usefully engaged.

He was always looking to the future, planning and building for that which was to come.

I should like to have you know of these things and to know something of your great grandfather Andrews, particularly some of the facts contained in this article. He was very much like your grandfather.

I am sure there is nothing more stabilizing in our lives than such knowledge as this. Not that any of you need stabilizing particularly, but there often come times in our lives when we need, in order to give to the world the best that is in us, the stabilizing effect that comes from the knowledge of a long line of worthy ancestors. And this I would like you to have.

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Ernest John Andrews' home in Lombard, Illinois,
from April 1913 through April 1939. Afterward,
Helen Andrews Hinkley owned this home.

On October 9, 1927, your mother and I started on our trip to Crawford County, Illinois, where many of your ancestors lived, and to Posey County, Indiana, where others lived. We drove down the Dixie Highway to Paris, Illinois the first day, and stayed all night at the Cherry Croft house, just beyond the center of Paris where the Dixie Highway turns to the east.

The next morning we drove down to Robinson, the County Seat of Crawford County, where we stopped several hours while I searched the records of the county court and circuit court for deeds, wills, and the like.

[I omitted the table of records that he found; if anyone wants it, let me know!]

Of these parties, Asa Norton was your great great grandfather and Thoda and Reuben Norton were his brothers. Polly Norton as his wife. Her maiden name was Mary Belknap. L.D. Norton was Asa Norton’s son. Benjamin Norton was Asa’s nephew. Beverly Bradley Piper was Asa’s son-in-law (your grandmother’s father). Sally, the wife of Avery Tobey referred to, was Asa Norton’s sister, and Sewell Goodridge was the husband of Asa’s sister Lydia, while William N. Norton was Asa’s son (your grandmother’s uncle).

I was unable to complete my search at Robinson owing to the closing of the offices and a further search should be made to obtain records of the entry of the land of Asa Norton in 1819. Apparently, these entries were not recorded during the period that I searched, but they were undoubtedly recorded later as the law requires such records in order to give good title to the land. Also, copies of more important deeds should be examined for interesting facts. These papers were very voluminous. I expected to be able to complete this work on the return trip but failed to do so.

We left Robinson about noon and went straight east some eight miles to Palestine, where about 1815 a fort was built as a protection against the Indians. Palestine was the old county seat of Crawford County. Then, leaving the southeast corner of Palestine across a bridge, we rode to Heathville, some twelve miles away. Heathville was the town of these Nortons and Pipers in those early days and is now the nearest town of what I have called our Ancestral Dominions of Crawford County. The road to Heathville from Palestine is also the road to Russellville, some eight miles further on, and it was a well travelled road, but neither paved nor well graded, at least during portions of the way. The surrounding country was largely clay soil and poor farm land, much of it being covered with underbrush and used for pasture. It is no such land as is to be found in northern Illinois.

At Heathville we inquired of the only store as to where the Nortons lived. The grandchildren are still living on the old Norton farm that was entered in 1819. I was referred to the neighboring garage with the statement that William N. Norton, whose house we were seeking, drove by not long before to the garage. I inquired at the garage and was directed to the Norton house and was told that William Norton had left but a short time before and that we would probably overtake him. Never having seen Mr. Norton, we carefully scrutinized the cars as we drove along. We overtook none that seemed to be Mr. Norton’s, though we did pass a man who was walking, whom we afterwards found out was Mr. Norton. Owing to the failure of the garage man to tell us that he was then working on Mr. Norton’s car and that Mr. Norton was walking home, we passed him just outside of Heathville and he was obliged to walk over two miles home when we should have been delighted to take him in our car. This merely goes to show how a little clarity smoothes life’s pathway.

We drove about two miles south from Heathville on the Russellville road and then turned west on a dirt road, and a quarter mile further, struck a little bridge and the lane leading to the north up to Mr. Norton’s house. We drove up a very steep hill to the house and met Mrs. Norton, who informed us that the old Asa Norton house was on the other side of the road. So we drove back and up another steep hill just south of the bridge and south of William Norton’s house to the house now occupied by Horace B. Norton, where we met him and his wife.

It was on this hill that Asa Norton built his house over one hundred years ago. This house was burned before 1888 and on the old foundation a new house was built, and it is here that Asa’s grandson Horace now lives. The old barns also were all gone. But the hills still remain. The Norton house was perched high up on a hill because, while on his way to this locality, Asa found the country along the Wabash River flooded and all of the low land covered with water; to avoid such floods he built his house on a high hill.

It was here that your great great grandfather fought his battle with nature as a farmer; it was here also that he was a member of the State Legislature and a Justice of the Peace; and it is here that his descendants have been since. It was in this neighborhood too, that Asa’s daughter Delia Deborah Norton, your great grandmother, married your great grandfather Beverly Bradley Piper, and it was here that she spent substantially all of her life as she was only three years old in 1817 when Asa Norton moved his family from Norwich, New York, finally arriving in Crawford County in 1819.

It was here also that your grandmother Andrews spent some of the most joyful years of her life, and where her grandfather, Asa Piper, also settled on a farm a century ago. His farm and house were just southeast of the corner where we turned from the Russellville road to the Norton place. It was here, too, that your grandmother’s father was raised, and in later years, after he was married to Delia Deborah Norton, their farm adjoined on the west that of her father, Asa Norton. Your grandmother Andrews not only lived there during a part of her childhood days, but in after years she often visited at her grandfather Asa Norton’s place, until the time she and your grandfather moved to Rockford, Illinois, in 1861.

We spent the afternoon with William and Horace Norton and their wives. We went down into the old Asa Norton basement and saw the old walls that were built by him over a hundred years ago. That is all of his handiwork that is left. But in the house is an old clock still going that was saved from the fire. And there is an old life-sized painting of Asa Norton, painted before he left for the west in 1817. He was certainly a fine looking man, and dressed in the frills of those days, he far surpasses any of you so far as elegance in clothes is concerned. The picture was injured by the fire, but was restored.

We went back to William Norton’s house, up on the hill across the road, and went northwest over to the old cemetery on Asa Norton’s farm. Here lie buried Asa Norton and his wife Mary Belknap, his son Wellington Bertolf Norton, his brother Thoda Norton, his son William N. Norton, and his daughter Mirinda Norton Parker, after whom your grandmother, Mirinda Parker’s niece, was named, and many others. Asa Norton’s grave bears no stone. It was his own wish that his grave be unmarked. The place, however, is marked sufficiently for recognition, lying immediately north of his wife’s grave. On her stone is the inscription, “Mary, wife of Asa Norton, died March 18, 1850, age 69 yrs, 6 ms, and 17 dys.” She was born in 1780. Asa Norton was born in 1781 and his wife was born the year before. This, I understand, was a sensitive point for your great great grandfather, to be a year younger than his wife. He was a very dignified man, straight as an arrow, having been a soldier for many years. Presumably it detracted from his idea of dignity to have a wife who was older than himself. A large cedar tree grows over the grave of Mary Norton, a tree perhaps seventy-five years old.

From the cemetery, we went back to the house and drove west on the road about a quarter of a mile to the corner, and then turned north and went by a schoolhouse, where once was located the old log schoolhouse that was also used as the church of the Pipers and the Nortons. The log building is gone now. But it was here that your great grandfather Beverly Bradley Piper gained his secular and religious training and where he was converted and where he preached, probably, for the first time.

It was here too, that Andrew Jackson Norton attended school and church and was converted and preached. Andrew Jackson Norton was a nephew of Asa Norton, and for fifty years he preached as a Predestinarian Baptist all over Illinois and Iowa. I have a copy of his diary in which he tells how he was converted from an aimless, drifting boy to an intense Fundamentalist, and how he spent all of his days preaching the gospel without pay other than as his parishioners produced. His account of his conversion is the most illuminating description of this nature that I have ever seen, probably because it is sincere and he seeks to tell the facts just as he experienced them. His soul was gripped by the horrors of Hell which were as real and vivid to him as is our conception of each coming day. He was an ignorant man, with practically no education except what he obtained at home, but he was sincere and intense and was firmly convinced of the literal truth of the Bible from the first page to the last. Much as we may disagree with the beliefs of such men as this, yet in their days they were needed and we must not only have for them great admiration, but must feel that it is owing much to them that our country is now blessed with the great masses of men and women whose characters can withstand the pressure of modern life.

It was in this schoolhouse also that Andrew Jackson Norton was married in 1839 by the Justice of the Peace, Asa Norton. And it was here that your great grandfather and great grandmother Piper were married in 1833 by the same Justice. So it was that this old log schoolhouse witnessed some of the most important events of our ancestors’ lives.

From the schoolhouse we went a quarter of a mile north and turned at right angles east, where within a half a mile we struck a right angled bend in the road to the north. Just to the right of this bend was an old house built by Sewell Goodridge and his wife, over a hundred years ago. Sewell Goodridge’s wife Lydia was a sister of Asa Norton, and hence, your grandmother’s great aunt. It was in and around this house that many of the happiest hours of your grandmother’s life were spent. The house is now occupied by an old bachelor, and as was to be expected, was in disorder and decay. The building itself is run down and uncared for, and the interior was dreary indeed. But as we entered the north front door, on the opposite wall we saw, in a niche in the wall built for the purpose at the time the house was built, a large cuckoo clock. There, for over one hundred years, this old cuckoo clock has stood, six feet or more high and a foot or more wide, running by weights over pulleys, and still running correctly. But the cuckoo is dead. This clock was a familiar and interesting sight to your grandmother.

To the left of this was the old china closet in which Lydia Goodridge kept many valuable dishes, about which I have often heard your grandmother speak. In the next room, the parlor, was another old clock that is thought to be nearly a hundred years old, standing on the mantle, two or three feet high and a foot or more wide. There were two fireplaces back-to-back in the wall between the two rooms. In the southwest corner of the parlor was another large cabinet, empty now but presumably in those early days containing valuable clothing, dishes, and the like.

Having heard so much about priceless articles and papers found in old buildings such as this, we ventured up into the attic. But the attic was nearly vacant; the floor seemed to be covered an inch thick with dust and old scraps of paper, and there was nothing to indicate any hidden treasures. We left with the thought that poor Aunt Lydia, the aristocrat of the Norton family, would have turned in her grave if she could have known of the condition of her beloved home.

It was in this old house that Andrew Jackson Norton spent his youth. His father, Benjamin Norton, was Asa’s older brother. Benjamin’s wife died in 1819 and he married again in 1823 when Andrew Jackson was five years old. In the meantime Benjamin’s other children were scattered. At the time of his wife’s death, five children were living, four boys and one girl, and seven were dead. Three boys died in accidents—one a knife entered his brain, one drowned, and one was scalded to death. Andrew Jackson went to live with his Aunt Lydia Goodridge who had no children of her own. He lived with this aunt and uncle until of age; he married while living there and afterwards built a house of his own not far away. He married Miss Mary Jeffers on December 19, 1839.

Going on, then, beyond the bend in the road to the north about one hundred rods, we struck the Hagan house where Sally Tobey Hagan and her husband live. Sally Tobey Hagan is the granddaughter of Avery Tobey and his wife, Sally Norton. Sally Norton was Asa Norton’s younger sister, nineteen years younger than he and a year or two younger than their sister, Lydia Goodridge.

The old house built by Avery and Sally Tobey was still standing, but had been moved to the back end of the lot and was a wreck, all ready to fall to pieces. We did not visit the old Tobey graveyard that is on the Tobey farm, as our time was limited, but I shall certainly one of these days visit this cemetery where good old Aunt Lydia and Aunt Sally and other kindred are buried.

Away off to the northeast from this Tobey house we could see the houses that mark the places where Andrew Jackson Norton had built his log cabin when first married, and nearer, where his Uncle Thoda Norton lived, and where his cousin Louis D. Norton lived.

From this old Norton headquarters we drove down the east-west road to the north-south Russellville road and passed the old Asa Piper farm on the east and down to Russellville, about six miles away. Here we stopped at the store of D.T. Beckes. He is the husband of Edna, daughter of Horace B. Norton. Mr. Beckes was not at the store, but we were directed to the Beckes house, which was built by Horace B. Norton and is the finest house in Russellville. Here we met Edna and she showed us the deed of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, to William Noble Norton, Edna’s grandfather, dated September 1, 1834, conveying the west half of the northeast quarter of Section nineteen, Township five, north of range ten west, Palestine, containing eighty acres. This is the deed of the old farm entered by Asa Norton in 1819.

From Russellville we drove some ten miles southeast to the Wabash River and down the river several miles to the Vincennes bridge where we crossed over to Vincennes, Indiana, and spent the night. In Vincennes the following morning, we passed the location of the old Sackville Fort, later known as Fort Vincennes, and from there we went south to Evansville, Indiana, on the Ohio River. From here we went west some twenty-five miles to Mt. Vernon, Posey County, Indiana.

Then we were in the neighborhood of your grandfather Andrews’ early home. It was in Mt. Vernon that he attended school and his father’s farm was three miles straight north. I went over to the court house and obtained copies of the following records:

“John Quincy Adams, President of the United States of America. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.
“Know ye that, John Andrews of New York, having deposited in the general land office a certificate of the Register of the land office at Vincennes in Indiana,
“Whereby, it appears that full payment has been made for the West one-half of the NorthWest quarter of Section Twenty-Nine in Township Six of range Thirteen west, containing eighty acres of land directed to be sold at Vincennes by the act of Congress entitled An Act providing for the sale of the lands of the United States in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky River, unto the said John Andrews and his heirs the half of the quarter lot or section of land above described.
“To have and to hold the said half of the quarter lot or section of land, with the appurtenances, unto the said John Andrews, his heirs and assigns forever.
“In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made Patent, and the seal of the general land office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the Seventh day of February in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the fifty-second.
“By the President (John Quincy Adams)”
(SEAL)

“James Monroe to Anson S. Andrews of New York.
“SW ¼, Sec. 20, Twsp. 6, Range 13 W, 160 Acres.
“James Monroe, President of the United States of America.
“To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.
“Know ye that, Anson S. Andrews of New York, having deposited in the general land office a certificate of the Register of the land office at Vincennes in Indiana,
“Whereby it appears that full payment has been made for the SouthWest quarter of Section Twenty in Township Six, South of Range Thirteen West, containing one hundred and sixty acres of the land directed to be sold at Vincennes by the act of Congress entitled An Act providing for the sale of the lands of the United States, in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky River, unto the said Anson S. Andrews and his heirs the quarter lot or section of land above described.
“To have and to hold the said quarter lot or section of land with the appurtenances, unto the said Anson S. Andrews, his heirs and assigns forever.
“In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made Patent, and the seal of the general land office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the twenty-fifth day of August in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the forty-eighth.
“By the President (James Monroe)”
(SEAL)

“James Monroe to Anson S. Andrews of New York City.
“E ½, SE ¼, Sec. 19, Twsp. 6, Range 13 W, 80 acres.
“James Monroe, President of the United States of America.
“To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.
“Know ye that, Anson S. Andrews of New York, having deposited in the general land office a certificate of the Register of the land office at Vincennes in Indiana,
“Whereby it appears that full payment has been made for the East one-half of the SouthEast quarter of Section Nineteen in Township six, Range 13 West, containing eighty acres of the land directed to be sold at Vincennes by the act of Congress entitled An Act providing for the sale of the lands of the United States, in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky River, unto the said Anson S. Andrews the quarter lot or section of land above described. “To have and to hold the said quarter lot or section of land with the appurtenances, unto the said Anson S. Andrews, his heirs and assigns forever.
“In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made Patent, and the seal of the general land office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the twenty-Fifth day of July in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the forty-eighth. “By the President (James Monroe)”
(SEAL)


W I L L
Recorded in Book T of Deeds
page 723
“Anson S. Andrews of Black Township in the County of Posey and State of Indiana, do ordain and appoint this my last will and testament in manner and form following.
“That is to say, on this first day of March in the year of our Lord One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty-two,
“To which I have set my hand and affixed my seal binding my heirs and assigns forever.
“I give a bequeath my farm on which I am now residing together with all the rents, profits and benefits arising therefrom to my beloved wife, Elizabeth Andrews.
“To have, hold and enjoy the same for and during the term of her natural life. I also give and bequeath to her, my said wife, all my farm stock, to wit: my neat cattle, horses, sheep and hogs, farming tools and utensils, farm produce, household goods and furniture, and one thousand ($1000) dollars out of my personal estate and effects; my books and other printed matter to be divided equally share and share alike between my wife and children.
“At the death of my beloved wife, I give and bequeath my said farm together with all the rents and profits thereof to my two dear sons, John and Seth, to be equally divided between them share and share alike, or held jointly as they may elect; to be held and possessed by them and their heirs and assigns forever.
“I give and bequeath to my dear daughter Harriet the piece of land I lately bought of John Vanway and described in the deed from him and his wife to me, to be held and possessed by her and her heirs and assigns forever. I also give and bequeath to her Two Thousand, One Hundred Dollars ($2100) out of my personal estate, this she is to receive in such kind or kinds of property that she shall sustain no loss or damage whatever.
“After my debts and all just demands against my estate are settled and paid, I will and direct that the balance and remainder thereof be equally divided share and share alike between my said children. And I do hereby appoint my said wife Elizabeth my executrix and my friends, Anson S. Osborne and Ebenezer Ellis, my executors of this my last will and testament. And I do hereby direct that fifty ($50) dollars be paid to each of my executors out of my estate as a compensation for their services.
“In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my seal the day and date first above written.
“(Anson S. Andrews) (SEAL)
“Signed, sealed, published and delivered by the said Anson S. Andrews as and for his last will and testament, in the presence of us who at the request of said Anson S. Andrews and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.
“(John W. Bishop)
“(Otis Hinkley) (SEAL)
“Recorded November 4, 1854”

[There followed another table of deeds recorded in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, in Black Township. I will be happy to send the table to anyone who asks.]

Of these parties, Anson S. Andrews is your great grandfather; John Andrews is his father, your great great grandfather. He never came out west but lived at Bethel, Connecticut. The Hinkley referred to Otis Hinkley, Wilmer’s great grandfather, who lived at New Harmony, Indiana, twelve miles north of the Andrews farm, and James Hinkley is his son who married Anson S. Andrews’ daughter Harriet. This is the first connection between Helen and Wilmer Hinkley. Anson Seeley Andrews is the great grandfather of both of them. Anson Seeley Osborne was a nephew of Anson Seeley Andrews and lived with him during much of his youth. Beverly Bradley Piper was your great grandfather who lived also in the Norton neighborhood in Crawford County. Elizabeth Andrews was Anson Andrews’ wife and your great grandmother. The et. al. referred to in the Elizabeth Andrews deed was your grandfather Andrews and his brother Seth and his sister Harriet Hinkley.

The search of records at Mt. Vernon was substantially complete but it would be desirable to obtain copies of more of the deeds. For instance, the deed of Elizabeth Andrews et. al., to Worthington Bois, and the deed of John Andrews et. al., to James Acuff. The former deed conveyed the old Anson S. Andrews farm, and the latter deed conveyed the land on which the old mill stood.

There should be a search made to determine the disposition of the land transferred to Anson S. Andrews by Honduras D. Johnson and John T. McKee. The Vanway farm was willed by Anson S. Andrews to his daughter, Harriet Hinkley.

From Mt. Vernon we drove north fifteen miles to New Harmony. The road ran through Farmersville where the Andrews farm was located. As we drove by, I was able to point out to your mother a large number of landmarks from descriptions given me by your grandfather. For instance, the location of the old farm and the farm house and the store and the mill and the schoolhouse and the Baptist church and the old graveyard and other places. But we did not stop.

We reached New Harmony in the evening and went to the house of Julia E. Dransfield, a daughter of Anson S. Osborne and, hence, second cousin of your grandfather Andrews. She lives in the old Otis Hinkley house where Wilmer’s great grandfather lived.

We stayed at New Harmony and vicinity for two days and had a very pleasant visit with Cousin Julia and her adopted daughter, Mary Donald, and Mary’s husband who is the dentist in New Harmony. I cannot here go into the many interesting features of New Harmony. Although having a population of less than one thousand, it is one of the most noted towns in the world from both a scientific and sociological point of view. I have several pamphlets relating to the various interesting features of this town. But that has nothing to do with our Ancestral Dominions. Suffice it to say that we were much pleased not only with the reception given us by our hosts and others, but also by the various buildings and collections and the like which we visited.

With our hosts, we drove down to Farmersville where for thirty-six years your great grandfather was the principal man of the neighborhood. He established the town of Farmersville, or what for a time was known as the “Corners,” by entering with the United States government a section of land surrounding the Corners, being where two main east/west and north/south roads crossed. Of this land, he entered for his own use 320 acres, and the rest was taken up by friends who settled there with him at about the same time.

On our way to Farmersville from New Harmony, we stopped at the old Moore’s Hill Cemetery, about a mile north of the old Andrews farm, on the same side of the road. Here your great grandfather was buried. After some searching, we found his lot in the northwest corner of the cemetery, in the north tier of lots and one tier next to the west. The stone slab was lying on the ground, and adjacent to it was a little stone. The slab bore the inscription, “Anson S. Andrews, died September 28, 1854, in the 69 year of his age.” Having heard that the slab had fallen, I had brought with me a spade, and I dug down and found the pedestal on which the slab had been originally mounted. This pedestal had sunk in the ground over a foot deep and the slab had been broken off flush with the upper surface of the pedestal. I cleaned the broken pieces out of the groove in the pedestal and restored the slab, then straightened out the little stone nearby that bore the inscription, “Ann, daughter of A.S. and E. Andrews, died July 17, 1832, age 2 yr, 11 ms, 8 dys.”

The Andrews grave markers in 2001. They have since been
set into flat concrete frames to preserve them from further decay.

As I stood at my grandfather’s grave that afternoon, I could picture in my mind’s eye the Andrews line, coming over from England in 1633 and slowly drifting westward—from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Glenn now lives, to Connecticut; from Hartford to Farmington, then to Waterbury, then Danbury; and from there, Anson S. Andrews as a young man went out by himself west to New York state, and thence to Farmersville, Indiana, where his body now lies by the side of his infant daughter. But the line went on, west to southern Illinois, north to northern Illinois and Wisconsin, and with it went his wife who now lies in the old West Side Cemetery in Rockford, Illinois, and beside her lies their son John, your grandfather. And so it goes, from one generation to the next, ever onward, always seeking something better, and usually finding it, leaving many by the wayside in lonely graves.

From the cemetery we went south to the old Corners, and then a quarter of a mile west past the location of the old schoolhouse where your grandfather first went to school and where he first met your grandmother, to the location of the old Baptist church where your great grandfather Piper preached from 1850 to 1853 and where your grandmother attended church and Sunday school as a girl of ten to thirteen. I cannot say that your grandfather and great grandfather attended this church. Your great grandmother Andrews attended church about half a mile west of this on the same side of the east/west road in what was known as the Christian or Campbellite church. But your great grandfather was not a member of any church. Undoubtedly, he and the children more or less attended his wife’s church, and perhaps the Baptist church. But neither he nor his son John, your grandfather, nor his daughter Harriet, nor her husband James Hinkley, nor his father, were orthodox. Seth, the second son of A.S. Andrews, in time joined the church and was one of the staunch members until he died. The present church was built in 1896 on the foundation of the old church of a century ago.

Just across the road north from the church we drove into the lane to the Andrews farmyard and to where the old house had stood. Your grandfather had told me that the house and barns were all burned, he believed, as well as the store and the mill. However, I was delighted to find the old red brick barn still standing. This is a large barn, two stories and a basement, about 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, a magnificent monument to your great grandfather. A photograph of the rear of the barn is attached. The barn was built in 1844 of red bricks made from the clay of the old farm, the brick kiln being located near the barn. Your great grandfather made bricks at that time, which he sold to others, and he built this barn, and an addition to his house, and a sidewalk leading from the house towards the barn, and he lined a dug well with the bricks. The old brick foundation of the house and the sidewalk and the well still remain, but the addition itself has disappeared. Also, the old shop and other sheds and another large barn which were there in the early days have all disappeared, being replaced by other buildings.

Rear view, taken in October 1927, of red brick barn at Farmersville, Indiana,
built in 1844 for Anson Seeley Andrews with bricks made on his farm.
The barn is located about 200 feet west of where the old Andrews’ house is located.

The farm is now owned by Ensley Trafford and his wife. His wife is a great granddaughter of Elisha Phillips, who was one of the settlers there with your great grandfather and who took an eighty acre piece of the original section taken up by your great grandfather. In a talk with Mrs. Trafford, she suggested that I would be interested in calling on John Dave Ellis, who lived half a mile straight south, as he was one of the oldest settlers and would no doubt remember much of interest. We drove over to Mr. Ellis’s house and found him at home and had a very pleasant and interesting conversation with him. He is a typical old farmer of 87 years of age, old enough to be much interested in those early times. Upon meeting him, I asked if he remembered Anson Seeley Andrews. He said that he certainly did and he remembered John Andrews and Mirinda Piper and that John had married Mirinda. When I told him that they were my parents he was much interested and shook my hand warmly and went on to tell about the old times.

Among other things, he said that Anson Andrews was one of the finest men that was ever known in those parts, and he cited several instances of things your great grandfather had done to help establish and develop the neighborhood and to assist others in getting a start. One instance was that Mr. Andrews told a neighbor that he ought to buy a certain farm and the neighbor said that he knew it but didn’t have the money. Your great grandfather said that he had the money and would let his neighbor have it and would charge no interest and wouldn’t ask him for payment. I presume, however, that he knew the man well enough to know that the money would be repaid whether he asked for it or not. Also, I think that John Dave Ellis was inclined to exaggerate a little. Among other things, he stated that Anson Andrews was a very loud talker; that he was pretty deaf during the later years of his life and talked loud enough apparently to hear himself. John Dave’s house was nearly half a mile away from the Andrews house, and yet, John Dave said that he often heard Mr. Andrews talking to his men around the barn when John himself was at home. But in spite of any tendency to exaggerate, it was pleasant to hear these statements made by a neighbor who knew your great grandfather in his lifetime and undoubtedly had heard much about him from other neighbors since his death. John Dave was only fourteen years old when your great grandfather died, so much of his knowledge must have come from older friends and neighbors.

Another thing that John Dave said was that the old Baptist church, located about midway between his house and the old Andrews house, had been cut in two in 1896, when the new one was built, and all of it had been moved onto the Andrews farm; one half of it immediately across the road, and the other half moved onto the old Andrews house foundation and still stood there. This was very interesting news as this was another joining of the Piper and Andrews families; the old church from which your great grandfather Piper so often preached had been moved to the Andrews farm and a portion of it had replaced the old Andrews house.

Front view, taken in October 1927, of the house then standing at Farmersville,
Indiana, on the foundation of the house built by Anson Seeley Andrews about 1830.

In view of this, we drove back to the Andrews house and found that, as he had said, the front part of the old church was on the old foundation. This was clearly indicated by the building itself, the rear portion of the house showing evident signs of having been the front of an old church. The attached picture shows the front wall of the house, built in 1896. While we were there examining the house, the lady living in it called my attention to the old well immediately north of the house, and to the old brick foundation, and to the sidewalk, and we also gave some further consideration to the old brick barn.

This brick barn has a charm for me. It seems to be typical of your great grandfather Andrews. It is typical of the solid basis upon which he always seemed to build. In his younger days he broke away from a rather worn-out New England and went to New York state, and some years later, moved further west to establish himself in a new community. He was laying a foundation for the future; not drifting along as so many do, but planning years ahead; not shirking and taking the easy path, but seeking to mold nature to the benefit of himself, his family, his neighbors, and those who were to come. Many of the glimpses that I have obtained of him by my researches and by talks with his son and others who knew him in life lead me to believe that this was strongly typical of the man, a determination to live his life in a way that would be a benefit to himself and others, building a solid foundation for his life work and for each step in that work. He established a community for himself and for others. He developed a brick kiln and a store and a mill for himself and others, all much needed in that wild western country, and he laid a mental foundation for his children and for those of his neighbors. A school building was the first building that was built at the Corners; he and others sought to establish a seminary there too, which was finally located three miles away at Mt. Vernon. As John Dave Ellis said, he provided money not only for himself, but for others. I have his books showing thousands of dollars loaned out to others. In fact, he did substantially a banking business for the community, the basis for it all carved out of the soil.

A solid basis for life is typical, in general, of the Andrews line. I have gone back some three hundred years and have carefully studied the line and find no exceptions to this. All were solid, substantial, sane men and women. They all built for the future, not for the next world of which they knew nothing, but for this world, doing the best they could to get the most out of the only life of which they could know.

We then drove down to Mt. Vernon and called on two of the granddaughters of Anson Seeley Osborne. They were Rosamond and Esther Osborne, daughters of Lemuel T. Osborne. Esther, now Mrs. Lyman Strack, gave me the deed drawn by your great grandfather and signed by him and your great grandmother, the print of which is attached.

Deed handwritten by Anson S. Andrews, properly acknowledged by him and his wife.

“This indenture made the twentieth day of August in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty five between Anson S. Andrews and Elizabeth Andrews his wife of the township of Black in Posey County and State of Indiana of the first part and Anson S. Osborn of the same place of the second part witnesseth that the said parties of the first part for and in consideration of the sum of three hundred dollars to them duly paid have sold and by these presents do re—i.e., release and forever quit claim unto the said Anson S. Osborn all rights, title, interest, claim and demand whatever which we the releasers have or ought to have in or to one tract of land described and dessignated [sic] as the West half of the North West quarter of Section Number twenty nine of Township Number Six South and Range number thirteen west and lying in the county of Posey and State of Indiana aforesaid — To have and to hold the premises with all their appurtenances unto the said releaser his heirs and assigns forever so that neither we the said releasers nor our heirs nor any other person under us or them shall hereafter have any claim, right or title in or to the premises or any part thereof—but thereupon we and they are by these presents forever bared [sic] and secluded.
“In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals the day and date above written
“Signed, Seald and delivered
“In presence of Anson S. Andrews (SEAL)
Elizabeth Andrews (SEAL)”

We also saw Lemuel T. Osborne, the father, for a few moments, and called on Matthew Nelson who lived a block away and who knew much of the early life of your ancestors. His opinion of your great grandfather was much like that of John Dave Ellis, and as he was born after your great grandfather’s death, this opinion was derived entirely from friends and neighbors, and particularly from his father. His father, Turner Nelson, was something of a politician and for many years was the County Recorder of Mt. Vernon. Also, he owned a large farm in the early days adjacent to Farmersville, and of this he sold some sixty acres to your great grandfather Piper, and was the nearest neighbor to Mr. Piper when he was there.

While in Mt. Vernon, we looked up the old seminary where your grandfather Andrews went to school. The building was built in 1841 and is still used for the same general purpose. It is a very substantial-looking brick building and must have been the pride of the town in those early days. Your grandfather started school in Mt. Vernon in an old one-room building “packed full with scholars,” but the new “Seminary” was then being built and as soon as it was finished, your grandfather entered it.

The next day we started towards home but stopped in Lawrenceville, the county seat of Lawrence County, Illinois, where I found records of deeds relating to various Norton relatives . . .

[If anyone wants the table of these deeds for Lawrence County, leave me a note and I will send them.]

From Lawrenceville we went again to Vincennes, Indiana. I looked for records of early deeds there but found only the following: “Grantor Asa Norton; Grantee Barrois Francois; Book DD; Page 327; Comments: Dated February 11, 1826. ¼ of lot 64 in Borough of Vincennes. $45. Sam'l Dillworth, recorder. Vige St.”

From Vincennes we drove to Paris, Illinois, and stayed all night again at the Cherry Croft house, and the next morning, Saturday, October 15, 1927, we arrived home.

Ernest John Andrews
Chicago, November 21, 1927

My Search for Seba: a Cautionary Tale of Genealogical Research

My great-grandfather Ernest John Andrews was, as he put it, bitten by the genealogical bug in the late 1890s when he was in his 30s. He spent the next forty years of his life researching and writing about his ancestors. This article is his delightfully candid expression of what happens when one is happily researching, still inexperienced, and prone to jump to conclusions in advance of the facts (as Sherlock Holmes would have put it). It is also an eye-opening look into the difficulties of genealogical research before the Internet, before microfilm even, when writing letters, going to libraries, and traveling were the only ways to gather information, and when having contacts in Washington D.C. was nearly essential for the researcher of early New England ancestry. He wrote this probably in the 1920s.

My Search for Seba

Asa Norton in 1851 at the age of 70

by Ernest John Andrews

Seba Norton was not one of my ancestors, but I thought he was. I am writing this for the good of others who may be searching for ancestors. I did not know that his name was Seba, nor even that there was such a name. I knew that my mother’s grandfathers were Asa Piper and Asa Norton, but I knew nothing of their parents until I was stung by the genealogical bee. I then began my search, not for Seba, but for the parents of the Asas. In time I found the parents of Asa Piper; but the search for the Norton parents was more interesting and instructive.

My mother knew that Asa Norton spent most of his life in Crawford County, Illinois, at Heathville, near the county seat Robinson, and was in the early days a county judge and a state legislator. She knew that he came from Norwich, New York, where he was married about 1804 to Mary Bell [the name turned out to be Belknap, but throughout this article he uses Bell. —MAW] who was from Vermont.

I searched many biographical books, such as The Members of the Bar of Illinois, for Asa Norton’s name and ancestry. But evidently he was not sufficiently famous, or his descendants hadn’t offered sufficient inducement, to get his name in the books.

I also tried the other end and looked up the Norton genealogies. They ran back to William the Conqueror; but I wasn’t interested in him—I wasn’t interested in any Englishman as it was highly improbable that Asa’s parents came from England and settled away off in central New York during the end of the 18^th century. So I turned to the early settlers in New York. I found many lines of Nortons but no Asas. I couldn’t search for Seba then; I could search only for Asa Norton of Norwich who married Mary Bell about 1804. It was a losing search at the beginning.

I turned to Norwich. I wrote for a copy of the town records relating to the Nortons about 1800. But it turned out there were no records existing of that time, nor until many years after. I wrote to the Clerk of the Surrogate Court for a copy of any Norton wills from 1790 to 1840. The clerk replied that there was only one will recorded during that time, that of Cyrus Norton who had died in 1807. Cyrus then must be my man; my search was ended. This was but a few years before Asa and his brother and sisters went west. Probably the mother had died soon after the father; the property was disposed of and the children went west. My mother knew that two brothers and two sisters, besides Asa, came west.

I looked over my tables of Nortons and found no Cyrus. I went to the library and looked up the printed records of the United States Census of 1790. The census of 1790, unfortunately, is the only census printed. But what a joy these books are to the genealogist! The first census of the United States, and all easily available except New Jersey, which was destroyed before printing. I found that Cyrus of Waterbury, Connecticut then had a wife, four boys under 16, and two girls. Yes, this was the family: six children. I knew of five—one probably died. But I sent for a copy of the will; even though I felt I had reached the end of the search, I would play fair and send the money to the clerk; besides, it was only a dollar, and there might be data in the will worth the money. It is sometimes easy to play fair.

Asa’s brothers and sisters I knew to be Lydia, Benjamin, Theodore, and Sarah. The will came: Cyrus’ wife was Catherine; his children were Ambrose, Amzi, Milton, Ariel, Leman Green, and Jabis Simon.

So I took up the search again. I had cards printed asking for information in reference to the parents of Asa Norton and mailed one to each Norton listed in the Chicago Telephone Directory.

I had been very successful at this with relation to the other Asa ancestor, Asa Piper. I knew he had married Margaret Ficklin and that she had a brother named Joseph. Ficklin was an uncommon name. I looked in the Chicago Telephone Directory and found Joseph C. Ficklin’s office. This was surely a descendant of Margaret’s brother. I wrote and asked for information in reference to the family of Margaret Ficklin of Virginia who married Asa Piper. He sent me the Ficklin genealogy, referred to page 40, and there it was. It is easy to make a bull’s-eye shot, however, if the target is all eye. There had been only one other Ficklin in the directory, and that was Joseph C.’s wife.

There were over a hundred Nortons, and no Asas, nor Theodores, nor Benjamins. So I sent a card to every Norton in the book. There were three times as many in the Chicago City Directory, so I thought I would send a broadside to the houses rather than to individuals; besides, those having telephones somehow seemed more likely to have ancestors.

I got a few replies, but nobody seemed to know anything of value. One professional genealogist called. He wasn’t a Norton, but one of my cards had been referred to him. He offered some suggestions; I looked on him with suspicion. I knew professional lawyers and had some reason to be suspicious of professionals [Note: Ernest John Andrews was himself an attorney]. But this, like much else, depends upon the man and not the class. He suggested that the census of 1850 gave the state in which each person was born. It might help to know where Asa was born. I finally asked him to look up a trifling matter for me. He came into the office about three months later and began to tell about the trouble he had had in looking for my information. Cold chills ran up my back. I thought of lawyers’ fees. I would not pay him. I had not told him to go to all that trouble. But I said nothing. He concluded by saying that his charge was fifty cents. Silence is sometimes golden. He would never know that I had expected him to ask for ten dollars!

He has since done other work for me; and for genuine efficiency in genealogical work I now always recommend a good professional genealogist unless one’s time is entirely valueless.

I had my lawyer associate in Washington D.C. look up the census. The government will not allow any employee to do this, but any good lawyer or genealogist will do it effectively and cheaply. I found by the census of 1850 that Asa was born in New York State in 1781.

In the meantime I had collected a large amount of data relating to the early New England Nortons. I had finally obtained access to a manuscript genealogy of the family made by Lewis Mills Norton of Goshen, Connecticut, a copy of which was owned by Norman C. Thompson of Rockford, Illinois. I carefully examined this data after putting it in systematic form, and from this drew certain conclusions as to Asa’s ancestors, which were expressed at the time in the following article.

Asa Norton, Husband of Mary Bell

Asa Norton was perhaps the son of Jabez Norton and of his second wife Sarah Buell. This is evidenced by the following facts.

Out of some 300 Nortons, constituting most of the Nortons living prior to Asa Norton’s birth, I find but one Asa, a doctor. He was born some fifty years prior to our Asa, and the evidence is much stronger that our Asa was a son of Jabez than that he was a descendant of Dr. Asa. There is nothing to raise a presumption that Jabez had a son Asa other than that the most probable father of Asa is Jabez.

Jabez had a daughter Sarah born in 1772, and Asa had a sister Sarah. But Asa was born in 1781 and was older than his sister Sarah.

Jabez and Asa each had a sister Lydia.

Jabez had a second cousin named Theodore born ten years before Asa’s brother Theodore, and there is no other Theodore known in the Norton family.

Jabez had a second cousin named Benjamin and Asa had a brother Benjamin, and there is no other known Benjamin in the Norton family, except cousin Benjamin’s son.

Jabez had a cousin named Deborah and a third cousin named Deborah, and Asa had a daughter named Deborah.

Jabez had a niece named Miranda, and Asa had a daughter and a granddaughter named Mirinda. There is no other known Miranda or Mirinda in the family. The granddaughter Mirinda was named after the daughter, and it was her understanding that there was a mistake made in the original spelling of the name and that it should have been Miranda.

Jabez was just about the right age to be Asa’s father.

In 1790 Jabez was living in New York State and had three boys younger than 16 and one daughter at that time. Asa was 9 years old and Theodore five, and he had a brother Benjamin younger than 16, but no known sister at that time. Asa and Theodore were born in New York and were living there at least some ten years later.

Asa had a son named Wellington B. This B may have stood for Bell, his mother’s maiden name, or it may have stood for Buell, the maiden name of Jabez’ wife Sarah. (Later it was found that it stood for Bertolf.)

Jabez was born in Goshen, Connecticut, and while living there married Margaret Beach who lived in Winchester, some eight miles away. Presumably she died and he married Sarah Buell. Apparently he went up to New York and settled in Hillsdale and had three sons under 16 and one daughter in 1790. Now, Asa married Mary Bell of Vermont about 1803, and the Vermont state line is only about 40 miles away from Hillsdale. Jabez had a brother Abijah, who lived in Ballstown, Albany County, New York in 1790, and that is but a few miles from Vermont. Abijah then had four girls, so Asa might have stopped at his uncle’s on his way to Vermont, or he may have met Mary at his uncle’s. When Asa married Mary, they went still farther into New York and for some years were in Norwich, and then they went still farther into the wilds and landed in Crawford County, Illinois. There were also a good many Bell families in New York in the neighborhood of Hillsdale.

It might be added that in the Buell families, the names of Deborah, Lydia, and Sarah appear often.

Asa is said to have had a very straight, soldierly bearing. Jabez was in the Revolutionary War for five years, and Asa was also a soldier though not until he was 30 years of age.

We may next consider other possible candidates.

The descendants of John Norton of Farmington show two Sarahs; but so far as I know, no other name appears in his line which is the same as those known to have been in our Asa’s family. Hence, as Sarah is such a common name, this line may safely be eliminated.

Among the descendants of George Norton of Salem are several candidates:

First is Dr. Asa, who died at Newtown, Connecticut. We may reasonably assume that our Asa and his brothers were born between 1780 and 1790. This Asa was born in 1729 and could possibly have been our Asa’s father at the age of 52 or so; one of Asa’s brothers was born about 1785 when Dr. Asa would have been about 56, and sister Sarah was born about 1800 when Dr. Asa would have been 71, so on the whole it is unlikely. Dr. Asa had sons Nathaniel and Pilo; Nathaniel was born in 1766. Asa had no such named brothers, so far as is known. Dr. Asa had a sister named Sarah, but none of the other names associated with our Asa appear in Dr. Asa’s family. Hence, it is improbable that Dr. Asa was our Asa’s father.

Dr. Asa had a brother named Elijah born in 1741; hence, so far as age is concerned, he is more probable as our Asa’s father. He had a brother named Asa and a sister named Sarah. But he named his son Elijah, while our Asa had no such named brother that is known. In the 1790 Census, either Elijah the father was not living, or he had no sons living with him. Even though he apparently went to New York, he could hardly have been Asa’s father.

Dr. Asa’s brother Aphia is a possible candidate, but there is no Aphia in the 1790 census.

Dr. Asa’s brother Daniel is also a candidate. He was born in 1751, just the right age, and he was probably in New York in 1790. Ancestor Asa was born there in 1781. One Daniel in New York had no children with him in 1790, so we can eliminate him; but the other, in Stillwater, Albany County, New York, had three boys and two girls, which was just right for our ancestor’s family.

As the children of the other relatives of Dr. Asa are known and do not contain an Asa, and as there is no other Asa known in the line, it is probably safe to eliminate this entire line. It is possible that some one of these descendants may be the desired ancestors, but it is hardly probable.

The most probable members of the descendants of Thomas Norton of Guilford, collateral to Jabez, are the sons of Isaac and Mary (Rockwell) Norton of Durham and Bristol. These have sisters Lydia and Deborah, and a second cousin Benjamin. The candidates are as follows.

Sylvanus, born in 1742, is of the right age and may be the man, but he does not appear in New York.

Aaron is similar: he was born in 1749.

Isaac was born in 1747, and there was apparently an Isaac in New York during the War, and there were two Isaacs in the 1790 census in New York. But he had only two sons, one named Isaac after him. Asa had two brothers certainly.

Joel, the last son of Isaac and Mary, was in New York in 1790, but he had no sons then.

Of Jabez’s brothers, Samuel’s children are known; Abijah had no sons in 1790; and Levi was not the head of a family in 1790.

So far as the records at hand show, there is no other Norton who even approaches Jabez in the probability of being Asa’s father.

Job Norton (possibly Jabez) was in East Harford in 1764 and 1775. He was among those who marched from Hartford for the relief of Boston in the Lexington alarm of April 19, 1775. He was in Hartford in 1792 but not in 1790.

In 1818 Jabez was granted a pension as a private then residing in New York. Pensions were first granted in 1818.

A Jabez Norton is recorded as having married Ruth Davis in New York on July 29, 1781.

In the 1790 Census for New York, Jabez is reported as being the head of a family in Hillsdale, Columbia County, and apparently has three boys under 16, a daughter, and a wife.

The Hillsdale History (F851.363-18) gives no Nortons nor Davises residing there in 1780–1781, and a complete list of inhabitants is given of that date.

I cannot account for the marriage with Ruth Davis. This may have been another Jabez Norton. There is no evidence that our Jabez resided in Hartford during the latter half of the war, but undoubtedly Colonel Webb’s regiment was in New York more or less of the time. In 1781 General Washington was in Hartford and then moved all of his own forces down through New York into Virginia, leaving the 6000 French soldiers under Rochambeau in Hartford until July.

It is supposed that Jabez resided at Norwich, New York, about the beginning of the 19th century. Asa the son was born in 1781. He married Mary Bell, was a probate judge and farmer in Crawford County, Illinois. Asa’s brothers and sisters were:       Theodore, born in 1785, became a doctor and farmer and lived in Crawford County, Illinois, married Lucinda who was born in Connecticut in 1793, and had sons Ira and George.        Benjamin, lived in Vincennes, Indiana, and married before 1800.       Lydia, younger than Asa, born in 1797, married a Goodrich in New York and a Grimes in Illinois.       Sarah, born about 1800, married a Tobey, was said to be much younger than Asa.

They were all full brothers and sisters. Although the children all came west, the parents apparently remained in New York.

Jabez’ known children were:

Margaret, married a Stannard.

Ashbel, born 1768.

Noah, born 1769, married Margaret Patterson.

Sarah, born 1772, probably the daughter of Sarah Buell the second wife.

Jabez, an infant, died in 1777.

These children may have all been born in Connecticut, and those born in New York were perhaps not known and may have been the brothers and sisters of Asa given above. The record of Jabez and his known children was taken from the Goshen History. He left Goshen as early as 1778 and went to Hartford, Connecticut. He was in East Hartford in 1783 when it separated from Hartford, and our ancestor Asa was born in New York in 1781.

The only Norton heads of families in New York in 1790 that have a possible right number of children are:

Caleb               Northeast Dutchess Co.                     2-5-5

Daniel             Stillwater, Albany Co.                        1-3-3

Brion               Brockhaven, Suffolk Co.                     1-2-3

Jabez               Hillsdale, Columbia Co.                     1-3-2

James              Saratoga, Saratoga Co.                        1-5-5

Sarah               Saratoga, Albany Co.                          1-5-5

George            Brookhaven, Suffolk Co.                    2-2-3

Thetomattry    Brookhaven, Suffolk Co.                    1-2-4

George            Huntingdon, Suffolk Co.                    2-2-2

Samuel            Saratoga, Saratoga Co.                        1-2-5

Jonathan         Pittstown, Albany Co.                        1-2-4

Nathaniel        Southold, Suffolk Co.                         1-2-5

William           Harrison, Westchester Co.                 3-5-2

Although many doubts are raised in this article, many of them were injected after the original was written. At the time the article was first written I had no doubt that Jabez was my Seba. But alas, I learned at last that Jabez had died about 1777 or 1778, several years before Asa was born. Jabez had to be abandoned.

I then sent to Washington D.C. for the Norwich census returns of 1800 and obtained the following data:

 Sebe or Thebe Norton                                               

1 male under 10 years

1 male 10 – 15 years

1 male 26 – 44 years

2 females under 10 years

1 female 10 – 15 years

1 female 26 – 44 years

This was the family: I had found Seba. There were Sebe and wife between 26 and 45, Benjamin, Thoda, Sarah, and Lydia, some strange girl, and only Asa missing. Asa was then 19 and no doubt was away when the census was taken. I looked over my data and found a “Leba” Norton of Suffield, son of Abel. The L no doubt should have been read as an S. In fact, this proved true as I gathered a large amount of information then relating to Seba.

But finally I obtained the names of Seba’s children, and alas! not one of them corresponds to Asa or his brothers’ or sisters’ names.

In 1790 the father of Asa Norton should have had in his family 1-3-1, as then neither Lydia nor Sarah was born, and Benjamin was no doubt under 16. [It would not be long before EJA realized the Naughtons of New York were a variant spelling of the Nortons and held the key to finding the right ancestors. —MAW]

And so Seba was not Asa’s father after all.