Searching for Grandpa Joseph Steel

When we visited Washington, New Hampshire a few years ago we traced and contemplated the various family lines that converged at that significant spot.  I had previously heard that grandfather Church Tabor and his father Joseph had come during the 1780s to help construct the Washington, New Hampshire town meeting hall. This was also reported to be the second town meeting hall they had helped built, the first being the Town Hall at Nelson, New Hampshire.  However, on his later military pension application  affidavit, Church states that he moved to Washington, NH in 1776.  He had served in the military from May  1, 1775 to Jan 1, 1776 and a second time beginning in February 1, 1776 for two additional months.

 

About that same time the John and Mary (Wight) Healy family and children had come pioneering from Newton, Massachusetts.  Her parents were the Joseph and Mary Wight featured in the previous post, MA.  Mary and John lived in Newton, MA after their marriage and according to the book The History of Washington, New Hampshire, arrived in Washington in 1778. Their son Nathaniel was born there in 1785.

William Steel and his brother John had also moved to Washington from the Amherst area of New Hampshire.  Elizabeth was the daughter of John Steel and Jane his wife and was one of five siblings.  Elizabeth was born in Wilton, New Hampshire in 1764.  William, her uncle, became one of the leaders of the new community. 

All three of these families arrived in Washington for different reasons and apparently separately. Church Tabor and Elizabeth Steel met in Washington and married in September of 1782.  We have yet to find a maiden name anywhere for her mother Jane which impedes our efforts to trace her family back to or beyond their arrival in New England.  Unfortunately the original town hall and records of Wilton burned many years ago and the original records were lost.  Fortunately the history of the town had been completed previously, so much of the genealogical records remain in that form.  Church and Elizabeth's daughter, Jane Tabor, was born in Washington in 1786.  Twenty years later Nathaniel Healy and Jane Tabor were married on December 22, 1807. 

William Steel and John Healy had significant differences about how the town should be run and often found themselves in opposition. Ironically,  in our later generation veins, the blood lines of all the families flow mingled together and their disputes and rivalries having been laid to rest over 200 years ago.    

The Washington town historian gave us directions to the road leading to the farms where the Healy's and the Tabors lived during their tenure in Washington.  This road does not appear to have EVER been improved.  My brother and his family had fortunately come with us on this journey and we had all piled into their Suburban in order to travel together. The Suburban mastered the road.  Our small rental would have been much the worse for wear!  Those rocks are formidable!  I can't imagine that horses had any affection for this road either!  And going over them in a cart or wagon without good suspension would have been miserable.  Even with the suburban my brother got out to check and see how much worse the road might become.  All that is left there, we heard but did not see, were old foundations scattered in the forest.

Hardy folk, these pioneers.  I really admire their strength and ability to withstand the hardships in spite of which they continued to thrive.  Moving on horseback  and wagons and walking for miles on undeveloped roads through forested areas full of animals, Indians and traders.  They formed a community for companionship and security, but when the sun went down it was dark, except for a lantern or a distant candle in a window marking the way home. A long way between neighbors so a lot of self-sufficiency was required.  No antibiotics.  Few doctors.  Amazing people all of them. 

 

So we learned a lot on that past visit to Washington.  But new questions were raised as well.  There was the grave of Widow Sarah Steel, mother of William Steel and of John. She was Grandpa John's mother.  Why was she buried there and who was her husband?  Where did she come from.  Later research brought to light that she was a Putnam, born in Salem, Massachusetts.  It turns out that her father was Deacon Edward Putnam Jr. and her mother was Sarah Miles.  Her grandfather was Deacon Edward Putnam Sr. and her grandmother was Mary Hale. Her paternal grandfather was Thomas Putnam and his wife was Ann Holyoke.  Sarah's great- great grandfather John Putnam.  A link that provides detailed information on the Putnam Genealogy even goes back another twenty generations in England.  It appears that the Putnam name in the US was a shortened and phonetic version of the name that originated in Puttenham, England.  Those would be fun to track down! But another task for another day!  This brings up other questions -- how did Joseph Steel and Sarah Putnam meet?  This currently remains a mystery.

The father of brothers William and John Steel (they had many other siblings that don't enter into this narrative) was Joseph Steel of Amherst, New Hampshire. The location of his life and death was very surprising as my brother and sister-in-law have lived for many years in Amherst and their home is our base of operations on our East Coast family history travels. They have sort of moved full circle back to the beginning of our family history.  On that trip, we couldn't find his final resting place, but a year or two later my brother and family stopped in Mont Vernon, a town that historically was previously a part of Amherst, and there just inside the gate was Grandpa Joseph.  This spring, because we knew he was found, one of our goals was to visit him at long last.

It was a cold and windy morning so it was nice that we didn't have to search headstone to headstone.  There he was, just inside the gates.  Since he is, as far as we know, buried without family members, it is fitting that he has the very close embrace of the tree to keep him company, especially in the long, cold winters of New England.

The angle of the morning sunlight made reading the headstone a bit challenging. 

 As usual with these old Puritan stones, we are exhorted to remember the fate of us all and to live accordingly ~~.  It is not just that we all die, but we after we do that we still have to give an accounting of to the One who created us for His Own purposes.  Our lives are not our own.

 

I love the wording -- "In memory of Mr. Joseph Steel, who after the laudable exertions of a useful life, died on the 27th day of February, 1788 in the 82nd year of his age." 

 

His will reads, "June 29, 1787, "I Joseph Steel of Amherst in the County of Hillsboro and State of New Hampshire, Yeoman being far advanced n years but of sound mind and memory and calling to mind the mortality of my body that it is appointed until all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and Testament principal and above all I recommend my soul into the hand of God that gave it and my body from the earth from whence it was taken there to be buried in a decent Christian manner at the discretion of my executors, nothing doubting but that I shall receive the same again at the general resurrection by the almighty power of God and as touching the temporal estate that it hath pleased almighty God to bless me in this life, I do give and bequeath in the following way and manner, that is to say my funeral charges and just debts being first paid."  From there is lists his bequests. 

 

Rest in peace Grandpa Steel until the last trumpet sounds that will call you and all of us to stand before the God of all the earth.  Thank you for faithfully passing on the torch of faith from the generations before you to the ones that followed.  You have not been forgotten.