The Cemetery on the Nith: John Pine (1781-1864)

John Pine (1781-1864), Riverside Cemetery,
Blenheim, Oxford, Ontario

My recent post, "The Cemetery on the Nith: The Secords of Blenheim," looked at some of the descendants of John Secord (1755-1830), a cousin of my gggg-grandmother Charlotte Beebe. John's will, dated 2 Sep 1825, in addition to making bequests to his children and grandchildren, also made a bequest to two of his nephews:

Item – to John Pine and Daniel Taller (sons of my late sister Mary) Lot 7 Conc 5 Blenheim, 200 acres...condition to be performed on part of Daniel Taller – unless Daniel Taller does within two years after my death come settle and reside on his 100 acres hereby devised then the whole of Lot 7 Conc 5 shall belong exclusively in fee to the said John Pine.

Not much is known about Mary Secord. She was the daughter of John Secord (1725-1804) and Phoebe Travis (1727-1769), and is thought to have been born about 1761 in Westchester County, New York. She is named in the will of her grandfather, Robert Travis, proved 24 Dec 1767, along with her sisters Sarah and Catherine. In the will of her grandmother Mary Travis, née Ogden, dated 1774, she is recorded as “Mary, daughter of John Secord.”

Given her age, Mary would have accompanied her father when he settled on the Susquehanna River near Tunkhannock shortly before the Revolution. She would have been with him when he moved up the Susquehanna to Tioga Point, and would have arrived at Niagara in 1778 when Loyalist families were evacuated there after the Battle of Wyoming.¹ Unlike her sisters Catherine and Sarah, Mary did not petition for land as the daughter of a Loyalist. Given that her son John Pine was born in the United States, this suggests that Mary may have returned to the United States after the Revolution.

John Secord’s will indicates that Mary married at least twice, once to John Pine’s father and once to Daniel Taller’s father. I have not found any other sources that record a Pine-Secord or Pine-Taller marriage. Undocumented family tradition, as reflected in numerous online genealogies, state that Mary also married John Doyle about 1816 and died at Yorktown² in Westchester County in 1829.

Nothing else is known about Mary's son, Daniel Taller. Whether Daniel ever settled in Blenheim or whether John Pine inherited the whole of Lot 7 Concession 5 is not yet known.

John Pine’s gravestone, however, can be found in Riverside Cemetery in Blenheim. He was recorded in 1834 as pathmaster for the 6th Concession, Blenheim, and was living in Blenheim at the time of the 1852 and 1861 Censuses. According to the 1857 Tremaine Map of Oxford County, he occupied the northwest quarter of Lot 7 Concession 5. John married twice and had at least six children from his first marriage. He died in Blenheim on 30 Jan 1864, and based on his age as recorded on his gravestone, was born on 16 Oct 1781.

Many online genealogies record that John was the son of James Pine (1738-1823) and Mary Buckhout (1745-1835) who lived in Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New York. The source, however, is not documented, nor is John Pine named in the will of James Pine, dated 25 Oct 1822, although four sons are named.

Clearly, John Pine of Blenheim was the son of Mary Secord, and not James Pine and Mary Buckhout.

John Pine married his first wife about 1805. Their son, John Calvin Thompson Pine, was born in 1807, followed by a daughter Mary about 1809. Both were born in the United States. Daniel is thought to have be born about 1810, followed by Susan (1819-1873), Phoebe Ann (1825-1888), and John (1831-1913). Daniel's birthplace is unknown, but the younger three were born in Upper Canada. Given the age gaps there were undoubtably other children.

John Pine (1830-1913) Wolverton
Cemetery, Blenheim, Oxford, Ontario

According to undocumented sources, John Pine's first wife was Mary Ann Pine. This sounds reasonable since their first child was named John Calvin Thompson, and Calvin's Michigan death registration records his mother as Annie Pine. In 1839, John married his second wife, Charlotte Cooty (1805-1886).

John's daughter, Mary Pine, married Levi Churchill (1806-1891), son of David Churchill (1768-1840) and Zerviah Leach (1772-1840) in 1830. Her sister Susan married Levi's brother, William Churchill (1812-1859) in 1834, while their brother Daniel married Levi and William's sister Charity Sophia Churchill in 1835. Phoebe Ann Pine married George Ward (1822-1894).

All of John Pine's children, except for his youngest, moved to Michigan after their marriages. The youngest, John, remained in Blenheim until he moved to Cleveland in 1901 to live with his grandchilden. He died in Cleveland in 1913 but was buried beside his wife at Wolverton Cemetery in Blenheim.

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¹ John Secord’s Upper Canada Land Petition includes a certificate stating that John had come into the province in 1779 with a wife [unnamed] and three children, “exclusive of his eldest son who had a family.”

² Yorktown was incorporated in 1788. Most of Yorktown was part of the Manor of Cortlandt.

Charles McCarty: A Remarkable Accomplishment?

Charles McCarty's Gravestone, Drumbo
Cemetery, Blenheim, Oxford, Ontario

Living to 103 years of age is a remarkable accomplishment. Living to 103 years of age in the 19th century is even more so.

In Drumbo Cemetery near Woodstock, Ontario, there is a small gravestone which reads:

Charles McCarty

born at Canadagua NY

Feb 14 1780

died Dec 4 1883

aged

103 yrs 9 mos & 20 d's

The exact same information is contained in Charles's Ontario Death Registration. And the 1881 Census, taken two years previously, shows Charles McCarty, aged 101, living with his daughter Margaret and son-in-law Henry Muma in Blenheim, Oxford, Ontario.

On the face of it, Charles McCarty really did live to be 103. But who was he?

Online genealogies that include Charles provide little additional details. Most ignore the information on his gravestone and death registration. Instead of a birth date of 14 Feb 1780, most go with a 8 Jan 1784 baptism record for Charles Justinius son of Charles McCarty and Catherine Lent of Stillwater.

This baptism record is found in Records of marriages and baptisms of the Rev. James Dempster. Stillwater is located on the Hudson River north of Albany. James Dempster (1740-1804) was a Methodist clergymen who was active in this area before and during the Revolutionary War and also ministered to settlers in the Mohawk Valley and Schoharie Valley.

Both McCarty's gravestone and death registration, however, record that he was born at Canadagua. This is likely a misspelling of Canandaigua which sits at the north end of Canandaigua Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

But Canandaigua was a Seneca village destroyed during the Revolutionary War by the Sullivan Expedition in 1779. European settlement didn't begin in the area until the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1788.

Phelps and Gorham Purchase

If we accept that Charles McCarty was born in Canandaigua, then we cannot accept that he was born in 1780.

Census data, other than the 1881 Census, support a younger Charles McCarty. The 1871 Census shows him to be 77 years of age, while the 1852 Census shows him as 61.

Charles McCarty was likely born in Canadaigua, New York about 1791. He emigrated to Upper Canada after the Revolutionary War, served with the 3rd Regiment of Lincoln Militia during the War of 1812, and married someone named Agnes about 1817.

McCarty's oldest child was his daughter Margaret who was born in Bertie, Welland, Upper Canada in 1819. Seven children in addition to Margaret have been identified: Samuel (1824-1902), James (1826-1879), Jane (1826-1917), Jacob (b abt 1828), Agnes (b abt 1830), William (b abt 1831), and Hannah.

McCarty is thought to have moved to Blenheim township in the early 1840s. His daughter Margaret married Henry Muma (1822-1902) in 1845. Margaret's siblings Hannah and Jacob were witnesses. His daughter Jane married George Berry in 1848, while his daughter Agnes married Henry Berry later the same year. 

Agnes McCarty's Gravestone
Drumbo Cemetery, Blenheim
Oxford, Ontario

According to her gravestone, Agnes, the wife of Charles McCarty, died in 1873 at the age of 96. Once again, her age is support by her death registration, but inconsistent census data shows her to be much younger. Her death registration also records that she was born in Fort Erie on the Niagara River. Like Canandaigua, settlement in the Fort Erie area did not substantially begin until after the Revolutionary War, although a British fort had been built there in 1764.

Agnes was likely born in Bertie Township between 1786 and 1796. Her parents are unknown but were either Loyalist refugees, or American immigrants that began arriving in the 1790s.

There is evidence of an Albert McCarty (1804-1852) living in Bertie Township. There is also a burial record dated 4 Oct 1841 for a John McCarty aged 11. This John McCarty does not appear to have been a son of Albert McCarty. The possibility exists that Albert was a brother of Charles McCarty and that the John buried there was the son of Charles. There is also an Upper Canada Land Petition dated 1807 for Margaret McCarty wife of John McCarty and daughter of Jacob Sipes (1760-1823) who served in Butler's Rangers. Finally, a James McCarty also served in the 3rd Regiment of Lincoln Militia during the War of 1812.

Nice try, Charles, but the preponderance of evidence is that you were not 103 when you died.