Brick Wall Ancestor | #1 Sarah Kniffin Vredenburgh

We all have them! Those stubborn ancestors that refuse to come out of hiding. No matter how much coaxing we do! Well, I think it's time to bring them out of the shadows - put their redacted story out there - another piece of the puzzle could be lurking just around the (cyber) corner, in someone's basement, or closet, or sitting in a box on a book shelf ...... You never, ever know where that loose chink will manifest, the one that allows you to push out one brick, then the next. Food for thought. So without further ado....

Brick Wall Ancestor #1 Sarah Kniffin Vredenburgh

Sarah Kniffin (or Sniffen, Niffin, etc) was born in Westchester County, New York in July of 1792. This we know from the date on her headstone. She died September 16th 1870, aged 78y 1m 28d. That would put her birth about July 19th or 20th 1792. IF the numbers and dates are correct. Who supplied the information for the gravestone?

As to her maiden name? Well, my grandmother recorded it as 'Niffin' saying her family was from Holland. In the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (see Hackaliah Vredenburgh) it is reported that her maiden name was 'Kniffin'.

Sarah married Hackaliah Vredenburgh (another brick wall and winner of best ancestor name) from Westchester County, New York sometime around 1810/11. Her first child was born Novemeber 16th 1812 in New York.

Scouring the census records for 1800/1810 in Westchester County NY brings little result. Searching for 'Kniffin' and it's variations returns 20 likely candidates with females in the household of the appropriate age. Well shoot. The returns for 'Vredenburgh' are slightly better - 9 households with males in the appropriate age range. None of the couple's children bear names similar to any of the men on the census.

An odd mention in The New York Genealogical And Biographical Record vol 37, issue 1, pg 6, pub date 1906, in an article titled: Vital Records Of Christ's Church At Rye, Westchester County, New York shows widow Sniffen's 9 children were being baptized. The whole thing is very coincidental. The entry says this Sarah was an adult, but look at the date! July 22, 1792. This particular entry has puzzled me for some time.

Sarah Kniffin Vredenburgh was a preacher's wife, and as such was called upon to travel. After her second child was born the young family uprooted and headed for the wilderness of the Indiana Territory where Hackaliah was assigned as an itinerant Methodist minister. From one memoir written of that time: "Most of Bro. Vredenburg’s itinerant life was spent in the Valley of the Wabash. From its mouth almost to its source he preached, organizing new societies and circuits, carrying the Gospel messages to the scattering settlements, and enduring all the exposures and privations of pioneer life. In one of his charges no house could be had to shelter his wife and children while he traveled his circuit of three or four hundred miles round. Rather than leave his work, he took possession of a deserted log stable, and fitting it up with his own hands made that the parsonage for the year. At other times he was compelled on his rest days to cultivate a small piece of ground to supply his family with food, the pittance received from the people being barely sufficient to furnish them with clothing." Wow.

In all Sarah would give birth to 3 daughters and 5 sons. In the wilderness. In a log stable. Dang.

The children were:

• Mary b. 1812 New York
• Caleb b. 1815 New York
• Rhoda Ann b. 1818 Indiana
• Samuel Hamilton b. 1829 Indiana
• Lucy Jane b. 1823 Indiana
• Jesse D b. 1832 Indiana
• John C b. 1835 Indiana
• Unnamed Male b. UNK

Between 1850 and 1860 Sarah and Hackaliah removed to Danville, Illinois. Hackaliah died in 1869, Sarah followed a year later. The couple's final resting place is the Spring Hill Cemetery in Danville. 

Happily (maybe) I am a direct female descendant of Sarah. Which means my mtDNA is her mtDNA. I took the test in January. My haplogroup is U2e1d. Which means Sarah's haplogroup is U2e1d. Which means maybe, just maybe, we can start to chink away at this wall .....

 

...........to be continued...........

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Sarah Kniffen Vredenburgh: Circuit Preacher's Wife (52 Ancestors #5)

Week five opens with yet another mysterious female ancestor. This week I point the spotlight on Sarah Kniffen Vredenburg(h), my fourth great grandmother. The name Kniffen is one of those that can, and has, been recorded in several different ways. Sarah's parents are UNK, making it just that much harder to verify her surname. My grandmother, the Genealogy Queen, had in her notes a question as to whether it was Kniffin or Kniffen. I have recently discovered that it might also be Sniffen or Sniffin. 

Yup.

Another good challenge designed to drive me, and others searching for Sarah crazy.

Let's see what we know, and leave the door wide open for new discoveries.

 Sarah Kniffen was born in Westchester Co, New York in July 1792, according to her monument marker on Find A Grave. Nothing is known of her childhood.

Sarah married Hackaliah Vredenburg(h), a Methodist minister, sometime before 1812, when the first of their children was born.  Some accounts claim they had eight children, other claim nine. I have been able to prove six and speculate on a seventh.

Sarah Kniffen Vredenburg's America

In 1817 the young family moved to Terra Haute, in the new State of  Indiana, but it was not to be a settled life. Sarah's husband was an itinerant preacher, a circuit rider, with an assigned territory of 300+ miles. Some of the memoirs written on Rev. Vredenburg tell of winters where there was no shelter for the family, no food to eat, "the pittance received from the people being barely sufficient to furnish them with clothing". This must have been a terribly hard life. Oft spoken of as "privations, dangers and toils of the itinerancy" I can nary imagine what this sort of life was like. Yet, Sarah lived it. I would imagine quietly and without complaint. Traveling from town to town, raising her children virtually alone while her husband was gone for days or weeks at a time, "organizing new societies and circuits, carrying the Gospel messages to the scattering settlements, and enduring all the exposures and privations of pioneer life." For further reading this book contains stories of life in early Indiana.

It is unclear as to when the Vredenburg's actually moved to Illinois, but by 1860 Sarah and her husband had settled in Vermillion County to live the retired life. It is said the Rev. Vredenburg enjoyed the time he had spent in Vermillion County while on his circuits. Several of Sarah's adult children are found in Vermillion Co, Illinois as early as 1845.

In 1869 Sarah lost her husband to what can be described as a heart attack.

In August 1870 a widowed Sarah had moved clear across the State of Illinois to reside with her daughter and son-in-law in McDonough, Illinois.

In September 1870 Sarah died. She was 78 years old.

She is buried with her husband in Vermillion County.

Sarah was just one of the uncounted thousands of strong, silent, resilient pioneer women whose stores go untold, but without whom the American frontier would not have been tamed. A Founding Mother who sadly will remain in the shadows of her husband and his accomplishments.

Thank you Sarah Kniffen Vredenburg. For your strength to plow through, despite the harshest of conditions.