The Sixth Chapter of the Flagler Family

IN SEARCH OF COLLATERAL ANCESTORS By Robert Pierce (The Sixth Chapter of the Flagler Family)

The fifth chapter of the Flagler saga, appearing in the Dutchess County Historical Society 1976-77 Year Book, was an excursus devoted to the life and times of the Reverend Isaac Flagler, a Presbyterian minister and the great-grandson of the immigrant Zacharias (Zachariah) Flagler. As was pointed out, this lineage digression purposely excluded two earlier generations; an omission which it is now the intention of the writer to include in this narrative. A recent publication of the Parish Register of Saint Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church of West Camp, Ulster County, New York, happily rendered into English from the original Dutch cacography, provides pertinent vital statistics not previously afforded this researcher. The record asserts that on "11 March 1711 Zacharias Flegler from Wertheim in Franconia and Anna Elizabetha, widow of the late Georg Schultz (Schultzen) from Darmstadt territory" were married, the ceremony being "performed in the time of the ministry of Joshua Kocherthal, first minister of the Germans Lutherans in this province." As was shown in the 1975 Year Book, this "first" Zacharias and Anna Elizabeth (her maiden name was Hoofd) had five children: Anna Magdalena Elizabetha, born 19 September 1712; Simon, born 16 February 1714; Gertruda, born 8 May 1717; Margareta, born 12 February 1719; and Zacharias, born 6 July 1720. Zacharias was a posthumous baby, his father having died in March of that year. Zacharias (Senior) at the time of this, his third marriage, had by a former wife a son, living, by the name of Philip Solomon Flagler (Flegler, Flagllar), born 21 August 1701, who accompanied his father to the American shores in 1710, his mother, a sister, and a brother having died at sea. As was noted in a former chapter the "first" Zacharias Flagler was born at Urphar, Franconia Province, Germany in 1676, and as a young man belonged to a military unit which apparently moved about extensively. He met and married as his first wife Anna Elizabeth (last name unknown) sometime prior to the year 1700. In an ancient churchbook at Dannenfels, a hamlet sixty miles due west across the Rhine from Urphar, in the Rhineland Palatinate, is the following entry: "Philip Salomon, son to Zacharias Flegeler and his wife Anna Elisabeth, was born 21 August, 1701; sponsor was the Pastor's servant from Marnheim, Anna Magdalena Heckin." What a pity that the wife's maiden name was not mentioned! Philip Solomon Flagler (spelled Flagllar on his headstone) settled on his father's farm land in the early years of the 18th century, the property being in the Beekman Precinct north of the present village of Green Haven. Dr. J. Wilson Poucher, surgeon, physician, and historian in his "Old Gravestones of Dutchess County" wrote that Philip Solomon Flagler built a house in 1736 east of the burial ground in the hollow under the hill." He states further that the shell of the house outline was visible in 1913. The hill to which he refers is now crowned by the recently dedicated Flagler graveyard -- a wind-swept eminence commanding views of forests, fields, and patures on every side. 103

On the Beekman tax lists, compiled by Mr. Clifford Buck, Philip Solomon's name appears January 1723, 24, 25, 26 in the North Ward and in the South Ward from 1724 to 1738, which may indicate that he owned or at least paid taxes in two locations. In 1719 Dutchess County had been divided into three Wards: North, Middle, and South. The line between the North and Middle Wards ran eastward from Esopus Island to the Connecticut line; the line between the Middle and South Wards ran eastward from the mouth of Wappingers Creek to the Connecticut border. Thus it would appear that Philip Flagler's holdings were several miles apart. Based upon genealogical questions and replies appearing in the justly respected "Boston Evening Transcript" of 1917 Philip Solomon Flagler is noted as having married about the year 1724, at age 23, Anna Margret Winegar, called the widow Dopp, possibly the relict of a Johannis or Pieter Dopp, both of whom in 1717 and 1718 appear on the North Ward tax lists. Altho the name Winegar is not shown on her headstone, it is spelled out that she was the wife of Philip Solomon, was born in 1682 and died 5 July 1764. Records indicate that she was the daughter of Uldrick Winegar, who, born in 1652, died in 1754 at the age of 102. He was a Palatinate of East Camp and in 1724 settled at Amenia Union. A wood-cut of the Winegar home at one time occupied by Captain Garrett is shown on page 111 of Philip H. Smith's "General History of Dutchess County." A Gerret Wenger, probably the Captain, is on the tax lists of the Middle Ward in 1726-27 and again in 1732. The foregoing statements about the Winegar family's connection with that of the Flagler's are vigorously disputed by Mr. Hank Jones of Universal City, California. Mr. Jones for many years has conducted extensive genealogical and historical investigations of the Palatine families of New York, and proposes in a short while to publish in book form the results of his research in America and Europe. Indeed, his representative in Germany has been charged with the task of tracing the origin and movements of 800 Palatine families which arrived in America in 1710. In a recent letter to the writer Mr. Jones contends that the maiden name of Philip Solomon Flagler's wife was not Anna Margret Winegar, but Anna Margret Dopf, who, before her marriage to Flagler, was the widow of one Jerg Demuth. As proof for his statements Mr. Jones cites the following documentary evidence. The 1709 London census of Palatines shows Ulrich Winegar as having daughters eleven and four years of age, thus born about 1697 and 1705, and not on the date of 1692 shown on Anna's headstone. Also, says Mr. Jones, the Kingston Reformed Churchbook always lists the maiden name of the mother in its baptismal records -- never her former married name, if a widow. Thusly, on the 1726 baptism date record of Zacharias, shown as 30 March, eldest son of Zacharias and Anna, the maiden name of the mother is listed as "Dop." This surname was also displayed for her in the church records of Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, and Rhinebeck. Furthermore, the actual baptism of Anna Margaretha in German records agrees precisely with her tombstone inscription. I quote from Mr. Jones' letter: "Anna Margaretha, daughter of Peter and Anna Margaret Dopp, was baptized on either the 5th or 15th of February 1691 at the Medard Reformed Church, Pfalz.

The sponsors were Hans Job Verckerdt and Anna Margaret, the young wife of the young Berndt from Cronenberg, and Anna Elizabetha, the unmarried daughter of Leonhardt Bernhardt, and the child's aunt. The father of Anna Margaretha Dopf Demuth Flagler was Peter Dopf, baptized on 8 September 1667 at Medard. He was the son of Hans Peter Dopp who was dead by 1688. "Peter Dopf, Jr. married Anna Margaret Bernhardt on 14 or 24 February 1688 at Medard. Peter Dopf came to America with the other 1709ers. He was of Queensbury when he was a Palatine volunteer in the Canadian expedition of 1711. He was naturalized at Kingston on 8 and 9 September 1715. He was on the Simmendinger register of 1717 with his wife and three children. He appears on the published Dutchess County tax lists from 1717 thru 1728-29, usually in the North Ward, where he was overseer of the King's highway in 1725. "Anna Margaretha Dopf, daughter of Peter and Anna Margaret Dopp, married Jerg Demuth, son of Alexander Demuth of Runckel-on-the-Lahn on 26 October 1714. They are listed at Hayesbury about 1717 in the Simmendinger Register. Jerg and Anna Margaretha had two known children: Johann Peter Demuth, born January 1720 and baptized at Rhinebeck, and a daughter, Elizabeth, baptized 3 July 1715 at Kingston. 'June De Mout' is listed in the Dutchess County tax lists of 1717 thru 1720. His widow is listed 1720-21 and thru 9 August 1722; but she is not on the rolls of 20 December 1722. This suggests to me that she may have married Philip Solomon Flagler between 9 August and 20 December 1722." These citations, advanced by Mr. Jones, are most convincing, and, as Anna Margret's ancestry does not materially affect the continuity of the Flagler history, the matter may be laid to rest, until the Winegar line surfaces again with the next generation of Flaglers. While on the general subject of matrimony it is interesting to note certain nuptial preliminaries peculiar to ante-Revolutionary times. Patriarchal authority was universally recognized, respected, and obeyed. Young people did not approach the matter of love until certain preambles were arranged by the respective fathers of bride and bridegroom. An example of this, in the form of correspondence between concerned parties, occurred in Virginia. The people were of English extraction, altho similar circumstances undoubtedly applied to the Dutch of New York. One, John Walker, father of the youth, writes to Bernard Moore, father of the girl. "Dear Sir: My son, John Walker, having informed me of his intention to pay his addresses to your daughter, Elizabeth, if he should be agreeable to yourself, lady, and daughter, it may not be amiss to inform you what I think myself able to afford for their support in case of a union. My affairs are in an uncertain state, but I believe I can promise 1000 pounds a year for several years; the sums to be paid in money, lands, or effects. I am, Sir, your humble servant, John Walker." Altho sounding like a case of inverted dowry, Bernard Moore writes in reply: "Dear Sir; Your son, Mr. John Walker applied to me for leave to make his addresses to my daughter, Elizabeth. I gave him leave and told him at the same time that my affairs were in such a state that it was not in my power to pay him all the money this year that I intended to give my daughter, provided he succeeded. I hope to provide 500 pounds in the spring and 500 pounds more as soon as I 105

can get or raise the money. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Bernard Moore." No subsequent information was supplied as to how these mutual pleas of indigence affected the ultimate plans of the lovers or the outcome of the courtship. So far as the early Dutch settler of New York is concerned a mental image of the times brings to mind the pages of Washington Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and his "Diedrich Knickerbocker's history of New York." The reader perceives a stylized people; the men being portrayed as jovial, corpulent, pipe-smoking, beer-guzzling idlers; and the women "plump as partridges," equally jolly, addicted to household chores, and overall good managers and all-around amiable companions. These caricatures -- for indeed that is what they are -- fail to do justice to Dutch character and temperament. The race was and is the embodiment of patient industry, sobriety, adherence to moral principles, and historic religiosity. A story is told of a domineering father, who, having conducted his daughter to the back yard, faced her toward the west and administered a thrashing, saying that in that direction lay trouble, and then, turning her face to the east, repeated the punishment, declaring that in that direction, too, lay adversity and wickedness; the substance of his admonitions being that her place was in the home and nowhere else. Anna Margret Flagler predeceased her husband, Philip Solomon by two years, she dying 5 July 1764 and he 14 April 1766. At the death in 1720 of Zacharias, the family founder in America, his farm in Green Haven appears to have passed on to Philip Solomon (1701-1766), as deed books state that he on 1 May 1764 sold 108 acres in "Romboat" Precinct to son Philip Flagler (1731-1804). This may or may not have been part of the original lands. In any event, the quondam disposition of the bodies and headstones of Philip and Anna present something of a mystery. Dr. Poucher asserts that the headstones of Philip and Anna were originally erected in the Flagler burial ground on the farm in Green Haven. It is reasonable, therefore, to infer that their bodies also were interred here, custom and economy dictating that burials be on family lands. The question arises as to why they, being Lutherans, were not buried in church ground. Colonel Henry Beekman, as we know, gave land in 1738 to Philip Flagler and others of that faith to be used as a burial ground on what is now Haynes Road -- several miles away from Philip's home in Green Haven. The children of which there were six, of course, may have decided to bury their parents on the home farm. It may well be that the distant Lutheran Church was the first site of their resting place, and that for one reason or another the stones and bodies were removed to Green Haven after the death of Philip in 1766. The Lutheran ground at present gives evidence of many unmarked graves indicative of possible removals and many headstones totally undecipherable. Whatever may be the conclusion with respect to the question, the fact remains that the ancient brown Dutch headstones of Philip and Anna were not long permitted to abide on the Green Haven farm. Local tradition has it that they were later seen to rest against the side of a barn in the Union Vale area. Miss Helen Reynolds, writing of a visit in 1914 to the "old Union Church on the main road next the farm of Judson Denton" says that the church building was removed

and "used as a barn." Later, the stones, side by side, appeared in the Clove Cemetery, from which they were removed prior to 1907 by Mrs. Mary Flagler Foote to the Beekman (Methodist) Cemetery in Poughquag. Once again the headstones of Philip Solomon and Anna have been moved, this in 1976, hopefully for the last time, to the approximate site of their earlier location in the Flagler Green Haven Cemetery, where they now stand among the three score or more headstones of related Flaglers. The children of Philip Solomon and Anna Margret Flagler were Margaret, born in 1725, who married Johannes Pieter Frolich; Catherine, born 20 August 1727, married Johannes Cremer; Sarah, born 31 May 1730; Helena, born 2 December 1733; Philip, born 24 October 1731, died 7 April 1804, who married 10 June 1760; Sarah Cornell, born 9 February 1733, died 4 February 1802; and Zachariah, born 30 March 1726, died 5 January 1799, who married Catherine Winegar of the Amenia Union Winegars. The records of Saint Paul's at West Camp show the names, birth and baptismal dates, and sponsors of two of the Americanborn children of Zacharias Flegler and Anna Elizabetha Hoofd, his third wife: Anna Magdalena Elizabetha, born 19 September 1712, baptized 2 October 1712, sponsor, Magdalena, wife of Nicholas Jung; and Simon, born 16 February 1714, baptized 21 February 1714, sponsor, Simon Haass. The three other children of the couple were born presumably in Germantown, Columbia County, after the Flagler family had moved across the Hudson, and were baptized in the Lutheran Church which stood at the north edge of town on what is now denoted Route 9-G. They were Gertruda, born 8 May 1717; Margaretha, born 12 February 1719; and Zacharias, born 6 July 1720. Anna Magdalena Elizabetha married Johanna Joost Snider (Snyder) probably around the year 1738 in Poughkeepsie. An entry in the records of the Dutch Reformed Church of that city shows a Zacharias, baptized in May of 1739, the son of Johannes Snyder, Junior and Magdalena, sponsors being Zacharias Vleglaer andGertjen Vleglaer. Another son, Phillipus, was baptized 26 May 1741, the sponsors being Saloman Vleglaer and Margriet Dop. A third son, Marcus (Marcy) was baptized 1 April 1743, with Marcus DeMondt and Margaretha Prurch as sponsors. Johannes Snyder, calling himself a Beekman farmer, made a will March 1785, proved 7 March 1788, names wife, Elizabeth, and eight children: John, Baltus (deceased), Semion (Simon), Marcus, Philip, Jacob, Isaac, and Elizabeth. Mr. George Zabriskie gives the birth of Johannes as about 1703; and from the will we can gather that his wife, Magdalena Elizabetha died after 1785. Simon Flagler married, first, on 14 January 1739 Jannetse Viele, born 8 February 1716, died about 1763, the daughter of Pieter Viele and his wife Anna Mynertse Van der Bogart (Van den Bogaard), born about 1683. They had ten children: Zachariah, born 23 August 1740, died 1799, married Janetse Palen, born 22 April 1744; Peter, born 17 February 1743, died. infancy; Simon born 1744, died 1816, married Elizabeth Lester, born 1754, died 1842; Peter, born 2 February 1745, married Maria Ostrom 14 January 1768; Joanne, born 12 November 1747, married 9 January 1766 Henry Van Vorhees, born 21 September 1735, died 18 September 1801; Elizabeth , born 1749, married Jacob Lester; Sarah, born 15 May 1751, died 15 September 1825,

married a Mr. Van Wagnen; Jane, born 1753; John, born 2 September 1756, died 25 March 1810; and Halanah, born 1757. Simon married as his second wife Esther Lott on 9 September 1764. Apparently there were no children, Esther dying in 1766, two years after their marriage. Simon lived in Charlotte Precinct, and in his will, made 29 November 1775, he mentions wife Hester (Esther) and the ten children by his first wife, Janetse. Gertruda Flagler married, first, in April of 1738 Edward McGregory, of whom nothing is known, other than that he survived the marriage only two years, as Gertruda married as her second husband Pieter Vrolich, a name frequently encountered in Dutchess County history. Margareta Flagler about the year 1737 married Arien (Arlie) De Long, born 6 September 1719, the son of Jonas De Lange and his wife Blandina Peersen. The De Longs came to the Beekman Precinct about 1716. Arien operated an inn at the corner of Beekman Road and the road to the Clove, near the present Clove Farm in the hamlet of Beekmanville. Arlie De Long died 20 January 1798. The names of his children are not known to the writer, altho persons of apparent relationship appear frequently in local records. The gravestone of a De Long child exists in the Poughquag Methodist Cemetery. It is with Zacharias, the posthumous son of Zacharias and Anna Hoofd Flagler that our interest chiefly lies. He married, first, Elizabeth Hageman in 1741, by whom he became the father of Joseph, born 5 May 1742. Elizabeth died shortly afterward; for Zacharias married on 28 October 1747 Sarah Barton. Sarah was born 4 March 1731, one of the eleven children of Joseph Barton and his wife Abigail Lewis. Abigail, born 8 April 1692 in Hartford, Connecticut, was the daughter of Philip Lewis and Sarah Ashley. Philip was the son of William and Mary (Hopkins) Lewis. Sarah Ashley was the daughter of Robert and Mary (Horton) Ashley. Sarah Barton Flagler's grandfather, Roger Barton, came to New Amsterdam about 1641. In August of the year following he leased a 62 acre farm in lower Manhattan, bounded by Canal and Warren Streets. He later moved to Brookhaven, Long Island, to Rye, Westchester County, and then to Connecticut. He died at Fordham in the Bronx, leaving a will dated 24 July 1688. Roger and his wife Mary had six children, of whom Joseph, the father of Sarah, was born about 1680 in Westchester County. In 1701 he moved to Jamaica, Long Island and later to Scarsdale and to Greenwich, Connecticut. In 1743 he moved to Filkentown, Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County. The twelve children of Zacharias and Sarah Barton Flagler were: Elizabeth, born 16 January 1748 (died infancy); David, born 17 July 1752; Barton, born 28 June 1754 (died infancy); William, born 6 November 1755; Zachariah, born 18 December 1757; Solomon, born 8 May 1760, died 24 November 1839, who in April 1780 married Esther Ostrom, born 19 April 1761, died 30 October 1813, the daughter of John and Angelica (Storm) Ostrom. Solomon married twice again, the second wife, Martha (last name unknown) who died 23 July 1727, and third, Nancy (last name unknown). Other children were: Margaret, born 11 March 1762, married Samuel Raunals; Elizabeth Lydia, born

6 February 1874; married Henry Ostrom; Barton 2nd, born 10 January 1766, died 2 June 1833, married 24 November 1786 Hannah Ostrom, born 6 May 1769, died 6 September 1854; Mary, born 20 June 1767, married James Germond; Abraham G., born 28 May 1769, died 25 October 1852, married, first 20 February 1791 Eunice Jones, born 18 March 1767, died 18 January 1809, married, second, 5 January 1811 Sarah Thorne, died 6 September 1897 (called the widow Sellick) and Millicent, born 21 May 1771 who married Daniel Bedford. Zacharias Flagler married for his third wife on 20 December 1773, Mary Allen, the daughter of William and Mary Allen. Of this union there were two children: Catherine, born 2 February 1775; and Isaac, born 15 September 1776. The Solomon and Esther (Ostrom) Flagler, mentioned in a preceeding paragraph of this chapter, were the parents of the Reverend Isaac Flagler, to whose story Chapter Five was devoted. The continuity, therefore, of the Flagler narrative, altho interrupted, remains unbroken. Family history research is a tedious and frequently fruitless task. The large families of former times complicate and cloud the picture. Sisters and brothers of one branch of a family often married the brothers and sisters of another. Moreover, competent genealogists state that little or no effort should be expended in attempting to trace a line back thru two or more female antecedents. That is to say, reliable information about the daughter of a daughter of a daughter is almost impossible to discover -- not because the distaff side was unimportant, but because data concerning the names, births, marriages, and deaths of females were simply not recorded. Statistics, except for those directly concerned, make for dull reading. An apology is therefore offered for the multiplicity of detail shown in this chapter; the only excuse being that such may be of interest to some members of the 336 Dutchess County families, past and present, to whom Flaglers are related.