Colonel Amos Binney, The Wesleyan Academy, and The Reverend Amos Binney

Part Four

~As I researched the various “Amos Binney’s” I found a curious ‘disconnect’ of sorts about the Colonel that was very interesting. The Colonel, along with my third-Great grandfather, the Reverend Joseph A. Merrill, were very active within the Methodist Episcopal Church’s New England Conference and instrumental in the founding of The Wesleyan Academy at Newmarket. (The academy had at first been located in New Hampshire on two hundred and sixty acres of land donated by Reverend Merrill, and was then moved to Wilbraham, Massachusetts.)

At Newmarket and Wilbraham the Colonel was a trustee, and a president of the board. To the academy at Newmarket, he gave its largest contribution of $1,000, and to the academy at Wilbraham he donated a property worth $10,000 or $12,000. He was considered to be a great friend and aid to several churches, and to the Wilbraham Academy. It is interesting to note that he had donated an East Cambridge property that was valued at $11,500, but a defective title held up the acquisition for two years before the proceeds could be given to the academy at Newmarket.

The Colonel was considered to be a successful self-made man, a benevolent man, and a devout Methodist of sober character.

He was a member of a Masonic lodge, the president of the Vermont Copperas Works (which he started), President of the Worcester Rail Road and the Market Bank Boston. It is interesting to note that in the family genealogy he was noted as becoming, “well known to the community as an honest, upright, conscientious, able and generous man possessing extraordinary talents for business in the corporations and public institutions to which he belonged.”

After having read so many articles about his supposed questionable character in regards to his handling of the Navy yard I was beginning to wonder if I was reading about the correct Amos Binney! Based on the History of the Wesleyan Academy and the Genealogy of the Binney Family – I was. [1], [2]

I read the passages about him multiple times. And once again I came away wondering just what the Reverend Joseph A. Merrill must have thought when the man that he seemed to know so well in church and academy related matters came under such intense scrutiny and accusations.

Depending on which accounts you read – you can come away thinking that the Colonel was a scoundrel in disguise…or a saint when it came to matters of church and the education of New England’s youth.

He certainly seems to have done well in business ventures, and human nature being what it is, I come away wondering if he was not in fact facing jealousy among his peers. I can say that I have not found the Colonel as being charged with anything. Just accused.

The Reverend Amos Binney, noted as Binney family member number 101. Rev. Amos Binney(5), of New Haven, CT, Methodist Episcopal minister, son of Spencer (54) and Mary (Jones) Binney, of Hull, born in Hull, Saturday, Oct. 30, 1802; died in New Haven, CT, Friday, March 29, 1878, aged 75 years, 5 months [2]

Reverend Binney became a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church in July of 1821; an itinerant (traveling) minister in July of 1826. He joined the New England Conference in 1826, serving in the conference by regular appointment, except one year when he was an agent of the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

He was a member of the general court in 1852 and was partner with Reverend Otheman of “Binney & Otheman,” a Methodist book store located on Cornhill Street, Boston.

He was a presiding elder of the Springfield (Massachusetts) district from 1848-1850; in late 1850 he was transferred to the Lynn (Massachusetts) district where he served for four more years.

As a preacher he was considered to be plain, simple and evangelical. He preferred to “do good” rather than to be considered a “great preacher.” As a pastor he was considered diligent and earnest. Although he was not considered a theologian, he wrote a theological compendium of the Bible, as well as a book of missionary hymns.

After losing his first wife, Caroline (Wilder), he remarried in 1848, to Isabella Hill, a teacher at the (Wilbraham) Wesleyan Academy from 1845-1848, and then again (as Isabella H. Binney) from 1854-1857. The Reverend Binney had been a teacher there also, as well as a trustee member from 1845-1878, and President of the Board of Trustee’s from 1854-1856.

The Reverend Joseph A. Merrill was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the New England Conference, as well as a Board of Trustee member at the Wesleyan Academy from 1825-1849, and a treasurer from 1832-1842. Reverend Merrill lived in Wilbraham and the two men would have been in contact throughout their work for the New England Conference and the academy.

The Reverend Amos Binney seems to have led a devout and quiet life of service to his church and to the education of New England’s youth. Part of me would like to say that a man that lived his life without public blemish would have been the type of man to name a son after, yet I am certain that it is the Colonel that my third-Great uncle was named after. It is of no matter really as my third-Great uncle, Amos Binney Merrill, had no trouble carving out a name and identity for himself.

To be continued…

©2016 Amy McClosky

[1] History of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass.
[2] Genealogy of the Binney Family

Where did “Binney” come from?

Part One

~Quite often as we meander up our family tree we will find names within our branches to our other family lines. My Merrill family line in particular seems to have been very determined to keep their wives and mother’s family names tied into our line. Early on, while researching my Merrill line, I had figured this little habit out and it has proven very useful in helping me locate many of my Merrill grandmother’s families.

My Merrill family arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to 1640. Nathaniel Merrill is my 8th Great-grandfather – but this is not his story, it is about one of his great-grandson’s, and about how the name “Binney” came to be attached to the Merrill family shortly after the War of 1812.

Many of the Merrill men were Methodist Ministers. The Reverend Joseph Annis Merrill, Nathaniel’s grandson by five generations, and my third great-grandfather, followed in the family tradition. Although many of the men were ministers they fully supported their government’s call to arms and participated alongside their friends and neighbors in America’s Wars. The good Reverend Joseph’s father, Annis Merrill, was himself a soldier of the Revolutionary War, in service to his country for seven years, and one of the survivors of the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Annis Merrill fought in other battles such as the Battle of Long Hill and White Plains; he was at Yorktown for the surrender of Cornwallis.

*Cameo image from: Albany Argus, Friday, December 3, 1841, Albany, NY 1813-1855 via GenealogyBank.com

The Reverend Joseph was an ambitious, and driven man, he believed in education and trade-craft, to that end he was one of the founders of the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts (Now known as the Monson-Wilbraham Academy), as well as a principle founder and trustee of the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. It was while I was researching his son, Amos Binney Merrill Esq. (1815-1872), that I learned about my Merrill family having a long history as supporters of the anti-slavery cause. The Reverend Joseph’s sons – Amos Binney Merrill Esq., Annis Merrill Esq., Reverend Nathaniel Jewett Merrill, and Reverend David Kilburn Merrill were all vocal abolitionists like their father.

*Cameo image from the book by: Samuel Merrill, A Merrill Memorial, Cambridge, Mass, 1912-1928, page 536

*Cameo image from the book by:
Shuck, Oscar T., Sketches of Leading and Representative Men of San Francisco, 1843-1905, London and New York Pub. Co. 1875, (Biography of Annis Merrill, son of Rev. Joseph Annis Merrill), page 830

When I was recording the names of my third Great-grandfather, the Rev. Joseph’s sons, I noticed that he not only used family names, but also the names of men that where rather admired in Methodist Church history. I had not heard of an “Amos Binney” in reference to Methodist Church history, and other than it was the name given to my third great uncle, and then again to my great-grandfather, it did not make sense as to why it was bestowed up a Merrill son.

It was while reading through the Merrill genealogies in “A Merrill Memorial” by Samuel Merrill that the reasoning behind bestowing the name of “Amos Binney” on my third great uncle made some sense.

At so it was that I set out to learn about a man the good Reverend thought so highly of after the War of 1812 that he bestowed that man’s name upon his son born in 1815.

To be continued…

© 2016 Amy McClosky

Following the lines – filling in the gaps

Part Six

~When I was newly married I can remember my father-in-law mentioning that the family was related to some of the Duggan and Moriarty families in town. It was one of those little bits of information I had ‘tucked away’ in my mind to ask about another day, and sadly that day never arrived. By following Alexander and his siblings I had learned the surnames of the sister’s husbands and the brother’s wives, and none of those surnames matched that little tid-bit of information that I had tucked in my mind for ‘another time and conversation’.

I suspect that one thing genealogists of all levels must have in common is this grand desire to ‘know.’ I want to know how my family branches came to America; I want to know why they lived where they lived and why they moved. My curiosity drives me to continually dig deeper into the lives and relations of my ancestors. And if I have a bit of information that someone in my family at sometime mentioned and it remains tucked into a corner of my mind – well then, I will eventually ‘remember’ at least part of that conversation and go searching for answers.

And so my drive to ‘know’ sent me on a search for the children of Alexander, Adolph, Clara, and Mary Ellen. I knew of Alexander’s children and their families, and with the loss of my father-in-law, two of his brothers, and a sister – all before I ever had the chance to ask about Alexander’s siblings. I knew I was ‘on my own’ with that part of the research so Adolph’s branch is where I started.

Even though there seems to be a bit of a gap in Adolph’s early records, once he settled his family in Connecticut, his ‘paper trail’ was fairly steady in that he appears year-after-year in city directories. The family was noted in the 1940 US Federal Census and I’m reasonably certain that all the children, other than the oldest daughter Alfreda, are in the census. I have been able to follow all five of Adolph’s children forward through their records. I am still trying to locate where Adolph and Natalja are buried.

• Alfreda married John Andrew Kopchik. He is noted in records as “Sr.” I have found one son and I am still searching for more children.
• Irene married twice:
  1. Raymo Winters
  2. Frank P. Czajkowki Jr., I believe Alfreda and Frank had one daughter.
• Mathew married a woman named Stella; they had Mathew Jr. he took the name “Mesnick.” I have not found other children for Mathew and Stella at this point.
• Anna married Kenneth R. Baker. I found two sons and two daughters.
• Marion, their youngest daughter, died when she was fourteen.

Clara Miecznikowska married Andrew Norcross. I have found them in the 1910 and 1930 US Federal Census, they may have lived in Wales, Massachusetts at one point, but did return to Monson. They are buried at Bethany Cemetery in Monson with their oldest daughter Irene.

• Irene, died at 10 years old.
• Mary Pauline married Ellsworth H. Bradway. I found one daughter and three sons.
• Edna Clara married Michael J. Augustine. I found one daughter.
• Henry George married Jean E. Boulter. I found two daughters.
• Esther married Alison George Taylor. I found one son and one daughter.
• Charles Francis married Grace Josephine Woodward. I have not found records of any children.

Mary (Ellen) Miecznikowska married Walter Citkowski. I have found the family in the 1910, 1930, and 1940 US Federal Census reports. Mary, Walter, and their daughter Bertha (Citkowski) Couture are buried at Bethany Cemetery in Monson.

• Irene Mary married John Francis Walsh. I have found no records for children.
• Anastacia (Stacia) Elizabeth married Robert Earl Moriarty. I have found records for two daughters and a son.
• Bertha married Alfred Joseph Couture. I have found no records for children.
• Viola Teresa married René Morin. I have found no records for children.
• Anne Margaret married James M. Duggan. I have found records for three sons and three daughters.

When I had built upon the sibling’s branches with the information I had found, I sat down with my mother-in-law one afternoon and asked her if any of the names sounded familiar. They did. She remembered that when she and Joseph were a young married couple they had visited Clara and Andrew. As a child she had gone to school with Citkowski girls. She remembered some of the girls and the names of their husbands. I was relieved to learn that I was on the ‘right track’ with my research. I learned a lesson about how you present questions. Often older family members believe they do not ‘remember’ those early days, but when you mention names and places the memories come flooding back. I love to just sit, listen, and take notes when that happens.

The other Miecznikowski branches:
Franz Miecznikowski is buried at Bethany Cemetery in Monson under the surname Macloski. I have been able to follow the paper trails of two of his sons with Viola, but I am still working on locating their three daughters.

Leon Miecznikowski died in Connecticut; I am still trying to locate where he is buried. Viola died in Florida; I am still trying to locate where she is buried. I have been able to follow one son and one daughter.

In my quest to locate Adolph during that ‘gap’ in his records, I have been working through the 1910 US Federal Census in the areas of Massachusetts and Connecticut where he may have been living, based on ship manifest records and other Miecznikowski’s that came from Nieszki. I still believe that Clara arrived with an older relative since she was the first of the siblings to immigrate to America and was too young to have been allowed to travel alone.

As I worked through adding the spouses and children of Alexander’s sister’s I realized that I, like my mother-in-law, had probably gone to school with some of the sibling’s grandchildren. Our town was hit heavily by a tornado in 2011, and a facebook page for our town was formed as our community banned together. I plan to post a link and a request looking for the Miecznikowska sisters descendents.

My research will continue, I really do not like ‘holes’ in the family fabric, and I am determined to weave the story back together as accurately as possible. There are still Miecznikowski’s from Nieszki that I will try and research further as their records may hold clues to the siblings family back in the Russian Partition. I have two Polish Society’s to contact, and I have been reading a book, Polish Roots by Rosemary A. Chorzempa, about just how to go about contacting the churches in particular from the area the family came, in search of records of their births. Those records may or may not be in existence. I will not know unless I try!

I’d like to end with a combined edited image of Mary Miecznikowska’s marriage and death record – as a cautionary tale about allowing yourself to be inflexible while searching surname and given names. Places change, continental Europe went through centuries of border changes as countries were added via royal unions or were won and lost in disputes and wars.

Immigrants to America in the 1900’s were expected to assimilate into the fabric of their new homeland and that often meant that traditional surnames and even given names were changed. Some changes were legal and show up in court records, often when naturalization was approved, and some names changed during the process of recording information. Births, marriage, and death records can often be different from each other.

Mary Miecznikowska married about a year after her arrival to America. At the time of her arrival Nieszki was still part of the Russian Partition, so her record notes her as being from Russia. Her surname is spelled incorrectly, but does show the correct feminine ending. Ironically her mother’s last name is recorded with the correct feminine ending as well, but as the clerk taking down Walter and Mary’s information probably didn’t know that “ska” is feminine, Mary’s father Grziegos’ surname is incorrectly noted with “ska” when it should have read “ski.” You can see that Walter’s native given name, Waclow, is noted, as well as a different variation of his surname as it would appear in later records. Possibly noted incorrectly just as Mary’s surname was. Both Walter and Mary would have had a heavy accent at the time of this record.

When Mary passed away her records reflect the changes she and Walter’s surname and given names, had undergone. Her given name is recorded as Ellen, her surname, McClosky, reflects the changes that her family surname had gone through. Also note that her place of birth is now recorded as Poland.

By the time Mary passed away the Russian Partition was gone, the various Prussian and German states were also gone, and her homeland was now within the borders of the People’s Republic of Poland. And sadly, by the time Mary, now noted as Ellen, passed away the person relating her family information for her death record did not know who her father or mother were. This is something I see happen quite often.

Researching Alexander and his siblings has shown me a family that left a continent embroiled in chaos with the drums of war beating its inevitable arrival. They payed passage for each following sibling, and for the most part they stayed close together.

Adolph went back to fight for Polish independence and then returned to America with his new family. Leo, Adolph, and Antoine Miecznikowski all headed to Connecticut. I am not sure if Leo was a cousin to our family. He was a cousin to his wife’s first husband and I know that he was not born in Nieszki. Antoine, on the other hand, was born in Nieszki, and I suspect a family connection – but have not yet been able to verify one.

In Memory:
Joseph McClosky (1918 – 2011)

Next up – Where did “Binney” come from?

© 2016 Amy McClosky