An ongoing correspondence 6 ...

When I found the wills, I also discovered in the Groom file, correspondence from another seeker of Joseph Groom information, a lovely man named Michael, whom I have had several conversations with and hope to actually meet sometime. He was researching his own family roots and this led him to the marriage of his ancestor, Barnet Gay to Magdeline Groom daughter of Joseph. He was searching for the Groom Burial plot and his correspondence to a local historian from the Vedders research library gave every indication that he knew a lot already about the Groom family. His notes and the subsequent conversations have been part of piecing together the puzzle pieces and he has since informed me that he has boxes of information on not only the Groom family, but clues to the history of Greene county in general, at the time they were living in the house. I have been anxious to have him come to Howard Hall with his “box” of clippings and plan a moment to do that. He has also unearthed and restored other historic burial grounds and is most anxious to try to find the Grooms. Well, us, too!

We have to plan a moment this summer, and maybe your foot will behave and you can tromp around the property along with Michael and his grave finding machine. (Yeah, he has unearthed other historic grave sites, and says he has a machine that can tell if earth has been turned over, even if it is many years ago. He said they use the machine to locate mass graves, and that grizzly idea aside, I am totally intrigued with this possibility.

An ongoing correspondence 7 ...

I had pretty much run out of tidbits in my other research, but last Saturday in the Vedder library, I came across a file on Grooms with copies of the original wills, and thank goodness, transcriptions. The original handwriting is almost impossible to decipher for most of us, myself no exception.

William’s will was written in 1801. In it he wills to Edward, the eldest, two lots of land in Schoharry County called Stringers patent. He also leaves his livestock, farm implements, wearing apparel his Holland gun, his Tanner and Furriers utensils and notes that they are already in Edward’s possession, and that he is already living on the land in 1801. He also leaves him is clothing, and one would assume either it fits him, or was working man’s farm clothing, and Joseph, who does not get similar items or clothing would have no need for it.

To Joseph, he gives the remainder of his real estate, where he (William) “now lives”, and “the same may be found”. Joseph also gets the English Bible, and Jacob a negro slave. (Albany county records of sales show Joseph purchased a slave called Jacob prior to that, so either the sale was in his name, or Jacob was a popular name for slaves.) I was so surprised to find those records in the New York City Public Library, that and lots of other stuff. Anyway, William stipulates that Anna, his second wife be given 100 pounds and that Joseph, Eydtche and Maria annually pay her 20 pounds annually for her life. (Edward has no such mandate) To the two daughters, he bequeaths his two wenches, female slaves, and sums of moneys to each daughter.

There is a codicil made in 1805 with some significant changes. First of all, the slave Jacob and wenches, Dina and Deyone and to be set free upon his death, implying that the farm had less need of them, or farm labor came from another source, or he had a bout of conscience William at this point was 86, too old to farm, and Joseph had many daughters, maybe one son who was not alive when he made his will, and perhaps the source of income and sustenance was elsewhere. Joseph himself was at this point 57, his daughters married and some of them by reading Joseph’s will could have been farming land contingent to the Groom family farm. (MORE RESEARCH).. The names of Brandow, Wilham Tolley and John Van Loon are all names of extended family with lands in the near surrounds.

Another point in the codicil is that instead of giving all farm related items to Edward along with clothing, etc, he should get only 1/2 and he and Joseph should share everything 50/50. It also orders that all bonds, notes, book debts, etc, be given to the 2 daughters, and that 100 pounds be given to Edward (no reason given).

The executers of William’s will are Joseph and William Brandow, grandson. This is the only reference I have found as to the relationship of a William Brandow who married Maria Patterson and fathered numerous children in the 1790’s and eventually moved to Oak Hill. The sponsors for the first child were John and Sarah Claw and this is only important because the name Claw appears in future deeds for the Howard Hall property. I guess they were all marrying neighbors.

An ongoing correspondence 5 ...

So that is a legitimate question; how did farmers in 1780’s make enough money to build grand houses? You also thought it would have been a little house that had additions as the family grew, and we are sure it was built as one big sort of manor house with out buildings. Of course, we may find out all sorts of things when we poke around. But back to your questions. Not sure really, and want to ask the local historian at the research library as she is a “social historian” and has wonderful insight into not just what happened at a given time, but why people did the things they did, what motivated the culture. Sort of an anthropologist, I guess, and I hope to get some insight from her.

While we don’t know fully about the finances or income sources of the family, we can assume the Groom family was prosperous enough to not only build a rather grand house for a farm, but were able to acquire other land holdings as well as the farm. At some point prior to 1801, William purchased 2 farm lots in Schoharry County, (mentioned in his will) and Joseph purchased another 100 acre lot, listed as Expense lot 27 from the Catskill patent, land sold as further partitioning of the Loonenburg patent. By the time of William’s death in 1812, a home in the Village of Athens had been purchased (no, don’t have record of that either) as William is listed as being a resident of the Village, and Joseph who sells the property within months of the father’s death, also then resides in the Village, where he becomes active in it’s formation into a town 3 years hence.

That the Groom family held an emotional attachment to the farm could be assumed because the family burial grounds were there and Joseph made sure the burial plot was exempted from the sale in 1812 and future sales. In his will of 1831, he gave it to the custody of the Dutch Reformed Church. (another thing to research) Sarah, wife of William was the first of 4 family members to be buried there. The other 3 being William, Joseph and his wife Rachael. Even though both William and Joseph remarried after the deaths of Sarah and Rachael, neither second wife seems to be part of the family plot. A footnote in Beers History of Greene County states: “Upon this farm is the burying ground of the Groom Family, overgrown with weeds. A headstone almost level with the ground bears the following inscription: ‘To the memory of Joseph Groom, who died August 15, 1832, age 85. this marks the resting place of the man who was president of the village and one of its most influential citizens. William Groom died April 18, 1812, age 93; Sarah, wife of William Groom died March 11 1788, aged 40; Rachael, wife of Joseph Groom died August 20,, 1795, aged 47.” There is also no mention of Edward and his family, who by the time William died were living in Schoharry County.

An Ongoing Correspondence

So a few weeks ago, I started, armed with a small clipping my friend Ursula had found in the NY Times on how to research the history of ”your” house, I embarked on what I assumed would be a hastily dispatched chore. I looked at the warnings of the difficulties in really coming up with concrete information with a sort of lofty distain; I, of course would use my intuitive research skills and cut through the drudgery in record time and, well, just get on with it.

And so I did, at least, start. Frankly, owing nothing to a single ability I possess, the most important fragment of information came right at the beginning of the process from the Vedder Research Library (for Greene County history. Reggie and I dashed up there for one of the rare open library moments and while trying to decide how to plunge into the task, we stood staring at a map of Greene County of about 1881 or so, and realized that it showed what we were pretty sure was our house with the horse-shoe drive and indications of another drive around the back of the house for deliveries. And there was a name on the house: George Griffin. Considering there were very few names of actual people on that map, this seemed terribly impressive and from there, I was sure that all we had to do was find George and home free!

Then, the most amazing thing was that upon scanning a copy of the Beer’s “History of Greene County”, in the Athens history part, suddenly the name of George Griffin popped up again, but this time referencing not only the previous owner who sold it to him, but the owner before, who, it stated, was a “very prominent man of his day”; Joseph Groom. A definite tingle-all-over moment! But the tingle will have to do until I get more time to do the forging ahead some more stuff.