My Paternal Ancestry - New World

[Tom Wetmore]

In order from me - 

 

Thomas Wetmore - Kenneth Wetmore - Elton Wetmore - William Riley Wetmore - Sluman Wetmore - Orrin Wetmore - Nathan Wetmore - Beriah (III) Wetmore - Beriah (II) Wetmore - Beriah (I) Wetmore - Thomas Wetmore -  John Whitmore

Edited November 1, 2014 by Tom Wetmore
adding John Whitmore

[Tom Wetmore]

Thomas Wetmore (Whitmore)  emigrated from England in 1635 arriving in Roxbury in Massachusetts Colony.  The records are a bit sketchy but it appears that he followed his father John Whitmore, Sr., who may have arrived in Boston in 1630.  Thomas had  2 brothers, Frances and John, Jr. and two sisters, Mary and Ann and his mother Hannah Jessop Whitmore that also settled in the new world. I am not as certain of their time of arrival here.  

 

It appears that Thomas or his children may have adopted the spelling of our surname as Wetmore, although it is unclear.  His own will spells the surname 3 different ways. He had 17 children by 3 wives, 13 of which were with his first wife Sarah Hall Wetmore from whom I am a descendant through their ninth child, Beriah.  Of the 17 children all but 2  survived to adulthood and one died at age 25 before being married.

 

Most of the Wetmores (Whitmores) settled in Connecticut, except for Frances, Ann and Mary, who settled in Massachusetts.  Thomas was among the first  25 settlers of what is now known as Middletown and Middlesex County.  It appears from his will that distributes land to all of his children that he must have owned a considerable amount.  He was quite active in the community, holding various posts.

 

John Whitmore, Sr. died in New Haven Connecticut in 1648, murdered by Indians.  This has a certain amount of significance in the family history, considering a story that appears later regarding Judge Seth Wetmore, his grandson, and if my calculation is correct, my 1st cousin 6th removed. (More later when I find the story.)

[Stan]

this is just so interesting...  thank you...

[Tom Wetmore]

While many of the descendants of Thomas Wetmore stayed for generations in Connecticut, and some still to this day, and other parts of New England, some began to spread across the land and into Canadian territory.  Some that moved north did so after the Revolutionary War, since they had been British loyalists.

 

It appears from the records that a considerable number ended up spread across northern Pennsylvania and a few in upstate NY.  The first in my line to arrive in the area of PA where I grew up was my Great-great Grandfather Sluman and/or my Great-great-great Grandfather Orrin. From what I understand they were all woodsmen and farmers.  My father and uncle cleared a great deal of the woodland on our farm for cultivation and pasture.  

[Tom Wetmore]

Judge Seth Wetmore was a prominent citizen of Middletown.  You can google his name and find a fair bit of info about him.  But here is one tidbit. The house that he built in 1746 still stands and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It was occupied by Wetmores for over 200 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Wetmore_House  and http://patch.com/connecticut/middletown-ct/majestic-wetmore-house . Here is a pic from http://historicbuildingsct.com/?p=685 - 

[phkrause]

  info Tom

[Tom Wetmore]

In keeping with Veterans/Remembrance day, here is a picture of my great great uncle, Warren Wetmore that fought in the Civil War and died at Andersonville, along with an estimated 13,000 other prisoners of war.  He was about 19 when he died, having enlisted in Co. G 149th PA Volunteer Infantry.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Very cool photo, Tom!  Did you know that the 149th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was known as the "2nd Bucktail Regiment"?  They were all sharpshooters, and each soldier wore a bucktail on his cap as a symbol of marksmanship.  

[Johann]

Is it surpricing that you ventured into Swedish influence?

[Tom Wetmore]

Very cool photo, Tom!  Did you know that the 149th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was known as the "2nd Bucktail Regiment"?  They were all sharpshooters, and each soldier wore a bucktail on his cap as a symbol of marksmanship.  

That is interesting!  I did not know that.  But it makes sense since many would have come from an area of PA where hunting was a means of survival.  I know I have a number of "buck hunters" in the family still.

[Jeannieb43]

Delightful.

 

How many years of research did it take you to come up with this genealogy?

[Tom Wetmore]

I can't take credit for the primary research.  I just dabble in it from time to time. My brother is the most diligent family historian and has carefully done much of it. He has been at it for quite a few years, building on previous generations', work including a book published in the mid-1800's on the Wetmore history in America back to Thomas Wetmore (Whitmore) coming over from Engalnd in 1635. On our mother's side we also had a known genealogy tracing back to the Mayflower, including a published list of Mayflower descendants that includes our mother's name. (More on that perhaps in future thread here. I have posted some about that before.) But there is a wealth of info out on the Internet that helps confirm some bits and fill in gaps. I keep finding bits and pieces. My brother usually already knows about what I find, although I think I have gotten a few things he didn't know about.

[Tom Wetmore]

Since both lines of my heritage go back into New England for many generations, it sets up the question and possibility that some ancestors from both sides of the family tree may have crossed paths or interacted, long before my Mom and Dad met in Takoma Park, MD.  My brother has found some evidence of that.  One such bit of evidence is an old letter found in an old house in Massachusetts (if I remember correctly) that had been in the family on my mother's side for generations.  It was written to some who had lived there in one of the previous generations by a John Wetmore.  It was clear from the content of the letter that they were close friends.

 

And in a similar vein, my brother pointed out that the 149th PA Volunteers, in which our gg uncle Warren had enlisted, participated in the Civil War battle at Spotsylvania, a battle in which our maternal  first cousin 4th removed died.  It is quite possible they both were on the battle field together during that battle.

[Tom Wetmore]

In keeping with that tendency of family lines intersecting or at least interacting in some significant way, I recently learned an interesting bit of family connection trivia in the reading of my mother's life sketch at her funeral.  As my brother read about my parents wedding in 1947 he noted that Pastor Ashton, the pastor of Sligo Church in Takoma Park, MD perform the ceremony.  As it turns out, Pastor Ashton was my wife's great uncle! 

[Jeannieb43]

Now I have to comment!

I remember your parents in Takoma Park in 1947.   That was the year I graduated from the eighth grade there at Sligo School, and the "big college kids" were people we all looked up to, so I did know lots of their names.  I remember your father, who had red hair as I recall.

AND....   Elder Ned Sullivan Ashton was the pastor of our church (Sligo church) in Takoma Park, and he baptized me!   [That would have been in 1944 when I was 11.]   He was a good preacher.  We all liked his sermons.

Love this history!

 

[Johann]

And my first wife was a member of the Sligo church choir around 1956-1957 although we were members of the Tacoma Park church.

[Tom Wetmore]

Truly, it is a small world!

Jeannie, yes my dad did have red hair.  His nickname was "Red".

[Tom Wetmore]

Now I have to comment!

I remember your parents in Takoma Park in 1947.   That was the year I graduated from the eighth grade there at Sligo School, and the "big college kids" were people we all looked up to, so I did know lots of their names.  I remember your father, who had red hair as I recall.

AND....   Elder Ned Sullivan Ashton was the pastor of our church (Sligo church) in Takoma Park, and he baptized me!   [That would have been in 1944 when I was 11.]   He was a good preacher.  We all liked his sermons.

Love this history!

 

​Is this the guy you remember? 

 

[Jeannieb43]

Oh dear!   I don't remember his face exactly -- only the fact that he was tall, and that he had red hair.   I'm sure this is the same man.

 

It's neat, getting to go back to my childhood again, in memory.

 

 

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Tom, this newspaper article from today is about your distant cousin, Carroll Heath.  His 7th great grandparents were John Whitmore and Hannah Jessup.  Carroll descended from their son, Francis Whitmore, brother of your 8th great grandfather, Thomas.

Kinda interesting!!

 

Forgotten for decades, fallen NY soldier finally honored

By CHRIS CAROLA Associated Press Published: May 24, 2015 at 1:10 PM PDT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Carroll Heath didn't have it easy growing up in the Great Depression. His father wasn't around, his mother was a patient in a mental hospital and he kept largely to himself. Soon after graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army and wound up in the Philippines, where he's believed to have died sometime in 1942.

It was a short life that went largely unnoticed, even in Pvt. Heath's western New York hometown of Gowanda. For 70 years, he was the forgotten soldier, his name not listed among the town's war dead, not inscribed on a World War II memorial in the middle of town.

And that's likely how things would have remained had it not been for one of Heath's high school classmates, a now-92-year-old WWII vet who enlisted his son to track down fading recollections that Heath went off to the Philippines to fight the Japanese and never came back.

"The guy had a pretty tough life," Robert Mesches said by phone from his retirement home in Port St. Lucie, Florida. "This man should be remembered."

Late last year, 66-year-old Alan Mesches, who grew up in Gowanda and now lives outside Dallas, began trying to find out what happened to Heath. "I'd like to complete the story. I'd like to see him get recognition."

It hasn't been easy. Heath wasn't married and had no children. Little was known about Heath when he attended Gowanda High, and only a handful of his classmates are still living.

Alan Mesches, an Air Force veteran, spent the past several months tracking down every bit of information available on Heath, from census listings to school records to military documents. He learned that Heath was born in 1919 and was shuffled among relatives living in several rural communities around Gowanda, 30 miles south of Buffalo.

Heath's name appeared in the 1940 census as living with an aunt and uncle on a farm near Gowanda. The same census listed his mother as a patient at the Gowanda State Hospital, a psychiatric facility. His mother apparently remained a patient at the hospital until her death in 1962.

Heath didn't enter the Gowanda school system until 1936. He was already a few years older than his classmates, which may have accounted for his relative anonymity in a group that had known one another since first grade.

"With all the bouncing around, he was probably in and out of school," Alan Mesches said. "It wasn't unusual in the Depression era for kids not to go to school all the time."

Heath's senior picture appears in the 1940 edition of the Gowanda High year book. Unlike most seniors, he didn't list any school activities. The yearbook staff's description of him reads: "Quiet, curly locks, good natured."

Heath enlisted in the Army in late February 1941. By December of that year, he was serving in the Army's 1st Signal Training Battalion on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. On Dec. 8, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese warplanes bombed U.S. air bases on Luzon. Days later, Japanese troops began landing. The battle for the Philippines would last into early May 1942, when American forces finally surrendered.

The U.S. military listed Heath as missing in action as of May 7, 1942. His remains were listed as "unrecoverable" and his date of death listed as Dec. 31, 1942. How and where Heath died is unknown. He's among the more than 73,000 Americans still listed as MIA in World War II.

Alan Mesches said he has been unable to find any living relatives of Heath's. Nevertheless, he's still trying to learn anything else he can about his final months in the hope of someday finding out where his body is.

In the meantime, the Gowanda Historical Society recently said it will add Heath's name to the community's World War II memorial later this year after repairs of damage from a 2009 flood are complete.

[Liz]

In keeping with Veterans/Remembrance day, here is a picture of my great great uncle, Warren Wetmore that fought in the Civil War and died at Andersonville, along with an estimated 13,000 other prisoners of war.  He was about 19 when he died, having enlisted in Co. G 149th PA Volunteer Infantry.

​I have an ancestor that was also at Andersonville, Amos W. Ames, he kept a diary while he was a prisoner of war. He talks about the day to day things like the weather, what they had to eat, and how they were treated. He also talks about prisoner escapes and what happens when they are found, the rumors of being traded, and the Lincoln assassination and the surrender of Gen. Lee. Naturally I only have a copy of the diary, the original was donated to the State Department of History and Archives.

[Tom Wetmore]

Pam that is interesting.  I have not explored any of Francis Whitmore's line. This is the first I have seen anything about any of his descendants. As I recall he settled in Boston.  There were also two sisters and a brother John who died in his early 20s before having any children.  

 

[Tom Wetmore]

​I have an ancestor that was also at Andersonville, Amos W. Ames, he kept a diary while he was a prisoner of war. He talks about the day to day things like the weather, what they had to eat, and how they were treated. He also talks about prisoner escapes and what happens when they are found, the rumors of being traded, and the Lincoln assassination and the surrender of Gen. Lee. Naturally I only have a copy of the diary, the original was donated to the State Department of History and Archives.

​Liz, does the diary mention any names of fellow prisoners? i am sure it is an interesting read.

[Liz]

Just a couple; John B. Chaney, Charles Nelson, Samuel Hutton, J.Z. Darwin, Sargeant Fees, Henry Stoll (who was a cousin) and the infamous Capt. Wirz who ran it.