Last night when I was trying to sort out the Blinkhorn family I remembered that there was a section on the Blinkhorns in Bernard Bailyn's book Voyagers to the West. The reason I'd been working on the Blinkhorn family tree is because they owned the property just to the north of the William Ripley purchase from DesBarres. It turns out that in 1795 Captain John MacDonald, an agent for DesBarres, had made a tour of all of the DesBarres leased lands in Nappan and Maccan and given a full report. He was especially impressed with the farm of William Blinkhorn which he described in great detail, and with Thomas Coates and William Pipes Jr. (both my 4th great grandfathers). I learned that Thomas and William had organized and raised money for a community initiative to build a bridge across the Nappan River and that William had nearly failed as a farmer the first three years but now prospered and had built an especially fine barn. Bailyn quoted extensively from a biography of DesBarres by Geraint Evans entitled The Uncommon Obdurate: the several public carreers of J. F. W. DesBarres. I ordered it for about $10 from Amazon and can't wait to read it as I expect there will also be reports about the farms of William Ripley and possibly Henry Ripley who also leased from DesBarres. DesBarres lived to be 104 and danced on a table to celebrate his 100th birthday. Bailyn, who is 91, is still a history professor at Harvard. Along with my 3 octogenarians in Maccan , it seems I'm getting lots of help from the older generations this week.
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When Robert Salter Ripley sold the house by the Maccan Bridge to Frank Blenkhorn, he exempted the Blacksmith Shop on the road to Maccan Station. Now I don't recall seeing any Blacksmith Shops around and thought maybe it had been turned into the Boss Garage. Gordon Boss's number was busy so I called up Bud Hurley and asked him if there were any Blacksmith Shops around when he was a kid. "Sure," he said. "Right across the street from where my family lived. I used to work there for Judson Trenholm. That's T-r-e-n-h-o-l-m. It isn't there anymore but it used to be just on the Amherst side of the cenotaph between the turnoff to River Hebert and Maccan Station. Next time you come I'll show it to you." Well, that was easy. Love those guys! I have finally located the house where my grandmother was likely born and posted about it on a new page called The Blenkhorn Place which you'll find under Robert Salter Ripley and Hannah Elizabeth Ripley. 5 pieces of confirming evidence have come together: a family page from an Earle Ripley that said the family homestead was near the Maccan Bridge and known as the Blenkhorn Place, 3 octogenarians in Maccan who have confirmed that Frank Blenkhorn lived in the house by the Maccan Bridge, a photo of the house from the daughter-in-law of Robert Salter Ripley's son James Trueman Ripley, and two deeds, one for Robert Salter Ripley's purchase of the property from brother-in-law William Ripley and his sale to Frank Blenkhorn. From census records I was able to determine that the family lived on the property from at least 1881 to its sale in 1896 which means my grandmother Alice Malinda Ripley (1893-1976) was likely born in the house. I also believe the property was the southernmost part of William Ripley's original 420 acre purchase from DesBarres. Very exciting stuff! Recently I was checking my tree on Ancestry and noticed that a person named Fuzzy Toes (alias Peggy Oliver) had posted photos of almost all of my grandmother's siblings and their family home. It was very exciting to see those photos for the first time and learn that she was a descendant of my grandmother's sister Emma. There must be many Langille descendants because Emma and Solomon had many children but this is my first Langille connection. So nice to meet you, Peggy! I added a new page to the Robert Salter Ripley and Hannah Elizabeth Ripley section today. The "problem" is that Robert S. and Hannah E. are both Ripleys. I hesitate to call it a problem because I don't mind being a double Ripley and as far as I know, nobody ended up with 6 heads. We know how Hannah E. is related to the original Robert and Isabella Ripley but we don't know the parentage of Robert Salter Ripley's father Andrew C. Ripley. So we don't know whether Robert and Hannah were cousins. Apparently Ernest Coates had the same question because he wrote to Robert's grandson Robert Douglas Ripley and his wife Edith Seaman to find out. I found 3 letters written by Robert and Edith to Ernest Coates this summer while going through the Ernest Coates papers. I assumed that Robert and Edith had passed away but yesterday I discovered they had not and was delighted to speak with Edith and their son by phone. Today copies of the letters are on the way to them along with some photographs they may help me identify. Apparently Edith has written a family history which I hope to see one day as I am curious to see who she assigns as the father of Andrew C. Ripley. But my favourite part of the conversation was her talking about my grandmother Alice Malinda Ripley whom she remembers as "Ally".
Today I added some information about the family of Hannah Coates who married Robert and Isabella Ripley's son William. Like Robert and Isabella Ripley, Thomas Coates and Martha Ann Hood would be my 4th great grandparents. I have not yet investigated the Coates family to the extent that I have explored the Ripley family. The information about family members that I have posted on the Mallory/Ripley tree on Ancestry. com is mainly derived from other online trees. However, I understand the importance of investigating several generations and the family connections surrounding the family in which you're mainly interested. Often, it's in those tangential investigations that you discover additional interesting information about the original family and begin to form an understanding of the entire community in which the early settlers lived. On my July 2014 trip I took photos of the Nappan Experimental farm which may turn out to be the original homestead of Thomas Coates. However, more investigation will be required. |
AuthorHi there! My name is Mallory Burton and I started researching the Ripley family in 2011. I'd describe myself as a careful amateur who's more interested in story than names and dates. I hope you enjoy my website and blog. I also have a public Mallory/Ripley tree on Ancestry with over 4,000 names. To contact me, please comment on any one of my blog posts. Archives
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