Edward Harned (1831-1904) - The Youngest

 

Edward Harned 1831-1904
(colorized by My Heritage)

Quakers John Harned and Phebe Laing married 27 March 1811 and ten months later, Jennette was born. Then came Rachel, Jonathan, Jacob, Mary, John, Phebe, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph, Rebecca and bringing up the rear, child #11 was our direct ancestor, Edward Harned. He arrived 10 Jan 1831 in Woodbridge, New Jersey. On a side note, I had a Harned 'cousin' challenge me on whether Edward was in this family or not. As you can see, he was the last born, there at the bottom left. There is also a Quaker Meeting record showing his birth and his parents.

  His mother, Phebe, died when he was just 8 years old. His father married Elizabeth Shotwell 4 years later. We can assume Edward had a fairly typical Quaker upbringing, but there are no records from his childhood or youth.

  Quakers believed in the inner light – the idea that God was a spiritual presence within each individual and could speak to all humans through the words and actions of anyone. Quaker meetinghouses were unadorned spaces where men and women worshipped equally. On Sundays, which they called ‘First Day,” they worshipped in silence, waiting until “the spirit found them,” and inspired them to speak. They tended to reject worldliness and became easy to recognize because of their use of the pronouns ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ and their refusal to doff their hats to social superiors since they believed in a spiritual equality. Edward’s father, John, passed away in 1848, when Edward was just 17. At age 20, Edward received his legacy from his father’s will: $300. [Today this would be almost $10,000.] In the next year or so, he married Hannah Anne Yardley. They had 6 children: Lydia, Harriet (our ancestor), Horace, Ruthanna, John, and Anna. From tax records in the mid-1850s we can see that Edward bought himself a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, probably made possible by his legacy from his father. He had 35 acres of land worth $48/acre, 2 horses and 3 cattle. The taxable value was $1793. By 1860 he and his family are living in Bel Air, Maryland, on a farm valued at $6000. But in 1870 they are back in Bucks County. Wouldn’t we like knowing what that move was about?

In 1863 he registered for the draft, but his record says “Paid Commutation.” The Quakers took this stance: “We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons for any end or under any pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world.” [George Fox] In the North, if a man called to military service could provide a substitute or pay a $300 Commutation Fee, he was exempted from serving. It appears that Edward’s conscience didn’t allow him to serve, though where he would have come up with $300 is not known. In 1873 a “Certificate of Removal” from Rahway, NJ (Plainfield Monthly Meeting) recommended him as a member in the Mt. Holly Monthly Meeting, Burlington, New Jersey. So they’ve moved again.

He has been hired to take care of the Mt. Holly meetinghouse in 1880. He was to be paid $32 per year! Later that year the Mt. Holly Meeting was informed that Edward Harned was not satisfied with his pay, so they raised it to $40/year. In 1884 his pay was raised to $4/month! In 1891 Edward requested that his Certificate be transferred to Haddonfield from Mt. Holly because he would be nearer the Camden Meeting. His daughter, Harriet had married William C. Forman in 1886 and was living in the Camden area, as was his son, Horace, so they probably wanted to be near their children as they got older.

Edward passed away 2 May 1904 and was buried in the Mt. Holly Friends’ Burial Ground. Hannah died 10 Jun 1910 and was buried next to him. Our ancestry: Edward & Hannah Anne Yardley Harned >> Harriet Yardley Harned >> Edgar Charles Forman >> Edgar Ross, Ivan Lake or Ward Harned Forman

Ann Curtis Kriebel (1955-1983)

Ann Curtis Kriebel is my 4th cousin. I never met her but we were born just about a year apart - me in 1954 in California, Ann in 1955, Ohio. I 'met' her while extending our Harned line from common ancestors John Harned (1783-1848) and Phoebe Laing (1790-1839). I was first intrigued by her birth year, but then struck by the fact that she died in 1983 at age 28 in Costa Rica. Why was she there? I had to know more about this cousin.

I was able to locate her story written in the 15 December 1984 Friends Journal-Quaker Thought and Life Today. The article, titled Gracias a la Vida was written by Joyce Balderston.

Ann Curtis Kriebel - the name brings to mind happy smiles, big hugs, backpacks, fresh loaves of bread, walks in the woods, dulcimers, songs and singing, weaving, and hours of sharing ideas, plans, and dreams. My earliest recollection of Ann was in Wooster Friends Meeting, in Wooster, Ohio, when she was 11 years old and sitting quietly with her parents. Not having grown up as a Friend, I wondered how a young person could sit so quietly for an hour and what could be happening in that silence.

 Her Quaker background is mentioned with roots dating back to some of America's earliest history. Her mother's family [and ours - Harned] had been New Jersey Friends since their arrival in Burlington, New Jersey in 1683. 

Ann with guitar in San Luis, Costa Rica

She was educated at a private Quaker school: Westtown School, where her philosophy of simplicity began to develop. The verse about not laying up treasure on earth but rather in heaven led her to limit her own personal belongings. 

When asked to sing to her new friends in Costa Rica with her dulcimer she chose to sing "Simple Gifts." 

"Quakers have a testimony about simplicity," she explained. "To put material cares aside, and other more important things first..."

She struggled to define simplicity in a world of such obvious physical contrasts. "What does it really mean to 'live simply'? Will we arrive once we sell our blender and stereo? Does it mean giving up electricity and building an outhouse? Does simplicity come with making our own bread and granola? Is it really a matter of our material possessions or, rather, a state of mind, heart, and spirit? One of the lines of the song 'Simple Gifts' got stuck in my mind: 'When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed.' "

Ann attended Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. She first volunteered in Mexico after her junior year, and later worked in the barrios of Mexico City after she graduated. From there she moved to Monteverde, Costa Rica, a Friends community high in the mountains. She taught in the community school using her skills in language, music, and drama, teaching English to the Spanish-speaking and Spanish to the English-speaking. 

She returned to the United States in 1980 to teach Spanish-speaking adults in Boston. She struggled with the values of the high-tech, urban existence there. At the end of the year, she returned to Monteverde and secured funding for a literacy program in San Luis. In a letter home, she wrote: 

"Ovideo Leiton, who is in my literacy class, stood up and read aloud a two-page report, complete with lists of figures, and he did it beautifully...People seem proud of their pasts and eager to tell their stories...I wrote a song about deforestation, which I sang as Guillermo pantomimed it in dancelike fashion."

She wrote of the incredible success of the eyeglass project they were wrapping up. "But it will take some time to get used to suddenly seeing San Luis farmers in glasses!"

She was pleased with the seeds that she had helped to plant but was anxious for the people to be committed to furthering their own projects to address the needs of their people. 'Sometimes when you're so in the thick of it it's hard to see what's really going on, but then looking back...something has definitely happened - is happening - oftentimes very intangible, but still evident in subtle ways."

She died 24 November 1983 of an infection while serving in Costa Rica.

"True simplicity should connote not poverty but, rather, a richness of spirit, a joy in living, the nurturing of creativity, sensitivity to the natural world, and love for all its creatures. As an expression of this love, this true simplicity, we must then, too, commit ourselves to building a more equitable world - a world in which this simplicity may thrive and be enjoyed by everyone: 'And when we find ourselves in the place just right it will be in the valley of love and delight.' "

--excerpt from an article written by Ann Kriebel and published in the Friends Journal 15 Dec 1984

Her pedigree: Ann Curtis Kriebel>>Dorothea Harned Reeder>>Walter Lewis Reeder>> Alice H. Harned>>John Harned>>John Harned & Phebe Laing (where we intersect with her.)

Religious Freedom is in our Blood

Bowne House in Flushing, Queens, New York

One of the oldest homes in our family tree is still standing in Flushing, Queens, New York after 357 years. John Bowne (1627-1695) built his salt-box style Dutch farmhouse around 1661 on land purchased from the Matincock Indians for eight strings of wampum. (about $14)

John Bowne

John married Hannah Feake (1637-1677), daughter of Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett (remember her?) in 1656. Hannah was practically early American royalty, being the great-niece of John Winthrop, the founder and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As part of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, Flushing was subject to the laws of the colony. The heads of the Reformed Dutch Church disapproved of Quakerism, so Governor Peter Stuyvesant issued an edict “forbidding anyone in the colony to entertain a Quaker or to allow a Quaker meeting to be held in his or her house under penalty of a fine of fifty pounds.” Strong words considering the fact that the same colony housed a large number of Quakers (Friends), who at that time had to worship in the woods to avoid detection. “The story goes that Hannah Bowne was nursing her baby by a frosty window looking out into the deeps of the Flushing Forest. She heard hymns, saw a flicker of candlelight between the trees—hulking oaks and big, stalwart tulip trees pointing straight up to heaven. She put her baby in the cradle and walked out the door in her white nightdress, the poplin cool against her skin, feeling strange and beautiful in the evening light. She followed the voices, found the Friends missionizing by a stump, off in the distance, who took her in their arms, and sung her back to camp.”The Bowne House: A Story of Religious Freedom                                     Hannah became a Quaker before her husband ever joined. Because of her he allowed Quaker meetings in his home, a famous act of civil disobedience. Because of her he was arrested for doing so. By then he had become a Quaker himself and though pacifist by persuasion, he didn’t intend to go down easily.  

John Bowne Before Governor Stuyvesant

“Bowne refused to pay his fine or to admit any wrongdoing, even refusing to escape when his cell door was conveniently left open for him. By this time, a no-doubt exasperated Stuyvesant felt that he had no choice but to banish Bowne and to send him packing on the next ship bound for Holland. But, wink-wink, he told him that he was free to get off the ship at any point before it reached its final destination.” Hannah Feake Bowne, Not Just Your Average Quaker John presented his case before the Dutch West India Company in Holland. The burghers in Holland fired off a letter to Governor Stuyvesant that said: “The consciences of men at least ought ever to remain free and unshackled.” Take that, Governor Stuyvesant!

John returned, vindicated, to his wife in New York (New Netherlands came under English rule in 1664). Quaker meetings were held twice a week in the Bowne home for the next thirty years. While John was jailed, Hannah is said to have conducted Quaker meetings in his absence. She raised eight children but found time for missionary work, traveling to Ireland and England to pursue fundraising for the Quaker movement. While in London in 1677 she became ill and died there. The John and Hannah Bowne Home is considered by many to be the birthplace of American religious freedom. (It is now owned and operated by The Bowne House Historical Society.)

 Our ancestry: John & Hannah Bowne>>Mary Johanna Bowne>>Jacob Thorne>>Mary Thorne>>Jacob Laing>>Phebe Laing>>Edward Harned>>Harriet Yardley Harned>>Edgar Charles Forman . . .

Black Sheep - Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett

How would you like to read a story that includes Indian massacres, abusive politicians, the colonial turf wars in Connecticut (Dutch? English?), the oppressiveness of religious institutions (those Puritans didn’t stand for any nonsense!), the drawing of town and state lines, the growing influence of the Quakers, all intertwined with one woman’s stormy life? I’ve mentioned this ancestor before but she fills the bill for this week’s prompt: Black Sheep. Though I would classify her more as a pioneer and survivor, for the times in which she lived I’m sure she was a black sheep – she definitely stood out! Born in 1610, Elizabeth Fones was the daughter of Thomas Fones, an apothecary in London, and Anne Winthrop. Anne’s father, Adam Winthrop, was a wealthy Suffolk clothier. His success enabled him to join the gentry and so the Winthrops became squires and lords of Groton Manor.

John Winthrop, later governor of Massachusetts

In 1629 Elizabeth married her first cousin, Henry Winthrop, son of John Winthrop who later became the first governor of Massachusetts. John was a devout Puritan and lawyer, and became the leader of the Winthrop Fleet, the first 1000 settlers to sail to Massachusetts with the Massachusetts Bay Company. 
In 1630, Henry left for Massachusetts aboard the Talbot in Winthrop’s Fleet (after being too late to catch the Arabella and travel with his father some months earlier.) Elizabeth remained in England awaiting the birth of their first child. On 2 July, the Talbot arrived in Salem, intending to then proceed to Charlestown. Henry saw a native canoe on the opposite side of the North River. He jumped in the river to investigate, but a few minutes later he was "seized with cramps" and went down in full sight of his friends, who could not swim.
Elizabeth arrived in Massachusetts 2 Nov 1631 with her new baby. She made the crossing on the Lyon with several family members and about 100 other passengers.
Within months of arriving, her uncle Governor John Winthrop encouraged her to marry Lt. Robert Feake, a wealthy landowner. The Feakes acquired more land in what is now Greenwich, Connecticut. Elizabeth is considered one of the founders of Greenwich; the area now called “Greenwich Point” was earlier known as “Elizabeth’s Neck” in recognition of Elizabeth Fones and the 1640 purchase of the Point and much of what is today Old Greenwich. The deed reads: "...except ye neck by ye Indians called Monakewago, by us Elizabeth Neck, which neck is ye peticaler perchace of Elizabeth Feaks, ye sd Robt Feaks his wife, to be hers and her heaires or assigns, forever….” Undoubtedly, Elizabeth used her own money, probably what she inherited from her father’s estate, to make this purchase. The fact that a woman held property in her own name was viewed with dismay in the rigid society of that time.

Elizabeth Neck (now Greenwich Point, Connecticut)

Elizabeth and Robert had five children; Elizabeth, Hannah (through whom we descend), John, Robert and Sarah.

Robert began to exhibit signs of mental illness fairly early in the marriage and eventually abandoned his family by living apart and then returning to England. Elizabeth later married Robert’s business manager, William Hallett. This was scandalous in the Puritan world because it didn’t appear that Elizabeth and Robert had divorced, and he was still alive. (Robert eventually did return to America and ended up being supported by the town of Watertown between 1650 and his death 12 years later, still insane.) In 1966 Donald Lines Jacobus reviewed this sticky problem, and came to the conclusion that Robert Feake and his wife did obtain a divorce from the Dutch government, that she had married William Hallett by August 1649, and that the marriage was performed by John Winthrop Jr., her former brother-in-law. Because of the scandal, Elizabeth and William left Connecticut for the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands/New York and settled in an area called Hallett’s Cove, now known as Astoria, Queens, near Hell Gate.

Map detail showing Hallett's plantation (now Astoria, Queens)

In September 1655, their family, now including two sons, William and Samuel, survived an attack by the Hackensack tribe of Indians. The house and farm buildings burnt to the ground. Elizabeth then purchased land in Flushing and Newtown. The following year William was made the chief official of Flushing. In 1664 William purchased all of Hell Gate Neck, Riker’s and Berrien’s Islands from the Indians for the sum of 58 fathom of wampum, 7 coats, 1 blanket, 4 kettles.
Since writing the original story about Elizabeth, I've learned that we also directly descend from her son William Jr. from husband William Hallett.  (William Hallett >> William Hallett Jr. >> Rebecca Hallett >> John Jackson who married Sarah Doty - 3 generations before is our Mayflower ancestor, Edward Doty >> Mary Jackson >> Rachel Shotwell >> Phebe Laing >> Edward Harned >> Harriet Yardley Harned >> Edgar Charles Forman . . .)
Upon the marriage of daughter Hannah Feake to John Bowne, Elizabeth and William Hallett joined them in becoming Quakers. The Puritans who had made her life so difficult had not turned her completely from God. Elizabeth died about 1665 (some records say 1673) at about age 55 in Newtown, Queens County, New York. William died in 1690. As descendants of Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett, as well as of her daughter Hannah Feake Bowne, we have famous company. Amelia Earhart, John Kerry, Bill Gates and Johnny Depp are also descendants!                       

Read more about our illustrious ancestress: 
Insubordinate Spirit: A True Story of Life and Loss in Earliest America 1610-1665 by Missy Wolfe (this is a well-researched book)

Winthrop Woman by Anya Seaton (this is more of a fictionalized version)

Our Pedigree from Elizabeth: Elizabeth>>>Hannah Feake>>>Mary Bowne>>>Jacob Thorne>>>Mary Thorne>>> Jacob Laing (at this point, if we followed his wife Rachel Shotwell, we’d arrive at our Mayflower ancestor, Edward Doty)>>>Phebe Laing>>>Edward Harned>>>Harriett Yardley Harned>>>Edgar Charles Forman . . .

Originally posted at FamilySearch.org Memories