2020 Prompt - Strong Women - Phebe Arbogast

Phebe Arbogast, 1795-1889 - my third great grandmother

Nancy Simmons to Paul Simmons to Walter Simmons to Andrew Simmons to Phebe Rexroad to Phebe Arbogast

I come from a family of strong women. My daughter, my sisters, my mother, all amazing and very strong women. Phebe Arbogast, my third great grandmother was a very strong women. She had to be strong since she was born in 1795 during a time when life for women was very difficult. Hardships were expected and one was not a child very long before marriage, birthing and household responsibilities consumed a women’s life. Phebe died in 1889[1] at the age of 94. You had to be strong to survive!

Phebe was the sixth of seven children born to Henry and Sophia Wade Arbogast on February 1, 1796[2].  She was born of German descent, her grandfather Michael Arbogast was born in Baden, Germany in 1732[3] and was in the American Colonies by 1754 and eventually settled in Crab Bottom in the county of Highland , Virginia by 1776[4] where Phebe was born.

Crab Bottom, Highland County, Virginia
Rexroad farm just north of Crab Bottom in Pendleton County

Phebe's mother Sophia, probably fell victim to the leading cause of death for women at that time, dying about 1803 due to childbirth.  Phebe was about five-year-old with six other siblings all under the age of eleven when her mother died. In 1805, as was the custom at that time, her father married a nineteen-year-old women, named Elizabeth Seybert. Phebe's stepmother proceeded to birth 12 children in the next 22 years with only one child dying as a small child.  Phebe now had eighteen siblings!  Yep, eighteen brothers and sisters! With that many children in a household you can understand why Phebe probably married at age 17 to John Rexroad on May 15, 1815 in Pendleton County.[5] When Phebe married she left 11 siblings living in the Arbogast household and then watched as seven of her half siblings were born at the same time as her first five children. Phebe had a total of nine children with her husband John Rexroad. 

Pendleton County, Virginia Marriage Record
John Rexroad to Phebe Armoncast - May 15, 1815

When Phebe married John Rexroad, he was 25 years-old and had just participated in the War of 1812. According to John's service records he had been a private in Captain Jesse Henkle's Company Virginia 5th Regiment Militia.[6] Phebe had five sons and four daughters, birthing her first child in 1817 and her ninth child, my 2nd great grandmother, in 1835. 

War of 1812 Service Record for John Rexroad & Phebe Rexroad

Life in rural western Virginia in the early 1800s was very isolated. Many German settlers had bought land in the 1760-1770 and Phebe was the second generation of Arbogast born in Pendleton County.  Because of their isolation there were many craftsmen. Her husband's family were from a long line of blacksmiths and the community had coopers, tailors, hatters and a sickle maker.  The county also produced over 50 tons of maple syrup and was quite independent of sugar and other commodities.[7] Almost every farmer raised sheep and grew flax to make their clothing. Phebe surely learned to spin flax as a child and clothed her children in this means. The South Potomac river provided streams for mills and the valley had a saltpeter works and a few distilleries. The lack of a railroad caused them to live within their means.

Spinning flax to make clothes

There was a movement in the mid-1800s to move west and in 1845 John and Phebe moved their family to Lewis County, in north central Virginia; West Virginia was not created till 1863. The 1850 Lewis County federal census[8] list John and Pheby with their three youngest children; William, Pheby and Sophia.  After 15 years in Lewis County, John and Pheby moved back to Pendleton County just before the outbreak of the Civil War.  In the 1860 federal census[9] John and Phebe are living with their daughter Margaret who married Nicholas Harper and their five Harper children.

1860 Federal Census Pendleton County, Virginia
John & Phoebe Rexroad living with daughter Margaret Harper

Pendleton County was pretty much isolated from the Civil War but on May 8, 1862 the battle of McDowell[10] was within ten miles of the Harper family.  Most Pendleton men were southern sympathizers including the Harpers who had three sons fighting for the south. Stonewall Jackson 's General Milroy took on Union Federalist, General Schenck, at the battle of McDowell and as Schenck withdrew to south of the town of Franklin, General Stonewall pursued and had to have marched quite close to the Harper family farm. Not only were three of Phebe's grandson fighting for the Confederacy but also all five of her sons. When the war over she had lost one son who died in a Confederate hospital in Richmond.

 

Battle of McDowell
The Harper farm was just a few miles north of Monterey

Two and half years after the war, Phebe's husband of 52 years died about 1867.  After losing her husband Phebe watched five of her remaining eight children leave Pendleton County and head west; heading to Ohio, Missouri and Kansas. Prior to the war her daughter Phebe, my direct ancestor, had married Aaron Simmons and moved to Ritchie County, West Virginia.

Phebe continued to live with her daughter, Margaret Harper, another 22 years and died November 14, 1889[11] at her daughter's home. She died at 94 years which is amazing and is probably buried in the Harper Cemetery.

  

Harper Cemetery in Pendleton County, West Virginia

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[1] West Virginia Research Records, Deaths, Pendleton County, 1889, line 26, Phoebe Rexroad, http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_dcresults.aspx?LastName=Rexroad&FirstName=Pheobe&County=All&Year=All&PlusMinus=Exact&Search=Exact&NumRec=25.

[2] Ibid

[3] Virkus, Frederick Adam; editor, The First Families of America, Volume VII, 1942, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1968, page 196.

[4] Morton, Oren F., A History of Highland County Virginia, The Stone Printing and Manufacturing Company, 1911, page 87.

[5] Virginia, Marriages, 1740-1850, Ancestry[6] U.S., War of 1812 Service Records, 1812-1815, Ancestry

7] Morton, page 96.

[8] 1850 District 30, Lewis County, Virginia Federal Census, page 99A, Ancestry.

[9] 1860 Pendleton County, Virginia Federal Census, Page 46, image 52, Ancestry.

[10] Morton, pages 112-113.

[11] West Virginia Research Records, Deaths, Pendleton County, 1889, line 26, Phoebe Rexroad

2020 Prompt - Disaster - Thomas Rogers

Thomas Rogers - my Eleventh Great-Grandfather & Mayflower Descendant

Lineage - Nancy Simmons to Josephine Martin to Edward Martin to Francis Martin to Elizabeth Larkins to Margaret Davis to Deborah Stephens to Robert Stephens to Thomas Stephens to Josiah Stephens to Remember Tisdale to Anna Rogers to John Rogers to Thomas Rogers

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882

One disaster that rises to the surface in my research is the tragic death of Thomas Rogers, my Mayflower 11th great grandfather. As a young man he joined the Separatist movement, married, moved his family to Leiden to escape persecution in England, sold his home and made plans to travel to the new world with his oldest son, left his family with friends in Leiden and then died within three months of arriving in Plymouth. What a DISASTER!!

He was born to William and Eleanor Rogers circa 1571 at Watford, County Northamptonshire, England.[1] When Thomas was about 14 years old his father died and we have record of him named in his father's will in 1585.[2]  On October 24, 1597 at the age of 26 he married Alice Cosford, daughter of George and Margaret Cosford.[3] 

In the late 16^th century there was a movement of people that were quite radical and were separating from the Church of England. They strongly believed that the church had not separated enough from the Catholic church and refused to sign an allegiance to the Church of England under King James.[4] They were willing to take a knee and risked their lives to stand up for freedom of the people against State and Church. 

Separatist in England

We don't know when Thomas Rogers joined the separatist movement, but his son Joseph was born in 1602 and his son John in 1606 and both were baptized in St Peter & St Paul Church in Watford.[5] Shortly after his sons were born, Thomas and Alice moved to Amsterdam with a group of Separatist, 

who were looking for religious freedom. They joined another Separatist group however this group was embroiled in scandal and controversy, and in 1609 Thomas and Alice and their group, received permission from Leiden to settle there in Holland.

St Peter & St Paul Church in Watford, Northamptonshire, England.

The Pilgrims were refugees, fleeing religious persecution in England and were looking for a city where they could live and practice their religion. Leiden became that city. On February 22, 1617, Thomas Rogers bought a house on the west side of the Barbarasteeg for 475 guilders.[6] Our earliest known encounter with Pilgrim Thomas Rogers was on June 25, 1618 when he became a citizen of Leiden, Holland.[7] His occupation in Leiden records was given as a camlet merchant.  Camlet was a luxury fabric from Asia that was made of camel's hair or angora wool mixed with silk.[8]

Thomas Rogers, occupation as a camlet, was made a burgher (citizen) in Leiden 25 June 1618

On April 1, 1620 Thomas sold his Leiden house on the Barbarasteeg for 300 guilders. [9]He used the money from the sale of his house to fund his trip to the new world. He traveled with his oldest son, Joseph, and his wife and three younger children stayed in Leiden. The children left with his wife were Elizabeth, Margaret, and John and they were living in the house of Pilgrim Anthony Clemens, a bombazine weaver.[10] This house still stands, the only one with Pilgrim connections that is largely intact.[11]

The Only house of a Pilgrim that still stands today in Leiden where his wife and children lived.

 “After living in Leiden for almost 12 years, the Separatists, by this time joined by many from other parts of England, made the decision to leave Holland in favour of traveling together to build a new life in Virginia, America – a land where they could still be English but practice their religion freely.”[12]

The first thing the Separatist did was return to England to get organized and find funding.  A prominent merchant agreed to advance the money and the Virginia Company gave them permission to settle on the East Coast between the Chesapeake Bay and the mouth of the Hudson River.[13] Much to their surprise, King James gave them permission to leave if they did it peaceably. 

In August 1620, the Separatist and another group of secular colonists set sail on two merchant ships: The Mayflower and the Speedwell. Immediately after leaving port the Speedwell began to leak and both ships returned to Plymouth.  After deciding to leave the Speedwell behind, the passengers had to decide who would travel on the Mayflower and who would stay behind.  Thomas Rogers and his son were chosen to travel on the Mayflower. Because of the delay caused by the Speedwell, the Mayflower had to cross the Atlantic during the peak of the storm season.  As a result, the journey soon became a disaster.  Many of the passenger were so seasick they could not get up and the waves were so rough that one passenger was swept overboard only to make it back in the ship by grabbing hold of a suspended rope. 

 

Life on the Mayflower only got worse.  After sixty-six days of miserable travel at sea the ship finally reached the New World only to find they were in the wrong place well north of the Virginia Company’s territory. They were off the coast of our present state of Massachusetts and technically had no right to be there.  Under these unfortunate circumstances 41 of the men on board created and signed a document they called the Mayflower Compact. They established themselves as a legitimate colony, called Plymouth. Thomas Rogers signed the Mayflower Compact that established a self-government to be governed by elected officials and “just and equal laws.”

Signing of the Mayflower Compact on board the Mayflower  November 1620

Replica of the Mayflower Compact

The colonists spent the first winter living onboard the Mayflower. Only 53 passengers and half the crew survived, being confined to the ship where disease and cold were rampant. Thomas Rogers died the first winter in January or February, leaving behind his 18-year old son Joseph.[14] Children Elizabeth and Margaret apparently came to New England later, but where they lived or whom they married remains unknown. Son John came to Plymouth about 1630, and there married Anna Churchman on April 16, 1639.[15] My family descends from John and Anna Churchman Rogers. 

The first winter for the Pilgrims was a disaster. Forty-five of the 102 Mayflower passengers died in the winter of 1620–21, including Thomas Rogers. They were probably suffering from scurvy and pneumonia caused by a lack of shelter in the cold, wet weather. Although the Pilgrims were not starving, their sea-diet was very high in salt, which weakened their bodies on the long journey and during that first winter.

Memorial to Mayflower Passengers who died in during the first year.
Coles Hill Burial Ground, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Thomas Rogers’ life ended in the cold winter of 1621. The old and the young and most of the women died that winter. Thomas Roger’s eighteen-year-old son, Joseph, survived the harsh winter, married and had several children and died about 1677.[16]  Thomas Rogers’ son John Rogers, who stayed in Leiden with his mother, eventually came to Plymouth about 1629 when the last of the Separatist arrived from Leiden. He married Anna Churchman April 16, 1639 [17]and this family line continues for 12 more generations to me and now 14 generations to my grandchildren. 

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[1] Thomas Rogers Society, https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/p1.htm#i1

[2] Stott, Clifford L., "The English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his Wife Alice (Cosford) Rogers", The Genealogist, Volume 10, No 2. https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html

[3] [Ann T. [Revised by], (Originally compiled by Alice W. A. Westgate) Reeves, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620: Family of Thomas Rogers (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2000). Page 1.

[4] Mayflower Pilgrim Center, http://www.mayflowerpilgrimcentre.uk/

[5] Stott, Clifford L., "The English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his Wife Alice (Cosford) Rogers", The Genealogist, Volume 10, No 2. https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html

[6] Bangs, Jeremy Dupertuis, "Pilgrim Homes in Leiden", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 154 pages 413-445.

[7] Stott, Clifford L., "The English Ancestry of the Pilgrim Thomas Rogers and his Wife Alice (Cosford) Rogers", The Genealogist, Volume 10, No 2.  https://www.thomasrogerssociety.com/trleiden.html

[8] Mayflower History, Thomas Rogers.  http://mayflowerhistory.com/rogers-thomas

[9] Bangs, page 414.

[10] Wakefield, Robert S., “Mayflower Passengers Turner and Rogers: Probable Identification pf Additional Children”, The American Genealogist, Volume 52, pgs 110-113, (1976)

[11] Bangs, page 415.

[12] “Who Were the Separatists Mayflower Pilgrims”, The Pilgrim Fathers UK Origins Association,
http://www.pilgrimfathersorigins.org/who-were-the-separatist-mayflower-pilgrims-.html

[13] History.com. The Mayflower.  https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/mayflower

[14] Ibid.

[15] [Ann T. [Revised by], (Originally compiled by Alice W. A. Westgate) Reeves, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620: Family of Thomas Rogers (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2000). Page 2.

[16] Ibid, page 5.

[17] Ibid, page 7.