Going Home

I don't know exactly when the house above came into the possession of the Hamblin family. They may have built it themselves, upon moving to Winchell Mountain in the 1770s, or they may have bought it from someone else. In any case, they definitely owned it and were living there as early as 1867, and probably quite a bit earlier. This is the house where my great-great-great grandparents, James (1841-1924) and Frances Collier Hamblin (1841-1917) lived and raised their two children, my great-great grandfather Myron George Hamblin (1868-1959) and Marion Mace Hamblin (1882-1965). In the photograph above, which was taken around 1900, Frances and Myron (in chairs) are seated on the front porch with Marion on the steps. 

Below is the house as it appeared last Sunday.

I was thrilled when I saw it. While my first choice would have been to keep it in the family (so much for that - the family moved off Winchell Mountain for good in 1924) my second choice would be that it would find an owner who would care for it and preserve its historic character, and that's exactly what has happened. While there have been plenty of changes to the house over the past 115 years, the house is still recognizable and beautifully preserved. I love the contrasting trim, and the landscaping is perfect. I think the Hamblins would be proud.

Miss Hamblin and Mrs. Pugh

The women of Mrs. Pugh's house: Beatrice Pugh, Mrs. Pugh, Esther Hull, Ruth Hamblin, and Annie Reynolds

My great-grandmother, Ruth Card Hamblin, came to Westchester County to work as a teacher around 1918. The daughter of dairy farmers, she was born on Winchell Mountain, on an isolated farm outside of Millerton in Dutchess County, in 1896. She graduated from the New Paltz Normal School and taught for a year in Nyack before coming to Westchester, where she lived for the rest of her life.

The elementary school where Ruth Hamblin taught

Ruth Hamblin and Esther Hull at the elementary school

In 1920, Ruth was working as a fifth grade teacher and living in the house of widow Harriet R. Pugh - at the corner of Main Street and Smith Avenue, close to the Methodist church - along with Harriet's son, daughter, and sister, and Esther Hull, another teacher at the school - as shown in the federal census.



Among my family photos from this time are pictures of Esther Hull, and of Harriet Pugh and her family, with my great-grandmother, as well as a picture of the school where Ruth and Esther taught.

Mrs. Pugh's house on Smith Avenue

Sometime in the early 1920s, Ruth moved out of Mrs. Pugh's house and into an apartment in the Ganun Building on East Main Street, where she met Ernest Waldie, a sheet metal worker who had come to the US from Canada around 1900. They married in 1923 and purchased a house on Brook Street for $3,000.

When she was older Ruth used to point out Mrs. Pugh's house to her grandchildren, including the window that had been her room, when they passed by. It was still standing a few years ago, but it had fallen into a state of disrepair, and was torn down to make way for a large office building.

Howard and Mrs. Pugh

Ruth and friends? colleagues? in 1922

25: Henry and Abigail Tyler (update)

Graves of Henry and Abigail Tyler

Update on April 23, 2013: This entry has now been updated to reflect information taken from The Richard Washburn Genealogy by Ada Clementine Acker Haight (1937).

In 1850, the Tylers - Henry and Abigail - lived with their four children near the cemetery.

1850 US Federal Census

Henry Dusenbury Tyler died in 1854. In 1860, his widow appears in the census with the occupation "farmer" - the first time I ever think I've seen a woman called a "farmer" in a 19th-century census. Also notable is the fact that the family's wealth had increased considerably since 1850, despite the fact that Henry had died and two children had left the house.

1860 US Federal Census

Henry and Abigail's son Gilbert died in 1868 at the age of 33. Meanwhile, their daughter Mary Freelove married Elisha Belcher Sarles, the son of Robert Sarles and Jemima Washburn. In 1870, Abigail was living with Elisha and Mary and their three children, including one set of twins. It's frustrating that the 1870 census doesn't say how the two other children in the household, Mary Jones and Elizabeth Sarles, are related to the rest of the family. At age 9, Mary Jones isn't too old to be Mary Sarles's daughter from a previous marriage, but that's just speculation. Elizabeth Sarles may have worked for the Sarleses as a domestic servant, but was she also a relative?

1870 US Federal Census

Abigail Brundage Tyler died in 1879 at the age of 81, and was buried beside her husband in the cemetery.

Mary's husband Elisha had quite a Civil War record. This is his muster roll abstract:

Let's see if I can work out some of the details. It looks as though he enlisted twice - in September 1861 and again in December 1863. On July 1, 1863, he was promoted to Corporal. He was sick in the hospital and later "wounded in the arm severely," but I have a hard time figuring out the dates - do they come before or after the event they describe?

In any case, Elisha Sarles belonged to the 49th New York Infantry, which happens to have its own reenactment group. Later he served in the 2nd Battalion, Veteran Reserve Corps, which doesn't have a reenactment group, but probably should.

I have recently become intrigued with Revolutionary War and Civil War reenactments, thanks in part to my friend Ramona. She's a journalist who documents her own investigation into Civil War history, including Civil War reenactments, on her blog The Civil War Tours. When I saw her yesterday, she showed me the catalog she'd just picked up from the current Metropolitan exhibition Photography and the Civil War. I was completely transfixed by the photographs in the catalog and am planning on seeing the exhibit for myself very soon.

Mary Freelove Tyler Sarles died in 1874. In 1880, Elisha lived with his four children and one servant, Betsey. Strangely, although his three older children are clearly the same three children from the 1870 census, two of them have different names. "Addie" is now "Abby," and "Jemima" is "Alice." In fact, these children are Abigail Tyler Sarles and Jemima "Mima" Alice Sarles. Tyler was clearly given his mother's maiden name as his first name.

1880 US Federal Census

After his wife's death, Elisha married Phebe Jane Ackerman, who was born in 1855 and died in 1890. He then married Jane Ann Jackson Mead, the widow of Gilbert Mead, who was born in 1843.

1900 US Federal Census

The 1910 census reveals that this was in fact Elisha's third marriage, and Jane's second. She had three children from her first marriage. They lived with one servant, Julia. Sadly, Jane died this year.

1910 US Federal Census

In 1915, I discovered something wonderful (well, to me, anyway). Elisha, having been widowed for a third time, was living with a family of Hamblens! My great-grandmother was Ruth Card Hamblin, and it was her research on the Hamblin family that first got me interested in family history, even though we never met. The Hamblens in this case are Elisha's daughter's family. Were they related to my Hamblins? We'll get to that later on.

1915 US Federal Census

By 1920, Elisha Sarles had died. Collins Emerson Hamblen, who was a tea and coffee salesman, and Abigail Tyler Hamblen were living with their four adult children: Allen Henry, also a tea and coffee salesman; Jessie Sarles, a bookkeeper in a dry goods store;  Edwin Tyler, a salesman for United Tobacco; and Harold Belcher, another tea and coffee salesman.

1920 US Federal Census

By 1930, only one Hamblin child remained in the house. Thirty-two-year-old Harold was still a salesman, and had married Violet Engleman in 1922, but apparently his wife and their son Harold Collins Hamblen, born in 1924, were not living with him at this time.

1930 US Federal Census

Both Collins and Abigail Hamblen died in the 1930s.

(Source)

This was Collins's obituary from 1937. It reveals the name of the business Collins and his sons owned - appropriately, C. Hamblen's Sons Teas and Coffees, which Collins had formed from the old Van Dyck Tea and Coffee Agency.

Yonkers Statesman 1937

Now, let's see if I can sum up the lives of Collins and Abigail's children.

Alice Estelle Hamblen was the Hamblens' first child; I neglected to mention her before because by the first census (1915) in which I mention the Hamblens, she was already married to Jonathan Holden, a lawyer and the son of Stephen Holden and Elizabeth Bentley. Between 1911 and 1925, they had ten children, including a set of twins named Haldis and Hildred. The family was living in Pleasantville in 1930 and Pine Plains in 1940. Alice and Jonathan died in the 1960s.

Allen Henry Hamblen worked as a grocery salesman and in 1920 married Agnes F. Jack, whose father was a Scottish immigrant. They were living in Yonkers in 1930 and had one child, Margaret Abigail, who was born in 1923. I can't find them in the 1940 census. Allen died in 1941.

Jessie Sarles Hamblen married Samuel Strachen McBride, who worked in real estate and was born in 1886 in Coreen, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. They lived in Yorktown and had four children, one whom they named Hamblyn. Jessie died in 1984.

Edwin Tyler Hamblen married a woman named Lissa in 1929 and worked in Collins's store in Mount Vernon. They had one child, Mary Jane Hamblen, born in 1930. He died in 1974.

Harold Belcher Hamblen married Violet Engleman in 1922 and also worked in his father's store. They had one child, Harold Collins Hamblen, born in 1924, who died in 1968. Harold Sr. died in 1978.

In the family tree below, you can see various members of the Tyler family whom I investigated, but haven't mentioned in the post above because it's simply too much.

Most popular names:
Abigail (4)
Alice (3)
Estelle (3)
Harold (2)
Edwin (2)
Ellis (2)

Surnames used as first names: Collins Emerson Hamblen, Hamlin McBride, Tyler Sarles

1. Henry Dusenbury Tyler (1795-1854) m. Abigail S. Brundage (1798-1879)
1. Reuben B. Tyler (1828-1877) m. Fanny Tripp (1833-)
1. Martha Tyler (1854-)
2. William Tyler (1858-)
3. Emma Tyler (1860-)
2. Sarah M. Tyler (1830-)
3. Gilbert Henry Tyler (1834-1868)
4. Mary Freelove Tyler (1838-1874) m. Elisha B. Sarles (1838-) in 1866; he later married Phebe Jane Ackerman (1855-1890) and Jane Ann Jackson (1843-1910)
1. Abigail Tyler Sarles (1867-1931) m. Collins Emerson Hamblen (1867-1937) in 1887
1. Alice Estelle Hamblen (1888-1961) m. Jonathan Holden (1881-1967) in 1910
1. Elizabeth Holden (1911-)
2. Janet Holden (1912-)
3. Randall Holden (1915-)
4. Shirley Holden (1916-)
5. Audrey Holden (1917-)
6. Haldis Holden (1920-)
7. Hildred Holden (1920-)
8. Roger Holden (1921-)
9. John Holden (1923-)
10. Edwin Holden (1925-)
2. Allen Henry Hamblen (1890-1941) m. Agnes F. Jack (1892-) in 1920
1. Margaret Abigail Hamblen (1923-)
3. Jessie Sarles Hamblen (1893-1984) m. Samuel Strachen McBride (1886-)
1. Harold Gordon McBride (1922-1925)
2. Abby Estel McBride (1923-)
3. Hamblyn McBride (1924-)
4. Robert McBride (1927-)
4. Edwin Tyler Hamblen (1896-1974) m. Lissa (1905-) in 1929
1. Mary Jane Hamblen (1930-)
5. Harold Belcher Hamblen (1897-1978) m. Violet Engleman in 1922
1. Harold Collins Hamblin (1924-1968)
2. Robert Ellis Sarles (1869-1887)
3. Jemima Alice Sarles (1869-) m. Ellsworth Carpenter (1862-) in 1894
1. Florence Freelove Carpenter (1896-1896)
2. Ellis Jerome Carpenter (1897-) m. Mary Anna Close (1894-)
1. Frank Jerome Carpenter (1916-1933)
2. Alice Adele Carpenter (1918-)
3. George Henry Carpenter (1919-)
3. Mary Estelle Carpenter (1899-) m. Harold L. Southworth (1902-) in 1922
1. Harold L. Southworth (1923-1926)
2. Evelyn Barbara Southworth (1925-)
3. Eloise Lane Southworth (1927-)
4. Alice Bliss Southworth (1929-)
5. Diana Mary Southworth (1931-)
4. Tyler Dusenbury Sarles (1874-) m. (1) Cora Edna Underhill (1879-1897) in 1896; (2) Mertie Van Tassel (1886-1917) in 1903

Now, to return to the urgent question: was Collins Hamblen related to my Hamblin family? If you're interested in the answer, you can continue reading.