Tag Archives: Stephens family

That Little Troublemaker: Ann Stephens Johnson (52 Ancestors #28)

Posted by

I wrote recently about the wedding of my 3rd-great-grandparents David Stephens (Stevens) and Rebecca Dickinson in Robeson Monthly Meeting. They were married 22 May 1829. Just a few weeks later on 10 July, David and Rebecca requested a certificate of removal to Short Creek Monthly Meeting in Ohio. They eventually ended up in Deerfield Monthly Meeting in Morgan County, Ohio.

Here is where some of my notions that I formed as a young genealogist (way back in the day) had to be challenged. For some reason, I never considered David and Rebecca following their Quaker faith in Ohio. Perhaps it was because at least one of their children (my great-great-grandmother Ann) had married a non-Quaker. I just never followed up on it. (Remember, I was a young genealogist when I originally discovered they were even Quakers.)

So off I went to one of the mainstays of Quaker research, William Wade Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. As I (now) expected, I found David and Rebecca’s admittance to the Deerfield Monthly Meeting on 13 January 1831. It also lists the family register in Deerfield MM for David, Rebecca, and their six children.

Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia is great in that it covers not only the vital records, but also indexes the monthly meeting minutes, which is where you find the requests for certificates of removal and various disciplinary actions. That’s when I noticed it…

Ancestry.com. U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I–VI, 1607–1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Hinshaw, William Wade, et al., compilers. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. 6 vols. 1936–1950. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991–1994.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol I–VI, 1607–1943 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Hinshaw, William Wade, et al., compilers. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. 6 vols. 1936–1950. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991–1994. Citing vol. IV, p. 1078.

 1850, 3, 14. [14 March 1850] Ann dis disunity

My great-great-grandmother had been kicked out of the Quakers.

“Dis disunity” is Hinshaw’s way of saying that she was disowned (kicked out) for disunity. Unfortunately, Hinshaw didn’t bother to say what the disunity was. Was 17-year-old Ann speaking out of turn after the meeting had reached a consensus? Had she run afoul of some of the mores of the group and refused to acknowledge her wrongdoing?

In fairness, her brother Elwood and sister Elizabeth were also kicked out of the Quakers, though both of them were for “marrying contrary to discipline.” (In other words, they married non-Quakers.) This wasn’t Ann’s offense. Hers was “disunity,” plus this was a full three years before she married Eber Johnson.

I won’t know what Ann’s offense was until I can track down the Deercreek Monthly Meeting minutes. All I know right now is that whatever it was, it was enough to get Ann kicked out of the Quakers. That little troublemaker…

Ann Stephens/Stevens Johnson was born in Morgan County, Ohio 15 March 1833 and died in Lawrence County, Ohio 9 June 1923.

How I Attended My 3rd-Great-Grandparents’ Wedding: (Stevens/Dickinson 52 Ancestors #25-26)

Posted by

They say that genealogy connects us with the past, and I firmly believe that to be true. There are ancestors to whom I feel especially connected. But when I found the marriage record of my third-great-grandparents David Steven(s) and Rebecca S. Dickinson, I felt like I had stepped into a time machine and was at their wedding.

David and Rebecca were both Quakers. I had seen references to their marriage in the Robeson Monthly Meeting in Berks County, Pennsylvania before, but had never seen the record until recently. Many of my other ancestors’ Quaker marriages have been documented in in the certificates of removal, such as when Rebecca’s father, Nathaniel Dickinson, left the Exeter Monthly Meeting to marry Rachel Moore of the Sadsbury Monthly Meeting. But the marriage record itself is truly incredible. I’ll let David and Rebecca’s marriage record speak for itself:

Whereas David Stephen of Robeson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, son of Samuel Stephen, late of the same place, deceased, and Elizabeth his wife, and Rebecca S. Dickinson daughter of Nathaniel Dickinson of the aforesaid place, and Rachel his wife, deceased, having declared their intentions of marriage with each other, before a Monthly Meeting of the religious society of Friends, held at Robeson aforesaid, and having consent of surviving parents their said proposal of marriage was allowed of by the said meeting.

Now these are to certify, that for the full accomplishment of their said intentions, this twenty-second day of the fifth month in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty nine, they, the said David Stephen and Rebecca S. Dickinson appeared in a public meeting of the said people held at Robeson aforesaid; and they the said David Stephen taking the said Rebecca S. Dickinson by the hand, did, on this solemn occasion openly declare, that he took her the said Rebecca S. Dickinson to be his wife, promising with divine asistance [sic] to be unto her a loving and faithful Husband until death should seperate [sic] them; and then, in the same assembly, the said Rebecca S. Dickinson, did in the like manner declare, that she took him the said David Stephen to be her husband, promising with divine assistance to be unto him a loving and faithful Wife until death should separate them.

And Moreover, they, the said David Stephen and Rebecca S. Dickinson (she according to the custom of marriage assuming the name of her husband) did as a further confirmation thereof, then and there to these presents set their hands.

/ss David Stephen
Rebecca S. Stephen

David Steven and Rebecca S. Dickinson marriage record (page 1). From Marriages, 1791-1864, Robeson Monthly Meeting, Berks County, Pennsylvania. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1944, Ancestry.com.

David Steven and Rebecca S. Dickinson marriage record (page 1). From Marriages, 1791-1864, Robeson Monthly Meeting, Berks County, Pennsylvania. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1944, Ancestry.com.

Following that are the names of the 61 people who were in attendance at David and Rebecca’s wedding.

David Steven and Rebecca S. Dickinson marriage record (page 2). From Marriages, 1791-1864, Robeson Monthly Meeting, Berks County, Pennsylvania. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1944, Ancestry.com.

David Steven and Rebecca S. Dickinson marriage record (page 2). From Marriages, 1791-1864, Robeson Monthly Meeting, Berks County, Pennsylvania. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1944, Ancestry.com.

I’m happy whenever I can find the marriage record of any of my ancestors. But this particular marriage record makes me feel like I was actually at the wedding.

David and Rebecca eventually moved from Berks County, Pennsylvania to Morgan County, Ohio. Their children include: William, my great-great grandmother Ann (wife of Eber Johnson), Elizabeth, Elwood, Lydia, Rachel, and Deborah. David Stephen(s) died 15 March 1865; Rebecca died 27 June 1874.