At age 16, Whitfield was living in a large boarding house in NY City and was working as a "clerk" according to the 1860 Census; he was also counted on the census at his parents' home in Hackensack that year. From 1863-66, he attended the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York City. By 1870, he was back home living with his extended family in Hackensack, working at his father's piano factory. He was married with two daughters. In 1876, he purchased land in Ridgefield, Bergen, New Jersey, on Palisades Ave (1500 block - see below). By 1880, he was widowed with three children - Bonnie, May, and Barrett - and was working as a school teacher near his home in Coytesville, a borough of Fort Lee.
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| Here is a current street view of that property location. It's commercial land now. Whitfield's house was on the lot at the far right of this picture. It is now a bank building. The property is very near the NJ Tnpk where it crosses the George Washington Bridge. |
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| Gertrude Clayton Abbott |
- Rebecca "Bonnie" Godfrey Curtis Abbott, b. 1868,
- Mary "May" Clayton Abbott, b. 1870,
- Barrett H. Abbott, b. 1873 (d.?),
- Whitfield Barry Abbott, Jr., b. 1873,
- Sarah Godfrey Abbott, b. 1874 (d.?).
Gertrude died in 1879. Whitfield then married Sarah A. "Sadie" Wright in June 1882 in the Dutch Reformed Free Church. They had five children; two survived to adulthood:
- George Wright Abbott, b. Aug. 1882,
- William Smith Abbott, b. 1883 (d. 1884),
- Alice Barry Abbott, b. 1886 (d. 1887),
- John A. Abbott b. 1887 (d. 1887), and
- Leonie Abbott, b. 1889.
Whitfield died in December 1889; his last will was dated 17 September 1889, just ten days before Leonie was born. Sadie died in 1903.
Some interesting notes:
- I have received much information about the Abbott family from M.W. in NJ. He has copies of the Abbott family bible and many documents of the family history. He is descended from May Abbott Eggers, the second eldest daughter of Whitfield and Gertrude.
- Barry Vaughan was named after Whitfield Barrie Abbott (as George Wright Abbott requested).
- A recent DNA test shows that Glenn Watson's son Ben is descended from Whitfield through May Abbott Eggers' family.
- May's son Ray Eggers was an avid genealogist who did most of the Abbott family research before it could be done by computer. He traveled all up and down the east coast and sent many information-packed letters to Miriam Lukhard, which I now have in my possession.
Teresa,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting all of this information. It's always great to see a heavily sourced family tree (as opposed to some of the more, shall we say, less-researched?) I'm a descendant of William Abbott (Whitfield's uncle). My line is William/ Anna Eliza Abbott/ William Abbott/ William Henry Abbott/ Nancy Abbott. I'm the family historian for most of my line. Would it be possible for me to obtain copies of any of these documents that you refer to on the Abbott line? Would it also be possible for you to put me in contact with M.W. at Rutgers? Thank you so much for any help that you can provide. I've put all of my stuff on an Ancestry tree that I'm happy to share with you.
- Adam Caudle
Hi Adam, thank you for responding! I have a family tree on Ancestry which I would be happy to share. All of the documentation you request is posted on my tree. M.W. has a tree on Ancestry as well. Send me your Ancestry username and I will invite you to view my tree.
ReplyDeleteFunny, my oldest son is named Adam.
I'm having a little difficulty following your line of descent in comparing it to my tree. Is Nancy Abbott your mother? If so, how did the Abbott name get passed down through Anna? I may have an error in my tree somewhere.
~Teresa
My ancestry username is Adam Glyn Caudle.
ReplyDeleteYour tree is right. It's just a weird story. What we know is that Anna Eliza Abbott had a son, William, in 1864. She married a William Hollenbeck in 1867. He died in the 1880s and she remarried a William Dietzel in 1899. Apparently she had a thing for Williams.
Her son, William, went by William Abbott almost his entire life. He's listed as William Hollenbeck in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, but is William Abbott everywhere else, including his marriage license. I haven't been able to find his birth certificate so I don't know who the father is.
The family story is that a William Abbott emigrated from England around 1863, married Anna Eliza, had a son with her and then died or returned to England. That would explain both the surname as well as the son being named after the father. However, I'm skeptical about that because there is no documentation to back it up. Also, she appears to have rather upset her dad at some point because he left a great deal of money and property to her siblings John and Rebecca and left her all of $1. She was also almost 20 years older than William Dietzel, which was rather scandalous in those days. My belief is that son William was born out of wedlock and was named after father William Abbott. That's the most reasonable explanation to me in the absence of any further documentation. And that's how the maternal line kept the paternal name.
I'm not certain (so it's not on my tree yet), but I believe that I have found the family of John, William and James Abbott in England. I've seen three books listing either 4 or 5 Abbott brothers. John, William and James and possibly Abiel or Nathaniel. I'm getting a document from my sister which states that their parents were John Abbott and Nancy Conway. Using that information, I've found a family of John and Nancy Abbott in the London area with sons John, William and James that have birthdates matching up to what I know about those three. There aren't a Nathaniel or Abiel in the family, but there are Abraham, Henry, Eliza, Henry II and Charles. If so, then that explains how William's daughter Anna Eliza was named after her mother (Susan Ann Lemoin) and Eliza Abbott. I'm still working on it.
Feel free to email me at caudlea@gmail.com or call/text me at (202) 368-5251.