#48 - Westbury, Long Island, NY 1869: Beard or No Beard?

 1869 Beards at the Apex

1869 Westbury Friends Meetinghouse

It was the way to wear your hair in the US: between 1850 and 1901 all of my male ancestors who were young men during the Civil War (AND who were American & whose photo I have) wore beards.
The photo above is a1896 photo of some of the Westbury Friends at the Westbury (Long Island, NY) Meetinghouse.
I first saw in at the Westbury Historical Society.  [You might want to see if you have an ancestor pictured here]. 

Then I noticed it in my cousin's house--she lives in the same house our great grandmother (Bertha Hauxhurst) lived (in PA) after she was married. Bertha's father is in the above photo, as are many of Bertha's relatives.

In the 1990s an elderly relative on Long Island (Esther Hicks) provided an enormous amount of information, including the key to the photograph. 

Both the key and the names to each circled number is provided below.

Back to Beards:
When I looked closely at the photo, I saw fewer than half the men have beards, some seem to have whiskers, and there might even be a mustache in this group. 
I would guess though the Quakers here have in part adopted the fashion of the day (some have 'trendy' stove pipe hats), that they seemed to resist the beard largely. I wonder if it may have been because they were conscientious objectors to war (even if they agreed with the Union)?
I don't know. But, it was fun to examine more closely each face in the photo as I could see some of their expressions. 

Key to Westbury Friends Meeting Members - See Names below

Westbury Quaker Meeting 1869  

Note: # 33 and #39 are unnamed, not recognized. There is a 35 & a 35A to compensate a numbering error.

1 Wm E Hauxhurst - No beard -  (my gr gr grandfather)

2 Wm Hewlett - No
3 Wm Mudge - Whiskers or Beard
4 Isaac Rushmore -No
5 Benjamin Hicks (Manhasset) - No
6 Stephen Rushmore - No
7 Charles F Titus - No
8 Wm T. Cock - No
9 John S. Hicks - Whiskers or Beard
10 James Titus - No
11 Joseph Post - No
12 Lewis Valentine -No
13 Edmond Seaman -No
14 Edward Willets - No 
15 Henry Titus - No
16 Stephen R. Hicks - No 
17 Howard Rushmore - No
18 Hannah Keese
19 Lydia Townsend
20 Henry T. Willets - Beard or whiskers
21 Samuel Keese - No
22 John Keese - No
23 Anna Valentine
24 Edward Rushmore -No 
25 Hannah B. Titus
26 Daughter of Benj. Hicks
27 Daughter of Benj. Hicks
28 Mary W. Seaman
29 Mary Jane Willits
30 Thomas Hicks - No
31 Jacob Hicks - No 
32 William Henry Willits - No
33 --N/A
34 James Post -No
35 John Valentine - No
35A Sidney Pratt -No
36 Benjamin Hicks (Roslyn) - No
37 Mary P. Titus
38 Sarah A. Willets
39 ---
40 Mary F. Titus
41 Phebe Post
42 Amy Keese
43 Esther or Hannah Willets
44 Caroline H. Hicks
45 Charity Hawxhurst
46 John D Hicks - No
47 Jane Titus
48 Annie C. Titus
49 Phebe Barnes (Purchase)
50 Hannah B. Cock
51 Hannah U. Hicks
52 Rachel Post
53 Marietta Willets
54 Joseph Hicks - Yes, nice beard!
55 Elmina Post
56 Mary W. Post
57 Annie T. Willets
58 Frederick E. Willits - No Beard but does he have a mustache??
 

---

Sources
Photo: MB Walmer Collection (by way of Bertha Hauxhurst) - photo

Key: from Esther Hicks (Emory) B 1903 D. 2004 (age 101). Daughter of Henry Hicks & Caroline Jackson. Wife of John M  G Emory. Esther Hicks Emory corresponded with Margaret Tilton Walmer and provided the "key" which she had gotten from a sister. 

#33 Long Line of Pedigree Collapse - Long Island Quakers

Long Island Quakers and Pedigree Collapse

Part 1

My great grandmother was born in Westbury, Nassau County, NY. Her father was William E Hawxhurst (May 1838 -Feb 1908) farmer and surveyor, son of Ephraim Cock Hawxhurst (1793-1859) and Charity Titus (1802-1877) 

Wm E Hawxhurst

Her mother was Marianna Hicks, daughter of Isaac Hicks (Aug 1815-Mar 1900) and Mary Fry Willis (Jan 1817-Feb 1898).
Both families descended, without straying, from the longest line of Quakers who settled Long Island. [In case your wondering, Marianna’s grandfather, Isaac Hicks, helped fund a cousin, Elias Hicks, in his ministry as a Public Friend early in the 1800s]

Marianna (Hicks) Hawxhurst

A Long Line.
~Imagine you were born and raised on an island with a tiny population.  

~ Imagine that for religious reasons you married only people in your religion & you were prohibited you from marrying outside your religion.  

~ Imagine moving this island, with acres and acres of rich farm land, surrounded by wonderful fishing opportunities, so it adjoins the most powerful & prosperous city of the Western Hemisphere.

This explains who these Ancestral Long Island Quakers were.

How Did They Preserve Community?

My Long Island Quakers married safe people, most often collateral cousins (cousins of cousins).

Their repeated and extensive remarrying in a small geographic area led a LONG LINE of “pedigree collapse.” 

When researching when I need to add (yet another) “Titus” or “Hicks” or “Willis” always I pray for dates and /or parents’ names to get the right person.

Here are the last names of my ancestors going back to the earliest English settlers on Long Island which appear in this (largely) Quaker family tree:

Hicks, Willis, Fry, Rushmore, Doughty, Powell, Kirby, Allen, Alsop, Birdsall, Bowne, Washburn, Carman, Carpenter, Cock(e), Cole(s), Cornell, Doughty, Eme/ory, Feeke (Feake), Haight, Hallet, Hauxhurst (Hawxhurst), Hallowell, Loines, Jackson, Moore, Mott, Noble, Oakley, Pearsall, Powell, Reddock, Rodman, Rushmore, Seaman, Seaman, Sering, Smith, [Spicer, Tilton], Titus, Townsend, Underhill, Valentine, Williams, Willet, Willets, Wood, Wright

When I see historical document on Long Island from 1850 or earlier, I can bet my mother’s family has a common ancestor. The difficulty is making the right attribution (which Thomas Powell was this?) 

Part 2

I cannot get away from the long arms of the Long Island Quakers. 

Case in point: Spicer & Tilton.

These names appear in my mother’s FATHER’s lineage. I used to consider them the “Pennsylvania” group. I was wrong. Just a tiny bit of digging and I found out that they came from New Jersey, moving to PA after the Civil War. Oops.

SPICER TILTON

My mother’s father’s family was mostly from New Jersey. But—New Jersey isn’t far from Long Island. It’s here where we reconnect the two ends of my mother’s family.

--Spicer and Tilton began on Long Island

Susannah Spicer was the daughter of Thomas Spicer. 

She was born in Long Island (Flushing), and married Henry Brazier. Susannah (Spicer) Brazier and Henry Brazier remained on Long Island.

Their daughter, Rebecca Brazier, married Peter Tilton (son of John Tilton and Mary Pearsall—there is another Ancient Name of Long Island).

--Brazier-Tilton Move

Rebecca (Brazier) Tilton and Peter Tilton moved to Monmouth, New Jersey. (They were still Quakers).

--Tiltons in New Jersey; and back again.

This Tilton line remained in the New Jersey area (and remained Quaker) at least until 

William Henry Tilton (B. 9 May 1820 Monmouth Co, NJ) and his wife Sarah A Conover (B 12 Aug 1831 of Monmouth Co NJ; D. 5 Jul 1895 in Brooklyn, NY).

They moved to Brooklyn, sometime before 1850 (US Fed. Census).

--Off to Pennsylvania

From mid-1800s the Tiltons lived in Brooklyn, then Henry Addison Tilton and his wife and family moved to Pittsburgh PA.  Since then the Tilton family claimed Pennsylvania as their own. 

--Ultimate Irony

It was ironic for me that I should find out that the Tiltons of Pennsylvania had first settled down in the New World on Long Island, NY.

My mother’s father (Chas Tilton) died in 1987 and was not a Quaker.  Might he be shocked to find out he and his wife had this in common: Long Island, NY and Quakerism?

#8 - From Hicks to Hawxhurst in One Leap

  From Hicks to Hauxhurst

I'm jumping ahead  to a woman who was of the Hicks line.  She was my great grandmother Bertha Hawxhurst. I'm going to move us quickly through the Hicks-to-Hauxhurst point from Issac Hicks of the previous post. (Later I'll post what anecdotes and photos/letters I have from the Hicks family). 
In the previous post:
Isaac Hicks (my 5th great grandfather) married Sarah Doughty, thus linking the Hicks family with the Doughtys.
-----------
Their son John Doughty Hicks (my 4th great grandfather) linked the Rushmore and Townsend families to the line when he (John Doughty) married Sarah Rushmore.
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Their son, (another) Isaac Hicks (my 3rd great grandfather) married Mary Fry Willis, linking the Willis and Kirby families (and, I'm sure you've guessed the Fry family).

They had Marianna Hicks, (my 2nd great grandmother), thus breaking the long line of Hicks males in my direct ancestry.
-----------
Marianna Hicks married a William Ephraim Hawxhurst, son of Ephriam Hawxhurst and Charity Titus (Titus is another common Long Island family).

Their daughter, Bertha Charity Hawxhurst, was my great grandmother.
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My great grandmother Bertha Hawxhurst married a Quaker from Pennsylvania: Chester Julian Tyson.
As a postcript: Her sister, Mary Willis Hawxhurst, married Chester's brother Edwin Tyson. And that is another story.  ENLARGE THE Group Sheet to Read it.

Below the break, I've inserted 3 "Family Group Sheets"  in a series. They show names and siblings and parents names of the Hicks and non-Hickses from Issac and Sarah Doughty to Bertha Hawxhurst.