A Short History of a Branch of the Eastman Family
Summary:
This tracks the Eastman lineage as follows: John 1, Roger 2, Nicholas 3, Roger 4 (the immigrant), Joseph 5, Peter 6, Joseph 7, Hezekiah 8, Hezekiah, Jr. 9, Buell 10, Nayrewe 11, Gilbert 12 , and Estelle LaVern 13; from about 1500 to the present.
The first known Eastman ancestors came from the Parish of Downton, Wiltshire, in the southern part of the Salisbury plain in southern Britain. The name "Eastman" may imply simply that the earlier ancestors migrated to the area from the East - perhaps as near as the London area, or as far as the Nordic countries.
John Eastman 1 of Charleton, Downton Parish, Wilts County, made a will dated April 26, 1564, proved 9 May, 1565. He noted therein that his father is buried in "the churche of Saynt Lawrence in Downton" and directed that be also be buried there. John had at least two sons, including Roger 2. His will made bequests to William, "my sonne" and to William's children, John, William, Walter and Florence. He named his son, Roger 2 as his Executor, and granted bequests to him and his sons, John and William. {Source: Charles R. Eastman, "A Sixteenth Century Eastman Will," ___ The Granite Monthly 372-373 (date uncertain, about 1912).}
There is also a John Eastman, Sr. of Nunton, an adjoining village. John, Sr., of Nunton may have been a cousin of John of Charleton. John of Nunton left a will that is found in the Archdeaconry Court of Sarum (modern Salisbury), Book 4, folio 117, dated 23 December 1557. In it he names various Eastmans, presumably related, including Raffe of Charleton, Alen of Charleton, John of Charleton, Richard of Charleton, John of West Harnham "and Roger Eastman his brother of Downton," Walter (spelled "water") of Charleton, William of Charleton, and Joan, "the daughter of Roger Eastman." {Source: Charles R. Eastman, "Wills of Early English Eastmans," ___ The Granite Monthly 312-314 (Oct. 1911).}
Roger Eastman 2 was an adult when his father's will was made, and died in February, 1604. He was buried on the 17th of that month. His original will is on file in the Consistory Court of Sarum. He had seven or eight children, among whom was Nicholas 3, born between 1564 and 1570 (probably after the death of his Grandfather, John). Roger 2 married Barbara (surname probably Rooke), also of Charleton. He died after 1625. His eldest brother was William, born before 1564, who married Edith ___, who died in 1605. William remarried two years later, but the name of his second wife has not survived. He and his eight sons resided in Downton. The children of Roger 2 and Barbara were: William, John, Nicholas 3, Edith (d. 1607), Walter, Roger, Mary, and Thomas.
Nicholas Eastman 3 and his wife Barbara had seven sons and three daughters. Thomas was the eldest. He married Alice Sanders of Week, in 1634, and probably inherited the bulk of his father's estate. That may help explain why his younger brother, Roger 4, baptized 4 April 1610 (the third of the sons), decided to emigrate to the New World. Nicholas 3 and Barbara had these children, in order of their ages:
{Source: Charles R. Eastman, "English Origins of the Eastman Family," ___ The Granite Monthly 391-396 (date uncertain).}
Roger 4 emigrated from the port at Southhampton , in the Ship "Confidence." The ship's register suggests he was unmarried, and he is listed as a "servant." It is believed, however, that he was actually of higher social ranking. He arrived in New England (apparently Massachusetts Bay Colony) in April, 1638. {Source: Michael Tepper, Ed., Passengers to America 47-48 (Balt. 1980), from original article in Vol. II, New England Hist. & Gen. Reg. 108.} He is widely regarded to be the progenitor of most of the Eastman families in the United States.
Roger 4 settled in Salisbury, Massachusetts and participated in the first land division in 1640. He was apparently a carpenter. He married Sarah (perhaps Smith), born in 1621. He died in 1694 and Sarah followed him in 1697. They had these children:
Joseph 5 served in one of the numerous Colonial wars against the American Indians, "King Phillip's War" at Chelmsford, Massachusetts in December, 1675. He was a weaver, living in Salisbury, Suffield, then Hadley, Massachusetts. Suffield was in Connecticut, and is where his three children were born. He died in Hadley, at about age 41, when his sons were eight and six years old. Mary Tilton was the daughter of the Hon. Peter Tilton (d. 11 July 1696), and was born 8 Feb. 1649 in Hadley. After her marriage to James Guernsey, she later moved to New Jersey. {Source: Russell W. Bennett, The Puritan Ancestors, in America, of Georgia Ann Eastman (Jacksonville, Florida, 1909).}
Joseph 5 and Mary Eastman had these children:
Peter 6 and Mehitable moved around quite a bit. Her family was from Deerfield and Northampton, Massachusetts. She was a third-generation Colonist (father - Hezekiah Root, m. ca. 1682, Mehitable Frary; grandfather - Thomas Root (Roote)(1648-1709), m.(1) 1670, Mary Gridley, (2) 1675, Mary Spencer, (3) Sarah Leonard; great-grandfather - John Roote (1608-1684), m. Mary Kilbourne of Badby, Northhamptonshire, England). Peter 6 and Mehitable lived in Suffield, New York (now Connecticut), where five of their children were born, later in New Jersey - perhaps following his mother and stepfather - where the rest of their children were born. In the 1730's, their family moved to Fairfield, Connecticut. Their children were:
Joseph 7 was born in New Jersey. He married Phebe Hendricks in New Fairfield, Connecticut when he was 24 and she was 25. We do not know more about her family. The family lived in New Fairfield for a number of years, leasing his father's farm. In 1788, they moved to New York, and Joseph 7 died in Marshall, Oneida County. Phebe is buried there together, on their family farm. Joseph served in the U.S. Revolutionary War, then in his fifties. He and Phebe had these children:
Hezekiah 8 and his six siblings travelled with their parents to Marshall, New York, where they lived within two miles of each other. Hezekiah 8 became a Baptist minister, being the first pastor of the first church in Danby, Vermont. He died in Marshall, New York. He and Hannah had these children:
Hezekiah, Jr. 9 was the fourth child. In 1805, about a year after the death of his older brother, Buell, Hezekiah, Jr. 9 and his wife Mary had a son they named after his brother. Hezekiah, Jr. 9 was a physician, as was his uncle, Nathaniel. They were early settlers in Attica, Wyoming County, New York, in 1805, where they set up medical practices. Hezekiah, Jr. 9 must have been full of energy, because he also built a distillery and set up a tavern in town. In 1811, he enlisted in the Sheldon town militia as a "surgeon" and, when the War of 1812 broke out he continued to serve. He was captured by the British and taken as a prisoner of war (perhaps to Canada) until peace in 1815. After his release, he and uncle Nathaniel and their families headed West. They traveled through Kentucky, probably Ohio, coming to Indiana in 1816-17. They were early residents of Jennings County. Hezekiah, Jr. 9 made a home for his family on the banks of Six-Mile Creek, near Vernon, Indiana. He and Mary had at least one child, Buell, and perhaps another:
We do not have other information about Elvira P. Childs' family. Two years after her marriage to Buell 10, he graduated from the Medical College of Ohio (later, the College of Medicine of the University of Cincinatti). He failed his oral exams on the first try but passed the second time. In 1844, Buell 10 and Elvira moved to Connersville, Indiana, for two years. The next year he published a medical text entitled A Practical Treatise on Diseases Peculiar to Women, To Which is Added an Eclectic System of Midwifery. He wrote another treatise on herbal medicines.
In 1851, perhaps while living in North Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, Buell 10 had a son on January 1. They took the words "new year" and rearranged the letters, arriving at the name they gave their son, "Nayrewe." By this time, Hezekiah, Jr. 9 had apparently passed on, perhaps in Jennings County. Between 1851 and 1859, Buell 10 and Elvira and family moved again, to Austin County, Texas. He is listed in the 1860 census as a doctor. By the next census the family had shifted to farming, and they lived in Bellville. Buell 10 died in Sempronius, Austin County, Texas. We speculate that he had a brother, E.D. Eastman, since the latter was closely connected with Buell 10 in Austin County, Texas (particularly in land transactions and in connection with Buell's 10 estate).
Buell 10 and Elvira Eastman had these children:
When Nayrewe 11 was 23, he married Fannie King (widow of W.D. King, m. 16 May 1872). She died in childbirth with their second child. After being a widower for five years he married Matilda "Mattie" Toler from Arkansas, about sixteen at the time. They had seven children. About the time their youngest child was born, family tradition tells that Nayrewe 11 was kicked in the head by a horse and "lost his mind." The two daughters from his first marriage practically raised Gilbert 12 and his younger sister, Elma Vida, after the death of their mother in 1910. Nayrewe 11 and his first wife had:
Nayrewe 11 and Matilda had these children:
Gilbert McGregor 12 was born in Kenney, Austin County, Texas. When he was about 21 he married a German-American girl, Sophie Boeker. She was a third-generation Texan. Her father, Friedrich (Fred) Christian Boeker (27 Sep. 1854 - 8 Dec. 1933) was born in William Penn, a small town outside of Brenham, just a few miles up the road from Kenney. Her mother was Ida Patent (27 Jan. 1871 - 21 Feb. 1960), the daughter of Anselm Patent (7 Feb. 1841 - 14 Mar. 1906). Her paternal grandparents were Friedrich Boeker (ca. 1820 - ___) and Sophie Marlmann (1830/32 - ___), both German immigrants. Sophie Marlmann arrived 2 Dec. 1850 at Galveston, Texas on the "Hermann Theodor" (Taeodore?) from Bremen, Germany. The Boekers and Patents are laid to rest in the "Germania Cemetery" in Bellville, Austin County, Texas.
Gilbert 12 had a religious conversion experience as a young man, and determined to become a preacher. He did so, joining the Disciples of Christ (First Christian) Church. He was a minister until his retirement in Northern New Mexico, for about forty years. His ministry called him to move with his family from Old Gulf, Matagorda County, Texas (far South Texas) to Stratford, Texas (far North Texas) and many places between, then to Raton, New Mexico, his last pulpit. Gilbert 12 and Sophie had three children:
Estelle LaVern ("LaVern") Eastman Hood 13 was the mother of the author, Roger L. Hood. She is sorely missed, still. This effort is dedicated to her memory.
General Sources for this information include George J. Eastman, whose web pages on the Eastman family, pweb.netcom.com/~seven007/index.html is an outstanding piece of work. Guy Scoby Rix deserves praise for his book The History and Genealogy of the Eastman Family in America, a two-volume masterpiece. Many original sources (deeds, census records, etc.) were also used.
Thank you for visiting my web page. I hope it has been useful to you.
Roger Lindsey Hood
30 March 1999