Oatka Cemetery, Smith and Springsteen families

How many of us are related to John Smith? Well, maybe not the same John Smith. My three-times-great grandparents Jacob and Margaret Springsteen brought the Smith and Springsteen families together in Monroe County, New York. Margaret, known as Peggy, was the daughter of John and Nancy Smith, immigrants to New York from Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

John Smith of Annan was trained as a surveyor. After bringing his family to New York in 1796 he reportedly worked as a landscape gardener for Aaron Burr.[i] By 1805 he had settled in the present-day Town of Wheatland in Monroe County, where he died in 1821. According to Carl F. Schmidt, former Historian of the Town of Wheatland, John Smith was active in the early community of Scottsville.[ii]

According to an unpublished research report by Frank Van Rensselaer Phelps dated 27 September 1970, John and Nancy Smith had eleven children, the first five born in Scotland:

1. Francis Smith, born 19 April 1787, married Elizabeth Conkle.
2. James Smith, born 28 December 1789, married Lydia Currier and her sister Huldah Currier.
3. Andrew Smith, born 1 September 1790, married Lucinda Dillingham and Sarah (Winslow) Williams.
4. Robert Smith, born 6 April 1792, married Amanda [?] and Nancy Sackner.
5. David Smith, born 7 February 1795, married Sarah Cory [Frank didn’t have her name].
6. Margaret Smith, born 25 December 1796, married Jacob Springsteen.
7. John Smith, born 15 Jul 1798, is not known to have married.
8. Jane Smith, born 15 December 1799, married Asa Abell.
9. Agnes Smith, born 23 June 1801, is not known to have married.
10. William Smith, born 3 February 1803, married Clarissa Munn.
11. Thomas Smith, born 15 March 1805, married Emeline June.

Jacob and Margaret Springsteen had five children:

1. John S. Springsteen, born in 1818, married Mary E. Howe.
2. Nancy M. Springsteen, born 26 May 1820, married Davis Huntley.
3. Jane Springsteen, born about 1824, married Sherman Hyde Rogers.
4. Francis Eugene Springsteen, born 4 March 1825, married Cornelia Ireland Grenelle.
5. Lucinda Margaret Springsteen, born 18 June 1828, married William L. Miller.

I hope to write more about these families in future articles.

Smiths and Springsteens in the Oatka Cemetery

Scottsville, New York is at the east end of the Town of Wheatland near the outlet of Oatka Creek into the Genesee River. Staats and Anna Springsteen moved with their family to the Scottsville area before 1810, enabling the union of the Smith and Springsteen families. Some structures from their time still stand in Scottsville.

The Oatka Cemetery, located on Scottsville Mumford Road southwest of Scottsville near Oatka Creek, is the final resting place for several family members who remained in the area.

John and Nancy Smith’s son Robert, and likely other family members, are also buried in the Oatka Cemetery. Several of John and Nancy’s sons and daughters moved to Michigan and Ohio.

Notes

[i] Account of Andrew Smith in History of Washtenaw County, Michigan (Chicago: Chas. C. Chapman & Co., 1881), 735; digital image, Michigan County Histories and Atlases (page 735).

[ii] Carl F. Schmidt, History of the Town of Wheatland (Rochester, New York, 1953), 14, 17, 22.