Jacob and Margaret Springsteen

In the early years of my interest in family history, I had no knowledge of my great-great grandfather John S. Springsteen’s parents. That door was opened when I received a copy of a report prepared by Frank Van Rensselaer Phelps, a researcher in genealogy and sports history. Frank shared his investigation of John and Nancy Smith’s descendants with Joe (Clinton) and Mary Springsteen, who had provided information on our line.

Jacob’s early years

Jacob Springsteen was the oldest known child of Staats and Anna Springsteen. He was almost certainly born in Upper Canada, either in Township 2 (later Stamford Township) near Niagara Falls or near Murphy’s Creek in the vicinity of Long Point. My best guess is that he was born in 1794, based on

• his age groups reported in the 1810 to 1840 censuses,
• the fact that he was named first in his father’s will,
• and an estimated birthdate of May or June 1796 for his sister Mary, calculated from her tombstone inscription.

Jacob’s father Staats had difficulty dealing with authority and formalities, which has provided a surprising amount of documentation for an illiterate farmer. He made several petitions to the Upper Canada Council related to conflicts with neighbors over land grants or purchases. One petition in 1795 stated that ‘your Petitioner having unguardedly suffered some Expressions to fall from him which gave undesigned offense to two Gentlemen of the said Board, … a spirit of animosity against your Petitioner was set loose which in its progress has nearly ruined your Petitioner …’. This might have influenced a notation on a 1797 petition for family land stating that his children appeared to be illegitimate.

If Jacob was born in 1794 or 1795, the assertion of possible illegitimacy casts doubt on Jacob’s paternity. The basis for this claim might have been

• that Staats was not Jacob’s father,
• that Staats and Anna weren’t married,
• that they weren’t married in the Church of England as required by Lord Hartwicke’s Act of 1753,
• or that Staats had made an enemy who acted in a spirit of meanness.

Fortunately, DNA sheds light on this question. Unlike autosomal DNA tests, which are widely sold to explore all ancestral lines and to learn something of ethnicity, Y-DNA marks the strictly paternal line and reaches further back in time with almost no change. When I initially tested Y-DNA at Family Tree DNA in 2015, my only match was a gentleman named DePew. This strongly suggested that either one of his DePew ancestors was the son of a Springsteen or one of Springsteen ancestors was the son of a DePew. In 2018 a new Y-DNA match appeared with the surname Springston. Early this year a new Springsteen match appeared who is a known descendant of Staats Springsteen’s grandfather Casparus Springsteen. Whatever the legal formalities might have been, Jacob Springsteen must have been Staats’ son.

Jacob moved with his parents and siblings to western New York between 1808 and 1810. Staats was enumerated in the Town (township) of Caledonia, Genesee County in 1810 with

• 1 male 10-15 years of age (David)
• 1 male 16-25 (Jacob)
• 1 male 45 and over (Staats)
• 2 females under 10 (2 of three daughters: Jane, Deborah and Lana Ann)
• 1 female 10-15 (Mary)
• 1 female 45 and over (Anna)

This part of Caledonia became the Town of Wheatland, Monroe County in 1821.

Jacob sold 200 acres of land in Scott Township, York County, Upper Canada in 1815. This was the last land grant made to Staats Springsteen for service in Butler’s Rangers during the American Revolution. As noted in Staats Springsteen’s 1825 will, Jacob had already received 200 acres of land.

Margaret’s early years

Frank Phelps determined that Margaret Smith, known as Peggy, was born 25 December 1796. She was the first daughter of John and Nancy Smith of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and their first child born in New York. The report from Frank Phelps stated that John Smith of Annan was a landscape gardener for Aaron Burr at Richmond Hill in New York City before working as a surveyor for Charles Williamson in western New York. Margaret might have been born in New York City or in either the town of Groveland or Sparta, Ontario (now Livingston) County, New York. Williamson’s Hermitage estate was in Groveland. 

John Smith’s family was recorded in Sparta, Ontario County for the 1800 census:

• 2 males under 10 (David and John)
• 4 males 10-15 (Francis, James, Andrew and Robert, who was 8)
• 1 male 26-44 (John)
• 2 females under 10 (Margaret and Jane)
• 1 female 26-44 (Nancy)

John was one of two John Smiths on the same page who were believed by Frank Phelps to be the two surveyors of the same name working for Charles Williamson.

John Smith of Annan moved his family to the east side of Canawaugus (now River) Road just south of Scottsville in the Town of Caledonia, Genesee County. George E. Slocum’s 1908 history of Wheatland stated on page 54 that John was the first teacher at the first school in Scottsville around 1806.

John Smith’s family was recorded in Caledonia for the 1810 census:

• 2 males under 10 (William and Thomas)
• 4 males 10-15
• 2 males 16-25
• 1 male 26-44 (John)
• 1 female under 10 (Agnes)
• 1 female 10-15 (Margaret or Jane)
• 1 female 45 and over (presumably Nancy, although she was reported to have died when Thomas was young)

Jacob and Margaret’s family

I don’t know when Jacob and Margaret were married, but their son John was, according to his tombstone, born in 1818. They had five children:

• John S Springsteen, born in 1818. I wonder if his middle name was Smith, or possibly Staats. John married Mary E Howe in Michigan in 1848. He died in 1867, reported in the family to have been on a train trip east in connection with an estate. Was this related to the estate of his brother Francis?
• Nancy M Springsteen, born in 1820. She apparently married Davis Huntley between 1850 and 1855. They moved to Michigan, where Nancy died in 1887.
• Jane Springsteen, born about 1824. She married Sherman Rogers. Jane died in 1857 and was buried in Oatka Cemetery in Scottsville, New York.
• Francis Eugene Springsteen, born 1825. He married Cornelia Ireland Grenelle. Francis died in 1866 and was buried in Oatka Cemetery.
• Lucinda Margaret Springsteen, born about 1828. She moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, where she lived with her husband William L Miller in 1850. They moved on to Ohio, then finally to Michigan where she died in 1891.

Jacob and Margaret’s family was recorded next to his father in the Town of Caledonia, Genesee County, for the 1820 census:

• 1 male under 10 (John)
• 1 male 16-25 (Jacob)
• 1 female under 10 (Nancy)
• 1 female 16-25 (Margaret)

In 1830 they were in the neighboring Town of Chili near James Smith, who might have been Margaret’s brother and Frank Phelps’s great-great grandfather:

• 1 male 5-9 (Francis)
• 1 male 10-14 (John)
• 1 male 20-29 
• 1 male 30-39 (Jacob)
• 1 female under 5 (Lucinda)
• 1 female 5-9 (Jane)
• 1 female 10-15 (Nancy)
• 1 female 30-39 (Margaret)

Jacob Stringham was listed with two children aged 5-15 in the Wheatland school district 2 report for 1831 (image 58 of 259). This might have been Jacob Springsteen, but he might well still have been in Chili in 1831 with more school-age children.

Jacob was enumerated in Wheatland in 1840 next to his brother David and Margaret’s brother Francis Smith:

• 1 male 15-19 (Francis)
• 1 male 20-29 (John)
• 1 male 40-49 (Jacob)
• 1 female 10-14 (Lucinda)
• 1 female 15-19 (Jane)
• 1 female 20-29 (Nancy)

Where was Margaret?

Later years

Jacob was reported in Wheatland poll records during the 1840s:

• 1842 (image 62 of 137). Phillip Garbutt, executor of Staats Springsteen’s estate, and Sherman Rogers, Jacob and Margaret’s son-in-law, are on the same page.
• 1843 (image 136 of 137). Sons Francis E. and John S. Springsteen are on the same page.
• 1843 (image 6 of 180). Son Francis is on the preceding page.
• 1846 (image 48 of 180). Brother David Springsteen is on the second previous page.

Did Jacob move out of Wheatland after 1846? Did death remove him from the list of voters? Frank Phelps cited Mrs. A.B. Johnson, Historian of the Town of Caledonia, as the source of a statement that Margaret married Jacob Springsteen and removed to Michigan. Jacob’s brother David and son John both lived in Fenton Township, Genesee County, Michigan in 1850. I have not found either Jacob or Margaret anywhere in the 1850 census enumerations.

Margaret was listed in the household of son-in-law Davis Huntley in the 1855 New York state census enumeration. This entry suggests that she might have arrived in Caledonia (Wheatland) with her family in 1805. Peggy Springsteen was recorded (image 136 of 249) on September 21 of that year as a visitor in the home of Joseph and Jane Anne Thorn. She arrived with her sister-in-law Emeline Smith, Thomas’s wife, who lived nearby.

Margaret died of consumption on 24 July 1859 in Somerford Township, Madison County, Ohio. She might well have been living with her son-in-law and daughter William and Lucinda Miller, recorded in Somerford in the 1860 census enumeration. The 1860 census mortality schedule recorded Margaret’s death the previous July:

Margaret was buried with her brothers David and John Smith in the New Carlisle Cemetery, Clark County, Ohio. I don’t know what became of Jacob.

Frank Phelps sent pictures to Joe and Mary Springsteen in 1971, including this portrait of Margaret:

Frank received the pictures from descendants of Thomas Smith:

The search goes on

Dee and I visited Scottsville in 2015. Some of the buildings there were present in Jacob and Margaret’s time. Thomas Smith’s house still stands along the road to Rochester, over the town line in Chili. I wonder if Jacob and Margaret would recognize anything at all. While Dee and I were in Scottsville, we met my fifth cousin Elaine and her family. A niece of Frank Phelps, she works as an archivist and has inherited Frank’s family research papers.

My primary motivation in all of this is simply gratification in research and a desire to share what I’ve found. As you can see, there are always more questions to explore. An additional benefit in posting articles is the potential for other descendants to see them and to share information and artifacts of family history that have come down through the generations to them. That, by the way, is one of the great benefits of DNA testing as well.

I hope you enjoy reading this and learning a bit about some of our ancestors.