A bit of Anna’s story

I mentioned in a recent article that an old newspaper notice about Anna Springsteen had eluded me for years. After posting a query on the Facebook page of the Rochester Genealogical Society New York, I received the guidance I needed. The index card for this notice, which I had determined to be incorrect, was off by three years. Even though I had plowed through several years of online issues of the Rochester Telegraph, the issue I needed from 1821 was not available. I obtained an image of the notice at a modest fee from the microfilm collection of the Rochester Public Library.

Who was Anna Springsteen?

As with so many of our female ancestors, information about Anna has been hard to find. I don’t know who she was at birth, where she was born, or who her parents or siblings were. The few indications of her birthplace that I have seen are inconsistent, suggesting New York or Pennsylvania. According to her age at death inscribed on a family monument, Anna was born October 14, 1770. It has been speculated that she might have been native American. Although none of my DNA tests reveal indigenous heritage, it is possible that I inherited no DNA from her as a great-great-great-great grandmother.

Staats and Anna’s family

I don’t know when or where Anna might have met Staats Springsteen or where they were married. Staats, who was baptized January 5, 1755, in Albany, New York, appears to have been about sixteen years older than Anna.

Anna and Staats had at least seven children, the first six born in the British province of Upper Canada (now southern Ontario).

• Jacob, my great-great-great grandfather, was born around 1794 or 1795. He married Margaret Smith, with whom he had five children. Jacob’s age in census records from 1810 to 1840 indicate birth from 1794 to 1800.
• Mary, known as Polly, was born around June 1796. She married Henry Sackner, with whom she had six children.
• David, born around 1800, married Clara Delano, with whom he had nine children.
• Jane, known as Jenny, was born around 1802. She married Abram Blood, with whom she had nine children.
• Deborah, known as Debby, was born in 1804 according to her family monument. She married Robert Chambers, with whom she raised an apparent foster child.
• Lana Ann, born in 1806 or 1807, married Marcus Sackner, with whom she had five children.
• John Price was born around 1813, probably in Genesee (now Monroe) County, New York. He married Mary Eurana Bristol, with whom he had six children.

Home in Upper Canada

As a Loyalist veteran of Butler’s Rangers, Staats lived in the Niagara region after the American Revolution. Former soldiers were settled along the west side of the Niagara River as a potential defensive measure against incursion by the newly established United States. This area had been part of the British province of Quebec since the conclusion of the French and Indian War. In 1791, with increasing settlement around Niagara and Detroit, Quebec was divided into two provinces, Upper and Lower Canada. Lower Canada, corresponding roughly with modern Quebec, was downriver in the St. Lawrence River valley.

Staats was on the provision list at Niagara (P.L.N.) in 1786 with a wife and two children. The Loyalist list preserved by the Crown Lands Department was transcribed to mark the centennial of the settlement of Upper Canada by United Empire Loyalists, 1784-1884:

Was this wife Anna? She would have been about sixteen years old at that time. If this wasn’t Anna, who was she? What happened to these children, and were there more to come before Jacob, who was named as Staats’ oldest son in his 1825 will? If Jacob was Anna’s first child, she might not have taken up with Staats until 1793-94. I sure would like to meet these people someday.

By 1793 Staats was engaged in property disputes with neighbors in Township 2 (later Stamford Township) of Upper Canada. In 1794 he petitioned for land that he had begun to settle without authorization at Murphy’s Creek near Long Point. That petition was denied. Another petition for land commensurate with his service in Butler’s Rangers was rejected in 1797, stating that he had already received the land to which he was entitled. An additional petition asking for family land was denied on the basis that his children appeared to be illegitimate:

Staats and Anna’s children might have been considered illegitimate for a number of reasons:

• Anna and Staats might never have married.
• They might have been married in a church other than the Church of England or an approved exception (Quaker or Jewish).
• Anna might have been born of indigenous parents.
• The children might have been Anna’s but not his. This was suggested as an additional possibility by my distant cousin Ron Springsteen, who is a descendant of Staats’ brother Caspar. If Jacob was one of these children, Y-DNA shows that this could not have been the case.
• Members of the land board who had been personally insulted by Staats might not have been inclined to grant him more land.

Return to New York

Staats was finally granted additional land in Upper Canada in 1808. Nevertheless, he apparently felt compelled to start over in new pastures. Staats would have been familiar with the Genesee River valley from his years of service in Butler’s Rangers. If Anna was of native descent this would likely have been familiar territory for her as well. By 1810 they had moved to the newly opened land near Scottsville in the Town (township) of Caledonia, Genesee County, New York.

Staats and Anna’s family was enumerated in the 1810 Census of Caledonia. This single-line entry is problematic for more than one reason. Although his line is somewhat obscured, it appears to record Staats’ family as follows:

• Free white males under 10: 0
• Free white males 10-15: 1 (David)
• Free white males 16-25: 1 (Jacob)
• Free white males 26-44: 0
• Free white males 45 and over: 1 (Staats)
• Free white females under 10: 2 (should be Jenny, Debby, and Lana Ann)
• Free white females 10-15: 1 (Polly)
• Free white females 16-25: 0
• Free white females 26-44: 0 (should be Anna)
• Free white females 45 and over: 1 (apparently Anna)
• Other free persons: 0
• Slaves: 0

Staats was known to speak indigenous languages but apparently didn’t know how to spell his own name. That was left to the interpretation of scribes. This census entry appears to identify him as Stots Springsteel, one of many recorded variations in his name.

Anna’s apparent last child, John Price Springsteen, was born around 1813. Was his middle name a nod to her birth family surname?

Staats and Anna still lived in Caledonia, Genesee County in 1820 with a smaller household:

• Free white males under 10: 1 (John)
• Free white males 45 and over: 1 (Staats)
• Free white females 10-15: 1 (Lana Ann)
• Free white females 45 and over: 1 (Anna)

With the creation of Monroe County in 1821, the Town of Caledonia was split. The north part, including the Scottsville area, became the Town of Wheatland (temporarily Inverness) in Monroe County.

Life after Staats

As we have seen, Anna left Staats in 1821. The disclaimer of debts posted by Staats in the Rochester Telegraph was a stock notice that I have seen for other men as well. I have yet to find any evidence to tell us where Anna went. She was not named in Staats’ 1825 will, but one clause might provide a hint. Staats left small bequests to each of his children except Jenny, whose children were legatees.

Jenny was still alive and well. Could this bequest reflect disfavor toward Jenny for taking in her mother?

Staats apparently died in early 1826. When the census was taken in 1830, most if not all of Anna’s children were still living in Wheatland or in neighboring Chili. I have found a Henry Sackner in Chili with a female close to Anna’s age range but none of Polly’s age. I haven’t found John in the 1830 census, but he was probably in someone else’s household learning a trade per the instructions in Staats’ will. None of the children’s households that I have found include a woman of Anna’s age.

The 1840 census recorded Ann Springsteen in Wheatland with one free white female in her seventies and one in her nineties. Might this have been Anna with her mother?

In 1850, Anna, age 80, lived in Deerfield Township, Livingston County, Michigan with her son-in-law Robert Chambers and daughter Deborah.

In 1860, recorded as 91 years old and blind, Anna still lived with Robert and Debby Chambers in Deerfield Township.

Anna is memorialized on the Chambers family monument in the Sharp cemetery in Deerfield Township. Her inscription tells us that Anna passed from this life on February 22, 1861, at ninety years, four months, and eight days of age. She experienced momentous times and endured circumstances that we know little about, but we owe her a debt of gratitude.

Thank you, Anna.