Duffy Sisters Go FISHing in Pennsylvania

I wrote about my 3rd great-grandfather, Abner Fish, last year. Figuring out who his parents were has been a struggle since there were 2 or 3 boys named Abner Fish born in or near Little Smithfield Township around 1794.  I now have reason to believe that my Abner’s father was David Fish and that David moved his wife Polly and their children from Lower Smithfield, Northampton County, Pennsylvania to Washington County, Ohio around 1803.  David’s father’s name is John.  John had 4 wives: Rebecca Herrys (or Harris), Sarah Scott, Catherine ? and Margaret Williams.  And John had lots of children.  Catherine is the only wife that doesn’t seem to have had any children who were alive at the time of John’s death.  Margaret’s children were still minors at John’s death and needed legal guardians. (Women were not qualified to be even their own children’s guardian.)
David’s brother Asahel had a son named Abner and possibly one of his other brothers did also.

I had run out of options for searching online to research FISH so I spent a week in Pennsylvania with Dee and her family.  We drove through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (NRA in park terms) on our first day of FISHing. https://www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm

Northampton County (at the time David and Abner lived there) included the township of Lower Smithfield.  This township is triangle shaped and the base of the triangle is mostly in the Delaware Water Gap NRA.  We started at the Visitor Center near the town of Delaware Water Gap. The rangers were very helpful about what we should see and which areas would best reflect the time period of our Fish.  We explored both Pennsylvania and the New Jersey sides of the NRA. The road through the park was pretty rough on the New Jersey side, so we missed one village of interest but did stop at Millbrook Village which is preserved from a later date than when our Fish were here.

Dee and I at Millbrook Village, Delaware Water Gap NRA

Millbrook Village, Delaware Water Gap NRA

We also attempted to stop at the second Visitor Center, but the two Visitor Centers must share the same staff because they are never open at the same time!  We did see a beautiful waterfall there.

Silver Threads Waterfall, Delaware Water Gap NRA

 On the second day of FISHing, we went to the Monroe County Historical Society Library and Museum in Stroudsburg.  Stroudsburg was named after Colonel Jacob Stroud who was a close friend of David’s father, John.    We went to Monroe County because it now includes the township that was called Lower Smithfield — now just Smithfield. Col. Stroud owned a store after the Revolutionary War and kept ledgers of his customers’ purchases and payments.  Unfortunately only one of those ledgers has survived and it was treated with the care it deserves.  I had to put on white gloves before opening the ledger.

Stroud Ledger, David Fish

Stroud Ledger, Abner Fish (David’s brother)

 David’s page of the ledger ends in February 1798.  Items purchased: nails, tea, chocolate, a shovel, sugar, tobacco, rum, and fabric.  Clearly a man with a household.  His younger brother Abner’s ledger continued into 1807 and was mostly liquor and “sundries” with interest on his running balance.

Day 3 of FISHing was to Northampton County.  Started the day at the Signal Museum where the genealogical society has a library on the second floor.  After going through everything FISH they had, the volunteer in charge of the library strongly recommended that we go to the Northampton County Courthouse Archives.  And off we went.

The Northampton County Archivists were very friendly and helpful.  So I went through their index and copied down every ID that had a FISH connected to it.  Later, I realized that I didn’t print out everything that I thought I printed– but enough to be thoroughly confused.  Fortunately Dee’s husband could decode the legalize and tell me what was going on.  I need to work with the Northampton County Archivists to get more documents, but one of his close friends, Daniel Broadhead, opted out of being the executor as did his widow Margaret. And another of John Fish’s closest friends, Col, Jacob Stroud, sued John’s estate and forced the heirs to sell the land that they had received.  All that was referred to in the deeds was that the suit was about “promises made in his lifetime” to Jacob Stroud and to a widow named Martha Coyl.

So how does this all connect to David moving his family to Ohio?  David and his brother-in-law Jacob Williams were the eventual executors of John’s estate and it appears that the end of all the deed transfers took place sometime after April 1801.  David then took his family to Ohio.  Young Abner served in the War of 1812 and in 1837 David’s wife Polly inherited what little David had in the way of an estate in Trumbull County, Ohio.