Solitude
For 2023, I’m writing responses to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Days prompts provided by Amy Johnson Crow on her ”Generations Café” website and Facebook page.
My 5th great-grandmother (1737-1815) didn’t live most of her life in solitude – far from it. But in 1794, she made a solo trip that bears attention. She traveled from Hopkinton, Massachusetts (about 30 miles west of Boston) to Marcellus, New York (just west of Syracuse – a journey of 300 miles) to scout out land made available to her as bounty for her husband’s service in the American Revolution.
Here's how all of that came about. She married Joseph Cody (1736-1787) in Worcester County in 1757, and the couple must have felt that they were on their way to a good life together. Joseph was the grandson of Philippe L’Escaude (anglicized to Cody) and Martha LeBrocq, French Huguenots who had come to Massachusetts in 1698 from the Channel Islands off the coast of France. They settled in Hopkinton, where they had six children over the next 16 years. Their children grew up and married in Hopkinton, and the family became established members of their communities.
Philippe and Martha’s grandchildren faced challenges that their parents and grandparents could not have imagined, as they lived in a colony that was increasingly at odds with Britain. Four of their grandsons – John, Isaac, Joseph, and Samuel Cody – served in the American Revolution. Joseph Cody married Mary Parmenter in 1757, and they proceeded to have 11 children before Joseph’s untimely death in 1787. I’m not sure how Joseph died, but some records suggest that it was a result of some business setbacks as the family attempted to run a farm and a store in the difficult years after the revolution. Mary’s children ranged in age from 27 years old to three years old at the time of Joseph’s death.
The newly-independent United States was struggling financially during the 1780s. Its financial failings meant that it was unable to pay Revolutionary War veterans what they had been promised. In place of promised wages, the government offered these veterans land instead. This land was free, but it was often far from the places where the veterans and their families lived. It wasn’t easy for veterans to avail themselves of this benefit, and they often sold the rights to their land in order to recoup something (although often at reduced value) from their service.
It's not possible to understand what went through Mary’s mind when she decided to claim Joseph’s land bounty. But claim it she did. This is when she made the trip.
The lore of Marcellus (in Onondaga County) says that Mary made the trip by herself in 1794 to assess the land and figure out whether she would be able to bring her family to this new home. She remarried in the same year – to a man named Jared Smith, who was also scouting out new land. It’s not clear whether they had met before the trip or while they were both in Marcellus – but they met and married. Mary then returned to Hopkinton to get her children, whom she brought back to Marcellus to set up housekeeping with Jared. Several of her older daughters were married by this time, and they stayed in Massachusetts. But six of them made the trip – including my 4th great-grandfather Daniel Cody, who was 17 years old when the family moved.
The family prospered in Marcellus. Jared became a tavern and innkeeper, working directly with Mary and her two sons, Joseph and Elijah. Mary died in Marcellus in 1817.
If the Cody name sounds familiar to you, it may be because the full name of “Buffalo Bill” (of Wild West Show fame) was William Frederick Cody. He was a third great-grandson of Philippe and Martha, while Joseph Cody was their grandson. They were 1st cousins 3x removed. Not close enough to be seated at the family table at a wedding, but close enough. Buffalo Bill’s generational peer was my 2nd great-grandmother Lydia Deuel, born one year before Bill, in 1845. They were 4th cousins. I think.
I would have liked Mary.
Great story.