Our Patriots

Our Ancestors

• Jose Antonio Ortiz

• John Hamilton  

• Daniel Little, Jr.
• Peter Newmyer
• Justus Hubbell

 JOSE ANTONIO ORTIZ

(paraphrased and translated to English)
March 13, 1784
Santa Fe, Nuevo Mexico, Nuevo España
Dear Antonio Jose Ortiz, High Mayor of Santa Fe:

As you know, in August of 1780, King Carlos III issued a Royal Order asking each Spanish and each Indian male 18 years of age or older in the Spanish colonies to make a voluntary donation to support the war effort. I now announce that the hostilities have ceased and that peace has been established, and so order that the donations cease.

I would like to personally thank you and the other contributors for your liberal offerings. His Majesty is most pleased with your having distinguished yourselves if offering all or a great part of your riches. Be sure to especially extend thanks to the Indians for this is the first that I know for a fact that have expressed their loyalty. A total of 3,677 pesos in cash and 133 pesos in the form of grain was collected from our province, stored in the Treasury at Chihuahua, shipped to Havana and then transferred to the colonies.

Signed:
Don Juan Bautista de Anza
Governor of the Province of New Mexico

Note: Mount Rosa Chapter is proud to have had this historic application for the first New Mexican patriot approved by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and hopes it will open avenues for other Spanish patriots and attract new lines for membership.
 

JOHN HAMILTON

Our Ancestor John Hamilton (1716-1798) of Shutesbury, Massachusetts, proved his loyalty to the patriot cause in its earliest years. In 1775 he was chosen by the town of Shutesbury as its first representative to the Provincial Congress. That year the battles of Lexington and Concord solidified opposition to the British in Massachusetts. We are proud of our ancestor who helped lead Massachusetts out of the British Empire and into the American Revolution. His sons John Jr. and Obadiah (our ancestor) also served the cause as privates (soldiers) from Massachusetts doing the Revolutionary War.

John was born aboard ship in the North Atlantic enroute from Northern Ireland. His family was among the first of the Scotch Irish to come to New England from Ireland. During the French and Indian War he had served as a soldier. His wife was Mary Lockhard.

Sc: Minutes of the Town of Shutesbury (1775). Josiah Gilbert Holland, History of Western Massachusetts, Samuel Bowles & Co., Springfield, 1855, p. 435.

John and Obadiah Hamilton are the ancestors of Shirley Edgar, Janis Reynolds, and Beverly Nelson - members of Mount Rosa Chapter.

DANIEL LITTLE, JR.

Daniel was born ca. 1750 in Rowan County , North Carolina , the second son of Captain Daniel Little, Esq. and his wife, Annie Mary. He took up the tanning trade and practiced it in Salisbury . Daniel’s wife was named Philippina and it is believed her maiden name was Flynn. 

Daniel’s siblings were listed in his father’s will as: Peter (1752), Henry (1761), Lewis (1770) and Mary (1772).  

As the Revolutionary War began reaching into the Salisbury area, Daniel and his brothers are said to have joined the forces of General Nathaniel Greene, fighting in the battles of Guildford Courthouse and Eutaw Springs. Daniel and Peter returned from these battles but it seems that the younger brothers did not. In 1781 Daniel furnished sundries for the Militia of North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina .   

In 1793 he moved to Mecklenburg County . (Later called Cabarrus County .) Daniel sold his real estate in North Carolina and moved to Kershaw County , South Carolina in October of 1801. He acquired title to land there in November. He and his son-in-law, Silas Shinn, were co-owners of the land. 

In his will written 8 April 1807 , Daniel named his wife and his son-in-law Silas Shinn as executors and also named his living children. These were: George, Elizabeth (1785-1852) John, Mary (Polly)(1788-1870), Phillippina (1788-1863), Daniel(17-- -1824), Jacob (1794-1863), Sarah(1796 - ), Henry 1798 - ), Ransom(1792-1836), James Silas (1802 - ).
Daniel Little is the ancestor of Marilyn Metz, Carolyn Metz and Gretchen Sanford.

PETER NEWMYER Newmyer

Peter Newmyer (spelled Petter Nesmire here) "was enrolled sometime during the period 1780-1783 as a Private First Class, Captain Samuel Paxton's Fourth Company, First Battalion, Bedford County [PA] Militia," according to an undated Class Return at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Residence is shown as Cumberland Valley Township.

According to a family Bible record (on file at NSDAR) Peter, son of Jacob and Mary, was born 29 May 1760, and his wife Susanna, daughter of Henry and Elisabeth Rhoads, was born 1 May 1765. This Bible record shows their marriage as 6 October 1783. Both are buried at Old Pennsville Baptist Cemetery, Fayette County, PA. Tombstones give Peter's death as 15 March 1836 and Susanna's (shown as Susannah) as 23 March 1838.

Descendants Lena Newmyer Jones and daughter Barbara Jones Brown secured copies of the Bible record in June 1971 on a visit to Pennsylvania and viewed these tombstones as well as those of Peter's son Jonathan and wife Mary Strickler from whom they descend. At that time Peter's tombstone was refurbished and an SAR marker was embedded showing that he had Revolutionary War service.  

In the summer of 2003 Barbara Brown received information from Robert E. Emerick of San Diego State University saying that he had visited the Cemetery in 1999 and made a rubbing of the plaque since his mother, maiden name Newmyer, grew up in the area of the Pennsville Baptist Church/Cemetery. She was not aware of her 3-great grandfather's grave until Bob discovered it. One of Bob's cousins still attends the church regularly.

Also in 1971 Lena and Barbara visited the farm and saw the house built by Peter Newmyer there in 1794, still in good condition at that time and owned by a family named Mucha. Bob Emerick sent a clipping from the January 19, 1999, issue of a local newspaper The Daily Courier, pp. A1 and A2, saying that the Newmyer-Mucha Farmstead had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the present owners Anthony and Rosemary Mucha. For nearly 70 years the Mucha family had operated the nearly 64-acres as a dairy farm. Barbara has a 1971 picture of the stone barn shown in the clipping. The farm is located along the east side of Richey Road in Bullskin Township, Fayette County, one of Pennsylvania's original townships.  

The Peter Newmyer line was opened in 1939 for DAR by Lena Jones, whose paternal grandfather was a grandson of Peter Newmyer. Living descendants would never have known of the national recognition given their patriot's farm if Peter Newmyer had not been listed on the Mount Rosa web site.

JUSTUS HUBBELL

Justus Hubbell was born about 1774 in Connecticut [1] to David and Eunice Sanford Hubbell. In the muster roll mentioned in the previous footnote, Justus’ name is spelled Justus Huble. He is listed as 32 years old, born in Connecticut , a yeoman, 5 ft. 11 1/2" in. tall, with fair complexion, blue eyes and sandy hair.

Justus was with his family in Courtland Manor , New York by 1757. David and Eunice, his wife, late of Fairfield , now of Courtland Manor , New York sold in 1757 their right in the estate of Eunice’s father, Thomas Sanford.[2] 

Justus was married to Waitstill Bishop at the Church of Christ , Salem , Westchester County , New York on 18 June 1766 .[3] The Church of Christ is located in the hamlet of South Salem , Town of Lewisboro . Van Cortlandt Manor extended from the Hudson River to the disputed boundary of Connecticut ; the western two-thirds of Salem was included in the Manor.[4]

Justus and his brother, Seth, signed the Articles of Association protesting the closing of the Port of Boston by the British, in New Paltz, Ulster County , New York in 1775.[5] Justus signed receipt rolls for service during the Revolution at Forts Montgomery and Independence in August and September 1776.[6] The microfilm copy even shows his own signature and he signs “Justus Hubbell”.

Family tradition is that Justus served with Nathanial Greene in the Virginia campaigns and liked the country so well that he later brought his family from New York to Seven Hill Ford, Virginia. We do not know where Seven Hill Ford is, but we do know that he was granted 282 acres of land 31 August 1781 at the south fork of the Holston River near Chilhowie which is now in Wythe County . He had rheumatism so bad his wife had to help build their cabin home. 

Justus’ family consists of the following children: Millie, David, Eliphalet who married Elizabeth, Sarah who married Reuben Debord, Joel who married Elizabeth Johnston, Eunice who married Thomas Tilson, Levi Hubbell who married Jane Buchanan, Ruth who married Adam Surber, and Mary who married M. H. Gastinau. He served on a Washington County jury in 1779 and witnessed a will in 1780.[7] It is also known that his wife’s relatives came to Southwest Virginia after the War so perhaps Justus came along with them.

In Washington County Deed Book 2, Page 202, an appraisement of the personal estate of Justis Hubell [sic] deceased, was made. The appraisers were Tobias Main, Adam Surber and Thomas Douglas. The administrator was Thomas Tilson. The abstract is not dated but appears among other documents dated in 1796 and 1797.[8]

A note of interest is that Joel Hubble (as he spelled his name) was the second great grandfather of Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953), a known astronomer for whom the Hubble Telescope was named.

[1] A Muster Roll of Captain Benjamin Kortright’s Company of Militia in the Service of the United States of whereof Levi Pawling is Colonel, made this sixth day of August, 1776. Federal Archives, Revolutionary War Records, Levi Pawling’s Regiment, Microfilm M246, Roll 75, Frame 0567. 

[2] Jacobus, Donald L., History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, pg 482.

[3] The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, April, 1900, pg 87.

[4] Letter from Richard de Frances, Historian, Town of North Salem . Dated 27 November 1980 .

[5] Hubble, Walter, History of the Hubbell Family, 1915, pg. 433. The information in his book came from Abstracts from Colonial Records of Connecticut: Former Places of Residence.

[6] See Footnote #1.

[7] See Footnote #5, pg. 119.

[8] Summers, Preston , Annals of Southwest Virginia 1769-1800, 1929, Volume II, pg. 1334