Category: Eric

A Letter From Frank

Frank, age 86, and Wilda, age 82, in Tempe, AZ 2006

In or about 1996 Brian gave Marc Rector the basic genealogy of the Rector clan in the US going back all the way to “1666 in Truppich, Germany 2 kilometers east of Siegen.” Brian had stumbled onto the “Rector Records” book and other documents and copied out our line. Given that both his parents had died, this inspired Marc to write to his Rector uncles and aunts for additional information:

Son Brian has been bugging me again about the RECTOR genealogy…Seems he found a book on RECTOR in the New York Public Library a while back and wants to know more…me too.

The following is the Genealogy in a direct line, taken from a much broader genealogy that Frank sent me a few years ago. That one ended with MARCUS CLAY being the son of MARCUS in the mid 19th Century. I have continued it to the best of my knowledge…Many gaps need filled and specifics filled in…PLEASE FILL IN AND RETURN THE COPY TO ME.

There followed is the first outline of our Hilltop lineage that we’ve now added to and compiled in The Begats.

I’ve recently come upon the folder in which Marc stored this information. I have found (so far) responses from Frank Hodgson Rector, as well as Jane Rector Breiding. Jane glossed the MARCUS CLAY outline that Marc had sent her, including the addition of sister Margaret who died tragically (as you will read below) at age 1 1/2. Frank, however, wrote a four page single-spaced letter describing his knowledge of the family background. It was so informative, and colorful, I thought it would be good to add it to this archive:

Wednesday, September 13, 1995
from Frank and Wilda Rector
[Frank is uncle of Marc, brother of Marc’s father Wendell]

Dear Marc–

Will do my best — I am not much for “rattling bones” so my knowledge is sparse.

Starting with Marcus Rector Sr. the family was living in Rectortown, VA1 (small un-incorporated) and moved to Pickaway County Ohio — farmers — Grandmother Frances [van Keuren] lived in Big Plain [Ohio, 15 miles southwest of Columbus] after Grandpa Marcus died. For years I was told he fell from a haymow in a scuffle with a tramp, breaking his neck. Found out later that he liked schnapps and kept it in the haymow — fell out a bit drunk! Two of Dad’s brothers, John and Alva, were also tipplers!

US Navy Hellcats on Espiritu Santo island in February 1944

How do I know about Rectortown? Not on a map. I was on the island of Efate in the new Hebrides Island [now Vanuatu] late in 1942. A call came to X-Ray that a relative was at the dispensary. When I got there he was a 6’2″ 220 pound Black man. Both of us got a bang out of that. Talking to him I found out about Rectortown (a crossroads). He was from near there and said that he was most likely a decendant of slaves that had belonged to great grandfather Rittenour R!2

As to mother’s family, it is even more sketchy. Mother [Elizabeth “Libby” Hodgson] said he came over from London, England (Mildred found Hodgsons in a graveyard there on a trip). He heard about the Civil War [in the US] and came to fight on the Union side. Being a foreigner, he could only be a courier between armies and had several horses shot out from under him — but not wounded himself. He went to Ohio, married, and also was a farmer. None of the Rectors (my family) knew either grandfather, but Grandma Hodgson also lived in Big Plain.

Big Plain Methodist Church, built in 1883

Dad [Marcus Clay Rector Jr.] and Mom met at the church and were married there. My sister Margaret (born after Mildred) died [at age 1 1/2] from taking medicine that she climbed up on a cupboard to get. With party lines tied up and no one would get off Dad rode a horse into Big Plain to get a doctor who arrived too late to save her.

Dad started out as a farmer, then a blacksmith (he was too lenient on collecting for work), barber, and then carpenter. When I was born he was working on a bridge in Columbus. He left home on the Interurban Street Car (ran down the middle of Main St. West Jefferson) at 4am and returned 8:30pm or 9 that night 6 days a week. He said he only saw his kids in bed and then on Sunday.

There is not much I know about the Rector clan — so there it is.

Some Notes:

1: Spenser Rector was the last in our line to be born in Fauquier Co., VA. He died at age 28 IN Fauquier Co. in 1793 with at least three children by his wife Mary Tiffen. His son Henry Clay Rector, Sr. marriage in 1812 to Elizabeth Hotsenpillar is recorded in the Pickaway/Ross Co. OH records. There is LOTS more about this in another post, but it’s clear that after Henry Rector married in OH, his line stays in OH until most of the children of Marcus Jr. move away to other parts of the US.

2: John Retenhour Rector was the son of Henry and Elizabeth (above), born in 1813 a year after their marriage. He married Arminta Wiggins in Ross Co., OH, and was the father of Marcus Clay Sr. Given that it’s clear from census materials that he lived and owned (substantial!) property in Ohio, a “free state” before the Civil War, it is unlikely that he also owned slaves. That said, I have established that many of the Virginia Rectors owned slaves, so it is very likely that this Rector that Frank met during World War 2 was a descendent of slaves that were once owned by Rectors in that area.

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Did Any Rectors Own Slaves?

John Jacob Rector 1773 Estate (partial) from Fauquier Co. Courthouse records

It was with great interest that I pulled Book 1 of over 100 bound records in the Fauquier (“It’s pronounced “Faw-KEER”) County, VA courthouse after placing all my electronic devices (including my fone) into a locker once I passed through the metal detectors in the lobby of the courthouse. Unfortunately I arrived with only 30 minutes until closing time on a Friday in May of 2022 so I had to dive in quickly. I had started with the Index book for all wills and estates recorded before 1925, and when I reached the “R” section, there were Rectors galore. I chose the earliest record I could find, which was for John Jacob Rector who died in 1773. Bingo!

And there it was in brown and white (the image I ordered and eventually received is from microfilm that is a negative of the actual image for greater contrast, I suspect):

  • Rector Inventory
    • Negro Jack
    • Negro Jude
    • Negro Sambo
    • Negro Cate(?)
    • Negro James
    • Negro Anthony
    • Negro Manuel
    • Negro Homer
    • 1 Bay Gelding … 1 Bay Stallion …

To the right of each listing are numerical values, and because this will was moved through probate in 1773, all those figures are in Pounds Sterling, Shillings, and Pennies. I’m not sure whether it’s comforting or horrifying that a man is worth more than two horses? Two men each are worth almost twice the gelding and the stallion’s total value.

Because I had to conclude my research in 30 minutes, resulting in a slip of specific pages to have them digitize and email to me, I wasn’t able to closely correlate each document with a specific member of the Rector family, specifically my personal family tree. For example, I quickly assumed that the John Jacob Rector will and estate listing I found in Book 1 represented our First Generation descendant who immigrated from Germany. However, now that I’ve been able to link it to other records, it is clearly the will and estate of JJR’s firstborn and namesake. JJR prime died in 1728/29, and those records, primarily processed as British documents before most of Virginia was organized into the counties that administrate things like this, it’s unlikely that I will find that document. On the plus side (for me) we are descended from JJR prime’s second born, Henry. I did NOT find Henry’s will and estate listing in my 30 minutes, but I continue to do research online through the VA Archives. I did find the will for Harmon Rector, JJR prime’s third born, whose will left “…to my son Harmon Rector one negro named Peter.”

As you can see in The Begats, Spenser Rector, Henry’s youngest son died young, at 28 in 1793. He and his British wife, Mary Tiffen, had at least three children before he died in Fauquier Co. Spenser’s middleborn — Marcus Clay Rector — was married in 1812 in Pickaway Co. OH, and his mother died in Ross Co. OH in 1832. So the family moved at some point, likely involving Mary’s new husband. Offhand I know that the Continental Congress was BROKE after the Revolutionary War, and decided to offer many of its unpaid soldiers land in the new states instead of their back-pay. Rectortown is located very near the trails along the upper Potomac River that would eventually become the National Road, and then the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and then the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad. I will be researching further into when/how Spenser’s family left VA and arrived in OH, though it is interesting to know that our branch of Rectors then stayed in Ohio until Amy left for the Oregon Territory(!) in the 1970s. Speaking of Amy:

To Corn & Nubbins . . . . 20 .14 —

I was FASCINATED to note one entry in JJR2’s estate, listing “Nubbins” as an asset — they have played an important and positive part of recent Rector history…but maybe they actually tie us back to old times?

I can also now add that not only did Spenser Rector move our line to Ohio shortly after the Revolutionary War, but his grandson — Marcus Clay Rector — was drafted into the Union Army in 1863 to fight against…his family, in some cases!

In fact, in my first foray to poke around Ancestry.com on my local library’s computer (CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT Ancestry.com OWNS AND SELLS OUR COUNTRY’S OLDEST PUBLIC RECORDS?!?!?!?) I found a record for a contemporary of Marcus Clay Rector — C.P. Rector of Fauquier Co., VA — who fought in F Company of the 6th Virginia Cavalry of the Confederate Army! Who, at the age of 87, applied to the state of Virginia for a military pension because he could no longer work. Amazing.

Summer’s Over

IMG_20160820_145215020

In Maine we say that summer has peaked and is now coasting downhill toward the dark valley of winter when the goldenrod heads erupt in a spray of gold the sun’s light that has blanketed our fields and pastures since the end of Spring’s rain.

 

Plantation Pundit

Plantation Trails Woshully Bungalow

Our last “foodie” stop on our trip was in another mountain area, north west of Coonoor and back in Karnataka state but right on the Kerela border, referred to as “Coorg” although that seems to be a colonial era term and is not found on any maps. Significantly we would be entering a dense chunk of the Tata Empire as guests of their hospitality division surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of their agricultural division which they proudly announced that they sold most of their coffee production to Starbucks.
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Acres Wild


The view from the upper bungalow at Acres Wild Farmstay, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu

Our journey after Melkote began with being picked up by a driver and his car as we said our goodbyes to the Kouragi family and thanked them for hosting us. We had arranged through a travel agent that specialized in culinary focused travel to visit a cheese maker, and to visit a coffee plantation before we had to leave India. We had four nights left, and two of them would be spent at Acres Wild, a “22 acre, family-run organic cheesemaking farm and farmstay” according to their website. First we had to get there.
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Everybody: SAMBAR!


Sambar in the cup, pepper pickle, mint coconut chutney, and a stir-fry veg main dish surround a Finger Millet cake (Ragi Roti) on my plate at one dinner.

Some of you may know that the title is NOT an invitation to dance (though, feel free…) but to eat a lentil-ish soup/stew that is served throughout the South India areas we visited on our trip. In fact it seems to be a central dish to the local cuisines, served all day in a little (often metal) cup beside your roti (bread) and/or rice, and the main dish (vegetable or meat). I found Sambar SO satisfying that I was often tempted to consume multiple cups of it in one sitting, though the local consumers appeared to treat it as a complement to the main dish and primarily for moistening and flavoring your bites of bread and rice in combination with the main dish.
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Crops Seen In South India

We traveled by train and car from Bangalore to Mysore to Melkote to Coonoor to Coorg and then back to Bangalore. Mostly we were in the southern end of Karnataka state, but Coonoor is just over the border in the southern-most state of Tamil Nadu. In Coorg we stayed less than 10 miles from the Kerela state border, and less than 40 miles from the Arabian Sea coast.

There are several large reservoirs in southern Karnataka which allows for constant irrigation, even in the dry season of crops like coconut and rice and sugar cane which are major cash crops in the area.

The agriculture was just so different than anything I’ve ever experienced I kept a list of all the food crops I saw being grown, followed by a few crops I did not see being grown but saw offered at the markets.
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