the genealogy book
, on Gideon Adams, the Battle of Crysler's Farm and how I'm related to Jane Fonda (seriously,
I am amused by this story that J. Smyth Carter includes in his volume The Story of Dundas, Being a History of the County of Dundas from 1784 to 1904 (1905), a history that has whole scatterings of my birth mother’s lineages throughout:
Many personal incidents are cited as having occurred during those stormy times. The following is related by Mr. Croil: “Samuel Adams, of Edwardsburg, who with his father acted as bearers of dispatches from Montreal to Kingston, was in the vicinity of Crysler’s on the day of the battle. Having no particular duty assigned him by the officer in command he resolved to tarry to make himself useful if possible and at all events to see the fun. Accordingly in the morning he left the British lines and making a detour through the second concession came out to the river at Ranney’s farm, in the rear of the American army. Just as he reached the King’s road, which at that time followed the margin of the river, a troop of the enemy’s cavalry that had been quartered at Louck’s inn dashed up at full speed. Resistance and flight being alike out of the question, he threw himself down behind an old log which barely served to conceal him from the horsemen, who in their hurry passed within a few feet without observing him. He had not time to congratulate himself upon his narrow escape, before the noise of accoutrements warned him of the approach of a party on foot and caused him to repent the rashness of his adventure. He kept close to his lair until he should ascertain their numbers, and soon discovered that his alarm was caused by a brace of American officers in dashing uniforms, who were leisurely sauntering up the road, their swords dangling on the ground, and a pair of pistols in the belt of each. Adams felt quite relieved that the odds were only two to one and at once made up his mind to capture both of them. Leaving his ambuscade he planted himself in front of them and levelling his musket with an air of determination, summoned them to surrender their arms or their lives. To his surprise they surrendered at discretion, and arming himself with their pistols, for his musket was unloaded, he marched them back to the woods and with his prize reached headquarters in time to take part with the militia in the battle.”
The authors of A Family Record of Dr. Samuel Adams, United Empire Loyalist of Vermont and Upper Canada speak of this story relating to Samuel Adams (1782-1865), son of Dr. Samuel Adams’ eldest son, Gideon Adams (1755-1834) and his wife, Mary Ann Snyder (1764-1835). Dr. Samuel Adams is my sixth great grandfather, making Gideon Adams my sixth great uncle. I originate, of course, through the Adams via Gideon’s brother Joel (1760-1843), as well as through his youngest brother, Ezra (1772-1852). My great grandparents, Arthur Adams (1885-1983) and Mary Maude Adams (1883-1968), were third cousins, once removed: Joel was Arthur’s fourth great grandfather, and Ezra was Mary’s third great grandfather. There was such a distance between siblings that both Ezra and his nephew, the war hero Samuel, each married daughters of Captain Samuel Rose and Chloe Canfield, which would have made for a curious family dynamic. Genealogy in such small corners of cultural groupings, of course, is rarely a straight line, as certain family names often interweave across generations if you remain in one place long enough. There are repeated names throughout the Adams genealogy, interconnecting to and through Van Allen, Froom. Further Loyalist names. Further lines pushed from their properties and moved north.
Gideon Adams, as the book offers, was “a major in the Grenville Militia and was active in the War of 1812; and both Gideon and his son Samuel were residents of Edwardsburgh. Samuel and his brother, Gideon, Jr., took over the Edwardsburgh farm when their father moved (in about 1806) to South Gower. Thus, while Samuel later moved to Westmeath, in Renfrew County, he was in Edwardsburgh in the years just prior to the War of 1812; and he is doubtless the hero of our story.” Ian T. Fraser’s online “Biography of Loyalist Samuel Adams” offers that: “The eldest son, Gideon, born in 1755 in Connecticut, served in Jessup’s Rangers. In 1784, after the War, he was granted 2000 acres of land because of his rank and service. He took his land in Edwardsburgh, Oxford and South Gower Townships. He and his wife, Mary Ann Snyder, settled on the South Gower land; his sons staying in Edwardsburgh. In South Gower he became a notary public, magistrate and major in the Grenville Militia.” Gideon, who served alongside his father and brothers in Jessup’s Loyal Rangers (1781-1783), a volunteer regiment of Loyalists commanded by Major Edward Jessup (1735-1816). This gathering of armed Loyalists originally formed at Jessup’s Landing, on the Hudson River, as part of Sir John Johnson’s King’s Royal Regiment of New York. Following their movement north after the conflicts surrounding the American Revolution, Jessup and his son were provided land grants in Augusta Township, where they founded the village of Prescott. Johnson (1782-1830), on his part, his manor house in Williamstown (a village he named for his father) still stands, and hosts the county archives for Glengarry. My birth mother, who grew up in South Dundas at Williamsburg, another hamlet named for Irish-born Sir William Johnston (c. 1715-1774), United Empire Loyalist, British Army officer and colonial administrator.
The Battle of Crysler’s Farm was a War of 1812 battle that came close enough, in comparison to those centred around the Niagara Escarpment and York (Toronto), that I knew word of it when I still a teen. There’s an 1812 cairn just across from the Lancaster docks. Fought on November 11, 1813, an outnumbered British and Canadian force managed to fight off invaders well enough, it was said, that the American military’s St. Lawrence Campaign, one designed to edge east along the river’s edge and eventually take Montreal, was abandoned. A more direct assault upon Montreal was simultaneously attempted, instead prompting a further American defeat at Châteauguay, Lower Canada. Given that the American scheme to take Montreal hadn’t worked for them in 1760, during the infamous and failed Siege of Montreal, one begins to wonder exactly what they might have been thinking.
The Battle of Crysler’s Farm is named for Captain John Crysler (1770-1852), after whom the nearby village of Crysler is named. Crysler’s Farm: when half the battlesite was scheduled to fall underwater—along with a handful of villages, with buildings either drowned, relocated or demolished—due to the 1950s creation of the Long Sault Hydroelectric Project, it was then someone decided the remaining half above water level should be built up as a memorial, as well as a Pioneer village. And thus, Upper Canada Village was born. This was a site I visited repeatedly in my youth, whether as part of family jaunts, school trips or boy scout outings, so I’m well-familiar with the landscape. While in London, Ontario not that long back, I found copies of old guidebooks from the park, both of which hold lengthy introductions to the history of the site, one of which writes:
Today, Upper Canada Village stands in Crysler Farm Battlefield Park, dominated by a memorial mound, an obelisk, and a memorial building containing artifacts, displays and a large mural of the climax of the battle. Also, in this park visitors can find a monument to the loyalist regiments and a memorial garden preserving the tombstones of early settlers from lost cemeteries along the old riverfront.
Or, as Don McKay wrote as part of his book-length poem, Long Sault (1975): “It is a tale full of its endings.” It is interesting to discover that this sixth great uncle, Gideon Adams, was named a justice of the peace in 1796 in the Eastern District of Ontario, and later, represented Grenville in the 6th Parliament of Upper Canada, alongside representative Captain John Crysler of Dundas. This was a Parliament that ran from July 1812 through to April 1816, the entire length and breadth, as well as the aftermath, of the War of 1812. There was a lot going on in those days, so I suspect they were busy. There is even a park in North Grenville, not far from Kemptville, named after Gideon: point-three-four acres along the Rideau River, an undeveloped stretch said to be a favourite of contemporary birdwatchers and geocachers.
Floating through online records on Gideon, I discover his array of descendants includes Frances Ford Seymour (1908-1950), the Brockville, Ontario-born mother to Jane and Peter Fonda, and grandmother to Bridget. I make sure to source this information three times, as it seems difficult to wrap my head around, although each could be, for all I know, replicating the same error. As each source relays: from Gideon Adams and Mary Ann Snyder (1764-1835) to Mary Adams (1787-1870) and Dr. Silas Huntington (1788-1862) to Mary Ann Huntington (1818-1908) and Joseph Bower (1813-1870) to Harvey Bower (1848-1891) and Frances Marcella Capel (1849-1938) to Mildred Sophie Bower (1886-1974) and Eugene Ford Seymour (1870-1966) to Frances, a socialite who apparently had a deeply troubled and abusive childhood that ran the length and breadth of her adult life. She died by suicide at forty-two, while in psychiatric care.
I had no idea their mother was Canadian. This would make Jane Fonda my sixth cousin, once removed; and Bridget, my seventh cousin. So much closer to me than Laura Dern, and yet, between she and I, a distance of more than one million miles, one million years.