"The
Family Records of Peter Eastman” LDS file #15589, brought
to our attention by Pomala Black. Her research on the Eastman family is
available here
This record is on microfilm,
indexed in The Church of Later Day Saints, Archives in Salt Lake City.
It is described as a manuscript copied by the Genealogy Society of Utah
in 1952, from the State Library in Concord, New Hampshire. Included on
the same film are the "Family Records of Benjamin Eastman" and
"The Family Records of Samuel Eastman"
We encourage comments and
speculation to share with and help others researching the subject.
Please send anything you'd like added below to coleman@colemancoyne.com
Comments and
speculation by
Matthew B. Rogers...
The
file above is a real treasure. It seems to confirm Matthew Eastman was
married to Sally Naomi (Eastman) before he married Sally Sanborn. A big
Thank You goes out to Pomala for unselfishly sharing this information with
us.
We
should point out there are some factual errors and
inconsistencies in this document.
We have no record showing Dr. Nathaniel
Eastman, had a wife prior to marrying Naomi Rowlee.
The Grandfather of Matthew Eastman was
Joseph not William.
In
regards to Dr. Hezekiah Eastman: He was trained to be a Doctor by his
Uncle Dr. Nathaniel Eastman. It’s not unreasonable to believe he and the
Doctor’s daughter Sally would have known each other and could have been
very good friends.
Hezekiah
was pretty enterprising. Along with his Medical Practice he operated a
Distillery and a Tavern. He enlisted in the Militia in 1811, served in the
War of 1812, was captured and held prisoner by the British until 1815. He
migrated to Jennings County, Indiana in 1818, along with Sally's parents
and her brother.
One
of the complications in the story is Matthew Eastman enumerated in the
1820 census living with a woman who appears to be his wife and two sons
under the age of 10. It look’s like Dr. Hezekiah left Genesee County
before Matthew’s first wife would have run off.
Matthew
and Sally (Sanborn) Eastman’s oldest son Warren was born in September
1826 as per the 1900 census. I’m guessing this is why most studies place
the marriage of Matthew and Sally (Sanborn) Eastman in 1825. It is
possible Sally Sanborn moved right in with Matthew to help care for the
son left behind after Sally (Eastman) ran off. But that’s a pretty far
reach when you think Matthew didn’t remarry until 1825.
It’s
not hard to believe Sally the first would run off, after the loss of an
infant son. However, in the 1820’s a wife didn’t run off with another
man at least not in the technical sense. In that time a wife was the
property of her husband. Such an incident would have been beyond
scandalous; it would have been felonious on the part of the other man.
In
Matthew’s mind it may have been easier to blame a long gone respected
relative in the form of Dr. Hezekiah, rather than facing the probability, his
notional wife just ran off on her own or with a man of lesser quality then
the Doctor. Hezekiah already had a wife and an established family. So
Sally wouldn’t have been running off with another man, technically she
would have been running away with kinfolk. That creates a much more
sympathetic situation than the alternative. A wife running off on her own
or with another man would impugn Matthew’s masculinity and require him
to demand some sort of atonement.
We
know Sally (Eastman) later married Daniel Tyler and the couple didn't
leave New York until 1835/36. According to the 1850 census Sally’s
son Joseph was born in New York around 1834 and her daughter Nancy was
born in Indiana around 1836. It’s hard to believe she would have
migrated to Indiana with the rest of the Eastman’s and returned to
Attica to remarry Daniel Tyler. It seems more likely she would have stayed
in New York, if for no other reason than to be near her son Orren Andrew
Eastman.
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