Historical Documents for Gary Scott Collins's Family
Historical Documents for Gary
Scott Collins's ancestors and related families
Collins, Smithson, Furman, Bransford, Steelman,
Lake,
Lippincott, Miller, Adams, Chamberlain, Hatchett, Smith, Ingersoll,
Webb,
Davis, Clark, Patteson, Scull, Woodson, Leeds, English, Allen,
Crichton,
French, Hatcher, Butler, Taylor, Carnefix, Buckman, Dickerson, Holsapple
Here are historical documents and a few photos
connected with my ancestry
file at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~garyscottcollins/.
Documents are in PDF format and can be read using the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Graphics are in JPG format.
For many photos, see http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~garyscottcollins/.
For the gedcom file, see http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~garyscottcollins/.
An index page for all my genealogical material is at http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~garyscottcollins/.
The earliest known Collins from whom I inherited my surname. He
immigrated to the US from Ireland about 1755, possibly from Tyrone
County in
(Northern) Ireland, and was the first doctor in area of modern Atlantic
County, New
Jersey,
living in Collins Mills in Galloway Township, near Port Republic, close
to the shore north
of Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was the most senior family
member
buried in
the Collins
burial grounds in Collins Mills (description by Linda
Lewis). Below is a biographical sketch written in 1936 for
the dedication of a Revolutionary Soldier Marker at his grave by the
DAR. I am very interested in learning more about his
origins and life.
Please
let me know of any other information you may have about him or his
descendants. Also, I seek photos of any and all of his progeny.
John
Collins (1806-1900)
Grandson of Richard Collins, John Collins was a sea captain and
prosperous farmer in Port Republic, New Jersey
Great-great-grandson of Richard Collins and grandson of John Collins,
D. C. Newman Collins was an
architect
and industrial engineer. Completing only the 8th grade at
school, he first apprenticed with a firm in
Haddonfield,
NJ, where he grew up, from 1882 to 1888. Then he worked with
three
engineering
and contracting firms until 1901, at which time he set up his own
architecture
and engineering firm in New York City. He designed and
constructed
Cableways for the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal and many buildings
and
industrial plants in New York City and around the country in the late
1800's
and early 1900's. Below are various professional documents,
including
curricula vitae, and photos and designs of his buildings.
Through
the 1920's, he was township engineer and manager of Cranford, NJ, where
he
lived. There, he was architect for Cleveland and Lincoln Schools,
oversaw construction of the raised railway and station through the
town, and worked toward establishing a Rahway River Parkway through
Cranford and neighboring towns.
Extremely adept with his hands, he was highly skilled in music,
painting,
photography, woodworking, and building and racing yachts.
These
are described in part below and especially in "Two Brothers."
Newman
was a renowned story teller, some of which comes through his notes
below.
- Photo of DCN Collins with son Harold,
about 1915 (0.8 MB)
- Professional, Musical
and Yachting Autobiographies of D.C. Newman Collins (written ca. 1940)
- "Tom and Newman: Two Brothers",
eulogy for his brother Thomas Jefferson Collins (1862-1905)
- Professional autobiography of D. C.
Newman Collins
(written ca. 1910)
- "Industrial Buildings", a promotional brochure from about
1910 (16 images, 0.5-3 MB per page)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
- Report of accomplishments submitted for
membership
in the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was admitted
as full member of the
ASCE in 1901.
- Industrial Community.
A promotional
poster created ca. 1910 that shows a montage of buildings and designs
of
D.C.N. Collins. High-resolution scans are also available: 8-10
MB, left, right. The legend of
the figure:
"An 'Industrial Community' built by D. C. Newman Collins,
Architect
and Engineer, New York. -- A group of manufacturing plants
in
actual existence from designs of D. C. Newman Collins. This
picture
represents ten years of personal experience in a specialty involving
industrial
layouts, design and supervision. It means simplicity, efficiency
and
economy in future work."
- De La Vergne Machine
Catalog frontispiece, showing erecting shed built by Collins around
1910 at upper right (thanks to Michael L. Spera).
- Drawing of design for bridge in
Recife, Brazil, 1916 (3 MB).
- Cleveland School,
Cranford NJ (1914), built as a combined high school and grade
school, later used as an
elementary school that I attended, and recently converted into an
office and shopping plaza. (Photo and caption reproduced from
"Images of America" (Arcadia, 1995), page 76.)
A promotional brochure front page is here (also pages 2, 3, 4 and 5). A newsarticle during
construction is here.
Other constructions designed and built by Collins in the same
area
include Lincoln School, Cranford (1927), the elevated train station,
Cranford
(ca. 1925), Franklin School, Garwood, NJ (1913), and a high school in
Roselle
Park, NJ. He also was early promotor of the Union County Parkway,
a
road and greenland belt that was to extend along the Rahway River.
The Collins name also appears in my paternal grandmother's lineage,
of which the earliest firmly known member is Dillard Collins.
His
ancestry is uncertain and of great interest because of an unclear
connection with the
Dillard family name. Below are links to letters
written among descendants that touch on this question.
A
great-grandfather. Surgeon in the Confederate Army, he journeyed
in a trek with five families from their homes in Henderson County,
Kentucky south to Arkansas and Louisiana, where he is believed to have
directed field hospitals in Pine Bluffs, Arkansas and Keachie,
Louisiana. The families returned to Kentucky after the
war.
- Photo in old age (ca. 1880-1900).
- Collins-Hatchett-Trek from
Kentucky to Louisiana and back, 1861-66 (a description of
participants, chronology, motivation)
- Letter from Cornelia Hatchett
Meadows
to Furman
Lester (1929) reminescing about the trek and War.
- Life in Keachie, Louisiana
during Civil War, with Collins family and friends, written by Minnie
Eells, daughter in Family of Rev.
Edward Eells
- Biography of "Uncle Maurice"
(Maurice
Kirby) who, with wife Marianna Hatchett, traveled with the Collins
family, written by Rosalie A.
Collins
Married
Jessie Paralee Collins, daughter of John Dillard Collins. A
medical
doctor. He and Jessie died young, after which surviving children
Lucy
Salome Furman and Rosalie Allan Furman were raised by their aunt,
Rosalie
A. Collins.
Daughter of John Dillard Collins, schoolteacher. Graduated from
State
Normal School of New Jersey, 1870. Taught in public schools
in Evansville, Indiana. She raised nieces Lucy and
Rosalie
Furman after deaths of her sister Jessie Collins and brother-in-law
Williams Barnard Furman.
School teacher, author, active member of Women's Christian Temperance
Union,
and advocate of legislation to outlaw trapping of animals using
inhumane
methods. For 10-20 years, she taught in the Hindman
Settlement School, Hindman, Knott Co., KY. Aunt Lucy
was sister of my grandmother, Rosalie
Furman.
Relationship between American Scrimzeour and Scottish Scrymgeour
families
The Scrymgeour family holds the title of hereditary Royal Standard
Bearers of Scotland, from before Scotland and England were
united.
My grandmother Rosalie Furman and her sister Lucy were descended via Eliza
Ann Scrimzeour
(1790- aft 1835), and made efforts to extend knowledge of this ancestry
by contacts in the 1940's
with American and Scottish members of the Scrymgeour lineage.
Around 1820, a legal contest took place between two branches of the
family
before the Scottish House of Lords over who had the right to hold the
title, recounted
by Chandler
Furman and Norval Scrymgeour from opposing American and Scottish
perspectives, respectively.
Miller (Müller) family documents
- Johann
Friedrich Müller
is the earliest known bearer of the family's Miller surname. He
emigrated with his family from Prussia to the US in
1854. The travel document used to cross France and sail is
here: Top (650 k), Bottom (670 k), Reverse
(280 k). Equivalent to a family passport, the document gives
names and birthdates of Johann, his wife and two children. It is
written in an old, official German script similar to Suetterlin.
The family came from Allenbach, District of Bernkastel, a small village
about
20 miles east of Trier and 30 miles north of Saarbruecken, in the
Rheinland-Pfalz. The document was notarized by Prussian officials
in Trier and bears stamps from French Commissaires de Police in
Forbach, just across the border from Saarburecken, giving permission to
enter France and travel to Le Havre, and in Le Havre, giving permission
to embark on the ship "Annapolis" for the US. A transliteration and translation into
English was made courtesy of Viola and Thomas Wichert.
The family landed at New York City on 11 Dec 1854.
- Naturalization
papers from 1866 of Johann
Friedrich Müller , with name variously anglicized as John F.
Muller and Frederick Miller (1826- abt 1903), who was grandfather of William
Charles Miller (1886-1950) who married Margaret
Rucker Smithson (1887-1946).
Carnefix family documents
Smithson family documents: mostly West Virginia (many transcribed
by David Smithson)
Crichton, Webb and Todd family documents: mostly Scotland and
Dundee, Illinois
A survey of family households at the time of the 1880 census
revealed new ancestors and additional information about known ones.
1830 and 1840 US Census Snapshots of the Family: Slavery
A
survey of census entries of my great-great-great-grandparents, born
about 1790-1800, shows that some in the South were significant
slaveholders.
These include
- Samuel
Furman
(b: 1792), a Baptist clergyman and professor in the Furman Academy of
Charleston,
SC, founded by his father, Richard Furman. Samuel held 42 slaves
in 1830 in Beaufort Co., SC.
- John
Avohard Hatchett
(b: 1798), Captain in Virginia Militia and farmer, who held 21 slaves
in
1840. He had misgivings about slavery described in a letter by his daughter.
- James
Patteson (b: 1795), a farmer who held 16 slaves in 1830 in
Buckingham Co., VA.
- Orville
Collins (b: 1790 or 1798), a physician who held 8 slaves in 1830 in
Clark Co., KY.
Against these are ancestors from the North who held no slaves as well
as these ancestors from border states in the South:
Various obituaries
For additions, corrections, comments and, especially,
if you wish to contribute
documents, photos or links for these pages, please contact Gary S.
Collins
at garyscollins(at)gmail.com..
Gary S. Collins, 19 Jul 2008. You are visitor
since September 2006.
