William Smith's 1807 Legacy to the Clark & Schoonover Families

While reading through the Pennsylvania Probate Records for Wayne County, I happened upon the Last Will & Testament of William Smith, farmer, of  Middle Smithfield Township, dated 8 April 1807, probated on 20 January 1808, on pages 7 and 8 of Will Book I. Needless to say, the Smith family trees are quite vast, on both sides of the river, and not trees I have ventured to explore.  What struck me about this Will was the complexity of the family connections within the legacies:  to his wife Elizabeth, a minor William Clark (son of John Clark) and four members of the Schoonover family - Rudolphus, Benjamin & James (sons of Rudolphus), and William Schoonover:

Additionally, William Smith leaves $12 each to William, son of James Smith and to Levisha (Levicia?), daughter of William Schoonover. William appoints as Executor his trusty friend, Benjamin Schoonover, witnessed by John Heller, Jeremiah Wurtzell (sp?) and Jonathan Jones.

No doubt there are family connections among these folk but no William Smith detail appears in the wonderful Schoonovers In America website with the exception of a 1805 Walpack Dutch Reformed Church baptism of a child (namesake) William Smith Schoonhoven, son of James Schoonhoven [Schoonover] & Elizabeth Brooks:

Further clues adding to the mystery are the same or another William Smith married to a Susanna (1st wife?) on the same page of the Minisink Valley Reformed Dutch Church Records, and a later baptism of child Elizabeth Smith Clark, daughter of William Clark & Sarah Schoonover in 1817.  Perhaps this is the young William Clark, son of John Clark, named heir of William Smith? 

Before the Northampton Co Orphan's Court in 1771, a William Smith is chosen by Rudolphus Schoonover, Jr. as his guardian regarding matters of his father's estate. I will leave it to the courageous Clark, Smith or Schoonover/Schoonhoven researchers to unravel this mystery! 

 ~~~

Note:  

A Benjamin Smith married Catharina Schoonhoven c 1740s, and a William & Elisa Cath. Smith witnessed the baptism of the daughter of Andries Dingman & Cornelia Kermer in 1762.

James, his wife Elizabeth Brooks, and  their son William Smith Schoonover are all buried at the  Reformed Dutch Church Burial Ground  Bushkill, Pike County, PA. Located on Hogback Rd, at the so-called Indian Cemetery in Bushkill, Pike County, are a number of Smith & Schoonover graves.

Elizabeth
wife of James Schoonover
born
Mar 12, 1787
died
Feb 3 1858
Aged 70 years 10 mos 17 ds

Will pages 7&8 - "Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994," images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-28791-35531-91?cc=1999196&wc=M99F-HBY:n1284673525 : accessed 05 Mar 2014), Wayne > Wills 1798-1872 vol 1-2 > image 15 of 483.

Stopping by the Joseph Ennes Tavern, 1807

References to the Joseph Ennes Ferry and Tavern are scarce* so it was a treat to read through Frederick Pursh's rather cranky journal pages of his visit to the Minnisink.  Disagreeable as his rest was among the raftmen he would return once more to the Ennes Tavern in present day Sandyston Township before traveling south to the Water Gap.

Note the unnamed tavern in Millford [Milford] also functioned as a Post office, where Pursh addressed a letter to Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, his patron in 1805 and with whom he was working on a new flora of North America. His description of travels along the river road and up into the higher terrain with its many waterfalls between Milford and Dingmans on the Pennsylvania side are a delight.  He would make a side trip into the lovely  Flatbrook, aka the Flat Kill, valley which parallels the Delaware one ridge over in Sussex County. His actual route, in hyphens, fell short of his proposed route, highlighted in yellow, into Sandyston and Montague townships NJ perhaps due to the weather as noted in the journal.

Detail, the annotated Pursh map, 1806. American Philosophical Society Digital Library.

Pursh's map of his route is an annotated copy which he terms the, old touren map, acquired on the journey (entry of June the 12th.) Given the placement of Seely's mill and Sheimer's mill, and surname variant of the latter, this is most likely after the Reading Howell map of 1792.

The Ennes Ferry House & Tavern on the east side of the river

View Minisink Valley Genealogy in a larger map

"...The house probably served the first of two ferries in the Dingmans area, known as the Ennis Ferry. During the era of logging on the Upper Delaware, it was a popular night stop for rafters, who brought the logs to downriver markets." ~ page 10-I, US Department of the Interior, National Park Service: National Register of Historic Places Inventory.

American Sycamore ~ Platanus occidentalis (center); Silver Maple ~ Acer saccharinum (right)

*"Wesley Van Auken House, also known as the Ennis Ferry House," Sandyston Township, Old Mine Road Historic District, section (I), NPS, US Dept. of the Interior.

"Ferries on the Delaware River Between Easton, Pa., and Port Jervis, N.Y.," Dr. B. F. Fachenthal, Jr., 1908, p 166.