It all started with a legal notice published in a New York newspaper in 1909. I found the name of my 2x great grandmother in the notice, along with several of her extended Soules family members. It verified the relationships between the people, but I didn’t need to prove that. I filed the notice away to look at later.
Months later, after I finished proving my Soule Mayflower lineage, I was searching through files and re-discovered the legal notice. Upon reading it again, I noticed something that I hadn’t before. Many of the names in the notice were also Hagaman. This was not just a notice of Soules, but descendants of the Hagaman line, of which my 2x great grandmother was through my 4x great grandmother, Mary Hagaman Soules. It was as though the Ancestors were telling me, “Its time to learn about us.”
This little legal notice unravelled the mysteries of the Hagaman lineage starting with Abraham Hagaman and his wife, Rachel Amanda Springstead. It has been a fascinating journey of discovery of an amazing family.
Abraham Hagaman, the Patriarch of the Hagaman family, was born January 6, 1751 in New York State. While I would like to be more specific on the locality, there are too many stories and not enough documentation for me to do so. He married Rachel Amanda Springstead and together they had 10 children, all who appear to have lived to adulthood and lead productive lives. Abraham was a farmer and owned much property, of which he was able to pass to his children as an inheritance. Rachel Hagaman survived her husband by almost 30 years, continuing her husband’s legacy.
The Hagamans were of Dutch heritage and quite possibly associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. In later years, many of the family members were associated with the Methodist church. They were fiercely supportive of their country. Many members served in the War of 1812. It would be difficult to say which side they were on during the Revolutionary War. Abraham would have been around 25 and able to serve in a combative capacity. Whether he did so or not, is unknown. Considering the amount of land he was able to accumulate during this time period, one could draw the conclusion that he was a Patriot and his land was protected from seizure.
The children born to Abraham and Rachel Hagaman were John, Jeremiah, Mary, Sarah, Teunis, Abram/Abraham, Jane, David, Rachel, and Elizabeth. We will visit the lives and families of each one in future posts.