THE BLOOMER FAMILY IN AMERICA: September 2012

Sep 2014

Isaac and Ann (Barlow) Bloomer of Cortland County, New York

Since the 1880’s descendants of Robert Bloomer (1634-1713) have been aware of the Bloomers living in Cortland County, NY, and their possible family connection. Unlike this branch of the Bloomers, the Barlow family has a surprising amount of published information and lived many generations before the American Revolution in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The Bloomers lived just across the Connecticut state line in Westchester County, NY. After the war several Barlow families migrated from Stanford to Up-State New York. Many Bloomers followed this same pattern of migration.

According to an article published in an 1868 Cortland Gazetteer, Isaac B. Bloomer was born in Ulster County and migrated with his parents, Isaac and Ann (Barlow) Bloomer to Virgil Township in February of 1815. Isaac Sr. according to the 1855 New York State Census was born in Dutchess County, New York. Samuel Barlow (1748-1835), Ann’s father, migrated from Huntington Fairfield, Connecticut to Andres in Delaware County, New York about 1794. Samuel was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and after approximately 30 years in Andres, on April 8^th 1822, sold his property to his sons James H. and George. He then spent his closing years in Cortland with his daughters and is interred in a Virgil Cemetery.

On October 13, 1809 Isaac Bloomer purchased 120 acres of land in Virgil Township Lot 25 for the princely sum of $1,150.00 dollars from a William Dall and Sophia Christiana Dall. Both men were then residents of Wawarsing Ulster, County. James H. Barlow, Ann (Barlow) Bloomer’s brother, witnessed this Indenture. Both the Barlow history and “Smith’s History of Cortland” mention Delaware County as a previous home of Isaac Bloomer.

Isaac and Ann (Barlow) Bloomer along with Isaac’s brother John N. Bloomer settled in the Virgil Township, and it is believed that Delaware County was only a temporary stop for Isaac Bloomer during his migration from Ulster to Cortland County. However, James Harvey Barlow, one of Samuel’s sons, and other members of the Barlow family remained in Delaware County after Isaac left for Cortland. Two of Samuel’s daughters migrated with their older sister to Virgil and are listed living there in 1850.

The parents of Isaac Bloomer (1783-1856) have not been determined, but they were certainly among the many Bloomers who suffered during the years of the American Revolution. Ann Barlow’s father, Samuel, who had been a resident of Fairfield, Connecticut during the war, migrated to Delaware County about 1790 and the Barlows have an extensive history in Fairfield. Ann Barlow (1781-1868) was born at Fairfield according to the Barlow family History, and her father Samuel was a Second Sergeant serving three years during the Revolutionary War with Colonel Jeduthan Balwin’s Artillery Regiment. Samuel also worked on the fortification at West Point, and was a witness at the embezzling Court Martial against Captain Daniel Pendelton. Samuel contracted smallpox at Fishkill, New York during the war.

Samuel, at 84 years old, filed a pension application on 12 Sep 1832 from Cortland and died in Virgil on the 31 March 1835. Phidema (Barlow) Hogoboom, a 1850 resident of Virgil and a daughter of Samuel, named her living siblings in the pension application: John Barlow, Ann Bloomer, Grace Burr, James Harvey Barlow, Phedina Hogoboom, Lucius Barlow, Theadotia Cornwell, Charles Barlow, and George S. Barlow were all named. On 29^th of August, 1833 Ann (Barlow) Bloomer, as part of the pension file, testified of her father’s service during the war and how he had told her stories of the many hardships suffered during the war. The pension application was signed “Ann Bloomer.” (Theadotia migrated to San Francisco, Calif. before 1870. Phedina Hogoboom (1790-1854) married, had children and died in Virgil. Grace (Barlow) Burr, age 75 in 1860, is listed in Cortland County in 1850 and 1860 census records.)

Samuel’s will is dated July 15^th, 1826 and was probated on 9 April 1836 from Andres, Delaware County. The will mentioned Samuel’s daughters and added two daughters not mentioned in the pension application: Mehetabel Lewis and Ester Sands. A history of Delaware County mentioned that a Samuel Barlow settled in Andres in 1795. There is also an 1800 Delaware County will of a Joseph Barlow that named a son “Samuel.” It appears from the same history of Delaware that the Burr family arrived soon after the Revolution and the Burr name is associated with the Barlow name on several Delaware land sales.

Isaac Bloomer reported that he arrived in Virgil Township in February of 1814. Isaac is listed in the 1820 census of Virgil with five children. In the 1825 census his family was listed with a John Bloomer who had five males and two females in the family. Within the next few years a William Bloomer also appeared. It does appear that Samuel Barlow was listed in Delaware County in 1810 census and Ann (Barlow) Bloomer was not named in the 1809 Indenture of Issac and witnessed by her brother, James H. Barlow.

In 1811 John Bloomer and Ann (Bailey) Bloomer, son of Arnold and Mary Scholfield (Bloomer) and nephew of James Scholfield, all of Mamaroneck Westchester County, NY purchased 600 acres in Lot 6 of Virgil Township. The heirs of James Scholfield, received 200 acres of Military Tract in Cayuga County. Lot 6 in the township of Virgil Cortland County was part of the Bounty Land awards for Revolutionary War service. In 1816 John and Tamara (Chamberlin) Bloomer of Scipio, Cayuga County sold 50 acres in “Lot 6” to a Thomas Richmond for three hundred dollars. Samuel Trowbridge witnessed this Indenture. (This is the same John Bloomer) These lands were all based on the Revolutionary War service of James Scholfield, a brother of Mary (Scholfield) Bloomer. James had been killed at the Battle of Fort Montgomery. Initially James Scholfied’s heirs only received 200 acres in Cayuga County. The 1869 Gazetteer recorded that a William Bloomer had 98 acres in “Lot 44.” Samuel Mead Bloomer (1812-1890) recorded in the 1855 NYC census that he was born in Cortland. Samuel was a son of Arnold and Mary (Scholfield) Bloomer. Samuel also reported that he had lived in New York City since 1830.

There is no known direct family connection between this John Bloomer, son of Arnold Bloomer, and Isaac. This could be just an interesting coincidence that both owned land in Virgil, or an unknown family connection could exist. However, John was the father of Dexter Chamberlin Bloomer who married Amelia Jenks of Homer, New York.

There is certainly no shortage of Isaac Bloomers in our Bloomer family. And this was especially true for the generation born after the American Revolution. The war was a plague to the citizen living along the lower Hudson River. Society, social originations and families were torn apart, and Westchester County possibly suffered the most devastation. Both Rebels and Loyalists ravaged the County of Westchester robbing and stealing the necessities of life from the hapless families who remained during the long war.

Elizabeth (Purdy) Bloomer wife of Captain Robert Bloomer, a resident of Rye, was forced to scrape flower from the millhouse floor to feed her 11 children. After the war the Loyalists were expelled from New York, their lands confiscated, and new western lands offered to war veterans. This offered a fresh start for many loyal Americans and war weary Bloomer refugees. Part of Elizabeth’s family moved to Bergen County, New Jersey. Others of her large family migrated to Ulster County and were prominent members of the Marlborough. After the war Elizabeth was awarded money from the sale of Loyalist land and followed a married daughter to Ulster County.

The wife of Isaac Bloomer Jr., was Hannah Trowbridge. Hannah’s grandfather, Archibald Scott Trowbridge, was arrested by the British during the war. After the war Hannah’s family migrated from Canada, to Connecticut and then up the Hudson settling in Cortland. Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Ketchum) Bloomer left for Southwestern Virginia during the war. Some Westchester Bloomers fled to New Jersey during the war, others Bloomers moved up the Hudson to Ulster and Orange County, New York.

Shortly after the war Gilbert Bloomer of Marlborough, Ulster County, NY who had been a “Marlborough Minuteman,” left for Lawrence County, Kentucky. At least five Bloomer families migrated to up-state New York. Abraham Bloomer (1771-1843) who was denied a pension, Benjamin D. Bloomer, John (1778-1835) and Ann (Bailey) Bloomer, Isaac Bloomer of Seneca County, and Joshua Bloomer of Seneca County. In 1794, Thomas Cornwell (1773-1853) of Long Island and his young wife Jemima Bloomer (1775-1823) of Dutchess County, New York left for Cayuga County. Thomas improved, cleared, sold land and moved on several times. He spent his closing years in Springport, New York. Daniel Bloomer (1773-1858) of Dutchess County migrated to Greene County, NY. In 1813 Daniel was elected Assessor of Hunter Township. About 1830 he moved west to Huron County, Ohio.

An educated guess as to the father of our Isaac Bloomer Sr. would be one of the two George Bloomers who is name in the records compiled by Virginia Hanford during the 1880s. George Uriah Bloomer was a resident of Dutchess, Orange, and later Sullivan Counties. He was born in 1754. However, the Hanford records does not name an Isaac as a child of this George.

These Bloomers were all of Isaac’s generation. In 1836 Charles Arnold Bloomer (1818-1902), born in Cayuga County, was married in Wayne County. Charles Arnold Bloomer was the brother of Dexter Chamberlin Bloomer and grandson of Arnold and Sarah (Scholefield) Bloomer of Mamaroneck Westchester County, New York.

It did not take long after the American Revolution for western lands to open. After Military Bounty Land was established, speculators purchased large tracts of land in Western New York from willing war veterans. This land sold for as little as eight cents per acre to speculators, and was then resold for $1.25. Isaac’s payment of over one thousand dollars was equal to 10,000 dollars in today’s money.

Up State New York and the Ohio was still an open wilderness. Travel remained difficult and dangerous into the mid 19^th Century. Many veterans did not ever occupy their Bounty Land and sold their reward straight away to speculators. By 1794 the New York State Legislators had opened the Great Genesee Road into the Mohawk Valley. Soon towns spring up over night and the woods echoed with axmen chopping down trees throughout the Mohawk Valley. This early road was later known as the Mohawk Turnpike. By 1796 tolls were being collected all along the turnpike between Albany and Utica, and later on to Buffalo. In 1808 the Seneca Turnpike was completed. This was a 157-mile section between Utica and Canandaigua, New York.

Further south was the Catskill Turnpike and other feeder roads that led west traversing Broome and Tompkins Counties. During the summer months before 1800 500 wagons a day were passing through Albany loaded with migrants heading west. During the winter month’s families would drag their meager possessions over frozen ground on sleds. Thomas and Jemima (Bloomer) Crowell came driving a team of oxen. By 1825 the turnpikes gave way to the Erie Canal. The counties south of Canandaigua, Cayuga, Cortland, and Seneca and Wayne to the north were fertile farmland where many post Revolutionary New York families settled.

The Bloomers of Ulster County were primarily descendants of Captain Robert Bloomer (1725-1775) who died shortly after the Battle of White Plains. Prior to the Revolution the Hart family had collected Bloomer genealogy and then again during the 1850s, Virginia (Bloomer) Hanford, a daughter of Isaac Bloomer (1762-1825) and Keturah Tucker of Ulster County, collected records of these Ulster Bloomers. This Isaac, a son of Captain Robert, left an 1825 will and had a son named Isaac T. born in 1812. The Isaac Bloomer (1798-1835) who married Mariah Ketchum of Seneca County, NY has an unknown pedigree. The Isaac T. Bloomer of 1820 living in Ulster is son of Isaac and Keturah.

Isaac (1783-1856) and Ann (Barlow) Bloomer (1781-1868) settled on 100 acres of Track 25 in Virgil and left a clear record of their descendants. Isaac’s family appears in the 1880 research of Robert Anson Sherman Bloomer with complete birth dates of his seven children. These dates must have come from a family Bible and perhaps one day this Bible will be located. It was recorded that Isaac and Ann had seven children and the Cortland 1855 census recorded his birth location as Dutchess County, NY. Isaac’s will named: Sally Ann (Bloomer) Colwell, Fanny (Bloomer) Tyler, Isaac B. Bloomer, and nephew, William Bloomer. Isaac Sr. listed his son Issac’s entire family. Thomas J. Bloomer, in fact a grandson, was listed as a son of Isaac B. in the 1856 will.

Isaac B. Bloomer 1812 birth location is given as Ulster County and his father’s presence in Ulster in 1810 places Isaac Sr. there. Smith’s History of Cortland also states Ulster County as the birth location of Isaac Jr. There were seven Bloomer families living in Dutchess in 1790. Benjamin, Daniel, Gilbert, Abraham, Abraham, William and Elisha. William was married to Charity Smith, Daniel and family migrated to Green County, NY. One of the two Abraham’s migrated to Seneca County and the Bloomers were pushing west along the Hudson crossing into Sullivan, Broome, Greene and Chautauqua during these early years of 1800. However, it is cretin that Isaac’s roots are from Westchester County and he and his brother, John, are descendant of Robert Bloomer I. (Both Abraham Bloomers served in the Rev War and left Dutchess, Co., NY. One Abraham migrated to Ohio, the other to Seneca County.)

Isaac (1782-1854) and Ann (Barlow) Bloomer. Birth dates of their children were obtained from the 1880 collection of Robert Anson Sherman Bloomer, a resident of Wayne County, New York. Robert combined his research with an Arthur Bloomer born in Fayette, Ohio and George Ellis Bloomer of Wabash, Indiana. In addition to the R.A.S. Bloomer information, Isaac named the same children in his will. There are also several mortgage entries in Virgil naming Bloomer descendants: In 1852 Isaac B., Ann, wife James Colwell, and later Francis Tyler was named.

Children: Bloomer

1. George b. 25 Oct 1809 d. 27 Jan1823*

+2. Isaac B. b. 18 July 1812 M. Hannah R. Trowbridge d. 1892

3. Julia Ann b. 26 May 1814

+4. Sally Ann b. 25 Mar 1816 M. James Colwell d. bef. 1854

5. Charles b. 3 Mar 1818

6. Ann b. 3 June 1819

+7. Fanny b. 3 June 1819 M. Richard C. Tyler d.1892*

THE BLOOMER FAMILY IN AMERICA

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Bloomer Genealogy

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Bloomer Family History Page Cortland County, NY