The Ten Tribes of David Stiles
Little David was even named after the old man. David Ogden was little David's great grand-father. He was a well respected figure, and had been a lawyer since he was a young man. His son was Johnny's dear friend and his name was David Ogden, also. How confusing, since young David Ogden was also an attorney. Johnny though to himself, what a joke it would be, if succeeding generations of Stileses would end up naming their sons, David or Ogden or even David Ogden! The old man would love that, and what a joke it would be! But, then maybe some of them might name their sons Jonathan. After all that was his name, and it was his father's name!
Everybody called his father "Long John" because of his height. He was over 6 foot 4 inches tall. Johnny hated the fact that his nick-name was a diminutive of Jonathan, because, after all, he was a tall as his father! Thoughts of his father raced through is mind. Long John ws nothing like old man David Ogden. Long John had told Johnny and his brothers and sisters stories of his father, Isaac, and Isaac's parents, John and Rachel, who had come to live in America. In England, they were commoners. They could never aspire to own land or to better themselves, at lease not any more than old Uncle Francis, who had become a "master" of his trade. There was only one way to be an aristocrat, and that was to be born into the aristocracy. If you were not an aristocrat, you just had to accept the fact that you would be forever a second class citizen. In fact, had the Lord of the estate that John and Rachel lived on in England decided to enforce it, he could have observed his "Right of the First Night". That would have meant that before their marriage was consummated, the Lord could have taken Rachel's virginity, and John would have been powerless to stop it. Until he moved to America, he would have accepted it without protest, because he had been brought up knowing "his place".
According to Long John, the best thing that ever happened to the original Stiles brothers was the Saltonstall contract falling through. Had it worked the way Saltonstall wanted it to work, the Stileses would have always been his men. Since the contract fell through, they were forced to go on their own. They had to learn how to provide for themselves and for their families, they had to learn to hunt, to befriend the Indians in the area, and to learn from them the proper way to plant and which plants were edible. They not only survived, they prospered and they learned. The most important lesson they learned was to value their freedom. This they passed on to their children. They became independent!
In fact, Long John would tell Johnny, "look at me as an example of how much better off we are than we would have been if our forefathers had not come here. My father, Isaac, and I have bought and sold a lot of property in Connecticut. I'm not a rich man by any means, but I was able to move to New Jersey when we heard about the iron ore being discovered, I was able to buy property here and open my forge, and you have been able to prosper here, and even hold offices in the town meetings. "Common" is a bad word when describing people in America, but in England we were "common". Here in America, there is no one who need be called "common"."
Remembering his father's words, made Johnny chuckle to himself. Those town meetings were the beginning of the little David problem! Johnny's mother had died shortly after they had moved to Morristown, New Jersey. A man cannot raise a house full of children and run a forge without a wife. Long John heard about a cousin who had died back in Connecticut, leaving a pregnant wife with small children widowed. He knew that she would have as much trouble as he, and he wrote to her asking her if she wanted to be his wife. They had married right away and Long John adopted the little boy that was born posthumously as his own child. His new wife had been a good wife to Long John and a good mother to Johnny and his brothers and sisters, and before long, Long John and she were having their own children together. One of those was Thomas, Johnny's half brother. Like little David, Thomas had followed Johnny around and Johnny had become more than a brother to him, almost a second father. Johnny had become involved in local politics. Young David Ogden also held offices in the town meetings and as a result Johnny and young David Ogden became close friends. They were inseparable, and usually where Johnny went, Thomas also went. Young David Ogden had a daughter named Abigail. Abigail and Thomas practically grew up together. They swore their love for each other when they were too young to know what the word meant! Yet, they never faltered, and when they were old enough, they got married. Little David was their child.
For over a hundred years, while the Stiles family was growing and learning to think independently, England just about forgot the colonies. They were small and offered not much in the way of economic progress for England. Many were trouble-makers, such as people who were hunting religious freedom, but were going against the traditional religion of England. Others were criminals who were sent here as punishment for their crimes. Basically, the crown was glad to be rid of them! But other countries weren't forgetting. France saw the potential the Americas offered. France had sent colonists in and had established towns in Acadia, Newfoundland, and had explored the Mississippi River from it's source until it emptied in the Gulf of Mexico. France claimed all the land she had settled and all the lands that she had explored, including all the rivers that emptied into the Mississippi and the land around them. Spain had settled in Florida and claimed it. The southern colonies were exporting tobacco and cotton and the northern colonies were exporting furs and ships that they were building. The colonies were doing business with the world! They were prospering and England began to take notice. England had been at war with France for some time and they began to realize that France was biting a big chunk out of the New World. England decided to bring the war with France to America. The colonists were all in favor because they didn't want France to take over, nor did they want France to establish borders just west of them. There had been explorers looking at Kain-Tuck and many of the colonists aspired to settle there. The colonists turned out in droves to fight for England in what was called the French and Indian wars.
Johnny had met a friend of young David Ogden's, a young man named George Washington. George had made quite a name for himself in the French and Indian Wars and had become a general. Young David Ogden was proud of him. He bragged that the English would never have been able to beat the French without George and others like him. The English had no idea how to fight a war like this. They lined up in marching formation and marched forward in line, while the Indians who were helping the French hid behind trees and rocks and just waited until they had a clear shot, then downed the British as they marched. George understood frontier fighting. Without him, all the English would have been dead. In 1783, the French and Indian wars were over and England with the help of the colonists had won!
Johnny just couldn't understand what happened next. As soon as the treaty had been signed, England decided to establish a standing army in America. It wasn't manned with Americans, either. It was made up of Englishmen. King George even declared that the colonists would be taxed enough to support the army. Why in the world would they turn on America, when America had fought so bravely in their defense? Johnny and young David Ogden were furious. That was when Johnny found out that he had not a bit of respect for the old goat, David Ogden. Mr. Ogden declared that they were all British subjects and that they owed allegiance to the king. He was running back and forth across the Atlantic tattling on his fellow men and trying to help the crown put down the rebels! During the war, in order to fight with the English, the colonists had been forced to establish armories. Everyone owned a hunting rifle, but no one was able to become a soldier with only the weapons they owned at home, so each colony had pitched in to develop the armories. Now England was trying to confiscate all the weapons. The colonists were trying to hide them and the old man was ratting them out! Young David Ogden was ashamed of his father, and he was as much a part of the "cause" as Johnny. They really got angry when the king published the "Quartering Act". This meant that every colonist had to allow a British soldier to live with them in their house. They had to provide that soldier with food, with cider and beer, and with transportation. If the family only owned the old horse that they used to plow the garden, then they had to give it up to the soldier. It just wasn't fair. They were treated like commoners! If there was nothing else they had learned in the 150 to 160 years they had lived in this country, it was this - They were not common!! They had a lot of other grievances, too. They were having to pay taxes, yet they were not recognized as being able to serve in Parliament. Taxation without representation is pretty hard to swallow! American sailors were being forced off ships and forced to serve in the English navy. Ports were guarded and the ability to trade with any country other than England was being stopped, by disallowing ships to come into port.
George Washington told Johnny and young David Ogden, that he had just been in Boston and some children were throwing snow balls. One of the snow balls hit an English soldier. The soldiers had started firing into the crowd and several innocent people were killed. They were calling it the "Boston Massacre". Johnny and young David Ogden knew it would not be long before this type of thing would begin happening in New Jersey. For some time, they had had to depend on people coming through town, like George, to deliver news to them. The hateful English had passed what they called "the Stamp Act", which meant that you had to purchase a stamp for any piece of paper that was used. This had to go on legal documents, but it was also necessary for things like playing cards and newspapers. Morristown had a "village green", a park in the middle of town. In that park was a great old oak tree. Someone in town had a secret printing press and they had been printing news articles. Instead of distributing the news articles as newspapers, they were hanging the news up on the oak tree sometime during the night. Of course the locals were racing out in the morning to try to find out the news before the soldiers inevitably came and tore down the messages.
The latest article was exciting! Recently, according to the news article, the India Tea Company, owned by the British had brought in a ship load of tea into the Boston Harbor. Most of the tea that the Bostonians had been buying had come from Dutch shippers. The English had brought this tea in and selling it lower than that of the Dutch, but making the price include a tax. The Bostonians were indignant, so a group of them had disguised themselves as Indians, had rowed out into the harbor, and had thrown all the shipment of tea into the water. They proudly called it "the Boston Tea Party". England had responded by attempting to force Boston and Massachusetts to pay for the load of tea. The patriots in Boston found out that England was sending soldiers in to force Boston into submission and they had watched for the English and had moved their arsenal. Paul Revere was being credited for a ride to notify everyone on his route that "the British are coming."
And this brought Johnny back to his problem at hand. He owned his Dad's forge. George Washington was establishing an army right across the river in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He needed arms. Young David Ogden had promised to help him. Some of George's friends didn't trust young David Ogden because of his father, so young David had suggested that George Washington use his home as his headquarters. That way everyone could be assured of young David's loyalty. The trouble came in the evenings when they slipped away. Thomas couldn't work during the day, but he was putting in his evenings helping and he was afraid to leave Abigail and little David and the other kids at home alone, what with the English soldiers making the rounds. Abigail was taking the kids and going to young David Ogden's house each evening. Little David was snooping. He was around when George was doing business and he was terribly curious about what the men were doing when they sneaked away. Johnny just didn't know whether to talk to little David like an adult or to continue to hide the situation from him.
He finally made up his mind and called little David out to him. Like all adults do, when they are talking to kids, he started, "David, I know you are almost a man and not a little boy any more. Can I entrust you with a secret so important that letting that secret go could result in the death of many good men? Most of all, can I trust you to keep that secret from you own great-grandfather, old David Ogden?"
Little David answered, "Uncle Johnny, I realize that my great-grandfather is a loyalist and is true to the throne. I realize that he tells secrets about his friends and even my grandfather, his own son. I know what George Washington is attempting, and I even know that you spend every day making horseshoe blanks and rods for nails to sell to the blacksmiths, but at night you and my father are busy pouring barrels and fittings for guns and more horseshoe blanks for soldiers for Mr. Washington's army. I know that someone picks them up just before dawn and takes them away. I know because I followed you! Uncle Johnny, I am a patriot. I want to help. In fact, I intend to join Mr. Washington's army as soon as I am 14. I am strong and you need a strong man like me to feed the fires in the forge. Please allow me to grow up and help. I am an American!"
So, little David joined the New Jersey Militia when he was 14 years old. So did his Uncle Johnny. Johnny felt that he had become too old to be a foot soldier, so he became and courier and carried messages for George Washington. Little David did his part in helping the patriots win the war. He married and had ten children, and because of the freedom he helped achieve for all Americans, he was free to move to Kentucky. He did so in 1809. Little David is David Stiles, the first Kentucky ancestor of our branch of the Stiles family.
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