Eighth Generation

116. Jesaias B. "Josiah" VROOMAN (^) was born on 8 February 1778 in Schoharie Valley, Schoharie County, New York Colony, British Colonial America.^4,5,20 (This picture is of the Old Stone Fort, Schoharie, Schoharie County, NY.)

From the History of the Vrooman Family: "Josiah B. Vrooman was born on February 8, 1778. That was in the winter of Valley Forge. The Schoharie forts had been started the previous autumn and were completed the following summer. McDonald's raid on the Schoharie valley had occurred the previous autumn. In May, following Josiah's birth, Brant raided Cobleskill. In that summer and autumn of 1778, while Josiah was still a tiny baby, occurred the Destruction of Springfield, the Wyoming Massacre, the Burning of German Flats, and the Cherry Massacre--all settlements just west of the Schoharie Valley, where Josiah was born.

He was baptized Jessias in the Dutch Reformed church in Schoharie by Dominic Schuyler. The sponsors at the baptism were the grandparents, Barent and Engeltje Vrooman."

"There was quite an influx of settlers in 1817, among others being John Putnam, Alvord Churchill, John Pratt, Josiah Vrooman and David Ross."
(Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~pabradfo/bradsb y/granvhcb.htm)

From the History of the Vrooman Family: "In 1817 he moved with his family to the vicinity of Granville, Bradford County, Pennsylvania--about 140 air-line miles southwest of Middleburg. Granville was about 20 miles west of the site of modern Towanda, Pennsylvania, which latter town is on the Susquehanna River.... The immediate cause for Josiah B's migration to Granville is not known. It is known that his father had not prospered too well in the Schoharie Valley. The latter place was becoming thickly settled.

As Hendrick Meuse Vrooman had moved from Albany to Schenectady, and Adam Vrooman had moved from Schenectady to the Schoharie, so Josiah B. Vrooman moved from the Schoharie to Granville. Each, no doubt, was moved by an urge to seek freer land and wider opportunities to the west--an urge that never eased until ... sons and daughters of Hendrick Meuse Vrooman stood on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean."

"Granville township was organized in 1831, taken from Franklin, Canton, Burlington and Troy. Granville Corners, Granville Center and Granville Summit are villages in the township. The Northern Central Railroad touches its western border, and Granville Summit is a station on that road. The north branch of the Towanda creek passes through the township from west to east. The lands are rolling and well adapted to grazing and the dairy. It is bounded on the north by Troy and West Burlington, on the east by West Burlington and Franklin, on the south by Leroy, and on the west by Troy and Canton.

Its early settlers were: Jeremiah Taylor, Lewis Moffett, Scoville Bailey, David Bailey, Ezra Bailey, Thomas Bailey, Uriah Baxter, Benjamin Saxton, Oliver Nelson, Phillip Packer, Abraham Parkhurst, Charles Butterfield, John Putman, Alvord Churchill, John Pratt, Josiah Vrooman, David Ross, Abijah Ayres, Z. Porter, Avery Clark, Nathaniel Clark, Noah Packard, Giles Avery, Simon Chesley, Peter Shoemaker, Daniel Ferguson, Oliver Bailey, and Hugh Halcomb.

--A Good Templars Lodge was organized in 1854.
--The first road was laid out in Granville, in 1802.
--The first death in the township was Mrs. Lewis Moffit.
--Levi Taylor opened the first hotel in the township, in 1849.
--B. F. Taylor opened the first store in the township, in 1849.
--Albert Nichols, erected a large tannery at Granville, in 1857.
--A Lodge of Sons of Temperance, was established, in 1852.
--The first framed house was built by Jeremiah Taylor, in 1815.
--The first school was taught by Miss Delight Spalding, in 1807.
--Adam Inness, the celebrated tanner, located in Granville, in 1865.
--Sylvester Taylor was the first white child born in Granville in 1804.
--Granville is one of the finest butter producing townships in Bradford county.
--The first Baptist meeting held in the town was in 1805, by Rev. Thomas Smiley.
--The first wedding in the township was Hugh Holcomb and Miss Prudence Bailey.
--The first grist mill in the town was erected by Jeremiah Taylor, Jr., in 1820.
--Mail route established through Granville, from East Burlington to Alba, in 1827.
--Simon Chesely was an early settler in Granville and a soldier of the revolutionary war.
--In the year 1832, Dr. Silas E. Shapard of Troy organized a Disciple Church, in Granville .
--The Summit derives its name from the fact that it is the highest point on the Northern
Central Railroad, between Baltimore and Canandaigua.
--Granville was originally known as North Branch, and a post office was established in
1827 by that name. In 1831, it was changed to Granville.
--Granville Center Lodge, I. O. O. F., No. 687, was organized December 24th, 1869.
Robert Innis, N. G.; M. O. Loomis, V. G.; P. M. Sayles, Sec.; Adam Innis, Treas."

(Source: Internet site for Granville Township, PA)

Franklin Twp. 1819 created from Canton, Towanda; 1831 split to form Granville; 1835 split to form Le Roy; 1853 split to form Overton; and 1866 piece to Burlington. Granville Twp. 1831 created from Franklin, Canton, Troy, Burlington.

.

He appeared in the census in 1820 in Granville Township, Bradford County, PA.²¹ He had moved from Schoharie County to Bradford County in 1817. He appeared in the census in 1830 in Granville Township, Bradford County, PA.²² Josiah appeared in the census in 1840 in Granville Township, Bradford County, PA.²³ His household consisted of 5 males and 2 females. He appeared in the census in 1850 in Oconomowoc Township, Waukesha County, WI.^20,24 He and his sons, Stephen, Barent, William, Charles and Henry must have all moved to Waukesha County around the Spring of 1850 (one account says he first went there in 1847 and returned for the rest of his family in 1850), according to the ages and birth places of their children. Barent appears to have moved first, because his youngest daughter was born in Wisconsin in September 1849.

Josiah and his wife are living in the household of their son Charles. The 1850 Census was conducted on July 24th and he died 3 weeks later. His age was listed as 75 years in the census. He died on 13 August 1850 at the age of 72 in Oconomowoc Township, Waukesha County, WI.^4,5,20 Josiah was buried in Oconomowoc, Waukesha County, WI.²⁰ in the La Belle Cemetery.

Jesaias B. "Josiah" VROOMAN (^) and Anatja Susanna "Anna" MATTICE (^) were married on 2 October 1796 in Schoharie Valley, Schoharie County, NY.^4,5,10,20 in St. Paul's Lutheran Church. (They were first cousins, once removed.)

From the History of the Vrooman Family: "The authenticated copy of the will of Josiah's father, Barent, spells the family name as "Vrooman" ... but it seems clear that all of the children of Josiah B. spelled their name Vroman with a single o. This single o continues today in most branches of the descendants of Josiah B. In some of the later generations, a change to Vrooman with a double o appeared."

Anatja Susanna "Anna" MATTICE (^), daughter of Johann Jost MATTICE and Catherine ZIMMER, was born on 7 December 1769 in Schoharie County, New York Colony, British Colonial America.^4,10,20,24 (Her nickname may have been "Susanna.")

(The LDS Family Search Internet website lists her birth date as 7 Dec 1769. Her tombstone lists her age as 74 years, indicating a year of birth of 1776. It is difficult to believe that she was born in 1769, because she would have been 60 years old when her last child, Henry, was born in 1829. But, with her first marriage occurring in 1790, she would have been 21 years old at that time if she were born in 1769; so that year is probably correct.)

(She was listed as "Susan" in the 1850 Census.)

(This picture is of the Old Stone Fort, Schoharie, Schoharie County, NY.) She appeared in the census in 1840 in Granville Township, Bradford County, PA.²³ She died on 25 September 1850 at the age of 80 in Oconomowoc Township, Waukesha County, WI.^5,20 Anna was buried in Waukesha County, WI.⁴ at the Labelle Cemetery.

Actually Henry Vrooman's wife "Susannah" "Lois" ?? (Josiah's wife was Susannah)
was Anna Mattice, married a Meier/Myer/Meyer (no children) and Henry was her
second husband. Thus "Mrs. Myers" was Anna Mattice.

Jesaias B. "Josiah" VROOMAN (^) and Anatja Susanna "Anna" MATTICE (^) had the following children: