Appointment of Levi S. Tryon and Isaac S. Suydam as Appraisers of the Jacob Post Estate - 1839

Jacob Post, Sr. (1773-1838)

Jacob Post, Sr. was born 16 September 1773 in or near Neshanic, Hillsborough, Somerset Co., New Jersey, the son of Christopher Willemsz. Post and Margaret Jorisse Bergen. Jacob married Mary Stout, daughter of Samuel and Eunice Stout, ca. 1795 while still in New Jersey. When Christopher and Margaret removed with some of their children from New Jersey to the western shore of Owasco Lake in 1796, Jacob and Mary accompanied them. The Post family took up land in Lot 91 of what later became the Town of Fleming, Cayuga Co., New York, south of present-day Stone School Road. The related Peterson family came in at the same time, settling on adjacent Lot 83 to the north.

"In 1796, Wm. Post, at the request of his father, who was then in New Jersey, came, in company with Abram Van Ness, his brother-in-law, with whom he had removed to Ovid, Seneca county, from New Jersey, in 1794, to examine lot 91, for which his father was then negotiating. Wm. Post, having sent a satisfactory description of the lot to his father, settled where David B. Post now lives, and Van Ness, who married Post's sister Lena, where Horace Post now lives. This same year his father, Christopher Post, came in from New Jersey with his wife, Margaret, his youngest son, Jacob, and his wife, Mary, his daughter, Mary, and her husband, Cornelius Peterson, and his youngest daughter, Ida, who was then unmarried, but subsequently became the wife of John Brokaw, in company with Cornelius Peterson, father of his son-in-law Cornelius, and his family, which was large. Christopher took up 472 acres on lot 91, and settled in the south-east corner, where Ebenezer Gilbert now lives [NOTE:  Should be the northeast corner because that is where the Post farms were located and where Ebenezer Gilbert lived - R. A. Post]. They came with wagons, over the mountains, fording streams which were bridgeless. Peterson settled on lot 83, where George Peterson, his grandson, now lives. Christopher Post died on the homestead March 17th, 1816."

-- Elliot G. Storke, History of Cayuga County, New York 1789 - 1879 (Syracuse, Onondaga Co., NY, D. Mason & Co., 1879), Internet Archive http://archive.org/, p. 377

Jacob and Mary had a daughter, Margaret (aka Margret) Post, born 10 January 1797 at Owasco Lake. Mary died some time after the birth of Margaret. Jacob subsequently married Jannetie (later anglicized to Jane) Nevius, daughter of Martynes Nevius and Ida Hoagland, ca. 1801. By then, Cayuga County had been formed, and Lot 91 was part of the Town of Aurelius of that county. Jacob and Jannetie had 12 children between 1803 and 1824. Some of the children would later settle in western New York State and in Ohio.

Jacob Post, Sr. constructed a log house on the south side of present-day Stone School Road sometime between 1801 and 1810, after having lived with his parents during their initial settlement along Owasco Lake. He operated a horse- or oxen-powered feed mill and a tannery for many years before he died intestate in October 1838. Jannetie, his widow, survived until December 1858.

Appointment of Appraisers in Surrogate's Court for Jacob Post, Jr.'s Estate

On 23 February 1839, Jacob Post, Jr. petitioned the Surrogate's Court at Auburn, Cayuga Co., New York for Letters of Administration on the estate of his father. At the same time, the Court appointed two Appraisers to value the personal estate of Jacob Post, Sr., deceased.

Appointment of Appraisers Levi S. Tryon and Isaac S. Suydam for the estate of Jacob Post, Sr., late of the Town of Fleming, Cayuga Co., New York

Reverse side of Appointment of Appraisers Levi S. Tryon and Isaac S. Suydam for the estate of Jacob Post, Sr., late of the Town of Fleming, Cayuga Co., New York

The Appraisers appointed by Surrogate Thomas Y. How, Jr. were Levi S. Tryon and Isaac S. Suydam. Some biographical information on Levi S. Tryon appeared in a previous blog post. Suffice it to say that Levi was a prominent former mill owner who owned a farm on present-day Silver Street less than 2.5 miles by road from the Post residence in the Town of Fleming.

Isaac S. Suydam

Isaac S. Suydam, son of David Suydam and Abigail Grover, lived on his father's farm on present-day Silver Street Road near the corner of Stone School Road. This placed Isaac even closer than Levi Tryon to the farm of Jacob Post, Sr., about 1.6 miles by road. The familiarity of the Post and Suydam families is evidenced by the fact that Jacob Post, Jr., Administrator of his father's estate, was censused adjacent to David Suydam's household in 1840 although Jacob may have been in his father's household near Owasco Lake the prior year. Isaac would have been 30 years old at the time he was appointed as an Appraiser of Jacob Sr.'s estate in 1839. Isaac S. Suydam apparently never married and died 1 May 1875.

There was another, older Isaac Suydam, possibly an uncle of Isaac S. Suydam, who appears with Jacob Post, Sr. in an 1807 list of subscribers to fund construction of the "Meeting House of the United Congregation of the Reformed Low Dutch church at the Owasco Outlet" (Sand Beach Church). The Post and Suydam families therefore belonged to same congregation. The elder Isaac Suydam was censused adjacent to David Suydam at Fleming in 1830 but does not appear there in 1840. Probate records show that an Isaac Suydam died intestate at Scio, Washtenaw Co., Michigan prior to 23 March 1853, leaving goods, chattels, or credits within Cayuga Co., New York. These facts render it somewhat unlikely that the elder Isaac Suydam was the one appointed as an Appraiser of Jacob Post, Sr.'s estate.