1837-1838 Promissory Note by Jacob Post, Jr. (probably) to Elsie Schenck Voorhees Peterson

The Note

Promissory Note believed to have been made by Jacob Post, Sr. to Elsie Peterson payable 20 April 1838

The Promissory Note transcription follows:  "$128:. For value recived I promis to pay Else Peterson on hunderd an twenty ate dolars on Demand with use Aprel the 20 Fleming 1838"

Provenance of the Note

The Promissory Note appears among several loose papers in the Ledger of Jacob Post, Sr. handed down in the family for five subsequent generations. No signature appears on the note. One method of cancelling a legal document in the 19th Century was by tearing or cutting off the signature. That appears to be the case with this Note because the blank lower part of the actual document (not all shown above) does have a rectangular area below "Fleming 1838" removed (slightly visible at the lower margin of the image).

Absence of a signature makes the originator of the Note somewhat speculative, but it was likely either Jacob Post, Sr. or his son Jacob, Jr. Given the $128 sum involved and reference to "use," the Note may have been for the use of a farm. Jacob Post, Sr. already had a farm of 127 acres in 1838, which turned out to be the year of his death, suggesting that Jacob Post, Jr. was more likely to need land to farm and may have been the person making the Note. Comparison of handwriting between the Note and Jacob, Sr.'s Ledger is not very revealing, but spelling in the Note does not seem as good as that exhibited by Jacob, Sr. My tentative assignment of the Note's authorship is to Jacob Post, Jr.

Jacob Post, Jr. was born on his father's farm on or near present-day Stone School Road in the Town of Fleming on 20 January 1809, son of Jacob, Sr. and Jannetie (Jane) Nevius. He married Esther Ann Gregory, it is believed in 1829, and they had a daughter, Clarisa A. Post. Esther Ann died in 1833 and Clarisa A. in 1837. Jacob Post, Jr. would have been a widower, possibly in his father's household, at the time the Note was executed. He would later marry Betsey Ann Allen, a granddaughter of pioneer settler Gideon Allen of Scipioville in the Town of Scipio, Cayuga Co., New York.

Elsie Peterson

Christopher Peterson, son of Cornelius Peterson, Jr. and Maria Post, married Elsie Schenck Voorhees on 26 March 1823. They resided on the western shores of Owasco Lake in the Town of Fleming, Cayuga Co., New York. Elsie was the daughter of Abraham Voorhees and Elsie TenEyck. She was born 4 September 1801. Unfortunately, Christopher died only 10 years later, on 23 February 1833, leaving Elsie with five children to raise.

Elsie's oldest son, Cornelius A. Peterson, would have been only 13 years old in 1837 when the Note probably was drawn up, perhaps for a use of 1 year terminating 20 April 1838. Cornelius A., however capable for his age, likely would not have been able to commence farming at that time. We can speculate that Elsie might have rented all or part of her farm for income.

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.