Monday, February 15, 2016

Part 3. The Hanger branch connects to the Piper Family Tree.

(Rev) Jacob S Hanger (3rd GGF) married Rachel Smith; the marriage of their daughter Tamma Rebecca to (Rev) Jacob W Piper (my 4th Great-Grandparents) joined the Hanger branch to the Piper Family Tree.
    For awhile now, I have been watching “Finding Your Roots”. Henry Louis Gates, Jr often points out that it appears we inherit from our unknown ancestors parts of our personality, our interests and sometimes even career choices. In my ancestry research, I have seen this many times. In this instance, I see myself in Jacob W Piper who studied theology through the lense of many different denominations; he became committed, at an early age, to the Christian Church which was a non-denominational organization composed of Christians who followed only the New Testament; they had no “rulers” - no bishops or popes. I believe his path (including the study of many denominations) was spurred by his desire to understand where the beliefs and practices of those denominations came from. The origin of the non-denominational, Christian Church, appears to have developed in the United States after the reformation.


    Every time I work with all these Jacobs I get disoriented: Jacob Hanger, father of Jacob S. Hanger, who became a clergyman. (Rev) Jacob S Hanger’s daughter Tamma Rebecca married (Rev) Jacob W Piper; his father was Jacob D Piper.
    To reorient myself: Jacob D Piper, was the only member of his close-knit family to leave Sharpsburg, Maryland; he settled in Ogle County, Illinois. His son, (Rev) Jacob W Piper was a theological scholar attending 1st, the Rock River Seminary in Mount Morris, Illinois; then, Monmouth College (affiliated with the Presbyterian Church); next, Cornell College; next, Baptist Theological Seminary which he left early to marry Tamma Rebeca Hanger. In 1872, he preached his first sermon in the Christian Church, Ashton, Illinois. In 1881, he became pastor of the North Grove Christian Church. In 1884, he moved his family from Illinois to (Le Grand) Marshall Co, Illinois. His most influential position there was his 30 years as Trustee of the Palmer College; an organization formed from the Christian Church.
    Jacob Hanger left his family in Augusta, Virginia (a slave-holding state); traveling with a large group of pioneering souls and settled in Knox County, Ohio. In his son’s autobiography, Jacob S Hanger writes that his father “grew tired of slavery” and freed the three slaves that belonged to his wife when he married her. In 1832, Jacob Hanger was stricken with paralysis and died two years later, leaving his widow with 9 young children. Jacob S, age 17, joined the Christian Church; a year later he preached his first sermon there. In 1856, he moved his family from Ohio to Illinois - this is where the Jacob S Hanger family connects with the Jacob D Piper family - their children later to marry: Tamma Rebecca Hanger and Jacob W Piper.


here now, begins, Part 3. The Hanger branch connects to the Piper Family Tree.
    Jacob S Hanger, son of Jacob and Rebecca (Davis) Hanger, was writing an autobiography at the time of his death; it was published in the local newspaper in its incomplete form. There is also an obituary containing a biographical sketch of him. I’m combining the two with census records.
    Jacob S Hanger was born Feb 12, 1821 in Morgan Twp, Knox Co, Ohio. His father (Jacob) served as a Justice of the Peace for twenty-one years; was stricken with paralysis (a stroke) in 1832 and died two years later (1834); he left behind: Harriet 2, Jackson 3, Eleanor and Caroline 7, Rhoda 9, Peter 11, Jacob 13, Sarah 15, Andrew 17. Jacob S states that he had to go into “hard work” at the age of 10. A newspaper clipping (Daily Gazette and Bulletin - Williamsport, PA) tells us, his father, Jacob owned a farm when he died: Turtle found with “J.H., 1834” inscribed on its breast bone. Jacob Hanger owned and resided on the farm at that time.
    Age seventeen, Jacob S Hanger “found his Savior precious and joined the Christian church under the invitation of his brother Andrew C”; he preached his first sermon, age eighteen. August 2, 1842 he married Rachel Smith; they had eleven children; one of which was Tamma Rebecca who would marry Jacob W Piper in 1870 - joining the Piper Family to the Hanger Family.
     I found a 1876, City Directory listing Elder A.C. Hanger (Jacob’s brother) as president of Christian Publishing Association, living on 6th and Main, res. Utica. As you will see, both our Hanger and our Piper ancestors were part of this revolutionary, “anti-establishment” Christian movement.


    1850 Census, Morgan, Knox Co, Ohio Jacob S Hanger 29 (Clergyman) Rachel age 25; children: William 5, Fanny (Tammy) 4, Laban 2. Note: here is an example of a challenge I had with Tamma Hanger; her name (both  her “given name” and her “surname”) is spelled differently in almost every record I found her in from the Census records to marriage records as “mother-of-the-groom”.

    October 1856, Jacob S Hanger moved his family from Ohio to Illinois; in the spring of 1860 they moved to North Grove and located on the grandfather Piper’s farm (Jacob D Piper, father of Jacob W Piper). This would have been not long after Jacob D Piper purchased this land. In the 1850 Census, Leaf River, Ogle Co, Illinois (a new settlement), Jacob D Piper’s family is listed on a page that includes several other families (most likely, the entire settlement); Jacob D Piper 44, Anna 29; children: Daniel 20, John 18, Elizabeth 16, Joseph 12, Samuel 10, Jacob W 5. The families of Jacob S Hanger and Jacob D Piper may have shared a residence - appears, to me, that these two families had previous connections; and, this would have been when Jacob W Piper and Tamma Hanger met each other, and from this point on I’m combining the timeline and events of Jacob and Rachel Hanger with their daughter, Tamma who married Jacob W Piper.
"a large stockf arm" in Taylor Twp - Belleview Stock Farm breeder of Short Horn Cattle... sheep... swine

You can see that Jacob W Piper and Jacob S Hanger are neighbors with Wm Hanger between them (bottom section next to the right corner section)














  In the 1860 Census we see that these families are neighbors in Ogle County, Illinois:

  1. Jacob Hanger 39 (Farmer), Rachel 36, William 15 (farm labor), Thomas 13, Harriet 9, Martha 5, Sarah 3.
  2. Thomas H Trine 29, Elizabeth (Piper-Trine) 27 (sister of Jacob Piper).
  3. Jacob D Piper 54 (Farmer. RE $11,000 PP $4,500), Anna 50. Joseph 22, Samuel 19, Jacob W 16.  Note: Tamma is missing from this census; she would have been 14.

    This is where things get “muddled”: The first child of Jacob W Piper and Tamma Rebecca Hanger was born three years before they married. Did Tamma become pregnant and the family “sent her away”? Note: their first daughter, Mary, is not mentioned among his children in his biographical sketch in the 1941 Congregational Church Year Book. While doing research (on another ancestor) it was stated that theological students were not allowed to be married -this could be why Jacob W Piper waited to marry Tamma Hanger.

    Jacob W Piper entered the Rock River Seminary in 1864, age 20. After which, he attended the Monmouth College for a few terms and Cornell College for one term; this coincides with the time frame of Mary S. Piper’s birth (abt 1867) - listed as the daughter of Jacob W and Tamma (Hanger) Piper in the 1880 Census. Did the parents of Jacob and Tamma want them to wait to marry until he finished studies? He was attending the Baptist Theological Seminary when he left early in the spring of 1870; Jacob W Piper married Tamma Hanger on 3/10/1870 (the record of their marriage is on file at the courthouse in Ogle Co, Illinois). In the 1870 Ogle Co, Illinois Mary S. Piper is listed with (her grandparents) Jacob D Piper 49 and Rachel 45. Found on at a different location (her parents), the newly married Jacob W Piper 25 (Farmer. RE $6,000. PP $500.) and Famma (Tamma) 23. And, living in Taylor Twp, Ogle, ILL. (Tamma’s parents) Jacob Hanger 49 (Farmer. RE $10,000 PP $4,000), Rachel 45. William 25, Harriet 19, Martha 14, Libbie 12, Samuel 9, Liberty 4, Rebecca (Davis-Hanger) 76 (mother of Jacob).

    Jacob W Piper preached his first sermon in 1872 at the Christian Church in Ashton, Illinois. In 1877 he taught at the district school of his old home. In the 1880 Census, we find Jacob W 35 (Minister) and Talma (Tamma) 33 and their children: Mary S 13, Alice 9, Rolland 5, living with his parents, Jacob D Piper 73, Anna 68. (Tamma’s parents) are listed in Taylor, Ogle, ILL. Jacob Hanger 57 (Minister), Rachel 55. Hattie 29, Samuel 19 (farmer), Liberty 14 (farmhand).
    In 1881, Jacob W Piper became pastor of the North Grove Christian Church, he remained in that capacity for three years. In 1884, Jacob W moved his family from Illinois to Marshall County, Iowa; he purchased an 80-acre farm west of Le Grand, in the community known as “Quaker Lane” because most of the families were of the Quaker faith. 1885 Census, Le Grand Marshall, Iowa Jacob W 40, Tamah 38; children: Alice C 13, Samuel R 9, Lethe 8, Hugh A 3. 

Jacob S Hanger died 2/26/1898; his wife Rachel (Smith) died 7/22/1902; they are buried at Washington Grove Cemetery in Chana, Ogle Co, ILL. They share a grave marker with their daughter Harriet (never married) who died 3/5/1925.

    1900 Census, Le Grand, Marshall, Iowa Jacob 55 (Clergyman), Tamah 53, Hugh 19, Alva 14, Letha 23; Elizabeth E Trine 66 (widowed sister of Jacob). 1910, Jacob 65 (Minister, Christian), Tamma 63, (Jacob) Earl 22. In 1911, Jacob and Tamma moved into town; he served as a “fill in” minister in the region, was a Sunday School teacher and leader in the local church all of his life. Tamma Rebecca (Hanger) Piper died, 7/1/1911; she is buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Le Grand, Marshall Co, Iowa. “Aunt Tamma” as everyone called her, was a great inspiration to her husband in all of his pastoral work.


    On 1/31/1917, Jacob W Piper married Sarah M Bailey, who was also a minister. 1920 Census, Jacob W 75 (Minister, Gospel), Sera (Sara) 62 (Minister, Gospel). Home mortgaged. 1930 Census, Jacob 85, Sarah 71. Owns home, Value $2,500). 1935, J.W. Piper compiled a book titled, Historical Genealogy of the Piper Family; one of his descendants has a copy of the book. 1940 Census, Jacob W 95 (retired minister, working on own account) Owns home. Value $1,500. College 4th year, Sarah 81 (Minister, working on own account) College 5th year.

7/11/1940, Jacob attended the Piper Reunion; at age 95, he was the oldest person present.

    Jacob W Piper died, 7/31/1941, he’s buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Le Grand next to Tamma (Hanger) Piper.


    An overview of Jacob W. Piper. Note: Website links at the end of this document

    A quote from the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2. “He is a man of large heart and liberal religious views, possessed of a rare degree of unselfishness and generosity, and unconditionally devoted to the uplift of the people among whom his active and useful lot has been cast.” The Rev. Jacob W. Piper served the following churches in Illinois: Ashton, Washington Grove and North Grove; in Iowa: Ferguson, Fairview, Bethel Grove and Le Grand. He was a trustee of Palmer College for over 30 years. [a]

Jacob W Piper was Trustee of Palmer College for 30 years
    With the establishment of the Christian Society in LeGrand, a school was erected in about 1866.  With increased class size, a larger school was needed and in 1878 a 100 x 40 foot three story brick building with a basement was begun. It contained a 60 x 40-foot addition that held 56 student’s rooms.  It was called the "LeGrand Christian Institute” and was located two blocks south of Main Street on the west side of Webster Street.  Financial problems caused the school to close in 1885. [b]


Herald of Gospel Liberty, Volume 110, Issues 27-52 (pg 896) *digital page 277

Half Hours With Our Institutions

September 19, 1918. Palmer College. Palmer College Brief Historical Sketch, By Rev. J. W. Piper, Legrand Iowa, President Board of Trustees.

    About the time of the closing of the Civil War, two worthy Christian ministers, Rev. J.P. Watson and Rev. D.M. Lines, met on the streets of Belvidere, Illinois. One said to the other: “Let us go West and start a college.” ...Their efforts resulted in establishing, at Legrand, Iowa, in the year 1865, what was known as the Legrand Christian Institute. ...The first school, under the charter, was conducted in a rented building… soon erected… a two-story building…

...Rev. J.Q. Evans, who conceived the idea of a student's’ home and a college building combined… The cornerstone was laid June 8, 1878… This building soon became a burden to the management of the school. The finances were not adequate, the building was not completed, and as the end of the building had been removed, the school could not be continued, and was closed for some ten or twelve years.
    In the year 1890 a new chapter was secured... Legrand Christian College…
    In 1897, the name... Palmer College, in honor of Francis A. Palmer, of New York, who made it possible to secure $50,000. endowment.  
    Up to this time the college had grown from a community enterprise to be supervised by the Central Iowa Christian Conference. It was discovered that the resources of the local conference were too limited to successfully carry on the work, and the Iowa State Conference was asked to have the supervision, and the college remained under its control until after its removal to Albany, Missouri, in 1912.
 Palmer’s New Location
    The new location was incidental, coming about in this way. The writer of this article (Jacob W Piper), while traveling over northwestern Missouri, on business, came to Albany; and, while looking north from a southern eminence of the city, the eye rested upon what appeared to be a prominent and artistic structure, standing out in bold relief from the trees of a fine campus. Making inquiry as to what it was, found it to be an unoccupied college building with ten acres of ground.
    ...a committee of the trustees of Palmer College was invited to visit Albany… and entered into a tentative agreement with the Commercial Club of Albany, who owned the property. And they agreed to give the property to the Christian Church, and put the building in good repair, provided the college would bring its faculty and college belongings to Albany, and run a school of college grade for ten years, after which they would give a title in fee simple to the proper authorities of the college. So, in June, 1912, the institution was moved to Albany, Missouri, trusting that the usefulness of the college might be enlarged.
Its Mission
    Palmer College has a place to fill….
    Mrs. Jameson says: “The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seeds of immortality already sown within us; to develop to their fullest extent the capacities of every kind with which God who made us, has endowed us.”
    Gascome says, “A boy is better unborn than untaught.” [c]
Palmer College Bulletin 1920-1921, Catalogue.
Corporation Officers: J.W. Piper, LeGrand, Iowa, President
Location: Palmer College is located at Albany, Missouri, the county seat of Gentry County. Few towns in the Middle West are better fitted as a suitable location for an educational institution… This strategic point was selected not only because it is so easily reached from all points, especially Iowa, Kansas and Missouri… [d]
background for the Herald of Gospel Liberty - The Democratization of American Christianity
    Founder and editor of the Herald of Gospel Liberty the first religious newspaper in the United State, Elias Smith - “made much of the right of the common people to think and act for themselves. Resigning from his church as a manifesto of his own liberty and denouncing formal religion of every kind, Smith began to translate the sovereignty of the people to the sphere of religion.” (pg 69)
    “The Last Will and Testament of Springfield Presbytery,” these men vowed to follow nothing but the Christian name and the New Testament.” (pg 70)
(pg 76) He (Smith) argued that every last Christian had the “unalienable right” to follow “the scripture whenever it leads him, and even an equal right with the Bishops and Pastors of the churches… even though his principles may, in many things, be contrary to what the Reverend D.D.’s call Orthodoxy.” Using the same language, Alexander Campbell pressed for “the inalienable right of all laymen to examine the sacred writings for themselves.” This logic, brimming with conspiratorial notions of how clergymen of every stripe had “hoodwinked” the people, eventually led each of these Christian leaders to demand that the traditional distinction between clergy and laity be abolished and that any leadership in the local church function according to new rules: “liberty is nowhere safe in any hands excepting those of the people themselves.” With demands for this sort of liberation afoot, it is little wonder that Congregational and Presbyterian clergymen came to view the Christians as but another tentacle of the Bavarian Illuminati’s conspiracy to overthrow authority in church and state. [e]

The Evangelical Tradition in America, pg 117.…(Elias) Smith became a radical publicist par excellence, launching the first religious newspaper in the United States in 1808, the “Herald of Gospel Liberty,”... “The time will come,” he said, “when there will not be a crowned head on earth. Every attempt which is made to keep up a kingly government, and to pull down a Republican one, will serve to destroy a monarchy… Every small piece or plan of Monarchy which is a part of the image [of Antichrist] will be wholly dissolved, when the people are resolved to “live free or die.”
    Smith’s involvement with a group who called themselves merely “Christians” is… [f]
Herald of Gospel Liberty, Volume 103, Issues 27-52. Notes, Personals, Events. Rev. J.W. Piper writes of the need of a pastor at LeGrand, Iowa, to succeed Rev. A.B. Kendall… Bro. Piper says that pastors are also needed at Clemons, Forest Home, and Fairview churches in the Central (Iowa) Conference… Where are the preachers and pastors to supply these pulpits? It will require men of good moral, spiritual, and intellectual ability to all fill these places. Correspondence with Rev. J.W. Piper, LeGrand, Iowa, will bring information. [g]
The New England Christians. Two Baptists led the New England Christian movement. Both men repudiated Calvinistic extremes to form the movement. They are Abner Jones (1772-1841) and Elias Smith (1769-1846)
Principles. The principles espoused by New England Christians closely paralleled those of the Republican Methodists. After their union with the southern Christians, William Guirey wrote: After we became a separate people, three points were determined on. First. No head over the church but Christ. Second. No confession of faith, articles of religion, rubric, canons, creeds, etc., but the New Testament. Third. No religious name but Christians.

Fellowship was on the basis of sincere piety evidenced by Christian deportment. They recognized all whom God owned as his children. [h]
Background, Seminaries and Colleges Jacob W Piper attended.

(1864) Rock River Seminary, Mount Morris, Ogle, Illinois - founded by the Methodist Church in 1839;

Catalogues, worldcat.org: 1843… 1856 [i]

Mount Morris: Past and Present. An interesting “period” history.  [j]


(1866) Monmouth College, Monmouth, Warren, Illinois -affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Founded on 4/18/1853, by the Second Presbytery of Illinois, a frontier arm of the Associate Reformed (Presbyterian) Church… [k]



King Chapel, Cornell College

(1868) Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Linn, Iowa - Originally called the Iowa Conference Seminary… founded in 1853 by Reverend Samuel M. Fellows. Changed to Cornell College in 1857, in honor of iron tycoon William Wesley Cornell. (affiliated with the United Methodist Church) From its inception, Cornell has accepted women into all degree programs… In 1871, Harriette J. Cooke became the first female college professor in the United States to become a full professor with a salary equal to that of her male colleagues. [L]







(1869) Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicago, Cook, Illinois

The Baptist Theological Union was founded to meet the needs of students at the first University of Chicago [1856-1866] who wished to prepare for the ministry… In the fall of 1867, courses… [Systematic Theology] included Ecclesiastical History, Biblical Literature and Exegesis [critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture] were given to nineteen students. On 7/1/1869, the seminary building was dedicated. [m]




 Origins of Nondenominational Christianity

Nondenominational Christianity - Christians are not formally aligned with an established Christian religious denomination. For the most part, the term refers to various groups of individuals who hold basic Protestant tenets and identify themselves simply as “Christians” or “born-again Christians”.

    “The visible churches, in the idea of the Scottish theologians, is catholic. You have not an indefinite number of Parochial, or Congregational, or National churches, constituting, as it were, so many ecclesiastical individualities, but one great spiritual republic, of which these various organizations form a part. The visible church is not a genus, so to speak, with so many species under it. It is thus you may think of the State, but the visible church is a totum integrale, it is an empire. The churches of the various nationalities constitute the provinces of this empire; and though they are so far independent of each other, yet they are so one, that membership in one is membership in all, and separation from one is separation from all... This conception of the church, of which, in at least some aspects, we have practically so much lost sight, had a firm hold of the Scottish theologians of the seventeenth century.”

    In some countries where the Protestant Reformation took place, the founders claimed that the result was not a new denomination but a reformation of a supposedly pre-existing "national church".

    Denominationalism was accelerated in the aftermath of the Westminster Assembly convened by the English Parliament to formulate a form of religion for the national churches of England and Scotland. In the debate between the two main parties present at the Assembly, the Presbyterians and the Independents, the Presbyterians were in favour of a form of church government that maintained the visible organizational unity of the Catholic Church while Independents, weary of the ecclesiastical tyranny they experienced under the Episcopal system, wished to organize the churches in a congregational way envisioning no legitimate authority of the church above the local congregation meeting at one time in a single place. These two parties were not reconciled and following the Assembly the Independents formed their own independent church. Thus, instead of a united expression of the Catholic Church in England, there were now two churches. [n]

References - Weblinks
[a] Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=yRsVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA989&lpg=PA989&dq=Jacob+Piper+Sharpsburg+Maryland&source=bl&ots=YXmfKO4XZc&sig=lhv78SOURqANbhyseN7HT8okY9A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji75ShlaDKAhXLNiYKHY5EBdsQ6AEIOzAF#v=onepage&q=Jacob%20Piper%20Sharpsburg%20Maryland&f=false

[b] LeGrand Pioneer Heritage - History of the Schools - Christian Society in LeGrand http://www.legrand.lib.ia.us/community/schools/schoolshistory

Follow the link, below, to read the full article and a photo of J.W. Piper. Note: you may have to copy/paste the article to a document page on your computer in order for it to take you to the “online” page (by clicking on it).






[h] The New England Christians - The Movement’s Leaders - Elias Smith. http://www.christianchronicler.com/History2/new_england_christians.html


[j] Genealogy Trails… Mount Morris: Past…  http://genealogytrails.com/ill/ogle/earlyhistory.htm



[m] Baptist Theological Seminary - Series 1. Founding and Early Administration https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.BTUBUTS


 A list of ALL Hanger Blog Posts -Blog Post: Hanger Family, Blog Links -*7/8/2016
http://gray-adamsfamily.blogspot.com/2016/07/hanger-family-blog-links.html
xxx

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