Rynear Tyson and Eleanor Jeanes

Rynear Tyson was born about 1793, the oldest son of Peter Tyson and Martha Kimble of Upper Dubin. Peter had been disowned by Abington Monthly Meeting for heavy drinking and suing a Friend at law. Around 1818, Rynear married Eleanor Jeanes, daughter of William Jeanes and Elizabeth McVaugh. The Jeanes family, like the Tysons, had originally been Quakers, but by William’s generation they were no longer part of the Society.

In 1830 they were living in Upper Dublin with five sons and a daughter.1 Soon afterwards Rynear died young, only a year after the death of his father. He left Eleanor with six children to raise. She might have gone to live with some of her Jeanes relatives.2 In 1860 she was living with her son Ephraim and his wife Anna in Germantown. Ten years later she was living in Horsham, in her own house next door to Ephraim and Anna. She died in 1876 and was buried at Upper Dublin Friends burying ground, in the same row as many of the Tysons. Rynear was buried there too; she had outlived him by 46 years.

Children of Rynear and Eleanor:3

Edmond J., born about 1819, died in Phila in 1852, m. Adeline —,  probably Shelmire.4 He was a stationer in Philadelphia; after he died Adeline took over the business.5 Edmund died in 1st mo 1852. He was buried at Monument Cemetery, but later reburied at Fairhill with Adeline and 2 of their sons. In 1872 Adaline was living on 1040 North 2nd Street in Philadelphia with her sons.6 She married a Haslett and died in 1923 after spending her declining days at the Aged Woman’s Home in Norristown.7 Children of Edmond and Adeline: Charles, Edmond, William.8 All three of the sons died in Philadelphia of consumption at a relatively young age.9

Peter, alive in 1831, no further record.

Sarah Ann, born about 1824, died in 1864 of consumption. She did not marry. In 1850 she was living in the family of her cousin Seth Holt and his wife Rebecca in Spring Garden, Philadelphia, where Seth was a confectioner.10 Sarah worked as a milliner. When Sarah died in Jan. 1864 at age 40 of consumption, the funeral was held from the house of her cousin W. J. Holt on Marshall Street.11 Sarah was buried at Monument Cemetery.

William J., born about 1828, in 1863 he was living in Moreland, working as a laborer.12 After that he disappears from the records until his death in August 1892. He was living in Horsham, in the household of his namesake nephew William Jeanes Tyson. The older William was probably unmarried, since his brother Ephraim was the administrator for his estate.13 There were few assets, mainly a share in the estate of Hannah A. Tyson, in litigation since her death, finally settled in October 1897.14 This was probably the estate of Rynear’s sister-in-law Hannah F. Tyson, who died in 1885; the settlement of her estate eventually went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Seth Holt, born in 1826, headed west for the gold rush.15 For once a story passed down through the family turned out to be true. In 1860, he was living as a miner in Silver City, Carson, Utah Territory, surrounded by other unmarried miners.16 By 1870 he had moved west to Eureka, Nevada County, California, still surrounded by other unmarried miners.17 In 1872 he had moved west again, to the Slate Ridge township in the register of Yuba County, California. Slate Ridge was full of gravel mines where gold had been found.18 A date of death has not been found for him, and he probably never married.

Ephraim, born in 1829, died 1897. He apprenticed in Germantown as a young man and learned the cordwainer’s trade. That is where he met and married Anna Maust, from a Germantown family, that of Peter Maust and Anna Unruh. They married in 1855 and had nine children. In 1860 they were still in Philadelphia, with Ephraim’s mother Eleanor living with them.19 By 1870 they had moved out to Horsham and set up farming. Ephraim died there in 1897.20 Anna died in 1915. They are buried at Hatboro along with their son William and his wife Catherine, their son Robert, and several grandchildren.21 Children of Ephraim and Anna:22 Ida Ann, Edmund Jeanes, Samuel Maust, Robert Ephraim, William Jeanes, John Maust, Thomas Edwin, Albert Alvin, Anna May, Hannah, Charles Pattison.

 

  1. Spelled Ryner in the census; indexed as Rner.
  2. She has not been found in the 1840 or 1850 census, but appears in 1860. She was not listed as living with any of her grown children in 1850.
  3. From the Orphan’s Court record #4108, on the death of Rynear’s father Peter, which listed six children of Rynear (who was already deceased by then). This is the order they were listed in the record, but it may not the birth order. Also in the Orphans Court docket for Rynear Tyson’s estate, November 1831, Book 6, p. 92 (microfilm image 504).  The dates for Seth and Ephraim are from a letter from Harold Tyson in 1977, taken from the Tyson family Bible, passed down from Harold’s father Albert.
  4. There were several associations with the Shelmire family. In the census in 1860, Adaline was living next to Edward Shellmore, age 35, a bricklayer, and two doors down from Mary Shellmore, age 65. In 1870, Benjamin Shelmire, age 20, was living with Adaline and her three sons in Philadelphia.
  5. In the 1870 census she was listed as Adaline Tyson, age 42, stationer. (Federal census, Philadelphia ward 16, District 48, image 250, on Ancestry). Her three sons were living with her, as well as Benjamin Shelmire, age 20, a bricklayer’s apprentice. One of her sons, Edmund, was also a bricklayer’s apprentice, while William was a salesman at age 16.
  6. Philadelphia City Directories 1872 and 1873.
  7. There is no evidence that her husband was Samuel Haslett. There was a Samuel Haslett married to a woman named Adaline, but she was ten years younger and had different children.
  8. They are shown as children of Edmond and Adaline in the 1850, 1860 and 1870 federal census. Charles died unmarried in 1872. Edmund died unmarried in 1874; they were both buried at Fair Hill. William died in 1891, married, buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery on Lehigh Avenue, North Philadelphia. He was a storekeeper. He lived at 1142 North 2nd Street, just down the street from where his family was living in 1873. (Phila. City Death Certificates; Phila. City Directories 1872, 1873)
  9. From the Philadelphia City Death Certificates, on FamilySearch.
  10. Seth Holt, born about 1794, married Rebecca Jeanes, sister of Eleanor Jeanes Tyson, in 1824 and was disowned by Philadelphia Monthly Meeting for marrying contrary to discipline. Seth and Rebecca had known children William H, Cordelia, and Allan, and probably others. Seth died in 1876.
  11. Notice of death from the Phila. Press, Jan. 181, 1864, online at PSU Historical Newspaper Collection. Death record from Philadelphia City Death Certificates.
  12. Civil War Registration Records, June 1863, 6th Congressional District, image 503, on Ancestry. He was age 36; his brother Ephraim, age 35, was in Upper Dublin, working as a shoemaker.
  13. Montgomery County, estate RW20117.
  14. Since Ephraim died in the fall of 1897, the account was filed by William DePrefontaine in his place. William was the administrator for Ephraim’s estate as well.
  15. In a letter in 1977, Harold Tyson wrote to me a story he had heard from his father. “One of his uncle’s (great Uncle I think) went west in the Gold Rush of 1849. This could be the same Seth!” Harold was the son of Ephraim’s son Albert.
  16. 1860 census, Carson City, Utah Territory, image 3.
  17. In the census as S. H. Tyson, age 44, born in Pennsylvania.
  18. Thompson and West, History of Yuba County, California, 1879, online.
  19. They also had an apprentice cordwainer, William H. Tyson, age 17, living there. The age is wrong to be their nephew William H. Tyson, son of Edmond and Adaline.
  20. Pennsylvania state death certificate; his obituary.
  21. There are ten Tysons buried together: “Ephriam”, Anna, William J, Catherine, Harry E. 1897-1918, Ida May 1889-1924, Mary E. 1880-1936, Robert E. 1864-1946, Walter 1900-1902, Baby boy 1944.
  22. From the 1870 and 1880 (image 25) census and Helen Tyson’s recollections.  William Jeanes Tyson was her father-in-law. I have a daguerreotype that shows a young couple and their young son. From the probably date range in the 1850’s, this could be Ephraim and Anna. Ephraim’s name was spelled “Ephraim” in the family Bible; it was “Ephriam” in the cemetery records.

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