Copyright 1998, Esther Doyle Read

Updated 28 March 2004

READ FAMILY CONNECTIONS

AZUBA MARY READ NEWMAN²

8. AZUBA MARY READ² (Joseph¹) was born 12 September 1773 in Sussex (now Warren) County, New Jersey, and died 20 January 1797 in Sussex (now Warren) County, New Jersey. She married JOSEPH NEWMAN, the son of Thomas Newman and Rebecca Giles. He was born 23 February 1768 in Morris County, New Jersey and died 24 November 1848 in Warren County, New Jersey. Joseph is buried next to his daughter Rebecca Lewis in Union Cemetery, Route 519, Hope Township, Warren County, New Jersey. His stone was field checked 24 November 2001.

Azuba and Joseph were were the parents of two children, born between 1792 and 1797. They had at least two grandchildren, born between 1818 and 1821; 16 great-grandchildren born between 1839 and 1864, 10 second great-grandchildren, born between 1864 and 1891 and 11 third great-grandchildren. Total identified descendants equals 41. Azuba shares 15 of her descendants in common with her brothers Isaac (Sr.), John, and Aaron Read. Her great-grandson Edward H. Cool, Sr. married Isaac's great-granddaughter Melissa Kerr (14 descendants) and her great-great-granddaughter Varna Newman married John's great-great-grandson Verner K. Titman. Verner was also a great-great-grandson of Aaron Read (1 descendant). Azuba's great-grandson George Cool married Annie Flumerfelt, who was a granddaughter of Azuba's brother David Read. There were no children from this last marriage.

CHILDREN OF AZUBA READ AND JOSEPH NEWMAN

57. (i.) REBECCA NEWMAN³ , was born 1794 in Sussex County, New Jersey and died 5 December 1866 (Union Cemetery). She married (First Name Unknown) Lewis. She is buried next to her father in Union Cemetery, Route 519, Hope Township, Warren County, New Jersey. Her stone was field checked on 24 November 2001.

58. (ii.) JOSEPH NEWMAN, Jr.³, was born between 1795 and 1797 and died between 1845 and 1862. He married Unknown. Joseph was named as an heir in his father's will which was written on 5 July 1845 and admitted for probate on 15 December 1848 (WCSCR, Wills Book 2, page 318). He was not named as an heir in the settlement of the estate of his first cousin John H. Read. John Read died on 14 August 1862. Only those first cousins still living on 14 August 1862 were named as heirs. The heirs and assigns of the first cousins who had died before 14 August 1862 were not named in the settlement (WCSCR, Orphan Court Minutes Liber 6, folio 157). Child of Joseph Newman, Jr.:

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Azuba Read was the sixth child and third daughter of the eleven children of Joseph and Sarah Read. She was born 12 September 1773 (Armstrong 1979:155). Azuba was named as a minor child in her mother's will in 1792. Sarah left Azubah a legacy of £32 which she was to receive at the age of 21 (Sussex County Surrogate Court Records, hereinafter SCSCR, Liber 34, folio 185). Azuba turned 21 in 1794. Her legacy probably served as her dowery. She probably married Joseph Newman within a year of her mother's death in August 1792, as her daughter Rebecca was born in 1794 (Union Cemetery).

Joseph Newman was the second child and first son of Thomas and Rebecca Newman. Thomas Newman (actually Thomas Newman, Jr.) and Rebecca Giles began their married life in about 1765 in Morris County. By 1770 they had settled in the vicinity of Log Goal (now Johnsonburg), Hardwick (now Frelinghuysen) Township, Sussex (now Warren) County, New Jersey. Within two years, Thomas decided to try his luck in the new settlements around Sudbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. As a surveyor, Thomas could count on employment laying out new tracts of land. Thomas took Rebecca and their four small chidren (Agnes age 6, Joseph age 4, Winifred age 2, and Abraham who was an infant) to the frontier with him. Over the next six years tensions between the settlers and the original Native American inhabitants increased, culminating in the Wyoming Massacre in Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania on 3 July 1778. Settlers in the region fled to New Jersey for safety. The Newmans had taken refuge in Fort Augusta on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River during this period of hostilites. By that time 3 more children had been added to the family, Elizabeth born in 1774, Rebecca born in 1776 and Thomas born in January 1778. Joseph Newman was now 10 years old. Armstrong (1979:154-155) records that Joseph "...often told when he was an old man, how he had stood at a porthole of the fort with a gun and shot at the Indians as they ran toward the fort." The experience certainly had a profound effect on Joseph and his brothers and sisters. His sister Elizabeth, who was 4 at the time recalled "...how when the Indians were trying to capture the fort, she being a small girl, crept into bed and pulled the covers up thinking she was safe whatever happened" (Ibid.).

One of Thomas Newman's brothers was killed by the Indians while the family was seeking refuge in the fort. Provisions in the fort had run low. Thomas, his brother and another man named Wyckoff left the fort on a foraging and hunting expedition. The Indians set on their party, Thomas managed to escape, while Wycoff hid under the roots of an upturned tree. But Thomas Newman's brother was surrounded. He fired on the party, missed and then used the butt of the gun as a weapon. He was overpowered and hacked to pieces in front of Wycoff. Wycoff was able to make his escape under cover of dark and return to the fort (Ibid.). After this, Thomas decided to abandon his farm in Pennsylvania and flee to New Jersey. He built a raft, loaded his family on it and floated down the Susquehanna River to Sudbury. From there the family made its way overland back to Log Goal. The Newmans stayed permanently in the Log Goal area. A son James Giles Newman was born there in 1779, the year after they returned from Pennsylvania. This child would, as an adult, marry Azubah Read's widowed sister-in-law, Mary Kirkpatrick Read, after Mary's first husband, Joseph Read II died in 1807. Mary was his second wife. As an adult, Abraham Newman became a Methodist minister (Ibid.: 153-155). Elizabeth Newman eventually married Henry Silverthorn, they became staunch members of the Christian Church first in Johnsonburg and later in Hope (Snell 1881:666, 690).

In
Memory of
JOSEPH NEWMAN
who died
NOV 24 1848
Aged 89 Years 9 Months
and 1 Day
D. Baker, Newton

Joseph Newman wrote his will on 5 July 1845, it was admitted before the Warren County Surrogate for probate on 15 December 1848. He named his son-in-law Abraham Cool and another member of the Cool family, Abraham H. Cool, as the executors of his estate. Abraham H. Cool renounced his executorship between Joseph's death on 24 November 1848 and the appearance before the Warren County Surrogate on 15 December. Joseph made provisions for Eleanor in his will. She was to have possession of the house as long as she lived, provided she did not remarry. His executors were to see that she was provided for from the produce of the farm and that she always had fire wood sufficent for one fire piled by the door throughout the winter months. He also provided for the maintance of his daughter Rebecca for the rest of her life from the produce of the farm. Joseph left a $50 bequest to his grandson Levi Newman, the son of his son Joseph. He also set up a $950 trust fund for his son Joseph. The residue of the estate, plus all his real estate went to his granddaughter Leah N. Lewis Cool after Eleanor's death (Warren County Surrogate Court Records, hereinafter WCSCR, Wills Book 2, page 318).

Table 1: Household of Abram and Leah Cool in 1850
1850 United States Federal Census
Frelinghuysen Township, Warren County, New Jersey, page 486B)

In the census, Abraham Cool's occupation is given as famer. He owned real estate valued at $4,320. The family was the 143^rd household visited and the 154^th family ennumerated by the census in Frelinghuysen Township. According to Armstrong (1979:156), Ellen Newman was living in Virginia at the time of her death (1853). She must have moved there after the 1850 census was taken. Armstrong states that she was buried in Virginia.

Rebecca Newman Lewis died a year and a half after the settlement, on 5 December 1866 and was buried next to her father in Union Cemetry. Her stone was field checked 24 November 2001 and is inscribed:

In Memory
of
REBECCA LEWIS
DAUGHTER OF
JOSEPH NEWMAN
Died Dec. 5, 1866
Aged 72 yrs

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