Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 07:36:32 +0000 (UTC) From: cindy dyer To: Marshall Lake Subject: Fw: Lake family Here is the paper Jean sent to me back in April about her Lake family. I highlighted the information about the newspaper article. I thought this might prove more helpful for you. ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: jeanbanowit@aol.com To: cindyrdyer@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 11:05:49 AM MDT Subject: Lake family Hi Cindy, I did find a paper that I wrote in 2008 to share with relatives. I did some updates in 2016, I have found more since then, but did not change this. It will give you some of the information that I have located. I hope this comes through okay - my computer keeps updating and making changes to the way I use email. Berry and Lake Families Our family tradition says that Catherine (Lake) Berry, mother of Eloshia (Berry) Keegan (Granny), was the daughter or granddaughter ofa Lenape Indian named Fred Lake. Further it says that Catherine's father or brother was wounded or ill during the Civil War. He was cared for by a woman named Eloshia. He fell in love and wanted to marry, but she refused. When her eturned home, he asked Catherine to name her baby girl Eloshia in honor oft his woman. Family historians know that there is usually some truth to family stories, so I set out to find the truth in our Berry - Lake tradition. Using my usual search tools records for censuses, birth, marriage, death, probate and land I have not yet been able to find a Fred Lake who fits into our family. A psychic told me to look in Mahwah, New Jersey. I have begun to search in this town in the Ramapo Mountains and so far have not found Fred. There was a family of Lakes who moved from Gravesend, Long Island, New York to the Mahwah area and I am trying to make a connection. I have had much more success searching for a Civil War connection. I discovered a web site hosted by Marshall Lake that contains much information on many branches of the Lake family. There is a copy of an article from the Weekly Gazette & Republican in Trenton on October 4, 1861. It mentions John S. Lake who had five sons in the Army James, John S. Jr., Joel W., Jacob A., and Ebenezer. In searching for Catherine (Lake) and her husband William Berry, I found his will (1872) in which he names his wife Catherine and Ebenezer Lake as executors. I wondered if Catherine and Ebenezer were siblings. EBENEZER LAKE I decided to search for Ebenezer, as it appeared to be a less common name than the others. I located him in the 1850 census for Mercer County, New Jersey. There is a Catherine with him and it appears that their father is John Lake. Some of the Civil War soldiers applied for government pensions based on injuries from the war or disabilities that resulted from sickness during military service. These original records have not been microfilmed or digitized yet and are only available for viewing at the National Archives in Washington, DC. There is however an index of those who applied for pensions that is readily available on the Internet. I found a listing for Ebenezer and copied the numbers needed to view the files. On a trip to DC, I looked at the original file and found that Ebenezer was, indeed, the son of John S. Lake and Susannah Alcott. The application states that Ebenezer was wounded on May 3, 1862 at Williamsburg, VA. He received a gunshot wound in the right lung and was treated at Dr. S. McKrumb's Hospital in Baltimore, MD from August 1862 to September 1862. He was then admitted to West's Building General Hospital in Baltimore and returned to duty on January 17, 1863. Ebenezer served in Companies C and D of the Eighth New Jersey infantry from August 1861 to November 1865. The pension file also notes that Ebenezer was married, first, on May 12, 1864 to Ellen Nutt. They had five children, two died in childhood. Ellen died May 22, 1887. Ebenezer married, second, Mary Wadsworth. This marriage took place on September 25, 1887 in Fieldsborough, Burlington County, NJ. Mary (Wadsworth) Lake died on August 27, 1916. Ebenezer Lake died January 8, 1897 as the result of a heavy iron beam falling on him at work. He was a gang foreman in the New Jersey Steeland Iron Company's works. Ebenezer was 54 years old and resided at 423 Division Street in Trenton. He was buried at Riverview cemetery. In searching for pensions for the other Lake brothers, I discovered information on John S. Lake, Jr., Joel W. Lake, and Jacob A. Lake. JOHN S. LAKE, Jr. I learned that John Jr. married, first, 8 January 1865 Mary J. Campbell. She died in 1892 and he married, second, Emma (Force) Somers, a widow. This second marriage took place on October 16, 1894. John and his first wife are found living in Point Pleasant, Ocean County, NJ in the 1870 Census. In other censuses John, Jr. is found living in Philadelphia. A letter in the pension file dated November 24, 1912 from Mr. John Lake of 154 W. Ontario Street, Philadelphia asks how long John Samuel Lake served in the Civil War. This identifies soldier John's children as: Elizabeth (Lake) Wildey born 22 Feb 1866 in Philadelphia, PA Robert Lake born 8 September 1869 in Philadelphia, PA John S. Lake, Jr. born 2 March 1871 in New Egypt, NJ William Lake born 22 February 1874 in Philadelphia, PA Joseph Lake born 8 August 1876 in Philadelphia, PA John S. Lake, Civil War soldier was born August 4, 1840 and died April 14, 1922. At the time of his death, John was working as a watchman. He died at Philadelphia General Hospital of Arterio sclerosis. John was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Philadelphia. The undertaker was J. B. Wildey poss ibly related to his daughter Elizabeth. John Samuel Lake, Jr. served in Company B of the 26th Pennsylvania Infantry from May 1861 to June 1864. He was injured in the left hip at Gettysburg on July 2 1863 and was treated at Sattlelee Hospital in Philadelphia. [I believe this is our John Stryker Lake, Jr] JOEL W. LAKE Pension information for Joel W. Lake includes his death on March 1, 1898 at age 63. He served in Company B of the 4th New Jersey Infantry from August 9, 1861 - October 30, 1862, when he received a disability discharge. Joel applied for a pension in 1890 claiming an injury to the right shoulder and right knee. His death certificate says he was the son of John and Sue Lake. There is no date of marriage given in his pension file, but I think that Joel married Elizabeth Cross on July 4, 1866. They had a son, Jacob A. Lake who was born about 1867 and died September 2, 1898. A report in the Trenton Evening Times of February 5, 1898 says that Joel Lake died very suddenly, at noon, while eating dinner at the railroad carpenter shop where he worked. The web site identifies graves for Joel W. Lake and his wife at Riverview Cemetery inTrenton. His wife Elizabeth D. Lake died May 2, 1913. JACOB A. LAKE I have not found a pension record for Jacob A. Lake, but there is information about his Civil War service. Jacob served August 29, 1861 to March 15, 1862 when he received a disability discharge at Lower Potomac, Maryland. There are several articles about a Jacob A. Lake in the Trenton newspapers. The subject of these is not brother Jacob, but another Jacob A., son of Joel W. Lake. He appears to have had several run-ins with the law forstealing and trouble with women. At one point in 1889, Jacob touched some electric wires and was believed to be dead. They took him to his home, and he survived. This younger Jacob died September 2, 1898 from typhoid fever, which he contracted while serving with the Army in Tampa, Florida. JAMES LAKE I have looked at several pension records for men named James Lake, but they do not appear to belong to our family. There is one that looks like a possibility. He was living in Gloucester City, Camden County, New Jersey when he applied for a pension in September 1869. He identified his injury as a hernia suffered while jumping a ditch near Mine Run, Virginia in 1863. This James died September 5, 1878. His widow was Elizabeth (Campbell) Lake. She married James on January 4, 1873 in Philadelphia, PA. James enlisted on August 13, 1863 in Trenton, New Jersey. This may be the James Lake listed in the 1870 Census in Gloucester City, Camden County, New Jersey with wife Sarah. She is identified as being blind and having been born in England. Perhaps she was his first wife and died between 1870 and his marriage to Elizabeth in 1873. There are no parents or children listed in the pension record, so I am not sure that he belongs to our Lake family but it is possible. It is also possible that our James died during the Civil War. The New Jersey state Military Appropriation Payment Vouchers include payments in 1863 and 1864 to the wife of James Lake and in 1864 for the family of James Lake. More research is needed here. It is apparent from these pension records that four or five of Catherine (Lake) Berry's brothers fought in the Civil War and were wounded. The next step will be to try to locate records for the hospitals where they were cared for to look for a nurse named Eloshia. I have not been able to locate anyone with that first name in the 1860 census and wonder if it might be a variant spelling of the name Aloysia. This name has been used by many nuns in honor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. Aloysia was also the name of Mozart's wife. This name could be the source of the name Eloshia as the Lake bro ther who suggested the name probably never saw it in written form. Eloshia (Berry) Keegan was born January 22, 1865. If Catherine's brother had been in love with his nurse, Eloshia, would he ask Catherine to use the name if he were married to someone else? From the data I have gathered so far, it appears that Ebenezer married in 1864 and Joel married in 1866. I am not sure of the dates of first marriage for theother brothers, finding these marriage dates may help to determine which brother chose the name for his niece Eloshia. I did find the death record for Susan Lake. She died on April 5, 1851 at age 49 of consumption (now called Tuberculosis). The record does not list her husband but identifies her parents as Jacob and Susan Alcott. Susan (Alcott) Lake was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. John Stryker Lake died on December 21, 1876 of an apparent suicide. John had been attending a friend, Aaron Carlile who died of what was considered a contagious illness. John was afraid that he had contracted the disease. John went to the drug store and bought disinfectant to wash his hair. He also bought a half ounce of arsenic. Apparently, he ingested the arsenic. Afew hours later, he visited his family doctor asking for a prescription because he did not feel well. The doctor asked John if he had taken something. John denied this, but after the doctor said that John must have taken something and that he was going to die, John admitted that he had taken arsenic. It was too late to save his life. I have a copy of the papers for administration of the estate of John S. Lake from December 1876. The three people listed are Letitia Lake, Ebenezer A. Lake, and Mary Elizabeth Davis. John married, as his second wife, Letitia McGannon on March 15, 1851. The had a daughter Mary Jane Lake who married Richard Roberts. Letitia Lake died June 12, 1879. As you can see, I have gathered a lot of data on the Lake and Berry families and there is still more in my files waiting to be organized. There is also a lot more research I want to do on this family, hoping eventually to uncover the truth of the Lenape Indian story. Jean Banowit July 30, 2008, updated December 10, 2016