Mayhew Daggett Mott

   FamilySearch ID: K2FH-XBG. Find a Grave ID: 5717297.

  General Notes:

A shoemanufacturer in Troy, NY. Due to failing health and a heavy business loss due to fire, he pioneered to Wisconsin when he was 58 years old.

About 1840, living at that time in Rome, NY, Mayhew suffered heavy business losses when his shoe factory burned and a cargo of leather was lost on the Erie Canal. Soon after, the family moved to Troy, NY, Rensselaer County, the county in which Mayhew and his wife had been born and brought up.

The years between 1830 and 1850 offer little in the way of documentation. The story of the fire comes from family tradition, but the Oneida Whig newspaper reported on Nov. 1, 1836 that a fire broke out in a shoe stoe, totally distroying it at the corner of Genesee and Whitesboro streets, which is a stone's throw from the Erie Canal in Utica.

In Troy, his wife Mary, and daughter Martha, supported the family doing tailoring. Later, about the time the family moved to Wisconsin, Martha toured widely in the states as a member of a concert company.

The family left Troy, probably about 1849, the year when son Wesley, 14 years old, was obliged to leave school to help support the family. They lived for a period at Burnt Hills, Saratoga County, as farmers. Across the road from them lived Peter and Margaret Dubois Ham, with whom they formed a close friendship and who preceded them to Wisconsin.

Following their friends to Wisconsin in 1853, The family travelled by way of the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, docking at Sheboygan. When they reached Fond du Lac, they took a boat to Oshkosh. Mayhew brought shoe making tools with him and besides helping on the farm made shoes for the family in a little building back of the house and near the orchard.

Soon the family bought an 80 acre piece of land from Samuel Rogers of Winchester. The land was virgin and had to be cleared, largely by son Wesley. A small initial portion of their future home was erected at this time. Later were built a parlor, bedroom, pantry, dining room, kitchen with woodshed. Much of this house stood until at least 1948, the interior somewhat altered for the purposes of the illicit sale of liquor thirty or fory years after the family, known for their temperance principles, had moved away.

In 1856, at the age of 61 years, Mayhew D. Mott was ordained, at Appleton, a Deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church by the Bishop who later gave the funeral oration at the burial of Abraham Lincoln - Matthew Simpson.

In spite of ill health, Mayhew D. Mott made unusual records as a pedestrian in his circuit preaching. It is not known with certainty whether the record of sixty miles in one day, carrying coat and satchel, was made in Wisconsin or earlier. (His grandson and namesake, in answer to the challange of this tale, succeeded in completing a 50 mile hike in one day.)

It was told of him, that, called upon to preach extempore, he responded with a three hour discourse. A two hour sermon was a matter of course in those days. Three hours only good measure.

Mayhew Daggett Mott at age 58 was a pioneer to Wisconsin in 1853 with his wife and two children, Martha and Wesley. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 (a marker to him and two other men was erected in 1976 in Winchester, WI by the State of Wisconsin) and evidently an entrepeneur in the shoe business. I suspect he was more than a simple shoemaker, for the family tradition passed down to his granddaughter was that he had a factory in Rome that burned down and a load of leather lost on the Erie Canal. His fortunes turned dramaticly sour and he returned to the area he was born in - just east of Albany, NY - and returned to farming. By the early 1850's he was living in Burnt Hills, New York and picked up stakes to follow his good friend, Peter Ham and his wife Margaret to Wisconsin. His son Wesley would marry Peter and Margaret's neice, Harriet Porter. ³³⁹

  Research Notes:

War of 1812 The claim records and militia payroll cards are in the custody of the State Archives and Records Administration, 11th Floor, Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230, where they may be examined. Names of soldiers who served during the War of 1812 can be found in the following published sources:

New York (State) Council of Appointment. Military Minutes of the Council of Appointment of the State of New York, 1783-1821. Albany: J.B. Lyon, State Printer, 1901-1902. 3 vols. and index (R,974.7,N555) New York (State) Adjutant-General's Office. Index of Awards on Claims of the Soldiers of the War of 1812. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969. (R,973.52447,qA2a)

List of Pensioners and Survivors of the War of 1812: taken from the list of pensioners on the roll, January 1, 1883, State of New York. New York: New York Co., Andrew Jackson Chapter, 1935. (R,973.524,qL773,85-32490).

  Events

• Move: From Pittstown Oneida County, 1808-1810. ³⁷⁸

• Military: Cleveland's Regiment (1814) New York Militia, 1814. "Mahew D.Mott" Private: https://www.fold3.com/image/309241714; There is also a service record for John Mott in the same regiment. Possibly his half-brother who did serve in the War of 1812 (Amanda T. Jones)

• Military: War of 1812, 1814, New York. He enlisted in Whitestown, Oneida Co., NY and served as a private in Captain John A. Weaver's Company of the New York Militia from Aug. 14, 1814 until Nov. 18,1814. At the time he was 19 years old. Reference: Pension Claim: WC 9 774 quoted in a letter dated 3 Nov. 1940 from the Chief of the Reference Division, National Archives, to Mayhew Mott of Neenah, Wisconsin.

https://www.fold3.com/image/1/624617028 (page 9 of the pension papers, Bounty Land Claim, states that he enlisted in Whitestown.

• Census: Federal, 1830, Whitestown, Oneida Co., NY. ³⁷⁹ Two Free White Persons 20 thru 49 (Mayhew and wife Mary);
One Free White Female 5 thru 9 (Martha)

• Census: Federal, 1850, Ballston, Saratoga, New York, USA. ³⁸⁰ Mayhew, Mary and Wesley in family number 200

• Occupation: shoemaker, 1850, Ballston Spa, Saratoga, New York, USA. ³⁸⁰

• Postmaster, 6 May 1854, Winchester, Winnebago Co., WI. ³⁸¹

• Census, 1860, Winchester, Winnebago Co., WI.

• Occupation: farmer, 1860, Winchester, Winnebago Co., WI. ³⁸²

• Burial: Oak Grove Cemetery, 1869, Winchester, Winnebago Co., WI. ³⁸³ Grandview Road west of where it crosses U.S. 45. Grandview runse E-W south of Winchester.

Mayhew married Mary Wager, daughter of Wager, 15 Sep 1821 in Brunswick, NY. (Mary Wager was born 6 Jun 1793 in Brunswick, Rensselaer Co., NY,³⁷⁷ died 14 May 1880 in Winchester, Winnebago Co., WI ^377,384 and was buried in Winchester, Winnebago Co., WI.)

  Marriage Notes:

There are a number of Marriages of Wagers at the Gilead Luthern Church in Brunswick but none for Mayhew or Mary. One page says that the original records for 1821 are missing. Other church records and clues are in Albany at the Manuscripts & History Section NYSL:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrenss2/RensChurchIndex.htm