An American family Bible, printed in Philadelphia, with 4 pages of hand written family records of births, deaths, and marriage spanning one and a half centuries. The family tree is rooted in 4 individuals, with the earliest birth noted as 1764, the other 3 ancestors all having been born in the years 1775 and 1776. The most recent entry was a death in 1914. Studying the genealogy, it would seem this Bible was carefully handed down through only a very few members of the same family, and seems to have almost certainly originated with a certain Ruth (Sanborn) Barker, who was born February 14, 1776, married to a John Barker who became a General, and survived her husband by many years, finally passing away on October 17, 1858 at the ripe old age of 82 years.
The genealogy traces its beginnings to a Benjamin Carll, born June 11, 1764 and died May 10, 1810, who had a girl child, Lucinda V. who evidently married a man named Hicks; also a Simeon P. Stevens born June 4, 1775 and died April 16, 1803, with a list of 5 Stevens born between 1794 and 1803, almost certainly his children. Information is also given on an ancestor, John Barker General born December 26, 1775 and died June 16, 1833, who was presumably the husband of Ruth Sanborn Barker. The Barker family carries on the family given names of the Stevens line. The Hicks line is readily traced to Benjamin Carll. There was a man named Benjamin Carll living in the Vienna, Kennebec Co., Maine area in the 1790s. The Bible also contains newspaper clippings and other scraps that seem to date between the 1850s and approximately 1895; in the last half of the 1800s, the Hicks family line seems to have been relocated to Riehland, Indiana and Harrington, Washington state.
The Bible is leather bound in a primitive fashion. This large Bible measures 9-1/4" x 11-1/2" and is approximately 3" thick, containing 770 pages, and appears to be complete. The title page reads "Kimber and Sharpless' Stereotype Edition - The Holy Bible, Containing The Old and New Testaments, Translated Out of the Original Tongues, and with The Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, with Canne's Marginal Notes and References, to Which are Added An Index; An Alphabetical Table of All The Names In the Old and New Testaments, with Their Significations; Tables of Scripture Weights, Measures, and Coins, &c., Stereotyped by E. White, New York. Philadelphia: Published and Sold by Kimber and Sharpless At Their Book-Store, No. 8 South 4th-Street."
The first paragraph of the Dedication "To The Reader" contains a wonderful patriotic inference, indicating the newly formed American nation was still smarting from the effects of the Revolutionary War, and unwilling to give any allegiance to the crown of England, "As the Dedication of the English translation of the Bible to king James the first of England seems to be wholly unnecessary for the purposes of edification, and perhaps on some accounts improper to be continued in an American edition, the Editors have substituted a short account of the translations of the Old and New Testaments from the original Hebrew and Greek in which they were written."
The Dedication page goes on to list its resources and dates, indicating this Bible was published after 1784.
Family Records - Births
Benjamin Carll born June 1764
Simon P. Stevens born June 1775
John Barker born December 26, 1775
Ruth Sanborn born Feb. 14, 1776
Nancy Stevens born Oct. 4, 1794
Lydia Stevens born Feb. 11, 1797
Sarah Stevens born Nov. 13, 1801
John Barker born June 22, 1801
Lucinda Carll born Oct. 1810
Benjamin Carll Hicks born Apr 5, 1831
Steven W. Hicks born Nov. 21, 1838
Stephen P. Hicks born May 15, 1862
Lucy Hicks born May 17, 1864
Find this family in the US census! Using Ancestry.com I found the following quite easily:
1870 census New York, Caldwell, MO
Benjamin Hicks [Benjamin Carll Hicks b Apr 5, 1831] age 38, farmer born Indiana White Male
Lolinda Hicks age 30 born Indiana White Female
Stephen Hicks age 8 born Indiana White Male
Lucinda Hicks age 6 born Indiana White Female
