Tracing roots through the centuries: Descendants explore Havens family connections

This summer, as the Shelter Island History Museum focused on the 250th anniversary of the nation’s Declaration of Independence, the courage of the Island’s own patriotic resistance to the British Crown was celebrated.

At the heart of the Museum itself is the Havens House, family home of three generations of Havens men who signed the Island’s own Declaration even earlier, pledging support for the Continental Congress and independence of the Crown in 1775. Captain James Havens was a privateer during the Revolution and a Representative of Suffolk County in the New York Provincial Congress in 1776.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, four former Islanders who are researching their family connections to the Havens patriots paid a visit to Shelter Island, and were guided on a tour by members of the Board of Directors and staff of the Museum.

Sisters Judy (Gegenheimer) Hyers and Jane (Gegenheimer) St. John are granddaughters of Esther Payne Ramsdel; Mrs. Ramsdel was the younger sister of Kenneth Payne, and a granddaughter of  Benjamin Cartwright. In his “History of Shelter Island,” Ralph Duvall wrote: “Captain B. C. Cartwright was one of the leading spirits in the fishing business from its early history. He was so well-known in these parts that in addressing him it was not necessary to write the twenty-six letters that contained his full name of Benjamin Conkling Cartwright, but if an article was marked with his two initials, B. C., it was readily recognized as belonging to him.”

Captain Cartwright served as Shelter Island Town Supervisor from 1848-49, and again from 1880 to 1890; Mr. Duvall credits him as “one of the leading men of Shelter Island, not only in town affairs but also as a businessman and church official.”

While attending grade school on Shelter Island in the 1950’s, the sisters Judy and Jane learned that they are direct descendants of the Havens family who built the Havens House, now the home of the Museum. The sisters’ middle names are Havens and Cartwright. The next step will be to review primary sources to accurately connect the Payne and Cartwright families to the Havens of the 1740’s.

The visitors enjoyed a tour of the current exhibit, “Havens House: Witness the American Revolution,” led by Board member Lenore DiLeo-Berner.

Referring to the Island’s 1775 Declaration, she told the visitors there was high probability that it was signed in the room where they stood, which had been a tavern and gathering place for the landowners who led the resistance.

Saturday’s visitors included Jon Wendt and Mary Anne Schiffert, cousins of the sisters, former “summer kids” on Peconic Avenue during the early development of Silver Beach. Their home, known to the family as “Hodge Podge Lodge” still stands, and was in fact rented to the Carey family in the 1950s — a coincidence that emerged in conversation with Museum Board Vice President Chris Carey on Saturday. Today, another Island family happily calls it home.

The tour concluded in the Museum archive where Executive Director Nanette Lawrenson was able to share material and historic photos of the family home on Menantic Creek, thanks to the Registry Program that has been collecting information on homes and other buildings throughout the Island. “Our mission is to help people find information about their families and homes,” said Ms. Lawrenson. “That’s why we preserve documents in the archives.”

It was an emotional moment as the sisters recognized their childhood home and saw their mother’s name in the records. It was a reminder of how history can be personal and valuable to each individual and family, said Board member Jim Gereghty, as well as to the community.

Even seemingly minor details can sometimes have impact, as Ms. Lawrenson pointed out that the Museum had received a set of documents from the estate of George R. Havens, a descendant from Columbus, Ohio, only because the executor had found Mr. Havens’s bill for his subscription to the Reporter, which led him to contact the Island’s Museum.

The visitors said they had items like a family bible that could be donated to the Museum, and they continue to pursue documentation that they are descended from Walter Case Havens, the brother of James.

Mr. Wendt, who traveled from Minnesota with his wife Minh, said he visits the Island a couple of times each year to care for his family’s graves, which are in the Presbyterian and St. Mary’s Episcopal graveyards. He was interested to learn that the Island’s DAR chapter offers tours of Revolutionary patriots’ graves for July 4 each year.

The Havens name, as well as those of families still widely known on the Island, such as Bowditch, Cartwright and Sherman, can be seen to this day on monuments marking their resting places in those fields.