Two Joseph Mungers in the Revolution

Joseph Munger (my newly-discovered 5th great-grandfather) was born to Joseph Munger and Naomi Needham on August 23, 1760, in South Brimfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, later known as Wales. (See Wikipedia for more information on this community.) He married Hannah Fiske on September 3, 1777, in South Brimfield.

The DAR Genealogical Research Database indicates that Joseph (DAR Ancestor# A082899) served as a private under several different leaders. 

Service:  Massachusetts  Rank(s):  Private
Birth:  8-23-1760 Brimfield Hampshire Co Massachusetts
Death:  3-21-1823 Paris Oneida Co New York
Pension Number:  *W17186
Service Source:  *W17186; MA Sols & Sails, Vol 11, pp 202-203  
Service Description:  1) Capts May, Winchester, Cooper, Browning
                                     2) Cols Bliss, Woodbridge, Howe

His father Joseph (DAR Ancestor# A082897) served briefly as a Sergeant. 

Service:  Massachusetts  Rank(s):  Sergeant
Birth:  7 -  -1719 Hampton [sic: should be Hamden] New London Co Connecticut
Death:  Ante 5-22-1805 Utica Oneida Co New York
Service Source:  MA Sols & Sails, Vol 11, pp 202  
Service Description:  1) Capt Anthony Needham, Minute Men, Brimfield

 

There are two sources for this service: the useful multi-volume Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War and a very informative widow's pension (for the son, Joseph, who died in Paris, Oneida County, New York, on March 21, 1823.). 

There were four entries with the name of Joseph Munger who are listed (volume 11, pp. 202-203) in Mass Soldiers and Sailors. The first one is the father Joseph, who marched "in response to the alarm of April 19, 1775" at about the age of 57 or 58. (He was born in 1719.)

The second Joseph Munger, a private in Capt. Reuben Munn's company, was a cousin. 

 

I believe that both the third and fourth listings refer to the same Joseph Munger, my 5th great-grandfather. Much more information is found in his widow's 1837 pension application.

Joseph (who was sometimes listed as Jr and sometimes as 3rd because he was the youngest of the three Joseph Mungers in South Brimfield) served in Col Ruggles Woodbridge's regiment from August 17, 1777, to November 29, 1777. (He must have served close to home for early September, since he married Hannah Fiske on September 3.) Ephraim Chapin also served under Col Woodbridge during this time and I wrote about it at Ephraim Chapin in the Revolution. He later served in the Continental Army in 1779, leaving his pregnant wife with a young son at home.

After the war, both Joseph Mungers migrated to Oneida County, New York, along with several Munger family members, including daughter, Lovina, who had married Oliver Rood in 1797 in Massachusetts. 

Joseph Munger, Lovina's grandfather, died in 1805 in Paris, New York, and was buried in the Waterville Cemetery, Waterville (a village in Paris). (See his FindAGrave memorial with a photo of a faded gravestone.) 

Joseph Munger, the son, died at age 62 in 1823 in Oneida County and his death was reported in several newspapers. The Cherry Valley Gazette of Tuesday, April 1, 1823, from NYS Historic Newspapers provided the most comprehensive and descriptive obituary.

The transcription of the obituary:

Communicated for the Madison Observer.
OBITUARY.
   Died, on the 21st of March instant, JOSEPH MUNGER, Esquire, of Paris, Oneida county, aged 63. It is seldom that we have to record the death of a man whose life has so uniformly been spent in the cause of religion, of virtue, and of his country. But the hero, the patriot the christian, has gone. An aged mother of 92, a tender wife, and 13 children, together with other relatives, survive to mourn his departure. Joseph Munger was born in the year 1760, and early entered the service of his country. He joined the band of patriots, and was in several of the principal battles fought during the revolution, in all of which he served with reputation. At the battle of Saratoga, he partially lost the sight of one of his eyes. As a father, he was adored by an affectionate family, for whose welfare he paternally provided. As a man, he was the ornament and pride of society, and has left no enemy. As a member of the ancient and respectable fraternity of free and accepted Masons, he was long one of its most shining ornaments - the testimony of which was shown at his funeral, on the Lord's day after his decease, by the attendance of five lodges. A sermon was delivered by the Rev. E. M. Spencer, from Isaiah xl. 8 - “The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.” As a testimonial of the respect and estimation in which he was held, one of the most numerous assemblies ever known in these parts, attended his funeral obsequies.
   He has gone! The grave has closed on another of the companions of Washington. Unnerved and palsied is that arm which once wielded the sword of freedom. Cold is that heart which once beat high with martial ardor for the cause of injured Columbia. Sleep on, hoary warrior, till the trumpet of Gabriel shall summon you, with your brave companions in arms, to fight the battles of the Lord, and receive rest from all your toil. We will further remark, that as a child he was eminently distinguished for his filial piety and dutiful affection; as a parent, kind and tender; as a husband, affectionate.
   In a word, in all the domestic and social relations of life, as a man, as a patriot, as a christian, he has lived without reproach, and departed with the tears and benedictions of all who knew his personal worth, and of all who retain the least admiration of the perfections which adorn the human character.

He is buried next to his parents in Waterville Cemetery. His FindAGrave memorial includes a photo of his gravestone.
 

The children of Joseph Munger and Hannah Fiske, collected from various sources including The Munger Book: something of the Mungers 1639-1914. I have not researched the Munger family very much. 

Asa Munger (1777-1851)

Lovina Munger (1779-1861)

Royal Munger (died young) 

Ariel Munger (1782-1865)

Olive Munger (1784-1863) 

Stephen Munger (1786-1861)

Perley Munger (1788/90-1870)

Sylvester Munger (1790-????)

Sally Munger (1793-????)

Philena Munger (1794-18??)

Annis Munger (1795-1865) 

Joseph Munger (1797-???? )

Alanson Munger (1801-1878)

Lyman Munger (1802-1880) 

Linas Munger (1802-died young) 

 

I descend from the two Joseph Mungers as follows:

Joseph Munger = Naomi Needham

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 Joseph Munger = Hannah Fiske

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Lovina Munger = Oliver Rood

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Susan Rood = Orramel Chapin

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Susan Arville Chapin = James Monroe Adsit

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Charles Chapin Adsit = Mary Bowman Ashby

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Elizabeth Adsit = Charles McAlpin Pyle

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Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr

|

Me

 

 

Susan Rood's Parents ~ Part 7 ~ A Probate Record

I have shared the steps I took to identify Oliver Rood and Lovina (Munger) Rood as the parents of Susan (Rood) Chapin (born in 1799) and Harriet (Rood) Rose (born about 1824) using Chapin family genealogies, a 1797 marriage record, several census records and Lovina's burial records.

I had theorized that there were several other potential daughters of Oliver and Lovina, and the proof finally came in the probate record for one of the sisters who died a childless widow.

Philena Wilson died in November 1893 and her will was probated in early 1894. The information about the will was published in a newspaper in order to notify family members.

"City Notices," Syracuse Standard (Syracuse, New York), 9 February 1894, p. 3, col. 6; images, Old Fulton Postcards

 A transcription of the newspaper notice:

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF New York—To Harriet S. Rose, Ellen L. Howlett, William Barnes, Charles Leonard, George Barnes and Leonard Barnes, severally of Syracuse, New York, Charlotte Woodworth of Trumbull, Ohio, Oliver D. Lyon of Towanda, Pennsylvania, Susan Lavina Hoyt of Ithaca, New York, Jane E. Harrison of Salt Lake City, Utah, Arvilla Adsit of Chicago, Illinois, James L. Bagg, sojourning at Daytona, Florida, and the children and descendants of Oliver Rude, a deceased brother of the decedent hereinafter named, whose several names and places of residence are unknown and cannot after diligent inquiry for that purpose be ascertained, legatees, devisees, heirs at law and next of kin of Philena Wilson, late of the town of Geddes, in the County of Onondaga, New York, deceased, greeting:

Whereas Hulbert D. Rose, one of the executors named in a certain instrument in writing, purporting to be the last will and testament of said Philena Wilson, late of the town of Geddes, in the County of Onondaga, and State of New York, deceased, and relating to both real and personal estate, has lately made application to the Surrogate’s Court of our County of Onondaga, to have said instrument in writing proved and recorded as a will of real and personal estate; You and each of you are, therefore, hereby cited to appear before the Surrogate of the County of Onondaga, at his office in the City of Syracuse, in the said County of Onondaga, New York, on the 27th day of March, 1894, at ten o’clock in the forenoon of that day, then and there to attend the probate of said will and codicil thereto. 

And if any of the aforesaid persons are under the age of twenty-one years, they will please take notice that they are required to appear by their general Guardian, if they have one, and if they have none, that they appear and apply for the appointment of a special Guardian, or in the event of their neglect or failure to do so, a special Guardian will be appointed by the Surrogate to represent and act for them in the proceeding for the probate of said will.

In testimony whereof, we have caused the seal of Office of our said Surrogate to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Edgar P. Glass, Esquire, Surrogate of our County of Onondaga, at the City of Syracuse, in said County, this seventh day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four. 

EDGAR P. GLASS, Surrogate. 

~~~~~~~ 

Susan Rood's Parents ~ Part 6 ~ Lovina Rood's Death

After her 1797 marriage in Massachusetts, and at least three decades in Oneida County, Lovina Rood lived in Syracuse for many years, many of those spent with the family of her youngest daughter, Harriet (Rood) Rose.

She is not enumerated in the Rose household in the 1865 New York State Census, and after exploring a variety of records digitized at FamilySearch for Onondaga County, I found the following:

Oakwood Cemetery, Syracuse, collected by Mrs. Lodder, p. 57, Rood, Lovina, d 4/15/1861 @ 81-5-; image "Vital Records of Onondaga County and other localities in the state of New York, 1799-1913," image 666 of 1467, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7S-N78D : 24 August 2025), citing Births, Marriages, and Deaths of Onondaga Co. N.Y., Collected for library by Lester Card, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

The 40 names on this page represent early burials (from before 1859 when the cemetery opened to about 1879) in Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse and are not quite in alphabetical order. Lovina is the only Rood/Rude in this record.

According to this record, Lovina Rood died on April 15, 1861, at the age of 81 years, 5 months, suggesting a birth in November 1779. This agrees with the age of Lovina Rood found in the census records that I have shown in recent weeks.

Susan Rood's Parents ~ Part 5 ~ More Census Records

I have found no additional records for Oliver Rood/Rude, husband of Lovina, after the 1830 census. Lovina Rood/Rude is not found in the 1840 federal census, another census that only listed the head of households. She was likely living with one of her children. 

The following census records suggest that at some point probably in the 1830s, Lovina moved to Syracuse, Onondaga County, about 50 miles west of the Paris-Sangerfield area of Oneida County, where she had lived for several decades.

In 1850, Lavina Rood [sic] was living in a household headed by Joseph D. Rose.

1850 U.S. census, Onandoga County, New York, population schedule, Syracuse, p. 237B (stamped), p. 473 (penned), dwelling 3172, family 3403, Lavina Rood in household of Joseph D Rose; image, "1850 United States Federal Census," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-67FQ-7CQ?view=index : 4 July 2025).

The household included:
Joseph D. Rose, age 30, was born about 1819-1820 in New York. The handwriting is challenging, but I believe he was in the Salt Manufacturing industry, which was a major industry in Onondaga County at this time. It looks like the value of his real estate was $3,000.
Harriet S. Rose, age 26, was born about 1823-1824 in New York.
Louisa Rose, age 7, was born about 1842-1843 in New York, and attended school during the previous year.
Holland Rose, age 2, was born about 1847-1848 in New York. (See the later censuses below - his name was probably Hulbert.)
Lavina Rood, age 70, was born about 1779-1780 in Massachusetts.

Two of the remaining three household members were not likely members of the Rose family, but workers in the salt industry needing a place to live. The last household member was possibly a servant in their home.
Nathan Abbott, age 60, born about 1789-1790 in New York working as "Inspec Salt."
John Vanhoosen, age 30, born about 1819-1820 in New York, also working as "Inspec Salt."
Catherine Henry, age 15, born about 1834-1835 in Ireland.

 ~~~~~~~ 

Five years later, Lovina Rood was again living in Syracuse. The head of household, J. Dewitt Rose is probably the same person as Joseph D. Rose in the 1850 census. The 1855 New York State Census provides additional information not found in the federal censuses, specifically the county of birth for New York-born residents.

1855 New York State Census, Onondaga County, population schedule, Syracuse, n.p., dwelling 517, household 624, for Lovina Rood in J. Dewitt Rose household; imaged in "New York, State Census, 1855," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1937366 : 7 July 2025); citing Onondaga County Clerk Office.

The house was a frame house valued at $2,500 and living there were:
J. Dewitt Rose, age 43, born about 1811-1812 in Onondaga County, was married and worked as a Flour Merchant. He had lived in Syracuse for 22 years (since about 1833).
Harriet S. Rose, age 31, born about 1823-1824 in Oneida County, was the wife of J. Dewitt Rose. Both she and her husband owned land. She had lived in Syracuse for 23 years, since about 1832. This suggests that Harriet moved from Oneida County to Syracuse as a young child.
Louisa H. Rose, age 12, was born about 1842-1843 in Onondaga County.
Hulbert D. Rose, age 6, was born about 1848-1849 in Onondaga County.
Clinton F. Rose, age 1, was born about 1853-1854 in Onondaga County. All three children had lived in Syracuse for their entire lives.
Lovina Rood, age 75, was born about 1779-1780 in Massachusetts. She was listed as widowed and had lived in Syracuse for 18 years (since about 1836-1837).

Lovina's relationship to J. Dewitt Rose was listed as Mother, however, it is much more likely that she was Harriet's mother and his mother-in-law. It is unclear why Lovina was reported as living in Syracuse for a shorter time than her daughter Harriet, but it's possible that there was an error in reporting either Harriet's or Lovina's length of residence. 

As in 1850, this household has additional residents:
Nathan Rose, Dewitt Rose's nephew, was age 19, born about 1835-1836 in Onondaga County. He had lived in Syracuse for just a couple of months.
Mary Noven, age 19, was born in Ireland and had lived in Syracuse for about a year. She was a servant, likely in the Rose household.

 ~~~~~~~ 

Five years later, Lavinia [sic] Rood was again living with her daughter Harriet's family. 

1860 U.S. census, Onondaga County, New York, population schedule, Syracuse, p. 55 (penned), dwelling 340, family 428, Lavinia Rood in J. DeWitt Rose household; image, "1860 United States Federal Census," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BS8-V7Q?view=index : 5 July 2025).

The household included:
J. DeWitt Rose, age 48, born about 1811-1812 in New York, was married and worked as a Salt Manufacturer. The value of his real estate was $11,000 and the value of his personal estate was $1,000.
Harriet S. Rose, age 36, was born about 1823-1824 in New York.
Louisa H. Rose, age 17, was born about 1842-1843 in New York.
Hulbert D. Rose, age 12, was born about 1847-1848 in New York.
Clinton F. Rose, age 6, was born about 1853-1854 in New York. These three children had attended school in the previous year.
Sherman F. Rose, age 4, was born about 1855-1856 in New York.
Lavinia Rood, age 80, was born about 1779-1780 in Massachusetts. 

This birth year and birth place was consistent for Lovina Rood although her name was different in each census. This agrees with the estimated age in earlier census records for Oliver Rood and strongly suggests that she was the Lovina Munger who married Oliver Rood in Massachusetts in 1797. She was the mother of Harriet Rose, wife of J. DeWitt Rose.

The household also included Kate Korb, age 17, born in Germany, who worked as a Domestic (likely a servant in the Rose household) and J. Nathan Rose, age 23, born in New York. This was likely Dewitt Rose's nephew who was working as a Clerk.

Next week I will share the remaining records that I found for Lovina Rood.

~~~~~~~ 

In part 1, census records from Paris (1800) and Sangerfield (1820), Oneida County, New York.

In part 2, the marriage intention for Oliver Rood and Lovina Munger in Ludlow, Massachusetts, in 1797.

In part 3, the federal census record from 1810 and how it correlated with the 1800 federal census and the 1814 Oneida County landowners’ census.

In part 4, the 1830 federal census record for Oliver Rood and an 1831 school record naming Lovina Rood as the parent of two school-age children.

Susan Rood's Parents ~ Part 4 ~ 1830 and 1831 Records

Oliver Rood, married in 1797 to Lovina Munger in Massachusetts, was clearly living in Oneida County, New York between 1800 and 1820. He was still there, in Sangerfield, in 1830.

1830 U.S. census, Oneida County, New York, population schedule, Sangerfield, p. 166 (penned), line 3, Oliver Rood; image, "1830 United States Federal Census," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYTY-6R1?view=index&cc=1803958 : 4 July 2025).

Oliver's household is the fourth line down from the top. It included: 

1 male age 50-60 (Oliver)
2 females age 5-10 (likely two young daughters)
1 female age 15-20 (likely an older daughter)
1 female age 50-60 (probable wife, Lovina)

The ages of the family members in the census records from 1800 to 1830 suggest a family with one or two sons and six or seven daughters. The oldest child was Susan, born in 1799 and the youngest likely child (a daughter according to this census) was born as late as 1824 or 1825.