The Family of Levi VanFossen and Elizabeth Hanna VanFossen

The Parents of Levi VanFossen

Arnold VanFossen and Rachel Skeen

The Parents of Elizabeth Hanna

Isaac Hanna and Martha Bell Hanna

VanFossen Family Tree

Skeen Family Tree

Hanna Family Tree

Bell Family Tree

Marriages of Levi VanFossen

Marriage to Elizabeth Hanna in 1787

Marriages of Elizabeth Hanna

1st Marriage to Levi VanFossen in 1787

2rd Marriage to Darius Jacques in 1815

A Brief Genealogy of the Hanna Family

From the Leroy Gazette, 9 August 1933

Compiled by Mrs. A. B. Johnson of Caledonia NY

Isaac Hanna, the son was born in 1743. On April 15, 1766 he married Martha Bell and they resided for a time in Dry Valley, Union County, Pa. Isaac served in the War of the American Revolution as first lieutenant in Captain Ambrose Crain’s Company, Sixth Battalion of Lancaster County, Pa., and in 1777 as a Colonel in John Rogers’ Militia. It is related that he was gunsmith by trade and that he and his son, Isaac, Jr. manufactured arms for use in the Revolution.

About 1807 Isaac Hanna and his wife and family made the long journey through the wilderness into the Genesee Country and locate in the vicinity of East Avon. Whether any of the Hanna family or the Bell family had preceded them in not known by the descendants. Martha Bell Hanna had two brothers, Thomas and Walter Bell, and two sisters, Lucy who married a Mr. Wilson and Anna who married a Mr. Dickson.

The children of Isaac and Martha Bell Hanna were Andrew, Samuel, Elizabeth, John, Matthew, Thomas, Anna, Martha and Isaac, Jr. Andrew married Margaret Coe. Samuel married Elizabeth McPherson. Elizabeth married Levi VanFossen who met a tragic death at the age of 29 years when he fell into a tub of hot mash in a still house in the town of Livonia, November 11, 1811. Elizabeth later married Thomas J. VanFossen. (* see Editor’s Note)

Editor’s Note: Thomas J. VanFossen was the son of Levi and Elizabeth VanFossen, not Elizabeth’s second husband.

The Simonds - VanFossen Mill at Hemlock NY

From a note by Frank Connor, Livonia Historian, written in 1930.

Rediscovered by Joy Lewis, Richmond Town Historian in 2021.

The first real gristmill [in Hemlock] was erected during the winter of 1799 - 1800 by Seth Simonds, of Bristol, for Thomas Morris, of Canandaigua. This mill was of the stone type and stood on the bank of the creek downtown. The “Burr” mill came a few years later. Stones from these old mills are becoming very scarce. They originally came from France and it is said that the stones were brought back from there by sailing vessels without charge as ballast.

The mill mentioned above was not used long by the builder. In 1805 or 1806, or about that time, Levi VanFossen rebuilt it and in 1811 he improved it. He also built and operated a distillery on or near the site where today is located the Post Office.

Levi came to an untimely end in 1811 by falling into a vat of whiskey mash in this distillery. He left a widow and four children.

The Obituary of Levi VanFossen

29 January 1762 - 11 November 1811

Compiled by Joy Lewis, Richmond Town Historian.

Levi VanFossen was of Dutch heritage, his ancestors having settled in Pennsylvania Colony in early days. His family had a farm, but as a young man he clerked in the store of James Jenkins in Milton. From 1778 to 1783 Levi served in the local Pennsylvania militia, in the Northumberland Rangers. He married in December 1787. After the wedding, he and Elizabeth lived with her parents on their farm in Northumberland County; their four eldest children were born there.

He lived in Dry Valley (Northumberland County), where he had a distillery. (The property today is on the south line of Union County.) An account in the family history states: “A girl living with the family took one of his children into the still house and placed it on a barrel while she went to draw some beer. The child fell off into a kettle of boiling mash and was scaled to death.” This was probably Andrew, age about one year.

In 1795 Levi moved to Avon; three of the younger children were born there. (The two youngest children were born at Hemlock Lake.) His son recorded (December 9, 1872) an account of his father’s life:

“Levi served a regular apprenticeship to the cabinet-making trade, but did not like it. He then adopted the distillery business and carried it on in Pennsylvania until the Whiskey Insurrection, when in 1795 he removed to Charleston [Lima] New York, three-fourths mile from the present site of Wesleyan College [Elim Bible Institute].”

“Levi started a distillery the next year, 1796. Sometime in June of that year he purchased a mill property in Avon to which he moved about two years later, built a log mill and started an extensive distillery. In 1805 he bought the Hemlock Lake property at Pittstown (Livonia), Livingston County, and settled on it in May of that year. Here he built another distillery and operated it until his death on November 11, 1811. His sons John and Isaac carried on the business in partnership with their mother and assumed the guardianship of the younger children.”

The Obituary of Elizabeth Hanna VanFossen Jacques

15 May 1771 - 19 January 1855

From the Northern Christian Advocate, January 1855

Elizabeth Jacques died at Hemlock Lake, Livingston county, New York, Jan. 19, 1855, aged 84 years and 8 months. Sister Jacques had been a living member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. Her home, blessed with much of the divine presence, was indeed an oasis to the wayworn ambassador of Christ. Her closing scene was peaceful, tranquil and clear, as the setting of the summer’s sun. She has left her pleasant associations on earth for a home in heaven. God made up the loss to the Church and relatives.

Written by Rev. William M. Haskell

...

From the Livingston Republican, circa 1855

At Livonia, Livingston County, NY, January 19th, Mrs. Elizabeth, relict of the late Darius Jacques, aged 83 years and eight months.

The deceased was one of the first settlers in this county, having emigrated here from Pennsylvania with her first husband, Levi Van Fossen about the year 1788, enduring the hardships and privations of the early frontier. For sixty eight years she maintained a christian character, and was indeed a pattern of filial, conjugal, maternal and social virtue. Possessed of a highly cultivated mind and an amiable disposition, she was beloved by all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance. She was a warm friend, and her purse was ever open to the wants of the needy.

She was the mother of eight children, three of whom, Gen. John VanFossen of Ypsilanti, Mich., I. VanFossen, Esq. of Indiana, and Dr. Thomas VanFossen of St. Louis, Mo., still survive her. Of these, and a large circle of grandchildren, but one, Mrs. N. W. Mather was permitted to pay the last sad tribute to the departed. She has gone to her rest like a “shock of corn fully ripe, her body sleeps in the grave and her spirit is in the land of our father. Peace, peace to her ashes.”

The Burial of Levi VanFossen

The Village Cemetery in Hemlock NY

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Gravestone of Levi VanFossen (1762 - 1811).

Located in the Village Cemetery in Hemlock NY.

The Burial of Elizabeth Hanna VanFossen Jacques

The Village Cemetery in Hemlock NY

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Gravestone of Elizabeth Hanna VanFossen (1771 - 1855).

Located in the Village Cemetery in Hemlock NY.

Newspaper articles from FultonHistory.com