Generation  VI- 4 Storer - Knight

October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia the British surrendered to General George Washington ending the war.
The Congress on July 13. 1787, passed the Northwest Ordinance spelling out how under this extremely important piece of
legislation the territories and states would be established from the western lands won in the Revolution, the vast area bounded
by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes .The Ordinance provided "…there shall be formed in said territory,
not less than three nor more than five states.  Congress divided the area from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi
River into the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota…These lands were to be opened to Revolutionary War veterans and. Settlers.

General George Washington was sworn in as President in New York City on April 30, 1789.
The first Federal census was enumerated in 1790; on it Joseph's mother, Joanna Storer, is listed as the Head Of Household at
Falmouth Maine with two children; this doesn't agree with other records (DAR) which lists the children as follows:  Joanna,
Esther, Betsy, Miriam, Joseph.

The first National Census for Falmouth Town was taken.in 1810. Joseph appears as head of household with four males under
10, one male 10-16, one male 26-45 and one female under 10, one 10-16, one 26-45 and one 45 and over.  There are two
more males than later records show (it wasn't until the 1850 census that given names of all family members were listed.)

In June 1812 the USA declared war on Great Britain in protest to the British Impressment of American sailors for the British
Royal Navy.  There was a severe manpower shortage in Britain.  France and Britain were at war and Britain lacked sailors for
their ships.Britain responded to the declaration of war by proclaiming a state of Blockade of American port.from New York to
Savannah on December 10, 1812; it became increasingly effective during 1813.  'The blockade was extended to the New
England coast in April 1814. Although numerous ships of the line (74 guns), frigates (20 to 50 guns), sloops (18 to 20 guns)
were positioned off that coast as early as June 1813.  The effect of over a thousand vessels closed all of the ports on the
Atlantic coast to naval and commercial shipping, choking off the nation's war effort.  Opposed to this were fourteen U.S.
frigates and a few privateers.  The blockade resulted in the near collapse of the U.S. economy". August 1814 The British
burned most of the public buildings in Washington, D.C. including the capital and the Whitehouse           .

Records from the National Archives have a Joseph Storer who served in the Massachusetts militiaduring the War of 1812
for fourteen days as a musician; we believe he is our ancestor.

When the conflict with Great Britain was finally resolved, settlers began streaming into Ohio, by any means possible.  There
were trails and rivers, but no roads.

In 1814 Falmouth town changed its name to Stroudwater; at a later date the name changed to Westbrook and today it's a
part of Portland.

A decided change in the weather occurred in 1815.  Daily minimum temperatures were abnormaly low affecting the growing
season.  Later it was realized that it had affected much of the Northern Hemisphere.  Abnormally low temperatures led to
crop failure and in some area starvation.  "Daily minimum temperatures were abnormally low in the Northern Hemisphere from
late spring to early autumn.  Famine was widespread in parts of the world because of crop failures.  The cause was due to the
eruption of the Tambora Volcano on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia.  The 1815 eruption was the largest in historic times, discharging 150 times more ash than the eruption in1980 of Mt. St. Helen's in Washington State, causing  " The Year
Without a Summer, 92,000 people in Indonesia were killed".

When the war finally ended in 1815, the way was open to the West and the rush for cheap land was on.  The mountains, the
British and their Indians allies had made much of the land in the Northwest Territories hazardous for settlers, so only a limited
number of hardy souls were willing to risk the trip; and now it was just the mountains and lack of good roads.  There was a
rush to secure land especially in a slave free state.  Revolutionary War veterans and other settlers started to move in, some by
steamboat.

Joseph Storer was an early adventurer, but from the records he was not in the first wave of  pioneers leaving for the
NorthWest.  He had the benefit of learning from the experience of the early travelers what to expect venturing into the
wilderness. There might have been several reasons for leaving Falmouth for the wilds of Ohio.  For one, Joanna Storer didn't wish for her grandsons to have a career as seafarers, she encouraged Joseph to move away from the coast.    Another reason: Joseph might have felt that it was getting crowded with so many immigrants coming, and now with the lure of cheap land out west it was safer to go there.

The biographical sketch  and the news clippings found pasted in the J.D.Johnson Bible are the only sources of
information that I've found that tell us about their move to Ohio.

1818 -  Joseph, now 43 years old, began a new life.  With his sons George 15 and Samuel age 11, he left Falmouth for
Zanesville, Ohio travelling by oxen and wagons according to the news clipping.  Charlotte and the rest of the family followed,
a year later settling in Zanesville. These were hard times, the post war economic crisis brought on the panic of 1819.
perhaps  another reason to leave.

The year that Joseph and the two boys arrived, President Monroe stopped off on his way through on an inspection trip,
traveling in his carriage.  Zanesville then had a population of 1250: 176 homes, 2 of stone, 35 of brick, 139 frame or log, 5 schools, 2 printer offices, 2 banks, 7 taverns, 16 stores, a circulating library, 3 glue factories and 92 ironworks.
                                   From Traveling the National Road by Merrit Ierley.

Charlotte Storer with Eliza age 18, Joseph age 14, Webster age 10, and Hester age 8 arrived in Zanesville making the entire
trip by ox team,  Joanna Storer remained behind.

1820 Elizabeth ( Eliza)Storer married Joel Chapman of Zanesville.

1823 from the History of Muskingum Co. listed as members of the M.E. church are:  pastor John P. Durbi:  Joseph, Samuel and George Storer and Sarah Fleming.

The Muskingum County Court House at Zanesville, built in 1810, a two-story brick building resembled Independence Hall.
While most of the buildings in town and nearby were of log construction, the court house is described as being elegant and
artistic.

1826 Joseph Storer, the younger, married Cordelia Howard of Zanesville and went into farming.
1826 George Storer married Sarah Fleming of Zanesville.

After ten years in Zanesville Joseph and Charlotte with their children and their families again forsook an established community
for the wilds of Cleveland and settled in nearby Brooklyn Village.  George and Sarah joined them and made their home there
as did Joseph and Cordelia and Eliza and Joel Chapman. They arrived in Brooklyn Village the first week of January and the following is their account of what they saw:

" A brother and I took a walk across the river to view the village of Cleveland.  We found three small drygoods stores on Superior Street which stopped at the square.  On the square stood a two-story log building.  The lower story was used for a jail and the upper story was used for the courthouse.  On Sundays it was used as a church where the Methodists hold meetings.  There was not a church building of any denomination in the village at that time.  The first thing to be done was to clear up the ground and build a little log house.  Over the years it would be added onto more than once. ." From an undated  news clipping found pasted in the J.D.Johnson Bible.

1831 Webster Storer married Mary Bangs.  He built a dry dock and began building canal boats in Akron. ( The Erie Canal
was completed in 1825)

1831  Samuel Storer married Sarah J. Fish.  He learned the tanner's trade and was engaged in it for thirty five years.  He
joined the Metodist Episcopal church in1822 which he followed faithfully.  In 1844 he received a local preacher's license .
Meanwhile, back in Falmouth, Joanna, now in her 90s, took advantage of a resolution passed by Congress March 17, 1835
that granted " to certain officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War and the widows of deceased officers and soldiers a
certain number of acres of land".  She hired an attorney, made a claim for a land grant and eventually received Cetificate #107
for 200 acres . There was much red tape and negociating on the part of the lawyers and not a little scheming to offer her $50
for the land.  She sold her rights to Caleb Lord her attorney for $80. She lived to be about 99 years old and died in1840.
 
 

Many families have legends passed down from generation to generation and mine is no exception.  I have been hesitant in the
past to retell what I had heard as a child as on more than one instance, some one would exclaim "why, I never heard that
before, you must have made that up! ".

Now that all of those elders are gone, a recent event that fits in with this legend prompts me to bring the story to light.  The
physical evidence we have had all along; is an old flute that has been passed down in the Storer family through, six generations
at least.  It is made of ebony and ivory; one of the metal keys is missing and it needs repair but, it has a rich mellow sound and that is a fact..  What has been lacking was why the broken flute had been passed generation to generation.  Perhaps we now know.

The story goes like this.  "Joseph Storer who lived in Maine, was on a trip to Canada.  He was detained at the border; this
was after the Revolutionary War, but before the War of 1812; there still was tension between the new United States and
British Canada. Following some discussion at the border, he was granted permission to enter Canada if he would play a tune
on his flute . He obliged by playing"Yankee Doodle".  Can't you just hear those familiar refrains and see the expression of
outrage on the face of the border guard?  Whether or not he was allowed to pass after this politically incorrect expression I
don't know, but that is the way I remembered the telling of it".

The flute came to me from my Dad years ago.  It wasn't until I became interested in searching my family history that the legend
of the flute began to take on some meaning.  Any one searching for family record's eventually contacts the National Archives
for military records, which I did.  TheIndex for the War of 1812 listed two Joseph Storers from Portland Maine each in
different regiments, one a private the other a musician. Portland was a small place at that time and I had records on all of the
Storers, who could the other Joseph be?  My hunch was the musician:  I filled out the application for the pension file. Weeks
went by, finally a thin envelope arrived indicating that they couldn't locate the file for this Joseph.  My hope was for a thick envelope with lots of records.  Trying again, I requested just the military record, more waiting.  Again the thin envelope arrived but, good news, just what I had hoped for.  A Joseph Storer is listed with the Mass. Militia , rank of musician on the Payroll and the Muster Roll.  He served twelve days and was paid $9.00 a month with, allowances and discharged September 24, 1814.  It seems that with this added information the legend can take its place as a part of Joseph's story.