 1840 - 1939 (99 years)
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| Name |
Gertrude Appleget Wyckoff |
| Born |
07 May 1840 |
Wyckoff Mills, New Jersey, USA  [6] |
| Gender |
Female |
| Adopted |
Abt 21 May 1840 [7] |
| Voress Number |
5E7D2B2 |
| Residence |
1850 |
East Windsor Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA [8] |
| Died |
19 Nov 1939 |
Manasquan, Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA [6] |
| Notes |
- 5E7D2B2 Gertrude A. (Appleget?) (1850 East Windsor Twp., Mercer County, NJ Census-Voress-In this Census, when she was living in this referenced Twp., she was referred to as an “Applegate” Wicoff, born c1840; died after Nov 1916. She married Maxwell. She was adopted.
APPENDIX
A Portion of the Autobiography of Gertrude Appleget Wyckoff Maxwell
Reprinted in the Hightstown-East Windsor Historical Society News, January-February, 1998
[Note: This occurred when Gertrude was about ten years old. The family had just moved and she was about to go to school for the first time]
September dawned. The new teacher came to call. I liked her curls, but was not otherwise impressed. The day before school opened my Mama's brother from the mill stopped and said "All was ready for my start to school" After he was gone I asked, "Why does that man from the mill want me to go to school?" My Mama replied, "That man is your father and he knows what is good for little girls." I thought she was joking and could not understand until she made me keep quiet and listen and then she told me what everybody knew and what I would have known if I had not been so entirely absorbed in myself and my surroundings.
I was the youngest of nine children. My paternal and maternal grandfathers had died before I was born and the dear man whose memory was so precious to me was my grandfather only in name and the "bolt from the blue" knocked me over. I did not want two Papas nor two Mamas and I did not want to live at the mill; it was noisy and crowded. etc., etc. My Papa who had been absent comforted me and said I was his little girl and nobody should take me away from him. I must he good and nice to my mother and father, that was all, and in reality there was no difference. The family at the mill were in another county. They went to the store and post office in Sweet Auburn [Cranbury] and we sat on different sides of the Church and we seldom saw them there. My brothers and sister were grown. One brother was married, others were in business or school. They cared little more for me than I for them.
I was very undeveloped and undisciplined and very selfish and younger than my years and it took many repetitions of the story to convince me of its truthfulness and it was not until I was grown that I really understood after hearing the explanations from both mothers.
My Mama Aunt was my real father's youngest and favorite sister. She married and settled near her old home at John's town [Hightstown]. After fifteen years she borrowed a little girl from this brother and did not return her, but she only lived three years with her aunt and died from scarlet fever. The grief of the uncle and aunt was great and they said to the mother, "You must find us another little girl." The mother replied "her family was finished but if it was not she could make no plans to barter her flesh and blood".
But the stork who loved to hover over roofs and chimneys sent a message through the air that a little girl would be found. All the neighbors and friends knew of this and awaited developments.
On the appointed day the old Doctor hurried by the old house by the side of the road and called out he was "going to the mill for the little girl". Jeff [a long time family slave and then servant] got the gig ready but when the Doctor returned, he gave rein to his horse and shouted, "It's a boy."
The news was a heavy disappointment but the uncle and aunt got in the gig and went to the mill, where they found the Doctor had been joking. Whether the excitement of the "Divinity that shapes our ends" was responsible I do not know, but my mother was taken so ill her life was despaired of and I was bundled up and taken to the old farm house in John's town [Hightstown]. A messenger was sent post haste to Philadelphia to get the baby bottle of that day for milk as the older of the two colored women had been married and a mother, I was put in her willing arms and lay in her capacious bosom many times when I was restless in the big hooded family cradle that had been so long unused.
My black Mammy never failed in her devotion to me, and I am thankful I had the privilege of ministering to her on her death bed and clothing her in a white robe for her burial, in her old age.
(We have a bit of a problem at this point. In the following reference [1870 Census, East Windsor Township, Hightstown PO, Mercer County, NJ], we have Kinneth’s wife Gertrude, who is still alive at the age of 73 living with a “Thomas” Applegate; “54; mercht dry goods; PE $6000”. [The two of them might be living well since Gertrude is listed with “RE $10000; PE 19000” which is big time money in those days.] The manner in which Thomas is shown in the Census would seem to indicate he was her son. However he was born about five years before she was married. That does not make it impossible, but we never had a prior indication of his existence. There is the possibility he was adopted, since she and her husband had no children of their own, but did adopt two girls. But again we must point out he was never mentioned before when the two of them were. We need her obituary to see in what manner he is mentioned as being her survivor.—ED)
And with the discovery of Gertrude’s autobiography, we know a little more about this Thomas:
Papa had arranged before his death with a neighbor cousin to look after the farm and act as adviser in need. He had also been concerned for our protection at night. Among the old families it was "comme il faut" to live alone, with "the help.” The distinction between "House and Kitchen" was kept up long after slavery days. Our colored people were the same, and loyal and true, but Papa had a remote relative, one of a large family who had one by one married and settled around their neighborhood. This one had not married, had drifted into store keeping, changed about and the year before Papa's death found himself in John's town [Hightstown] in a store, so it was arranged that he would receive bed and board, and in return he would protect us at night from marauders. He was punctual at meals and never absent at night and the arrangement worked out very well and lasted the twenty-six years of Mama's remaining life. He was genial and had a good memory for jokes and stories, was a great friend of old and young ladies, children and babies. He was very much like his namesake in the "Great DeWilloughby Claim." He had not had the advantage of an early education and was very fond of telling he had never "gone to school but one night and then the candle went out." He was Uncle Tom to everybody in town and as he was twenty years younger than Mama and twenty-four years older than I, the same "everybody" approved the arrangement and said, that one of us would find a son and the other a father thereby.
“Gertrude Appleget Wyckoff,” Hightstown-East Windsor Historical Society Newsletter, Nov-Dec. 1998
Based on his age, his unmarried status, his coming from a “large family” and his description as a cousin, I believe this Thomas is Thomas 5A1C1H ~sta 2012-01-19
|
| Person ID |
I30832 |
Applegate Main |
| Last Modified |
11 Oct 2018 |
| Father |
Kenneth Applegate, b. 01 May 1793, New Jersey, USA , d. 07 Mar 1854 (Age 60 years) |
| Mother |
Gertrude Wyckoff, b. 26 Jun 1796, New Jersey, USA , d. 03 Jan 1880 (Age 83 years) |
| Married |
16 Jan 1821 |
First Presbyterian Church, Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA [9, 10] |
| Family ID |
F6648 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Father |
Peter Wyckoff, b. 1787, New Jersey, USA , d. 04 Dec 1855 (Age 68 years) |
| Mother |
Elizabeth Baird, b. 02 Mar 1800, d. 14 Dec 1895, Hightstown, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA (Age 95 years) |
| Married |
1820 [11, 12] |
| Family ID |
F11568 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Sources |
- [S24] The Hightstown Gazette (extracts), 1895-12-19.
- [S86] 1850 United States Census, NJ, Mercer Co., East Windsor Twp., 835/791.
gives name Gertrude Applegate
- [S748] Will of Disbrough Applegate 1837-08-14, Mercer Co. (NJ) Will Book A:538.
- [S758] Will of Kenneth Applegate 1847-11-13, Mercer Co. (NJ) Will Book B:470.
identifed as adopted daughter
- [S1035] Will of Gertrude (Wyckoff) Appleget, 1876-09-13, Mercer Co. (NJ) Will Book G-576.
identified as adopted daughter Gertrude A Maxwell
- [S861] "Gertrude Appleget Wyckoff", Hightstown-East Windson Historical Society Newsletter, Richard S. Hutchinson.
- [S861] "Gertrude Appleget Wyckoff", Hightstown-East Windson Historical Society Newsletter, Richard S. Hutchinson.
two weeks after her birth
- [S86] 1850 United States Census, NJ, Mercer Co., East Windsor Twp., 835/791.
- [S780] Records of the First Presbyterian Church, Cranbury (Marriages), Record Book 1.
- [S1029] War of 1812Pension Applegate for Kenneth Applegate, Image 12 (Transcription of Family Record) & Image 17 (Widows Declaration).
- [S7] Old Tennent Church, Frank R Symmes, (George W. Burroughs 1904), 398.
- [S1036] The Cranbury Historical and Preservation Society Newsletter, Roi Taylor, "Wyckoff's Mills", Vol 35, Issue 3.
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