The
South Jersey Skinners,
Descendants of John Skinner
[1760-1824] and Patience Hanisey [1764-1840]
Biographies, Stories and Images Relating to My Branch of the Family
LINKS:
Complete Family Tree of the South Jersey Skinners
The Skinners of
North and Central Jersey, 1665-1800 (Unrelated to the South Jersey Skinners)
SUMMARY:
John
Skinner and Patience Hanisey are the progenitors of hundreds of Skinners who
currently reside in South Jersey - the 'South Jersey Skinners'. John and Patience
lived at Pitman Grove, Gloucester County, NJ. This page contains links to a
wealth of personal anecdotes, etc. dealing with my line of the family - a line
that begins with John and Patience and passes through their son, Richard
Skinner Sr. and grandson Richard Skinner Jr.
This collection includes images collected from three of the four
children of William Harrison Skinner – Warren Skinner, Ursula Thoman and
Elizabeth Ungerbuehler.
BIOGRAPHIES, STORIES & IMAGES:
LIST OF SURNAMES
The following
families, most with photographs, are included in this work:
|
NEW JERSEY: Batten – Camden and Gloucester County, NJ Corson – Gloucester County, NJ Dare – Cumberland County, NJ Garton – Cumberland County, NJ Henry – Camden and
Gloucester County, NJ and Philadelphia, PA Leap - Camden and Gloucester County, NJ Lloyd – Camden and Gloucester County, NJ Locke – Gloucester County, NJ Mills – Cumberland County, NJ Shreve - Gloucester County, NJ Shull – Cumberland
County, NJ and Philadelphia, PA Sparks - Camden and Gloucester County, NJ Thoman - Gloucester County, NJ Turner – Gloucester County, NJ Zimmerman – Gloucester County, NJ |
OTHER
STATES: Ackerman – Philadelphia, PA and Germany Bossert – Philadelphia, PA Brenner – Philadelphia, PA Brautigam – Philadelphia, PA Burkle – Philadelphia, PA Dodd – Marion County, WV Frederick – Telford and Philadelphia, PA Gossmann – Philadelphia, PA and Germany Hughlett – Delaware County, PA Kuhnle – Philadelphia, PA Lee – Philadelphia, PA Liebert– Philadelphia, PA Pirman –
Philadelphia, PA Shepherd – New Castle County, DE Showalter – Huntingdon County, PA Ungerbuehler –
Philadelphia, PA and New Castle County, DE Weppler – Philadelphia, PA and Germany Williman – Philadelphia, PA Yaecht – Philadelphia, PA |
CEMETERY BURIAL SUMMARY
Richard Skinner Jr. and Elizabeth
(Corson) Skinner
Granddaughters Mary and Mizeal
Skinner
Manahath
Cemetery, Glassboro –
Harry Skinner and
Elizabeth (Sparks) Skinner
Omar Skinner, son of Harry
Charles Locke and Ida (Skinner) Locke, sister to Harry
Louis Shreve and Rennie (Skinner) Shreve, sister to Harry
Blande Shreve, son of Louis
Bessie (Shreve), daughter of Louis
Horace Thoman and Ursula (Skinner) Thoman, daughter of Harry
Warren Skinner, son of Harry, and wife Viola May (Leap) Skinner
Mary Leap, foster mother of May Skinner
Earl Skinner and
Lillian (Showalter) Skinner
Frank Frederick and Elizabeth (Ackerman) Frederick
I
don’t want to work the coal mines – I’ll spend enough time under the ground as
it is.
Joseph Showalter as retold by
daughter Lillian
“Best
time of life”
“They were so religious – the Skinners, that
they bought the Sunday paper on Saturday and read it on Monday”
Lillian Skinner commenting on
her in-laws – Warren & May Skinner
“So many family stories; So many
photographs.
I could not discard them so they are all here.”
Kevin Skinner
INTRODUCTION
Most of the Skinners of South Jersey can trace their ancestry back to one couple of the Revolutionary War era - John Skinner and wife Patience Hanisey. They are great-grandparents to Harry Skinner of my line.
This work is a
collection of Biographies, Photos and Artifacts documenting my branch of
the large Skinner family that descend from John and Patience. My branch extends through one of their sons –
Richard Skinner Senior, and in turn, through one of his sons – Richard Skinner
Junior.
John Skinner and Patience Hanisey
John and Patience
represent the earliest known starting point of the South Jersey Skinners. Cousins Bill Skinner and Laurel Steffes have
researched this couple’s genealogy, landholdings and other life details. Their work is available at the Gloucester
County Historical Society. Their work is
incorporated here as well.
John Skinner was
part of a cluster of Skinners that began to appear in Gloucester County in the
1760’s. These Skinners eventually
included John, John Jr., Joseph, Richard and Susannah Skinner. John, the husband of Patience Hanisey, is
believed to correspond in the records to John Jr. and also as John T. [Tabor]
Skinner.
John and Patience
lived in in present-day Pitman Grove, part of old Greenwich Township (today
Mantua Township), Gloucester County, NJ. Their landholdings, most of which John
inherited from a relative, were passed down to two successive generations of
Skinners.
John Sknner,
Loyalist
Cousins Bill Skinner
and Laurel Steffes believe that John Skinner, husband of Patience, served as a
Loyalist at a young age during the Revolutionary War. His father-in-law, James Hennessey (Hanisey),
did as well. They were part of a hundred or so volunteers in Gloucester County
who answered the call to serve in the 1777/1778 time frame from local
influential Loyalists such as Daniel Cozens and Jonathan Chew. In 1779, Mr. Hennessey and
other Glou. Co. Loyalists saw their lands
seized as a result of their British allegiance.
Virginia Elva Minotty
The descendants of John and
Patience Skinner have been researched by cousin
Virginia Elva (Skinner) Minotty.
Virginia Minotty began her research on the South Jersey Skinners in
the early 1960's. She initially
collaborated with another cousin - Norman Skinner of Philadelphia, who began
his work in the 1950's. Virginia is
someone I communicated with and who accelerated my interest in the family
history.
The results of
Virginia's efforts are several hundred pages of information detailing the
descendants of John and Patience, including births, deaths and marriages, all
carefully sourced. Her husband, Paul Minotty, donated her work to the Gloucester County, NJ
Historical Society following her death in the early 1980’s.
Virginia’s work
provided me with a detailed Skinner family tree to which I could add Biographies,
Photographs and Artifacts of my closest relatives.
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSES
Photographs included
in this collection are of the following types:
Tintypes
Tintype photographs
were common from the Civil War into the 1900's.
Tintypes involved images on a thin sheet of iron. They were inexpensive, durable and popular,
bringing the ownership of photographs to the working class.
The key to the
success of the tintypes was the speed and ease of processing them. The negatives could easily be manufactured at
any location by painting chemicals onto iron sheets. Once the negatives were utilized to take
pictures and removed from the camera, little additional processing was
required. The normal process of
utilizing negatives in an elaborate lab process to transfer the images to
photographic paper was unnecessary. In
the tintype process, the negatives and the final photographs are one and the
same. The exposed negatives were
simply coated with a protective varnish finish, dried and given to the
customer. In this regards, they
represented the first nearly "instant" photography process.
The light and dark areas of
a tintype image are reversed, like any negative, but look like a normal
photograph because of the peculiar color of the chemical coating. In those portions of a tintype that have been
exposed to light, the silver metallic coating takes on a solid color and would
normally appear to be dark, as is normal for the exposed areas of a negative. However, when viewed under light, the
metallic coating acts as a mirror becoming a brilliant white color, as is
necessary for the lighter areas of a photograph. Similarly, in those portions of the negative
that have not seen light, the chemical coating remains in its original form – light
and translucent, which is normal for a negative. However, this translucent coating allows the
black iron sheet behind the chemicals to be visible. As a result, the translucent coating looks
dark, as is necessary for the darker areas of a photograph.
Despite their low
quality, tintypes seem very “alive” and appealing to the eye. The metallic, mirror-like surface of the
lighter areas of a tintype are simply brighter under light (reflect more light)
than the white paper of a traditional photograph.
Like any negative,
tintype images are reversed left-to-right.
Everyone parts his or her hair on the opposite side in a tintype
image!
It was common to be
able to obtain tintype images from street photographers at fairs, carnivals and
beaches. They were a lower cost and
lower quality alternative to the photographs obtained in studios.
Often, a
"multiplying" camera lens was used to provide multiple, identical
images for sale to customers on a single metal negative. After the photos were taken, the plate was
removed from the camera and dipped into a chemical bath to stop further
exposure. A coat of varnish provided
protection
"Tinning"
shears were used to cut the iron sheets into the individual images, giving
tintypes their name. The crude cutting
process often resulted in odd-shaped photographs. In a few minutes, the photographs were
available to the waiting customers.
Studios would sometimes
offer small, one-inch square, high-quality tintypes called gem tintypes. They were glued onto decorative card stock. The fancy cards, about the size of a normal
photograph and each containing a tiny tintype, were designed to fit in Victorian
photograph albums.
B) Studio Prints (per www.edinphoto.org.uk/)
In the latter half
of the 1800's, high-quality photographs that people sat for in studios were
normally made on tissue-thin sheets of paper.
The thin photos were then glued to heavier card stock backing. The backing was typically pre-printed with
the name and address of the studio, either below the photo or on the back.
The studio
photographs were made in two sizes. Cabinet
Prints, the larger size, consisted of 4 by 5.5 inch photographs mounted on
4.5 by 6.5 inch heavy, decorative card stock.
Cartes de visite,
the smaller size, were 2.25 by 3.5 inch photographs mounted on 2.5 by 4 inch
card stock.
The majority of
photos from this era have a distinctive brown color tone due to the type of
photographic process that was employed.
C) Post Cards
At the turn of the
century, it became common practice to make photographs on thick photographic
paper, eliminating the need to glue tissue-thin photographs onto card stock
backgrounds as had been done in the past.
This type of presentation has continued to the present day. The earliest versions of this presentation
were in the form of postcards, in which the photographic paper was thick and in
the shape of a postcard. The photographs
contained an address area on the reverse side for easy mailing.
As time went on,
changing photographic processes replaced the brown tones of earlier photographs
with the grey-scale tones of today.
Photographs went from being brown-and-white to black-and-white.
THE YEAR 1905 (from an unknown internet source)
The average life expectancy in the U.S. was
47 years.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than
California.
With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous
state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.
The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500
per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical
engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education. Instead, they
attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press
and by the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was
fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for
shampoo.
Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag
had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been
admitted to the Union yet.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the
local corner drugstores. Back then a pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the
complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and
is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant
or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.
FAMILY LORE, FICTION AND ALL
Communication With
Virginia Minotty
In 1966, Virginia
sent a letter to my grandfather, Earl Skinner.
She had enclosed some information on our branch of the Skinner family,
dated 1966, and requested that Earl provide additional details as available. Her letter went unanswered.
In 1975, I pulled
out Earl’s files and answered Virginia’s letter. She responded by sending me updated
information, dated 1975, on our branch of the family.
Eventually, I spoke
with her via telephone. I am not sure I
was able to assist her, as she always had more information on my immediate
relatives that I did.
In 1995, I again
attempted to contact Virginia. Her
husband informed me she had died several years previous. The Glou.
Co. Historical Society mailed me her work – several hundred pages.
Virginia’s work
provided me with a detailed Skinner family tree to which I could add Biographies,
Photographs and Artifacts of my closest relatives.
Virginia Minotty
Virginia Minotty had originally researched the South Jersey Skinners
in order to gain admittance into the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American
Revolution). Virginia was not successful
in developing many details about the life of John Skinner, including proof of
military service, and never achieved D.A.R. membership.
Franklin Skinner
Franklin Skinner, a
prominent Philadelphia area real estate professional at the turn of the
century, wrote a series of articles about the history of the Skinner family in
a newspaper called the Glassboro Enterprise in the 1920's. Franklin’s
work was flawed, but has been widely disseminated within the Skinner family
over the decades since then.
Franklin said that
John Skinner, the husband of Patience Hanisey, had been born in North Jersey,
part of a well-known Skinner family there.
Franklin said that John, as a young man, had served in North Jersey as a
patriot in the Revolutionary War, later relocating to South Jersey, marrying
Patience Hanisey and beginning the South Jersey Skinner clan of today.
Franklin’s linkage
between the North and South Jersey Skinners is not correct. His version of John’s military service is
also not accurate – it applies to the wrong John Skinner. No doubt, the fact that the Skinners of North
Jersey were well-documented, even in Franklin’s time, made this family the
logical starting point for the Skinner family.
Even today, the origins of the Skinners of South Jersey are not nearly
as well understood as those of the North Jersey Skinners, who were part of the
initial English population of the future New Jersey.
Who Is Franklin Skinner?
Franklin is a grandson
of John and Patience Skinner, though he was born many years after his
grandfather died. Franklin is a brother
of Richard Skinner Jr. of my line:
* John Skinner (1760-1824) - Patience Hanisey (1764-1840)
* * Richard Skinner Sr. (1797-1882) - Mary Swope (1799-1844)
* * * Franklin
Skinner (1842-1923) - Sarah Amanda Patten (1850-1933)
* * * Richard Skinner Jr. (1823-1908) - Elizabeth Ann
Corson (1828-1896)
Franklin Skinner, as
well as his brother Richard Skinner Jr., served in the Civil War. Both saw action in the final days of the war
a few miles from Appomattox, Virginia.
Franklin previously fought at Gettysburg.
Franklin The Poet
Franklin was also an
amateur poet. He wrote several poems
commemorating the birthdays of his brother Richard Skinner Jr. The poems survive to this day and are
included in this work. Franklin noted
that his grandmother of the Revolutionary War time period, Patience Skinner –
the progenitor of the South Jersey Skinners, had also been a poetess.
Franklin’s Fiction
Franklin’s flawed version
of the Skinner history is full of mistakes and was called into question at the
time by genealogists. But his version of
the family history is the version of the family history that I grew up
with. Franklin’s work resulted in Virginia
Minotty and myself
researching the Skinners of North Jersey in the belief that we would learn more
about John Skinner and ourselves.
The Skinners of North and Central Jersey
Franklin Skinner
connected his grandfather, John Skinner, to a long line of well-documented
Skinners that had existed in northern New Jersey since the 1600’s. These Skinners of North Jersey have a very
interesting history.
The North Jersey
Skinners began with the arrival of Richard Skinner, an indentured servant, from
England in 1665 on a boat with the first Governor of NJ. The group arrived shortly after the Dutch
surrendered their claim to the region without firing a shot. The arrival of the ship with Richard Skinner
on it began the rapid and large British/Scottish/French Huguenot influx into
the mid-Atlantic region that would ultimately result in the creation of this
country.
The Skinner family
in New Jersey eventually included Captain Richard Skinner. Captain Skinner served in the Middlesex
County (Woodbridge/Rahway) militia during the Revolutionary War and was killed
by British snipers.
Captain Richard
Skinner, in turn, was probably the father of a Private John Skinner, who also
served in the Middlesex County militia during the War.
Family Lore, as
published by Franklin Skinner, indicated that Private John Skinner
migrated to South Jersey after the War, beginning the well-documented South
Jersey Skinner clan of today.
Dissemination of the Family Lore – George
Stevens
The mistaken
migration of Private John Skinner to South Jersey, published by Franklin
Skinner in the 1920’s, was conveyed to our family by a 1957 letter from unknown
cousin George Stevens. This letter was
copied to various members of the family including my grandfather, Earl Skinner.
George Steven's
letter summarizes the entire family history - from the indentured servant of
1665 to Private John Skinner of the Rev. War, including the mistaken migration
of Private John Skinner to South Jersey after the War. Much of George's letter was taken verbatim
from Franklin Skinner's newspaper articles of the 1920’s.
I was not successful in
locating Stevens. My cousin, Marion
Smith, recalls him from childhood. He
would be of the same generation as my father, Dave Skinner:
* John Skinner (1760-1824) - Patience Hanisey (1764-1840)
* * Richard Skinner Sr. (1797-1882) - Mary Swope (1799-1844)
* * * Richard Skinner Jr. (1823-1908) Elizabeth Ann Corson (1828-1896)
* * * * Anna Frances Skinner (1849-1937) - Arthur Henry (1846-1899)
* * * * * Elizabeth Skinner Henry (1881-1964) - Howard Walton (1881-1969)
* * * * * * Irma Elizabeth Walton (1905 - ) - h1 Walter Wilson Stevens ( )
* * * * * * * George Richard Stevens ( )
-
* * * * Harry Skinner
(1846-1937)- Lizzie Sparks (1851-1926)
* * * * * Warren Skinner (1877-1970) - Viola May Leap (1875-1963)
* * * * * * Earl Skinner (1901-1990) - Lillian Showalter (1903-1998)
* * * * * * * David Skinner (b. 1929) – Annette Frederick (b. 1930)
End Of A Myth
In 1995, I began
researching the North Jersey Skinners, believing them to be the ancestors of John
Skinner of the South Jersey Skinners. I
could find no connection.
In 2001, I began
email communications with cousin Laurel Steffes. Laurel had assisted cousin
Bill Skinner in researching John Skinner and had developed many details about
his life. Their work is available at the
Gloucester County Historical Society.
Only a few highlights are presented here.
John T. Skinner
Laurel Steffes and
Bill Skinner found that John Skinner, the husband of Patience Hanisey and
progenitor of the South Jersey Skinners, was part of a small cluster of
Skinners who began appearing in Camden and Gloucester County records in the
latter half of the 1760's. These
Skinners of South Jersey lived simultaneous with the North Jersey Skinners and
did not descend from them.
John Skinner, Loyalist
John Skinner joined
a Loyalist militia during the war with many others from Gloucester County. His father-in-law, James Hanisey, had joined
the same militia. James eventually had
his Gloucester County lands seized because of his Loyalist service.
It turns out that
John Skinner did serve in the Revolutionary War, but not in the ‘patriotic’
manner idealized by his grandson Franklin.
Finale
Cousin Laurel
Steffes and I attempted to locate the notes of Franklin Skinner for some closure
on all of this. Laurel contacted some
libraries and historical societies near the Bucks Co., Pa locale where Franklin
had lived.
Ultimately, I found a
letter buried in the files of Virginia Minotty that
explained where Franklin's genealogical notes had gone. Norman Skinner, who had been researching the
Skinner family in the 1950's, had sent a letter to a granddaughter of Franklin
Skinner asking for her assistance. The
granddaughter responded by saying that she had disposed of her grandfather's
trunk of notes, not knowing what to do with them.
SOURCE PERSONS
Credit is given to
those persons who developed information presented in my work. Their names are
abbreviated within brackets [ ], following the presentation of the facts or
information that they developed.
The names of
contributing persons are abbreviated as follows:
[VEM] - denotes information from the files of Virginia Minotty.
(Virginia6 descends from Dwight5, Jacob4,
Nathan3, Richard Sr.2, John1)
[NES] - denotes information from the files of Virginia Minotty, which she attributed to Norman Skinner, with whom
she collaborated.
(Norman6 descends from George5, George4,
Sedgwick3, William2, John1)
[HES] - denotes information provided to me by my grandfather, H. Earl
Skinner.
(Earl6 descends from Warren5, Harry4, Richard
Jr.3, Richard Sr.2, John1)
[AES] -denotes information from the files of my mother, Annette
Skinner.
(Annette, wife of David7, Earl6, Warren5,
Harry4, Richard Jr.3, Richard Sr.2, John1)
[KDS] - me.
(Kevin8 descends from David7, Earl6, Warren5,
Harry4, Richard Jr.3, Richard Sr.2, John1)
In addition,
information provided by the following persons is discussed:
Franklin Skinner - (Franklin3 descends from Richard Sr.2,
John1)
Richard Stevens - (Richard7 descends from Irma6,
Elizabeth5, Anna4, Richard Jr. 3, Richard Sr.2,
John1)
Marion Smith - (Marion6 descends from Ursula5,
Harry4, Richard Jr.3, Richard Sr.2, John1)
Lillian Skinner - (Lillian, wife of Earl6, Warren5,
Harry4, Richard Jr.3, Richard Sr.2, John1)
end