The Puzzle of Betty Bear

By Phyllis Emery Skeats
Copyright 2000 by PES. All Rights Reserved
September, 2000

(The following is a foreshortened version of the original, but contains all portions pertinent to Betty Bear)

One of the puzzles that has gone unanswered over the years of Leavitt Family research is the disappearance of Betty Bear into the unknown. In the "History of Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt", a transcription of her record book which she wrote at the age of 77 years commencing in 1875, Sarah records aspects of the journey. …(In) Sarah's record book we read "Nathaniel Leavitt had come up the lake to Michigan, stopped at a place called White Pigeon. When we got into that place we heard Nathaniel was dead and that his wife (Betty Bear) had took all the property and gone back to Canada leaving three children that were his first wife's children, among strangers sick with the ague." Sarah goes on to say that they took the children along with their group bringing the number to eleven that she and her husband would provide for.

…I scoured records and other sources for any information on Betty Bear to no avail. However, a new idea was beginning to surface; "could her name have been Betty Bean or Betsey Bean?" Handwriting and spelling were sometimes difficult to decipher for early researchers. Census takers and early clergy often had to write the name as it was pronounced if the person in question had not learned to spell their own name. [This has proven to be true in many journals on vital statistics]. I decided to pursue this new idea.

My next step was to take the idea to Geraldine and Mary Jean ...they were both descendants of Betty's son, Weir (Leavitt). I discovered they had both done research and had often wondered if the name Bean instead of Bear could apply. I returned to the search for proof of our mutual idea.

I began with the "Blue Books"; our valuable set of vital statistics for the St. Francis area in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. They are taken from church records of non-Catholic churches for the term period 1815-1879. On page 406 in volume two recording marriages I found the record of the marriage between Nathaniel Leavitt, widower, to Betsy Bean on October 10, 1829 in the Anglican Church in Charleston [former name of Hatley Village]. The wedding could have taken place in either the Old North Church as the Leavitt family were members of this church, or the new St. James Anglican Church in the village opened in 1829. As St. James was dedicated in the fall of 1829 it is quite possible the ceremony took place in the Old North. This proof was validated by the location of the original record entered into the Anglican Church record of Hatley. The entry reads:

"On this twenty fifth day of October one thousand (eight hundred) & twenty nine Nathaniel Leavitt widower farmer of major age & Betsey Bean spinster minor both (of) Compton were married by Banns in the presence of the subscribing witnesses by (signatures follow):
T. Johnson, Rector
Nathan [Nathaniel] Leavitt
Betsey Bean
Zebulon Leavitt
Rhoda Person"

The search continued. Mary Jean referred to the Bean Family Genealogy. Here she discovered that Joseph Bean had a daughter named Betsey Bean. She was born in 1814 and died in 1844. [This accounts for the description "minor" in the marriage record].

In the History of Sutton [New Hampshire] originally printed in 1890 and reissued in 1975, Moses Bean is cited as being born in Sutton in 1774. He married Betsey Kezar, born in 1777 and they removed to Hatley in 1798. Moses died in 1826 in Hatley. Moses and Betsey were parents to several children including a daughter, Betsey, born in 1808, died in 1873. [Betsey was to play an important role in Wire's life {Betsey's child by Nathaniel Leavitt}]

Moses had a brother, Joseph, born 1799 [also erroneously recorded as 1779 in the same book]. Joseph married Betsey Rowell in New Hampshire; she was the daughter of Thomas and Lydia Hawes. [Thomas and Lydia removed to Hatley in 1802]. Joseph and Betsey removed to Hatley, Canada, where they were parents to eleven children with one being their second daughter, Betsey, born in 1814.

Betsey Bean, daughter of Moses and Betsey [Kezar] Bean married Hiram Abbott on June 10, 1828, in Charleston [Hatley Village]. This would have taken place in the Old North Church as the new St. James Church was still under construction. They settled on a farm in Hatley Township in an area between Katevale [Ste. Catherine-de-Hatley] and North Hatley.

In an old Abbott Family Bible, now held by Geraldine Swallow, the Abbott Family genealogy appears. Including in this list is the name of Wire [Weir] Leavitt. Betsey and Hiram had adopted Wire as their own son as they had lost their own children; Moses born in 1819 d 1836, John b 1831 d 1831 and Lydia b 1832 died the same year. Wire even took the name of Abbott until he was married, deciding at that time to take his original name of Leavitt.

Betsey Bean, daughter of Joseph and Betsey [Rowell] Leavitt married Nathaniel Leavitt. As stated in the church records she was of minor age being only 15 years of age. Marriages at an early age were common among the early settlers. Betsey [mother-Rowell] Bean was a cousin of Betsey [mother-Kezar Bean].

Nathaniel Leavitt, son of Jeremiah and Sarah Shannon Leavitt and his second wife, Betsey Bean Leavitt removed from Hatley with his mother and other members of the family to travel westward in the American states (; taking)…along Nathaniel's children from his first and second marriages. According to Sarah Sturtevant's record book Nathaniel's family reached a place named White Pigeon after travelling down Lake Michigan on the trek to Twelve-Mile Grove. Here Nathaniel died circa 1838/9. From here on we can tell the story of Betsey Bean, mistakenly known as Betty Bear [Baer], returning to Hatley Township.

When sources are not complete telling an historical tale is in large part a matter of perception and surmising. Left without a husband and companion Betsey [now doubt known as Betty] must have experienced a great sense of loss and lack of support. Her thoughts must have turned to home back in Canada and particularly to her cousin Betsey Bean Abbott. It would appear that the compilation of "The Leavitts of America" is mistaken in recording Weir (Wire) as the eldest child of Betsey as it is stated elsewhere that he was only nine months old when Betsey and Hiram Abbott took him in to their home with him having been born circa 1837. This would have allowed Betsey to take her two daughters, Mary and Priscilla, to live elsewhere. We do know that she died young, at the age of 30 in 1844.

Betsey Bean Abbott died and Hiram remarried Mary Dustin. They continued to live on the same homestead where they raised young Wire. Hiram died in 1875 and is presumed buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Hatley Township.

Wire [Weir] married first Harriet Dustin, daughter of Walter Dustin and Claris Gardner [married in 1861]. Weir and Harriet were parents to a daughter, Betsey Jane born in 1861. Harriet died in 1864 and following her death Wire remarried to Mary Dustin, another daughter of Walter and Claris Dustin. Weir and Mary had five children:

Loving b 1865
Edwin Allen b 1865
Hate Cora b 1869
Helen Rosette b 1873
John Luther b 1881

They also raised Betsey Jane from his first marriage and another relative Neal Corey. Wire and Mary continued to live in Hatley Township, close to the McConnell area on property either sold to or given to him by his adopted father Hiram Abbott. Wire died in 1887, his first wife died in 1864 and his second wife died in 1928. They are all buried in the McConnell Cemetery.

In one of the Leavitt newsletters, dated October 1999, WALF president Dixie Leavitt writes:

"Because Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt wrote so cryptically about the abandoned children of her husband's brother Nathaniel and his first wife Deborah Delano, we had, for many years, made the erroneous assumption that when Nathaniel Leavitt had died in the epidemic at Twelve Mile Grove, his young widow, Betty Baer [Bear] abandoned her older stepchildren, Nathaniel, John and Flavilla, taking their three youngest children, Priscilla, Mary and Weir, back to Canada.

"Then a year ago, Betty was vindicated by the coming forth of a small but highly edifying autobiography, written by Nathaniel Jr. In it he wrote that Betty Baer [Bear] Leavitt would have taken all the children with her, when she left the company to return to her people, but that he, Nathaniel was so compelled to go on and find the "Mormons", that he refused and persuaded John and Flavilla to remain and continue the trek with him. That information erased any misplaced feelings of harshness toward Betty Baer [Bear] Leavitt, and heightened the desire to find what had happened to her and the three younger children."

Although we cannot say for sure what happened to Betsey Bean Leavitt prior to her death in 1844, we now feel upon her return (to Hatley), leaving young Wire [Weir] with her cousin Betsey and her husband Hiram Abbott, that she could have left the region with her two young daughters who were old enough to travel elsewhere.

We do know that Wire Leavitt lived a fairly short life himself, dying in his fiftieth year. No doubt his children would have all attended school in the McConnell area of Hatley Township. Remains of this old schoolhouse are still visible. Church services were often held in the old schoolhouse and the burying ground was close by. This old cemetery is a well-tended burying ground where Wire and his wives lie in peace. His mother's burying place is still a mystery.