Rev. William Flansburg Bio

William FLANSBURG, grandfather of Jessie (WHITE) DAYTON, (William¹ Flansburg, Anna², Jessie Belle³ WHITE) was a pure-bred Dutchman.  He was born January 30, 1809 in the Town of Day, Saratoga Co. NY.  His parents Matheus (Matthew) FLANSBURG and Maria CLUTE were early settlers of the Town of Day.

William was married three times.  His first wife, Lydia Lucretia DEMICK, died before 1850 leaving four children.  William was about forty years old.  He remarried to Charity Rosina JOHNSON, our ancestor, about 1850.  Rosina’s parents, Robert JOHNSON and Anna ELLIS are buried in the ELLIS Cemetery in Hadley.  William and Rosina had five children (Charles, Mary, Anna (Jessie’s mother), James, Harriet).   Rosina died before 1875, but we don’t know the exact date.  William remarried a third time to Sara ELLIS. 

William had a born-again Christian experience at about the age of 40. This was also about the time of his first wife’s death. 

After his conversion, he was called to the ministry.  After a brief pastorate in the Free Will Baptist Church in Hadley, William was ordained in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1853.  He was one of the early pastors of the young Wesleyan Methodist denomination that was founded primarily because of its members’ opposition to slavery about ten years earlier.

His daughter Anna once said that her dad, William, corresponded with Abraham LINCOLN and that the President encouraged him to “preach against slavery from the pulpit and I’ll preach against it from the White House.”  (Wilber Jr recalled seeing the letter in Anna’s trunk when he was a kid).

William served as pastor to congregations in Johnsburg NY, Warrensburgh NY, Brandon, VT; Goshen, VT; Chester NY, Hadley NY, Stony Creek NY, Corinth NY, Forestdale, VT and probably other locations.  He is listed in the 1870 Saratoga County Business Directory as Wesleyan Methodist Minister and Farmer in Corinth, NY.

He had two sons that fought during the Civil War (Henry and James).  James enlisted at age 24 in 1862, just after his own wife had died.  James was despondent over her death, and he was killed in battle at Fort Harrison.  William died September 4, 1897 and is buried in a numbered grave in Day Cemetery.

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DFH Volume 1 Issue 20

At the start of the new millennium , a video (VHS) of our Dayton Heritage was created and given to all my cousins.  Many of you younger generations have never had the opportunity to view it.  It’s a three-hour video, but it’s broken down into 8 parts.  It will give you a nice summary of your Dayton roots.  Next winter when it’s snowing outside, curl up near the fireplace and watch a few episodes on your smart tv.  Go to youtube, search on Jim Dayton, (click on the ugly, old man with a black shirt).  Then just bring up my playlists and go to the Dayton Heritage playlist. 

I also offer you a video of the reinterment of Henry and Christie Dayton’s graves from Hadley Hill to Dean Cemetery in Stony Creek, NY.  It too, is now available on youtube. The video covers all phases of Henry’s life including a review of his life and farm, footage from the 1998 Family Reunion, a visitation to the cemetery and actual video and photos of the exhumation and reburial of the remains.  As many of you will recall, we visited the 2 graves in the woods n Hadley Hill during the 1998 reunion.  It became necessary to move the remains and stones to a nearby cemetery.  The video will explain that and much more.  It is in four 7 minute parts.

The Mysterious Alexander White, Part II:Newsworthy Death

Dfh Volume 1 Issue 14

Unfortunately, I did not have all the facts for my article about Alexander White’s life, entitled “The Mysterious Alexander White” in the May 12, 2019 issue of Dayton Family History.  In it I stated that no one in the family knew anything of Alexander White. I had forgotten the interview with my dad, where he told me of Alex’s passing.  Here is his account as paraphrased from the tape.  Paul: “ I had always heard that story about the man that was out in the field ploughing. And it came suppertime and he didn’t come home. They went out to see why he hadn’t come in for supper. He was dead at age 49. The horses were still standing right there where he dropped dead.

Jim: “Did you ever hear any other things about him?”

Paul: No.”

So we did know something, at least, of his death.  Here are accounts from the local papers:

I suppose that because of his history of fighting with John Costello, the coroner’s physician was very thorough in his examination.  The coroner found that Alexander died of heart disease.  Of his grandchildren, only Paul admitted to knowing of his “plowing the field”  death circumstances.  Neither Chester nor Wilber knew that about their grandfather.  Don’t you find that peculiar?

 Another interesting observation is that the funeral pastor was from the Wesleyan Methodist Church (probably Hadley or Stony Creek).  His wife, Anna, almost assuredly attended Hadley, but it is unknown if Alex was a member there.  I wonder if Hadley Wesleyan church still has that information in their archives. 

I have written the Saratoga County New York Historian to get a police report of Alexander’s arrest for the Costello fight.  If I learn of any newsworthy information, it will be reported in a future newsletter.

What or Where is this? [answer]

DFH Volume 1 Issue 9

This is the Corinth, New York Wesleyan church, completed in 1968, to replace the old church which was shown in last week’s newsletter.  Most of you are familiar with it because we held our 1998 Dayton Reunion there.  Chester Dayton and Paul Dayton were the two men primarily responsible for financially backing the building project, and physically constructing the church.  If it were a hospital wing, it would have been named Dayton Brothers Memorial Wesleyan Church.  About 2012, the church was closed and put on the real estate market.  It sat idle for about two years with no offers.  The price was dropped quite a bit, and our Dayton cousin, Sarah (and Chad) Jerome bought it.  Sarah is the daughter of my brother John Dayton.  The church meant a lot to Sarah, so Chad and she bought it, converting it into their home.  They made major modifications, including converting the sanctuary into a soccer field for her young kids.  They leased out the parsonage.  She and Chad have since divorced, and she moved to Saratoga.  Chad now has possession of the property.  Tragically, the local district administration of the Wesleyan denomination just irresponsibly walked away from the property without removing and claiming anything which was in the building.  Left behind were the ledgers, records of the churche’s business meetings, and the registry of births, deaths and marriages of members going back to the founding of the church in the early 1900’s.  I have tried unsuccessfully, a number of times, to salvage the books on behalf of the Corinth museum.  The museum curator tried to procure them too with no success.  I cannot understand why Sarah wouldn’t release them.

Mark sent the following message regarding the 1968 church: “And speaking of the Corinth Wesleyan church…..I have all of the scale models grampa made of the original and proposed new buildings when the church was deciding how to build the “new” church.  

They were hand made using sanded scraps from the Dayton sawmill and painted white.  He used to let me play with them when I was a kid in the late 60s and early 1970’s.  I inherited them when gramma Dayton passed away in 1981.”

Jim Dayton recalls:  “I don’t have many memories of this church.  I only attended there for a few months before I moved away from Corinth.

• Judy and I were married in this church.  Our’s was the very first marriage in it.
• The Church youth group was quite large and very active.  We had a high school boys softball team which played against other churches in the area.  We also had a basketball team coached by Roger Dayton (son of Chester).”

I was quite surprised that none of you wrote to me about the Dayton Family Reunion there in 1998.   It was one of the most memorable and satisfying events of my life.

Here are a few of my remembrances of that weekend:

• The cemetery tour and the trek into the woods to hear dad tell about the discovery and maintenance of  Henry Dayton and his wife Christie’s graves.  A few years after the 1998 reunion, a housing development encroached upon that little cemetery, and so Paul Dayton (with the tedious behind the scenes administrative work from Ray Orton) oversaw the interment of the graves and stones in the Dean cemetery (about 5 miles towards Stony Creek, and one of the cemeteries which we reunion attenders’ also visited as a part of the Dayton ancestors tour).
• Jenn’s (my daughter) wedding shower was there during the reunion.
• The last sawmill tour ever given by Paul Dayton was during the reunion.
• Singing George Washington Bridge which was led by quick witted Keith.  Remember how he said, “Ok, now everyone who ever worked at the sawmill sing”, and  “Ok, everyone named Priscilla stand up and sing.”  Keith (the late husband of my sister, Priscilla, had the funniest sense of humor.  He was one of many associate pastors at a very large church in Milton, Pa.  One day in their staff meeting, all of those present were going around the table telling what their favorite hymn was.  When they got to Keith, he said, “my favorite hymn is Lead on O Kinky Turtle.  I hope I didn’t just offend anyone.  It was not my intent. It’s just that he was just a down to earth, loveable teddy bear.
• Chester Dayton’s rendition of the Guido Giuseppe story (complete with English as a second language accent by an Italian immigrant).
• The Kazoo orchestra.
• The coffee mugs (write to me if you still have yours in the cupboard with your other mugs…we do, and Judy uses her’s every day).
• Dr. Wilber Dayton’s Invocation.