Weston Wagons West - Ep. U3 - Update Three

There are currently seven groups of stories within the ‘Weston Wagons West’ suite of historical fiction stories. The first three (Jx, Wx, and Tx), as discussed in Updates One and Two, represent stories of the three original Weston brothers in America who then interacted with actual historical ancestors of the author. Each series covers many years through the lives of the involved families - Family Sagas! ;-)

The (Jx) James Weston stories began in Maryland in 1640. They are labeled Ep. J1-20, and have now been compiled into an eBook, cover art to the right, below. These stories relate historical information about the Kinnick ancestors of the author. After the Revolutionary War, this set of stories also branches. The ongoing Jx series will follow the author’s Kinnick family branch into Ohio - the John and Mary stories. They then also follow the Tripletts to Warren County, Illinois. Returning to Mary’s son, then, the Walter Kinnick family is followed to Bureau County, Illinois (where they lived for four decades) These are the author's direct maternal ancestors.

The new Dx (1-4, currently) series follows David Weston, from Maryland, as he, along with the growing John and Ann Kinnick family, moved to North Carolina. Ann was the sister of the other John (who married Mary); she married her first cousin, John. They had a large family and each of them had large families with many interesting stories to share as some of them moved into Tennessee and others to Indiana and westward.

The (Wx) William Weston stories, marked with episode numbers Wx (1-9, currently), began in Massachusetts and moved to New Hampshire, as the ancestral stories started with the Roger Conant family and moved along to the Preston family. W3 got us to the end of the Revolutionary War with the Preston family in New Hampshire. W4 then steps back to pick up Phillip Weston in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1732, who moved to Perth Amboy, on the New Jersey Shore. His son, Roger moved west and was in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1760 where he encountered Thomas Butler, the Irish immigrant gunsmith. Butler’s sons, in the Revolutionary War, were known as the Fighting Butlers - 5 officers lauded by Lafayette and Washington in speeches. W5 through W9 tell their stories. John Butler (the author’s 2nd great-grandfather), who was a private and their first cousin, was there, as well. There are more Butler stories to tell.

The (Tx) Thomas Weston stories, labeled Tx (1-7, currently), got their start in Virginia. They moved to Ohio, and then over to Mercer County, Illinois. These stories followed Preston and Duncan ancestral families of the author. What would have been episode 8 was re-numbered L1 to represent the purely fictional stories of Levi, and his father, Jacob, Weston - characters first created in "The Homeplace Saga" [http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/] series of stories of the author. There are now 20 Lx episodes, and they will be compiled into an eBook, as well. The Tx line is also set to shift in a couple of directions, to follow other ancestral lines, as we move forward in the suite of stories. Stop by regularly to follow them.

Another new series, also following T7, is designated P1, and chronicles the journey of J.P. Preston, another great-grandfather of the author. J.P and his friend, Martie Weston, came from Ohio to Warren County, Illinois. Here they cross Iowa, to meet a wagon train in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1852. This Px line of stories will take us to the California Gold Fields and beyond. J.P. Preston is accompanied by Martie Weston, on his journey.

The seventh category, of course, is the Introduction and Update group, labeled with Ep. Ux (currently 0-2, this is 3). This hub, number 65 overall, is Ep. U3, of course.

In case you get confused by all the Weston men's name, don't forget, you can always check this reference:
http://westonfamilysaga.wikispaces.com/Name+Registry

Near the end of the current Jx series, in J19 and J20, you will read about two more ‘offshoot’ stories that will be fun to follow. The first is the story of Joseph and Rachel Kinnick moving first to Iowa, but then on to Montana on just a few years. You may recall Joseph from his days in the Civil War when he kept going AWOL from the 7th Kansas Cavalry, propagating more children, but always returning to his teamster service… and they always took him back! He and Rachel had a large and adventurous family. I look forward to sharing that series of story. Going with them, initially, are Peter Weston and his wife, Matilda, along with their 12-year-old son, Lyman, leaving Illinois in the spring of 1872.

A few years later, John and Catherine Fletcher prepared to move over into Iowa from Bureau County. They also had a large family, although they leave one of their sons behind. Going with them is Everett Weston, brother of Peter. Everett and his wife, Hannah, in the spring of 1884, have a 12-year-old son, Sherman, along with a nearly nine-year-old daughter, Allison. [Author’s note: This Fletcher family and their descendants, living in eastern Iowa, provided a regular vacation stopover between Western Iowa, where I grew up, and Buda, in Bureau County, Illinois. My grandfather made this trip, each June, during the 1920s and 1930s. My mother wrote about some of these trips in her diaries as a young girl. In addition, two of the youngest Fletcher grandchildren were great source material for much of the author’s research on this family!]

1. In re-reading the early Jx stories in preparing the eBook, I was re-fascinated with the early colonial Maryland life. The story of James Weston and his family first arriving in America, in Maryland, have a richness worth exploring. He and his sons eventually met up with Captain Richard Brightwell. His escapades, as recorded in the Maryland archives, are also very enticing, and worthy of fictional expansion and sharing. There is a part of me that really wants to go back to that time and write more detailed stories about their everyday lives, their trials and tribulations as well as triumphs over the adversities they faced living on that very early American frontier. Really seems like it would be fun.

2. The Weston family series was originally conceived as a story in west central Iowa telling of the original settlement of my ‘home country’ from an alternative point of view. Those stories still sit there, waiting to be told and shared. Those family members do ‘fit-in’ with the Weston families in the current series, much as the Levi and Jacob Weston (Lx), totally fictional, stories do. One day, these will be brought into the fold.


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