At last week’s Miller reunion one of my older cousins asked me if it was true that Grandpa Miller had six toes on each foot. It seems that when he was a young boy his uncles (maybe some aunts as well) tried to convince him of this. I had never heard this story before, and I am pretty sure they were telling him a tall tale, trying to pull a fast one on a young impressionable lad.
I question some other stories have been passed down in the family through the years.
Some I believe are true. Such as the fact that Jacob Miller spoke very bad English, if he spoke English at all, and he needed a translator to communicate. And that great-uncle John Miller was a bouncer at the Chatt Bar.
Some of the biggest tales come from Grandma Miller’s side of the family, the Brewsters.
Jackson Brewster, my great-great-great-grandfather, a person that seemed to appear out of nowhere in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in time for the 1840 census, was said to have worked on a river boat, perhaps was a boat pilot, or even a river boat pirate! Most likely false tales for any of those river boat positions. It appears that he traveled from Pennsylvania to Indiana, straight through the middle of Ohio, stopping for a time in Brewster, Ohio.
It was said his wife was a beautiful Indian princess, or at least a Native American. Again, probably false. There seems to be very little proof that she was of Native American descent. Some family members have a very slight amount of Native American DNA, depending on what test is used, but we have more Neanderthal and Pigmy DNA than Native American DNA. Besides, her name was Mary Ann Martin. What sort of Native American name is that?
Jackson (1816-1890) & Mary Ann (Martin) Brewster (1822-1895) Photo courtesy of Brian Brewster
Another Brewster family tale (why are all the tales in the Brewster family?) is that we descend from the Mayflower Brewsters. Again, this appears to be a falsity. Our Brewster DNA is not a match to the DNA of proven Mayflower descendants. And I don’t believe genealogy lineage research shows the connection either.
Going back a few more generations in another branch of Grandma’s family, there is the tale of the three brothers who immigrated from Germany. That same tale has been told in many other families as well. It does not appear to be the case in our family. He was very likely born in Pennsylvania.
But, going back to the story that Grandpa had six toes, I am not surprised that my uncles were trying to fool my cousin years ago. That side of the family has had a number of jokesters and pranksters, starting with Grandma Miller. She and her sister Bernice (Brewster) Dudgeon were quite a pair. They were trouble and they knew how to have a good time. Even their youngest sister Dorothy, when I talked with her years ago, said the Brewsters liked to kid around and play jokes on each other. And some of that was passed onto a couple of my aunts and uncles, including my dad.
Gertrude and Bernice, 1971.
Grandma started playing practical jokes on her Brewster siblings when she was a young girl, putting turpentine on her brother’s tobacco leaves that were drying in the barn, ironing the seat of her brother’s wet pants while he was still wearing them, and leaving frozen footprints in the mud that made people think there was a wild person running around.
Grandma Miller with funny glasses
Grandma’s pranks continued into her married life, when she packed raw eggs instead of hard-boiled eggs in Grandpa’s lunch bucket, baked cotton balls in cupcakes, and dressed up like a hobo to scare her boys when they were tenting in the yard.
This carried down to some of her children, when they got their dad to take a big sniff of sneezing powder, accidentally shoot a rifle in the kitchen, and snapped a mouse trap on a sibling’s ear.
Carl Miller family.
That was all from the Brewster side of the family. Grandpa Miller did not have the same sense of humor that Grandma did. He was pretty serious.
They say that opposites attract.
I guess they were a good match.
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I never knew that your Grandma was a jokester – that’s interesting. Yes, I think the Millers (your Grandpa and my Grandma) were pretty serious. I don’t remember Grandma Caroline ever being funny! I remember Dad telling me that either Jacob or Chris, or maybe both, were in boxing matches in Chatt. That may be fact or family lore.
Author
Oh, yes! Millers serious. Brewsters mischievous. Grandma was quite a character, as were Aunt Kate and Ann, and the boys. Your dad told me that John was a bouncer at the Chatt Bar and he may well have known that the other brothers were boxers. Interesting, whether it is true or not. Thanks for writing!
Such a fun post! Your family tree has fascinating folks and it’s terrific that these stories have been passed down–true or not, they capture the imagination.
Author
Thank you! And thanks for writing!
Thanks for sharing! It’s the fun stuff and sometimes serious stuff that makes genealogy so interesting.
Author
You are so right. Genealogy is very interesting and so much fun. Thanks for writing!