A Minshall Descendant Visits Tyler
It’s not unusual to be contacted by a descendant of the families that lived on the land we now know as Tyler Arboretum. Before becoming an arboretum in 1944, seven generations of the Minshall-Painter-Tyler family lived and farmed here. We would like to share one recent visitor’s story who was looking for details from the 1700s.
To set the scene, let’s go back 343 years for a quick review. Thomas and Margaret (Hickock) Minshall lived in Latchford, England, and purchased two parcels of land from William Penn in 1681. This included about 315 acres in Middletown Township, most of which remains as part of Tyler Arboretum, and another 300 acres in Nether Providence (present day Media, PA). About 30 years later, on the occasion of their marriages, Thomas gifted the Middletown tract to his son Jacob and the Nether Providence tract to his son Isaac Sr.
A few weeks ago, a woman from Tennessee named Deborah Baum Crain contacted Tyler. She descends from the Minshalls and hoped to visit Tyler Arboretum and talk with someone about its history. She is completing a book that focuses on her ancestral line through the Minshall family, specifically through Thomas’ son Isaac Sr. and his son Isaac Jr. who lived in Nether Providence.
Deborah writes, “The idea for my book on Isaac Jr. came from reading the 1867 booklet by one of the Painter brothers called ‘Thomas and Margaret Minshall Who Came from England to Pennsylvania in 1682 and Their Early Descendants.’ In it, he wrote that Issac Jr.’s children ‘… removed to Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and were much scattered.’ My direct ancestor Edward was the son who went to Virginia, but I had no information on his brothers and sisters, so I set out to learn more. I found Tyler by doing a lot of googling on the name Minshall! I had seen Tyler early on in my research, but I didn’t delve into the history of it. As I prepared for my trip to PA, I stumbled across a PDF that had pictures of the personal effects of the Painters that were in Lachford Hall.”
Discovering Tyler Arboretum and making time for a visit became a priority for Deborah. I had the pleasure of meeting her here, where we walked and talked through the historic core of the Tyler Arboretum. Her next stop was the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College where the documents and photos saved by generations of the Minshall, Painter and Tyler families are available for anyone to review.
Deborah was searching for documents that provided details about her family that would enhance her book. She knew that Swarthmore had two letters exchanged between Jacob Minshall (1739-1818), who lived in Lachford Hall, and her own ancestor Edward Minshall (c1756-c1802), who lived in Nether Providence (son of Isaac Minshall Jr.). She hoped to find more.
Deborah found the letters she was looking for at the Friends Historical Library. In addition, she discovered documentation of her ancestors in Nether Providence working on the construction of Lachford Hall that still stands on Tyler’s grounds and functions as offices for arboretum staff members. Deborah’s photo of Minshall Painter’s (1801-1873) genealogy notes contains the evidence of the cousins working together on Lachford Hall’s masonry work in about 1734. Griffith, an accomplished bricklayer and mason, was the son of Isaac Minshall Sr. of Nether Providence. Moses, his apprentice, was Thomas’ brother, both sons of Jacob Minshall of Middletown.
Deborah Baum Crain took this photo of Minshall Painter’s genealogy notes in the collection at Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. (Photo by Deborah Baum Crain)
The Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College has a collection of documents and photos saved by generations of the Minshall, Painter and Tyler families. They are available for anyone to review. (Photo courtesy of the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College)
The excerpt in the section titled “Thomas Minshall’ (son of Jacob Minshall and grandson of the original purchaser Thomas Minshall) is seen in Deborah’s photo and is transcribed below:
About this time, he built himself a house on the grounds purchased by the Cheyneys and where his descendants have continued to reside ever since, now the residence of Minshall and Jacob Painter (1867). The mason work of this house was done by his cousin and brother-in-law Griffith Minshall, his brother Moses Minshall being an apprentice with him to learn the mason business.
Another piece to Deborah’s puzzle is complete as she now has proof that these cousins stayed connected! Her book titled “Isaac Minshall Jr. and Lydia Ellis and Their Descendants: From Colonial Pennsylvania to Ohio and Beyond” will be available late this year on Amazon.
I highly recommend a visit to the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. A treasure trove of documents and photos can be found there, all saved by generations of the Minshall, Painter and Tyler families (as well as other Quaker families in our region). Before you visit, you can navigate through their website by choosing one of the three options to view the Tyler contents: Collection Overview, Collection Organization, or Collection Inventory. Each of the many boxes of documents is described, which allows you to select what you’d like to review before you visit.
