Kinship Revealed

Tonight I met an African American cousin who descended from the same Mast ancestor as I did.  The name of our common ancestor is not known to me or to her, but he was the father of Jacob, John, and Magdalena Mast, who immigrated from Switzerland in 1750.  Our African American cousins are descended from John.  I am descended from Jacob.  Almost all American Troyers are descended from Magdalena, who married Michael Troyer, the immigrant patriarch.  The African American cousin is Sharon Cranford.

Sharon Cranford partnered in writing Kinship Concealed with Dwight E. Roth.  Both authors are or were teachers at Hesston College.  By accident, they discovered that both of them have Mast ancestors, and a quick search in the college library revealed their kinship, as detailed in a Mast family record book written by C. Z. Mast.

Like me, Dwight Roth is descended from Jacob, who became the first Amish bishop ordained in America.  He was apparently a very able young man, and was ordained without the use of the lot.  Jacob Mast is buried near Morgantown, Pennsylvania, near where the Mast homestead is located.

The Masts were Amish when they arrived in Philadephia.  Seven Mast children arrived without their parents, in the company of their uncle.  The children were orphans, and it's possible that originally their parents had also intended to emigrate, but died before they left the old country.  The three remaining Mast daughters have been lost to history.

John soon parted ways with his siblings, and walked eventually to  North Carolina, where he forsook the Amish practices, and his family eventually became associated with the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (later Christian Methodist Episcopal),  No evidence has  been found that John Mast owned slaves, but his son Joseph did. Joseph's son, Reuben, fathered a child by a very young Ghanian slave girl owned by his father.  The mother named her son Charley.

When Charley was six months old, his mother was sold "down south."  Her fate is unknown.  Charley, however, was taken to live, for a few years, in the household of Reuben Mast's brother John Mast III. While he was still preschool age, the Masts decided it was time for him to take up life with other African Americans, and he grew to adulthood in the slave quarters.

Charley's birth father, Reuben, eventually moved to Texas, in 1859.  When he did so, he purchased Charley from his brother John for $1100.00, at a time when the going rate for slaves was $200.00.  Charley had apparently developed into a very capable and valuable young man, and Reuben had to pay dearly for Charley.  (I'm thinking it served him right.)

I'm not sure where the story goes from Texas, but somehow, Charley's great great granddaughter, Sharon Cranford, ended up in Wichita, Kansas.  She has a PhD and is married to a man with a PhD.

Tonight I bought the book Sharon Cranford and Dwight E. Roth wrote together.  They explained, in the meeting we had at Center, that the book contains facts verifiable by written records, records from oral history, and imagination.  The book is written as a historical novel.  I haven't read the book, but I heard tonight that the first and the last sections in the book were written in partnership.  In the middle are two different story lines:  Dwight's family history, and Sharon's family history.

The meeting tonight was Sharon and Dwight's first successful effort to connect with the Mast-Troyer branch of their family.  They made that connection through  my uncle by marriage, Ollie Troyer.  Ollie and Emma hosted Sharon Cranford and her husband and mother (95) and Dwight Roth in their home for a meal this evening, before the meeting.

Sharon's maiden name is Hill.  The Hills came from South Carolina.  Tantalizingly, one of Ollie's sisters has spent most of her adulthood as a mentor to Cindy Sharp,  in Washington, D.C.  Cindy's family's ancestors include Hills from South Carolina.

That's all for now.   Profound reflections, if forthcoming at all, will have to wait for another day.