466
COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES
H enry Bittcnliender. grandfather o f Mrs. Richard.son, settled with his fam ily at Forks, Columbia Co.. P a., purchasing what a fte r wards became known as the Zander farm, one of the best in the Fishing creek valley. Evan K. Bittenbender. her father, w as bom Feb. 26, 1842, at Cam bra, L u zcm c Co., Pa., and came wilh the fam ily to this section. When he at tained his m ajority he enlisted fo r scn-icc in the Union arm y, joining Company E . 209th P. V. I., with which company he served to the end of the w ar, taking part in a number o f important engagements, including those at Fort Stedman and Petersburg. On Srot. 28, 1865. he m arried Rebecca M atilda Stoker, daughter o f Daniel Stoker, and the same year removed to Constantine, Mich. In 18 8 1 he removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Through his grandmother, I^ u ra (I.ym an ) Richardson, M r. Richardson is a descendant o f Richard Lym an, who landed on these shores in 16 3 1, only eleven years after the Pilgrim Fathers. T w o years before K ing Charle.< 1. had granted the charter incorporat ing "T h e Governor and Company of the Massachusetts B ay in .New EngLand.” The year before lohn W inthrop had been chosen govcm or o f Massachusetts and had emigrated to the Colony. T h is Richard L)-man w as atso an ancestor o f .Admiral George Dewey, his granddaughter, Hcpzibah (daughter o f his son Richard, o f W indsor, Conn., who died in 16 6 2), m arrying N ov. 6, 1662. Jo siah Dewey. T h us an article which appeared in the P hila delphia P ress Aug. 14. 1898. relating to Dewey's early ancestors, is also properly in cluded in this account of the Lym ans. ".Admiral Dewey's pedigree begins on the liordcr o f mythology with T hor, the Saxon (k)d. or cuk-hcro, who is almost a myth, called variously Vothinn, Othinn, Odin, Bodo, and Woden, the K in g of the W est J^ x o n s, A. D.. 256-300; he and his spouse, F rca, were the M ara and V'cnus o f Saxon Mythology. T his K in g Woden, the God o f war, is de scribed as the great-grandfather o f bugaboos o f English history', Ilo rsa and Hengst, broth ers, freebooters and pirates, o f whom the Saxo n amials tells us that Hengst was the K in g o f Saxon s, and die<l liclwecn A D. 474 and 495, the first K in g o f Kent. "IveaVing this progenitor of the Saxon nilcrs o f Britain, Adm iral Dewey's royal lineage passes along the royal Saxo n line on the continent, through K in g H engst's son, Prince llartw alk er. to the historic K ing Dictcric. ami his ‘ fam ous’ w ife (he had others), W obrogcra. a daughter of the unique
character, Bcllun, K in g of the W ordcr. Their grandson, Witekind the G reat, w as the last king of the Saxon s, A . D . 7 6 9 ^ 7, and then dwindled into only their dukes, and D uke of Westphalia, while his descendants fo r a few d e r a t i o n s were only Counts o f W ettin, un til on the genealogical line we come to the great Robert— Robert-fortis— who by his sword became Count o f A x jo r and Orleans. Duke and M arquis o f France, and won the hand of the fa ir L ad y AUsa, sister-in-law to the K in g o f France. Lothaire 1. "T h is hero o f medieval history. Robertfortis, the great-grandson of the great Wite kind, w as the founder of the so called Capu chin line o f monarchs o f France, fo r from him. through a line o f Dukes o f France and Burgundy. Count.s o f Paris, etc., who by their swords ,'ind intermarriages became firmly seated on French soil, w as descended the cele brated Hugh Capet, Duke o f France, who usurped the throne o f France and supplanted Charles. Duke o f Lorraine, the heir of Louts d’Outremere, or K in g Louis IV, the last ( ^ r lovingian, or descendant of the great Em peror Charrcmagnc, to occupy the ‘ I^cnch’ throne. "T w o other kings o i the Capuchin line— Robert the Pious, and H en iy the first— D ew ey numbers among his illustrious ancestors, and (iibbon, in his 'Histor)- of the Rom an Em pire.’ tells us u f the high lineage o f one o f his early ancestresses, .Anne o f Russia, w ife o f H enry I., o f France. Gibbon states she w as the daughter o f Jaroslau s. Grand D uke or C zar of Rus.sia. .A. D. 1 0 1 5 - 10 5 1. who w as a descend ant o f B.asil, the Macedonian, the first em peror o f Constantinople o f his line. A . D. 867, and that Basil w as descended, on his father’s side, from the .Aracides, the rivals o f Rom e, pos sessors of the scepter of the E ast fo r fo u r h u n d r^ years, through a younger branch of the Parthian monarchs. reigning in .A rm enia: and on his mother's side, from the European. Constantino the Great, and .Alexander the Great, the Macedonian. "Continuing Dewey's pedigree, wc find that one o f his ancestors— the one nccessan.lo connect him with these historic characters — w as the son o f K in g H en iy L. o f I'rance. Hugh the Gre.1t, or M agnus. l>ukc o f France and Burgundy. Afarquis o f (Orleans, and Count o f Paris, and through h is w ife Count o f ‘em u nd ois ,ind X'alois. a noted man o f his day. " I t is here that D ewey’s pedigree leaves the continent and licgins to Iw a part o f E n g lish history. Dewey s ancestress. L ad y Isabel dc X'crnundois. w as Ihe daughter of the
