From: "Richard_B. Anderson"
Date: May 21, 2010 10:01:59 PM MDT
To: Myrtle Hyde
Subject: Heman and Freedom

Dear Cousin Myrtle--

…if I may so address you. Not sure just how we’re cousins, but I’m betting on it!

As I suggested in our conversation, I’ve been researching Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York for a decade now, including three extended visits there. I attach a few OCR’d pages from the 1879 History of Cattaraugus County, just as a sample of what’s there. It mentions the early life of Heman, his son Heman T., and Josephus (whom I don't otherwise know) as living in the Fish Lake neighborhood near Warren Cowdery, Earl Sawyer, and the Cheneys.

I’m interested in any light you might be able to cast on any of these characters and on the Freedom Branch of the Church, although my principal focus is on the Sawyers. Because Caleb Sawyer married my Aunt Clarissa Caroline Wheeler, and they moved their family to Livingston County, Michigan, where they are revered as original pioneers. As I was finally able to connect up only last summer, after all these years of poking around.

You’re aware, of course (although I’m still encountering details) that Heman Tilton Hyde married Earl Sawyer’s daughter Eunice and took her to Utah, where he died. She and her children returned to Earl’s household in Freedom, where they appear in the 1850 and 1860 Censuses. The 1860 one refers to her as “Caused by grief; insane” and lists her children Mary A “Hinds” age 14 a Teacher born in Illinois, and Heman T “Hinds” age 19 a Laborer born in Ohio. So they apparently went through the Kirtland and Nauvoo periods…

Richard B. “Andy” Anderson, Secretary
Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Utah