52 Ancestors 2025: Religious Traditions – Simple Gifts

 

Many of my ancestors came to the New World seeking religious freedom. Many were Reformed Protestants—Huguenots, Puritans, Presbyterians, and Dutch and German Reformed. These so-called Calvinists, whose roots trace back to the teachings of John Calvin, held a dim view of human nature and mistrusted concentrated power in the hands of kings and bishops. Instead, they believed in leadership by representatives chosen by their congregations. These ideals would later help inspire the American Revolution and shape American governance.

Other ancestors were shaped by the evangelical movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Some early immigrants were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), products of the Evangelical Awakening in Britain (paralleling the First Great Awakening in the colonies), and were among the founders of William Penn’s colony in Pennsylvania. Others, especially those who moved westward, away from established churches with highly educated clergy, were drawn in by the circuit riders of the Second Great Awakening—Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. In fact, my ancestor John Jay Fast, during his moves from Ohio to Illinois to Missouri, became a founding member of the Free Will Baptist Church in Barton County.

One of the more surprising turns in our family’s religious story is our connection to the Shaker movement. Formally known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, the Shakers were founded in England in 1747 by Ann Lee. While Reformed theology emphasized a return to the early church, the Shakers took a more radical approach. They formed separate communities, held goods in common, and prepared fervently for the Second Coming of Christ, which they believed was imminent. As part of that preparation, they embraced celibacy and strict separation of the sexes. Their emotional, ecstatic worship—featuring singing, dancing, and shaking—earned them the nickname “Shakers.” Yet despite their radicalism, they were known for their industriousness, egalitarianism (especially in gender roles), and forward-looking simplicity.

So where does our family come into this?

When Mother Ann Lee came to the colonies in 1774, she began recruiting new members and founding villages in New York and New England—areas already settled by Puritan families. As the movement spread west, Shaker missionaries arrived in Warren County, Ohio, and the Bluegrass region of Kentucky in 1805. These regions had been settled by my Huguenot and Dutch Reformed ancestors. The missionaries found three willing hosts: Elisha Thomas, and brothers Samuel and Henry Banta. They were soon joined by their brother John Banta and their families. The new colony was formally established on Elisha Thomas’s farm in 1807.

The Bantas were sons of Hendrick (Henry) Banta, a leader of the 1780 Ohio River migration from the Conewago Dutch colony in Pennsylvania to Kentucky. His sister, Wyntie Banta—my 5th-great-grandmother—had married Samuel Durie, who was the father-in-law of Pieter Cossart, and leader of the the Wilderness Road migration, also in 1780. These groups joined together and became the Low Dutch Colony of central Kentucky.

Those early years were challenging. The settlers faced war and food insecurity and had to convert contested Indian hunting lands into farmland. Perhaps it was this trauma, and the absence of Dutch Reformed churches on the far side of the Appalachians, that made families like the Bantas receptive to the Shakers’ promises: shared goods, mutual support, and spiritual purpose. The Dutch settlers were certainly seeking their own pastors rather than falling under the influence of revivalist preachers from the Second Great Awakening.

Maybe the idea of a utopian frontier appealed to the Bantas—a way to keep family together in the face of constant westward movement. Whatever the reason, they became key players in the founding of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky’s earliest and largest Shaker village. Yet the community was not immune to hardship. Disease, especially tuberculosis (consumption), took its toll. Some, like Samuel Banta, eventually left the sect. And with a celibate lifestyle, Shaker growth depended entirely on recruitment, so the number of Bantas at Pleasant Hill declined over time.

Still, Pleasant Hill thrived for a time. Shakers were known for their functional architecture, their finely made furniture, and even for inventing the flat broom—sparking a broom-making boom across the country. But eventually, as with many idealistic movements, decline set in. The society at Pleasant Hill closed in 1910. Its last member died in 1923. Yet the buildings were preserved, and Pleasant Hill became a historic site.

An unexpected discovery: while living in Kentucky, we visited Pleasant Hill and were drawn to the beauty and simplicity of the place—never suspecting that we had deep family roots there.

One final note: the other 1805 Shaker settlement, Union Village, was established in Warren County, Ohio. That region became a haven for families moving north from Kentucky, including Hendrick, son of Pieter Cossart, and his mother, Maria Durie Cossart. When reviewing Turtle Creek Township’s farm plots and censuses, you can spot several Bantas—descendants of Henry Banta, the great patriarch. The Shaker story, it turns out, is another unexpected chapter in our family’s long religious journey through America.

Reference: Murray, Joan England, The Bantas Of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky: Their Ancestors And Descendants, Heritage Books, 2010.

Photo Credit: Photograph taken by Tom Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=168622

52 Ancestors 2025: Siblings - The Cossart Family’s Diverging Journeys

 

There are many families in my family tree, and except for recent generations, there may not be many interesting sibling stories that have been passed down. However, one family intrigued me because its various siblings took dramatically different paths.

My 5th-great-grandparents, Francis Cossart and Margaret Van Nest, came from Huguenot-Dutch families in New Amsterdam and later New Jersey. Before the American Revolution, they settled in the Low Dutch Colony of the Conowago Valley in York County (now Adams County), Pennsylvania. They had seven recorded children, and here are the stories of three of them.

Francis was an important member of the community. Before the Revolution, he served on the Committees of Correspondence. During the war, he worked to supply soldiers with clothing and, as a member of the Provincial, then State, Assembly, helped draft the first Pennsylvania Constitution.

David Cossart (1743–1823)

The eldest son, David, followed in his father’s footsteps, serving in the local militia during the Revolution and later in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Even before the war, he had purchased a farm near his family’s land and remained in the area for the rest of his life. His son Denis moved westward to West Virginia, and that branch of the family found great success. One descendant, Robert Cassatt, made a fortune in land and stock trading in Pittsburgh before relocating to Philadelphia. His children became famous: Mary Stevenson Cassatt, the renowned Impressionist artist, and Alexander Johnston Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Christina Cossart Clopper (1755–1801)

Christina married Cornelius Clopper, a fellow member of the Low Dutch Colony, and they divided their time between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Their son, Francis Cassatt Clopper, bought a gristmill in Gaithersburg, Maryland, along Seneca Creek. He married an Irish Catholic woman and donated land to the local diocese to build St. Rose of Lima Church. His prominence led to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad building the Metropolitan Branch to serve the D.C. and southwestern Maryland region. The road passing his mill, Clopper Road, later inspired lyricists Billy Danoff and Taffy Nivert, from Gaithersburg, to write that song that was completed by John Denver. Interestingly, this branch of the family also began using the “Cassatt” variation of the surname.

Pieter Cossart (1746–1781)

The second son, Pieter (Peter), was also a Patriot and militia member. Unlike his siblings, who remained in the east, he was drawn to the west, lured by the promise of land in Kentucky. In 1781, he migrated with many in-laws to the Fort Harrodsburg area of the Bluegrass region. Tragically, he was killed by Native Americans within six months of his arrival. His descendants, including Hendrick, William, and David, became farmers, shaping my lineage. His choice to move west remains one of the great “what ifs” of my ancestry. Interestingly, some of his descendants also adopted the “Cassatt” variation of the surname, suggesting that family ties transcended the distances as their paths diverged.

52 Ancestors 2025: Surprise - My Old Kentucky Home

 

Genealogical research can be full of surprises—finding a famous (or infamous) ancestor, uncovering mysteries, discovering ties to U.S. or world history, hitting dead ends, or suddenly breaking through a lineage that once seemed impenetrable. My surprise, however, began before I even became interested in genealogy.

Throughout my education, my goal was to attend graduate school and earn an advanced degree so I could become a scientist. That dream became a reality when I was accepted to the University of Kentucky and moved to Lexington—the heart of the Bluegrass. Coming from Buffalo, NY, was a bit of a culture shock, but I adapted and grew interested in the region’s history, from the journeys of Daniel Boone to Lexington’s reputation as the “Athens of the West” and the nearby Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. The Shakers’ simple, agrarian lifestyle was appealing, though perhaps a bit too structured for my taste.

After five years of study and with a Ph.D. in hand, I moved to the Philadelphia area, expecting to explore my family roots there.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my roots were more deeply tied to Kentucky than to Philadelphia.

How could that be? As I had understood, my paternal Huguenot-Dutch ancestors had started in New Amsterdam and ultimately settled in southwest Missouri. But as I delved into my research, I uncovered a different story. These colonists had followed a migration path from New Amsterdam to New Jersey and then to the “Low Dutch” Colony just east of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In early 1781, enticed by the promises of Squire Boone (Daniel Boone’s brother), a large group of these settlers—including the Bantas, Duries, Demarees, and a single Cossart family—picked up and moved westward to central Kentucky. They settled near Fort Harrod.

All those years I lived in the area, and I never knew the connection.

Unfortunately, frontier life during the American Revolution was perilous. Many of these settlers, including my ancestor Pieter Cossart, were killed in Indian attacks. While my direct family line moved north to Ohio, many others remained. In fact, two of the founders of Pleasant Hill, Samuel and Henry Banta, were cousins of Pieter.

With so much family history rooted in the region, it may be time for another visit—this time seeing Kentucky through an entirely new lens.