The Quaker Who Answered Lincoln’s Call: Faith, Freedom, and the Price of Gettysburg

 

As America approaches its Semiquincentennial in 2026, we honor not just the famous names carved into marble, but the deeply personal threads of conviction that bound everyday families to the survival of the Republic.

In our own family tree, two distinct lines converge in the fight to end human slavery and preserve the Union: a distant Welsh-Quaker lineage that connects us as 7th cousins 5x removed to President Abraham Lincoln, and the poignant, tragic story of our 3rd great-grandfather, 2nd Lieutenant Rifford Randolph Hallowell (1816–1864).

Part 1: The Shared Welsh-Quaker Roots with Abraham Lincoln

To understand why a Quaker-descended Pennsylvanian would pick up a rifle in 1861, one must look back to the early Quaker migrations of the late 17th century.

Through our Welsh ancestors—tracing back to the Anwyl, Evans, and Nanney families who settled in the Pennsylvania countryside—our bloodline splits into two distinct paths:

1. One path leads down through Sarah Morris Evans and the Hanks line to Abraham Lincoln.
2. The other path leads through the Nanney, Trump, and Hallowell families down to Rifford Randolph Hallowell and ultimately to us.

                      William Lewis Anwyl (1570–1642)

                     [Common Ancestor in Merioneth, Wales]

                                       │

             ┌────────────┴─────────── ┐

             │                                                   │

  The Presidential Line                                  Our Direct Line

  =====================                                  ===============

  Catherine Lewis Anwyl (1593–1639)                     John Anwyl (1598–1660)

  Katherine Verch Wynn Robert (1629–1704)           Elizabeth Anwyl (b. 1625)

  Cadwalader Evans (1664–1745)                           John Nanney (1664–1716)

  Sarah Morris Evans (1690–1741)                        Rees Nanney (1681–1747)

  John Hanks (1712–1778)                                 Grace Nanney (1716–1799)

  Joseph Hanks (1742–1821)                               Hannah Trump (1751–1809)

  Nancy Hanks (1784–1818)                                Joseph Hallowell (1785–1872)

  

  ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809–1865)             LIUTENANT RIFFORD R. HALLOWELL (1816–1864)

  16th U.S. President                                    Co. K, 28th Pennsylvania Infantry

  [7th Cousin 5x Removed]                                [3rd Great-Grandfather]

Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) held a foundational testimony that every human soul possessed the "Inner Light"—a belief that made them among the earliest, most resolute abolitionists in North America. While many Quakers remained strict pacifists, the moral crisis of the Civil War forced men like Rifford Hallowell to make a agonizing choice: keep the peace, or lay down one's life to smash the institution of slavery.

Part 2: From Peace to the Front Lines (1861)

Born in Philadelphia in 1816 to a family steeped in the Quaker tradition, Rifford Randolph Hallowell was raised in an environment that abhorred human bondage. His father, Joseph Hallowell, had served in the War of 1812, establishing a tradition of civic duty.

When his distant cousin Abraham Lincoln issued the call for troops to defend the Union, Rifford was 44 years old—a family man with a wife and children. Yet his anti-slavery conviction was so profound that he put aside traditional Quaker pacifism to act.

On July 20, 1861, Rifford enlisted in Company K of the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Recognized for his maturity and leadership, he rose to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

                   Lieutenant Hallowell's Path

                   

 July 1861: Enlists in Co. K, 28th Pennsylvania Infantry

   │

 July 1863: The Terror of Gettysburg (Culp's Hill)

   │   Fought on the extreme right flank of the Union line

   ▼

 Sept 1863: Resigns due to severe battle illness/trauma

   │

 Jan 1864: Dies at home in Frankford, Philadelphia (Aged 47)

Part 3: The Sheer Terror of Gettysburg (July 1863)

In July 1863, the 28th Pennsylvania Infantry marched into the epicenter of the American Civil War: Gettysburg.

Assigned to Geary’s Brigade in the 12th Corps, Lieutenant Hallowell and his men were positioned at Culp's Hill, holding the critical right flank of the Union army. On July 2 and 3, Culp’s Hill became an absolute cauldron of noise and slaughter. For hours, Confederate forces launched relentless night and morning assaults through the dense timber and boulders.

The fighting on Culp's Hill was brutally intense:

• Musket fire was so thick that full-grown oak trees were chopped down by minié balls.
• Smoke hung so heavy in the trees that officers could only guide their men by the flashes of gunfire.
• The 28th Pennsylvania stood their ground in makeshift breastworks, firing until their rifle barrels burned to the touch.

While the Union line held, the physical and psychological toll was catastrophic. Exposed to unrelenting artillery, deafening rifle fire, and the horror of close-quarters combat, Lieutenant Hallowell’s health broke under the extreme stress.

Part 4: The Ultimate Sacrifice

Following the battle at Gettysburg, Lt. Hallowell succumbed to severe illness and trauma brought on by the grueling campaign. On September 13, 1863—just two months after the battle—he was forced to resign his commission.

Rifford returned home to Frankford, Philadelphia, but the physical damage was done. On January 10, 1864, at the age of 47, 2nd Lieutenant Rifford Randolph Hallowell died from the afflictions contracted in service to his country.

Though he did not fall on the field at Culp’s Hill, he gave his life just as surely as if a bullet had struck him there—a casualty of the greatest battle fought on North American soil.

Legacy of the 250th

As we reflect on America’s 250-year journey, the story of Rifford Hallowell reminds us of the moral courage that defines our history:

• A man raised in the anti-slavery tradition of the Quakers.
• A distant cousin of the President whose campaign he marched to fulfill.
• A patriot who paid the ultimate price so that "a new birth of freedom" might endure.

From Rifford’s sacrifice, the family line continued through his daughter Amanda Merrio Hallowell, her daughter Lillian Amanda Pierce, down through the Bailey line, and directly to our family today. We carry his story forward not just as genealogical trivia, but as a living testament to the price paid for human liberty.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Fort Stanwix, Towanda Creek, and the Road to Ohio: The Journey of Zepheniah Roger

 

The story of the American Republic was written by men and women who cleared the wilderness with a felling axe, stood their ground against imperial armies, and continued pushing the frontier west until they reached the outer edges of the young nation. For the Rogers family, this two-century journey began in the earliest puritan outposts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, moved through the battlefields of the Revolutionary War, anchored for twenty-six years along Towanda Creek in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and concluded in the fertile soil of Franklin County, Ohio.

Part 1: Comprehensive Genealogical & Historical Discoveries

Generation 1 & 2: The Massachusetts Birthplace & The Connecticut Shore

• Zepheniah Rogers (1747–1823): Born out of wedlock in Mendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on March 8, 1747 (recorded March 18 in town records), to Abigail Hayward (daughter of possibly Oliver and Abigail Hayward, but still unproven). Town records noted Abigail as a "transient person." Raised in the rugged New England interior, Zepheniah grew up with a timberman's self-reliance.
• Elizabeth Rood (1753–1838): Daughter of Isaac Rood and Elizabeth Ellsworth, she married Zepheniah on March 7, 1770, in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was the grand-niece of the prominent Ellsworth line of Windsor. Elizabeth braved every leg of her husband’s frontier journey—from Connecticut to Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and finally Ohio—surviving him by fifteen years and drawing his hard-earned Continental pension until her death in Brown Township, Ohio, in 1838.

Generation 3: The Continental Line & Military Service

• First Enlistment (May 1776 – April 1777): Enlisted as a Private in Capt. William Satterlee’s Company, under Col. Samuel Elmore in the Connecticut Line. Deployed to the northern theater in upstate New York, his unit garrisoned key outposts along the Mohawk Valley, including Fort Stanwix (Fort Schuyler) and Johnstown, securing the western gateway against British forces and frontier raids.
• Second Enlistment (April 1777 – Sept/Oct 1777): Following his initial term, Zepheniah re-enlisted in Capt. Daniel Davis’s Company, continuing under Col. Elmore for another five to six months of active wartime service.

Generation 4: The Bradford County, Pennsylvania Pioneer (1796–1822)

After the war, Zepheniah and Elizabeth raised their family across a nomadic line of frontier settlements: Rupert, Vermont (1773); Torrington and Goshen, Connecticut; and Catskill and Blenheim, New York (1787–1794).

• The Towanda Creek Homestead: In 1796, Zepheniah migrated with his family to Canton Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, settling on Towanda Creek (later known as the Hubbell Manley farm).
• Pioneer Ingenuity: Upon arrival, the family lived in a raw 14x18-foot floorless log cabin. Zepheniah built a "one-legged bedstead"—a forked stick driven into the dirt floor with poles running to the wall logs, woven together with bark for bed-cord.
• The Tub-Mill: To process grain for himself and his neighbors, Zepheniah constructed a primitive "tub-mill" on his property. Utilizing local conglomerate stone from the nearby coal measures, he hand-dressed the millstones. The mill had a capacity of cracking 1.5 to 3 bushels of corn in a 24-hour run.
• The 1818 Pension & Schedule of Property: On May 9, 1818, Zepheniah applied for a pension under the Revolutionary War Veteran's Act, drawing $8 a month ($96/year). His court-filed schedule of property offers a window into late-frontier life in Bradford County:
• Land & Livestock: 77.5 acres of land (25 acres cleared out of forest), 10 sheep, 1 sow, and 4 shoats.
• The Pioneer Kitchen: 1 bread oven, 1 iron trammel, 1 iron pot, 4 kettles, 1 frying pan, 1 spider, 1 tea kettle, flat irons, old pewter (6 plates, 2 platters), 6 teacups and saucers, and 6 iron spoons.
• Craftsman & Household Tools: Carpenter tools, 1 old cross-cut saw, 1 lantern, 1 hoe, 1 big spinning wheel, 1 foot wheel, 3 chairs, a chest, a table, and an old silver watch.

Generation 5: The Final Ohio Migration & The Bailey Connection

• Rosemanty Rogers (1789–1843): Born in Catskill, New York, Rosemanty grew up on the Canton Township homestead in Pennsylvania. Around 1810, she married Smith Bailey (1789–1862), a veteran of the War of 1812 and son of Thomas Bailey and Esther Smith. Rosemanty and Smith carried the family line onward into Ohio in 1821, and ultimately into the Iowa Territory in 1845.
• The Final Westward Push (1822–1823): In 1822, after 26 years of building up his farm in Canton Township, the elderly Zepheniah—alongside his wife Elizabeth and grown children—packed up one last time to join his family on the Ohio frontier. Settling in Washington Township, Franklin County, Ohio, Zepheniah died the following year on October 7, 1823, at the age of 76.

             The Migration Trail of Zepheniah Rogers

             

 1747: Mendon, MASSACHUSETTS (Birth)

   │

 1770: Litchfield, CONNECTICUT (Marriage to Elizabeth Rood)

   │

 1776: Fort Stanwix & Johnstown, NEW YORK (Revolutionary War)

   │

 1787: Catskill & Blenheim, NEW YORK (Birth of Rosemanty & Irvine)

   │

 1796: Canton Twp., Bradford Co., PENNSYLVANIA (26 Years: Tub-Mill & Farm)

   │

 1822: Franklin County, OHIO (Final Homestead)

Part 2: The Standard of Fort Stanwix: Zepheniah Rogers and the Road to Ohio

The story of the American Republic is written in the footsteps of those who marched toward the sound of the war drums, and then kept right on marching toward the setting sun. For Zepheniah Rogers and Elizabeth Rood, that trail spanned three states, two wars, and thousands of miles of wilderness—a journey that transformed raw forest into farms, mills, and communities.

Zepheniah’s life began on March 8, 1747, in Mendon, Massachusetts, born to Abigail Hayward during a period of colonial expansion. Raised in the timbered backwoods of New England, he developed a sharp edge of self-reliance. By 1770, his search for land brought him to Litchfield, Connecticut, where he married Elizabeth Rood—a daughter of the pioneer Rood line and a descendant of the prominent Ellsworth family of Windsor.

When the fire of the American Revolution erupted in 1776, Zepheniah left his young family to answer the call of the Continental Congress. Enlisting as a private in Capt. William Satterlee’s company under Col. Samuel Elmore, he was marched into the perilous northern theater of New York. In the dense wilderness of the Mohawk Valley, Zepheniah stood watch at Fort Stanwix and Johnstown—vital outposts charged with holding the northern frontier against British regulars and border raids. For nearly eighteen months across two enlistments, he endured bitter weather, short rations, and constant alert, holding the northern gateway for the young nation.

With independence won, Zepheniah returned to his family, but the spirit of the frontier would not let them settle. After years spent in Vermont, Connecticut, and the Catskill Mountains of New York, Zepheniah loaded his family and meager possessions into a wagon in 1796 and headed south into the wild interior of northern Pennsylvania.

They settled along Towanda Creek in Canton Township, Bradford County, taking up raw land on what would become the Hubbell Manley farm. There, in a 14 x 18-foot floorless log cabin, Zepheniah built a bedstead out of a forked stick driven into the earth floor, strung with bark cords. To feed his family and neighbors, he built a primitive "tub-mill" from scratch, dressing coarse conglomerate stone from the mountain coal measures to grind corn—a bushel and a half a day—for the early settlers of the valley.

For twenty-six years, Zepheniah and Elizabeth labored in Canton Township. They cleared 25 acres of timber, raised sheep, spun wool on their foot wheels, and built a self-sufficient life. When Zepheniah applied for his veteran's pension in 1818, his court schedule recorded a life lived through honest work: carpenter tools, an old cross-cut saw, a bread oven, iron kettles, and a few cherished pewter plates.

Yet, even in his seventies, Zepheniah was not done moving. In 1822, leaving the Bradford County farm to his children, Zepheniah and Elizabeth made one final journey west, joining their daughter Rosemanty and son-in-law Smith Bailey on the fertile plains of Franklin County, Ohio.

When Zepheniah passed away in Washington Township on October 7, 1823, he was laid to rest in the soil he had helped win and cultivate. Elizabeth lived on for another fifteen years in Brown Township, drawing the pension earned by her husband’s musket at Fort Stanwix.

From a floorless cabin along Towanda Creek to the sunlit fields of Ohio, Zepheniah Rogers and Elizabeth Rood proved that the American frontier was built not by fortune, but by relentless grit, hard work, and unyielding endurance.

Clarification on Mayflower Claims

Genealogical Note: Caution regarding any Mayflower claims is well-founded. While some online trees attempt to link Abigail Hayward or Zepheniah Rogers to Thomas Rogers or John Alden of the Mayflower, there is currently no primary documentation (town, probate, or land records) proving a direct line from Zepheniah to a Mayflower passenger. His primary documented record begins with his birth in the Mendon, Massachusetts vital records as the son of Abigail Hayward.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Oliver Bailey (1738–1822): The Veteran of Two Empires

 

The story of early America is often told through grand political declarations, but it was forged by men who spent their youth in the heavy timber and high grass of raw battlefields. Our 6th great-grandfather, Oliver Bailey, was one of those rare colonial citizen-soldiers who bore arms in both epochal conflicts that defined North America: the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.

From the blood-soaked abatis of French Fort Carillon to the desperate retreat across Long Island under George Washington, Oliver spent decades marching toward the sound of gunfire before laying down his musket to become a founding pioneer of Bradford County, Pennsylvania.

Part 1: Genealogical Overview & Timeline

• Born: June 25, 1738, in Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut.
• Died: October 14, 1822, in Granville Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania (Aged 84).
• Military Legacy: Serviceman in the French and Indian War (1758, 1759, 1760) and Private in the Revolutionary War (1776).

Generational Military Lineage

Oliver established a tradition of service that carried through generations of our family tree:

• Oliver Bailey (1738–1822) — 6th Great-Grandfather: French and Indian War & American Revolution.
• Thomas Bailey (1765–1854) — Son: War of 1812.
• Smith Bailey (1789–1862) — Grandson: War of 1812 (Husband of Rosemanty Rogers).
• Orange Bailey (1811–1905) — Great-Grandson.
• David Solomon Bailey (1837–1915) — 2nd Great-Grandson: Union Soldier, Civil War.
• David Jackson Bailey (1865–1949) — 3rd Great-Grandson.
• Frank Jackson Bailey (1886–1968) — 4th Great-Grandson: Montana Militia, World War I.

Part 2: Fighting for the Crown — The French & Indian War (1758–1760)

As a young man in his twenties living in Haddam, Connecticut, Oliver entered provincial service to fight for the British Crown against the French and their Native allies in the wilderness of upper New York and Canada.

                  Oliver's French & Indian War Campaigns

                  

 1758: Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga) ──► 3rd CT Regiment (Col. Fitch)

   │   Bloodiest defeat; faced French entrenchments

   ▼

 1759: Fall of Ticonderoga ──────────► 1st CT Regiment (Maj. Gen. Lyman)

   │   British capture the fort under Gen. Amherst

   ▼

 1760: Montreal Campaign ────────────► 2nd CT Regiment (Col. Whiting)

   │   Served as Regimental Drummer; French surrender

1758: The Disaster at Fort Carillon

Enlisting in Capt. Jonathan Latimer’s Company of Col. Eleazar Fitch’s 3rd Connecticut Regiment, 20-year-old Oliver was marched north into the Lake George wilderness under British General James Abercrombie.

On July 8, 1758, Abercrombie ordered a frontal assault against French General Marquis de Montcalm’s heavily fortified position at Fort Carillon (later renamed Fort Ticonderoga). Without waiting for field artillery, thousands of British and Provincial troops charged into a maze of sharpened, fallen trees (abatis) under devastating volley fire. It became the bloodiest battle of the war, leaving over 2,000 British casualties.

A Family Twist on the Battlefield: In an incredible stroke of genealogical fate, while young Oliver Bailey was charging the logs at Carillon with the Connecticut provincials, another of our grandfathers—Michel Vielle (our 5th great-grandfather)—was stationed behind those very same log walls as a French soldier in the Régiment de la Reine. Two ancestors, fighting under different flags, facing each other across the smoke of the same timber barrier.

1759: The Capture of Ticonderoga

Determined to erase the 1758 defeat, Oliver re-entered service in 1759 with Maj. Gen. Phineas Lyman’s 1st Connecticut Regiment. Under General Sir Jeffery Amherst, the British army returned to Fort Carillon. Outmaneuvered, the French garrison blew up the powder magazine and retreated. Oliver and his unit helped occupy the fallen stronghold, officially renamed Fort Ticonderoga.

1760: The Montreal Campaign & The Fall of New France

By 1760, Oliver had earned the responsibilities of a Regimental Drummer in Capt. Ichabod Scranton’s 5th Company, Col. Nathan Whiting’s 2nd Connecticut Regiment. Drums were the tactical communications system of 18th-century armies, signaling assembly, marches, and battlefield orders.

Oliver beat the drums as part of General Amherst’s three-pronged convergence on Montreal. Surrounded by 18,000 British and provincial troops, the French civilian governor surrendered on September 8, 1760, ending French colonial rule in Canada and completing the conquest of New France.

Part 3: Fighting for the Republic — The Revolutionary War (1776)

Sixteen years after helping win North America for the British King, Oliver Bailey took up his musket again—this time to fight against the Crown.

                      1776 Revolutionary Campaign

                      

 June 1776: Enlists in Capt. Higgins' Co., Col. Douglas' 5th CT Battalion

   │

 August 1776: Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn Heights)

   │   Fought in largest battle of the war; survived Washington's retreat

   ▼

 October 1776: Battle of White Plains

       Fought British flank maneuvers in Westchester County, NY

In June 1776, as the Continental Congress prepared to sign the Declaration of Independence, 38-year-old Oliver enlisted as a Private in Capt. Cornelius Higgins’ 8th Company, within Col. William Douglas’s 5th Connecticut Battalion (Wadsworth’s Brigade). His unit was rushed directly to New York to reinforce General George Washington’s fledgling Continental Army.

The Battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776)

Oliver arrived in New York just in time for the largest land battle of the entire Revolutionary War. Holding positions on Long Island, Washington’s army was outmaneuvered when British General Howe landed 32,000 troops and flanked the American line through Jamaica Pass.

Oliver’s Connecticut battalion was thrust into the chaos of the retreat toward Brooklyn Heights. While the heroic stand of the "Maryland 400" bought time, Oliver and his comrades held the inner defensive lines until the night of August 29–30, when Washington executed a daring, silent evacuation across the East River into Manhattan under cover of fog—saving the army from total destruction.

The Battle of White Plains (October 28, 1776)

Driven north out of Manhattan, Washington’s army made a stand at White Plains in Westchester County. On October 28, Howe attacked the American high ground on Chatterton Hill. Oliver’s battalion engaged British and Hessian troops in heavy fighting before Washington ordered a tactical retreat further north into the highlands. Having served out his campaign season during one of the most perilous stretches of the war, Oliver returned home to Connecticut.

Part 4: The Bradford County Pioneer (1790s–1822)

Following the Revolution, Oliver joined the wave of Connecticut veterans seeking land in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier. In the late 1790s, he settled in Granville Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania.

In the rugged hills along the Towanda Creek watershed, Oliver cleared land, built a homestead, and established his family as foundational pioneers of the county. He lived out his remaining years surrounded by children and grandchildren who would themselves answer the nation’s calls to duty in the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Oliver Bailey passed away on October 14, 1822, at the age of 84. He was laid to rest in the soil of Granville Township—a veteran who had beaten the drum for the British Empire in the northern wilderness and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington's troops to birth a new republic.

Thank you to Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. — Drifting Cowboy