The story of our family is woven directly into the foundational fabric of America. It is a journey that connects the birth of religious freedom in the colonies to the battlefields of the Civil War, the rugged homesteads of the American West, and one of the country's most dynamic presidential dynasties.
Act I: The Radical Roots of Germantown
In October 1683, the ship Concord arrived in Pennsylvania bearing Reynier Tyson (Theissen), one of the iconic "Original 13" Krefeld families. Originally from the Rhineland, Reynier was a linen weaver who converted from Mennonitism to Quakerism to escape crushing religious persecution. In the New World, he co-founded Germantown, Pennsylvania—the first permanent German settlement in the American colonies—and grew into a deeply respected civic leader and Quaker Elder.
Though a quiet man, Reynier helped foster a community of radical moral courage. In 1688, his immediate Krefeld community and brothers-in-law drafted the Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, the very first written protest against human bondage in the history of the English colonies. This obsession with fairness and human equality became a permanent marker in our family's genetic code.
[Reynier Tyson (1659–1745)]
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[Elizabeth Tyson] [Mathias Tyson]
(The Roosevelt Line) (Our Direct Line)
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Spanned NYC high society, Pioneered early PA,
wealth, and global executive defended the Union, and
leadership (Teddy Roosevelt). broke the Western frontier.
Act II: The Split That Shaped a President
Through Reynier's daughter, Elizabeth, our lineage took a historic turn. Her descendants intermarried with the Potts and Barnhill families. When her great-granddaughter, Margaret Barnhill, married Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, our rustic, devout Pennsylvania Quaker heritage merged with New York’s wealthy Dutch merchant class.
This union produced the fierce, reform-minded Roosevelt dynasty, culminating in President Theodore Roosevelt.
The connection is more than just biological; it is ideological. The civic-minded energy of the Germantown Quakers lay dormant for generations before exploding onto the national stage through TR. His "Square Deal" for the working man, his fierce opposition to corporate monopolies, and his pioneering fight for land conservation directly mirror early Quaker concepts of stewardship, equality, and community welfare. TR's progressive spirit was born in the meeting houses of our ancestors.
Act III: The Fractured Paths to Freedom
While the Roosevelt branch moved toward Manhattan high society and global leadership, our direct line through Reynier's son, Mathias Tyson, pushed deeper into the shifting American landscape, facing its own trials of conscience.
In 1827, our ancestors Joshua Hallowell and his son Joseph were caught in the Hicksite-Orthodox Schism, a painful religious civil war that tore Quaker families apart. The Hallowells aligned with the Hicksites—rural farmers who rejected elite church hierarchies and embraced a fiercely egalitarian, progressive theology.
This ideological environment directly shaped Joseph’s son, Lt. Rifford Randolph Hallowell. Hicksite Quakers were radical abolitionists. Exposed to this intense anti-slavery sentiment, Rifford reached a profound moral breaking point when the Civil War erupted. He chose to lay down strict family pacifism, pick up a weapon, and fight as an officer to preserve the Union and end slavery.
Conclusion: One Blood, Two American Destinies
By the late 1800s, while Theodore Roosevelt was charging up San Juan Hill and later reshaping the presidency, his distant cousins—including our grandfather, Franklin Jackson Bailey—were channeling that exact same 1683 Krefeld stamina to homestead, clear land, and farm the American West.
Our bond with Teddy Roosevelt reveals a beautiful truth about our family identity: we are two sides of the same American coin. The very same bloodline that was wielding executive power to protect the nation's canyons and forests was also quietly building the rural communities, schools, and farms that fed the growing country. Whether in the Oval Office or on the western frontier, our ancestors answered the same calling: a relentless drive for liberty, a fierce sense of justice, and an unyielding grit to shape their own destiny.
Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy
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