Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes more about the genealogy of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, focusing on the Keeter family line. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

I have been researching the names recorded in a Crocker family account book from Barnstable, Massachusetts, covering the years 1790 to 1843.

This rare item is housed at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, Massachusetts, and covers transactions with Mashpee residents including members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. You can view the account book at Americana-Archives.

There are two entries in this ledger for Simon Keeter and his wife, Bethiah.

According to records, the early overseers of the Mashpee, Massachusetts, plantation were: Hon. Walter Spooner, Esq., of New Bedford; Hon. Joshua Thomas, Esq., Ephraim Spooner, Esq., of Plymouth; Holmes Allen, Esq., of Barnstable; Rev. Zechariah Mayhew; and Rev. Gideon Hawley.

The Keeter family was believed to be of Narragansett origin. They had a large family at Mashpee, according to a 1776 census taken by Rev. Gideon Hawley. The names have been transcribed by Jacob Denney.

Although no death record has been found for Simon, husband of Bethiah, I found this newspaper clipping reporting that a Simon Keeter drowned on 20 May 1812.

According to Summary Under the Criteria and Evidence for Final Determination for Federal Acknowledgment of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, Inc., there is some evidence that early Mashpee records may have identified some of the Keeter/Keetoh individuals as “Peters.”

What has been distinguished on the Keeter blood lines is that the men served in the American Revolution. Eight members of the Keeter family from Mashpee tribal lines fought in the war, with five surviving.

Below is a page from “Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, v. 9,” found in FamilySearch archives, listing Keeter men from Mashpee.

And some of the family lines the Keeters married into are listed as serving in the Continental Army.

The 14 tribal members who died during the Revolutionary War were: Church Asher, Joseph Asher, Castel Barnet, Moses Job, Elisha Keeter, James Keeter, Joseph Keeter, Samuel Moses, Daniel Pocknett, Hosea Pocknett, Joseph Pocknett, Joshua Pocknett, Job Rimmon and Gideon Tumpum.

Another Mashpee native, Isaac Wickham, fought in the Battle at Yorktown (the final battle of the war), and served under Maj. Gen. Marquis de Lafayette. Wickham is also found in the Crocker ledger book and will be covered later.

Below are two historical markers for Joseph Keeter and Elisha Keeter, who served in the American Revolutionary War. These memorials are in the Mashpee Veterans Garden at the intersection of Great Neck Road N and Main Street (Route 130), on the right when traveling south on Great Neck Road N, Mashpee, Massachusetts.

One member of the Keeter family who stands out is Mrs. Mary Keeter, aka “Aunt Mary Keeter.”

Mary shows up in a Mashpee town record with her husband Aaron Keeter, son of Simon W. Keeter and Lydia Keeter, and is listed as the daughter of Elisha Pocknett and Sarah Pocknett.

The Barnstable Library archives hold her obituary.

This article reports:

The funeral of Mary Keeter, the oldest resident of Mashpee, took place from the home of her son [Nicholas P. Keeter, who died in 1902] Sunday afternoon, Jan. 15th [1899]. The deceased attained the age of 94 years, and until overtaken with the sickness which finally resulted in her death, enjoyed good health and retained all her faculties to a remarkable degree. She was a direct descendant of the first settlers of what in her early years was known as the Mashpee district, and remembered with remarkable distinctiveness the events in the early history of the place of her nativity. During the last years of her life she lived with her son in that part of the town called Mashpee Neck, overlooking Mashpee River and waters of Vineyard Sound. She enjoyed relating the incidents of her early life. [Note: Mary could vividly recall the War of 1812, when she and her mother, returning from Nantucket in a packet sloop, were captured by a British man-of-war. They were subsequently set free near Gay Head.] Everybody knew “Aunt” Mary Keeter, as she was called by the townspeople, and for almost a half-century there has not been a Christmas tree anywhere in the vicinity that did not bear a gift or two for her. She was very active until her last sickness, and her presence at all the social gatherings in the village was considered necessary for the success of such affairs. Her husband died a number of years ago, and his death was a blow from which she never recovered. She was a devout Christian and rarely missed being in attendance at services at the little chapel in the woods when the weather would permit her to travel. Her funeral was largely attended. The interment was in the family lot at South Mashpee.

I found a death announcement for Mary’s husband Aaron Keeter entitled, “Sad Case of Drowning,” published in the Barnstable Patriot.

This article reports:

Aaron Keeter and James Moye, both of Mashpee, started from Hyannis for home some time ago in a sailboat, and have not been heard from since. The boat was picked up adrift a day or two afterwards, between Hyannis and Mashpee. Keeter is reported to have procured rum in Hyannis and started for home in a state of intoxication. Moye had the proceeds of a fishing cruise with him, some ninety dollars or more, having just been paid off.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: Ousamequin, or “Massasoit” (Wampanoag term for “Great Sachem”) and Governor John Carver smoking a ceremonial pipe at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Credit: Sutro Library; Wikimedia Commons.

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