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I am descended from James Phipps and Tamer Doan(e).
U.S. census records indicate that Tamer was born in 1800 in Canada. Her first marriage was to a man named Rosengrant and in 1822 the pair produced a daughter. Etna, who was born in Indiana, probably in Warren Co. In Feb 1827 Tamer married James Phipps in Fountain Co, IND. At the time of this marriage, the couple had a five-month-old son and would bear five more children between 1828 and 1845. They lived in IND until at least 1837 and in MO at least between 1841 and 1845. In 1850 they were in Decatur Co, IA
Tamer’s father was Thomas Doan, sometimes recorded as Thomas B. Doan(e). He appears in four U.S. census records, most indicating that he was born about 1773.
The one exception to this is the 1850 census, when Thomas lived with his daughter and her family in IA. In that count, his age suddenly jumps 10 years and he is listed as 87. In all records, his birthplace is recorded as PA.
James and Tamer had a grandson, Joseph Milton Phipps. Joseph had little education and was the product of frontier life. In the late 1890s he began a journal that included brief accounts of family history. These accounts are often exaggerated. Of those I have researched, all, however, have proved to have a basis in fact. Although there is some
overlap, he could not have known Thomas and probably could not have remembered Tamer. His Doan references are therefore something from Phipps oral traditions.
One of the earliest journal entries is: "Great grandfather Doan was a Frenchman. He was a prizefighter - never was whipped. He owned one of the largest plantations in Virginia. He had 4000 Negro slaves. The Rebels fought on the plantation and took everything he had."
For years I ignored this entry, never thinking to research it's contents. I knew Thomas Doan(e) was from Pennsylvania. It was the Phipps who originated in Virginia and they were humble folk. I also knew no American plantation ever sustained 4000 slaves, and that cotton-growing areas only had large numbers of workers after the cotton gin was invented. In Virginia, no farm enslaved more than 600 people and such establishments were extraordinarily rare. In short, most of Joseph's entry was historically inaccurate.
Nonetheless, one day I stumbled onto the story of the Doan Gang. By then, I had tracked other journal tales and was used to Joseph’s mix of fact and fancy. In the Gang example, I realized there were two elements that did hold up. The first was the mention of prizefighting, a Doan family pastime mentioned in historical documents. Each story also cited Loyalist sympathies and a loss of property. The Pennsylvania Doans did not have their farm burned, but it was seized by the new Yankee government.
These small kernels provoked me to track down this Doan family and was delighted to discover there was yet another son, Thomas. He was the youngest child and all pedigree charts record his birth year as 1772, 1773 or include no year at all. Other than that, I have never found any concrete information about this son in a context that connects him to my known family.
Recently I was able to find the Bucks Co. Doans through records in Welland Co, Ontario. Two brothers, Joseph and Aaron, definitely lived in Humblestone. A sister, Hester, died in Kent Co. in 1847. Two other sisters, Mary and Betsey, at least passed through the Niagara area and the family’s parents, Joseph Sr. and Hester Vickers Doan, also
lived on the Niagara Peninsula, both probably dying there.
Can anyone help me document Thomas B. Doan, father of Tamer?
He was born in PA in the early 1770s, was living in Canada in 1800, lived in Indiana in 1830 (and probably 1820) and in
Decatur Co, IA in 1850. I am looking for specific information, not data taken from undocumented family trees.
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