By james art 
Last year, Noah Waxman of Starksboro asked the Vermont Public Radio show, Brave Little State, to moderate a regional debate featuring our 83-year-old family market in central Vermont. The episode is called: “’me-hear-ons’ or ‘me-hyur-ons’? How to pronounce the name of a favorite central market in Vermont. The result is hilarious, with shoppers trying to pronounce the name. It is true that the common man struggles. This is a reality I lived with for 34 years after Tom Mehuron and I were married. And I have news for you, no one can say it. Even the locals confuse it! Every day of my life someone has to write my name down and I say, “Mehuron – let me write it for you.” Interestingly, it’s been for centuries! When this happened in official documents, the family was forced to change the spelling of the name this way and that.
The Mehurons probably carry the genes of the ancient Scottish Machurin family. In Dublin, Ireland, the Trinity College Historical Research Center has documented that a Hugh Mahurin, born about 1665 (you can see the spelling changes have already begun) emigrated to the Massachusetts Colony in 1690. He is believed to be was Scots-Irish, but it is a uniquely American term. Some Scots moved to Ireland seeking religious and political freedom and economic opportunity, but did not find it in the north of Ireland, so they emigrated to the Massachusetts colony. Bubbles were very much a part of early colonial life—in fact, they were listed in Mayflower lists.
Searching the most popular genealogy sites online, one comes across changes in our spelling. After Hugh, two generations of the Mahurin family (born 1718 and 1741) lived in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Then some papers report a Jonathan Mahuron born in 1762 who was the father of Alfred Mehuron who had sons Horace MehuronAlan E. Mchuron, Jonathan Mehurin and Henry H. Mahurin. I think you can see when researching this family you have to be flexible and careful. Our family historian was Tom’s aunt Ruth Mehuron McGill, who traveled the world to study family genealogy.
In part one of this series, I recounted a mysterious set of circumstances recently in which my husband and I were invited to attend an auction of the Mehuron family archives. This family has been in Vermont for two and a half centuries. They’re real Yankees, too. Never throw anything away. Between the five descendants of siblings Alan and Ann Mehuron, there are reams of documents. Buckets full of pictures. Civil War Rifle. Medals. You name it. So what the hell? Where did the extra stuff come from?
While I haven’t figured that part out yet, I can say that the two lots that were auctioned off had some junk, but also some major surprises. The only way to talk about it is to start from the beginning. I am most interested in the family after they came to Vermont. This would be Jonathan Mehuron, born March 4, 1762 in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
Jonathan’s mother Anna died when he was 3 years old on December 23, 1765. She left him and his twin sister Susanna to be raised by his father David.
Jonathan turned 13 in 1775. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this: The following year, 1776, was a year of great significance in United States history as it marked the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of the American Revolution. And there was young Jonathan, stuck in the middle, and his father forced to join the colonial army. “He was so young,” you might say, “only 13!” Unfortunately, there was a term and a tradition that said, INSTEAD OF HIM. A man can hire someone to go to war so he can stay at home. In some cases, a colonist might send their own child, which happened to Jonathan Mehuron. Military records show that Jonathan enlisted in Massachusetts on June 1, 1775 – the Battle of Bunker Hill was 16 days later. Considering who his company and regiment were, he probably was there.
Two years later, his father David remarried and fathered half-siblings. Still, Jonathan remained on active duty. Can you imagine his feelings about all this? A child forced to grow up fast and live through the nightmares of war. The muster and pay roll shows that he was discharged on July 30, 1780. Would he have gone home to Plymouth County and joined his father? Perhaps the outrage of his lost childhood was too much to bear. And the joining of strangers in the role of the stepmother and her children is unthinkable.
I’m sure Jonathan often considered moving north ¾ to the sovereign nation he had heard so much about ¾ the Republic of Vermont. Most of the new arrivals were under the age of 26 and hell-bent on adventure. Vermont’s constitution was the first in North America to outlaw slavery and remove property restrictions on voting, and this may also have intrigued him.
But author Wrest Orton says it wasn’t an easy transition, as the state was heavily forested to the point where there was no grass at all. “It was nice country for squirrels. But as there was no edible grass, there could be no cows, horses or oxen. Our ancestors had to rely on human muscle. . . . Their strength and endurance shown with so many examples. . . . they seem amazing to us today.
So it’s likely that our 18-year-old Jonathan Mehuron just headed north to try and find a better life. Will Part 3 of the Mehuron Family Historical Mysteries find him next time.
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