My Descent from Edmund Rice of Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachusetts

1. Edmund Rice, of Stanstead and Berkhamsted, England, and Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachusetts; Churchwarden of St. Peter's Church, Berkhamsted; overseer of the poor; one of the founders of Sudbury, Massachusetts; one of the 13 petititioners for the founding of Marlborough, Massachusetts; Puritan Deacon; Selectman for Sudbury and Marlborough; Judge of Small Causes for Sudbury; Deputy of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; married Thomasine, daughter of Edward Frost of Stanstead, England; and they had: 

2. Henry Rice, of Sudbury and Framingham, Massachusetts; Freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; one of the 13 petititioners for the founding of Marlborough, Massachusetts; Selectman for Sudbury; original member of the Church at Framingham; married Elizabeth, daughter of John Moore of Sudbury, Massachusetts; and they had: 

3. Mary Rice, of Marlborough, Massachusetts; married Thomas Brigham of Marlborough, Massachusetts; son of Thomas Brigham the Puritan; one of the purchasers of the old plantation Ockoocangansett; and they had: 

4. Jonathan Brigham, of Marlborough; Massachusetts; known as the "Indian Warrior"; Selectman, Tythingman, Constable, and Moderator for Marlborough; married Mary, daughter of John Fay of Marlborough, Massachusetts; and they had: 

5. Keziah Brigham, of Marlborough and New Marlborough, Massachusetts; married Elias Keyes, of Marlborough, Shrewsbury, and New Marlborough, Massachusetts; one of the 16 founders of the Church in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts; and they had: 

6. Martha Keyes, of Shrewsbury and Sheffield, Massachusetts, and East Bloomfield, New York; married Jasper Saxton of Sheffield; Massachusetts; Revolutionary War Patriot in Ashley's Regiment of Militia, fought in the Saratoga Campaign, marched with his company to Kingsbury and the Northward; and they had: 

7. Philander Saxton, of Sheffield, Massachusetts, and East Bloomfield and Cambria, New York; early settler of Bloomfield, New York; Lieutenant and Captain in the Ontario County Militia; married Cynthia Cole; and they had: 

8. James C. Saxton, of New York, and Hillsdale, Michigan; farm laborer in Jefferson, Michigan; married Roxany, daughter of Reuben Moon of Ontario County, New York; who read through the Bible completely as a young girl; and they had: 

9. Lucy Saxton, of Jefferson, Grand Junction, and Holland, Michigan; married John Harter Wise, of Reading, Pennsylvania, and Grand Junction and Holland, Michigan; Private in the American Civil War for various Pennsylvania units, wounded at the Battles of Antietam and Cold Harbor, taken prisoner at the Battle of Chancellorsville, fought at various other battles including the Siege of Petersburg; one of the last three surviving Civil War Veterans of Holland, Michigan; member of the Grand Army of the Republic and honorary member of the United Spanish War Veterans; possibly a Methodist; later pensioner for his Civil War service; and they had: 

10. Fred Edwin Wise Sr., of Holland, Michigan; electrician for the Holland Board of Public Works and lineman for the Citizens Telephone Co.; electrocuted above the city power lines; married Jeanette, daughter of William Reiner Harkema, furniture worker and divorcee of Holland, Michigan; and they had: 

11. Gertrude Alyce Wise, of Holland, Michigan; graduate of Holland High School and Holland Business School; bookkeeper for Holland Furnace Company; employee of Fafnir Bearing Company and A & P Food Stores, member of First United Methodist Church; Sunday School Teacher; member of the Philathea Class, United Methodist Women, and the American Legion Auxilliary; married Marvin John Ver Hoef, of Holland, Michigan; graduate of Holland High School; employee of Louis Padnos Iron and Metal; member of the National Guard; bought back the childhood home his family lost during the Great Depression; Church Treasurer and Elder of First United Methodist Church; hunter and fisher; later member of Central Wesleyan Church; and they had: 

12. Phyllis Jean Ver Hoef, of Holland, Michigan; graduate of Holland High School and Bronson Nursing School; member of First United Methodist Church and later Fellowship Reformed Church; Sunday School Teacher; excellent mother and grandmother; married LIVING; and they had: 

13. LIVING married Brian Keith Winn, of Holland, Michigan; Carpet Cleaner; and they had: 

14. Me: Hunter Ryan Winn, of Holland, Michigan. 

This lineage through the centuries, which traces through our roots in Merry Old England of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, to the religious persecutions of King Charles I which caused the Great Migration of which Edmund Rice bore witness, to the early settlement of this country among the colonies, most specifically of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to the growing country of colonies, which later gained its independence from the Crown in the Revolutionary War of which Jasper Saxton saw service for his country, to the new USA of the early 1800s, to the American Civil War in which John Harter Wise labored out of love to put down rebellion, to the America of the 1900s and the Great Depression, after which Marvin John Ver Hoef, grandson of 1800s Dutch immigrants, triumphantly purchased back the family home, to the faithful religious roots of the family going back to the Puritans of old England and colonial Massachusetts to the Methodists of the 1900s, does bear its triumphant witness through my blood, which lives on in me. 

This lineage intermingles with other heroic lineages, to the German settlers of colonial Pennsylvania which later became known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", bearing witness through John Harter Wise, to the Antebellum Southern roots of Brian Keith Winn, to the Dutch immigrant roots of Marvin John Ver Hoef and Jeanette Harkema. May we always bear good memory and holy tribute to our victorious and triumphant ancestors.