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FIFTH GENERATION



Joseph LeViness was born on 8 Sep 1765 in Greenburgh, Westchester Co., NY.  He was living in 1790 in Greenburg Town, Westchester Co., NY.  He resided at 221 Old Army Road between 1790 and 1814 in Scarsdale, Westchester Co., NY.  He died on 25 Mar 1850.  He was buried in Asbury Methodist Church Cemetery, Yonkers, NY.

From: LeVINESS FAMILY GENEALOGY
      Joseph trained in Peekskill with John Levines but was not accepted for service as he was too young.  During the Revolution he remained on the farm of a Mr. Read, just north of the Widow Babcock's.  On page 216 of Hufeland Library, Joseph is mentioned as having been interviewed by the McDonalds who wrote the famous "McDonald Papers" on the Revolution here, under the date of October 21, 1845.
      Mr. J. Leonard LeViness states: "My grandfather's sister, Mrs. LeFurgy, told me around 1920 when she was in her nineties but with good memory, that she personally was told by Joseph LeViness that his experiences in the war were most harrowing due to the raids from the Skinners and Cowboys.  He also said almost everyone was suspect, including Thomas Leviness (his uncle?? #12), but that the latter was completely vindicated of the charges of giving aid and comfort to the enemy (Tories), for after the War he was awarded a farm in St. Lawrence County, N.Y., and given a pension."
      The present home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank MacGregor Smith at what is now 221 Old Army Road, Scarsdale, N.Y., was built in 1740 by Israel Hunt and his son, Joshua, tenants of Frederick Philipse, lord of Philipseburgh Manor.  Like him, they were Tories.  The property was seized at the end of the Revolution by the New York Forfeiture Commission and sold in 1786 to Richard Morris, second Chief Justice of New York and brother Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
      In 1790 Joseph bought a portion of the property from Richard Morris.   (Joseph lived in the house that now is 221 Old Army Road.)  Apparently neither Joseph nor his wife could read or write, for on the record of sale both of them "made their mark" in lieu of signatures.  All of his children beginning with Jeremiah were born in this house.  The 1800 Census of Westchester County listed Joseph as Joseph Lawinus, head of the household.  The was no record of his owning any slaves, although the old slave quarters are still on the property at 221 Old Army Road, also an 18th century tool shed with tools, and the herb garden.  Joseph lived there for twenty years; later he purchased a 200-acre farm from the Underhills west of what is now Fort Hill Road.  (His son Jonathan married Charlotte Underhill.)
      In DeBeer's 1868 Atlas the landowner at 221 Old Army Road is listed as "N. Dobbs".  Joseph's daughter Abigail (#29) married Nathaniel Dobbs, so it is conjectured that perhaps she and her husband continued to live in her father's home.


He was married to Elizabeth Sherwood (daughter of Jeremiah Sherwood and Abigail Bishop).  Elizabeth Sherwood was born on 17 Jul 1762.  She died in 1849.  She was buried in Asbury Methodist Church Cemetery, Yonkers, NY.

From: LeVINESS FAMILY GENEALOGY
      Her parents were Jeremiah (Obadiah?) and Abigail (Bishop) Sherwood of the Sherwood family of Tackahoe, N.Y., now the Crestwood section of Yonkers.  Abigail Sherwood and her family were influential in inducing Bishop Asbury to establish a mission of the Methodist Church on their farm.  (See records of M.E. Church.)

Joseph LeViness and Elizabeth Sherwood had the following children:

child i. Martha LeViness.
child ii. Stephen LeViness.
child iii. Jeremiah LeViness.
child iv. Gershom LeViness.
child v. John Wesley LeViness.
child vi. Sarah LeViness.
child vii. Jonathan LeViness.
child viii. Abigail LeViness.
child ix. Betsy LeViness.