Margaret Nickens, now living at 1644 Broadway, Hannibal, Missouri, was born in slavory on the farm of Pleasant McCann about six miles from Paris in Moares County, Miscouri. She was a daughter of Geerge Merrison and wife, slaves of Pleasant McCann. The following is her story as she told it.
The book “Wistar Family: A Genealogy of the Descendants of Caspar Wistar, Emigrant in 1717” delves into the fascinating history of the Wistar family, tracing its roots back to Caspar Wistar, who was born on February 3, 1696, to Hans Caspar and Anna Catharina Wüster in Hilspach, near Heidelberg in the Electorate of the Rhenish Palatinate. Caspar’s father served as a huntsman or forester for the Prince Palatine, a position that was hereditary in their family.
Being a history of the descendants of Richard Dexter of Malden, Massachusetts, from the notes of John Haven Dexter and original researches. Richard Dexter, who was admitted an inhabitant of Boston (New England), Feb. 28, 1642, came from within ten miles of the town of Slane, Co. Meath, Ireland, and belonged to a branch of that family of Dexter who were descendants of Richard de Excester, the Lord Justice of Ireland. He, with his wife Bridget, and three or more children, fled to England from the great Irish Massacre of the Protestants which commenced Oct. 27, 1641. When Richard Dexter and family left England and by what vessel, we are unable to state, but he could not have remained there long, as we know he was living at Boston prior to Feb. 28, 1642.