Summer's End

Midge making sand castles with a friend. I wish I knew who he is!

Making Sand Castles, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Summer's End

It is always hard for New England folks to give up summer. I learned from studying The Great Hurricane of 1938, that the people who died in the area where the descendants of the sea captains (I have been blogging about) lived, had a different view of summer than we do today. This surprised me. 

Now I think of the people in New England as traditional hard working people of the land and the sea. Summer was a time of work for our ancestors not one of vacation as you see here in this photo of me at the beach.  

The people who lived on Napatree Point in-between the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island were killed by the hurricane. (It is not that far from this beach pictured here to where people died.) 

They were swept out to sea and many bodies were never found. The hurricane deforested New England, damaged the railroad and crippled the economy. Remember, that was the depression era. 

The houses on Napatree Point were not summer beach shacks. There were built for the wealthy people who summered there who lived in Boston and New York. The September of the hurricane was so warm and sunny, that they didn't return to the city as usual and they didn't send their children to school. In fact, I learned that school didn't start until October. I went to teacher's college. No one ever mentioned this...

Although the many books about this summer event are criticized as not historically accurate, you will get a really good picture of how the sea can change your life (and your ancestry) from a book called Sudden Sea. Horror stories are not always about zombies and vampires. Don't call me and tell me you can't sleep! (Video by PBS)

Never Heard From Again

I didn't purposefully leave this gravestone until last but wouldn't you know that this is the one that a reader emails me about! I would not have thought that this would be the man who left descendants who were interested in their family history!

Capt. Charles H. Gates's family has photos AND a family Bible to share information with me. It is hard to contain my interest and excitement. But, it is summer's end and this project will take some time to work on, so this series on Sea Captain's will not be over with just this summer of 2013. Instead of waiting until we long for the ocean again, I will blog about this as he and I uncover new information.

It will be a lovely winter investigation. So, stay tuned. Sadly, this father and son will never be buried here but we will remember them.

I have enjoyed writing about the men who went to sea and the women and children who were left behind. I hope you enjoyed it too.

About.Me

Deadly Pedigree Reading Adventure

I have decided to read this book and contribute my thoughts to a "Genealogy" group on Goodreads. My thoughts will be posted to my other blog which is called Beyond the Horizon. 

Since I have been very stressed out this month, I think that it will fun to do something different each day. 

Hiding in Plain Sight

Just a gentle reminder that I have placed a lot of information about cemetery research and books in the tabs at the top of my blog. I just put this in my presentation and thought it might be worth mentioning occasionally to my readers.

Back to the Problem: RI State Census

Defining the Problem

Imagine this scenario. You are a Civil War hero and you return home to marry the woman you love. On 14 March 1865 you marry her and on 2 April 1866, you welcome your first son, James Frederick Barber. Six more sons quickly follow: Albert (1868), Howard (1870), Elmer (1873), Raymond (1875), Herman (1876) and William (1879). 

Suddenly, your wife dies (1881) (possibly in childbirth) leaving you with all these boys! Your mother is dead and your father remarried a long time ago and raised you, your sister and ten more children of their own. Your father is 66 and still a farmer. You don't want to be a farmer and have started a harvesting seaweed business [1880 census: boatman]. You can't be on a boat and still take care of children. 

Then, thirteen year old Albert dies (1882). Your oldest son, James Frederick Barber is a servant in Capt. Palmer Hall's household across town "at India Point". He want to be a barber not a boatman or farmer. (Doesn't this sound like it could happen today?)

The 1880 census for James Frederick Barber's family is multi-generation. Grandfather Matthew is 65, and his second wife Rhoda is 61. Oldest unmarried son, Ellery is 34. He marries Fannie Emeline HALL (yes, a Hall) in 1888 after his father dies. 

Brother Charles is 23 and the youngest child of Matthew and Rhoda is 20 and listed as Matthew S. Barber. (We call him Junior.)

There is a Benjamin Barber listed at 23 as a son is not found in any other census and I suspect is a nephew. He's not buried in River Bend that I can find or is listed in the River Bend Cemetery Book.

Daughter Agnes has married her (first) husband Stanton Thompson and they live in the household with their 7 year old daughter Grace. Daughter Phebe Eliza is also living with them with her husband Benjamin Maryott and their two children Eliza (5) and Lewis (3). It is a full house as you can imagine.

The 1885 Rhode Island census lists each member of a household separately. Young children are not always enumerated. But, I am sure that James Frederick Barber is never part of his father's extended household again.

He's listed as Frederick, in the 1885 Rhode Island census and I would not be surprised if he is still living with Capt. Palmer Hall.

More research needs to be done but at least I have a better understanding and feeling about him living in Capt. Palmer Hall's spacious home!

A reader suggested that he may have been an assistant to Capt. Hall working the animals, tending the boats and keeping the grounds. Maybe he even cut Capt. Hall's hair?

Hall family Relationship Chart

Relationship Charts can help you think more clearly about complicated or distant ancestors. A long time ago, I researched my Hall family back from the mother of James Albert Barber, Phebe Eliza Hall. I was lucky, there are some vital records, graveyard records and known women's maiden surnames that helped me out. 

But, I wondered about the larger overall picture of the Hall family of Portsmouth and Westerly, RI in relationship to Phebe's descendents. It had taken a lot of work to find out more about Sarah Babcock who married James Hall to be able to get the middle generations in between Henry Hall, Jr, son of Hennery Hall, Sr., the immigrant ancestor that they had in common.

This will need a lot of work as yet, but at least I have some idea if Capt. Palmer Hall may have known that Phebe Eliza Hall, about 10 years younger than himself, was a member of his extended Hall family.

In the 1880 census for Westerly, RI, Capt. Palmer Hall has James Frederick Barber, living as a "servant". 

Tombstone Tuesday: Carolyn Langdon

Nancy Bowler Smith Hall, mother of Harriet, grandmother of Carolyn, (Bowler Genealogy)

Photo by Brian Zoldak, 2013, used with permission

Pickering/ Carolyn B. [Belle] Langdon,/ wife of J. Winslow Pickering,/ grandaughter of Nancy Bowler Hall/ Aug. 25, 1863- June 27, 1946 (River Bend Cemetery, Westerly, RI.)

The wedding at India Point of Carolyn to J. Winslow Pickering "was very simple, amidst the surrounding of the old family homestead" (Bowler genealogy) and took place on 22 June 1886. But, it is described as high society weddings are right down to the flower arrangements, the ribbon decorations created by the bride and names two officiating clergy. I am imagine the guests, drinks in hand, strolling the grounds or sitting on the lovely porch looking out to sea.

Carolyn was educated at "the Buffalo Academy" and met J. Winslow Pickering out West. They had two sons, Nelson Winslow Pickering and Langdon Pickering. The man who is a descendant mentions Nelson Pickering as his grandfather. He tells me that Carolyn sold it to another family whose wife hated the water and she planted vegetation to hid it. They tired of it and sold it back to Nelson Pickering and then it was in the family again.

There is still so much to know about this "House at India Point" but I will leave you to think about summer days, sailing vessels and house lotteries for now.

But, wait, I am still trying to solve the original research question! Why was my great grandfather living in the house? 

India Point in Lotteryville

"Four Papers" of the Westerly Historical Society found at Ancestry.com
link below

India Point in Lotteryville

For several weeks, I have been researching Capt. Lyman Hall and his son Palmer and you would not believe how much I have found considering that both men's names went searched for, yield results about "places" named Hall. Capt. Lyman Hall's pension record contains more genealogical information than I was expecting. (Fold3)

So, I turned to Frederic Denison's Westerly & Its Witnesses and learned that it was a land lottery and not a "gambling" lottery. Rev. Denison, being a Baptist clergyman, made that very clear in the text by stating, "Thus the place derived its singular and unfortunate name, --the evil of lotteries not then being comprehended as at present." [p. 186]

Col. (Capt.) Joseph Pendleton lost his brigantine vessel, with a heavy cargo of rum and molasses (in about 1749-1750) and since he had no insurance, couldn't pay his debts, The RI General Assembly made up a grant to sell off, in 126 house lots, his land reserving a small farm for himself. The money earned from the sale of the land, allowed him to pay up his creditors and to buy him a new vessel.

In the northeast point of land, Capt. Lyman Hall, a Revolutionary War veteran, made his home (abt 1787). According to the family that recently sold it, Capt. Palmer Hall, son of Capt. Lyman Hall called it "India Point" because directly beneath his feet in the house was straight down to India. (I love family history tales.)

Capt. Lyman Hall, was a tall and strong man and sailed to the East Indies as a young man, and he asked the captain of the vessel for better conditions for the crew. He lifted a cannon from the vessel and moved it and told the captain that if three men could not move it back he would "withdraw" his appeal. They couldn't do it, so more food and better conditions were won. (Old Time Lotteryville chapter, p. 7-9 in the "Four Papers" manuscript linked below.)

Nine of the house lots were built upon by captains of whaling ships and one was Capt. Lyman Hall. The house was torn down by his son, Capt. Palmer Hall and rebuilt about 1837. (The Bowler genealogy gives us this photo.) I love the turrent tower which is no longer there.

I immediately went looking, via Google Maps for this point of land (10 India Point, Westerly, RI) was was rewarded with a recently sold presentation by a real estate agent in the Westerly area. She put me in touch with the man who sold it and he is going to tell me more when he and his wife are settled in a new home.) It still amazes me how quickly these events did unfold.
From Lori Joyal, that real estate agent,comes this must-watch video presentation. It is an 8 bedroom, 4 and 1.2 bathroom house presented by Lila Delman Real Estate, 52 Bay St. Westerly, RI. Thank you for sharing it with me and for allowing me to use it in my blog.

copyright Lila Delman Real Estate

I want you to remember that for a period of time, my great grandfather was a servant in this amazing house!

Ancestry.com. Four papers delivered before the Westerly Historical Society of Westerly, Rhode Island : during the years 1915, 1916, and a lis [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
Original data: Four papers delivered before the Westerly Historical Society of Westerly, Rhode Island : during the years 1915, 1916, and a list of the members.. Westerly, R.I.: Utter Co., printers, 1916.

Sea Captain's Lambs

Photo by Brian Zoldak, 2013, used with permission

Photo by Brian Zoldak, 2013, used with permission

Recording the Lost Sheep of Infancy

Even the smallest gravestone can bring significant information to the study of a family.

Little Nathan and Sarah Hall, children of  Capt. Palmer  Hall and his first wife Mary Ann DUNBAR are adorned with the tiny lamb on the top which is a classic gravestone for the period. When you approach these baby gravestones, you must remember the heartache of the loss by the parents. Many do not have as much information on them as these do. I am writing a presentation called "Comfortable Silence" about cemetery research and stones like these will be part of that talk. 

Their dated birth and death places can tell us where a family was living at that moment in time. As Capt. Palmer Hall may have been at sea for these events of birth and death, it is important to remember the place little children have in a family.

These siblings are very close in age. Calculating from the dates of death and years/months attained, he was born in February of 1850 and she in December of 1850. The 1850 census record list a very large household for this family (not a surprise from looking at the house itself) and as it was 1 July 1850, Nathan (as 5/12 months) is listed but Sarah is not. With closer examination, I discovered that grandmother, Phebe (Palmer) Hall, wife of Lyman is living with them as a widow. 

I love the 1850 census with all the people listed. This one makes me want to dig more into this family!

Second Sea Captain's wife: Nancy Bowler

Photo by Brian Zoldak, 2013, used with permission

Nancy B.  BOWLER

Bowler Genealogy found at Archive.org, (out of copyright)

Second wives are always interesting and there certainly have been enough of them in my family who have played a large part in the family history picture.

Nancy's is a long story! She was married to William Smith before she married Capt. Palmer Hall and had two children (Harriet and Albert) by him. She was born in New York but moved to Ohio with her parents and married him there. After William died in a railroad accident, she married at her daughter Harriet's home in Buffalo, NY, Capt. Hall. Harriet was the wife of George Langdon. Harriet must have liked her new step-father because she named her last living child, Palmer Hall Langdon. 

It states in the Bowler genealogy, that Nancy's marriage (in 1865) to Capt. Palmer Hall was "unusually happy" and that they led a busy life of social parties at India Point and that they traveled a lot. (I have found India Point. It is amazing.)

In 1904, the genealogy states that Nancy's daughter, Harriet Smith Langdon lived in the house on India Point.  She died in Illinois in 1916. The house "at India Point" then inherited by Harriet's daughter Carolyn Belle Langdon.

The son Albert, never married and was interesting in all "sporting matters", traveled abroad and went to the California gold fields!

The Bowler genealogy gives us a good description of Nancy's character and temperament which is quite rare in these complied genealogies of the time period. It is do interesting that it kept me going to find out more!

Tombstone Tuesday: Capt. Palmer Hall's Monument

Photo by Brian Zoldak, 2013, used with permission

Tombstone Tuesday: Capt. Palmer Hall

Born at India Point in Westerly, RI, [Bowler genealogy] on 11 Nov 1810 [NEHGS: RI Vital Records Vol. 4 : Pg. 115] to Lyman Hall and his second wife Phebe Palmer. 

Sadly, a previous child name Palmer Hall was born and died before him but I guess Phebe was determined to have her maiden surname used for one of her children and this was her last chance since she was 44 years old at the time of Capt. Palmer Hall's birth.

The real estate listing for Palmer Hall, dated 1837, lists him as the person living in the house at age 27. 

Brian Zoldak, photographed this monument and added it to Find a Grave as well as giving me permission to blog about it.

Of course, the anchor tells us he was a sea captain. The census records consistently tell us about his occupation as a mariner.

Sometimes, the interesting information comes from the wives of a man and that's just where the story leads.

Palmer Hall, married first, Mary Ann Dunbar (1815-1864) and her name is one side of the plaque of the monument. 

Photo by Brian Zoldak, 2013, used with permission

They had four children. Two are buried nearby and two lived to adulthood. I can't find a marriage record for Palmer and Nancy but they could have married in nearby Connecticut and not in Rhode Island. This was supposed to say, Mary Ann and Palmer Hall's marriage date

But, Palmer Hall's second wife was Nancy Bowler and I know you are not surprised by that since I keep referencing the Bowler genealogy! 

Writing Presentations

Designing, Developing and Presenting

This past week, I have been furiously designing and developing two separate face-to-face presentations that I will be giving in the fall. It is a lot of hard work because not only does it require research, taking photographs, creating PowerPoint slides, deciding on a verbal script but it also requires that I create a handout. For one, I am giving a live talk at a cemetery. It will have to be fast. It could be hot or even worse raining.....

Since you, the Web audience, most likely will not be at either presentation, I think I will plan to post some of the slides here after both events have taken place. I hope my readers will like this idea.

One presentation is for a family reunion for the Edmund Rice Family Association and is a private event (unless you pay to go to the reunion). This is what this family shares on their Web site for information about their family. I love "Edmund Rice 101". Take a look at what they know and more importantly what they can't prove and the citations  they provide.

Here's the opening slide for that 30-35 minute talk about gravestones. It is designed to help those who come to the reunion yearly and take part in that "cemetery tour" to learn more about their ancestors.