Tombstone Tuesday; Eleanor Parmenter

Tombstone Tuesday; Eleanor Parmenter

Photo Collection of Midge Frazel, 4 Nov 2010

It Starts with Her...

We began our Parmenter Adventure on 4 November 2010, shortly after moving here, on a dark and drizzly morning cemetery adventure to Southborough Rural Cemetery in Southborough, Worcester, Massachusetts. I posted several times about the Hyde family but I did not provide any depth on Eleanor. She was the last of my husband's Parmenter line.

Eleanor, whose name is sometimes spelled Elinor or Elenor, is buried with her husband in the same plot as his Hyde parents. As you can see, this large monument doesn't mention her maiden name at all but gives us her middle initial. Eleanor's birth and death year are all that is recorded on the front of the stone. I was glad that I had done the research for this family before we ventured out to the cemetery. It took two trips to this cemetery to get all of the gravestones photographed that we needed for this large family.

Eleanor was the mother of ten children and certainly deserves more attention than just a quick mention in my husband's family tree. She was born in Framingham, Middlesex, MA on 10 June 1818, daughter of Ezra Parmenter and his wife Susanna Brown. (VR Framingham, p. 156)

VR Framingham p. 156

She married Abraham Hyde on 7 May 1835 in Framingham and moved by 31 August 1836 to Southborough as that is where her first child was born. Abraham Hyde was a farmer. There were a lot of dairy farmers in Southborough and the milk went by train to larger towns and cities.

Eleanor died at the age of 38 from confinement (result of childbirth) after her last child was born on 21 August 1856. That child was her namesake and she was born 5 Aug 1856. I hope Eleanor was able to spend some time with her baby before dying. She was a teacher and was single when she died and was buried in the Hyde plot in Marlborough. 

Eleanor Parmenter only lived to be "named" in the 1850 census just as it appears on her gravestone as Eleanor T. aged 32. Her birth record as transcribed and typed in the index did not include her middle name but family thinks it was Temple.

Parmenter genealogy #1265 p. 86, 160