A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS 17: WILLIAM O'BRIEN & LYDIA DUNHAM

 

 While working on the last blog post about my Dunham cousins buried right here
in Abington (which I posted waaaaay back in August!) I came across the name
Patrick O'Brien. as the husband of Worthy Dunham's youngest sister Lydia
Howard  Dunham. So I wasn't surprised to find the O'Brien family buried a few
feet away from Worthy's family.

The inscription reads:
Patrick O'Brien-1834-1879 Aged 45 years
Lydia H. His Wife 1834-1932 Aged 98 years
Angie F. daughter 1854-1930 Aged 76 years
Mansfield S. O' Brien 1868-1848 aged 79 years
Winifred E. His Wife  1883
Delia H. 1862-1864
________
Helen Florence Cole 1875-1916 Aged 41 years
Leonard M. 1904 Aged 3 days

What I hadn't realized was just how prominent a family this was.
Patrick O'Brien had been born in Ireland and emigrated to America
where he ended up here in Abington at a period when both the
shoe factories and the Irish population were booming. That's probably

how Patrick met Lydia Dunham, through business dealings in the
shoe industry with Worthy Dunham or another of the male Dunhams.
The fact that a young Irishman was able to marry the daughter of
a Protestant New England family was an indicator of the changes
in the Massachusetts society in the Industrial Age.

Patrick and Lydia were married on 4Oct 1853. Besides the three
children buried with them there were four other O'Brien children.
Here's the full family as given in The Dunham Genealogy (p169):

LYDIA H., b. Oct. 17, 1834; m. Oct. 4, 1853; Patrick O'Brien,
of Abington. Issue, b. Abington : 218. I. — Angeline Frances O'Brien;
b. Aug. 15, 1854; milliner, Abington. 219. II. — William Smith, b.
Aug. 16, 1856; boot and shoe heel manufacturer, Abington, Mass. 220.
HI. — Delia Hammond, b. Dec. 22, 1862; d. July 23, 1864. 221. IV. —
Robert Lincoln, b. Sept. 14, 1865, Washington, D. C. ; journalist. 222.
v.— Mansfield, b. 1867. 223. VI.— Charles, b. April, 1870. 224. VII.
— Ellen, b. July, 1872. 

Of the children, two had illustrious careers. William S O'Brien had a
successful shoe heel manufacturing company and was a president of
the Abington National Bank. His brother Robert Lincoln Dunham was
even more prominent, being a Harvard University graduate, a secretary
\of President Grover Cleveland and eventually became Editor in Chief of
the Boston Transcript newspaper.

I'll have to check around Mt Vernon Cemetery to see if I can find any
of the other O'Brien children buried there.

Meanwhile, I'd found another member of the Dunham family buried
a bit further away from the others as I'll explain in the next post in this
series.

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS15

 

Benjamin Hobart's  History of the town of Abington, Plymouth County,
Massachusetts, from its first settlement  has become my first place to
look for information about my Abington cousins. On page 369 I found the
following:

IV. Worthy C Dunham, born in Abington June 17, 1815; was married to
Irene Shaw of Weymouth, December 24, 1837. Their children were—

V. Rensellaer, born September 16, 1838; died September 17, 1839.

V. Jotham Ellsworth, born May 3, 1842.

V. Sumner Ellis, born September 3,1847; died September 25, 1848.

V. Irene Shaw, born October 23, 1851.

V. Sarah Williams, born July 22, 1855.

V. Abbie Weston, born August 30, 1858; died August 15, 1859.

Irene Shaw, wife of Worthy C. Dunham, died January 4,

1860, aged 42 years, 11 months, 9 days; he next married Marilla Pratt, 
October 4, 1860.

Now I knew there were more children who were not listed on the monument.
Could they have been buried there and the names not inscribed on the blank
western side of the marker? It was far more likely they had survived to
adulthood and were buried elsewhere. But what about the inscription
for Frank, Grace and  Robert on the south side? Grandchildren perhaps?

First though, I wanted to check on Worthy's parents, I looked on the previous
page, 368:

"III. Mr. Ezra Duuham was born in Plymouth, May 10, 1785; married, first, 

Susanna Ford, of Abington, January 30, 1806. They had one son, Henry,

born October 13, 1806; second, married Polly Cary, daughter of Howard 

Cary, Esq., of North Bridgewater. They had seven sons and three daughters,

viz., Susan, Howard Cary, Worthy Columbus, Charles Atwood, Cornelius 

Thomas, Ezra Rider, Angeline Huldah, Elbridge Cary, Francis William, 

and Lydia Howard." 

So, Worthy's middle name was Columbus and he was the half brother of 

General Henry Dunham and full brother to Cornelius T, Dunham, both of

whose graves I had previously discovered in Mt. Vernon Cemetery.

Now what else could I find out about him and his family?

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS13: FROM ABINGTON TO BRAZIL PT2

 So far everything I had found about Sarah M(Sadie)Dunham , her husband
Clinton R(ufus) Dorr and their son Richard Dorr had been from the Federal
Census images at Ancestry.com. Now I started checking some of the other
historical documents there and began to fill in more pieces of the puzzle.
First, I found Clinton Dorr in the 1884 South Abington Directory(p143) listed
as the stitching room foreman for the C S & L Company. After South Abington
became Whitman, Clinton is in the 1889 and 1892 directory as the foreman
at the Stetson Shoes  stitching room.

Next I turned to Richard Dorr and reasoned he was of the right age to have
served in  World War 1. Sure enough I found his draft registration card and
got a surprise. Richard was no longer living in Massachusetts in 1918, nor
was he an electrical engineer! Instead, he was a teacher at the Hill School
in Pottstown, Pa. (The school was a private boy's high school and is still
around in the present day as a coed private school). Richard is described as
tall and of medium weight with  blue eyes and brown hair along with a limp.
He lists Sara Dorr as his next of kin, but she was living at 15 Centre St back in
Brockton, Ma. I wondered what subject Richard taught? Science, perhaps?
But I soon found other records that pointed to another change in jobs,
and that helped answer another question besides.

I found passenger list and passport application images that showed Richard
had become an employee of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. A
letter from the vicepresident of the company dated  October 9th, 1919
is attached to the first passport and confirms Richard had been recently hired.
There's also an affidavit from Sarah identifying Richard as her son. From this I
learned Sara was now a saleswoman living in New York City at 43 West 48 St .
Best of all is the photograph of the now thirty eight year old Richard. Apparently
Richard made three trips back and forth to Brazil to purchase coffee beans for the
company. His first stay lasted three years and on the second passport application
for his return home I learned of the fate of his father Clinton Dorr.

Richard states that his father had died in 1908 in Taunton, Ma. A search of the 1900
Federal census told me Clinton had been an inmate at the Taunton State Mental
Hospital.  Perhaps he was still there at the time of his death. Now I knew what
had gone wrong in the Dorr family sometime after 1884 when Clinton Dorr worked
at Stetson Shoes.

My search ended on a happier note though. On the passenger list for the ship
Pan American'a arrival in New York City from Brazil is not only the name of Richard
door but Sarah Dorr as well. Richard had taken his mother with him to spend the
winter in Brazil.  I have their passport photographs as well:

Richard Dorr passed away in 1931 and Sarah followed a year later in 1932. I don't
know yet about their lives between that trip together to Brazil and their deaths.
I hope they had happier times. If not, I hope there was at least pleasant memories
of Brazil to see them through dark times.

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS10

 I haven't forgotten my new discovered Dunham cousins buried here in
Abington's Mt. Vernon Cemetary. I've been reseaching them on the
internet with success in some cases and not so much in others.

I discovered a few things about General Henry Dunham. Apparently
he was a successful merchant here in Abington and worked his way up
as an officer in the Massachusetts Militia until he achieved the
rank of Brigadier General of the Second Brigade of the First Division of
the Third Regiment of the Light Infantry in the late 1840's. He retired
from that position in 1850.

One interesting note was the discovery of another connection with the
Gurney family. Henry's wife Mary Cushing was the daughter of Sarah
Gurney.

I had more luck researching their son Henry Jr. (He's listed erroneously
as "Hervey Dunham" in The History of the Town of Abington). In a
continuation of the ties between the Dunham family with Charleston,
S.C., he married a girl from there named Ella Bristol and a history of her
ancestry contained the following:

"Ella Bristol, born May 18, 1845. She married,  March 31, 1869, 
Henry Dunham of Abington, Mass., an inventor of leather machinery. 
He died Sept. 22, 1884.


From the Abington Herald:—" In the death of Henry
Dunham, which occurred Monday morning at his home on
Center Avenue, of inflammation of the bowels, the town
of Abington loses one of its most prominent, widely
known, and esteemed citizens. Mr. Dunham was one of
twelve children. His father was Gen. Henry Dunham,
son of Ezra, whose grand-father was Cornelius Dunham,
born in Plymouth in 1724. The name is among the
oldest and most distinguished of the Old Colony names.
The mother of the deceased, still living at the age of eighty-
one, was Mary Cushing, daughter of Col. Brackley Cush-
ing — another old and honored Old Colony family name.
Mr. Dunham began business life as a shoe manufacturer
in the large factory on Lake Street that bears his name.
He retired in 1873, and turned his attention to shoe
machinery, and has given to the world some very important
inventions and improvements in this direction. The
three most important are the Dunham riveting machine,
the toe nail machine, and the Dunham quilting, machine;
a detailed description of all these appeared in the Herald
of Sept. 5. Mr. Dunham made the first quilting nail
ever produced, and is believed to be the originator of
the idea of inserting nails into the sole while off the boot.
The funeral took place at his late residence Thursday
afternoon, Rev. Messrs. Pettee and Warren officiating, with
music by the new church choir. The esteem in which the
deceased was held was attested not only by a profusion
of flowers, but also by the presence of many prominent
citizens of this and other towns. Mr. Dunham leaves a
wife and three children, two boys and a girl."

John E Morris The Bontecou genealogy: A record of the descendants 
of Pierre Bontecou, a Huguenot refugee from France, in the lines 
of his sons (Hartford, Conn. Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard
Company, 1885)  pp179-180

After Henry Dunham Jr's death his widow became involved in several
lawsuits involving infringements on his patents by other shoe
manufacturers.

In the Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910, the cause of his death
is listed as peritonitis and his occupation as "Inventor".




To be continued....

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS7

 ((First posted on West in New England 3Dec 2010))

Today was my day off and after a walk in Ames Nowell Park I returned
to Mt Vernon Cemetery to see if I could find more Dunham relatives. I
started looking close to the Cornelius Dunham family plot but instead of
Dunhams I found some Packards and Edsons:

My Packard and Edson ancestors are from my Dunham line so I'll be
checking these names out to see if these folks are my relatives and how
we are related. 

Mt Vernon is a good sized cemetery so I decided to work my way
down towards what I think is the older part of it. This direction
leads toward Island Grove Pond is a bit hilly. While it was a bright
day it was chilly and my fingers were cold, so I decided to walk
to the end of the lane I was on, take some pictures and then return to
my car.

I don't know if you can tell how steep the decline is here from this shot.
Thinking that it might show better if I shot a picture facing back up the
hill, I walked down to the end of the hill, then turned and took a shot of
a monument near a tree:

 

I started walking back up the way I'd come, but now I could see the
family name on the monument: Dunham! I started taking pictures of the
headstones around it. When I came home, I researched the names online.

I'd found the family plot of Cornelius Dunham's older brother, Henry
Dunham.


To be continued....

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS5

 When I was researching the family Cornelius T. Dunham, I ran into a
small mystery. I could find no family tie with three people buried in the
Dunham family plot: Abiel Silver, Ednah Hastings, and Ednah Silver.
So I did a Google search on "Abiel Silver"+Dunham and found
that the connection was not blood but religion.

Abiel Silver was the minister at the Swedenborgian church in Boston
that CT Dunham attended. The two men must have been good friends
for Cornelius to allow Abiel and his family to be buried along side his
own.

Now here's where synchronicity or coincidence or luck, call it what you
will once more comes into play: one of my Dad's maternal great
grandparents was named Amos Hastings Barker but I didn't make   
the connection with Abiel Silver's wife Ednah Hastings right away
because I was so caught up investigating the Dunhams. I mean,
what are the chances that another cousin from a different side of
the family would be buried in the same plot near my parents?

Yes. Ednah Hastings is not only a relative, she's actually even a
closer relative than Cornelius Dunham. Here's a relationship
chart I made with RootsMagic4:

 Ednah Hastings is Dad's 2nd cousin 4x removed through their
descent from John Hastings. To add even more to the irony, they
are also related through the Abbott and Farnum lines, since Ednah's
mother is descended from them as well!

I'm still gobsmacked.

To be continued....

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS4

 ((First posted om my West in New England blog in 2010))

 I like to think I'm a reasonably intelligent person but there are some
things that are just beyond my ken. One of them is legalese. I've
been struggling to make heads or tails out the legal case cousin
Cornelius T. Dunham became embroiled in with an apparently
tenacious woman named Catherine Carson over a rice plantation
in South Carolina. Sometime during the Civil War a man named
Edmund Hyatt had taken out a mortgage on it with two men named
McBurney and Gillespie. Then C.T. was "assigned" the mortgage
and sought to foreclose, but by this time Ms.Carson was in possession
of the property and the lawsuits began to fly.

It appear the legal war was waged through the courts of South Carolina
and Massachusetts with two appearances at the United States Supreme
Court, one of which is described in the following record. I find it ironic
that Catherine Carson's case hinged on her claim that C.T. Dunham was 
a resident of South Carolina, not Massachusetts While he had once lived
and worked in Charleston, by the time this case was argued he and his 
family had long since returned to his native Massachusetts and taken up
residence there as the Federal Censuses show. My best guess is that
it was a delaying tactic on Ms. Carson's part since she'd been fighting
the foreclosure tooth and nail. It's at times like this that I had the legal
expertise of Perry Mason or Craig Manson!

So here are some of the particulars of the appearance of my cousin
before the U.S. Supreme Court. Oh, by the way, he won.

CARSON v. DUNHAM.
APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 
FOR THE  DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

Submitted March 28,1887. — Decided April 25,1887.

When a case is removed from a state court to a Circuit Court of the
United States on the ground that the controversy is wholly between
citizens of different states, and the adverse party moves in the Circuit
Court to remand the case, denying the averments as to citizenship,
the burden is on the party at whose instance the suit was removed
to establish the citizenship necessary to give jurisdiction to the
Circuit Court.

Opinion of the Court.
A petition filed in a state court, showing on its face sufficient ground
for the removal of the cause to a Circuit Court of the United States,
may be amended in the latter court by adding to it a fuller statement
of the facts, germane to the petition, upon which the statements in
it were grounded.

In order to give jurisdiction to a Circuit Court of the United States
of a cause by removal from a state court, under the removal clauses
of the act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, it is necessary that the construction
ether of the Constitution of the Uuited States, or of some law or
treaty of the United States, should be directly involved in the suit;
but the jurisdiction for review of the judgments of state courts
given by § 709 of the Revised Statutes extends to adverse decisions
upon rights and titles claimed under commissions held or authority
exercised under the United States, as well as to rights claimed
under the Constitution laws or treaties of the United States.

A mortgage made in enemy's territory to a loyal citizen of the United
States does not necessarily imply unlawful intercourse between the
parties, contrary to the non-intercourse proclamation and act.

A petition for the removal of a cause from a state court should set
out the facts on which the right is claimed; not the conclusions of
law only. This was an appeal from an order of a Circuit Court 
remanding a case to the state court from which it had been 
removed. The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Clarence A. Seward and Mi: James Lowndes for appellant. 
Mr. A. G. Magrath and Mr. H. E. Young also filed a brief for
same.

Mr. William E. Earle for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice Waite delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal under § 5 of the act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, 18
Stat. 470, from an order of the Circuit Court remanding a suit which
had been removed from a state court. The record shows that on the
11th of August, 1886, C. T. Dunham, the appellee, filed a bill in equity
in the Court of Common Pleas of Berkeley County, South Carolina,
against Caroline Carson, to foreclose a mortgage made by William
McBurney and Alfred L. Gillespie to Edmund Hyatt, which had been
assigned to Dunham. Is is alleged that Mrs. Carson is in possession
of the mortgaged property, and that she and the plaintiff are the
only necessary parties to the suit. Service was made on Mrs. Carson
by publication, for the reason, as shown by affidavit, that she did
not reside in South Carolina, but in Rome, Italy. On the 9th of October,
1886, which was the day service on her was completed, she entered
her appearance by counsel, and at the same time filed her petition
for the removal of the suit to the Circuit Court of the United States
for the District of South Carolina, on the following grounds:

" I. That all the matters therein have been already adjudged in her
favor by the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of
South Carolina.

"II. That the complainant is barred of his present action by a
judgment of the said court in her favor on the matter in controversy.

" III. That this court is without jurisdiction because a prior suit on the
 like matter is pending in the aforesaid court of the United States,
which, by its receiver, has possession of the subject matter of
this suit.

" IV. That the bond and mortgage sued on are void under the laws
of the United States.

"V. That the defendant holds title to Dean Hall plantation, the property
involved in this suit and mentioned in the complaint in the above-
entitled suit, under an authority exercised under the United States,
to wit, under a conveyance from the United States marshal for the
district of South Carolina, made under a decree of the United States
Circuit Court, for the said district, all of which will more fully
appear by her answer.

"The controversy in said suit is also wholly between citizens of
different states, viz., between the said C. T. Dunham, who, as your
petitioner is informed and avers, was, at the commencement of said
suit, and now is, a citizen of the state of South Carolina, and your
petitioner, who was, at the commencement of said suit, and now is,
a citizen of the state of Massachusetts; or the controversy in said
suit is wholly between Mary A. Hyatt, who was, at the commencement
of said suit, and now is, a citizen of the state of New York, and who is
the sole and only real party in interest in said suit and in said 
controversy, and your petitioner, who was, at the commencement of 
the said suit, and now is, a citizen of the state of Massachusetts, and 
which controversy is the only controversy in said suit; that the said 
Mary A. Hyatt is the real party plaintiff in said suit, and the said 
C. T. Dunham is but a nominal and colorable plaintiff, and that his 
name has been used merely for the purpose of defeating the 
jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of the United States for the 
District of South Carolina, and that said suit is, in fact, a
controversy wholly between the said Mary A. Hyatt and your 
petitioner, notwithstanding the assignment to the said C. T. 
Dunham in the complaint in said suit mentioned."

On the 11th of November Dunham filed in the Circuit Court an answer
to the petition of Mrs. Carson for removal, in which he denied that he
was a citizen of South Carolina, and averred that he was a citizen of the
same state with her, namely, Massachusetts. The issue made by this
answer was set down for trial in the Circuit Court, accompanied by an
order " that on such trial the burden shall be upon the defendant,
Caroline Carson, to show that the plaintiff, C. T. Dunham, is not a
citizen of Massachusetts."

Upon this trial it was substantially admitted that Dunham was at the
commencement of the suit a citizen of Massachusetts, and thereupon
the suit was remanded. From an order to that effect this appeal was 
taken.

The Circuit Court did not err in holding that the burden of proof was on
Mrs. Carson to show that Dunham was not a citizen of Massachusetts.
As she was the actor in the removal proceeding, it rested on her to
make out the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court. Dunham having denied
that he was a citizen of South Carolina, as she had stated in her petition,
and having claimed that he was in fact a citizen of Massachusetts, the
same as herself, the affirmative was on her to prove that his claim was
not true, or, in other words, that he was a citizen of another state
than her own. 


Davis, J. Bancroft, United States Reports Vol 121: Cases Adjudged 
in the Supreme Court at October Term, 1886, Banks and Brothers,
Albany& New York 1887 pp421-430

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS3

 

If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you'll see how close Cornelius 
and his family are buried to my Dad and Mom. Their graves are in 
the Veteran's Plot just beyond my car.

So just what sort of man was my distant cousin Cornelius Thomas
Dunham and what was his life like?

When I started researching him online I had the information from the
Dunham monument and the headstones in the plot:

Edward F Dunham
1851-1937
Annie S.B. Dunham
1852-1932


Marion Dunham Seaborn
1853-1938
John E. P Seaborn
Nov 30, 1835-Dec 23, 1900
Louise Seaborn Humphries
1889-1946


Abiel Silver
April 3, 1797
March 27, 1881
"He is risen"

His wife
Ednah Hastings
May 30th, 1797
Jan 12, 1892

Their daughter,
Ednah Charlotte
April 27, 1888

I had recently downloaded a history of Abington from Google Books
and started off my  search with that. I found Cornelius and his family,
as well as his ancestors, listed on page 370 of Benjamin Hobart's
"History of the town of Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts,
from its first settlement".

"IV. Cornelius T. Dunham, born in Abington, April 27, 1820; was 
married on the 7th of July, 1847, to Mrs. Ann B. Jenkins, (formerly 
Poyas,) of  Charleston, S. C. Their children were—

V. Henry Lucius, born September.8, 1848.
V. Edward Francis, born July 24, 1851.
V. Marion Porcher, born April 29, 1853.
V. Mary Emma, born August 7, 1857.
V. Elizabeth Ann, born February 18, 1859.
V. Cornelia Thomas, born April 24, 1862.
Of these, all were born in Charleston, S. C., excepting Mary Emma,
 who first saw the light in Abington; and Cornelia, in Winthrop, Mass."


So now the question was, how did somebody born and raised in the
town of Abington, Ma, end up living in Charleston, S.C.?  The answer
is simple: shoes. Abington is situated in the middle of an area that once
was the shoe manufacturing capital of America, and Cornelius, like
many of his Dunham relatives, made a career out the shoe industry.
I don't know when or how he moved to Charleston but he shows up
in the Charlotte Street directories listed as "CT Dunham, Boots &
Shoes" at about the time of his marriage. His wife Ann Ball Poyas
was a member of a prominent South Carolinian family whose
ancestor had immigrated to America from France in the late 18th
century but I've found no information as to how the marriage was
viewed by her relatives.

The Dunhams were living in Charleston as late as the 1860 Federal
Census but since their youngest child was born back in Massachusetts
in 1862 it is possible they moved north after the outbreak of the Civil
War. By the 1870 Census the family, along with two domestic servants,
was living here in Abington and Cornelius' occupation was listed as
"Boot and Shoe dealer". Business must have been good for Cornelius
because ten years later the Dunhams were lving on Pembroke St in
Boston where Cornelius was a prominent member of the newly
established Swedenborgian Church. He died of apoplexy on 15Aug
1895.

My research into cousin Cornelius T Dunham turned up two major
surprises. The first is that Cornelius was involved in a courtcase
that made it up to the Supreme court of the  United States.

The second surprise involves Abiel Silver, his wife Ednah Hastings
and their daughter.

These will be the subjects of the  posts to follow.

To be continued.....

A FAMILY REUNION OF SORTS2

 ((First posted on my West in New England genealogy blog, Nov.2010))

When I got home from the laundromat on Thursday night I started
researching Cornelius Thomas Dunham. I found him on quite a few
family trees on Rootsweb, along with records at FamilySearch
Record Search and Ancestry.com. Matters were complicated by
the existence of a Cornelius Livingston Dunham born in Abington
in March 1823 while the birth record for Cornelius Thomas Dunham
listed his birth as April 1820, not the April 1823 date on the
monument at Mt Cedar Cemetery. ((Cornelius L was the son of
another Cornelius Dunham, and the father of yet another Cornelius.
((It's a New England thing: find a good name and keep using it until
it's all used up.)). Best of all I found an image of the Boston Deaths
registry for August 1895 which had the cause of death (apoplexy)
and the names of  Cornelius T.'s parents, Ezra Dunham (born in
Plymouth) and Polly Cary(born in North Bridgewater).

Using that information I was able to work back to our common
ancestors John Dunham and Abigail Barlow/Ballou. My family
is descended from their son Samuel Dunham, while Cornelius
was descended from Joseph Dunham. Cornelius Thomas Dunham
was my Dad's 6th cousin 3x removed through our Dunham line.
 

There's also a connection through Patience Barrows by way of
my Ellingwood line. My 3x great grandfather John Ellingwood
Jr was married to Rachel Barrows, Patience Barrow's grandniece.

Besides establishing the degree of relationship between my Dad
and Cornelius Dunham, my research also turned up some other 
interesting facts on Cornelius T. and his branch of the Dunham 
family, such as his wife and children being born in South Carolina,
I'll explore these in the next post

To be continued...

52 GRAVESTONES IN 52 WEEKS 4: TILDEN FAMILY PLOT, MARSHFIELD HILLS CEMETERY

Another photo from my  20111 visit to the Marshfield Hills Cemetery in Marshfield, Ma.
It's another family plot for members of the Tilden family, so these are more distant cousins. I'm
descended from Nathaniel Tilden, my 9x great grandfather. His son Stephen (my 8x great
grandfather) lived in Marshfield with his wife Hannah Little, who he married there in 1661.

 The family name is easily visible at the bottom of the monument... 

...but the names of the family members are weathered and difficult to read.

These headstones are also in tough shape.

52 GRAVESTONES IN 52 WEEKS 3: REV. GEORGE LEONARD OF MARSHFIELD, MA.

    REV. GEORGE LEONARD,
                  Son of
    REV. ELIJAH LEONARD.
Born in Marshfield May 26, 1801.
                Graduated at
     Harvard University 1823.
Ordained vat Marshfield 1836.
Pastor of Second Congregational
        Society for 25 years.
             Died July 9, 1881.
A faithful and beloved minister.
A preacher direct and sincere in speech.
An affectionate husband, a kind father.
An honored and trusted citizen.
His memory will be a legacy of honor
and inspiration to the community.
 "Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord."

                   CHARLOTTE E.
                        His widow
                  Died Nov.21, 1884.
                       Aged 78 years.
          "Her children shall arise up and call  
          her blessed."

Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Emmeline (Washburn) Leonard. It turns out she is a distant cousin
through my Edson, Fobes, and Packard family lines. I didn't know we were related until just now as
I wrote this blog entry.

Despite the great esteem Rev. George Leonard was held in at the time of his death in 1881, when I
visited the Marshfield Hills Cemetery in 2011, the Leonard family plot was overrun by weeds and
young trees:

I'll have to go back to the cemetery this summer to see what condition the plot is in now.

52 GRAVESTONES IN 52 WEEKS 2: PHINEAS PRATT OF WEYMOUTH, MA.

For this week I'm returning to one of my favorite cemeteries, Cohasset Central Cemetery.
This family monument caught my eye:

It's a memorial to Phineas Pratt and some of his descendants. Here's a closer view
of the inscription:

And my transcription:

This stone erected to the memory of
the Pratt family by their descendants.

Phineas Pratt came over from England
with the Weston Colony in 1622, and
first settled at Weymouth. The Indians
threatening to destroy the colonies, he
traveled in the then wilderness with the
Indians threatening to destroy him.

He died at Charlestown April 19, 1680,
aged 90 years, and had a tombstone yet
to be seen. One of his sons, Aaron,
settled in this place, and died in 1735
aged 81 years. Aaron his son died in
1767 aged 77 years. Thomas, son of
Aaron 2 died 1818 aged 85 years.
Sarah his wife died 1806 aged 62
years.

It is hoped and believed that their
memory will be handed down to the
latest generations and that when this
stone has crumbled to dust, that our
descendants will erect another more
durable.

__________________
Time and weather having erased the
inscription on the reverse of this stone,
the descendants of Phineas Pratt have
placed here this more durable legend,
as the original charged us to do.

AD 2000
___________________
Underlines mark correction to original text


The story about Phineas Pratt can be found in many books on Plimouth Plantation.
Because I live in Abington, just south of Weymouth, I've also seen it mentioned in
a book about the history of Abington.

I think it's great that the family descendants added a more lasting copy of the inscription
as their ancestors wished.

And I think that bird is a red-tailed hawk.  

WENHAM CEMETERY, CARVER, MA. 30APR2012 PT2

The Wenham Cemetery contains graves of distant cousins from the Barrows,
Dunham, and Faunce families. This post will deal with the Barrows family. My
immigrant ancestor was John Barrowe/Barrow/Barrows and I'm descended from
his son Robert, my 7x great grandfather, and then his son George Barrows. The
Barrows family members I found buried in the Wenham Cemetery descend
from another of Robert's sons, John Barrows.

My 3rd cousin 5x removed Asa Barrows.

His wife Deborah Dewey

Their children Isaac, Asa, and Almira Barrows

Their granddaughter, Jane (Barrows) Skinner

Next, the Dunhams.

WENHAM CEMETERY, CARVER, MA. 30APR2012 PT1

Wenham Cemetery in Carver Ma. dates from 1770 and is also known as the
East Carver Cemetery. It's located on Wenham Rd which passes by several
cranberry bogs along the way. I visited it on a warm April afternoon in 2012
looking for cousins from my Dunham and Barrows lines.

 

The woods at the back of the cemetery. I wonder if those steps were for kids or a hunter?

 

 

The view from the back of the cemetery across Wenham Rd. towards a cranberry bog.

 

 

 

Next post, what and who I found there.

SOUTH MIDDLEBORO CEMETERY, MIDDLEBORO, MA. 11JUN 2012 PT3

I knew that my 5x great grandfather Caleb Benson had been buried here but
while I found headstones for many Benson family cousins, I didn't find
Caleb's on this trip:

My 3rd cousin 4x removed Ansel Benson.

The rusted gate to the burial plot of Consider Benson & family.

First cousin 6x removed Lieut. Consider Benson

Second cousin 5x removed Asa Benson & wife Druzilla.

About a week later I made a return visit. It appears Caleb's original
stone had been destroyed by weather or vandalism and after searching
around a bit I found a newer marker for him :
 

This marker was the first hint I had that Caleb was a clergyman.

SOUTH MIDDLEBORO CEMETERY, MIDDLEBORO, MA. 11JUN 2012 PT2

The South Middleboro Cemetery is located on the grounds of the South
Middleborough United Methodist church in Middleborough, Ma. The two
different spellings come from the New England custom of dropping the old
fashioned spelling for a shorter version of the name. There are a number
of towns in Massachusetts that may be spelled officially with the "borough"
but are frequently spelled with the "boro" unofficially. 

Besides the shorter version fits better on many signs