First Settlers of Amesbury, Massachusetts

    In 1903 the Amesbury Improvement Association erected a memorial to the first settlers of Amesbury in the Golgotha Burial Ground (next to 52 Macy Street).  Eighteen men are credited with being the original settlers of the area that became Amesbury.
    Salisbury (Essex County) was incorporated in 1640.  In 1654 it was divided into Old Town and New Town, separated by the Pow-wow River.  In 1666 New Town was proclaimed a township called New Salisbury, the name of which was changed to Amesbury the following year. 
    Nine of the eighteen first settlers are my ancestors, several of them through more than one child.  They are Thomas Barnard, William Barnes, Henry Blaisdell, Philip Challis, Richard Currier, Jarrett Haddon, George Martin, Valentine Rowell, and William Sargent.
  

 
    Thomas Barnard, a planter and husbandman, was a resident of Salisbury in 1640.  He was killed by Indians on 7 July 1677.  His wife and mother of his ten children was Eleanor (Morse) Little.  His son, Thomas Barnard (Sarah Peasley), and daughter, Abigail Barnard (Samuel Fellows) are my ancestors.

    William Barnes received land in Salisbury in the “first division” in 1640 and again in 1641.  He was made “freeman” in 1641.  A  house carpenter, he was born in England in 1613 and died in Amesbury on 14 March 1697/98.  His wife was Rachel Lord, the mother of his eight children.  Two daughters, Sarah (Thomas Rowell Jr.)  and Rachel (Lt. Thomas Sargent), are my ancestors.
    Henry Blaisdell was born circa 1632.  His first wife was Mary Haddon, with whom he had nine children; his second was Elizabeth.  Henry, a planter and tailor, died between 1705 and 1707.  His son, Lt. John Baisdell (Elizabeth Challis) is my ancestor.
    Philip Challis, a planter, and his wife Mary Sargent had eleven children.  He died in Amesbury in 1681.  Daughter Elizabeth (John Hoyt) and son John (Sarah Frame) are my ancestors.    
    Richard Currier was born in England on 3 May 1616, and he was a resident of Salisbury in 1640.  By trade he was a millwright and planter.  His first wife was Anne, the mother of his two children.  His second was Joanne Pindor, widow of Valentine Rowell and William Sargent.  Richard died in Amesbury on 22 February 1787.   His son, Deacon Thomas (Mary Osgood) is my ancestor.
    Jarrett Haddon was born circa 1608.  His wife was Margaret, with whom he had three children.  He died before 20 March 1690, when his will was probated.  Daughter Mary (Henry Blaisell) is my ancestor.
    George Martin, a blacksmith, was first married to Hannah, by whom he had a daughter.  Susanna North, hanged as a witch at Salem in 1692, was his second wife, with whom he had eight children.  George died in 1686.  Daughter Hester (John Jameson) is my ancestor, and daughter Jane (Samuel Hadley) is my son-in-law’s ancestor.
    Valentine Rowell was born in England on 22 June 1622.  A carpenter, he married Joanna Pindor in 1643, and the couple had nine children.  Valentine died in Amesbury in May 1662.  Three of his children are my ancestors.   They are Thomas (Sarah Barnes), Philip (Sarah Morrill), and Mary (Thomas Frame).
    William Sargent was born in Bath (Somerset) England in 1598 and immigrated to American in 1632.   A seaman, he  married first Elizabeth Perkins.  The couple had nine children.  He married second Joanne Pindor, widow of Valentine Rowell.  William died in Amesbury in March 1675.  Daughter Mary (Philip Challis) and son Lt. Thomas (Rachel Barnes) are my ancestors.

Photographs by Buffalogen, August 2014

Historic New York - Upper Cattaraugus Valley

On the east side of Route 16, south of Yorkshire Corners

    This sign was erected in 1963 and, for more than fifty years, Buffalogen drove past it, probably at least fifty times a year, and never stopped.  Early in July 2014, she stopped to read it.  It is interesting, but doesn't say much more than what she already knew.
    What the sign doesn't mention is the ice industry on Lime Lake, six miles south of where the sign is located.  In 1880 a Buffalo ice company erected an ice house on the lake and began harvesting ice to ship to Buffalo.  For the next forty years, several companies employed hundreds of men, who harvested the ice with huge saws and used horse-drawn sledges to transport the blocks off the frozen lake.  The blocks, isulated with straw, were stored in ice houses along the east shore of the lake before being shipped to Buffalo on cars of the Buffalo, New York & Philadephia Railroad Company, which ran along that side of the lake.  The ice industry fell victim to the advent of refrigeration and ceased to exist in the 1920s.  There is still train traffic on the rail line, which was completed in 1872.

Photo by Buffalogen, 2014

Find A Grave - Caveat Utilitor!

I love Find A Grave (www.findagrave.com)–I’m both a user and a contributor.  Making burial information available and preserving images of gravestones for now and the future is a great boon for genealogists, family historians, gravestone art aficionados, and many others.  I have mixed feelings, however, about the additional information, some documented, some not, that has been posted on many memorials.

Case in point–I recently came across a memorial on which the contributor had posted an obituary of the deceased, Joseph J. Jones [all names have been changed in consideration for the contributor].  It was a transcription, not an image, of the actual obituary.  I was happy to find it, even though no source was given.  Particularly interesting, I thought, was the last paragraph: “Surviving is his wife of almost 55 years, the former Susan S. Smith; He was the father of the late Susie Q. Jones.”

Thanks to Fulton History (www.fultonhistory.com), another great website, I had already found Susie’s death notice, which said she was “sister of Betty.”  Curious!  What became of Betty?  Why wasn’t she mentioned in her father’s obituary?  Dead or alive, what reason could there be for her to have been omitted?  I went looking for more information. 

The Jones family was too recent to be in census records; and city directories and the like don’t identify children.  I turned to Fulton History and searched for an obituary or death notice for one of Susie’s grandparents, who were listed as survivors in her death notice. Those for Susie’s paternal grandparents were no help, and I couldn’t find anything for her maternal grandparents.

Almost as a last resort, I googled Susie’s father by name and found his obituary, posted by the funeral home that had served his family.  Lo and behold, it was the same as the one on Find A Grave, except for one very important paragraph.  “Surviving is his wife of almost 55 years, the former Susan S. Smith; three daughters, Betty [ John ] Doe; of Wheatfield; Jane [Robert ] Roe, of Lewiston; Mary [Charles ] Coe, of Long Island; a sister, Ann Black, of Hayward, CA; 3 grandchildren. He was the father of the late Susie Q. Jones.”

Omission of facts is almost as egregious as alteration of facts.  Rather than providing a helpful resource for researchers, the Find A Grave contributor unwittingly committed a grave disservice, misleading everyone relying on that obituary for information about the Jones family.

Caveat lector!  Caveat utilitor!


Image by Buffalogen

How did William Hamilton Blodgett MD die?

   

     William Hamilton Blodgett was born in Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, on 14 October 1823, son of Clark Blodgett and Harriet Evans, and he died on 22 June 1861.  His first wife, whom he married in Lake County in 1843, was Emily Maria Tredwell, born in New York 1823-1825 to unknown parents.  She divorced him in 1851.  His second wife, whom he married in Green Bay, Brown County, Wisconsin, in 1853, was Agnes Eliza Parsons, born in Rutland, Rutland County, Vermont, on 7 November 1834, daughter of Ira Parsons and Theodotia Bardwell.

     William was a surgeon, but where he received his training is unknown.  He moved from Ohio to Calumet, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, between 1844 and 1846 and was recorded in the 1850 and 1860 censuses of Green Bay, Brown County, Wisconsin, as a physician. 
    In the spring of 1861 William apparently intended to join the Union forces as a physician.  The writer inherited a leather pounch containing several letters recommending him as a regimental surgeon.  Only a few weeks after the letters were written, William was dead.

   

    Did William ever join a regiment?  How and where did he die?  His date of death was recorded in his family Bible, but there are no details.

Sources: 

Ohio and Wisconsin marriage records

U.S. census records

Blodgett Bible held in 2014 by Buffalogen

Letters held in 2014 by Buffalogen

From Buffalogen's photo collection - 10

Who are these three children?

Photographer :
Wm. Wunsch
Military Road
Near Amherst Street
Buffalo, N. Y.



William Wunsch, photographer, was on Military Road from 1878 to 1927, and maybe longer.  In the 1887 Buffalo city directory, the photographer's address was Military Road near Amherst; some other years it was 24 Military Road.

Parents of Jemima (Button) Evans

    Jemima Button was the wife of Ora Evans, who probably was born in 1867.  Ora lived in Brookfield, Madison County, New York, when the 1810 census was taken.  The adult female in his household, presumably Jemima, was between 26 and 44 years of age (i.e., born between 1766 and 1784).  There were two John Buttons in Brookfield at that time - John Sr. (born 1749), who married Anna McCoon, and John 2nd (born 1756), who married Betsy Palmer.
    John Sr.’s uncle, Elias Button, a bachelor, who died in Brookfield in 1823, left a will in which he bequeathed his land to his nephews, sons of John Button Sr.  To each of Jemima and Susannah (no last name for either), he left 1/12 of his residual estate and to each of five other females, almost certainly his nieces, daughters of John Sr., 1/6 of his residual estate.  Had Jemima and Susannah already received legacies from Elias?
    According to R. Glen Nye, compiler of Button Families of America (1971), John and Anna had a daughter Jemima, who, he said, married Stephen Carpenter, a lawyer [p. 56].  He also said Jemima’s sister Susanna married someone named Carpenter.  No additional information, such as dates and places, was given and, unfortunately, this undocumented genealogy is full of inaccuracies. 

Elias Button inventory, Madison County NY, file 387, 1824

    A note against Ora Evans and Ora Evans Jun. for $24.50, dated June 4, 1817, was among the assets of Elias’ estate, according to the inventory of Apr. 8, 1824.  It was noted: “A Doubt of its being worth anything.”  The Evans family had relocated to Ohio before the 1820 census was taken, so pursuing the Evanses to collect was not feasible.
    Anna McCoon’s mother was Jemima Ross; she had a brother, Ross McCoon and a son, Ross C. Button.  Among the children of Ora and Jemima were Anna Evans and Ross B. Evans, probably named after Jemima’s mother and brother.
    Is this enough circumstantial evidence to conclude that Jemima’s parents were John and Anna (McCoon) Button? 

Source of image:
Family History Library microfilm 425302

From Buffalogen's photo collection - 9

Does anyone recognize these people? 

    Captain Manson probably lived near Hull, East Riding, Yorkshire, England.  He was in the shipping business and often stayed with Robert Bartley when he was in the United States.  Robert, a resident of New York City (Manhattan), was a shipping clerk, at various times affiliated with the Wilson line, Wigton and Sons, and Charles L. Wright and Sons.
    The photos of Captain Manson's wife and children were taken in August 1885.

   

    The photographer was R. T. Watson, Anlaby Road, Hull, by appointment contractor to Her Majesty's Government, and photographer of Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke & Duchess of Edinburgh.