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The Old Homestead

3/31/2018

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"The Old Homestead", Week 13 of the #52Ancestors Challenge

​While I have researched many locations where my ancestors once lived, with some of the old homes still standing to this day, I will write about an early family in my genealogy, as I was working on these maps when this challenge was announced.
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1838 Plan of Col John Sale land (West towards top of map)
The section of land in Chelsea, Massachusetts that would become Revere and Winthrop was known in the late 1600's as "Pullen Point", and was a part of Boston until 1739. James Penn, an early settler, owned this property by 1643. In his will, dated 29 Sept 1671, he left his land on Pullen Point (as well as other holdings) to PENN TOWNSEND, who was the son of Hannah (Penn) and William Townsend (my 9th Great-Grandparents), Hannah being James' sister.

Penn Townsend, in turn, would will this property (and other real estate) over in 1721 to his two daughters: Sarah, wife of Ebenezer Thayer, and Ann,  the wife of JOHN SALE. They actually only had a "life interest" in this land, and a house on Tremont Street, as the land would pass to their children after their decease, according to Penn Townsend's will. This prevented them from selling the property, and there were several court cases involving this from 1739 to 1742, when they were finally allowed to sell the Tremont St house, the funds to be used in repairing the farm in Chelsea.    
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​John's wife Ann died by 1740, and he lived on the Chelsea farm (with 2nd wife Huldah) until his death in 1763. The land then passed onto his three children, John Sale, Sarah Hickling, and Rebecca Oliver. Son John had possession of the property in 1784, when he sold it to his son John. Later known as Col John Sale, he died in 1835. The map at the top of this posting, found in Suffolk County Deeds [Vol 443, pg 96], shows the 1838 division of his property, which contained 267 acres (half of it marsh land).


The map, on left, is from "A Documentary History of Chelsea", and is found here:
https://archive.org/stream/documentaryhisto04cham

​Much of the history of the properties of Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop, including the above information, can be found in this volume.
The land no longer being held by any of my direct ancestors, I haven't researched any deeds involving John Sale and his children, so I do not know for how long the former land of my 8th Great Grandfather Penn Townsend stayed in the family.

Below is a current map of the Revere, MA area, showing the approximate area (in red and blue) of the old PENN estate of 1643(?) to 1671, TOWNSEND estate of 1671-1721, and SALE estate of 1721-1830's. With so much of the wet lands now filled in, it is difficult to get an exact outline (and I can't draw curvy lines too well in Paint), but it is close.
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The Maiden Aunt

3/31/2018

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"The Maiden Aunt", week 14 of the #52Ancestors Challenge

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​This is MAY FLORENCE BROWN, my Great-Grandmother's aunt. She was born in Kittery, Maine on 8 May 1875, and died in York, Maine on 7 Apr 1961. She was buried alongside her parents in Orchard Grove Cemetery.

She lived with her parents, James W and Emily (Waitt) Brown, at Locke's Cove (or Oak Bank) in Kittery, and never married. She was caretaker for her parents when they became elderly, and also helped care for her sister's five daughters, who had moved into the house with their mother (my Great-Great Grandmother Emily (Brown) Kramer).

She remained in the family home after her parents and sister had passed away, and would rent out part of the house. She was involved in many functions and activities of the Second Christian Church [a member for 52 years in 1957], and was a teacher and superintendent of the church school. She also worked as a clerk at Walker's Variety Store in Wallingford Square. Her father being a veteran of the Civil War, May joined the Auxiliary #8 to the M.F. Wentworth Sons of (Union) Veterans Camp in Kittery, and served for a time as chaplain.

In the late 1950's, she moved to the York Harbor Hospital, and afterwards to the Willows Convalescent Home when she became blind. She died at the Harbor Hospital in 1961, aged 85.


Related blog pages:
Brown - Locke's Cove
Emily J. (Brown) Kramer
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"Misfortune"

3/23/2018

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Week 12 of the 52 Ancestors Challenge is "Misfortune".

Here is an interesting story I found while searching for my ancestor, Joseph Leavitt, in the Maine newspapers. While this record may refer to my 4th great-grandfather, I believe that, considering the severity of the wounds mentioned in the article, it was instead his uncle, who was a blacksmith in neighboring Milburn (Skowhegan).
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Eastern Argus newspaper, 1/6/1834
​It's 10 pm on a January night in 1834, and Mr Joseph Leavitt of Athens, Maine is walking home with a LIVE raccoon in hand. It gets away and he gives chase into the bushes, where he has the misfortune of being shot by someone on the other side looking for fox!

I found no other newspaper article to follow up on this "shocking occurrence", and the dreadful injuries he received. I did find, however, that Eliza Ann, the widow of Joseph Leavitt, sold her right of dower on his Milburn property on 3 May 1834 [Somerset County Deeds, v.18 p.247], so it seems likely that he did not recover from these wounds.
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The St Patrick's Day Gale of 1882

3/13/2018

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St. Patrick's Day
It was Friday, the 17th of March, 1882, and my Irish-born 3rd Great-Grandfather Dennis Hessian was on board the Schooner Victor, anchored out on Georges Bank in the Atlantic. They were part of the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing fleet, a community whose losses since January of that year were 9 vessels and 102 men. By night's end, two more ships and 24 names would be added to the tally of dead and lost.

I have no available numbers on how many fishing vessels were out on the Bank when the gale arrived, or the time that the storm began, though it did last until Saturday, as later reports would indicate. The majority of ships would have their decks swept of everything, lose their anchors when the lines snapped, and have their dories smashed and damaged, or have the rigging torn or ripped away. For the crews of the FV Northerner and Victor, all would be lost to them.  

"The cries of drowning men were heartrending"
Captain Naels of the schooner Pioneer entered Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 21st, and gave reports of the gale that had stricken the fleet. His vessel had lost two men overboard, but another wave had come along and washed them back onto the deck. He was witness to "two other fishing vessels lying near go down with all hands". With his own crew attempting to save their ship, they were unable to give assistance to the drowning men of the sinking boats. 

Given Up as Lost
Though there were witnesses to the two ships going down, their names would not be known until all the other vessels were accounted for. Even then, they would not be given up as lost until April, when four weeks had passed since the gale (the usual round trip fishing time to the Bank being three weeks). The 14 April 1882 edition of the Cape Ann Weekly Advertiser announced the losses of the ships, as well as the names of the twenty-four men who perished during the storm. 

​The following is a list of those men lost on that day, with notes or corrections in [ ].
Schooner Victor
Patrick Fanning (aka Charles Whaley), master, of Gloucester, left a widow and 6 children
John Welch, of Gloucester, left a widow and two children
Martin Simmons, of Gloucester, left a widow
Dennis Hessian, of Gloucester left a widow and three children [he also had 2 adult dau's from 1st wife]
John Ryan, left a family at the Strait of Canso
Michael Tohey, left a family back at Strait of Canso
John Murphy, of Newburyport
Frank Dixon, of Nova Scotia
George Powers, of Nova Scotia
John Callinan [Callihan], of Nova Scotia
William Perrill, of Nova Scotia
Thomas Eylward, of Nova Scotia
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From Gloucester vital records (1882)
Schooner Northerner
Isaac H. Goodwin, master, of Pubnico, Nova Scotia, left a widow and three children
Israel Goodwin, of Pubnico, left a widow and four children
Amos Goodwin, of Argyle, Nova Scotia, left a widow and family
​Robert Lennox, of Pubnico, N.S.
Foster Gaylon [Gayton], of Pubnico, N.S.
George Larkin, of Nova Scotia
Daniel McComiskey, of Nova Scotia
Thomas J Morris, of Nova Scotia
Addison M Larkin, of Nova Scotia
James Malone, of Nova Scotia
Thomas Wilson, of Nova Scotia
Edward A. Gilson, steward, of Belfast, Maine, left a widow and seven children (4 of them adults)
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From Gloucester vital records (1882)

By year's end (reported on Dec 15th in the Boston Evening Transcript), Gloucester's losses for the year 1882 was 13 fishing ships and 115 men. The following year would only be worse for the town...

See also:
my blog page on: Hessian - Gloucester, Massachusetts
Town of Gloucester's Lost at Sea page on their website
​https://www.downtosea.com/list.htm
​
Boston Herald (3/21/1882; 3/23/82), Boston Journal (4/8/82)
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Emily Jane (Brown) Kramer

3/3/2018

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EMILY JANE BROWN, my Great Great-Grandmother, was born in Kittery, Maine on 14 June 1864, the daughter of James W. and Emily (Waitt) Brown. Her parents had just married a year prior in Malden, MA, and they returned there after their daughter's birth. It was here that she likely married JOHN KRAMER on 28 Mar 1889 [date in family p.work, rec not yet found]. He was a widower, and had four young children, having moved up to Malden from Colchester, Connecticut, to find work at the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. Following the birth of their first daughter, he and Emily returned to his home town, where they would have five more girls born to them (one would die at birth).

Some time between 1898 and 1900, Emily returned to Kittery with her five daughters, and John remained behind in Colchester. She lived with her parents and sister, May Brown, at Locke's Cove. 

She came down ill in Nov. 1909, according to the local newspaper, and she would die from tuberculosis on 8 Dec 1909 at her parents home in Kittery. She was only 45 years old. She would be buried in Orchard Grove Cemetery.
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The above photos were taken at Oak Bank, or Locke's Cove, in Kittery, Maine [note: these pictures were received by me in low resolution, so it is not possible to zoom in and try to identify who is who]. Aunt May Brown is likely one of the adults, and perhaps Emily is the other older female in the boat. 

The children of John and Emily (Brown) Kramer were:
i. Estelle Maude Kramer, born 8 Jan 1890 in Malden, MA
ii. Martha Louise Kramer, b. 9 Jul 1891 in Colchester, CT
iii. (daughter) Kramer, b and d. 20 Aug 1892 in Colchester, CT
iv. Helen Kramer, b. 4 Sept 1893 in Colchester, CT
v. Verna Brown Kramer, b. 31 Oct 1894 in Turnerville (Hebron), CT
​vi. Hazel Irene Kramer, b. 7 Oct 1897 in Colchester, CT

Earlier blog pages:
Brown - Locke's Cove
​
The immigration of George Kramer and Mary Fedder (John Kramer's parents)
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