The Brimfield Blashfields

One sad yet obvious reality of family tree research is that as yet there are no happy endings.  All of the people I research are dead.  I realize this.  However, sometimes I come across stories that affect me more than usual.  Case in point is the Blashfield men of Brimfield, Massachusetts.

Family member name: Orestes A. Blashfield (awesome name)
Tree branch: Webber
Lifetime: 1830-1892
Relation: My 3x great grandfather (my dad's dad's dad's mom's dad)

I was researching the date of death of my 3x great grandfather, Orestes Blashfield.  Here is what I found in Massachusetts Death Records for 1892.

1892 Brimfield, Massachusetts Death Records

The date of death was November 27, 1892, 126 years ago today.  I also found the cause of death was suicide.  So sad. Only 62 years old.  I was so upset about this and wondered what could have caused him to do this.

A few days later I looked at the same file again.  Here it is again.  Do you see what I missed the first time?

1892 Brimfield, Massachusetts Death Records

His 33-year old son, Frank, had passed away less than 6 weeks earlier of the rare problem of a rectal ulcer.  To make matters worse, it was noted on the 1880 census that Frank was "Insane." It may be that Orestes could not handle the grief and took his own life because of it.  Sadly, Orestes' wife and mother of their child lost both men in her life in a short period of time.  Her name was Julia Elmina and she would live another 30 years.

This is the family's headstone in Brimfield Cemetery that I visited with my mom a few years ago.

Brimfield Cemetery, Brimfield, Massachusetts

No surprises

I just received my DNA results from Ancestry.com!  So exciting!!

Family member name: Meredith Rae Webber Hargreaves
Tree branch: All
Lifetime: 1975-
Relation: Me

Meredith's DNA results

What do these results show??  Basically, I'm white.  (Shocker!)

It's almost as if my DNA was not tested, but instead they compiled all the people in my family tree and came up with the above percentages based on where everyone is from. I'm not surprised at these results at all.

I think I am slightly more German than the test shows, but 10% is in the ballpark.

I was hoping to be 1% Native American, based on the fact that my Pilgrim ancestors lived in close proximity to Indians for many years.  (Can't tell me there was no hanky panky going on!)  But alas, nothing shows up, so that's disappointing.

This test is awesome confirmation that my research has been on track and that the source records from Ancestry are also correct.

I'm looking forward to the other features offered by these results, like possibly finding family members.  Stay tuned...

Cranberries

Autumn means that it's cranberry harvesttime on Cape Cod!  Let's read what cousin Pearl remembered about this special time of year.

Family member name: Pearl Keith Gibbs Thomas
Tree branch: Smith
Lifetime: 1890-1981
Relation: My 1st cousin, 3x removed (my dad's mom's dad's 1st cousin)

Pearl lived in Wareham, Mass. Today, Wareham is the home of the largest cranberry grower in the world, AD Makepeace, which was around in Pearl’s day. Cranberries are one of just a handful of fruits native to North America.  

The bright red berry is grown in a sunken, dry field called a bog.  They grow on vines.  Pearl picked using the dry method, by hand, also done with a tool resembling a comb.  When ready to harvest using the wet harvesting method, the bog is flooded with water.  The lightweight berries float to the top and can be skimmed into a truck via a huge vacuum hose.

Several years ago we were visiting Cape Cod during September and came across this beautiful bog flooded for harvesting. 

Cranberry bog harvest on Cape Cod 2003.

Autumn arrival

One hundred and twelve years ago today my great-great-grandmother arrived to the United States.

Family member name: Catherine O'Neill Boyle
Tree branch: Boyle
Lifetime: 1849 - 1941
Relation: My 2x great grandmother (my mom's dad's dad's mom)

What was October 19, 1906 like for Catherine Boyle?

First, a brief history of Catherine. Queen Victoria had already been reigning for 12 years when Catherine was born in 1849 in England.  She married an Irishman named John Boyle in June 1871 and they started their family which would grow to include 12 children.  They lived in Blackhill, Durham, England.  

She was 57 years old in 1906 when she and her daughter Kate made the short trip to Liverpool and boarded the steamship called Baltic.  They were in steerage class.  Ten days later, they disembarked onto Ellis Island.

October 19 was a Friday in 1906 just as it is in 2018, and it was a warm day in New York City as the temperature rose to 73 degrees.  

Here are the steps she encountered during the immigration process.

1. Ferry - She took a ferry from her ship's pier to Ellis Island
2. Label - She was labeled with her name and ship name
3. Baggage drop off - How many belongings did Catherine bring with her? How much would you bring if starting a new life in a new country?
4. Separation - Normally men were separated from the women and children, but since Catherine only traveled with her grown daughter, they most likely were not separated
5. Stairway - Catherine was unknowingly watched by inspectors as she climbed the stairs to the Great Hall. Those with medical difficulties were flagged for further examination.
6. Chalk - A small amount of immigrants were given a chalk mark letter code on their coat lapel to indicate a medical problem.  Catherine's paperwork said her health was "good".  Probably no chalk for her!
7. The Great Hall - Verbal inspections took place here.  Catherine and Kate were no doubt surrounded by hundreds, if not, thousands of other immigrants.  How did they feel? Since Ellis Island was nicknamed the "Island of Tears", most likely it was not a comfortable experience. Here is a picture of the Great Hall in use.

Photo source: New York Public Library Digital Collection

8. Legal Inspection - 32 questions to determine entry.  Most of the replies are found on her arrival paperwork.
9. Baggage reclaim - Finally! They could pick up their luggage.
10. Money exchange - You had to have at least $20 to enter America in 1909.  Since Catherine arrived in 1906, this was not yet a requirement.  She must at least have had enough for transportation to Indiana.
11. Kissing Post - The exit to Ellis Island was named the Kissing Post, where many immigrants were reunited with their loved ones who were already in the US.  Did any of Catherine's family members come to greet her?  Maybe her husband John?
12.  Ferry to New Jersey or New York - The next phase of her journey begins!

She settled in Indianapolis, Indiana and lived there for 35 years.  She passed away at the age of 91 leaving scores of descendants, of which I am one.  

I feel that my October 19 was well-spent by imagining her life-changing experience 112 years ago today.

A mysterious first marriage

This week would have been my grandparents' 79th anniversary.  Their wedding date was September 2, 1939.  I never questioned this. I never had to research the date, it was undisputed.  Why? Because we celebrated it with them!  When your family tells you something, you don't ask to see proof from a notary.  

Family member name: Roger Pearson Webber, Charlotte Ellen Smith Webber
Lifetime: 1914 - 2000, 1915 - 2014 respectively

Places lived: Massachusetts; Rhode Island

Tree branch: Webber
Relation: My grandparents (my dad's parents)

Webber wedding - photo taken Sept 2, 1939

I was very surprised when I recently found a document that made me question their wedding date.  "Heavenly day!" as my grandma would exclaim.

This is my grandparents' newly discovered marriage certificate.  It shows them as married May 27, 1938 - over one year earlier than we thought.  The ceremony was in another state: New Hampshire, not Massachusetts.

I contacted my aunt, who sent me a photo of the marriage certificate she has in her files.  This is the marriage we all knew about - in Massachusetts in 1939.

Both marriage certificates are valid documents and listed in the marriage indexes for their respective states.

Wow, do you know what this means? My grandparents got married twice.  To each other. 

I have no record that they were divorced in between these marriages.  And they did not live together after the first marriage. (Notice that they fibbed on their second marriage certificate by saying it was their first marriage.) 

Why did they get married twice? We don't know. One possible reason could be that my grandmother's mother was dying of cancer.  In fact she died April 13, 1939 in New Hampshire. Maybe it was her dying wish to see her daughter married, I don't know. We always thought she died a few months before their wedding in 1939.  But, could she actually have attended their wedding in 1938?? Probably.

But why in the world get officially married again by a priest?  Why not just have a late reception? How many people at their second wedding knew they were already married? Now both of my grandparents have passed away, along with anyone who may have known the reason for the duplication.  

We now have a family mystery.

Sources:

New Hampshire Marriage and Divorce Records, 1659-1947, page 509

Massachusetts, US, Marriage Index, 1901-1955, page 175

Experience Stone's fire

The kitchen is the heart of the home.  As true as that is today, imagine what life was like without our fancy granite-laden, stainless steel clad (not to mention electrified) HGTV kitchens.  

Before the modern stove and indoor plumbing, life revolved around the fire, and homes were built around chimneys and fireplaces.  All cooking was done over the fire.  Taking a bath this week? No fire meant you got a cold bath.  Cold hands and bodies stood by the fire.  Hot coffee was not a push of a button.  Who's gonna wake up early, pump the water then start the fire to get that water boiling?

If the fire went out, your day was ruined.  Families could not leave the fire unattended for very long.

This short post is to imagine my 5x great grandmother, Experience Stone, and all the time she spent at her hearth.

Family member name: Experience Stone (best name ever)
Tree branch: Pearson
Lifetime: 1757-1827
Relation: My 5x great grandmother (my dad's dad's mom's dad's mom's mom's mom)

Not only did she have a husband and 10 children to feed, but they also fed hungry travelers.  Around 1800, they built their new home in Falmouth, Maine and turned it into a tavern.  It was called the Hall Tavern.  Nicholas Hall was her husband.

The Hall Tavern became an Inn.  Over 200 years later it is still an inn, now a historical landmark and called the Quaker Tavern B&B, since the Hall's were Quakers.

Quaker Tavern B&B

It was a gorgeous autumn weekend in 2016 to spend the night at my ancestor's home.  I woke up in their freezing cold bedroom, which is the true Maine experience.  I walked up and down their perfectly creaky stairs. I looked out their original lead-glass windows to see the gorgeous colored leaves, maybe even falling from the same trees.

And I sat at my grandmother's hearth. The fire was out.  But I could see her there, being the best mom and business owner she could be.

Experience Stone's hearth at the Quaker Tavern B&B

Experience Stone's view.

Locust Grove

My great great great grandmother was a Morse. Her first cousin was Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph and Morse code (dot dot dash dash). 

Family member name: Samuel Finley Breese Morse
Lifetime: 1791 - 1872
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 1st cousin, 6x removed (meaning = if I was born 6 generations ago we’d be 1st cousins)

I love finding out where my ancestors lived and how they lived. My dad came to visit us one weekend and we drove up to Poughkeepsie, NY to see Samuel Morse’s summer home. 

Just a bit of background... Before Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, he was an artist. Besides a very good start, he was mostly a starving artist (though extremely talented and famous in his own right) and usually could not pay the bills. His wife and children almost never had a home of their own because they couldn’t afford the rent. They lived with different family members and borrowed money often.  


With the riches from the telegraph later on in his life, he bought and extensively renovated a large home north of Manhattan.  The name of the estate is Locust Grove.  It is now a historical landmark and makes for a lovely afternoon tour. Morse was called Finley by his family. The pictures below are of Finley’s first cousin's descendant, my dad.

PS: Locust Grove doesn’t seem to give discounts for family members. ;)

Descendant of Samuel Morse's first cousin.

Outside Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, NY.  It was pouring.

Locust Grove entry and a carriage similar to what the Morse family would have used.

Andersonville

Ahhh, idyllic Vermont.  Clean, fresh air and green mountains.  

The Titus side of my dad's family mainly settled in Vershire, Vermont.  To get there, drive to Timbuktu and hang a left, keep going till you hit East Osh Kosh.  Vershire is just 45 minutes further down the "road."

One of the Titus boys had a brief but significant journey away from Vershire.

Family member name: Morris Park Titus 
Lifetime: 1845-1900
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 3rd great-uncle (My dad's dad's mom's mom's brother)

When Morris turned 18 in 1863, the War of the Rebellion was still going strong.  So he enlisted and began his military service as a Private in the 4th Vermont Infantry.

Just six months later, he was captured during a battle in Virginia and became a P.O.W.  He had just turned 19.  First he was held in Libby Prison, an infamous converted food warehouse that was used to imprison Union soldiers.  Huge rooms were overcrowded with men who did not receive medical attention or much food.  

Then he was sent to Andersonville Prison, GA.

**Warning: the following is not for sensitive hearts**

Andersonville was not a prison.  There are many words for it, but the word prison is usually connected with a building that includes cells and bars.  What a paradise prison would have been for those men!  No, Andersonville was an extermination camp in the United States.

Andersonville had two or three rows of tall stockade fences.  And that's it.  It was a pen. 

[Pause here to think of that.]

Inside the pen was the ground and the sky.  No shelter.  No facilities.  There was a small stream running down a hill.  The men would drink water from the top of the stream, and go to the bathroom at the lower stream.  It became a swamp of diarrhea.

The soldiers were starved.  When they had food, it was corn bread and some beans with maggots in it.  They prayed for sweet potatoes in order to possibly avoid scurvy, which most men contracted anyway.  It is a horrible disease.

Morris Park Titus arrived at the absolute worst time to arrive at Andersonville, end June of 1864.  The prisoner population was 26,000 men.  Some healthy men who arrived at that time died in two weeks or less.  Here is what they saw, taken from the diary of a soldier.

As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. "Can this be hell?" "God protect us!" and all thought that he alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink (latrine), and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then

In August, the Confederates started moving soldiers to other prisons.  The criteria for being moved was that you had to be able to walk out.  Those who could not walk out were left in the pen to die.  Even though he had been there less than six weeks, Morris could not walk out.  In September and October, 1 out of 3 and then 1 out of 2 men died respectively.  

[Pause here to think of that.]

But Morris was not a casualty.  Somehow he survived.  After only four months at Andersonville, he probably spent over a year in the hospital and the rest of his life undoubtedly with PTSD and chronic health problems.

He returned to beautiful Vershire.  Here is Morris on his wedding day just two years later.

When we visited Vershire in 2011, the kind town historian showed us a family history written by a Titus family member in 1930.  Here is the excerpt about Morris.  

From a family history book in Vershire, Vermont

Andersonville did not kill him.  But sadly Morris died on a Monday afternoon at age 55 when he fell on some ice.  Sigh... Vermont.

Married 63 years

Read all about it!  This newspaper article is about my great great great grandparents.  It was torn to pieces, and there are stains from completely dissolved 100 year-old Scotch tape.  My friend is a professional archivist and she kindly restored the fragile newspaper clipping for me.  I decided to transcribe it below for posterity's sake.  It's a genealogist's dream article.  It's also any family's dream article.  Enjoy.

Family member names: Mr. and Mrs. Simeon Bacon Titus
Tree branch: Pearson
Lifetimes: 1817-1903 and 1818-1903
Relation: My 3x great grandmother and grandfather (my dad's dad's mom's mom's parents)

The Cambridge Chronicle - January 11, 1902

I also have the original photo that was used in the article.  How cute are they??

HAVE BEEN MARRIED SIXTY-THREE YEARS.

Mr. and Mrs. Simeon B. Titus Begin Their Sixty-fourth Year of Wedded Life - Live with Their Daughter on Oxford Street.

   It is generally considered a matter worthy of comment when a couple celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and as a usual thing a great deal of attention is given to such an occasion.  But this week an aged couple residing in this city quietly celebrated an anniversary besides which a mere 50 years of wedded life seems insignificant.  Mr. and Mrs. Simeon B. Titus, both natives of Vermont, now living with their daughter, Mrs. Fanny T. Hazen, at 61 Oxford Street, are the couple and Monday they celebrated the completion of the 63d year during which they have been married.  

   Mr. Titus was born in Vershire, Vt., June 6, 1817, while his wife, was born in the adjoining town of West Fairlee May 14, 1816.  Until ten years ago Mr. Titus continued to reside on the farm on which he was born, and it was only at the age of 74 that he was induced to retire from work and come to live with his daughter.  He was one of 12 children, of whom all but he are now dead.  In his veins runs some of the patriotic blood of the sturdy New England farmers.  His grandfather, Lenox Titus, was one of those who aided in routing the British at the battle of Bennington, and thus indirectly contributed to the final defeat and surrender of Burgoyne's army of invaders at Saratoga.  Later he removed to Vershire where he was one of the pioneer settlers.  The farm on which Mr. Titus was born has been in the family 100 years.

   Mr. Titus's youth, and, indeed, his whole life, has been like many another New England farmer's life.  He attended the district school three months in winter, working on the farm during the rest of the time.  All his brothers and sisters went out into the world and to him as the youngest, it fell to remain at home and take care of the farm.  But if Mr. Titus himself did not go into the world or engage in the defense of his country during her wars, his sons evidently inherited the patriotic impulses of the family.  Of his six sons three entered the Civil war, all being under age at the time.  Two gave their lives in defense of the flag.  One, after suffering months in the prison pen at Andersonville, returned home a physical wreck.  Mrs. Fanny Titus Hazen, the eldest daughter, was a nurse in the Columbian College United States hospital, Washington in 1864-1865.  She is now president of the Army Nurse association of Massachusetts.

  Mrs. Titus, too, seems to have come from a family as patriotic as that of her husband, for her paternal grandfather, William Morris, was in the battle of Concord and Lexington [Note: This is unfortunately not true. He was sent as a soldier to Boston after those battles] and rose in the service until he became a first lieutenant.  Her mother was a Morse and was first cousin to the famous inventor of the Morse telegraph system, which has conferred untold benefits on the country and the world.  Of the 11 children of Mr. and Mrs. Titus, five are still living, four daughters and a son.  The son is Charles M. Titus, of Boston.  Of these, three were present at the celebration of the anniversary.

  Mr. Titus's age would seem to be in no way very remarkable for he comes from an exceptionally long lived family.  His mother lived to be 95 years old, while one of his brothers died at the age of 93.  A sister reached the age of 86 and all the others, with one or two exceptions, lived to a good old age.  He has a large number of descendants in various parts of the world, including several great grandchildren.  At the celebration Monday, which was private and quiet, the aged couple were made happy on this anniversary by the presence of three children, grand and great grandchildren - four generations.  

  Mr. and Mrs. Titus until within a few years attended the Epworth Methodist church at Harvard Square.  Mrs. Titus rarely goes out owing to a fall which she sustained some time ago and in which she injured her ankle so that she does not move around much.  Otherwise she is in perfect health.  About the same time her husband left off attendance, although he still preserves his interest and remains on the visiting list of the pastor.  He is in the best of health with all his faculties seemingly untouched by the advance of age and with the same enjoyment of life which he had fifty years ago.

Mother of how many children

Finding cold facts and figures raises so many questions about our ancestors' lives.  Lately I've been looking into the German line on Dru's side of the family.  This post is to show how finding pieces of information about our ancestors only raises many more questions.

Family member name: Veleska Staverinsky Neumann
Lifetime: 1854 - 1907

Places lived: Prussia; Iowa
Tree branch: Newman
Relation: Dru's 2x great grandmother (Dru's dad's mom's mom's mom)

Wilhelm and Veleska Neumann lived on the southern border between Germany and Poland.  That may explain Veleska's maiden name sounding Polish and her married name being German.  At the time, the area was known as Prussia.

Question #1 - Were Veleska and Wilhelm from different areas? (All of their documents just say Germany, which through time could have meant different places as borders shifted.) Were they a bilingual family?  Were there any objections from family members to them getting married?

Two children, Hugo and Bertha, came along in the next few years after their marriage.

Wilhelm emigrated to the United States alone in 1887, leaving his wife and two young children behind.  People from Prussia emigrated at this time in history for different reasons.  Some came for religious tolerance, some because they were hungry, some for economic opportunity. 

Veleska stayed in Prussia for three years until she made the trip to the United States with her children.  They traveled first to Liverpool, England, then sailed on the SS Nevada to finally reach New York City on May 22, 1890.  Ellis Island was not open yet, so they sailed by the Statue of Liberty and arrived at Castle Clinton immigration center.

As a side note, Veleska was five months pregnant on the voyage.  Her son Paul Newman  was born four months after her arrival.   This would obviously bring about question #2....

Question #2 - Did her husband Wilhelm visit her in Germany shortly before she journeyed to America?  If not, who is the father of Paul?

The family settled just south of Iowa City, Iowa.  She lived there the rest of her life.  

The 1900 US Census was taken ten years after her arrival in 1890.  The 1900 Census had some interesting questions on it.  There are columns titled "Mother of how many children" and "Number of these children living".  

In case the chart is difficult to read, here are Valeska's answers:

Mother of how many children: 13

Number of these children living: 3

Wow, Veleska was only 46 years old, yet she had lost 10 children.

Question #3 - How in the world did she endure the heartache?

Question #4 - Who are these children? What are their names?

To date, there are no other records of these children besides this census.  There are no birth certificates, birth records, baptism records, census records or headstones that I can find.  

More questions - Did all of these deaths happen during the years she was married to Wilhelm?  How did these babies die?

These two numbers on a piece of paper can reveal so much about a family member's life. There is so much left unsaid. I'm heartbroken. 

The Burning of Falmouth

I recently learned that some family members were greatly affected during the Revolutionary War in what is called The Burning of Falmouth.  It occurred in Portland, Maine.

Family member name: William Pearson 
Lifetime: 1740-1776
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 5x great grandfather

William Pearson moved to Falmouth (now called Portland, Maine) in 1762.  He married shortly thereafter and started raising a family which would include five children.  William is mentioned in the book History of Portland in a biographical note.

It says "William Pearson built a one-story house at the eastern end of Fore Street in 1775, and had just moved into it when it was consumed in Mowatt's attack, which swept off every house on that part of the street east of India street."

Local residents called the incident Mowatt's attack or Mowatt's bombardment.

Here is a modern-day map of Portland.  His house would have been around the site of the current Railroad Museum.  It is the first street from the water. This location would have been helpful for his work, since he was a caulker by trade.  A caulker used tar and hemp to make ships watertight.

Apparently those in Falmouth were quite the rebellious bunch. They taunted the British by stealing supplies and helping the cause down in Boston which was well underway since the battles of Lexington and Concord had occurred six months prior.  Unfortunately, they were also defenseless, which is a bad combination.

The British had had enough.  They sailed into Falmouth harbor on the morning of October 18, 1775 with Captain Henry Mowat in command.  A British lieutenant went ashore with an ultimatum: swear allegiance to King George or become cannon fodder.  Option number one was out of the question, so the townspeople evacuated.  The British mercifully gave them two hours to do so.

Multiple war vessels pummeled Falmouth with cannon balls and burning missiles for the rest of the day.  Most of the town was destroyed, about half of the residents became homeless, including my 5x great grandparents and my 4x great grandfather, their son Jonathan.

What a heartache!  Your brand new home is destroyed, your young family needs a place to live, your work is affected because most ships in the harbor were also destroyed.  I don't know how the family handled the situation.  However things got worse because William died less than 6 months later, not yet 37 years old.

Was William one of the "rebels"?  Was he one of the intended targets or was he an innocent victim?  Either way, the family's life got turned upside down during the Revolutionary War in a little-known event called The Burning of Falmouth.

Stock buckle

We were snowed in after a blizzard in Virginia.  My dad finds an old box from somewhere and we dig in to find family treasures galore.

What in the world is this? (Next to the pen.)

We had no clue.  Good thing it was inside a labeled envelope. 

"Silver stock buckle.  This stock buckle was made from Mexican silver dollars and worn by Jonathan Pearson, father of Isaac, therefore great-great grandfather of the Webber Quartette."

My grandpa Roger Pearson Webber was the eldest of the Webber Quartette.

Family member name: Jonathan Pearson 
Lifetime: 1766-1841
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 4x great grandfather

Now we know who, but still, what is a stock buckle?  It's a buckle for a stock.  Duh.  When looking at paintings of men from the 1700s and early 1800s, it's common for them to be wearing a wrapped, folded white linen cloth around their necks.  It's the predecessor to the neck tie, and it's called a stock.  It was the most formal of neckwear.  The stock was wrapped around the neck and had tabs like buttonholes in the back where the stock was secured with a stock buckle.  A stock buckle was often silver and sometimes embellished with gems.  It was jewelry for men.

We don't know what Jonathan Pearson looked like, but here is a photograph of his son, Isaac, wearing a stock.  I like to think he's wearing his father's stock buckle.  I realize how rare it is to possess something that belonged to a great great great great grandfather.  I'm grateful.

Now, the question remains, where did a family in the early 1800s from Maine procure Mexican silver dollars in order to make this stock buckle?  The plot thickens.

Dowry or trousseau?

A 4x6 piece of 200-year-old paper outlines some "money and other things" belonging to my great great great grandmother.  It was found in an envelope labeled by her granddaughter "doubtless the dowry of Miriam Harris".

Family member name: Miriam Hall Harris Pearson 
Lifetime: 1807-1878
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: 3x great grandmother

dow·ry

ˈdou(ə)rē/

noun

1. property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage.

Dowries are not used much today. In India, dowries were officially outlawed in 1961, but sadly are still used as income for the groom's family. Obviously, they have the negative connotation that a woman is only worth the money she brings into a marriage.

trous·seau

ˌtro͞oˈsō,ˈtro͞oˌsō/

noun

1. the clothes, household linen, and other belongings collected by a bride for her marriage

Over time, the tradition of the dowry in the US first evolved into a trousseau or hope chest.  Sometimes a mom or grandma wanted to pass along some family heirlooms for use when her daughter is married, or the single maiden collects or sews handmade housewares for her future married self.  Those articles were added to the hope chest.   Today that tradition has evolved again into online bridal registries.

Miriam Hall Harris was born in 1807 in North Yarmouth, Maine, not far north of Portland.  She married my great great great grandpa Isaac Pearson, a young widower, in 1837. Since she was almost 30, she would have been considered an old maid by that time.  Research suggests that dowries were still in limited use in New England in the mid-1800s.

Dowry or trousseau?  Decide for yourself. (A transcribed version follows the pictures in case the handwriting is difficult to read.)

Memorandum of money and other things for Miriam Harris: Viz (definition: as follows)
Cash one hundred and twenty one dollars. $121.00
2 packed (?) Bed Quilts  16.00
2 Coverleads  9.00 (perhaps coverlet, meaning bedspread)
2 Bed Quilts  9.00
1 Bed Quilt 3.50
1 Bed Quilt 2.33
1 Counterpin 1.50 (definition: bedspread)
2 Bed puffs 3.00
4 pairs of bed blankets 20.50
2 table cloths 3.00
6 table cloths 8.64
2 table cloths 1.00
2 table cloths 2.25
2 Bowler (?) towels 1.20
6 hand towels 2 hand cloths 2.63
6 hand towels 1.50
6 hand towels 1.00
207.05

Memorandum for Miriam Harris continued
Cash Fifteen Dollars 15.00
1 Dineing table 5.00
1 Breakfast table 4.00
1 Light Stand 1.50
1 Bed Stid 5.00 (perhaps a bedstead, meaning a bed frame)
One Silver waist bukel 1.50 (perhaps a belt buckle?)
32.00
Brought over 207.05
$239.05

The only reason I would lean towards this indeed being a dowry is the fact that cash is included in the assets.  A trousseau would not have included cash.  Calculating for inflation, the $136 in 1830 would  be worth $3,515.00 as of 2018.  Not too shabby.  Go Miriam!  No wonder she held out and nabbed a hottie who later became a lawyer.

Here is my great great great grandma later in life.