8/1/2017 Sidney J. Edwards and Edwards SquareAt first glance, one might wonder why Sidney J. Edwards Square at the intersection of Central Street and Massachusetts Avenue in West Acton is named after someone who was born in England and fought for Canada in World War I. It turns out that he and many others, especially those with British origins, joined up to serve in Canada while the United States was not yet involved in the “Great War”. Sidney Edwards was killed two years before the war became real for most Americans. Sidney John Edwards’ birth, possibly in December 1878, was recorded in Barnstaple, Devon, England between January and March, 1879. By the 1880 U.S. census, he was in Acton. His father Alfred J. (a carpenter, age 25), mother Rhoda (age 22), and Sidney (age 1) were living with Eliza Owen (Alfred’s sister), her husband Thomas, and their three children. Sidney’s sister Millicent Mamie Edwards was born in South Acton on July 17, 1880. After that point in Sidney’s life, we have a bit of a mystery. In the Society’s collection, there is a white card on which someone typed a brief (and quite incomplete) synopsis of Sidney’s life. The card has tack holes as if it were once part of an exhibit. It states that Sidney was born in England, moved to Acton as an infant, and lived in the town until he was fourteen years old. We have tried to confirm that timeline and so far have not found evidence that Sidney was in town that long. (Unfortunately, the card has no notation of its date, author, or source.) The Owen family stayed in Acton, but Sidney’s family moved fairly quickly. Millicent’s death record in 1881 and brother William’s birth record in 1882 listed a residence of Boston. Father Alfred’s 1888 naturalization reported his address as Winchester, MA, and he seems to have stayed there through 1917. (In the city directories that we found, Alfred was a listed Winchester resident in 1889, 1895-1908, and 1915. We also found him in Winchester in a 1909 Masonic record, the 1900 and 1910 censuses, and 1915 newspaper reports.) It’s possible that Sidney stayed with Acton relatives during his childhood, but one would ordinarily assume that he lived in Boston and Winchester with his parents. (Neither of those locations is mentioned in the typed biography.) At the very least, Sidney probably spent time in Acton visiting his many Owen cousins. Sidney’s obituary (from the Winchester Star), reported that he graduated from Winchester High School and the Burdett Business College in Boston. He worked as a clerk for Boston’s A. C. Lawrence Leather Company, living with his family in Winchester for several years. Around 1908, he moved to British Columbia. The gold industry was booming in the town of Hedley, and Sidney worked in the reduction plant of the Hedley Gold Mining Company. In 1913, the local Hedley Gazette reported that he had been initiated into the Loyal Orange Lodge. He also served in a local militia unit, the 102nd Regiment of the Rocky Mountain Rangers. At the outbreak of the First World War, Sidney went to Victoria, British Columbia to enlist in the regular army. His enlistment papers show him to have been 5’ 6.5” tall with brown hair, fair complexion, blue eyes, and robust health. On November 1, 1914, he became a private in the 30th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. According to his military record at Library and Archives Canada, he sailed for Britain on Feb. 23, 1915. (A newspaper report mentioned that his father traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia to see him off.) In the reshuffling of troops that occurred after the Canadians went overseas, the 30th Battalion supplied manpower for the needs of other units. Sidney was transferred to Canada’s 15th Battalion that saw action at Festubert, France in mid-May 1915. He was lost in the shelling during that battle. Sidney was originally reported as missing. The Boston Daily Globe reported on June 4, 1915 that his father had just received a telegram saying that Sidney's whereabouts were unknown. The family hoped that he had been captured rather than killed. However, a letter received by his parents and published in the Winchester Star on June 11th and later in the Hedley Gazette stated that he had been killed on May 20th. Lieutenant H. Price of the platoon from which Sidney was transferred wrote that Sidney’s new assignment had been to help to form a machine gun section and that he was killed in that capacity by the bursting of a shell on the night of May 20th. Canadian army records say that he was last accounted for in the trenches at Festubert. Apparently, his body was never recovered; his service records state that he was declared missing 21 May 1915 and later declared dead with an assumed death date of May 21 for official purposes. For some reason, though Sidney’s parents had been informed of the circumstances of his death by Lieutenant Price by June, 1915, headquarters did not have the same information. There was probably a great deal of confusion; the official war diary for May 20 stated that the 15th battalion had 150 casualties that day. After Sidney’s death, his family moved back to Acton, living there from 1917-1928 (according to Concord Enterprise articles, the 1920 census and a 1927 passenger list). Sidney’s parents were in town when Acton’s 1924 town meeting voted to rename West Acton’s Central Square in his honor and during the dedication at the 1924 Memorial Day exercises. After mother Rhoda’s death, father Alfred moved for a few years to Lake Forest, Illinois, returned to his School Street house in the summers, and finally relocated to Acton between 1935 and 1940 (according to the 1940 census). Sidney J. Edwards was born in England, grew up in the United States, and fought with Canadian troops, a man from multiple places whose final resting place, very sadly, is not known for certain. He is, however, memorialized in a number of locations. He is one of the soldiers with no known grave who are memorialized by the beautiful monument to Canadian War Dead at Vimy Ridge in France. He is mentioned on his parents’ gravestone in Acton’s Woodlawn Cemetery and has a memorial marker in Sidney J. Edwards Square, West Acton. In addition, his name is included on the World War 1 monument in Hedley, British Columbia where he was living and working at the time of his enlistment. Ironically, despite the fact that the article that reported his death in the Winchester Star was entitled “Winchester Boy Killed at Front,” he was not listed at the base of Winchester’s War Memorial as one of Winchester’s war dead and is not on the Roll of Honor by the town hall. Sidney was gone and his family had moved on by the time the lists were created. Soldiers’ and families’ circumstances and residences were sometimes complicated and often changed. The lesson for family researchers is that if a soldier is missing from a veterans’ roll in a town from which he/she came, it is worth double-checking corroborating records. As we have discovered in Acton and elsewhere, lists of veterans do not always tell the whole story, even if carved in stone or displayed in bronze. The Society does not have a picture of Sidney J. Edwards. If anyone has more information about him or would be willing to donate a photo or a scan, we would be grateful to be able add it to our collection. 5/16/2017 The Misses Turner RevisitedWe reported in an earlier blog post the story of Harriet M. Turner and Estelle B. (Turner) Davis, sisters who collected songs in the South and played them for northern and European audiences, enjoying a brief period of fame. We recently came upon a piece of their sheet music entitled Rain that is owned by the Society. It was published by H. M. Turner, 113 Pinckney Street, Boston and has the Misses Turner's photo on the front. Newspapers seem to have used this picture (or nearly identical ones) as well; Estelle's marriage announcement in the Boston Globe in 1916 and an article about Harriet in the Boston Post in 1919 both used close-ups that allow us to confirm that Estelle was on the left and Harriet was on the right: The Society may also have other Turner family photos. Opening a long-unused drawer in the Hosmer House revealed a small stack of photographs, among them this one from Columbus, Georgia, where Harriet and Estelle Turner grew up. We believe the photos may have come from the house of Estelle (Turner) Davis who lived in East Acton in her later years. Could the young man be a relative of the Turner sisters, possibly a brother? (See below for information on the Turner family.) The photographer was Alpha A. Williams. We are trying to narrow down the dates. This photo must have been taken sometime after 1879 when A. A. Williams had a studio at 59 Broad. An 1886 map of Columbus showed his studio at the corner of Broad and 12th streets but did not show his exact address. In 1906, he was listed in the Columbus directory as working at 1151 1/2 Broad. Are the other portraits of relatives? If you can help us to identify them, we would love to figure out who they are. Turner Family Background Parents of the Turner Sisters: Alonzo Turner (born 1827 in NY, carpenter, lived in Columbus, Georgia by 1850, died 1904, buried in Linwood Cemetery, Columbus, GA) and Sarah E. Yarborough (born about 1838, birthplace given variously but probably Georgia, apparently was living with another family in Columbus, Georgia in 1850, married Alonzo Turner in Russell County, Alabama in 1856, had at least 7 children, was still in Columbus, Georgia with Alonzo in 1880, was living with daughters in New York City in 1900, death so far unknown) Children:
2/6/2017 Before They Had TapeWe deal with many documents at Jenks Library of various ages and in conditions ranging from pristine to tattered. After a while, it is easy to lose the awe that one first feels when working with something “old.” Recently, though, we looked at an item and realized how much we take for granted. One of our volunteers has been going through a gold mine of donated records from the Tenney family. Some date back to the 1700s. Along with providing details about an old Acton family, they also made us think about a problem we don’t have, what to do when an important document rips and there’s no tape for mending. To our delight, we discovered a deed from 1798 that must have ripped long ago; someone had carefully stitched it back together with thread.
In the same batch of documents is an account book. We have a fair number of those at the Society from the mid-1800s on, usually a purchased, blank book that a person used to keep track of receipts, expenses, debts, wages or important facts. The 1783 Tenney book is different, however, because it wasn’t a bound volume. Instead, someone had taken paper, stitched it by hand and folded it several times, creating a custom book in which to jot down significant details. Little discoveries can jolt us out of the present to think more deeply about the people whose items we are handling. In this case, seeing threads holding together fragile papers made us think of the person wielding the needle, someone who needed to preserve valuable documents and had to make do with what was available. The person's mission was accomplished; the deed, the account book, and the stitching have survived, probably much longer than the owner ever envisioned. 1/23/2017 Sorting Out John SwiftsOne of the tricky aspects of researching early Acton people is the fact that names were often repeated. Children were named for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and deceased siblings. Trying to disentangle identities with the sparse information in early records can be frustrating.
An example is John Swift. Reverend John Swift’s identity is clear. He appears in Acton Town Meeting records, chosen in 1738 to be the first pastor of the town’s new church. (The formation of the church was a requirement for Acton to become an independent town.) Reverend John Swift, (son of Reverend John Swift, the first minister of Framingham), graduated from Harvard in 1733, was living in Framingham when he was called to Acton, and married Abigail Adams of Medway. He served as Acton’s minister for 37 years. According to Fletcher’s 1890 Acton in History, as Isaac Davis’s Company passed Reverend Swift’s home on the way to Concord on April 19, 1775, he “waved his benedictions over them.” It fell upon him to conduct the funeral of Isaac Davis, James Hayward and Abner Hosmer who were killed that day. Unfortunately, Reverend Swift contracted smallpox and died In November, 1775. He was buried in Woodlawn cemetery. There seems to be agreement on those facts of Reverend Swift's life. However, over time, some stories have become muddled because he named his son… John Swift. Son John was born on November 18, 1841. He graduated from Harvard in 1762 and became Acton’s first physician. In 1767, Doctor John Swift married Catharine Davies of Acton. On the morning of April 19, 1775, he saw that Thomas Thorp was heading to join Isaac Davis's Company without a cartridge box and gave him one that 60 years later, Thorp recalled in a deposition "had on the outside a piece of red cloth in the shape of a heart." In the midst of the excitement and tragedy that unfolded, Doctor John was also dealing with family matters; his son Luther was born the following day. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution shows that John Swift of Acton marched as a private with Capt. Simon Hunt’s Company to help fortify Dorchester Heights, March 4, 1776, a service of 6 days. Because the only documented Revolutionary military service of an Acton John Swift took place in 1776 after the death of the Reverend and we have found no indication of other John Swifts in town, this must have been John the physician. Doctor John died in 1781, leaving wife Catherine and two young sons John Hollis and Luther. Up to this point, we were confident that we had identified two John Swifts in Acton, one a Reverend who died in November 1775 of smallpox, and another, his son the doctor who marched on Dorchester Heights in 1776 and died in 1781. Probate records available through AmericanAncestors.org confirm the family relationship and their death years. However, along with the online availability of records that help us to answer questions has come the availability of sources that can raise more issues. A 1913 Concord Enterprise article (“Historical Sermon,” October 22, page 10) stated that Reverend John Swift “labored for the soldiers who were in camp at Cambridge and died from small pox.” This may well have been true, but documenting Reverend Smith’s service in Cambridge has proved difficult. The article seems to imply that his service to soldiers is how he contracted smallpox. Smallpox in the crowded camps and in Boston at the time was a well-known problem, but Fletcher says that smallpox was also in Acton. Where the Enterprise writer got information about service in Cambridge, we don’t know. Because this story did not appear in any other source that we could find about Reverend Swift, we couldn’t help wondering if the person who was in the camps was actually the son Doctor John Swift. We have no way of knowing. We were not the only ones confused. Shattuck’s 1835 history of Concord mentions college graduate “John Swift, only child of the Rev. John Swift, born Nov. 18, 1741, grad. 1762; settled as a physician in Acton where he died of the small-pox, about 1775.” Thomas Harrington’s 1905 history of Harvard Medical School discussed the six members of Harvard’s class of 1762 who entered the medical profession, including John Swift who “was in practice at Acton, where he died of smallpox during the epidemic of 1775.” In the 1859 New England Historical & Genealogical Register, (Vol. 13, page 308), a footnote about the first Reverend John Swift (of Framingham) said: “His only son, John, b. Jan. 14, 1713-14, (H.C. 1733) was ord. at Acton, 1738, m. Abigail Adams of Medway, had son, John, H.C. 1762, who was a physician and d. of small-pox in 1775.” If we had not been puzzled before reading that sentence, we certainly were afterwards. A church history of the Worcester Association and its Antecedents written by Joseph Allen in 1868 acknowledged both John Swifts, saying that Reverend Swift died in 1775 “of the small-pox as did also, the same year, his son John, who was a practicing physician in Acton.” The two John Swifts of Acton are obviously a challenge to differentiate. Both of their professions could have led them to Cambridge to serve the soldiers stationed there, and it would have been logical to assume that it was the doctor who died of smallpox in 1775. Separate gravestones would have helped to separate the two Johns and their death dates, but there is no individual stone for Doctor John Swift, apparently no death record, and no burial record to prove that he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Doctor John’s wife remarried and was buried in Stow, MA, and their surviving sons moved away. Records of the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution show that they had marked the Acton grave of John Swift by 1901. Presumably, the marker was placed by the burial mound with a single gravestone for “Reverend John Swift and his Family,” but there is no SAR marker there today, and exactly which family members are buried in the plot is unknown. The moral of this particular story is that just because a source is old or a “fact” has been repeated many times, it is not necessarily accurate. Today’s family historians know to double-check modern family trees found online, but it is easy to assume that writers of older histories and genealogies had access to people’s memories, Family Bibles, and other lost sources that gave them better information than we have. That can be true, but in the case of our John Swifts, it was not. In this particular case, we were fortunate to find probate records for both men and for Doctor John’s children; the dates and relationships in those records allowed us to recognize confusion and errors in the other sources we came across. 1/8/2017 Annie E. Payson, Artist in ActonRecently we came across three small, matted watercolors that belong to the Society. They are all marked “Acton Mass” on the back. A cursory glance made one of us think they were done by Arthur F. Davis, a prolific local artist who painted several works owned by the Society. However, a more careful observer noticed that the initials on one of the paintings were actually AEP, and another was clearly marked “Payson.” Payson was a painter completely unknown to us. Having previously conducted research projects only to discover that one of our predecessors at Jenks Library had already covered the same ground, we have learned the importance of finding out what others have written about our subject and asking current members what they know. We found a Society newsletter from 1999 that mentioned the donation of the paintings from the estate of Marie (Davis) Hunt. At that time, no one knew who A. E. Payson was, although the writer had found Arthur E., Annie E., and Aurin E. Payson in Acton’s 1910 Census and was asking for help figuring out which of them was the artist. Fortunately, before we even had time to start our research, we were joined at Jenks by a Society member who had been present when the Memorial Library received a donation of two paintings done by Annie E. Payson, definitively identified as the family's painter. Now we had questions of our own; who was Annie E. Payson and why hadn’t we heard of her before? We started with the 1910 census from which we learned that Arthur E. (age 51) and Annie E. (53) Payson lived on Concord Road in Acton with their two sons, Aurin E. (18) and Arthur H. (16). Arthur E. was a “Commercial Traveller” (salesman) of Lubricating Oil, and Annie was listed as having no occupation. That was common for women at the time, but we found the following ad in the March 2 Concord Enterprise of that year: TEACHER IN PAINTING Pupils wanted in Oil and Drawing to enter class. Studio open from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. Orders taken in Oil and Pastel. ANNIE E. PAYSON Acton, Mass. We found identical ads in Concord Enterprise issues dating back to December 1908. Because someone in Acton probably took lessons from her or owned her paintings, we thought it would be easy to find more about her and her work. Disappointingly, beyond those newspaper ads and her local paintings, we have found no traces of her art training or her experiences as a painter and teacher. However, we did learn about her family and their years in Acton. Annie Payson's Family Annie Edwards Payson was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Augustus and Elizabeth Ann/Annie Elizabeth (Edwards) Hardy. She was, supposedly, a member of the well-known Jonathan Edwards family on her mother’s side, while her father’s New Hampshire ancestor Phine(h)as Hardy’s military service later allowed her to become a member of the DAR. Annie’s birth date (from Salem records) was August 9, 1855, although her age in subsequent records is not always consistent with that date. Her father Augustus Hardy was a painter (of houses) and later had a door, sash and blind business. By the 1865 Massachusetts census, he had moved his family to Boston. Perhaps Annie was able to get training in painting there; we have not yet found records that yield information about what she did as a young woman. On December 17, 1890 in Malden, Massachusetts, thirty-one-year-old Annie “B” Hardy, resident of Malden, married Arthur E(liot) Payson, a merchant residing in Malden, son of Aurin M. and Hannah G. Payson. Arthur and Annie’s sons Aurin Eliot and Arthur Hardy Payson were both born in Malden, and the family was still there for the 1900 census. Arthur E. was a salesman. In early years, he worked in the sash and blinds business. By 1904, according to the Malden directory of that year, the Paysons had moved to Acton. Their connection to the town seems to have been through Annie’s siblings. Annie’s brother Harry was an Acton resident when he died in 1898. Arthur and Nellie Hardy, two of her other siblings, spent the summer that year in South Acton (Concord Enterprise, June 23, 1898). Arthur Hardy and his wife had moved to South Acton by 1902 according to a directory at Jenks Library and were still residents in the 1910 census. The Paysons' Acton Years After moving in, Arthur E. Payson, Annie, and their sons seem quickly to have become part of the fabric of the town. The earliest mentions of the family in the Concord Enterprise were of the boys’ involvement in the Acton Center Boys' Club in the spring of 1905. By April, 1907, Aurin was president of the club and A. Hardy was secretary. The boys participated in musical and other performances, and Aurin was involved in the Grange and sang at the Congregational Church. Their father also was involved in the Grange and was elected as an officer in December 1907 and as Worthy Master in December 1908. He participated in debates that seem to have been popular entertainments of the time, gave vocal performances, and performed in plays. He also was involved in politics to some extent and served on the committee appointed to try to get Acton Centre into the new water district in 1912. Annie’s name appeared often in the Concord Enterprise in her ads from late 1908 to early 1910. Despite much searching, we were only able to find a few other tidbits about Annie’s Acton life from newspaper accounts. She was responsible for the “handsome decorations” at a Boys’ Club production in April 1907 and appeared as Liberty in a patriotic ladies’ play at the Grange meeting discussed in the March 4, 1908 Enterprise. She fell on the ice in February 1909 and broke bones in her wrist, necessitating a visit to Carney Hospital in the city and several weeks of healing. Mostly she was mentioned when she hosted Payson and Hardy relatives and when she visited elsewhere. The Payson boys were teenagers at the beginning of the era when Acton students were sent to Concord for their secondary education. Aurin may have done sports and was definitely in the debating club. He was awarded a prize as the best individual debater at Concord High School in May 1909, a point of local pride. He graduated cum laude in 1911, after which he headed off to Boston University. Arthur (also known as Hardy) seems to have participated during high school in sports, music and theater. He graduated from Concord High School with the class of 1912; his portrait is in a collection for that class at the Concord Library. He did a post-graduate year at Concord High School. In May 1913, he starred in a Concord production of The Mikado; the Enterprise reported rave reviews of his talents in both comedy and singing. A number of people went from Acton Centre to see him perform. Judging from news items about the Payson family in the Concord Enterprise, they moved from Acton to Wollaston (MA) between May 28, 1913 and June 24, 1914. In later years, they would show up periodically in the newspaper either as visitors to Acton or when a significant event occurred such as an engagement or receiving a commission in the army. After Acton Arthur and Annie stayed in Quincy/Wollaston except for 1925 when they were listed in the Cambridge directory. Arthur was an oil dealer/salesman in Boston. Annie died in Reading (MA) in 1929 and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Arthur, a widower, lived in Reading in 1930 and died there in 1936.
Aurin Payson graduated from Boston University in 1915 and from Harvard Business School the next year. After military service during World War I and a stint in banking in New York, Aurin quickly worked up to being president of the American Thermos Company in Norwich, Connecticut, a position he held for many years. He also became involved in Norwich civic affairs, served as trustee and director for other institutions, and served as president and Chairman of the Board of Chelsea Savings Bank. His brother Arthur Hardy apparently attended Boston University’s College of Business Administration and also worked in Boston after high school. He returned to Concord in February 1915 to perform with the Graduate Glee Club in H. M. S. Pinafore. His amusing antics were noted in an opening night review in the Boston Daily Globe (February 14, page 96). He served in the Quartermaster Corps during World War I. In the 1920s, he worked in Boston as an assistant treasurer and then moved to Springfield, Ohio to work as a salesman. By 1929, he had moved to Norwich and was also working for the American Thermos Company. Both brothers were granted patents in conjunction with their Thermos work, for example a 1936 patent for a "double walled vacuum receptacle" that listed both of them as inventors. Arthur co-designed at least one museum-worthy piece for the company; his Thermosphere Carafe is in the Cooper Hewitt Museum. (Annie obviously was not the only family member with an artist’s eye.) Arthur also worked up the ranks of the Thermos company, eventually becoming president and Chairman of the Board. Over the years, the Payson brothers stopped appearing in the Acton newspapers, though they may have visited. They were certainly remembered; when Harold Phalen, their Acton Center Boys’ Club compatriot, wrote his 1954 history of the town, he included Aurin Payson’s Debate Cup win as a notable event. The Paysons’ stay in Acton was not long. We are fortunate that Annie left tangible reminders of their time here and that the Society received a donation of some of her paintings. Those interested in her work can also see one of her oil paintings on display at the Faulkner Homestead in South Acton. We would like to learn more about Annie and her art; if you have information or could show us other examples of her work, please contact us. The Society is collaborating on a project documenting all historical markers and memorials in the town of Acton. While researching the 1903 dedication of a memorial to Francis Barker, the drummer who marched to Concord's North Bridge with Isaac Davis’s company, we discovered that a stone was dedicated the same day in memory of Captain Joseph Brown, “one of Acton’s soldiers of the Revolution.” Following up, we found a Boston Daily Globe article (April 20, 1903) that called Captain Joseph “a prominent man in his time both in business circles and in town affairs.” Fletcher’s Acton in History lists Joseph Brown as an Acton man who “fought at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and received a ball at Bunker Hill, which lodged in his body and was afterwards skillfully extracted and Brown shot it back at Saratoga.” (page 263) Fletcher also stated that Joseph Brown moved onto Captain Isaac Davis’s farm. Relatively little attention today seems to be given to the Acton men who served in the Revolution after the North Bridge Battle. We decided to learn more about Captain Joseph Brown, starting with the information on the memorial stone. Captain Joseph apparently was born in 1752. He was not born in Acton, and Brown was a common name, making research conclusions difficult. Fortunately, a great-great grandson Charles Leonard Brown's Sons of the American Revolution application stated that Joseph's parents were Joseph Brown and Grace Fairbanks. Joseph and Grace Brown lived in Stow, Massachusetts, and many of their children’s births were recorded in the 1733-1750 period. We have not been able to locate a birth or baptism record for Joseph, but his place in the family was confirmed in a probate record. Joseph Sr.’s will left to his son Joseph a colt, a saddle, and thirteen pounds, five shillings and eight pence to be paid out when Joseph reached the age of twenty-one (Middlesex County Probate file #3104). A guardianship paper (file #3105) stated that on 11 April 1769, Joseph’s son Joseph was in his 17th year, corroborating the 1752 birth date on Captain Brown’s stone.
Joseph grew up in a large family in which military service and leadership seem to have been the norm. His brothers Jabez (Ensign) and Joshua both participated in the French and Indian War, and starting April 19, 1775, at least four of the family’s sons served in the American Revolution, three as officers. We did not find Joseph in a list of Stow soldiers who were in the Concord fight on April 19, 1775. (See Crowells’ Stow, Massachusetts, 1683-1933.) However, Joseph did sign up to serve in Captain Samuel Patch of Stow’s company, part of William Prescott’s Regiment that was heavily involved in the action at Battle of Bunker Hill. His brother Joshua was the Lieutenant of the company. According to the Crowells’ history, the men of the company “contested their ground inch by inch with the red coats and when powder and bullets failed, emulating the example of Lieut. Brown, the Stow men gave them stones.” (page 73) Joseph was wounded and, fortunately, recovered. In the company roster of October 1775, Joseph’s rank was given as sergeant. The next recorded service of Joseph Brown was in March 1776 when he marched from Acton to Roxbury with Israel Heald’s Company to help end the siege of Boston. Joseph Brown married Dorothy Barker. Dorothy’s brother was Francis Barker, whose similar and nearby memorial stone was dedicated on the same day as Joseph’s. The marriage is not in Acton’s records or any Massachusetts records that we could find, although a June, 1776 New Hampshire record shows a marriage of Joseph Browne and Dorothy Barker by Reverend Samuel Cotton of Litchfield. (According to Hurd’s History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Rev. Cotton was chaplain of the First New Hampshire Regiment for a time; perhaps there was a family or military connection.) Joseph and Dorothy’s first child Joseph was born in Acton in October, 1776. At some point, they moved onto the farm that had been owned by Isaac Davis when he led his company to Concord. Joseph Brown and his family lived there for many years. Nowadays, the property is associated with Isaac Davis; most people do not realize that another Revolutionary War soldier lived there as well. On January 1, 1777, Joseph Brown became an Ensign in his brother (Captain) Joshua Brown’s company in the Massachusetts 15th Regiment under Colonel Timothy Bigelow. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution says that he served 27 months at that rank. The Company was apparently stationed January-August at Van Schaik’s Island. In the early fall 1777, they participated in the Battle of Saratoga. We have few details of Joseph’s service, but the story of his shooting back the ball with which he was wounded at Bunker Hill obviously survived in Acton lore. That winter, the Regiment was at Valley Forge, although online muster rolls indicate that Joseph Brown was on furlough January-May 1778. The 15th Massachusetts was involved in the Battle at Monmouth Courthouse on June 28, 1778. We were not able to discover whether Joseph Brown was back with his company by that time. Later that summer, the regiment participated in the Battle of Rhode Island. Joseph Brown was made first Lieutenant in April, 1779. His son Francis Barker Brown was born in May, 1779. One can imagine that Joseph’s military service caused hardship for wife Dorothy and his young children. In July, the warrant for Acton’s town meeting included Article 7, “To see if the Town will agree to Do Something Toward the Support of Lieut. Joseph Browns family while he is in the Publick Service.” (The town voted against helping his family.) Joseph Brown was made Captain in 1780 (different sources give somewhat different dates for that event). Muster rolls place Captain Joseph Brown’s company in Camp “Tenack” (presumably Teaneck, New Jersey) in July. He resigned his commission on November 15, 1780. After Captain Brown returned to Acton, more children followed: Nathaniel Greene (1781), Dorothy (1783) and Abigail (Oct. 12, 1784). Sadly, Captain Joseph’s wife Dorothy died October 19, 1784. Presumably, widower Joseph found help with caring for his young children during the 1780s. Town treasurer’s records during this period document payment to him for boarding a woman, almost surely someone poor, and for “Keeping School in his Society.” Unfortunately, we have no more information about either his School or his Society. Joseph Brown married Betsy Putnam of Stow in 1790. Acton records showed births to the couple of a second daughter Abigail (1790, died 1792), Samuel Putnam (1792), Betsey (1794), Luke (1796), Thomas (1798, died 1801), James (1800), Eunice (baptized 1803), and a second Thomas (1805). By the 1790s, town reports show that Captain Brown was very involved in town affairs. In addition to occasionally providing labor for the town, (such as digging a well or “transporting State arms to Boston”), he was chosen in various years to serve as town meeting moderator, highway surveyor, or fish warden. He boarded or provided wood for poor town residents. He was obviously held in high esteem in the community; he was appointed to many committees, often dealing with potentially (or actually) contentious issues such as overseeing and reconciling settlements and abatements for the town treasurer, settling on juror and voter lists, overseeing “cow pox” vaccinations, inspecting, redistricting, or selling off the town’s schools, and finding a site for a new meetinghouse (a political quagmire at the time). He was a member of the very early Social Library in Acton as evidenced by his being fined 4 cents in 1801 for two soiled pages in Pilgrim’s Progress. In 1803, Captain Brown was appointed tax collector and constable. He was paid one cent on the dollars he collected and was expected to serve as constable for free. He served in that capacity (in one year apparently “free from any expence to the Town”) until 1810 when he requested a replacement be found. It is not clear from town records why Captain Brown stepped down, but in the 1810-1811 period, he seems to have asked to be repaid for poll taxes that he had paid “a number of year back” and for some tax collection work that he had done, presumably for free. The town voted no. In April 1812, the town meeting warrant included an article about purchasing Captain Joseph Brown’s pew No. 30 in the meeting house. The article was dismissed. We have no way of knowing the circumstances. He had been relatively well-off, but he may have been land-rich and cash poor at the time. He may have been sick. We do know that he died August 9, 1813 in Acton. He died intestate; his affairs were handled by son Nathaniel Greene, yielding a 54-page probate file. Along with his personal possessions that included clothing, household goods, and furniture, he owned his farm (house, barn, well, fields, an orchard, livestock and farm implements), wood lots and unimproved land, meadow land, his pew #30 in the meetinghouse, and a horse stable on the Common near the meetinghouse. He also left debts totaling $1,091 that necessitated selling pieces of real estate to raise cash. It must have been a difficult period for his family. Captain Joseph’s son Samuel Putnam Brown, serving in the War of 1812, died in July, 1814. Joseph, Jr. died in February, 1815, leaving a widow and young children. Nathaniel seems to have taken care of the farm while wrapping up the estate’s affairs and providing for his own young family. When we starting researching Captain Joseph Brown, we had no idea where he came from, who his family was, or anything about his life other than the few mentions of him in Fletcher’s History. We were not confident that we would find records to flesh out his story. As it turns out, available records showed that Captain Joseph Brown lived quite a life of service. Though he was injured at Bunker Hill and had young children to provide for, he continued to serve in the military, a commitment that produced financial strain for his family. Once home, he served the town of Acton in a surprising variety of ways. Ninety years after his death, his grandson John M. Brown funded the erection of a memorial stone. On April 20, 1903, townspeople gathered for a dedication ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery. A band played the “Star Spangled Banner” while a representative from the Bunker Hill Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, unveiled the Joseph Brown monument. For anyone interested in Acton sites with Joseph Brown connections, one can start at his memorial stone located in the “Revolutionary War” section of Woodlawn Cemetery to the left of the main gate. Acton Memorial Library's “Not Afraid to Go” exhibit has on display an epaulet that he wore during his military service, remarkably well-preserved. At 39 Hayward Road, one can see the Isaac Davis farm memorial stone that marks the farm where Isaac Davis and later Joseph Brown lived with their families. Farther down Hayward Road, one comes to the Minuteman Ridge Neighborhood. When it was developed in the 1960s, one of the streets was named “Captain Brown’s Lane.”
William Rodway was not in the United States for very long, and because William was a common English Rodway name, it took some effort to make sure that we matched the correct William to records overseas. Fortunately, his death record and obituaries, coupled with census, vital, and immigration records for his mother and siblings, allowed us to piece together some of his life story.
William G. Rodway was born in Castle Hanley, Worcestershire, England, between January and March 1873. He was born to parents also from Worcestershire, William Rodway, born in Welland, and Sarah Booker, born in Leigh. William G. was baptized on March 23, 1873 in Malvern Wells. He was recorded in the Welland 1881 Census (at age 8) with his parents and siblings Charles (age 11), Harry (10), James (6), Roslina (usually known as Rose, 4), and Alice (2). His father was an agricultural laborer. We have not yet established what happened to the family between 1881 and 1889. According to British death indices, a William Rodway died in 1883 in the registration district that contains Welland; he was probably the father of the family, though that fact has not been confirmed. We did find that William G’s older brothers Charles and Harry emigrated from Liverpool to Boston in May, 1888. The next year, William Rodway (age 14) travelled on the ship Cephalonia with his mother Sarah (45) and siblings James (11), Rose (9), George (7), and Helen (5), arriving in Boston on April 8. They probably headed to Acton because they had relatives there. Apparently, Sarah had a brother George Booker who had emigrated previously with his family and settled in Acton. William Rodway was, from what we can tell, an active young man. Thanks to the Concord Enterprise, we know that by November 10, 1892, he was in a militia company in Concord with his brother Harry, both of them having obtained marksman qualifications. We already knew that he played football; he was enough of a leader to be the captain of the team, and his athleticism earned praise. The November 12, 1896 Concord Enterprise called him a "great all around player." The previous week, it had been reported that he had scored all of the touchdowns in a game against Maynard. (See team photographs here.) For some time prior to his enlistment, William Rodway worked for the West End Railway in Boston. Whether he enlisted with acquaintances from his workplace, we do not know, but instead of joining the “Concord company” (Massachusetts Sixth Regiment, Company I) with others from Acton, he signed on with Company C of the Ninth Massachusetts Volunteers. He was made a corporal. According to the Adjutant General’s Report published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth (1898 Annual Reports, Volume X), the Ninth trained for a few weeks at Camp Dewey in South Framingham (May 1898) before being sent to Camp Alger in Virginia for more drilling and endurance training (June 1898). They set sail for Cuba on the USS Harvard on June 26, arriving on the afternoon of July 1. That night, they were ordered to do an overnight march to the front where they took their places in the trenches. (Letters published in the Boston Post of July 18th reported that they spent little time actually shooting. They lacked smokeless powder and their Springfield rifles created too much smoke, so they were sent to stay in the trenches as backups.) Unfortunately, the original orders to march had specified that the men leave their blanket rolls behind, leaving them little protection from the elements. After the city of Santiago surrendered on July 17th, the regiment participated in the ceremony, and on the 18th, the regiment was moved from the trenches and “was sent back some four miles to bivouac in a swamp; and here disease in an alarming degree broke out among our troops. The officers and men, all of whom had borne up in a remarkable manner until now, seemed to succumb at once, and the sick roll increased tremendously.” (page 187) During the next few weeks, the regiment “was practically struggling for its existence against the inroads of disease and the inclemency of the weather. In details those men who were able to stand upon their feet were ordered to the hospital to assist the sick; and it was this work, so admirably and unselfishly done, that completed the work of devastation, and sent home to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the tottering remnants of as physically strong a regiment as this State ever possessed.” (page 188) Local newspapers reported on deplorable conditions, widespread sickness, and losses endured by the regiment. (The Boston Post, in particular, published letters, reports, and disputes over blame.) Pressure built to get the regiment out of Cuba. It was sent to Montauk Point, Long Island on September 1. On September 15, 1898, the Concord Enterprise’s West Acton news stated that Harry Rodway was visiting his brother William who was in critical condition at Camp Wikoff, Montauk Point, New York. It added, “Harry returned home Friday, but started back again Tuesday, the family feeling so anxious for the sick one.” The September 20, 1898 Boston Post reported that William G. Rodway was very sick in the hospital in the camp at Montauk awaiting the opportunity to be sent home. A doctor from Boston City Hospital was travelling back and forth, trying to accompany the sick to Boston. The October 6th Enterprise reported that William was improved and expected home soon. Sadly, William Rodway died of dysentery on October 18, 1898 in St. Peter’s Hospital, Brooklyn, New York. According to an obituary in the Boston Daily Globe (Oct 20, page 7), his brother brought him home. Family and friends must have been shocked when they realized what happened to him; according to his Concord Enterprise obituary (Oct. 27, page 8), “He was a young man of fine personal appearance and splendid physique, but had become so emaciated by disease none would have recognized him.” His funeral was attended by, among others, members of his company and the Acton G.A.R. post who attended as a group. All flags were at half-mast and businesses closed in the afternoon “in honor of the brave young life given at the country’s call.” After the funeral, he was buried with military honors (provided by members of the Ninth Regiment) at Mount Hope Cemetery. William G. Rodway was not in the United States long enough to be found on a surviving census. As far as we know, he never became a citizen. Yet when volunteers were called for, he signed up to help the cause of his adopted country. It only seems right that the people of Acton should remember him as one of their men who served. 7/9/2016 Thirty Guys Behind a MapYears ago, a framed map of Acton was found in a South Acton home. Recently, when the map was remounted, its backing turned out to be a large, beautifully preserved group portrait (16”x12.5” photo, mounted size 20.5”x18”), taken by Elmer Chickering and Company of Boston. On the back were written three names out of the thirty young men in the picture: A _ Bancroft, H.R. Sewell, and William W. Rawlinson. There was no date or place. Not having any use for it, the owner brought the picture to us. We started our research with the one full name we had. Investigating William W. Rawlinson led us to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s online yearbook archives. In the 1906 and 1907 yearbooks, (actually produced in the previous years), Delta Tau Delta fraternity included not only William Woodward Rawlinson, but also Albert Fitch Bancroft and Henry Rollo Sewell. It appeared that we had found our group, but we searched the yearbooks for commonalities among the men aside from their fraternity membership. Albert Fitch Bancroft was in the class of 1907, from New Bedford, MA, and studying Course III. William Woodward Rawlinson and Henry Rollo Sewell were from the class of 1908 (respectively, from Lowell, MA studying Course III and from Hastings, Nebraska studying Course II). We did not find any other group in the yearbooks in which all three were members. Given that and the size of the group, (thirty active brothers were listed in the 1906 yearbook and twenty-eight in 1907), it seemed likely that the picture was of the brothers of MIT’s Delta Tau Delta fraternity in 1905 or 1906. Proving it turned out to be a challenge. Assuming our tentative identification was correct, the next question was how the picture ended up in Acton behind a map. The yearbooks showed that none of the brothers lived in Acton at the time, but it was possible that one of the brothers either had Acton roots or that he settled in Acton later in life and left the photo behind. Armed with perhaps too much enthusiasm, we tracked down the DTD brothers listed in the yearbooks. If it turned out that the portrait was not of Acton people, we hoped we could at least confirm its identification and have enough information to find an appropriate home for it. The fraternity brothers were surprisingly easy to trace. Because the MIT yearbooks listed students’ middle name, class, and address, we were mostly able to avoid the “common name” problem that plagues genealogists. The timing was also helpful; the brothers were born early enough that many of their births, marriages, and census records are easily available online, but late enough that many were also included in Social Security records. In addition, the brothers happened to be of the age that they had to register for the draft in both World Wars. Many of them joined the Masons, and for those with Massachusetts Masonic ties, cards listing birth, occupation, residence, and often date of death can also be found online. Many were engineers and travelled, causing them to show up in passport applications, consular records, and passenger lists. It is an ideal era in which to be doing genealogical research. With all of that information available to us, we were optimistic that with a little effort, we could find some connection to Acton. The effort happened, but the hoped-for connection did not. We found DTD brothers involved in industry in Massachusetts and all over the country, in mining ventures in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Peru, and on a Vimy Ridge memorial in Winnipeg. There is no indication that any of them ended up in Acton or even nearby towns. Back in Acton, we had one more possibility, investigating the people who lived in the house where the framed map was found decades later. That turned out to be surprisingly difficult. At the time the picture was taken, the residents of the house were Henry Waldo and Lizzie (Piper) Tuttle. Their children did not go to MIT. Son Harold Knowlton Tuttle (born 1880) went to Tufts Medical College and eventually settled in California. Daughter Florence Piper Tuttle went to Wellesley and did not marry an MIT graduate. Searching for later residents of the house was no more successful. There were no obvious ties to MIT, and there were simply too many changes in residents over the years to figure out possible connections. Perhaps the picture was simply discarded and someone with no personal interest acquired it for its frame. Having given up on an Acton connection that would give the picture context, we turned to trying to identify its faces to make sure we had the correct group. As anyone who has tried to identify old pictures knows, the process is difficult and uncertain. In this case, we had started with three names, no date, no location, and nothing to compare the faces to. We were lucky to make the MIT connection. Though the MIT yearbooks of the time did not have individual pictures of graduates or group fraternity photos, there were a few team and club photos. We did find “Rawlinson” identified in a picture of the MIT Mandolin Club in the 1907 yearbook. He appears to be in our picture, the third man from the left in the back row. Other attempts to match faces (including comparing a 1906 portrait of one of the DTD brothers sent by a generous descendant) left us still uncertain. We were about to give up hope on identification when we somewhat accidentally came upon exactly what we needed and had searched for, unsuccessfully, several times. In trying to find the fraternity bothers’ Acton connection, we had searched for their individual names and for MIT’s Beta Nu Chapter of DTD. We used broad-based and genealogically-focused search engines, looking for text and images. It was hard to imagine that we had missed anything relevant, but we did. It wasn’t until we broadened our search to look into whether Tufts student Howard K. Tuttle (who lived in the “map house”) might have been a DTD brother at Tufts’ Beta Mu Chapter that we came across Delta Tau Delta’s digitized archives of newsletters from the period. It happens that in the June 1907 newsletter, a chapter photo was published of MIT’s Beta Nu chapter, with surnames identified. It was apparently taken later than our photo, as some of the names did not overlap with our lists, but thirteen of them did. After comparing the photos, we were able to find some faces that look virtually identical and others that are similar enough that they may be of the same men. There remain plenty of questions, but between the names on the back of our picture and the faces that could be identified from the June 1907 newsletter, we are quite confident that our picture was taken of at least some members of MIT’s Beta Nu chapter, most likely in 1906. (One of the matched faces was not in the first yearbook’s DTD listing). The photo may be of the chapter or of a group of attendees at a special event; there were joint fraternal events in Boston during the year, so it is possible that the picture included alumni or brothers from different chapters. Since originally publishing this piece, some generous readers have sent pictures identifying other brothers. We at the Society work to connect people with their roots and with Acton’s history. In this case, we wanted to find an Acton story that never materialized, but perhaps our research can help others interested in finding out about this group of brothers or their era. Searching for MIT's Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, Beta Nu Chapter, 1905-1906 If you recognize any of the faces in the group photograph or can share with us an identified picture from around 1906 of one of the brothers listed in the MIT yearbooks, we would be delighted to hear from you. (A huge thank you to those who have sent identifications.)
We have done research on and would love to see pictures of the following brothers (in parentheses are the states/countries in which they seem to have had connections at different points in their lives): 5/10/2016 Searching for Captain Robert
The answer came from the 1855 Massachusetts State Census. It showed that Robert Prier Boss (age 50, born in Rhode Island) was a sea captain living in Acton with Hannah, William Henry, and George Washington Boss, (ages 40, 12, and 3 respectively), and others, including members of his wife's family. Acton was not a likely home for a mariner, but Robert’s occupation in the census solved the mystery (temporarily) – the title of captain on the stone had nothing to do with the Civil War. Additional research showed that Robert Prior Boss was born in Newport, Rhode Island on February 21, 1804. He was the son of William Boss and Edith Dickinson Prior, one of 14 children. Captain Robert lived in Boston in 1839 when he married Hannah Sampson, born in Charlestown to Daniel and Hannah (Dingley) Sampson. The couple first lived in Charlestown and had at least two children there; Robert P. Boss Jr. and William Henry Boss. Information about Captain Robert’s early career is not easily obtainable, but in 1849, Captain Robert seems to have become involved in the California Gold Rush. In May, 1849, Captain Robert P. Boss of Charlestown sailed out of Boston on the ship New Jersey, carrying over 175 passengers (reports vary about the exact number). The ship was owned by the Suffolk and California Mutual Trading and Mining Association; transcriptions of the passenger list show that Captain Robert was a member. They arrived on October 12, 1849, and, as described in the Boston Evening Transcript [Feb 24, 1890 reminiscence], "as soon as the port of San Francisco was reached, little heed was paid to contracts or agreements, and all made a rush for the gold diggings." Discovering whether or not their venture was a financial success would require more research, but soon afterwards, Captain Robert changed careers. An 1851 birth record of George W. Boss, born to Robert and Hannah, shows that the family was living in Acton by then. (Charlestown was written as their residence and crossed out.) Robert was listed as a farmer. As far as we can tell, Captain Robert spent the rest of his life in Acton. The 1860 census listed him there with Hannah and their two youngest sons. His Acton death record listed him as a retired sea captain. The Perils and Benefits of Online Genealogical Indexing Online indexing can yield wonderful discoveries about the lives of individuals. It can also lead researchers astray. Following up on Acton’s Robert P. Boss led to a link from his genealogical information to a listing of Massachusetts officers in the United States Navy. A Robert P. Boss, born in Rhode Island and living in Massachusetts, was listed as having been appointed to an officer’s position on January 4, 1862. With no further investigation, we might have assumed that Acton’s Robert P. Boss, born in Rhode Island and a sailor, was a Civil War naval officer. However, we were saved from that assumption by two other internet resources. A listing of “Enlisted Men in the United States Navy,” also linked to Acton’s Robert P. Boss, showed that the Robert P. Boss in question was age 21 and a printer when he enlisted in the Navy on September 24, 1861. He became an officer in 1862. Clearly that person was not Acton’s Robert. Fortunately, the 1902 book An inquiry concerning the Boss family and the name Boss has been made available online. From that source, we found that Acton’s Captain Robert had a nephew Robert P. Boss, born in Rhode Island in 1840. Research indicates that he was a likely match for the printer who signed up for the Navy in 1861. What happened to the Boss children?
In the spring of 1864, William’s unit was shipped to Washington, DC, causing an outcry about broken recruiting promises. Perhaps as a consequence, William transferred to the Navy on June 29, 1864 and served on the U.S.S. Tunxis and Glaucus. He was discharged on March 6, 1865. William married Mary E. “Lizzie” Welts in 1869 in Chelsea, MA where they both resided. He was listed as a clerk at the time. He later lived in Lynn, Mass. and worked as a freight agent and station master. His wife died sometime in the 1880s. William married Ida Emma Morrisey in Lynn on May 28, 1889. According to his pension record filed by Ida after his death, he was quite well off until late in life when he lost all of his money on a mining venture. William died on March 22, 1907 in Swampscott, MA where he had been living and was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn.
George Washington Boss was born in Acton on November 17, 1851. He was still a minor when Captain Robert died in 1863, and his mother became his guardian. Captain Robert’s will was very clear about his confidence in his wife Hannah’s abilities and the fact that she would look after her son’s interests. Hannah and George moved to Malden by 1865. Unfortunately, Hannah died in 1867, necessitating another guardian for young George, Charles W. Irving. (Their exact relationship is unclear, but Charles and George lived in the same household in 1865.) George Boss was living in Boston and working as a laborer when he married Clara A. Skillings (daughter of Cyrus and Margaret) on February 6, 1872. On April 21, 1879, he married Melissa Edgars (daughter of Robert and Mary). George was working as a brakeman and residing in Boston at the time. In between George’s marriages, he apparently joined the Cavalry, though his time in that role was abbreviated at best. He appeared in court records in October 1877, seeking an accounting of his parents’ funds from his guardian. Eventually, the accounting was made; there is no indication that the funds were misused. After a possible listing in an 1880 Lowell, Mass. directory, no other information has been found about George W. Boss or either of his wives. The family's time in Acton seems to have been fairly short. However, researching Captain Robert reminded us that with all genealogical projects, it is important to question assumptions, to watch out for people of the same name, and to keep searching even after finding “the answer.” For those who want to learn more in non-digitized sources, Captain Robert's logbook from his 1849 voyage to California is in the archives of the Peabody Essex Museum, and passenger Charles Stumcke's recollections of the voyage around the Horn are held at the University of California, Berkeley. |
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