3/20/2016 Prisoners of War in ActonJames Fletcher’s 1890 Acton in History (page 57) lists James Shurland as one of the “Men of Acton in the War of the Revolution.” Taken alone, that would seem to imply that he fought on the side of the colonists. It is possible that he did at some point. However, researching the collections of the Society to find out more about him unearthed a document showing that in 1776, James Sherland and William Haywood were actually taken as prisoners of war. The document, a copy of an order from the Council Chamber, State of Massachusetts Bay, states that from their capture until Feb. 10, 1780, the two men had been residing in Acton. Joseph Robbins, other selectmen, and the Committee of Correspondence for Acton vouched for their "Orderly Behavior,” so they were given permission to live in the town and to practice their occupations until further notice.
Evidently, in the early part of the war, it was not unusual for British prisoners of war to be sent to outlying areas. A letter from George Washington to Lieutenant-General Howe on September 23, 1776 states that British privates were “greatly dispersed through New England Governments, in order to their better accommodation.” (See Jared Sparks’s The Writings of George Washington, Volume IV, New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1847, p 106.) So far, efforts to discover the stories of James Sherland and William Haywood during the Revolutionary War period have been not turned up anything. We do not know where they were captured, whether they were colonial Loyalists or from a British regiment, and why, where and under what circumstances they were held in Acton. (We would welcome new information; please contact us if you can help.) Attempting to trace the later lives of the two prisoners presented opposite research problems. In Acton and its environs, Haywood/Hayward was a common name. Despite that, no trace of William could be found. Aside from the copy of the order held by the Historical Society, he seems to have left no mark on the town of Acton. There are some William Haywoods who appear in records outside of Acton in the post-Revolutionary period, but without further information, it is impossible to know whether it is the same person. Sherland, however, is an unusual name, with many variations. Acton vital records revealed that James Sharland and wife Anna had ten sons in Acton: George (1779), Stephen Randal (1781), James Jr (1784), William (1786), Henery (1786, apparently William’s twin), Edmond (1790), Joseph (1792), Winthrop (1795), Benjamin Hill (1797), and Joseph (1799). All of the births were recorded together, probably well after the fact. In 1790, James “Shareline” was listed in the Acton Census with a household of 1 male aged 16 and above, 6 males under age 16, and 1 female. The family must have been in Cambridge at some point. Probate records and Acton town reports indicate that James had legal involvement with the town of Cambridge in the first decade of the 1800s, but no details of his time actually living in Cambridge have yet emerged. The 1810 Acton Census shows James Sharland as head of a household consisting of 1 male aged 45 or more, 1 male between 10 and 15, and 1 female aged 45 or more. That probably was James and Anna and one of their youngest sons. (Acton records show that James Jr. “of Watertown” married Maria Moore “of Cambridge” and had a son William Henry in 1806. They would have been too young for the 1810 Census listing.) James Senior’s death was recorded in Acton on April 27, 1818. Benjamin Sherland is listed in the 1820 Census in Acton with a female over 45 (possibly his mother Anna). We could find no further mention of Anna in any record. There is no cemetery record or gravestone in Acton for any member of the family. A fascinating research project would be to trace the descendants of the sons of James and Anna Sharland who all seem to have left Acton by 1830. Stephen Randal became a cooper in New Hampshire and died young and unmarried. Winthrop went to Maine. James Jr. went to western New York and later to Indiana. It appears that George and Benjamin also headed west. There were many descendants, although sorting them all out would be a challenge. By the mid-1800s, Sharlands, Sherlands, Shirlands and Shorlands appear in numerous records, including many records of military service. Without documents such as the Council Chamber order in the Society’s collections, there would be no way to know that one's immigrant ancestor was once a P.O.W. in a small Massachusetts town. The beginning: Agatha Freeman Royall – What is she doing here?
The Turners - Georgia to Acton with a Few Detours One of the projects that Society members have been working on is photographing gravestones in Acton’s cemeteries. Usually, the process of identifying people on the gravestones is straightforward, but sometimes information is scarce. In the case of a cube-shaped marker that said on different sides “Davis,” “Baby,” and “Harriet Turner “ and “John Turner,” more information was needed. Researching Estelle (Turner) Davis’s family for connections to Agatha (Freeman) Royall turned up Harriet Turner and an unexpected story.
Harriet M. Turner, like her sister Estelle (Turner) Davis, was born in Columbus, Georgia. Her death record in Acton showed that she had been a singer and had died in 1939 at age 72. Based on a hypothesis that she might have met Agatha Royall through her singing, online newspapers were searched for any mention of her career. A brief notice of Harriet's death in the Acton Concord Enterprise (March 8, 1939, page 5) said that she had entertained at the White House and for royalty in England and Italy. That surprise opened up many research possibilities. Finally, an article in the Washington Times (June 9, 1922, page 6) gave her life story under the headline “Once Famous Singer is Now Jobless Cook.” According to the article, Harriet and her sister Alice came north to New York with little other than their banjos and their voices. Somehow, sending a letter to complete stranger William Randolph Hearst opened doors for them, and before long, they were performing their “Southern” repertoire for wealthy and well-connected people in the United States and abroad. They performed in London at a party of the Queen that led to more Society appearances in England, and they performed at the White House twice. They toured the continent, making four trips to Europe in all. They sang for dukes, at least one ambassador, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, and Teddy Roosevelt. In Harriet’s words, “People most socially prominent begged us to sing and play for them. American millionaires sought to buy our entertainment, but we insisted upon being the most exclusive, for that, you see, paid best. We went only to the homes of royalty, nobility, or distinction…we sang and played our merry way along, and we saved never a penny.” Then Harriet evidently became ill, and bills piled up. Her hair turned white, and she was no longer an in-demand, young, Southern woman with a sweet voice and a banjo. Life went downhill. A 1919 Boston Post article (August 8, page 11) revealed that “Miss Harriet Turner... an accomplished musician and vocalist – having entertained Presidents of the United States and Kings and Queens of several European countries – was found sitting in a dazed condition, her clothing drenched with rain, under a tree on the grounds of Boston College…” She was apparently incoherent, suffering from “aphasia.” By the time of the 1922 Washington Times article, she had recovered enough to be working as a cook, though no job seems to have lasted long; the latest mentioned was at the Fort Pond Inn in Ayer (research indicates it may actually have been in Lancaster), working for a woman who had once been her servant. Meanwhile, according to the 1922 article whose source seems to have been Harriet, her sister “Alice” married, “but the man she loved had little money.” Researching Alice Turner yielded no results until an article in the October 15, 1916 Boston Sunday Globe (page 48) revealed that Harriet’s elusive singing partner Alice was actually her sister Estelle Bushnell Turner. The two sisters had evidently been in the North for 12 years, mostly based in Boston, entertaining notable people with songs taken from the South. Estelle was about to marry; the relatively money-less husband that Harriet described was Acton’s own Charles Edmund Davis whom Estelle met in 1915 while trying to buy a summer cottage. Estelle’s listings in the 1930 and 1940 censuses with her husband and mother-in-law show no occupation and no children. Evidently, her sister Harriet came to live with them during her final years, although she died in a Rest Home in Concord. Estelle T. Davis appeared occasionally in local newspaper articles in connection with land ownership and because of an automobile accident in 1943. Her 1961 obituary makes no mention of her singing career; she was described as the widow of well-known realtor Charles Davis. She had been sick for a long period of time. None of this story would have come to light if a portrait of a woman with no apparent connection to Acton had not appeared at the Historical Society. We still don’t know how the picture got here, but the chances are that the singing Turners somehow met Agatha (Freeman) Royall in their performing period. Perhaps their songs reminded Mr. Royall of his Georgia roots. A recent project at the Historical Society has been to index a large number of letters and documents relating to Horace F. Tuttle (1864-1955). Researching his life led to an eye-opening record of service to the Town of Acton. Acton’s 1956 Annual Town Report paid tribute to Horace’s family upon the retirement on December 31, 1956 of Harlan Emery Tuttle from his position as town clerk. He had served for 15 years, following his father Horace Frederick Tuttle who served for 45 years (1896-1941) and his grandfather William Davis Tuttle who served for 41 years (1855-1896). Set against 101 years of Tuttle service to the town of Acton, our “large” collection of documents now seems like a tiny portion of the work done by the three generations of Tuttle town clerks.
Of the items indexed so far, there are personal letters from family members, documents relating Horace Tuttle’s apple-growing and surveying businesses and his administration of estates, and documents relating to a few of his years as town clerk; genealogical inquiries, a request for help from a serviceman’s wife during World War 1, a list of Acton servicemen during that war, a draft of a letter written on surplus 1907 ballots, inquiries about cemetery plots, a request to open the library during the town fair, and much more. Sorting through them, one couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything Horace Tuttle didn’t do! 12/17/2015 Watch Your Assumptions - They're All RelatedThe letter by O. W. Mead described in the previous blog post yielded a surprising number of lessons for a note obviously written in some haste. It was addressed to Andrew Patch of Canaan, NH. The salutation, as shown above was:
Mr. Patch Dear Sir O.W. Mead briefly mentioned his recent local travels and the weather and instructed Mr. Patch to pay "Foss" and to hire him for future work. (Money was evidently enclosed.) Then the letter related the sensational local news item of the day involving the discovery of “F. Taylor.” It read, to someone used to today’s ways of conversing, like a letter between business associates, telling a story of local, but not personal, interest. That was the wrong assumption. As described in the previous blog post, research showed that “F. Taylor” was Franklin Taylor (1808-1849), son of Oliver Jr. and Elizabeth Fairbank Stone. The Taylor family of Stow and Boxborough was quite large. One of them was O. W. Mead’s mother Lucy - It turns out that she was actually the sister of “F. Taylor.” Further research showed that “Mr. Patch” of Canaan, New Hampshire was married to Marie Mead, daughter of Nathaniel and Lucy (Taylor) Mead. Marie was O. W.’s sister. O.W. Mead was reporting to his brother-in-law the discovery of his uncle’s remains. The moral of the story is that it is important to approach documents written in a different era with an open mind and an understanding of how people addressed each other. Reading the letter with a twenty-first century mentality led to completely inaccurate conclusions! 12/13/2015 F. Taylor Mystery SolvedA letter in the Society’s collection raised curiosity recently. It was written by O. W. (Oliver W.) Mead , dated West Acton, Feb. 10th 1850, and sent to Andrew Patch of Canaan, NH. The letter related the gruesome discovery by “an Irishman” of the remains of [F. ?] Taylor “in a swamp a short distance from this place.” Finding out the identity of Mr. Taylor seemed as if it would be easy. It turned into a research project. Mr. Taylor’s first initial was not initially obvious, given somewhat difficult handwriting. Death records for early 1850 or 1849 in Acton revealed no Taylors. “A short distance” from West Acton could have been Boxborough, Littleton or Stow, but research in those towns, using various strategies, produced no results. Finally, an online newspaper search was successful. The Liberator (Boston, Massachusetts, Friday March 8, 1850, page 4) picked up the story from the Boston Post that Franklin Taylor of Boxborough had been missing since June 1st of the previous year when he left home in the grip of delirium tremens and, as it turned out, committed suicide. The discovery was made in a wood lot near West Acton depot. The details match O. W. Mead’s letter. Published Boxborough records show a Franklin, son of Captain Oliver and Elisabeth Taylor, baptized in September, 1806. Numerous other Taylor children were born in Boxborough to Capt. Oliver Jr. and Elisabeth/Betsy. (Oliver Jr. and Betsey Fairbank Stone were married August 12, 1800 in Boxborough. Presumably, the “Jr” and “Capt” in Boxborough’s records were added to distinguish the couple from Oliver’s parents Oliver and Betty, but sorting out the family relationships needs to be done cautiously. ) The family seems to have moved to nearby Stow, as Franklin appears in Stow Tax Assessments of 1841, 1844, and 1847 and the 1842 Stow list of “persons liable to do military duty," along with other Taylor relatives. Franklin returned to Boxborough around 1847, as he appeared in the Militia roll for Boxborough in 1847 and 1848. There the record seems to end, at least in easily accessible online sources. Vital records, usually very helpful in Acton and surrounding towns, apparently omitted Franklin’s demise. Though learning the circumstances of Franklin Taylor’s death was not particularly happy, it did show the value of keeping and indexing old letters. Sometimes, local or family news reported in a letter can yield unique genealogical clues. It is tempting in this era of online searching to think that we can trace families without leaving our computers. However, archives may be holding a picture, a diary, a letter, or some other document that can open up new chapters of a family’s story. If you have Acton roots or connections, contact us; you may find information that is unavailable in other sources. 12/2/2015 The Cash Family ReappearsIn our collection of unlabeled photos were three pictures from Kimballs Studio in Lowell. The family resemblance is very strong; two of the pictures could be of the same woman. The girl, whose picture was taken later, is almost surely a relative as well. Recently, we came upon a labeled picture in our collection that matches one of the Kimballs photos. It was taken in the same studio, the face and outfit are the same, but the pose is slightly different. Now we know that one of our mystery pictures was “Lizzie Cash.” It turns out that she was the sister of Charles and Nellie Cash who appeared in this blog in October. Lizzie M Cash, age 6, was living in Acton in 1870 in the household of Hugh and Rebecca Cash. In the 1865 State Census in Acton, she was listed as Mary Elizabeth Cash, age 2, listed in the household of Hugh Cash and Rebecca Brown Cash. Charles Henry Cash and Ellen Frances Cash were also listed. Acton birth records show Mary Elizabeth Cash was born 20 Aug 1863 to Hugh and Rebecca B. (Potter). They resided in Acton at the time. Hugh, occupation “miller” was born in Camden, New York. Rebecca was born in Concord. By 1880, Hugh, Rebecca and three children including “Mary E” were living in Littleton. In 1890, M. Elizabeth Cash, daughter of Hugh and Rebecca (Potter) Cash, married John Herman Flint, age 24, a letter carrier born in Concord to Waldo & Rebecca Flint. John was a letter carrier for the postal service throughout his career. Mary Elizabeth had two children, Herman Cash Flint and Doris Flint. The couple lived for many years in Somerville. A gravestone on FindAGrave.com shows John H. Flint and his wife M. Elizabeth Flint buried with Waldo and Rebecca Flint in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord. Now that we have identified one of the Kimballs pictures, can anyone confirm the identity of the other two? Contact us if you can. 11/9/2015 Henry Hapgood, an Acton Veteran
While sorting through and scanning a large number of unlabeled portraits from the Society's collections, it was a pleasure to find labeled photographs of Charles and Nellie Cash. As is often the case with family history, one piece of information led to more questions. When did they live, were they from Acton, and what were their life stories? As it turned out, two small pictures turned into quite a research project! Cash was not a common Acton family name, making the search easier. Charles and Nellie Cash were listed in Acton in the Massachusetts State Census of 1865. The careful census taker gave us their full names: Charles Henry (age 18) and Ellen Frances (age 13). Further research showed that the family had previously lived in Concord where Charles, Nellie, and their mother Rebecca (Potter) Cash were born. Their father, Hugh Cash, was reported in different sources as having been born in New York, England, and Northern Ireland... a research project for another day. We now had a family with two children whose names matched our pictures. But we wanted to be sure that it was the right family. Charles married, in Acton in 1868, Charlotte E. Davis, daughter of Ebenezer and Susan (Bradford). Charlotte died in 1870, and Charles moved on from Acton. He reappeared in Florida records, marrying Angie B. Phillips in 1884. He lived in Florida until his death in 1930, having been for many years in the ice business. Aside from the name on the back of the picture, nothing definitely proved that the young man in the photograph was Charles Henry Cash, son of Hugh and Rebecca. Nellie Cash gave us more clues that we had found the right family. The back of her portrait showed that it was taken by a photographer H. E. Strout who operated in Woburn, Mass. in the 1870s and 1880s. Massachusetts vital records showed that Ellen F. Cash, born in Concord, MA to Hugh and Rebecca Cash, married Melville B. C. Cummings on 5 June 1879 in Woburn and died there on 24 September 1886. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Her name on the gravestone is "Nellie." Melville, who died in 1900, was buried in the same lot. Nellie's parents, several siblings, and Charles Henry's first wife were also buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. We are quite confident now that we have placed Charles and Nellie in their Acton context, but we would appreciate having confirmation and more information. If this is your family, please contact us. We also have a few other unlabelled pictures that may be from this family - we're hoping that relatives of the Cash family might be able to identify them.
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