Kate Corbett Pollack article to be published in the Landmarks Preservationist!

I'm very excited to announce that our researcher, Kate Corbett Pollack, will be published in the upcoming Landmarks Preservationist newsletter! The Landmarks Preservationist is the newsletter of the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica. Kate's article "Rutger Park: A New American Aristocracy" traces the history of many of the early families of Utica, New York, and has surprising connections to the Pomeroy family, and Berry Pomeroy Castle!

As readers of this blog, I'm sure you're aware of Kate's research and writing skills. We are very proud to have her on our team!

To learn more about the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica, visit their website at www.uticalandmarks.org and "Like" them on Facebook!

The Spaulding Sisters

By Kate Corbett Pollack

As the events between Reverend Spaulding and Josiah unfolded and culminated in the severe outcome written about in November’s article, the lives of Josiah’s four sisters was also developing with a fair amount of tragedy. Their experiences were not uncommon for women of this time. The APHGA is very fortunate to have copies of these amazing letters written by Josiah’s sisters and their descendents over the course of the 19th century, starting in 1801 and going to the 1850s. Information on individual women in this time period is severally lacking. Often, a woman is referred to in records as simply wife or daughter, and a researcher cannot learn anything about her, not even a maiden name, let alone her thoughts and feelings. Primary source material written by women themselves to their closest friends and family is a valuable look into their emotional lives, and to the hardship experienced in this era.

Mary Spaulding, the oldest of the Spaulding siblings, was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, in 1785. She married Isaac Pomeroy on March 8, 1810, in Buckland, a small village in western Massachusetts, when she was 24 years old. She then moved with him to Southampton, leaving her family and her sisters, with whom she was very close. Nancy Spaulding, then aged 21, wrote to Mary on March 27th, 1810, shortly after Mary left to start her new life with Isaac [punctuation added]:

But though I retire to my chamber to converse with a sister yet I find her not there, but silence reigns through the whole apartment. How then shall [I] be able to converse with her? My thoughts must take their flight on eagles’ wings over distant hills and vales to thy abode my sister and by the kind assistance of my pen and ink endeavor to converse a little with thee there. The absence and loss of thy company I sensibly feel.

Nancy would be married the next year, to John Coleman of nearby Shelburne Falls. Sadly, reports indicate that he was a severe alcoholic and later caused them to lose everything they owned. Together they had three children: Thankful (1816), Josiah (1823), and Deborah (1827). Josiah Coleman was born the same year as youngest Spaulding sister Lydia’s first child, Mary Howes. 1823 was also the year Reverend and Mrs. Spaulding passed, and the caged Josiah Spaulding was transferred to Lydia’s house where she was forced to care for him.

Mary Spaulding and Isaac Pomeroy had their first child in 1811, and named her Mary Ann. Mary’s younger sister Deborah happily writes at the time of Mary Ann’s birth to her sister:

I want verry much to hear from you and your sweet babe. I wish I could see her- that lovely girl once more you must kiss her for me. Lydia wants you should write her a letter…and write if Mary Ann talks yet.

By 1814, Mary was pregnant with her second child. Her first child, Mary Ann, died during Mary’s second pregnancy and she named the new infant Mary Ann as well. This was common in early America, when children often died. Mary Ann survived to adulthood and had her own children, naming a daughter after herself, and continuing the tradition of the name. On June 30th, 1815, Isaac Pomeroy passed away at age 33 in Southampton, leaving Mary Ann fatherless and Mary a widow. Isaac’s sister, Deborah Pomeroy Trowbridge, had developed a friendship with Mary Spaulding and wrote her many letters over the course of their lives, continuing to do so long after Isaac’s death. Deborah married Rufus Trowbridge, a minister, and moved to Buckland from Southampton, the opposite of Mary. There she became friends with Mary’s sisters, and joined them in writing to her. Deborah responds to seemingly every tragedy in Mary’s life, and it is clear that she understands and shares her pain and loss.

On June 29th, 1815, the day before her brother Isaac died, Deborah Pomeroy Trowbridge writes to the couple. She comments about departed friends and the death of their first child:

The loss of friends I very well know. I can easily call to mind the heart rending wounds at giving the parting hand to my deceased friends, every Son & Daughter of Adam must experience adversity…I hope that will call to mind your pleasant child with all its attracting charms and lovliness, its sickness and hour of Death-to have it torn from your arms by the king of terrors, and laid in the cold grave…

The language and grim style of writing may strike the reader as harsh, but death was commonplace for this family. They lived during a time before vaccinations, public health, and better doctors put an end to many of the diseases that frequently took people’s lives. It seems clear from this letter that Deborah did not even know that her brother was sick, let alone close to death. The illnesses common in those days often hit hard and killed quickly, with little warning. Cholera, for example, could kill a healthy person in twelve hours. It really did appear that God was striking people dead.

Buckland and Southampton by modern standards are not very far apart, about 30 miles. In the early 1800s, travel between rural villages thick with woods and impassable dirt roads made visits and communication difficult and infrequent. The only way a letter could be delivered was if the writer knew someone who was traveling to the town where the person lived. There was no such thing, in those days, as putting a letter out for the mail carrier, or in a mailbox. Mary had no way to communicate with Isaac’s sister to tell her that he was dying.

Death colored the women’s experience, and is mentioned in almost every one of their letters written in over a fifty-year period. It is not a subject that they gloss over. Sisters Mary, Nancy, Lydia and Deborah Spaulding, and Mary’s sister-in-law Deborah Pomeroy Trowbridge, wrote to each other quite candidly about their feelings. Death seemed to connect them and bring them closer. The sisters did not, unlike their brother Josiah, who had more access to education, question male authority or religious belief. Deborah’s husband Rufus Trowbridge was studying to become a reverend, and he wrote many letters to Isaac about religion. The men in the family were all as religious as Reverend Spaulding. Their letters, in contrast, are primarily about their thoughts on Christianity, wars and battles (the war of 1812 was a topic), and their careers and education. The explanation that epidemic disease and the deaths of their children were part of God’s plan was clearly accepted by the women. They do wonder at parts of this doctrine, but, like the men in their lives, they believe they have offended God and should not question anything for very long, lest they further offend him.

Deborah Pomeroy Trowbridge’s May 20th letter (undated but before 1823, possibly 1814-16) to Mary Spaulding Pomeroy further details death and sickness, and addresses another fact of the women’s lives - the brutal physical hardship and labor required of housewives at this time. Deborah was about 29 or 30 at this time.

I feel myself to be getting old and allmost worn out with hard work. What does it avail to us to labor so much for the Body when it must soon moulder in the grave to be food for the worms, we have this day been called to attend the funeral of Orlando Colman. He died Saturday night…Your sister has trouble enough to kill one-there is some sick in town now. Mr Forbes is dead, Mr Brackets have buried an infant today, William Farnam’s wife is dead…

Amazingly, Deborah lived to be 90! This was very unusual, and she far outlived the Spaulding women. Lydia only lived to be 39. Mary was 53 when she died, and Nancy 51. Forty was considered “old age” in these days, especially for women. (Josiah lived to be 79). The Spaulding and Pomeroy women were the wives of farmers and ministers, and they were poor. Lydia married wealthy Ezra Howes, but even he started out as a farmer. Every rural household in this area was a small farm of sorts, and the labor for women was back-breaking. The 1876 History of Pittsfield, (Berkshire County), Massachusetts tells us about domestic life in the years 1790-1810 for this region:

There were few appliances and inventions to relieve the labor of the housewife. The work of cooking, washing, sewing, and the like, was done by main strength. The cook must lift the huge iron pot, which hung on the crane out-swung before the blazing fire; and deposit and withdraw the baking in the deep, brick oven…The Laundress performed her task by pounding the soiled clothes in a barrel of water with a heavy pestle…Water was to be drawn by the cistern or well…And when all this was done, came the spinning, weaving, the brewing, the candle and soap-making. With all this, and the large families of children, which were almost the rule, it is no wonder that the percentage of mortality among women was large, and that those who sustained themselves were accounted marvels of capability.[1]

By 1816, Mary Spaulding Pomeroy had suffered so much loss and hardship that she had all but lost the will to live. 1816 was a year of pandemic typhoid fever. By the accounts in the women’s letters, death was widespread. They had no effective medicine to help with this sickness. Mary’s 1816 letter to her parents implored them to send medicine for little Mary Ann, who was seriously ill:

My little girl is some better today, how long it will last I do not know, but I should be glad if you would send her some of that cordial in a vial or something that will strengthen her…oh that wee might be prepared to go and meet our departed friends in a better world is what I hope and wish, for sickness and trouble seem to be my lot.

Mary Ann was two years old in 1816. The medicine Mary is asking for (a “cordial”) was just about worthless. There really was not much else available. It does not seem that Mary returned to Buckland after the death of her husband, but was taken in by the Pomeroys. Mary was, if letters are an indication, someone whom others were very fond of. It appears that after the deaths of Isaac and the first Mary Ann, Reverend Spaulding was not helpful to Mary, who was alone in Southampton, and did not invite her back home to Buckland after this tragedy. The Pomeroys of Southampton seem to have adopted her.

As we have seen, little Mary Ann thankfully survived this illness. Whether Mary’s parents sent her the cordial is unknown.

Mary Spaulding’s letter to her parents from May 1816 is a far cry from an earlier, November 1801 letter to her brother Josiah Spaulding, Jr. From this letter, written when Mary was 16, we gain insight into her personality. Her penmanship is measured and beautiful[2] and she seems calm.

My Dear Brother,
It is with pleasure that I now retire from all other employments to write a few lines to you…

She comments on what she sees as extravagant behavior of other young people in the area enjoying Thanksgiving festivities instead of attending a religious conference. She admonishes herself quickly, however:

…but I must stop have I not neglected the same am I any better I am not. I have spent many years in the pleasures of sin…sickness and sorrow and trouble may attend us the rest of our days. It will be nothing more than what we deserve for we have provoked God to strip us of all the mercys we now enjoy and consign us over to everlasting misery.

Mary closes the letter saying they ought to repent their sins before it is too late and may they be prepared for heaven. She adds a mischievous PS, perhaps unable to help herself, and asks her brother if he has heard the latest gossip:

PS I will inform you of the death of Betsy Stinn, she died not long before Thanksgiving & it is expected that Lydia, her sister, is or will soon be married to the gentleman that courted Betsy. & what do you think of that, it has occasioned considerable talk here…

Of course, about nine years after this letter, when Mary is about 25, Josiah would be put in a cage by their father, around the same time as Mary and Isaac’s wedding. Glimpses into Mary’s personality are rare, as the intense tragedy of her life overshadows everything else that she might write about. In the years 1810-1812, the sister’s letters are more lighthearted; they talk about deaths in the villages, but also about dress patterns, seeds and gossip. It is possible that Josiah was caged in or around 1812. The sisters do not write about this, however.

Despite their hardship, life for this family continues. By 1836, Mary Spaulding Pomeroy’s daughter, Mary Ann, is married to her cousin David Pomeroy and has her own daughter, also named Mary Ann. Her firstborn, David Alonzo Pomeroy, only lived to be 4 years old, and died in 1839, the same year as Mary Spaulding. They died a month apart. Deborah Trowbridge writes to Mary Ann and David Pomeroy to extend sympathies for the death of Mary’s mother and their young son. Deborah has become close with Mary Ann, the daughter of her beloved friend, and keeps up a correspondence with her. Deborah Trowbridge, who lived until 1876, witnessed quite a bit of the Spaulding and Pomeroy family’s trials. She knows, at this time, that Mary Ann must need more than a little comfort, and assures her that things will be better in heaven. She writes on April 17th, 1839:

We shall soon pass this vale of tears and meet our dear friends in the world of spirits, this is not our rest... I feel glad [that] you have the Company of your dear Aunt Deborah in your trials…

She is referring to Deborah Spaulding, the late Mary’s sister, who has come to care for her niece and nephew. The strength and bond of these women continues to tie each other together in the hardest of times. On January 19th, 1840 both Aunt Deborah Spaulding and Deborah Pomeroy Trowbridge wrote a letter to Mary Ann and David Pomeroy; each writing on the same page. Aunt Deborah had returned to Buckland by this time, and both she and her friend were wondering how Mary Ann and David were doing almost a year later:

We have commenced now a year, while many of our dear friends the last year was called to bid adieu to all things below the sun; it is one year since Death began to werke in our family circle.

Aunt Deborah adds,

Kiss little Mary for me, I want to see her much.

Mary Ann Pomeroy, like her mother, Mary Spaulding, experienced the death of her children. David Alonzo, as we have seen, died in 1839 at age 4. Mary Ann Jr., born in 1836, only lived to be 24 years old. Leora Caroline, born 1841, died when she is 15. Deborah Jane (Jennie), born 1845, was the only child who lived a full life, living to be 71. Mary Ann Pomeroy, daughter of Mary Ann and David Pomeroy, left behind a diary that she kept in 1850, when she was fourteen years old. Her life was not much different than her grandmother Mary Spaulding’s, and her writing echoes the 1801 letter that Mary Spaulding wrote when she was 16. Mary Ann Pomeroy, writing 49 years later, also does not expect to live very long and believes, like her grandmother did, that God was taking the villagers because he is angry. Her daily accounts center around going to revivals and prayer meetings.

Her entry for April 1st, 1850 reads:

...what reason have I to hope in the mercy of God, what reason to hope that I have been born again, surely I am nothing in myself when I look unto my own heart I find it is deceitful about all things and desperately wicked…

She writes an entry for her birthday:

Sabbath Day
May 5th
This day is my birth-day. Fourteen years old, before another birthday may arrive I may be numbered with the dead. Fourteen years of my life are fled. I shall never live fourteen years longer.

Mary Ann did not live another fourteen years, as she predicted. Epidemic disease was still a huge problem in 1850. By the late 1800s, medical science began to make advancements enough to put an end to this type of strife that was, for so many years, a common experience for Americans.

There is one branch of this family that managed to escape Buckland and its terrors- the descendents of Lydia Spaulding. That story will be another post.

Sources

“Cholera Epidemics in the 19th Century” Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics. Harvard University Library Open Collections Program, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1362723/?page=3

“Changing Medical Practices in Early America,” by Laurie Trask Mann. Updated 12/03/2008. http://dpsinfo.com/wb/medhistory.html


Baldwin, Thomas W, compiler, Vital Records of Uxbridge Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass.: Wright & Potter Printing Company, 1916) 62, 144,


David Pomeroy Household, 1850 U.S. Census, Southampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, P 65, Dwelling 73, Family 82; National Archives microfilm publication M432_320.

Marriages article, Salem Gazette, Salem, Massachusetts, 19 Jul 1831, Page 3

Vital Records of Worthington Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1911)


O’Donnell, George T. “Causes of Typhoid Fever in Massachusetts,” American Journal of Public Health 10(6) (1920): 517–520. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1362723

Pomeroy, Albert A., History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family Collateral Lines in Family Groups ; Reprinted Higginson Book Company, 1912, Salem, Massachusetts p 267, 381, 397

A Pomeroy at the American Museum of Natural History

I need a break from cleaning my desk. So many fascinating things land on it, and if you’re a genealogist you know that you never actually finish researching. So things tend to pile up. I’ve been working on the pile for almost three hours now, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive an e-mail from Mai Q., a Research Services Librarian in the Department of Library Services at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I had sent them an e-mail just yesterday and am quite impressed at the how quickly I got a response.

So why, you ask, did I e-mail the Museum? Well, let me tell you! Bill’s wife Sandra had e-mailed me a digital photo that her daughter-in-law had taken at the museum on a recent visit. The photo was a plaque that read “A Gift from Daniel E. Pomeroy”. Only part of the item that Daniel gifted was visible on the photo, and it read “PLAINS”. From the looks of the image, I guessed it was one of the Museum’s famous dioramas. I went out to the Museum’s website and browsed the diorama images, but I couldn’t pull up all the images. I did see one entitled “Serengeti Plains”, but without the image, couldn’t be sure this was it. I also checked our database for a Daniel E. Pomeroy and found a Daniel E. Pomeroy, born May 1868 in PA, son of Newton Merrick and Annis A. Pomeroy who lived in Englewood, NJ in between 1900 and 1928 and who was the Vice President of the Bankers Trust Company in New York City, and who, on 29 Jun 1928, was appointed to a committee at the Republican National Campaign meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC. Was this the same Daniel E. Pomeroy who donated funds (or items) for the Serengeti Plains diorama at the American Museum of Natural History? I knew I didn’t know, and I hoped that the Museum would know, so I contacted the Department of Library Services.

Thank goodness for librarians! In one day I had my answer. Mai Q., not only sent me information about Daniel’s support of the Museum, but also his obituary! According to the Roy Chapman Andrews Papers, Daniel E. Pomeroy was elected a Life Member of the Museum for “contributing funds for carrying on an ornithological survey of Ecuador. On November 9, 1925, at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Pomeroy was elected an Associate Founder for his generous contribution for the collecting and preparing of a group for the African hall of the museum, and, in recognition of his generosity and especially of his genuine interest in the development of the Museum.” In 1926 he was elected a Trustee of the Museum. In 1931 he was elected a Benefactor of the Museum. The report goes on to say that “In 1926 through the generosity of Mr. Pomeroy and Mr. George Eastman and Colonel Daniel B. Wentz, Mr. Carl Akeley of the Museum staff left for Africa in search of additional specimens for the African Hall. He was accompanied by Mrs. Akeley and joined later by Messrs. Pomeroy, Eastman and Wentz. They secured a splendid series of specimens for the Africa Hall groups which far surpassed expectations.” The report also states that “Mr. Pomeroy has served as First Vice-President and as a Member of the Executive Committee of The American Museum of Natural History Planetarium Authority since its foundation in 1933.”

The obituary confirmed that this generous Daniel E. Pomeroy, was indeed the son of Newton Merrick and Annis A. Pomeroy. The following obituary ran in the New York Times on Friday, March 26, 1965:

“DANIEL POMEROY, BANKER, 96, DIES
Was Jersey G.O.P. Official – Naturalist and Sportsman.
Special to The New York Times.

Daniel E. Pomeroy, a New York financier and naturalist who twice served as the vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, died at his home in Sea Island, Ga., yesterday. He was 96 years old.

Mr. Pomeroy, who lived in Englewood, N.J., at 47 Beech Road, was a former vice president of the Bankers Trust Company and a member of its board of directors at his death. He had been active in New Jersey politics, serving for 21 years as a member of the state’s Republican committee.

An avid naturalist and big-game hunter, Mr. Pomeroy also served as a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History of New York for 11 years and was a member of the Eastman Expedition to British East Africa in 1926.

On that expedition, he worked closely with George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, and Carl F. Akeley, the sculptor and mananologist, in collecting data and specimens for the African Hall of the museum...”

I would like to personally thank Daniel E. Pomeroy for his generous support of this wonderful museum. I have fond childhood memories of days spent at the museum. I wasn’t hunting Pomeroys back then, though!

How I Fell in Love with Southampton, Massachusetts...

My husband Jerry and I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend in Southampton, MA. We made the trip to review the site planned for a new Pomeroy Anvil Monument in the town. It’s confession time, folks. I now must admit that I have been unfairly Medad Pomeroy/Northampton-centric, and had not given Southampton the credit it deserves for its part in Pomeroy history. But I have seen the error of my ways, and I now get stars in my eyes when I think of Caleb Pomeroy. To be honest, Northampton and Westhampton will always have a special place in my heart, but luckily there’s room for Southampton! (And now I’m getting curious about Easthampton...)

Jerry and I met with Ruth Ann B., Mark R., Ed C. and Jackie S. at Conant Park on College Highway. The park is large, beautifully maintained and well used. The monument will be placed between the fountain and the School House. After talking logistics, Ruth Ann, Jackie, Jerry and I went across the street to the Clark Chapman House, the home of the Southampton Historical Society. The house was built by Sardis Pomeroy Chapman for his wife, Dotty Searle in 1827. Sardis was a shoe and boot maker, an abolitionist and in later life, an avid genealogist. He traced his wife’s Searle line, and much of his research on the Pomeroys of Southampton has been incorporated into the A.A. Pomeroy genealogies. The house was deeded to the Historical Society in 1971 by the Clark family.

Bob K., the President of the Historic Society and Jodi C. gave us a fascinating tour of the barn and house and the many treasures housed within. At every turn I found another reference to the Pomeroys. A portion of the Pomeroy Tavern sign is hung in the dining room, two samplers created by young Pomeroy women are hung in the front room, a scrapbook signed by a young Pomeroy woman is also in the front (sitting) room. Objects and information about past residents of Southampton abound, and many of these surnames were familiar to me as related to the Pomeroys. Displayed in the stairwell of the house is an extremely well preserved Civil War flag. A child’s bedroom is filled with toys and memorabilia, a room dedicated to Southampton servicemen includes examples of uniforms, and an interesting room upstairs holds some of the collections of some of the more interesting people in town, including the journals of Dr. Gridley and part of the Native American artifact collection of Mitta Piper Swasey. When Bob brought out a transcribed copy of the journals of Reverend Judd and his son, I was hooked. I could have happily spent the next several days reading these amazing documents!

What impressed me the most about this museum was the fact that much of its contents were donated by the citizens of Southampton. That is a telling example of the importance and pride that this community takes in the history of their town. Ruth Ann took Jerry and me to the Center Cemetery, founded in 1738. This cemetery was hit hard by the recent early snowstorm, but much work had already been done to clean up the debris. Here again we found evidence of the town’s commitment to historic preservation. New flat granite markers were being placed near the worn stones of soldiers and others. These stones will ensure that people visiting the Cemetery in the future will be able to find their ancestors and read what was on the original markers.

Ruth Ann then took us for a drive around the historic district of the town, and down Pomeroy Meadow Road, named after Caleb Pomeroy. Each early home in the historic district has is marked with the year the house was built, and the name of the person who built it. My head was swimming with Pomeroys! Ruth Ann also told us about the library, and I’m dying to go back to Southampton and check out the library’s local history collection. I could easily spend a week here, doing research and walking down these streets so filled with history and ambience. I look forward to returning to Southampton and heartily urge anyone with roots in this town to plan a visit. This town is a real treasure.

Right now we are planning a July 4th 2011 dedication of the monument. I will keep everyone informed of the particulars as they get ironed out. It would be wonderful to have a big turnout of Pomeroy descendants at the event, and I can guarantee that you will fall in love with Southampton as I did!

DIARY OF A PHOENIX SCHOOL GIRL

By Barbara Dix, Town of Schroeppel Historian
Edited by Alethea Connolly
Excerpts from the Phoenix Register May 20, 2011

A long time ago I acquired a small diary written in 1884. There was not a name to identify the author, nor a place where it was written. I later identified the author as Cora Patrick and located the family in official Phoenix village records.

As a teacher, I found it very interesting to see that she was studying such diverse courses as philosophy, astronomy, rhetoric (speaking) and English literature, as well as practicing singing and piano. She was almost always with her friends at school, at her house and at their houses for overnight visits. They visited social events at each of the churches in the village. Her work at home was ironing, cleaning and sewing. She made her first muffins for tea that summer!

The diary had been first acquired at the “Pomeroy auction in Baldwinsville”. For years this was all I knew about what I referred to as the “Pomeroy Connection”. This didn’t mean much to me until March 2009 when I started to work as a research assistant on the A. A. Pomeroy Book Project. Lo and behold I realized that Cora’s husband H. D. Pomeroy was the well-known local mechanical engineer and inventor, Harry Dwight Pomeroy. Much later, I found that his older brother had married a relative of my husband.

We do know that Harry D. was born in Cortland and brought up in Syracuse so Cora might have met him through a mutual friend. He apparently was a clever and very inventive young man, as he was awarded a patent for improving a chain-making machine along with his employer, Ralph G. Barnes and his fellow worker, Earnest W. Keyes.

A SWEET CONNECTION

Published in the Phoenix Register July 1, 2011


Two of the earliest entries in the Cora Patrick diary (1884), that I wrote about two weeks ago, mention the name of Leah Sweet.

“. . . . It has stormed nearly all day and looks like winter now. I was going to Leah go Sweet’s party but it storms dredfuly (sic) and the roads are so bad.” January 3, 1884 “Leah Sweet called here this morning, her party is postponed until tonight all the boys were there last night but no girls. I intend to tonight. Kirk said if it stormed, he would come after me.” January 4, 1884.

I had an opportunity to see a lovely Empire style book or china cabinet that probably belonged to Leah’s family. It has come down in the Merriam/Burton family and now is to belong to a member of the DenBlyker family and it will be moving to Boston. I was thrilled to be able to see it before it leaves this area. Pat Henjes’ son will become the new owner and I was able to see it in the home of Cindy and Dick Burton who are the present owners. What a joy to see families value the local heritage.

. . . AND SPEAKING OF THE DIARY

Tuesday, a colleague and I visited, for the first time, Mrs. Audrey Ketcham, widow of Cora Patrick Pomeroy’s grandson, Richard Ketcham. Cora wrote the diary and went to school in Phoenix. Mrs. Ketcham’s daughter, Holly, owns Cora’s high school ring, which is the first such ring that I have ever seen. It is a gold ring, made of flat rather than round gold, with a black stone. A graceful script “85” is engraved in the stone, highlighted in gold and it fits Holly perfectly.

The Ketchams were very interested in the Pomeroy family history and visited Cooperstown where there is a locked Pomeroy Room. The room was opened to them and Mrs. Ketcham was able to copy two of the family recipes she found there. Later she made them and proudly served them to the family. She laughed as she told us the story and said, “ I was embarrassed because they were so bland they were tasteless!”

I was interested in a picture of Harry with a French horn because I used to play the French horn. Mrs. Ketcham said the family story was that Harry had once played with John Phillip Sousa. We are researching that story, but I have seen various statements that confirm that he was a respected musician in Syracuse and Cortland. A newspaper article states he was director of a chorus in the Cortland area around the turn of the 20th century.

One of our goals, at the American Pomeroy Historic Genealogical Association, is to update and republish the A.A. Pomeroy genealogy book published in 1912. In the course of this work we are finding and will find more answers to many of the questions that remain concerning the Pomeroy family.

For information or to discuss your connection with Cora Patrick or Harry D. Pomeroy, please contact me at 695-6641 or click here to e-mail me.


Published by permission of The Phoenix Register.

1840 US Federal Census Indexing Error on Ancestry.com

Just found this, and had to let everyone know. If you're looking for Westhampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts in the 1840 U.S. Federal Census on Ancestry.com and can't find it, look under "North Hampton" (make sure to add the space between North and Hampton). Westhampton has been incorrectly indexed by Ancestry.com as North Hampton. This same error occurs on Heritage Quest.

Also, the last page (or rightly, the second to last page) of the Westhampton census is incorrectly combined with the Norwich census (incorrectly spelled "Norwick"). It is on the last page of the "Norwick" census.

News to Me! Ralph Pomeroy’s Marital Connections

Just this morning I read an e-mail from a Pomeroy descendant wishing to learn more about Ralph Pomeroy, the U.S. Paymaster during the Revolutionary War, and son of Reverend Benjamin Pomeroy and Abigail Wheelock, who hailed from Connecticut. He asked whether we had any information about Ralph’s wife Eunice Belden and their offspring, and asked what we knew of Ralph’s Revolutionary War Service.

Upon reviewing our database, I realized that we had rather sketchy information about Ralph’s wife, so I sought to learn more. We knew, from A.A. Pomeroy’s book The History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family, that Eunice Belden was born about 1744, the daughter of Thomas Belden and Ruth Wyllys Lord. Eunice had been married to a Mr. Gardner prior to her marriage to Ralph Pomeroy on 31 Jan 1770. The book The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, Vol 1-55, edited by Lorraine Cook (Baltimore; Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002) confirmed the marriage date and gave Hartford, CT as the place of marriage. The book also recorded Eunice Belding’s marriage to William Gardiner in Hartford on 21 Oct 1764, and identified the birth of a son James William Gardiner on 19 Oct 1765, and gave a date of death for William of 8 Jun 1766, all in Hartford.

The book Historical Catalogue of the First Church in Hartford, 1633-1885, (Hartford; Published by the First Church of Hartford, 1885), found on googlebooks, also confirmed the 21 Oct 1764 marriage date of William Gardiner & Eunice Belding. Another book Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut, by Lucius Barnes Barbour (Baltimore; Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2001) also found on googlebooks, gave some additional detail to the families of William Gardiner, Eunice Belden and Ralph Pomeroy. On page 256 was found the following statement: “William Gardiner s[on] of Dr. Sylvester Gardiner of Boston or son of John & Mary (Taylor) Gardiner b Mch 1742 died June 9, 1766 ae 24 (HTR) of wounds blowing up of school house bur Center Ch by Rev. Roger Viets. William Gardiner m Eunice Beldding, sister of Ruth Belden, Oct 21, 1764 (1 Ch Rec) (HTR). She mar/ 2 Ralph Pomeroy Jan 31, 1770 (1 Ch Rec) (HTR.)? James William s of William Gardiner bp Nov 24, 1765 (Viets Rec) b Oct 19, 1765 (HTR).”

Page 46 gave information about Eunice Belden/Belding’s parentage: “Thomas Belden of Wethersfield m Ruth (Wyllys) Lord wid of Richard Lord d of Hezekiah Wyllys. Children: Eunice Belden b 1744 m/1 Oct 21, 1764 William Gardiner blown up in schoolhouse May 23, 1766 m/2 Jan 31, 1770 Ralph Pomeroy. Ruth Belden b 1747 m/1 Jan 31, 1765 Capt John Stoughton m/2 Samuel Wyllys.” Page 699 gives additional information about Samuel Wyllys: “Gen. Samuel Wyllys s of George & Mary (Woodbridge) bp Jan 7, 1738-9 (1 Ch Rec) died June 9, 1823 mar Feb 3, 1777 (HTR) Ruth (Belden) Stoughton widow of John Stoughton. She died Sept 2, 1807, dau of Thomas Belden and Ruth (Wyllys) Lord. Census 1790 – 2-3-3-0-0. Children: Oliver St. John b Nov 9, 1777 (HTR), Samuel Hobard b Aug 16, 1784 (HTR) died Mch 5, 1797 ae 12 bur Center Ch, Mary Woodbridge b May 19, 1785 (HTR) m John M. Gannett, William Alfred b Feb 3, 1790 (HTR).

“Yale College 1758; went to England 1764 and remained there for six years; in 1771 he became the first captain of the First Company of Governor’s Foot Guard; in 1774 Colonel of the First Regiment; he served through the Revolutionary War as Colonel of a Connecticut regiment; was town clerk of Hartford 1796-1805; held other town offices, and was Major-General of the Connecticut Militia. He succeeded his father as Secretary of State 1796, and held the office until 1809. His wife was Ruth dau of Thomas Belden & Ruth (Wyllys) Lord and widow of Capt. John Stoughton whom she m Jan 22, 1765. He died Nov 25, 1766. Brewster Gen p 89 says Lucy Brewster (dau of Elisha & Lucy (Yeomans) Brewster of Mddtn born May 30, 1745 m Oct 11, 1764 as 1st wife of Samuel Wyllys of Hfd. (See Wolcott Mem p 216).”

Page 459 gave a short bio on Ralph Pomeroy: “Ralph Pomeroy s of Rev. Dr. Benjamin mar Jan 31, 1770 (HTR, 1 Ch Rec) Eunice (Belding) Gardiner widow of William Gardiner. She was dau of Thomas Belden and Ruth (Wyllys) Lord. Census 1790 – 4-1-3-1-2. Children: Infant/Abigail b Mch 17, 177- (HTR) died Apl 20, 1779 (HTR) bur Center Ch., Ralph b. Dec 1, 1771 (HTR) died Jan 10/11, 1792 ae 20 (2 Ch Rec) bur Center Ch., George b Dec 1, 1773 (HTR) died July 20, 1799 (HTR), Eunice b Nov 25, 1776 (HTR) m/1 Rev Amos Bassett Y.C. 1784 m/2 ( ) White, Frederick b. Aug 16, 1781 (HTR), Elizabeth b May 24, 1784 (HTR).
Eunice Pomeroy (Hfd) m Rev. Amos Bassett (Hebron Jan 19, 1802 (2 Ch Rec.).”

So, if I have read the above information correctly, Eunice Belden’s mother was a Wyllys, and her sister Ruth married General Samuel Wyllys. Was the mother of Ruth and Eunice related to Ruth’s second husband? Also, I have become fairly familiar with the Samuel Wyllys Pomeroys who were early settlers of Pomeroy, OH. Could this explain the reason for the use of this name? Sure, General Samuel Wyllys was well known at his time, and the name could have been given to a child because a famous name was thought to honor the originator and to communicate the hope of future greatness in the child. So, we don’t know for sure why Eleazar Wheelock Pomeroy and MARY WYLLYS (!?!) named their eldest son Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy, but, my goodness, Eleazer Wheelock Pomeroy was the brother of Ralph Pomeroy, and his wife, Mary Wyllys the daughter of Colonel George Wyllys, whom I believe was also the father of Samuel Wyllys. Small world.

The most interesting information I have found in my half-day research into the family of Eunice Belden was found in the book A History of The Episcopal Church in Narragansett Rhode Island, Including a History of Other Episcopal Churches in the State, by Wilkins Updike (Boston; The Merrymount Press, 1907) also found on googlebooks. On page 101 starts “Mars. Anstis Lee’s narrative of a Horseback Journey to Connecticut, in 1791. Written about 1845, when Mrs. Lee was in her eightieth year.” If you didn’t already think that most 18th Century inhabitants of the Colonies were related, read this:

“On one of the first days of May, 1791, in pursuance of previous arrangement, my oldest brother, Daniel Updike (who lately died at East Greenwich, in June 1842, at the advanced age of 81 years) and myself started on a visit to Connecticut.

“We left our father’s house, the residence of the late Lodowick Updike, near Wickford, on horseback, on Monday Morning.... We arrived at Plainfield village late in the afternoon and lodged at Judge Robert Lightfoot’s that night. The Judge had been a resident of Newport for many years before his removal to Plainfield. He was an intimate friend of my father and had visited our mansion in the days of my grandfather, Daniel Updike, for twenty seven years the Colony Attorney-General of Rhode Island... On Tuesday, after breakfast, we cordially shook hands with our friend and, with his benediction, left for Hartford. We passed through Canterbury and Windham and lodged that night at a public house in Bolton, kept by one Mr. White, twelve miles short of Hartford. We rose early, on Wednesday, arrived at Hartford, put up at Bull’s Tavern (sign of the Bunch of Guilded Grapes) and took breakfast on bloated salmon... While we were at breakfast, Mr. Ralph Pomeroy came to take us to his house, on a street leading from the main street, somewhere near where the Episcopal Church then stood. Mr. Pomeroy married the widow of William Gardiner, who was killed in the explosion of the Powder House, at Hartford, on celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Act. William Gardiner was brother to my mother and married Miss Eunice Belden, having by her one son named James, who died at Hartford some twenty or thirty years ago. William had kept an apothecary and grocery store at that town. He was brought up by his uncle, Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, of Boston, and established in business by his father, the late John Gardiner, a brother of the Doctor, but had not kept store long before the explosion. Mr. Pomeroy had been a commissary in the Revolutionary War, was a good person of a man and practiced law, at Hartford, with repute, as I understood. He had been frequently at my father’s, in Rhode Island, previously to this visit of ours. Mr. Pomeroy had four children by this marriage, Samuel, Ralph, Eunice and Elizabeth.

“This being the day before the General Election, the deputies and Presbyterian ministers began to arrive. By afternoon the city seemed to be full, when the Governor, Mr. Wolcott, was expected to arrive. To witness his entrance and the accompanying parade, Mr. Pomeroy took us to the house of General Wyllys, which stood opposite, or nearly so, to the State House. General Wyllys was the son of old Colonel Wyllys. He appeared to be a fine gentleman, aged about forty. His wife was Elizabeth Belden and sister of Mrs. Pomeroy, that being the reason we were carried there to witness the ceremonies preparatory to the election...

“Friday afternoon, the day after the election, we spent, upon invitation, with Colonel Wyllys, who lived at the Charter Oak place, an ancient looking mansion, that stood in a square by itself. From it was a splendid view, overlooking the Connecticut River and the city. The great oak was right before it. We were shewn the gardens and the grounds, which were beautiful and tastefully arranged with many flowers in full bloom. Colonel Wyllys was uncle to Mrs. Pomeroy. He was an old man, I should think over seventy, thin and spare, with red baize bound around his legs, probably on account of gout. He was a widower, and his son’s wife, a portly woman, probably about thirty years old, kept his house. She had two little children, say, one seven and the other five years old. Whether her husband was living or not, I don’t know. Mrs. Strong, the Colonel’s daughter, was also with him, having no children... President Stiles and Colonel Ingersoll, the Attorney-General of Connecticut, and several other gentlemen took tea at Colonel Wyllys’s. President Stiles and my brother conversed nearly an hour, very intimately together, respecting Rhode Island. The President had been settled over a Congregational Church, in Newport, many years, and was much in Narragansett, at the house of Colonel Francis Willet, uncle to my mother. I remember seeing Dr. Stiles once at St. Paul’s Church, Narragansett, when Dr. Smith, afterwards President of the Cheshire Academy, was rector. My father was introduced to him after service...”

What an incredible narrative! I like the fact that a young woman had the freedom (possibly because of her father’s wealth and stature) to travel with her brother and meet so many interesting and important individuals. Mrs. Lee stated that “Colonel Wyllys was uncle to Mrs. Pomeroy.” It seems likely that the Colonel Wyllys to which Mrs. Lee referred, was George Wyllys, born abt 1710, father of Mary Wyllys who married Eleazar Pomeroy. George Wyllys’ father was Hezekiah Wyllys, and his sister was Ruth Wyllys, who married first Richard Lord, then second, Thomas Belden. Colonel George Wyllys was the father of General Samuel Wyllys who married Ruth Belden, daughter of Thomas Belden and Ruth Wyllys, and sister of Eunice Belden/Belding who married second, Ralph Pomeroy. Who knew?!

Note to self: do additional research on wife or wives of Colonel George Wyllys – A.A. Pomeroy states that Elizabeth Whiting was the mother of Mary Wyllys, but much of the research found today points to Mary Woodbridge as mother of Mary. Also, look into the history of Hartford after the repeal of the Stamp Act. Did the school house blow up, or was it the Powder House? Can we find proof that William Gardiner died in this accident? And last, but not least, get all this information into our database so we can make sense of all the connections!