Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Cumberland 3 (May 20, 2016) -- Part I

Rhode Island Historical Cemetery -- Cumberland 3 taken in late March 2010.

The Rhode Island Historical Cemetery (Cumberland 3) is located on Dexter Street in Cumberland. It has long been in disrepair -- although of late there has been interest by a small group of kind and dedicated people in repairing the damage done by time, long neglect, and some unfortunate vandalism of the past.

I visited the Cumberland Cemetery in late March 2010 toward the end of several dreary, gray, very rainy days that had resulted (just a day or two earlier) in the flooding and closure of Interstate 95 in the Providence area.  I visited because I have ancestors and relatives who are buried in this particular cemetery.  Despite the inclement weather the day I visited, I walked the entire cemetery taking stock of the conditions and documenting via photographs as many headstones as I could before the rain started up again. I have photos of some 56 or more headstones found in the cemetery in late March 2010.

Fast forward about five and a half years after my last visit. On September 18, 2015 I received an email from Diane Boumenot of the wonderful blog, One Rhode Island Family. Diane and I have never met in person, but we have corresponded for a few years now and I am a dedicated reader of her blog. In her email, she very kindly shared with me a photograph of a damaged headstone found in Cumberland Cemetery and reassembled by Ken Postle and his helpers. It turns out the headstone is that of my 4X great uncle, Aurin Miller (April 22, 1800 - November 27, 1859).  

There are several Millers, Carpenters, Bishops, and Angells buried in Cumberland Cemetery and many, if not most of them, are relatives of mine. I am very appreciative of what Ken Postle and his crew are doing in this and other cemeteries!

In my reply of thanks to Diane, I mentioned that I had some papers that belonged to my maternal grandfather, Everett Shearman Carpenter, that I needed to dig out of storage because I seemed to recall some of them related to the Cumberland Cemetery. I have finally gotten around to pulling out the papers and giving them a closer look.  It was an understatement to say I thought I had papers that merely "related" to Cumberland Cemetery. I have what I think is a small treasure trove of documents about the history of the cemetery and this is the first of a series of posts where I will share the information and images for those who are interested. Perhaps the documents and the information they contain can help in some small way to memorialize the history of the cemetery and encourage continued repair and preservation of this historic site.

To begin with, the plat shown immediately below depicts the various parcels that were conveyed by James Dexter or Timothy Dexter and eventually became the irregularly shaped site of the future Cumberland Cemetery. The plat is undated, but as will be seen in a future post in this series, it pre-dates subdivision of the Sumner plat, the Leighton plat, and the unnamed parcel running along the east side of England Street. The information it depicts probably dates from before 1870.

Although the site of the Dexter Street cemetery existed as a burial ground for many years prior to 1870, Cumberland Cemetery was incorporated in 1870 after proposed legislation was "received and passed" by the Rhode Island House of Representatives on June 14, 1870 and "received and concurred" by the Senate on June 15, 1870. There were eight initial incorporators named in the act approved by the legislature:

George A. Kent               Addison Kinsman

                                   James G. Dexter               Eber Miller [my 3X great grandfather]

Joseph G. Fiske               Daniel A. Miller

Baylies Bourne               William C. Dexter

In accordance with Section IV of the incorporating legislation, the conveyance of lots in the Cumberland Cemetery were mandated to be by deed duly executed by the treasurer of the corporation. Such deeds vested in the purchaser full ownership of the lot conveyed.  Property owned by the corporation or by individual owners/purchasers was exempt from taxation. But, the burial lots sold by the corporation were not sold with any provision for the perpetual care of the deeded properties.  The upkeep of individual lots was the duty and responsibility of the heirs of the original owners . . . and, as we shall see, therein lies the problem.

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All images by the author -- or from scanned original documents in the author's personal collection -- except the photograph of the repair of the Aurin Miller headstone, which is courtesy of Ken Postle via Diane Boumenot.

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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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Hunting For Abby (August 19, 2015) -- Part I of "A Mystery Solved?"

Headstone for Abby [Hunt] Miller (1807 - 1893), wife of Eber Miller
Cumberland Cemetery, Cumberland, Rhode Island (March 2010)

For several years now whenever I looked at the graphic chart of my family tree there was a nagging hole at the level of my 4X great grandparents.  I have known for a near certainty [How often is there ever complete, absolute certainty in genealogy?] that one of my 3X great grandmothers on my mother's side was Abby Hunt and that she married my 3X great grandfather, Eber Miller of Cumberland, Rhode Island. Yet despite much research and several accumulated clues, I still had no definite proof about who Abby's parents were and so that part of the chart remains blank. I do not know precisely where Abby was born. I do not know definitively who her parents were. I know almost nothing about who she was and what she did before she married Eber Miller.  It has all been a frustrating mystery as mentioned in my May 27, 2014 Tombstone Tuesday post here.

To begin unraveling this mystery, this post begins a written analysis of what information I have and the steps I have taken when I focus on this particular gap in my genealogy.  To start, I lead off with a review of my known descent from Eber Miller and Abby Hunt.  The descent is as follows . . . 

          Eber Miller (1805 - 1877)  m.  Abby Hunt (1807 - April 23, 1893)

          Ruth Ann Miller (1828 - April 6, 1893)  m.  Samuel Carpenter (1828 - 1904)

          Samuel Eber Carpenter (1853 - 1929)  m.  Sarah Etta Freeman (1858 - 1945)

          

          Everett Shearman Carpenter (1891 - 1962)  m.  Ruth Eaton Cooke (1897 - 1979)

          Shirley Carpenter (1927 -      )  m.  Arnold George Tew, Jr. (1922 -      ) -- my parents

The first question I asked when I decided to concentrate on solving the background of Abby Hunt was, "How do I know my 3X great grandfather Eber Miller married a woman named Abby Hunt?"

The answer came from the first bits of "evidence" I had from family resources:

     1.  My maternal grandmother left notes regarding some family heirloom spoons and some pieces of furniture that were inherited by my mother and her siblings.  I have the spoons and the furniture remains with my mother and her siblings.  My grandmother's spoon notes are shown below.

The middle note section of the spoon notes deals with a small spoon that my grandmother says belonged to DSH -- "Daniel S. Hunt." She further explains that Daniel's daughter "Abby b. 1807" married "Eber Miller b. 1805" in the year 1827.  The rest of my grandmother's notes about the Daniel Hunt spoon brings the genealogy down through my mother, Shirley Carpenter.

Middle section of the spoon notes indicating Abby Hunt's birth year as 1807
and her marriage in 1827 to Eber Miller (born 1805) 

While it is hard to make out, the spoon handle is engraved with the elaborately scripted letters "DSH."

Close up of the spoon handle showing the elaborately scripted letters "DSH."

While not mentioned in the spoon notes shown above, I also have another spoon with my grandmother's handwritten notes explaining that the spoon belonged to "Daniel Hunt," father of Abby Hunt and wife of Eber Miller. Note, however, that this particular memo refers to Abby's father simply as "Daniel Hunt" and not "Daniel S. Hunt" as the first notes on the "DSH" spoon indicate. The note and the second spoon are shown immediately below, but close examination of the actual spoon shows (in my opinion) that the engraving says "A. Hunt" and not "D. Hunt" -- so I believe my grandmother was mistaken about this particular spoon and it belonged to Abby the daughter rather than Daniel the father.

Close up of the spoon which actually is engraved with an elaborately scripted "A. Hunt"

     2.  My grandmother's notes about certain heirloom furniture provides some additional information about the Miller-Hunt family connections.  Her furniture notes are shown immediately below.

The Miller family descent notes on the top left of the paper above state first that the house my mother grew up in was built by her ancestor, Peter Miller, in 1767.  [I have posted about this house previously and photos of the home can be seen here. We often visited my maternal grandparents at 551 High Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island until my grandmother moved shortly after my grandfather died in 1962.]  The notes also indicate that two of Peter Miller's grandsons, Aurin and Eber, married women from the Hunt family.  Aurin married R.A. Hunt and Eber married Abby Hunt. It is easier to make out these marriages by clicking to expand the excerpt shown immediately below. 

     3. The Carpenter/Miller homestead at 551 High Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island is within a fairly short walk of what is now called "Rhode Island Historical Cemetery 3" in Cumberland.  It is located on Dexter Street down High Street from the family homestead and to the left. There are many Carpenters, Millers, Angells and Bishops interred in the Cumberland Cemetery. Among those interred at this cemetery are my 2X great grandfather, Samuel Carpenter (1828 - 1904), and his wife, Ruth A. [Miller] Carpenter (1828 - 1893), daughter of Eber and Abby [Hunt] Miller. Also interred there are my great aunts, Nancy Bishop Carpenter (1864 - 1928) and her sister, Abby Laura [Carpenter] Angell (1859 - 1929) -- who are granddaughters of Eber and Abby [Hunt] Miller.  The Miller interments in this Cumberland Cemetery include Eber Miller (1805 - 1877) and his wife, Abby [Hunt] Miller (1807 - 1893), my 3X great grandparents. 

Gravestone of Eber Miller (1805 - 1877) in 
Rhode Island Historical Cemetery 3 in Cumberland, RI.

Gravestone of Abby [Hunt] Miller (1807 - 1893) in 
Rhode Island Historical Cemetery 3 in Cumberland, RI.

Part II of this analysis will exam public record documents relating to Abby [Hunt] Miller.  It will also present my tentative working conclusions about the mystery of who my 3X great grandmother's parents and siblings were.  

   

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All photographs and scanned images by the author. 

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Copyright 2015, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (December 19, 2014) -- A Little Detective Work On A Brother's Postcard To His Sister

Post Card showing the Carpenter family homestead at 551 High Street, Cumberland, Rhode Island (circa 1910)

Correspondence side of the Post Card

The home shown on the Post Card above is the Carpenter homestead at 551 High Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island. It depicts the home as it probably appeared in the decade from about 1900-1910 (for reasons explained below).

The Carpenter home was actually the homestead of the Miller/Millard family for several generations before Ruth Ann Miller married Samuel Carpenter in 1852. Sam and Ruth had three children: Samuel Eber Carpenter (1853 - 1929); Abby Laura Carpenter (1859 - 1929); and Nancy Bishop Carpenter (1864 - 1928).  Ruth Ann [Miller] Carpenter died in 1893 and Samuel died in 1904. The Carpenter/Miller home eventually passed to Sam and Ruth's son, Samuel Eber Carpenter.

Abby Laura Carpenter married John Harris Angell on December 30, 1884 and her sister Nancy later went to live with Abby and John Angell after their brother Samuel married Sarah Etta Freeman in June 1887.  The four generations of a Carpenter family homestead at 551 High Street ended when Samuel and Sarah's son Everett inherited the home in 1945 and Everett's three children grew to adulthood in the home.  The home and its surrounding property were sold by Everett's widow (my maternal grandmother, Ruth Eaton [Cooke] Carpenter) in 1962 or 1963. The property is now the site of a fire station and little league baseball field.

The Post Card is written by Samuel Eber Carpenter (my great grandfather) to Abby, the older of his two sisters, who he addresses as "Mrs. John H. Angell."  The Pawtucket cancellation stamp is not fully legible, but it does clearly indicate the Post Card was mailed from Pawtucket on

"Aug 11  4-30 P." The year is not at all clear, but some research makes it almost certain that the year is 1910. The rationale is as follows . . . 

The "19" in the date stamp is fairly clear, and so is the "0" as the fourth digit of the year.  It is the all- but-missing third digit that is the mystery -- until one notices the green, One Cent stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin in profile! A quick Google search reveals that this particular stamp was issued from 1908 - 1912 (see, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington-Franklin_Issues). The small scrap of the third digit of the year that is visible, is clearly a vertical piece at the top right of the digit space and does not appear to be part of a curved section such as would appear in say a "2" or "3"-- and the angle of this little vertical scrap matches the angle of what is clearly the "1" in the first digit of the year!  Only one year in the time period when the ONE CENT Ben Franklin stamp was issued ends in a zero -- 1910.  While it is possible someone might still have and use such stamps over an extended period of time after they were no longer issued, the scrap of the third digit in the year makes it extremely unlikely the year of the communication was 1920. And by 1930 -- the next year ending in a zero -- Abby, Mrs. John H. Angell, and Samuel himself, were both deceased and therefore brother Sam could not be writing a Post Card to sister Abby.

A transcription of Sam's correspondence with his sister Abby is as follows and indicates that Sam is wishing his sister were able to come home for a visit and stay a while. She and her husband were living in Ashton, Rhode Island, which was only about 3.5 to 4 miles away!

                                             I am spending

                                       my vacation here.

                                             The sun sets are

                                       beautiful and the 

                                       mornings are delightful.

                                             I wish you could

                                       come and stay a while.

                                                     Your affect. Bro.

                                                               Sam

UPDATE:

As reader Michael Stephens so correctly pointed out in his comment to the original post here, the Ben Franklin ONE CENT stamp was only produced between 1908 and 1912.  The Ben Franklin stamp in other denominations was produced until as late as January 1919. This means that the original statement in the post, "A quick Google search reveals that this particular stamp was issued from 1908 - 1922," was inaccurate and the analysis flowing from that inaccuracy was flawed; both have now been corrected. While the analysis has been updated from the original, the end result is that Michael's kind correction leads even more strongly to the same conclusion -- my great grandfather sent the Post Card to his sister Abby in August 1910. Thank you Michael!  

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Scan of the original Post Card in the collection of the author.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Tombstone Tuesday (September 9, 2014) -- Lydia [Angell] Carpenter

SACRED

To the Memory

of

LYDIA CARPENTER

Relict of

Ebenezer Carpenter, Esq.

She died Sept. 19,

1851,

in her 88th year.

~ . ~

A land upon whose blissful shore,

There rests no shadow, falls no stain;

There those who meet shall part no more,

And those long parted meet again.

This tombstone is in the Cumberland Cemetery on Dexter Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island where many of my ancestors and relatives are buried.  Lydia Carpenter was the daughter of Abraham and Mary Angell.  She was born December 30, 1763 in Cumberland and she died almost exactly 163 years ago on September 19, 1851.

Lydia was the wife of Ebenezer Carpenter, a very distant relative of mine. My 8th great grandfather, Samuel Carpenter, was the younger brother of Ebenezer's ancestor, William Carpenter.  Ebenezer predeceased his wife Lydia by about 39 years.  He died at age 56 on May 28, 1811 or 1812. 

Note the archaic use of the word "Relict" to describe Lydia rather than "widow" or "wife."  Relict means to survive the death of another, especially if applied to a widow.

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Photograph by the author in late March 2010.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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