Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Cumberland 3 (July 25, 2016) -- Part IV

As the previously presented and transcribed minutes of the Board of Trustees for Cumberland Cemetery show (see Part II of this series), after the minutes of May 20, 1912  there are no business records for the Cemetery until June 29, 1939.  It appears that very little was done by the Cumberland Cemetery corporation during the period that included the prelude and denouement of World War I as well as the Great Depression.

While there are no specifically dated records for any activity by the corporation after 1916 until 1939, the above correspondence of July 13, 1939 from Roscoe M. Dexter, Attorney and Secretary pro tem for the corporation, to the Slater Branch of the Industrial Trust Company in Pawtucket, RI indicates the incorporators of the Cumberland Cemetery met on June 29, 1939 and elected my grandfather, Everett S. Carpenter, to be one of the Trustees of the Cemetery.  My grandfather was also at that time elected to be the Secretary and Treasurer of the corporation.

Although there is no precisely dated record of business being transacted by Cumberland Cemetery corporation or the Board of Trustees for more than two decades, there were events transpiring that affected the Cemetery.

In 1938, Dr. George J. Howe of Central Falls died. His wife, the former Isabel Dana -- daughter of Samuel Payton Dana (1833 - 1907) and Mary Hinkley Miller[1] (1834 - 1916) -- predeceased him in 1931. In the First Codicil to his Will, dated December 31, 1931, Dr. Howe substituted Cumberland Cemetery in place of the Town of Cumberland for a legacy of $500 to be held in trust for "the perpetual maintenance and care of the burial lot standing in my name and of the lot standing in the name of Samuel P. Dana adjoining, in the Cumberland Cemetery, situated at what is known as 'Robin Hollow' in said Town of Cumberland." Both George Howe and Isabel Dana Howe are buried in the Cumberland Cemetery.

Also, on September 10, 1938, Susie N. Smith of Pawtucket, RI died. Susie was born Susan Dana in 1856 and most likely in Cumberland, Rhode Island where she lived with her parents, Samuel P. Dana and Mary Hinkley [Miller] Dana at the time of the 1860 and 1870 federal Cumberland censuses. In addition to three younger siblings, Susie's older sister by two years was Ruth Ann Dana. In her will, dated June 24, 1935 and probated October 5, 1938, Susie [Dana] Smith left a legacy of $1,500 to Cumberland Cemetery Corporation "for the care and upkeep of the Samuel Dana lot, so-called, and of the adjoining Howe lot, so-called, and to use, in its discretion, any balance thereof for the general care and upkeep of the whole cemetery." As can be seen from the documents provided below, the ultimate amount of the legacy bequeathed to the Cumberland Cemetery amounted to $1,173.28 after paying any debts of the deceased, specific legacies, expenses of settling the estate, and any applicable taxes.

As shown via documents presented in Part II of this series, almost on the eve of the outbreak of World War I, the Cumberland Cemetery Corporation had a balance in its operating funds of $1,341.30. While we have no definitely dated document indicating the corporation's funds status over the next two-plus decades, toward the end of the Great Depression when records resume in 1939 we see the arrival of two legacy bequests between early July and early December 1939 totaling $1,673.28. BUT, by May 1, 1940, we see that the Cemetery Corporation is inquiring of attorney Roscoe Dexter whether the principal of the Susie Smith bequest can be used to maintain and care for the cemetery "as may be deemed necessary." And this is where the following undated document might reveal something about the financial state of the corporation and the demands placed on it by the conditions at the cemetery.

A transcription of the above Notice, apparently drafted by my grandfather as Secretary of the corporation -- and therefore dated sometime after his election to the position on June 29, 1939 -- follows.

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N OT I C E

__________

__________

           THIS CEMETERY IS OWNED BY "CUMBERLAND CEMETERY", A CORPORATION CHARTERED IN 1870.  ALL LOT OWNERS, OR OTHERWISE INTERESTED PARTIES ARE ELIGIBLE TO MEMBERSHIP IN THIS CORPORATION.

ANNUAL MEETINGS ARE HELD IN APRIL.

          BURIAL LOTS WERE SOLD WITHOUT ANY PROVISION FOR PERPETUAL CARE

AND THEIR UPKEEP IS A DUTY OF THE HEIRS OF THE ORIGINAL OWNERS.

          THIS PLACE CAN BE GREATLY IMPROVED IN APPEARANCE IF ENOUGH PEOPLE WILL CONTRIBUTE A LITTLE TIME, ENERGY, EVEN A LITTLE MONEY, TOWARD A COMMUNITY PROJECT OF BETTERMENT.  THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.

          IF YOU READ THIS NOTICE, YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN THIS CEMETERY AND SHOULD JOIN THE CORPORATION.

                                                                                               CUMBERLAND CEMETERY

                                                                                                   Everett S. Carpenter, SEC.

                                                                                                   551 High St., Lonsdale, R.I.

                                                                                                       TEL-PA 5-8858

                                                                                                           (over)

     Hugh S. Ward

     Calustus Barlow

     "Barney" Barlow

     James A. Broadbent

     James Thomas

     Fred Smith

     Mrs. Ruth Lacuna

     Mrs. Alice (Tucker)

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Based on the document immediately above, it seems reasonable to conclude that by the early 1940s the Cemetery corporation was being overwhelmed by the financial demands for the care and maintenance of the cemetery property and the graves themselves. A legal opinion about the ability to invade the principal of the Susie N. Smith bequest had been sought and a draft Notice prepared to try to drum up financial and labor support for the cemetery. 

On April 22, 1941, a meeting of the Cumberland Cemetery Corporation was apparently held at the home of my grandparents -- 551 High Street in Lonsdale. As the document below demonstrates, Roscoe Dexter, the corporation attorney (?), sent his proxy to my grandfather. We have no idea why Mr. Dexter was unable to attend or what the nature of his proxy was, but it does not stretch the imagination to believe that the meeting might have been to discuss sending out the draft Notice, or to discuss the financial straits in which the corporation found itself. 

As we will see in Part V of this series, the 1940s and early 1950s seemingly marked the end of an active Cumberland Cemetery Corporation and the records and documents I have inherited come to a close in 1956.

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All images are scanned from original documents in the collection of the author.

[1]  Mary Hinkley Miller was the daughter of Aurin Miller (1800 - 1859) and his wife, Ruth Ann Hunt (1801 - 1874). Ruth was the daughter of Maj. Daniel Hunt (1769 - 1843) and his wife, Susannah Northup (1773 - 1845) and the sister of my 3X great-grandmother, Abby Hunt Miller (1807 - 1893) who married Eber Miller brother of Mary Hinkley Miller's father, Aurin Miller. Thus, Mary Hinkley Miller Dana is my 1st cousin 4X removed and I am related to her through both my Miller and Hunt ancestors. 
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew
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Hunting for Abby . . . A Mystery Solved (October 9, 2015) -- Part IV

In this final post about finding the family of my 3X great grandmother, Abby [Hunt] Miller,  I reveal the last bits of evidence I have uncovered. These last items were discovered in a box of family documents that apparently were stored away in the back of a closet in my parents' house not too long after my maternal grandmother, Ruth E. [Cooke] Carpenter, died in 1979. When my parents later moved to New Hope, PA, the box was moved into a large storage closet in my sister's home and it remained there untouched until earlier this year when my sister said she had a box of photographs and other materials that I might want to look through.

One of the most important questions raised by a review of this analysis is whether or not the ostensible father of Abby Hunt was in fact Daniel S. Hunt as my grandmother's spoon notes indicated -- and as supported by the initials "DSH" on the heirloom spoon. While the vital records index for North Kingstown, RI shown in Part II, indicates that a "Samuel of Samuel" lived in North Kingstown and had a wife named "Susan" with whom he had seven daughters [Susan, Sally N., Charlotte, Ruth Ann, Lucy, Abbie, and Mary S.H.], there was no evidence of a Daniel S. Hunt having any presence or connection to North Kingstown. The supposition and assumption was that the "S" in Daniel S. Hunt stood for "Samuel" and that if Daniel was also known at some point as "Samuel, son of Samuel Hunt" in North Kingstown, then Maj. Daniel Hunt (who was born in North Kingstown) and his wife Susan/Susannah Northup (also born in North Kingstown) fit almost perfectly as the Samuel and Susan Hunt who were the parents of Abby, Charlotte, and Ruth Ann Hunt (and their four sisters) in North Kingstown, RI.

But is there any hard evidence to support the family notes and document clues about Daniel S. Hunt being connected to North Kingstown and particularly Cumberland, RI where Abby and Charlotte Hunt later came to reside in the Miller household at 551 High Street in Cumberland . . . and where their sister Ruth Ann Hunt came to marry Aurin Miller, who grew up at 551 High Street as the older brother of Abby's husband Eber Miller? Thanks to documents discovered in the long forgotten box of family records in my sister's house, the answer to this crucial questions is, "Yes!"

January 28, 1837 deed of North Kingstown property to Daniel Hunt from Lawton Hunt.

As shown in the 1837 deed discovered in the box of family documents, Daniel Hunt purchased from Lawton Hunt for $26.66 "one undivided half part of a certain tract or parcel of land situated in said North Kingstown, with a dwelling house & other buildings thereon." The subject parcel had been purchased by Lawton Hunt from one "Hazelton Hunt by deed bearing date August fourth, 1835, now on Record in said North Kingstown . . . " This provides clear evidence of the connection Daniel Hunt had to North Kingstown, RI and the Hunt family living and owning property there.

And what about a connection of Daniel Hunt to Cumberland, RI?  The two parts of an oversized deed also recently found in the box of family documents (shown immediately below) provide the necessary evidence of a Cumberland connection for Daniel Hunt.

Top half of the July 1, 1835 deed of Valley Falls property to Daniel Hunt from Nathaniel and Joseph Jenckes/Jencks

Bottom half of the July 1, 1835 deed of Valley Falls property to Daniel Hunt from Nathaniel and Joseph Jenckes/Jencks

The July 1, 1835 deed from "Nathaniel Jenckes of Burrillville and Joseph Jenckes of Smithfield" to "Daniel Hunt of Cumberland" for an acre and a half parcel of land with a dwelling house located in Smithfield at Valley Falls at the price of "Six Hundred and Five Dollars" provides clear evidence that Daniel Hunt resided in Cumberland in 1835.

Based on the newly discovered deeds shown above, the proven connection of Daniel Hunt to both North Kingstown and Cumberland, RI makes it overwhelmingly likely that the Daniel S. Hunt of my family notes and the "DSH" on the heirloom spoon is the Maj. Daniel Hunt, husband of Susan [Northup] Hunt, both of North Kingstown, RI, who are buried in Brayton Cemetery. Moreover, it also  makes it overwhelmingly likely that "Daniel S. Hunt" is indeed the son of Samuel Hunt of North Kingstown, RI who may have been known as "Samuel" and who fathered Abby, Charlotte, and Ruth Ann Hunt (and their four sisters) with his wife Susan/Susannah Northup as shown in the vital records index for North Kingstown.

And finally, perhaps the most surprising and valuable find among the recently uncovered family documents, is the portrait photograph of the woman shown at the top of this post. The date of the photograph is unknown, but, as the two images provided below clearly indicate in the handwriting of my great grandmother, Sarah [Freeman] Carpenter . . . the woman in the portrait is my 3X great grandmother Abby [Hunt] Miller (March 17, 1807 - April 23, 1893)!

Front of the Abby [Hunt] Miller portrait

Back of the Abby [Hunt] Miller portrait

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The scanned images shown above are all from original documents in the collection of the author.

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Copyright 2015, John D. Tew

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Hunting for Abby ( October 2, 2015) -- Part III of "A Mystery Solved?"

In Part II of this analysis of the mystery of my 3X great grandmother, Abby Hunt, I arrived at the tentative conclusion that I had found the family of Abby -- her siblings and parents. But, I also stated that additional data raised some inconsistencies and questions that prevented a definite conclusion.  In this part of the analysis, I discuss those inconsistencies and the data that raise questions as well as some newly discovered family documents that shed light on this inquiry.

As previously related in Part II, the 1860 Federal Census for Cumberland, Rhode Island indicated a Charlotte Hunt, age 61, was living in the Eber and Abby [Hunt] Miller household. The enumeration day for this Cumberland census was 13 July 1860.

Recalling from Part II the research that indicated "Charlotte" was not a very common female name in the mid-19th Century, it was a surprise when my research also disclosed a "Charlotte D. Hunt" age 60, living in the household of William C. and Mary S. Barney in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island. While the page image on Ancestry.com for the 1860 Warwick, RI enumeration is almost completely illegible, the enumeration day at the top of the page is clearly 5 July 1860. The transcription for the Warwick census at Ancestry.com (shown below) clearly states that among the Barney household members on 5 July 1860 is one "Charlotte D. Hunt." 

By 1870, the Barney household no longer includes a "Charlotte" or "Charlotte D." Hunt among the household members.

But, as we have already seen, the Eber and Abby [Hunt] Miller household in Cumberland, RI did have a 70-year-old woman named "Charlotte Hunt" living in the home on enumeration day that year.

I was puzzled by this discovery of two Charlotte Hunts of almost exactly the same age and my tentative conclusion about finding the parents and siblings of my 3X great grandmother Abby Hunt was shaken further when I recently discovered among family papers I inherited the church pew rental receipt shown at the top of this post.  The receipt is clearly made out to "Mrs. Charlotte Hunt" and is signed by the same W. Cooke, clerk, who signed the pew receipts for Eber Miller, head of the household in which Charlotte was living.  [See the Eber Miller pew receipts as posted here on August 28, 2015.] Did this mean that the Charlotte Hunt living in the Miller household in Cumberland was a married woman and thus was not the sister of Abby, but rather her sister-in-law?

I ruminated on this turn of events and recalled that my grandmother's spoon notes had stated that Abby Hunt's father was "Daniel S. Hunt" and that the heirloom silver spoon I have does indeed contain the engraved initials "DSH" on the handle. But the discovery of the "Charlotte Hunt" clue in the Cumberland census of the Miller family, led to discovery of a Samuel Hunt -- son of Samuel Hunt -- living in North Kingstown, RI with a wife named Susan and seven daughters including girls named Abby, Charlotte, Ruth and Mary among others. It was therefore possible that Daniel S. Hunt was either known by his middle name, which could have been Samuel, or the transcription or indexing misnamed him somehow.

And then I also discovered among old family papers the notes my great grandmother, Sarah [Freeman] Carpenter, made for the "Family of Major Daniel Hunt & Susannah Northup."  Sarah's notes are shown immediately below.

My great grandmother clearly cites as her source for the Hunt family data "Pages 82 & 3 North Kingston Births A.V.R. Vol. 5 & 6."  Unlike the images of pages 82 and 83 from Rhode Island Vital Extracts  1636 - 1899 shown in Part II, however, Sarah's notes provide additional information that includes the middle names and marriages of the daughters of Daniel and Susannah Hunt. Her notes show that Charlotte's middle name was "Dupont" -- thus "Charlotte D. Hunt" -- and that Charlotte died "unmarried." Moreover, Ruth Ann Hunt is shown as having married Aurin Miller and Mary Sweet Hunt is shown as having married a man with the surname "Barney." Mary S. Hunt is indicated to have died in 1879.

Another recent discovery among family papers is what appears to be a family tree also done by my great grandmother. Sarah [Freeman] Carpenter, the wife of Samuel Eber Carpenter. It is a descent chart for  Ruth Ann Miller, daughter of Eber and Abby [Hunt] Miller.  Ruth Ann Miller was the mother of Samuel Eber Carpenter. The first half of the tree is shown below and it can be seen that the chart states that both Major Daniel Hunt and his wife, Susannah Northup are buried in Brayton Cemetery in Apponaug, RI.

From Find-A-Grave Memorial #78739671 -- photo by Rick O. (#46911607) taken at Brayton Cemetery. 

From Find-A-Grave Memorial #78739518 -- photo by Rick O. (#46911607) taken at Brayton Cemetery. 

As it turns out, Mary Sweet Hunt and her husband William C. Barney are also buried in Brayton Cemetery and Charlotte D. Hunt is buried there with them and their children.

From Find-A-Grave Memorial #13499992 -- photo by Rick O. (#46911607) taken at Brayton Cemetery. 

Summarizing all the research, family notes, and artifact evidence presented thus far, I now arrive at the following conclusions with respect to my 3X great grandmother Abby Hunt and her family . . .

1.  Abby Hunt was the daughter of Maj. Daniel S. (possibly for Samuel) Hunt and his wife Susannah or Susan Northup.

2.  Daniel Hunt and his wife Susannah/Susan Northup lived in North Kingstown, RI where their seven daughters were born: Susan; Sally Northup; Charlotte Dupont; Ruth Ann; Lucy Tripp; Mary Sweet; and Abby. So far as is currently known, Daniel and Susannah had no sons -- so the Charlotte Hunt living in the Miller family household in Cumberland, RI was not a married woman and sister-in-law of Abby [Hunt] Miller..

3.  Charlotte D. Hunt never married and lived with at least two of her sisters and their families.  She lived with her sister Abby and her husband Eber Miller in Cumberland, RI during the period 1854 - 1870, but she also lived for a period of time with her sister Mary and her husband William C. Barney in Warwick, RI ending sometime around July 13, 1860.  Charlotte was in Warwick for the federal census enumeration day there on July 5, 1860, but she was living in the Miller household later that same month when the federal census enumeration day took place there on July 13, 1860. Charlotte lived in Cumberland with her sister Abby before 1860 as shown by her 1854 pew receipt for Christ Church in Lonsdale, the Miller family's church. Charlotte probably lived with the Miller's in Cumberland from July 13, 1860 until sometime after July 21, 1870 when the 1870 census showed she was still in the Miller household in Cumberland.
4.  Charlotte died unmarried in 1875 and was buried in the family plot of her sister Mary S. Barney and Mary's husband William C. Barney, Sr. The 1854 pew receipt made out to "Mrs. Charlotte Hunt" was a clerical error and should have read simply Charlotte Hunt or Miss Charlotte Hunt.

While I am now 95% sure I have found the parents and siblings of my 3X great grandmother Abby [Hunt] Miller, questions are now raised about who the parents of Maj. Daniel S. Hunt and Susannah/Susan Northup are.  As Part IV of this analysis will demonstrate, I have some clues to follow and I have a big reveal regarding other documents recently found among family genealogical materials.

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Gravestone photos via Find-A-Grave as stated.  All such photos were contributed by Rick O. whose service to the genealogy community is much appreciated.

Images of the pew receipt, Hunt Family notes, and Ruth A. Miller ancestry chart are from original documents in the collection of the author.

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Copyright 2015, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (August 28, 2015) -- Eber Miller's 1841 Pew Rental Receipts

Eber Miller is my 3X great grandfather. He was born in 1805 and married Abby Hunt who was two years younger than he. They lived in Cumberland, RI at 551 High Street and belonged to Christ Church (Episcopal) in Lonsdale, Rhode Island.

Shown above are two paid rental receipts to Eber Miller for the quarterly rental of Pew No. 80 for the periods beginning March 12, 1841 and June 12, 1841 respectively.  The cost for the rental of the pew was $1.43 per quarter or $5.72 per year.

For more about Christ Church in Lonsdale, see the post of February 20, 2014 here.

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Scans from the original receipts in the collection of the author.

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Copyright 2015, John D. Tew

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Hunting for Abby (August 27, 2015) -- Part II of "A Mystery Solved?"

1850 U.S. Census for Cumberland, Rhode Island

This post continues the analysis of available information about Abby [Hunt] Miller in an effort to learn more about her and to identify her parents and siblings.  In Part II, I move to data available in the public record. As shown in the relevant excerpt above, the 1850 U.S. Census provided information that matched up nicely with the notes from my grandmother.

In Part I of this analysis, the first spoon notes of my grandmother indicated that Abby Hunt was born in 1807 and married Eber Miller who was born in 1805.  The second spoon notes indicated that Amey Bishop married Asquire Miller and they had four sons (Aurin, Namon, Eber, and Asquire, Jr.).  Those notes also stated that Eber Miller married "Abby Hunt" while his brother Aurin married "R.A. Hunt."

The 1850 Census corroborates the Miller-Hunt connection and the birth years for Eber Miller and his wife Abby as stated in my grandmother's notes.  In 1850, Amey Miller, widow of Asquire Miller, was 70 years old and the head of the Miller household in Cumberland, RI.  As indicated in the Census, Amey's son, Eber Miller, was 45 years old in 1850 making his birth year 1805 (which matches my grandmother's notes).  Eber was married to Abby Miller who was 43 in 1850 and so her birth year was 1807 (again this matches my grandmother's notes for the birth year of Abby Hunt).  Two daughters of Eber and Abby are also listed in the Census -- Ruth A. Miller (age 21 in 1850) and Cornelia C. Miller (age 17 in 1850).

Things then get very interesting in the 1860 U.S. Census, which is shown immediately below.

1860 U.S. Census for Cumberland, Rhode Island

In 1860, Amey Miller, mother of Eber Miller, was still alive at age 79.  Eber was now head of the Miller household at age 55 and his wife Abby was 53.  Their daughter, Ruth A. Miller, was now married to Samuel Carpenter and the Carpenters and their son, Samuel Eber Carpenter (age 6), and their daughter, Abby Laura Carpenter (age 1), were living in the Eber and Abby Miller household. But of greatest interest is the fact that a 61-year-old woman named "Charlotte Hunt" was also living in the Eber and Abby Miller household in Cumberland. Based on the Census information, Charlotte would have been born in 1799.  At eight years older than Abby Miller, Charlotte Hunt could not be Abby's mother, but she could be an older sister -- and Charlotte was not a very common female name at the beginning of the 19th Century.[1]  I thought this could be a very valuable clue to finding Abby Hunt's parents and siblings.

1870 U.S. Census for Cumberland, Rhode Island

A decade later, the US Census (immediately above) shows that the Miller household in Cumberland, RI was still headed by Eber Miller.  Eber and his wife Abby had their daughter, Ruth A. [Miller] Carpenter, and her children (Samuel Eber Carpenter, Abby Laura Carpenter, and Nancy Bishop Carpenter) living with them. And Charlotte Hunt, age 70, was still a member of the household.  Ruth's husband, Samuel Carpenter, is missing from the household, but according to the Census in 1870 for nearby Attleborough, Massachusetts, he was still alive and living with his parents (Joseph and Nancy Carpenter).

1880 U.S. Census for Cumberland, Rhode Island

By the time of the 1880 US Census (shown above), Charlotte Hunt was no longer among the Miller household members. Abby Miller, widow of Eber Miller and age 73, was living in the Cumberland home with her daughter, Ruth A. [Miller] Carpenter, and Ruth's three children -- Samuel E. Carpenter, Abby L. Carpenter, and Nancy B. Carpenter.  Ruth's husband Samuel had also returned to the household.

Armed with the notes from my grandmother and the corroborating data from four decades of US Census enumerations for Cumberland, RI, I was now fairly confident that Eber Miller had indeed married a woman named Abby Hunt.  I had a working assumption that Abby had an older sister named Charlotte who had lived with Abby and her family for more than a decade. In addition, I assumed that Eber Miller's brother, Aurin Miller, had married another sister of Abby Hunt known from my grandmother's notes only as "RA Hunt."

Recalling that my grandmother's notes and a spoon with the initials DSH provided clues that Abby's father was Daniel S. Hunt, I began a search for Daniel Hunt and his family. The search was unsuccessful, but I did eventually come across the following information in Rhode Island, Vital Extracts, 1636 - 1899 about a Hunt family in North Kingstown, RI.

The first thing I noticed was that while there was no Daniel Hunt in North Kingstown for the time period involved, there was a Samuel Hunt, son of another Samuel Hunt who married a woman named Susan and had a family of seven daughters, but no sons.  It took me a second read of the Samuel and Susan Hunt family members to suddenly realize that the names and births matched up almost exactly with my grandmother's notes AND the US Census information for a Charlotte Hunt living in the Eber and Abby Miller household in Cumberland, RI!

As the above excerpts from the North Kingstown births and marriages clearly show, Samuel and Susan Hunt had a daughter Abby born on March 17, 1807 -- the same year my grandmother's notes show for Abby Hunt's birth and the same year for Abby [Hunt] Miller's birth as calculated from decades of US Census enumerations for the Cumberland, RI Miller household. More important, however, is that Samuel and Susan Hunt had a daughter Charlotte who was Abby's older sister and was born on November 11, 1798 -- making Charlotte about eight years older than Abby.  This, of course, correlates with the age difference between the Charlotte Hunt living in the Miller household in Cumberland, RI and Abby [Hunt] Miller who was married to Eber Miller.  But the connections do not stop there. Note from the p. 83 excerpt above that Samuel and Susan Hunt of North Kingstown also had a daughter named Ruth Ann Hunt who was born May 14, 1801. This matches up nicely with the "RA Hunt" who, according to my grandmother's notes, married Eber Miller's older brother, Aurin! 

The discovery of the above information about the North Kingstown family of Samuel and Susan Hunt was all too good to be merely coincidental! My tentative working conclusion about my 3X great grandmother, Abby Hunt, was that her parents were Samuel and Susan Hunt of North Kingstown, RI and that her older sister Ruth Ann Hunt married her brother-in-law, Aurin Miller.  In addition, I reached the plausible conclusion that Abby's older, unmarried sister, Charlotte Hunt, had lived with Abby and her family in Cumberland during the last decade or more of her life. 

But, as shall be shown in the third part of this analysis, there are still a few nagging inconsistencies and questions raised by additional data I have collected. This additional data prevents a definite conclusion that I have indeed found the parents and siblings of my 3X great grandmother, Abby [Hunt] Miller. 

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[1]  See http://www.galbithink.org/names/us200.htm for Popular Given Names US, 1801 - 1999.  Data from the US Census of 1850 indicates that in the first decade of the 19th Century in a sample of 6,363 female names, there were only 38 Charlotte examples vs. 66 for Abigail and 953 for Mary.  From the same Census data a sample of 26,154 female names in the decade of 1841 - 1850 indicates only 125 examples for Charlotte as opposed to 128 for Abigail, 4338 for Mary and 2020 for Sarah.  

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Copyright 2015, 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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Photographs Across The Generations -- How Far Can You Go? (October 16, 2014)

L to R:  Molly, Eulalie, Doreen and Jonathan (May 19, 1984)

Each week The Weekly Genealogist, newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), asks a survey question of its readers. This week the question is . . .

"What is the largest number of generations of your family pictured in a single photograph?"

The question led me to the photograph above, which shows four generations from our family in a single photograph. The snapshot was taken on May 19, 1984 -- just one week to the day after the birth of our first child, Jonathan. Pictured are Jonathan's great grandmother, Eulalie Jeffs; his grandmother, Doreen (Jeffs) O'Kane; and his mother, Molly (O'Kane) Tew. This photograph is the most recent of three such four-generation photographs I have been able to locate in our family photograph collection; the others involve earlier generations than depicted here.

On a related matter, this survey question led me to ponder another question, "What is the greatest number of generations back that I can go and still have a photographic depiction of an ancestor?" 

After a little research (and the very recent discovery of the photograph of an ancestor), I have determined that in eight instances our family can presently go back seven generations to photographs of: my sons' 4x great grandparents, Russell Cooke (b. 1810) and his wife Mary Vinal [Otis] Cooke (b. 1806); my sons' 4x great grandmother, Nancy Mason [Bullock] Carpenter (b. 1793); my sons'  4x great grandmother, Abby [Hunt] Miller (b. 1807); my sons' 4x great grandfather, William Wood (b. circa 1820); my sons' 4x great grandfather, Nathan Walker (b. 1808); and my sons' 4x great grandparents, John Bowen Shearman (b. 1799) and his wife Ann Eliza [Patt] Shearman (b. 1803). *

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Scan of the original snapshot in the family collection. 

*  And with the birth of our first grandchild within the next three weeks or so, the photographs of the named ancestors above will soon be extended back eight generations!

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Tombstone Tuesday (May 27, 2014) -- Abby Hunt Miller (1807 - 1893)

The tombstone pictured above was in bad shape when it was photographed in late March 2010 in the Cumberland Cemetery on Dexter Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island.  Time and the elements had worked on the stone so that the engravings were barely legible.  The stone reads. . . 

                                          ABBY MILLER

                                               Wife of

                                             Eber Miller

                                       Born March 17, 1807
                                       Died April 23, 1893

Abby is my 3rd great grandmother and she has been something of a mystery until just recently. Her parents were unknown and the only facts I had were those engraved on her headstone and family records and an artifact that indicated her maiden name was "Hunt."

Abby is going to be the subject of a future post.

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Photograph by the author (March 2010).
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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew
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Tombstone Tuesday (January 21, 2014) -- Eber Miller Carpenter

Eber Miller (1805 - 1877) is my 3rd great grandfather.  He was married to Abby Hunt (1807 - 1893) and to my knowledge (thus far) he and Abby had two children: Ruth Ann Miller, my 2nd great grandmother (1828 - 1893); and Cornelia Crosby Miller (1833 - 1914). Eber, Abby and Ruth are all buried in  what is now designated as Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, Cumberland 3 on Dexter Street in Cumberland. In fact, many of my Carpenter, Miller and Hunt ancestors are laid to rest in this particular cemetery.

In late March 2010, I visited the Dexter Street cemetery and took many photographs of family headstones, but this sad one especially caught my eye for a couple of reasons.  For one, it was in remarkably good shape compared to most of the others in the cemetery.  For another, it involved a very sad loss of a young child by drowning AND it presented a mystery.

The headstone reads . . . 

                                        This monument is erected by

                                            Eber Miller,

                                     To   the   memory   of

                                            EBER MILLER,

                                                 son of

                                        John Jay & Susan

                                            CARPENTER

                                         who was Drowned

                                          Aug. 16, 1829,

                                      aged 4 years 6 mo's &

                                                   6 days.

                                                    

                                                   *  *  *

                                Unveil thy bosom faithful tomb,

                                Take this new treasure to thy trust.

                                And give these sacred relicks room,

                                To slumber in the silent dust.

My 3rd great grandfather, Eber Miller, obviously had this headstone prepared for his young namesake, Eber Miller Carpenter, who drowned as a boy of less than five. The mystery was . . .  what was the exact connection between Eber Miller and John Jay Carpenter and his wife, Susan? Eber and Abby's daughter, Ruth Ann Miller, married into the Carpenter family when she married my 2nd great grandfather Samuel Carpenter, but that Carpenter connection was a generation away.  The drowned boy, Eber Miller Carpenter, was born in 1825 and Ruth Ann Miller, who would eventually marry my 2nd great grandfather Samuel Carpenter, was not even born until August 23, 1828 -- almost exactly a year before Eber Miller Carpenter drowned.  Eber M. Carpenter's father, John Jay Carpenter did not yet appear in my Carpenter family tree.

Consulting my copy of the 1896 Carpenter genealogy compiled by Amos Bugbee Carpenter (the "ABC") at page 297, I learned that the maiden surname of John Jay Carpenter's wife, Susan, was "Hunt."  John J. Carpenter is also buried in the Dexter Street cemetery, and his headstone states that he died May 21, 1879 -- the same date stated in the Amos B. Carpenter genealogy.

John Jay's wife Susan was born in 1796.  She and John Jay married on January 2, 1819. The supposition therefore -- yet to be confirmed -- is that Susan was the older sister of my 3rd great grandmother Abby Hunt who married Eber Miller.  Eber Miller provided the headstone for his drowned namesake, Eber Miller Carpenter, the nephew of his wife Abby.  

Eber and Abby's daughter, Ruth Ann Miller, would later marry Samuel Carpenter in 1852, so the question became, "Were John Jay Carpenter and Samuel Carpenter, related -- and if so, how?" This will be the subject of a future post.  

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Photograph by the author (March 2010)

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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