Upcoming Talks by Erica

I'll be giving two genealogy talks for the MSOG, Massachusestts Society of Genealogy, Middlesex Chapter on the 8th of February and the 8th of March. Here is the link ot sign in ahead of time. https://msoginc.org/eventListings.php?nm=107

Remember the Women! Part 3

 

I made the decision to focus on the women when I head up our family tree.  So many family history books tell you about the vital records of the men, extol their deeds and adventures and maybe if we are lucky tell us the full names of their wives and a hint as to her family.  I feel that family history should be more than just birth, marriage and death dates -- to celebrate our families, we should include their stories, after all they were people, not just a list of dates, and thanks to them we are all here now.  Not all of their stories are going to include record-shattering achievements of world leaders, and most likely no one in the family is that famous person. 

In my last book, I focused on the women in my great grandmother's generation:  Mary Alice Smith Dakin, Caroline Matilda Helsten Evans, Mary Louisa Helsten Pomeroy, Martha Elnora Worthington Richardson, and Alice Copeland Harvey.

This year it is time to move on to my great great grandmother's generation:  Hannah Marie Colburn Dakin, Abigail Jennings Smith, Hannah Elizabeth Redford Evans, Mary Hearty Helsten, Mary A C Bogart Richardson, Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington, Mary Hubbard Nye Harvey, and Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland.  Here is a little bit about each of these women.

I know very little about Hannah Marie Colburn Dakin (1807 - 1849) before she married, Robert Dakin the blacksmith in 1830 in Hudson New York.  She was born about 1807 in Chenango County, New York and her last name was a probably Colburn, but I've found no birth family information for her.  We have not pictures of her or her husband. It was a short marriage,  after having 4 children, ages 2, 4, 6, and 8, her husband died suddenly from inflammation of the lungs, leaving her a widow with bills greater than the value of the estate. There was a sheriff's sale listing her and her children as responsible for the debts.  Then to add insult to injury Hannah died at age 42 leaving.  How did her children manage?  Her oldest, Lucy Ann Dakin Wilkinson, was a seamstress in NYC who married a chinaware businessman widower with two children. Lucy lived a good long life.  Hannah's youngest, Edward Dakin after being farmed out as an orphan to a Hudson family eventually moved to Connecticut, worked on a farm, saved his money, bought the general store and became the first postmaster for South Kent, Connecticut.  He married and had one son, who I'm descended from.  The two other sons, Charles Henry Dakin and George Dakin ended up "farmed out" to different farms in the same Connecticut town.  A few years later they were fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War.  George, the Confederate, died a few days after being discharged in Memphis, Tennessee.  His brother Charles made it back to New York, settled near his sister in New York City working as a carpenter.  He died from consumption and exhaustion at the age of 35.

Lucy Dakin Wilkinson with baby Charles Wilkinson.  He was named for her brother Charles who died a few months before. She raised their children along with his when they married.

 

Charles Henry Dakin (1832 - 1868) who survived fighting on the Union side of the Civil War and died from TB (consumption) shortly afterwards.

This is a crayon portrait of Charles.

Edward Dakin (1836 - 1914) who live to be the postmaster in Kent Connecticut and then to marry Mary Alice Smith, the local school teacher, and to have their own farm in Gaylordsville.  I wrote a whole book on is family's experience of the building of the Bulls Bridge Power Plant.

Our next woman Abigail Jennings Smith (1833 - 1882), her daughter Mary Alice Smith married Hannah's son, Edward Dakin.  She was born in New Fairfield, Connecticut, her mother was Sally Betsy Elwell and her father Lyman Jennings.  Her parents farmed and she married another farmer, Stephen Smith who lived in Kent.  They had six children, five lived until adulthood.

She lived to see her oldest daughters marry. First Clara Wright Smith married Frederick Chase on 30 December 1879 then on 11 February 1880 her daughter Mary Alice married Edward Dakin.  When Mary and Edward decided to have a farm they sold the general store post office to William Geer who a year later sold it to the Chases. Geer was a distant relative on their mother's side. All in the family.  

Abigail died at age 49 from a form of TB.  She left David Orange 21, Wilber Grant 19, and Fannie Abbie 13 still at home on the farm.

She lived to see her brother-in-law Orange Smith, who worked as a farm hand for them to go off to fight the Civil War.  I included his letters home to Steven and their daughter Mary Alice in my first volume of Remember the Women.  Also Steven's sister, Fannie E Smith, married Anson B Nichols, he went off to fight the Civil War (his letters are in Volume 2).  Fannie had a young child and was pregnant when he left for the war. She  died while he was gone, leaving two young children.  Their brother Orange and and brother -in-law Anson made it home safely and then Orange moved to Minnesota and died there in 1869.

In contrast, our next woman, Hannah Elizabeth Radford Evans (1825 - 1915), lived a long very busy life.  She was called Liz or Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was born in 1825 in Middlebury Connecticut.  I know her parents, Harriet Higgins and Beers Radford.  Her  mother's family goes back to the settling of New Haven.  Her father is still a bit of a mystery -- she has Radford cousins, but I've not identified his parents. Her father was a blacksmith and lived long enough at 91 to be listed on a census under occupation as "old man of the house."   

She had two older brothers, Horace Radford was a successful businessman who possibly was the person who paid for a year of college for her in 1844 - 1845 at that new school, Mt Holyoke.  

She corresponded with her Radford cousins in New York about the issues of the day, including schools, books, family, their own work and abolitionists.  She came from a family who appreciated her wanting to learn.  Her sister married a year before she did.  Harriet August Radford married Julius Bronson, a widower with a 12-year-old daughter.  

When she married Charles Evans she moved to her husband's family farm in Sherman Connecticut.  Even while busy raising four children and running a farm from a farmhouse without modern conveniences, she was reading, writing and sharing ideas.  Her two daughters married and moved away, her sons formed  a local construction company, Evans Brothers, building houses and the town hall around Sherman.  Then the sons closed up that company and packed up their families and started a new business running a lumber yard and construction company in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1888.  Then in 1899, at the age 74 she and Charles decided to moved into the town of Great Barrington -- no more running the farm.  She was busy with activities there, including the Thursday Morning Club -- a women's group who had regular educational activities and speakers. She also would enter crafts she made in fairs. In 1903, shortly before her husband died, the local paper profiled couples who were married more than 50 years.  For her 88th birthday the Springfield Union newspaper profiled her colorful life remembering details of 22 presidential campaigns and attending Mt Holyoke College. She died at the age of 90.  Elizabeth's son Charles Harold Evans married the daughter, Caroline Matilda Helsten, of our next woman.

Mary Hearty Helsten (1823 -1902) had a dramatically different life.

Mary was born in Dorsy Townland, Parish Creggan, County Armagh, Ireland. Her father was Owen Hearty and we don't know her mother.  We know his name because he wrote two letters from his daughter during the famine.  There were many Hearty families living in that part of what is now Northern Ireland back to the 1600s.  But they were so poor, that in the 1827 Tithe Applotment book her father has a bit less than 5 acres to farm. I went to Northern Ireland to research, but couldn't find even anything in the landholding landlord's papers. During the "Great Potato Fanine" (now called the Great Hunger by the Irish), Mary came on one of the "Coffin Ships" -- so named because the death rate while crossing the ocean.  She arrived in New York City in 1848 and took a job working as an Irish maid for Benjamin Cowl, a widower running a tannery in Haviland Hollow New York.  Working there as a tanner was Eric Helsten, he had arrived in New York City in 1845, and in 1846 headed north to work for Cowl. Life in Sweden wasn't good, but it wasn't a bad famine like Ireland.  The two immigrants believed if they worked hard, they could make it here and they did.  They saved and bought a tannery and then the house in front of it in Gaylordsville, Connecticut.  She not only raised her children but also was housing the workers in the tannery and apprentices.  Just imagine the laundry.  

The Evans family was living just over the town line in Sherman at the top of the hill.  They were just across the river from the General store, easy for their kids to meet. Mary and Eric lived in that house until they died in 1902 and 1903.  They had one son and 3 daughters. One married Charles H Evans, their oldest Mary Louisa Helsten married a widower with a son and after her husband died, continued to run the business with her step-son.  Mary L Pomeroy was the one who stayed nearby her parents as they aged.  Their youngest daughter, Sarah married a widower with two sons and moved to Washington DC.  Their son married and worked in the resort his in-laws ran in Rhode Island.  Caroline who married the carpenter who went to Great Barrington, she and her husband were actually near the trains that ran through Gaylordsville up to Great Barrington and her husband took over running Eric's business behind the Helsten home when she and Eric died. 

Our next woman was also born abroad, but with a different ancestral life history. 

Mary A C Bogart Richardson (1841 - 1910) was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.  She was the daughter of Isabelle Young and Abraham Lazier Bogart.  Her father is well documented all the way back to the early Dutch settlers in New York, but we know nothing of her mother's family.  When the Mary's paternal ancestors came to what is now Ontario, it was wilderness and they were given land by the British crown for their loyalty during the American Revolution -- they were United Empire Loyalists (U.E.L.).  Her husband William Richardson was the son of an Irish immigrant to Quebec who was a shoemaker.  He was educated and employed by the Bank of Montreal, traveling around to new branches for short stays around Canada.  They married when he was working in Belleville and she moved with him.  They had six children, the last one was born in Chicago.  Why Chicago?  Her husband was sent to Chicago after the Chicago Fire in 1870 to help with the rebuilding of the city by setting up a bank branch there. When her husband left his job at the bank he started his own marine insurance office and his adult sons worked there over the years.  The family moved to Oak Park and possibly that was how they met the future wife of their son Harry Bogart Richardson.  Or possibly the fathers met professionally, each was working downtown.  The oldest son William Grant Richardson moved away, eventually settling in St Louis and writing using his middle name as a feature writer for the St Louis Post Dispatch.  Their oldest daughter Grace Dagmar lived at home and worked in the agency.  The next daughter, Minnie Alexandra, died as a child from "softening of the brain"at age 10.  Their youngest daughter Thyra married, John Eldon Shepherd and developed kidney problems, moved to New Jersey to see New York doctors, but ended up dying young at age 38, leaving three sons.  The two sons who stayed around Chicago, Frederick and Harry Bogart, often worked in the insurance office.  Fred was in the newspaper for his dramatic story of his divorce after going blind.  Harry took two years off to look for counterfeiters for the Secret Service in Denver taking one of his sons with him.  Mary died at age 69 from dilation of heart.  Mary's son Harry Bogart Richardson married Martha Elnora Worthington, the daughter of our next woman, Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington.

Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington (1840 - 1923)  was born in Eaton, near Rome, New York.  She was the daughter of Elnora Esther DeLoss (Loss) and Nathan Cobb.

Her father ran a lumber yard in Morrisville and about 1855 decided he wanted to move to Chicago.  There Nathan ran a planing shop, prepping boards for planks and shingles for sale in the construction of buildings.  She married Robert the young man who lived next door in Chicago who was 10 years her senior who worked as a clerk in freight forwarding.  He also had been born in New York state, and had moved to Wisconsin with his widowed father and his new wife.  His father valued education and passed that love of books and poetry on to his son.  They had one daughter and the love of literature was passed on to her.  The three of them survived the Chicago Fire, rebuilding their home in the newly growing suburb of Oak Park instead of where their home had burned in Chicago.  Her husband was involved in the rebuilding of the city managing the building of the new Chicago Board of Trade Building.  Elnora outlived her husband by 20 years, living next door to her daughter's family in the house they built for her.  A home her grand and great grand children grew up in over the years.  She died at age 82.

Mary Hubbard Nye Harvey (1812 - 1859) was born in Berlin, Vermont.  She was the daughter of Mary Andrews and Asahel Hubbard Nye.  I have no pictures of her, her parents, husband or son who I am descended from.  Her mother died when she was a month and a half old. A year and a half later her father remarried to Sarah Barnard, they had 10 children, 7 living to adulthood.  She married a carpenter, Enoch Dole Harvey, someone who also had a challenging childhood with a father disappearing leading to Enoch and his sister getting farmed out to relatives. They settled in Northfield, Vermont. Then a decade later her husband goes to Wisconsin to investigate moving to the wilderness there.  When they headed out via horse and carriage and boat, she had four young children (10, 8, 5, and 1). They had 7 children, and when she took sick her older helped run the household and continued doing so when she died in Lake Mills Wisconsin at age 46, leaving children 6, 11, 14, 17, 21 and 26.  Her husband outlived her by almost 30 years. Her youngest son,  Joseph Elliot Harvey married the daughter,  Alice Copeland Harvey, of our next woman.

Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland (1826 - 1919) had quite the opposite lifespan of our last woman.  

Hannah was the daughter of Rebecca Blodgett and Laban Blodgett.  She also grew up in Vermont, Randolph so she probably never met the Nye or Harvey family.  Her oldest sister Mary Riddle Blodgett Weymouth had already gone to Jefferson Wisconsin.  Mary had 5 children and having some help was probably why she suggested her sister come west, so Hannah went.  Mary had another 3 children before she died at age 33.  Soon after arriving in Jefferson, Hannah met Charles Copeland, a marino sheep farmer who had gone west on the advice of his uncle, Rev. John Reed the congressman.  The next year she married.  They had 6 children.  He was involved in the community helping to set up wool processing plants and a bank.  His cousin, George Copeland along with Lewis Ryder started the Copeland Ryder Shoe Company (Jefferson Shoe Company), it was a family business, and eventually their son was the president of the shoe company.   Hannah died at age 93, after a long life, with obituaries noting her deep interesting in civil and social affairs and the church  to the end. She outlived her husband by 30 years.

If you are interested in any of my family history books, they are available at Lulu.com. The link to this book, part 3 is here.  Enjoy.  If you are researching any of these women, do contact me at my last name at gmail.  

©  2023, Erica Dakin Voolich

The link to this page is https://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-made-decision-to-focus-on-women-when.html

The Four-Generation Picture that Didn't Happen, "Corrected"

When Alice Josephine Richardson Dakin was born, the four-generation photo of the Richardson family (above) was taken.  Look above at my header with baby Alice and her father, grandfather and great grandfather.   Nary a woman in the photo beyond the baby girl.  Might they have included their wives?

Could they have taken a 4 generation photo of Alice with her women ancestors?

I did make a blog post of my maternal line a couple of years ago for women's history month.

Let's take a closer look now.

Alice's mother Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson (1893-1971) was alive and well and even had a photo taken with her, possibly the same day as the 4 generation picture with the men above.

Alice Josephine Richardson with
her mother
Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson

Alice was named for her maternal grandparents: Alice Copeland Harvey (1860-1921) and Joseph Elliott Harvey (1853-1915).






Her grandfather had died, but her grandmother Alice Copeland Harvey was very much alive.  Alice's family was living with with her when Alice was born.

Alice with her maternal grandmother,
Alice Copeland Harvey

Alice's paternal grandparents lived a few blocks way in the same town when she was born.  Years later she would live next door to Martha Elnora (Nora) Worthington Richardson (1865-1939) and Harry Bogart Richardson (1863-1932).  She had fond memories of living next door to her Richardson grandparents.

Alice with her paternal grandmother
Martha Elnora (Nora) Worthington Richardson

So, yes for her mother and grandmothers who lived nearby, they could have been in the picture or taken one of their own.

What about her great grandmothers?

Baby Alice  had two maternal great grandmothers:
Mary Hubbard Nye (1812-1859) who had died decades before and Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett (1826-1919) who was still alive and well in Wisconsin.

Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland

In 1909, Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett traveled to Iowa for a visit and a four-generation photo after two of her grandchildren were born in 1907 and 1908 (John Harvey Rhodes and Katherine Ellen Rhodes).  Her daughter Alice Copeland Harvey came for a visit at the same time.
Now in 1917, she was getting more elderly, age 91, living with two other daughters and probably not up to the trip.  We'll give her a pass on getting there for a photo with baby Alice.

Four Generations:  Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland,  John Harvey Rhodes,
Katherine Mary Harvey Rhodes, Katherine Ellen Rhodes, Alice Copeland Harvey

Baby Alice had two paternal grandmothers:
Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington (1840 -1923) and Mary A C Bogart Richardson (1841-1910)

Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington lived next door to her daughter and son-in-law, Martha Elnora Worthington Richardson.  Her husband, Robert Searing Worthington (1830-1903) had died so Alice never knew this grandfather.  She did know Great grandmother Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington and lived nearby and visited until she was 6 years old.

Alice with her paternal grandmother
Elnora Esther Cobb Worthington

Mary A C Bogart Richardson, died 7 years before Alice was born.  Her husband was the great grandfather in the above photo.
I don't have many pictures to share, but here is one of her as a younger woman:

Mary A C Bogart Richardson

So, There could have been another photo taken that day with Alice, 3 and possibly 4 generations of women.  All of the families, except for great grandmother Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland in Wisconsin, the folks all lived in Oak Park, Illinois.

So can we remedy this situation after all theses years?  Here is a try.

As a young woman, Alice went to Medical school starting in 1938, this picture was taken about that time so she is in her early 20s.

Alice Josephine Richardson Dakin

In this collage below we have Alice in her 20s, her mother (age 21) and one grandmother (age 19) are brides.  Her great grandmother in front is 16 in the picture and I'm not sure how old her great grandmother is, many decades past her 20s.

(Left to right) Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson (mother),
Alice Copeland Harvey (maternal grandmother)
Martha Elnora (Nora) Worthington Richardson (paternal grandmother)
Alice Josephine Richardson Dakin ("baby")
Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland (maternal great grandmother)

Thanks to the magic of Janine Smith, our collage is now a portrait of Alice with her women ancestors who were alive when she was born.  Not the picture that could or would have been taken then, but now available for our enjoyment.

Left to Right: Alice Josephine Richardson Dakin ("baby")
Alice Copeland Harvey (grandmother)
Martha Elnora (Nora) Worthington Richardson (grandmother)
Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson (mother)
Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland (great grandmother)

One can only imagine their conversations, if this were possible.  "YOU are in medical school!  Tell me all about it!"

Only two women in this group lived to see Alice at this age.  Her mother lived to see Alice graduate from Knox College and to go to medical school.  Her grandmother  Martha Elnora (Nora) Worthington Richardson died the next year. She must have been so proud of her granddaughter, not only graduating from college but one of three women students in Northwestern University Medical School, class of 1942.  Nora was self educated, she graduated from high school, spent many years reading and learning and often gave engaging talks to local groups.  During the Depression she was hired as part of the team researching and writing the “Historical Survey of Oak Park Illinois” by the W.P.A. published in 1937(Work Projects Administration) a few years before Alice started medical school.  To have a granddaughter to to college and then medical school, must have been a great joy to the conclusion of her life.

I'm working on researching my family history.  The most recent book was on my great grandmothers and included Martha Elnora Worthington Richardson and Alice Copeland Harvey.  To read a summary, check out this blog post.  The year before, my book was on my grandmother's generation and included Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson, check out this post for more about her.  This year's book is on my great great grandmothers and will include Hannah Elizabeth Blodgett Copeland along with each of all of my great great grandmothers.

If you have a group of people you would like to put into a photo like mine, contact Janine Smith at Portrait DNA From Many to One.  Janine can sure work magic with restoring old pictures (such as Mary A C Bogart above) and creating new family portraits.  Her artistry made this blog post possible. Thank you Janine.

The link to this post is https://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-four-generation-picture-that-didnt.html
©Erica Dakin Voolich, 2019

Remember the Women as we Climb the Family Tree, part 2b

I made the decision to focus on the women when I head up our family tree.  So many family history books tell you about the vital records of the men, extol their deeds and adventures and maybe if we are lucky tell us the full names of their wives and a hint as to her family.  I feel that family history should be more than just birth, marriage and death dates -- to celebrate our families, we should include their stories, after all they were people, not just a list of dates, and thanks to them we are all here now.  Not all of their stories are going to include record-shattering achievements of world leaders, and most likely no one in the family is that famous person.

Last year I focused on three women in my grandmother's generation:  Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson, Marion Elizabeth Evans Dakin and Clarice Theodora Evans.

This year it is time to move on to my great grandmother's generation:  Mary Alice Smith Dakin, Caroline Matilda Helsten Evans, Mary Louisa Helsten Pomeroy, Martha Elnora Worthington Richardson, and Alice Copeland Harvey.

In the other half of this blog post, Remember the Women as we Climb the Family Tree, part 2a, I focused on the first three women who were all from my paternal side.  Now, I'm going to focus on the two women on my maternal side, both great grandmothers of mine.  The first three women all eventually lived in Gaylordsville, Connecticut; these two women eventually ended up in Oak Park, Illinois, neither was born there.

Alice Copeland Harvey

Alice Copeland Harvey (23 February 1860 - 24 April 1921) was born on the Copeland Family Marino sheep farm on the border of the town of Jefferson, Wisconsin.  It was in the early days of settling Jefferson, her father had come out from Bridgewater, Massachusetts and settled on land that his uncle, the congressman John Reed, had purchased.  Another uncle had also come from Bridgewater with a friend to start a shoe company, Copeland Ryder Schools (Jefferson Shoe Company).  She came from a hard-working family with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins -- likewise for her husband.  Alice married Joseph Elliott Harvey from the next town, Lake Mills on 24 October 1879.  He came from a family of seven, his mother died when he was 5 and his oldest sister stayed home to raise him.

Alice and Joseph had four children:  Katherine Mary Harvey (born 22 August 1881), William Riley (born 7 January 1884), Charles Copeland Harvey (born 3 March 1889), and Adelaide Copeland Harvey (born 4 November 1893).  When they were raising their children in Lake Mills there were always plenty of relatives nearby to help with the children or to play with them.  Joseph was a salesman when he worked, and sometimes he had other problems, so life had extra challenges.  When her two oldest, Kath and Riley graduated from high school, they both wanted to go to college.  Kath taught school in Lake Mills, then Alice moved the whole family to Madison, opened a boarding house near the University of Wisconsin so they could attend.  Kath graduated with a degree in education, Riley in engineering in 1905. Cope wasn't interested in college, he was a musician and wanted to be a Big Band leader.  Alice moved her family to Oak Park, Illinois and enrolled her youngest in school.  Riley found work and Cope was jobbing.  Kath taught in Madison and then moved to Iowa when she married.

Alice learned frugality back on the farm and how to get by, which stood her in good stead though out tough times in her life.  But, not just frugality, she was educated and loved to read.
Her granddaughter told me: "Grandma Harvey sewed so much 'making over and making do'  she had a  great gentle sense of humor--said her epitaph should read 'Let it rip!'   She had read all of Dickens by the time she was 12 years old."
She was known as the person in her generation who knew of the "good New England Stock" which they came from which included folks on the Mayflower and she joined the
D. A. R. when living in Madison.  Unfortunately, not all of the family history letters, etc. that folks say they sent to her are among the things that I have or have access to.

When her youngest child married Adelaide and Bobbie lived with her. Alice was helping Adelaide care for their two young daughters, when Alice had a cerebral hemorrhage and died at age 61 on 24 April 1921.  Alice outlived her husband by six years, lived to see all of her children married, lived to see six of her seven grandchildren born, and lived to see her son Cope first as a Big Band director and then to go off to World War 1, returning safely from France.  She was at Cope's wedding, he and Julie left on their honeymoon, and she died while they were gone.

Martha Elnora Worthington Richardson

Martha (Mattie) Elnora (Nora) Worthington Richardson (17 November 1865 - 25 April 1939) was born in Chicago and she was named for both of her grandmothers, Martha Searing Worthington and Elnora Esther DeLoss Cobb.  Her father, Robert, had moved from Albany, New York to a farm in Wisconsin with his father, Denison, after his mother, Martha, died. His father Robert went to the "big city" to for work.  Her mother, Elnora Esther, had come with her parents (Nathan and Elnora Esther) to Chicago from small towns near Rome, New York.  Robert S. Worthington was working in freight forwarding and his next door neighbor Nathan Cobb was running a planing mill.  Robert married Elnora Esther Cobb, the girl next door.  They had one child, little Mattie didn't have many children to play with, but since Robert was the oldest of 10 children, it was not unusual for Mattie to have an uncle living with them as each started out working in Chicago and providing entertainment at home.  The family was doing well enough to be building a house, nearby.

Life changed when Mattie was five in October of 1871 with the Great Chicago Fire. Originally it looked like it was far away, but it grew closer and they spent the night on the North Avenue Beach, where Mattie met Emmy Sharp, another little girl her age and size -- they became life-long friends as did their parents.  When her family rebuilt, it was out "in the country" and nearby to where the Sharps also built a home.  This "country village" was Oak Park, which became one of the fastest growing suburbs of Chicago, thanks to the Fire.  The box of china which melted together in the fire, was taken as a lump and put into the yard of the new home when they built.  As awful as the Chicago Fire was, it was fortuitous in that is why her future husband's family moved to Chicago to help with the rebuilding.

Her parents were very involved with the Episcopal Church, first in Chicago, then in the mission in Harlem, and then with the founding of Grace Church Episcopal in Oak Park. Mattie was very proud that she knew the general confession backwards and would hit the middle word exactly when the priest did.

Mattie married Harry Bogart Richardson on 5 December 1889; and once married, started calling herself Nora [her mother Elnora Esther was still alive and her grandmother Elnora Esther had just died, so "Elnora" would be confusing, I suspect].  Nora and Harry had two boys:  Robert (Bobbie) Worthington Richardson (born 18 October 1890) and Harold Bogart (born 21 April 1894).  Harry worked downtown Chicago for his father's insurance agency or a local bank selling stocks and bond and insurance -- except for a couple of years --SURPRISE-- when he was in the Secret Service, one chasing counterfeiters in Denver. Nora was busy raising her boys and at one time traveling occasionally to see her husband who took the job out of financial necessity, then having Bobbie live in Denver with her husband and Harold with her in Oak Park..

Nora grew up in a household with her father quoting the classic poets, she loved learning.  As an adult, she never went to college but she was always furthering her education or volunteering for charities in the community.  She joined the XIXth Century Club, went to their meetings initially to learn and years later became one of the entertaining speakers there and at the Grace Episcopal Church mentioned in the newspaper.  She would study the issues, and so when she and her husband had a difference of opinion on the presidential candidates, there were "dueling" posters in the front parlor windows of the house in 1928.

In her final years, times were tough, her husband had died, as had her son Harold.  She did not have much income beyond the rent from next door.  She was hired by the W.P.A. [Works Progress Administration set up during the Great Depression to put local unemployed folks to work in their communities].  Six people were hired hired to help catalog and research the history of the town of Oak Park -- a perfect job for her.  She knew the town when it was a few hundred people and saw it grow into the thousands, she knew how to research, and how to write.  In 1937, the Historical Survey of Oak Park Illinois was published -- many of the chapters are authored by her [her initials appear on them] and the "Local History Index" became available in the Public Library.  The book is still being used by the Librarians when someone comes to the desk asking about the History of Oak Park!

Nora died on 25 April 1939 at the age of 73 from chronic myocarditis with emaciation and exhaustion contributing factors.  She outlived her husband and one son.  But she did live to see her oldest granddaughter start medical school and her youngest start college.  She must have been so proud of their education opportunities that she probably wished she had had.

Nora and Alice knew each other -- they met through their children who married, Bobbie and Adelaide.  Clearly they were also friends.   When Alice died in 1921, it was Nora who wrote the obituary in Oak Leaves, the local paper.

ALICE COPELAND HARVEY

Death of Oak Park Woman Brings Memory of a Life Devoted to the Service of Others

    Alice Copeland, wife of the late Joseph E. Harvey, entered into rest on Sunday, April 24, after a brief illness.  Mrs. Harvey was born in  Jefferson, Wis., her married life being spend in Lake Mills and Madison, Wis., before coming to Oak Park about fifteen years ago.  She was essentially a home-maker, a woman of unusual charm and fine mentality, who lived a life of unselfish service to others.  A keen sense of humor carried her over many of the rough places of life, and her beautiful serenity of expression showed the power within. 

    Mrs. Harvey was a member of the Oak Park D.A.R., having a fine ancestry of which she was justly proud.  Her four children--Mrs. Alfred Rhodes of Esterville, Iowa; William Riley Harvey of Rogers Park; Charles Copeland Harvey, and Mrs. Robert W. Richardson of Oak Park, are left with the blessed memories of an unusually beautiful life of devotion to others, cheerfully given.

    Funeral services were held on Wednesday, with burial at Lake Mills, beside her husband.

    The one who sends this brief tribute feels that it has been a privilege to have known Mrs. Harvey, and that she has been enriched by having been one of her friends.

            N.W.R.

The stories here are quite condensed from the last 200 pages devoted to these two women's lives in my book Remember the Women! Heading up the Branches of our Women's Family Tree, Part 2.
Enjoy.


©2018, Erica Dakin Voolich
The link to this post is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2018/01/remember-women-as-we-climb-family-tree_29.html

Remember the Women as we Climb the Family Tree, part 2a

I made the decision to focus on the women when I head up our family tree.  So many family history books tell you about the vital records of the men, extol their deeds and adventures and maybe if we are lucky tell us the full names of their wives and a hint as to her family.  I feel that family history should be more than just birth, marriage and death dates -- to celebrate our families, we should include their stories, after all they were people, not just a list of dates, and thanks to them we are all here now.  Not all of their stories are going to include record-shattering achievements of world leaders, and most likely no one in the family is that famous person.

Last year I focused on three women in my grandmother's generation:  Adelaide Copeland Harvey Richardson, Marion Elizabeth Evans Dakin and Clarice Theodora Evans.

This year it is time to move on to my great grandmother's generation:  Mary Alice Smith Dakin, Caroline Matilda Helsten Evans, Mary Louisa Helsten Pomeroy, Martha Elnora Worthington Richardson, and Alice Copeland Harvey.

Last year I knew all three women.  This year I've heard a few stories about these women, but all of them died before I was born, so I did not personally know them.  I have relied on what I was able to find in my research, and what I could confirm from family stories, and what I could find by following the clues found in "stuff" left in my grandmother's home when she died in 1974.

Starting with the women on paternal side, two great grandmothers and a great great aunt....

Mary Alice Smith Dakin (1855-1931)

Mary Alice Smith Dakin (30 April 1855 - 13 November 1931) was born and raised on the Smith family farm in South Kent, Connecticut.  Her uncle Orange Smith, who lived with her family, volunteered for the Civil War.  When she was eight, she received a letter from him from Louisiana.  Orange writes about feeling tried -- he doesn't say it, but they had lost a major battle just before he wrote.  There were two other letters to her father from Orange -- he was in the War till the end and his letters are revealing and interesting when compared to the documentation of the battles for his outfit, the Connecticut 13th.  But there was more to her life than her uncle's war experience and letters home.

Mary grew up to be the local school teacher who married Edward Dakin, the general store owner/postmaster for South Kent in 1880 -- that was definitely a home-based business with the store and postoffice downstairs and their family's rooms upstairs.  She was a farm girl, he had worked as a farmhand before purchasing the store and so they sold the store and bought their own farm in Gaylordsville and settled into their life on their animal-driven farm.  Her son Robert Edward (Rob) Dakin was born on 2 July 1888 and while he was growing up, a man with a vision approached farmers in Gaylordsville whose farms bordered on the Housatonic River.  He envisioned the power of water to generate electricity -- Mary and Edward sold a rather zig-way path across their farm, right past their home and barns, that the canal for the Bulls Bridge Power Plant would follow.  On the farm were tents housing the Italian immigrants who were hand digging the canal.  Unfortunately, the power plant was finished without bringing electricity to the surrounding neighbors who had put up with disruption to their quiet farm and small town lives. Her son Rob went to college -- first in the family to go-- and became a civil engineer who helped build the addition to the power plant and bring power to the community.

Some of Mary Alice Smith Dakin's quilts.

Mary was a talented quilter.  When I visited my grandmother Marion Evans Dakin, Mary's daughter-in-law, years after Mary had died, there were always hand-made quilts on the four beds in the house.  What I didn't discover until after Marion died, was there was a trunk full of quilts from her mother-in-law Mary.  When Marion was living in a nursing home, we brought her home for a weekend visit.  She collected Mary's quilts off of her beds and took a couple from the closet to put on a quilt show at the nursing home.  The quilts she collected included Mary's sampler quilt.

Mary Alice Smith Dakin's sampler quilt which was
donated to the New Milford Historical Society.

Mary was known as a traditional quilter.  In her church quilt group, individuals would bring square they sewed to contribute to samples for sale to raise funds.  If someone contributed a machine-sewn square, she'd take it home and take out the machine stitching and replace it with hand-sewn stitches.

There is more about Mary in Remember the Women!  Heading up the Branches of our Women's Family Tree, part 2.

Caroline Matilda Helsten Evans

Born a few miles away in Gaylordsville, Connecticut, and a couple of months before Mary Alice Smith, was Caroline (Carrie) Matilda Helsten Evans (13 February 1855 - 9 December 1918).  She and her siblings grew up not on a farm, but in front of the family tannery on the Wimisink Brook leading into the Housatonic River.  When she was growing up, her home always had not only Carrie and her siblings but also any apprentices working in the family business.  Her parents were immigrants from Sweden and Ireland -- both having come to the USA, both looking for work and a better life in the mid-1840's.

As a young adult, Carrie worked as a seamstress taking in piece work and sewing clothes for families in Kent between 1876 and 1880.  On 26 May 1881, she married Charles H Evans who lived at the top of the hill, just over the townline into Sherman.  Her father was a local businessman and so was her husband.  Her husband was building homes and buildings, including the new Town Hall for Sherman.  Charles and his brother Edward went into construction business together and built houses next door to each other in Sherman where Carrie and Charles started raising their family.  She had four children:  Harold H (born 8 January 1883), Clarice Theodora (born 21 April 1884), Marion Elizabeth (born 11 February 1886) and Howard Eric (born 1893).   In 1888, Carrie and her husband moved their family to Great Barrington, Massachusetts when Charles and his brother saw a business opportunity with the building boom up north.  Carrie raised her children there while coming back to Gaylordsville as her parents needed their help.  She and Charles moved eventually moved back and took over the family's business ventures in Gaylordsville when her parents died.  While in Great Barrington, Carrie joined the currents events group but she was a woman caring for others -- her children, her parents and then her grandchildren.  When her daughter Marion was married with two children in Danbury, her son-in-law got sick with the flu.  Carrie went to Danbury to help Marion nurse her husband and care for the children.  They sent the oldest child, Teddy to stay with Carrie's sister Mary in Gaylordsville.  Soon, Carrie was also sick.  In a 5 day period, Carrie, her grandson Edward and son-in-law Rob Dakin had all died from the flu, in the 1918 Flu Pandemic.

Mary Louisa Helsten Pomeroy

Carrie's older sister, Mary Louisa Helsten Pomeroy, was born in Haviland Hollow, Patterson, New York (7 June 1850 - 23 May 1942).  Her Irish mother, Mary Hearty, survived the coffin-ship trip across the Atlantic to to marry Swedish immigrant father Eric Helsten.  They both worked for Benjamin Cowl; he as a tanner, she as maid.  Mary and Carrie's thrifty parents saved their money and bought their own tannery across the border in Gaylordsville, Connecticut, moved to the house in front and raised their family there.  Mary was the oldest of four, so she was busy helping her mother in the household that also included apprentices who worked in the tannery.

Mary and Carrie's father was an entrepreneur.  Eric ran the tannery, but seeing there were other opportunities, he built a dam on the Wimisink and closed the tannery and opened a mill.  Now he was a dealer in grain and lumber.  Eric even published and sold a pamphlet on how to say a man from drowning after doing so himself.  Eric partnered with another local businessman, Charles Pomeroy for a while.  Then Charles Pomeroy partnered with Charles H Evans, who Carrie married.  The Charles and Charles partnership ended when Carrie's husband went into the Evans Brothers Construction business with his brother.  Gaylordsville and Sherman were small towns that bordered each other and so everyone seemed to know everyone else.  Charles Pomeroy was a widower with a teenaged son and Mary married him on 6 March 1878, even though he was sixteen years older.  Charles Pomeroy was also entrepreneurial, he sold lumber out of the barn on their farm, bought teams of oxen to sell, and opened a hardware store.  He was a very busy man, and close friend to Mary's father and mother.  This closeness is possibly what brought about some of the concerns and distance of Mary and Carrie's other two siblings, William and Sarah (you'll have to read the book for details).  He was so close that Eric named him executor of his estate.

Mary and Carrie's parents died four months apart, Mary in September 1902 and Eric January 1903.  Mary was still mourning the death of her parents when her husband died suddenly in July 1903.  She applied to the court to take on the job of administratrix for her parents' estate and she did so with a co-administrator.  She took on the job of running the family's home-based business of the lumber yard and hardware store for a number of years until her step-son and grandson took over many years later.

This is just a hint about the lives of these three women, born mid-1800s, before the Civil War and lived through World War 1.  They met the challenges of the first half of the 20th century.  The events of their lives fill about the first 200 pages of Remember the Women!  Heading up the Branches of our Women's Family Tree, Part 2.

My next blog post will be about the two women filling the last 200 pages of Remember the Women, part 2.

©2018 Erica Dakin Voolich
The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2018/01/remember-women-as-we-climb-family-tree.html

Oh, There was an Earlier DAKIN Family History Book... Marion Needed to Get It! Questions Answered?

In Family History Research before FamilySearch, Ancestry and other popular websites, I wrote about the tedious process family historians used to track down all the descendants in published family histories.  I told of Albert H Dakin working on his DAKIN family for years and finally after he died his niece Mrs. H B Yamagata published his 716-page work.

It turns out that this was not the first book on the Dakin family that Albert worked on.  The undated 79-page book: Descendants of 1 Thomas Dakin of Concord, Mass. and 4 Rev. Simon Dakin of North East, N.Y. 1624-1920, collected and arranged by Albert H Dakin and Emily L Reed.

In 1938, Marion Evans Dakin had an interest in her late husband's family and had inquired about the Dakins from Evelyn West who in March sent her a couple of hand written pages on the early Dakin Family based on this book.



My dear Mrs Dakin -
     Here are the jumbled 
notes I have in the Dakins --
     Sorry I didn't copy more -- but
am sure you will find it Easily
in a good library --
     Am so glad to know you
are interested -- It helps
so to fill out records --
     Sincerely
            Evelyn West

Then in April, Marion receives a copy of the book from Emily L Reed's son.
Marion Evans Dakin
                       Storrs, Conn.
My dear Mrs. Dakin --
                I am sending you
a copy of Dakin Genealogy
which my mother Emily L.
(Clark) Reed complied
some years ago -- A Mr A. H.
Dakin of N.Y. City has an 
immense lot of Data of the
Dakin Family which he is
getting together but I don't know
whether he will ever have it
in book form as it will cost
a good sum of money to have
printed in book form --
He is a man over 70 and I
don't think he feels financially
able to have it printed as there
is so much of it.  The Dakins
are scattered all over the U. S.
I haven't seen or heard from 
him in a number of years
and I don't know whether he
is living yet.
      Thank you for the order.
               Truly yours.
                J. Marvin Reed
                Lakeville Conn.
4/18 -- 1938.

Yes, Albert Dakin did have an immense amount of data.  When he finally published his 716-page book, it chronicled 6,843 descendants of Thomas Dakin of Concord, Mass.






Marvin Reed is writing to Marion Evans Dakin in April of 1938.  His mother, Emily Leora Clark Reed, died twelve years earlier on 1 June 1926 [Descendants of Thomas Dakin of Concord, Mass. Albert H Dakin, 1948, page 205].  Marvin's mother researched the Dakin family and was the co-author with Albert Dakin on this first Dakin family book.  Marvin had not heard from Albert for a while, and wasn't sure if Albert was still alive and working on his manuscript. However, we know that he was, since Albert wrote my grandmother in January of 1943, trying to verify and update our family history.
He ended his letter with "I will greatly appreciate receiving an answer from you as I am anxious to complete my records while I have the ability."  He died on 14 March 1945 at the age of 79 [Descendants of Thomas Dakin of Concord, Mass. Albert H Dakin, 1948, page 188].

The first Dakin family book, followed one line of descent from the original family settler Thomas Dakin, continuing through that of Thomas' great grandson, the Rev. Simon Dakin. Beginning with the 4th generation [that is why the title includes "... 4 Rev. Simon Dakin of North East, N.Y."], only the descendants of this one great grandson were included.  Marion ordered this earlier book in 1938, and unfortunately the book didn't include her husband Rob's ancestor, Timothy who went west to New York and joined the Quakers in Oblong, New York. Timothy was a brother of the Rev. Simon Dakin who also went west to New York but was pastoring in another eastern New York town and it was his descendants who are in this book.

Marion shared the first Dakin book with her son Ted, even though he wouldn't have found his family in it.  I remember he loved quoting the Dakin motto:

Strike Dakyn the Devils in the hemp.

I have no idea what that means, but it is in both Dakin books.

So, when Albert H Dakin's niece, Mrs. H B Yamagata, finally published the Descendants of Thomas Dakin of Concord, Mass. in 1948, did Marion purchase the family history book that included her husband?

Unfortunately not.  I don't know if she even knew about it.  Many years after she died, I purchased it from a used book store.  A friend of the family called me to say that he heard that "if you were a Dakin in the U.S. then your family should be in this book because every Dakin was descended from one family in Concord."  Willie Hills had met another person named "Dakin" and he commented that he knew only one other Dakin.  She said that my family ought to be in that book too, so our dear friend Willie called me to tell me about it.

The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2017/02/oh-there-was-earlier-dakin-family.html
©2017, Erica Dakin Voolich

Family History Research before FamilySearch, Ancestry and other popular websites

If you believe the ancestry ads on TV, you can subscribe, type in your name along with your parents' and VOILA! leaves appear and soon you have your family tree emerging.  Actually research is not exactly that easy today, but I want to look at researching in the not too distant past, before the internet.

For the DAKIN family, we have the 716 page "go to book" written over many years by Albert H Dakin, and published, after he died by his niece, Mrs. H B Yamagata in 1948.

Prior to the internet, I would write letters to town clerks, including the self-addressed stamped envelop (SASE) and a check to cover the cost of sending a birth, marriage or death certificate.  Then from that certificate, write more letters for the grand or great grand, etc. parents indicated there -- building the tree piece by piece as I'd learn parents' names of an ancestor.  Now with the internet and the availability of some new sources online, I get hints from more than just the birth, marriage and death records -- newspapers, census pages, etc. are full of research clues.  But I still send to the town clerks for the vital records for confirmation.

Just imaging Albert H Dakin working on this not just for years but for decades, starting with the original Dakin settler, Thomas, in Concord MA in the 1600s and working down to "his time" of the 1940's.  Checking every child, then every child, then every child .... continuing down the generations.  WHEW!!  716 pages of ancestors numbering in the thousands!  Actually Albert documented 6,843 descendants of Thomas Dakin and also included an every-name index in his book!  IMPRESSIVE work.

What else might Albert have done beyond writing town clerks in order to find these 6,843 descendants?
Well, he wrote letters!  Lots of letters.

These letters were before the days of email and computers.  So every letter was individually typed and contained some information that he already knew and asked for more information for his files.

This letter written to my grandmother in 1943, inquiring about her family.  It tells her who referred him to her, a reference to information sent by her husband a year before he died in 1917, and a chart to fill in and correct if anything is incorrect.  He is writing this in 1943, worrying about whether he will be able to finish his project -- he died in 1945.

                    ALBERT H. DAKIN        2064        12-35
                    977 Anderson Ave.
                    New York, N.Y.

                            January 21, 1943
Mrs. Marion E. Dakin,
c/o College,
Storrs, Conn.


Dear Mrs. Dakin:
    For many years I have been collecting the genealogical
records of the Dakin Family and am at present writing up my notes
in the final shape.  I have not known where to locate you until
yesterday when Mr. Charles R Harte gave me your address.  I am
very anxious to bring my notes up to date and am asking your
kind help to secure it.
    I am enclosing a blank which shows all the data I have
of your family and which is for the most part  data your
husband sent me in 1917.
    Will you please add to this enclosed blank any additional
data that may be missing, correct any errors of mine and return
the blank to me.
    I believe you had another child that I have no record of.
If either of  your children married will you please give me their
address so that I may write to them to bring my notes up to date.
    One other question: Is Mr. Dakin’s mother living and
if not can you tell me when and where she died.
    I will greatly appreciate receiving an answer from you
as I am anxious to complete my records while I have the ability.
                Sincerely yours,
                    Albert H Dakin

and of course, he enclosed a SASE!

The Chart arrived in the mail in January of 1943 -- a busy time for Marion.  Her son Theodore got married that month with the anticipation of being draft by the US Army & shipped out sometime in the next few months; and as the First Extension Nutritionist for the State of Connecticut, Marion was busy preparing Farm and State Bulletins on how to manage with the Rationing for World War 2.

So, did Marion Dakin fill out the chart?


Sure looks like she edited incorrect information, added her new daughter-in-law, added her son who had died, and added death information for her husband.





So, did she mail it back?
Clearly not this one, since I found it among her paperwork when she died decades later.

Did Albert ask again?
It doesn't look like he did.
After all, I found the envelop sent from Albert to Marion in 1943.

Here is the book entry for her husband's father including his marriage to Marion and the birth of their son Theodore.

It does not any of Theodore's siblings who died young, or the information on Theodore's marriage.  Theodore is entry #3596, but there is no separate entry for him later in the book.

The documentation of our family line in the "Dakin book" stops with Theodore's birth.

Marion's not sending the letter back, means that any further information is not included in the Dakin family book.

But the gift Marion gave us by not mailing it back is to show us what our ancestors who documented our families in past decades and generation did in order to put their family histories together.


The link to this page is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2017/01/family-history-research-before.html
©2017, Erica Dakin Voolich