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

Ancestors GeneaMeme

As part of Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, he suggested we participate in the Ancestors GeneaMeme created by Jill Ball on the Geniaus blog.

Here are the directions:

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 

Which of these apply to you?

1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents [Robert DAKIN, Hannah Maria COLBY, Stephen SMITH, Abigail JENNINGS, Charles EVANS, Hannah Elizabeth RADFORD, Eric HELSTEN, Mary HEARTY, William RICHARDSON, Mary AC BOGART, Robert Searing WORTHINGTON, Elnora Esther COBB, Enoch Dole HARVEY, Mary Hubbard NYE, Charles COPELAND, Hannah Elizabeth BLODGETT.]

2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors

3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents [7, not 8; unfortunately, no one seems to have a picture of Joseph E HARVEY; I checked with various distant relatives who might have HARVEY pictures with no success.]
4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times [Dennison WORTHINGTON buried three wives, but I don't think he tried a forth time.  I don't know of anyone else who had more than three.  Will keep my eyes open!]
5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist [not to my knowledge, we did discover a family "friend" was a bigamist years ago.]
6.  Met all four of my grandparents [never will happen -- my father's father, Robert Edward DAKIN died when my father was 2 years old in 1918.]
7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents [all died before I was born, however, my great grand daughter can answer this question yes!]
8.  Named a child after an ancestor 
9.  Bear an ancestor's given name/s [only by accident.  My mother thought no one in the family had the name, when told my name, my grandmother announced "you named her after my grandfather Eric HELSTEN!  Thank you!"  Years later, doing family history, I discovered Eric had a sister Erica.]
10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland 
11.  Have an ancestor from Asia [not to  my knowledge]
12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe 
13.  Have an ancestor from Africa [not to my knowledge]
14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer [lots of farmers in the old censuses]
15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings [not to my knowledge, unless those "royality in everyone's background" counts]
16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi [Rev John REED 1751-1831) and his father Rev Solomon REED (1719-1785), I think there might be more but I don't remember who they were.]
17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife [not to my knowledge]
18.  Have an ancestor who was an author [after my father died, I discovered he wrote an article: "The Effect of Penicillin on  the Development of the the Primary Lesion of Syphilis" in VENEREAL  DISEASE INFORMATION (December 1944).  In 1895, my GGgrandfather Eric HELSTEN saved a man from drowning and wrote and sold a pamphlet on his method.  I've written weaving and math books, but I'm not my own ancestor!]
19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones [my G grandmother was Mary Alice SMITH (1855-1931) and I have her line traced back into the 1600s in Connecticut:  Stephen SMITH, Aaron SMITH, Peabody SMITH, Stephen SMITH, Stephen SMITH, John SMITH.], [I have Mary JONES (b. 1698) possible line: Isaac JONES, Wm JONES]
20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng 
21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X 
22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z [Zachariah SOULE (1694-1751), Zachary BICKNELL (abt 1590-abt 1637) 
23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December [I have a cousin born on 25 December 1983] 
24.  Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day [Thomas DAKIN's 1st wife, Susanna SLATER, not a direct descendant.]  
25.  Have blue blood in your family lines [supposedly if Royal Descendants book is right]
26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth [my husband can claim this, not me.]
27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth [my husband can claim this, but not me; my most recent immigrants were GG grandparents, Eric HELSTEN from Sweden and his wife Mary HEARTY from Ireland.] 
28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century [numerous direct lines]
29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier [numerous direct lines] 
30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents [Edward DAKIN, Mary Alice Smith DAKIN, Charles Harold EVANS, Harry Bogart RICHARDSON]
31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X [probably true, not seen  yet.]
32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university [after watching a canal for the hydroelectric power plant being dug thru their family farm, he grew up and went to university and became a civil engineer and supervised the addition to the plant which brought electricity to his neighborhood; when he died young, his wife went to school to become first extension nutritionist for the state of Connecticut:  Robert DAKIN and Marion Evans DAKIN.  I suspect he paid for college with the money they got from the sale of part of their farm to the power company.] 
33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence [probably, but not to my knowledge]
34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime [probably, but not to my knowledge]
35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine [see my blogs, this one and Will the real Ursula Wright please stand up.
36.  Have published a family history online or in print [part of my family tree is on Ancestry.com]
37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries [my mother grew up in the house built for her grandmother as a wedding gift by her father who built the house next door.  They were married in 1889.  For my mother's 80th birthday, we had a family portrait taken in the photography studio that is located there now] 
38.  Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family 
39.  Have a family bible from the 19th Century [1806, it includes listing of births in late 1700s.]
40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible

GeneaMeme

Amanuensis Monday: Paul Dakin's Disownment in 1780

I have written about Edward DAKIN (1836 Hudson NY - 1914 Gaylordsville CT) and his son Robert Edward DAKIN.  We have many unanswered questions about Edward and going back to his parents and grandparents might lead to clues.  So today, I want to mention Paul DAKIN, Edward's grandfather.

Paul Dakin (1761 in Pawling NY - 1829 in Hudson NY) was the son of Timothy Dakin and Lydia Fish.  Timothy had moved as a child from Concord MA to the Quaker community in Oblong NY and Lydia had likewise moved from Dartmouth MA to Oblong.  Timothy and Lydia raised their twelve children as part of Oblong Monthly Meeting.

In searching the list of Quaker records online in the James Hazard index for the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, I found two references to Paul Dakin, his birth and his disownment.  So I sent for the records.  The xerox of the microfilm of the disownment was not completely readable, so I ordered a scan of the original documents.  I can not reproduce the scan here since it is for personal use only.  But, I will provide the transcription.  I couldn't read a couple of words, and a wonderful person at the library, Patricia Chapin O'Donnell translated them for me.

Oblong Monthly Meeting Men’s Minutes 1757 -1781, Box NY - 105 Page 519 Paul Dakin Acknowledgement, 18th day 10th month 1780

The acknowledgements of Paul Dakin Ferris Doly Daniel Akin & James Akin Condeming their going to frollicks and Places of Diversion Is Left for the Consideration of Next M^o Meeting

______________________________________________________________________

Oblong Monthly Meeting Men’s Minutes 1781 - 1788 Box NY - 105 pages 50, 51, Paul Dakin Disowned, 15th day 11th month 1780

 One of the Friends appointed on Paul Dakins account Report that he has answered his appointment and as there to Nothing appears to alter Conclusion of Last Meeting Concerning him there after Due Consideration this Meeting Doth Testifie against his Mis Conduct and Disownes him from Being any Longer a Member of our Society untill he by his Conduct Manifest Sincere Repentance and amendment of Life and Make Satisfaction to this Meeting which that he may to own Desire and Testification being prepared against him was Read approved and Signed and the following Friends are appointed to give him a copy of his Denial if he Desires it and acquaint him of his Rite to an appeal and if he Shews No Intention of appealing Read it at the Close of a first Day Meeting at at Oblong and Report at Next Meeting That is Wing  Killey & Benjamin Ferris Jr ------------

As you can tell by reading the documents, he had the option of "reforming his ways" and returning to Meeting.  I have no evidence that Paul ever did that.  I find him ten years later in the 1790 Census, living in Hudson NY.  By 1794 I find him in newspapers articles in Hudson.  By now he is listed as one of the newly elected town Assistants in Hudson NY (15 May 1794, Albany Gazette).  In New England at that time, running for public office would get you disowned from Meeting, so I suspect he was no longer a Quaker.

wonderful site to check out

There is a wonderful site at U Conn for historic maps, mostly in Connecticut were I spent time investigating today, thanks to my new-found DAKIN researcher, Melanie Marks.

That's where I found the map of  Kent (I showed a piece of it in the posting on South Kent 1874 map below).  They have labeled it 1867 (as in the Beer's book), however, some folks are saying that the Kent map was from 1874,  and since Edward DAKIN probably wasn't in Kent in 1867 and didn't buy the store until 1872, I think the 1874 date is probably more accurate.  Also, it is similar to the map for Waterbury, labeled 1874.  Maybe the maps were both part of the same series.

Check it out.

South Kent in 1874

Here is a piece of an 1874 map showing the store and post office next to the depot for the Housatonic Rail Road.  The post office and general store were in a house.  SO, was Miss Fanton renting a room from Edward DAKIN?  Edward DAKIN bought the house where the store was located, we think in 1872.

It looks like the label for the building is
"Miss E. Fanton & E. Dakin
Store & P.O."
I don't think it is two buildings (one with Miss E Fanton & E Dakin and the other with the store) since there seems to be a line from the names to across the road to one dot (next to the one labeled "Depot" and there are not two dots on the east side of the road.

So, who is Miss E FANTON?
There were other FANTONs in So. Kent, as well a just over the town line in Gaylordsville.

A Fortuitous E-mail Waiting in Spam!

A number of years ago, I corresponded with a wonderful person who was writing a book on early Kent, Connecticut families.  She had traced their families from town records listed in Connecticut files.  I, of course, bought her helpful book:  Francelia C Johnson, A Register of Some of the Families that have lived in Kent, CT.  1739-1999, 2000.  I learned about her work when I wrote the Town Clerk in Kent CT inquiring about the availability of birth, marriage and death certificates for my SMITH and DAKIN relatives and the helpful clerk asked if I'd like to be put in contact!  Would I like to talk to her?  ABSOLUTELY Amazing!

Recently, I was trying to see if there were any new records available in Kent CT about my DAKIN ancestors and so I wrote to the Kent Historical Society.  I was hoping that the Historical Society might have information on Edward DAKIN, the first postmaster in Sourth Kent and his wife Mary Alice SMITH who was a school teacher there.

Unfortunately, and fortuitously, my e-mail ended up in the SPAM of the Historical Society.  A while after I wrote, the historian was looking for an expected e-mail which hadn't arrived so she looked in the Spam mailbox and discovered my letter!   She contacted me and we started talking about what records weren't destroyed by fire (as some school records had).

The next day, Melanie Beal Marks, of Connecticut House Histories, LLC, stopped by the Kent Historical Society to continue some work she was doing on some local families who owned the homes she is currently researching.  One of the houses was originally owned by the CHASE family.

Edward DAKIN had sold his General Store/Post Office to Wm GEER in 1882 who sold it to Fred CHASE in 1883.  Since Melanie was descended from Preserved Fish DAKIN who had lived just over the border in Oblong NY before moving to Ohio, she wondered if this Edward DAKIN  was also from just over the border in New York.

I got an e-mail from the Historian, saying she couldn't believe it!  Two people asking about Edward DAKIN on consecutive days, after years of no one asking anything about him.  Did I want to contact this other person?  Did I want her contact information?  ABSOLUTELY!!

Melanie sent me some information, I sent her information.  It turns out that her Preserved Fish DAKIN was the brother of my Paul DAKIN.  Her Hiram DAKIN and my Edward DAKIN were 2nd cousins!

We have joined forces along with Melanie's sister on researching the DAKINs.  It turns out there was one more connection.  My great grandfather Edward DAKIN married Mary Alice SMITH; Fred CHASE (part of the family she is researching) married Mary Alice's sister Clara Wright SMITH.

Definitely a fortuitous e-mail and question and a wonderful Historian who recognized the connection and put us together just as the Town Clerk had done for me years ago!

Edward DAKIN, First Postmaster, South Kent, Connecticut

My great grandfather, Edward DAKIN was postmaster of the So Kent CT post office, I think from 1872 through 1882.
I went back and was reading the post office application paperwork for So. Kent CT.

My reading of the documents:
•23 August 1872, Edward Dakin applies for a new post office to be called South Kent. It is to be located in Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut. The mail is currently on the Bridgeport CT to Pittsfield MA route arriving 6 days/week. It will be on the Housatonic RR (4 rods away). It is 3 miles from Gaylordsville and 4 miles from Kent, and 2 miles from the Housatonic River. It would serve 300 persons.
Edward Dakin signs it on 31 August 1872 and
Burritt Eaton, postmaster of Kent verifies the application.
•21 April 1884, George Hufcut Sain (?) applies for a new post office at Bulls Bridge. The nearest post office is So Kent which is 2.5 miles away and on the other side is Webotuck NY (2.5 miles). It is near the Housatonic RR (2.75 miles from Mervinsville station where mail is delivered) and the Housatonic River and will serve 130 people. 
It is signed by W. C. Camp, Webotuck NY
Along with the application is a map showing the locations of the Kent, South Kent, Gaylordsville and Webotuck Postoffices.

• 25 August 1898, Fred Chase, responds to the Post Office Dep’t topographer about relative positions of post offices in the area.