Eric HELSTEN, Mary HEARTY and his apprentice John CARLSON

Mary HEARTY

Last February, I was checking to see if anything new could be found on my GGgrandparents Eric HELSTEN or his wife Mary HEARTY.  Eric came from Uppsala, Sweden in 1845.  Mary came from Dorsey, Parish Creggan, County Armagh, Ireland around the same time.  They were married in Patterson, NY 12 August 1849 and moved over the New York/Connecticut line to Gaylordsville, CT.  In 1842, Eric was apprenticed as a tanner in Sweden and so it was not surprising to discover that when he settled in Gaylordsville that he started a tannery in 1853.

I discovered someone else was searching for Eric and Mary.  I was pleased.  I am descended from their daughter Caroline Matilda HELSTEN who married Charles H EVANS. I don't know what happended to two of their four children, Mary Louisa HELSTEN and William HELSTEN.    Maybe one of their descendants was searching.

Eric HELSTEN

So I sent a message asking how she was related to Eric and Mary.

However, it was someone NOT descended from Eric and Mary.  It was Chris Finland who was searching her ancestor John CARLSON [Carl Johan Augustus CARLSSON].  John was an orphan who came from Sweden after his grandparents, who had been raising him, died.  John was apprenticed to Eric HELSTEN. Chis has a paper saying that John got a new suit of clothes and $100 for his 7 years of apprenticeship as a tanner and shoemaker.  Chris didn't know anything about John's early years but figured that maybe Eric was a distant relative or family friend who had taken him in -- how else might he have gotten here from Sweden?

John's mother was from just south of Uppsala and Eric came from Uppsala. Chris has been searching for years.  She has found relatives in Sweden, traveled there, and had been working on a family tree for Eric HELSTEN in hopes of finding a connection, anywhere.  No success.

This has led to our working together to see if we can find anything about  John CARLSON and to figure out his relationship to Eric HELSTEN.

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.