My distant cousin found my great great grandfather's scrapbook listed in the card catalog of the Phillip's Library of the Peabody Essex Museum. It was listed as "ephemera" and "scrapbook of mounted newspaper clippings, announcements, invitations, tickets, etc.". This scrapbook belonged to Abijah Franklin Hitchings (1841 - 1910) and on the cover it said "Miscellaneous No. 5" and there was a note that it had been donated by Mrs. Thomas L. Henley on 9 October 1974. Who was Mrs. Henley. How did she get the scrapbook? What happened to scrapbooks 1 to 4?
My cousin and I had been exchanging Facebook messages for a few years, but we had never met in person. We both descend from Frank Hitchings. He had two children, a son Arthur Treadwell Hitchings (1868 - 1937) and a daughter Mabelle Cloutman Hitchings (1881 - 1916) who married Moses Stevens Herrick. We determined that we were 3rd cousins, and planned to meet up at the Phillips Library as soon as possible to view the scrapbook. What would it contain? Letters? Family photos?
Frank Hitchings had been a sail maker in Salem, Massachusetts early in life. Then he joined the "Minute Men of '61" when the Civil War started, which was a Zoave unit of volunteers from Salem. He re-enlisted and served a second time during the Civil War until he was wounded in his leg at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Frank walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He married Hannah Eliza "Lottie" Lewis on 22 September 1864, and soon after that he began to work at the Salem Custom House. Eventually he became the Deputy Custom Collector.
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| Cousins at the entrance to the Phillips Library, Rowley, Massachusetts |
The Phillips Library is free to the public, by appointment. The website includes strict instructions on how to request materials, what is allowed in the reading room, and directions to the archive, which was moved from Salem to Rowley several years ago (see the link below for my blog post about the move). The instructions for the reading room were familiar to me, but new for my cousin who had never been inside an archive or ever requested a manuscript or old book. It was a lot of fun seeing this scrapbook with her!
The book was quite large, but not quite full of ephemera. It ended with about a third of the pages blank, but we could see from this that Frank had used some sort of maritime book with lists of ships and cargo for his scrapbook. The first two thirds of the pages were completely full of clippings and paper items glued down so it was difficult to see that it was a repurposed book. Frank was a very frugal Yankee!
We had a great time perusing this scrapbook, although some of the newspaper was very fragile and started to shed pieces as we turned the pages. One of the first pages had my great grandfather's business cards and some newspaper advertisements for his billiard parlor in Beverly, Massachusetts. This made us hopeful that we would find more personal family items inside the scrapbook. We didn't find much, except for obituaries.
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| There were several newsclippings with the death notice for Frank's mother, Eliza Ann Treadwell, who was born on 27 August 1812 in Salem, and died 31 January 1896 in Salem, Massachusetts |
Included in the scrapbook were many, many newsclippings and invitations of the parades and reunions attended by the "Minute Men of '61" and the local Salem GAR unit where Frank was a member. The Minute Men of '61 were the regiment that rescued the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides, from Annapolis, Maryland during the Civil War and returned her to the North. They had an annual reunion for many years, and Frank had carefully pasted all the invitations and programs into his scrapbook.
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| The Custom House was renovated in 1898 and the golden Eagle was restored |
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| A photo of the Custom House eagle from my 2015 visit to Salem |
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| Frank Hitchings bought a lot at Salem Willows, and many of the newsclippings mention parties at this house on Juniper Point |
Apparently, Mabelle Hitchings, my cousin's great grandmother, was a fine dancer and banjo player. Many of the newsclippings mentioned her at dance recitals and concerts. This fancy pamphlet from an 1897 dance recital had Mabelle on the cover. She was mentioned inside doing several dances. In 1897 Mabelle would have been about sixteen years old. This is the only photo we have seen of Mabelle, and we knew it was her from a display of photographs at a Hitchings family reunion about 20 years ago, where her daughter Muriel identified her as the dancer on the cover. Frank had carefully pasted this into his scrapbook, too.
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| Mabelle Hitchings on the cover of a Dance Recital program |
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| Salem News, 2 February 1898 |
Apparently there had been a huge blizzard on 2 February 1898, and Frank had collected many newsclippings of the storm and saved them in his scrapbook. This was the "storm of the century" and was similar to when I lived through the "Blizzard of 1978". Many ships were lost off the coast of Salem and Gloucester, and the town was cut off from the outside world for several days. The illustrations above show the devastation and wrecked ships.
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| I loved the headlines here about the Blizzard of 1898 "Salem As it Used to Be: How People Lived in Days of Grandfathers" |
One of the most interesting things in the scrapbook were all the membership cards Frank had for the Essex Institute. The Peabody Museum (the former Peabody Academy of Science), the East India Marine Society, and the Essex Institute merged together to create one institution. Members of the societies collected curiosities from their maritime travels and donated collections, along with artwork, books, and manuscripts. These collections today are valuable for historical and genealogical research. I wonder if Frank Hitchings knew that someday this collection would include his personal scrapbook, and also the two books he wrote on shipping in Salem.
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| Frank Hitchings' 1896 membership card to the Essex Institute which he probably used for writing his books |
We enjoyed viewing Frank Hitching's scrapbook, but it left us wanting to know more. There were not many personal or family items inside the scrapbook, just items Frank found interesting. We could see that he had many interests in his Civil War service, his career at the custom house, the local weather, and anything related to maritime history. It gave me a better idea of who Frank was as a person, but I was hoping to learn more about his family, and perhaps see more photographs.
And...
Who was Mrs. Thomas L. Henley who donated this scrapbook? Was she a relative or cousin? I found a Thomas Henley who married Mildred Florence Hitchings (1909 - 1981). Mildred was my grandmother's sister, my aunt Millie. Did she donate this scrapbook? What happened to the other scrapbooks?
For the truly curious:
Essex Country Ship Registers, by A. Frank Hitchings, 1883, two volumes (Book 1 includes ships registered 1789 to 1828, and Book 2 has ships registered 1828 to 1851) The call number for this book at the Phillips Library is Mss. 150+
Also: Ship Registers of the District Of Salem and Beverly, 1789 - 1900, by A. Frank Hitchings, published Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1906 available online at https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ship_Registers_of_the_District_of_Salem/Z2saAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22benjamin+gardner%22+marblehead+massachusetts&pg=PA107-IA1&printsec=frontcover
The Peabody Essex Museum's Phillips Library https://www.pem.org/visit/library
Previous blog posts:
2009 - about Frank's military career during the Civil War: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-find-your-american-veteran.html
2015 - about Frank's career at the Salem Custom House: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-great-great-grandfather-deputy.html
2023 - A recent discovery of a Civil War photo of Frank: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2023/01/newly-discovered-civil-war-photos-of-my.html
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| Association of the Massachusetts Minute Men of '61 |
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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Cousin Found my Great Great Grandfather's Scrapbook (circa 1895 - 1905)", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 10, 2023, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2023/04/my-cousin-found-my-great-great.html: accessed [access date]).
What an interesting find!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful find. Thank you for sharing samples of the pages.
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredible treasure trove of family history! Love all the programs, news clips, more. Wow.
ReplyDelete