Votes for Women! The White Farm in Concord, New Hampshire

 

National Votes for Women Trail

Road to the 19th Amendment

Home of Armenia S. and 

Nathaniel White, social

reformers and founders

of New Hampshire Woman

Suffrage Association 1868.

William C. Pomeroy Foundation 2022

                                            Learn more at

                                    nvwt.org

View of the entrance to White Farm

We recently visited the White Farm in Concord, New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Surplus store, which is open on Mondays. This is a fun place to find all sorts of office equipment and government supplies, and to also find bins full of items confiscated by the TSA agents at airports (pocket knives, electronics, snow globes, baseball bats, tools, etc.) as well as things abandoned at airports (books, water bottles, wheelchairs, leg braces, glasses, and other oddities).  I noticed a new sign in front of the entrance, or rather a new sign to me since the pandemic.  I was excited to read about the family that once lived here, but I also wanted to learn more about the sign.  Who was the NVWT?  What was this "National Votes for Women Trail"? What is the William C. Pomeroy Foundation? 

First I tackled the White family.  I googled and searched for more information on Armeia S. and Nathaniel White.  This property on Clinton Street was their dairy farm, but they also had a fine mansion downtown, and White Park is named for them. 

Armenia Smith Aldrich (November 1, 1817 - May 7, 1916) was born in Mendon, Massachusetts to John Aldrich and Harriet Smith.  If you are interested in her ancestry, read the "Cow Hampshire" or the Wikipedia articles listed below. She was descended from many colonial families, including Edward Doty, Francis Cooke, and Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower.  She married Nathaniel White and lived in Concord, where Nathaniel had a stage coach business.  Armenia was very interested in reform and progressive movements, including abolition, sufferage, and temperance.  She was elected the first president of the NH Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the first president of the NH Woman Suffrage Association. 

Nathaniel White (February 7, 1811 - October 2, 1880) owned a stage coach business, and later a railroad entrepreneur.  He was also interested in progressive ideas and was instrumental in the NH Asylum for the Insane (just down the road from his farm), the NH State Reform School, the Orphanage in Franklin, and the Home for the Aged in Concord.  His farm was originally over 400 acres. He served in the NH state legislature, and ran for governor in 1875 for the Prohibition Party. 

Children of Armeia and Nathaniel White:

1. John A (1838 - 1899)

2. Armenia E. (b. 1847 and married Horatio Hobbs)

3. Lizzie H. (b. 1849 and married Charles H. Newhall)

4. Annie F. (1852 - 1865)

5. Nathaniel, Jr. (1855 - 1904)

6. Selden F. (b. 1857 and died young)

7. Benjamin C. (b. 1861)

In researching this signpost, I learned about the National Votes for Women Trail, which is part of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites.  The link below has an interactive map with over two thousand sites.  Many of these sites are in New England, and many of those are in New Hampshire!  Who knew? 

The signpost also mentions the William C. Pomeroy Foundation, which helps "communities celebrate and preserve their history" according to their website (see the link below).  Their signage program began in 2006 to place historical markers in NY state. Then the foundation expanded across the country with grants for historical markers in 48 states.  

For the truly curious:

"Cow Hampshire" blog article on Armenia White:  https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2015/03/24/new-hampshires-leading-suffragist-civil-leader-and-philanthropist-armenia-s-aldrich-white-1817-1916/  

Armeia S. White Wikipedia article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia_S._White  

Nathaniel White Wikipedia article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_White_(businessman)  

NH Historical Society on Armenia White  https://www.nhhistory.org/object/313471/white-armenia-s-1817-1916   

NH Surplus - White Farm, 144 Clinton Street, Concord, NH     https://www.das.nh.gov/purchasing/white-farm.aspx   

NH Women's Foundation article on this historical marker:   https://nhwomensfoundation.org/2022/08/11/armenia-white-marker-added-to-the-new-hampshire-womens-heritage-trail/  

The National Votes for Women Trail: https://ncwhs.org/votes-for-women-trail/   

The William C. Pomeroy Foundation:  https://www.wgpfoundation.org/    

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Votes for Women!  The White Farm in Concord, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 18, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/03/votes-for-women-white-farm-in-concord.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Obituary of Jemima (Burnham) Emerson, 1868 - The Christian Wife of an Infidel

The Col. Joshua Burnham Tavern, photo 2001
where Jemima Burnham grew up, Milford, New Hampshire

My 4th great grandmother was born as Jemima Burnham.  Her name is listed as Jemima Wyman Burnham on an SAR application dated 20 August 1957 for Emerson Francis Thayer McLean, a distant cousin.  I've never seen her listed with a middle name on any other vital record or documentation.  Her mother's name was Jemima Wyman, so it could be possible.  Jemima was born 9 May 1783 in Milford, New Hampshire.  It is often difficult to learn about the lives of our women ancestors, but bits and pieces of Jemima's life have become revealed to me over 40 years of searching for clues.

Her father was Colonel Joshua Burnham.  He was a local character, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a local hero who was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill and served in New York, Philadelphia and Canada.  The history of Milford states that he was an eyewitness when George Washington took command of the Continental Army.  He built a large farm and tavern near the banks of the Souhegan River, which is still standing on River Road.  He later sold his tavern and property to Jesse and Polly Hutchinson, who raised their thirteen children there in Milford.  These children were famous as the Hutchinson Family singers who sang songs of temperance, abolition, women's suffrage, and other progressive movements all over the USA and even in Europe.  

Although Col. Burnham sold his farm to the Hutchinson family, he remained in Milford, and remained a good friend to Jesse Hutchinson.  He must have agreed with all the progressive beliefs, and discussed them with the Hutchinson's various friends who included P. T. Barnum, William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass.  These famous singers gave their very first concert at the Baptist church in Milford.  The Hutchinson Singers toured England with Douglass in 1845, and some moved to Lynn, Massachusetts to live next door to him.  

Local history and various Hutchinson journals and books remember Col. Burnham as an old veteran who would wander the property, often stuffing his pockets with apples from the orchard.  The Burnham family and the Hutchinson family lie side by side in a small burial ground, the North Yard Cemetery,  within site of the Col. Burnham tavern on River Road.  Joshua Hutchinson wrote the epitaph for Joshua Burnham "Soldier of the revolution zealous in his country's cause, Faithful to the constitution and obedient to its laws"

These stories are what I know of Jemima's life in Milford.  Of course, she had married by 1810 to Romanus Emerson and removed to South Boston where her children were born.  Her family had been members of the Baptist Church in Milford, listed on the records.  The same Baptist church that held the first concerts for the Hutchinson family who sang about abolition before the Civil War.  Although the Baptist church is considered conservative today, they supported very progressive ideas in the early nineteenth century. 

I was not surprised that she married Romanus Emerson.  He came from a family of ministers.  They were Congregationalists going back to Puritan times.  The Emerson family included early ministers such as Rev. Joseph Emerson, born in England about 1620, who married Elizabeth Bulkely, the daughter of Rev. Edward Bulkely (1614 - 1696) the first minister of Concord, Massachusetts.  Even Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), son of a Concord minister, also studied for the ministry at Harvard.  Romanus Emerson had three brothers who became ministers, and he himself studied for the ministry but gave up due to a speech impediment.  

It was during his time studying theology that Romanus Emerson had a change of heart.  He became an atheist.  He said that "Freethinking" without the constraints of religion and other social mores opened his mind to progressive thoughts and more independent beliefs.  He joined the Free Soil movement, the abolitionists, and the Infidel Society.  He called himself an "Infidel" for the rest of his life, and wrote his own eulogy describing his "Infidel" beliefs. 

I have no idea what Jemima thought of all this during her married life with Romanus, the atheist.  I believe that she agreed with his progressive thoughts and politics.  But to be an atheist, or an "Infidel", at this time was considered quite shocking.  As a Baptist all her life, this was probably somewhat of a problem at home. Or was it? Women were considered to be obedient and quiet in those days. But we know that was not always the case.  

Romanus died in 1852.  He was a famous Bostonian, with his obituaries carried in newspapers across the country.  His last wish was to not have a Christian funeral, but to be buried in South Boston "At the point" and for his best friend, Horace Seaver, to read his self written eulogy.  However, his family (Jemima?) did not follow his final wishes, and gave him a funeral officiated by the Rev. Capen of the Hawes Place Church (next door to their house) and he was laid to rest in the Hawes Burying Ground.  Was it out of spite that she ignored her husband's final wishes? or did Jemima truly love her husband and worry about his immortal soul? 

As a widow, Jemima Emerson was enumerated in the 1855 Massachusetts State Census and the1860 Federal Census living in the Boston home of Melzar Stetson, her son-in-law, husband to her daughter Emily.  Her death certificate lists her place of death as 88 Emerson Street, her home address on the street in South Boston named after her Infidel husband, Romanus. 

Jemima died in 1868. Unlike her famous husband, I found only one mention of Jemima's death (other than short death notices in Boston newspapers) in The Christian Watchman (a Boston Baptist journal), dated Thursday, 27 August 1868, on page 7. See the obituary transcribed below.  She was laid to rest at the Mount Hope Cemetery in the Mattapan section of Boston, and Romanus was reinterred from the Hawes Burial Ground to lie next to her.  I like to think that perhaps it was out of love that she had him moved to be next to her for eternity.

"Obituary

Mrs. Jemima Emerson

In South Boston, August 5, Mrs. Jemima Emerson, at the advanced age of 86 years, widow of the late Romanus Emerson.  When 18 years of age she was converted, and baptized in Milford, N. H.  Afterwards united with the Dudley Street Church, Roxbury, and then with the South Baptist Church, and finally became a constituent member of the Fourth Street Baptist Church.  Her early Christian experience began with deep conviction of sin, from which, after long struggles, she was delivered by the power of Christ.  This, together with the opposition she encountered in following the Lord in baptism, determined, in great measure, the marked features of her subsequent life.  She loved the doctrines of grace, and clung with ever increasing tenacity to the great pillars of eternal truth.  She loved the assembly of God's people, and even until within a few weeks of her death her voice was frequently heard in the prayer meeting, as she bore cheerful testimony to the faithfulness of God.  Her children have lost a faithful, godly mother, whose prayers for their spiritual welfare ended only with her life.  The church she honored has lost a firm friend.  The community, which for forty years has been growing around her, has lost a beacon of light.  She now enjoys the rest which for many years she has anticipated, and she "being dead yet speaketh."  "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age." " 

For the truly curious:

"Romanus Emerson's Boston Obituaries 1852", published February 9, 2021: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/02/romanus-emersons-boston-obituaries-1852.html   

"Romanus Emerson's Obituaries 1852" (published across the United States), posted on this blog on October 1st, 2020:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/10/romanus-emersons-obituaries-1852.html    

My Surname Saturday post on the EMERSON family:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/01/surname-saturday-emerson-of-ipswich.html    

My Surname Saturday post on the BURNHAM family:     https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/05/surname-saturday-burnham-of-chebacco.html  

"Tombstone Tuesday ~ Col. Joshua Burnham, Milford, New Hampshire":     https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/tombstone-tuesday-col-joshua-burnham.html  

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To Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Obituary of Jemima (Burnham) Emerson, 1868 - The Christian Wife of an Infidel", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 23, 2021, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-obituary-of-jemima-burnham-emerson.html: accessed [access date]).  

The American Anti-Slavery Society

1893 Reunion of the
Danvers Anti Slavery Society
Danvers, Massachusetts

The majority of my ancestors lived in or near Salem, Massachusetts at the time of the Underground Railroad. There were three major secret Underground Railroad routes through Salem, heading north to New Hampshire. The first went through Danvers, to Andover and South Lawrence; the next from Danvers to Georgetown to Haverhill; and the last through Beverly, Ipswich to Newburyport (and water routes to Nova Scotia). This was a secret route, so many places are still unknown, but 33 stops have been identified in Essex County.

On April 26, 1893 there was a reunion of the abolitionists of Danvers, Massachusetts. It was a celebration of the men of the town, Isaac Winslow, Joseph Southwick* and others, who had helped to form the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 in Philadelphia. By 1837 the women of Danvers had formed “The Female Anti-Slavery Society", made up of sixty members from just the town of Danvers, some of whom had survived until the reunion in 1893. Famous abolitionists, as well as regular townspeople united for the celebration at the old town hall. At the meeting Dr. Andrew Nichols remembered how as a young man he was stoned in the streets for subscribing members to the anti-slavery newspapers. I was surprised to find the name of Isaac Munroe on the list of original subscribers to the “Liberator” newspaper- he was the brother to my ancestor Luther Simonds Munroe. A letter was read to the guests from Frederick Douglass, who was still alive, but elderly, retired and living near Washington DC.  

A large number of the Danvers members of the Anti-Slavery Society were part of the Underground Railroad. Their homes in Essex County were “stations” on the path north to New Hampshire and Canada. As I perused the photographs of some of the homes on the National Park Website, I recognized most of them that are still standing today. One, on 7 Central Street in Manchester-by-the-Sea, is located right across the street from my Aunt Shirley’s house! Another home was the subject of a term paper on the Underground Railroad that my father wrote as an undergraduate at Boston University in the 1950s.

Sons of these Massachusetts Abolitionists were recruited as officers for the Massachusetts 54th Regiment in the Civil War. This is the regiment made famous by the Hollywood movie “Glory.” I am a distant cousin to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw through the Perkins family, but more interesting to me was my family relationship to his fellow officer, Captain Lieutenant Luis Fenollosa Emilio, son of Spanish immigrants. My own great grandfather was Professor Caleb Rand Bill, a Salem Music professor, and Luis F. Emilio’s father was Manuel Emilo, a Salem music teacher from Spain. This story charmed my husband, who is also the son of Spaniards. Luis F. Emilio gave his age as 18, when he was really only 16, to enlist in the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to be one of the original officers of the famous 54th all black regiment (except for the officers!). He died in New York in 1918, but he is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, his place of birth. I am a distant cousin to Captain Emilio through the Kinsman family. Luis F. Emilio wrote the book A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in 1894.

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By contrast, as I write this story from Manchester, New Hampshire, I was surprised to learn that although the runaways from slavery were passing through New Hampshire, they were not very welcome in this state. Of course, rural New Hampshire was much more conservative than liberal Massachusetts, even though we are only about 45 miles from Danvers. The Anti-Slavery Societies were not well supported in New Hampshire before the Civil War.

The Reverend Parker Pillsbury in his Anti Slavery Apostles wrote about a visit made to West Chester, New Hampshire (now Auburn, bordering Manchester) by the Anti-Slavery orators Mr. Stephen S. Foster and the famous Lucy Stone. Lucy Stone is well known for making bloomers popular, and for keeping her maiden name after marriage (women known by their maiden names in the 19th century were known as “Lucy Stoners”). Mr. Foster said of West Chester that “No town ever more sternly or successfully resisted the anti-slavery, or other unpopular reforms.” They were locked out of the meeting house, and a mob covered their carriage with cow dung. They fled to Derry, where they were again locked out of a meeting house and another mob threatened them to leave on foot, through the snow. Lucy Stone said to Mr. Foster that her “bloomer dress and calf skin boots, like mine, would carry her safely…”

For a previous blog post about how the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society sent Frederick Douglass to the small town of Pittsfield, New Hampshire in 1842, where he was at first very unwelcome, please click this link:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-month-frederick-douglass.html  

For a previous blog post on Captain Luis Emilio, please click here:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/03/captain-luis-emilio-and-brave-black.html

Click here to read about the paper my father wrote for Boston University about the underground railroad house in Andover, Massachusetts (this story is in 4 parts/posts, and the link will bring you to part one):
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-dads-college-paper-on-underground.html

*This link is a blog post about the abolitionist Joseph Southwick (a distant cousin):
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/joseph-southwick-abolitionist.html


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For More Information:

Anti-Slavery Apostles,  by Rev. Parker Pillsbury, Concord, NH, 1883

A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the 54th Massachusetts,  by Captain Luis Fenollosa Emilio, Boston, 1891.

Old Anti-Slavery Days, by The Danvers Historical Society and Alfred Porter Putnam, pages vii- xi.

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The American Anti-Slavery Society", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 8, 2016, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-american-anti-slavery-society.html: accessed [access date]). 

Joseph Southwick – Abolitionist

The Southwick family members were Quaker in early Salem, even when that meant persecution from the Puritan authorities. Their children and descendants married prominent Quakers from all over New England.  In the compiled genealogy book about the Southwick family, Joseph Southwick (1791 – 1866) is described as a tanner, with three daughters. Period. With a little digging I was able to learn that Joseph Southwick was much more than a tradesman.   I was also able to find out the many ways I am related to this family (I have a few relationships described below at the end of this blog post).

Joseph Southwick founded the American Anti-Slavery Movement in 1833 and was a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  He was president of the society 1835 -1836, and vice president for many years.  He was one of the original subscribers to William Lloyd Garrison’s journal The Liberator.  He is considered one of the original abolitionists in America.  His work inspired his wife and daughters to be involved in abolitionism, at a time when women were usually not allowed to campaign for progressive causes. 

Joseph Southwick married Thankful Hussey, daughter of Quaker abolitionist Samuel Hussey.  She was a member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and of the New England Non-Resistance Society.  William Lloyd Garrison delivered the eulogy at her funeral, and Lydia Maria Child wrote her obituary.  She lived longer than her husband and was able to become even more famous as an abolitionist in New England.

The compiled Southwick genealogy book (see below) has Thankful’s obituary on pages 261 – 264

OBITUARY

Thankful Southwick, widow of Joseph Southwick, died on the 29^th of April, at her residence in Grantville [a part of the town of Wellesley], Mass., in the 75^th year of her age.

                All survivors of the old abolition band will remember her as one of the very earliest, the noblest, and the most faithful of that small army of moral combatants who fought so bravely and perseveringly for the deliverance of the downtrodden.  Mrs. Southwick was born and educated in the Society of Friends, and to their calmness of demeanor she added indomitable persistence in the path of duty.

                One of the most exciting affairs that ever occurred in Boston was known as the Baltimore Slave Case.  Two girls had escaped in a Boston vessel, and when about to be carried back, were brought out by a writ of habeas corpus.  All Boston was in a ferment for and against the fugitives.  The commercial world were determined that this Southern property should be restored to the white claimants, and the abolitionists were determined that it should remain in the possession of the original owner owners until a “bill of sale from the Almighty” could be produced.  The well-known Father Snowdon was then alive, and by his vigilance and ingenious arrangements, efficiently aided by Mrs. Southwick, the slaves were, at a given signal, spirited away from the crowded court-room, and conveyed out of the city.  The agent of the slaveholders happened to be standing near Mrs. Southwick, and while he was gazing in astonishment at the empty space where the fugitives had been an instant before,  she turned her large gray eyes upon him, and said very calmly, “Thy prey hath escaped thee.”

                Wherever working or thinking was to be done for the advancement of our righteous cause, there was Thankful Southwick, ever ready with wise counsel and energetic action.  She and her excellent husband were among the very first to sustain Garrison in his unequal contest with the strong Goliath of slavery.  At that time they were in affluent circumstances, and their money was poured freely for the unpopular cause, which had as yet found no adherents among the rich.  Their commodious and every-way comfortable house was a caravansary for fugitive slaves and for anti-slavery pilgrims from all parts of the country. At the anniversary meetings, when most of the city abolitionists were anxious to have for their guests Friend Whittier, or Angelina Grimke, or Theodore Weld, or Hon. Mr. Birney, or George Thompson, or some other lions of the cause, Joseph and Thankful Southwick were quietly looking about for such anti-slavery brothers and sisters as were too little known to be likely to receive invitations.  And through all their long and honorable lives this worthy couple retained the same characteristics. Always kindly and unpretending, clear sighted to perceive the right, and faithful in following it, wheresoever it might lead. They were upright in all their dealings with the world, tender and true in the relations of private life, and the memory they have left is a benediction. – Lydia Maria Child, in Anti-Slavery Standard [repeated in other newspapers across New England and the United States]

The Southwicks lived originally in North Vassalboro, Maine, but removed to South Danvers (now Peabody, Massachusetts) in 1834.  They were very active with the Anti-Slavery movement and eventually removed again, in 1835 to High Street in Boston for the next two years.

Abigail Southwick (1819 – 1904), their eldest daughter, attended the convention of antislavery women in 1838 and was a delegate to the London convention in 1840.  She married John Hubbard Stephenson.

Their middle daughter, Sarah Hussey Southwick (1821 – 1896) was the treasurer of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1842, when her mother was president. She was only thirteen years old in 1834 when she moved to South Danvers and attended the first Anti-Slavery event in Boston with her father and sisters.  You can read a very interesting chapter about Sarah's life in the book Old Anti-Slavery Days: Proceedings of the Commemorative Meeting held by the Danvers Historical Society at the Town Hall, Danvers, April 26, 1893 , pages 134 – 140 (available to read online at Google Books).

The Southwick Genealogy:

Generation 1: Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell. Immigrant ancestors to Salem, Massachusetts, arrested for being Quaker and exiled to Shelter Island in 1659 where they died of exposure.  My 9^th great grandparents.

Generation 2: Daniel Southwick, son of immigrants Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell,  born 1637 in Salem, died about 1718; married about 1663 to Esther Boyce.  He was the brother to my 8^th great grandfather, John Southwick (1625 – 1672).

Generation 3: Lawrence Southwick, (my first cousin 7 generations removed)  son of Daniel Southwick and Esther Boyce, born 1664 and died 1718 in Northampton, New Jersey; married on 24 June 1704 in Salem to Tamosen Buffum.  She was also my first cousin 8 generations removed, since I descend from her grandparents, Robert Buffum (1590 – 1669) and Tamosen Ward (1606 – 1688). 

Generation 4:  Joseph Southwick, son of Lawrence Southwick and Tamosen Buffum, born in 1716 in Salem, Massachusetts; died 1791 in Peabody, Massachusetts; married Bethia Callum, who died 1803 in Peabody, Massachusetts.

Generation 5: Edward Southwick, son of Joseph Southwick and Bethia Callum, born on 1 March 1757, died 23 January 1836; married Abigail Rowell.   She was the daughter of Jacob Rowell and Anna Buxton, born on 14 June 1764 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and died 10 February 1856.

Generation 6: Joseph Southwick, son of Edward Southwick and Abigail Rowell, born on 11 September 1791, died on 10 May 1866; married to Thankful Hussey, the daughter of Samuel Fothergill Hussey and Thankful Purington.   Joseph Southwick is my 4^th cousin, 5 generations removed.   Three children:

1. Abigail , born 17 September, 1819

2. Sarah Hussey, born 3 March 1821

3. Anna R., born 6 April 1823

For the truly curious:

The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison:  Let the oppressed go free, 1861 – 1867, by William Lloyd Garrison, 1979,  (available to read online at Google Books)

https://archive.org/details/lettertomydearga00john_60  The1867 Letter from Oliver Johnson to William Lloyd Garrison, wishing Garrison a “happy and prosperous journey” to Europe, and expresses his shock at the sudden death of Thankful Southwick.

The Genealogy of the Descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick of Salem, by James Moore Caller and Maria A. Ober,  (available to read online at Google Books)

My relationship to Thankful Hussey, wife of Joseph Southwick:

Generation 1.  Rev. Stephen Batchelder  (1561 – 1656)  (my 11^th great grandfather)

Generation  2.  Theodate Batchelder m. Christopher Hussey (I descend from two of her siblings – Nathananiel Batchelder (1590 – 1630) and Ann Batchelder Sanborn (b. 1601)       

Generation 3.  Stephen Hussey m. Martha Bunker

Generation 4.  Batchelder Hussey m. Abigail Hall

Generation 5.  Sylvanus Hussey m. Elisabeth Varney (daughter of Joseph Varney and Abigail Robinson, and granddaughter of William Varney (1599 – 1654) and Bridge Deverell, my 10^th great grandparents)

Generation 6.  Samuel Fothergill Hussey m. Thankful Purington

Generation 7.  Thankful Hussey m. Joseph Southwick  (She is my 4^th cousin, 5 generations removed three different ways! )

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/02/joseph-southwick-abolitionist.html

Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Abolitionists and Doctors, Husband and Wife, Esther and John Hawks of Manchester, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at Pine Grove Cemetery, Manchester, New Hampshire

ESTHER HILL HAWKS, M.D.

1833 - 1906

ARMY NURSE, ASST. SURGEON, TEACHER

OF FREEDMEN, PHYSICIAN.

HER FAVORITE MOTTO

"ON THE PROPER TRAINING OF THE CHILDREN

RESTS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD."

JOHN M. HAWKS, M.D.

1826 - 1910

ASST. SURGEON 22ND AND SURGEON

21ST U.S. COLORED TROOPS

HAWKS

Esther Hill, the daughter of Permenas Hill and Jane Kimball,  married Dr. John Milton Hawks, son of Colburn Hawks and Clarissa Brown,  5 October 1854 in Manchester, New Hampshire.  During their honeymoon in Florida, they were both abolitionists, she wanted to become a doctor to help the black people in the south.  Esther began to study her husband's medical books in order to attend medical school at the New England Medical College for Women.  In 1857 she was one of the first woman doctors in the U.S.

During the Civil War Hilton Head Island off South Carolina was occupied by the North it became a haven for freed black slaves.  NH native and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase sent a envoys to oversee the construction of new towns and services for the freedmen.  Plans were set in place for education, housing, employment and hospitals.  Dr. John Hawks joined the U.S. Colored Troops to care for the freed slaves at Hospital #10 and his wife, wanted to come as a nurse, since female doctors were not allowed.  Her application as a nurse was also rejected so she came as a teacher. 

Esther did serve as director of the hospital in her husband's absence during the war because replacement surgeons were not sent.  When the valiant men of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry lost their attempt to take Fort Wagner (as seen in the 1989 movie Glory), the wounded were sent to hospital #10 and healed by the Drs. Hawks.  From her diary "The only thing that sustained us was the patient endurance of those stricken heroes lying before us, with their ghastly wounds, cheerful and courageous."

Esther Hawks spent the rest of the war educating Black soldiers and their wives and children. After the war the freedmen and the Hawks settled in Port Orange, Florida as homesteaders in their own right.  Dr. Esther Hawks was a teacher in the first integrated school at Port Orange until it was burned by protesters in January 1869.  They removed back North to Lynn, Massachusetts and she took up a medical practice again. She died in Lynn and was buried here at Pine Grove in Manchester, New Hampshire, her birthplace. Dr. John Hawks died in Hawks Park, now Edgewater, Florida and was buried there.  His name is on his wife's tombstone, as a cenotaph memorial. 

For more information:

Civil War Women website http://civilwarwomenblog.com/esther-hill-hawks-3/ 

Wikipedia John Milton Hawkes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton_Hawks  

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Abolitionists and Doctors, Husband and Wife, Esther and John Hawks of Manchester, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 17, 2014,  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/tombstone-tuesday-abolitionists-and.html: accessed [access date]). 

Hutchinson Family Singers Civil War Song Lyrics

Sheet music for "Get Off the Track!", 1844

Over the past few years I've written several blog posts about the Hutchinson Family Singers.  Their father, Jesse Hutchinson (1778 – 1851) was a 3^rd cousin many generations removed.  He bought his home in Milford, New Hampshire from my 5th great grandfather, Colonel Joshua Burnham, and they were lifelong friends.  His eldest son, Jesse, Jr. (1813 – 1853), saw several performances in Boston of European singers using four part harmony.  He taught his brothers to sing in four part harmony to mimic what he saw on stage, and put together a traveling show.  Their twelve year old sister, Abby (1829- 1892), joined the brothers and they became a national sensation. They introduced four part harmony to American audiences, and it has become a very American musical tradition.

As the first celebrity musical act in American history, the Hutchinson Family Singers used their fame to advance progressive causes.  They sang about women’s suffrage, abolitionism, temperance, Native American causes, and worker’s rights.  They are most famous for their Civil War Era songs.  Their most famous song was probably “Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground”.  Their most controversial performance was on 17 January 1862 at the Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia, when some of the troops protested the anti-slavery lyrics of a musical version of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “We Wait Beneath the Furnace Blast” sung to the Lutheran hymn tune “Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott” (“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, from Psalm 46).

I have heard the Hutchinson Family Songs performed on stage and in recordings.  Unfortunately, there is no recording of their actual voices since they lived before this was possible.  I only recently found the lyrics of their songs.  I’m posting the lyrics here for the Third American Civil War Blog Challenge hosted by Bill West.

Get Off The Track!

by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.

Ho! the car, Emancipation,

Rides majestic thro' our nation

Bearing on its train, the story

Liberty! a nation's glory. 

Roll it along! Roll it along!

Roll it along! thro' the nation

Freedom's car, Emancipation

Roll it along! Roll it along!

Roll it along! thro' the nation

Freedom's car, Emancipation. 

Men of various predilections,

Frightened, run in all directions;

Merchants, editors, physicians,

Lawyers, priests and politicians. 

Get out of the way! Get out of the way!

Get out of the way! every station,

Clear the track of 'mancipation. 

Get out of the way! Get out of the way!

Get out of the way! every station,

Clear the track of 'mancipation. 

All true friends of emancipation,

Haste to freedom's rail road station;

Quick into the cars get seated,

All is ready, and completed. 

Put on the steam! Put on the steam!

Put on the steam! All are crying,

And the liberty flags are flying. 

Put on the steam! Put on the steam!

Put on the steam! All are crying,

And the liberty flags are flying. 

Hear the mighty car wheels humming!

Now look out! the engine's coming!

Church and statesmen! hear the thunder!

Clear the track! or you'll fall under. 

Get off the track! Get off the track!

Get off the track! all are singing,

While the liberty bell is ringing. 

Get off the track! Get off the track!

Get off the track! all are singing,

While the liberty bell is ringing. 

See the people run to meet us;

At the depots thousands greet us;

All take seats with exultation,

In the car, Emancipation. 

Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! Huzza!

Huzza! Huzza! Emancipation

Soon will bless our happy nation.

Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! Huzza!

Huzza! Huzza! Emancipation

Soon will bless our happy nation.

Huzza!

“Get off the Track” was sung to the tune of “Dan Tucker”.  The 1844 lyrics were written by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. and published Boston: Henry Prentiss, April 1844.  The cover shows a train labeled with the names of three well known abolitionist newspapers “Herald of Freedom”, “American Standard” and “Liberator”.   In the background two trains have crashed, labeled “Clay” and “Van Buren”, two Democratic (pro-slavery) candidates.  You can find this song also in the book The Anti-Slavery Harp; A Collection of Songs for Anti-Slavery Meetings. Compiled by William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave (Boston: Bela Marsh, 1848)

You can see and hear the song at this YouTube video presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfKsjeTvKLs

In 2011 I visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History and was surprised to see the sheet music for the Hutchinson Family song "Get Off the Track!" on display.  We were excited to find a bit of family history in our nation's most famous history museum! 

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The Slave’s Appeal

by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. 

Over the mountain, and over the moor,

Comes the sad wailing of many a poor slave;

The father, the mother, and children are poor,

And they grieve for the day their freedom to have.

Pity, kind gentlemen, friends of humanity,

Cold is the world to the cries of God's poor,

Give us our freedom, ye friends of equality,

Give us our rights, for we ask nothing more.

Call us not indolent, vile and degraded,

White men have robbed us of all we hold dear;

Parents and children, the young and the aged,

Are scourged by the lash of the rough overseer.

Pity, kind gentlemen, friends of humanity,

Cold is the world to the cries of God's poor,

Give us our freedom, ye friends of equality,

Give us our rights, for we ask nothing more.

And God in his mercy shall crown your endeavors,

The glory of heaven shall be your reward;

The promise of Jesus to you shall be given,

"Enter, ye faithful, the joy of the Lord."

Pity, kind gentlemen, friends of humanity,

Cold is the world to the cries of God's poor,

Give us our freedom, ye friends of equality,

Give us our rights, for we ask nothing more.

The song “The Slave’s Appeal” was adapted by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. from H. Piercy’s “The Beggar Girl” circa 1798.  The original music score can be found at the website of the Levy Collection of Sheet Music at Johns Hopkins University http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/

Both of the songs “The Slave’s Appeal” and “Get off the Track” were often greeted with mob violence.  The Hutchinson Family friend, Francis Bicknell Carpenter (1830 – 1900) said that Abby “would look directly into the eyes of the mob leaders, invariable with the effect of subduing the unruly spirits”  [ Frank Carpenter, New York Home Journal, December 7, 1892]   Frank Carpenter also did a portrait of Abby Hutchinson which hangs in the collections of the Lynn, Massachusetts Historical Society. 

See the webpage for Abby Hutchinson Patton (1829-1892) at this link: http://www.oocities.org/unclesamsfarm/abby.htm    

or see Alan Lewis’s entire website on the Hutchinson family at http://www.oocities.org/unclesamsfarm/abby.htm (formerly a Geocities website, now archived at Oocities.org)

I've written many blog posts about the Hutchinson Family Singers.  You can find this tag listed in the right hand column and click on it to read all these posts.  These three blog posts about the Hutchinson Family Singers give the most genealogical information:

The Hutchinson Family Singers

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/hutchinson-family-singers-of-milford.html

The Illiterate Colonel (my 5x great grandfather Joshua Burnham, who sold his house to the Hutchinson Family Singers) http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/illiterate-colonel.html

Hutchinson Family - The Saga Continues!

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/hutchinson-family-saga-continues.html

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Free Soilers in Boston 1850

Found at GenealogyBank.com

from the Emancipator and Republican, Boston, Massachusetts, "Free Soil Rally in Chapman Hall",  Thursday, 5 September 1850, Volume XV, Issue 19, page 3

The highlighted name,
Romanus Emerson, is my 4th great grandfather

 The Free Soil political party was active during the 1848 and 1852 presidential campaigns, and it's platform was strongly anti-slavery.  The name "Free Soil" came from opposing the expansion of slavery into new states forming out west.  The candidates for president in the Free Soil party were Martin Van Buren in 1848, and John P. Hale in 1852.  In 1854 the party evolved into the modern Republican party.  Other famous Free Soilers were William Cullen Bryant, Horace Mann, Charles Sumner, Walt Whitman, and John Greenleaf Whittier.

If you look at the news clipping above, my 4th great grandfather's name, Romanus Emerson, is highlighted in yellow.  Just to the right of his name is the name Charles Sumner.  In 1856 Sumner gave an impassioned anti slavery speech in the Senate called "The Crime against Kansas".  Two days after the speech the South Carolina Congressman, Preston Brooks, entered the Senate chamber and nearly beat Charles Sumner to death with a gold headed cane. This incident was a major cause of the coming of the Civil War five years later. The cane used to attack Charles Sumner is on exhibit at the Old State House in Boston.  There is a statue of Sumner in the middle of Harvard Square.

My ancestor, Romanus Emerson (1782 - 1852), was a progressive, much like Charles Sumner and the other members of the Free Soil party.  Romanus settled in South Boston in 1810, when the main thoroughfare in that part of the city was called the "Old Road" and it was renamed "Emerson Street" after his death.   He was a noted atheist, and a member of the Boston Infidel Society.  When the first abolitionists came to Boston, most of the established churches would not let them lecture in their buildings.  The Boston Infidel Society gave abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison permission to use their Julian Hall three times.

Romanus Emerson was like his cousin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosophical man who was considered eccentric because his views were ahead of their time. They were considered progressives, in a very conservative Boston.   Other members of my family tree, Noah Martin Eaton (abt 1832 - 1909) and his wife Eliza Ruth Walton (1837 -1909), were also abolitionists and Free Soilers.  They were from Reading, Massachusetts and removed to Lawrence, Kansas.   Their first two children, out of six, were born in Lawrence in 1861 and 1864. Confederate guerrillas burned most of  Lawrence on 21 August 1863, destroyed anti-slavery newspaper offices, and killed 150 of the 200 men they found there.  Abolitionists from New England had resettled in Kansas in an attempt to keep it "Free Soil".  Noah Eaton removed his family back to Reading by 1868, where his last four children were born and where he stayed for the rest of his life.  He was a first cousin, one generation removed from Romanus Emerson. (Noah Eaton's story could be an entire blog post on its own!)

The newspaper where the above news clipping came, the Emancipator and Republican, from was in existence from 1848 to 1850. It was previously known as the Emancipator and Free Soil Press, and evolved into the Commonwealth & Emancipator in 1851.   You can view copies online at www.GenealogyBank.com and also at the Library of Congress website chroniclingamerica.loc.org

Chapman Hall, where the Free Soil committee met, was located where the Parker House Hotel is now located on the corner of Tremont Street and School Street.  The alley behind the Parker House is called Chapman Place. Chapman Hall also allowed abolitionists to speak, and also African American orators such as Dr. John Rock.  According to an article in the Boston Evening Transcript, "Anti-Slavery Landmarks in Boston", 1 September 1897, page 6:

 "August 17, 1855, a meeting was held in Chapman Hall on Chapman place, the little alley leading off School street, by the Parker House.  As near s the writer has been able to learn, the hall or a building occupying its site was removed in order to give room for the middle portion of the Parker House on that side.  At this meeting it was resolved that "the time has fully come for a united and earnest effort of the people of Massachusetts, in concert with the friends of freedom throughout the Union, whose object shall be to restrain the alarming encroachments of slavery." A memorable gathering! For out of it went a committee which, in the United States Hotel, drew up a call for the Worcester Convention , from which sprang the Republican party of Massachusetts."

The incident when Charles Sumner was caned has been written up in a new book by Stephen Puleo in The Caning: The Assault that drove America to Civil War, Westholme Publishing, 2012.  See the website:  http://www.stephenpuleo.com/book/the-caning/ 

To view a previous blog post about Romanus Emerson, click here:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/03/madness-monday-odd-romanus-emerson-part.html 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Free Soilers in Boston 1850", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 4, 2013, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/02/free-soilers-in-boston.html: accessed [access date]).

Black History Month ~ Frederick Douglass in New Hampshire, 1842

The historic Old Meeting House in Pittsfield,
now the town Senior Center

In the 1840s not all of New England espoused Abolitionist beliefs, or embraced the idea that the African slaves were their brothers.  Most of New Hampshire did not follow the liberal beliefs found in Salem or Boston.  It was rural.  Most residents had never seen a black person. Remember, at this time the only president from New Hampshire was in office, and Franklin Pierce was infamous for signing the Fugitive Slave Act, and for being a copperhead.

In 1842 Frederick Douglass was sent by the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society to speak at the church in tiny Pittsfield, New Hampshire. He was only 25 years old, recently freed from slavery.  He had to ride on the roof of the stage coach because “no colored person could be allowed inside” as he stated in his autobiography.  He was not met with open arms.  The Hilles family, who was asked to board him, subscribed to the Liberator.  They felt obliged to put him up but not to treat him well.  Douglass wrote that Mr. Hilles suffered from “colorphobia”.

One year earlier in Northfield, New Hampshire a pastor named George Storrs prayed at his pulpit for abolition.  He was arrested on a complaint of disturbing the peace!  This made national headlines.  He was arrested a second time in Pittsfield by the authority of a writ signed by the Democratic US Representative who lived in town.  The Reverend Storrs was sentenced to three months hard labor. Frederick Douglass knew he was facing a tough audience.

During Frederick Douglass’s lecture, the audience was polite, but did not applaud. During the lunch break no one invited him home, and the only tavern in town asked him to leave.  Douglass sat on a stone wall by the church in the rain to wait until the evening session of his lecture.  Finally, a gentleman passing by took pity and invited him to his home.  This was the US Representative Moses Norris, well known pro-slavery advocate who had signed the writ for Reverend George Storrs arrest!

Frederick Douglas sat on the wall or on one
of the tombstones here at the Meeting House cemetery

At the Norris home, the children ran screaming from the house when they saw a black man enter the door.  Mrs. Norris first acted cold, but then opened her heart when she saw Douglass was shivering and hungry.  By the end of the meal, Douglass quoted “from that moment I could see that her prejudices were more than half gone, and that I more than half welcome at the fireside of this Democratic Senator.  I spoke again in the evening and at the close of the meeting there was quite a contest between Mrs. Norris and Mrs. Hilles, as to which I should go home with.”

Hearts were turned in little Pittsfield, New Hampshire.  His evening lecture was a huge success and Douglass went on to become a famous speaker all over the north.  Moses Norris went on to become a US senator, succeeding Franklin Pierce. In this part of New England there are still few black residents, and few black tourists.  But Pittsfield has honored the stone wall, where a discouraged Frederick Douglas sat shivering, as part of their heritage trail with this a marker:

Transcription of the historical marker at Pittsfield, New Hampshire

1842 - Frederick Douglass' Visit
On one of these gravestones sat the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a cold, drizzling rain after giving an anti-slavery speech in the Old Meeting House. Having been refused service at a nearby hotel, he was hungry and without shelter. Pro-slavery Senator Moses Norris, Jr., in an act of humanitarian kindness, invited the disconsolate stranger into his house for the evening. Thereafter, Mr. Douglass was treated with great respect.

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From The Nation’s Problem by Frederick Douglass, 1889

“There is still a great deal of prejudice, even in the North, against colored people; but he has found out that the only way to cure it, is to treat them kindly. This he proved by the fact that at Pittsfield, New Hampshire, forty-eight years before, Mrs. Norris had been helped, by doing him a kindness, to shake off her prejudice against his color and his views so thoroughly as to be the first to shake hands with him after his lecture.”

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At Hampton, New Hampshire John Greenleaf Whittier wrote this tongue-in-cheek poem in honor of the election of 1846, as a coded letter from Franklin Pierce to Moses Norris.  It mentions the anti-slavery Free Will Baptists of New Hampshire, and abolitionist John P. Hale, who was elected senator as a dissident Democrat.

“ ‘Tis over, Moses!  All is lost!

I hear the bells-a-ringing;

Of Pharoah and his Red Sea host

I hear the Free Wills singing.

We’re routed, Moses, horse and foot,

If there be truth in figures,

With Federal Whigs in hot pursuit,

And Hale and all the ‘niggers’…

The ides of June! Woe the day

When, turning all things over,

The traitor Hale shall make his hay

From Democratic clover!

Let Hale exult and Wilson scoff,

To see us southward scamper;

The slave, we know, are “better off

Than laborers in New Hampshire!”

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For more information:

The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, Kessinger Publishing, 2004,  see pages 530 – 534 for the description of his days in Pittsfield, New Hampshire.

A post at SeacoastNH.com by historian J. Dennis Robinson, his primary source was the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail Resource Book by Valerie Cunningham and Mark Sammons, http://seacoastnh.com/arts/please021001.html

The Pittsfield, New Hampshire Heritage Trail website, and this link takes you to the page describing Douglass’s lecture at the Old Meeting House

 http://www.pittsfield-nh.com/publicinfo/parkstrails/historical_walking_trail_2.htm

The map and trail brochure can be printed out for visitors.

Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Freedom, by Jonathan H. Earle,  University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pages 98 -99 for Whittier’s poem about Norris and Storrs.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Black History Month ~ Frederick Douglass in New Hampshire, 1842", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 9, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/black-history-month-frederick-douglass.html: accessed [access date]).