Albert Munroe Wilkinson's Last Will and Testament, 1908

I, Albert M. Wilkinson of Salem, in the County

of Essex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts declare this

to be my last will, hereby revoking all wills heretofore

made by me.

                After the payment of my just debts and funeral

charges, I bequeath and devise all my estate, both

real and personal and wherever situated to my wife

Isabella L. Wilkinson, and I nominate her to be the

executrix of this will, and I request that she may be

exempt from giving a surety or sureties on her bond

as such executrix.  I desire to leave all my estate

to any wife and no part to my two children.

                In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand

and in the presence of three witnesses declare this to

be my last will, this fourth day of May A. D. 1908

                                                Albert M. Wilkinson

On this fourth day of May 1908, Albert M.

Wilkinson of Salem, Massachusetts signed the fore-

going instrument in our presence declaring it to be

his last will, and as witness thereof we three do now

at his request in his presence, and in the presence of

each other hereto subscribe our names.

James C. Batchelder                       Jennie B. Bill

                           Annie M. Bill

Source for this image:  Essex County, Massachusetts, Probate Records and Indexes 1638-1916; Author: Massachusetts. Probate Court (Essex County); Probate Place: Essex, Massachusetts,  at Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA  accessed on 20 March 2016. 

Source for this image:  Original data: Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, via Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013, accessed online 20 March 2016.

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Apparently, my great grandfather, Albert Munroe Wilkinson, made his last will about a week before gall bladder surgery in 1908.  Thinking back to those days before antibiotics and reliable anesthesia, this might have been a common practice.  I can't imagine facing surgery even today, but it might have been a hair raising event in 1908.

It doesn't mention if Albert was ill in this document.  Sometimes there is line that reads something like "... being of sound mind but ill of body...".  His gall bladder surgery must have been preceded by some illness or infection, and since he made his will it would be a great coincidence if he had to have an emergency surgery.  This is also evident from the fact that he traveled all the way to Brookline, a suburb of Boston, for his surgery at the Corey Hill Hospital, instead of having his surgery in Salem, Massachusetts.

My grandfather, Donald Munroe Wilkinson (1895 - 1977) , was left orphaned when his father Albert died.  Donald was only 12 years old, and his sister, Janet (1898 - 1981), was 9 years old.  His mother, Isabella Lyons (Bill) (1863 - 1935) remained a widow and ran a boarding house in Salem on Loring Avenue.  She lived, during her widowed years, with her sisters, Jennie and Mary Ann, who also signed this will.  The Bill sisters ran a day school in Danvers called "The Speedwell School" named after the sister ship to the Mayflower.

Corey Hill Hospital, Brookline, Massachusetts 1918 postcard
Where Albert Munroe Wilkinson had his gallbladder surgery in 1908

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Published under a Creative Commons License

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Albert Munroe Wilkinson's Last Will and Testament, 1908",  Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 28, 2016, (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/03/albert-munroe-wilkinsons-last-will-and.html:  accessed [access date] ). 

1382 Beacon Street, Brookline, Massachusetts "The Wrexham"

1382 Beacon Street, Brookline, Massachusetts

 My first cousin five generations removed is the Boston publisher William Lee (1826 – 1906), of the firm Lee & Shepard.  I've blogged about him before, but he is intriguing to me not only as the publisher of Queen Liliuokalani’s biography, but he was also her host during her second visit to Boston in 1897.  The Queen’s husband, John O. Dominis, was William Lee’s first cousin.  Their mothers were sisters, and also sister to my 5^th great grandmother Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger (1799 – 1828).

I've been tracing the places Queen Liliuokalani visited during her stay in Boston.  She was there to visit family after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.  William Lee, and his wife Sara, found her comfortable and private accommodations near their own apartments in Brookline, Massachusetts.  Following the rules of etiquette in those days, the Queen did no visiting, and attended only a few receptions.  One of those receptions was held at the Lees apartments.  I found the location of the Queen’s lodgings and blogged about it HERE.  Now I wanted to find out how close by the Lees were living.  I knew that in the census records they were living at 1382 Beacon Street. 

Here is an excerpt from the Queen’s biography:

“On New Year's Day, 1897, a brilliant reception was given by Mrs. William Lee at her residence, where I found myself the guest of honor. It might be noticed here, that, in regard to such occasions as this, the feelings of one who has been imprisoned, politically or otherwise, can only be understood by a person who has passed through the ordeal. With Mrs. Lee's numerous friends and high social position, she would most gladly have given to me an opportunity to receive attentions from the clubs and societies of which she is a distinguished member, and I would thereby have met many very delightful people. But although, since my earliest remembrance, I have been accustomed to ceremonies and receptions, yet, even after a winter's experience in Washington, it is not easy for me to get over that shrinking from the gaze of strangers acquired by recent years of retirement, eight months of experience as a prisoner, and the humiliations of the time when I was under the supervision of government spies or custodians.

Therefore, while I was grateful to Mrs. Lee for the wish, I told her that save in her own house and to meet her personal friends, I would be obliged to decline public receptions. But the number of gallant gentlemen, beautiful ladies, and fair young girls (two of whom served as ushers) that honored this occasion, caused me to be happy that I had made an exception.”

And a newspaper account from the Boston Journal, 2 January 1897:

"One of the most delightful receptions of New Year's day was that held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Lee, Beacon street, Brookline, where ex-Queen Lilioukulani was the guest of honor. The old colonial mansion house was bright with flowers and full of guests during the reception hours from 3 to 5. The receiving party formed a pretty picture, as, grouped in the bay window, they greeted with charming cordiality the many friends who expressed so much pleasure at the opportunity offered to meet a charming woman, who was most womanly and cordial in her greetings in this lovely home.

In the receiving party were ex-Queen Lilioukulani, with Mrs. Lee on her right, Mrs. Kia Nahsolelin on the left, with Mr. Lee, Miss Lee, J. Haleluke and Capt. Julius Palmer in the line. The ushers were Misses Flora and Donalena MacDonald and F.M. Goss. Most delightful music was rendered during the afternoon by Miss Sarah MacDonald, harpist.

The ex-queen wore a gown of black velvet, with thread lace garniture, caught with rare jewels, and prominent was the badge of the Mystic Shrine, of which she was made a member in 1887. Mrs. Lee was radiantly beautiful in a costume of French gray and lace, with a circle of gold on her arm, which the guest presented as a token of friendship, a golden band with the letter "L" in plain gold, a dainty trifle which Lilioukulani wore during the days of her recent imprisonment, and Mr. Lee also wore a New Year's gift from the same source, a heart-shaped pin of pearl, with centre of amethyst.

The tea room was very dainty where Mrs. Walter M. Farwell poured tea. Mrs. F. M. Goss of Melrose presided at the chocolate table, while Miss Annie Morse served frappe."

By using Google to search for “1382 Beacon Street”, and also for “The Wrexham” I had several good hits. One was a lawsuit  of Henry A. Hildreth vs Charles F. Adams in 1918, very close to the time period when the Lees lived at this address. This was in a book titled Massachusetts Reports 229: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts December 1917 – March 1918 by Henry Walton Swift, court reporter,  Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1918, page 581.  This book was found scanned and available to read in the Google Book search.  The text of this can be seen below:

This confirms that the address seen in the census is indeed the same building and same street number in Brookline today.  We took some photos of this building. 

There are several city directories of Brookline from this time period, and also several editions of Clark’s Boston Blue Book, which was sort of a social directory with ladies visiting lists and social clubs.  These list the residents of this building, which appears to have had about four or five families living here at any one time.  The apartments must have been large, with room for servant’s quarters.   It is a five story building, so it originally had only one apartment on each floor.  The bay windows are mentioned in the newspaper account above. 

This is a very fashionable address, one block from Coolidge Corner, a main shopping square in Brookline, and the MBTA green line “C Branch” trolley line passing right in front.  It is near the National Historic Site on 83 Beals Street, the birthplace of President John F. Kennedy, and the original SS Pierce Building built in 1897, a large Tudor style clock tower.  It was only a few blocks from where Queen Liliuokalani lived for about one month, at Stirlingworth Cottage .

In 1906 William Lee passed away, and Sara moved to 1408 Beacon Street.  Later I found her in the 1910 census living in a boarding house at 61 Sewell Avenue in Brookline. She was briefly married in 1908 to George Mortimer who died in 1913.  In 1920 she was enumerated with her sister, Mary, at 170 Huntington Avenue in Boston.  Sarah died in 1925. 

For more information:

A blog post about Stirlingworth Cottage in Brookline, Massachusetts

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/07/amanuensis-monday-stirlingworth-cottage.html

The Queen's biography is Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, published in Boston by Lee & Shepard, 1898. It is available online to read at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/liliuokalani/hawaii/hawaii.html 

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/11/1382-beacon-street-brookline.html

Copyright © 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Wedding Serendipity

Our family tree is growing a new branch!  Last month our daughter was engaged to be married, and she jumped right into wedding planning.  She has always dreamed of being married in a historical house with some family connection.  Fortunately for her, there are many houses in our area that were lived in by ancestors and their close kin.  She was on line researching houses, and on the phone with many of them that made her “short list”.

My daughter’s first choice was the Fairbanks house, which was built by her 11x great grandfather, Jonathan Fairbanks (abt 1594 – 1668), in Dedham, Massachusetts.  It was built between 1637 and 1641.  She loved the fairytale look of the crooked roof line, and the history.  However, the house and grounds were too small for a big wedding.  It has hosted small weddings in the past.  There were no kitchen facilities for a caterer.  Disappointed, she moved on down the list.

The Mayflower House, Plymouth, MA

Next was the Mayflower House in Plymouth, which is used by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants as their headquarters.  If you have used the library, you have been there.  It has a lovely rose garden in the back, where I have attended garden parties for the Mayflower Society’s Trienniel Congresses every three years.  This garden was too small for a reception tent, but would be perfect for a wedding ceremony.  My daughter decided to move on down the list…

The 2000 Felton Family Reunion, Peabody, MA

The Felton Houses in Peabody, Massachusetts were built by her 10x great grandfather, Nathaniel Felton (abt 1615 – 1705).  The Nathaniel Felton, Sr. house was built about 1650, and later divided in half to build the Nathaniel, Jr. house next door.  Both houses have large additions and gardens.  There is a barn across the street used for functions, and our family is familiar with this from the Felton Family Association reunions held every summer in the barn.  There is room for a tent near some beautiful orchards.  My daughter was not in love with the site (perhaps it was too familiar to her from the family reunions?) so we moved on down the list.

The Francis Wyman House, Burlington, MA

The Wyman house, built in Burlington, Massachusetts in 1666 by her 10x great grandfather, Francis Wyman (1617 – 1699), is lovely, but has no bathrooms, kitchen or proper place for a party.  There are plans to erect a barn on the grounds in the near future, especially for functions and rentals.  Too bad, because my daughter lives right in Burlington and that would have been handy! 

The next house was the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is inside a lovely carriage house that looks like a Loire castle.   The manor house that used to be behind it was destroyed years ago to form a town park.  Many weddings are held on the great lawn, with the “castle” in the background.  It was a bit too formal, too expensive, and not really owned by an ancestor, just a close cousin since Larz Anderson married Isabel Weld Perkins, and we have both Perkins and Weld ancestors.  Next…

The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts sounded perfect.  I've passed by this old house many times and have seen weddings and functions going on in the yard.  It was built by Reverend William Emerson in 1770, who was Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather, and is my 1st cousin 7 generations removed.  Our Emerson ancestors lived for a long time in Concord.   The Old Manse is a very romantic house because Nathaniel Hawthorne lived here for a short time and etched love poems to his wife on the window panes.  It is also located right next door to the Concord Minuteman statue and the Old North Bridge for some delightful wedding photos, but would make her wedding right in the middle of lots of tourists and gawking.  The Old Manse didn't quite fit my daughter's plans either. 

I could tell that my daughter was becoming a bit frustrated in her search, since there were so many choices, and none were perfect.  She confessed that she always like the Pierce House in Lincoln, Massachusetts.  She used to pass it every day when she worked nearby at the DeCordova Museum.  It was beautiful, historical, and who cared if it didn’t belong to a member of the family tree.  We all went to visit it and she loved it so much that we put down a deposit for a day next spring.  My husband took a photo of the portrait of John H. Pierce that was in the hallway.  I asked the caretaker if he was descended of the Pierce’s of Watertown, Massachusetts (a wild guess!).  He told me that he didn’t know the family genealogy, but he knew that his real name was Hoar, and he changed it to Pierce.

Here we are at the Pierce  House

Undaunted, when I got home I took a look at my Pierce family tree on the computer.  I found an article about John Howard Pierce online, and how his father, Abijah Pierce Hoar, had changed the surname.  Abijah’s mother was Susanna Pierce.  I found her already listed in my database as a 5^th cousin, 6 generations removed.  This was a rather distant kinship, but fun to tell my daughter about the connection.  However, before I called her I looked at John Howard Pierce’s wife’s name, Mary Elizabeth Wheeler.   She had six common ancestors with us (Coolidge, Hubbard, Heyward, two Munroe lines, and Stone).  Now, that was interesting! 

We’ll have to put a family tree under that portrait of John. H. Pierce on the wedding day!

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For more information, check this list.  One of these historic Massachusetts houses could be perfect for your next function or wedding!:

The Fairbanks House, Dedham, MA http://www.fairbankshouse.org/index.html

The Mayflower House, Plymouth, MA http://www.themayflowersociety.com/museum

The Nathaniel Felton, Sr. and Jr. Houses, Peabody, MA http://www.peabodyhistorical.org/properties.asp

The Francis Wyman House, Burlington, MA http://www.wyman.org/francis-wyman-house

The Larz Anderson Estate, Brookline, MA http://larzanderson.org/
The Old Manse http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/old-manse.html 

The Pierce House, Lincoln, MA http://www.piercehouse.com/

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Wedding Serendipity", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 9, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/04/wedding-serendipity.html: accessed [access date]). 

Amanuensis Monday ~ Letter from Sara White Lee

In this blog post last month http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/01/queen-liliuokalani-in-headlines-1894.html  I wrote about several newspaper articles written in 1894 which rumored that Queen Liliuokalani had "gone crazy" after being deposed from the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom.   This letter, which is undated, may date from about that time period.  It was written to the Queen by my cousin's wife, Sara White Lee (1849 - 1925).  William Lee is a first cousin several generations removed.  His mother (Laura Jones Lee), the Queen's mother in law (Mary Jones Dominis) and my 4x great grandmother (Catherine Jones Younger) were all sisters.   The Queen Liliuokalani visited the Lee cousins during her visits to Boston in 1887 and in 1897. 

My dear Cousin,

The enclosed clipping must be my ex-

cuse for breaking the long silence it has pleased

you to maintain but which I am sure is due

only to your illness and unhappiness.

                When the daily press reported your illness I

took it as an idle tale false as all else it has

written of you, but when the report is repeated in

our Medical Journals I fear there is some grounds

in the rumors of your physical trouble.

                (The Mail and Express had a long article reputed

to be an interview with Mr. Lee on the subject which

was false from beginning to end as neither Mr. Lee

nor I had been interviewed )

                One of my friends has an aunt, who has been

a great sufferer from cancer and has lost the bridge

of her nose the physicians even saying she had

but a short time to live.  Upon hearing the rumor

of your illness I went to her and found she was

taking treatment from a different physician.  Ne

who a few  years ago in experimenting with “germs”

(page break)

exposed and heated, but the patients all as-

surred me that the treatment (which is by the

hypodermic needle) is almost and in most

cases entirely painless.

                In reply to my inquiry Dr. Alexander said that

fully a thousand patients had come to him this

past year.  In addition to the Sanitarium he

has an office where he sees outside patients who

require only occasional treatment.

                He is very much interested in your case

and also thinks that the establishment of one

of his institutions at Honolulu might be of

great service to your beloved subjects.  It was

my suggestion that it might possibly be as su-

cessful with Leprosy if applied early that dis-

ease.  I enclose a personal letter to me

from Mr. Dudley (Dr. Alexander’s lawyer) that you may

see what the Doctor thinks about going to Hawaii.

                From the letter I would judge that the Doctor

would defray his own expenses to Hawaii if as-

surred that you would be his patient.  I do not

know what he would charge but by casual questions

I ascertained that treatment at the Sanatarium

was $25.00 a week, upward depending upon the

room and how much extra attention it was nec-

essary to devote to the patient.  His occasional

patients who go to the office for treatment are charged

from $2.00 upward for each treatment – according

to the case.  He does not know I have

 (page break)

written you these terms and I wish you would

not mention it unless later you find it necessary.

                He evidently is confined he can help if not

cure you since he is willing to try for it is a

great risk to his future prospects as to cure you

would be everything in his interest, and a

failure would mean the loss of everything to

him, for of course the world would watch this

progress in your case.  I do not know what

arrangements you can make with him, but if

you decide to try the treatment (and it does

seem to me as though he had discovered the great

remedy) I hope you will insist upon his com-

ing, instead of sending anyone to represent him.

                As he is the discoverer, and the medicine is a

secret, no one can apply it and watch it as he

can.  He is a Homeopath, a graduate of the Phila-

delphia College and others.

                By this mail in another envelope I send

you some typewritten testimonials and a letter

to me from Dr. Alexander.  I do not advise you

what to do judging from what I have seen and

heard I have faith in the remedy.  What I have

done in the matter is from pure, disinterested

love for you.  From now I leave it with you

and God.  I can but pray that He will help and

comfort you.

                Some reports of your cordial welcome from your

loyal people have reached me and it must have made

(page break)

your heart happy (as well as ache) to see their love

for you.   Mr. Lee is not at all well, and

has retired from business, so that he is as rest-

less as a cat in a strange garret, having nothing

to do with his time.

                Alice is doing well and graduates in April.

I am as usual.  You know how happy a letter

from you always makes me – but do not mind

if it fatigues you.  I hope you received my

last letters at Washington, to which I have had

no reply.  I miss you more than you can

imagine and send you lots of kisses.

                Mr. Lee joins me in much love,

                                Your loving cousin

                                Sara White Lee

Mrs. William Lee

1382 Beacon St.

Brookline, Mass.

This is a transcription of a letter from Sara White Lee to Lili'uokalani, undated, Bishop Museum Archives,  MS MC Liliuokalani,  Box 1.47.    I cannot show a reproduction or copy of the letter on my blog without written permission from the Bishop Museum, which was quite a process I outlined last year in this blog entry  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/wedding-wednesday-another-royal-wedding.html  As a private archive, the Bishop Museum has strict rules about the images in its collection.

Sara White Lee was a very interesting person.  I previously blogged about her at this link http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/amanuensis-monday-boston-press-reports.html   In this post I transcribed a newsclipping, and it describes how Sara stood up at a social event in Boston to defend Queen Lili'uokalani against some racist remarks and some anti-Hawaiian sentiment being expressed in the Boston newspapers.  She was a very brave woman, and although she risked ridicule she stood up for the Queen and made her anti-annexation views well known.

Although she was a socialite, and a member of many organizations like Daughters of the Revolution, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and frequently in the social pages of the Boston newspaper, I have never seen a photograph of Sarah White Lee.  

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The JFK Birthplace, Brookline, Massachusetts

The JFK birthplace is a National Park Service museum at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts.  Since it is part of the National Park system, tours are completely free.  It is self guided with an audio device narrated by his mother, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.  The Kennedy House is a very modest house for today's standards, and is furnished closely to how it would appear in 1917 when the Kennedy family lived here, with many of the original furnishings and personal objects.

According to the narration by Rose on my audio tour, baby John was born in the bed closest to the window so the Doctor would have good light during the procedure.  He was born about 3 PM on 29 May 1917, as the second son.   The future president was baptized in the little church down the street, St. Aidan's on 158 Pleasant Street (This building closed as a church in 1999, and is now mixed income housing).   He lived in Brookline for the first ten years of his life. 

This white bassinet held three senators and a president!  

When the family lived here in this house, little John and his older brother Joseph, Jr. would sit in the child's table set up by the window during meals.  One of the little silver cups is engraved with Joseph, Jr.'s monogram.  The table is set with the family's original china and silver, donated to the museum.

The John F. Kennedy Birthplace website is http://www.nps.gov/jofi/index.htm  The house is closed in the winter, and will reopen to the public for tours on May 20, 2012.  It is located only 13 miles from the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester, Massachusetts http://www.jfklibrary.org/  where you can learn about the rest of the president's life, and use the archives.

This is a great trip for genealogists!  The JFK library is located next to the Massachusetts State Archives in Dorchester, and is near the Vital Records.  It is also not far from other Boston repositories of information, such as NEHGS, the Massachusetts Historical Society, The Boston Public Library and the North Eastern Regional  NARA facility in Waltham, Massachusetts.

New England Historic Genealogical Society www.americanancestors.org 

Massachusetts Historical Society www.masshist.org 

The Boston Public Library www.bpl.org

North Eastern Regional National Archives http://www.archives.gov/northeast/boston/

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The JFK Birthplace, Brookline, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 23, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/01/jfk-birthplace-brookline-massachusetts.html: accessed [access date]).