Surname Saturday ~ DWINNELL of Topsfield, Massachusetts

DUNNELL / DWINNEL /  DWINEL / DONNELL

My 9^th great grandfather, Michael Dwinell or Dunnell, is of unknown origins.  Some think that perhaps the surname is perhaps French Huguenot, and other books say he was possibly Irish, but there is no proof either way.  He was born about 1640 and died in 1717 in Topsfield, Massachusetts.  His wife is only known as “Mary”, although Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of New England states her name was Mary Read (no proof).   They had nine children in the Topsfield records, and his son Michael, Jr., was the first physician in Topsfield. Michael Dwinnel owned a large amount of land, including 50 acres he bought from Francis Peabody in 1672. 

My 8^th great grandfather, John Dunnell (1674 – 1742), lived in Topsfield as a “husbandman” or farmer.  He married Mary Read of Salem in 1701.  His wife was the executor of his will which was witnessed by Jeremiah Towne, Jacob Dwinnell, and Richard Towne.

His daughter, Keziah Dwinel (b. 1703), my 7^th great grandmother, married Nicholas Cree.  Their son, Richard Cree (1727 – 1769), married Ruth Johnson, whose mother was Rebecca Towne.  Rebecca’s grandfather was Edmund Towne (1628 – 1678), a brother of Rebecca (Towne) Nurse who was hanged as a witch in 1692.  Perhaps Rebecca Towne was named after her poor grandmother, the victim of the Salem hysteria?   The two Towne men mentioned above as witnesses to the will of John Dunnell in 1742 were both grandsons of Edmund Towne, too.

Some DWINNELL resources:

The True Genealogy of the Dunnell and Dwinnell Family, by Henry Gale Dunnell, 1862 (Google Books)

The Dwinnell, Dunnell Genealogy,  by Ira A. Dwinnell, 1974

The History of Topsfield, Massachusetts, by George F. Dow, 1940  (Archive.org)

The Vital Records of Topsfield, Massachusetts, 1903

My DWINNELL genealogy:

Generation 1:  Michael Dunnell, born about 1640, maybe in France, died 1717 in Topsfield, Massachusetts; married Mary Unknown about 1668.  Nine children.

Generation 2:  John Dunnell, born 16 December 1674 in Topsfield, died 28 January 1742 in Topsfield; married Mary Read on 25 February 1701 in Salem, Massachusetts.  She was born about 1682 in Salem. Six children.

Generation 3: Keziah Dwinell, born 14 December 1703 in Topsfield, married Nicholas Cree of Marblehead on 7 October 1723 in Topsfield.  Six children.

Generation 4: Richard Cree m. Ruth Johnson

Generation 5: Stephen Cree m. Hannah Smith

Generation 6:  Sarah Cree m. James Phillips

Generation 7: Hannah Phillips m. Capt. Thomas Russell Lewis

Generation 8:  Hannah Eliza Lewis m. Abijah Franklin Hitchings

Generation 9: Arthur Treadwell Hitchings m. Florence Etta Hoogerzeil

Generation 10: Gertrude Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ DWINNELL of Topsfield, Massachusetts”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 3, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/02/surname-saturday-dwinnell-of-topsfield.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday ~ CREE of Topsfield, Massachusetts

CREE / CRAY / CREIGH

My 7^th great grandfather, Nicholas Cree, is a mystery.  I don’t know his birth or death, but only that he married Keziah Dwinell of Topsfield and had six children born there.  His marriage record says he was “Of Marblehead”.   This brickwall ancestor has many researchers searching for his origins, probably in Scotland. 

Not much is known of his son, Richard Cree (1727 – 1769), my 6^th great grandfather.  I have his vital records, and his death record states he was “a middle aged man who was drownded”.    I descend from his eldest son, Stephen Cree (1760  - 1821), who married his bride, Hannah Smith, in the town of Holden, Massachusetts, many miles from Topsfield.  The interesting thing is that I was married in the town of Holden, too, about 200 years after the marriage of Stephen and Hannah Cree.  Hannah’s origins are unknown, but I found her birth record in Worcester in 1763, to her father, Joseph Smith.  Perhaps he is related to the Smith family of Topsfield? Another mystery.

My 4^th great grandmother, Sarah Cree (1792 – 1835) married first at age 16 to John W. Ham in 1808 and had one child.  Then she remarried to James Phillips in Topsfield in 1815.  They had two children and he died young in 1820.  Sarah never remarried and died young herself in 1835.   Her daughter, my 3^rd great grandmother, Hannah Phillips (about 1821 – 1851) also died young after having three children born in Salem.  

The Cree surname is considered to be Scots, a derivation of the same CREIGH or CRAY.  There are several DNA studies ongoing to find the origins of Nicholas Cree, the immigrant ancestor in New England.

Some CREE resources:

The CREE One-Name Study   http://www.cree.name/usa/topsfield.htm

The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society (some volumes available online at Archive.org, including Volumes nine and ten with the Topsfield marriage records)

The True Genealogy of the Dunnel and Dwinnell Family of New England, by Henry Gale Dunnel, 1862.

My CREE genealogy:

Generation 1:  Nicolas Cree married on 7 October 1723 in Topsfield, Massachusetts to Keziah Dwinel, daughter of John Dwinell and Mary Read.  She was born 14 December 1703 in Topsfield.  Six children born in Topsfield. 

Generation 2:  Richard Cree, born 13 August 1727 in Topsfield, died 15 April 1769 in Topsfield; married on 5 February 1756 in Topsfield to Ruth Johnson, daughter of Stephen Johnson and Rebecca Towne.  She was born 30 August 1731 in Topsfield and died 29 June 1800 in Topsfield.  Five children.

Generation 3:  Stephen Cree, was born 30 October 1760 in Topsfield, died 15 October 1821 in Topsfield; married on 27 February 1787 in Holden, Massachusetts to Hannah Smith, daughter of Joseph Smith of Worcester.  She was born 22 May 1763 in Worcester, and died 19 October 1839 in Topsfield.  Five children.

Generation 4:  Sarah Cree, born 30 September 1792 in Topsfield, died 3 May 1835 in Topsfield; married 6 August 1820 in Topsfield to James Phillips.  He was born about 1792 probably in Rowley, and died 5 April 1820 in Topsfield.  Two children.

Generation 5:  Hannah Phillips m. Thomas Russell Lewis

Generation 6:  Hannah Eliza Lewis m. Abijah Franklin Hitchings

Generation 7:  Arthur Treadwell Hitchings m. Florence Etta Hoogerzeil

Generation 8:  Gertrude Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ CREE of Topsfield, Massachusetts”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 27, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/surname-saturday-cree-of-topsfield.html: accessed [access date]). 

A Royal Doll ~ "Lost" and then Found

At the Wenham Museum there is a large doll collection that held a secret, but not really a secret.  For years and years readers of Queen Lili’uokalani’s autobiography Hawaii’s Story have read about how during her trip to Boston in 1898 to visit her husband’s family, she dressed a doll for a children’s charity.  The Boston newspapers carried this story, too.   I've often wondered what happened to the doll, and so did the curator of Washington Place, the Queen’s family home in Honolulu.  Last year I learned that an author had found the doll in plain sight, at the Wenham Doll Museum.

This was extremely interesting to me, since I had been to the Wenham Museum many time, both as a child and then again with my own daughter. My mother (she grew up next door in Hamilton, Massachusetts) had been many times, too, and two of her brothers live within walking distance of the museum in Wenham.  We were all wondering if the doll the Queen had dressed in Hawaiian costume had survived, and yet we all had overlooked seeing it in the museum. How did this happen?

The Wenham Museum

Wenham, Massachusetts

I went to the museum over this past winter to see the doll for myself.  I had corresponded with the author, Mindi Reid, many times since our trip to Hawaii last September.  She had sworn me to secrecy until her story was published in Mana Magazine.  Well, the article with her story was just released in the May/June 2013 issue.  You can read it online through the Mana Magazine app for iPad or other tablet readers, or purchase the issue through the website below (unless you are lucky enough to be in Hawaii to pick up the issue at your local news stand).

You can see why the doll would not be recognizable today as a Hawaiian.  Her once colorful dress and hair have faded, and the silk flower lei has wilted.  Queen Lili’uokalani had been given a German porcelain doll to dress, so she looks very Caucasian. There is no wonder we never stopped to read the label on this little doll, even though she stands on a shelf next to dolls dressed by the crowned heads of Europe and Japan.

The Hawaiian doll is to the far right, other dolls on this shelf were donated by
The Tsar Nicolas II, Queen Victoria, The Emperor of Japan, and Queen Elizabeth of Romania

Come in and see the dolls
of Boston town,
Dollies from all the
world around,
Who go about from
Place to Place,
All with a cheerful
face,
To help little
children dear,
That they may be happy
and glad all the year.
And when you've seen
them o'er and o'er
You'll want to see
them one time more.

Elizabeth Richards Horton was a Boston socialite, and she asked Queen Lili’uokalani to contribute a doll to her exhibition to benefit The New England Home for Crippled Children (now Children’s Hospital in Boston).   She had a doll named “Miss Columbia” who traveled with other dolls for charitable exhibits. Her family owned the Claflin Richards house in Wenham. The house was purchased by the Wenham improvement society in 1921 as a museum.  Elizabeth’s collection grew when people heard of her charity, and even crowned heads from all over the globe contributed dolls. After many years of being in storage, she tried to sell her doll collection, but found it had suffered damage in poor storage conditions. Instead of selling the dolls, she offered it in 1922 for display at the Wenham museum. About 600 of the dolls had survived enough to go on permanent display as the International Doll Collection.

A poster for the International Doll Collection

"Miss Columbia" and some of her international doll companions

You can read all about how the Queen sewed this doll’s costume herself in her autobiography or in Mindi Reid’s article in Mana.  You can also read all about the International Doll Collection at the Wenham Museum website.  I’m still flabbergasted that the doll has survived all these years, and the little dress sewn by the Queen is still in good condition. The flowered fabric has faded, and so has her hair and the bright ribbon around her waist. Most of all, I’m still surprised that I saw the doll so many times, and did not recognize that she was the Queen’s doll.  The title of Mindi Reid’s article is “Lost in Plain Sight”. 

I also found a genealogical connection between my mother, who was a cousin to Queen Lili’uokalani’s husband, John Owen Dominis, and to Elizabeth Horton Richards, the Wenham woman who started the International Doll collection.  Mom's 3rd great grandmother, Catherine (Jones) Younger, was the sister of Mary (Jone) Dominis, who removed to Hawaii with her sea captain husband, and her son, John Owen Dominis married Lili'uokalani.

Genealogy:

Generation 1: Michael Dunnell, born about 1640, probably France, died about 1717 in Topsfield, Massachusetts, married to Mary Unknown.  Michael Dunnell/Dwinnell is my 9^th great grandfather.

Generation 2: Thomas Dunnell, born 20 November 1672 in Topsfield, died 8 October 1747 in Topsfield, married on 23 May 1701 in Lynn, Massachusetts to Dinah Brimsdell

Generation 3: Thomas Dwinnell, born 1711 in Topsfield, died 25 June 1775, married in 1738 to Hannah Towne, daughter of Joseph Towne and Abigail Curtis. Joseph Towne is the brother of Edmund Towne, my 9^th great grandfather.

Generation 4:  Jacob Dwinnell, born 20 November 1744; married on 11 February 1768 in Boxford, Massachusetts to Mehitable Towne, daughter of Elisha Towne and Sarah Rhodes.  

Generation5: Elijah Dwinnell b. 14 July 1773 in Boxford, Massachusetts; married Rebecca Russell, daughter of James Russell and Rebecca Unknown

Generation 6: Mary Ann Dwinnell married on 28 July 1827 to Jabez Richards, born 27 March 1805, died 18 March 1840. 

Generation 7:  Elizabeth Willett Richards, born 6 October 1837 in Wenham, Massachusetts, died 22 August 1928 in Wenham; married in 1858 to Thayer Horton.

                                           Michael Dunnell and Mary Unknown

                                           I                                                  I

Thomas Dunnell and Dinah Brimdell                         John Dwinnell and Mary Read

                                           I                                                  I

Thomas Dwinnell and Hannah Towne                       Keziah Dwinnell and Nicholas Cree

                                           I                                                  I

Jacob Dwinnell and Mehitable Towne                       Richard Cree and Ruth Johnson

                                           I                                                  I

Elijah Dwinnell and Rebecca Russell                         Stephen Cree and Hannah Smith

                                           I                                                  I

Mary Ann Dwinnell and Jabez Richards                    Sarah Cree and James Phillips

                                           I                                                  I

Elizabeth Willett Richards m. Thayer Horton            Hannah Phillips and Thomas Russell Lewis

                                                                                              I

                                                                         Hannah Eliza Lewis and Abijah Franklin Hitchings

                                                                                              I

                                                               Arthur Treadwell Hitchings and Florence Etta Hoogerzeil

                                                                                              I

                                                                 Gertrude Matilda Hitchings and Stanley Elmer Allen

                                                                                     (my grandparents)

Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, by Liliuokalani, Mutual Publishing, 1991 (originally published in Boston by Lee & Shepard Publishing, 1897), page 216 – 7.

"Mrs. William Lee of Brookline gave an interesting talk last evening to a goodly gathering of women, and a slight sprinkling of men, at the doll show opened in Hotel Thorndike, for two days, yesterday, for the benefit of the New England Home for Crippled Children.

This doll show, which for variety and size exceeds any previous one in Boston, is notable for one thing, - in having among the exhibits three genuine royal dolls, that is to say, three dolls contributed by royalty.  Two of them, miniature representations of Eskimo babies, made by the Eskimos themselves, and dressed in full Arctic costume of sealskin, were sent here by Queen Victoria from her own private collection, which is said to be the largest in the world.

The third one was given by ex-Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii who dressed it and decorated it herself in the mother hubbard-like gown characteristic of Hawaiian women, and the head wreath and neck garland of flowers to which they are so partial on gala occasions.  The ex-queen named the doll Kaiulani, for her niece and heir.”  [Mrs. William Lee [ born Sara White (1849 - 1925)] is the 2nd wife of my 1st cousin 4 generations removed.  William Lee was first cousin to John O. Dominis, husband of Queen Liliuokalani.  John O. Dominis's mother, Mary Lambert Jones (1803 -1889) was the sister of my 3rd great grandmother Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger (about 1799 - 1828).]  

For more information:

UPDATE!  This magazine is out of business) Mana Magazine http://www.mymanamagazine.com/

UPDATE!  This app is no longer available! Download the Mana Magazine app here

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mana-magazine/id522444940?mt=8

The Wenham Museum website www.wenhammusuem.org  and the Miss Columbia Doll exhibit webpage is https://www.wenhammuseum.org/collections/dolls/miss-columbia/  

“Lost in Plain Sight”, by Mindi Reid, Mana Magazine, Honolulu, Hawaii: Pacific Basin Publishing, page 22.

“Tiny Ambassadors with a Mission” from the Antiques Almanac website (the top photo is of the doll donated by Queen Lili’uokalani):  http://www.theantiquesalmanac.com/dollcollection.htm

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Royal Doll ~ "Lost" and then Found", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 17, 2018, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-royal-doll-lost-and-then-found.html: accessed [access date]). 

H. P. Hood, Derry's Famous Milk Man

Chen's Chinese Restaurant in Derry, on Broadway,

originally the Hood Family homestead

The famous Hood's Milk Bottle,

now located at the Children's Museum in Boston

Harvey Perley Hood

My uncle worked for the H. P. Hood Dairy from the 1950s until the 1990s. Uncle Bob lived in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. If you lived there in the 1970s until about 2004 you might remember Bob Wilkinson passing out “Hoodsie” ice creams in the Fourth of July Parade, or supplying the Hoods whipped cream for the Lions “Red, White and Blue Breakfast” on Tuck’s Point. In a strange coincidence, the Hood family owned a large summer mansion in Manchester-by-the-Sea, at the far end of Singing Beach. In an even stranger coincidence, the H. P. Hood blimp crashed into the woods of Manchester-by-the-Sea in 2006, not long after Uncle Bob passed away. But the Hood family is most famous for their dairy farm in Derry, New Hampshire.

Harvey Perley Hood was born in 1823 in Chelsea, Vermont, but removed to Boston to work before starting his dairy business. According to Hood’s archives, Mr. Hood started his dairy in Derry because the country air improved his health. He started the company in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1846, and removed to Derry at the time he married, in 1850. At first he drove his milk to Charlestown by wagon, and then implemented the milk train, which carried the milk twice a day to the Charletown plant, which is still visible off Rt. 93.

The Hood home is now Chen’s Chinese Restaurant, across from the Hoodkroft Golf Course, on East Broadway in Derry. This building is now on the National Registry of Historic Places. The Hood name is all over Derry; Hood Plaza being where the dairy cows once grazed, and Hood Middle School on Hood Road was named for Gilbert H. Hood, Harvey’s descendant. That land was once a pasture for thousands of dairy cows. Traffic used to stop on Broadway each morning as the cows were moved from one field to another for grazing.

You can see photos of the Hood dairy farms in books such as “Derry Revisited” by Richard Holmes, the Derry town historian, published by Arcadia Published in 2005. You can see exhibits also at the Derry Museum of History http://www.derrymuseum.org/ Derry is no longer home to any dairy production, but Londonderry still reigns as the headquarters of Stonyfield Yogurt http://www.stonyfield.com/

Historic New England has the manuscript collection of the Hood Dairy's business records and other items, please see this link http://www.historicnewengland.org/collections-archives-exhibitions/collections-access/collection-object/capobject?refd=CC001

The Hood Family Tree:

Gen. 1. John Hood, b. about 1600 in England, resided in Lynn, Massachusetts, married to Ann (?)

Gen. 2. Richard Hood, b. abt 1625 at Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, England, d. 12 Sep. 1695 in Lynn; married about 1653 to Mary Newhall, daughter of Anthony Newhall and Mary White.

Gen. 3. Nathaniel Hood, b. 9 June 1669 at Lynn, d. 30 Oct 1748 at Topsfield, Massachusetts; married on 16 Oct. 1706 at Topsfield to Joanna Dwinnell, daughter of Michael Dwinnell and Mary (?)

Gen. 4. Nathan Hood, b. about 1701 in Topsfield, d. 4 May 1792; married on 6 Mar. 1730/1 in Rowley, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Palmer

Gen. 5. Nathan Hood, b. 10 Jan. 1739/40 in Topsfield, d. 23 Mar. 1772; married on 17 Feb. 1763 to Mary Perkins

Gen. 6. Enos Hood, b. 26 May 1767 at Chelsea, Vermont, d. 23 Apr. 1845 at Salem, Massachusetts; married on 29 Sep. 1791 to Gillen Lane.

Gen. 7. Harvey Hood, b. 1 June 1798 at Chelsea, Vermont, d. 18 Sep. 1879 at Chelsea; married on 23 Sep. 1821 to Rebecca Smith.

Gen. 8. Harvey Perley Hood, b. 6 Jan 1823 at Chelsea, Vermont, d. 17 June 1900 at Derry, New Hampshire; married on 5 May 1850 to Caroline Laura Corwin, daughter of John Corwin and Clarissa Thompson.

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "H. P. Hood, Derry's Famous Milk Man", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 8, 2009, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/h-p-hood-derrys-famous-milk-man.html: accessed [access date]).