New England ‘49ers

Over the past 12 years I have blogged many stories about my 3^rd great grandfather, George Emerson (1817 – 1890) of South Boston and Dorchester, Massachusetts, who went to California during the 1849 Gold Rush.  You can read some of those stories HERE and HERE.

But, do you have a ‘49er in your family tree?  You might want to check this news story I found in an 1888 issue of the Boston Daily Globe newspaper. If you scroll down to the transcription, there is a list of all the men (and one woman!) who attended a 40^th reunion of the ‘49ers at a hotel in Boston.  Each name also lists their city of residence, and the route they took to California in 1849 – by ship or by an overland route.  This is a great list, and well worth it for me to spend an hour or more transcribing it to make these names available on my blog, and available to search engines.

Boston Daily Globe,  (Boston, Massachusetts) Tuesday, September 11, 1888

"FORTY-NINERS

Big Banquet at the Revere House

Reunion of California Pioneers

Talking Over Days of Pickaxe and Cradle

Many Reminiscent Speeches and Songs

Letter of Regret Read from General W. T. Sherman

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 marks the beginning of an important epoch in the history of our nation.  Before that time the United States had been supplied with the precious metal from England and the gold fields of Africa.  Native gold first appeared in the United States mint in 1824, and up to 1827 North Carolina had been the only State to produce the golden metal in notable quantities.  After that time “placer deposits” were discovered in various sections of the country, but the yield of gold was small, and when in 1848 the discoveries in California were announced these deposits and many of the veins in the South were abandoned.

The news of the discovery spread rapidly, and then began the unparalleled rush to the gold fields of California.  The tide of emigration poured in from the Atlantic States, Mexico, South America, and even from Europe and China, and continued through the year of 1849.

The story of the discovery of the first “find” is thus interestingly told.  One day in the latter part of February 1848 a party of Americans, two of whom were of the Mormon faith, were at Sutter’s mill, on the American fork of the Sacramento river, engaged in repairing the mill-race, which had been damaged by the spring freshets, when the little daughter of the overseer, whose name was Marshall, picked up a lump of gold, and running to her father with it asked him to look at the “pretty stone” she had found.

Those men who were attacked with “gold fever” and left behind happy homes and families to see their fortunes in the “gold diggings” of the Pacific coast have passed into American history as “Forty niners.”

Yesterday afternoon 200 of these old gold hunters gathered at the Revere house to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the discovery of gold in California and hold the first reunion of the Society of California Pioneers of New England.

This society is the outgrowth of an organization that held its annual dinner last February in Salem and then agreed to disband and form anew with headquarters in Boston.  Last July the new society was formed with the following board of officers: President, William H. Thomes of Boston; first vice president, Charles A. Dole of Somerville; second vice president, Richard Harrington of Salem; treasurer, Josiah Hayward of Boston; secretary, George G. Spurr of Boston; directors William J. Towne, Newtonville; Charles T. Stumcke, Boston; Nicholas Bovey, Salem; Charles H.  Fifield, Salem; Benjamin F. Whittemore, Boston; Hon. John Conness, Mattapan.

Only the men or the children of the men who went to California prior to 1800 [sic]may become members, but already nearly 200 ex-miners have paid the necessary initiation fee.  President Thomes expects a membership of 500 when the next annual dinner is partaken of.  The association is fashioned after the San Francisco Pioneer Association, and plans to celebrate annually, over well laden tables, the discovery of gold in California. 

All day yesterday there floated over the Revere House a flag especially designed for the association, and not until the gathering had scattered was it pulled down.  This was but one way to which they showed the enthusiasm which stirred within them as the memories of early hardships were renewed.

Soon after noon members of the society began to gather at the hotel, where they were received by the committee in charge of the affair and provided with a “Forty niners” badge.  Gray haired they were for the most part, but as they warmed up in recalling the adventures and the hardships of the days of ’49, all their youth seemed to return and they were again the hard New England sons who shouldered pick and shovel 40 years ago and started out to make their fortunes in the gold mines of the Pacific coast.

Below are the names of the members of the society with the name of either the vessl or route they took to reach the land of gold.  But a very few of the number were missing when the company marched into the banquet hall at 5 o’clock.

Captain Peter Peterson, Boston, ship California

W. H. Thomes, Boston, ship Admittance

Mrs. Mary Sinclair Davis, Roxbury, Overland

Edward Y. Graves, South Boston, ship Montreal

Josiah C. Spaulding, Nashua, NH, ship New Perseverance

William Chatfield, Newton, Mass.  Brig Sabine

J. F. B. Marshall, Kendall Green, ship Don Quixote

Gorham D. Gilman, Boston, Kemehameha III

Aut. L. Dole, Malden, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Grenville H. Child, Bsoton, bark Carib

Warren Fletcher, Boston, bark Elvira

Benjamin T. Martin, Chelsea, Mass., bark Elvira

Isaiah Graves, Lynn, Mass., brig Sterling

Moses L. Capen, South Boston, ship Leonore

Albert W. Gale, Concord, NH, ship Leonore

George Emerson, Dorchester, ship Leonore

Daniel W. Nason, Epping, NH, Isthmus Panama

John Conness, Mattapan, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Benjamin S. Grush, Salem, Mass., Isthmus Panama

George G. Spurr, Boston, ship Orpheus

Andrew J. Morton, Boston, brig John W. Coffin

George W. Forrestall, Boston, ship Almena

Robert C. Hall, Charlestown, Mass., ship Obid Mitchell

Benjamin F. Whittemore, Boston, ship Capitol

Alonzo H. Richardson, Hyde Park, ship Capitol

William J. Towne, Newtonville, Mass., ship Capitol

Andrew J. Chase, Lynn, Mass., ship Capitol

James Jackson, Lynnfield, ship Capitol

Noah P. Burgess, Portland, Me., ship Pharsalia

Albert Hamlet, Boston, ship Pharsalia

James D. MacAvoy, Readville, Mass., ship Edward Everett

M. D.Spaulding, Boston, ship Edward Everett

Hiram Weston, East Boston, ship Edward Everett

Joseph P. Blake, Haverhill, Mass., through Mexico

Jonathan Cobb, Dedham, Mass., through Mexico

George H. Stickney, Salem, Mass., ship Elizabeth

William V. Monroe, Boston, ship Duxbury

Amasa Taylor, Provincetown, Mass., overland

Samuel W. Gage, Salem, Mass., overland

Lewis C. Peck, Lewiston, Me., overland

Joseph Holmes, Milton, Mass., ship Sweden

Edwin Litchfield, Boston, ship Sweden

Thomas E. Hatch, Washington DC, ship Sweden

James M. Drew, East Boston, ship Sweden

Jefferson Young, Chelsea, Mass., ship Brooklyn

Richard Chenery, Belfast, Me., Isthmus Panama

Charles F. Ketteredge, Rockland, Me., bark Oxford

Cornel S. Cooledge, Washington, NH, bark Oxford

James H. Bennett, Boston, bark Oxford

Isaac R. Hadwen, Somerville, Mass., bark Winthrop

William J. Dunham, Island Creek, Mass., bark Yeoman

Alonzo Kinsley, Canton, Mass., bark Orb

William C. Hill, Howland, Me., bark Emma Issadora

Joseph E. Huse, Lynn, Mass, bark Mayflower

Samuel Carr, Cambridgeport, Mass., Isthmus Panama

William McMurphy, Lynn, Mass., Isthmus Panama

George C. Clark, Salem, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Henry G. Hubon, Salem, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Benjamin F. Griggs, Boston, brig Tarranto

Henry B. Hildreth, Lynn, Mass., ship York

Frederick K. Ballou, Boston, bark LaGrange

Charles A. Dole, Somerville, Mass., bark LaGrange

Richard Harrington, Salem, Mass., bark LaGrange

Nicholas Bovey, Salem, Mass., bark LaGrange

Augustus Harrington, Peabody, Mass., bark LaGrange

Joseph Hastings, Roxbury, Isthmus Panama

John Johnston, Amesbury, Mass., ship Regulas

Ephraim Brown, Amesbury, Mass., ship Regulas

Charles C. Greenough, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Edwin P Worster, Weymouth, Mass., bark Lanark

Henry L. Lawrence, Arlington, Mass., bark Lanark

Solomon S. Rowe, Boston, bark Lanark

Charles B. Hazeltine, Belfast, Me., Isthmus Panama

Charles J. Randall, Wrentham, Mass., bark Velasco

Shirley A. Elsbree, Providence, R.I., bark Velasco

Henry M. Arnold, Pawtucket, R.I., bark Velasco

Isaac B. Kirby, Providence, R.I., bark Velasco

Alvin R. Richardson, Lynn, Mass., ship New Jersey

David Mowery, Slaterville, R. I., ship New Jersey

Charles T. Stumcke, Boston, ship New Jersey

Horace Wheeler, Watertown, Mass., ship New Jersey

W. W. Reed, Peabody, Mass., ship New Jersey

Olney Dodge, Plainfield, Conn., ship New Jersey

John H. Thompson, New Bedford, Mass., Isthmus Panama

James S. Green, Chelsea, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Charles F. Gifford, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Newton Talbot, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Edward Pease, Lynn, Mass., ship Areates

Henry W. Bowen, Boston, ship Areates

William H. Rand, Chicago, Ill., ship Areates

Ephraim S. Colby, Manchester, N.H., ship Areates

Reuben E. Carpenter, Ashland, Mass., brig Sea Eagle

Amos Fillebrown, East Cambridge, Mass., brig Sea Eagle

John Adams, Charlestown, Mass., ship Constantine

Captain John Weston, Boston, ship Constantine

Henry B. Mellon, Durham, N.H., ship Pacific

Samuel Snow, Cambridge, Mass., ship Niantic

Samuel Parr, Roxbury, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Henry J. Wells, Cambridge, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Charles Pickett, Beverly, Mass., bark San Francisco

William A. Perkins, Salem, Mass., bark San Francisco

Stephen Osgood, Georgetown, Mass., schooner B. L. Allen

Davis S. Whitney, Dorchester, Mass., schooner Mary M. Wood

Allen C. Lawrence, Lowell, Mass., Isthmus Panama

William Hale, West Newbury, Mass., Isthmus Panama

John H. Eveleth, Greenville, Me., Isthmus Panama

David S. Boynton, Lynn, Mass., brig Ann Tarris

James Burdick, Provincetown, R.I., ship South America

Burnham Boyce, Boston, ship Mattakeseet

Captain David G. Patterson, East Boston, schooner Mary and Emma (25 tons)

Franklin Upton, Danvers, Mass., ship Harriet Rockwell

F. B. Mower, Lynn, Mass., ship Henry Ware

William Norton, Lynn, Mass., ship Argonaut

William H. Pierse, Lynne, Mass., ship Argonaut

Abner J. Moody, Boston, ship Argonaut

John Norton, Stoneham, Mass., ship Argonaut

Josiah Fitz, 3d, Lynn, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Peter Wearty, Salem, Mass., ship Reindeer

Rodolphus F. Hahn, East Boston, Mass., schooner Civilian

William G. Prescott, Quincy, Mass., schooner Civilian

Josiah Hayward, Boston, schooner Civilian

Ephram L. Noyes, Abington, Mass., schooner Civilian

Henry Souther, Gloucester, Mass., ship Richmond

Edwin D. Wadsworth, Milton, Mass., ship Richmond

John M. Humphrey, Norwood, Mass., ship Richmond

Isaac R. Wilkinson, Pawtucket, R.I., Isthmus Panama

Jonathan Davis, Salem, Mass., ship Crescent

Elias J. Hale, Foxcroft, Me., ship Alexander Coffin

W. W. West, East Boston, bark William O. Alden

Richard Dowst, Salem Mass., ship Cordova

Thomas C. Mellen, Weymouth, ship Cordova

Charles B. Goodrich, Boston, bark Mary Broughton

Theodore Brown, Salem, Mass., schooner Sea Serpent

Henry B. Shute, Gloucester, schooner Sea Serpent

Charles Saville, Gloucester, schooner Sea Serpent

Edward B. Southern, Quincy, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Leander W. Cogswell, Henniker, N.H., ship Hannibal

Josiah H. Learned, South Framingham, ship Hannibal

General Samuel A. Chapin, Norton, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Royal P. Hodges, Norton, Mass., Isthmus Panama

George Barron, Topham, Me., Isthmus Panama

Cyrus C. Atwell, Charlestown, Isthmus Panama

George H. Buxton, Salem, Mass., schooner Nassau

John Jackson, Salem, Mass., brig Ark

George L. Bradley, San Francisco, Cal., brig Ark

Nathaniel Fuller, Boston, ship Nester

William Russell, Salem, Mass., ship Nester

John Boyd, Salem, Mass., ship Nester

William F. Perry, Salem, brig Metropolis

Samuel H. Robinson, Boston, bark Orion

James A. Grant, Warnerville, Mass., bark Orion

Elihu W. Colcord, Lawrence, Mass., brig General Worth

George R. Williams, Boston, bark Pico

Henry N. Kingsbury, Newton, Mass., ship Marcia Cleaves

Salathuel N. Ryder, Cambridgeport, bark Morgan Dix

Robert B. Henderson, Boston, bark Cherokee

Albion Chipman, Cambridgeport, Mass., Isthmus Panama

John W. Gilcrhist, Norwich, Conn., Isthmus Panama

Cyrus Greely, Lewiston, Me., Isthmus Panama

Joseph Hilliard, Northbury, Mass., Isthmus Panama

George D. Rice, Melrose, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Lorign W. Gleason, Everett, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Moses G. Steele, Somerville, Mass., Isthmus Panama

George H. Cushman, Salem, Mas., Isthmus Panama

Charles H. Fifeild, Salem, Mass., ship Samuel Appleton

Albert H. Breed, Lynn, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Charles A. Jordan, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Moses L. Colby, Amesbury, Mass., ship Victory

Oliver S. Cressy, Providence, R. I., ship Ellen Foster

Joseph Delory, Peabody, Mass., ship Benjamin Howard

Henry T. Bowman, New Bedford, Central America

Henry M. Forrestall, Boston, schooner Flying Fish

Isaac S. Pear, Cambridgeport, Mass., ship Golden Eagle

John C. Philbrook, Ipswich, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Samuel C. Weston, Salem, Mass., Isthmus Panama

John Quinn, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Charles Spencer, Boston, bark Emily

Isaiah Aubens, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Charles E. Stumcke, Boston, Mass., born in San Francisco

John Glancy, Boston, Nicaragua

Alfred C. Hill, Saugus, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Edwin Gage, Haverhill, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Darius N. Stevens, Stoneham, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Joseph Morrill Hoyt, Lynn, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Frances M. Ball, Stoughton, Mass., Isthmus Panama

John N. Wood, Norridgwock, Me., Isthmus Panama

Daniel D. Taylor, Norridgewock, Me., Isthmus Panama

George Willard, Boston, Isthmus Panama

Isaac Gardner, Hingham, Mass., Isthmus Panama

Seth D. Wakefield, Lewiston, Me., Isthmus Panama

Daniel C. Perkins, Rockland, Mae., Isthmus Panama

Charles M. Abbott, Portland, Me., Isthmus Panama

George W. Crampton, Cambridge, Isthmus Panama

Eben N. Walton, Salem, Mass., honorary member

Seth Rich, bark Oxford

George H. Mann, Harriet Rockwell

William L. Henderson, bark Chester

Julius L. Clarke, brig Cirassian

Samuel P. Barker, ship Edward Everett

Edward Payson Adams, schooner Fides

William F. Cowdrey, ship Argonaut

Alonzo D. Buxton, ship Argonaut

Albert Ferry, bark San Francisco

Joseph G. Nelson, Overland

Henry D. Shute, schooner Sea Serpent

Samuel T. Manson, ship Constantine

William C. Barker, South America

Nathan Ketch, bark Phenix

H. B. Ellis, steamer Star of the West

Frederick Pease, bark Chester

George Lugardner, ship Capital

R. B. Henderson, bark Cherokee

P. D. Leonard, bark Chester

Lemuel Gillson, ship New Jersey

S.J. Upton, ship Overland

William K. Lambert, ship Charlotte

The banquet hall was handsomely decorated and flowers in profusion adorned the tables.  An appropriate floral design in front of the president’s chair was a representation in crysan hemums of the society’s seal – a pick, pan, and shovel ingeniously grouped together with the figure ’49 in its center.  Upon the wall hung the “bear flag” which General Fremont unfurled from the Custom House of Monterey in 1846, just as the English frigate sailed into the harbor to take possession of the country in the name of Great Britain.  It was loaned the society by the New York pioneers.  The gold dinner service was brought out for the occasion together with all the silver table ware the house affords.

One of the very interesting persons present last night was Captain Peter Peterson who wen to California for the fist time in 1834 as second mate on the ship “California”, and again in 1836 as chief mate on the same vessel, and in 1842 as captain of the “Admittance.”  He is now over 80 years old and is well-known by many early travellers to California and at the earnest solicitations of W. H. Thomes, the president of the association, who went to California in 1843 with him on the “Admittance” attended the banquet.

It was noticeable that there was but one woman present.  This was Mrs. Mary Sinclair Davis of Roxbury, who went to California overland in 1843, starting from Massachusetts in 1842, crossing the plains in an ox cart and settling on a ranch 20 miles from where Sacramento city is now located, where she remained until about 10 years ago.  It is told of General Sherman that when he was at Sutter’s Fort in 1846, being then but a lieutenant, a ball was to come off in a few days and he and a few comrades did not know with whom they were to enjoy the pleasures of the mazy, as there was but one woman at the fort.  The gallant young lieutenant, in order not to be disappointed, made is way to the house of Mrs. Davis and succeeded in getting her and her husband to attend the ball.

The guests of the society were Hon. A. W. Beard, representing the Commonwealth; F. B. Clark, Hon. Demas Strong, and James A. Spring of the New York Pioneer Association, and Dr. Hatch, representing the Pioneer Society of Washington.

The speeches were of a reminiscent character. President Thomes welcomed the company in a happy manner, and pleasantly alluded to the youthful appearance of the company.  When he looked back to the time these adventurous, enterprising men started for California to seek their fortunes, he could hardly realize that 40 years had passed and they were forty-niners. 

Treasurer Beard spoke for the State of Massachusetts in the absence of Governor Ames, and other addresses were made by General Samuel H. Capen of Norton, Hon. Demas Strong of Norton, and Secretary Spurr.

Letters were read from Governor Ames, Mayor O’Brien, Major H. G. Gibson of Washinton, Hon. John Conness of California, and General Sherman.  The latter’s letter is given below:

Fifth Avenue Hotel

New York, August 29, 1888

William H. Thomes, president California Pioneers, Boston

My Dear Sir – I thank you very much for your kind letter of the 27^th inst. And regret that I will be unable to be with you at the grand reunion of Sept. 10^, because I am already pledged to be at Columbus, O., on that very day, on a centennial celebration.

There is a charm about the memories of those early California days which seems to brighten with years like the golden sands. To me, who am almost the sole survivor the expedition sent around Cape Horn, to hold possession of what the navy had gained in 1846, the events of those early days seem more like the visions of Aladdin than actual facts, and subsequent events have swallowed up those memories; and I am daily appealed to assist in celebrating battles and sieges fast receding into the past, so that time is not allowed me to care for a family of six living children and eight grandchildren.  But you may assure any old pioneer of California of the days before the discovery of gold turned the whole world “upside down”, that my feelings are with them, whether they now reside in California, Oregon, Missouri, New York or Boston.

Our thoughts and feelings in speed exceed the magic telegraph, but our bodies are sluggish – “of the earth earthy” – and I cannot be at Columbus O., and Boston at the same time; therefore, report me absent on patriotic duty.  Sincerely your friend,

W.T. Sherman"

----------------------

For the truly curious:

Blog post 28 August 2009 “George Emerson, Forty Niner”:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-emerson-forty-niner.html  

Blog post 20 December 2012 “A Fancy Wedding, and a Family Myth Perpetuated”:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-fancy-wedding-and-family-myth.html 

My EMERSON Surname Saturday blog post 10 January 2015:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/01/surname-saturday-emerson-of-ipswich.html  

And another interesting member of my family tree who told his family he was going to to be a missionary (he was the son of a Baptist preacher) but he was really headed to the gold rush!:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/missionary-to-new-zealand.html 

----------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “New England ‘49ers”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 17, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/06/new-england-49ers.html: accessed [access date]). 

Chinese Camp Cemetery, new photos from a reader! ~ Tombstone Tuesday

Back in 2011 I blogged about our visit to the tiny Gold Rush mining town of Chinese Camp in Tuolumne County, California.  It was the first time I visited a cemetery in California, and I was a novice at avoiding rattlesnakes and heat stroke!  You can see the post about the town of Chinese Camp HERE, and the Chinese Camp Cemetery HERE.

In my original blog post I described how we were driving to Yosemite National Park from San Francisco.  As we passed through Chinese Camp I remembered the name from my family tree research, and realized that there was a distant member of my family buried here. We explored the cemetery a while but never found the grave we were looking for.

Just yesterday a reader named Gloria Ruiz sent me a nice message about Chinese Camp, and she found the grave of Anna (Norcross) (Wilkinson) (Bush).  Since 2011 I have confirmed that she is from my branch of Wilkinsons. (See the original post for the genealogical information).

ANNA A. BUSH

1884  +  1965

Gloria Ruiz described Chinese Camp in the spring as lush and green. She said "I did find it in the beautiful tall GREEN grass. LOL. It's beautiful here this time of year...Next time you visit come in late March early April no snakes!"

Gloria is a resident of Chinese Camp, which has a population of only 100 people!  She and her rescue dog, Maude, took a walk up to the Chinese Camp cemetery for these photos.  She described Anna's grave as "... the first row to your left as soon as you enter the gate.  Then go past the larger plots and just past John Hansen's plot about 3 to 5 plots is Anna's headstone."  She included photos of the row of plots and John Hansen's headstone for reference.

Gloria also described the town a little for me.  She said that there are new owners of the local store, who keep it open 7 days a week.  The catholic church was scheduled to be torn down, but the residents petitioned to keep it because it is a historical landmark. They are going to restore it for use as a worship and community center.

Thank you so much, Gloria and Maude!

My 2011 post about my trip to Chinese Camp:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/chinese-camp-tuolumne-county-california.html 

My 2011 post about the Chinese Camp Cemetery:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/tombstone-tuesday-chinese-camp-cemetery.html


-------------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo and Gloria Ruiz, "Chinese Camp Cemetery, new photos from a reader! ~ Tombstone Tuesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 24, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/04/chinese-camp-cemetery-new-photos-from.html: accessed [access date]).

Top Ten Genealogy "Close Calls"

What’s a “Genealogy Close Call”?  It happens when I research an ancestor and realize that if fate didn’t intervene I wouldn’t be here today.  Some of our ancestors narrowly escaped disasters, only to live on and produce a descendant that led to YOU!   Read down the list, and you’ll instantly know what I mean.  I’m sure there are many “close calls” in your family tree, too.  Why don’t you tell me about some of these bits of serendipity in the comments?

Close Call No. 1:

John Howland (1592 – 1673) is my 9th great grandfather on both my mother’s side, and my father’s side of the family.  He had a very close call on his way to Massachusetts on board the ship Mayflower in 1620. Halfway across the Atlantic the Pilgrims encountered a great storm. For some unknown reason, the passenger John Howland was on deck instead of below with the other Pilgrims.  He fell overboard, but miraculously grabbed a rope that was hanging over the side of the ship, and he was hauled to safety.  Young John was described in William Bradford’s journal “though he was somewhat ill with it, yet he lived many years after.”  He later married Elizabeth Tilley, another passenger, and had many children, including the two daughters, Hope and Desire, from whom I descend.  If not for that rope, I wouldn’t be here today.

Close Call No. 2:

I have many ancestors who were involved in the 1692 Witchcraft Hysteria that hit Salem, Massachusetts. Three were hanged, many others were imprisoned, brought to trial, accused and otherwise abused.  The ones who were hanged (Bridget Bishop, John Proctor and George Jacobs) were past their prime, with grown children, so their deaths did not mean that my lineage never occurred.  However, I had one ancestress, Elizabeth Collston (b. 1676), my 7^th great grandmother, who was arrested and imprisoned with her mother and grandmother.  At some point 16 year old Elizabeth Collston escaped.  And she escaped a second time weeks later!  Considering that she could have been brought to trial and hanged like the three ancestors mentioned above, she also could have died in jail because the conditions were appalling.  Lucky Elizabeth escaped, married in 1703, and had a daughter, Mary Collston, who was my 6^th great grandmother.  Thank you Elizabeth!

Close Call No. 3:

My 7^th great grandfather, William Munroe (1625 – 1718) was a Scots warrior in the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.  The Scots lost the battle, and survivors were rounded up and marched without food to London to be shipped on board the John and Sarah to Boston to be sold into servitude.  If you read about the Scots prisoners of war, there were not many survivors of this bloody battle.  There were not many survivors of this forced march to London.  Some died on board the ship on their way to the New World. Somehow young William survived all this to be sold on the docks into servitude.  The Scots were not welcome in Puritan Boston, but most of these men survived and married and left many descendants.  William married in 1665 to Martha George and had four children, including my 6^th great grandfather, George Munroe (about 1672 – 1747), and remarried twice more and had ten more children!  There are many descendants who feel quite grateful that William was a survivor!

Close Call No. 4:   

My 4^th great grandfather, Johann Daniel Bollman (about 1751 – 1833) was born in Hammersleben, Saxony, Germany.  He was a surgeon, and a Hessian officer during the American Revolutionary War.  He served with Baron de Riedesel’s Brunswick Regiment.  They fought at the Battle of Bennington in August 1777 where about 200 Hessians were killed and 700 were captured.  Then they fought in September at the Battle of Saratoga where my ancestor was captured.  Most of the Germans were marched to prison camps near Boston.  However, since he was a doctor, he was one of the first men to be included in a prisoner exchange and sent to Halifax.  He settled in the town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia – not far from Halifax.  He survived two bloody battles and being captured.  Dr. Bollman became a politician, as well as the town doctor.  He was a member of the House of Assembly and represented Lunenburg from 1793 - 1809.   He was a physician for 54 years and died at age 82.   Click this link to learn more about this ancestor:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/surname-saturday-bollman-my-hessian.html  

Close Call No. 5:

My 5^th great grandfather, Levi Younger (1756 – 1806) served in the Revolutionary War as a seaman.  This wasn’t unusual because he was a mariner from Gloucester, Massachusetts.  However, what was unusual was that he was captured and sent to the prison ship “Favorite” in New York harbor.  If you read or Google what the conditions were like on those British prison ships you will wonder how Levi Younger survived this ordeal.  Then he was brought to Forten Prison at Gosport near Portsmouth in England.  Googling the story of Forten Prison will make your hair stand on end. Somehow young Levi survived all this, returned to Gloucester, and married in 1784.  He had five children, including Levi, Jr. (1786 – 1858), my 4^th great grandfather.

Close Call No. 6:

Levi Younger, Jr. (1786 – 1858) is my 4^th great grandfather.  His father  (see above) was captured as a seaman during the Revolutionary War.  Levi, Jr., was also a mariner, and when the War of 1812 occurred, he stepped in to serve his country in defense of the New England coast.  You guessed it – Levi was one of the many American sailors “impressed” into the British navy during the War of 1812.  He was listed as “refusing to do so service [and] have been punished”.  Like father like son.  He also survived his ordeal and was married in 1816 in Boston and had five children, including my 4^th great grandmother, Mary Esther (Younger) Emerson described below.

Close Call No. 7:

This one is quite a story!  James Stilson, my 7^th great grandfather, was born about 1680 in Maine near the Pemaquid River.  He was captured in 1689, along with his mother, two sisters and a brother, and taken by the Indians to Quebec, Canada.  His mother was redeemed after a few years, but James was not ransomed for 12 years.  He heard that a New England woman was still being held prisoner, and he went back to see her, and liked what he saw.  Her name was Hannah Odiorne, the widow of John Batson of Cape Porpoise, Maine.  He ransomed and married her in the Roman Catholic church of Notre Dame in Montreal.  They had both been baptized Roman Catholic during their captivity.  Their first child, Marie Anne Stilson dit Dutilly Odiorne was baptized Roman Catholic on 8 March 1707.  They were remarried in Boston upon returning to New England.   The baby baptized in Montreal is my 6^th great grandmother, Hannah (AKA Marie Anne) who married Thomas Mead on 2 May 1725 in New Castle, New Hampshire.

Close Call No. 8:

Mary Esther Younger (1826 -1913) was my 3^rd great grandmother. Her father was a mariner from Gloucester who lived in Boston.  Her mother died very young, leaving Esther motherless, and two little brothers also died at the same time.  Her father remarried, but there must be more to the story because Esther was adopted by her father’s sister and her husband, David Harris.  She was raised by the David Harris family (this was another longer story on how I puzzled out her real parents).   What kind of dreadful disease or accident took the mother and brothers? Was Mary Esther lucky to have survived?

Close Call No. 9:

George Emerson (1817 – 1890) was my 3^rd great grandfather.  He was a young husband with a wife (Mary Esther Younger, above) and two small children when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mills in California in 1848.  On February 4, 1849 George was one of the 100 members of the New England and California Trading and Mining Company that left Boston on board the ship Leonore for San Francisco.  Yes, he was “49er”!  They arrived 150 days later via Cape Horn in San Francisco Bay.  There are a few surviving diaries from other members of this group of gold miners, and one describes George Emerson as sick and dying, left by the side of a California creek to write his will.   Somehow George survived, and made his way home to Boston where he had six more children.  One was Mary Katharine Emerson, my great great grandmother.  She wouldn’t have been born if he had died in California, like many other 49ers.  Click this link to learn more about my '49er ancestor:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-emerson-forty-niner.html  

Close Call No. 10:

My great great grandfather, Abijah Franklin Hitchings (1841 – 1910) served twice in the Civil War. His second enlistment brought him with Company H, 19^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry to the Battle of Fredricksburg where he was shot in the leg on 13 December 1862.  He was discharge for his wounds on 25 July 1863 at Boston.  His leg wound was horrific, but he refused to let them amputate.  He suffered for the rest of his life from terrible diseases like necrosis.  I have a 100 page pension report with lots of pages of medical reports from his annual trips to the medical facilities at the Old Soldier’s Home in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  He walked with a cane for the rest of his life.  Fortunately, he was well enough to marry on 22 September 1864 and had two children, including my great grandfather, Arthur Treadwell Hitchings (1868 – 1937).   Personally, I think this is quite a miracle since we all know how terrible the medical attention was during the Civil War battles (not just from TV, but from historical accounts), and he lived through infections and necrosis in the years before antibiotics became available.  Look up necrosis – it’s quite nasty.   Click this link to learn more about A. F. Hitchings:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-find-your-american-veteran.html   

The image above is from the journal Blast from the Ram's Horn, 1902, page 249 https://archive.org/stream/blastsfromramsho00unse/blastsfromramsho00unse#page/n256/mode/1up

-----------------------------------

Alona Tester, an Australian genealogy blogger, was inspired by this blog post and wrote her own about her Australian ancestors and their "Close Calls".  You can read these stories at this link:
http://www.lonetester.com/2017/03/genealogy-close-calls/

-----------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Top Ten Genealogy "Close Calls", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 10, 2017, (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/03/top-ten-genealogy-close-calls.html: accessed [access date]). 

A Fancy Wedding, and a Family Myth Perpetuated

This clipping is from the Herald Statesman newspaper in Yonkers, New York, dated Monday, July 17, 1933.  It depicts a pretty fancy wedding for the middle of the Great Depression era.    Leonore Esther Elmina Morill was born 13 September 1906 in Boston.  She is named after her mother Leonore Emerson, and her grandmother, Mary Esther Younger.  Mary Esther was my 3x great grandmother, and I descend from Leonore's sister, Mary Katherine Emerson (1847 - 1932).   Leonore Esther Morrill is my first cousin 3 generations removed.

The name Leonore has a long history in my family.  My grandfather's sister was named Leonore Carrie Allen, and the bride Leonore pictured above named her own daughter Leonora.  The name dates back to George Emerson, who was a 49er and left for the gold rush from Boston on a ship named the Leonore.  To read more about that part of our family history see this link http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-emerson-forty-niner.html

Apparently this side of the family was wealthy.  The bride's father, John Milton Earl Morrill of Boston, was a builder of fine homes in Jamaica Plain and the Boston suburbs.  He was famous for belonging to several riding clubs in the days when there were elegant riding parks in Boston for the wealthy to show off their pedigreed horses and fine carriages and coaches.  I found many newsclippings of John M. E. Morrill mentioned with the "horsey set" and he even patented some elaborate horse tack and bridles.  The riding park in Brookline, Massachusetts is now The Country Club.

Here is a transcript of the wedding announcement in the Yonkers newspaper:


"HIGH - MORRILL 

The marriage of Miss Leonore Morrill and John Meeker High, Jr. took place on Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock in Christ Church, Riverdale-on-Hudson, the rector of the church, the Rev. Dr. Raymond Brock officating.  The bride is the daughter of Mrs. John Milton Earl Morrill, of Sacremento, Calif. and Boston, Mass., and the late John Milton Earl Morrill, a prominent turfman.  The bridegroom is the son of Mrs. John M. High of Riverdale-on-Hudson and the late John M. High.

The bride was given in marriage by her mother, wore a princess gown of white mousseline-de-soie made with a long train and carried a rose point lace handkerchief  a family heirloom, and a bouquet of lilies of the valley and white roses.  Her veil was of tulle.  The bride's mother wore a blue chiffon gown and blue picture hat and carried a bouquet of pink roses.

Mrs. Jack Fernald of New York City was the matron of honor and only attendant.  She wore a pale green taffeta gown made on princess lines, with puffed sleeves and a white organdie hat.  She carried a bouquet of yellow roses and baby's breath.  Jack Fernald was the best man.

A reception for over a hundred guests was held at "Highwolde", the estate of the Highs in Riverdale, where tables were arranged for the guests in the garden.

After a motor trip to the Adirondacks and Canada  the couple will reside in Riverdale.  the bride, a descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, attended  Leland Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. and Barnard College.  The bridegroom, a native of New York City, was graduated from Horace Mann School and Columbia Engineering School where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.  he is a Fellow of the Radio Club of America and a member of the Institue of Radio Engineers.  He is one the first men to engage in radio phone transmission of power without wires." 


Leonore Morrill married in to a wealthy New York family.  I found them listed in the social registers available via Google Books online in the late 1920 and the 1930s.   Her bridegroom, John Meeker High, was born on 4 December 1899, the son of John Meeker High and Ann Dorothea Harrington.  The High family estate was known as Highwolde while the High family was residing there.  His father's obituary was printed in the New York Times on 26 April 1924, page 15.

There is one big error printed in the newspaper wedding announcement.  We are not descendants of Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This myth has been passed down for generations, and from this news clipping I can see it is not a new myth.   Ralph Waldo Emerson is my 4th cousin, 5 generations removed.  I have to go all the way back to the Reverend Joseph Emerson (1620 - 1680) of Concord, Massachusetts to find a common ancestor, even though my great grandmother was an Emerson from the same family.  Leonore was just a distant cousin to RWE, too.

---------------------------

Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday- Chinese Camp Cemetery

This is part two of a blog story posted yesterday on the story of the town of Chinese Camp, California. 

The winding dirt road from Rt. 49 up to the cemetery

When I remembered that I had a distant Wilkinson relative buried in Chinese Camp, California, we made a special effort to return to this ghost town to see the cemetery.  I had no idea it would be such a stereotypical burial ground, seeming to pop right out of a Western cowboy movie.  Even though I had seen a few gravestones from this cemetery posted on www.FindAGrave.com  I was unprepared for the sight.  As a New Hampshire resident, I was not accustomed to such a barren place

The first thing I feared was rattlesnakes.  It was just about noon when we arrived, and it was hot and dusty.  The few clumps of dry grass were tall and rustled in the wind.  The ground was pockmarked with holes and I was certain they were rattlesnake holes (but what do I know!).  It took all my courage to get out of the car and open the rusty gate.  I was petrified!  But we had made this detour to Chinese Camp just for genealogy purposes, so I bravely ventured out into the cemetery...

A recent gravestone with a Western theme carved into it

In Loving Memory
RICHARD M. DOWLER
SEPT. 3, 1925
MAY 6, 2009
HUSBAND FATHER GRANDFATHER FRIEND

a not so recent gravestone

After wandering around, and avoiding tall grass, rocky areas, holes and areas where snakes could hide, we gave up on finding our gravestone.  I will say that everyone hurried quickly to the car, where we all discovered that each person (all four of us!) found the cemetery a bit spooky!  This is the only graveyard where I have had that creepy feeling.  Usually I find cemeteries quite peaceful and lovely.

The grave we were looking for was that of Anna Norcross, the fourth wife of Harry Duran Wilkinson.  For some strange reason she was buried in Chinese Camp, although she had died in Sonora, California, which is about 10 miles north.   Anna was born on the island of Nantucket, in Massachusetts.  I can't imagine any other relative of mine having such a diversity in residences from a lush, fog covered island off New England to a dry, barren ghost town in Gold Rush country, California.  Even stranger, I found a tombstone here with a Mayhew name on it.  Just about every third person on Martha's Vineyard (another Massachusetts island) is named Mayhew.  Coincidence?

Harry D. Wilkinson is one of the few Wilkinsons who left New England and settled elsewhere.  Because we were too chicken to poke around in the tall grass, we couldn't find Anna's gravestone in the Chinese Camp cemetery, and according to Find A Grave's website, there is an Anna buried there with similar dates 1884 - 1965, but with the last name of "Bush".   Is this Anna Norcross Wilkinson?  Did she remarry?  Does anyone know her story?

Genealogy:

Harry Duran Wilkinson, son of William Henry Wilkinson and Estelle V. Saunders, born 26 June 1876 in Effingham, New Hampshire, died 29 August 1946 in Napa, California, buried in the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California (served in the Spanish American War 1898 - 1901); married four times:

1st wife Maude Glenini Eddy, daughter of Issac Sylvanus Eddy and Mahala Nellie Bugbee,  born 11 October 1882 in Venus, Nebraska, died 29 July 1919 in Seattle, Washington, one child, Lloyd Harland Wilkinson (1904 - 1945).

2nd wife married about 1922 in Oakland, California to Lucy Mary Mesa, daughter of Francisco Mesa and Maria del Rosario Briones (Yahoo! another Wilkinson married someone with a Spanish surname! She was a descendant of the old Californio Briones family)  born 30 November 1875 in Bolinas, California, died 28 August 1944 in San Leandro, California, one child.

3rd wife Elizabeth Maria Koenig, daughter of Ludwig Koenig and Wilhemina Hallijo, born on 12 October 1872 in Hanover, Germany, died on 27 January 1937 in Oakland.  Three children.

4th wife Anna Norcross, born 13 March 1883 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, died 25 November 1965 in Sonora, California.

-----------------------

Find A Grave website    www.FindAGrave.com

The link to the gravestone of Anna A. Bush  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=anna&middlename=&lastname=bush&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=Chinese+Camp%2C+Tuolumne+County%2C+California%2C+United+States+of+America&locationId=city_16574&memorialid=&datefilter=&orderby=

------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday- Chinese Camp Cemetery", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 6, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/tombstone-tuesday-chinese-camp-cemetery.html: accessed [access date]).

Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County, California

We were driving to Yosemite National Park from San Francisco, when we passed several dusty, small towns between Stockton and Mariposa.  One had just a few houses and a closed general store with a sign “Chinese Camp”.  The name of the town made us all smile, as it certainly looked like a ghost town from the Gold Rush era.  A few miles later I remembered that one of my distant Wilkinson cousins in my genealogical database was buried in the cemetery at Chinese Camp, California.  We vowed to stop again for a photo the next time we passed by.

An abandoned building at Chinese Camp

Well, it took seven years, but recently we did the drive again to Yosemite from San Francisco, and remembered to stop in Chinese Camp along Route 49.    Some of the very first Chinese laborers in California were settled here in 1849.  Although the population of Chinese Camp was only 126 souls in 2010, at one time there were over 5,000 Chinese people living here.  Several historical markers tell the history of the town, but it mostly abandoned and does not appear to be visited by many tourists.  It certainly is not commercialized or a "Disney" place to visit, and actually is quite spooky and overgrown.  We never would have stopped if I didn't have a distant relative buried nearby. 

This was the old post office, and
also served as a Wells Fargo office

This appeared to have once been a home

We drove around the town, but it seemed to be mostly abandoned buildings near the highway, with the houses near the store apparently lived in, although we only saw two people.  The general store is only open on weekends.  Across the street from the store is the gate to the cemetery, which is not visible from the road.  It is located about a half mile up the dirt road, and through another gate.  Neither gate was locked, but we had to get out of the car, open it up, and then close it as we passed through.   I’ll post the cemetery photos for Tombstone Tuesday.

For the truly curious:

History of Chinese Camp, by the Tuolumne County Historic Preservation Review Commission, 1994

Woman Keeps Chinese Camp History Alive,  The Union Democrat, 29 November 2009, by Joshua Wolfson, story at this link http://www.uniondemocrat.com/2005112985769/News/Local-News/Woman-keeps-Chinese-Camp-history-alive

A slide show of abandoned Chinese Camp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bloCr4PI3nk

Click here for a blog post about our visit to the Chinese Camp cemetery:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/tombstone-tuesday-chinese-camp-cemetery.html 

--------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County, California", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 5, 2011, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/chinese-camp-tuolumne-county-california.html: accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday, Skagway, Alaska

Seeing this gold rush era cemetery in Alaska inspired me to investigate the family story of an ancestor's participation in a gold rush. See the story of George Emerson's trip to California as a '49er HERE.

------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday, Skagway, Alaska", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 20, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/tombstone-tuesday-skagway-alaska.html: accessed [access date]).

Missionary to New Zealand?

That’s what he told the family!



My great great grandfather, the music Professor Caleb Rand Bill came from Nova Scotia to New England with his wife. They had their nine children in succession from New Brunswick, Maine, Boston and then Salem as he moved from place to place teaching music. According to the Bill Family Genealogy, he had three brothers. One died while studying away at Acadia College, and the other two went on a mission to New Zealand. This made sense to me, since their father was the Nova Scotia Baptist preacher Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill.

I didn’t question the compiled genealogy, at least not for a while…

Later, when using the NEHGS online vital records database, I decided to find out just how uncommon the “Bill” name was as a surname in Massachusetts. I typed in the name and I was surprised to find several Bills I didn’t know about. I found the death record of one of the brothers, Edward Manning Bill, who had gone on a mission to Australia. He died in Boston in 1904, of “hemiplegia”, contributory cause “exposure, life in Australia!”

The two brothers were Edward Manning Bill and Ingraham Ebenezer Bill, Jr. I knew that I. E. Jr. had gone on to become a minister, in his father’s footsteps. According to the Bill Genealogy he lived as a missionary for a while in New Zealand. In the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, there was a marriage in a newspaper entitled “Christian Visitor” July 1, 1869, listing a marriage on May 22nd, between I. E. Bill of Regent’s Park College, London, to Eleanor, the second daughter of George Pike, of Sutton, Kent, England. In the 1880 US Federal Census of Caribou, Maine (on the border with Canada) it lists Ingram Bill, age 44, minister, wife Ellen, and several children. I also found a “Ministerial Register” at Ancestry.com listing him as a Baptist Minister in Chicago in the 1892, 1893, and 1895 editions. So Junior’s story works out OK. What about his brother?

Two brothers: Edward Manning Bill and Ingraham Ebenezer Bill, Jr. were listed on an 1852 shipping list on board the ship “Chebucto” which arrived at Port Phillip, Melbourne, Australia on 9 October 1852. According to this list at the Victoria State Library, it was ““Another instance of the wide-spreading attractiveness of our gold-fields shows itself in the arrival of this vessel from Halifax, Nova Scotia bringing with it a large number of passengers all anxious to turn gold diggers. Nothing of importance occurred on the passage.”

Aha! Two young brothers left Nova Scotia, telling the relatives they were bound for a mission. Both arrived in Australia during the gold rush. One went on to New Zealand, like the good minister’s son he was brought up to be. What happened to the other?

Last year I found the answer when a woman in Australia sent me an email. Her message starts out with the line “Thank goodness for computers and for Google!” and it went on to describe her search for clues to the identity of “Edward Manning Bill!” She was tracing a young girl named Harriet Young Cox, who was adopted by Edward Manning Bill in the late 1800s. The daughter was a singer in London, and the United States, listed on the cast of musical productions found on line. Father and adopted daughter were on the 1901 Census in London, where Edward was listed as a widower.

With these clues, we were able to find passenger lists of the father and daughter leaving Australia, traveling to London and the United States. Harriet married and lived in Washington State. There was a wife, Charlotte Grace, which made me laugh because my ancestor, the music professor Caleb Rand Bill named one of his daughters Charlotte Grace. Another mystery solved. I received a transcript of the marriage record. Such nice people in Australia!

Sadly, the wife Charlotte Grace was left behind in Australia, where she died in an insane asylum. As the details flowed out of Australia over the internet to me, the story became very sad. I sent her the details of Harriet’s life in Washington, and she found a photograph of Edward and Charlotte, but also the record for the asylum. Charlotte died on 21 September 1894, only a few weeks after Edward and Harriet arrived in London on 25 August 1894 . Did they abandon her to die in the asylum? Was she ill before they left?

Soon I had an answer from the Australian Public Records Office Website. This surprised me because I had a family member die at the Danvers, Massachusetts State Hospital in the 1910’s and I can’t get the records without a court order. However, here is the short version of what happened after she was admitted in 1893, suffering delusions:

2/6/94 Fractured hip at (?) and sent to hospital
30/6/94 Progressing favourably
7/9/94 Has a good deal of edema of (?) and side of abdomen also suffering from cystitis
18/9/94 Took to bed finally with (?) patches on hands and scratches on lower left leg - bedsores on ankle
21/9/94 Died at about 10.50pm with cause of death Disease of the heart and dropsy of the lungs.

At the time she was admitted Edward Manning Bill was a school teacher at Diamond Creek, a long way from the Beechworth Insane Asylum in Australia. From what I can tell, with bedsores and other signs of neglect, family was not nearby to monitor her care. In fact, it seems they abandoned her to go to Europe for young Harriet’s musical career?

The photo above is the primary school at Diamond Creek, where Edward Manning Bill was the head teacher from 1870 to 1892. Edward Bill is the man with the white cockatoo, and the woman next to him is Charlotte, his wife. Charlotte taught handcrafts. Diamond Creek is near where Australia experienced its gold rush of 1852. At the time the ship “Chebucto” landed in Australia in 1852 Edward was 21 years old, and his brother Ingraham was only 16!

Thank you to Helen Swaine, of Frankston, Victoria, Australia for helping me to solve this mystery, and for providing the primary source material out of Australia (marriage records, asylum case records, and the photograph!)
-------------------

For more information:

I previously blogged about the Bill family on 15 September 2009 in the posting “Tracing Your Minister Ancestors”. Please see this post for the Bill lineage http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/tracing-your-minister-ancestors.html.

History of the Bill Family, edited by Ledyard Bill, New York,1867. Updated by Harry Bill, of Billtown, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia

-----------------
Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
-
-

George Emerson, Forty Niner

Carrie (Batchelder) Allen wearing the gold nugget

surrounded by her descendants, early 1950s

George Emerson’s parents were from New Hampshire, raised in Milford and removing to South Boston, Massachusetts sometime soon after their marriage in 1810. George was born on 11 July 1817, and married Mary Esther Younger in 1845. He was listed as a “boot and shoe worker.” This young family had two babies by the time gold was found in California in 1848.  George is my 3rd great grandfather. 

Like many young men of the time, the call to go west and find his fortune hit George Emerson. He joined the New England and California Trading and Mining Company, which was headed by Herman H. Greene and Samuel Whitmarsh. There were 100 young fortune seekers who paid $300 for a share in the corporation. $300 must have been quite a grand sum in those days. It seemed that every available New England ship was recruited to bring young miners to San Francisco that year. The New England and California Trading and Mining Company purchased the ship “Leonore”, which had been built in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Before leaving Boston on February 3, 1849 the miners attended a special religious service at the Tremont Temple, and the Reverend Edward Beecher (brother to the authoress Harriet Beecher Stowe of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” fame) preached to them about morality. He admonished them to bring their good New England values with them as they traveled into the wilderness. After an uneventful voyage the "Leonore" reached San Francisco on July 5th. History books record the adventure as a bust, with no gold found and the ship "Leonore" was abandoned in San Francisco harbor.

Somehow George Emerson found his way home, because by 1851 he was back in Boston, and had fathered a third child. He eventually had eight children, and named the youngest, a daughter, Leonore. George became a Boston police officer, stationed at Field’s Corner. He died in 1890 at Dorchester, Massachusetts.

And what was his legacy? Well, at least one gold nugget was passed along in the family. His second child was Mary Katharine Emerson, who married George E. Batchelder in Chichester, New Hampshire in 1869. Their second daughter, Carrie Maude, born in 1872, wore the gold nugget on a chain around her neck, until she was quite elderly. According to a family story, it was going to be sold to finance her last years in a retirement home in Rowley, Massachusetts, but another son secretly sold it and took an extended vacation.

And what happened to the ship “Leonore”? Hundreds of ships were abandoned in San Francisco in the wake of the 1849 Gold Rush. Many became “ghost ships.” Many were scuttled for landfill. The “Leonore” became a whaler and eventually hauled timber.

The ‘49er George Emerson named his youngest daughter after her, and granddaughter Carrie named her eldest daughter Leonore, too. My great aunt Leonore (we called her Lena) was told that she was named after the covered wagon that took her ancestor west. It was only when George’s name was found on the passenger list of the New England and California Trading and Mining Company that we all found out the truth behind the gold rush myth!

Emerson Family Tree showing the girls named Leonore:

Gen. 1. Romanus Emerson, my 4th great grandfather, son of John Emerson and Katherine Eaton, b. 1 Sep. 1782 in Townsend, Massachusetts, raised in Hancock, New Hampshire, d. 10 Oct 1852 in South Boston, married on 22 Nov. 1810 in Boston to Jemima Burnham b. 9 May 1783 in Milford, New Hampshire, and died 5 Aug. 1868

Gen. 2. Son, George Emerson, my 3rd great grandfather,  b. 11 Jul. 1817 in South Boston, and d. 11 Jan 1890 in Dorchester, married on 11 Aug. 1845 to Mary Esther Younger, daughter of Levi Younger and Catherine Plummer Jones, b. 17 Feb. 1826 d. after 1910. Children of George and Esther (Eight born in Dorchester and South Boston)

Gen. 3. Child #2. Mary Katherine Emerson, my 2nd great grandmother, b. 25 Dec. 1847 in South Boston, d. 23 Apr. 1932 in Roxbury, m. on 28 Oct. 1869 in Chichester, New Hampshire to George E. Batchelder, b. 8 Oct. 1848, d. 28 Jul 1914 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the son of George E. Batchelder and Abigail M. Locke of Chichester, New Hampshire. (Nine children born in Chichester and Boston)

Gen. 4. Child # 2. Carrie Maude Batchelder, my great grandmother,  b. 22 Sep. 1872 in Chichester, d. 21 Jan 1963 in Rowley, Massachusetts, m. on 1 Nov. 1892 in Essex, Massachusetts to Joseph Elmer Allen. He was the son of Joseph Gilman Allen and Sarah Burnham Mears, b. 24 Sep 1870 in Essex, d. 12 Mar 1932 at the Masonic Home in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. (Five children born in Boston, Cambridge and Dorchester)

Gen. 5. Child #1. LEONORE Carrie Allen, my grand aunt, b. 20 Mar. 1894 in Boston, d. Jan 1973 in Stamford, Connecticut, m. 1. on 29 Dec 1912 in Essex, Massachusetts to Waldo Emerson Cooper, m. 2. after 1920 to Thomas J. McCormack.

Also in Gen. 4. Child #8. LEONORE Emerson, my second great aunt b. 28 Jan 1865 in Boston, d. 3 Mar 1944 in Los Angeles, California, m. on 17 Jun. 1903 at Boston to John Milton Earl Morrill. He was the son of John Langley Morrill and Elmina L. Mansfield, b. 8 Aug. 1857 in Middleton, Connecticut. And so it appears that "Leonore" went to California twice!  She had a daughter named LEONORE Ester Elmina Morrill, and a grand daughter named LEONORA High.

--------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "George Emerson, Forty Niner", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 28, 2009, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-emerson-forty-niner.html: accessed [access date]).