Treasure Chest Thursday- Benson Park in Hudson, New Hampshire

In the late 1800’s John Benson ran a trolley company amusement park in Lexington, Massachusetts. When it closed in 1921 he opened an animal training center in Hudson, New Hampshire in 1924, and opened to visitors in 1926. There were zoo animals, a train ride and an arcade. He expanded it in the 1930s with a permanent circus and a “Jungle Train” from Boston on Sundays. This was the beginnings of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, an attraction generations of New Englanders enjoyed and remembered.

The park was bought by the Boston Garden Corporation after his death in 1943 and reopened after World War II. In 1979 it was sold to Arthur Provencher who retained the animal farm and did not want to turn it into an amusement park. He declared bankruptcy in 1985 and in 1987 changed it to an amusement park “New England’s Playworld Amusement Park and Zoo.” The park went out of business at the end of its first season.

An advertisement for the last days of New England Playworld

in the 1987 Manchester Union Leader Newspaper

In 1989 the state of New Hampshire acquired the property, and sold it to the town of Hudson in 2009. There is a historical society that has an exhibit at the park, in the old train station, with artifacts and photographs. The town plans to develop the land into athletic fields, walking trails and conservation land, while preserving the old buildings as a museum. In 2004 the town of Hudson and local citizens won the “Elizabeth Durfee Hengen Award” from the Timber Framer’s Guild for the preservation and stewardship of the former Benson’s Park. Since the park closed in 1987, all but three of the historic park buildings were lost to decay and neglect.

Just this past April Ken Matthews of Hudson founded “Friends of Benson Park” to raise funds. This is a private organization to help the town save Benson Park without raising tax money. About 200 volunteers show up on a regular basis to clean up the park, painting some of the old buildings, clearing brush and removing graffiti and signs of vandalism. The giant toy soldiers were removed and now appear on the Hudson town common at Christmas time. You can still visit the park at 27 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, New Hampshire from 5 AM to 8PM year round.

For more information:

http://www.nhmagazine.com/home/805922-101/bensons-wild-animal-farm-revisited.html New Hampshire Magazine website, July 30, 2010, article by Darren Garnick

The Timber Framer’s Guild announcement of the 2004 Award to the Town of Hudson for the former Benson’s Park preservation project http://tfguild.org/news/2004NHpresaward.html

Listen to the National Public Radio story on the preservation project http://www.nhpr.org/node/13963

http://www.friendsofbenson.org/ for the private fundraising organization to help save Benson Park

Remembering Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, by Robert Goldsack, Midway Publications, Nashua, NH (a 60 page book) for sale for $17 each at the Hudson Historical Society http://www.hudsonhistorical.com/

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Not So Wordless Wednesday – Peter Hoogerzeil’s House in Beverly, Massachusetts

One recent day I told my husband we were going to photograph my 2xgreat grandparent’s house . Now, remember, this all started with just wanting a picture of a house. After all, it's supposed to be Wordless Wednesday.

My mother remembered the address in Beverly where her grandparents, Peter and Mary Hoogerzeil, lived on Bartlett Street, Beverly, Massachusetts. She said my great great grandfather owned an “express business”, which was basically a moving company. I found the house on Google maps street view, and we used a GPS device to find the address for the photograph above. There’s technology at work here!

I also used technology to learn more about Peter Hoogerzeil. On Ancestry.com I had seen his name and address on a scanned image of the 1898 Beverly City Directory. By serendipity, on the same page there was an advertisement "Hoogerzeil Express Company" and also an advertisement for one of Peter Hoogerzeil’s inventions, a cooking pot. I used the patent number on the advertisement to search on the US Patent and Trademark Office website.

You can see the patent for the cooking pot here at this link. Click on images to see the report.
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=512615

The US Patent and Trademark Office http://www.uspto.gov/ has an online database for all patents since 1790, searchable by patent numbers. You can search by name for patents since 1976. You can use the Public Search Facility in Alexandria, Virginia at this link http://www.uspto.gov/products/library/search/index.jsp

There is a nationwide network of Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) that offer access to patent and trademark reference materials and search tools. The closest one to me is the Boston Public Library. You can call 800-786-9199 to locate one near you. This is the only way to find the patent numbers listed under an ancestor’s name. Using the Boston Public Library indexes I was able to find over twenty patents listed under the name Peter Hoogerzeil. So, you can't depend on technology for everything- sometimes you have to actually get out to libraries to do some research. That's where I found the really great details!

So, I started out just wanting to take a photo of Peter Hoogerzeil’s house, and now I know a lot more about him! You can click on the links below to see several more of his patents, just click on the button marked images to see the complete report.

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=631211 lamp chimney

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=418721 stove oven

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=486469 wheelbarrow

UPDATE 2011, now you can use Google Patent Search to find any patent by number or inventor's name.  Just go to https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Derry cemetery Benefits from Adopt-a-Stone Program

Tombstone Tuesday- Help Forest Hill Cemetery

The Friends of Forest Hill Cemetery need YOUR help to clean, repair and straighten gravestones dating back to pre-Revolutionary times. Do YOU have an ancestor in Derry, New Hampshire?

Click here to read the story from the August 4, 2010 Derry News,

Derry cemetery benefits from adopt-a-stone program

Tombstone Tuesday- Peter Hoogerzeil

Peter Hoogerzeil was my 2x great grandfather, born 24 June 1841 in Beverly, Massachusetts and died on 10 May 1908 in Beverly. He was the son of Peter Hoogerzeil, an immigrant from the Netherlands, and Eunice Stone. He married Mary Etta Healey on 14 March 1870 in Salem, Massachusetts. She was born 19 May 1852, daughter of Joseph Edwin Healy and Matilda Weston of Nova Scotia. Mary outlived her husband another 24 years, and she died in Beverly on 23 July 1932. Their children were Florence (my great grandmother), Lilie May, Alonzo, Edward, Lucy and Isabel.

His daughter, Isabel, married George Sorenson of Norway on 25 April 1936 in Beverly. They had no children. Peter’s son Edward, predeceased Peter in 1907. Alonzo died in 1946 and Lucy in 1931. These children are listed on this stone, photographed in Beverly, but Lilie May, who died as an infant in 1874 is not recorded here.

I have many copies of the patents Peter Hoogerzeil held for his many inventions. He held at least four patents for stove ovens, a glass lamp chimney, a wheelbarrow, an amusement park ride, and one for a steam baking pan that was advertised for many years in the Beverly City Directory and Beverly newspapers. Whilst perusing the city directories for his address on Bartlett Street I ran across the advertisements for his inventions. It paid off to take a few minutes to look through those books, because not only did I find his inventions, but I found that one of his children, Alonzo, had married the girl next door, Mabel Cressey!

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Beverly Evening Times, Monday, 11 May 1908
RESPECTED CITIZEN
Death Sunday of Peter Hoogerzeil
HEART TROUBLE WAS CAUSE OF DEATH
Leaves Widow and Four Children

Peter Hoogerzeil, one of the best known residents of Beverly and for thirty years engaged in the trucking industry in this city, died very suddenly at his home on Bartlett Street Sunday morning.

For some time Mr. Hoogerzeil has been in poor health but arose Sunday morning feeling well. He made preparations to shave himself when he was seized with an attack of heart trouble and died in a few minutes.

Mr. Hoogerzeil was born in Beverly in 1842 and was educated in the public schools of this city. From a boy he took much interest in the seafaring life and has sailed around the world. For a number of years he was a quartermaster on a steamer running to Japan and China and spent a number of years in the deep sea fishing off Japan, Russia and.into the Bering Sea. One of his last trips was to Holland where he visited the home of his father. He established himself in the teaming business in Beverly in 1878 and built up a large and successful business which he conducted up to the time of his death. Mr. Hoogerzeil was of an inventive turn of mind and held patents on many useful articles, a wheelbarrow, and an improved roasting pan meeting with much success and being sold all over the United States.

Mr. Hoogerzeil had one of the finest collections of coins and curios, gathered from all parts of the world, in Essex County and often entertained his friends with delightfully interesting stories concerning their history.

He leaves a widow, one son, Alonzo G., and three daughters, Mrs. Arthur T. Hitchings, Misses Lulu and Isabel Hoogerzeil, all of Beverly.

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday - Peter Hoogerzeil", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 10, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/tombstone-tuesday-peter-hoogerzeil.html: accessed [access date]). 

Amanuensis Monday- A letter to John Owen Dominis, 1849

Amanuensis Monday- A letter to John Owen Dominis, 1849

On Leah Allen’s blog, “The Internet Genealogist”, she has been transcribing Essie Mott’s memoirs of her days in boarding school and the subsequent trip to Honolulu and Mazatlan, Mexico during 1848 and 1849. On my blog on 11 April and 16 April 2010 we collaborated with posts here on my blog “Nutfield Genealogy” and “The Internet Genealogist” when Essie’s journal entries coincided with her stay at Washington Place, the Dominis family home in Honolulu.

Two weeks ago, during my research trip to Honolulu, I found, read and copied many letters found amongst John Owen Dominis’s papers. In this correspondence were several letters that mentioned his relationship with the teenaged Essie Mott. I’ll be transcribing them and posting them here, along with simultaneous blog posts by Leah on her blog with further transcriptions of Essie’s memoirs.

This first letter is transcribed below. It was dated 15 March 1849 to John from Essie’s father, Isaac Thomas Mott. He was writing from Mexico, where he served in a diplomatic role. John was in San Francisco, probably performing business related to his belated father’s pursuits in shipping.

According to Essie’s memoirs, there was a little romance between the two young people. According to this letter, the little romance had progressed to the point where John was writing letters to Essie and her sister, much to Mr. Mott’s chagrin. The letter is politely worded, but in no uncertain terms does he approve! I sent this letter to Leah and her aunt first before publishing this post, and they both thought that the young people involved must have been mortified at such a reprimand. How times have changed! Now with Facebook, email , cell phones and texting, young people can be up to all sorts of mischief behind their parents’ backs!

Certainly, after this letter, the romance ended. Perhaps it was over anyways due to distance, and by 1862 John had married Lili’uokalani. According to Leah's blog post today http://shbwgen.blogspot.com/2010/08/amanuensis-monday-essies-step-daughter.html Essie was later married to Eugene Lies.

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Mazatlan, March 15, 1849
Mr. J. O. Dominis
San Francisco

Dear Sir,

Two letters with your name attached have
come under my notice, addressed to one of my
daughters- I return these to you herewith.
I disapprove of familiar correspondence
between young persons of opposite sexes, unless
very nearly related- As you have no claim of this
nature on any member of my family, I must
request, and you will in the future, excuse yourself the
time and trouble of writing to my daughters, as
I shall consider it my duty to return your letters unopened (unread?).
I had formed a rather favorable opinion
of your conduct and character from reports of
others, and was therefore much surprised
and to find your letters filled with improprieties
and with one instance, at least, an impertinence
which no modest young lady could read
without the blush of indignation washing
her cheek, and which her parents must
consider disrespectful to themselves
and an insult to their daughters.

I am
Your most ob. Servant
I. T. Mott


Source: Hawaii State Archives, Queen Liliuokalani Collection, M-93 Box 11, Folder No. 105, Letter from I. T. Mott to John Owen Dominis, 15 March 1849

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Sentimental Sunday- Dropping by Robert Frost’s Farm

Walter Butts, NH Poet Laureate

reading his poetry in Robert Frost's Barn

(snapped with a cell phone, sorry for the quality)

Sundays are for running errands and doing no particular thing, especially when there is nothing calling us from the calendar. We were out and about Londonderry and Derry, dropping by the butcher, the farm stand, and enjoying the weather whilst riding about in the little red convertible. This is when we often take a “mystery ride”. It involves taking the long way home, or turning down a road we haven’t driven for a while, or just driving towards nowhere in particular.

Today, we passed the Robert Frost Farm, and a sign read “Poetry Reading 2PM Walter Butts NH Poet Laureate”. It was exactly 2PM on the car clock. We turned around the little red convertible in someone’s driveway and headed back. We had found a great way to spend an hour!

There is a Summer Series of guest speakers on Sundays at the Frost Farm, and I’m sorry to tell you that there is only one more event for 2010. Hearing Walter Butts was very enjoyable on a Sunday afternoon, and he not only read many of his poems from “Sunday Evening at the Stardust Café” but he also explained the New Hampshire Poet Laureate Program and how he came to live in New Hampshire.

The last event of the 2010 Summer series will be Saturday and Sunday the 28th and 29th of August “Quilt Weekend: Documentation Opportunity and Lecture”. Volunteers will examine, photograph and record quilts during this event (FREE of charge!) Quilt owners will receive details on their quilt’s style, approximate date, fabrics, condition and construction, and advice on care and storage. Appraisals for insurance or donation purposes will available for $45-$50. Copies of the documentation, including a photograph are $5. Appointments must be scheduled ahead of time at (603) 432-3091.

I previously blogged about the Frost Farm, the Frost family and Robert Frost’s genealogy on 4 December 2009 at http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/robert-frost-derry-resident.html

For more information:

Sunday Evening at the Stardust Café , by W. E. Butts, 1st World Library, 2006

http://robertfrostfarm.org/ The website for the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire, including the calendar for the Frost Farm Summer Series of events.

http://www.nh.gov/nharts/artsandartists/poetlaureate.html every two weeks a new poem by a New Hampshire poet is showcased on this page by Walter E. Butts

http://webutts.com/ the Walter E. Butts website

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Treasure Chest Thursday- Great Grandpa is on the $10,000 Bill?

Ok, Quick! Tell me whose portrait is on the $10,000 dollar bill?

Ok, when is the last time you had a $10,000 dollar bill in your pocket? They were last produced in 1945, discontinued for use in 1969, and there are only 3 of them known to exist today.

On the front is a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, who happens to be from New Hampshire and also the US Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln. On the back is an engraved reproduction of a painting called "Embarkation of the Pilgrims" which depicts Reverend John Robinson blessing the passengers of the Mayflower just before they sailed for the New World. You can argue about which of the pilgrims are depicted, (is that Standish in the red stockings? Who is holding the bible?) but it is very obvious which one is Reverend Robinson.



For years, descendants of Reverend John Robinson have bragged about their ancestor on the $10,000 bill. The original painting by Robert W. Weir of "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims" hangs in the US Capitol Rotunda. A study of this painting done by Edgar Parker in 1875 hangs in the Pilgrim Hall Museum at Plymouth, Massachusetts with an explanation of how it was used on the paper currency. We are proud of Pastor Robinson, and retell the story of how this painting is on the $10,000 bill. However, none of us ever had one of these bills in our pockets!

Reverend John Robinson is my 10x Great Grandfather, on both my my maternal and my paternal lines!

http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/rotunda/embarkation_pilgrims.cfm from the website of the Architect of the Captitol

http://www.pilgrimhall.org/hpweir.htm from the Pilgrim Hall website

http://www.revjohnrobinson.com/art.htm from the Reverend John Robinson website, a genealogical data base maintained by Donald L. Robinson, a descendant of Pastor Robinson.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Treasure Chest Thursday-  Great Grandpa is on the $10,000 Bill?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 5, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/treasure-chest-thursday-great-grandpa.html: accessed [access date]). 

Bibliography for my Hawaii Genealogy Research Trip

Books I read before the trip, or bought along the way:

The Betrayal of Liliuokalani, Last Queen of Hawaii, by Helena G. Allen, 1991

Washington Place: A First Lady’s Story, by Jean Aryoshi, 2004

Around the World with a King, by William N. Armstrong, 2009 (King Kalakua’s international trip of 1881 to Asia, Europe and the United States)

Mauna A’la: Hawai’I’s Royal Mausoleum, by Don Chapman with William Kaihe’ekai Mai’oho, 2004

Oahu Revealed, 3rd Edition, by Andrew Doughty, 2010

The Queen’s Quilt, by Rhoda E. A. Hackler and Loretta G. H. Woodard, published by the Friends of Iolani Palace, 2004

Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani, by John Dominis Holt

Monarchy in Hawaii, by John Dominis Holt

Recollections: Memoirs of John Dominis Holt, 1919-1935

Robert William Holt: Founder of the Holt Family in Hawaii, by John Dominis Holt and Terry Lawhead, 1988

The Hawaiian Kingdom, Volumes 1 – 3, by Ralph S. Kuykendall, 1996

Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen- by Lili’uokalani, Queen of Hawai’i, 1991(basically her autobiography)

The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant, by Lili’uokalani with Martha Warren Beckwith, 2008

The Hawaiian Monarchy, by Allan Seiden, 2005

Websites to check out:

Washington Place
320 Beretania Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
(808) 536-8040
http://www.washingtonplacefoundation.org/

Iolani Palace
364 South King Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
(808) 522-0822
The bookstore is located in the historic Barracks Building
M-Sat, 9:30 AM to 5PM (phone orders, too, for books and gifts)
http://www.iolanipalace.org/

Bishop Museum and Library
1525 Bernice Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
(808) 847-3511
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/

Hawaii State Archives
Kekauluohi Building
Iolani Palace Grounds
354 South King Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
(808) 586-0329
http://hawaii.gov/dags/archives

Native Books/ Na Mea Bookstore
Ward Warehouse
1050 Ala Moana Blvd, Suite 1000
Honolulu, Hawaii
(808) 597-8967
http://www.nativebookshawaii.com/

“Read like an Iolani Palace Docent”
http://www.hawaiibookblog.com/?p=3383 blog post dated 23 July 2010, a list of books required if you would like to be a docent at Iolani Palace. Many of the books I listed above are on this list. I could give tours, but it’s a long commute!

---------------------------------
It’s almost a given that we will soon be making another trip to Hawaii to continue to research the connections to my family tree. Here are some things I need to look at the next time around:

1.) Nathaniel Bright Emerson- He was the son of Reverend Emerson of the Queen Lili’uokalani Church in Haleiwa, and was a physician and author in Honolulu. Corinne Chun, the curator of Washington Place has several of his writings, and is investigating the connection between John Dominis and Nathaniel B. Emerson.

2.) Visit the Mission Houses Museum in Honolulu,  and research some of the other Boston and Massachusetts families who lived in 19th century Hawaii. Many of these women socialized with Mrs. Mary Dominis.

3.) I have not even begun to look at all the correspondence in the Hawaii archives. There are many more boxes of information on the Dominis family, and Lili’uokalani’s own papers and photographs.

4.) Ditto for the archives at the Bishop Museum library.

5.) Have some time to stroll around the Oahu cemetery. It’s like a page out of history reading the names on the gravestones. Right next door to the Dominis family plot was the Damon family of Holden, Massachusetts. This is the town where I grew up, at the same Congregational Church that sent Reverend Damon. I went to Sunday school there, and was married at the same church!

6.) Friends of Captain John Dominis and Governor John Owen Dominis were from Boston. I have copied some correspondence from Captain Charles Brewer of Jamaica Plain to Mrs. Dominis. There are many other letters, and these folks might end up being cousins or just friends.

7.) Who are Reverend Andrew Yates and his wife? They were guardians to the two Dominis daughters, who were left behind in Schenectady to attend a finishing school. Were they relatives of the Jones or Lambert family?

8.)  Reconnect with the cousins I just met in Hawaii, and learn more about the family members living in present day Hawaii.

In the meantime, I can look at this end for Boston and Massachusetts links to some of these mysteries. It will keep me busy whilst we collect frequent flier miles all over again!

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo