A memorial for Annie Marie Holt, Hawaii, 1851

Annie's memorial stone
installed at Oahu Cemetery, 5 July 2012

In March I blogged about a fundraising effort to raise a memorial for Oahu Cemetery for Annie Marie Holt, who died there in 1851 at the tender age of nineteen.  She had sailed from Boston with her sister to be reunited with her father, Robert William Holt.  Annie died soon after her ship, the Gentoo,  landed in Honolulu.  Annie was the first Holt to be buried at the Oahu Cemetery.  Now there are generations of Holts and other family members buried with her.

Annie's mother,  Anne Marie (Jone) Holt also died young at age 21 leaving two baby daughters.  She was the sister to my 4x great grandmother, Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger, who died young at age 27 after having at least four children.  Annie Marie Holt in Hawaii was my first cousin, five generations removed.

The fundraising effort was a great success.  In fact, Charles Holt, who was in charge of the memorial, was afraid of raising too much money!  He had to close the fundraiser after just a few weeks, since he already had more than enough to buy and install a nice memorial stone and bronze plaque.  The leftovers will be used for leis, and a celebration with the rest of the Holt family coming soon.

Since the Holt family is spread all over the Hawaiian islands, and all over the continental United States as far as Boston, technology was a great part of this fundraiser.  Email sent the word out quickly, and PayPal was used to collect the donations.  A website was set up for everyone to track the fundraiser, and to share stories and photos.  A Facebook group for the Holt family had already been up and running for a long time before the fundraiser, but regular updates were posted there, with links to the website and comments from Charles Holt and all the Holt Ohana.

I've never seen a family association jump into a project with such enthusiasm.  In a few weeks the money was raised, and in a few months the memorial was ordered, cast and delivered. On July 5, 2012, the stone was installed at Oahu Cemetery in the spot believed to be where Annie was buried in 1851, next to the current Holt family plot along the wall at Nu'uanu Avenue.  I hope to visit this spot this fall when I return to Hawaii.

To see the webpage about Annie's memorial, click here:
http://www.hawaiiholts.com/Intermission.html

To read my blog post from March 2012 about Annie Marie Holt's memorial fundraiser:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/03/annie-maria-holt-1832-1851.html

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson

Weathervane Wednesday ~ An Angel up High!

I've been photographing the weather vanes in the historic area of Nutfield, New Hampshire.  The weather vanes in New Hampshire and all over New England are whimsical and very historic.   Nutfield used to be where Derry and Londonderry are located today, but also covered Windham and parts of Hudson and Manchester, New Hampshire.   Today's weathervane is in Windham.

Do you know the location of weathervane #51?   Scroll down to see the answer.

Today's featured weathervane is located at a private residence off North Lowell Road in Windham, New Hampshire.  It is a very pretty little two dimensional angel with a trumpet.  

Please click here to see the entire series of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ 1834 Drowned in Windham, NH

This tombstone was photographed at the Cemetery on the Hill, Windham, New Hampshire

In memory of

CAPT JOHN

DINSMORE, Jr.

Who was drowned in

Cobbets Pond, when

returning from meet-

ing on sunday afternoon

Nov. 2, 1834

Aet. 37

When I saw this stone, I knew there must be quite a story to this, since Capt. Dinsmore was obviously not taking a swim after church in November in New Hampshire!  I turned to my copy of Leonard A. Morrison's History of Windham in New Hampshire, 1884, for a clue but it is a rather lengthy book. Then I remembered that there is a digital copy on Archives.org which can be searched via key words.  Within moments I had my answer!

page 179 "1834, Nov. 2 - Rev. Jacob Abbott and John Dinsmoor were drowned in Cobbett's Pond while returning from church, an account of which will be found in the record of the Abbott and Dinsmoor family."

The genealogy of the Abbott family is on pages 300 - 304.  On page 301 is this excerpt "The circumstances of Mr. Abbott's death were painful in the extreme.  On Sunday, Nov. 2, 1834, as he was crossing Cobbett's Pond on his return from meeting, the boat was upset, and he and John Dinsmoor were drowned.  His age was 66 years, 9 months, 26 days."

The Dinsmoor genealogy is quite lengthy, and it begins on page 437.  The story of Captain John Dinsmoor is on page 478, the only child of John Dinsmoor and Isabella Hemphill, who were left childless in their old age. I was very happy I was searching the digital version of the book, because this family had many, many descendants named "John Dinsmoor" in Windham!

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Windham's Former Meetinghouse is in Salem, New Hampshire!

According to the History of Salem, New Hampshire the former meetinghouse at Windham was moved to Salem, New Hampshire.  I first heard this story when I was on the Mystery Tour held by the Windham Historical Society last month.  (Click here for the blog post on the tour)   We were in the Cemetery on the Hill on Range Road looking at the graves of veterans of the War of 1812.  Someone pointed out the ledger stone of an early minister, and stated that it stood where the meetinghouse once stood. Legend says that the minister's tombstone is located where the altar stood.  Someone else stated that the meetinghouse was across the street.  I guess that if the members of the historical don't know the location of the former meetinghouse, then it's location has been lost in time.  But they all agreed it had been moved to Salem.

According to page 366 of the History of Salem the house was moved "over 100 years ago".  The book was written in 1907.  It also states "It was brought here by Jonathan Pettingill, who afterwards lived in it.  It has the original frame; is not boarded, but clapboards are fastened directly to the studding.  Pettingill made coffins, which sold at $3 each."  There is a photo of the house in the book, which names it as the home of Dr. V. N. Sikorsky.  

photo from the book History of Salem, New Hampshire

Today the home looks as if they took care of the clapboard problem, and it has been extensively renovated.  The porch added by Dr. Sikorsky has been removed. The two chimneys are still visible.  I couldn't take a photo from the same angle since there is a seven foot hedge blocking that view.  Here is the home as it looks in 2012...

The former Windham meetinghouse in 2012

It is amazing to think about moving this two story building from Windham to Salem in the early 1800s.  According to www.mapquest.com the building is now 8.75 miles from where it originally stood on Range Road, near the Cemetery on the Hill and Cobbett's Pond.  I wonder if it was dismantled and re-erected, or moved in pieces?  Perhaps we'll never know!


For more information:


The History of Salem, New Hampshire, by Edgar Gilbert, Concord, NH: Rumford Printing Company, 1907.  This book is available to read entirely online at www.archive.org

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Nutfield is the scene of a BBC documentary!

Last week an Irish film crew from the BBC came to Derry and Londonderry, New Hampshire to film scenes for a documentary on Ulster Scots Presbyterians, specifically Reverend James MacGregor, who brought his flock from Northern Ireland to New Hampshire in 1719.  They filmed at the First Parish Church in East Derry, and were treated to a spaghetti dinner by the parish.  They also visited the Presbyterian Church in Londonderry, and the Forest Hill Cemetery, where many of the first Ulster Scots Presbyterian settlers are buried.

Reverend MacGregor brought 16 families with him to Londonderry, founding the First Parish Church.  They were persecuted in Northern Ireland for not being members of the Anglican Church, so they came to Boston, where they were not wanted either.  In New Hampshire they were free to worship as Presbyterians, and kept their Scots Irish culture alive for generations. 

Local people like Richard Holmes, the Derry Town Historian; Marilyn Ham, the former Londonderry Town Historian; and Reverend Susan Remick, the interim pastor of the First Church were interviewed and filmed by the BBC crew.  The crew will also film scenes in New York City, Philadelphia and India: all places where Ulster Scots Presbyterians migrated to from Northern Ireland.  The film “An Independent People” will air in 2013 on the BBC.   It will be a three part series presented by William Crawley.  Hopefully it will be made available here in New Hampshire for viewing, too!

Derry News, 5 July 2012 “Irish Film Crew Shoots Local History”

http://www.derrynews.com/derry/x1501702138/Irish-film-crew-shoots-local-history

Londonderry Times, 5 July 2012, “BBC Films Early History Town”, page 2

An earlier blog post on Reverend James MacGregor: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/tombstone-tuesday-rev-james-and-mary.html

An earlier blog post with a list of the original proprietors of Nutfield (Londonderry) who arrived with Reverend James MacGregor in 1719:

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/original-nutfield-proprietors-april-11.html

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ Mooers of Newbury, Massachusetts

Newbury, Massachusetts in 1640

Captain Edmund Mooers arrived in the New World aboard the Confidence in 1638.  The log book spells the name “Mooers”.  He was probably not the son of Francis Mooers and his wife Katherine Unknown in Kingston Magna, Dorsetshire, England, as reported in many on-line records. 

Jonathan Mooers, son of Edmund, was a soldier, too, and was listed in the Militia of Newbury in 1707.  He was promoted from corporal to cornet it 1689.  He maintained a garrison house at “Wataquo Dock” during the King Phillips War.

 Jonathan wrote a will in 1692, which was submitted to probate in 1693.  According to the Essex Antiquarian, Volume 2, page 131 – 132 “May 12, 1714, Richard Mooer of Lexington and John, George and Daniel Munroe (three brothers who married three sisters) joined in petitioning the court that John Mitchell, their "father-in-law" might administer upon the estate of Lt. Jonathan Mooer "which was not already disposed of."  This action we interpret to mean that the mother, Constance, was then deceased, and that the widow's dower was to be divided among the heirs”

There is one book about the Mooers family, Some Descendants of Edmund Mooers 1614 – 1677 of Newbury, Massachusetts by Amy Mooers William, Detroit, Michigan, 1956.  No major article has been written about the early Mooers in Massachusetts.  There are a few mentions of Mooers in the book History of Newbury, Massachusetts 1635 – 1902 by John J. Currier, 1902, but no genealogical sketches or biographies.  The best places to find information on the Mooers family are the vital records in Essex County.

There is a Mooers Family newsletter.  See the website:

 http://www.mooers-law.com/MooerMemoriesOpeningPage.htm  

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My Mooers genealogy:

Generation 1: Edmund Mooers, born about 1614 in Kingston Magna, Dorsetshire, England, died 19 April 1669 in Newbury, Massachusetts; married to Anne Unknown, she died on 7 June 1676 in Newbury.  Six children.

Generation 2: Jonathan Mooers, born 23 April 1646 in Newbury, died between 1692 and 1693; married on 10 May 1670 in Newbury to Constance Langthorne, daughter of Richard Langthorne and Mary Crosby.  She was born in September 1652 in Rowley, Massachusetts.   Ten children.  Constance was married second to John Mitchell on 1 November 1697.

Generation 3: Sarah Mooers, born 1677 in Newbury, died 4 December 1752 in Lexington, Massachusetts; married to George Munroe, son of William Munroe and Martha George.  Nine children.  Sarah’s sister, Hannah, married John Munroe.  Her sister, Dority, married Daniel Munroe about 1716.  Three Munroe sisters married three Mooers brothers.

Generation 4: Andrew Munroe m. Lucy Mixer

Generation 5: Andrew Munroe m. Ruth Simonds

Generation 6: Luther Simonds Munroe m. Olive Flint

Generation 7: Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson

Generation 8: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 9: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

John Locke ~ He Cut Off an Indian's Nose with his Scythe!

These memorials are located on Locke's Neck in Rye, New Hampshire.  

You can find it on Locke Road, off Ocean Boulevard (Route 1A) just before Rye Harbor. 

CAPTAIN JOHN LOCKE

SETTLED HERE ON LOCKE'S NECK

ABOUT 1640

KILLED BY THE INDIANS NEAR THIS SPOT

AUGUST 26, 1696

ERECTED BY THE LOCKE FAMILY ASSOCIATION

1934

LOCKE'S NECK

NAMED FOR CAPTAIN JOHN LOCKE WHO SETTLED HERE

BEFORE 1665 WITH HIS WIFE, ELIZABETH BERRY. BORN IN 

LONDON IN 1627, HE LANDED IN PORTSMOUTH CA 1644 AND

ACCORDING TO TRADITION FRAMED THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE

THERE ABOUT 1654.  AS CAPTAIN OF THE MILITIA HE WAS NOTED

FOR HIS DEFENSIVE ACTIONS AGAINST HOSTILE INDIANS.

HE WAS KILLED HERE AUGUST 26, 1696 BY INDIANS AS HE

WORKED HIS FIELDS WITH ONLY A SICKLE FOR DEFENSE.

HIS SONS AND GRANDSONS WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE

CREATION OF THE PARISH OF RYE IN 1726.

THIS AREA HAS BEEN CALLED JOSELYN'S NECK, LOCKE'S 

NECK AND STRAW'S POINT.  IN 1978 RYE'S ANNUAL TOWN

MEETING OFFICIALLY NAMED THIS AREA LOCKE'S NECK IN

HONOR OF THAT PIONEER FAMILY.

ERECTED BY

THE LOCKE FAMILY ASSOCIATION

1984

Please note there is a discrepancy between the two signs as to when John Locke settled on this land.  Neither sign mentions the story of John Locke defending himself before his death, by cutting off the nose of one of the hostile Indians.  The story was popular during Victorian times, but today there is a lot of sympathy for the Indians who were losing their land.   According to myth, repeated in town and state histories, Locke's sons spent years searching for an Indian without a nose to avenge their father's death.  You can view the sickle/scythe on display at the New Hampshire Historical Society Museum, along with a plaque about the story.  The Locke family burial ground is located across the street from these two memorials on Locke Neck. 

This excerpt from The Granite Monthly magazine was published in 1892,

Volume 14, page 47 (from Google Books) 

You can see the story of "The Indian's Nose" but also the incorrect name of his wife. 

Click here for a link to a previous blog post on John Locke

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/indian-without-nose.html 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "John Locke ~ He Cut Off an Indian's Nose with his Scythe!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 6, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/john-locke-he-cut-off-indians-nose-with.html: accessed [access date]).

4th of July ~ Celebrate the Signers of the Declaration of Independence

The Matthew Thornton homestead in Merrimack, NH
is now a restaurant "The Common Man".
It was formerly a restaurant called "Hannah Jack" his wife's maiden name. 

If you live in one of the thirteen original colonies, then somewhere near you lived someone who signed the Declaration of Independence.  This is what the 4th of July is all about, not hot dogs, fireworks, or parades.  Most of these men are relatively unknown heroes, except for a few who have famous names like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.  New Hampshire was the home state of three signers, all are fairly unknown souls: Matthew Thornton, Josiah Bartlett (not the president on the TV show "West Wing"), and William Whipple.  Thornton and Bartlett were both physicians.

Matthew Thornton was born in Northern Ireland and settled as a doctor in Londonderry, New Hampshire (did you know three of the signers were born in Ireland?).  He became a colonel of the Londonderry militia, and led his men to Louisburg, Nova Scotia in 1745.  As a doctor he was able to keep his casualties down to only six men, although the army suffered great losses in that expedition.  During the American Revolution he was too old to serve again in the army, but served instead in the many provincial congresses and was chairman of the Committee of Safety in 1775.   He was elected to the Continental Congress but did not arrive in Philadelphia until November of 1776, and was allowed to sign the Declaration of Independence after the fact.

Across the street from the Thornton homestead is this grand memorial.
Matthew Thornton is NOT buried here, but is buried several yards south
in the family plot, with his wife and several children.

The actual Thornton family plot

Erected
To the Memory of
the Honble
MATTHEW THORNTON
who died june 27th
1803
Aged 89 Years
The Honest Man

After his retirement from public life he removed to Merrimack, New Hampshire.  He farmed and operated a ferry across the Merrimack River.  This part of Merrimack is still known as Thornton's Ferry. He died while visiting his daughter in Newbury, Massachusetts.  He is buried in Merrimack in a simple grave that reads "An Honest Man".  The large memorial obelisk was raised in his honor many years later.

A previous blog post about Matthew Thornton:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/07/fourth-of-july-matthew-thornton-signer.html

A webpage about the Thornton Cemetery from Janice Webster Brown's website:
http://www.nh.searchroots.com/HillsboroughCo/Merrimack/thornton-cemetery.html

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "4th of July ~ Celebrate the Signers of the Declaration of Independence", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 4, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/07/4th-of-july-celebrate-signers-of.html: accessed [access date]).