Rhubarb Cake Memories: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Favorite Recipe”

 

Summer Sweet Treat on the Farm: Rhubarb Cake

Ione Norene Macbeth Peterson: 1928-2019 (Mother)

 

My parents always had a big clump or two of rhubarb in the yard or garden, and one of my favorite summertime treats was mom’s rhubarb cake. Most people think of strawberry rhubarb pie when they think of rhubarb desserts, but in our family, we made rhubarb sauce—like applesauce with chopped rhubarb instead of apples, and a whole lot of sugar—and rhubarb cake.

The cake recipe called for buttermilk, but my mom was not a fan of buttermilk, so she just added some vinegar to whole milk to make sour milk, which provided a similar taste and texture to the cake. My favorite part was the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on the top of the cake. I loved cinnamon, and when baked on the cake, it became a crispy topping when the sugar started to melt a little—delicious.

My mother probably got this recipe from my grandmother, who also enjoyed rhubarb. Here it is:

 

Cinnamon Sugar Rhubarb Cake

½ cup butter softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk or sour milk

2 heaping cups finely chopped rhubarb

Topping

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

 Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch cake pan.

 Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Cream butter, sugar and eggs in another bowl. Then add sour milk and vanilla. Add flour mixture. Mix until smooth, then fold in rhubarb. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40-45 minutes until tester comes out clean.

My mom, Ione

Living in California for many years, and now living in southern Texas, I can’t grow rhubarb in my own yard--it needs cooler weather. As a result, I rarely have the chance to bake this cake, but whenever I do, I think of my mom and summers on the farm. I remember the sweet scent of the cake and see myself as a child, impatiently waiting as this cake rested on the stovetop until it was cool enough to cut and eat. Delicious!

 

Sources:

Photo of rhubarb. Carol Sacks, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Pioneer of Professional Nursing: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Technology”

 

Malinda “Linda” A. J. Richards Builds American Nursing Programs

Malinda Ann Judson Richards: 1841-1930 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
 

While the prompt “technology” may not, at first blush, seem to apply to someone who was born in 1841, Amy Johnson Crow noted that there have always been technological breakthroughs—just not the type of tech we think of today. The high-tech breakthroughs of past centuries might have been new designs for shovels or knitting needles, a new way of making shoes or hats, or a new field of study. When I looked at the prompt from that perspective, I thought of Linda A. J. Richards. While she is more my collateral ancestor than a direct ancestor (only a second cousin 3x removed), her technological breakthrough was, in my view, one of the most consequential of the late 19^th century: she helped to create the entire nursing profession in America. And I’m not the only one who recognizes her importance. A simple Google search finds that she is the subject of several biographies and encyclopedia entries, and has been honored by everyone from the Smithsonian, the New York State Senate, the Florence Nightingale Museum, the Women’s Hall of Fame, and a variety of nursing groups.

Malinda Ann Judson Richards was the great-granddaughter of my fourth-great-grandparents Francis Dane and Abiah Burt. She was born July 27, 1841 in Potsdam, New York, to parents Sanford Richards and Betsey Sinclair (Betsey was the daughter of Sarah Dane, and granddaughter of Abiah and Francis Dane). She was the second of their four daughters.

Malinda, or Linda as she came to be called, watched as both her parents succumbed to tuberculosis. Her father died when she was only four years old. Linda, her mother, and her siblings then moved to Vermont to live with her grandfather. She helped to nurse her mother, who died when she was fourteen.

Linda gained a reputation as a “natural nurse” and tried to learn as much as possible from the doctor who treated her mother. At age fifteen, she enrolled in a one-year teaching training program at the St. Johnsbury Academy near her grandfather’s home. She taught school in Newbury, Vermont, and also worked at the Union Straw Works, a hat-making factory, in Foxboro, Massachusetts. She became engaged to a young man named George Poole, but he enlisted to serve in the Civil War before they married. He was seriously injured in the war, and Linda nursed him for several years until his death in 1869.

After his loss, Linda sought out a nursing program, enrolling in a new programs at New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston. Linda described her training in her memoir:

“We rose at 5.30 a.m. and left the wards at 9 p.m. to go to our beds, which were in little rooms between the wards. Each nurse took care of her ward of six patients both day and night. Many a time I got up nine times in the night; often I did not get to sleep before the next call came. We had no evenings out, and no hours for study or recreation. Every second week we were off duty one afternoon from two to five o'clock. No monthly allowance was given for three months.”

She was the first of the students to complete her training in 1873, so was the first officially trained nurse in the United States. She took a position at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, where she created a charting system to keep individual patient records that could be consulted and updated by all the doctors and nurses caring for a patient.

Only a little over a year later, she was named the superintendent of the Boston Training School for Nurses. The school had been in danger of closing due to mismanagement, but her improvements led it to become one of the best nursing programs in the nation.

In 1877, Linda travelled to England to train under Florence Nightingale. When she returned to the United States, she set about incorporating her new knowledge in nursing programs. From 1886 to 1891, she lived in Japan where she served as a missionary and opened the first nursing training school in the country.

Linda in Japan

Linda’s health began to fail after she returned to the United States. She briefly led nursing programs in Philadelphia and Boston, and then turned her energy to developing nursing programs for mental hospitals in Massachusetts and Michigan, and improving the ways mental patients were treated. She also served as the first president of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools.

Linda retired from nursing in 1911 at the age of seventy. She went to live on a farm in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1923, she suffered a stroke and was hospitalized until her death on April 16, 1930 at the age of 88.

Linda A. J. Richards was a true pioneer in the field of nursing, helping to develop it as a profession in the United States and establishing patient charting systems and standards of care for the mentally ill. Her determination, creativity and perseverance are to be admired and remembered.

Sources:

American Association for the History of Nursing. “Linda A. J. Richards.” https://www.aahn.org/richards

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Richards

https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2006/11/linda-richards.html#google_vignette

https://www.workingnurse.com/articles/linda-richards-1841-1930-the-first-graduate-of-americas-first-nursing-school/

https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/linda-richards/

https://www.si.edu/object/miss-linda-richards-americas-first-trained-nurse%3Anmah_1444535

http://www.potsdampublicmuseum.org/documents/Linda_Richards_text_apr24.pdf

Reminiscences of America's First Trained Nurse. Linda Richards. Boston, Whitcomb & Barrows, 1911.

“Linda Richards at the Kalamazoo State Hospital”. R. C. Gordon. Journal of  Psychosocial Nursing,  Ment Health Serv. 1999 Nov;37(11):35-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10572854/

 

 

Forced Immigration in 1650: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Immigration”

 

Valentine Hill’s Indentured Scottish Prisoners of War

Valentine Hill: 1611-1660 (Maternal Ninth-Great-Grandfather)

 

Most immigrants chose to come to America, seeking a better life. However, some people were forced to immigrate, and faced a miserable life once they arrived. They were forced to labor with no compensation, with no right to leave their employer, and no recourse if they were mistreated. Of course African slaves were the majority of these forced immigrants, but there were others. Just like the British prison ships that carried human cargo to Australia to serve as forced labor in the late 1780s, over a century earlier, ships carried prisoners to the American colonies. Once in America, the prisoners were forced into indentured service contracts. Essentially, they were used as slave labor. There was, of course, one major difference from the type of slavery Africans and indigenous people were subjected to: indentured slavery had an endpoint. Once their indenture contracts, usually seven years long, were complete, these people were given their freedom.

My ancestor, Valentine Hill, was a trader in indentured prisoners in the 1650s. He purchased the contracts of Scottish prisoners of war, using them as forced labor in his lumber mills. He also brokered the sale of these prisoners to other property owners in the Durham, New Hampshire area.

So who were these Scottish prisoners of war? An article on the New England Historical Society website provides an excellent summary. In 1650, Oliver Cromwell’s forces invaded Scotland. Twelve thousand Roundheads faced off against eleven thousand Scots in the Battle of Dunbar. The Roundheads won and took thousands of Scots prisoner. Many of these men were forcibly marched to Durham. Many died of disease and starvation. About 150 of these prisoners of war were forced onto the British ship Unity, which carried them to Charlestown, Massachusetts. The shipmaster paid five pounds apiece for the POWs, and sold them for twenty to thirty pounds apiece.

Battle of Dunbar

Most of the men were young and illiterate and spoke only Gaelic. They were forced to sign indenture contracts that they could neither read nor understand.

Valentine Hill bought several of these men in 1650, forcing them to labor in his lumber mills in Durham and on the Lamprey River in New Hampshire.

In 1651, Cromwell’s army defeated a large Scottish army in Worcester, England. Once again, thousands of Scots were taken prisoner and were driven to London under horrible conditions. Some of the survivors of this forced march were shipped off to the colonies. Two hundred seventy-five POWs were loaded onto the ship John and Sara, which sailed for Boston. A Charlestown merchant named John Kemble bought  the prisoners’ contracts, and sold them at a mark-up to individuals and businesses. Most of the men ended a variety of Massachusetts towns.

Partial list of John and Sara prisoners

Kemble partnered with Valentine Hill to sell the remaining men in Exeter and Durham, New Hampshire, and York, Maine. By this point in his life, Valentine Hill was struggling financially, selling off much of his land in the Boston area and consolidating his remaining businesses in the New Hampshire area. He must have been thrilled to make money from the sale of the Scots prisoners, while still profiting from the labor of his previously purchased prisoners.

I wonder how those men fared under Valentine Hill’s control. Did he provide adequate food and shelter? Did he punish them with whips or beat them if they didn’t work to his satisfaction? All we know for certain is that at least seven of his workers survived to complete their contracts, for the New England Historical Society’s article states that, “Seven of Valentine Hill’s Scottish POWs…were listed as taxpayers in Dover, N.H., after their slavery ended.”

I also found another website for the descendants of one of Hill’s indentured Scotsmen, the Micum Mcintire Clan Association. (see citation below). The site contained the names of several of the freed indentured workers, including Robert Junkins, John Carmichael, Henry Brown, Thomas Doughty, James Orr and Edwin Erwin. The article also states that Hill’s indentured men mostly worked felling trees for the sawmills, and they may have also been involved in construction of buildings in Oyster River. The article’s author, Jonathan Tucker, stated that the men worked four days per week and attended church one day, and the rest of their time could work on their own account. He discussed Hill’s purchase of a four-acre plot near his mill in 1652, stating that his indentured workers were allowed to construct cabins for themselves and garden on the land. Tucker did not provide references for his assertions, so I can’t look at his evidence myself. I hope that his information is correct, and that Valentine Hill was a decent master.

Oyster River area with Valentine Hill property location noted

Most of the indentured Scottish POWs never returned to their homeland. Most, like Valentine Hill’s seven, started new lives in the colonies. The Historical Society article states that many married Irish girls who had also been indentured and sent to the colonies to labor.

Valentine Hill lived only three years more after his indentured workers received their freedom. He died November 3, 1660 or 1661 at the Oyster River Plantation near Durham, N.H. He was only 50 years old. He died in debt to several people, including his brother John back in London, and his brother-in-law Thomas Cobbett in the colonies.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/how-scottish-pows-were-sold-as-slave-labor-in-new-england/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37074695/valentine-hill

National Park Service: Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site: “Scottish Prisoners at the Iron Works. “https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/scottish-prisoners-at-the-iron-works.htm#:~:text=The%20Scots%20were%20soldiers%20who,indentured%20servants%20for%20seven%20years.

https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/opinion/2022/10/11/york-america-history-arrival-scottish-prisoners/8235716001/

“Oyster River—Micum’s Indenture”, by Jonathan Tucker. https://micummcintireclanassociation.org/oyster-river/

Grandma Peterson’s Green Glassware: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Heirlooms”

 

Treasures from the Basement: Grandma Regina’s Custard Cups and Saucers

Regina Syverson: 1872-1952 (Paternal Grandmother)

When I was a little girl, I loved to explore the old wooden shelves in the basement of our farmhouse. They held a random assortment of items—the shelving equivalent of today’s kitchen “junk drawer”. There were tools and nuts and bolts my dad had set down, work gloves, some cleaning supplies, broken items awaiting repairs, jars of buttons or nails, and various bits of kitchenware of my grandmother’s that didn’t make the cut to keep upstairs. My favorite pieces were small green glassware items—deep, oddly shaped little bowls and tiny saucers made to hold the bowls. All that I knew about the pieces was that they had belonged to Grandma Regina, and that I thought they were beautiful, even crusted in dust.

When I grew up, I rescued these little pieces from the basement. By then, I had spent time with a friend whose mother collected “Depression Glass”, mass-produced glassware in translucent colors manufactured during the period from 1929 until 1939, during the Great Depression. I recognized that these dark green glass pieces shared similarities with Depression Glass, and as a result, were probably also collectible.

My basement treasures

I did some research on the pieces. I discovered they were manufactured by Anchor Hocking, a well-known glass manufacturer. The pattern was called “Sandwich” and the color was Forest Green. The mysteriously-shaped bowls were intended to serve custard, and were meant to sit elegantly upon their little saucers for sophisticated dessert lovers.

Custard cup

According to websites dealing with vintage glass, several companies made Sandwich pattern glassware. The patterns “have a flower and ornate scroll motif with the space between filled with stippling (tiny raised dots).” Sandwich patterns were based on patterns developed by glass artisans in Sandwich, Massachusetts in the 1800s, hence the name. Anchor Hocking was one of the later companies to use the Sandwich style pattern on both clear and Forest Green glass dishware.

Sandiwch pattern details including the scrolls, dahlia-like flowers, and stippling are visible on the bottom of this  saucer.

According to glassonweb.com (see citation below), Anchor Hocking produced Forest Green Sandwich pattern pieces between 1939 and 1964. Many of the pieces “were used as promotional items at grocery stores and gas stations. Five of the items, in Forest Green, were included free inside boxes of Crystal Wedding brand oats.”

I suspect that my Grandma Regina acquired her pieces as free promotions. She had been raised to be thrifty, and it would certainly explain why she owned only a few pieces that didn’t seem to suit her farmwife lifestyle. I doubt she was serving a lot of custard. I read on another site that the Crystal Wedding Oats promo began in the mid-1950s. Grandma Regina died in 1952, so she must have participated in an earlier promotion program.

Since I loved these little bowls and saucers so much, I started looking for more pieces at antique stores and on Ebay to build my collection. I acquired a set of six juice glasses, six small bowls, six teacups and saucers, and a few more custard cups. I couldn’t find any dinner plates—they are extremely rare as they were never included in any promotional campaigns. I finally settled for clear Sandwich pattern plates and bought plastic chargers in dark green to place beneath them. I now have enough dishes to be able to use them on special occasions.

Grandma Regina Syverson Peterson late in life

While my Anchor Hocking pieces are popular vintage collectibles, they are far less valuable than true Depression Glass. I acquired most of my pieces for only a few dollars. However, these charming little pieces have great personal value. They connect me to the grandmother who died seven years before I was born. While we never met, Regina and I obviously shared a love for the deep green color and charming floral pattern of this glassware. To me, they are true family heirlooms.

Sources:

“Anchor Hocking’s Sandwich Pattern” by Virginia Scott. Rainbow Review Glass Journal, March 1976. Accessed on National Depression Glass Association’s webpage. https://www.ndga.net/rainbow/1976/76rrg03a.php

“Sandwich Glass and Sandwich Pattern Glassware”. https://www.glassonweb.com/news/sandwich-glass-and-sandwich-pattern-glassware#:~:text=Anchor%20Hocking%20produced%20their%20version,of%20Crystal%20Wedding%20brand%20oats.

 

Auto Accident Kills Young Couple: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Automobiles”

Tragic Accident Kills Phyllis Ott and Husband

Phyllis Ott Walters: 1919-1943 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)

 

While researching my grandaunt Ethel Macbeth Ott for the previous post, I found more records relating to her two daughters. I immediately noted that Ethel’s younger daughter, Phyllis, died when she was only 23 years old. What could have happened? Then I discovered a news article in an old family scrapbook that explained how a car accident on a February afternoon eighty-one years ago ended not just Phyllis’ life, but the lives of two others.

Start of long Mankato Free Press article clipped and saved by my great-aunt Annie Schostag

Phyllis Ethel Ott was born April 14, 1919 to George Henry Ott and Ethel Macbeth Ott. She grew up in the Mankato area of Minnesota, where she met her husband Ralph Walters. Ralph grew up on a farm near Waseca, Minnesota. Ralph and Phyllis married June 27, 1937; he was 22, and Phyllis was 18 years old.

Ralph worked on road construction through a WPA program, and also did farm work. The couple moved frequently during the early years of their marriage, as can be seen on Ralph’s WWII draft card, which had three separate addresses listed.

 

Their son, Monte Walters, was born October 17, 1939. Sadly, little Monte died just two months later on December 31, 1939. 

On February 21, 1943, life was probably looking up for Ralph and Phyllis. Ralph had a steady income at last as he was working at Kato Engineering, the same firm employing his father-in-law. They were living on Front Street in Mankato. They were young—28 and 23—and had their lives ahead of them.

Ralph and Phyllis were returning from a visit to Ralph’s parents —the Walters had moved to North Branch, Minnesota, about 55 miles north of the Twin Cities. The couple had spent four days with Ralph’s parents and were headed home on Highway 169 that Sunday afternoon. At about 4:30 p.m., Ralph lost control of his car, possibly when the wheels struck a “bump” on the pavement. The car plowed into the side of a cattle truck seven miles north of LeSueur, Minnesota. According to the news article, the car was nearly demolished by the impact. Ralph died at the scene—the driver’s side of the car would have sustained the most damage.

Phyllis survived the crash, but she suffered a skull fracture and internal injuries. She was taken to a hospital in Shakopee, a town nearly thirty miles north of the crash. My aunt, the scrapbook compiler, wrote on the article that Phyllis “died a few days later”. Death records show she died February 23.

Tragically, Alfred Albrecht, an undertaker from Shakopee who was called to the crash scene, suffered a heart attack at home after helping to extract Ralph’s body from the wreckage and then carrying Phyllis into the office of the closest doctor. Albrecht died, so was the third death resulting from this single auto accident.

Fortunately, the driver and passengers in the cattle truck received minimal injuries.

This tragic accident shows how important safety improvements like seat belts, antilock brakes, and improved auto construction have helped to prevent similar deaths. In addition, Highway 169, which I have driven dozens of times, is now a divided highway, providing even more safety if a car loses control.

Phyllis and Ralph are buried in Tivoli Cemetery in Eagle Lake, Minnesota, near the graves of Phyllis’ parents.

Sources:

Mankato Free Press article from Annie Schostag’s scrapbook. Feb. 1943. “Auto – Truck Crash Fatal to ‘Katoan”.

Findagrave.com entry for Ralph and Phyllis Walters. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13148035/ralph-a-walters?_gl=1*dlv1kd*_gcl_aw

Minneapolis Daily Times article. Feb. 22, 1943. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/141726907/car-accident-kills-ralph-and-phyllis/?xid=637&_gl=1*vhk1ln*_gcl_aw*

Ralph Walters WWII draft card. Accessed via Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/16771621:2238?ssrc=pt&tid=46986934&pid=25560975052

Twenty Years of Shifting Gears : 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Earning a Living”

George Ott Changes Careers with the Times

George Henry Ott: 1866-1977 (Maternal Grand-Aunt’s Husband)
Ethel Mary Macbeth Ott: 1896-1951 (Maternal Grand-Aunt)

 

Articles offering career advice often refer to the current job market as a “gig economy”, where people shift from one employer to another, using their skill sets to tackle various projects. The articles often assert that workers must be nimble, adapting as employers’ needs change, and that this pattern of career change is new. They claim that in the past, people worked for a single employer for their entire working lifetimes, remaining in the same or similar jobs. But is this view of the past true? A look at the work history of my grand-uncle by marriage, George Ott, shows he was just as nimble as any gig worker today. He cycled through three or four very different types of jobs in a twenty-year period. His goal—and that of his wife Ethel-- was to provide for the family.

Geoge Henry Ott was born December 17, 1886 in Mankato, Minnesota. He grew up on his father Geoge’s farm, and his first jobs were as a farm laborer before he went into farming for himself. He married Ethel Macbeth on May 22, 1914 when he was 27 and Ethel was 18.

By the 1920 census, George and Ethel were farming on rented property in LeRay Township near Eagle Lake, Minnesota. They had two little girls, Nona and Phyllis. By 1930, George had bought a farm near Kasota in neighboring LeSeuer County, Minnesota. He probably felt more assured of his ability to provide for his little family, but of course the Great Depression had just begun, cratering farm prices. George probably had a mortgage on his farm, and at some point he must have had to sell up and move to nearby Mankato to seek employment.

By the 1940 census, he was working as a laborer on highway construction. He appears in a Mankato city directory in 1941 as a worker for Guaranteed Gravel and Sand Co. and he also lists the company on his 1941 draft card. I suspect this is the same job—a gravel company would be involved in road construction.  

The 1950 census took me by surprise. George had changed jobs, to one I’d never heard mentioned before. Under “Occupation”, the census taker wrote: “winds electric motors”. The industry was listed as “Engineer Co.” I found a slightly different description of George’s new job in the 1948 Mankato City Directory, which listed George as an “armature winder” for Kato Engineering.

I did some research, discovering on a website cited below that an armature winder is:

“an artisan responsible for the repair, reconditioning, or construction of wire armature coils for transformers, electric motors and generators. Although strictly an electrical trade, armature winding is generally classified as electrical fitting because it involves additional mechanical elements. Armature winding typically involves two facets: construction and repair. The construction or manufacturing armature winder engages in the winding of new armatures while a repair winder concentrates on fault finding, repairing, or refurbishing existing parts. Both disciplines can involve a lot of precise, repetitive work….”

I further discovered that Kato Engineering was founded in 1926, and manufactures generators, so George was preparing armature coils for generators. George was in his sixties when he worked for Kato Engineering. While the work may have been less physically harsh than road construction, it obviously required extreme care and control.

Interestingly, my Great-Aunt Ethel was also employed in 1948. The city directory states she was working as a maid at Immanuel Hospital in Mankato. She no longer held a job by the date of the 1950 census, but I am sure she was proud to have contributed to earning a living for her family.

Ethel Macbeth Ott died November 2, 1951 at only 55 years of age. George Ott died June 18, 1977 at age ninety.

As a side note, I returned to my entries on Ethel and George this winter after I was contacted by a gentleman who was researching the Eagle Lake Cemetery where George and Ethel are buried. He had discovered the graves of three additional children that weren’t listed in any Ancestry trees, and thought I might like to know about them and add them to my tree. The three little boys, George Ethelbert (1917), Laren George (1920), and Daryl (1925), appear to have been stillborn or died shortly after birth. I am so grateful for the efforts of volunteers like that gentleman. The babies are now part of my family tree, and I have included photos of their headstones on Ancestry. No one should be forgotten.

  

Sources:

What does an Armature Winder do? Mastering the Craft of Electrical Motor Repair, by Paul Scott. https://www.practicaladultinsights.com/what-does-an-armature-winder-do.htm

Findagrave website. Photo by Wells. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13148024/george-henry-ott?_

Mankato City Directory 1948, and World War II Draft Card accessed via Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005252612_04494?pId=33961652

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/13335598?pId=801934835

Spinster No More: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Love and Marriage”

 

May-December Romance? Or Fortune Hunter and Prey? Mary Langstaff Marries a Man Forty Years Younger

Mary Langstaff: 1650-Approx. 1716 (Maternal Ninth-Great-Grandaunt)
Eleazer Coleman: 1685/90-17-- (Husband of Ninth-Great Grandaunt and First Cousin 9x Removed)
Anna Nutter: 1682-17-- (Maternal First Cousin 9x Removed)

 

After 55 years living in her family’s home and caring for her aging father Henry Langstaff (see previous blog post), Mary Langstaff was suddenly independent and alone following Henry’s death. Her father tried to repay her for her long devotion and her lost chances of marriage and motherhood by leaving a large portion of his land and possessions to her; only her brother Henry received a larger bequest. Henry stated that he gave the properties:

“…to my daughter Mary Langster [for] natural love, goodwill, affection, etc., and her carefulness in taking pains to wait and attend upon me upon all occasions in this my great age.”

Henry’s 1705 death left Mary an heiress of sorts, the owner of fifty acres of land in Dover, New Hampshire, land in the “little bay” area of Dover, and half of Henry’s lands and marsh in Greenland, plus half of all his household goods, except for three cows and ten sheep which were to go to her married sister.

There are no records to indicate how Mary dealt with her new properties and responsibilities. Did she employ laborers to work in the fields? Did she rely on her brother Henry or her brother-in-law Anthony Nutter for assistance? Did she work the fields and tend to the livestock on her own? And how did the community react to her newfound status? After all, in the 1600s, women rarely held property independently. Was she suddenly an attractive marriage prospect to every land-hungry widower in town?

All we can prove is that eight years after Henry’s death, Mary gave up spinsterhood at last, marrying Eleazer Coleman. But this marriage was probably even more shocking to her neighbors than Mary being a female landowner: the bride was sixty-three and the groom either twenty-three or twenty-eight years old (records vary). Eleazer was young enough to be Mary’s son—perhaps even young enough to be her grandson.

Why did they marry? How did they know one another? Was it a purely practical, economic arrangement? Was Eleazer an employee on her land? Was there affection between them? Did Mary feel motherly toward Eleazer and wanted to provide for him, and marriage was the only way their culture would accommodate that? Did she have physical conditions that necessitated in-home care, and Eleazer could only provide such personal care if he was her husband? Were there any romantic feelings between them? Was Eleazer just a fortune hunter?

The only indications we have about their relationship come from records cited in the book Landmarks in Ancient Dover (see citation below, pg. 240), where the author references “a curious bit of family history, well worth copying form the County records” regarding the transfer of some parcels of land:

“Mary Langstar of Bloody Point, June 20, 1713, well knowing that a marriage by God’s grace is intended and shortly to be had and solemnized between Eleazar Coleman of said place to the [aforesaid] Mary Langstar, and considering that [said] Mary, being about ye age of 63 years, and the said Eleazar about 28 years, and she may the better be taken care of in case she lives to any great age, and for divers other good and just causes, conveys to him fifty acres of upland called Steven’s Point, otherwise by ye name of Stephen Jether’s point, a little above Bloody Point, right east by Broad Cove. Also land on Little Bay, beginning by a creek in Broad Cove, and Running up ye Little bay as far as Dumplin cove.”

This sounds more like a business arrangement. Mary is trading her land for the promise that Eleazer will care for her as she grows old. Did the “divers other good and just causes” include some sort of affection and friendship if not romance or desire? One hopes so for both their sakes.

A footnote at the bottom of the page in the Landmarks book relates a bit of gossip about the couple:

“There is a story, which the writer is unwilling to believe, that Eleazar Coleman, having been asked if he loved his elderly but well-endowed bride, replied significantly that he loved the very ground she walked on.”

I’m sure the land was certainly the primary inducement for a young man to give up potential opportunities to start a family of his own. Mary could have, after all, been as long-lived as her father, who was well into his nineties when he died. Eleazer risked spending decades tied to a very old woman.

Property records confirm that the marriage took place, for on March 6, 1714, Eleazer Coleman and “Mary his wife” sold the fifty-acre Stephen’s Point property and the Little Bay property to Richard Downing and Thomas Coleman. Thomas Coleman was Eleazer’s older brother.

Plan of Coleman's Farm in Newington, 13 acres. 1853 plan. Were these Colemans descendants of Eleazer or his family?

Luckily for Eleazer, he didn’t have long to wait before he became a widower. Mary died in 1716, just three years after their marriage. His path to inheriting her property wasn’t entirely smooth, however. Apparently, Mary’s brother John and his family had never approved of her marriage. After her death, they filed court claims against the land she had inherited from her father, referring to her in the court documents by her maiden name as if they didn’t recognize Eleazer as her husband. John’s son Henry, a lawyer, finally resigned all claims to lands given to Eleazer by “Mary Langstar, deceased” on November 26, 1716. (Note: this proves Mary died no later than 1716.)

Eleazer married Mary’s great-niece just a few months later, on March 1, 1717. Anna Nutter was the granddaughter of Mary’s sister Sarah Langstaff Nutter and her husband Anthony Nutter. Anna’s father, John Nutter, was Sarah and Anthony’s eldest son. Anna Nutter was born in 1682, so once again Eleazer married an older woman. However, at least this time she was only three to eight years older: Anna was 34 and he was either 26 or 31 years old when they married. Did they meet through her relationship to Eleazer’s first wife, or did they already know one another? Perhaps Mary’s siblings could take comfort in the fact that Mary’s lands were staying in the family so to speak, since now Eleazer’s inheritance was being used to support another Langstaff descendant.

Birth record for Anna and Eleazer's son, Eleazer

This second marriage seems to have been a success. Anna and Eleazer had eight children between 1718 and 1731. They lived in the Greenland/Newington area of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and presumably died there. Their death dates are unconfirmed.

Aerial view of Newington, NH

Love and marriage. They don’t necessarily need to go together. While we can surmise that Eleazer Coleman’s first marriage was more of a business arrangement than a love match, perhaps he chose to marry for love the second time.

 

Sources:

Thompson, Mary P. (Mary Pickering), 1825-1894, "Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire. Complete edition." (1892). Local History & Genealogy (Town Histories). 68. Pg. 240.

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. Robert Charles Anderson. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston. 1995. Henry Langstaff entry: pgs 1156-1160. Accessed through NEHGS/American Ancestors. Pg. 1157 and 1158.

New Hampshire: Miscellaneous Censuses and Substitutes, 1640-1890 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013. From records supplied by Ancestry.com) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB507/rd/13679/3512/242289998

New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1654-1969. (From microfilmed records. Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB516/i/13797/28514/246070949

Vital Records from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.)

Dame, Timothy, Jr. "Plan of Coleman's Farm in Newington containing 13 acres - 125 rods." Map. Portsmouth, N.H., 1853. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:8k71r164v (accessed January 21, 2024).