Community Petitions: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Neighbors and Community”

 

Benjamin Chesley and Neighbors Band Together to Petition the Government in 1780s-1810s

Benjamin Chesley: 1743-1831 (Maternal Fifth Great-Uncle)

 

I recently discovered a new resource on Ancestry: a database titled “New Hampshire, U.S., Government Petitions, 1700-1826”. While the database had been available since 2021, I had never seen an Ancestry hint related to it, so had never examined the documents. While researching my fifth-great-uncle Benjamin Chesley, I found a hint that showed he was a signatory on a petition sent to the state government objecting to a planned road project in 1792. The document was fascinating, and I was able to find eight additional petitions my ancestor signed around the same time period. The petitions provide a window into the way neighbors and communities banded together to address concerns in the early decades of our nation.

Petitions bearing Benjamin Chesley's signature

Benjamin Chesley was born in Durham, New Hampshire on January 24, 1743, to parents Thomas Chesley and Mary Hill Chesley. He was one of their eight children. He married Deborah Randall, another of my fifth-great-grandaunts. He farmed and owned land in several locations. Benjamin and Deborah had eleven children, and lived in the Durham area.

The earliest petition I found that contained Benjamin’s signature was dated March 30, 1787.  The petition was simple and direct: the concerned residents of Strafford County asked that “his Excellency the President and the Honourable Council of the State of New Hampshire” to appoint Ebenezer Smith to the vacant office of Register of Probate. Smith was, the petitioners wrote, “a person well qualified for the office and whom we desire to be appointed…” A year before the U.S. Constitution was ratified, the citizens of a small county in New Hampshire already had enough confidence in their state officials that they believed petitioning them regarding appointments would have effect.

Another petition from 1787 speaks to some conflict within the community.

“The subscriber inhabitants of the County of Stafford being informed that some persons have petitioned your Honors to remove the Hon.ble George Frost Esq from his seat a Judge of the Inferior Court of Commonplace for said County which we conceive to be owing to prejudice---therefore we beg leave to suggest to your honors…from our knowledge and observation the sd [said]Frost has acted in his office afor’d [aforementioned] impartially and to general satisfaction and that his removal therefrom will not in our opinion be for the interest of said County. Wherefore we pray your honors he may be continued in office and we as in Duty Bound will pray so.”

Benjamin Chesley's signature is top center

Benjamin was the topmost signator, with his relative George Chesley signing directly beneath him. I recognize numerous other names among the signators who were either relatives by marriage or neighbors of the Chesleys, including Winthrop and John Bickford, Robert Burnham, Valentine and Benjamin Mathes and Christopher Nutter. This was obviously a situation they all felt strongly about. Someone in the area was trying to cause trouble for this judge out of “prejudice”. Perhaps the judge had ruled against the “persons” in question and they were seeking revenge, or they anticipated he would rule unfavorably against them in a future case. The community obviously did not approve of the tactics these “persons” were employing, and decided to make an end run around them.

The 1792 petition, the first one I had discovered on Ancestry, reveals some conflict between communities and regions. The petition objects to proposed road construction plans, suggesting that the portion through their community of Durham was ill-advised and poorly planned and will not benefit them. It reads as follows:

“The subscribers, being inhabitants of the Town of Durham in said State—will that every necessary alteration should be made in our Public highways—and anxious that the intended communication between Concord & this Town should take place—Yet, must beg leave, humbly to remonstrate against the alterations proposed by your Honor’s Committee in running through said Town—

The nature of our ground is such, that very little of it can be improved for Roads, without great expense—And we think it almost impracticable ever to make a good road on the land they have run upon—but are certain, that it will require many years, with large sums of money, to make it possible with safety—

Besides, we cannot conceive the advantages that will accrue to the Public from the amendments, will be adequate to the injury the Ton must sustain—as we shall be obliged to purchase the land for the new road at an extravagant price, and likewise forced, not only to support that, but also the old one for the benefits of individuals long since settled upon it, as greater parts of whose interests must fall a sacrifice to the proposed exchange—When the saving in distance will never exceed one hundred rods. If that’s soon to be lost by the Travelor in passing over hills and through mires, which abundantly be found. The way now occupied is free from hills, and with much labour for a hundred years, is now a very good Road—vastly better, we presume, than the new one will be the same number of years hence.

For those reasons we humbly pray that much of the Report of your Honour’s Committee as respects the alteration of highways in said Durham may not be received or accepted by your Hounours and we as in duty will ever pray---

Durham 21st May 1792”

1792 peitition signature page

As we can see, the problems of 1892 are much like those of 2026, with taxpayers objecting to how the government intends to spend tax dollars, demanding that the money be spent wisely and without extravagance or waste, and that the projects benefit everyone.

The final petition that caught my eye was one of the last ones Benjamin signed. Apparently, much like today, people were being nominated to hold office in 1813 merely on the basis of their political allegiances, without questioning whether they possess any skill or experience for the job. The residents who would suffer as a result of the political appointment, objected, writing in part:

“…your petitioners humbly share that there is a petition about to be presented to your Excellency and the honorable counsel recommending a man by the name of John Jenkins Jr of Barnstead in said county of Strafford as a suitable person for a justice of the peace--- and as your Excellency and the honorable council are unacquainted with both petitioners and candidate we have thought it our duty to lay before you the true character of the said John Jenkens as he is surley [surely] a partey man and instead of being a peacemaker he often meddles with matters that he ought not and (as Solomon saith) “is like one who taketh a dog by the ears” and if he finds at any time that any two persons are at variance he will generally be meddling either as a pettafoger [pettifogger] or like a busybody in other mens matters in order to enhance the dispute and blow up the flame of discord and keep the fire burning therefore we do think that it would be derogatory to the character of your Excellency and the character of the honourable council that we are not induced to make this remonstrance by any prepossession of prejudice against the said John Jenkins Jr or influenced by political divisions but we think we are influenced by the love of peace & harmony and for the benefit of society and we most earnestly hope that the name of your Excellency and the name of the honorable Secretary will not be so debased as to be placed on a commission with the name of the aforesaid John Jenkins Jr .”

These petitions show how, in the very early history of our nation, the citizens felt confidence in the country’s institutions and the rule of law to bring their concerns before their government and ask for redress. They did not fear reprisal—they confidently signed their names. These petitions were probably passed from person to person in a community, which is why the signatures of family members and neighbors were clustered together.

I wish I shared my ancestor’s confidence that our government cares about our concerns. While I send emails to my senators, my Congressional representative, and my President and Vice President, I doubt that they care. They all seem far more concerned with lining their own pockets and those of the extremely wealthy than in serving the interests of their constituents. I hope that someday I will once again believe, like my fifth great-granduncle Benjamin Chesley did, that my government truly is of the people, by the people and for the people.

Benjamin Chesley died in 1835 at the age of eighty-eight. He is buried in Durham, New Hampshire.

 

 

Sources:

New Hampshire, U.S., Government Petitions, 1700-1826.

Box 46: 1819. May 1819; Box 23: Dec 30, 1786-Aug 1787, March 1787. Accessed on Ancestry.com.

Multiple Susannahs, Multiple Mistakes: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Multiples”

 

Two Susannah Chesleys Married Two John Smiths in Two Different Colonies, Causing Two Times the Confusion

Susannah Chesley: 1677-1746 (Maternal 7^th Great-Grandaunt)
Captain John Smith: 1669-1744 (Husband of Maternal 7^th Great-Grandaunt)

 

I have been using Ancestry’s Tree Checker tool to identify and correct errors in my tree. The program recently suggested that Sarah Chesley, a 7^th great-grandaunt, was a possible duplicate. The program suggested Sarah was the same person as her sister Susannah. While I rejected that possibility, as I glanced at Susannah’s Fact page in my tree, I noticed some peculiarities. It turns out that I did have duplicates in my tree, but it wasn’t Sarah being the same as Susannah—it appeared I had combined two different Susannah Chesleys. They were both born in the 1670s and both married men named John Smith. But they were born in different colonial towns to different parents. I had made a rookie mistake: accepting Ancestry hints without verifying them, blindly following other people who had combined the two women.

My Susannah Chesley was born in 1677 in Durham, New Hampshire, to parents Thomas Chesley and Elizabeth Thomas Chesley. Susannah married John Smith on June 17, 1694. He was born January 9, 1669 to parents Joseph Smith and Elizabeth Bickford Smith of Oyster River.

Map of Oyster River area in late 1600s.

The other Susannah Chesley was born in 1668 in Stonington, Connecticut. Her parentage is unclear. She married John Smith in 1691. That John Smith was born July 13, 1672 in Watertown, Massachusetts, also supposedly to a Joseph Smith and Elizabeth Bickford. Obviously that was incorrect, as Joseph Smith and Elizabeth Bickford lived in New Hampshire. I found another researcher,  Brad Stauf, who had compiled information on the Connecticut family and listed John Smith’s parents as Daniel Smith and Mary Grant of Massachusetts. I find his evidence, posted on Findagrave, persuasive.

So I had determined that the two John and Susannah Smiths lived in two different colonies. Each couple had given birth to multiple children, and I had erroneously added both sets of children to my tree. To my horror, I realized I had poor Susannah giving birth to fifteen children over the space of twenty years. It was a hideous mess. My tree even had three children—Jerusha, John and Joshua-- born in the same year in different states, and had several similar sounding children’s names (John Joseph, Josiah. Joshua)—how was I going to untangle this? How had I failed to notice that some children were born in Stonington, Connecticut and others in Oyster River, New Hampshire, 170 miles away? People simply didn’t travel back and forth over such distances in the 17^th century.

Map of New Hampshire, 1700s

I found one source, an old family genealogy book titled “The Smiths of Oyster River” which had a list of children the editors attributed to the Oyster River Smith family. This was a wonderful starting point, and it was reinforced by another book entitled Colonial Families of the United States of America, which listed the same eight children.

I began clearing up my mistakes by removing any of Susannah’s children that were born in Stonington. The names piled up: Hannah, Jerusha, Joshua, Margaret, Daniel, Esther, Ephraim, Josiah, Silas, and Lucy. I removed ten children that were from the Connecticut family.

That left me with only five children that had likely been born in Oyster Rive to the correct Susannah Chesley and John Smith. All five—John, Elizabeth, Joseph, Samuel and Benjamin—were on the lists of children from the two genealogy books. But the books listed an additional three children who needed to be added to the tree: Hannah, Ebenezer and Winthrop.

I then set out to find primary sources for the eight Oyster River Smith children. I was able to find birth records for all eight children. Additional records, including their deaths, marriages and children, were more spotty. But at least I was able to verify that John and Susannah Chesley Smith gave birth to those eight children in the Durham/Oyster River area of New Hampshire.

I also found some interesting information about John Smith in a genealogy book by Ballard Smith, Jr. (see citation below) that gives a small glimpse into the Smith family’s lives.

Ballard Smith wrote: “It was [John Smith] who ‘defended so successfully’ the garrison at the mouth of Oyster River, then commanded by his father, the attack upon it being made when he was but just finishing his honeymoon, his marriage to Susanna Chesley having been consummated but a few weeks before. It is to be presumed, however, that there was neither much opportunity nor leisure for overmuch sentiment in those days, with the new and untrodden lands to be brought into the service of civilization and the constant incursions of hostile savages to be prepared for at all seasons, and to be resisted vigorously when made.”

What a way for poor Susannah to start her married life—under attack by native tribes. I hope that there was a bit more “sentiment” involved despite the danger. At least they and the house survived the attack. The garrison stood until the late 1880s.

Painting of the Smith Garrison House, Unknown artist, 1890s

Ballard Smith noted that John Smith was “unusually active and industrious” and that despite “the small patrimony that his father left him, he had amassed a very considerable fortune” over his lifetime. He wrote:

“Capt. John commenced his business life as a land surveyor, in which connection his name is frequently met with in the town records, and, with the farm at Lubberland as the homestead, gradually added to his property, until he became one of the largest real estate owners and wealthiest men in his section. He owned almost the entire shore of Great Bay from Lamprey River to Crommet's Creek, nearly four miles in extent…”

Illustration of early 1700s surveying equipment similar to what John Smith used

In addition to real estate, John Smith operated two profitable sawmills along the Lamprey River. He also served as Selectman of the town of Dover repeatedly during the period between 1711 and 1727. Ballard Smith also approvingly noted his ancestor’s generosity, writing:

“He seems to have kept "open house" at the garrison, and tradition glows with its accounts of the liberality and hospitality displayed by the father and sons at the old homestead. They seem to have made an excellent use of their large wealth.”

Crommet's Creek, New Hampshire. Land possibly owned by John Smith

John Smith died May 14, 1744. Susannah Chesley Smith died two years later on March 24, 1746. He was 75 years old and she was 69 years old. I have found no record to indicate where they were buried, which is not surprising as there were few formal cemeteries at that time.

I am so glad that Ancestry’s Tree Checker sent me on this journey. Not only did I correct multiple errors in my tree, but I also found interesting information about a colonial family and life in 17^th century New Hampshire.

Sources:

Colonial Families of the United States of America, 1607-1775. Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Volume III. “John Smith”. Page 516. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995. Ancestry.com.

Findagrave notes by Brad Stauf on Connecticut and New Hampshire John Smiths. https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/46986934/person/322298746932/media/8e62f29e-d62c-45e7-bafa-3f916b8cfde0?galleryindex=1&sort=-created

A genealogical record of the Smiths of Oyster River from the first settler in 1630 to 1874: with some account of the immediate ancestors of Hon. Valentine Smith and his descendants / Ballard Smith, Jr.. Durham, NH : Courier-Journal Print, 1874. Ancestry.com.

Painting of Smith Garrison House, Unknown Artist. Circa 1890.

The Practical Surveyor or the Art of Land Measuring Made Easy. Wyld, Samuel. London. J. Hooke and J. Sisson. 1725. Illustration.

Map of Oyster River, 1600s. https://www.durhamnh.gov/

 

A Moment in Crime: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Hard Choice”

 

Runaway to Robber to Regular Guy: Making a Better Choice

Ellison Laird: 1914-1993 (Maternal First Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Everyone has made mistakes as a teenager—it’s how we all grow and learn. But some mistakes are worse than others. It can be a question of scale—how big was the mistake? Did it hurt other people? Did it have long term consequences? My grandfather’s nephew Ellison Laird made a whopper of a poor decision as a young teen that could have completely derailed his life. But he made the hard choice to change course and build a solid future.

Ellison James Laird was born October 20, 1914, in Mankato, Minnesota, to parents James Laird and Gertrude Macbeth Laird. He was the second of their eleven children. James was a teamster employed by the city as of 1920, but by the census in 1930 he was taking odd jobs. Obviously something happened that changed the family’s situation for the worse between 1920 and 1930. The Great Depression began around that time period, and probably led the city to lay off employees. So in 1929, the Laird family was probably under stress, and as the second oldest child who would be expected to assume more adult responsibilities, Ellison probably shared that stress. Family life must have been rough, because he chose to run away from home at age fourteen, heading west to Fargo, North Dakota in the spring of 1929.

On April 24, 1929, Ellison was arrested in Anoka, Minnesota, along with a fifty-year-old man named Frank Williams. They were charged with the burglary and attempted burglary of multiple stores in various Minnesota towns. The initial news reports listed Ellison’s age as seventeen. He finally confessed his true age to police the following day, admitting he was a runaway.

St. Cloud Times Headline, April 24, 1929

After reading the various news articles on the pair’s crime spree, it appears that Ellison met Williams in Fargo. Ellison told police that Williams “had offered him a job at $3 as a salesman’s assistant.” Obviously the much older Williams took advantage of Ellison’s youth and naivete. Police determined Williams was a career criminal from Chicago.

According to Ellison Laird, he and Williams stole a car in Fargo, and used it while committing burglaries there before driving into Minnesota to continue the burglary spree. They robbed four stores in Clear Lake, Minnesota. The St. Cloud Times reported as follows:

“After being in St. Cloud Monday night, and failing successfully to rob any stores here, Williams and Laird went to Clear Lake. Shortly after midnight, they broke into the Dingmann Hardware store there…and took a quantity of merchandise, in addition to a number of loose keys. With these keys in their possession they also are charged with having robbed the Weis barber shop and restaurant, the McDonald meat market and the LeBlanc grocery store. They attempted to enter the office of the Central Lumber company…but were unsuccessful.

Tuesday evening, police brought young Laird back to Clear Lake where…he showed them how the stores were robbed and how entry was made.”

In addition to Clear Lake, they also burgled several stores in Rothsay, Minnesota.

The pair were captured in Anoka due to a humiliating reason. The St. Cloud Times noted:

“Imbibing too freely of the contents of a bottle of hair tonic stolen at Clear Lake resulted in the arrest of the pair at Anoka Tuesday afternoon. The two suspects, when they pulled into an oil filling station at Anoka, were noticeably intoxicated and slightly sick. The attendant at the oil station notified the police of two drunk drivers and the police made the arrest, later finding in the car a large quantity of merchandise alleged to have been stolen…”

I wondered why they hadn’t stolen liquor or bought some with money they had stolen—drinking hair tonic seemed a bit desperate. But I quickly realized that in 1929, Prohibition was still in force, so there was no liquor to steal or buy. People resorted to all sorts of liquor substitutes, in this case hair tonic. No wonder Ellison and Williams were slightly sick.

Ellison made the hard choice to confess everything to the police. Williams denied Ellison’s account, but the evidence the police recovered, both in the vehicle they were driving and in a hiding place Ellison led them to in Sauk Center, proved Williams’ guilt.

Ellison’s confession led to the police taking pity on him. The newspaper noted, “Because of the youth’s age, and the fact that apparently he had been duped into a life of crime, Sherburne county officials were inclined to be lenient with him and he may be returned home without charge placed against him.”

I hypothesize that he did avoid facing charges, because a year later Ellison appears on the 1930 census at age fifteen, living at home in Mankato with his parents and siblings. James and Gertrude obviously took him back, and he seems to have left criminal activity behind. The census showed he was back at school, while his older brother had, at age seventeen, already left school and was working as a laborer in an effort to help support the family since father James no longer had steady work.

Ellison probably followed his brother’s example the following year and left school to try to find paying work. The 1940 census showed him still living with his parents, and it listed his last year of schooling as “HS1” which means he only completed his first year of high school before dropping out. 

Albert Lea Tribune article Jan 1942

Ellison registered for the World War II draft the same year, stating that he worked for his father in Garden City, Minnesota. He was 5’10, 150 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair and a dark complexion.

Apparently, Ellison was eager to serve his country. A news article in the Albert Lea Tribune in January of 1942, reported that Ellison had finally been inducted into the Army after being rejected twice for bad eyesight. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he had returned to the draft board a third time, stating that he “would keep on trying until the army ‘let him in’”, and telling the draft board he could “see well enough to hit a Jap.”

He was inducted on January 17, 1942, and was discharged from Camp McCoy in Wisconsin at the end of December 1945, holding the rank of T/5 (or Tec 5). T/5 stood for Technician Fifth Grade, a rank used from 1942 to 1948 that equaled the pay of a corporal but carried no command authority. It appears he was called “corporal” anyway. He married Mary Jane Pollock in March of 1944 in Pine River, Minnesota, and the marriage notice referred to him as Corporal Ellison J. Laird. Ellison was 29 years old, while Mary Jane was 20 on their wedding day.

Following the war, Ellison farmed in Cass County, Minnesota near Pine River. He and Mary Jane had one daughter, Trudy, who was born September 7, 1948. At some point after 1950, they moved to St. Paul. I was able to find Mary Jane’s obituary, which stated she worked at the General Electric plant in St. Paul, and in Chicago, before the family moved to Seattle where she was employed for many years at the Boeing plant as an aerospace worker. I don’t know if Ellison also worked for those companies. I need to find an obituary, which may require a trip to Minnesota.

Ellison seems to have been a vintage car buff. I found an article from the Longview Daily News in Washington about a classic car competition. Ellison and Mary Jane were there in his 1928 Chevrolet sedan. He came in second place in a balloon-breaking event.  

1928 Chevrolet Sedan. Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellison died in Seattle on July 17, 1993. He was 78 years old. Sadly, his daughter preceded him in death on June 7, 1987.

Beautiful headstone marking graves of Ellison, wife Mary Jane and daughter Trudy Laird. 

Ellison Laird made some bad decisions as a desperate fourteen year old boy. But he then made the hard choice to take responsibility for his crimes, which led authorities to treat him with leniency and give him a second chance. He took that chance, served his country, and built a solid life. It is encouraging to see that mistakes don’t define a life.

Sources:

Cemetery photo courtesy of lavoiesr1 on Ancestry.

“Oldtime Cars in Competition.” Longview Daily News, Longview, Washington. Aug. 3, 1972. Newspapers.com.

Photo of 1928 Chevrolet sedan. Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

“Tried to Rob St. Cloud Stores Monday, Younger Suspect Asserts Today”. St. Cloud Times. St. Cloud, MN. Apr. 24, 1929. Newspapers.com.

“Suspects Held to Answer for Many Robberies”. St. Cloud Times. St. Cloud, MN. Apr. 25, 1929. Newspapers.com.

“Two Suspects Held in Anoka”. Austin Daily Herald. Austin, MN Apr. 24, 1929. Newspapers.com.

“Rejected Twice, Finally Ok’d”. Albert Lea Tribune. Albert Lea, MN. Jan 21, 1942. Newspapers.com

Deserving of Survival: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “A Place that Matters”

 

If the Walls Could Talk: Historic Valentine Hill House Still Standing After 375 Years

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

Nathaniel Hill: 1659-1741 (Maternal Eight-Great-Grandfather)

 

In 1649, my ancestor, Valentine Hill, built one of the first homes in the Oyster River area of New Hampshire, an area that is now part of the city of Durham. Although radically remodelled and added onto over the centuries, the house still remains. It now serves as a boutique inn, offering 23 rooms, two dining rooms serving chef-prepared meals, and a tavern. The very age of the building gives the Hill house significance, but the building also played a part in the history of New Hampshire and the United States. It truly is a place that matters.

Placque on the Three Chimneys Inn, Durham NH

Valentine Hill was born in England between 1602 and 1611. He arrived in the colonies around 1635. He established himself as a merchant in Boston, and according to his entry in The Great Migration, “he was engaged in the transatlantic trade in fish and timber. He also traded to the south to Virginia and elsewhere, the commodities being horses, tobacco and Indian corn. Hill owned fractional shares in vessels, and was a principal partner in the larges dock and warehouse operation in Boston in the 1640s.”

Map of Boston in 1600s with Valentine Hill dock property and house highlighted

Valentine Hill was admitted to the Boston Puritan church in 1636, and was chosen as a deacon in 1640. He also became a freeman in 1640. He had two wives. He married Frances Freestone around 1638. They had five children, but only one survived past infancy, daughter Hannah. Wife Frances died in 1645. He then married Mary Eaton in 1648. They had six children, only two of whom survived to adulthood, daughter Elizabeth and son Nathaniel.

Valentine Hill had extensive landholdings, which he bought, sold and mortgaged frequently. In addition to large holdings in the Boston area, he had sixty acres in the Pullen Point area where he dealt in the fur trade. In 1643, he received a grant of land at the falls on the Oyster River, and by 1649, he built a sawmill there. He received additional grants in Oyster River for 500 more acres, water rights at the falls on the river, and a gristmill.

Oyster River area in 1600s with Valentine Hill property marked

Along with the mills, he built a house in Oyster River. According to the Three Chimneys Inn website, “This 1649 Homestead, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the oldest house in Durham and one of the oldest buildings in New Hampshire.”

The inn’s website goes on to state, “In 1649 Valentine Hill built the original homestead, much of which was ferried up the Oyster River by gundalo. The house was single story with a basement and an upstairs living area-kitchen combined. The outdoor summer kitchen fireplace can be seen in our Tavern…” The property stands on a rise still known as Valentine Hill, overlooking the river and the falls that powered the Hill sawmill and gristmill.

A drawing of a gundalo similar to the vessels that brought construction materials to Oyster River in 1649.

Grokipedia noted that the house was “constructed using local timber milled on-site to support colonial shipbuilding and settlement needs… It employed simple post-and-beam framing techniques typical of early English colonial architecture in New England, reflecting First Period vernacular design with functional elements suited to frontier life.”

Following Valentine Hill’s death in late 1660, his son Nathaniel, my eight-great-grandfather, eventually inherited the Oyster River property. The estate was complicated and involved considerable debt that needed to be settled. Nathaniel’s mother was, for a time, so destitute that the town paid for her and Nathaniel’s care. Nathaniel was only one year old at the time of Valentine’s death.

Probate was still not completely settled by 1699, when a now middle-aged Nathaniel filed paperwork as the estate’s administrator. The Great Migration (citation below) included the following record:

“On 4 July 1699, ‘Nathaniell Hill administrator to…Valentine Hill’ presented an inventory, taken 30 June 1699, of ‘a parcel of land formerly granted unto Mr. Valentine Hill deceased by the town of Dover…which land is lying & being at the head of Oyster River…containing about 500 acres as also a parcel of meadow at Wheelwright’s Pond both…worth forty-five pounds’ [NHPPR 7:390]. On 7 June 1721, an additional inventory was taken totalling 75 pounds: ‘one hundred acres of land at Whelrit’s Pond’, 50 pounds, and ‘twenty acres of land at Jonson’s Cross’ 25 pounds [NHPPR 7:392].”

Despite the endless probate issues, it appears that Nathaniel was living in the house. The Oyster River area suffered an attack from Native Americans during King Philip’s War in 1694. While many buildings in the community were burned in the attack, the Hill house survived, and was referred to in records as the Hill Garrison where other settlers took shelter. In 1699 Nathaniel fitted the house “with ‘Indian Shutters’ for protection.” (Three Chimneys website)

View of the rear ell of the house--the original section built by Valentine Hill in 1649. Wikimedia Commons, Photo by AcrossTheAtlantic.

Grokipedia states, “Around 1699, Nathaniel Hill, son of the original builder Valentine Hill, expanded the structure by adding a two-story front section to the existing 1649 rear ell, transforming it from a modest garrison-style home into a more substantial residence to accommodate growing family needs. This addition created the central hall plan and front entrance that define the house's Georgian appearance today, including features like corner pilasters and 12/12 sash windows.” Three Chimneys Inn notes that this addition “now forms the front entrance to the "Maples" and "Coppers" dining rooms.”

The Three Chimneys Inn several years ago--this two-story front addition was added by Nathaniel Hill.  Photo by AcrossTheAtlantic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Nathaniel Hill died in 1741, and the house passed to his son Valentine Hill, who died in 1765. At some point the property was transferred to the Woodman family, who were apparently connected to the Hills through marriage. I have not yet traced the connection. The Woodmans were probably the owners during the Revolutionary War, when local history claims the house was “a storage place for munitions that were taken from the British Blockhouses in Portsmouth and hidden for use by Revolutionary troops.” (Three Chimneys website).

Around 1795, The Woodmans built a large barn on the property, along with a brick water cistern. The family also deeded land for a cemetery to the town of Durham. The cemetery property is adjacent to the Hill house property.

The Woodmans eventually sold the house and land to George Ffrost. The Ffrosts renovated the house, adding Federal-style trim and changing the slope of the roof. They eventually turned the property into an estate with formal gardens and stone perimeter walls.

The house while owned by the Ffrosts

The Ffrosts began renting the house out in the 20^th century. One of the tenants was the University of New Hampshire, which used the property as student housing for a brief period. The property became very run down, and might have been razed without the intervention of preservationists.

Property's condition when the Inn's owners acquired it.

The Hill-Woodman-Ffrost House was restored, repaired and converted into an inn in 1997. The house is also part of the Durham Historical District.

Durham Historic District with Hill house/Inn property highlighted, which surrounds cemetery land donated by Woodmans.

I am so glad this special home still survives, thanks to the hard work and financial investment of the Inn’s owners. I hope to someday visit the Inn and stay in one of the rooms that Nathaniel Hill added to the house over 325 years ago. I would love to walk in the footsteps of my eighth and ninth great-grandfathers.

Sources:

“Valentine Hill.” The Great Migration and the Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635. Vol. 3, G-H. Anderson, Robert Charles. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.

Buildings of New England. “Valentine Hill House. C. 1649.” https://buildingsofnewengland.com/2021/09/07/valentine-hill-house-c-1649/

“Steeped in New Hampshire History.” Three Chimneys Inn website, History page. https://www.threechimneysinn.com/history

https://winthropmemorials.org/great-allotment/pages/valentine-hill.html

AcrossTheAtlantic, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

By AcrossTheAtlantic - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63031226

https://www.ci.durham.nh.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/historic_district_commission/page/17701/national_register_nomination_for_district.pdf

Hill-Woodman-Ffrost House. https://grokipedia.com/page/hill_woodman_ffrost_house

New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1932. Will of Nathaniel Hill. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8996/images/007636323_00541?_gl=1*s94pvf*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjwvsvTBhBaEiwAmf-3ngqoQibXX0ck4iVzu2PGov9Xp65ZyG1hYkBtvKomoXUGKLSE6_JY_RoCWw8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAADtC4Oejd84GGFLEPSklEYDUF4bax&pId=119209

Why Choose Wood? 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “More than a Name”

 

Sometimes Vee, Sometime Oleson, Sometimes Wood: A Confusing Surname Switch

Thore Oleson Vee: 1852-1883 (Paternal First Cousin 2x Removed)
Gro Pedersdatter Hovland Vee: 1865-1932 (Wife of Paternal First Cousin 2x Removed)
Julia Oline Vee: 1882-1980 (Paternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Norwegian names can be confusing at the best of times, but as I researched my first cousin twice removed, Thore Oleson Vee, I found more than the average amount of confusion. Thore seems to have occasionally used the surname Wood along with Oleson and Vee, and following his death, Thore’s widow uses Wood for her own and her daughter’s surname.

So what do we know about Thore Oleson Vee? He was born in Laerdal, Sogn al Fjordane, Norway on January 6, 1852 to parents Ole Torresson Haavardshaugen and Gjorand Olsdatter Ve.  He was the third of their eleven children. At some point in the 1870s, he emigrated to Minnesota. Some of his siblings also arrived in Minnesota and Wisconsin; it is unclear whether they traveled together, or separately.

Thore settled in Freeborn County, Minnesota. He appears on the 1880 census as a 27-year old working as a farm laborer, living with Anders Erickson and family. I assume he was working for Anders, who interestingly was Swedish, but married to a Norwegian woman. Two other farm laborers, Ole Olsen and John Olsen, were also living with the Ericksons. How did Thore find this position? Did he have family or friend connections to the Olsens, despite their being born in Wisconsin? Was there a connection to Erickson’s wife? Or did he just happen to find the job once he arrived in Minnesota?

1880 Census entry for Thore Vee

Just a year later, Thore married a teenager who had immigrated to Freeborn County with her family a decade earlier. Gro Pedersdatter Hovland was born in 1865 in Norway to parents Peder Thoreson Hovland and Britta Kristoffersdatter Hovland. The family appears on the 1865 Norway census. They must have emigrated just a few years later, as they appear on the 1870 US Census, where they are living with Peder’s brother Haaver Thoreson on his farm in Bancroft Township in Freeborn County. By 1880, Gro’s parents have their own farm in the same township.

Bancroft Township borders the town of Albert Lea, where Thore was living with the Ericksons. That gave Thore and Gro opportunities to meet and to eventually marry on December 26, 1881. Thore was 29 years old, while Gro was just 16. The newspaper notice of their marriage lists Thore’s surname as Ve.

I don’t know where the young couple lived after their marriage. Did Thore acquire his own farm by then? As yet, I have found no records.

Thore and Gro’s first child, daughter Julia, was born February 4, 1882. By this time, Thore was using the surname Wood. The birth record lists the baby as Julia Oline Wood. Their second child, daughter Betsey Petrine, was born April 11, 1883. Her birth record also lists her surname as Wood and her father as Thore Wood.. However, both babies’ baptism records list their surname as Olsen, Thore’s patronymic surname. This shows that amongst the Norwegian community in the area, Thore was still identified by his patronymic (Ole’s son, Oleson) and place name, Vee, even though he was using Wood when interacting with some government entities, like county clerks.

It appears that Thore and Gro were using three surnames during the same time period of 1881-1883: Ve or Vee, Olsen and Wood. Why did they choose Wood as their English-language surname? Some Norwegians simply translated their Norwegian surname into English, but neithter the name Olsen or Vee have meanings in English that are even remotely related to Wood

Tragically, Thore died November 13, 1883. He was only 31 years old. Gro was left a widow at age eighteen. I had difficulty locating his death record until I started searching for him under the name “Thore Wood”. That pulled up the index to his death record in Bancroft Township, Freeborn County. I located the actual entry in the Bancroft Township death records on FamilySearch. It reports that Thore died of consumption (tuberculosis).

Thore's death record

Thore was buried in the Central Freeborn Lutheran Cemetery. His headstone lists his surname as Vee.

To compound Gro’s grief, her baby Betsey died just weeks before her first birthday, on February 20, 1884. Confusingly, Betsey’s death record, entered just four lines below her father’s in the Bancroft Township death ledger, lists her name as Betsy P. Vee. She also died of consumption. I cannot locate her burial place.

Betsey's death record showing a different surname than her father's, just four lines above hers.

So what happened to Gro and young Julia after Thore’s death? A check of the 1885 Minnesota census showed that they were living with Gro’s parents and her uncle Haver, who also lived in Bancroft township. Her parents had ten children still living with them, so the house must have been crammed with people. The census taker just listed Gro and Julia under the surname of Toreson, which the rest of the household was using.

By the 1895 Minnesota State Census, Gro and Julia are living in her uncle Haver Thoreson’s house. She is acting as his housekeeper. She is listed as Mrs. Groe Wood, and Julia is also using the surname Wood.

1895 state census, with Gro and Julia using the Wood surname

In 1900, Gro appears on the census still living with her uncle Hovar Toreson. But now she is using her “location” surname, Hovland, which is the farm her family lived on in Norway. Daughter Julia is also using the surname Hovland on this census.

Gro remarries on June 6, 1908 at age forty-three. She lists her name on the marriage records as Gro Wood. Curiously, her new husband has the surname Wee, which is a different spelling of Thore’s surname Vee. I find no evidence the two men were related, however, which is not surprising as Wee/Vee is a location surname. They were likely from the same area of Norway.

On the 1910 census, Ole and Gro are listed with the surname Wee, while Julia, who is still living with them at age 27, is listed as Julia Wood. However, on the 1920 census, they are all listed with the surname Wee.

News item from the Albert Lea Tribune newspaper on Aug 30, 1910 showing Julia using Wood surname

Daughter Julia preferred the surname Wood on most records, and continued to use it for the remainder of her life until her marriage in 1923 to Herman Shelton. Her marriage record lists Wood as her surname, and her Findagrave entry also shows Wood as her maiden name.

So what can we conclude about Thore Oleson Vee and his many surnames? Like many Norwegian immigrants, Thore saw surnames as flexible. When you moved in Norway, after all, your location surname changed to your new residence’s name. So using different names for different purposes seemed normal to him. But why did he choose to go by the English surname of Wood on occasion? I think he may have been trying to show that he was now an American with an American-sounding name. In this case, Wood was more than a name. It represented his desire to fit in among his new countrymen. His wife seems to have shared that desire.

 

Sources:

1880 Federal Census. Year: 1880; Census Place: Albert Lea, Freeborn, Minnesota; Roll: 620; Page: 83c; Enumeration District: 096Freeborn. Albert Lea. 096.

Thore Wood Death Record. Index to deaths, 1870-1959; birth index, 1870-1921; index to delayed birth records, 1874-1981; birth and death records 1872-1949. Freeborn County, Minnesota. Births, deaths, 1872-1907, Bancroft Township.  FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95QP-39Q5?wc=36TN-DPX%3A1583719002%2C1583719408%26cc%3D2185953&cc=2185953&lang=en&i=50&groupId=2185953

Freeborn. Death Record Indexes 1870–1959. #004539639. Item 2. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-YGWF-K?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQPZB-J3CT&action=view&cc=1803974&lang=en&groupId=M9S4-NL6

State Census data: Ancestry.com.

Findagrave Entry for Thore Olsen Vee: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150001606/theodore-olsen-vee?_gl=1*14ilkyj*_gcl_au*MjQ3MjQ2NzQ0LjE3ODU1OTUzOTc.*_ga*MTcwOTEwOTIzLjE3ODU1OTUzOTg.*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*czIwZTUyM2YwLTRhZmEtNDBhMC1hYzc3LWQwOTY5N2I3MGJkMCRvNSRnMSR0MTc4NTY4MDg3NyRqNDYkbDAkaDA

Moon Landing and Me: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Free Space”

 

Apollo 11 Crew Landed on the Moon on My Birthday

 

This week marks the 57^th anniversary of the first moon landing by the crew of Apollo 11. That was a special day for me, as Neil Armstrong took his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” on my tenth birthday.

I no longer remember how we celebrated my tenth birthday. I know we had a cake—my mom always baked an angel food cake for our birthdays, and my brother and I got to choose what color to tint the fluffy frosting, and how to decorate the central hole (I usually put a slender glass or small vase into the cake’s center, and put a little bouquet of flowers in it). I have no memory of what presents I received either.

But I do remember watching the moon landing. My mom was a big fan of Walter Cronkite, so we watched CBS’s coverage. I don’t think we had a color TV yet; in my memory, everything was black and white, and the photos from the moon were pretty fuzzy. But I was excited. Even at ten, I understood I was watching something amazing and world-changing.

Buzz Aldrin and the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, July 1969

Later, perhaps at Christmas, I received a bulletin board for my room that had a picture of the moon lander and the date stamped on the cork backing. I used the bulletin board straight through my college years, although most of the time I had so many papers and photos tacked up that the Apollo 11 lander was invisible.

Photo of a bulletin board like mine from an online sale post

The first time I visited NASA in Houston with my children, I proudly showed them the displays on Apollo 11, pointing out my birthdate on the signs. The event remains special to me, and I think about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin every year on my birthday.

Sources:

Photo of Buzz Aldrin and Lunar Lander. Wikimedia Commons. https://images.nasa.gov/details/as11-40-5948 http://dayton.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2000-001102.jpg on the Wayback Machine at the Wayback Machine http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001102.html on the Wayback Machine at the Wayback Machine