Joanna Bursley Dimmock: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Tombstone"

Joanna Bursley Dimmock: 1644-1727

The Art of the Tombstone

A routine search for an ancestor’s death date and burial place led me to discover the work of a true artist in stone: tombstone carver Obadiah Wheeler. The tombstone he created for Joanna Bursley Dimmock is located in a Mansfield Connecticutt cemetery that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery was honored for its collection of historic gravestones carved by several of the masters of “funerary art” in early eighteenth century colonial New England.

My first cousin eight times removed, Joanna Bursley, was born on March 1, 1644 to John Bursley and his wife, Joanna Hull, who was the eldest daughter of my eighth great-grandfather Rev. Joseph Hull. The Bursley family lived in Barnstable, Massachusetts, a town founded by Rev. Hull. In April of 1663, Joanna Bursley married Shubael Dimmock, son of Thomas Dimmock, another founder of Barnstable. Joanna was 19, and Shubael 21.

The couple had six sons and three daughters between 1664 and 1684 while living in Barnstable. Shubael held considerable real property, was an ensign in the town militia, and served as town selectman several times and as a deputy to the Colony Court. In 1693, Shubael, Joanna and four of their children moved to Mansfield, Connecticutt, where Shubael became very active in the church and was made a deacon.

Barnstable Massachusetts records showing couple's wedding date and childrens' birth dates.

Joanna died May 8, 1727 and Shubael died five years later on October 29, 1732. They were both buried in the Old Mansfield Center Cemetery. Their graves are marked with dark, very hard headstones that resisted erosion, so the words and symbols are still quite readable nearly three hundred years later, and show that the couple were well respected members of the Mansfield community.

Joanna’s stone reads:

“Here lieth/the body of/Joanna Dim/muck, wife/of Decon Shu/bael Dimmuck/who died May/8 1727 Aged/84 years”

Shubael’s stone reads:

“Here lies the remains of that/pius Godly man Deacon Shubael/Dimmuck Husband of that/Worthy Godly Woman who/After he had served God/and His People Fell Asleep/in Jesus Oct 29, 1732/Aged 90 years one month”

Old Mansfield Center Cemetery was founded in 1693, and has several other incredibly well preserved and amazingly decorated headstones from the early 1700s. According to Wikipedia,

“The cemetery's 18th-century gravestones, decorated with cherubim, geometric designs, and a variety of funerary symbols, are considered to be illustrative of the rich artistic tradition of funerary stone carving in colonial New England. More than 180 stones have been attributed to identifiable stone carvers, including several 18th-century masters of the craft.”

The Dimmock stones were carved by Obadiah Wheeler, one of these aforementioned masters of stone carving. He lived from 1673 to 1749 in Lebanon, Connecticutt, and is “often considered the greatest of all eastern Connecticut carvers” according to the Connecticutt Gravestone Network. 

His early works “have a series of elaborate curls beside the face rather than wings and usually some form of diamond or triangle border design. Later Wheeler stones have several different styles of wings which are sometimes very elaborate. Wheeler faces are characterized by slender, aristocratic noses, almond eyes, and a small smiling or frowning mouth. In later stones the eyes are closed or squinting.”

This description accurately describes the Dimmock stones. The face atop Joanna’s stone has the curls beside the face, a slender nose, closed eyes, and a small, solemn mouth. The words are framed by a border featuring a geometric design of diamonds-set-within-diamonds.

Note the curls around face, rosettes on each side, diamond patterns on sides, and fiddlehead shapes on the horizontal decoration above the inscription.

Shubael’s stone, carved five years later, has a face framed by very elaborate wings with sharply delineated feathers. The face features open eyes with arched lids and brows, a slender triangular nose, and a mouth with the slightest smile. The border pattern is strikingly different than Joanna’s stone, featuring circles-within-circles, each with a deep divot at the center. The lettering is much more elaborate and delicate, while Joanna’s featured all capitals.

Note the open eyes, feathered wings, and fiddlehead shapes with a heart in the center.

The Connecticutt Gravestone Network said, “Some of Wheeler’s most elaborate stones have faces in strong relief; finials are usually six- or eight-rayed rosettes. There is usually a horizontal row of designs below the face and above the legend consisting of a central heart or triangle and lateral stemmed rosettes and circles.”

Both the Dimmock stones feature the finials; Joanna’s has eight-petalled rosettes, and Shubael’s rosettes have six petals. The horizontal rows below the faces feature curving fiddlehead shapes emerging from a sort of triangular shape. Both stones are prime examples of Wheeler’s work.

Both graves have footstones. Wheeler’s footstones usually “are very distinctive, many of them large ellipses and others great circles with large six-rayed rosettes within.” Joanna’s footstone is in far worse condition than her headstone. All that remains visible is her name. Shubael’s seems to have some sort of décor at the top, but once again the name is the most prominent feature. I don’t see any ellipses or elaborate carving.

The Old Mansfield Center Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The application for its admission included sixteen photographs featuring the best and most significant headstones. One of those photos, seen below, included Joanna’s headstone. It was very exciting to discover that my ancestor’s grave is considered an important piece of historic American art, worthy of protection and preservation.

Joanna Dimmock stone is the darker one on the right. Photo used in cemetery's NRHP application.

Sources:

History of Tolland County, Connecticut, Including Its Early Settlement, J. R. Cole; W. W. Preston & Company, 1888 - Tolland County Conn., pg. 247.

Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County Connecticutt, J.H. Beers & Company, 1905 - New London County (Conn.) pg 350.

http://ctgravestones.org/carvers/wheeler-carvings/ “Wheeler Carvings” page of Connecticutt Gravestone Network. Accessed 5 May 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Center_Cemetery  Accessed 5 May 2020.

https://sites.google.com/a/oldconnecticutpath.com/oldconnecticutpath/home/newton-family-genealogy/4-02-dimick-family

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21627609/joanna-dimmock Photos by Sara accessed 5 May 2020.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21537167/shubael-dimmock Photos by Sara accessed 5 May 2020

Joseph Hull: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Travel”

Joseph Hull: The Peripatetic Preacher

1594-1665

My eighth-great-grandfather, Rev. Joseph Hull, was quite the rolling stone. At a time--the early 17^th century--when a single voyage across the Atlantic took several weeks and was quite hazardous, he crossed three times. He was a minister in both England and the American colonies, but continuously lost his positions and moved from church to church. He was a man of firm beliefs that placed him at odds with others, and had an adventurous spirit. The combination turned him into a prolific traveler.

Joseph Hull was born in Somerset, England somewhere between 1594 and 1596 to Thomas Hull and Joane Pysin or Peson Hull. He attended St. Mary’s Hall at Oxford, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree there on November 14, 1614. He then served as curate under his older brother, William Hull, who was the the vicar of Colyton, a village in Devon, England.

St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, 1600s

Joseph married his first wife around 1618, and was ordained May 23, 1619 as a clergyman in the Church of England. He became rector of Northleigh in the diocese of Exeter in 1621. He served there for eleven years. During that time, he and his wife (there are no records of her first or surname—some researchers list her as Joanne, principally because the couple’s eldest daughter was named Joanna, but there are no records to confirm the hypothesis.) had a large family. His wife died, leaving him a widower with seven young children.

Joseph left his position in Exeter, moving back to Somerset, sometime around 1632. It is unclear why he resigned; he apparently had some sort of doctrinal dispute with the church. On March 13, 1633, Rev. Hull remarried; his second wife was a young Somerset woman named Agnis or Agnes Hunt.

Rev. Hull seems to have continued to try to make a living as a minister; he was cited multiple times in two different towns for preaching without a license from the church, and was eventually expelled from the Church of England in 1635. Around the same time, he decided to move to the American colonies, and began organizing a group of colonists. He apparently had a brother, George, who had already emigrated.

The “Hull Colony” as the 106 people in his party were called, set sail from Weymouth for New England on March 20, 1635.  In addition to his new wife and seven children, he brought three servants with him, which would seem to indicate he was a man of some means. The ship arrived in Boston on May 6. In July 1635, the Governor of Massachusetts wrote, "At this court Wessaguscus was made a plantation and Mr. Hull, a minister of England, and twenty-one families with him allowed to sit down there." The new immigrants doubled the size of the town, which was renamed Weymouth in honor of the town from which the Hull group set sail.

One might assume that since Rev. Hull had decided to move to the colonies, he was seeking religious freedom and espoused Puritan beliefs like other colonists. However, he seems to have continued to support the Anglican faith, which got him into trouble in Puritan New England. He served as the first minister of the church his group established in Weymouth, and was named a “freeman”, which signified influence and possible wealth. However, the Puritans in the area soon found a replacement minister. In June of 1836, probably feeling unwelcome in Weymouth, Rev. Hull got a land grant near the town of Hingham, and moved there. He served his new community as a Deputy in the General Court of the colony for two years, and was also preaching at some sort of church, giving his final sermon in May 1639.

He moved his family yet again to the Plymouth Colony where he founded the town of Barnstable. There is a memorial plaque at the site where he delivered the first sermon to the town’s founding residents. 

However, a Puritan preacher was also in residence in Barnstable. Rev. Hull seems to have deferred to him at first, turning more toward civilian concerns, including cattle raising. However, he apparently had a hard time keeping track of his cattle, as he was sued several times for trespass. Perhaps these conflicts with his neighbors led him to move again, this time to nearby Yarmouth. He served that community as a minister, but did so without approval of the Church, so in May 1641 he was excommunicated once more.

Rev. Hull and his wife had continued to add to their family as they moved about New England. Two sons were born before he moved to Barnstable, and two daughters were born in Barnstable. At some point after his eleventh child Ruth’s birth in 1641, tired of conflict with Puritans, he ventured further afield to what was then the Maine territory, parts of which eventually became New Hampshire. This area was not a Puritan controlled colony. The Hulls initially settled in the town of Agamenticus, now York, Maine, where Rev. Hull led a church. The family then moved southwest to the Oyster River settlement in what is now Durham, New Hampshire. He also served as minister in the Isle of Shoals area, a series of islands and peninsulas in the Portsmouth area of New Hampshire, and seems to have been beloved by those parishioners.

Unfortunately, Rev. Hull once again ran afoul of changing political and religious allegiances. As the Maine territories came more under the control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rev. Hull’s Anglican sympathies came under attack. He decided to return to England around 1648, subjecting his wife and several of his younger children to another grueling trip across the Atlantic. Several of his older children, who had started their own families and businesses, elected to stay behind in New England.

Rev. Hull settled in Cornwall, living in Launceston from 1648 until about 1652. Joseph and Agnis’ last three children were born and christened in Launceston. The two youngest died there. In late 1652, Rev. Hull became rector at St. Buryan, Cornwall, and remained there, apparently conflict free, for several years. 

St. Buryan's, Cornwall

However, in 1662, political upheaval once again left him on the wrong side of church leadership, and he was ejected from his parish, along with hundreds of other ministers, in what was called the Calumny of 1662. Despite his increasing age, Rev. Hull and family booked passage on a ship to New England one more time, returning to the Oyster River and Isle of Shoals area. Several of his older children lived in the region, and Rev. Hull had been happy there.

Joseph Hull’s travels ended with his death on November 19, 1665. He died in Isle of Shoals at about age 70; his burial site there is unknown. Probate records show his estate was valued at around 52 pounds—not a large sum for the time-- and he was still owed 20 pounds for his service as minister to the church on Isle of Shoals at the time of his death.

I am indebted to several other genealogists who previously researched Rev. Hull and his doctrinal conflicts with both the Anglican and Puritan churches. Their insights and explanations were invaluable. They are cited below.

Sources:

Princes, Paupers, Pilgrims and Pioneers “Rev. Joseph Hull” by KTC. https://kindredconnection.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/joseph-hull/

Reverend Joseph Hull and Some of His Descendants, Amy Eleanor E. Hull, Stonebaker Bros. and Co, Baltimore, 1904.

“Common Errors in the Rev. Joseph Hull Line”, by Phyllis J. Hughes, HFA genealogist. https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph1.shtml

“Rev. Joseph Hull”, by Sam Beling.

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sam/hull/joseph.html

Cook, Lawrence, "The Exodus of the Joseph Hull Company", 1991, Origins of the Bicknell Family in North America as Descended from Zachary Bicknell (1589-1635) website.

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Robert Charles Anderson, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jan 1, 1996

Bertram Doolittle: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt “Service”

Serving Patients to the End:

Bertram Urson Doolittle: 1880-1914

                                                                                      

As I watch doctors and nurses risk their lives to help their patients during the COVID-19 crisis, I am awed by their courage and their commitment to serve those in need. Their actions reminded me of one of my ancestors who paid the ultimate price while serving his patients.

Bertram Urson Doolittle, my first cousin twice removed, was born to Frederick Doolittle and Mathilda “Tillie” Macbeth Doolittle on October 27, 1880. Bertram’s father Frederick was a farmer in LeRay Township in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. Tillie’s brother Charles Macbeth was Frederick’s neighbor, which probably explains how Frederick met Tillie. My grandfather Walter Macbeth, another of Tillie’s brothers, also lived nearby. Sadly, Frederick died when Bertram was only eight years old. I have found no obituary or death certificate that could explain why he died at age 37, but his tree-stump headstone at the local cemetery emphasizes that his life was cut brutally short.

Tillie and Bertram continued to live on the farm after Frederick’s death. I expect Tillie must have needed help to run it; perhaps she turned to her brothers. By the 1900 census, when Bertram was 19, he was working as a butcher to support his mother and himself.

Tillie’s brother Albert Macbeth stepped in to help his nephew. Albert had become a respected physician in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His father-in-law had founded a medical school in Fort Wayne, and Albert helped Bertram get enrolled. He graduated from Fort Wayne College of Medicine in 1905 as part of the school’s final class (it merged with another medical college). Later that year, Bertram opened his own medical practice, “taking rooms” over the drug store in Fort Wayne.

He practiced for one year in Fort Wayne before taking over the practice of a doctor in Whiting, Indiana, located on the shore of Lake Michigan near the Illinois border, about 140 miles from Fort Wayne. Shortly after arriving in the city, he married a young woman from Fort Wayne, Edna Rutman. She was 21; Bertram was 25.

Over the next nine years, Bertram became a valued member of the community. He joined the Elks and the Masons. He built his medical practice and bought a handsome home on 119^th Street in Whiting. He was appointed as the secretary of the Board of Health and was pressing for improved sanitation in the city.

Bertram's house as it appears in 2020

He also became involved in the city’s efforts to found a local ice company. Hot Indiana summers led to food spoilage that caused illness. People were turning to ice boxes for food storage, but were dependent on a single company that cut ice blocks from lakes to the north and hauled it down to Whiting to sell as exorbitant rates. Bertram joined with other city leaders and formed the Whiting Pure Ice Company, cutting ice from a local lake and selling it for less to residents. He was the young company’s vice president and one of the major shareholders.

Cutting ice around 1910 in Illinois

Unfortunately, his success and promising future were cut short in the spring of 1914. Bertram became ill. He remained at home, nursed by wife Edna and his mother, Tillie, who had come to live with them. His condition deteriorated over a two week period, and he died on May 14 at the age of 33.  The death certificate listed rheumatism and meningitis as the causes of death, while the obituary said pneumonia. I didn’t understand how rheumatism could kill someone, but research revealed that in the 1910s the term “rheumatism” was used nearly interchangeably with “rheumatic fever”. That disease could easily lead to pneumonia and death, so it is likely rheumatic fever was his real diagnosis.

Rheumatic fever is also a contagious disease. As a general physician, Bertram would have treated patients with a variety of contagious illnesses in an era when there was no PPE (personal protective equipment) available. He likely became infected from a patient, and was unable to recover despite his wife’s best efforts to nurse him. According to the newspaper article reporting his death, Dr. Doolittle “without a doubt enjoyed the largest practise in this city and it was often said of him ‘the lack of funds in the family never prevented Dr. Doolittle from stepping in and doing all within his power to alleviate suffering or to use his best efforts in prolonging life.’” As such a busy and dedicated doctor, he was probably overworked and exhausted, which left his immune system more vulnerable to infection.

Bertram was given a special funeral ceremony at his home by the local Elks’ club. According to the newspaper, the Elks ceremony was Bertram’s final wish. After that, his body was transported by train to Fort Wayne for another service arranged by his uncle Albert Macbeth. He was buried back in Minnesota in the Tivoli Cemetery near his father’s farm. His headstone bears the Masonic Square and Compasses symbol.

Bertram’s death was devastating for both his young wife and for his mother, who had lost her only child only 25 years after losing her husband. Tillie moved back to Minnesota, surviving for another thirty years after Bertram’s death.

Bertram’s wife Edna never remarried. She continued to live in their home on 119^th Street in Whiting. She worked for the Whiting Pure Ice Company for a while, taking on a board officer position. She also took in boarders; several decades of census data show she had four to five people at a time boarding in her home. She followed Bertram into community service, running for city offices, serving as city court clerk for several years, and participating in a variety of clubs and committees. She died in 1972. 

52 Ancestors Prompt "Future"

Note: this post was the final one of 2019. Apparently I left it in draft format and failed to publish it until now. Flash to the past....

On to 2020!

I decided to use this prompt for some personal reflection. I wanted to think about where I am headed in my family history research. The future looks bright—and promises to be fascinating! Here are some of my priorities for 2020:

1.      I need to work on my direct lines, tracing them back further than I have. I tend to get side-tracked by fascinating 5^th great-uncles once removed, and fail to look for that 6^th great-grandmother’s parents as a result.

2.      I discovered I am distantly, distantly related to several people in my local genealogical society (we were using Family Search’s app at our Christmas party, which checks to see if you have relatives in the room, and shows how your trees connect). Now I just need to prove the relationships—Family Search has some extra generations that aren’t yet part of my Ancestry Tree.

3.      I want to keep blogging about my ancestors, and I want to make another photo book about them. Research, then write! 

So I’m looking forward to my further adventures in genealogy! Onward to the future!
On to 2020!

Polly Daniels Randall: 52 Ancestors 2020 Prompt "Where There's a Will..."

Polly Daniels Randall: 1774-1851

Samuel Daniels:1733-1823

            My fourth great-grandmother Polly Randall was a bit of a mystery. I only had records for her following her marriage to my fourth great-grandfather Israel Randall. I believed her maiden name was Daniels, but who exactly were her parents, and how could I verify that any potential parentage was correct? She had lived in Vermont, but I could find no birth records for her. Did that mean she was born elsewhere? Census data from that era did not list any family names other than the head of the household. So what records could I find? To my delight, a search of Vermont’s probate records produced a will that settled my Polly Randall quandary once and for all.

            Polly Daniels was born April 5, 1774 in Rockingham County, New Hampshire to parents Samuel and Elizabeth Noble Daniels. She was the seventh of their twelve children who survived to adulthood. I have found no record of her marriage to Israel Randall; they married at some point before their daughter Sally Randall was born in 1792. They had one other surviving child, Israel Randall Jr., born in 1806.

            Polly’s father wrote a will in 1808. By that time, all his daughters were married and out of the house, and all the sons but one had moved away and started families of their own. Only son Abram, the youngest son, still lived at home with his parents, along with his wife and children. 

"To my daughter Polley Randal one Cow."

            According to the will, written in 1808, Polly and her five sisters were to receive one cow apiece. Five of their six brothers were to receive the paltry sum of $2 apiece, except for one lucky brother, Abram, who was the recipient of the bulk of Samuel’s real estate and farm implements, and part of the house. In addition, Samuel’s “beloved wife Elizabeth” was to inherit one third of the estate and would have a life interest in half of the family home—the easterly half, to be precise. Abram would be residing in the other half of the house.

Will provisions for beloved wife and fortunate son Abram

            Abram, the youngest of Samuel’s sons, was also named as executor of Samuel’s estate, and was given the task of distributing the bequests to his siblings and mother. This raises so many questions. According to the additional probate documents, the farm was eventually sold at auction for $1100, so the disparity between what Abram was to receive and what his siblings received was quite dramatic. How did the others feel about this “favorite son”? How did Abram feel about his father’s plans? The will wasn’t a secret in the family; two of Samuel’s other sons, John and Solomon, had witnessed the will. I would imagine there was a certain amount of bitterness at the way the property was distributed, unless Samuel had provided the other five sons with money or property when they reached their majority and started their own homes.

Whatever the terms of the will, fate made them irrelevant. Samuel had been intent on providing for the care of his wife after his death, but on December 11, 1808, just months after he wrote the will, Elizabeth died. 

Shockingly, the favored youngest son Abram also died less than five years later, on March 20, 1813. He was only 35, and one record mentions he died “of a sudden”. This would indicate a sudden event like a stroke or heart attack.

Abram's headstone in Vermont

Obviously Samuel should have written a new will following these tragedies, but apparently he failed to do so. When he died on May 25, 1823, his estate went to probate, but little was done for nearly two years. The only copy of the 1808 will had apparently been carried to Canada by Samuel’s eldest son Solomon when he emigrated to Quebec with his family. Once the will was located, the probate court was forced to send an attorney to Quebec to retrieve the document and get an affidavit from Solomon, who was one of the will witnesses, as to its authenticity. The attorney then had to travel back to Vermont, a trip that probably took weeks. He presented the will to the court in 1825, two long years after Samuel’s death.

Since the son Samuel wanted to be executor was dead, the court appointed a new executor, who appraised the property, including 112 acres of land, at $1409. 

Assets of Samuel's estate

There were also claims or debts against the estate, including an $860 claim from Abram Daniels’ estate. Since the will had given the bulk of the property to Abram and his heirs, this apparently comprised his heirs share.

Claims against Samuel's estate

The executor auctioned off Samuel’s farm for $1,100; the buyer was a man called Stevens. Where did Abram’s widow and children go? Were they still living in Samuel’s house? Was the house included as part of the farm sale, or was it part of the property Abram’s estate claimed? It isn’t clear from the probate files.

            Following the sale, the executor distributed the proceeds. He paid out the “legacies” of $2 apiece for the five sons. In addition, he spent $15 per daughter to provide for the one-cow-per-daughter legacy. It isn’t clear if he gave each woman the cash equivalent of a cow, or if he actually purchased six cows at $15 each, and presented them with the animals. Surely some of the women did not live on farms; how could they provide for a cow? I just imagine them answering a knock on the door to find a man with a cow standing outside. Once again, the five surviving sons must have felt a little hurt by the contrast between their sisters’ $15-per-person inheritance and their measly two dollars.

            Samuel’s will leaves me with a lot of intriguing questions, but it settled one thing for certain: Polly Daniels Randall’s parentage. Since Samuel carefully listed each of his six daughters’ married names in the will, I know for certain that the woman in my family tree known as Polly Randall was indeed the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Noble Daniels, and the sibling to eleven other Daniels children.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way…to verify parentage!