My Old Ohio Home - Rhode Island

Joel Salley of Embden, Maine

2026-09-09T00:00:00-04:00

Introduction

Sometime after April 23, 1868, and before his death in 1874, Joel Salley of Embden, Maine, received a letter from Slatersville, Rhode Island. The envelope simply read:

Mr Joel Salley
North Anson
Maine

Who was Joel, and who might have sent him the letter?

Joel Salley

Joel Salley was born about August 1847 in Maine, most likely in Embden, since that is where his parents were living in 1840 and 1850. He is on the 1850 through 1870 censuses with his parents and family and is listed as a farmer in 1870. He died at home November 21, 1871, and is buried with his parents in Sunset Cemetery, North Anson. There is a lot of information about the Salley family in Maine but, unfortunately, that is all I could find on Joel.

Who Sent the Letter?

Joel's cousin Mahala Salley, who was born about 1837, married Moses Esten of Slatersville on June 26, 1854. They and three children were living in Smithfield, RI, in 1860. With them was Mahala's brother Uriah Salley. Note that North Smithfield did not split off from Smithfield until 1870, so there is every reason to believe they were in Slatersville, in what is now North Smithfield.

Uriah Salley, who was born about 1830, enlisted in the Union Army on August 31, 1864, and served with Company B, 3rd Regiment RI Heavy Artillery. He was discharged September 4, 1864. He married Hannah Jackson of Blackstone, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1870 by E.N. Maynard, a minister of Slatersville. They were living in Ward 1 of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1870, and were in the 1872 Worcester City Directory. By 1877 Uriah was living on Second Avenue, Woonsocket.

By 1865 Mahala's parents, Elias Salley and his wife Mary Dunlap, and the rest of their family had joined Mahala and Uriah in Rhode Island. They were living on Buxton Road, which is in Slatersville. Included was Elias' other son, Edwin. Embden Town of Yore said that Elias moved to Slatersville prior to the Civil War.

Edwin Salley was born about 1843 in Maine. He also enlisted in the Union Army on August 31, 1864, and served with Company B, 3rd Regiment RI Heavy Artillery. He was discharged October 5, 1864. He married Eunice Jane Holt in Smithfield on May 13, 1869. They were both living in Woonsocket in 1870, and was still there in 1877.

So who wrote the letter? I thought maybe I could narrow it down by the handwriting, but it could be a male's or female's, and it could have been that of a 65 year old man. I also thought for a while that the stamp would help, since Google AI said it was only in use for a couple years until it was replaced as the main 3¢ postage stamp. But it turns out that AI was probably wrong, again, since the 1870 series of stamps was very unpopular with people and was only in use for a year.

If the letter was written after 1870, then we could eliminate Edwin, since he was in Woonsocket by then. And if it was written between 1870 and 1871 we could eliminate Uriah, since he was in Worcester. But unfortunately the cancellation only includes a month and day. The earliest known use of that stamp was April 23, 1868, according to the Mystic Stamp Company, and Joel died in 1874. Which doesn't help much either.

So the bottom line is that I don't really know which of the Salleys wrote the letter, Elias, Mahala, Uriah, or Edwin. Assuming that it was a relative who wrote it.

Edwin O'Connor of Woonsocket, Rhode Island–A Brief Ancestry

2019-08-16T00:00:00-04:00

Some years ago I researched a friend's Irish ancestry. She was from Galway and it turned out that she was distantly related to John Ford the American movie director. That got me thinking about the Irish experience in the United States and about American movies in general, which eventually brought me around to reading, not watching, The Last Hurrah, by Edwin O'Connor.

I read the rest of his novels, enjoying them all. Somewhere along the way I learned he was raised near to where I was living at the time. In fact I had driven past his family's house more times than I could count. So I thought I'd see what I could find in the online records for the ancestry of Edwin O'Connor's family.

His biography, A Family of His Own, by Charles Duffy (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, ©2003), got me started with exact dates and locations for Edwin's birth and the marriage of his parents, John V. O'Connor and Mary Greene. According to the author's interiews with family members, Mary Greene's mother's family was from County Tipperary. Little was known about the O'Connors or the other branches. That seemed a bit of a shame.

The Research–a summary

To make a long story short, I was able to trace Edwin O'Connor's ancestry back to the immigrant ancestor in all lines. In most cases this was his great grandparent; in one line it was his gg grandparents. All were Irish.

The County Tipperary connection was the easiest, since their Catholic parish in Ireland—Templemore, Tipperary—was evidently carved on the headstones of John Ryan and Mary Healey. I narrowed them down a bit more to Clonmore, a village in that parish.

Richard Dwyer, John O'Connor's maternal grandfather, said he was from County Waterford when he was naturalized, but I couldn't get more specific than that.

And James Greene, Mary (Greene) O'Connor's father, was very likely from Corrabeagh/Curbeagh Townland, Fenagh Parish, County Leitrim. His naturalization record provided the county, and his marriage record gave his parents names: John Greene and Catherine McQueeney. There is only one couple in Leitrim with those names, and they were of that townland when two of their other children were baptized.

Most of the men in the first two generations in America were laborers except for Richard Dwyer who was a butcher. Two were insurance agents for a while, but one of them went back to being a mill worker. It might be interesting to find out just what constituted an "insurance agent" in northern Rhode Island around the turn of the 20th century that would lend itself to this type of transitioning. And speaking of mill workers, O'Connor's paternal grandmother, Anastasia Dwyer, was working in a cotton mill in Blackstone, Massachusetts, at the age of 14–along with her 12 year old sister.

Conclusion

Page 7 of A Family of His Own said that Edwin O'Connor's parents were "of a generation which seldom looked back to the 'old sod,' and which in fact often looked down on anyone playing the professional Irishman. The family took little interest in genealogical searches."

I guess that makes me a professional Irishman who takes an interest in genealogical searches. There really ought to be one in every family. Details and sources that went into the research are available on Edwin O'Connor's page in the Other Families tree on this site.

Finally, this article was not meant to be a history of the O'Connors and how they fit into their times. For that, read A Family of His Own, then find a history of Blackstone, Massachusetts, especially during the mill era, and one of Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Credits

Wikipedia provided the image of the movie poster and says it is in the public domain, since the copyright was not renewed.

Lottie Orton of Hastings, Nebraska

2019-09-05T00:00:00-04:00

1911 postcard, Sakonnet RI to Hastings NE

Continued from Mary Orton of Fall River, Massachusetts.

As mentioned in the previous article, in 1911 Lottie Orton of Hastings, Nebraska, received a postcard from her cousin Mary Orton of Fall River, Massachusetts. The question is, can we find any more evidence that Lottie and Mary's fathers were brothers?

The Ortons of Hastings, Nebraska

The address on the card was "321 Kansas Av C St" which is close enough for my money to "321 West C St" where we find Lottie in 1910 with her parents and younger brother Clarence. I am not familiar with Hastings, Nebraska, so I am only guessing, but the street might have been known by both names, or underwent a name change about that time. In 1920 the family is at 501 Kansas Avenue.

Lottie Orton was the second of three known children of Edward Orton and Lillie Amanda Smith, who had been married in La Salle County, Illinois, on November 19,1884. Lottie married Lloyd Dufford, apparently on June 18, 1913, in Jamesville, Iowa. They had one (adopted) child, Howard. Lottie died in 1982, preceded by her husband Lloyd, who died in 1963.

A lot of my information on Lottie's family came from a tree starting with the Lottie Ulola Orton page at familysearch.

That tree says that Edward was born June 1844, in Shilton, Warwickshire, although it does not give a source for the location. According to all but the 1900 census though, Edward had been born about 1840 in England. That includes his information in the following household on the 1851 Census of Shilton Village, Warwickshire:

George Orton, 77, head, widowed, handloom weaver, silk, born Shilton, Warwickshire
Edward Orton, son, 34, handloom weaver, silk, born Shilton, Warwickshire
Dinah Orton, son's wife, 40, born Bramcote?, Warwickshire
Mary Anne Orton, granddaughter, 14, born Shilton, Warwickshire
Edward Orton, grandson, 12, born Shilton, Warwickshire
John Orton, grandson, 9, born Shilton, Warwickshire
George Orton, grandson, 7, born Shilton, Warwickshire
Dinah Orton, granddaughter, 5, born Shilton, Warwickshire
Jemima Orton, granddaughter, 11 months, born Shilton, Warwickshire

That is the same household in which we found George Orton of Fall River, Massachusetts, if you remember.

And this is probably the index reference to Edward's birth, as found at freebmd.org.uk:

2nd Qtr 1840
Orton Edward Foleshill Vol 16 page 412

Which is in the same registration district as George's birth in 1844.

John Orton of Hastings, Nebraska

If you noticed, there was also a John Orton in the 1851 Shilton household of George and Diana (Wesley) Orton. I'm guessing that he is the same John Orton who is in Hastings, Nebraska, on the 1880 census, though I can't be positive. I didn't find much more about him, but I mention him in this article and have included him in the database just in case.

Conclusion

So, can we conclude that Edward Orton of Hastings, Nebraska, and George Orton of Fall River, Massachusetts, were brothers? I think we can. Did the postcard help? Again, yes. We could have found their relationship with just the records, but would we have known where to look for the other brother? I don't think so.

Sources and more information about the Ortons of Fall River can be found under Orton in the Other Families tree on this website.

Mary Orton of Fall River, Massachusetts

2019-09-05T00:00:00-04:00

1911 postcard, Sakonnet Rhode Island to Hastings Nebraska

In September 1911, Miss Lottie Orton, of Hastings, Nebraska, received a postcard from her cousin Mary Orton, postmarked Sakonnet, Rhode Island. The message read:

Dear Cousin Lottie;-
I hope you received my letter. Florence and I are going home Thursday. Mr. + Mrs. Wainwright go to Philadelphia for the winter. You can address my mail up home because I expect to be home all winter. Write soon.
With love, Cousin Mary O
Mary Orton

Introduction

This post card is an excellent example of how postal covers and letters can be helpful in genealogical research. Mary Orton called Lottie Orton her "cousin", not just once, but twice. That's pretty strong evidence that their fathers are brothers, wouldn't you say? Let's see if this conclusion is borne out by the documents we find. What can we learn about these two young women and their families?

The Ortons of Fall River, Massachusetts

Mary V Orton was born September 1893, in Fall River, Massachusetts, one of eleven known children of George E Orton and Clarissa Chace Brown. Her sister Florence was born in November 9, 1892. They were both evidently working in Sakonnet for the summer, since Mary says she would be "up home" all winter.

In 1910, Mary and Florence can be found at 284 Meridian Street, Fall River, Massachusetts, with their parents and family. Their father had been born in England, allegedly about 1854, and their mother in 1861 in Rhode Island. I say "allegedly" because further digging into George's records turned up his Petition for Naturalization to become a United States citizen, which he submitted on October 10, 1883. On that he said he was born in Shelton, England, on or about 17 November 1845. His death record (November 30, 1910, Fall River) added his parents' names: Edward Orton and Diana Wesley.

"Shelton" turned out to be Shilton Parish, Warwickshire, where we find George on the 1851 Census of Shilton Village in the household of Edward and Dinah Orton. There is an index reference to a birth of a George Orton in Foleshill registration district in the fourth quarter of 1844. There were a lot of Ortons in the area, but I am pretty sure this is "our" George.

The Browns

Mary's mother, Clarissa Chace Brown, was born June 9, 1861, the daughter of Otis Lake Brown and Caroline Chace Wilbor. You just have to love those old New England families who use a family surname as a second given name. I was really tempted to get sidetracked into the Lake, Brown, Chace, and Wilbor families of Little Compton and the area—they had all been there a long time. If you want to take a look at them for yourself, you can start with this tree at familysearch.org: Clarissa Chace Brown. I didn't verify that research, but it looked ok at a quick glance. Or see Clarissa Chace Brown in Google Books' preview of Little Compton Families, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1967.

1911 postcard, Sakonnet RI to Hastings NE, back

Mary and Florence Orton

Mary Orton was married a few years after this postcard was sent, on January 30, 1917, to Albert J Suprenant, of Fall River. They were found on the 1920 through 1940 censuses in that city, and at last look they were living at 41 Lafayette Street. They had two children, whom I will leave unnamed, since I didn't find death records for them. Albert died on October 12, 1973, and Mary on August 31, 1974. They are both buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River, as are much of Mary's family, including her parents.

For her part, Florence married John S Dupont on October 4, 1920, in Fall River. They were living in Fall River in 1930 and 1940, but had no children listed with them. Florence died February 15, 1982. I didn't find John Dupont's death.

The Wainwrights

Before we leave New England, lets take a quick look at the Wainwrights, the family that Mary and Florence evidently worked for, and who were going back to Philadelphia for the winter.

Joseph Reeves Wainwright and Laura Lloyd Coates were married in Philadelphia 30 April 1901; it was the second marriage for both.(footnote)Joseph R Wainwright and Laura L Coates, 30 Apr 1901, in "Pennsylvania Civil Marriages, 1677-1950," at familysearch.org In 1910 they were living at 1635 Spruce Street in Philadelphia.(footnote)Joseph Wainright household, 1910 Census of Philadelphia, at familysearch.org. Joseph was the founder of Penn Chemical Corporation(footnote)Obituary of Joseph Wainright, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10, 1917, as found at findagrave. and, more to the point of this article, a member of the West Island Club, Sakonnet.(footnote)"In Search of the West Island Club" in New England Boating. When the Club ceased operations in 1906, Mr Wainwright bought East and West Islands from the club. He died 7 July 1917, in Ardmore, Pennsylvania,(footnote)Joseph Reeves Wainright page at findagrave.com. and his wife Laura on 2 February 1941, also in Ardmore.(footnote)Laura L Lloyd Wainwright page at findagrave.

If you really want to get sidetracked, read about the history of West Island at In Search of the West Island Club, at New England Boating, and O’CONNOR aka “East & West Island”, at the Sakonnet Preservation Association.

Sakonnet Post Office

The Post Office

Thanks to the Little Compton Historical Society, I came up with a picture of the post office where Mary Orton mailed her card to her cousin. The staff member told me that it was at Sakonnet Point near the dock, and was probably only open in the summer. The sign over the door indicates that it was also the Office of the Sakonnet Steamboat Company. According to the Historical Society's site, this picture was taken between 1910 and 1920, which would include the summer that we know Mary spent in Sakonnet.

Conclusion

Getting back to our main theme, so far we have established that Mary Orton's father, George Orton, was born about 1844 or 1845 in Shilton, Warwickshire, the son of Edward and Diana (Wesley) Orton. Did he have a brother in Hastings, Nebraska, the father of Lottie Orton? Let's see.

Continued in Lottie Orton of Hastings, Nebraska.

Sources and more information about the Ortons of Fall River can be found under Orton in the Other Trees section of this website.

Credits

The photograph of the Sakonnet Post Office comes from the Little Compton Historical Society Collection at Little Compton Historical Society, Online Collections Database. Choose Advanced Search, and enter "Post Office" in the title box.

The best history of Sakonnet Point I have found so far is a .pdf file at Sakonnet Point Perspectives.

Lillie B. Chase of Valley Falls, Rhode Island

2019-09-03T00:00:00-04:00

1863 envelope to Valley Falls, RI

In about 1863 Mademoiselle Lillie B. Chase received a letter from Vienna, Austria, sent in care of Saml. B. Chase, Esq, of Valley Falls, Rhode Island. The letter was addressed to Mlle. "Chase" although the family spelled the name "Chace."(footnote)Image used by permission of PHILGEN: Philatelic Genealogy. To see it there, click on Search Database in the left column and enter "Valley Falls" in the search box. The image originally appeared in the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Sale 945, Lot 3596.

Who was Lillie B. Chace, and who were the Chaces of Valley Falls, Rhode Island?

A rather prominent family in the area, as it turns out. Lillie's father, Samuel B. Chace was a mill owner whose first venture in Fall River, Massachusetts, had failed in 1837. Fifteen years later, after his cotton mill in Valley Falls had become successful, he and his brother sought out their creditors and repaid them.(footnote)Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, Arthur Crawford Wyman, Elizabeth Buffum Chace, 1806-1899: her life and its environment (W.B. Clarke Co., 1914, now a Google eBook), Chapter 4. Samuel was a Quaker and a firm abolitionist from 1835 onward. William Lloyd Garrison gave the eulogy at his funeral in 1870, noting that the Chace home "was converted into a station-house on the branch of the underground railroad running from New Bedford to Canada; and no efforts were wanting on his part to make it a safe retreat."(footnote)Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, Arthur Crawford Wyman, Elizabeth Buffum Chace, 1806-1899: her life and its environment (W.B. Clarke Co., 1914, now a Google eBook), Chapter 16.

Lillie's mother, Elizabeth (Buffum) Chace, was also a Quaker and abolitionist. In fact she felt so strongly about slavery that she resigned from the Society of Friends on 'the 28th day of the 11th month of 1843', with these words: "After months of serious deliberation ... I have arrived at the conclusion that it will no longer be right for me to remain a member of your body... The pro-slavery position assumed and maintained by New England Yearly meeting, and consequently by its subordinate branches, has, for many years, been a subject of painful regret to my mind ... and now, one and all, I bid you an affectionate farewell."(footnote)Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, Arthur Crawford Wyman, Elizabeth Buffum Chace, 1806-1899: her life and its environment (W.B. Clarke Co., 1914, now a Google eBook), Chapter 5.

Elizabeth was also a pacifist and forbade her son Samuel from fighting for the Union. In the words of her daughter Lillie "her peace principles remained unabated in force. It was wrong to fight even 'to make men free.' She never in the least modified this opinion."(footnote)Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, Arthur Crawford Wyman, Elizabeth Buffum Chace, 1806-1899: her life and its environment (W.B. Clarke Co., 1914, now a Google eBook), Chapter 10.

Lillie B., whose proper name was Elizabeth Buffum Chace, continued in her mother's path. According to her biographer, Lillie published articles in the Atlantic Monthly on the injustices of the factory system and wrote articles for African American journals protesting racial violence and advocating interracial equality.(footnote)Elizabeth C. Stevens, Elizabeth Buffum Chace and Lillie Chace Wyman: a century of abolitionist, suffragist, and workers' rights activism (McFarland, 2003), Introduction, as previewed at Google books.

Continued in Lillie B. Chase of Valley Falls, Rhode Island, part 2.

Lillie B. Chase of Valley Falls, Rhode Island, part 2

2019-09-03T00:00:00-04:00

1863 envelope to Valley Falls, RI

Continued from Lillie B. Chase of Valley Falls, Rhode Island.

Lillie B. Chase, age 30, was married on 29 Oct 1878 to John Crawford Wyman, age 56, the son of Abraham Wyman and Sarah Crawford.(footnote)Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916, at familysearch.org John's first wife Emma Willard had died in 1861. John too was an abolitionist; William Lloyd Garrison was one of the few guests at their wedding.(footnote)Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, "John Crawford Wyman" in American Chivalry (W. B. Clarke Co., 1913), at Google books.

Lillie and John's only son Arthur C. was born 21 Sep 1879.(footnote)Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1878-1914, at familysearch.org. On being a father so late in life, John, who had a sense of humor, said "I am old enough to be the child's grandfather, and I wisn I were. Then I could have all the fun of owning him, and his father would have the responsibility instead of my having it."(footnote)Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman, "John Crawford Wyman" in American Chivalry (W. B. Clarke Co., 1913), at Google books.

So who did Lillie know in Vienna?

Returning to the letter from Austria, who did Lillie know in Vienna about the year 1863?

In 1863 Vienna was the capital of the Austrian Empire, which ruled from northern Italy and the Swiss border east as far Russia and Moldavia. It included modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and other areas. What it did not include was any part of France.

Yet the writer of the letter to Lillie B. Chace addressed her with the French title "Mademoiselle" not the German "Fraulein." Are we reading too much into it to say that the writer in Vienna was a native German, but educated well enough to know French and English? Who would that have included at the time? Without knowing the return address or contents, it is only speculation, but I would guess that, given the Chace's social and economic status, Lillie's correspondent could have been Anyone, with a capital "A."

Mrs Ramon Guiteras of Bristol, Rhode Island

2019-09-03T00:00:00-04:00

1883 envelope to Valley Falls, RI

About December 1883, Mrs Ramon Guiteras of Bristol, Rhode Island, received a letter from Vienna, Austria.¹ Who was Mrs Guiteras, and whom did she know in Vienna?

Elizabeth Manchester (Wardwell) Guiteras was born November 6, 1827, in Bristol, Rhode Island, the daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Wardell.² On September 27, 1853, she married Ramon Guiteras, born August 4, 1811, in Matanzas, Cuba, son of Ramon Guiteras and Dona Gertrudis Font.³ Elizabeth and Ramon were living in New Bedford in 1855.⁴

They had two children: Gertrude Elizabeth, born March 2, 1855, in Massachusetts,⁵ and Ramon Benjamin, born August 17, 1858, in Barrington, Bristol County, Rhode Island.⁶ Elizabeth died in New York City on December 14, 1905,⁷ and her husband Ramon died February 13, 1873.³

Elizabeth's son, Ramon Benjamin Guiteras, studied medicine, graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1883. He went on to become a renown physician and surgeon in New York City, and founded the American Urological Association. He died of meningitis in New York⁸ on December 13, 1917.⁷

Does this help us answer our original question—Who wrote to Elizabeth Guiteras in 1883 from Vienna? Yes, since according to a biography of her son, "after graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1883, Guiteras spent 2 years studying in Paris, Vienna and Berlin under the eminent surgeons of the time."⁹ So evidently Ramon found time between his studies to write home to his mother in Rhode Island.

Postscript

I have limited the scope of this article to identifying the sender and recipient of the letter from Vienna. For a full biography of Dr. Ramon B. Guiteras see the .pdf file, Genevieve M. Crane, and David A. Bloom, Ramon Guiteras: Founder of the American Urological Association, Surgeon, Sportsman and Statesman. For a genealogical account of the Guiteras family, see the .doc file, http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/filibusters/Guiteras-Book.doc. For an obituary of Dr. Guiteras see Dr. Ramon Guiteras, Noted Surgeon, Dead, now behind a paywall at the New York Times. It wasn't when I first wrote this article. Edited to add, I just found it at Dr. Ramon Guiteras, Noted Surgeon, Dead.

Footnotes

Image used by permission of PHILGEN: Philatelic Genealogy. To see it there, click on Search Database in the left column and enter "Guiteras" in the search box.The image originally appeared at Jim Forte Postal History.
Rhode Island, Births and Christenings, 1600-1914, familysearch.org.
Guiteras, Wardwell and Allied Families, Genealogical and Biographical, prepared and privately printed for Gertrude Elizabeth Guiteras (American Historical Society, New York, 1926). Images at http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/filibusters/Guiteras-Book.doc.
Massachusetts, State Census, 1855, familysearch.org.
1935 Rhode Island Census, familysearch.org.
Rhode Island, Births and Christenings, 1600-1914, familysearch.org.
New York City databases at the Italian Genealogical Group Website, Genevieve M. Crane, and David A. Bloom, Ramon Guiteras: Founder of the American Urological Association, Surgeon, Sportsman and Statesman.

Alice (Brownsword) Hawkes of Rockland, Rhode Island

2019-09-02T00:00:00-04:00

1915 postcard from Rockland, RI to Glendale, RI

In December 1915, Alice B Hawkes of Rockland, Rhode Island, sent a postcard to her friend Mrs Green which read:

Dear Mrs Green, I heard you got as far as North Scituate looking for me. I wish you could have kept right along till you got here. Next time you must. Would just love to have you come and see our home. Mrs Randell and Edna has been out and spent the day with us.
Alice B Hawkes
Rockland, R.I.

This postcard caught my attention because Rockland, Rhode Island, no longer exists. It was leveled to make room for the Scituate Resevoir. More on that later. Meanwhile, what can we learn about these two women?

Thomas and Annie (Roberts) Brownsword

Alice (Brownsword) Hawkes was born March 5, 1874, in Salford, Lancashire, the daughter of Thomas and Annie (Roberts) Brownsword.(footnote)Familysearch's family trees, Alice Brownsword page. (footnote)Alice Brownsword, birth: June Quarter 1874, Salford, Lancashire, Mother's maiden name: Roberts, Vol 08D, page 104, at www.gro.gov.uk .

She was christened November 3, 1880, along with her sisters Ellen and Sarah, and her brother George William, at St. Bartholomew, Salford, Lancashire, England.(footnote)England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, familysearch, Alice Brownsword, 1880. On 3 April 1881 she was living on Regent Road, in Salford, Lancashire, with her parents, brother, and sisters.(footnote)1881 Census, Salford, Lancashire, England. RG11, p. 12, Piece/Folio 3971/49.

Alice's father died toward the end of 1881 or the beginning of 1882, and is buried in Barton Wesleyan Methodist Chapel burial grounds, Salford.(footnote)Thomas Brownsword, death, 1882, Barton upon Irwell, Lancashire, at https://www.freebmd.org. (footnote)Thomas Brownsword, findagrave page.

The SS Marathon

On April 28, 1884, Annie (Roberts) Brownsword, a widow, and her four children arrived in Boston aboard the SS Marathon.(footnote)Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1891, familysearch, Alice Brownsward, 28 Apr 1884. Annie was living in Pascoag, Rhode Island, in 1900,(footnote)United States Census, 1900, Annie Brownword, Burrillville, RI, ED 104, sheet 10A, family 212. and died in Scituate in 1914.(footnote)Rhode Island Deaths and Burials, familysearch, Annie Brownswood, 25 Aug 1914, Scituate. She is buried in Smithville Cemetery, North Scituate, along with her daughter Ellen.(footnote)Alice Brownsword, findagrave page.

Alice (Brownsword) Hawkes

Alice Brownsword

On December 20, 1897, Alice Brownsword was married to Waldo L Hawkes by Edward J Ayres, a minister at the Pascoag, Methodist Church. At the time, both were living in Pascoag. Waldo was an assistant postmaster. This was the first marriage for both of them. (footnote)Rhode Island, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1630-1945, familysearch, Waldo L. Hawkes and Alice Bronsword, 20 Dec 1897. (footnote)Souvenir history of the New England Southern Conference : in three volumes, Compiled and edited by Rennetts C Miller (Nantasket, Mass: Rennetts C Miller, 1897) at archive.org.

Waldo Hawkes

Alice and Waldo Hawkes were in Pascoag in 1900, but by the time of the 1910 census they had moved to Rockland and were renting a house on Rockland Road. Waldo was now working as a street car conductor. They were still there on September 12, 1918, when Waldo registered for the World War I draft. (footnote)United States Census, 1900, Waldo Hawkes, Burrillville, ED 104, sheet 16B, family 370. (footnote)United States Census, 1910, Waldo L Hawkes, Scituate, ED 275, sheet 3A, family 47. (footnote)United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Waldo Lyman Hawkes, Burrillville, Local Board State Division 3.

Meanwhile, in 1915—the year Alice sent her postcard to Mrs Greene—the Rhode Island General Assembly authorized the Providence Water Supply Board to condemn 14,800 acres of land in rural Scituate. "By December 1916, notices were delivered to the villagers stating that [their] homes and land ... were to be taken and destroyed. Construction was well under way by 1921, and water was being stored by November 10, 1925."(footnote)Raymond A Wolf, The Lost Villages of Scituate, (Arcadia Publishing, 2009), available in the Ocean State Libraries system and at Arcadia Publishing.

Rockland Post Office, undated photo

The Hawkes, who were only renting, were probably not as impacted as the families in the area who had farmed the same land for generations. Still they had to relocate, and 1920 finds them with Waldo's parents in North Scituate and Waldo still a street car conductor. By 1930 they were in Cranston and were still there in 1940. Waldo worked for a while in a machine shop, then as a janitor for a library. (footnote)United States Census, 1920, Waldo Hawkes, North Scituate, ED 315, sheet 2A, line 14, family 31. (footnote)United States Census, 1930, Waldo Hawkes, Cranston, ED 178, sheet 17A, line 31. (footnote)United States Census, 1940, Waldo Hawkes, Cranston, ED 4-47, sheet 7A, line 17, family 147.

The 1941 Cranston City Directory shows Waldo and Alice at 116 Greenwood with Waldo working as a janitor at the Auburn Branch of the Cranston Public Library. They were still at that address, and Waldo was still working for the library, in the 1954 Directory. The 1956 edition says that Waldo Hawkes died October 1, 1954. There is no mention of Alice in 1956, 1957, or 1959. Recent death records for Rhode Island are not on line, but from findagrave.com we learn that Alice (Brownsword) Hawkes died in 1958. She and her husband are both buried in Smithville Cemetery, North Scituate, the same cemetery as her mother and sister. They had no children. (footnote)Alice Hawkes, findagrave page. (footnote)Waldo Hawkes, findagrave page. (footnote)Cranston City Directories, at ancestry.com.

Conclusion

It seems ironic that in December 1915, as Alice expressed her wishes that her friend Mrs Greene could come out to see her home, plans were already underway that would lead to it being torn down. Still, the Hawkes fared better than most. "There were 'quite a few' suicides - possibly because townspeople, [historian Fred] Faria said, received 'peanuts, nothing' for their properties. 'The owners were compensated, but not enough.'"(footnote)"Lost village of Rockland remembered at history conference" by Denise Perreault, in The Valley Breeze, April 29, 2015. At least Alice and Waldo Hawkes lived out the rest of their lives, probably not as happy as they were in Rockland but alive nonetheless.

There is extensive information on Alice Brownsword's family in the familysearch tree cited above in note 1. In the next article, we will take a look at the recipient of the card, Mrs Julia (Mowry) Paine Greene.

Continued in Julia (Mowry) Paine Greene, of Glendale, Rhode Island.

Credits

I found the photo of the Rockland Post Office in the digital edition of The Lost Villages of Scituate by Raymond A Wolf, (Arcadia Publishing, 2009), in the Ocean State Libraries system. I am using it with his permission. The author stated that most photographs in his book were courtesy of the City of Providence Water Supply Board archives.

The photo of the SS Marathon comes from Norway Heritage.

The photos of Alice and Waldo Hawkes were on the familysearch familytree mentioned in footnote 1.

The postcard from Mrs Hawkes to Mrs Greene was once in my possession but is no longer.

Julia (Mowry) Paine Greene, of Glendale, Rhode Island

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1915 postcard from Rockland, RI to Glendale, RI

Continued from Alice (Brownsword) Hawkes of Rockland, Rhode Island.

Julia (Mowry) Paine Greene was born in Rhode Island on February 8, 1847, the daughter of Emer and Melaura (Mathewson) Mowry. On August 16, 1864, she married George Carpenter Paine. They had one daughter, Martha, born about 1867. Then on November 3, 1870, Julia married Albert S Greene, with whom she spent the rest of her life.

In 1910, when the census was taken, Albert and Julia Greene were living on the "west side of road in Glendale from Oakland," according to the census information. Glendale is a part of the town of Burrillville, Rhode Island. The 1910 Burrillville City Directory has this listing:

Greene Albert S grocery and assistant tax collector, house Main, Glendale

In 1915, the state census records them as family 191 in Glendale. In 1920 Albert Greene was the manager of a grocery store and lived on Herring Pond Road. In 1930 he was retired and living on Victory Highway.

Albert and Julia Greene had no children of their own, but seem to have raised her daughter Martha's son Leon Hartley. He is called Leon Greene on the 1900 census, and Leon Hartley alias Greene on his death record. They also adopted a young girl, Frances Kendall, who is with them as a boarder in 1910 under that name, but later as "adopted daughter" Frances Greene and as Frances Mason, married.

You might remember from the last article that when Alice wrote Mrs Greene in December, 1915, she was hoping that she would make another try to visit her in Rockland. However I wonder if Julia was able to, since she died less than two years later, on September 2, 1917. Her husband Albert outlived her by 17 years, dying on November 1, 1934, in Glendale. They are both buried in Union Cemetery, Slatersville. Her parents are in the same plot.

Conclusion

I was hoping to find a picture of Mr Greene's general store, but alas, I didn't. There might be one in Burrillville by Patricia A. Mehrtens, (Dover, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 1996), but our library didn't have a digital edition of the book. Having lived in northern Rhode Island for 25 years, I have absorbed some of its spirit including the attitude that most places, even the library, are at times "too far." So the article will just have to do without.

Sources

findagrave.com.
myheritage.com family trees.
Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916, familysearch.org.
Rhode Island Town Marriages Index, 1639-1916, familysearch.org.
Rhode Island Deaths and Burials, familysearch.org.
Federal and state censuses, familysearch.org.

Horace L Scott of Brattleboro, Vermont

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1928 postcard, Hope, Rhode Island, to Brattleboro, Vermont

Shortly after September 27, 1928, Mr Freeman Scott of Brattleboro, Vermont, received a postcard from his son Horace, mailed from Hope, Rhode Island. The inscription said

Dear Folks:
I'm to report in St Johnsbury next Tuesday. We will come to Bratt. probably Monday, possibly Sunday. The water is against the new dam and is all done.
Horace

What brought Horace to Hope, Rhode Island? Can we learn a little more about him and his family?

Horace Leslie Scott

What first caught my attention about this card was the sentence "The water is against the new dam and is all done." Why would anyone mention that to their family on a postcard? As it turns out, Horace most likely worked on the construction of the Hope Dam, which is on the Pawtuxet River in Scituate, RI. (Hope Village is a part of Scituate.) But let's start at the beginning.

Horace Scott was born April 15, 1885, in Brattleboro, Vermont, the son of Freeman Scott and Lizzie Ann Adams. In 1900 the family was at 34 High Street, Brattleboro, and Freeman was working as a grocer. In the household were also Freeman and Lizzie's other two children, Minnie Ann, born 1878, and Arthur Wayne, born 1883. By 1926 Freeman, Lizzie, and Minnie Scott were at 6 Oak Street, the address on the postcard. Freeman died there May 20, 1934, as did Lizzie on October 8, 1945. They are buried in Morningside Cemetery, Brattleboro.

Horace graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in 1909,(footnote)Google Books, Bulletin, Catalogue, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1919, p. 254. and soon found work with the United States Reclamation Service in Montana, staying with them until the mid-1920's. He was involved with a number of waterway projects in Montana, including the Milk River Project and St. Mary's Canal. Two collections of his notes and correspondence while on these projects exist, one at the Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives, Helena, Montana, and one at Yale University.(footnote)See Horace L. Scott Papers, 1910-1924, at Archives West, and Horace L. Scott papers, at Archives at Yale.

Mr Scott then returned to Vermont and married Edith Marion Knight in Brattleboro on February 7, 1925. From his addresses in the records, it seems like he worked on a job in Bellows Falls before going to Rhode Island for the Hope Dam project. He was back in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in 1930 and 1931, then in Brattleboro again from 1936 to 1939. From 1939 onward he worked for the state of Vermont, serving on the state planning board and the Water Conservation Board, and was retired by 1960. Horace died in Middlesex, Vermont, on February 3, 1970. His wife Marion had preceded him in death, dying December 6, 1954, in Burlington. Their ashes are buried in Morningside Cemetery, Brattleboro.

Horace and Marion Scott had one child, a son Arthur Horace Scott, born May 13, 1927, in Bellows Falls. In the 1951 Montpelier City Directory he was listed as being employed in Chelsea, Vermont, and his death record (February 7, 1988, Burlington) says that he was a teacher. There is a

Arthur H. Scott Memorial Trust
Scholarship awards to graduating seniors of Champlain Valley Union, Chelsea, or Northfield high schools, Vermont, and majoring in education or performing arts.(footnote)FoundationCenter.org, Arthur H. Scott Memorial Trust.

Arthur Scott never married.

Hope Dam

A good history of the Hope Dam in Scituate, Rhode Island, from its first incarnation in 1765 onward, can be found on pages 27 to 29 of a .pdf file at the State of Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission website.(footnote)In a US Department of the Interior registration application for the National Register of Historic Places, Hope Village Historic District, filed and approved in 1995. It says that the present dam was built over the original and mentions a 1928 plan for the dam, which lines up with the date on Horace Scott's postcard.

Hope Dam, Hope Village, Scituate, RI

Lizzie Adams

Horace's mother, Lizzie Adams, was born September 23, 1858, in Marlboro, Vermont, the daughter of Henry Adams and Lucy Ann Winchester. She is said to be a eighth generation descendant of Robert Adams, born 1602 in England, who arrived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1635.(footnote)Google Books, A Genealogical History of Robert Adams, of Newbury, Mass., and his Descendants, 1635-1900, by Andrew Napoleon Adams (Rutland, Vermont: The Tuttle Co., printers, 1900), page 500. I traced the Winchester line back to the American Revolution using a tree at ancestry.com, that looked reliable.

Freeman Scott

Horace's father, Freeman Scott was born May 24, 1854, West Halifax, Vermont, ths son of Martin Scott and Fanny Hinsdale Larrabee, both of whom were born in Halifax. Martin, 26, is head of a household on the 1850 Census of Halifax that includes a Clarissa Scott, 65. Findagrave.com says Clarissa's maiden name was Smith and her husband was James Scott (1782-May 27, 1850). Both of these families have been traced back quite a way as well. You can start with Fanny Larrabee at familysearch.org.

Conclusion

So Horace Leslie Scott came from a long line of New Englanders. Unfortunately his parents' line has died out, since Horace's brother and sister never married, nor did Horace and Marion's only son Arthur. But Horace has left a lasting mark on New England anyway, through his work on water projects in Vermont as well as the Hope Dam in Hope Village, Scituate, Rhode Island.

Other Sources

US Federal Censuses
Brattleboro, St Johnsbury, and Montpelier City Directories
Vermont Vital Records
WWI and WWII Draft Registrations
findagrave.com

Credits

The picture of Hope Dam, Scituate, Rhode Island, came from Oceanstategirl Photos and Books and is used with the permission of the photographer.