Howard Meade Rowe 1881-1941

I learned a little bit more about my maternal grandfather this week. I actually found his obituary. It told me things I did not know, but also teased me with more tiny snippits of partial info.

I did not know where he and Granny were living when he died. However, they are both buried in Spencer, NY, in the Fisher/Rowe family plot.

Friend Diane was able to look up the 1940 census info and determine that they were living in Hamilton, NY, in 1941. I only knew the year of his death. However, none of the papers in Tioga or Madison County carried an obituary.

So I took my searches in another direction. I knew that he was a lawyer, so I added that to the search. Up came his obituary in the New York Times, of all things! I'm not totally surprised. I knew that was where he practiced law for a number of years, particularly when my mom was in high school. And then I had to find a friend with a NYT subscription to get me a copy of the page.

But the obit tells me that in addition to being a NY City lawyer, he was an official of the Nestle Food Company and also of Fort Schuyler Farms of Utica, NY. I think this is an error, and it should say Fort Schuyler Club, an exclusive private club founded in 1883. I knew that he had quite a lot of prestige, and Granny was very proud of that. Date of death, March 14, 1941.

Here is another picture I've shared before of Howard in 1911 with Jacques on the left and Catherine (Mom) on the right, ages 4 and 2.

He was born in Norway, Maine. I've always known that, but I didn't realize the Rowe family is fairly prominent there. I found a news clipping from 1903 where a Mrs. and Miss Rowe were guests at ex-governor Perham's home. I suspect the Mrs. Rowe was Howard's mother Annie- see link below for a picture of her in her last year of life. The Miss Rowe might have been his sister Helen.

And this suggests a few more explanations. Annie's mother was a Perham. So they were probably related to the governor. And somewhere among my many boxes and trunks is a dress that was supposedly worn by someone to Governor Perham's innaugural ball. So that begins to make some sense.

This search was brought on by my reading a novel where someone finds out, shockingly, that an aunt committed suicide. Since, sadly, that was how Howard died, it made me newly curious.

I went to my appointments today on the correct day! Did errands, tried a new recipe. Didn't sleep much last night. May have to go lie down soon.

See How Far Back Can You Go?

Cornelius White Sr. 1682-1755

Born: March 28, 1682 Marshfield, MA

Second child of Daniel and Hannah (Helen?) White.

Married: Hannah Randall on May 22, 1706

Children: Lemuel, Cornelius Jr., Paul, Joanna, Daniel, Gideon, Benjamin.

Died: January 21, 1755 in Marshfield, MA

Buried in Centre Marshfield Cemetery, Marshfield, Plymouth County, Massachusetts

He is listed as a shipbuilder in The Mayflower Descendant magazine.

Cornelius bought a pasture and orchard from his brother John, and also a valley pasture and uplands. All the property was in Marshfield. He left all this plus 14 pounds to Cornelius, Jr. His estate was valued at 1375 pounds, and included a fishing boat, a ferry boat, and outdoor tools.

Since Cornelius is listed as a shipbuilder, and that he lived in Scituate, I am making the assumption that is where he worked on the ships. Scituate is located on the Atlantic coast between Boston and Cape Cod. It was a major shipyard from possibly as early as 1646 (records vary) to 1872.

Not sure of the date of this photo, but it's certainly from the 1800s, long after Cornelius died. But it possibly looks similar to the 1700s.

But the only other related graphic I can find is a hand-drawn map of the harbor from the 1700s. The attached key to 58 numbered locations reads like a list of places in a fantasy game: Light House, Cedar Point, Old Dr. Jeffer's House, Gun House, Tin Shop, Stables, etc.

Cornelius was Daniel's second son. As such, I guess he did not inherit the family farmland and orchards, but chose a trade as shipbuilder.

From here on down for two generations, I don't think I'm going to be able to find a lot of detailed info about the people. But we shall see.

I think discipline as relates to getting back into the Klondike game isn't even on the table. Hopefully, I was just spending lots of time today as I tried to get back into remembering how to play. But I'm afraid I can't ration my playing time very well. I really like it.

Nevertheless, I managed to get some editing and computer work done. The snow is all gone and the sun was shining this afternoon.

See his father Daniel White

How Far Back Can You Go?

 In addition to Veteran's Day, this is also my mother's birthday, so I sort of alternate which I blog about. Today, it's Mom. And a little more genealogy.

I just finished reading a series of books that spans the time period from 1829 to 1919, following one particular family (fictional). It does continue on in an epilogue to bring the people's lives to their conclusions, but the general narrative spans about 100 years. It got me to thinking.

First, here are a couple of pics of Mom that I have not previously shared. These were taken on the same day (professional studio photos), but I don't know the date. However, I am guessing 1916. That would make my mother, Catherine Burnham Rowe Leary, seven years old. I think she looks a little older, but I'll explain why I choose seven with the next picture.

Here is the other picture taken on the same day. This is her mother, Emily Marguerite Fisher Rowe, her brother Merrill Fisher Rowe (Jacques), and her. Jacques (say Jack) is two years older, and I think he doesn't look older than nine. Notice their hands. Mom was large-boned and solid. Jacques was fine-boned. She always said she took after her father.

After reading the books, I got to thinking about who was born the earliest that I actually know. That would be my great-grandmother Rowe (Mom's father's mother). Meeting her is my earliest memory. I was about 13 months old. She was born January 29, 1858. That's 166 years ago. What's the birth year of the oldest person you personally remember?

Here is the day I saw her. She was brought to our house for the specific purpose of meeting me. She was 91. Her name is Annie Cordelia Burnham Rowe



Without getting too entangled in more genealogy, I learned who, specifically, Mom and her siblings were named after:
Catherine (her maternal grandmother Catherine Louisa Hall Fisher) Burnham (the maiden name of her paternal grandmother)
Merrill (his paternal grandfather Merrill Jordan Rowe) Fisher (the maiden name of his mother)
Margaret (never could figure this out unless a derivation of Marguerite) Perham (the maiden name of Annie's mother)- this baby died when only 3 hours old.

I edited (but not enough), worked on autumn olive a little, did miscellaneous things, and Om and I went to Applebees to take advantage of their free veteran's meal.

See A Veteran's Day Story

Daniel White 1649 - 1724

 Raining outside. I stayed in and worked hard. So, I also tried to find anything interesting to tell about the next person in my genealogical line. Peregrine White's oldest child was Daniel.

Daniel White

b. August 19, 1649 Marshfield, MA d. May 6, 1724 Marshfield, MA

Oldest child of Peregrine and Sarah (Basset) White.

Married Hannah Hunt on August 19, 1674.

Children: John, Cornelius, Benjamin, Ebenezer

Buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Marshfield, MA.

Very little is known about Daniel. The family property was deeded to him in 1674 by his father, Peregrine. He would have been 25 years of age.

Peregrine had a large house and quite a lot of land. There was the original gift from Sarah’s father of 40 acres, but he was also granted land because of being an original settler. 100 acres were gained by that grant in 1673, but there may have been more at another time. Also, Peregrine purchased additional land.

So, Daniel suddenly became the owner and probably primary caretaker of a lot of property. We do know exactly where this land was. Marshfield Town (township), Massachusetts is on the coast of Cape Cod Bay, north of Duxbury.

The North and South Rivers met and flowed into Massachusetts Bay. The White property was at the base of Snake Hill just southwest of this river mouth. Since that time, the mouth has been relocated. Currently, Rexhame Beach is now found where the old rivermouth was.

This is a current map from Google Terrain of that area. You can see the T in the river, just west of Rexhame Beach. That was the original outlet from the North and South Rivers.

This is the USGS Topo map of that area. You can see Snake Hill is named, as is the old river mouth. The name of the road that encircles the hill is now named Peregrine White Drive.

Snake Hill is important, because Peregrine’s and thus Daniel’s property was just at the southeast base of it. It’s indicated as being marshland, but apparently it wasn’t too wet to build on. Additionally, the marsh grass that grew there was considered a valuable resource for feeding the cattle that were brought to the colony. Documentation of the first cattle in New England is lost, but there was known to be a population of them in 1627. Cattle had been brought to the St. Lawrence River area in the mid-1500s, and to New Netherlands in 1625. Peregrine’s will states that he had, in 1704, one ox, half interest in a horse, four cows, one heifer, and half interest in three young cattle, along with some other farm animals. But these listed certainly would have eaten the marsh hay. Perhaps the half interests were with Daniel.

On this map, from 1795, the North and South Rivers show, and what appears to be the Episcopal church somewhere on Snake Hill.

This 1838 map shows the same area, and the names S. White and J. White indicate that the land was still in the White family. It also shows the location of the Peregrine White apple tree.

This tree was undoubtedly planted while Daniel was a boy. He certainly helped tend the animals and harvest the fruit from this tree while growing up in the house pictured in the Peregrine White entry. This is a drawing of the tree in 1854. Half of the tree had died by 1851, and the remainder was dead by 1914.

However, a piece of wood from the tree was presented to the Hanover Historical Society in 1865. This is a real connection! I could touch something that was also touched by Daniel.

Daniel’s will survives, but I have not yet been able to access it on line. Perhaps it will verify that he continued life as a farmer.

Interestingly, Find-a-grave has a lot of wrong information about some of the next generations. This appears to be due to confusion concerning which Hannah Daniel married.

In other news: I edited and wrote.

See Peregrine White

Peregrine White

  Today, I looked up more about Peregrine White, that baby born to Susanna, in November 1620, as the Mayflower overwintered in the harbor. I didn't learn a lot of detailed new information, because there isn't much! However, I did find that there is a small biography of him that I would like to buy, just because it will collect much of the information in one place.

Peregrine White

b. late November, 1620 d. July 20, 1704

One very cool piece of reality is that this is his baby cradle brought from England in anticipation of his birth. Talk about optimism! It was used by successive generations of his Winslow half-descendants and finally donated to a museum. It is Dutch wickerwork, and is considered one of the treasures of the time period.

The Mayflower landed on November 9, 1620. His biological father, William White, was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact on November 21, 1620, and Peregrine was born probably before December began. You may recall that the calendars changed in 1582 from Julian to Gregorian, and it took a while before everyone was on the "same page" with this. So dates often need checking. Sources vary on which dating system was used to record some events. William died in February of 1621, and his mother married Edward Winslow who became one of the primary leaders of the Plymouth Colony. Incidentally, a portrait was made of Winslow, probably the only real likeness of a Mayflower passenger. [see my notes in Susanna's entry as to why I reject that possible picture of her]

I've seen the replica of the Mayflower, and believe me, it's hard to picture 100 people traversing the ocean in a ship that isn't as big as a moderate sized house. I can't find my pictures from that trip, so you'll have to do with a picture from Wikipedia (credited to Paul Keleher)

At any rate, baby Peregrine (meaning wanderer or Pilgrim as he is sometimes called), grew up in the Plymouth Colony which grew into a stockaded village about a half-mile in length on each side. You have to wonder what life would have been like for a child in those conditions.

He married Sarah Basset in 1648. Sarah's family came to America in 1621 on the ship Fortune. Interestingly enough, Peregrine and Sarah were fined for fornication, since son Daniel (my ancestor) was born a bit too soon in 1649!

The family had moved to the village of Marshfield. Peregrine and Sarah had six children who lived to adulthood. There are two remaining images of his original house which survived until the late 1800s. This is one that was produced around 1890 for stereopticon viewing. The land was given to him by his father-in-law William Basset, Sr.

He became a Lieutenant and then a Captain in the local militia. In 1651, he was declared a Freeman, which gave him the right to vote.

Very little is known about his adult years. He could easily have become a colonial leader, as did his younger half-brother Josiah. But he seems not to have taken this pathway, other than being appointed deputy of Marshfield in 1662. There are no letters or papers of his that have survived, and we don't have any real hints of how he thought or felt, although his name appears fairly regularly in records of Marshfield.

In 1674, he gave his land to Daniel and seems to disappear from public records. However, in 1696, at the age of 78, he became a member of the church at Marshfield! His biographer speculates that some memorable event occurred that caused him to withdraw.

His will survives, and leaves land and/or possessions to his children: Daniel, Jonathan, Peregrine Jr., Sarah, and Mercy. Son Sylvanus (born between Sarah and Mercy) had died in 1688. Wills of the time usually listed an inventory of goods, and his list is fairly long including such ordinary items as a gun, hatchett, bedstead, table, chairs, books, linens, cows, sheep, and bees.

One other tangible evidence of his life is a piece of wood that was saved from an apple tree he is supposed to have planted, that lived until the late 1800s.

An obituary appears in the Boston News-Letter, one of the earliest newspapers in America. "He was vigorous and of a comely aspect to the last." His death is recorded on July 20, 1704. It ends with the cryptic sentence, "Although he was in the former part of his life extravagant, yet was much reformed in his last years, and died hopefully." I'm not sure what conservative Puritans would have considered extravagant, but perhaps I also come by an adventurous gene or two through Peregrine.

The last passenger on the Mayflower died in 1699, unless you allow that the unborn Peregrine was also a passenger. Then, he wins the honor.

This is his actual signature.

In other news: I edited and I wrote another 1099 words.

See The Pedigree

Susanna Jackson White (Winslow)

 It wasn't until 2017 that anyone knew the lineage of Susanna White, mother of Peregrine White, who came to North America on the Mayflower. The discovery of some letters have filled in a great deal of her history, and probably cleared up which William White she was married to. Peregrine is purported to be the first European child born on this continent to survive. (We won't touch on speculative history of the Etruscans and Chinese and Vikings today.) At any rate, he's the first we have records of.

I am a direct descendant of Peregrine. One of my bucket list goals is to try to create a book (not for publication, just for me) with stories of what I know of a lot of the people in my ancestral line. So tonight, I just took some of the new information about Susanna and collected it with some other info.

Susanna Jackson White (Winslow)

b. 1592 d. after 1654

parents: Richard Jackson, Mary (Pettinger) Jackson

Susanna grew up at Scrooby Manor in Nottinghamshire of Robin Hood fame. Scrooby Manor was the home of the Brewsters. He was a Separatist (those not in agreement with the Church of England) leader. The Brewster’s portion of the Manor was destroyed, but this is the part in which the Jacksons lived.

Around 1608 the family fled from persecution to Amsterdam and joined the Separatist congregation there.

In Holland, she married William White, of Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. (This is probably the correct William White, although the Bradford list has him coming aboard the Mayflower as a merchant from London. And there is a third William White adding more confusion.)

They had one son while in Holland, named Resolved, who would have been five years old on the Mayflower passage. Susanna was pregnant, and in her third trimester, on the voyage. There were two other pregnant women on board. Oceanus Hopkins was born during the trip.

On anchoring in Plymouth harbor (Massachusetts) on November 9, 1620, the passengers realized there was no way to build homes before winter. They spent the first winter on board the Mayflower. Peregrine (Pilgrim) White was born some time in November of that year.

All but four of the thirteen women who came on the Mayflower died before the next summer. Susanna was one of the survivors. However, her husband William died in February, 1621. He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact.

She married Edward Winslow in May, 1621, the first recorded marriage in Massachusetts. They had five children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Edward’s first wife had died in March.

Undoubtedly, Susanna was one of the people who helped prepare the first Thanksgiving feast.

Her then husband, Edward, wrote home to England that the Wampanoag with Chief Massasoit and about 90 men (plus women and children? or 90 natives total? We don’t know) gathered to “entertain and feast” for three days. Venison, wildfowl, and corn are mentioned. Another account by Bradford adds turkeys to the menu. But there were certainly no wheat rolls. Any bread would have had a corn base, and stuffings for the meat, if any, were probably herbs and onions, possibly with nuts added.

This painting was printed in the Smithsonian Magazine, 2011. It is less fanciful than many other portrayals of the feast. At least this one doesn’t have the natives in the dress of plains Indians! However, there are six Pilgrim women in the picture, and we know there were only four left. It would be nice if someone would try to paint something more authentic.

Susanna died between 1654 and 1656, based on wills in which she is mentioned. Her grave is in the Winslow Cemetery in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She was between 62 and 64 years of age.

This purports to be a photograph of a painting of Susanna. It is possible she had a portrait made because there are existing paintings of Edward Winslow and of their son and daughter-in-law Josiah and Penelope Winslow. [edited- I doubt this is a likeness of Susanna. A Puritan woman would have continued to keep her head covered even if she would have been about 50 years old. And, the hairstyle to me suggests early 1800s. The dress is harder, but all suggestions of women's clothing of the period and religious affiliation show some kind of shawl or shoulder covering.]

It has long been my contention that I come from a long line of tough women. I rest my case.

I hunkered down and worked hard today. I wrote over 1200 words (a lot in a book that requires research), and edited.

See The Pedigree

The Pedigree

 
It was an especially nasty day outside with a cold wind and rain. And then, of course, our first day of early darkness.

So, I'm just going to list my most famous pedigree. It begins with William and Susanna White, passengers on the Mayflower. William was listed as one of the London merchants aboard, rather than one of the religious refugees from Holland. They traveled with a young son whose name was Resolved.

The real celebrity status begins with the birth of their second son, Peregrine, who was the first European child born in the new world to survive (Virginia Dare of the lost Virginia colony was the first). Peregrine was born on November 20, 1620, aboard the Mayflower, while it was harbored at Cape Cod.

The internet can yield up wonderful resources. This is supposed to be a likeness of Peregrine White. Amazing! (Although I suspect it's not the correct person- looks like a Civil War era photo to me. Any pic of the 1600 Peregrine would need to be a painting.)

I managed to add some dates to the line. My mom and I researched this when I was in junior high. We had the direct line (presented here) plus some side branches, but not a lot of dates.

Here we go:

William White 1586-1621    --    Susanna Jackson White 1592-1654/6


Peregrine White 1620-1704    --    Sarah Bassett 1630-1711

Daniel White 1649-1724    --    Hannah Hunt ?-1721

Cornelius White Sr. 1682-1755    --    Hannah (Sarah?) Randall 1677-1768

Cornelius White Jr. 1708- 1796    --    Sarah (Vaughn?) Hewitt (Ford?) 1721-1777

Jesse Hodges born Oct. 3, 1755 (through whom I can be a DAR member)    --    Olive White 1754-?


Olive White Hodges b 1787    --    Thomas Fisher ?-1864
Lucinda Cornelia Fisher 1815-1896    --    Hervey Smith Hall 1810-1896

Catherine Louisa Hall 1858-1923    --    Charles Alfred Fisher (distant cousin) 1851-1944

Emily Marguerite Fisher 1882-1972    --    Howard Meade Rowe 1881-1941

Catherine Burnham Rowe 1909-1995    --    Ray Ford Leary 1904-1976

Joan Hall Leary 1948- (I am the end of this genetic line)

It feels like not such a long stretch to reach back to these people. I have several things which belonged to Lucinda, and Thomas Fisher was an early merchant in Spencer, NY where the next four generations are buried.

In other news: I wrote a chapter in DMS Mistletoe

	See Startling Family Resemblance
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Startling Family Resemblence

 
Have you ever found an old photograph and been so startled by it you just could hardly breathe?

That happened to me quite recently. Although I'm not letting myself get bitten by the genealogy bug yet (because I know I'll become totally infected and incapacitated to do much else), I have dabbled a bit on a website called findagrave. The value of what you can find on it sort of depends on whether a particular cemetery has an enthusiastic volunteer to add data and pictures. But the cemetery where a lot of my mother's side is buried is quite well represented.

Now, let me first explain that I had no idea what this family member looked like before he was 72 years old. He ran away from home when he was 14 (in 1897) and was never heard from again until 1958. The family member is the oldest of my grandmother's brothers. She (Emily Marguerite Fisher) was oldest, then Ben, Lew, and Charlie. This family picture, taken in 1907 does not include Ben, because he'd been gone for ten years, and it's the oldest family photo I have. (Click the link if you want to read my thoughts on why I think it's remarkable).

So I was cruising findagrave, I think to verify some death dates, and there was a link to Benjamin Smith Fisher's gravesite, with a thumbnail picture- way too small to see details. I clicked it. I'm guessing it had to have been taken just before he ran off. I can believe this boy was about 14 in the picture. But I have to tell you, seeing this took my breath away.

Here's why. You've seen this next picture before, but not your whole life, as I have. This is the formal portrait of my uncle Jacques (Merrill Fisher Rowe), who was killed at age 26. Jacques was Granny's firstborn, my mother's older brother. Wow! Can you say family resemblance?

Here's the thing... it's like looking backwards into a long telescoping mirror. I've always been told I look like Jacques. When Granny started losing it, she began calling me Jacques (just say Jack- Granny liked the odd spelling).

The next picture I'll show you is one I don't like much. It was my 8th grade school picture, and my mouth was all swollen because I'd had braces put on my teeth the day before, but I was usually grinning with my mouth open, so this picture looks the most like the two above.

Now let's back up a few years. I've promised in the past to hunt up these shots, but today I am delivering. The first one is Jacques on the left and me on the right.



Ditto at slightly older ages.



I really, really wish we could go back one more generation. Granny and Ben's mother (Catherine Louisa Hall Fisher) looked not at all like these pictures. I know I have one poor picture of Granny's father. I may have a couple of better ones. I have two snapshots of Ben that he sent when he suddenly got in touch with the family after almost 60 years. I can possibly compare how those two looked when they were older. So now I'm wondering if Ben, Jacques, and I look like Charles Alfred Fisher.

Having this picture of Ben means a lot to me.

	See On Mom's Dresser
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A Veteran from the Way-Back Machine

 
On this Veterans Day, I choose to remember a veteran from as far back in the United States' past as you can go. Sorry, no picture of him!

In the sorting of stuff I've been trying to work on this year, I've come across both my grandmother's and mother's DAR pins. That's Daughters of the American Revolution. You must have an ancestor who served during the Revolutionary War to become a member.

Here's Granny's pin with a 25-year rocker.



The ancestor was named Jesse Hodges. I've searched on genealogical sites and could not find the correct one. It seems to have been a rather common name. However, today, just because, I went to the DAR web site. They have a genealogy database of their own which can be searched by anyone. I believe I've got the correct ancestor located, but I don't seem to be able to figure out how to find Mom's and Granny's names, which I think should be there as (past) members.

Here's Mom's pin. It's smaller. She was not active after I was born- probably too busy with raising me and work. Perhaps there wasn't a local chapter.



On the DAR site I learned that it is a non-profit, non-political service organization dedicated to preserving history, promoting patriotism, and education. There is even a chapter only about 20 miles from me. Sounds pretty good.

When I was young, there were many jokes made about the Daughters of the American Revolution, picturing it as a snooty social club for old ladies. If it was, it doesn't look like that's what it is now.

Well, many of the things I have enjoyed or chosen over the course of my life have been ridiculed. Maybe I'll look into this some more. Somewhere, I have the papers that show our lineage and right to belong. The organization was founded in 1890. Looks like pretty good girl power to me.

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