First and Third Cousins Sharing Their Old Family Albums, and Look What I Got!

My first Poole cousin shared many of the photos with me in 2021.

In December 2001, I received an email from a rather young researcher inquiring if I was related to a particular member of his Poole family. David found me through a Rootsweb Gedcom and provided quite a bit of information about his line. We emailed back and forth several times and he reluctantly shared some photos of his line, which I am showing at the end of this post. It wasn't his album and the owner wasn't keen on his sharing. David and I are third cousins once removed. When family trees online came into our lives, I often thought about these pictures, but always kept them private. We didn't correspond again until I wrote him recently, fortunately, he had the same address and email.

In the past few months, I have been talking genealogy with my two first cousins, one living in Illinois and the other in Colorado. I met the Illinois cousin when she was about three in 1953 at our grandfather's house. Several years ago, she and her husband photographed a large family album, with about 100 small pictures all glued on! Each page was sent to me, but it was put aside until now since I did no genealogy last year. I knew it would be a big project because I couldn't read some writing and it was difficult cropping individual photos out of groups of 4 or more tiny pictures.

This year through a discussion with my two cousin sisters, I learned they were going to get together and plan to talk about their genealogy. Since I am a first cousin, with a lot of information, and they have the album, I told them I would send quite a bit of information to them before they meet. They don't use a database like my RootsWeb. I'm not sure either about FamilySearch.org or the other genealogy companies, I won't name them.

I realize these albums and the story will mean little to anybody else, but it is important to me to share what I have and what they have, and our relationship with each other. The lineage chart was done in order to figure out their relationships for this post. I wish more writers would do lineage charts to help readers follow their complicated family stories.

William Frederick Poole and his wife Fanny (Frances) Gleason. I can't tell which of the two photos of him is the oldest. I think he is younger than the below picture. He is one of my most famous ancestors. I've written a lot about him, but here is Wikipedia's information.

There are many photos of William, see my post The Aging of My Great-Grandfather. Now I have a few additional photos to add.

Clarence Frederick Poole was my grandfather. His wife was Marjory, her name and ancestry aren't shown, because I didn't want anything about my father shown. I have photos of two grandparents (Clarence and Marjory), two greats (Charles Clarence Poole and Anna Poole), four great-grandparents (Charles, Mary, William, and Frances), and two great-great-grandmothers (Eliza Cutler Poole and Elizabeth Wilder Poole).

I believe the oldest photo is of Eliza Cutler Poole, dau. of Manassah Cutler (Wikipedia article) who was born on 4 July 1779 and died on 22 April 1854. Mother of Charles Henry Poole.

Mary Abbie / Abby Daniels Poole (wife of Charles Henry Poole) Born 5 Feb. 1825. Below, she is with her granddaughter, Frances.

Nurse Frances and the Flu was a popular blog post of mine, it might be of interest to you.

I'm not sure if we ever met, but I was lucky to inherit my great aunt's dining room table when my mother died in 1990. Dorothy died in 1965 in Florida. Her death was noted in my diary which I still have.

Charles Henry Poole went to West Point. He married Mary Abbie Daniels, her father was Stephen Daniels of Salem, MA. (There are six direct lines of Stephen Daniels in her line.) He was a civil engineer and surveyed San Diego, Roxbury, MA, and Long Island, MA. Also wrote the 250+ page manuscript of the Poole family located at the New England Historic Genealogy Society, and I copied it, and then a friend transcribed it for my blog.

Charles Clarence Poole married Annie Poole, they were my great-grandparents. He was a patent lawyer.

Annie Poole and Charles Clarence Poole, perhaps before they married. At least some names were clearly written with dates in this album.

My Great-grandmother, Annie Poole married Charles Clarence Poole in 1884.

Clarence Frederick Poole, my grandfather. He was a patent attorney like his father, Charles Clarence.

I feel this is a sweet page. The pictures at the upper right show of my grandmother Marjory Adams Poole holding my father in 1919. I have the original photo, so apparently, copies were made. The photo below was enlarged so you could read why these pictures were taken.

Below are photos from the second album. I selected just a few to show.

The Family of William Frederick Poole, his wife Fanny, daughters, Alice and Anna (their husbands), son William Frederick and grandchildren.

Elizabeth Wilder, mother of William F. Poole

Born 1801 in Keene, New Hampshire

Died January 1859 in So. Danvers, Massachusetts

Two photos of Alice Poole, born in 1855. She was a sister of Annie.

 

This Time I Knew Nothing About What Was Requested and Somebody Appreciated What I Sent

The above stone is for my ancestor, Manasseh Cutler

Born:  May 13, 1742, Killingly, Windham Co., Connecticut

Died:  July 28, 1823, Hamilton, Essex Co., MA

Rev. Cutler was the pastor of Hamilton Congregational Church (shown in the distance) for 52 years.

When I received a request from a FindAGrave reader about an ancestor of mine, I doubted I could offer any help, because I knew nothing about what she was talking about. After a few days of corresponding, I received this message, "Thank you so much for the detailed, rich, and highly informative information. Your meticulous work in documenting the life and accomplishments of Dr. Manasseh Cutler is commendable and I will make sure to go over the material in detail."

I've come to enjoy sharing pieces of correspondence in my blogs. Naturally, I'm more interested in what they write to me, but I always hope they understand what this non-writer has to say to them.

Whenever I get a request from FindAGrave, Ancestry, or 23andMe I always ask them to copy their message and send it to my email address. The reason I'm sharing this particular post is because there is a lot of information I've never shared about my ancestor Manasseh Cutler, my fourth great grandfather.

So, her message came to me on 29 May 2021.

RE:  Manasseh Cutler

Dear Barbara ... I am a faculty member at Fordham University in New York doing research on a family of missionaries who originated in Ohio and related to Manasseh Cutler. Many of the family members served in Persia in the late 1800s up until the start of WWI, and I have profiled one of them in a book about to be released (more info on the book at Urumia.com). Would be happy to speak with you on this research and also get some of your perspectives as you had indicated in your posting you are related. Note: I knew nothing about what was underlined above.

Regards,

H

(So, I kind of freaked out, because what do I have to offer this highly intelligent person.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of what I sent to her, because it's a "Reply" on FindAGrave, and I can't retrieve it. However, I know I did ask her to copy her initial message and send it to my email.

Hi Barbara ... thank you for your follow-up on the message I had sent you via Find A Grave on Manasseh Cutler.  Please feel free to reply by email using my ___fordham.edu email address.  Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

H

-----

Jun 1, 2021

Hi H,

I'll share some blogs I've written and two current photos. If you can use anything, I'd love to know. Since I am far from being a scholar, my interest is in genealogy, I'm posting quite a few links to my blog. The information is all in my notes section for Manasseh in the software program I use. Manasseh Cutler is my 4th great-grandfather.

https://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2010/01/dr-manasseh-cutler-minister-doctor.html

https://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2015/05/hamilton-cemetery-and-manasseh-cutler.html

https://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2017/11/on-learning-to-see-and-i-have-david.html

https://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2018/01/boston-athenaeum-what-was-in-it-for-me.html (the athenaeum might be a good place to check out for more information. Seems my 2nd great-grandfather wrote about him.)

The below is a jumbled mess of notes of mine. Some information is a repeat in a blog.

"Transcribed and photograph by Barbara Poole

His tombstone:

Rev. Manasseh  Cutler L.L.D.

He died July 28, 1823,

in the 81st year of his age.

He was beloved for his domestic and

social virtues.  His talents were of a

high order.  He was eminent for his

Botanical, Medical, Political and

Theological knowledge.  He was a

member of literary and scientific

societies in both Europe & America.

After a useful ministry of 52 years

in this place, he expired with a firm

and peaceful reliance on his Redeemer.

"They that trust in the Lord shall be

as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed

but abideth forever."

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2452972?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

The North American Review (google book)

Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, January 1876

pg. 261+

https://books.google.com/books?id=W4IFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=%22temple+cutler%22&source=bl&ots=sFNw4ISv1v&sig=tZ67A3X1zfsKaCmDViEvabLLFlQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEQQ6AEwCzgKahUKEwji4KiQ7djGAhVIej4KHe3OB-s#v=onepage&q=%22temple%20cutler%22&f=false

-----

From Wikipedia

Manasseh Cutler

Manasseh Cutler (May 13, 1742 – July 28, 1823) was an American clergyman involved in the American Revolutionary War. Cutler was also a member of the United States House of Representatives and a founder of Ohio University.

Cutler was born in Killingly, Connecticut. In 1765, he graduated from Yale College and after being a school teacher and a merchant – and occasionally appearing in court as a lawyer – he decided to enter the ministry. From 1771 until his death, he was pastor of the Congregational church in what was the parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts until 1793, now Hamilton.

For a few months in 1776, he was chaplain to the 11th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel Ebenezer Francis, raised for the defense of Boston. In 1778, he became chaplain to General Jonathan Titcomb's brigade and took part in General John Sullivan's expedition to Rhode Island. Soon after his return from this expedition, he trained in medicine to supplement the scanty income of a minister. In 1782, he established a private boarding school, directing it for nearly a quarter of a century.

In 1786, Cutler became interested in the settlement of western lands by American pioneers to the Northwest Territory. The following year, as agent of the Ohio Company of Associates that he had been involved in creating, he organized a contract with Congress whereby his associates (former soldiers of the Revolutionary War) might purchase one and a half million acres (6,000 km²) of land at the mouth of the Muskingum River with their Certificate of Indebtedness. Cutler also took a leading part in drafting the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory, which was finally presented to Congress by Massachusetts delegate Nathan Dane. In order to smooth passage of the Northwest Ordinance, Cutler bribed key congressmen by making them partners in his land company. By changing the office of provisional governor from an elected to an appointed position, Cutler was able to offer the position to the president of Congress, Arthur St. Clair.[1] From 1801 to 1805, Cutler was a Federalist representative in Congress. He died in 1823 at Hamilton, Massachusetts.

Cutler was one of the early members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Besides being proficient in the theology, law and medicine of his day, he conducted painstaking astronomical and meteorological investigations and was one of the first Americans to conduct significant botanical research. He is considered a founder of Ohio University and the National Historic Landmark Cutler Hall on that campus is named in his honor. He received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Yale University in 1789.

-----

From:  Essex Institute Historical Collections,  (Salem, MA: 1859+).  Vol. XC (April 1954) No. 2.  Pgs. 111-122.  "Reverend Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., 1742-1825  His Career as a Botanist" by Mrs. William Darrach and Mrs. Ernest G. Vietor.

Page 112.  Cutler kept a journal, a daily record of his personal affairs, from 1765 to the year of his death in 1823.  Nine years only of this journal are missing.  It may have been lost in 1812 when a fire in his study destroyed many of his valuable papers.

Page 113.  Cutler felt that the wild plants of the New England states were too little known and believed that much could be learned from the Indians about the medicinal value of these plants.  His later research along these lines resulted in an article in the first volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  In this same volume appear two other articles of his, one on meteorology and another on astronomy.

Page 115.  One is puzzled how it was possible for him to keep so many glittering balls in the air at one and the same time, theology, the law, medicine, astronomy, meteorology, a chaplain in the War for Independence, pastor of a Congregational church, headmaster of a private boarding school, a representative to Congress and last but not least, his contributions to botanical research.  His versatility and what he accomplished during his eighty-one years are nothing short of amazing.

Page 116.  The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was incorporated on May 4, 1780.  At its first meeting in the Philosophy Chambers in the University of Cambridge, Dr. Cutler was elected a Fellow.  He faithfully attended the meetings which alternated between Boston and Cambridge.

July 3, 1780.  Visited the sick.  Saw Saturn's rings through my glass.'  One cannot help wondering whether his scientific instruments, constant traveling by chaise or on horseback, and the many specimen plants he purchased for his garden and herbarium may not have been one reason why it was difficult to provide for his family.  Eventually, he had eight children whom he scarcely mentions in his diary.

Page 117.  In 1782, Dr. Cutler established a private boarding school which he conducted for about a quarter of a century.

Page 118.  Throughout his life, he was close to the most cultured and conspicuous men of his day, men who shared his intense interest in science, religion, and politics, and he corresponded with scientists and statesmen both in the United States and abroad.

Page 120.  Cutler continued on to Philadelphia where he was graciously received and dine and wined.  He took tea with Benjamin Franklin.

Meanwhile, he presented his plans for the settling of Ohio, and, thanks to his powers of persuasion, his sagacity, and great ability, the act was unanimously passed.

Page 121.  He was given an LL.D. degree at Yale in 1789, doubtless in recognition of his service to his country as well as for his scientific attainment.

Serving as a legislator from 1801 to 1805, he boarded with friends in Washington.  He describes frequent trips to Mount Vernon to call upon Mrs. Washington who had become a disconsolate widow.  The years in Washington were busy ones, but he found time to carry on his botanical interests and to keep in close touch with the distinguished scientists and famous men of the day.

Page 122.  He died in his eight-second year having been a botanist, lawyer, parson, doctor, school teacher, merchant, chaplain in the Army, and a legislator!

-----

From: Mary K. Haynes   redhawk60@netzero.com  (Manasseh Cutler is her 10th g grandfather)

The book is American Guide Series MASSACHUSETTS  A guide to its Places and People  Written and compiled by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts

Frederic W. Cook, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Cooperating Sponsor

Houghton  Mifflin  Company   -  Boston

The Riverside Press Cambridge

Copyright,  1937

Page 419

"The First Congregational Church, with a congregation formed in 1714, has a square tower surmounted by a steeple, and two Ionic columns at its entrance.

Beside the church is the Covered Wagon House (private), from which in December 1787, departed the first covered wagon to leave Massachusetts for the Northwest Territory.  The Rev. Manasseh Cutler (1742-1823), Yale graduate and Hamilton's second pastor, was the moving force in this emigration.  He was sent to Congress to secure land for the Ohio Company, of which he was one of the founders."

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=10908

http://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/makeover-on-tap-at-hamilton-park/article_9c65c10a-a02f-5e65-9729-2ac14f7da60a.html

-----

From" Paul ___.com> 7/20/2016

"Hello Barbara!

My name is Paul ___.  I am doing some personal historical research on Dr. Manasseh Cutler, but not related to my own genealogies.  I was absolutely thrilled to discover your blog and to learn that you are a direct descendant of this great man.  I am hoping that you may be able to direct me to some source material on his business dealings in The Ohio Companies and how that relationship pertains to Dr. Cutler's involvement in the finalization of the Northwest Territorial Ordinance.

I was also amazed to learn about Dr. Cutler's efforts to help the Confederate Congress of 1787 resolve their issues and get that legislation finalized in just a few days when it had been debated the issues unsuccessfully for more than 4 years prior.  I'm wondering if you have any personal knowledge of that situation and if you can direct me to any specific sources of documentation.  Of great interest to me is the fact that he also went down to Philadelphia and met with several of the delegates to the ongoing Constitutional Convention of 1787 which was also in the process of finalizing the Constitution of September 1787 that is in effect today.  Most notably, as I'm sure already know, Dr. Cutler personally met with Dr. Benjamin Franklin and several other delegates to the Constitutional Convention shortly after his departure from New York City.

One thing I could not quite discern from Dr. Cutler's personal journal were the "letters of recommendation" he was delivering from Massachusetts Governor Bowdoin.  Do you have any knowledge of these?  I would love to obtain a copy of one of those letters if they are still in existence.  All quite amazing and interesting.  I'm guessing these had something to do with his Ohio Companies business mission, but I'm completely in the dark about it.

Anyway, I am hoping you can help me in my studies of these events and help me to document as much as possible.

I trust this message finds you in good health and in good spirits.   Looking forward to speaking with you at your earliest convenience.  :)"

-----

The Manasseh Cutler Collection

Comprising some ten thousand items

Letters, Diaries, Journals, etc.

1762 - 1820

Charles G. Dawes"

-----

Hi Barbara,

Thank you so much for the detailed, rich, and highly informative information. Your meticulous work in documenting the life and accomplishments of Dr. Manasseh Cutler is commendable and I will make sure to go over the material in detail.  I just finished a book on some of the other descendants of Dr. Cutler, including members of the Shedd family originally from Massachusetts and /New Hampshire, some of whom later moved to Ohio.  They were related to Dr. Cutler through the Dawes family and served as Presbyterian missionaries in Persia between the 1860s and the start of WWI. My book is titled The Americans of Urumia and I would be happy to mail you a copy if you like. 

Best Regards,

H

-----

Thu, Jun 3, 2021

Hi H,

Thank you for such nice words. As a matter of fact, If it's okay with you, I'd like to use your paragraph words in a blog. It was a very nice compliment.

I think showing others what I sent to you might be of interest.

I won't use your last name or where you work. So, may I?

Thank you.

Barbara

-----

Jun 3, 2021

Hi Barbara ... yes, please feel free to use my words in your blog.

Best Regards,

H

"On Learning To See," and I have David McCullough to Thank for the Poetry Challenge Idea

Church and tombstone of
Dr. Manasseh Cutler

For the past eight years, Bill West of West in New England blog has his Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. The fun that comes from this challenge is, I need to find a poem that has something to do with genealogy or an ancestor or distant relative with perhaps history or genealogy in the theme.

For my 7th annual poem I chose On learning to See by Jack Metthews. My poem idea was based on the fact that I learned, from a facebook friend, that David McCullough was writing a book with some information about my ancestor, my 5th great-grandfather, Manasseh Cutler! A little magical google searches brought me to this poem!

"McCullough is working on another book, 'The Pioneers,' which is scheduled for a 2019 release. The book will tell the story of the courageous first settlers of the Northwest Territory in the late 1700s and early 1800s, including Ohio University founder Manasseh Cutler."
My 2nd great-grandfather also wrote a book about Dr. Manasseh Cutler:

Poole, William Frederick, The The Ordinance of 1787, and Dr. Manasseh Cutler, Welch, Bigelow, and Co., University Press, Cambridge, Mass. : 1876. (Google book.)  I assume Mr. McCullough will use this book.

ON LEARNING TO SEE

By Jack Matthews

Ohio University's my theme,

An institution intellectuals planned

When Ohio was a wilderness, for they deemed

This to be the time and this the land.

It remained in isolation as it matured,

Silent and remote from most appeals

Of fame and noise, and in this way abjured

The insidious power that relevance conceals.

By nature universities aspire

To that which some in part achieve by chance;

But we far more than most this end acquire--

Being an institution of irrelevance.

What perspective is better from which to see

The world than from some vantage point apart?--

For this remoteness in itself will free

The mind and with it liberate the heart.

Without some distance, nothing can be known;

There is no fixedness without some motion;

Knowledge derives from antithesis alone--

No fish could ever understand the ocean.

Great numbers of distinguished men and women

Have studied in these halls; but I will summon

Only one who did not study here at all,

Yet left his mark indelibly, withal.

I speak of Manasseh Cutler, eponym

Of Cutler Hall, that still remains a hymn

Of architectural elegance, one Jefferson 

Himself would have put his name upon.

For Manasseh Cutler was a man

Much like Jefferson in his great command

Of knowledge--of philosophy and plants,

Of engineering, theology and dance,

Of physics, poetry and classic drama,

Of grammar, syntax, the function of the comma.

He was, in short, un Uomo Universale,

And as much as any human exempt from folly.

He understood the complexity of things

And how much satisfaction knowledge brings.

He understood the molecule and atom

And sensed those elements too deep to fathom.

So how do you open a university?

Manasseh Cutler did it with a key--

To wit, he consulted and studied the college charter

Of several, including Yale, his Alma Mater;

So our "Harvard on the Hocking"--as some have hailed it--

He patterned on its nemesis, he yaled it.

It was in his encyclopaedic brain

That a university was born, to gain

Its true and plenary self beyond his knowing--

As always the richest seed transcends its sowing.

This impulse in his mind became the brick

Of buildings in which debate, arithmetic

And botany were passionately instilled

In the young, ambitious to be skilled

In eastern sophistication, while retaining

Some frontier innocence and remaining

Idealistic in the firm belief

That in knowledge, and that alone, is our relief--

visionary in their firm conviction

That wisdom is the ultimate benediction.

For learning of this sort to be completed

a passionate attentiveness is needed.

We need the world of things to love and study

As surely as the mind requires a body.

To fervidly attend to what's provided

By a teeming world of things is to be guided

By the instinct of the mind, the signal feature

Of that thinking reed, the human creature.

How much there is we see but do not see;

How often things are instruments that we

Fail to honor with that rapt attention

The world deserves--I speak of deep absorption,

Of profound allegiance to the morality

Of understanding; I speak of responsibility;

Of how it is through learning that we seek

To better understand the world; I speak

Of Manasseh Cutler, whose son reported that

"He learned to see what he was looking at."

I obtained permission from reference librarian, Julia Robinson, to use this poem from Ohio University. I only wish the author, Jack Matthews could have been thanked personally.  Credit: https://www.ohio.edu/bicentennial/history/tributes/poem.cfm

"The following poem was commissioned by Dean Leslie Flemming of the College of Arts and Sciences to be read on the occasion of the Distinguished Alumni Ceremony on September 19, 2003 in the Baker Center Ballroom. The poem and preface were published in the program for the evening. 

Preface

A preface to a short poem can betray fecklessness or self-infatuation. And yet, prefaces can also be charitable acts, calculated to prepare audiences for what's in store for them, which is merciful insofar as poems are often perplexing when they are heard rather than read. So it's this I have in mind in providing the following introduction:

How can one pack the life of a 200-year-old university into a poem? Best not try, is the prudent answer; but, here, prudence is of limited usefulness; so that, when I was asked to do precisely this, I was happy to throw myself into the task. The result is a 2-page poem (if I had striven for historical balance, that would be one page a century) of closely rhymed pentameters.

Why rhymed? Because it is focused upon that gifted renaissance man who, in effect, started it all--Manasseh Cutler; and the verse most appropriate to him is that which he would most likely understand and appreciate if he were to hear it. More than that, however, such closely rhymed verse announces itself defiantly as artifice, rejecting the latent imposture of unrhymed, unmetered verse as a simulacrum of living speech, for poetry is not speech, but an elaboration upon the artifice of speech.

In addition to all this, however, to the modern ear there's always something faintly playful, frolicsome--even hilarious--about closed rhymes. It's hard to take them altogether seriously. Laughter is in their echoes, as surely as in the syllables, "Ha ha!" But no intellectual worthy of the name would ever deny the importance of laughter, for more often than not, laughter is nothing but a response to irony, and irony is intrinsic to language itself; and language defines our world."

Tributes

https://www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday/voices/tributes-winter-2015.cfm

"Just learned in the spring 2014 obituaries of the passing of John “Jack” Matthews, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at OHIO."

Two posts of mine, with photos, previously written:
Dr. Manasseh Cutler - A minister, doctor, statesman, botanist and ancestor

Hamilton Cemetery and Manasseh Cutler, the most accomplished of all my ancestors

Is This About Six Deaths of the Children, My New Relatives OR Research Problems -- Tombstone Tuesday

In the ideal world of tombstone hunting in an old cemetery, I should do a thorough research a head of time on who I was looking for and have an idea who else is buried there as well. However, in this case, I came across the cemetery stone by accident and didn't know the 6 Childs children were related to me. All 6 died within weeks of each other, so I wanted to post the tombstone because it's an interesting stone and sad because of all the deaths. Their stone photos were taken in two different years, in three visits. (Photos below with transcription.)

When I began this post last year, I thought some of the photos of other grave stones could be related to the children and later discovered two to be their parents. It seemed that each subsequent trip provided another family member to them and to me.

Without a doubt, I've lost a lot of time making these trips, when two visits should have been enough. Even if I didn't know who they were, the above Childs and Cutlers were buried in the same area, and that was a clue. I now need to return for a fourth trip because I see that the children's great-grandmother, Abigail Dewey Cutler is also buried there.  Much time could have been saved, if I had used FindAGrave for the Childs children first and looked at all the family members. (On the link above, you'll see that at one time, the long tombstone was almost flat on the ground.)

The six children of Abijah Childs and Sarah Cutler were buried in this plot located in Y^e Old Burying Ground in Lexington, Massachusetts. They died within a three week period between August 19 and September 6, 1778. The parents were buried behind them under the two tall cemetery markers, seen in above photo and below), photos taken Oct. 17, 2015. (Photo too dark, so I returned last week for a better picture. Summer photo too light.)

Abijah Childs and Sarah Cutler above and below.

They are my 2nd cousins, 7 times removed. Photos taken Aug. 22, 2015.

In memory of
Mr. Abijah Childs
who died
Aug. 30
1808
Age 70

His wife is below.

SACRED 
to the memory
of
MRS. SARAH CHILDS
wife of
Mr. Abijah Childs,
who died
March 3, 1812
Age 78.

A return trip to the cemetery on October 9, 2016 was necessary because I used FindAGrave again and discovered the children's grandparents were two stones from them. (Photo above and below.)

Benjamin Cutler and his wife Mary Hartwell are  the grandparents to the Childs children, and My 1 cousin 8 times removed.

Memento mori

Here lies the
Body of Mr.
Benjamin Cutler
who departed this
Life Novr. 3d. 1776.
Aged 79 years
3 months and
29 days

Here lies the
Body of Mrs. Mary
Cutler, wife of Mr.
Benjamin Cutler
she departed this
Life Novr. 6th

Aged 75 years 9 
months and 21 days

For more information about this cemetery, please see my post HERE called,  How to Find a Tombstone in the Old Cemetery in Lexington, MA

Children listed on the above stone.

My third cousins 6 times removed.

Sarah Childs

Died

August 28^th

1778

Aged 13 Years

^{8 months}

^{and 11 days.}

^--- 

^{Eunice Childs}

Died

August 23^rd

1778 

Aged 12 years

3 months

and 8 Days

---

Abijah Childs

Died

Sep^t 6^th

1778

Aged 11 years

And 37

Days.

---

Abigail Childs

Died

August 29^th

1778

Aged 7 years

7 months

and 11 Days.

--- 

Benj^m Childs

Died

August 24^th

1778

Aged 4 years

9 months and

8 Days.

--- 

Moses Childs

Died

August 19^th

1778

Aged 3 years

Wanting

8 Days.

This Monument is Erected to the Memory of 6 Children

of M^r Abijah Childs and M^rs Sarah his wife.


Foot stone listing the six Childs children.