Church of the Mill Girls, Lowell, Massachusetts

St. Anne's Church, Episcopal, Est. 1824

Lowell, Massachusetts

History of St. Anne's Church and the Mill Girls of Lowell.

Watertown Free Library, Watertown, Massachusetts. -- Remember When it was in the News?

Watertown Free Library

123 Main Street

Watertown, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts

Great Library website for doing Watertown genealogy.

This library is my 16th in my series of showing the genealogy collections at some New England libraries. I went to this one soon after the genealogy community, especially those on Facebook, got wind that this library was going to "remove certain historical titles from the library's history room".

The Watertown Free Library (original building, built in 1884 and the new addition) is one of the nicest libraries I've ever been in. The old and new merge beautifully.

Above and below are in the old section. The staircase was closed to patrons.

More of the old section, here I am facing the history and genealogy room behind the doors.

On a Saturday afternoon, we were the only ones there. The genealogy section was packed with books and had very little if any free space for additional items.

Robert Adams Buried in Newbury, MA and a Nice Surprise -- Tombstone Tuesday

One lovely June day, I was in search to find the gravestone of my 10th Great-grandfather, Robert Adams. FindAGrave indicated he was buried in the First Settlers Burial Ground in Newbury, MA.

With directions, we soon spotted the above sign on the side of a street.

Cautiously we walked along the grass path to the opening and although it was about 9:30 am on a Sunday morning, somebody was cutting the grass!

We noticed almost all the cemetery stones were reproductions, very few originals. The grass cutter, who happened to be a trustee, seemed to know where everybody was buried, and pointed out my Robert Adams' stone, also an ancestor of his wife's. He mentioned another old cemetery, which was too hard to find with verbal directions, so he offered to drive there, so we (I) jumped at the chance to follow in our car for five miles. Below is a reproduction stone of my ancestor.

In

Memory

of

Robert Adams

Who Died

October 12, 1652

Aged 80 Years

He knew the roads, and drove mighty fast. Below is the entrance to the Byfield Cemetery. He lead us up the long hill, to the open space and found the much older stone, a memorial to the Adams family. I brought home a souvenir of 13 mosquito bites.
Our guide was a remarkable man, a non-stop talker who filled us in on a lot of information. As nice it was having the kid-glove treatment, a bonus was seeing the most beautiful scenery. A few days later, I received a print-out about the First Settlers Burial Ground.

Mr. Robert Adams,

who came from Devonshire,

England about the year 1629, and;

died Oct. 16 1682. AEt 82.

Capt. Abraham Adams,
his grandson, died April 3, 1768 AEt 87.

Samuel Adams,
his son, died May 8, 1791. AEt 74.

Mary Adams,
his wife, died Nov. 17, 1812. AEt 90.

Joseph Adams,
their son, died Oct 6. 1815 AEt 67.

Mary Adams,
their dau, died Oct 27, 1771, AEt 21.

First Settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts

Descendants of 

These First Settlers

Erected This Memorial

ROBERT ADAMS	WILLIAM MOODY
CILES BADGER	ANTHONY MORSE
JOHN BAILEY	WILLIAM MOULTON
RICHARD BROWN	EDMUND MOORES
THOMAS BROWN	NICHOLAS NOYES
RICHARD BARTLETT	JAMES NOYES
JOHN CHENEY	JAMES ORDWAY
AQUILA CHASE	JOHN OSGOOD
NATHANIEL CLARK	THOMAS PARKER
THOMAS COLMAN	RICHARD PETTINCELL
TRISTRAM COFFIN	DANIEL PIERCE
ROBERT COKER	JOHN PIKE
JOHN CUTTING	WILLIAM PILLSBURY
JOHN DAVIS	FRANCIS PLUMER
RICHARD DOLE	JOHN POORE
RICHARD DUMMER	SAMUEL POORE
JOHN EMERY	EDWARD RAWSON
WILLIAM GERRISH	JOHN REMINGTON
EDMUND GREENLEAF	EDWARD RICHARDSON
THOMAS HALE	HENRY ROLFE
ABEL HUSE	ROBERT SAVORY
WILLIAM ILSLEY	HENRY SEWALL
JAMES JACKMAN	HENRY SHORT
HENRY JAQUES	THOMAS SMITH
JOHN KELLY	ANTHONY SOMERBY
RICHARD KENT	WILLIAM SAWYER
JOHN KNIGHT	STEVEN SWETT
RICHARD KNIGHT	WILLIAM TITCOMB
GEORGE LITTLE	RICHARD THURLOW
PERCIVAL LOWELL	DANIEL THURSTON
HENRY LUNT	ABRAHAM TOPPAN
ROBERT LONG	DAVID WHEELER
HUGH MARCH	THOMAS WHITTIER
WILLIAM MARSTON	JOHN WOODBRIDGE
NATHANIEL MERRILL	EDWARD WOODMAN

Update as of October 28, 2013. I discovered a website, Sons and Daughters of Newbury. Information is given as well as a list of the Heads of Families Who Settled in Newbury Previous to 1700, which is different from the above list on the monument.

Monument front and back.

The above photo was taken in the summer of 2013. In late October I drove by and discovered all the shrubs had been removed.

 NOTE: These photos were taken in December 2015. Apparently the shrubs were removed, and I kind of think the wires above were too.

 Lower Green, first settlement site, 1635.

If You Like New England, You Might Enjoy Their Gardens

These five photos were taken at the Bedrock Gardens in Lee, NH. The 20-acre garden incorporates horticulture and art. The married couple have spent many years clearing away the woods to make this well-known garden.

  

 These two gardens are maintained by Wentworth By the Sea in New Castle, NH.

The Letters on eBay

Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, taken 2011.

A whole new world opened up to me after a friend sent me a link to an eBay site. His last name is Bishop, and this is the second time he informed me of something on eBay relating to Bishop, my mother's surname. I don't believe my friend is interested in genealogy. The item consisted of two letters, by two different people, dated 12 Sept. 1837, it was 3 pages long and included an envelope to Rev. James B. Wilcox of Castile, Genesee County, New York. Best of all, the asking price was $9.50.

Since I hadn't used eBay, I had to set up an account, then the fun began. I won't bore you with the bidding war that went on for several days between novice me and two pros. I am positive that neither was after the letters written from Martha's Vineyard, and mailed from Falmouth, MA, but they were after the 1837 envelope. I want to get word to the new owner and let them know I'd love a photocopy of the letters because I knew all the individuals mentioned, so I am hoping that this blog post will find its way to the letter owner who paid $39.00.

The seller had quite a few other envelopes to sell, and I was very pleased that he did an abstract, with just enough information for me to know these people were mine. Mentioned were my two cousins 4x removed, Eliza Bishop and Phebe Bishop Jenkins, news that my 2nd great-grandaunt, Flora Bishop Colegrove was married and had a 1 1/2-year-old daughter (died the following year), and several others were mentioned.

Several lines from the seller, "Our dear Ct relatives are few & scattered, this renders them doubly near & dear to us ...." and "We often speak of your dear family, although we have little knowledge of you. The fact that there is an Elisa Bishop among your number conveys additional interest to my mind ..." Of course I want to know who Elisa Bishop is too, I haven't a clue.

Now that I have an account, I plan on setting up alerts for letters and envelopes. There is a current offering for a letter written by J. Low in Hartford on December 15, 1828 and addressed to Mr. T. W. Gibb in Hinesburg, Vermont. The letter is sad because it informs him of the death of a brother Ephraphrae Hull of Typhus Fever.

Bridge of Flowers, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

Beautiful web page for Bridge of Flowers

Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

The bridge has flowers on both sides, but I took all my photos looking north, because of the view of the river. The web page, Blooming on the Bridge has a schedule of what is in bloom from April through October, with photos and names of flowers. These photos were taken August 3, 2013.

Photos below were taken on May 15, 2010.