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The Life From The Roots blog topics have changed several times since I began this blog in 2009. I initially wrote only about the family history I had been working on for 20 years. Years later, I was into visiting gardens, historical homes, churches, libraries that had genealogical collections, historical societies, war memorials, and travel/tourism places. I also enjoy posting autographs and photos of famous people I've met or have seen.

Along with my New England roots, other areas include New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.

Please check out the labels on the right side for topics (please note, they need work). Below the labels and pageviews is a listing of my top nine posts, according to Google. Four of them pertain to Lowell, MA. These posts change often because they are based on what people are reading.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Balch House of Beverly, Massachusetts Celebrated Many Thanksgivings

This house was built in 1636 by John Balch and is located in Beverly, Massachusetts and is maintained by the Beverly Historical Society. It is one of the oldest wood-frame houses in the United States. My photos show the various rooms.
The above guest book for visitors has been used since 1969. I first signed it about 16 years ago, and then On July 11th of this year. A facebook and blogger friend, Pam Carter signed it about a week before I did. She also did a more detailed blog post, which is excellent, so if you would like more information, I suggest you visit her site HERE.



1826 Balch water bucket.





Below is a 1640 chest that held a 1814 Bible.

Front of the house.
BALCH HOUSE

BUILT IN 1636 BY JOHN BALCH,
WHO CAME OVER IN 1623 WITH
CAPTAIN ROBERT GORGES. THE
"OLD PLANTERS" RECEIVED THIS
LAND IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR
SETTLEMENT AT SALEM.
Back view of the house.
Side corner view. Parking in the back.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Two Andrew Ten Eycks and the 1793 Move to Canada

Two different articles pertaining to, two Andrew Ten Eycks' of Dunham, Quebec, Canada were located and transcribed. The first was was done circa 1999 by a 5th cousin and the second was done in 1941 by my grandfather. In the first article, Andrew talks about his great-grandfather Andrew Ten Eyck leaving Albany in 1793, carrying his possessions to Canada. The second article is a death announcement of the great-grandson, but there is more information about the great-grandfather than the newly departed.

"Mr. Andrew Ten Eyck has in his possession several articles of household furniture and farm implements that his great-grandfather brought from Albany in 1793, at the time he settled in Dunham.  Among the articles of interest we noticed an armchair, the history of which dates back to the early days of the colonists, previous to the Revolutionary War.  This ancient heir-loom has been handed down from father to son for five generations and is held by the family as a relic of priceless value.  Mr. Ten Eyck has a broad axe with which his grandsire hewed the logs into shape previous to building his first residence in the woods; also a red coat* formerly worn by his predecessors at the time New York was besieged by the Continental forces.  The coat is one of the "swallow tail" pattern, with the usual amount of yellow braid and gilt buttons.

The above articles are well preserved. Another memento of the past held by our worthy friend is a copy of the London Times, bearing the date of November 7th, 1805, containing a full account of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson.  The battle was fought on Monday, October 21st, the news of which was 16 days in reaching England.  Mr. Ten Eyck has also many articles equally interesting to the antiquarian and geologist, with a well kept library, containing the works of nearly all the poets and leading historians of the present age."
* I wrote about the red coat, post was titled: Was it a Revolutionary War Red Coat, or Made Before?

The above was from The Waterloo Advertiser, Friday, February 10, 1893, Waterloo, Shefford Co., PQ (National Library of Canada N-66948) -- Sent to me by Jim Johnson, a 5th cousin through our Westover line.


The obituary of Andrew Ten Eyck (above), died Nov. 24, 1898 (from The Waterloo Advertiser, Dec. 9, 1898 newspaper) was copied by Earle K. Bishop, Nov. 17, 1941 (my grandfather and husband of my grandmother, Sarah Ten Eyck).

"It is with a feeling of sadness that I announce the death of Mr. Ten Eyck of Dunham, who died November 24, 1898, at the age of 80 years. Mr. Ten Eyck was a great grandson of Andrew Ten Eyck, an early pioneer who emigrated after the Revolutionary War and settled near Albany, NY, where he remained until 1795 or 1796 when he removed to Dunham with his family, where with other United Empire Loyalists at that time received a grant of land from the British government, a gift of which he was doomed not long to enjoy, his death taking place in 1799. Hendrick Ten Eyck, a son of the pioneer, came into possession of his father's property after his death, but not for long.  He died in 1816. Andrew Ten Eyck, the father of the late Andrew Ten Eyck lately deceased, fell heir to Hendrick Ten Eyck's property and remained on the homestead until 1831, the date of his death, leaving two sons and two daughters to inherit his wealth, all of whom are now dead, Andrew being the last one of the family.  Of the many hardships endured by the Ten Eyck family during the Revolutionary War a volume might have been written, as they were persecute from place to place by the enemies of Great Britain, who claimed the honor of having established a government where all men were made free and equal.  At one time, Andrew Ten Eyck the pioneer and another man were arrested and carried on board an American craft that was lying off New York harbor and was ready to sail on the following morning as a privateer.  During the night the two men with the aid of ropes let themselves down into the water and started to swim to the New Jersey shore three-fourths of a mile away, but were quickly discovered by the ship's crew, who commenced firing at them at close range tearing up the water around them.  Ten Eyck escaped to the shore, where he sat down and waited for his companion, whose fate was never known.  The Ten Eycks were true men who would sacrifice everything but honor in behalf of a friend in trouble, and the world of today is made better of their having lived."

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

THE LIBRARIAN'S EPITAPH, a Poem

The other day, I wrote a post called, I Googled POEM and FITCH POOLE and came up with This. I mentioned that every year I try to find an appropriate poem to use in Bill West's 7th annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. I wanted my poem to have something to do with history or was written by an ancestor or family member. I knew exactly what I wanted when I found it...a poem by Fitch Poole, the first Librarian of the Peabody Institute Library and my 2nd great-granduncle.

Below is the article that came up and from reading it, I saw a poem that interested me, called "The Librarian's Epitaph." A simple click on the active link gave me the poem, but I had to increase the size to 500% in order to transcribe it for easier reading. A nice poem that met my criteria. I hope you enjoy it, although it's long, there is a message for us all. In addition, I posted his cemetery stone below.


For the Wizard
THE LIBRARIAN'S EPITAPH

Here lie the bones of one who lived
In converse with the Sages,
His books he ranged in goodly rows,
And conn’d their title pages,
As in his life with dusty tomes,
His days with book-worms passed,
So now in death by other worms,
He is consumed at last.

The book of Nature he had scanned,
And then pronounced it “Good,”
His loving heart rejoiced to meet
His human brother “Hood,”
He often sought the Hawthorne bower,
Twas ther “Young” life began,
Though still a “Child,” he found the “More
His growing love for “Mann.”

With “Raikes” he oft was hand and glove,
Yet never felt a strain,
And when he roamed would always take
His “Taylor” and his “Kane.”
And often he in merry mood,
Amidst his pond’rous romes,
His “Saxe”-horn blew that he might cheer
Our fireside and our “Holmes.”

O’er history’s varied page he pored
With mingled hopes and fears,
And “Motley” scenes of peace and war,
Oft moved his eyes to “Theirs,”
While vivid “Sparks” of modern days
Before his vision float—
Of earlier times of Ancient Greece
He did not care a “Grote.”

He never felt inclined to “Crowe,”
But had a cheerful hope,
No Romanist—but much revered
Both “Abbe,” “Church” and “Pope,”
Like other men he dreaded “Paine,”
Nor groped he in the dark,
But used to “Illnt” the truth to find
In “Bush” and “Hedge” and “Park.”

Though “Sterne” and “Savage” in his moods,
He yet was often “Gay,”
And kept his pets in “Moore” and “Hall,”
His ”Fox,” and “Drake” and “Jay,”
He’d knowledge from a “Mason” gain
And delve in “Cooper’s” chips,
But, prudent man, he always kept
A “Locke” upon his lips.

He kept a “Black-stone,” on his shelf,
But had no love for “Law,”
And if one told a “story” well,
He only answered—“Shaw!”
He ground his logic in a “Mill,”
Hard by a sandstone grot,
His “Miller” was a Scottish bairn
Who always paid his “Scott.”

Of all the “Smiths” who “Bellows” blow,
With scarcely time to rest,
From “Hudson’s” banks to wand’ring “Poe,”
He loved his “Goldsmith” best.
His “Baird” was cut in comely trim,
His “Head” was turning “Gray,”
His “Combe” he valued for its age,
And used it every “Day.”

His “Chambers” where he kept his books,
Were cleaned with nicest care,
And why the “Dickens” should they not?
He kept two “Trollopes” there.
And there he kept a might “Brougham
To sweep away the dust,
That he might Stowe his precious Ware,
And keep it bright from rust.

He kept His “Baker” and his “Cooke,”
His “Kidd” he loved to cram,
Though “Crabbe” could never “Tickell” him
He had a taste for “Lamb,”
He loved to Frye his Pollock brown,
His “Pike” with “Hook” was taken,
He kept his “Hogg” in Attic salt,
But could not save his “Bacon!”

His life was passing “Swift” away
His pulse was like the wave,
No doctor’s skill could now delay,
His drumbeat to the grave.
His “Quincy” had the nursing care,
Which kindly friends provide,
Alas! No friends could cure his “Burns,”
Or help his “Akenside!”

Beneath this stone the “Sleeper” lies,
Himself now bound in boards,
This narrow “Trench” is all the space,
His dwelling now affords.
Ye men of Science! cease to mourn,
(His better part endures)
But, up and doing, strive to learn
That greater work of “Ure’s!”

 Fitch Poole, librarian and author of the above poem. He and his wife Mary Ann Poor had 9 children.
Harmony Grove Cemetery, (my FAG site)
Salem, Massachusetts.
Family plot.

Patten Free Library, Bath, Maine -- Sagadahoc County History and Genealogy Room


The Patten Free Library in Bath, Sagadahoc Co., Maine is the last library I visited this year. I'd been looking forward to seeing it for several months, and it didn't disappoint me.
Facing the library from the library park, you see the original building and the Kennebec River.
 Two charming readers greet you at the entrance.
Three photos below show the original rooms, the first picture with the four windows overlooks the river.


The above, looking into the original section. and below photo are both in the newer section.
When we visited the library at 11:00 A.M., I was well aware the History Room was not open (Hours: 12:30 - 4 P.M., Tuesday thru Saturday). Fortunately, I was able to ask the director if she would show me the room after I explained I would be posting a small report to my blog. She was more than happy to take me upstairs, and answered my questions. It's a rather large room, packed full with books, file cabinets and technology items. Yes, I was very lucky she had the time to do this for me.





These two pictures show the library from the outside. It was built in 1890 for $15,000. Two additions were later added in 1961 and 1998.

View from the library, the 1843 Winter Street Church. located at 880 Washington Street.
Photo taken by Barbara Proko, facebook friend

From a bridge, I took a photo of the USS Zumwalt. Much has been written about it, and I was quite excited to see it docked at the Bath Iron Works plant. My husband's uncle was and a cousin are draftsmen there.

From Wikipedia: "USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She is the lead ship of the Zumwalt class and the first ship to be named for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt. Zumwalt has stealth capabilities, having a radar cross-section akin to a fishing boat despite her large size. On 7 December 2015, Zumwalt began her sea trial preparatory to joining the Pacific Fleet. She is to be homeported in San DiegoCalifornia. The ship will be commissioned in Baltimore on October 15, 2016."

http://whdh.com/news/local/stealthy-destroyer-ready-to-set-sail-to-join-us-navy/

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Frederick Ayer, Lowell Cemetery -- Tombstone Tuesday

I took this tombstone photo because I had written about Frederick Fanning Ayer's houses twice in my blog posts. The first post was about his Lowell house that later became the American school, formerly an orphanage. The second post was about his huge house in Boston, built by Louis Comfort Tiffany. When I learned that Mr. Ayer was buried in Lowell, after his 1918 death, I decided to post my pictures here.


FREDERICK AYER
BORN DEC. 8, 1832
DIED MAR. 14, 1918
CORNELIA WHEATON
WIFE OF FREDERICK AYER
BORN JUNE 20, 1835
DIED JANY. 9, 1878
ELLEN BARROWS BANNING
WIFE OF FREDERICK AYER
BORN MAY 7, 1853
DIED APR. 3, 1918
KEITH MERRILL
APR. 2, 1887  --  JUNE 8, 1959

KATHARINE AYER MERRILL  (Daughter)
SEPT. 3, 1890  --  JAN. 3, 1981

(Note: The 2nd daughter of Frederick Ayer, Beatrice Banning, wife of Gen. George S. Patton was probably buried in Hamilton, Massachusetts (location unknown).



Monday, November 16, 2015

I Googled POEM and FITCH POOLE and came up with This


Every year I try to find an appropriate poem to use in Bill West's 7th annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge. I wanted my poem to have something to do with history or was written by an ancestor or family member. The easiest way to find information is to do a search by doing a google search. I simply typed in the search bar, "Poem" and "Fitch Poole," bingo twice. The first thing that caught my eye, was an article in Industrial Chicago: The Bench and Bar book about Charles Clarence Poole, my great-grandfather. The second piece of luck was finding a poem, to be posted Wednesday.

Below is the article google pushed in front of me, with the search words in red. The nicest surprise was seeing a photo and autograph of my great-grandfather. I hadn't seen it before!

Industrial Chicago: The Bench and Bar, Vol. VI
Chicago : The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1896
pg. 210

"C. CLARENCE POOLE. Some details in the life and antecedents of this prominent patent attorney will be welcomed by all who have a real interest in the history of the bench and bar of Chicago. This city, the seat of many important manufactures, the center of large publishing interests, and in whose courts many celebrated cases arising from questions of ownership or violation of patents, trademarks and copyrights have been tried, has assumed an importance in such litigation second to that of no other manufacturing and commercial center in the country. Here there has grown up a class of patent lawyers as able as any in the world, one of the most reliable and most successful of whom is the gentleman to whose career these paragraphs are devoted.
pg. 211
     Of Puritan lineage, Mr. Poole is a son of Charles Henry and Mary A. (Daniels) Poole and was born at Benicia, Cal., November 27, 1856. His father, a civil engineer by profession, was at the time in the service of the United States Government at that point. His mother was the daughter of Stephen Daniels, Esq., of Salem, Mass.
     The founder of the family in America was John Poole of Reading, Mass., who came to the Massachusetts colony in 1632, was one of the first settlers of Cambridge, and was later granted land at Reading, and became one of the principal citizens of that place.
     Mr. Poole is a lineal descendant of Governor Dudley and Governor Bradstreet of the Massachusetts Colony, and is a descendant also of Manasseh Cutler of Hamilton, Mass., a scholar and statesman, who graduated at Yale College, studied law and was admitted to the bar; studied, also, medicine and divinity; was a chaplain in the American Army and a noted patriot in the Revolution; was a long pastor of the church at Hamilton; achieved distinction by researches in botany and other scientific investigations; was chosen a director of the Ohio Company in 1787 and was the leading spirit in opening the Northwest Territory to settlement and the planting of the first colony in Ohio; was largely instrumental in securing the passage of the 'Ordinance of 1787,' by which slavery was excluded from the Northwest Territory, and was a member of Congress from Massachusetts. The family from which Mr. Poole comes has, in nearly all its branches and all generations, been noted for its scholarly tastes. Fitch Poole who was known as the 'Danvers Poet,' was his uncle, and Dr. William Frederick Poole, the distinguished librarian, author of 'Poole's Index,' and authority on New England history, and until his recent lamented death librarian of the Newberry Library in this city, was his cousin.
     Mr. Poole early displayed a talent for mechanical studies, which he has since utilized in the practice of patent law, a department of legal work for which his abilities especially quality him. His early studies were in the schools of Washington, D. D., and later he was fitted for the practice of civil engineering by studies under private instructors, and in 1874 and 1875 served as assistant engineer in surveys carried on by the Engineer Department of the army. Among the records of the War Department are a set of maps and plans for a projected canal from Cumberland, Md., to Pittsburg, Pa., which were made by Mr. Poole from notes taken in the field before he was nineteen years old. Mr. Poole, also, by private instruction fitted himself for entering the higher classes of one of the principal Eastern universities, with a view of attending the same for a short time and taking a degree, but not being able to carry out this project, and intending to devote his attention to patent law, he entered the law school of the Columbian University at Washington, where he was graduated in 1882, taking a prize for an essay on 'Trademarks' at his graduation. In the fall of that year he came to Chicago, which he deemed to be a good field for the particular practice upon which he had determined to enter. He was first associated Melville F. Dayton, well known to the legal fraternity as a mechanical expert in court cases involving mechanical questions, in practice before the United States Patent Office, and later, also, in legal work, with Taylor E. Brown.
     Mr. Poole, during his practice of patent law, has acquired a high reputation for skill and ability, both in the work of procuring patents and in the conduct of patent litigation, and he has been employed as counsel in many important cases both in the Patent Office and in the courts. His field of effort has not been confined to Chicago, but he has been called upon to represent important interests in many suits brought in other parts of the country.
     Mr. Poole married, in 1884, at Chicago, Anne Poole, daughter of the late Dr. William Frederick Poole, librarian of the Newberry Library, and since his marriage has lived at Evanston.
pg. 212
     Mr. Poole is literary in his tastes, and is a member of the Chicago Literary Club, of which the late Professor David Swing was an interested and active member, and which includes among its membership the best among Chicago's able and scholarly men. He has contributed occasionally to the columns of newspapers and periodicals articles on various topics, and has also contributed to the literature of his profession papers on special subjects, some of which have been prepared for and published by the Patent Law Association, an organization which embraces among its members all lawyers of prominence in this branch of legal profession in Chicago. Moreover, Mr. Poole is now, and for some time past has been, engaged in the writing of a treatise or text book, soon to be published, treating exhaustively of the law relating to the validity of letters patent as affected by the application for the patent and proceedings in the Patent Office prior to the grant. This work Mr. Poole is especially qualified to prepare, by reason of his extended experience in the matters treated of, and it promises, according to the judgment of patent lawyers who know of its intended character and scope, to be one of the most valuable contributions yet made to the literature of this branch of the law."

pg. 373