Essex Junction, Vermont Fairgrounds for Weathervane Wednesday

 Today's weathervane was spotted at Essex Junction, Vermont.

This sweet steam engine weathervane is located on the cupola over the main gatehouse of the Champlain Valley Expoistion.  It is a two dimensional weathervane with lots of details including the wheels, smoke stack (with smoke!), bell, cow catcher, etc.  Since the gatehouse looks like a train station, this was a very appropriate choice for a weathervane. 

This location hosts over 100 events a year.  The most famous is the 10 day long agricultural fair every summer.  This year the fair runs from August 23 to September 1, 2024.  

For the truly curious:

The Champlain Valley Exposition website:    https://cvexpo.org/    

Champlain Valley Exposition, 105 Pearl Street, Essex Junction, VT

info@cvexpo.org

To see over 500 more "Weathervane Wednesday" posts, click here:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Weathervane%20Wednesday   

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Essex Junction, Vermont Fairgrounds for Weathervane Wednesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 15, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/05/essex-junction-vermont-fairgrounds-for.html: accessed [access date]). 

Peter Hoogerzeil Patents a Stove in 1891

 

Beverly Citizen, Saturday, November 28, 1891, page 2

"Ancient and Curious Stoves

Peter Hoogerzeil made application, last week, for his third patent on a rolling oven grate. His first patent was issued about two years ago and the second about one year later. The improved grate is automatic, and emerges and receds as the door, to which it is attached, is opened or closed.

     He also has a Franklin stove, a portable iron fireplace, with open front and swinging crane, which was named after Dr. Franklin, who invented it, and bears a bust of its inventor.

     Another curious possession is one of the old James stoves, the word "Salem", which appears on its face, indicating the place of its manufacture, though there is nothing that suggests its age. It is in an admirable state of preservation, stands about 28 inches from the floor, is of about the same width, and is not over 15 inches in depth. The fire is kindled at the bottom, and overhead is the oven, with a door opeing in front and one at the back.  The heat also passes through a funnel on either side of the oven, and an iron handle forms a part of the stove-covers. Mr. Hoogerzeil believes this to be the oldest stove in existence, and is desirous of obtaining information of the period when it was manufactured in Salem.  Particular interest attaches to it from the fact that a Detroit stove company has offered $100 in gold for the oldest stove to be placed on exhibition at the World's fair.  Mr. Hoogerzeil obtained the stove through James M. Woodbury, who purchased it from the estate of Miss Susan Forniss, by whom it was used until her decease." 

My great great grandfather Peter Hoogerzeil was a tinkerer and an inventor.  I have found at least a dozen patents he produced, including several for stoves, stove parts, and other cooking devices. He was born 24 June 1841 in Beverly, Massachusetts, the son of Peter Hoogerzeil (an immigrant from Holland) and Eunice Stone.  Peter married Mary Etta Healey on 14 March 1870 in Salem.  She was the daughter of Joseph Edwin Healy and Matilda Weston, natives of Nova Scotia.  

Peter had many occupations over the years.  In the 1860 census he was a fisherman.  In the 1870 census he was listed as a quartermaster and expressman (made deliveries).  He was listed as a teamster (truck or delivery driver) on his 1908 death certificate.  In 1867 he founded the Hoogerzeil Express Company, which he ran for many years and eventually passed it on this his brother-in-law, John E. Healey. He ran his express business from his home in Beverly, and had a large workshop behind the house.  The 1884 Beverly City Directory lists "Peter Hoogerzeil, Jr., job wagon, house 43 Bartlett St."   My mother remembers this house, where her aunt, Isabel Hoogerziel Sorenson, Peter's daughter, lived. 

Among Peter's US patents were the following that were all related to stoves or cooking:

        #403,938 Patented May 28, 1889 Stove Oven

#418,721 Patented January 7, 1890 Stove Oven

#467,292 Patented January 19, 1892 Stove Oven

#486,469 Patented November 22, 1892 Wheelbarrow

#512,615 Patented January 9, 1894 Steam or Baking Pan

For the truly curious:

My Surname Saturday post of my HOOGERZEIL lineage:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/03/surname-saturday-hoogerzeil-of-holland.html

Blog post "Peter Hoogerzeil's House in Beverly, Massachusetts":     https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/not-so-wordless-wednesday-peter.html

Tombstone Tuesday - Peter Hoogerzeil's gravestone:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/tombstone-tuesday-peter-hoogerzeil.html 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Peter Hoogerzeil Patents a Stove in 1891", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 7, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/05/peter-hoogerzeil-patents-stove-in-1891.html: accessed [access date]). 

Abijah Hitchings' Cow in 1799 - But which Abijah Hitching was it?

 

The Salem Gazette, Tuesday, 16 July 1799; Salem, Massachusetts; Volume XIII; Issue 829; page 4

This notice of a lost cow (above) appeared in the Salem newspaper in 1799.  I knew immediately that it was one of my ancestors because of the unusual name of Abijah Hitchings.  But which Abijah?  Can you believe that there are five Abijah Hitchings in my family tree, all living in Salem, Massachusetts between 1753 and 1910?  There may have been more that I don't know about, too! 

The first clue is Salem.  The advertisement is from the Salem newspaper, and it includes the wording "Salem, July 5".  Unfortunately, all my Abijah Hitchings lived in Salem, so that was not very helpful.

Next is the date of 1799.  I used the date to eliminate some of the Abijah's in my tree. 

My 5th great grandfather, Abijah Hitchings, lived between 1753 and 1826 

My 4th great grandfather, Abijah Hitchings, lived between 1775 and 1868

My 3rd great grandfather, Abijah Hitchings, lived between 1809 and 1864

My 2nd great grandfather, Abijah Franklin Hitchings, lived between 1841 and 1910. 

From these dates, I can guess that it was either of the two first Abijah Hitchings who lost the cow, since the rest were not born by 1799.  And my 4th great grandfather, Abijah Hitchings was just 24 years old in 1799, and had been married just three years, with one young child living at home (you guessed it - that child was Abijah Hitchings (1798 - 1803)).  His father, my 5th great grandfather, was 46 years old, married since 1775, with four children by two different wives still living at home.  Either one of these could have owned the lost cow.

I know from The Diary of William Bentley, Volume 2, page 468, that Rev. Bentley visited the elder Abijah Hitchings (my 5th great grandfather) often, and in March 1799 he mentioned the "small house on the Hitchens lot on Beckett Street".  This Abijah was veteran of the Revolutionary War, and a housewright in Salem. 

But, just two doors down (according to the 1810 census) Abijah, Jr. lived with his family.  He was a carpenter and a shipwright, and only married once. His first child was named Abijah Hitchings III, but he died young and they named their seventh child (out of eleven!) Abijah Hitchings in 1809 (my 3rd great grandfather).  Rev. Bentley also visited this family very often, and mentioned the visits in his diaries. When he died in 1868 he was the oldest man in Salem. 

Any guesses on who owned the lost cow?

For the truly curious:

Surname Saturday - My HITCHINGS lineage:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/10/surname-saturday-hitchings-of-lynn.html   

A blog post about Rev. Bentley's diary and the Hitchings family in Salem:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/09/amanuensis-monday-excepts-from-rev.html  

Click here to read all my blog posts that mention COWS!  LOL!    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/cows

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Abijah Hitchings' Cow in 1799 - But which Abijah Hitching was it?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 23, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/04/abijah-hitchings-cow-in-1799-but-which.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Odiorne Family, from the Odiorne Burial Ground, Rye, New Hampshire

 These tombstones were photographed at the Wallis-Odiorne Burial Ground on Bracket Road in Rye, New Hampshire.  Most of the inscriptions are legible, but unfortunately the smaller poetry epitaphs are mostly illegible. 

WILLIAM S. ODIORNE

DIED

Nov. 4, 1869

Aged 72 yrs, 1 mo. &

8 days.

???? [illegible]

MARY T.

wife of Wm S. Odiorne,

DIED

April 7, 1867,

Aged 66 yrs, 3 mos.

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Dearest Mother thou hast left us

and thy loss we deeply feel;

But 'tis God that has bereft us,

He can all our sorrows heal.

She sleeps in Jesus and is blest,

???? her slumber may

??? suffering and from sin released

And freed from every ???

TRUMAN S. ODIORNE

DIED

Dec. 3, 1831,

Aged 57 yrs, 2 mos.

-------------

???[illegible]

MOTHER

MARY O.

wife of

Trueman S. Odiorne

DIED

Aug. 16, 1894

AEt. 56 yrs,11 mos

12 days

?????[illegible]

William Seavey Odiorne was born 26 September 1797 in Rye, New Hampshire, the son of Ebenezer Odiorne and Mary Seavey.  He married Mary T. Amazeen on 9 July 1823. She was the daughter of Ephraim Amazeen and Hannah Tarleton.  The Amazeen family goes back in time to the immigrant John Amazeen, who was described as "John Amazeen, an Italian" by Charles Brewer, a Portsmouth historian. William and Mary Odiorne had nine children, and some are buried here in this burial ground.

Truman Seavey Odiorne is the oldest child of William and Mary.  He was born in 1822 in Rye, and married Mary Olive Moulton, the daughter of Joseph Moulton and Lydia Marston on 23 April 1864 in Rye.  She was born in 1837 and died 16 august 1894 in Rye. They had five children: William Wallace b. 11 Sept. 1864; Jonathan Everett b. 18 July 1866; Lydia Ann b. 13 Aug. 1869; Charlotte Seavey b. 3 August 1872; and Mary Amazeen b. 12 Dec. 1873. 

I am an Odiorne descendant, and William Seavey Odiorne is my 4th cousin, 5 generations removed.   Our common ancestor is the immigrant John Odiorne, born about 1625 in Shevlock, Cornwall, England and died 1707 in New Castle, New Hampshire. John Odiorne's parents and siblings first lived on the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth, and were later granted land at Great Island, now known as New Castle.  John later purchased the land that is now Odiorne State Park in Rye.  

For the truly curious:

"Surname Saturday - Odiorne" a blog post from 5 November 2011

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/11/surname-saturday-odiorne.html  

Find A Grave, Truman Seavey Odiorne:   https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182148226/truman_seavey_odiorne   

Portsmouth Athenaeum, Truman Seavey Odiorne:     https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/182148226/truman_seavey_odiorne 

Also, a sketch on John Amazeen "an Italian?"   http://kristinhall.org/fambly/Amazeen/JohnAmazeen.html 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Odiorne Family, from the Odiorne Burial Ground, Rye, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 16, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-odiorne-family-from-odiorne-burial.html: accessed [access date]). 

Reverend Ebenezer Coffin, died 1816 Newbury, Massachusetts for Tombstone Tuesday

 This tombstone was photographed at the First Parish Burial Ground in Newbury, Massachusetts.

In memory of

EBENEZER COFFIN, A.M.

aged 45

Faith, hope and Charity

His soul possesses the three.

Erected by his son

Robert Stevenson Coffin

1826

Ebenezer Coffin was born 15 February 1769 in Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of Reverend Joshua Coffin and Sarah Bartlett. He went to Harvard College, and graduated in 1789. He was ordained as a Congregational pastor at the church in Brunswick, Maine in 1792.   Ebenezer married Mary Newhall on 25 September 1793 in Brunswick. She was the daughter of Samuel Newhall and Elizabeth Sprague of Newburyport. They had five children born in Brunswick and removed back to Newbury in 1802 where he was the school teacher.  Ebenezer died on 26 January 1816.  

Robert Stevenson Coffin was the second child of Rev. Ebenezer Coffin.  He was born in Brunswick and when the family relocated to Newbury he was apprenticed to a printer. During the War of 1812 he was a sailor aboard a ship that was captured by the British and the entire crew was imprisoned, and later released. He worked at a printer in Boston and in Philadelphia. He was a poet known as the "Boston Bard", but later became "intemperate" and died in Rowley, Massachusetts in 1827.  Robert Stevenson Coffin never married. 

Ebenezer Coffin's other children were Newhall, Eloisa, Horace, and Cazneau Bayley, who died in September 1826 when struck by lightning on the ship Hogart off the coast of Texas.   

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Reverend Ebenezer Coffin, died 1816 Newbury, Massachusetts for Tombstone Tuesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 9, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/04/reverend-ebenezer-coffin-died-1816.html: accessed [access date]). 

Margaret Muzzey, died 1787 in Newbury, Massachusetts

 

THIS

Mournfull Stone is

Erected to ye Memory of

Miss Margaret Muzzey

the only Child of Mr. Joseph

and Mrs Lydia Muzzey

who after a long & painfull

sickness which she bore with

Unexampled patience

Exchanged this Mortal for an

immortal state Decr. ye 8th

1787 In the 23rd year of

her age.

What tho this body turns to dust

It can't disturb my rest

May I but dwell with Christ above

To be for ever blest. 

Margaret Muzzy, born 12 January 1765 in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, and died 18 December 1787 in Newbury, was buried at the First Parish Burial Ground in Newbury.  She was the daughter of Joseph Muzzey (1731 - 1801) and Lydia Stickney (1733 - 1799) married on 26 May 1756 in Newbury.  

We often think that the Puritans, who lost so many babies to childhood diseases, were cold hearted and stoic.  This tombstone shows two parents mourning the loss of an only child.  It is an example of how our assumptions are wrong, and the parents of the eighteenth century were just like us today. 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Margaret Muzzey, died 1787 in Newbury, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 2, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/04/margaret-muzzey-died-1787-in-newbury.html: accessed [access date]). 

Millie the Mill Girl of Manchester, New Hampshire - An Update

More than a year ago I reported that the city of Manchester, New Hampshire was rennovating "Millie", the statue that honors generations of mill girls who toiled in the textile mills along the Merrimack River.  You can read that blog story HERE.   I'm happy to report that the restoration project finished several months ago, but I never had a chance over the winter to take new photographs.  You can see the finished project now below!

THE MILL GIRL

She stands here for thousands

of 19th century working women

Industrial Revolutionaries who broke

with the past to earn their living,

making history and creating the future.

In 1880 one third of Manchester's population,

3385 women, worked in the textile mills of

the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, situated

below along the banks of the Merrimack River.

Sculptress:

Antoinette Schultze

Funding for this public art project

was made possible by gifts from

Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation

and 

Samuel P. Hunt Foundation

Dedicated September 9, 1988

Presented by the City of Manchester Parks and Recreation Commission

and

Manchester Art Commission

For the truly curious:

My blog post from August 2022 about the rennovation of Millie:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2022/08/millie-in-millyard-manchester-new.html   

A blog post from 2012 about Millie the statue:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/millie-mill-girl-of-manchester-new.html     

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoskeag_Manufacturing_Company  

"Mill Girl makeover: New accessible surroundings for historic city landmark", Manchester Ink Link, July 26, 2023   https://manchesterinklink.com/mill-girl-makeover-new-accessible-surroundings-for-historic-city-landmark/  

"Mill Girl Plaza in Manchester unveils accessibility additions", WMUR TV, July 26, 2023  https://www.wmur.com/article/mill-girl-plaza-manchester-accessibility-additions/44655616        

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Millie the Mill Girl of Manchester, New Hampshire - An Update", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 25, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/03/millie-mill-girl-of-manchester-new.html: accessed [access date]). 

Votes for Women! The White Farm in Concord, New Hampshire

 

National Votes for Women Trail

Road to the 19th Amendment

Home of Armenia S. and 

Nathaniel White, social

reformers and founders

of New Hampshire Woman

Suffrage Association 1868.

William C. Pomeroy Foundation 2022

                                            Learn more at

                                    nvwt.org

View of the entrance to White Farm

We recently visited the White Farm in Concord, New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Surplus store, which is open on Mondays. This is a fun place to find all sorts of office equipment and government supplies, and to also find bins full of items confiscated by the TSA agents at airports (pocket knives, electronics, snow globes, baseball bats, tools, etc.) as well as things abandoned at airports (books, water bottles, wheelchairs, leg braces, glasses, and other oddities).  I noticed a new sign in front of the entrance, or rather a new sign to me since the pandemic.  I was excited to read about the family that once lived here, but I also wanted to learn more about the sign.  Who was the NVWT?  What was this "National Votes for Women Trail"? What is the William C. Pomeroy Foundation? 

First I tackled the White family.  I googled and searched for more information on Armeia S. and Nathaniel White.  This property on Clinton Street was their dairy farm, but they also had a fine mansion downtown, and White Park is named for them. 

Armenia Smith Aldrich (November 1, 1817 - May 7, 1916) was born in Mendon, Massachusetts to John Aldrich and Harriet Smith.  If you are interested in her ancestry, read the "Cow Hampshire" or the Wikipedia articles listed below. She was descended from many colonial families, including Edward Doty, Francis Cooke, and Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower.  She married Nathaniel White and lived in Concord, where Nathaniel had a stage coach business.  Armenia was very interested in reform and progressive movements, including abolition, sufferage, and temperance.  She was elected the first president of the NH Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the first president of the NH Woman Suffrage Association. 

Nathaniel White (February 7, 1811 - October 2, 1880) owned a stage coach business, and later a railroad entrepreneur.  He was also interested in progressive ideas and was instrumental in the NH Asylum for the Insane (just down the road from his farm), the NH State Reform School, the Orphanage in Franklin, and the Home for the Aged in Concord.  His farm was originally over 400 acres. He served in the NH state legislature, and ran for governor in 1875 for the Prohibition Party. 

Children of Armeia and Nathaniel White:

1. John A (1838 - 1899)

2. Armenia E. (b. 1847 and married Horatio Hobbs)

3. Lizzie H. (b. 1849 and married Charles H. Newhall)

4. Annie F. (1852 - 1865)

5. Nathaniel, Jr. (1855 - 1904)

6. Selden F. (b. 1857 and died young)

7. Benjamin C. (b. 1861)

In researching this signpost, I learned about the National Votes for Women Trail, which is part of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites.  The link below has an interactive map with over two thousand sites.  Many of these sites are in New England, and many of those are in New Hampshire!  Who knew? 

The signpost also mentions the William C. Pomeroy Foundation, which helps "communities celebrate and preserve their history" according to their website (see the link below).  Their signage program began in 2006 to place historical markers in NY state. Then the foundation expanded across the country with grants for historical markers in 48 states.  

For the truly curious:

"Cow Hampshire" blog article on Armenia White:  https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2015/03/24/new-hampshires-leading-suffragist-civil-leader-and-philanthropist-armenia-s-aldrich-white-1817-1916/  

Armeia S. White Wikipedia article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia_S._White  

Nathaniel White Wikipedia article:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_White_(businessman)  

NH Historical Society on Armenia White  https://www.nhhistory.org/object/313471/white-armenia-s-1817-1916   

NH Surplus - White Farm, 144 Clinton Street, Concord, NH     https://www.das.nh.gov/purchasing/white-farm.aspx   

NH Women's Foundation article on this historical marker:   https://nhwomensfoundation.org/2022/08/11/armenia-white-marker-added-to-the-new-hampshire-womens-heritage-trail/  

The National Votes for Women Trail: https://ncwhs.org/votes-for-women-trail/   

The William C. Pomeroy Foundation:  https://www.wgpfoundation.org/    

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Votes for Women!  The White Farm in Concord, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 18, 2024, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2024/03/votes-for-women-white-farm-in-concord.html: accessed [access date]).