Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Old Darned Man.   How many know the tale of this man who on the morning that he was to be married he attired himself for the wedding, and then received a message that his affianced had died.     His name was Addison Thompson and he came from the western part of New York.  After the death of his fiancee he wandered from his home in New York state to the sea that led across Connecticut, northern Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts.   And then he would immediately retrace his steps.  He did that twice every year so the story goes.  And he always wore his wedding suit.   And he kept mending it year after year.  So became known and called "The Old Darned Man."  He would stop at houses along his way and ask those who treated him kindly for the only articles he ever solicited, a needle and thread or yarn with which to mend his clothes.  Then he would take off his coat, sit down in the house, or sometimes on a bench in the dooryard, where the light was better, and with trembling fingers darn the well-worn garment with tenderest care.  He never asked or permitted others to do this work for him, but always chose to perform it himself. 

As the years rolled on, the repairs to which his garments were subjected so altered and covered the original suit that little of it remained intact.  Every fragment torn off was fastened on again with sedulous care.  At last the wedding suit was darned in every part with thread and yarn of many colors.

There have been many stories written about him by different people over the years who knew him or their parents or grandparents had known him.   And this latest batch were in the March and April 1899 issues of the Windham County Transcript.

Elisha Anderson, Danielson, Conn. writes on 13 Mar. 1899:  "He called at my house for the last time in November 1863, thirty-five years ago, and on the following afternoon I was passing with two yoke of oxen and a loaded wagon on the Snake Meadow road about forty rods from the Rhode Island line, west in Connecticut, in the town of Sterling, when I heard someone call "stranger," from the roadside; it being dusk could not see plainly, but on discovering who is was found the "Darned Man" in a dying condition.  I picked him up in my arms and started for my house which was a mile distant, but before reaching there he passed away peacefully and without a struggle.  I gently laid him down and went immediately and notified the Second Selectman, Jerome Madison, who lived not far; we then carried the body into a little house near by until the next day.  He was then taken to Mr. Madison's house and kept two days.  He was then put into a good coffin and box and in the company of the First Selectman, Wheaton Wood, and the Second Selectman, Jerome Madison, I took the remains in my wagon to the cemetery called "The Plains" in Oneco for burial, and after lowering the body to its last resting place I filled the grave with earth."

I am the only survivor that positively knows the sad fate of the "Old Darned Man."




Sunday, January 29, 2012

When we were putting the Civil War Book, Dear Transcript, together a few years ago, I thought that all those letters, etc. in the papers during those years, would be all their ever was.  But I was wrong.   As I have been going through later papers I have found information on some of our men who fought, and sometimes a letter that had never been seen before.  So, have made copies of them and put them in the Civil War file.  Whether I will ever do anything with them remains to be seen, but at least they are in one place.

The trolley that came through this area in 1902 has generated a lot of interest lately.   A couple of our members have wonderful collections of photo's and articles about the trolley and hopefully one day they will get it all published.   When my Mom was in the nursing home with Alzheimers and had gotten to the point where she thought I was an older sister, there was very little to talk to her about.   But she did talk about the jitney  (trolley) that she took to go to high school.  That got me to thinking about how children got to school in the late 1800's.  Most of them walked because there were the small district schools, but some were "bussed" if they had to go out of their area.   These were wagons that someone would fix up into a vehicle that could carry a large number of passengers.  When I was in school in the mid '40's and through the '50's, I walked about 3/4 of a mile to the two room school house on the hill.  Then when I started third grade there were too many children in that room of grades 1 through 3, and the decision was made to send 6 or 7 of us to the "big" school which meant we had to take a bus.   I had to walk to the bus rain or shine, but that didn't really bother me.   It was an adventure to go to the "big" school, meet all those new kids and I can say for me it was a good thing.   There were 2 buses to take children to school.   And it meant that the primary school children went the same time as the high school children.   I thought it was wonderful that we had at least an hour to play outside.   No waiting inside for us.   And there was no "late" bus.  If you missed the bus, you missed the bus.   And you walked home!   Not a hardship, as we walked all over the place in those days.  

The two bus drivers were brothers, and ours was kind of cranky, whereas the other one was jolly and everyone liked him.   Once in awhile I got to ride on his bus and it was a treat.   And in those days the bus was very crowded.   We managed to get three in a seat when we were little but by the time we got to high school with the big full skirts we wore with the stiff petticoats under them, it was tough.   And there were many who stood in the aisle.   We never thought a thing about it, it was just the way it was.   No one ever got hurt as you hung on to the seat near you.

And no book bags!  We carried those heavy books in one arm every day and it made us strong!  

Would love to hear from others who grew up in the '40's and '50's.  



Friday, January 27, 2012

I received a box of "goodies" from a friend today, consisting of many, many old newspaper items that she has come across in her research, along with vitals from the internet.    It will be such fun to go curl up by the wood stove and read thru them after supper tonight.

I think of all the records on the internet I treasure the old papers the most.   And she has access to different ones than I do.   Old papers are interesting reading and there was nothing "alledged" in the articles.   Either you did something or you didn't.  They spoke honestly and told the whole story, in some cases being very graphic in a murder account or some other horrible accident.   But you didn't have to read between the lines to know that they were saying.   It was all there.  Honesty!   And of course, when they began to have correspondents from local areas then lots of news came in that the paper would not have even looked for.   In fact, that is where I have found a lot of my deaths/obits in the old papers.   Some weddings were written up and others were just a notice.  Births were not really put in the papers until 1880's and up, and then not steady.  Even in the 1900's in which I am working now, the births are mostly in the correspondents columns.   I love the way they will tell of a birth.   Something like "a stranger came to visit this family and they decided to let him stay."    And other funny ways of announcing a birth.   Not often that they would tell the child's name, although it did happen.   Mostly they loved to put in the weight of the baby.  And they had BIG babies. Ten and 11 pounds was not uncommon and have even seen 12.

Speaking of a babies weight.   Last night I found an interesting story in the May 6, 1909 paper about a couple being the grandparents of the "littlest girl in the world."  The little one was born April 6, 1909 and it was thought because of her diminutive size she could not live long, but little Flora has thrived wonderfully.  She now weighs one pound 14 ounces.  She takes nourishment in the form of modified milk--one drop at a time from the tip of a dropper.

I would love to know if the little one did thrive and grow up.   Maybe there will be something in a later paper.  

Have a co-worker who chuckles every time he sees in the old paper about someone who is very, very sick and not expected to live.     He says, how would you like to see that in the paper about yourself?   But then again, being very sick, they would probably not be reading the paper.   But we have to remember that newspapers were the way people kept up with others in the community.  They truly were full of news, local and regional and then from afar.

Hope you like these postings.   Trying to write things of interest.   If you like them let me know.














Thursday, January 26, 2012

Been busy today with researching for people.   The first one I worked on did not record very much in town records, no vitals, 1 church record, no land records, no probate, and no gravestones.   Hmmmmmmm...  makes it very difficult.  But the one thing that I found, was the will of the father-in-law, and he named his daughter as deceased and then went on to name all her children.  So that is very good.

The other research I am doing is worse.   You know when you have too many people in the same town with the same names it is difficult to separate them.   Finding the ancestry of the person was easy enough as someone had put some things in the family file on them and we also have records to prove it.   Now it's to prove the line to the next generation and that is not coming out as the client has it.    So, I believe someone has made a mistake, but will think on this a bit and see if I can come up with any solutions other than land records.  

That reminds me of the time when someone wanted me to prove that the Warren ancestry of his wife found in an old book (early 1900's) on Richard Warren of the Mayflower was correct.  So, I got to work on it.   Sad to say it did not prove back to Richard Warren of the Mayflower but to Arthur Warren instead.   Over the years new records had been found and I found a number of very good published articles on this.  They were not happy with my findings at all! 

It is always good to check the information found in genealogies as we can all make mistakes.   Which brings us to information on the "net."   There are many original records on the internet and it wonderful to have access to them.   But there are also many records that were put on by people working on their family trees.  These must always be verified with original records, but all too often someone looking for answers find what others have done and thinking it is correct puts it in their family tree.   It would be so much better to list sources with everything that is put out there.  

In the course of working on someones family tree I found information on the net on the exact same individual and it gave the wife of the man as Ann Williams and said where she was from.   I checked it out and Ann turned out to be a widow Ann Williams so if the person used that Williams name it was incorrect.

Time to end this rambling.   



Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Been thinking this morning about all this technology that has been taking over our lives.   I think some of it is great, but I think there are many pitfalls, and we had best be aware of them.  

This whole movement toward being a paperless society.   I believe we need the printed word, because as with all technology, they upgrade, make new versions and then we can't access the information on the old technology.   I have first hand knowledge of that.   You buy a CD with genealogical information on it.   But it doesn't work on a newer computer.  So, unless you know someone who knows how to access it, the CD is worthless and you have just lost all that information you paid good money for.  Same for any other fancy technological device.  

But books are around forever.   And what a pleasure it is to hold a book in your hand.

So you can tell I'm not a kid, eh?    

Jan. 24th, 8:30 p. m.  Decided to write a little bit tonight.   Spent a lot of the day at the historical society inventorying things that have come in this month.   A number of scrap books, and lots of pictures, some in frames and some not.   Will finish up with that tomorrow and then go on to some other good things.   Seeing as we are open tomorrow it might be too busy for me to work on my death project from the newspapers.  Will see.

The deaths from the newspaper:  The time frame is 1848 into 1899.  And trying to find out where these people are buried.  When I do I type in the cemetery.  But there are many either with no stones (or the stones are gone) or just have not found what town they may be buried in.  In 1885 Sexton (or burial) records were required to be kept by the towns.   But before that if the person did not have a stone it is very difficult to find out where they are buried.  The paper sometimes gives that information which adds another plus. 

Before I started this project I didn't think of how difficult it can be to find someones death place if they are buried in a town other than where they died.   So, you know the place of burial as they have a gravestone but there is no record of death at the town hall.   Or you do have the death record but it does not say where the person was buried.   By working on these deaths/obits I am trying to fill the gap in town records and help everyone.

Enough for tonight.   Welcome any comments.





Monday, January 23, 2012

Research Thoughts

I think I am just going to put some thoughts on what I have been doing with old newspapers that I am fortunate enough to have access to.   For 6 years I have been typing up the businesses from them and also storms, fires, buildings, streets, anything of interest.   When I get a year done I put it in book form.

I am working on the 1909 papers now.  Started with 1848, 6 years ago.
This is a Conn. paper by the way.  Many people have loved to read thru them especially if they are looking for a certain topic..  for instance trolleys, or for a family name..  we find out local things that no one would know any other way.

Because I have a death database from the papers and want it as complete as possible I have been going back over them and finding the ones I missed.  But found other things that I was not paying attention to the first time.   Found that the church steeple had come down in 1876 besides during the 1938 hurricane.   So, it's fun and I love learning
history.

2nd rant

This is my 2nd rant, I think I will learn this but I am sure I need to practice and get used to any input I can get from anybody that might be willing to share their thoughts on this blog.

1st rant

This is really hard for me.
Please bear with me while I figure out what I am doing and prepare to share with you my worldly knowledge of the civil war and stuff...