Labor Day

129 years ago today, the first big Labor Day was celebrated in New York in Union Square. Twelve years later, it became a federal holiday. The idea was to show appreciation for the contributions made by workers in this country. In honor of this holiday, I thought I'd write about what my ancestors did for a living.

Slave ship

MASTERMAN
Marmaduke Masterman (1731-1759) was a sea captain, and died on his ship, the snow "Caesar." His ship was owned by a Boston merchant and used in the slave trade. (I promise to write about this one day soon.)


Marmaduke's son James (1759-1842) never met his father, but also felt the draw of the sea. After the Revolution started, he joined the army, served as a cook and then as a sailor. After the war, he continued in that vein, traveling the world and even surviving as a castaway adrift at sea for over 2 weeks! After starting a family, he moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to Maine and lived out his days farming there.

Bringing in wheat

His son, James Jr. (1783-1865) was a farmer as was his son, James Jr. 2nd (1807-1888). Their wives were from farming families as well. My great-great grandfather, Chesman (1849-1924), son of James Jr. 2nd, worked on the family farm until becoming a miller in Weld, ME after his marriage. (In the early 1800's, wheat brought $2 a bushel and flour $6 per 100 lbs.)

Wheat threshing

By 1900, Chesman had moved his family to Framingham, Mass. where he founded the C. Masterman and Son Market. It was a butcher shop and grocery store. His son Filmore also worked there and eventually took over until his retirement, when he sold it.

Masterman Market

Filmore's son, Vernon (1904-1993) was my grandfather. His mother was a teacher and gave him the incentive to go to college, without support from his father. With the help of relatives, Vernon graduated with honors from MIT as a mechanical engineer. He travelled the world, working on refrigeration, climate control and nuclear test facilities, including the then-secret Manhattan Project.

Jennie the teacher

Vernon's mother, Jennie McMonagle (1879-1920) was a Canadian native, and descended from prominent farmers and teachers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Her mother's father was a carpenter.


PETERSON

Typical interior of Swedish farmhouse

My Swedish & Danish roots on my paternal grandmother's side were mostly farmers, the Danish ones quite well-to-do dairy farmers whose daughter married a farm hand, much to their chagrin! The happy couple were set up on their own place 3 times, and each time the husband gambled it away. They later moved to Sweden, where he worked at a paper mill (and suffered a horrendous burn) before moving to the US and supervising a paint factory. 

Swedish farm

My great-grandfather, Frederick Peterson (1877-1931),  came with his parents and siblings to the US in 1894 and was a career fireman for the town of Everett, Mass. and pictured below.

The Swedes were farmers and/or farm hands with a few soldiers thrown in. One was listed as a "rusthållare" - land owner that is obligated to provide for soldiers.


CATERSON

 

Antique canes (left) and my great-grandparents (right)

My mother's paternal side had a few self-made businessmen. The first to arrive in Philadelphia from Ireland was James Caterson (1821-1876), a laborer, and his wife and 2 sons, in 1866. His son I am descended from was James S. Caterson, Sr. (1845-1916) who is listed as a wood turner. With his brother, he founded a very successful umbrella stick & cane manufacturing company. His son, James, Jr. (1881-1950) was a real estate and stock market speculator - making and sometimes losing tons of money. My grandfather, James 3rd, (1904-1996) attended the Wharton School, was an executive with Gulf Oil and played the stock market.

 

Sailmaker's vise

Victorian perfume bottles

James Jr's  wife was the daughter of a modest sail and tent maker whose father served jail time for counterfeiting while working as an auction house clerk. Her mother was the daughter of a plasterer whose father was first a constable, then a wealthy perfumer and property owner, all in Philadelphia.

Cousin in Germany with his oxcart - his son is still farming ancestral lands

Beer Wagon

On my mother's maternal side, we have farmers going back to the 1600's in Wuerttemberg, Germany. The first to come to the US, Joseph Enz (1860-1941), was my great-great grandfather. He worked for Schmidt's Brewery driving a beer delivery wagon. After retirement, he worked as a night watchman. His daughter Mae, my great-grandmother, married an insurance clerk from London first, then a police detective. 

Typical WW1 British Sgt. Major uniform

The clerk Arthur Cousins (1882-1949) was descended from grandparents that were a stone mason, tobaccinist, china & glass dealer and company clerk. Arthur also served in Paris as a translator with the rank of Sgt. Major during the first World War for the British Army.

I'll try to find time for the Ingles side of the family soon :-)

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Special Names

Yesterday was my son's 28th birthday. Besides making me feel old, it also makes me nostalgic. (I'm such a sap!)

I named my son James Culotta Ingles after his father's maternal grandfather, who's name in Italian is something like Giovanmario Guglielmo Culotta.( I think his mother's surname  de Liberto was in there somewhere too.) We called him "Nano."

The photo above is his wedding day, pictured with his parents.

I haven't ventured very much into Italian research yet, but I know a few generations of Nano's family.

So this James Culotta was born Sept. 10, 1907 in Baltimore, the son of Ferdinando "Frank" Culotta and Concetta Teresa Liberto, photo abovee. Frank had emigrated from Sicily in 1890, she in 1896 and were married in Baltimore in 1898.

They had 7 children, but lost a son, Joseph, in May of 1908 when he was hit by a streetcar, pictured above. At the time, Frank owned a saloon and was very active in local politics.

In 1914, Nano and his family returned to Cefalu, Italy for a short time, I believe to handle some family business there. I remember Nano telling a story about swimming in the ocean and drowning, only to awake on the beach in the arms of a man he had never seen, and never saw again.

Cefalu

They came back from Italy around 1920 and continued to run a saloon/lunchroom. Nano later worked there with his brother for many years on the lunchroom side while his brother worked the bar side. They were the only place in town that served blacks and whites side by side. It was located at Pratt & Light.

Nano married Marie Kohlerman on October 19, 1930, they had five girls and just one son, Jimmy. When Jimmy was 19, he was hit by a bus and killed in Baltimore City. So tragic. That's why I named my son James Culotta, to carry on the name in a way.

Nano died in January, 1988, two years after his wife. He was a really special man and I miss him.

Easter 1957

I'm looking forward to getting this Italian side more fleshed out, but am more concentrating on US for now. Stay tuned!

St. Michael's

I spent a day last week in the historic town of St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As a kid, my family sailed there many times. During the 70's, this town was nothing like it is today....the big attraction then was The Crab Claw Restaurant and the little Maritime Museum.

Today, the town is full of beautifully restored houses lined neatly along the streets, dotted with antique stores, B&Bs, and cute shops. And the Maritime Museum is huge, taking up several large buildings. Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfeld both own large estates there.

Founded in the mid 1660s, it was a trading post for tobacco farmers and fur trappers. It was laid out as a town in 1778, many of the houses date from this period. From the 1800s through early 1900s, it was a seafood processing/packing and shipbuilding town.

During the War of 1812, St. Michaels became known as "the town that fooled the British." Notified of an impending attack, they hung lanterns high in the trees, causing the Brits to aim their cannons over the rooftops thereby missing their homes!

St. Michaels figures prominently in my kids' family history as the home of the Marshall/Coffin/McMahan families. Their great- great-great-grandmother, Caroline T. Marshall, was born there in 1826. She was the daughter of Greenbury and Hester Ann (Cockey) Marshall, both born in that same county and married in 1817.

Caroline married Obed M. Coffin of Nantucket and had 7 children, including one set of twin boys. Obed died in 1865, leaving Caroline a widow. You can read the story of his death HERE.

The Marshall/Coffin families were sailors, shipbuilders and oystermen for the most part, as were most of the men of St Michaels. Caroline & Obed's son, Greenbury Marshall Coffin (1854-1932) made quite a name for himself as the builder of competitive racing log canoes, including the "Belle M. Crane," the canoe to beat for many, many years at the races. HERE is an article about a model made of the famous canoe.

Belle M. Crane

There are some Baltimore Sun articles from the 1890's about Greenbury's boats HERE  - click on the "+" sign to enlarge. The Belle raced into the 1920's.

We hunted through the Museum to find the model pictured in that magazine article, but didn't see it. But we did come across a silver cup trophy, won by Greenbury Marshall Jr. (uncle of Greenbury Coffin) that he won at the first canoe boat race on the Miles River ever held in 1859!

From what we saw in the canoe displays there, these races were wild! And highly competitive.

I had visited there last in 1989 or so, finding Caroline and a few of her children's graves at St. Lukes Church, formerly known as Sardis Chapel, located on the square in St. Michaels. We perused the church records there, finding an entry where, in 1869 Green Coffin was dropped from the rolls for "walking disorderly." (What??!)  They also showed us a subscription quilt, used for fundraising, that included William Coffin's signature (one of Caroline's sons) in addition to hundreds of other signatures of members.

Sardis Chapel 1813

St. Lukes today, formerly Sardis

Subscription Quilt

William Coffin's signature (just above crease to left of flower)

Another Letter to Germany - 1891

Here is another of the "Boomerang Letters" from Philadelphia to Drackenstein, Germany (above) that found their way back here via my 3rd cousins. This one is maybe from my great-great grandfather Joseph Enz' sister Christine (Enz) Wagner to her mother. There's a reference to a different surname, but she mentions 5 names that are Christine's siblings. The more I look at it, I think the name is Tochtermann, of which there were some in Phila in this period. Perhaps a cousin of our Enz family. 

{Page 1}                                                                                                      Philadelphia, Decb 8, 1891

Dear mother a. siblings,

We received your last letter a. we were very happy that we received a letter from you again. My dear mother how are you doing, how I read in your letter, you do not see much anymore a. you have been sick, too, but I hope with God’s help we still will have a mother for many years. Dear mother you must not worry a. cry, your children in America have it nice a. everyone is in good health thank God. Dear mother, brother Storr’s son is in America again but he did not come to Philadephia[sic] he probably is in Broklin[sic], did you give him pills, it is better if you refrain from it, we

{Page 2} 

do not get any anyway like you never received the watch from Joseph a. the half dollar, he has both the watch a. the money a. at Joseph’s, where he was most recently, he said goodbye and took the train right away. That is a Wiesensteiger episode, it looks like them. Dear mother, when you send Sophie the money, so send it directly to her. She will put it in the bank under her name. You should have sent him a quite rough letter the Lemmek a. Brusbuben when he does not know the people a. write official on it you do not have anything in writing if it is really your Tahtermann[1], and besides you can keep it as long as you want. His mother must be angry, too, she does not write him anymore. We did not know anything of this until you told us in your letter.

{Page 3}

Dear mother I will soon send you my family portrait I meant to send it for Christmas. But it is too late now, maybe until New Year’s or Epiphany[2]. Dear mother Gertrud bought a house it only cost 1300 Thaler[3] it has 4 rooms it is not far away from Mina’s. The notes of the five rosaries delighted us but most of the prayers we knew already. The children prayed for the poor souls the whole month. Please greet the little boy warmly a. anybody who asks for us. Dear mother a. siblings it is always nice weather here no snow, we have nice fall days. We have must in the basement 4 barrels, one barrel has 50 gallons, 1 gallon has 4 liter according to German measure.   

{Page 4}

The gallon cost 10 cents we also have apples in the basement and potatoes the potatoes a. the apples cost 50 to 60 cents per bushel a little more than in the summer. Dear mother now I want to tell you about my business. On Mondays I do laundry for someone else, already for three years, I receive ¾ Thaler or 5 cents a. good food a. drink a. I am done at 2. Tuesdays I do the laundry for ourselves, Wednesdays I iron, Thursdays a. Fridays I sow, there is always something to mend a. new clothes for the children all the time. On Saturdays I clean. My dear mother a. siblings I wish you a merry Christmas a. and a happy New Year God’s blessing a. that you will live in peace for many years to come. Greetings a. kisses, your loving daughter Christine Tahtermann a. the children. 

How is Marie, is she better again. Engelbert are you in good health a. your family, too, farewell goodbye.

Side sentence: Write as soon as you have my picture. Farewell.

---

[1] The surname Christine uses at the end of the letter after her name.

[2] January 6

[3] The Thaler is an old German currency, which was used until ca 1907. 

How interesting to find out the cost of her sister Gertrude's home .

I looked up Weisensteig and it is famous for witch trials that took place from 1562-3. Apparently, the head of the town blamed a severe hailstorm & epidemic on witches, burning 63 women he accused. Nice.

The "must" she refers to is a homemade grape wine. It includes the skins etc for flavor.

This is a photo of German & Austrian Thalers.

Brick Walls of Philadelphia

I must admit to disliking research in Pennsylvania...records are everywhere and it's hard to figure out what to look for where. I blame it on it being a commonwealth, so much is still kept at the county or township level...Grrrr!  Maybe I'm just spoiled by Maryland. Go to the state archives and BINGO!! It's all there! County records, Baltimore City records, churches, criminal, courts, land, etc etc.

So my mom's danged Philadelphians drive me nuts, not only for their chosen city, but these were not close-knit families in recent generations. Lots of mysteries, lots of brick walls. (Thank goodness for the Philly records on the LDS website - found a lot of death & marriage records there.)

One brick wall was my great great grandmother's parents. Her name was Pauline Phillips, she was born in 1851, married Melvin Hopkins in 1872 in Philadelphia, and died in 1949. Her death certificate said her father was named Joseph, and back when I started this search, I looked everywhere for him to no avail. Census, city directories, cemeteries, no luck. I even went to Philly.

This past year, I renewed my search, using online records and starting with the census. The earliest census I found her in was 1860 living with a Margaret & Richard Phillips both 60, his occupation listed as perfumer, a Mary, age 25, Pauline age 9, Charles age 6 and Joseph age 5. No relationships are given, but it seemed unlikely the Mary would be the mother of a 9 year old, so I figured she was Richard's daughter and the younger ones, his grandchildren. (Never found Richard or Margaret in the 1850 Census, which is weird, since their kids were all born in PA.)

After 1860, Richard was gone from the census and gone from the city directory after 1861. Margaret was in 1870 Census with Pauline, 18 and Joseph, age 16. In 1880, Margaret 84, grandmother, with Joseph, 23,  as her grandson. (He is listed as an umbrella maker, so if he worked in my other great great grandfather's business, that may be how my great grandmother met my great grandfather, the business owner's son!)

I searched newspapers for obits and found a legal notice for Richard's estate and a death notice for a William, son of Richard & Margaret, both in 1861. I found all three death certificates at LDS too, with burial sites, cause of death, age and address, which all jived with what else I had. Sweet!

Richard Death Cert

Margaret Death Cert

BUT, I still didn't know who or where Pauline's parents were! I assumed they died before 1860, and since Richard died in '61, hoped to locate a family plot where he was buried.His death certificate said he was  buried 6th Street Union Cemetery, which subsequently closed and the bodies relocated. (I've tried all the possibilities and have yet to find him.)  His son William was buried at New Philadelphia Cemetery, another tough one to track down. Margaret was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery, but died so much later I don't hold out much hope when I finally receive their records.

I even ordered Joseph's death certificate hoping that his father's name would be listed on it. But apparently his wife did not know his parents names when she filled out the death certificate. He was buried at Mount Peace cemetery, for which I am also awaiting records.

Seeing how I had hit a dead end, I decided to send away to the Register of Wills in Philadelphia for Richards estate records. He was a man of some means, as the 1860 census lists his real estate property value at $20,000. I was hoping against hope that he had a will or at least an administration on record.

  

About a month later I got a response from the register of wills with an amount due for copies and I quickly sent off the $12 check, very excited to get the results! Within a week I had the copy of Richard's will in my hands! And what a gold mine of information it was! You can see the whole file HERE. Both his and his wife's signatures are on it, plus a cool inventory of one of his properties.

He listed not only all of his properties, but also his sons' and daughter's names. His daughter was Mary Jane Carpenter, wife of J. C. Carpenter, his son William B. Phillips, another  son J. Wills Phillips and the best news of all, the grandchildren of his deceased son Charles R. Phillips!!! Woo hoo !!

What is really amazing is that Richard wrote this will in such detail just one day before he died.

I ran right to the census looking for Mary Jane, .J. Wills and Charles to see what info I could dig up. (I already knew where William was). I found Charles age 20,  in the  1852 & 1854 city directory and the 1850 census with the occupation of plasterer with his wife Mary, 17!  (I also found quite a bit about the Carpenters, and have tracked them up to the 1940s. Still haven't found anything about J. Wills.)

Charles' death record

Mary's death certificate

 I looked up death certificates for Charles and Mary,  and found them. He died in 1857, of tuberculosis, at the age of 28. Death records were not required before 1860, but his doctor had filed this little scrap of paper with his info on it… how lucky was that? Mary died in 1865, also of TB, leaving her children to be raised by their grandmother. Her death certificate showed her being buried at the Ebenezer Vault (an ME Churchyard) and you can see Charles' little note says vault as well. I will be trying to  locate those records you can be sure.

So a couple of mysteries solved, and a few more created, I'll keep you posted!

Life and Liberty...

Happy Independence Day!

Today's post is appropriately about my ancestors who participated in the Revolutionary War. I have 3 that I  have found records for: Benjamin Dows (1716-1793), Ebenezer Newman (1756-1839) and James Masterman (1759-1842). All were living in Massachusetts at the time.

Benjamin Dows, my 6X great-grandfather,  was the father-in-law of Newman and Masterman, as his 2 daughters Sarah and Hannah were married to them. His son Joseph also had a courageous record of service for his country.

The Lexington Alarm

Benjamin  was one of 54 men that served under Capt. Jonathan Stickney in Col. Ebenezer Bridge's Regiment. This group marched from their hometown of Billerica early in the morning of April 19, 1775 when they received the alarm from Lexington. Most likely he was one of the men being trained as a Minuteman. At that time he served six days. He next served for eight months during the siege of Boston, May to December 1775. In 1776 he became a corporal serving under Capt. Solomon Kidder in Col. Brooks' Regiment, having enlisted at White Plains, New York. (Col. Kidder died in action there.)

Siege of Boston

He again enlisted September 29, 1777, one of 32 men from Billerica serving under Capt. Edward Farmer of Col. Jonathan Reed's Regiment. Their job was to reinforce the northern army which was engaged in fighting Gen. Burgoyne at Bennington and Saratoga, New York. He was discharged November 8, 1777.

Battle of Saratoga

His son-in-law, my 5X great-grandfather Ebenezer Newman, enlisted in his hometown of Woburn, Massachusetts on June 1, 1775. He served under Capt. John Wood, Col. Baldwin's Regiment during the siege of Boston for eight months. He immediately reenlisted for a year in January, 1776 before marching to New York City. During the retreat from New York, he was wounded in the leg and furloughed on September 15, 1776. His furlough was extended and he was sent home in November, which took him three months due to his physical condition. He later served three additional months during 1777 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. His pension file is HERE.

Brig "Hazard"

My 5X Great grandfather, James Masterman also enlisted. He served in the infantry as a cook for 8 months starting in June, 1775 under Major Montague. this would mean he was likely present for the Battle of Bunker Hill!  In summer 1776, he was drafted for 3 more months. In spring of 1777, he entered service as a sailor on board the brig “Hazard.” After cruising the West Indies for 3 months, they returned to Boston, resupplied and he rejoined for another three month term. During his service under Capt. John Foster Williams, “Hazard” captured 2 British vessels. I have his pension application with all the details and signed by him HERE.