South Danvers Church

If you look at the image near Gardner's bridge in this post on Dr. Frank's father (Stephen Wilson Gardner), you will see that is looking south'ish (more details as we study the maps) from Peabody Square in South Danvers. That image from 1826 is from Dr. Frank's 1907 book. He did not include it in the 1933 book. Why? For one reason, he had looked at the notes of Samuel Pickering Gardner who visited Gardner Hill in the 1820s and was upset that Thomas' stone had been moved losing any notion of where he was buried. Much to look at there. Or, it may be that with a later, more in-depth, look, Dr. Frank was not sure how to use this image for his analysis.

Now, we are not jumping to any conclusions and intend to dig deeper. Here is an 1848 view of Peabody Square. We can use the church as a landmark from which to center discussions. Notice the choo-choo in the later painting Those tracks are still there. Railroads, usually, did not move their right-a-ways.

Top image from South Danvers Wizard

As an aside, we have to talk motivation. For one, about 200 graves were desecrated in Essex County, Massachusetts. What gives? People are gaga about the witch hunt (yearly flimflam of Salem) and a few hangings (and Ann has these on her lineage as well as people from all sides of the story - Imagine a meeting). This has gone on for decades. Then, much effort was put into finding the hanging place which was near Gallows Hill, anyway. Where was Gardner's Hill? This was the first issue of desecration; evidently, that emboldened others. So many other questions come up.

I'm amassing material to use, albeit this is a real brief start.

• Creation of Danvers R. B. Trask - where it all started as South Danvers split from here. He writes about Middle Precinct Church which is in the images. 
• South Danvers Wizard - middle 1800s but might provide something such as the above image. 
• Peabody Historical Society & Museum
• South Danvers Observer (Winter 1866 --- stale pointer) - has image of the South Church   
• ...

Some must have already researched this area of concern. Any referral to earlier work would be appreciated. Based upon how long it took me to figure out that the body of Thomas was lost, though, suggests to me that a whole lot of additional work needs to be done. Sorry to have to say that.

There is a personal note in that one set of Ann's great-grandparents (one person from Ipswich and the other from Salem - meeting ground?) were married in South Danvers which became Peabody.

Remarks: Modified: 11/29/2019

05/01/2019 -- Added link to the South Danvers Observer. Also, new post about this theme: Gardner's bridge.

05/07/2019 -- More on Gardner's bridge. We'll be updating the modern map's relationship with Perley's walkabout.

11/29/2019 -- Link to South Danvers Observer disappeared.