Memorial Day, 2019

We have our first post tying together records for a member of the collateral family. In this case, a tersely marked gravestone has been associated with the record of the widow whose record we manage. So, we can update as we research further.

It's  Memorial Day on Monday. The record was of a burial in a G.A.R. plot in Saugus, MA. The widow is the sister of a great-grandparent. In looking at the family clustered around those records, we see several Patriots from the Revolution as well as participants in other events.

So, we'll make a special effort. In this case, the stone only mentions the name of the soldier and his Regiment. We will fill in the rest of the information on the web. His record is tied with that of his widow which then points to our continuing research work.

You heard of augmented reality. This is that, in the sense of a physical gravestone being uploaded to the internet (Find A Grave) and then a link put in to his wife's information. Then, WikiTree is being used to support and help coordinate activities.

This is the stone that has sat there for over 120 years. There is no information about birth or death. But, after a little work today, I can add a few things. He was born in Scotland circa 1817. His death was before 1890 when his wife was documented to have a pension. She was Caroline A. (Blake) Ingalls. They had four children. Her family is out of New Hampshire. Need to check to see what might be in the cemetery records. In any case, we can 'augment' that.

Remarks: Modified: 05/28/2022

05/23/2019 -- BTW, this stone is of a Mayflower descendant and sits in a lonely, damaged way in the middle of the U.S. Of interest since it dates to about the same time as this one in Saugus. And, the burial was of a person of the Civil War time. I need to get back to this story. See Flyover Country. Also, he is a descendant of Major Hathorne.

06/02/2019 -- Happy to note that in-law FindAGrave records are being updated, too. Problems with that site? You bet.  Some have 1,000s and 1,000s of records under their control. Some have turned off email. I have put in a bunch of suggestions. Usually, these are done within a reasonable time. But, this case is good since no one seems to have touched this family. Meaning, lots of work to do. In some cases, I might put a virtual record under the control of the Thomas Gardner Society (after reading about the policies about such).

05/28/2022 -- Memorial Day, 2022 - An Osage Mission. 

Massey's Cove

As mentioned earlier, we're going through Sidney's "The Essex Antiquarian." This is on-line at the Peabody Institute Library. Remember, Sidney was a friend of Dr. Frank. Besides, we like his idea of a walk-about. Quite frankly, his stuff matches up well with modern views (example: How close is close? II).

So, we are not taking them sequentially. And, I am paying attention to the walk-abouts that Sidney did. As, we learned about Gardner Hill (and Gardner's Bridge) from this work. Sidney sketched a map of Salem and the area as he thought it might look in 1700 from his walk-abouts plus reading the official records. So, these volumes are interesting from the first word to the last.

So, in Vol. VIII (1904), we see the area where we have Massey's Cove and the area that leads to Essex Bridge. In all of these maps, we look for obvious Gardner references. Many times, we find this in the text. But, we saw that a Henry Lunt had his name on a lot. This is a Newbury family that came in 1635. It's a grandson of the original water crosser who received land from his father-in-law.

But, you see Massey's Cove mentioned. On the other side, you see 'The Cove' which is now known as Collins Cove. We'll get back to that. On a search, we see an entry in Streets of Salem about this area. It was supposed by Sidney to be where Conant's little crew landed after their move from Gloucester (Cape Ann). Too, there was a painting (I'm trying to collect these - see Gardner Bridge above). It's theme is the first winter. we just did a post on the first year.

The Hardships and Sacrifices, Massey's Cove, Salem, 1626

In the comments for the Streets of Salem post, there is one mention that this might not be correct. So, we'll have to dig deeper in that controversy. Whatever the situation at Naumkeag, Thomas and Margaret were cozy in Gloucester (house and all). As we mentioned, the first idyllic on the American shores (Cape Ann).

But, getting back to the work of Sidney, one of the lots, it is said, had been in the possession of Thomas Gardner, Jr. It was in the area marked "Old Planters Marsh" which is where they got materials, such as thatch. The ownership went Balch, Balch, Gardner, Higginson.

That reminded us of Thomas, Jr. We have not heard much of him. On looking further (Dr. Frank's 1907 book), we see that he had a wide-ranging bit of land, including some that was above Ipswich River. So, we'll be digging deeper to get a better sense, including looking at all of Thomas' children.

Before today, we had not looked at this area and find it very interesting. Hence, we'll be going back through Sidney's maps and digging a little deeper than before.

Remarks: Modified: 06/07/2019

05/16/2019 -- Put in a comment at Streets of Salem:
            https://streetsofsalem.com/2016/04/06/masseys-cove/#comment-54569.

06/02/2019 - Profile of Sidney on WikiTree.

Sidney's Antiquarian

Sidney Perley has been mentioned a lot over the years. He wound down his Antiquarian look at Essex County and Salem at the time that Dr. Frank's The Massachusetts Magazine was starting up. We probably ought to have a page for Sidney (will, at some point) as he did so much work. Too, he published Dr. Frank's early draft of the 1907 book on Thomas Gardner (Planter).

Recently, while researching a plate that was in Dr. Frank's 1907 book, I got into Sidney's walkabout. His maps are phenomenal. He showed where Gardner's Bridge was. He mapped other areas of Salem, as well. Too, he published material from the early records of Salem and other towns. These we will go through just like we did all issues of Dr. Frank's magazine.

For starters, here are pointers to all of the issues of The Essex Antiquarian that are hosted at the Peabody Institute Library (disappeared - below links go to Hathi Trust).

• Vol I - 1897, 
• Vol II - 1898, 
• Vol III - 1899, 
• Vol IV - 1900, 
• Vol V - 1901, 
• Vol VI - 1902, 
• Vol VII - 1903, 
• Vol VIII - 1904, 
• Vol IX - 1905, 
• Vol X - 1906, 
• Vol XI - 1907, 
• Vol XII - 1908, 
• Vol XIII - 1909

This resource will be greatly used in the future.

Remarks: Modified: 09/21/2019

05/08/2019 -- While reading Volume VII, I ran across Sidney's story on Lord Timothy Dexter (page 107). So, I go to Wikipedia to see that they have: Timothy Dexter. Yes, there was a page, however there were issues related to sources. And, Sidney was not referenced. So, we'll correct that oversight. Too, the page on Sidney needs a little work: Sidney Perley. This is one example of many of continuing (curating) work that might get more attention as the 400ths loom for other towns.

05/16/2019 -- Lots going on that can get in the way, but we persist. The first of many posts: Massey's Cove. This came about by seeing Henry Lunt mentioned on one of Sidney's maps in an area downstream along North River.

08/06/2019 -- magenweb.org disappeared. Will switch to Hathi Trust. Vol VIII - 1904 updated.

09/21/2019 -- Finally got links to point to Hathi Trust. ... New England Historical Society mentions that Sidney knew where the Salem hanging site was. The recent study just confirmed his findings.

Which railroad?

We are in the process of finding maps close to the area of Gardner's hill. This was precipitated by seeing an early edition of Dr. Frank's 1907 book. Here are two posts to note:

• How close is close, III? -- wherein we compare Sidney's walkabout with Google, again. 
• Stephen Wilson Gardner -- original post with a photo of the dedication to Dr. Frank's father plus our attempt at a photo of the plate. There are other posts between these two. 

This map is really instructive. It shows the railroad that might have been seen in the 1848 view (2nd image - a decade before the Civil War). It looks like the choo-choo was either Salem & Lowell or the Essex. The Wakefield Branch is on the other side of the church. 

As an aside, Gardners left Salem. John and Richard went to Nantucket. Thomas Jr. went north. We need to look closer at that. George went to Connecticut leaving his daughter, Ruth, behind. That left Samuel and Joseph. Joseph was kill in the King Philip war. So, Samuel bore the Gardner name; he acquired most of what Thomas left in terms of real property, including Gardner Hill. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/08/2019

05/08/2019 --

How close is close? II

Last year, a post asked, how close is close? It compared several posts over the years that asked, where is Thomas? As in, his bones.

Well, the graphic in each was way off. So, we will update this today and will follow up with an in-depth look at this particular concern of ours in terms of how the realization came about of what happened over the years plus start a look at Thomas' timeline.

What led to this review was seeing the plate in Dr. Frank's book (1907). He mentioned Gardner's bridge being visible. And, it turns out that the  plate was in the area of Main and Central in Peabody. Fortunately, there had been two paintings (1826/28 and 1848) of the area that helped fill in some notion of dimension.

We're looking at a small area. The South Church was attended by the Gardners (Dr. Frank's and Ann's ggps). Thomas owned a lot of this land when he died; he had it by grant, or he had purchased lots, or he had quietly homestead'd in the context of the time since the land that he acquired this way adjoined his.

At the moment, I'm perusing Sidney's antiquarian periodical for all maps and text that will be pertinent to writing the proper story.

Remarks: Modified: 06/02/2019

05/16/2019 -- Lots going on that can get in the way, but we persist. The first of many posts: Massey's Cove. This came about by seeing Henry Lunt mentioned on one of Sidney's maps in an area downstream along North River.

06/02/2019 - Profile of Sidney on WikiTree.

Essex county

This is our focus county for several reasons. It's nice that GenWeb has some information related to our focus. And, their resource page has the whole series of Sidney Perley's The Essex Antiquarian. Following is Sidney's review of the first issue of The Massachusetts Magazine.

A couple of items about Sidney. He quit publish in 1909 which is one year after Dr. Frank started the TMM. Lucie, sister of Dr. Frank, picked up Sidney's work and published in the TMM which published until 1918. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/02/2019

06/02/2019 - Profile of Sidney on WikiTree.

Gardner's bridge

Earlier, we had a post that described a dedication by Dr. Frank to his father and that mentioned the plate that was in the 1907 book. The painting (from 1826) of the plate showed South Church, mentioned Gardner bridge on Andover Road (now Central) and showed a few buildings. We included a copy of the plate that was black and white. It showed some detail but was of the technology of the time.

Then, we found a later sketch of the area (1848). The church had changed in orientation and form. The view was the same. We also mentioned that we were amassing material since this is close to Gardner Hill. Finally, we got hold of a brochure that had a little more information such as identifying the buildings. The painting was in living color. It attributed the work to a different painter. Also, the year was changed to 1828. So, what gives? We included a link to (and a graphic from) the History of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1888, Volume 2. That was Dr. Frank's source. 

Today, we, again, show the 1826/28 view and a better reproduction of the 1848 view, except, it says before the Civil War. This is the same view. We will be gathering more information, however let's look at what we are seeing here. As, until now, the exact location was uncertain and the direction of the view was unclear. Too, Dr. Frank had mentioned Gardner's bridge.

South Church, 1826/28 

These two views are the same. The straight ahead view is of Central. Gardner's bridge is now where Walnut Street is.

Notice the lower caption. It says, The South Danvers Observer which is hosted at the Peabody Institute Library  (stale pointer). The SDO? Here is its directory (was pointer, now stale). In the first year, it used the context to determine the year. So, we have Spring 1915, Summer 1895, Fall 1868, and Winter 1866. I found Winter 1866 (was pointer, now stale) by looking for images of 'South Church' on Google. On noticing the material in that issue, poking further was imperative. Great work.

In the Summer 2010 issue (was pointer, now stale), there is some mention of Gardner's bridge. That helps set the orientation as shown on this map.

We will be looking further. The goal is to describe the area where Thomas was buried and to determine activities related to the area from the beginning. In the 1861 publication of the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, there is reference to Gardner's brook near the South Church.

The bridge that Dr. Frank called Gardner has had several names over the years. There was a mill pond in the area which Dr. Frank mentioned. The bridge goes over the upper portion of North River (which had several names, to boot). Lots to pull together. We'll do it here and via on-line publication by Gardner Research. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/20/2020

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

11/29/2019 -- Had pointers to the South Danvers Observer which had articles on the area of South Church and the church itself. These were there in May of 2019. Now gone. So, where did they go?

09/20/2020 -- Added the Category.