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Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Little Essex, town and county

TL;DR -- One might say, Halloween thoughts. But, no, we're talking the eve of All Saints Day. Nutfield Genealogy mentioned, as will be eternal, Essex of Essex County, that little place. And, the theme was of the time. So, we looked at Essex and what we have researched, with lots more to do. Then, there is a comment that brings things forward to now. As in, the 400 years of progress has not been in vain. 

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Per usual, we ran across a post that was relevant to today, the eve of the All Saints Day as well as containing seeds for future research. Let's recap a few things and follow that up with a few things that need more attention. 

"Little Essex" refers both to a town and a county. Essex County contains Salem and surrounds. Also in Essex County, one finds Essex the town. We have written a little about both. Here are a few examples. 

  • Essex County, then and now (Aug 2022) - Shows a graphic (map) of the area as it was in 1692 and as it is now. 
  • Shipbuilding in Essex (Sep 2022) - This was an interesting find. We had not thought of that sized vehicle being made in that area.
  • Newbury Essex County MA (Oct 2022) - Later, we went back and looked at this area which handled much larger vessels. 
  • USS Merrimack (1798) (Jun 2012) - This may have been the ultimate find which pertainted to a gift from the folks of Newburyport to the new country.  
  • Shipwrighting (Jun 2021) - Interesting technology. We were impressed by the capability of the group that came very early, into Popham, established a colony, and built a boat (Virginia) that was seaworthy sufficiently to cross the Atlantic several times. Maine has been featured in a post.
As an aside, we have been fascinated by the big iron ship work in Bath, ME and almost went that way. However, it was the ships of the sky that was our lives where weight is a major concern. We will get back to these topics from a technology perspective

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With respect to the times, we point to a post that was at the Nutfield Genealogy site in Apr 2010: Body Snatchers 1819. Our first post was in Sep of 2010. Several things caught out attention. For one, John Wise was of Essex (Chebacco Parish of Ipswich - see image). We have featured Ipswich quite a lot (Ann's heritage is full of families in Essex (all over the place). More below on Rev. John.

But, it's of interest to dive into the details which we will gloss over except for this. The person involved was banned and went to DC. Oh, how timely? That's not political. Then, his efforts led to what is now the George Washington University down there by the Foggy Bottom and other stations of the Metro of the area. 

BTW, notice that some places have gotten more attention, like LA of late and San Francisco and the large interior of the US, as these are where we lived or spent working time. Ann grew up in Essex County (Salem, of the day, too, to many - we think Andover) and went west. John grew up in the middle of the country and lived mostly in the west with some east coast times thrown in. We would like to feature more about places with Gardner descendants (or those of Essex County or MA or New England) live now and how they (or their families) got there. Ann's work with D.A.R. has helped us fill in some pieces of the puzzle. And, mentioning D.A.R? The 250th of the US is coming up; so too, Gloucester (little site of great expanse) of little Essex County MA looked at its 400th this year. 

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Rev. John Wise was an Indian wrestler. There is, at least, one story of his prowess. But, he was also a farmer and a Harvard graduate and a minister. Too, he was the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence. This influence came though he lived over 150 years prior. Technology would come into the discussion. In the time of the turmoil (say of Samuel Adams), Rev. John's books were republished. Our final bullets relate to this. One is from this blog. The other comes from the Ipswich MA site. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/31/2023

10/31/2023 -- 

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