More Heraldry

For all you heraldry fans out there:

Jonas Cutler

d. 1782

Groton, MA

101 Ways, Part 115: Was Instantly Kill'd by a Stock of Boards

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

Aaron Bowers

d. 1791

Pepperell, MA

Yesterday, I wrote about Aaron's brother, John, who drowned in 1776 at the age of three. Aaron was born many years after his parents lost their first son and also died in an accident as a toddler. The verse at the end of the epitaph bears witness to his parents' ongoing grief.

Memento mori

In memory of

Aaron Bowers, son of

Mr. John Bowers & Mrs

Lydia his wife,

who was instantlykill'd

by a stock of boards Sept

12 1791. AEt 2 yrs & 10 mon

Parents dear your idols

all take down.

Lest God should still

upon you frown.

101 Ways, Part 114: Was Drouned in a Tan Pit

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

John Bowers

d. 1776

Pepperell, MA

Young John Bowers of Pepperell met a horrible end when he fell into a tan pit in 1776. I don't know much about leatherworking, but it seems that a pit used for curing hides is full of lime or other astringents. All of the references I found in a quick Google search describe tan pits as just a slight cut above cesspools in terms of vileness.

John Bowers was not the only child in New England to drown in a tan pit: Thomas Newhall drowned in Boston in 1665 and Mary Hall Morrison (age 2) died in 1825.

Here lies the

Body of John Bowers

the first Born & only

son of Mr John Bower

and Mrs Lydia his wife

who was drouned in

a tan pit Augst 24th

1776 Aged 3 Years 3

months & 6 days.

Youth's foreward [s]lips [?]

Death soonest Nips.

A Prayer for the Wool Workers

"Blessed are the dead who dye in the Lord"

Groton, MA

Heraldry in Concord

It is a well-established fact that I know nothing about heraldry. It is frequently pretty, but that is the extent of my informed commentary on the subject. This coat of arms can be found on the Colonel Nathan Barrett gravestone (1791) in Concord, MA. I suppose that those are supposed to by lions rampant in the middle there, though they look more like horse-rat hybrids.

If anyone would like to offer some informed commentary in the comments, I will elevate it to guest post status.

Name of the Day

There is a tiny graveyard in Bar Harbor, Maine that holds the graves of two women named Aquea and Aquaie. I have never seen these names before. I wonder whether they spring from the same inspiration as Wavey from The Shipping News.

Aquea S. Roberts

d. 1861

Bar Harbor, ME

Aquaie J. Alley

d. 1886

Bar Harbor, ME

Addams Family Hat

I dedicate this hat to my mother, who loves 19th-century portraits in which half-hidden monsters mothers steady their floppy offspring for the camera.

I think this hat thing needs to be a weekly feature.

via VIA

"Madam"

As commenter RJO pointed out, it is quite unusual to see the title "Madam" on New England gravestones. I was in Burlington, MA recently and was surprised to find two examples:

Madam Hannah Peters

d. 1782

Burlington, MA

Madam Abigail Jones

d. 1814

Burlington, MA

Both Hannah and Abigail were the widows of ministers, as was Jane Robbins, so I imagine that "Madam" was probably a way of honoring the wives of illustrious men.

Cuffe

"faithful black domestic of Madam Abigail Jones"

d. 1813

Burlington, MA

101 Ways, Part 113: Commenced Her Inseparable Union With Her Much Beloved Husband and Her God

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

Jane Robbins

d. 1800

Plymouth, MA

via Drew's transcriptions

I don't know where the original line breaks came in this epitaph, so I have broken it where it makes sense to me. There may be a word or two missing from the transcription in the last line before the verse.

This Stone

consecrated to the memory of

Madam JANE ROBBINS

consort of the late

Revd Dr Robbins

who languished from his death

30th June 1799

till 12th September 1800

when in the 60th year of her age

She commenced her inseparable

union with her much beloved Husband

and her God

[?] is erected by the Piety

of her afflicted children.

Unfading hope when life's last embers burn,

When soul to soul and dust to dust return,

Heav'n to thy charge resigns the awful hour

Oh, then thy Kingdom comes immortal Power.

Good For Them

I applaud these teachers who have found a way to make a little extra money by selling their lesson plans online. To administrators who think that school districts should get a cut of the profits from the sale of teachers' original work, I say go jump in a lake.* If it's their original work, they own it and have every right to sell it. I especially applaud teachers for developing and selling lesson plans intended to modify scripted curricula like Open Court and Saxon Math.

The article contains no mention of the rise of scripted curricula, but I can imagine that it is a significant factor in driving online lesson plan sales. When I was a teacher, I would gladly have paid $50 for a unit plan called "Squeeze Some Meaningful Learning Out of This Crappy Open Court Unit Without Losing Your Mind." Or better yet, "A Beginner's Guide to Unspiraling Saxon Math."

I laughed when I read the quotation from Joseph McDonald, a professor of education at NYU: "“Teachers swapping ideas with one another, that’s a great thing,” he said. “But somebody asking 75 cents for a word puzzle reduces the power of the learning community and is ultimately destructive to the profession.”

Yep, nothing undermines the profession of teaching like regular teachers acting as if their own intellectual work is a valuable resource. They should all give it away for free because teaching is an altruistic calling, not a profession. That way, we can keep treating teachers like volunteers who do what they do purely out of the goodness of their hearts, rather than treating them like professionals who create original work and deserve to be rewarded for it.

* I should make it clear that I am assuming that most of the work in creating these lesson plans goes on outside of classroom time. When I was an elementary school teacher in California, I was compensated for one hour of prep time per week. I spent many, many more hours than that writing lesson plans. Other teachers refused to do unpaid prep because it undermined their bargaining position with the district, and I respect their decision to work only during those hours for which they were paid. The district treated us like contractors — we were given a budget of $125 per semester, which barely covered copy paper and whiteboard markers. My first year, I spent about $2,000 of my own money outfitting an undersupplied classroom with what I considered to be the bare essentials (pencils, a pencil sharpener, crayons, writing paper, construction paper, chart paper, used books, rulers, scissors, glue sticks, folders) and reasonable extras (paint, paintbrushes, magnifying glasses, supplies for science experiments, new books, a decent dictionary, pillows for the reading area, magnets for the whiteboard, jump ropes, playground balls, etc.). Family members kicked in for special extras — my students particularly loved the finger puppets purchased for them by my mother-in-law. I claimed the federal maximum ($250) on my taxes.

Bostonian Society Exhibit

Earlier in the week, Boston 1775 linked to a nice little online exhibit put on by the Bostonian Society (the people who run the Old State House). The exhibit features material objects that belonged to or were created by 18th-century women and girls. The interface is not obvious (click on numbers on the watch face to access different objects), but the pictures are lovely.

I especially enjoyed the mourning ring (pictured above) and the 1821 coffin plate. If I remember correctly, there is a character in one of Lucy Maud Montgomery's later Anne novels who collects coffin plates. As I child, I thought that that sounded like an interesting hobby, though, now that I think about it, I wonder how she got her hands on them.

101 Ways, Part 112: Died in His Countrys Sevice

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

I should have posted this one on Wednesday, but I just didn't think of it. Sorry for the terrible picture quality. I'm sure that I will be back in Groton soon and will try to do a better job.

Memento mori

Here lies the Body

of Mr. Nathaniel Stone

son of Mr. Nathaniel

Stone & Mrs. Sybel

his wife who died

in his Countrys ser

vice on Dorchester

Hill Octr. 22d. 1776

Aged 17 years one

month & 22 days.

Nathaniel Stone's gravestone would seem to indicate that he died while occupying Dorchester Heights during the siege of Boston. Yet, the dates are a little fishy. After the British abandoned Boston in March of 1776, there was little reason to continue occupying the heights and Washington's army spent the summer of 1776 moving toward New York. At the end of October, they were engaged in the Battle of White Plains.

I am left wondering whether the date might be mistaken or whether young Nathaniel, just a few weeks past his 17th birthday, was part of a militia guard left behind to guard Boston when Washington pulled his troops out.

Nathaniel Stone

d. 1776

Groton, MA

carved by the Park family

101 Ways, Part 111: Was Removed by a Dysentery

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

Like Lydia Dyar, Abigail Kenrick was an elderly civilian displaced by the seige of Boston in 1775. Though she lived in Newton, not in the city itself, Abigail decided to
relocate to Groton, MA, where she lived with her daughter Anna's young family. Anna had married the Rev. Samuel Dana in 1762 at the age of 19. When her mother came to live with them, Anna had borne 7 children (6 of them living) and was pregnant with her eighth (Luther b. 1763, Amelia b. 1765, future congressman Samuel b. 1767, Thesta b. 1769, Anna b. 1771, Stephen b. 1773 d. 1773, Stephen b. 1774 d. 1775, Lucy b. 1776).

The late summer of 1775 was not kind to this family. One-year-old Stephen died on August 6th and his grandmother followed him on September 7th. Abigail Kenrick's gravestone (carved by the local Park family) blends the themes of sickness and war, and imagines heaven as a place where "ye wicked cease from troubling & ye weary are at rest."

Memento mori

Mrs ABIGAIL KENRICK

Widow of CAPT. CALEB

KENRICK left her

pleasant habitation

in Newton & come to

her Daughter Dana's

in Groton, on account

of ye civil War; & Sept. 5.

1775 AE 76 was remov

ed by a dysentery to that

place where ye wicked cease

from troubling & ye weary

are at rest.

101 Ways, Part 110: Vanquished the World and Relinquished It

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

Simon Bradstreet

d. 1697

Salem, MA

Simon Bradstreet's tomb in Salem bears a copper plaque erected in 1917 to replace the inscription that was wearing away. I have not preserved the capitalization from the plaque because I'm not sure that it is original to the inscription. Also, it's annoying to type 200 words in all caps. I have formatted the epitaph in a way that makes sense to me.

Simon Bradstreet, Esquire

In the Senate of the Massachusetts Colony

from the year 1630 to the year 1673,

then Lieutenant Governor to the year 1679,

and at last, until the year 1686,

Governor of the same Colony

by the general and determined vote of the people.

He was a man endowed with keen judgment

whom neither threats nor honors could sway.

He weighed the authority of the King

and the Liberty of the People

in even scales.

In Religion devout and upright in his ways,

he vanquished the world and relinquished it

on the XXVIIth day of March

in the year of our Lord MDCXCVII,

and in the IXth year of King William Third,

and of his life the XCIVth.

101 Ways, Part 109: Killed by Falling from Cliffs

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

I lied a little bit when I said I didn't do any gravestoning in Bar Harbor. Just a little.

There are an awful lot of epitaphs that say "Killed by X." I didn't want to include them all in 101 Ways because the verb was always the same, but I might as well put them up now. This one from Bar Harbor, Maine is very sad:

Lucreatia K.

dau. of

Rev. Wm. S. & Priscilla

Douglass,

was killed by falling from

Cliffs on Newport, Mt. Eden, Me.

Aug. 3. 1853.

AE 12 yrs.

Dead, but not forgotten.

Erected by her Brother

J.H. Douglass, in 1880.

More Overdressed Kids in Hats

I have about a hundred of these. Poor little 19th-century kids. I'd probably be pursing my lips if someone made me wear that fetching little collar when I'd rather be making mud pies.

More available via Harvard VIA.

Depated #12

I never tire of these. See #1-10 here and #11 here.

Jonathan Lawrance

d. 1775

Groton, MA

Queen Mary 2 in Bar Harbor

Last Sunday, we looked out our hotel window in Bar Harbor and saw a giant ship. Really, it was about the size of the whole town. A little research (and a good zoom) revealed that it was the Queen Mary 2, one of the largest passenger ships in the world. It looked like an island.