e-Newsletter | July 9, 2021 |
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Part 2: “To My Dear Grandchildren” The 1877 Memoir of Captain Joshua Hale (1812-1894)
Introduced and edited by Kristen Fehlhaber
The author takes a steamship to New York, begins a big job, goes to sea, and takes issue with German bedding.
Editor’s note: The memoir has been abridged and punctuation altered to allow for easier reading. Spelling and phrasing has been preserved. Special thanks to Tom Mela for the tireless transcription and the staff of the Newburyport Public Library Archives for their help in background research.
For many months I could not do much, had to keep very quiet and rest my eyes and my head. I had been anxious to keep up with my class I was in, which was in advance of me in my studies so much so I had to work hard and many nights in the week more than my health could bear up under.
In 1828 I was in Vermont again, and went up in the stage [coach] and was there a month or two. And after my return was so much better I went to school but very soon had to give up my studies and attended more to writing and the principles of Bookkeeping. Went to a Master George Titcomb. His school was in Green Street where Romish Church now stands. In the next year 1829, about the last of May, I went to New York, to be with my brother Josiah in his office. I went from Boston to Providence in the Stage, and from Providence to New York in the steam boat Chancellor Livingston, then thought to be very fine & fast.
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A strong head wind all the way and we were 30 hours on the boat, and once bought a cargo of wood from a Sloop in the Sound. And had to go into a port in Connecticut to get some more [wood]. I got to New York very early in the morning and to Josiah’s boarding house in 15 Whitehall Street before he was ready for his breakfast. Brother Josiah was agent for the Washington Marine Insurance Company of Boston, and doing business for them in New York. He took me under his special care as clerk in his office showing & helping me [learn] how to do the work belonging to me most easily and efficiently. He let a valuable clerk go to make room for me.
[Below, Joshua describes the creation of Atlantic Insurance Company, a company that would exist until 2011 as Atlantic Mutual, notable as one of the insurers of the RMS Titanic.]
The company was organized and your Uncle Josiah was chosen President and Mr. Walter R. Jones was Vice President, and I was Secretary. In November, 1829, the company went into immediate operation. I was, you will perceive, not quite seventeen years old, the youngest secretary of an insurance company ever chosen in New York City and really I was too young for so responsible [a] position. My dear brother would see that every thing was done right and assist me in doing it and promptly too. There was a great deal to do, in starting a new company and very soon my old complaint, headaches, came on severely again, and I felt I must give up my position which I had enjoyed only for so short a time, and the Company allowed me a vacation to go to sea, one voyage with my brother Thomas in the Brig America.
I sailed from New York in January 1830 in the ship Henry (Capt. Thompson) for Savannah to meet brother Thomas. I was very sea sick all the way, and did not eat anything until we were in the river, in smooth water. From Savannah the Brig came to Boston and we had a pleasant passage and run into port on a mild pleasant day while the Ship Lydia (Capt. David Wood) that sailed from Savannah a few days before us for B[oston] had a very cold time, and was all covered with ice when she arrived and some of her crew were frost bitten.
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Georgia (detail) / Rice culture on the Ogeechee, near Savannah, sketched by A.R. Waud.
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From Boston, after being there a fortnight and been home to visit the family & friends, we sailed for Charleston S.C. with a cargo of ‘Ice.’ (80 cords at $4 per cord freight) and had a comfortable passage, but I was sea sick all the time, both ways. We were in Charleston but a short time as it takes but a very short time to discharge a cargo of ice and then we went to Savannah and loaded a cargo of rice for Cowes in Isle of Wright when we were to receive orders from London telling us where to go to discharge the cargo, and were told to go to Altona, a free city on the river Elbe about four miles below the city of Hamburg, and we sailed from Cowes and were about a week on the passage to Altona.
Then all vessels going up the Elbe were required to stop at Stade, a city or town subject to the Kingdom of Hanover and report the arrival of the ship of what nation she belonged to & what the cargo consisted of, but most important of all was to pay the legal charges on which to support the Royal personages. We remained there one night, and when we went to bed, although in June or July, found a Down spread on the bed one sheet and no other covering, and such was the custom there, and they no doubt thought, we were treated very nicely and well provided for. Steamers were not common then as now and we had to sail up the river, and were several days getting to Altona. [Distance from Stade to Altona is 19 miles.]
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Next time –“The Sailing Life for Me” – K.F.
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Woman on the MOON
A Happy Accident...a blog by Bethany Groff Dorau
As it happens, I assumed my new position as executive director of the Museum of Old Newbury on the same day as two bright-eyed students from Governor’s Academy began their summer internship. Aleah and Olivia have plenty of projects that await their attention, but in the hustle of my first two weeks, I have been rather capricious in my requests of them. I am, after all, brand new, and for the last several days, the interns and I have spent hours together alone. And so these enterprising young women have been hauling books from my car, printing membership letters, and yesterday, we went on a treasure hunt.
Yesterday, I received an email from a woman who has a portrait of Ebenezer Bradbury the First (1793- 1864). Well, that’s how I know him, anyway. Ebenezer Bradbury is the first of four by that name. The last of the four is a sweet-faced boy who died in France in 1918. The records of all four Eben Bradburys returned to me from across the country and the world, and include, at last count, 187 letters, clippings, and other ephemera related to Eben the First, Newburyport silversmith, machinist, and later Massachusetts State Treasurer and Speaker of the House.
The email writer had found me through the connection of her cousin, also a descendant of Eben the First, and there was, apparently a portrait in the collection of the Museum of Old Newbury of Eben’s second wife, Mary Tappan, mother of the last ten of his eighteen children. There was a number in the museum records about this portrait, a brief description, but no location. As you likely know, the museum has undergone a significant amount of work while closed, and some objects are not quite as easy to locate as heretofore. The interns began their hunt.
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Ebenezer Bradbury, 1793-1864, from the Bradbury Memorial and wedding portrait of Mary Tappan Bradbury, 1798-1881. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
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While they looked for Eben’s bride, I looked at their letters, including a rather saucy courting letter, written in 1832, in which Eben begs for an audience with his beloved, frustrated with her demand that their liaisons appear innocent. “(Our meeting) must be accidental??? I appreciate the motive, but let me suggest that accidents are sometimes committed.” A recent young widower, thirty-eight years old and already the father of eight, he had little time for the shillyshallying that the never-married 32-year-old Mary Tappan seemed to enjoy. “I beg, my dear, you will gratify me...” The longed-for “accident” appears to have occurred expeditiously, as the pair was married just two months later with a baby on the way within the year.
I heard a gasp and a pitter-patter down the hall. Olivia peered around my office door, and said, with a reverent whisper, “I think we found her.” We ran up the stairs to the third floor, and there was Mary, resplendent in her best dress (chocolate brown), matching earrings and broach, a serene look on her face.
The discovery of Mary set off a hunt for other treasures, as we set off to look at spoons that Eben had made in his youth, “met” his great-grandson on the wall of the military history exhibit, and looked over his mail from two centuries ago. I told them about the letter, explained that his wife had just died, but that it was not uncommon to remarry very quickly. It is likely, I said, that he had her in mind, in some sense, before his first wife died, as she was ill for a long time. He hints at an earlier connection. They gasped, shook their heads, a little outraged. “Think about who kept this letter,” I said. “This passed down through the children of his first wife. What does that indicate to you?”
“They thought it was good that he remarried so quickly? Perhaps they had known Mary their whole lives. They never read it and just tossed it in a trunk?” The wheels kept on turning as I threw in little bits of information about their lives together. After Eben died, Mary went to live with her stepsons, rather than her biological children. Why? We may never know the answers to these questions, but if the goal of the study of history is to learn to think critically about evidence and to understand the world by trying to understand other people, we are in good hands with these two.
I cannot wait to introduce Aleah and Olivia to Eben the First. I know that they will appreciate the reunion. The portrait will arrive before they return to school, and I promise that they will never forget Mary and Eben. A happy “accident” indeed.
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Mark on an 1819 spoon made by Eben Bradbury, working with his father as Theophilus Bradbury and Son. Courtesy photo. |
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2021 Garden Tour Gallery – Part 3
Some of the fabulous images sent in by attendees to this year's 42nd Annual Garden Tour. Many more to come! Do you have a few? Send along (with your name and the town you live in) and you could be eligible for free Garden Tour tickets next year.
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Photo by Rochelle Perry-Platine of Haverhill. |
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Photo by Irene Harnett from West Newbury. |
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Photo by Claudia Karimi of Newburyport. |
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Learn about upcoming programs, register, find Zoom links and catch up on previous presentations here. All of our virtual programs are free, however donations are gratefully accepted to help defray speaker fees.
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Tune in tomorrow...Local Pulse, Sat., July 10 @ 9:00 a.m.
Bethany Groff Dorau, executive director, Museum of Old Newbury, joins Joe for Saturday, July 10, 2021's Local Pulse.
Listen here live, beginning at 9:00 a.m. (or visit the page later and download the podcast).
Hosted by Joe DiBiase, Local Pulse is a live weekly internet radio program and podcast covering news, views, arts and food in the greater Newburyport, Massachusetts, area. Joe is a talented interviewer, able to tease out fascinating tidbits from his guests. The show is based out of a studio in the newsroom of the Newburyport Daily News.
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Martin Johnson Heade and the New England Landscape
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) was a prolific painter of landscapes, still life and exotic portraits of tropical birds and flowers. Perhaps most iconic, are his salt marsh paintings of New England centered around Newbury's Great Marsh.
Colleene Fesko, an appraiser on the hit PBS television series Antiques Roadshow since its inception 25 years ago, will explore Heade's work beyond his associations with the Hudson River School of artists and discuss him as a Luminist painter, placing his salt marsh paintings and seascapes in the context of his own oeuvre and that of his contemporaries.
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Puzzle Me This...
Banister back chairs were a typical form during the first quarter of the 18th century.
This one, made in Newbury, has a pierced and carved crest rail, vase and ring turnings, Spanish feet and a rush seat.
The split banisters were made from two pieces of wood glued together and shaped on a lathe before being split into two pieces again.
From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. Gift of Margaret Fitzgerald.
Click on chair image to begin puzzle of detail close up.
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Something is Always Cooking at the Museum
It's chilled soup season. Garden fresh vegetables (your own or from the farm stand) will make a ladle full of Maggie LeMaitre's luscious summer treat even more delicious.
Gazpacho
2 cucumbers, seeded and chopped, not peeled
2 red peppers, cored, seeded and chopped
4 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
3 cups tomato juice
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Put each vegetable separately (cucumber, red pepper, tomato and onion) into a food processor fitted with blade and pulse until vegetable is coarsely chopped. Put processed vegetables into a bowl and mix in garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Chill well before serving. Serves 4-6.
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During this difficult period of COVID-19, we rely on your support more than ever. We continue to develop new, online programs for you to enjoy and keep us connected and look forward to in-person events as protocols for safety loosen. We hope, if you are able, that you will consider a donation to the museum. Thank you for your continued support.
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Museum of Old Newbury
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