e-Newsletter | June 25, 2021 |
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The Abigail Stone - A Long Journey Home
January 20, 2021, 2:00 pm: It was a day of low, leaden skies – one to match my mood – as I worked my way through a particularly tedious project.
The caller ID on my phone came up as Pook & Pook Auctioneers. Ron Pook, founder and CEO of the company introduced himself and told me he had an artifact that he thought might be of interest to our museum. While doing a pickup from an estate for an upcoming auction, Ron spotted a gravestone lying face down in the dirt. A researcher for the auction house had done some background searching and attributed the stone to Essex County.
Ron had called to say that he didn't auction gravestones. It just wasn't right, and he wanted the stone of an unknown 2-year-old girl named Abigail Chase to be returned to Essex County. I accepted the stone, on behalf of the museum, with the understanding that we would return it to the cemetery and the Chase family plot where the stone and the memory of the child would be cared for.
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Photo courtesy of Pool & Pook Auctioneers. |
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To understand the story of Abigail Chase, we need to go back to the spring of 1735. In May of that year a boy in Kingston, NH died, the first victim of an epidemic that was to leave parts of rural New England ravaged.
The disease from which this child died became identified as "throat distemper" – what we recognize today as diphtheria.
In 1939, Ernest Caulfield wrote a treatise entitled: A True History of the Terrible Epidemic Vulgarly Called the Throat Distemper Which Occurred in His Majesty’s New England Colonies Between the Years 1735 and 1740, later published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. Caulfield details the disease as it swept indiscriminately through New Hampshire towns throughout 1735 before leaping the state border and descending on Newbury in late 1735 and into 1736.
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The statistics are staggering. In some of the towns almost half the children died, often several in one family dying in quick succession, leaving the bereaved parents to bury them in a single grave.
In Newbury, some attributed the epidemic to a plague of large black caterpillars during the summer of 1735 that left the land barren and, at first, the disease was not taken seriously. However, there were over one hundred deaths between September and December of 1735. On Chandler's Lane (now Federal Street), 81 children were reported dead of the distemper.
The family of Moses and Elizabeth Chase who lived on the eastern half of the Ensign Moses Chase homestead were spared until spring 1736. Of their nine children, the first to be taken by the distemper was their youngest, Abigail, on May 15. She was 17 months old. Three days later on May 18, Abigail's sister, five-year-old Rebekah, succumbed. Finally, on May 27, their sister Anne, aged eight, died of the disease. The Chase family genealogy bears an asterisk after the little girls' names saying cause of death "throat distemper."
One can only imagine the grief of Moses and Elizabeth Chase having three similar gravestones cut for their youngest children. The girls were buried in the Bridge Street Cemetery (West Newbury) not far from the family farm.
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Abigail's sisters, Rebekah and Anne, wait for the return of their sister's stone at Bridge Street Cemetery. Photos courtesy of Bob Watts. |
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The stones appear to have been cut by members of the Mullicken family, a Bradford stone carving family who learned their craft from John Hartshorn. The Mullickens became the primary stone carvers in the Merrimack Valley. The family consisted of Robert Mullicken and his sons, Robert Jr., John and Joseph.
The Chase stones all bear the attributes of Robert Jr. and John. The two brothers sometimes collaborated, one carving the design and the other carving the letters. The lettering on these stones is the work of John who consistently used broad capital "A"s. All the Mullicken stones have a simple death's head with a circle design on each side of the head and additional circles or rosettes on each finial.
Ron Pook is a member of the Berks County (PA) Association for Graveyard Preservation. “I knew early on it wasn’t from around here. This stone had a great folk art presence. The beauty of these gravestones draws people to remove them, but it is a sacrilege that it should ever happen,” Ron said. “I felt very strongly that the right thing to do was to return it. I knew someone would care about this gravestone.”
After speaking with Ron, I contacted board member Jane Wild who connected with Bridge Street Cemetery Trustee Mary Ann Fowler. Together, we have collaborated on the reinstallation of the stone to once again restore the Chase family plot as it was in the 18th century.
Preserving Abigail’s gravestone is preserving her memory here in Old Newbury. We believe the stone may have been missing since the mid-20th century. Its journey back to West Newbury is nothing less than remarkable due to the outstanding efforts of Ron Pook.
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The gap in the stones, like a missing tooth, is where the Abigail stone will be re-installed. Recently the cemetery had ground penetrating radar performed that confirms the grave of Abigail Chase. Watch here for more information on a ceremony to be held later this summer at the Bridge Street Cemetery. Photo courtesy of Mary Ann Fowler. |
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WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?
Community Reading of Frederick Douglass' Impassioned Speech Set for
Thursday, July 1, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m.
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About Frederick Douglass
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in February 1818, the son of an enslaved woman who died when he was seven and a white man he never identified.
Some of his youth was spent with his grandparents and an aunt. When he was eight, he was sent to Baltimore, where he lived with a ship's carpenter and learned to read. He later said of this experience, [Baltimore] "laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity."
By the time he was 15, he was sent to a farm where he was brutally treated by a slave breaker named Edward Covey.
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By 1838, he achieved his dream of escaping from Baltimore where he was working at a shipyard. He fled the city arriving in New York on September 4. With him traveled Anna Murray, an abolitionist whom he met in Baltimore, and whom he married under his new name, Frederick Douglass.
Douglass made his way to New Bedford where he was a laborer. There, he became acquainted with the Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper edited by William Lloyd Garrison, Newburyport native, who, for a time, became Douglass's advocate and mentor. Douglass began attending anti-slavery meetings and spoke at a convention held on Nantucket in 1841, giving a powerful and eloquent speech about his life in slavery.
After the convention, John A. Collins, a general agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, urged Douglass to become a lecturer for his organization. It was with Collins that Douglass arrived in Newburyport in September 1841 – just three years after his miraculous escape from slavery. He spoke at the Prospect Street Church on the corner of Fair and Prospect Streets and stayed at the home of abolitionist Richard Plumer on Federal Street.
The trip was not an easy one as the conductor on the train carrying them to New Hampshire requested that Douglass move to the rear of the train, and by the time he reached Dover, his clothes were torn and he had been beaten.
Douglass prevailed, building his career as a leading spokesman for abolition and racial equality. Throughout the 19th century, he was recognized in this country and Europe as a powerful orator, writer and activist for equal rights for both African Americans and women.
The original oration was given in 1852 at the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York, a city that was a center of abolitionist activities. This emotionally powerful and thought-provoking speech is as relevant today as it was in Douglass’s own lifetime.
Click here or below to register.
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Captain John Crocker (1692-1763) |
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Puzzle Me This...
Captain John Crocker, a Boston shipmaster, moved to the waterside section of Newbury in 1737.
In 1748, he petitioned the Town of Newbury to erect a ropewalk for the manufacture of ropes and lines used in the ship building, maritime shipping and fishing industries. The ropewalk, a 209-yard long narrow wooden building resembling a covered bridge, was located at the northeasterly end of present day Bartlett Mall, parallel with High Street.
Several other rope walks were built between Bromfield Street and Market Street and in the Washington Street area. Crocker’s ropewalk disappeared from the Frog Pond sometime after 1771. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
Click on image to begin.
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2021 Garden Tour Gallery
Some of the fabulous images sent in by attendees of 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 Irene Harnett of West Newbury. |
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Photos by Sally Chandler of Amesbury (roses shown here); and Bob Watts of Newburyport captures a lone pop of purple among a field of daisies. |
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Miss a Recent MOON Program? Watch here. |
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Thanks to the wonder of the Zoom platform, all of our programs are recorded and available online shortly after presentation. Visit our website for upcoming events, previous recordings, including the four 2020 Virtual Garden Tours, our Annual Meeting, children's and holiday programs, as well as all episodes of "Yeat Yeat, Don't Tell Me!"
In lieu of a printed program book, we will be featuring monthly events here, as well as maintaining a complete list on our website: www.NewburyHistory.org.
All of our virtual programs are free, however donations are gratefully accepted to help defray speaker fees.
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REGISTER:
Thursday, July 1, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m.
The First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist and the Museum of Old Newbury kick off the July 4th holiday with a virtual community reading of Frederick Douglass's impassioned 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Lend your voice to this powerful participatory event.
The reading will be followed by a discussion led by humanities scholar Edward Carson. Carson, an independent historian, is also Dean of Multicultural Education and a member of the history department at The Governor's Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts.
Now in its 12th year, Reading Frederick Douglass Together is a special initiative of Mass Humanities, supported by funding from Mass Cultural Council.
This is a virtual event. Register here and a Zoom link will be sent closer to the date. Registration closes at 4:30 p.m. on day of the event.
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Something is Always Cooking at the Museum
Often considered a cold-weather choice, pears are a perfect addition to lighten up Wendy Albin's squash soup.
Squash & Pear Soup
4 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, diced
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
4 Bosc pears, peeled and cubed
1 quart chicken stock
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and ground pepper to taste
In 4-quart saucepan, melt butter and sauté onions until translucent. Add squash and pears, sauté for 5 minutes. Pour in stock and add rosemary. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until squash is soft. Remove rosemary and purée mixture. Add cream and stir well. Season with salt and pepper. Serves 4.
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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 e-Newsletter made possible through the
generosity of our sponsors:
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Museum of Old Newbury
98 High Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
978-462-2681
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