Kingston (Massachusetts) Public Library
Though he was from Fairhaven, Captain Gelett married Kingstonian Jane Russell on March 14, 1843. It’s not recorded where this photograph was taken, but Fairhaven seems likely, given what’s nicely inscribed on the back of the panel card.
And a detail shows that the legs are vertebrae!
Pages 1 and 4 of a letter dated April 28, 1861 to “My Dear Tom” from Will in Kingston, Mass, Divided States of America.
Sunday Apr 28 1861
Kingston Mass.
Divided States of America
My Dear Tom
It is now nearly seven weeks since you left here and as I did not write by the letter which was sent before, you will be out on me when you get home if I do not write now. The coutry is getting deeper and deeper into the troubles which she was just entering when you went away. Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. Harbor which was held by the United States troops was evacuated on April 6 (I think) after a heavy cannonading from 2 forts and several heavy batteries which lasted many hours. It was honorably evacuated with the Band playing Yankee Doodle after the American Flag was saluted by the 50 guns and drawn down. When this news reached the North the President immediately issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 men to aid in puttng down the “rebel combinations” in the South. Six regiments were ordered from Massachusetts. All the military companies in the town about here have gone Plymouth Plympton, Carver
2
Halifax &c. In passing through Baltimore our Volunteers were attacked by the mob and two killed. Many of the mob were killed. After that, the rebel mob burned down the bridges around Baltimore to prevent the volunteer[s] passing through that city. Now the troops have to be taken by water to Washington. On the receipt of the news of the evacuation of Fort Sumter Virginia immediated rebelled and 2000 men with 2500 more upon their heels hastened to Harper’s Ferry with intentions to take the 15,000 stands of which arms which were there and proceed to attack the Federal Capital. This attempt was happily frustrated by conduct of the officer in command and at the arsenal, Lieut. Jones who destroyed the arsenal and with a handful of men retreated through the midst of the enemy into Maryland. The Navy Yard at Norfolk, Va. together with several war vessels were destroyed by our troops to prevent their falling into the possession of the rebels. Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Fl. is now still in the possession of the Government but surrounded as it is by rebellion it will probably be attacked before
[3]
[a] great while, although it is hoped that it has been reinforced before this. This fort together with Forts Jefferson & Taylor at Key West, Fl. The rebels have had it mostly their own way so far but it is to be hoped that as soon [as] our forces get together we shall be able to retaliate upon them some of the injury that they have done us, take back some of the property of the United States, string up some of the traitors and that will be one step towards victory. Many think that they will never by be in the Union again. It is impossible to tell. The whole northern and western country is in a fever of excitement. The people are everywhere loyal and patriotic. The three colors, “The Red, the White and the Blue” are seen over the land in all shapes: in flags, cockades ladies’ bows, gentlemen’s neckties, in head-dresses, bonnets, &c. New companies are forming. there is one here that has got 100. They tried to get up one in Duxbury and got 7 men. I have now discussed the affairs of the nation quite thoroughly and will return to domestic subjects. I suppose someone has written to you that Mr. Tearnan has gone away. Mother has gone got Jerry McCarty
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that used to work down at Mr. Delano’s. He is of course smarter that Mr. Tearnan and so far is very satisfactory. Mother bought a new cow six years old for 40 dollars, her calf came with her and went away to be killed yesterday. I set a hen three days ago. None have wanted to before. Jerry & I plowed the old garden yesterday with Katie and Mr. Cole’s plough. We shall plant carrots and beets at the first opportunity. John Griffin is going to take care of the piece back on top of the hill. The peas have been up some days. The lettuce onions and tomatos are quite tall in the hotbed. The peach buds are all killed by the winter. The apple leaves are starting. the lilac and other shrubs are quite green. I took off the double outer windows Thursday. Miss Moore went away Thursday morning. I have just been to see Miss Sever. She wishes me to remember her to your and hopes you will take card of yourself. Don’t forget every foreign coin you can. Remember me to Capt. Symmes & John. I remain, yours truly
Will
Hope you enjoy yourself among the coolie girls
_______________________________________________
Without an envelope, there is not a single clue to identify Will and Tom. Others mentioned in the letter can be better described, and will be in the next installment.
April is National Poetry Month, so here is a poem by Kingston’s own romantic versifier, Benjamin “Cousin Benja” Mitchell. Born in 1828, Benja lived with his parents and sister in picturesque Thatchwood Cottage on what is now Brookdale Street near the Duxbury line. He spent much of his life roaming the woods and fields, communing with Nature and God, then returning home to inscribe his bursting spirit on the page. He wrote poems, short essays and obituaries in verse, many of which were published in literary journals.
After suffering from consumption for several years, Cousin Benja died on April 23, 1865. His beloved sister Julia gathered his papers and had his works published in 1866.
Natural and Happy
I am Nature’s own child — I am wild and romantic,
I love the green fields and the shady old wood ;
And the songs of the streamlets — oh, they drive me most frantic,
As they dance o’er the pebbles in frolicsome mood !
There’s the old rustic bridge that was built by our fathers,
And the wall by the cow-path, so mossy and old,
Is more dear to my heart than a bag full of dollars ;
Than the rustling of silks, or the shining of gold ;
And oft when my hopes in the future do falter,
And visions of darkness have shrouded the mind ;
With a mossy old stump in the woods for an altar,
Have I prayed that my heart be kept gentle and kind.
Let those who delight heaps of gold to be piling,
Pile on, if they choose, till it reaches the blue ;
But be sure that when death sends his arrows a flying,
That a balance of credit has been given to you !
I know it is thought when the beard has grown stronger,
And a row of dark whiskers has mantled the face,
That we should be childlike and gentle no longer,
And to “become like a child” is almost a disgrace !
Just let a man live in accordance with Nature,
Appear as God made him, and use common sense,
He would soon take a trip out to Taunton or Worcester,
Where his board would be paid as a public expense !
I know that my friends are oft shocked at my capers,
And wish I would learn to behave like a man ;
Wear fashionable airs in preference to Nature’s —
And I’d like much to please them, but ’tis more than I can.
They may laugh at my notions, and say that I’m odd,
But I care not a whit for the laugh or the sneer ;
If I’m true to my nature, and true to my God,
‘Twill be well with me always, with nothing to fear.
Looking for tax-related documents for an upcoming exhibit today, I found death instead (or perhaps it found me?), in a small, but heart-breaking moment from the past.
In this group portrait, Bradford sits at right and his older brother Wendell — more formally George Wendell — stands at center. Sadly, Wendell had died just weeks before Bradford of the same disease.
A third Kingston teenager, 17 year old Clara Winsor, had also died of typhoid fever that fall, but beyond these deaths, Kingston was spared an epidemic. Through the 1860s and 1870s, outbreaks of typhoid fever struck around the world, particularly in densely populated and rapidly industrializing areas. By 1884, the bacteria that caused the disease was identified and over the next two decades, effective vaccines were developed.
But in the spring of 1871, George T. Adams added a new stone to the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, most likely for his two boys.
Sources: MC-21 Hathaway Collection; MC-23 Helen Adams Collection; Town Clerk’s Report, 1870; Wikipedia article on typhoid.
On the 1900 Federal Census, as on others before, each head of household was asked to give his (or more rarely, her) occupation. Along Summer Street, these included dry goods merchant, station agent for the railroad, boarding house keeper, stone cutter and teacher, until the census taker came to Horatio Adams, who declared “Capitalist.”
Here is the Capitalist at his desk.
And the tools the capitalist used to manage his labors? The book atop the glass case reads “Neapolitan Ice Cream” probably a business directory of some sort, and inside the case, “A Fragment of Plymouth Rock” with a certificate attesting to its authenticity. There’s a telephone and an electric lamp, a fountain pen and a blotter. There are law books piled and documents filed in pigeon holes. There’s also a picture on Horatio’s desk of someone sitting at a desk which looks at lot like this one.
The second photo seems earlier: there’s no phone or electric lamp, though the desk looks the same.
Horatio Adams, according to his obituary, worked in the Boston Office of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, then moved to New York with the company for a year. He returned to Boston to work for Frank Hay, “an expert accountant,” and was employed by the firm of John A. Burnham and Sons for many years.
His connection with the Old Colony Railroad and its various 19th century incarnations began early. He was born on the day the first train passed through Kingston, November 8, 1845 and except for his year in New York, took the train to Boston every day until his death on April 7, 1911. His obituary noted that he was the oldest commuter in and out of Boston.
Horatio is also closely connected to the Kingston Library. His portrait hangs in the Local History Room and photos of him appear in numerous collections. He and his mother Lydia (Mrs. George T.) Adams donated land upon which the Town built KPL’s predecessor, the Frederic C. Adams Library, funded by the will of Horatio’s uncle. Horatio served as a Trustee for Adams Library for some time.
Returning to Horatio’s capitalist ways, stock certificates and investment prospectuses in LHR collections show his interest in all kinds of ventures, including the development of Fort Payne, Alabama and office buildings in the Mid-west. Perhaps the most interesting is the booklet prospectus for the Colossal Elephant. Stay tuned for that.
Sources: Two obituaries, dated April 7 and April 15, 1911, from an unknown newspaper in the Obituary Notebook in the LHR
Thinking of those who are under-represented in archival collections, of the undocumented figures of history, hermits have to be in the top ten, right? That just doesn’t seem right, so…
here’s the story of Kingston’s famous hermit, drawn from a cabinet card, a few entries in town records, a newspaper article, a hand-written rebuttal and an anonymous letter.
Vital records provide the bare bones of biography: Daniel Weston Fuller was born to Consider and Hannah (Eaton) Fuller on January 5, 1812 and died of pneumonia on June 7, 1894, the year after his story was published in the Boston Journal.
In 1893, a reporter* traveled south to investigate “the trapper of Smelt Pond.” The story that followed – published on March 17, 1893 then reprinted in the Kingston News a few weeks later – romanticized the recluse with quaint, yet peculiar anecdotes. He slept in a molasses barrel, renounced society over an unrequited love, and shot game with a muzzle-loader that had belonged to Daniel Webster, a friend of Dan’s brother Samuel. Dan “educated” an owl for a pet and shot his own dog when “ ‘he got so dainty he wouldn’t eat raw potato skins. Didn’t have any use for a dog such as that’.”
After moving out of the hogshead, Dan lived in a 12’ x 6’ hut, a former shoe-shop on Wapping Road later moved deep into the woods between Elm Street and Ring Road. He kept count of snowstorms with tick marks on one “greasy black” wall, and the number of mice caught on another. He festooned his small room with garlands of duck egg shells. What money he earned came from bounties on crows and woodchucks, once netting $17 for 34 heads, or from ducks brought to town, “really very nice if disassociated from the grimy hands that brought them.” His sustenance came from the forest, though in his later years, he did accept food, wood and tobacco from friends. The reporter noted that the hermit’s “piercing black eyes” turned sociable when presented with a gift box of fruit and bread.
The next piece of evidence appeared in response to the article: an unknown friend of Dan’s wrote to the editor that “there was no unrequited love in his case. He was a born son of the forest to begin with,” sleeping on a bed of leaves at 5 years old. His family was “old fashioned even for them days 1820.” Consider Fuller allowed his children to roam the woods, counting them every Sunday and “if they was all there or was not missing two Sunday mornings in succession, he was satisfied.” Daniel’s defender noted that he made his living from the wilderness, selling furs and skins, wild honey and feathers for pillows, and stated that “Daniel cannot care for tomorrow.”
The last document is a semi-anonymous letter dated February 6, 1935, from Katie in Canton to her Aunt Addie recounting Roger’s memories of Dan the Hermit, including the well-told tale that he never washed. There is not much more detail, but the letter does show that the hermit’s story was still in living memory more that 30 years after his death. As late as 2003, the foundation on which Dan’s “rude hut” sat could still be seen, deep in the woods of Kingston. Those stones, along with a yellowed clipping, a two page recollection and a single letter are all that remain to tell the tale.
*Emily Fuller Drew, who transcribed the article in 1938, believed it was written by Elroy Sherman Thompson, newsman, editor and publisher of the Kingston News.
Sources: Vertical File: Dan Fuller; Town Clerk’s Reports; Vital Records of Kingston to 1850.
Applications for Kingston’s 2011 Ichabod Washburn Benevolent Fund are now online.
Completed forms are due at the Town Clerk’s Office by January 31, 2011. Funds will be distributed in March 2011.
To learn more about Ichabod Washburn, check out this earlier post.
In 1954 Town Meeting
Voted: That the sum of $2,200 be transferred from unappropriated available funds in the treasury for the purchase of a so-called station wagon type vehicle, to be used as an ambulance for the Police Department and authorize the Selectmen to turn in the present Hudson now owned by the Police Department, and apply the allowance thereof to the purchase price of the new vehicle.
They got the new station wagon type vehicle — a Dodge — just after that Town Meeting in March.
In his year-end report, Chief Goonan wrote that
64 ambulance trips [totaling 5,196 miles] were made with the new station-wagon type police car that was purchased after the March town meeting. On many occasions this piece of equipment has saved a life, and in so doing has paid for itself many times. Your cooperation in helping us to obtain this much needed piece of equipment is greatly appreciated.
Maybe one of those trips ended here…
