Adeline (Mower) Burdick

Today we are looking at a copy of an old newspaper article entitled "Death of Mrs. Burdick."  It is from the 7 September 1849 issue of the Kalamazoo Gazette, of Kalamazoo, Michigan.  So who is Mrs. Burdick you ask - well, she was Adeline Mower, my 2nd cousin 5 times removed.

Adeline was born 26 August 1802 in Woodstock, Vermont, to Henry and Hannah (Haile) Mower.  She was the first of four children born to this couple.  Henry traces his Mower roots back to Richard Mower of Lynn, Massachusetts, with three Samuels in between he and Richard.

On 24 May 1824, Adeline married General Justus Burdick, who was born in Canaan, New Hampshire, son of John and Phoebe (Freeman) Burdick Jr.  Now, how these two came to meet presents an interesting story.  Justus had arrived in Woodstock by 1814 and as a young man was singing in the Congregational Church choir and the local singing school.  He also became a member of the Vermont Militia in Woodstock. In that town, Justus Burdick's business associate was General Lyman Mower. Now, follow this closely.  Adeline was Lyman's step-daughter.  So here is how this comes about.  Upon the death of Henry Mower, Hannah Haile married his nephew, Lyman Mower.  Lyman was a son of Henry's half-brother (having different mothers), Samuel Mower.

About 1826, the Burdicks moved from Woodstock to Burlington, Vermont.  Here Justus was involved in the lumber business. He was also active in the development of the town itself, and in April 1831, he was one of the incorporators of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.  While living in Vermont, he had traveled to Detroit and Bronson, Michigan.  Liking the area, he purchased land there.  He prompted his brother to move to Michigan and oversee his interests in the area.  In 1832, they built "Kalamazoo House," a hotel.  In 1834, Justus became one of the four proprietors on Bronson.  In 1835, the Burdick family moved to Bronson, which had been renamed Kalamazoo.

Justus and Adeline Burdick had six children:

1. Henry Mower, b. 18 August 1825, d. 15 December 1825.
2. Eleanor Eliza, b. 28 January 1827, m. (1st) Burgess Goodridge, (2nd) James Walsh.
3. Edward Freeman, b. 1829, m. Harriet Goodridge.
4. George Rice, b. 1833, m. 1855 Caroline Curtis Chandler.
5. Justus Jr., b. 1836.
6. Francis Mower, b. 3 November 1842, d. abt 1867.

Now, back to the death of Mrs. Burdick.  The citizens of Kalamazoo were reportedly "greatly startled" by the news.  The evening before her death, Adeline had visited one of her neighbors, appearing in good health and spirits.  And upon going to bed that evening was animated.  The next morning however, she did not appear at breakfast.  So one of her children, aged 7, so presumably little Francis, was sent to wake her up.  He soon returned to the breakfast table crying, saying that his mother was dead.  The family laughed and told him she was not dead, but sleeping.  He stood by his story saying she always talked to him, but she didn't this morning and her eyes were open.  This gave the family and start and they ran to her room to find that she was indeed dead, having appeared to have passed peacefully.  The physicians pronounced that her death was caused by ossification of the heard. She had been a woman of "unusual powers of mind; and in her intercourse with society had won universal respect and esteem.  Her sudden exit has cast a gloom over our whole community that cannot soon be replaced."

So it was repeated sadness and grief for the children of this family.  Justus Burdick had just died on 6 July 1849, and now less than two months later, on 4 September 1849, Adeline (Mower) Burdick dies, at the young age of 47. They are buried in Mountain Home Cemetery, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Our common ancestor couple is Samuel Mower and Elizabeth Sprague. My line of descent is: [1} Samuel Mower, [2] Jonathan Mower, [3] John Mower, [4] Martin Mower, [5] George Mower, [6] Frank Lester Mower, [7] George Richardson Mower, [8] Frank Edward Mower, [9] Dale Walter Mower.  Adeline's line of descent is: [1] Samuel Mower, [2] Samuel Mower, [3] Henry Mower, [4] Adeline (Mower) Burdick.

Selected Sources

• "Death of Mrs. Burdick," Kalamazoo Gazette, 7 September 1849, p. 2; image copy, Genealogy Bank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 28 December 2011, Newspaper Archives.
• Mower, Lyman and Karen. The Ancestors and Descendants of Hannah (Haile) Mower. Durham, New Hampshire : Lyman and Karen Hoiriis Mower, 1997.

Wilmot Thayer Vickery, Union Soldier

My current grand overall genealogical focus is the family and descendants of Jonathan and Ruhamah (Gould) Vickery of Glenburn, Maine, my 3x great-grandparents on my dad's side of the family.  I am working my way through the names and dates, looking at ways to add more substance to the narrative.  One in this family that I have become a little fixated on in is my great granduncle Wilmot Thayer Vickery (in fact, his framed photo now hangs in my home office).  So I'm tackling a little research on the Civil War itself, the regiment that he served in, and the life he left at home.

Declaration for an Original Pension 

of a Father or Mother

I have long extolled the genealogical value that can be discovered within a Civil War Pension File.  In fact, I have done presentations on this very subject. And yes, I was excited to see that there was a pension request filed by my great-great-grandmother, Betsey (Gibbs) Vickery, in 1886 as the mother of Wilmot Thayer Vickery. So I hired a professional genealogist to obtain a copy of it for me from the National Archives. Over the next few weeks, I plan on sharing some of the treasures that are contained in that pension request - from numerous affidavits to copies of letters that Wilmot wrote home to his parents.  It promises to be an interesting journey, and give a great glimpse into why I love Civil War pension files.

First, a little background on Wilmot himself.  He was the fourth of nine children born to Stephen Thayer and Betsey (Gibbs) Vickery. He was born on 25 Sep 1843 in Glenburn, Maine.  It seems he was the son destined to stay on the home farm, helping his father, and in all probability taking over the farm upon his father's death.  However, fate had a different path.  He enlisted to fight in the Civil War as a private, working his way to 2nd Lieutenant of Company L, First Maine Heavy Artillery.  He was mortally wounded in the Battle of Spottsylvania on 19 May 1864, a gunshot wound to the head.  He died on 26 May 1864 in the Emory Hospital in Washington, D.C.  His body was brought back to Maine and buried in the Vickery Family Plot in Lakeview Cemetery, Glenburn, Maine.

1886 being the year the pension request was filed is significant.  Stephen Thayer Vickery died on 30 November of that and he had been in poor health for some time.  Betsey, looking at approaching widowhood, was taking steps to find a way to receive funds to help her live on.  Much of the pension paperwork revolves around the issue of whether Wilmot Vickery was supporting his family before and during his service, and that his loss caused financial hardship for the family.  In fact, one piece of correspondence to the Pension Office put forth an opinion that the request was a scam.  There was a Special Investigation, which may not have been good for Betsey at the time, but of great benefit to us many years later, the most important being that copies of the letters home from Wilmot are submitted as evidence that he was sending money back home, but they contain so much other insights beyond that fact.  They are just fun to read as well.

So we'll look at this together as I work my way through transcribing all the documents.  What I have read thus far has already created a few fractures in what I had always envisioned, that the family was well-to-do and successful. Sometimes we learn the truth is perhaps different, or perhaps it's a matter of perspective.

Colonel Eben Webster of Orono, Maine

Today's focus is a fourth great grand uncle as his name surfaces in an 1882 book History of Penobscot County, Maine, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. One has to be cautious of material presented in these types of volumes, as biographical information submitted by individuals or their descendants may be a bit exaggerated.  That said, it can provide some great leads and insights.

Eben[ezer] Webster was a son of Andrew and Martha (Crane) Webster, born 3 October 1780 in Bangor.  The family lived in the waterfront neighborhood near the intersection of Maine and Water Streets, moving to Orono about 1795.  Eben married Lucy Dudley, a daughter of Paul and Martha (Foster) Dudley, on 5 September 1805. Together they had 9 children.

According to the History, Colonel Webster was "a man of great enterprise and public spirit, and for more than half a century was one of the most active business men in the county. He spotted and cut the military road from Mattawamkeag to Haynesville, through a vast forest for thirty miles. Judge T. H. Allen was accustomed to say that he was by nature the most perfect gentlemen he had ever known.  In an obituary notice of him published in one of the Bangor papers it was said: 'He will long be remembered by the community in which he lived for his enterprise and perseverance as a business man, but longer and better for the rare and generous qualities developed in his social and family relations, and which formed so prominent a part of his character and stamped him one of nature's noblemen.'" His lumber business was located in the City of Old Town, Maine, where he first settled.  E. & E. Webster purchased the double saw mill of William Dale of that town, expanding his operation in 1817 by building another mill. He operated these mills until 1823 when he sold out and moved to Orono.

Webster Lake and Webster Brook, located primarily in Baxter State Park, Piscataquis County, Maine, were named for him.

The family of Eben and Lucy (Dudley) Webster were:

1. Martha, b. 17 Aug 1806, m. Joseph Treat of Orono.
2. Alexander, b. 5 Jun 1808, d. 22 Oct 1809.
3. Lucy, b. abt 1810, m. Josiah Bennoch of Orono.
4. Ebenezer, b. 21 May 1812, m. 1st. Martha A. Trafton of Bangor, 2nd Polly S. Crowell of Orono.
5. Paul Dudley, b. 3 Sep 1814, m. Lucina M. Crowell of Orono.
6. Ann B., b. 17 Jul 1816, m. William H. Allen of Orono.
7. Susan H., b. 1 Jan 1819, m. William Averill of Orono.
8. Catherine B., b. 7 Mar 1821, m. Nathan Weston Jr. of Orono.
9. Mary Maud, b. 24 Jul 1824, m. Israel Washburn Jr. of Orono (Governor of Maine 1861-1863).

Eben died 16 August 1855 in Orono and Lucy died 28 Mary 1859.  They are buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine.

Ebenezer Webster Plot at Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Maine

Our nearest common ancestors are Andrew and Martha (Crane) Webster, with Eben being a younger brother of my fourth great-grandmother Prudence (Webster) Hasey.  My line of descent is: [1] Andrew Webster, [2] Prudence (Webster) Hasey, [3] Martha (Hasey) Gibbs, [4] Betsey (Gibbs) Vickery, [5] Stephen Thayer Vickery, [6] Edward William Vickery, [7] Harriet Elizabeth (Vickery) Mower, [8] Frank Edward Mower, [9] Dale Walter Mower.

Selected Sources:

• History of Penobscot County, Maine, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland, Ohio: Williams, Chase & Co., 1882), p. 835, digital images, Google Books (http://books.Google.com: accessed 27 July 2018)
• Gray, Ruth, editor. Maine Families in 1790, vol. 1 (Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 1988), p. 284.
• Porter, Joseph W., editor. The Bangor Historical Society later The Maine Historical Magazine 1885-1894, vol. 4-6 (Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1993), pp. 847-8

John Ham Hasey, Innkeeper

The oldest of six children born to Andrew Webster and Nancy (Johnson) Hasey, John Ham Hasey was born 1 November 1822 in Bangor, Maine.  On 30 Apr 1849, in Bangor, Mary Jane Mower.  The Rev. Nathan D. George uniting the couple in matrimony.  Mary Jane was the daughter of Martin and Mary (Underhill) Mower.  The couple had no children.  Sadly, John died young at the age of 42, on 9 April 1865 in Glenburn, Maine.

John Hasey was my first cousin 4 times removed, our most common ancestors being William and Prudence (Webster) Hasey.  And yes, if you were wondering, his wife Mary Jane is my second great grandaunt.  It's fun when ancestral families link together.

As an adult, John lived in Glenburn, Maine, where he is found on the 1850 Federal Census as an Innkeeper. (In 1860, he is listed as a Landlord).  It is apparent that he was also involved in farming as he is included on the agricultural schedules for both the 1850 and 1860 Federal Census.  He owned 112 acres of "improved" land with a value in 1860 of $4,000.  I believe his farm was located on the Pushaw Road near the intersection of Hudson Road.

His primary occupation though was Innkeeper.  In an 1851 advertisement in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, he is connected with the Massasoit House on the Borders of Pushaw Lake. Interestingly, in the book The Story of a Town: Glenburn, Maine 1822-1972, there is a discussion of four hotels near Pushaw Lake, however no mention of Massasoit House.  There is a reference to the Perch House, the authors noting that it was "built by a Hasey" and passed through a few hands until it burned in the early 1900s.  The Perch house was famous for its perch dinner and is mentioned in the Ben Ames Williams’ novel Strange Woman.  It is my current thinking is that the Massasoit House and the more familiarly named Perch House were one and the same.  This is further supported by a listing in A Business Directory of the Subscribers to the New Map of Maine (which is undated but appears to be from about 1861) shows J. H. Hasey with occupation of “Perch House.”

The old advertisement reads: 

Bangor Daily Whig and Courier

Friday, 25 July 185

MASSASOIT HOUSE ON THE BORDERS OF PUSHAW LAKE

JOHN H. HASEY
    Has erected a new, large and convenient Hotel on the borders of PUSHAW LAKE, one of the most desirable watering places in the State of Maine, for the accommodation of travelers, parties of pleasure, invalids, and permanent boarders. The house has been built with special reference to this business, contains a large hall, and is thorough finished and amply furnished.
    The distance from the City Hall of Bangor is seven miles over a good road. The house commands a splendid view of Pushaw Lake, with its beautiful green islands and its shores studded with the dark forest.
    Safe and swift sail-boats for the accommodation of large parties, with experienced boatmen, are connected with the house, and are furnished with all necessary fishing apparatus for taking the White Perch, Pickerel, and other lake fish, which are abundant in the waters of the lake.

    Every attention will be paid to the wants, wishes, and comfort of visitors, and parties may be assured of receiving full accommodations at any hour.

    There are very few pleasure resorts from the city of Bangor, and it is the determination of the Proprietor of the Massasoit House that the excellence of his accommodations and the variety of his means of promoting the pleasures and diversions of his guests shall compensate for variety elsewhere.

JOHN H. HASEY

Glenburn, July 16, 1851

Selected Sources

• “The Massasoit House on the Borders of Pushaw Lake,” advertisement, Bangor (Maine) Daily Whig and Courier, 25 July 1851, p. 3, col. 1.
• Berry, Clyde G. and Naida J. Gallant,The Story of a Town: Glenburn, Maine 1822-1972 (Privately Printed for Glenburn Sesquicentennial Celebration, 1972), 102.
• A Business Directory of the Subscribers to the New Map of Maine, With a Brief History and Description of the State, Prepared by William Willis; also, Valuable Statistics and Advertisements (Portland: J. Chace, Jr. & Co., n.d.), 105.