Genealogical Field Trip with Cousins Howard and Dotti

If there is anything better than finding nuggets of information on your ancestors, it's finding your living cousins that are interested in your mutual line.  On my journey searching the story of my great (x2) grandmother Rose Towle, I've been exceedingly blessed to find and meet so many wonderful cousins.   I've grown especially fond of cousins Howard and Dotti Towle.  Howard's grandfather is Gerry Towle of the former "Is Los Angeles Gerry Towle 1870 New Hampshire census George Towle?" mystery.  Gerry Towle, Howard's grandfather, is my great-great grandmother Rose's brother.  This makes Howard Towle my second cousin.  Second cousin, twice removed if you wish to be technically correct.  I don't know this, by the way.  Once I get beyond first cousins, I need a Internet Cousin Calculator.  Or I have to draw a chart and start counting on my fingers and toes.

I had originally met cousins Howard and Dotti Towle back in July at Mike and Jessica's going away party.  We caught up again last October over lunch and ancestry documents over at Haven's Gastropub in Orange.  Cousin Howard is a virtual font of history on both his Los Angeles Towle line and southern California history.  Dotti is also a genealogist and has terrific stories of traipsing through brush in Ohio searching for her ancestor's graves. We had such a great time together, we decided to take a field trip after the holidays were over.  I would take them to see Gerry and Gertrude's graves and we'd see if we could find some of the early homes that the family lived in Los Angeles.  Last Thursday, we did just that.

We first headed out to Inglewood Memorial Park.  Having gone there with Teresa last fall, I knew where to find Gerry and Gertrude Towle.  At least I'd know where in the cemetery they were once we got to the general vicinity.  Inglewood Park is enormous.  

On the way, Dotti had mentioned that while we were at the cemetery she'd like to see if she could find the graves of the couple that originally owned the property of her favorite salon.  The salon is a former residence of a couple of early 20th c. married trapeze artists.  The couple had never had children and throughout their marriage they remained exceptionally devoted to one another.  The wife was performing in Europe when she met an untimely and early demise.  During her trapeze act, she had reached for the rings, one had broken, and she fell to her death.  Blind with grief, the husband commissioned an elaborate memorial at Inglewood Cemetery.  Dotti said the grave was supposed to be pretty fantastic, featuring a statue of winged angel holding a petite woman; the angel representing the husband; the woman, the wife.  I wanted to see it too but without a map and directions I wasn't holding out a lot of hope.  It took Teresa and I the better part of an hour to find Gerry Towle's grave with directions, a map, and a maintenance working helping us.  I figured we could always circle back to the cemetery office and ask them for assistance. 

Entering the cemetery and unable to remember which of the 3 roads lead to the Towle graves, I instructed Howard to take the second one.  About 100 feet in, I knew I was mistaken.  Ugh.  Apologizing to Howard, I looked up and saw a statue of large, winged angel holding a woman in his sheltering arms.  Could it be?  Yes!  Two minutes into the cemetery and we bumbled right to the grave Dotti wanted to find!  

Dotti and I got out of the truck and took a few pictures,  It is a quite an impressive memorial.

Afterward, it didn't take to long to find Gerry Towle's grave.  I remembered it was next to a pine tree and near the mausoleum where Teresa and I covertly popped the Heineken for Gerry's ceremonial pour out.  Howard had never visited his grandparent's graves so it was especially terrific to share that with him.  Dotti found some flowers the wind had tossed onto the grass so she placed them on the graves.  Perfect.

On the road we found one of the houses that Gerry and Gertrude had once lived in.  Much like my adventure in Haverhill looking for my grandparents former residences, time hasn't always been kind to these old homes.  Many of them have been replaced by highways, parking lots, and new(er) construction.  It was a treat to find a former Towle home still standing in Los Angeles, and a lovely home at that.  Never having traveled through this part of LA, I was impressed how elements of the architecture are so reminiscent of the homes found in New England.  A bit more modern in their construction but the grecian lines of the porch, the protruding, three-paned window, and the suggestion of a attic window on the roof look hauntingly similar. 

We finished our field trip with a terrific lunch (and wine tasting!) at the San Antonio Winery.  What a fabulous afternoon!   I had told Howard and Dotti that lunch was my treat since they so kindly treated me to lunch the last time we were together.  They agreed but Howard managed to pick up the check before we even ordered.  Howard is both exceedingly generous and damn sneaky.  I'll have to be doubly sneaky and on my toes when we go to New Hampshire for the genealogical cross-country field trip in the fall.

The Last Will & Testament of Hannah Nickett

A couple of month ago, I sent an email request to the New Hampshire State House to request the probate records of grandfathers Ludovicus Towle, Elbridge Gerry Towle and his wife, Hannah Clayton Towle Nickett.  Last week, I received an email from them indicating that they had in their holdings the probate records of both Ludovicus Towle and Hannah Nickett - nothing for grandfather Elbridge Towle (Grrrr!).

Ludovicus Towle died intestate (without a will) in 1859.  I received a few pages of the total inventory of his farm and belongings (I'm still working on deciphering the tiny, mid-19th c. handwriting, but it's fabulous reading); Hannah Nickett did leave a will.  And this is it:

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Last Will and Testament of Hannah Clayton (Towle) Nickett (4th July 1905)

Transcribed:

I, Hannah J Nickett, of Kingston, in the county of Rockingham, and the state of New Hampshire, do make this my last will and testament.

I give and bequeath to each of my children, Rose Ann Pratt, wife of Fred W. Pratt, Hannah J. Dole, wife of Elias P. Dole; Ida Bly wife of Daniel Bly; Mary L Muzzy widow of Arthur E Muzzy and Gary Towle, the sum of one dollar each; and to my said daugther, Mary L. Muzzy all the rest and residue of my estate, real and personal after the payment of legal claims against the same.

I do hereby constitute and appoint Robert C Bryden of Haverhill in the County of Essex, and the commonwealth of Massachusetts, sole executor of this my last will and testament and request that he be required to give no bond or surety for the faithful discharge of said trust.

Witness my hand and seal this 4th of July 1905

Hannah J Nickett

Signed and sealed by the above named Hannah J Nickett as her last will and testament and by us in her presence and at her request, subscribed as witnesses.

Mary F Peaslee 

Horace M Hills

William N Hills

I found a couple of things of interest:  First, the estate of Hannah Nickett was worth much more than $5.  She still owned a few acres of land in Kingston, her house, along with all of her personal and household belongings.  How can leaving $1 to children Rose, Hannah, Gerry, and Ida not be personal commentary on her relationships with them?  While her son, Gerry Towle had left for California nearly a decade prior to the creation of this document, clearly geography played no part as she didn't leave my grandmother Rose Pratt or my Aunts Hannah Dole and Ida Blye any more or less than their brother Gerry.  Both my grandmother Rose and her sisters Hannah and Ida were living nearby in Haverhill, Salisbury, and Revere Massachusetts.  Like my grandmother, my Aunt Mary Muzzey was also living in Haverhill.  Though Aunt Mary was the only one of her children without a living spouse or children, Hannah could have mentioned in her will that the intention in leaving virtually everything to Mary was done in effort provide Mary additional financial security- she didn't do this.  Had she entirely failed to mention Rose, Hannah, Gerry, or Ida there would have been grounds to claim that the will was in error and thus could be contested (had any of them desired to do so).  Leaving them each a single dollar makes this impossible.  It says, "I remember you; I just don't wish to leave anything to you."  It's the equivalent of leaving your waiter a handful of pennies; which is worse than leaving them nothing at all.  This isn't the first time I've gotten the impression that my grandmother Hannah Nickett could be rather petty.

Also, Hannah Nickett mentions each of her children by name, along with their spouses; even the deceased spouse of Mary Towle Muzzey, Arthur E Muzzey gets a mention by name. The only spouse not mentioned by name is son Gerry Towle's wife, Gertrude Pickering Towle, who was very much alive in 1905 and had been married to her son for 22 years.  Hannah Nickett bought and sold a half-dozen parcels of land in Kingston and was completely familiar with the custom of mentioning the name of the spouse of the person buying/selling/obtaining/giving/receiving something of value on legal documents - if the intention is to convey the duel ownership.  That she mentions all her children's spouses but Gertrude is...interesting.  Hannah Nickett did the same thing to her daughter-in-law Gertrude in 1893 when she deeded her son Gerry Towle an acre of land in Kingston - no mention of his wife Gertrude on the document though Gerry and Gertrude had been married for a decade at the time.

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Hannah's deed of Kingston, NH land to son Gerry Towle (1893)

While it is true, a person has free will to be as petty and punitive as they choose to be in life, if they put it on paper and make it official, their granddaughter born 3 generations after the fact is free to obtain the documents and judge them as such.

Tsk-tsk-tsk.

So there.

Genealogical Ketchup

Yesterday, I received an email from the New Hampshire State Records office in response to my inquiry regarding probate records for grandfathers Ludovicus Towle, Elbridge Gerry Towle, and grandmother, Hannah Clayton Towle Nickett.  Unfortunately, there is no probate record for EG Towle in Rockingham County.  He remains elusive.  I can't find a birth record or death record for him.

I'm hoping to have a couple of questions answered within the other probate records:  Did Ludovicus Towle have any other children beyond son EG Towle?   And what did EG's wife, Hannah Clayton Towle Nickett leave in her will to the rest of her children?  New Hampshire land deeds have show that following her death, two of her children, Mary L Towle Muzzey and Gerry Towle, received land in Kingston, NH.  Did her other children, Rose Towle Pratt, Hannah Towle Dole and Ida Nickett Blye receive anything?  If so...what?

In other news, I got a message over on Ancestry.com from someone working on a tree for a friend.  Turns out, this friend is the great-grandson of Ida Nickett Blye.  Ida Nickett Blye is the daughter of Hannah Clayton Towle Nickett and her second husband following the death of EG Towle.  His mother searched out their Blye-Nickett line back in the 1980's but didn't get much information on them.  We have since made email contact and shared information.  He, cousin Chris, was kind enough to send along a photo of his grandmother Ida.  

Ida Mabel Nickett Towle

Chris tells me that Ida was alive up until 1964 - the year I was born.  Amazing.  He isn't sure when this photograph was taken but looking at it, the details of her clothing lead me to think that it was probably around the turn of the last century.  

While looking through my cousin Lisa Cochran Berl's old photos, I stumbled across this one.  Our grandmother Rose Towle Pratt.

Rose Ann Towle Pratt

Cousin Sally O'Connell should weigh in with her opinion but I find a striking resemblance between Rose and my cousin, Bill O'Connell.  This photo of Rose was also taken around the turn of the last century.  Rose looks considerably older than Ida - there was 17 year age difference between these siblings.  This age difference is also the reason why Ida is Chris' great-grandmother and Rose is my great-great grandmother.  Rose gave birth to my great-grandfather Walter Pratt, when Ida was 4..

I also found this on cousin Lisa's family archive:  A announcement for her shower thrown for her grandmother, Elizabeth (Betty) Clayton Pratt 

What's interesting about this - beyond the charming details of the newspaper social page reporting, is the attendance of one of her guests: Floris McCurdy.  Floris is my grandfather's Fred Pratt's first wife.  No one talked about this marriage; I didn't learn of it until after his death.  Lisa's grandmother Betty was only 3 years older than her nephew, my grandfather Fred Pratt.  Rose had 9 children, my grandfather Walter was #2, her grandmother Betty was #9.  I suspect Betty Pratt Birdsall was more like a cousin than an aunt to my grandfather Fred.   My grandfather Walter got married the same year (1900) that his sister Betty was born.

I've sent off for EG Towle's Court Martial record - all 66 pages of it.  I should hear back relatively soon as they tell me that they've already pulled the record and made the copies.  The more I work on EG and get nowhere, the more determined I am to see that he get at least a marble slab memorial courtesy of the US government.  No birth record (so far), no death record beyond his muster rolls and the government can't tell me what they did with his body after his death following the Battle of the Crater - which he survived for over a week...it doesn't seem right.  I don't know if I'm going to have to search manifests of the hospital ships in area at the time; or even if there is any, but it bothers me to no end that he has nothing to show for the sacrifice of his life in the Civil War.

American Psalm

I am directly related to at least two families that took the famous ship across the sea and into the history books; one on my mother's side; one on my father's side.  Despite what you might think, this having a Mayflower ancestor business isn't much of an exclusive club.  There are millions of Americans that can make the same claim.  After all, every generation expands exponentially.  Ten generations in from my Mayflower ancestors and you end up with a whole lot of cousins.  For example, should you stop to get your oil changed in say, Quincy MA, chances are fair that they guy putting the oil in your car is also a grandchild of one of those Pilgrims.

People have a mistaken notion about those that arrived to America in those early years.  They are considered, "blue bloods," "America's first families," and other colorful and if not historically accurate terms.  


I don't wish to sound disparaging but no one that was a gleaming success in their Motherland was about to take their lives in their hands and hop onboard a ship to come to a wilderness filled with people that didn't necessarily want them there.  Leaving a life as you know it and taking a leap into the great unknown isn't a choice people readily make; certainly not when they are wealthy, comfortable, and well fed.  It's a ballsy move, deserving of accolades; packing up what little you can carry and getting on a ship to take to you somewhere else based entirely on a belief.

"I am willing to risk everything on the chance that it's going to be better for me in America."

If there is an American Psalm, this is Chapter 1; Verse 1.

We are all the children of Pilgrims. 

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Ida Mabel Nickett Blye and Freeport Odds and Ends

I received this photograph via email today.  This is my great (x2) aunt Ida Nickett Blye; the sister of Rose, Gerry, Mary, and Hannah Towle.  Her great-grandson, Chris, recently found me through Ancestry.com and we've been sharing information.  Chris was unaware that his grandmother Ida had siblings; half, or otherwise.

I find it interesting to note that Ida is still wearing a wedding ring.  Her husband passed away in 1907.  I'm not sure when this photograph was taken but her clothing suggests the Edwardian Era (roughly 1890's-1914). 

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In other news, on different branch: Today I saw that the former residence of my final sea captain grandfather, Captain James Creech, is up for sale again (still?) in Freeport, Maine.  He built the house in 1848 and my great (x3) grandmother, Frances Creech lived there from the time she was 12 until her marriage to my grandfather, Justus Richardson Brewer.   It's at 181 Main St - within walking distance of the village proper.  Presently, it's a B&B.  

Grandfather Captain James Creech's Former Home

During my trips to Maine, I've driven by but have never stayed there.  The original asking price back before the market fell was in $850,000 range.  I seriously doubt that they'd get anywhere near that price now.  Either way, it's still quite a lovely home.  

A map of Freeport, circa 1870 hangs on a wall in my house.  Homes from both sides of this branch are depicted living down the street from one another.   Both my Creech and Brewer grandparents are found buried nearby one another in the Woodlawn Cemetery.  Grandmother Frances Creech Brewer is there as well, having died during childbirth in 1869.

My master ship building grandfather, Charles Brewer's house is now a craft store in Freeport that sells beads and whatnot.  It's called Abacus.  

Former home of Grandfather Charles Brewer 

Life moves on, kids.

Inglewood Park Cemetery and The Ceremonial Pour Out

I had never bought a beer at 8:30 in the morning before today.   Despite my many self-aggrandizing assertions of coolness and less-than-tasteful sense of humor, underneath it all  beats the heart of a little goody-two -shoes.   I am nothing if not concerned with image presentation.  And politeness.  And good public manners.  Sure, I'll say the outrageous thing to get the laugh but that's just between us, right?   Walking into a 7-11 to buy a beer and an bottle opener before business hours, on a weekday no less?  This was way, way out of my field of experience   "Can you buy beer at 8:30 in the morning?" I asked my husband in bed last night.  "Is it even legal?" 

"Where do you think you live?" he laughed.

So, before most people had arrived at work this morning, I pulled up to the neighborhood 7-11 and cheerfully bought the big ol' bottle of Heineken while trying to appear as if I wasn't the type of person who needed a beer before breakfast.  And I bought the .99 cent bottle opener since I forgot that little detail.  I then headed up the 405 to the Inglewood Park Cemetery.  

I've traveled 3,000 miles to visit my the grave of my grandmother Rose, and her sisters Mary and Hannah, and her mother Hannah, but I still hadn't visited the grave of her brother Gerry Towle, who rests right up the street from me in Inglewood.  52 miles from door to headstone and I hadn't yet made the trip.  And if I owe anyone a cemetery visit, it's Gerry Towle.   I've been through so much with this guy.  He's been a challenge from the start, but if not for the time I devoted to unraveling him,  I wouldn't have come across all these terrific Towle, Pratt, Birdsall, and O'Connell cousins.  I just wouldn't have been that naturally motivated.   Every time I'd hit another brickwall with him, I'd just get all the more determined.  The frustration brought the determination, and the determination brought the people, the pictures, and the family stories.  You could say that Gerry Towle has been something of a genealogical personal trainer for me; mercilessly tough but I'm a much better genealogist because of him.

When planning the field trip, it occurred to me that I owed him a little something more than the customary cemetery drop-by.  Maybe I could bring some sort of gift?  What do you sort of gift do you give a dead person?  My great-uncle is  definitely not the cemetery flowers type - this much I know.  My cousin Mike Towle, Gerry's great-grandson has helped me along the journey; I thought it'd be nice if I could give him a little shout-out on the visit, too.   With these things in mind, I decided that I'd perform the time honored, pour-out ceremony for Gerry on his behalf.   I know Mike's favorite brand of beer; Heineken.   It would be a ceremonial gift for the living and dead.  Perfect.

By the time I arrived, my friend Teresa was waiting for me.  She was there to see if she could find the graves of the original owners of her former boarding school house.  She had spoken to the mortuary's secretary and the people she was looking for weren't there.  We did have a couple of other graves to find for mutual a friend.  Inglewood Park Cemetery is huge.  Even with the maps that the clerk printed out, we had our work cut out for us.  First stop, uncle Gerry.  

Keeping true to form, Gerry was tough to find.  Even with the help of one of the landscapers who was kind enough to stop and give us a hand, we weren't finding him.  We fanned out a little and searched the general area where he was supposed to be.   Getting more frustrated by the second, I said under my breath, "Come on Gerry.  Tell me where you are."  This isn't unusual cemetery dialog for me.  Rarely do I find people in cemeteries easily and in desperation, I'll try just about anything.  Petition the dead?  Sure.  Why not?  It doesn't usually pay off but this time it did.  I turned to my right.  A headstone covered in pine needles, three graves down immediately caught my attention.  I walked directly over to it, crouched down, and brushed away the needles.   Voila. Gerry.

We couldn't do the ceremonial pour with the landscaper guy standing there so we went off to find other people.  Among them, Gerry's wife Gertrude.  She wasn't next to Gerry but was close by; about 15 yards and a couple of rows down.  Unfortunately, the sun came out so I couldn't take a photo directly above the headstone without getting shadows.

Teresa and I would go look for a grave and then return to Gerry's section in hopes that the landscapers had left.  They hadn't.  One had started in mowing.  He kept going back and forth while we stood there, waiting.  By this time it was getting late and we both had kids to go pick up from school.  We'd have to make a move.  Now or never.  I opened the trunk and pulled out the bottle of Heineken and crouching behind my car, opened it.  I handed Teresa the camera and wrapped the bottle in my hoodie - her idea.   We waited until the lawnmower man looped past Gerry's grave and headed in the other direction.  We then made a beeline for the headstone.  I pulled out the bottle of Heineken and started pouring.  Teresa took the shot.

On behalf of my California Towles with love from your New England born niece.  Cheers.  And thank you.  

On That Civil War Court Martial Thing

I discovered that my great (x3) grandfather, Elbridge Gerry Towle was court martialed  for desertion of duty during the Civil War when I ordered his complied military record from the National Archives last spring.  At the time, I was busy tracking down the paternity of his son Gerry Towle, so I just filed away that nugget of information and put "Order EG Towle's Court Martial Record from NARA" on my genealogical to-do list.  The truth is, the longer it has sat on my list, the less inclined I've been to order it.

It isn't like I don't enjoy a good black sheep story on the family tree.  I do.  Very much.  I have a number of grandparents with interesting, if not perfectly wholesome stories to tell.  There's my grandfather Ebenezer Church who couldn't accompany his famous brother Benjamin on the raid that resulted in the death of King Philip because he was in jail on fornication charges.  There are the grandmothers accused of witchcraft.  There's the grandfather who just up and left Pennsylvania one day to begin his life anew in Maine without bothering to mention the decision to his Pennsylvania family.  There's the grandfather that avenged his father's death in a saloon in Freeport, Maine...and got away with it scot-free.  All are good yarns but this one...this one is different.

Maybe it's because I know how his story ends, tragically, within less than a year of his court martial.  Maybe it's because I can piece together information I've gathered on his family and easily conclude how his death affected the course of their lives.  My grandmother Rose was 6 years old when she lost her father.   The family lost the 100 acre farm.  There were multiple moves, a remarriage, and 4 children that appear eager to leave their childhoods behind with early marriages and move-aways.  Maybe it's because the government that court martialed him doesn't seem to know what they did with him after his death on board a hospital ship.  They can tell me all about his transgression, yes.  They can tell me that he's dead.  But they can't tell me where they laid him to rest after he gave his life for his country.  There is no medical record.  There is no grave. There is no small piece of granite anywhere memorializing the life of my grandfather.  And this bothers me to no end.

From what I gathered from his service record, his company had been given an 8 week furlough and were to return to Concord, NH to meet up again .  EG Towle did this.  He returned to Concord when his furlough was up and began the journey south with the rest of his company.  He got as far as New York City when he went missing, "on or about July 20th, 1863."   Did something happen in New York?  Did he get word of some dire emergency back home?  Did he simply spend the preceding days traveling, ruminating on deserting?  Or was this an impulsive decision?   Whatever the reason, it must have been a good one because instead of executing him  (the usual punishment), or dishonorably discharging him (the exceedingly kind punishment, in most cases with a Presidential pardon), they simply stripped him of his rank (Sergeant) and sent him back to serve with his company.  He was sent to Hilton Head, South Carolina and eventually onto The Siege at Petersburg; The Battle of the Crater, then to a hospital ship and 10 days later, a grave.  He was 34 years old.

But the fact remains: whatever good reason he had for deserting most likely isn't going to be a happy, pleasant one.  This is why I've avoided ordering the record.  I've watched this family take a beating for months now and while I've throughly enjoyed meeting the present day cousins...it's been some painful research.

Today, I was tooling around the National Archives website and on a lark, put the name Elbridge Towle in the ARC search field.  Why yes, there is a paper record of a court martial concerning Elbridge G Towle in Concord, NH from the Nov 1863 files.   It's call number is LL-1833.  Would you like to order this?  $25, please.

I ordered it.  Yes, I'm ready to know.