Friday, December 13, 2019

Correction! It's Fitz Henry Lane

Sarah Dunlap, the Co-Chair of the Gloucester Archives Committee kindly pointed out that I had a brain-lapse and mistakenly called the famed artist Fitz Hugh Lane when in fact his middle name is Henry.

This brings me to another point:  the man changed his name from Nathaniel Rogers Lane in 1829. 

There is a terrific website created by the Cape Ann Museum about him and his amazing artwork:

http://fitzhenrylaneonline.org/homepage.php

As I mentioned yesterday, his home was preserved during the urban renewal of the 1960's.

More information and photographs can be found here:

http://fitzhenrylaneonline.org/historical_material/?section=Lane%27s+Stone+House%2C+Duncan%27s+Point

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Looking at Daniel Taylor

Daniel Taylor 1849-1919


Daniel Taylor is my paternal great grandfather.  I have never seen a photograph of him until now.  This image came to me from a cousin, Allen Head who I have been corresponding with for about 2 years. He was the recipient of several pieces of memorabilia from another cousin, Jane Apitz Doran who is a descendant of Lottie Head.

Daniel Taylor was born January 8, 1849 in Wood Islands, on the southern shore of Prince Edward Island, Canada to John Taylor and Eunice Hume.  His paternal grandfather, Donald Taylor arrived to the island from Skipness, Scotland in 1820 with three small boys. Daniel’s father, John was one of them.  Daniel is the first of this Taylor line to immigrate to the United States.

 Map of Wood Islands


Daniel first married Margaret Campbell on June 1, 1874 at the Bonshaw Presbyterian Church on the island.  He went to Boston in 1875 to work as a ship carpenter.  He is listed on the 1880 census as a widower at 13 Bennington Street, East Boston living with another ship carpenter. I have been unable to locate more information about Margaret.



                                 Marriage Record of Daniel Taylor and Margaret Campbell


                                                    Bonshaw Presbyterian Church

He then married Ella Sarah Allen on March 21, 1882 in Gloucester. Ella was the daughter of William Allen and Zylpha Ann Head.  Ella, too, left Prince Edward Island for Boston and was working as a domestic servant for a widower and his two boys in 1880.  Whether Daniel and Ella met in Boston or Gloucester is unclear.  However, my supposition is that they met in Gloucester, which is a far smaller city than Boston with more opportunities to mingle. They are both listed as residents of Gloucester on their marriage record.

           Marriage Record of Daniel Taylor and Ella S. Allen (Near the bottom of the page)

On September 27, 1886, Daniel filed a Petition for Naturalization and was granted citizenship on the same day in U.S. District Court, Boston.  His witnesses were Eurastis Howes, a Gloucester ship carpenter and Leo Campbell a mariner from East Boston that had previously lived in Gloucester. Leo was about the same age as Daniel and also born in Prince Edward Island. He may have been related to Daniel’s first wife, Margaret Campbell.


                                     Naturalization Petition and Certificate, 27 Sep 1886

Daniel worked as a ship carpenter at the Burnham Brothers Marine Railway on Wharf St. which is now at Harbor Loop next to the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center.  In several Gloucester directories he is listed as a foreman carpenter at the railway. This facility was built in 1849 and is the oldest continuously working marine railway in the country.

                             The Burnham Brothers Marine Railway and Grist Mill, 1882
 

                                   The Railway From the Harbor, Date Unknown
 

             Lot Map, dated 1917. The Taylor house is at the corner of Locust and Water Streets

The family lived in the same harborside neighborhood as the railway at 12 Locust Street for 51 years, which was close to the home of artist Fitz Hugh Lane which still remains.  After the area was ravaged by several fires in the mid-1950’s the area was finally demolished in 1966 to form the Harbor Loop.  Looking at an old map of the area, I would imagine Daniel walked home for his mid-day meal.

He and Ella raised eight children in that home. 

Their children were:

Everett Allen (1882-1885), d. age 2 of pneumonia.

Eunice Zylpha (1884-1962), m. Charles Moore Osborn and lived in Dayton, Ohio.

Alphonso Daniel (1887-1957), known as “Bill”, m. Elizabeth Jane Doucette, d. Gloucester
.
Charles Allen (1889-1976), m. Hazel Marguerite Witham, d. Tustin, California.

Charlotte M. (1891-1910), m. Clarence William Predmore, died of complications of pregnancy, age 19 in Ithaca, New York.

Carrie Ella (1896-1965), unmarried, d. Dayton, Ohio.

Evelyn (1904-1944), m. Jacob Edwin Spittle, d. Gloucester.



            Photos of 12 Locust Street taken in the 1960's before urban renewal demolition.            



My mother, Ethel Zylpha Taylor, was only six years of age when her grandfather passed away.  She once told me that she remembered him as a frail elderly man in a wheel chair.  He died in Gloucester on August 20, 1919 at the age of 70 of colon cancer. He is buried at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in east Gloucester, across the harbor from where he lived and worked.

                       The railway next to the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center, 2011.

                             The inscription says "Taylor Made, also taken in 2011.

                         Daniel Taylor's signature, an inscription inside his family Bible.

Sources: 
Canadian Register; database with images, Canada’s Historic Places [https://www.historicplaces.ca ; accessed 11 Dec 2019]; Bonshaw Hall; citing Parks Canada. 

“Collection of Sandra Steele DeFord,” digital image, “Taylor Made” by Sandra Steele DeFord, 2011.


Daniel Taylor. Family Bible Records, The Holy Bible (unknown publisher), signature of Daniel Taylor, digital image; privately held by Susan Taylor Richardson, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center, publisher, “Burnham Brothers Railway: Stories from the Neighborhood. An Oral History,” cover image; Gloucester Maritime Heritage Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2011.

Harbor Loop Urban Renewal Photographs, 12 Locust Street; digital image; Gloucester Archives Committee, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

“Historic Photo Collection”, Burnham Brothers marine railway, Cape Ann Museum; Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2011.

Regional Map of Wood Islands, PEI; digital images, Tide-Forecast.com [https://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Wood-Island-Prince-Edward-Island: accessed 11 Dec 2019]; citing Meteo365.com Ltd.

"Massachusetts, Index to Boston Passenger Lists, 1848-1891", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 6 December 2015), Daniel Taylor, 1875; citing immigration, ship Carroll, microfilm publication M265, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C.,1969, roll 258, image 894/4090.

"Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch [https://familysearch.org : 11 Dec 2019], Daniel Taylor and Ella S. Allen, 004279765 > image 226 of 959; citing Massachusetts State Archives, Boston.

"Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920," database with images, FamilySearch [https://familysearch.org : accessed 22 October 2019], Daniel Taylor, 20 Aug 1919; City of Gloucester, certificate 237, page 81, and Massachusetts State Archives, Boston.

"Prince Edward Island Marriage Registers, 1832-1888,", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 6 December 2015), Daniel Taylor and Margaret Campbell, 01 Jun 1874; citing Prince Edward Island, Canada, Public Archives, Charlottetown; FHL microfilm 1,630,094; Marriages 1871-1878 p. 11 stamped in book, image 6/292.

“Public Member Trees,” database, Ancestry.com [https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 Dec 2019]; “MAH Family Tree” by Allen Head, profile of Daniel Taylor (1949-1919); citing Jane Doran collection.

“State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1798-1950”, Daniel Taylor, petition and certificate, 27 Sep 1886, Vol 135, p 1, item 183; Ancestry.com [https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 Dec 2019], citing U.S. District Court, Boston, Massachusetts; RG 85.

U.S. Census, 1880, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Boston, enumeration district 576, p. 7 [written], p. 144C [stamped], family 77, Daniel Taylor in the household of Charles Burns; digital images, Family Search [https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 10 December 2019]; citing National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; RG 29, publication T9.

U.S. Census, 1900, Essex County, Massachusetts, population schedule, city of Gloucester, enumeration district (ED) 278, sheet 15B [written], family 230, Daniel Taylor household; digital images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 December 2019); citing National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., RG 29, publication T623, roll 641.

“U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989”, Gloucester Directory 1890-1891 and Rockport Business Directory; Daniel Taylor, 1890, p. 205, Ancestry.com; Sampson, Murdock & Co., Boston.