On this date in our family history . . . the 15th day of June . . . in the year 1762 . . . it is said that Jerusha Milliken is born in Cumberland County, Maine . . . her parents are Edward Milliken and Elizabeth Harmon . . . Jerusha grows up and marries Rufus Levi Merrill in 1781 . . . and they become the parents of multiple children, including Phineas Merrill . . . Jerusha is a 5th great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .
On this date in our extended family history . . . the 9th day of November . . . in the year 1872 . . . our distant cousin, Oliver Rice Chase, had a business building destroyed by the flames of the Great Boston Fire . . . unfortunately, it was just one year earlier (in October of 1871) when Oliver's brother, Daniel, lost his business due to the Great Chicago Fire . . . my common ancestors with this particular branch of the Chase family are Aquila Chase and his wife, Anne Wheeler . . .
Sometime after the 1872 fire, another distant cousin, Abner W. Harmon, penned the words to a poem memorializing that conflagration . . . our common ancestors with Abner are John Harmon and his wife, Sarah Roberts . . .
Here is cousin Abner's poem . . .
The Great Fire in Boston.
Composed by A. W. Harmon.
On the ninth of November,
in eighteen seventy-two,
All nature and old Boston
looked gay with splendid hue;
The sky was clear and beautiful,
the stars were sparkling bright,
And Boston looked most lovely,
for it was Saturday night.
The evening meal was finished,
from care and labor riven,
When suddenly and loudly,
the alarm of fire was given,
And in a single moment
the fire bells rang aloud,
The cry of fire was echoed,
and faster flew the crown.
The Firemen came out quickly,
brave hearted men and true,
but little were they thinking,
of the great work to do;
Fast flew the fire,
consuming wealth, honor, fame and pride,
And the bravest of the Firemen,
it instantly defied.
And by the City authorities
every effort was made,
To stop the progress of the fire;
while hundreds lent their aid,
The Firemen worked like heroes,
as on the flames they played;
Engines from various places,
with speed come to their aid.
On Summer Street and Kingston,
on Otis, Milk and High,
On Federal, Pearl and Congress,
swift did the Fire-Fiend fly,
On Deveonshire and Washington,
State, Franklin Street and Arch,
Destroying all before it,
as eastward it did march.
And what was but yesterday
a beautiful prosperous place,
Is now a scene of desolation,
its beauties all erased,
Saving only a wilderness
in this part of the town,
Of chimney stacks and broken walls,
that had not tumbled down.
The merchant and the pauper,
alike they looked aghast,
Through iron, steel and marble,
the great destroyer pas'd,
Thousands of costly buildings,
in vengeance down it felled,
And O, what sad destruction,
the Sabbath morn beheld.
Merchants their goods were packing,
ere their store walls fell down,
And loaded teams were hurrying
in all directions round;
The smoke so high ascended,
the villagers did say,
'Twas seen to rise from Boston,
a hundred miles away.
One fourth of that fine City
in ashes now is laid,
And a great change in business
it certainly had made;
The merchant and mechanic,
the toilor son and sire,
All, all are now lamenting with grief,
that terrible fire.
Hundreds of once rich merchants,
are by the fire made poor,
Thousands of people feel it,
the toiler's heart is sore;
But enterprise smiles bravely,
the merchants are awake,
They rise for their own benefit,
and for humanity's sake.
The wealth it took the people
for many years to gain,
The wealth it took the labor,
and the brains to obtain;
The Fire-Fiend with derision,
looked on with hateful scorn,
And grasped the best and costliest part,
between sunset and morn.
When the city of Chicago
had felt the Fire-Fiend's power,
Had seen its flames ascending,
in a dark and dismal hour,
Boston arose with sympathy,
the helping hand to lend,
Provision, money and clothing,
for her relief did send.
But little was Boston thinking,
so soon it would require,
Sympathy and assistance,
for its great loss by fire;
Towns, villages and cities,
has felt its power and wrath,
And thousands of our merchants
have laid low in its path.
Behold the noble Firemen,
so gallant and so brave,
See how they toil and labor,
buildings and wealth to save;
They risk their lives for others,
do all the good they can,
Toil for their neighbor's comfort,
for woman, child and man.
Clicking on the thumbnail to the left will allow you to view a vintage image of the 1872 poem by A.W. Harmon . . . courtesy of the Brown University Library . . . and, FYI, as mentioned in the very first paragraph of this blogpost . . . Oliver R. Chase did lose his place of doing business in this fire . . . but all youth, and those who are young at heart, can be grateful that the fire losses experienced by the Chase brothers did not put a halt to their enterprising natures . . . 'cause 'twas their 19th century endeavors that provided the very beginnings of the New England Confectionery Company . . . which still gives us Necco Wafers . . . as well as the Sweetheart candies that have become a fixture for Valentine's Day . . .
This blogpost was researched and prepared specifically for cousin Bill's Fourth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge.
On this date in our family history . . . the 23rd day of May . . . in the year 1754 . . . Elizabeth "Betsey" Harmon becomes the bride of Lieut. Edward Milliken in Scarboro, Maine . . . this Betsey and Edward are 6th great-grandparents to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .
The Harmon genealogy, comprising all branches in New England (Google eBook)
by Artemas Canfield Harmon
Printed by Gibson bros., inc., 1920
The History and Antiquities of New England ...Embracing the Following Subjects, Viz:... Anecdotes, Traditions, Remarkable & Unaccountable Occurrenceswith a Great Variety of Curious & Interesting Relics of AntiquityBy John Warner Barber
In or near the area of the southern part of Maine were living at this exact time in history certain ancestors of ours, including (but not limited to) . . . Daniel Merrill & and his wife, Hannah Runnels . . . and their son, Levi Merrill & his wife, Jerusha Milliken . . . and Jerusha's father, Edward Milliken . . . and Edward's father-in-law . . . Samuel Nathaniel Harmon.
Also Thomas Thurston and his wife, Lucy Fenderson . . . and his widowed mother, Martha Piper.
Also Morrill Hobbs and his wife, Miriam Brackett . . . and his widowed mother, Abigail Urann Hobbs . . . and Miriam's parents, John Brackett and Miriam Thompson . . . and John's father, Samuel Brackett.
The darkness commenced between the hours of 10 and 11 A.M., and continued to the middle of the next night. It was occasioned by a thick vapour or cloud, tinged with a yellow color, or faint red, and a thin coat of dust was deposited on white substances.
The wind was in the southwest; and the darkness appeared to come on with clouds in that direction. Its extent was from Falmouth, (Maine,) to New Jersey. The darkness appears to have been the greatest in the county of Essex, (Mass.) in the lower part of New Hampshire, and Maine; it was also great in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
In most parts of the country where the darkness prevailed, it was so great, that persons were unable to read common print, determine the time of day by their clocks or watches, dine, or manage their domestic business, without additional light; 'candles were lighted up in their houses; the birds having sung their evening songs, disappeared and became silent; the fowls retired to roost; the cocks were crowing all around as at break of day; objects could be distinguished but a very little distance; and every thing bore the appearance and gloom of night.'
The following is an extract of a letter from Dr. Tenney to the Massachusetts Historical Society, giving an account of the dark day of May, 1780.
"You will readily recollect that, previously to the commencement of the darkness, the sky was overcast with the common kind of clouds, from which there was, in some places a light sprinkling of rain. Between these and the earth there intervened another stratum, to appearance of very great thickness. As this stratum advanced, the darkness commenced and increased with its progress till it came to its height; which did not take place till the hemisphere was a second time overspread. The uncommon thickness of this second stratum was probably occasioned by two strong currents of wind from the southward and westward, condensing the vapours and drawing them in a north-easterly direction. I remember this observation was made by an anonymous writer in one of the public papers soon after the event.
As I set out the next day, from my father's at Rowley, to join my regiment in New Jersey, I had an opportunity to inform myself what were the appearances in different parts of the country between here and Pennsylvania. The result of my enquiries, on that journey, and after my return, was that the darkness was most gross in the county of Essex, the lower part of the State of New-Hampshire and the old Province of Maine. In Rhode-Island and Connecticut it was not so great, and still less in New-York. In New-Jersey the second stratum of clouds was observed, but not of any great thickness; nor was the darkness very uncommon. In the lower parts of Pennsylvania, if my recollection does not fail me, no extraordinary appearance was noticed. Through this whole extent the lower stratum had an uncommon brassy hue, while the earth and trees were adorned with so enchanting a verdure as could not escape notice, were amidst the unusual gloom that surrounded the spectator. This gradual increase of the darkness from southwest to northeast, which was nearly the course of the clouds, affords a pretty good argument in favour of the supposition that they were condensed by two strong currents of wind blowing in different directions. To these two strata of clouds we may, without hesitation, impute the extraordinary darkness of the day."
