1864 :: Death of Henry Hobbs

On this date in our family history . . . the 18th day of February . . . in the year 1864 . . . Henry Hobbs dies in Harrison Village, Cumberland County, Maine . . . and is memorialized with a tombstone in the Maple Ridge Cemetery in Cumberland County . . . this Henry is a 4th great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .






from Early Settlers of Harrison, Maine With an Historical Sketch of the Settlement, Progress and Present Condition of the Town By Gideon Tibbetts Ridlon

Wordless Wednesday :: Morrill Hobbs d. 1826

1899 :: Death of Jerusha Marilla

On this date in our family history . . . the 17th day of November . . . in the year 1899 . . . Jerusha Marilla Smith nee Barker dies in Biddeford, York County, Maine . . . and is laid to rest in the Greenwood Cemetery in Biddeford, York County, Maine . . . this Jerusha is the paternal grandma of Elizabeth Marilla Henry nee Smith (1912-1932) . . . who is the maternal grandma of the Keeper of this family history blog . . . Jerusha is a daughter of Timothy Barker and Jerusha Lakin Hobbs . . . on the 23rd day of December in the year 1857,at the age of 16, she became the bride of Atwood F. Smith in Biddeford, York County, Maine . . . they had at least two children who died before 1865, and then a 3rd child born in 1866, Thomas Warren Alonzo Smith (1866-1920), who is the father of Elizabeth . . .

New England's Dark Day in 1780

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."

1758 :: Birth of Miriam Brackett

On this date in our family history . . . the 23rd day of May . . . in the year 1758 . . . Miriam Brackett is born in York County, Maine [probably in Berwick] . . . this Miriam is the future wife of Morrell Hobbs (1753-1826) . . . and she is a 2nd great-grandma to Thomas Warren Alonzo Smith (1866-1920) . . . who is the maternal grandpa to the Mother of the Keeper of this family history blog . . .






from
Brackett Genealogy
Descendants
of
Anthony Brackett of Portsmouth
and
Captain Richard Brackett of Braintree.
With Biographies of the Immigrant Fathers,
Their Sons, and Others of Their Posterity
By
Herbert Ierson Brackett