Ode to Job

On this date in our family history . . . the 7th day of November . . . in the year 1760 . . . 38-year-old Ruth Porter nee Foster dies in Boxford, Massachusetts . . . the following day, the 8th of November, would be the 16th anniversary of the day she had married Benjamin Porter in Andover, Massachusetts . . . this Benjamin and Ruth are 6th great-grandparents to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

Benjamin's family history in Andover traces back to his 3rd great-grandpa, Job Tyler, who is said to have been living in Andover as early as 1639 . . . it has been said of this Job that . . .  

"He was a rude, self-asserting, striking personality" . . . and that . . . He did not . . . "learn prudence very fast, but he was himself. . . . He did not shape his words to suit sensitive ears. He resented dictation and found it hard to restrain himself from what he wanted to do through any prudential policy. . . . From this old canvas there gazes steadily out, not an ideal but a very real personage, an out and out Yankee type."

At a Tyler Family Reunion held in Andover on Wednesday, September 2nd, 1896, the gathering was called to the old North Parish Church, where Job Tyler anciently paid "minister's rates," and where his sons, Moses, Hopestill and John, were early communicants.

At this gathering, songs were sung, organization business was taken care of, and genealogies and letters of regret, as well as poems were read . . . including the following excerpts from a lengthy poetic composition written in honor of our Job . . .

In Newport, quaint Rhode Island town,

way down upon the coast.

There landed from old England's shore,

of whom we can now boast

A "Tyler"; from o'er the sea came he

to the woods and lofty hills.

To found a home and family,

and 'scape old country's ills.

"Sixteen Forty," or thereabout,

he stepped upon the strand

And pitched his tent in an ancient town

now known throughout the land

As Andover, of scholastic fame,

whose influence is known

In Forum, Pulpit, Rostrum,

where Knowledge it is shown.

"Job" was his appellation,

a patient man, 'tis said.

This horny-handed ancestor,

now numbered with the dead,

Who delved from early morn till night,

he strove to make a name,

Respected, loved, esteemed by all,

but yet, unknown to fame.

To gratify his longing

he went from town to town,

To Roxbury, Mendon, Arundel,

before he settled down.

But he came back to Andover,

and here resolved to stay.

Where we revere his memory

on this September day.

The supposition is,

his bones a grave doth fill

In the little old-time burial yard,

not far upon the hill;

No stone doth mark the sacred spot

or record can be found,

But one, his first born,

who lies there beneath historic ground.

The trees do wave their requiem

above the sacred dead,

So we should grant our meed of praise

for the spirits that have fled,

And add our mite of reverence for

those who went before,

And visit, each and all, the spot,

before the day is o'er.

As is stated in that poem, Job's final resting place has been lost to the sands of time . . . thanks to those involved in the referenced gathering, our Job is now memorialized with a bronze tablet attached to a boulder in the Old North Parish Burying Ground in North Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts . . . that boulder was relocated from the old Tyler farm in West Boxford . . . and placed near the gravestone of his son, Moses . . . the memorial was dedicated five years following the above reunion . . . on the 4th day of September in 1901 . . . 

This blogpost was researched and prepared specifically for The Sixth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge over at cousin Bill's blog which is known as . . . West in New England . . .

1676 :: Death of John Porter

On this date in our family history . . . the 6th day of September . . . in the year 1676 . . . John Porter dies in Salem Village, Massachusetts . . . he leaves a widow, Mary, and several children, including a son named Samuel, who is a 9th great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . according to American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Volume 5 edited by William Richard Cutter . . .

From England came John Porter, born in 1596 . . . he built his first New England home, and there he lived until 1644, when he removed to Salem, settling in that part now Danvers. He had other lands granted him in Hingham, and held several offices of trust, both by election and appointment, and as a deputy to the General Court, May 20, 1644, represented the interests of his neighbors of the Hingham district. He also held the then very important office of constable.

Although he bought the farm of Rev. Samuel Sharp, of Salem, May 10, 1643, he did not move to Salem until the following year, and his name does not appear in the list of members until 1649. The house which he built and occupied stood, no doubt, on the Sharp farm, near the site of the Unitarian church, and there remained until destroyed by fire about 1850.


He bought several tracts of land in Salem, built a saw mill, was a man of energy and influence, well known in the colony as a public official. He again sat in the General Court in 1668, representing Salem, and finally, on September 6, 1676, passed to his reward, at his home in Salem Village. . . .


John Porter left a will dated April 28, 1673, in which he divided his property among his children, after generously providing for his widow. . . .

1860 :: Explosion of the Bayou City

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 27th day of September . . . in the year 1860 . . . Oliver Lazarus Battle is a passenger in the Gulf of Mexico on board the steamboat Bayou City . . . she is bound from Galveston to Houston, and when about to make a landing at Lynchburg, her boilers burst with terrific explosion and fearful result . . . among those who die as a result of that explosion is Oliver's brother-in-law, I.T. Irvin, Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives . . . Irvin was last seen rushing aft, and it is believed he jumped overboard and was drowned . . . this Oliver Battle is a 1st cousin five times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . many news clippings about this tragic event are available online, including a lengthy article in the State Gazette. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 9, Ed. 1, Saturday, October 6, 1860 . . . P.S. . . . Oliver's mother, Margaret Fannin Battle King nee Porter, was the stepmother of James Walker Fannin . . .

1837 :: Death of Margaret Watson

On this date in our family history . . . the 30th day of March . . . in the year 1837 . . . Margaret Porter nee Watson dies in Greene County, Georgia . . . this Margaret is a maternal great-grandma to Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis (1842-1899) . . . who is a 2nd great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . 


Georgia Comprising Sketches of
Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons
Arranged in Cyclopedic Form
By
Allen Daniel Candler, Clement Anselm Evans:  

Great American Poems :: Whitman Writes About Texas

One hundred eighty-nine years ago . . . in November of 1821 . . . in the extended branches of our family tree . . . a young man by the name of James F. WALKER had just recently resigned from the the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York. He had been raised in Georgia by his maternal grandpa -- James W. WALKER -- and he would now return to the state of his birth. Here he would become a merchant, and would marry Miss Minerva FORT, with whom he would have two daughters. 



In the autumn of 1834 this man and his family removed to Velasco, Texas, where he would become a planter and managing partner in a slave-trading syndicate. By now, he is using the surname (FANNIN) of his deceased birth-father -- Isham Saffold FANNIN (1778-1817) -- who in 1809 (when James was 5 years of age) had married my 4th great-grand-aunt, Margaret PORTER (1791-1830).


According to The Texans from the Old West Series published by Time-Life Books . . . 

FANNIN was 32, a tall, gangling Georgian who had arrived in Texas in 1834 and quickly built up a profitable business in land speculations and slave-trading. He had performed well as a volunteer in the fighting around San Antonio, and Houston had offered him a colonelcy in the regular army he was organizing. FANNIN boldly requested a brigadier's commission, which he said he could handle "better than any officer." HOUSTON had made him settle for the colonelcy. . . .

By November of 1835, this young man is a mere four months away from the day of his murder . . . several communications during this time period (those written to, from and / or about him) can be read at . . . Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas.

 

Almost four months later . . . on Palm Sunday . . . the 27th day of March . . . in the year 1836 . . . Col. James Walker FANNIN is one of more than 300 men who are massacred at Goliad . . .

Another twenty years later . . . in November of 1855 . . . and reviewers of Leaves of Grass are declaring Walt WHITMAN's "own version of unrhymed, long-lined poetry" as "indecent, bold, curious, lawless, obscene" . . . WHITMAN (1819-1892) begins this collection of words as follows . . .

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. . . .

About half-way through this self-published Poem of Walt Whitman (1856) this native of Rhode Island tells a tale of a land called Texas . . . from 1836 . . .

Now I tell what I knew in Texas in my early youth;
I tell not the fall of Alamo . . . . Not one escaped to tell the fall of Alamo,
The hundred and fifty are dumb yet at Alamo.

Hear now the tale of a jetblack sunrise,
Hear of the murder in cold blood of four hundred and twelve young men.

Retreating, they had formed in a hollow square with their baggage for breastworks,
Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemy’s nine times their number was the price they took in advance,
Their colonel was wounded and their ammunition gone,
They treated for an honorable capitulation, received writing and seal, gave up their arms, and marched back prisoners of war.

They were the glory of the race of rangers,
Matchless with horse, a rifle, a song, a supper or a courtship,
Large, turbulent, generous, handsome, proud and affectionate,
Bearded, sunburnt, dressed in the free costume of hunters,
Not a single one over thirty years of age.


The second Sunday morning they were brought out in squads and massacred . . . . it was beautiful early summer,
The work commenced about five o’clock, and was over by eight.

None obeyed the command to kneel,
Some made a mad and helpless rush . . . . some stood stark and straight,
A few fell at once, shot in the temple or heart . . . . the living and dead lay together.

The maimed and mangled dug in the dirt . . . . the new-comers saw them there;
Some half-killed attempted to crawl away,
These were dispatched with bayonets or battered with the blunts of muskets;

A youth not seventeen years old seized his assassin till two more came to release him,
The three were all torn, and covered with the boy’s blood.

At eleven o’clock began the burning of the bodies;
And that is the tale of the murder of the four hundred and twelve young men,
And that was a jetblack sunrise. . . .

 

Whitman closes this Song of Myself (1881) as follows . . .

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you.

It was with great delight that I read the notice that Bill West would once again be hosting his Great American Local Poem & Song Genealogy Challenge . . . and that this year (2010) he is dedicating it to the memory of Terry Thornton (1939-2010) . . . a geneablogger, and a fellow lover of local poetry and folklore. . . . for you, Terry . . .



In the white moonlight, where the willow waves,
He halfway gallops among the graves --
A tiny ghost in the gloom and gleam,
Content to dwell where the dead men dream . . .

1810 :: The Birth of America in the Family Bible

On this date in our family history . . . the 11th day of May . . . in the year 1810 . . . our very own America . . . aka America J Fears . . . is born somewhere in the state of Georgia, possibly in Greene County . . . she is the 3rd of eight children known to have been born to James Fears (1772-1857) and Mary Anthony Porter (1784-1826) . . . this America is the mother of our Josephine (1842-1899), who is a 2nd great-grandma to the Keeper of this family history blog.


The dates of America's birth and death are recorded on photocopies of Bible pages that are said to come from a Davis family Bible. I have never seen that Bible, or the actual Bible pages, but the copies I have were given to me by a cousin, Georgia Faye Kaseberg nee Henry (1925-2001), probably 25 or 30 years ago. It is believed that Georgia probably acquired the photocopies from another cousin and family genealogist, Miss Laura Hamilton (1898-1987).




We have scans (of the photocopies that were given to me) of four pages from this family Bible, including -- a page of births, a page of marriages, and a page of deaths (with additional family births listed on it).


The fourth page from this Bible has the hand-written heading, Negroes Births. On another website, I have posted what information I have accumulated that may pertain to this page of names and dates of birth. Included on that website is information from the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules that pertains to the 19th Century family members known to be connected in some way to the names mentioned in this Bible. While I have posted information about this list on various websites in the past, it never hurts to mention it one more time, just in case it might help somebody make a connection with their own past.


Research note . . . Many branches of this family have it in their records that *James* was her middle name, however, no contemporary record has been found showing what the *J* actually stands for.

1836 :: Death of James Walker Fannin

Presidio La Bahia
Originally uploaded by
J. Stephen Conn

On this date . . . the 27th day of March . . . in the year 1836 . . . Colonel James Walker Fannin, Jr. dies in the Goliad Massacre in Texas . . . Colonel Fannin was born in Georgia . . . and is the half-brother of Eliza Walker nee Fannin . . . who is a 1st cousin five times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . .

FANNIN JAMES W soldier and revolutionist b Georgia about 1800 d Goliad Texas March 27 1836 He removed to Texas in 1834 and in the Texas war of independence raised a company called the Brazos Volunteers In October 1835 at the head of ninety men he with Colonel Bowie defeated a superior Mexican force near Bexar and was soon . . .

Excerpt from The South in the building of the nation a history of the southern states designed to record the South's part in the making of the American nation; to portray the character and genius, to chronicle the achievements and progress and to illustrate the life and traditions of the southern people By Southern Historical Publication Society, Walter Lynwood Fleming

Our Irish Connections

Although I have yet to make any Irish connections for my maternal grandma Elizabeth, who is featured in this collage wearing her "Irish dancing costume," I have found a few connections to Ireland amongst the ancestors of the man that Elizabeth married -- Robert E. Henry (1905-1976) -- aka Grandpa Henry, e.g. . . . John Early . . . William Early . . . John Porter and Mary (Anthony) Porter . . . and, although he was not born in Ireland, our Sir Anthony St. Leger was involved in the history of Ireland. . . .

May the earth be soft under you
when you rest upon it,
tired at the end of the day.
May the earth rest so lightly over you
when at the last you lie under it
that your spirit may be
out from under it quickly
and up, and off,
and on its way to God.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Update 17 March 2022 :: Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine, Tuesday Evening, Apri 29, 1924, Page Six, 3rd column . . . "Juvenile Ball at Old Orchard Grand Success. Audience Taxed Capacity of Town Hall -- Fine Programme was Enjoyed. . . . ELIZABETH SMITH and Gladys Goodrich, charming in green and white costume, came next with an 'Irish Folk Dance' that made one think they were right from Erin. Their dancing was in perfect time and seemingly done with no effort, and they deserve much credit for their wonderful stage presence."