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Waban, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Warsaw, Illinois
Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Waynesville, Ohio
West Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Westford, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut
Whaplode, Lincolnshire, England
Winchester, Scott, Illinois
Winchester, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Windsor, New Hampshire
Winter Quarters, Nebraska
Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts
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Waban, Middlesex, Massachusetts They wanted to make the New Towne the capital of the colony. To this end, they granted it unusual amounts of land and offered influential people inducements to move there. Eventually, its boundaries extended 35 miles, from Billerica on the north to present Waban (a village of Newton) on the south
The New Towne extended 35 miles, from Billerica to present Waban
Eventually, its boundaries extended 35 miles, from Billerica on the north to present Waban (a village of Newton) on the south.
Southernmost point in old New Towne
The town had been founded less than five years earlier as New-Towne, with initial boundaries stretching more than 35 miles and including territory of modern communities as far south as Waban and as far north as Billerica.
Wading River (, Rhode Island?) Location of Mary Ball’s lying-in
Location of William Hudson’s “ffarm”, where Mary Ball gave birth to Michael Billerica Bacon
Cited in William Hudson’s bill to the Court
Warsaw, Illinois Isaac headed out in the Fall of 1840 stopping over in Warsaw for the winter and arrived in Nauvoo in 1841. Lorenzo spent the summer of 1841 in Warsaw and in the Spring of 1842 he moved to Macedonia and bought a house about four miles from the town of Carthage.
At Warshaw [sic], 18 miles below Nauvoo, we were met by Apostle Willard Richards, who read to us an epistle from the Prophet Joseph Smith, counseling the Saints to disembarkat Warsaw and commence to build a city which was laid out a short distance below.
Joseph Smith appointed him presiding officer of a temporary settlement of Mormon immigrants on these mud flats between the Mississippi and the Warsaw bluff.
Joseph Smith appointed Isaac Decker presiding officer of a temporary settlement of “Mormon” immigrants on these mud flats between the Mississippi and the Warsaw bluff.
Isaac Decker, presiding elder in Warsaw
“Mayor of Warsaw”
the saints were instructed to remove from Warsaw to Nauvoo immediately
Isaac was the presiding elder in Warsaw. Finally, they said, “Come on into Nauvoo,” and he did.
The mob violence that killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844 had its headquarters in Warsaw, and prominent citizens of Warsaw were among the principal trouble-makers
After finding such a pleasant welcome in Alexandria, Hepzibah and I found it natural to cross the river to quiet, sad Warsaw, Illinois, the next day.
Since there’s probably no such thing as Christian Schadenfreude, I try hard not to attribute to anything like Divine compensation the down-at-heels appearance of present-day Warsaw.
19th-century cross-Mississippi warfare (actual shooting, from time to time) with Warsaw, over on the Illinois side.
Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Early home of our Middlesex pioneer Ancestors
Founders’ Monument in Watertown
9GGF John Benjamin’s name appears on the Founders’ Monument in Watertown, as do those of 10GGF and 11GGF John >Warren, 10GGF John Ball, 11GGF Isaac Stearns, 11GGF Ellis Barron, 9GGF John Bigelow, and 10GGF John Prescott
9GGF John Benjamin served as the New Towne’s first constable in 1633, before it was chartered. In 1636, the press reported “Mr. Benjamin’s house burnt, and £100 in goods lost.” He subsequently removed to Watertown
11GGF Ellis Barron (c.1605-1676), with 11GGM Grace (1605-1650), immigrated from Ireland; a house still stands in present-day Belmont (then Watertown) bearing a sign that reads, “Ellis Barron House circa 1668.”
In Watertown, where 9GGF John Bigelow served as a Selectman, he warned pregnant Grandma Mary Ball out of her native town.
Bigelows have continued to call Watertown home ever since Grandpa John came
9GGP Samuel I and Alice Rushton Woods settled first in Cambridge, but then removed to Groton. Their last, John, arrived in 1676/7 in Watertown and died young.
However the statistics work out, many of our pioneering people settled for a time in either Cambridge or Watertown and then formed or joined the original settling parties of other frontier communities, in Middlesex and beyond.
8GGM Mary Ball Munroe had her rocky start in her native Watertown but ended up as an honored pioneer citizen of Lexington.
The name of immigrant (apparently from London) 9GGF John Child doesn’t appear on the Founders’ Monument, although the records refer to him as “John Child of Watertown.”
The Monument does display the name of Ephraim Child, though in a curious manner
We used to claim Captain Robert “The Pioneer” Seely
8GGF Obadiah Seely (1614-1657) may have immigrated with Robert, lived in his household, and/or inherited from him. Or maybe not.
our 8-greats-uncle Thomas Shepard became the Town’s first settled minister and a celebrated founder of Harvard College
Our eighth great-grandfather the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the community’s first preacher and a charismatic and controversial character, led a major exodus from Cambridge via Watertown to the Connecticut Valley
8GGF Thomas Hooker’ original homestead is now occupied by part of Wigglesworth Hall, near the southwest corner of the present Widener Library
9GGF John Benjamin’s house burnt, and £100 in goods lost.” He subsequently removed to Watertown and died 14 June 1645
By 1642, all four of our Cambridge pioneer forebears had taken their families on to Watertown and/or Hartford
these somewhat later settlers showed a strong tendency to treat Cambridge (and neighboring Watertown) as jumping-off points for wider projects of settlement.
Influenced location of Cambridge
Weston started out as Watertown Farms
today’s City of Newton, a piece of Old Watertown
Originally included present Newton
Pappy and Mammy were working at the Ogden Arsenal shipping munitions to and from the Watertown Arsenal
Waverley was tucked into a western corner of Belmont, up against more working-class Watertown
Had Mammy known, she would surely have wanted to see the Founders’ monument
Dave and Sue moved to our neighborhood. Well, across the town line into historic Watertown
she urged me to find out about the part the Seelys had played in the 17th-century settlement of neighboring Watertown
My eleventh great-grandfather Ellis Barron (1605-1676) was a founder of Watertown in 1630
If they have the date right, this could have been his house, late in life
Or it might have belonged to his son, my eleventh great-uncle Ellis Barron (1633-1712). The father died in Watertown; the son was born in Watertown
Startled to notice this, while biking in Belmont. When he built it, this was Watertown; now it’s Belmont
We’re told that Capt Robert Seely laid out Watertown and drew the first map
Capt Robert Seely subsequently performed similar duties as a founder of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and later yet of New Haven.
Capt Robert Seely cast his elderly and widowed lot with the founders of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he’s probably buried.
All this according to a little volume at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, entitled, The Life and Times of Captain Robert Seely, the Pioneer.
Mammy had “awared” me of ninth great-grandparents Robert and Mary Seely. The story, as she had it, was that they were married in St. Stephen’s Church, Coleman Street, London, in 1629, and that they emigrated the next year to Salem, Massachusetts, and thence to join the founders of Watertown
Captain Robert’s name appears on the Founders’ Monument in neighboring Watertown
I learned, early on, that we had a lot more connections in Watertown than just the Seely one
other family Treasure Cities such as Cambridge and Watertown, in Massachusetts, which served our colonial forebears largely as jumping-off points
Location on map
Our ancestors among founders in 1630
A bun for a bass
Clapp's Landing
The Clapp party’s landing place is marked on the north bank of the Charles, seven-tenths of a mile east of Watertown Square
In 1948, the Historical Society of Watertown erected this marker on the river bank, designating the location of Sir Richard’s Landing.
In 1930, however, the Massachusetts Tercentenary Commission had already put up this sign, claiming for this spot the distinction of being Sir Richard’s Landing and also as the later Gerry’s Landing. Note also in this map the emphasis on Sparks Street, which was until 1754 the Watertown-Cambridge boundary.
Until 1754, Watertown extended to Sparks St.
At the end of July in the same year, 1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall led a second and permanent settling party of 115 households to Watertown
Valerie still thinks he made a mistake. Maybe she’d prefer “ Pigs-go-suck. At least seven of our ancestral families came with Saltonstall
Near Watertown Square on the north bank of the Charles stands today a handsome Monument, featuring a life-size statue of Saltonstall
The upper inscription on the pedestal claims for Watertown’s early settlers a primary place in the history of American political dissent
Captain Robert Seely (1619-1657) is reputed to have laid out the original roads and property boundaries in Watertown, Wethersfield, and New Haven Obadiah Seely (1619-1657) did apparently live for many years in Robert’s immigrant household in Watertown, Wethersfield, and New Haven within Watertown’s Colonial limits, the experts have marked the historic spot in two different places, not too far apart
Watertown: Map of Landings
The price of this child-care arrangement was six pounds cash down, from Ball to Gale, and another six-pound payment in two years, secured by something like a mortgage of the Ball homestead in Watertown
Francis Brayton, on the other hand, who carried the letter to Bacon, was clearly a Rhode Islander. Diane Rapaport says that Mary’s “Watertown cousin, Joseph Peirce, married a Brayton woman from Portsmouth [Rhode Island], whose parents still lived there.”
the Bacons were counted among the early settlers of Woburn
Selectmen parceled out the surviving children among nearby relatives. Five-year-old Mary ended up in the Watertown home of John and Elizabeth Pierce, parents of her crazy mother
The Ball household of Watertown never exemplified “family values.
We do know that Mary Ball was a daughter and (on both sides) a granddaughter of founding immigrants to Massachusetts.
Homestead of 9GGP John and Elizabeth Pierce Ball and birthplace of their six children
Historical Society of Watertown, which undertook in 1891 to publish all the extant early records of the Town
Bond, Henry, M.D., Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts
Late in 1656, the Town of Watertown took official notice* of deterioration in the Ball household.
Michael Bacon, who brake the prison last night, was seene this evening in the woods probably will pass this night over the Bridge at watertowne to his uncle Daniel Bacon.
Watertown Selectmen Mason and Bairstow draw the assignment to lay down the law to Mary’s mother
Mary’s father John Ball abandoned his family and removed to Lancaster
Bond, Henry, M.D., Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts. Republished as a compact disk (Boston:2002) by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, with Historical Society of Watertown, Watertown Records.
Mary Ball’s own immediate family had dissolved. Watertown declined the honor of harboring her any further
Meanwhile, Mary’s home town, Watertown, sent two Selectmen (including 9GGF John Bigelow) to warn her out
the Town of Watertown told Mary Ball that she was no longer welcome in the community of her birth and that the Town would provide her no support, of any kind.
John Ball still had some legal rights and obligations with regard to his Watertown family.
Waynesville, Ohio The missionary party continued on to Waynesville, Ohio where Lorenzo rented a house. Here on Sept. 5, 1844, Harriet gave birth to a baby boy (John Brigham) which Lorenzo claimed was his. The boy died at birth.
“Elder Isaac Decker was sent back to Nauvoo with instructions, leaving his wife and daughter to go on with Lorenzo”. This daughter must have been Fanny, as all the other girls were married before now. The missionary party continued on to Waynesville, Ohio
West Cambridge, Massachusetts April, of course, always focused our attention on our own historic home town. Had I mentioned that it’s been called Arlington since 1867, when a lot of American communities took that name in honor of Robert E Lee’s Virginia estate, transformed in those days into a big cemetery? For sixty years before that, it had been West Cambridge, dubbed thus in 1807 in a fit of gray bureaucratization. In Revolutionary days and before, it had borne the elegant Algonquian name of Menotomy (usually, more formally, the Menotomy Precinct of Cambridge). We were told that an effort to restore the distinctive handle by initiative petition, before we moved in, had been turned back by the veterans’ organizations
West Cambridge, which would in 1807 become the formal name of present-day Arlington (former Menotomy, just east of Lexington).
Joseph Munroe died 1787
Some sources give his final address as “West Cambridge,”
Jason Russell
Jason Russell House
West Cambridge became Arlington, 1867
Some sources give his final address as “West Cambridge,”
Menotomy became West Cambridge, 1807
To the west, the Precinct of Menotomy became West Cambridge in 1807 and then Arlington (after the Virginia cemetery)in 1867.
West Cambridge became Arlington, 1867
Cambridge never did become the capital. As its population grew unevenly in later decades, it split into several communities. The village of Cambridge Towne grew up around present Harvard Square. To the west, the Precinct of Menotomy became West Cambridge in 1807 and then Arlington (after the Virginia cemetery) in 1867. Even farther west, Cambridge Farms was incorporated as Lexington in 1712/3
Westford, Middlesex, Massachusetts five founding households of our family; that events labeled with the names of Concord, Acton, Billerica, and Westford took place on land that now belongs to Carlisle. Put together an illustrated account (the section named “Carlisle”) that still gives me family chills and that has brought me closer to our Revolutionary heroes and other significant pioneers.
It ends a mile or so east and north of here, at Westford Road
…the main drag of Carlisle. That’s State Route 225. Westward from the Centre,1 as you can see from the map, it’s Westford Street. Back the other way, it’s the Bedford Road. Toward (you guessed it) Bedford.
Westford Street homestead.
Lapham says that by his time (1970) the spot was occupied by “the home of Mrs. Alexander Johnson on Westford Street.”
site now (ca. 1941) occupied by home of Mr & Mrs C. E. Crossland, Westford St.
This is 566 Westford Street, which Ruth Wilkins identifies as the Johnson place. If she’s right, this is the location of the original Munroe homestead in Billerica
Here’s another house in the same neighborhood, further east, on the north side of Westford Street, in the 200’s of the current house-numbering system. Back closer to the middle of town. And right across the street from the Towle Conservation Land, where our Grandpa Nathan lived. Apparently before it became an orchard
Westford Road in Carlisle is State Route 225, the town’s main drag. Best known these days for marvelous ice cream
Corporal Joe’s home on Westford Street. He sold it to his son, Hepzibah’s Uncle Joshua Munroe, in 1753.
Judah Wheeler was jailed for non-payment of taxes to the Town of Westford
But “here” wasn’t yet Carlisle, which would become a Town only in 1805. Its neighbors would travail over its birth for fifty years. So until the mid-1700s, we find our people in the records and lore of surrounding and pre-existing Concord, Billerica, Acton, and Westford.
Part became Carlisle
Towle’s orchard on Westford Street
Westford Street to the south of the Munroe homesteads
1775 on the north side of Westford street
Nathan married Mercy Benjamin (1717-1785) in 1738 and built his house in what is now [ca. 1970] Mrs. Towle’s orchard on Westford Street in the Town of Carlisle, Massachusetts.
This is Towle Field, part of the Towle Conservation Land across Westford Street to the south of the Munroe homesteads and nowadays west of Carlisle Center. In all likelihood, the house that stood here at the time of the Revolution was Granny Hepzibah’s Billerica birthplace. It’s ‘way west of Billerica Center.
Neighbor of father Nathan on Westford Street
Formed from Concord, Billerica, Acton, and Westford
Events labeled with the names of Concord, Acton, Billerica, and Westford took place on land that now belongs to Carlisle.
Westford Road is State Route 225
Formed from Concord, Billerica, Acton, and Westford
Among our fellow ward members were Vern and Mary Poulter, then residing on Main Street in Westford (a Middlesex County town with some significance for our family). We did musical things with Mary, who was quite celebrated for her lovely soprano voice. And we made the old connection when Vern’s mother came for a visit.
Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut Lieutenant John Stillman, a descendant of those pioneers in Hartford> and Wethersfield, was instrumental in inducing (let’s not call it bribing) our Mayflower-line ancestors to remove to the Berkshires
Capt Robert Seely subsequently performed similar duties as a founder of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and later yet of New Haven.
his purchase of another item from Jonathan Robbins of Wethersfield, Connecticut
Early home of the Stillman family
Coming from Wethersfield, the Stillmans were moving little farther than across town.
Uncle Robert was married there in 1784, long after the family moved to his birthplace in Sandisfield
They seem to have remained part of the Wethersfield scene
married there in 1784,
Our family’s story in the Berkshires seems to begin with my fourth great-grandparents, Lieutenant John and Rachel Robbins Stillman of Wethersfield, Connecticut
their Wethersfield connections stayed active for many years after the move: marriages there continued until after the Revolution
He subsequently performed similar duties as a founder of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and later yet of New Haven
Captain Robert Seely (1619-1657) is reputed to have laid out the original roads and property boundaries in Watertown, Wethersfield, and New Haven
Obadiah Seely (1619-1657) did apparently live for many years in Robert’s immigrant household in Watertown, Wethersfield, and New Haven
Whaplode, Lincolnshire, England 11GGF Richard Welby, in our Plantagenet line as a son of 12GGP Thomas Welby and Elizabeth Thimbleby, born to them before 1564. He married 11GGM Frances Bulkeley 4 Jun 1595 in Whaplode, Lincolnshire, England; she was a daughter of 12GGF Edward Bulkeley and 12GGM Olive Irby. Their daughter 10GGM Olive Welby married 10GGF Henry Farwell 16 Apr 1629 in St Botolph’s, Boston, Lincolnshire, England.
11GGM Frances Bulkeley Welby; in our Plantagenet line by her marriage to 11GGF Richard Welby (1563-1610) 4 June 1596 in Whaplode, Lincolnshire, England. Mother of 10GGM Olive Welby.
11GGM Frances Bulkeley Welby (c.1568-1610), daughter of 12GGF Edward Bulkeley and 12GGM Olive Irby; in our Plantagenet line by her marriage to 11GGF Richard Welby (1563-1610) 4 June 1596 in Whaplode, Lincolnshire, England.
WELBY, Richard(11GGF) In our Plantagenet line as a son of 12GGF Thomas Welby and 12GGM Elizabeth Thimbleby. Married 11GGM Frances Bulkeley, 4 Jun 1595 in Whaplode, Lincolnshire, England. Father of 10GGM Olive Welby.
Winchester, Illinois Isaac Perry Decker born7 August 1840 Winchester, Scott, Illinois
and next resided in Winchester, Scott County, in that State
Son Isaac Perry born 7 August 1840 Winchester, Scott
through 1839-40. It was here in Winchester, Scott, Illinois
It was here in Winchester, Scott, Illinois that my grandfather Isaac Perry Decker was born
Winchester, Middlesex, Massachusetts Photo: Our Cyndi on a typical New England boulder
Bacon’s yard must have been in Woburn (which then included present-day Burlington, Wilmington, and Winchester)
Windsor, New Hampshire After Joseph’s death, Azubah Henry Munroe married Daniel Gordon of Windsor, New Hampshire.
Winter Quarters, Nebraska Neff History
Visited Neff Mill iin 2003
At Omaha on the 17th, we took old Arlington friends George and Maria Bryan to dinner and then went to the Winter Quarters Temple with them. George is in the Temple Presidency, and Maria is an Assistant Matron.
Death in Winter Quarters
John and Mary Neff, miller of Winter Quarters and East Mill Creek
John accompanied them to Nauvoo, to Winter Quarters, and (in 1847) to the Salt Lake Valley
Financed much of the exodus from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters to Salt Lake?
grist mill at Winter Quarters?
Died and is buried at Winter Quarters?
Of the three women in the first company of “Mormon” pioneers who traveled from Winter Quarters to what is now the State of Utah, two were my kin
Charles Franklin was married Feb. 4.1847 to Brigham Young’s daughter, Vilate, from her father’s house in Winter Quarters
Lorenzo built a home in Winter Quarters
the family was starting out for Winter Quarters from Nauvoo
Lorenzo left his five older children with their mother in Winter Quarters
Brigham rode away toward Emigration Canyon. beginning the thousand mile return to Winter Quarters.
She married great-great-grandpa Franklin Neff, the miller of Winter Quarters and East Mill Creek
Great-Grandpa Franklin Neff, the miller (after his father) of Winter Quarters and of East Mill Creek
he moved on to Winter Quarters
Cyrus would soon break many hearts by dying of “the fever” in Winter Quarters
Winter Quarters Mill
Great-grandpa Franklin Neff, miller of Winter Quarters and East Mill Creek
miller of Winter Quarters before emigrating to East Mill Creek
the Neffs took their grinding wheels with them to Nauvoo, and thence to Winter Quarters and to East Mill Creek
Winter Quarters at its worst was never as wretched as the dugouts in the old fort.
I think this was the first time we stopped at this family shrine, built by great-great-grandpa John Neff and where he and his son, great-grandpa Franklin Neff, labored as millers to the “Mormons” in Winter Quarters in 1846-1849.
the Winter Quarters Temple
At Omaha on the 17th, we took old Arlington friends George and Maria Bryan to dinner and then went to the Winter Quarters Temple with them.
my great-grandfather, Franklin Neff had stayed behind by assignment to run the mill at Winter Quarters.
Uncle Cyrus lay buried in Winter Quarters.
Charlie married Vilate at Winter Quarters
the journey to Winter Quarters
Cyrus died of a fever in Winter Quarters, aged 20
serving the Church through Winter Quarters in Nebraska
Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts First so called in 1640 as a precinct of Charlestown
“Scotland,” William Munroe’s farm in Cambridge Farms, on the Woburn line
Homestead of the prominent Bacon family
Ralph Reed a prominent citizen
Mary Ball turned 16 in the Bacon household, alas
As Bacon country, an unfriendly place for Mary Ball
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