With Last Breath

I've spent some time transcribing the will of my third great grandfather on the Putnam side, Amos Putnam.  Amos was one of the first settlers of Houlton, ME.  He appears to have had someone write this down for him while on his deathbed.   According to the federal census mortuary index for Houlton, he died of consumption (tuberculosis).  As a side not, the person above him on the index, Henretta  Esty, was listed as being killed in October.  The one below, Samuel W. Bennett, died from falling of a building in January.  Samuel was a carpenter, so that may explain his death, but I think there could be an interesting story in Henretta's.  Back to Amos and to help orient you, I've put together a basic tree below.   

Generation	Husband	Wife
3rd Great Grandparent	Amos Putnam	Christiana Wormwood
2nd Great Grandparent	Levi Houlton Putnam	Sarah Bradbury
Great Grandparent	Amos Putnam	Cora Carpenter
Grandparent	Ervin Earl Putnam	Mary Connelly
Parent	Robert Putnam	Living
	Writer

 Now, the will.  There are a couple of places I couldn't read, so I put blanks in.  Also, I did the best I could at transcribing it, but I could have misidentified some of the words.  Take a look,

In the name of God, Amen.  I, Amos Putnam of Houlton in the county of Aroostook and State of Maine, being of sound and discerning mind and memory, and being desirous to make a different distribution of my property from what the law would make, and that while I have strength and capacity so to do, do hereby make and publish this my last will and testament as follows. Namely, First of all I commit my soul into the hands of my creator who gave it, and my body to the Earth from which it came. 

Secondly, I will that all my just debts should be paid as soon as may be conveniently done.

 Thirdly, I will and bequeath all my property both real and personal together with the exclusion of the widows dower, to my sons, Alvarez G and Amos A upon condition that they shall bring up, educate, and with the assistance of their reasonable labor my other minor children, namely Lyman, Poly C, Isa A, Varney W, H. H., Charles C, Maria and Samuel until they shall have become of such an age and possess sufficient physical ability, as fully to enable them to possess their own ________. The education of said children to be a decent English education, and such as is suited to their condition in life. And in the meantime previous to said Alvarez G and Amos A becoming of lawful age of twenty one years old, it is my will that my executor, hereafter appointed should have and take the general supervision of my said estate, and see that the use thereof be appropriate to the purpose of bringing up and educating the said minor children as above mentioned.  And if when said Alvarez G and Amos A shall have both become of age and shall both decide to forfeit my said estate in the terms herein specified then and in that case I will and bequeath all my estate personal and real to the other eight minor children above named to be equally shared between them, but if either of said first named designees shall elect to accept said estate on said terms then it is my will that he shall take the same and address the duties of educating, bringing up, and safeguarding said minor children in the same manner as the two might have done.

 Fourthly, My other beloved children, Levi H, Lydia T, Alonzo G, Julia C, and Sally P having in my opinion received in maintenance and education a fair and __ appropriate share of my property or nearly so I have therefore decided it proper to make the dispensation of my personal estate which is above written.

 Fifthly, I do hereby appoint Abraham Pearce and Lysander Putnam both of Houlton ______ to be my executors of this my last will and testament.

 Amos Putnam

   

Signed Sealed Published and declared by the said Amos Putnam as his last will and testament in the presence of us, who in his presence and at his request shall hereby set our names in presence of and other in witness this twenty ninth day of December one thousand and eight hundred and forty nine.

   

Moses White

Jay S Putnam

David L Allagash

Some things of note,  he signed the will with an X.  Given his wish that his children receive a decent English education, I believe he knew how to write.  Therefore, my suspension is that he was to weak to sign it. 

The Amos A. mentioned here is Augustus Amos born in 1831 for my records.  Also, Frank Putnam isn't mention here because he wasn't born yet.  I am wondering if Amos not leaving anything to his adult children was common practice, or did he do it to make sure the younger ones where taken care of.  

With that, I finish this post.  I have the probate records which I will transcribe soon.  This will allow us to see how the property was actually dispersed.

David Joy Wright's Obituary

 

A while back I came across my great grandfather David Joy Wright's obituary and I thought I would share it here.  He died in 1908.

David Joy Wright's Family

David J. Wright Dead

Widely Known as Trader of Horses and Carriages

NORTHAMPTON, March 2-David J. Wright, age 57 years, died suddenly at his home on West st this morning of heart disease.  Mr. Wright was born in this city Feb 9, 1851, the son of Asa and Harriet Clark Wright. his father was for many years head farmer at the Northampton state hospital.

David Wright started as a clerk in the store here, of which he afterward became the proprietor.  he was widely known as an auctioneer and trader in horses and carriages, and was for many years treasurer of the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden agriculture society.

He is survived by his wife, who was formerly Miss Jane C. Reed of Northampton two sons, Edward, who graduated from Amherst college last year and David S., who is now in Amherst, and a brother, Charles B. Wight of Haverhill.

Interestingly, his death certificate lists the cause of death as "Heart Disease secondary to repeated attacks of Rheumatism".

David Joy Wright in front of his store

Ervin Putnam WWI diary March 1918

• Friday March 1st, 1918:
  • Just the same
• Saturday March 2nd, 1918:
  • Left camp for 24 hour pass. with Capt. Carney, Files and Freeman
• Sunday March 3rd, 1918:
  • Went to Statesville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Lexington, Concord.  Visited National Cemetery and old Confederate prison at Salisburg.  238 miles
• Monday March 4th, 1918:
  • Busy as the devil.
• Tuesday March 5th, 1918:
  • Nothing doing
• Wednesday March 6th, 1918:
  • Paid today $14.40
• Thursday March 7th, 1918:
  • Thunder shower last night.
• Friday March 8th, 1918:
  • Clear and warm
• Saturday March 9th, 1918:
  • The same
• Sunday March 10th, 1918:
  • Played ball in the afternoon.  Went to town and then Davidson College.  clear and cool.
• Monday March 11th, 1918:
  • Busy as hell.
• Wednesday March 13th, 1918:
  • Barracks 7 won from barracks 2 by score of 7 to 1.
• Friday March 15th, 1918:
  • Barracks 6 won from barracks 3 by score of 4 to 1.
• Sunday March 17th, 1918:
  • Game call on account of rain 7 + 2
• Monday March 18th, 1918:
  • Rain
• Tuesday March 19th, 1918:
  • Cloudy
• Wednesday March 20th, 1918:
  • Rain
• Thursday March 21st, 1918
  • Good boxing at Y. Rain
• Friday March 22nd, 1918:
  • Afternoon out first for really two months.

Ervin Putnam WWI diary Jan-Feb 1918

   

• Thursday January 17th, 1918: Charlotte, NC
  • Received Corporals Warrant
• Thursday January 24th, 1918:
  • Camp quarantined for two weeks for meningitis.
• Monday February 4th, 1918:
  • Took out $10,000 life insurance
  • Big games on these days
• Tuesday February 5th, 1918:
  • Paid today $18.37. Muddy as hell and then some.
• Wednesday February 6th, 1918:
  • In town with X-Ray Patients.  Half day off. Nothing doing.  Had a head on collision with trolley car.  Freeman + g + $12.00.
• Thursday February 7th, 1918:
  • First good day this spring.  Fairly hot. Cleaned up the shack. +3.00
• Friday February 8th, 1918:
  • Another good day. Capt. O.D. mud drying up fast. quarantine extended for another week. 80'
• Saturday February 9th, 1918:
  • Went to Charlotte with Patients,  X-Ray material coming in.  Corking good day. +$6.00 85'
• Sunday February 10th, 1918:
  • Day off worked just the same. Great day 86' above $3.00+
• Monday February 11th, 1918:
  • Nothing doing Great weather 88' $1.85+
• Tuesday February 12th, 1918:
  • Just the same. Great day 78' $4.00-
• Wednesday February 13th, 1918:
  • Foggy + raining a little.  80' Go to the Sanatorium.  Cleaned up fine. 90+
• Thursday February 14th, 1918:
  • 80' Sanatorium again. Had Dinner at Browns. Quarantined for another week.  First drill since leaving Ft. Ethan Allen.  84'
• Friday February 15th, 1918:
  • First Thunderstorm of the year. Physical instructions. Day off.
• Saturday February 16th, 1918:
  • Charlotte again.  1st. M.H.F.A. leaves for Spartanburg. 88' 1st N.H. leaves for foreign services.
• Sunday February 17th, 1918:
  • Worked some on the X-Ray room. Nearly done.
• Monday February 18th, 1918:
  • Sergeants exam this a.m. postponed. Missed trip to Charlotte in afternoon.  Got to town about five o'clock.  Stayed out to supper with Capt. carney.  Went to pictures and then stayed all night.
• Tuesday February 19th, 1918:
  • Started wiring X-Ray room.  Cool + rainey
• Wednesday February 20th, 1918:
  • Same job
• Thursday February 21st, 1918:
  • Same thing. transformer doesn't work.  Cold.
• Friday February 22nd, 1918:
  • In town with ambulance. Stuck for 3 hours on the road. got back 4 o'clock. Finished up X-Ray.
• Saturday February 23rd, 1918:
  • Started taking pictures 10 o'clock. 15 in two hours. Getting Warmer.
• Sunday February 24th, 1918:
  • Nothing doing today chilly.
• Monday February 25th, 1918:
  • Busy as ever and then some. Fire back of officers quarters.
• Tuesday February 26th, 1918:
  • Just the same
• Wednesday February 27th, 1918:
  • Just the same
• Thursday February 28th, 1918:
  • Just the same

Ervin Putnam's WWI diary

Ervin Earl Putnam

My grandfather, Ervin Earl Putnam was an X-Ray Technician during World War I.  He kept a diary of his time in the army which I will post here.  He also took a number of photos that I will incorporate where I can.  He labeled them with the place they were taken and the year.  I'll do my best to insert them in the diary where appropriate.  
  Currently, the original document has been misplaced,  so I am taking this from a transcription my brother did 20ish years ago. The diary generally contained a sentence or two per day, so I thought I would post a group by month.  Additionally, I'll try and create a map of the different cities he went to. Here is the first installment.  It is the information from the front of the diary, so is not tied to dates.

Corp. E.E.Putnam

Camp Greene, N.C.

Diary

Corp. Ervin E. Putnam

6 Elm Street

Houlton, ME

Home Phone: 297 M

Emergency Contact:  Amos Putnam, 6 Elm Street, Houlton, ME

Hospital: Base Camp Greene

Weight: 149 lb

Height: 5' 5"

Watch Make: South Bend

Shoe Size 7 1/2

Hosiery: 10 LL

Hat: 7

Contacts:

Clarence Caswell

838 Kursington Rd.

Los Angeles, CA

Joseph Fogerty

482 Delaware Ave.

New York, NY

Jim Gillin

1st Co. 1st Batt.

Depot Brigade

Camp Devens

Gus Dow

2nd Co. 1st Batt.

Depot Brigade

Camp Devens

I'm a map geek

I think of things spatially, so you will see me trying to take information and put it on a map.  I think it helps tell the story.  A colleague showed me google fusion tables and I wanted to experiment with it.  Here is my first result.   

https://goo.gl/hZthX1 

 So, what is it?  I took the birth locations for 12 generations of both the Wright and Smith branches and mapped them to the best of my ability.  By uploading them to a fusion table.  Not only will it allow you to show all the locations on a map but it will generate a heat map showing where the family lived for a extended period of time.  You can also filter on a bunch of different parameters.  There are some conventions and oddities in the data you show be aware of.  

• The Branch column represents the branch of the tree you are looking at.  In this case, either Wright or Smith.
• The PersonID column gives an number for each person.  These are unique per branch, so There are 2 people with ID 1.  David Sanders Wright for the Wright branch and Florence Edna Smith for the Smith branch.
• I've separated the generations by branch as well.  The ones starting with S are the Smith branch and W are the Wright branch.
• The birth year is the best I have.  It get a little odd because of the calendar switch in the 1700s
• If I only have the country of birth I have given it coordinates in the ocean.  That way, they aren't overshadowing the better data.
• If the Dup column is labeled yes, it means that the person has appeared in the tree more then once.  This is because we has some cousins that got married.  Not really that surprising when you think about how few people were in early New England.
• I need to do a better job with the Immigrant column.  If it is marked as Yes, then that ancestor immigrated to the new world.  A Old means that they where born and died in Europe, and a New means they where born in the New World.  If blank, i don't know where they where born.

 

  As an example, I filtered that attached map to just the immigrants, and excluded the ones where I only knew the country of origin.

The Beginning

Alright, this is an experiment.  I've been messing about with researching the family's genealogy for a while and keep coming upon fun and interest stories and facts.  I keep meaning to write them down and keep reorganizing the way I do things.  Therefore, I though I would force myself to put it someplace more public.   This blog will primarily cover from both my parents ancestors though I may take tangents if I find something fun and interesting.  This could include information on places the family lived or visited.  Additionally, since I really am doing this to give a knowledge of the family to my kids, I will have some info on my wife's family.
I'll try and put info in the start of each blog so you can quickly see which branch I am working on.  On my dad's side, this includes the Putnam and Connolly branches and on my Mom's, the Wright and Smith branches.  My wife's family will be label as Carey or Welch.
My understanding of the family history changes regularly and therefore things I post will represent my understanding at the time.  Given that I have and will continue to follow red herrings, I might have it wrong.  Feel free to comment and tell me.