Zophar Skinner and the 2nd RI Infantry at Gettysburg

Last summer I wrote in this post about a visit I made to Gettysburg and the Civil War battlefield monuments for the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry.  My 2nd great-grandfather, Zophar Skinner, was in Company C of the 2nd RIV (Rhode Island Volunteers). He enlisted in the unit on 5 June 1861 and mustered out on 17 June 1864. Zophar was not yet 18 when he enlisted. His 20 year old brother, Joseph Godfrey Skinner enlisted on the same day and mustered into Co. H of the 2nd RIV. Youngest brother, Henry Skinner, was only eleven years old and  he might have envied his older brothers marching off to war.

Zophar Skinner

My father's cousin is Zophar's grandson and knew him when he was a young boy. He has the powder horns that Zophar used during the war, and also a small diary that Zophar kept for the year 1863. The diary is a small leather-bound book not much larger than a pack of cards, around 5" x 3".  Each page covers 3 days, with 6 short lines for journaling. The diary is in quite good condition but the ink on many pages has faded too much to be read.

Zophar Skinner's diary for the year 1863

inside cover of diary
"Zophar Skinner
Co. C. 2nd reg. R.I. Vols.
Valley Falls,  Rhode Island
Enlisted June 5th, 1861.
2nd Brigade 3rd Division 6th Corps"

Zophar recorded the weather every day and briefly detailed his activities.  He mentions writing and receiving letters, drawing rations, drills, inspections, dress parades, and marches among the daily occurrences.

Gettysburg

The decisive battle at Gettysburg, PA occurred over the 3-day period of July 1-3, 1863. The battle began before Zophar's unit arrived in mid-afternoon on the 2nd day after marching all night with only brief stops for breakfast and dinner. When they arrived at Gettysburg, they were held in reserve near Little Round Top and probably fell asleep in exhaustion. Zophar, in his diary, claimed they had marched 42 miles in the last day and a half, and they marched 140 miles in the six days since they left Centreville, VA on June 26th.

Below is a transcription from the diary for July 1 - July 5. I have tried to retain original spelling, spacing, and punctuation.

Wednesday, July 1
"Showery all day. drawed one days rait-
ons. packed up at six this evening and took
the road to Gettysburg and marched all
night. Gen. Wheaton took command of ou-
e Division this Evening"

Thursday, July 2
"Plesant all day stopt one hour for bre-
akfast and one for dinner. passed tho-
rgh Middletown and arrived at Gettys-
burg at three this afternoon. distance
was 42 miles."

Friday, July 3
"Cloudy all day. got up at two this mo-
rning and got breakfast. Our brigade was
detached to the 12 Armee cops. went to
the right of the line of battle and back
again. sharp shelling by the rebels.Charles
Powers was killed this afternoon by a shell".

Saturday, July 4
"Showery all day. got up this morning at
7 and went to the front reserve for pickets
the rest of our Brigade was digging rif-
le pits. relieved at half past seven th-
evening by the 10 regiment Mass Vols".

Sunday, July 5
"Showerly all day. got up early this m-
orning and joined our Corps. rested a sho-
rt time and started after the rebs they ha-
ving left during the night. halted at d-
ark. Distance five miles. my Company was
detailed as rear guard".

The Union Army, under General Meade's command pursued the Confederate Army as they moved south back into Maryland and then across the Potomac River and into Virginia in the days following. Zophar's unit crossed the Potomac on July 19th. It is hard for me to imagine what this young man saw and experienced during the Gettysburg battle and throughout the War. The diary does not reveal Zophar's emotions or state of mind but is very straightforward. What a time he lived through.... And in the end, I wonder if his little brother Henry was grateful or envious that he was too young to go to war like his older brothers, Zophar and Joseph.

Cumberland RI Town Hall visit

Before my grandfather moved to NJ around 1920, most of my paternal ancesors lived in the village of Valley Falls in the town of Cumberland RI for 4 or 5 generations and it is there that I will find most of the records to document my ancestry. I was able to spend part of two days there this last week after attending the New England Regional Genealogy Conference (NEGRC) in Manchester, NH. I explored some of the vital records and deeds, but did not have time to check court records. That is for my next visit.

Cumberland Rhode Island Town Hall
Built 1894

The Town Hall is located on Broad Street just a block over the city line north of Central Falls. Its prominent tower makes it easy to spot from many locations in Valley Falls. There is a parking lot just to the north, and plenty of on-street parking on the two days I was there.

Vital records and land records are kept in the Town Clerk's office on the first floor. There is a large work area to lay out books and good light for photographing records. There is also a copy machine in the office.

Vital Records

For vital records, the Clerk retrieves the volumes from shelves in the office. These are large ledger books and are not the originals but copies of records transcribed into the volumes. The original records are kept in the basement vault and the Town Clerk must retrieve them. They are filed in boxes with some record years bound together, and others are loose. The Clerk asks for the name and date of event, and hands you the loosely bound records opened to the correct record, or hands you the individual record. I wish I was able to go through the originals without involving the Clerk, and limited my requests to direct line ancestors.

Death Record - Sarah A. (Gardner) Lawton
4th Great Grandmother

Among other information found in the original record vs the transcribed volumes for Deaths are:

• full name of deceased with middle names sometimes spelled out
• street address of death
• informant's name
• burial place
• birth date
• full age at death (sometimes only the age in years was found in the record books 
• physician
• undertaker

Some of this information was in the bound record books but in a more abbreviated form depending on the transcriber. I found several middle names that I had not known, and that were only initialed in the bound volumes and the online record index at FamilySearch.

Land Records

Grantee - Grantor Index

Modern record indexes are computerized, but I don't know when this started. I was looking at records for the mid-late 1800s and early 1900s and these records are indexed in a card catalog. There are two different sets of records - one for Grantees and one for Grantors. The cards are filed by name, and then by year, making it somewhat easy to trace some transactions as I went through the indexed cards. However, the real details are in the original documents and I found some good name and relationship information in the deeds.

Grantor Index card for Mortgage 1902

I was able to photograph some of these cards in  drawers where the cards were not packed too tightly. The cards were very informative and usually listed:

• type of transaction (mortgage, quit-claim, warranty, etc)
• grantor and grantee names
• year of transaction and book number and page
• consideration
• brief description of property
• location

Deed books - Cumberland RI 

The Deed books are in the same room as the card catalog index and are located on the wall facing the card catalog. There is a double set of shelves with the front set on rollers so the back row can be accessed. The earliest records are handwritten and bound in large ledger books and later deeds are typed and reproduced in smaller white and black volumes. More modern records are in the red volumes

Rescued Photo #3 - Benjamin Crandell

When I was in Vermont last September, I spent an hour or so browsing at the Antique Center at Camelot Village in Bennington, VT. This shop is huge and is composed of many individual 'stalls' where all kinds of antiques are sold. I could have spent days in this place, and hope to go back on my next visit.

I spent most of my time there looking thru old photos and was amazed at how many of them had identification written on the back. If only all my old family photos were identified! I decided to buy a few that caught my eye and see if I could identify the families of the individuals, and possibly to locate a living descendant who would like to have these photos. Please contact me if you are related to these people and would like the original photo.

This photo has an inscription on the back. It says "Benjamin Crandell, Born 21 April 1799, age 93

Benjamin Crandell
born 21 April 1799
age 93

Back of Benjamin Crandell photo

The photographer was W.D. Parsons of Adams, Massachusetts. Adams is in Berkshire County in the northwestern corner of Massachusetts. I found on Google Books, a Gazetteer of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 1725 - 1885 by Hamilton Child and printed at the Journal Office: Syracuse, NY, January, 1885. It lists a William D. Parsons, photographer, with his business located on Park Street in Adams. If Benjamin's age of 93 on the back of the photo is correct, then the studio was still operating in 1892, when the photo was taken.

 Identity of Benjamin Crandell/Crandall

A birth record index on Ancestry.com lists a Benjamin Crandall born on 21 April 1799 in Tiverton, Rhode Island to Abner and Mary Crandall. A  FamilySearch.com record of his 2nd marriage to Almeida Brayton in 1851 also confirms his Tiverton RI birth. His name is given as Benjamin O Crandall on this record. At the time of this marriage, Benjamin was listed as living in So. Adams, Massachusetts and his occupation was that of wagon-maker. I was not able to discover the identity of his first wife and the mother of his child, Arnold H. Crandall, listed in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses in Adams, Massachusetts. Arnold had at least 2 children, Anna I Crandall, born around 1866 in Massachusetts (single and living with her father in North Adams in the 1920 census)  and Arnold B Crandall, born 5 June 1871 in Adams, Massachusetts (birth record on FamilySearch.com). This Arnold might be the Arnold B Crandall living with wife Elizabeth J Crandall in the 1910 (and later) census in Waterbury, Connecticut. Further research would be needed to determine if this is the right person.

Benjamin's son, Arnold H Crandall married Elizabeth L Gardner. On their marriage certificate on FamilySearch.com, Arnold is listed as being born in Hoosick, Rensselaer County in New York. According to the 1800 and 1810 Federal censuses, Arnold's grandfather, Abner Crandall moved his family from Tiverton, RI to Hoosick, NY in between 1800 and 1810, when Benjamin would have been a young boy. Hoosick is around 30 miles from Adams, MA, where Benjamin was living when he married his 2nd wife, Almeida Brayton.

Benjamin Crandall is listed on page 175 of Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island and his Descendants, by John Cortland Crandall, published in New Woodstock, New York in 1949. He is one of 13 children of Abner Crandall (a Revolutionary War soldier) and Mary Wilcox, and grandson of Eber Crandall and Mercy (Mary) Brownell.

Vintage Easter Postcard

Happy Easter!

Monogram mystery solved!

A few days ago I asked one of the mailing lists I am subscribed to for help in identifying an old monogram found on a pocket-watch and ring that were among items from my parents' safety deposit box. The monogram was so ornate it was hard for me to convince myself what the initials in the monogram are.

It appeared that the ring monogram contained the same initials although the surface is quite worn. 

Mystery solved!

I determined the watch and ring had belonged to my maternal grandfather, Harold Theodore Veith. What clinched the identity for me was finding a photo of my grandfather wearing this ring in 1909. In photos of him in later years, this ring is replaced on his hand by his wedding band and sometimes his masonic ring. Before I found this photo, I was browsing monogram fonts and came across a font entitled 'Monogram kk' in which the letters 'HTV' are pretty similar to the engravings. The letters can be closely traced with the additions of a few extra flourishes.

Harold Theodore Veith 1909

closeup of ring

'Monogram kk' font for initials 'HTV'

Rescued Photo #1 - Ann Brayton Pratt

When I was in Vermont last September, I spent an hour or so browsing at the Antique Center at Camelot Village in Bennington, VT. This shop is huge and is composed of many individual 'stalls' where all kinds of antiques are sold. I could have spent days in this place, and hope to go back on my next visit.

I spent most of my time there looking thru old photos and was amazed at how many of them had identification written on the back. If only all my old family photos were identified! I decided to buy a few that caught my eye and see if I could identify the families of the individuals, and possibly to locate a living descendant who would like to have these photos. Please contact me if you are related to these people and would like the original photo.

Ann Brayton Pratt 

back side of Ann Brayton Pratt photo

The first photo is identified as Ann Brayton Pratt, (Mrs Frank Pratt 2nd), daughter of Mr and Mrs Alanson Brayton. I was able to find her death certificate on FamilySearch.org .

"Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N43L-8C3 : accessed 03 Mar 2013), Ann Eliza Pratt, 1910.

From the information on the death certificate we know that Ann Eliza Brayton was born 26 January 1833 in White Creek, New York, daughter of Elanson Brayton, birthplace unknown, and Matilda Crandall born in Hoosick, NY. She died at age 77, widow of George F. Pratt on 7 October 1910 at Sloan Road,  Williamstown, Massachusetts of  "senile degeneration complicated with cancer of liver". Ann was buried in Hoosick, New York on 9 October 1910. The informant for the information contained in this certificate was Mrs. Frank Young, of South Williamstown. Her relationship to the deceased is not given.

Ann E. Pratt is found with her husband Frank Pratt in the 1900 Federal census (citation at the end of this article), living in Williamstown, MA in the home of the Frank and Gertrude Young family. Ann and her husband are listed as father-in-law and mother-in-law to the head of the family, Frank Young. Presumably wife Gertrude Young is the daughter of either (or both) of the elder couple. In this census entry, Frank Pratt is listed as born in Oct 1829, age 70 and married for 32 years (1868). He and his father were born in Vermont, and his mother was born in New York. No occupation is listed. Ann E Pratt is recorded as born in Jan 1834, age 66. She is listed as having zero children, with zero children living. Ann and her mother were born in New York, and her father was born in Vermont.

In the 1900 census, children of Frank and Gertrude Young are  listed as Harry Young, age 20, Lulu Young, age 18, Bliss Young, age 16 and Ella Young, age 12.

Since Gertrude Young is age 39 on this record, she was born 7 years before Frank and Ann married and was probably Frank's daughter from a previous marriage. This correlates with the report of zero children and is consistent with the name of Mrs Frank Pratt 2nd on the back of the photo. Ann Brayton was probably Frank Pratt's 2nd wife and Gertrude is most likely Ann's step-daughter.

So it appears that Ann Eliza Brayton Pratt did not have direct descendants but her siblings may have had descendants who would value Ann's photograph. From the 1850 U.S. Federal census (citation below), Ann appears as one of probably nine children of Alanson and Matilda Brayton. The minors in this household are:
Caroline S Brayton, age 18, Ann E Brayton, age 16, Amon O Brayton, age 14, Julia G Brayton, age 12, Franklin B Brayton, age 10, Ardelia C Brayton, age 8, Marcus M Brayton, age 6, Mary J Brayton, age 4 and Charles E Brayton, age 2.

Hopefully, some descendant of the Brayton/Pratt/Young/Crandell family will someday see this post in a google search of names. Contact me if you want the original photo!.
---------

1900 U.S. Census, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Williamstown, Enumeration District (ED) 89, sheet 11-B, family 249, Frank Young household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 March 2013), citing National Archives microfilm publication T623, roll 633.

1850 U.S. Census, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Williamstown, sheet 152-A, family 129, Alanson Brayton household, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 2 March 2013), citing National Archives microfilm publication M 432, roll 305.

Jersey City, Then and Now

I was back east earlier in the month and spent part of an afternoon in Jersey City, New Jersey photographing buildings and visiting places my Badendick great-grandparents knew in the early part of the 20th century. According to family history, Carl Badendick came to this country from Barth, a small village on the Baltic Sea in Pomerania (now Germany) around 1880. He married my great-grandmother, Bertha Zerull on 9th September 1883 in Jersey City and they lived there for the rest of their lives. Carl died in 1916, and Bertha in 1931.


Current photo of former Badendick home
Corner of van Reypen Street and Stuyvesant Avenue
Jersey City, NJ

I remember visiting the house they had lived in when I was a very young child when some of my great aunts were still alive. I remember nothing of the inside but I do remember what seemed to me to be really tall front steps! Here is a photo of my great-aunt Edith Badendick on what I think are those same steps around 1900.

Edith Badendick

My great-grandfather operated a small store at the other end of the block from their residence, on the corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and what was then Hudson County Boulevard and is now John F Kennedy Blvd.

 

Carl Badendick's store on the corner of Stuyvesant and the Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ
around 1900

 

February 2013

The building is still recognizable with only a few modifications. The door has been moved from the corner to the center of the front facade, and the cupola has been modified. The store is now a coffee shop and 99 cent store. The sign in the window in the old photo says cigars and tobacco on one side, and confectionery on the other. There is a sign out front of the store advertising Reid's ice cream.

I plan to do more research with the deeds I have found for the house and store.  I suspect some of the building numbering has changed over the years which makes it difficult to detrmine which plots of land and buildings are in the deeds I have. Family history as well as some newspaper clippings indicate Carl ran a saloon in the basement of what I assume was his store. More research is needed to determine if this was indeed the same location.