October 2017 – Edition 151

A DETECTIVE STORY-PART I
The photo

This article revolves around research carried out by our long-time reader Sandra about her great grandmother Anna.

Jumping ahead to Anna’s mature years so that you have an idea of what she looked like, the people in the above photo (all in their “Sunday best”) are, from left to right: Anna Jerrems Kirkwood (Sandra’s great grandmother), her daughter Sarah Jane (Sadie) Kirkwood (Sandra’s great aunt), her daughter Mary Catherine Kirkwood (Sandra’s grandmother), and husband William Henry Kirkwood I (Sandra’s great grandfather).

This is a graphic story of Sandra’s detective work, spread out over about nine years, rivalling research work carried out about Big Bill and his descendants.

It is now nine years since I last published an “Email from Heaven” in the Jerrems Journal in which Sandra’s great great grandfather (Joseph Jerrems/Jerrams)) challenged Sandra and myself to research his life and the life of his daughters Sarah Cornelia and Anna.

Over the years researching this family has been a labour of love for Sandra, so this is a comprehensive article. I must also admit that I have had a lot of fun debating with Sandra (via emails) the significance of the numerous documents she has uncovered. She has spent countless hours trying to solve the enigma of how her great great grandfather and his daughters spent their years, so here is my analysis of the likely sequence of events.

A common theme in Sandra’s research is the very familiar mis-spellings of the name “Jerrems”.

To keep things in a chronological sequence I will start with Anna’s father, Joseph. In the safe assumption that readers will not remember the contents of my 2009 article I will repeat some of it.

Joseph came from what we have dubbed the “Wappenham” line of the Jerrems families. His father Joseph Jerrams/Jerrems was born in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, in 1814 and migrated to the US with his wife Sarah in the late 1830s or early 1840’s. Sandra, with the help of Ray Lloyd, has traced that family back to Joseph and Mary Jerroms, Joseph having been born in 1690.

Joseph and Sarah married in 1844 and settled in Utica in New York State, 250 miles west of New York City, where Joseph worked as a carpenter. They had three children who died in childhood, then finally had 2 daughters (Sarah Cornelia and Anna) born in 1856 and 1859 respectively. Joseph’s wife Sarah died from consumption (now known as tuberculosis) in 1865.

I will now relate to you two particular highlights of Joseph’s career because they could have had a significant bearing on what happened to the girls when their mother died.

Sandra’s (pictured above) newspaper research showed that Joseph was a volunteer fireman in 1857, being a member of the Franklin No. 5 Hose Company (it is possible that he is in the photo). The  picturesquely uniformed Company was located in Washington Street, not far from where Joseph lived. In those days this would have been voluntary (this situation still applied in Sydney until the Second World War), and shows that Joseph was very civic minded.

This was a dangerous job, exacerbated by their lack of real safety equipment. To state the obvious they would have been required to go to fires at all times of the day and night, regardless of weather, on top of their long work hours and family duties. Added to this, the job would have been physically demanding, even for for a man in his forties, like Joseph. In the 1850s they would have had a hand-operated pump, hoses and small tanker, all mounted on a cart which they probably pulled along themselves.

In addition to his role as a fireman Joseph was a member of the Whig Party (a predecessor of the Republican Party). As recorded in the local newspaper, at one Whig meeting in 1854 he was elected as a delegate to the Whig Primary Elections. Sandra has deduced that, because the next presidential election was in 1856, his role could possibly have had something to do with Presidential Primaries where Presidential candidates are chosen to run (I am sure that our American readers will understand what this means).

Nicholas White, who features later in this story, also attended the meeting where Joseph was elected.

It is probably a measure of Joseph’s ability and public standing that he was elected to this position.

It is also likely that Joseph joined the Freemasons and Joseph and Sarah belonged to a local Church congregation.

Joseph’s options in the ordinary course of events would have been very much coloured by the fact that he would have had to hold down a job entailing long working hours and that he was fifty years of age (fairly old for those days). The options would have been:

• Have the girls fostered out to relatives or friends (which is what happened), or
• Have them taken into an orphanage (an option taken by his brother James with the two Colbrook orphans), or
• Remarry so that his new wife looked after the girls (but at the age of 50 the new wife would also be looking at the prospect of looking after him as well  in later years).

Sarah’s will
One fortunate aspect for the little girls in the long term was that a farsighted Will was made up professionally for Sarah to ensure (as far as was possible) that the girls were provided for. Her Will specified that the estate was to be held in trust for the girls and invested until they reached the age of 21, and very importantly gave the trustees the power to make advances earlier. The fact that Joseph owned a house worth $900 in 1860, and that this had presumably been passed to Sarah, shows that the estate was reasonably substantial for those days.

It is also possible that Joseph had made payments into a “Friendly Society” contribution scheme, and that these had been paid back into the Trust.

Friendly Society Contribution Schemes

It should be borne in mind that in those days there were no sources of social service payments such as pensions, child allowances, sickness benefits etc. These had to come from private contributions. One scheme I came across in my research of my ancestors in England was the Ancient Order of Shepherdesses, described in the Jerrems Journal of July 2012.

An 1845 Gainsborough (Lincolnshire) newspaper article refers to the annual general meeting of the quaintly named Ancient Order of Shepherdesses, of which my great great grandfather Thomas was the secretary, where a large number of the sisterhood sat down to tea. The choir of the Holy Trinity Church donated their services and sang several pieces of music.

The name “Ancient Order of Shepherdesses” conjures up images of nubile shepherdesses tending their sheep in arcadian fields. But how did this apply to the ladies of the town of Gainsborough? With slight variations of name (eg “The Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherdesses”) these societies were classified as “Friendly Societies” which, as some readers may recollect, more commonly took the form of a society which provided support for death or sickness in illness or death in a family in return for regular subscriptions. However some friendly societies provided social activities, often on a quasi -masonic basis, such as the shepherdess societies for women and the Ancient Order of Foresters for men.

Presumably Thomas was the secretary because his wife Elizabeth was also a member. It is interesting that they took this interest in community affairs.

The term “shepherdess” could originate from “good shepherdess”, which in turn is derived from a description in the Songs of Solomon in the Bible.

The aspect that the girls had an “inheritance” to fall back on could have been important in later years.

Returning to the Trust set up under the terms of the Will, a very significant factor was that one of the Trustees was Nicholas White, a local businessman. It was not for some years that Sandra realised the significance of this.

We have three potential benefactors who could have significantly influenced the future of the girls

(a) Nicholas White, the main Trustee of Sarah’s Will, who later also took in Anna’s older sister Sarah Cornelia
(b) Oren Root, who first took in Anna,
(c) Philander Root, who possibly drew up the Will and arranged for his wife

I will start with Nicholas White because he probably holds the key to the whole puzzle of what happened to the girls after their mother died.

Here is a photo of a distinguished-looking Nicholas White, doing his best imitation of the even more celebrated Abraham Lincoln, one of his contemporaries.

A manufacturer of fire bricks, pottery and stoneware, White was born in Vermont in 1819, making him four years younger than Joseph. His parents settled in Utica in 1827, and he obtained employment in a pottery which his father later purchased, as well as another pottery at Utica. In 1840 he was made a partner and continued the business until his death in 1886. He was for two terms an Alderman of Utica, and was for one term a member of the State Assembly. He alternated between being a Whig and a Tory, and after starting out as Methodist he later joined the First Presbyterians. He was also for 25 years a director of the Utica Mechanics Association and was for many years a Freemason.

His pottery is still sought after, more than 150 years later.

Oren Root
Oren, described in a later article in more detail, first took in Anna. He was the head of a prominent family (one son was the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize). The family seems to have had a strong church background (Oren was also a minister).

The third likely benefactor was Philander Root.

Philander (born 1809) was a prominent lawyer and County judge who passed away in December 1864. Amongst other things Philander was also a senior Freemason. His widow Elizabeth took Anna in later.

What was the connection between Joseph and the benefactors?

It seems to there was a mixture of joint interests in the Whigs, First Presbyterians and Freemasons.

Freemasons

Freemasonry, as we understand it today, began with the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717. The prime qualification for admission into Freemasonry is a belief in a supreme being. Having some form of religious belief is the one thing that all Freemasons have in common, whatever their backgrounds might be.

While not directly linked, the Freemasons have taken a lot of their symbolism from stonemasonry. This symbolism has led to some wild theories, particularly in the United States, that Freemasonry is a dangerous cult.

Although the principle motivation of members is probably camaraderie, the Lodges have a strong social conscience and a desire to help other people by getting involved in public affairs.

My family has had a history of involvement in freemasonry. My father and grandfather were Masons, with a high probability that the previous two generations (Charles and Thomas) were Masons also. I have seen references to some of Thomas’s brothers being Masons (Robert was definitely a member of the Ancient Order of Oddfellows, members of which attended his funeral), so it is likely that Thomas was a Mason also. Perhaps Thomas’s experience with the Masons was the reason why he had been asked to be secretary of the Ancient Order of Shepherdesses. It would also seem likely that the family patriarch Big Bill (my great great great grandfather) was a Mason like his sons.

Conclusion

In a later article I will tell you about the lives of Anna and Sarah.