Sarah (Buttrick) Jenners Blood - Update

Awhile ago, I wrote about Sarah, wife of David Jenners, and my frustrations regarding proving her maiden name was Buttrick.

I was recently contacted by one of her descendants through her daughter, Mary (Jenners) Winn, asking if I'd found any proof of the Buttrick surname, so I reviewed my research.  All my information was from secondary sources.

So I went on-line and started doing a bit more digging and specifically looking at Mary (Jenners) Winn.

That is when I found it:  the Death Register for Concord, Massachusetts in 1872 listing the death of Mary Winn on November 17th, 1872.  It lists her parents as "Abiel Jenners born in Concord" and "Sarah (Buttrick) Jenners born in Concord."  See the 5th line from the bottom of the document shown below.

While her father was David Jenners, not Abiel, I think it is an excellent piece of proof that Sarah was indeed, Sarah Buttrick.

Heirlooms: Betsey's Inkwell

While cataloging heirlooms for my current project, I came across this piece that I have had since about 1978 or so:

I believe this is an inkwell.  It is glass & silver and engraved "Betsey."  It came out of the Jones house in Hankinson, North Dakota.

I had forgotten that it was engraved and I had never tried to determine who "Betsey" was.  So I decided to figure it out.

I went looking through my data on the Jones family searching for an Elizabeth or Betsey.  While I did not find a Jones that fit, I did find a Stilwell ancestor named Betsey.  And I am confident this inkwell was hers.

Betsey Dennis was born in Stonington, New London, Connecticut on 25 May 1785.  She married Hamilton White on 11 December 1803 in Stonington.   The 1850 census shows them in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Hamilton was 76 and Betsey 56.   The 1860 census shows them in Decatur, Van Buren, Michigan.  They were shown as 85 and 75 and living with Samuel White and his wife, Sarah.

Hamilton White died in 1862.  Betsey is found on the 1870 census in Metomen, Wisconsin, living with her daughter, Mary K. (White) Stilwell and Mary's husband, Lonson Stilwell.  Betsey is 85. 

Betsey died in Metomen on 30 April 1875.  She and her husband, Hamilton, are buried in Reeds Corner Bethel Cemetery, Ripon, Wisconsin.

So it makes sense that the inkwell passed to Betsey's daughter, Mary K. (White) Stilwell, since Betsey was living with her daughter when she died.

Mary K. (I've never seen any documentation as to her middle name) was born 1 May 1824 in New York and married Lonson Stilwell 29 September 1842 in New York.  They moved to Metomen, Wisconsin in May of 1846.  Here is an overview of their family.

Mary's husband, Lonson, died in 1887.  By 1895, she was living with her daughter, Mary Elva (Stilwell) Jones in her daughter's home in Hankinson, North Dakota.  Mary K. died 20 April 1901 at the Jones home in Hankinson.  She was also buried in Reeds Corner Bethel Cemetery in Ripon, Wisconsin.

The inkwell then seems to have passed to Betsey's granddaughter, Mary Elva (Stilwell) Jones.  And it was still in the Jones home when the household was broken up by the heirs after Harold Jones' death in 1978.

Betsey (Dennis) White would be my grandchildrens' 5 times great-grandmother.  It is wonderful and amazing to be able to pass this precious little bottle on to one of them.

Letter: Harold Jones to Mary Elva (Stilwell) Jones, 25 Jan 1921

While sorting through a bookcase as part of my project to photograph family heirlooms and keepsakes, I was looking through the set of Harvard Classics that came from the John R. Jones home in Hankinson, North Dakota and came across a letter tucked into Volume 1, marking a place in the "Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin."

Mary Elva (Stilwell) Jones in her home in Hankinson

Harold Morris Jones as a youth

Volume 1 of the set of Harvard Classics from the Jones home

The letter is from Harold Morris Jones to his mother, Mary Elva (Stilwell) Jones.  It was written from Northfield, Minnesota, where he was attending Carleton College, and is dated Jan. 25, 1921. 
Here is the letter:

Transcription:

"Northfield     Jan. 25 _ 21
Dear Mother:
   Just a line or two before I go to a conference with my history instructor.
   Do you mind if I bring my room - mate home to spend the week-end?  I expect to arrive home Friday eve and will bring my laundry at that time.
   Nothing to do between now and then but prepare for and take four exams.
             As Ever
                       Harold"

Harold graduated from Carleton College in 1921.

Heirlooms

I am almost done with my photo organization project.  Five more albums to go and it will be done - at least for now.  I still have computer files to clean up and my parents' albums to scan and organize, but the biggest portion - my personal photos - will be done. 

Once the albums are finished, my next project is to photograph and catalog the many family heirlooms we have.  I want to get them organized so that our children and grandchildren will know which items are family pieces and which are things my husband and I have collected over the years.

We have furniture from both sides.  We have many old family letters.  Some jewelry.  Some dinnerware and silver ware.  Old bibles.  Framed certificates.  Miscellaneous nick-knacks.  Books.  Tools.  Lots of Stuff.

Not quite sure how I'll handle the project, but I will let you know how it goes.

I suspect photographing it all will be challenging.

I just feel it needs to be done while I can still remember what everything is and where it came from!