Footnotes

Shepard-Hamilton transcription research

March 1857

Following is the set of footnotes associated with research of the transcription of the March 1857 diary entries by Lorette Shepard & John Hamilton. These footnotes are also interspersed and embedded within the transcription.

 

  1. Mr. Lincoln ♢ There were several Lincolns in Bethany, but this could be Charles F Lincoln, an Elder in the Presbyterian Church at Bethany Center. He was a son of Sylvester Lincoln Jr., and Eleanor Wallace.
  2. Mrs. Reamer ♢ Elizabeth Debow (1805-1879) was second wife of John Reamer, and the youngest of ten children born to Andrew DeBow and Matina F. Alyea. They both are buried in Batavia Cemetery.
  3. Emaline Jackman ♢ Emaline Jackman The only Emaline Jackman found in the USA around Lorette’s age, was Emeline A. Jackman, born about 1838 living in Massachusetts.
  4. Mr. Buell ♢ Cyrus Buell (1806-1888) was a carpenter and joiner, lived in West Bethany with his wife Catharine Kromer and their five children.
  5. build the stairs ♢ This may have been the main stairway up to the second floor of the two-family John Shepard Jr home.
  6. Charles Putnams ♢ Charles 34 and his wife Phoebe Hawley (a daughter John Shepard’s sister Phoebe and her first husband Alvin Hawley) were moving to Phoenix, NY, a village just east Oneida Lake, where he would be a minister. Also there was Phoebe’s mother and her second husband, Richard d. Covell and her daughter Jane Hawley age 17.
  7. Milton Powers & Olive ♢ Charles Milton Powers 29 born in Trenton Falls, Oneida county, NY. He married Olive Showerman, daughter of John P Showerman and Elizabeth Powell Powers in 1852, and had on child, Edwin in 1853.
  8. Mr. Calvin Strongs ♢ Calvin Strong (1817-1895) Calvin married Emeline Putnam in 1843. They had three children, two were still alive. Philathaea died when she was only one. Florence Adel was12, and Augustus was 8. They lived at the corner of Putnam and East roads.
  9. south school ♢ Batavia-Bethany School House No. 6 at the corner of Francis & Bethany Townline roads.
  10. Mr Benton & wife ♢ George W. Benton (1821-1893) and his wife Anice (1822-1900) lived near John Hamilton’s parents on Francis Rd, Bethany. They had two children, George A. 12, Sidney 10 (if he was still alive), and Fremont 5. Joel Marsh Jr and his wife Louisa also lived on Francis Road.
  11. Asahel Shepard & wife ♢ Asahel Shepard’s wife was Sarah Bartlett (1818-1888). He married her after his first wife Jane Newcomb died in 1843; they had six children: George, Lydia, Helen, Alvin, Jannett, and Jane. He married Sarah about 1844, a daughter of Stephen Bartlett and Anna Nurse. Asahel and Sarah had five children by 1855: Agnes, Viola, Emma, Alice and Adell. One son and ten daughters.
  12. Charlie ♢ Charles E Shepard, Lorette’s brother, age 1
  13. visited ♢ Lorette’s grandparents, John Shepard Sr. and Catherine Wilson Shaw had three daughters, Fanny, Harriet, and Laura. Fanny married Clark Shaw in 1851. Clark was a son of Guy Shaw and Nancy Ellis of Alexander.
  14. Henry Bostwick & Jared Levings ♢ Henry Bostwick 19 was a son of Austin Bostwick, and Jared 17 was a son of Rev. Abel Levings Jr.
  15. Mr. Brainard folks ♢ Levi Brainard 56, and second wife Julia Powers 35, lived on Ellicott St Road. His living children in 1857 were Rice, Zachariah, Jesse, Mary, Zerah, and Elizabeth.
  16. Browns schoolhouse ♢ Browns Schoolhouse is the schoolhouse also known as SH No 12 and is located across from the West Bethany Baptist Church.
  17. Theodore Smith ♢ Theodore G. Smith was a son of Gilbert and Polly Smith of Alexander. He married Emily Bromley.
  18. Norman Putnam ♢ Norman Melvin Putnam (1837-1895) He was the oldest son of Josiah Putnam (1801-1872) and his second wife, Lydia Wilson Shaw (1816-1904). Josiah’s first wife was Olivia P. Lord who died in 1835. Most of their five children also died young; all are buried in Putnam Cemetery.
  19. Thompson bush ♢ John’s father’s property on Francis Road backed up to Mrs. Amanda Thompson’s property on Bethany Center Road. The sugar bush was probably between the two pieces of land.
  20. Mrs. Powers ♢ Lorette’s aunt Olive Showerman Powers lived on Francis Road with her husband, Charles Milton Powers across the road from John Hamilton’s parents; in the location called, “Parsonage Est.” on the 1854 Map of Genesee County.
  21. Mr. Marshall ♢ Joseph Marshall born in 1819 in Ireland, was a Grocer in Batavia.
  22. Frank ♢ John Hamilton’s brother, Benjamin Franklin Hamilton, would have been 20, and was returning to school at the Genesee Wyoming Seminary in Alexander.
  23. the woods ♢ Young people on Francis Road were in the sugar bush between Hamiltons and Thompsons in Bethany.

 

See the Next or Previous set of footnotes.

 

Read the March 1857 transcription.

 

Read 679 times

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.

1857 Diary Summary

John 25 and Lorette 21 settle into their second year of marriage. They live with her parents who are remodeling their house on Shepard Road, Batavia, NY. Baby brother, Charles is 3 and Lorette helps with his care. Daily they see their relatives and friends marry and have children. Lorette gives music lessons to neighbors and attends singing school and weekly sees her best friend and half-aunt Elizabeth Showerman Quance who lives around the corner on East Road with her husband Israel. John attends a debate club, reads a book on spiritualism, moves his barn, goes fishing, raises sheep, makes maple syrup, and plays baseball. Life is filled with dinners, picnics, attending various churches, deaths and marriages, and a lot of visiting.

1857 Surnames Mentioned

Andrews, Ashley, Benedict, Benton, Bostwick, Brainard, Brown, Bryan, Buell, Burt, Calkins, Chaddock, Charles, Cole, Cornwell, Cortez, Covell/Coville, Cummings, Davis, Denton, Dorman, Emmons, Farnham, Fillmore, Fister, Green, Hamilton, Hart, Hathaway, Hawley, Holden, Holter/Holton, Houghton, Huggins, Huntington, Jackman, Johnson, Judd, Judson, Keaton, Knowlton, Lamkin, Lane, Lathrop, Lawrence, Leonard, Levings, Lincoln, Loomis, Lord, Lovelace, Lyman, Lyons, Madden, Marsh, Marshall, McMillen, Moore, Newton, Northrup, Norton, Nott, Olin, Parmer, Patterson, Perry, Phelps, Plato, Powers, Putnam, Quance, Read, Reamer, Rogers, Rolland, Sale, Shaw, Shepard, Showerman, Skinner, Smith, Sprague, Stevens, Stewart, Strong, Sweetland, Thayer, Thompson, Town, Waite, Walker, Wales, Ware, Watts, Webster, Weed, West, Wilkenson, Woodward, Wortendyke

Life as Lorette

Life as Lorette presents the journey from diary discovery to revealing pioneers of Genesee County, New York.

World Events of 1857

  • An earthquake hit Tokyo and about 107,000 died
  • Frederick Laggenheim took the first photo of a solar eclipse
  • H. Sichel & Sohne, the producers of the popular Blue Nun white wine, was founded in Germany
  • The SS Central America sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, cargo includes 43 bars of gold

National Events of 1857

  • In Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court rules that a slave is not a citizen
  • James Gibbs of Virginia patented a chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine
  • The California gold rush town of Columbia burned down in a fire that was blamed on a Chinese cook; the miners soon evicted all Chinese from the town
  • Mormon leader Brigham Young called out the Nauvoo Legion to fight the U.S. Troops if they enter Utah Territory
  • Lithographers Nathaniel Currier and Charles Ives become partners
  • Count Agoston Haraszthy founded the Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, California
  • Paul Broca discovered that particular regions of the brain are specialized for particular functions
  • The first US coin to be called a nickel was the copper and nickel one-cent piece

New York State Events in 1857

  • The first passenger elevator is installed in a New York City store
  • Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and architect Calvert Vaux won the competition to develop New York City's Central Park
  • New York City's Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company branch fails, precipitating a financial panic; 4,932 U. S. firms fail
  • John Alsop King takes office as the first Republican governor
  • The American Chess Association organized. The first major US chess tournament was held in NYC

Local Events in 1857

  • Treaty with the Seneca Tonawanda Band was signed restoring about 8,000 acres of land to the Seneca Nation
  • The Genesee River floods carrying away buildings on Rochester's Main Street Bridge
  • Susan B. Anthony and William Lloyd Garrison speak at an Abolition meeting in Corinthian Hall, Rochester
  • Le Roy's Ingham Collegiate Institute is chartered as Ingham University
  • Belva Lockwood graduates from Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, NY; she later runs for U.S. President in 1884 and 1888
  • Polly Hoag Frisch's second husband, Otto Frisch, deserts her in the same year that two more of her children die in the Town of Alabama. Relatives, neighbors, and friends are suspicious
© 2021 Linda J Shepard ♦ All Rights Reserved ♦ Architecture by Web Systems One