The Peck's George Street Estate

I have recently been working with new information researched by family members, and with a source we haven't worked with before: A Genealogical History of the Descendants of Joseph Peck, by Ira B. Peck.  Not only does this add four generations of Pecks to our family tree, it provides new details which connect to "A Plan of the Town of New Haven With all the Buildings in 1748" by James Wadsworth. 

The History traces back to a Henry Peck (1618-1651, my tenth great grandfather) who supposedly emigrated to Boston in 1637 in the company of Gov. Theophilus Eaton, Rev. John Davenport, and others, aboard the ship Hector.  Henry and a Deacon William Peck (probably a relative) were among the first settlers of New Haven in 1638.

Henry's home lot was on the first of the eight unnamed streets which were laid out to form the town's grid plan.  That street would be called Brick Street, then Leather Lane, then in 1784 George Street (after George Washington).  The lot was to the south of what was called Market Street, then in 1784 renamed Church Street.

The History provides details on how the "George Street Estate" was passed down through the generations, pointing out that at the time of publishing (1868), at least part of it was still occupied by Henry Peck's descendants.  In 1720, it had at least an old house, a new house, an orchard, and a barn.

By 1748 the "new house" was owned by Stephen Peck (1730-1802, a direct ancestor), who is shown on the Wadsworth map as a blockmaker.  In 1753 he married Esther Munson, daughter of Israel Munson (whose inn is also shown on the map, in the upper-right-hand part of the grid).  They had seven children.  Esther passed away in 1768 and Stephen remarried Lydia Miles, apparently not having further children.

Also worth noting here: Stephen's half-brother James Peck, Jr. was an innkeeper.  His inn is shown on the wharf on the Wadsworth map.

Two of Stephen and Esther's sons: Henry (1755-1802, a direct ancestor) and John (1759-1805) lived on or near the George Street Estate.  The History states that Henry lived on the estate, building a house which in 1868 was still occupied by Lewis Mix (1821-1906, brother of my fourth great grandmother Mary).  Henry and John "were spar and blockmakers; their shop was upon the same lot near their dwelling."  I suspect they inherited their father's shop.

Sources:

A Genealogical History of the Descendants of Joseph Peck, appendix: Descendants of Henry Peck, of New Haven, Connecticut, by Ira B. Peck (Alfred Mudge & Son, Boston, 1868)

A Plan of the Town of New Haven With all the Buildings in 1748, by Hon. Gen. James Wadsworth, Thomas Kensett Engraver.  Excerpt taken from the digital copy in Yale's archives.

Flowers for General Grant

One of the interesting anecdotes from my great great grandfather's memoir reads as follows:

One Decoration Day in the '80's, I saw, riding in the same carriage, in the parade, Gen. U. S. Grant and Gen. "Phil" Sheridan.  Years later I learned that at the reviewing stand the procession halted a few minutes; a lot of little girls all dressed in white, stood at attention while one went forward and presented a bouquet of flowers to Gen. Sheridan.  Gallant Irish gentleman that he was, he lifted her up and kissed her.  Another then gave Gen. Grant a bouquet, so, not to be outdone, he likewise picked her up and kissed her.  This little girl was "Allie" Corbett who later became my wife and told me of the incident when I spoke of seeing these two men at that time at another point.  So, altho Gen. Grant kissed her first, I got the girl!

I tracked down more information about this, including accounts from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the History of U. S. Grant Post No. 327.  While they differ in some of the details from Fred and Alice's recollections, the core of the story is still the same.

The parade took place on Friday, 30 May 1884.  The notables arrived in carriages on a ferry from New York City in the morning, proceeding along Broadway to Fourth Street (today part of Bedford Ave) and then onto Bedford Ave.  The crowd at this point was sedate.  "The reception was essentially a military one, for the populace sent up no cheer, there was no waving of handkerchiefs, and scarcely any tokens of recognition of the guests were given except occasionally by Grand Army men.  General Grant looked sad and melancholy, not even the faintest sign of a smile lighting up his countenance."

The parade route.  A: Knapp residence, #87 Bedford Ave.  B: Reviewing stand.
C: Corbett and Williams residences, #26 and #28 Lafayette Ave.

The parade stopped at the corner of Bedford Ave and Ross Street, where the dignitaries stepped into the home of Joseph and Phoebe Knapp for a reception - which I'll describe in a moment.  After that, the parade continued along Bedford Ave to Lafayette Ave, turning onto Clinton Ave, Myrtle Ave, and finally Washington Park (Cumberland St) to reach the reviewing stand at Fort Greene.

Grant and Sheridan were taken by a back route to the reviewing stand, rather than continuing as part of the parade.  I suspect, given the location of the parade route and the Williams home (next door to the Corbetts), that 16-year-old Fred saw the latter part of the parade, near the reviewing stand.  The crowd for the latter part of the parade was larger and livelier.  "The sidewalks were crowded with spectators all along the line and there was not a house that was not decorated.  Some residences were completely hidden from view with bunting and one would think that the ships in the harbor had been shorn of all their flags. ... The procession took almost an hour and a half to pass a given point. ... The paraders went by in good order and excited general admiration by their steady movement."

The presentation of flowers took place not at the reviewing stand, but in the music room of the Knapp home.  Joseph Knapp had built a grand room to present both music and art, for his wife Phoebe Palmer Knapp who was a composer and church organist.  It had a 24-rank pipe organ and a stained glass roof.

General (and ex-President, though he was still commonly referred to by his military title) Ulysses S. Grant was dressed in civilian clothing that day.  At the reception, he "stood just before the largest painting in the elegant gallery" - Adriaen van de Venne's 'Proscribed Race'.  General Philip "Little Phil" Sheridan - then General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army - was in full uniform.  "His broad yellow silk sash making an imposing sweep across the swelling front of his coat, [he] brought his head within the frame of Carlos Duran's 'Fruit Girl.'"  The house was filled with plants and Grand Army emblems, and about 300 invited guests who lined up to meet the gentlemen.

Gen. Sheridan, ca. 1855-1865

Gen. Grant, ca. 1870-1880

About ten o'clock, "six white-robed girls, each bearing a bright bouquet, marched through the throng and halted before General Grant."  Blanche Calvert presented flowers to Grant, reciting a short speech.  Grant "kissed Miss Blanche and all the other girls, as their grandchildren and great grand-children shall doubtless hear."

"Miss Alice Corbett [age 12] had a bouquet for General Sheridan, to whom she said: 'We welcome you to our city of Brooklyn, because we have often wished to see you, and we hope you will come soon again to smell our sweet Brooklyn flowers.'  General Sheridan, not to be outdone in any little manner of gallantry, immediately kissed Miss Alice, as likewise also such others as came forward."

The other four girls - Edna Pitcher, Ella Bronson, Minnie Reid, and Glenna Knight - then presented their flowers to the hosts and two other guests.  The six girls had been selected because they were daughters of members of Brooklyn's G.A.R. Post No. 327 (later renamed in U. S. Grant's memory), which had organized the reception.

So, while the details differ, Alice Corbett did indeed receive a kiss from General Grant in addition to one from General Sheridan, to whom she presented flowers.

Sources:

History of U. S. Grant Post No. 327, Brooklyn, N.Y., including biographical sketches of its members, by Henry Whittemore, Detroit, 1885; in part quoting the Brooklyn Times, 30 May 1884.

"Fallen Heroes -- Decoration Day Exercises in Brooklyn", Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Fri 30 May 1884, p4.

"Joseph F. Knapp Residence" listed on the American Guild of Organists NYC chapter's website.

Map from Atlas of the entire city of Brooklyn, complete in one volume, 1880, courtesy NYPL Digital Collections.

Portraits from the Brady-Handy collection at the Library of Congress, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Family papers.

Fred's Bicycle

My great-great-grandfather Frederick H. Williams enjoyed bicycle riding, and got much practical use out of his "wheel."  He wrote in his memoir:

Alice made me a present of a $100.00 bicycle (Remington) [in 1896], procured thru her uncle Norman Waldron for $65.00, one of the best bicycles ever manufactured.  After taking two or three lessons, I became proficient as a rider, and during the years I owned it, rode over 13,000 miles.  Many a time when my family was away at Corbettsville or Castine, and I was alone in the big house at #28 Lafayette Ave., I would ride thru Prospect Park and down to Coney Island after my supper, stay a half hour watching the people and filling my lungs with fresh sea air, then ride home.  There was a good cinder path for bicyclists on each side of the broad boulevard for six straight and level miles.  As oil or acetylene lamps were required on every bicycle, it was a pretty sight to see thousands of these twinkling lights across on the opposite path as I rode down and back.  On getting home, I would always carefully wipe the dust of the trip from my new machine.  For several years I had no coaster brake but a hand brake on the front tire, so had to pedal or coast down grade, but I seldom coasted.  Most of my riding was done after coming to Binghamton and I explored all this region within a radius of 25 miles very carefully.  My longest single ride in one day was to Earlville, 60 miles.

In his "Events and Dates" diary he would often note the days on which he would get out or put away the bicycle for the season, and he kept careful track of his cyclometer readings.  His busiest season was 1901, when he rode 1171 miles.  I suspect that the bicycle was the 1896 Light Roadster, of which 15,000 were sold:

Here are a few of the more interesting mentions of his bicycle use:

10 June 1898: Made my best record on bicycle from 1 Jay St. Binghamton to Corbettsville home in 48 minutes.

Corbettsville was about ten and a half miles from downtown Binghamton.  In 1898, his family moved to Corbettsville from Brooklyn, and he got a job as Principal of Binghamton's Truant School.  Up until the family moved into the city...

During September, I rode my bicycle back and forth daily and, with the Truant Officer, made the rounds of the schools to discover illegal absences and thus prospective pupils for my school.

9 Sept 1899: Went to the school principals' annual "melon raid" up to Chenango Bridge.  On the way home got a tack in my bicycle tire - my first puncture in my 3 seasons of riding and cyclometer showing a mileage of 1771.5 miles.

What's a melon raid?  Fred explains in his memoir:

For several years, the men in the school system would go on a "melon raid" on a Saturday afternoon every fall.  Automobiles had not yet appeared so we rode our bicycles out in the country beyond Port Dick, where a farmer, by previous arrangement, furnished several bushel crates of fine muskmelons for us, which we fell to and ate until we were fairly uncomfortable, then pedalled back to the city.  Some who had wire carriers on the handlebars brought home some of the left-over fruit.

Aug 1904 [while visiting Oneonta, NY]:  Took bicycle and rode over 70 miles around neighboring country.  Rode it to Cooperstown [on the 16th], and had fine sail around Ostego Lake. 

30 June 1905: Rode bicycle to Quaker Lake - first ride into the country this season - and went on a most interesting physical geography expedition with Howard Wilson, examining the barrier that causes the lake to exist.

Fred's good friend Howard was a geologist, and they went on several expeditions together.  This held Fred's interest because he taught the subject at Binghamton Central High School at that point.  Howard wrote a paper about the barrier which formed Quaker Lake.

In August 1909, Fred's father-in-law, Rev. Dr. Henry Tuckley organized a camp-meeting at Dimock, Pennsylvania.  He hired three Pennsylvania State Constables to provide security for the event.  Fred rode his bicycle to Dimock (30 miles from Binghamton) "and first saw these nattily uniformed men, fearless, upstanding men with whom there was no fooling.  I had read carefully some time before an article about them in The Outlook and had brought up the subject, with stories of them in action among the coal miners, in my Civics classes, so I was glad to interview them at the breakfast table one morning."

30 May 1912: Had bad fall from bicycle by carelessness of another man.  Was flung against telegraph pole and wire and disabled left shoulder and arm.

31 May 1913: Rode wheel for first time since my accident on Decoration Day, 1912.  Last year I rode 81 miles only and as my cyclometer was stolen at school, had just got a new one.  Total mileage now 12,397.  Start with new cyclometer at 2 miles.

The "Events and Dates" diary ends in 1914, so we don't have further anecdotes.  Based on his comment that he rode over 13,000 miles, it seems that his bicycle use dropped off around that time.  Perhaps that's when he bought an automobile.

Sources:

Illustration from The Bearings, v12 n22, 26 Dec 1895

Additional details from The Bearings and The Cycle Age and Trade Review, 6 Jan 1898, both via thecabe.com

Howard Wilson's paper is: A Glacially Formed Lake in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania (Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 1914)

Family papers

When The Missionaries Came Home

This photo comes from my great-grandfather's photo album, where he captioned it: "When the Missionaries First Came Home".  I wasn't sure who the missionaries were, or if the moniker was serious or tongue-in-cheek, until I recently fit together several pieces of information.

On the upper right is my great-grandfather, Marshall H. Williams, age 18.  His brother Harrison stands in front of him and sister Mary stands nearby.  At the center of the group is their stepmother, Elizabeth Tuckley Williams.  Their father, Frederick H. Williams was almost certainly behind the camera.

The woman on the left is Jane Tuckley, Elizabeth's sister, and the gentleman is Rev. Ernest A. Yarrow.  Their three children are George, Grace, and Clarence.

I am fairly certain that the older woman on the right is Mary S. Smith Tuckley - Elizabeth and Jane's mother.

Now for the story:

While Fred and Elizabeth were on their wedding trip in June 1903, they stayed for a night in East Granby, CT with "Sime" Yarrow (Fred's spelling).  This puzzled me for a while until I learned that Ernest was called "Syme" by all of his friends.

"Jennie" Tuckley and "Syme" Yarrow were married in August 1904, on her twenty-first birthday.  Wedding announcements mention that they already had plans to embark for Van, Turkey-in-Asia as part of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions immediately following the wedding.  They sailed from Boston a week later and reached Van at the end of September.  While there, Ernest mostly worked with the school which would become Van College (he would become its President).  George, Grace, and Clarence were all born there.

The American Board's procedure seemed to be to send missionaries somewhere for seven or eight years at a time, and then give them a year of leave.  Thus, the Yarrow family returned to the U.S. in June 1912.  My great-great-grandfather writes in his diary:  "June 8.  Jane Yarrow and three children landed in New York returning from Armenia after nearly eight years absence from America.  E.T.W. met her and visited in Newark.  Jane and family arrived in Binghamton June 27."  This dates the photograph to the winter of 1912-13.  Marshall was a freshman at Yale at the time, so this would have been during a holiday break.

Some of the Yarrow's colleagues from Van also visited the Tuckleys and Williamses in Binghamton.

In October 1908, Dr. Clarence D. Ussher, his wife Elizabeth (Barrows) Ussher, and their four children visited for two days while on their own year-long furlough.  Dr. Ussher visited again the following June, staying with Fred and Elizabeth Williams.  Fred - a history teacher - writes that he was "intensely interested in accounts of his experiences among Turks, Kurds, Russians, etc."

In March 1914, Dr. George C. Raynolds paid a visit.  He and his wife had established the mission in Van in 1872, and still worked there.

The Yarrow family returned to Van in July 1913, and were witnesses to the atrocities committed against the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks.  They remained through the 1915 Siege of Van, and fled the city for Russia later that year.  The journal I have from Fred stops in 1914, so I don't know what he might have recorded about those events.  I'll also leave the story here.

Further reading:

• American Board pamphlet about Ernest Yarrow, partly authored by Jane Tuckley Yarrow
• "Relief Workers in the Near East", The Christian Advocate, 2 Sept 1920, p1190
• "Seven 'Good Samaritans' in Armenia 1915-1917", from 168 Hours
• Ernest Yarrow on Wikipedia
• The Siege of Van on Wikipedia

Additional Sources:

American Board Personnel Cards for Ernest A. Yarrow and Jane Tuckley Yarrow

The Epworth Herald, 27 Aug 1904, p324

The Christian Advocate, 25 Aug 1904, p1390

Family papers