Hepsibeth Hemenway`s Portrait

Transcription

Holly V Izard
Hepsibeth
Hemenway’s
Portrait:
A Native American Story
She struggledas a laundressand cook on the margins of Worcestersociety.
Yet toward the end of her lij2 she choseto preservefor all time her senseof
achievementas an Indian woman and fancy cake maker.
T
he past, as the folklorist
story that can be pieced together con-
Henry Glassie put it, “has
tributes to a more refined understanding
vanished,
of the past in all its complexities.2
leaving
scars,
tracks, stains,” the memories, documents, shards,
An unsigned, gilt-framed oil painting
in
the
collections
of Worcester
buildings, footprints of vanished struc-
Historical Museum in Worcester, Massa-
tures, furnishings, textiles, tools, ceram-
chusetts, is just such an extant fragment
ics, stone fences, gravestones, mill race-
and, like all artifacts, is part of a larger
ways, paintings, photographs, and other
story The portrait depicts a matronly-
artifacts that scholars and others use to try
looking woman attired in a black dress
to reconstruct
the past.1 Stories that
with long full sleeves fitted at the top of
emerge from
these recovered %cars,
the arms and cinched at the wrists, a pat-
tracks, and stains” are necessarily incom-
terned scarf draped over her shoulders,
plete; historians and others try to inter-
and a ribboned day-cap covering her dark
pret from fragments the experiences of
hair-all
individuals,
communities,
elements of fashionable attire in
even whole
the later 1830s and into the 1840s (fig. 1).
nations at a different time and place from
She is seated in an upholstered armchair,
our own. However
her back straight, her hands crossedin her
Old-Time New England
incomplete,
every
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 49
lap, her mouth tight-lipped, and her dark
ancestral roots, why her portrait might
eyes gazing confidently from an age-worn
have been painted, and how it became part
face. The sitter is a local Nipmuc Indian
of the museum’s collections. Answers, or
woman named Hepsibeth Hemenway. A
clues, were found in late nineteenth-
formal nineteenth-century
portrait of an
century newspaper accounts of a daugh-
identified Indian woman is rare, and the
ter’s life, essays written by people who
painting begged careful study to learn
knew her, military and public records,
about Hepsibeth Hemenway’s
minutes of meetings of the Worcester
life, her
Fig. 1. Hepsibeth Bowman/Crosman Hemenway (1761-1847),
oil on canvas,late 1830s;
courtesyWorcesterHistorical Museum.
Page 50
Fall/Winter 1999
Society of Antiquity
(now Worcester
times, several reporters interviewed her in
Historical Museum), maps, paintings, and
1890. “Miss Hemenway has been famil-
the collective memories of descendants.
iarly known to more than two generations
Because Hepsibeth was Native American,
at least as ‘Aunt Hannah,“’ one journalist
her story reaches back before English set-
wrote, “and her kindly greeting and pleas-
tlement and is entwined with the larger
ant face have earned that endearing title
currents of local economic and social
for her.“5 During her lifetime, the reporter
development in the eighteenth and nine-
continued, Hannah had befriended mul-
teenth centuries as well as with the partic-
tiple generations of children; enjoyed a
ular narrative of the Native American
wide circle of friends and acquaintances,
sometimes receiving as many as forty visi-
experience in New England.
tors a day; baked wedding cakes for hunTHE BEQUEST
dreds of brides from the best of Worcester
The time and circumstances of Hepis-
families (and saved more than two hun-
beth’s portrait coming into the museum
dred calling cards as proof); was a found-
collections had been long forgotten by
ing member and pillar of Worcester’s First
1993, when it was conserved in preparation
Baptist Parish; and “is always at home to
for display. Research in the society’s pro-
callers, and is willing to talk about old
ceedings pinpointed the date and donor: at
times and old people.“6
the meeting of December 1, 1895, the
Her mother, Hepsibeth, was a local
librarian reported seventy-one new gif& to
institution
as well, not for preserving
collections and made special mention of “a
and sharing memories of a bygone era but
cranberry rake, over a hundred years old,
for her expert culinary
by J. L. Estey, and a portrait of Hepzibah
Hemenway was well known in her day
[sic] Hemenway, mother of Aunt Hannah
and is remembered yet by the older fami-
skills. “Mrs.
lies as a great cook and an excellent hand
Hemenway, by F. F. Hopkins.“3
Hannah’s name had appeared in the
at making wedding cakes for the promi-
proceedings several years earlier in an
nent people in those days and her services
annotated list of deaths of notable elderly
were always in demand,” the reporter
people in the commonwealth;
she was
explained, adding, “Miss Hemenway for a
ninety-eight when she died on December
long time followed in the footsteps of her
2,189l. The entry identified her as “prob-
mother. She was the best hand for miles
ably the oldest colored person in the city”
around at making a wedding cake, and she
and made note that she “loved to relate
gave up her occupation only within a few
reminiscences of the war of 1812, and was
years, account of old age.“’
The
present and saw Lafayette when he passed
portrait’s
donor,
Frederick
Hopkins, was, like the membership of
through this city in 1824.“4
Hannah Hemenway was, in fact, a
Worcester Society of Antiquity generally,
Worcester institution. Becauseof her great
part of the established local elite, the
age and her recollections of long-ago
gentlemen and ladies who most likely
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 51
employed the Hemenway women. The
Hemenway family there to be raised.” The
circumstances of his acquiring the paint-
family eventually adopted him; hence his
ing most probably relate to the settling of
surname.10One reporter mentioned that,
Hannah’s estate. She had written a will in
in contrast to her mother’s “pure” Indian
1886 listing ten bequests of personal pos-
blood, Hannah’s own “mingled somewhat
sessions to friends and family members
with the African race.“” Jeffrey Hemen-
and naming the First Baptist Parish as her
way was probably triracial-Native,
residuary legatee. She bequeathed the
can, and Euro American’2
Afiri-
portrait of her mother to her brother
Hannah proudly showed reporters
Ebenezer. Becausehe predeceasedher, the
the page in the family Bible where the
painting fell into the portion of her goods
names and birth dates of Jeffrey and
that were sold to benefit her church.
Hepsibeth’s children were inscribed, as
Though there is not irrefutable proof, as
well as other family treasures in her pos-
the executor’s account was never filed and
session-her
no local papers covered the sale, it seems
he carried during the Revolutionary War
father’s nutmeg grater that
most likely that Frederick Hopkins pur-
(to grate herb roots, he told his daughter)
chased the portrait of Hepsibeth at the
and her mother’s commemorative Inde-
auction of Hannah’s estate.8It was hardly
pendence Day plate. She told reporters
a big investment on his part; appraisers
that her father
valued it at fifty cents. He probably gave it
Washington at the battles of Lexington,
to the society to preserve in institutional
Bunker Hill, and Concord, which is con-
memory the Indian woman whose lives
firmed
had intertwined with many of their own.
Hannah told them also that she lived on
in
fought with
military
George
service records.13
the same spot where she was born though
HER DAUGHTER’S MEMORIES
not in the same house, the old one having
Hannah’s
burned down in the 1830s. She knew that
1890 interviews provide an
obvious starting point for learning some-
her father, a trained carpenter, had built
thing about her mother’s life, as she told
the original house and in 1768 had helped
reporters a little about her family. “My
build Worcester’s
mother,” she informed them, “was Hepsi-
(other sources indicate that his adoptive
Old
South Church
beth Cross [all other sources give it as
uncle, Daniel Hemenway, was master
Crosman], and she lived on the Hill where
builder for that project). It was likely the
Holy Cross now stands [PakachoagHill].
church construction job that led Jeffrey to
She was halfIndian and halfwhite, and her
settle permanently in Worcester. As for
father died in the Revolutionary War.”
Hepsibeth, “Mother could do anything
Hepsibeth’s mother “also died when she
and whenever there was any occasionfor a
was quite young.“9 Hannah identified her
girl, mother was called in to help out”i4In
own father, Jeffrey Hemenway,
some casesthe relationship was reciprocal.
as a
“mulatto” who “was taken when a boy to
“On her birthday anniversary each year
Framingham from Boston and given to a
for the last 26 years,” a reporter noted,
Page 52
Fall/Winter 1999
“Aunt Hannah has been in the habit of
with the late and much-revered Governor
dining with a few friends at the residence
Levi Lincoln, and the genteel associations
of Mr. William H. Heywood, an old citi-
she and mother enjoyed as wedding cake
zen and her neighbor. Mr. Heywood’s
makers, research revealed that their lives
grandmother was present when Aunt
were distinctly harsher than Hannah’s
Hannah was born, and dressed her in her
memories had suggested.19 Like most
first clothes”‘5
people of color, the Hemenways were
Hepsibeth Hemenway’s
services were not limited to domestic
economically marginal. By hiring his
functions. “At the first Fourth of July cele-
labor to others,Jeffrey managed to acquire
bration in this city [ 17891 mother roasted
a couple of acres and build a small house,
the first pig ever served [for that event]
but he was never able to support his fam-
and that famous feast was at the brick tav-
ily fully by his own work. Hepsibeth also
em which stood on the common where
hired her labor to others in the commu-
now stands,” Hannah
nity, and the children were put out to
related. “The people were served on the
work at young ages. Hepsibeth held onto
Common at that feast”16 (Was she given
the family property after Jeffrey’s death,
the commemorative Independence Day
but the heirs who took possessionafter
the City
Hall
plate on this occasion?) Hannah declined
she died lost it to debt, and it was only by
to answer questionswhen she was unsure.
the permission of the new owner that
“Mother
always told us children,” she
Hannah was able to live out her later years
explained, “that it would be a dreadful
on the homestead.20Hepsibeth’s story is
thing if we died with a lie on our lips.“17
one of determination and resourcefulness,
Lastly, Hannah Hemenway
recollected
but it is also, as it is for native people gen-
that her father was eighty-two when he
erally in early New England, a narrative of
died. “I wonder he did not die long before
accommodation and adjustment to the
that time, he went through so much,” she
Europeans who came to dominate society
said. And her mother, who did not
and culture in ancient Indian homelands.
remarry, died nearly three decadeslater at
INDIAN NEW ENGLAND
the age of eighty-six.18
memories,
The region now known as New England
while truthful, were filtered through the
was inhabited for thousands of years
selective and softening lens of time.
before the arrival of Europeans in the mid-
Daughter
Hannah’s
Although she talked freely and proudly of
1500s. Numerous tribes and subtribes of
her Indian
war
aboriginal people lived in a complex and
skills, her own
sophisticated relationship with the land
strong religious convictions and her
and each other. Europeans marvelled at the
heritage, her father’s
service, her mother’s
prominent position in the First Baptist
unspoiled beauty they encountered-a tes-
Parish, the family’s long and intimate rela-
tament to how lightly Indians had used the
tionship with their white neighbors the
land-even
Heywoods,
“improve” it. Indigenous peoples were
her personal acquaintance
Fall/Winter 1999
as they desired to acquire and
Page 53
exposed to decades of exploration and
is now the southerly part of Worcester,
trade before the English established a per-
with seasonal encampments at Tatasset
manent colony at Plymouth, in Wampa-
(now Tatnuck) in the western hills and on
noag homelands, in 1620. As interest in
the shores of Lake Quinsigamond in the
settlement expanded, agents secured deeds
east.21 According
for homelands from tribes who inhabited
William Lincoln, between two and three
coastal lands and in Nipmuc or “Nipnak
hundred Indians resided in this vicinity
Country,”
when the English laid their plans to estab-
a territory
that historically
to
local
historian
encompassed what is now central Massa-
lish a town there in 1674.22The hundreds
chusetts, northeastern Connecticut, and
of
northern Rhode Island (fig. 2).
Historical Museum’s
Pakachoag, where Hepsibeth and
stone
artifacts
in
the Worcester
collections-cook-
ing pots, vessels for eating and lighting,
her ancestors once lived, lay at the heart
tools, weapons, points, jewelry-that
of Nipmuc
have been found locally over the years
Country.
Their
principal
settlement was at Pakachoag Hill in what
attest to the Indians’ presence for thou-
‘ n Exact Mapp of New England and New York,” by Robert Morden, 1702, reprintedfrom
Fig. 2. A
Cotton Matther; Magnalia Christi Americana (1702). “Nipnak Country” is shownjust below
and right of the centerof the map. Photographby Amanda Richardson, Old Sturbridge Village.
Page 54
Fall/Winter 1999
sands of years before Europeans arrived
ments after the war and set off at those
in the mid-1500s.
places reservation lands with
English
By the 1670s the English “Apostle to
overseers to manage the Indians’ affairs.
the Indians,” John Eliot, had established
Among the recognized communities were
fourteen
“praying
the Nipmuc
England,
seven of them
Country,
in an effort to convert the
towns”
in
New
in Nipmuc
and
(Grafton)
Chaubunagungamaug
(Dudley-Webster), and the praying town
Indians to Christian allies and pave the
of
way for European settlement. In 1674
Reverend
colonial magistrate Daniel
Indian
Gookin and
villages at Hassanamesit
Natick,
established
Eliot
in
1651
by
and a Massachusetts
named
Waban
for
Christian
Reverend Eliot paid a visit to Pakachoag
Indians from the various tribes to come
to spread the gospel and to secure a deed
together and build an English-style town
to the land.23 Although here and else-
(see fig. 3). Historians who have studied
where Indians
the overseers’ records have found an
signed deeds granting
homelands to outsiders, it was a concept
extraordinary
amount
of
movement
and process that operated wholly outside
among native people after the war, partic-
their understanding of land ownership;
ularly between Hassanamesit and vicinity
English agents achieved this end through
(including Worcester) and Natick, as well
grossly unequal trade agreements, deceit,
as a pattern of abandonment of the creat-
and political and economic manipulation.
ed town of Natick in favor of ancestral
Native people bridled when they found
tribal homelands.~
themselves forcibly displaced from ancestral homelands, and when Wampanoag
THE BOWMANS
grandfather,
leader Metacomet led an uprising against
Hepsibeth’s
the English
in June of 1675, many
Samuel Bowman, made his way to the
Nipmuc from Pakachoag and other pray-
Nipmuc homeland of Pakachoag Hill, in
ing towns joined the fighting. The con-
what was now the English
flict, known as Ring Philip’s War, ended
Worcester, shortly after he was named a
in catastrophic defeat for the Indians. In
Natick proprietor in 1719. In an affidavit
the Worcester area the Nipmuc popula-
filed after he died in 1749, at the age of
tion was decimated, as William
roughly fifty, his heirs stated that “their
Lincoln
maternal
town
of
explained, “by the sword, by famine, by
deceased father lived in Worcester and
violent removal, and by flight.“24 But sig-
places adjacent for more than twenty
nificant numbers survived, and they lived
years before his death.“26 Historian Jean
on the fringes of the English society as
O’Brien
they struggled to adapt to and persist in
overseers’ records that Samuel’s “aban-
the radically altered social and physical
donment of the [Natick] community was
landscape of New England.
quite
concluded from studying the
conscious and appeared to be
Massachusetts colonial officials rec-
complete. . . . Because of this seemingly
ognized only a handful of native settle-
broken connection, his heirs thought of
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 55
Fig. 3. Map of southernNew England showing the locationof someNative Americangroups.
Drawn by the author.
themselves
as s
‘ trangers’
to Natick,
deeds and official records, t‘he Nipmug
consciously distanced from the commu-
Country.‘“29 He added that the Indians
nity and n
‘ aturalized’
who formed communities in the area had
to Worcester.“27
Samuel’s tribal association was Nipmuc.
moved there from Hassanamesit and
His descendants living in Worcester and
other older Nipmuc settlements. William
recorded in Indian Commissioner John
Bowman was one of ten Indians who
Milton Earle’s 1861 report were officially
signed a deed of sale to English settlers at
associatedwith the nearby Hassanamisco
Framingham
Nipmucs, and descendants today share
Daniel Gookin in 1656.
this tribal identity.28
under
the guidance of
Probate records suggest that when
Samuel was likely a great-grandson
of Wrlliam Bowman, who in 1656 was “of
Samuel Bowman
removed
to “Wor-
cester and places adjacent” his family
Natick” but prior to that year resided on
lived in traditional native manner, not
land that eventually
became part of
unusual
for
Framingham. Josiah Temple explained in
century
New
England,
and he suphis labor to
Indians
in
eighteenth-
his History of Framinghum, “Our Indians
ported them by hiring
were known by the general name of
English farmers.30A slim estate-$40.25
Nipnets, or Nipmucks, and the region
worth of tools and wages due along with
hereabouts was for a long period called in
his proprietary
Page 56
Fall/Winter 1999
holdings in NatickOld-Time New England
were his legacies to the next generation.
Probate
and
overseers’ records
Mashpee Indian Dorkus Wicket and a
white
man named Samuel Croshman
highlight the varied ways his children
recorded
negotiated
Hannah
life
in English-dominated
in
Rhode
Island
records.36
said her father died in the
colonial society.31Daughter Betty Equi
Revolution. His service cannot be con-
and
were
firmed in military records for Massachu-
“dwellers on land belonging to others” in
setts, though he may have served from
her
husband
Zachariah
the southern Worcester County town of
another colony.37The lack of information
Sturbridge, probably living on what was
on Hepsibeth’s father in public records,
the Nipmuc
and the fact that local residents consis-
Benjamin
homeland of Tantiusque.
Wiser,
son
deceased daughter
them.32 Daughter
Ruth,
of
Samuel’s
lived
with
Martha had married
tently attributed the Bowman surname to
her even though she used Crosman, suggestsher father was not of Worcester.38
who
Hepsibeth would have been four-
owned real estate in Dudley, the English
teen when her father went off to war and
town
probably in her late teens when he died.
Joseph Pegan, a Nipmuc
that included
Indian
Chaubunagunga-
maug reservation lands.33They lived “in
Drawing
on the general experience of
English fashion” and were eager to receive
Native Americans at the time, she and her
their portion of the estatein order to make
widowed mother Lydia probably support-
material improvements to their property,
ed themselves by gathering wild edibles,
Son Samuel Bowman Jr. attested that he
cultivating a small patch of ground, hiring
had learned the “English manner” of hus-
their labor to white families, exchanging
bandry through years of hiring his laborer
items they produced for needed supplies,
to farmers, but because he did not have
and relying on the good will of others.
the money to purchase property of his
Local antiquarians
own he decided to return to Natick to live
Indians in their communities peddling
related
stories of
lands.34 Samuel’s
basketsand woodenware, reseating chairs,
widow Martha and young daughter Lydia
weaving mats, working in fields and barns,
remained in Worcester.
serving in households, and providing
on Indian
common
When she reached adulthood Lydia
musical
entertainment.39
Some men-
Bowman had a relationship with, and pos-
tioned an understanding that had devel-
sibly married, a man whose surname was
oped between Anglo-Americans and their
Crosman; their only child, Hepsibeth,
Native
was born March
borough in the late eighteenth and early
25, 1761.35 Hannah
American
neighbors. In West-
Hemenway variously told reporters that
nineteenth centuries “it was the custom in
Hepsibeth was an “Indian maiden” and
many families to leave the doors unlocked
that she was “half Indian and half white.”
all night,”
Hepsibeth’s
explained, so that Indians “could come in
mother
was of Nipmuc
Harriette
Merrifield
Forbes
ancestry and her father may have been
at any time and enjoy the comfort of a
partially
warm kitchen.““,
Indian,
possibly the son of
FalbWinter 1999
Page 57
for
In 1784 Hepsibeth and her mother’s
sundries
and attendance
to her
economic lives unraveled, and they fell on
mother.” Two years later, Dr. John Green
public relief when Lydia was seized with
belatedly received $20.0 for his servicesas
what proved to be a fatal illness. Minutes
attending physician.41
Hepsibeth, who was twenty-three
for the November town meeting describe
their
when her mother died, started life alone
circumstances: “due to William
McFarland for mutton delivered to Heps
on precarious footing; she was an orphan,
Bow 0.3.6”; “due to Mary Bigelow for
she had no money, and she had given birth
boarding Lydia Indian 5.18.0”; “due to
as a single woman in the winter of 1782
Ephriam Miller
and would again in the spring of 1787. No
for two loads of wood
father was named for either child (fig. 4).4*
delivered to Heps Bowman 0.5.0.” Lydia
died a pauper that fall. Town officials paid
She may have received public assistance
&O.lO.O “to Jedediah Healy for a coffin”
after having had the second baby, as the
for her, and X2.7.3 “to Hepsibeth Bowman
clerk recorded a payment to her of gO.47.3
FIG. 4
BOWMAN/HEMENWAY
GENEALOGY
William Bowman
(b~f. 1635-7)
I
?
I
(c.l69sl749)
m.Maha
(?-?)
I
I
I
I
Ruth
m.JoscphPegan m.&xtjrmin Wii
Martha
I
I
S~IJCI
BarY
mzacharidt Equi m.lmk.
Lydia
m.7_ cmsmsll
I
H&ihcth
I
Beijamin
(1761-1847)
m-H-w
(1737-1819~
tLl789
.
I
I
I
I
Joseph
LYdii
(1789.)) (1791-1850) (17!!1)(,:5~.y.)
m.Famy mJamcd
Jolmsal
(MS44)
I
I
I
(1%)
I
I
I
I
(II79Ey.)
;s;
(1782-7d.y.)
TbrcsU
I
(IES)
m.Elii
I
JoxphHcmcmmy Jmn~sJ~fb~y
(1817.7 dy.)
(lSlPl8lQ)
m.Mmy An0 Vickefs
I
I
I
I
I
EbCtlC2C.I LUCilldfl
Al~xand~t Joseph William Lloyd
Fran&
Grmkaf
Cmsu~ B.~?]
Ftwman
(1827-1831) (1830-7)
(1832-7)
(MC18%)
(&?S64)
(ZM)
m.FmlCisw. m.Fantm
m. Fanny
m-coatcllo
cttmm&s
(1837~?)
(1837-7)
tn. 1852
Page 58
Fall/winter
1999
at the May town meeting. These children
worked for members of the white com-
most likely died in infancy. In an 1838
munity in her youth, and she had lived
affidavit filed on her behalf for a widow’s
and worked in at least one white house-
pension, a prominent and wealthy local
hold asa young adult; she was accustomed
gentleman named Nathaniel Paine stated,
to navigating her way in the dominant
“Hepsibah
society as an employed single woman.
Hemenway
formerly
and
before her marriage lived as a servant in
Now she would negotiate life in the midst
my father’s family in Worcester. . . . She is
of that society as a wife and mother. That
an industrious woman, and I should put
she was a Nipmuc Indian, a member of
entire confidence in her word.“43 Paine
the Bowman family who grew up on
family history places her in that house-
Pakachoag Hill, was clearly important to
hold in 1788.44Domestic service in New
her personal identity: she told her chil-
England was an occupation almost always
dren of her heritage, and it passed from
reserved for single women or mothers
generation to generation of her descen-
whose children were grown and out of the
dants into the present.
house; the presence of babies generally
An 1825 map ofWorcester showsthe
precluded this avenue of work.45 In her
Hemenway dwelling as one story with a
own affidavit Hepsibeth named her third
central chimney, a front entry flanked by a
child, Joseph, as the eldest at the time of
window on either side, and one window
her marriage.
visible in the gable end (fig. 6). The inventory ofJeffrey’s estate,taken in 1819, indi-
HEPSIBETH’S
MARRIED
cates it was a two-room plan with a garret
LIFE
In November 1789 Hepsibeth, who was
above and cellar below, a common house
twenty-eight, married Jeffrey Hemenway,
form of the time.9 The language and
a fifty-two year old widower with an adult
ordering of the inventory indicatesthat the
son who lived elsewhere.46A pension afh-
west room was a multipurpose spaceused
davit filed by one of his cousins provided
for meal preparation, food processing,
the wedding
domestic work, dining, entertaining, and
date and some details:
William Young Esquire of Worcester per-
sleeping.
The
inventory
and
other
formed the civil ceremony in a house that
accounts establish that the east room, or
Jeffrey had built on Patch (now May)
“bed room,” served as lodging for boarders
Street, on the southwest fringes of town
and for storage. The garret functioned as
(fig 5),47It stood on two acres of land that
sleeping and storage space, and the cellar
he had purchased with his labor from
was used for the storage of such bulky
Colonel
years
items as casksand tubs. The multipurpose
earlier.48 The couple resided on Patch
use of the west room was certainly not
Street their entire married life, which
unique to this household in early nine-
Ebenezer
Love11 two
lasted nearly thirty years, through the
teenth-century New England, but it was
births of eight or ten children and the
out of step with prevailing cultural values
deaths of two.49 Hepsibeth
of the times, which placed increasing
may have
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 59
Fig. 5. Nominative map of Worcestet;1825, drawn by Caleb Butlet: A nominative map
labelshouseswith owners’ names;the Hemenway housesite is circled.Courtesy Worcester
Historical Museum.
emphasis on privacy and on the separation
Hemenways’ accumulated array of fur-
of public and private activities and spaces.51
nishings was fairly ordinary and compar-
As itemized in the inventory, the
Page 60
able in value to other lower-middling
Fall/Winter 1999
Fig. 6. Detail of the Hemenway houseas shownon Caleb Butler’s 1825 Worcestermap; courtesy
WorcesterHistorical Museum.
households of the time.52 Because Hepsi-
(lumped with “lumber”
beth had no home of her own and proba-
and ends at $2.50), five painted chairs
bly few possessions when she married,
($1.25), nine “old” chairs ($l.OO), a look-
many of the items may have dated to
ing glass and broken pictures ($.50),
Jeffrey’s
Some pieces,
hearth equipment, and cooking and eat-
tea table,
an
ing apparatus. Miscellaneous items listed
form with
included six baskets ($1.50), casks in the
including
first marriage.
perhaps the
eighteenth-century
genteel
furniture
associations, may have been
or stored odds
cellar, a water pail and tubs ($5.50), a
from her employers.53
loom and large wheel ($4.00), and “corn
The house was furnished with three beds
on the ground and sauce [garden pro-
hand-me-downs
and bedsteads (mattresses and wooden
duce]”
frames, valued at $12.00,
Jeffrey’s
$5.00, and
($ll.OO),
a hog ($7.00),
and
clothing ($2.00).54 In 1819 the
$4.00) along with ample bedding (sheets,
couple’s youngest child was fifteen and
blankets, coverlets, etc., $27.00), a square
most probably not at home, though the
table ($1.75), a table with drawer ($l.OO),
household
a tea table ($3.00) a light stand ($l.OO), a
daughter Lydia with her husband and two
chest with drawers ($4.50), three chests
young children.
Fall/Winter 1999
may
have included
their
Page 61
Appraisers specified room place-
lifetime.55 They did, however, adopt the
ment for only some of the items. The
custom of using knives and forks, a prac-
most expensive bed and bedstead were
tice that only a minority of rural house-
located in the east room, the least expen-
holds embraced in the 1780s and one that
sive in the bedroom, and the second-best
was still not universal in the 1810s.56
That
bed and old chestsaswell as an assortment
the Hemenways
owned a
of small items and “lumber” (what the
house and a small amount of real estate
appraisersconsideredjunk) were invento-
that supported limited agriculture, more
ried in the garret. In the cellar they found
than one candlestick, a tea table, and
casks, a water pail, tubs, “etc.” It seems
knives and forks indicates they were cer-
likely that the multipurpose west room
tainly not among the poorest households
also contained the square table and five
in town. But the way they lived, crowded
painted chairs for dining, the looking
into a single multipurpose room with the
glass, the kitchen work table, hearth
other ground-floor
equipment, the cooking and eating appa-
town
ratus, the chest with drawers for clothing
demonstrates that they were a family of
and textile storage, and probably the tea
limited means.
table. It is likely too that the bedroom also
room reserved, as
records indicate,
for boarders,
There is some evidence of the fam-
contained the old chairs, the small pair of
ily’s economic strugglesin public records.
“fire dogs” (andirons), and the “light
At a town meeting in November 1793 offi-
stand,” a small table to hold a candle or
cialsagreedto abateJeffrey’s taxesof SO.6.3,
other lighting device.
levied in 1789, because he was “poor”9
For eating and cooking the Hemen-
When he applied for a Revolutionary War
ways owned an assemblageof “pewter, tin,
pension many years later he stated that he
crockery, & glassware” valued collectively
needed to collect it “by reason of my
at $5.00, knives and forks valued together
reduced circumstances in life and pover-
with candlesticksand a lamp at $1.50, and
ty.“s8On at least two occasionsand proba-
cookware including “toaster & gridiron,
bly far more often, Hepsibeth cared for
spider & frying pan, & other iron waren
indigent women to earn extra cash.On one
valued, alongwith three flatirons, at $7.00.
such occasion,in 1809, town offGals paid
In the eighteenth century when Jeffrey
her $11.27 “for boarding & nursing Anne
and Hepsibeth
Elder when she lay in & for some clothing
set up housekeeping,
pewter was the most common tableware
being the balance of her account.“59
in central Massachusetts households. By
1819,
had
family experience, recorded in published
acquired at least some more fashionable
and public sources and in private papers.
and afhordableceramics. The ordering and
For nearly all of her adult life Hepsibeth
relatively low total value of tableware in
worked as a laundress, among the least
the inventory intimates that the Hemen-
desirable and lowest-paying work avail-
ways did not make that transition in his
able to women and generally undertaken
Page 62
however,
many
families
There is also the deep evidence of
Fall/Winter 1999
either by people of color or desperately
four of six children were at home-baby
poor whites.” “In the best of weather,”
Alexander, two-year-old Patta, three-year-
Jane Nylander explained in her study of
old Adam, and Hannah, who was seven.
domestic life in early New
The older two, Joseph and Lydia, were
England,
“doing laundry meant a day outdoors
eleven and nine. Hannah by her own
carrying large quantities of water [fifty
account went out to work in 1802; only
gallons or more] in heavy and awkward
three children resided at home in 1810.
wooden containers, and tiresome lifting,
rubbing, and scrubbing.“61 Hauling and
WIDOWHOOD ON MECHANIC STREET
lifting water, and plunging and scrubbing
Jeffrey Hemenway died August 15, 1819,
in the near-boiling water left women’s
at the age of eighty-two. Assisted by pro-
skin raw and bleached and their bodies
bate clerk Theophilus Wheeler, who was
exhausted.62Letters written in the early
also his executor, he had written his will in
1800s by a wealthy Worcester gentleman
1807. It reflected the common language of
named Stephen Salisbury to his wife, who
the time: after payment of debts, he
was visiting in Boston, indicate that in all
bequeathed Hepsibeth lifetime use of the
seasonsand even when she had babies at
remainder of the estate provided she not
home, Hepsibeth walked the distance of
marry again. If she did, the will stipulated,
several miles from her house to his man-
“she is to have all the goods and estate she
sion to wash or iron.63 Certainly
she
brought to me at marriage.” At her death
would have done this only out of necessi-
or remarriage, his estate became the prop-
ty, and surely the Salisburys were not the
erty of his surviving children in equal
only affluent Worcester family to employ
shares, “namely Joseph, Lydia, Hannah,
her in this capacity.
Adam, Alexander, and Ebenezer Hemen-
The Hemenway children were put
way, the same to be, to them, their heirs
out to work at early ages as well. Hannah
and assigns forever.“67 The
told interviewers in 1890 that “when four
account indicates that Jeffrey had few
years old she went barefooted through the
monetary assetsbut also few debts; no part
woods to school at New Worcester” but
of the personal estate had to be sold. The
“at the age of nine she went out to work”
small balance after settling, $9.52, went to
and “did not live much at home” after
Hepsibeth to contribute to her support6*
executor’s
that.64 Only families that were poor or
Hepsibeth was fifty-eight when she
broken by death put such young children
was widowed. By this time all but two of
out, and only families that perpetually
the children had reached adulthood. Her
such
minor sons, nineteen-year-old Alexander
lengthy terms of service from its female
and fifteen-year-old Ebenezer, were living
members.65 Early federal census sched-
and working elsewhere.69She no longer
ules, while imprecise about people of
had the responsibility of small children,
color, indicate the other Hemenway chil-
and she had lifetime use of a small estate.
dren followed Hannah’s pattern.b6In 1800
But, by his own admission to pension
struggled
financially
required
FaWWinter 1999
Page 63
officials just months before his death,
Clarendon Harris in 1829, she was listed as
Jeffrey was a poor man; he left no market-
residing at 24 Mechanic Street in a house
able assets,such as fields to rent or live-
owned by the heirs of Daniel Heywood.
stock to sell.70Thus, for Hepsibeth in her
The directory map (fig. 7) shows that the
widowhood as throughout her life, labor-
house stood next to the Mechanic Street
ing for others was a necessity.
burial ground, where Jeffrey Hemenway
Fairly
soon after her husband’s
had been interred.
Living there, near
death, Hepsibeth rented the house on the
boardinghouses and business establish-
outskirts of town to others and moved to
ments and within easywalking distance of
an even smaller dwelling on Mechanic
many wealthy households, placed her
Street. A district school census taken in
nearer to sources of employment. Also,
1826, the first source of specific informa-
Hepsibeth now resided in an area of town
tion on her whereabouts, listed “Hepsi-
where
beth Hemenway, widow” on one of five
households were so numerous that it was
schedules for the center district.71In The
known locally as “Guinea.“73
Worcester Village Directory, published by
African
and Native
American
Antiquarian essays,property deeds,
Fig. 7. Map of WorcesterVillage, 1829, drawn by Ed. E. Phelps, M.D., published by Clarendon
Harris; Hepsibeth Hemenway’s Mechanic Street houseis circled.Courtesy WorcesterHistorical
Museum.
Page 64
Fall/Winter 1999
and an 1846 oil painting and preliminary
Frederick Stiles recalled, “Hepsy Hemin-
sketch by local artist Henry Woodward
way and her daughter, Hannah” as well as
(figs. 8 and 9) provide information about
“Ebenezer, Hepsy’s
Hepsibeth’s rented quarters. The struc-
main floor. In
son” lived on the
ture had been built as a mill in the 1780s
Edmond Connor, “a somewhat noted
the lower
part lived
and was refitted to serve as a dwelling
character of the town”78 In the 1826 dis-
sometime before 1809.74It may have had
trict school census, two women of color
an interim use associatedwith the burial
were listed in Hepsibeth’s
ground, as it was incorporated into the
herself
and
probably
her
household,
daughter
stone fence built in 1796 to enclose the
Hannah, who lived off and on for decades
graveyard: the west wall abutted the
with her mother when between employ-
northwest corner of the house, and the
ment in other households. The Connor
south wall that ran along Mechanic Street
family, who lived in the walk-out cellar,
adjoined the building’s southeast corner.
numbered six, including two young boys.
Writing in 1897, nearly twenty years after
When in 1828 Hepsibeth’s son Ebenezer
the entire area had been tom down and
returned from Boston with his wife and
rebuilt, Frederick Stiles remembered the
child, they moved in with his mother in
house as sited “partly under the rise of
what proved to be a permanent arrange-
land joining the burying-ground. A part of
ment. In 1830 Ebenezer’s family included
it was two stories in height, and sometime
a newborn and two toddlers. Over the
had been painted red.“75 The part he
next eight years, five more babies were
described as two stories was actually a
born and the eldest two died. The manu-
walk-out cellar on the down side of the
script census schedule for 1840 indicates
slope. The chimney, most likely added
that Ebenezer and his wife Betsey kept
when the structure was converted from
their children at home, meaning there
shop to house, was built in the northeast
were as many as nine people including
comer along the north eave side. The
four adults crowded into the first floor of
main floor was several feet above ground
the tiny house. In 1845 widowed daughter
level, reached by steps that began outside
Lydia Johnson joined the household and
and may have continued within.76 The
worked alongside her mother as a laun-
building was small, measuring roughly
dress as much as her deteriorating health
fifteen by eleven feet (based on a window
would permit. She was living there when
width of two-and-a-half feet). The cellar
her mother died.
Hepsibeth spent the remainder of
below, Frederick Stiles explained, was
her days in the Mechanic Street house,
rented separatelyto other tenants.
Although her rented quarters were
working as a laundress, cook and a maker
small, Hepsibeth provided shelter for
of wedding cakes (fig. 10). A dispute over
family and possibly others and lived with
the future of the Mechanic Street burial
the commotion of children around her as
ground that erupted near the close of her
well as other tenants below.77In the 1830s
life in the 1840s captured Hepsibeth at her
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 65
Fig. 8. Preliminary sketchfor burial ground painting, 1846, pencil, by Henry Woodward; courtesy
WorcesterHistorical Museum.
Fig. 9. Mechanic Street burial ground, 1846, oil on canvasby Henry Woodward; courtesyWorcester
Historical Museum.
Page 66
Fall/Winter 1999
most tedious work. Area residents agitat-
stones, men rested upon the walls to enjoy
ing to remove the burial ground and the
a smoke or chat, and, apparently adding
adjoining building in order to put the land
insult to injury, “‘it is seldom that one can
to more profitable use complained that
pass along the lower end of Mechanic
children played noisily amidst the head-
street without seeing clotheslines heavy
Fig. 10. ‘A Rough Diagram of the Common and A4acent Streets, 2839-43,” by Nathaniel
Paine; Hemenway’s houseis circled.Courtesy WorcesterHistorical Museum.
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 67
laden swinging in all directions over the
graves.
“7
‘9
Indeed,
Henry
Woodward’s
of him who, as she trusts, hath “loved her and
washed her from her sins in his own blood.“80
1846 painting and sketch show clotheslines strung within the graveyard’s walls
Where
Hepsibeth
may
have
house, filled with
acquired the skills of her other occupa-
laundry swinging (in only one direction)
tions, cooking and wedding cake making,
over the burial ground. The Reverend
can only be suggested. Probably
George Allen wrote an editorial rebuking
mother Lydia taught her to cook, but aside
the would-be developers for their lack of
from the 1789 pig roast celebration on the
respect for the dead, as well as for their
Common there is no definitive informa-
living relations, and pleading particular
tion on where and for whom Hepsibeth
compassion for Hepsibeth Hemenway.
cooked. It is likely that she prepared meals
Although
when she worked as a domestic servant in
behind Hepsibeth’s
laced with the “last Indian”
her
rhetoric of the times, his editorial revealed
the Paine family, as kitchen work was
a respect for Hepsibeth.
often relegated to help. That she was
asked to roast the pig for the first Fourth
And yet, ifwe might
of July suggestsshe may have established
intercede for any it
would be worthy “old Hepsy,” whose dwelling
her reputation as a “great cook” by that
joins death’s door, that she may still enter the
time. It seems plausible that she prepared
grave-yard in peace, and a little longer stretch
food for some of the elegant parties and
her brief line from tree to tree, in its most
dinners that were very much a part of
unsettled corner. It is only asking for a little
Worcester’s upper-class social life. The
patience for the last remnant of a tribe that have
annual agricultural fair attracted people
vanished away like the forests where they chased
from all parts of the county and was
the panther and the deer. The fourscore and
always an occasion for elite households to
five years that have so bent her tall frame, and
give lavish dinner parties for out-of-town
crippled her queenly step, plead much better
friends.81 Prominent politicians such as
than we that none molest or make her afraid.
Governor Levi Lincoln, who hosted the
Soon in the sure course of nature her not ‘heavy
Marquis de Lafayette in 1824 and who was
laden’ clothesline will be missing, with herselE
renowned for his generous hospitality,
but while she stays, perhaps a few months more,
regularly entertained visiting dignitaries
let her enjoy quietly her little privilege above the
with large dinner or breakfast parties.82
graveyard’s turf, and, if she chooses, let her at
The
last sleep beneath it, in the silent neighborhood
emerged as a significant classby the 1830s
city’s
of her own generation, till the dead, both small
undoubtedly hosted dinners and teas in
and great, out of every tribe and nation, shall rest
their newly built mansion houses to meet
industrial
leaders,
who
together. Then, when the distinctions and rival-
social and business obligations. Also, wed-
ries of earth shall be over, her work having been
dings in the late eighteenth and early
done and well done, shall she walk erect or
nineteenth centuries, f they were held as
grateful bow in that ever spotless robe, the gift
public events (and many were not), were a
Page 68
Fall/Winter 1999
time
for hearty feasting and dancing.m
When Hannah said her mother was called
left was the place where agoodjoMz and dance
were organized.85
in to help whenever there was “an occaEnglanders moved west in the
sion for a girl” she was probably referring
As New
to the preparation of wedding feasts.
nineteenth century they continued these
Changing wedding customs in early
traditions unimpeded
by the gradual
nineteenth-century New England help to
refinement of weddings back home.86But
explain her becoming “an excellent hand
beginning as early as 1800 among New
at making wedding cakes.“84Typically in
England’s
the eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-
became smaller, entertainment more for-
turies, couples wed at the home either of
mal, and refreshments more delicate. By
elite
families,
ceremonies
the bride or the presiding official in infor-
1820 these new, genteel customs had
mal ceremonies that were attended by
become widely accepted at least in the
friends and neighbors and followed by a
more established parts of the regiona
multicourse meal and revelry that could
With
continue all night. Worcester resident
explained, the “wedding cake became the
Louisa Clap Trumbull,
culinary
whose great-
this
shift, Jane Nylander
feature
has
of these receptions
grandfather was a justice of the peace in
instead of the variety of meats and pies
colonial Rutland, Massachusetts,recorded
served previously.“= A formal reception
this tradition in her journal.
followed the ceremony, at which the hosts
(friends or family of the newlyweds)
I have heard my mother often relate the wed-
served wine and wedding cake, carried
ding scenes which she witnessed at her grand-
around to guests who were sometimes
fathers. He would say Betty we shall have a
seated in rooms that were segregated by
wedding tonight, the clean apron was tied on,
gender. A young Worcester gentleman
room neatly arranged, the tire plentifully
named Christopher Columbus Baldwin
supplied.
described the rituals of a polite wedding
. . . The custom was for people to
reception in an 1829 diary entry
ride on horseback, as the roads were not safe
for any kind of carriage. The company were
in couples two on each horse. A pillion was the
The new married couple take a sort of military
stately throne of the bride and with her arm
position in one corner of the room, flanked with
around the waist of her future lord and master.
the bride’s maids and bride’s men, and the per-
She was the first of a procession often twenty
son introducing their friends, receives them at
in number. They all came double as this was
the door and leading them
both more convenient and social. .
names..
. After
up, announces their
. . Usually before ten, the company
the ceremony they went through the custom
retires, after having drank [sic] wine and eaten
of salutation, each maiden from the groom and
the wedding cake. It is customary to make a free
the bride from all the males. After this was
use of the cake, and a large quantity of letter
ended the bride and her lord again led the way
paper is furnished for individuals who may wish
and their destined home or the one she had
for it, to wrap up a piece of the cake in, to carry
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 69
home. Some want it for friends, some to eat it,
prominent people” in her days, she prob-
and others to put it under their pillows to sleep
ably decorated her masterpieces with
on, thinking it may producenew matches.”
comparable flair.92
Hepsibeth may in fact have devel-
The amount of cake required for
oped her skills as a wedding cake maker
such wedding receptions could be con-
at the
siderable.
the
employed her, as “occasions for a girl”
youngest daughter of the late George
switched from a wedding feast to cake and
Crowninshield in 1816, a guest estimated
wine. Sketchy evidence suggestsshe start-
that the wedding
ed in this new occupation before she
For
the
marriage
of
cake exceeded 130
urging
of
the families
who
pounds. For an 1821 wedding in New-
moved to Mechanic Street, just as genteel
buryport preparations including baking
wedding customs had won widespread
more than two hundred pounds of cake.
acceptance. One
To make such enormous quantities of the
viewed Hannah in 1890 mentioned that
reporter who inter-
confection required deft use of the bake
although fire destroyed much of the orig-
oven (the temperature gradually drops
inal dwelling, “the old fireplace and oven
after embers used to heat it have been
where she and her mother made the wed-
removed) in addition to culinary and dec-
ding cakes are still in the house, but the
orative skills. The widely popular early
fireplace is covered over and is never
nineteenth-century advice writer Lydia
used.“93In the Gazette article of 1890 as
Maria Child provided recipes for wedding
well as in a published obituary from 1891,
cakes that weighed approximately four-
mention of the hearth and its use for bak-
teen pounds, perhaps the amount she
ing wedding cakes was coupled with the
believed was sufficient for a small, private
explanation that after Jeffrey’s
wedding celebration.
Hepsibeth “came into possession of the
While
death
the recipe that Hepsibeth
house,” raising the possibility of a link
used remains unknown, typically a wed-
between his passing and her pursuing a
ding cake was a rich fruit cake with a
new line of work.
white glaze icing.m Although there is no
Adopting this new line of work may
surviving record to indicate what Hepsi-
have prompted Hepsibeth to tell the cen-
beth’s famed wedding cakes looked like,
sus taker in 1826 that she was a “confec-
an 1821 account describes one. “Its garb
tioner.” The schedule for the district
was purely white; Paradisical grains were
school census included the usual infor-
scatteredover its surface, & it was studded
mational categories found on federal
with gilded almonds. In the centre tow-
schedules-names of heads of household
ered a beautiful collection of artificial
followed by columns to categorize family
flowers & round its body was a wreath of
members by age and gender, with a sepa-
laurel.“91As Hepsibeth was long remem-
rate and abbreviated schedule to cate-
bered as a “skillful” confectioner who
gorize people of color. It also asked for
“made nearly all the wedding cakesfor the
occupations of male heads of household
Page 70
Fall/Winter 1999
(female heads of household were identi-
on this warrant.“” But in September 1848
fied only by their marital status), whether
he learned that she had ninety-nine dol-
their houses were one or two stories and
lars on deposit at the Worcester County
made of brick or wood, whether they
Institute for Savings.By this time her out-
owned mills, offices, shops, or manufac-
standing debts also had come to his atten-
tories, and, if so, how many people they
tion. Now hastening to settle her affairs,
employed. On the list for Hepsibeth’s
he filed on the first Tuesday of October
section of the center district, men report-
his “first & final account.” Davis paid
ed a wide range of white- and blue-collar
sundry debts amounting to $49.87 and
jobs, but no male identified himself as a
$17.84 worth of settlement expenses,such
confectioner. Yet the summary of occupa-
as preparing court papers and the cost of
tions in the right-hand margin included
travel to the pension office in Boston,
one confectioner.
charged the estate $31.29 for his time, and
In city directories, first published in
balanced the account at zero.
1844, Hepsibeth gave her occupation as
laundress (1844), cook (1845), and wedding cake maker (1847). Reverend Allen’s
THE PORTRAIT
essay and Henry Woodward’s painting,
Isaac Davis found “no property or estate
which both date to 1846, indicate that at
for the appraisers” to inventory because
the very least she was washing until the
she had only lifetime use of whatever had
last year of her life. However, listing her-
belonged to her husband (which would
self as a wedding cake maker in 1847 sug-
include any household items purchased
geststhat for Hepsibeth this more genteel
during their married life) and becauseshe
occupation finally defined her role in
had given any personal property of her
Worcester society.
own to her children during her lifetime.
Hepsibeth Hemenway died Febru-
This included the commemorative Inde-
ary 17, 1848, at the age of eighty-six. The
pendence Day plate that daughter Hannah
heirs-daughters
showed reporters in 1890 and the portrait,
Lydia and Hannah and
son Ebenezer-requested
that the court
appoint Isaac Davis, a prominent Worces-
which was in Hannah’s possessionwhen
she died in 1891.
ter attorney and politician, as administra-
The schedule of accounts settled
tor of her estate. On June 5, 1847, he
suggeststhat Hepsibeth commissioned a
reported, “I certify that I have made dili-
local artisanal painter to do her portrait. In
gent search for the estate and property of
addition to payments of $3.37 to Henry
said Hepsibeth Hemenway and found . . .
H. Heywood’s dry goods store, $4.74 to
she had only lifetime interest in it [her
shoemaker William W. Patch, $5.25 to car-
husband’s real estate] and her pension I
penter John Mann, a total of $8.70 to
found to belong to her heirs and finding
laborers Robert Ridler and William
no property or estate for the appraisers, I
Smith, $8.50 to coffin maker William G.
did not take the time to make any returns
Maynard, and $10.00 to her neighbor
Fall/Winter 1999
L.
Page 71
Luther
Gunn,
who operated a livery
stable, Davis paid Mills
(or Miles)
&
tions behind. Careful analysis of a group
of “ordinary” sitters in Worcester County
Wilder the sum of $9.30.95City directories
who
include
revealed that for the most part they were
“Thomas
Wilder,
portrait
could
be
identified,
however,
painter,” one of only two living in the city
from the upper-middling ranks, individu-
in 1847, and James Mills and Jonas M.
als or members of families engaged in
Miles,
or
commercial and professional occupations.
The sum owed is appro-
As Larkin explained, “farmers, craftsmen,
priate for an inexpensive, framed oil por-
and their families were greatly underrep-
trait in the 1840s.97That the debt was not
resented,” and the working class hardly
yet settled suggestsHepsibeth sat for the
represented at all. 101A relatively inexpen-
painting shortly before her death, coincid-
sive portrait like Hepsibeth’s represents
ing with her listing “wedding cake maker”
roughly a week’s work for a common
as her primary occupation.98 She may in
farm laborer in the 1840s and more than a
fact have been among the painter’s first
month’s work for a domestic servant.iCQAs
local clients, as Thomas Wilder settled in
a skilled baker in high demand, Hepsibeth
Worcester in 1846.
certainly earned more than household
both listed as “carpenter,”
framemakers.
Having her likeness painted was a
help, but women generally were paid at
bold step for someone of Hepsibeth’s eco-
significantly lower rates than men. The
nomic level. Once the sole province of the
framed portrait at $9.30 was a substantial
elite, portraiture had greatly democratized
investment for her.
Hepsibeth’s
in the early nineteenth century. Entrepre-
portrait can best be
neurial “artisanal” painters (as opposed to
thought of as her legacy to succeeding
academically trained artists) were settling
generations. It is a symbol of her rise from
in villages and traveling the countryside,
the ranks of the ordinary working classto
advertising themselves as portrait painters,
a more refined status through her work
often offering likenesses at a variety of
associations and evidence of the empow-
prices and quality. Very inexpensive, flat
erment she must have experienced by the
portraits could be had for two or three
close of her life. Though she lived in
dollars, while figured, contoured portraits
rented quarters in a less-than-genteel part
such as Hepsibeth’s were considerably
of town and owned little or nothing,
more costly; in her case she saved money
Hepsibeth was proud of who she was and
by opting for no background detail or
what she had achieved, and she wanted to
props.99Because of these entrepreneurial
be remembered. She was an Indian who
painters,
has
in her widowhood provided shelter and
explained, “there was an explosion in the
security for her children and grandchil-
painting
dren, and with her expert culinary skills
historian
Jack
Larkin
of such portraits throughout
New England between 1800 and 1850.“1~
she filled a specialty niche in the cultural
For the first time large numbers of ordi-
world of the wealthy, thus earning the
nary folks were leaving visual representa-
patronage and appreciation of Worcester’s
Page 72
Fall/Winter 1999
Old-lime
New England
most elite families.
generation and giving it meaning within
Ebenezer Hemenway wrote a eulogy
the context of the white community’s
poem expressing deep affection for his
remembrances
deceased mother in words that highlight
makers. Further, the fact that the portrait
Hepsibeth’s unfailing maternal love and
depicts a Nipmuc woman was not record-
devotion.
ed in the librarian’s records of donations.
Preserved
among
family
records, the verse reads in part:
The
painting’s
of the wedding
significance
cake
in
both
respects was all but lost, even as Hepsibeth Hemenway made sure through her
The last tear I shed was the warm one that fell
stories that her children knew who she
When I kissed my dear mother and bade her
was and where she came from, and even
farewell;
When I saw the deep anguish impressed on her
as she left them this legacy of her persev?-&
erence and success.
face,
And felt for the last time a mother’s’s
Holly V lzard is Research
Hi5toriun at
embrace.
WorcesterHistorical Museum. She holds
Ah! years of endurance have vanished, and now
a doctoratein American and New
There is pain in my heart, there is care on my
England Studiesfrom Boston University
brow;
and has written numerousarticles,
The visions of hope and of fancy are gone,
including “Random or Systematic?:
And cheerless I travel life’s pathway alone.
An Evaluation of the Probate Process”
There’s none here to love me; there is no love
in the Summer/Autumn 1997
like thine.‘03
Wlnterthur Portfolio and, with
former Old Sturbridge Wuge colleagues
The memory of Hepsibeth Hemen-
Donna Keith Baron andJ. Edward
way as a great cook and an excellent hand
Hood, “They Were Here All Along:
at making wedding cakes was retained in
The Native American Presencein
local knowledge nearly fifq years after she
Lower Central New England in the
died, testament to the important role this
Eghteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,”
Indian woman played in the community.
in theJuly 1996 issueof William and
Ironically,
the
portrait’s
central
Mary Quarterly.
meanings for Hepsibeth were forgotten or
overlooked after it moved out of family
hands.
The
celebration
of
NOTES
personal
achievement that it represents had been
The author would like to thank Hepsibeth
disassociated from the painting by the
Hemenway’s
time it was donated to the museum.
Richard Massey for his assistancewith this study
Rather it came with the association that
and Worcester Historical Museum director
she was the “mother of Aunt Hannah
William Wallace for institutional support.
Hemenway,” shifting the focus to the next
1. Henry Glassie, Passingthe Time in
Fall/Winter 1999
great-great-great-great
grandson
Page 73
Balleymenone:Culture and History of
Docket #13525, Worcester County Probate
an Ulster Community (Philadelphia:
Records (hereafter cited as WCPR),
University of Pennsylvania Press,
B, Office of Probate, Worcester County
1982), 649.
Court House, Worcester, Mass. Research
in local newspapers did not turn up a notice
2. Henry Glassie, “The Practice and Purpose
of History,“]ournal
8l(December
Series
ofAmerican History
of the auction or a record of purchasers.
Notices for auctions of more substantial
1994): 961-68.
estates ($300 or more; Hannah’s was worth
3. Proceedings
of the Worcester
Societyof Antiquity
only $27.85) were listed regularly under
jbr the Year 189.5 7 (1896): 313. I am grateful
to museum librarian Theresa Davitt
court news; in no case were auction results
for finding this information.
reported.
“Aunt” was
Worcester
Telegram,Aug. 28, 1890.
a term of endearment for well-known
10. WorcesterTelegram,Aug. 28, 1890. This is
elderly persons.
“Obituaries for 1891,” Proceedings
ofthe
confirmed in Josiah H. Temple, History
Worcester
SocietyofAntiquityfor the Year 1891
ofFramirzgham,Massachusetts
(published
6 (1892): 177.
by the town, 1887), 587. Temple noted
“Famous for Bridal Cake. Oldest Cook in
that Ebenezer Hemenway Jr.? wife Mary
Worcester is Aged 97,” WorcesterTelegram,
had been taken captive by Indians in
Aug. 28, 1890.
infancy and redeemed in girlhood. From
WorcesterTelegram,Aug. 28, 1890.
her children’s birth dates, there is no possi-
“She Saw Lafayette. Aunt Hannah
bility that Jeffrey was her biological son.
Hemenway’s
Jeffrey’s Indian identity has passed to the
Recollections,” Worcester
Gazette, Mar. 15, 1890. The same informa-
present generation through family stories.
tion was repeated in the WorcesterTelegram
Checking racial assignations in published
article of Aug. 28, 1890, and again in the
vital records (which end at 1850) for per-
Zlegram on Dec. 8, 1891,
sixdays after her
sons known to be of mixed Indian/African
death. Another article from an unidentified
parentage has shown that town clerks vari-
newspaper appearing shortly after her fun-
ously used the terms “mulatto,” “colored,”
eral focused on her influential role in the
“African,” “Negro,” or “Indian.” The choice
First Baptist Parish (established 1812) and
of an appropriate descriptive was subjective.
the fact that Hannah’s
passing marked the
demise of its founding members. The
11. Worcester Telegram, Aug. 28, 1890.
12. Genealogical research in progress suggests
writer observed, “No person living had
Jeffrey may be the biological son of a mem-
so long been connected with the church;
ber of the Quitticus family, who resided
she was the link that bound the present
near his adoptive parents.
with the past.” Biography clippings file,
13. Jeffrey Hemenway’s
military records indi-
Worcester Historical Museum Research
cate he enlisted on Apr. 24, 1775, and
Library, Worcester, Mass., and obituaries
served for three months and fifteen days
clippings file, American Antiquarian
in the fifth regiment in the company of
Society, Worcester, Mass.
Captain Thomas Drury under the direct
Page 74
Fall/Winter 1999
command of Captain John Nixon, who
16-17.
commanded a company of minutemen who
22. Lincoln, History of Worcester;
23.
were among the forces at Bunker Hill. He
23. Daniel Gookin, “Historical Collections of
served for the duration of the war. Massa-
the Indians in New England [ 16741,” in
chusetts, Secretary of the Commonwealth,
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections,
Massachusetts
Soldiersand Sailorsin the War
1st ser., I (1792): 192-93; AbstractofEarly
ofthe Reuolution(Boston: Wright & Potter
Land Titles (Worcester, Mass.: Worcester
Printing Company, 1900), 7: 702,707;
Society ofAntiquity,
Francis B. Heitman, HistoricalRegisterof
Historyof Worcester,
16-17.
1907), 80-81; Lincoln,
the Ojicers of the ContinentalArmy during
24. Lincoln, History of Worcester;
31.
the War ofthe Revolution (Washington, D.C.:
25. lean M. O’Brien,
Dispossession
by Degrees:
Rare Book Shop Publishing Co., Inc.,
Indian Land and Identity in Natick, Massa-
1914) 414.
chusetts,1650-2790 (Cambridge, Eng.:
14. WorcesterTelegram,Aug. 28, 1890.
Cambridge University Press, 1997),
15. William Heywood’s
162-67; Daniel Mandell, Behind the Frontier:
grandmother, Abigail
Chamberlain Heywood, was Hepsibeth’s
Indians in Eighteenth-CenturyEasternMassa-
immediate neighbor during her married
chusetts(Lincoln, Nebraska: University of
life. Hannah’s
Nebraska Press, 1996), Chap. 3. Indians
host for this quarter-century
tradition was twenty-four
years her junior.
at Natick lived in relative isolation from
16. WorcesterXlegram, Aug. 28, 1890.
Europeans until 1713, when peace with
17. Ibid.
France resulted in the expansion of English
18. Ibid.
settlement into Natick and vicinity In 1719
19. Hannah talked freely of her Indian heritage
villagers decided to name proprietors-
but did not elaborate at all on her African
nineteen men and one woman presumably
descent. She stated that she remembered
from long-established families-in
Governor Lincoln “very well and shook
secure land titles and boundaries protected
order to
hands and often spoke with him.” Worcester
under colonial law. But as the English
Telegram,Aug. 28, 1890.
population increased, native people who
became disaffected with the experimental
20. In 1851 Hannah and her brother Ebenezer
community abandoned it. For early studies
mortgaged the property to local carpenter
Jerome Billings. He sold the mortgage to
of the recognized Nipmuc settlements, see
physician John Green who in 1865 fore-
John E. Lynch, “The Dudley or Pegan
closed for nonpayment. Books 603/252 &
Indians,” Proceedingsof the Worcester
Societyof
253; possession, Book 705/274, Worcester
Antiquity 5 (1890): 23-48, and Frank Speck,
County Deeds (hereafter cited as WCD),
“A Note on the Hassanamisco Band of
Office of the Registry of Deeds, Worcester
Nipmuc,”
County Court House, Worcester, Mass.
Bulletin 4 (1943): 49-55.
Massachusetts
Archaeological
Society
26. Massachusetts Colonial Records, 1749
21. William Lincoln, A History of Worcester;
Massachusetts,
from Settlementto 1836 (1837;
(hereafter cited as MCR),
reprint, Worcester: William Hersey, 1862),
Archives, Boston, 32: 6-7. Samuel died
Fall/Winter 1999
Massachusetts
Page 75
kind of dug-out in the side of the hill. It
Mar. 21, 1749.
27. O’Brien,
was enclosed by stone walls, covered by
Dispossession
by Degrees,165.
sods, with grass growing on the roof. The
28. John Milton Earle, State ofhriassachurettr,
SenateReportNo. 96, to Governorand Council,
door was about four feet square.” She men-
Comet&g the Indianr ofthe Commonwealth,
tioned that Wamesit Indians who returned
under theActofApril 6, 1859 (Boston:
to Marlborough
William White, 1861), Iv. Because of
Philip’s War settled near the borders of
sometime after King
the official system in place, Earle could
Williams Pond, where they “built their wig-
not designate them simply “Nipmuck.”
wams near some immense chestnut-trees”;
They had to belong to a sanctioned com-
in 1889 the field still bore the name “wig-
munity, either the Hassanamisco or the
wam yards.” Harriette Merrifield
Dudley Indians.
The Hundredth Town: Glimpsesof L$ in
Forbes,
29. Temple, History ofFramingham, 58.
Westborough,
Mass., 1717-1817 (Boston:
30. WCPR,
Rockwell and Churchill,
Series A, Book 3/103. Historian
Daniel Mandell has concluded that “wig-
31. MCR,
1889), 173-83.
1749-1753,32:6-7,316-318,607.
wams dominated native villages from
Although the documentary trail does not
Natick to Gayhead in the middle of the
specifically name Lydia, family history has
[eighteenth] century.” Behind the Frontier;
it that Lydia was the daughter of Samuel
61. Antiquarians writing in the nineteenth
and Martha and resided at Pakachoag.
century often included descriptions of
Indian genealogist Lorraine Rainwaters
Indians living in nonwestern manner. For
Henry has also reached this conclusion
example, Harriette Merrifield
from extensive study of available documen-
Forbes men-
tioned that in her town of Westborough an
tation. Unlike her siblings, who had all
Indian named Joseph Aaron lived alone in
reached adulthood, Lydia would have been
the swamp weaving baskets and working
a child of around ten years old in 1749.
as a hired hand to make a living. Another
Perhaps in the heirs’ petitions to sell Natick
Indian named Simon Gigger lived “in a
proprietary lands the child’s interests were
hut built of stones, the walls being two feet
thick at the base and gradually growing
subsumed in her mother’s
32. The probate judge ordered that as “Betty
narrower at the top. It sloped from the
Equi daughter of said deceased, having
bottom to the ridge-pole; the stones were
hitherto taken care of Benjamin Wiser, the
covered with sods and branches of trees.
only child of Ruth Bowman, deceased &
In the top was a hole to let out the smoke
daughter of said deceased, and she engaging
from the wood-fire blazing underneath.
to take of him for the future I order the
A plank for a table comprised the furni-
child’s part to be paid her.” WCPR,
ture.” Afterwards he lived on the Old Mill
Road in “a kind of wigwam” that he shared
Book
3/258.
33. In the nineteenth century members of the
with Bets Hendricks and Deb Brown. Also,
Chaubunagungamaug
“there was a family of Indians living on
were also known as Dudley or Pegan
John Belknap’s old place at Rocklawn, in a
Indians. Their reservation lands were in
Page 76
Fall/Winter 1999
band of Nipmucs
that part of Dudley that was set off to create
“Indians in 1830s New England” (Research
the industrial town of Webster in 1832.
report, Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge,
34. Natick records indicate that Samuel
Mass., 1997); correspondence in the
Bowman Jr. died sometime before 1759.
John Milton Earle Papers, Manuscript
O’Brien,
Collection, American Antiquarian Society;
Dispossession
by Degrees,165.
35. Bureau of Indian Affairs historian Virginia
Forbes, The Hundredth Town; “Indian
DeMarce has seen a reference to a Mr.
Families Who Lived in this Vicinity,” The
Crosman marrying a Lydia Barnes in
Warren Herald, June 18, 1897; Alice Morse
Worcester County, possibly this couple.
Earle, Stage Coachand TavernDays (New
The Worcester town clerk did not record a
York: MacMillan
marriage for them. Hepsibeth’s birth date
and George Sheldon, History ofthe Town
Co., 1922); J. H. Temple
was provided by her youngest son Ebenezer
of Northjeld, Massachusetts
(Albany: Joel
in a footnote to a eulogy written on the
Munsell, 1875); John Packard De Forest,
occasion of her death.
History of the Indians of Connecticut(Hartford,
36. This information was supplied by Indian
Conn.: W. J. Hamersley, 1851); John Avery,
genealogist Lorraine Rainwaters Henry,
History of the Town of Ledyard (Norwich,
37. A Robert Crosman from Bristol County
Conn.: Noyes & Davis, 1901); Lydia
died in 1782; a William Crosman served in
Huntley Sigourney, Sketchof Connecticut,
a Worcester unit under the command of
Forty Yearssince(Hartford:
Timothy Bigelow, but he was discharged,
not killed.
& Sons, 1894).
40. Forbes, The Hundredth Town, 186. See
38. In minutes of town meetings she was called
“Bow” or “Bowman.”
Oliver D. Cooke
also Warren Herald, June 18, 1897, and
In her death record
the town clerk identified Hepsibeth as the
Earle, StageCoachand TavernDays, 94.
41. Franklin F! Rice, ed., Recordsof Town
daughter of Lydia Bowman, suggesting this
Meetings, 1784-1800 (Worcester, Mass.:
association was necessary for her identity
Worcester Society of Antiquity, 1890),
There is no death record for her father,
30-32,91.
which often happens for people only fleetingly in a community
42. Eunice Jenison was born Jan. 5, 1782, and
(and also commonly
Ebenezer Turcell Andrews Mar. 4, 1787,
happens for people of color such as Lydia,
to Hepsibeth Crosman. Franklin I? Rice,
whose death was recorded in town meeting
I&z1 Records
for Worcester,
Massachusetts,
to
records only because the town incurred
the Year 1849 (hereafter cited as WVR)
expenses due to her poverty).
(Worcester, Mass.: Worcester Society of
39. See excerpted references in Donna Keith
Antiquity, 1894).
Baron, J. Edward Hood, and Holly V Izard,
43. Massachusetts Pension Records (hereafter
“They Were Here All Along: The Native
cited as MPR), Case #W19757,
American Presence in Lower Central New
Files, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
England in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
44 Nathaniel Paine (1759-1840) was a son of
Centuries,” William and Mary Quarterly,
Timothy (1730-1793)
53 (July 1996): 560-86; Marge Bruchac,
(1727-1811)
Military
Fall/Winter 1999
and Sarah Chandler
Paine, a family at the pinnacle
Page 77
of old Worcester aristocracy. After enduring
adulthood. WVR includes the names of
public humiliation as a colonial official
eight (see fig. 4). Spacing between births is,
because of his strong British sympathies,
for the most part, a little over two years,
Timothy voluntarily went into exile during
with four years between the last two. Two
the Revolution. But he returned with his
babies were named Patta and both died
wife and family in 1788 and resumed his
young. In his will written in 1807, Jeffrey
place among Worcester’s elite. His house,
named his heirs asJoseph, Lydia, Hannah,
Adam, Alexander, and Ebenezer.
known as “The Oaks,” is preserved by the
50. Inventory, WCPR,
Daughters of the American Revolution.
For an overview of Worcester County
45. Holly V. Izard, “The Ward Family and
Their ‘Helps’:
Series A, Book 51/411.
housing stock based on the manuscript
Domestic Work, Workers,
and Relationships on a New England Farm,
schedules of the 1798 Federal Direct Tax,
1787-1866,” Proceedings
of theAmerican
see Michael F! Steinitz, “Landmark and
Antiquarian Society,103 (1993): 61-90, and
Shelter: Domestic Architecture in the
Faye Dudden, Serving Women: Household
Cultural Landscape of the Central Uplands
Servicein Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica
of Massachusetts” (Ph.D. diss., Clark
(Middletown,
University, 1988).
Conn.: Wesleyan University
51. Richard L. Bushman, The Refinementof
Press, 1983).
46. Their marriage date was erroneously listed
America: Persons,Houses,Cities (New York:
as Nov. 3, 1792, in the WVR. Though it
Alfred A. Knopf, 1992); Edward Chappell,
was not included in the published vital
“Housing a Nation: The Transformation
records, the town clerk recorded their mar-
of Living Standards in Early America,” in
riage intentions on Dec. 13, 1788, a copy
Of Consuming Interests:The Style ofL$z in
of which Hepsibeth filed with pension offi-
the EighteenthCentury, eds. Cary Carson,
cials. She told them that she and Jeffrey
Ronald Hoffman,
lived together for a year after announcing
(Charlottesville and London: University
their intentions, and then married. MPR.
Press ofvirginia,
and Peter J. Albert,
1994), 167-232; Kevin M.
According to his youngest son, Jeffrey
Sweeney, “High-Style
Hemenway was born July 15, 1737 (not
of the Colonial Elite,” in Of Consuming
recorded). He married first Susanna Wright
Interests,l-58. Separation of public and pri-
of Framingham (not recorded), and they
vate spaces certainly occurred unevenly in
had Thaddeus, born Feb. 22, 1761, and
New England, influenced by factors such as
Susanna, born Jan. 15, 1768. Mother and
date of settlement, local economy, and level
daughter died in a smallpox epidemic
of connections to port cities and the wider
about 1770.
world. As soon as possible, settlers sepa-
Vernacular: Lifestyles
47. Affidavit of Jonas Hemenway, MPR.
rated processing and cooking from other
48. The deed was signed Mar. 9, 1787, and
activities. See Robert Blair St. George, “‘Set
recorded Nov. 9, 1809, Book 171/86, WCD.
49. Hannah told reporters that she was the fifth
of ten children, eight of whom survived to
Page 78
Fall/Winter 1999
Thine House in Order’:
The Domestica-
tion of the Yeomanry in SeventeenthCentury New England,” in New England
Begirn: The SeventeenthCentury (Boston,
tories filed between 1810 and 1819. For
Mass.: Museum of Fine Arts, 1982), 2:
discussion of the changing material condi-
159-352. In hall/parlor houses, a typical
tions in one Worcester County community,
eighteenth-century
see Holly V Izard, ‘Another
house form, work func-
Place in Time:
tions were relegated to the hall, with din-
The Material and Social Worlds of Stur-
ing, entertaining, and sleeping occurring in
bridge, Massachusetts, from Settlement
the parlor. In central-chimney
to 1850” (Ph.D. diss., Boston University
houses cook-
1996).
ing and processing were further removed,
to the rear of the building. If two stories,
53. Tea taking assumed great importance as a
bedsteads typically were removed from
social ritual in colonial America, as it was
parlors. In Georgian-plan
in England, and specialized tea tables,
houses, which
moved from England to the colonies in the
which are smaller than dining tables,
early eighteenth century and became popu-
became a popular furniture form. For
lar with wealthy elite families, mediating
examples, seeJonathan F. Fairbanks and
central hallways physically restricted access
Elizabeth Bidwell Bates, American Furniture
to private spaces. Although sleeping, enter-
1620 to the Preserzt(New York: Richard
taining, and dining occupied shared space
Marek Publishers, 1981). Tea taking contin-
even among some affluent eighteenth-
ued to be a highly important ritual in the
century households, by the nineteenth
early national. Also see Kevin M. Sweeney,
century this was generally considered an
“Furniture and the Domestic Environment
old-fashioned arrangement to be avoided
in Wethersfield, Connecticut,
if monetary resources permitted. For an
in Marenal Lij
example of implementing prevailing cultur-
St. George (Boston: Northeastern Univer-
1639-1800,”
in America, ed. Robert Blair
al notions of privacy within the constraints
sity Press, 1988), 261-90; Rodris Roth,
of a modest family economy, see Myron 0.
“Tea-Drinking
Stachiw, “The Color of Change: The Bixy
America: Its Etiquette and Equippage,” in
House and the Social and Economic Trans-
Material Lij2 in America, 439-62; and Jane
in Eighteenth-Century
formation of the Household, 1807-1850,”
Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside:Imagesof
in Paint in America: The Colors ofHistoric
the New England Home (New York: Alfred
Buildings, ed. Robert W. Moss (Washington:
A. Knopf, 1993), Chap. 9.
54. Clothing and personal effects of living
National Trust for Historic Preservation,
1994) 127-37.
family members were not included in the
Some families, of course, lived in one-
itemization of a decedent’s possessions.
room houses in nineteenth-century
Inventories functioned as a list of assetsthat
New England, precluding separation of
could be liquidated to discharge debts.
55. Twenty-four
functions or hierarchy of spaces.
52. Analysis of content and values is based on
of the thirty reasonably com-
plete inventories filed for Sturbridge dece-
my data base of Sturbridge, Massachusetts,
dents between 1810 and 1819 included
probate inventories filed before 1850. It
ceramic tableware, and nearly half included
includes thirty reasonably complete inven-
some tea dishes. Jedediah Marcy, a wealthy
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 79
gentleman who died in 1811 at the age of
amiable at ail times.” In most cases she
fifty-five, owned four-and-a-half
had help, usually Irish girls. Hannah Marsh
dozen
earthen plates, one-and-half dozen earthen
Inman Diary, Manuscript Collection,
bowls, an unspecified number of tea cups,
Worcester Historical Museum.
63. Salisbury Family Papers. Stephen Salisbury
and tea pots. WCPR, Book 40/378. Two
other inventories included full sets of
(1746- 1829) always referred to her as
ceramic dishes. The majority listed a mix
“Hepsy”; his considerably younger wife
of pewter and ceramic tableware.
Elizabeth Tuckerman (1768-1851)
her “Mrs. Hemenway”
56. Richard Bushman estimated that by 1750
called
The letters men-
about one-half of colonial households in
tioning Hepsibeth date from 1805-6; in
British North America ate from plates with
the 1810s and 1820s names of other laun-
knives and forks and seated at tables, and
dresseswere mentioned.
their numbers were concentrated in the
64. Worcester
Gazette, Mar. 15, 1890.
well-established trading towns. Refinement
65. In the Ward household in Shrewsbury,
ofAmerica, 74-78. Between the 1780s and
analysis of help over a period of nearly one
1810s the presence of knives and forks in
hundred years showed that help was nearly
Sturbridge inventories increased from 36
always at least sixteen, more commonly
to 82 percent.
eighteen or older. There was only one case
57. Recordsof Town Meetings, 1784-1800, 253.
of a young girl, thirteen-year-old
58. The Revolutionary Claim Act was passed
Brigham, who worked in the family in
Maria
Mar. 18, 1818. Jeffrey’s Certificate of
1834 and 1835. She was there because her
Pension was issued on Jan. 19, 1819,
mother had died and her father, who occa-
retroactive to Apr. 14, 1818. He received
sionally labored on the Ward farm, had
a pension of $8.00 per month. Case
serious financial difftculties and decided
#5406, MPR.
to break up housekeeping. The Wards
59. Rice, ed., Recordsof Town Meetings, 170.
treated her like a daughter; they gave her
60. Analysis of Ward family helps, Ward Family
minimal responsibilities and worried over
Papers, Manuscript Collection, American
her schooling and health. Older widows
Antiquarian Society Also Worcester city
and spinsters who worked in the family
directories, published beginning in 1844,
were, without exception, poor. Ward
listed laundresses; overwhelming they were
Family Papers.
people of color.
66. The federal census included a schedule for
61. Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside, 130-3 1.
whites, another for colored persons, and
62. A mid-nineteenth-century
a column for “all other persons except
diarist in
Worcester wrote weekly about the heavy
Indians not taxed.” Indians who paid taxes
and tedious drudgery of laundry day. Her
were recorded on the schedule with African
Nov. 26, 1854, entry is typical. “Helping
Americans and others of dark complexion,
wash some and mending the remainder of
and Indians who exercised their right not to
the day with my feelings so tired I did
pay taxes were not enumerated; they were
not know what to do. It is very hard to be
officially invisible. Beginning in 1820
Page 80
Fall/Winter 1999
people of color achieved a measure of dis-
“Some seventy years ago the east end of
tinction over previous years: for the first
Mechanic Street was called G
‘ uinea’
time, their schedule included gender and
because it was inhabited by the Riches, the
Coughs, and the Hemenways, very respect-
age categories.
able colored families.” Charles A. Chase,
67. WCPR, Series A, Book 52/85. An estate
was intended to provide for the present
“Nobility
Hill,” Proceedings
cjfhe wOmrs&r
and future generations. Because a woman’s
SocietyofAnriqui&for the Year 1908 16
property automatically became her hus-
(1908): 233. The Rich family was an
band’s at marriage, unless the couple signed
extended kin group that occupied four
a prenuptial agreement (which was fairly
houses, all owned by Peter Rich. These
uncommon), men built in the clause about
families boarded other people of color.
74. RecordsofTownMeetings, 1784-1800, 29;
remarrying in order to protect their chil-
WCD,
dren’s interests.
Books 118/557, 138/137, 171/513,
175/204, and 186/509; Lincoln, History of
68. WCPR, Series A, Book 53/36. At the time,
Wwcah, 19-20.
aside from haying season when wages were
75. F. G. Stiles, “Recollections of Mechanic
at a premium, a common laborer earned
between sixty-six cents and a dollar per day
Street,” Proceedings
of the Worcester
Societyof
The balance in her hands, then, represented
Antiquityfor the Year 1897 8 (1898): 68.
76. The preliminary sketch and the oil painting
a week-and-a-half to two weeks’ pay
vary significantly on the height of cellar
69. This is based on earlier census schedules,
which indicated children left the household
windows in relation to the main-floor
fairly early to work Also, neither of the
entry In the oil painting, the top of the
boys were living at home when the 1820
window casing is slightly below the top of
the exterior steps. In the sketch, the top
census was taken.
of the casing is roughly two feet above the
70. The garden sauce, corn in the ground, and
hog itemized in Jeffrey’s probate would
highest exterior step, which necessitated
have been for family consumption.
interior stairs.
77. In 1820, when she may still have lived
71. Worcester County, Massachusetts,
Papers, Manuscript Collection, American
in the May Street house, Hepsibeth’s
Antiquarian Society.
household included three “colored” boys
under fourteen and a “colored” woman
72. In this street-by-street directory for Worcester’s center village, for each property
between the ages of twenty-six and fifty-
he listed the owner(s) in one column, the
one. Because the age categories are so
occupant(s) in another. The number that
broad, it is impossible to know whether
appeared by property in the directory corre-
these people were family (Lydia and her
sponds to the same number on the map.
sons?) or boarders. Also, it is not possible
He also included a directory to selected
to determine where she lived by following
businesses and services in the center village
the census taker because the manuscript
census schedule for 1820 is alphabetized.
(it did not include laundresses).
73. A local antiquarian explained in 1908,
78. Stiles, “Recollections of Mechanic Street,”
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 81
Proceedings
of the WorcerterSocietyofAntiquity
68.
for the Year 1884 3 (1885): 115.
79. Quoted in Rev. George Allen, “Historical
Remarks Concerning the Mechanic Street
Burial Ground.
83. In Martha Ballard’s family, who lived in
. . Offered to the Joint
Hallowell on the Maine frontier, weddings
Committee of the Legislature of Massachu-
“were distinctly unglamorous flairs.”
setts, March 14 1878,” Bay St& Ledger,July
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midw$?s Tale:
and August 1846, 10.
The L@ of Martha Ballard, Basedon Her
80. Allen, “Historical Remarks,” 10.
Diary, 1785-2812 (NewYork:
Alfred A.
81. The roster of membership in the Worcester
Knopf, 1990), 138. In the prosperous Ward
Agricultural Society was a “who’s who”
family of Shrewsbury, weddings were
in high society list; its members for the
simple ceremonies held in the parlor with
most part were very wealthy, well educated,
neither guests nor fanfare. In the promi-
and well connected. Governor Levi Lincoln
nent Worcester family of George and
served as the society’s president from
Louisa Clap Trumbull marriages seem to
1824 to 1852. Writing about the cattle
have been treated similarly; not until the
shows (another name for the fair), Henry
1850s did Mrs. Trumbull begin to describe
Chamberlain mentioned, “During all the
these events as significant festive occasions
years of his Presidency, the Governor’s
that were celebrated by inviting guests to
house was always filled with the distin-
elegant receptions in their house, which
guished strangers who could be persuaded
was festooned with flowers for these occa-
to partake of his lavish hospitality.” Hemy
sions, and serving food and wedding cake.
H. Chamberlain, “Worcester County
Ward Family Papers, and Louisa Clap
Cattle-Shows,” Proceedings
oftheWorcester
Trumbull Diary, 1829-1879, Trumbull
Society
ofAntiq&yfor the Year 1897 8 (1898):
Family Papers. In the Taintor family of
203. Jenny l?umbull’s
Hampton, Connecticut, traditions similarly
diaries (1829-37)
highlight the social swirl surrounding the
evolved from low-key ceremonies with
fair each year.
no fanfare to bridal parties, guest lists, spe-
82. On that particular occasion, “a breakfast
cial clothing, and gifts by the late nine-
for gentleman only was given him by Mr.
teenth century. James Oliver Robertson
Lincoln, and later in the day a brief recep-
and Janet C. Robertson, AII Our Yestenlays:
tion for townspeople was held, while the
A Cenhtry of Family L$ in an American Small
upper windows of the house were filled
Toum (New York: Harper Collins
with ladies, anxious to catch a sight of the
Publishers, 1993).
famous Frenchman as he walked down the
84. WorcesterTelegram,Aug. 28, 1890.
pathway to his carriage to proceed on his
85. Louisa Clap Tmmbull Journals, entry for
journey.” Elizabeth 0. Paine Sturgis, “A
Apr. 3, 1829. Also see Nylander, Our Own
Story of Three Old Houses,” Proceedings
of
Snug Fireside,257, for Reverend Timothy
hewworcestersocietyofAntiquity
17(1900):
Dwight’s
139. Also see Nathaniel Paine, “Random
century weddings, which he considered
Recollections of Worcester, 1839-1843,”
to be “festivals of considerable signifi-
Page 82
Fall/Winter 1999
observations on eighteenth-
came,” and Jack Larkin, 77re&&ping
gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on
ofEverydayI$,
when your cake is hot, or cold, as is most
1790-1840 (New York
Harper & Row, 1988), 63-65.
convenient.“Mrs.
86. John Mack Farragher, Sugar Creek: .I$
on
Child, The American
Frugal House+>, 12th ed. (Boston: Carter,
the Illinois Prairie (New Haven, Conn., and
Hender, and Co., 1833), 72, 120. Interpre-
London: Yale University Press, 1986),
ters at Old Sturbridge Village tested many
80-82.
early nineteenth-century
87. Nylander, Our Own Snug Fire.&, 259, and
Larkin, Reshapingof&eryday I.#,
recipes, including
those for Child’s wedding cakes, in the
71-72.
kitchens of village houses. The results
88. Nylander, Our oulfi Snug Fireside,259.
were compiled in Caroline Sloat, et., Old
Cake was served as part of wedding feasts
S&bridge village Cookbook:AuthenticEarly
in earlier times, but it was not the central
American Recipes
for the Modern Kit&en
feature.
(Chester, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press,
89. Diary of ChristopherColumbusBaldwin,
1984). The editor provided useful informa-
Librarian athe Ameriun Antiquarian Society,
tion, such as recipe yields, that were not
1829-1835 (Worcester, Mass.: American
included in original sources.
Antiquarian Society, 1901), 247.
91. Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside, 259.
90. Lydia Maria Child advised her readers that
This was the wedding cake made for
to make a “good common wedding cake”
Elizabeth Margaret Carter and William
use “four pounds of flour, three pounds of
Reynolds in Newburyport.
butter, three pounds of sugar, four pounds
92. WorcesterTeegram,Aug. 28, 1890, and
of currants, two pounds of raisins, twenty-
Worcester
Gazette, Mar. 15, 1890.
four eggs, half a pint of brandy, or lemon-
93. WorcerrcrTekgram,Aug. 28,189O.
brandy, one ounce of mace, and three
94. WCPR, Docket 28972.
nutmegs.” In addition, “A little molasses
95. The relatively large bill to the livery opera-
makes it dark colored, which is desirable.
tor raises the question: did she take a jour-
Half a pound of citron improves it; but is
ney near the close of her life, perhaps an
not necessary.” For a “still richer” wedding
excursion to visit relatives or simply to see
cake she recommended a mixture of “three
some site or place? This for the present
remains a mystery.
pounds of flour, three pounds of butter,
three pounds of sugar, twenty-eight eggs,
96. A member of a New Ipswich, N.H.,
chair-
making family, Thomas Wilder began his
six pounds of currents and six pounds of
seeded raisins, one ounce of cinnamon, one
career as an ornamental painter. In 1827, by
ounce of nutmeg, three quarters of an
which time he had relocated to Walpole, he
ounce of cloves, half an ounce of mace, one
advertised that he did “painting-coach,
pound of citron, two glassesof brandy, two
chaise, house, sign, military cap, standard
glassesof rose-water, and one glass of
and all kinds of ornamental painting.”
wine.” To make the icing, “beat the whites
Martha McDonald
of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg
Walpok, New Hampshire (Walpole, N.H.:
add five teaspoonfuls of sifted loaf sugar,
Walpole Historical Society, 1963). 1:156.
FalVWmter 1999
Frizzell, HickoryI$
Page 83
Press for Old Sturbridge Village, 1992).
When he came to Worcester in 1846, he
98. Regarding accounts in earlier times, when
advertised himself as a “portrait painter,”
but beginning in 1855 and until his death
local economies were based primarily on
in 1862 he listed himself as a “portrait &
exchange of goods and services between
ornamental painter,” perhaps in response to
neighbors, book accounts customarily were
the decline in demand for artisanal portrai-
reckoned and settled perhaps once or twice
ture after the development of photography.
annually, and debt could in fact be carried
His work shows a wide range of painting
for years. But in the mid-nineteenth
execution, much of it at the lower range of
tury, by which time the economy was
artisanal production. At least one portrait,
national and largely cash-driven, debts
however, exceeds Hepsibeth’s portrait in
were settled promptly.
cen-
99. For the range of possibilities seeJessica F.
execution. Four of his very inexpensive
portraits are in the collections of Old
Nicoll, “Catalogue of the Exhibition,” in
Sturbridge Village, four considerably more
Meet YourNet&hbors,
65-139. The well-
detailed and contoured examples are in
documented work of William Matthew
Worcester Historical Museum collections,
Prior shows the remarkable range an arti-
and a finely executed 1842 portrait of Lucy
sanal painter could be capable of executing,
Thomas is in the Winchester (Mass.)
depending on a client’s willingness and
Historical Society Conant Library More
ability to pay
survive in other repositories and private
100. Jack Larkin, “The Faces of Change: Images
collections. Wilder ordinarily signed the
of Self and Society in New England,
back of his canvases, sometimes in pale col-
1790-1850,” in Meet YourNetghbors,
9.
ors that over time have faded to illegibility
101. Larkin, “Faces of Change,” 11; see also
(on two of the unconserved Wilder por-
Nicoll, “Catalogue of the Exhibition.” The
traits in WHM
existence of Hepsibeth’s
collections his signature can
portrait and the
only be partially seen under raking light).
unexpected finding that she commissioned
Evidence of such a signature on Hepsi-
it raises an interesting question. Many of
beth’s conserved portrait, if it was there, is
the thousands of artisanal portraits painted
no longer visible. William Lamson Warren
in the nineteenth century have not sur-
spent more than a decade locating and
vived, and marry that do have become
studying Wilder’s
disassociated with the sitters and their
portraits and ornamental
painting, research that documented his
particularstories.Current understanding
wide range of execution but did not fully
of the economic and socialprofiles of
puzzle out the man.
clients is basedon thorough researchon
known sitters.Perhapshidden in the many
97. I am indebted to Caroline Fuller Sloat for
her evaluation of the portrait. Also, see
unidentified portraitsare more storieslike
essaysand exhibit catalogue in Meet Your
Hepsibeth’s, someoneof working-class
Neighbors:New EnglandPortrds,P&ten, and
background choosing to make such an
Society,
179&l&50, cd. Caroline F. Sloat
investment.
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Page 84
102. Estimates are based on the wages paid to
Fall/Winter 1999
domestic help and fxrm laborers by the
line at the bottom says “Worcester,
Ward family of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts.” Where it appeared remains
unknown. A descendant provided me with
103. A printed copy of the poem is titled
Written
a copy.
by Ebenezer Hemenway on the
death of his Mother, February 17,1847. A
Fall/Winter 1999
Page 85

Hepsibeth Hemenway`s Portrait

Transcription

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