RESEARCH
FINDINGS
Last week,
I returned from a one-week research trip to New York and Massachusetts. Excluding Tropical Storm Floyd for one
day, during which I watched ten inches of rainfall while seating in a motel room
in Westfield, MA, it was a productive and rewarding trip.
Much of the
time was spent in Cortland and Madison Counties, New York, looking for the
descendants of Luther and Alithea (Wiser)
Morse. I met many relatives and continue to
compile much information about their families.
I also was
able to visit many cemeteries, town clerk offices, libraries and historical
societies looking for relatives.
I did not
find any Wiser headstones, but did see many others belonging to our family. I had the most success on Alithea’s family, finding many obituaries,
vital and other records.
I was also
able to spend one delightful evening with the family of Lois Wiser Dilworth, a
descendant of Levi Wiser, son of James Wiser.
John Milton Earle
Papers
In
Worcester, Massachusetts at the American Antiquarian Society, I spent a few
hours looking at the papers of John Milton
Earle. From the collection description, it
states, “John Milton Earle (1794-1874) was born in Leicester,
Mass., and moved to Worcester, Mass., in 1818. From 1827 to 1858, he was proprietor and
editor of the Worcester Spy.
He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1844 to
1852, and to the Massachusetts Senate in 1858. From 1859 to 1862, he served as
Commissioner to the Indians of Massachusetts. This collection of John Milton Earle papers, from 1652 to 1863,
includes papers and correspondence which Earle generated in his capacity as
Commissioner to the Indians of Massachusetts. There are also papers which he inherited
from previous Indian commissioners and officials.
I went
through a portion of this collection looking for additional information on
Benjamin Wiser of Natick. There were the following mention of
Wisers:
Mar
14th 1791-No. 13 To cash paid Gardner Wheeler for sd Wiser to do paid said Wiser to answer for necessities,
3-0-0.
March 8-To
cash paid Jonas Nichols for one hundred acres of land as
pr his decd bought for the use and benefit of Benja. Wiser 27-0-0.
June
14th 1792. No. 19 Cash
pd Benja. Wiser Being part of the proceeds of his
land this day sold 0-18-0.
To ditto pd
Capt Harrington and Benja. Haywood for time and trouble in selling
his land 0-6-0.
To ditto
paid James Wiser for two endorsements in
B. Wisers note
30-12-2.
To ditto pd
on note given by Benj. To L. Rice 1-14-7
To ditto
for Thomas Nichols and Moses Gilbert for a cow for Wiser’s wife 4-16-0
Aug 28-To
ditto pd Joseph Grow against Benj. Wiser 1-1-6.
Israel Rumbleymarsh [son of James Wiser, alias Rumneymarsh, Quanapaug], 14 shillings and six pence money
of Joseph Barrett… for apple trees and other fruit
trees, 26 May 1729.
December
10, 1784-Recd of Mr. Stephen
Mainard two pounds and
five pence in full of the last of two actions commenced against Benjamin Wiser at December Court at Worcester in
favour of James Thomas, recd from Edward Rawson, December 10th
1784. [This James Thomas was a
relative of his mother, Sarah Printer].
Hassanamisco [now Grafton, MA]
Indians-Spelling Book-Sarah
Wiser, Sarah Lawrence,
Deb David, Deb Abraham, Betty Sampson, Ab Burnell, Sarah Johns 2 Cape Indians,
Mary Cumacher, Esther, Patience, Hannah-2, Patience David-2, Two at Sterns,
Natick, Sarah Fortune, Submit Mungasut.
Hassanamisco Indians-Grafton,
MA-March 30, 1763-Indians that want blankets, S. Wiser [most likely Sarah Wiser], S.
Printer, Deb David, Deb Abraham, Betty Sampson, Al Burnee, Sarah Johns, Mary
Comacheo, 2 of Sarah Lawrence’s Daughters.
It would
appear that Benjamin and James Wiser mentioned above are sons of
Benjamin and Sarah (Printer) Wiser.
The
Sarah Wiser is probably Sarah Printer Wiser.
John Milton
Earle, as Commissioner of Indians, was asked by the State of Massachusetts, “to
examine into the condition of all Indians and the descendants of Indians
domiciled in this Commonwealth, and make report to the governor, for the
information of the general court”.
His report was given to the State in 1861. There is many letters in Earle’s papers,
of which I only looked at a few, used as the basis for this report.
One such
letter reads as follows, “Leicester, Oct. 18, 1859; …Polly Johns, mother Allithea Johns lived with family of Reuben Swan
and I believe died at the time you name in the family of William Denny-Polly
lived with her mother until her death, lived in town a few years afterward, but
not later than 1810.”
One of the
great great grandsons of Benjamin and Sarah Printer Wiser was Charles Taylor Tatman, who was elected to the American
Antiquarian Society in 1932. His
obituary, in their April 1946 minutes, states, “Charles Taylor Tatman died in
Worcester, after a period of ill health on December 23, 1945. A lineal descendant of Daniel Gookin,
one of the three original Worcester proprietors of 1674, he was born in
Worcester, December 16, 1871, the son of R. James and Susan M. (Taylor)
Tatman. [Reuben James Tatman, was
the son of Reuben Tatman and Mary Ann Wiser]. Finishing high school in 1889, as
president of his class, he entered Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but after
two years of technology, he decided to change to the law and was graduated from
Harvard Law School with the degree of L.L.B. in 1894. He immediately began to practice in
Worcester and so continued to the day of his death, building a high reputation
for knowledge of the law, and for assiduousness and character. He was active in political life, was one
of the founders and the first president of the Young Men’s Republican Club of
Worcester, and served as representative to the General Court, 1899-1900,
alderman in the City Council in 1906, and delegate-at-large to the Massachusetts
Constitutional Convention in 1917.
Mr. Tatman
soon became known as a collector in the field of American literature and also in
numismatics. From early manhood he
had been especially interested in Edgar Allan Poe, and had gathered a sizable
collection of books and biographies relating to that author. In 1904, he
acquired from Mrs. James M. Lewin an original daguerreotype of Poe, presumably
made by S.W. Hartshorn in Providence in November 1848, at the time of Poe's
visit to Sarah Helen Whitman. Mrs.
Lewis, according to the story which she told to Mr. Tatman, had been an intimate
friend of Mrs. Whitman, and this daguerrotype had been given by Poe to the
poetess, and had subsequently been given by her to the late Timothy Cole, the
noted wood engraver, engraved his portrait of Poe for Scibner's Monthly in May,
1880, according to his statement made personally to Mr. Tatman in 1924. Mrs. Lewis also owned an envelope, with
a New York postmark, directed in Poe's handwriting to "Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman,
Providence, R.I.," on the lower left corner of which was written in Mrs.
Whitman's hand "this contained the Ms. of the Lines to Helen." Both of these rare and interesting
relics-the daguerreotype and the envelope-have been presented to the Society by
Mrs. Tatman, in memory of her husband.
It was due
to Mr. Tatman's interest in Poe and other American authors, and to his wide
knowledge of Worcester history, that he was elected to the American Antiquarian
Society in 1932. He was much
interested in the Society, a constant attendant at the meetings and a frequent
donor to the Library.
Another
intimate association with the Society arose out of his friendship with William
Willard, the artist. Mr. Tatman and
Stephen Salisbury were trustees for the sale of Willard's property, after the
painter's death, November 1, 1904.
Several portraits were sold for the benefit of the heirs, with the result
that Mr. Tatman became the owner of the portraits of Daniel Webster, Charles
Sumner, and Senator Hoar, and Mr. Salisbury acquired the self-portrait of
William Willard. In 1933 Mr. Tatman
presented to the Society his three paintings, and in the Librarian's Report for
that year there is a lengthy description of the portraits, all of which were
either sketched or painted from life.
Only this year the self-portrait of Willard has come to the Society, as a
gift from the Worcester Art Museum.
A life-long
collector of coins, he was one of the founders of the American Numismatic
Association in 1891, becoming its first secretary. In 1893 he was made an honorary
corresponding member of the American Numismatic Society, in recognition of his
studies on coinage. He published
three numismatic treatises-Coin-Collecting, an Introduction to the Study of
Numismatics in 1893, the Virginia Coinage in 1894, and The Beginnings of United
States Coinage in 1895. Due to his
aid in recent years the Antiquarian Society's collection of the United States
copper cents was properly arranged and completed.
Mr. Tatman
was fond of travel, visited Central and South America, and made many trips to
Europe. Due to his wife's especial
interest, he was particularly fond of France and the French language, was at one
time president of the Worcester alliance francaise and made "Officier de
l'Academie" by the French government.
He was a member, and officer, of several local clubs and societies.
He married,
August 28, 1901, Anna C. Svedberg of Worcester, who survives him. The Society is indebted to both Mr.
Tatman and his wife for gifts of historical value, which will be of usefulness
to future researchers. He had an
active and honorable career in his chosen profession, but his avocations in the
field of collecting left an even greater impress for the years to
come.”
An
interesting life and legacy to the Wiser Indians of which we appear to be a
part.
OBITUARY
Logan
Herald-Journal, 28 Aug 1999; Logan, Utah-Leona Lowe Wiser was born in Franklin, Idaho, on
Dec. 26, 1901. She was a daughter
of Joseph Heber Lowe and Mary Louisa Belnap. She had six sisters and two
brothers. They all preceded her in
death. She married Cliff Wiser [John Harvey, Samuel Frost, John
McCormick, Samuel, Benjamin] in the Logan LDS Temple on Dec. 18, 1924.
They lived
in Lewiston for a short time and then moved to Trenton in May 1926 and remained
there until June 1966, when they moved to Logan. She kept a lovely home and always had a
beautiful flower garden. She made
many quilts and enjoyed any type of handiwork. She loved to read and keep family
records. She devoted her life to
her family-she especially loved the grandchildren. She held many positions in the LDS
Church; she taught in the Primary, served in the Relief Society presidency and
in the young women's programs. She
worked hard on the farm, helping with the crops and the dairy herd.
She is
survived by a son, Emery (Aliene) of Kennewick, Wash.; a daughter Carma Hawkes
(Joseph) of North Logan; a son John (Marlene) from San Mateo, Calif. She has 13 grandchildren, 48
great-grandchildren and seven great great-grandchildren. The funeral will be at noon Monday, Aug. 30, in
the Cranney Mortuary at 420 E. 1800 North, North Logan. There will be a viewing from 6 until 8
Sunday evening and also Monday from 10:30 a.m. until the time of funeral
services.
POSTSCRIPT
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Ron Wiser 6 Baton Rouge Roswell, NM 88201
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