Hartley DNA & Genealogy

It seems like certain years are more filled with events than others. For my 2nd great-grandfather, Greenwood Hartley, it seems like 1874 was one busy year. I can think of four significant events that happened that year.

Greenwood’s Only Daughter Mary Ann Marries

Mary Ann Hartley Married Abel Burrows on 12 February 1874. At the time, Abel was a weaver from Fall River – originally from Burnley, Lancashire. This would be not too far from Bacup where Mary Ann was from:

Bacup was about 6 miles from Burnley. Greenwood was born in Trawden which was also close to Burnley. Abel would later become a jeweler and store owner in Fall River. Actually, upon closer look, Abel was living in Habergham Eaves in 1871:

The other interesting thing is that Abel Burrows was born in Marsden. There is a Marsden in West Yorkshire and a historical Marsden near Colne and Trawden where the Hartleys came from. So I’m not sure which this is referring to. My guess would be that they were from the Marsden in Lancashire. Marsden was taken over by Nelson in later times. Abel’s mother was from Haggate:

Haggate is to the NE of Burnley.

Here is a portion of Greenwood’s Map of Lancashire from 1818:

This shows Great Marsden which was closer to Trawden and Hag Gate which appears to be a very small place. I see another place below Little Marsden which is also called Marsden.

Here is a Newpaper notice from the Fall River Daily Evening News of 16 February 1874:

How Did Abel and Mary Ann Meet?

At the time that Abel and Mary Ann married, Abel was living in Fall River and Mary Ann was living in New Bedford. The English Census was taken on April 2, 1871. Abel’s Naturalization Papers have him coming to the US before this time:

I have come to mistrust these dates after looking at Greenwood Hartley’s Naturalization and his half brother William Wilkinson’s. I would trust the Census more than the Naturalization Papers.

We know that the Hartley family moved from Fall River to New Bedford in 1870. The 1870 Census was taken on June 1. Greenwood’s daughter Esther Hartley died in New Bedford from Typhoid Fever on 30 October 1870. The family was living at the rear of Ray Street near the Wamsutta Mills.

All this to say that May Ann was most likely living in New Bedford by the end of October 1870. Abel was in Fall River some time after April 1871. I suppose that if the Hartleys lived briefly in Fall River before moviing to Fall River that Abel could have lived briefly in New Bedford before moving to Fall River. There are other possibilities:

• Perhaps the two families had some connections in Lancashire
• Perhaps the two families had connections in Bristol County or a go-between
• There could have been church connections. Greenwood’s wife Ann Emmet was from a Baptist Church in Bacup and Abel and Mary Ann apparently attended a Baptist Church in Fall River
• When Abel’s father Samuel married, his witness was a John Hartley.

It would be interesting to know what Church Mary  Ann and Abel married in. For some reason, I thought it was an Episcopal Church. I am guessing that if Mary Pilling Wilkinson was able she would have attended as well as other family.

According to the New Bedford Mercury, the Wilkinson boys at least attended this church:

Yesterday noon as soon as the Sunday school at Mr. Dennison’s North Mission Chapel, corner of Purchase and Pearl streets was dismissed, eleven boys of the school went to Willis Point to play on the ice, or perhaps as one account states to cross over for play on “the Isle of Marsh”, a high rocky hill connected by marshes with the Fairhaven shore.

I’ll just finish off this section with an image from my Wilkinson Web Page:

The corner of Pearl and Purchase is easy to see near the lower left corner of City Common. The M.E. Church – probably Methodist Episcopal is also a possibility. I just read up on the Mission Church and this was really a Sunday School Mission. This is from an 1869 History of the Churches of New Bedford:

The Death of Greenwood’s Mother: Mary Pilling Hartley Wilkinson

Greenwood’s daughter Mary Ann married in February. Not long after, Greenwood’s mother dies. She was listed as having weak eyes on her voyage to Massachusetts. I mention on my Hartley web page:

An asterisk by Mary’s name indicated her poor health. She was listThised as having very sore eyes and being infirm. 

Mary Pilling lived over three years past her voyage to Massachusetts from Bacup, Lancashire.

Mary died March 23, 1874. This is the building that shows on Google maps for 23 Austin Street:

My guess is that this is the same building that was there and that the Hartley family lived in in 1874. However, the building may have been remodeled since and was much newer at the time. Here is a view of the house next door to this:

Here we can see the stone foundation. Perhaps 23 Austin Street looked more like the shingled building next door. Here is a period map:

I believe that 23 Austin would be at the NW corner of Austin and Pleasant Streets.

I have an old photo which is unidentified, but may be Mary Pilling.

Mary Pilling was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford. This is an online photo giving the sense of the Cemetery as I remember visiting it:

Here is a map:

I believe that Mary Pilling is buried in Section GG of the Cemetery along with Wilkinson and Hartley relatives. However, I was unable to find an online map with location designations. I was unable to find a grave marker for Mary Pilling, but I have found markers for other of the relatives. I see that Austin Street ends near the Northern part of the Cemetery. My son lives not too far from this Cemetery, so I could walk from his house for a visit some day.

Greenwood’s USA Citizenship

By Spring of 1874, Greenwood’s only daughter Mary Ann had married and moved to Fall River. Greenwood’s one constant throughout his life, Mary Pilling, was gone. He is now with his wife and son when he turns 42 years old in May, 1874. Greenwood works probably at the Wamsutta Mills in New Bedford and lives at 23 Austin Street. I wrote a Blog recently about Greenwood’s Naturalization here.

I need not reproduce all the information that I went over in that Blog. A pattern that I saw was that if someone was keen on getting their Naturalization, it geneally happened about 5 years after they arrived. Here is a document that I was looking for after I wrote my Blog I mentioned above:

This was Greenwood’s Declaration of Intentions from December 1872. At the time I had found this at the Massachusetts Archives, I found it ironic that it took a trip to Lancashire to find out that Greenwood was born in Trawden, when that information was in my home State already.

As I mentioned, Greenwood, William Wilkinson and John Pilling – all half  brothers to each other – headed up to Boston, apparently at the end of November. John was a witness and Greenwood and William both got their Citizenship papers that day. This completed the legal paperwork they needed and established them as permanent citizens of the United States. Perhaps Greenwood and family celebrated the American Holiday of Thanksgiving on the Thursday before going up to Boston on Monday November 30,  1874. Thanksgiving had been declared a National Holiday by Lincoln 11 years prior.

Buying the Farm in Rochester in December 1874

The fourth big event for 42 year old Greenwood in 1874 was buying a farm in Rochester. According to local historian Judy Gurney, Greenwood’s health was failing and his doctor recommended a move out of the City. Aside from this, Greenwood could have had some bad feelings about New Bedford. After all, his daughter Esther died there of Typhoid Fever in October 1870 not long after the family moved to New Bedford from Fall River:

In January 1872, two of Greenwood’s nephews drowned in New Bedford. These were 11 and 9 year old John and Robert Wilkinson.

Then, as mentioned above, Greenwood’s mother died on March 23, 1874.

It seems like the doctor gave a good recommendation to Greenwood as sanitary conditions must have been better and the chance of catching something from someone must have been less in Rochester compared to New Bedford.

Weaver to Farmer

I wonder if many people changed carreers later in life like Greenwood becoming a farmer after being a weaver?  In 1874, Greenwood’s son James was 12, so perhaps would be more helpful around a farm. Greenwood was frugal and had saved enough money to buy a farm for $1200. If Greenwood bought the farm in December, I assume that he lived there with his wife and son James that first winter. What did they do all winter? Were there animals to take care of? Did he plan for the next year? He must have had enough money to buy food to eat. I am also curious as to whether Greenwood knew much about farming. Perhaps he had observed farmers in Trawden. Little is known about Greenwood’s grandfather. Perhaps he was a farmer in Trawden? Many questions and not many answers.

It’s fun to think about what life was like for Greenwood Hartley and his family.

Summary and Conclusions

• 1874 marked the fifth year since the Hartley family arrived in Massachusetts
• The fact that Greenwood arrived with mother, wife, children and half-brother’s family seemed to indicate that all intended on staying in the US
• Greenwood’s early years in Massachusetts were likely difficult adjusting to a different life-style and customs. Also the death of his daughter and two nephews made life difficult.
• The death of Greenwood’s mother in 1874 must have been difficult also. Greenwood’s father had died when he was 4, so his recollection of him would have been very vague. Mary Pilling was Greenwood’s one constant in the 38 years since his father died.
• This death was off-set by three positive happening to Greenwood in 1874. His daugther Mary Ann married Abel Burrows. He recieved his naturalization along with his younger half brother William Wilkinson. Then he bought a farm in Rochester and apparently moved there in December 1874.
• Greenwood’s move to Rochester was apparently good for his health and for his family. Greenwood apparently gave a leg up to his son James who was later able to purchase a Mill which became the Hartley Saw Mill.
• In protecting his health, Greenwood outlived his father who died at age 32. This afforded his children the father that Greenwood never had.

While I was reviewing my Ancestry hints for my second great-grandfather Greenwood Hartley, I ran across this record:

This is a document signed by Greenwood Hartley on November 30, 1874. This Greenwood was said to be born very close to my Greenwood ancestor:

I have that my Greenwood was born 25 May 1831. This Greenwood was a year younger. He also came to Boston a lot sooner than my Greenwood – in 1849. I have that my Greenwood came into Boston 24 October 1869. This is starting to look suspicious. I think that this is the actual Naturalization Record for my 2nd great-grandfather Greenwood, but that some of the information got entered incorrectly.

A Rare Signature

The 1870 Census states that Greenwood and his wife could not write. However, the box is not checked that they could not read. Hear is Greenwood’s signature – apparently signed with difficulty:

This would appear to be a rare signature for Greenwood. i assume that it is authentic due to the difference in writing elsewhere on the Naturalization document.

Other Implications?

The approximate age at the time of this document would be correct. It states that Greenwood was 42 in 1874, when he was actually 43. The above document appears to be the actual naturalization based on this index card:

Interestingly, two weeks after Greenwood’s Naturalization, he buys a house in Rochester Massachusetts on what is now Snipatuit Road.

Here is the only photo I have of Greenwood:

Greenwood’s Two Naturalization Witnesses

Greenwood needed two people to vouch for him:

These two are Greenwood’s half brothers. I wonder if they all had to take a train up to Boston for this? I also wonder if the Judge knew that these two were Greenwood’s half brothers. Here we also have John Pilling and William Wilkinson’s signatures. They look at litte more refined than Greenwood’s signature. Technically, Greenwood had been in the US for 5 years as he arrived in Boston in October 1869. It is interesting that the place that he resided for that amount of time is left blank. The family lived in Fall River for a short while before moving to New Bedford.

John Pilling attested to Greenwood’s good character. However a few years later, in August 1877, John took off with Co-op money, and left his famiy for England. William Wilkinson travelled to Boston with Mary Pilling, Greenwood, and Mary’s grandchildren.

Here is William Wilkinson:

I believe that this is John Pilling:

I also recall seeing a record in the Massachusetts Archives saying that Greenwood was born in Trawden. I believe that that was his Petition for Naturalization. Hopefully I have a hard copy of that somewhere.

William Wilkinson

William was born in 1840, so he was about 9 years younger than Greenwood. Here is his Naturalization:

As far as I know, his arrival in New York in 1858 is not correct. In fact, I have this as his marriage in Bacup, England in 1859:

This is interesting as I had that William married Tamar Dawson. This seems to say that she was Tamar Burus, daughter of William Burus [Burrows?]. A Mary Dawson is a witness. I see that my Ancestry tree has her father as William Barnes. I have that William arrived in Boston in 1869:

Witnesses for William’s Naturalization

First, I should point out that Wiliam and Greenwood’s Naturalizations were both on the same day. That leads to the idea that they all went up to Boston together.

Here, Greenwood’s name was in and signed and then crossed out. John Pilling was one witness. My guess is that William got his naturalization first and was able to be a witness for Greenwood. However, because of this Greenwood could not be a witness for William. The typed part says “both citizens of said United States”. If Greenwood’s Naturalzation was after William’s he wouldn’t have been a citizen yet. I don’t know who John Armstrong was.

John Pilling’s Witnesses

To complete the circle, here were John’s witnesses to his 1867 Naturalization:

This is likely John Dickey in New Bedford in 1870:

He was likely known through work or possibly through John’s Scottish wife.

This is likely Thomas Watson in New Bedford in 1870:

In 1884, Thomas apparently remarried for a third time:

This Thomas lists his birth Town as Brindle, Lancashire. This appears to be Thomas’ marriage to Elizabeth in Boston in 1852:

Summary and Conclusions

• A discovery of a Naturalization record for Greenwood adds some detail to his life for the year 1874
• I followed a bit in the lives of two of Greenwood’s half brothers who vouched for his trustworthiness on his Naturalization.
• Another bonus was in seeing Greenwood’s tenuous signature which is a connection between him and us in the present time.
• My assumption is that Greenwood and his younger half brother William dependended on their older half brother John Pilling to show them the ropes in the New World