Related Records

1. 2004.170.018 - Sept. 13th 1699. WHS 2004.170.018 The Meeting House at Central Village The Friend's Society at Central Village is the outgrowth of the Quaker migration to Dartmouth begun soon after 1660. In the records of the Dartmouth Monthly Meeting is found under the date 9th month 13th, 1699, the following item:" It is agreed that our fourth day meeting is to kept at Acoakset one day at Stephen Willcocks, next at James Tripps, and so by turn continuing the ensuing winter." This is the first record we have concerning religious services being held in Westport. The two men, at whose home the meetings were held, belonged to families prominently connected with early history of this section. The meetings evidently grew as the population increased as many of the newcomers were Friends from Sandwich, Mass. or Portsmouth, R.I. In consequence of this growth, there was a meeting house planned in 1715. Concerning the building, the record makes the following statement on the 10th month 19th, 1715: "It is agreed that there shall be a meeting house built on the other side of Acoaxet river, 28 foot wide and 34 foot long, and 16 or 17 foot studs," and "the monthly meeting to defray the charge and it is concluded that the house above sd should be finished by the 15th day of the 8th month next." The land, upon which the meeting house was built, was bought from George Cadman and on July 19, 1716 the sum of "Three pound currant money" was paid said George Cadman for "One acre and a half and Sixteen rods situate lying & being within the Township of Dartmouth aforesaid and is the North west corner of that lot whereon his son-in-law William White now liveth and is by measure Sixteen rods in length and sixteen rods in Bredth, Bounded Southward & Eastward by his own land and Northward & Westward by undivided land." At the time the meeting house was planned and the land purchased, there was no road leading to the spot designated as a site for the meeting house, but in 1717 the town of Dartmouth formally laid out a road leading past this place. Soon after agreeing to build the meeting house, a committee was appointed to take a deed" to set Coakset meeting house upon". This committee was composed of Stephen Willcocks, William Wood, Henry Tucker, Thos. Taber Jun., and Joseph Taber. From a record made 11th month 21st, 1716/17, it is learned that the land was not paid for until after the building was completed, as it states." This meeting has concluded to make a subscription to pay 3L due for ye land whereon Coakset meeting house now stands." All the description of this first place of public worship in Westport to be found, is within covers of the old records, but this unfortunately is all too incomplete, and was made in 1782 when the building was to be renovated. This record states: "The committee to consult and consider with the women friends whether there ought not to be an alteration for the better in men's and women's seating themselves in our meeting for worship reported that it was their judgment that an alteration might be made for the better viz all both men and women to set below stairs when there is room and the way to accommodate it is for the men to fill all the seats to the west of the ally from the double door to the north door and the women to take all seats below to the east of the aforesaid ally and when the seats below are not sufficient for the people some men may go above stairs and some women make take seats in the little meeting house below which the whole is for the use of when meetings are held in the great house." The last few lines indicate that the structure was composed of a main building and an ell. This ell is again referred to in the records ten years later when a committee was appointed to "inspect into the circumstances of the winter meeting house at Acoaxet and see what repairing is necessary." This ell was used as the winter meeting, as the report of the committee just mentioned will show, which states, "those friends that were appointed to provide material for shingling the little part of the old meeting house reported that they have provided materials for the same ad seen the work accomplished and their bill of costs is four pounds and five pence." The Friends Meeting at Acoaxet belonged to the Dartmouth Monthly Meeting until March 1766. A committee was then chosen to set off boundaries of the new meeting and the record gives the boundaries of the new meeting and the record gives the boundaries of the new meeting as follows: "Beginning at the south easternmost corner of the Benjamin Wing Homestead Farm, from thence to Coaxet River as the line of the said Benjamin land goes. Thence southerly by said river to the sea. Again from said corner first mentioned thence northerly in the line between said village until comes to the Country road, thence on a straight line to the nearest part of the westernmost branch of the Noquochoke River thence by said branch of said river till it comes to Freetown line." The old meeting house all ready described stood until 1813, when the record dated 2nd month, 18th day states: " The committee to view and examine the old meeting house in order to ascertain whether it may be best to repair it or build a new one report in favor of building a new house to take down the high part of the house and let the low part stand to hold meetings in while the new house is in building - the new house to be forty five feet by thirty feet with gallerys with slides for the accommodation of the men's and women's meeting to be held separate much in the form meeting houses are generally built with a porch fourteen feet by ten - the Committee find that a new house of the above description can be got built for twelve hundred Dollars with working in what stuff that may be suitable for it out of that part taking down." The following month, so the record states, a building committee composed by Paul Cuffe, Ebenezer Baker, Prince Wing, Abner Potter, Joseph Tripp, George Brightman and Samuel Newitt(?) were chosen. In March 1814 the building was completed at the total cost of $1198, two dollars less, than the amount estimated. This building when complete was typical of the meeting houses of a century ago. Its walls were devoid of paint or ornamentation, its benches were cushionless, and its floors were sanded. It was heated by fireplaces and divided by a sliding partition. This building, which is the present meeting house, was greatly modernized in 1872, when the galleries, sliding partition, and fireplaces were removed. The interior was then painted and carpets, cushions, and stoves were used in refurnishing the meeting house

   Central Village Friend's Meeting House Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
2. 2005.054.017 - on the founding of the Meeting house and Paul Cuffe

   Quaker Church Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
3. 2005.081.147 - Quaker Church, Central Village Also see #2005.081.145/146 and #2005.087.007. From John written in pen on front of card and mailed on Nov 1906 to Mrs. Victoria Pettey, Westport, Mass.

   Quaker Church Central Village Quakers

   Record Type: Photo

   
4. 2005.122.160 - Booklet on the history of the Westport Monthly Meeting of the Friends. published at the time of Westport's bicentennial

   Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
5. 2005.122.161 - A history of the Friends' Meeting in Westport. 1716-1916. Includes pictures of various members.

   Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
6. 2005.122.168 - 250th anniversary of Westport monthly meeting of Friends. Program for services held.

   Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
7. 2005.58.001 - a history printed in 1987 on the history of the Westport Monthly Meeting of Friends.

   Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
8. 2008.099.015 - Quaker History by Elizabeth Cazden

   Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
9. 2012.006.007 - 3 ring loose leaf notebook holding documents and photographs refering in the main to the 200th anniversary of the Friends Meeting 1716-1916 of Westport, also the community house dedication on June 17, 1934. Also a narrative, typed, of the Life of Paul Cuffe (the son).

   Quakers

   Record Type: Archive

   
10. 2012.006.010 - Photo of John Macomber Mary S. Macomber

    Quakers

    Record Type: Archive

    
11. 2012.026.001 - SEE CUSTOM FIELD Letters of Lydia Macomber, daughter of John #1, deaf, like her sister, and driven to Hartford by buggy where both were schooled. She married a deaf student and they lived in Dr. Kirkaldy's house. Transcribed by Anna Duphiney Program presented in April 2022 https://vimeo.com/783709231 "I am deprived of hearing and speech but remember that God has been merciful to me because he has provided a way for my education so that I can read, write and talk." (Lydia Macomber, 1837). Westport, Massachusetts A collection of letters written by Westport resident, Lydia Macomber, who was born deaf, opens an invaluable window into the lives of Deaf people in the maritime world of antebellum New England. She and her sister Olive Macomber attended the American School for the Deaf from 1832 to 1836. She regularly visited members of the Quaker community on Nantucket including astronomer Maria Mitchell. Her letters also record her involvement in producing silk by raising silkworms. Rebecca A.R. Edwards, Professor of History at the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York will introduce Deaf history, as seen in these letters, and to Lydia and her friends. Professor Edwards' current research focuses on recovering the historical experiences of ordinary deaf people. Her research into American Deaf history has led to two books, Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth-Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture (2012) and Deaf Players in Major League Baseball: A History, 1883 to the Present (2020). 14:03:34 So I am delighted to introduce our presenter, Rebecca Edwards. 14:03:41 She is professor of history at the Rochester Institute of Technology. 14:03:47 Current research focuses on recovering the historical experiences of ordinary deaf people. 14:03:53 Her research into American death. History has led to 2 books. 14:03:56 Words made Flesh and second book, Deaf Players in major league, Baseball. 14:04:03 The history, 1,883 to the present. So, Rebecca, we were chatting just before we went live. 14:04:10 I was telling you just how. please I am that you have found your way to our collection and discovered videos letters, and I know you're going to tell us a bit more about how you found the collection. 14:04:22 I want to thank you for sharing. You know the results of your research, which some of which is printed in. 14:04:32 This is the historic Nantucket publication by Nantucket Historicals Association. 14:04:40 The article is oceans unheard and you can apply this online, and you can read the article online as well. 14:04:50 So at this point, Rebecca. i'm going to hand it over to you. 14:04:54 Thank you, Thank you. Thank you so much. jennifer it's such an honor to be here. 14:05:00 I, It just proves this entire experience of researching and writing just proves that sometimes it's just better to be lucky than good. 14:05:11 I stumbled into your website for Westport Historical Society and the blog post that you have put up about this letter collection. 14:05:23 This Mackenberg letter collection and and I was absolutely stunned to discover these firsthand accounts from Lydia Mackenber, who was a deaf woman in the early nineteenth century, and it's 14:05:38 so difficult to find information historically about or deaf people. 14:05:46 We know quite a bit as historians about more famous deaf people. 14:05:50 But when I comes to the lives of just ordinary people, a lot of that is a complete blank slide to us, a complete mystery. 14:05:58 So, finding these letters, and then reading them, and then finding out how wonderful they were, has been an extraordinary journey. 14:06:07 It actually started a year ago last spring is when I stumbled into the blog post, and since then I spent time reading the letters, researching the people that Lydia mentions in her letters and the piece that I gave to you from historic 14:06:21 Nantucket. is sort of the first wave of what I hope to be more writings to come some of which will be included. 14:06:29 I think, in this in this talk today. So the background for who is Lydia Macaver? 14:06:36 She was born deaf in Westport, in 1,812. 14:06:38 She attended the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1,832 until 1,836. 14:06:46 So. the American school, as some people may know, was the first school for deaf people in the United States. 14:06:52 It had opened in 1,817. So Lydia was born deaf at exactly the right time, that is, we have records of deaf people having lived in America since the colonial days. 14:07:06 But all of those deaf people largely went uneducated that there was no way to teach them. 14:07:11 There was nothing really understood about teaching deaf people, and so their lives looked far bleaker. 14:07:18 But for Lydia things would be different. Being born at the right time, and her father, John, discovering that the school had open, made all the necessary arrangements to enroll his daughter. 14:07:32 He is also the one who took her to the school. surviving records at West Part historical, actually describe his journeys. 14:07:41 So he would drive Lydia by horse and carriage to go to Hartford. 14:07:45 The trip. You might be curious to know if roughly, 150 miles one way between Westport and Harper. 14:07:55 So 230 miles round trip we that journey for him, taking her there and then returning back home, actually took John a full week of time, which is hard for us to imagine a journey like that taking so long But that of course, was the state 14:08:12 of play in the early nineteenth century. So it was an investment on his part to make get Lydia and education. 14:08:21 So there she is at the American school for 4 years, 1,832 to 1,836. 14:08:24 She is receiving the education that her father had hoped that she would. 14:08:28 So the school taught effectively the same curriculum that was in existence for what the nineteenth century called the common school, and what we would call public school. 14:08:38 So she taught, was taught history, civics, math, reading, and writing a course in English. 14:08:46 But of course you also learned finger spelling and American sign language. 14:08:51 In addition, all the pupils enrolled learned a trade. 14:08:54 Boys and girls alike. not the same trades. Boys were generally offered. Choices of carpentry, shoemaking. 14:09:04 Girls were typically taught needlework or bookbinding addition to all of the education that her father had hoped that she would get. 14:09:13 She was also receiving something her hearing father could never have imagined. 14:09:16 That is an introduction to other people like herself. Introduction to a large number of deaf people and Video found herself increasingly drawn into this deaf community, which, of course, was emerging over the course of the nineteenth century, 14:09:30 precisely because of schools like the American school, bringing deaf people together in large numbers. 14:09:35 For the first time for a lot of deaf people in the nineteenth century school was the first place where they even had ever met another deaf person. 14:09:45 But that's typically how isolated Deaf people were. This is not the case for Lydia Mackenberg, who had a younger sister, Olive, who was also deaf, so her surprise would not have been that there 14:09:56 were other deaf people, she was well aware of that her surprise would have been that the number, seeing so many in one place, and also seeing some of those people as authority figures, there were deaf teachers at the school, and that would have been a i'm sure 14:10:10 astonishing to her. So here she is, coming together normally. 14:10:20 At this point in my historical work I would talk about that community, and how it rose which was the lead us to talk about deaf organizations, deaf newspapers, deaf churches, all of which emerge over the course of the nineteenth century 14:10:32 And then, as a historian, I would draw conclusions for you about what that community must have been like based upon the organizations it created. 14:10:41 What's implied in all that of course is there are actual people involved in building all of those things. 14:10:48 But, as I said, the historical record gives us glimpses more of the community organizations and less of the people who populated them. 14:10:56 This is what got me so excited about reading 2 Lydia's letters, because here, finally, we get a path in to that community inside. 14:11:08 From the point of view of a community member, and her letters introduced us to the other deaf people that she knew in that community. 14:11:15 Most of the letters that are held at Westport Historical Society from Lydia were written between 1,836, and 1,838. 14:11:24 So I can only wish that she had kept writing more but i'll take what I can get. 14:11:31 So we get this emerging glimpse into the new deaf community from one of its community members, and we get to see her journey with her fellow deaf peers over the course of 2 years. 14:11:45 So as a historian, I get all this information, but I will also tell you, just as a person. 14:11:51 You also kind of get the thrill of reading someone else's mail, which is a little bit illicit. 14:11:57 Perhaps a bit is kind of exciting too in my case i'm fortunate, because I've been doing deaf research for a while. so frequently. 14:12:05 The people that Lydia mentions were names. the were actually familiar to me, and it was exciting to be able to see them together. 14:12:16 So to begin let's let's start with with this letter, so i'll read some of these for you, so you can get some of this thrill for yourself in 1,837 in December lydia 14:12:32 had made a trip to New Bedford with her Father John and There she saw 2 deaf friends, Amos Maker and Amos's wife, Julia. 14:12:41 They met their new son, William Henry. She reports that little bit of gossip to some friends of hers. 14:12:50 That same month, however, she also reported that writing in a letter to her friend Anne that she had received, quotes an interesting letter from Lucretia Bonard at Harvard. 14:13:01 Now the creature. Barnard was a native of Nantuckets deaf woman, born slightly after Lydia, born in 1,814, Lucretia had attended the American school from 1,826 to 1,800 and 14:13:12 31. So these are 2 young women, sort of in geographical proximity to one another in the Massachusetts maritime world. 14:13:20 But they hadn't actually gone to school together she had left before Lydia had arrived. 14:13:25 Lydia learned from Lucretia that Risha quotes, had often thought of writing to me, though she had never before seen me, and she said she frequently thought to make an attempt to go over to New Bedford to 14:13:36 visit her cousins next summer, and that she would be happy to come to Westport to see me. 14:13:42 I should like to have her to come here and to make me a good visit. 14:13:46 But he had told Anne, of course, new Befriend and Tucket as any reader of Bobby Dick would well know. 14:13:51 We're deeply connected in the world of coastal Massachusetts, so it's not a surprise at all to learn that Lucretia would have made visits back and forth from Nantucket to the Mainland, 14:14:00 However, this next part was a huge surprise to me when you offered us this quote last month. 14:14:08 Lucretia Barnard said she left Hartford and went to Nantucket, and she had been at the Athenaeo and seen Mariah as she wanted Lb. 14:14:16 To go and visit her. Mariah talked with her by fingers, and she was surprised to see how well Mariah could spell. 14:14:24 Mariah told her that I have taught her how to spell the letters. 14:14:30 Now. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read thistle better at home. 14:14:35 So then, and tuck it at the name is the Public Library still on Dentuck. 14:14:39 It today. The Athenaeum was originally founded in 1,827 as part of another organization, and then it was renamed as the Nentucket Athenaeum, in 1,830 14:14:50 4, so it would have been pretty much in its emphasis when Lydia Lucretia would later visit it. 14:14:57 The Athenaeum's first librarian of course here in this letter, in 1,837 was an 18 year old. 14:15:06 Mariah Mitchell, when the Kretisha visited here with Mariah Riot, was still a decade away from the discovery. 14:15:14 Of course, that would make her world famous her being of course, the first American to discover a comet, and more than 2 decades away from becoming a professor of astronomy at Vassar College. 14:15:25 Here we find out that Lydia Mackover apparently taught Moriah Mitchell how to finger spell. 14:15:33 It is rare to catch a glimpse in historical record like this, of how hearing people were brought into this circle. 14:15:40 Social circle of the deaf world, and that even learns some sign communication in the process. 14:15:48 Clearly. Lucretia was so stunned to win. 14:15:51 Mariah greeted her finger, spelling that that propelled her to bend, to reach out to Lydia in turn. 14:15:58 So then the question for me became okay. But then, how on earth have Lydia Matt Mariah? it's obvious how Christian was going to do that. 14:16:06 They both lived on, and so it but I couldn't figure out Lydia's end of things until this. 14:16:13 So the answer, it turns out, is buried in the course of the correspondence. 14:16:16 I realize, going back to it that the friend and to whom Lydia was writing this letter. 14:16:21 In the first place, was actually Sister and Mitchell it, turns out that when Lydia would go to Nantucket with her father to attend annual Quaker Meetings, as the Macomber's but the Macombers were actually 14:16:36 Quakers, they would stay at the house of William Mitchell, William Mitchell being, of course, the Mitchell girls father, and we see this in an 1838 letter that Lydia writes to another friend a friend named 14:16:51 Rebecca. She describes Rebecca how they she have recently taken a trip to Nantuckets, saying: Quote my brother Leonard in myself, went on board a sloop for Nantucket to attend the quarterly meeting We put up 14:17:02 with William Mitchell's for 4 days and had a very agreeable visit. 14:17:07 We went with the Mitchell girls to the lucretia Barnard's mothers to call on her, but I was sorry that Lucretia was not at home. 14:17:15 It, it turns out it becomes clear later in the letter that Lucretia was still at school in Hartford. 14:17:19 So then we went to the athenaeum which is opposite to Lucretia's house to see it, and I was filled with great wonder. 14:17:28 We went to the African school to see the African scholars, who were smart and were reading well. and then Tucket abolished slavery in 1,773 just 10 years before the State of 14:17:40 Massachusetts actually did so. the black population, Nantucket grew alongside Nantuckets whaling economy. 14:17:47 So by 1,840, there were 570. 14:17:51 One free persons of colors reported living on Nantucket builds around 1,825. 14:17:56 The African Meeting House served as the community, church, social center, and school. 14:18:03 And this is apparently where Lydia had been when she talks about going to the African School school had emerged at the African Meeting House because, although more free people of color were living on Netsucket and Nantucket schools were still racially 14:18:20 segregated. they would not integrate in fact, until 1847. 14:18:26 Lydia's Quaker isome would have influenced her, of course, toward anti-slavery. 14:18:30 She mentions in the letters frequently attending public lectures, where Quaker ministers would speak out against slavery. but it turns out her deaf education may have influenced her in this direction. as well I said 14:18:45 Lydia attended the American school for the death from 1,832 to 1,836. 14:18:49 It turns out that the American School for the Deaf was racially integrated from its foundation over the entire course of the nineteenth century. 14:18:58 In the years where Lydia attended the school. 14:19:01 2 black deaf students were also in Attendance at the school of the same time a young man named Reuben Jones, from Portland, Maine, and another young man named Horace Way from Stockbridge, Massachusetts. They said This was all of It It's, 14:19:18 incredibly exciting the fact that Lydia is brought into the Nazaka community on the basis of her Quiver Family's Quakerism. 14:19:28 The fact that her friendship with Mariah mitchell's family, because they were all Quakers, had grown up on the basis of their Quakerism. 14:19:35 But then Mariah, being inspired, meeting this young deaf woman, wanting to be able to communicate with her directly, sat with Lydia, and had Lydia teacher how to finger spell so that they could communicate with 14:19:47 one another, then that in turn brings mariah into a friendship with the Barnard family, who, even though they have been across the street from the at the name. This entire time we Mariah Hadn't learned to Finger 14:19:59 spell. From the Nantucket residence she had learned to Fingerspell from Media Mackenberg. The Quaker connection for Lydia also enabled letters to get back and forth to her Lydia will 14:20:12 mention in an 1,838 letter to Lucretia Quote: I have received 3 letters from the initial girls, not 6 days after I had a letter from B from the hands of their friends, who left Nitucket for New 14:20:25 Bedford, and attended the quarterly meeting Lydia went on to remark in that same letter that Mariah Hadn't mentioned to her that quote: She talks fingers with me a great. 14:20:38 Deal. So this was not. This is a casual relationship, I guess, is my point. 14:20:43 Everything in the letters seems to point to sort of an ongoing, deepening friendship between these 3 young women, who all would have been roughly the same age. 14:20:52 I will add that I shared all this with the Mariah Mitchell Association on Nantucket, because I was astonished, but also seeking to ask them if they had any correspondent any of their archives from the same 14:21:06 time period, and it turns out they they don't Mariah's letters, particularly from the first half of her life. 14:21:13 Nothing survived the great fire on Nantucket, and so they were as surprised as I was to find out that she had deaf friends and knew how to finger yourself. 14:21:22 So it turns out we can make remarkable historical discoveries. 14:21:27 From small archives, even for people who are incredibly famous and find information. 14:21:34 You just never knew before. So this this, as I said, was tremendously exciting group for me. 14:21:42 So this makes it sound as if I can just find stuff out. 14:21:46 Read letters, identify who all the people are, and we know everything. 14:21:53 I wish that that were true. probably that were true now i'm gonna out the fact that that's that's not possible. 14:22:00 There are limits to what these letters can do is tantalizing as they are. 14:22:06 So i'm going to give you a sense for what we can learn from meeting other people's mail. 14:22:10 But now I will give you a sense for what if we just, but we just can't. So in September the eighteenth, 38. 14:22:16 Lydia was writing again to her friend Rebecca to say that she and Lucretia had finally shared a nice visit with one another. 14:22:24 But Lucretia Barnard came here last eleventh of the eighth month, and spent 6 nights, which were very pleasant to me, and I was much delighted to talk with her. 14:22:35 Everything that has happened. I wanted her to go out to pick wardleberries, and she had 4 courts of them and carried them to Julia Maker. 14:22:42 Julia Maker was the wife of Amos Maker that I mentioned at the the top of the talk, and they both lived in New bever. 14:22:51 So she continues: The Christian went over to Newborn with my father to visit her cousins. 14:22:57 I was very sorry that I was not able to go with her to the makers, because the market wagon was loaded. 14:23:03 I told her I expected to go to amos's next week, but I have been lonesome since she went away, so finally Lydia does go to New Beard, and she does stop to see the makers where she reports 14:23:17 this quote I saw an ignorant, deaf, and dumb man. 14:23:22 Name was Isaac Wood, at Amos's, lives in Fairhaven, one mile from New Bedford, and he is making vessels in New Bedford is a faithful and good man. 14:23:32 For many years. He knows the ways of salvation, but he does not know the Bible, and he is 62 years old. 14:23:37 She married a woman without deaf and dumb, unquote. 14:23:43 So many things about this were fascinating for me, one that last construction he married a woman without deaf and dumb. 14:23:52 It's fascinating presumably Lydia meant to indicate that Isaac would had married a hearing woman. 14:23:59 But it's interesting to see that her construction doesn't Say that right? Instead, it's saying that he married a woman who is without deaf and dumb the other thing that's interesting about that is that mostly English speakers 14:24:13 put hearing this at the center, and then we describe people by how much they diverge from the center. 14:24:20 Right. so we're hearing you might be slightly hard appearing Then someone is very hard appearing, and then someone is deaf. right? 14:24:27 So it's out work from our center but here this construction indicates that in Lydia's social world right deficits at the center. So people are described in relation to that center which I think is how she gets to 14:24:39 this construction. it's a married woman without deaf and dumb. 14:24:43 We don't normally see that in English but in fact, that is the twentieth century American sign language usage which marks stepness at the center. 14:24:52 And so people who are very hard of hearing turn out to be hearing in an asl translation but I've never seen it before. 14:25:01 This in a nineteenth century English version, so this was surprising, and it was an indication of lydia's worldview to me. 14:25:09 Then this man, Isaac Wood, faithful, a good man, ignorant, deaf, and zone man right by ignorant what she means here. 14:25:19 This is a common usage in the nineteenth century is that he's not educated. 14:25:24 He was a man who had not attended a school for the deaf, so that found me wondering about who he was, and if her information was accurate, so I did some quick searching in the census and discovered that if he was 14:25:37 in fact, 62 years old. when Lydia met him. that would have made the year of his birth 1,776, and it turns out, indeed, in the 1,850 senses I found him there he 14:25:47 is 74 years old, deaf Isaac Wood, living with a 69 year old, hearing wife in Fair Haven, he was a shipwreck, as Lydia had mentioned. 14:26:00 He was making vessels in New Bedford, and he owned his own real estate in New Beard, and it was worth at the time $1,400. 14:26:09 Again. I have no idea who this man is found. His existence through this correspondence through is mentioned of him. 14:26:18 But again it opens a window into here isn't very ordinary deaf man, a man born so early 1,776 that he had grown to adulthood before a school for the death even opened but he had found 14:26:30 a way to make a living in the world. right? He was a shipbuilder. 14:26:35 How had he learned that? Don't know how had he come to marry a hearing woman? 14:26:40 Don't know. How did the 2 of them communicate I have no idea the physical limits of what this research can do right. 14:26:48 It takes us in, and we can get so far but then we we can't get as far, maybe, as we would hope. Also the 2 of them had 5 children, all hearing as far as I can tell. 14:26:59 How do they communicate with them I don't know but There's more, at least I was able to find him who he was, who his wife was nailed down that information and verify what Liddy had said This next bit that 14:27:14 she mentions I can't I can't even do that the real gossip that was passed along to her friend Rebecca in this letter is simply beyond ability to decipher. 14:27:27 So it happened that another young, deaf woman, a woman with whom Lydia had gone to school woman named Mary Hillman, had also been at the makers. 14:27:37 And so it was quite a little reunion for them. 14:27:39 So Lydia was able to visit with several deaf people together. 14:27:43 Very Hillman was also from New Beford. so we get introduced to more deaf people in the local community. 14:27:52 Little Lydia writes this to her friend Rebecca. 14:27:54 Here in 1,838 Mary hillman talked with me about Hannah Marsh's foolish conduct. 14:28:03 We don't like her, for she is not a good girl. 14:28:07 She has got a baby husband and her are very poor, and have very little prosperity. 14:28:14 Apparently news of Hannah marsh's foolish conduct had spread quickly through her social circle. 14:28:21 There are no more details, and this letter she writes often to her friend Rebecca. 14:28:25 There are no more details about what this means, and those letters too frustratingly, but it's very clear that Lydia assumed that Rebecca already knows what this is about, and she is just passing along her 14:28:40 judgment as well as now. Mary hillman's judgment and that Rebecca will fill in all the blanks which I am not able to do myself. 14:28:53 So many years later? What had Hannah Marsh done to earn their scorn? 14:28:56 What had she done to earn their judgment? that she was? Quote Not a good girl. 14:29:02 I have to tell you i've given up I don't I don't think we will ever know So they said, tantalizing to be brought in so deeply into this community, and then a little frustrating to 14:29:18 be with the door slammed in your face just when the story was getting kind of good in other stories. 14:29:25 I can track them down to the end. So it turns out I got curious about the makers, because Lydia mentions the makers several times, going to New Bedford and seeing them, and visiting without them. 14:29:40 She was quite close to the 2 of them both, Amos, who, her letters make clear. 14:29:47 It looks like she had been friends with Amos at school, and then Amos had married this young deaf woman named Julia. 14:29:53 Well after she'd been visiting with them a new Bedford had even stopped to see their son, when he was, you know, still quite young. 14:30:01 Tragedy strikes this couple in 1,844, and we Amos maker was like the uneducated Isaac Wood, a carpenter, and he suffered a catastrophic accident 14:30:13 at O Job, Site fell from a building and died. Julia was left with 2 boys, William, who Lydia had mentioned meeting when he was but a few months old, but she and Amos had just had another son together named Amos and the 14:30:33 junior. Amos was only 5 months old at the time. 14:30:36 This undid Julia's entire life by 1,850. 14:30:40 Julia was living in the poorhouse in New Bedford, and without her sons. 14:30:45 But this is where the power of the deaf community that these young women were all part of shows itself. 14:30:52 I would argue most strongly a friend of Lydia's Mary Hillman, the one that she was gossiping about, and a marsh with. 14:31:01 She was also from New Bedford. She had married a deaf man from New Bedford, a man named Charles Burgess. 14:31:10 Charles will die of consumption tragically around 1,850. 14:31:17 But Mary Remarry, she marries a deaf man named Jacob Tinkham, out in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 14:31:25 A Jacob himself had a rather tragic backstory. 14:31:28 It turns out that his father had abandoned the family when Jacob was a boy. 14:31:35 So Jacob knew what it was like to lose A father, which makes this next part of the story makes some sense to me. By 1,850. 14:31:45 I find William Maker, julia's oldest boy, was living in the household of the extended Tinkham family. 14:31:55 He was living in a relative of jacob's man named Harvey Tinkham. 14:31:59 It's not proof, and I get it I don't have letters for Mary Hillman. 14:32:06 I don't have letters from Jacob but the fact pattern seems to fit that the New Bedford dev community now extended, as Mary had married a man at Plymouth. but still the New Bedford Deaf community. 14:32:20 Was doing what it could, what it was able to do to rally around Julia and help her through this time, and to try to look out for her children. 14:32:32 And they did It does not seem to me to be a coincidence that William Maker ends up in a Tinkham household that that it begs the imagination to think that that was something coincidence and 14:32:47 they kept at it by 1,855. 14:32:50 William was back, living in New Bedford. He had been taken in by another family, and by 1,860, and the Federal census. 14:33:00 We find Julia and William are living together again, reunited. 14:33:05 So 10 years of struggle. But they got there, and they got there. 14:33:11 I would argue with the help of their deaf community. 14:33:17 This to me is the power, particularly of this letter collection. 14:33:21 It is so rich in detail with names and stories and Okay, can't understand all the stories, but we can understand enough of them to get a very deep sense of how to hide these young people. 14:33:39 Word to one another how important those connections proved to be, and how, in some cases, literally, how life-sustaining they could be up for these people as well. 14:33:46 It's just a remarkable remarkable collection I can't. Thank Westport historical studies seriously enough first for preserving it for saving it and then for honestly for blogging about it for making it public 14:34:01 It's only because of that that I would have even known to have seen these letters right, that the fact that they were thrown out into the public and came back to me eventually in a Google search that was how I found them about a year 14:34:16 ago is what has made the difference but seeing that collection and reading through those letters it just shows the power really of smaller engaged historical societies and preserving our stories. even when at the time maybe when you're saving 14:34:33 them. it's even unclear what the larger story is sometimes it takes time for a field to catch up in this case for deaf history to catch up. 14:34:43 But the what? what a blessing! and what a pleasure! and So I thank views sincerely for that I'm continuing by work with these letters, and unpacking them and finding more! 14:34:56 Stories, and I. My sense is that work is going to continue much like I did last summer through this summer as well as I thank you for attendance. 14:35:06 I thank you for being here, and I look forward to answering any questions. 14:35:14 Wow, Rebecca, Thank you so much. I am so glad that you you found these letters because you're right. 14:35:22 We had no idea really of the significance. So yeah, I have a couple of questions for you. 14:35:31 So Lydia married George Webster. Yeah. Was he deaf? 14:35:38 Do we do, we know we do know. Yes, doroth Webster was deaf. It's a second for him. 14:35:46 So, Lydia, this is a rather a question I have as well. 14:35:50 It's not in her letters, because the collection ends with that by by, certainly by 1,840. 14:35:57 That's the last of the matters it turns out It seems that Lydia went and worked at the American School for the Deaf. 14:36:06 She's recorded there in the census in 1,850, and she records that she's a housekeeper like a domestic. 14:36:14 There. I no idea that she she worked there the school's employment records. 14:36:19 You will not be surprised here to not go all the way back 3,050, so they have no record of her time there. 14:36:26 But it seems that she lived in Harvard for a time. 14:36:28 Again as an adult and as an employee not just as students so i'm trying to pull that down. 14:36:36 Meanwhile George Webster had already married. He had married a deaf woman, who was also uneducated. 14:36:43 So I am fascinated by how the educated, deaf community intersects with these on educated, deaf people, and they make lives together. 14:36:55 George has been married to this Caroline, she Dies and then, about 5 years after that he and Lydia Mary, and then they are both living in Westport, and they both they're until until both of their Deaths right 14:37:13 right. no, in 1892. A comment from Bertie. 14:37:19 I also had the same thought. We know the historian in New Bedford called Bob Maker. 14:37:25 Aye, so we will follow up with him. Oh, good! 14:37:30 If he is connected. let's see wow all right that's Yeah, yeah. I mean all of these places are very familiar to us. 14:37:39 I mean, Rebecca, I live Fair Haven and I commute through New Bedford. 14:37:49 We know that yeah here's a question was There any connection between Lydia and the New Bedford death community, and Martha's vineyard specifically using Mdsl that's the master's 14:38:01 vineyard sign language. Yes. yeah. What? What do you know about that? Yeah. Good. 14:38:07 Good question. So the there seems to be a great deal of connection between the New Bedford deaf community at this time in the 1,800 thirtys, when Lydia's writing, and Nantucket has a lot of back 14:38:21 and forth as a letter of evidence of back and forth she mentions every time I turn around in these letters she's mentioning our deaf person. 14:38:29 And then, when I dig into that name it turns out they're a deaf person from new bedroom, so seems like there was a large deaf community there. 14:38:38 I'm really curious to learn more about them and that community extended beyond what Lydia writes about. 14:38:44 That's sort of on my list of things to do because I think there's a bigger story to be told there about kind of the Massachusetts coastal deaf community. 14:38:55 And I think eventually it intersects with the vineyard. 14:39:01 Jeff community. So people who don't know martha's Vineyard was home to a very large deaf population in the nineteenth century, and a lot of those lot I mean about 20 deaf students from the 14:39:14 vineyard came to the American school for the deaf to be educated, and when they did that they brought with them Martha's vineyard sign language so martha's Vineyard sign language was a distinct language of its 14:39:25 own. Eventually linguists think bits and pieces of martha's vineyard sign language here combined with other signs that students brought with them to the American school to form what now we call American sign language. 14:39:40 So Martha's vineyard sign language itself as a distinct simon, which is now extinct. 14:39:46 That's the distinct language, but the suspicion is that probably every day we're signing pieces of Martha's vineyard sign language and we just don't know that we're doing that we 14:40:00 linguist suspect that because it's all it is true, for instance, of other signs in American sign language, so the other big source of influence was French sign language, because the deaf instructor from France named Laurence claire came here to 14:40:12 help co-found the American school for the deaf and some of the signs that he brought are still used daily in current America's Island We should know that in a weird way, because of of things that don't make sense so this is 14:40:27 the sign, for in America sign language first search so if i'm searching for something and searching When you ask people. 14:40:38 Ordinarily they think this this gesture is about your eyes right, and your face, and you're moving it around. 14:40:44 So you search, you know it turns out this was assigned for Moreon. 14:40:47 Claire and the French, for the word search in French. 14:40:51 Is your ship, and this is a sea this is not about gestures and eyes and movement. 14:40:59 It's actually it's French it's just that because the searches, and with a C. 14:41:03 In English. we miss it. You know we don't get the connection but links finally pull that together. 14:41:08 So the suspicion is that there is a lot of that going on sort of under the hood. but probably pieces of Martha's vineyard sign language are there. 14:41:17 We don't know. But now, because the language is extinct we also don't have anyone. we can ask right, whereas we have French sign language users that we can they can go. 14:41:26 Oh, yeah, we know that one. Yeah, Yeah, yeah I think There's a lot of contact between all of these communities. 14:41:34 Yes, the time, Lydia hence edits strongly through her letters, and I just think there's probably a lot there. 14:41:42 We we just don't know i'm deeply curious about trying to find the intersection. 14:41:48 You bet for it the vinener. Yeah, yes. 14:41:52 And she traveled quite a bit. yes, okay. Luli is parents. 14:41:58 Lydia's parents John mccomer and i'm blinking on the name. 14:42:05 Yeah, we do have that information. Yes, yeah. we have this that's the branch of the Macovers. 14:42:13 The day that she comes from, and her her deaf sister Olive. 14:42:18 And then they had a sister named Mary, if that helps people to please. 14:42:24 Yes, Now the comment from Betty. She wonders if the Quaker records of our area talk about the death communities. 14:42:32 There are some thing about the Quaker community that may have some help sustain deaf people. 14:42:40 That is a great question. In fact, I hadn't thought of that I don't have to go start searching like Quaker records immediately. 14:42:47 Now my suspicion is that so? The American school for the deaf itself is founded by Lauren Claire from France. 14:42:57 But his co-founder was a hearing man from Connecticut. 14:43:01 They have. Thomas Gallaudet and Galilee was a Congregationalist, and so a lot of the early people who he pulled in as teachers to work in the school were similarly placed. 14:43:13 So that was the religion they tended to be offered to deaf students when they were at school. 14:43:19 So Ling is quite a Quakerism clearly comes from her family, and not from the exposure at the school for the Deaf. 14:43:27 But my suspicion is that it's on me reading her letters, and how frequently she mentions going to Quaker meetings, how deaf-friendly Quakerism and phrases seem so it was like 14:43:40 Why, hit. me, I thought, oh, my gosh the course like she's a Quaker, and deeply rooted because the whole tradition of you're sitting in in silence with the word to seek you know the lights I would have 14:43:57 Yes, That's like the most friendly religious experience ever Yes, I guess my answer to your question is that makes sense like, Is there a Quaker connection? 14:44:05 I'm gonna say it makes sense that there would be one Quakers to deaf people. 14:44:13 But is me guessing right now. Okay, we have it there's a very long comment. 14:44:16 Here. i'm not sure if you can see it Rebecca she says she's astounded by the good fortune of Lydia to have such a bored thinking father who so long ago wanted his deaf daughter to 14:44:27 have best education That's That's true Isn't it as a long retired teacher of the deaf who started out at the Nc. 14:44:36 School. Oh, North Carolina, North Carolina, I encountered more denial among parents and acceptance. 14:44:42 Interesting. Yeah, Yeah, I mean you're right It really goes down to her father, who took her off to school. 14:44:53 Yeah, first her and then Olive because he did the same journey. to make sure i'll have gotten education as well. And your observation brings true Lindsey rings true to me I work here at the 14:45:08 Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. 14:45:12 Rit is home to Ncid, which is the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. 14:45:18 So we have so know roughly, 2,000 deaf students who attend campus share the campus with us, and I have many deaf students in my classes. 14:45:29 A lot of those current now deaf students talk about having hearing parents who still don't accept that their death are still really sad. 14:45:39 The fact that they're deaf and i'm thinking good God you're 20 years old. 14:45:41 Your parents have had like 2 decades to deal with the fact that you're deafness, and those parents don't know any sign. 14:45:49 We have a We see them come together sometimes, in new parents kind of shrug. and the kid kind of shrinks, and it's It's astonishing to me. 14:45:58 So I my experience. is the same as yours but it's a lot of denial among parents, and not acceptance and it's St. in the present. 14:46:07 But it's wonderful to see this in the past John Macabom was like, No, there's a school, and we are going to do this thing. 14:46:15 It turns out also that they're hearing sister lydia and Olive's hearing. Sister Mary she learned how to sign, because there's there's records of that in your holdings that she with her death sisters that is 14:46:31 a also like incredibly rare, to see hearing siblings being as fluent in the language. 14:46:41 It does speak very highly to all of them to bend immediately. 14:46:45 So accepting and doing what they had to do to all the fit together. right? 14:46:50 And so it makes me curious about John and his wife if they signed to I just It's hard for me to believe that, like the hearing siblings would have done that. 14:47:00 But like the parents wouldn't that doesn't make sense to me thinking about family dynamics that's me trying to read the tea leaves. 14:47:09 I'm asking for that yeah so just maybe one last question from me. 14:47:15 So you mentioned that they taught boys a trade? Yes, at the school. 14:47:21 But what about women? Because one thing that fascinates me in Lydia's letters is her mention of the silkworm industry? 14:47:30 And again, this is very local. to take place in Westport. 14:47:38 We we note the the mulberry trees in our area are connected to the silkworm industry, and it just to me seemed like such a well, such an obscure yet interesting at activity. 14:47:53 For her to pursue. Yes, What do you think about that? 14:47:56 Well, girls would have been taught either book binding, because this again, this is an arrow. 14:48:04 When books are bound, you know, by hands and popular and sold. 14:48:09 And so that was a one line of potential income the the worry of educators at the school was the deaf girls. 14:48:19 Of course, wouldn't marry right because they're not going to be seen as as good marital choices right, which was true. 14:48:28 If you're imagining maybe hearing young men are they gonna court a deaf woman. 14:48:35 But it seems not to have occurred to them. But all these deaf women were likely gonna marry because they were gonna marry these deaf men right after they graduated from school. Okay, to learn a trade. 14:48:47 But in fact, most of them did end up as wives and as mothers. 14:48:51 But regardless of his book, binding and tailoring, and particularly fine needle work, is what the girls would have been exposed to. 14:49:00 And so that makes me curious about Lydia and the silk. 14:49:04 Yes, right? Yeah, that it makes me curious I don't have anything that I've seen in the records about Lydia doing New York. 14:49:15 But there are records of olive who apparently have tendency to either knits or crochet or needlepoint layouts. 14:49:24 When local women in West Park would have babies to pull something together and then do it by hand herself. 14:49:33 So she seems to have been taught those skills as well. Yeah. 14:49:41 Well, you know, I think we might be able to help sort of pull. Yeah. 14:49:47 Summer some of the connections. that you're you're making we can probably find other more local connections that Yeah, you wouldn't necessarily note because I know we've got we've got Betty slade listening 14:50:02 we've got Richard Gifford both of whom are wonderful local historians, genealogy experts. 14:50:09 So I'm gonna ask them to think more about this and see how we might be able to help you pull this all together and be incredibly helpful. 14:50:22 I really appreciate seeing, seeing the world their world through the letters is helpful. 14:50:28 It's for me it's a true and I can track down the names as I've done a bit here talking with you, but I don't know the area and I don't know the geography and so I can you know look at 14:50:38 a math, and you know Google, and think about it but I don't really know the place. 14:50:45 And so that would be incredibly, incredibly helpful. Yes, I think we know that Lydia is buried in the Quaker Meeting House cemetery here in Westport. 14:50:57 And there are probably records associated with Yeah, the local Quaker communities. 14:51:02 So. we we will hopefully what i'm suggesting is stay in touch with us. 14:51:09 We know these projects take time, and we ever come across pieces of information that we think will be helpful. 14:51:15 We will share them with you thank i'd be so grateful Thank you. 14:51:22 So. yeah, that was wonderful to see how excited enthusiastic you are.

    Quakers

    Record Type: Archive

    
12. 2019.024.069 - Photos of Westport, 1962. Quaker Meeting House.

    Central Village Quakers Quaker Church

    Record Type: Photo

    
13. 2022.029.001 - Notes and remarks for 1833 by Clarkson Macomber: includes description of silkworms, mulberry tree orchard. https://wpthistory.org/clarkson-macomber/

    Silkworms Quakers Schools

    Record Type: Archive