While doing research for her genealogies of Whately families, Dereka Smith noticed that the town’s Annual Reports each included a list of “paupers.” Her curiosity sparked, Dereka did some research on the individuals and families who received assistance from the town between 1771 and 1915.
Names of People Discussed in this Paper:
James Ahearn, Ernest Allis, Vetel Asher, Hannah Bardwell, William Bardwell, Dickinson Belden, Rudolphus Belden, William Belden, Clara Billings, Hoyt Chapin, Mary Connery, Alonzo Crafts, Liberty Fairfield, Elihu Harvey, Minnie Hills, Electa S. Hunt, Charles Jewett, Albert W, Judd, Calvin Knight, Benjamin Loveridge, Patrick Mahan, Mrs. Lewis Morton, Margaret Payne, George Potter, Matilda Potter, Bridget Powers, James Powers, Elisha Rhood, Ann Ryan, Catherine Slattery, Almeron Smith, Harwood Smith, Edward E. Smith, Obed Smith Catherine Tuomey, Clara Tuomey, Rose Wagner, Nancy D. Waite, Almira Judd Waite, Pamelia Wells.
Whately Town Reports were first published in 1885 and in each there was a report from the Select Board, the full name of which was Board of Selectmen and Overseers of the Poor. Until 1910, when prohibited by the Commonwealth, the names of the poor were detailed as part of the report. The introduction each year sometimes discussed the poor specifically and sometimes not. Quoted below are excerpts from the reports in years specifically addressing the “paupers.” As in other towns the Whately Select Board attempted to balance charity with frugality but accepted responsibility for town residents who were unable to support themselves. Tramps were considered a separate category and are not discussed in this paper.
The Pauper expenses are in excess of last year. We now have eight permanent ones. Annual Report 1885-86.
The pauper expenses still continue large; we now have eight permanent ones. Annual Report 1886-87.
The number of poor remains the same as last year. Annual Report, 1891-92.
The passing year has been to the town one of unprecedented financial depression, yet little destitution or actual suffering has come to our households. Those dependent upon the charities of the town have been assisted according to their several needs. While our expenses in the pauper department have overrun the appropriation, our excuse is that sickness has overtaken some of our paupers, but we have endeavored to look carefully into all such cases and render only such assistance as necessity seemed to demand. Annual report 1894.
A fair degree of prosperity has come to the inhabitants of Whately this past year, yet misfortune and destitution has overtaken some, and they have been assisted according to their needs. We have endeavored to look carefully into all cases and render only such assistance as necessity demanded. Annual Report, 1898.
The pauper bill still continues to grow larger owing to the increasing demands for aid, two new applications for help having come this year. Annual Report, 1903-04.
Some of our pauper laws are so awkward and difficult that the ordinary selectman is unable to decide what legislative intention was when the laws were drawn. Town of Whately Annual Report 1905-06.
Our expenses in the pauper department for the past year have been much less than usual. Suffering and destitution have come to some. We have endeavored to look carefully into all cases and render such assistance as necessity demanded. Annual Report 1907-08.
JAMES AHEARN
James was born in Ireland on 5 December 1827. He arrived in New York in 1846 and is possibly the man who married Honora Moore in Chicopee in 1862. Extensive searching failed to find him in any census record. Whately supported him in 1885, 1886 and 1887 and he died in Whately, of pneumonia on 25 July 1887. The death record called him a widower with parents unknown.
ERNEST ALLIS
The son of Austin and Elvia (Warner) Allis, he was born 30 June 1832 and died 16 March 1897, the cause being recorded as meningitis and “la grippe.” He was a soldier in Company F, Massachusetts 37th Infantry and was invalided out for disability. In 1869 he married (1) Florence Cutter of Hatfield. They were together in Hatfield in 1870. Strangely the census record reveals that he was denied the right to vote that year on grounds other than rebellion or other crime. Something was going on with him and we know not what. 1875 town records show that Ernest was committed to the “insane hospital at Northampton” for three months. Ernest and Florence divorced, and Florence married Wells Dickinson of Whately. In 1880 Ernest was living in Whately with James and Mabel Smith but enumerated as a separate household of one. He was recorded as a carpenter. In 1890, aged 47, Ernest married (2) Lucinda, daughter of Henry Sheldon of Greenfield. Lucinda died just two years later of “tumor on brain.” She is buried in Whately. Clearly preferring the married state, Ernest married (3) Emmeline Thompson of Palmer, New York.
VETEL ASHER
Vetel was born in Canada about 1837. He is not known to have lived in Whately but there was an Asher family in town in the 1880’s and 1890’s. They were Vetel’s brother Joseph and Joseph’s wife Amelia or Delphine. Their daughter Josephine died of Bright’s Disease in Whately in 1893. They were still in Whately when Joseph was jailed for assaulting his wife. Vetel was enumerated in Orwell, Vermont in 1870 and in 1880 he was in the Vermont State Prison in Rutland. In 1881 he was admitted to the Almshouse in Glens Falls, New York. The record noted that he was a vagrant, intemperate and he could not read or write. In 1892 Whately paid to have Vetel taken to the state almshouse in Tewksbury. He died there that same year of a fistula and debility. He was 55 years old.
HANNAH BARDWELL
The daughter of Justin and Esther (Scott) Bardwell, she was born in 1816. Sarah, her twin, died in less than one month but Hannah lived until 1893 when she was 68. Her brother Edwin was a prominent man in Whately but died in 1884. Her older sister Sophia married Harvey Moore of West Whately and died in 1885. In that same year, left with no family to help her, Hannah began to receive support from the Town of Whately. In 1892 she was boarded by George Moore, her nephew. She died of pneumonia on 2 March 1893 and the burial expenses were paid by Whately.
WILLIAM BARDWELL
The son of Daniel and Ruth (Branch) Bardwell William was born at Tunbridge Vermont 11 Sept. 1803 and died of old age in Whately 5 Sept. 1883. He married (1) Hannah, daughter of Paul Davis of New Hampshire. She died in Whately in 1870.
On 9 August 1871 in Leverett, William married (2) Phebe (Wood) Fitts, a woman 15 years his senior. Although Phebe outlived William by three years, it appears that they were not a successful match. By 1880 she was living back in Leverett with her son Horace Wood and she was buried with her first husband in Leverett. William stayed in Whately. In 1880 he was boarding with Joseph and Mary (Crafts) Dunn. As an aside it is noted that two years later Joseph Dunn was accused of fatally poisoning his wife. William Bardwell was supported by the town until he died in 1883. Of his eight children only the first three survived to adulthood. His second son was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. The other two left Whately and were unwilling or unable to care for their father.
DICKINSON BELDEN FAMILY
Elisha Belden, born in1736 and died in 1808, was a deacon of the Whately church and a man of some consequence in Whately. He married Ruth Dickinson and had seven children of whom Dickinson Belden, born in 1778, was the youngest. In 1832 Dickinson and his older brother Elisha jointly inherited the farm in Whately belonging to his uncle Jabez and Martha (Dickinson) Belden. In 1834 he purchased land from his father but by 1840 the land was lost and by the time of the 1850 census, Dickinson, his wife Marcena and two grown children were living with Elisha Graves in Hatfield. In 1855 the family was back in Whately and both Dickinson and Marcena were recorded as paupers. Dickinson Belden died in that year and Marsena Belden died after 1860 when she was living with Dorus and daughter Ruth in Whately. Of the other children Dennis was a soldier killed in the Florida Seminole War [ca. 1840], Asa was a ferryman and drowned in 1847, Willard moved to Belchertown and died in 1898, Heman moved to Pelham and died in 1904, Sophia died in 1847 and Ruth died in 1868. Beginning in 1875 and each year until his death, Dorus, who never married, was named in the town poor list. In 1880 he was being supported by the Town and living with George Smith. He died in 1886.
RUDOLPHUS BELDEN FAMILY
The son of Allen and Aurelia (Crafts) Belden, Rudolphus was born 21 June 1833. He registered for the Civil War draft in Hatfield but there is no evidence that he served. Almost certainly because he had consumption the family was listed among the town poor for many years. In 1861 Rudolphus married his cousin, Harriet Tryphena, daughter of Martin Crafts. In 1865 the family was in North Adams where Rudolphus was enumerated as a laborer. In 1870 they were in Northfield and again he was listed as a laborer. In May of 1876, and just two weeks apart, Rudolphus and his daughter Alice died, both of consumption. Sons Grant and Ernest were enumerated in 1880, Grant with George Smith and Ernest with Wells Smith, both in Whately. Hattie, enumerated as Emoretta, was enumerated in Hancock Shaker Village. The Shakers, who believed in chastity, depended partly on converts and partly on orphans to maintain their population and both Mary Elizabeth and Hattie Belden went to Hancock. Although no record was found, it is believed that they were apprenticed to Hancock with the support of Smith Charities.
One speculates why Harriet Crafts Belden, daughter of an established Whately family, lacked a good support system once widowed but apparently she did not. The family broke apart, both living daughters being adopted into Hancock Shaker Village and both sons residing separately in Whately.
WILLIAM BELDEN FAMILY
William Belden he was born in Whately 20 June 1804 and died of pneumonia, 18 Dec. 1883. He was the son of Elisha and Abigal (Kellogg) Belden. William inherited only $1.00 from his father, the homestead and other property going to William’s older brother Allen. At a young age William went to Troy, New York where pottery very similar to Whately pottery was being made.
While there he married Salome Cummings and had the first of eight children. They returned to Whately by 1834 when their second child was born but owned no property until 1852 in which year William purchased an acre of land from Thomas Crafts. The price for one acre and a house was $300.00 and the deed specifically stated that the sale was designed to protect William from creditors under the Homestead Act of 1851. Thomas Crafts was the father-in-law of Allen Belden, and the house and land may have represented the family’s desire to support the young couple. There is no further record of land acquired by William. In 1876 William’s son Charles sold the same house and land to his mother, Salome Belden for $100.00. How he obtained title is not documented. In 1878 Salome purchased an adjacent acre at a tax sale for $8.13. Unpaid taxes owed by Elias Hill amounted to .33 cents and this appears to be another transaction designed to assist a struggling family. William died in 1883 and left no will. Salome died in 1891 and left a tiny inventory that includes 20 hens, a bed, a brass kettle and a few other items with a total value of $26.50. Her house, barn and two acres of land were valued at $225. Six of her children and daughter Laura’s husband sold her property in 1893 for $335. Assuming it was split seven ways, they got less than $50.00 each. Neither Dudley nor Edgar married, and both ended up at least partially dependent on the Town of Whately.
CLARA BILLINGS
Clara Billings was born on 21 Dec. 1848. She was the daughter of Joseph and Susan (Thompson) Billings. Although her father was called Joseph in records, his gravestone is inscribed Josiah. Clara had two younger brothers, John and William, both of whom lived into the 1930’s. Her mother died of consumption on 1 April 1867 and the death record noted that Susan had been ill for two years. In 1870 Clara was living with her father, a boot maker. She was not noted as blind in that census. In 1880 she was enumerated as a visitor in the home of Leonard Marsh and she was recorded as blind. Her father was not found in that year and was probably the man of the right age, born in Massachusetts and living in Charles City Iowa. In 1886 Clara Billings was on the Town Meeting Warrant in Whately to see what action the Town will take in regard to the claim of this Town vs, the Town of Amherst for aid extended to Clara Billings, a pauper of that town. On August 19, 1887, an item in the Springfield Republican noted that Whately selectmen had attended court in Greenfield regarding Clara Billings. [She[ lived in Whately the five years required by law for a woman to gain a legal pauper residence. Miss Billings is now in the New England hospital for women and children at Boston, too feeble to attend court….Whately sues for assistance rendered her and claims that she invalidated her claim of residence in that town by an absence of six months. Town expenses included $36.50 for Clara and in 1887 Whately received $88.50 reimbursement for Clara Billing’s support. By 1900, however, Joseph and Clara were living together in Hadley. Joseph died of “carcinoma of the rectum” on 20 April 1905. In 1910 Clara was an “inmate” at the Memorial Home for the Blind in Worcester. She died there of chronic tuberculosis on 8 Dec. 1915.
GEORGE CHANDLER
The son of John and Margaret (Aulde) Chandler, he was born in Northampton on 16 Jan 1865. In 1870 and 1880 he was in Northampton with his parents. In 1900 he was in Conway, a laborer boarding with Alonzo May. He did not marry. A notice in the Greenfield Recorder on 18 March 1905 told of his sudden death. Geo. Chandler, who came here from Conway a month ago and has since boarded at the Whately house, died suddenly Saturday evening in the home of Almeron Crafts. He was 39 years old and a native of Northampton. The death certificate attributed the cause to alcoholism and added “no evidence of violence.” Leander Crafts and Cooley B. Dickinson were reimbursed a total of $26.65 for expenses connected to his death.
HOYT CHAPIN
Hoyt Chapin was born in Bernardston about 1832 and died of heart disease in Deerfield in 1896. He married Emmeline Bennet and had no children. He lived in Bernardston until 1880 when he and his wife were living in Whately with Preston Belden, a “pauper” on the poor roll in Whately. He was of an established Bernardston family and had several land transactions in that town. He mortgaged and lost his land in 1877, however, and apparently came to Whately after that. He did not purchase land in Whately. He was supported in Whately in 1890 but only in the amount of $2.02 and did not appear on the roll again. He doubtless moved to Deerfield where he died. His probate record had the notation the said Hoyt O. Chapin was a pauper actually chargeable to said town of Deerfield, that expenses were had by said town of Deerfield for said pauper…
MARY CONNERY
Mary Ann was born in 1860, the first child of Michael and Margaret (Hayes) Connery. Her mother died in 1876 and although no death record was found, an undocumented file says that Margaret died in childbirth. Michael Connery remarried in 1879. In December 1883 Michael had been to Greenfield and had teeth extracted. Missing the train back to Whately, he began to walk home along the tracks. He was quite deaf and possibly did not hear the Montreal express that hit and killed him. It was in that year that the town paid $10.75 to support Mary Connery. This is confusing because she had married Martin Lyons of Hatfield two years earlier.
ALONZO CRAFTS
The son of Erastus and Charlotte (Scott) Crafts, Alonzo was born on 17 May 1821 and died 15 July 1887 of cancer of the face. He married Caroline Amanda, daughter of Moses Felton of Shutesbury. They had no children. In 1871 they were included on a list of residents who owned a dog. In 1880 Alonzo and Caroline were living in Whately with her father. Moses died of old age, in Whately, 6 Jan. 1882. By 1887 Alonzo was 76 years old and probably debilitated by the cancer that killed him. He was given support from the town only in that year. Caroline outlived him by many years. By 1900 she was in Worcester living in the Home for Aged Women. She died of breast cancer on 19 November 1914.
LIBERTY FAIRFIELD
The connection between Liberty Fairfield and Whately consists only of the single fact that he was on the town roll in 1885, and that only in the amount of $5.00. He was born in Savoy in 1861. He was in Savoy in 1870, in Vermont in 1880 and by 1900 was in the State Hospital in Northampton. He remained a patient there until his death of arteriosclerosis in 1942. Some entity other than the Town of Whately paid for his hospital stay. He married Myrtle Hathaway and had one daughter named Grace. Researching other members of his family revealed no Whately connections.
ELIHU HARVEY
This is not Elihu Harvey born in 1793 but his youngest son, also named Elihu. The younger Elihu was born in 1826. They lived in West Whately on land now owned by the Northampton Water District. The remains of Elihu Sr’s mill can be seen on the Williamsburg Road just above the third bridge. Young Elihu had five older siblings but only one outlived him, his unmarried brother Isaac. Elihu developed cancer of the stomach and died in 1897. He may have been ill and unable to work for several years and in 1892, 1893 and 1894 he was supported by the town. In 1897 Whately paid $18.00 for his burial expenses.
MINNIE HILLS
The daughter of George and Elizabeth (Randall) Hills, she was born on 12 Jan 1874 in Southwick. She had an illegitimate daughter in 1894, father unknown. On 29 April 1896 she married Alexander Stokes in Holyoke. In 1898 her baby, now about 4 years old, and recorded only as “Minnie Hill’s baby” was with Mrs. A(rthur) L(eon) Adkins in Whately. In 1900 Minnie was in Southwick with her husband and two children. She was enumerated as having had two children with two living. Although his death certificate named him as married, it appears that the marriage was not a success. In 1910 he was living in Southwick as a hired man, enumerated as single. He was, however, living next door to his former parents-in-law. In 1915 in Worthington, Alexander Stokes died after a fall from a wagon. The newspaper reported that he “is said to have no relatives in this section” and mentioned only a sister living in Canada. Minnie Hills Stokes was not found after 1900 nor were her children.
ELECTA SANDERSON HUNT
She was born on Christmas Day in 1816, the seventh of eight children of Elijah and Sally (Loomis) Sanderson of Whately. She did not marry until 1855 when she was 39 years old. As his second wife, she married Zebina Hunt of Sunderland. They lived there and had no children but there were two daughters from Zebina’s first marriage. Her stepdaughter Fanny died in childbirth in 1878. Her stepdaughter Sarah died of a “tumour” in 1883. Zebina died of cancer of the scalp in November of 1881. After his death Electa moved back to Whately to live with her sister Hannah Sanderson Fox, the widow of Horace Fox. The Fox home was on the west side of Chestnut Plain, north of the Whately Inn. Hannah died in July 1897 and Electa was taken in, or cared for, by the Gould family who lived on the other side of Chestnut Plain. In 1898 the Gould family was paid $133.55 for care of Electa and Dr. Seymour was paid $22.00 for medicine for her. In 1899 Lucia Gould was paid $22.00 for care and board for Electa. The smaller amount may be a clue as to her residence in Northampton, because in 1900 Whately paid $169.46 for her support at the Northampton “Insane” Hospital. The Town continued to support her in Northampton until her death in 1902. The primary cause of death was senility with erysipelas as a secondary cause. Erysipelas is a bacterial infection involving the skin.
CHARLES JEWETT FAMILY
The support of the Jewett Family involved the town of Whately for many years, beginning in 1890. Charles, the son of James and Sophronia (Wait) Jewett, was born in South Deerfield. In 1866 he married (1) Julia Rice of Buckland. She died in 1871, aged 30 years old. The following year, 1872, Charles bought 25 acres of land in Whately from her parents, Francis and Margaret Rice. Francis Rice took a mortgage on the property and in 1875, Charles Jewett defaulted and the mortgage was foreclosed. In 1880 Charles married (2) Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wellman of Deerfield. In 1900, Charles was boarding in Whately while Lizzie and their three sons were living in Orange with her mother. In 1902, the middle son, Clifford, died of nephritis in Orange. Despite this, the town of Whately paid for Clifford’s funeral expenses and burial. In that same year Lizzie Jewett was sick and sent to a hospital in Boston for a surgical operation. The expenses in this department have been larger than was expended last year, caused by the serious illness of Mrs. Chas. Jewett who had been self-supporting since 1905 until last March when she became ill and no longer able to support herself. Whately clearly accepted the burden of supporting Charles in Whately as well as his family in Orange as there are two separate entries on the poor rolls in 1894, together for the considerable amount of $385.00. No further aid was rendered until 1908 and 1909 when Elizabeth Jewett received support. The 1909 item was specific as for medical attendance. Charles Jewett died of paralysis in Whately in Oct. 1909. He is buried in Brookside Cemetery in South Deerfield. Lizzie Jewett died of a cerebral hemorrhage, in Deerfield, in Nov. of the same year. She is buried in Sunderland.
ALBERT WOLCOTT JUDD
The son of Jonathan Sheldon and Emily (Wolcott) Judd, he was born on 22 Feb. 1845 in Whately. His father was a Congregational minister, and Albert was the first of three sons. He had epilepsy and as early as the 1855 census, when he was ten years old, he was enumerated as “insane.” In 1860 the family was intact in Middlebury, Connecticut where Jonathan had been named as the minister. Emily Wolcott Judd died in Connecticut in 1861 and Jonathan Judd died in Westhampton Mass. in 1864 so Albert was an orphan before he was 20. In the 1870 census Albert was one of about 50 residents at a home in Salisbury, Connecticut. The residence was described as an institution for the instruction of “imbecile youth.” The 1870 census record for Albert noted that he was “idiotic,” a notation made for a few but not all the residents. By 1880 he was back in Massachusetts, now resident at the Northampton Lunatic Hospital. He was included on the special census for Defective, Dependent and Delinquent classes and it noted that his first attack of dementia was at birth.
CALVIN KNIGHT
Calvin was born in Chesterfield in 1811 and died in Whately in 1898, three days before his wife, Lucretia. Both died of “typhoid/dysentery.” They had thirteen children, many of whom outlived their parents. Lacking an 1890 census it is impossible to ascertain why the family fractured but in 1892 Calvin Knight was being boarded by E.E. Smith, probably Edward Elsworth Smith, son of Sumner Smith of West Whately. It is not known whether he and Lucretia were living together in the years before their deaths.
BENJAMIN LOVERIDGE
Benjamin Loveridge was born about 1835, the son of Daniel and Jerusha (Bartlett) Loveridge. His death record says he was born in Whately, but the family appears more associated with Chicopee. His father, Daniel, was born in Deerfield and according to the marriage record in Whately, Jerusha was born in Whately but there is no supporting birth record. There are no Loveridge land deeds in Whately. Despite a lack of recorded connection with the town, Whately paid for his support as early as 1880 and periodically until he died in 1894 when the Town paid his burial expenses.
PATRICK MAHAN
Patrick was born in Ireland around 1844. When first in Whately in 1865 he was a hired man working for Electa Graves. In 1868 he married Alice Bowers, a woman of his same age, also born in Ireland. In 1870 they were in Whately, but Alice appears as a widow in Deerfield in the 1880 census. Although no death record was found, it appears that Patrick died in that year, sometime before the census was taken.
MRS. LEWIS MORTON
Perhaps Mrs. Lewis Martin who was granted custody of her two children and an allowance of $3.00 per week in 1901. Whately gave her $107.96 in 1897. In 1898 Mrs. Lewis Morton was boarded with Peter Bernash.
MILES B. MORTON
The son of Levi (36) and Irena (Smith) Morton, he was born at Whately 6 Aug. 1828 and died 11 April 1907. He was in Albany, New York at the time of his death but is buried in Whately. An item in the Hampshire Gazette in 1864 reported that he had been appointed as postmaster after Josiah Allis resigned. An item in the Springfield Republican reported that he was going to move his cotton line manufacturing business to Amherst in the spring of 1876. In 1886, however, there was another item in the newspaper reporting his bankruptcy. Miles married four times. He married (1) Loretta, daughter of Reuben Graves of Whately. She died of consumption, 21 June 1866. In 1867 he married (2) Sarah Briggs of Bernardston who died of pneumonia in 1875. Two years later in 1877 in Boston, he married (3) Maria Nichols. This marriage must not have been a great success as in 1896 they both married other people. Miles’ fourth wife was named Charlotte Shutter, a woman 28 years his junior. No marriage record was found but Miles and Charlotte were together in Albany, New York in 1905. He had eight biological children by three wives but only two of them plus an adopted daughter survived childhood. Why he received town support in 1898 is a mystery.
MARGARET PAYNE
Although this woman was on the roll in Whately in 1894, I have found no supporting records.
MATILDA POTTER
The daughter of Daniel and Alinda (Hill) Rogers, she was the eldest of four daughters. She married Erastus Potter in 1834 in Whately. They had four sons; Edward, Josiah, Orrin and Charles. She was found in two separate census enumerations in 1860; one with her family, where it was recorded that she was “insane” and one as a patient in the State Hospital in Northampton. Her husband remarried in 1871 and moved to Arizona. She remained in the state hospital until her death in 1881. While it is unknowable from this distance, it appears that her condition was such that neither her husband, her sisters nor her sons was able to care for her outside an institutional setting. On the other hand, the only town support she received was in 1880 so the cost of her care was taken care of by others.
GEORGE POTTER
The grandson of Matilda and Erastus and the son of Edward and Maria (Stacy), George was born in 1875. He was not found in 1900 despite extensive searching but by 1902 he was in Whately and the Town purchased groceries for him. This small bit of support may have helped him enough that he married in 1905 and in 1910 he was in South Hadley working as a farm laborer.
BRIDGET POWERS
Born about 1830 in Ireland, she was the daughter of Thomas and Ellen Whelan and the widow of Thomas Powers. She was in Whately by 1865 living with her brother James Whelan and her three sons, James, Thomas and Michael, and in 1870 again with her brother and sons. By 1880 the three sons were gone, probably to Holyoke where they could get work, and she and her brother James were alone. James died of inflammation of the bowels, in Whately, 21 May 1892. He left the property where they lived to Bridget and on her death to his nephew Thomas. Bridget appears with her son James in Whately in 1900 but died in the “Northampton Insane Hospital” 19 November 1904. Cause of death was “carcinoma of the face.” The younger James Powers died at the Northampton State hospital on 22 Dec. 1913. He had been a resident of the NSH for more than ten years. His death occurred when he choked on a piece of food. He was 65 years old. Because the death certificate includes the years, months and days the decedent was resident in the hospital, it appears that both were hospitalized in 1903; Bridget in May and James in September. One can hypothesize that without the support of his mother, James was unable to live on his own so was hospitalized. Both were subsidized by the town in 1903. Bridget died soon but James received no further support. It is assumed that this bill was paid by his brother Thomas. Thomas was by then a resident of Holyoke and sold the Whately home in 1904.
JAMES POWERS
See above.
ELISHA RHOOD
Elisha was born in South Hadley in 1821 and died of heart disease, old age and inanition in Shutesbury, 24 April 1904. He married Julia, daughter of John Waite of Whately. They had three children; Helen, born in 1850, George, born in 1853 and Jennie, born in 1858. Elisha and Julia were together in 1870 in Whately, but the marriage failed by 1880 when Elisha was living with his brother Frederick in Conway, enumerated as a widower. Julia was not found in 1880 but she was living in Hadley when she married secondly, Alvah Pease, a cousin of her first husband. Elisha was a laborer and never owned land in Whately. Frederick died in 1887 of heart disease when he was only 48 years old. When Elisha fell on hard times his children were unwilling or unable to support him. He was on the rolls in Whately by 1897 and then supported by Whately when he was a boarder in Shutesbury until his death in 1904. The support included purchasing clothes for him in 1903 and paying for a doctor and a casket in 1904.
ANN RYAN
Ann was the daughter of John and Rose (Tramer) Ryan and although her Easthampton marriage record states that she was born in Whately, no supporting record was found. Her father died in Whately in 1870 and she was a posthumous child. There is no indication of why she would have received support in 1880.
CATHERINE SLATTERY
She was born in Ireland in 1804 and died in 1887. She married William Slattery and had six children; all but the youngest born in Ireland. Her husband died in April 1886 and a year later she died after a fractured hip. In 1880 she and William were living in Whately with none of the children. Left with insufficient means of support after the death of her husband, she was supported by the town in 1886 and 1877.
ALMERON SMITH
Application was made to us on the 22nd of September last, by Mrs. Ann Smith, wife of Almeron Smith, for assistance for herself and family, which was granted. Mr. Smith having a legal settlement in the town of Whately, the Overseers of the Poor of that town were notified, in accordance with law, to remove Mrs. Ann Smith and child, or otherwise provide for their support. In reply they denied their settlement, and refused to remove or provide for them. A town meeting was called to see what action the town would take in relation thereto, and it was voted unanimously to make the selectman a committee to commence a suit against the town of Whately for their support, and in accordance with that vote a writ has been served on that town, but a trial cannot be had earlier than the June term of the court. Town of Hatfield Annual Report, 1864.
Almeron Smith was born in Whately, the son of Harwood and Lois (Waite) Smith. He died in Whately on 26 May 1904 and is buried in East Whately. Exhaustive research failed to find Almeron, his wife or child in any census in Whately or Hatfield, or any mention of Almeron or his wife in any record except his Civil War registration in Hatfield. The Town of Whately paid for his board at George Smith’s in 1902. In 1903 they paid for medical attendance, shoes and clothes. In 1904 they paid for his casket. They also paid for new bedding and to renovate the room where Almeron died.
HARWOOD SMITH
The son of Gilbert and Sabra (Graves) Smith, and the father of Almeron Smith (above) he was born in 1800 and died 28 April 1881 of paralysis, in Whately.
He married Lois, daughter of Nathan Waite of Whately. She was born in 1796 and died in 1852. The family seemingly did not hold together, and it is clear from Whately records that Harwood suffered from mental instability. On 4 April 1845 he was taken to the Hospital for the Insane in Brattleboro. In 1874 the Town paid Mary Crafts a weekly sum to board Smith. He was not found in any census record until 1880 when he was boarding with George Smith (not a relative) in Whately. Even though none of the family was enumerated in Whately in 1850, the sons Nathan and Almeron died there.
EDWARD E. SMITH
The son of Sumner (81) and Harriet (Bogart) Smith, he was born at Whately in 1863 and died of pulmonary phthisis, 13 Dec. 1902. He is buried in West Whately. In 1886 he married Lillie Barrows. She and Olive Barrows, wife of his brother Clarence, were sisters. Edward and Lillie divorced at an unknown date and in 1898 he married Leonora Adaline, daughter of Horace DILL of Whately. Leonora was born in 1872 and died of consumption, 30 March 1900. He had no children with either wife. The town supported Edward in 1885, 1886 and in 1887. In 1892 the selectmen of Whately petitioned the court to appoint a guardian for Edward, complaining that by excessive drinking and idleness he was exposing himself and his family to suffering and the town to expense for his support. In 1900, by then widowed, he was enumerated with his mother in West Whately and like his father he was a “wood turner.” His father, Sumner Smith, made an unusual will in which he named his children but left them nothing.
OBED SMITH FAMILY
The son of David (28) and Elizabeth (HILL) Smith, Obed was born in Whately in 1818 and died of old age, 12 Nov. 1887. In 1851 he married Philena Bassett, widow of Zebina Leonard. She was born about 1821 (by age at death) and died 5 March 1886. In 1855 they were in Whately with her son Zebina Leonard, born about 1848 and named after his father, as well as two of their own children, mistakenly indexed (but not enumerated) as Leonard. In the 1860 census, Obed was enumerated as a “blind pauper” and his wife and children all noted to be paupers as well. In 1870 he and Philena with Orson, the youngest of their children, were in Deerfield living in the household of Franklin Clapp and several unrelated adults. In 1886 Philena received town support but died in March. Obed Smith received support the next year but he when he died. Their son Utley Smith does not appear in town records until 1898 when he was boarding with his brother, Arthur Smith, and later he was carried to Williamsburg by George Moore. Moore was reimbursed by the town. Possibly he was being taken to stay with his sister Betsey Bisbee. In 1899 Utley was back boarding for a time with Arthur Smith, later with Mrs. Sumner [Harriet] Smith. Utley’s name does not appear in the poor roll after1899 and where and when he died is not known.
CATHERINE AND CLARA TUOMEY
On the rolls in 1907, 1908 and 1909, they were the daughters of Patrick and Hannah Tuomey. Catherine was born in November 1896 and was about ten when she was first given support and Clara was born in June 1898. Their father was born in Ireland and was enumerated in 1900 as a farmer. Both children were with their parents in that year, as was a younger son, Martin. Their mother died of dysentery and Bright’s Disease on 19 September of that year. Patrick remarried in 1903. In 1907 he was injured working in the railroad yard and died of his injuries three weeks later. While the stepmother was probably able to care for Martin, the youngest, she needed help for the two girls. Catherine died in 1918 and is buried in Northampton. Clara married in Boston in 1917. They were not found in 1910.
ROSE WAGNER/WAGER
Rose Pocket was born in 1878. She was born Mary Rose Murphy and it is not known why her name appears as Rose Pocket in the birth records of her children. Her parents are not Joseph and Mary Pocket to whom she lived next door in 1900. In 1894 in Northampton, she married John Wagner and had four children born in Whately; John J. (Wager) born in June of 1896, George Henry (Wagner) born on 30 March 1898 and Mary Ellen (Wagner) born on 16 April 1902 and Frank William born on 10 June 1904. John Wager is supposed to have died in 1948 in Rockville, Connecticut so he abandoned the family, and by 1904 Rose was on the rolls receiving support from Whately. She continued to receive support in 1905, 1906 and 1908. In 1907, however, still naming John Wagner as the father, she bore and lost a son in South Hadley Falls. He died of cholera infantum soon after birth. By 1910 she was in Holyoke with husband Frank Cahill and all her Wagner children now using the surname Cahill. No marriage record was found.
NANCY DANE WAITE
Nancy Elizabeth Dane was born on 17 Sept. 1835 in Shutesbury. She was the fourth of five children born to John and Susan (Hubbard) Dane, all of whom lived to adulthood. In 1853 she married Aaron E. Waite. In the 1855 state census they were living separately in Shutesbury; he living, probably as a hired man, with the family of Luther Stetson and Nancy with 10 month old Willis, living nearby, probably next door. Willis was born in Whately in 1854 and died of dysentery in 1856. Nancy and Aaron had two more children; Charles born three months after the death of Willis and Anna, born on 13 Nov. 1858. Both Charles and Anna died of diphtheria, about six weeks apart, in the summer of 1863. Aaron and Nancy are not known to have additional children. In 1870 they were in Whately with her mother and in 1875 they purchased land on (now) Long Plain Road. In 1880 Aaron, Nancy and her mother continued to live in Whately. Susan died in March of 1885 the cause noted as “shock from a fall.” In 1900 Aaron and Nancy, now recorded as Elizabeth N. were still in Whately but Aaron died in March of 1901. In his probate file it was noted that the widow of Aaron Waite “is an insane person confined in Northampton Asylum, committed by the Judge of this Court.” It appears that Nancy had been committed after the census was taken in 1900 but before the death of her husband. There are no grantor records to clarify what happened to their property, but Aaron’s inventory listed no real property and only $48.00 in personal property. In 1900 Whately paid $26.50 for “Mrs. Aaron Waite.” In 1901 – 1904 Whately paid her expenses at the Northampton Hospital but there are no mentions after that.
MRS. ALPHA WAITE
She was Almira (Judd) waite, born June 1812 in Northampton. In 1837 she married Alpheus/Alpha Waite. They had four children born between 1838 and 1847. The family was intact until Alpha Waite died in 1879 but they apparently fell on hard times such that the Town furnished supplies in 1856. The amount was $8.75 and there were no other mentions.
PAMELIA WELLS
This is a simple case of a woman outliving her husband and children. The daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah (Crafts) Waite, she was born in 1798 and died on 21 May 1882. She married Lewis, the son of Perez and Elizabeth (Crafts) Wells. Lewis died of dropsy in 1854. In 1855 she was in Whately with all her children. In 1860 she was with her son Isaac, but he died of typhoid fever in that same year. In 1865 and thereafter she was with her son Warren, the only one of her children still living. Warren had no children and although he did not die until 1894, he died of cirrhosis. Was he an alcoholic and improvident? In any case, even though Pamelia was living with him, the town paid at least part of her support in 1880 and 1882.