Tag: Gibbons

Anna Marie Gibbons Wallace – Great-grandmother of Ruth Andrews DeBoise

We are going to travel back to our family in Palmer and Monson, Massachusetts. One of the early posts on January 28, 2018 was on Charles “Charlie” Henry Andrews and Martha “Mattie” Gibbons. Charlie and Mattie were the parents of Blanche Louise Andrews, and the grandparents of Ruth Martha Andrews. We have reviewed the ancestors of Charlie. Now we are going to look at the ancestors of Mattie, climbing her family tree.  Anna Marie Gibbons Wallace is sharing her story with you.

Martha Gibbons Ancestors
Maternal ancestors of Martha Gibbons

Mattie was the daughter of James Wallace and Anna Marie Gibbons. Anna Marie was born April 1, 1845 in New York City. Per her death certificate and information given by her daughter, Mattie, her parents were Charles Gibbons and Martha A. Washington, and they were born in the “South”. The 1900 Federal Census for Anna indicates they were born in Virginia. No other information is known about them.

I first found Anna when she was five years old. In the 1850 Federal Census she was living at the Catholic Orphan Asylum in New York City. In 1855, when she was ten years old, she resided in Lee, Massachusetts, located in Western Massachusetts in the Berkshires, with Henry M. and Ann M. Carty. Henry was a farmer, they were both born in New York, and Henry and Ann were black. Henry and Ann had no other children. Around this time orphanages had started a system of “placing out” of their charges with families in the community. This is similar to our current foster care system, and might explain how Anna came to live with the Carty’s. Her home with the Carty’s was short lived. In 1860, when she was 15 years old, she was a servant in the home of Alexander and Emily Chapin in Springfield, Massachusetts. Alexander was a goldsmith and spectacle maker. She was still living with them five years later in 1865.

Anna probably met James Wallace after he returned from his service in the Civil War. James and his family lived in Monson. It appears that James was involved with several women at the time, which we will discuss when we look at his story. Anna got pregnant and they did not marry until many years later.

Between 1865 and 1870, Anna moved to Brookfield, Massachusetts. This might have been where she met James, since his great aunt, Dolly Wallace Hazard, and her children lived in Brookfield, and it is close to Monson. There were few black families living in the town, so it is likely that they knew and socialized with each other.

In 1870 Anna, a single mother, and her daughter Martha, who was born in 1869, were living with Rodney and Mary Howard in Brookfield. Rodney was a minister and Mary was a school teacher. Anna worked as their housekeeper. In 1880, Anna and Mattie are living with Roxanne Forbes and Anna was working as a domestic servant.

The romance and friendship between James Wallace and Anna continued. James married, became a widower, and then he and Anna married. On April 15, 1891 James and Anna were married by Reverend C. Martin in Monson. Anna was 46 and James was 50, and they remained together for the rest of their lives.

In 1900, Anna and her husband were living in Monson, but they moved to Palmer by 1901 where they remained. Between 1901 and 1918, when James died, they lived at 29 Dublin Street near the railroad. In 1910, Anna was working as a laundress in her own home. By 1920 she had moved in with her daughter and son-in-law on 20 Dublin Street. They were all living at 11 Pine Street at the time of her death.

On April 10, 1926, shortly after her 81st birthday, Anna Marie Gibbons Wallace died from cardio-vascular disease. She had been ill for at least two years. She is buried in the Oak Knoll Cemetery in Palmer.

(Note: Anna’s age given in the obituary does not match any of the other records for her.)

Obituary
April 12, 1926 The Journal-Register, Palmer, Mass.
Mrs. Anna M. Wallace

Palmer – The funeral of Mrs. Anna Maria Wallace, aged 79, widow of James Wallace of Pine Street was held Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock at the home of Bert L. Beers of North Main Street. Rev. C.A.S. Howe, pastor of the Second Baptist Church officiated and internment was in Oak Knoll Cemetery.

Mrs. Wallace leaves a daughter, Mrs. Charles Andrews with whom she lived and a great granddaughter Martha Ruth Andrews, also of Palmer. Mrs. Wallace was born in New York and has been a resident of Palmer for the past 50 years.

The next story will be on James Wallace, husband of Anna and great grandfather of Ruth Andrews DeBoise.

Until next time….
Teri

Charles Andrews and Martha Gibbons

palmer_ma
Main Street looking West. Palmer, Mass. greenpasture.com

Charles “Charlie” Henry Andrews, the grandfather of Ruth and father of Blanche Louise, was described by his great grandson as a nice man, very easy going. He was tall, 5’11” and 185 pounds according to his World War I draft registration, with coppery colored skin, black straight hair – what was left of it since he was balding, brown eyes, and he had a big moustache. He chewed tobacco and smoked a pipe. A big Yankees fan, he did not like the Red Sox. He thought the Red Sox were foolish for trading Babe Ruth, and that they were prejudice against black baseball players. In fact, the Red Sox was the last professional baseball team to integrate, although they had the opportunity to sign Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and other talented black players and chose not to do so. They did not integrate their team until 1959, long after Charlie’s death. Charlie did not particularly like black people from the South. He said there were African-Americans fighting with the Confederates, and shooting at his people, who fought for the North. His father-in-law, as well as several of his and his wife’s uncles fought in the Civil War for the North.

Charlie was born September 11, 1877 in Vernon, Connecticut, the son of George Washington and Jeanette (Freeman) Andrews. He was the second child and first son of his parents’ eleven children. As a young man, he worked as a farm laborer on the local farms. He met Martha “Mattie” H. Gibbons, and they married on January 10, 1895 in Monson, Massachusetts. Charlie was 17 years old, and Mattie was 25. Mattie was pregnant with their first and only daughter, Blanche Louise, at the time of their marriage. They initially lived in Vernon, and moved to Monson by 1900. They were living in Palmer in 1906, where they made their home for the remainder of their lives. Continue reading “Charles Andrews and Martha Gibbons” →

The Andrews Family – A New England Heritage

Jim_Ruth_Richard_Harry (2)
Jim, Ruth, Richard, Harry

What was Ruth Martha Andrews’s story? We knew very little about the family’s history, and there were few people to talk to when we began the search for answers. We knew that Ruth’s mother had died at a young age, and Ruth had been raised by her grandparents. We did not know her mother’s name. We did not know who Ruth’s father was, but we did know that her mother had been assaulted by a white man, resulting in a pregnancy. Son Jimmy, who lived with his great grandparents while growing up, told us the family was part Native American, and that he had gone with his great grandparents to “pig roasts” in Connecticut. Son Richard remembered the Civil War artifacts in the attic, and knew that one of his ancestors had fought in the Civil War.

What our search found out was astounding. Ruth has deep roots in New England. Not only did her great grandfather, James Wallace, fight in the Civil War, so did many of her uncles. Her ancestor, Ned Carter, fought in the Revolutionary War along with several of his sons. This family also had roots in New England slavery, which was quite prevalent but never discussed like slavery in the South. Continue reading “The Andrews Family – A New England Heritage” →