Fearless Females - March 13

March 13 — Moment of Strength: share a story where a female ancestor showed courage or strength in a difficult situation.

Esther Dutch Elwell was 53 years old on November 3, 1692 when a warrant for her arrest on the charge of witchcraft was issued.  Records show she, with two other women, was taken to Ipswich, Massachusettes where she joined six other Gloucester women who had been jailed on charges of witchcraft.  From a petition written in December of 1692 by these women, it is known the conditions were unbearable due to cold and poor lodging;  the women feared for their lives, not from the witch trials but from the horrible living conditions. How must Esther have felt?  Scared does not even begin to describe her feelings. 19 people before her had been arrested and executed for witchcraft from Salem. She had to ask herself, "will I be number 20?"  Those arrested from her town of Gloucester had not been executed yet but were awaiting trial. What had she done to cause her neighbors to turn on her?  Had she looked at someone wrong?  Had she said something to offend?  And where was her support?  Did her family stand by her?  Was the hysteria so pervasive that she had no one to turn to...or did her husband stand by her?  Her children?  There are no records to tell us but I hope in my heart she had someone.  If her mother, Grace Dutch was still alive, she would have certainly stood by her as she herself had been accused of witchcraft in 1656 when Esther was only 15. 

Fortunately for Esther and her family, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, the court that had tried and executed 19 people in Salem and Salem city, was disbanded at the beginning of November of 1692.  There are no records found of any trials of the Gloucester women accused of witchcraft but it has not been determined how long Esther remained imprisoned in Ipswich.  All we know is she was released at some point.  Esther lived to be 82 years old, dying in 1721.

The courage and moral strength needed to survive such an experience is outside my scope of experience and I wonder if the stigma of the accusation of witchcraft is ever erased or did she always have neighbors casting her suspicious looks.  Were her children ostracized by association?  Hopefully, with the passing of the hysteria, so did the mistrust.

Hester Dutch Elwell is my maternal 8th gt grandmother.

Sources: 
"The Geography and Genealogy of Gloucester" by Jedediah Drolet article
"Witchcraft" by Linda Faye Johnson (Tucker)  article

Fearless Females - March 8

Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.

I have the Friendship book of my 2nd gtgrand aunt, Elizabeth Douglass, born in 1834 in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. This is a poem written by her "Ma", Maria Parks Douglass, my 3rd gt grandmother. I know nothing else about this ancestor except her approximate birth, 1805, her marriage, 1825 and her death, 1846, but I do have a poem written to her daughter in her own hand. Wow.

Transcription
A Friend Wish
Elizabeth my wish shall ever be, that while on earth you stay;
Youth's fondest dreams may be to thee like one long, summer's day.
When time, in after years, has set his signet on thy brow,
It will be sweet to recollect the friend who love thee now;
So may I in thy memory live! and O may Heaven ever give
Her purest ray of light divine, to teach thee how to live.
                                         Your  Ma
Hollidaysburg, April 23d, 1845

Fearless Females - In Honor of Women's History Month

Katherine Juanita Johnston

I never met Katherine Johnston Archer my paternal grandmother. My parents divorced before I was born and my mother refused to let me have any contact with my father. As an adult, I corresponded with him and learned something about his family. From him I learned Katherine had nine children starting in 1912 and ending in 1936; 24 years of pregnancy, breastfeeding and diapers. I learned Katherine separated from her husband for three years, taking the children and returning to her parents in Memphis, Tennessee. According to my father, “too many children” was the reason for her early death in 1940 at only 43 years of age.

I wonder how the loss of a mother at such a young age affects the development of the children and the dynamics of the family. Were the grandparents, the grandmother especially, the surrogate mother? Did the grandparents resent the father for the toll he took on their daughter? Did the older children take the responsibility of raising the younger? I remember my mother telling me about having two of the youngest siblings, teenagers at the time, living with her and my father right after their marriage and how hard that was for her. Perhaps the loss so early bound their family together tightly, but hampered the development of new family relationships.

Catherine’s photo above, perhaps her wedding photo, presents the image of a refined, beautiful, perhaps well-to-do young woman with her hair up, a pearl necklace and a beautiful taffeta silk dress. Her Irish heritage shows in her beautiful complexion or maybe that is the excitement of her wedding. What happened to her after her wedding? Where is she in 1920 and 1930? The family seems to have disappeared, swallowed by the poverty caused by the depression. One day soon I hope to be able to post the answer to these questions; to honor Katherine and her ultimate sacrifice.

Check back tomorrow for the next installment of Fearless Females.