Peckett’s on Sugar Hill

Image from https://blog.rodeoandco.com/blog/editorial-work/iris-farm-tour-sugar-hill-new-hampshire/

So if you get bored researching the same old ancestors, you should branch out and find out more about the siblings of the people in your direct line. Following another relative’s line can lead to some interesting stories, like the one I’m going to write about today.

Katharine Belknap was my 2nd cousin 3x removed (her grandfather, William, was the brother of my 3x great-grandfather, Thomas Belknap). Katharine was born August 13, 1874 in New Hampshire to George and Jennie (Ranlett) Belknap. George died in 1879. Katharine had a sister, Annie, that died in April 1874 at the age of 2. In 1880, Jennie and Katharine were living with Jennie’s parents in Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire. Katharine married Robert Plimpton Peckett, a hotelkeeper in Lisbon, New Hampshire, on March 30, 1895 in Littleton. Robert’s father, John Wesley Peckett, had been an attorney in New York.

John “had brought his family [to Sugar Hill] to spend healthful summers at John Goodnow’s boarding house. In 1876, together with Goodnow, John Peckett constructed the imposing Goodnow House… . When his son Robert was 21, he and his brother John took over the operation of the hotel, changing the name to Franconia Inn, but it was destroyed by fire in 1907.”

– Arthur F. March in his Arcadia publication “Franconia and Sugar Hill,” 1997, page 82

Goodnow House (Franconia Inn), c1876-1888
(from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/)

In 1893, a farmhouse which had been acquired from a Mr. Goodnow was moved across the road, in February 1900 they took in their first guests (from https://skihall.com/hall-of-famers/katharine-peckett-holman/). Depending on the time of the year the U.S. Federal Census was taken, there were varying numbers of people living at Sugar Hill. In the 1900 census (taken on 6-30-1900) of Lisbon, Grafton, N.H., Robert and Katharine were listed with their daughter Deborah (aged 4) and son Robert Jr. (aged 4 months), along with Jennie Belknap (Katharine’s mother), a cook, farm hand, gardener, kitchen girl, stable boy, table girl, and stable boss. Robert’s father, John Wesley Peckett, died in 1904. Their daughter Katharine was born July 8, 1906.

After the Franconia Inn burned in 1907, the farmhouse mentioned previously became the center of Peckett’s-on-Sugar-Hill Inn. In the 1910 census (taken 5-11-1910), Robert, Katherine, Jennie, and the three children, Deborah (aged 15), Robert Jr. (aged 10), and Katharine (4) were listed along with more employees: a farm manager, hotel housekeeper, waitress, pastry cook, kitchen girl, 2 farm laborers, and a gardener.

In the 1920 census (taken on January 21, 1920), Robert, Katharine, and Jennie were living at Sugar Hill. Deborah (aged 24) and her husband Joel Coffin were also living with them. Robert Jr. was 19 and Katharine was 13. Their employees included a “hotel man,” a maid, a nurse, a chauffer, 5 waitresses, 2 chambermaids, a dish washer, and 2 cooks.

The First Ski School

Katharine’s mother, Jennie Belknap, died in 1926. In 1928, 22-year-old Katharine Peckett spent a Christmas break skiing in Switzerland. She encouraged her parents to visit to show them how Peckett’s-on-Sugar-Hill could become a ski resort and school. In Spring 1929 at Sugar Hill, Katharine “supervised and worked at clearing the side hill, adjacent to the now many-winged farmhouse. This became the major slope for the first bona-fide ski school in America in the winter of 1929-30. The first two instructors were German, one being Herman Glatfelder” (from https://skihall.com/hall-of-famers/katharine-peckett-holman/).

N.H. Historical Marker Number 73

In the 1930 census of 4-30-1930, Robert, Katharine, and young Katharine (aged 23) had a chef, 2 farm laborers, office clerk, and chambermaid at the inn. In the 1940 census (taken on April 8), Robert and his wife Katharine were at the Ritz-Carlton on Madison Avenue in New York City. Katharine died on September 17, 1951 and Robert died in Manhattan on March 6, 1959. They are buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Franconia, NH. Peckett’s-on-Sugar-Hill closed in 1967. The original resort building is now gone, but the rest of Peckett’s on Sugar Hill is now a wedding venue. Cocktail hours take place on a patio made from the building’s foundation. There are also five “cottages” on the estate available to overnight guests, one of which is the “Iris Farm House,” on the original dairy farm.

From Find-a-Grave

Bette Davis at Sugar Hill

Arthur A. Farnsworth was an assistant manager at Peckett’s-on-Sugar-Hill. After finishing two movies in 1939, Bette Davis visited Peckett’s for a rest. She turned an old barn into Butternut Lodge and built Butternut Cottage. Davis met Farnsworth and, according to the story, got herself intentionally “lost” in the woods, knowing that he would be the one sent to search for her. They married in 1940.

Arthur died in Hollywood on August 25, 1943 of a skull fracture he suffered during a fall while walking on Hollywood Boulevard. He had fallen down the stairs 2 months before in New Hampshire while running to the phone. In the autopsy, it was discovered that he had a blood clot from that previous fall that caused him to become dizzy and to fall on the sidewalk (from the LA Times).

‘In memoriam to Arthur Farnsworth
“The Keeper of Stray Ladies”
Pecketts 1939
Presented by a Grateful One’

He was buried at Butternut. In 1945, his family requested that he be re-interred in the family cemetery in Pittsford, Vermont. After this, Bette’s visits to New Hampshire lessened. She sold Butternut about 20 years after she first came to the town. After that the plaque pictured above showed up on a boulder in Coppermine Brook.

Lots of good pictures here: https://moviesofcourse.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/the-man-bette-davis-married/

Children

Left: Helen Moore, my great-grandmother’s sister, died at age 4

Another Randy Seaver/Genea-musings exercise! “Thinking about your direct ancestors back through 2nd great-grandparents – in other words, ancestors #2 to #31 on your pedigree chart – how many children did they have? How many lived long enough to marry? How many died before age 10?” So here’s mine:

• #2-3: R. Wells and M. Wilson – 3 sons, 1 daughter (3 married), 0 died before age 10
• #4-5: Edward Lee Wells (1905-1955) and Velma Irene Belknap (1913-1999) – 4 sons, 4 daughters (7 married), 0 died before age 10
• #6-7: Charles Thompson Wilson (1907-1989) and Helen Dorothy Oakes (1912-1988) – 1 son, 2 daughters (3 married), 0 died before age 10
• #8-9: Robert Luke Wells (1881-1919) and Nannie Jane Clark (1880-1969) – 4 sons, 1 daughter (5 married), 0 died before age 10
• #10-11: Earl E. Belknap (1895-1960) and Florence E. Bost (1896-1961) – 9 daughters, 1 son (9 married), 0 died before age 10
• #12-13: John A. Wilson (1874-1930) and Mary A. Thompson (1872-1940) – 7 sons, 3 daughters (7 married), 1 died before age 10
• #14-15: William Oakes (1888-1928) and Mae D. Moore (1892-1971) – 1 daughter (1 married), 0 died before age 10
• #16-17: James H. Wells (1840-1904) and Mary Ann Clark (1839-1894) – 5 daughters, 4 sons (8 married?), 0 died before age 10
• #18-19: Willis Clark (1834-?) and Sarah E. Wells (1838-1923) – 4 sons, 3 daughters
• #20-21: Arthur F. Belknap (1869-1955) and Martha Gisel (1869-1925) – 1 daughter, 4 sons (5 married), 0 died before age 10
• #22-23: William S. Bost (1859-1932) and Mary E. McCracken (1862-1911) – 4 daughters, 3 sons (5 married), 2 died before age 10
• #24-25: John Alford Wilson/Rustad (1833-1889) and Mary Ann Gibson (1837-1923) – 5 daughters, 3 sons (4 married?), 3 died before age 10
• #26-27: Archibald Thompson (1838-1931) and Elizabeth Dunning (1837-1912) – 9 sons, 2 daughters (6 married?), 3 died before age 10
• #28-29: Henry Ochs/Oakes (1846-1922) and Minnie Schroeder (1857-1936) – 2 sons, 2 daughters (4 married), 0 died before age 10
• #30-31: Fred L. Moore (1863-1924) and Mina Adell Bolt (1865-1942) – 3 daughters, 2 sons (3 married), 2 died before age 10

My Family in 1940

The following exercise was borrowed from a post from last year on Randy Seaver’s blog. Working on this exercise, I actually learned a few things about the 1940 census! I learned the circled x’s next to names mean that person is the one that answered the census-taker’s questions. Also, I noticed a column I had never paid attention to before – Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940.

The exercise:

1) Determine where your ancestral families were on 1 April 1940 – 80 years ago when the U.S. census was taken.
2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

*  On April 2, 1940,my father, Robert Wells (born 1939) resided at 17117 O’Connor Street in Allen Park, Michigan with his father, Edward Wells (born 1905), his mother Velma (nee Belknap, born 1913), and his three older sisters, Patricia (born 1934), Ruthann (born 1936), and Donna (born 1938). Edward was a stock chaser at an axle company. His salary was $1600 annually. He had worked 50 weeks in 1939 and 40 hours during the week of March 24-30, 1940. Velma answered the census questions. They owned the home, and it was valued at $1200. Here is a photo of that house today: 

17117 O’Connor

*  On April 8, 1940, my grandparents, Charles Wilson (born 1907) and Helen (nee Oakes, born 1912) resided at 2431 Bennett Street in Dearborn, Michigan, with their daughter Sally Ann (born 1934) and son Charles (born 1935). My mother, Mary, had not been born yet. In the census, Charles was listed as a truck driver at a creamery company, and his income was $2000 annually. He had worked 50 weeks in 1939 and 48 hours during the week of March 24-30, 1940. Helen was the one who answered the census questions. They owned their home, and it was valued at $4600. Here is the house in the 1950s:

2431 Bennett

*  On April 13, 1940, my great-grandmother, Mae Oakes Smiechowski Johnson (nee Moore, born 1892) and her 3^rd husband Alfred Johnson (born 1892) resided at 14810 Parkgrove, Detroit, Michigan, with Mae’s nephew, Harry Moore (born 1914). Mae was my grandmother Helen’s mother. Alfred and Mae owned the house (valued at $6000) and rented the upper flat out for $35 a month. Alfred was listed as an inspector of automobile parts, and his income was $2100 annually. He had worked 48 weeks in 1939 and 40 hours during the week of March 24-30, 1940. Alfred was the one who answered the census questions. Here is the house in 2007. It has since been torn down.

14810 Parkgrove (from Google Street View)

*  On April 19, 1940, my great-great grandmother, Mina Moore Thompson (nee Bolt, born 1865) and her 2^nd husband Bert Thompson (born 1879) resided at 23439 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan. Mina, Mae’s mother, was the one that answered the census questions. Bert was a carpenter in building construction and worked 26 weeks in 1939. During the week of March 24-30, 1940, he worked 24 hours. His annual income was $800. They rented the house for $10/month. The house would have been located on the south side of Michigan Ave. near the corner of Outer Drive. It was torn down before 1956, when an office building was built there.

*  On April 16, 1940, my great-grandmother, Nannie Wells (nee Clark, born 1880) resided at 1087 Victoria Avenue in Lincoln Park, Michigan with her son Jesse. She rented the house for $30/month. Also living with her were two lodgers from Indiana named Fred and Boaz Duncan. Nannie was the mother of my grandfather Edward Wells. The house no longer stands but was located near Fort Street and Outer Drive.

*  On April 3, 1940, my great-grandparents, Earl Belknap (born 1895) and Florence (nee Bost, born 1896) resided at 1611 Electric Avenue in Lincoln Park, Michigan with their children Helen (born 1921), Arthur (born 1923), Betty (born 1927), Joyce (born 1931), Nancy (born 1934), Nadine (born 1936) and Shirley (born 1939). Earl and Florence were the parents of my grandmother Velma. I don’t have a picture, but it was located near Fort Street and Southfield Road. They rented for $20/month. Earl was a carpenter, earning $750 in income annually. He had worked 36 weeks in 1939.

*  On April 19, 1940, my great-great grandfather, Arthur Belknap (born 1869) was the father of Earl Belknap and resided at 35120 University in Nankin Township, Michigan (now in Westland, Michigan). He was living with his daughter Belva (born 1899) and her husband Alva Merillat and their children Bernetta (born 1928) and Ralph (born 1939). They rented the house for $20 a month. Here is a photo of the house from 2007:

35120 University

#43 Automobiles

For transportation week, I’m posting some pictures of ancestors and their automobiles.

My husband’s paternal great-grandparents Leonard and Mayme (Kivi) Eklund on their wedding day in June 1931

My grandfather Charles T. Wilson, 1930s?

Belknap/Wells Family, c1945

Week 43 (Oct. 21-27): Transportation

#40 Farmers in my Tree

For Week 40 of #52Ancestors, the theme is “Harvest.” I decided to look and see how many of my great-great grandfathers (you have 8) were listed in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census/1881 Canadian Census with an occupation of “Farmer.”  Here we go:

1. James Wells – Farmer, aged 40, Horsepasture District, Henry Co., Virginia
2. Willis Clark – Dead
3. Arthur Belknap – aged 11 – his dad was a laborer in Dover, Fulton Co., Ohio
4. William Bost – Farm Laborer, aged 20, Marion Twp., Henry Co., Ohio
5. John Wilson – Farmer, aged 48, Howe Island, Frontenac, Ontario, Canada
6. Archibald Thompson – Sailor, aged 43, Amherst Island, Lennox & Addington, Ontario, Canada
7. Henry Ochs – Farmer, aged 34, Taylor, Wayne Co., Michigan
8. Fred Moore – Farm Laborer, aged 17, living with his grandmother in Stafford, Genesee Co., New York

So 1 of my g-g grandfathers was dead by 1880, 1 was only 11, 1 was a sailor, and the rest were farmers or farm laborers. Interesting stuff!

Archie Thompson, year unknown

#30 Ezekiel Worthen

This week’s theme was “Easy.” But I chose to go a different way with it: I search my tree for people with “E-Z” in their names. I came up with Ezekiel Worthen (1636-1716), my 8th great-grandfather. He was the great-grandfather of Martha Worthen (1745-1826), who married Thomas Locke (1751-1816). They had a daughter Abigail (1778-1861) that married Obadiah Belknap (1774-1834). Obadiah and Abigail were the grandparents of my great-great grandfather Arthur Belknap (1869-1955).

Week 30 (July 22-28): Easy

#28 Belknap Reunions

My grandmother’s family, the Belknaps, used to hold a family reunion every year in Ohio. At first, it was for the descendants of the Belknaps and the Clarks (the descendants of my great-great grandfather Arthur Belknap, and those of his sister Lucina and her husband John Q. Clark). My grandmother (and her mother before her) used to keep track of names, birth and death dates in booklets she handed out to every family represented at the reunion.

In the Sept. 11, 1942 issue of the Adrian (MI) Daily Telegram, there is a short article titled “Clark-Belknap Families,” which states:

The 15th annual reunion of the Clark-Belknap families was held Sept. 6 at The Island in Adrian with 68 members present from Montpelier, Ohio, Bay City, Detroit, Royal Oak, Adrian, Ogden Center, Ypsilanti, Belleville, and Clayton. Officers were elected as follows: president, John Q. Clark; secretary, Mrs. Earl Belknap; treasurer, Mrs. Jesse Clark. The 1943 reunion will be held at the same place.

In the 1985 booklet, she wrote, “Our reunions have been going on since 1950, your Historian has attended reunions since they first were organized in 1925, under the title of ‘Belknap-Clark Reunions’ which were disbanded in 1955, after the death of Arthur Belknap.” I think she was saying the Belknap-only reunions started in 1950.

In the 1974 booklet, she wrote, “In the year of 1949, Arthur F. Belknap decided a record of his ancestry would be nice to have to hand down to his descendants. He contacted a lawyer friend of his and eventually the following record of ancestry was give to him.” Arthur was in contact with Glen W. Evans of Lansing (a genealogist, not sure if he is the lawyer friend mentioned above), who wrote a book titled “The Belknap Family” in 1949. In a letter to Arthur dated October 5, 1949, Mr. Evans listed Arthur’s ancestry from Abraham Belknap to his father Thomas Belknap. He ended the letter by saying, “Keep well and take care of yourself and I will try to make the Belknap Reunion next year at Adrian, Mich. where I may be able to tell you more about this branch of the Belknap Family.”

In 1980, the reunion celebrated it’s 30th anniversary. Here are my grandmother (back row, second from left), her one brother, and her seven surviving sisters (one had died in 1977).

Week 28 (July 8-14): Reunion

#29 Polly Ann Farr

The thing about family history that is challenging is the overwhelming focus on the male side of things – surnames, lines of descent, etc. This means (at least for me) that I know very little about even some pretty recent female ancestors.

One example is Polly Ann Farr, my third great-grandmother. She was the 3rd wife of Thomas Belknap (born in 1803), and the mother of Arthur Belknap. She was born in about 1832. The earliest record I have found for her is an application for a marriage license, dated September 18, 1848 to Thomas Belknap in Lorain County, Ohio. I’m not sure if this means they were married on that date or not. The application states that “she is of eighteen years.” I don’t think that’s true though.

The next record is the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Russia Township in Lorain County. Polly Ann was listed as age 18 and birthplace of Ohio. Thomas’ 11-year-old son Francis is also living with them. In 1860, the family was living in Clinton, Fulton County, Ohio. Polly was listed as 29 and born in Ohio. They had 4 children in addition to Francis by 1860. In 1870, they were living in York Township, Fulton, Ohio and Polly was listed as 38. Now they had 6 children in addition to Francis. In 1880, the last census she is found in, the family was living in Dover Township, Fulton, Ohio. She was listed as 49, born in Ohio. Polly’s father was listed as born in Vermont, while her mother was born in Kentucky. Only three of their children were living with them in 1880.

Thomas and Polly Ann’s tombstone in Tedrow Cemetery

After all this, she ended up dying at the age of 52 years 3 months in 1887 (according to her pretty unreadable tombstone – I know: the dates don’t add up!), before her husband Thomas, who died in 1889 at the age of 85!

Through DNA, I think Polly Ann’s father may have been Kimball Farr, but I have to do a lot more research to prove it!

Week 29 (July 15-21): Challenging

#26 William Worth Belknap

I’m not so sure about this relative’s legendary status, but he is somewhat infamous. William Worth Belknap is my 6th cousin 4x removed. We are both descended from Abraham Belknap, my 9th great-grandfather. My Belknap line comes from Abraham’s son Samuel, while William’s Belknap line comes from Abraham’s son Joseph.

Major General William W. Belknap, about 1865 (https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018666395/)

William was born in New York in 1829 and graduated from Princeton University in 1848. He moved to Keokuk, Iowa and joined the Democratic party. He was elected to office and served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1857 to 1858. He joined the Union army in 1861 and was commissioned as a major, recruiting the 15th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He served at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, and Atlanta. By the end of the war, he was made a Brevet Major General. After serving as the Iowa Collector of Internal Revenue, having been appointed by President Andrew Johnson (and during which time he became a Republican), William was appointed Secretary of War by President Grant in 1869.

Due to the Trader Post Scandal and all that went along with it (including involvement by 2 of his wives), William resigned as Secretary of War on March 2, 1876, but was still impeached by the House on March 3. He was acquitted by the Senate on May 29, 1876.

Illustration from the cover of “The days’ doings”, v. 16 (March 1876), showing wife (Amanda Tomlinson Belknap) of Secretary William Belknap at the home of Mr. Blackburn pleading on her knees to save her husband’s honor. https://lccn.loc.gov/89711264

William moved back to Iowa and practiced law. He maintained an office and a residence in Washington, D.C. He died there in October 1890. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

One of the good things William can be remembered for is purchasing thousands of negatives from the Civil War photographer Mathew Brady when he was going bankrupt in the early 1870s. According to the National Archives, where the photos are stored, “After the Civil War, business for Brady’s studios gradually declined, until in July 1874 Secretary of War William Belknap purchased part of Brady’s collection of negatives (ca. 2,250 plates) at public auction for $2,500 because of Brady’s bankruptcy. In April 1875, the War Department purchased 3,735 plates directly from Brady under express Congressional authorization… .”

Lots more information about William Worth Belknap can be found in his Wikipedia article.

Week 26 (June 24-30): Legend

#25 Earliest Photos

I saw this idea from Amy’s review of Week 25: “Debi shared the earliest photos of various ancestors. (I like how she broke them down by maternal and paternal sides).” So I’m going to give it a try!

Maternal

My 3rd Great-Grandfather, William Dillon Bolt (1835-1901)

My 3rd Great-Grandmother, Mary J. (Everitt) Bolt (1837-1918)

 

My 2nd Great-Grandmother, Mina Adell (Bolt) Moore Thompson, (1866-1942)

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, Archibald Thompson (1838-1931)

My great-grandfather, John A. Wilson (1874-1930)

My great-grandmother, Mary (Thompson) Wilson (1872-1940)

My great-grandmother, Mae Dillon (Moore) Oakes Smiechowski Johnson (1892-1971)

My grandfather, Charles Wilson (1907-1989)

My grandmother, Helen Oakes (1912-1988) on her mother Mae’s lap

My mother

Paternal

My 3rd Great-Grandmother, Margaret (Rhost) Gisel (1848-1939)

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, Arthur Belknap (1869-1955)

My 2nd Great-Grandmother, Martha (Gisel) Belknap (1869-1925)

My 2nd Great-Grandfather, William S. Bost (1859-1932)

My Great-Grandmother, Nannie Jane (Clark) Wells (1880-1969)

My Great-Grandfather, Earl E. Belknap (1895-1960)

My Great-Grandmother, Florence E. Bost (1896-1961)

My grandfather, Edward L. Wells (1905-1955)

My grandmother, Velma Belknap (1913-1999)

My father

Week 25 (June 17-23): Earliest