The Joining of the Jewett and Pearl Families

The Pearl and Jewett lines merged with the marriage of John Porter Pearl and Maria Jennings Jewett. Maria, the daughter of Ebenezer Jewett II and Nancy Jennings, was born in Hampton, CT on 23 January 1826. John Porter Pearl, the son of Jerome Pearl and Amaryllis Allworth, was born on 14 October 1813 in Wethersfield, CT. They were married 23 February 1847. John and Maria had 8 children, one of whom, was Austen Eugene Pearl from whom we are descended. In Marian Arlene Pearl’s genealogy, “John Porter Pearl was a farmer and a carpenter. He was a Democrat and in his early years held town offices in Hampton. He attended the Congregational Church and was held in high esteem by those who knew him.”

A cute little story is told by Marian Arlene Pearl about how Marie Jennings Pearl’s mother, Nancy Jennings, met Marie’s father, Ebenezer Jewett II, a carpenter. “Ebenezer, II raised the first frame house in town and a large crowd gathered to see it go up, among them was the young Nancy Jennings whom he had never met. Nancy’s father had jokingly promised her, should the new building go up without a hitch, she might marry the young contractor. There was never any doubt as to Ebenezer’s ability. He and Nancy were married in 1824. Ebenezer, II also built the Bell School House in Hampton, which is still standing to this day.”

A little side note about the Jewett’s of Hampton is that Ebenezer Jewett I, Maria (Jennings) (Jewett) Pearl’s grandfather, was one of the Minutemen who responded to General Gage’s call for reinforcements in 1774, and in return for military service was given homestead lands on the hills east of Hampton. Thus the Jewett’s came to Hampton.

Dot Vander Meulen, Pearl Family Historian.

The Story of One Pearl Family During the Time of the American Revolution

It was recently suggested to me that it would be interesting to know about our Pearl ancestors and their involvement in the American Revolution. I have been unable to discover any of our particular Pearl line who did serve in that war. (I would be very interested if any of our readers could provide information to the contrary.) Whether or not they fought in the Revolution, Pearl families were impacted by that war. I did find an interesting story illustrating this in Marian Arlene Pearl’s History which I will relate here. This story is about David Pearl who is the grandson of John the immigrant and the son of Timothy, both our direct ancestors. He was a younger brother of James, our direct ancestor.

David Pearl was born 9 Feb. 1743 in Hampton to Timothy and Mary (Leach) Pearl. He married on 20 March 1769 to Eunice Allen in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She was born in April 1751 in Manchester, MA. She and her parents had moved to Kelley’s Cove, Nova Scotia in 1766. David arrived in 1764 from Saybrook, CT and he settled at the mouth of Broad Brook on 458 acres. Other families were arriving from Connecticut at this time. Eight children were born to David and Eunice in Yarmouth.

In about 1780 David returned to Windham, CT to settle some affairs relating to the will of his father (Timothy) who had died in 1773. Since the Revolution had ended only a few years before, the colonies were somewhat sensitive to the comings and goings of its citizens living on British soil. David had to petition the Boston General Assembly to return to Yarmouth. In this petition (quoted below) he asks the court to grant his petition because he is going to return with his family to New England. The following is copied from ‘The Family Tree of John Pearl’, by Norton Lee Bretz:

“To the Council at Boston and General Assembly May 31, 1780, the petition of David Pearl of Yarmouth, in the Province of Nova Scotia, Humbly Sheweth,

“That your Petitioners late father Timothy Pearl of Windham, now deceased, by his last Will and testament left you Petitioner one hundred pounds of good and lawful money, hearing of which he left Nova Scotia to see about his affairs and arrived in Salem about 5 weeks ago: from thence he went to Windham and settled with the executors of his said father’s late Will, of whom he received a small part and left the remainder in the hands of his executor, vizt, his brother Phillip Pearl. And as your Petitioner intended to return from Nova Scotia with all his other effects and settle in New England as soon as he can settle his business there, which he supposes he will be able to do in the course of the ensuing summer, if he can obtain the leave of this Honorable Court

“Your Petitioner humbly prays you Honor would be pleased to grant him a permit to go to Yarmouth aforesaid and settle his private affairs there and that he may be allowed to carry with him one cask of rum, one cask of molasses, one cask of sugar, and sixteen of eighteen bushels of corn which he has lately purchased in Boston, and your Petitioner will engage to bring up 180 lbs of good Beaver which shall be devoted to the board of War; this your Petitioner is informed that the Officers of this State’s Line in Camp are in great want of hats, he flatters himself, this Honorable Court will indulge him the articles requested as that he may be enabled to get the furs which he assures you Honor is already engaged by him, and that the necessities petitioned for will about discharge the residue of the Debt which he has contracted for the Beaver and bear his other family expenses. Your Petitioner being ready to give bond that the Board of War shall have the quality of fur (which by sundry Persons intimations they are very desirious of procuring) and any other articles of his property they may want.

“Your Petitioner would beg leave to further inform this Honorable Court, that his family consists of six persons and that the stores requested after paying his arreages for the fur will be but very little more than sufficient to supply them up and himself down.

“And as in duty Bound shall Pray

David Pearl”

The following is quoted from Marian A. Pearl’s History of the Pearls:

“Boston June 1, 1780

“State of Massachusetts By, In the House of Representatives, June 7, 1780 ‘On the Petition of David Pearl, praying that he may have liberty to go to Yarmouth in Nova Scotia and carry certain effects with him, and return with his family into this State.

“Resolved, that the prayer and Petition be so granted that the said David Pearl have liberty to go to Yarmouth aforesaid, and to carry with him provisions necessary for his passage there and bring off his family and effects to this State. And all armed vessels of this State are required and the armed vessels of the U.S. of American (sic) are requested not to molest said David Pearl in going to and returning from Yarmouth with aforesaid with his family and effects’

“Sent up for Concurrence in Council June 7, 1780.

Nath. Gorham, Spkr. Pro Tem.

“David Pearl of Yarmouth in Nova Scotia shewing to the Assembly that he is a native of the town of Windham in this State about 15 years removed where he resided without becoming subject to his Majesty Government and desired to return with his family and effects consisting of salt, codfish and bail goods, etc.

“Resolved by Assembly he be given permission to return from Nova Scotia to this State with his family and effects aforesaid residence in the State.”

According to Norton lee Bretz: “David’s request was granted in the State of Massachusetts House of Representatives June 1, 1780. However, he was apparently in no hurry about returning to New England because he was listed in Yarmouth in 1785 and 1791. There is no record of his returning to New England, nor is there a record of the War Board receiving the promised beaver. This is probably the same David who shows up in 1796 in New York City as a shipwright at First St. Bowery in 1797-1800 at Division St. and in 1803 at Cherry St. where he remains until 1812 running a boarding house. David died Jan 10, 1818 in NYC”.

……..D. Vander Meulen, Family Historian

The Brown-Pearl Hall on Display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

In 1925 the Brown-Pearl House was acquired by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and dismantled. The living area was reconstructed as an exhibit hall – an example of colonial architecture and early domestic life. It was taken down and stored 10 or 11 years ago when the museum began construction of the new Art of the Americas Wing.

On Nov. 20th, 2010, the new wing was opened to the public and the Brown–Pearl Hall is again on display as a gallery in the lowest level of the new wing.

A little bit of history as excerpted from Norton Lee Bretz’ “Family Tree of John Pearl” (with additional comments in italics):

“John’s son Richard (the youngest of John Pearl’s sons) purchased the house, barn, and land from Cornelius Brown in 1737. (Our ancestor, Timothy Pearl, had left Boxford and moved to what is now Hampton, CT roughly 30 years earlier.) Mention was made in the deed of 175 acres of this land previously purchased by Richard. Mr. Brown was allowed to live in the house until May 20 of that year. It was on a narrow winding road near West Boxford. Near the time of its purchase, Richard built a grist mill in the rear of the house, the first in the parish. Major additions were put on the house in 1725 and in 1843 when an abandoned parish church was patched onto the building. In 1925, the house was bought by the MFA. It had been abandoned as a dwelling for some years and was rapidly deteriorating. The structure was made of massive hewn, red oak beams, 12 by 14 inches, hand-fit at the supports. The fireplace was over seven feet wide with a lintel made of oak. The architecture was typical of the seventeenth century and one of the best remaining examples of colonial craftsmanship. The living room, which the family knew as the foreroom, is what is now on display at the museum. The original room was 19×19 feet and has an 8 foot ceiling.”

We also have this information from the “History of the Pearl Family” by Marian Arlene Pearl:

“John and his wife Elizabeth Pearl undoubtedly spent the remainder of their life on the Pearl Homestead at Boxford as the youngest son, Richard, was said to have been brought there in a bread trough when an infant. This house stood on a 200 (acre) tract of land laid out originally to John Sandys in 1667. The acreage passed into the hands of Joseph Dowding a Boston merchant who sold it Sept. 10, 1703 to Cornelius Brown of Reading for seventy pounds. Mr. Brown built the house of solid hewn oak timber and it stood true and plumb throughout the years. Alice Heath Fairbank Dow in her Pearl history of Richard’s line states that ‘one of the timbers measures 18 inches and between the inside and outside finish are bricks, larger than modern bricks, solidly laid in mortar and there are two or three wooden latches with the latch string in the house and the one on the south door is very large’ There were no highways when this home was erected and it faced south fronting a field., The road when eventually constructed was laid out at the rear of the house. The Browns lived there many years, the wife Susannah died in 1734 at age 74. The Pearl family occupied one side of it, and during this period it was known as the Brown-Pearl house.”

The house was built around 1704 and in this room the home’s occupants cooked, ate and slept, illustrating New England domestic life in the first years of the 1700’s. Furnishings in the room as now displayed in the Museum are from other early homes and illustrate the multipurpose nature of a 17th and early 18th century hall.

– Dorothy Vander Meulen, Pearl Family Historian (with additional material and comments by Allen Vander Meulen III)

Pearl Settlement in the West

I am fortunate to have recently been loaned the Pearl genealogy/history written by Marian Arlene Pearl. It has been generously shared with me by Marion Emmons who is now in possession of this history of our family. In the process of copying this record I have come across many interesting tales, learned more about the history of our family from the time of John the immigrant,and I have been blessed with more insight into the lives and times of our ancestors. One of the insights I have come to appreciate is the story of the journey of Laura Shellenbarger’s family from Connecticut to the wilds of Ohio. This courageous act typifies the determination and toughness of those who choose to undertake such a dangerous journey.

Laura contacted me after discovering our blog. Her family is descended from Capt. Timothy Pearl, a son of Timothy from whom our Hampton Pearls are descended, and a half brother of James Pearl, our direct ancestor.

Linda Shellenbarger’s great-great-great grandpa, Oliver Pearl, born in Willington, CT in 1788, left Connecticut to pursue opportunities in the west. He had married Mary Sexton in 1811. Oliver was a farmer and he and Mary lived in Ellington, CT for 8 years after their marriage before “trading his farm for 100 acres of heavily timbered land in what is now Berlin Township, Erie County, Ohio. He also acquired 40 acres at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, now a part of Cleveland. With true pioneer courage, this family now consisting of a wife and 4 small children, piled their household furniture and farm equipment into wagons, leaving Connecticut in 1819 for weeks of hazardous traveling. When they reached the pioneer farm at Cuyahoga River, malarial conditions forced them to continue on to their tract of land in Berlin. This was through a wilderness so dense that Mr. Pearl had to cut a road through to enable the teams to haul the wagons. According to history they passed through a Huron Indian village, now the site of the city of Milan, some 8 miles from his homestead. Fortunately, the Indians were friendly at that time to white settlers. Mr. Pearl first erected a cabin of round logs, later replacing it with a more spacious home of hewn logs. This couple was known for their kindness and good works. They helped to organize a Methodist church and were regular in attendance. Ten children were born to this union.”

Some of the information that Marian Arlene Pearl found was in Hewson L. Peeke’s “A Standard History of Erie Co. in 2 vols published in 1916., and The Firelands Historical Soc. Norwalk, Ohio Vol. 111 pg 26 Fireland Pioneers. and Huron Co. D.A.R. records Vol. 2 1812-1939 and Pearl/ History from E. Eldridge, Pearl family Bible.

The Fire Lands resource interested me. In looking up what this referred to, I found the following. The Firelands tract was located at the western end of the Connecticut Western Reserve in what is now the state of Ohio. This land was set aside for people who lived in those Connecticut towns who had lost their homes when the British had burned them during the Revolutionary War. The towns affected were Danbury, Fairfield, Greenwich, Groton, New London, New Haven, Norwalk and Ridgefield. Eventually about 30 towns were established in the Firelands on the southern shore area of Lake Erie. But, apparently not too many people from the above Connecticut towns took advantage of this opportunity, probably because of Indian hostilities around the War of 1812 and the thickly forested land, that was hard to clear for farming. A number of members of Oliver Pearl’s family did move from northeastern Connecticut to this area of Ohio.

Dorothy Vander Meulen, Pearl Family Historian

A Poem: Something to Think About

If you could see your ancesters,

All standing in a row,

Would you be proud of them, or not,

Or don’t you really know?

Some strange discoveries are made

In climbing Family Trees

And some of them, you know, do not

Particularly please.

If you could see your ancesters

All standing in a row

There might be some of them perhaps,

You wouldn’t care to know.

But there’s another question, which

Requires a different view:

If you could meet your ancesters

Would they be proud of you?

…Anonymous. Taken from Marian Arlene Pearl’s “Genealogy of John Pearl and His Descendants in America”

Marian Arlene Pearl’s papers donated

The following information, regarding the Genealogy of John Pearl and his descendants written by Marian Arlene Pearl, is given to us by Marion Emmons.

The Genealogy of John Pearl and his descendants was compiled and written by Miss Marian Arlene Pearl (known as Arlene) who lived in Augusta, ME. Marion Emmons obtained Arlene Pearls papers after her death 22 Oct. 1968. In 1987 Marion Emmons sent 473 copied pages of Arlene’s document to the Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City, UT and they are preserved on microfilm. Copies of the same 473 pages were sent in 1990 to Maine State Library Reference Dept. in Augusta, ME where they can be viewed by tape or typed sheets by the public.