Letters from Family





January 31,
2006
Dear David,
I came across
this clipping which I had meant to send to you. Perhaps I already sent a copy of
it to you. Anyway, in case I didn’t here it is. (see below). If you recall
Great-Grandma Seawright’s obituary mentioned that she had been a a member of the
“Degree of Pocohontas”. For years I wondered what that was. While looking up
something else in an old encyclopedia, I noticed “Red Men”, a fraternal order.
And there in the write-up was the explanation of the Degree of Pocahontas. Much
to my amazement, it had nothing to do with Indian ancestry!
Has anyone in
the family done anymore research on Mary Ann Gadbeau, Great-Grandmother
Seawright’s mother? I can’t figure out how she came here from Paris, was part
Indian.
My mother,
Leona DeLong, is doing well in West Virginia. She gets out and about – belongs
to several organizations. She will be 90 this summer. She used to love to go to
the reunions.
Sincerely,
Connie Mosher
Attachment to
the above letter:
RED MEN.
Improved Order of Red Men. American secret civic and benevolent society
organized at Baltimore, MD, Oct. 14, 1833. Its motto is Freedom, Friendship, and
Charity. Although Indians are not eligible to membership, the society ritual is
founded upon the manners and customs of the red men. Attempts to preserve Indian
relics and traditions are among the aims of the Order, and Indian nomenclature,
sign language, etc., are used in the ceremonies. Non-members are “pale faces,”
the meeting place a “tepee,” the meeting itself a “council fire,” etc. Women
relatives of Red Men may become members of the Degree of Pocahontas. In 1951
there were about 200,000 Red Men.
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July 4, 2006
Dear Dave,
Received the
Hughes North reunion notice yesterday, Monday, and if I don’t sit down and
answer it now, I’ll never get around to it. In the snapshot in the middle
section of William Hughes, the next man is my brother, Floyd Appleton and then
my Dad Lyman Appleton.
You ask about
some of addressing missing [a number of address updates were provided]. My
sister Mary bird is now in an assisted Living Home. She is 98. My son James
DeLong, Jr has been living with me for 3 ½ years. Came to help me care for Ed
when he was so ill and has stayed ever since, except 2 or 3 times a year flies
to see his sons families in Denver. My son Rev Lawrence DeLong now lives in New
Jersey with their 2 adopted 5 year old children Sadie & Seth. His wife, Valerie,
is a Lt. Col. in the Army. It’s so nice to have them closer. They were
previously stationed in Alaska for 3 years.
I’m afraid we
won’t be able to make it to this years reunion. Jim has arranged a DeLong family
reunion in Old forge the following week, with everyone who can coming in from
WVa, Colo, NJ, Mass, Conn, New York, etc. and at my age that’s all I can handle
if I’ll be able to do that. I’ll be 90 on the 6th, the day of the
reunion. My church here is having a big “Meeting at the River” party that day
also, which is always a lot of fun and which we love to attend.
I’m doing
pretty good, I can walk well, after having both hips replaced. Two or three
times a week I do a water aerobics at a local Spa which helps a lot. I’m
certainly lucky to have Jim here. He does all the outside work. We have a double
lot on a side hill, which is quite a challenge to mow and lots of shrubs to keep
trimmed. He also has a nice vegetable garden, where he has already harvested
lots of lettuce and spinach and this week he picked green beans, peppers,
broccoli and pepper .
Jim and I (Ed
used to before he got ill) are active in our local colleges’ Elder Hostel
program. “Lifelong Learning”. We have courses Fall and Spring semester and it is
a lot of fun and keeps us busy.
You probably
wouldn’t have heard but Robert Pearsall, my sister Dorothy’s husband passed away
early in March. She was ill in the hospital at the time and had to stay at a
Rehab facility in Booneville for quite awhile before she could come home. The
funeral wasn’t held until early May (cemetery is closed till May 1st).
Jim and I were able to go up at that time to be with her and help what we could.
It’s a two day trip from here. She is doing quite well now but it’s hard for
her. They had no children.
Hope all is
well with your family and that the reunion is a great success. Hope I’ll still
make it some year.
Love
Leona
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July 17, 2006
Dear Dave
I should have written to you much sooner
but things have been kind of hectic for me. I’m always glad to get a notice
from the Hughes/North Reunion.
1st I want to tell you that
my husband Robert Pearsall passed away on March 6th 2006. He had
been in nursing home in Boonville since May 2005. I was in the hospital at the
time so wasn’t able to have his funeral until May 13th 2006.
Next Mary Bird is my sister. She is
98 and in an assisted living home called the Avalon. (note from Dave – If
anyone would like to write to Mary – I understand that she’s quite sharp –
call me or Email me and I’ll provide the address.)
I think my sister Leona DeLong has given
you information on the DeLongs. I don’t have all of them at this time but I
can get them if necessary.
Also there is a picture of William
Hughes and Lyman Appleton. The gentleman between them and that is my brother,
Floyd Appleton. My full name is Dorothy Appleton Pearsall.
I would like to attend some of the
reunions but am unable to get there. I did go but it’s been over 30 years I
think. I’m 84 now and probably wouldn’t know anyone anymore.
I love to get your notices. I don’t have
any children to add to the list.
Thank you so much for keeping in touch.
Dorothy A. Pearsall.
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July 30, 2006
GRANDMA SEARIGHT as narrated by Mary-Ellen Hughes Vitto
Mary Jane Barrett, daughter of Pall Barrett and Mary
Jane Gadbau, was born on November 2, 1865 in Brasher Falls, New York. When
Mary Jane was about eight years old, her father received a "Bill of
Divorcement" from his wife, Mary Jane Gadbau. Some time after that happened,
Mary Jane Gadbau stood at the gate in front of her ex-husband's house while he
was at work in the fields, and she called to her daughter to come to her. She
then took her daughter away and, to disguise her daughter, she "bobbed"
Grandma's hair, as Grandma used to call it. That meant she cut her hair short,
and Grandma always told us that after that her hair was never again cut.
However, Mary Jane's father did manage to find her and Mary Jane Gadbau went
back to Paris, France. She did not see her daughter again until 1908 when she
returned to this country from France. At that time Grandma Searight was
pregnant with her last child, Mary Searight, and Grandma Searight's eldest
daughter, Inah Hughes Williams, was also pregnant. Grandma Searight recalled
that she hid behind the door when her mother knocked because, at that time,
pregnant women did not "show themselves in public". She was overjoyed to see
her mother again, and one of the things that her mother brought back was
MACARONI, which Grandma had never seen or heard of before. I recall, when
Grandma Searight would come to visit us from time to time, every night when
she got ready for bed, she would brush her hair 100 times, put on her night
cap, read her Bible, say her prayers and then go to bed. I used to sit with
her at bedtime a lot and she would tell me many things.
In 1879, when Grandma was 14 years old, she married
William James Hughes, who was born in 1858, the son of Abileney Curtis and
Benjamin James Hughes, and he brought his bride to live on the Hughes family
homestead in an area called number 4 near Petrie's Corner in the town of
Watson, near Lowville, New York. It is unknown when Benjamin died, but
Abileney later married a Civil War veteran named Philo Radley, and the
newlyweds made their home with his mother and step-father. Mary Jane and
William worked the farmland for his mother. Grandma Searight used to tell me
how hard they both worked. She worked in the fields until her babies were
ready to be born, then walked back to the house, delivered her baby herself,
wrapped it in a cloth which she tied around herself, and went back into the
fields to work until dark!! When we were small children growing up, Mom and
Dad (Sarah and Bill Hughes) would take all of us to the old homestead where
Aunt Mary Hughes (Grandpa Hughes' only sibling) still lived and we would all
go into the woods there to pick blackberries and blueberries, which Mom would
can for the winter. It was a rustic old house, there was no electricity, but
Aunt Mary was a wonderful cook (when she was younger, she used to cook for
some of the big hotels in the Adirondack mountain area) so we always had
something special to eat. Mom especially loved Aunt Mary's jelly roll cake. A
beautiful brook ran beside the house and in mid-July the water in it would be
ice-cold! Aunt Mary had a large wooden box built into the inside bank of the
brook and she kept milk, home-churned butter, cheese, eggs, meat, etc. there.
It had a lid so critters couldn't get at the food. The water in the brook was
as clear as a bell and tasted soooo good! Aunt Mary kept a horse, a couple of
cows, pigs, chickens and I think I remember a goat, too. He probably kept the
grass around the house cut!!!
Mary Jane and William had five children: John
Benjamin Hughes, born 8/20/1880, and he married Lillian North, Mom's sister,
and they had 10 children; Lois Hughes, born 1882, died 1884; Inah Agnes
Hughes, born in 1884, and she married Edgar Williams, and they had 11
children; Lyman Maynard Hughes Appleton, born 8/10/1887, and he married Grace
Yerman and they had 4 children (Lyman was adopted by William and Mary Appleton
after his father died and the Appleton family moved to Old Forge, New York in
1893); William James Hughes, born 8/17/1889, and he married Sarah Anna North
(sister of Lillian North Hughes) and they had nine children. Mary Jane's
husband, William James Hughes, died on June 3, 1890, less than a year after my
father, William Hughes, was born. After that , Great Grandma Abileney didn't
want Grandma to live with her anymore, but she kept John and Inah with her and
sent Mary Jane away with Uncle Lyman and Dad. Mary Jane had to find a job,
which was not easy with two small children to care for, so when the Appletons
asked to adopt Lyman, she agreed but she always kept in contact with him. She
kept Dad with her as long as possible, but eventually she had to place him in
an orphanage, but she never lost contact with him either.
Mary Jane married Henry Wright in 1891 and they had
4 children. One child, Annabelle Wright died in infancy; Newcomb Benjamin
Harrison Wright, born 8/27/1892, married Elmina Graves and they had one child,
Lucille (he later married Pearl Edick Carpenter and had a step-daughter named
Edna Priest); Emma Wright, born in 1893, married Clarence Sackett and they had
6 children; and Eva May Wright, born 5/30/1901, married George Ambrose DeWolf
and they had 2 children. Henry Wright died in 1904.
Mary Jane married Joseph Halliday in 1905 and they
had 1 child. Charles Halliday was born 5/27/1905 and he married Lena Chawgo
and they had 1 child. Joseph Halliday died in 1907.
Mary Jane married Thomas Searight in 1908 and they
had 1 child, Mary, who died in the flu epidemic of 1918. Thomas Searight had 3
children by a previous marriage. Thomas also had a grandson, Charles Searight,
whose parents both had died in the 1918 flu epidemic and Mary Jane and Thomas
raised Charles. Charles had a brother who lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In years past, it was the custom for families to
take into their homes widowed mothers and also aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.,
who needed a place to live. There was no social security or retirement plans
for any of these people and there certainly were no "retirement homes". There
was a poor house, but no self-respecting person would hear of putting a family
member in there. So, our grandmothers, both widows, spent time in one or
another of all of their children's homes, and there were times when both
Grandma Searight and Grandma North visited us at the same time. We were always
happy to have them with us and I always delighted in spending time with them.
They always called each other Mrs. Searight and Mrs. North, never by first
name. Actually, they always called their husbands by Mr., not by his first
name. It was a more polite society in those days. Whenever Grandma Searight
arrived and got settled in, she would ask Mom if she had any socks that needed
darning and Mom would happily hand over a basket full of socks for Grandma to
work on. That's how I learned to darn socks! I learned many things from our
grandmothers as well as from my Mom and my big sister Inah! Each grandmother
had to have a bedroom of her own so the boys all had to share a room and the
girls had to share one also. Sometimes when even more people were visiting,
Verna and I got to sleep with Grandma North who was nice and plump and we
could cuddle up to her and she was wonderful to all of us. When Mom wanted to
have chicken and dumplings, she would always ask her mother to make the
dumplings because she made them perfectly. One of the things I remember
watching Grandma Searight do (once the socks were all mended) was to draw a
picture (a flower pot, a house, a tree, or anything that came into her
head) on a piece of cloth and then she would embroider it, and they were
passed down to many children and grandchildren.
When I was in my early teens, Grandma Searight got a
job keeping house for an elderly gentleman. Mr. Myers would drive to our house
in his old Ford (which looked new, but it wasn't) to pick up Grandma. He was
such a lovely gentleman with beautiful manners. He would greet us pleasantly
and escort Grandma to his car and help her in, and she would go to his house
to clean and cook for him, and after dinner he would bring her home, help her
from the car, bring her in the house and exchange pleasantries again and
leave. Finally they decided to get married so she could live with him and not
have to go back and forth, but, unfortunately, Mr. Myers developed a bad cold
which turned into pneumonia and he passed away two weeks before they had
planned to get married. We were all very sad for him and for Grandma.
I have gone over and over the
Family History book, counting and re-counting and I am sure that by now there
are certainly at least 500 of Grandma Searight's descendants!