A Visit From a Birth Uncle

CONNIE LENZEN, CG

E-mail: clenzen@oregonvos.net

The Search for David Lufkin and Caroline Kelsey,

Parents of Susan Josephine (Dudley) Titus

By Connie Lenzen

Page 4, A Visit From Ben Rowe Kidder, a Birth Uncle

One sunny summer afternoon in 1973, Tzilla (Titus) Miller related her memories of her mother's adoption search. She said her parents located Ben Rowe Kidder, her mother's "genetic" uncle. Uncle Ben Rowe Kidder (she said it as all one word) came to visit the family in Charlotte, Michigan. This was when she, Tzilla, was not yet ten years old, around 1896-1897.

Her recollections of the visit included these bits:

Ben Rowe Kidder was a sea captain. Tzilla had a little vase that he brought back from Africa. To prove this, she brought out a three-inch high terra cotta container.

Ben Kidder's wife was a Lufkin.

Marshall was the name of Ben Kidder's sister

Ed Lufkin, of Ohio, was a cousin to Ben Kidder's wife.

Caroline Lufkin had consumption. She lived for many years in Texas before she died.

Analysis:

We have to take several items into account when we analyze this story.

Tzilla was raised in a family where children were seen and not heard and where the elders never talked about sensitive matters in front of children. As a child, Tzilla may not have been told the "whole" story.
She was young when she saw Uncle Ben Rowe Kidder, and she was recalling the visit many years later. Relationships and names of the individuals may have mixed together.
Uncle Ben Rowe Kidder may have heard about the adoption search and taken advantage of it. We need to verify his reputation as a truthful person.

The analysis is on-going. Some has been done, and more needs to be done.

Search for Documentation on Uncle Ben Rowe Kidder.

Point Number 1: the sea captain.

Findings: This part of the story is correct.

We find Benjamin Rowe Kidder on the 1900 census, living with Frank and Eliza C. Blatchford in Gloucester, Massachusetts [1]

Blatchford, Frank, head, Oct 1857, 42, married 24 years, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, carpenter, 1 month not employed, owns home, mortgaged

Blatchford, Eliza C, wife, born Dec. 1859, 40, married 24 years, bore 1 child, 1 living, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Massachusetts

Kidder, Benjamin R., uncle, May 1820, 80, widowed, born Massachusetts, father born Vermont, mother born Massachusetts, sea captain, 0 months unemployed

Note: Eliza B. C. Kidder, daughter of Henry Kidder, wed Frank Blatchford, at Gloucester in 1876.

We can follow Benjamin Rowe Kidder in the US censuses.

1880 Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts [2]

Note; Gorham Norwood was the head of the household dwelling 235, family 330. Since it is often necessary to place our subjects with their support group, the inhabitants of the entire dwelling are listed.

Norwood, Gorham, 55, Massachusetts

Norwood, Julia C, 34, wife, Maine

Rowe, Eliza, 76, mother, Massachusetts

Rowe, Amos, 49, works in quarry, Massachusetts

Rowe, Elizabeth A, 42, wife, Massachusetts

Norwood, Lizzie C, 22, daughter, Massachusetts

Rowe, Nellie G, 13, daughter, Massachusetts

Bowers, Rev. Edwin D, 35, clergyman, Massachusetts

Bowers, Sarah M, 32, wife, Massachusetts

Bowers, Charles E, 12, son, Massachusetts

Kidder, Benj R., 60, grocer, Massachusetts,

Pool, Catherine, 45, housekeeper, Ireland

Pool, Caleb, 13, son, Massachusetts

1870 Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts [3]

Family 50

Wallace, David, 72, grocer, $1500 real estate, $800 personal estate, born Mass.

Wallace, Mary K,66, Mass.

Wallace, James S, 23, fruit peddler, Mass

Kidder, Benjamin, 49, stone cutter, Mass.

Eliza, 50, $900 real estate, Mass.

Towards the bottom of the page:

Dwelling 43, family 58

Butman, John, 48, stone cutter, $2000 real estate, $2500 personal estate, Mass.

Butman, Mary D, 46, Mass.

Butman, Phoebe G, 16, Mass.

page 8, continuation of same household:

Blatchford, Fred, 12, Mass.

Blatchford,Mary B, 10, Mass.

Dwelling 44, family 59

Stevens, George, 32, fisherman, Mass.

Stevens, Esther, 29, Mass

Stevens, George F, 9, Mass.

Stevens, Millie, 4, Mass.

Butman, John W, 24, stone cutter, Mass.

Butman, Margaret E, 22, Mass.

Garvey, William, 40, stonecutter, $4000 real estate, $2000 personal estate, born Massachusetts

Garvey, Maria, 43, Massachusetts

Garvey, Anna M, 20, school teacher, Massachusetts

Garvey, Eldon, 16, Massachusetts

Garvey, Rhoda, 14, Massachusetts

Kidder, Benjamin R., 42, master mariner, $1000 real estate, $300 personal estate, born Maine

Eliza, 39, Massachusetts.

1850 Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts. [5]

Dwelling 1405 (William Garvey household)

Family 2099:

Garvey, William, 32, stonecutter, born Massachusetts [Nothing entered in the column for value of real estate.]

Garvey, Maria, 36, Massachusetts

Garvey, Ann M., 10, Massachusetts

Garvey, Silva, 6, Massachusetts

Garvey, Rhoda W, 4, Massachusetts

White, Clonnis [sic], 33, Mariner, Maine

White, Sarah, 36, Maine

Kidder, Benjamin H. [sic], 29, Mariner, Maine

Kidder, Eliza, 31, Massachusetts

Point Number Two: Kidder's wife was a Lufkin.

Findings: This is not true.

Our first task here is to determine who was his wife. In 1850, she is Eliza, age 31, born in Massachusetts.

In Morgan Stafford's A Genealogy of The Kidder Family, [6] we find this:

p. 151

210 Luther Heaton Kidder (Thomas, Aaron, Thomas, John, James), born at Rockingham, Windham Co., Vt., 11 July 1793; died at Rockport, Mass., 14 Jan. 1888, in his 95th year. He married at Sandy Bay, Parish of Gloucester, now Rockport, Mass., 28 Sept. 1819, Hannah Hill Rowe of Gloucester, born there, 18 Sept. 1792, died at Rockport, 21 Apr. 1882, in her 90th year, daughter of Job and Lois (Lufkin) Rowe.

Children [Kidder]:

527 i. Benjamin Rowe [Kidder], b. at Gloucester, 15 May 1820.

ii. Pamelia Boothby, b. at Concord, Somerset Co., Me., 5 Dec. 1825; d. unm. at Rockport, 28 Mar. 1846.

528 ii. Henry Norwood, b. at Concord, Me., 11 Dec. 1827.

iv. Elizabeth Parlin (triplet), b. at Gloucester, 27 Aug. 1832; m. there 27 Oct. 1853, Edward Groton Slocum of Newport, R.I., b. there 7 Nov. 1815, son of William and Hannah Slocum.

p. 302-303.

527 Benjamin Rowe Kidder (Luther Heaton, Thomas, Aaron, Thomas, John, James), born at Gloucester, Mass., 15 May 1820; died at Riverdale (Gloucester), Mass., 31 July 1901. He married at Manchester, N.H., 18 Jan. 1846, Eliza Cummings Butman, born at Rockport, Mass., 14 Aug. 1819; died there, 25 Dec. 1879, daughter of John Pool and Maria Butman.

Benjamin Rowe Kidder was an active and public spirited ciitzen of Rockport, Mass. In early life he followed the sea, principally in the East India trade, as ship captain and trader. During the Civil War he was placed in charge of transports on the Mississippi River, rendering valuable service to his country. He was an early promoter of the Sandy Bay Harbor of Refuge, and was held in high esteem by his fellow citizens. He was a member of Ashler Lodge, A.F. & A.M.

child:

i. Bennetta, b. at Rockport, 25 July 1848; d. there, 4 Aug. 1849.

Point Number Three: Marshall was the married name of Ben Kidder's sister.

Finding: This appears to be incorrect, too.

Birth records for the Kidder siblings are found in Gloucester, Masachusetts birth registers. [7] The source of the information is given as: "Family Record in possession of Mrs. Pamela B. Blackstone." Whether Blackstone had first hand knowledge of the information is not known.

Children of Luther Heaton Kidder and Hannah Hill (Rowe). [Note: Hannah was the daughter of Job and Lois (Lufkin) Rowe.]

Benjamin Rowe, May 15, 1820

Pamela Boothby (at Concord, Maine) Dec. 6, 1823. [Stafford's Genealogy of the Kidder Family shows her dying a Rockport in 1846, unmarried.]

Henry Norwood, (at Concord, Maine.) Dec 11, 1827

Elizabeth Parlin, (triplet), Aug. 27, 1832. [Stafford's Genealogy of the Kidder Family shows her marrying Edward Groton

George Norwood (triplet), Aug 27, 1832

William Norwood (triplet) Aug. 27, 1832

Point Number Four: Ed Lufkin of Ohio is a cousin to Ben Kidder's wife.

Turn to page 5, Ed Lufkin