Another woman to research curtsey of the Mowry clan: Ann Caroline Holmes

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
I recently came across the obituary of Ann Caroline Holmes (nee Mowry) & her husband Henry Holmes. The Holmes' were involved in both Abolition & Temperance & were founding members of the Free Church which used to sit on Main St, across from the Rough & Ready Firehouse. Cool, right? But, she was also a nurse during the Civil War. The following is a quote from the obituary

In 1864, moved by her country's needs and the sufferings of its sick and wounded defenders, she hastened, in company with Miss Prudence Fitch of Battenville and Miss Phebe Bernard, now Mrs. F. A. Gale of this village, to the hospital at Frederick City, Maryland, where she served for three moths as head nurse, with her companions and assistants. Here her business, energy and experience in the care of the sick, and her cheerful disposition were of greater value and the soldiers, turning to look after her as she passed along, said her presence was a ray of sunshine and called her "Mother."^

 I got excited yesterday when I located her on page 85 of the book Emma Willard and Her Pupils: Or, Fifty Years of Troy Female Seminary, 1822-1872 on Internet Archive. How unsatisfying that it neither mentioned her service during the Civil War, nor her aid in the fight for Abolition & Temperance. It simply mentioned who her parents were: William & Lydia (nee Whipple) Mowry, who her husband was & how many kids they had. So disappointing.

The unusual bit in the obituary was regarding her physical description. Apparently she resembled her so much that she was mistaken for Elizabeth Cady Stanton!

Elizabeth Cady Stanton- suffragist*

*image from Accessible Archives
^People's Journal. February 11, 1875

Preparing for the big move...

It appears spring has finally sprung, as it always does, here in Greenwich. Just this morning traffic was backed up from the Mowry/Corliss/Main intersection to Cottage Street behind the street sweeper. Kids & adults alike were walking to the Greenwich Free Library without winter coats.

My new office is coming along nicely, but my packing is not. Every time I decide to look through something with the intention of putting it into a box, I come across really cool stuff. Stuff that must be perused & read right now!

Today, was just such a day. I opened the Historic Resources Survey boxes to see if there was anything on Riddle Road to aid in an e-mail inquiry (just a nondescript record on The Owl Pen) & realized that there was a wealth of information in those boxes. Plus, I need to go through & put the records in folders & label them. That will be my project next week! Oh, the survey was done in preparation for Greenwich's nomination for Historic District designation from the National Register of Historic Places & the National Park Service. Check it out here.

I found some information regarding the Lowber Lime Kilns in Bald Mountain & Old Lock 12 of the Champlain Canal. If any of you have been on the Facebook page you have seen the photo I posted, but there were a few others.So I ran them trough my new app "Photo Grid" & voile!

1981 images of the Lime Kilns with a 21st century shot of the marker

Mash-up of 1981 images and my 2009 photos

I also found some interesting historical "papers" included in the survey that I will be reading & sharing with you. An obituary on Ann Caroline Holmes (nee Mowry) really caught my attention. More research is needed there I think!

I'll leave you with images of my new/ old offices. I haven't been this excited since I got upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98! (Now I have Vista.)

work in progress- new Historian's Office upstairs

current vs. new- so much bigger