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Capt. Horatio Nelson Blanchard

Birth
Freeman, Franklin County, Maine, USA
Death
17 Dec 1863 (aged 29)
Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA
Burial
Weymouth, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
View Source
Called Nelson, he would die before having a chance to hold his daughter, baby Lizzie.

He began adult life as a mariner. Hence, his title was not military, but meant sea captain. He switched his work from his first choice, to what he loved less, but let someone whose body was slowly "consumed" by TB/tuberculosis stay close to home, even work out of the home. That was boot-making.

His mother was said to have died of the same disease.
She was Sarah Dudley Blanchard, aka Sally", buried where this former mariner had been born, in the rural place of Freeman, Maine. His widowed seafaring father removed his surviving children from Maine, back to Weymouth, the Blanchards' original seacoast place, at Boston's south edge.

The disease had not yet emerged in this son. However, the move was too late to save him.

Doctors of his time called the spreading illness "consumption", but moderns know it as tuberculosis (TB). Living in close quarters near infected people, for a lengthy period, was a factor, making Boston's tenements a danger. However, he had not grown up in tenements. What else mattered?

A baby could catch the bacterium, but not show signs until adulthood. Nursing was normally very beneficial to a baby, but not if the mother had TB. Similarly, milk for an older child gives the child strong bones and beneficial tryptophan, but drinking unpasteurized milk from TB-infected cows could be a bad idea.

Once the disease was better understood, TB's spread inside the home might be stopped by testing for TB and then sending victims at a contagious stage to sanatoriums, a variation on quarantining. Safety was better achieved by a simple prevention, pasteurizing milk or otherwise cooking it, but people did not know that in his mother's time. Antibiotics would be the solution that closed down the sanitoriums.

Horatio's death record was kept by the town, stating cause of death, marital status, and his latest occupation. The last to report his preferred occupation, as a mariner, had been the 1850 US Census, when he was still single and apparently healthy, living at his father's house in Weymouth. His journey from there, to death, took 13 years.

WIFE RUTH MARIA SHAW. Knowing people who sailed the seas would have been a bond for Ruth and the man who preferred Nelson or H.N. to Horatio. Her grandfather (Capt. Nathaniel Shaw) had been a mariner, also.

In 1860, Nelson married Ruth Maria Shaw. They lived with her parents as newlyweds, maybe did so through his death. He was counted as "H N" in the Shaws' 1860 US Census. Both he and his father-in-law, Oran P. Shaw, were listed as boot cutters in 1860, implying someone else did the stitching and sewing after they cut. Was Oran sick as well?

Ruth became pregnant. Horatio died before baby Lizzie's birth. Ruth remained with her parents, through at least the 1865 state census. Baby Lizzie was not listed, already deceased.

Some people are naturally resistant to TB, some of them may not be contagious. By the 1870 Census, Ruth had married again, to Andrew Bouker, a carpenter by trade, often working in open spaces, not crowded together with others. They had a small boy, Charles O., age 1 by then, born Illinois, with Andrew's work perhaps taking them there for a year or two, before they returned east to be counted in her parents' household in 1870.

On a happy note, Ruth's second baby would live long. At his late-in-life wedding in 1942 in NH, someone would list his parents as Ruth Shaw and Andrew "Bowker", so he may be buried as Bowker. A family source said O. stood for Oran, so he'd been named for grandfather Shaw.

We know Ruth's beginning but, not her burial details. She had been baptized as infant "Ruth Marria", thus had her parents named. (The minister wrote her parent as "Oren and Elizabeth", her birth date as Feb 26, 1841, under "Weymouth Births", in "Vital Records of Weymouth", p.273, that book viewable at archive.org. )

Stephen Condacure's "Genealogy of New England" said her mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Loud. Her father was not listed there as Oren, but as "Oran Prentice Shaw" (full family tree seen at GenealogyOfNewEngland.com/f_387.htm, as of late 2016).

Ruth's mother died in the 1870s. Ruth's father would remarry Sophia Gifford. Sophia gave Oran two more children, a junior as son and a Ruth C. as daughter. The birth of that second Ruth indicated that this first Ruth had died.

Horatio's father-in-law, Oran Prentice Shaw aka Oran Prentiss, was among the last of the many children of Capt. Nathaniel Shaw (born Abington, died Weymouth). Nathaniel had married Jane Tirrell.

Oran the senior died in 1888 in Weymouth, still married, occupation now "farmer", indicating he had good health after his stint at boot-cutting.

His death records said a happy thing, Oran died elderly, of something ordinary, heart disease. Perhaps the TB scourge, a killer of the too young, had finished, for a time?

His survivors listed Oran's father correctly. Oran's mother Jane had died 50 years earlier, so few of the living still remembered her. The name of Jane's mother and daughter, both called Lydia, had instead stayed in people's minds, so survivors mis-listed Oran's mother as Lydia Tyrrell.

Oran's death: FamilySearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6327-SXV

BABY LIZZIE. Horatio and Ruth's daughter, Lizzie Nelson Blanchard, would be born just a few months after Horatio's death. The date was March 14. The baby died on April 30, 1865, so was not in the 1865 Census. No stone has been found.

BURIAL. Money was often scarce for TB-stricken families. The ability to pay for stones waned as savings depleted.

As of late 2016, no cemetery had been found for either of Oran's wives, nor for Oran, nor for Ruth. It seems likely that multiple of those dying would be buried nearby, as Oran had lived in Weymouth through 1888 and Oran's parents are buried there.

Ruth's second husband died in 1913, with their son signing the record as survivor, spelling the name as Andrew Gardnier Bowker. An elderly widower, still a carpenter before his 11 months at Boston State Hospital, he was listed as Boston-born. His address prior to the hospital had been on Washington St. in the part of old Dorchester called Mattapan. The Mattapan part of Dorcester has since been annexed into Boston proper, as part of its south end. That record clearly stated he would be buried at So. Weymouth Cem.:
Andrew's Death: Familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99JL-Y458

========================================
Called Nelson, he would die before having a chance to hold his daughter, baby Lizzie.

He began adult life as a mariner. Hence, his title was not military, but meant sea captain. He switched his work from his first choice, to what he loved less, but let someone whose body was slowly "consumed" by TB/tuberculosis stay close to home, even work out of the home. That was boot-making.

His mother was said to have died of the same disease.
She was Sarah Dudley Blanchard, aka Sally", buried where this former mariner had been born, in the rural place of Freeman, Maine. His widowed seafaring father removed his surviving children from Maine, back to Weymouth, the Blanchards' original seacoast place, at Boston's south edge.

The disease had not yet emerged in this son. However, the move was too late to save him.

Doctors of his time called the spreading illness "consumption", but moderns know it as tuberculosis (TB). Living in close quarters near infected people, for a lengthy period, was a factor, making Boston's tenements a danger. However, he had not grown up in tenements. What else mattered?

A baby could catch the bacterium, but not show signs until adulthood. Nursing was normally very beneficial to a baby, but not if the mother had TB. Similarly, milk for an older child gives the child strong bones and beneficial tryptophan, but drinking unpasteurized milk from TB-infected cows could be a bad idea.

Once the disease was better understood, TB's spread inside the home might be stopped by testing for TB and then sending victims at a contagious stage to sanatoriums, a variation on quarantining. Safety was better achieved by a simple prevention, pasteurizing milk or otherwise cooking it, but people did not know that in his mother's time. Antibiotics would be the solution that closed down the sanitoriums.

Horatio's death record was kept by the town, stating cause of death, marital status, and his latest occupation. The last to report his preferred occupation, as a mariner, had been the 1850 US Census, when he was still single and apparently healthy, living at his father's house in Weymouth. His journey from there, to death, took 13 years.

WIFE RUTH MARIA SHAW. Knowing people who sailed the seas would have been a bond for Ruth and the man who preferred Nelson or H.N. to Horatio. Her grandfather (Capt. Nathaniel Shaw) had been a mariner, also.

In 1860, Nelson married Ruth Maria Shaw. They lived with her parents as newlyweds, maybe did so through his death. He was counted as "H N" in the Shaws' 1860 US Census. Both he and his father-in-law, Oran P. Shaw, were listed as boot cutters in 1860, implying someone else did the stitching and sewing after they cut. Was Oran sick as well?

Ruth became pregnant. Horatio died before baby Lizzie's birth. Ruth remained with her parents, through at least the 1865 state census. Baby Lizzie was not listed, already deceased.

Some people are naturally resistant to TB, some of them may not be contagious. By the 1870 Census, Ruth had married again, to Andrew Bouker, a carpenter by trade, often working in open spaces, not crowded together with others. They had a small boy, Charles O., age 1 by then, born Illinois, with Andrew's work perhaps taking them there for a year or two, before they returned east to be counted in her parents' household in 1870.

On a happy note, Ruth's second baby would live long. At his late-in-life wedding in 1942 in NH, someone would list his parents as Ruth Shaw and Andrew "Bowker", so he may be buried as Bowker. A family source said O. stood for Oran, so he'd been named for grandfather Shaw.

We know Ruth's beginning but, not her burial details. She had been baptized as infant "Ruth Marria", thus had her parents named. (The minister wrote her parent as "Oren and Elizabeth", her birth date as Feb 26, 1841, under "Weymouth Births", in "Vital Records of Weymouth", p.273, that book viewable at archive.org. )

Stephen Condacure's "Genealogy of New England" said her mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Loud. Her father was not listed there as Oren, but as "Oran Prentice Shaw" (full family tree seen at GenealogyOfNewEngland.com/f_387.htm, as of late 2016).

Ruth's mother died in the 1870s. Ruth's father would remarry Sophia Gifford. Sophia gave Oran two more children, a junior as son and a Ruth C. as daughter. The birth of that second Ruth indicated that this first Ruth had died.

Horatio's father-in-law, Oran Prentice Shaw aka Oran Prentiss, was among the last of the many children of Capt. Nathaniel Shaw (born Abington, died Weymouth). Nathaniel had married Jane Tirrell.

Oran the senior died in 1888 in Weymouth, still married, occupation now "farmer", indicating he had good health after his stint at boot-cutting.

His death records said a happy thing, Oran died elderly, of something ordinary, heart disease. Perhaps the TB scourge, a killer of the too young, had finished, for a time?

His survivors listed Oran's father correctly. Oran's mother Jane had died 50 years earlier, so few of the living still remembered her. The name of Jane's mother and daughter, both called Lydia, had instead stayed in people's minds, so survivors mis-listed Oran's mother as Lydia Tyrrell.

Oran's death: FamilySearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6327-SXV

BABY LIZZIE. Horatio and Ruth's daughter, Lizzie Nelson Blanchard, would be born just a few months after Horatio's death. The date was March 14. The baby died on April 30, 1865, so was not in the 1865 Census. No stone has been found.

BURIAL. Money was often scarce for TB-stricken families. The ability to pay for stones waned as savings depleted.

As of late 2016, no cemetery had been found for either of Oran's wives, nor for Oran, nor for Ruth. It seems likely that multiple of those dying would be buried nearby, as Oran had lived in Weymouth through 1888 and Oran's parents are buried there.

Ruth's second husband died in 1913, with their son signing the record as survivor, spelling the name as Andrew Gardnier Bowker. An elderly widower, still a carpenter before his 11 months at Boston State Hospital, he was listed as Boston-born. His address prior to the hospital had been on Washington St. in the part of old Dorchester called Mattapan. The Mattapan part of Dorcester has since been annexed into Boston proper, as part of its south end. That record clearly stated he would be buried at So. Weymouth Cem.:
Andrew's Death: Familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99JL-Y458

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