Abby was the youngest of six surviving children born to Abby Hooper Allen and Edward Trask. (There were also two sets of twins born prematurely, who did not survive.) Edward was a provision dealer and later an "inventor and manufacturer of toys and variety wood turner," according to his business card from 1872, which also lists several styles of tops sold in his Salem, Massachusetts store. In 1880, he was elected and served one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the City of Peabody. He's sporting a handlebar mustache in his official legislative photo obtained from the State House. At the time his family was living at 2 Poor's Court in Peabody. Later the family lived at 40 Franklin Street, Peabody, where their daughter Abby was born, and this remained their homestead for many years.
Edward's drinking apparently made home life unpleasant enough that his daughter Abby throughout her adult life maintained an aversion to any form of drinking alcohol. There is a family story that says he used to drive past his own home with his horse and cart and a pretty young harlot on the seat beside him. These escapades were apparently undertaken to annoy his wife. The drinking along with other ailments, including convulsions, took a toll on Edward himself, and he was admitted twice to the State Lunatic Asylum at Danvers and died there on Oct 4, 1892, the day after he turned 49. Abby was just six years old.
I imagine that young Abby would have been encouraged to go out to earn her living as soon as she finished school because her large family had early lost its breadwinner. She graduated from Peabody High School in 1904, and the program from her graduation indicated she belonged to science and Latin clubs, so she seems to have been a bright student. We know from a notebook of hers that Abby was working in 1908 for a millinery shop owned by L. T. Robinson at 255 Essex Street, Salem. Lucy T. Robinson, milliner, died on February 19, 1909, at the age of 71. The death of her employer may have been the reason that Abby later worked as a milliner for Daniel Lowe in Salem, when it was a clothing and jewelry store. Abby took the trolley from Peabody to Salem each day to get to work. The Daniel Lowe building located at 227-231 Essex Street, Salem, was originally built as a church in 1826. Daniel Lowe & Co. became the first mail order catalog company, earlier than even Sears. Daniel Lowe & Co. was in business until 1994 when it was sold to a developer and became a banquet hall.
For a Christmas gift in 1906 we know that Abby's mother gave her a Bible in which was hand written: Abby W. Trask, A Christmas gift from her Mother, 1906. While residing as an adult in Peabody, Abby attended the South Congregational Church there, as attested by the hand written inscription in her copy of Church Hymns and Tunes which reads: Abby W. Trask, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Pew 39. Abby seems to be smiling broadly or laughing in most of her old photographs. Certainly she appears to have been a friendly and lively personality, with a sense of humor. She kept photographs of many high school friends, and seems to have had lots of social interaction.
The story is that George, who lived and worked in Beverly, met Abby, who lived in Peabody and worked in Salem, at a beach picnic. George courted her with a horse and buggy that belonged to his brother Arthur Thompson. Their marriage took place on Feb. 8, 1917, at the Trask family homestead, 40 Franklin Street, Peabody. George purchased land from Hathaway Farm and, in anticipation of his marriage to Abby, built a home on that land at 547 Essex Street in Beverly for a total cost of $3000 in 1917.
Abby Trask's employment as a milliner before her marriage was an early manifestation of her artistic talents. She later made the stencils for the floral motif decoration around the arch at the front of the sanctuary of the Centerville Christian Endeavor Church, where she was a charter member. She created lovely decorative painted designs for wooden trays and boxes in her home. She also did needlework and sewed the children's clothes, sometimes using the sacks from the chicken corn or corn mash for the fabric. Some of the sacks had floral prints on them, perhaps an acknowledgement by the manufacturer that the sacks would have another life as clothing, and some said "Lay or Bust."
Abby frequently used an early edition of the old Boston Cooking School Cookbook for meal preparation, and she was an excellent and practical cook. She loved to make lemon milk sherbet, donuts, apple dumplings, and she baked the family bread. Her daughter Jane remembered the delicious smell of the nutmeg in the donut dough. Her daughter Faith remembered her mother fixing the abundant produce from her husband George's large vegetable garden. Abby was resourceful, and would need her creative powers as her family grew and the family resources were stretched. Mondays were laundry days, and she made her own laundry soap from lard she had saved. She had to make soap flakes from the soap bars by hand, using a knife, so the soap would dissolve easily enough in the wash water when she did the laundry.
George and Abby's youngest child, Jane, was hospitalized for pneumonia and it was while she was still a patient at Beverly Hospital that she learned of her mother's death from breast cancer on Jan. 22, 1941, less than a month after Jane's 15th birthday.
From a narrative by Martha Kaiser.
Edward's drinking apparently made home life unpleasant enough that his daughter Abby throughout her adult life maintained an aversion to any form of drinking alcohol. There is a family story that says he used to drive past his own home with his horse and cart and a pretty young harlot on the seat beside him. These escapades were apparently undertaken to annoy his wife. The drinking along with other ailments, including convulsions, took a toll on Edward himself, and he was admitted twice to the State Lunatic Asylum at Danvers and died there on Oct 4, 1892, the day after he turned 49. Abby was just six years old.
I imagine that young Abby would have been encouraged to go out to earn her living as soon as she finished school because her large family had early lost its breadwinner. She graduated from Peabody High School in 1904, and the program from her graduation indicated she belonged to science and Latin clubs, so she seems to have been a bright student. We know from a notebook of hers that Abby was working in 1908 for a millinery shop owned by L. T. Robinson at 255 Essex Street, Salem. Lucy T. Robinson, milliner, died on February 19, 1909, at the age of 71. The death of her employer may have been the reason that Abby later worked as a milliner for Daniel Lowe in Salem, when it was a clothing and jewelry store. Abby took the trolley from Peabody to Salem each day to get to work. The Daniel Lowe building located at 227-231 Essex Street, Salem, was originally built as a church in 1826. Daniel Lowe & Co. became the first mail order catalog company, earlier than even Sears. Daniel Lowe & Co. was in business until 1994 when it was sold to a developer and became a banquet hall.
For a Christmas gift in 1906 we know that Abby's mother gave her a Bible in which was hand written: Abby W. Trask, A Christmas gift from her Mother, 1906. While residing as an adult in Peabody, Abby attended the South Congregational Church there, as attested by the hand written inscription in her copy of Church Hymns and Tunes which reads: Abby W. Trask, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Pew 39. Abby seems to be smiling broadly or laughing in most of her old photographs. Certainly she appears to have been a friendly and lively personality, with a sense of humor. She kept photographs of many high school friends, and seems to have had lots of social interaction.
The story is that George, who lived and worked in Beverly, met Abby, who lived in Peabody and worked in Salem, at a beach picnic. George courted her with a horse and buggy that belonged to his brother Arthur Thompson. Their marriage took place on Feb. 8, 1917, at the Trask family homestead, 40 Franklin Street, Peabody. George purchased land from Hathaway Farm and, in anticipation of his marriage to Abby, built a home on that land at 547 Essex Street in Beverly for a total cost of $3000 in 1917.
Abby Trask's employment as a milliner before her marriage was an early manifestation of her artistic talents. She later made the stencils for the floral motif decoration around the arch at the front of the sanctuary of the Centerville Christian Endeavor Church, where she was a charter member. She created lovely decorative painted designs for wooden trays and boxes in her home. She also did needlework and sewed the children's clothes, sometimes using the sacks from the chicken corn or corn mash for the fabric. Some of the sacks had floral prints on them, perhaps an acknowledgement by the manufacturer that the sacks would have another life as clothing, and some said "Lay or Bust."
Abby frequently used an early edition of the old Boston Cooking School Cookbook for meal preparation, and she was an excellent and practical cook. She loved to make lemon milk sherbet, donuts, apple dumplings, and she baked the family bread. Her daughter Jane remembered the delicious smell of the nutmeg in the donut dough. Her daughter Faith remembered her mother fixing the abundant produce from her husband George's large vegetable garden. Abby was resourceful, and would need her creative powers as her family grew and the family resources were stretched. Mondays were laundry days, and she made her own laundry soap from lard she had saved. She had to make soap flakes from the soap bars by hand, using a knife, so the soap would dissolve easily enough in the wash water when she did the laundry.
George and Abby's youngest child, Jane, was hospitalized for pneumonia and it was while she was still a patient at Beverly Hospital that she learned of her mother's death from breast cancer on Jan. 22, 1941, less than a month after Jane's 15th birthday.
From a narrative by Martha Kaiser.
Abby was the youngest of six surviving children born to Abby Hooper Allen and Edward Trask. (There were also two sets of twins born prematurely, who did not survive.) Edward was a provision dealer and later an "inventor and manufacturer of toys and variety wood turner," according to his business card from 1872, which also lists several styles of tops sold in his Salem, Massachusetts store. In 1880, he was elected and served one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the City of Peabody. He's sporting a handlebar mustache in his official legislative photo obtained from the State House. At the time his family was living at 2 Poor's Court in Peabody. Later the family lived at 40 Franklin Street, Peabody, where their daughter Abby was born, and this remained their homestead for many years.
Edward's drinking apparently made home life unpleasant enough that his daughter Abby throughout her adult life maintained an aversion to any form of drinking alcohol. There is a family story that says he used to drive past his own home with his horse and cart and a pretty young harlot on the seat beside him. These escapades were apparently undertaken to annoy his wife. The drinking along with other ailments, including convulsions, took a toll on Edward himself, and he was admitted twice to the State Lunatic Asylum at Danvers and died there on Oct 4, 1892, the day after he turned 49. Abby was just six years old.
I imagine that young Abby would have been encouraged to go out to earn her living as soon as she finished school because her large family had early lost its breadwinner. She graduated from Peabody High School in 1904, and the program from her graduation indicated she belonged to science and Latin clubs, so she seems to have been a bright student. We know from a notebook of hers that Abby was working in 1908 for a millinery shop owned by L. T. Robinson at 255 Essex Street, Salem. Lucy T. Robinson, milliner, died on February 19, 1909, at the age of 71. The death of her employer may have been the reason that Abby later worked as a milliner for Daniel Lowe in Salem, when it was a clothing and jewelry store. Abby took the trolley from Peabody to Salem each day to get to work. The Daniel Lowe building located at 227-231 Essex Street, Salem, was originally built as a church in 1826. Daniel Lowe & Co. became the first mail order catalog company, earlier than even Sears. Daniel Lowe & Co. was in business until 1994 when it was sold to a developer and became a banquet hall.
For a Christmas gift in 1906 we know that Abby's mother gave her a Bible in which was hand written: Abby W. Trask, A Christmas gift from her Mother, 1906. While residing as an adult in Peabody, Abby attended the South Congregational Church there, as attested by the hand written inscription in her copy of Church Hymns and Tunes which reads: Abby W. Trask, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Pew 39. Abby seems to be smiling broadly or laughing in most of her old photographs. Certainly she appears to have been a friendly and lively personality, with a sense of humor. She kept photographs of many high school friends, and seems to have had lots of social interaction.
The story is that George, who lived and worked in Beverly, met Abby, who lived in Peabody and worked in Salem, at a beach picnic. George courted her with a horse and buggy that belonged to his brother Arthur Thompson. Their marriage took place on Feb. 8, 1917, at the Trask family homestead, 40 Franklin Street, Peabody. George purchased land from Hathaway Farm and, in anticipation of his marriage to Abby, built a home on that land at 547 Essex Street in Beverly for a total cost of $3000 in 1917.
Abby Trask's employment as a milliner before her marriage was an early manifestation of her artistic talents. She later made the stencils for the floral motif decoration around the arch at the front of the sanctuary of the Centerville Christian Endeavor Church, where she was a charter member. She created lovely decorative painted designs for wooden trays and boxes in her home. She also did needlework and sewed the children's clothes, sometimes using the sacks from the chicken corn or corn mash for the fabric. Some of the sacks had floral prints on them, perhaps an acknowledgement by the manufacturer that the sacks would have another life as clothing, and some said "Lay or Bust."
Abby frequently used an early edition of the old Boston Cooking School Cookbook for meal preparation, and she was an excellent and practical cook. She loved to make lemon milk sherbet, donuts, apple dumplings, and she baked the family bread. Her daughter Jane remembered the delicious smell of the nutmeg in the donut dough. Her daughter Faith remembered her mother fixing the abundant produce from her husband George's large vegetable garden. Abby was resourceful, and would need her creative powers as her family grew and the family resources were stretched. Mondays were laundry days, and she made her own laundry soap from lard she had saved. She had to make soap flakes from the soap bars by hand, using a knife, so the soap would dissolve easily enough in the wash water when she did the laundry.
George and Abby's youngest child, Jane, was hospitalized for pneumonia and it was while she was still a patient at Beverly Hospital that she learned of her mother's death from breast cancer on Jan. 22, 1941, less than a month after Jane's 15th birthday.
From a narrative by Martha Kaiser.
Edward's drinking apparently made home life unpleasant enough that his daughter Abby throughout her adult life maintained an aversion to any form of drinking alcohol. There is a family story that says he used to drive past his own home with his horse and cart and a pretty young harlot on the seat beside him. These escapades were apparently undertaken to annoy his wife. The drinking along with other ailments, including convulsions, took a toll on Edward himself, and he was admitted twice to the State Lunatic Asylum at Danvers and died there on Oct 4, 1892, the day after he turned 49. Abby was just six years old.
I imagine that young Abby would have been encouraged to go out to earn her living as soon as she finished school because her large family had early lost its breadwinner. She graduated from Peabody High School in 1904, and the program from her graduation indicated she belonged to science and Latin clubs, so she seems to have been a bright student. We know from a notebook of hers that Abby was working in 1908 for a millinery shop owned by L. T. Robinson at 255 Essex Street, Salem. Lucy T. Robinson, milliner, died on February 19, 1909, at the age of 71. The death of her employer may have been the reason that Abby later worked as a milliner for Daniel Lowe in Salem, when it was a clothing and jewelry store. Abby took the trolley from Peabody to Salem each day to get to work. The Daniel Lowe building located at 227-231 Essex Street, Salem, was originally built as a church in 1826. Daniel Lowe & Co. became the first mail order catalog company, earlier than even Sears. Daniel Lowe & Co. was in business until 1994 when it was sold to a developer and became a banquet hall.
For a Christmas gift in 1906 we know that Abby's mother gave her a Bible in which was hand written: Abby W. Trask, A Christmas gift from her Mother, 1906. While residing as an adult in Peabody, Abby attended the South Congregational Church there, as attested by the hand written inscription in her copy of Church Hymns and Tunes which reads: Abby W. Trask, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., Pew 39. Abby seems to be smiling broadly or laughing in most of her old photographs. Certainly she appears to have been a friendly and lively personality, with a sense of humor. She kept photographs of many high school friends, and seems to have had lots of social interaction.
The story is that George, who lived and worked in Beverly, met Abby, who lived in Peabody and worked in Salem, at a beach picnic. George courted her with a horse and buggy that belonged to his brother Arthur Thompson. Their marriage took place on Feb. 8, 1917, at the Trask family homestead, 40 Franklin Street, Peabody. George purchased land from Hathaway Farm and, in anticipation of his marriage to Abby, built a home on that land at 547 Essex Street in Beverly for a total cost of $3000 in 1917.
Abby Trask's employment as a milliner before her marriage was an early manifestation of her artistic talents. She later made the stencils for the floral motif decoration around the arch at the front of the sanctuary of the Centerville Christian Endeavor Church, where she was a charter member. She created lovely decorative painted designs for wooden trays and boxes in her home. She also did needlework and sewed the children's clothes, sometimes using the sacks from the chicken corn or corn mash for the fabric. Some of the sacks had floral prints on them, perhaps an acknowledgement by the manufacturer that the sacks would have another life as clothing, and some said "Lay or Bust."
Abby frequently used an early edition of the old Boston Cooking School Cookbook for meal preparation, and she was an excellent and practical cook. She loved to make lemon milk sherbet, donuts, apple dumplings, and she baked the family bread. Her daughter Jane remembered the delicious smell of the nutmeg in the donut dough. Her daughter Faith remembered her mother fixing the abundant produce from her husband George's large vegetable garden. Abby was resourceful, and would need her creative powers as her family grew and the family resources were stretched. Mondays were laundry days, and she made her own laundry soap from lard she had saved. She had to make soap flakes from the soap bars by hand, using a knife, so the soap would dissolve easily enough in the wash water when she did the laundry.
George and Abby's youngest child, Jane, was hospitalized for pneumonia and it was while she was still a patient at Beverly Hospital that she learned of her mother's death from breast cancer on Jan. 22, 1941, less than a month after Jane's 15th birthday.
From a narrative by Martha Kaiser.
Inscription
THOMPSON
----------------
ABBY W. THOMPSON
1885-1941
GEORGE THOMPSON
1887-1965
FAITH C. THOMPSON
1920-2010
Family Members
Siblings
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