Friday From The Collectors - October 31

THE MANY WIVES OF ELISHA WILLIAMS, SR.
A HALLOWEEN TALE

Midge Frazel
Granite In My Blood

I’m on a quest to photograph and research as many gravestones of my ancestors as I can. Most are buried in New England in the states of CT, MA and RI and some date back to the early 1700s. My immigrant ancestors were stone-cutters in their native country of Scotland, hence the name of my blog.

Tombstone
Isaac Denison

The spookiest graveyard I have visited holds many important, ancient gravestones. While exploring the graves my husband and I both have experienced an unsettled feeling in the Whitehall burying ground in Old Mystic, Connecticut that we don’t feel in any of the many other local or distant cemeteries we visit.

Whitehall Entrance
Old Mystic, Connecticut

Whitehall
The gloom and the gleam

It may be because my mean tempered 5th great grandfather Elisha Williams, Sr. who is buried there may be justifiably haunted by the women in his life. Unlucky in love, Elisha married three local women, each of whom, died before him. He finally married a widow who outlived him and is the only one not buried by his side. With only two children surviving to adulthood who had different mothers, Elisha was known by the community to be controlling, self-centered and angry.

Tombstone
Elisha Williams, Sr.

Elisha locked his teenage daughter Eunice in her room to wait for the man he chose for her to marry. Eunice, having her father’s defiant nature, had other ideas as she had her eye on Isaac Denison, who was not her father’s choice. With her father gone to get his chosen son-in-law, Eunice climbed out her second story window, jumped to the ground and ran to her dead mother’s brother’s home for sanctuary. She had to stay there until her father cooled off. Eunice got her way and married Isaac a short time later when she was eighteen. Isaac and Eunice were the parents of a dozen children and lived a privileged life for their time and certainly teenage Eunice’s choice of husband worked out just fine. Did her father hold a grudge?

Tombstone
Eunice Williams Dennison

With some research, I discovered that Elisha named each successive daughter after his previously deceased wives. Is this the reason his wives haunt him to this day? Read more about Elisha and his family in the Granite In My Blood blog.

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Copyright © 2008
Midge Frazel
Granite In My Blood