The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (33 page)

THE BUTLER-EDWARDS CLAN

In the seaport of Thomaston, adjacent to Waldoboro, lived the family of John Butler and Mary Stone and their five children of whom three were Deaf. Thomaston was established on the eastern bank of the St. George River, then considered the boundary between New England and New France. In the Butlers' day it had numerous mills, kilns, shipyards, and quarries. The progenitor of this family was Steven Butler, who immigrated with his wife, Sarah Edwards, from Braintree in England to Hartford, Connecticut, in the early 1600s. (Thus there appears to be no connection to the Nicholas Butler family of Martha's Vineyard whose progenitor was from Kent.) In Hartford, Steven Butler and his wife had two sons, Richard and William, who established two Maine branches of the family that would have Deaf descendants: the one in Berwick that included Mary ButlerD (1790), the other ultimately in Thomaston that included the three Deaf children of John and Mary. The oldest, HannahD, a tailor, married Oliver DeeringD, a carpenter (see next family); they attended the American Asylum but at different times and both were active after graduation in the Mission. The two Deaf sons, JohnD and JamesD, a stonecutter and a trucker, married Deaf women. A hearing son married a hearing member of the Ludwig clan.8

THE DEERING CLAN

The progenitor of the Deering family was Roger, who emigrated in the mid-seventeenth century from Devon, England, to Kittery, Maine; he was a mariner and shipwright. One of his sons initiated a branch that would culminate in William DeeringD, a farmer in Richmond, Maine. (Richmond, the nearest Kennebec landing to Bowdoin, was where GeorgeD Campbell lived.) William DeeringD married Katy FletcherD of Massachusetts in 1885. Both had attended the American Asylum, as well as its reunions. This line of descent included marriages with the Boothby family, which had two Deaf scions in Waterboro, and with the Sawyer family (see Titcomb clan) with at least four Deaf members.

Roger Deering's second son, Thomas, initiated a branch that descended to Oliver DeeringD, who lived in Saco, Maine. Saco is situated beside Saco Bay on the Gulf of Maine, about fifteen miles south of Portland. Settlers first arrived in 1631. The village grew steadily throughout the eighteenth century as farming, lumbering, and shipbuilding prospered. By the time of the Revolution, the growth of international commerce in the town required a customs house. Shipbuilding brought to the area a steady flow of carpenters (among them Oliver DeeringD), riggers, and the like, as well as blacksmiths and, of course, mariners. These in turn caused an influx of doctors, lawyers, traders, joiners, masons, shoemakers, tailors, and cabinetmakers.9 In the nineteenth century, numerous cotton mills were opened on the western falls of the Saco River.

OliverD first married his schoolmate Hannah S. ButlerD, as mentioned above, and after she died in 1858, he married another schoolmate, Hannah Sweet RichardsonD, a tailor from Newburyport, Massachusetts. HannahD had a Deaf brother and two Deaf sisters; their parents, Moses Richardson and Sophia Foster, were cousins. Sophia's pedigree included six Deaf members as far as we have ascertained.l° The Richardson progenitor was Samuel, who emigrated from Hertfordshire, England, to Woburn, Massachusetts. Hannah RichardsonD s siblings were EllenD, MosesD, and NancyD. The first two apparently did not marry; NancyD married a hearing man.

THE FRANK-SMALL-SKILLIN CLAN

This clan, based in Gray, Maine, some sixteen miles north of Portland, has fifteen Deaf members. There were five in the family of Josiah Frank and Mary Small. There were three in the family of Thomas Frank and Lucy Small. William Frank and Susanna Frank (who were cousins) had two children, JosephD and SarahD, who attended the American Asylum as did their second cousin, FrancisD. Their hearing sibling, Sewell, married Sarah SkillinD (who had three Deaf relatives). The Frank progenitor was Thomas, born 1665, who emigrated from Bedfordshire in England to Gray, Maine. The Skillin progenitor was Thomas Skillings (or Skilling or Skillin) born 1614 in Suffolk, England, who immigrated to Portland, Maine. Turning to the Small family, Susan Small and Andrew Libby, also of Gray like the Franks, had a Deaf daughter MatildaD. Joseph and Cynthia Small, cousins, had two Deaf children, AlbertD and FrancesD in Danville, Maine. Both attended the American Asylum as did Albert's wife, Clara SeavernsD. MarshallD and AshleyD Small of Bowdoin bring the count to fifteen. (In Bowdoin or right adjacent to it lived Lyman TrippD, George CampbellD, and William DeeringD.) The Small progenitor was Francis, born 1625 in Devon, who immigrated to Cape Cod; one branch of the family settled in southern Maine, ultimately in Gray. Susan HigginsD, who had five Deaf relatives, lived in Gray, as did Hiram HuntD (treasurer of the Mission) and his wife HarriettD, and Matilda LibbyD. Further, Gray is adjacent to New Gloucester where the Rowe family with eight Deaf members dwelled."

THE PERKINS CLAN

Ephraim Lord Perkins and his wife, Elizabeth Furbish, of Sanford, Maine, were related and had five hearing children and three Deaf daughters, two of whom-PhoebeD and SallyD-attended the American Asylum. Sanford is located on the Mousam River about thirty-two miles south of Portland. PhoebeD married Moses CurtisD, a Deaf ship carpenter, descended from the Curtis progenitor, William of Kent. The Perkins progenitor emigrated from Warwick in England and these Perkins descended from one of his sons, Jacob. Another son, Thomas, established a second branch, and a prosperous branch it proved to be. In 1797, the eminent portraitist, John BrewsterD Jr. was commissioned to paint ten portraits of the Perkins extended family. The third branch of the family had Deaf issue in the person of Freeland PerkinsD of Woodstock, Maine, who married Joanna GlinesD in1866; both had attended the American Asylum and both were members of the Mission.12

THE TITCOMB CLAN

The pedigree of the Deaf Titcombs connects with those of the Deaf Tripps, Pattersons, Sawyers, and Pikes. Samuel Bitfield, born in Somerset, England, in 1592, and his wife Elizabeth Parker settled in Essex County, Massachusetts. Two of their daughters would found two distinct branches of the family that would intermarry generations later. Elizabeth Bitfield married William Titcomb. Their sixth generation descendant, George Titcomb, was the father of five Deaf children with Jane Patterson, who had two Deaf relatives and a progenitor from Ireland. The couple lived in Cumberland, Maine, adjacent to Gray, six miles north of Portland and twenty from Saco. The oldest of their children, George TitcombD Jr., married Cordelia SawyerD of Saco. CordeliaD, had several Deaf relatives; she was a descendant of the other Bitfield daughter, Ruth, and her husband William Sawyer. George had three Deaf sisters: NancyD, who married John PooreD; SophroniaD, who married DavidD Porter; and a third sister yet to be identified. GeorgeD also had a brother, Augustus TitcombD, who was a well-known figure in the Maine Deaf-World, a member of the NEGA and the Mission, an Asylum alumnus who went to its reunions and who attended the Gallaudet Centennial in Boston. AugustusD married a schoolmate and fellow Mission member, Elizabeth PikeD, who lived close to Saco. Elizabeth's cousin Horace PikeD was married to Elizabeth TrippD, from the large Deaf Tripp family of whom we spoke earlier. The Titcomb genealogist states:

Augustus Titcomb was a sea captain and he resided at Saco, Maine, until his wife's death when he apparently moved to Concord New Hampshire (N.H. vital records). A grandson states that he was deaf and dumb from birth. (Mr. Clifford E. Titcomb, Keene, N.H. to Mr. C. Philip Titcomb, Medford, Mass., 14 Mar. 1933). If this is true it is difficult to understand how he could have led the active life of a sea captain as he undoubtedly did.13

THE NASON CLAN

Richard Nason and his wife, Sarah Baker, emigrated prior to 1639 from Stratford-Upon-Avon in England to Kittery, Maine, at the New Hampshire border. Four of their sons established lineages that culminate in Deaf members. In the first branch, fifth generation, ElizabethD (1743-) was the daughter of Azariah Nason and Abigail Staples who had at least two Deaf relatives. Elizabeth had a hearing brother, James, who married Lydia Kennard and they had six hearing and two Deaf children, DavidD and JohnD. The progenitor of the Kennard family was Edward, who was born in Kent and emigrated from Portsmouth, England, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The second branch of the Nason family leads to Mary NasonD; her parents were William Nason and Keziah Lord. We have ascertained three Deaf Lords, whose progenitor is Nathan, born in Kent and died in Berwick, not far from Kittery. The third Nason branch includes four Deaf Nasons: the earliest is ElizabethD (1776-). Three generations later, FlorenceD, ViolaD, and LeilaD Nason lived in Waterboro, not far from Sanford. The three women did not attend the American Asylum. All three married hearing men; LeilaD had a Deaf son. Finally, a fourth branch of the Nason pedigree includes the three Deaf children of Hannah and Amos Nason, who were cousins. NabbyD, RichardD, and MaryD all lived in Berwick, home town of the Jellisons. Hannah and Amos's parents were Richard Nason and Mercy Ham, who were cousins. The Ham family of Strafford, New Hampshire, counts four Deaf members.14

THE WAKEFIELD-LITTLEFIELD CLAN

Some years after George CampbellD died, his wife, Sarah GibsonD, married George WakefieldD, of Brownfield, Maine, who had nine Deaf relatives. (Both were Mission members; see Fig. 16, Campbell pedigree). GeorgeD would later be affiliated with the National Deaf-Mute College (today, Gallaudet University). George WakefieldD also married Martha PondD, who had had two other Deaf husbands, each with Deaf relatives, Lothario LombardD from Oxford, Maine, and John PageD. PageD, a carpenter from Saco, Maine, married Mary BennisonD from a Deaf family in Massachusetts; both joined the Mission. The Wakefield family progenitor, John, was born in Kent in 1615 and emigrated with the Littlefields, of whom Elizabeth would become his wife.15 The Littlefield progenitor, Edmund, was born in Titchfield but the family name has Kentish origins. The two families settled initially in the seacoast town of Wells, the third town to be incorporated in Maine. Littlefield established a sawmill and a gristmill on one of the many nearby rivers, as early as 1640. Indian Wars took a devastating toll on the settlers but after the Revolution, Wells prospered from shipping and trade with the West Indies and Europe. In Wells, John Wakefield and his brother-inlaw received a grant of one hundred acres and a license to sell liquor to the Indians. Wakefield and Littlefield descendants occasionally intermarried. Frederick LittlefieldD and his sister, ElizabethD, and George WakefieldD and his wife, Sarah GibsonD, were all graduates of the American Asylum and members of the Maine Deaf-Mute Mission. Three other Wakefields attended the school, DanielD, EstherD, and HelenD, all of Gardiner, Maine, on the Kennebec.16

THE LIBBY CLAN

The progenitor, John Libby, emigrated from Kent and was one of the first settlers of Scarborough, Maine. Libby's Neck and Libby's River are so named in tribute. The town is adjacent to Saco and Portland. Libby had eleven Deaf descendants in all by his first and second wives. One branch begins with son John; four generations later, Charles Libby married his cousin, Mary Libby, and they had two Deaf children, WilliamD and LetticeD in Scarborough. A second branch begins with son David, who had a Deaf granddaughter, MarthaD, and great great granddaughters EuniceD and ShirleyD. Finally, descended from a third son, Matthew, born in Kittery of John's second wife, we have, DeborahD, whose parents were cousins, and MatildaD, of whom we spoke earlier in connection with her mother's family, the Smalls. MatildaD had a Deaf nephew and niece, HenryD and MarthaD Hicks. Through marriage between the Libby and Hunter families, HarrietD, LottieD, EstellaD, and WilliamD Hunter were born; the three women took Deaf husbands. The Libby family intermarried as well with other Deaf families such as the Larrabees, Skillings, and Dyers.17

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DOMINANT TRANSMISSION

As the Brown pedigree shows (Fig. 2), the marriage of William B. SwettD and Margaret HarringtonD produced two Deaf and three hearing children. Thomas B. SwettD and Ruth StearnsD produced three Deaf children and one hearing child. We hypothesize that the Swetts received a single dominant gene arising from grandfather Nahum BrownD; therefore, we expect that half of their offspring would also receive the dominant gene and hence be Deaf themselves. Taking the two families together, five of their children were Deaf and four hearing, compatible with the hypothesis that they received a dominant gene. Their wives' ancestry and genetic status are unknown. If Margaret HarringtonD and her husband both had a dominant gene, three-fourths of their children would be Deaf. If on the other hand MargaretD was Deaf due to a recessive gene or to illness, that would not affect whether her children were Deaf or not. Since only two of her five children were Deaf, they were likely Deaf due to the dominant gene of their father. Turning to William Swett'sD brother, ThomasD, who married Ruth StearnsD, three of the four children of this couple were Deaf. Ruth StearnsD was apparently recessively Deaf as she had a Deaf brother and her parents were both hearing; accordingly, her genetic endowment did not affect her children. Similarly, Thomas BrownD who married Mary SmithD inherited a dominant gene from his farther and the couple had one hearing and one Deaf child. Mary SmithD (Fig. 6) was apparently recessively Deaf since she had consanguineous hearing parents, she had Deaf relatives, and she was descended from James Skiffe of Kent; accordingly the fact that she was recessively Deaf did not affect her children.

Since we know of no Deaf relatives of Sarah Maria Gibson and she declared the cause of her being Deaf as "brain fever," we assume that she was Deaf for adventitious reasons and has no bearing on the Brown pedigree.

Francis LovejoyD (1768-1841), the first Deaf member of the Lovejoy clan (Fig. 12, Lovejoy pedigree) had Kent ancestry (Hannah House) and could therefore have a recessive gene like many hearing and Deaf people on the Vineyard. But he is succeeded by four generations of Lovejoys with Deaf members none of whom appears to be consanguineously married. All of Francis's Deaf descendents who have children have Deaf children and none of his hearing descendents do (see note)18. This result is consistent with the hypothesis of dominant transmission. If Francis was indeed Deaf due to dominant transmission, we expect approximately half of his children to be Deaf and half of the children of his Deaf descendants to be Deaf as well. We count eighteen Deaf and thirty hearing descendants which is not inconsistent with the dominant gene hypothesis.19 Other branches of the Lovejoy family give evidence of recessive transmission (see below).