Snippets from the May 2011 Newsletter

The quarterly newsletter for May, 2011, featured our matriarch, Charlotte Hoyt Holmes. This, to celebrate Mothers Day. Happy belated Mothers Day to all Holmes family mothers, and in June, Happy Fathers Day to Holmes family fathers. The gathering in the photograph above took place in the summer of 1866, in Stamford Connecticut. There, in front of the Congregational Church, our Hoyt relatives posed for their reunion photograph. Aren't their dresses lovely? Given the date, I do not believe any of our direct lineage would be in the photo, although it did say that one person was there from British North America. You can find the article at 

http://www.stamfordhistory.org/ph_0402.htm.

 This letter featured eight milestone birthdays (ends in 0, over 90, 13), 1 new baby in the family tree, 9 graduates, 1 wedding and 1 obituary. 

It included the photo and list of people who attended the second reunion of the DHFHA, (the Daniel Holmes Family History Association) in 1925.

HOLMES FAMILY REUNION
1925
LINCOLN, MAINE

Photo taken at the home of Walter and Villa Warren Steeves' house on East Broadway, Lincoln, Maine.

All rows, left to right:

Back Row: Anna Columbia Heath Holmes, William Nelson Holmes, Caroline Holmes Steeves, James H Holmes, Augusta Corey Holmes, Peter K Holmes, Hannah J Burpee Holmes

Middle Row: Walter Holmes, Mary Weatherbee Holmes, Kate Warren Ballantyne, Luther Holmes, Laura Hall Ballantyne, Kingsley Ballantyne, Walter Steeves, Villa Warren Steeves, Baby Eleanor Steeves, Marcia Jipson Holmes

Front Row: Jerome Steeves, Warren Steeves, Richard Holmes, Carlton Holmes, Roy Ballantyne, Ruth Ballantyne


William Holmes is married to Anna Columbia Heath Holmes. Their children at this reunion are Walter Holmes and his wife, Mary Weatherbee Holmes, Luther Holmes and his wife, Marcia Jipson Holmes.
Richard and Carlton Holmes, children in the front row, are the sons of Walter and Mary Holmes.


Caroline Steeves is the widow of C Alfred Steeves. The reunion took place at the home of her son, Walter Steeves, and his wife, Villa. Jerome, Warren and Eleanor Steeves are their children.


James Holmes is married to Augusta Corey. Peter Holmes is married to Hannah Burpee.


Kate Ballantyne is the widow of Daniel Ballantyne, the son of Sarah Louise Holmes and Robert R Ballantyne. Roy is her son.


Kingsley Ballantyne is married to Laura Hall and their only daughter, Ruth, is in the front row.


I do not have any record of events at this reunion.


The letter also contained a Fen story about the 1923 earthquake in Japan.

EARTHQUAKES IN JAPAN

There have been earthquakes, as well as floods and tornadoes and other bizarre weather patterns, all over the world lately. The pictures are heartbreaking, and it seems that we just get through looking at one, and there is another. I seemed to remember another earthquake story about one of our Holmes ancestors, and went searching in my Holmes reference guide, Fenwicke W Holmes story of his family. From “The Holmes Line” chapter, 2001 edition, I found his story of the 1923 earthquake in Japan, and how it affected this particular branch of our family. Jerome Crane Holmes, missionary to Japan at the time, was the son of William Nelson and Anna Columbia Heath Holmes.

This from Fen:

“Good to hear from you. The 1923 earthquake ended with 140,000 deaths, most of them by fire, although there was a tsunami in Kamakura. The earthquake “struck” at two minutes after noon, when every household had a hibachi going full tilt with the noon meal. Glowing coals and flimsy houses contributed to a holocaust.”

And from his booklet:

“On September 1^st, 1923, Japan was rocked by one of the greatest earthquakes of the century. Cable connection with the Far East was lost. It was over six weeks before it was possible to learn that Jerome Crane Holmes and his Japanese sidekick, the compiler’s foster brother, Masaichi Kamei were alive or dead.

Later we learned that they had survived as a result of a miracle. After a sultry morning lolling around the house, with Jerome lying on a futon reading and Kamei-san (Kimmy) alternately playing his violin or proposing some kind of action, they finally agreed, about a quarter to twelve, to visit the missionary compound and deliver a recipe for Plum Jelly that had been promised to a missionary lady. The Plum Jelly saved both their lives. No sooner had they arrived and uttered their first “Gomen-na-sai’s” than the earthquake hit and knocked everyone and everything down to the ground. They bounced around helplessly while the Methodist church across the compound toppled over, with the steeple falling in the clump of bamboo that they had tried to reach for “safety.” When they finally got back to the beach on the ocean front, the two story house had been leveled. The roof beam had fallen across the futon which had served that morning as the reading couch. A tsunami had swept across the beach, over the sea wall and had inundated the last vestiges of the house. Years later, we would open books that were recovered from the wreckage, to find sand sifting from between the pages. Or, we would try to play some of the family’s cherished 78 r.p.m. Red Seal Records to find Galli-Curchi’s voice irretrievably distorted by sea water and sand.”

Unfortunately, Fen does not have the recipe for Plum Jelly.  Julia Nolte found one in a 1940’s era cookbook, and this summer, unbeknownst as yet to Laura, our old family recipe columnist, we will try this Plum Jelly and see how it turns out. If it’s good, we will post it on our Old Post Road blog with the story. 

Read about Charlotte Hoyt, an article in the newsletter,  in my next post.