March 26, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about the extended Quimby family line, featuring a famous inventor, and includes many family photos. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Recently I worked with Kathy Williams Curtis of Massachusetts to research her Mayflower lines. Based on this genealogy, she was accepted into the Maine Mayflower Society under passenger James Chilton, whose daughter Mary married John Winslow, the brother of Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow.
Kathy shared some family photos of her ancestors from her grandmother Gertrude Quimby’s branch, which includes allied families Hall, Cram, Lane, and Dockum. She also asked me to find more information about an invention credited to her 4th great-grandfather John Cram.
Getrude Colby Quimby, daughter of Leone Francis Quimby Jr. and Mabel Frances Colligan, married Mayflower descendant Langdon Foster Farwell, son of Howard Peak Farwell and Sarah Franes Dunbar.
Getrude’s grandfather Leone Samuel Quimby Sr. married Elizabeth Frances Hall (1853-1935), daughter of David Francis Hall and Sarah “Sally” Abbott Cram.
Elizabeth’s mother Sarah Abbott Cram Hall (1830-1881), daughter of the inventor John Cram and Sarah “Sally” Abbott Lane, married David Francis Hall (1828-1893), son of David Hall and Elizabeth Field.
The inventor John Cram was one of 12 children born in Belknap, New Hampshire, to John Washington Cram (1780-1859), son of John Cram and Sarah Hoyt, and Polly Dockum/Dockham (1778-1861), daughter of Thomas Dockum/Dockham and Dorothy Batchelder.
The inventor John Cram (1803-1888) married Sarah Abbott Lane.
According to sources, in 1855 John Cram created an armless chair that resembles the modern folding chair. In his patent filings, John Cram mentions an earlier patent by J. Middleton. Unfortunately, there are no records of any patent before the year 1855. There is no evidence to show the related work of an inventor by that name.
Cram’s patent is recognized globally as the earliest patent related to the history of the folding chair. After John, numerous patents for other folding chairs were filed. These patents feature various styles and modifications to the folding chair.
A newspaper article from 1855 reported that John Cram and John S. Cram had received a patent for “improvement in folding chairs.”
I found his application for the patent, with images of the chair and a written description providing further details.
One of the 1855 Cram folding chairs went to the auction block on 10 June 2019 at Flannery’s Estate Services, New York, Lot 55.
The 1870 U.S. Census lists John Cram, age 67, and his wife Sarah Abbott, age 68, living in Boston, and identifies him as the “inventor of folding furniture.”
I found a later patent issued by the House of Representatives dated 10 January 1871 for the invention of a churn (washing machine) listing John Cram and John S. Cram.
In the patent reported in the 1855 Daily Atlas newspaper article shown above, both John Cram and John S. Cram are listed as living in Boston, Massachusetts. However, in this 1871 patent report, John S. Cram is listed as living in Chicago, Illinois.
I believe John S. Cram was John Shepard Cram (1845-1917), born in New Hampshire to John Shepard Cram and Clarinda Gregg. I am not sure how this Cram is connected to John Cram. More research is needed, and I would love to hear from readers who may have this family line.
The death record for John Cram lists him as an inventor who died at Danvers State Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts, on 13 February 1888. A genius indeed – who would be among the many placed in a sanitarium.
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Note on the header image: eight of the children of John Washington Cram and his wife Polly: (standing, left to right): Dr. Elizabeth Sanborn Cram Fenno (wife of Stephen Fenno); George Washington Cram (husband of Sarah Holden); and Elvira Catherine Cram Stevens (wife of John Nelson Stevens); (seated, left to right): Polly Cram Maloon (wife of Greenleaf Maloon); Nancy Cram Lane (wife of William Lane); Amos Cram (husband of Jane Sanborn Prescott); Mary Jane Cram Parsons (wife of Joseph Parsons); and Dr. John Cram (husband of Sarah Abbott Lane). Credit: Kathy Williams Curtis.
