March 6, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series about the founders of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and their descendants, focusing on Captain Isaiah Folger and Captain Samuel Wyer, and their families. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue with my series on the scions of the founders of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
To recap: My last story introduced the journal of Charlotte Coffin Gardner, who detailed her voyage on board the Sarah Parker with her husband Captain William Bunker Gardner from 1852-1855.
The journal was preserved by her granddaughter Grace Brown Gardner (1888-1973), daughter of Arthur Hinton Gardner and Mary Macy Brown. Grace was a historian, journalist, teacher, and former vice-president of the Nantucket Historical Society.
Grace presented a typed transcription of her grandmother’s journal to a Washington historian, Mrs. Lloyd O. Graves, who in turn brought great recognition to what she considered “one of the most valuable assets to Northwest historical archives.”
The Sarah Parker had been sent by New York interests in the early days of the California Gold Rush to serve in the coastal merchant trade of lumber.
In her journal, Charlotte described the passage from San Franscisco to Puget Sound, where she became acquainted with Washington pioneer families such as the Denny and Low clans.
These families were among the passengers of the schooner Exact, commanded by Charlotte’s Nantucket neighbor and kinfolk Captain Isaiah Folger (1795-1872), son of Hon. Walter Folger and Ann Ray. He married Sarah Starbuck, daughter of Kimbal Starbuck and Mary Coffin. (Read more: Scions of Nantucket Founders (part 3).)
Folger’s name appears on the early settler monument featured in the photograph below, which appeared in an online article 168 years ago, the Denny Party landed at Seattle’s Alki Point.
The Washington historian Mrs. Graves gave talks on Captain Folger’s role in the early settlement of Alki Point. A newspaper covering one of Grave’s lectures on how Capt. Folger brought the Seattle pilgrims from Portland to Alki Point in 1851 gives a background on the captain’s lineage.
This article reports:
Among distinguished members of the captain’s family who settled in Nantucket in 1663, were Abiah Folger, [wife of Josiah Folger and] mother of Benjamin Franklin; Lucretia Mott, Quaker preacher, who pioneered for women suffrage; Maria Mitchell, first woman to discover a comet; and [Hon.] Walter [Brown] Folger, his own father, the intellectual giant of the family. He was an inventor, mathematician, astronomer, and worked out the exact science of navigation by fixed stars. He served two years in Congress, refusing a third term because he thought it undemocratic, and was always giving away his inventions because he thought too much money was bad for him.
Hon. Walter Brown Folger (1735-1826) was the son of Barzilla Folger and Phebe Coleman and twin brother of Nathan Folger.
Another Nantucketer who made voyages out west was Captain Samuel Wyer (1811-1872), son of Timothy Wyer and Sally Coffin. He appears in an entry in Charlotte Coffin Gardner’s journal dated 27 November 1852, when the Sarah Parker was entering the Bay at Talcahuano, Chile, and was greeted by Capt. Wyer, who was commanding the Young Hero. That evening Captain Wyer dined on the Sarah Parker.
Captain Wyer made other voyages to the Pacific on the ships Alexander Coffin and the Enterprise. His wife, also named Charlotte, kept a diary (whaling journal) at sea when she traveled with her husband. This diary is housed at the Nantucket Historical Association. Charlotte Coffin Wyer (1824-1905) was the daughter of Asa Coffin and Phebe Morselander.
To view and read more on the Nantucket wives who sailed with their husbands see: Americana-Archives.
Samuel and Charlotte had two daughters, shown in the below photographs from the Nantucket Historical Association’s Wyer family collection. The photo on the left shows Charlotte Coffin Wyer and her daughter, also named Charlotte Coffin Wyer, who traveled onboard the Young Hero with her mother and her father, Captain Samuel Wyer. She married John Morrisey. The photo on the right shows Harriet “Hattie” Wyer, who married Edward B. Hayden.
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: flag of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Credit: NuclearVacuum; Wikimedia Commons.
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