February 28, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shows a photo of the 1896 Hale family reunion and shares stories and genealogy of this family, whose ancestor arrived in the New World in 1635. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
I continue with the Hale family reunion photo series. In my last article I featured the Hale family reunion of 1891, and today I focus on 12 August 1896, when 50 Hale scions gathered for the family reunion.
The subjects in this photo are the attendees of the Hale family reunion in 1896.
Individuals in the above photo are not identified, but there is a guest list of some of the reunion’s attendees (see below).
The 1896 reunion took place at Maudsley Pines in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The gathering was across the Merrimack River from “Hawkswood Castle,” a large stone home in Amesbury, Massachusetts, that was torn down in the 1950s.
To recap: Part 1 covered the 1891 reunion and some history of the Hale family who settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, along with about 100 other families.
Most of the attendees were direct descendants of Thomas Hale’s 3rd great grandson Deacon Ezra Hale and Anna (Adams) Hale.
Ezra Hale (1771-1846) is the son of Ezra and Ann (Knight) Hale. Anna Adams (1780-1862) is the daughter of Silas and Lucy (Underwood) Adams.
Deacon Hale served as Newbury’s selectman for 47 consecutive years.
Here is the guest list for the 1896 Hale family reunion. It includes Danforth, Rolfe, Ilsley, Kent, Knight, Reed, Thurlow, Currier, Colby, Little, and Stickney lines who married Hales. If your ancestors came from Newbury lineage, then there is a little bit of Hale in every one!
A note from the reunion day states the following:
“We were extremely fortunate in having Uncle Charles and Aunt Sarah Hale, who had only a short time before (May 5) celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding.”
This would be Charles Henry Hale (1820-1897), son of Deacon Ezra and Anna (Adams) Hale, and his wife Sarah Jane (Adams) Hale (1823-1903), daughter of Sewall and Sarah (Ilsley) Adams.
Here is a newsclip entitled “Their Golden Wedding.” (Note: I added some genealogy to the family members mentioned in this article.)
This article reads:
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Henry Hale today celebrated the 50th anniversary of their wedding, and many relatives and acquaintances extended congratulations.
Mr. Hale was born in Newbury (now Newburyport) in 1820. With the exception of five years, 1849 to 1853, when he was attracted to California, he has resided in this city [Newburyport].
Mrs. Sarah Jane (Adams) Hale was born in Derry, N. H., in 1823, and on May 5, 1846, was married to Mr. Hale by Rev. Pilny B. Day, a Congregational clergyman of her native town. Four children born have blessed the union:
- Sarah Ann Hale (1847-1916), married Moses Bartlett Little, of Newburyport;
- Josephine “Josie” Maria Hale (1848-1917), unmarried, of Newburyport;
- Henry Sewall Hale (1861-1933), married Lizzie Broughton Wiggins, of Newburyport;
- Eliza Adams Hale (1855-1916), married George Wheeler Ordway, of Providence, R. I.
Among those present today were Postmaster John Quincy Adams of Somerville and Henry Sewall Adams, cashier at the Boston Post Office.
Charles H. Hale, a carpenter and builder by trade, was among the many sons and daughters of Newbury’s first settlers to build the sixth and final First Parish Meeting House in Newbury.
Just after midnight on 26 January 1868, the church was burned by an incendiary (see: Leonard Choate: Newburyport’s Infamous Arsonist).
According to Eliza Adams Little and Lucretia Little Ilsley in The First Parish, Newbury, Massachusetts, 1635-1935, it took no time for the community to step up and begin to rebuild.
The ashes of the [meeting] house were still hot when the parish met and voted to rebuild. The building committee, consisting of Messrs. David T. Woodwell, David Hale, Joseph Little, James C. Colman, Edward H. Little, Moses K. Noyes, John N. Rolfe, Joseph A. Lunt, and Joseph Danforth, acted so promptly that the new structure was raised early the next summer.
The architect was Col. Fred J. Coffin, and the contract for building was taken by Charles H. Hale, son of Deacon Ezra Hale. He subsequently associated with himself in the work: George A. Noyes, Giles Adams, and Charles A. Lunt.
A reference to the enthusiasm along with the funds raised was noted in the newspaper soon after.
The 1896 family gathering would be Charles H. Hale’s last reunion. He died on 7 June 1897 at the age of 77. Below is a funeral notice for him posted by the A. W. Bartlett G. A. R. Post 49 Newburyport, which Hale was a member of, requesting all comrades to meet at headquarters in full uniform to attend the funeral service at his late residence at 6 Allen Street.
Another attendee at the 1896 reunion was Agnes White (Stickney) Thurlow (1866-1929), daughter of Enoch Pierce and Sarah Jane Hale (Currier) Stickney (they were covered in Part 1). Agnes married Wallace Weston Thurlow and left descendants.
Other Hale Scions
In his memoirs, author, historian, Unitarian minister, and abolitionist Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) described his childhood as “devoted to play pure and simple.” He married Emily Baldwin Perkins and left many descendants.
Encouraged by their parents Nathan and Sarah Preston (Everett) Hale, the Hale children manufactured all sorts of entertainments, such as annual pictorial graphs recording the exchange of holiday presents. Below is one from Christmas 1869.
A letter written on 26 April 1863 from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by 19-year-old Private Richard Kent Lunt (1843-1863) of Newbury (who served in Company A, 48th Massachusetts Infantry of the Union Army) has been preserved thanks to Spared & Shared. Richard is the son of Captain Abraham Stickney and Elizabeth A. (Kent) Lunt. The letter is addressed to Captain Lunt. Richard was killed in the assault on Port Hudson on 14 June 1863.
To be continued!
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Note on the header image: the Hale family reunion held in 1896. Credit: Hale family descendant Susan York Gagnon.
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