‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Betsy Putnam (1777-1860): I Am Not Afraid to Go Into the Woods
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR185th in a Series Joshua Putnam is buried in Holton, Maine. His wife, twosons, two grandsons and two great-grandchildren are buriedin Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery. Betsyand Sterne Putnam”™s graves were marked at one time butthe tablets have disappeared and all that remains are thebases. Elizabeth “Betsy” Putnam lived to the ripe old age of 83 years and ten months. This might not seem unusually old by 21 st -century standards but Betsy was born in 1777. Bearing in mind that averages are simply that””averages””the average life expectancy for someone born around the time of the American Revolution was 36 years old.In 1796, when she was 19 years old, Betsy married Joshua Putnam, a man who could trace his family”™s beginnings in what was to become the United States back to the arrival of John Putnam in 1634. Two of John”™s sons played [...]
Early African American Barbers in Minneapolis
William Goodridge (photo credit John Vincent Jezierski) Tales of Pioneer and Soldiers Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR 184th in a series Barbershops have long played a key role in African- American communities. In addition to providing gathering places, they have often provided a path to economic independence for African- American entrepreneurs. In “Cutting Across the Color Lines,” historian Quincy Mills noted that: “Barbers were members of the black middle class in the nineteenth century, and their shops were among the most numerous of black businesses in the 20th century.” Barbers were among the more prominent and most well respected members of the community. In the 1859 City Directory, Ralph T. Grey was listed as one of only six barbers in Minneapolis. He was the father of Toussaint L”™Ouverture Grey, the first African-American child born in St. Anthony, and the son-in-law of William Goodridge, a barber and entrepreneur, [...]
A Good Time to Be Born
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR 182th in a Series John Wesley and Elinor Lockwood lost three children between 1881 and 1889. Five-year-old Lottie died from typhoid in 1881. Eight-month old Harry died from cholera infantum in 1885, and seven-month-old Lawrence died from pneumonia in 1889. Each of those diseases is treatable or preventable today. It”™s a good time to be born. Photo: Tim McCall Despite being bombarded daily with alarming news stories about the novel coronavirus, there is good news about health. In a recent New York Times article, Dr. Perri Klass declared this to be a good time to be born. Children born in the United States today are likely to live longer than their parents and the diseases that killed so many children in the past are very much relics of the past. It is, she wrote, “A good time to be born.” In the early 20th century, that was not the case. As many as 20% of [...]
