The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (30 page)

I heard the friends in the Asylum were sick with the influenza but now well except Mr. Turner [the principal]. He is very sick and is likely to be better ... Last week I heard my parents and all were well, tell NancyD. PersisD gives her love to your friends. Please to tell NancyD to write to me. You must not monopolize this letter but not [show it?] publicly. BenjaminD [Samuels s brother] is going to be married in April. "Be silent [...]" Your friend, S[amuel]. RoweD.24

SamuelDs letter presents evidence of a Deaf-World in this early time. It is not just a matter of the bonds between two large Deaf families, which was plain in Aunt Judith's letter, as well as SamuelD's, but it is also a matter of felt and real connections among diverse Deaf people such as the Reed family from Dummerston, Vermont; Amos SmithD from Cambridgeport, Massachusetts; and Homer SmithD in Boston. Understandably, SamuelD was "every day happy" to be with Deaf friends. The school for Deaf children was an important link: Many of the people cited in the letter had attended the Asylum, and the sole hearing person mentioned in the letter is the school's director, William Turner (Weld's successor). Deaf people, like hearing people, were leaving farming at mid-century and taking up trades, many in the mills. This allowed the Deaf to spend much more time in the company of other members of their ethnic group. They were, as a result, less isolated from the hearing world. Through conversations with other Deaf people and travel, SamuelD kept informed about what was happening around him both in a primarily hearing environment and, of course, in his part of the Deaf-World. Newspapers-both the silent press and the hearing press-no doubt helped. The command of English in these letters is impressive. Indeed, Samuel RoweD's examination for ordination was conducted in writing and found "very satisfactory." The mastery of English in these letters is consistent with the claim that the American Asylum was successful in teaching English to many of its pupils in the era when signed language was the vehicle of instruction.25

Four months later, on May 16, 1849, SamuelD wrote to his sister NancyD and brother-in-law George CurtisD.26 In that letter is further evidence of Deaf society and the sheer pleasure of being with people from one's own ethnic group. In the full letter, SamuelD gave details about more than a dozen people, nearly all of them Deaf. Many worked in the mills, which drew Deaf people, as industries would in the centuries to come.

SamuelD wrote in part:

I must ask you first about your health. I think you have known that I left home and repaired to New Hampshire to work at the tailoring trade. I did for four months with sister PersisD but now I am not there but in the "Bay State." For I did not like to continue working at the poor and miserable tailoring trade, as you will think it right for me to leave off my trade when you see that I did not get pay! But sister P[ersis DI is gaining some money pretty well. A week ago last Monday I left Keene, N.H. and went to Nashua N.H., Lowell, [Mass.] and then came to Lawrence [Mass.]. Sister PersisD did not come with me but she is now in Keene. She thinks of coming to Lawrence in the course of next summer, to work with me in the Atlantic Cotton Mill. I have got the good work here, 75 cts a day for five months, perhaps $1 a day when I become a good workman.

Yesterday forenoon I wrote to our old friends in New Gloucester.... I believe you have heard of the marriage of the Vermont lady [Lucy ReedD,] and little fellow BenjaminD [SamuelD s brother]. They spent several days in traveling through the Bay State and then took their steps on the grounds of our old native place last April. What a blessing it is to converse with such a large number of deaf and dumb relatives!

Last month, your brother CurtisD wrote to me mentioning the death of your dear mother.... How are AnnD and OliveD [GeorgeD s sisters] and their father? You know that my visit in Leeds last fall was the last for your mother. I have seen several deaf-mutes, I will tell you all about them. At first I saw Mr. HomerD of Boston, a quite intelligent seaman [and NEGA member]. Second, Mr. Nelson KelleyD-a mischief fellow-he is now in Brattleboro, Vermont, where brother BenjD worked. You remember I told you what BenD said in his letter about AnnD [Curtis]. It was Mr. KelleyD, a great humbug. His wife now is in Nashua, N.H. I saw her and conversed with her-she is industrious and works in the factory [and] earns about $2.50. However, her health is in a poor condition. She says her husband had done a great deal of damages upon her person and property! This is true as what I learned.... I suppose you will recollect the former teacher Mr. DavidD [American Asylum graduate and teacher John DavidD, NEGA member]. He works at the shoe-making trade in Amherst, N.H. about ten miles from Nashua. His wife, Mrs. David [Philenia Emerson] left her two children under the care of her mother and went to Lowell to work in the factory in order to clear their debts for their new home. I think they are smart and prudent and get rid of debts ...

Messers MannD and DennisonD (deaf mutes) both have gone to Calif., the gold region.... I saw Mr. MannD and his wife Miss Robbins; she will go to Nashua to keep house for Mr. Clark. You or the four Curtises know Miss Mary AllenD of Turner, Me., an American Asylum graduate; See Fig. 9, Allen pedigree]. I saw her and talked a little while. I understand she was going to Boston to work on vests in a few weeks; they all are now in Lowell. Miss MaryD s sister, RebeccaD, was married to Mr. BlaisdellD [both were American Asylum graduates.] They moved to Goffstown N.H. a long while ago and work on shoes and boots.... I have not been informed of the health of our dear brother Zebulon's wife [Sarah Toothaker] nor sister Sarah.... Give kind regards to all the Curtis family... I lately heard that the health of friends in Hartford is good. From your affectionate brother, S. RoweD.

Religion played a large part in nineteenth-century lives in New England, hearing and Deaf. Nancy RoweD was raised a Congregationalist, but when she was thirty she joined the Baptist Church and was baptized for the second time, which greatly displeased her former Congregationalist pastor. NancyD wrote to him to explain her actions. The following is a brief excerpt defending her conversion. The quote illustrates NancyDs literacy and the centrality of religion in many Deaf lives:

I am told that I was sprinkled in my infancy, before I have any evidence that I had faith, or indispensable qualification, for obedience to the Gospel. Now dear Brethren, there seems to be an inconsistency, in sprinkling an infant before its mind is formed, or it is capable of judging between right and wrong, good and evil, and afterwards receiving it into the Church as a Baptized member. [NancyD renounced the sprinkling she received as an infant, stating strongly,] I have been baptized in the likeness of my Precious Redeemer, but only once, to my knowledge.27

All Deaf Rowes who married chose Deaf spouses, as did all the Curtises. Lucy RoweD married Ebenezer CurtisD on the death of her first husband. AbnerD Campbell, from a large Deaf clan with eleven Deaf members, married two Deaf Curtises (as mentioned earlier). Benjamin RoweD married Lucy ReedD of Dummerston, Vermont. LucyD could count eight Deaf people among her siblings and their wives. Three years after LucyD's death in 1849, BenjaminD married Ann CurtisD. Nathaniel RoweD married Esther ChipmanD; two decades after he died, his widow married the missionary Samuel RoweD, who was widowed two years before from Sophia KendallD (SophiaD had two Deaf sisters). Further, almost all of the marriages cited in the CurtisRowe letters consist of a Deaf person marrying another Deaf person.

Such marriages were important links among Deaf families, for the children of those marriages would have the combined heritage of their parents' extended families, including their genetic heritage. Figure 18 presents the kinship network that includes the Curtises and the Rowes. The solid lines show families linked to one another by Deaf-Deaf marriages. For example, George CurtisD married Nancy RoweD (upper right), as we have seen, and in so doing linked the Curtis and Rowe families (also linked by the marriages of Ebenezer CurtisD, George CurtisD, and Benjamin RoweD). The Campbell family was linked to Curtis-Rowe by AbnerD s marriage to Olive CurtisD and then to Ann CurtisD. The Reed family joined the Curtis-Rowe-Campbell cluster as a result of Benjamin RoweDs marriage to Lucy ReedD. The Whitcomb and Person families joined the group through the marriages of Adin ReedD. George CampbellD brought the Gibson family into the group with his marriage to Sarah GibsonD, which in turn linked up with the Wakefield family, and so forth.

Figure 18 Kinship network diagram

The dashed lines show connections through the parents of those DeafDeaf marriages. When a couple marries, they link the groom's family to the bride's family, including linking the groom's parents to the bride's parents-and thus the family circle expands. For example, George RiggsD marriage to Margaret ChandlerD also linked the Riggs and Campbell families since GeorgeD s father was a Riggs and MargaretD s mother was a Campbell. Parents' families are linked in the diagram provided there is at least one Deaf person in each of the families.

In all, Fig. 18 presents fifty-two families with Deaf members that were linked to one another. Deaf families were also linked by mixed marriages, such as that of George CurtisD's hearing sister, Sophia, to Thomas BrownD but those are not included in the diagram. These linkages among Deaf families-both marital and parental-shaped the everyday lives of the family members, who traveled to be together, socialized their children together, tended to the ill, sought work for the unemployed, and so on.

The final chapter examines the significance of such Deaf kinship networks for ethnic consciousness and reflects on the outcomes to be expected from recognizing Deaf ethnicity.

Notes

Part IV

Chapter 10

F. G. Thurston and H. S. Cross, Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine, (Freeport, Me.: n.p., 1940).

2 Anon., "Sad Accident in Cuthbert Georgia," National Deaf-Mute Gazette 2(19) (1868): 15.

3 G. W. Chamberlain and L. M. G. Strong, The Descendants of Charles Glidden of ortsmouth and Exeter New Hampshire (Boston: n.p., 1925).

4 Several other graduates of the American Asylum emigrated to California, including Albert Barnard, Edmund Booth, Almond Denison, and Elisha Osgood. See: H. G. Lang, Edmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2004.) Our thanks to Prof. Harry Lang for the identification of Almond Denison.

5 Campbell clan: S. Adams, The History of the Town of Bowdoinham, Maine 1762-1912 (Somersworth, N.H.: New England History Press, 1985); Anon., Window From the Past: A Mid-nineteenth Century View of the Campbells of Bowdoin Maine (S.1.: s.n., 2000); J. E. Bickford, ed., Early Bowdoin, Maine Families and Some of their Descendants (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2002); Bowdoin Historical Society, Bowdoin Bicentennial, 1788-1988: Pictorial History of Bowdoin, Maine, 1788-1988 (Bowdoin, Me.: The Society, Falcon Press, 1988); L. Campbell, Earliest Campbell Families in Maine (Worcester, Mass.: s.n., 1948; L. Campbell, Early Scotch-Irish Settlers and Campbell Families in Maine (S. Harwich, Mass.: MSS New England Historic Genealogical Library); R. T. Cox, E. F. Reed, and T. C. Stuart, Vital Records of Bowdoin Maine to the Year 1892, vol. 3 (Auburn, Me.: Maine Historical Society, 1945); C. N. Sinnett, The Campbell Family in Maine with Ancestry [and name index] (Fertile, Minn: n.p.,1980).

6 Chandlers: M. C. Lowell, Chandler-Parsons ... and Allied Families" (Boston, Mass.: Marvin, 1911); A. M. Riley, "Chandler and Gunnison Traditions" Old Eliot 2 (1898): 152-154.

7 "As originally to Trip of Tripham, County Kent and London, being the only authentic emblem published to this name, and representing a family who have been seated in Kent since the days of William the Conqueror..... Some of the Descendents of Sylvanus who Settled in Kittery, Maine, the Latter part of the Seventeenth Century. Compiled by Benjamin F. Tripp www.u-aizu.ac. jp/--tripp/Tripp.Gene.txt (accessed 7/24/2010).

8 Records of the Deaf and Dumb, Maine District, 1819.

9 M. C. Wilson, John Gibson of Cambridge, Mass and his Descendants 1634-1899 (Washington, D.C.: McGill and Wallace, 1900).

10 The letters are selected from: Anon, Window from the Past.

11 Curtis clan: Bicentennial Committee, "An Account of New Gloucester," Collections of the Maine Historical Society 2 (1847): 151-164; Bicentennial Committee, New Gloucester Images (New Gloucester, Me.: Bicentennial Committee, 1976);W. W. Clayton, History of Cumberland County Maine (Philadelphia, Penn.: Everts and Peck, 1880); T. H. Haskell, The New Gloucester Centennial, September 7,1874 (Portland, Me.: Hoyt, Fogg and Donham, 1875); Maine Deaf and Mute Mission, How The Spirit And Letter Of The Gospel May Be Conveyed To The Deaf Mutes And The Ordination Of Samuel Rowe, A Deaf Mute as an Evangelist at the Congregational Church, West Boxford, Mass., Wednesday, February 20, 1878 (Georgetown, Me., press of Georgetown Advocate, 1878); F. H. Nelson, The New Gloucester Book (Auburn, Me.: Merrill and Webber, 1925.); J. W. Penney, "Records of the Proprietors of New Gloucester and Reminiscences of Some of the Early Settlers ... Read Before the ... Society, November 22, 1895," Collections of the Maine Historical Society 8 2nd series (1897): 263-288; G. L. Rossano, A Subtle Revolution: The Urban Transformation of Rural Life, New Gloucester, Maine, 1775-1930 (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1980).