LETTER TO A LOVED ONE:

LETTER TO A LOVED ONE:

THE NOONAN/PARKER LINE

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The progenitor of the Noonans on my Family Tree was Captain James Noonan, born ca. 1730 in Ireland. He was apparently an educated man (one source lists him as being educated at the University of Dublin), as is evidenced by the fact that he was, after his arrival in Gouldsboro Point, Maine (forced to leave his homeland "because of political differences with the English"), a surveyor. A copy of one of his surveys survives today.

Captain James Noonan served in the Revolutionary War, and married Abigail Allen, the daughter of Tobias Allen, Sr., another of the early settlers of Gouldsboro Point. James drowned in Grand Marsh Bay in 1787, leaving Abigail a widow. Thus, Abigail Noonan appears as head of the household on the 1790 census, along with her remaining children at that time.

The oldest son of Captain James and Abigail Noonan was Captain Timothy Noonan. Timothy married Sarah "Sally" Babbage, and they had twelve children, a number of which apparently felt the call of the sea, sometimes with tragic results. Their oldest son, Daniel N. Noonan, born in 1817, was apparently murdered while at sea, although the details of the crime contain discrepancies. There is a monument in the cemetery in Prospect Harbor, Maine, on which there is a memorial to Daniel which reads: "In memory of Capt. Daniel N. Noonan who died at sea on board Brig ROBERTTA on her passage from Georgetown S.C. to St. Croix W.I. July 24, 1851, ae. 34 yes. 2 mos.. 25 days." In contrast to those sketchy details is an interview with Daniel's grandson, Captain Arthur L. Strout, reported in a 1988 article in the Ellsworth American newspaper:

"My maternal grandfather, Captain Daniel Noonan, was murdered during a mutiny on a voyage in the brig UBERTA from North Carolina to St. Kitts in the Virgin Islands. In North Carolina, his white crew, including the mate, deserted ship, and my grandfather was obliged to sign on a Negro mate and Negro sailors. After taking on the crew, he set sail for St. Kitts. In a sea chest in his cabin was a large amount of freight money.

During some part of the voyage, the mate shouted down the companionway for grandfather to come up on deck, and, as the captain emerged, the mate brained him with a small log. After the murder, the mate threw grandfather's body overboard and the voyage continued to St. Kitts. The mate broke open the chest of grandfather's, stole the freight money, and assumed command of the brig. Upon arrival at St. Kitts, he planned to sell the UBERTA and pocket the money resulting from the sale.

But it happened that when the UBERTA dropped anchor at St. Kitts, there was a vessel already there from Millbridge. The captain was a Prospect Harbor man who was one of grandfather's close friends. This captain almost immediately went aboard the UBERTA to visit grandfather, and he suspected that something was wrong when the mate told him that grandfather had died of fever and had been buried at sea. His suspicions were strengthened when he saw the Negro was wearing grandfather's suit and was also in possession of grandfather's watch. He immediately notified the American Consul, and the latter brought about the arrest of the mate and the crew. Under pressure, one of the crew babbled the story of the mutiny and murder and the mate was hanged without the formality of a trial. On the gravestone in the Prospect Harbor cemetery, erected to grandfather's memory, are inscribed the words that tell of his murder on the high seas many years ago. I have often heard my mother tell this story.”

The article goes on to suggest several possible reasons for the mutiny of the first crew and the crime committed by the second, saying perhaps Daniel was a tyrannical captain, or there was some external circumstance (such as bad food or a plague) of which we are unaware. As for the discrepancies between the above story and that which is briefly outlined on the Prospect Harbor monument, it is suggested that perhaps the Noonan family did not want the word "murder" used on the stone, for whatever reason!

Daniel was not the only child of Timothy and Sally Noonan to die at sea. Another son, Henry Eliot Noonan, a mate on the brig ROLLING WAVE, was lost at sea in 1854 while on passage from Baltimore to Rio de Janeiro.

The son of Timothy and Sally Noonan who is my direct ancestor appears to have made it through his sea-faring days unscathed. James N. Noonan (1818-1881), in fact, is described as a "master mariner" in one source. My father had always told me that James N. Noonan (his great-grandfather) was some sort of merchant seaman. In a box in my parents' attic, we found further evidence that this was indeed true. Folded up and placed in a very tiny envelope (in which was also found a lock of beautiful red hair) was a letter, handwritten by James N. Noonan to his wife, Catherine Parker Noonan (my namesake). The letter is dated April 9^th, 1855, and appears to have been written while James was in port in Gibraltar. The stationary on which the letter is written has an embossed mark in the upper left corner (a monogram -- perhaps "O&M" -- inside a sort of shield), probably the logo of the shipping company for which James worked. The text of the letter (with original spelling and grammar left intact) is presented below.

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Gibberalter April 9^th/55

Dear wife

i take my pen in hand to inform

you that am well and i hope you

and the two little kittens is the same

i have got Discharge and should be

next up to sail tomorrow for

Cadiz if the wind will let me

to load with salt for New York

i don't expect to be in Cadiz

more than a week and by the last

of may I will be in N York

i feell lonesome and all most

home sick i have not got any

company here there is but one

American vessel here so i have

nothing new to write kiss the two

little babys for me and tell Sarah

to be a good girl and I will bring

her home something that is pretty

give my best respects to your

father and mother Delia and Asineth

Elizabeth Jason and all the rest of

the family and all inquiring

friends

J N Noonan

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Also proof of the sea-faring nature of James N. Noonan is his discharge paper, a document used by early seamen as a sort of passport, to be shown in various foreign ports of call to prove American citizenship. James's discharge paper describes him in 1837 as "an American Seaman, aged nineteen years, or thereabouts, of the height of five feet five inches, sandy complexion, red hair, blue eyes." (Apparently we now know who the lock of red hair came from!)

James N. Noonan apparently returned safely from his travels abroad, and he and his beloved wife, Catherine, eventually had a son, who they called Henry Everett. Henry made his living more on land than his forebears had, working as a harness-maker and engineer. The family of his future wife, a woman named Elizabeth Huss, was originally from Rhineplatz, Germany. Elizabeth and her parents, Alois and Katherine Grimm Huss, came to New York sometime after her 1853 birth, and reportedly had a carriage business on Long Island. Thus, Henry's first contacts with her family were probably due to business, conducted after his family moved from Maine to Brooklyn, New York. Henry and Elizabeth had two children, James Everett and Lillian Elsie, born only a year apart. Lillian Elsie (who always preferred to be called Elsie and was not pleased when the Borden Company adopted a cow named "Elsie" for its logo...) grew up to become my paternal grandmother.

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My paternal grandmother, Lillian Elsie Noonan Barnes, the last of my Noonan ancestors, was indeed, very nearly the last of her kind in many ways! She was born in Brooklyn, New York, but spent much of her childhood in a house across the street from the Fort Hill monument in the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts -- not a very nice neighborhood for a child when I lived in Boston in the late 1970s, but a very refined and elegant place when she lived there, if the pictures I have portray things accurately. In those pictures, my grandmother is pictured as a solitary figure, often clutching her "Dolly," and looking sadly into the camera. Unfortunately, I think that pretty much summed up her childhood as well -- somewhat solitary and sad. Elsie's mother, Elizabeth Huss, died when Elsie was less than a year old. Elsie's baptismal certificate contains this heartbreaking notation:

“Lillian Elsie Noonan, child of Mr. Henry E. Noonan and his wife Elizabeth, nee Huss, born July 20, 1889 in Brooklyn, New York, was baptized May 8, 1890 (over the coffin of her mother).”

Elsie and James, her older brother, were therefore mostly brought up by their father's sisters, of which there were many -- Mehitabel Handy (known as “Belle”), Asineth (called “Fannie”), Mary, Georgette (“Georgie”) and Sarah (called “Sally” or “Sadie”). My grandmother, at least, was quite spoiled by these aunts. She used to tell me that if she wanted to do something, but one aunt told her “no,” she knew there were four others to ask, and one or the other nearly always let her do whatever it was she wanted!

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Catherine Parker Noonan (1826-1911), recipient of the letter from her husband, James N. Noonan, was a descendant of Elisha Parker, who fought in the Revolutionary War. Her father was Thomas Archibald Parker, of Steuben, Maine. Thomas is listed on the 1850 census for Steuben as a "shipwright," along with his wife, Betsey Brown, and their ten children. Also listed as a member of the 1850 Parker household is a "James Nooming" and his wife, "Catharin." Despite the misspelling of the Noonan surname, it seems apparent that even then, parents sometimes had trouble getting their adult children to leave the nest!

There was a "history mystery" involving this "twig" of my family tree as well. I have a very old, very tiny, photo album, with the name "Sarah Brown" handwritten on the inside front cover. The photos in the album are all tiny portraits (most depicting very stern and severe-looking people, although there are some babies as well), not more than one inch square, some of which are completely black with age. Unfortunately, the only photo which is identified is one of those which has not withstood the test of time -- "William Handy" (husband of Abigail Noonan, aunt of Catherine's husband, James Noonan) is written in the margin beside a blackened photo. On the inside back cover of the album is written the admonition: "Always remember your grandmother, Sarah Brown." For a long time, I wanted to solve the "history mystery" of who "Sarah Brown" might be, and thinking she must have been an ancestor of Betsey Brown Parker. Whoever she was, she was obviously concerned about being remembered, and it seemed sad to me if no one did.

As it turns out, my hunch was correct, and it would seem that Betsey's grandmother was Sarah Jordan, who married David Brown; thus she was indeed "Sarah Brown"! Although I never officially knew her I, for one, will do my best to "remember" her.

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