SERENDIPITY and SIX DEGREES (Or More)??!!

 This is a post I had planned for later… there is a whole list of connections to Mary Ann in which a person can literally drop name after name that would be worth googling.  I planned to list them and touch on each of them briefly, and still plan to do so, but I can’t let this moment go without commenting. 

My intention in my writing this blog is to be brief and concise, but that’s probably not gonna happen too often, as it goes against the grain of every fiber in my being.  (See – there I go – grain?  fiber? being? – so totally unnecessary and non-academic  . . . and is non-academic even a word????)  Yep, I need an editor!  Or I need to take the time and go back and delete . . . but I just stumbled across some information that puts the serendipity in doing research.  And this will be one of those times where I go off . . . rambling.  And I probably won’t be able to explain myself, but I plan to try.

One of the headstones on the Elias Ayers plot in Fairview Cemetery reads “L. M. Hawley – Consort of F. Thurston, who departed this life July 6^th, 1842, aged 29 years.”  I had done some (okay – a lot of) research on the Ayers and Day families and found no connection to Hawley nor Thurston. 

In a separate incident, a few years ago, an early daybook (book of accounts) was located and purchased for its possible and probable historical value, pertaining to the entries that list New Albany’s early merchants.  This was the Daybook of F. Thurston.  From the original brief research, the most interesting connection I found relating to Franklin Thurston was his marriage here to Laura Hawley.  (Although I need to locate my earlier notes, I could be foggy on the accurate details of the daybook, so am only briefly commenting on that, as the source of my initial interest.)  Thurston’s wife, Laura, had died in 1842 and at least by 1844 Franklin had relocated in Muscatine, Iowa, where he remained until his death in 1878.  Laura had been a published poet, of considerable literary ability, writing for newspapers and magazines, using the name “Viola.” Her poems have been included in collections of American poetry. 

But no indication as to why she was buried in Elias Ayers’ plot. 

Fast forward to the research currently being done on Mary Ann’s grandfather, Gold Selleck Silliman.  He had been captured and was being held prisoner by the Tories.  His wife, Mary Fish Silliman, fled to a nearby tavern as the British later set fire to much of Fairfield.  She was pregnant with their child, and gave birth to Benjamin Silliman, America’s first scientist and pioneer in energy [our Mary Ann’s uncle, half-brother of her father, William Silliman, and mentioned here for the "Six Degrees" aspect – more later ], in that tavern.  The tavern was originally the large Colonial home built in 1765 by Ebenezer HAWLEY. 

I know, I know.  I’m not jumping to conclusions.  But I am excited that this could be the connection I’ve been looking for. 

By this time, the building (tavern) was no longer in the possession of the Hawley family, and this Mary Silliman was the step-mother of Mary Ann’s father…. The connection is weak, but it COULD be that Laura Hawley Thurston, who came to New Albany as a single young woman, was taken in by Mrs. Ayers (at that time), as a fellow kinsman with a connection to her family back East. 

Worth pursuing!!!!  Mostly because all other trails leading to Laura Hawley Thurston have led nowhere, I can’t help but think (if only for a moment) how sweet it will be if a connection can be made. 

Just wanted to share.  And, hey, it’s MY blog!!

[ADDENDUM:  The Hawley family who had built the tavern in Connecticut has proved to be the same family that eventually gave us Laura Hawley Thurston, the poet.  However, information garnered since that discovery cannot support nor dispute the fact that Laura Hawley came to New Albany as a direct result of her connection to the Silliman (Mrs. Mary Ann Silliman Ayers specifically) family, from nearby Fairfield.  A short biography in "The Poets of Connecticut" states that Laura had studied at the Hartford Female Seminary and subsequently, "through the recommendation of Mr. Brace, she was invited to take charge of a female school at New Albany, in Indiana."  -- Mr. Brace having been John Pierce Brace, the principal of the seminary.  From this statement it appears that he may have been approached as to who might be a suitable candidate and it was just coincidental that the individual was Laura Hawley.  But very likely, Mary Ann was influential in this appointment.]

New Albany Theological Seminary

Born in a log cabin in 1829 was a Presbyterian seminary.  The location was Madison, Indiana, on the campus of what was then Hanover Academy.  The academy grew, and became Hanover College, while its Theological Department, including the seminary, struggled.  There were financial difficulties, dissension among the Presbyterian denomination and a tornado in 1837 which all contributed to the concerns of whether or not to rebuild the seminary in the rural locale of Hanover.  

Elias Ayers, one of the most active members of the seminary’s board of directors, offered a memorial to the seminary in honor of his son, who had died while studying for the ministry.  The gift of $15,000, which included the land to build a new facility, also included the stipulation that it be located permanently in New Albany.  The seminary was built in New Albany at Sixth and Elm Streets. In November of 1840, classes began.

Elias died in January of 1842, too soon before all his expectations of a successful seminary could be realized.  Elias’ widow, Mary Ann Silliman Ayers, remarried to Rev. Philip Lindsley in April of 1849.  Rev. Lindsley had been acting president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) 1822-1823, and chancellor of the University of Nashville for 25 years.  He had also been a kinsman of Ayers, both being born in Morris Co., New Jersey.  Following his marriage to Ayers' widow, Rev. Lindsley had relocated in New Albany, and was persuaded to teach at the seminary, which he did for two years, without compensation. The school continued to struggle and relocated after the commencement of 1857, to Chicago, and currently is known as the McCormick Theological Seminary. The building in New Albany was utilized as the New Albany Female Seminary, then Tousley's School, and as a Civil War Hospital, and eventually a coffin factory.

Photograph [725 P8 211] used with permission of the Stuart B. Wrege Indiana History Room, New Albany-Floyd County Public Library. Information garnered from documents in VF Schools - Ayers University, particularly “McCormick Theological Seminary: An Informal History” by Marshal L. Scott, and “The McCormick Story – Celebrating 125 Years (1829 – 1955) of McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois." 

Mrs. Lapsley

Mary Ann herself!

Photo used with permission by Stuart B. Wrege Indiana History Room, 

New Albany-Floyd County Public Library  [920 P5 400]

EPITAPHS - Elias Ayers Plot

ELIAS AYRES  – A NATIVE OF NEW JERSEY, DIED JANUARY 5, 1842, AGED 50 YEARS.  “BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHICH DIE IN THE LORD.”

MARY ANN LAPSLEY – FORMERLY MARY ANN AYRES, DIED JUNE 2, 1878, AGED 82 YEARS.  “I WILL LAY ME DOWN IN PEACE AND SLEEP. – PSALM 3.8”

MARIA C. AYRES – DAUGHTER OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED MARCH 30, 1837, AGED 20 MONTHS.  “IT IS THE LORD JEHOVAH’S HAND THAT BLASTS OUR JOYS IN DEATH.”

CORNELIA A. AYRES – DAUGHTER OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED JULY 18, 1834, AGED 16 MONTHS.  “THE LORD GAVE, AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN.  BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.”

HENRY A. AYRES – THIRD SON OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED AGUSUT 23, 1830, AGED 20 MONTHS.  “HE FLEETH ALSO AS A SHADOW, AND CONTINUETH NOT.”

CAROLINE H. AYRES – DAUGHTER OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED AUGUST 8, 1829, AGED 3 YEARS.  “SHE CAME FORTH AS A FLOWER, AND WAS CUT DOWN.”

CAROLINE S. AYRES – THIRD DAUGHTER OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED JULY 23, 1834, AGED 4 YEARS.  “SO FADES THE LOVELY BLOOMING FLOWER, FRAIL, SMILING SOLACE OF AN HOUR.”

WILLIAM S. AYRES – OLDEST SON OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED OCTOBER 25, 1829, AGED 8 YEARS.  “HE WAS A PRECIOUS GIFT, IN HIS YOUTH HE SOUGHT THE LORD GOD OF HIS FATHERS, AND IS NOT FOR GOD TOOK HIM.”

EDWARD E. AYRES – SON OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED DECEMBER 17, 1839, AGED 15 YEARS.  “LET ME GO FOR THE DAY BREAKETH.” 

MARY B. AYRES – DAUGHTER OF ELIAS & MARY ANN AYRES, DIED JULY 17, 1839, AGED 19 YEARS.  “HER LIFE WAS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD, AND WHEN HE WHO IS HER LIFE SHALL APPEAR, THEN SHALL SHE APPEAR WITH HIM IN GLORY.”

REV. ROBERT A. LAPSLEY, D.D. – DIED FEBRUARY 13, 1872, AGED 74 YEARS.  “HIS WORKS DO FOLLOW HIM.”

MAJOR WILLIAM SILLIMAN – DIED OCTOBER 6, 1816, AGED 60 YEARS  “HIS FLESH RESTS IN HOPE”

PHEBE SILLIMAN – WIFE OF MAJOR WILLIAM SILLIMAN, DIED OCTOBER 13, 1816, AGED 54 YEARS.  “THEY WERE LOVELY IN THEIR LIVES, AND IN THEIR DEATH WERE NOT DIVIDED.”

MRS. CATHARINE HILLYER – DIED FEBRUARY 23 1836, AGED 35 YEARS.  “HER DEATH WAS PEACE.”

CATHARINE S. MOODEY – DAUGHTER OF JAS. & CATHARINE S. HILLYER, BORN OCT. 26, 1827, MARRIED TO JAS. C. MOODEY, SEP. 10, 1844, DIED APR. 25, 1850.  “SHE HAS JOINED HER MOTHER”

JAMES C. MOODY – BORN JULY 4, 1816, IN SHIPPENSBURGH, PA., DIED IN ST. LOUIS JAN. 6, 1880, AGED 63 YEARS 6 MO’S. & 2 DAYS.

OUR BABES – CATHARINE & WILLY MOODEY – “IN HEAVEN”

L. M. HAWLEY – CONSORT OF F. THURSTON, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JULY 6^TH, 1842, AGED 29 YEARS. 

Did You Know? Etched In Stone

ELIAS AYERS

ELIAS AYRES

The family plot at Fairview Cemetery is marked with a towering obelisk, at the base of which is inscribed the name "ELIAS AYERS".  Elias and his family and several of his in-laws are all buried here.  The individual stones marking his grave and the graves of his wife and children are all inscribed "AYRES".  So much for etched in stone!

Her Spookship: Part II

WORK IN PROGRESS...  

              Mary Ann’s husbands were prominent, powerful, pious and Presbyterian.  Not necessarily in that order.  Elias Ayers was her first, and for the longest period.  Mary Ann and Elias and others of her family were instrumental in the founding of the first Presbyterian church in Louisville and subsequently the first Presbyterian church in New Albany.  Elias had been a successful merchant while in Louisville and continued as such on his removal to New Albany, purchasing property to construct his business at the southeast corner of Main and Pearl Streets (original frame building long gone, but another still there in its place).  He (and Mary Ann) continued to purchase properties throughout their lifetimes, accumulating a large number of rental properties. 

                Elias was the father of her eight children and I’m sure he stood strongly by her side to comfort her in her mother’s grief; each was buried before she should have been expected to have them leave her.  It is said that Mary Ann raised her sister’s children, William S. Hillyer and his sister, Catherine Hillyer Moody, which is very likely.  William was about two years of age when his father, James Hillyer, died (1833), and it was just a few years later (1836) when his mother, Catherine Silliman Hillyer, also passed on.  Mary Ann’s niece, Catherine Hillyer Moody, also died while quite young, in April of 1850, at age 22 (her epitaph reads “SHE HAS JOINED HER MOTHER”).  William was enumerated later that year on the census with his sister’s widow and two children, and was married just a few years later to Annie Shields Rankin.  They soon removed to St. Louis, where they became close friends with Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant.  William was part of Gen. Grant’s war-time staff, rising to Brigadier General, but resigned his military position in May 1863 due to ill health.  Following the war, he removed his family to New York and died in Washington, D.C. in 1874.  William’s father, James Hillyer, had been close personal friends with Henry Clay.  (Yes, I’m namedropping.  And more of that to come later . . . ) 

                Mary Ann and Elias were devout Christians and were very active in the interests of the Presbyterian church.  Her obituary states that “She assisted in the organization of the first Sunday school in New Albany [this has been argued]; in the organization of the first Female Prayer Meeting in the city, and the first Female Bible Society in the city.  She was an officer in all these societies.”  Elias was instrumental in the formation of the New Albany Theological Seminary, originating as the Theological Department at Hanover College, and eventually the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. 

                Mary Ann took Rev. Philip Lindsley as her second husband.  He also had been married previously . . .

William Richardson

Rev. Robert Armstrong Lapsley

   
             Elias Ayers’ sister, Mary King Ayers, had married John Day, and had quite a large family.  One of their sons, Silas, started working as a clerk and was later a partner with his uncle Elias in his dry goods business.  A brother of Silas, Ezekiel Reeves (E.R.) Day was also known to accumulate a number of local properties for rental purposes.  Silas, E.R., and their sister, Joanna Day Shields, are mentioned in Mary Ann’s will.