Tag Archives: Lydia P. Ellis

Handy gleanings

 

Handy gleanings

 

Please see downloadable Word document, above.

My mother, Elinor (Handy) Smith, was descended from Richard Handy of Sandwich, Massachusetts, an original settler on Cape Cod.

 

– posted by Roger W. Smith

   July 2022

post updated – The Pocasset murder

 

See

the Pocasset murder (1879)

 

— Roger W. Smith

the Pocasset murder (1879)

 

the Pocasset murder

re the Pocasset murder – Falmouth Enterprise 5-22-1987

selected newspaper articles about the Pocasset murder – updated March 2021

 

NY Times 5-6-1879

NY Times 5-6-1879 (2)

Boston Globe 5-6-1880

Boston Globe 5-1-1883

Boston Globe 11-30-1883

Boston Globe 12-5-1883

Boston Globe 12-6-1883

NY Times 3-17-1887.

 

See attached, downloadable Word documents (above).

Plus, see text below (which includes a summary/abstract).

 

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Abstract:

Five year old Edith Burgess Freeman (b. July 27, 1874) was murdered in 1879 by her father in their home on the town of Pocasset on Cape Cod in what has been described as a “ritual killing.”

In this article, I have attempted to uncover the facts about the case. It was well publicized at the time, but seems to have been largely forgotten.

See attached downloadable Word file (above).

I became interested in the case, which I had never heard of until recently, because some of my mother’s distant ancestors and their relatives were involved. The murderer was the son-in-law of my mother’s great-grandmother.  And, my mother’s great-grandmother defended the actions of the son-in-law, Charles F. Freeman (the murderer); and of her daughter Hattie (Ellis) Freeman (my maternal grandfather’s aunt), who initially supported her husband, a religious fanatic, believing that his actions were justified on religious grounds.

 

– Roger W. Smith

   August 2016; updated March 2021

 

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Charles F. Freeman and his wife Harriet R. (Ellis) Freeman with granddaughter.

Harriet R. (Ellis) Freeman

The Freeman house in Pocasset

Henry Thomas Handy (1845-1916) of Cataumet, MA

 

 

great-grandfather-henry-t-handy

 

Posted below as a downloadable Word document is an article about my mother’s paternal grandfather Henry Thomas Handy (1845-1916).

 

— posted  by Roger W. Smith

   November 2015

 

handy-4

My mother’s Ellis ancestors (Cape Cod)

 

Below is a downloadable Word file which comprises a report on my Ellis ancestors from Cape Cod. They include the first immigrant, Lt. John Ellis of Sandwich, Massachusetts (b. ca. 1620); his wife Elizabeth (Freeman) Ellis (b. 1625): Lt. Mordecai Ellis of Sandwich (1650/51-1709/10); and recent Ellis descendants to whom I am related to on my mother’s side through her ancestors Anson Burgess Ellis (1813-1853) of Plymouth, Massachusetts; Lydia Perkins (Ellis) Handy (1851-1930) of Sandwich, Massachusetts; and Ralph Ellis Handy (my maternal grandfather).

posted by Roger W. Smith

   August 2016

Ellis-1