Saturday, August 25, 2007

Seaver Family Homes in Massachusetts

I posted back in May about our quick trip to Massachusetts for my Aunt Geraldine's memorial service, and how Linda and I visited many of my Seaver ancestral homes. I posted pictures and summaries last year about several of these homes.

Here are current pictures of the homes in Leominster and Fitchburg, along with some Seaver family information:

Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver (1827-1884) settled in Leominster before 1870, and resided at 7 Cedar Street (just north of Lancaster Street, east of the center of Leominster). Frank Seaver probably lived in this house when he met Hattie Hildreth.



Edward Hildreth (1831-1899) and Sophia (Newton) Hildreth (1834-1923) lived at what is now 149 Lancaster Street, probably from before 1870 until their deaths. When Frank Seaver (1852-1922) and Hattie Hildreth (1857-1920) married in 1874, they moved in with Hattie's family, raised their family, and lived there the rest of their lives. There are two major parts to this house, the original with the peaked roof, and the long ell to the right which was probably added after 1880.


Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) was born in the Lancaster Street house, and married Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) in 1900 in Leominster. They lived for several years in the Hildreth/Seaver house at 149 Lancaster Street as they started their family. In about 1905, they moved to Fitchburg and resided at 116 Lawrence Street until about 1912.

Fred Seaver became the superintendent of the Paton Manufacturing Company (they made hairpins from plastic material) in Leominster and a rent-free house at 290 Central Street in the southern part of Leominster was part of the deal - right next door to the company. This large house accommodated the growing family of 6 children, and is the ancestral home fondly remembered by my father and his siblings. A stream ran behind the house and the factory next door.

In about 1927, Fred and Bess Seaver bought a home at 20 Hall Street in the western part of Leominster, right across the street from the High School. This is the house in which Aunt Gerry spent her early teenage years. The current owner of this house came home while I was taking the picture, and invited us in after I explained that it was an ancestral home.



During the Depression, the Paton plant was bought by Dupont and closed down and Fred Seaver's job changed - he worked at the Dupont Manufacturing Company in Leominster, which made toothbrushes. The house on Hall Street was sold, and Fred, Bess and Gerry moved to a rental house on West Street in Leominster. I don't have a picture of that house yet (if it still stands). By this time, the three older daughters were married, and the two sons were away at school.

That's the story of the Leominster houses - maybe I'll post a photo and stories about the Norman Seaver house in Westminster some time soon - it was built in the late 1700's.

1 comment:

Miriam Robbins said...

Randy, by amazing coincidence today I was just thinking that I wished I could visit Western Michigan and take photos not only of the houses my ancestors lived in, but also of the ones they built. I have quite a few ancestors that worked either full-time or part-time as carpenters.

I loved this post!