Genealogy Story – My Pierpont Grandparents

During the next two months will be the 120^th anniversaries of the birth of my Pierpont grandparents. In recognition of this, I thought I would summarize their early years.

Harold Granger Pierpont

My mother’s father, whom I affectionately called Grampy, was the youngest child born to his parents Wilson Levinus (b. 1855) and Annie [Merrill] Pierpont (b. 1859). He had seven older siblings – George (b. 1879), Edith (b. 1881), Albert (b. 1884), Richard (b. 1886), Joseph (b. 1888), Charles (b. 1891), and Nathan (b. 1893). Harold was born on March 3, 1898, but tragically, his mother died as a result of this childbirth just a few days later. His father, perhaps resenting him being the cause of his wife’s demise, or perhaps not feeling able to care for a newborn (since the next youngest was then nearly 5), decided to send him to live with foster parents who had no children of their own – Samuel and Hattie Nichols who lived in the town of Prospect. While Prospect was only 3-4 miles away, with transportation being limited to horse and buggy, it was fairly long trip in those days.

Grampy’s middle name was Granger and there is an interesting story behind it. At the time of his birth, his father was the “Master” of the local grange and his mother was the secretary. The following is reported in the journal of Charles Somers Miller whose wife was a sister to Wilson.

When my wife got home from the Grange, she was greatly excited because her brother Wilson L. Pierpont (who is Master of the Grange) and his wife Annie (who is Secretary of the Grange) were in their respective places when she got there, after a time recess was declared and she did not see Wilson or Annie again, but just before the Grange closed a note was received by the acting Secretary which stated that the Master and Secretary had a new ten pound son.

Wilson re-married a few years later in 1902, to a widow, Anna [Root] Hall. Anna had been born in Plainville in 1853 and had been a school teacher in Wolcott which is where she met and married her first husband, Ransom Hall. Anna had five children through him – Nettie (b. 1874), George (b. 1876), Daisy (b. 1882), Robert (b. 1886), and a still born boy (b. 1888). Ransom died in 1889 and Anna raised her four children alone. When Wilson and Anna married in 1902, her children were all old enough to live on their own, but Wilson’s younger children still lived with them. While Harold was only four at the time, he remained with his foster parents in Prospect and continued to see little of his father, step-mother, or siblings.

Samuel and Hattie were only in their mid-20’s at the time they became foster parents to Harold. Like Wilson, Samuel was a farmer. Prospect was a very small town with only a single one-room school that went up through 8^th grade. Education beyond that would have required the student to find his/her own way to get into Waterbury, so few students did so.

A few Wolcott notes about Anna [Root] [Hall] Pierpont: Ransom Hall Road in Wolcott was named for Anna’s first husband, Ransom Hall. In the 1870 census for Wolcott, Anna was living with the Atwood family (school teachers were always single women). Her neighbors included families with the name Bronson, Upson, and Wiand, all long-time Wolcott families.

Sara Blackman

My mother’s mother, whom I called Grammy, had been born in Prospect on January 2, 1898 – just two months before Harold. Her parents were Clarence (b. 1870), and Alice [Talmadge] Blackman (b. 1870). Sara was the middle child, with a brother Stanley who had been born in 1893 and a sister Edna who was born in 1906 when she was eight. Clarence was a part-time farmer, but also worked in a woolen mill in Waterbury where he hoped to make enough to pay off the debt on the family farm so he could farm full-time.

Sara’s grandparents, Isaac and Harriett [Johnson] Blackman and Stephen and Sarah [Few] Talmadge, all lived in Prospect as well, so she grew up surrounded by her extended family. As an interesting side note, while the Blackman and Talmadge families were long-time residents in the area, neither of Sara’s grandmothers were from the area. Harriett had been born in S. Easton, PA – only a few miles from where I now live, and had moved from PA to CT in the years just prior to the Civil War. Sarah had been born in England and had come to America as an infant. It is not known how Stephen had met her, since she was still living in New York City prior to their meeting.

Harold and Sara went to school together at the one-room school in Prospect. They became engaged when they were 18 and married a few years later on March 26, 1919, when they were both 21.

Early Life Together

For the first few years, my grandparents lived in an apartment as they started their family. Their first child, Clarence, was born in 1920 when they had been married a year and a half. He was named for his grandfather, Clarence Blackman, but was called “Zeke”. Two years later he was followed by Alice, named for her grandmother, Alice Talmadge (note that both were named after ancestors on Sara’s side of the family who lived near them and neither for anyone on Harold’s side). In early 1924, my grandparents bought a house on East Main St, in Waterbury where their family increased. First was my mother, Sylvia (b. 1924), then Richard (b. 1926), and finally Violet (b. 1929).

Harold’s father passed away in 1921. Sara’s parents both passed away in 1929. Thus, for most of their early years of marriage they had to raise their family without much extended family around. The exception was Sara’s sister, Edna, who never married and who spent much time with her nephews and nieces, especially on holidays or whenever someone in the home was sick. And while there were other Pierponts in the homes around them, since Harold had not been raised there, they were more like strangers than family.

Harold worked as a milkman. He initially had his own route and even had bottles with his name printed on them, then he went to work as a milk peddler for the Maple Hill Dairy just down the street which was owned by some of his Pierpont cousins. [Pierpont Road in Waterbury runs past the property which used to be the Maple Hill Dairy.]

I always enjoyed visiting with Grampy and Grammy Pierpont. Their home was always the location for our annual Thanksgiving dinner with all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. They also hosted the annual cousin’s Christmas each year while the “adult” Christmas party rotated between the various homes of my parents and my mother’s siblings.

Grampy passed away at the age of 71 as a result of injuries sustained when a ladder slipped out from under him as he was cleaning the gutters on the back side of their house. Grammy lived another 10 years before passing away at the age of 81 in 1979.