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Thursday, June 5, 2014

Identity

We need to identify the author of this poem which appeard in Zion's Watch Tower in the 1880s.

 
I searched through the 1881-81 (there was no Newark city  directory for 1880) looking for any women with the initials  A.M.B. I only found one, Anna M. Bennett, widow of Uzal O. [Bennette], residing at 422 Plane Street in Newark. There  are about fifty other women whose initials could be A.B.  (i.e. their first names began with A, their last names began  with B, and the directory did not give a middle initial).
 
 Very truly yours,
 Larissa Brookes, Librarian

Oh the things one finds:

Anna M. Pennington married Uzal Bennett (Bennette) on July 5, 1840, in Essex County New Jersey. Uzal was born in New Jersey in 1813 and died October 1849. He is burried in Newark. Anna appears to have been a long-suffering woman. In July 1841, Uzal was sued for seducing a young girl and ordered to pay$2500 to the girl's mother. It was a huge sum in 1841. We do not have a death date for Anna.

Isn't history fun!


2 comments:

jerome said...

I checked the Restitution file in case she decided to send her poetry there too - but alas, no initials or Newark references to fit.

Sha'el, Princess of Pixies said...

I can find Bennets in ZWT but they seem to be from Virginia and probably not related. One of the later Bennetts also wrote poems for ZWT. That person may be related.

At times like these I miss Ton. He'd have had this all resolved by now and sent me a good biography.