Stones and Adamses and Coolidges
(and Hoars and Willards and Pierces)
After I found out I’m related to Presidents Adams, my dear friend Michelle hatched a brilliant plan for us to go to Boston and see some sights with her best friend Tory. The fact that I’m presenting about John Quincy Adams in June made this an offer I couldn’t pass up. The fact that I’m digging into the Revolutionary War while staying with a Tory? That felt a little traitorous.
I got over it.
Michelle previously informed me that Tory was a Stone and Stones were big in Boston. I know nothing of the Stones nor Stones in Boston but politely nodded, assuring her I was familiar with their influence and importance so as to not look like a dummy.
You’ll never guess what happened next. Or maybe if you’ve followed any of my recent genealogical adventures, you will.
I’m related to Tory.
My friend’s friend, who I’d never met and had plans to stay with for a couple of days. We’re distant cousins. Very distant. Through the Stones, who I pretended to know about.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
While reading Bob Crawford’s America’s Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick, I was delighted to read about JQA visiting the grave of our mutual ancestor, Henry Adams. Poking around, I discovered Henry’s mom was a Stone —Agnes Stone. (Read about it here — it’s a whole lotta 🤯).
For the record, I didn’t find her Toryism insufferable. 1776, by David McCullough
We visited three cemeteries and there were Stones all over.
The Old Burying Ground
Watertown, MA
Tory took us to The Old Burying Ground specifically for the Stones, and they were plentiful. According to the sign, which I was too excited to read at the time, the cemetery dates back to the 1600s. Back then, it was surrounded by a rail fence. A stone wall replaced it eventually, until after President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge’s unexpected visit to pay tribute to his ancestors in 1925… when an iron fence was built.
📌 Put a pin in that, because Coolidge isn’t done making unexpected appearances.
Simon Stone & his less-related-to-us brother Gregory Stone
1585-1665 & 1590-1672, respectively
Both made the voyage from England to Massachusetts in 1635; Simon came first. They were both:
founders of Watertown, Massachusetts
highly-regarded leaders in their community
church deacons
Tory and I springeth forth from Simon Stone.
I wanted to include a giant family tree here, but you’ll have to wait for that… because I don’t want to spoil something I wasn’t expecting. For now:
We both happened to be researching our family simultaneously post-trip without realizing. Bet you can’t guess which one of us the chaotic, messy notes belong to!
Abigail Stone
1718-1789
I thought I found two Abigail Stones, one with an unreadable gravestone and the other with a succinct gravestone. Get this – one is a headstone and one is a footstone! This term was unfamiliar to me, but the footstone marks the foot of the grave. You probably knew that. Here we have not two Abigail Stones, but two Abigail Stone stones – one of the foot and one of the head variety.
Ebenezer Stone
1715-1783
Turns out, Abigail’s headstone wasn’t as indecipherable as I thought – it just included another unfamiliar word.
Relict (noun): widow
Used in a sentence: Abigail was a relict to Ebenezer Stone, Jr.
(The “Junior” bit was abbreviated as Junr. on the headstone, causing me much confusion. Even more so because he was perhaps Ebenezer Stone III.)
Daniel Stone
1750-1766
Just 16 when he died.
Calvin Hoar & Susan Hoar et al
1831-1902; 1833-1898
Calvin and his wife Susan lost so many children so young. Even more unimaginable – they lost the last three in a single week.
In a single week!
According to The Boston Globe (October 7, 1880):
“Mr. Calvin A. Hoar has lost his three children, within the past week, by diphtheria, the last, a girl of eleven, dying, yesterday afternoon. A girl of seven and a boy of nine were the other victims. The disease has prevailed in other families within the past month.”
Stone Hoar?!
I was thrilled to see this marker. (Probably because I hadn’t paused long enough on the previous gravestone to notice the heartbreak.)
Recently, I went on a chaotic tangent to uncover whether I’m related to Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar. At the time, I concluded that I was not … instead, my maiden name became firmly embedded into their family names originally as a tribute to Ebenezer Rockwood (who I am related to), law partner of Samuel Hoar (son-in-law of Founding Father Roger Sherman; NBD).
Am I, in fact, related to the Hoars, albeit by an even more obscure and tangential way…?
I don’t know!
Maria Stone Hoar (1795-1881) was buried at The Old Burying Ground, though I didn’t see her grave. She was the daughter of Abijah Stone (1752-1837) and Abigail Mason (but not the Abigail mentioned above; one that died in 1839). She married Farwell Hoar (1802-1885). One of their children was Calvin Hoar, the one who lost three damned kids in a week. Maria experienced losing three grandchildren in one week.
Then the following year, she died.
Digging back into the Hoars … eventually I get to Samuel Hoar (1743-1832), who was married to Susanna Pierce Hoar (1752-1829) (also spelled Peirce, for funzies). One of her great-grandmothers was Grace Coolidge Bond (1664-1699) and her great-great grandfather was John Coolidge, Jr. (1628-1690), and her great-great-great grandfather was John Coolidge (1604-1691)…all of whom were buried in the Old Burying Place… and none of whom I visited.
📌 That’s OK, because President Calvin Coolidge visited them! You can see a picture here and it’s incredible! This won’t be the last time I talk about Coolidge in this post…
It’s worth adding that in my feverish journey through the Hoars, I tie one of them directly to James Garfield’s ascent to the presidency. Guess who else is buried in this cemetery…?
Mehetable (Hawkins) Gearfield, 1645-1675 … ancestor of James Garfield! (Who, I might add, we might not even be talking about right now without George F. Hoar, thankyouverymuch!)
President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, by C.W. Goodyear
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Cambridge, MA
But before The Old Burying Ground, Tory took us to Mount Auburn Cemetery where I wandered around with my mouth agape.
It. Is. Stunning.
It’s also lousy with Stones (~400 of them!), which makes sense since much of this cemetery is on land that was in the Stone family for seven generations. (You can search for Stones here if you’re so inclined.) In addition to the plethora of Stones, there were 100,000 others buried here, including:
Coolidges
Adamses
Willards – loads of them:
Emma Willard but not THEE Emma Willard.
Two of the names were very familiar – Abel and Thomas. So excited to know that two Willards I’m a direct descendant of are there! Alas, the timing doesn’t align. These are not my Abel and Thomas Willard.
Jumped out of my seat when I discovered that Henry Augustus Willard is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery! Unfortunately, the one I was thinking about was Henry Augustus Willard (1822-1909) who I recently dove into. I’m not a direct descendant of either. This new Henry Augustus Willard (1847-1899) comes forth from Henry Willard (1655-1701) and Mary [unknown], like I do, but he rolls up to a different son (yet another Henry), etc., etc.
No disrespect to Henry Augustus Willard circa 1847, but it would have been cooler if it were THIS Henry Augustus Willard, even though we aren’t as closely related (rolling up to Major Simon Willard, 1605-1676):
Pierces
And in the category of People I Don’t Suspect I’m Related To (Yet):
Edward Booth
Did you know he once saved Robert Todd Lincoln’s life?? A year or two before his brother killed Robert Todd Lincoln’s dad (otherwise known as Abe Lincoln). More here.Charles Sumner!
Which allowed me to share with my travel buddies that he was the same height as Lincoln – 6’ 4”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
He wrote Paul Revere’s Ride, which kinda makes it seem like Paul Revere did all of this on his own (not true). Longfellow’s goal was to rally support for the Union cause before the Civil War. (I didn’t know it at the time, but Tory left a really cool Paul Revere pop card on my pillow.)
Here’s another thing I didn’t know… Sumner and Longfellow were besties! And perhaps more…? Also part of their trio of romantic friendship was Samuel Gridley Howe, who married Julia Ward Howe:
into suffrage; not into slavery
wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic
buried in Mount Auburn
but before that, she worked with Lucy Stone (STONE!) and founded the American Women Suffrage Association.
Lucy Stone (1818-193)
rolls up to the other Stone brother who came to America way back when — Gregory Stone!!
earned a college degree (first woman in Massachusetts to do so)
didn’t (wouldn’t) take her husband’s last name
But wait!! There’s more!
Paul Revere’s grandsons were buried at Mount Auburn! Paul Joseph Revere (1832-1863) and Dr. Edward H.R. Revere (1827-1862) [FYI: my jaw is currently on the floor] both fought and died in the Civil War. Their grandfather’s image was beefed up and turned into an icon to rally support for the Civil War… a war two of his grandsons gave their life for.
Paul Joseph Revere served as an aide to Charles Sumner (Charles Sumner!!) and died on July 4, of all days.
His other brother killed while caring for wounded men on the battlefield.
(Scroll way down on this page for more.)
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
Side note: when Queen Victoria’s 19-year-old son, The Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), toured America in 1860 – he helped plant two trees in this cemetery.
Hancock Cemetery
Quincy, MA
This one was on my list of places I really wanted to visit on this trip. I’d get to pay my respects to Henry Adams, who Presidents Adams and I roll up to.
I envisioned taking a picture with his gravemarker, like this:
But it was actually more like this:
Or really, more like this:
Me, Henry, and Tory. Did I make this photo black and white because one of us was dressed like a Christmas tree, with a green and white sweater and bright red rain boots? Yes, yes I did. Is it the one of us who has a Cheese Face plastered on like they are five years old and waiting to open presents? Maybe.
📌 While poking around, I’m seeing a lot of connections to Coolidges and Stones. But on Tory’s side. I swear I’ve stumbled on a Coolidge somewhere on my side but I didn’t pay any attention previously and now I can’t find this elusive Coolidge. Luckily, an accidental visit to Wikipedia stops me in my tracks: Henry Adams is the “9th great-grandfather of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge…”
Here’s what we have:
2x great grandson: John Adams
3x great grandson: John Quincy Adams
9x great grandson: Calvin Coolidge
10x great granddaughter: me
12x great granddaughter: also me; I’m related to him three ways
~10-12x great granddaughter: Tory (not sure precisely, but it’s probably somewhere in there)
I can finally unveil the new giant family tree…
I’m including far more detail here than needed, but don’t want to strip anything out because I stumbled on so many Wards and Willards, etc. during our adventures! If you watch carefully (and are not on a mobile device), you can see how Tory, me, and the three presidents all roll up to Henry Adams and then Simon Stone.
One more time, but less dizzying:
If you actually want the names separating Calvin Coolidge from Captain Samuel Adams, you can find them here.
Henry Adams took flight from the Dragons
… and came here!
Not actual dragons. He came here in the 1630s to escape religious persecution. I’ve found no satisfying answers to the etymology of this phrase.
President John Adams had this tribute made. Apparently, John Quincy Adams disagreed with his father about where Henry came from. The engraving says Devonshire, England. JQA believed he fled Braintree, England.
More to come!
I have more to share about our trip — we visited the Adamses’ houses, sat in their church pew, and hung out in their crypt. Plus, we stepped aboard the USS Constitution and stopped at the Bunker Hill Monument (designed by Solomon Willard; we both roll up to Major Simon Willard, 1605-1676).
Stay tuned.
NOTES TO SELF
(Mysteries to dig into at some point)
My great-great grandparents (Nana’s parents) were George K. and Bertha May Coleman Pierce (1889-1950). It appears they split and he’d remarried by 1920. She then married Amasa J. Rowland, maybe…? He died at 38 years old in 1936….? She’s listed on Find a Grave as Bertha May Coleman Fields; not sure where the Fields comes into play.
Does my Pierce bit connect me to Franklin Pierce and/or Barbara Bush?
Am I, in fact, related to the Hoars, albeit by an even more obscure and tangential way than how I’d originally envisioned?
Does that mean maybe also to Roger Sherman?
What’s Livingstone Stone’s deal (1836-1912; buried in Mount Auburn)…? Besides being a “fish culturist”, was he related to the Livingston family?
How is our friend Michelle related to us? If I’ve learned anything from these little adventures, it’s that we are all related and it’s bonkers.
What about the Waldos?! They keep showing up everywhere and maybe I’m/we’re related to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
And what about Calvin Coolidge!? I know we’re connected by more than just this. 📌
More adventures
(field trips and/or genealogical exploits)
(and Hoars and Willards and Pierces)