Saturday, August 02, 2008

Hosmers of Concord

As I mentioned earlier, I was in Concord when Elvis got so sick. It was a great workshop,but an added benefit of it was learning a little more about the Hosmer family. As I hope all the Culkins know, our ancestor James Hosmer was one of the original settlers of Concord in 1637 and his great, great, great grandson Joseph Hosmer, from whom we are directly descended, played a critical part in the the Battle of Concord at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775. I went to see the Joseph Hosmer house, which is owned by a very nice couple who are restoring it--meaning they are taking away those pesky 1790 modernizations. The husband is especially into the house and showed me around. There is also an exhibit on Joseph Hosmer at the Concord Museum, in the room on the Revolution, which includes one of his cabinets. The curator of the museum told me it can be difficult to identify furniture which really came out of J.H's workshop, as he was such a hero in the area that for a time almost all furniture made in the area was attributed to him to increase its value.

I found a lot of ancestor's graves. Some, including Joseph and his wife Lucy, are buried pretty near Emerson and Thoreau in Sleepy Hollow cemetery.


Joseph Hosmer house.

Me in front of the North Bridge.

Grave of Joseph and Lucy Hosmer.

Grave of Thomas Hosmer, father of Joseph.


Grave of Prudence Hosmer Hosmer--she was Thomas's second cousin, as well as his wife. It may have been her love of literature that inspired her son Joseph to be the passionate spokesman for liberty.

4 comments:

jody said...

Thanks for the Hosmer update- this is great.

Trish said...

This is wonderful, Kate. The picture of the house makes this all more real, somehow.

Kate C. said...

Another descendant of Thomas and Prudence saw my picture of their graves on flickr and sent me an e-mail. Small electronic world.

EileenHosmer said...

I happened to stumble across your blog, I am also a direct descendant of Joseph Hosmer! My family and I are planning to do a walking tour put on by the Concord Museum this week that focuses on the lives of Reuben Brown and Joseph Hosmer. It's always great to hear from another descendant!