Tragedy comes to Jamesons

Roadside Tavern

(http://www.somejamesons.com/) About 1800, Mr. (Alexander (1)) Jameson sold his interest in the family homestead (in Dunbarton) to his brother Daniel, and with his (Alexander's) wife and eight children, the eldest not yet 15 years old, moved to Barnet, Vermont, joining his wife's brothers and sisters who had moved to nearby Peacham a few years earlier.

In 1807, a license (below) was issued to Daniel Jameson (son of Hugh) to keep a tavern "at his dwelling." It is thought that the town's Selectmen had asked the family to open a tavern in the hopes they could drive a nearby "undesirable" tavern out of business. It, one of four such establishments located on the main road running through Dunbarton, became a very popular tavern in those early days.

This tavern license: We the subscribers license Daniel Jameson

to keep a tavern unto his dwelling_____

Dunbarton for the term of one year...

Alexander and his family were in Barnet where their youngest child, William, was born and where his wife, Jenny (Brown) Jameson, died of small pox when the child was just 4 weeks old. There are competing stories about her death as well as what happened to Alexander immediately after. The most romantic of the recounts is offered by E.O. Jameson in The Jamesons in America.

Mr. Jameson's father Alexander Jameson, died under peculiarly sad circumstances, when he (younger Alexander) was a small boy of 5 years. His father was one of the several persons in the down seized with small pox, and was removed, according to old-time custom, to an isolated cabin. His wife, left at home with the young infant, was taken dangerously ill. Hearing of this, and desiring to see her once more, the convalescing husband and father escaped from the 'pest house' and literally dragged himself across the fields to his home, and there, through a window, held his last conversation with her. Both died soon after, and the children found homes among friends and relatives.

This story, at least the death of Alexander, is not supported in any way. The death of Jenny and many others was reported in the newspaper of that time. It is clear from records that the family was dispersed after Jenny's death, though it isn't clear whether Alexander's ill health, the prospect of parenting nine children alone or other circumstances initiated the break up of the family. It appears that Alexander (1) moved to where his brother Hugh, wife and family were living, Canandaigua, Ontario County, NY (west central region) in 1810 and after remarrying, died there in 1820.

Death notice for Alexander Jameson, died September 14, 1820, in the Ontario Register

The story is different and yet the same as the tragedy that struck the Dakin family in Soquel 100 years later. At the death of their wife and mother, the children are cared for by relatives who take them in and raise them as their own. One further similarity. Alexander (2) the son of Jenny and Alexander (1) later named two of his children after the couple that took him in Zuar Eldridge and his wife Mary. Out of similar appreciation, Ruthalee Mauldin named her first child Antheni Alice Mauldin with the nickname of the woman who cared for her like a mother, Ant Hen (Aunt Helen).