Photographs and Memories: June 2021

Friday, June 25, 2021

Seth Newman Eastman, MD 1855-1899

Seth Newton Eastman, MD

b. 1855 d. 1889 at age 33

Son of Edson Cummings Eastman and Mary E Eastman

From the family archives

Born in Concord New Hampshire and died in New York City and buried in the family lot in Blossom Hill cemetery at Concord. Attended Vermont medical college 83 year course, graduating with distinction. Appointed surgeon on one of the steamships of the Alexander line running from New York to Veracruz. He had a short practice at Danvers, Massachusetts. Surgeon on the Rotterdam line of steam ships. Hemorrhage of the lungs in Amsterdam while visiting some friends at a hotel. Six weeks of skillful medical treatment nursed back to health by his sister Belle. Then went to Barbados Island and back to being a surgeon on the Brazilian line. Dr. Eastman had friends. He made them everywhere and he retained the last, their attachment. He met death with fortitude. Living, he scattered about him a smile of help; dying, he desired to cast no shadows and life‘s pathway.

Edson Cummings Eastman 1832-1911

Edson Cummings Eastman

b. 9 Nov 1832 d. 9 Mar 1911

Info gleaned from genealogy books at Aunt Betty’s house in Oklahoma when me and my parents stayed with her. Elizabeth Hazelwood Styll Smith married to J. Leroy Smith 19 Jun 1923. He was a real estate bookkeeper and she was a teacher in public schools.

Edson Eastman DuHamel Styll with Edson Cummings Eastman. Child was the brother of Elizabeth Hazelwood Styll Smith (Aunt Betty).

President of the Eastman Association in Concord. Married Mary Elizabeth Robinson February 14, 1855 and Mary W Whitemore is his second wife. Edson was a very successful businessman, respected by all with whom he came in contact with. He was the president of the Eastman association of Concord a number of times. He was a publisher and stationer of Concord and his establishment is one of the largest of its kind in the state.

From his obituary

In the death of Edson C Eastman which occurred at his home on N. State St., late on Thursday afternoon, the city of Concord suffers a loss of one of its oldest and best known businessman as well as a most popular, public spirited and every way for most useful citizen. Mr. Eastman was born in Concord November 2, 1832, the son of Seth and Sarah (Coffin) Eastman. His education was received in the public schools of the city and in the Gilmanton Academy. Mr. Eastman began his business career as a clerk in the office of former governor Joseph a Gilmore, who was at that time general manager of the Concorde and Claremont railroad.

After a few years of railroad experience, he decided to enter business, and with SG Sylvester of this city started a crockery store under the name of Sylvester and Eastman. About 50 years ago Mr. Eastman bought the entire stock in business of Mr. Crawford and enter the book and publishing business, the store being located on the present site of the bean needle craft shop. After engaging in the new business successfully for some years, he was unfortunate enough to be burned out, but nothing daunted, start a business again, and had continued in the same line up to the present time. Of late years, he had conducted business in a well-equipped establishment just north of the New Hampshire savings bank.

Sometime in the early 1850s Mr. Eastman married Mary Robinson of East Concord, who died in 1882, survived by her husband and two children Mary Isabell who married Robert Styll and is at present living in Oklahoma City Oklahoma and son Seth Eastman, who became a physician and died some years ago at age 33.

In 1888 he married Mary Whitemore a Bradford mass, who survives him. Mr. Eastman has always been identified with the Democratic Party and for many years had been active member of the first Baptist Church on North State St. Mr. Eastman‘s career has been a very successful one. He published the White Mountain Guide Book (in print for 110 years) which was so popular that it went through 13 or 14 editions.

He published the old reliable Leavitt’s Farmers Almanac (still available on Amazon 1875 Edition) and several law books, the last of these being a compiled edition of New Hampshire Public Statutes (still being made today Volume 29 as of 2021).

He bought the stock of G Parker Lyon and continued the publishing of well-known New Hampshire Register, afterwords purchasing the entire stock of Josiah W Sanborn which was the stock above mentioned, included the New Hampshire Reports which he published down to and including the 61st volume. He had been for many years and active member of the Eastman family Association, the New Hampshire Historical society and the Appalachian club.

Until recent years Mr. Eastman have been an enthusiastic and active member of the Concord Board of Trade. Mr. Eastman was in the old days an active member of the Peacock Engine Company No. 4 and had been for years an honorary member of the Concorde Veteran Firemans Association.

Another Obituary

Mr. Edson C Eastman Thursday was a widely known publisher, most popular and patriotic citizen and a consistent Democrat. His heavily stocked Concord bookstore has more than half of the century seemed an indispensable institution. No business in New Hampshire is better known among the class of people appreciate the value of service it has rendered. THE PATRIOT will particularly miss Mr. Eastman because he visited it’s office with great frequency, having from boyhood love the smell of printers ink and he was in incorporator of the new Hampshire Patriot Company which now on this paper.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Robert Emmett Styll and Mary Isabel Eastman 1890

It is interesting that Mary Isabel has now changed from Mary Isabelle. Her grandfather Seth Eastman dropped ‘Mary’ altogether in his last Will and Testament.

Wedding date 24 Sept 1890. Mary Isabel was 32 And Robert was 40.

He had been previously married to Minnie E Holstead 28 Nov 1875

Her parents Edson and Mary E Eastman (Mary passed in 1884)

Robert Emmett Styll 1850-1920 and was from Richmond City, Virginia

Robert E Styll was born in 1850 Richmond, VA

Robert’s Family History

What I have to date 24 June 2021

Samuel C Eastman was Belle’s uncle

Mary Isabel Eastman’s acceptance into the Daughters of the American Revolution postmarked 1915

Edson C Eastman

Last Will and Testament of Seth Eastman

You can learn so much about a family from a will and I am thrilled that someone saved this one

Last Will and Testament of Seth Eastman of Concord, NH 1801-1885 age 84

Married to Sarah Coffin 1805-1878 age 73

Sons: Edson Cummings Eastman (publisher and book seller) 1832-1911 age 79 and Samuel Coffin Eastman 1838-1917 (lawyer) age 79

Edson C married Mary Elizabeth Robinson (Mary E Eastman 1830-1884) Mary died at age 54

Son: Seth Newton Eastman, MD (1855-1889) died at age 33

Daughter: Isabelle Eastman (1858-1937) died at age 79

Edson married a second time after being a widower for 2 years

Mary Louise Whittemore in 1888, she was 39, and Samuel was 56

Samuel married Mary Clifford Greene in 1861 (1836-1895)

Daughter: Mary Clifford Eastman 1862-1913 never married, age 51 at death

Mary Isabel Eastman was known as Oklahoma’s Sonnet Queen and married Robert Emmett Styll (1850-1920) Edge Hill, VA age 70 at death

Seth’s will was written in 1879 and the codicil in 1883; his wife Sarah preceded him in death in 1878

Ages of named family at the time of Seth Eastman’s death

Mary E Eastman (wife of Edson) died the same year as Seth.

Isabelle Eastman (grand) was 27 when Seth died

Mary C Eastman (wife of Samuel) was 48

Edson C Eastman (son) was 53

Samuel C Eastman (son) was 47

Seth Newman Eastman (grand) was 30

Mary Clifford Eastman (grand) was 23

I give and bequeath to Mary E Eastman, wife of Edson C Eastman, my silver sugar and cream pot, to be given to her daughter Isabelle Eastman, when she is done with them. And since Mary E had passed away, Isabelle inherited the sugar and cream pot.

I give to my granddaughter Isabelle Eastman, if living at my deceased, my horse, carriages, slays, harness and wolf robes, also one share in Contoocook Mfg and Mech Co. Note: from the Concord Monitor 2019. The property has been an industrial site since at least 1846, first as the site of warehouses for the nearby Penacook textile mill, then as the site of a tannery after the collapse of New England’s textile industry in the 1940s.

The Allied Leather operation was large, and a wastewater treatment plant and coal-fired electrical generator were part of the operation on Canal and Crescent streets.

The tannery went bankrupt in 1987, and the city bought the property in 2006 after failed attempts to develop it. Cleanup was difficult as tanneries often leave pollution. The state Department of Environmental Services says that site “had been used for disposal of leather scraps, which were contaminated with chromium” and that as the buried leather decayed “it produced methane, posing an explosion risk and potential vapor intrusion and structural problems with new construction.”

I give devise and bequeath to Mary E Eastman (daughter of Samuel), the house where I now reside and the lot on which the same is situated, being the lot I bought from Abel Hutchins and a piece on the north from Sanford Place, as now enclosed and also a piece nine feet wide off of the south end of the lot I bought from SG Sylvester, which 9 feet I purchased an added to my lot before I bought the Sylvester house, to have and to hold to her sole and separate use for enduring to the term of her natural life. In the case of my son Edson C Eastman, shall survive his wife, Mary E Eastman, then I give, devise and bequeath the said house and lot, after the deceased of his said wife, to him to have and to hold for the term of his natural life.

I hereby authorize empower my son, Edson C Eastman, if he survive his wife Mary E or Mary E Eastman, if she survive for a husband to dispose of the remainder of said state after their deceased by will and in case the survivors neglects to make a will then to their heirs of the said Edson C Eastman.

I give and devise and bequeath to my son, Samuel C Eastman, the house owned by me on the east side of State Street, south of the first Calvinistic Baptist meetinghouse lot, and the lots of land belonging there too and also the land situated easterly there of, being the lot use now for a blacksmith shop and all the buildings they’re on, intending to give him all of the land owned by me in the square to him and his heirs forever.

I give and bequeath to my granddaughter Mary C Eastman sinking fund bonds of the Boston, Concord and Montreal railroad of $500 number 33.

I give and bequeath to Mary C Eastman wife of Samuel C Eastman the stock which I may hold at my deceased in the Concord Gas and Light Company not exceeding however 34 shares.

I give to my son Samuel C Eastman the rest of my silverware and the right to take furniture out of the house as he may select to the amount of $100 in value, and all the rest and residue of my furniture I give to my son Edson C Eastman.

I give and bequeath my watch to my grandson, Seth Eastman.

I give and bequeath to my granddaughter Isabelle Eastman, to Sinking Fund Bonds of the BC & MRR, one of the one of $100 and one of $300.

I give and bequeath to my son Edson C Eastman, 10 shares of the Concord Gas Light Company.

I give them bequeath to my son Edson C Eastman the stock I hold in the Boston Concord and Montreal Railroad, to be held by him in trust to apply the income thereof to the benefit of my grandson Seth Eastman, in such manner as he may deem best, with the right to appoint a successor and said trust by will.

All the rest of the residue of the state, I give them bequeath and advised to my two sons Edson C and Samuel C Eastman to be divided equally between them.

I hereby constitute and appoint my said sons at Edson C and Samuel C Eastman, executors of this my last will.

And testimony whereof, I have here on to set my hands and soul this 15th day of July, 1879 and do make and publish this my last will and testament.

Know all men hereby that I, Seth Eastman of Concord, NH do make this as a codicil to my last will bearing date July 15, 1879.

I give devise and bequeath to my great granddaughter Isabelle Eastman the house and lot on by me on school Street and said Concord now occupied by my son Edson C Eastman. Dated June 1, 1883.