Thomas, Arrietta M. (Williams)
Arrietta M. (Williams) Thomas (1845-1910)
Swanzey, NH
Sixty-five year old Arrietta M. Thomas resided in Swanzey, NH, in 1910. A Black widow, she worked as a domestic servant within the home of Oren Carpenter, an engineer at the local pail shop. Oren and Luanna Carpenter had five children under the age of 12 years at the time of Arrietta’s employment.
Arrietta M. (Williams) Thomas was born c.1845 in Boxborough, MA, shortly after the 1844 marriage of her parents Brazillia B. Williams and Martha Ann Hazzard. Her father was from Nantucket, MA, but by the time Arrietta was 5 years old, she and her parents were residing in Leominster, MA. They lived at the residence of local shoemaker Isaac Smith. No jobs were listed in the 1850 census, but it is quite probable that, as a Black family within a white household, they were working for the Smith family.
As a teenager, Arrietta went to live with her grandparents Tower and Lucy Hazard in Boxborough, MA. At the time, they were both in their 60s and still working as farmers. In the 1860 census, Arrietta’s parents were not listed as residents of the Hazard household. She may have been there to assist her grandparents.
Within a couple of years, Arietta’s father enlisted as a seaman, serving in the US Navy during the Civil War from 1862-1865. He later received a pension as a Black veteran of the War. Upon his return to Massachusetts, Brazillia Williams found work as a barber.
Arietta M. Williams, at the age of 19, married 20-year old Samuel B. Thomas in Harvard, MA on September 24, 1864. Samuel was working as a laborer and she as a housekeeper. The 1865 MA census indicates that Samuel Thomas was also an eligible voter. The soon moved to Bolton, MA, where Samuel found work as a farm laborer. The couple lived at the farm of Francis Haynes and their family grew.
In her life, Arrietta Thomas gave birth to seven children but only five lived to adulthood. Some of the children have been identified as: Charles S. Thomas (b.1866), Sarah J. Thomas (b.1868), William S. Thomas (b.1870), Martha M. Thomas (b.1872), and Arrietta Thomas (b.1878).
It’s unclear what happened to Samuel Thomas during the 1870s. By 1880, Arrietta and her children were destitute and living as paupers at the town farm in Ashburnham, MA. Daughter Sarah was identified as an 11-year old child with rickets, but attending school. Daughters Martha (7) and Arietta (2) were also living with her.
On December 12, 1893, Arietta’s son William S. Thomas died of pneumonia in Boston at the age of 23. He had been working as a waiter at the time. A few years later, in 1898, Arietta’s father Brazillia Williams died of gangrene at Boston’s city hospital at the age of 75 years.
At some point in the 1890s or 1900s, Arietta found work in East Swanzey, NH, as a domestic servant for the Carpenter family. She appears in the 1910 US Federal Census. Arrietta died of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 12, 1910 at Elliot Hospital in Keene, NH.
GENEALOGY
ARRIETTA M. WILLIAMS was born around 1845 in Boxborough, MA, to BRAZILLIA WILLIAMS and MARTHA ANN HAZZARD. She married SAMUEL B. THOMAS (b.1843, MA). They had seven children including: Charles S. Thomas (b.1856), Sarah J. Thomas (b.1858), William S. Thomas (b.1870), Martha M. Thomas (b.1872), and Arrietta Thomas (b.1878). Arrietta M. (Williams) Thomas died on May 12, 1910 in Keene, NH, while a resident in East Swanzey, NH.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Fitchburg, MA City Directories, 1871— ancestry.com
Massachusetts Census- 1855, 1865 — ancestry.com
Massachusetts Vital Records, Deaths- 1893, 1898 — ancestry.com
Massachusetts Vital Records, Marriages- 1844, 1864, 1869 — ancestry.com
New Hampshire Vital Records, Deaths, 1910— ancestry.com
US Federal Census, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910— ancestry.com
US Navy Pensions— ancestry.com
US Veterans Schedules 1890— ancestry.com