It All Started With Harry…

Harry McWhirter Barrett 1869-1940

When I was a kid I remember my mother telling me that her grandfather, Harry McWhirter Barrett, had been raised by a couple who were not his biological parents. I didn’t think much about it at the time, and I can’t remember why she shared that information with me in the first place, but years later when I began having children of my own I started to wonder about him. What was his story? Who was it that had actually raised him? And, what happened to his birth parents? So, I went in search of information on the internet and at my local Family History Library. So, after many years of searching, this is what I’ve found.

Harry McWhirter Barrett was actually born Harry B. McWhirter, on 4 July 1869 in Holland, Orleans, Vermont, to Samuel McWhirter and Almira Blake.  Harry had two older siblings, a sister, born 21 January 1861 who died just 13 days later, and a brother, Wilmer McWhirter born 28 September, 1864. I can find no death record for Wilmer, but he is not listed on the 1870 Census with his family. On 2 April 1871, Almira gave birth to another daughter, but both she and the baby died that same day, leaving Samuel alone to raise a then, 2 year old Harry.

Almira Blake McWhirter 1836-1871

In November of 1874, Samuel was working at a cotton mill in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.  The following newspaper article appeared in the Fitchburg Daily Sentinel on 21 November 1874, announcing Samuel’s death on the 18th.  From the content of the article it appears that Samuel was both living and working in Fitchburg. I’m not sure where Harry was living at this point, but he wasn’t with Samuel. So, Harry was left an orphan in the fall of 1874 at the age of 5.

Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, 21 November 1874

I found the following record from the State of Vermont regarding Harry.

STATE OF VERMONT.

Office Of Secretary Of State, 1 Northfield November 2, 1878. j I hereby certify that the foregoing three hundred and eighteen numbers are true copies of the Acts and Resolves passed by the General Assembly at its biennial session, A. D. 1878, as appears from the files and records of this office.

GEORGE NICHOLS, Secretary of State. 

 ADOPTIONS AND CHANGE OF NAMES.

Returned to the office of the Secretary of State, in pursuance of Section Eleven of Chapter Fifty-six of the General Statutes. 

 On the 17th day of October, A. D. 1877, Charles Barrett, and his wife Eleanor J. Barrett, of Titusville, in the county of Crawford and State of Pennsylvania, adopted Harry B. McWhirter of Derby, in the county of Orleans and State of Vermont. a minor, as their heir and .child, capable of inheriting, and name changed to Harry McWhirter Barrett. 

I had no idea how Charles & Eleanor Barrett were related to Harry, but I figured they must be family. I knew Almira’s last name was Blake, so I started searching through microfilmed records of the 1850 census for Vermont for her family.  According to the index, Almira’s family should have been in the specific area on the microfilm I was looking at, but they weren’t. At that point, I had been looking at microfilmed records for hours, and was disappointed and oh so tired. And then, I heard this voice in my head say, “I’m here, keep looking.”  I remember thinking  that, clearly, I’d been there waaayy too long…now I was hearing voices in my head. But, I kept on scrolling through the roll of film…and right at the end, filmed out of order, was the census page with Almira Blake’s family. Wow.

 1850 Census Derby, Orleans, Vermont

As I read down the list of names of Blake family members, I discovered who it was who had raised Harry. The Eleanor J. Barrett who was Harry’s adoptive mother? Was Almira Blake McWhirter’s  baby sister,  Eleanor J. Blake. And then, for whatever reason, I found myself weeping.

Eleanor “Nellie” Blake Barrett 1846-1930