The White Whale

Cyrus Ham (if that is his real name) is the elusive relation who seems to frustrate every effort to track him down.  My frequent and abrupt hiatuses from genealogical research are usually due to banging my head against a brick wall in my search for this man.

 Not Cyrus, but a close depiction of my mental image of him.

Cyrus Ham was a farmer, born in Rochester, New Hampshire in 1818.  His surname suggests that he was born into a family with roots that extend to the very founding of the city itself. Eleazar Ham was the second settler in Rochester which was founded in 1728.  By 1738 there were sixty families centered near Haven Hill, banded together to fend off Indian attacks, which were frequent enough to prompt officials to offer a $100 bounty on Indian scalps.

With what could potentially be a very prominent family, I expected some pretty meaty records.  To list off the attempts that ended in failure would bore the most ardent genie, but suffice it to say that all searches online and visits to Vital Records in Concord and Rochester have been fruitless.  

In my frustration at finding anything on Cyrus himself, I decided to "go sideways" and see if I could find a route through siblings.   His will mentions his sister's daughter Jennie Twombly, and from there I found his sister's name Lucy Swain.  Lucy Swain's death certificate states her parent as Eleazar Ham.  This is tantalizingly close, but the dates for Eleazar the founder and Eleazar the parent don't match. Not even close.  It may be one is the descendant of the other, but that conclusion will require more proof than I have right now.

What I do know about Cyrus is that he at some point moved to Billerica, Massachusetts and married Julia Ann Wood from Chelmsford.  In 1870, he was a 51 year old farmer with personal worth of  $6500, or about $110,000 in today's dollars.  He had one son, Foster, who served during the Civil War, and an adopted daughter, Ella, who was my great grandmother. (Adopted from whom? Let's say I have my suspicions.)  Foster's son Frank also lived with the family at that time, as Foster seemed to be having marital difficulties. 

It was likely due to these difficulties that Cyrus put into play restrictions on his will that would impact Massachusetts State Law.  In an attempt at keeping the detested daughter-in-law from sharing in the estate, he provided that his son Foster would be the executor, but not inheritor of his estate, unless or until the daughter-in-law was dead or divorced.  The plaintiffs in the ensuing court case maintained that this was unfair and/or illegal and it eventually made it all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Court, who ruled that it was neither.

Just as Robbie Burns wrote "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men often go awry" so too did the will of Cyrus backfire. Pretty spectacularly in my estimation.  Foster died before he could divorce.  There was a provision that Cyrus' niece should receive the estate should Foster not survive to claim it, probably in the belief that she would filter the money to the grandson without any getting passed onto the child's mother.  While the will was being contested, the niece died suddenly (obstruction of the bowels) while in her 30's, and the whole estate passed to her husband's family, who apparently weren't of the mind to share it.  Cyrus' grandchild, who Cyrus may have believed would be taken care of by his niece, received nothing of the family estate.

UPDATE:  Ahab, here.  Progress made, updates coming.....