Hepsa Hathaway HOWLAND

Hepsa married Capt David Sands SHEARMAN on 23 Jun 1826. David (son of Capt David SHEARMAN and Anna TUCKER) was born on 26 Jul 1802 in Dartmouth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; died on 9 Feb 1852 in Washington, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Captain Pardon Howland was the first of the sons to pass away, and outlived but two of his sisters. Following the example of his elder brothers he went to sea, and became a captain in the merchant service. he was a member of the free Masons. Captain Howland was recalled by his eldest daughter, Mrs. Shearman, who was not quite fifteen years of age at the time of his death, as possessing a most lovable, gentle, and kindly disposition. Of rather a delicate physique he met death by his unselfish devotion to duty in the interests of others.

An account of Captain Howland's closing days has been furnished by his granddaughter, Mrs. Mary S. Kimber. "There occurred in 1820 and 1821," she writes, "a very cold winter of such unusual severity that the harbor of New Bedford was frozen over. Up to this period no land route was available, and the people of that vicinity depended entirely upon having their main food supplies brought to them by water. This being shut off, a famine impended, if it did not actually exist. In this emergency the appearance of a schooner in the mouth of the bay was welcomed as a God-send. This schooner had succeeded in ploughing her way through the great ice blocks to the entrance of the harbor, where she stuck fast.

"One of the first to reach the welcome vessel's side was Captain Pardon Howland, then a man in the prime of life. He was not a large or very strong man, but impelled by the prospect of securing food not only for his own wife and little ones, but for his fellow-townsmen he put forth all his strength. In helping to host a barrel of flour and get over the side of the schooner he strained his side. The much needed relief was secured - the wives and babies were fed, but in the end it proved to have been at the cost of one gallant rescuer's life, for from the result of that over-exertion Captain Pardon Howland never recovered. He died in a few days thereafter, leaving a widow with a house full of little ones to mourn his loss."

The intensity of the cold of that disastrous winter is chronicled by the New Bedford Weekly Mercury of Jan. 26, 1821, in these words: "Our bay (excepting a small rip south of Naushon Island), is entirely frozen over as far as Woods Hold, a distance of sixteen miles."

Pardon married Hepsa HATHAWAY on 1 Sep 1802. Hepsa was born on 13 Apr 1777; died on 31 Aug 1856. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Stephen Hathaway and Abigail Smith of Acushnet, Mass.