A
couple of years ago, after I was well
entrenched in researching my ancestry, my mother sent me
several boxes of old bibles, books, photos and papers that
had been passed down to her from her mother. Among the most
impressive of the items in the boxes was a large bible (11
inches long x 9 inches wide x 4 inches thick and weighing
nearly 10 pounds) with a brown lined page inserted inside,
which read:
My
Father's Bible 
This bible was the property of
Asher Palmer.
The son of Uriah & Elizabeth Newton Palmer
and a lineal descendant of Walter Palmer,
who settled in
Stonington in 1653 and died there eight years later.
Asher Palmer was born in in
Exeter, R.I. May 7th 1795.
Died in Griswold, Conn. Dec 25th
1851
Sarah H. Palmer
Inside the bible, between Malachi and
Apocrypha, were several pages of family records, inscribed
over the years, with the births, marriages and deaths of the
members of Asher's families from his two marriages.
Asher Palmer is my 4th great-grandfather, and
as the inscription says, he was born on May 7, 1795 in Exeter,
Rhode Island. He was the son of Uriah
and Elizabeth (Newton) Palmer
of Exeter, Rhode Island.
When he was 21 years old, Asher went to
Norwich, Connecticut, and established a farm near the village
of Taftville. He married Hannah
Pettis, the 19-year-old daughter of Joseph and Mary (Chapman)
Pettis of Groton, Connecticut. Less than two years later,
their first child, Sybil, was born. Asher and Hannah had four
children during their brief marriage:
- Sybil A. Palmer, born April 7, 1818
- John B. Palmer, born January 14, 1820
- Denison Palmer, born May 4, 1821
- Lydia N. Palmer, born September 20, 1822
Hannah Pettis Palmer died some time between
1822 and 1824, leaving Asher with four very young children to
raise and a farm to run. On June 15, 1824, Asher, who was by
29 years old, took as his second wife, my 4th great-grandmother,
Joanna Penry Eames, the 21-year-old
daughter of Comfort and Joanna (Penry) Eames of Lisbon,
Connecticut. According to Norwich town records, the marriage
was performed by Rev. William S. Palmer. Asher and Joanna's
first child, my 3rd great-grandmother, Hannah Emeline, was born a
little more than 9 months later. During the twenty-seven
years of their marriage, Asher and Joanna had twelve children,
most of whom survived to adulthood:
- Hannah
Emeline Palmer, born March 24, 1825
- Julia E.
Palmer, born October 3, 1826
- Amanda Raymond
Palmer, born May 27, 1828
- James Burnham
Palmer, born February 17, 1830
- Jared B. Palmer, born January 16, 1832
- Emily J.
Palmer, born October 9, 1833
- Caroline A.
Palmer, born September 18, 1835
- William Asher
Palmer, born February 28, 1837
- Henry F.
Palmer born September 19, 1839
- Sarah
Harvey Palmer, born October 7, 1841
- Horace A.
Palmer, born November 12, 1843
- Edwin L.
Palmer, born February 17, 1847
Asher's father, Uriah
Palmer, died in 1832. In his will, Uriah made Asher, and
Asher's mother Elizabeth, executors to the estate. Asher
inherited all of Uriah's real estate lying in Exeter and
Hopkinton, Rhode Island. The family then moved to Exeter, where
seven of the twelve Palmer children were born.
By 1850, Asher and Joanna moved just over the
Rhode Island border to Griswold, Connecticut. They appear in the
1850 Census for Griswold, Connecticut, with children Jared, Emily,
Caroline, William, Henry, Sarah, Horace and Edwin.
The following year, Jared died at the age of
nineteen on November 27, 1851. Asher died one month later, on
December 24, 1851. He was fifty-five years old. Joanna, age forty-seven, still had
seven children between the ages of three and eighteen living at
home. She raised them all on her own, although two of her sons, William, age 25, and
Horace, age 19, died in 1863 during the
Civil War.
Asher and Joanna were buried at the Ames
Cemetery in Lisbon, Connecticut, along with several of their children (Jared,
William, Horace and others).