Hannah Emeline Palmer

of Taftville, Canterbury and Norwich, Connecticut

Hannah Emeline Palmer, was born March 24, 1825 in Taftville Connecticut. She was the eldest child of Asher & Joanna (Eames) Palmer. (Her father, Asher Palmer, had four older children from his marriage to Hannah Pettis, who died some time between 1822 and 1824.)

At the age of 20, Hannah married William H. Larkham of Voluntown, Connecticut. They settled on the farm in Voluntown that William's great-grandparents had established in the 1700s. It was here that six of their eleven children were born.

Hannah and William Larkham had the following children:

Henry A. Larkham, born August 25 1846. Henry died of typhoid fever on April 18, 1873.
Julia Melissa Larkham, born December 26, 1847.
George Edwin Larkham, born November 12, 1849.
Charles William Larkham, born June 24, 1851.
Jane Hannah Larkham, born July 14, 1853.
Carrie Estelle Larkham, born March 26, 1855.
John Alfred Larkham, born April 28, 1857.
Frank Nathaniel Larkham, born May 5, 1859.
Frederick Elmer Larkham, born December 16, 1862.
Gertrude Elizabeth Larkham, born Sep. 20, 1871.
Herbert James Larkham, born September 20, 1871.

In 1857, William and Hannah left Voluntown and lived on rented farms in nearby Griswold, North Stonington, and Canterbury, Connecticut. After William's death in 1884, Hannah purchased her own farm on Plain Hill, Norwich, Connecticut, where she lived to be almost 91 years old. Hannah was buried with William H. Larkham in the Larkham family plot at Packerville Cemetery near the Packerville Baptist Church in Plainfield, Connecticut. Four of Hannah and William's children (Henry, George, Julia, and John) are also buried there.

On her ninetieth birthday Hannah's younger sister, Sarah Harvey Palmer wrote the following poem for her:

TO MY SISTER ON HER
NINETIETH BIRTHDAY
1825-1915

Dear white-haired sister, would I could
Meet you at this milestone on life's way,
To congratulate and to greet you
On this late anniversary day.
The finger on the dial-plate of time
Points to your ninetieth birth-day,
You've had a long and rugged journey
As you travelled along life's way.

No longer glimmering clear and white
Are the milestones by the lengthened way,
But dim and dull in the shadowy light;
Ah! They are old, and mossy and gray,
As on the height of years you stand
Blessed and honored in our sight,
We'll smooth the way for the tired feet
And make your pathway happy and bright.

We'll lighten the burdens for the tired arms,
And kindly brush the soft white hair,
May your kindred and friends all express
Their gratitude for all your loving care.
Bless the patient hands, the sheltering arms
Many dear little heads have nestled there
Comforted and blest with mother-love,
Now you must rest in the "old arm shair."

And surely you have developed
The characteristics of Palmer-hood
For patient, heroic endurance
Like the bravest of heroes you've stood,
And like our ancestor, Walter Palmer
You are blest with length of days,
May a home and Host await you
When you reach the parting of ways.

Sarah H. Palmer
Norwich, Connecticut
March twenty-fourth, 1915

Hannah Emeline Palmer Larkham
at age 90

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