Win (Pierce) to Bob (Girdler)

1979 March 12 mentions Jim Harrison and hopes for a meeting with Bob. Remarks that John Girdler (1805-1853) was the younger brother of Sarah Girdler Swett (1800-1871) who married Captain Woodbury Swett in 1824; their son was Lewis Girdler Swett (1828-1875); his daughter was Helen Woodbury Swett (1864-1943) who married Orville C. Poland; their youngest child Burdette K. Poland (1902-1976) was Win’s father; Win was born in 1924. Jim and Win seem to have amassed a lot of material about the Girdlers and are calling the material a “Marblehead Memoir.” The nucleus is the collection of Girdler-Gardner letters – almost 70 known. Win says she is typing them up in a readable format and trying to identify as many of the people mentioned. Groupings are: 11 letters written by Richard Girdler (brother of John) to Captain William Hammond between 1832 and 1835. John Girdler’s letters to his family and theirs to him 1840 to 1851. Jennie Girdler to her mother while on a year-long voyage with Aunt Becca Dixey put with the final chapter of her book, Travels With Aunt Jane, which describes the voyage from a vantage point of years later. Letters written to Sarah Jane Girdler by her sisters Rebecca, Priscilla and Hannah beginning late 1860s through the 1870s. Jennie’s letters to her mother and a number of letters written by cousins. Letters were once together kept by Sarah Jane Girdler and then dispersed among Bob’s family. Win suggests to ask Tom Girdler, Jr. and his brother if they have any of these letters. Asks for the Rebecca Dixey letter dated Dec. 16, 1869 to make photocopies. Speaks of getting word from a genealogist in Weymouth, England concerning Francis Girdler, the first of our Girdlers in Essex County by 1671. Win says she is preparing a dossier of Girdler information to be submitted to Debrett. Mentions the March issue of the magazine Antiques [p. 527] having a painting of the Alexander Hamilton, done two years after Captain Lewis Girdler’s retirement which was used by Tracy as a reference for his commissioned painting of 1977. Mentions enclosing a Boston Evening Transcript write up on the death of John Gardner Low. Antiques [p. 523] (previously mentioned issue) is mentioned a gift of a painting to the Society by a Mrs. John G. Low – possibly the Delia mentioned in Hannah’s 1879 letters.