Miriam Averill

Family/Spouse: Joseph Kneeland. Joseph was born in 1704. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 1775; American Revolution (US)

Notes:

Timothy Kneeland was a Revolutionary War Veteran and the third person to settle in what would become Gardner, MA. Timothy Kneeland is known to have served in the Revolutionary War for over three years. Timothy Kneeland came to what would become Gardner from Harvard in 1771 with his wife Maria and four children. Kneeland was a carpenter who proved to be very helpful to other settlers as they came to what would become Gardner. Many of the Kneeland family's early experiences as settlers in Gardner were recorded and have become part of the folklore of Gardner, MA. Timothy Kneeland died in 1818 at the age of 81 and was survived by his wife and ten children, six of whom were born in Gardner, the town he helped found.

Timothy Kneeland is also noted as being the father of Abner Kneeland who wrote "The American Definition Spelling Book" and is credited as Gardner's first author.

In addition, Timothy Kneeland was the father of Miriam Kneeland and Sarah Kneeland Phinney known as the "Kneeland Maids". Tragically on Wednesday March 7th, 1855 the two aged sisters, Miriam Kneeland (85-born May 1st, 1769), a maiden woman, and her sister, Mrs. Sarah Phinney (75-born March 26th,1779), a widow, were found brutally murdered in the home that they shared. This home was the one that Timothy Kneeland made when the Kneeland family first settled Gardner. Some unknown party (or parties) entered the home and murdered the two elderly women in their beds with a heavy chair post. The Murder scene was not discovered until the afternoon of the next day when a neighbor saw cows belonging to the sisters wandering about uncared for. A window found broken was presumed to be the entry point for the intruder. The news of the crime so shocked Gardner that a $500.00 reward (a small fortune in pre-Civil War New England) was offered for information leading to the conviction of the murderer(s). Legend has it that a Mrs. Shattuck went blind from excessive crying over the untimely passing of her two friends. The town of Gardner held a collection to purchase a proper gravestone for the beloved sisters. Attendance for the church service for the Kneeland Maids was so great that alternate services at the town hall were held to accommodate the overflow of mourners. While a man named George Stacey was arrested for the murder, a Grand Jury acquitted him. However, to this day some still believed him to be the culprit. Mysteriously, the Kneeland Maid's home burned to the ground a month after the murder. Some whispered that the fire was arson perpetrated by the murderer to destroy evidence...but nothing was ever proven. To this day the Kneeland Maids Murder remains a topic of debate and speculation. A morbid curiosity about this century and a half old murder still exists in Gardner much in the same manner that many unsolved crimes still fascinate many. The Kneeland Maids murder has been the subject of multiple newspaper articles, is mentioned in several books on Gardner's history and was the subject for historical fiction E-novel "Across Lots" by Carla J Charter. Even today the Gardner Museum has a display regarding the Kneeland Maids consisting of a wanted poster with a $ 500 reward and a bedside table taken from the crime scene. The Kneeland Maids grave (ironically) is less then 1/10 a mile from the Gardner Museum and still receives an occasional visitor. The Kneeland Maids were laid to rest next to there beloved father. To this day the Kneeland family is very much a part of Gardner folklore and history.

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11098707/timothy-kneeland

Timothy married Moriah Stone on 11 Feb 1761 in Harvard, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Moriah was born in 1743; died in 1831. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36392579/john-kneeland

John married Polly Johnson on 17 Nov 1791 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Polly (daughter of Israel Johnson and Abial Higgins) was born on 7 Apr 1776 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; died on 25 Apr 1842 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; was buried in West Burying Ground, West Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lucy married Josiah Higgins on 10 Jan 1828 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Josiah was born in Feb 1802 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; died on 3 Aug 1883 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; was buried in Ware-Joslyn Cemetery, Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William Holman. William (son of James Holman and Mary Faulkner) was born on 2 Aug 1828 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; died on 22 Nov 1906 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

FREDERICK W. HOLMAN DIES
Services to Be Held Tomorrow for Chesterfield Cemetery Sexton
(Special to The Reformer)
CHESTERFIELD, N.H., Sept. 3. — Frederick W. Holman, nearly 82, resident of this town nearly all his life, former road agent and cemetery sexton, died this morning following a brief illness. Funeral services will be held at the home tomorrow at 4 p.m. (E.S.T.). Burial will take place in the South Village Cemetery, Westmoreland. Born in Chesterfield Sept. 30, 1856, he was the last of the five children of William and Mary M. (Higgins) Holman. His marriage to Nellie C. Dutton of Westmoreland took place in Hinsdale on April 3, 1886. She died in February, 1933. Mr. Holman leaves a daughter, Margaret, wife of Derwin H. Smith, of Brattleboro; a son, Wayne N. Holman, of Bristol, Conn., five grandchildren in Bristol and several nephews and nieces. Mr. Holman, sexton of cemeteries in the middle village for many years, had spent all his life in this town with the exception of a few years when he lived in Royalston, Mass.
(The Brattleboro Reformer, Brattleboro, Vermont, Saturday, September 03, 1938, page 1)

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145087875/frederick-w-holman

Frederick married Nellie Chamberlain Dunton on 3 Apr 1886 in Hinsdale, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Nellie (daughter of Hiram Wayne Dunton and Emily Susan Chamberlin) was born on 18 Oct 1864 in Shirley, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; died on 9 Feb 1933 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; was buried in South Village Cemetery, Westmoreland, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ruby Viola Reed. Ruby (daughter of Seymour Wilcox Reed and Viola Smith) was born on 31 Oct 1903 in Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut; died on 3 Mar 1992 in Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut; was buried in West Cemetery, Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BRISTOL — Malcolm F. Holman, 37, of 116 High St., a machinist, died Sunday in Bristol Hospital after a long illness. He was a lifelong Bristol resident. He was a member of the Prospect United Methodist Church. He leaves his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne N. Holman; a brother, Wayne Holman Jr.; and three sisters, Mrs. Margaret H. Pratt, Mrs. Nellie Hurlburt and Mrs. Lois Richard, all of Bristol; and a son, Gregory P. Holman in Florida. The funeral is Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Young Funeral Home, 25 Bellview Ave., with the Rev. Ruol Waters, pastor of the Prospect Methodist Church, officiating. Burial will be in West Cemetery. Calling hours are today from 7 to 9 p.m.
(Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, Monday, February 19, 1973, page 75)

Malcom married Marcia Ann Levins on 10 Sep 1960 in West Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, and was divorced before 1973. Marcia (daughter of Peter Paul Levins and Anna Neal) was born on 11 May 1936. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]