Samuel Greeley (1783-1861) - 52 Ancestors #45

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is ... pick your own theme, so I get to write about another third great-grandfather - one of the many ancestors named Samuel Greeley (or Greele) in my ancestry. (See Surname Saturday ~ Greeley (Greele) of Salisbury, Massachusetts for the ancestral line.)

Samuel was born on July 2, 1783, in Wilton, New Hampshire, to Samuel Greeley (the one who was killed by the fall of a tree in 1798 and is buried in a haunted cemetery) and Olive Read. He was the second of their six children.

He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1802. He married four times, fathering three children.

He married first, Lydia Maria Sewall, on May 3, 1812, in Marblehead, with whom he had:
   Abigail Greeley (4 Feb 1814 - 10 Feb 1814, in Marblehead, Massachusetts)

He married second, Louisa May, on October 19, 1823, in Boston, with whom he had:
   Samuel Sewall Greeley (11 Oct 1824, in Boston - 8 Mar 1916, in Chicago)
   Louisa May Greeley (1 Jan 1827, in Boston - 7 Oct 1903, in Chicago)

He married third, Marie Antoinette Paine, on October 18, 1831, in Boston, and fourth, Sarah Emerson Follansbee, on October 8, 1844, in Newburyport. His first three wives predeceased him.

He lived primarily in Boston, where I find him in the 1840, 1850, and 1860 U.S. Censuses, but apparently lived on the North Shore in Marblehead and Swampscott at various times in his life. 

I don't know if he was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, but there is an obituary for him in the Register, Volume 15 (1861), pp. 360-361.

There is also an obituary for him in the Farmer's Cabinet, a New Hampshire publication:

Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 3, Friday, August 23, 1861. Obituary for Samuel Greele., Farmer's Cabinet,
Amherst, New Hampshire, online images (http://www.genealogybank.com).

This obituary is wonderful, telling me about his education, his occupations, and his civic activities as a Representative in the State Legislature for several years and a member of the Board of Aldermen in Boston in 1834-36.

I find it curious that although he "was a most genial companion, and greatly beloved by his numerous acquaintances," he is buried alone in a plot at Forest Hills Cemetery with no gravestone. (I have visited his plot and set up his Find-A-Grave memorial.) And the only survivor listed is his wife, but not his son or daughter (who were living in Chicago at this time.) There must be a story there, but I don't know it!

The Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, at Ancestry.com, includes an interment record for him in Boston (He died in Swampscott, a town on the North Shore of Boston, but was buried in Boston).

From the left-hand side of the page:

16 [of August 1861] Samuel Greele, Age: 78 yrs, 1 mo., 14 days, Death Location: Swampscott, M[ale] and M[arried], Occupation: Gentleman.

From the right-hand side of the page:

Birth Place: Wilton, N.H., Father: Samuel, Mother: Olive, Cause of Death: Carbuncle, Place of Interment: 13 K Chapel, W.S. / Rem to Forest Hills.

I believe this last notation suggests that he was first buried at Kings Chapel Burial Ground and later, his remains were "removed" to Forest Hills Cemetery, which does have a burial record for him (though no gravestone).

A couple of years ago, I found his fourth wife buried in Chicago. She must have followed her step-children there and when she died, 18 years after her husband, her remains were not returned to Boston but were buried in the Greeley plot at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

My descent from Samuel Greeley:

Samuel Greeley

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Samuel Sewall Greeley

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Ethel May Greeley

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Lowell Townsend Copeland

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my mother

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me