Bullard Family History

by Martha DeWolf

Hattie (left), Fanny (middle, with Jennie Hastings on right), Albert and Hovey all left the farm in the 1880’s, which left only Alice at home with her parents, who were now in their mid sixties.  Alice began her fourth decade. (The years between 1880 and the new century are dominated by correspondence from Hovey.) Horatio Whiting and his wife Phoebe had a daughter, Frances Sargent Whiting, who, like her cousins Frances Joanna Bullard and Frances Sargent Howard, was named after her great Aunt Fanny Bullard.  Apparently the two older children died.

In the spring of 1880, Aunt Rebecca Whiting took her niece Ethel and her niece Fannie, who may or may not have been Ethel’s governess, to San Mateo to stay with her daughter, Anna Howard.  Fannie stayed in California for nearly four years.  She became involved in the local church where she taught English to Chinese immigrants.  There were 20 students, each with a teacher and each Sunday before Service they studied for an hour.  The rumor in the family is that Fannie was sent away because she was in love with a man named Kingsbury and the family didn't initially approve.  Something about a disagreement two generations earlier.

In 1880, Anna's brother, Dwight Whiting who was 26, was in California discovering, among other things, gold.  Raised in a wealthy family he was poised at the edge of his own great fortune.  Starting with gold, his life took him in and out of real estate, cattle ranching, and olive growing among a few, Dwight Whiting died one of the richest men in California at age 53.  He was a close childhood friend of Hovey’s and they remained close throughout their lives.  Dwight’s influence may have persuaded a consumptive Hovey to move from the damp of New England to the arid environment of Southern California.

He wrote to Aunt Fanny early in October to let her know that he had sent her “... a fine specimen of Native gold made into a pin.  It’s just as it was found.  Hope you will wear it & enjoy it. ..” He continued, “ I wish if you have time, you drop me a line as I should like to hear how you & Uncle John are.  Did he receive the “Aztec Corn” that I sent him?  Have not heard & suppose he must have forgotten to write about it.  Have you had any more Gold excitements up in Medway?  Guess I had better come up there again give them another stirring up.”

In 1881 Alice was in Holliston. Hovey was physician for the city of Boston.  He was twenty five.  In September Fannie wrote to Hattie from San Mateo saying that she had "looked in every letter for the appointed day for the wedding but as yet none has been revealed to me.”

She went on, “Anna has attempted” from what she remembered of her childhood visits to the Farm, “to teach the gardener how to make cider” although apparently with limited success. 

Fannie wrote again in October and cautioned her sister to “....Tell Mother to take care of herself as well as all the rest of you...”

The Jennie's were in Boston in November at the Hotel Bristol with Aunt Rebecca, Anna and Anna’s children.  Fannie did not accompany them.  It is possible that they attended Hattie’s wedding at the Farm, although as Jenny wrote from Boston on the 18^th of   November that she was “still here with Aunt.   All the first part of the week I did nothing but visit the sick; one part of the day with Anna, and part with Aunt Fanny.  Gertrude’s(Anna’s daughter b. 1873) knee is still much swollen and has to he bandaged all the time."