Digitization of Felt Papers

Project Plan

Background

Last year was supposed to be the send-off year for my family and me to begin work in Salem, Massachusetts.  John R. Grimes, Deputy Director of Peabody Essex Museum, seemed to have every detail ready and at my disposal last fall.  The work here mostly involves my time to build a website in order to digitize precious family documents archived at the Phillips Library.  Last year the scope of my thinking was very large and may not have been practical, but no one accuses me of being practical very often.  This year I have new plans and goals to contemplate and consider as I write this article.

Last summer in August 2004 I intended to find a house to buy in Salem, and I worked long and hard to do it.  However, personal promptings and family pressures back in Utah made the task impossible at the time.  Something was not right about it.  John Grimes for his part did not seem to mind and he did everything possible to assist me.  Instead of stopping the idea of a website (www.essexancestors.org) he accommodated me to work from Centerville, Utah.  He commented later that the Felt House project "seems to have a life of its own."  Parenthetically, I am always struck by John's quiet methods and thoughtful determination to find ways to make good projects work regardless of the usual trepidations and fears I observe in others.  May God bless John and his family always.

Before I left Salem last Summer, Mr. Grimes proposed a plaque ceremony for the Nathaniel H. Felt house (see picture).  It was the house, after all, which brought us (the Felt Family) back to Salem in the first place (see article cover, text).  Local LDS member Debra Benvie worked diligently to make the event work.  At first we thought the ceremony would take place on Charter Street outside where the house is now located.  I pictured roping off the street to allow for a crowd of around 200 people.  As the ideas began to bake, John Grimes and Merry Glosband (Peabody Essex Museum) pointed out the problems of pulling off the event there.  Subsequently I asked if we could do the event inside at the Phillips Library, but at the time it was not clear we could.

Soon thereafter in September 2004 John R. Grimes was appointed as temporary director of the Phillips Library, and the way was thus opened and cleared for the plaque ceremony to take place there.  About the same time, another decision was made which may have lasting implications for this North Shore community.  When Fred Woods, John Grimes and Debra Benvie first started thinking about what to do with the Felt house, the idea of establishing a branch of Salt Lake's Family History Library was broached.  The problem with any idea, however, is funding and reality.  Why put a branch library inside a house when the Phillips Library with its amazing history, sits right here ready to do the job better.  The Phillips Library (see Plummer Hall, see Satonstall Reading Room, see Saltonstall again) is a singularly beautiful building built in 1856.  Its upper hall will remind LDS observers of a Celestial Room.  It is very likely that Nathaniel Henry Felt visited this same library many times in his quest to do temple work for his kindred dead.

On October 16, 2004 (see article) the Peabody Essex Museum, the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation and our own Nathaniel H. Felt Family Association held a plaque ceremony for the house inside Plummer hall of the Phillips Library in Salem, Massachusetts. Would not Nathaniel have been proud of us! 

Highlights for me were:

On May 20, 2005 our friend John R. Grimes resigned from his position at Peabody Essex Museum.  The director of PEM, Mr. Dan Monroe, wrote the following to his staff last week:

"It is...with sadness, but with great pride, that I announce that John Grimes will be leaving PEM to assume the directorship of the museum of the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM. John’s last day at PEM will be June 17th.  Appointed by President Bush to the board of the IAIA two years ago, John has worked to help the organization chart a course for the future. Recognizing his obvious talents, John was then tapped to direct the Institute’s museum, which resides just off the main square in downtown Santa Fe. The IAIA museum is considered the nation’s leading museum of contemporary Native American art."

Despite Mr. Grimes' departure from PEM, we still have a unique opportunity to digitize Felt family papers including the important letter book of Rev. Joseph Barlow Felt.  The significance of his letter book for Salem, Essex County and other parts of New England is great.  Nathaniel H. Felt was Dr. Felt's first cousin.  No serious scholar of early Massachusetts history has not heard of Felt's most acclaimed work, "The Annals of Salem."  Although he was not a fan of Joseph Smith while he lived, he was an ardent historian and protector of family histories throughout his life (read bio sketch).

Other Felt family papers include the log book of both Joseph Barlow Felt and Nathaniel Henry Felt's grandfather David.  David and his brother John Felt played prominent roles in America's first war for independence.  Joseph Smith visited Salem in 1836 and left his signature in this museum's visitor log.  In 1841 Erastus Snow began proselytizing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salem, and Nathaniel Henry Felt later joined in September 1843.  His own 1842 edition of the Book of Mormon is in the collection.  Later in the 1860s, Nathaniel H. Felt took some of Salem's vast knowledge of leather preparation with him to England and secured a patent for the waterproofing of leather boots.  Perhaps his family back in Salt Lake was sustained by some of the proceeds from it.

This year I pledge my continued efforts toward our goals insofar as I am able, and I ask you to assist me.  The Felt family papers digitization project will require about $13,000 to be donated plus a 1,200 hours of volunteer time.  We already have a lead gift which I would like to discuss with you on Sunday, June 26, 2005 at 5:30 PM. 

I look forward to seeing you again

 
Jonathan C. Felt, Felt Family Volunteer
 

Explanation of Pictures

II Gr Uncle John: The grave of II Great Uncle John Gillingham Felt; Nathaniel H. Felt's beloved brother who always supported him with patience and understanding.  NHF did not get much other support from family and friends.  Nathaniel named is third son for JGF.  John served as an Alderman in Salem and he was a Salem City Councilman.  Dr. Joseph Barlow Felt's nephew was mayor here, and Nathaniel's uncle Joseph served many years as Salem's Treasurer.  NHF had a solid family who served the community.

II Gr Aunt Hannah: As NHF was the 12th and last child of Nathaniel and Hannah Reeves Felt, Hannah was the first child, and she was born 24 years before Nathaniel Henry.  Hannah married Samuel Ropes and they had several children together.  I found her grave quite by accident since her headstone had only been righted recently (in old graveyards, years separate generations and many headstones are buried or broken off).  I now have several new clues about our Ropes cousins from Salem!

III Gr Grandmother: Susan Felt was the wife of Captain David Felt, and she grew up as a Becket.  Actually, Susan Felt was my IV (4th) great grandmother.  Both the Felt family  and the Becket family played prominent roles in 18th Century Salem maritime history.  Susan's given name was Susannah and she was named for her grandmother Susannah (Mason) who was a small child in 1692 when her grandmother Bridget Playfer Wasselbe Oliver Bishop was executed for the false conviction of being a witch.  Little Susannah Mason also lost her mother by the time she was only six.

Rev. Jos. B. Felt: His tomb at the Broad Street Cemetery no longer has a bronze plaque affixed upon it; perhaps modern day witch and devil worshipers have removed it.  One of our family's future projects may be to re-install a plaque to honor him and his great wife Abigail Adams Shaw who was the daughter of Reverend William Smith Shaw and the niece of Abigail Adams.  In American History and among antiquarians in general, Joseph Barlow Felt was uniquely positioned.

III Gr Grandparents: When Nathaniel was seven, his father died of "intemporance" or alcoholism as we say it today.  The problem of intemporance with sailors and ship captains was severe then.  That is probably why NHF bonded so completely with his older brother John G. Felt.  Since the broken gravestone to Nathaniel Sr's right if he were lying there now is probably Hannah's.  The pansies were donated by Dexter (our museum gardener).

John R. Grimes: Faithful representative if Peabody Essex Museum and adopted member of the Nathaniel H. Felt family.

Felt Papers #1: "Annals of Salem" written by Joseph B. Felt.  The letter books and logs archived in Salem from Dr. Felt's life are amazing.

Felt Papers #2: David Felt, our IV Great Grandfather, left us his log book, and many details of his life await us.

Felt Papers #3: Joseph Smith's actual signature can be seen on the left hand side of the page down where the ink blot is plainly visible.  Joseph was here in Salem Aug 1836 when he received Section 111 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Felt Papers #4: 1842 4th edition of the Book of Mormon that once belonged to Nathaniel H. Felt.  A Book of Mormon from that era is valuable.

Felt Papers #5: Nathaniel's circa 1866 patent for the waterproofing of leather boots from England.