Name/Title
CorrespondenceEntry/Object ID
2020.225.001Scope and Content
Letter from Hetsy (Harriet Babcock) and Malcolm Brown to Susie and Tom Aalund re. Loper family history and the history of the Palmer House at Pine Point, along with Hetsy's 8th grade 1937 report card from the Stonington Borough School (referenced in the letter).
"Dear Susie and Tom, January 9,1978
I wish we'd known there are four Aalunds. We'd have liked to celebrate with you all on Saturday night. My only excuse is that we're all upset by Aunt Priscilla Loper's present illness at Mary Elizabeth Convalescent Hospital in Mystic, and weren't thinking very well.
Here's a brief listing of all who've lived at Pine Point as once compiled by Aunt Priscilla who always kept her records straight. No Crosby accounts for her.
The present house was built for Captain Alexander Smith Palmer and brother Captian Nathaniel Brown Palmer by shipbuilders of the Collins & Sons company in New York. The Captians and their families lived there from 1853 until their deaths.
Captain Nathaniel and his wife Eliza had no children. Eliza died in 1872. (You'll just have to keep a polite countenance for Captain Nat's "Grandchildren"). Eliza was occasionally bothered by corns on her feet and my mother says her mother told her that she was a very tired old lady who sometimes said 'Eeek eeek' like a small mouse when she went downstairs. If there are ghosts, she'll be the tiniest. A larger lady ghost might be Madgie Loper, that skipper from Stonington's wife, who, as you'll remember from our photograph, was beginning to get heavier in her old age. She didn't live at Pine Point, though a frequent visitor.
Captain Alexander and his wife Priscilla (Denison Dixon) Palmer has four children:
(1) Alexander Smith Palmer, Jr. who died in 1891
(2) Nathaniel Brown Palmer, 2nd, who died in 1877
(3) Louis Lamber Palmer, who died in 1887
(4) Elizabeth Dixon Palmer who died in 1929
Nathaniel Brown Palmer (Captain Nat.) returned to San Francisco after trying to improve his nephew Nat's failing health by a sea voyage. On May 16, 1877, Young Nat died aboard the "City of Pekin," and Captain Nat send word to his brother Alexander from San Francisco, where he too died. Louis Lambert went out to San Francisco and brought his brother and uncle's b odies home to Stonington where they were buried on the same day in Stonington's Evergreen Cemetery. Captain Alexander died in 1894.
Elizabeth Dixon Palmer married Richard Fanning Loper Jr., who died in 1914. He was the son of "that skipper" and the couple had four children too:
(1) Richard Fanning who died in 1930
(2) Alexander Palmer, he's the AL, inventor of the Loper Fire Alarm System which was manufactured in the brick building on the boat lot.
(3) Priscilla Dixon Loper, at the Mary Elizabeth Convalescent Hospital in Mystic
(4) Elizabeth Palmer Loper, my mother, also at the home.
Elizabeth Loper married Horrace Hobart Babcock of Westerly, and they too had four children:
(1)Abby Elizabeth (she lives in Port Washington)
(2) Elizabeth Palmer (she lives in Williamstown)
(3) Harriet (of the lousy report card and no middle name)
(4) Nathaniel Palmer (he lives in Fairfield, CT)
If ever you'd like to know what some of the Palmers and Lopers looked like, there's a terrific Samuel Waldo portrait of Nathaniel Brown Palmer at the Stonington Lighthouse Museum, and Captain Alexander's portrait is due back from Lyman Allen sometime this week. Come see it whenever you like. Our daughter Priscilla Embry has the companion Priscilla Denison Dixon Palmer portrait which was over the mantelpiece in the 'sitting room.' You already know Priscilla Embry, for she worked one summer in your Holmes St. gallery, and she'd very much like you to visit both Priscillas.
Please call us anytime if we can be helpful about Pine Point. We're sorrier that we can say that the last long period of sad decline took such a toll, but we know that Pine Point sits foursquare and sturdy on its deep foundations, and that it's an elegant and noble house, as well as a very happy place in which to live.
Every good wish to all the Aalunds from all of us for many years of happiness at Pine Point!
Sincerely,
Hetsy and Malcolm"Collection
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