DRACUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY - Presents the first New England Lecture about "Write Quick"

A BOOK THAT EXPLORES LIVES OF TWO UNION INFANTRYMEN

The Talk will include material about the Fox Family and Marsh Hill Farm in Dracut not covered in other presentations and not covered in the “Write Quick” book.

Two women with New England roots have completed a popular history; the story of two New England infantrymen. The book-which includes photos, company rosters, regimental activities, maps and family trees- will be published by Winoca Press of Wilmington, N.C., in early April.

The authors are Ann Fox Chandonnet of Vale, N.C., and Roberta Gibson Pevear of Exeter, New Hampshire. Chandonnet was born in Lowell, Mass., and grew up in nearby Dracut. Pevear grew up in Maine. The women's families have ties with New England that go back for centuries.

Eliza Bean Foster and Daughter The infantrymen are Henry Charles Foster and Andrew Jackson Bean. Foster was born in Vermont and later lived in Lowell, Mass. He enlisted with the 26th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and died after being wounded at the battle of Third Winchester, Virginia. He was stationed for many months in New Orleans, and one of his letters is a dramatic play-by-play of the Battle of Sabine Pass.

Andrew Jackson Bean was born in Maine, where the national economic downturn made life difficult. He enlisted in the 5th Maine Volunteer Infantry, a regiment known for taking prisoners and battle flags. Bean survived the war, and became guardian of Foster's children, after Henry's wife Eliza (Andrew's sister) died of consumption - probably due to work in textile mills.

"Write Quick": War and a Woman's Life in Letters, 1835-1867 explores the extended kinship network of the Foster, Bean, Lynch, and Fox families, which included Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary to the Navy under Abraham Lincoln. Chandonnet is a fourth cousin of "Gus."

Chandonnet is a magna cum laude graduate of Lowell State College (now University of MA, Lowell), majoring in English and minoring in history. Her master's degree is from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). She lived and worked in Alaska for 34 years, where she was adjunct faculty for the University of Alaska Anchorage and worked as a newspaper reporter.

Co-author is Bobbi Pevear of Exeter, New Hampshire, who is descended from Eliza Bean Foster, the main "character" of the book. Bobbi and Ann are third cousins, once removed. Pevear, 79, grew up in Eliza's home town of Bethel, Maine. She served five terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and had a 35-year career in business administration and law. Bobbi's mother, Thirza Estelle Hickford Gibson (1893-1986) saved the documents on which the book is based.

Chandonnet is the award-winning author of many books including the Fodor travel guide, Alaska's Inside Passage, and the food history, Gold Rush Grub.

This is Pevear's first book.

Chandonnet and Pevear will tour New England in May. Their first appearance will be a lecture at the Dracut Historical Society at 1 p.m., Sunday, May 16. On Monday, May 17, at 7 p.m., both Pevear and Chandonnet will lecture at the Hampton Falls Historical Society.

In connection with a larger exhibit about Lincoln and Emancipation, Chandonnet will lecture at 7 p.m. on May 19 at the Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell. A lecture is also scheduled for Saturday, May 22, at the Bethel Historical Society. On the afternoon of May 23, Chandonnet will give a presentation about Andrew Bean and the Fifth Maine Infantry at the Fifth Maine Infantry Museum on Peaks Island near Portland.

Date: Sunday May 16, 2010
Time: 1 PM
Place: Harmony Hall, 1660 Lakeview Ave., Dracut, MA
(next to the Dracut Historical Society)

"Write Quick": War and a Woman's Life in Letters 1835-1867 - New England Book Tour

Author Ann Fox Chandonnet is married to Fernand Chandonnet, Fernand was my father's nephew by marriage.

Title, "Write Quick": War and a Woman's Life in Letters, 1835-1867.
Authors: Ann Fox Chandonnet and Roberta Gibson Pevear. Publisher:
Winoca Books, Wilmington, N.C. 565 pages, 50 illustrations, 3 family trees, 2 maps. Paper and hard cover. info@winoca.com Publishing date: April 10, 2010.
Paperback price, $39.95.
ISBN: 978-0-9789736-8-1
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Miscellaneous genealogy about Ann Fox Chandonnet: Grew up in Dracut. I am the third cousin once removed of my co-author, Bobbi Gibson Pevear. I am descended from Henry Foster's sister, Mabelia Foster Fox. Mabelia is my great, great, great grandmother. My three brothers still live in Dracut on Marsh Hill Farm where Mabelia lived and Henry and Eliza visited. I am the third cousin, four times removed, of Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821-1883). Abraham Lincoln created the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for "Gus."

All events are free. All feature a lecture by Ann Fox Chandonnet.
All will conclude with a book signing.

DRACUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Dracut, Massachusetts)
Title: Write Quick: Local History through 19th-century Letters
Sunday, May 16, 1 p.m.
Harmony Hall, 1660 Lakeview Avenue, Dracut, Mass. 01826. Site: 978 957-1701.
Contacts: R. Harvey, 978 957-3445; N. Taplin, 978 685-0129.
The Society maintains a website," All Things Dracut," on which they sell books.

Talk will include material about the Fox family and Marsh Hill Farm (Dracut) not covered in other presentations. Chandonnet will be donating to the society John H. Bodwell's 1867 certificate of service from the State of New Hampshire to the Society, as well as a summer dress made c. 1910 by hand by her paternal grandmother, Ethel Marie Kimball Bodwell Fox. Bodwell was Ethel's foster father. President of the society will undertake the publicity for this event.

HAMPTON FALLS HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Hampton Falls, N.H.)
Monday, May 17, 7 p.m.
Hampton Falls Historical Society Museum at 45 Exeter Road,
Hampton Falls 03844

Bobbi will lecture about the Pevear family's involvement with Hampton Falls.
Edward Pevear, the late husband of Roberta, is a member of a family that has lived in Hampton Falls for more than 200 years. His grandfather Daniel Emmons Pevear (b. 1839) fought in the Civil War. Later he served in the New Hampshire Legislature. Edward Pevear attended the one-room schoolhouse that is preserved in Hampton Falls. Roberta was the first president of the Hampton Falls Historical Society. There is a Hampton Falls street named after the Pevears.
Ann will lecture about "Write Quick" in general.
Contact: Sheila Kennedy, President, 603 929-1878.

SAMUEL S. POLLARD MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Wednesday: May 19, 7 p.m., as part of their "Forever Free" Emancipation exhibit.
401 Merrimack Street, Lowell, Mass. 01852
Lecture title: "A Knot of Relations: Henry, Eliza, Andrew
and Gustavus."
Blurb: Raised in Dracut, Ann Fox Chandonnet often wondered
about the pewter candlesticks on her grandmother's
sideboard—candlesticks bearing Cyrillic writing on their bases. She has solved the mystery of those candlesticks and much else in her new book, "Write Quick": War and A Woman's Life in Letters, 1835-1867.
This nonfiction book is a portrait of Eliza Bean Foster, a mill girl
who married a house painter. When her husband, Henry Foster, served in the 26th Massachusetts Infantry, he wrote dozens of letters to Eliza.
She also received and saved letters from her brother, Andrew Bean, who was serving with the 5th Maine Volunteers. More than 150 previously
unpublished letters from Henry and Andrew as well as members of the extended family network shed light on links with Abraham Lincoln's Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus Vasa Fox—to whom the candlesticks were given during a diplomatic mission to Russia.
Chandonnet will speak about the links among these family members, their ties to Lowell and Boott Mills and their various roles during the Civil War.
Information: 978 970-4120.

Some of the places mentioned in the book:

· 31 High Street, where Henry and Eliza lived in 1860
· #45 Boott Corporation, where Amanda Fox was boarding housekeeper and where Dana Fox boarded during the week
· Simpson photographer, whom they patronized in spring 1864
· 212 Tenth Street, where Andrew Bean lived after becoming guardian of Eliza's children
· Edson Cemetery—where Andrew, Eliza, Henry, and other family members are buried
· Eight rows of Boott Mill boarding houses between Amory and French Streets, where Eliza lived before her marriage
· Eliza patronized butcher Charles D. Starbird, corner Branch & Walker
· She also patronized merchant Theodore F. Parker and E. B. Patch, a secondhand furniture dealer
· Merrimack House (a hotel built in 1832 where Eliza and Henry attended entertainments). Burned down during her lifetime.
*Andrew bought his ledgers from Joshua Merrill, Bookseller, at 37 and 43 Merrimack Street.
· In the year 1869, Andrew dealt with merchants John Cain, Patrick Mars, P. Hirshfield, John A. Lewis, McGoverin, and Daniel Kelley.
· Receipts show he bought food from Litchfield, Edwards & Co. at the corner of Market and Shattuck.