From the files of the Rochester Historical Society: Strong women

Aug 24, 2020
The writer of this piece, Connie Eshbach, is the vice president of the Rochester Historical Society. This is part of a series of Rochester history briefs.
 
In Rochester there are many stories of strong women who faced and fought through adversity.
 
Mary (Smith) Haskell followed her husband, Mark "Witchcraft" Haskell to Rochester five years after he left Salem. He built a home, a farm and became Town Clerk. Mary brought with her their six children. They were Mary, whose wedding was the first to be recorded in Rochester, Roger, Joanna, Mark Jr., John (all in their teens), and Joseph who was six years old. Once in Rochester, Mary’s house burned down her husband died at 49 two years later. She carried on, making some money by sweeping the meeting house once a week. Her children married and several built homes near their mother. John, the next to the youngest, married and built a house on the shores of Mary's Pond, on land said to have been bought for him by his mother.
 
Bethiah Church lost her husband, Lemuel, one of a long line of Rochester Churches at the age of 46. He had opened their house on the Mattapoisett River as an inn. In the mid-1700's Horsemen and footmen stayed there as no wheeled vehicles were used at the time. Bethiah, who was married to Lemuel for 22 yrs, was known as a woman of unusual energy. After her husband's death she ran the inn and raised her nine children. She outlived her husband by 60 years and died in 1832 at the age of 100.
 
Not every Rochester woman who had to singlehandedly keep home and family together was a widow. In the 1840's, Julianne Smellie was alone with her children while her husband, James, traveled west for the California Gold Rush. She got very sick and was bedridden for weeks, until a painful operation was performed. After that, the couple’s youngest child, Lizzy, died at 14 months and 24 days. Julianne, who later died in 1855 when she was struck by lightning, wrote her husband in California in 1849, including: "I often think that if you was at home you could bear a part of the afflictions with me." 
 
Bessie Hulsman, came from Nova Scotia to Rochester with her husband, Oscar, in 1900. They settled on 60 acres of land along Walnut Plain Road and started a farm. Over time they had three daughters. In 1930, Oscar walked to California and back, leaving Bessie to tend to farm and family. When he returned in 1931, he said he had taken his trip, "just to have an adventure."
 
Annie Louisa Snell, later known as “Grandma Hartley,” married James Hartley in 1885, at the age of 18. Together, they had a farm  and sawmill and 15 children, 13 of whom survived infancy. James died in 1918, at the age of 56. Annie outlived her husband by 43 years. With the help of her older children, she raised the younger ones and continued the family sawmill . She was active in the Grange and the First Congregational Church into her 90's. She was honored at the Grange after she turned 90. She died at the age of 95, leaving 450 or more descendants.