Letter with details of voyage on the Schooner Willow

2015.323.2084

Letter with details of voyage on the Schooner Willow

Scan of a two-page 1860 letter from Warren Bunker to his brother-in-law Daniel Hamor with details of Bunker's voyage on the Schooner Willow from 'home' to Baltimore, Savannah, Jacksonville, Nassau, mentioning his cargo of 'old sailors' and yellow pine, the money he has made and hopes to make, and plans for future voyages mentioning Mauricetown NJ and Machiasport possibilities. (See transcription of letter.) We believe 'old sailors' means experienced sailors or sailors who had hired out on another voyage and were trying to get home. Warren Bunker (born 1824, died 1870 at Cranberry Isles) was great-great-grandfather of Great Cranberry Island resident Phil Whitney. Daniel Hamor (born 1822, died 1894) is distantly connected to the donor's family. Background information from donor: Warren Bunker wrote the letter to his brother-in-law Daniel Hamor, Warren's wife's (Sidney Hamor Bunker's) brother, who was then living in Eden (now Bar Harbor), Maine. Daniel Hamor built a fairly large house that still stands (in 2015 painted yellow, with a barn in back), next to the Pot & Kettle Club entrance on what is now Route 3 between Salisbury Cove and Hulls Cove. When Daniel Hamor and his wife Polly died, in 1894, their house was left to their children, Ella, Edward and Mariah, none of whom ever married or had children as far as we know. Ella and Edward died (on the same night in 1928, probably of influenza), leaving the house to Mariah. When Mariah grew old, she invited her cousin Georgia Hamor to come and take care of her on condition that when she (Mariah) died, the house would become Georgia's. Mariah died in 1936. At that time Georgia Hamor inherited the Hamor home, and presumably the Warren Bunker letter. Georgia and her brother, Ansel, lived in the house until they died (Georgia in 1971 and Ansel in 1978). At some point, Georgia, who had inherited various Hamor mementos with the house, gave the letter to her niece, Alice Smith Cowles. She, in turn, gave the letter to me (Alan Cowles). "We almost lost the letter in the great fire of 1947. A note from the Boston Sunday Post, published in October 1947, stated that "Miss Georgia Hamor, a native spinster, and her brother, Ansel, were the last to leave their home in the Hulls Cove section before the inrush of the flames today, and left only because town officials insisted on the evacuation." Fortunately, the fire stopped about one mile from their home." See transcript.

Warren Bunker

1860

Digital