Captain John Bertram – Seafarer, merchant and philanthropist. When writing about Mr. Bertram, Ralph D. Paine, author, concluded he “possessed the high qualities of foresight, daring and sagacity…his was a splendid American spirit.”
The Ship and Sailors of Old Salem (1912)
Born: February 11, 1796; Jersey, Channel Islands
Died: March 22, 1882; Salem, MA
Parker Brothers – game makers and businessmen.
“After all is said and done, games help the world along.”
George Parker
Founded: 1883; Salem, MA
Became a subsidiary of Hasbro in 1991.
Al Ruscio – actor, writer, professor of acting at the University of Windsor in Canada, artistic director of the Academy of Dramatic Art at Oakland (Mich.) University, board member of the Screen Actors Guild. After finding out about his death, Judy Fox, his long time manager said Ruscio was “[a] remarkable human being, passionate family man, loyal; friend, patriotic American, World War II vet and brilliant actor.”
Born: June 2, 1924; Salem, MA
Died: November 12, 2013; Encino, CA
Mary Curtis Verna – operatic soprano, University of Washington Professor of Music, and philanthropist.
“The Metropolitan’s most highly publicized relief aria-pitcher.”
Time Magazine, 1958.
Born: May 9, 1921; Salem, MA
Died: December 4, 2009; Seattle, WA
Sarah Parker Remond– abolitionist, orator and a medical doctor.
“My strongest desire through life has been to be educated. I found the most exquisite pleasure in reading, and as we had no library, I read every book which came in my way, and I longed for more. Again and again mother would endeavor to have us placed in some private school, but being colored we were refused.”
”A Colored Lady Lecturer,” 1861
Born: June 6, 1815; Salem, MA
Died: December 13, 1894; Florence, Italy
Born: July 4, 1804; Salem, MA
Died: May 19, 1864; Plymouth, NH
Captain Joseph White – On April 6, 1830, Captain Joseph White was found murdered in his bedroom. His valuables hadn’t been stolen, and the Salem community panicked to find the perpetrator of such a heinous act. This case led to fundamental changes in Massachusetts law. The well-known stories: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, The Scarlet Letter, and The House of the Seven Gables both by Nathaniel Hawthorne were inspired by the White case. To many this trial was more memorable than the witch trials. Captain White’s demise enthralled the residents of Salem – not only during the months after as the killers were hunted, tried, and ultimately executed – but well into modern times.
Born: August 9, 1747 on the Isle of Shoals, NH
Peabody Sisters – “Women of the nineteenth century have been pitied by American historians in recent decades for suffering under a ‘Cult of True Womanhood’ that held women to exacting standards of piety, purity, and submissiveness. But I found little to pity and a great deal to admire as I read the Peabody sisters’ words and pondered the choices they made as young women. The three sisters went on to lead long lives, stretching nearly to the end of the century; they experienced motherhood and widowhood, and they championed new causes with every decade.”
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (2006)
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Born: May 16, 1804; Billerica, MA
Died: January 3, 1894; Jamaica Plain, MA
Mary Tyler Peabody Mann
Born: November 16, 1807; Cambridge, MA
Died: February 11, 1887; Jamaica Plain, MA
Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne
Born: September 21, 1809; Salem, MA
Died: February 26, 1871; London, England