William Melanchthon Thayer, 1822-1893
This site would not be half what it is today without the people that comment and contribute. This is a prime case in point, and a venture back to our eponymous roots.
The earlier post about the history of William Thayer (and that awesome Thayer’s Quest game) seemed to strike a chord with some people. Rhona, our newly-obsessed Thayer historian (and the bug has spread to our house, thanks to her), trekked through a brisk late-autumn day to find William Thayer’s tombstone at Rock Creek Cemetery. I am now determined to have a shin dig in honor of either his death or his birth. Either way, many thanks to Rhona for all her work.
We’ll have more posts to come about the Thayer family and its history, but for now, I leave you with an excerpt from a Washington Post article dated August 24, 1893:
The will of William M. Thayer, filed yesterday, bequeaths one third of all his real estate holdings to his wife, Julia Thayer, in lein of dower. The remaining real estate located in the District of Columbia is to be divided equally between Nathanial Thayer, Caroline Thayer Manning, and David Halcheson (? – bad print – unsure of last name). The remainder of the real estate, located in Montgomery County, is to be divided equally between the above-named heirs and Lucius W. Thayer and Mary Thayer Jones, the sixth apportioned to Nathaniel and Elenor Thayer to be held in trust for their children.
For the record, the middle name “Melanchthon” comes from the Lutheran theologan Philipp Melanchthon, a key leader of the Lutheran Reformation. I can almost imagine Philipp standing next to Martin Luther, nailing the note to the church door saying, “Hang on a minute.” But I guess it was in German, so it would really be “Ein minuten, bitte.” Or something like that.
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That doesn’t look like a circa 1900 headstone. I hate to say it, but Bonifant’s is much cooler.
Yeah, I’ll concede that. The children are also listed on the back of the marker (more on that in a later post). Looks like this might be a 70s or 80s addition.
I was told, however, that Montgomery Blair’s mausoleum could house a large family of migrant workers. That I’ll have to see.
Hi- I think the headstone was put in with the last body buried on the plot: David Hutcheson’s (William & Julia’s son-in-law), who died in May of 1923. He, by the way, was a fascinating guy in his own right – Scottish immigrant who rose to become superintendent of the LOC reading room… there’s a great old Post piece about him. And I’ve found all sorts of other stuff about the other Thayers, too. Unfortunately, there are no direct descendants of William and Julia; David and Helen were childless.
And once again, I gotta reiterate: Julia was the one who sold the land we live on to Easley, and a full 9 years after William’s death… I see no reason to assume Easley didn’t name the street for the nice 73-yr-old widow instead of her husband
Please don’t be so hard on Jerry.
Fair enough
And now this makes me wonder… Mr. Easley? Mrs. Thayer?
Ah, but of course, now it all makes sense…it was the wily, dashing and brilliant Easley who bought this land for a song from the no doubt dissolute, falling-down-drunk Thayer clan. This would explain the innate sense of superiority we feel on our street.
Rhona,
Congratulations on finding the Thayer family plot!
This might turn into East Side Story: Thayers vs. Easleys? Two clans enter, one clan leave…
“I hate to say it, but Bonifant’s is much cooler.”
Even, perhaps, a bit more. . . *sinister* than Thayer’s?
On a similar local history note, I plugged my address into the search engine for the Washington Post archive, and discovered all kinds of things about some of the families who have lived in my house. Newspapers now tend to use “the 1000 block of Georgia Avenue”, but at one time it wasn’t unusual to have exact addresses listed in all kinds of stories, including obituaries. And now I have tons of names and material for future research when I have time.