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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Flyleaf of Bible
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Historical Society of Greenfield
Description
An account of the resource
<img src="https://rhh.reclaim.hosting/themes/rhh-berlin/images/contributor-images/HSgreenfield.jpg" width="400" alt="HSgreenfield.jpg" />
<p>The Historical Society of Greenfield, Massachusetts, is a non-profit historical and educational resource institution maintaining and communicating the diverse history of Greenfield by promoting its archival collections, exhibitions of cultural artifacts, documents, publications, educational resources and programs accessible and targeted to area residents, the wider public and students of all ages.</p>
<p>We're located at: 43 Church St,<br />Greenfield, Massachusetts<br />413-774-3663 (please leave a message)</p>
<p>Email: <a>hsgreenfield1907@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/HSGreenfieldMA/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSG FaceBook Page</a><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZn0fRZJrtYv23uDjOKPbrw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSG YouTube Channel</a></p>
Revolution Happened Here
Custom item type including project metadata fields.
Story
Interpretive text about the resource
<p>Prudence Hastings was 22, and 6 months pregnant when she and Ebenezer Graves were married on January 1st 1753. Eben wrote on the back of the title page of his Bible “bought in the 28th year of his age, which is the year 1753. Price 6 pound ten shillings." As their oldest son, also Ebenezer, was born in March 1753, it is highly likely that the Bible was bought in preparation for raising the family they anticipated. Their second son, Daniel Graves, was born in 1754. 10 more children followed, all recorded on the blank page between the Old and New Testaments.</p>
<p>The Bible's expense was a major investment in the family's future, equaling $1,930 in 2020 dollars. Having a Bible in the home would help the children learn to read, teach them the ethical and religious position of their parents, and bind the family together through daily prayers and reading aloud. The Holy Bible was the most commonly owned book in colonial America, with annual agricultural almanacs a close second. The Protestant emphasis on the Bible in liturgy, instruction and meditation played a major role in the high literacy levels that characterized early New England.</p>
<p>1753 was also the year Greenfield became a separate town from Deerfield. Eben and Prudence Graves were part of the excitement of forming a new township while they were raising a young family, and were part of America becoming a new country as well. The three oldest Graves brothers were eager to do their part to help bring about the birth of the new nation:</p>
<p>Daniel joined the fight first, and died in January 1776, in the very beginning of the war, but his service record is missing.</p>
<p>Job enlisted next. He started as a Private in Captain John Williams’ company in Colonel Timothy Robinson’s detachment of the Hampshire militia in December of 1776, fought with his unit at Ticonderoga, and served in several different units throughout 1777 and 1779, for a total of 209 days.</p>
<p>Eben Jr, the oldest child of Eben and Prudence, enlisted in February, 1777. He was a Private in Captain Timothy Child’s company in Colonel David Leonard’s regiment at Ticonderoga and in Colonel David Field’s regiment at Bennington, for a total of 1 month and 21 days in 1777.</p>
<p>The process of independence was not without great hardship and many losses, and the Bible would have been a comfort to the Graves family, even through the deaths of their children: Eben and Prudence lost two-year-old Moses in 1760, and Daniel, their second son, died in 1776 as a revolutionary in the very beginning of Revolutionary War, at age 22. Soldiers traveling through town were often sick, with smallpox and dysentery and other illness, and in 1777, 50 people out of 900 inhabitants of Greenfield died in an outbreak credited to sick soldiers, including Electa (age 2) on the 1st of August and Solomon (age 8) on the 23rd of September.</p>
<p>Imagine Eben and Prudence Graves in the summer of 1777, having lost one son to the war and worrying about two others currently away fighting, seeing young soldiers like their own sons come through town ill, and their baby daughter sickens and dies. This was part of the terrible price of what was, in many ways, a civil war playing out on the home front. Perhaps this Bible gave them some comfort.</p>
Date Sort
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01-01-1753
Text
A text transcription of the manuscript
<span><span><strong>Page facing Bible’s title page:</strong><br /><br /></span></span>
<div>Ebenr Graves junr Born March ye 19 1753<br />Daniel Graves 2nd Boar November ye 23 1754<br />Job Graves Born December ye 26 1756<br />Moses Graves Born September 17th 1758<br />Moses Graves Dissest February ye 8 1760<br />Mother Graves Dissest April ye 21 1760<br />Brother Joel Graves Dissest April ye 16 1760 <br />Thankful Graves Born August ye 8 1760<br />Father Graves Dissest August ye 23 1756<br />Brother Daniel Graves Dissest September ye 8 1755 <br />Moses Graves Born September ye 29 1762<br />Joel Graves Born October ye 10th 1764<br />Elihu Graves Born June ye 16th 1766<br />Solomon Graves Born May ye 10th 1768<br />Rufus Graves Born June ye 27th 1770</div>
<div>Prudence Graves Born September 29th 1772</div>
<div>Lecta Graves Born August 4th 1775</div>
<div>Daniel Graves Dissest January 18th 1776</div>
<div>Lecta Graves Dissest August 1 1777</div>
<div>Solomon Graves Dissest September 23 1777</div>
<div>Prudance Graves consort of Ebenr Graves Dissest October 19 1804 in the 74 year of her age<br />Ebenzer Graves Dissest April 26 1814 Age 88 years and one month [written in a different hand]<br /><br /><strong>Flyleaf:</strong><br /><br /><span>Ebenr Graves His Bible bought in the 28th year of his age, which is in the year 1753, Price 6 pound ten shillings</span><br /><span>Ebenr Graves junr Born March ye 19 1753</span><br /><span>Daniel Graves Born November ye 23th 1754</span></div>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
"Eben Graves, his Bible, bought in the 28th year of his age”
Description
An account of the resource
Leather-bound Bible, 10”x12”x4”
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1753
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Historical Society of Greenfield
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Printed Document
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
3000-111-001
childhood
homefront
religion
soldier