A “Real Daughter” – Mary Dillingham-Burnt Meadow Chapter, NSDAR

Julia Wendell Butler — A “Real Daughter”

A “Real Daughter” was actually the daughter of an American Revolutionary War Patriot. Mary Dillingham-Burnt Meadows Chapter, NSDAR was privileged to have one of these women as a member of our chapter.

The Wendell family was of Dutch origin, emigrating to New York in 1640. At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Wendell, with his wife Abigail and family, was living in Marblehead, Massachusetts. While in his aid to the Colonies, he was captured by the British and died on the prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor in 1777, leaving six children, the eldest being Julia’s father, Thomas, Jr.

Julia Wendell Butler joined the Mary Dillingham Chapter, NSDAR in 1906. She was the daughter of Thomas Wendell, who was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, July 13, 1779, and died in Farmington, Maine, November 19, 1862; and Elizabeth Eaton, born in Farmington, April 6, 1774, and died June 17, 1843. Julia Wendell was born July 23, 1815, and married Francis G. Butler on July 23, 1842. They were the parents of four children. Julia died in 1907.

Center Burying Ground, Farmington, Maine

Thomas Wendell Home in Farmington, Maine

Julia’s father, the eldest child, Thomas, Jr., was born on July 13, 1770. His boyhood was spent amid the early hostilities of the American Revolutionary War. The fortune of his family was lost, with his father dead and his mother having to raise six children alone. He obtained a position in 1780 as a cabin boy on the ship Porus, a privateer fitted by Hon. E. Haskett Derby, a wealthy merchant of Salem. At the close of the war, Mr. Wendell accompanied his uncle Moses Starling to Farmington, Maine, in 1786 where he worked as a carpenter. When he became of age in 1791, he began clearing a farm and pursued farming as well as the mechanical industry.

Thomas Wendell and Elizabeth Eaton were married in 1795 and had eleven children. He was a strong Congregationalist and was one of the founders of the Old South Congregational Church in Farmington. After his death in 1862, a memorial window was designed in his memory. He was an avid reader and took an interest in the establishment of the Farmington Academy in 1807. He served the town of Farmington as a selectman and surveyor of highways.

Thomas Wendall Memorial Window