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My grandfather, George Harris Meserve, Jr., spent many hours with me when I was young. A favorite activity and joy we shared was geneology. We spent countless hours talking about our past family history and looking at old photos. Over the years his influence in geneology sparked my interest in our family history. We traveled around town taking photos of past homes he and other family members had lived in. He told me many stories of his childhood. My grandfather was one of the first 25 Professors at Northeastern University. Meserve Hall on campus is named after him. He had many hobbies to include raising tropical fish (He was an active member of the Boston Aquarium Society and editor of their magazine for many years.), clock making, and oil painting (He was an invited member of the Copley Art Society). My grandfather was an upstanding citizen with strong moral reasoning, a sincere heart, devoted family man, and had an insatiable thirst for learning. I am sure that these wonderful traits were passed on by his parents George Harris Meserve, Sr., and Florence (Small). My grandfather's life came to a close when he fell, hit his head, and suffered from an aneursym which led to his hospitalization. Though he survived surgery, his heart weakened fighting the symptoms of phnomia. He entered the hospital on my husband's birthday and passed away 14 days later on our wedding anniversary.
My grandfather George had two brothers; Lawrence and Robert.Robert (m. Gladys, five children Richard, Bill, John, Roberta, and Jeanne) was a lawyer and served as President of the American Bar Association several years ago. He was also a trustee at Tufts University. Every Christmas Eve, we spent at a family gathering at his home in Waltham. He would sit in the chair in front of the fire place singing, "Good King Wencelot" in his deep baratone voice. Lawrence, the younger of the three (m.Ruth (Pride) had one child, Ronald. He lived in Medford until retirement from the Boston Elevator and then moved to Flo. I met Larry on only a few occasions when he visited my grandfather.
My grandmother shared many stories with me as well. She remembered spending time on her cousins farm in Loudon. She said that they would visit the farm and her mother would "work like a dog there". I was intensely interested in this and vowed that one day I would find the farm and finally see the stories come to life. That dream came true when I located the farm in the late 80's. It was still standing at that time, though it was in tough shape. I traveled throughout the neighborhood and realized that the Merrills, Blakes, and Peaslees all lived very close with one another. My grandmother was a graduate of Burdett and won an award for her typing skills. I remember my grandmother spending hours patiently at the kitchen table while we wrapped her up with cloth strips during "Doctor" play. She was not only great at imaginitive play, but an avid artist with sketch and water colors. She was not one to boast, thus I never realized her talent until after her death. She also was an excellent cook and the "perfect" grandmother. My grandmother told me that her father (Austin Peaslee) worked for the Charlestown Prison for a while. She remembers that they lived at the Prison yard for some time. I have placed a photo on this page hoping to locate names within the photo.
In recent years, I met with a geneology gatherer/family member on the Merrill side of the famly. She shared quite a bit of information with me. I also took a trip to the National Archive in Waltham with my mother to look up addtitional family information. My love for gathering information continues and has been passed on to my own children. My daughter, who took photography courses, recently developed glass negative plate photos of past Meserve family members. We believe the photos were taken some time in the late 1800's/early 1900's. We continue to work on name identification.
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