IDFirstMiddleLastDOBDODCOD
101Francis "Fanny"GrangerHulet6/15/18031/2/1865asthma

veteran
exhumed
purchaser
cemetery
N/AFALSEN/AAdams Street

lot
plot
N/AR8 G17
relations
Fletcher Hulet (husband, 7 April 1803-5 Nov 1882) Martha Hulet Lyon (daughter, b. c 1830) Margaret Eunice Hulet Chappel (daughter, b. c 1832, d. 20 Sep 1856) Clara "Clarissa" Somers Hulet Wheeler (daughter, b. c 1834) Gilbert Mather Hulet (son, b. c 1836, d. 6 Nov 1854) Harriet G. Hulet Walker (daughter, b. c 1841, d. 28 July 1928) Marshall Fletcher Hulet (son, b. c 1846) Mrs. Dr. Ezra Somers (sister) Mrs. Jason Langdon (sister) Thomas B. Walker (son in law, married to Harriet) Charles Lyon (son in law, married to Martha, 1828-4 Apr 1869) Margaret C. Lyon (granddaughter, 5 Feb 1854-28 Jul 1855) six other Lyon grandchildren W. H. Chappel (son in law, married to Margaret E.) Rowland G. Chappel (grandson, 30 Jun 1852-28 Jul 1854) Caroline "Carrie" Hunt Hulet (daughter in law, married to Marshall Fletcher Hulet, 2 Oct 1848-8 Oct 1868) Rev. John Wheeler (son in law, married to Clara) Mariah Wheeler (granddaughter?, born c. 1841 to Mrs. D. [J.?] Wheeler) John Wheeler (grandson, b. 1865, d. 8 Sept 1865) Mary Agnes Wheeler (granddaughter, b. c1851, d. 9 Aug 1864) five other Wheeler grandchildren Capt. John Hulet, Sr. (father-in-law, b. 20 Mar 1756--served in Revolutionary War, 1777-1781) Hannah Walker Hulet (mother-in-law)

comments
Francis "Fanny" Granger was born on 13 June 1803 in Berkshire, MA. She had a married sister, Mrs. Dr. Ezra Somers, who lived in Brunswick, OH. She met her future husband, Fletcher Hulet, on a visit to her sister. By the time she left for home, she had already agreed to marry Fletcher, "the back-woods-miller-mechanic, who in his way looked up to her as something better than human" (Walker 2). Fletcher was born to a pioneering family who had migrated to Brunswick from MA around 1816, and who had gained fame in northern Ohio for their skill in mechanics and engineering. Always busy, Fletcher planned to go east to marry her, but worked so long into the fall that lake Erie was almost closed [by ice?] to travelers. And when he got to Berkshire, he realized that Massachusetts law required a couple to reside together for three weeks after public announcement of their joining, in order for the marriage to be legal. As he could not wait three weeks, lest they be trapped in MA all winter, he took his bride, and her sister and brother in law, Mr. and Mrs. James Langdon, as witnesses, over the border to Scodack, NY, where no such law existed, and there they were married on 16 Nov 1829 (Walker 2). [According to genealogist Don Labaj, Fletcher married Fanny on 16 Dec 1829, in the Town of Schodack, (Rensselaer), New York.] Fanny and Fletcher lived at first in a two-story red house that Fletcher built, with rich woodwork in the interior, including delicate details such as a china closet over the mantle in the parlor (Walker 2). The couple had four girls--Martha, Margaret, Clara, and Harriet--and two boys--Gilbert and Marshall; Fletcher was determined from the first that the girls should be educated as well as the boys. He attempted to send their oldest child, Martha, to a boarding school at three years of age, against Fanny's protests that she was too young, but Martha came home after one week of homesickness and stayed home until the following year. Martha, Margaret, Clara, and Gilbert later went to the local district school, where they had six hours of lessons each weekday and three on Saturdays, and more when their father drilled and examined them at home (Walker 2-3). The whole family enjoyed music and singing as well (Walker 3). The Hulet family migrated from Brunswick to Berea in 1846 when the Baldwin Institute opened, attracted by the prospect of education for their girls as well as their boys, as were many Berea settlers of that time (notes on Fletcher Hulet and Hulet Hall, Hulet family file, Berea Historical Society). The decision was so hasty that the family lived at first in a two room shanty slapped together close to the Institute, but Martha (16), Margaret (14), Clara (12), Gilbert (10), and a 22-yr old boarder, Sam Stebbins, were all sent to the Baldwin Institute (now Baldwin-Wallace College) on its very first day (Walker 3). Other sources confirm that Martha, Margaret, and Clara [Clarissa] were among the first Baldwin Institute class of 1846 (Shaw 32). The Hulets remained associated with the school until the outbreak of the Civil War (Walker 3). Their daughter Harriet would eventually become a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Baldwin University, 1860-1863, teaching piano, melodian, and guitar (notes on Thomas B. Walker and Harriet G. Hulet in Hulet family file). Clara's husband Rev. John Wheeler became president of Baldwin University. Clara and her husband remained as professors at the college even after the war (Walker 3). Fletcher was a quarry owner and sold blocks for construction (for more, see entry on Fletcher Hulet). His business was prosperous enough that he was able to exchange the shanty and the farm for a fashionable house in Berea town, which he equipped with the "first piano ever heard in Berea" (Walker 3). The Hulet family was enumerated in the 1850 census in Middleburgh Twp, neighbors to fellow pioneers Henry and Elizabeth Bevans and James and Julia Baker, on the fashionable south side of town. Fletcher Huolet [sic] gave his age as 47, born in MA, a farmer with $2000 real estate. Fanny gave her age as 47, also from MA. Children were Martha (20), Margaret (18), Clara (15), Gilbert (14), Harriet (9), Marshall (4) and some Irish laborers: James Fitzgerald (22), Michael Carey (22) John Carey (20), and from Ohio, Henry Harkness (18). Harriet, Gilbert, Clara, and Margaret were all attending school. Fletcher also served as the third mayor of Berea in 1855 and 1956 (Shaw 6, Labaj CD). Child mortality was high in those days, but Fanny lost no infants that we know of. However, the oldest son, Gilbert, died in 1854 of typhoid fever at age 18. The oldest daughter Martha was crippled by disease for 6 1/2 years of her childhood, but was eventually cured with surgery. Daughter Margaret died in 1856. She had married a southerner, Wm. H. Chappell, but the union was short: "she lived long enough to lay one baby boy in his grave, and then faded away." Her son's name was Rowland (Walker 4). A granddaughter born to daughter Martha and Charles Lyon, named Margaret C. Lyon, died in 1855 ("Inscriptions"). Clara and her husband John Wheeler had seven children, one of whom died in infancy of whooping cough [John Wheeler Jr] and the other ["Willie" Wheeler or Mary Agnes?] at age 13 when an iron wheel overturned in their own yard (Walker 4; "List of burials and names"). In fact, the only family member not struck by child mortality was Harriet, who married Thomas Walker, a fellow student at BU and civil engineer, and raised eight children in MN (Walker 5). In 1860, the Hulet family was enumerated in the census again, still in Middleburgh Twp: Fletcher Hulet gave his age as 56, his occupation as grindstone manufacturer, and his worth in real estate as $21,000. He had $3000 personal property and his birthplace appears as CT, where his family lived after his birth. Fanny was 56, born in MA. Children were Harriet (19) and Marshall (13). Both were attending school. They were living next door to, or perhaps housing, married daughter Martha Lyon (29) [her husband Charles was not present], and her children James (4), Genville? (3), Grace (3), and Charles (9 mo), a Canadian laborer, Henry Grien (20), and a student from NY, William McDermott (17). The census records generally suggest a prosperous family with a commitment to education. Fanny was known as a gentle, charming woman and good hostess. An excerpt from the "Memorial to the Pioneering Women of the Western Reserve" said "Mrs. Hulet was a superior woman, fitted by nature, education, and environment to grace whatever position it was her lot to fill, in home or society. Her quiet dignity and gracious manners were charmingly blest. There was always room at her table, and a spare bed for the unexpected guest. Surely, no one ever made such delicious coffee as 'Aunt Fanny'." The family's fortunes declined after Fanny died in 1865. Her daughter wrote: "On the morning of January 1, 1865, our mother died. Never strong, afflicted sorely for many years with asthma, often in peril from the violent paroxysms of the disease, still I do not think we ever thought she could die. I do not know how to go on from this date. After this there was no succession of events for father--things just happened. If you ever saw a strong, smooth working engine, with its swiftly gliding arms and evenly balanced wheels, doing its work with the strength of an army of giants, suddenly slip its governor--you know the whole story of chaos and confusion and ruin that followed. She had all unconsciously to herself or him, been the steady, even governor of his whole life which had made it a success. Of the sixteen years that followed her death, I have no heart to write. 'While Fanny lived,' he said to me, 'everything I touched turned to gold; but after she died everything turned to lead'" (Walker 5). Fletcher remarried, but was unhappy. He became mentally unbalanced and lost most of his property and wealth. His daughter reported that he tried to move away, to live with his children, but could not bear to be separated from the graves of his loved ones. On his death bed, he specially requested to be buried next to Fanny (Walker 5), and indeed they rest together now in the family lot, with matched white marble headstones. Although Fanny's inscription faces east (suggesting erroneously that her body is to the west of it), Fletcher and Fanny's feet point east, so they may rise from their graves facing the rising sun on the Day of Resurrection. Fanny's burial was not recorded in Berea's records, perhaps because the land in which she was buried was at that time Fletcher Hulet's property, although it now lies in the Adams Street Cemetery. The family lot is 193-194 and 184; lots 180-185 and 192-195 were all reserved from land Fletcher donated to the cemetery in 1866, to serve as his personal family lot. Unused lots were later sold to others (Fletcher Hulet deed, 3 Dec 1866). Her tombstone was transcribed in 1904, saying "Fannie, wife of F. Hulet, d. Jan. 2, 1865, ae 62 yrs 6 mo". In 1934, a transcription record did not report her stone, suggesting it was broken and lying face down or missing. Renovation of the cemetery in the 1930s resulted in her stone's restoration and the cementing of most of the family stones to sandstone bases. Fanny's stone was replaced facing east, the wrong direction. There is a repaired break between her name and between that of her husband, but this much is clear: "FANNY (words underlined)…[words obscured by break] Hulet…Jan. 2, 1865…[rest of inscription illegible] (Fanny Hulet tombstone photograph). "When Fanny Granger came from Great Barrington, Mass., to Brunswick, Medina county, in 1827, to visit her sister, Mrs. Dr. Sommors, she never dreamed of returning home the promised bride of Fletcher Hulet. The promise was made good, and the first seventeen years of her married life Mrs. Hulet spent on the Brunswick farm, with its still wild surroundings; but at the opening of Baldwin Institute the parents came to Berea to educate their six children." "Surely, no one ever made such delicious coffee as "Aunt Fanny." But the dear hands have long been folded in restfulness. Her grave is in our Village Cemetery, but her cherished name is in our hearts. Other names, just as worthy could not be obtained, hence do not appear in this sketch, but it, matters little."

sources
Catalogues of the Institute and Baldwin University, 1846-1867, bound copy, Baldwin Wallace Historian's House Excerpt from "Memorial to the Pioneering Women of the Western Reserve," Women's Department of Cleveland Commission, 1896. Harriet Hulet Walker, "Fletcher Hulet," biography written for Hulet family reunion, published iin unidentified journal, 29 July 1887; citing incomplete copy in Hulet family file, Berea Historical Society. Willard H. Shaw, A Collection of Historical Facts on Berea, Ohio. Centennial,1836-1936. Souvenir edition. Berea, OH: Mohler Printing Co., 1936. Unsigned notes on Fletcher Hulet and Chauncey Hulet, Thomas B. Walker and Harriet G. Hulet Walker, Hulet family file, Berea Historical Society. "List of burials and names from 1856 to 1871," Berea City Records "Number of Burial lots and prices," Adams Street Cemetery folder, Berea Historical Society. 1850 US Federal Census, Fletcher Huolet household, Series: M432 Roll: 673 Page: 183 1860 US Federal Census, Flelches Muelett household, Martha Lyon household, Series: M653 Roll: 954 Page: 122 1870 US Federal Census, Fletcher Hulet household, Series: M593 Roll: 1193 Page: 429 Don Labaj, Berea Families CD, 2006 Fletcher Hulet deeds, Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office online. Fletcher Hulet death notice and obituary, Berea Advertiser, 7 Nov 1882 and 9 Nov 1882. E. S. Loomis and D. T. Gould, "Inscriptions from the Old Berea Cemetery," 1904, Berea Historical Society "Cuyahoga Cemetery Inscriptions," Vol. I, compiled by the Western Reserve Historical Society, 1934 Fanny Hulet tombstone photograph, Jeremy Feador, 2006. "Memorial to the Pioneering Women of the Western Reserve", Published by the Woman's Department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission (1896), Edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Resselaer, Fanny Hulet.