I bought a few old books at a yard sale and found some interesting drawings inside. This is the second part of this story, who was F. Norton Hatch.
After I got the books home and found the drawings I was very interested in what happened to the artist. I was very impressed with the drawings and just assumed that F. Norton Hatch was an artist somewhere. So I began searching for him that way. However nothing was coming up. In the other book without drawings his mother had addressed him as 'Captain', that paired with the nautical drawings led me to believe maybe he grew up and enlisted in the Navy. So my next step was to search and see if I could find any record of F. Norton Hatch being enlisted. Again I came up empty handed.
Since I couldn't find any history of this person being an artist or having any kind of link to ships I decided to turn my search in a different direction. I then began to search for any kind record I could match to him and sadly I came up with something.
F. Norton Hatch was Frank Norton Hatch. His tombstone reads that he is the only son of Emily Norton Hatch and William E Hatch and that he died in July of 1900 at the age of sixteen years old. The drawing in the book I have was dated April 1900, Frank didn't grow up to be an artist because tragically he passed away at a young age. I wanted to know more though. I was so interested in this boy and his family. His tombstone is actually a shared tombstone of his mother's family. From that I was able to see, his mother had passed away in 1898, a year after she gave him the book with the inscription.
The father wasn't buried in the same cemetery and I didn't have much information to go on but his first name and middle initial. I decided to try searching census records to see if I could find any additional information about his family. Apparently the 1890 Census was mostly destroyed in a fire, so I was at a dead end there. I got lucky with the next census though. The 1900 United States Census was done on June 7, 1900 in Franks area, remember Frank passed on July 16, 1900 very soon after the census was completed. On that 1900 census he was listed as a boarder of the school, but it seems to be listed as a house. It has the headmasters name and family and the same boys names as were listed on the roster of the team sports listed in the back of the book I have. It was a match.
From this census I was able to learn that his father, William E. Hatch was born in Georgia. Every little bit of information was putting me one step closer to piecing this family together. I was able to learn that William E. was William Edwin and he lived until 1923 and was buried up in Maine. His tombstone lovingly memorializes the death of his wife and son, both buried in Connecticut.
Just another piece of the puzzle. Even though I knew that Frank Norton Hatch had died at sixteen, I didn't know where or how he died. Every time I learned a new fact I was able to adjust my searching and find out something new. I kept at it, all with information readily available online without paying to be a member to any genealogy site. Eventually I found what I was looking for.
I found the death record for F. Norton Hatch, Frank died at the young age of sixteen from a skull fracture and meningitis complications. I was also able to see that he died in Portland Maine. It doesn't tell me what happened to him that caused the skull fracture though. I'm assuming since it happened in Maine that he had come home for Summer from the Powder Point School which was located in Duxbury, Massachusetts. I don't know that for a fact though, it could have happened that he got hurt at school and was brought to Portland Maine afterwards. I might never know what actually happened to Frank.
What about those ships he drew, were they actually real ships? Who was Mr. Edward Barry of the Marcellus? What exactly was the Powder Point School? There was still more information that I wanted to know about these drawings in this old book. Stay tuned to part three for more answers.
