ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

Petition subject: Support for individuals

Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:25455214

Date of creation: (unknown)

Petition location: Gardner

Legislator, committee, or address that the petition was sent to: Michael L. Russell, Worcester; committee on rules; committee on ways and means

Selected signatures:

1. J.S. Ames
2. G.W. Garland

Actions taken on dates: 1897-04-13,1897-04-16,1897-04-22

Legislative action: Received in the House on April 13, 1897 and referred to the committee on rules and received in the House on April 16, 1897 and referred to the committee on ways and means and sent for concurrence and received in the Senate on April 22, 1897 and concurred

Total signatures: 2

Legislative action summary: Received, referred, received, referred, sent, received, concurred

Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 2

Female only signatures: No

Identifications of signatories: selectmen of the town of Gardner

Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Printed

Additional non-petition or unrelated documents available at archive: additional documents available

Additional archivist notes: Dexter Gigger, Dexter Giger, Dexter Jigger, Hassanamisco tribe, Grafton, Indian reservation, Worcester county, 1818, ward, settlement, inmate, state institution at Tewksbury, sister Eliza Hemenway, brother Elbridge Gigger, Elbridge Giger, Elbridge Jigger, pension, Mrs. Hazzrd of Oxford [Althea Hazard, Althea Hazzard], lands, probate court, includes lengthy statement from Francis M. Morrison, attorney, seven families, sale, 1725, schools, trustees, Indian guardians, funds, 1728, 1772 to 1796, debts, 1841, money, income, resolves, 1839, 1849, 1858, 1859, Judge Forbes, ["Their property was lost -- it was not by their agency, but by ours, and we have no right to make them suffer by our misdeeds. They are a religious, industrious and moral people. The ones we pray for have retained strong characteristics of their race, their grandmother having been full blood. This man has reached the sunset of his days -- let him not be confined as a State pauper, as an alien and a criminal, as a slave in the land of his birth. His people were here before the Puritans landed on Plymouth rock. We have assumed to deal with them -- we have made a contract, and we are legally and morally bound by our own contract, as well as by our conscience as a Christian people. Give them bread -- not a stone."]

Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Resolves 1897, c.96, passed June 11, 1897

Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.