This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, September 11, 2020.
In May of 1896, Sarah Clark, the ever-diligent treasurer of the Union Five Cents Savings Bank, puzzled over a small town account. It had grown, over the previous decades, from $500.00 to $583.38. What was the money for, she inquired of selectman B. Judson Perkins. Perkins, and the other Exeter town selectmen, had no idea and hadn’t been aware the money existed. The Exeter News-Letter later reported, “it was finally explained by ex-Town Clerk (William) Belknap, who recalled the fact that many years ago the town had received from one Kate Holland a bequest, of which the income should benefit deserving colored residents.” The money was withdrawn and reinvested (most likely at Clark’s recommendation) into a municipal bond. The accrued income was split evenly between two Exeter women; Annie Scott, a widow, and Rebecca Walker, recently divorced with a blind daughter in need of care. The trust fund was dubbed the “Kate Holland Fund” in honor of its benefactor. The trust fund still exists and is occasionally awarded.
It may come as a surprise, then, to discover that there was never a person named ‘Kate Holland.’ Untangling the origins of this generous bequest has taken some interesting twists and turns. The story begins with an African American woman named Hannah Holland. Her origins are unknown – as are most of the origins of Exeter’s early Black population. She was born sometime around 1740, perhaps in Exeter but there is no record of her birth. We do not have any record of her parentage. In the 1740s there was a family in Exeter named ‘Holland’ – a white family headed by John Holland and his wife, Bethiah Magoon Holland. Together, they had six children: Annis, John, Mary, Robert, Martha and Bethiah. It is possible that Hannah Holland had some kind of relationship with this family – perhaps she was enslaved to them, which would explain her surname. The first record we have of Hannah is her marriage to Juba Merrill in 1777, in Exeter. Merrill was a free Black man, described as a “yeoman” in his hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts. The couple may have lived in Newburyport – this is unclear. Together they had two children: Catherine and Mark Merrill. In the waning years of the American Revolution, Juba signed up to fight and tragically died of a fever at West Point in 1782, after the war had ended. Hannah Merrill was left a widow with two small children to raise – or possibly three small children. She returned to Exeter and her children were assigned guardians, perhaps to ensure that they would not become a public burden. Guardianship documents name Katey, Mark and Ruth Merrill as ‘minors under 14 years of age.” There are no further records for Ruth. We can suppose her life was short.
The first US Census, enumerated in 1790, lists Exeter’s Black and white residents separately. Hannah is recorded using her maiden name – Hannah Holland. She has four free persons in her household. This might include Ruth, or it might include Hannah’s boarder, a man named Corydon who was once associated with John Phillips of Phillips Exeter Academy. An unnamed writer to the Exeter News-Letter wrote, in 1879, that they recalled, “north of Zack Robinson’s dwelt Hannah and Katy Holland. I remember but little about them. They appeared to live a comfortable and quiet life. They had for a boarder old Conondon (sic), who had been a slave to Col. Phillips, the founder of the Academy.” Corydon was remembered for living past 100 years, dying in 1818. He would have been quite elderly if he was living with Hannah Merrill. It’s fascinating that all the accounts we have of the family – all written by white people – consistently remember the family name as “Holland.” In all the official documents, marriage, deeds, death certificates, the family uses the correct name – “Merrill.” The 1810 U.S. Census gives no surnames to Exeter’s Black residents. All are listed in a column “negroes” and Hannah Merrill is just Hannah. She and Catherine, who seems to have been known as Katy, were living together. Mark became a mariner and in 1808, was declared deceased. Hannah who had already gone to court in 1794, to have the guardianships of her children released, went to probate court to serve as executrix to her son’s estate. Both Catherine and Mark had a small estate left to them by their father, Juba. This seems to have been saved and carefully tended. Hannah and Catherine lived on lower Park Street.
Hannah Merrill died January 4, 1823. She is most likely buried in Exeter in the Winter Street Cemetery, although we do not have any documentation to establish her final resting place. After Hannah’s death, Catherine continued to live on Park Street alone. Her small house is pictured on the 1845 map of Exeter – using her true name, Catherine Merrill. William Perry remembered her when writing his Exeter in 1830, in the chapter entitled “Colored Folk in Old Exeter.” “There was old Katy, who lived in a cottage long ago torn down, in what was called Lover’s Lane. I never knew her last name, but I remember her well. We children had the impression that she was a miser. Instead of stockings, she wore strips of cotton cloth wound round her ankles in uneven folds. I do not know what she did for a living, as I never was thrown in her way.” Aside from the fact that in 1830, ‘old Katy’ was 52 years old, imagine if the one memory your town retained of you was a quirky fashion habit. Maybe wool stockings made her itch. Whatever, Dr. Perry. Catherine Merrill – her name was Merrill – had her champions. She befriended a neighbor, Samuel Hatch, a carpenter living on Cass Street. Hatch served as a local justice of the peace and was a solid financial advisor to Catherine. She purchased her home and the land she lived on on Park Street. Then she purchased real estate on Green Street, which she rented out. Hatch seems to have been involved in the three mortgage arrangements Catherine executed with Joseph Furnald, John Foss, and Levi Sanborn. She lent them money – up to $350.00, a large sum in the 1850s – and they paid it back with interest. At the time of her death in 1852, Catherine owned her house and two dwellings on Green Street. Nathaniel Shute would, in 1908, remember, “In 1836 George Odiorne, then a successful merchant and manufacturer of Boston, sold his property on Green Street, which had two dwellings upon it. He deposited the amount of this sale, the interest of which should form a perpetual annuity for the benefit of the deserving colored persons of Exeter. This is known as the Kate Holland Fund.”
But, of course, this account is wrong. Odiorne did sell the Green Street property, but he sold it to Catherine Merrill. Not wanting to die intestate like her father, mother and brother, Catherine drafted a will in 1837, assisted by her friend, Samuel Hatch. It was Catherine, not Odiorne, who created a town fund “to the relief of such colored persons having their settlement in said Exeter, but not paupers therein, as in consequence of sickness, youth or old age may need occasional assistance.” Her passing was noted in the Exeter News-Letter, “Miss Catherine Holland, colored person, aged 74,” infuriatingly using her mother’s maiden name. Her legacy was placed, and its origins nearly forgotten, in a bank account at the Union Five Cents Savings Bank.
What are we to make of this? Did Catherine ever use the name “Holland,” or was it imposed on her by the casual racism of townsfolk who couldn’t be bothered to worry about the surnames of Black people? It was lucky that Sarah Clark questioned the funds before their origins were completely lost. The money Catherine Merrill set aside would benefit many people in the years following the formal establishment of the ‘Kate Holland Fund.’ Isabel Walker, Rebecca’s blind daughter, was able to attend the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston thanks to Catherine Merrill. Isabel’s sisters and brothers attended Exeter schools and, although their economic prospects were limited by the racism of the times, all were literate. Catherine Merrill, a woman who seemed to prize financial planning and stability, signed all her legal documents with a firm “X.” That mark was the signature of Catherine Merrill – the real ‘Kate Holland.’
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org