Isaac Small 3d
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 9 Jul 1810 - Truro, Massachusetts 2
Baptism:
Death: 7 Jan 1892 - Provincetown, Massachusetts
Burial: in Gifford cemetery, Provincetown
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Isaac Small Jr (1785- )
Mother: Anna Smith (Est 1787- )
Spouses and Children
1. *Winifred Shurborn Hill (23 Oct 1808 - 15 Apr 1890)
Marriage: 25 Dec 1839 - Provincetown, Massachusetts
Status:
Children:
1. Samuel Small (1846-1923)
Isaac Small
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1 Jul 1818 - Truro, Massachusetts 3
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Joshua Small (1792- ) 4
Mother: Ruth (1796-1884)
Notes
General:
from the Journal of Antiques:
"Isaac Small of Truro, painted in January of 1841 when he was 22 (and probably a sailor at home between "voiges" as the oldtimers usually spelled it). The painter was certainly Giddings H. Ballou, then 20, because his receipt for $10 from Isaac Small "for painting a portrait of himself" is still with the painting.
Oil on canvas 28 1/2 by 24 1/2 inches). Owner: Chuck Steinman. Photo: Debra Strain." 5 6
Isaac Small
Sex: M
AKA: Isaac Smalley
Individual Information
Birth: 31 Dec 1754 - Truro, Massachusetts 7
Baptism:
Death: 6 May 1816 - Truro, Massachusetts 8
Burial: in Old North Cemetery, Truro 9
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Francis Smalley (1719-1794)
Mother: Elizabeth Smith (1728-1805)
Spouses and Children
1. *Elizabeth Paine (23 Dec 1760 - 23 May 1816)
Marriage: 14 Jan 1779 - Truro, Massachusetts 10
Status:
Children:
1. Rebecca Small (1781- )
2. Isaac Small Jr (1785- )
3. James Small Esq (1787-1874)
4. Elizabeth Small (1790-1867) 11 12
5. Joshua Small (1792- ) 4
Isaac Small Jr
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 14 Jul 1785 - Truro, Massachusetts 13
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Isaac Small (1754-1816)
Mother: Elizabeth Paine (1760-1816)
Spouses and Children
1. *Anna Smith (Est 1787 - )
Marriage: 6 Aug 1807 - Truro, Massachusetts 14
Status:
Children:
1. Isaac Small 3d (1810-1892) 11
Isaac Small
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1741 - (Provincetown, Massachusetts)
Baptism:
Death: Cir 1774 - At Sea
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: John Small (1704-After 1777)
Mother: Hannah Barnaby (1709-After 1750)
Spouses and Children
1. *Deborah Smalley (10 Apr 1743 - )
Marriage:
Status:
Isaac Small
Sex: M
AKA: Isaac Smalley
Individual Information
Birth: 30 May 1796 - Provincetown, Massachusetts 15
Baptism:
Death: 1875
Burial: in Provincetown, Massachusetts
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Abraham Small (1770- ) 16
Mother: Mary Hopkins (Cir 1771- )
Spouses and Children
1. *Hannah Nye Parker (13 Apr 1806 - 1840)
Marriage:
Status:
2. Augusta P (1818 - 1901) 11
Marriage:
Status:
Isaac Small
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1816 - Provincetown, Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death: 20 Nov 1843 - Port Au Prince, Haiti 11
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Captain Thomas Small (1761-1831)
Mother: Hannah (1775-1861)
Isaac Morton Small
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 18 Mar 1845 - Truro, Massachusetts 17
Baptism:
Death: 5 Feb 1934 - Truro, Massachusetts 18
Burial: in Old North Cemetery, Truro
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: James Small Esq (1787-1874)
Mother: Jerusha Atkins Dyer (1804-1867) 19
Spouses and Children
1. *Lillian Johnson (23 Jun 1860 - 20 Mar 1933)
Marriage:
Status:
2. Sarah Evelyn (9 Jun 1853 - 21 Jun 1889)
Marriage:
Status:
Children:
1. James Sayward Small (1876-1896)
Notes
General:
Provincetown Banner story, 21 Sep 2006
Isaac Morton Small, Marine Observer
On a cold, foggy April day in 1849 little Isaac Morton Small stood high on the cliffs at Highland in Truro. He clutched his mother’s hand and looked helplessly down at a terrible scene of death and destruction on the beach below. It was the first shipwreck Isaac Small had ever witnessed.
The British vessel Josephus lay stranded on an outer sandbar in a dense fog about a mile north of Highland Light. The Josephus was bound for Boston with a heavy load of iron bars. The ship had lost its way during a strong easterly gale and, like so many ships before, gone aground. During a break in the fog, the lighthouse keeper had seen the ship and spread the alarm. Truro residents hurried to the beach, Jerusha Small and her four-year-old son Isaac among them. In an account of the wreck written in 1928, Isaac Morton Small remembered, “Many of her crew had been crushed to death and their bodies swept into the boiling surf. When the spars went down others could be seen clinging to such portions of the wreck as yet remained above the angry waters, and their screams for help could be heard above the wild roar of the awful surf, by the watchers on the shore, utterly powerless to render the least assistance.” Only one sailor of the ship’s crew of 24 survived. In addition, two fishermen who had rushed to aid the crew also lost their lives.
Small would see many shipwrecks during his long life, but he would never forget the cries of the shipwrecked sailors who lost their lives on the Josephus. Ironically, watching ships pass the cliffs at Highland became Isaac Morton Small’s life work.
Around 1853, Boston merchants, desiring early knowledge of the return of their ships carrying cargo into the port of Boston, established a telegraph station on the bluff near Highland Light. Small describes the station and his duties in the preface to his book “Shipwrecks of Cape Cod”: “This station was equipped with signal flags, books and a powerful telescope, and an operator placed in charge, whose duty it was to watch the sea from daybreak until sunset, and so far as possible obtain the name of or description of every passing ship. This information was immediately transmitted over the wires to the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, where it was at once spread upon their books for the information of subscribers.”
For more than 60 years Isaac Morton Small was Marine Reporting Agent at Highland Light. He began work in 1861 and wrote, “now on the threshold of 1928, I am still watching the ships. … My duties begin as soon as it is light enough to distinguish the rig of a vessel two miles distant from the land, and my day’s work is finished when the sun sinks below the western horizon. Every half hour through every day of the year we stand ready to answer the call at the Boston office, and report to them by telegraph every item of marine intelligence which has come under our observation during the previous half hour. With our telescope we can, in clear weather, make out the names of vessels when four miles away. When a shipwreck occurs, either at night or during the day, we are expected to forward promptly to the city office every detail of the disaster.”
Beginning in 1873 Small also ran a boarding house for summer visitors, Near Highland Light, now the Highland House Museum. To answer frequent questions from visitors he wrote three books, dedicated “to the traveling public.” The aforementioned “Shipwrecks on Cape Cod,” and “Highland Light: This Book Tells You All About It,” published in 1891, which must have been a good seller, because he reprinted the Highland Light booklet with photos and a fancier binding in 1902. By that time the price had risen from 10 cents to 25 cents. The back cover contains an advertisement for his hotel, “Highland House, Ocean side of Cape Cod, elevated ground, pure sea air, excellent table, perfect drainage.” Just the place for health and rest at the Marine Signal Station, near the lighthouse, it continues, where could be found a complete assortment of photographs, souvenirs, confections and cigars.
[Laurel Guadazno is curator of education for the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum.]
Jaazaniah Small
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 6 Nov 1787 - Truro, Massachusetts 20
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: John Small (1761-1806)
Mother: Betty Atkins (1767- )
Jacob Small
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1744 - Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Baptism:
Death: in Ossipee, New Hampshire
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: John Small (1704-After 1777)
Mother: Hannah Barnaby (1709-After 1750)
Notes
General:
Marriage 1 Sarah York b: Abt 1744 in Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland Co., ME
Married: 23 Dec 1788 in Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland Co., ME