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    A most unique family cemetery is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The name of the cemetery is Sedgwick Pie. The graves of Theodore Sedgwick (1746-1813) and his wife, Pamela (1753-1807) are at the center and all of the grave sites are laid outwards in concentric circles from there. Hence the name Sedgwick Pie The Sedgwicks were a very prominent New England family. Theodore practiced law,was elected to Congress four times, then was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.




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    The Sedgwick Pie is located in the town cemetery of Stockbridge. The Sedgwick Pie is very large and is isolated from the surrounding area by a complete circle of evergreen trees. Entering the area is like stepping into the distant past. The Sedgwicks were a unique family. Many of the household help are buried there. The Sedgwick dog is also buried there under a monument of it's likenes.

    The grave markers of Theodore and Pamela Sedgwick are the only two in the center of the Pie. You enter to view their graves through an opening in a neatly trimmed hedge surrounding the two grave sites. Theodore Sedgwick's grave is marked by a tall spire with the insciption:



Beaneth this Stone
are deposited
The remains of the Hon.
Theodore Sedgwick
Who died in Boston
Jan 24 1813
aged 66

    Pamela Sedgwick has a stone pedestal half the height of Theodores. On the pedestal is a sulpture of an urn. The insciption below was inspired by her husband.

The Remains of
Mrs. Pamela Sedgwick
The wife of
The Hon. Theodore Sedgwick
Are here deposited
She died the 20th of Sept. 1807
Aged 54 years
She was a Christian
Humble without meanness
Pious without bigotry
Charitable without ostentations
And While
Most tender and gentle
She was
Firm and understanding
In
The performance of every duty
This monument is erected
to her memory
By
An affectionate Husband.


Samuel W. Sedgwick Biography

(this is the sameSamuel W. Sedgwick (Jr) that is referenced below by Ester Helen Pond)

    This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1899. Page 322

    Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998.

    This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use.

    Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author.

    This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/sd/sdfiles.htm


Samuel W. Sedgwick

    SAMUEL W. SEDGWICK, dealer in lumber and coal, in Pukwana, is among the prominent members of the community, and the county of Brule, South Dakota, has in him an earnest worker for any enterprise which strengthens the financial standing of the county. Our subject is a native of Chittenden county, Vermont, and was born August 9, 1839.

    The father of our subject, Samuel W. Sedgwick, Sr., was born August 10, 1810, and died in 1881. He was a tailor by trade, and during his life took an active part in church work. Our subject's mother, Eliza (Burritt) Sedgwick, was born in 1812 and died in 1863.

    Mr. Sedgwick lived with his parents in Vermont until he was nineteen years of age, and was apprenticed to learn the trade of a painter and afterward moved to Iowa. He worked as bookkeeper in Davenport, Iowa, and also in Muscatine, Iowa, and in the spring of 1883 he started a lumber yard in Kimball, South Dakota, and in 1884 began farming in the southeastern part of Brule county. This did not prove a successful venture, and in 1890 he obtained a position as clerk in the land office in Chamberlain, where he worked a year, and in the fall of 1891 he took the management of a lumberyard in Chamberlain. In 1893 he went to Pukwana, in charge of the lumber business of which he now holds the controlling interest. He is president of the Pukwana Building Association, which was incorporated in 1898 with a capital stock, of five thousand dollars, and is supported by the most energetic business men of the town. A city hall is now in progress of erection and will add materially to the appearance of the village.

    In 1861 Mr. Sedgwick enlisted in Company B, First Iowa Infantry, as a private soldier. and at the end of three and a half years of active service, during which time he performed the duties of his position with undaunted courage, he was mustered out as a lieutenant. A few of the more important engagements through which he passed are Wilson's Creek, Shiloh, siege of Vicksburg, and Corinth.

    The subject of this review was married in 1865 to Miss Christina Givans. To Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick have been born six children, five of whom are living. Their names in order of birth are as follows: Ernest M., proprietor of a stock ranch west of the Missouri river; Lucy G., Mrs. A. G. Pond; Harold 0., deceased; Edith M., teacher in Chamberlain High School; Clarence E., and Pearl L.

    Mr. Sedgwick is a member of the Congregational church and the G. A. R. Politically he favors Republican and equal suffrage principles, and is thoroughly awake to the needs of the hour.


The following is from the notes of Esther Helen Pond (1895). Written about 1975.

    Mother's People, the Sedgwicks, came to America in the 1600's. The earliest record I have of them is of Robert Sedgwick who was born about 1613, appointed by Oliver Cromwell as Governor of the Island of Jamaca. His descendants and other Sedgwicks settled on the East coast, mostly in Connecticut and Vermont.

    Grandfather Samuel Woodford Sedgwick (Jr.) was born in Willeston, Vermont. As a young man he was apprenticed to a printer in Vergennes, Vermont, so he learned the printing trade. He came to Iowa while quite young, served as a 2nd Lt. in the Civil War in command of a colored regiment. He met my grandmother, Christine Givans there in West Liberty, Iowa. They were married in 1865. Her parents came from Dark County, Ohio, and many of her ancestors were from Pennsylvania. Grandfather received a back injury during the war which troubled him much of his life. After his honorable discharge from the Army, they came to Iowa where he was a printer and bookkeeper. They took up land in the new western country of South Dakota in Brule County. Mother was born there in 1869. Always slight in build and not very robust, grandfather had a hard time making a living in that new country as did so many pioneers. In order to adequately support his family he obtained a position as bookkeeper at Kimbal, South Dakota, during the winter months, eventually disposing of his land and moving to Kimble. Later the moved to Chamberlain which, on the banks of the Missouri River, was the town of Pukwana (an Indian name meaning Peacepipe). It was near an Indian reservation and some of my earliest recollections are of the many Indians in their blankets and beads trading there. Grandfather operated a lumber yard for many years, then eventually was Postmaster until his death there on January 17, 1917. (Always exacting and conscientious as to details, he was a fine Postmaster). Grandmother moved to California and lived with Aunt Edith Sedgwick Troeller in 1918 and died in Upland, California in 1935 at the age of 91 years. Both are buried in the cemetery at Pukwana, South Dakota.



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