Images from the collection "Sutton (Mass.) : Records [manuscript], 1683-1883; 1940."  Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society. 

It Sutton Historical Society exists because of its supporters. We rely upon generous people with an interest in preserving the history of Sutton for the future, both financially and in the form of donations to our collection. 

We are always happy to hear from anyone who has items that relate to our mission. If you wish to donate them we are working towards being able to provide permanent, secure storage. If you would like to make them accessible for others, then we can digitize photographs and documents and you may keep the original. 

In 2025 we received a number of donations, and are working through processing them and adding them to our collection. One such donation was a large box of photographs and other ephemera relating to several local families that are underrepresented in our collection. 

We have chosen to give this collection the working title of the "Lowe-Fuller collection" as these families are the most predominant in the collection.  

The small photograph album from the collection is shared below. 

Dexter Daniel Lowe (1834-1917), a shoe cutter, married Jane Elizabeth Putnam (1837-1866) of Grafton at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Dorchester, Boston, on 3 September, 1857. Dexter had only recently moved to Sutton, and it is unclear why the couple decided to marry outside the town. 

This photograph album likely belonged to Dexter, or his mother, Hannah (Buckley) Lowe, as it includes photographs of Jane, as well as Dexter's second wife's family. It was also clearly added to over time, rather than compiled in one go. 

Jane (Putnam) Lowe died in 1866, and Dexter remarried two years later. His second wife was Nancy Almira Barney (1843-1933), from Williston, Chittenden, Vermont. It is uncertain when Nancy met Dexter, but her brother had relocated from Vermont to Sutton a few years earlier, so she was possibly visiting the town. 

The captions below the photographs are a later addition, probably by Barbara Louise Lowe (1912-1983) or her brother, Walter Lowe (1909-1973). These siblings were children of Walter Albert Lowe (1860-1939) and his wife, Anna Louisa Fuller (1872-1938)
 
Names, and tentative identifications, appearing in the album: 

• Ed Osborne "married Stella Barney" - Edward Osborne (1838-1908)

Stella Osborne was Nancy Barney's sister

• Helen Osborne - Helen L Osborne (1860-1927)
• Leonis Osborne - Leona Osborne (1862-1946)
• Lill Osborne - Lillian Valentine Osborne (1868-1951)
  ​

Helen, Leona and Lillian were daughters of George Washington Osborne and Helen (Barney) Osborne, Nancy's sister. 

• Dennis, Ella and Ira Barney - Dennis P Barney (1838-1904) and his two youngest children, Ella Louisa (1865-1937) and Ira Albert (1869-1914)

Dennis Perkins Barney was Nancy Barney's eldest brother

• "Papa's mother" Jane Lowe - Jane Elizabeth Putnam (1837-1866)
• Mrs D.D. Lowe "Wilkinsonville, Mass." (illustration, no photograph)
• Frank Warner
• Grandma Lowe, Nancy Barney Lowe - Nancy A. Barney (1843-1933)
• George Lowe
• Hiram Isham - Hiram Spaulding Isham (1851-1926)

Nancy Barney's mother was Stella Abigail Isham (1809-1885). Hiram was her cousin. 

• Aunt Mirandy Lowe - Marinda Hall Lowe (1926-1892) married Lowell Wiswell Jr. 
• Marietta or Henrietta Wizwell - Marietta Isabella Wiswell (1848-1936)
• Edward Barry 
• Walter Osborne
• George Howard - Private George Howard (1842-1868)
• Amos Buxton
• Aunt Abby Putnam - Abigail Melissa Putnam (1844-1921)
• Uncle Alfred's cousin
• Aunt Delia
• Dennis Barney - Dennis P Barney, as above
• Ella Barney - Ella Louisa Barney (1865-1937), daughter of Dennis

This page, dated 1776, begins and ends with monies paid to refurbish the "grate gun" - a cannon which was received as a replacement for the one we sent with John Sibley on 19 April 1775, which was never returned. As an aside - this replacement was not a good one and pages of the treasurer's records are devoted to payments to replace or fix up parts of it. 

The entries in between relate to payments for caring for the poor. 

1. Caleb Chase is paid one pound, five shillings and four pence for a cow for the Widow Kenney. 

2. Edward Putnam is paid three pounds, 12 shillings to support Hannah Wakefield "a non compos child"

3. Daniel Buckman is paid nine pounds, six shillings and two pence for suporting "Anna Kinney a non compos child with food and rament from the fifteenth day of May 1775 to the 7th of June 1776"

"Non compos" was a term used to describe those who were considered incompetant to manage their own affairs. It is most often seen in documents relating to the elderly. Steps would be taken to place the "non compos" person under guardianship arrangements to ensure their property was managed, and their needs cared for. 

In this case, we have two "non compos" children being cared for by men who are, at first glance, unrelated to them. This article outlines the likely identity of Anna Kinney. 

Abigail Davis of Western (now Warren) married Daniel Kenney Jr. in Sutton on 29 April 1751.  The couple had four children, with Rose-Ann being the youngest, born on 11 December 1757. This is our Anna Kinney. Less than a year after her birth, Daniel Kenney was killed in battle in Albany, New York during the French and Indian Wars. His wife charged his estate to bring her husband's body and wages home - paying Deacon Gould and Edward Lyon to provide this service.

Within four years, Abigail had remarried. There are no guardianship documents for her children, so we can assume that they were still being cared for by their mother. Abigail's second husband, Jabez Pratt was also widowed, with six children from his first marriage and the couple would have two more children before Jabez' death in early 1774. Once again, no death record has been found, but we can assume a death date from probate documents. 

Abigail was bound to administer Jabez' estate on 8 March 1774. The process was complete on 8 April of the same year, and ten days later Abigail married Daniel Buckman. Abigail gave birth to her final child, Russell, on 2 February 1775. 

Daniel Buckman is the man named in our treasurer record above, charging the town for taking care of Anna Kinney. In 1775, Rose-Ann Kenney would have been 18 years old, so technically still a child. Daniel himself was 77, with grown children making their own way in the world. He died in 1783, leaving the majority of his estate to his wife and youngest son.  Abigail died in Millbury in 1814. 

Rose-Ann's fate is unknown. 

On April 19, 1775, 150 men in four companies of Minutemen, plus a cannon, marched from Sutton in response to the Alarm sounded on that day.