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Warner P. Lord
141 Wildcat Road
Madison, CT 06443
Beer In The Cemetery:
The Story of a New England Family
Rossiter Ely Lord, "Ross" to his friends, "Father" to his children, was a Connecticut Yankee whose roots reached deep into New England soil. They stretch back to England at the time of the great migration across the Atlantic Ocean. Thomas Lord, the first of the Ross Lord's ancestors to set foot in New England, was not the first of the settlers in a new land, arriving soon after the Pilgrims led by the Elder Brewster and William Bradford in 1620.
The fact that Thomas Lord and his family were willing to risk giving up all they possessed in England to set out across 3000 miles of stark gray ocean to a land they knew little about tells something of their character and resolve.
The Lord heritage is awesome enough but when we also acknowledge that the children of Ross and Arline Porter Lord also can claim among their ancestors the Elder William Brewster and William Bradford, we can certainly be proud to claim our New England background and can, with great pride, say we are "Yankees".
Many of family members have contributed to this picture of our beginnings. Past generations shared our interest and kept notes and records that give us valuable information. Elizabeth Alice Ely Lord wrote the diaries that Betsy has transcribed for us all to enjoy. Parker and Diana own the Ely Homestead where so many of our predecessors "hung out". Arline Lord kept the interest high and gathered information. Diana typed Henry Sill Lord's Civil War letters and introduced us to a fascinating relative - inventor, promoter, wheeler and dealer. Cousin Liz saved boxes of papers for years. How else would we have discovered Henry Sill Lord's greatest promotion-the great alcohol distillation business?
Jodie pulled together a lot of pieces finding William John Lord and tying our families to Thomas Lord. I still remember the day we found William John and his family in the Centerbrook Cemetery. Equally exciting was the day Betsy and I looked at a plaque on a fence in front of a house in Lyme and read "Begun for Henry Sill Lord".
In August of 1991 Parker, Betsy and I visited Hatchett's Point in South Lyme. David Sargeant, a long time resident of that private summer colony, took us to the site of Uncle Lote's grave (146K image).
Uncle Lote (Lathrop Slate, Jr.) was a fixture in our family. We knew all the stories and we had a picture of him. He was the family character. We had our picture taken standing beside the granite marker. Standing there looking out over the pond and Long Island sound was a powerful experience for each of us. We stood where Uncle Lote stood. We walked the same beach and walked under the same trees.
There is something comforting about touching your ancestors. Knowing that they lived and worked and laughed and drank beer in the cemetery. Speaking of drinking beer in the cemetery, in my position as the next oldest descendant of Henry Sill Lord and Elizabeth Alice Ely Lord, I proclaim May 7th to be "Beer in the Cemetery Day". On that date in1855 Elizabeth Alice and one of her friends got beer from a neighbor and went to the Ely Cemetery to drink it.
What better way to celebrate our heritage than to re create an historic event. Ross Lord's children always suspected that it was beer that kept Grandma Lord alive for 100 years. On May 7 stop for a moment and visit the Ely Cemetery in Old Lyme and remember. Visit it in memory if not in person. Celebrate Elizabeth Alice, Isabel Ely, Henry Hamilton, Henry Sill Lord and all the good, solid Yankees who are our ancestors.
This site is dedicated to the descendants of Thomas Lord who trace their lineage through his son William. There is a complete genealogy of the family of Rossiter Ely Lord and Arline Porter Lord, narratives that relate to the progenitor of each generation, the diaries of Elizabeth Alice Ely wife of Henry Sill Lord, and information of the Lord family in 1996 with links to their home pages.
Ross Lord had an older brother, Hamilton Warner Lord who had two children, Hamilton Warner Lord, Jr. and Elizabeth Ely Lord. They each married and have families of their own extending the Lord line. It is Hamilton Jr.'s son Palmi who created the "L" logo and header graphic for the Home Page.
Updated February 25, 2001