Tim’s 2nd-great-grandfather, Neadom Rodgers, son of Jacob & Mahala (Bedford) Rodgers, was born 11 June 1837 in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, and died 30 June 1897 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He married 3 April 1866 in Boston, Massachusetts, Hanorah “Nora” O’Brien, who was born there 12 December 1846, and died 16 January 1921 in Marshfield, Massachusetts, daughter of William & Mary (—) O’Brien.
Neadom was a fisherman, and Hanorah was a homemaker, the daughter of Irish immigrants. They were married by Rev. Thomas Sheahan. Neadom had arrived in Provincetown from Canada in September 1858. He died of arterial insufficiency, and is buried with Hanorah in Gifford Cemetery in Provincetown.
On 11 March 1888, Neadom & Hanorah survived The Great Blizzard of 1888 that killed more than 400 people along the eastern seaboard.
Hanorah was a widow for 23 years. She stayed in Provincetown with three of her children and was there when the 1900 census was taken. By the time of the 1910 census she was living in Worcester, Massachusetts with her daughter Mary Jane and her family, and by the time of the 1920 census she was living in Somerville, Massachusetts with her daughter Naomi and her family.
Hanorah & Neadom were the parents of nine children:
1. Mary Jane “Jenny” Rodgers (Tim’s great-grandmother), born 7 June 1867 in Boston, died 10 July 1916 in Somerville, Massachusetts. She married (as his first wife) on 18 February 1891 in Provincetown, her first cousin, George Lincoln Rodgers, who was born 1 January 1865 in Guysborough, and died 16 July 1939 in Fall River, Massachusetts, son of Elijah & Zipporah Ann (Horton) Rodgers. Mary Jane lies buried with her parents in Gifford Cemetery in Provincetown.
2. John Neadom Rodgers, born 14 February 1869 in Provincetown, died 10 October 1933 in Boston. He married 29 June 1893 in Provincetown, Bessie Roberts Bennett, who was born 16 January 1871 in Provincetown and died in June 1946 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, daughter of Samuel & Irene (Smith) Bennett.
3. George J. Rodgers, born 3 July 1871 in Provincetown, died there 17 March 1872, age 8 months, of “putrefied congestion of the lungs.”
4. Naomi Mahala Rodgers, born 1 August 1873 in Provincetown. She married 2 August 1896 in Boston, Henry Scott Sylvanus Akers, who was born c. 1868 in Andover, Maine, son of Samuel & Sarah Baldwin (Cutting) Akers.
painting by her husband, E. Ambrose Webster
5. Georgianna Rodgers, born 4 May 1875 in Provincetown, died 27 May 1941 in Manhattan, New York. She married 6 December 1911 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Edwin Ambrose Webster, who was born 31 January 1869 in Chelsea, and died 23 January 1935 in Provincetown, son of Edwin & Caroline (Emerson) Webster. Georgianna was a nurse, and would not agree to marry Ambrose until he was financially established as an artist. She was 36 when she and the Provincetown artist were finally married by R. Perry Bush, Clergyman.
(1869-1935)
Ever a modest person, Webster seems to have pursued his art and his teaching with remarkable talent, intensity, and intellect, but apparently with no bent for self-promotion.
~ Miriam Stubbs
He attended the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, under Frank Benson and Edmund Tarbell, and Acadamie Julian in Paris studying with Jean Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant. In 1913 he exhibited at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, “Old Hut, Jamaica” and “Sunlight, Jamaica”. He started Ambrose Webster’s Summer School of Painting, and was a founding member of the Provincetown Art Association & Museum. After his death, Georgianna lived in New York City with her nephew, Karl Rodgers and his wife, Allegra, while she was in her final illness and while their daughter, Delorma was a small child. Georgianna left the house at 180 Bradford St. in Provincetown, where she and Ambrose had lived, to Karl when she died. The house remained in the family and was enjoyed as a vacation getaway until 2008, when unfortunately it had to be sold.
Ambrose & Georgianna lie buried in an unmarked grave in the Webster plot at 2653 Hawthorn Path at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Timothy Webster Rodgers, Karl’s grandson, was given a portrait of Georgianna painted by her husband, E. Ambrose Webster, after whom Tim was named.
On 24 August 2001, Aunt Delorma, Jon & Jannai, little Ella Grace, Tim & Barbara attended the opening night of an exhibition of Webster paintings at the Provincetown Art Association & Museum. Most of the paintings and drawings were from private collections, and we met the curator, Miriam Stubbs, a relative of Kenneth Stubbs who was one of Webster’s students.
6. Elijah Jacob Rodgers, born 16 January 1878 in Provincetown, died c. 1960 in Arlington, Massachusetts. He was a baker and married 27 April 1898 in Provincetown, Clara Louise Bangs, who was born there 23 May 1879, and died 17 January 1979 in Arlington, daughter of Perez & Julia (Smith) Bangs. Elijah & Clara lie buried with Elijah’s parents and his sister in Gifford Cemetery (see headstone pictured above).
7. George Levan Rodgers, born 2 May 1880 in Provincetown, died 13 November 1967 in Los Angeles, California. He married 15 November 1906 in Iowa, Sarah “Sadie” Schneider, who was born in March 1886 in Austria [now Poland], and died 25 May 1923 in Los Angeles, daughter of Abraham & Mary (—) Schneider.
8. Alvin Morse Rodgers, born 21 November 1881 in Provincetown, died 29 July 1950 in Illinois. He married 11 October 1919 in Chicago, Illinois, Anna Kahn, who was born there 13 April 1895, and died there in February 1966, daughter of Emil & Fanny (—) Kahn.
9. Inez Mitchell Rodgers, born 30 July 1889 in Provincetown, died c. 1955 in Marshfield. She married in 1920 in Somerville, Alton Phillips Stephens, who was born 11 November 1890 in Marshfield, and died c. 1956 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, son of Alonzo & Cora Minnie (Sherman) Stevens.
Last Revised: 30 August 2024