Historical Materials: People

Mrs. Elizabeth A. Galacar (1811–73) was was a cousin of Fitz H. Lane on his mother’s side, born on April 25, 1811, to Abraham Haskell and Betsy Davis. Her father was Lane’s uncle, the brother of Sarah Haskell Lane. She was the only one of Lane’s many living relatives explicitly named in his will, but she did not receive a share of the five-hundred dollars. Instead, she received one third of the residual estate.  

Elizabeth married “Charles Gallicor,” a seaman from Provincetown, Massachusetts, in Gloucester on November 3, 1847. The young couple, like countless others after the 1848 Gold Rush, went to California. 

After ten years in the West the Galacars returned to Massachusetts, where at the age of fifty “Charles Galarcar” enlisted as a private in the 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Company A. Less than six months later, he was killed during the battle at Laurel Hill near Spotsylvania, Virginia. Joseph L. Stevens, Jr. offered his plot at Oak Grove Cemetery for the grave of the fallen soldier.

When Charles joined the Union Army, it is possible that Elizabeth Galacar and her daughter Allie moved into the stone house and Elizabeth could have been the housekeeper who cared for Lane after the Winter family was evicted. This would explain why such a distant relative received such a large portion of Lane’s estate, and why Stevens was so generous with the offer of a last resting place. She died in “Washington” on February 13, 1873. Her will was filed on June 3, 1873, and five years later there was a petition for a settlement of the estate of “Elizabeth A. Gallagher/Galacar, widow, of Gloucester.”

At some time a large monument was erected on the Stevens plot #350 in Oak Grove Cemetery, much grander than the Stevens’ and the later Fitz “Hugh” Lane stones, engraved with the names and dates of Charles Galacar, Allie F. Galacar and Elizabeth A. Galacar.

Lane spelled her name “Galacer” in his will. Variants have been found: Galacar, Gallicar, Gallicor, Gallagher, Galagher, Galagar, Galager, and Gallacher. Galacar was the most commonly used and is the name on the tombstone. (1)

(1) Sarah Dunlap and Stephanie Buck, Fitz Henry Lane: Family and Friends (Gloucester, MA: Church & Mason Publishing; in association with the Cape Ann Historical Museum, 2007).