Friday, July 23, 2010

c. 1929 Obituary of Harriet Wolston Owen, widow of Frank A. Owen, Manager of Opera House, Bangor, Maine




Circa 1929 obituary in a Bath, Maine, newspaper on the death of Harriet Wolston Owen, widow of Frank A. Owen, manager for many years of the Opera House in Bangor, Maine.


HARRIET WOLSTON OWEN
Widow of Frank A. Owen of Bangor
Dies in This City


Mrs. Harriet Wolston Owen, 79, of Orono, widow of Frank A. Owen of Bangor, died Friday afternoon at the Bath City hospital from an illness suffered last week while visiting in Newport.  She was brought here Monday but failed to rally.


Mrs. Owen was born in Bath Oct. 9, 1850, a daughter of Capt. John and Harriet Clark Wolston.  Her childhood was passed here and she married Mr. Owen, the service being performed in the Swedenborgian church.  Their married life was in the dwelling at 964 Washington street, which they sold to the late Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Stetson, when they moved to Bangor where Mr. Owen was for many years manager of the Opera House.  They made their home for a long time at the Bangor House.  Since the death of Mr. Owen she had made her home in Orono with her only son, David Owen, who survives.


She leaves three sisters, Mrs. Charles F. Rideout of Bath, Mrs. Clark Dunton of Portland and Mrs. Frederick Prince of Chicago; one brother, Richard Wolston of Montreal.  Miss June Rideout of Bath is among the nieces.


The body will be taken Sunday to Bangor where services will be conducted in the afternoon at three in the chapel at St. [probably Mt.] Hope cemetery, Rev. Ralph F. Blanning of the Unitarian church officiating.  The bearers will be Harry Chapan and Percy Rich of the Bangor House, A. L. Goldsmith and John Naher of Orono.


Harriet's father, Capt. John Wolston, who called himself a trader or a grocer in the Censuses, appears to have been born in Martinique, a French possession in the West Indies.  According to a naturalization certificate I found online, he came to Dresden, Maine, in 1824 and was naturalized 14 September 1831, with witnesses Thomas Saunders and Charles Theobald.  I haven't been successful in finding his parents.


It appears that Harriet's mother, Harriet Clark Wolston, died before 1870.  The obituary gives the impression that her maiden name was Harriet Clark, but I don't know that for sure.  At this point, I haven't been able to find more information about her.


This obituary was found in a scrapbook dealing mostly with the Owen family around the nation and with theatrical issues in the Opera House in Bangor and elsewhere.  I'll be posting about other gems in the scrapbook in the future.


If you have any information to share on the Owen or Wolston families, I would love to hear from you.  Thanks for stopping by!


Email: Heirlooms.Reunited@gmail.com
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