Friday, May 11, 2012

Photograph of James Morrell Larrabee of Gardiner, Maine



Photograph of an older man identified on reverse as James Morrell Larrabee.   The photograph was taken by the Reynolds studio of Gardiner, Maine.

The identification also has two dates: 1883 and 1901.  James Morrell Larrabee lived to 1910, so 1901 was likely the year the photograph was taken.


From online research, hopefully correct:

James Morrell Larrabee was born 4 December 1833 at Wales, Maine, the son of Daniel and Sabrina (Ricker) Larrabee, born at Wales, Maine, and Milton, New Hampshire, respectively.

His paternal grandparents were John and Susanna (Andrews) Larrabee.  His maternal grandparents were Elias and Mary Morrell (Wetherell) Ricker.

On 18 September 1856, James Morrell Larrabee married Priscilla Woodward, daughter of Amos and Nancy Woodward of Winthrop, Maine.  It's possible that Nancy's maiden name was Muzzy, but any record I found of the children of Amos and Nancy (Muzzy) Woodward did not include a Priscilla.

If Priscilla was the daughter of Amos and Nancy (Muzzy) Woodward, she had a brother, Amos Walton Woodward, who moved to Illinois and founded the Woodward Governor Company.

The couple raised a family of six children at Gardiner, Maine, where James Morrell Larrabee worked in education, in farming, at carpentry and, finally, as a Judge.  Read a short biography of the life of James Morrell Larrabee here, in the Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the State of Maine, 1903, which contains an exact copy of the photograph shown above.

Their children:

  • Edgar Willis Larrabee, born 19 January 1860 at Gardiner, Maine; m. Lula G. Abbott
  • Harry E. Larrabee, born 26 May 1862; m. Lizzie Idella Danforth
  • Daniel Larrabee, born 22 October 1863; m. Nettie E. Morse
  • Edith Maud Larrabee, born 7 February 1872, a twin
  • Helen Woodward Larrabee, born 7 February 1872, a twin 
  • Austin Park Larrabee, born 26 January 1878; m. Winona Jones
If you have any corrections, additions or insights regarding any of the information presented here, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Map of Gardiner, Maine:


Thanks for stopping by!




4 comments:

  1. James M. Larrabee was my grandmother's grandfather. Her father was Harry Larrabee. Harry had two daughters, Eva Maud Larrabee, my grandmother, and Lula Belle Larrabee. (not sure of spelling) My grandmother's mother, Lizzie, died when my grandmother was a young girl. Her father remarried, and my grandmother's stepmother was named Lena.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for taking the time to comment and adding this extra information. I hope you got a kick out of seeing this photograph of your great great grandfather! I'm wondering if that's his own handwriting on the reverse. Perhaps you have something to compare it with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did enjoy seeing this photo! Thank you for posting it. I do have a sample of his writing. I have a diary of his that he wrote beginning in 1855. I was just reading from it this morning. It is amazing. the writing on back of the photo does not look like his in the diary. I also have many family photos and other things. I was wondering if I ought to make a blog on here and enter his diary. This site is new to me. Do you have any suggestions?

      Delete
  3. Ah, so the handwriting must belong to a relative or other recipient of the photograph.

    As to putting the contents of his diary online, yes, that would be fantastic and a real service on your part! I use Blogger, a Google product (free), but there are others. It's fairly simple, but I'm down to a routine that doesn't use a lot of bells and whistles.

    My email address is along the right margin, if you would like to discuss Blogger. www.Blogger.com

    ReplyDelete