Saturday, September 29, 2012

1844 letter from James Lee of Milford, Maine, to Peleg Tolman Jones, Esq. of Lincoln, Maine


1844 letter from James Lee at Milford, Maine, to Peleg Tolman Jones, Esquire, at Lincoln, Maine.  

The letter is comprised of a 16" x 8" sheet of paper folded once to dimensions of 8" x 8" before the letter was written and then folded several times in each direction to form a mailable piece.   



P. T. Jones, Esq.
Dr. Sir
I make up my minde to pay that noat but I never agreed to pay as he says.  I don't want the expenses to Lincoln and if you can oblige me so much as to wright me when you are coming down I will endever to meet you at Milford.
Milford, July 18th 1844, yours,
James Lee

From online research, hopefully correct: [corrections appreciated]

I think this is the James Lee who was born 17 November 1817 at Pittston or Dresden, Maine, son of Nathan and Rebecca (Puffer) Lee.  Rebecca's father James served in the Revolutionary War.

On 18 June 1848 at Charleston, Maine, James Lee married Nancy Lane Stewart, daughter of William and Julia Ann (Low) Stewart.   She was born 14 May 1831 at Charleston.  They raised a family of at least five children at Milford, Maine.   James was a lumberman.

Sometime after the 1880 Census of Milford, James and Nancy moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts.  James died there in 1900, and Nancy in 1914.

P. T. Jones, Esquire, was Peleg Tolman Jones, son of Isaac and Jane (McLellan) Jones.  He was born at Bowdoin, Maine, on 6 November 1812.  

According to an excerpt from Dr. Dana Fellows' The History of Lincoln, thankfully put online, Peleg Tolman Jones moved to Lee, Maine, on 6 November 1816, and later to nearby Lincoln, Maine.  In 1869 he moved to Bangor, Maine, where he practiced law and served as a Justice of the Peace and as Deputy Sheriff.

On 19 April 1847 at Lincoln, Maine, Peleg married Lydia Hall Whittier, daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Locke) Whittier.  Lydia was born 6 March 1827 at Lincoln, Maine, as shown in the Maine Birth Records (or Dover, New Hampshire, as some online trees show).

Peleg and Lydia had three children: Freeland; Mary Emma; and Harlow Frank.  Peleg died 13 September 1895 at Bangor.  Lydia died 11 November 1911 at Bradley, Maine.

If you have corrections or additions to the information presented on James Lee and Peleg Tolman Jones, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Milford, Maine, on the east bank of the Penobscot River, across from Old Town, Maine. [Bradley is just downriver of Milford, also on the east bank.  Bangor is another few miles downriver on the west bank.  Zoom out two clicks to see Lincoln upriver on the Penobscot.]


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Thanks for stopping by!

2 comments:

  1. Freeland's son Vaughn is my great grandfather. This is pretty interesting. Thanks.

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    1. Thanks for taking the time to comment. It's neat that you happened upon this blog post! Did you notice any errors in the text - would like to correct them, if so. Thanks.

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