Tuesday, January 15, 2013

1886 Graduation Photograph of Alice A. Perkins of Orono, Maine; by Bangor, Maine studio


Note: Be sure to scroll down to the comments, where a reader has provided interesting family history on the Perkins, Page, McPhetres/McPheters, Ayer and Inman families of Penobscot County, Maine.  Some of Alice's lines go back over two hundred years in the area.

1886 graduation photograph of Alice Perkins, presumably the Alice A. Perkins who attended Orono High School.  The photograph was taken by the George Lansil studio of Bangor, Maine. 



Alice's photograph was found with those of four others, including three with Bangor, Maine, given as their addresses.  However, most of them can be found living at either Orono, Maine, or Old Town, Maine, during the relevant time frame, so the school they graduated from was likely at Old Town or Orono.  

Two of the students, Alice A. Perkins and Nellie F. Chaplin, are specifically mentioned in the 1885 town report of Orono, Maine, as achieving a spot on the Roll of Honor for students who hadn't missed a half day or more of school during the year.

The other two students are Nellie Sutton and Mamie ?

From the Town Report project at Fogler Library at the University of Maine: 


One member, the only male of the group of five photographs, did possibly attend the University of Maine, assuming George Gould who lived at Stillwater, Maine, a village in Old Town, Maine, adjacent to Orono, was George Pendleton Gould.

From online research on Alice Perkins, hopefully correct: [corrections welcome!]

I believe the Alice Perkins pictured above is Alice A. Perkins, who was born about 1867 at Orono, Maine, the daughter of Albert D. and Amanda C. (Page) Perkins, both Orono natives.

Alice may have sought higher education after her high school graduation, but her name doesn't appear among students at the nearby University of Maine.   

On 30 May 1896 at Old Town, Maine, Alice A. Perkins married Charles W. Hayes, son of William M. and Laura J. (Collins) Hayes of Old Town.  Charles was born about 1858 at Old Town, Maine.

Sadly, less than a year later, Alice A. (Perkins) Hayes died of "nervous prostration", on 1 March 1897 at Orono, Maine.

If you have corrections and/or information to share, please leave a comment for the benefit of other researchers.

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4 comments:

  1. Pam, I think the photographer's name is Lansil, not Lausil.

    George Lansil is the brother of my wife's gr gr gr grandmother, Mary P. Lansil. George was born 28 Jan 1839, son of Captain James P. Lansil and Martha Colby. His grandfather Charles Lansil was a sailor, possibly born in Bordeaux, France, who came to America. Charles married Ruth Paine, a Mayflower descendant, on Nov 13, 1800, in Truro, Mass, then moved to Bangor.

    George's 1880 Census says he was a photographer.

    Alice Perkins is possibly also some kind of relative, at least by marriage. I'll take a look at her if I have a chance.

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  2. Ed, many thanks for correcting me on the spelling. The "n" looked like a "u", and when I googled Lausil, I apparently landed on the page of someone else who had misinterpreted it; lesson learned, I hope...

    Wow - connections to the photographer AND the sitter!

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  3. From the article: "Alice's paternal grandparents were John and Wealthy (Page) Perkins. Her maternal grandparents were Valentine and Harriet (McPheters) Page."

    Wealthy Page was Valentine Page's aunt. Wealthy's parents were Stephen Page (1775-1857) and Annie Ayers (born 1774 to 1780, d. 1817). Stephen was the first Page born on the Penobscot, as far as I know. Annie's father was Joshua Ayers, one of the first English-speaking colonists in the area--think Ayers' Island.

    Valentine's mother was an Inman; the Inmans arrived about 1783. Valentine's wife Harriet's family, the McPheters, were on the river about the same time as the Pages, I think. So Alice Perkins was descended from four of the original English families in the area.

    also:
    The photographer, George W Lansil, was connected in a roundabout way to the young lady in the photograph, Alice Perkins. George had a sister Mary Lansil who married John H Dudley. John's niece Priscilla Dudley married Abner Perkins, brother of Albert Perkins, Alice's father.

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  4. I updated the blog post with a nod for folks not to miss scrolling down to your comments. Many thanks!

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