1898 Olamon School Souvenir, Olamon, Maine

Souvenir from 1898/99 of School District No. 3 at Olamon, Maine, with the names of the teacher, Budd W. Tuck, the superintendent Dora B. Folsom, and the students, listed below.

• Beckwith, Beryl G.
• Burr, Maude M.
• Burr, Margie R.
• Burr, Jesse E.
• Burr, Warren T.
• Bailey, Joseph D.
• Bailey, Herbert B.
• Clark, Mertie E.
• Dennis, Walter C.
• Harriman, Annie E.
• Harriman, Sadie M.
• Harriman, Florence E.
• Harriman, Lewis W.
• Harriman, Arthur B.
• Littlefield, Henry A.
• Loring, Mary E.
• Loring, Phoebe F.
• Loring, George M.
• Mahawk, Gertrude L.
• Nickerson, Walter R.
• Ogden, Phoebe G.
• Ogden, Adelia M.
• Ogden, Bennie F.
• Peavey, Bertha E. - see the comments section for more information
• Polk, Estella M.
• Sanborn, Marcia E.
• Sanborn, Earl F.
• Wentworth, Earl K.

From brief online research on some of the sets of siblings - hopefully correct:

The Burr children were the offspring of Adoniram and Susan (Kennedy) Burr. There was another child, Lloyd Adoniram Burr, but he was too young to be in school at the time of this souvenir.

The Harriman children were the offspring of Albion and Lillian E. (Kennedy) Harriman. Interestingly, Susan and Lillian Kennedy were sisters.

The Loring children were the offspring of Joseph Mitchell and Phoebe (Manchester) Loring of Hancock and Penobscot counties. Their grandfather was the noted Frank "Big Thunder" Loring.

The other family with 3 or more children at the school was the Ogden family, and I can't seem to find anything on them.

If you have information on any of the people mentioned on this souvenir, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Bernice May Dixon & Roy Augustus Hinkley, Marriage Announcement, Maine 1914

Today I'm researching the genealogy behind an old wedding announcement. The Bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Dixon, announce the wedding of their daughter Bernice Mae Dixon to Roy Augustus Hinkley, Saturday, October 24, 1914, at Winthrop, Maine. The couple would be at home in Monmouth after November 3o.

I'm having trouble pinpointing the parents of Fred W. Dixon and discovering his wife's maiden name. I believe her first name was May. As for Hinkley, there is more information online, taking Roy's father's line back quite a few generations. Less luck with his mother Mary.

When I lived in a neighboring town back in the 1970s, I was amazed to find that Wales, so close to Lewiston, Maine's second largest city, had no store. That's probably changed by by now. I had some helpful farm neighbors by the name of Hinkley, so this announcement has some personal significance.

Comments and information gratefully received!

1913 Wedding Announcement of Hattie Mae Small & Eugene A. Drinkwater, Maine of Vassalboro, Maine, and Webster, Maine

Wedding announcement for Hattie Mae Small & Eugene A. Drinkwater, married at Tenants Harbor, Maine, on May 7, 1913.

From brief online research, hopefully correct - corrections and additions requested:

Eugene A. Drinkwater, born about 1870, was the son of Daniel Drinkwater and Susan (Dennett) Drinkwater of Webster, Maine.  It appears that Eugene married twice.  On March 21, 1895 he married Statira A. Holbrook, born about 1878, daughter of Charles Holbrook and Abby (Tarr) Holbrook.  Eugene and Statira had children Leslie; Richard; Charlotte; and Raymond. Statira died on July 12, 1912 at Webster, Maine.

On May 7, 1913, Eugene married Hattie Mae Small. Hattie, the daughter of Harry Small and May (Bragg) Small, was born about 1892 at Vassalboro,  Maine.  Perhaps the wedding was held at Tenants Harbor because it's a scenic coastal location.  

The 1920 Census shows Eugene and Hattie living at Webster, Maine, with their son Edwin N. Drinkwater, born about 1915, and Eugene's son Raymond Drinkwater from his first marriage.

Eugene died in 1928 and is buried with Statira in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery at Sabattus, Maine.  Webster changed its name to Sabattus in 1971, in honor of an Anasagunticook Indian chief.

If you have corrections to the information above, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Whitman and Ellis families, Somerset County, Maine

Page of old snapshots of people in the Whitman family of Somerset County, Maine, including towns like Athens, Wellington, Solon, Harmony, Brighton, Norridgewock, Canaan, Mayfield, etc.

Re: the letter from Jesse Pierce in Portland, Maine, to his sister Elizabeth (Pierce) Jones in Southport, Maine, which I referenced in an earlier post.

Just noticed that Lizzie had a son named Pierce Jones, so perhaps he is the Pierce who will be sailing with Jesse between Norwich and New York.

This past week I've researched the genealogy behind several interesting items. 1) An 1866 letter involving the Pierce family, a very important name in Southport, Maine, history. 2) A Bible belonging to Enoch and Polly Ann Currier (Morrill) Collins of Amesbury, Massachusetts, with some birth dates. 3) Some old identified CDVs.

First, the letter: addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Pierce) Jones in Southport, Maine, from one of her brothers, who signs the letter, I think, J. T. Pierce, staying or living in Portland, Maine, on Danforth Street. She had brothers named Jonathan, Jesse and Joseph, but I found a death date online for Joseph of 1864, and this letter was written in 1866. I believe the writer is Jesse, because he mentions "Sarah", and Jesse was married to Sarah Currier.

He relates that another of their brothers, Eben, is not well. The writer has a boat in Mystic being repaired, after which it will likely be used for the run between Norwich and New York, and "Pierce will probably go with me". I'm not sure who Pierce is - could be a nickname for one of the other brothers. It's not Miles or Eben, because they are specifically named, and Joseph is dead by then, if we are to believe the online source.

The writer regretfully doesn't dare make the trip to Southport to see "Lizzie" and her family and, especially, his "dear Mother" at this time because of Eben's serious condition. I noticed online that his mother died in 1870, so I hope he got a chance to see her before then.

The letter has some details about some land that he hopes to deed over to Lizzie in case anything happens to him or Sarah. Various other family members are named.

More later...

I spent the weekend working on the records found in a Bible originally owned by Henry C. Craig and his wife Leann (Coburn). The Records pages are full, and there are even some bonuses, including a ten page letter from Gilbert Olney Coburn detailing his years of research into the family history and a scrap of paper with the muster in and muster out dates of Adin Phineas Coburn into the Ohio Volunteers, 8 Jun 1861 to 25 Oct 1865.

Gilbert's letter was to his nephew W. L. Craig and was written despite a dislocated or sprained shoulder, which was causing him great pain. Gilbert mentioned how difficult his research had been, owing to a lack of enthusiam on the part of most of his relatives, and he worried that few would appreciate his work, other than the nephew and "Lilly".

Gilbert mentions "Sim", who has been traveling and prospecting and is "a great fellow for mules, since he has been working mules of winters." Sim is probably Simeon Craig, brother to the nephew William L. Craig.

The Coburn family in America originated with Edward Colborne, who made a 54 day passage to Boston in 1635 to join the "Defense Capt. Bostwick". Leann's branch descended from Edward to Robert to Daniel to Andrew to Asa to Phineas to Theodore, her father. Leann's mother was Rebecca or Rebekah Waterman.

Asa and sons migrated west to Ohio in the late 1700s. There's an interesting account of the family online at http://www.ohgen.net/ohwashin/coburn-asa.html.

In 1838 four little girls drowned in Meigs Creek. One of them was Leann and Gilbert's sister Patience Olney Coburn, who would have been 4 years old by the Bible and Gilbert's records, and 2 years old by a citation online of someone who documented the gravestone - possibly that person made a typo in the birthdate.

At some point, a family member married a son of Joseph Frye, doctor, from Fryeburg, Oxford, Maine, so I get to delve into some Maine genealogy after all.

I didn't mean to spend the whole weekend on just one family, but it was certainly an interesting one!