Photograph of young Elva Smith of Livermore Falls, Maine

Photograph of a young girl identified on the reverse as Elva Smith of Livermore Falls, Maine.

I believe she was Elva M. Smith, born in June 1893 at Livermore Falls, though there is another possibility, Elva Mae/May Smith, born 27 August 1912 at Monmouth, Maine, but who later lived in the Livermore area.

The photograph itself and the clothing Elva is wearing make me lean toward the Elva born in 1893, but I welcome readers' input.  An online tree has the older Elva's middle name as May, too, but I didn't find an official record to verify that.

The first Elva, Elva M. Smith was born in June 1893, the daughter of George Alfred Smith and Laura Dearborn (Mason) Smith.  Her paternal grandparents were John and Orinda (Stevens) Smith.  Her maternal grandparents were Isaac and Hephzibah (Couillard) Mason.

I found an online tree that had this Elva marrying Nova Scotia immigrant Arthur Clifford Curry, son of Captain Arthur Snelling Curry and Rebecca (Cochran) Curry, at Lynn, Massachusetts, on 23 December 1912.  

However, Arthur stated on his 1917 World War I Draft Registration Card that he was single, and I believe I found him in the 1920 Census of Lynn, Massachusetts, where he was also listed as single.  Perhaps the marriage date I found was transposed to 1912 from 1921.  I haven't been able to find a marriage record to verify the date.  

Another mystery is the two girls living with Arthur and Elva at the time of the 1930 Census of Lynn, Massachusetts: Anita J. Smith, age 14, and Lena E. Smith, age 11.  They're enumerated as step daughters of the head of household, presumably Arthur.  If these girls were Elva's daughters, was she married previously to a Mr. Smith?  Were they daughters from a previous wife of Arthur?  Or did the enumerator perhaps mean adopted or foster daughters, perhaps daughters of one of Elva's Smith relatives?  Hopefully a reader will have information on Anita and Lena.

Arthur died in 1945 at Lynn, Massachusetts.  There's a 1973 Malden, Massachusetts, death record for an Elva M. Curry, who was born in Maine, but I can't say for sure that she is Arthur's widow.

Now for the second Elva: Elva Mae Smith, or Elva May Smith, was born 27 August 1912 at Monmouth, Maine, daughter of Archie E. and Cora (Prince) Smith.  My information on her parents first came  from the obituary of her sister Mildred G. (Smith) Watkins and then, with those clues, from vital records.  I haven't found Elva's own obituary.

Elva Mae's paternal grandparents were George S. and Mary (Jewett) Smith.  Her maternal grandparents were Calvin and Clara (Shaw) Prince.

Elva Mae, then living at Jay, Maine, married Albert A. Jones of abutting Livermore Falls, on 18 June 1933.   He was the son of Edgar Gordon Jones and Carolyn (Bumpus) Jones.  

Albert was born 23 December 1906 at Livermore Falls; he and Elva spent their lives farming at Livermore Falls and raised four sons.  His 2004 obituary in the Lewiston Sun Journal states that his wife Elva had died before him, in 2002.

If you have knowledge of the Smith families in the Livermore Falls area and/or recognize the girl in the photograph from family albums or research, please leave a comment solving the mystery of her identity.  

Livermore Falls (or East Livermore), Maine


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1947 Group Snapshot of Girls, possibly at Auburn, Maine

Snapshot dated 30 April 1947 of a group of girls who lived, I believe, in Auburn, Maine, or the area.  

Since they're all dressed in light clothing, I'm assuming the photograph was taken on a special occasion, or it was a day scheduled for a class photograph.

Their names, not in alphabetical order

• Betty Barton
• Charlene Royal [married name Fenner]
• Lois Mackay (Case)  [Lois A. Mackay married David Case on 16 October 1954.]
• Patsy Dacy  [Patricia M. Dacey married Farnham Folsom on 22 September 1956.]
• Pat Riley Taylor
• Janet
• Esther Philbrick (Tessier )  [Esther A. Philbrick married Robert L. Tessier on 24 August 1957.]
• Illene Dexter (Thompson)  [Illene Dexter married Wilbur Thompson.]
• Janice Woodcock
• Joan Martin
• Dottie Snow (Peter)  [Dorothy E. Snow married William A. Peter, Jr., on 3 September 1955.]
• Verna Gove (Drury)  [Verna L. Gove married Andrew M. Drury on 8 September 1956
• Connie Weymouth  [married name Wagnon]
• Jackie Miles (Jordan)  Could be Jackie Niles
• Nancy Gentile 
• Marylyn Chase (Oldham)  [Marylyn R. Chase married Kenneth P. Oldham on 1 December 1956.]
• Mary Mac

If you have corrections to the transcription of names or additional information, please leave a comment.  Be vague for privacy concerns, as these girls are from a later era than I usually feature.

Auburn, Maine


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Photograph of Naomi Marie Farmer of Farmington, Maine, at six months

Note of February 2017: the post has been updated with information (in bold) provided by a family member.

Photograph of Naomi Marie Farmer at six months of age; taken by Luce's Studio of Farmington, Maine.

From online research, hopefully correct:  [Corrections and additions are most welcome, but please be vague when mentioning people who lived in the 20th century or later.]

Naomi Marie Farmer was born in 1924 at West Farmington, Maine, the daughter of Ellery Herbert Farmer and Hazel Catherine (Brown) Hiscock Farmer, who were born at Wilton, Maine, and Madison, Maine, respectively.  

Naomi's mother Hazel was previously married to Hiram Dexter Hiscock, who died of polio, and had a son from that marriage, Maurice D. Hiscock, who was young when his father died.  Hazel and Ellery had at least two children other than Naomi, sons Glenwood and Lawrence.

Naomi's paternal grandparents were Herbert E. Farmer and Mallieville E. (Bangs) Farmer.  Her maternal grandparents were Charles Brown and Etta (Moulton) Brown.

In 1947, Naomi married Richard Clinton Higgins, son of Clarence Henry Higgins and Ethel E. (Clark) Higgins.  Richard was born in 1925 at Farmington; he died in 2006.  Naomi died at Lewiston, Maine, in 1996.

If you have corrections to the information above, or additions to it, keeping in mind privacy concerns, please leave a comment or contact me directly.  Thanks!


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1907 Memorial Service at Bowdoin College for 3 Classmates Who Drowned in Two Accidents

Memorial Service in Bowdoin College Chapel, October 27th, 1907, at Brunswick, Maine, in memory of Richard Almy Lee; John Franklin Morrison; and Harry Joseph Dugan.

The three men died in two separate sailing accidents on the same day, 9 July 1907.

Memorial Address by Henry Leland Chapman, D.D.

Through a committee chosen to speak for them, the classmates of Richard Almy Lee and John Franklin Morrison speak thus of them. "Both were hearty, wholesome college fellows, men who had endeared themselves to us by the close ties of three years of intimate companionship.  Both were fellows whose moral life and personal characteristics were above reproach, leaders in the class, men who were willing always to work for the college and for the class.  In whatever was done in college that aimed for the right, they could be depended upon to render assistance.  In the front rank in pleasure and labor, yet it is not for what they did that we cherish their memory, but for what they were.  To those who knew them as we classmates knew them, there remains the consolation that the whole course of their lives was pure and noble in every way."

And those who speak as representatives of the classmates

of Harry Joseph Dugan, say of him that "he was a young man of noble qualities, and the life cut short was one of one of great promise.  His manly traits, his studious tastes, his upright character, and his social nature endeared him to us who were closely associated with him as classmates during the past year, and will long be cherished in our hearts.  His death comes to us all with a sense of personal loss."

...It is significant that Morrison and Lee had been chosen President and Vice-President of the Christian Association for their Senior year...

From online research, hopefully correct - corrections requested:

Richard Almy Lee (1886-1907) was born 11 May 1886 at Brunswick, son of Bowdoin professor Leslie Alexander Lee and Elizabeth Tibbetts (Almy) Lee.

John Franklin Morrison was born 9 November 1886 at Medford, Massachusetts, son of banker and businessman John and Susan C. (Stearns) Morrison.  John Morrison was a son of Benjamin F. Morrison, a noted Massachusetts educator who was spending the summer at Whitefield, Maine, at the time of the accident.

Harry Joseph Dugan (1889-1907) was born 20 August 1889 at Bangor, Maine, son of Patrick T. and Hannah Elizabeth (McKie) Dugan.  

Richard Almy Lee and his roommate John Franklin Morrison were lost in a yachting accident off Phippsburg, Maine, on 9 July 1907.  The Lewiston Evening Sun published an article about the capsizing, before the men's bodies were found, on 25 July 1907.  

It was a while before anyone realized they were missing; then Professor Lee spent several days of searching before finding someone who had seen a sloop capsize and disappear.  Once there was a general idea of where the vessel went down, volunteer vessels, the Revenue Cutter Woodbury and a diver were eventually able to detect the vessel in the depths.

Eerily, Harry Joseph Dugan drowned in a capsizing off Castine, Maine, on the same day, 9 July 1907.  In this accident, which might have resulted from the same freak weather system, five other young men drowned; one managed to save himself.

As an article about the incident in the Bangor Daily News indicates, sailing accidents were a common occurrence at that time in Maine, but that this accident was unusually hard on the families of Bangor, Maine.

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

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1850 letter from Isaac Farrar of Bangor, Maine, to John Thomas of Brownville, Maine

Letter dated 24 July 1850 sent from Isaac Farrar at Bangor, Maine, to John Thomas, Esq., at Brownville, Maine.  

I'm assuming the writer is the Isaac Farrar whose mansion, designed by Richard Upjohn in the 1830s, later became home to the Northern Conservatory of Music and is now the headquarters of the Bangor Y.


The Isaac Farrar Mansion, from Google Earth

Transcript:

Bangor, July 24th 1850
Mr. John Thomas
Sir,
A friend of mine has informed me that Mr. Soule has got a drive on the Pleasant River, logs he left at the Pond, and got part of them down.  I wish you on the receipt of this call on Mr. Soule and inform him that I have written to you to go on and scale and estimate the number of thousands that have got down to the Brownville  Boom.  Of the two marks, I am interested in, I will pay you for the same.  Enclosed is a five dollar bill and when you send the scale send the amount due you.
Respectfully yours,
Isaac Farrar
P.S. Please to state whether the 50 thousand board __ in your letter sent me a few days ago meant for the two marks I am interested in or for the whole got down of all marks.

From online research, hopefully correct: [corrections and additions welcome!]

Isaac Farrar was born about 1798 in New Hampshire, son of Jonathan and Hannah (Cram) Farrar.  Jonathan and Hannah brought their family from Meredith, New Hampshire, to Maine, first to Bath, then to Skowhegan/Bloomfield and, in 1817, to Dexter, where Jonathan operated several mills, including a sawmill, gristmill, tannery and woolen mill.  He also ran a store and was the postmaster.   

On 8 June 1835, Isaac married Caroline Weld Fuller, daughter of Judge Henry Weld Fuller and Esther (Gould) Fuller.  Caroline was born 3 June 1815 at Augusta, Maine.

By at least 1840, they were living at Bangor, where they had, I believe, four children:

1. John Henry, born 1 May 1836; married Lilliette Snow.
2. Henry Weld Farrar, born 24 April 1840 at Bangor, Maine; Colonel in the Civil War; married Laura L. Wilson of Chicago; died at Chicago in 1881.  Read a brief and very interesting account of his war experiences and later life here in a report of the Harvard Class of 1861.  He died 17 April 1881.
3. Samuel Franklin Farrar, born 25 July 1854 at Bangor, Maine; received medical degrees from Chicago Medical School and Harvard but never practiced.  Involved in the mining industry in Colorado for a few years.  Died while exercising a horse at Santa Barbara, California, on 6 October 1898.
4. Caroline F. Farrar, born 1 February 1843 at Bangor, Maine; married Charles Lush Wilson; died at Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1915.  Her husband, a Chicago newspaperman who nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1858, had predeceased her in 1878.

Isaac Farrar died about 1860.  Some online sources have his widow Caroline dying at Florence, Italy, on 12 December 1872.

John Thomas, assuming I have the correct person, was born about September 1793 at Sidney, Maine, son of Ichabod and Mehitable (Crosby) Thomas.  

He married Sarah Davis, daughter of Eber and Phebe (Burgess) Davis, on 12 March 1818.  She was born at Fairfield, Maine, in 1793.  I believe John and Sarah had seven children, one of whom was also named John, but he would have been only 12 years old in 1850, so he was not the letter's intended recipient.

1. Stephen Crosby Thomas, born 19 December 1818 at Brownville, Maine; died there 3 May 1820
2. Emily Thomas, born 14 August 1821 at Brownville, Maine; died there in 1847
3. Eber Davis Thomas, born 30 July 1823 at Brownville, Maine; died 1852 in California 
4. Mary C. Thomas, born 6 September 1825 at Brownville, Maine; married Welsh immigrant David Griffith
5. Stephen Alfred Thomas, born 24 August 1827, at Brownville, Maine; married 1) Julia Gerrish 2) Mary Ellen Rogers; died 3 December 1914 at Brownville, Maine
6. Cynthia Davis Thomas, born 19 July 1832 at Brownville, Maine; died on 13 January 1888 at Grand Rapids, Michigan
7. John Baker Thomas, born 23 July 1838 at Brownville, Maine; died 11 September 1864 at home of "Chronic Diarrhea", contracted, I believe, during his service in the Civil War.  

John Thomas, the father, died 30 April 1863.  His wife Sarah (Davis) Thomas died in 1866.

If you have corrections to the information above, or more information on the Farrar and Thomas families, please leave a comment or contact me directly.  Thanks!

Gulf Hagas, one of Maine's unique natural features, is a three-mile gorge through which flows the West Branch of the Pleasant River.  The West and East branches meet at Brownville, and the Pleasant then joins the Piscataquis River at Medford.  The Piscataquis River joins the Penobscot River at Howland.  Bangor is downstream along the Penobscot.

See an earlier post about a 1914 log drive on the Pleasant and Piscataquis Rivers.

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1840 letter from Gardiner, Maine, to Bingham, Maine re: Benjamin Swift family

Letter dated 3 April 1840 from the Overseers of the Poor of the town of Gardiner, Maine, to the Overseers of the Poor at Bingham, Maine, regarding the family of Benjamin Swift.

Transcript

Gardiner, April 3, 1840
Gentlemen,
Benjamin Swift and his family, Inhabitants of your town, having become chargeable in this town as paupers, we hereby notify you thereof that you may remove, or otherwise provide for them - as you may judge most expedient.  The expense that has arisen, or may arise on their account we charge to your town, and shall so continue to do so long as we are obliged to furnish them with supplies.

                                    We are, Gentlemen, Respectfully yours,

Gentlemen, Overseers            Ansyl Clark,  Overseers of Poor
of Poor of the town of             per order     of the town of Gardiner
Bingham

It's distressing to think of this family having been destitute over a Maine winter.  They would have traveled down the Kennebec River to Gardiner, where hopefully they were able to get on their feet.



From online research, hopefully correct: [corrections and additions welcome!]

Ansyl L. Clark was then the clerk of the town of Gardiner, Maine.  He was born 15 September 1788 at Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Hanson and Sally (Lord) Clark, who moved to Maine after his birth.  He married Sarah Simms Gay, daughter of Asa and Elizabeth (Simms) Gay.  Ansyl L. Clark died 26 July 1870.

The 1840 Census of Gardiner, Maine, shows a family headed by a Benjamin Swift, with seven people in the household, but I have no way of knowing if this is the family named in the document.

I'm not sure if the Benjamin Swift(s) I found in Maine in the 1850 and 1860 Censuses was the Benjamin Swift named in the document either.  Interestingly, though, I found a Benjamin Swift residing in the household of Nathan and Clementine Houghton in the 1870 Census of Bingham, Maine and working as a farm laborer.  This Benjamin Smith would have been born about 1816 in Maine.  

He may have been the Benjamin Smith listed in the 1880 Census of Moscow, Maine, a town abutting Bingham, where he was boarding with the family of Josiah and Lizzie Goodrich and working as a joiner. 

On Find-a-Grave, there's a listing for a Benjamin Smith who died 6 December 1882 at age 67 and is buried at Bingham.

If you have information on the families of Ansyl Clark or Benjamin Swift, please leave a comment or contact me directly.  Thanks!

Bingham, Maine, and down the Kennebec River to Gardiner, Maine


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December 1911 Kent's Hill Seminary Bulletin, at Kents Hill in Readfield, Maine

December 1911 Bulletin of Kent's Hill Seminary, now known as Kents Hill School, at Kents Hill, a village in the town of Readfield, Maine.

Sadly, none of the people pictured in this bulletin are identified.  If you recognize someone from your family research, please leave a comment for the benefit of other researchers.

Kent's Hill Seminary, at Kent's Hill, Maine.  For Catalog and Illustrated Circulars, write J. Orville Newton, Principal.

 Bearce Hall and Deering Chapel

 Sampson Hall

 Top, Sampson House; bottom, Torsey House

  Basketball Team, 1911

 Ricker Hall

  Top, Eromathean Society Hall; bottom, Literary Society, 1911

 Adelphian Society, Fall 1911

 Top, Farm House "Old Mansion"; bottom; New Barn

 The Church

Top, Blethen Hall; bottom, Lake Sleepy Hollow 

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