52 Ancestors: #12, Dolly C. (Brister) Rand

Dolly C. Rand death record, 1904

Dolly Clifford Brister, my great-great-grandmother, was born 7 Feb 1818, in Byron, Oxford County, Maine, the third of six daughters of Enoch and Sally (Chamberlain) Brister.¹

It's hard to say just what brought Dolly to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where, on 11 Feb 1842,² she married Nahum Alonzo Rand (a farmer and stone mason) – perhaps it had something to do with her father having originally come from Andover, Mass., or maybe one of her sisters had married and was living near Boston. They remained in Roxbury until about 1849 and their first four children were born there. The third, a son named Ezra D., died before his second birthday from "dropsy on the brain," and when another son was born the following year, they gave him his brother's name, Ezra Davis.

1850 U.S. census, Nahum Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

By the 1850 census, they had moved north to settle in Andover, Maine,³ where they had four more children.^{4, 5}

1860 U.S. census, "Naam" Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

1870 U.S. census, Naham Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

Over the years, most of their children married, several moving away to Philadelphia. By 1880, the household included not only the two youngest (still unmarried) children, but also the widowed Ezra Davis, returned from Philly, and his three sons, as well as yet another grandson, Walter (Kate's son).⁶

1880 U.S. census, Naham Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

Children of Dolly Brister and Nahum Rand:

• Nahum Alonzo Rand, Jr., b. 1842, married Lois Minerva Cutting
• Sarah Elizabeth Rand, b. 1845, married Edward Rhodes
• Ezra D. Rand, b. 1846, d. 1847
• Ezra Davis Rand, b. 1848, married (1) Mary A. Crutchley Homan, (2) Augusta A. (Pulsifer) Buker, (3) Margaret Amber
• Asenath Matilda Rand, b. 1851, d. 1871, unmarried
• Kate Maria Rand, b. 1855, married Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon
• Samuel P. Rand, b. 1857, never married
• Annie Grace Rand, b. 1860, married Frank Roberts

Dolly was widowed in 1884 when Nahum died in Philadelphia (apparently while visiting their oldest son, who had moved there before 1880). At the time of the 1900 census, she was living with her bachelor son, Samuel P. Rand, and her daughter and son-in-law, Frank and Annie Roberts.⁷

1900 U.S. census, Samuel P. Rand household, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

Dolly died 26 Sep 1904 from stomach cancer⁸ and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover.⁹

Dolly C. Rand monument, Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Oxford County, Maine

My descent from Dolly Brister Rand:

• Nahum Alonzo Rand + Dolly Brister
• Kate Maria Rand + Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon + Chester Frank Kirk (my paternal grandparents)

(Note: This post is in response to Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge at No Story Too Small.)

---

SOURCES

1. “Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com, (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 26 Apr 2012), Dolly C. Rand, 1904.
2. "Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850," database and digital images, New England Historic Genealogical Society, AmericanAncestors.org (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 23 Mar 2014), Nahum Rand and Dolly Bristor marriage (1842), Roxbury, Mass.; citing Vital Records Of Roxbury, Massachusetts To The End Of The Year 1849 (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1925), vol. 2, p. 332.
3. 1850 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 397 (penned), p. 199 (stamped), dwelling 94, family 101, Nahum Rand household; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 12 Mar 2012).
4. 1860 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 67, dwelling 492, family 491, “Naam” Rand household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 12 Mar 2012).
5. 1870 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 11, dwelling 66, family 69, Naham Rand household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012).
6. 1880 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 116, p. 4D, dwelling 36, family 40, Naham Rand household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012). 
7. 1900 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 177, sheet 7B, dwelling 166, family 168, Samuel P. Rand household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Mar 2014).  
8. “Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922,” Dolly C. Rand, 1904.
9. Woodlawn Cemetery (Andover, Oxford County, Maine), Dolly C. Rand monument, read and photographed by the author, 15 Aug 2012.