Isaac Hodsdon (1812-1890): 52 Ancestors #72

Isaac Hodsdon, my great-great-grandfather (#20 in my Ahnentafel), was born on 3 May 1812 in Hollis Center, York County, Maine, the third of six children of Jacob Hodsdon and Sally Huston.¹ (This surname has two variants, Hodsdon and Hodgdon, which are somewhat interchangeable. Jacob and his descendants generally used the Hodsdon variant, as seen in Isaac's birth and marriage records.)

Family record of Jacob and Sally (Huston) Hodsdon, with birth of Isaac Hodsdon, May 3rd, 1812

Isaac Hodsdon-Abigail Greene marriage, 30 Dec 1834, Hollis, Maine

Byron, Oxford County, Maine, 1858 (detail area outlined in white)

In the early 1830s, Isaac and his older brother John moved from Hollis to Byron, Oxford County, Maine, and married the Green sisters, Abigail and Adeline, of nearby Wilton, Franklin County. John and Adeline married first in 1833 in Wilton, while Isaac and Abigail on 30 Dec 1834 in Hollis.² The two couples farmed near each other on what was then called "Hodsdon Hill" in Byron. This map³ from an 1858 Oxford County atlas (which, alas, does not show the Hodsdon Hill name) gives names of property holders, including I. "Hodgdon" and J. "Hodgdon." (An example of the variant mentioned above.)

Detail of 1858 map of Byron, showing I. Hodgdon and J. Hodgdon homes

Isaac and Abigail had nine children (all born in Byron):

1. Jacob H. Hodsdon (1836-1921), married (1) Lydia Merrill, (2) Persis A. Mitchell
2. Mary Abigail Hodsdon (1837-1865), married Charles Cole
3. Luther Merrill Hodsdon (1840-aft Jun 1860), unmarried
4. Isaac Winfield Hodsdon (1843-1917), married Octavia Merrill (sister to Lydia)
5. Francis Ireland Hodsdon (1844-1921), married Emma Ireland
6. Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon (1847-1911), married Kate Rand (my great-grandparents)
7. Matilda Ann Hodsdon (1849-1938), married Alvarado Reed
8. Sarah [Arabelle?] Hodsdon (1851-aft Jun 1860), unmarried
9. Charles L. Hodsdon (1853-1922), married Mary Gilcrease

The first seven were recorded in this 1849 family record in the Byron town record book.⁴ The record was never updated with the other two children, and there seems to be no other record of their births, but they are captured in the 1860 census, while the two oldest are gone from the household by then.⁵

Family record of Isaac and Abigail Hodsdon, 1849, Byron, Maine, town record book

1860 U.S. census, Oxford County, Maine, town of Byron, Isaac Hodsdon household

Isaac died 22 Jan 1890 in Byron,⁶ and was buried in the Byron Village Cemetery.⁷ The family monument includes inscriptions for his wife Abigail and for two of their children who died young.

Isaac Hodsdon death record, 22 Jan 1890, Byron, Maine

Isaac Hodsdon family monument, Byron Village Cemetery, Byron, Oxford Co., Maine

While Isaac's death year on the monument is correct, I can't vouch for others – I haven't found death records for any of them in the Byron town records – and those of the two children (Luther in 1859 and Sarah in 1855) are certainly wrong: The 1860 census lists both Luther and a 9-year-old girl named Arabelle, the same age that Sarah would have been (assuming the 1851 birth year on the gravestone is correct), so probably is the same child, though frustratingly, there is no birth record (or any other record besides the census and the gravestone) for either a Sarah or an Arabelle. I can only conjecture that the children's graves were unmarked until the monument was erected for Isaac and Abigail, presumably in 1890 or later, and some thirty years after the fact no one could remember exactly when they had died. (They might even have misremembered the girl's name.)

My descent from Isaac Hodsdon:

• Isaac Hodsdon and Abigail Greene
• Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon and Kate Maria Rand
• Chester F. Kirk and Mary Milliken Hodsdon
• Roger Kirk + Kathleen Marie Murphy (my parents)

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SOURCES

1. Hollis, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1781-1893, vol. Births 1785-1877: 26, Isaac Hodsdon birth, 1812; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007595714?cat=135458 : accessed 30 Jan 2019), image 254; imaged from FHL microfilm 7,595,714.
2. Hollis, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1781-1893, vol. 1820 Record of marriages and intentions of marriage: 109, Isaac Hodsdon-Abigail Greene marriage, 1834; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007595714?cat=135458 : accessed 30 Jan 2019), image 457.
3. Henry Francis Walling and J Chace, Map of Oxford County, Maine (New York: Gillette & Huntington, 1858); image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2012592367/ : accessed 1 Feb 2019).
4. Byron, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1821-1891, vol. 1848-79: unpaginated (3rd page from end), family record of Isaac and Abigail Hodsdon; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007595323?cat=343311 : accessed 30 Jan 2019), image 433; imaged from FHL microfilm 7,595,323.
5. 1860 U.S. census, population schedule, Maine, Oxford County, Byron, p. 33, dwelling 219, family 188, Isaac Hodgdon household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 Mar 2012).
6. Byron, Maine, Town and Vital Records, 1821-1891, Births, Deaths, and Marriages register [1880-92]: unpaginated, Deaths section [p. 1], Isaac Hodsdon death, 1890; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007595323?cat=343311 : accessed 3 Feb 2019), image 447.
7. Byron Village Cemetery (Byron, Oxford County, Maine), Isaac Hodsdon family monument, read and photographed by the author, 13 Oct 2013.

Mary Milliken (Hodsdon) Kirk: 52 Ancestors #65

Mary Milliken (Hodsdon) Kirk, date unknown

My paternal grandmother was introduced here four years ago, in Part 4 and Part 5 of my series on my grandfather, Chester F. Kirk. Being his fifth (and last) wife, and outliving him by 26 years, it's understandable that only a small part of her story was told then. Herewith, the rest of her story as I know it.

Mary Milliken Hodsdon was born 16 Mar 1882 in Andover, Maine,¹ the third of six children and second daughter of Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon and Kate Maria Rand. Mary's unusual middle name came from her great-aunt, Mary (Brister) Milliken, sister of Kate's mother Dolly (Brister) Rand.

There appear to be few records of Mary's early years. She grew up on a farm near Andover and completed one year of high school. We get only one glimpse of Mary with her family in the 1900 census before her marriage. At 18, she is the oldest child still at home, and employed as a chambermaid.² Had she met Chester by the time of the census, in mid-June? Probably yes; he was living in Andover, a boarder in a household several pages away in the enumeration.³

1900 U.S. census, Andover, Oxford County, Maine, Marchant "Hodgman" household

Lewiston Daily Sun, 3 Oct 1900

When I wrote about Chester, I noted that I had not found a marriage record for him and Mary, and that's still the case – but I have finally discovered when that marriage supposedly occurred. The "Lewiston and Auburn" column in the 3 October 1900 edition of The Lewiston Daily Sun carried a terse announcement that "The marriage of Dr. Chester Kirk of Lewiston and Miss Mary Hodsdon of Bangor [sic] occurred September 24."⁴ Family lore says that Chester and Mary took a trip to New York City and on their return, Chester announced that they were married; Mary's mother had her doubts, but evidently decided to take Chester's word for it.

Mary (Hodsdon) Kirk and Cecil

Their attempts to begin a family got off to a rocky start: Mary apparently had two stillborn children⁵ before giving birth to Cecil Mortimer on 25 Jun 1903.⁶ Cecil's death from meningitis in late 1905⁷ devastated her, and 12 years would pass before she had another child. It's unlikely that the addition to the household in 1906 of Chester's elderly father Silas, and Hazel and Kenneth, Chester's nearly-grown children from his second marriage, would have helped the situation.

Perhaps around this time she began to contemplate her potential future in a marriage, very possibly childless, to a man 25 years her senior, with a less-than-stellar record of financial responsibility and a penchant for horse-racing. Whatever her motivations, Mary began to build what would become a thriving career as a dressmaker.⁸

Lewiston, Maine, city directory, 1910

The earliest facsimile Lewiston city directory I can find is for 1910, where "Mrs. Mary Kirk" is listed as a dressmaker working from the family's home at 27 Elm Street.⁹ But I believe she began her business earlier; a database extract from the 1908 directory has the cryptic notation "(Lunt & Kirk)" under occupation, probably indicating some kind of apprenticeship or partnership with a Mrs. Lilla M. Lunt, who was also listed with that notation at a different address.¹⁰ (Although there are plenty of women listed in that directory with the specific occupation of dressmaker, so the odd notation of what appears to be a business name is puzzling.) She is consistently listed in later directories (through 1947) as a dressmaker,¹¹ but oddly not in the census until 1930 – in 1910 and 1920 she ostensibly has no occupation.¹² She taught a dressmaking class for the Women's Christian Association¹³ in 1910 and was an active member of the business community as a member of the Business and Professional Women organization¹⁴ in 1922. In a family memoir, one of her nieces relates:

Aunt Mary had a dressmaking shop at her home.... She used three rooms of her large house for the business and employed two or three other women to work with her, making elegant clothes for women who went to Florida in the winter.... Her customers... were the wives of doctors, bank presidents, Lewiston lawyers and judges.... She worked with velvets and satins, making lovely evening gowns and fancy clothes...¹⁵

Mary's father March Hodsdon died in 1911, and soon her mother Kate joined the Kirk household (Silas had died in 1909, and Hazel and Kenneth married in 1907 and 1910 respectively, so presumably the Kirks had a little room to spare), where she remained until her death in 1940. This was perhaps fortuitous, because Mary's long period of childlessness would end in 1917, and "Grammie Hodge" was there to help out when Mary, two days after her 35th birthday, gave birth to a daughter, Geneva Alice.¹⁶

Lewiston Daily Sun, 30 Jul 1919

About a year and a half later, she would find she was once again pregnant. This was no doubt the impetus for Mary and Chester to finally purchase their own home in lieu of the series of rentals they had occupied to this point. Though perhaps it would be more accurate to say, for Mary to purchase her own home: the deed to 30 Ware Street was in Mary's name alone,¹⁷ perhaps another sign that she was preparing for a future that, no longer childless, would almost certainly include a long widowhood (Chester was now past 60).

That deed was signed on 31 October 1918, and the family moved in exactly one week later, occasioning the first day ever spent by little Geneva away from her mother while she oversaw the move.¹⁸ Six months later, they welcomed their son, Roger Marchant,¹⁹ in the new home, with Grammie Hodge assisting at the birth.²⁰

The Kirk house at 30 Ware Street, Lewiston, Maine, ca 1950 (Mary's grandson on front lawn)

The two children were raised in the house at 30 Ware Street,²¹ with close ties to their mother's Hodsdon and Rand kin. Not only did their grandmother live with them until just before her death in 1940, but holidays, family reunions, and other occasions provided opportunities for visits with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Geneva's baby book reveals her "first visit at Rumford in August 1917,"²² while Roger's records his "first trip on [a] train" in June 1920, to Rumford and Roxbury.²³ These excursions were undoubtedly to visit Mary's sister Sadie (Hodsdon) Hall in Rumford. (I haven't yet figured out who was living in Roxbury.)

Excerpt from Roger Kirk baby book, p. 17

Lewiston Daily Sun, 28 Nov 1929 and 23 Nov 1932

In 1929, the Kirks spent Thanksgiving day in Rumford with Sadie and her family,²⁴ while in 1932, they hosted Mary's half-brother Walter Rand and his wife for the same holiday.²⁵ Sadie's daughter Ellie lived with the Kirks and helped out with the children from 1921-23 while attending Bates College (only a few blocks away), and many photos attest to the Hodsdon-Rand reunions of the late 1920s held at Roxbury Pond and the Farmer's Hill homestead in Andover.²⁶

Rand family reunion, Farmer's Hill, Andover, Maine, ca 1927 (Roger and Geneva Kirk, front row, right)

Mary's children grew to adulthood, graduating from the city high school in the mid-1930s. Geneva continued to live at home until she graduated from Bates College in 1937 and took a teaching position at Norridgewock High School,²⁷ while Roger went to work as an auto mechanic.²⁸ Both children were undoubtedly at home with their parents when Chester, "in failing health for a long time," died in July 1939, two months shy of 82.²⁹

Lewiston Daily Sun, 25 Nov 1942

Mary wasn't completely alone. Aside from her mother, who died in 1940, Roger remained at home until enlisting in the Army in 1942, and marrying Kathleen Murphy the following year. He wrote letters home and returned home to visit his mother as often as he could get leave, and the couple even lived briefly with Mary after Roger's discharge in 1946 before moving first to an apartment, and then to their own home in Mechanic Falls where they raised four children – Mary's only grandchildren, as Geneva never married.³⁰

Geneva, Mary, and Roger Kirk, 1941

For her part, Geneva returned home in 1940, working for several years as an instructor at the local hospital's school of nursing. Though she taught high school in Augusta from 1943 to 1949, it's likely that she spent her summers at home and came home on weekends as often as she could, especially after the wartime gas rationing ended. In 1949 she came home for good, teaching history at Lewiston High School for the next thirty years, and becoming both companion and caregiver to her mother.³¹

Mary (Hodsdon) Kirk, ca 1940s?

Mary, always what was known as "a fine figure of a woman," gradually became morbidly obese, eventually able to move about her house only with the aid of a walker and unable to navigate stairs. By the time of my childhood in the 1950s, she seldom left the house. Occasionally Geneva would take her on an excursion in her car, which she could get to by way of the side porch to the attached barn where the car was garaged. In summer, they would drive to Mechanic Falls for an afternoon visit with Roger and his family, though Mary would remain in the car in the driveway – two steps to the back porch prevented her from coming inside – while we children would come out and sit in the car to "visit" with her.

Because of her physical limitations, most of my memories of my grandmother are of visits to her house: Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners at Grammie's house were a standard ritual (Grammie still did the cooking), and my father would frequently drive us to Lewiston for a brief visit of an evening or weekend throughout the year. On occasion, one of us children would get to stay over for a longer visit. Though my grandmother no longer worked as a dressmaker, she still used her skills to make clothes for me and my dolls. I was fascinated by the way she could whip up a doll's dress from scraps, without using a pattern. (For that matter, I suspect my clothes were patternless as well.)

She also loved to assemble jigsaw puzzles (there was an enormous pile of them in the attic and I would get to venture up there to select one to work on), taught me to play dominos and several kinds of solitaire (shuffling the deck with an intriguing mechanical shuffler – similar to the one pictured at left, if I recall correctly), and knitted constantly, turning out mittens and scarfs and hats for us, friends, other relatives, and no doubt for charity as well.³²

Lewiston

Mary died 6 May 1965 in Lewiston's Central Maine General Hospital,³³ and was buried two days later with her husband and their infant son Cecil in Mt. Auburn Cemetery.³⁴ Her maiden name was unfortunately misspelled "Hodson" on the monument.


 
Children of Chester F. Kirk and Mary Milliken Hodsdon:

1. Stillborn (?) child, ca 1901
2. Stillborn male child, 1902
3. Cecil Mortimer (1903-1905)
4. Geneva Alice (1917-2007), unmarried
5. Roger Marchant (1919-1979), married Kathleen Murphy (my parents)

Kirk family monument, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, Maine

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SOURCES

1.  "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Jul 2015), entry for Mary Milliken Kirk (Mary Milliken Hodsdon), SSN 007-46-7608. I have been unable to find Mary's birth in the Maine Vital Records databases, though several of her siblings are recorded.
2. 1900 U.S. census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 177, sheet 7B,  dwelling 162, family 164, Marchant "Hodgman" household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Mar 2012).
3. 1900 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 177, sheet 4-A, dwelling 83, family 85, Fred Russell household; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 10 Dec 2010).
4. "Lewiston and Auburn," marriage notice for Dr. Chester Kirk and Miss Mary Hodsdon, Lewiston Daily Sun, 3 Oct 1900, p. 2, col. 1.
5. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 18 Aug 2014), Stillborn (male) Kirk birth, 8 Mar 1902, 2nd child. No record has been found of an earlier birth, implying a previous, unrecorded, stillbirth.
6. Ibid., [Cecil] Kirk birth, 25 Jun 1903.
7. Ibid., Cecil M. Kirk death, 9 Nov 1905.
8. Family lore says Chester was "unable to work" after sustaining some injury in a sulky mishap, and Mary took up dressmaking to support the family. However, the stories give no time frame for the accident and injury. Moreover, an accident involving injuries to such a prominent local man would surely have occasioned one or more newspaper articles, and so far none has surfaced. Chester maintained his Canal Street office and stable until at least 1920, continuing his veterinary practice to some extent from his home after that, and was still ice-racing until at least 1927. So I doubt that this purportedly disabling accident could have occurred early enough (if at all) to account for Mary's dressmaking ventures.
9. 1910-1911 Resident and Business Directory of Androscoggin County, Maine (Auburn, Maine: Merrill & Webber Co., 1910-1920), entry for Mrs. Mary Kirk, dressmaker, 27 Elm, p. 440; database and digital images, "Maine City Directories," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Aug 2014), under "Lewiston".
10. "Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine, Directory, 1908," database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Sep 2014), entries for "Kirk, Mrs. Mary" and "Lunt, Mrs. Lilla M."
11. Resident and Business Directory of Androscoggin County, Maine (Auburn, Maine: Merrill & Webber Co., 1912-1920), entries for Mrs. Mary Kirk, dressmaker; database and digital images, "Maine City Directories," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Aug 2014), under "Lewiston". Also, Manning's Lewiston, Auburn ... (Maine) Directory (Boston: H.A. Manning Co., 1930-1947), entries for Mrs. Mary Kirk, dressmaker, or Mary M. Kirk, dressmkr; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 May 2014). 
12. 1910 U.S. Census, Androscoggin County, Maine, Lewiston, ED 18, sheet 16-B (handwritten, overwriting 17A), p. 3547 (penned), dwelling 173, family 236, C F Kirk household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Aug 2014). 1920 U.S. census, Androscoggin County, Maine, Lewiston, ED 17, sheet 19B,  dwelling 299, family 357, Chester F Kirk household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Aug 2014). 1930 U.S. census, Androscoggin County, Maine, Lewiston, ED 1-20, sheet 2B,  dwelling 42, family 47, Chester F Kirk household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 Feb 2012). 
13. "W. C. A. Annual," Lewiston Daily Sun, 24 May 1910, p. 3, col. 3.
14. "BPW Whist," Lewiston Evening Journal, 18 Oct 1922, p. 6, col. 5.
15. Kate Hall Franklin Chadwick and Nancy Franklin Earsy, A Home-Made Life: Memoirs of Kate Hall Franklin Chadwick (Lexington, Mass.: YSRAE Publishing Co., 1995), p. 16.
16. “Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Aug 2014), [Geneva] Kirk birth, 18 Mar 1917.  
17. Androscoggin County, Maine, deeds, 289:199, Frank H. Wiggin to Mary M. Kirk, 31 Oct 1918; digital images, Androscoggin County Registry of Deeds (http://androscoggindeeds.com : accessed 27 Oct 2018). Also, "Realty Transfers," Lewiston Daily Sun, 30 Jul 1919, p. 10, col. 3.
18. A Record of Our Baby's Life (New York: Dodge Publishing Co., 1912), baby book for Geneva Alice Kirk, p. 13; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The entries in this unpaginated baby book, in Mary (Hodsdon) Kirk's handwriting, are in varying inks, and appear to be mostly contemporary with the events recorded. An entry on p. 13, under the printed heading "Notes," reads "First day spent away from mother, Nov 7, 1918, at Mrs Warrens, while moving to Ware St." 
19. “Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922,”  Roger Marchant Kirk birth, 1919.
20. Our Baby's Record (New York: Dodge Publishing Co., 1909), baby book for Roger Marchant Kirk, p. 11; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The entries in this baby book are in Mary (Hodsdon) Kirk's handwriting. Many relatively non-specific dates (e.g., month and year only), and sequences of entries in the same ink, indicate that many if not all of the entries were not contemporary with the events recorded. 
21. Photo of Kirk house at 30 Ware Street, Lewiston, Maine, ca 1950, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
22. Geneva Kirk baby book, p.13.
23. Roger Kirk baby book, p. 17.
24. "Thanksgiving in Lewiston-Auburn," Lewiston Daily Sun, 28 Nov 1929, p. 6, col. 5.
25. "Thanksgiving," Lewiston Daily Sun, 23 Nov 1932, p. 7, col. 5.
26. Group photo from Rand reunion, ca 1927, Farmer's Hill, Andover, Maine, in Geneva Kirk photograph album, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia.
27. "Geneva A. Kirk," obituary, Lewiston Sun-Journal, 5 Nov 2007, p. A5.
28. 1940 U.S. census, Androscoggin County, Maine, Lewiston, ED 1-28, sheet 2A, household 34, Mary M Kirk household; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 Apr 2012). 
29. "Dr. Chester F. Kirk," obituary and death notice, Lewiston Daily Sun, 14 Jul 1939, p. 20.
30. "Thanksgiving Diners in Twin Cities," Lewiston Daily Sun, 25 Nov 1942, p. 6, col. 1. Also, personal knowledge of the author.
31. "Geneva A. Kirk," obituary.
32. Preceding three paragraphs, personal knowledge of the author.
33. "Mary M. Kirk," obituary and death notice, Lewiston Daily Sun, 7 May 1965, p. 2.
34. Mount Auburn Cemetery (Auburn, Androscoggin County, Maine), Kirk family monument, read and photographed by the author, 13 Aug 2012. 
35. All otherwise unattributed photos,  Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

52 Ancestors: #40, Nicholas Hodsdon, Admonished for Entertaining Quakers

Hingham, Mass., land grant to Nicholas Hodsdon, 1637

Nicholas Hodsdon, my 8X great-grandfather, was born around 1604-1614 in England. There is no record of exactly when he came to New England, but he was in Hingham, Massachusetts, by 9 March 1636/7, when he was made a freeman.¹

On 5 March 1637 the town of Hingham granted Nicholas Hodsdon "half an acre" of meadow and "3 & half" of upland;² later he was granted additional lands in Hingham.

He married Esther Wines on 10 December 1639 in Hingham.³ They had five children:⁴

1. Esther, b. 1640, married Edward Weymouth
2. Mehitable, b. 1641, married Peter Welcome
3. Jeremiah, b. 1643, married Anne Thwaits
4. Israel, b. 1646, married Ann Thompson
5. Benoni b. 1647, married Abigail Curtis

Marriage of Nicholas Hodsdon (presumably to Esther Wines), 1639, Hingham, Mass.

Esther (Wines) Hodsdon died 29 November 1647, probably in childbirth; her last child, Benoni, was baptized six days later.⁵

Death of "Nicholas Hodsdon's wife" and baptism of Benoni Hodsdon, 1647

Map of Berwick showing Nicholas Hodsdon land⁶

Nicholas remarried ca 1649, to Elizabeth (Wincoll) Needham.⁷ About 1650, he removed to the Boston area, and purchased land in Cambridge Hill (later Newton), Massachusetts. In 1651 he was selling those lands and by about 1655 had removed to Kittery, Maine, where he received his first land grant on 15 October 1656. He received additional grants in Kittery in 1669 and 1673, and also purchased a farm in 1674 from John Wincoll in what is now South Berwick. That farm became the Hodsdon family homestead.⁸

While Nicholas must have been admitted to the church in Hingham (that being a prerequisite to freeman status at the time), after his move to Kittery he and his wife were more than once reprimanded and fined for "not frequenting of the public meeting on the Lord's Days". And he was ordered to appear at the May 1660 "General Court of Election" in Boston, where he was admonished "for entertayning & concealing ye Quakers...", despite his explanation that "coming from worke, he found them at his house, not knowing them to be such till in discourse with them, when he warned them to be gonne..."⁹ (This was at a time when Quakers had been banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and were subject to arrest and even execution if they returned.)

Nicholas and Elizabeth had six children (dates and order of births are questionable):¹⁰

6. Sarah, b. ca 1650, married John Morrell
7. Joseph, b. ca 1651-1656, married Tabitha Raynes
8. Hannah, b. ca 1654, possibly married Nicholas Smith¹¹
9. John, b. ca 1654-1658, possibly married Rebecca ______
10. Timothy, b. ca 1652-1661, married Hannah ______
11. Lucy, b. ca 1660-1663, married George Vickers

In 1678, he deeded the homestead to his son Benoni, in exchange for his agreement to operate the farm and provide for Nicholas and Elizabeth for the remainder of their lives.¹²

Nicholas died sometime after 20 Feb 1679, in Kittery, Maine.¹³ It is supposed that he is probably buried in a family graveyard on the homestead.¹⁴

Nicholas Hodsdon homestead, Berwick, Maine, ca 1904

My descent from Nicholas Hodsdon:

• Nicholas Hodsdon + Esther Wines
• Benoni Hodsdon + Abigail Curtis
• Samuel Hodsdon + Prudence Scammon
• Samuel Hodsdon + ______ ______
• Samuel Hodsdon + Betsy Hooper
• Jacob Hodsdon + Sally Huston
• Isaac Hodsdon + Abigail Greene
• Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon + Kate Rand
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon + Chester F. 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.)

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SOURCES

1. Lucius R. Paige, "List of Freemen," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 3 (Jan 1849):89-96, particularly p. 95, "Nicolas Hudson"; database and digital images, NEHGS, American Ancestors (http://www.americanancestors.org : accessed 26 Sep 2014).
2. "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 Sep 2014), Hingham, Land Record Transcript and Town Record Transcript, p. 30, entry 18, Nicholas Hodsdon.
3. "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," Hingham, Church Records, sixth leaf (recto), "Nicholas Hodsdon married".
4. Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby, and Walter Goodwin Davis, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (1928-1939; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991), p. 343. Also, "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," Hingham, Church Records, sixth leaf (verso), Esther Hodsden baptism; seventh leaf (recto), Mehitabell Hodsdon baptism; eighth leaf (recto), Jeremiah Hodsdon baptism; tenth leaf (recto), Israel Hodsdon baptism; eleventh leaf (recto), Benoni Hodsdon baptism.
5. "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," Hingham, Church Records, eleventh leaf (recto), "Nicholas Hodsdon's wife dyed" and Benoni Hodsdon baptism.
6. Everett S. Stackpole, Old Kittery and Her Families (Lewiston, Maine: Press of Lewiston Journal Co., 1903), p. 133, map of Berwick, Maine.
7. Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Baltimore: Genalogical Publishing Co., 1985), p. 379.
8. Andrew Jackson Hodgdon, Genealogy of the Descendants of Nicholas Hodsdon-Hodgdon of Hingham, Mass., and Kittery, Maine, 1635-1904, Almira Larkin White, editor (Haverhill, Mass.: Press of Nichols, “The Printer”, 1904), pp. 9-11; digital images, Open Library (http://openlibrary.org : accessed 4 Mar 2012).
9. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, editor, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Vol. IV, part I, 1650-1660 (Boston: Press of William White, 1854), p. 427; digital images, Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 26 Sep 2014). 
10. Hodgdon, pp. 19-21, for all but Hannah; Noyes et al., p. 343, for Hannah.
11. Stackpole, p. 530, gives a marriage for Hannah.
12. Hodgdon, p. 12.
13. Noyes et al., p. 343.
14. Hodgdon, p. 13; photo of homestead, plate between pp. 10-11.

52 Ancestors: #37, Jacob Hodsdon (1787-1879)

Jacob Hodsdon, my great-great-great-grandfather, was born 29 October 1787 in Hollis, York County, Maine, the second child of Samuel Hodsdon and Betsy Hooper.¹

On 17 July 1808, Jacob married Sally Huston in Hollis, Maine.² They had six children:

1. John Hodsdon (1809-1882), married Adeline Greene
2. Jane Hodsdon (1810-????)
3. Isaac Hodsdon (1812-1890), married Abigail Greene (sister of Adeline)
4. Betsy Hodsdon (ca 1814-aft 1880), married Matthew Tobin
5. Nancy Hodsdon (1819-1905), married James Severance
6. Sally Hodsdon (1825-1894), married Hiram Gilcreas

After the last of their children was born, sometime between 1830³ and 1840⁴ they moved from Hollis to Byron, Oxford County, Maine, where Jacob was a farmer.

Jacob Hodsdon died in March 1879. He is supposed to be buried in the Pressey Cemetery in Byron, but I was unable to locate a gravestone for him there in 2013.⁵

My descent from Jacob Hodsdon:

• Jacob Hodsdon and Sally Huston
• Isaac Hodsdon and Abigail Greene
• Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon and Kate Maria Rand
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon and 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.)

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SOURCES

1. “Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 Apr 2012), Jacob Hodsdon, 1787. 
2. "Maine, Marriages, 1771-1907," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 16 Sep 2014), Jacob Hodsdon and Sally "Whoson", 17 Jul 1808; citing FHL
   microfilm 11028. 
3. 1830 U.S. census, York County, Maine, Hollis, p. 173 (penned), first unnumbered line, Jacob Hodsdon; database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Sep 2014).
4. 1840 U.S. census, Oxford County, Maine, Byron, unpaginated, twenty-fifth unnumbered line, Jacob Hodsdon; database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 April 2012).
5. Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 Sep 2014), database and digital images, memorial # 89094319 for Jacob Hodsdon (unknown-Mar 1879), created by Robert Hodsdon (25 Apr 2012); citing Pressey Cemetery (Oxford County, Maine). The photo added by Tammy Nosek actually shows the gravestone of Jacob's grandson and namesake, Jacob Hodsdon (1836-1921).

52 Ancestors: #34, Chester F. Kirk, Part 4: Veterinarian and Horse Racer

Mary (Hodsdon) and Chester Kirk, 1906

This is the fourth installment of "another story or four" about my paternal grandfather, Chester F. Kirk. This one is about Chester's fifth and last wife, his sixth and seventh children, and his veterinary and horse-racing activities. Although I said at the end of Part 3 that the next (and intended last) installment would be titled "Chester F. Kirk, Part 4: Grandfather," when I actually came to write it I found there was a lot more to the second half of Chester's life than I had anticipated, and decided to split it in two.

At the end of Part 3: Veterinary Surgeon, Chester's fourth wife, Cora Grover, had divorced him in 1896. His two oldest children, Hazel and Kenneth, were by now probably living with their grandparents, Silas and Sarah Kirk, in Freeport; at least, that's where they were in June 1900.¹ Chester continued his veterinary career, which by 1900 had taken him to Andover, Oxford County, Maine, where he was enumerated as a boarder in the household of Fred Russell. His given marital status of "Wd" (widowed), though technically accurate, does seem to gloss over the two subsequent divorces.²

1900 U.S. census, Andover, Oxford County, Maine, Chester Kirk in Fred Russell household

Stillborn Kirk, 1902

Presumably it was while Chester was living in Andover that he met Mary Milliken Hodsdon, the second daughter of Marchant and Kate (Rand) Hodsdon.³ True to form, the now 43-year-old Chester appears to have swept 18-year-old Mary off her feet. Did she – or her parents – know about his previous four marriages, his liaison with Nellie Crosman, or his two children living in Freeport? I haven't yet found a marriage record, and the 1910 census claimed they had been married for only 7 years,⁴ but it's clear that Chester and Mary got together by mid-1901 (and probably earlier) and moved to Lewiston, where on 8 March 1902, Mary had a stillborn child, an unnamed boy.⁵ I say "probably earlier," because the record of the stillbirth clearly states that this was her second child. I can only assume she had had a previous unreported stillbirth, because there is no record of an earlier child.

Mary finally had a living child the following year: Cecil Mortimer was born 25 June 1903, just one day before Mary's sister Sadie (Hodsdon) Hall gave birth to her first child, Ellen.⁶ But two years later, disaster struck, when Cecil died from meningitis on 9 Nov 1905.⁷ Devastated by the loss, they would not have another child for 12 years.

First cousins Ellen Hall (left) and Cecil Kirk, born one day apart, ca June 1904⁸

In the meantime, the family underwent a series of transitions. In 1905, Chester's mother Sarah died in Freeport,⁹ where Kenneth was still living with his grandparents. (Hazel's whereabouts are unknown.)¹⁰ Within a year, Silas moved to Lewiston to live with his son,¹¹ bringing Kenneth back to his father and stepmother. The augmented household soon shrank back to the still-childless Chester and Mary – first Silas died in 1909,¹² then Kenneth married Anna Slauenwhite in 1910 and moved out¹³ – before Mary's widowed mother Kate (Rand) Hodsdon came to live with them around 1912.¹⁴

1910 U.S. census, Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine, C F Kirk household

Throughout this decade, and beyond, Chester quickly gained prominence as a veterinarian in the Lewiston community, so well-known that the frequent newspaper items about incidents in which he was involved nearly always referred to him as simply "Dr. Kirk." As early as 1904, the Lewiston police department called in Dr. Kirk to treat an apparently poisoned patrol horse (it recovered).¹⁵

     

Lewiston Daily Sun, 12 Mar 1904, p. 8

     

Lewiston Daily Sun, 17 Mar 1904, p. 8

In 1906 he testified for the plaintiff in a lawsuit over the sale of a lame horse ("Dr. Chester Kirk ... stated that he believed the horse when he saw him to be worthless.")¹⁶ In 1907 he opened an office and veterinary hospital on Canal Street,¹⁷ which would remain a fixture in the city until around 1920.

Lewiston Daily Sun, 12 Feb 1907, p. 8, col. 2

And when, in 1909, two unattended hack horses strayed into the path of an "electric car" (street car) on Main Street, the collision killing one instantly and injuring the other "so badly ... that it was necessary to shoot the animal," it was "soon put out of its suffering by Dr. Kirk who was summoned, in the hope of saving the life of the injured horse."¹⁸

His veterinary skills weren't all that Chester was known for around Lewiston: Dr. Kirk was also a leading member of the Lewiston and Auburn Driving Club (which held its meetings at his Canal Street offices¹⁹), driving horses in the ice races held routinely on the frozen Androscoggin River – or, as it was known in this context, the "Androscoggin Speedway."²⁰

Lewiston Evening Journal, 14 Jan 1907, p. 3, excerpt

This 1914 photo, published in 2000,²¹ probably shows Chester and Sable Prince winning the first heat of the "Class A" race that day. (Sable Prince only came in third in the remaining three heats, and Via Mala was second in all four, so the race was won by another horse not pictured here.)²²

Lewiston Sun Journal, 19 Feb 2000, unnumbered back page

Chester's affinity for racing may have been behind his apparent reputation for being something less than a cautious driver. A 1987 newspaper article delineating the history of the local Chamber of Commerce – written by his daughter Geneva – mentioned in passing that around 1906 the Chamber asked the city to remove a fence around the park after "Dr. C.F. Kirk and a runaway horse had mowed down part of it."²³

Of course, in the early days of the century, horses were for much more than sulky races, with carriages and sleighs being primary modes of transportation. Chester is pictured here with his wife Mary in 1906 in a horse-drawn sleigh, probably out on a pleasure ride.²⁴

Chester and Mary Kirk, Jan 1906, "Ice track on river West Bates St." The horse's name, alas, is unknown.

As 1917 dawned, Chester and Mary were approaching 60 and 35, respectively, and their long childless interlude was coming to an end.


To be concluded (no, really!) in Chester F. Kirk, Part 5: Father and Grandfather

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

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SOURCES
Unless otherwise specified, all newspaper articles were accessed as digital images in the Google News Archive (http://news.google.com/newspapers), mostly during August 2014.

1. 1900 U.S. Census, Cumberland County, Maine, Freeport, ED 42, sheet 12-A, dwelling 261, family 281, Silas Kirk household; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Dec 2010).
2. 1900 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 177, sheet 4-A, dwelling 83, family 85, Fred Russell household; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 10 Dec 2010). Of course, it's possible that the information came from Fred Russell or his wife, who might have been unaware of the divorces. On the other hand, the accuracy of the September 1857 birth date argues that Chester himself was the informant, as the Russells would likely not have known such a detail unless they knew Chester well enough to also know that he was divorced several times over.
3. While I haven't determined any direct connections between Chester, the Russells, and/or the Hodsdons, Fred Russell was a harness maker, as was both Walter Rand (Kate's son who was living in the Hodsdon household in 1900) and Harrie P. Hall (who would marry Mary's sister Sadie Hodsdon in late 1901); and they may well have worked together. In any case, a veterinarian in a rural area like Andover would be likely to become acquainted with all the local farmers and their families.
4. 1910 U.S. Census, Androscoggin County, Maine, Lewiston, ED 18, sheet 16-B (handwritten, overwriting 17A), p. 3547 (penned), dwelling 173, family 236, C F Kirk household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Aug 2014). 
5. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 18 Aug 2014), Stillborn (male) Kirk birth, 8 Mar 1902. The birth records of her later children all ignore the stillbirth(s) and are reported as her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd children.
6. Ibid., [Cecil] Kirk birth, 25 Jun 1903, and Ellen Hall birth, 26 Jun 1903.
7. Ibid., Cecil M. Kirk death, 9 Nov 1905.
8. Photo of Ellen Hall and Cecil Kirk, about 1 year old, ca June 1904, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Provenance of this print from a scan is uncertain, but it may have been provided by Ellen's daughter, Jean Constantine Noyes, to her second cousin Marshall Kirk (Chester's grandson). The subjects were identified for Marshall by his aunt Geneva Kirk, though which baby is which was not clear; by comparison with other photos in the collection, though, it appears that Cecil is on the right.
9. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” Sarah C. Kirke death, 1905.
10. Six Towns Times, Cumberland Globe, Yarmouth Gazette & Freeport (Maine) Sentinel, 2 Jun 1905, Freeport Sentinel section, "Week's Doings" column, p. 6, col. 2-3, obituary and funeral notice for Mrs. Sarah C. Kirke. The last paragraph reads, "Much sympathy is expressed for Mr. Kirke and Master Kenneth in their loneliness. They will remain in the old home [at Porter's Landing], where they will be sure of kindly ministrations of neighbors and friends." The record of Hazel's 1907 marriage to John Clark lists her as a bookkeeper and residing in Lewiston, so she may have been working and boarding in Lewiston by the time of her grandmother's death. She could even have been living with her father; frustratingly, there seem to be no extant Lewiston directories between 1901 and 1910.
11. "Silas Kirk," Lewiston Daily Sun, 10 May 1909; the obituary states that Silas "came from [Freeport] to live with his son about three years ago."
12. Ibid.
13. “Maine, Marriage Records, 1705-1922,” Kenneth A. Kirk-Anna A. Slauenwhite marriage, 1910. Oddly, although Kenneth and Anna were married on 4 April in Dover, NH, the 1910 census (nominally as of 15 April) lists Kenneth as single, in the Kirk household in Lewiston – and Anna Kirk as married, in the Slauenwhite household (her father's) in Monmouth, but without Kenneth. So apparently they weren't yet living together. Possibly Kenneth had not told his parents yet (the marriage in Dover rather implies that they eloped), or else the census informant was not one of the Kirks; the latter seems quite possible, as their ages are all incorrect and Kenneth is said to have been born in Maine. There were two lodgers in the household, who may have been the culprits. Kenneth did have his own household in the 1912 city directory.
14. “Andover Obituaries”, transcriptions, Robert A. Spidell, Andover, Maine (http://www.andovermaine.com : accessed 28 Apr 2012), “Kate (Rand) Hodsdon, 1885-1940” obituary, ca Oct 1940, citing “Obituary from an unidentified and undated local newspaper”.The obituary states that "Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Hodsdon had lived in Lewiston with another daughter, Mrs. Mary Kirk, until six weeks ago..."
15. "Patrol Horse Poisoned," Lewiston Daily Sun, 12 Mar 1904, p. 8. Also, 17 Mar 1904, p. 8, item in Police News column about the horse's recovery.
16. "Not a Valuable Horse But It Causes a Trial," Lewiston Daily Sun, 28 Sep 1906, p. 2.
17. Lewiston Daily Sun, 12 Feb 1907, p. 8, col. 2, local news item about Dr. Chester Kirk's purchase of a Canal Street property. The office would have been no more than a 15-minute walk (0.6 mile) from the Kirks' home at that time on Elm Street.
18. "Hack Horses Killed," Lewiston Daily Sun, 12 Nov 1909, p. 8.
19. "Ice Races Friday," Lewiston Daily Sun, 29 Dec 1914, p. 7; also "Driving Club to Meet," 20 Dec 1915, p. 8; "First Ice Races Friday," 4 Jan 1916, p. 6.
20. "The Ice Track Opens: Crowds Out at Lewiston," Lewiston Evening Journal, 14 Jan 1907, p. 3.
21. "Looking at the Past," Lewiston Sun Journal, 19 Feb 2000, unnumbered back page. The names of the horses and drivers, as well as the Feb 1914 time frame, all match the news article cited next, so it's almost certain that this is one of the heats in that race, if not the first. The original photo, provided to the newspaper by Chester's daughter, Geneva, is now privately held in the Kirk-Murphy Family Collection.
22. "Earl King Winner Over Via Mala and Sable Prince," Lewiston Daily Sun, 21 Feb 1914, p. 9.
23. Geneva Kirk, "Brief History of the L-A Chamber of Commerce," Lewiston Daily Sun, 31 Mar 1987, p. 20.
24. Photo of Chester and Mary Kirk in horse-drawn sleigh, Jan 1906, Lewiston, Maine, in Geneva Kirk photograph album, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection. The photo probably came originally from Mary Hodsdon Kirk's collection. The caption, "Jan. 1906 Ice track on river West Bates St" appears to be in Mary's hand.

52 Ancestors: #27, Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon

My great-grandfather, Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon, was born 31 March 1847 in Byron, Maine, the sixth child of Isaac Hodsdon and Abigail Greene.¹

He holds the record for my longest-named ancestor (not counting those French-Canadians "dit" names). He was apparently named for his uncle, Silas M. H. Greene – who in turn was apparently named for his uncle by marriage: his aunt, Rebecca Greene, had married Silas Marchant Hillman.

Silas Marchant Hillman "March" Hodsdon, probably Andover, Maine, date unknown²

According to family tradition, my great-grandfather hated the name Silas, and dropped both Silas and Hillman from his name. It may well be true that he hated the name, but unless he was extremely precocious in his name preferences, it would appear that his parents were actually the ones who pruned his plethora of names right from the start; he was, after all, only three when he was listed in the 1850 census as just "Marchant".³ In any case, he did indeed go by Marchant or simply "March" all his life, using Silas as his middle name.

1850 U.S. census, Byron, Oxford, Maine, Isaac Hodsdon household

Death record of Marchant S. Hodsdon

March married Kate Maria Rand in Byron on the 25th or 29th of November 1876.⁴ They had six children:

1. Luther Marchant Hodsdon, b. 1877, married 1) Charlotte Barker, 2) Grace Parker, 3) Ruth Hall
2. Sadie Elizabeth Hodsdon, b. 1879, married Harrie P. Hall
3. Mary Milliken Hodsdon, b. 1882, married Chester F. Kirk
4. Essie Gertrude Hodsdon, b. 1884, married John J. Sennett
5. Grace Hodsdon, b. 1887, married Henry L. Thomas
6. Gardner P. Hodsdon, b. 1895, d. 1908

March Hodsdon was a farmer. He and Kate lived in Byron until sometime in late 1879 or early 1880, when they moved to a farm in Andover.

March died of an embolism on 4 October 1911⁵ and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover.⁶

Marchant Hodsdon family gravestone, Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Maine

My descent from March Hodsdon:

• Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon and Kate Maria Rand
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon and 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.)

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SOURCES

1. "Maine, Births and Christenings, 1739-1900," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 7 Jul 2014), Silas Merchant [sic] Hillman Hodsdon, 31 Mar 1847.
2. Photo of Silas Marchant Hillman "March" Hodsdon, probably Andover, Maine, date unknown; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. This print appears to be made from a scan of the original (or perhaps of a photocopy), and was probably provided by Jean Constantine Noyes, great-grandaughter of March Hodsdon, to the author's brother Marshall Kenneth Kirk. Whereabouts of the original is unknown.
3. 1850 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Byron, p. 409 (penned) p. 205 (stamped), dwelling 42, family 45, Isaac Hodsdon household; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 10 Mar 2012).
4. "Maine, Marriages, 1771-1907," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 17 Jan 2014), Marchant S. Hodsdon and Kate N. [sic] Rand, 25 Nov 1876, Byron, Maine. Jean Noyes, comp., "Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon", undated computer printout, Marshall K. Kirk Research Files, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia; gives 29 Nov 1876 as the date of their marriage.
5. “Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 27 Apr 2012), Marchant S. Hodsdon, 4 Oct 1911. 
6. Woodlawn Cemetery (Andover, Oxford County, Maine), Marchant Hodsdon family monument, read and photographed by the author, 15 Aug 2012.

52 Ancestors: #18, Abigail (Greene) Hodsdon

Abigail Greene, my great-great-grandmother, was born 26 Jun 1814 in Wilton, Franklin County, Maine, one of six children of Guy Greene and Hannah R. Gould.¹ On 30 Dec 1834, she married Isaac Hodsdon in Hollis, York County, Maine.² They moved to Byron, Oxford County, Maine, where Isaac, like most of his neighbors, was a farmer.

Abigail and Isaac had nine children:

1. Jacob H. Hodsdon, b. 1836, married Lydia Merrill
2. Mary Abigail Hodsdon, b. 1837, married Charles Cole
3. Luther Merrill Hodsdon, b. 1840, d. 1859 unmarried
4. Isaac Winfield Hodsdon, b. 1843, married Octavia Merrill
5. Francis Ireland Hodsdon, b. 1844, married Emma Ireland
6. Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon, b. 1847, married Kate Rand
7. Matilda Ann Hodsdon, b. 1849, married Alvarado Reed
8. Sarah Arabelle Hodsdon, b. 1851, d. 1855
9. Charles L. Hodsdon, b. 1853, married Mary Gilcrease

Isaac Hodsdon family monument, Byron Village Cemetery, Byron, Oxford Co., Maine

Abigail died in 1878 and is buried in the Byron Village Cemetery with her husband and their two children who died young, Luther and Sarah.³

My descent from Abigail Greene:

• Abigail Greene and Isaac Hodsdon
• Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon and Kate Maria Rand
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon and 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.)

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SOURCES

1. “Maine, Births and Christenings, 1739-1900,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 4 May 2014), Abigail Green birth, 1814.
2. “Maine, Marriages, 1771-1907,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 4 May 2014), Isaac Hodsdon and Abigail Greene, 1834.
3. Byron Village Cemetery (Byron, Oxford County, Maine), Isaac Hodsdon family monument, read and photographed by the author, 13 Oct 2013.