Sunday, August 31, 2014

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.)

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.

Friday, August 15, 2014

52 Ancestors: #33, Chester F. Kirk, Part 3: Veterinary Surgeon

Chester F. Kirk, date unknown
This is the third of "another story or four" about my paternal grandfather, Chester F. Kirk. This one is about Chester's third and fourth wives, an apparent extramarital liaison, and his third, fourth, and fifth children.

Leonard Irving Kirk birth, 1892
At the end of Part 2: Clockmaker, Chester was leaving behind his life as a clockmaker. The 1893 Bristol city directory noted only that he had "removed to Maine," presumably sometime since the 1891 directory had been published.1 In fact, it had to have been before September 1892 that he took his children, Hazel and Kenneth, and his third wife, Hattie Schubert, north to his home state and settled in Auburn, Maine.

On 7 September 1892, Hattie gave birth to her only child with Chester, a son they named Leonard Irving Kirk. Chester's residence, and Leonard's place of birth, was Auburn. Just how long before that date they moved to Auburn is unknown, but I speculate that it was at least some months, and maybe as much as a year, earlier. For one thing, it seems unlikely they would have moved late in Hattie's pregnancy. For another, Chester had apparently been in Auburn long enough to set himself up in the new, and rather unlikely (for a former mechanic and clockmaker), occupation of veterinary surgeon.2

The next few years seem to have been, um, rather active ones for Chester – and not just in the context of his new profession.

Chester L. Kirk birth, 1893
On 17 December 1893, in Newcastle, Maine, one Nellie Crosman of Durham, Maine, gave birth to a son who was named Chester L. Kirk. His father: Chester Kirk, a "vetinary" surgeon, born in Warren and now supposedly a resident of Newcastle.3 There is no record of any marriage between Chester and Nellie, and no other records placing Chester in Newcastle (as near as I can tell, he was still living in Auburn); I imagine that since she had the baby in Newcastle (and I haven't yet figured out what she was doing there), she simply gave that as his residence.
What Happened to Nellie and Chester?
After this birth registration, both Nellie Crosman and Chester L. Kirk appear to have dropped off the face of the earth: No death records, no census records, no plausible Chester of any surname, born in Maine in 1893 with a mother named Nellie, have been found. However, after a great deal of sleuthing, I believe I have discovered what happened to Nellie and to my half great-uncle Chester... but that's another story.4
It was no doubt around this time that Chester's marriage to Hattie dissolved. While I have found no record of their divorce, I assume it must have occurred, because on 13 June 1894 he married Cora A. Grover of Waldoboro, Maine. He gave his residence as Auburn (although curiously, he did not appear in the 1893 Lewiston-Auburn city directory) and his occupation as veterinary surgeon – both of which were undoubtedly true – but other aspects of the marriage record stretched the truth quite a bit. For one thing, he claimed to be 35, when he was actually nearly 37 (probably to make his marriage to a 19-year-old slightly more palatable). Moreover, he claimed that this fourth marriage was actually his second, failing to state whether he was widowed or divorced (he was, of course, both).5

Marriage of Chester Kirk and Cora Grover, 1894
What Happened to Hattie and Leonard?
Unlike Nellie and Chester L., Hattie and Leonard were easy to trace. They returned to Bristol, Connecticut, where, around 1896, Hattie married Charles R. Goodenough, a brass manufacturer (whose family was once next door neighbors to the Schuberts) nearly as old as Chester. They had two children, Olive and Lester, before Charles's death in 1904. In 1910 she remarried, to Harry H. Cook. Hattie died in 1923 and is buried in Center Cemetery, Norfolk, Connecticut. Leonard was apparently adopted by his grandfather, Theodore Schubert, and took Schubert as his surname; he became an electrician. He married Rose V. _____ about 1927; they had one child, Richard. Leonard died in 1968.6
Once again, I have to wonder why a 19-year-old girl would marry a man twice her age, but once again it doesn't seem to have been a case of necessity. It was over ten months later, on 24 April 1895, that Cora had their first and only child, a son named Vinal. From the birth record it appears that Chester had relocated to Waldoboro, though other discrepancies make me wonder if he was actually around when Vinal was born: most notably, the father's name is recorded as "Charles A. Kirk" (which could be a transcription error – I haven't seen the original town register), and his birthplace as Lewiston.7
     
Vinal Kirk birth, 1895     Vinal Kirk death, 1896
Sadly, the baby survived less than year, dying of tuberculosis on 21 January 1896. On the death record Chester's name at least is correct, but his birthplace and occupation are blank, another indication that he may not have been present.8 In any event, Cora filed for a divorce, which was granted 24 December 1896, and Chester's fourth marriage came to an end after only two and a half years.9 This is the last sign of Chester until the 1900 census, when he surfaces in Andover, Maine.
What Happened to Cora?
Cora Grover remarried in April 1898, to a Thomaston sailor named William E. Dunbar. This evidently was a matter of necessity, as their daughter Gladys was born in August of that year. On 1 October of the following year, Cora died from puerperal septicemia.10
One more question that comes to mind is, where were Hazel and Kenneth throughout their father's shenanigans? Well, it's possible they were with Chester and Hattie, at least until their marriage broke up, but I think it more likely that Chester had parked them with his parents in Freeport, where they were enumerated in Silas and Sarah's household in 1900.11 (Indeed, that may have been one reason Chester returned to Maine in the first place.)

1900 U.S. census, Freeport, Cumberland County, Maine, Silas Kirk household

To be continued in Chester F. Kirk, Part 4: Grandfather.

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

SOURCES
  1. Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory 1893 (New Haven, Conn.: The Price & Lee Co., 1893), p. 66, entry for Chester Kirk, "rem[oved] to Maine"; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Sep 2012).
  2. “Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Aug 2014), Leonard Irving Kirk, 1892. To the best of my knowledge, Chester had no significant training for his new profession, which he nonetheless practiced, apparently quite successfully, well into the 1930s.
  3. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 May 2014), Chester L. Kirk birth, 1893.
  4. And another post toward my 52 Ancestors total...
  5. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 14 Dec 2012), Chester Kirk-Cora Grover marriage, 1894.
  6. As with my "What Happened to Ellen?" sidebar in my previous post, I'm not going to try to cite sources for this paragraph. It's all available on Ancestry and/or FamilySearch. Interestingly, Leonard pursued the same profession as his half-brother Kenneth, who he may never even have known. In fact, both were working as electricians in Connecticut – Leonard in Bristol, Kenneth in Bridgeport – when they each registered for the draft in 1917.
  7. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Aug 2014), _____ [Vinal] Kirk birth, 24 Apr 1895.
  8. “Maine Vital Records, 1892-1922,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Aug 2014), Vinal C. Kirk death, 1896.
  9. "Maine Divorces, 1799-1903," database, Maine Genealogy (http://www.mainegenealogy.net : accessed 9 May 2014), entry for Cora Kirke & Chester A. Kirke, 24 Dec 1896, citing Maine Divorce Index, Maine State Archives.
  10. See footnote number 6 (the first two sentences, that is).
  11. 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).

Friday, August 8, 2014

52 Ancestors: #32, Chester F. Kirk, Part 2: Clockmaker

Chester F. Kirk, date unknown1
This is the second of "another story or four" about my paternal grandfather, Chester F. Kirk. This one is about Chester's second and third wives, and his first two children.

At the end of Part 1: From Maine to Bristol, Chester had left the Hitchcock paper box shop for E. Ingraham's clock factory, and no longer lived with or near his in-laws, leading me to believe that he and Ellen had separated or divorced. And, I said, subsequent events  – which probably had their genesis right at the Hitchcock paper box shop – appear to bear this out.

Back in the 1880 census, four pages away from the Hitchcocks but also on Divinity Street, was the household of Jane Martin. Two of her daughters, Mary E. Martin and Hattie (Martin) Moore, worked in a "box shop," which was almost certainly Hitchcock's.2
1880 U.S. census, Bristol, Hatford County, Connecticut, Jane Martin household
 No doubt it was through one of those daughters that Chester met another Martin sister, Charlotte ("Lottie").3 Evidently they became quite well acquainted: on 2 Jul 1886, he married Lottie Martin,4 and six months later, on 9 Jan 1887, Hazel Mae Kirk was born.5
What Happened to Ellen?
Ellen, for her part, also remarried in 1886, to a Scottish minister, the Rev. Samuel Graham Neil. They had one child, a daughter Amna, born in 1888. I haven't discovered where they lived from 1886 to 1902, when they were in Bristol, apparently briefly, before removing permanently to Philadelphia. The Reverend Neil died of influenza and pneumonia in 1932 while on a visit to Scotland. His body was returned to the U.S., where he was buried in the West Cemetery in Bristol in Benajah Hitchcock's plot. I expect Ellen is probably buried there as well; she was still living in Philadelphia in 1940, and the cemetery inscriptions were compiled in 1934.6
Chester remained at Ingraham for the remainder of his residence in Bristol.7 The E. Ingraham Co. had been manufacturing clocks in Bristol since 1840, and was famous for intricately decorated cabinet clocks and "visible pendulum spring clocks" with eight-day striking movements, such as these examples from an 1897-98 Ingraham catalog.8
     

Typical Ingraham cabinet clock
     Typical Ingraham visible pendulum spring clock
Pendulum clock built by Chester Kirk, ca 1890
I remember staying overnight at my grandmother's house and listening, late at night, to the striking of the pendulum clock that graced her dining room – a clock made by my grandfather during his time at Ingraham. Though much more rudimentary in design than a typical Ingraham clock and with little ornamentation, it's easy to see the "family resemblance."9

West Cemetery (Bristol, Conn.), Lottie A. Kirk gravestone
After Hazel, Chester and Lottie had one more child, on 24 November 1889: a son, Kenneth Allen Kirk.10 Chester's second marriage lasted no longer than his first, but for a very different reason: just a year after Kenneth's birth, Lottie died on 25 November 1890, at the age of 33.11 She is buried in West Cemetery in Bristol (or Plainville).12

Perhaps it's not surprising that Chester, left suddenly with a one-year-old and a not-quite-four-year-old, remarried rather quickly. On their 2 Jul 1891 wedding day, his third wife was a couple of months shy of 18 – just about half Chester's age.13 Hattie Schubert was the daughter of Theodore Schubert, a German immigrant clockmaker employed at Ingraham.14 It's hard to say why this girl would marry a man twice her age, taking on two small children in the bargain. On the face of it, the marriage doesn't appear to be a matter of necessity; their only child would not be born for over a year. Possibly Hattie was pregnant, but miscarried after the marriage. One more thing I will never know.

What I do know is that before September 1892, Chester and Hattie pulled up roots and moved,15 with Hazel and Kenneth, to Auburn, Maine, where Chester began a new career as – of all things – a veterinarian.
Entry for Chester Kirk, 1893 Bristol city directory: "rem[oved] to Maine"
To be continued in Chester F. Kirk, Part 3: Veterinary Surgeon.

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

SOURCES
  1. Photo of Chester F. Kirk, date unknown; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Chester's daughter Geneva Kirk probably gave this tiny photo to her nephew Marshall Kirk, from whom the author inherited it in 2005.
  2. 1880 U.S. Census, Hartford County, Connecticut, Bristol, ED 25, p. 26, dwelling 225, family 290, Jane Martin household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Aug 2012). Lottie is not enumerated in this household and I have been unable to find her elsewhere.
  3. 1870 U.S. Census, Litchfield County, Connecticut, New Hartford, p. 72, dwelling 517, family 549, Harvey Martin household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Aug 2012). Jane, all the children from the 1880 census, and Lottie, are in the 1870 household, thus tying Lottie to this family. It was most likely Hattie, who maintained contact with and visited Chester and her niece and nephew in Maine in later years, who introduced him to Lottie.
  4. Greenleaf Cilley and Jonathan P. Cilley, The Mount Desert Widow: Genealogy of the Maine Gamble Family (Rockland, Maine: Knox County Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1895), p. 170; digital images, Internet Archive (http://archive.org/details/mountdesertwidow00cill : accessed 5 Mar 2012).
  5. Ibid. Also, Certificate of Death for Hazel Mae Clark, 11-10-1962, State of Maine Department of Health and Welfare, undated photocopy of typed certificate stamped "NOT FOR LEGAL PURPOSES", Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. 
  6. I'm not going to try to list all the sources for this paragraph. Suffice it to say that I did turn up documentation on Ancestry.com 18-20 Jul 2014, which I will be happy to relate to anyone who might be interested. I'm pretty sure, by the way, that "Amna" really is the daughter's name; at first I thought it was a typo for "Anna" but then found other instances that definitely have an "m" in them.
  7. Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory for [year] (New Haven, Conn.: Price, Lee & Co., 1888-1891), entries for Chester Kirk (1888; 1890-91; 1891); database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Sep 2012).
  8. Clocks Manufactured by the E. Ingraham Company, Catalogue 29, 1897-98 (Bristol, Conn.: E. Ingraham Co., 1897), p. 52, Bazar, p. 62, Lily; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/clocksmanufacturedingrahamcompany29bris : downloaded 9 May 2014).
  9. Chester Kirk pendulum clock, ca 1890, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia; photographed by the author, 2004. The clock passed from Chester's last wife, Mary (Hodsdon) Kirk, to their daughter Geneva Kirk, who passed it on to the author sometime in the 1980s. It is not an "official" Ingraham clock; that is, it does not bear the Ingraham name. I speculate that employees may have been free to use the facilities to build their own clocks during their off hours. Though this clock now graces my living room, it – alas – no longer runs or strikes; the mechanism is simply worn out. 
  10. Cilley and Cilley, p. 170. Also, "United States, World War One Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 26 Apr 2012), Fairfield County, Connecticut, 5 Jun 1917, No. 786, for Kenneth Allen Kirk.
  11. Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory 1891 (New Haven, Conn.: Price, Lee & Co., 1891), p. 6, List of Deaths in Bristol, entry for "Kirk Lottie A., Nov. 25, '90 [age] 33".
  12. Find A Grave, database and images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 27 Sep 2012), memorial #46891025 for Lottie A Kirk, with photo of marker, citing West Cemetery (Plainville, Hartford County, Connecticut), plot 14, memorial and digital photo by C Greer (19 Jan 2010). The last two digits of year are illegible in the photo; the memorial gives the date of death as Nov. 29 [sic], 1889.
  13. Bristol, Connecticut, Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, marriage license with clergyman's certification, #292, Chester F. Kirk and Hattie B. Shubert, 1891; certified (embossed) photocopy issued 14 May 1993.
  14. Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory 1891, p. 66, entry for Theodore Schubert. 
  15. Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory 1893 (New Haven, Conn.: The Price & Lee Co., 1893), p. 66, entry for Chester Kirk, "rem[oved] to Maine"; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Sep 2012). The September 1892 date and the destination of Auburn will be documented in the next installment. 

Friday, August 1, 2014

52 Ancestors: #31, Chester F. Kirk, Part 1: From Maine to Bristol

Some time ago, in my fourteenth "52 Ancestors" post, The Not-So-Honorary Aunts, I said of my paternal grandfather:
To be more precise, he had been married four times previously, and there were several other children, but that's another story or four...
Chester F. Kirk, date unknown1
To be even more precise, Chester Kirk had a total of five wives, one other "liaison," and
nine children, including one stillborn, two who died in infancy, and six who lived to adulthood. At least, that's all I know of. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were others (wives, liaisons, and/or children) yet to be found. Curiosity has led me to research Chester's many relationships and try to find out what happened to all those step-grandmothers and half-uncles.

Herewith the first of "another story or four" (or maybe even more). This one is about Chester's early years, his move to Connecticut, and his first wife.

Chester F. Kirk was born 10 September 1857 in Warren, Knox County, Maine.2 (His middle initial, according to one online tree, stood for Frank, but I can find no documentation stating his middle name.) He was the oldest child, only son, and only child to survive to adulthood, of Silas Kirk and Sarah C. Sukeforth. I know almost nothing about his childhood, aside from a 1925 photo of the house where he was born,3 and that his family moved around a lot: from Warren to Union before 1860;4 to Washington by 1861;5 to Auburn sometime between 1861 and 1867;6 and finally to Freeport around 1875.7

Chester Kirk in front of the home where he was born, Warren, Maine, 19253
1860 U.S. census, Union, Knox County, Maine, Silas Kirk household
1870 U.S. census, Auburn, Androscoggin County, Maine, Silas Kirk household
1880 U.S. census, Freeport, Cumberland County, Maine, Silas Kirk household

Newspaper illustration of the John A. Briggs, 19019
In 1880, according to the census enumeration of Silas's family in Freeport, Chester was working "in a clock shop."8 One might suppose from this that the clock shop was in Freeport, but Freeport, Maine, wasn't exactly known as a clock-making hub; on the contrary, it was a 19th-century ship-building center, which is why Silas, a ship's carpenter, moved there. (He may even have worked on the John A. Briggs, the largest ship ever launched in Freeport, in 1878.)9

As it turns out, the "clock shop" was quite a bit further south, in Bristol, Connecticut, which was known as a clock-making hub, and Chester had been enumerated there as well as in Freeport. He was boarding in the household of H. W. Hungerford, whose wife Minerva and resident brother-in-law Maurillo Soule were also both born in Maine. While Hungerford did work in a clock shop, both Chester and Maurillo worked in a "triming" [probably trimming] shop.10

1880 U.S. census, Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut, Chester Kirk in H.W. Hungerford household
Advertisement in 1882 Bristol city directory
What they trimmed wasn't specified, but in Bristol, it was almost certainly clocks, and indeed several manufacturers of "Clock Trimmings," such as Albert Warner, advertised in the city directories.11 What clinched the identification of this Chester Kirk as "my" Chester was the discovery that Maurillo Soule was born in Freeport, Maine, and like Chester was double-enumerated in 1880 in both Bristol and Freeport – where his parents said he worked "in a clock factory."12 Very likely, these two young men had decided they weren't destined to be shipwrights like their fathers (1880 being essentially the end of the wooden ship-building era), and had gone off together to investigate the booming Bristol clock industry of which Maurillo's brother-in-law was a part, but their parents still reported them to the census taker in Freeport (perhaps believing – or at least hoping – that their sons' absences would only be temporary).

B. Hitchcock advertisement, 1882 Bristol city directory
But their stay in Bristol was far from temporary: Maurillo settled there permanently, while Chester would spend the next dozen years in Bristol. On 27 October 1880, he took his first bride, 18-year-old Ellen "Nellie" Hitchcock,13 the younger daughter of Benajah Hitchcock,14 a manufacturer of paper boxes in Bristol15 and, in 1882 and 1884, Chester's employer.16 Very likely Chester and Ellen were living with her parents as well, as the city directories said Chester "b[oar]ds Divinity," Divinity Street being the location of the Hitchcock residence and business.17

Entry for Chester Kirk, 1882 Bristol city directory
Chester and Ellen had no children, and the marriage lasted only a few years. By late 1885, Chester was no longer working for Hitchcock or living on Divinity Street; he was now boarding at 25 North Street, and working for the E. Ingraham Co., perhaps the most prominent of Bristol's clock manufacturers.18 Now, perhaps they had just moved to be closer to his new employer, but the fact that he had a new employer at all seems indicative of a split from the Hitchcocks, and a separation and divorce from Ellen. Subsequent events, which probably had their genesis right at the Hitchcock paper box shop, appear to bear this out.

Entry for Chester Kirk, 1886-7 Bristol city directory
To be continued in Chester F. Kirk, Part 2: Clockmaker.

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

SOURCES
  1. Photo of Chester F. Kirk, date unknown; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Chester's daughter Geneva Kirk probably gave this tiny photo to her nephew Marshall Kirk, from whom the author inherited it in 2005.
  2. Greenleaf Cilley and Jonathan P. Cilley, The Mount Desert Widow: Genealogy of the Maine Gamble Family (Rockland, Maine: Knox County Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1895), p. 170; digital images, Internet Archive (http://archive.org/details/mountdesertwidow00cill : accessed 5 Mar 2012). Also, State of Maine, Bureau of Health, certificate of death for Dr. Chester F. Kirk, 15 Jul 1939; photocopy of certificate stamped "Not For Legal Purposes," issue date and whereabouts of original unknown; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author.
  3. Photo of Chester F. Kirk in front of the house where he was born in Warren, Maine, 1925, in Geneva Kirk photograph album; Kirk-Murphy Family Collection, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Chester's daughter Geneva gave this small album to her nephew Marshall Kirk, from whom the author inherited it in 2005.
  4. 1860 U.S. Census, Knox County, Maine, Union, p. 41 (upper left), 227 (penned upper right), dwelling 312, family 300, Silas Kirk household; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 7 Mar 2012).
  5. Cilley and Cilley, p. 170; Abbie was b. 1861 in Washington.
  6. Ibid.; Abbie d. 1867 in Auburn. Also, 1870 U.S. Census, Androscoggin County, Maine, City of Auburn Ward 2, p. 35, dwelling 237, family 318, Silas Kirk household; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 9 Dec 2010).
  7. Directory of ... the Cities of Lewiston and Auburn for 1876-7 (Boston: Greenough & Co., 1876), p. 230, no entry for Silas Kirk; database and digital images, "Maine City Directories," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Jul 2014); Silas presumably left before the directory was compiled. Also, Cyrus Eaton, Annals of the Town of Warren, in Knox County, Maine, Second Edition (Hallowell [Maine]: Masters & Livermore, 1877), p. 567; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com/books : accessed 11 Dec 2010); Silas "r. Freeport" by the time the book was published in 1877.
  8. 1880 U.S. Census, Cumberland County, Maine, Freeport, ED 33, p. 22, dwelling 203, family 222, Silas Kirk household; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 9 Mar 2012).
  9. Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Maine, Maine, A Guide "Down East" (n.p.: Maine Development Commission, 1937), p. 214; digital images (preview), Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=-n7OgTUS_ewC : accessed 22 Jul 2014). Illustration of ship in "Ship John A. Briggs is Coming Here...," San Francisco Call, 13 Aug 1901, p. 7, col. 2-4; digital images, California Digital Newspaper Collection (http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19010813.2.91# : accessed 22 Jul 2014).
  10. 1880 U.S. Census, Hartford County, Connecticut, Bristol, ED 25, p. 15, dwelling 140, family 165, H. W. Hungerford household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jul 2014).
  11. Bristol and Plainville Directory 1882 (New Haven, Conn.: Price, Lee & Co., 1882), p. xviii, Albert Warner advertisement; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jul 2014).
  12. 1880 U.S. Census, Cumberland County, Maine, Freeport, ED 33, p. 16, dwelling 161, family 175, George E. Soule household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jul 2014). 
  13. Bristol, Connecticut, Assistant Registrar of Vital Statistics, ca 1993 letter concerning marriages of Chester F. Kirk; Marshall K. Kirk Research Files, privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The letter reports that Bristol records include a "marriage Oct. 27, 1880 to Ellen Hitchcock."
  14. 1880 U.S. Census, Hartford County, Connecticut, Bristol, ED 25, p. 30, dwelling 261, family 335, B. Hitchcock household (accessed 3 Sep 2012).
  15. Bristol and Plainville Directory 1882, p. 19, B. Hitchcock advertisement.
  16. Ibid., p. 88; Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory for 1884-85 (New Haven, Conn.: Price, Lee & Co., 1884), p. 42; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Sep 2012); entries for Chester Kirk. 
  17. Ibid.
  18. Bristol, Plainville and Terryville Directory for 1886-7 (New Haven, Conn.: Price, Lee & Co., 1886), p. 40, entry for Chester Kirk; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 Sep 2012).