Nahum Alonzo Rand Sr.: 52 Ancestors #73

Nahum Alonzo Rand, my great-great-grandfather and #22 on my Ahnentafel, was born 29 Nov 1813 in Rye, Rockingham County, New Hampshire. He was the second of three children of Joshua and Elizabeth (Rand) Rand.¹ (Joshua and Elizabeth were first cousins, giving Nahum only six great-grandparents instead of the usual eight, as illustrated in My Collapsing Pedigree.)

Unlike his father and younger brother (the elder brother died young), Nahum didn't stay in Rye. I don't know just when he moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts – he's not a head of household either in Rye or Roxbury in 1840 – but that was his residence on 16 January 1842, when marriage intentions were published between "Mr. Nahum Rand and Miss Dolly Bristor both of Roxbury." They were married on 11 February 1842 at the Free Will Baptist Church of Christ.²

Marriage intentions (top) and marriage record for Nahum Rand and Dolly Bristor, 1842, Roxbury, Mass.

The Rands lived in Roxbury, where their first four children were born, until about 1849, when they moved to Andover, Oxford County, Maine. This was a homecoming for Dolly, who was born in nearby Byron, and whose parents and married sister Jerusha now lived in Rumford. In Andover they had four more children.

Children of Dolly Brister and Nahum Rand:

1. Nahum Alonzo Rand Jr. (1842-1920), married Lois Minerva Cutting
2. Sarah Elizabeth Rand (1845-aft 1908), married Edward Rhodes
3. Ezra D. Rand (1846-1847)
4. Ezra Davis Rand (1848-1922), married (1) Mary A. Crutchley Homan, (2) Augusta A. (Pulsifer) Buker, (3) Margaret Amber
5. Asenath Matilda Rand (1851-1871), unmarried
6. Kate Maria Rand (1855-1940), married Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon (my great-grandparents)
7. Samuel P. Rand (1857-1940), unmarried
8. Annie Grace Rand (1860-1925), married Frank Roberts

Nahum Rand death certificate, 1884, Philadelphia, Pa.

Nahum Rand died of "cardiac dropsy" on 4 Jan 1884 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It appears that he must have been visiting his eldest son, Nahum Jr., at the time; the residence of the deceased is given as "No. 56 Wister St" – probably a slight error on the part of the undertaker as the Philadelphia city directory in 1882 and 1884 gives Nahum Rand's address as 58 Wister.³ Two oddities in the undertaker's certificate are the occupation ("Gentleman") and place of birth ("England") of the deceased. Nahum Rand Sr. was listed as a farmer in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, and as a stone mason in 1870 and 1880.⁴ Perhaps "gentleman" was meant to convey that he was retired? As for his birthplace, I can conjecture that the Philadelphia undertaker misunderstood a statement that the man had been born in "New England."






Nahum was buried in the Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia,⁵ probably in a family lot – his son is also buried there.⁶ I don't know if he has a marker there (there isn't one on Find A Grave), but he does have a cenotaph in the Rand lot in Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover, Maine, on a stone shared with his son Samuel. Below the years of his birth and death is the inscription "Buried in Philadelphia."⁷

Nahum A. Rand cenotaph/Samuel P. Rand gravestone, Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Maine

My descent from Nahum Alonzo Rand:

• Nahum Alonzo Rand and Dolly Brister
• 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. Langdon Brown Parsons, History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire: from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1905), p. 504.
2. "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," database and digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jul 2016) > Roxbury > Roxbury Marriages Publishments, 1785-1864 > images 231-232 of 277; marriage intentions (image 231) and marriage (image 232) for Nahum Rand and Dolly Bristor, 1842.
3. "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915," database and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 23 Mar 2014) > 004010284 > image 700 of 1324; Nahum Rand death certificate, 4 Jan 1884. 
4. 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). Also 1860 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 67, dwelling 492, family 491, “Naam” Rand household. Also, 1870 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 11, dwelling 66, family 69, Naham Rand household. Also, 1880 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 116, p. 4D, dwelling 36, family 40, Naham Rand household. 1860-1880 censuses, digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 12 Mar 2012).
5. Nahum Rand death certificate (note 3).
6. Find A Grave, database (https://www.findagrave.com  : accessed 23 Feb 2014), memorial 116452444 for Corp Nahum Rand (1842-1920), by "Eugene Glenn Stackhouse" (2 Sep 2013); citing Northwood Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. 
7. Woodlawn Cemetery (Andover, Oxford County, Maine), Nahum A. Rand cenotaph, read and photographed by the author, 15 Aug 2012.

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: #39, Francis Rand, Killed in an Indian Raid

Francis Rand, my 7X great-grandfather, was born ca 1616 probably in Devonshire, England. He was one of a company of fifty-eight men and twenty women sent by Captain John Mason to settle the area at the mouth of the Piscataqua River then known as Strawberry Banke (later Portsmouth, New Hampshire).¹

He married Christina ______ in say 1636. They had at least eight children:²

1. Francis Rand (?-prob bef 1689)
2. William Rand (?-bef 1680)
3. Nathaniel Rand (ca 1638-aft 1689)
4. John Rand, (ca 1645-ca 1694); married Remembrance Ault
5. Thomas Rand, (ca 1652-1736); married Hannah ______
6. Samuel Rand (est 1658-ca 1707); married 1) widow Mary Walton, 2) Susanna ______
7. Mary Rand; married Thomas Barnes
8. Sarah Rand; married Isaac Herrick

Francis Rand served as constable for Upper Strawberry Banke from 1649 to 1651.³ In 1653 the town granted lands in the area known as Sandy Beach (later Rye) to several of the townspeople, among them Francis, who received "eight acres of meadow and twenty acres of upland for a lot."⁴

Sandy Beach, like many early New England settlements, was a frequent target of Indian raids. One of the worst, later known as the Brackett's Lane massacre, occurred on 29 September 1691, when a raiding party burned several homes and killed or took captive at least sixteen people.⁵ The dead included both Francis and Christina Rand, and at least one son or grandson was among those taken captive.⁶

My descent from Francis Rand:

• Francis Rand + Christina ______
• Thomas Rand + Hannah ______
• Joshua Rand + Mary Moses
    |________________________________
    |                               |
• Joseph Rand + Susannah Goss     John Rand + Hannah Seavey
    |                               |
• Joshua Rand -------- + -------- Elizabeth Rand7
    |
• Nahum Alonzo Rand + Dolly Brister
• Kate Maria Rand + Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon
• 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. Langdon Brown Parsons, History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire: from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1905), p. 70; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com/books : accessed 28 Apr 2012).
2. 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. 574. It's unclear whether the list of children is in birth order.
3. Ibid., p. 573.
4. Parsons, pp. 126-7.
5. Ibid., pp. 245-6.
6. Noyes et al., pp. 573-4.
7. See my post "52 Ancestors: #23, My Collapsing Pedigree: Joshua Rand and Elizabeth Rand" for a discussion of this double line of descent. The original title incorrectly named "John Rand and Elizabeth Rand." (Obviously I was confused by the whole "collapsing pedigree" concept!) I have since corrected "John" to "Joshua."
   

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: #23, My Collapsing Pedigree: Joshua Rand and Elizabeth Rand

If you start counting up the number of direct ancestors you have in each generation (two parents, four grandparents, and so on), back around 30 generations ago you'll find that, theoretically, you have more ancestors than the total world population of the time – an obvious impossibility.

The explanation is pedigree collapse, or shared ancestors: when a set of parents somewhere in your tree are related to each other, there are fewer than the normal number of ancestors in an earlier generation, because more than one "slot" in the tree is filled by the same individual. For example, if two first cousins marry each other, their children will have only six great-grandparents instead of the expected eight. A few such cases in your family tree can drastically reduce the number of direct ancestors, and it was actually quite common in times when people seldom strayed far from their birthplaces and thus were likely to be related in some degree to just about every potential mate.

I have a classic case of pedigree collapse due to a marriage of first cousins in my Rand line. My fifth great-grandfather, Joshua Rand, was born, say 1715, probably in Rye, New Hampshire. He married Mary Moses ca 1740, and they had eight children. The oldest was John, born 15 Feb 1742, and the third was Joseph, born ca 1746. These two brothers were my fourth great-grandfathers.

Joseph Rand married Susannah Goss on 24 May 1764. They had seven children; the third was Joshua Rand, born 23 Aug 1779, in Rye, New Hampshire. Eight years later, on 4 Jun 1772, Joseph's elder brother John married Hannah Seavey. They had eight children; the oldest was Elizabeth, born 20 May 1773, probably also in Rye.

After the death of his first wife, Esther Marden, with whom he had two sons, Joshua Rand married Elizabeth Rand, his first cousin, on 29 Mar 1810. Joshua and Elizabeth had three sons, all born in Rye:

1. Ezra Rand, b. 1810, d. 1827
2. Nahum Alonzo Rand, b. 1813, married Dolly Brister
3. Aaron Rand, b. 1816, married Elizabeth Yeaton

Joshua Rand died 20 Sep 1852, probably in Rye; Elizabeth's date of death is currently unknown.

Their middle son, Nahum, left New Hampshire for Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he married Dolly Brister and subsequently removed to Andover, Maine. His pedigree chart below illustrates the pedigree collapse: Nahum Rand had only six great-grandparents, not eight.

Pedigree collapse illustrated

My descent from Joshua Rand and Elizabeth Rand:

• Joshua Rand and Elizabeth Rand (third-great-grandparents)
• Nahum Alonzo Rand and Dolly Brister (great-great-grandparents)
• Kate Rand and Marchant Hodsdon (great-grandparents)
• Mary Milliken Hodsdon and 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. Langdon Brown Parsons, History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire: from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1905), pp. 499-504; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com/books : accessed 28 Apr 2012).

Ahnentafel of Mary M. (Hodsdon) Kirk

This week I present the Ahnentafel and pedigree of my maternal grandmother, Mary Milliken Hodsdon.

Pedigree of Mary Milliken Hodsdon (click on the image for a larger view)

1 Mary Milliken HODSDON. She was born in Andover, ME, on 16 Mar 1882. Died on 6 May 1965 in Lewiston, ME; she was 83. She was buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, ME, on 8 May 1965. Occupation: Dressmaker.

She married Chester Frank KIRK ca 1901-03 in prob Andover, ME.

2 Silas Marchant Hillman HODSDON. He was born in Byron, ME, on 31 Mar 1847. Died on 4 Oct 1911 in Andover, ME; he was 64. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, ME. Occupation: Farmer. Cause of death: Embolism.

He married Kate Maria RAND on 29 Nov 1876 or 77 in prob Andover, ME.

3 Kate Maria RAND. She was born in Andover, ME, on 19 Apr 1855. Died on 6 Oct 1940 in Roxbury, ME; she was 85. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, ME, on 8 Oct 1940. Cause of death: Angina pectoris.

4 Isaac HODSDON. He was born in Hollis Center, ME, on 3 May 1812. Died on 22 Jan 1890 in Byron, ME; he was 77. He was buried in Byron, ME, in Jan 1890.

He married Abigail GREEN 30 Dec 1834 in Hollis, ME.

5 Abigail GREEN. She was born in Wilton, ME, on 26 Jun 1814. Died in 1878; she was 63.

6 Nahum Alonzo RAND Sr. He was born in Rye, Rockingham, NH, on 29 Nov 1813. Died on 4 Jan 1884 in Philadelphia, PA; he was 70. He was buried in Philadelphia, PA.

He married Dolly C. BRISTER on 11 Feb 1842 in Roxbury, MA.

7 Dolly C. BRISTER. She was born in Byron, ME, on 7 Feb 1818. Died on 26 Sep 1904 in Andover, ME; she was 86. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, ME, in 1904. Cause of death: Cancer of the stomach.

8 Jacob HODSDON. He was born in Hollis, ME, on 29 Oct 1787. Died in Mar 1879; he was 91. He was buried in Pressley Cemetery, Byron, ME.

He married Sally HOOSON/HUSTON on 17 Jul 1808 in Hollis (Phillipsburg), ME.

9 Sally HOOSON/HUSTON.

10 Guy GREEN. He was born in 1778.

He married Hannah R. GOULD.

11 Hannah R. GOULD. She was born ca 1787. Died aft 1879.

12 Joshua RAND. He was born in Rye, Rockingham, NH, on 23 Aug 1779. Died on 20 Sep 1852; he was 73.

He married Elizabeth RAND on 29 Mar 1810.

13 Elizabeth RAND. She was born on 20 May 1773.

14 Enoch BRISTER. He was born in Andover, MA, ca 1770. Died on 28 Mar 1853 in prob Rumford, ME; he was 83. He was buried in Rumford Center Cemetery, Rumford Center, ME.

He married Sarah CHAMBERLAIN ca 1807 in Oxford County, ME.

15 Sarah CHAMBERLAIN. She was born in ME ca 1787-90. Died on 3 Jul 1881 in prob Rumford, ME; she was 94. She was buried in Rumford Center Cemetery, Rumford Center, ME.

16 Samuel HODSDON. He was born in 1760.

He married Betsy/Betty HOOPER on 29 Jan 1785 in Buxton, ME.

17 Betsy/Betty HOOPER.

20 Jonas GREENE. He was born in 1731. Died aft 1795.

He married Abigail NEVERS.

21 Abigail NEVERS. She was born in 1756. Died in 1814; she was 58.

24 Joseph RAND. He was born ca 1746.

He married Susannah GOSS on 24 May 1764.

25 Susannah GOSS. She was born on 23 Sep 1744. Died on 26 May 1815; she was 70.

26 John RAND. He was born on 15 Feb 1742. Died on 13 May 1812; he was 70.

He married Hannah SEAVEY on 4 Jun 1772.

27 Hannah SEAVEY. She was born on 20 May 1750. Died in 1808; she was 57.

Index

BRISTER
    Dolly C. (1818 - 1904)    7
    Enoch (ca1770 - 1853)    14
CHAMBERLAIN
    Sarah (ca1787 - 1881)    15
GOSS
    Susannah (1744 - 1815)    25
GOULD
    Hannah R. (ca1787 - >1879)    11
GREENE
    Abigail (1814 - 1878)    5
    Guy (1778 - )    10
    Jonas (1731 - >1795)    20
HODSDON
    Isaac (1812 - 1890)    4
    Jacob (1787 - 1879)    8
    Mary Milliken (1882 - 1965)    1
    Samuel (1760 - )    16
    Silas Marchant Hillman (1847 - 1911)    2
HOOPER
    Betsy/Betty    17
HOOSON/HUSTON
    Sally    9
KIRK
    Chester Frank (1857 - 1939)    spouse of 1
NEVERS
    Abigail (1756 - 1814)    21
RAND
    Elizabeth (1773 - )    13
    John (1742 - 1812)    26
    Joseph (ca1746 - )    24
    Joshua (1779 - 1852)    12
    Kate Maria (1855 - 1940)    3
    Nahum Alonzo Sr. (1813 - 1884)    6
SEAVEY
    Hannah (1750 - 1808)    27

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.)

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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.

52 Ancestors: #8, Finding Great Grand Aunt Asenath Matilda Rand

I seem to spend a lot more time hunting down collateral lines than my direct line ancestors, especially the women. There's something about those sisters that appear in the birth records and censuses, and then just vanish, that makes me want to track them down. Did they die young? Did they marry? Did they have children of their own? Those were the questions I set out to answer for my great grand aunt, Asenath Matilda Rand, older sister of my great grandmother Kate Rand Hodsdon.

Asenath was born 20 May 1851 in Andover, Maine.¹ She was the fifth child of Nahum Alonzo Rand and Dolly C. Brister, and the first to be born in Maine (the earlier children were born in Roxbury, Massachusetts). She appeared as 10-year-old "Acenith" M. Rand in the 1860 census,² and then... nothing. She's not in the Rand household in 1870,³ and there were no records in Maine of her marriage or death. For some time I simply assumed she had died before the 1870 census at a time when death records were sketchy.

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

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

And yet... in general, the Rand family members who died in Maine, like Kate and Sam and Annie, are all buried in Andover's Woodlawn Cemetery. But not Asenath. Maybe she did marry after all? Or maybe she died somewhere else? I had to know. More marriage records are coming online all the time, but a search on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch turned up no sign of wedding bells for Asenath. So I decided to hunt for a death record between 1860 and 1870.

Ancestry.com had an index entry for an "Aseneth M Rand," single, age 20, who died 3 Mar 1871 – in Philadelphia! Now that actually sounded promising, because Asenath's older brother Ezra Davis Rand was also missing from the 1870 census in Andover, but was likely the "David Rand" enumerated in Philadelphia that year in the John Milliken household; Ezra married in Philly in 1872 and lived there until about 1878 before returning to Maine. Still, Asenath was not with that David Rand in 1870, so I couldn't be sure this was "my" Asenath M. Rand.

The Ancestry database was just an index to a FamilySearch collection, so I turned there and found the actual death certificate.⁴ According to this certificate, "Asenith," who died of consumption and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, was born in Philadelphia. Not a good sign, but death certificates are only secondary sources of birth information (and no informant is listed), so I reserved judgment. Unfortunately, parents' names were required only for minors, so no help there. The only other possibly useful piece of information was an address (presumably her residence), 19th Ward, "cor. Amber & Dauphin." But no Rands were listed in the Philadelphia 1870 or 1871 city directory on either street, and John Milliken lived on Germantown Avenue, so there was no apparent connection there.

Well, clearly there was an Asenath M. Rand in Philadelphia in early 1871, so I searched for her in the 1870 census. How about "Matilda Rand," age 19, born Pennsylvania, in the household of one Edward Rhodes, 19th Ward?⁵ A quick lookup in the 1870 city directory reveals his address as "501 E Dauphin" – and the street index reveals that the intersection of East Dauphin and Amber is at #501!⁶ So "Matilda Rand" is undoubtedly the "Asenith M. Rand" who died in 1871 – but is she "my" Asenath Matilda? How was she linked to the Rhodes family?

1870 U.S. census, Philadelphia, Penn., Edward Rhodes household

1870 Philadelphia City Directory, Edward Rhodes antry and East Dauphin street index

The census record listed Edward's 25-year-old wife, Elizabeth, as being born in Maine. And Asenath had a sister, Sarah Elizabeth, born in 1845 – and who married an Edward Rhodes in 1865.⁷ (Granted she was actually born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, but she had lived in Maine since about age 5, so it's not surprising that an informant might have thought she was born there; she may even have thought she was born there.) So this is indeed "my" Asenath Matilda, supposed Pennsylvania birthplaces notwithstanding, and now I know why she isn't buried in Woodlawn. One more "missing sister" laid to rest.

(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. Phyllis Spaulding and Elaine Morton, trans., “Andover Births and Deaths from 1795 to 1891”, transcriptions (1998), Robert A. Spidell, Andover, Maine (http://www.andovermaine.com : accessed 3 Jun 2012), "Asenath Metilda Rand" birth, 1851; citing the original Vital Records, Andover, Maine.
2. 1860 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 67, dwelling 492, family 491, “Naam” Rand household; database and digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 12 Mar 2012).
3. 1870 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 11, dwelling 66, family 69, Naham Rand household; database and digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012).
4. “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915,” index and digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 23 Feb 2014), Aseneth M. Rand, 1871. 
5. 1870 U.S. Census, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, 60th Division (Philadelphia), p. 94, dwelling 677, family 728, Edward Rhodes household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014).
6. Gopsill's Philadelphia City Directory for 1870 (Philadelphia: James Gopsill, 1870), p. 1275, entry for “Rhodes Edward, shoemaker” and p. 46, East Dauphin; database and digital images, “U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989,” Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Feb 2014).
7. Langdon Brown Parsons, History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire: from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903 (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Printing Company, 1905), p. 508; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com/books : accessed 28 Apr 2012).

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3, Kate Maria (Rand) Hodsdon

Time for a female ancestor! For ancestor #3, I have selected one of my great-grandmothers – specifically, my father's maternal grandmother.

Kate Maria Rand was born 19 Apr 1855¹ in Andover, Maine, the sixth of eight children of Nahum Alonzo Rand (a farmer and stone mason) and Dolly Brister. We have only the barest hints of her childhood. She was attending school by the age of 5,² and ultimately completed the first year of high school.³ In Jun 1870 she was living with another Andover family as a "domestic servant", but had also attended school within the previous year.⁴ In those days, youngsters from outlying farms might live with a family in town, doing household work to pay for their board, in order to attend high school,⁵ and quite possibly that's the reason for Kate's position as a domestic.

Our next glimpse of Kate's life is the birth of her first child, Walter, in Mar 1875.⁶ The details are hazy, but it appears that Kate spent some time in Philadelphia in 1874 – probably visiting her two brothers who lived there at the time – and made the acquaintance of a local electrician named Jacob Dedier.⁷ Kate brought her baby home to Maine (or perhaps returned home before his birth), where her parents adopted the child and raised him as Walter C. Rand.⁸

Kate Maria Rand Hodsdon (ca 1900?)⁹

The following year, Kate married a farmer with the lengthy and improbable name of Silas Marchant Hillman Hodsdon (he sensibly dispensed with the "Silas" and "Hillman" and went by "March" most of his life) from nearby Byron, Maine.¹⁰ They settled at Farmer's Hill in Andover, where they had six children: Luther Marchant, Sarah Elizabeth "Sadie", Mary Milliken (my paternal grandmother), Essie Gertrude, Grace, and Gardner P. Hodsdon. Gardner may have been something of a surprise (but we hope a happy one), arriving a full eight years after Grace's birth, when Kate was 40. We can only imagine her grief at then losing her youngest son to diphtheria in 1908 at the age of only 13.¹¹

The rest of her children had all left the nest and married by the time March Hodsdon died late in 1911,¹² and she went to live in Lewiston, Maine, with her daughter Mary, who had married veterinarian Chester Kirk ten years earlier. Kate was there for the birth of Mary's children, Geneva in 1917 and Roger (my father) in 1919.

Four generations: "Grammie Hodge" (center) holding great-grandaughter Laura Jean Leach,
grandaughter Ellen Hall Leach (left), daughter Sadie Hodsdon Hall (right), ca 1929¹³

Growing up with his grandmother in the home, recalled my father, meant learning to eat with dispatch. "Grammie Hodge" cooked and served up the meal and was always the last to sit down to the table – but she was also the first to finish eating. And when Grammie was done eating, she immediately set about clearing the table. So you either learned to keep up with Grammie, or risked having your half-finished plate whisked away to the kitchen right out from under your nose.

Kate M Hodsdon grave marker, Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Maine

Kate remained with the Kirks until a few weeks before her death on 6 Oct 1940 in Roxbury, Maine, at the home of her daughter Grace (Hodsdon) Thomas.¹⁴ She was buried with March, Gardner, two of her daughters, and a son-in-law in Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover.¹⁵

Marchant Hodsdon family gravestone, Woodlawn Cemetery, Andover, Maine

(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 17 Jan 2014), entry for Kate Maria Rand, 19 Apr 1855.
2. 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).
3. 1940 U.S. Census, Androscoggin County, Maine, population schedule, Lewiston city, ward 1, ED 1-28, sheet 2A, household 34, Mary M Kirk household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 Apr 2012).
4. 1870 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, p. 6, dwelling 36, family 37, Kate Rand in Henry W Poor household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012). 
5. 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. 14. Kate Rand Hodsdon's granddaughter, Kate Hall, recalled that "In order to go to high school, Mother [Sadie Hodsdon Hall] ,,, lived with different families in Andover, working for their board... Aunt Gracie had a similar arrangement when she went to high school." It seems quite likely that the young Kate Rand may also have attended high school under the same circumstances as did her daughters a generation later.
6. 1900 U.S. Census, Oxford County, Maine, Andover, ED 177, sheet 7B, dwelling 162, family 164, Walter C Rand in Marchant S “Hodgman” household; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 11 Mar 2012).
7. "New Hampshire, Marriage Records, 1637-1947," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 11 Apr 2012), Walter C. Rand and Ellen E. Adley, 1906; Walter's father is given as Jacob "Didgere", an electrician born and resident in Pennsylvania. While this name is not found anywhere else, a Jacob Dedier (listed in censuses and city directories variously as a wood turner, electrician, and tin worker) lived near the Rand brothers in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia during this time period.
8. Chadwick and Earsy, A Home-Made Life, p. 14. "Born in Philadelphia, [Uncle Walter] was the first child of my Grandmother Kate Maria Rand Hodsdon. Her mother, Dolly Brister Rand, adopted Uncle Walter when [Kate] returned from Philadelphia with her infant. Uncle Walter wa raised by Great Grandmother Rand and her husband, although it was no secret that he was Grammie Hodge's son." However, Walter always gave his birthplace as Maine in the censuses and in his marriage record.
9. Kate Maria Rand Hodsdon portrait, possibly ca 1900; digital image scanned from the original in 2012 and privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The original is privately held by the author's brother, a great-grandson of Kate Hodsdon, who received it from his aunt Geneva Kirk, Mary Hodsdon Kirk's daughter.
10. "Maine, Marriages, 1771-1907," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal : accessed 17 Jan 2014), Marchant S. Hodsdon and Kate N. [sic] Rand, 25 Nov 1876, Byron, Maine.
11. “Maine, Death Records, 1617-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Jan 2014), Gardner Hodsdon, 25 Jun 1908.
12. “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. 
13. Chadwick and Earsy, A Home-Made Life, p. 45, figure 3. 
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”.
15. Woodlawn Cemetery (Andover, Oxford County, Maine), Marchant Hodsdon family monument and Kate M. Hodsdon marker, read and photographed by the author, 15 Aug 2012.