Sadie Temm-Edwards

Sarah Jane Temm ("Sadie") (1858-1935) was one of four children born in Scarborough to Marcus Temm & Sarah Jane Browning.  She spent her childhood on Beech Ridge Road.  At age 22 she was married in Salem Massachusetts to Dennis D. Edwards, a 3rd generation descendant from Welsh immigrants, from Raymond, Maine, who was 26 years older than her.  Dennis had divorced his wife Nancy and left her with the three kids (Ida - who became a watch maker, Franklin & Charles).

Dennis & Sadie bought property in Freeport, and had four children:

1.  Infant Son (1886-1886).  He lived two weeks, and is buried next to his parents.

2.  Pearl Estelle Edwards (1888-1911).  Pearl married Joseph Leonard Holbrook, of the noted Freeport Holbrook family.  Pearl died at 24 of pulmonary tuberculosis.  They had three children who grew up without their mother, and have many descendants still alive today:

-Clarence L. Holbrook (1906-1992).  Clarence was raised by Sadie and worked as a packer at a local shoe factory.  He married Frances Fernald (1906-1987) of Freeport and had two sons, Dana & Lewis.

-Bertha E. Holbrook (1907-1922).  Bertha died like her mother did, of pulmonary tuberculosis, but at age 14.

-Lawrence L. Holbrook (1909-1977).  Lawrence married Gladys Wooton (1921-2009), and had two children and four grandchildren.

3.  Dana Dennis Edwards (1896-1918).  Dana worked as a medical orderly, and lived in Toronto for a time.  He was drafted into WWI while living in Toronto, and died in France at the end of the War.  He is buried in a military cemetery in France.

4.  Pauline Jane Edwards (1899-1976).  Pauline was born 8 months after her father passed.  She married Clarence Fernald (of the Massachusetts Fernalds) in New Hampshire and settled in Augusta Maine, working as a laundress, while her husband got a job at the shoemill.  Clarence died after 1948, and Pauline died after 1962.  I don't believe this is the same Fernald family which her nephew Clarence married into.

In 1888, Dennis purchased a 60 acre plot of land, on Main Street Freeport, from Adelia & Whitley Frost, and built their house where they raised their kids.

In 1893, Dennis purchased an additional 8 acre parcel from Borudon Walker.

In the summer of 1898, Dennis died of a head wound stemming from an accident (a Brunswick train bound for Portland collided with his horse carriage at "Curtis Corner" in Freeport).  He likely didn't yet know that Sadie was one month pregnant with their fourth child, Pauline.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD

12 AUG 1898

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD

3 SEP 1898

Below is an aerial shot from 2010, which shows the approximate area of where the collision must have occurred.  Freeport Town Hall claims no knowledge of an area called "Curtis Crossing" today, but using old maps, we've determined the general area of the crossing to be on Upper Mast Landing Road.  Note that Main Street also used to have railroad tracks, and both routes served Brunswick and Portland (special thanks to Tam Ramsey, descendant of Sadie & Dennis), so either of these sets of railroad tracks could've been the fateful train route:

In January of 1899, Sadie bought the interest of her stepkids (as Dennis' heirs) in all the land above for $190.00.  Two weeks later, she immediately mortgaged the entire property to William Noyes for $250, with a requirement that Sadie purchase fire insurance.

In July of 1900, Sadie paid off the mortgage and then mortgaged the entire property again to William Noyes for $250.

On 7 February 1903, Sadie bought additional property in Freeport, at the corner of Cottage and Forest Streets.  Two days later she paid off the second mortgage.  I wonder where she got the money from that week?

In September of 1903, Sadie remarried to a farmer named John Brett, but then divorced him again within a year.

In August of 1904, Sadie mortgaged the Cottage Street property to a Mary McKenna of Boston for $200.

On 2 Nov 1906, Sadie entered into a $200 second mortgage on the Cottage Street property, with John Litchfield.  On 12 Nov 1906, Sadie paid off the mortgage on the Cottage Street property.  It appears she used the lent money to pay off the old mortgage.

In November of 1911, Sadie broke the mortgage, and lost the Cottage Street property.

In 1913, Sadie finally sold off the property to John Litchfield.  I'm assuming she still had been living at the other property on Main Street all this time.  Sadie raised Pearl's son Clarence, and worked as a scrub woman at a laundromat in Freeport.

In the summer of 1935, Sadie contracted streptococcus septicemia, and died a few days later in an Augusta hospital.  I'm guessing that she was relocated to Augusta, since her daughter Pauline had settled there.  Sadie's obituary reads:

Funeral of Mrs. Sarah J. Edwards
Funeral services for the late Mrs. Sarah J. Edwards were held Wednesday
afternoon at the Plummer funeral parlors, 16 Pleasant Street, with the Rev.
William R. Wood, D.D., of the Penney Memorial Baptist church in the presence
of a large gathering of friends. There were many floral tributes. Burial
was in the cemetery at Freeport.