The Plummers of Raymond

The Plummer family of Raymond originally came from England just after the Mayflower, as part of the Great Migration.  The earliest settler appears to have been Joseph Plummer (sometimes spelled "Plumer") in 1633. Joseph and his son, Joseph Jr. (1654-1728), were early settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts.

The son of Joseph Jr was Aaron Plumer (1693-1755).  In 1728, Aaron Plumer received a land grant from the town of Scarborough, on the condition that he leave Newbury and settle in Scarborough permanently.  He arrived in 1730, and the area later came to be known as Plumer's Neck (now known as Winnock's Neck), but the name Plummer's Island bears Aaron's namesake to this day (at the end of Winnock's Neck):

Aaron's son Moses (1723-1798) was born in Rowley Mass, and migrated to Scarborough along with his father, where he remained for the rest of his life.  He married Mary Dyer of Scarborough.

Moses' son was Jesse Plummer (1754-1822) who eventually left Scarborough and was the first in the Plummer family to move to Raymond.  Jesse's son, William Plummer, Sr. (1782-1828), had ten children in Raymond, and he is the patriarch of the very large Plummer family remaining in the Raymond area today.

One descendant of William Sr., William Herbert Plummer IV ("Herbert", who was great grandson to William Sr.) (1870-1943) married to Georgia Anna Edwards of Raymond, "Georgie".  When they married in 1914, they lived on Gray Road in Windham, but in 1922, they bought a large piece of property on Hadson Road (later named Gore Road) in Raymond, and built a large house and barn (which at the time was the only house there).

Herbert and Georgie had two children:  Hazel (who died at age four), and their only son, Elwin Herbert Plummer (1915-1973), who in November 1947 married my aunt Laura Clarke (1925-2009) (less than a year after Laura had divorced Elwin's cousin Charlie Bickford).  When Herbert died in 1943, Elwin and Laura ran the Plummer Farm in Raymond (pictured below) until Elwin passed in '73.  Elwin was great with his hands, and could whittle any piece of wood into something useful...ax handles, hammer handles, ducks and other animals, and little men that would bounce and dance.  He could always be found out in the barn whittling away, when he wasn't working as a laborer elsewhere.  Around 1967, Elwin went blind and could no longer work or whittle so much.  

When Georgie's son Elwin passed in 1973, relations between Georgie and Laura soured significantly, and Laura was told to move out.  Laura took one of her sons with her to a new apartment in Windham, and Elwin's son, Elwin Jr., remained there and took over the farm entirely, raising his family there.

Georgie also sold neighboring land to neighbors Barbara & Arnold Mayberry.  Barbara was an adopted daughter of Daniel Plummer (Herbert's younger brother), and Barbara had a pet capuchin monkey, among other animals, which the family still remembers as being a terror in the house, grabbing at everyone's hair while they slept.

CAPUCHIN MONKEY
(from Internet, not Barbara's!)

Georgie died soon afterwards in 1975, in her small side house (the "camp house") next to the barn, which later became a guest house for other family when the need arose.

In the 90s, Elwin Jr. razed the entire property on Gore Road and rebuilt entirely.  

ELWIN HERBERT PLUMMER

LAURA MATILDA CLARKE-BICKFORD-PLUMMER

LAURA IN FRONT OF PLUMMER FARM

The Edwards Family of Raymond Maine

Elijah Hamblen Edwards (1844-1928) came originally from Otisfield, Maine (which was founded by his Edwards ancestors) and moved to Raymond along with his brother Francis when they were just teenagers.  Elijah worked as a cutter, and married Eliza Jane Cobb of Poland Maine, and had six children together:

1.  Sarah Frances Edwards (1881-1964) was nicknamed "Fannie".  She married Eugene Bickford of Naples, Maine in 1897, who was 17 years older.

EUGENE AND FANNIE BICKFORD
RAYMOND, MAINE
(ABOUT 1910)

Fanny was unable to have children, but she adopted her sister Nell's son, Charles Granville Varney, when he was a boy, renaming him Charlie Bickford.  In 1945, Charlie was first to marry my aunt Laura Matilda Clarke, after divorcing his first wife, Phyllis Cummings.  Once Eugene passed in 1926, she lived for the last 12 years of her life in a small alley at 86 Myrtle Street in Portland's Bayside District.  She was a heavy smoker, and enjoyed listening to ball games on the radio.  She loved animals and would nurse birds back to health.  They called her "the bird lady".  Interestingly, her daughter Nell's ex-husband, Charlie Guptill, lived at 45 Myrtle Street just after divorcing Nell (and just before Fanny moved to the same small street).

FANNIE AND CHARLIE BICKFORD
(ABOUT 1916)

2.  Myrtle Lillian Edwards (1882-1962) married Chester Mosher of Naples, Maine at age 15.  She had one child, Roland Mosher (1921-2004), who ended up marrying Sadie Alberta Harriman after my Uncle Sonny Jim Clarke had been married to her.  When Chester died, Myrtle ended up in the Augusta Medical Center for Mental Disease (1940 Census) ("AMHI").  It's unclear if she truly had a mental issue, given that many people were put in such facilities who couldn't afford to pay for housing.  

3.  Nellie H. Edwards (1889-1985), nicknamed Nell, married George Albert Varney of Naples, Maine at the age of 15. They had a baby named Gertrude who lived from 1910-1912, and had Charlie Granville Varney in 1913.  Nell and George divorced shortly afterwards, and Nell gave Charlie up for adoption by her older sister Fanny Bickford, and moved in with Fanny too, at 162 St. John's Street (1920 Census). 

Charlie took his aunt Fanny's married name, and in 1935 Charlie Bickford married Phyllis Cummings and had three children at their home on Hanover Street in Portland's Bayside District.  Their youngest child, Eugene "Gene" Bickford, lived at 370 Payne Road, next door to my Grandma Emily Clarke, from about 1960-1995.  In 1945, Charlie married my aunt Laura Matilda Clarke of Scarborough.  They were only married a year.  Charlie married his third wife, Gilberte in 1961, and died in 1980 at their home in Southbridge, Mass.  

Nell eventually remarried to Charles W. Guptill in 1920, and had one daughter, Myrtle Guptill (named after her Nell's sister), who died am AMHI at 32 years old (where her Aunt Myrtle also had stayed a few years prior).  As a teenager, young Myrtle had fallen in love with a man who was much older, and Nell wouldn't allow her to see him.  She threw a fit and went crazy, and Nell had to put her in AMHI around 1946.

Nell and Charlie divorced eventually and by 1940 she was living with my great uncle Carlie Temm on Beech Ridge Road (as a "housekeeper"), and Charlie Guptill was living with his housekeeper Amanda in Portland, whom he later married.  Nell and Carlie Temm, however, had separate bedrooms and were never married, but were reportedly very happy together.  The kids in the Clarke family were told "to lean on or touch Uncle Carlie"...unknown why.

NELLIE EDWARDS
(ABOUT 1910)

NELLIE EDWARDS-VARNEY-GUPTILL
(ABOUT 1960)

MYRTLE GUPTILL
(1931-1963)

4.  Granville Edwards (1891-1970) was a fireman who lived in Naples Maine with his wife Edith Gardner and their five children (Ernest, Arnold, Mildred, Ann, and Gertrude who died in infancy).

5.  Charles Clinton "Tink" Edwards (1894-1983) moved up to Wilton with his wife Pearl and their four children, and worked in the woolen mill.  I believe his family may have also called him Clayton in addition to Tink.  Tink's oldest son, Leonard, was killed in action during WWII.

6.  Georgia Anna Edwards (1895-1975) married William Herbert Plummer in 1914.  She was known affectionately as "Georgieanne".  She and Herbert Plummer had two children:  Hazel (who died at age four), and Elwin (1915-1973).  Elwin was the second man from the Edwards family to marry my aunt Laura Matilda Clarke of Scarborough (whom Elwin met through the family), and Elwin named one of his daughters Hazel, after his deceased sister.  After Herbert Plummer died, Georgie lived in a small house right across the yard from the Plummer house and barn in Raymond (29 Gore Road).  All Plummer houses were torn down many years ago (in the 1990s).  Barbara & Arnold Mayberry also lived next door (Barbara Plummer was an adopted cousin of Elwin's), and Barbara had a pet capuchin monkey, among other animals.  Barbara ended up buying land from Georgie in the 70s before she died.

GEORGIA ANNA EDWARDS-PLUMMER
(ABOUT 1965)

GEORGIANNE EDWARDS-PLUMMER & NELL EDWARDS-GUPTILL 
(ABOUT 1965)

I find it of further interest that Elijah Edwards' distant cousin, Dennis Edwards of Freeport, married into the Temm family.  Dennis' father came from Otisfield, just like Elijah did, and Elijah's daughter Nell ended up with Carlie Temm.  There must have been a real family connection.

The Edwards Family of Otisfield

The Edwards family of Otisfield Maine (which was part of Cumberland County until 1978, when it was annexed to Oxford County) appears to have come initially from Wales around 1700, with the migration of John Edwards, Sr. to Haverhill, Massachusetts.  His son, John, Jr., had many children in Haverhill.  Two of them, Jonathan and William, migrated to Otisfield in the early 1800s and were among this town's earliest settlers.

DESCENDANTS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS

Jonathan Edwards (1747-1837) and his wife, Hannah Heath, migrated to New Hampshire in the 1770s and had their four children, including John "White Eye" Edwards, Sally Edwards-Morse, Nathaniel Edwards, and Stevens Edwards (more on him below).  This family migrated to Otisfield sometime prior to 1810.

Stevens Edwards (1773-1855) was born in Sandoun, New Hampshire.  He married Deliverance Hamblin of Gorham, Maine, and had eight children in Otisfield, including Stevens Edwards, Jr., who was nicknamed "Deacon Ronko".

Steven "Deacon Ronko" Edwards (1811-1890) married Abigail Hamblin (potentially his second cousin).  They had three sons in Otisfield (Elijah, William and Francis).  William moved to Mechanic Falls, but Elijah and Francis moved on to Raymond.

Elijah Hamblen Edwards (1844-1928), great grandson to Jonathan, married Eliza Jane Cobb of Poland Maine, and had five children who they raised in Raymond.  Elijah's grandsons, Charlie Bickford and Elwin Plummer, both married my aunt, Laura Matilda Clarke of Scarborough, Maine, whose maternal grandfather was John Henry Temm of Scarborough.

DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM EDWARDS

William Edwards (1755-1845) fought in the Revolution in Nathaniel Gage's Company, Colonel Garrish's Regiment of Guards.  He married Lydia Baker in Haverhill, Mass, and had ten children.  Their son, Ephraim Edwards (1797-1877), had two sons, Jonas and Dennis.  Dennis (1832-1898) married Sadie Temm, who was sister to John Henry Temm (mentioned above).  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).