Old Blue Genes: 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.