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).

John Ozias Clark

JOHN OZIAS CLARK (ABT 1920)

WITH YOUNGEST DAUGHTER SUSAN ELECTA CLARK-DUBE-RUSHLOW

John Ozias Clark (1847-1926) was a man of controversy in the Clark family.  He is the patriarch  to one of the largest Clark legacies in Connecticut, having fathered at least 15 children, many of whom told stories of sadness over how they were treated, many others of whom defended him and his actions.

John was born the summer of 1847, the third of twelve children born to Leonard & Esther Clark of East Haddam. He fought in the 20th Connecticut Regiment in the Civil War alongside his father, and married Alice Emerline Rose shortly afterwards.  John and Alice had 6 children:

1. SARAH ADELE CLARK (1869-1941).  Sarah was a spinster who lived in New Haven, and is buried at Race Hill Cemetery in North Madison, CT, alongside her mother.

FRANKLIN AND EVERETT CLARK
BROTHERS (ABOUT 1940)

2. EVERETT ROSE CLARK (1871-1949) married his second cousin, Besse Agnes Clark (who was a descendant of James A. Clark).  They had seven children, two of whom perished as babies in 1900 (having contracted disease brought on by exposure to John Ozias' sick daughter Esther, who also died in 1900, at a time when John was trying to make amends to Everett).  Everett did not get along with Besse after she had left him around 1918 and had run off with a young carpenter named George Gleason.  Everett had to raise the five surviving children by himself.  According to Everett's son Maurice, the State child welfare people came to the house to take the children away and Everett threw one of the men off the second floor of the house.  Maurice said they never came back again.  Everett considered her dead when she left. That's why he put "widower" on the 1920 Census. By the 1930 Census, he was living alone, and put himself down as Divorced.  Some of Everett's grandchildren and their descendants live in Connecticut today.

3. GEORGE L. CLARK (1873-1882).  George died very young of drowning, according to the below article excerpt from "The Connecticut Valley Advertiser" July 1, 1882:

George W. Clark, A lad nearly nine years of age, was drowned in the pond of Boise Mill last Sunday afternoon while bathing with other boys. The body was soon recovered and every means used by our village physician, Dr. Knowlton, to resuscitate, but without avail. The mother of the boy, with quite a family of small children, recently came to this village from the town farm and is in destitute circumstances. The whereabouts of the father of the children is unknown.

4. ELLEN A. CLARK (1875-1887) died at age 12.

5. HARRIET ESTHER CLARK (1878-1968).  Harriet married George McCann and remained in East Haddam.  She had five children.  One of her sons, Horace, moved to Naugatuck, CT, and had ten children of his own.

6. FRANKLIN EUGENE CLARK (1880-1958).  Frank (pictured above with his brother Everett) had a horrific accident while playing with large firecrackers as a 14 year old boy, leaving him without a right arm.  When the injury occurred, he walked by himself about 15 miles to the hospital for treatment.  Frank worked for the town of Essex, CT, for a while.  He would handle a shovel and street broom as good as anyone else.  He also handled a team of oxen...all with a hook for a right hand!  He and his wife Kathy had two daughters.

***

Judging from the article regarding George's drowning in the summer of 1882, John Ozias had likely neglected his children quite soon after fathering the last of them with Alice.  It has been said by a descendant of Everett's that John had left his children behind to work in the Neptune Twine and Cord Mill Factory, and living at the nasty tenements known as Johnsonville.  John's father, Leonard Sherman came and got them from the work farm, and raised the boys himself for a time, and also had the girls raised by cousins in Madison and Guilford.

Alice applied to the East Haddam Alms House, and was accepted into it in Aug. of 1881...when Franklin Eugene Clark was just a year old. John O. left her prior to that, obviously. Alice was in and out of the poor house three times between 1881 and 1888. When she checked in during 1888, she stayed there until Oct. 4, 1917, when she was then transferred to the CT Hospital for the Insane (now CT Valley Hospital) in Middletown. 

Now, the degradation of her mental faculties must have happened while at the Alms House, because the town historian says that being 'insane' would have actually kept you from being ADMITTED to the Alms House in the first place. Alice and John officially divorced in 1900.

Some sources state that John had claimed Alice to have been unfaithful, and that this was grounds for his desertion and divorce.  Still other sources state that Alice kept her children away from John (hard to believe, given her status as a ward of the State).  Either way, Alice remained in State custody for the rest of her life, dying in 1929 at CT Valley Hospital.  Many of her descendants were surprised to read the obituary, given that they had believed she disappeared and had abandoned them, and had no idea that she was in State custody.

Five days after divorcing his first wife, John married Antonette Rose (potentially a cousin to Alice, according to one source, and was daughter to Laura Ann Bogue, mentioned in other blog posts), and had an additional 9 children.

7.  ESTHER E. CLARK (1900-1900).  Esther was carrying a disease when John brought her to Everett's house, and infected two of Everett's babies (see above).

8.  MARION CLARK (1901-1901).  Died as an infant.

9.  HOWARD LESLIE CLARK, (1902-1936).  Howard never married, and died at age 33 in an auto accident on CT Highway 66.  From the "Middletown Press", dated 3 February 1936...

Driver Killed As Car Is Overturned...

Hadlyme Resident Crushed Beneath Roadster Sunday On Meriden Road...

Middlefield, Feb 3. - Death rode the highways of Middlesex County over the week-end and claimed as its victim Howard E. Clark, aged 31 years, of Hadlyme, who was crushed beneath a roadster he was operating which had crashed into the rear of a parked pleasure car near the Mira Meechi section on the Middletown-Meriden highway. Two passengers in the machine with Clark crawled from beneath the wreckage, both slightly injured. Clark died instantly. His head was crushed and he suffered other hurts. Coroner Lownds A. Smith conducted a preliminary investigation and today set down his inquest tentatively for Friday morning in Middletown.

Clark according to state policeman Richard C. Hall of Westbrook barracks, had spent Saturday night in Waterbury and was returning home. While driving through Meriden he stopped to pick up Salvatore LaBella, of 650 High Street and Leo Solito, of 31 North Main Street, both of Middletown, who had been in the silver city attending a social function. They did not know him.

Clark's passengers told the state policeman afterwards that they were sorry that they accepted the lift and were frightened throughout the journey to the accident scene, because of Clark's erratic driving. They said he steered a zig-zag route and that steam from the radiator froze, obscuring the passengers vision.

Almost without warning the car crashed into a rear fender on a parked Chevrolet sedan, then continued 15 feet overturned with its occupants and swinging completely around to face west. Solito and LaBella got out unaided but Clark's body was not extricated for some time. When police and others attempted to lift the roadster, it fell apart. It was a complete wreck. Clark was identified by two motor vehicle licenses found on his person.

John J. Kenesky, who gave an address of box 254, Middletown, informed police at the crash he was seated behind the wheel of the sedan, which was owned by George Koba of Middlefield. Kenesky, Koba, Loretta Jarzabek and Antoinette Bankoski comprised the group in this car which was stopped on its own side of the highway at the time and the lights left on to let one of the young ladies out as her home was nearby. They had been in Meriden.

Kenesky said they all heard the Clark car coming and after the crash saw the wrecked roadster continue along for several feet and topple over. They summoned Anthony Bankoski and his young lady friend, who were in another parked car in a nearby yard.

The accident occurred at 12:30 A.M., on Saturday and brought a response from Middletown police headquarters. Officers Lundberg and Novak being detailed and later state policeman Hall arrived as the territory was out of the jurisdiction of Middletown police. Patrolman Lundberg and Novak assisted state trooper Hall in his investigation. No action was taken against Kenesky.

Clark leaves his mother, Mrs. Nettie Clark; four sisters, Mrs. Dennison Hall, Mrs. Araunah Tooker, Mrs. Raymond Leavenworth and Miss Rachel Clark, all of Hadlyme.

Funeral services will be held at the Jewett Funeral Home in Old Lyme Wednesday at 2 P.M., Rev. Rawson Holgate will officiate. Burial will be in the Chester Cemetery, East Haddam.

10. LAURA MAE CLARK (1904-1986).  Laura married Araunah Charles Tooker (nephew to Lizzie Tooker, who married John Ozias' younger brother Niles) and was a lifelong resident of Hadlyme.  They had only one child, Freda Electa Tooker, who died as an infant.

11. RACHEL ESME CLARK (1906-1986).  Rachel married Ralph Ramon Tooker (brother to Araunah) and lived in Norwich.  She worked as a housekeeper for private homes in Lyme.  They had two children (Nathaniel, who died as a teenager, and Laura, who had three children).

12. LEILA BELLE CLARK (1908-1985).  Leila Belle married to a Dennison Edmund Hall, and later to a Searles Dean.

13. HAZEL ALBERTA CLARK (1910-1970).  Hazel married a Raymond Leavenworth, and had no children.

14. JOHN OZIAS CLARK (1913-1913).  Died as an infant.

15. SUSAN ELECTA CLARK (1915-1965).  Susan is pictured above with her father.  She married twice, to a Robert Dube and to a Raymond Rushlow.  She had one daughter, Virginia.  Susan died on her 50th birthday.

***

There was mention made of John having had yet another two families in Vermont.

John Ozias worked as a farm laborer, carpenter, and mason-tender.  He lived for a time in Westboro, MA, Alburgh and St. Albans, VT, and Norwich, Bozrah, and Guilford CT, but he lived his final years in East Haddam. When he died of paralytic shock, two of his children from his first marriage refused to attend the funeral, stating that their father was an evil man for abandoning them in favor of his second family, and for committing Alice.

The family of one of his daughters held on to the land that John owned on Clark Road in Hadlyme, CT, although the house is no longer there. John was 5'9", blue eyes, auburn hair.

GRAVE OF JOHN OZIAS CLARK,
2ND WIFE NETTIE ROSE CLARK
and three infants (Esther, Marion & John)
PARKER HILL CEMETERY
EAST HADDAM, CT

Descendants of Patrick Wade (1834-1912)

Patrick Joseph Wade (1833-1912) was a gardener born in the Burrow of Portraine, County Dublin to James Wade and Margaret Riley.  The Wade family were closely linked to my Leonard family during the Famine.  Patrick was godfather to Mathew Leonard's daughter Elizabeth.

Patrick arrived in Portland Maine in 1861, during the Famine, along with his father and some of his siblings (Peter, Alice, Mary Anne and Julia - baptized "Judith"), and later his father joined the family.

Patrick and his wife Jane McWilliams (1847-1907), who was also from Dublin, lived on 90 Danforth Street from 1866-1879.  Patrick bought 8 Briggs Street in 1867 from a Bill Lindsey.  Patrick lived there off and on (the primary tenant was Patrick's elder sister Alice & her husband Thomas, who was also a gardener).  Patrick and his family moved to the State Club Stables, in an adjoining rental house on 684 Congress Street in 1886, where Patrick worked as a hostler (stable hand).  In 1906, Patrick eventually returned to 8 Briggs Street. 

Patrick's father, James, moved to Portland at some point prior to his death in 1871, although no Portland Census records seem to pick him up in 1870.  James died about 6 months before his daughter Mary Ann did.

Patrick & Jane married in Portland in 1866, and had twelve children:

1.  Margaret Ella Wade (1867 - 1869).  Named after Patrick's mother, but died at age 2 of scarlet fever.

2.  Carrie Starr Wade (1869 – 1905).  Carrie married salesman John W Dunn (1866-1910) and had four children.  They lived on 35 Taylor Street.  Like many of her family, and of that era, she passed away from pulmonary tuberculosis.  She and John had four children:

-Jeanette (1891-1979) married Thomas Joseph Keough, who was born to Irish immigrants (and I've confirmed is no relation to the Nova Scotian McKeough family which married into the Portland Irish families of my research).  Incidentally, Thomas' mother's maiden name was Dunn.  This may have been a marriage of cousins.  They had three children, Bill, Ruth and John.  Jeanette worked as a typist at the railroad office, and this family lived at 50 Western Promenade, right across the road from the Western Cemetery.  Her son, William Joseph Keough (1919-1942), was a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and died as a result of air operations during WWII.

-John Raymond Dunn (1892-1894) died at 2 years old.

-Margaret (1898-??) was orphaned at age 12 when both her parents were then dead.  It's unclear what happened to her.

-John Dunn (1900-1963) was a railroad clerk who never married.  He was orphaned at age 10.  He lived for a while in Lowell, Mass, and retired to South Portland Maine.

3.  Edward Wade (1870-1871).  Died at 6 months old.

4.  Margaret G. Wade (1874 - ).  Maggie was given the house on 8 Briggs Street from her father in 1910 just before he died of senility.  She married Charles B. Lee in Portland, in February of 1914, and in April of that year she sold off the house to her cousin, Mathew John Leonard.  No further information on her yet.

5.  Annie M. Wade (1874 – 1894).  Annie died of kidney failure at age 19.

6.  Joseph P Wade (1877 –  ).  No further information.

7.  Alice Harmond Wade (1879 –  1909).  Alice married James Thomas Delaney from Maine, and then moved to Worcester, Mass.  She died at age 30, and it's unclear if they had children.

8.  Julia Wade (1881 - 1882).  Julia died at age 1 of infant cholera.

9.  Jane Wade (1882 –  ).  Jennie studied to be a nurse, as of 1910.  She married John F. Quigg of Northern Ireland in June 1913, and moved to 41 Bartlett Street in Boston, where she started her family of five children.

10.  Lawrence D Wade (1884 –  1933).  Lawrence was mentally disabled, and spent his life in institutions:  Augusta State Mental Hospital, and Pownal School in New Gloucester.

11.  Helen Edith Wade (1886 –  1912).  Helen married Christian Jurgenson from Oakland, Maine in 1911.  She died 9 months later of eclampsia, giving birth to her son Wade, who died 2 days later.

12.  James E Wade (1888 – 1959).  James fought in WWI, and later married Mary Mitchell (born to Portuguese parents).  They moved to Orange County, NY, and later Rutland, Vermont, where he died in 1959 of arteriosclerotic heart disease.