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).

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.