Martha Fuller Sheffer

My 2nd Great Grandfather, Charles Samuel Fuller, was the eldest of seven.  His eldest sibling was his sister, Martha Ann Fuller-Sheffer (1838-1918), who lived in Maine, Iowa and Missouri, but who had a connection to Australia that I would like to write about.

First, here is a picture of the eldest four of Charles' siblings, The photo appears to be dated just before 1900, a time after their brother Charles and their parents (Samuel and Ann) had died, after which they moved from Ottumwa, Iowa to Chicago.  Martha soon thereafter moved to Blue Mound Missouri with her husband George Sheffer, to retire and operate a hotel business.

Martha was born in 1838 in Maine to Samuel Bean Fuller, a railroad worker with Mayflower roots living in Waterville.  This is the house Samuel's kids grew up in on Front Street, just down the road from St. Joseph's Church.  Their house which was razed at some point before the 1970s, to build the post office:

Martha married George Henry Sheffer in January of 1859 in Waterville, Maine (where Martha and family were living at the time).  George, originally from Nova Scotia, had come from a lumber family, and it is believed that he may have met Martha when he moved to Maine to work.

In 1863, George and Martha moved to Ottumwa, Iowa to start up a dry goods mercantile business. Martha's parents and siblings followed them in the following years.  Her father, Samuel Bean Fuller, worked in the dry goods business as well, but after ten years his business was destroyed by a Town fire.

George and Martha had four of their own children, and adopted Martha's niece (also named Martha), when her sister Eva died in childbirth, and raised young Martha as her own:

1.  George Henry Sheffer, Jr. (1863-1908) - George was born in Ottumwa, and worked as a store clerk as a young adult (most likely his father and grandfather's dry goods store).  He moved to Missouri with his parents around 1900.  In 1906, after his father died, he took a trip to Australia (sailing from San Francisco and back) to visit his brother Samuel.  George caught a tropical fever while there (potentially on the ship back to SF).  He suffered with this for two years after he came back from the trip, and died in St. Joseph, MO, at the age of 44, leaving behind a wife (a typist named Dora) and a seven year old daughter.  Dora remarried 16 years later.

2.  Etta W. Sheffer (1869- died between 1870 and 1880) - Young Etta was named after her aunt Julietta Fuller, and died as a child.  She is buried with the family at Ottumwa Cemetery, but the cemetery has no birth or death date information available.

SAMUEL FULLER SHEFFER

3.  Samuel Fuller Sheffer (1875-1929) - Named after his grandfather, Samuel Bean Fuller, young Samuel Fuller Sheffer was born in Ottumwa, and married his wife Alice there in 1895.  In December of 1899, they had their first of two children (Mary), and very soon thereafter, in 1900, when his parents moved to Missouri, he made the bold move to Melbourne Australia for a new life in merchant business at Chamberlin Medicine Company.  In Australia, Samuel and Alice had their second and last child, Howard Melbourne Sheffer (nicknamed "Mel").  Samuel declared his residency to be San Francisco (according to a passport application from 1917), while residing primarily in Sydney (where he named his home "Wapello", the County in Iowa he was born in).  Mel carried forward his father's entrepreneurial spirit and worked as Managing Director of Sheldon Drug Company in Sydney.  See advertisement and photo below from 1937:

Sheldon Drug Company was where the "Rexona" brand of soaps and antiperspirants were developed, and, in particular, Samuel's wife Alice gets the credit for the invention!

Rexona enjoys a long business history worldwide, and is now owned by Unilever.  More on the history of this brand, and the Sheffer's early business, can be read here.  Samuel's son Mel had six children, and many grandchildren, all of whom are happily residing in the Sydney area.

4.  Frank Merriwell Sheffer (1882-1949) - Frank worked in several odd jobs and also pursued his photography passions.  After the death of his father, he and his brother and mother sailed to Australia to visit his brother Samuel.  Not long after his return, his brother George died, and Frank was later drafted into both WWI and WWII.  On his draft card it stated he had blue eyes and brown hair.  At the end of Frank's life he worked as a studio portrait photographer.  He died in Humansville, Missouri in 1949 of myocarditis, leaving behind his wife, Agnes May Fisher.  I don't believe they had any children.

As mentioned above, in addition to having her four children, Martha raised her niece Martha Ann Foland (1889-1961) as her own.  Young Martha was born to Martha's youngest sister, Evalyn Edith Fuller-Foland (1856-1889) who died giving birth to her.

***

Below is the last known picture of Martha, and I believe this was taken during her visit to Australia in 1915, after the deaths of her husband George, and her eldest son George, Jr., and it was a couple of years before her own passing.

SHEFFER FAMILY PHOTO
ca. 1915 (Blue Mound, Missouri)
Back Row:  Mary Alice Sheffer (Samuel's Daughter, later Mary Evatt), Alice Maude Holt-Sheffer (Samuel's wife), Samuel Fuller Sheffer, and Frank Merriwell Sheffer and his wife Agnes Fisher-Sheffer
Front Row:  Howard Melbourne "Mel" Sheffer, Martha Fuller-Sheffer, young Agnes (daughter to Frank & Agnes)

Here are gravestone pictures from the Sheffer lot at Ottumwa Cemetery:

ETTA'S GRAVE (and another child's)

Maud Maple Miles, Renaissance Woman

MAUD MAPLE MILES

Maud Miles (1871-1944) was a very active and dynamic personality, and a hero to us Fuller genealogists.  It's thanks to her painstaking work that we have many documents, diaries, and family trees passed down to us, so I felt it prudent to do a biography on her.



Maud D. Maple was born on February 11, 1871, the eldest child to attorney (and Civil War vet) William Henry Maple III and my 2nd great grand aunt Julietta "Etta" Fuller, in the town of Chariton, Iowa.  William was also a religious philosopher, and in 1899 he wrote a short book called "No Beginning", which promoted academic reason as a means for allaying antiquated fear and superstition among the deeply religious.

ETTA FULLER-MAPLE

During the time of Maud's birth, Etta and William were moving around Iowa a bit, and lived for a time in Iowa City and also Ottumwa (where Etta and her parents and siblings had moved to from Maine in 1863).

Around 1881, when Maud was ten, the Maple family moved to Chicago (perhaps this was a better fit for William's law practice).  Her brother William Jr. was already seven, and her sister Nina Grace Maple would be born in Chicago in 1883.

Maud's talent for art was obvious to her parents, and she was enrolled in Chicago Art Institute, where she was taught by Arthur Wesley Dow.

In 1893, she participated in the World's Columbian Exposition.

In 1895, Maud married David Anderson Miles, a civil engineer from Indiana and Kansas.  Perhaps they met at the Institute.

DAVID ANDERSON MILES

Immediately after the wedding David and Maud moved to Kansas City, Missouri.

MILES HOME
CAMPBELL STREET
KANSAS CITY, MO

Their first child, William Maple Miles, died in childbirth in November of the year they moved.

Their second child, Mildred Irene Miles, was born in Kansas City in 1898.

In 1904, Maud's work was featured at the Louisiana Purchase Expo of the St. Louis World's Fair.  Later that year, her husband David died on Christmas Eve at age 36, leaving his 33 year old wife and 7 year old daughter behind.

Maud soldiered on, continuing in her job as a Kansas City public school art teacher at Manual Training High School.  On that salary, she managed to support young Mildred.  She got lucky and was hired to engrave bronze trail markers along the Santa Fe Trail in Missouri, including the one below:

In 1907, Maud's work was featured at the Art Institute of Chicago's "Annual Exhibition of Water Colors, Pastels and Miniatures by American Artists".

At some point just before 1920, Maud and Mildred moved north to Lombard, Illinois, where Maud's parents were living at the time.  Maud's father William died in 1920, and her mother Etta died in 1922, both in Lombard.  Maud's daughter Mildred got married in 1921, moved to Chicago, and ultimately traveled the world and later remarried.

Maud continued her work as an artist and art teacher in the Chicago area at this time.  She also painted many large pictures of California missions for the Santa Fe stations across the country.  On one visit to her cousins' home in Elmhurst, the family went to Addison, where she painted a picture of the old windmill standing in solitude in the midst of acres and acres of farmland. The mill later became the focal point around which Mt. Emblem cemetery was planned.

MILL IN ELMHURST
SITE OF MAUD MILES PAINTING

According to a few websites, Maud was also known for being a writer, color theorist, painter of Western scenes, and bas relief sculptor.  Her work was also featured at one point in the Smithsonian Collection in Washington DC.

One of her lecture series was published in the form of "Short Talks to Art Students on color from an Artist's Standpoint:  Also Dealing with the Relation of Color to the Musical Scale" c. 1914, Kansas City.

The University of Chicago's weekly Music Magazine in 1920 featured a writeup on her color music theory:

From that, she is frequently credited as the inventor of the term "color music" as a new art form.  In the book Brian Eno: Visual Music, Maud is mentioned:

Here again in the 2005 publication Color Music:  Synaesthesia and Nineteenth-Century Sources for Abstract Art, by Judity Zilczer.

Now, as shown in the first writeup, Maud always gave credit to elder researchers in color theory, and to be fair, the concept originated with Pythagoras and was carried forward by French theorists in the late 16th Century.  Maud merely advanced the theory for the 20th century in America.

Maud died in Wilmette, Illinois in 1944 at age 73, in the care of her daughter Mildred (and Mildred's children Winifred and David).

FINAL HOME OF MAUD MILES
RIDGE AVENUE
EVANSTON, IL

Maud and her husband David are buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City.  This blogpage is a tribute to her as an artist, a family member, and a diligent genealogist, as passed down by her granddaughter Winifred Marks, who also worked in the education system and was a published author of her own right.

SOURCES:

Diary of Charlotte Huntington Wood (cousin to Maud Maple Miles)

U.S. Census Records

Color Music:  Synaesthesia and Nineteenth-Century Sources for Abstract Art, by Judity Zilczer, c 2005

Brian Eno:  Visual Music, c 2013 Christopher Scoates

Musical Courier, August 26, 1920, University of Chicago

Illinois Women Artists Project

Find a Grave

The Fullers of Lowell Massachusetts

My 4th great grandparents were John Fuller (1773-1842) of Campton New Hampshire and Sarah "Sally" Bean (1781-1841) of Sandwich, New Hampshire.  John Fuller was born to Samuel Fuller and Lois Andrews of Campton.  I believe that this is the same Samuel, born 1733 in East Haddam, CT, who is the proven 5th generation descendant of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower, because but I have yet to establish proof that this Samuel was father to my John Fuller, with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Further complicating my quest to get Mayflower certification, I am unable to verify that this John is truly my ancestor (through my proven ancestor Samuel Bean Fuller), as I cannot locate a birth record for Samuel.  I'm currently looking for assistance with baptismal records for John's children, including Samuel (although I don't think they were religous).

As for John's wife Sally, there are some records of a "Mary" Bean being born in 1774 in New Hampshire, but I don't think there is a connection, and some Fuller researchers have maintained that John's wife was Mary (but I disagree).

Our "Sally" was indeed buried in 1841 in Lowell, Mass. at age 60.  John & Sally's marriage occurred in 1801 in Moultonborough, NH, and their names were listed as Jonathan Fuller & Sally Bean. John & Sally had 11 children together, two sets of these kids being twins. The 1810 Census appears to have them living at New Holderness, just south of Campton, NH.

The Move from Moultonboro to Peacham

In 1817 or so, they moved from Moultonborough, New Hampshire to Peacham, Vermont (90 miles away), where they ran a farm on MacBean Road near John's brother Bethuel, who had moved there about 20 years prior.  John's elder sister, Mary Mercer Fuller-Wheeler, had settled in nearby Danville, VT by 1790.  According to the family, John's son, Samuel Bean Fuller, didn't move to Peacham with the family.  He stayed behind in New Hampshire, living on his uncle Samuel Bean's farm in Meredith.  John moved his family to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1836.  Around the same time, his brother Bethuel left Peacham for West Bloomfield, Michigan.  I wonder what happened in Peacham in the 1830s to cause both brothers to leave their farms behind?   According to a Peacham historian, farming in Peacham was always hard, but the 1830's were a period of relative prosperity and the sheep boom had not yet ended. Indeed Peacham reached the zenith of its population in 1840. The westward migration started in the 1840's. There were many Fuller farms in Caledonia County, Vermont at that time, and some preliminary research indicates that many were descendants of other colonial Fullers than this line.

The Move to Lowell, Mass

From 1836-1839 (per Lowell City Directories), the Fuller family lived in a boarding house at 38 Merrimack Street in downtown Lowell, near the corner of Central Street, John worked as a stone layer.

FORMER SITE OF FULLER HOME
38 MERRIMACK STREET
LOWELL, MASS.

By 1840, the Fullers had moved to a boarding house at Low Street.  John and Sally died in 1842 and 1841, respectively.  John died of bladder disease.  They are buried at Old English Cemetery in Lowell.   Below is a photo Sally's gravestone, which appears to have held up, but John's, likely in the vicinity, didn't survive due to the fact that many old graves in the area were made of marble, which is a poor choice for braving the harsh New England weather.

Here is a brief summary of collected, and ongoing, research regarding the children of John & Sally, and two sets of these 11 kids were twins: 

1.  Moody B. Fuller (1802-1855) was born in New Hampshire (probably Moultonborough).  Since this was John's first born son, I'm thinking that Moody may have been a nickname for John.  Sally's mother's maiden name was Moody, so this is likely the source of the name.  There are 1830 and 1840 Census entries for his very unique name (and the age seems to match) in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and was married with several children, so for now it makes sense.  He worked as a scythe grinder (1855 census) and died of consumption in Blackstone, Mass (10 miles north of Smithfield).  He is buried in Millville Cemetery, Mass.  Moody's death record in Blackstone does list his parents as John and Sally.

2.  Hannah M. Fuller (1808-1887), according to her death record was born in Holderness, New Hampshire (although some sources claim Peacham, VT).  In 1830 in Peacham she married Hiram Russell of New Hampshire.  They had three children (Charles, Edward, and Helen) in Lowell, Mass., but later moved to Lawrence, where they ran a large boarding house.  I have yet to find a birth record that definitively links her to her father John, and I still cannot locate her burial site.

3.  Samuel Bean Fuller (1812-1890) was my 3rd great grandfather.  He was born in New Hampshire, just before the family's move to Lowell, Mass.  He later moved to Waterville, Fairfield, and Winslow Maine to work on the railroad, and eventually settled out in Ottumwa Iowa during the Civil War, setting up a dry goods business which burned down not long after it started.  Samuel had 7 children and 18 grandchildren.  Many of his descendants ended up in Missouri, Seattle, California, Chicago, and Maine, but none of them stayed in Iowa.  I have yet to find a birth record that definitively links him to his father John, and that makes it more difficult to apply to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (although DNA accounts have linked me to Edward Fuller of the Mayflower).

SAMUEL BEAN FULLER

4.  Abner Fuller (1810-1861) was born in NH, and died in Chelsea, Massachusetts (his death record erroneously cites his birthplace as Peacham).  His parents are listed on his death record as John & Sarah Fuller.  This notation first came to me from Henrietta Chapman's diaries, until I was able to establish records myself.  He is not to be confused with an Abner M. Fuller who was born in 1813 in Mass, but died in Ohio in 1886.  He may be the same Abner who was a painter in 1848, Charlestown Mass.  Abner was married to Lucinda Pulsifer in Dorchester, 1832.  I cannot seem to find their burial locations to date.

5.  Harrison H. Fuller (1814-1885) was born in Moultonborough, NH (along with his twin brother Porter).  He married Arvilla Hill of Epping, NH, (sister to Parsons Hill, who married Harrison's sister Caroline).  Harrison and Arvilla they stayed in Lowell, where Harrison worked as a police officer.  They had five children.  Their sons, Edwin and Charles, fought in the Civil War.  His parents are listed on his death record as John & Sarah Fuller.

6.  Porter W. Fuller (1814-1853) was born in Moultonborough, NH (along with his twin brother Porter).  He worked on a farm in Lowell most of his short life, and died of dropsy in the Almshouse at age 38.  He is buried at Old English Cemetery in Lowell near his parents.  His parents are listed on his death record as John & Sarah Fuller.

7.  Sarah Ann Fuller (1816-1882) was born in Holderness, New Hampshire, and named after her mother.  She married a baker named Corbin Gould of Orange, Mass., and they settled in the West End of Boston with six children.  On her death record, she was already widowed, and it lists Holderness as the birthplace, with unknown parents.  That seems interesting, in that whomever filled out the forms (likely one of her kids) was unaware of who the parents were.  I've been unable to locate burial location for Sarah.

8.  Josiah Fuller (1817-1895) was born in Peacham Vermont, according to all census records and his death record.  He married Ellen A. Smith, and settled in Chicopee, Mass.  They had one son, Willie, who became the 13th Mayor of Chicopee, and married into the Eaton/Crandall family, who were related to Martin Van Buren.  Josiah worked as an almoner, and had two daughters.  I cannot locate his VT birth record.  His 1900 census record states his parents were born in VT, which is wrong.  However, his Chicopee marriage record states that his father was named John, and his death record states that his parents were John and "Mary".   I've been unable to locate burial location for Josiah.

9.  Mary Bean Fuller (1818-1885) was born in Vermont, according to all census records, and her death record.  She married a brickmason named Daniel Chapman, and they had five children.  She ran boarding houses in Lowell and in Lawrence, which housed many Irish and Scottish immigrants.  Mary died of apoplexy in 1885, at her son in law's house, next to Broad Street Cemetery, and is buried at Edson Cemetery in Lowell, with three of her children.  Her death record, interestingly enough, lists her parents as Josiah Fuller and Mary Bean, both of New Hampshire.  I'm pretty sure this is an error.  The only Josiah in this family was her brother (listed above).  I couldn't find any couple matching those names for the appropriate time period of her birth. Was John's middle name Josiah??

Mary's daughter, Henrietta Chapman, was an avid genealogist, and some of her notes and records were passed down to Fuller kin.  I've been able to secure copies of some of them, including her 1929 papers.

10.  Caroline W. Fuller (1821-1881) was born in Peacham, Vermont, with her twin Juliet.  She married Parsons Hill of Epping, NH, (brother to Arvilla Hill, who married Caroline's brother Harrison).  Their wedding in Lowell was one year after Caroline's father John had passed away.  She and Parsons moved southeast to Lynn, Mass, where they had three children together.  Their eldest, Caddie, died at age 15.  Their son Herbert had a daughter he named Caddie, who died at one year of age.  This family is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn, Mass.  Her death record states that her parents were John and Sally Fuller.  I've been able to trace Caroline's descendants far enough to prove that she had no living descendants after 1977.  All of her children and grandkids died young, or without children of their own.

11.  Juliet W. Fuller (1821-1862) was born in Peacham, Vermont, and was a twin to Caroline.  She married Charles Wentworth, and had one child, Frank.  They settled in Worcester, Mass.  On her death record, it is stated that her parents were John and Sarah Fuller.  She died while attempting to give birth, just after she turned 40.



My great uncle, Harold Fuller, was very much into genealogy, and tried to establish a link to the Mayflower Fullers during his lifetime.  His own research notes relied heavily upon the papers of Henrietta Chapman-Young (written in 1929).  Henrietta believed that John's father was named Moody Fuller, and that his wife's name was Mary.  I do believe they were mistaken on these two points, after my having reviewed many records noted above.  Moody was clearly the maiden name of John's mother-in-law, Abigail Moody-Bean, and more records state that their children's mother was named Sally than do Mary.

Charles & Lydia Fuller

Charles Samuel Fuller (1835-1878), my 2nd great grandfather, was born in Benton, Maine in November of 1835, son to railroad worker Samuel Bean Fuller and his wife Sarah Ann Osborn.

Lydia Osborn (1845-1918), daughter to Timothy Osborn and Lydia Burrill, was born in 1845 and was Charles' 2nd cousin.  She grew up in the Osborn Homestead in Fairfield.  Her father and Charles' father were involved in a few real estate transactions, in addition to Samuel being married to Timothy's first cousin.

Charles married Lydia in Fairfield on the eve of 1860 new year, when Lydia was just 14.  They lived in Waterville at the Fuller property on Front Street.

When his parents set out for Ottumwa, Iowa during the Civil War to set up a dry goods business, Charles stayed behind in Waterville, from whence he was drafted in June of 1863 in Captain A.P. Davis' Regiment.  On his draft papers, he was listed as working as an Engineer.

Draft Listing for Waterville, ME
Maine Farmer
July 23, 1863

According to Harold M. Fuller, Charles' grandson, Charles' father Arthur told Harold about this childhood trip to Iowa. The year was 1873 and Charles and his wife, Lydia, made the decision  to leave Maine to join his parents and siblings in Iowa where they had migrated several years before. Charles left his job as a railroad engineer with the Maine Central Railroad in Fairfield and the family headed west. At first, it's likely they rode the railroad; then in Illinois they joined a wagon train to go on to Ottumwa, Iowa.  Arthur remembered his father (Charles) being ill along the way. He also remembered friendly Indians and a frame house on the edge of the prairie; Arthur was about 7 years old at the time.

After Charles' death in Iowa in 1878, his wife Lydia had to wait until Charles' will was settled. The lawyer had lost the documents in a storm and it was necessary to get depositions from the original witnesses who were still in Maine. It took 2 years to do this.  Then she and her children returned. Lydia's father Timothy Osborn sent her the money to come home as she was penniless after waiting so long in Iowa with her children.

He and Lydia's children were as follows:

1.  Ida Lydia Fuller (1862 – 1947) never married, and worked as a missionary for the Bible Society of Maine.  Like her brother Arthur, Ida also was a published author.  In the early 1900's she published a book of poems called "Driftwood", while serving as a live-in maid to a wealthy Bangor family, until she eventually went blind in her old age, and lived at the Bangor Home for the Aged Women on State Street.  She is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor:

2.  Charles T Fuller (1864 – 1865) died as a baby

3.  Anna Florence Fuller (1865 – 1951) (also known as Florence) made the journey to Ottumwa as a young girl.  She lived briefly in Ottumwa as a child, but went back home with her mother after Charles' death.  She lived in Hartland and Skowhegan, Maine, and married Mark Hobart.  No children.  She also was a member of the Bible Society of Maine.  When her husband Mark died in 1939, Florence went to live in a small home in Norridgewock with a couple other widowed elders.  She died in Skowhegan of chronic nephritis, and was also blind.  According to family, when you went to her house, Anna would have to feel your face in order to understand who you were and what you looked like.  She is buried at the Skowhegan Southside Cemetery in a solo plot, while her husband is buried with his first wife.

4.  Arthur William Fuller (1867 – 1940) was my great grandfather.  He lived briefly in Ottumwa, but came back with his mother, and married Lorena Murch (many years younger than her) and settled in Bangor, and later Portland where he died.  Arthur's descendants represent the only living descendants of Charles and Lydia.

5.  Timothy O. Fuller (1870 – 1873) died at 3 years of age, during the journey to Ottumwa.  He was the first family burial at Ottumwa Cemetery.

6.  Frederick W. Fuller (1874 – 1880) was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, yet died in Maine at 5 years of age, not long after the journey back to Maine.

7.  Edith Martha Fuller (1877 – 1946) was born in Iowa City, Iowa, but her father Charles died when she was an infant. She and the family moved back to Fairfield, Maine, and she likely never had any memories of Iowa or the trip back east.  She later lived in Hartland, Athens, and Bangor.  She was working as a servant to widow Ida Milliken in Bangor for the 1940 Census.  Like her elder sister Ida, she also tried her hand at poetry and along with her sisters was a member of the Bible Society of Maine.

IDA FULLER

EDITH FULLER

LYDIA OSBORN-FULLER

(ca. 1917)

Family legend has it that Charles was very ill with heart troubles the entire journey to Iowa.  Their son Timothy died during the journey, at the tender age of 3.  Charles died in 1878, less than five years after arriving, at the very young age of 42, and was buried next to Timothy.

Lydia wasn't prepared to settle his estate, and she had to send for family friends from Maine to testify in Iowa during the probate hearings.  Once the ordeal was finished in 1880, Lydia moved back to Maine with the five remaining children:  Ida, Anna, Arthur, Frederick, and Edith.  Little Frederick died soon after the return trip, at the age of 6.  Lydia's father set up the Emery House (which was now in his ownership), which had been the headquarters of General Benedict Arnold in his October 1775 Quebec Expedition.

EMERY HOUSE
FAIRFIELD, MAINE

Lydia lived here until 1884, when she married William Henry Moody, and moved to Athens, Maine in Somerset County, and lived the remainder of her life there.

In 1909, Lydia's daughters, spinsters Ida and Edith, worked with their new stepfather William on building of a new bungalow style home on the site of the former Herman Tuttle home:

Skowhegan Independent Reporter
Dec 9, 1909

Lydia is remembered fondly by survivors' accounts.  She was a great peacemaker between her children, grandchildren, and her 2nd husband.

Below is an excerpt from one descendant's account of what happened after Charles' death:

Wrote to her father, Timothy Osborn, and told him she was a widow, destitute with children. He bought the log cabin that had been boarded over (House where Benedict Arnold stayed) and was located adjacent to Emery Hill Brook, where I-95 now crosses the Kennebec River. It was the first house built in Fairfield back in the 1700 generation. Timothy then sent Lydia money for her return from out west and she lived in this house until she re-married to William Henry Moody.   Benedict Arnold had stayed in this cabin for three days, dead drunk. A letter to this was found in the cabin by George Lewis who lived there from 1930 - 1970. The house has now been torn down. This letter has been sent to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. After Lydia died her house in Athens and all its contents burned.

The above refers to "Emery House" which at one time was the oldest house in Fairfield, and was located near Emery Hill Cemetery (where Lydia was buried).  This house has indeed achieved notoriety for its link to Benedict Arnold.

Below is a quote from Lydia's nephew, Elwood Noyes Osborne, retelling an amusing story of his time in 1915 visiting his aunt on the Moody Farm when he was young:

When I was about twelve years old, Dad got word that Henry Moody's only driving horse had died and he could ill afford another.   It was spring time and Dad had a horse that was a good "roader", independent, and refused to work with other horses so he talked it over with Mother and they decided to give the horse, "Harry", to Aunt Lydia and Henry so they would not have to walk to town.  Over my Mother's protests Dad suggested I could ride the horse bare-back except for a small blanket to deliver it and then stay a few days to visit until he would come for me. It was spring vacation time and I was enthusiastic. It was a trip of about 24 miles with short cuts and after the first ten my rear became increasingly ill at ease but I did not dare dismount enroute as Harry had a mind of his own and probably did not like the load on his back, so I stuck with it until I got there. That trip made a very lasting impression on me, especially below the waist, but also for another reason.

The second day I was there I was out watching Uncle Henry clean out the cows. His method intrigued me. Henry had the first litter carrier I had ever seen. The barn was located on a knoll and he had built a trestle out from the barn with a timber track and a cart that traveled the wooden rails secured by a rope over a pulley in the barn with a weight on the top end in the barn and when the load on the cart slightly exceeded the counterweight Henry would stop on a little platform in the rear and ride down to the end of the trestle, release the hinged door on the far end, dump the load, and then the counterweight would descent to the basement as it pulled the cart and Henry back into the barn. The cart track had a stop at the bottom to compliment the arrangement. Winter's accumulation was at the end of the ramp trestle and wet from the spring thaw. Henry had a long flowing beard and as I watched in amazement as he descended with the second load and his beard flying in the breeze, the rope parted and the cart and Henry made the remaining distance to the stop in nothing flat. The cart automatically dumped as Henry flew over the cart fact first down the very damp side of the winter accumulation. When he got to his feet I could only see his eyes above the accumulated beard, and I laughed. Henry started for me in a rage. He stopped to get a cudgel and that gave me enough lead-time to get into the thick pine woods behind the barn and house. I climbed a thick tree and clung near the top like a squirrel and very quiet.

Henry hunted me and called to no avail and finally headed back to the barn muttering like a mad bull. I waited a bit and then descended the tree and deployed through the woods to the back of the house. I could see Aunt Lydia working in the kitchen so I scampered up to the window and tapped on it. She asked me what I wanted and being assured Henry was not in the house I went around front and in the door. I had just finished telling Aunt Lydia about the incident and she was laughing until he tears came when Henry burst through the door and said, "So, there you are you little brat." Aunt Lydia stopped laughing and her eyes were ablaze as she picked up a cast iron frying pan and said, "Henry, if you lay a hand on this boy I will flatten you." He took one look at her expression, backed out the door and went out to the horse trough to take a bath. He was as nice as could be to me the rest of my visit.

Property Records of William Henry Moody, Sr. and Jr.:

• 1897 - Moody, Sr. transfers the Tuttle Farm in Athens to his stepson, Arthur Fuller
• 1900 Census - Moody, Sr. & Lydia lived in Hartland
• 1901 - Arthur Fuller deeds the Tuttle Farm in Athens to Moody's son, William H. Moody, Jr.
• 1903 - Moody, Sr. and Moody, Jr. purchase a lot in Cornville, bordering Barker Pond (this deed included the right for use of flowage from pond during cranberry season).  This would be on Route 43 as well, and very close to the borders of Athens (to the west) and Hartland (to the east).
• 1910 Census - Moody, Sr. & Lydia lived in Hartland
• 1918 - Lydia dies in Hartland
• 1920 Census - Moody, Sr. lived in Hartland, with stepdaughters Ida and Edith.  Moody died later that year

 
Below is an old photo of the Moody House and farm on Route 43, Athens Maine.  I don't know if this is actually the Tuttle Farm in Athens, or if perhaps it's where they lived in what was then known as Hartland.  The borders are very close, so anything is possible.

Current (2012) Google Street View image of what I believe may be the same property, buildings upon which appear to be a smaller replica of the above (the original property had burned):

ROUTE 43, HARTLAND MAINE
ACROSS FROM STARBIRD POND

GRAVE OF LYDIA
EMERY HILL CEMETERY
FAIRFIELD, MAINE

Summary of Discoveries

This post is intended for my immediate family, who might wish to get a general idea of "where they come from", and learn of some of the discoveries we've made to date about our shared ancestral history.  Below is one summary for each of the four main family names ("surnames") in our family, which will contain references to other families of interest.

There are many hyperlinks to other pages on this blog if the reader wishes to explore further.  Any text that is colored in orange can be clicked on, and a new research page is displayed covering that topic in more detail. These links contain particular stories we've uncovered (or heard told) of our ancestors, along with hundreds of old photographs of people, places (then and now), houses, and historical artifacts, as well as visual diagrams of family trees.  

At any time, the reader can always use the search box to the right of the screen to see what has been written about a particular ancestor.  Also, each page has been tagged with family names, so the reader can easily scroll down on the right side of any page, and click on a surname in order to retrieve all the pages associated with that family name.

This blog has been a continued source of enjoyment for me since 2009.  It is a great way for me to practice my biography writing; and, using a narrative style helps me make sense of some of the context of the vast amount of information at my fingertips.  I'm constantly editing and updating these pages as I uncover more information.

Yet none of this would be possible without the help of many dozens of other cousins and other researchers who have shared their research with me, or who have given their time to looking for materials for me in their hometowns - such materials which cannot be found online or through mail order.  This blog is just as much an interactive project as it is a tribute to our shared ancestors, and I hope it shall continue to develop over the years as more researchers stumble upon these pages...

LEONARD

Our surname Leonard used to be the Irish "Lennan" in Dublin during the late 1600s, before the Brits changed it. (this I confirmed with Y-DNA testing, and as of November 2014 this line is associated with Haplogroup R-P312, but the group keeps changing as the research gets more specific)  Many centuries before that, it was the Gaelic "O'Leannain".  Many Leonards appear to have an artistic temperament, and are keenly interested in painting, music, and flowers (also drinking).  The Leonards in our family are very few and far between in America, and are dying out.  I'm one of the last five male Leonards descending from our immigrant ancestor, Mathew John Leonard of Portraine, Ireland, hard working railroadman and beer maker.  Five male heirs remain, and none are likely to have any male heirs themselves. The surname will probably die with me.  Our immigrant, however, had many siblings in Portraine, one of which has dozens of living heirs still at the old Leonard Homestead, and in the surrounding area.  We believe that this Leonard line is influenced by the "Black Irish", being potentially linked to Spanish blood many centuries back; but, the only confirmation we have of that was that our ancestors from there were dark haired, and not red haired.  The theory of the Spanish Armada and its influence on Ireland is often overstated, so it will have to be a tall tale for now.  The Leonards and their associated Irish Catholic families (Smart, Devine, Wade, and Graney) were very well represented in the West End of Portland Maine from 1870-1940, and some of the remaining descendants removed to South Portland.  My grandfather, the Pearl Harbor veteran Thomas Edward Leonard, was a 'half breed', since his father was from the Irish Leonard family, and his mother was a Danish girl whose parents were from Aalborg in northwestern Denmark, and Skroebelev, in southern Denmark.  I've been fascinated with the Danish link for years now, and have met many of our distant and very friendly Mortensen cousins in New Hampshire who descend from the same Danish immigrants, who were largely all sawmill workers residing in Berlin NH.  In 2012, my travels brought me to Aalborg and Skroebelev - and I have visited the churches and villages where they came from, and the graveyard where some of them are laid to rest.  Many in my immediate family refer to the "Leonard Look", given the very striking shared physical traits among us, and many of our cousins (chubby cheeks, long face, deep circles under the eyes).  I've come to believe that this look is actually coming from our Danish heritage, after having met many of these distant cousins in NH in person and receiving many dozens of old photos.  So it's really the "Mortensen Look", if you ask me. If you click around the hyperlinks in here, you will find old photographs which illustrate my point.

FULLER

The English Fuller name is overwhelmingly well represented in New England and elsewhere, and is one of the most common colonial names in the region, so many genealogists have published volumes for us, leaving a lesser burden of research than the Irish and Danish connections above.  Our Fuller immigrant was Edward Fuller of the Mayflower, who traveled from the small town of Redenhall, England with his brother, Dr. Samuel Fuller.  While Edward died the first winter in the New World (like many from that ship), his son Matthew (who came over a bit later) had many thousands of descendants, all of whom are our distant cousins.  The six children of Harold Fuller (Nana's brother) each have had some interest in ancestry passed down from their father, and they've been very kind and interactive with me in the research.  There are many interesting connections.  The Fullers intermarried with the farming Osborn family of Fairfield and Winslow Maine (distant cousins still remain there today) who were Revolutionary War patriots from East Hampton, Long Island, New York (and whose ancestors before them were originally from Ashford, Kent, England).  Our Fuller line is also connected to Lady Godiva, famous exhibitionist and activist.  Also, our particular Fuller line is additionally descended from John Alden of the Mayflower (along with his wife and her parents).  This Alden line later connected down to the Burrill line of central Maine.  The Burrills intermarried with the Osborns, who intermarried with the Fullers, and all three families contain many direct ancestors.  There are many instances of cousins marrying here (which is not as genetically problematic as people think).  Also connected to the Fuller line is the Murch line, which is a colonial Maine family from Gorham and Rockland, who are also connected to the famous Jameson line, Revolutionary War patriots of Scotch-Irish descent, and who were founding members of many towns in Maine (Rockland, Friendship, and Cape Elizabeth to name a few), along with the McLellans (also Scotch-Irish) who were wealthy landowners in historic Portland.  Our Murch line is directly descended from Susannah Martin, the oldest person be executed during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and also the Welsh born Leonards (no relation to our irish Leonards above) but who were founders of the towns of Taunton and Raynham Massachusetts, and creators of the Leonard Forge - the first iron forge in America, and a premier iron supplier during the Revolution.  This Leonard line directly descends from John of Gaunt, son to Edward III of the Plantagenet line.  This Murch line is also of multiple Mayflower descent.  They are linked to the Stephen Hopkins family (the same Hopkins who discovered Bermuda) and also the Francis Cooke line.  Therefore, Nana (Lorena Bell Fuller-Leonard) was of pure colonial stock (with some Scottish and German blood, from the Holland family), and had ten Mayflower passengers in her direct ancestry.  Our Fuller/Murch line is probably filled with the most historical wealth of anywhere else in our tree.  They were early Christian Scientists, dry goods merchants, property owners, and railroad engineers.  Other related surnames of interest would be the Bell family of Scotland by way of Nova Scotia, Canada and Dover, Maine, and the Beans of New Hampshire, our ancestor of whom was a Scottish prisoner of war and sold as a slave upon arrival in the New World.  This ancestor has links to Scottish and English royalty, Robert the Bruce and the MacBeans of Scotland, the Plantagenets, the Normans and the Anglo Saxon Kings of England, ancient France, ancient Ukraine and Sweden, and ancient Germany.

Nana's ten Mayflower ancestors:

1. John Alden
2. Priscilla Mullins (his wife)
3. William Mullins (her father)
4. Alice Mullins (his wife)
5. Edward Fuller
6. Mrs. Edward Fuller (his wife)
7. Francis Cooke
8. Stephen Hopkins
9. Elizabeth Fisher (his wife)
10. Constance Hopkins (Stephen's daughter)

Blood Connections to Notable People (via Nana's ten Mayflower connections):

• 2nd President John Adams is my 3rd Cousin, 8 times removed.  Our shared ancestor was John Alden of the Mayflower.
• 6th President John Quincy Adams is my 4th Cousin, 7 times removed.  Our shared ancestor was John Alden of the Mayflower.32nd President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was my 9th cousin once removed.  Our shared ancestors was Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• 21st President Chester A. Arthur was my 6th cousin five times removed, and a descendant of Susannah Martin, just like Nana.  Susannah Martin was hanged for being a witch in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.
• 32nd President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my 9th Cousin, once removed.  Our shared ancestor was Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• 41st President George Herbert Walker Bush is my 18th cousin.  Our shared ancestors were Edward the 1st, King of England and Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• 43rd President George Walker Bush is my 18th cousin, once removed. Our shared ancestor was Edward the 1st, King of England and Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was my 5th cousin 6 times removed.  Our shared ancestor was John Alden of the Mayflower.
• Author Henry David Thoreau was my 6th cousin 4 times removed.  Our shared ancestor was Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• Filmmaker Orson Welles was my 8th cousin, 3 times removed.  Our shared ancestor was John Alden of the Mayflower.
• Actor Dick Van Dyke was my 10th cousin, once removed.  Our shared ancestors were John Alden and Francis Cooke of the Mayflower. 
• Actor Richard Gere is my 10th cousin.  Our shared ancestor was Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• Artist Norman Rockwell was my 10th cousin.  Our shared ancestor was Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower.
• Playwright Tennessee Williams is my 10th cousin once removed.  Our shared ancestor was Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower.
• Artist Georgia O'Keeffe is my 9th cousin twice removed.  Our shared ancestor was Edward Fuller of the Mayflower. 
• Mormon Church Founder Joseph Smith, Jr. was my 6th cousin 5 times removed.  Our shared ancestor was Edward Fuller of the Mayflower.
• Former Vice President Dan Quayle is my 10th cousin, once removed.  Our shared ancestor was John Alden of the Mayflower.
• Politician Sarah Palin is my 10th cousin twice removed. Our shared ancestor was Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower.
• Painter "Grandma Moses" was my 8th cousin, twice removed.  Our shared ancestors was Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• Actress Marilyn Monroe was my 9th cousin, twice removed.  Our shared ancestors were John Alden and Francis Cooke of the Mayflower. 
• Radio personality Wolfman Jack was my 9th cousin, twice removed.  Our shared ancestor was John Alden of the Mayflower.
• Celebrity Chef Julia Child was my 9th cousin, twice removed.  Our shared ancestors were John Alden and Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• Musician Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys is my 10th cousin, once removed.  Our shared ancestors was Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.
• Mayor of Portland during the Civil War, Captain Jacob McLellan, was my 2nd cousin six times removed.  He served from 1863-1865 and in 1868.
• Actor Mickey Rourke is my 7th cousin once removed, via our shared connection to Susannah Martin, who was hanged during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Blood Connections to Notable People (via Nana's Royal line):

• Queen Elizabeth II is my 20th cousin. Our shared ancestor is Edward III of the Plantagenet Line.
• King Robert the Bruce of Scotland was my 20th great grandfather.

TEMM

Grammy Clarke's maiden name was Temm.  Her grandfather, Wilhelm Marcus Timm, was a sea captain from Hamburg, Germany with a mysterious past.  In 1852, upon marrying his wife, Sarah Jane Brownrigg of Pictou, Nova Scotia (who was descended from English, Scottish and French sea captain immigrants), in Portland, Maine.  Sarah Jane's brother was a successful businessman, running a number of boarding houses on Fore Street which housed merchant seamen (and where other activities likely happened).  After their wedding, Sarah Jane and Marcus changed their names to Brown (not exactly sure why).  All five children were born with the name Brown, including our ancestor, John Henry Temm (who was born in a boat in Portland harbor). The Brown name stayed until 1864 (just a few years before Marcus' death in 1868), when the whole clan moved from Portland Maine to a large tract of farmland in Scarborough and reverted back to the Temm name (with John Henry's two daughters marrying a Clarke and an Ahlquist).  We are related to all Temms and Ahlquist families in Scarborough (and many of the Clarkes), through Marcus, and there are quite a few still there on old Beech Ridge Road in the vicinity of where our ancestors were early landowners, the land being in the Temm family since 1864.  My interest in the German root of the Temm/Timm surname brought me to Hamburg Germany back in 2012, and I truly felt a connection to the City, and didn't spend all of my time looking through all available church records, trying to find Timms.  Grammy Clarke's mother Hattie was a Morgan, descended from the New Hampshire Elliot and Morrill families (wherein may lie some Native American blood and further research is imminent as of November 2014, but for now this Clarke-Temm-Morgan-Morrill line is classified as DNA Haplogroup X, which has some chance of being divided into a Native American/Central Asian subgroup) and from the brother of "Captain Morgan" the famous Welsh pirate who has a brand of rum named after him, through  Hattie's father William Morgan, a Civil War patriot from Winterport, Maine. The wealthy Holmes family of Plymouth, Massachusetts figures prominently in our Morgan line, and was also directly descended from Thomas Rogers.of the Mayflower and his son Joseph.

CLARKE

Our Clarke line is entirely colonial English, via Central Connecticut.  Our immigrant ancestors, John and his son Thomas, were a settler of Jamestown Colony and steward of the Mayflower, respectively.  This is a common surname to be found in New England, with many thousands of descendants still there today (particularly in central Connecticut, several towns of which were founded by our ancestors linked to the Clarks).  They were humble farmers, carpenters, and blacksmiths.  Many of the colonial era houses they built in CT still stand today.  Many veterans in this family group, including James Clark, who fought in the War of 1812, his son Leonard Sherman Clark, who fought in the Civil War with his sons, and several Revolutionary War veteran ancestors, like John Coult and the Pecks.  The 19th century Clarks of Connecticut frequently intermarried with the colonial English Tooker and Hall families, who also have descendants living there today.  I've been very fortunate to meet distant cousins descending from the Clark, Tooker, and Hall families of Lyme and East Haddam Connecticut, many of whom share a significant passion for their ancestry, which is surprisingly well documented, considering these historical families' impoverished working class background.

To summarize my (and my siblings') specific heritage:

1/8 Danish (Mortensen/Petersen)
1/8 Irish (Leonard/Howlett) (with potentially very small percentages of Spanish)
1/8 Scottish (Bell/Bean/Lissen/Jameson/McLellan/Blair)
1/8 German (Holland/Temm)
4/8 English colonial (with very small percentages of French, Irish, and Welsh)