Tom & Agnes Leonard

My paternal great grandparents were Thomas Mathew Leonard (1891-1943) of Portland, Maine, son to Mathew John Leonard and Lizzie Howlett, immigrants from Portraine, Dublin, Ireland and Agnes Thalia Peterson (1898-1934) of Westbrook, Maine, daughter to Christian Petersen, immigrant from Ålborg, Denmark and Lena Mortensen, immigrant from Skrøbelev, Denmark.

Tom was named after his uncle Tom, the first Leonard immigrant from their famine-starved family to arrive in Portland.  Young Tom was a bit of a wayward soul. He worked as a theater janitor, cook, a fireman, a novelty supply shipper, and later as a porter at an advertising company, also having served for about a week in the Army at the very end of WWI, in the 8th Company, 2nd Battalion, 151th Depot Brigade out of Fort Devens in Worcester.  It's unclear not sure why he was discharged, but it's likely that the Brigade had disbanded in the final days of the War.  He purchased 8 Briggs Street from his father, and two months later married Agnes T. Peterson, born in Westbrook, Maine to Danish immigrants, in 1916. They had one child, Thomas Edward Leonard (who was actually born Thomas Mathew Leonard Jr., but for whatever reason his middle name changed). Thomas' father Mathew, as well as his brother Mathew, lived at 8 Briggs Street with the family.  His wife Agnes died there in 1934, and his father died there in 1939.  At that point Thomas was stuck paying rent to his aunt Annie (who had managed to get herself named executrix of his father's estate, and had left nothing to either of his sons).  He was unemployed for a few years at that point, but managed to get a part time job as a caretaker at a girls private school (probably the school affiliated with St. Dominic's).  He remained at 8 Briggs Street until his death from emphysema on October 15, 1943, at age 52 (the anniversary of his mother's death).  He was described to me as a tall, lanky man, with dark blue eyes who always carried a pipe to smoke with, and was a heavy drinker.

Agnes met Thomas around 1914, while Agnes was working as a laundress out at Levinsky's Plaza in Portland. They married in 1916, two months AFTER giving birth to Thomas Edward Leonard (my grandfather).  I imagine that there must have been some scandal there.  Not only was the child conceived AND born out of wedlock into an Irish Catholic family, but Agnes was Danish, not Irish like the rest of the family's in-laws. I wonder how Agnes was treated by Mathew Sr. Well, the whole family ended up living together on 8 Briggs Street in Portland, so it must have worked out ok.  From what I understand, everyone loved Agnes, especially Old Matt.  In the winter of 1933-1934, Agnes caught a terrible cold, which led to an ear infection.  Very shortly thereafter she developed purulent meningitis, and died five days later, at the very young age of 38 just a few months before her sister Julia died.

The above grave was ordered by my grandfather, Thomas Edward Leonard ("Tommy"), in 1968...25 years after his father passed.  He did it at the demand of his cousin, Matthew John Leonard, Jr., who was aware that Tommy had received the bulk his own father's estate, yet had done nothing about a grave to date. 

What's had seemed like a great shame to me is that for the other five people buried here (Matthew John Leonard, Sr., his wife Elizabeth, their daughter Sallie, her son Leonard Petroski, and Annie Batchelder), nobody bothered to pay for an engraving of their names too.  I did so myself in 2015, and I'm hoping that the contrast will even out.

Below are Tom & Agnes' pedigree charts.  Tom was 100% Irish, and Agnes was 100% Danish.

The Mortensens of Berlin New Hampshire

Marius Hanson Mortensen, a gardener, was born in the Skrøbelev parish of Svendborg County, in Funen (fka Fyn), an island in Southern Central Denmark, in 1839, to parents Morten Larsen of Rudkøbing and Catrine Jacobine Christensdatter of Skrøbelev.  The Mortensen family farm and home is located at Vindeltorp Way in what is now a part of Rudkøbing, Langeland.

Marius fought in the 2nd Schleswig War against the Austrians and Prussians in 1864.  While Denmark lost, Marius was unharmed, and came home to his new wife, Kerstine Pedersen Nelsen of Skrøbelev (nicknamed "Stina").  Stina and Marius were married October 21, 1863 in Danish Folk Church, Simmerbølle, Svendborg, Denmark.  Stina was born in Botofte, Tranekaer, Langeland in 1837 to housemaid Maren Nielsdatter and farmhand and stonemason Peder Nielsen, who were married in June 1837 in Tranekaer Church.

MARIUS & STINA MORTENSEN
WITH SON MIAUS
(ca. 1889)

MARIUS HANSEN MORTENSEN

(1839-1926)

STINA MORTENSEN

(1837-1933)

STINA MORTENSEN
ON THE PORCH OF 1803 HUTCHINS STREET
BERLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE
WINTER OF 1928
WITH GREAT GRANDCHILDREN:
(L TO R)
BARBARA, LEONA, AND WARREN MORTENSEN
CHILDREN OF VICTOR "SMOKEY" MORTENSEN

MARIUS & STINA MORTENSEN, ALFRED MORTENSEN AND UNKNOWN MAN
CA. 1910, BERLIN, NH

Marius and Stina had seven children in Skrøbelev:  Peder, Karl, Marenthine, Lena, Rasmus (aka Alfred), Lars, and Jørgen (aka John). As late as 1880, the whole family was still living in Skrøbelev.  Peder grew up with Stina's parents.

In April 1881, Marius & Stina, and the four youngest kids (Lena, Rasmus, Lars, and Jørgen) emigrated together from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and arrived in May, on the ship Hibernia.  Stina lied about her age at arrival, claiming to be 39, when she was 45.

The Hibernia

They celebrated the birth of their 8th child, Marius Junior (who was nicknamed Miaus), born in Canada in December of 1882, while they were living in La Regione-Sherbrookoise, Sherbrooke, Quebec. 

In 1884, the entire family moved across the border to Berlin Mills, New Hampshire, and settled on 1803 Hutchins Street, in the Liberty Park district of the east side of Berlin, upon land purchased from Brown Company, the mill which most of the family would work in. 

Brown Company Bulletins mentioned Marius a few times:

-Jan 1920 - Noted for 25 or more years of service.
-March 1923 - recipient of $36 indemnity payment (Brown Co Relief Association)
-April 1923 - recipient of $48 indemnity payment (Brown Co Relief Association)
-May 1923 - recipient of $48 indemnity payment (Brown Co Relief Association)
-Jun 1923 - recipient of $12 indemnity payment (Brown Co Relief Association)
-Sep 1926 - obituary "Moreus Mortenson was born January 7, 1837. He commenced work with the Brown Company May, 1884, and has been employed continuously until his death, which occurred July 29, 1926."
-Oct 1926 - Stina received $100 indemnity payment (Brown Co Relief Association)

Marius naturalized on October 31, 1890.  He was living at 1803 Hutchins Street as a tenant during the 1900 Census.  He officially bought the house in September 1905.  When he passed in 1926, he left everything to Stina, and left all the children $1.00 each.  When Stina passed, she left Lena $5.00 per week for each week she took care of her, to be calculated from her accounts (amounting to about $2,000).  The rest she left to Lena, Jørgen, Peter, Alfred, and Miaus an equal share of all property to 'share and share alike'.

Marius and Stina were founding members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Berlin:

Here is a picture from the 1950s showing the lower end of Hutchins Street.  You can see the houses of Marentine Mortensen-Christiansen, Carl & Edla Mortensen (formerly Marius' homestead), and also Maius Mortensen's house as well as Jorgen Mortensen's house:

Some recent current pictures of Marius' homestead on 1803 Hutchins Street.

Garage built by Carl Mortensen, grandson to Marius, upon his acquisition of the property in 1940.

MORTENSEN FAMILY

BERLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE

(1925)

(Front Row:  Robert Earl Mortensen, Tom Nadeau)

(Back Row:  Alfred "Rasmus" Mortensen, Louis Mortensen, Anna Olesen-Mortensen, Charles Smith, Emma Petersen-Smith (with baby Helen Smith), Lillian Petersen-Nadeau and Emile Joseph Nadeau)

History of the Mortensen children:

Peder Nielsen Mortensen

-Peder Nielsen Mortensen was born in Dec 1863 in Skrøbelev, but was raised in Simmerbolle Denmark with his grandparents. He was a merchant seaman. He shows up in the Wills of both Maius and Stina. He appears in a ship register from March of 1923 arriving in New York City.  He also appears in the Philadelphia 1930 Census for seamen, docking the Sea Tug Germantown. He was a wandering fellow, never settling down. He stayed for a time with his cousin Lillian Petersen-Nadeau in Westbrook, Maine (Lena's daughter), and Lillian's children became close with him and stayed in touch over the years.  I'm not sure when or where he died, but it was sometime after 1933 (date of Stina's Will).  Below is a writeup of Peder's travels, as it appeared in the Brown & Company Bulletin of March 1927:

Peter was reputed to have died at sea.

-Karl (or Carl) was born in 1866 in Skrøbelev, and while he took the journey with the family to Liverpool, Quebec, and then Berlin New Hampshire, he passed just a few years later in 1890 at age 24, and is buried in City Cemetery of Berlin.  He had married Alma Peterson just a bit over a year prior to his death.  I wonder if she was any relation to Christian Petersen, Lena's husband?  In any case, Alma wasted no time after Karl's death and married a Carl Nelson just a year later.

-Marentine (aka "Tina") was born in 1867 in Skrøbelev.  She arrived in Berlin independently of the rest of the family in 1886.  In 1891, she married Martin Christiansen from Norway, and bought the house on 1813 Hutchins Street, right next door to her parents.  According to many elders, the backyard was always well landscaped.  They had 6 children together, and she died in the winter of 1926.

-Caroline Kirstine Mortensen ("Lena"), my 2nd great grandmother, was born in Skrøbelev in 1868, according to Danish records.  She traveled with her family to Canada, and lived in Berlin NH with them for a short time.  While in Canada, she met an Aalborg native named Christian Peterson, who had also migrated through Canada to Berlin for millwork.  They married in Canada in 1882, moved to Berlin NH in 1886, and by 1891 they had moved to Westbrook, Maine, where there was better millwork to be had for Christian.  There they had ten children, including my great grandmother Agnes.  After Christian died in 1908 in Westbrook, Lena married Edward Kimball from Windham Maine (who was father to her son-in-law James, and was the original owner of their house in Westbrook).  After Edward died in January of 1926, she moved back to the house on Hutchins Street in Berlin to take care of her parents.  Her father Marius died in July of 1926, of a cerebral hemorrhage, and her sister Tina died in December of that year. Her mother Stina died in 1933 at the ripe old age of 98, also of a cerebral hemorrhage.  Stina was "Berlin's oldest woman" when she died, according to her obituary.  Lena died in 1939, of myocarditis. Lena's brother Alfred was the informant on her death record. They are all buried at City Cemetery in Berlin.

ALFRED "RASMUS" MORTENSEN

-Alfred "Rasmus" Nielsen Mortensen (1870-1948).  Of Marius' children, Alfred had the most descendants. As of October 2011, well over 80 people can claim descent from old Rasmus, many of them living in Berlin today!

LARS MORTENSEN

(1884)

-Lars was born in Skrøbelev in 1872, according to Danish records. He lived in Berlin, and worked at the mill with the family.  He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1916.

-Jørgen "John" Nielsen Mortensen was born in Skrøbelev in 1877, according to Danish records.  He did not arrive with the rest of the family in the USA, since he was not of age (I'm assuming he was cared for by Stina's parents), but he moved to the USA After arriving in the USA, he changed his name to John, got a job as a shoemaker for the Maine Railroad, and moved to Lewiston, Maine, marrying Sybil Barrett-Gammon in 1920.  He later worked as a painter.  They eventually moved to Litchfield, Maine for a while.  He fought in WWI, and ended up in living and retiring with his brother Miaus at 8 Sulley Street in Berlin, NH.  He is mentioned in his father's will as well, with the name John Mortenson.  He and Sybil had no children.

Brown Bulletin May 1953

-Miaus (aka Morris/Myers), born in Quebec, started out in the yard crew at Brown Company in 1896, worked as an electrician, landscaper, and than later a janitor, at the Mill where the rest of the family worked.  He retired as a watchman in October 1949.  He was only 5'5", with a stocky frame, large forearms, a pointy chin, and smoked a pipe.  He was nicknamed "Popeye".  He lived at 1787 Hutchins Street with his wife Minnie Oleson (cousin to Annie Oleson, wife to Miaus' older brother Alfred), and had five children.  His son Theodore took over the house in the 1950's, and Miaus moved around the corner to 8 Sulley Street, where he retired to with his brother Jørgen. Miaus' son Franklin bought a house across the street on 1816 Hutchins Street.  Miaus died in 1956.

Here are a few pictures of their houses all along Hutchins Street:

1803 Hutchins Street

Owned and built by Marius Mortensen

In the Mortensen Family from 1905-1995
(for sale as of October 2011)

1787 Hutchins Street
Owned by Miaus Mortensen

In the Mortensen Family from 1923-1954

1716 Hutchins Street

Owned by Alfred N. Mortensen

In the Mortensen Family from 1917-1949

1813 Hutchins Street

Owned by Marentine Mortensen-Christiansen

In the Mortensen Family from 1891-1990 (confirm)

1816 Hutchins Street

Owned by Miaus' son, Franklin Mortensen

In the Mortensen Family from 1930-1990 (confirm)

8 Sulley Street

Owned by Jorgen Mortensen

In the Mortensen Family from 1944-1956 (confirm)

ORIGINAL MORTENSEN FAMILY LOT

City Cemetery, Berlin, NH

Christian Petersen

Christian Petersen (1849-1908), my 2nd great grandfather was born in the city of Ålborg (Denmark's fourth largest) to carriage maker Peter Christian Petersen and his wife Pertria Thalia Thomsen.

Christian crossed the border from Canada into Berlin, New Hampshire on Aug 12, 1882 (when he was 32).  I'm not quite sure when he had originally arrived in Canada though.  Several of Christian's siblings and other family also migrated to the New World (more on them below), and family obituaries seem to claim that Christian came to the New World as a very young man.

It's not entirely clear when they met, but Christian married Lena Mortensen (aka Carolina) from Skrobelev, Svendborg Denmark, in either Berlin, New Hampshire or while in Canada.  By 1884 they were living in Westbrook, Maine (per their first two kids' birth records).  According to the 1900 Census, in Westbrook, they had already been married 18 years.

But, according to the last line of the article below, "Miss Lena Mortensen" ran a confectioner's table at the Ladies Aid Society of the Sons of Veterans, at City Hall in Portland in 1889.  This tells me she wasn't officially married to Christian until after then, and that the 18 year notation could be an error.

Portland Daily Press
Oct. 26, 1889

By 1891, Christian and Lena had moved to Westbrook, Maine, where he had secured a job in the S.D. Warren paper mill alongside (I believe) his cousin Neils.  In November 1891, he purchased a house on 15 Day Street (which coincidentally was just one street over from the street I grew up on).  They had a farm in the back with a chicken coop, and Christian would walk to work every day at the mill, and Lena would care for the children and make doughnuts.

Christian had purchased and mortgaged the Day Street property from Edward J. Kimball (a farmer from Highland Lake in North Windham) who would later have several connections to this family.  Ed's son Joseph would marry Christian's daughter Jennie, and, Ed himself would marry Lena immediately after her husband Christian died.

Ed owned a store on Main Street in Westbrook, which apparently got repeatedly robbed, and I wonder which building it was located in.  He also got into an accident, per the below.

Portland Daily Press
May 20, 1889

Portland Daily Press
June 14, 1889

Portland Daily Press
Nov. 14, 1890

Perhaps the subsequent purchase of the house on Day Street (near Main Street) by the Petersens was met with relief.  Ed apparently moved to North Windham after the house sale and horse and buggy accident.  Perhaps he closed the store entirely.

Neils (the possible cousin-more on him below) lived next door to Christian Petersen on 9 Day Street, and had emigrated through Portland on July 1, 1873.  Christian's sister, Maren Thalia Petersen (1858-1944), arrived in Westbrook in late 1884, married Jens "John" P. Anderson (also from Denmark), and lived around the corner at 262 Forest Street, and later 282 Forest Street.

15 Day Street

Westbrook, Maine

PETERSEN FAMILY (1892)

Christian Petersen & Lena Mortensen-Petersen,

with baby Julia, and young Charles in the back.

PETERSEN FAMILY (1909)

Lena Mortensen-Petersen in the center,
with her seven surviving children.

Starting with the child in her lap,
and going clockwise:

Emma, Norman, Lillian, Jennie, Julia, Charles, and Agnes.
(just after the passing of Christian Petersen)

The Petersens were living at Day Street for the entire duration of the life of the new Westbrook Opera House across Main Street from them (1897-1904).  They likely had to hear the noise of it being constructed, and must have been alarmed when it caught fire and burned to the ground seven years later.

Westbrook Opera House

(corner of Main & Speirs Streets)

Opera house was actually located upstairs from the

Surehold Trust Company and a mail order business.

A newspaper and a bean pot factory were also in the building.

Christian lived in Westbrook for about 25 years, and (according to oral history) was an active member of the Saccarappa Masonic Lodge in Westbrook (although the lodge has no records to substantiate this).  

Portland Daily Press
August 30, 1890

He naturalized in August of 1890, and moved immediately in to Day Street in Westbrook.

Christian and Lena were devout Lutherans, and lived very clean lives, never indulging in alcohol (unlike most of their children).  They worshipped Trinity, at the Danish Lutheran Church (which was on the same block as their home), which was built in 1892 by other Danish immigrants.  From 1876 to 1892, prior to the Church's incorporation, the pastors would conduct services in the homes of all the Danish immigrants in Cumberland Mills, until the Church was eventually constructed.  It is quite likely that Christian and his family had the benefit of Sunday service in their own homes on Day Street upon their arrival in Westbrook in 1891.

Christian Petersen may have been the same who was a member of the Scandinavian Society:

Portland Daily Press
Dec. 7, 1895

In 1896, Christian unsuccessfully sued his neighbor, Byron Pride, for Pride's coal yard dust from property near the railroad behind Christian's house.  Apparently, the dust was so bad that Christian had trouble renting the upstairs to the tenants, some of whom left due to the coal dust.  

Christian was definitely the one mentioned below, living in Cumberland Mills in 1897, when he won a prize at the County Fair in Gorham for his Plymouth Rock Fowl and chicks.

Portland Daily Press
Sep. 10, 1897

Christian died of cerebral meningitis at 58, after suffering from a heat stroke in the summer of 1908.

GRAVE OF CHRISTIAN PETERSEN
(error in birth date - should be "Oct 26, 1849")

While he died in 1908, he was still counted on the 1910 Census!  I suspect that may have been because they hadn't resolved his probate yet.  Christian's estate was valued at $1700.00, inclusive of real estate (about $40K in 2013 dollars).

Lena remarried 2 years later to Ed Kimball from North Windham, the former owner of the house.  Two months later, Lena's daughter Jennie married Ed's son, Joseph.  Lena was already married to Ed when the time came to deal with Christian's estate.

KIMBALL BARN
ALBION ROAD
WINDHAM, MAINE
(1980s?)

KIMBALL BARN

ALBION ROAD

WINDHAM, MAINE

(2019)

In the summer of 1910, Ed and Lena moved in to Ed's farm house on 176 Albion Road, Windham with Lena's youngest children, up on Highland Lake.  I believe that some of the elder kids stayed behind on Day Street, since the property was still in the Petersen/Kimball family as of 1925.

Ed's probate stated there was one cow and 75 hens left to the family on Highland Lake.  When Ed died in 1926, Lena moved back to Berlin, NH to care for her aging parents on Hutchins Street.  Lena granted the Highland Lake property to Ed's son Joseph, whose surviving spouse sold it off in 1960 to the Nelsons.  As of 2019, the property is in disrepair, and is being offered for sale as a tear down.

Christian and Lena had 10 kids in Westbrook...three of whom died as infants (Carl, Walter and Petrea-who died of food poisoning).  Carl is buried next to his father in Saccarappa Cemetery up on the hill in Westbrook:

GRAVE OF CARL PETERSON

As for the 7 children that lived to adulthood:

-Charles Christian Peterson (1887-1958), who never married, was a teamster.  He was first named as Administrator on his father's probate estate in 1908, but resigned in September 1910 because he believed that he would be leaving the state for work and would be unable to perform duties.  But from all available records, Charlie stayed in Maine, and his mother took over as Administrator.  Charlie was drafted into WWI at age 30.  His draft card describes him as short and bald.  He later moved to 13 Church Street in Westbrook (1930 Census), and lived with the Sampson family.  By the 1940 Census, he was living in Berlin, New Hampshire, and lived in the Mortenson family house on 1803 Hutchins Street with his cousin Carl, and did sewer construction under the new Public Works, as part of the New Deal program.  While living there, he was drafted in 1942 into WWII, as part of the 'Old Man's Draft' at age 55, but never served.  For the 1950 Census, he was living at a rooming house on 273 Cumberland Avenue in Portland, and working as a roofer.  He died in Westbrook in 1958, at age 70, from an accident involving "Illuminating Gas Poisoning".

JULIA PETERSEN LADD-SMITH-FUESSEL
(ABOUT 1930)

-Julia P. Peterson (1891-1934) married thrice.  At 17, she had moved to Berlin to stay with Mortensens there, and met and married millworker Dana Lewis Ladd in 1910.  In 1912 Dana divorced Julia due to cruel and abusive treatment, and then Dana moved to Westbrook and remarried.  In 1914, in Freedom, New Hampshire, she married Perly Leslie Smith from York Maine (they had one child, Evelyn, whose whereabouts are a mystery still).  In 1927, Julia married a German blacksmith from Kansas by the name of Frank Fuessel (who had married previously with five children).  At this point, according to family oral history, Julia began a quick descent into severe alcoholism.  She died of carcinoma, with alcohol poisoning a contributing factor, in her home in South Portland in April of 1934, surrounded by the entire family in her bedroom at 247 Preble Street.  The family was still suffering the shock of Julia's sister Agnes dying three months prior.

JENNIE CAROLINE PETERSON
ABT 1908

JENNIE CAROLINE PETERSON-KIMBALL
ABT 1914

JENNIE PETERSEN BRAGG
WITH HUSBAND AND SON, ALTON SR. AND JR.

JENNIE BRAGG 1956

JENNIE BRAGG 1959

-Jennie Caroline Peterson (1893-1967) married a very burly and domineering railroad fireman from Windham by the name of Joseph Greenlaw Kimball, in 1910.  Joseph's father Ed had married Jennie's mother two months prior.  Joseph and Jennie had one child, Florence Cordine Kimball, in 1911.

FLORENCE CORDINE KIMBALL
(JENNIE'S DAUGHTER)
3/7/1914 (3RD BIRTHDAY)

Jennie didn't get along with her new husband Joseph (in fact, she was badly abused by him, according to family legend) and so Jennie completely disappeared in 1916.  According to the family, they knew she was a heavy drinker and was quite the "free spirit," so it was assumed at the time that she was being irresponsible and flaky by disappearing like that.  A couple of family stories had emerged about her whereabouts.  One involved her moving down south, another involved Joseph murdering her and burying her under the barn at the Kimball Farm.  Her mother's obituary in 1939 did not list her as a survivor, so the entire family must have believed she had died by then.  She had never kept in touch with anyone else in the family and her husband Joe had hired a private investigator who was unable to find her - and it took years for him to be granted a divorce via desertion.

The truth was, she had moved far north to Aroostook County and had remarried to a man named Alton Bragg.  They had six children, and almost never spoke again of her prior family.  She had left her child Florence behind to be cared for by her mother, Lena.  Florence was only 15 when her grandmother Lena's husband Ed died, and when Lena moved back to Berlin NH to care for her aging parents.  Florence stayed in the house on Highland Lake after Lena left, and was living there with her father Joseph Kimball.  She eventually married (about 1935) to a machine operator named Michael J. Pulit (born in New Haven, CT to Polish immigrants) and settled in West Haven on 61 Thomas Street.  Florence kept in touch with her Aunt Lillian Nadeau's kids from Maine, and was living close to her Aunt Emma in New Haven as well, and apparently stayed close with this family.  Florence died in New Haven in 1999, and had three daughters, one son and several grandchildren.  She had never met her mother, all her life.  As for the mysterious Jennie, she lived the remainder of her life in Washburn Maine, raising her six other children, until her death in 1967.  Her death certificate had inaccurate parental names on it, which leads me to believe that her survivors really didn't know much about Jennie's past at all.  According to her grandchildren, when Jennie got to drinking, she would speak of her long lost daughter and how much she missed her.  It's one of the saddest stories I've encountered in my family research, but in 2010 thankfully I've been able to connect certain members of both sides of Jennie's two families, thanks to this blog, and some interested researcher cousins.

GRAVESITE OF JENNIE & ALTON BRAGG
MASARDIS, MAINE

FLORENCE MORSE
JENNIE'S ESTRANGED DAUGHTER
IN FRONT OF FARMHOUSE SHE GREW UP IN
HIGHLAND LAKE
WINDHAM, MAINE

-Agnes Thalia Peterson (1895-1934) and Thomas Mathew Leonard (my great grandparentsmet around 1914, while Agnes was working as a laundress out at Levinsky's Plaza in Portland. They married in 1916, two months AFTER giving birth to Thomas Edward Leonard (my grandfather).  I imagine that there must have been some scandal there.  Not only was the child conceived AND born out of wedlock into an Irish Catholic family, but Agnes was Danish, not Irish like the rest of the family's in-laws. I wonder how Agnes was treated by Mathew Sr. Well, the whole family ended up living together on 8 Briggs Street in Portland, so it must have worked out ok.  From what I understand, everyone loved Agnes, especially Old Matt.  In the winter of 1933-1934, Agnes caught a terrible cold, which led to an ear infection.  Very shortly thereafter she developed purulent meningitis, and died five days later, at the very young age of 38 just a few months before her sister Julia died.

EMILE AND LILLIAN NADEAU

COLLAGE OF NADEAU FAMILY PICTURES

-Lillian Marentine Peterson (1897-1973) (middle name comes from her mother's sister) married Emile Joseph Nadeau, a French Canadian of Westbrook in 1918.  Soon after they married, Emile enlisted for WWI, but was underweight (with a heart murmur) and had failed the physical.  They lived on 122 Mechanic Street in Westbrook with Emile's brother and his family, until later moving to 959 Main Street (now where the Muffler Shop is) up until 1951, when they bought a house at William Street.  Lillian worked at the mill most of her life.  She and Emile had two children, Tom & Evelyn.  Tom is a portrait painter and lives in Portland with his wife Bobbie.  Evelyn passed ni 1993.  According to her son Tom, Lillian and her sister Agnes were the only 'teetotallers' among their siblings.

NORMAN PETERSON
(ca. 1972)

-Norman William Peterson (1902-1984) was born in Westbrook at the house on Day Street, like the rest of the kids.  When Christian died, Norman lived in Windham with his mother and her second husband Ed, and graduated Windham High School in 1919.  Norman moved to Portland by 1925.  He loved to spend his leisure time fishing up on Moosehead Lake.  He met his future wife, Tuerena Banks (who had migrated from Scotland to Massachusetts in 1912), when she was working as a resort waitress.  They married around 1927 and moved immediately to Lynn, Massachusetts to be near to his uncle Carl's family, where he lived the remainder of his life.  In 1930 they lived in a rented home on Prospect Street in Lynn (Rent in 1930 - $20/month).  The building was later razed in the 70's in order to build the Lynn Vocational Tech High School.  For the 1940 Census, they were living at 60 Johnson Street in Lynn Commons area, and had been living there since at least 1935.  At some point after 1938, Norman suffered an accident at his job, J.B. Blood Food Market, where a large crane fell on him.

In 1948, Norman and Tuerena separated, but appear to have been back together by the time of the 1950 Census, when they were living on Cressey Street with two of their three kids (their eldest, Norma, was living elsewhere in the building).  Norman was a wrap & packer at a manufacturing plant, while Tuerena worked as a shoe stapler.  Norman died in 1984 in Roxbury.  Norman worked as a dry goods shipping salesman, but was an avid carpenter and fisherman, and his final job was with General Electric.  Norman & Turena had three children:  Norma Peterson-Hios-Laclair, who died in Las Vegas in 2003, and William and Joan. Norman was president of the St. Vincent De Paul Society of Lynn during the 30's.  Tuerena died in 1991 in Salem. I've had no luck getting obituaries from any of these towns.

EMMA PETERSEN-SMITH-KEENE
(ABOUT 1940)

EMMA PETERSEN-SMITH-KEENE
(1950)

EMMA KEENE
(abt 1990)

-Emeline Thomasena Peterson (1905-1993) (known as Emma, and later Emily) was a servant for the Durrell house on 23 Lamb Street as a teenager in 1920.  She moved to Portland in 1922 and married Charles Albert Smith (a turntable operator on the railroad born to Polish and Swedish immigrants).  They had two kids:  Charles, Jr., who retired in Texas after a long military career (WWII and Korea), & Helen, who was an avid bingo player, and ran "Helen's Restaurant" in New Haven.  Emma divorced Charles in 1929 and moved to South Portland, marrying William Kelley in 1931 (the kids were living with stepfather Charles and his new wife Ivy on Federal Street for the 1930 Census).  Emma later married Donald Keene from South Portland around 1940, and moved to Wallingford, Connecticut, where she died in August of 1993 at Skyview Convalescent Home.  The funeral was held at Yalesville Funeral Home, and she was cremated August 18th at Pine Grove Crematorium in Waterbury.  Yalesville picked up her ashes, and they are still there to this day, waiting to be picked up.  It appears that one of Emma's granddaughters will be retrieving them at some point, thanks partly to the coordination of several cousins who have read this blog and have communicated their concerns.

This blog post has been particularly helpful in connecting with distant cousins and descendants of Christian and Lena.

Below is a picture of Lena, on the porch of her home in Berlin New Hampshire, just a few years before she passed:

Below are pedigree charts for Christian and Lena, both 100% Danish descent:





Other Petersens that lived in Westbrook during that era (not sure if there was a relation):

-Aldehied Dorothea Rickert-Petersen (1836-1922).  Adelheid was born a Rickert in Bov, Sonderjylland.  Her second marriage in Denmark was to a Peter Petersen.  She emigrated to Westbrook Maine with her two boys Frederick & Christian in 1891.  I feel she may have been a relative to my Petersens.

-Niels Petersen (1842-1916) Niels lived right next door to Christian's family on Day Street.  He had arrived in Westbrook in 1873 (several years prior to the rest of the Petersens mentioned above).  Their son Peter, a cabinet maker, shot himself at home one September day in 1911.  According to records, Niels had different parents altogether (Peter Nielsen & Annie Akelene), and his name didn't appear as a survivor on  the below obituary of Christian Petersen or in his probate records.  I feel there must be some kind of cousin connection, though, and that Niels may have been the first immigrant and the one who sent for the rest.

-Hans A. (1861-1913) had parents named Peter & Cecelia, was born in Denmark, but lived for a while in Germany, and had four children there (Peter, Johanna, John & Celia).  He brought the whole family (without the wife) to Westbrook.  He remarried there to a woman named Maria and had an additional seven children (Julianna, Carl, Agnes, Andrew, Lillian, Christian and Arthur).  Hans was an incorporating member of Trinity Lutheran Church on Main Street.  He lived on Main Street and Spring Street in Westbrook and worked in the paper mill.  In 1913, just a few months after his wife Maria had died from a mysterious pelvis disease, Hans had an accident at work where a lever connected to a machine smashed him in the testicles.  He had a failed surgery, developed lockjaw and died.

This obit mentions that Christian came from a large family of children.  Other than those listed above as confirmed siblings, I'm not sure who else is there.  It also says that he came to America as a boy.  But the earliest record I could find of him arriving in the USA is in 1882, when he was in his 30's.  I'm curious about what other life he was leading prior to that.  If he had arrived as a boy, then that would mean his parents were here too, and I don't see any record of that...

Below, taken from Christian Petersen's probate record, is the signature of his widow, Lena, then already known as Caroline Kimball.  Note how she spells this.  It makes me wonder if perhaps she never learned proper English, or if she perhaps never could write well.  Her signature clearly says "Caroline C. Chambel".

Finally, according to distant cousins, the Petersens were referred to as "square heads".  I don't quite see it, but these were different times, maybe their heads did appear square to others...