52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 11: FRANCIS UPTON OF ALBANY MAINE PT1

I'm continuing with exploring my Upton family line for the 2015 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. My 5x great grandfather Amos Upton, the son of "Deacon" Amos Upton  married his second cousin Edith Upton in North Reading, Massachusetts on 13Feb 1766. He was a Revolutionary War veteran, and one of the first settlers of Oxford County, Maine. Since I've already blogged about him two years ago, I'll move on to his son, Francis.


Here's what John Adams Vinton has to say about Francis Upton in his The Upton Memorial:

Francis Upton5, (Amos4, Amos3, Samuel2, John1,) eldest son of Amos Upton 4 and Edith Upton4, born in North Reading, February 24,1772; married, __ 1800. Sarah Bancroft, of Norway, Me. She was born at Lynnfield, Mass., July 11,1783, daughter of John Bancroft6, who with his family removed thence to Norway, about 1800. John Bancroft's father, grandfather and great-grandfather all bore the name of John, and descended from Thomas Bancroft, who died at Lynn End, now Lynnfield, in 1691. 

Mr. Upton went with his father from North Reading to Norway, in the then District of Maine, in September, 1790, and worked with him at making a farm in what had been, in all time previous, a wilderness, till the time of his marriage, he then being twenty-eight years of age. For his services his father gave him the grist mill which he had built, and the small farm which was attached to the mill property. He carried on the mill but a few years, and then exchanged with his brother Amos, for a farm a mile or two westerly, on the same road. Subsequently he sold that place and removed to the town of Gray; he lived there four or five years and then returned to Norway, and " carried on" a farm for one year.

The next year, I822, he bought land, all covered with wood, in the adjoining town of Albany, and, with the aid of his sons, he made a very productive farm. While at work on this Albany farm, he received a severe injury by the falling upon him of a limb from a tree which he was cutting down. The injury effected his head to such an extent, that he became insane, and remained so until his death, which took place in February, 1835, at the age of sixty-four years. pp198-200

I tried to find a record of the marriage of Francis Upton and Sarah Bancroft but had no luck
so far. I did find a record of his death on FamilySearch though, and the date is different from that
given in the book.

But John Adams Vinton was probably getting his information from family members nearly
forty years after Francis died, and he didn't have access to records over the internet as we
do today.

Which is why you should always double check the information in old family genealogies.  


To be continued.

GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT3

((The last in my repost of the series in honor of Clarence's 120th birthday
on 18 Mar 2015. This was first printed in 2008.

This is the last part of my Granduncle Clarence West’s
memories as taken from “The History of Wilsons Mills-and-
the- Magalloway -Settlements” . The subjects range from
“squirrel whiskey” to grist mills and the cost of food.


“P.C. Ripley worked at the dam when they were building it.
He was the top blacksmith. He could make most anything.
He made wrenches and tools of all kinds for the crews.
Ripley used to say that Brown Company kept all the
ingredients to make `squirrel ’whiskey. You just mix up a
batch, then bury it in the ground to season it. When you dig
it up it’s pretty stout, but good. Just one drink of it will make
a squirrel go up a tree tail first!

That grist stone they took out of the river this spring was
the top stone. If you look at it you can see the holes in it.
There’s a thing goes through the hole in the middle to pick it
up by. Too bad they couldn’t find the other stone. It used to
take days to sharpen those stones. It was all done by hand
and they all had to be the same. They had a nice grist mill at
Errol Dam. They had two stones, one special for buckwheat
and one for flour. The top stone sets still and the bottom one
goes around. You had to be awful careful to keep the grain
running all the time.

If you heard the click of the stones hitting together you
knew you were going to get something hard on your teeth.
The grain went down the cellar to a hopper, onto a
conveyor, through a machine they called the `smut’ mill,
then back upstairs and into a rig they called a bolt. This
was a cylinder screen about 10 feet long and about three
feet around. It had different sized screens and it kept turning
over and over and the grain fell into a row of boxes under it.
When it was done you pulled out a drawer and filled your
bag.


“There’s sure some difference in the price of flour and meat
and everything nowadays. I can remember when Joe and
Martha Brooks had a little store over in Upton. Joe would
kill a cow and go and peddle it around for three cents a
pound. Milk was five cents a quart; butter was high,
twenty-five cents a pound. Eggs were one cent apiece.
When I was going to school, anytime I needed pencils or
paper or anything for school, I’d go out to the barn and get
a few eggs to trade for what I needed.


You know, I was thinking about it the other day, I’ve had
boats all the time I’ve been here, and that’s going on
fifty-one years, and I’ve only been to the head of the lake
ten times.”


Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.96-97

GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT2

((Another of three blogposts in celebration of Clarence West's 120th
birthday. First posted in 2008.)) 

Here’s part two of my Granduncle Clarence’s memories
of the construction of the Azicohos Dam as it appeared in
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements” including a wandering cow and Clarence taking
a shortcut across the top of the dam:


“Roberge cut the flowage. They used to bring the water
up to the works to keep the frost out of the north side of
the dam. When the water is low you can still see where
the steam pipes cooked the cement. Roberge finished the
flowage by cutting off the trees right at the top of the ice.
Brown Company’s tow-boats had quite a time at first.
Sometimes they’d make a mistake and end up in the woods,
or wind the tow-line up in the propeller, or knock a blade
off the propeller in the dri-ki(driftwood). Stan Wentzell was
the one who finally corralled the dri-ki by booming it in the
coves. Stan was a good man. When he told you something
you could believe it.


There used to be a quarry up in back of the barracks.
When Clarence Gray logged in there a few years ago he
cut trees out of it. That concrete pit up back was the water
pit. Water lines ran down to the houses, storehouses, cook
camps, etc. On one of the cottages the front porch was way
up high. When I had a cow, every time she didn’t come
when I called, I always knew where to find her. Under
that porch!


They used to have a telephone line run up from the top of
the dam to the foot of the sluice. You remember Pat
Crowley. It was his job to stay on the top of the dam and
stop the wood if anything went wrong. It took six feet of
water to sluice and the wood went nine-tenths of a mile in
three minutes. That sluice was the slickest piece of work I
ever saw. It sure took some figuring. George Freeman
designed it. He went to school with Paul Bean. He came
from Gorham, Me. After he left here he went to Chicago
to work on a hotel that was tipping over. Then he helped
build a railroad through the Rocky Mountains. After that
he went out to San Francisco and worked on the Golden
Gate bridge.


Bean and Harris came up one day to see about doing
something to the sluice gates. We drove around to the other
side of the dam and then Bean discovered he need the
blueprints that had been left over at the house. He was
going to send his driver over after them but I told him I
could do it quicker. There was about an inch of water
running over the splashboards but I went across and got
the papers. When I got back, Bean stood there with his
hands in his pockets watching me. He said `I didn’t like to
see you do that, Clarence!’ It wasn’t long after that they
put in the bridge above the splashboards.”

Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.)
pp.95-96

GRANDUNCLE CLARENCE REMEMBERS PT1

((I first published this and two other posts back in 2008. Today is the 120th
anniversary of Clarence's birth, so I thought I'd repost the series. It's an
interesting look into life in the lumber industry in early 20th century
Maine.))


My granduncle Clarence P(hilip) West was the caretaker of
the Azizcoos Dam in Wilsons Mills, Oxford, Maine for
fifty years. He was born in Cambridge, New Hampshire on
17 March, 1895 to Philip J. West and Clara (Ellingwood)West
and died on 5 June 1983. The SSDI gives his place of
residence as Errol, Coos Co., New Hampshire at the time
of his death.


Clarence married Mabel Jane Ilsley on 25 Jun 1919 and
together they had three children: their son Lee and their
daughters Leita and Ruth.



When Wilsons Mills celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1975
they decided to mark the occasion by publishing a book:
“The History of Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-
Settlements”. It includes an interview with Clarence about
his memories of his time at the Azizcoos Dam and it makes an
interesting companion to the memories my Aunt Dorothy
sent me about her and my Dad’s time there as children,
which I posted here.

Today is the 120th anniversary of Clarence’s birth, so in
honor of him, here’s part one of the interview from the book:

“Clarence P. West, at eighty still caretaker at Aziscoos
Dam, is an interesting man to talk with. He was here
recently to look at some old pictures that had been brought
into the book committee on the building of the Azizcoos
Dam and we got him talking of the old days. He came here
as caretaker in 1924 and has been here ever since. We first
asked him how he happened to come here. These are some
of his comments.

“When we were first married I went to Pontook to work on
a survey with Walter Sawyer. Mabel and I lived in a tent
that summer. Sawyer would have had a nice dam there if
they had let him. He had one planned that was near four
thousand feet across with penstocks clear to Twitchell’s
for power. From that job I went to Lisbon to work in a
sawmill for West Bros. Later I went to see Mr. Bean about
a job and he told me to send in my application. There were
about a hundred other applications but when they got
narrowed down to five I was still one of them. After
Vashaw died, Lewis Chadwick was transferred to Errol and
I came up here. That was in 1924.


When the new Dam was built the gate house on the old dam
was removed and set up for a blacksmith shop. It still stands
there to-day just in back of the parking area. You know, the
timbers in that old shop were hewed by hand.


One of the big towers to hold the cable was up back of the
house, the other one was almost over to where the road to
Rangeley is now. There was a double track from the end of
the dam to the quarry up back on the hill. The cars worked
from a cable, when one went down, the other came back
up. There was a track with a whole string of cars that they
loaded with a steam shovel. The tops of the cars turned
around to dump. That shovel was on wheels and they had
to keep planks under the wheels all the time. It was set up
in a pit to load dirt for fill on the south side of the cam. The
cars were hauled along the tracks by a big black horse. And
when the whistle blew at quitting time that horse stopped
right in his tracks and there he stood till someone unhitched
him and headed him for the stables.
 
When they were building the dam it was nothing to meet
a string of horses a half mile long from Colebrook to
Azicoos.”

(to be continued)

Source: The Town of Wilsons Mills Maine, “The History of
Wilsons Mills-and- the- Magalloway-Settlements”
(Wilsons Mills, Me. 1975.) pp.94-95

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT3

As I said before, I found Amos Upton's probate file in the  Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 at the AmericanAncestors.org website. Here's the image of the estate
inventory:

Source: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)


And here's John Adams Vinton's abstract of the inventory items on page 67 of The UptonMemorial:

Four cows and one calf, £12. One heifer two years old, and three heifers one year old, £5.15. A pair of steers three years old, £5.10. One horse, £4. Six sheep, £2.14. One swine, £1.10. Farming utensils, cart and wheels, plough, harrow, iron bar, axes, hoes, beetle and wedges, &c £6.3.3. Trunk and chest, £0.6. Men's wearing apparel, £5. Bed's furniture and other linen, £10. Chest of drawers and tables, £2.5. Spinning wheels and chairs, £0.9. One kettle, pot, dog-irons, trammels, &c, £3.1. Pewter flax-comb, chafing-dish, £1. Books, looking-glass, glass bottles, china ware, and other articles, £1.12. Corn and meat, £1.10. Saddle, bridle and gun, £0.16. Home stead, buildings and out lands, £408. Total, £471.11.3.

Besides one thousand dollars of the old emission left in the house of the testator and not valued.*

 At the bottom of the page is this footnote:

• Midd. Prob. Records, 61: 257. The Continental Congress of the United States, in order to carry on the war, had been compelled to issue enormous quantities of notes, or bills, amounting in the end to more than three hundred millions of dollars. This currency soon depreciated. In Dec, 1778, it stood at six of paper for one of gold. In Dec, 1779, it stood twenty-seven for one. In Dec, 1780, it was seventy fur one. In the autumn of 1781, when the foregoing inventory was made, this currency came down to five hundred for one, and was regarded as absolutely worthless.


So the $1000 dollars included in the inventory was probably only good to use for tinder
to help start a fire in the fireplace!

This probably explains why some of the estates of my ancestors who died after the
Revolutionary War give the value of their possessions in the old English currency values
of pounds and shillings rather than in the new American dollars. The American currency
was unstable and nearly worthless. It must have been a worrisome time for the citizens
of the new country!

KINDLE-ING GENEALOGY: SEND TO KINDLE FOR WINDOWS

In Spring,  a young man's fancy turns to love, and a genealogist's fancy turns
to planning trips to archives, libraries, and cemeteries.

We still have snow on the ground here in New England as I type this, but I've
already been thinking about what I may do once it's melted, and how I could
make things easier for myself, like for instance my trips to cemeteries for Find
A Grave photo requests. In the past I'd print out the list of requests for a particular
cemetery. But back in October I bought a Kindle Fire HD 6 tablet, and I wondered
if there was an easier way to take the list with me, even where there was no internet
connection available.

So I did a Google search ro find out.

It turns out there were three ways I could send  the list to my Kindle from my laptop.
The first two was by a USB port connection between the two devices. The second
involved sending the list via email as an attachment. The third, and much easier method,
was the "Send To Kindle For Windows" application from Windows. I read about it in
a CNET review here and it seemed easy enough. I followed the link to the Windows site and
downloaded the app to my laptop and then install the program, which went pretty quickly.
It does require your Amazon account information when you register, so if you don't
already have an account, you need to open one to proceed.

The way "Send to Kind"le works on my laptop is very easy. Whatever document or image
that I want to send to the Documents program on my Kindle, I go to the Print menu for
the document on the laptop, and choose the "Send to Kindle"  as my printer:

I have a wireless network in my apartment, so after a few minutes I check my Kindle to
see if the document has arrived.

((Sorry about the camera reflection in the image.))


I can send images as well as documents.

And I can save the Find A Grave Request screen as well. This is for Mt. Vernon Cemetery
here in Abington. The full list requires two images, and I can zoom in on them to make
them easier to read.:

The only restriction that I can find so far is that the maximum size for the document or
image is 50MB. You also have 5GB free storage available "in the cloud" from Amazon.

The Kindle Fire HD6 tablet is small enough to fit in a pocket like one of the larger cellphones,
and costs less than $100 dollars. The HD7 model costs about $139, but the screen is larger
and it has more memory than the HD6. But either model may be a good alternative to your
laptop or larger tablet when you are out on a genealogy road trip!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT2

John Adams Vinton has an abstract of Deacon Amos Upton's will and the estate
inventory on pp65-66 of The Upton Memorial. I'll go into the inventory in the next
post.:   

His will is dated May 24, 1780; proved Oct. 3, 1781; recorded Midd. Prob. 61 : 254—256. He calls himself Amos Upton of Reading, yeoman. He says: "I give to my wife Sarah the improvement of all my real estate that I have in Reading. To my son John Upton, all my real estate that I have in Reading * and all my live stock and husbandry utensils after my wife's decease, he paying the following legacies, viz:

To my son Amos Upton, thirty pounds lawful money, at six shillings and eightpence an ounce, or any other lawful money to the value thereof, to be paid in one year after my wife's decease.

To my son Benjamin Upton, the same.

To my son Nathaniel Upton, £16.13.4 lawful money, &c, besides what he hath already had.

To my daughter Eunice,t  five shillings besides what she already had.

To my daughter Sarah, twenty pounds. &c, (as in the case of Amos, repeating the same words).

To my daughter Rebecca, twenty pounds. &c, (as in the preceding case).

To my daughters Sarah and Rebecca,my in-door movables, after my wife's decease.

His wife Sarah was named executrix. The witnesses to the will were Joseph, Ebenezer and Elizabeth Upton.

* None of this property came into the possession of John Upton. He died several years before his mother. The other legacies, of course, were not paid.

t Eunice was already married, and had received her portion. Sarah and Rebecca were then unmarried.


I found Amos Upton's probate file in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871
at the AmericanAncestors.org website: 

 Source: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)


There is a phrase in Amos' will "or any lawful money to the value thereof". I'll discuss
the significance of that in the next post, which will also discuss the inventory estate. 

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 10: DEACON AMOS UPTON PT1

This week's post for Amy Johnson Crow's 2015 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is
my other Upton 6x great grandfather, Deacon Amos Upton. He was a much more
prominent figure in local affairs than his cousin Francis Upton, as his biography
in John Adams Vinton's The Upton Memorial:


Amos Upton 3, (Samuel2, John 1), widely known among his cotemporaries and still spoken of as Deacon Amos Upton, was brother of the preceding, and son of Samuel2 and Abigail (Frost) Upton; born in Darn ers; and baptized there, Oct. 20, 1717; married Dec. 5. 1739, Sahah Bickford, daughter of John Bickford of Salem town. She was admitted into full communion of the church in Danvers, March 28, 1756.

He resided in the north parish in Reading, which is now a town called North Reading, about a mile north east of the present meetinghouse, in a house yet standing, and in good condition. Of the church in that place, under the ministry of Rev. Daniel Putnam [pastor from June 29, 1720, to June 20, 1759], and Rev. Eliab Stone [pastor from May 20, 1761, to Aug. 31, 1822], he was deacon from Feb. 18, 1762, till his death in 1780. He was a man of great energy, and stern Puritan principles.

He died Oct. 6, 1780, aged sixty-three. His wife Sarah outlived him thirty-eight years, and at length died in North Reading, Nov. 17, 1818, at the advanced age of ninety-nine years and seven months. She remembered to have seen and talked with people who were living in this country prior to 1650. Three lives might thus, even at this time, 1872, comprehend our entire history as a people.
He was frequently called to serve his fellow citizens in places of public trust. In 1760, '56 and '61 he was Surveyor of Highways; he was Selectman in 1764.'66 and '68; Assessor and Parish Clerk in 1769; Moderator of North Reading parish in 1767, '72, '74 and '78. -pp64-65

 The Upton Memorial: A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of John Upton, of North Reading, Mass. ... Printed for Private Use Bath, Me. 1874

The book has a sketch of Amos Upton's house between pages 64 and 65:

The children of Deacon Amos Upton were—

Amos4, born Oct. 3, 1742; married, 1st Edith Upton4, daughter of Francis,; 2d Joanna Bruce,
3d Hannah Haskell.

Benjamin4, born May 7, 1745; married, 1st Rebecca Putnam. 2d Elizabeth (White) Cowley.

Sarah4, born Nov. 22, 1748; died young.

Eunice4, born Dec. 2. 1751; married, 1st George Upton of Danvers, son of Paul Upton, ; 2d___ Richardson.

 Nathaniel4, born Nov. 28, 1753: married, 1st Sarah Flint, 2d Jerusha Upton, daughter of Jabez

Sarah4, born April 9, 1757; married Job Bancroft of Reading, Jan. 10, 1782.

Rebecca4, born June 28, 1761; married Ephraim Pratt of North Reading, Feb. 24, 1785.

 Eliab4, born 176-; died young.

John4, born June 12, 1768 ; married Hannah Hart.-p67

Notice that three of Amos and Sarah's children married Upton cousins. Another two
married members of two other families related to me, the Haskells and the Bancrofts.

To be continued,

WHEN JUNIOR ISN'T SENIOR'S SON

I mentioned in my last post about 6x great grandfather Francis Upton that there were
two things in it I wanted to discuss in this post.

One has to do with names.

In my abstract of the list of the children of Francis and his wife Edith Herrick there are
these two entries:

Edith4, born Oct. 24, 1744: married Amos Upton  the third, oldest son of Deacon Amos Upton, Senior. Feb. 13, 1760. 

Ruth4, born Nov. 2, 1748; married Amos Upton, Junior., son of Ebenezer Upton of Reading, June 30, 1772.

Confusing, isn't it? You'd think that Deacon Amos Upton's son Amos would be the Amos Junior, and that his his cousin Amos Upton, son of Ebenezer Upton, would be just plain Amos Upton.
But that's not how our colonial ancestors did things when there was a bunch of people living
in the same town with the same name. The people responsible for keeping birth, marriage, or death records went by date of birth, not by who was related to who:  

Deacon Amos Upton was born in 1717 in Danvers

Amos Upton Junior, son of Ebenezer  was born May 6 1738

Amos Upton the third, son of Deacon Amos Upton was born Oct 3 1742

According to the index of The Upton Memorial there were ten "Amos Uptons" born in
the area between 1717 and 1817.  I imagine there may have been several instances of
some of the labels changing as older ones died off and new ones were born.
 
So if you are looking for your colonial ancestor John Smith, Jr. and you find a record for one,
don't just assume it's the person you are looking for, because it could be another relative living
in the same town.

The second item is just something that caught my eye  about Francis Upton's signature
on his will. I had zoomed in on the document and it looks like it was originally written
faintly and then written over more darkly. Was the original too faint to read  and had to be
rewritten? Did someone else write his name for Francis for him to use as a model to
write his own name?

It's not important, but it's one of those little oddities I have run into researching my
family tree that makes me "go hmmmmm".

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 9: FRANCIS UPTON

Another of my Upton ancestors for the 2015 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 
challenge:

William Upton and Mary Maber's son Francis is my 6x great grandfather.  John Adams
Vinton has this to say about him in his The Upton Memorial:

Francis Upton 3, ( William2, John 1). brother of the preceding; born in Danvers. May 13. 1712; married, first, Phebe Swallow of Reading, May 13, 1735, his birthday; second, Edith Herrick. Dec. 2. 1741.

They resided in North Reading, near where the Congregational meeting-house now is.

He died in the winter of 1775-6; his will having been proved Jan. 30, 1776. He mentions his ten daughters by name, and makes his son-in-law, Amos Upton, Jr., the husband of his daughter Ruth, sole executor. The witnesses are Benjamin Upton, William Upton and Ebenezer Upton.

His children, all by second wife, and all daughters, were—
Phebe4, born April 25, 1742; never married; died Nov. 20, 1819, aged 78.

Edith4, born Oct. 24, 1744: married Amos Upton  the third, oldest son of Deacon Amos Upton, Senior. Feb. 13, 1760.

Miriam4, born Oct. 7, 1746: married Nehemiah Herrick of Reading, Oct. 19, 1768.

Ruth4, born Nov. 2, 1748; married Amos Upton, Junior., son of Ebenezer Upton of Reading, June 30, 1772.

Dorcas4, born 1750; married John Upton, July 4. 1786.

Hannah4, born 1753; married Stephen Richardson of Middleton, Nov. 14, 1780.

Jerusha4, born 1755; married, 1st Jacob Fuller. born Jan. 3, 1748, son of Jacob Fuller of Middleton; 2d Samuel Small.

Lucia or Lucy4, born about 1757.

Eunice1, born 1760; married Samuel Kimball of Boxford, July 23, 1782.

Sarah4, born 1762; married Dec. 30. 1784, Joseph Peabody5, born June 23. 1753, son of Jonathan Peabody of Boxford. They lived in Danvers.-pp52-54

I had found Francis' will earlier this year over at Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers,
1638-1881 at  AmericanAncestors:

From Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)

There's a few things in this that I want to discuss in my next post.