Thomas Jefferson Copeland (1801-1877) ~ 52 Ancestors #45

Thomas Jefferson Copeland was born in Boston to Nathaniel Copeland (who died in 1803) and Mary Page (1771-1847). 

He was living in Norridgewock, Maine, by 1840 and Calais, Maine, by 1843. He died March 2, 1877, in Calais and is buried in the local cemetery. His FindAGrave memorial includes a transcript of a local obituary with additional information than what I found in The Kennebec Journal.

The Kennebec Journal, 28 March 1877, p. 3, col. 3 (Newspapers.com).

Copeland Cenotaphs in Maine ~ 52 Ancestors #37

A cenotaph is a cemetery marker placed in honor of a person whose remains are elsewhere.

I have a few ancestors who have what appear to be two burial locations, but it turns out that they are buried in one place and have a cenotaph in another.

My second great-grandmother, Sarah (Lowell) Copeland, was born in Calais, Maine, in 1833, living there until the death of her husband, Henry Clay Copeland in 1912 (in Calais). Soon after, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to live with her daughter, Katherine (Copeland) Dunbar and her husband, William Dunbar. When she died on January 9, 1916, her remains were buried in the Copeland-Dunbar plot (Cherry Avenue, Section 6, Lot 49) in Forest Hills Cemetery, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston, not too far from Cambridge.

S. L. C.
1833 - 1916

Amos Townsend ~ 52 Ancestors #32

I am not fully convinced of all the details that I shared in the Surname Saturday post about this ancestral line and I am trying to find additional information on my Townsend ancestors.

While I work on the Townsend family, I will share two brief advertisements that I found that mentioned my 4th great-grandfather, Dr. Amos Townsend (1779-1862), of Norridgewock, Maine.

Kennebec (Maine) Journal, 20 August 1830, p. 4

Davenport's Celebrated Eye Water!
   Which needs only be used, to be highly approved
of for all sorts of weak and sore eyes. From among
the numerous certificates offered in favor of this
excellent collyrium, one only will be published
from Dr Amos Townsend of Norridgewock.
   This may certify I have used Davenport's Eye
Water in a number of cases and have never known
it to fail in one instance.           AMOS TOWNSEND.
   February 23, 1830.

And I guess Dr. Townsend continued to support this "Eye Water" because two years later, he is still mentioned in the advertisement in the Kennebec Journal.

Love and Marriage: Henry and Sarah, 1858 ~ 52 Ancestors #18

Maine Marriages, 1771-1907, FamilySearch

My second great-grandparents, Henry C. Copeland and Sarah Lowell, both of Calais, Maine, were married on Wednesday, December 15, 1858. They submitted their intention to marry with the city clerk on December 9. (By the way, the City Clerk's name is Samuel Lambe; it took some creativity to confirm that signature.)

Calais, Washington County, Maine, is one of the northernmost locations in my family tree. It is 330 miles from Boston, a long way to travel in the mid-19th century.

Maine to Minnesota: So Far Away ~ 52 Ancestors #5

This week's theme is So Far Away.

I'm always interested to see an ancestral family where one or two of the siblings move far away, leaving most of the family close to home (see last week's post at Wells Siblings Stayed Close to Home).

Joseph Smith (1773-1852) and his wife Martha Robinson (1775-1857), originally from Litchfield, Kennebec County, Maine, and who died in Lee, Penobscot County, Maine, had eleven children, born between 1795 and 1817: Sarah, Hannah, Eliphalet, Mary, Tappan, Braddock, Martha Jane, Agna, Joseph, Elijah, and Clara Augusta. Almost all of their children were born in Litchfield, Kennebec County, Maine. Most of them died in Maine. The oldest, daughter Sarah, is my third great-grandmother and I wrote about her at Matrilineal Monday and Found a Death at FindAGrave.

However, at least one of Sarah's younger brothers, Joseph, decided to move west: over 1,500 miles to Minneapolis, Minnesota. He appeared in the Minnesota territorial census in September 1857, a census that the territory had to take in order to qualify for statehood, which was official in May 1858.

In 1860, in Saint Anthony, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Joseph, age 47, was working as a carpenter and owned $200 in personal property. His 32-year-old wife, Lucy, and his four older children, Frederick, Hellen, Angus, and George, were born in Maine. The youngest, six-month-old Anna, was born in "St. A., Minn." Don't you love when a census gives you this detail!

1860 U.S. Census, Hennepin County, Minnesota, population schedule, St. Anthony, p. 58 (penned), dwelling 521, family 458, Joseph Smith; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 February 2020); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 570.

Sunday's Obituary ~ Henry Copeland 1912

I found the following obituary on MyHeritage for my second great-grandfather, Henry Clay Copeland. It gives a bit more information about him.

Henry Copeland obituary, Lewiston [Maine] Evening Journal, 8 November 1912, p. 16, col. 6; digital images, MyHeritage (https://www.myheritage.com : accessed 22 November 2019).

Sarah (Lowell) Copeland Photos About 1910 ~ 52 Ancestors #31

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Oldest.

My second great-grandmother, Sarah Lowell, was born 30 December 1833, in Calais, Maine, and spent just about her entire life there. She married Henry Clay Copeland in 1858 and had two sons and one daughter. I shared a brief biography of her at Matrilineal Monday ~ Sarah Lowell.

I have two photographs of her that I think were taken on the same day.

Her son, Lowell Copeland, wrote the captions on the back, noting that he believed his mother was between 75 and 80 years old, dating these photos to between 1908 and 1913. I love that he dated his caption 2/27/30 and of course, that it's in his handwriting.

Copeland Father and Son Travel to Maine in 1904 ~ 52 Ancestors #28

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt and this week's writing prompt is Travel.

I've been enjoying scanning photographs from my aunt's collection. Both my aunt and my mother have photographs from their father's trip to visit his paternal grandparents in Calais, Maine, from Winnetka, Illinois, in 1904, a trip of over 1,200-miles!

This was a trip "back home" to see Henry Clay Copeland (1832-1912) and his wife Sarah (Lowell) Copeland (1833-1916). I can't tell from my collection of photos if my great-grandmother, Ethel, or grandfather's 18-month-old sister, Betty, went on this trip; there don't appear to be any family group photos.

What a trip this must have been for not-quite-four-year-old Lowell Townsend Copeland! At this age, my grandfather was known as Townsend, but his nickname of Towgie or Towg is noted on the back of some of the photos.

Lowell Copeland and his son L. Townsend Copeland in Calais, Maine

The back of another copy of this photograph reads: "Taken Oct 1904 in New Brunswick - beautiful drive - L.C. [Lowell Copeland] and Towgie [Lowell Townsend Copeland]."

From the back: St. Stephen / Towg - New Brunswick, Jul 1904

St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, is across the St. Croix River from Calais. The date on the back of this photo suggests that they were in Calais by July of 1904.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Henry Clay Copeland ~ 52 Ancestors #20

I am participating in this year's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Each week has an optional writing prompt but this week, instead of using the prompt, I'm sharing another photograph from my aunt.

Henry Clay Copeland was born in Norridgewock, Maine, in 1832, and died in 1912 in Calais, Maine. I don't think I've ever seen a photograph of him and my aunt had four copies of this same image. This appears to be the clearest one.

Following is the backside of another of the images showing three different handwritten notes (suggesting he was 41 years old) as well as the photographer's imprint.

July 1873
Henry Clay Copeland
[sideways:] Eastport - Aug. 21, 1873

The photographer was Davis Loring, owner of Loring's New Rooms in Eastport, Maine. (I looked him up at Langdon's List of 19th & Early 20th Century Photographers.)

I have written about this second great-grandfather at Henry Copeland ~ Lumberman and Military Monday ~ Henry Clay Copeland.

Henry Clay Copeland

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Lowell Copeland

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Lowell Townsend Copeland

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My mother

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Me

I Found My Great-Grandfather on DeadFred!

DeadFred is a "genealogy photo archive," a website where people upload old photos to connect them with family members. Visitors can easily search to see if they recognize anyone and request that a photo of a relative be mailed.

I have known about this website for a long time and every once in a while, will check to see if one of my relatives has a photo there. Last week, I was reminded of the site and entered a few family surnames into the search box. Imagine my surprise when I found one identified with the name Lowell Copeland!

I contacted the person who posted the photo and he mailed it to me. When I asked him where he found the photo, he wrote: "Found 7+ years ago in an antiques mall in Berkeley Springs WV." (I have no idea how it got to West Virginia!)

The photographer is Ritz & Hastings, at 147 Tremont St. in Boston. The website Broadway Photographs has a page about this photographer which helps me narrow down the date of the photo to 1882-1884, when Lowell Copeland was 20-22.

As far as I know, Lowell Copeland did not attend college. His brother, Charles Townsend Copeland (Copey of Harvard), graduated from Harvard College in 1882, so perhaps this photograph was taken on a visit to Boston for his brother's graduation.

On the back, the name is written in distinctive handwriting, but I have not found this handwriting in my other records.

Besides the fact that Lowell Copeland is a relatively uncommon name, I recognized him because of another photograph that I have which was taken a few years earlier.

Surname Saturday ~ Smith of Massachusetts and Maine

Watertown, Mass. from Wikipedia.

My immigrant Smith ancestor is Thomas Smith, who was born about 1601 and died in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, on March 10, 1692/93 (Watertown Vital Records).

There are a few online family trees that have a birth location for Thomas Smith in England, and although I'm pretty sure he was born in England, until I see a primary source for a specific birth location, I don't plan to include it in my family tree database.

It is unclear as to when he arrived in Massachusetts, though there is a suggestion that he arrived in 1635. Robert Charles Anderson states that this Thomas Smith is no relation to other Smiths in Watertown at this time.

He was definitely in Watertown by 1637, when he was admitted as a freeman on May 17, 1637, and owned land in Watertown.

His wife was Mary Knopp, daughter of William Knopp and Judith Tue. Thomas and Mary had ten children, not all of whose births are recorded in the Watertown Vital Records.

His will was dated March 16, 1687/88, in Watertown and he died March 10, 1693. His will leaves 40 shillings to "his grand child James Smith of Pascattaqua." This indicates that this family was just north of what is now known as the New Hampshire-Maine border.

I descend from his eldest son, James (father of the grandchild James mentioned in Thomas' will).

Generation 2:
James Smith the son of Thomas and
Mary Smith born the 18th - 7 m

Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
"Watertown, Massachusetts, Births, Marriages and Deaths." 1637 record of birth for James Smith

James was born on September 18, 1637, in Watertown, Massachusetts, to Thomas and Mary Smith.

By 1668, he was in the area of York, Maine when he appears in deed records.

York County, Maine

The U.S. Wills and Probates collection at Ancestry.com is worth the subscription price for the wealth of information that can be found for early American ancestors. Although there are several online family trees that have James Smith dying in 1701 (that's a different James Smith), I know that he died between August 10, 1687, when he wrote his will, and September 14, 1687, when his will was probated in Berwick, York County, Maine. The will bequeaths half of his land and houses to his eldest son James when he reaches the age of 21, implying that the son James was born after 1866. (A later document indicates that he was born about 1675; he was 63 in July 1738.)

Her married Martha Mills, daughter of Thomas Mills and Mary Wadleigh and had at least four children (who were mentioned in his will): James, Mary, Elizabeth, and John.

I descend from his oldest son, James, who was mentioned in his grandfather Thomas' will (as noted above).

Generation 3:
James Smith (about 1675-17??) married Martha Bragdon and had six children: Joseph, James, Daniel, Mary, Martha, and Ebenezer

I descend from his oldest son, Joseph. This James is my weakest link in this Smith ancestry.  I need to dig into probate and land records and possibly other unknown-to-me local records in order to confirm this connection with more authority.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Young Lowell Copeland

My great grandfather, Lowell Copeland, was born in Calais, Maine, on October 5, 1862, and died in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 24, 1935. I have collected quite a few images of him, the following framed image thanks to my second cousin, Suzanne.

Copey of Harvard, My Second Great Uncle - 52 Ancestors #35

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is School Days, since it's back to school time in the U.S.

I have been writing about my direct line ancestors, but I would like to take this opportunity to write about a second great uncle who was quite well known in his time as a professor of English at Harvard College.

Charles Townsend Copeland was born on April 27, 1860, in Calais, Maine, as the oldest child of Henry Clay Copeland and Sarah (Lowell) Copeland. He had a younger brother, Lowell Copeland, and a much younger sister, Sarah Katherine Copeland.

Image courtesy Amazon.com

There is a wonderful biography of him, Copey of Harvard: A man who became a legend during his lifetime, by J. Donald Adams, published in 1960 by Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston, of which I have two copies. Much of what I share comes from this biography, which was written by a former student, and really gives a wonderful taste of the personalities not only of Charles but other members of his family, colleagues at Harvard, and many of his students. Adams' sources include many letters written to Copey, from Copey, and to the author, provided to him during his writing of the book.

There are also some wonderful photographs in the book of him and some of his ancestors, but I can't share them here because I'd probably be violating copyright.

~~~~~~~

Third Great Grandmother Elizabeth Sewall Willis of Boston - 52 Ancestors #33

I have been keeping up with the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, and often using her optional themes. I liked last week's theme ("32" third great-grandparents) so much that I will continue to write about a third great-grandparent if the optional theme doesn't work for me.

Third great-grandmother, Elizabeth Sewall Willis, was born in Portland, Maine, on September 12, 1820, to Benjamin Willis and Elizabeth Sewall May. She was their second child; her older brother was Hamilton Willis. Sadly, her mother died when she was two years old, supposedly after the birth of a third child, who did not survive. It doesn't appear that her father remarried.

Her grandfather was Joseph May and her first cousin was Louisa May Alcott. Her daughter, Eliza May Wells, married Elizabeth's first cousin (Eliza's first cousin once removed), Samuel Sewall Greeley.

On November 6, 1838, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, she married Thomas Goodwin Wells as his second wife. (I wrote about discovering his first wife here.)

They had five children, three of whom survived her:
Eliza May Wells (1839-1880)
Henry Willis Wells (1841-1864)
Louisa Wells (1846-1927)
Benjamin Willis Wells (1856-1923)
Ruth Lyman Wells (1862-1943)

As I have noted before, this family gets confusing because there are so many in different generations and different branches with the same names: Eliza/Elizabeth, Louisa, Ruth, Benjamin, Thomas.

An 1882 passport application (from Ancestry.com's U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925) confirms her birth date and birth place (as she reported it), as well as provides me with a physical description and her signature.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Found a Death Date at FindAGrave!

I recently had a FindAGrave.com photo request fulfilled for my third great-grandmother, Sarah (Smith) Lowell whom I wrote about here. I had been looking for her death date for years! I now know she died on March 1, 1884.

She is buried in Calais Cemetery, Calais, Maine. Her FindAGrave memorial links to memorials for her husband, parents and children.

Many thanks to FindAGrave volunteer Janice Gower for taking this photograph. She also provided the following transcription:

REUBEN LOWELL
Died May 18 1837
AE. 42 Yrs.
SARAH LOWELL
Died March 1, 1884
AE 88 Yrs
SARAH TRUE
EGBERT & REUBEN
Infant Children
FREDERICK AUGUSTUS
Died in San Francisco, CA
Jan 9th 1854
AE 25 Yrs.

How Do You Spell That? - Judith Farrar / Farrow - 52 Ancestors #15

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is How Do You Spell That?

Before there was consistent spelling of names, you can't be sure how an ancestor's name might be spelled in official records because whoever is writing down the name is spelling it the way he or she is hearing it. Because of this (and the changing of accents?), a surname can change from generation to generation (and even for the same person during his or her lifetime).

My 4th great-grandmother, Judith Farrar, was born in 1773 as the oldest of ten children of David Farrow (Farrar) and Judith Stodder (Stoddard). Judith was probably born in Massachusetts, though I have not found her birth record (only in secondary sources). These names certainly make you wonder how the family pronounced the names.

David Farrow Jr. of Hingham + Judith Stodder of Sci[tuate] Jan. 28, 1773
Ancestry.com: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, for Hingham

Massachusetts Town and Vital marriage records (in both Hingham and Scituate) show David Farrow of Hingham marrying Judith Stodder of Scituate. However, I always look for Farrar and Farrow to search for Judith, her siblings and her father's line and I look for Stodder and Stoddard to search for Judith's mother's line.

A story found in A History of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900, published in 1915 by The Journal Printshop of Lewiston, Maine, (found at Google Books), tells of the Farrar family arriving in Buckfield (in about 1789) and Judith meeting her husband, Thomas Lowell (who shot a bear). I blogged about this story at Local History of Buckfield, Maine.

Very soon after this meeting, Judith married Thomas in New Gloucester, Cumberland, Maine, on July 4, 1790. They settled in Buckfield, Oxford, Maine, where they had eight children. Sadly, her husband, Thomas, died in 1810 in Buckfield.

Soon after her husband's death, Judith moved with her children to Litchfield, Maine, about 30 miles east of Buckfield. The 1850 and 1860 U.S. Censuses show Judith Lowell living in Augusta, Maine, with her youngest daughter's family (Judith and William Sibley). She died there on October 31, 1861 and is buried in Wall Cemetery in Augusta, where her gravestone notes that she was the wife of Thomas Lowell. (See her FindAGrave memorial.) However, I have still not found where Thomas is buried.

I descend from the parents of Judith Farrar (Farrow) as follows:

David Farrow (Farrar)  =  Judith Stodder (Stoddard)

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Judith Farrar (Farrow)

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Reuben Lowell

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Sarah Lowell

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Lowell Copeland

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Lowell Townsend Copeland

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My mother

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Me

Surname Saturday ~ Townsend of England, Massachusetts and Maine

My Townsend line is a crumbling brick wall. I am working to find additional primary source evidence confirming the following line.

Norfolk County, England
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The immigrant Townsend ancestor appears to be Thomas Townsend. He was the third son of Henry Townsend and Margaret, baptized at Bracon-Ash, Norfolk County, England, on 8 January 1594/95.

He probably had at least two and possibly three wives.

He was in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts by 1638, when he was granted 60 acres at Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. He arrived too late to be included in the Great Migration Study Project (which goes through 1635).

He is found in various records in Lynn, serving on a jury, signing various petitions and deeding land to a couple of his sons.

Thomas Townsend married Mary (possibly Newgate) as his second or third wife but it's unclear as to who is the mother of the children:
Thomas (b. about 1636 or about 1640)
Samuel (b. 1638)
John (b. about 1644)
Elizabeth (b. about 1648)

Mary is identified as mother of youngest son Andrew, born in 1654.

(Interestingly, there is also a theory (note: only a theory, no evidence) that he might be the father of Lydia Townsend, who married Lawrence Copeland, the immigrant Copeland ancestor. See Surname Saturday ~ Copeland. And Lawrence and Lydia's first child was named Thomas.)

Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Immigrant Thomas Townsend died in Lynn on December 22, 1677. His wife, Mary, died February 28, 1692/93. I descend from his son Thomas.

This Townsend line seemed to move to a different community in every generation. Following is my Townsend line which includes a series of maps showing Thomas' descendants' westward movement within Massachusetts.

Julia Elvira (Townsend) Copeland of Maine - 52 Ancestors: #7

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is "Love," which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I am going with the "who do I love to research" angle:

What ancestor do I love to research? When I am working on breaking down a brick wall, it is the ancestors and family in that line whom I love to research.

Last week, I wrote about my 4th great grandfather, Doctor Amos Townsend. I don't yet have enough information on his Townsend line to write about his ancestors, so I thought I'd share more about his daughter, Julia Elvira Townsend, my 3rd great grandmother.

Julia Elvira Townsend was born on November 1, 1808, in Norridgewock, Somerset County, Maine, the second of eight children of Amos Townsend and his wife, Tryphena Ellis. [Source: Norridgewock, Maine, "Town and vital records, 1774-1891," index at FamilySearch.org.]

Doctor Amos Townsend - 52 Ancestors: #6

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is "So Far Away." I decided to use this theme to share what I have been learning about a 4th great-grandfather, previously a brick wall ancestor, but one whose family ended up pretty far away from each other (in early 19th century United States).

Amos Townsend was born in October 1779, to Isaac Townsend and Rachel Crosby and baptized in New Salem, Franklin County, Massachusetts. I have found seven siblings born in New Salem, but other, secondary sources indicate that there were likely more.

According to Henrietta Danforth Wood's book Early Days of Norridgewock (Freeport, Maine: The Freeport Press, 1933), Amos Townsend moved with his father, Isaac Townsend, to Oneida County, New York, when he was about 20 years old (so about 1800). It was in Oneida County that Amos studied medicine and became a doctor. I have not been able to find the family in the 1800 U.S. Census.

Most of this Townsend family moved farther west in upstate New York, (Genesee County, later Wyoming County) and at least one brother to Michigan.

Created using Google Earth, showing locations where Townsend family members lived 1779-1850's.

Amos, however, moved from Oneida County, New York, to Maine, where he married Tryphena Ellis on June 23, 1805, in Winslow, Kennebec County.

Winslow, Kennebec, Maine, "Town and vital records, 1771-1892"

By the Rev'd Joshua Cusman~
Doctor Amos Townsend of Fairfield and Miss
Tryphena Ellis of Waterville June 23, 1805~

1875 Burglary Attempt Thwarted

While I was looking for information about my second great grand uncle, Reuben B. Lowell, I came across the following news story in the Portland, Maine Daily Press from October 12, 1875, at GenealogyBank.com:

Washington County [Maine]

  A few evenings since an attempt was made

to enter the residence of Mr. Reuben Lowell of

Milltown, while he was absent at Calais. His

wife, daughter and servant were the only ones

at home, and seeing the shadow of the burglar

upon the curtain, they armed themselves with

any available weapons, Mrs. Lowell taking her

husband's revolver, the daughter a carving

knife and the servant was sent up stairs to

blow a dinner horn to attract the neighbors.

The man fortunately decided not to break in,

and made his exit not knowing what was in

store for him.

This is Reuben B. Lowell who went to California in 1849. At the time of this attempted burglary, his wife, Elizabeth was about 42 years old and his two daughters were 11 and 18.