Abby: The People

Abby is very involved in her community and in the entire northeast region, so she mentions many people in her diary. Other than her immediate family, though, these people were difficult to find. There were some common surnames in Penobscot at the time that many people shared (Allen, Gray, Snow, Perkins, Grindle, and Condon, just to name a few). Despite her involvement in the town, I think that Abby’s immediate family were the ones that really meant a lot to her.

  • Blanchard Roberts (1875-1977). “Blanche,” as Abby called him, helped Abby around the farm and was close to the family. He was born in South Penobscot to Newell (1842-1919) and Jane (Turner, 1846-1897), and was one of 7 children. In 1900, just a year after the diary, he is listed as a Farm Laborer, presumably because he was employed by the Condons. He married Dora Bowden (1880-1955) in 1901 and they would go on to have 6 children together- Jannie (1901-1970), Ruth (1902-1922), Grace (1907-2004), Cora (1911-2005), Donald (1915-1944), and Elmer (1922-1970). He did receive draft papers for WWI in 1917, but I’m not sure of the details of his involvement. Blanche would eventually leave farming and be employed in the paper mills starting in 1910, first as a woodworker, then a Beater Man, a Sulphite Worker, and lastly as a Stock Regulator. Dora died in 1955 in Oxford, Maine and Blanche died in 1977 in Cumberland, Maine at the age of 102. I wonder what he thought of all the changes that he saw between 1875 and 1977…

  • Abby had 6 siblings- Eliza (1833-1862), Franklin (1835-1905), Nancy (1837-1843), Galen (1841-1842), Elijah (1844-1866), and Edna (1846-1898). Frank had three children with his wife, Phoebe (Littlefield, 1837-1923)- Isadora (1859-1865), Carl (1868-abt1933), and Norris (1870-1947). Abby was particularly close to these nephews and included them in her businesses and will.

    Both Frank and Phoebe were born in Penobscot and married in 1857. He was a farmer. Isadora died at just only 6 years old from dysentery, leaving Frank and Phoebe with the two boys. They would live and work on their farm until their deaths- Frank in 1905 and Phoebe in 1923. They are both buried in Penobscot.

    Carl married Frances (Harriman, 1872-1896) before he was 21 years old and they had three children together- Galen (1889-1947), Roland (1891-1954), and Earle (1893-1963). Tragically, Frances died in 1896 from tuberculosis at the age of 24, leaving Carl and their three children behind. They didn’t live with their father after that; Galen went to live with his maternal grandparents, James and Abbie Harriman, and I’m not sure what happened to Roland and Earle. I can’t find them in the 1900 census, but Carl is listed as living with his parents that year and the children aren’t there. In the diary the year before, Carl accompanies Abby to Florida without the children too. As far as I know, he never remarried. He is living with his mother and Roland in 1910, with her again in 1920, and is a boarder in a house in 1930. He works as a carpenter and laborer. I don’t have a specific date of death, but he doesn’t show up in the historical record after 1930. The three children all go on to get married and have children.

    Norris, or “Nor” as Abby refers to him, married Lizzie (Condon Varnum, 1864-1922) in 1887 and they had seven children- James Roy (1888-1962), Ray Wilbur (1889-1966), Olive Laura (1891-1978), Claire Orcutt (1892-1908), Fred Norris (1894-1964), Doris Lena (1896-1981), and Frank Gilbert (1902-1977). He worked for Abby for many years, being listed as a Manufacturer, a Superintendent at the knitting factory, and a Retail Merchant at the General Store at various times. Tragically, Lizzie died in 1922 from sclerosis of the spinal cord. Norris lived for another 24 years; he died in 1947 and is buried in Penobscot with his family.