August Deaths Remembered

    A year ago, when I published a piece on the three citizens of East Deering who are interred at the Presumpscot/Grand Trunk Cemetery, I was recuperating from back surgery.  The reconstruction project for the Presumpscot School prevented easy access to the cemetery.  I am pleased to report that accept for work to replant the grass on the soccer field before the children and staff return to a new school year, the cemetery is more easily accessible, and available to visit.  On the weekend, parking is available.

    At least once or twice a month, Joel and I go to the site to check on the cemetery's condition and fo a bit of cleanup of garden waste.  Once in a while, we have picked up other items which may be a sign that someone camped out nearby.  I am pleased to report that there has been no visible damage in general.

    With Fall just around the corner, I am hoping to schedule our annual  Cleanup and Planting Party with the help of our Friends of the Grand Trunk Cemetery and the Portland Machigonne Service Unit.  We generally shoot for October when we can celebrate the birthday of Juliette Gordan Low, the founder of Girl Scouts with a service project at the cemetery and Hallloween activities.

    I will keep followers of this blog posted about any upcoming plans for the Cleanup Party.

*******************************************************************************************

    Please check this blog for articles about Benjamin Sawyer, Crispus Sawyer and John Barbour who died during August.

Remembering Deaths in the Month of May

     On this last day of the month of May, having just celebrated Memorial Day on Monday,  it is appropriate to remember two women and two men who lived in the East Deering neighborhood of Portland, and died during this month . 

   For families, here on the East Coast, and particularly in New England, the month of May and Memorial Day is for remembering and honoring  our dead;  certainly our War dead, but also family members whose graves we decorate appropriately with flowers.

    Since the beginning of the project to recover the remnant that is the Back Cove/Presumpscot/ Grand Trunk Cemetery, setting out American flags to honor the Veterans of Revolution, War of 1812 and the Civil War has been a priority.  Additional flags are also placed here for the unknown soldiers, who probably lay in unmarked graves in this burial ground.  

    Remember, only 47 names survive in record, of the 197 burials thought to have taken place between the 1740's and the final burial which took place in 1894.

Flags decorate the graves of Francis Smith, War of 1812, and
Simon Davis, Revolutionary War.

Honoring the Unknown 

The Grand Trunk Cemetery Veterans Memorial

        Remembering the dead for me, is a way of connecting to history, both on a personal and communal level.  It's true, the dead to be remembered today,  lived a long time ago. However,  their lives, though unfamiliar to most of us, laid the foundation for the generations that followed, not in monumental feats perhaps, but by the everyday-ness of their existence.  

        William Sawyer, was the forth child of thirteen children born to Anthony (1735 -1804) and Susannah Marston Sawyer (1738 - 1819).  He was the third  son, and was born in 1763.  

    On January 3rd, 1793, he married Tabitha Graves (1768 - 1857), the daughter of Lieut. Crispus Graves.  The couple were married by the Rev. Caleb Bradley.

    

    Sadly, William and Tabitha  lost two children in the winter of 1800:  

a daughter, age 2 years, born in 1798, died on February 1st, and her brother, William Jr. age 6, born in 1798, died on February 2nd, just on day later.  

    William and Tabitha Sawyer did have other children who survived into adulthood,  Until recently, I found evidence of two male children:

Joseph Merrill Sawyer (1795 - 1876) and Crispus Sawyer (1804 - 1873). Both brothers are interred at the Grand Trunk Cemetery.

    Recently, another child appeared in  several family trees:  a Hannah Sawyer (1810 - 1859).  I wonder if she is named after her sister who died at the age of two, or her grandmothers; both  named  Susannah /Hannah?

    William Sawyer was a farmer who lived in close proximity to his brother John Sawyer and his wife Abigail Graves Sawyer and his brother-in-law, Andrew Graves and his wife, Tabitha.  William and John inherited land through their wives originally belonging to Lieut. Crispus Graves.

    The Grand Trunk  Cemetery Memorial is an enclosure containing the government issued markers of those Veterans we were able to identify, but whose actually grave sites are unknown.  William Sawyer, War of 1812, his brother John Sawyer, Revolutionary War and War of 1812, and his father-in-law, Lieut. Crispus Graves, Revolutionary War, and, his brother-in-law, Andrew Graves, War of 1812,  are memorialized  here.

              William Sawyer, died on May 14, 1825, at the age of 62 years.

    Emeline Blake was born in June of 1823 to Samuel (1793 - 1846) and Martha H. Goold Blake ( 1783 - 1857) in what was then considered part of  Westbrook.  Emeline was one of six children born to the couple.

    There is no record of what caused Emeline's death on May 15th , 1842 at the age of 19 years and 11 months.  There once was a gravestone lovingly erected in her memory which has since been lost,  it read:

    Lucy Hodsdon or Hodgton was born in Kittery, Maine , c. 1769 to Benjamin Hodsdon (1702 - 17740.  Her mother is unknown.

    Very little is known about Lucy  prior to her marriage to William Blake. In the Rev. Caleb Bradley's journal, we know that Lucy married William Blake (1774 - 1853.) on March 23rd, 1805.  Unfortunately, Lucy Blake died just two years later on May 26, 1807,  at the age of 38 years, and is buried along with William Blake  and his second wife, Sarah Blake.  Their graves are unmarked.

Copy of Death Notice for Mrs. Lucy Blake

      Isaiah L. Frank, born on December 18, 1809 to William ( February 11, 1774, born  in Gray, Maine - February 11, 1836, died  in Windham, Maine) and Nancy Lara Frank ( November 29, 1785 - January 14, 1878  died in Windham).

    On November 15, 1840, Isaiah Frank married Elizabeth Ann Sawyer (1819/20 - 1890).  The couple resided on Lunt's Corner, Ocean  Street, now Avenue,  on a farm.  They had four children during their marriage:

Seward Frank (1845-1918), Albert H. Frank (1848 - 1929), Orin Frank (1850 - 1881), and Mary E. Frank (1853 - 1931).

    Isaiah L. Frank is the last person to be buried at the Presumpscot/Grand Trunk Cemetery . He died at the age of 84 years and 5 months on May 27, 1894.

    Before ending this post, I want to extend an invitation to visit the Presumpscot/Grand Trunk Cemetery.  Now that warmer weather is here and the cemetery is more accessible because  the school building project is nearly completed.  I understand that some work on the grounds will be finished once school is out in a few weeks.  On the weekends, parking is available behind the building and walking across the soccer field is easier.

    

    On May 21st, Joel and I, along with  special assistance from Lynda Allshouse, Patti Theriault, and Norma Sawyer spent time, raking leaves and debris from winter, cleaned out the garden beds, put down mulch and planted some annuals to prep for Memorial Day.  We placed the flags and wreaths to honor our Veterans as you noted earlier in this post.  

Our Friend, Norma Sawyer

Lynda Allshouse Planting Flowers in Zoe's Garden

    

    The mulch and flowers were purchased with donations we received from our Friends, Steve and Nancy Sawyer and Ron Romano.  We always appreciate the continued support for the cemetery and hope that those of you who plan to visit Maine this summer will stop by and spend a quiet moment.

*******************************************************

    Finally, over the course of this project, it's been my pleasure to meet many people, some only through communicating through this blog and on Facebook.  One such person is Ryan Noyes who has shared his on findings and research on the Noyes and Lunt families . Ryan has been very supportive of my attempts to share the stories of these early residents whose final resting place is this cemetery.   

    It was a delight to meet Ryan Noyes in person and , for Joel and I to have the opportunity to tour the cemetery with him before he returned to his home in Michigan.

    Ryan was here doing research and visiting the graves of relatives.  He also was fortunate to be present for the unveiling of the sign for the Noyes Park.  Here are a few photos taken at the cemetery.

    

    

April DeathsRemembered/Spring Blossoms at the GTC 2023

Author's Note:  My apologies for this very brief post.  We have been away for two weeks and I'm still re-acclamating to being home.  I do, however want to call to mind the four individuals who died in the month of April and are interred at the Presumpscot/Grand Trunk Cemetery.  It is said that simply saying their names aloud, assures they will be remembered always!

Agnes Wilcox:  was born c. 1820 in Scotland and came to the United States with her first husband John Dixon and three children.  Sometime later, her husband died and she re-married George Wilcox.  Agnes Wilcox died at the age of 44 years old on April 2, 1864.  Her memorial stone is still intact and made of white marble.

Joanna Ilsley Galvin:  was one of nine children born to Jonathan (1738 -1809) and Dorcas Ingersoll Ilsley (1738 -1809), on February 14, 1769.  She married Irish School Master, Timothy Galvin shortly after his arrival in the United States.  Joanna was the mother of five children.  After her husband, Timothy's death, it appears Joanna went to Calais, Maine, probably with one of her sons until her death on April 4th, 1840.  There is some evidence that she may have been brought home to Portland, and laid to rest near her husband Tim and daughter Harriot Galvin.  A remnant of the grave site exists in the broken monument to Harriot Galvin.

Joseph Merrill:  was a resident of what is now East Deering, born in 1757 as one of the many Merrill's who settled in Maine.  Although his government issued monument memorializes his service in the Portland Rifle Company during the War of 1812 when he was about sixty years old, the truth is, he also served during the Revolutionary War when he was a much younger man.  Joseph Merrill was a farmer and apparently had a close relationship to Joseph Merrill Sawyer who became the executor of his will when he died.  Joseph Merrill died at the age of 65 on April 8, 1823.  The inscription on the monument has unfortunately started to fade.

Brackett Sawyer:  was born on March 19, 1775 to Zachariah (1732 - 1805) and Sarah Knight Sawyer (1735 - 1784).  He was the husband of Elizabeth Webb Sawyer (1782 - 1862), and the father of five children:  Brackett, (1817 - 1890), Almira, ((1801 - ?), Martha B., (1810 - 1887), John Skilling, (1815 - 1898), and Joel, (1804 - 1874).  Brackett Sawyer died on April 21st, 1851 at the age of 76 years.

Thomas Sawyer, Jr. : was the young twenty-two year old son of Thomas Sawyer who was a ship's captain, who died on April 21st, 1807.  Both he and his mother Susanna Sawyer are interred at the Presumpscot/Grand Trunk Cemetery.  Thomas Jr.'s monument was carved by the artist Bartlett Adams, and is still intact.  Visitors to the Cemetery who stop by the interpretive sign will recognize it as a marker on the map.

     Spring has finally arrived and the daffodils and spring hyacinths are in full bloom at the Presumpscot/ Grand Trunk Cemetery.  Each year since the beginning of the project to recover the ancient cemetery, Girl Scouts, their families and Friends of the Grand Trunk Cemetery gather to cleanup and plant bulbs.  This year, the array is so lovely.  Here are pictures to enjoy!  

     For those of you who live in the greater Portland area, I hope you will take the time to visit the cemetery and enjoy the spring blossoms.  Now that the school renovation and building project is nearly completed, there is parking in the back of the Presumpscot School on weekends.  During the week, and during school hours, it's best to use the walking path beside the playground to access the site.

    I am hoping to schedule a Spring Cleanup next month to prepare for Memorial Day.  We usually, schedule a time to lay flags and read the names of our deceased Veterans of the Revolution, War of 1812 and the Civil War.  I will keep followers of this blog posted! 

                                               Happy Spring to All!

March at the Grand Trunk Cemetery in 2023

Grand Trunk Cemetery Update     

Monday was a good day to go over to the Grand Trunk Cemetery. I wanted to check on the condition of the site now that it's warmer. Crocuses are up and daffodils are starting to poke their heads up. The school project looks like it's nearly done. The building project in what was the wooded area adjacent to the Cemetery is also, almost completed.

    Unfortunately, we found three grocery carts that someone managed to bring up from the Portland Food Co Op on Congress Street. One was in the Cemetery and the other two tossed over by the old railroad furnace. Joel picked up one, along with the spent wreaths and other trash.

    He went back to pickup the grocery carts with his truck and returned them to the Portland Food Co Op. We also spoke with a staff member from the school about a mattress and box spring that was left in the school wooded area. It's too bad people can sometimes be so disrespectful of sites like schools and cemeteries.

    None-the-less, the cemetery looks in good shape, but for the large and small tree branches that broke off the ancient trees.. No surprise, given the strong winds we have had with nearly every storm this season.

This stone was placed here in 2014, to remember
all the souls; known and unknown
interred in this sacred place.

Yellow, purple and white crocuses in bloom
in one of the small gardens.

Daffodils peeking up in Zoe's garden.

The interpretive sign looks good and ready for visitors.

The new addition to the Presumpscot School

If you look carefully, you will see there are two grocery carts by the fence.

Our Grand Trunk Cemetery Veterans Memorial

     There were seven deaths and burials during the month of March in the little village . Since I have previously written about each of these individuals in this blog, I invite readers to look for their stories in the pages of this work. For now, I will honor them by bringing forward their names and a few facts about them.

    Warren Small, who was the oldest of several children born to James, (1773-1845) and Lydia Howard Small, (1752 - 1834) in Limerick, York County Maine on April 21st, 1804, and died before his 20th birthday, on March 1st, 1824. He was 19 years old.

    His death noticed published on Tuesday, March 9, 1824 in the Weekly Eastern Argus, Vol XXI, Issue 1097 on page 3 reads as follows: 

DIED: In Westbrook, Mr. Warren Small, aged 18 years , and ten months.

    It appears the newspaper made a mistake with his age. The old death records do not indicate how or why Warren died as such a young man.

******************************************

    Three individuals from the Graves family died in the month of March: a father, Lieut. Crispus Graves, (1742 -March 14, 1818), his oldest daughter, Abigail Graves Sawyer, August 13, 1765 - March 10, 1848, and his grandson and namesake, Crispus Graves, (the younger) (1816 - March 15, 1879.

    Lieut. Crispus Graves was the son of William, (1693 - 1790) and Elizabeth Bean Graves, (1704 - 1732). There seems to be some controversy over whether his father is William or John Graves.

     However, the baptismal records from the First Church of Falmouth indicate this:

    "Graves of William and Elizabeth, Joseph, May 1730, Charles Johnson,March 28, 1732, John, 1735, Joanna, 1737, John, 1739, Crispus, 1742."

 

    The baptismal records also show this entry:

  

    "Graves of Crispus, Abigail, October 19, 1766.  Tabitha, December 28, 1767."

    

    Andrew Graves, the third child was not born until 1774, and by this time, changes were made to the parish, and the second parish was formed. 

    At the age of 23, Crispus Graves married Susannah Merrill , (1745 - 1793), on May 2, 1765.  They were married for 28 years until Susannah's death  at the age of 48.

    Four years before his death, Crispus Graves married Isabella Hutchinson, a widow in 1814.  Shortly after his death, Isabella conveyed the bulk of her deceased husband's estate of real and personal property to his children Abigail Graves Sawyer, Tabitha Graves Sawyer, Andrew Graves, and their heirs.

    Crispus Graves served in the 18 Regiment, Continental Troops and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, a field appointment, in  1776.  

    We also know he was received land grants for his service in the Revolutionary War.  He purchased and  owned land from the banks of the Presumpscot River in Westbrook and, we believe , owned a mill in Yarmouth.

    Lieut. Crispus Graves  died at the age of 76 years old on March 14, 1818.

**********************************************************

    Abigail Graves Sawyer, the oldest child and daughter

of Lieut. Crispus ,(1742 - 1818) and Susanna Merrill Graves, (1745 - 1800), was born August 13, 1765 in Falmouth, now Portland. 

     On April 22, 1790, at the age of 24, she married John Sawyer, (1760 - 1842.)  Over the course of twelve years, Abigail gave birth to five children.  Three daughters and one son died as very youmg children: 

 Susanna, 1794 - January 16, 1800, aet. 6 years.

Nabby, 1796 - January 25, 1800, aet. 4 years

John, July 1801 - October 2, 1802. aet. 1 year, 3 months.

Dorcus, December 1806 - March 5, 1807, aet/ 3 months, 8 days.

   In all probability, these four children are buried near their grandparents, and their parents, in graves, now unmarked, but included among the 197 burials that took place at the Presumpscot, Grand Trunk Cemetery.

    A son, Joel Sawyer, was born in 1805 and survived to the age of 69.  He died in 1874.

    Abigail Graves Sawyer, died at the age of 82 years, on March 10, 1848.  She and her husband John Sawyer were married for 52 years.  During her long life, she maintained a close relationship with her sister, Tabitha Graves Sawyer, wife of William Sawyer and her brother, Andrew Graves and his wife, Tobitha Graves.  

    The families resided on farms near one another, and bounded by land owned by the Noyce and Morse families, and Simon Davis, deceased, according to several deeds.  ( An aside: Simon Davis purchased the farm belonging to Anthony Sawyer in 1804, and died shortly after that in 1810.)

    The Tuesday, March 14 th, 1848 edition of the Portland Weekly Advertiser list this death notice:

    In Westbrook, 10th inst; Mrs. Abigail Sawyer, widow of Mr. John Sawyer, aged 82 years.

********************************************************

    Crispus Graves, the younger, and namesake of the Lieutenant, was born in 1816 to Andrew, (1774 -1860) and Tobitha Cutter Graves, (1782 - 1849), the second of four children: 

    Ebenezer (Eben) C. Graves, (1812 - 1884)

    Crispus, (1816 - 1879)

    Andrew M. , (1819 - ?)

    Susan M., (1829 - ?)

    

This man, Crispus Graves,  was undoubtably a character, but his story is worth reading in the annals of this blog.  I refer to him as a Hermit and Batchelor Farmer.  He was, it seems, incredibly kind and generous.  He left his estate to the schools in Falmouth and there is a building which once was an elementary school named for him.  He took care of his parents until their deaths, and administered his father's will, providing for his brothers and sister.

THE GRAVES SCHOOL

    Crispus Graves died at the age of 63 years and 3 months, on March 15, 1879.  For many years, graduates of the school in Falmouth were given a small gift of money in remembrance of this gentleman.  The remainder of the trust was given  to the Falmouth Historical Society.

*********************************************************

    Simon Davis was born on September 2nd, 1765 in Paxton, Worcester County to Deacon David Davis,  (1739 -1824) and Abigail Brown Davis, (1743 - 1795).  He was one of seven children.

    On February 25, 1789, in Sterling, Massachusetts, Simon married Persis Temple Newton, (1767 - 1810 ?) the daughter of Silas Newton (1744 - 1816) and Deliverance Delia Howe Newton, (1748 - 1783).

     

    The couple produced six children from 1790 to 1807.  They are as follows:

    Addison, born February 12, 1790, died December 1839.

    Ezra, born March 17, 1792, died December 9, 1796.

    Matilda, born September 24, 1796, died September 23, 1880.

    John Adams, born December 15, 1798

    Persis Newton, born July 20, 1800, died on May 19, 1849.

    Julia Temple, born February 17, 1807, died September 14, 1869.

    Readers will find Simon Davis's story interesting as he is a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a land owner, and the grandfather of a Massachusetts governor. The story was published February 17, 2015 in this blog.

    Simon Davis died on March 17, 1810 aet. 44 years.  His tombstone is worn and damaged but still retains some of its original beauty.  The inscription is taken  from a hymn by Isaac Watts:

My flesh shall slumber in the ground.
T'll the last trumpet's awful sound;
Then burst the chains with
sweet surprise.

**********************************************************

    Elizabeth Ann Sawyer Frank was the daughter of Zebulon, (1778 - 1832) and Rebecca Ford Sawyer, (1780 - ?) born c. 1820.

    At the age of 20, she married Isaiah L. Frank, (1809 - 1894.) on November 15, 1840.

     The couple resided on Ocean Street, near

 Lunt's Corner for many years.  They had four children born between 1845 and 1853:

    Seward , (1845 - 1918)

    Albert H., (1848 - 1929)

    Orin, (1850 - 1881)

    Mary  E., (1853 - 1931)

Elizabeth Ann Sawyer Frank died on March 14, 1890.  Although her old death record indicates she was interred at Eastern Cemetery, her name is not recorded there; I checked.

    Since Elizabeth Ann Frank died in East Deering, and both her husband, Isaiah Frank and her brother, Benjamin Sawyer are interred at the Presumpscot, East Deering, Grand Trunk Cemetery, we presume her to also be interred here, possibly moved here.

     The old death record lists Elizabeth Ann Frank's cause of death as 'old age' and the undertaker services were conducted by the Illsley Brothers.

********************************************

  

  The final entry for the month of March is that of Nancy Merrill, born c. 1801 and died at the age of 23 years old on March 25, 1824.  It seems that there once existed a tombstone from which this information was recorded.

  Undoubtably, someone, perhaps a family member, cared enough to errect a monument to honor her.  Unfortunately, despite an exhaustive search over the course of 12 years, nothing of any substance has brought to light anything about this young woman and her relationship to any of the other souls interred here.

    None-the-less, I choose to remember her in some small way with this poem:

********************************************

    As the month of March ends, and the promise of Spring is upon us, I wish you warmer days and sunshine, good health and best wishes to all.