Family history trail followed in Piscataquis County deeds

The property has long since passed into other hands, and as deeds go, it’s not really old. But I was fascinated to read the 1953 document on the purchase of the Labree Farm on Butter Street in Guilford by my great-aunt and uncle, Marion (Roberts) and C. Ford Dyer, now both deceased.

The person who registered the deed for a parcel of land in Piscataquis County, “being the westerly part of lot number six in the fourth range of lots in said Guilford,” happened to be Uncle Ford’s father, Arthur C. Dyer, but that’s another story.

The title search shows that in 1836, Samuel and Mary Warren conveyed the property, next door to that of William Stevens, to Samuel Warren Jr. for $37.50.

In 1902, Charles A. and Rose P. Sanborn sold the property to Thomas G. Whitcomb. His wife, Marie E. Whitcomb, inherited it the following year.

Marie sold it in 1904 to Alice J. Sanders, who conveyed it in 1914 to Clinton H. Herring. Two years later, Herring and Pearl G. Herring turned it over to Harry A. Whittier, who conveyed it to J. Teresa Labree in 1943. She and Clair Labree then sold it to my aunt and uncle.

The title search includes a handwritten letter listing the sale of the farm, a television, electric stove, deep freeze, meat in the deep freeze, a refrigerator, “bulls and beef,” tractor and equipment for the tractor.

I don’t see here the transfer of the history of the property between Samuel Warren Jr. and Charles A. Sanborn, but the first Samuel Warren had obtained the property from Bowdoin College.

Note this. The 1836 mention of conveyance of the land to Warren is listed as “Vol. 7, Page 536 in the Penobscot County Registry of Deeds.”

Piscataquis didn’t become a county, set off, from Penobscot and Somerset counties, until 1838.

Butter Street is off Route 150 in the area known as Guilford Center. In fact, if you drive to the end of Butter Street, and then a little farther on an unpaved road, you will come to the oldest cemetery in town, where many of the early settlers are buried.

Other owners of portions of this particular lot in Guilford, according to notes accompanying the deed, appear to be Elisha Tibbetts, Moses Haskell, Lizzie P. Mitchell, John Delano, William Stevens and John W. Greeley.

There is also a reference to “Monson Road 21/2 feet S.E. from an apple tree now standing on said land …” Others named in this handwritten paragraph are Nathan Smith, Stedman Hatch, and Philemon or Lucius Bennett.

Another deed, also for property no longer in the family, concerns a parcel in “that part of said Dover-Foxcroft which was formerly Dover, on the northerly side of Mayo Street and being Lot numbered Seven, according to the survey and plan of William P. Oakes made in October 1890.”

In 1930, the deed says, Silas C. Crossman conveyed the property to “the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland.”

Nine years later, the “Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland a Corporation Sole created by and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Maine,” conveyed the property to my great-aunt and uncle, Hazel (Roberts) and Edwin S. Ireland, now deceased.

The deed was personally signed in Cumberland County by the bishop, Joseph E. McCarthy, in large penmanship, rather like the signature of John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence.

Close inspection shows that the document was stamped with the seal of the diocese.

Unfortunately, there’s no fancy red wax such as the pope uses when he appoints bishops. Those documents are written in Latin – the one the Most Rev. Joseph J. Gerry has on his office wall at the chancery in Portland is signed Joanni Paulus.

In some denominations, the congregation owns the real estate. In the Roman Catholic Church, property is held in the name of the bishop.

The Ireland property on Mayo Street was behind the Catholic Church in Dover-Foxcroft. I’m thinking that this particular parcel, listed in size as five rods by eight rods, may have been the land where Uncle Eddie had his garden behind the house.

The house, referred to as “the Catholic house” on the deposit document, shows that the Irelands paid a $50 deposit on the house, which would cost a total of $2,625.

Genealogists often spend a good bit of time looking up these kinds of records in courthouses, but it’s kind of fun to see the information all together.

These items belong in historical societies, so we’ll pass them on to the societies in Guilford and Dover-Foxcroft.

Speaking of Dover-Foxcroft, it’s not Halloween there, but members of the Wassabec Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society will share stories of skeletons in the closet when they meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Penquis CAP building.

This is a good group of genealogists, with lots of experience searching for roots in Piscataquis County. For information, contact Estella Bennett at 876-3073.

Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail to familyti@bangordailynews.net.