Hampden special census data now online

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As excited as we are that beginning in 1850 the U.S. census lists every person by name, we are disappointed that censuses for 1790-1840 list only heads of household by name, clumping the rest of the family together by gender and by age group.

So it is that the odd census done for a particular location can be so helpful to us. Several people have mentioned to me over the years they’d like to see something on the Hampden, Maine, Special Census of 1837.

Fortunately, this census is available to us on Rootsweb, thanks to Web master David Colby Young. Go to www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs/census/maine/hampden/1837.html.

According to notes made by the late Kay Trickey, data for the census came from small slips of paper found several years ago in the town vault. The purpose of the census was to have data on which to base distribution of surplus revenue. Ages often were not given.

For instance, one entry was for:

David K. Arey and wife Augusta Heywood

Edward Keyser (hired boy)

Miss Taylor (hired girl)

This Web site covers 61 pages of entries, from Amanda Abbot to John Young.

At the end are other resources used to add to this data.

For information on other towns that had an 1837 census, go to www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs/history/usdebt/census/maine/1837.html.

The towns range from Adamstown to Greenbush to Wyman.

Our column on Orono, Minn., prompted Eugene A. Jackins of Houlton to write a delightful letter about Maine-Minnesota connections.

Jackins relatives went from Clinton to Mattawamkeag to Saint John, New Brunswick, back to the Maine town of Chester, then in the 1840s to Minnesota and lumbering.

“John Jackins was one of the first three county commissioners out there, and he is the one who made the notion to locate the capital of Hennepin County on the west side of the Mississippi River, and they named the town Minneapolis.

“Gordon Jackins, his brother, settled in Hasson Township, fought in the Civil War, came home very ill. John’s older son was killed at Gettysburg.

“John had much property in Minneapolis, and then moved to Stillwater. His neighbors were Brown, Steele and Orono Maine native Godfrey.”

Jackins’ list of towns “taken from Maine to Minnesota” includes:

Bingham Lake, Blaine, Brownville, Cambridge, Canton, Clinton, Crystal, Dexter, Eagle Lake, Easton, Farmington, Franklin, Freeport, Garfield, Harmony, Hartland, Lewiston, Long Lake, Madison, Mapleton, Monticello, Newport, Orono, Perham, Plymouth, Stillwater, Swanville, Warren, Waterville, Webster, Wells, Westbrook, Windham, Winthrop and Washington County.

“Paul Bunyan went from Maine to Minnesota, also,” he pointed out.

Most of us, of course, think that J. Normand Martin’s Paul Bunyan in Bass Park is much to be preferred over the more angular Paul Bunyan in Minnesota.

Jackins gives high marks to a publisher in Minnesota: Park Genealogical Books, P.O. Box 130968, Roseville, MN 55113-0968. The company also has a Web site at www.parkbooks.com.

From Kaye (Roberts) Sakahara in Abbot comes word that there is a village of Leeman in the township of Maine, Outagamie County, in Wisconsin.

“The Leeman part came from the Leeman family that left Abbot for Wisconsin in the 1860s, and Maine was for the native state of some earlier settlers who had gone to Wisconsin from Clinton, Maine,” she wrote.

I guess it really is a small world.

The Washington County Genealogical Society will hold its first meeting of the new year at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 27, at Peavey Memorial Library, Eastport.

3254. DAVENPORT CLUB. I have an old photo of 11 women who are members of the Davenport Club, spring 1900: Mrs. C. Davenport, Kate Davenport of Castine, Ethel Peabody of Milbridge, Esther Smith, Laura Rodgers of Jonesport, Grace Friend of Sedgwick, Alice Lane of Deer Isle, Lovetta Soule, Amelia Herrick of Charleston, Bertha Preble of Sedgwick and Sarah Parker of Sedgwick. Is anyone interested, or do you have any information about this club? Susan Grindal Paquette, 797 Brickyard Road, Woodstock, CT 06281; ernpaq@hotmail.com.

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