Cemetery deeds a boon for historical groups

Does your heart go pit-a-pat when you see an old sheet of paper with faded ink, in that careful penmanship that denotes “long ago?”

I found such a document recently, a deed to “the south half” of lot number “Fordy Eight according to survey and plan made by Wm P. Oakes in 1884” in Elmwood Cemetery in Guilford.

Mrs. Mary A. Lord, my great-great-grandmother, purchased the lot for “Twelve and 50/100 dollars” on Nov. 20, 1905, according to the deed. Her son Silas A. Bennett paid $175 for perpetual care on Dec. 3, 1959, just after she died.

My family knows this as “the Bennett lot,” which spans six generations, with just one generation buried elsewhere.

Buried there are Prosper Bennett, born 1819 in Guilford, and wife Mary Ann (Comins) Bennett. Also their son, Prosper Alvarus, who was the first husband of Mary Lord. That’s two generations.

The next generation, second cousins Rena (Bennett) and Walter Bennett, is buried in the old cemetery in Abbot.

The last three generations buried in the Elmwood lot are my grandmother, Ione (Bennett) Moore; my aunt, Mary (Moore) Campbell; and my cousin, Roberta Campbell.

In the same row is another Bennett lot with various cousins to my Bennetts.

The cemetery deed was granted by Elmwood Cemetery Corp-oration treasurer David R. Straw, witnessed by John S. Williams and signed on the back by Deputy Town Clerk Pearl Gammon.

It would be wonderful if everyone who has an old cemetery deed would make a copy for their local historical society, and for the town or city, for that matter.

Hannibal Hamlin, who was Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president, was my second cousin, four times removed. Is that the same as a sixth cousin? No, it’s not.

We’ll figure it out when I talk about “Cousins” at the meeting of the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, at Thayer Parkway on Park Street, Dover-Foxcroft.

In addition, we’ll talk a little about Sir Harry Oakes and some of the surnames of his many cousins, such as Weymouth, Lewis, Orr and Rand. The meeting is open to the public, so do stop by.

Mary Gaudreau, Rosanne Gray and Bernice Heath have been working for more than six years on a 500-page history of Hermon titled “Hermon Maine: Then and Now.”

This well-researched book is at the printer’s and should be released in late November, in time for Christmas giving.

The 8 1/2-inch-by-11-inch history, which has good-sized print, covers settlements, early families, military, railroads, churches, cemeteries, organizations and maps. It includes lists of teachers who taught in the one-room schoolhouses, for example, and the names of military veterans from the Civil War to the present.

The cost for the book is $65 plus $3.25 Maine sales tax. For orders of four or more books, the price will be $60 each plus $3 sales tax. Mailing such a book requires insurance, so the shipping cost is $9 a book. However, purchasers may avoid the mailing cost by including a phone number and noting that they will pick up the book when it is ready.

Send checks to Mary Gaudreau, 35 Swan Road, Hermon, ME 04401.

A meeting of the Washington County Genealogical Society will be held at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard time on Saturday, Oct. 15, at the St. Croix Public Library in St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

Organized in 1992, the society has as its purpose to collect, exchange and preserve related documents and information, and to promote and encourage interest and scholarship in genealogy and family history in Washington County.

Membership is open to anyone interested in learning more about their family genealogy and history, especially in Washington County and neighboring Charlotte County, New Brunswick.

The group meets the third Saturday of the month from March to November, with the exception of July and August. Dues are $10 per year. Members receive a quarterly newsletter “Weirs & Woods.”

For information, contact president Frances Raye at 853-6630, secretary Valdine Atwood at 255-4432, or treasurer Connie Ferguson at 726-9690.

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