Family History
I'm not generally interested in family genealogy but the bug hit me last night when I was watching a YouTube video made by a couple of guys traveling the United States/Canada border. They began on Campobello Island crossing the bridge into Lubec, Maine but were soon at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House which straddles the border between Vermont and Quebec. An ancestor of mine, Nathaniel Haskell, settled the town where I live so I started reading about the library and was soon onto a genealogy site tracing my own family tree.
The Haskell name in Maine traces back to Cumberland County. I find it in several areas on this 1857 map of Cumberland County:
Map of Cumberland County, Maine
From the genealogy site I found that Nathaniel had family roots in New Gloucester, now home to Pineland Farms and the Shaker Village. He was a blacksmith and was a resident of Westbrook at the time of the 1820 Census just before his purchase of the south half of what was to become my home town. He married a Stevens from Stevens Plains which seems to perhaps refer to an area in Westbrook just north of Portland. I don't believe she came with Nathaniel to Greenville. It appears that it isn't known when she died but my dad always used to say their daughter, a widower, was the first white woman to live in Greenville. I know, that sounds so racist but it's also historic.
Deborah Haskell
It's interesting that Deborah was born in Paris, Maine where the heritage apple known as the Black Oxford was first discovered by Nathaniel Haskell at about this same time.
I also found the name Nathaniel Haskell among those opposed to the incorporation of the town of Paris (then Massachusetts) on page 48 of the book History of Paris, Maine from ITS SETTLEMENT TO 1880. The petition must have been written in 1792. On page 64 of this book the estimated adult male population in 1792 was 80. The town was incorporated June 20, 1793. He was assigned as a tythingman at the first town meeting in the summer of 1793 but was not mentioned in the 1794 town meeting records. Records on page 609 of this book show the sale of lot 2 range 3 on October 31, 1795, sold by Nathaniel Haskell to Alfred Gates.
Records of birth of Sarah and Nathaniel Haskell's children after 1793 do not indicate the place of birth as Paris (then Massachusetts). Sarah Haskell last gave birth in 1816 to Cyrus Haskell in New Gloucester (still Massachusetts), Nathaniel's home town, where she had given birth to several other of their eight children.
On the 1857 Cumberland County map there is an N. Haskell marked in the Saccarappa area in Westbrook on the main map and on the Saccarappa insert map there is a residence marked Mrs. Haskell on what appears might be the corner of Spring and Main in what I always thought of as the center of town in Westbrook. Further research, however, leads me to the conclusion that this is another Nathaniel Haskell, the son of Solomon Haskell Jr. who died just prior to when a major piece of choice downtown riverfront property downstream of Saccarappa Falls was registered in 1816 to a Nathaniel Haskell, presumably Solomon Jr.'s son and heir. Some of these Haskell family members are buried in the Saccarappa Cemetery.
Another clue just appeared here in this blog post by Thomas Jay Kemp:
My 5th-Great-Grandfather Lt. Nathaniel Haskell in the American Revolution
That would be Sarah (Stevens) Haskell's father-in-law. Could Sarah be buried nearby?
Maybe someday I'll go looking for her gravestone. She may have been from this family:
The Stevens Family of Portland Maine
However I can't seem to find a grave for her in the Evergreen Cemetery on Stevens Avenue in Portland.
Haskell Family History I didn't realize I was part of such a large family!
The Haskell name in Maine traces back to Cumberland County. I find it in several areas on this 1857 map of Cumberland County:
Map of Cumberland County, Maine
From the genealogy site I found that Nathaniel had family roots in New Gloucester, now home to Pineland Farms and the Shaker Village. He was a blacksmith and was a resident of Westbrook at the time of the 1820 Census just before his purchase of the south half of what was to become my home town. He married a Stevens from Stevens Plains which seems to perhaps refer to an area in Westbrook just north of Portland. I don't believe she came with Nathaniel to Greenville. It appears that it isn't known when she died but my dad always used to say their daughter, a widower, was the first white woman to live in Greenville. I know, that sounds so racist but it's also historic.
Deborah Haskell
It's interesting that Deborah was born in Paris, Maine where the heritage apple known as the Black Oxford was first discovered by Nathaniel Haskell at about this same time.
I also found the name Nathaniel Haskell among those opposed to the incorporation of the town of Paris (then Massachusetts) on page 48 of the book History of Paris, Maine from ITS SETTLEMENT TO 1880. The petition must have been written in 1792. On page 64 of this book the estimated adult male population in 1792 was 80. The town was incorporated June 20, 1793. He was assigned as a tythingman at the first town meeting in the summer of 1793 but was not mentioned in the 1794 town meeting records. Records on page 609 of this book show the sale of lot 2 range 3 on October 31, 1795, sold by Nathaniel Haskell to Alfred Gates.
Records of birth of Sarah and Nathaniel Haskell's children after 1793 do not indicate the place of birth as Paris (then Massachusetts). Sarah Haskell last gave birth in 1816 to Cyrus Haskell in New Gloucester (still Massachusetts), Nathaniel's home town, where she had given birth to several other of their eight children.
On the 1857 Cumberland County map there is an N. Haskell marked in the Saccarappa area in Westbrook on the main map and on the Saccarappa insert map there is a residence marked Mrs. Haskell on what appears might be the corner of Spring and Main in what I always thought of as the center of town in Westbrook. Further research, however, leads me to the conclusion that this is another Nathaniel Haskell, the son of Solomon Haskell Jr. who died just prior to when a major piece of choice downtown riverfront property downstream of Saccarappa Falls was registered in 1816 to a Nathaniel Haskell, presumably Solomon Jr.'s son and heir. Some of these Haskell family members are buried in the Saccarappa Cemetery.
Another clue just appeared here in this blog post by Thomas Jay Kemp:
My 5th-Great-Grandfather Lt. Nathaniel Haskell in the American Revolution
That would be Sarah (Stevens) Haskell's father-in-law. Could Sarah be buried nearby?
Maybe someday I'll go looking for her gravestone. She may have been from this family:
The Stevens Family of Portland Maine
However I can't seem to find a grave for her in the Evergreen Cemetery on Stevens Avenue in Portland.
Haskell Family History I didn't realize I was part of such a large family!
posted by Bill | 12:29 PM
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