William Lampher Mitchell and Edith May Hussey (son of 9 & daughter of 10)

[Jen's maternal GGrandparents]
[Raymond V. Mitchell Jr > William V Mitchell Sr > son of  9 & daughter of 10]

William Lampher Mitchell
BIRTH: 04 Aug 1871,Biddeford, York, Maine
DEATH: 03 JUN 1943

Edith May Hussey
BIRTH: 09 Jan 1874, Biddeford, York, Maine
DEATH: 20 Mar 1940, South Portland, Cumberland, Maine, United States

William Mitchell

William L Mitchell was the youngest child of Lorenzo

Mitchell (1827-1904) and Miriam Lamphar (1828-1924).  They lived and worked in Biddeford.  The 1910 census says that Miriam had 6 children, 6 of whom were living in 1900, but 4 of whom were living in 1910.

Siblings:
1. Samuel (1856-??)  (records unavailable)
2. Alonzo C (1858-1949) m1. Rose Ann Davis (1856-??) m2. Sarah V Sargent (1853-??) m3. 1900 Altis Maud Hill (1874-1974)
3. Thomas W (1861-1909) m. 1884 Minna E Spindler (1865-1930)
4. Marietta L (1863-1945) m. 1885 Freeman E Rankin (1849-??)
5. Abigail L (1867-1965) m2. 1887 Augustus Vincent Gookin (1867-??) m2. 1896 Roswell Delano Flood (1851-1923)
6. William Lampher (1871-1943) m 1896 Edith May Hussey (1874-1940) m2. 1914 Nancy Lavina Wildes (1868-1951)


Edith Hussey

Edith May Hussey was born in 1874 to Charles Hussey (1836-1905) and Eliza Jane Wildes (1840-1910) in Biddeford, Maine.  They lived in the city ward 1.  Her father, by 1880, had changed from being a fisherman to being a laborer.  They own a $2000 in real estate, and had $300 in personal effects.

Siblings
1. Charles S (1862-1919)
2. Lucy Arvilla (1865-1943) m 1885 Andrew Jackson Hill (1846-1888) m. 1891 Frank Herbert Worden (1864-1951) m 1906 Jones (1865-??)
3. Jennie S (1868-1942) m. Horace B Evans (1865-1940)
4. Sallie E (1870-1923) m. 1895 Wallace E Smith (1871-1947)
5. Olive G (1872-??) m. 1904 Ivory H Emmons (1865-??)
6. Edith May (1874-1940) m1. 1896 William Lampher Mitchell (1871-1943) m2 Wright F Emmons (1870-??)
7. Mary E (1877-??)
8. Juanita J May (1880-1969) m. 1903 Truman Post Goldthwaite (1882-1944)

Biddeford's Wood Island Lighthouse

As a girl, her family lived next to John C Hussy(70) and Sallie (68), the Hussy grandparents, with a $9000 farm and $4000 in personal effects, which indicates great relative wealth for the area.  (They have two cooks, two chambermaids, and a boy living with them).  Also worthy of note, the Census taker wrote "Huzzy" for their name, which is indicative of pronounciation.

Two houses down is Edwin Tarbox, Charles' uncle, who is Lighthouse Keeper at Biddeford.

In 1885, when daughter Lucy first married, they were living at Biddeford Pool.

Life Together
Edith and William married 31 December, 1896.   Together they had 4 children:

1. Raymond Vaughn Sr (1897-1964) m 1920 Elsie Farrar Plummer  (1899-1955), m2. 1946 Ruby Beatrice Gibson (1905-1996)
2. Mildred Verne (1900-1996) m. 1926 Alfred Hale Taylor (1899-1991)
3. Donald Day  (1904-1906)
4. Alice May (1905-1989)

Life together was not without its hiccups.  William is listed as a machinist on Alice's birth record.

Before he turned two in 1906, their son Donald passed away of pneumonia.  At the time, they had a 7 month old Alice as well.  Family stories indicate that the stresses from the tragedy caused Edith to have a nervous break-down that led to William and Edith splitting up and sending their children away.


In 1910, Edith was living with her mother Eliza, with the divorce not yet finalized.  According to that year's census, Edith was employed as a dress-maker. She would remarry the next year to Wright F Emmons (1870-??), who was a carpenter, (also second marriage after Lydia A Roberts, I believe)  in 1911 and lived on First Street, Biddeford.  She continued to live in Biddeford for the rest of her life until she died in March 1940.  Wright was living on Fortunes Rocks Road the year Edith died.

 

Raymond V Mitchell, b 1897

William boarded at 43 Free Street, Portland during the 1910 census.  He is listed as Divorced, and working as a fisherman.  He remarried  to Nancy Lavina Wildes (1868-1951) in 1914, and we can trace him through 1940.  He moved to Kennebunkport, and lived there for the remainder of his life.

Raymond was sent to the Good Will Home in Fairfield, Maine, where he appears on the census as of April 1910.  The Good Will home was a school where boys being raised in at-risk home situations could learn and work and thrive, whereas at home there was trouble.  While away at the Good Will home Raymond Sr. made several requests to come home, but due to the unknown tensions, Edith would not allow it.  He married Elsie Farrar Plummer in 1920, and had four children.

Mildred V Mitchell

Mildred was in some sort of home for girls in Portland.  As of 1920, she was living in Augusta in the household of Edmund Hunt as a boarder.  She married in 1926, and in 1930, she was in Vassalboro, Maine with her husband Alfred Taylor, and had started her own family with their baby Barclay C Taylor (1929-2008).

Alice was placed for adoption, on account of her being so young and easily adoptable.  She moved to California with her adoptive family.  In her old age, she reached out to Aunt Midge as a first contact.  At the time, Mildred was in the hospital, so she put down the letter with the intent to respond, but she couldn't find the letter again (and it's address) to respond. Thus, contact with Alice was lost, and we don't even have a record of her adopted name or marriage/children, etc.

The children had irregular contact with their parents during the subsequent years, as the family had tragically fallen apart.