1901 Marriage Record of Horace Lefebvre to Philomene Thibeault

From the record book:  Marriages Solemnized in the city of Lowell, 1901

(click image to enlarge)

Horace Lefebvre, age 28, born in Manchester, NH, Nov 1872
son of  Joseph & Julia (Lambert) Lefebvre
married 1 January 1901
Philomene Thibeault, age 20, daughter of Luther & Genevieve (Cotes) Thibeault

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Joseph Lefebvre of Lowell, MA, 1846-1918

Joseph Lefebvre was born in L'Acadie, Canada, in 1846. He was one of 14 children born to Vital  & Theotiste Henriette (Roy) Lefebvre. On 13 Jan 1872, he married Julia Louise Lambert at St. Augustin Church in Manchester, NH. He was employed as a hosiery knitter in a cotton mill in Lowell, MA, and was a resident of Lowell when he died in Feb 1918 at the age of 72.

Lowell Sun, Monday, February 25, 1918, Lowell, Massachusetts

Lowell Sun, Wednesday, February 27, 1918

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Map of Lowell, Massachusetts c.1850

(click images to enlarge)

Source: CENTER FOR LOWELL HISTORY 

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL LIBRARIES 

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Franco American Orphanage Communion & Confirmation Records

The University of Massachusetts of Lowell, Center for Lowell History in partnership with the Lowell National Historical Park and the Franco American School have made available the 
Franco American Orphanage and School Records from 1908-1972.

In this database, I was able to find the Communion records for sisters, Irene & Isabel Lefebvre, born in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Their mother, Philomene (Thibault) Lefebvre, died earlier and both girls were living in the Franco American Orphanage in Lowell at the time of the 1910 census.
Below is the orphanage record showing Irene's January 1st, 1911, Communion record where she is listed at the bottom of the page.  The next image shows Isabel's First Communion record dated 25 Mar 1911.

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Village of Hadley, Massachusetts, c.1663

The diagram of lots in the Village of Hadley shows our 9th g-grandfather, Joseph Baldwin, as one of the residents.

Source:   History of Hadley by Sylvester Judd; 1905
Available on openlibrary.org

Rosabell (Cassingham) St.John of New Bedford, MA

       

Rosabell (Cassingham) St.John

Pine Grove Cemetery, New Bedford, MA

(photo by  D J Pimentel / findagrave.com)


b. 4 Dec 1878 in Providence, RI
daughter of Albert Odian (Frank) & Emma (Warburton) Cassingham
m. Alfred Adelard St.John on 13 June 1899 in New Bedford, MA

I am hoping for a random act of a genealogically kind person to clear the lichen off of Rosabell's stone.   

    

Massachusetts Births, 1841-1915 at FamilySearch.org

Massachusetts Birth Records, 1841 - 1915

This collection contains the name index and images of  Massachusettes state birth records from 1841-1915. The registers of births are arranged in volumes by year. Within the volumes the birth entries are arranged by town then numerically by the number it was entered into the registers and are searchable on the FamilySearch.org site.

My latest find in this collection:

Birth record of our Grandfather

 Albert Edward St.John

son of Alfred & Rosabelle (Cassingham) St.John

(click image to enlarge)

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Where They Worked: Whitman Mills, New Bedford, Massachusetts

   
Listed as the place of employment for Arthur Robillard on his 1917 WW1 Draft Registration Card (seen below),  

Whitman Mills is a historic mill complex located  in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The mill was built in 1896 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

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Taunton State Hospital Pauper Cemetery Markers

These broken markers signify the resting place of former patients/inmates from Taunton State Hospital in Massachusetts. These graves are not on state hospital land but are located in the "pauper cemetery" in the downtown area.  Taunton State Hospital records indicate that women patients sewed burial gowns for patients who died.

In the pauper cemetery in Taunton, the graves of former patients/inmates are marked with only a number.

  Campaign to Restore State Hospital Cemeteries

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Taunton Massachusetts State Hospital

Completed in 1854, the Taunton State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located Taunton, Massachusetts, built to relieve the pressure of a rising patient population. Prior to that there was only one other State asylum.
The State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton, as it was originally known, began housing patients in 1854.  Listed on Mary (Robillard) St. Jean's death certificate, this is where she spent her final days.

This facility was most impressive.  The vision, when the building and grounds were completed, was to "render it a spot fitted to interest and tranquilize the minds of those who need as well the soothing influences of external nature as the healing remedies of art."  The hospital's architecture is of a unique and rare neo-classical style, designed by the architect Elbridge Boyden.  One of its most beautiful features were its breezeways which were added in the 1890s to connect the end of the wards to the hospitals infirmary buildings. Its distinct cupolas, large dome, cast-iron capitals and window bars, also gave this building its own very unique personality. 

The hospital boasted all of the modern conveniences: central heat, running water, sewer and central ventilation, and also included a chapel, kitchen, bakery, laundry, dining rooms, apartments for staff, washrooms, parlors, open-air verandas and "patient" rooms. Some patient rooms were dormitory style and others private. Private rooms were an innovation and reflected the institution's concern for its inhabitants who would now be called "patients" and not "inmates."

The hospital was abandoned in 1975, and in 1999 the large dome which towered over the hospital's administration collapsed. Then on March 19, 2006, a massive fire broke out in the center of the facility leaving only the decaying wings. Finally, during late May 2009, workers began a complete abatement and demolition on all of the disused buildings on the property.

Photographs of the building before the dome collapsed can be seen in the Library of Congress's American Memory Collections.

Towns of our Ancestors: New Bedford, Massachusetts

(click to enlarge)

Madness Monday - Mary Robillard St. Jean of New Bedford afflicted by involutional melancholia

involutional melancholia:  a form of depression that occurs in late middle age, sometimes accompanied by paranoia; a former term for a state of depression that occurs during the climacteric (menopause of women); agitated depression occurring at about the time of menopause  It is now treated as a major depressive episode.

In the case of Mary Robillard St.Jean - she spent the last 6 weeks of her life in the Taunton Massachusetts State Hospital. Information for her certificate of death was taken from hospital records. It appears her parents took responsibilty for her and her husband's name is marked as unknown (although I imagine the parents knew quite well who the spouse was). She is buried at Sacred Heart Cemetery in New Bedford, MA - the same cemetery as her parents. Her death certificate, located using pilot.familysearch.org in the Massachusetts Death Records collection, allowed me to learn her mother's maiden name of Ducharme.

Tombstone Tuesday - Evelyn Louise (Lefebvre) Imler

Evelyn Louise Lefebvre  

Born 10 Mar 1916 in New Bedford, Massachusetts

Daughter of  Joseph Vital Horace Lefebvre (1872-1926) 

& Marie Anne Turgeon (1887-1969)

On 30 Nov. 1932 she married Albert Edward St. John in New Bedford.

She later married  Author Morgan Hendricks (1946) then Robert Vernon Imler in March 1970.  Evelyn Louise (Lefebvre) Imler died 17 October 2005, in Chandler, Maricopa, Arizona.

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Nearly Wordless Wednesday - Winthrop Fleet Puritan Ancestors

Our ancestors, Thomas French and Susan (Riddlesdale) French of Assington, Suffolk, England, arrived in New England with their children as passengers on the Winthrop Fleet in 1630 and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

The Winthrop Fleet was a group of eleven sailing ships under the leadership of John Winthrop that carried approximately 700 Puritans plus livestock and provisions from England to New England over the summer of 1630.
View Passenger List
Visit:  The Winthrop Society Website

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Surname Saturday - Cassingham / Casingham

On this beautiful fall Surname Saturday morning I will highlight our Cassingham line.

Albert Odian (Frank) Cassingham married Emma Warburton on 12 June 1875 in Providence, Rhode Island, and later moved to  Middleboro, Massachusetts where Frank was last recorded in 1892 as an employee at Star Mills.  We have not located a death or burial record for A.O. Frank Cassingham but believe it to be between 1892 & 1895 when Emma Warburton Cassingham is recorded as marrying John K. Smith.

Albert Odian Cassingham was born c. 1840 in Aldington, Ashford, Kent, England - the son of Odian Cassingham and Harriet Dean.
 
His father, Odian Cassingham, was born 23 Apr 1807 in Woodchurch, Kent, England - the son of John Casingham and Ann Barber.

John Casingham was baptised 7 Apr 1775  Presbyterian, Tenterton, Kent, England and was the son of John Casingham (born c. Apr 1737) and Alice Sampson.

Our line ends with the parents of John Casingham :  Thomas Casingham and Katherine Ordian married in Saint Mary Bredin (pictured on right), Canterbury, Kent, England, on Aug 3rd, 1731.