Notes
Note N2179 Index
ES for Charles Scribner). Although Wallace had written in 1877, "I never will live in Maine," he returned to his native State and, in 1882, married Anna Clara McHugh of Houlton. Anna was a schoolteacher there, and was living with her parents.
In 1883, their only child, Charles E. Scribner, was born. They were living in Danforth, next door to Levi and Lydia Neal, Wallace's sister and brother-in-law. When Anna died on 12 April 1898, she left the use of her farm to Wallace, and the remainder of her estate to their son, Charles.
Wallace's sister, Malinda, recalls in a letter a humorous (except to Wallace) episode in his young life. Wallace was 10 years old when Malinda was born. She says that "He was not pleased. He packed and tied his clothes in a bundle. He was angry because all the children in the neighborhood were coming to see me. So he left Mrs. Bean saw him going by her house and sent him back home."
Source: Basil Kinney, "Charles E. Scribner & Emma (Springer) Scribner Letters" [op. cit.]. Unpaginated. 5th and 7th pages.
Notes
Note N2180 Index
Levi and Samuel were farmers in Brookton.
Samuel's first wife was Elizabeth Webber, step-daughter of (Lydia's first cousin) Elvira (Scribner) Webber. They had 9 children, among whom were Albert (born 1855), Mary (born 1858), Benjamin (born 1862), Nettie (born 1865), Samuel (born 1873), Edmond (born 1875), and Frederick (born 1879).
Notes
Note N2181 Index
Charles worked at lumbering most of his life. He also would cook in the woods and on the river drives. When the railroad was built from Vanceboro to Portland, the brothers built and operated a boarding house at Eaton. They also built a store and sold groceries.
At the age of 32, Charles, accompanied by Wallace, left Maine for California. The first transcontinental railroad had been completed in 1869, linking California with the eastern United States. With the promise of high wages and a chance to buy land at low prices, Charles and Wallace joined the thousands of people from all over the nation who flocked to California in those years. Once in California, they went into the timber-hauling business, using teams of four horses to haul felled trees out of the forests, and to take supplies up to the lumbermen working in the forests. Each trip up to the mountains was a 75-mile round trip from the town where they lived. They were located 20-25 miles east of the city of Fresno, in a logging town known as Fresno Flats, in what is now the Sierra National Forest. Wallace and Charles would take turns making that trip.
Charles wrote home at least twice, writing to his sister, Lydia Ann Neal. Two letters have been saved, and copied, and are in the possession of a granddaughter, Evelyn (Haney) Plumer of Bangor, Maine.
In the first letter, dated "California Mountains 20 July 1877," Charles tells that, on that day, "I am lame and sore. I rode a horse one hundred and four miles in two days and it made me lame." By that time, the brothers had been there about nine months, having been joined in March or April by a brother-in-law, George Kinney, husband of their sister, Maria. Charles went on to say that "It will take us three months to get all through here. If we get our pay we will have a good stake. . . . I think we will have about two thousand dollars this fall. I can't tell when I shall come back. I want some money and this is the country to get money or a living. This is a dry year and hard times, yet men get $40.00 per month."
Wallace added a few lines to the end of Charles' letter, extending his best wishes to the family in Maine and then saying, "I don't think that I shall be home for one year from now. I will write more when I hear from you. I like this country better than any I ever saw before. I never will live in Maine. Wallace Scribner."
Charles returned to Maine that fall, as he had hoped. While at home, he married 35-year-old Emma Springer, who would soon return to California with him. Charles also helped his sister, Maria Kinney, caring for her three children who had contracted diphtheria and would soon die from that plague.
Sometime after their return to California, on 26 December 1879, Charles wrote a second letter to Lydia, in which he said, "We are well and keeping house. We got here safe and Emma has written to you. . . . Emma now has two hens, seven pigs, an old cow, and a cat. Hasn't she made a good start? No more. C.E. Scribner."
Tragedy struck the happy couple eight months later, on 7 August 1880, when Charles was killed by a falling tree. Emma, pregnant with Hannah, was grief-stricken.
On 19 August, Emma wrote to Lydia, "Oh Lydia, it is all I can do to console myself. It seems as though I buried all my happiness in that grave. Oh Lydia, I lived a happy life with Charley. He, so good, now is sleeping in death. Oh, dear me "
In the days following Charles' funeral, Emma (accompanied by Wallace and a mid-wife, Mrs. Wilson) spent over three days on horseback traveling through the San Joaquin Valley about 80 miles to the town of Coulterville, where they lived with Seth and Mariah (Scribner) Walker. Mariah was a daughter of Simon Scribner, and a cousin to Charles. Emma stayed with the Walkers until Baby Hannah was born in the fall. Then, accompanied by another of Charles' cousins, Otis Scribner (son of Simon), Emma and Hannah journeyed home to Eaton, Maine, to a sad reunion with the family there.
Source: Basil Kinney, "Charles E. & Emma (Springer) Scribner Letters" [op. cit.].
Unpaginated. 1st through 5th pages.
By 1887 Emma had re-married, taking for her second husband Charles C. Cochran of Eaton Station. They had a daughter, Julia. Emma died 29 November 1893 at the age of 49, leaving Charles Cochran with two girls, ages 13 (Hannah) and 6 (Julia). He hired a housekeeper, the widow Harriet (Wilcans) Brackett. According to Ralph Haney (son of Hannah and Herbert Haney), Charles married Mrs. Brackett, sold the farm, and "gave up" the girls. Charles Cochran's marriage to Harriet Brackett took place 14 July 1894 (MARRIAGES INDEX, Maine Marriages 1892-1996, Maine State Archives). Shortly thereafter, Emma's sister, Julia Sullivan, took Hannah and Julia to Bangor to live with her there. Hannah eventually met and married Herbert S. Haney.