Charles A. Willard was born to Samuel and Martha (Knight) Willard on 7 October 1839 in Naples, Maine, according to town records from Bridgton, Maine. The Willards are the third family down on the right-hand page in the image below:
The family was still living in Bridgton on the 1840 census. In the earliest censuses, they only listed the head of household and then the number of males and females in various age groups. Samuel Willard is the 18th name on this page and Charles would have been the male "Under 5":
By 1850, the family had moved north and were living in Old Town, Maine. Samuel was just listed as a laborer and Charles was the oldest with three siblings. See lines 1–6 in the image below:
The family moved north again by 1860 and was living in Township 9, Range 6, which had been settled in 1840 and organized as a township in 1848. Samuel, Martha, and six of their children were farming there while Charles was living on the farm of Elias Henry Hayden, who had settled the township with his brother, Samuel Hayden. 21-year-old Charles was married to E. H. Hayden's 16-year-old daughter, Almira, and had a 1-year-old son, Ira Almon Willard, with her. Ira would eventually serve as the town clerk for Oxbow Plantation, Maine, and serve on the school committee with his grandfather, E. H. Hayden. The Hayden household can be seen on lines 31–40 in the following image:
By 1870, Charles, Almira, and Ira have moved on to their own farm in T9 R6, which would re-organize as Oxbow Plantation later that year. You can see them on lines 13–15 in the following image, with her parents on lines 27–28, and his parents on lines 37–38:
Almira died in 1873 and Charles married Eliza Raven in 1874. Their son, Warren Elwin Willard, was born in 1875 and Eliza passed away soon after that. See Eliza's page for my concerns/questions about the timing of that situation.
After Eliza passed, Charles married her sister, Amanda Raven. Their first child, Lyman Lester Willard was born on 10 November 1878 in Mapleton, Maine.
In 1880, Charles, Amanda, Lyman, and his sons from his first two marriages were living in Maysville, Maine, which no longer exists. It was organized in 1859, but in 1883 it was annexed and became part of Presque Isle, Maine. It looks like Charles and his parents both moved there to a single property, perhaps with two houses on it. See lines 14–22 in the image below:
Charles and Amanda may have moved back to Oxbow Plantation soon after the 1800 census, because that's where Eva Martha Willard was born on 24 September 1881. Their third child, Martha, was also born in Oxbow on 8 September 1884.
The couple's fourth and final child, Samuel Harris Willard, was born in Four Falls, New Brunswick, Canada on 5 January 1888. I am puzzled by that location and the fact that I've never found a death record (nor any other kind of record) for Amanda after that point. Hopefully, we eventually find some records to clear this up. Amanda had certainly died before 17 April 1898 when her daughter, Eva, married Frank Howes, as that was stated on their marriage record.
As with his first three marriages, I can't find any record for Charles having married a fourth time, but this record suggests that he married Janette Wright and that it wasn't long after Samuel's birth. It gives no clues, though, as to whether he was widowed again or divorced from Amanda.
The fact that it says this was their third child is also puzzling, as I can find no records of the first two.
On the 1900 census, Charles was living in Oxbow Plantation with the four children that Amanda had birthed plus Eva's husband, Frank Howes, and daughter, Lila. See lines 42–48 in the image below:
Charles passed away on 18 July 1902 in Oxbow Plantation due to "Bright's disease", which is referred to as chronic nephritis (kidney inflammation) in modern medicine. His death record lists his place of birth as Old Town, but he had merely lived there as a child and was not born there.
The back of the record doesn't tell us much beyond the fact that his son, Lyman, provided the details for the record.
Charles was laid to rest in Willard Cemetery in Oxbow Plantation.
If you see any mistakes or know of information that isn't included here, please