Frank Alden Carson—the first-born child of George and Selena (Raven) Carson—was born on 6 March 1877 in Mapleton, Maine. Frank's birth record is shown below, but it's important to note that it wasn't recorded until 1942, when he was 65 years old! Thankfully, it was his own mother, Selena, that gave the details. Interestingly, it was filed with the Mapleton town clerk on 13 April 1942 and Selena had died 11 days earlier. Perhaps the family came across the unsubmitted paperwork while sorting through her papers after she passed? On the record, Selena gave George Carson's birth place as Ripley, Maine, but his own death record said he was born about five miles away in St. Albans, Maine. Since Selena and George had been divorced for so long, I'm inclined to go with St. Albans as George's birth place.
Frank's first appearance on the US Federal Census was 1880 in Mapleton, where he grew up and spent his first 30 years. The family spanned two separate pages that year. The following image shows his parents, George and Selena, on lines 49 and 50 of the first page:
Frank, his two younger siblings, his grandmother Eliza Carson, and his uncle Willis Carson, are on lines 1–5 in the following image of the second page:
In 1894, Selena was granted a divorce from George and the family was divided. The 1900 census shows 23-year-old Frank as the head of a household in Mapleton with his brothers George and Harry—17 and 12 years old respectively—living with him. The Carson brothers are on lines 88–90 in the following image:
In 1907, Frank married fellow Mapleton resident Laney Elenor McDermott. He was 30, and she was 20—but had been married to Charles Augustus Sidell at the age of 15. According to records, she married Frank in Mapleton on 14 April 1907, which was actually 13 days before her divorce from Charles was granted. Here are the front and back sides of their marriage record:
Frank and Laney's first child, Ellen Eliza Carson, was born in June 1907 in Ashland, Maine. Their second, Selena Almyra Carson, was born on 21 June 1909 in Masardis, Maine. The 1910 census shows the young family living in Masardis on lines 85–88 in the image below:
Over the next decade, two more daughters (Laney Elenor and Edith May) and a son (Frank Alden Jr.) would follow. Laney was nicknamed "Kitty", and that's how I'll refer to her for the rest of this article to reduce confusion between her and her mother.
Kitty was born in Waldo County, Maine in 1912, but Edith (Ashland 1915) and Frank (Oxbow 1918) were born up North.
Here is Frank's draft registration record for World War I from 1918:
I'm not sure of the date or location, but I think this is the oldest photo I've seen of Frank:
Frank, Laney, and their first five children were still living in Thorndike at the time of the 1920 census. See lines 35–41 in the image below:
Zelma Blanch Carson, the couple's sixth and final child, was born in Thorndike on 7 December 1920.
After 17 years of marriage, Laney was granted a divorce from Frank in Waldo County District Court on 18 April 1924. See the last line in the image below:
No reason was recorded by the court, but the Bangor Daily News reported it as extreme cruelty. The 4 July 1924 edition also noted that custody of all six children was granted to Laney, though Selena was misspelled as "Selma":
Around 1925, Frank had some sort of disagreement with Mrs. Sophia King of Belfast, Maine over the sale of a horse. I couldn't find any stories that give any sort of details, but there was a lawsuit filed against him, which he won. The 8 January 1926 Morning Sentinel reported that the defendant was Frank "Corson" of Thorndike:
The Daily Kennebec Journal from that same day reported Frank's name correctly:
By 1930, Frank was living in Avon, Connecticut and his 18-year-old daughter Kitty was living with him at the time of the census. As you can see on lines 86 and 87 in the following image, it looks like the census-taker misspelled her name as "Planey" instead of "Laney":
As for the rest of his children, I haven't been able to find Ellen on the 1930 census, but she had already married Elwin Hustus Sr. by this point. Selena was living in Belfast with her husband, Henry Littlefield, whom she had married in 1924. Edith, Frank Jr., and Zelma were living in New Marlborough, Massachusetts, with their mother, Laney. She had re-married in 1926 to Lionel Howard King.
Frank's daughter, Kitty, married Ernest Briggs on 16 January 1932 in Belfast. Two months later, Frank's ex-wife and the mother of his children, Laney (McDermott) King died on 8 March 1932. On 7 March 1936, daughter Edith married William Briggs, the older brother of her brother-in-law, Ernest. Frank's youngest child, Zelma, married Howard Boynton on 5 January 1937.
I don't know why Frank had moved to Connecticut or exactly when he moved back to Maine, but in 1940 nearly the entire remaining family was living in Belfast. Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. were living there with his daughter Edith Briggs's family. Daughters Selena Littlefield, Kitty Briggs, and Zelma Boynton were also living in Belfast. Ellen Hustus was in nearby Jackson, Maine. The Briggs family plus the two Frank Carsons are on lines 22–29 in the following image:
By 1950, Frank had moved to Morrill, Maine, and was living there with Frank Jr. and his family at the time of the census. The extended Carson family is on lines 2–6 in the image below:
Frank passed away in Belfast on 29 April 1968. His obituary was published in the Bangor Daily News:
Frank was buried in Morrill Village Cemetery.
Stories and Memories of Papa Carson
By great granddaughter Debbie Littlefield Bird
As long as I can remember, Papa Carson lived in Morrill, Maine with his namesake and son, Uncle Frankie Carson Jr. and his family, until he moved in with my grandmother, his daughter Selena Carson Littlefield, in Belfast, Maine to spend his last few years of life. Of course, Papa Carson had lived in various places before I was born in 1949, but not during my lifetime.
I loved going to Uncle Frankie’s to visit Papa. I sat on his lap and listened to the adults talk. He smelled like the chewing tobacco that was ever present in his mouth and shirt pocket. He was sweet to me and made me feel important. Later, when he moved in with my grandmother, I was a 16 year old teenager and had less patience for this old man who wanted me to cut his fingernails and listen to his stories. Watching TV in the evening was impossible, because Papa would talk loudly about his logging days up in the Northwoods of Aroostook County. If I turned up the TV so that I could hear, he’d talk louder. He’d laugh and repeat conversations he had with his logging crews, truly enjoying reliving his past. When he died a couple years later I was sad and felt bad that I hadn’t listened, learned, and enjoyed his stories. Sure wish I could do that now!
Papa Carson was born in Mapleton, a town in central Aroostook County. He probably met his wife Laney McDermott at a dance. She lived in Castle Hill which was next to Mapleton. They married in 1907. Papa was a logger and had a crew of men work for him. My grandmother told me that every fall Papa and Laney would take their three children and go deep into the woods near Oxbow, Maine where they lived in a two room log cabin until spring. The big room was where the crew lived. The smaller room was where Papa and his family lived.
The crew’s room had bunks lined along each side of the walls with long tables down the center of the room. Papa and the crew worked physically hard every day cutting trees, de-limbing them, and moving them to the side of the Aroostook River for the spring log run. My grandmother couldn’t remember if the crew did the log run themselves or not. She was very young during these winters.
The family room had two bunks. Papa and Laney slept in one bunk, and the small children slept together in the other bunk. Laney cooked and served three big meals a day for her family and the crew. Little time for any fun or rest for this hard working couple. My grandmother and her two sisters, one older and one younger, played in the woods nearby. They had no toys but would use pieces of wood for pretend dolls.
In the spring Laney and the children would take the train from Masardis, a town not far from the Oxbow, to Belfast, a town on the coast of Maine. Papa Carson would take a horse and wagon and all their supplies and drive it to Belfast. It would take four hours by train and four days by horse and wagon. Papa would sometimes stay in a friendly farmer’s barn overnight, or other times sleep on the ground under the wagon to keep dry from the weather. From Belfast the family would travel to Thorndike where they would stay in a picker’s shack for the summer. Papa would work on the farm planting, weeding, and harvesting. After the harvest was in, the fall trip to the Oxbow would repeat itself.
This way of life changed a bit once the children were older and needed to go to school in the winters. They rented a house in the small town of Oxbow. My grandmother remembers seeing her first automobile at nine years old when the mailman drove it to town. Everyone ran out the road to see him.
By the time Laney had three more children, Papa moved his family to Thorndike fulltime to work on the farms. My grandmother finished eighth grade there. When she was thirteen Laney divorced Papa Carson and moved her kids to Belfast. What a hard and difficult marriage it must have been for them. Papa never remarried, but Laney married her cousin Lionel King from Castle Hill in Aroostook. Laney died of cancer at age 44. My grandmother missed her so much for the rest of her life.
If you see any mistakes or know of information that isn't included here, please