William Neal only had two sons, William Henry being the younger. He was in part responsible for the First Raven "Baby Boom" (see John Edward Raven (1860-1943) for more on that).
Like every other Raven in the first two generations, I haven't seen his birth record despite him being the first of our Raven family to be born in Maine. The first record I have seen for him is the 1870 US Census from Mapleton, Maine. Line 28 in the image below tells us that he was born in Washburn, Maine, which is unusually specific for a census record (I wish all census takers were so thorough!):
By 1880, the family had moved to Woodland, Maine and William Henry was 13 and the youngest of the three children left at home. Where his younger sister, Huldah, was living is a mystery to me, but William is documented on line 32 in the image below:
Some time around 1887 or 1888, William married Rose Ann Farley, the younger sister of his sister-in-law, Evelyn. Their first child, Etta, was born in Washburn on 17 June 1888. There are a lot of discrepant dates for her birth. If you look up her actual Maine birth record on any of the genealogical websites, it says she was born 17 June 1887. However, that birth record was actually typed up in 1950. There are also a bunch of records saying she was born in either 1888 or 1889. The record with the most specificity and the closest to the event was the 1900 census, which says she was born June 1888, so that's what I find most likely.
William got into some trouble around 1890 and apparently spent a month in the county jail:
William and Rose's second child, Ida, was born in Woodland on 22 February 1891. Next came Bertha, born on 2 February 1893 and also in Woodland. Tragically, Bertha died at 14 months old on 12 April 1894 due to scarlet fever.
I'm not sure exactly when the land was transferred, but before 1892, William Neal split the farm in Woodland between John and William. William received the portion of lot 137 to the west of Salmon Brook Stream. In the 13 June 1894 Aroostook Republican, notice was posted by the Woodland Tax Collector that if back taxes weren't paid, both John and William would have their properties put to public auction.
Rose gave birth to son Lyme on 20 April 1895. He would die at just 11 months old on 8 March 1896 due to croup. Rose was already pregnant with Perley when Lyme passed away, and he would be born 4 August 1896 in Wade, Maine. Their next child, Irving Hearl Raven, would be born 2 February 1899 in Washburn.
Obviously, the family was plagued with illness and William himself would die young. In 1894, the Fort Fairfield Review regularly had large paid advertisements by Robert E. Sproule, M.D.. Dr. Sproule was a traveling physician who would set up short-term clinics in hotels.
The bulk of the advertisements were letters submitted by patients crowing about the miracles he worked on them. One such letter was attributed to William Raven. I find the claim of "two quarts" a bit dubious! The family was not well off, so perhaps the letter was part of his payment for medical services rendered?
By 1900, times were really rough and William filed for bankruptcy on 20 January 1900.
In June of that same year, the family was still farming in Woodland and you can see William, Rose, and their surviving children on lines 95–100 in the image below, which also confirms that they were married around 1887 and that they'd lost two of their six children:
On 23 February 1902, their last child, John, was born in Woodland. I know his middle initial was "E." and I assume that stood for "Edward" in honor of William's brother, who had named a child "William Henry" years earlier, but I can't be sure. Sadly, little John E. Raven would be their third child to not make it to their second birthday, passing away 13 September 1903 from cerebro-spinal meningitis.
The following "For Sale" ad ran in the Fort Fairfield Review on 9 December 1903. It only references the "Raven farm" and it isn't entirely clear if it's in Woodland or Washburn, but I am fairly sure it must be the Woodland farm that had originally been William Neal Raven's since around 1880 and was then handed down to William Henry. The part that I find a little confusing is that William Henry was still alive at the time. His brother, John Edward, had filed for bankruptcy earlier that year, but he lived in Wade Plantation. Perhaps William Henry's farm had been foreclosed upon? The author of the ad, John P. Donworth, was a prominent lawyer, banker and landowner. The ad itself is both beautifully written and hilarious!
William Henry himself would die in Woodland mere months later on 10 June 1904 due to tuberculosis. His death record below tells us that he died just 6 days after his 38th birthday, which gives him a calculated birth date of 4 June 1866.
The back of the record doesn't give us much useful information, but here it is for thoroughness:
According to FindAGrave.com, William Henry is supposedly buried in Woodland Cemetery, but there's no grave photo yet.
If you see any mistakes or know of information that isn't included here, please