My Old Ohio Home - Cowan

Oscar Cowan of Rockland, Maine-Solved

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

Introduction

This article was on the old site for a few years–the 2018 date came when I reformatted the site. For the October 2018 update solving the problem, see the end of the article.

Question

I am looking for information about an "Oscar Cowan" of Rockland, Knox County, Maine. I have some reason to believe that this was an alias for William Jerome Page, husband of Margaret Jenkins. I would like help either confirming or disproving that suspicion.

Oscar Cowan, age 58, is living at 7 Pink Street, Rockland, Knox County, Maine, in 1940. He was divorced, with six years of schooling, and had lived in Rockland in 1935. He had been unemployed for five years and was working on a government brook project for about $10/week.

With Oscar in the household was a man called Oscar's son: Oliver Abbott, age 31, born in Maine, and also with six years of school. He had worked all of 1939 as a seaman on a barge, but his dwelling place in 1935 was unknown. He was married but living apart from his wife. The column for his marital information said "M7" but the "M" was crossed out. The marital information for the housekeeper, Leola Howard, matched Oliver's.

The only other trace of Oscar that I have found so far is in the Rockland City Directories for 1936 and 1937, at 43 Lime Street, and for 1942 at 7 Pink Street.

Why does Oscar's "son" have a different surname? Why isn't Oscar on any census in Maine from 1900 to 1930? Why isn't he in the online index to Maine Marriages from 1892 to 2009? Why doesn't he show up anywhere else at ancestry.com, rootsweb, or familysearch.org?

Could he be William Jerome Paige, born in 1882, son of Oscar Page and Martha Cowan? By 1940 William had been "on the run" from his wife and family for almost 14 years. Had he chosen an alias of his father's first name and his mother's last name? Was Oliver a son from an earlier extra-marital relationship?

For the first part of William Paige's life see Missing Grandfather, Boston or Bangor.

Updated

On October 13, 2018, I started a thread on rootschat.com looking for help identifying Oscar Cowan. You can see that thread here: Oscar Cowan, Rockland, Maine, 1934 to 1941. The information in the replies led me to the conclusion that Oscar Cowan in Rockland, Maine, is most likely George Oscar Abbott.

George was born May 4, 1881, in Thomaston, Knox County, Maine, and married Lizzie Tilden on September 29, 1905. Their son Charles O was born in 1908. Charles was the master of a barge, the Rockport, as of 1943, and had been at sea for 20 years by that time. All of this matches the information on "Oscar Cowan" and Oliver Abbott's 1940 census in Rockland.

In addition, both said they were married but living apart from their spouse. George's wife, Lizzie, had remarried in 1925. Charles O Abbott was married in 1939 to Ruth Clark, but she is in her home town of Vinalhaven in 1940 'married, but living apart from her spouse.'

The only question that remains is why George O Abbott was using the name Oscar Cowan from 1934 to 1941 in Rockland. That I do not know, but at this point it is a question for the Abbott family to answer, not me. I don't think that "Oscar Cowan" was William Paige.

I've included some basic information about George Oscar and Charles O Abbott in the New England Families tree on this site.

Benjamin Cowan of Monson, Maine–A Brief Ancestry

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Benjamin Cowan was born between 1834 and 1838, probably in Salem, Maine, the son of James Cowan and Lucrecia Winslow.

According to a descendant, Benjamin Cowan's great grandfather Thomas Cowan arrived in America with a group of Scottish Presbyterians from northern Ireland, led by a minister named James McGregor. Research shows that this migration was in 1718, from Aghadowey, Derry/Londonderry County.

I have looked through the Session Book for the Presbyterian Church, Aghadowey, Co. Londonderry, Ireland, 1702-1725, in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department, New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston, Mass.), Mss 439. A "Granny o Cohan" and a "Noaly/Nealy o Cohan" are listed as receiving aid from the church.

This area might be a good place to look for the Cowans' Irish place of origin.

Benjamin's mother Lucretia Winslow might be the daughter of Kenelm Winslow and Elizabeth Cole; The Coles were from Plymouth Colony. There were a Kenelm and Edward Winslow in Plymouth as well, one of whom may be the immigrant ancestor for the Maine branch. Edward Winslow was a 1620 Mayflower passenger, Kenelm Winslow and the Coles were not.

The paternal ancestry of Benjamin's paternal grandmother, Susannah Kilbourne goes back to Rowley and Salem, Massachusetts. It includes Mary Jackson, the sister of Elizabeth (Jackson) Howe, executed in Salem on 19 Jul 1692 during the witch trials.

Susanah Kilbourne's mother was Susanna Fiske. The Fiske family have been traced back to a Richard Fiske, born about 1493 in Laxfield, Suffolk, England. They had ben in Suffolk from at least 1208.

Benjamin's story continues in the next article, Benjamin Cowan of Monson, Maine -- His Families and concludes in part three, Benjamin & Sarah (Newell) Cowan of Monson, Maine.

Sources include:

correspondence with descendants
US Federal Censuses
Maine Vital Records, 1892 to 1955, microfilm at New England Historic and Genealogical Society
Marriage Returns of Penobscot County, Maine prior to 1892, Ruth Gray, editor, (Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1994),
Maine Families in 1790, Rockport, ME: Picton Press
Their source was Hallowell Vital Records.
Their source: Dunstable Vital Records.
findagrave.com
rootsweb.com
Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts, George B. Blodgette
Rowley Vital Records
International Genealogical Index, extracted record, at: familysearch.org

Benjamin Cowan of Monson, Maine—His Families

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Benjamin
Cowan, 1897

Continued from part one, Benjamin Cowan of Monson, Maine--a Brief Ancestry.

Benjamin Cowan was born between 1834 and 1838, probably in Salem, Maine, where his parents James and Lucretia Cowan were living in 1840. The earlier date reflects his age as given on his censuses, while the later date comes from his age at death in 1903.

A descendant has stated that Benjamin was orphaned when he was about 16, so 1838 may be accurate, since Lucretia died in Hampden on 19 Jan 1855. James was not found on the 1850 census and Lucretia and her younger children were living with her son Zenas in in Hampden. Her age was fifty on that census, but a different source says she was born in 1792.

On 26 Jul 1856 in Orrington, Maine, Benjamin married Rosanna Inman, daughter or granddaughter of Benjamin and Rhoda (Davis) Inman. The Cowans' first child, Martha Ellen, was born about September 1858 or 1859, probably in Hampden. Their second child, Augustus, was born about 1863.

I'll let a descendant of Benjamin's pick up the story here:

'Ben went off to the Civil War. His wife Roseanna put Martha and Augustus in the Hampden, Maine "poorhouse" (which appears to have been a boarding house that the local sheriff ran - that was pretty common then - that the sheriff boarded the poor) while Roseanna worked as a housekeeper for a family named Carey.

`Ben acknowledged Augustus and Martha as his children, but it appears that when he came home from the war there was a third child, Eva. Ben never claimed Eva as his child; Ben and Roseanna divorced and Roseanna married a son of the Carey family that she had been working for. (Probably Eva's father). Even after she married [Daniel Carey], Augustus, Martha and Eva remained at the Hampden poorhouse.'

The 1870 and 1880 censuses of Hampden both show Augustus and Eva in the poor house. Martha was with them in 1870 but not in 1880, having married Oscar Stover Page in 1877.

The image at HeirloomsReunited.blogspot.com of page 7 of 1870-71 Report of the Selectmen of the Town of Hampden, Maine, shows Martha, Augustus, and Cora E Cowan as pauper inmates of the alms house during the year ending March 1871. Page 8 says that Hampden received $351.34 from Salem, Maine, in the past year for the support of the Cowan children. This likely came from Benjamin.

Then in 1889-90 "Benjamin Cowan and family at Monson" are listed on the 1889-90 Annual & School Report of Hampden, Maine, as having provided $135.21 for Supplies to Persons not on the [town poor house] Farm. This may have been still for Augustus or Eva, both well into their twenties if still alive, or it may have been for support of another relative.

Concluded in Benjamin & Sarah (Newell) Cowan of Monson, Maine.

Sources include

correspondence with descendants
US Federal Censuses
American Civil War Soldiers, at ancestry.com
Maine Vital Records, images at New England Historic and Genealogical Society
Marriage Returns of Penobscot County, Maine prior to 1892, Ruth Gray, editor, (Picton Press, 1994)

Benjamin & Sarah (Newell) Cowan of Monson, Maine

2018-10-09T00:00:00-04:00

Benjamin & Sarah (Newell) Cowan

Continued from part one, Benjamin Cowan of Monson, Maine—Brief Ancestry, and part two Benjamin Cowan of Monson, Maine—Families

After Benjamin Cowan's divorce from Rosanna Inman, he apparently went back to Salem, Maine, for a while. The 1870-71 Report of the Selectmen of the Town of Hampden says that Hampton had received $351.34 from Salem for support of residents of the town farm. That would have been for Benjamin's children, as explained in part two of this series.

About 1874, Bejamin wedded Sarah Jane Newell, born September 1839, daughter of William and Cordelia Newell. Sarah had been married twice previously, to Thomas Greeley (in 1864) and Silas Trask (possibly in 1869).

Benjamin and Sarah's first two children, twins Flora and Frank, were born May 6, 1875, in Greenville, Maine. Orrin (about 1876) and Lizzie (about 1878) followed, then Benjamin on Feb 29, 1880, in Monson. Their last two children were David (1882) and Alvin (1884).

Benjamin worked as a logger in Greenville, according to a descendant of his daughter Flora. Then on the 1880 census he was a quarryman in Monson. He is found in Monson on the 1890 Veterans' Schedule and the 1900 Census, by which time he had retired. He died Jan 20, 1903 in Monson; his wife is on the 1910 census as head of the house with her sons Orrin and Alvin.

Sources include:
email from a Cowan descendant
Maine Marriage and Vital Records
The Bryant Family Tree at ancestry.com
US Federal Censuses.

William Page and Oscar Cowan—Where They Are Not

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William Page/Paige is not buried in Wyoming Cemetery, Melrose, where his father, mother and his brother Augustus are buried. (Source: plot record, from R---- S---- in May 2010.)

Nor with his brother Stover D.F. Page in Glenwood Cemetery, Everett. (Source: R---- S----, May 2010, her correspondence with cemetery.)

Nor in Oak Grove Cemetery, Bucksport ME. (Correspondence from Oak Grove Cemetery Association, April 2010.)

Nor with his wife in St. Joseph's Cemetery, W. Roxbury. Half of the plot was empty wnen I was there before William's daughter Cecelia died. Cecelia was later buried in the other half of this plot.

I did not find a death record for William J. Page/Paige in Maine or Massachusetts for the years 1924 to 1997, nor in Massachusetts for 1998 to 2004. If his death was recorded it may have been under a different name.

He was not found in the death records of Bucksport, ME. (Email to me from town clerk, April or May 2010.)

There is no death record in Rockland, Knox County, Maine, from 1941 to 1960 for either William Page or "Oscar Cowan". (Email from city clerk's office, June 2012).

"Oscar Cowan" is not found in:
Maine, Marriages, 1771-1907, indexes at familysearch.org
Maine, Births and Christenings, 1739-1900, indexes at familysearch.org
Social Security Applications, indexed at ancestry.com
1921, 1931, 1936 Rockland City Directories
1931, 1933, 1947 Melrose or 1932 or 1939 Malden City Directories
Thomaston Village Cemetery index cards, 1700's to 2007, images at familysearch.org
Thomaston Village Cemetery and Elm Grove Cemetery inscriptions, 1700s-2007, images at familysearch.org

Also
SusanC7117, descendant of Benjamin Cowan and Susan Newell, has "never heard of" Oscar Cowan.
Family History Library only has records prior to 1922 in its catalog and available for lending.

I Searched Maine Deaths, 1960-1996 at http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/28641 for:
Oscar Cowan anywhere, Cowan in Rockland
Oliver Abbott anywhere, Abbott in Rockland
Paige anywhere
Page anywhere
Cowan anywhere
nothing found

who's this, from Maine Deaths, 1960-1996: name date of death age where certificate #
PAGE, WILLIAM S 9-19-1967 85 Years LINCOLN 6707915
not him. this is William Sibley Page, son of Thomas and Mary (Sibley) Page, buried in West Broadway Cem, Lincoln, ME

who's this, from Maine Deaths, 1960-1996: name date of death age where certificate #
PAGE, OSCAR 11-7-1995 61 Years DAMARISCOTTA 9509870
no relation. very likely is Oscar Page, age 5, son of Earle and Inez (Partridge?) Page, living with Inez's parents in Wiscasset, Lincoln, Maine, in 1940. Born 27 Apr 1934, died 7 Nov 1995.

who is this: Mt. Pleasant Cemetery (Bangor) | Bangor, ME
Plot Details for PAGE, WILLIAM
Section: III
Lot: SG
Died: #####

I believe this person is accounted for also, and is not the William Page we are looking for.