Much of this information was collected by Frank and Norma from direct conversations with Abbie.
January 4th, 2023 is Abbie's 144th birthday. She was born in 1879 on Orrs Island, Maine, the oldest surviving child of Merrill York and Harriet Drusella Webber. Three siblings preceded her, each living 3 months or less. Four sisters and two brothers followed her although Mary Elizabeth, born the year following Abbie, died at 13. Abbie's line of descent is from Richard of Yorkshire, England who came to the Colonies in the mid 1600s and settled near Durham, N.H.
Abbie's parents were married in 1875 and moved to Orrs Island, where he was a fisherman. The family moved to Ferry Village in South Portland in 1903. The story from Abbie was that Harriet loaded up the family possessions on a scow and had it towed to South Portland...while William was out fishing. Strong women run in the family.
Abbie used to enjoy accompanying her father fishing. The fish were plentiful in the mid 1880s and, though William sometimes fished the Grand Banks with his uncle, he usually set his lines and nets inside Cliff and Chebeague Islands from his double ended dory. He was known to be a strong man and regularly rowed the 20 miles to and from Orrs Island. Another Abbie story is that one winter the ice was frozen solid on Portland Harbor, so he walked on the ice to get home.
She related conversations she had with her father while fishing. Once she spied some islands and said to him "Be that England, Father?" He reflected and replied, "Land sakes no, child. England be a hundred miles or more." Another time, while watching seagulls fly, he told her "You know Ab, someday a person will be able to fly in the sky just like those birds." Abbie said she was frightened and thought her father had become "daft".
She read the newspaper, front to back, well into her 90s, and stayed informed of everything going on in the state and the world. The only thing that slowed her down was losing her hearing and her eyesight. She was especially interested in the weather. Abbie never lost her interest in learning. She was often found reading the dictionary. One day her great grandson, Glen, who had been studying cirrus and cumulus cloud formations in school, asked her about the cloud overhead. She said, "You know, Sonny Boy, father always called them "Summer Floaters". And so we tell our grandchildren the same.
Other Abbie expressions were that someone kookie was "half past two" or "24 cents short of a quarter."
She only completed 5th grade on Orrs Island. Her parents said she had learned all there was to learn at that school and that further attendance was unnecessary. She always loved books. After she died her grandchildren and great-grandchildren donated children's books to the Orrs Island Library. It would have pleased her.
At age 13 Abbie came to Portland to work at Boones Restaurant on Custom House Wharf, the same wharf where great-grandson Craig built his lobster and bait businesses. She secured a room directly above the restaurant which proved to be quite exposed to the men on the waterfront. Even with her furniture barricading the door at night, it was not place for a 13-year-old girl. She moved into her Aunt Henrietta Woodbury's home in South Portland and worked as a housekeeper and a nannie. Clarence was living with his grandfather, Zephania Crockett, in South Portland and so they met. Clarence used to tell that Abbie loved ice skating and that she often wore a red wool skirt that used to "melt the ice".
Abbie and Clarence "courted" for 5 or 6 years before getting married. Abbie finally inspired him to "step up or step out". They were married on September 8, 1901, and moved in with his parents where George Linwood and later Mabelle Christine were born. They moved to Front Street in Ferry Village where Martha, Paul, Helen, Natalie and Robert were born, all without the benefit of electric lights.
Clarence began working as a well-paid hard hat dive in 1916, which should have made Abbie' life easier, but "circumstances determined it would not." Clarence was a hard drinker and there are stories where Abbie would send George and Mabelle to the wharf to get grocery money from Clarence before he spent it all in the Commercial Street Taverns. Abbie was a very resourceful provider. She knew which greens in the field were edible and she loved cooking and eating them. I remember well the crocks of salted dandelion greens, fiddleheads and salt fish that she prepared with Mabelle at 23 Morse Street. She used to cook boiled beef tongue for Frank as a special treat.
Abbie created clothing for her children from grain bags. She knew how to use sumac flowers to dye muslin and knitted mittens and scarves. She was very resourceful and never wasted anything. Her father was often at the door with fresh caught cod fish which she called "Cape Cod Turkey". She washed the clothes once a week, on Monday, boiling them on the woodstove, using homemade soap.
Abbie and Clarence moved several times and eventually, at age 70, Clarence retired from diving. From 1952 until 1960, they occupied a small apartment at the Gould Equipment Company on Haskell Street in South Portland, near Cash Corner. Craig and I remember visiting there. Clarence chewed plug tobacco and there were empty cans around the house, but always clean. Abby would have it no other way. I remember riding down to the Dairy Queen at Cash Corner with Clarence in a Model T Ford truck. Craig remembers getting in trouble for helping Clarence to his feet whereupon the went into the warehouse for a shot of rum.
At Clarence death in 1960, Abbie went to live with Mabelle and Morris on Morse Street in Pleasantdale until 1969 when Morris retired, and he and Mabelle moved to Florida. Abbie moved to Falmouth Manor when she lived until 1978. I remember sitting with her at Falmouth Manor, watching TV as an astronaut walked on the moon. She was reflective and told me about sitting on the point on Orrs Island as a child and watching the first steam powered boat enter Harpswell Sound. She witnessed so much change.
With failing health, she moved to Devonshire Nursing Home where she died on March 17, 1979 shortly after her 100th birthday party where she enjoyed a birthday meal of salt fish, potatoes, fiddlehead greens and homemade biscuits.
Shortly after the party she was able to meet and hold her great, great grandsons, Eric and Ryan. She also met and held great, great grandchildren Sayde and Christopher. Gail and Wendy knew her well. She told Gail she was pregnant with Kimberly...before Gail knew she was.
Abbie had 20 grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great grandchildren at the time of her death. She took a special interest in each.
To quote Norma, Abbie was "truly quite the lady."
Please feel free to provide me any personal memories or stories you might have or have been told by your folks and I will add them on this blog to perpetuate her memory.
Click here for audio YouTube of Abbie Emma https://youtu.be/qbQMfsT_nsc
