Tag Archives: Calvin Segee Adams

Adams

12 for ’26: FamilySearch Full-Text Serch BSOs – Calvin Segee Adams (1843-1921)

2 Comments

This is only my secnd jump down the BSO rabbit hold known as FamilySearch full-text search and I can’t recommend it highly enough. This month is going to be a LOT of fun and very fruitful if these first two ancestors are good examples of new information about their lives to be found.

Today, I chose Calvin Segee Adams, another of my 3X great grandparents to review with this terrific AI technology and I wasn’t disappointed.

I found a couple of court cases involving Calvin. One was dated 1873 when he, his father Daniel and brother Nelson were sued by George Curran for a business-related debt, as far as I can tell.

The Adams men were mariners and later boat builders in Calais, Washington, Maine. However, the Curran lawsuit was dismissed when neither side bothered to appear in court.

Calvin also sued one Lawrence Fitzsimmons in 1902 for assault and battery. This suit was also dismissed when neither party appeared in court.

However, I found two other items, both in one resource that I didn’t know about – the Machias Union newspaper. Apparently, issues from selected years in the 1870s were read and genealogically related items were compiled and published in a book/let by Margaret G. Myers in 1996. This work has been made digitally available on FamilySearch.

The first discovery pertains to Bertha M. Adams, sister of Calvin Adams. She was born c1857 in Calais, Washington, Maine and found at home until the 1870 census.

After that, she disappears from the records and I suspect that she died in the 1880s because her brother, Benjamin, named a daughter Bertha in 1881.

Now, I have proof!

Four entries up from the bottom is:

Adams (d), 10-18-74, Calais. Miss Bertha M. Adams 17y.

The second item I found is another death – that of Calvin Adams’ first wife, Martha Maria Tillinghast. Martha was from Rhode Island and married Calvin there on 12 December 1869 (Bristol, Rhode Island) when he was training as a boat builder. They had one daughter, Martha Lulu, born in July 1870.

Family lore says Martha died of homesickness as she didn’t care for Maine life. Calvin married (2) my 2X great grandmother, Nellie Tarbox, on 1 February 1875 in Calais.

I couldn’t find a death date for Martha and estimated that she died c1872. Once more, the Machias Union abstracts provided proof:

In the second section, her death notice reads:

ADAMS (d), 3-18-72, Calais. Mattie M., wife of Calvin S. Adams

A second loose end in the Adams family closed up!

An added bonus was finding the delayed birth registration for Calvin and Nellie’s daughter, my Aunt Pearl, who was born in 1887:

Her birth wasn’t registered until 1940, likely to prove citizenship at the start of World War II.

I wonder what I’ll find next?

Calais, eBay Finds

New Genealogy Finds on eBay

Leave a comment

I check eBay often for potential family finds.

This was a terrific find!

I purchased an 1893 Commencement Exercises program for Calais High School. As I mentioned, this one isn’t technically “my” family because 1893 was the wrong time period for any of my relatives to be graduating. I do recognize many of these surnames, though, and this program will be going back home to Calais, as a donation to its history.

This program is tiny, only about 2 inches by three inches and aside from a bit of foxing, it is in excellent condition.

Calais High School 1893
Front and Back Cover

Graduation Exercises Calais High School 1893
Title Page

Calais High Programme 1893
“Programme”

Calais High Programme 1893 - B
1893 Graduating Class

This is a fabulous slice of Calais history.

Be sure to check eBay regularly for possible family finds. I have more success with places or more unique surnames.

Adams, Calais

Calvin Segee Adams, Boat Builder

Leave a comment

Calais, Washington, Maine is a small community, located on the St. Croix River, directly across from St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. Its population today of roughly 3,000 people closely matches its 1840 population. City life in Calais was at its most vibrant from the time of the Civil War into the early 1900’s when its population peaked at about 8000 residents.

Calvin Segee Adams, my 2x great grandfather (and husband of my Nammie with the almost lost rocking chair) was born on 16 March 1843, across from Calais on Deer Island, part of the West Isles of New Brunswick, Canada. He was the third of nine children born to Daniel and Sarah Ann Parker Adams. The family remained on Deer Island at least until 1854 when Daniel sold some land there. He was a boat builder and Calais was quickly gaining a reputation as the place to go to have a boat built. Daniel likely figured that it would be a lot easier living in Calais building boats than commuting across the (sometimes dangerous) waters between Deer Island and Calais.

By 1860, Daniel, Sarah and children were all living in Calais. Not only was Daniel enumerated as a boat builder, but his oldest son, Benjamin and second son, Calvin, were also reported to be boat builders.

Calvin was likely barely in his teens when he started to go to work with Daniel to learn the craft of boat building. He also likely had more formal training than Daniel, who lived most of his life on Adams Island, Deer Island and then finally, Calais. Calvin was able to travel to Rhode Island during the 1860’s to hone his skills as an apprentice at Herreshoff (not Herreskoff) Manufacturing Co. in Bristol, Rhode Island. This apprenticeship was not to be sneezed at – today the Herreshoff Marine Museum is still in Bristol and is home to the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.

I found this article – and great photo – in The Way We Were 1908, published in 1978 by Print’N Press, Ltd., St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. (copyright restricted)

Apparently, Calvin was the man to see if you needed “yachts, river drivers’ skiffs, rowboats and motor boats of all kinds.” When this article was originally published in 1908, the Adams clan had already been in the boat building business for 40 years. Actually, as Daniel was already a boat builder in 1860, they had been in business closer to fifty years.

Calvin was also mentioned in The Motor Boat magazine on 10 January 1907. See the second entry in the top left hand column:

CalAdamsTheMotorBoatMag19070110
The Motor Boat, 10 Jan 1907

It is noted that “Calvin Adams is building a launch for Chas. Lowell.” No further information is given about Charles Lowell and his name is too common to be sure which man he was. However, it is impressive that Calvin was receiving commissions from individuals to build boats.

Here is another view of Calvin’s boatyard. This was in the treasure trove of photos I inherited from cousin Charles Chadwick:

Calvin Adams Boatyard
Adams Boatyard on the banks of the St. Croix River

I mentioned that Calais was in its heyday from the 1860’s to the early 1900’s. Calvin was not getting any younger and his son, Charles, did not continue the family tradition of boat building. Instead, his occupation in both the 1900 and 1910 censuses was cutter in the Calais shoe factory. By 1920, he was managing his wife, Annie’s, store for ladies’ goods.

Sometime between 1910, when Calvin was still listed as a boat carpenter, and 1920, when he was retired with no occupation, he stopped building boats.

Calvin’s lifespan happened to coincide with the lifespan of the boat building industry in Calais. He passed away on 15 January 1921 in Chipman Hospital across the river in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. He was buried at Calais Cemetery shortly afterwards.

In 1980, I took a trip to Calais to see where so many of my ancestors had lived. My mother, grandparents, great grandparents and one great great grandparent had all been born there and many others settled there when they moved from Canada. Cousin Charles Chadwick pointed out the spot where Calvin Adams’ boatyard had been:

Calais Maine Drydocks 1
It wasn’t quite as romantic as I had thought it would be and I’m glad Calvin didn’t live to see it because today it is the site of the Calais sewage treatment plant!