CDV of a Young Boy IDed as Sterling Fessenden at 7 Years 11 Months, Eastport, Maine

Reprinted, with permission, from the Heirlooms Reunited blog

Carte de Visite of a young boy identified on the reverse as  "Sterling Fessenden, 7 years 11 mos, Eastport, August 1883"

It's likely that Sterling was Sterling Fessenden (1875-1943), son of Nicholas Fessenden (1847-1927) and Laura Emily (Stirling or Sterling) Fessenden (1852-1935) [although her birth year looks to be 1851 in the photograph of her stone]. 

Sterling's paternal grandparents, Hewitt Chandler Fessenden and Mary Turner (Peterson) Fessenden were in Eastport, Maine, by 1860 where Hewitt practiced medicine.  Their son Nicholas moved to Fort Fairfield, Maine, upon his 1874 marriage to Laura Emily Stirling, a native of that town, where Sterling would be born in 1875. I imagine young Sterling's photograph was taken on a visit to his paternal grandparents.

Sterling would graduate from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and find his way to China, where he would run the Municipal Court in Shanghai and, if the facts are correct, lead a rather controversial life.  

If you have corrections and/or information to share on the Fessenden and Stirling/Sterling families, please leave a comment for the benefit of other researchers.

CDVs of Byron Haley Marston and daughter Esma May Marston, taken at the Loring Studio at Eastport, Maine

Reprinted, with permission from the Heirlooms Reunited blog

Cartes de Visite of a man identified as B. H. Marston and a young girl identified as Esma May Marston.  The photographs were taken at the Loring studio at Eastport, Maine.

B. H. Marston was presumably Byron Haley Marston, a school teacher.  According to his Find a Grave memorial, Byron was born December 27, 1855 at Lubec, Maine, the son of Nathan Marston and Mary E. (Wormell) Marston.

On June 26, 1884 at Northwood, New Hampshire, Byron married Lulu Esma Berry, daughter of Simeon P. Berry and Sylvia P. (Marston) Berry.  

Byron Haley Marston and Sylvia P. (Marston) Berry shared a common ancestor, Nathaniel Marston, born at Deerfield, New Hampshire, in 1773.

Esma May Marston, daughter of Byron Haley Marston and Lulu E. (Berry) Marston, was born November 21, 1885 at Northwood, New Hampshire.  At some point the family moved to Massachusetts, where Byron died in 1920.  He, Lulu and at least two of their children are buried in the Wyoming Cemetery at Melrose, Massachusetts.

On June 26, 1909 at Melrose, Massachusetts, Esma May Marston married Allan F. Downing, son of Cyrus Downing and Susan (Ellsworth) Downing.  Allan was born at Wentworth, New Hampshire, about 1886.   The 1910 Census of Wentworth lists Allan and Esma as living in a household next to that of Allan's parents.  Allan was working as a butcher.

Sadly, Allan's New Hampshire Death Record indicates that he died at age 32 of pneumonia, brought on by the Spanish Flu, at Wentworth, New Hampshire, on October 4, 1918.  His death record indicates that he had always lived at Wentworth.

By 1920, widow Esma May (Marston) Downing was rooming at Manchester, New Hampshire and working as a saleslady at a hardware store.  At some point Esma married Charles Perkins Dickinson.  She died in 1950 at Hanover, New Hampshire and is buried with Charles in the Homeland Cemetery at Bristol, New Hampshire.

If you have corrections and/or additions to the information above, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

Sources:

• U.S. Federal Census
• New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1637-1947
• New Hampshire Birth Records, Early to 1900
• Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915
• New Hampshire Death Records, 1654-1947 - death of Allan F. Downing
• New Hampshire Death Records, 1938-1959 - death of Esma May (Marston) Downing Dickinson
• Find a Grave
• The Marston Genealogy, in Two Parts, written by Byron Haley Marston's father Nathaniel Washington Marston of Lubec, Maine, and published in 1888