Lost at sea
In this episode: I find out what happened to Adel's first husband, George
Combing through old newspapers is tedious, but it’s often the best way to track the milestones and movements in the lives of “the House family.” Without oral histories or family materials, I rely on what’s in the public sphere. Luckily, as I said in my last post about them, the House family had very dramatic lives and so appear in the newspaper often.
Last week, while going through some digitized newspapers from the 1860s, I managed to find the details of a story that has puzzled me for a while.
The original owner of my family’s house, a woman named Adel, has a very confusing early life. She was born in 1841 (though this date varies) in a port town in coastal Maine. Her father was the captain of a merchant vessel, listed as a “master mariner” in one census, so she was no stranger to the dangers of sea voyages.
Based on her obituary and later accounts of her early life, I believe Adel worked as a schoolteacher in her late teens. This was a common way for young women to gain working experience and some money for their families. But Adel probably didn’t remain a teacher after her marriage, in about 1860, to a young man named George.
The couple lived with Adel’s parents in the early days of their marriage, where Adel likely gave birth to her first child, Fred. George may have also worked as a teacher for a while – perhaps it’s where the young couple originally met – but had given up the career for one at sea. Since they were living with Adel’s sea captain father, George may have just entered the family business.
The couple seems to have been well-off and content, based on newspaper reports of their social movements. Adel became pregnant with their second child, Allie, in early 1866. However, around this time, George died in sudden, mysterious circumstances. For a long time, I tried to figure out what they were and when exactly they occurred, but had no luck.
A newspaper article from the 1960s, almost 100 years after George’s apparent death, offered one clue. It’s an article celebrating Allie’s upcoming milestone birthday, offering a detailed account of her life. The article mentions that Allie’s father, a sailor, was “presumably lost at sea” before Allie’s birth.
Allie was born in December 1866 and conceived earlier that year, so this gave me the window I needed to search for materials relating to George’s death. The local newspapers, though digitized, are not easily searchable – so I was looking at a very long, tedious project. Worth it, though, to solve the mystery.
This was presuming, of course, that the death of a local merchant in (most likely) a sea disaster would actually make the papers. I thought it would, but you never know.
I started in February 1866, working my way through the bi-weekly editions of the paper whenever I had a free moment. I paid special attention to the “shipping news” column, as well as the death announcements. George and Adel did not appear in the social updates, either. My eyes were getting increasingly tired each time I tried to read the tiny newsprint, and I began to worry that I was suffering the tedium (and migraines) for nothing.
BUT THEN, last week, I found what I was looking for! A lone blurb on page 2 of a July 1866 edition. The schooner that George captained had wrecked and all the crew were presumed dead. No death announcement followed in the weeks after, but this was already exactly what I hoped to find. An answer to my burning questions.
George was the captain of a merchant vessel making trips between coastal Maine and Canadian ports. His schooner left port in mid-June 1866. When it never reached its intended destination, Halifax, it was discovered that the ship was involved in an accident. Despite a search and investigation, there were no survivors. Mystery solved, finally.
So, then, what happened to Adel?
We can only imagine her grief. She was suddenly alone, pregnant, with an unsure future. Once George was officially declared dead, in November 1866, Adel was named his sole heir. Her father helped her to manage the estate, but Adel seems to have wielded all the power over her husband’s money. From what I’ll tell you about her in later posts, this is entirely characteristic behavior.
Adel didn’t stay in her hometown long after Allie’s birth. She left the baby in her parents’ care and moved to the town where, someday, she would build a house for her family. This is only the first chapter of her story.