Dave Butler: Palmer Farm and Family

Wales, a small town just east of Lewiston, Maine

My mother was Florence Louise Palmer. Her father, Clyde Elmer Palmer, and mother, Bernice Estelle Shorey, owned a farm of 70 or so acres, where they grew vegetables, berries and other fruit. They raised cows and sold milk. They raised chickens and sold eggs. They kept a horse or two to help work the soil and provide transportation. The barn housed cats who kept the rodent population in check. They kept a dog or two for company. They harvested timber from a wood-lot and operated an outdoor sawmill. By 1930, the house was equipped with electricity and indoor plumbing. A pot-bellied, wood stove in the kitchen shared a chimney with another pot-bellied, wood stove in the living room. Heat for the rest of the house was supplied by bricks and rocks placed on the stoves and moved to the foot of the beds at bedtime. The original barn is still standing after 100 or more years, but the old farmhouse deteriorated and had to be demolished by the 1970s.

Clyde and Bernice were both only children. Clyde's father Osman Palmer was a widower. Bernice's mother Elzira was a widow. When they met and married, their children Clyde and Bernice were young adults and were not too happy as they became step-siblings by marriage. But, eventually Clyde and Bernice's relationship grew into a romance, and the step-siblings (no blood relationship) married. So, Florence's parents were husband and wife and brother and sister! Elzira and Osman moved into Clyde's farm in Wales, ME and had two rooms at one end of the house. Elzira was the only child in her family of 14 children to survive to adulthood. All of her siblings died of tuberculosis.

Flo's eldest sister, Marjorie, compiled a family history, The Palmer and Shorey Family Genealogies, in 1991.

Children of Clyde and Bernice, from oldest to youngest: Leo Clyde (June 10, 1915 to June 10, 2005), Marjorie Lena (October 27, 1919 to January 15, 2020), Burton (November 28, 1921 to 1927), Mary Elizabeth (August 26, 1924 to May 4, 2020), Florence Louise (October 29, 1925 to December 30, 2023), and Eunice Estelle (October 25, 1927 to July 21, 2006). Burton died of diabetes at age 4 or 5.

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Clyde Elmer Palmer ancestors
Photo is an excerpt from the genealogy research of Flo's sister Marjorie.
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Clyde's father, Osman Barker Palmer, was born 02‑Dec‑1852 in Pittston, ME; married 02‑Oct‑1881 to his second wife, Elzira Towne Shorey; died Apr‑1950 in Wales, ME. Clyde's mother, Irene King, died 01‑Sep‑1899 in Whitefield, ME. Osman's father, Miles Palmer, was born 06‑Jul‑1814 in Pittston, ME; married 14‑Feb‑1845; died 27‑May‑1881, buried in Whitefield, ME; listed in 1880 census as a farmer. Osman's mother, Mary Elizabeth Barker, was born 08‑Jul‑1812 in Dresden, ME; died 25‑Mar‑1897 in Whitefield, ME.

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Bernice Estelle Shorey ancestors
Photo is an excerpt from the genealogy research of Flo's sister Marjorie.
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Bernice's father, Burton B. Shorey, was born in 14‑Aug‑1861 in Palermo, ME; married to Elzira 24‑Jan‑1888 in Augusta; died 09‑Mar‑1898 in Augusta, ME. Bernice's mother, Elzira Elizabeth Towne, was born 02‑Jan‑1866 in Augusta, ME; died 05‑Jan‑1944 in Wales, ME. Burton's father, Benjamin B. Shorey, was born May‑1810; married first to Almira Moore, then to Sarah Bragg; died 12‑Nov‑1879 in Palermo, ME. Burton's mother, Sarah Bragg, was born 10‑Jun‑1833; died 04‑Jan‑1928 in Thomaston, ME. Benjamin B.'s father, Benjamin Shorey, was born in 1784; died 09‑Jan‑1853. Benjamin B.'s mother, Mehitable, was born in 1777; died 13‑May‑1873. Elzira's father, George Henry Towne, was born 03‑Mar‑1836 in Andover, MA; married 21‑Feb‑1860; died 31‑Dec‑1904 in Augusta, ME. Elzira's mother, Nancy Gay Peabody, was born 03‑Mar‑1839; died 16‑Sep‑1903 in East Winthrop, ME.

Ancestry traces one of Bernice's ancestral lines back to her 7th great-grandfather, John Parmenter, born 1612 in Essex, England, and his father John, who died in 1671 at age 83, his mother Bridget, who died 06‑Apr‑1660. The younger John Parmenter (1612 to 12‑Apr‑1666) owned The Old Parmenter Tavern in Sudbury, MA. In 1639 he married Amy, who died in 1681. He had a son, John Parmenter (1640‑1719), who had a son, John Parmenter (1678‑1768), who had a son, Caleb Parmenter (1722‑1795), who had a son, Caleb Parmenter (1758‑1852), who had a son, Joseph Parmenter (1782‑1866), who had a daughter, Roxanna Parmenter (1809‑1872), whose daughter, Sarah F. Bragg (1833‑1928), was Bernice's paternal grandmother.

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barn and farmhouse,
as they appeared in the 1920s, more or less
photo date unknown
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barn and farmhouse, rear view
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Osman with grandson, Leo, horses and wagon
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Clyde (hidden), Leo, Bernice, Florence, Mary, Osman, Elzira, Marjorie, and Burton(?)
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Burton, Mary, Flo, Marjorie, Leo
The eldest was Leo, then Marjorie,
Burton who died of illness in childhood,
Mary and Flo.
Not pictured was the youngest, Eunice (Eunie).
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Mary, Eunie (holding a cat), Flo
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Palmer family car. Clyde and Bernice in front with Eunie, Leo and Marjorie in middle. Either Florence or Mary in far back seat.
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Waterville, ME, 1932. Flo, Eunie and Mary with Elzira and Osman
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Waterville, ME, 1932. front: Flo, Eunie, Mary; middle: Ethel Potter, Irene Potter, Marjorie; back: __?, Winifred Potter, Elzira, Leo, Osman, Clyde, and Bernice
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September 1936. front: Flo, Eunie, Mary; back: Clyde, Marjorie, Bernice, and Leo
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Late 1930s. Flo, Eunie, and Mary
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At the State House in Augusta, ME, July 1939. Elzira, Marjorie, Eunie, Althea Angell, Flo, and Luena Angell
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At the State House in Augusta, ME, July 1939. Flo, Luena Angell, Eunie, Althea Angell
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July 1939. Elzira, Osman, Baby (the dog), Flo, Marjorie, Eunie, Clyde, Bernice, Leo and Mary
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Osman, Clyde, and Leo
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September 1940. Arthur S., Althea Angell, Mary, Flo, Luena Angell, Pearl Blackmar, and Mary
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Clyde, on the left, operated an outdoor sawmill for just a few years. Mary is in the middle, Flo on top of the pile.
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Clyde and Charles Prince (Marjorie's husband) standing. Seated are Osman and Elzira with Charles and Marjorie's baby (Flossie?)
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