Jennie M. (4 Apr 1901-3 Dec 1982) — m. Fabian T. Wilbur in 1923; m. Henry Paro in 1960
Estelle M. “Stella” (2 Jan 1902-2 Aug 1956) — m. Harry R. Berry on 28 Nov 1926
Elsie Minette (26 Oct 1905-Jul 1983) — m. Wendell P. “Whit” Whittemore on 30 Jun 1928
Alice Minnie (8 Jan 1909-25 Sep 1995) — m. Kenneth A. Hinkley on 1 Aug 1931
Charles was born in Castine, Maine to Captain Horatio E. Hodsdon, Sr. and his third wife Hannah Sullivan. He was named for his late cousin Charles Condon. His mother died when he was about 3 years old. Although he was his mother’s only child, he had five older half-siblings.
Lucinda was born in Sanilac County, Michigan, the fifth of eight children to Canadian parents Samuel Umphrey and Elsie Wismer. In the late 1890s, when Lucinda was in her teens, her family moved from Sanilac County to Turner and Whitney Townships, Arenac County, north of Saginaw Bay.
Charles’s father ran a hotel in Castine in the final years of his life. He died in 1875, when Charles was just 9. The family story is that Charles didn’t get along with his father’s fourth wife, Abbie, so he ran off to sea in his teens. However, given that Abbie died in 1874 when Charles was 8, this doesn’t fit the facts. Maybe the clash was with one of his older half-sisters.
I don’t know where Charles was in the 1880 census. Somehow, probably by way of the St. Lawrence Seaway, he wound up in eastern Michigan, where he lived in West Bay City, Bay County and worked as a cabinet-maker. His aunt Sarah Jane Sullivan Delano had moved to eastern Michigan in the 1880s, which might account for his gravitating there. He might even have moved there with her and her family.
On 26 Jun 1895 in Bay County, Michigan, Charles married schoolmarm Grace Edith Roeder (28 May 1874-30 Sep 1951) from Pennsylvania. No, really, schoolmarm. That’s what the license says. She was the eldest of three children to Civil War soldier and former P.O.W. George W. Roeder (4 Jul 1841-22 Oct 1897) and his wife Sidnia Wilson (~1848-????). Her family moved to Bay City, Michigan before 1880, and she had two younger siblings, Inez and George, born in Michigan. The marriage of Charles and Edith didn’t last, but I don’t know when, why, or how it ended. In 1906, Edith, as Grace E. Roeder, married fellow teacher Willis E. Maneval (5 Feb 1877-22 Jan 1956). Willis became a botany professor, and they moved to Missouri.
In the 1900 census, both Charles and Lucinda (listed as “Lulu”) were servants in the household of English immigrant Henry Reid in Arenac and Au Gres Townships, Arenac County, Michigan. The same census also listed Lucinda with her family in Turner and Whitney Townships, Arenac County. Charles and Lucinda married on 3 Jul 1900 in Standish, Arenac County. The marriage registration noted that Charles had been married before. Their first child, Jennie, was born the following year in Whitney Township, Arenac County, so they were living near or maybe with Lucinda’s family, or maybe with Charles’s aunt Sarah.
A family story says that Charles and Lucinda lived for a time in California, and then returned to Michigan after Lucinda threatened that if they had another child born in California, she would throw it into the Pacific Ocean. That might explain why none of the records for Stella and Elsie say they were born in California. It also could be that Charles liked making up stories. Alice, the youngest, was born in Au Gres, Michigan in 1909, the same year that Charles’s aunt Sarah died there.
In the 1910 census, they were living in Grant Township, Iosco County, Michigan, a good 20 miles north of Au Gres, with their four daughters Jennie (9), Estella (7), Elsie (4), and Alice (1), all of them listed as born in Michigan.
The family moved to Maine in 1913, to Penobscot, near Charles’s home town of Castine. The 1920 census for Penobscot, Hancock County, Maine listed them as “Hodgston”: Charles C. (53), Lucinda C. (39), Jennie M. (18), Estella M. (16), Elsie M. (14), and Alice (10). This census again claimed Michigan as the birthplace of all four daughters.
They had moved to Maine to take over a farm that Charles dubbed World’s End Farm because it was at the end of a dirt road outside any incorporated towns, overlooking the bay, and had no electricity or running water. The agreement was that the people who owned it, who were relatives of Charles and had no children, would leave the place to them if they would take care of the farm (and the people). For some reason, that deal fell through, and they had to buy the place.
I don’t know for certain who these relatives were, but I have a good guess: the 1910 census for the area of Penobscot included the home farm of Hosea B. Wardwell (80) and his sisters Sylvia Wardwell (76) and Annette Wardwell Bird (69). These three lived on Wardwell Point, across Northern Bay from the town of Penobscot. They were younger siblings of Horatio Hodsdon’s first wife Sarah, making Charles their step-nephew. Hosea, a retired schoolteacher, had never married or had children. Neither had most of his sisters. Annette, the youngest of the three, died in 1912. Sylvia and Hosea died one day apart at the end of November in 1913, the same year Charles and Lucinda moved to Maine. Maybe they died before the legal agreement about the farm was complete. Maybe a family member sued to prevent transfer of property to someone who wasn’t a blood relative; there were certainly other Wardwells in the area.
Charles didn’t do that much farming anyway. He was a self-taught carpenter and boatwright, among other trades. A grand-daughter remembered him as a wiry little guy who ate peas off a knife, and called Lucinda “Cindy” because it annoyed her. Charles and Lucinda both worked for some of the wealthy families living in Castine, where there were big summer homes. One of the families lost everything in the 1929 crash, and Lucinda had to teach the lady of the house how to make tea because the family couldn’t afford to keep her on any longer.
During the 1920s, the three older girls married and moved out. I couldn’t find Charles and Lucinda or their daughter Alice in the 1930 census, even by manually reviewing all 16 pages of the records for Penobscot.
I suspect the census-taker just missed them. The 1940 census showed Charles (73) and Lucinda (59) “Hogdon” in Penobscot Town, with some of the same neighbors as in 1920. Charles listed himself as a farmer.
Lucinda died on 20 Apr 1948 after a long illness. The Lewiston Evening Journal reported her death in the Thursday, 22 April edition. Charles died the following year at the home of daughter Jennie in Otisfield, Cumberland County. They’re buried in Castine Cemetery, also called Laurel Cemetery. A Dr. Babcock bought the farm after they died.
Jennie, the oldest child, was a teacher. She married Fabian Turner Wilbur (8 Apr 1902-24 Jun 1958) from Rangeley. Jennie and Fabian had two daughters:
Katherine J. “Kay” (~1941) — m. Gerard J. Caron on 1 Oct 1959
Margaret E. (~1943) — m. Rodney F. Ellingwood on 1 Feb 1963
In the 1930 census, the couple were living in Rangeley. In the 1940 census, they were in East Otisfield, Cumberland County, somewhere just west of Pleasant Lake, and Fenn Toothaker was living with them. Fenn wasn’t a blood relative to the Hodsdons, but he was distantly linked by marriage. The 1950 census listed them still in Otisfield with daughters Katherine J. (9) and Margaret E. (7).
After Fabian’s death in 1958, Jennie married Henry Paro (10 Oct 1905-13 Dec 1979) from Vermont. Henry died in Pasco County, Florida in 1979. Jennie died in Lewiston hospital in 1982, and is buried with Fabian and Henry in Elmwood Cemetery, Otisfield, Oxford County, Maine. Otisfield is at the far southern end of Oxford County, where it mingles with Cumberland County.
Stella in 1926 married Harry Robert Berry (17 Oct 1899-23 Apr 1957) from West Forks, Somerset County, Maine. They lived in West Kennebunk, where the 1930 and 1940 censuses showed them, and had no children. The 1950 census showed Harry in prison in Thomaston, Knox County, and didn’t find Stella.
Stella died suddenly in 1956, reportedly in the middle of playing the piano. She’s buried with Harry, who died the following year, in First Parish Cemetery, York Village, Maine.
In 1928 in Jay, Maine, Elsie married Wendell Philip “Whit” Whittemore (28 Sep 1904-13 Jan 1992), 6th child of Laforest C. and Luella G. Whittemore of Jay. In 1930 they were still in Jay. By 1940 they were living in Norway, where Whit ran a grocery store. Fenn Toothaker at one time worked there. Children:
Alice Elaine (24 Nov 1929-21 Dec 2019) — m. Harlan W. Gilman, Jr. on 6 Sep 1951
Phillip Christopher (31 Aug 1931-21 Nov 2012) — m. Jeanne Lamb on 19 Jun 1955
Elsie had bladder cancer, which might be what she died of in 1983 in either Lewiston or Norway, Maine. She’s buried in Moose Hill Cemetery, Livermore Falls. Whit died in 1992 and is buried with her.
Alice has her own entry in the family tree.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F44F-X5K -- Charles’s birth (no image)
https://www.myheritage.com/names/charles_hodsdon -- Some data on Charles
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW9P-52V -- 1880 census, Roeder family
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKQ-WT6 -- 1894 census, Roeder family
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCN4-3H3 -- 1895 wedding of Charles and Edith
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M91N-9M2 -- 1900 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3F8-QXN -- 1900 wedding of Charles and Lucinda
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQ6B-FMB -- Jennie’s 1901 birth
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N3JW-KMF -- 1906 remarriage of Charles’s first wife
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ML56-HZ9 -- 1910 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFZK-SQB -- 1920 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KCJH-FDB -- 1926 wedding of Estella
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KCNX-48N -- 1928 wedding of Elsie
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XM8T-B4C -- Jennie, 1930 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMDF-3GN -- Estella, 1930 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XM8T-4V8 -- Elsie, 1930 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMMD-1W7 -- 1940 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMMW-JJG -- Jennie, 1940 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KM99-LFW -- Estella, 1940 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMMK-XH9 -- Elsie, 1940 census
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95802996/lucinda-catherine-hodsdon -- Lucinda’s grave, with obituary
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKM1-SZKC -- Charles’s burial, 1949
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKM1-SZLN -- Ditto, but as “Charles D. Hodson”
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93854367/charles-condon-hodsdon -- Charles’s grave
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FMR-C2WS -- 1950 census, Jennie
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KCJQ-P3Z -- 1951 wedding of Elaine Whittemore
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101571474/grace-edith-maneval -- 1951 grave of Charles’s first wife
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138022724/estella-berry -- 1956 grave, Estella
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKXM-QPB5 -- Jennie’s death, misdated (says 1992)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKXM-QPB5 -- Jennie’s burial, 1982
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120597875/jennie-m-wilbur -- Jennie’s grave
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5B4-B2J -- Elsie’s death, 1983
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKR2-KBYQ -- 2012 death of Phillip Whittemore
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101308510/phillip-c-whittemore -- 2012 grave of Philip Whittemore, with photo
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MR37-9TT -- 1910 census, the Wardwells of Penobscot, ME
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20645881/hosea-b-wardwell -- 1913 grave of Hosea Wardwell; great photo
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52589628/jeremiah-wardwell -- Col. Jeremiah Wardwell
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52589667/robert-wardwell -- Robert Wardwell
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=59182530 -- duplicate of above; 2 findagrave entries for same graveyard