By Isabel Morse Maresh
June 7, 1990
Once in a while, someone will ask to have a column written about a person or place, and though I sift through my collection and rack my brain, I cannot see how I can come up with enough material to make it worthwhile. This is one of those times, but with digging, I have come up with material about the Boynton family.
John Boynton was born at Knapton, Wintringham, Yorkshire, England in 1614. At the age of 24, he came to America with his brother William and settled at Rowley, Mass. There he was assigned an "acre and a half of land" on Bradford Street, which he tilled. He was a tailor by trade. He married Ellinor Pell of Boston.
From John and Ellen Boynton are descended many of the Boynton in Waldo County. A genealogy of the Boynton family, done in 1897, carries the family name back, generation by generation, to the year 1066, to Bartholomew de Boynton. It was he who aided William the Conqueror in his conquest of England and was later knighted for his services and given a castle. The genealogy also carries the family down through the generations to the year 1897 and includes eight generations to Bob's great-grandfather, Benjamin Turner Boynton. Ben Boynton lived in Montville and married Nancy M. Griffin. They were the parents of 13 children, of which were Alfred Royal, Charles, Ida Myra, James, Annie Dorothy, Franklin Gustavus, John H., David, Ben Jr., Sadie May, Bertha, Oswell, and Georgia Camilla, called Millie.
Ida Myra Boynton married Charles W. Pinkham and they lived in Liberty. Five children were born of this union, one of which was Geneva Maud, who married Ross M. Howes, and after his death married Everett N. Prescott. Geneva was a talented seamstress and made her wedding clothing. Her son, Ross Howes of Camden, gave me the picture of Geneva in her wedding finery, and impressive hat, which was very stylish at the time.
David Boynton, son of Ben and Nacy, lived in "the Kingdom" in Montville. In the "History of Liberty, Maine 1827-1975," published by the Liberty Historical Society, Marjorie Sewell wrote of the Boynton family and her fond recollections of David Boynton, known to us as Great-Uncle Dave. She wrote that he was known as "The King of the Kingdom," and that he told her many stories of life in "the Kingdom." Uncle Dave could quote Scripture in his own unique way. Mrs. Sewell wrote that Uncle Dave made references to the family coat of arms, and she thought that he would be pleased to have a copy of it, taken from the Boynton genealogy at the Maine State Library. When he saw it, and that the coat of arms had a prancing goat, he tossed it aside in disgust.
The youngest child of Ben and Nancy Boynton was Millie, born in 1879. On March 8, 1910, Herbert died at the age of 38 of an abscess in his head, leaving 10 small children, from the age of three months to 11. Life was not easy for a young widow in those days before welfare assistance. A newspaper clipping the month her husband died said, "The friends and neighbors of Mrs. Herbert Hannan met Saturday and cut and got up a good supply of wood." But needs are soon forgotten, and an item in the town news the same month stated that Millie Hannan had sold her horse.
The children of Millie and Herbert Hannan were Mildred, Gladys, Herbert, Roy, Bertha, Daisy, David Boynton, Trafton, Waldo, and Lester P. The baby, Lester, died of pneumonia two months after his father's death.
To make ends meet, Millie was forced to put some of her children into foster homes, where they worked to earn their board as farmhands and servants.
A son, George, was born to Millie in a second marriage to Mr. Chapman. She later took a job in Massachusetts, where she died of pneumonia in 1930 at the age of 51 years.
Such is the way life was for some in the "good old days."