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10 STORIES OF CHILDREN OF WINGATE AND MARY HAINES WITHOUT PROGENY
Of the 17 children born to Joseph Wingate and Mary Briggs Haines, eight did not
produce children or children that survived very long. Information about these children follows.
9 FREDERICK HAINES
Frederick “Fred” Haines and his twin brother, Francis “Frank” Haines, were born in Hallowell, Maine, on October 24, 1844. At the age of two, their parents, J. Wingate and Mary Briggs Haines, moved the twins and the rest of their large family to northern Maine where Wingate had owned property for a few years. Their new environment had been total wilderness only a few years earlier, but recent settlers had begun to cut timber, clear fields, and build roads and homes. A large group of maple trees covered a ridge in their vicinity and families started referring to their growing settlement as Maple Grove. Maple Grove was part of Township D Range 1 West of the Line of State (WELS) which in 1858 would be incorporated as the Town of Fort Fairfield.
7 Albert L. Haines
One of the more accomplished children of JW and Mary Haines was Albert, a significant farmer and leading citizen in Fort Fairfield and a Civil War veteran. Born on December 10, 1842, in Hallowell, Maine, he was only a young lad when his family relocated to Aroostook County in 1847. He grew into a capable farmer and raised two daughters to adulthood who in turn would be powerful leaders of two large and successful family businesses.
(Photo aerial image of Fort Fairfield, 1965)
6 NANCY C. HAINES
When Mary Briggs Haines gave birth to her fourth daughter, Nancy, in 1840 in Hallowell, Maine, she already had seven children between the ages of 1 and 11 in her household to care for. She would have been challenged to give her newborn the attention and care that she deserved. Somehow the challenge was successfully met and Nancy in turn would grow to be a capable helper to her mother as even more members were added to the family over the next 8 years. Nancy would marry a future celebrity and in her relatively short lifetime of only 38 years start to raise one son and two daughters of her own who would continue the growth of the family line.
5. JOHN WINGATE HAINES
The second son of J. Wingate and Mary Haines to become a farmer was John Wingate Haines, born in Hallowell, Maine, on August 12, 1837. John did not farm near his family in Maple Grove. Instead, he bought farmland on the north side of the Aroostook River. Until 1867, there was no bridge over the river which made it difficult for John and his family to visit each other. Perhaps there was a ferry service or some individuals could have positioned canoes for their use to cross the river when desired. At certain times of the year, the river could be crossed without a bridge. In winter, the river froze over and in late summer, the river ran fairly shallow so it could be forded in certain places. Today, it is hard to imagine fording this river because the water level in the river has been raised above its natural level by Tinker Dam which was constructed in 1907.
4 GEORGE W. HAINES
The first son of J. Wingate and Mary Haines to make his livelihood as a farmer was George W. Haines. He was born on November 29, 1833, in Hallowell, Maine. After spending his first 14 years in this relatively civilized community on the Kennebec River, he joined his family as a pioneer in the northern Maine community referred to formally as Letter D Plantation and informally as Fort Fairfield in the Aroostook Valley that had fewer than 400 settlers. After working for his father on his farm in this pioneering settlement for a few years, he purchased 50 acres of land from his father and became an independent farmer.
3 HENRY A. HAINES
The third child born to J. Wingate and Mary Briggs Haines was named Henry but sadly he died on September 29, 1831, in Hallowell, Maine, only three months after birth. Eleven and one-half months after his death, Mary gave birth to another son whom they named Henry A. Haines.
When he was fifteen years old, Henry moved with his family to the northern Maine township officially referred to as Letter D Plantation, Range 1 WELS (first range west of the eastern line of state), the township that would be incorporated as Fort Fairfield in 1858. The area was sparsely settled with less than 400 inhabitants at the time of their arrival and all were pioneers on the “wild frontier.”
2 ABIGAIL MILLER HAINES STOVER
Thirteen months after the birth of her older sister, Abigail Miller Haines came into this world in Hallowell, Maine, on May 10, 1830. Not much information of her life has been discovered so far, so we are left to speculate about much of it. Given the period and location that she lived in, though, it is highly likely that she and her family lived in a simple environment that was cold in the winter and had numerous pests roaming about, especially during warmer weather. There were no indoor toilets or running water. Food would have been largely what the family could produce themselves in the summer and preserve for the non-growing season.
There are some vague clues that Abigail may not have moved with her family to Fort Fairfield. Instead, she may have moved to the Salem, Massachusetts, area during her teenage years.
1 LYDIA HAINES ELLIS
This is the first of a series of biographical sketches of the 17 children born to Joseph Wingate and Mary Briggs Haines (hereinafter referred to as “J. Wingate” and “Mary”). In a few instances, such as this one, there are sufficient sources of information to help provide some reasonable context to the life of their offspring. In the case of other children, though, only scarce information of their lives has been found so far. Hopefully, readers of these stories will know something more about the subjects and share their knowledge with the researchers. Similarly, the stories of the many descendants of these children will vary in scope and depth. Notwithstanding the shortcomings, the main purpose of this series of sketches is to demonstrate the magnificent human legacies of J. Wingate and Mary’s relationship and why their descendants should be honoring these remarkable ancestors who first arrived in the 1840s in the area that would be called Fort Fairfield.
Their first child, Lydia, was born on April 19, 1829, in Hallowell, Maine. At the time, Hallowell was a busy community with nearly 70 stores along Water Street which ran parallel to the Kennebec River, the major transportation artery for the area.