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.
Mid eighteenth-century farming was labor intensive. Horses and oxen were used to pull wagons and implements. Domestic farm animals were raised for their milk, meat, eggs, and wool. Domesticated animals required feed grains and hay and farmers needed to tend to them every day of the week. There were no days off for a farmer.
According to an 1860 agricultural census report, George owned two horses, two milking cows, and seventeen sheep. The total value of his livestock was $227 that year. Interestingly, the census report did not include a count of poultry which doubtless he owned. It did report the value of animals slaughtered, though: $400.
By today’s standards, George’s farm was small. 58 acres of “improved” land and 12 acres of “unimproved” land worth $1,000. Improved farmland included land that was regularly tilled or mowed, pastured, or lying fallow, and land occupied by farm buildings. Unimproved land included woodland, brush land, swamp land and any other land which was not improved. In comparison, the 1860 census reported that his father, J. Wingate, had 200 acres of improved land and 250 acres of unimproved land worth $5,000.
George’s crops included oats (60 bushels grown in the year that ended June 1, 1860), peas and beans (40 bu.), Irish potatoes (800 bu.), buckwheat (200 bu.), hay (100 tons), clover seed (25 bu.), and grass seed (10 bu.). Although Aroostook County later became famous for potato production, in 1860 potatoes were not an important farm product because farmers did not have a practical means of transporting this heavy, bulky vegetable to market over the poor dirt roads that existed. It might take a teamster ten days to transport goods from the area to Bangor.
In the 1860s, potatoes were grown for local consumption. Two factors would greatly increase the popularity of farming potatoes: starch factories and railroads. The first starch factory was built in Caribou in 1872. By the 1890s there would be six starch factories in Fort Fairfield. The first railroads that served the area arrived from New Brunswick: Houlton in 1870 and Fort Fairfield in 1875. The Canadian railroads, however, could not provide a direct transportation route from the area to the population centers in the US. By 1895, the arrival of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad would resolve the potato transportation challenge and potato production increased dramatically.
Dairy products were important, also. The 1860 agricultural census reported that George produced 300 pounds of butter and 300 pounds of cheese. Over the next forty years, local entrepreneurs established butter and cheese factories in the town. (Ellis, 1894, p. 210) Farmers thereby had better means to profit from milk production.
George lived alone on his farm for a few years and after 1860 married Hannah Elizabeth Wharff of Easton, daughter of Deacon William and Mary B. Wharff. By 1870, however, George was a widower with two young children, William H. Haines (1862-1884) and Hannah Elizabeth Haines (1863-1942). By 1880, 18 year-old William was working on his father’s farm and Hannah was keeping house for the family. In April 1883, William filed intentions to marry Phebe N. Sanders of Mars Hill. Whether the marriage actually happened is not clear. In any event, William died on September 18, 1884. No clue has been found that indicates he left any surviving children.
Besides a hard working farmer, George undertook other activities. He was a postmaster at the Maple Grove post office for several years and “filled several town offices.” (Ellis, 1894)
His daughter Hannah married Isaac Henry Kipp in 1886. Isaac was from Holbrook County, Michigan, and unfortunately no clue has been found about how, when, or where the two of them met each other. Isaac farmed with his father-in-law George and they eventually reversed roles. Isaac became the head of household on the farm and George became a “boarder.” Perhaps George was suffering from an injury or illness, or was just feeling his age. The household was comfortable, apparently, as the 1900 census reflects there was a 19 year-old servant living with them. Hannah and Isaac were heavily involved with the Granges in Fort Fairfield. Supposedly they had a son, Louis H. Kipp, born on June 26, 1896. Strangely, though, the 1900 census does not reflect the presence of their son, Louis H. Kipp, in their household. Furthermore, according to Louis’ WW2 Registration Card, he was born in Hartford, Connecticut. There is some mystery to Hannah being a farmer’s wife in Fort Fairfield giving birth to a child hundreds of miles south and afterwards the four year-old boy not living in her household. The mystery is compounded by contradictory but less reliable documentation that indicates Louis was born in Fort Fairfield. Is it possible that Louis was adopted by Hannah and Isaac?
In 1907, the three members of the Kipp family plus George W. Haines relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. George passed away there in 1924. For his first 27 years in Arizona, Isaac was a citrus grower. The household included both their son, Louis, and Hannah’s father, George, plus, in 1910, there were three hired hands living with them per the census of that year. Louis served in the USMC from 1918 to 1919, but did not see combat action. In 1926, he married Laurie Robertson, ten years his junior. Laurie was a high school teacher while Louis followed his father and grandfather as a farmer. Isaac retired from farming in 1934 and passed away in 1944 having survived Hannah by two years. In 1939, Louis and Laurie welcomed their first and only child into this world, Minnie Elizabeth Kipp.
Louis and Laurie relocated to California. Minnie married Denny Phillips in 1957 in Los Angeles. They divorced in 1969 in Ventura, California, but not before they had four children, one of whom was named Rhonda Phillips. Louis died in Ventura California in 1976, Laurie died there in 1990, and Minnie died in Prescott, Arizona, in 2011. Researchers have not found Rhonda Phillips or any of her three siblings yet but will keep on trying to find further information on this branch.
The George W. Haines branch of the family has been full of resolute and capable farmers. All but four of the members of this branch are known to have passed away and perhaps some of these four members have also passed away in the last thirty years. Hopefully, though, there are one or two more recent generations of this branch that remain to be discovered and invited to The Gathering.