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.
Albert worked on his father’s farm part-time while still a lad and then as a full-time farm laborer by age 17. He observed the efforts and skills needed to make farming productive and rewarding. He also observed the efforts of his older brothers as they conducted their businesses and farming operations and he learned from their experiences. When the time came for J. Wingate Haines to consider selling his farm, Albert was a ready and willing buyer.
Before he could think of owning a farm, however, Albert’s mind was on a completely different subject. The Civil War was on everyone’s mind after April 1861 and he enlisted as a private at age 19 on September 22, 1862, in Company E of the 1st Maine Cavalry. His decision to become a soldier would have been inconsistent with the philosophies of J. Wingate and Mary Haines. As faithful Quakers, they would have believed in pacifism and been vehemently opposed to military activity. Members of Quaker families who chose to fight would often be shunned thereafter by their relatives and their Quaker communities could vote to expel a member who became a combat soldier. As it turned out, Albert was a Unitarian during his adult life
Albert could not have joined a more combative military unit from Maine. The 1st Maine Cavalry fought in most of the important battles of the Civil War including Bull Run and Antietam early in the war, before Albert was in its ranks. He was in its ranks, however, for the battles of Fredericksburg and Brandy Station. On June 9, 1863, the Union cavalry attacked Stuart’s cavalry at Brandy Station in the largest cavalry battle of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign. On that day, Albert’s horse was killed, he was wounded and taken prisoner. Notwithstanding its losses that day, the Union forces delayed Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the north by one day. This turned out to be a decisive factor less than a month later in the Union’s victory at Gettysburg. Albert was paroled in three weeks. After the exchange of prisoners, under the terms of parole, Albert was not supposed to return to a combat role. He disregarded that condition of release and returned to his regiment and served to the end of the war. The 1st Maine Cavalry Regiment continued in the thick of the campaigns in Virginia and was present at Appomattox Courthouse to witness the surrender of General Lee’s army, effectively ending the rebellion. “This Regiment lost the greatest number killed in action of any Cavalry Regiment in the entire army: 15 Officers and 159 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded; 3 Officers and 341 Enlisted men died of disease, a total of 518.” Albert’s older brother Daniel was also in this regiment. He was a sergeant in Albert’s Company E. The details of this regiment are recorded in “History of the First Maine Cavalry 1861-1865” by Edward P. Tobie which can be read online here.
After the war, Albert returned to Fort Fairfield and, in 1866, married Mary Currier (1847-1929). Mary’s father, Henry C. Currier, was an early settler in the community and had a large farm on one of the earliest roads built in town, a road which eventually bore his family name. Within two years, Albert and Mary had two children, Cora (1868-1941) and Mary (1869-1957) and, in 1870, Albert bought his own farm. Two more children were born, Florence and Frankie but, sadly, they only survived a few years. In 1874, Albert bought his father’s Maple Grove farm, too. His mother passed away that year and his father would pass away within two years.
Besides being a “significant” farmer in town, Albert was a selectman for a number of years and road commissioner for a time. He was an officer of the “Presque Isle Fair Association,” a Mason, and a member of The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. The Grange, as it commonly was referred to, was founded after the Civil War in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. Grange activities became an important part of the Haines family life for the next hundred years in Fort Fairfield.
His Civil War experience, however, would gravely impact his health. Just before his 48th birthday, in November 1890, Mary filed a claim for a Civil War pension for her “invalid” husband. Albert died in Fort Fairfield on July 1, 1909, at age 66 and Mary filed another pension claim, this time as his widow. Mary would be a widow for 20 years. Thankfully, her older daughter, Cora, would be capable of significantly contributing to the management of the large farm during this period.
Cora Haines
Growing up in Maple Grove, Cora attended the neighborhood schoolhouse for 8 years but did not continue her education by attending high school. At age 18, she married Emmons T. Houghton (1862-1942) who was a “prosperous farmer.” (Ellis, p. 370) Emmons’ family had moved to Fort Fairfield from Anson, Maine, in 1871. It would not be a long-lasting marriage, however. Three children were born to them: Ervin Albert Houghton (1886-1907), Verna May Houghton (1888-1895), and Thomas Edward Houghton (1889-1967). In 1895, Verna died of diphtheria. By 1900, Cora’s husband Emmons was no longer present in the household. Eventually, they were divorced. In 1906, Emmons moved to Fresno, California and married Stella Lucinda Peck. No later than 1900, Cora made the important decisions about the management of the large Houghton farm and would continue to do so until her son became able to assume a managerial position. Almost a century later, in her grandson Tom’s 1984 obituary, her family recognized Cora Haines Houghton as the person who started the family’s potato growing tradition in 1900.
By early 1910, Tom had become his mother’s “farm manager.” He was 20 years old. He was recognized in the community as a business savvy man. At age 23 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the First National Bank of Fort Fairfield. That same year, 1913, he married Asenath Watt, and they would have four children: Thomas, Jr., Mary, John, and Frances.
Tom, Jr. (1915-2004), after graduating from college in 1937, worked for the University of Maine Agricultural Extension Service until the start of World War II. He served 4 ½ years in the South Pacific Theater of Operations, rising to the rank of major in an infantry unit . He was awarded the Purple Heart and, for his heroism, the Bronze Star. In 1946, he joined his father and brother John (“Jack”) in a family farming firm, T. E. Houghton and Sons. He eventually succeeded his father at his death in 1967 as having sole responsibility for the potato business. He was nationally recognized for his work in developing a large number of new potato seed varieties. He was a civic and business leader, too. He married Antoria Rosen of New Sweden in 1939 and they had four children:
Patricia married George Greene and they had one daughter, Susan Greene, who has a daughter, Grace Greene.
Bonnie moved to Australia, married Ted Winston, and they had one daughter, Amy, who is deceased.
Tom, III (“Tim”) and his younger brother John both joined their father in forming Houghton Farms, Inc. in 1969 and farmed over a thousand acres of cropland in the Maple Grove area. Their specialty was selling seed potatoes and they had customers from Florida to Maine. In 1995, the Houghtons were recognized as the Farm Family of the Year during the Maine Potato Blossom Festival. Tim married Susan Rider in 1971 and they had two children, Timberly and Thomas E. Houghton IV.
Timberly married Sean Sweeny and they have two children: Timothy and Antoria.
Thomas IV was married to Jenny Merch and they also had two children: Thomas E Houghton V and Evan.
John’s first wife was Nancy Shaw Everett and he adopted her son Bruce and together they had another son, John Ryan Houghton. John and his second wife, Margaret Ann Laferrier Cyr, enjoy their contemporary home on 45 acres of land that once belonged to Alfred L. Haines.
In late 1997, Tim and John accepted an attractive offer from Cavendish Farms, a Canadian food processing company and subsidiary of J.D. Irving Limited, to buy their farming operation. Cavendish Farms had plans to build a processing plant in the region but those plans never materialized. Instead, the company leases the land to other farmers in the area. Later, Cavendish Farms built a large fertilizer distribution facility at Fairmount in Fort Fairfield which is served by Maine Northern Railway, another subsidiary of J.D. Irving Limited, which has a lease from the state of Maine to use the track formerly owned by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. In 2024, another giant Canadian corporation, McCain Foods, owns the fertilizer facility. The terms of the 1997 sale gave Tim and John the use of the sold equipment and property to ship their 1997 crop, which they completed in early 1998. At that time, 125 years of Houghton family farming operations in Fort Fairfield ended.
Mary Priscilla Houghton (1917-2004) married Harold Glenn Cheney (1914-1993) in 1940. Harold was a gifted athlete who was drafted by the Red Sox in 1937 and played in the minor leagues until 1943. From 1946 until 1965, he was a farmer in Presque Isle. Mary and Harold had two daughters:
Susan Frances married Storer Eager (1943-2001) and after their divorce, Susan married Edwin E. Nickerson. Susan had three children:
Robert Eager married Renee and they have two children: Tyler and Matthew
David Eager (1964-2015) practiced law in Wooster, Ohio until his death at age 50.
Tamara Nickerson (Storer Eager biological father and Ed Nickerson adopted father) married Robert Jarvis and they had two children, Jenice and Kennedy. Jenice married Jarrid Duggan and they had one child, Edward Duggan
Linda Cheney married Albert Bernard Corrow in 1968 and they had two children born in Los Angeles
John (1970) married Gina Fano and they have three children, Brooke, Page, and Rachel
Karen (1972) has one child, Taylor Cloud Corrow.
John “Jack” Houghton (1919-1983) married Muriel “Sippie” Houghton in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1943. He managed the family farm’s potato operations in and around Fort Kent where he and Sippie raised their children. After his father died in 1967, Jack separated from the family farming business and farmed independently for a brief time. He was recruited by Fred Vahlsing, Jr., president of Vahlsing, Inc. a major figure in the potato industry in Easton, to take a job with his company in Texas, Ocho Gin Company Farms. Jack and Sippie moved to Seminole, Texas, where he died at age 63. Sippie passed away in 1996 in Portland, Maine. They had three children (born in Fort Fairfield):
Nancy, a high school English teacher who married Douglas Oldershaw. They had the following children: Kristin, Tricia, and Craig. After divorcing Douglas, Nancy married Ernest Murphy.
Kristin married Richard Elliott
Tricia married Ashok Reddy and their children are Dihlan and Ajay.
Craig married Jennifer Moore and their children are Leigh and Lucas.
Judith (1946-2003)
Andrea married Walter Lewis, born in St. Stephen, NB, and had the following children that she raised in Vermont: Carrie, Kelly, and Kyle
Carrie Lynn Lewis married Lest Stoner II and their children are Anna Elizabeth and Jackson Declan.
Kyle Becket Lewis married Walter Opuszynski and their children are Haley Mae and Walter Becket.
Frances Houghton (1922-2019) married farmer Harris Whited (1921-2004) in 1944 and they raised four children in Fort Fairfield. Frances attended the University of Maine and earned a BS degree in Food and Nutrition and used that education as a dietician at Community General Hospital. Harris earned a BS in agronomy at UMaine. Harris farmed for 24 years and then managed farmland for Vahlsing, Inc. Later, he was a sales representative for a farm machinery dealer. They had four children:
Carol Ann married John McElwee who practiced law. Their daughter, Darcie, also practices law and has been serving as US Attorney for the District of Maine since 2021.
Priscilla followed in her mother’s footsteps and earned a degree in Nutrition at the University of Maine. She worked more than 20 years as special education director for the Fort Fairfield schools. Her husband, Lee Scott Fields, Jr., worked in the insurance industry but most of his career was in the military. He rose to the rank of colonel and one of his assignments was commander of the 152nd Field Artillery Battalion in Aroostook County. Their children and grandchildren:
Lee Scott Fields III and his wife Sharon have a son, Noah, who is married to Ariel.
Stephen Fields and his wife Tammy had two children, Reyanne and Regan. Reyanne married Braddock Deabay and they have a child, Graham Scott Deabay.
Stephanie Fields Beaulieu owns Fields Realty LLC in Fort Fairfield. She and her husband Dale have one daughter, Sarah, who is a serious biathlete, one who competes in the winter sport that combines cross country skiing with rifle marksmanship.
Kathryn lives in Virginia with her husband, William Sunday. Their sons are married: William (Megan) and James (Louise).
Thomas lives in Dedham, Maine. He and his wife, Cynthia, had three children: Zack (wife Keri), Jerica, and Derek.
Mary Gertrude Haines
Cora’s younger sister left her parents’ home in 1888 as she married Hiram Delbert Stevens (1864-1924), first cousin to famous inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim, holder of 200 patents including for the machine gun. Without doubt, the Stevens family shared some good genes. Hiram Delbert was one of five sons of Deacon Hiram Stevens (See Ellis, pages 326-334), the founder of Stevens Lumber Company, which had a large lumber mill operation on the Aroostook River banks about a one and half miles northwest of the village of Fort Fairfield. The facility extended about 1.5 miles along the river and included “several shingle machines, a clapboard machine and clapboard planer, one rotary saw, a lath machine and a board planer. A 160 horsepower engine and a dam at the foot of an island and boom extending up the river, lit up by electric lights by night for catching and sorting lumber.” (Ellis, p. 332.) The Stevens family members built six “fine residences” for themselves nearby, along with a large boarding house and several houses built for and occupied by men in their employ. This neighborhood became known as Stevensville. The Stevens Lumber Company was the first big customer of the railroad that extended into Fort Fairfield from Canada in 1875. Mary’s new husband, Hiram Delbert Stevens “assists in a general oversight of their extensive business at Stevensville.” Needless to say, Mary’s husband could provide many comforts and financial security.
But Mary was not a typical housewife. She was a “prominent businesswoman.” Her husband died 33 years before her so she became the president of the Fort Fairfield Light and Power Company and served in that capacity for 27 years. She also was a director of the Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Riverside Cemetery Corporation, and a director of the Fort Fairfield Red Cross. She was a charter member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club and a charter member of the Philomathian Club of Fort Fairfield. She was a remarkable leader for her time.
Mary and “Delbert,” as he was commonly called, had as many as 12 children. The ones most relevant to this story, those who had children of their own, were:
Arthur Albert Stevens (1889-1916), married Mildred Armstrong and had 2 children: Naomi and Hiram Donald Stevens. He was a farmer and died young from appendicitis.
Naomi married Harold Billings, a radiologist, and they had two children: Arthur and Barbara. Arthur (1934-2021) married Patricia Ann Trenkle and they had three children: Stephen, Michael, and David. Barbara married Stephen Armstrong.
Hiram was an osteopathic physician who practiced in Smyrna Mills. He married Margaret Helen Ames and they had four children: Priscilla, Hiram (died in infancy) , David, and Mark.
Merle D. Stevens (1894-1929), married Agnes Nickerson and had 4 children, only two of whom lived beyond infancy, Albert Merle and Gilbert Stevens
Albert (1924-2003) married Jeannette Dionne and they had 8 children: Delbert (1957-2009), Beverly, Martha, Jennifer, Mathew, Bradford, Kent and Daniel. Albert had a successful law practice in Presque Isle.
Gilbert (1928-2000) operated a popular summertime drive-in diner with carhop service on Presque Isle Street in Fort Fairfield in the 1960s.
Bernice Leola Stevens (1896-1983) married Carroll Preston Boyd and had three children, Robert, Mary Joanne and Marjorie Boyd. PFC Robert Boyd of the 90th Infantry Division (1924-1945) died in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge. Mary (1926-2018) is known to have had children. She married George Plum in 1948 and they had four children, Robert, Richard, Carol, and Sue Ann. Mary died in Dallas, Texas.
Florence Stevens (1900-1970) married twice and had two children who survived infancy, John Edward Tobin (1920-2010) and Joyce Ann Downing (1930-2000). John married Mary Theresa Clark and they had five children; Mary, John, William, Lora, and Christine. Joyce married Leonard Maurice Perkinson and they had one child.
Albert L. Haines had an eventful and productive life as a soldier, farmer, and civic leader. His two daughters, Cora Augusta Houghton and Mary Gertrude Stevens, continued his legacy of advancing the community they lived in. Cora did it by being a highly capable manager of a very large farm when her father and husband were not able to do so and by nurturing her son so he could take on the duties after her. Mary did it by being the president of their electric power business, nurturing others who also would become capable business and professional people, and supporting many civic organizations. There are many characters and stories in this branch of the family, and many of them remain to be discovered and shared with others. Please help us in pursuit of the unidentified generations and stories.
