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I've been researching my grandmother's life for many years,
sometimes feeling like I've come close, other times at square one. I believe there is so little about her because there may
have been a sad or embarrassing start to her life, perhaps she was illegitimate, or her mother died at childbirth, or was
too young or sick to take care of her? We may never know. We have two pictures of her, a very thin woman with dark hair and dark eyes, and each time she
is holding a baby. Her limbs are long, and her chin pronounced, probably cleft like my father's. She is not a beautiful woman,
and does not appear very cheerful in either photo. I believe her life was a hard one all the way up until her death. There are a few things I know for sure. She first shows up as a two
year old on the 1910 census of Wellington, Maine. We believe she had been born in Brighton. She was listed as a "boarder" at the home of Julia and
Charles Gowan. The Gowans had lost two infants, and had a son named Leigh. She was "about" 2 years old, making her
born in the range of 1906 to 1908. I wonder why at such a young age she was in the early 20th century version of "foster
care", but the reason is not known. Obviously the people responsible for her birth were not able or willing to take care
of her. It was not unusual for orphans and very poor children to be "boarded" out with the government paying
the foster parents a small income in return. A
year later, at 1911, Charles Gowan died, his wife following him in 1922. Helen was on her own at 14 years old. I believe she
ended up in Farmington, maybe working in a factory setting, and maybe living with her birth father. At 16 fate gave her what
would be a tragic turn, when she met and on April 3rd,
1924, married Clarence Merchant. They settled into a little house in New Vineyard, Maine, and the
heartbreak began soon after, when their little girl baby, Doris or Alice (?) Merchant did not live. Word is that the violence
in the home was responsible for the child's death, probably mortally injured while still in the womb. Clarence was a
drunk, spending much of his paycheck at bars, and then coming home and beating his wife. My father has memories of his rampages,
and a specific one of his father raping his mother in the kitchen in front of the children. Clarence, he says, was the most
charming guy when sober, but a monster when drunk. They
had a son, Robert C., a year after the first infant's death, in 1926. My father, born Earl Emmons Merchant was born in 1930,
and sister Helen Irene came along 15 months later. We
know that there was at least one more baby born. I found one about eight years ago, Richard Leroy, who had been adopted out
to the Norton family not far from New Vineyard. I believe he was born around 1935. He lives in Harmony, Maine and I was fortunate
to have found him via internet research, and to visit him and his family a few years ago. Now that Dad is living with me in
Belfast, Maine, I anticipate their reunion soon. From
there, we are depending on my father's memory, and he believes there may have been one more baby after or before Richard,
that died around the same time his mother died, both by TB. My father remembers vaguely his mother being carried out of the
house, dead or dying, and from there we are not sure where she went. He thinks she was buried in a pauper's lot in Farmington,
his brother Richard thinks she is buried in Harmony in an unmarked grave. The later is most likely. Dad thinks he remembers
"her people" claiming her body. She was not buried with the Merchants, as Dad remembers distinctly the family's
low opinion of her. The
exact years and towns that Helen was born and died is not sure, we will be looking in State and village archives. We are hopeful
we'll find something, as I am anxious to validate her short and unhappy life with something concrete, and find the mysterious
link to the McCollar line. The
family, already torn by violence and death, was scattered after her death. Little Helen was adopted by Clarence's sister,
Nettie Dyer, who loved and cared for her as if she were her own until Helen's tragic death in 1964. She had been out in a
rowboat with a male friend during a storm, and drowned. Nettie buried her adoptive daugther in the Dyer lot in Bragg-Porter
Hill Cemetery in Farmington. Robert
was killed at the age of 11, accidentally shot by a friend while sitting on the front porch cleaning hunting rifles. My father,
seriously ill with TB at the time of his mother's death, lived for three years of his childhood in a TB Sanatorium in Western
Maine. His family did not hold much hope of his survival, but he returned, and went to board with a childless couple in Farmington,
the Fyfe's. They treated
him well and he worked hard for his board. He as able to return to school and complete middle school. Just before he
went into the service at the time of the Korean War, he honored the Fyfes by taking on their name, and has since been referred
to as Steven James Fyfe. Clarence
moved to Strong, Maine, and there he lived until his drinking caught up with him in 1946 and he succumbed to stomach cancer.
If anyone out there reading this knows anything that would be of value to me, please email me. I have particularly tried to
find the survivors of Leigh Gowan, who died in 1971, hoping they may have heard some thing from him regarding the little girl
who lived in their home for 12 years. Leigh would have been a teenager when Helen came to live with them. I've found the Gowan
name to be hard to research in the state of Maine. I would love to hear from anyone of that line. Here, is the lineage chart of Helen McCollar's descendants, hopefully
someday soon I can link this chart with the others.
* Much information for these pages comes from the excellent book McCollor/McCollough Family History and Genealogy by Clair Nelson and Kathy McCollor Stigman. I thank them profusely for writing such a thorough and helpful book. |
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