Working and Dying in the Woods
Michael was born December 14, 1836, in St. George, Canada,
the tenth child of Patrick and Bridget. Before he was two years old, his older brother David died at the age of seven, the
family packed up and moved back to Maine and his brother Phineas was born.
Just before his twelfth birthday,
his mother died, and by the time he turned 14 he was farming with his father in Maine.
After
becoming a man, Michael took to working in the woods, a common trade of McCollor men throughout the generations. It is almost
as if they were and are still, drawn to the woods and woodworking.
On August 14th of 1862, when
he was 25, he enlisted in the Union Army to serve in the Civil War. He was assigned to company "A" of the 16th Infantry.
Michael fell ill, was treated in the Army Hospital at Baltimore, MD, and was discharged from the Army on June 15th, 1963.
The book by Nelson and McCollor* report that Army records describe Michael as being dark haired, dark complexion, with blue
eyes. He was 5'10 1/2" tall.
Upon his return from the war, Michael continued his work in
the woods, out of Hollowell, Me, which is and adorable little river-side town just south east of the State Capital, Augusta.
He married, on October 28, 1864, ten months after his return, to a Mrs. Margaret Owen Brown. He was almost 28 years
old. Margaret had two young children by her first marriage: James Brown, b. about 1859, Lizzie E. Brown, b. abt. 1860.
After about 12 years of marriage, about 1877, they finally had a child of their own: Johnie.
Johnie
was a baby when his father was killed in 1878.
Having traveled all the way up to Moosehead Lake in the Maine
wilderness, for a logging job, Michael was killed in a logging accident. Logging was at the time and continues to be,
a very dangerous job. Michael was in his early 40's. He was buried in Solon, see the Cemetery Project for a photo of his grave marker.
According to family records, sometime following
his father's death, Johnnie took the name of his half-siblings, Brown, instead of McCollor. The 1880 US census shows
he and his mother still using the name McCollor.
