Cora Blanche Merritt
Cora Blanche Merritt, born on 8/7/1888 married Samuel Leslie Stilwell, born on 6/25/1886 in Waterford, NB, on 12/24/1917.
Their children:
Paul Merritt Stilwell, born 5/19/1923 died 5/19/1923.
Lawrence Leslie Stilwell, born 9/18/1926, married Ethel A. Gerow, born 4/3/1931, on 10/23/1948. He died 3/19/1981.
Nola Jean Stilwell, born 11/15/1928, married Donald Ralph Bates, born 10/6/1927, on 1/17/1953. She died
Notes: Cora, Les, Paul are all interred in Hodgdon Cemetery. Lawrence was cremated and [interred in Hodgdon Cemetery also?] Nola and Barbara Merritt were like sisters growing up and married brothers. [Barbara married Gordon Bates] My note: I believe the reception for their wedding was on our lawn on the farm.
Cora was 5th of 8 children. She attended grade school in Hodgdon and then two terms at Ricker Classical Institute in Houlton. There was a teacher’s exam being given and her parents wanted her to take it. She passed and stopped school at Ricker and started teaching school. Cora was very smart and loved going to school and hated to have to quit. She was probably about 16 when she began to teach. Her first school was the Leavitt School in Hodgdon with 11 pupils, all 8 grades. She taught for 10 years in Hodgdon, East Hodgdon, Amity, Carey, Linneus and Woodland. They were usually one room schools in which she had to build the fire each day. Cora and Les took in roomers that attended Hodgdon High School, numbering around 30 over the years with as many as 4 at one time. Cora was very good at sewing and made clothing without a pattern, all on a treadle sewing machine with a kerosene lamp at night. She also made stuffed animals, dolls and quilts. She was known for her molasses cookies [I, Karyn, remember them well and my father loved them…they were large, spicy and soft.], her potato scallop, her homemade bread [another great memory of mine of her…yummy], baked beans, pancakes, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie and many other goodies. Many peddlers, salesmen and tramps used to stay in their home when they were in town. She would feed them and they would stay the night. ‘There was always room for one more’ at her house. Everyone was welcome to come in and share what they had. She was fond of her many nieces and nephews and would babysit for them and would make them toys and clothes. [They babysat us many times, though don’t recall clothes or toys—great food and Uncle Les’s pipe smoke!] She had five grandchildren of whom she was proud: Terrance, Leigh, James Stilwell and Lind and Kevin Bates. She died 8/12/1979.
Les was born in Waterboro, NB, the 6th of 10 boys born to Mary Elizabeth [Ferris] and Charles Edward Stilwell. All the boys went by their middle names—Alfred, Tom, Will, Whit, Fred, Les, Stan, John, Gordon and Blair. His brothers, Gordon and Blair were both in WWI. Gordon was wounded in battle in France and was left on the battlefield. Blair wanted to go back and give him some water, but his commanding officer refused. Gordon died later in a hospital in France. [KH note—not positive, but I think it was one of his brothers who came a couple of times to their place and he made records of Linda and I singing a song and may’ve been person who taped one of me during the war to send to my father. ] might have been the one]It was a hard time for the family. Les came to Hodgdon in May 1802. He worked in the woods and on farms. He bought his house from his brother, Will, in 1915 and lived there the rest of his life. He was very musical, as were his brothers, and played the fiddle, mouth organ/harmonica and some on the organ. He loved children and animals and always kept farm animals, cats and dogs. One of his dogs had 10 pups and someone named the place he lived as ‘Dog Hill’. He farmed and also worked for hire as a carpenter, a mason and a farm hand. He worked for many years on Blynn and Ray Skofield’s farm. Les always had a big garden [which I, Karyn, recall as hugely healthy and large plants which he had fertilized by the manure he had gathered in the end building] which he shared. He received the ‘gold cane’ for being the oldest man in Hodgdon in 1976 of which he was quite proud at age 88 and he continued to live to age 93, 3 months short of age 94, on 8/12/1982. He and his brother-in-law, James Merritt, were great friends and spent much time hunting and working together, and of course, teasing each other.
Cora Merritt Stilwell
This is how I remember Aunt Cora...with an apron on and in her kitchen. This was clearly at her own birthdya, cutting a cake. I think it must be in her home, or in Nola's. I'm guessing it is her 75th birthday, but could be way off.
Leslie Stilwell
Uncle Les and I [or Linda-neither one of us are positive] as I remember him, always in the rocker, usually with one of his pipes going. We also enjoyed him and his teasing.
Leslie Stilwell
Uncle Les as a young man.
Leslie Stilwell
It's a shame I have more pics of Uncle Les than Aunt Cora. Maybe she was camera shy? Anyone else have any?
Uncle Les watching Dad change a tire.
I'm sure Uncle Les was offering all kinds of sage/helpful advice!
Aunt Cora holding Barbara Merritt; next row, not including Barb is Ruby Howard, Beverly Merritt; Karen Hannigan; Gerald Murchie standing in front of Ruby; Frances Howard; Donna Merritt sitting on lawn.
Stilwell's gravestone
STILWELL
S. Leslie, June 25, 1986 –Aug 12, 1979; Cora B, April 7, 1888 – May 22, 1982.
Dot Merritt and her cousins, Lawrence Stilwell on her left and Nola Stilwell on her right.
Nola Stilwell Bates
Nola ? Stilwell Bates, born 11/15/1928 in Hodgdon; died 5/12/2003 in Bangor; married Donald ? Bates on 1/17/1953 in Hodgdon?, ME.