Rose Ellen (Levesque) Searles (1858 - 1955)

Born 1 Nov 1858 in Moose Mountain, Carleton, New Brunswick, Canada

Ancestors

Wife of Edward William Searles — married 27 Apr 1874 in Wicklow Parish, Carleton, New Brunswick, Canada

Descendants

Died 12 Feb 1955 at age 96 in Millinocket, Penobscot, Maine, USA

Biography

Rose Ellen Levesque. ^[1]

From a newspaper article written on 11 Apr 1953 by Mrs. Dean Chase in Millinocket, Maine:
EASTERN MAINE WOMAN HEADS SIX-GENERATION FAMILY GROUP
Written by Mrs. Dean Chase-1953 MILLINOCKET, APRIL 11-
If anyone wants to know the meaning of the word grandmother, Mrs. Rose Ellen Searles of this Northern Penobscot town can certainly give him a good definition of the term. The 96-year-old resident, who also calls Levant her home, can view a six-generation family comprising at last count, 19 children, 137 grandchildren, 221 great-grandchildren, a six-generation group and 15 five-generation groups.The remarkable grandmother, who came into this area at a time when it was wilderness, belles her age as she likes to travel to visit her children in Maine and New Hampshire. Mrs. Searles could take it much easier now if she wanted to, but looking back on her life, which began just before the Civil War, one can say that it was hardly a carefree one. The white-haired grandmother will be 97 on November 1, having been born in a cabin at Moose Mountain, NB, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Levesque. When she was 14, she married Edward Searles and, in 1882 she, her husband, and 9 children born in Moosetown, NB, came to Caribou where they lived in a small cabin about 6 miles from town, near Limestone and Woodland. Mr. Searles cut birch for floors and lumber for boats for 60 cents a day. He cut cedar to make homemade shingles or slits, and farmed, planting potatoes, wheat for flour, and feed for stock. There was also a pair of oxen with which they always used to plow and haul lumber. Potatoes were planted by taking the hoe and lifting dirt around a rock or stump and dropping in a potato seed, then dropping the hoe of dirt to cover it. Oxen were used by both Mr. and Mrs. Searles to plow for wheat. The children, as they grew up, each had work to do to help the family.
HEALTHY AND BUSY
As Mrs. Searles tells it, she never had a doctor and raised all of her children without having one. Her mother tended her when her children came when she lived near her. After coming to Caribou, where she lived on a farm before the B&A Railroad was built, old Mrs. Sally Jensen, who was at least 70, took care of her when her children came. Baby clothes were homemade. Dresses were 1½ yards long and were made from print or fine cotton, which only cost a few pennies per yard. The children went barefoot most of the time, except when Mrs. Searles could get old moccasin tops, a bit of leather of any kind, or even men’s felt hats or oilcloth, with which she made them moccasins to wear. They always raised several sheep and Mrs. Searles carded and spun the wool for clothes. Then she and the girls, as they grew older, would set on the hearth by the fireplace and knit far into the night, by the light of the fire, making socks and mittens. She also used a loom to weave the wool into cloth a yard wide to make them coats and a dress apiece, or a pair of pants and jacket for each boy. Colors were mostly gray. She caught the water or grindstone grit when axes were ground on the grindstone, and this she boiled with hemlock bark and alum. She also used onion peelings to dye the wool to get different colors. She used the wheat straws for bed ticks or mattresses and they also made women’s hats and men’s hats by braiding the wheat straws, putting on a plain cloth band for trimming, so that they could attend the Baptist Church four miles away, walking this distance to church and to school. She made the girls summer dresses out of unbleached cotton that cost 3 cents a yard after dyeing it. One daughter said she was 12 years old before she had a pair of store shoes, which cost 60 cents. They were high shoes and were kept spotless, a gift from her uncle. At Christmas time, the family had a treat of a molasses doughnut and sometimes a piece of molasses candy, and they always looked forward to the next Christmas when Santa would arrive again. Food included buckwheat pancakes, potatoes, what vegetables they could grow, berries, and meat they raised. There was no smoked ham or bacon, all meat was salted in large barrels. They never killed the deer, although they saw a lot of them in the woods, as they heard they were not good to eat, but Mrs. Searles can remember her mother and her uncle making a deadfall to catch a bear. This they salted and ate. The family was without comforts of any kind when young. The children mostly played house, and made their sleds from barrel staves to slide on in the winter. Sometimes they would turn around and around going down hill on the crust.
HOMELESS TWICE
They were burned out one winter and lost everything, and, in 1886, a tree blew down and split their cabin in two parts, which in turn tipped over in the wind, breaking everything, even the cooking stove. They were living near Limestone at this time and then they moved to Greenlaw Brook. All water was carried from a brook for home and cattle. Mrs. Searles would not use melted snow for cooking, as they claimed it would weaken a person, and she said she had always believed it. Besides doing plowing with the ox team, when she had time, Mrs. Searles would take a draw shave and make shingles at night by the light of the fire, as there were no lamps, for 25 cents a bunch. Sometimes she would make as many as eight or nine thousand. Mr. Searles also made caskets, small at the foot and larger at the head. These were lined with fine cotton. Mr. Searles made the washtubs out of a big barrel by sawing it in two, and made washboards by whittling out ribs on a board, and she made her own soft soap. Mrs. Searles also told about the time her husband swapped a good team of oxen to get a lame horse and the next morning she looked out of the window and the horse could not get up alone, never was any good and they had to kill it, so they lost a team of oxen. Mrs. Searles always went when sent for to “catch” babies, as she says, and “catched” over a hundred, three in one day. People with teams came miles for her. Sometimes there were no baby clothes, so she would wrap baby in something warm and lay it in bed beside its mother. Her uncle, Jim Clark, made her six “setting” chairs of which she was very proud. She still has her father’s rocker made by her uncle. Mrs. Searles, who never went to school and cannot read or write, has the most wonderful memory and can tell you all the dates or birthdays, how they cooked in the old days, and how to weave, sew, and make quilts and rugs. She says girls today don’t know what work is. They have life very easy.She loves music, went to a movie house once, an outdoor theatre once, saw a circus once in her long life, and now her daughter in Millinocket has a television set and she loves it. When asked if she could have anything in the world, what would she like best, she said, “I’ve always wanted a lady’s wrist watch, but now I guess I would rather have the television set. Of course, I like to travel and see the country and visit with my children, of which 10 are living in Maine and New Hampshire, nine have passed away.” Mr. Searles died 13 years ago while they were living in Millinocket.

Ellen R Searles. ^[2]

Born abt 1857. Canada English. ^[3]

Died FEB.12,1955 Millinocket, Maine, USA.

Event: Arrival 1890^[4]

Residence 1910 Woodland, Aroostook, Maine. ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Rose Ellen Levesque Searles Find A Grave: Memorial #29254999
2. ↑ Source: #S1412898029 Year: 1910; Census Place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine; Roll: T624_538; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 43; Image: 187. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1910uscenindex&h=148223566&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Birth date: abt 1857 Birth place: Canada English Residence date: 1910 Residence place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine Arrival date: 1890 Arrival place:
3. ↑ Source: #S1412898029 Year: 1910; Census Place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine; Roll: T624_538; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 43; Image: 187. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1910uscenindex&h=148223566&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Birth date: abt 1857 Birth place: Canada English Residence date: 1910 Residence place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine Arrival date: 1890 Arrival place:
4. ↑ Source: #S1412898029 Year: 1910; Census Place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine; Roll: T624_538; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 43; Image: 187. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1910uscenindex&h=148223566&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Birth date: abt 1857 Birth place: Canada English Residence date: 1910 Residence place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine Arrival date: 1890 Arrival place:
5. ↑ Source: #S1412898029 Year: 1910; Census Place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine; Roll: T624_538; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 43; Image: 187. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1910uscenindex&h=148223566&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Birth date: abt 1857 Birth place: Canada English Residence date: 1910 Residence place: Woodland, Aroostook, Maine Arrival date: 1890 Arrival place:

• Source: S711239532 Repository: #R700639053 Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=112563746&pid=84
• Repository: R700639053 Ancestry.com
• Source: S1412898015 Repository: #R1400764296 Public Member Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created. Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=3509892&pid=814
• Repository: R1400764296 Ancestry.com
• Source: S1412898029 Repository: #R1400764296 1910 United States Federal Census Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the Unit