Back in the fall of 2016, this column ran multiple articles consisting of the childhood memories of Jean Huskins Chenoweth who grew up in the Mill Cove-West Harbor area. Now Jean continues with stories her mother told her of life in the same locale–Barbara Rumsey, Boothbay Region Historical Society

Virginia Carrie Frey

I previously wrote about my own life growing up in the 1940s and 1950s. Now I'll write about my mother's early life which was considerably harder. She grew up in the same house I did, at 57 Western Avenue, built by her great-grandfather in the late 1840s. My mother was born on January 23, 1912 in a snowstorm, the last of five children. A sister had died at birth and the next three children were all boys, Park (1901-1942), Ken (1903-1983), and Bert (1904-1949). I remember that my grandmother's brother Bill Farmer was sent out in the storm to fetch a doctor. My mother was very small, and her skin tone at birth was brownish which prompted her brother Ken to remark that he thought God had made a mistake and sent an Indian baby instead. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on his part; he always did like Indians. She was so small her head was about the size of a teacup.

The Household

Her mother was Alberta Farmer Frey (1870-1948) and her father was Frederick Wilhelm Frey (1874-1915) from Manhattan, New York City. Her maternal grandmother (Mary Elizabeth Harvey Farmer who was called “Gram”) owned the house and also lived there as did Mary's son, Bill Farmer (1881-1962). Frederick was a marine mechanic and worked at French & Frey, Machinists, but when she was three years old he left for Massachusetts to work in a factory and said he'd send for the family as soon as he found a place for them to live. Soon thereafter, my grandmother read that there had been an explosion at the factory; some people were killed and they never heard from him again.

That left her with four children, no support (no welfare in those days), and failing health (angina among other things). My mother loved her father dearly and mourned his loss for the rest of her life. His family had money but seemed to blame my grandmother for his “disappearance” and even hired a private detective to find him. Or perhaps they were still angry that her lively younger sister Carrie had married his brother George and divorced him.

So the family had a house to live in, a spring out back for water, a few hens and apple trees, no electricity (until 1924 when the house was wired), no money, and no visible means of support. Gram did have a Civil War widow's pension, Bill worked on large fishing and cargo vessels and “the boys” as my mother always referred to them, were 14, 12 and 11 years old. Park quit school after 8th grade and was able to bring in a small amount of money by doing odd jobs, working at the bowling alley or pool hall, and later as a carpenter. After Ken completed 8th grade, he worked in a store in town and later became a carpenter too. Bert was an auto mechanic. My grandmother used to earn a bit playing piano for the silent movies. I still have some of the music books she used which were annotated to let you know what kind of scene called for what music.

Bill Farmer

Bill was sent to sea when he was nine years old, which would have been in 1890. He first shipped out as cabin boy for his older cousin, Capt. Walter Farmer, who held a master mariners license. He finally became a second mate. He was small but had a temper that could keep a crew in line. He was shipwrecked two or three times on vessels. Once off Cape Hatteras the boat started to sink in the night and he was below decks in a bunk. He managed to get on deck and as the ship was going down, he jumped in the dark and much to his surprise he found he could walk on water. The large canvas sail was on the surface and he had landed on that. He survived, but some of the others didn't. He claimed to have been on a boat in New York City harbor the first time they turned the electricity on there. He was imprisioned in Cuba with his shipmates for some reason, and when he was finally released he came home very sick with yellow fever. My mother remembered that he stayed in a hammock in the front yard for an entire summer and then suddenly jumped up and went to work. But he never went to sea again.

He started the Townsend Feldspar Company in 1922 and mined felspar on the property. When he ran out of feldspar he sold rocks. When he ran out of rocks he sold land. He bought a compressor and drilled wells. He built a miniature golf course and then a saltwater swimming pool in front of the house (1926) and ran that for years. He built and ran an ice skating rink in the winter. His enterprises not only brought the family some money but provided my mother with entertainment, working in the little shack where they rented clubs and balls for the golf course, swimming at the pool, and ice skating in the winter.

Next time: Household chores and school days.