1898 :: Death of Alvin C. Gove

On this date in our family history . . . the 4th day of September in the year 1898 . . . a widowed Alvin C. Gove dies in Biddeford, York County, Maine . . . also known as Alvan or A. C., DNA is indicating that this man is a 3rd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . in The Gove Book, it is written of Alvan C. Gove that . . .

Alvan Chadbourne Gove, born at Limington, Me., April 10, 1813. He was a builder and contractor ; removed to Biddeford, Me., in 1847, and resided in 1849 on Hill street, being a butcher. In 1853, he went to California as a miner, and returned [to Maine] in 1863. In 1880, he lived at 53 Water street, Biddeford. Mr. Gove married Mary Susan, daughter of Dea. Samuel Edgerly of Limington Feb. 13, 1836. She was born July 13, 1817 ; and died May 26, 1880. He died at Biddeford, of diarrhoea, Sept. 4, 1898, at the age of eighty-five, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

If the data contained in the previous paragraph is accurate, that means that when Alvin C. Gove developed "gold fever" and left Maine for California ca. 1853, he left his wife home alone with six young daughters [the firstborn daughter had recently married] and a six-year-old son [my 2nd great-grandpa] . . . and it would seem that this Alvin did not return to Maine until about ten years later, which would have been right in the middle of the war between the states.


At various times in the last quarter-century of his life, Alvin is listed as living in Biddeford at 53 Water Street [1875], and then after the death of his wife in 1880, at 83 Clifford Street [1882], 35 Clifford Street [1890], Pool Street [1891], and 35 Clifford Street again [1892]. According to current maps, Water Street turns into Clifford Street which blends into Pool Street, which once led to a beach community known as Beachwood.

About 1890, a group photo was taken at a Gove family gathering which was held at a place mentioned only as Beachwood. This photo would have been taken around the time when Alvin's youngest daughter, Lydia, and her family [the Dudleys] were selling their apothecary business in Biddeford and relocating to Massachusetts. They had been living on Pool street at the time. News clippings from that time period indicate that Alvin's granddaughter, Carrie Gordon, was a frequent visitor with two of her maternal aunts in Biddeford, i.e., in the Dudley and Freeman households.

In the following family photo, Alvin is the gentleman standing in the middle of the back row, wearing the bowler hat.

As mentioned earlier, Alvin and Mary had seven daughters and one son before he left to spend a decade in California. Four of those daughters are in this photo [listed by age] ::

• Josephine Lois Freeman nee Gove [1837–1922]. She had just married when her father left to spend a decade in California in 1853.
• Triphena S Piper nee Gove [1842–1926] She was about 11 when he left.
• Julia Howe Hottel nee Gove [1849–1924] She was about 4 when he left.
• Lydia Murch Dudley nee Gove [1852–1936]. She was only a year old when he left.

Also two of his sons-in-law ::

• William Prentiss Freeman [1833–1898]
• Martin Van Buren Hottel [1837–1915]

Also seven of his grandchildren [listed by age] ::

• James Randal Freeman [1854-1894]
• Prentiss A Freeman [1856-1930]
• Caroline L Gordon [1868-1962]
• Beatrice Hottel [1873-1953]
• Grace C Dudley [1875-1952]
• James Freeman Hottel [1876-1973]
• Byron H Dudley [1888-1972]

 Also his granddaughter-in-law ::

• Carrie E Twambley [1854-1919]

 Also his great-granddaughter ::

• Maud M Freeman [1878–1957]