Digging Under My Brick Wall (Part 2) - Anna Seavey and Harlan Mason

Anna, born Julia Ann, Seavey was the fourth daughter of Jonathan Seavey (my 2nd Great Grandfather) and Mary Blake, his first wife.* I am a descendant of Jonathan and his second wife.

In an effort to wedge my way under the brick wall of Jonathan Seavey's parentage, I have been researching his offspring. I have come up with more interesting connections and fascinating historical tie-ins.

Anna (1841-1925) was born Julia Ann Seavey in Bridgton, Maine, to Jonathan and Mary Seavey.

By the 1860 Census, she was among several 18-20 year old females living in Lowell, Mass., and listed as a mill-hand. By that point, she was still going by the name of Julia.**  There were several mills in Bridgton, so perhaps she had some experience in mill work.

On March 1, 1869, she married Harlan Roscoe Mason, a last turner, in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts.*** She had dropped the first name of Julia, and was known as Anna J.

Harlan Roscoe Mason was born in Buckfield, Maine in 1840. the second son of Samuel and Jeanette Mason. By the 1860 Census, at the age of 20, he was living with his mother and siblings in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

He enlisted as a private in the 42nd Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on July 20, 1864. Newly reorganized, the 42nd was mustered into service for 100 days.  It was used for guard and garrison duty during the late summer and fall, in order that the older and more experienced troops which had been performing this duty might be relieved and sent to the front. Harlan Mason, along with the entire regiment, was mustered out of service on November 11, 1864.  His military duties as a guard are mentioned in his obituary, highlighted in a previous post, when he died in 1916 in Brockton, Mass.

A Boston Herald article, with a dateline Brockton, March 13, 1888, listed Mrs. Harlan Mason participating in a "kirmess," or festival, to aid the Universalist Church Society, leading a Hungarian dance.

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They lived in Brockton during the 1900 and 1910 Censuses.  There is evidence she received her late husband's military pension.

At age 78, a widow, she was living in Boston, according to the 1920 Census. She died in Brockton in 1925 at the age of 84. Like her sister Olive, who had married Sylvanus Stetson, she apparently had no children.  To date, I have not been able to locate their graves in either Massachusetts or Maine.

*    For a timeline of Jonathan's two marriages and his children, see previous post.
**  1860 U.S. Federal Census
***Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915