Digging Down East: Bustin Fred

Showing posts with label Bustin Fred. Show all posts

Sunday, July 20, 2014

52 Ancestors: #29 Frederick Parker Bustin (1886-1965)

Frederick Parker Bustin, my great grandfather, was born on this date in 1886, in Mechanic Settlement, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada, the ninth of nine children born to Samuel James Bustin and Mary Ross, and their seventh son.

At the age of 18, Fred emigrated to the States, ending up in Portland, Maine. His brothers Benjamin and Thomas eventually left Canada as well and came to Portland.

Fred Bustin As A Young Man

A couple of years later, Fred married Melvina Jane "Vina" Hamilton, a young woman from Upper Stewiacke in Nova Scotia, on May 1, 1907, Portland.

Children arrived quickly for the young couple, first a daughter, and three sons thereafter:

Flora Vesta, b. 1907

Suther Ross, b. 1908

Marvin Howard, b. 1911

and

Laurence Albert, b. 1913

In 1910, Fred went to work for the Maine Central Railroad, and worked at the Rigby Railroad Yard in South Portland.

Rigby Yard railroad crew. Fred, back row, 4th from left.

Fred and Vina always lived in Morrill's Corner, in what was once known as the Deering District of Portland, at first on Morrill St., and afterwards at two different addresses on Stevens Avenue. They always kept a garden, which yielded a substantial crop of corn and pole beans.

Fred Bustin With A Pal In Front of 827 Stevens Ave.
Morrill's Corner

Fred and Vina at home

Fred worked for the Maine Central Railroad for 50 years, as a section hand, an engine wiper, and a machinist, and in 1960 he was presented with a 50-year pass by the president of the railroad. It was noted in the railroad newsletter.

This is how I remember my great grandfather, whom we all called "Pap."

On Christmas Eve in 1965, Pap passed away at the former Osteopathic Hospital on Brighton Avenue, in Portland, Maine. He never used his 50-year pass.

He, and "Nana," are buried in Evergreen Cemetery (not far from "the Corner").

Sources:

1891 Census of Canada; Census Place: Cardwell, Kings, New Brunswick; Roll: T-6301; Family No: 24, Frederick G H Bustin.

1901 Census of Canada; Census Place: Elgin, Albert, New Brunswick; Page: 9; Family No: 75, Fred Bustin.

1910 US Census; Census Place: Portland Ward 9, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T624_539; Page: 1A, Fred P. Bustin.

1920 US Census; Census Place: Portland Ward 9, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T625_640; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 907, Fred P. Bustin.

1930 US Census; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: 831; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0075; Image: 796.0; FHL microfilm: 2340566, Frederick P. Bustin.

1940 US Census; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T627_1476; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 3-110, Frederick P. Bustin.

Ancestry.com. Maine, Marriage Records, 1713-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, Fred Bustin and Melvina Hamilton.

Ancestry.com. Maine, Naturalization Records - Originals, 1906-1929 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, Frederick Parker Bustin.

“Fred P. Bustin,” obituary, Portland (Maine) Press Herald, 25 December 1965.

Frederick P. Bustin tombstone, section U, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland (Cumberland County), Maine; photographed by Pamela Schaffner on 7 August 2009.

New Brunswick. Registrar-General. Late Registration of Births, 1810-1899. #1886-B148. 1944. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/. Accessed and downloaded 5/13/2012.

***

This is the 29th in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Wedding Wednesday - Double Wedding and Why Not?!

On a mid-summer Tuesday in 1910, two couples traveled from Portland, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for the sole purpose of getting married.

Agnes Rachel Hamilton would marry her beau Benjamin Bishop Bustin. Catherine Margaret Hamilton, Agnes' sister, would marry Ben's brother, Thomas Herman Bustin.

"Nessie" Hamilton Ben Bustin

Catherine "Cassie" Hamilton and Thomas Herman Bustin

This is how the June 28th Portsmouth Daily Herald noted the event:

Their marriages would be the culmination of the union of the Hamilton clan of Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, and the Bustin family of Mechanic Settlement, New Brunswick.

That's because Nessie and Cassie's older sister, Melvina, had already tied the knot three years prior, in 1907, in Portland, with Ben and Tom's younger brother, Frederick Parker Bustin!

Melvina and Fred are my maternal great-grandparents.

The romantic story, complete with Cupid in the starring role, took up a full page of the Portland Evening Express that following Saturday, and is transcribed above under the page heading:

3 Brothers Marry 3 Sisters

Monday, April 16, 2012

Morrill’s Corner in the 1940 Census

My grandfather (S. Ross Bustin) was fond of saying that he could stand in the middle of Morrill’s Corner in Portland, Maine, and see every place he ever lived.

When the 1940 census was taken he was 31, living at 1158 Forest Avenue, working as a truck driver for a food manufacturer (undoubtedly Cushman’s Bakery), right in the Corner, with my grandmother and my mother, age 8 (my grandmother, Harriet, and my mother (Marilyn Louise Bustin) are on the following page).

The apartment building now has a store front attached and is barely recognizable as a residence.

My great grandparents, Fred and Melvina Bustin, also lived at Morrill’s Corner in 1940, with their youngest son Marvin, at 827 Stevens Avenue. They appear on the same page of the Census, with my great grandfather working as a laborer for the steam railroad (He worked for the Maine Central Railroad for over 50 years).

In this fantastic picture, I believe that is my mother standing on the front porch,

probably about 8 years old.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Happy 90th Birthday Aunt Ruth !!

My great aunt, Ruth Spring Bustin, turns 90 tomorrow. I love this picture, taken about 1951 or so, because I can identify, from memory, so many gathered on the front steps of 827 Stevens Ave.

Ruth is in the front in the light dress, a young mother then, since Pap is holding Norm in his arms. Also in the group are Vina, Flora Bustin (Lawrence's wife), Vesta Bustin (Fred and Vina's daughter), Arletta Curran (Pap's niece), and Laurine Bustin (Lawrence and Flora's daughter).

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Not So Wordless Wednesday - "Pap" worked for Maine Central RR for 50 years!

The mention above commemorated my Great-Grandfather's 50 years (1910-1960) working for the Maine Central Railroad. Fred P. Bustin (1886-1965), born in Mechanic Settlement, Kings Co., New Brunswick, Canada, worked at the Maine Central's largest yard, known as Rigby Yard, in South Portland.

This is a group picture of Rigby railroad workers, with "Pap" the second from the left in the front.

Interchange with their long time partner, the Boston and Maine, was done here.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Nana and Pap

Frederick Parker Bustin and Melvina Jane Hamilton are buried under this gravestone in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine. They are my maternal great-grandparents. Fred and Vina came from Canada, he from New Brunswick and she from Nova Scotia.

Actually, Fred and his two brothers married Melvina and her two sisters. There was a big write-up in the Portland paper about it, but that's a good story to save for another post!