Merry Christmas!

A special blend of new and old traditions.  For years we gathered at my brother's home after the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church, a change from years at my mom's once my brother became our Pastor and lived next door to the church!  It's been a year of good-byes, first my brother moving, then my Dad passing away in November and my Mom in June.  I didn't think we were going to do any big gathering but the babyMomma looked quite unhappy at the idea....so my heart melted and I opened my home.  BabyMomma made a festive and adorable birthday cake to celebrate and remember her Christmas Eve baby, Charlie, who left us at the age of 2 + in 2014.  So, on what would have been his 5th birthday we got to light some candles and sing with family and had the joy of watching two 2nd cousins and his little sister blow out candles.

Grateful for this precious gift who has helped us refocus and find JOY through all the goodbyes.

Blue

I drove by my family home one last time today.  A dear friend showed up and encouraged me to walk through the house as a final goodbye.  I wanted so badly for my daughter and grandbabygirl to walk through as well but I'm not sure my daughter can handle the pain of another goodbye.  The closing on the house is tomorrow.  

This is a beautiful blue hydrangea, a Mother's Day gift from my daughter to my mother.  I didn't dig it up but I captured a picture and cut two blossoms one for me and one for my girl.   How I miss my mom...and now a home that will live on providing years of memories for a new family. 

Waiting is Excruciating

This waiting seems endless while at the same time it is speeding along at far too quickly.  I can't seem to wrap my head around God's timing, yet I have to trust that it IS God's timing and He is God.....loving, kind, good.  While my Dad was in a nursing home, one brother had open heart surgery and then retired and moved far away.  My sister's husband underwent knee replacement surgery, followed by chemo and radiation for esophageal cancer, followed by open heart surgery, followed by radical surgery for his cancer.......his ordeal was from April through November, with recovery that has left him quite frail.  These three men were my mom's rocks.   After my brother moved in September, my mom just plunged into grief and depression.  We were trying to do our best for her, bringing her to my home during the days, spending nights with her at her home.  We were making headway and she was finding a new routine when my Dad passed away .... on my granddaughter's first birthday.  The months since have seemed like a blur.

Fast forward to April 25th, my Dad's birthday.  We chose that day to move my mom into a beautiful, handicapped accessible living space my sister and her husband created for her.  The day before the move she was so teary, but the day of the move she had made up her mind that she would make the best of it.  Such a beautiful, homey space.  An apartment so if she felt like cooking, she could.  Friends and relatives could visit in her own space.....so much better than just a room.  This was to be the summer of fun.   Finally being able to take her to the ocean for a few days, or off to Newfound Lake to see great grandchildren!   Mother's Day we had a Sunday dinner like the old days but in my sister's dining room.  Wednesday, May 11th she went by ambulance to the hospital.  Her congestive heart failure was getting the best of her, they said.  We were expecting a hospital stay of two weeks to get her fluid under control, but instead they sent her home Sunday morning the 15th!  Monday the 16th, the visiting nurse sent her back to the hospital by ambulance.  Ballet dress rehearsal day of all days.   I met my sister in the ER and we stood by mom's bed while she retched for hours and clutched her chest....and was given nothing until 4:30 when they finally gave her something to stop the retching.  Four hours her body worked so hard.  Painful to watch and so frustrating.  She was stabilized and admitted.  Tuesday morning, she was up and washed and sitting in her chair talking with the dietitian about lunch.  Doctors had already made their rounds.  Someone came by her room and she was crashing, another heart attack.   She was raced off to ICU.  My sister arrived with the newspaper and things from home for her room and arrived to find an empty room while overhearing the nurses being asked if the daughter had been reached yet.  Momentary panic.  There was only one noninvasive option available, but my mom being claustrophobic tried for a few minutes then said she was all done.  Family was called.  I was out doing recital errands with my daughter and grandbaby.  For that I will be forever grateful, because my daughter made the decision to ride with me to the hospital.  When my Dad was slipping away, my husband told our daughter not to come, in an effort to protect her since she has experienced so much loss.  This time, the decision was in her hands and I am so grateful she came. There we were, five women representing four generations from 18 months to 90.  It was a sweet time of saying goodbye, my mom trying to remind us of some things she would like different ones to have.  My daughter and I distraught that we would be losing mom so close to Amber's anniversary, a pain too great.

My daughter left for work.  My mom's sister and her daughter came but mom was nonresponsive for that visit.  Son-in-laws, then a son and his wife, two grandsons and a dear friend came and left.  Our new interim pastor and a deacon came and apparently mom opened her eyes and mustered her where-withal for the visit.  I was called from the waiting room to lead us in "What A Friend We Have in Jesus" because I'm "the pianist"....not that there is a piano in ICU!!  We got through the first verse, then mom looked at me for the second verse and I blanked.  She shot me the MOM GLARE and with a voice of disappointment said, "Wait till I tell your father you didn't know his favorite hymn."  (I thought we might get kicked out of ICU for the laughter that ensued)  Shortly after that, she was back to sleep or somewhere.  Another son and his wife arrived from an aborted business trip to Nashville, scrambling to make travel arrangements, driving to the hospital from the airport and arriving about midnight.  My mom's eyes opened and she gabbed and gabbed till 2:30 am!  We decided the immediate crisis had passed and so two brothers went to my mom's house, and my sister and I tried to sleep in the waiting room.  On Thursday she was sent home on hospice.

For about two weeks, she was doing so much better and we were beginning to wish we had taken her off all her medications years ago!  Her numbers were great and she looked comfortable, although her legs were getting huge from the fluid.  Lots of visitors in such a beautiful space.

 Last week she was sleeping more and more and no longer eating much of anything.  This week is just almost unbearable.  If we put one of her greatgrandbabies in her lap, she is instantly connected and all there.

What a heart she has had for taking care of children her entire life.  We think she is waiting for my warrior son to get home.  He is due in this afternoon.  She asks for him often, but this weekend began asking everyone who comes in if he is home yet.  On Monday, in her eyes closed almost delirium, she was saying that she needed her hair done for his party.  On Tuesday, she was working on "organizing it better" and making cookies.  Yesterday, she wasn't gabby at all.

 My son is due hone late this afternoon, and the waiting is horrendous.  I want him here so he can hold her hand, give her a hug, say goodbye.  I don't want him to come home yet because I am not ready to say goodbye.

Spring ~ Brief Report

Last week was the kind of weather the entire month of May should be, in my opinion.  Cool and damp.  The greens were VIBRANT and best of all NO May Flies.....or black flies.  This week we are plunged into summer temps and the black flies are out in full force.  On the plus side, we burn extra calories waving our arms in constant motion.

Sadly, I have no pictures for this post as I haven't quite figured out how to upload/download (?) pictures onto my new laptop.  Two young squirrels emerged from the nest at the edge of my yard just in time for mother's day.  The icing on the cake for such a splendid week last week was the Wood Thrush song.

My mom has been moved to my sister's so now the work continues to put the family home on the market.  We were there yesterday cleaning out some kitchen cabinets.  My granddaughter and I spend every Monday morning with my mom.  "Zoe was just getting tall enough to look out the windows.  Neither she nor I can look out the windows at my new place."  Mom is having such a hard time and does her best to pretend she is happy.  Every now and then she lets a comment like this slip out.  My mom can see out the windows in her new place it is just a different view.

Since this photo was taken, she had grown a bit and could just see over the windowsill standing on tiptoe.

Playing Catch Up!!

September through December 2015 has just been crazy, busy, exhausting, and surreal.  September began with my oldest brother and his wife retiring after 18 years as Pastor of our church and moving to North Carolina. None of us realized how much mom relied on him.  My sister's husband, who would be my mom's next level of support, has spent the fall in and out of the hospital with cardiac bypass surgery followed by surgery for esophageal cancer.  My dad died on my granddaughter's first birthday, November 29th.  He went to the hospital the morning she was born, no longer able to support himself on his legs.  From the hospital to rehab, to remain there as a long term care resident.  The last month of his life he had been moved to a facility closer by, so my mom and I were able to see him every day instead of every other day.

My parents on their 68th wedding anniversary Sept 2015

“I would have fainted, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord!”  Psalm 27:13,14

I was reminded of these verses today in a blog post .  Through the circumstances of my dad's death, I do see the Lord's goodness.  Two grandsons who work out of the country were both home.  He died on a Sunday morning, with all but one of his five children in his room having coffee, weeping, sharing stories, singing, holding my mom close.  Three of his seven grandsons and one of their wives (a nurse) were also able to be there.  Six of his grandsons, one son-in-law, and a grandson-in-law shared a pride in military service with my dad who was a veteran of WWII.  Seven of them paid a special tribute to him.  The three currently serving placed their covers on his casket and the four no longer serving placed theirs on a table at his feet.  They stood on the platform while the oldest grandson, a Naval Officer, read a poem "The Watch" tweaked a bit to fit my dad.  The last line I believe was "Call the piper.  My grandfather stands relieved."  We had hired a bagpiper as my dad loved all things Scottish.  He heard that line and thought it was his cue to play, so he marched to the front of the church playing "Amazing Grace" while it took every ounce of strength for the young men on the platform to try to maintain composure.  While it wasn't planned quite that way, it was so fitting and so moving.  My dad would have needed his hanky.

A Beautiful Day

Dearest Amber Pie,

It is a beautiful day today.  The bluest of blue skies without a cloud yet this morning.  There is the slightest of breezes every now and then in the tippiest tops of the trees....or is it birds landing on branches as they flit around gathering in groups for their long southerly flights.  It is warming up and should be in the mid-eighties today.  Six years ago it seems to me it was a very similar day.  A cool start to the day with a warm finish.  God was very good to us that day.  Your grandfather was gearing up for his second deployment, this time to Afghanistan, and was away for training most of the time.  He was going to be gone the whole month of October which is when you were due to arrive.  You arrived early by about 3 weeks and Grampy was home on a very rare 4 day weekend!!!!  He wasn't sure if he had a cold or allergies, so he took necessary precautions.

I was so very lucky.  With Grampy deploying, your Momma and Daddy came to live with me so I wouldn't be alone.  That meant I got to see you every day and what a priceless gift that was to be.

You lived a lifetime in 3 years 8 months and 1 day.  We learned to appreciate and look for the tiniest things.  While other parents are eager to mark first steps, we were amazed when you slept on your stomach for the FIRST time ... after your first birthday!  You taught us how to listen nonverbally.  You could speak volumes with your face and when you got stronger your body language as well.  You had a giant personality and have left a huge hole.  Oh how you would get a kick out of your baby sister.  She loves to look at your pictures on my kitchen cabinets....although your mom and I sometimes wonder if she thinks they are pictures of her.  It is amazing how much she looks like you.  This year you would be in Kindergarten with your second cousin, Keira.  You would be getting ready for your first Nutcracker performance.  Your mom packed so much into the 3 years 8 months and 1 day that you were here that today, while I miss you terribly, I am mostly ok, grateful for the fun that we had, for the joy that you brought us, even for the stress and fear....we had to grow in ways we never expected just to keep you alive on many occasions.  

Today my heart is in a few places, .... hurting for your mom and dad....looking forward to the day I can be with you forever.....and in Boston with Aunt Jenny while she waits in a waiting room for Uncle Al.   Precious baby girl, once again God has put us in a place that we cannot understand but we need to trust and rest in his unfailing love, his faithfulness and his goodness.

Grammy is not doing well with words today, but a candle is lit and my heart is singing Happy Birthday and holding you close.  How glad I am that your mom and dad gave you such a special 3rd birthday party, with other little girls.  Your smile will be with me always.

all my love forever and always,

Grammie

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philipians 4:6

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

A Quick Glimpse

I do not seem to have the hours to just look out my window or wander the woods behind my house.  These days find me driving, putting lots of miles on my car back and forth to my mom's and taking her to see my dad.  This isn't how either of them wanted it but we find ourselves here and can't figure out a way to make it better.  One afternoon while trying to catch up on a little housework, a butterfly caught my eye in the backyard so I stepped outside.  I cropped the first shot, realizing I caught a glimpse of a humminbird.  I am grateful for this patch of color.  Five of the six butterfly bushes survived the winter.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sisters

 Christmas gift to Amber Skye December 2012....Amber is 3 1/4 years old

I love how Daddy was showing her all the pieces and how to use them.

Amber's sister, Zoe just under 8 months old.   It suddenly dawned on us last week that she could be playing with this!   Grateful for baby toys that were big girl enough in design to make a tiny, precious physically limited little girl feel so grown up.  Grateful for big sister's special toys that bring delight to a curious growing baby sister.  Grateful for a heart full of memories and making more.

Wild Encounters

The Chipping Sparrows fledged and I missed it.  Sunday afternoon I managed to see babies being fed and captured a few distant photos, counting four hungry beaks.  Monday ~ not a peep from the nest, no activity.  Monday morning brought this hungry visitor to my yard.  From the size, I would say a Sharp shinned Hawk.  It hopped around the rocky banking near the edge of the road and before I could snap had snatched something and flew off to this same tree branch.  For the dining shot, the hawk had it's back to me and I couldn't make out what it had grabbed.  Mouse, chipmunk?  I hoped not a fledgling sparrow.

This photo I took with my iPhone.  I was picking raspberries early Tuesday morning, a terribly muggy morning.  I startled a rabbit and was enjoying the company of an adult Cat Bird, although I wasn't happy sharing the berries with the birds.  The adult bird was not leaving.  It flew off but flew right back each time.  I continued to pick, down the long row, rounding the corner where the bird was and heading down between two rows.  Some beautiful big berries in the middle caught my eye but I couldn't quite reach.  I adjusted my angle to try again and my heart stopped as I spotted this little one a berry's width from my fingertips!!!  It was so very still, barely blinking.  I backed away and moved to the far end of the row.

It's been "wild" taking my turn staying overnight at my mom's.  An old farmhouse on a dead end street, close to 6 acres abutting conservation land.   Rabbits were here during my growing up years but disappeared for a good 20, 25 years.  They are back.

 Monday night was hot and humid.  With no ceiling fans or air conditioning, I gave up and opened the upstairs bedroom windows.  About midnight I heard the most curious noises!  I tried to capture a voice memo on my phone, but the sound wasn't loud enough to record.   Wide awake, I was trying to figure out what in the world could be making such strange noises!  The only thing that came close was the sound for "rabbit" on a couple electronic baby toys.  I never believed that it was an actual rabbit sound and thought it was just a filler because they didn't make a sound, other than screaming!  My husband found this sound bite on line and that is exactly what I heard, but multiplied as several rabbits were "purring" (I would say chortling) at once.   http://www.soundboard.com/sb/rabbit_bunny_sounds_audio

View Around the Yard

 Parent has landed just below the nest and the babes are crowding to the front of the nest.

 If you enlarge this one a bit more, you can see beak to beak feeding.  The parent is well hidden by the leaves, but you can see a beak and something stuffed into baby's beak.

 I think I count four hungry beaks in this shot.

You can just make out the adult bird behind the leaves.  This nest needed a fancy nest cam attached to a branch above it, somehow!

First groundhog I've seen in our yard.  Munching away on clover about 7 this morning.  When I walked past the window to get a second cup of coffee, I thought this was a huge squirrel!  In my sister's yard, they are mostly light brown.  This one had a lot of gray and white streaking.  I'm grateful for some activity in my yard.  My butterfly bushes are not doing well at all, so I'll have to be content with the sparrows.

Nesting Update

A hint of fluff just above the rim of the nest.

 I think you can see beak in these two photos.  It is a well camouflaged spot and they are so small.

 If you enlarge this one, you should be able to see a glimpse of a parent feeding a baby just about center.

Second Brood

The Chipping Sparrows have taken over their tiny nest in the dogwood tree.  They've added some more material to the unused nest from last year.  They are nearly impossible to see.  I can sometimes see activity from just the right spot in my living room with binoculars but can't get a picture as there are screens on my windows.  Most of the spots in the yard are just not the right angle.  I thought that one of the above pictures showed a hint of rusty red cap, but with my bleary morning eyes I can't tell.

This morning there was a bit of drama as a few American Goldfinch chose to land in the tree.  Both parents came flying.  My SD card was not in my camera!!

There has been a great deal of logging in and around my neighborhood lately as landowners are looking for extra income and wood prices are high.  Knowing all the second round nesting that happens, I'm a bit undone as I hear the loggers at work.  I take comfort in knowing "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me."   Every day is a choice to trust in His unfailing love.

Wordless Wednesday ~ White

On my front tire this morning.  Such a stark contrast!  Mating white moths?  

Firsts

Dear Zoe,

This has been a week bookended by firsts.   At the beginning of the week I walk into your home and hear you saying "kitty" or at least your version of it.  The voice I am hearing is Charlie's; his soft, sweet, tender, high voice he used to call Petey and talk to babies.   Oh my heart catches and I have a deep ache all over again.

Now we come to Friday evening.  I walk into your home and you are in the rocker with Grampy.  You give me a big smile and as I get closer to the chair you lift your arms up towards me.   A few moments later Grampa comes into the kitchen where I am holding you and swaying to keep you quiet so mommy can eat.   You smile and stretch your arms out to him.  We are joyful and awestruck and sad all at the same time.   This is something your brother and sister could not do.  Simple and so ordinary but such a monumental moment for us.

And my heart catches and I feel such a deep ache and longing to hold all three of you in my arms.

Wordless Wednesday

Spotted this on our way to bed last night, clinging to the side light of our front door.  This window pane is a dollar bill wide.  

Nesting

Birding has taken a bit of a back seat this year, as I seem simultaneously pulled in different directions while stuck in a quagmire of grief/depression that saps all motivation.  Two birds did nest in our yard for first broods.  The chipping sparrows used the furthest "dwarf" mugo pine along the end of our driveway.  Their nest would fit cupped in the palm of my hand and standing over the bush we cannot see it at all.  I haven't seen any activity this past week so I am guessing that they've fledged.  It is hard keeping track when I'm staying at my mom's a few nights a week and gone most days.  

This is a picture after last June's fledge.  I need to find pictures of these bushes when we first planted them and now.  It never ceases to amaze me how years go by and these didn't seem to grow and suddenly they are ridiculously huge and have choked out the carpet roses that I had planted in between.  We probably did the plantings fifteen or sixteen years ago.  

A pair of Robins nested in the yard this year.  A few years ago they built a nest in my dogwood.  This year they are just a few feet away from that nest location but in a branch of the one pine tree in our yard, directly over the driveway!  We probably would never have noticed the nest except the sitting parent flies off almost every time we drive in or out or walk under the nest to get the mail.  The nest is not visible from inside my house.  I have no solid report as to what is happening....if eggs have hatched, how many.  Yesterday I was able to get these pictures from the driveway.  

The nest looks a little rough after almost a week of rain. I did not do a super garden clean up last fall, so this pair used a lot of day lily remnants in the nest.  The chipping sparrows manage to pull strands from a tarp that gets left out at the end of the driveway. 

 My favorite picture is from the Robin nest a few years ago in the dogwood tree.  That pair used a large piece of birch bark in their nest construction.

52 Ancestors Challenge ~ Week 21 A Mystery Solved

Visiting Fayette Corner Cemetery all those years ago, I found my 3rd great grandparents and some of their children, including their son Charles Foster Kent who served in the Civil War.   The inscription on his tomb stone indicates that he was a member of the 14th Massachusetts Battery, fought in the battles near Petersburg, sickened and died at L.I.N.Y. July 10, 1864, aged 20 years 11 months.

At the time, I found a book in a library "Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War" which lists him as a Private, a resident of Fayette, Maine, enlisting in Feb 1864 and mustering that same month.  It indicates that he died of disease July  10, 1864 at Long Island, Boston.  I did not have a problem with this discrepancy.  Long Island is a harbor island in Boston that has been home to many things, at one time a hospital during the Civil War. 

Now that more records have become available through Ancestry, I recently came across the following two records.   He did indeed die at Long Island, New York at Grants Hospital.

In the following record, it is listed as Grant's General Hospital Willet's Point, Long Island NY.

I am proud of this brother to my Great great grandmother for enlisting.  I can only imagine the grief his parents and siblings experienced. The blow to his father to lose a son who helped with the livelihood of the family.  I am grateful that communities still recognize and honor those who have lost their lives serving their country, long after their families have gone as well.

52 Ancestors Challenge ~ Week 23 A Wedding

Frank Eugene Temple and Annie Schandelmeyer.  These would be my Great Grandparents on my father's side.  My uncle tells me this is their wedding photo, November 1892,  Hopkinton, Massachusetts.  Frank was born in 1872 and his occupation is listed as Bootmaker.  Annie was born in 1870 to German immigrants.  Her father died in 1880 and she is listed as a Domestic on the marriage record.  Frank was the oldest of 12 children.  He and Annie had 7 sons and 1 daughter.  My dad is named for him and grew up in the house next door.

I wish I could verify if this was a wedding photo or not.  I do know that it is unmistakably my Great Grandparents standing in the center of the photo.

52 Ancestors Challenge ~ Week 19 ~ Finding Family When I Least Expected To

I am still so far behind, but trying to catch up.  The optional theme for this week.....There's a Way.

My interest in genealogy began around 8th grade, visiting cemeteries with my parents near Memorial Day and putting geraniums on graves.  My grandmother was living with us at the time and so we went to a cemetery in Foxboro, Massachusetts, to visit the grave of her mother.  There we found a headstone with her grandfather and his wives and children listed on it.  No one had ever mentioned her grandparents before, other than her grandfather had red hair like she did, and no one mentioned he had wives and children other than her mother!  After my grandmother died, we found a family bible, listing his other wives and children.   I decided I wanted to try to research my ancestry through the women, which is not terribly easy and I wasn't completely successful.   Internet searching was a start and led me to the library in Harvard, Massachusetts which led to an inquiry through the Historical Society in Harvard, Mass. where a genealogist for the society provided me with transcriptions of all kinds.  A will from 1779, an inventory of his Estate, the settlement of his Estate, a pedigree chart, and an excerpt from Mayflower Families through Five Generations, indicating that through two ancestors I descend from Pilgrim Edward Doty.  Fascinating!  And I am grateful for the response of the Historical Society.

In the family Bible, my 2nd great grandmother is listed as Sarah Jane Kent from Fayette, Maine.  I held onto that piece of information but had a hard time even finding Fayette on a map.   About 20 years since discovering that line in the bible, my brother invited my sister and I to go camping in Winthrop, Maine.  This was a campground he had been visiting for a number of years.  I jumped at the chance to take my young children camping with extended family.  I put the location into Mapquest and just about fell off my chair when I saw Fayette was a neighboring town!!   Not only that, but also a town named Kent's Hill.  We drove around and found a few cemeteries.  My 4th great grandparents, Bethiah Turner and Warren Kent, are buried in a small cemetery in Kent's Hill.  In Fayette Corners Cemetery, behind a church, we found my 3rd great grandparents, Martin (son of Warren and Bethiah) and Almira with several of their children, buried in a row.

My attempt to trace my line through the women hopped around a bit......
Grandmother Jesse Olive (Whittemore) Franz (1898-1984)
Greatgrandmother Mabel Scott (Whittemore) Whittemore (1879-1962)
2nd Greatgrandmother Sarah Jane (Kent) Whittemore (1838-1894)
3rd Great grandfather Martin Holman Kent (1807-1889)
4th Great grandmother Bethiah (Turner) Kent (1768-1829)
5th Great grandmother Bethiah (Foord) Turner (1723-1773)

52 Ancestors Challenge ~ Week 18 Finding a Connection to Louisa May Alcott

I fall further behind, as this week should be #21!!  The theme for week #18 is Where There's A Will.  I managed to come across a will and inventory of an ancestor's estate close to 15 years ago thanks to a genealogist with the historical society in Harvard, Massachusetts.

The most exciting find in this packet of documents she sent to me is that Captain Simeon Turner, my 5th great grandfather, owned the property and farmhouse that Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane rented in 1843 for their Utopian experiment and named "Fruitlands."  Simeon Turner purchased the property in 1773, moving north and west from Marshfield, Massachusetts.  His first wife died within their first year here.  Fruitlands has been restored and is now a museum with artists in residence, a beautiful spot for weddings and events.  I need to visit to see how much if any of my ancestors' original home is still there.
  

In the pages detailing the settling of his estate, there is a listing of his heirs.  This provides me with several more avenues to explore if I'd like to.  It also confirmed my line, indicating that his daughter Bethiah is the Bethiah Turner who married Warren Kent from Marshfield, Massachusetts and moved to Readfield, Maine and Kent's Hill.  (I had been attempting to trace my line through women, which can be rather tricky as they are just tick marks and not named in early Census records)  Through these documents, I also discovered the real name of one of Warren and Bethiah's sons.  According to Census transcriptions, their son's name was "Duvelle," which really puzzled me.  Reading these documents, I discovered that Simeon Turner's mother's maiden name was Dwelly.  He had named two sons Dwelly, one dying very young and the second being one of his two sons by his second wife. That makes so much more sense for their son's first name than "Duvelle."

"In the fourth year of American Independence," Simeon Turner gives "one half the Real Estate Farm Land premises in said Harvard on which farm I now dwell"   "in consideration of the love and good will which I have and do bear towards my son Consider Turner of said Harvard.......and also in consideration of $6000.00."  This document was written in November 1779 and recorded in December 1781.  As he nears the end of his life, the other half of his farm and buildings is divided into thirds between his second wife and the heirs of some of his sons.

On May 17, 1802, Simeon Turner, 84 years old, writes his last will and testament.  By this time, . three of his sons are deceased leaving four sons and two daughters.  He leaves his second wife as much of his estate as is necessary for her support and also his great bible while she remains his widow.  He also leaves her all the household furniture she brought with her at the time of their marriage.   He bequeaths $20 to the heirs of his son Prince Turner.  He bequeaths $1 to his son Elisha Turner.  To his daughter Bethiah, wife of Warren Kent, he bequeaths $20.  To his daughter Rachel, $125 as well as his side saddle, six silver tea spoons and his three green dining chairs. Rachel is unmarried at this time.  He bequeaths $16 to his granddaughter Nancy Newman, daughter of his deceased son Luther.  To his sons Dwelly and Caleb and the heirs of his deceased son Simeon, he bequeaths all the rest and residue of his estate to be equally divided.  His son Consider is not mentioned, but he had purchased one half of the farm twenty years earlier.

There are pages detailing the selling of his property and the settlement given to all his heirs, including the heirs of his son Elisha who is also deceased by this time.  The selling of the divided parts of the property  to Samuel Sprague took place from 1806 through 1818!  It appears that Simeon's widow remarried and had purchased a portion of the house and property from Dwelly and Caleb (Simeon's sons born to her).  I cannot tell definitively from these pages, but it appears that Sprague still owned the property when it was rented to Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane.