My paternal Great-Grandfather
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| Myron L. Skinner 1891 |
Myron Leslie Skinner was born on May 23, 1868 in Raymond, Maine, the son of Andrew Jackson Skinner and Mary Elizabeth Brown. His parents had moved to Raymond after his father served in the Civil War. After 1870, Myron's maternal grandparents who were in their 70s asked Andrew and Mary to come and live with them in Exeter, Maine, where in return for helping with the running their farm, Andrew would inherit it after their deaths. The family then settled in Exeter, Maine.
Myron attended only one year of high school before ending his education. This may be that by that time, his parents needed help running their farm as his older brother, George had all ready left home and moved to Massachusetts to start his own family by 1880.
Myron married in 1891 to Edna Estella Pease, the adopted daughter of John and Mary Pease, who were neighbors to Myron's family. John Pease had also served in the same Civil War regiment as Myron's father and was the next house on the road from Myron's family. Myron's daughter Bertha states that her parents met when he was 17 and she was 14 and that she literally married the boy next door. At the time of their marriage, Myron listed his residence as Corinna, Maine and Edna was of Exeter, Maine. Myron was working at one of the mills in Corinna at the time, and felt it was a lot of hard work for little pay and he could do better..
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| Edna Estelle Pease 1891 |
Myron settled in Exeter after his marriage and where his first daughter, Bertha was born in 1891, just 6 months after his marriage. In 1892, Myron decided that like his older brother, he would do better finding work and providing for his family beyond the rural town of Exeter, Maine and moved his family to the city of Portland, Maine. Myron appears in the 1893 city directory as a clerk at Soule and Robinson on Commercial Street. It was a wholesale produce company.
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| Myron on the right Soule & Robinson, Portland, Maine |
Myron moved his family around Portland as his family grew with the birth of his daughter Alice in 1896. In 1897, the family moved to 41 Pitt Street in Portland where they remained for the next several years. It was here two more daughters were born, Ethelyn in 1898 and Velma in 1903.
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| 41 Pitt St in 1920 and 2000 |
By 1900, Myron had begun working for Milliken Tomilson Company, another wholesale produce company and sold fruits and vegetables in the Portland area. The Company had suffered a large fire in 1901, but rebuilt and expanded. Eventually Milliken Tomilson forced Soule and Robinson out of business. Myron's daughter, Bertha recalled that her father traveled by horse and wagon around the city of Portland selling his produce door to door.
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| Milliken Tomlinson 1900, Myron standing 2nd from right |
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| Milliken Tomlinson, 1902, Myron 6th from left on porch |
In 1903, after the birth of their youngest daughter, Myron's wife, Edna Skinner developed blood poisoning and was bedridden for the next two months. She died April 30th, 1903 just days after her 30th birthday. This must have been a terrible time for the family as Myron tried to work leaving his children at home ages 10 years old to a newborn with his wife literally dying before them. It is not known how much help Myron received from either friends or neighbors or some of his or his wife's relatives who lived in the Portland area. It appears after his wife's death, he tried to remain in Portland on his own for a time as he did not withdraw his children from school until the following year in April 1904. This was a time period when men were the primary providers of income for the husehold and women were the raising of the children and all hosehold chores. Myron returned to Exeter, Maine to help run his parent's farm and in return his parents helped raise his four daughters. Myron loved his job as a salesman and was said to have been a natural born salesman. He continued to state his occupation was a salesman throughout his life despite the fact he did mostly farming afterwards. Myron never remarried after losing his wife and never gave his daughters up for adoption.
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| Myron Skinner, 1902 |
According to his daughter Bertha Skinner's diary from 1911, Myron had little help running the family farm and did most of the work by himself and occasionally would hire a farmhand to help for a few weeks. Although his daughter, Ethelyn, was said to have been raised for a time by her adoptive grandparents who expressed an interest in adopting her as well as a request from Myron's sister-in-law to have one of his daughters come to Massachusetts to work as a house girl for her, Myron kept his daughters together with him. Perhaps knowing of his wife's unhappy childhood and adoption, aided in his decision to never give up his children. Although, Myron stated later in life, that he wished he had remained in Portland because he felt his daughters would have had a better education and more opportunities in the city and maybe he also wondered how his life might have been different as well.
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Photos of Myron taken after his return to Exeter, Maine between 1910-1920, still wearing his suit and tie from his days as a salesman.
After 1920, all his daughters had married or left home. He spent his remaining years selling his apples, berries and vegetables in the Exeter area, still a salesman and doing odd jobs around the towns of Exeter, Newport and Corinna. One neighbor remembered that Myron had the best looking apple orchard and wood lot as he would keep them free of branches and tall grass. As he aged, he became more reclusive, leading many who did not know him from his earlier years to believe that he had never been married or had any children, nor did Myron mention his family to neighbors. His grandchildren also had few memories of him as he did not drive, so his visits were rare and infrequent. He would either get a ride or walk to the neighboring town of Corinna to visit his daughter Ethelyn's family. Usually visits with him were arranged by his youngest daughter, Velma, whose husband had a car and could either take family to visit him or take Myron to visit his daughters. But from all accounts from his family, all his daughters were said to have loved their "Papa" as they called him.
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| Skinner Farm 1950 |
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| Skinner Farm 1990 |
By 1950, the farm had fallen into disrepair as Myron at age 82, was not able to maintain it alone. As he was getting even too old to care for himself, his daughter, Alice moved him into her home in Dexter, Maine. The woman that bought Myron's house, Margaret Andrews, said that when they moved into his house, there were piles of old newspapers stacked up all around the inside and even the windows were blocked as he never threw anything away. When I interviewed people who knew Myron late in his life, sadly he was the victim of local gossip of being a single man living alone which probably added to his isolation.
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| Myron with daughters Alice and Velma, 1950 |
Myron died November 23, 1951 in Dexter, Maine at the home of his daughter. Myron was buried in Chamberlain Cemetery, Exeter, Maine with his wife and parents.
One man, Carl Edgerly, who knew Myron said in an 1990 interview that he was a nervous man and did things very quickly even hurried in the way he walked. He always wore a red bandana around neck and a pointed hat like the soldiers in World War I which made him think Myron had served in the war. He said that Myron was just and ordinary man who talked about ordinary things.
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