Aunt Rose

We probably all have stories about a wealthy relative.  Mine is "Aunt Rose" as she was known in the family, but she was my Dad's great-aunt. Most everyone in the family had an "Aunt Rose" story or memory to tell.  But before the age of the internet and on-line genealogy, I discovered a secret that shocked most of my living family members at the time that Aunt Rose had more than one husband.  The reasons that her first marriage was never spoken of may be for several reasons, it ended in divorce, the shame of the mental state of her first husband, and that Rose married a second time to a man of social prominence.

Rose Ann Mower was born on December 4, 1863 in Corinna, Maine, the daughter of William Penn Mower and his first wife, Maria Mary Weymouth.  Her mother died only 5 months after her birth on May 13, 1864.  Her father being the only male son in his father's family, had to work the family farm.  Being so young, Rose, as she was called then, was raised by her paternal grandmother and two young aunts,  Aunt Esther, age 14 and Aunt Ellie, age 8.  

Rose's father remarried in 1868 to Sue Spaulding and would have 3 more more daughters, Rose's half sisters whom from all accounts she was close too, despite their age difference.  Her stepmother took over raising Rose, but as Rose's father and his new family all resided in the house of her grandparents until her father built his own house next door, Rose was said to consider her grandmother as the person of authority over her.  It was from her grandmother that Rose learned how to sew and make her own dresses and was said to have made dresses for other relatives.  

In 1883, Rose and her two aunts, Esther and Ellie went to work in a Cotton Mill in Lewiston, Maine.  We don't know why they left for the mill, but we can assume that her unmarried aunts who were aged 33 and 26 were probably considered at that time "old maids" and possibly with Rose being age 20 years old, also may have felt she was following in her aunt's shoes or just had no interest in marriage with any of the young local men of Corinna, Maine.

Rose, Esther and Ellie Mower
Lewiston, Maine

It was during this time while Rose was working in the mill that she married.  A marriage which her own nieces claimed that no one in the family must have known about, despite the fact it was not completely hidden.  Also it would be unlikely that Rose would have known the future outcome of her marriage that she would have married without her own family's knowledge, especially her two aunts that lived with her in Lewiston.

It was the will of Rose's paternal grandfather, William Henry Weymouth that tipped me off to her marriage as in 1891, he named his granddaughter, Rose Parcher of Lewiston as an heir.  As William had only one granddaughter named Rose, she had to be Rose Parcher!  A search of the Lewiston Vital Records confirmed a marriage between Miss R. A. Mower and Frank M. Parcher on 26 September 1885 in Lewiston. They had no children together.   Rose Parcher petitioned for a divorce in December 1890.  

Androscoggin County Court records provided he details of their marriage.  It seems that after a few years of marriage, Frank began to drink and became "a common and habitual drunkard." He had been frequently arrested for intoxication and was addicted to the excessive use of morphine.  He had been confined to Maine  State Insane Hospital for 4 months in 1890 and was then [1890] living in Haverhill, Massachusetts and had not contributed to the household.  Her divorce was granted in January 1891.  Frank would die on March 7, 1896 at age 42 years old. His obituary suggests that he had been better person earlier in his life.

Rose, at age 29, then started a new life on her own in Portland, Maine where she set up shop as dress maker on Congress Street.  She also no longer used her married name of Parcher, but used her maiden name and no longer went by the name of Rose, but became "Rosalie."  A name which a few descendants have named their daughters in her memory.  

Rosalie
about 1900, Portland, Maine

Rosalie Mower then caught the attention of man who also lived and worked on Congress Street,  George Perrin Dewey, the general agent of the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, Vermont.   He was also the nephew of Admiral George P. Dewey of the Spanish American War fame, his namesake.  

They married at the Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts on September 11,1900.  Rosalie A Mower stated that this was her first marriage, he was 40 and she was 39.  Again whether her husband was aware of her first marriage and the circumstances of her divorce is not known.  This could explain the strict secrecy that no one in the family ever spoke of her first marriage to any later descendants in the family.  His family or the Church may not of approved of his marriage to a divorced woman.  It would be quite elaborate under taking to mkae sure one ever spoke of Rose's first marriage, either family or anyone she ever knew beforehand.  It seems it became the rule to just never speak of Rose's first marriage.

George and Rosalie bought a cottage on the ocean at Higgins Beach in Cape Elizabeth, Maine which became their year round home.  In reading old Portland Press Herald newspapers, George and Rosalie appear quite often in the social column of the paper from hosting parties at their home or attending charity or fundraising events.   Sadly George died on her birthday December 4, 1925.  

It was the years after her husband's death that most family members remember Aunt Rose, although no further photos were taken of her.  Most of her nieces and nephews remember her visits in her black limousine and her driver, a black man named Isaac who all the children adored.  He would drive them to school in the car and get out and open the door just to impress their school friends.  Also, Rose had two surviving half sisters, (her sister, Emmie, my great-grandmother had died in 1905) who would bring their families to her home on the coast for visits in the summer, which everyone remembered fondly.

Aunt Rose died on September 1, 1948 at her home in Cape Elizabeth.  But her will was another surprise to her family.  Rose's two half sisters were not named as heirs in her will.  She made bequeaths to the children of her aunt Ellie Mower, her housekeeper, Polly Lucas and left her entire estate to her doctor, a man named Reginald Lombard.  Her estate was valued at $40,000 in 1948 [an online calculation estimates that would be the same as $430, 000 today].  There was also no mention of her chauffeur, Isaac, who had been with her for years.  Rose also requested to be cremated and her ashes spread on the ocean from her home.

Her sisters felt her doctor was able to convince her to leave her estate to him over her family.  He claimed that Aunt Rose had made this decision because she felt no one in the family could afford to maintain the estate and they would probably sell it for the money.  Rose had a neighbor, Phineas Sprague who had been after her property for years in order to expand his own estate, that she detested.  Her will specifically states that even her doctor was not to sell any of her property to him.  Rose's doctor claimed that she feared that a large sum of money Mr. Sprague may offer her family would be too great of a temptation for them and she could not trust them not to sell to Mr. Sprague after her death.

Dr. Lombard, Rose's doctor, did suggest to her sisters that they could contest the will, but they probably would only get a small amount of money in the end.  As no one in the family could afford to mount a legal challenge that they could lose  in the end, did not contest the will.  Rose's former home can still be seen from Higgin's beach today and still owned by Dr. Lombard's grandchildren.