The Mysterious Gravestone of Rufus Carter

While working on my Mom’s new ancestors and where they were buried I came across a story about the gravestone of my ancestor Rufus Carter.  It is through Rufus’ wife Eunice Ball that I found my Mom was a cousin to Lucille Ball [see my blog post October 2018 “Mom’s famous cousin.”]

Gravestone in Linville, Maine

What was interesting about Rufus was that despite living his life in Montville, Maine, his gravestone for no apparent reason is on the side of the road in Lincolnville, Maine.    The following is from an article by Corelyn Senn, published in the Village Soup on November 19, 2015.

It is not known when this monument arrived at this spot but it was there after Myrtle and Guy Ripley purchased the land in 1938. It has been assumed that the monument belonged on this spot but a closer look leads one to believe that it was made for another place. The lettering is right down to the ground and the base, which is only 5-inches high and has a decorative curved lip, is underground. The assumption then is that the monument and its current base were once on one, and probably two, larger granite blocks as is typical.

Who are the people memorialized on it? As it turns out they are not Lincolnville people but are connected to Montville. Rufus Carter was born in Leominster, Mass. in 1761, and married Eunice Ball in Westborough, Mass. in 1797. They had moved to Montville by 1800 where their daughter Eunice was born that same year. In 1805, their son Phineas was born and by 1810 they had another son, Rufus.

Rufus Sr. bought land along the Stage Road, currently Route 3, on the Searsmont-Montville line (some of the land being in Searsmont) in 1811. In 1821, he sold 21 acres of the land in Montville but reserved for himself and his heirs the use of the house (and the right to move it) and the land it was on for as long as they wished to use it. In 1825, Rufus sold more of his land in Montville and, in 1826, he sold 15 acres to Phineas on the Searsmont side of the line.

Rufus Carter on the gravestone

On Nov. 26, 1829, Phineas Carter of Searsmont married Jane S. Fogerty of Searsmont. Jane was the daughter of Moses and Margaret Watts Fogerty of Cushing, both members of prominent shipbuilding and ship captain families from St. George. In 1842, Phineas bought 30 acres of land in Montville from George Everette that included Kingdom Yard, now known as Mt. Repose Cemetery. Phineas sold it in 1852 and moved to Poors Mill Road in Belfast.

Phineas and Jane had one son, Alonzo, born in 1830, who died in 1839, and a daughter, Mary R. W., born about 1839, who married Horace Banks. Mary died of apoplexy in 1892 and Horace hanged himself a month later. All these family members have a large monument in Mt. Repose Cemetery where they are buried.

Neither Rufus Sr. nor his wife Eunice is buried in Mt. Repose. After he sold his land, the only information we could find on Rufus was through Phineas who, in the 1830 census, is listed as living in Searsmont with a male over 60 in his household and in 1840 with a male over 80. Carter family history states that Rufus died in New York State when he would have been 80. Did he leave for New York just before he died?

Phineas amassed some 250 acres of land and on May 10, 1841, he sold a 120-acre parcel of land, reserving for his mother, Eunice Carter, the small dwelling house “with the right to her to occupy it where it now stands as long as she may be disposed to.” In the 1840 Montville census, there is a Rufus Carter (age 20-30) with two females, one age 20-30 and the other 60-70. Could this be Eunice living with her son Rufus and his wife? They do not show up again. I have been unable to find a grave for Eunice. Did Rufus Jr., his wife and Rufus Sr. leave for New York together?

George Fogerty, who perished at sea, was the brother of Jane Fogerty Carter, the youngest of Moses and Margaret Fogerty’s 10 children. Despite extensive searching, we have been unable to find from which ship he was lost. What we do know is that in the 1850 Cushing census he was 29 years old, living with Isaac and Catherine Seavey and listed as a sailor. In 1851, he was the commander and partial owner of the Brig Loretta out of Thomaston. He may also have been Master of the American Eagle in 1860 when she sailed from Belize with logwood and fustic, and Master of the Bark Czarina which sailed out of Marseilles on April 18, 1861, with wine and brandy.

Capt. Fogerty was born May 19, 1820, but two dates are given for his death, the one on the monument (Feb. 22, 1865) and another recorded by some family members, May 25, 1866. If this later date is accurate, he may also have piloted the Brig Machias from Machias to the Port of New York.