Four sisters, Four different Women: Bertha

I have always been interested in my grandmother and her sister's lives as each of them led very different lives. As each of them appears to have had some sadness to their life's story.   I will explore each of the sisters and will start with the oldest sister, Bertha (Skinner) Rideout.


Bertha May Skinner was born on October 12, 1891 in Exeter, Maine, daughter of Myron Skinner and Edna Southard.  [see my earlier blog on Myron Skinner]   Bertha was born within seven months of her parent's marriage at the home of her grandparents, Andrew and Mary (Brown) Skinner where her parents resided after their marriage.  When she was 3 years old, her parents moved to Portland, Maine, where he father found work as a traveling salesman.

Bertha Skinner, age 3yrs old

While living in Portland, the family moved several times to bigger apartment buildings as the family grew.   Bertha was joined by sisters, Alice, Ethelyn and Velma.  She attended Oakdale school in Portland which was literally a few buildings from her where she lived on Pitt Street in Portland.  Bertha was said to have been smart and did well in school.

At the age of eleven, her mother died after giving birth to her youngest sister. She attended schools in Portland until April 1904 when her father moved the family back to Exeter, Maine where her grandparents could help with raising herself and her sisters.  The 1940 census reveals she attended school only until the 6th grade, the last grade she attended before the family returned to Exeter.

Photos of Bertha taken July 4th 1905 at Stetson Pond at age 13

Bertha in the back

Front: Grace Morse, Inez skinner

Bertha and her father fishing

on Stetson Pond

Bertha's grandparents also died within several years of the family moving back.  Her grandmother dying in 1907 and her grandfather in 1910.   It then fell to Bertha take on the role caretaker of the family.  She raised her younger sisters, maintained the home by doing the cooking, cleaning and sewing while her father whom she called "Papa" worked the family farm.  A surviving diary that Bertha kept for the year of 1911 when she was nineteen, detailed the life herself and her sisters and father.  It was mostly filled with their daily chores, and few personal mentions of her life, and several mentions of her father and his lack of keeping help on the farm and doing most of the work himself alone.

Bertha, age 24 in 1915

Exeter, Maine

By 1919, Bertha's sisters, Alice and Ethelyn had moved away from home, leaving herself and her youngest sister, Velma at home. On the 1920 census she was listed as working as a weaver in a woolen mill in Corinna, Maine where she was residing with her sister, Velma who was attending Corinna Union Academy.  It seems Bertha went to Corinna to care for Velma while she was at school. Bertha and her sister also appear on the same census living at home with their father which implies that they were living in Exeter for part of the time between 1919 and 1920.

However 1920, was important year for Bertha also married on November 26, 1920 in Corinth, Maine to Donald Edmond Rideout when she was 29 years old.   A family story was that Bertha met her husband when he stopped by the house to buy apples from her father and as he was not home, Bertha sold him and the apples and he was so taken with her, he returned more than once to buy apples just to talk to her.   

Wedding Portrait of Bertha and

Donald Rideout, 1920

After her marriage she lived with her husband's family in Garland, Maine.  They had no children together, although it was said she was pregnant a few times, but miscarried each time.  According to her niece Hilma (Smith) Knowles, her aunt's biggest disappointment was sadly to never to have been able to be a mother to her own child, after raising her sisters who considered her to be a good mother figure to them all.  Instead, Bertha became caretaker to her husband's parents, his aunt, and his unmarried brother until their deaths.  She never had time when wasn't taking care of her husband's family.

Bertha in 1922, Garland

Bertha and Donald

1920s

Bertha, 1930, Garland

Bertha also was known to enjoy drawing and sketching, but the family story told that as much as almost all her nieces and nephews liked their "uncle Don" Rideout, he was known to be cautious with money and would not allow her to spend money on paper, drawing pencils and ink which he felt was wasteful.  So often she drew on backs of used paper or magazines.  She was never allowed to enjoy the one hobby she liked the most.  Bertha did enjoy collecting antiques and had a great many them on the family farm from furniture to farm equipment. 

Bertha and Donald Rideout in 1964

Bertha's husband, Donald Rideout died April 12, 1969 in Garland.  Towards the end of her life, Bertha was cared for by a Smith family, who her relatives were distrustful as they felt the Smiths sold most of the Rideout furniture before buying the property at a small price from Bertha.  She was then taken to a boarding home in Dexter.   

Bertha died May 11, 1980 in Dexter, Maine.

Bertha's niece, Hilma remembers they were told only a day before the Smiths held an auction to sell off farm's belongings and no one in the family had time to go.  Another niece, Marion remembers hearing about the auction and wanted to buy a porcelain doll and carriage she remembered playing with as a child, but the Smiths wouldn't sell it at a lower price she could afford because they knew they could get more money at the auction.  

Bertha was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Garland, Maine with her husband.