Uncle George

 

Uncle George

Uncle George was my grandmother, Myrtle (Moulton) Buzzell’s older brother.  My brothers, my cousins and I have often spoken of Uncle George in our memories as kids when we visited my grandmother.  Uncle George lived with her after her husband had died.  Sadly, our memories of him were mostly that none of us could understand what he was saying to us or anyone else.  He would be standing around their little house in Newport, Maine in the background smoking his pipe with a smile as everyone else talked.  Sometimes he said things that we thought our father understood as he would talk to him.  Later we asked our dad what he used to talk to George about.  He said sometimes he would talk about someone they knew or something that happened nearby, but most of the time, my father didn’t know what George was saying either.  If George laughed, my dad laughed also. 

We mostly remember him laughing, It was a high pitched “hehehe” kind of laugh.  My cousin, K Hartsgrove once said jokingly when I asked if she understood what he said? “George was probably saying what a bunch of idiots you are,” and laughed at us and we all laughed along too. 

George Henry Moulton was born on November 16, 1904, in Atkinson, Maine, the first child and son of Charles and Emma (Paine) Moulton.  George was raised in Atkinson, Maine where he attended school. 

Atkinson School 1910s, George is the last boy on the right, 2nd row
his sister, Myrtle little girl standing in front row

As the oldest son, George was expected to help his father by working early as a boy and helping provide money for his increasing number of siblings his parents were adding to the family.  George only went to school until the 5^th grade.  My mother said that George never went to school full-time, only for a few months at a time as the family could not afford him not to work.  Sadly, when George returned to school, he had to start at the grade level he left at.  Eventually his younger sister and siblings caught up to him and passed him in grade school.  George, being teased at being so old in the fifth grade, never returned.  The 1920 census record does state that he could read and write and had attended school within the past year at age 15.

One of the clearest memories I have of Uncle George was after my grandmother’s funeral, Uncle George, my parents and my aunt Bea were all in the same car driving out to the cemetery.  On the way, George said that an old girlfriend used to live in a house we passed.  We were all shocked to think that uncle even had a girlfriend.  After some teasing my mother or my aunt asked him why he didn’t marry her?  He said so clearly for the first time in my life I understood exactly what he said. “She gone and got knocked up is what she did.”  We were all laughing so hard from the shock to hear him say that phrase and so clearly, we had to laugh.  But I wonder what he thought of us laughing at his tragic love life as George never again was known to have a girlfriend afterwards.  Later we found the crumbled photo of a young George and his girlfriend, Irma Hawthorne, who we think was older than George.

George and Ima Hawthorne 1920s?

Few photos of George exist of him in his 20s

George with brother Reggie and his father at the truck, blueberry picking for work

George’s occupation on the 1930 census was a “woods laborer” which meant working cutting down trees like his father, either clearing for roads to for lumber companies.  On the 1940 census, George was listed as a “teamster” working in the woods as well. This meant driving teams of horses or oxen in the woods.

During World War II, all four of George’s younger brothers enlisted in the service.  Although not strictly enforced there was a “sole survivor” policy.  This came about after the five Sullivan brothers all died on the same ship leaving the family with no male heirs to carry on the family name or support the family.  George remained at home while his brothers served in the war.  George appears in photos of the family in the 1940s.

George staning in the background between his mother and sister-in-law

By 1950 his father found a house on a farm in Bradford, Maine where he and George worked.  George was listed as doing farming and lumbering as was his father and youngest brother, Reggie.  The story that was always told of George while they lived in Bradford every Saturday night, he would make several miles walk on foot to Grange Hall.  He would take a pail with some drinks and sit watching everyone else dance and listen to the band that played.  No one ever remembers seeing George dance, but he would sit there and just enjoy everyone else having a good time. 

Bradford Grange Hall in 2020

My mom remembered a story of how when her grandparents were living in Bradford, her cousin, Sharon Moulton had come to visit or stay with her grandparents for a time.  There was a well that was either poorly covered or not covered and Sharon somehow fell in the well.  No one knew how long she was in the well, but it was only because Uncle George was outside smoking his pipe that he heard her crying for help.  My mother doesn’t remember how they got her out, but she said Uncle George, her grandfather and mother somehow got her out of the well.  My mother said she knew after that to never go near that well, but she was also surprised that George, who didn’t have the best hearing by then had heard her cries. 

Otherwise, my mom claimed that “George was the sweetest man she ever knew and never said anything bad about anyone.”

George and some of his siblings, Reggie, Bob, Clarence, Myrtle and Gladys

Uncle George was always attended reunions and once was made vice-president of the Moulton-Thompson reunion in 1956. After his mother’s death in 1958, George went to live with his youngest brother, Reggie.  George had no say where he wanted to live and had to go where someone was willing to take him in.   His father went to live with his sister’s family.  No one knows if he was happy with the living arrangements, but having no place else to go, he accepted it.  Then he lived with his sister, Myrtle until her death in 1980 and for a time he remained in Newport in the house with his brother Bob staying with him. 

Uncle George at the Moulton-Thompson Reunion

Before he died George was taken to Eastern Maine General Hospital to stay.  I remember going to see him there and he was sitting on his bed eating his dinner like he had never had such a good meal.  My mother later remarked, who knows how well he ate with her mother or even what she cooked for them was any good.  He probably thought he was having the best meals in his life at the hospital.

Uncle George died on September 13, 1985, at Bangor, Maine.  His funeral was held in Corinna, Maine at the Crosby Neal Funeral Home.  I went with my parents to the visiting hours.  Unlike my grandmother’s visitations, which were sad and somber.  It was a small reunion with my aunts and uncles there, my great aunts and uncles and cousins attending.  "It was like a party inside there," my mother remarked when she left, with everyone talking loudly and laughing and sneaking out for beer in the parking lot.  She said I wonder what the funeral home people thought of this group of mourners.  There was no crying, no one sitting in silence or even paying much attention to George in the casket.  Upon reflection, I bet George wouldn’t have wanted any other way, he was there in the background enjoying everyone else having a good time at his farewell party.

Gravestone, Pine Grove Cemetery
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine