My name is E. Charles Flood; two of my great-great grandmothers were GORDONs from Readfield, Maine. I'm am attaching a copy of a handwritten letter that has been in my family since it was written. The letter was written to my grandmother by her great aunt Aurilla GORDON WENTWORTH in 1904 apparently in response to a request for family information. I have typed it exactly as it was written. I thought it might be of help to you and other GORDON researchers.

Daniel Gordon house c1810, Rome, Maine
where Aurilla Gordon Wentworth was born & raised.
According to Aurilla's notes it was located "at a corner" in Rome, Maine.
Most of the Readfield Gordons lived on the present Route 135 (Belgrade Road).
Thanks to E. Charles Flood for photo.

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Written by Aurilla GORDON WENTWORTH aged 70 yrs. 1904. by request

I had two brothers and nine sisters all of who lived to be married but one died at the age of seven years. I was five at the time she died and will never forget hoe lonely I was after she was gone. I was 3 years old when my when my oldest sister was married. I recall the occasion perfectly it took place at our house and brother Luis and sister Martha stood up with them. He had a farm in our neighborhood and was well to do. They lived on the farm but two miles from us until a year before my mother’s death then sold out and moved farther to the north part of the state where there was new land and raised a family of eight. The three girls died of typhoid fever and the boys all recovered and three enlisted in the war with the south and the bodies of two lay in that land. The other came home, married and went west. He was living in Iowa somewhere. The youngest son lives on the home place in Weld. They have no children.

My sister Martha married H. REID and lived in Bangor, Me.. They conducted a large millinery establishment and had one son who still makes that city his home. He has three sons. Martha GORDON also had one daughter who after her parents death went to Buffalo, NY with an aunt. She was a fine music teacher also an accomplished dressmaker. She married C.E. RICE of that city and raised a nice family of five sons and two daughters which she left with her devoted life companion to mourn her loss Dec. 7th 1903 loved by all that had the pleasure of her acquaintance.

My brother Lewis GORDON married Mary A. WENTWORTH who is living at the age of eighty four years in good health. They lived in Rome and raised a family of seven. He was a very smart and ingenious man. A stone mason by trade but could do any kind of work that he undertook. He was a fine looking man. I can well remember when he was made Captain of the State Militia. He died in 1885 at the age of 73 years. The oldest girl married G. GOODHUE of Lynn, Mass. and lives there. They have one girl who married John HOWARD also of Lynn. The widow makes her home with Mrs. GOODHUE. The next girl was married and had an only child. Her husband died and is buried in Lynn. The widow and daughter went to Nebraska with an Unclewho lived there. She soon married there Squire LITTLE of that place. She and her husband are both dead now and the girl has is married and lives in California. He is a music and dancing master. Their names are LITTLE. The third child and only son Levi GORDON is a childless widower. He owns a nice farm in Augusta and lives on it. He is a pensioner of the war with the south. He is also a fine stone mason. The third girl married a TIBETS of her native town and died leaving two girls, Lillian and Minnie TIBETS. They both learned hospital nursing and are living in Portland, Me.. The next girl married a MILLS of Belgrade where he died leaving his wife and three children. They moved to Augusta and one of her girls died there. She is now living in Portland is a dressmaker. Her daughter is a nurse her name is Inez MILLS. The son Everet is a cabinet maker, is said to inherit his grandfathers genius. The next girl Lilie married in New Sharon but died within a year and an infant laid beside her. Emily the youngest girl married Sylvester SEVERENCE of Lynn and lives there. He is worth good property.

My third sister Ruth married and had one son and two daughters. The son Daniel G. BLAISDELL is living with his wife in Rochester, NH where he has a nice place. Their only son died several years ago just in his prime. The two girls both married railroad men and live in Nashua Mass.. Ruth’s oldest girl Dora BLAISDELL is single. Elvira the youngest girl married a Mr. FRENCH of Mass. they were quite wealthy and moved to Rochester where he built several fine houses and done quite an amount of business, leaving his widow and one daughter. They both married farmers by the name of HASTIN and live near Rochester.

Sister Anne GORDON married and lived in Lebanon, to them were born four girls and one boy, he was a nice young man the hope and pride of his mother, he married and had one son. They were getting along well and there seemed to be no cause for trouble but he was found hung in his own attic, it was supposed that he took a sudden fit of insanity inherited from his fathers people, the widow and son Lewis lives in the vicinity of Boston. The oldest girl married Martin WHITE of Lebanon and lives there, they have a family of three girls and four boys living in East Rochester. They lost two sons in early manhood I think these sons were married. The oldest girl married David JACOBS, the next Benjamin MILLS and the other was a school teacher for several years, she married a merchant of East Rochester, HANSBOMB. The next girl Emma married a man by the name of HOYT and moved to Gorham. They have no children. Adah married a CLOUGH and lives in Pitsfield, have one son Benjamin. Josephine married Charles FURBISH and she died leaving a girl named Martha Ann and a boy. Anne died in 1873 aged 72 years.

Rhoda P. GORDON being the fourth girl should have been mentioned before Ann. She married Aaron CLOSE of the city of Bangor, he was a wheelwright by trade, she was a milliner and dressmaker. They lived in Bangor. She died in 1850 leaving one girl Henrietta CLOSE. He married again and moved to Minnesota. The girl taught in the west and married there Fletcher WINTERS a native of Maine, he was a barber by trade. They had four sons and four daughters. They moved to New London, Conn. where he died by poison taken by mistake. The widow is a dressmaker in that city. One son and all of the girls have married.

Ithiel the second son of Daniel was married four times , having lost two first wives in less than a year from their marriage. After the death of the second wife he went to California where he engaged in hotel business a couple of years and done well. He came home and married again, after a year or two he went to Illinois where he settled in farming where he lived till about 1885, he sold out all of his property and went to Nebraska with his fourth wife and two sons, also a son and daughter of his third marriage with their families where they bought land and built homes. He died there Dec. 1901 at the age of 78 years leaving two sons and two daughters by his last wife. Jerome, Lewis, Flora and Nora GORDON all living in Lexington, Neb. and son Demaine whose family have moved to Fort Collins, Col. and daughter who lives in Lexington these two last by the third wife. The son has five children Brazil, Lydia, John, Alva and Flora. The daughter has three girls Ida, Olive and Vivian ALER, beside Roberta THOMPSON by second marriage. Vivian ALER married Clyde MANN, they have a young son named Aubrey Elsworth. Jerome GORDON is also married and has a girl named Ruth M..

Sylvia GORDON sixth daughter of Daniel married Edwin RICE who while traveling on business in the south caught yellow fever and dies at his home in Newburyport, Mass. leaving a young widow and an only son C.E. RICE of Buffalo NY. She died May, 10 1892 in the east. She was a smart and intelligent woman and made many friends and was also kindhearted.

Phebe GORDON married H. VARNEY of Lebanon, Me. They lived and died on the home place of the VARNEYs. She died June 30 1889. They raised two children Mary and George. The girl married Frank QUINBY and lives in Effingham, NH. The son also married, he lived at York Beach the last I heard neither had families.

Lydia GORDON married Andrew HAYES a widower with three boys. She never had any children of her own but was a good and faithful stepmother. They lived in West Lebanon. She was very ingenious in fancy embroidery and all fine work. She died at her home Dec. 29 1887.

Sarah A. GORDON 9th daughter died at the age of seven years.

Aurilla tenth and last, married Sam L. WENTWORTH of South Berwick, Me. a painter and lived in that town until the fall of 1876. Moved to Macon County Ill. with their children which consisted of two boys and four girls having laid Stella the oldest girl in the WENTWORTH burying lot in Berwick. Sadie, Willis, Evalena, Flora, George and Zettie all went to Illinois. Sadie married Thomas HAYWOOD and had one son ,they parted and she married James MANION they never had any children. Eva married John HARTMAN and had six children born to them, two died in infancy, she died Feb. 1876 leaving four the youngest a boy one week old. The sister took him, she and her husband think all the world of him, he is a smart boy, they call him Hugh Manion. The other three children stayed with their father, the oldest a girl died of consumption Nov. 3, 1903. The others are Sylvia 15 and Erlman 13. George WENTWORTH married Nora CAMPBELL they have four children , Clifford Jewell 10, Eunice Mildred 6, Floyd Campbell 3 and Forrest Arman 3 months. Zettie married Amos HAYWOOD and has one girl 1 1/2 years Flossie Catherine. Willis married Vivian WINTERS. Flora is single yet. This is the end of the GORDON line.

My Uncle Johnathan GORDON married Susan CLARKE, they had a family of five. Harriet married Joseph BEAN and lived in Lewiston, Me. Charles married and lived in Gardener, Me. Jason did not marry. Samuel and Emily were twins, she died young, he married and lived on the home in Mercer. He was a smart man in all the affairs of the town. My Uncle James GORDON married Betsy MASON and lived in New Sharon, they had a large family of boys and girls all dead but two or three.

Uncle Ithiel married Lydia CLARKE sister to Susan. They had Adalina married William BOYNTON of New Sharon and Martha died young, Cyrus and Edward and two younger. Aunt Lydia died leaving a girl baby which her sister Susan took and raised as her own. Uncle Ithiel afterward married a widow with two girls.

This ends my story I never lived near any of the race after I was married, but I was never was ashamed to own the GORDONs as my kindred. I have written all this because I thought if you ever saw any one of the name of any of these that have intermarried it would give some chance to find out if they are related to us. Aurilla Wentworth
 

My father Daniel GORDON was a scout during the War of 1812, his partner was a man named REEVES from Kentucky. REEVES afterwards emigrted to Texas about 1832 and he and my Uncle John JEWELL lived in a double loghouse in Grayson County Texas for ten years, my Uncle afterward moving to the Brazos River section. My Uncle Joseph JEWELL located near what is now St. Joseph Mo. My Uncle William JEWELL and Aunt Judith and Enos JEWELL located in central Illinois, Logan County, these migrations all took place in the early thirties. My Grandparents and Uncles and Aunt all left the State of Maine for Ohio in 1824. My Aunt Judith JEWELL, married Issac Clark of Yankeetown, Ill in Logan County. They had one boy and one girl. Albert Name of girl forgotten. Enos JEWELL emigrated with his son, John and sons family to Texas in 1869. A son of Joseph JEWELL was killed in a gunfight in Montana in 1874. William JEWELL’s sons Charles William and Issac were when last heard of in Logan County Ill. There are many more of this family of JEWELLs scattered over the Western Country, the whereabouts are unknown to the writer.”