John Pio Came to Maine
by Al Newman, his great-great-great grandson
Copyright 2007, 2011, Al Newman
Smashwords Edition
Contents
John Pio and Margaret Ordway
Children of
John and Margaret Pio
Grandchildren of John Pio
Great-Grandchildren of John Pio
Great-Great-Grandchildren of John Pio
INTRODUCTION
I recommend that this book be downloaded in its entirety to your computer. Its primary intent is to facilitate further research. It is not a work for casual reading.
This publication is a history of the Portuguese-descended Pio family in America. It is a genealogy, a biography of John Pio and his descendants, a portal to the pedigrees of individuals who married into the Pio line, a portrait of a segment of Maine history, and a starting point for future family researchers.
Out of respect for privacy, I have used the term, “Living,” in place of the given names of persons whom I know or suspect to be alive as of the date of this publication.
There are hundreds of photographs, documents, and pedigree charts that pertain to people in this publication, but technological constraints prevent them from being included in this electronic edition. Accordingly, wherever a person is mentioned in this publication for whom such a photo, document or pedigree chart exists, you will be directed to www.quakeandsnake.com and guided through the process of calling it up for viewing or downloading. There is no charge involved.
Unfortunately, the website does not have a link to a specific page within a document. Once you have opened the document, you will have to click through the pages to the page you are interested in.
First Generation:
John Pio & Margaret Ordway
John Pio left more than his family and friends behind when he sailed out of Funchal, Madeira, for what may have been the last time in the late 1820’s – he also apparently discarded his last name. No record of his true surname has surfaced yet in any records thus far found in Maine and Massachusetts, the only two states in which he is known to have lived.
An excellent source of Madeiran history is “History of Madeira” by William Combe, published by R.Ackerman, 101, Strand, London, 1821. A copy of this illustrated, rare book is in the California State Library in Sacramento.
John Pio’s great-grandson, Walter Pio (who was my great-uncle), wrote me in the 1950’s, saying that he had heard that John Pio’s name before settling in Maine had been Juan Pio Piarra. He also said that John Pio was Portuguese. (Walter’s letters have been preserved and are on file.) I took all of Uncle Walter’s family legends seriously, believing that they generally contained at least a germ of truth. If Juan was John Pio’s true first name and Piarra his true surname, that would likely have made him Spanish rather than Portuguese. But the Madeira Islands, some 350 miles off the coast of Morocco (in northwestern Africa), are a Portuguese territory – not Spanish. Still, John Pio might have been of Madeiran birth but not of Portuguese ancestry. What to believe? Fortunately, a family legend out of Penobscot County, ME, concerning a sheep drover named Loren Davis, supports the belief that John Pio was ethnically Portuguese. The details of this relationship will be discussed later under the biography of John Pio’s son, George Pio (later spelled “Peio” by him). The name, John, in Portuguese, would have been João (pronounced “Zhwow”), not Juan. Uncle Walter was likely misinformed about the name, Juan Piarra. I googled Piarra in Portuguese and came up with almost nothing.
There is additional evidence of John Pio’s Madeiran birth. According to John Pio’s 1869 death record in Boston, Suffolk County, MA, he was born in Funchal, Madeira, in 1808. Walter Pio suggested that “Pio” was originally John Pio’s middle name, and that upon settling in Maine, he simply dropped his actual surname because he had gotten in some kind of trouble and found it inconvenient to keep his true surname. So, for whatever reason, he became John Pio, using his middle name as his surname from that time forward. I agree with Uncle Walter about this likelihood, even though Pio, uncommon as a surname, does exist in Portuguese. Once in Maine, John Pio adopted the pronunciation, “Pie-o” in lieu of the proper Portuguese “Pee-o” pronunciation.
The first public record of this immigrant ancestor’s presence in Maine, the 1830 Penobscot, Hancock County, Census, listed him as John Pio. So, by age 22, he had already forsaken his Madeiran surname. The middle name, Pio, likely came from Pius VII, who was Pope in 1808 when John Pio was born. “Pio,” in Portuguese, means “Pius,” and research revealed dozens of Roman Catholic churches in and around Funchal in the early 1800’s. Coincidentally, I ran across a memorial plaque to Pius VII in an old church in Ravenna, Italy, in 1983.
The closest-sounding, common Portuguese name to “Piarra” would be “Pereira.” Hoping that this might yield something of genealogical value, I began studying microfilms of the handwritten birth records of Catholic churches in Funchal for the years 1807-1809. There were 48 likely churches. Before I was a quarter way through the churches, I had found a number of male births under the name, João Pereira, but none as João Pio Pereira. From the information provided, there was simply no way to tie any of them to the John Pio who showed up in the town of Penobscot, Hancock County, ME, in 1830. I reluctantly gave up on that project – if ever John Pio’s true surname were going to be uncovered, it would have to be in the United States or in some as-yet undiscovered ship’s log or other maritime document.
FUNCHAL CHURCHES IN 1808:
This is a list of the Catholic churches in or near Funchal, Madeira in 1808, the year of John Pio’s birth.
Asterisks indicate the microfilms I have checked. I typically checked all baptisms for the years 1807 through 1809. All entries are handwritten, often in flamboyant script, are in Portuguese, and occasionally badly faded.
The number preceding each church is the microfilm ordering number from the genealogical department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City, UT.
*1102532 NOSSA SENHORA DE PIEDADE, Canhas, Funchal, Batimos, 1802-1821
*1103249 ARCHADAS DA CRUZ, Funchal, Batimos, 1790- 1859 (falta anos), Items 1-5
1103250 SANTA BEATRIZ (Água de Pena, Funchal), Batimos, 1737-1840 (falta anos)
1103284 SÃO LOURENÇO (Camacha, Funchal), Batimos, 1775-1825 (inclui crismas)
1103292 SÃO SEBASTIÃO (Câmara de Lobos, Funchal), Batimos, 1803-1821
1103306 SÃO BRAS (Campanário, Funchal), Batimos, 1803- 1824 (inclui crismas)
1103359 SÃO SEBASTIÃO (Caniçal, Funchal), Batimos, 1728-1819, Item 4
1103365 SANTO ANTÃO (Caniço, Funchal), Batimos, 1805- 1847
1103381 NOSSA SENHORA DA GRAÇA (Estreito da Calheta, Funchal), Batimos, 1778-1813
1103741 SÃO BRAS (Arco da Calheta, Funchal), Indice dos Batimos, Item 1. (See film 1103258 for: Batimos 1805-36)
1103743 SÃO JOSÉ (Arco de São Jorge, Funchal), Batimos, 1802-44 (desordenado), Items 2-3
1103745 SANTA QUITÉRIA (Boaventura, Funchal), Batimos, 1790- 1817
1103849 ESPÍRITO SANTO (Calheta, Funchal), Batimos, 1798-1816
1104012 NOSSA SENHORA DA GRAÇA (Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, Funchal), Batimos, 1789- 1811
1104541 NOSSA SENHORA DA CONCEIÇÃO (Porto Moniz, Funchal), Batimos, 1802-1821
1104548 NOSSA SENHORA DA NATIVIDADE (Faial, Funchal), Batimos, 1791-1808 (inclui crismas)
1104549 NOSSA SENHORA DA NATIVIDADE (Faial, Funchal), Batimos, 1808-1832
1104557 SÃO JOÃO BATISTA (Faja da Ovelha, Funchal), Índices (Batimos), 1791-1818
1104560 SÃO JOÃO BATISTA (Faja da Ovelha, Funchal), Batimos, 1791-1818
1105828 SANTO AMARO (Paúl do Mar, Funchal), Batimos, 1800-1821, Item 2
1105832 SANTA LUZIA, Funchal, Batimos, 1790-1808
1105833 SANTA LUZIA, Funchal, Batimos, 1808-1827
*1107437 SANTA MARIA MAIOR, Funchal, Batimos, 1806- 1824
*1107446 SAO PEDRO, Funchal, Batimos, 1804-1817
*1107467 NOSSA SENHORA DA ASSUNÇÃO, Batimos
1109176 NOSSA SENHORA DA LUZ (Gaula, Funchal), Batimos, 1789-1860 (Alguns registros incluem crismas)
1109179 NOSSA SENHORA DA PIEDADE (Jardim do Mar, Funchal), Batimos, 1809 - 1859. Item 1
1109186 NOSSA SENHORA DA CONCEIÇÃO (Machico, Funchal), Batimos, 1802-1829
1109195 SANTA MARIA MADALENA (Madalena do Mar, Funchal), Batimos, 1772-1842
1109200 NOSSA SENHORA DO MONTE (Monte, Funchal), 1765-1819
1109883 SENHOR BOM JESUS (Ponta Delgada, Funchal), Batimos, 1793-1860
*1109889 SÃO PEDRO (Ponta do Pargo), Batimos, 1777- 1824
1109896 NOSSA SENHORA DA LUZ (Ponta do Sul, Funchal), Batimos, 1789-1814
1111002 NOSSA SENHORA DA GUADALUPE (Porto da Cruz, Funchal), Batimos, 1804-1838. Alguns tomos de batimos incluem confirmações
1111011 NOSSA SENHORA DA PIEDADE (Porto Santo, Funchal), Nascimentos, 1837-1851, (para adultos nascidos entre 1806-1813), Item 1
1111021 SÃO BENTO (Ribeira Brava, Funchal), Batimos, 1792-1827
1150377 SANTA ANA (Santana, Funchal), Batimos, 1794- 1828
1150384 NOSSA SENHORA DA ENCARNAÇÃO (Ribeira da Janela, Funchal), Batimos, 1726-1859
1150392 SÃO SALVADOR (Santa Cruz, Funchal), Batimos, 1803-1826
*1151140 SANTO ANTONIO, Funchal, Batimos
*1153480 SÃO GONÇALO, Batimos, 1586-1810
*1153485 SAO JORGE, Funchal, Batimos, 1779-1859
1153490 SÃO MARTINHO, Funchal, Batimos, 1781-1851 (falta anos)
*1153492 SÃO ROQUE, Funchal, Batimos, 1637-1840
*1153497 SÃO VICENTE, Funchal, Batimos, 1802-1823
1153979 SANTO ANTÃO (Seixal, Funchal), Batimos, 1696- 1860 (desordenados)
1153987 NOSSA SENHORA DA AJUDA (Serra de Água, Funchal), Batimos, 1750-1875, (falta anos) items 2-20. Alguns registros forão filmados duas vezes
*1156469 SANTÍSSIMA TRINIDADE (Tábua, Funchal), Batimos, 1783-1837
Walter Pio (my mother’s father’s oldest brother), who was born in 1884, had, in his youth, talked with people who had personally known his great-grandfather, John Pio. John was described as a short, swarthy sailor with gold hoops in his ears, always ready for a fight. Walter also said that the gold hoops customarily worn by sailors of the era were for the purpose of paying for their burial, should they die far from home. Well, John Pio must have lost his gold hoops at some point, because he was buried by the Boston Port and Seamen’s Aid Society, a charitable organization. No known photo or drawing of John Pio exists, and the only marker at his gravesite is a ground-level plaque that simply shows the name of the Seamen’s Aid Society.
What follows in the next few pages is a chronological record of John Pio’s life in the United States.
I suspect that John Pio may have come to the United States on the brig Mentos, owned by William Sinclair of Blue Hill, Hancock County, ME. Curiously, William Sinclair’s son, William, Jr., was an apparent foster father to Sarah Saunders, who later married John Pio’s son, Charles Henry Pio, around 1860.
I cannot remember how I first made the possible connection between the brig, Mentos, and John Pio many years ago.
First, some facts. John Pio was born in Funchal, Madeira, in 1808. He was a sailor by occupation. His true surname has yet to be discovered. John Pio first appears in the US as a resident of Penobscot (town), Hancock County, ME, in the 1830 US Census, where he was apparently boarding in the home of Josiah W. Hutchings. John Pio was unmarried at the time.
John Pio’s older son, Charles H. Pio, who was born in 1839, married a Sarah Saunders around 1860. Sarah Saunders had lost her father, Edward, around 1848, when she would have been five years old, and she was living in the home of a William Sinclair, mariner, and his wife, Mary L., according to the 1850 Census of Ellsworth, Hancock County, ME. This firmly establishes a connection between the Pio and Sinclair families.
In January 1968 the Bluehill, ME, Town Clerk sent me a letter from a Mrs. Rebecca Bowden. She had a masters degree in the history of Maine shipping. She furnished the following information on the brig, Mentos.
It weighed 171 tons; its dimensions were 80.9 x 23.2 x 10.6 feet; it had a billet head and a square stern. The Mentos was built in Bluehill in 1825 in the shipyard at Tide Mills. The Mentos was owned by William, Dudley and Ebenezer Sinclair. Its home port in 1825 was Bluehill. William Sinclair was ship’s master in 1825. This information ostensibly came from the Applebee Manuscripts, “Vessels Documented in Penobscot-Castine District, Port of Entry, Castine,” and from R.F.G. Candage’s “Historical Sketches of Bluehill, Maine” (Ellsworth, Maine: Hancock County Publishing Company, 1905, pg. 20, where it is spelled “Mentus.”) (The term, “Applebee Manuscripts” did not appear on the Internet in 2011).
William Sinclair,
captain of the Mentos, was born 18 Jun 1801. He was the son of Edward
and Mary (Carleton) Sinclair. Bradford, ME, marriage records show
Edward Sinclair of Blue Hill-bay and Polly Carleton of Bradford
marrying there in 1789. Edward was born 20 Jun 1760, supposedly at
Beverly, MA, and died 19 May 1827 (see details below). Mary Sinclair,
a sister to Moses Carleton of Andover, MA, was born 17 Sep 1760 and
died in 1842. Their children:
Maria, born 24 Apr (or Aug) 1791;
died, unmarried, 23 May 1864.
Edward, born 13 Dec 1792; married
Elizabeth Haskell of Beverly, MA, 20 Jun 1825; died in Aroostook
County, ME. He is listed in the 1850 Bluehill census, age 58, with
wife, Eliza, 50, and children, none of whom was a William.
Nabby,
born 22 Oct 1794; married Asa Clough, Jr.; died 3 Dec 1827.
Dudley,
born 17 Aug 1796; moved to Rockland, ME, and died there.
Dudley
Sinclair and wife, both 30-40, with one female 60-70,
one male
20-30, and one male 30-40, are listed in the 1830
Bluehill, ME,
census.
Ebenezer, born 1 Mar 1791; died of yellow fever in Cuba.
(It is unlikely that this is the Eben Sinclair who appears in Surry,
ME, censuses in 1850, 1860, and 1870.)
William, born 18 Jun 1801;
married and lived in New York, and died there.
Edward Sinclair, Sr., was living in Bluehill, ME, in 1815 because his name appears on a petition to the governor of Massachusetts from Bluehill residents.
The aforementioned “Historical Sketches of Bluehill, Maine” indicates that by the end of the 19th century, all Sinclairs had left Bluehill.
The record of port registration of the Mentos is included on a National Archives microfilm donated by Al Newman to the LDS Family History Center in Carmichael, CA. It shows that a Certificate of Enrollment was issued for the Mentos at the Port of Penobscot, Maine. 7 Nov 1825. William Sinclair, master. The Mentos had been built at Blue Hill.
The Mentos was registered at Boston and Charlestown 23 Nov 1830. George H. Jennings was master at that time, and James H. Brewer of Boston was the owner. The Mentos was registered at New York 15 Mar 1831, and was Philadelphia-based at that time. From then until 9 Mar 1833, when records end, there was no Sinclair owner or master.
On the above-mentioned microfilm, per Book 6 of the Index to Documents Received by the US Consulate at Funchal, 1830-1835, the below listed ships are mentioned. The list is included here in case their names should ever show up in any John Pio-related situations.
DATE--------PAGE--------SUBJECT
11 Sep
1830--------14--------Schooner Alexander
11 Sep
1830--------16--------Schooner Kern
9 Dec
1830--------18--------Brig Edwin
5 Jan
1831--------20--------Schooner Abigail
20 Jun
1831--------23--------Brig McGee
27 Jul 1831--------25--------Brig
McGee
27 Jul 1831--------25--------Brig Enterprise
22 Dec
1831--------29--------Brig Enterprise
23 Dec
1831--------28--------Brig Fortunate
24 Dec
1831--------31--------Brig Enterprise
19 Jan
1832--------30--------Ship Freitas
8 Nov
1832--------39--------Brig Pocket
19 Nov
1832--------42--------Brig Bacchus
23 Nov
1832--------44--------Brig D. Franklin
4 Feb 1833--------46, 48 &
49--------Brig St. Michael
27 May 1833--------54--------Brig
Enterprise
20 Nov 1833--------56--------Brig Ashman
7 (?) Jan
1834--------57--------Brig Luna
11 Mar 1834--------60--------Brig
Pocket
8 Apr 1834--------62--------Brig Pocket
1 Aug
1834--------90--------Brig Perrero
19 Aug
1834--------72--------Schooner Cicero
29 Sep
1834--------76--------Brig Pocket
Crew lists of American vessels entering and clearing the District of Penobscot, ME, to and from foreign ports during the years 1816-1849 are in the National Archives. The district includes the ports of Bluehill, Bucksport, Deer Isle, Sedgwick, Bangor and Frankfort. These crew lists have not been searched to see whether the name John Pio appears.
I checked the Columbian Centinel (a Boston semi-weekly publication which showed ship movements as a regular feature), for the periods 7 Apr through 17 Apr 1824, 4 May through 8 Jun 1825, and 1 Jan 1828 through 10 Jul 1830. I also checked the New York Evening Post records from 3 Jan 1826 through 18 Jul 1829.
Friday, 25 Aug 1826. “Brig Mentor [sic] of Bluehill, 10 days from St. Andrews (New Brunswick), arrived with plaster for the master. Sailed (apparently same day) in company with the Schooner Ruby for Old Baltimore. (Per a National Archives letter of 5 Feb 1973 to Al Newman, they have no records relating to New Brunswick prior to 1830. The letter further states that their Record Group 36 has no record of vessel arrivals from foreign ports at New York City, or clearances from Baltimore, for the year 1826.)
It should be noted that an American ship, the Mentor, and a British brig, Mentor, were in operation at roughly the same time as the Mentos, and that both operated in and out of ports in the northeastern United States.
It is possible that from 14-20 May 1827 the Mentos was in Beverly, MA. Beverly, MA, Vital Records contain the following:
“Sinclair, Edward, a stranger belonging to Bluehill, arrived in a vessel with three of his sons and was seized with colic, entering the harbour, and after six days expired May 20 1827, @ 67 years. Buried May 20.” The decedent, born 20 Jun 1760, was the father of William, Dudley and Ebenezer Sinclair, owners of the Mentos. The record, however, does not specify the Mentos as the vessel on which the family arrived in Beverly, MA. (This Edward Sinclair is not to be confused with another person of the same name, a Captain Edward Sinclair, whose three sons served in the Civil War. This person was born in Surry, moved to Sherman, ME, and died there in 1859 @ 73.)
Per the New York Evening Post, 21 Jun 1827: Brig Mentor [sic], Capt. Smith, sailed for Madeira. Per the aforementioned National Archives letter of 5 Feb 1973: Schooner Mentor [sic], Smith – Master, arrived in New York City from Madeira 4 Oct 1827.
Per the New York Evening Post, 24 Oct 1827: Brig Mentor [sic], arrived last evening, Sinclair (master), of Blue Hill (ME), (from) Mansanilla, Cuba, 22 days, with pimento, mahogany, cedar, etc., to I.G. Collins & Son, and B. Aymar & Co. Left (Cuba) Oct. 1. (This was followed by a list of vessels the Mentos had sighted en route.) (Per a National Archives letter of 19 Jan 1973 to Al Newman, their Record Group 36 does not contain a crew list for the Mentos’ arrival in New York City on 23 or 24 Oct 1827.)
Per the Columbian Centinel, 1 Mar 1828: Brig Mentos, Sinclair (master), Bluehill, (arrived in New York City from) St. Croix, B.E. (British East Indies), 28 Feb 1828.
Per the New York Evening Post, 28 Mar 1828: Brig Mentos, Sinclair, arrived last evening from St. Croix to Le Grand. (The phraseology is puzzling. Actual arrival was in New York City.)
Per the Columbian Centinel, 29 Mar 1828: Brig Mentos sailed for Gibraltar on 25 Mar 1828 (from New York City). There is a date inconsistency here. This sailing from New York City is apparently before its actual 27 Mar 1828 arrival there.
Per the New York Evening Post, Friday, 9 Jan 1829: Arrived last evening, Brig Mentos, Sinclair, (from) St. Andrews (New Brunswick), 10 days (at sea) with 100 tons of plaster to the master, 50 tons of grindstones to Smith & Boynton. (Per the aforementioned 19 Jan 1973 letter, Record Group 36 does not contain a crew list for the Mentos’ arrival in New York City 8 Jan 1829.)
Per the Columbian Centinal, 7 Mar 1829: Mentos, Brig, Sinclair, cleared for Madeira 4 Mar 1829 (from New York City). The crew list for this voyage included:
Nathan King, mate,
born – Maine, age 25, 5’8”;
Thomas Jouston, born –
Pennsylvania, age 32, 5’6”;
William Dawson, born – England,
age 36, 5’4”;
Seth Norton, born – Maine, age 19, 5’3”.
All
were of light complexion and with brown hair.
Additionally:
James
Smith, born – Connecticut, age 35, 5’43/4”;
Richard
Williams, born – New York, age 21, 5’8”.
These last two were of black
complexion and had curly hair.
All crewmembers were current
residents of New York and, except for Dawson, who was British, all
were US citizens. The list was signed by William Sinclair. Attached
to the list is a form letter in Portuguese by the Portuguese consul
for the apparent use of the Madeiran authorities. (Copies of these
documents are in Al Newman’s files).
Per the New York Evening Post, Tuesday, 16 Jun 1829: Arrived last evening Brig Mentos, Sinclair, from Madeira, with wine to March & Benson. (Upon return of the Mentos to New York, the quarantine station on Staten Island verified that the crew list was the same except for the absence of James Smith and the addition of a Rob’t Clawson, American. The verification was signed by Benj. Wood, Inspector.
Per the Columbian Centinal, 22 Jul 1829: Mentos, Sinclair, cleared for Madeira 18 Jul 1829 (from New York City). Al Newman has Photostats of Funchal consular records stating that the Mentos arrived there 21 Aug 1829, 30 days out of New York City, with a cargo of 20 bbl flour, 40 kegs butter, 5 boxes tallow candles, 6 boxes sperm candles, and 2000 barrel staves. From Funchal, the Mentos proceeded to Rotterdam, Holland, with a cargo of 1025/8 pipes of wine; thence to Hamburg, Germany. It arrived in Hamburg 1 Oct 1829, having touched at Amsterdam. Its inward cargo consisted of 24 pipes of wine. It departed for Madeira 16 Nov 1829 with a cargo of grains and linen. It arrived, 25 days out of Hamburg, in Funchal, Madeira, 23 Dec 1829, and departed soon thereafter for the Cape Verde Islands. The Mentos did not visit Funchal again for at least two years after 1829. The Mentos, at the time of this voyage, was captained by W. Sinclair, and was owned by W. Sinclair, D. Sinclair, and E. Sinclair, all of Blue Hill, ME. Blue Hill, Penobscot, Castine, and Ellsworth, all of which have a connection with the Pio family, are connecting towns in Hancock County, ME.
The National Archives has a record of clearance of the port of New York showing that the Mentos left New York 18 Jul 1829, but there is no record of any crew lists or shipping articles during this period for either New York or Blue Hill, ME.
A National Archives letter of 26 Nov 1971 indicates that the consular dispatches of Hamburg, Germany, reveal an arrival and departure list dated 1 Jan 1830, which includes the brig, Mentos. Information on record: berthen 171”75/95; master – William Sinclair. Owners: William & D.E. Sinclair. Port of clearance: Madeira. Number of seamen – 7, with officers. Places touched at – Amsterdam. Arrival – October 1. Inward cargo – 24 pipes of wine. Shippers – Hamburg Account. Departure – November 16. Destination – Madeira, taking grains and linen.
A Photostat (in Al Newman’s files) of the return of American vessels for the port of Santiago, Cape Verde Islands, for Jan through Jun 1830, does not list the Mentos or mention the name Sinclair.
The Columbian Centinal for 3 Apr 1830 contained a notice from a ship arriving in Salem, MA, that the Mentor [sic], Sinclair, Blue Hill, cleared Port Praya, Cape Verde Islands, 17 Feb 1830, for Rio de Janeiro. Al Newman’s files contain a Photostat of arrivals and departures of American vessels at Rio de Janeiro for Jan through Jun 1830. It showed, for 30 Mar, the brig, Mentos, William Sinclair, master, of Blue Hill, tonnage 171.75, owned by the master and others, with a crew of eight, clearing out of New York City, touching at Boa Vista (Brazil), in and out of port with a load of salt valued at $500. It departed for Santos (Brazil) 4 Apr 1830. Then, on 20 May 1830, the brig Mentos again entered Rio – all other information unchanged – except that it was only loaded with ballast both in and out of port. It departed for Santos 9 Jun 1830.
As previously mentioned, a certificate of registration and enrollment was issued at the port of Boston and Charlestown on 23 Nov 1830.
Subsequent records show that the Mentos sailed primarily out of Philadelphia until 1834, when its certificate was withdrawn in the port of New York (Register #53 of 4 Mar 1834) as the result of a report made by the collector of customs. There is no report date or record of action taken, or reason therefor. There is no further record of sailings of the Mentos.
I have not discovered whether the Sinclairs purchased and operated another ship after selling the Mentos. It seems that Capt. William Sinclair moved to New York City since he was married there and since the 1842-1843 city directory shows a William Sinclair living at 236 7th Street.
It is unlikely that
John Pio was on board the Mentos for either the 1829 or 1830 Madeira
voyages mentioned above because:
a. There was a crew list with no
John Pio on it for the first voyage;
b. The second voyage was
occurring while John Pio was in Maine during the taking of the 1830
census.
Accordingly, if John Pio did indeed come to the United
States on board the Mentos, it must have been on an earlier voyage.
For future researchers, a National Archives letter of 2 Aug 1971 states that they have crew lists for the District of Penobscot for 1825-1835 in an 8” chronological stack, and that they have 2 feet of chronologically stacked cargo manifests.
Another tale of John Pio’s arrival, an absurd scenario, was given to me by my great-great-uncle, Percy Pio, when I visited him in Oregon in 1977. He said that his father, Charles H. Pio, believed that his own father, John Pio, had been kidnapped as a child in Sicily, transported to the United States, and sold as a slave in Boston; was subsequently released from bondage or indenture at age 21, and given a parcel of land. While this is an adventuresome story, it is not credible since New Jersey was the last northern state to abolish slavery, and it did so in 1794, 14 years before John Pio was born. Since all written records relating to John Pio in Maine and Massachusetts indicate that he was a Portuguese sailor from Madeira, there is no need to elaborate on the Sicily legend. I suspect that Charles H. Pio concocted this preposterous tale to aid him in covering up his own secret, bigamous past.
According to the 1830 US Census of Penobscot, Hancock County, ME, John Pio was listed in the 20-30 age category. He had no family at this time. He was apparently boarding at the home of Josiah W. Hutchings, along with a Samuel Gardner and Archibald Boyd. I can find no connection between this Hutchings family and the Eben Hutchins or Hutchings family of Brewer, ME, into which John Pio’s son, James, married in 1872.
John Pio and Margaret E. Ordway were married in a civil ceremony 5 Dec 1835, in Penobscot. If there had been a corollary church ceremony, the only Roman Catholic church in the area was St. Joseph’s Church in nearby Ellsworth, and it only has records dating from 1881. John Pio’s name has been misread as John Pea or John Rea over the years by some transcribers and appears by those misspellings in some genealogical records. Margaret is the only woman John is definitely known to have married.
It is interesting to note that, according to the 1837 Special Census of Hampden, Penobscot County, ME, a Margarett Ordway was living with the Levi Holt, Jr., family. 1837 was the year when Margaret’s first child, Lucy M. Pio, was born in Castine, ME. Hampden is on the Penobscot River, just south of Bangor. Future researchers should consider the possibility that Margaret, young and pregnant, using her maiden name, was living with the Holt family while her husband, John Pio, was at sea. Or, this might simply have been a different Margarett Ordway. But the 1837 census marked her only appearance anywhere. No Margarett has been found in any other Maine records.
John Pio next appears in George A. Wheeler’s History of Castine (Hancock County) (Bangor, ME: Burr & Robinson, 1875), where he is listed as a resident on page 338. The list was compiled during the period 1839-1842.
John Pio’s great-grandson, Walter Pio, said that John had been a volunteer in the Bloodless Aroostook War of 1839, but an examination of the list of volunteers fails to substantiate this. The Bloodless Aroostook War was a lumber-based, land dispute between Maine and New Brunswick that had armies confronting each other but never engaging in battle. The issue arose because the Treaty of Paris (1783) had failed to clearly define the boundaries between the United States and Canada. The dispute was ultimately resolved by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.
John next appears in the 1840 Castine, ME, Census. He is listed in the 30-40 age category; his wife is shown as 20-30. They had two children, a male and a female, both under 5 years of age.
There is a diversity of information relating to John Pio’s naturalization. An 11 Jan 1968, letter from the National Archives reported that the naturalization records for the Eastern District Court of Belfast, Waldo County, ME, contain a record for John Pio of Castine, ME. The record shows him to have been born in Funchal, Maderia [sic], Spain [sic], in 1808. It says nothing about the date and port of his arrival.
LDS microfilm 1429770, Index to New England Naturalization Petitions, 1791-1906, roll 100, shows a 3x5 card transcription of the record, as follows: John Pio; residence: Castine, Maine. Certificate Number or volume and page: 13-190. Title and location of court: Eastern District Court Proc., Belfast, Waldo County, Maine. Country of birth or allegiance: Funchal, Madeira (Spain) [sic]. Born: 1808. Date and port of arrival in U.S.: no information. Date of naturalization: August 1844 (This is crossed out and replaced in smaller typescript with: Not Shown.) Names and addresses of witnesses: Daniel Moore and John Hanson, both of Castine, Maine. John Hanson is shown as age 20-30 on page 308 of the 1840 Penobscot Census. Daniel Moore is shown on page 097 of the 1850 Castine Census as a laborer, age 24, with Nancy S., 20, both born in Maine.
An 18 Jan 1968, letter from the Portland, ME, Immigration Office stated that John Pio was naturalized in Aug 1844, and was a Castine resident at the time.
John Pio’s son, Charles Henry Pio, married Sarah Saunders, daughter of Josiah W. Hutchings’ cousin, Dorothy (Leach) Saunders, sometime around 1860. Josiah W. Hutchings was the son of Charles and Sarah Hutchings (or Hutchins), Jr., and the nephew of William O. Hutchings who, when he died at 101 in 1866, was the next to last surviving veteran of the Revolutionary War.
John Pio applied for a Seaman’s Protection Certificate in Bangor, ME, on 24 Aug 1852. The application listed John Pio as being 44 years old, 5’3” tall, of dark complexion, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and a native of Madeira. He was assigned Seaman’s Protection Certificate #138 in Bangor. To view this certificate, go to www.quakeandsnake.com > book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index > First Generation: John Pio and Margaret Ordway – then click through the pages to page 5.
A Seaman’s Protection Certificate was a document that conferred roughly the same protection and identification for sailors that a passport provides for citizens in general. Such certificates were widely used after the War of 1812, up to which time the United States often had its seamen seized by foreign vessels at sea and impressed into service on those vessels when they could not prove they were U.S. citizens.
A page 73 entry in the
1850 Brewer, Penobscot County, ME, Census, taken on 10 Aug of that
year, yields the following:
John Pio, 45 (actually 42), male,
color not given, sailor, born in Medara [sic];
Margaret, 29,
female;
Lucy M., 14, female;
Charles H., 10, male;
James H.,
9, male;
George E., 1, male.
No one in the family had married
within the year. None had attended school within the year. None were
shown as illiterate. The family appeared to be sharing dwelling 124
with a large family named Crookey.
The 1855 edition of the Bangor City Directory shows John Pio, mariner, living on Paddy Lane. This was located off Thomas Street, on the west side of the Kenduskeag Stream.
The 1867-68 edition of the Bangor City Directory shows John Pio, mariner, living on St. Michael’s Court.
John Pio died of dropsy (edema) in a Boston hospital (according to Walter Pio) on 6 May 1869. In 1873, the Boston City Hospital was on Harrison Avenue, opposite Worcester Square.
John Pio was buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery on Ocean Avenue in the Mattapan section of Boston. He apparently had no assets at the time of his death because he was buried by the Mariners’ House, under the auspices of the Boston Port and Seaman’s Aid Society, in plot #384. This looked like a very small plot that did not appear to have room for many decedents. The Boston Port & Seaman’s Aid Society was organized in 1867 and still exists at 11 North Square in Boston. Albert Fearing was its president in 1869; Charles H. Parker was treasurer. The society still has one volume of its manuscript minutes of meetings prior to 1867, when it was known as the Boston Port Society, but there are no records for 1869. Published reports of the Boston Port and Seaman’s Aid Society are in the research collections of the Boston Public Library. My correspondence with the society is on file, but reveals little. John Pio’s son, James Hale Pio, is buried in the Civil War veterans’ section of the same cemetery. To view John Pio’s headstone, go to www.quakeandsnake.com > book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index > First Generation: John Pio and Margaret Ordway – then click through the pages to page 6.
John Pio’s Commonwealth of Massachusetts Death Certificate contains little helpful information. It gives his age as 61, his occupation as mariner, his residence as 346 Hanover Street, and he is shown as married. 346 Hanover Street was in Ward One in the 1860 Boston Census, but John Pio is not found anywhere in that census, including Mariners’ House at 11 North Square, Boston. No record has been found that shows John and Margaret living together after the 1850 Census. So, “married” on the death certificate suggests that (1) whoever furnished the death certificate information did not know that John was divorced; (2) that John was in a subsequent marriage at the time of his death; or (3) that no formal divorce ever transpired between John and Margaret, and that she eventually entered a bigamous marriage with a Robert Becket. No record of any divorce involving Margaret has been located in Maine.
John L. Murch, John Pio’s son-in-law, appears to have been boarding in the same house as John Pio at the time of John Pio’s death in 1869. Whether John Pio’s daughter, Lucy, was living there at the time with her husband, John L. Murch, is unclear.
Margaret Pio, John Pio’s ex-wife, married Robert B. Burkett [sic] in a civil ceremony in Rockland, Knox County, ME, on 27 Mar 1858. The record gives her surname as Ordway – her maiden name. Her new husband’s actual surname was Becket. The 1860 Ellsworth, ME, Census (taken 25 Jun) lists her as Margaret Becket, 37, born in ME. She was living with Robert Becket, 35, a shoemaker, from England. James Pio, 19, Margaret’s second son, was living with them in dwelling #164. James was born in ME.
In the 1870 Bangor (West side of Kenduskeag Stream), Penobscot County, ME, Census, Margaret, 45 [sic], keeping house, is shown as living with James Beckett, white male, shoemaker, age 50, born in England, but a US citizen. This seems to conflict with records showing her as married to a Robert Becket two years her junior. The two possibilities, as I see them, are (1) that the census taker was confused and made two people out of three, combining the names, James Pio (Margaret’s son) and Robert Becket (her husband), to arrive at James Beckett (In support of this theory, James Pio has not been found elsewhere in the 1870 Federal Census); or (2) that there actually was a James Beckett living with Margaret at this time – a brother of Robert, perhaps.
It is interesting to note that in the 1850 Thomaston, Knox County, ME, Census, Robert Becket, 22, labourer, born in Ireland, is listed as an inmate in the Maine State Penitentiary, serving a sentence for burglary and larceny. The numeral 1848 is shown by his name. This was likely the year of his incarceration. Thomaston is only about five miles from Rockland, where Margaret and Robert Becket were later married. On 29 Jul 1962, Walter Pio wrote to his niece, Marion (Pio)(Kay) Brumback, telling her that Margaret Ordway’s “boyfriend” had been a Cockney and a “prison bird” and that he – Walter – had seen this man (Robert Becket) many years earlier, when the man was 50 or more. Robert Becket would actually have been about 70 when Walter Pio was 12.
The 1871-1872 edition
of the Bangor, ME, City Directory shows:
Beckett, Robert,
shoemaker, Pickering Sq., house 106 Main.
Although Margaret’s ancestry is not firmly documented, she was almost surely the daughter of David and Polly (Horn) Ordway of Penobscot. No birth record or other record has been found to substantiate this family connection, but Margaret’s death record suggests that she was born in Penobscot sometime around Nov 1820. Another record – now misplaced – said it was 23 Jun 1821. If Margaret was, in fact, David Ordway’s daughter, then she had two brothers who lived to adulthood, and a third – name unknown – who died young. The surviving brothers were James S. Ordway and David Ordway, Jr., who continued to be listed in Castine and Penobscot censuses as late as 1880. David Ordway, Sr., was born in MA around 1780, according to the 1850 census. His son, James, however, indicated in the 1880 census that his father had been born in NH. From 1835 until his death sometime before the 1860 census, David Ordway, Sr., was married to a Betsy, a.k.a. Elizabeth. They are both listed as paupers in the 1850 census. Betsy was still living in 1860, age 70 and a pauper. She was not Margaret’s biological mother because vital records of Penobscot, ME, show a David Ordway, born around 1780, filing marriage intentions on 15 Aug 1835, with a Mrs. Elizabeth Clough of Sedgwick, ME, who was born around 1789. Elizabeth Clough was, in all likelihood, Betsy.
Penobscot town records
show that a David H. Ordway of Penobscot had married a Mary or Polly
Horn there on 13 Sep 1810 (intent filed 19 Aug 1810). Polly Horn was
born 17 Jan 1779 In York, ME, the daughter of Elisha Horn (b. 4 May
1735) and Tamsin (Randall) Horn (b. 22 Oct 1738). Both parents were
christened in Gosport, Isles of Shoals, NH. Elisha died 5 Aug 1785,
and his widow, Tamsin, apparently married a William Staples in York,
ME, the very same day.
To view the complete pedigree of Polly
(Mary) Horn, go to www.quakeandsnake.com
> book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index >
Appendix XXIX.
Elisha Horn was the son of Thomas and Mary Horn of Gosport. Tamsin was the daughter of Charles and Rebecca Randall of Gosport.
Back to David Ordway’s generation. Because of the propensity of men in the nineteenth century to marry their late wives’ sisters, I originally thought that Elizabeth Clough’s maiden surname might have been Horn and that she was Mary/Polly’s sister. Mary/Polly did have a sister named Betsy, but this sister was shown as the widow of sea captain Abdon Keen when she died in Bristol, ME, in 1872. Captain Keen had been lost at sea in 1831.
Mary/Polly was still alive on 23 Apr 1823, when, as Polly Odderay, she is listed as a member of the Baptist Church in Penobscot.
The 1820 Penobscot, ME, Census shows David Ordway and a female, both 27-45 years of age, living with 3 males and 1 female, all under age 10. If the female under 10 was Margaret, then she would have to have been born several months earlier than the age on her death record indicates. The female child might have been an older sister of Margaret who died before the 1830 census.
The 1830 Penobscot, ME, Census shows David Ordway and a female, both 50-60 years of age, living with one male and one female, age 5-10, and 2 males, age 15-20. The children’s ages are consistent with David’s and Mary/Polly’s Sep 1810, wedding date.
David Ordway, Sr., and his wife were living alone in the 1840 Sedgwick, Hancock County, ME, Census.
David Ordway, 70, and Betsy Ordway, 61, both paupers, born in MA, are listed in the 1850 Penobscot, ME, Census. Betsy is shown as illiterate. Their son, David, 33, laborer and illiterate, with wife, Eunice (daughter of Samuel and Anna {Ingalls} Leach), 32, is listed with: James, 8; Abby, 4; Mary, 2; and Kimball, 5 months. (Additional children, Nancy E. and David M. were born in 1853 and 1855, respectively). Also shown in 1850 Penobscot are James Ordway, 33, mariner, with wife, Eliza, 31; Mary, 12; Augusta, 10; Albert, 8; Edwin, 6; Charles, 4; and James, 1 month. All of David, Sr.’s, children and grandchildren were born in ME.
There is a conflict about David Ordway, Sr.’s, birthplace. In the 1880 census, son James in Castine and son David in Penobscot both indicated that their father was born in NH. In the 1850 census, however, David, Sr., and Betsy both indicate that they were born in MA. Prior censuses did not call for a place of birth. Although Ordways – and David Ordways in particular – proliferated in Essex County, MA, in the 1700’s, no record has been found that would firmly connect the Penobscot David Ordway with any of them.
Some Internet sources show that a David Ordway, son of Ebenezer and Sarah (Holmes) Ordway, was christened 8 Nov 1772 in Rowley, MA, and died in Hopkinton, NH, in 1794. The same research goes on to say that he married Mary (Polly) Horne in Penobscot, Hancock County, ME, 13 Sep 1810. These data are clearly contradictory. The David Ordway who was Margaret’s father and who married Mary (Polly) Horne in ME had to have been a different one from the David who was the son of Ebenezer Ordway. Accordingly, the actual parents of the David Ordway who was Margaret’s father have yet to be discovered.
Margaret (Ordway) (Pio) Beckett is buried in Bangor, ME. Cemetery records show her as Margaret E. Beckett. Date of death: 3 Jul 1874. Place of birth: Penobscot, ME. Place of death: Bangor, ME. Age: 53 years, 9 months. Wife of Robert. She was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery Lot #788PG on 5 Jul 1874. It is a coincidence that Margaret is buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Bangor, and that her ex-husband, John Pio, and son, James, are buried in a different Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston. No other Beckets or Becketts are listed in the Bangor death records through 1892.
To view Margaret (Ordway) (Pio) Beckett’s photograph, go to www.quakeandsnake.com > book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index > First Generation: John Pio and Margaret Ordway – and click through the pages to page 8.
Second Generation of Pio’s in America:
The four children of John & Margaret Pio were:
Lucy M. Pio
Possible (but
unlikely) consort of Loren A. Davis
Married John L. Murch
Charles Henry
Pio
Married (1) Sarah Saunders
(2) Flora Adams
James Hale Pio
Married
Annie E. Hutchins
George E. Pio (who
changed the spelling to Peio)
Married (1) Helen Leighton
(2)
Mary A. Clark
There is some question as to George E. Pio’s true
parentage. This issue is addressed below.
Lucy, Charles, and James Pio were born in Castine, ME. George was born in Brewer, ME.
Lucy M. Pio, according to municipal records, was born 27 Apr 1837, in Castine, Hancock County, ME.
Lucy next appears by name in the 1850 Brewer, Penobscot County, ME, Census with both parents and her three siblings. Her age at this time is given as 14, although she was actually 13.
There is a scandalous set of possibilities involving Lucy and her much younger, purported brother, George E. Pio. The details are set forth in the section containing his biography.
The 1860 Ward 8, Boston, Suffolk County, MA, Census shows: Lucy Pio, 23, mantilla maker, born in ME. She was living in dwelling #28, which was Lucy A. Barrett’s boarding house.
A 21 Dec 1860, announcement in the Ellsworth (ME) Herald stated that Captain John L. Murch of Ellsworth and Miss Lucy M. Pio of Boston were married in Boston on December 13th by Reverend James Belcher. The 1856-60 Index of Massachusetts Marriages mentions this union in vol. 137, pg. 128.
To view Lucy (Pio) Murch’s photograph, go to www.quakeandsnake.com > book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index > First Generation: John Pio and Margaret Ordway – and click through the pages to page 15.
The 1850 Trenton, Hancock County, ME, Census lists John L. Murch, mariner, 22, living with his parents, Cyrus Murch, 45, mariner; and Rhoda, 48. Other children in the family were Albert, 19, mariner; Ephraim, 14; Balinda, 11; Francis, 9 (female); Rachel, 9; Cyrus, 6; and Georgiana, 4. All were born in ME. Thomas Turner, 19, mariner, from England was living with the Murch family. There was an earlier son, Cyrus L. A. Murch, who was born in 1832 and died in 1835, and a daughter, Martha, the oldest child, who was not living with the family at the time of the 1850 census. Cyrus Murch, Sr.’s, wife, Rhoda, was the daughter of Amariah and Hannah (Higgins) Leland. Hannah was the daughter of Levi and Bathsheba Higgins. For John L. Murch’s complete pedigree, go to www.quakeandsnake.com > book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index > Appendix XVIII.
A John Murch is listed as a laborer living on Pine Street in the 1859 Bangor, Penobscot County, ME, city directory. It is doubtful that this is John L. Murch.
The 1860 Ellsworth, ME, Census lists John L. Murch, 31, sailor, and his brother, Albert M. Murch, 29, living with Orison Call, 34, a cooper.
No record has been found that Lucy Pio’s marriage to John L. Murch ever produced any children. On 25 Jun 1863, when John was named in the Consolidated List of Men Subject to Callup for Military Service in the 5th Congressional District of Maine, he is shown as 33, a mariner, married, and born in ME.
Neither Lucy nor John L. Murch appear in Wards 1 through 5 of the 1865 Boston Special Census.
The 9 Nov 1869 edition of the Ellsworth American shows that on 29 Oct 1869 John L. Murch and Mrs. Sarah Whipple, both of Ellsworth, were married. Whether this was a different John L. Murch, or whether the newspaper was in error, or whether this was a bigamous marriage is unknown. No other likely John Murch is shown in the 1880 Census. In any event, the related John Murch is found living with his original – and probably only – wife, Lucy, in Charlestown, MA, the following year.
The 1870 Ward 1, Charlestown, Middlesex County, MA, Census, page 16, lists Murch, John L., 42, white male, sea captain, born in ME, US citizen; and Lucy M., 32, white female, dress maker, born in ME.
John L. Murch was a resident of Bangor on 11 Jan 1872, when he, together with a Patrick Landers, witnessed his brother-in-law, James Pio’s, signature on an invalid pension application.
John L. Murch alternated with a Captain Howe as master of the schooner, Mary Eliza in 1872. During this period, an attempt was made on the life of John’s brother-in-law, James H. Pio. See James H. Pio’s biography, below, for details. The Mary Eliza’s official registration number was 16120. It was built at Orrington, ME, in 1846, and was condemned and broken up in 1887. During the period, 1871-1873, the Mary Eliza was owned by Charles Peters and others of New York City. By 1873, Charles Peters had moved to Bangor.
For future researchers, early port records of Bangor are in the Fogler Library at the University of Maine in Orono. Another source might be the US Coast Guard, Federal Building, Rockland, ME, 04841.
The Marine Journal section of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier for 1872 reveals the following:
May 2: Schooner Mary Eliza, Howe (master), arrived from Salem.
May 8: Schooner Mary Eliza, Howe, cleared Bangor for New York on May 7.
May 14: Schooner
Mary Eliza, Murch, arrived in Bangor from Boston on May 13. (This was
the date on which John L.
Murch’s brother-in-law, James H. Pio,
a crewman on the
Mary Eliza, married Annie Hutchins.)
July 15: Schooner
Mary Eliza, Howe, arrived from Malden
(MA) on July 13.
July 20: Schooner Mary Eliza, Murch, cleared Bangor for East Cambridge (MA) on July 19.
August 8: Schooner Mary Eliza, Murch, arrived from Cambridge on August 7.
August 14: Schooner Mary Eliza, Murch, cleared Bangor for Plymouth (MA) on August 13.
September 14: Schooner Mary Eliza, Howe, arrived from Saco (ME) on September 13.
September 23: Schooner Mary Eliza, Howe, cleared Bangor for Hyannis (MA) on September 21.
October 19: Schooner Mary Eliza, Murch, cleared Bangor for Boston on October 18.
November 12: Schooner Mary Eliza, Murch, arrived from Boston on November 11.
November 23: Schooner Mary Eliza, Murch, cleared Bangor for Danvers (MA) on November 22.
The Maury Abstract Logs and meteorological journals among the records of the Weather Bureau in the National Archives do not reveal any ship’s log for the schooner, Mary Eliza, commanded by either Captain Murch or Captain Howe in 1872 because the logs were compiled from 1796-1861. The Bangor Public Library has a collection of ship’s logs, but none for the Mary Eliza.
The Bangor, ME, City Directory for 1873-74 lists Mrs. Lucy H. Murch, dressmaker, 104 Main, house – ditto. Her husband, John, was listed as a shipping master with a business address of 121 Broad Street.
John L. Murch appears in every edition of the Boston City Directory from 1876 through 1894. The 1876 edition shows him living in a house with a lawyer, James L. Murch. It is not known how John and James were related, but they were not brothers. James does not appear as a lawyer anywhere in the US in the 1880 census.
John L. Murch lived at 219 Saratoga Street in East Boston on 8 Sep 1877, when he witnessed an affidavit by his brother-in-law, James H. Pio.
The 1880 Boston Census (S.D. 60, E.D. 581, pg. 16) taken on 5 Jun of that year lists John Murch, 52, sea captain, he and parents born in ME; and Lucy Murch, 43, keeping house at 153 Saratoga Street in East Boston. Lucy and her mother are shown as being born in ME, her father being born in Portugal [sic]. They were sharing a home with Benjamin H. and Mary Elwell. This census page is difficult to find since “Murch” has been mistranscribed as “Mench.” The abbreviations, “S.D” and “E.D.,” mean “Supervisor’s District” and “Enumeration District”.
The 1884 Boston City Directory lists John L. Murch, captain, with a house at 33 Maverick Square. In 1885 he has a house at 80 Bennington.
Ambrose S. Vose, photographer, born 1838, located at 3 Lewis Street, Maverick Square, East Boston, took the only existing photo of Lucy. The date of the photo is unknown, but Boston business directories show that Vose was not yet in business in 1872, but was in business in 1888, the year of Lucy’s death.
Lucy died of cancer of the liver, 24 Oct 1888, in East Boston, MA. Her residence at that time was 81 W. Eagle Street. She was buried that same day in the Wyoming Cemetery in Melrose, in a site owned by a family named Aiken. The Boston Evening Transcript for several days after her death contains no obituary. Cemetery records list Lucy as being buried in lot #113, east half, grave 5. There is no record of purchase of her specific site. The lot has a single obelisk listing the Aiken family members buried there, but there is no mention of Lucy. Efforts to find a link between Lucy and the Aiken family have been unsuccessful.
For reasons unknown, John L. Murch, captain, was living at a different address, a house at 341 Chelsea, East Boston, in 1888, the year of Lucy’s death. They could, of course, have been living together and simply moved at some time between the printing of the city directory and Lucy’s death.
The 1890 Boston City Directory lists John L. Murch, captain, rooming at 9 Winthrop in East Boston.
After 1894, John L. Murch next appears in the Quincy, MA, City Directory in 1897. He died of uremia in the Quincy Hospital on 30 Dec 1897, at the age of 70. He is buried in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Cemetery in Quincy. The Sailors’ Snug Harbor was a retirement home, established in 1856, for active seamen. No obituary appears for John L. Murch in the Boston Evening Transcript.
Lucy’s brother, Charles Henry Pio, according to municipal records, was born 14 Nov 1839, in Castine, Hancock County, ME.
He next appears by name in the 1850 Brewer, Penobscot County, ME, Census with both parents and his three siblings. His age at the time is given as 10.
The Boston, MA, City Directory for 1860 lists Charles Pio as a clerk at 16 Court Square, boarding at 3 Lathrop Place. This address is not listed as a formal boarding house in the business section of the directory. Lathrop Place was in Ward 2, southeast off 155 (a.k.a. 309) Hanover Street between Richmond and Prince Streets.
Charles Pio also appears in the 1860 Ward 1, Boston, Census, where he is shown as a 22-year-old waiter, born in Belfast [sic], ME. Sarah Saunders, Charles’ wife-to-be, has not been found anywhere in the 1860 census.
No record has been found of Charles H. Pio’s marriage to Sarah Saunders, but it probably took place in Maine in the fall of 1860. There must have been a marriage because a divorce was later granted. Al Newman has the original divorce certificate.
Sarah was born in Orland, Hancock County, ME, in Oct 1843, the daughter of Edward and Dorothy (Leach) Saunders. To access Sarah Saunders’ pedigree charts, go to www.quakeandsnake.com > book cover for “John Pio Came to Maine” > Index > Appendix IV.
Sarah’s father died in 1848 when she was about six, and there is some confusion in the records inasmuch as her widowed mother, Dorothy, filed a marriage intent with James Mosely in Penobscot, Hancock County, ME, on 26 Feb 1847 – apparently several months before the death of her first husband, Edward Saunders. The first of James and Dorothy Mosely’s seven children was born in Dec 1847.
Now fatherless, Sarah Saunders was placed, informally, with William Sinclair and his wife, May or Mary. Sarah’s brother, Joseph, is living elsewhere at the time. Sarah and the Sinclairs appear together in the 1850 Ellsworth Census. William, then 29 and a mariner, was almost certainly the son of the William Sinclair who captained the brig Mentos – the ship on which John Pio, Sarah’s future father-in-law, may have immigrated to America from Madeira.
For some unspecified reason, Sarah’s association with the Sinclair family was terminated in 1857. In that year, Hancock County probate court case #2520 shows that Sarah’s guardianship was conveyed to Luther Franks of Bluehill on 15 Apr. Luther’s wife, Alice L. (Saunders) Franks, was Sarah’s first cousin. Alice’s father, Henry, and Sarah’s father, Edward Saunders, were brothers.
Luther Franks was born in Bluehill 21 Feb 1823, the son of Levi and Lucy (Norris) Frank or Franks. In the 1850 Penobscot, Hancock County, Census, Luther and Alice are shown as living near Henry Saunders, Sarah’s uncle, and also near James Ordway, brother of Sarah’s future mother-in-law, Margaret Ordway.
On 3 Apr 1857, Judge Parker Tuck had ordered an appraisal of the estate of Edward Saunders, a resident of Surry at the time of his death, for the benefit of his two minor children, Sarah and Joseph. The property consisted of 2/5 of a 160-acre land warrant valued at $57.60. It is unclear whether this is the same warrant, #31633 for 160 acres, that Luther Franks petitioned the court for permission to sell for Sarah’s and Joseph’s care on 15 Apr. The petition was granted on 15 Jul 1857.
On 24 Apr 1857, Sarah selected Luther Franks as her guardian. The petition was witnessed by Sarah’s uncle, Henry Saunders. It was certified before Samuel Leach, Justice of the Peace, and was allowed by Judge Parker Tuck. Sarah’s brother, Joseph, has never been positively identified in any record of any kind subsequent to 1 Jul 1857.
Luther Franks died in 1859. His Jun 12th obituary in the Ellsworth Herald indicated that he left a wife and seven children.
Subsequent to the 1860 census, Charles Pio next appears on page 96 of the book, History of Ellsworth (Albert H. Davis, Lewiston, ME, 1927), as a private in an Ellsworth, ME, voluntary company of 80 men, organized 19 Apr 1861, which was to serve on active duty for two years. On Tuesday, 21 May 1861, the company, including Charles H. Pio, left Ellsworth. This may conflict with the 25 Jun 1863, Consolidated List of Men Subject to Call-up for Military Duty from the 5th District of Maine. On that list is Charles H. Pio of Ellsworth, age 24, laborer, married, born in Spain [sic]. Under the heading, “Former Military Service” is the notation that he had been in the army and had been discharged under a surgeon’s certificate. The Attorney General’s Supplement for 1861-1866 has this entry on page 1036: Charles Pio, Private, Co. C, Reg. 20, Infantry.
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