Hi Becky,

I just sent you an e-mail (separately), but I'll mention here that I think you are the 3rd person who has contacted me over the years who has attended those reunions. The "cousin" I've been corresponding with the longest is "Gary" Kidder in ME.

I was just browing the conversation on this Board, and see most of the postings are about John Kidder's son, Charles Kidder, who went to Hawaii. If you haven't seen my "hundreds" of other postings on the Lists and Boards about the KIDDER's in Maine, I've posted many pieces of information on the ones in Washington County.

As I mentioned in my e-mail, one of the bigger questions I have is what happened to John's youngest child, Henrietta "Nettie" KIDDER, after 1900. She was a teen-ager and she and her widowed mother were living with her brother in Gouldsboro. I don't believe Nettie died young; I suspect she married young and moved out of the area.

Also, John had 5 children with his first wife, Helen, and all these years later, I still don't know what happened to his son, William. Charles went to Honolulu; another son went to NH and never married; a daughter became Mrs. "Myra" DEAN and lived in Princeton, and unfortunately, his daughter, Henrietta "Etta," died in childbirth as a teen-ager. Her daughter survived and was raised by her birth-father. The whole family is in the 1881 census in New Brunswick, and then John "drowned at sea" in 1887. I just found out recently that the widow, Mrs. Jane Kidder, might have spent some time in Eastport before moving to Gouldsboro.

For 20 yrs. I've wanted to visit Washington Co., ME, and possibly spend a summer there, so I could visit St. Stephen, NB, and Gouldsboro, etc. But, our current situation makes travel financially-impossible.

In case I haven't mentioned it in this conversation, Calvin KIDDER, b1765 NH, went up to New Brunswick as an older teen with other NH families ~1784. He was not a Loyalist but might have been following a girlfriend. We don't know how he spent the next 15 yrs. He married in 1798 to Mercy GREENLAW, and they had a child in late Jan. 1799. Unfortunately, Calvin was killed in a boating accident -- one week later ! The son, Joseph "Calvin" KIDDER, b1799, was almost always known as Calvin. It was a long time before researchers found out that the widow, Mrs. Mercy Kidder, remarried within a year to Ambrose BATES and had 10 children with him.

In ~1830, the twice-widowed Mercy, and "Calvin" moved over from St. Stephen to Calais. Shortly after, Calvin married Mary WILKINS from from Amity, ME. Their first child was Jonathan or John KIDDER, and then they had 5 more surviving children. Their 2nd son and his new bride, and their 16-yr-old daughter died during 1860's - probably from a Flu epidemic. Their sons, "Joe" and "Cal, Jr." lived their married lives in Princeton and had many children. Their surviving daughter married but had no children. So, John, Joe, and Cal, Jr., were the only ones who provided grandchildren.

J. Calvin (1799-1891) lived a long life, and I suspect his wife, Mary, died during 1870's; no one can find a death record on her. Joe and Cal, Jr., both died ~1915. One other thing which I've never been able to find out is the details on where and when John Kidder "died at sea." He could have .drowned. near the Maine / New Brunswick coast, or he could have been on his way to the Hawaiian Islands to meet his new daughter-in-law and first grandchild.


Betty (near Lowell, MA)