Charles Eldon Luther III (Nov 1927-28 Jul 2018)
Charles was born in Paquetteville District, a few miles north of Hereford Township, Compton District (now Estrie Region), Quebec, the fifth child of Charles E. Luther I and Sarah Ann Johnson. His family apparently moved back and forth across the Vermont border, finally settling in Wolcott, Vermont by 1905.
Flora was born in Eden, Vermont, the second child of Levi V. Brown of Vermont and Flora May Hill of Chester, Maine. Her mother died a few weeks after she was born. She was sent to live with her mother’s family in Chester, where her young, unmarried Aunt Eva (Evelyn Rose Hill) was her primary caretaker. Flora was returned to her father’s house in Eden around the time she turned 3, presumably either because Aunt Eva married (Jun 1902) or because Flora’s father Levi re-married (Oct 1902).
In the 1910 census, Charles (19) was living in Berlin, Washington County, Vermont, just south of Montpelier, as a hired man to the household of John and Lola Poor, previously of Wolcott. Flora (10) was living in Eden, Lamoille County, with her father Levi and stepmother Myrtie, sister Alice, half-brother Frank, and Myrtie’s son by a previous marriage, Claude C. Brown (15).
Flora’s stepmother treated her badly, and her father apparently did nothing to stop it. So, Flora left home in her mid-teens to work as a nanny for the family of John T. and Cordelia F. Marckres in Craftsbury. She met Charles at the Grange hall in Morrisville, which is about eight miles west of Wolcott and 12 miles south of Eden.
Charles went into the Army in WWI, where he was a driver for officers because, being a farm boy, he knew how to drive and repair vehicles – not common skills at the time. He and Flora kept up a correspondence during the war.
After the war, Charles moved to Mexico, Oxford County, Maine to find work in the new Rumford paper mill. His brother Ed made the same move, as did the family of his older sister Mary Luther Robie. In September 1919, Flora also moved to Mexico. She stayed at first with Charles’s sister Mary, and later worked as a live-in cook and housekeeper for the family of James W. Harris (1857-1940), a superintendent at the paper mill. The 1920 census showed Charles sharing a place with his nephew Francis Robie (20), Mary’s eldest child. On 2 Jul 1920, Charles and Flora married.
The 1930 and 1940 censuses listed them in Mexico, Maine with their son Charles Eldon Luther III. Charles continued to work at the mill. In the 1950s, they ran a summer lodge up at Ellis Pond, aka Silver Mountain Lake or Roxbury Pond. Their long-time residence was 47 Whitman Street in Mexico. Flora’s half-brother Frank V. Brown lived just a few houses away until after his wife Elsie’s death in 1983.
Charles died at the Togus veteran’s nursing home in 1977 in Chelsea, Maine, a township just south of Augusta. Flora continued to live on Whitman Street until her death almost 14 years later. Her foster niece Reta Armstrong lived there with her. Charles and Flora are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Dixfield, Maine, the same cemetery as some of their relatives, including Ed and Mary Luther, Reta Armstrong, Frank V. Brown, and Frank’s wife Elsie Robie.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XF31-CJV -- Flora’s birth
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMLT-84Z -- 1900 census, Flora with her grandparents
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMP9-NQC -- 1900 census, the Poors in Wolcott
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPFX-YJ1 -- 1910 census, Charles
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPF4-G8G -- 1910 census, Flora
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8WC-RQ5 -- 1917 draft registration for Charles
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF8M-Q2D -- 1920 census, Charles
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KCNC-WTC -- 1920 wedding
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XMD3-S4C -- 1930 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMMK-4YD -- 1940 census (Ed & Mary Luther on same page)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6FMR-LS8W -- 1950 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F3G-MZY1 -- 1950 census, Charles III
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122000800/charles-eldon-luther -- Charles’s 1977 grave (links to his parents)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122000803/flora-hill-luther -- Flora’s 1991 grave (links to her parents)