Levi STEVENS, Sr. (~178x-182x) +
Mary “Polly” MANN (~1787-~1814)

Eliza (1807-8 Dec 1893) — m. Nathaniel S. Hill III on 11 Apr 1829

two unknown girls

Levi, Jr. (1811-5 Jun 1893) — m. Livonia Cook on 25 May 1835

Amasa T. (~1814-15 Dec 1856) — m. Almira Lancaster in 1837; m. Judith Rowe on 24 Sep 1854

Levi STEVENS, Sr. (~178x-182x) +
Hannah MANN (~1792-2 Jul 1881)

Timothy (7 Apr 1816-22 May 1845) — m. Saphronia Robinson on 16 Mar 1840

Mary (6 Dec 1818-27 Nov 1869) — m. Nathaniel Caverly on 10 Feb 1840

Sarah Currier “Sally” (6 Aug 1821-7 Jan 1904) — m. Jonathan Brown on 10 Dec 1843

Amos Mann (6 May 1823-9 Oct 1846)

Levi was said by three of his children to have been born in New Hampshire – either in Sanders or in Barnstable, neither of which seems to exist. Maybe they meant Barnstead, which is in Belknap County, or maybe they were thinking of Barnstable County, Massachusetts. His parents are unknown. He was a millwright. Wikipedia credits him with building the first mill in Exeter, Penobscot County, Maine in 1813, a claim echoed by many other sites. The town was named for Exeter in southeastern New Hampshire, where many of the early settlers came from.

Mary was reportedly born in Ellsworth, Hancock County, Maine, which is on the coast southeast of Bangor. Her parents were almost certainly Amos Mann from Massachusetts and Mary Blagdon from Maine, who lived in what’s now Kenduskeag Township, Penobscot County northwest of Bangor.

Levi and Mary married on Christmas day, 25 Dec 1806, in Bangor. The marriage was performed by Joseph Carr. The 1810 census showed a Levi Stevens household in Bangor, consisting of a young couple with three girls – very likely them. I don’t know who the other two girls were. By 1813, if not earlier, the family had settled in the newly incorporated town of Exeter, which is definitely a real place northwest of Bangor.

Mary apparently died before 1815. Place of burial is unknown, although the best bet is Exeter Center Cemetery, also called Exeter Corners or Townhouse Cemetery, which was in operation at the time. It’s on Stetson Road just south of its intersection with Exeter Road.

Levi married Hannah Mann, who was probably Mary’s sister, on 5 Feb 1815 in Exeter. Records show they had four children born in Exeter over the next eight years.

The 1820 census for Exeter listed Levi Stevens, age between 26 and 45, with a wife in the same rather broad age range. There were nine other people in their household: two young men age 16-26, three girls and one boy age 10-16, and two boys and a girl under 10. The two young men were almost certainly hired hands. The three older girls fit with the 1810 Bangor census, although Eliza is the only one for whom I have a name. The older boy was presumably Levi Jr. with his age slightly exaggerated. The three younger children would have been Amasa, Timothy, and Mary. Three members of the household were “engaged in agriculture”, as the census put it. One assumes that was the three men.

Levi Sr. apparently died between 1822 and 1830. One source claims Feb 1825 but provides no evidence. In the 1830 census, Hannah, in her thirties, was heading a household containing a boy age 15-19, a boy and girl age 10-14, and a boy and girl age 5-9. That accounts for her four children and her stepson/probable nephew Amasa. Her stepdaughter/probable niece Eliza was recently married and out of the house. Levi Jr. was probably working for another local family, so the census didn’t list him by name.

On 18 Dec 1831, Hannah married Thomas Wentworth (1784-Dec 1874) from New Hampshire. They remained in Exeter. The 1840 census listed them as a couple in their forties with five children: two boys age 10-14, two girls 5-9, and a boy under 5. The two older boys were probably Thomas’s sons from his previous marriage.

The 1850 census, which listed Hannah’s age as 54, gave names to the three younger children, who were Hannah’s as well:

Betsey (1833-16 Dec 1920) — m. David Peavey

Abigail (1835-31 Jul 1911) — m. ??? Perkins; m. F. A. H. Stackpole

Tristram (1837-?185x?) — m. Martha Jane Blaisdell on 7 Jul 1856

By 1860, Hannah (67) and Thomas (78) were living with Thomas’s son Nathaniel S. Wentworth and family in Exeter. In 1870, they were next door to Nathaniel and family, but back to being heads of household, sharing a place with the Robinson family (relation unknown, but most likely Mary Robinson was Thomas’s daughter). Thomas died in 1874 and is buried in Clarks Hill Cemetery, Stetson, Penobscot County.

In 1880, Hannah (88) was living with her grand-daughter Mary Caverly Graffam and family in Newport. Hannah died in 1881 and is buried with Thomas.

Although her burial record and gravestone indicate Hannah was born in 1787, I doubt this. Her age in census records places her birth between 1791 and 1796, and her last child was born about 1837. It’s not impossible that she had a child at age 50, but it’s unlikely.

Children of Levi and Polly

Eliza Stevens (1807-1893)

Eliza has her own entry in the family tree.

Levi Stevens, Jr. (1811-1893)

Levi, Jr. remained in Exeter. In 1835 he married Livonia Cook (Jul 1816-28 Oct 1881) from New Hampshire. Their children:

Aaron Wesley (10 Sep 1836-22 May 1867)

Calista Ann (5 Jun 1838-10 Dec 1884) — m. James N. Prescott on 9 Jan 1862

Keziah Cook (9 Apr 1840-31 Mar 1916) — m. Erastus F. Mitchell on 17 Dec 1863

Asa Morrell (8 Aug 1841-2 Mar 1920) — m. Frances E.

Levi Fisher (1843-????)

Lucius P. (1846-????) — m. Caroline McInnis

Charles L. (1849-21 Aug 1909) — m. Marietta Proctor on 8 Feb 1874

Ada E. (1856-10 Jan 1874)

Herbert L. (1861-????)

The 1840 census listed the household as a man in his thirties and a woman in her twenties, with five children: a boy age 15-19, a boy 10-14, and two girls and a boy under 5. Unknown who the two older boys were, although one could have been Levi’s younger half-brother Amos.

The family remained in Exeter. Livonia died in 1881 and is buried in Exeter Center Cemetery, also called Townhouse Cemetery, where other members of the family are buried including her children Aaron and Ada. Levi died in 1893 and is buried with her. His burial record says that his father was from Sanders, New Hampshire (can’t find any such place), and his mother from Ellsworth, Maine. Note that the Levi Stevens who lived in Eddington, Penobscot County and died there in 1921 was not this family’s Levi Fisher Stevens.

Amasa T. Stevens (~1814-1856)

There’s only circumstantial evidence that Amasa was the son of Levi and Polly, but it fits. He married Almira Lancaster (1822-184x) in 1837. They lived in Hudson and later Kirkland, Penobscot County. Their children:

Edward (19 Feb 1838-17 Oct 1908) — m. Annie Victoria Wilson on 14 Jun 1860; m. Sophrona A. Reeves

Emily (1839-????)

Caroline (1842-????)

Rufus Abbott (11 Oct 1843-2 Nov 1899) — m. Anastasia Gertrude Paul on 26 Mar 1860

Charles W. (1845-13 Jan 1917) — m. Henrietta C. Meader on 10 Jan 1864

The 1840 census showed the Amasa Stephens household in Hudson as a man in his twenties, a woman in her late teens, and a boy and girl under 5. Their neighbors included several Mann households.

By the 1850 census, Almira had died. In addition to the four older children but no Charles, the 1850 household in Kirkland included Amasa’s grandmother Mary Blagdon Mann (89) and maiden aunt Sylvia Mann (46). There was a Charles Stevens (4) in the household of one Wheelwright Stevens in Etna, Penobscot County – probably this family’s Charles, fostered out to a relative who had a wife in residence (and who was likely named in honor of Rev. John Wheelwright, the 17th-century founder of Exeter, New Hampshire).

Amasa married Judith Rowe Jones (9 Feb 1816-14 Oct 1900) in 1854. There’s no record of children. He died two years later, and is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Bangor. His tombstone places his date of birth in early 1816, after his presumed mother’s presumed year of death. When Judith died in 1900, she was buried in Pine Grove as well.

Children of Levi and Hannah

Timothy Stevens (1816-1845)

Timothy married Saphronia Robinson (Feb 1822-19 Apr 1906) on 16 Mar 1840 in Exeter. They had three children:

Jenette (May 1842-27 Feb 1867) — m. (or not) Joel F. Harthorn in 186x

Francina Ann (5 Dec 1843-16 Jun 1919) — m. Mark T. Scott in 1863

Timothy F., Jr. (25 Aug 1845-????) — prob. died young

Timothy died in Exeter on 22 May 1845, three months before the birth of his son and namesake. He’s buried in Townhouse Cemetery. Saphronia remarried to Thomas Estes (Jun 1820-29 Apr 1895) in 1848. They had six more children: John (15 Dec 1848), Charles F. (4 Jan 1851), Julia Ann (16 May 1853), George (~1855), Albion (~1860), and Noah (~1863). The 1850 census showed them in Corinna, Penobscot County with Saphronia’s daughters Janette B. (8) and Francena A. (6), as well as their half-brother John Estes (1).

The family moved to Bloomfield, Essex County, Vermont in the 1870s. Timothy’s daughter Francina moved to the same town, and is buried in the same place as her mother, Bloomfield Cemetery, which is on the Vermont side of the river between Bloomfield, Vermont and Colebrook, New Hampshire.

Daughter Jenette had a child, Sophronia Harthorn (22 Jan 1865-19 Feb 1933), with a younger man named Joel Harthorn (7 May 1848-17 Jun 1866), but there’s no record of their marrying. They died less than a year apart and are buried in West Broadway Cemetery, Lincoln, Penobscot County. Sophronia accompanied her namesake grandmother to Vermont, where she married one Orlando A. Buzzell (1861-1946) and had at least four children.

Mary Stevens (1818-1869)

Mary married Nathaniel Caverly (7 Sep 1811-17 Apr 1904) from New Hampshire on 10 Feb 1840 in Exeter, Penobscot County. It appears the marriage wasn’t registered until October of that year. Known children:

Sarah (1841-3 Feb 1855)

Mary F. (1842-1929) — m. Samuel G. Graffam on 6 Oct 1864

Amos (1845-1927) — m. Laura Ann Young on 8 Apr 1867; m. Ella Sexton

Frank Eugene (1853-15 Jun 1916) — m. Rose Anna Benway in 1875

Mary died in Newport, Penobscot County in 1869, and is buried in North Newport Cemetery. The 1870 census listed Nathaniel and son Eugene sharing the house with Nathaniel’s sister-in-law Nancy C. Grant Roberts Caverly (1824-20 Feb 1895), widow of his brother Tobias (and before that of Thomas W. Roberts), and his niece Ada (13) and nephew Wilford (8). Nathaniel married Nancy in 1873. Mary’s surviving daughter remained in Maine, and her sons both moved to Minnesota.

Nancy died in 1895. Nathaniel died in 1904, and is buried with both wives.

Sarah Currier Stevens (1821-1904)

Sarah has her own entry in the family tree.

Amos Mann Stevens (1823-1846)

There’s no indication that Amos married before his death in Exeter, Penobscot County in 1846. Like his brother Timothy, he’s buried in Townhouse Cemetery.

Links

Doubtful Leads

Definitely Not the Right Levi

Levi Stevens (22 Jan 1770-16 Aug 1859) + Susanna Shepard and Esther Nelson

Born in Newbury, Orange County, Vermont, son of Simeon Stevens (29 Apr 1735-1788) and Sarah Hadley (13 Feb 1737-1779) from Essex County, MA. Had a brother named Otho (1765-1820) who married Sarah Bailey. Died in Orleans County, Vermont.

Levi Stevens (3 Apr 1787-30 Apr 1866) + Anna Hatch (????-24 Feb 1864)

Born in Winthrop, Kennebec County, Maine, son of Amos Stevens and Mary Whiting. Married Anna in 1811. Many children. Died in Abbot, Piscataquis County, Maine.

Levi Stevens (4 Sep 1789-1 Oct 1852) + Mehitabel Lombard (1795-1876)

Born in Truro, Barnstable County, Massachusetts to Levi Stevens and Anna Snow. Lived and died in Truro.

Levi Stevens (11 Mar 1784-1 Dec 1856) + Elizabeth Treen (1790-1848)

Born in Windsor, Vermont to Levi Stevens and Anna Norton. Died in Nova Scotia.