Find-a-GraveHer date of birth is often listed as 1890, but she was actually born in 1889. Her birth name was Ethel MARTHA Black, but for some reason, she changed her middle name to Mildred as a teen.
She was M�tis, being 1/4 Native American, a fact that she hid from her family. Where she grew up, "Half-Breeds", as anyone with any native ancestry were known, were discriminated against is virtually every aspect of their lives.
Her first husband was Peter Norman Stewart, they had 4 children together. Ethel hated the winters in Manitoba, so her husband sent her to Vancouver, BC for the winters. She had affair after affair there, fell madly in love with a man in 1924, and filed for a legal separation. Once she had obtained that, the man walked out of her life.
She refused to grant her husband a divorce. He supported her, until the mid 1940's, when she met a man and fell in love. He wanted to marry her, so she finally allowed the divorce.
She married Richard Landis Fry in January 1946, and he died in July 1949, leaving her a destitute widow. She had to work as a maid at the YMCA, to earn her keep (the first job she had ever had).
She was my paternal grandmother. She was a VERY bitter woman, hating virtually everyone, including her 3 surviving children.
Her two daughters looted her estate, even selling the coffin she had purchased to be buried in.
Asa Haskell was a cordwainer ("shoe maker" in the 1880 census, of Gloucester, MA).
Ellen Victoria Haskell (or Helen Y. Haskell) was unmarried. She was a school teacher.
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William Henry Haskell was born in Newburyport, MA, 21 September 1810, son of Humphrey Bray and Mrs. Elizabeth (Rogers) Fennimore Haskell. He died 8 October 1899 in Merrimac, Essex, Massachusetts. William married first Clarissa Whittier on 18 December 1833 in Amesbury. MA. She was born circa 1810 in Amesbury and died there 24 September 1850. He married second, 4 June 1851, Mary P. Whittier, daughter of Edmund and Anna (Patton) Whittier. Mary was born March 1822 in Amesbury and died 30 August 1897 in Merrimac. William had two children by his first wife and six by his second.
Williams early education was in the Newbury public schools. In 1824 at the age of fourteen, he went to West Amesbury where he apprenticed in the trade of silver plating, an important part of the manufacture of carriages. In 1831 he began work as a carriage manufacturer and continued silver plating. In 1850 he entered into a co-partnership with William P. Sargent and William Gunnison under the firm name of Sargent Gunnison Company. The firm had a place in Boston and a store in West Amesbury where William had charge of the sale of carriage fittings. He remained with the firm until 1860 when it was dissolved.
He apparently had a talent for finance and he established the First National Bank of Amesbury which was chartered in 1864. He served as the banks first cashier until 1869 when he was chosen president.
In 1871 the Merrimac Savings Bank was chartered and Mr. Haskell was its first treasurer, and on the death of the president, he assumed that office. He was connected with the building of the West Amesbury Branch Railroad and owned stock in the company. Haskell was also interested in the division of Amesbury and in the incorporation of the town of Merrimac. He was one of the contributors for the purchase of and presentation to the town of Merrimac the land on which the town hall stands. He was elected chairman of the first Board of Selectmen of the town.
He also served on the Board of Selectmen of Amesbury and represented the town in the state Legislature of 1869 as a member of the House of Representatives and as a member of the committee on banks and banking. His name was later proposed as a candidate for senator. In 1847 he received a commission as Justice of the Peace, a post he held for twenty-eight years. At his death in 1899 of mitral heart disease, he was referred to as gentleman.
(Adapted from "William Henry Haskell" by Marion S. Anderson, Haskell Journal, Issue 56, 2001, pg 12.)