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- Living with her younger brother, Joshua B. Lowell, at the time of the 1870 and 1880 census. In the 1870 census, her name is listed as “Mami B.”
Per postcard written in Oct. 1927: “Our dear aunt Maria Lowell was engaged to John F. Lowell’s brother Charles but the engagement was called off because they were own cousins.” Card written by Edith Lowell Farnum and addressed to Justina Whitney, Farmington, Maine.
From “Biographical Review: this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Franklin and Oxford Counties, Maine”, Boston, Biographical Review Co., 1897.:
“Maria B. Lowell, of Chesterville, an able and successful school teacher, was born in Chesterville, January 30, 1825, daughter of Reuben and Lois P. {Bradbury} Lowell. Her grandfather, Joshua B. Lowell was one of the early settlers of Chesterville Hill. Reuben Lowell, who was a native of Chesterville, bought a part of his father’s farm, and engaged in agriculture at an early age. He was an honest, hard-working farmer, who made the most of his opportunities of advancing himself. He engaged in lumbering during the winter season, carrying his shingles by ox-team to Hallowell, Kennebec County, from which place they were shipped to Portland and Boston. He was also, to some extent, engaged in bridge building. Taking much interest in bees, he had a large apiary. In politics he supported the Democratic party, while he was liberal in his religious views. He died April 5, 1867, aged sixty-four years. His wife, who was born in Chesterville, May 26, 1806, daughter of John Bradbury, of York, Me., became the mother of nine children--Maria B., James M., Nathan R., John S., Joshua B., Arthur D., Jennie D., Julia F., and Albert C. James M., who was born in 1827, died in 1886; Nathan R., born in 1829, now resides in Oakland, Cal.; and Jennie D. is now the wife of the Rev. George B. Ilsley, of Bangor. The mother, who was a Calvinist Baptist, lived to the age of eighty-four years.
Maria B. Lowell acquired her education in the district schools of Chesterville and at the Farmington Academy. After teaching in the district schools of her native town for several years, she was similarly employed in the public schools of Bangor, Me., for four years, and in Rossville, Ia., for three years. Subsequently, in Haddonfield, N.J., she taught for three terms of ten months each, including in her work the instruction of an evening school for colored children during three months each year. After some years passed at her home in Maine, during which time her father died, she went to Gibsonville, Cal., where she taught for two years in the mountain districts, also spending some time in Sonoma and Napa Valley. She returned East in 1873, and has since resided with her brother, Joshua B., at the old homestead. Her brother’s wife, Mrs. Joshua B. Lowell, died in 1873, leaving one daughter, Carrie L., who was afterward reared by Miss Lowell. Carrie L. is now Mrs. Plaisted, and resides at the home farm. Miss Lowell’s last term of school was taught in her old school-house in Chesterville after her return from California. Since then she has lived in retirement. Her most gratifying reflection to-day is the fact that the educational work she has done has been fruitful in good results. Miss Lowell is a Baptist in religious belief, and a member of the First Calvinistic Baptist Church of Bangor.”
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