Lucinda Allen Oak at ninety-four

Lucinda Allen was born in the old town of Bloomfield, on the Kennebec opposite Skowhegan, Maine, and lived to be ninety-five. Her husband's will left everything to her. The papers of her last years show a sharp mind, a good hand with a pen and a town that counted her birthdays.

Bloomfield and the church

Her birthday fell on 28 September; the ages the papers gave her over the years point to 1820. The newspaper account places her birth in Bloomfield, "on what is now called the Back road"; Bloomfield became part of Skowhegan in 1861. Her 1916 notice calls her the daughter of Ansel and Sarah (Lander) Allen, and an 1886 will leaves money to "my wife's sister, Sarah Allen," and to Lucinda Oak, "my wife's niece."

The Baptist church's historical sketch, published in 1903, records that she joined in January 1838, when she was about seventeen (later birthday reports said fifteen or sixteen); she remained a member for seventy-eight years and was its oldest member by 1912.

Teacher, farm wife and mother

A 1918 local history of "The Old Red Schoolhouse at Larone," written from an old resident's memories, lists "Miss Lucinda Allen who married Samuel Oak of Skowhegan" among its teachers. It is the only record of her teaching and gives no dates.

Afterward she married Samuel Oak, a farmer. The Bloomfield town clerk's handwritten return appears to record their marriage on October 11, 1847. Family records and later newspaper accounts place them for a few years in his hometown of Exeter, where their first two children were born, and a return to Bloomfield by 1860.

Later accounts place their home for many years on a farm in the Bigelow Hill neighborhood. They describe a family of six children, three of whom died before her.

Samuel Oak's will, 27 January 1896

On 27 January 1896 Samuel signed a short will. It reads, in part:

Samuel died on January 7, 1900, aged 83, and the will was filed two days later. Five months afterward, on June 15, their son Charles died at 51. Lucinda was about 79 when she lost her husband and son; the age rests on a birth year of about 1820.

Lucinda's widowhood in Skowhegan

Newspaper accounts describe Lucinda living from 1900 with her youngest daughter, Nina, and Nina's husband, Nahum S. Steward, first on Pleasant Street and then on Water Street in Skowhegan. The local papers kept track of her. At ninety-two she was "able to see, to read and write, being a very good penman," and still helped "considerably in the duties of the household"; that birthday brought her postcards from friends across the country.

The report of her ninety-fourth birthday describes her receiving callers "with keen wit and kindly greetings."

The papers reported two falls in August 1916 and her death on the night of 17 August 1916 at the Stewards' home, aged 95. They called her the oldest woman in Skowhegan. The papers put her death down to a broken hip. According to the same accounts, her funeral was held there on 20 August, conducted by the pastor of the First Baptist Church, and she was buried in Southside Cemetery with Samuel.

Evidence note: The later disposition of the Bigelow Hill farm and Samuel's estate is not established in the cited records. Two birthday notices call Lucinda's husband Nathaniel; his will and death notice identify him as Samuel.

Sources

• The Independent-Reporter (Skowhegan), 24 August 1916, p. 3, obituary and portrait: www.loc.gov/resource/sn96075050/1916-08-24/ed-1/?sp=3 ; birthday reports of 3 October 1912, 2 October 1913 and 1 October 1914; "The Old Red Schoolhouse at Larone," 11 July 1918, p. 1: www.loc.gov/resource/sn96075050/1918-07-11/ed-1/?sp=1
• Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta), 19 August 1916, p. 7: www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014248/1916-08-19/ed-1/?sp=7 ; birthday reports of 30 September 1912 and 1913.
• The Somerset Reporter (Skowhegan): historical sketch of the First Baptist Church, 29 October 1903, p. 7: www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022565/1903-10-29/ed-1/?sp=7 ; "Death of Mr. Samuel Oak," 11 January 1900, p. 8: www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022565/1900-01-11/ed-1/?sp=8
• Lewiston Sun-Journal, 19 August 1916, p. 12 (clipping in the family tree).
• Somerset County, Maine, Probate Records, vol. 94, p. 303: will of Samuel Oak. Piscataquis County, Maine, Probate Records: will of John Burnett of Guilford, 1886. Maine death record of Charles Oak, 1900. Cited without links.