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by Jennifer Wixson (Editor), Yvette Young (Editor)
A detailed history of the extended family of Ephraim Crockett, Jr. and his wife Sally (Wentworth) Crockett, who settled Lee's Grant (then part of Norway, Maine) in 1814. The book is written by the couple's fourth-great granddaughter Jennifer Wixson, who in the late seventies and early eighties lived with her grandmother Winona (Young) Palmer at the old Crockett homestead. (The book's editor, Yvette Young, is also a fourth-great granddaughter of Ephraim and Sally Crockett.) The history covers the early settlement of Lee's Grant and Ephraim Crockett's initial purchase of Lot 45 there in 1812 from land speculator (and later, Auburn benefactor) Edward Little. Wixson covers the early days of the family on Crockett's Ridge (named for Ephraim Crockett, Jr.) and the marriage and settlement of Ephraim and Sally's children, four of whom wed children of Captain John Penley of Danville (Auburn). The story of the second generation of Crocketts is richly detailed with Penley and Crockett history, including land purchases in the greater Crockett's Ridge neighborhood. The story also follows the family of William Robinson Crockett (and his wife Lydia Stetson), who purchase the homestead from his parents. In 1850, William built the brick house, which still stands on the original homestead today. The early and unexpected illness and subsequent deaths of William and Lydia Crockett alters the course of history, as the family homestead is willed to their eldest daughter Emma Tuell (Crockett) Young, rather than the couple's son Abel Stetson Crockett. Emma and her new husband George P. Young promise to care for her minor sisters in exchange for the property. After George Young's shocking suicide a few years later, Emma finds salvation in the arms of Baptist minister John Harding, her second husband. Emma and John Harding travel New England furthering his career in Christian evangelism. Prior to her travels, Emma turns the Crockett homestead over to her and George's only child, son William "Bill" Foss Young. A lonely Bill immediately takes a wife, marrying Adalade Chaplin of Gorham, a teacher in the local neighborhood. The book's final chapter covers the dramatic story of Bill and Addie's challenging yet rewarding life together. When Bill's new (and very modern) dairy barn burns--taking with it their livelihood and money--Addie conceives of Young's Turkey Farm, which rises at the old Crockett homestead from the ashes of the fire. Over the course of a long agricultural career, the couple raise tens of thousands of turkeys (as well as three children and four grandchildren) at Young's Turkey Farm, which becomes a well-known landmark in Maine. Wixson's book is rich with maps, photographs, newspaper clippings, genealogies, and information from deeds and public records (sources are included in well-documented and informative footnotes), and will be a treasure trove for historians, historical societies, genealogists, Crockett, Penley, Richardson, Chaplin, and Young descendants, and those doing research on other families in the often overlooked Lee's Grant section of Norway. A helpful and extensive Index is included. Wixson's practiced prose (she is the author of numerous works of fiction) and personal connection to the story make "A History of the Crockett Family of Crockett's Ridge, Norway, Maine" a compelling and informative read.
