This beautiful person was Lillian Thayer. According to the previous owner of this lost photo, she was a school teacher, to whom they “went several terms”.
The sleeves and the collar suggest the fashion of the late 1880s to early 1890s. She could be in her early 20s, so perhaps she was born in the early 1870s.
The photo was printed in Trenton, New Jersey, so this is where I began my search. To my disappointment, I came up with nothing. But as I was looking through the search results, I came across a familiar surname – Stoddard. This would become Lillian Thayer’s married name. I had blogged about a Stoddard before – in connection with Rena Hartt who had married Herbert Stoddard. You can read about Rena on my blog (Link HERE). The photos came from the same seller in America. But I had not made the connection until now that I compared the handwritings on both photos. The photos were originally labelled by the same person! Rena and Lillian in our photos both married the Stoddard brothers from East Montpelier, Vermont!
Now that I was convinced I’ve found the right Lillian, her story began to reveal itself layer by layer. Make sure you read until the very last layer ;-).
Lillian L. Thayer was born on April 3, 1874, in Middlesex, Worcester in Vermont. From what I could find, she was the only child of farmer Selden W. Thayer (1847-1926) and his wife Huldah Ana née Darling (1847-1927).
She was a keen learner at school (one without absent marks), and after graduation she worked as a teacher in Worcester, Shady Rill and Middlesex in Vermont:
Link: newspapers.com
Link: newspapers.com
I haven’t been able to find her connection to Trenton in N.J. If only the 1890 Census lists had survived! They probably could have given us some insight as to where Lillian was and what she was up to when she had this photo taken.
On June 10, 1896, Lillian married James Ervin Stoddard. James, born in September 1873, was the older brother of Herbert Stoddard. James was a furniture finisher. He restored old furniture and was well respected for his skills.
In the 1900 Census, I find the couple sharing the house at 47 Patter Avenue in Barre, Vermont, with several parties. At first, I couldn’t find the couple anywhere in the 1900 Census, because whoever had transcribed the Census lists for Ancestry, had made a mistake with James’ first name in the records. They had listed him as Frank Ira Stoddard. The 1910 Census still remains a mystery.
In 1917, James was drafted to the US Army at 43. By 1920, the couple had moved in with Lillian’s parents Selden and Huldah Thayer in Worcester Branch Road in Montpelier, Vermont. By 1930, after Lillian’s parents had passed away in 1926-27, Lillian and James were residing at 500 Elm Street in Montpelier. This could have been their house:
Sadly, James passed away in 1935. His obituary praises his life-long dedication to restoring old furniture:
Link: newspapers.com
Maybe the house got too big for Lillian and it held too many memories, but in 1941, Lillian decided to move to Burlington. Lillian lived a long life of 95 years and passed away on July 22, 1969, at the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Chittenden, Vermont. I’ve added her photo to FamilySearch.
Link: newspapers.com
I was just about to close the chapter on Lillian, and was pretty sure I had exhausted my research when I came across this poem, published in The Burlington Free Press on February 11, 1936:
Link: newspapers.com
It was signed by Lillian Stoddard from Montpelier, Vermont. My heart skipped a beat when I read it. Sweet Lillian was in deep mourning at the time. I believe she dedicated this poem to her late husband James, who had passed away a year earlier.
I then wondered if the poem was a one-off or if perhaps she had published any others. To me, this poem reeks of so much emotion and longing, hardly beginner’s luck! Now that I knew what to search, I found dozens of poems by her, published in The Burlington Free Press, between the mid-1930s to the late-1950s.
I wonder if Lillian discovered her talent as a way of processing her grief after the loss of her husband. Or perhaps she had always been one excellent with words. Perhaps her love for the English language made her want to become a teacher? After combing through the newspaper clippings with her name for the second time, I discovered that she had been a member of the Montpelier Scribbles Club in the late 1930s and later attended poetry classes in Burlington. She was featured in some of the compilations of local Montpelier poets, she won a few poetry awards and was often invited to recite her poems at local events.
Her poems are an homage to her home, the State of Vermont and its beautiful nature. She also wrote about her friends and God, about wishes unfulfilled and the little things that make life worthwhile. She was brilliant and I hope one day a book of poems by Lillian Thayer Stoddard will be published in honour of her memory.
These are some of my favourite poems by Lillian. Rest in peace, you gentle soul!
(1937)
(1937)
(1938)
(1939)
(1939)
(1939)
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