MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS BILLINGTON FAMILY....

POSTCARD CHRISTMAS GREETINGS WERE POPULAR IN THE 20'S..

HERE IS ONE THAT WAS SENT TO SID AND EVA BILLINGTON 
POSTMARKED DEC 23, 1921. 
It is addressed as only Livingston, Montana and sent from Mr. & Mrs. Walter Nickelson.  

In other news this year, much information has come our way concerning the Boyden and Loring family history from Maine and Massachusetts.  Just to remind everyone reading this, Sid Billington's mother was Estella Loring Boyden.  At the age of 10 (1880) she lived with her father Elijah Loring Boyden in the back part of his Photography Studio, Deadwood, SD.  Elijah was born in Perry, Maine in 1836.  His father was Otis Boyden and his mother was Eliza Loring.  Many thanks to our cousin Ellen (Chaussee) Wilhelm who visited the area where the Boyden and Loring families lived in the early 1800's.  She took pictures of the grave sites in the Boyden Cemetery there and met local genealogists who have since introduced us to other historians in the area.  They have communicated with us by phone,  email, and snail mail sending interesting facts and websites, featuring life in early Maine. We have received names, dates and places that take us back generations on our family pedigree tree.

At our next Billington Reunion I will share a DVD telling about the Boyden families that lived around Boyden Lake. This DVD also demonstrates how the Boyden family members made brooms out of a single yellow pine branch and sold them locally.

In addition I will prepare detailed pedigree charts with names and dates back to the immigrant families that arrived from England and settled first in Massachusetts.  Here is a shortened version of the research.


Elijah Boyden 1836-1906 md Ann Mcdonald 1850-1870    MAINE

Otis Boyden  1801-1873 md Eliza Loring 1800-1894         MAINE

Dolphe Boyden 1771-1858 md Polly Morse 1772-1836      MAINE

Jacob Boyden 1744-1818 md Sarah Patten 1743-1854      MASS

Seth Boyden 1715-1775 md Elizabeth Turner 1718-1760    MASS

Jonathan Boyden 1670-1719 md Esther Thurston 1673-1755 MASS

Jonathan Boyden 1651-1732 md Ann _ 1655-1735             MASS

Thomas Boyden 1613-1682   md Frances__            1617-1658                 England

* for those who want to see the entire Boyden family from Thomas to Elijah
(at the very end), the website is http://www.archive.org/stream/thomasboyden
(however  information about Elijah's life in the west is not included)


Eliza Loring 1800- 1894- md Otis Boyden  1801-1873                           MAINE

Zaccheus Loring 1773-1853  md Elizabeth Patterson ..1823                   MAINE

Zachariah Loring 1733-1805  md Mary Joy 1741                                    MASS

Jacob Loring  1676-1751  md Hannah Jacob 1696-1778                          MASS

John Loring 1630-1661  md Mary Baker 1639-1679                                England

Thomas Loring  1575-1661  md Jane Newton  1571-1672                       England

*for those who want to see the entire Loring family from Thomas
 to Eliza (p83) the website is:https://archive.org/stream/loringgenealogy
Information about Eliza and Otis' family is not included here.




REJOICE!!!  Merry Christmas to all and a Happy 2015...and remember:

"All of us are innkeepers and we decide if we will let Jesus in."  ..Neal A Maxwell

LETTER FROM THE PAST-DS Billington

In 1937, D. S. Billington sent the following letter to his son Sid and his family when they lived in Dixon Montana.  I  am copying the original..handwriting as it is..yellowed by age, including the envelope stamped with a 3 cent stamp.

Reprinted here with punctuation:

  Dear Eva & Sid & all the family,

Thanks for the Birthday Greetings.  Well, it is raining here & has been for sometime...the most we have had in several years.  They had a flood at Belle Fourche..ruined their tourist park & other damage.  Frank Avery & wife was here to see us one evening.  Art Pike is here also now.  Eva, I am taking your suggestion seriously about holding a family reunion there next summer..if Joe & Binks (Hazel) come out next summer.  Les said he would come if the others would.  I think you will see Leo, Jr. there about the 1st of Aug...he is in Bismark, ND now in a training camp for boys.

Everything is green here.   I have the best garden I ever had..lawn's green & weeds plentiful..keeps me feeling fine fighting them.   We had a good visit with Les & Dale & I guess you did also.  Cecil says her kids are having the time of their lives.  Hope the rain I sent (is) keeping you from haying.  Well, I can't think of anything of interest to write so will quit.  I think Stella will write some later.  Say Hello to all the kiddies.  I had a long birthday from Sunday before till Sunday after.  Love to all           Dad

**********

It was probably that following year that the Sid Billington family had visitors in Arlee, but the only picture we have is below with Aunt Hazel.  I am thinking that Hazel's husband, Joe Colaw, took this picture.  In one of Estelle's letters she says she didn't see her brother Sid until she was 20 years old...so that would be the year 1939.

ElDee  Bill Blondie Hazel Sid in back
Eva Donna Jo Stella Carol in front

In her letter Estelle also said she and her dad stayed with Les after his wife Dale passed away in 1938. Dee appears on the 1940 Census with his son Les in Merced, California.  Dee stayed with Les for two years, but also stayed with his daughter Estelle, for a total of 6 years in California.  He was there at her wedding to her husband Jim Fontana, June 11, 1944 in Carmel California. Later Dee died at Estelle's house in Carmel, on July 5, 1944, one day before his 89th birthday.

Estelle and Father on June 11, 1944

Footnote;  If any readers of this blog have other letterrs of interest to the family that you would be willing to share, please contact me at lana.rankin@yahoo.com.