Free Will Baptist Cemetery, Marker #30
(1822-1907)
Mary was born in Beaver River 2 Sept 1822 and died 23 July 1907, the seventh of twelve children of Josiah and Edith (Corning) Porter and one of only two daughters. Josiah was buried in Founders Cemetery. Edith may have been buried there as well.
Mary was married 5 Dec 1841 in Beaver River by the Rev Harris Harding to Eleazer C Raymond, a son of Abijah and Zilpha (Crocker) Raymond. Eleazer’s mother is buried in Founders Cemetery.
Mary and Eleazer had twelve children, 3 sons and 9 daughters, all but one of whom lived into adulthood. They had 44 known grandchildren. It has been said that over half the children born in the Port Maitland & Beaver River area in the 20th century could trace their ancestry back to Eleazer and Mary. In addition to many with the surname Raymond, seven of their daughters married and had children with the surnames Sollows, Curry, Nickerson, Moses, Brown and Crosby.
Two daughters, Lillian and Josephine, were buried in the Free Will Baptist Cemetery and are named on the same grave marker as their parents, as is their son Charles who was lost at sea. Eight of their children are buried in Island Cemetery, the current cemetery for Port Maitland and Beaver River.
One of Mary’s ancestors, through her mother, may have been William Knowlton, whose grave marker in Shelburne is among the earliest for any English settler in Nova Scotia—it simply reads “William Knowlton, 1632”.
More about Mary and her family appears in the Old Stones Family Group Sheet Index.
Please leave a comment if you have any additional information about Mary and her life, particularly her place of death.