Franklin Farrar Gould

FREEPORT - Franklin Farrar Gould, author of "A Maine Man in The Making" and head of one of the state's most widely known literary families, died in a Brunswick hospital early SAturday. He was 87 years old. Funeral Services will be at 2 p.m. Monday at 123 Main St. here. Burial will be in Lisbon Falls. Mr. Gould's book, an autobiographical account of his boyhood and the only one he wrote, was published by Harper in 1950. It included a tribute to "My Wonderful Uncle Levi" which had appeared previously in the Saturday Evening Post and which had been described by the magazine's editor as "... one of the finest pieces we've ever published." Several other members of the family also were writers, including his son, John T. Gould of Lisbon Falls, author of numerous books and stories and editor of the defunct weekly paper, The Enterprise. Mr. Gould was born on the Gould Farm in Lisbon Falls Oct. 8, 1878, and was named for Benjamin Franklin Farrar, his father's tentmate during the Civil War. He left home at 15, did farm work in New Hampshire, clerked in a Portsmouth, N.H. grocery store and then became a meat-cutter in the Houghton & Dutton Market, Boston. He later spent six years as a conductor on the Boston Elevated Railway, after which he was appointed to the Railway Mail Service. He retired 32 years later. In 1918, because Freeport was convenient for his Bangor-Boston run, he bought the old A. Q. Carter home here. He was active in the breeding of fancy poultry and served for years as president of the National American Dominique Association, a society for poultrymen. He had exhibited his prize-winning birds as far away as Australia. He was a member of the the Freeport Lodge of Masons and a former member of the Railway Mail Association. He also had served at one time as treasurer of the Congregational Church. Also surviving are his widow, the former Hilda D. Jenkins of Prince Edward Island; another son, Franklin Farrar Gould, Jr., of Durham, N.H., a teacher at the University of New Hampshire; two daughters, Mrs. Alden H. Grant of Leeds, a teacher in the Freeport schools, and Mrs. Andrew t. Ball of Caldwell, N.J.; a sister, Mrs Mary Emma Pickup of Medford, Mass.; 13 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.

• ********************************** The Christian Science Monitor

By John Gould / September 3, 2003

Frank quit school and left home at 15 to seek his fortune in Boston. Hilda, half Scottish, was as pretty as a field of Highland heather. She'd come to Boston to seek a husband. Frank was the lucky man. The couple lived in a three-decker apartment house on Champney Street until John was born. Then they moved to suburban Medford, first to a flat and then to a single-family home on a double lot at 28 Grant Ave. Here, Frank had land enough for a garden and a stable for hens, rabbits, and pigeons. The neighborhood was mostly immigrant Belgian, and the Belgians ate rabbits and raced homing pigeons. The hens and eggs were the assertion of a homesick Maine boy.

Two weeks' work in six days

Frank studied by mail and passed the exam for a railway postal clerk. In 1916 he was appointed such, and for the next 40-odd years "ran" on the Vanceboro & Boston Railway Post Office. His job began and ended at Portland, Maine, so he found a house in Freeport. In May 1918 the Goulds moved to Maine. John was 10 and had a sister Louise and a brother Franklin Jr. His sister Kathryn MacLeod was born in Freeport on Aug. 24, 1918.

As a railway postal clerk, Frank worked "six and eight": in six days on the train he worked the equivalent of two weeks' time. Accordingly he had eight days for "rest, study, and relaxation" after each tour. This may sound like a bed of roses, but John recalled how his father staggered home to sleep for two days and then sat up for two more days memorizing postal routes and addresses.

But he had his miniature Sabine farm with fruit trees, bees, cow, pig, and a flock of Dominique hens.

Family links:

Parents:

 Thomas Jordan Gould (1841 - 1929)

 Hannah Elizabeth Foster Gould (1848 - 1927)

Spouse:

 Hilda Dobson Jenkins Gould (1886 - 1989)

Children:

 John T Gould (1908 - 2003)*

 Louise Catherine Gould Grant (1911 - 2011)*

*Calculated relationship

Inscription:

GOULD

HUSBAND FRANKLIN F. GOULD OCT. 8, 1878 - FEB. 12, 1966

WIFE HILDA D. JENKINS DEC. 14, 1886 - DEC. 3, 1989

Note: Author of "A Maine Man in the Making" (1949)

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=75844915