Now, lets look at Laura’s husband. My Great Grandfather, Bill Balentine’s mother died when he was 10. His son and namesake, Bill Jr, had his Mom die at 10 years old. Bill’s father, Elijah, had his mother die when he was 4 years old, and his father Elijah Sr, had his mother die when he was 2. That is 4 generations in a row where the mother died leaving motherless children.

So we have 3 lines of motherless girls marry into 4 lines of motherless sons.

When I started my dive into family history, the genealogists that I happened to met along the way warned me of patterns.Look for them, they said as they would make for the best stories.

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I am sure he must have enjoyed painting a picture of himself as someone who had the courage and whimsy to name themselves after their beer, marry an Indian and be chased out of the tribe. But then there are always people like me who come along with a drive and focus to sort out real history and quite frankly ruin really good stories like this. I have to admit, if I could have lunch with anyone in history, he is at the top of my list. I wish I had known him.

I am also reminded that in a group photo he is seen posed with a dress form. His explanation was she was the only woman who would stay with him. My Grandfather told me that his Dad, Bill was quite the prankster.

So now I had the pleasure of attempting to document his lineage. Diving deep into research, I come up only with a mess. I have him as William, William L,. William Loring, William E., Willie E. and William Lorin. I had birthdates spanning a near decade and lots of mistaken written accounts online from other distant family members. Attempting to match names and dates and verify anything at all become close to hilarious.Should I be looking for Indians after all? Add that there seems to be hundreds of William Balentines in Maine, multiple Elijahs,all living in the same area, it seemed difficult to tease out my specific William Balentine.

But my task is complete. I have pulled up enough documentation by way of Census records, Social Security cards, marriage, death, and cross referencing others that were closely related to him. I am confident that I figured him out.

His Father is Elijah J Balentine of York, Maine, originally born in Bethel. Elijah named his son William E. Balentine. We don’t know what E. stood for. We do know that Elijah nicknamed his son,Willie. And for the rest of his life in Maine, he is Willie E. When he comes for Massachusetts, he then goes by Bill in oral history and William Loring on records. Loring was not his given middle name but he assumed it later in life.  He had other relatives that had Loring as a middle name so I wonder the reason. I also wonder if changing from Willie to Bill is the basis for the story about name changes. No way to know.

I have a photo of my Grandfather. I also have Bill, his Dad and now I have Elijah, his grandfather.

I  am continuing to prove this line. Once I am past Elijah, the next few generations have lots of records data so they are easy. Then I hit a line David Balentine that offers a name with no dates, spouse or death. That will be one that requires some real investigation.

And the immigrant, George Balentine of whom I am told received a grant from the King in Virginia doesn’t appear to be right either. If this immigrant is true, he was actually an indentured servant who came over as young man from Scotland lived as a servant to Mr. Burrows and then was released 3 years early in his contract as Mr. Burrows died. He then married a widow, had 10 children and bought land later in life.

We will see as the story unfolds. But for today I am happy to know that Bill was once a boy named Willie.

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Here is The Olden Days, by Alfred Thomas Balentine.

(This is a 6 page document hand written by Alfred Balentine while he lived in Iowa for the purpose of passing on his memories to be preserved in family history. It is handwritten in pen with many scribbles and corrections. I have neither edited text nor spelling as the original is from his hand.)

Here starts my Grandfathers hand written story for me to pass onto you.

Page 1
Olden Days 1929
As far back as I remember about 1929, being I was born in 1919.The Blacksmith shop was owned by George Grey and my father worked with him for about 10 years. George Grey then retired and left the shop to my father, William Balentine.
My father worked in the shop by himself for about 10 years. In those days he would have a lot of horses to shoe. I can remember as a little fellow seeing as many as 6 or 7 waiting to have new shoes.
There wasn’t many auto those days and the trolley cards would go by on tracks with a crossing bypass on Washington St. and it went to Abington Center to Rockland and back then to No. Abington throu Howard Corner Washington St to Abington Again. My father would have two long horses from Little Fred Wyman’s Nursery in No Abington on Adams St come to the shop. Horses has never had shoes so they would have to put a oak twist on the lower lip and twist it to take the attention away from him working on his hoof. So my brother and I had to hold the twist. We were 10-12 years old. Ice was delivered by wagon from Island grove. Meat and Groceries were delivered by horse and wagon from Abington Center.

Page 2
The owners would leave there wagon and horse at the shop when they were through with their delivery and they would walk home.
When my father was through shoeing the horses he would harness them to the wagons and tie the reins up in the wagon and send them home by themselves. Being near feeding time, they would go right home to their barn.
So then came those funny gasoline wagons and so went the trolley cars. Also the horse slowed way down and the busy old shop was very slow and my father lost his wife and he had children to raise so he started making oak wheel barrels to sell. He was also a carpenter and was to make wagon and wagon wheel at the blacksmith shop. He at one time made an ice Boat for someone from Abington.
But as everything was changing so fast, he had to give up the shop as he couldn’t make enough money to feed and cloth all of us so he went to carpentry.
I remember thing was so slow that he did a lot of work in the Blacksmith shop for the wonderful Mr. Griffin’s milk farm. And at Christmas times for two years Mr.Griffin gave my father money so we could have Christmas Dinner. He was the kindest man I ever met. We always went out to visit him and see the animals at the farm. I always remember his daughter Mary Griffin and Jim and Esther.

Page 3

A lot of people would stop at the Blacksmith shop to visit him, tell stories and watch him work. As my father did a lot of rot iron fancy work for door hinges for barns and houses. One of the men was John L. Sullivan the boxer as he used to live in West Abington. His estate is still there today.
There is a big stone, like a mill stone that was used to put the steel rims on the wooden wheel. The steel rim was placed on the stone and small pieces of woof be places all over it. Then set on fire to get I the right temperature.
Then the wooden inside od the wheel witch was made in the shop was mold down back and placed in the millstones after the steel rim and hammered on very evenly and cooled very slowly.The rim and wheel would last until the rim wore out.
The big barn down back was built to keep the wagons in until they were reaped or completely built.

Page 4.
We also had a lot of fun in Abington. I started my first grade in Dunbar school in Abington.
Then my farther sent us to Adams Street school in No. Abington, there I graduated and went to work to help out at home.
I worked for Atwood and Co. for 6 years and then started work in heavy equipment. I have a lot of wonderful friends in Abington and No. Abington and So. Weymouth where my wonderful wife lived with me. I am happy to think of all the fun we had at Island Grove.
Years ago there was a band concert every weekend and we use to rent a canoe and paddle around the pond and hear the music.
There used to be groups come from towns around the Brockton, Rockland, Whitman, Hanover to have Company picnics. That is where I met my wife, Sara Kohler and was married for 57 years.

Page 5
The buses came in from the back side and parked. There was a wonderful path that started at the left of the Bus Park and want around the over by the swimming beach and band stand, back up to the Archway and down to the left and around north end of the pouin back to the bus parking lot.
It was a very lovely world for people young and old.
Many years ago there was a heavy growth of pine trees that made it pretty and the big hurricane took a lot of the beautiful pines down. My wife and I up until 10 years ago, still use to walk the trail. We have a lot of good memories of the grove, the bridge and the archway. Even as my lovely wife is gone, my children and grandchildren still have wonderful memories of Island Grove.

Alfred T. Balentine Sr.

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