Willard B. Straw

  General Notes:

He was a joiner (craftsman who works with wood) and worked in the mills in Lowell, MA.

1850 Concord, Merrimack, NH
Willard Straw Census place Concord, Merrimack, New Hampshire Age 24 years Estimated birth year 1826 Birth place Vermont Gender Male Film number 443639 Digital GS number 4200591 Image number 00075 Reference number 17 Dwelling 499 Household id 517 ] In the Concord, Merrimack County, NH census of 29 July 1850 Willard is an Inmate in NH State Penitentiary. Serving sentence for burglary. His occ: is listed as a carpenter; his POB VT and he is age 24y (born c. 1825 or 1826)Next to his name is the entry of 1849 which appears to be the year the prisoner was incarcerated. His son Daniel was born Feb 1850 so in view of the fact that there were no conjugal visits back then, Willard and Ruth were still together in May of 1849 to have conceived a child.

(Per Sue Phaneuf) He may be a son of Russell Straw and Abigail Guptil? No proof.
Also per her research:
Stephen Caswell & Tabitha were married in Stewartstown, NH in Jan 1822; only their first child [Abigail] was born in NH [Nov. 1822]. By 1824, they were in Brompton.[Canada]
Ruth & Willard moved to the Lowell/Lawrence/Manchester area in the late 1840's to work at the textile mills. Ruth's second husband, William Reynolds [Sue Phaneuf's line], also lived up in Brompton & probably knew the Caswell family [especially since his youngest sister married Ruth's brother!]. They all moved down to make their 'fortunes'.
Ruth's cousin, Michael Bartlett Caswell, was a policeman living in Lowell, MA, at the time.
Now, more confusion: William Reynolds and his first wife lived next door to Jonathan Jones Straw [the superinten. of cemeteries], son of Levi & Miriam Jones Straw. The connection is there -- just lost in the muddle. (Could Willard B. be the s/o Jonathan Jones Straw?)

Willard married Ruth Ann Chandler Caswell, daughter of Stephen Caswell and Tabitha Chandler, in 1848 in Lowell, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. (Ruth Ann Chandler Caswell was born on 19 May 1826 in Stanstead Or Brompton, Que, Canada.)