Help needed: George Buck, brick-wall ancestor in Penobscot Co, Maine

Question

I've hit a brick wall with one of my 3rd-great-grandfathers that I've been struggling with for a while. I hope someone here has some hints that can help me move past my inability to locate many records on him.

Here's what I know: George Buck (middle initial probably W, but possibly H) lived in Glenburn, Maine, in 1862. He married Hannah Kelley of nearby Orono, Maine, in July of that year. They were married in Burlington, Maine. They had a son (George Wilmer) in March 1863. Pretty shortly thereafter they moved to Waupaca County, Wisconsin. In December 1863 George enlisted in the 21st Wisconsin Volunteers under the assumed name Charles H. Noyes. By August 1864 he was dead of wounds suffered in battle and is now buried in Nashville with the assumed name on his headstone.

All this information is from Hannah's application for George's Civil War pension, at first for both herself and their son, then, after she remarried, just for George Wilmer. I haven't been able to find any other definite records of George.

Here are some of the assumptions I've been using to try and help narrow down my search: Most of the Bucks residing in Penobscot County, Maine, (where all three Maine locations above are located) around 1860 were descendants of Abijah Buck, founder of Buckfield, Maine, or one of his brothers; it seems most likely that George is related. This theory is sort of supported by the fact that George and Hannah were married in Burlington, which isn't really that close to Glenburn or Orono. However, Burlington is very near where Thomas Jefferson Buck, John W Buck, and Cyrus Buck (all grandsons of Abijah) settled in the towns of Enfield, Lowell, and Lincoln. Another Abijah grandson, also named Abijah also seems to have been rattling around the vicinity around that time. All this leads me to guess that George, our mystery man, was closely related to these cousins/siblings and that one or several of them hosted the wedding celebration. Of course, it is only a guess based merely on proximity.

Anyone have any ideas about how to narrow in on an answer?

Comments

 ImageText-only collection

Name:	George E Buck
Gender:	Male
Spouse:	Hannah Estes
Child:	Buck
Film Number:	000009927

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Maine, Marriage Index, 1670-1921 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

 data

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Name:	George Everett Buck
Gender:	Male
Spouse:	Hannah E Buck
Child:	Dollie M Buck

Source Citation

Maine State Archives; Cultural Building, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084; Pre 1892 Delayed Returns; Roll Number: 14

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No Image
Text-only collection

Plaintiff:	George E Buck
Defendant:	Hannah E Buck [Hannah E Estes]
Divorce Date:	Mar 1883
Divorce Place:	Oxford Maine
Docket Number:	568
Court:	SJC
Vol/Pg:	20/16

Source Information

Ancestry.com. Maine, Divorce Records, 1798-1891 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

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Name:	George E Buck
Gender:	Male
Birth Date:	8 Aug 1845
Birth Place:	Portland, Cumberland, Maine, USA
Father:	William Buck
Mother:	Lucy Buck

Source Citation

Maine State Archives; Cultural Building, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084; Pre 1892 Delayed Returns; Roll Number: 14

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Maybe the Bucks are mixed up. Are you sure about Hannah being an Estes ?

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Thanks for your help Eddie! I'm sure Hannah's maiden name was Kelley and pretty sure her middle name was Estes (her mother's maiden name). I think the people you found records for are a different couple. The Hannah in question definitely applied for and received George's Civil War pension on behalf of her son. I'm not sure that would be possible if they had divorced.

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Sorry I couldn't find the right guy

Answer 1

Find it interesting the James Page who married George Buck, his wife was Betsey Buck.

Comments

This is extremely interesting, Francis! This might be the start of a breakthrough. Just found James and Betsey's profiles and, indeed, there is the Buckfield connection. They really moved en mass to the area around Burlington. Betsey is a sister of Thomas Jefferson Buck. This all but confirms for me that George was a fairly close relative of that branch.

Answer 2

Not much help on your brick wall, but he and his wife have FamilySearch profiles.  I went ahead and linked them.  Both have Find A Grave memorials as well.  Here is a format for George's Find A Grave citation including the template, should you wish to use it:

Find A Grave, database and images, memorial page for George Wilmer Buck, Sr (18 Mar 1863–20 Sep 1943), {{FindAGrave|61993066|sameas=yes}}, citing Historic Columbian Cemetery, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA ; Maintained by Martha (contributor 47144896).

Comments

Thanks for your help, Michael! That template for find a grave looks nice; I'll implement it a little later. If only there were more records available for George Wilmer's father George, darn it.

Answer 3

Hi,

  Have you checked to see if Glenburn or Burlington have them in their records, perhaps in a town history?  Or if there is a Buck family genealogy? My family's genealogy had some good hints in both town histories and family name books.  If you can't find them online, let me know and I will check the Maine State Library to see if either town has histories for that time frame.

Comments

Thank you for offering to help, J. I haven't found much in the way of records online for either town. It would be amazing if you can check the Maine State Library for me!

The closest to a history of either is an old history book that covers Penobscot County. The only Buck's that really get a mention there are Thomas Jefferson Buck and his first son Joseph Shorey Buck. Not a lot of help.

Genealogy books have been a bit of a bust too. The only really detailed book on the Bucks in Maine is by Elizabeth S Richards and she focuses pretty exclusively on the branch that founded and settled Bucksport. While Bucksport is just downriver from Orono, Glenburn, Burlington, and the rest, modern Penobscot and Piscataquis counties seem to have been settled by the Buckfield branch before the Bucksport folks made it up the river some years after the period of interest. Cole and Whitman make a valiant attempt at some genealogy in their History of Buckfield but they lose the thread pretty quickly after any of the descendants of (mostly) Abijah and his brothers moved away from Oxford County.

Answer 4

George E Buck is here.

Birth https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2H24-PG1

1850 census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6JL-F44

1860 census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7WG-7Y5

But George H Buck is a completely different buck. 

1850 census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6JG-3H6

1860 census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDHB-L9Z

Marriage https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F48R-TQQ

child's marriage https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRLT-N9J

Then there is a George Buck just to be a pain.

1850 census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6V4-CNT

And one more for fun.

1860 census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDC3-VD5

A buck buck here and a buck buck there. Here a buck. There a buck, Everywhere a buck buck.

But I'm betting old Macdonald is betting on George H.

E-I-E-I-OHHHHHHH!!!

Comments

Thanks for giving me some possibilities here, Steven. I have managed to rule out most of these fellas, however.

George E. Buck probably continued to live in Gorham, New Hampshire, into 1900 at least; about 35 years after the George Buck in question moved to Wisconsin, signed up to fight and pretty promptly died what sounds like a painful death from pyaemia.

I haven't researched enough to confirm it, but George H. Buck may have lived until at least the 1930's when we find him living in California. The marriage record you found may be him or it may be a transcription error for the more likely George W. Buck. His middle initial appears as W on all other documents. Since familysearch doesn't tell us where the marriage record comes from (besides "Maine") it's difficult to confirm much from it. Both George Buck and Hannah Kelley were common enough names in the area at the time. The marriage record of George Wilmer is that of my great-great-grandfather, though. I definitely need to research this guy more.

The George Buck you found in the 1850 census appears to be George A. Buck, who seems to have continued living in Fairfield until at least 1880. This is about 15 years after the George Buck in question is supposed to have died in Nashville.

The last George Buck you found in the 1860 census probably died in or around Vassalboro in 1869, which explains why he dropped out of the census record. Again, this doesn't line up with the known facts of our George Buck's final few years of life.

I appreciate your efforts. I'm afraid the census doesn't have any answers for me, though. The most likely guy I found is one George Buck living in Wisconsin during the 1860 census. I can't track him past that point, so he may just as well have gone to Maine as a very young man, married an 18-year old, then brought her back to Wisconsin and immediately left for war. I think it's a long shot, but it's a possibility.

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You know, this could be an H.W. situation here like the Bush President and has 2 middle names?

Also, I'm not sure how you are attempting to sort it out but I often open a notepad and try to sort out sources by "Maine" points. If it gets more complicated, I'll use excel. But that way you can see which sources might fit together. That is the hardest part of genealogy is when you get multiple people tangled together.

I spent almost 3 weeks untangling a mess with John Shaw, had most of the merges taken care of, and at the last moment it was merged and then all the reasons for the merge were moved to a brand new one.