American-born Adeline Boardman Todd lived in New Brunswick after her marriage to a wealthy businessman, and was known for her Sunday school stories for children.
Entry revised by Linnea McNally
The eldest of nine children, Adeline Boardman was born in Newburyport, MA, to William Boardman (1789-1866) and Esther Wigglesworth Tappan (1793-1877), descendants of families from Yorkshire, England, who in the late 1630s arrived in Newburyport, where they engaged in shipbuilding and foreign commerce.
When her parents moved to Calais, ME, on account of her father William’s financial setbacks, Adeline was sent back to Newburyport to study for an additional two years. At the age of sixteen, upon joining the family in Calais, she began teaching in public schools in addition to writing stories and sketches for Boston's
Adeline’s 1838 marriage to “millionaire”
Subjected to months of her own sickness, Adeline was a patient for a time at the Round Hill water-cure establishment in Northampton, MA. While confined to her room, she passed the time writing stories to entertain her children. With their encouragement, she later sent her stories to be published under the pseudonym "Aunt Abbie" by the American Baptist Publishing House in Boston. Four of her Sunday school books (
Adeline died in St. Stephen, ON, in 1882.
William Boardman, Jr. was born in Newburyport, MA, to Captain William Boardman (1762-1793) and Mary Short (1766-1847). William Jr. married Esther Wigglesworth Tappan in 1815; they eventually had nine children. William was a successful merchant and businessman in Newburyport, but was eventually overtaken by “financial reverses” and moved with his family to Calais, ME, in about 1826. In Calais, he became a bookkeeper. Reportedly, William became “over excited” at his fiftieth wedding anniversary (perhaps had heart trouble), and never fully recovered in health. He died in Calais, ME, in 1866.
Esther Wigglesworth Tappan was born in Newburyport, MA, to Stephen Tappan (1756-1839) and Edna Little (1758-1844), both of pioneering families in Newbury. Esther married William Boardman II in 1815. The couple had nine children. Esther died in 1877 in Milltown, ME.
William was a clerk and treasurer.
George was a merchant, as well as a prominent taxidermist, ornithologist, and author of
Gorham, a bookkeeper, settled in New York, where he was proprietor of Gorham Boardman Company, lumber merchants.
Charles Boardman was a trader.
Mary Boardman was the mother of American educator Dr. Edwin Grant Dexter (1868-1938), Roosevelt’s Commissioner of Education in Puerto Rico.
Freeman Hale Todd was born in North Yarmouth, ME, to Hannah Worthley (1775-1845) and William Todd (1776-1846), a schoolteacher and later ship-building merchant in Portland and North Yarmouth, ME, who descended from one of the first families to settle in Goffstown, NH. When William’s business met with heavy loss in 1811, he moved the family to St. Stephen, NB, where Freeman grew up.
Freeman studied one year at the Gardner Lyceum in Maine, then began employment as a store clerk. He moved to St. Stephen, NB, in about 1833, the year in which he married Hezediah Grant (1813-1836), and in which he began his own business. Widowed, Freeman married Adeline Boardman in 1838 in Calais, ME. The couple had eight children together. Their sons proved important participants in Freeman’s lumber manufacturing, merchandising, and shipping endeavours; F.H. Todd & Sons grew quickly, establishing Freeman as one of the wealthiest and most successful businessmen in St. Stephen and in Calais, the company’s two primary ports.
Ever the entrepreneur, Freeman continued to add various pursuits to his repertoire. In 1872, he co-founded and became President of the St. Croix Lloyds insurance company for shipping vessels. In about 1873, he became President of the New Brunswick and Canada Railway, and in 1875 (or shortly before), President of St. Stephen Bank, continuing in those posts for at least eight years. In 1878, he participated in founding the St. Croix Soap Manufacturing Company, and was for a time its President; presumably, he left this position when his business partnership dissolved in 1884.
Greatly involved in his church and respected as a charitable member of his community, Freeman died in 1885, in St. Stephen, NB. F.H. Todd & Sons had by this time shifted away from its shipping aspect,
Emma and her daughter, also called “Emma,” died within a year of each other.
William lived with the Todd family after death of Alice.
Frank was a merchant with F.H. Todd & Sons, Lumber Dealers. He took over the family company to become “one of the wealthiest lumberman” in New Brunswick.
Edwin was a merchant with F.H. Todd & Sons, Lumber Dealers.
William started his career with F.H. Todd & Sons, Lumber Dealers. He eventually became the MLA for Charlotte County (1899-1903), the MP for Charlotte, NB (1908-1911), and the Lieutenant Governor of NB (1923-1938).