Margaret Ella Winslow née Givens - Plymouth, MA

On the reverse is written:

18 years ?

Margaret Ella Winslow 

ne Givens

Photographed by Benj. Whiting 

Nos. 6 and 33 Main St., 

Plymouth, Mass.

******  

Margaret Ella Givens was born in Nobleboro, Maine about Dec. 23, 1844* to Benjamin Hall Givens, a seaman, and his wife Mary Ann (Hussey).

Margaret Ella Givens

On April 13, 1862, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 17 year old, Margaret Ella Givens married Charles Fuller, a 45 year old trader/merchant, 28 years her senior.  It was Margaret’s first marriage and Charles’ second.  Charles Fuller had been married previously to Susan Pope and together they had 3 children:

1. Ada A. born Nov. 30, 1852
2. Charles F. born May 8, 1855
3. Susan A. born Sept. 26, 1857

Susan, the baby, is 8 days old on Oct. 5, 1857, when her mother dies at age 36. I wasn't able to determine if the two older siblings survived childhood. In April, 1858 there is a record of the youngest child dying at age 6 months. Her cause of death is listed as “cachexia,” a wasting syndrome. But the only record of the two older children I find is the record of their birth and one census, then they simply disappear.

When Margaret married Charles Fuller in 1862, the record of their marriage shows both of them fudged a bit on their ages; Margaret added 7 years to hers, making her 24; Charles subtracted 5 from his, making him 40.

On Jan. 22, 1863, 9 months after their marriage, Margaret gives birth to a daughter, Ella Margaret Fuller.  Six weeks later, on March 8, 1863, her husband, Charles Fuller dies at age 46 of typhoid pneumonia.

Margaret has gone from wife to mother to widow in less than a year.

After the death of her husband, Margaret and her infant daughter move into the home of her older sister, Hannah (Givens) McDuffie, and her husband, John McDuffie, who'd been appointed Postmaster of Cambridge by President Lincoln in 1861.

Margaret doesn't appear to have been in any hurry to remarry or to leave her sister’s home.  In 1870, she and 6 year old Ella, still reside in the McDuffie household.

But she does marry again, in 1874 she marries Henry Winslow, a young lawyer.

Henry Hedden Winslow was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, May 5, 1847.  He was the son of Joshua Baker Winslow, a sea captain and Mary Dehart (Bruen), who made their home in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where their son was educated.  Henry Winslow graduated high school May, 1864 at age 17.  One week later he shipped out on board the whaler “James Arnold,” sailing the Atlantic until Nov. 4, 1865.  In 1866 he shipped out again on the same vessel, and sailed around the world on a trip that took over 3 years.  The trip was considered a success, the catch being about 3,000 barrels of sperm oil.

In 1870 Henry Winslow commenced to read law with the firm of Chandler, Thayer and Hudson.  He graduated Harvard Law School in 1872.

Henry H. Winslow

On Feb. 4, 1874 Henry Hedden Winslow married Margaret Ella Fuller in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1876 they moved to Cambridge where their three children were born:

1. Mary H. Winslow born Feb. 11, 1876
2. Edith Baker Winslow (Stearns) born Aug. 10, 1878
3. Henry Joshua Winslow  born June 27, 1880

Margaret Ella (Givens) (Fuller) Winslow lived to be 54 years, 7 months, and 13 days.  She died from a cerebral hemorrhage in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 5, 1899.

Mary H. Winslow
daughter of Margaret and Henry Winslow

Edith Baker Winslow Stearns &
Margaret "Peggy" Winslow Stearns
1907

*I came up with the approximate date of birth for Margaret Ella Givens by taking the date of death, July 5, 1899, and subtracting her age; 54 yrs. 7 mos. and 13 days.