Lawler - Sarah Louise (Lawler) Smallidge (1859-1940)

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Lawler - Sarah Louise (Lawler) Smallidge (1859-1940)

Sarah Louise Lawler was born to William and Elizabeth Cook (Carroll) Lawler in Southwest Harbor, Maine, the seventh of nine children. She lived on the William Lawler homestead at Norwood's Cove. Sarah married Elmer Ellsworth Smallidge, son of Nathan and Hannah R. (Gilpatrick) Smallidge, on December 31, 1885 in Tremont, Maine. Sarah and Elmer had one child, Robert Lindsay Smallidge, Sr.

Sarah Louise and Elmer Smallidge lived at 93 Summit Road, Northeast Harbor, Maine. The house was built at about the time of their marriage. Their grandson, Robert Lindsay Smallidge, Jr., writes: "There is a stone wall along the raised lawn which until the 1960s was filled with dirt at the top and contained a flower garden. At some time, possibly in the early 1900s the house was enlarged so that it could more suitably be rented to summer visitors. Even when her son Lindsay and his family lived with her, all moved out in the summer so the house could be rented. This continued up through the 1930s. Because Elmer was a stone mason by trade I assume that he did the stonework for the basement and for the wall in front."

"Louise had enough of an interest in photography that as well as a camera she purchased the Kodak equipment to develop and print her own film. She also was interested genealogy and local history and made notes, sometimes on small pieces of paper, and kept them. From these, and other sources, her son [Robert] Lindsay [Smallidge, Sr.] put together his genealogical collection. Louise is listed in her cousin, Nellie Thornton’s, book of local history as being among those who contributed. Louise was interested in collecting postage stamps and left a sizable collection, which was given to another local collector upon her death." Robert Lindsay Smallidge, Jr. - 2008 - See Traditions and Records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine by Mrs. Seth S. Thornton, p. vi - 1938

Elmer died on October 28, 1915. Sarah Louise (Lawler) Smallidge died on January 3, 1940 at the age of eighty at home in Northeast Harbor, Maine.