12.28.23 update: Caroline Stanwood found in 1894!  See post here!

I’ve been researching the Stanwood family close to twenty years now. (Well, actually, maybe a bit longer than that, but I’ve been serious about it for about that time.) The “finds” are fewer and far between now, and I still have a few mysteries plaguing me. Most of those involve missing deaths/burials of my Stanwood ancestors. Thanks to the internet, information is a bit easier to access, and Google has netted enormous results in my searches. Take, for example, my search for Grandma Betsy Wasgatt Stanwood (my 4th Great Grandmother, wife of Benjamin Stanwood, and his first cousin). The Stanwood clan had moved from Eden (now Bar Harbor), Maine to Woodville, Maine (they are reported to have named the town!), and then headed west in the late 1860s to Minnesota. I’d spent years browsing Minnesota microfilms, searching for clues to Betsy’s death place, always unsuccessful. Then about five years ago I hit the lotto with Google – a simple search brought up a listing of deaths announced in the Ellsworth Herald. There was Betsy who had apparently traveled back to her beautiful home town in Eden, Maine, where she died in January 1874.

I’m hopeful that one day I will also locate the death place of Caroline White Stanwood, wife of Betsy’s son David W. Stanwood. Since the internet solved Betsy’s mystery, hopefully it too can help me find Grandma Caroline!   Perhaps YOU have the answer to my mystery?

Facts:

• Caroline White was b. 4 Dec 1830 to John and Mary (Scott) White in Chester, Penobscot Co, Maine
• She married David W. Stanwood 18 July 1847 and resided in what is now known as Woodville, Penobscot Co, ME. She is found there on the 1850 and 1860 censuses.
• The family relocated to Minnesota, where is listed on the 1870 and 1875 censuses in Monticello, Wright County, MN.
• In 1880 and 1885 censuses, Caroline is listed with her family in Northfield, Rice Co, Minnesota.
• In 1888, Caroline and her husband David (and daughter and son-in-law Chauncey and Mary E. (Stanwood) McMaster) sold a plot of land located in Northfield, Rice Co, MN.
• Caroline’s husband David W. Stanwood dies in 1890. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Northfield City Cemetery. The record of his death lists him as “married.”
• Caroline’s mother, Mary Scott White, dies in 1893. Caroline is not listed as a survivor in her mother’s obituary.

The following repositories/indexes have been searched to locate her place/date of death:

• Sherburne County Historical Society (MN) grave index searched April 1991
• Rice County Historical Society (MN), grave index searched August 1991
• Wright County Historical Society (MN), grave index searched June 1992
• Anoka County Historical Society (MN), grave index searched June 1995
• Stearns County Historical Society (MN), grave index searched February 1996
• Benton County Historical Society (MN), search request February 1996
• Rice County Wills 1862-1977, FHC film #1379339, search completed February 1996.
• Rice County, MN Death & Birth Register, FHC film #1379368
• Minneapolis, Hennepin Co, MN 1894/1895 & 1898 City Directories, FHC #s 1377073/7
• 1900 Federal Census soundex (S353), National Archives film T1053, roll 149
• Wadena Co, MN Historical Society, grave index searched June 2004
• Wadena Co, MN online death index at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwadena/sdeaths2.htm searched June 2004
• Dalby Database online http://www.dalbydata.com/ search May 2010

Hopefully in years to come new online resources will be available to answer the question – Where is Grandma Caroline White Stanwood? Until then, the mystery continues…unless YOU have the answer to my question!