Jessie Boyd CRAIG was the daughter of James Hopkirk CRAIG and Margaret Fairbairn BOYD
Jessie was born on 7 October 1871 in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
Jessie Boyd Craig met her future husband, Frederick Albert WADE, in Wauregan, Connecticut, and they were married 14 May 1892 in Wauregan.
Frederick Albert WADE was born 27 September 1868 in Killingly, Ct., the son of Isaac WADE and Juliette EDSON.
Jessie and Frederick had two children:
Wilfred James WADE, born 24 August 1893 in Wauregan, Ct.
Jessie Craig WADE, born 3 November 1902 in Taunton, Mass.
Fred was a weaver, weaving samples for fancy blankets on a Jacquard Loom. (A mechanical loom invented in 1801 by Joseph Marie Jacquard.)
When Wilfred was a pre-school child, the family moved to Taunton, Ma. They lived there for a number of years on Washington Street, where their daughter was born. Nine weeks later, the family moved back to East Killingly where fred's mother, Juliette, needed help on the farm. Fred found a job as a loom fixer at Chase's Mill on the Valley Road. Fred's brother John volunteered to live on the farm with Juliette, allowing Fred and Jessie to move to the center of East Killingly. After about 10 years, Fred and jessie purchased the recently built Bartlett Block and Jessie turned the extra bedrooms into a boarding house for mill workers. Jessie was also well known for dressmaking and tailoring. Her sign hung on the porch for all to read.
Eventually, time changed the need for a boarding house. Jessie turned her hand to the restaurant business and became a baker. The top floor of the house was made into a separate apartment and rented it out. The town enjoyed her homemade bread, lemon pies and sponge cakes. Children flocked to the store at lunch time for ice cream and peeny candy. Meals were served in the dining room.
Frederick was a talented artist, sketching in pencil, oils and pastels. He was an avid reader and cross-word puzzle fanatic, finishing the Boston Globe puzzle every night.
Jessie and Frederick won a prize for waltzing to the music of Gurdon Cady, a much loved square-dance fiddler in Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island in the 19th century.
In her later years, Jessie had a severe case of diabetes which left her nearly blind.
Frederick Alberrt WADE died on 7 December 1944 and Jessie Boyd CRAIG passed away around 30 June 1947 at a nursing home in Abington, Connecticut. Both are buried at the Bartlett Cemetery in Killingly, Connecticut.
This page was last updated on January 24, 2008