Biography

Marion Frances Cloutier was born at Newcastle, Maine, in the spring of 1848, a daughter of French immigrant Joseph Prudon Cloutier and Maria Theresa (Gazet) Cloutier.

Marion's father changed the family surname from Cloutier to Wharff at some time in the 1850s. He had come to the U.S. from Paris as cabin boy to a Capt. Wharff; family oral history relates that -- perhaps because of difficulty in correctly pronouncing "Cloutier" -- he was referred to by locals as "Wharff's boy", leading to confusion that he chose to resolve by adopting the Wharff surname.

It is not clear how Marion Frances Cloutier/Wharff, a French immigrant shoemaker's daughter from Newcastle, Maine, met her husband-to-be -- Charles Olney Dyer -- from an established, founding family of Providence, Rhode Island. (Family oral tradition has it that Marion virtually snatched Charles away from the altar; he was allegedly scheduled to marry a New York socialite.) It is a fascinating and factual coincidence that Marion's uncle Edward Gazet lay mortally wounded on the 1862 Civil War battlefield at Williamsburg, near Fort Magruder, at the exact moment when Charles Olney Dyer was on that same field with a reserve RI light artillery unit. Edward survived for several days afterward; did they meet, on the field or at a field hospital -- is that how the families came together? Unless some as-yet undiscovered family correspondence has survived somewhere that would confirm or refute this notion, it remains in the realm of romantic fantasy. But it does make for a great (possible) story.

Marion and Charles made their primary residence in his home state of Rhode Island, but continued to spend time in Maine; they later removed to Needham, Massachusetts, which is where Marion died in mid -May of 1898. Charles survived her by a little more than two decades, remarrying in 1911 and dying in Portland, Maine, in 1919.

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The following data was included in the gedcom from which this profile was originally generated:

Birth

• Birth:
  • Date: 2 MAY 1848
  • Place: Newcastle, Lincoln, Me
  • Source:#S7
    • Page: Vol: 482 ; Page: 558

Death

• Death:
  • Date: 14 MAY 1898
  • Place: Needham, Norfolk, Ma
  • Source:#S7
    • Page: Vol: 482 ; Page: 558
  • Cause: Cardiac Valvular Lesions

User ID

• User ID: 0884A7A0D679504B8BDB34EB45FE61D9BF49

Note

• Note: Called Marion F. Cloutier in Ma VR's at dau's marr. in 1909

Source

• Source:#S7
  • Page: Vol: 482 ; Page: 558

Sources

• Birth & death; general: Family genealogical chart created ca. 1970 by Cloutier/Wharff relative Clifton Nathaniel Walker with assistance from relative Thomas Childs Jane of Newcastle; copy of chart in the possession of Joseph Prudon Cloutier's great-great grandson Christopher Childs (Childs-1516).

• Explanation of surname change: family knowledge confirmed 2016 by Thomas Childs Jane; passed down per his mother, Mary Childs Jane.

• Death: "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch ([1] : 10 December 2014), Marrean Frances Wharff Dyer, 14 May 1898; citing Needham, Massachusetts, v 482 p 558, State Archives, Boston

• General: "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6J1-3S8 : 12 April 2016), Mary F Cloutier in household of Joseph P Cloutier, Newcastle, Lincoln, Maine, United States; citing family 282, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• Reappearance of original birth surname in daughter's marriage record: Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1841-1910. (From original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004.)[2]

• gedcom source:

• SourceS7
• Title: 1. Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 (NEHGS)
• Abbreviation: 1. Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910 (NEHGS)
• Note: (From original records held by the Massachusetts Archives)
  • (Online database: NewEnglandAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004)
  • NS017403
  • Source Media Type: Electronic

Acknowledgments

• Marion Frances (Cloutier/Wharff) Dyer's profile was originally created through the import of dyermaeettaaug2010.ged on 11 September 2010.

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