More Information

I have been obsessed with the old photos of the house, George and Catherine, and I have been doing a little research and making some observations. There is a lot more to find out but this is a beginning. 

The studio portrait of George was taken when he was about 25, so that would have been around the turn of the last century. The name of the photographer, seen at the bottom of the portrait, was Fred Green, who was located at 140 Court Street, Boston Massachusetts, and the studio was active from 1889 until 1940. Today the block contains a modern office/ retail building overlooking City Hall Plaza right downtown, but is within the oldest part of Boston. The next question is, why was George Lowe in Boston?

I sent the photos to and called Donna Collings, curator of the Garden of the Gulf Museum in Montague (check out their website: http://www.montaguemuseumpei.com/). She also happens to be George Lowe's great-grand-niece. I asked if she knew any more biographical information about George. She noted that in the 1928 Cummins Atlas of Prince Edward Island, of which I have a copy, that he was listed as a carpenter. The Lowe's were carpenters and it was a common thing back then to work on the Island and in Boston. Donna says many of her family went to Boston quite often. I know that my great-great-grandfather Dan Munn, who had the farm and orchard in Hopefield, would travel to Boston in the winters to work in carpentry, as did his son Ira, who also worked as a carpenter in Halifax.  

This information isn't terribly specific as of yet but makes sense. George's father was Postmaster of Murray River, and his mother was the former Sarah Bell. Carter and Arnold did some digging at the archives for me 5 years ago and found this information. They also found out that George's middle name was Smith, named after his uncle George Smith, who was married to George's father's sister Margaret, who died in childbirth around the time of George's birth. Donna was able to give me his birthday, which was August 21, 1873. He was baptized in 1875, and died on July 12, 1948. He and Catherine are buried in the Murray River Cemetery.

I have posted these before, but these are two photos of George that my grandmother had. Another studio portrait, and the final one is obviously late in life. As I find more information I will post it, and I'll follow up later on what I found out through the other photos of Catherine and the house.