Links To The Past

By Joey Cresta
jcresta@seacoastonline.com
June 17, 2011 2:00 AM
KITTERY, Maine — An amateur genealogist in Dover, N.H., is trying to piece together the history of a ring recently found on a Kittery beach.

When Scott Drummey read the June 9 Portsmouth Herald article detailing Berwick resident Carrie Arsenault’s discovery of an inscribed gold ring, he got down to the business of solving a family mystery.

The only clue when Arsenault found the ring on a private beach near the Lady Pepperrell House on Route 103 was an inscription: “CCD to MAL Dec. 25, 1880.”

Arsenault’s mother, Kittery deputy town clerk Kathy Pridham, looked through town marriage records and found one match: Kittery residents Charles C. Dixon and Maranda A. Lewis were married May 12, 1881, by the Rev. John A. Goss.

Arsenault and Pridham were unable to find out much more about the mysterious couple, but Drummey, who became interested in genealogy studies after researching his own family history, turned to Ancestry.com and found some interesting facts that may start to clarify the lives of Dixon and Lewis and their possible connection to the ring.

“As soon as I read the article, I thought, ‘There’s a history behind this,’” he said.

Scott Drummey is hoping to find an heir to the ring. “Are (descendants) reading this article? Do you know who they are? Let them know their great-grandmother’s engagement ring recently washed up on the beach,” he said.

If you can help, you might want to first read the article. Find out more about the story.

Did you now that:

1: Funeral homes MAY NOT refuse to accept caskets purchased form another retailer.

2: Funeral homes MAY NOT charge a handling fee for caskets purchased from another retailer.

3: Funeral homes MAY NOT require consumers to be present when a casket is purchased from another retailer is delivered to the funeral home.

4: Funeral homes MAY NOT make slanderous statements about buying caskets from another retailer.

5: Funeral homes MAY NOT require consumers to buy certain funeral goods or services as a condition for furnishing other funeral goods or services.

This was published in the Wisconsin Cemetery and Cremation Reporter in 2007. It is based on the strict Federal TRade Commission laws governing funeral homes and their interaction with customers.

This was from a 2007 issue of Wisconsin Cemetery and Cremation Association Newsletter.

(AP) A man widely believed to be the model for the smiling chef on Cream of Wheat boxes finally has a grave marker bearing his name.

Frank L. White died in 1938, and until recently, his grave in Woodland Cemetery (Michigan) bore only a tiny concrete marker with no name.

A granite gravestone was finally placed at his burial site. It bears his name and an etching taken
from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.

When White died Feb. 15, 1938, the Leslie, MI Local Republican described him as a “famous
chef” who “posed for an advertisement of a wellknown breakfast food.”

White lived in Leslie for about the last 20 years of his life, and the story of his posing for the Cream of Wheat picture was known in the city of 2,000 located about 70 miles West of Detroit.

The chef was photographed about 1900 while working in a Chicago restaurant. His name was
not recorded. White was a chef, traveled a lot, was about the right age and told neighbors that he
was the Cream of Wheat model.