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- Annie Waite Stebbins, born 1872 in West Springfield, Massachusetts, married Chas. A. Wells in Victory, Essex, Vermont, November 12, 1890. She subsequently married Hugh Joyner Lamont of West Glassville. Annie died in Bath, New Brunswick, October 5, 1946, some seven years after the death of her husband, and was interred with him in Glassville United Church cemetery.
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“The following is the story of Anne Waite Stebbins Wells Lamont, whose heritage grand piano was recently repatriated to its roots in New Brunswick. In October, the Lamont family of Mapleton and South Portland, Maine transported the piano to Kings Landing by truck and placed it in the care of curator Darrell Butler.
Anne was born in West Springfield, Mass. On September, 1872. In the early part of 1873 her father was killed in a train accident and soon after her mother moved to Vermont. After a period of time and getting acquainted her mother would remarry and soon three more children would be part of Anne’s world. It became very clear at an early age that Ann would be attractive, multi-talented, aggressive and liberated (as we understand it today) before the word was invented. In her early teens she learned to play the organ, piano, lap harp and five-stringed banjo. She also took art lessons dealing primarily with oils and by her late teens would become an accomplished artist and musician. Her personality, art and playing music at church, community gatherings and with local bands would contribute to her being well known and very popular wherever she lived.
Anne was married in the early 1890s and divorced a few years later, which at that time was unheard of. In the late 1890s she would remarry and move to West Glassville, N.B. Canada for a short time. After a year she returned to Vermont and around 1912 would return to Canada, the birthplace of her husband. Throughout her life she was extremely outspoken and demanded her rightful place in a so-called man’s world. She would continue to be greatly respected as a musician, artist, people person and a good judge of horses.
Her J. Blackhurst piano is of the 1835 era handcrafted in Scotland. It was shipped to Saint John N.B. by sail cargo boat. It was transferred to a steamboat, travelling up the St. John River to Woodstock N.B. A few years later the piano was moved to a horse drawn flatboat continuing north on the river to Bristol and over land by two wheel ox cart to Glassville. The survived a hose fire a few years later and was moved to the West Glassville area until 1949 when it was taken to Maine where it remained until its final journey to King’s Landing. Her five-stringed banjo was in the 1850 era also. A charcoal color portrait of Anne was done in the early 1900s. Anne was an artist, and did oil paintings in the 1890s and early 1900s. Her banjo, paintings, piano, portrait and other personal items were moved to Maine in 1949.
Anne was greatly respected as a spiritual person and in the early years had come from a cultured background of the arts. She found it very difficult to adjust to the life style of rural Canada. Three years after the death of her husband in 1939 Anne would receive a proposal of marriage, however at the age of 70, up front and honest, told her wealthy suitor of her divorce in the 1890s, she was dropped like a hot coal which was not a problem to her.
Upon her death on October 5, 1946 she was buried beside the sweetheart of her life in Hugh Joyner Lamont at a Glassville cemetery.”
The preceding was published Friday November 12, 2004, The Bugle-Observer, Woodstock, N.B.
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People of Carleton County, New Brunswick
1872 - 1946 (74 years)
