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Sylvester Bisbee

Male 1852 - 1917  (64 years)

Personal Information    |    Media    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Sylvester Bisbee  [1]
    Birth 17 Nov 1852  West Peru, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2] 
    Gender Male
    Census 6 Jun 1860  Wilton, Franklin, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [3] 
    Census 6 Jun 1870  Sumner Town, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [4] 
    Census 10 Jun 1880  Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [5] 
    Death 22 Sep 1917  West Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2] 
    Burial Pleasant Pond Cemetery, West Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2] 
    Person ID I4483  Bisbee
    Last Modified 2 May 2010

    Father Jones Bisbee,   b. 2 Feb 1809, Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 18 Nov 1874, Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 65 years)
    Mother Rebekah Robinson,   b. 3 Dec 1812, East Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 7 Jul 1889, Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 76 years)
    Marriage 6 Jun 1838  [1, 6] 
    Family ID F994  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Ida Crandall,   b. 10 May 1862   d. 9 Dec 1892, , , Florida, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 30 years)
    Marriage Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [2] 
    Children 
    +1. Leroy Sylvester Bisbee,   b. 1883, Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown
     2. Clinton Ward Bisbee,   b. 1886, Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown
    +3. Edwin Jones Bisbee,   b. 1890, Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Augusta, Kennebec, Maine, USA Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID F2173  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 4 Aug 2009

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 17 Nov 1852 - West Peru, Oxford, Maine, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 6 Jun 1860 - Wilton, Franklin, Maine, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 6 Jun 1870 - Sumner Town, Oxford, Maine, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 10 Jun 1880 - Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 22 Sep 1917 - West Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - - Pleasant Pond Cemetery, West Sumner, Oxford, Maine, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - - Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Photos
    Sylvester and Ida Crandall Bisbee with Son Leroy Sylvester Bisbee    		Sylvester and Ida Crandall Bisbee with Son Leroy Sylvester Bisbee
    Taken about 1886, before Sylvester and Ida's second child was born. Photographer was Geo W. Delling who owned the photo studio in Madelia, MN at that time. Original photo came from the family line of John Bisbee, the older brother of Sylvester Bisbee.

    Photo courtesy of Karen Bisbee Ulrich, KY, great-great grand niece of Sylvester Bisbee.

  • Notes 
    • Sylvester Bisbee attended high school in 1867 at Wilton, Me. As a boy he showed great interest in mechanics, especially firearms. He worked on an automatic gun in 1868, one that fired 120 shots per minute. He went to Worcester, Mass. to have a model made but his automatic gun venture does not seem to have been successful.

      In 1871 he patented a shingle jointer and in 1874 a sewing machine for sewing fancy shoe tops. This machine would produce over 100 different combinations of patterns.

      In 1876 he developed a machine for multiple production of wooden spools and rake teeth. (US Patent No. 178587, 13 June 1876)

      He moved west in 1876 and for 14 years worked for Bisbee, Olson and Boynton as a farm machinery expert, doing mostly field work on reapers and binders.

      His skill as a workman and ability as an inventor was shown by his making of a working model of a sheaf or bundle shocking machine. This machine, built into the then standard reaper or binder, would cut, bind and set up the bundles into shocks.

      Sylvester also invented an improved grain cleaning machine in 1893. (US Patent No. 510768, 12 Dec. 1893)

      Following the death of his wife, Ida, in 1892, he returned to Maine and bought a farm near North Jay. Later he moved to West Sumner where he and his son, Clinton, developed a large apple orchard.

      Another of Sylvester's inventions was a tag making machine which he sold to the Dennison Manufacturing Co. during the time he was in Maine. The machine would make paper tags with string ties, count and pack them into boxes ready for sale.

      Sylvester revisited Minnesota several times after 1892.

      Sylvester d. "Aged 65 yrs." Burial ws at West Sumner, Maine, in Pleasant Pond Cemetery. [2]

  • Sources 
    1. [S2291] Frank Jones Bisbee, Genealogy of the Bisbee Family, (1956; reprint, Decatur, MI: Johnson Graphics, 1992), p. 185.

    2. [S2291] Frank Jones Bisbee, Genealogy of the Bisbee Family, (1956; reprint, Decatur, MI: Johnson Graphics, 1992), p. 303.

    3. [S2937] Bisbee, Jones (i1827): 1860 US Census, (www.ancestry.com (2004): National Archives and Records Administration micropublication M653, roll 435; enumerated page 2, master page 948, line 26, dwelling 14, family 14; image accessed 4/29/2010.), 1860.ME.Franklin.Wilton.2.

    4. [S2938] Bisbee, Jones (i1827): 1870 US Census, (www.ancestry.com (2003): National Archives and Records Administration micropublication M593, roll 551; enumerated page 1, master page 406A, line 10, dwelling 51, family 60; image accessed 4/29/2010.), 1870.ME.Oxford.Sumner.7.

    5. [S2941] Bisbee, John (i1829): 1880 US Census, (www.ancestry.com (2005): National Archives and Records Administration micropublication T9, roll 637; enumeration district (ED) 264, enumerated page 10, master page 386B, line 6, dwelling 95, family 97; image accessed 4/29/2010.), 1880.MN.Watonwan.Madelia.264.10.

    6. [S2002] New England Genealogical and Historical Register, 1958, p. 312.