Joel Salley of Embden, Maine
Introduction
Sometime after April 23, 1868, and before his death in 1874, Joel Salley of Embden, Maine, received a letter from Slatersville, Rhode Island. The envelope simply read:
Mr Joel Salley
North Anson
Maine
Who was Joel, and who might have sent him the letter?
Joel Salley
Joel Salley was born about August 1847 in Maine, most likely in Embden, since that is where his parents were living in 1840 and 1850. He is on the 1850 through 1870 censuses with his parents and family and is listed as a farmer in 1870. He died at home November 21, 1871, and is buried with his parents in Sunset Cemetery, North Anson. There is a lot of information about the Salley family in Maine but, unfortunately, that is all I could find on Joel.
Who Sent the Letter?
Joel's cousin Mahala Salley, who was born about 1837, married Moses Esten of Slatersville on June 26, 1854. They and three children were living in Smithfield, RI, in 1860. With them was Mahala's brother Uriah Salley. Note that North Smithfield did not split off from Smithfield until 1870, so there is every reason to believe they were in Slatersville, in what is now North Smithfield.
Uriah Salley, who was born about 1830, enlisted in the Union Army on August 31, 1864, and served with Company B, 3rd Regiment RI Heavy Artillery. He was discharged September 4, 1864. He married Hannah Jackson of Blackstone, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1870 by E.N. Maynard, a minister of Slatersville. They were living in Ward 1 of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1870, and were in the 1872 Worcester City Directory. By 1877 Uriah was living on Second Avenue, Woonsocket.
By 1865 Mahala's parents, Elias Salley and his wife Mary Dunlap, and the rest of their family had joined Mahala and Uriah in Rhode Island. They were living on Buxton Road, which is in Slatersville. Included was Elias' other son, Edwin. Embden Town of Yore said that Elias moved to Slatersville prior to the Civil War.
Edwin Salley was born about 1843 in Maine. He also enlisted in the Union Army on August 31, 1864, and served with Company B, 3rd Regiment RI Heavy Artillery. He was discharged October 5, 1864. He married Eunice Jane Holt in Smithfield on May 13, 1869. They were both living in Woonsocket in 1870, and was still there in 1877.
So who wrote the letter? I thought maybe I could narrow it down by the handwriting, but it could be a male's or female's, and it could have been that of a 65 year old man. I also thought for a while that the stamp would help, since Google AI said it was only in use for a couple years until it was replaced as the main 3ยข postage stamp. But it turns out that AI was probably wrong, again, since the 1870 series of stamps was very unpopular with people and was only in use for a year.
If the letter was written after 1870, then we could eliminate Edwin, since he was in Woonsocket by then. And if it was written between 1870 and 1871 we could eliminate Uriah, since he was in Worcester. But unfortunately the cancellation only includes a month and day. The earliest known use of that stamp was April 23, 1868, according to the Mystic Stamp Company, and Joel died in 1874. Which doesn't help much either.
So the bottom line is that I don't really know which of the Salleys wrote the letter, Elias, Mahala, Uriah, or Edwin. Assuming that it was a relative who wrote it.