Twelfth Generation

15179. Delema Frances GRANDCHAMP¹¹²⁷ was born on 17 July 1910 in Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire.³⁶¹⁹ Lived as a child in Ossipee, New Hampshire until about the age of 6, her parents moved them to Berlin, NH and she can remember coming out of the mountains and seeing the city lights and being overwhelmed and there was a horse and sleigh waiting at the train station (Boston Center Station?) to take them to the house and when they got there she remembers the smell of beans and electric lights. They lived in Berlin, NH for quite awhile.

Her father refused to teach them French but would never say why and it is he that ended the "Catholic" tradition of the family in that he did not practice Catholism and did not teach it to his children. He would not speak French but offered no explanation. One story she remembers her father telling is that he was working somewhere and some French men were speaking about him in French, believing he did not speak it, and they were insulting him so he let them finish and then he let them have it IN FRENCH and they were mollified.

Gram changed the spelling of her name from Delima to Delema because everyone was constantly mispronouncing it and kids would tease her about lima beans.

She told me a story of when she was three. She had very long hair parted in the middle and her mother used to braid it and was not gentle and one Sunday she took a bath in the tub in front of the fire and then was dressed in her only "good" outfit and her mother started braiding her hair and was pulling so Delima pulled back and was launched backward into the tub of water and she was punished and sent to bed for the day for ruining her Sunday duds.

Gram mentioned in a phone conversation 3/12/96 that her mother corresponded with a nephew (?) in Rhode Island by mail, a Louis Grandchamp.

Gram used to raise flowers (asters) from seed and make corsages and sell them for money when she was married to Roger.

Delema Frances GRANDCHAMP and James Elbridge SMITH Sr. were married on 5 March 1927 in Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire.³⁶²⁰ James Elbridge SMITH Sr.¹¹²⁷ was born on 24 January 1903 in East Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire.³⁶²⁰ He died on 24 May 1989 at the age of 86 in East Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire.³⁶²⁰ He was buried at Bean Hill Cemetery in North Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire. James was a Potatoe farmer, driver for Glen House.³⁶²¹ Shirley Mae Smith Pierce talking about her father's funeral "The mosquitos were so thick, it was muggy and sort of drizzly and people had umbrellas and we were just doing like this (up & down motion) with the umbrellas so the mosquitos would....they were wicked....."

Found in the woods dead, been sitting on a log and took his shoes off and put the laces in his shirt pocket and fell over dead??? at the age of 86.

Owned house at 1954 East Conway Road, East Conway, NH. (old Wentworth homestead) Went 1/2s with Norman & Libby Eastman in 1953 (it was going to go up for auction) and they lived there when he was living in Concord at the Glen House while working there driving folks (tourists) up and down the mountain in a station wagon. He was a potatoe farmer when Shirley was little, sold that after divorce. Jim lived there 1959-60 to 1989 until death. Mildred Smith Wough now owns it.

Delema Frances GRANDCHAMP-14450 and James Elbridge SMITH Sr.-14449 had the following children:

Delema Frances GRANDCHAMP and Roger Kimball MAYHEW were married on 18 October 1941 in Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire. Roger Kimball MAYHEW¹¹²⁷ was born on 12 December 1904 in Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire. He died on 27 March 1989 at the age of 84 at Memorial Hospital in North Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire. He was buried at Conway Village Cemetery in Conway, Carroll, New Hampshire. Roger was an employee of Fred W. Mears Heel Co. (20 yrs) and the US Forest Service (5 yrs). He fought in World War II in the US Army . Roger K. Mayhew

CONWAY - Roger K. Mayhew, 84, died March 27, 1989, in Memorial Hospital, North Conway, after a lengthy illness. Born in Conway, he was a lifelong resident. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army. He worked 20 years for the former Fred W. Mears Heel Co., Conway. In addition, he worked five years for the U.S. Forest Service. He was an amateur ham radio operator and a member of U.S. Navy MARS since 1978.
Family members include his wife, Delema (Grandchamp) Mayhew, of Conway; two step-sons, Ralph L. Smith, of Northridge, Calif., and James E. Smith Jr., of Beaumont, Texas; five stepdaughters, Mrs. Jean Labroke and Mrs. Marjorie Parent, both of East Hartford, Conn., Mrs. Barbara S. Robinson, of East Conway, Mrs. Elizabeth Eastman, of East Burke, Vt., and Mrs. Shirley Pierce, of South Windsor, Conn.; several nieces and nephews.

Services: There are no calling hours. The funeral is tomorrow at 1 p.m. in Furber and White Funeral Home, North Conway. The Rev. Dr. Robert Abarno, pastor of Jackson Community Church, will officiate. Spring burial will be in Conway Village Cemetery.

(Elizabeth was 2, Rachel was 4 months old, I did not attend this funeral.)

He was an amateur ham radio operator and a member of US Navy MARS since 1978.

He "was not happy with all the stepmother business so he moved in with his sister, Constance, as soon as she got married. Guess he continued to live there long past when he came of age, so when Delema and Jim Smith lived in that house next door, he had ample opportunity to fall in love with Delema, and to form a poor opinion of Jim Smith." (email from Linda Lebroke Desrochers 9/14/98).