Phoebe Ann Deacon was born to Greenwood Deacon and Hannah (Slingsby) Deacon on 5 Apr 1865 in Yorkshire, England. Her mother was the sister of Ann (Slingsby) Kay, the wife of Thomas Lister Kay. Her father was a cotton warp dresser and continued that occupation in America.
1881 England Census – Greenwood Deacon, age 39, Cotton Warp Dresser, Wharfedale, Yorkshire
1881 England Census – Phoebe A Deacon, age 15, Worsted Spinner, Wharfedale, Yorkshire
Greenwood brought his family to America, they arrived in New York on 28 Jun 1881 and settled in Lawrence, Essex, Mass. Phoebe’s father continued as a cotton warp dresser there according to the 1900 & 1910 US Census. Phoebe was in Lawrence, probably working with her family at a mill early on but left for Oregon in 1889.
November 1889, Harry Kay son of Thomas Kay, came to set up woolen mill machinery at the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill in Salem. He brought with him Phoebe A Deacon, from Lawrence, Massachusetts to work in the new mill at her trade as a weaver.
Phoebe A Deacon married Joseph Cordingley on 1 Jan 1894.
Phoebe A Deacon was the 2nd wife of Joe Cordingley and had two stepchildren. One was Sadie Cordingley who married Charles Iwan. Sadie died in 1929. Another stepdaughter, was Tracy Cordingley who married Leighton Templeton.
In June 1902 Joseph Cordingley, who was one of the proprietors of the Brownsville Woolen Mills, moved his family there. For twelve years he had been an employee of the Kay Woolen Mills. Joseph became President of the Brownsville Woolen Mill by 1910 and Phoebe was a weaver in that mill according to census records. He and Phoebe retired by the time the 1920 census was taken. He died suddenly in 1924.
Phoebe died on 31 Oct 1936 and is buried in Brownsville. According to her obituary, except for her brother George Henry Deacon, it appears the rest of her siblings remained in Massachusetts.
Her brother, George Henry Deacon was a Dresser at the Thomas Kay Woolen mill, listed in the 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 & 1940 census records. George was better known as Harry Deacon.
Her sister Clara (Deacon) Reed was married to a carpenter at the mill in Methuen, Essex, Massachusetts. She was a twister at a cotton mill in the 1920 census and a twister at a woolen mill in the 1930 census. Her sister Anita Lavina Deacon was a worsted web drawer employee in Lawrence, Essex, Mass. according to the 1900 census. |
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