For the last 20 years or so, my brothers and I have been involved in researching our family heritage.  We have spent most of that time researching the Preble side of our family tree although there are many branches and all are equally important.

I recently stopped by the Mount Feake Cemetery in Waltham Massachusetts to pay a little visit to a grave of my Great Great Grandfather William Henry Preble.  I never knew him, and I have never seen a picture of him and I am not sure why I feel certain closeness to him.  Maybe it has to do with his service in the Civil War as that is an area of research interest for me.  The strange this is my family is not what I would call cemetery people, we do not go and visit the cemetery, but I felt like I needed to take this little detour and visit his grave.

William Henry Preble was born in 1838 in Deer Isle Maine and by the age of 12 had moved with his family to Machias Maine.  At the age of 23 he enlisted as Corporal in Company H of the 9^th Maine Infantry Regiment and went off to fight in the Civil War.  The 9^th Maine fought alongside the 54^th Massachusetts at Fort Wagner in South Carolina, this was the battle made famous by the movie Glory starring Matthew Broderick.  Not sure if he was wounded, but he is listed as sick and in hospital after the battle and he served the rest of the War with the Invalid Company of the Volunteer Reserve Corps on Long Island New York.

Upon his discharge he returned to Maine and continued his family.  Prior to 1880 he moved with his family to Wisconsin and took up farming.  By 1900 he had moved back east and settled in Waltham Massachusetts.  According to his obituary he was a contractor in Waltham where he lived the rest of his life.  He died in 1921 6 years after his wife of 57 years Lydia.

William Henry Preble
b. 28 December 1838 Deer Isle, Hancock County, Maine
d. 23 October 1921 Raynham, Bristol County, Massachusetts

Father: Abiel Preble
b. 24 December 1809 Windsor, Kennebec, Maine
d. 12 October 1878 Machias, Washington County, Maine
Mother: Sarah “Sally” Haskell
b. 20 December 1808 Deer Isle, Hancock County Maine
d. 7 July 1878 Machias, Washington County, Maine

Married to:
Lydia Haskel
b. 14 January 1835 Deer Isle, Hancock County, Maine
d. 27 December 1905 Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Children:
Henry Percival Preble
b. 1858 Maine
d. ?
m. Catherine Blank
m. Susan Beatty Scott
William Lincoln Preble
b. 1 August 1860 Machias, Washington County, Maine
d. 16 June 1935 Lassen County, California
m. Mary Lydia Young
Frank Albert Preble
b. August 1867 Machias, Washington County, Maine
d. 27 June 1936 Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
m. Catherine Evelyn Stuart
George Collins Preble
b. 1 March 1870 Machias, Washington County, Maine
d. 25 November 1935 Natick, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
m. Katherine Annie Buchannan
Campbell Carol Preble (my great grandfather)
b. 24 February 1875 Machias, Washington County, Maine
d. 3 August 1962 Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts
m. Myrtle Hastings
m. Mary Lucretia Wing McLean
Lydia Lissette Preble
b. 9 December 1878 Machias, Washington County, Maine
d. 7 December 1950 Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
m. William Leslie MacDonald
Axie May Preble
b. May 1882 Maine
d. 13 May 1953 Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
m. William Henry Bastion