Nelson Elisha Wade

Nelson Elisha Wade, 92, of Island Pond, passed away at his home on Thursday, November 3, 2005.

He was born in Brighton on February 22, 1913, the son of Joseph and Maude (Currier) Wade, and grandson of Irish immigrant Ellen Fitzgerald. He resided within a half mile of his birthplace his whole life. Nelson’s first job was farming with his father. He then was the Road Commissioner in Island Pond for twenty years and a land surveyor. He has also been a tax collector and town lister for Island Pond. He also constructed the Brighton State Park in Island Pond. Nelson was a seventy year member of the Masonic Order Island Pond Lodge #44 F&AM. He served the Lodge as it’s Master four different years, and was a former District Deputy Grand Master, and past Grand Senior Deacon of Grand Lodge. Nelson was Master of the local Grange and the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows. He was President of the PTA for the Brighton school system and a 4-H leader. When teenagers in Island Pond, lacked local activities, Nelson arranged and ran Friday night square dances at the Grange Hall. He raised Angus beef for five years. He was 7th generation of the American Revolution. He enjoyed traveling on senior trips and with family members, gardening, to the benefit of friends and family, and playing cribbage, especially as of late with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

On October 31, 1936 Nelson married the former Jeanne C. Bissonnette, who survives him. He is also survived by his children, Ann Marie West and her husband Paul of Durham, New Hampshire, Lucinda Hill and her husband Spencer of Huntington, and William Wade and his wife Kay of Hilton, Virginia, his grandchildren, Deborah Stacey of Maine, Steven and Sandy West of New York, Kim and Mike Drew of Vermont, Kelly Hill and Maria Duyea of Vermont, Scott and Donna Wade of Virginia, and Stacey and Arjay Sarmiento of New York, his sister, Shirley Davis of Maine, ten great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his brother, Joseph, and by his sisters, Mae Stevens and Lou Jenkins.

Funeral services will be held on Monday, November 7 at the First Congregational Church in Island Pond at 2:00 p.m. with the Rev. Roger Fletcher and the Rev. William Morgan officiating. Friends may call at the Curtis-Britch-Converse-Rushford Funeral Home in Island Pond from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. prior to the service on Monday. Interment will follow at the Lakeside cemetery in Island Pond. A Masonic service will be held at the cemetery by Island Pond Lodge # 44 F&AM.

Should friends desire, contributions in Nelson’s memory may be made to the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, 51 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114.

On-line condolences may be sent to the family through curtis-britch-converse-rushford.com.

Arrangements are entrusted to the care of the Curtis-Britch-Converse-Rushford Funeral Homes, locally family owned and operated.

God saw he getting tired, and a cure was not to be; so he put His arms around him, and whispered “come with me.’