USA > Maine > York County > Alfred > A centennial history of Alfred, York County, Maine > Part 1
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A
CENTENNIAL HISTORY
OF
ALFRED,
YORK COUNTY, MAINE.
BY THE LATE
DR. USHER PARSONS.
WITH A SUPPLEMENT BY
SAMUEL M. CAME, ESQ.
PUBLISHED BY SANFORD, EVERTS & CO.
PHILADELPHIA : COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 1872.
A
CENTENNIAL HISTORY
OF
ALFRED,
YORK COUNTY, MAINE.
BY THE LATE
DR. USHER PARSONS.
WITH A SUPPLEMENT BY
SAMUEL M. CAME, EsQ. 1
PUBLISHED BY SANFORD, EVERTS & CO.
PHILADELPHIA : COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 1872.
A3P:
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by SANFORD, EVERTS & CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
11
HISTORY OF ALFRED.
THE following centennial history of Alfred was written by Dr. USHER PARSONS, a native of the town, who took pains, many years since, to collect accurate data. The publishers have thought it proper to insert the following no- tice of the author :-
Usher Parsons, M.D., youngest son of William and Abigail Frost (Blunt) Parsons, was born in Alfred, Au- gust 18th, 1788. His boyhood was mostly spent in that town, where he worked on his father's farm, and attended the village school. He went to Berwick Academy about a year. He began the study of medicine with Dr. Abiel Hall, of Alfred, in May, 1807. He attended anatomical lectures at Fryeburg, by Dr. Alexander Ramsey.
In the autumn of 1809, being disappointed in receiving funds to attend a second course by Dr. Ramsey in Port- land, he walked about fifteen miles in the night nearly to Saco, slept a few hours on some hay in a barn, and reached Kennebunk the following noon, and Alfred in the evening. During the moonlight walk he meditated on the past and future course of his life. Though in his twenty-first year, with but limited education, he resolved that he would put forth all his energies for ten years to obtain the degrees of A.M. and M.D., and to become a teacher of anatomy. That resolution was the seed-pur- pose of his life.
He studied the ancient languages under Rev. Moses Sweat, and at intervals taught school. In 1811 he went to Boston, became a pupil of Dr. John Warren, and was licensed to practice in February, 1812. He began prac- tice in Dover, N. H.
In July, 1812, he received a commission as surgeon's nate in the newly organized navy ; the war with England
4
having begun. He was soon ordered to New York, and volunteered for service on the Great Lakes. He spent the next winter at Black Rock, near Buffalo; in June, 1813, joined Captain Oliver H. Perry, and was medical officer on his vessel, the Lawrence, at the battle on Lake Erie, September 10th. The senior surgeons were sick, and the whole duties fell on him at that time. His dili- gence and success won him the warm regard of Perry, and paved the way to subsequent promotion. By a vote of Congress he received a silver medal for his meritorious services.
In April, 1814, he was commissioned surgeon ; was after- wards attached to the frigate Java, under Perry ; and as a surgeon of that vessel sailed for the Mediterranean in 1816. In 1817 he returned to the United States, and at- tended medical lectures in Boston. He took the degree of M.D. there in 1818. In July, 1818, he sailed on the Guerriere for St. Petersburg, thence went again to the Mediterranean and revisited many ports on that sea. He also went to Florence, Rome, Genoa, Lyons, Paris, and London, examining the institutions of all these cities, taking copious notes in the hospitals, and making the acquaintance of the most eminent surgeons and scientists.
He returned to Boston early in 1820, and was appointed surgeon to the marine barracks in Charlestown. He re- sided a good deal at Cambridge, while holding this ap- pointment, and there wrote the " Sailor's Physician." He was in August appointed professor of anatomy and sur- gery in Dartmouth College. Thus he realized his youth- ful dream in the moonlight walk, 1809, of becoming a teacher of anatomy.
In April, 1822, he began the practice of medicine in Providence, R. I., where he lived the remainder of his life. In September he married Mary J. Holmes, daughter of Rev. Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge.
He gradually rose to a very prominent position as phy- sician, and especially as surgeon. He was widely known as consulting physician in all the towns around Provi- dence. He performed repeatedly most of the capital ope- rations of surgery. He had fifty medical pupils in suc- cessive years. From 1822 to 1827 he was professor of anatomy and surgery in Brown University. In 1831, he
5
was professor of obstetrics in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. In 1837 he was chosen president of the R. I. Medical Society for three years. He was also a fre- quent delegate to the meetings of the American Medical Association, and was chosen its first vice-president in 1853. He was honorary member of several State medical socie- ties.
In 1843 he revisited Europe, renewing old acquaint- ances, and again observing surgical practice in the hos- pitals of Paris and London.
Dr. Parsons was an industrious writer on medical sub- jects. He received four Boylston premiums for medical dissertations, 1827-36; and one Fiske premium, 1842. In 1831 he published a volume on the " Art of Making Anatomical Preparations." He also was author of several discourses of a physiological or semi-medical character, on temperance, &c.
He was a leader in the efforts to found a general hos- pital in Providence, and when the Rhode Island Hospital ,was organized, he gave $1000 to it, and was placed at the head of its consulting board.
Dr. Parsons became prominently distinguished as a historical student, in three different connections. First, he was a diligent geneologist, and traced the lineage, migration, and personal history of his ancestors witlı great success. He published several papers on such sub- jects, including memoirs of members of his family cou- nection. His most important work was the Life of Sir William Pepperell, published in 1855, and reprinted in London-a valuable contribution to colonial history, based in part on materials hitherto unpublished. Secondly, he was also deeply interested in the remains, languages, and customs of the aboriginal natives of New England. He collected many Indian remains, studied their history, and published a curious list of Indian names of places in Rhode Island. He visited repeatedly the old haunts and burying-places of the Narragansetts. Thirdly, he took a warm and active part in a controversy in regard to the battle of Lake Erie, and the merits of Commo- dores Perry and Elliott. He was warmly attached to Perry, and convinced that the claims of Elliott and his
1*
6
friends, and their endeavors to detract from Perry's fame, were unjust. He made this the subject of a stated dis- course before the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1852. He also delivered discourses commemorative of the battle at celebrations of its anniversary, in 1858, at Put-in-Bay, and in 1860, at Cleaveland, Ohio.
For several years he was mostly withdrawn from active practice, and enjoyed leisure, travel, and study. His health and memory were obviously impaired for some years before his death, though he still took an active in- terest in passing events. His last sickness was an acute disease of the brain; of which he died at his home in Providence, December 19th, 1868, aged 80 years and 4 months.
He left one son, Dr. C. W. Parsons, who having gradu- ated at Harvard College and Medical School, was, at the time of his father's decease, practicing medicine in Pro- vidence, and was lecturer on physiology in Brown Uni- versity. He is the author of a memoir of 72 pages, from which this notice is compiled.
In the structure of Dr. Parsons' mind, the reflective powers were largely predominant. These, with the co- operation of a strong desire to excel, of a steadfast pur- pose, and of a robust frame, strengthened by labor in early life, were well adapted to secure for him a prominent position in the physical sciences. The strength of local associations was a marked trait. It prompted him to re- visit often the localities of his youth, and to write the history of his native town. Another characteristic was his ready sympathies and strong affections. They made him tenacious in friendship. He would go out of his way to visit the humble roof of an acquaintance in early life, and the honest smile and cordial greeting revealed the delight which the interview afforded him. When with the breadth of his reflective powers and love of the old he pondered over time-honored institutions, his affections clung to them as a living friend. In regard to his social intercourse, one has written : "That his was a genial tem- perament, a kindly heart with much of the jovial spirit of the seas in his hours of relaxation."
7
HISTORY.
Alfred is situated nearly in the centre of the county of York, Me., about 30 miles southwest from Portland, and 13 miles from Saco. It is the principal shiretown, and con- tains about 1200 inhabitants. It has seven schools, one of them being graded, with about 300 scholars. It has four religious societies, and a community of Shakers. Formerly it belonged to Sanford, and, in 1794, was sepa- rated into a district ; and in 1808 incorporated into a town. The village contains a court-house, jail, and county offices, also a post-office and two churches.
Land Titles .- Trappers and hunters were the first civi- lized men that penetrated the forests of Sanford and Alfred. Beavers were abundant, and left marks of their labors in the beds of rivers and shores of ponds, that are visible to this day. Truck houses were early established at the mouth of Saco and Piscataqua Rivers, and at Salmon Falls, from which hunters were sent among the Indians to collect furs for foreign markets. The first civilized owners of the soil obtained their rights between the years 1761 and 1764. Then it was that Major William Phillips, of Saco, obtained from Fluellen, Hobinowell, and Captain Sunday, Indian chiefs of Saco and Newichawnnock (now South Berwick), several quit claim deeds of territory of about four townships of the usual size, probably Water- borough, Sanford, Shapleigh, and Alfred. This purchase with revised bounds was, in 1676, confirmed by Sir Ferdi- nand Gorges to Major Wm. Phillips and son, Nathaniel Phil- lips, of Saco ; and Mrs. Phillips, wife of said William, gave it by will, in 1694, to Peleg Sanford, a Rhode Islander (he being her son by a former husband), or so much of it as was contained in the town of Sanford, which at that day included Alfred. The town was incorporated in 1768 by the name of Sanford, in honor of the above-named gen- tleman. The Alfred portion of the town was designated by the name of Massabesic, and the other by Phillipstown, which name had previously been applied to the whole township, and which continued in general use until Alfred was incorporated in 1794. Hence people in Alfred spoke
8
of visiting Phillipstown, and those in Sanford of visiting the North Parish or Massabesic. Of the townships owned by Sanford, and of one Saunders, there were two miles square claimed by Hutchinson and Oliver, under what was termed the Governor's title, which included the vil- lage of Alfred. A suit was instituted against one of the principal settlers, William Parsons, by the heirs of Saun- ders in 1803. But before the writ was served, Parsons hastened to obtain a deed from the heirs of Hutchison and Oliver, counterclaimants, by which course they were made defendants at law, and finally gained the suit ; but with a loss in expenses more than equal to the receipts for the land.
First Settlers .- In November, 1764, Simeon Coffin, the first settler of Massabesic, now Alfred, dwelt for a time in an Indian wigwam, that stood a few rods south of the present residence of Col. Ivory Hall. There was no white man living at that time within seven miles of him. A few Indians still lingered about Massabesic and Bunganut Ponds, one family being in a wigwam where the present house of Shaker worship stands ; but soon all the abori- gines disappeared.
There were three brothers named Coffin, the sons of Stephen Coffin, of Newbury. The eldest, named Simeon, was a shipwright. After building a vessel there, he lost it by the bankruptcy of the purchaser, and being thus reduced to penury, he sought a shelter for himself in the wilderness, and also for his aged father and two brothers, named Stephen and Daniel, who arrived early in the spring of 1765. The father settled south of his son Simeon, and the two other sons pitched their tents further south, and were succeeded there by David and Moses Stevens. Be- yond these settled soon after Daniel McDaniels, who was succeeded by David Hibbard, Andrew and his son John Noble, from Somersworth, and Geo. D. Moulton ; next to him was Jas. Harvey, and still further south Jeremiah Eastman, a shoemaker, near the dwelling of the late John Emerson. About the same time came his father, Daniel Eastman, from Concord, N. H., with five other sons, and settled a few rods south of Mr. Emerson. His son Ezekiel settled half way between Lary's bridge (now Emerson's) and the Brooks house built by Rev. Mr. Turner. Daniel, Jr., built
9
on the hill a few rods south of the house formerly occu- pied by the late Joseph Parsons and now by Mr. Bean, and was succeeded by a Mr. Alley, who afterwards moved to . Parsonfield. William Eastman lived near Nowell's Mill, a mile northeast from Col. Daniel Lewis; Jeremiah East- man, the shoemaker, owned the site of the present Congrega- tional meeting-house and graveyard, which he sold to Mr. Nathaniel Conant and Mr. Emerson, and the lot opposite he sold to John Knight, who sold it forty years after to Dr. Abiel Hall. It is now owned by Monzo Leavitt. Obadialı Eastman was younger, and hired out to labor.
Daniel Lary, a tanner by trade, built a house between Lary's or Emerson's bridge, and Ezekiel Eastman's. The cellar is now visible. It was supposed to be the first frame dwelling-house built in Alfred. It was finally moved to the corner, where the brick hotel built by C. Griffin stood, and was used many years as a school-house. Lary's tanyard was by the brook, near his house. In felling a tree near the late Col. Lewis', he accidentally killed Daniel Hib- bard.
In 1766 came Charles and John White, from Kenne- bunkport, whose father, Robert White, came there from York in 1740. Charles married Sarah Lindsey, and John, a Wakefield. They lived two or three years about 100 rods west of the brick house built by Andrew Conant, in what is still called the White field. They erected half of a double saw-mill ; and one Ellenwood from Wells, Thos. Kimball, and his brother-in-law, Seth Peabody, and Benja- min Tripe, owned the other half. The two Whites subse- quently sold their field and mill, or exchanged them for a tract of land half a mile south on the Mousam road. Charles White was succeeded by his son, Deacon Samuel, and his grandson Thomas ; and John White by his son John, who afterwards removed further south, having sold his lot to Daniel Conant, who dwelt and died there. This lot of John's was previously owned by Dodipher Ricker, who, after a short residence there, moved to Waterborough.
The father of Charles White was buried in the White field near their house, and near the Moses Swett house. In the same ground were buried the father of Samuel Friend and Daniel Conant, the brother of old Mr. Nathan- iel. Ellenwood, head-carpenter in building the mill,
10
erected a one-story house facing it on the hill; it stood opposite the present brick house. He finally sold it to Conant, who added a two-story front to it that faced the brick house. It was subsequently moved half a mile north, and was the residence of Rev. Mr. Douglass, Chas. Paul, and the late Israel Chadbourne.
In 1770, arrived Nathaniel and Daniel Conant, and Sam'l and John Friend, from Danvers ; Samuel settled near where Albert Webber now resides, and John, a weaver, about half a mile north where his son resides.
Nathaniel Conant, just named, had been a drover in Danvers. He bought the field west of the brick dwelling of the two Whites, and also their half of the saw-mill. Mr. Conant's residence was in the one-story building facing the mill, which had been built and occupied by Ellenwood, the millwright. To this one-story he employed Seth Pea- body to add a two-story house, which, on the erection by his son Andrew of the brick house opposite, was, as before mentioned, moved north, half a mile to the lot opposite the late William Parsons. Andrew Conant moved east- ward, and died there. His father Nathaniel was an enter- prising and useful citizen, and owned the largest real estate in the town. He died in 1807, leaving five sons and two daughters.
There were two or three Indian families on the east side of Massabesic or Shaker Pond, and on the hill when Simeon Coffin, the pioneer, arrived. He soon after moved from the wigwam near Captain Hall's to a cabin a little north of Farnum's tannery, and then to the top of Shaker hill, to one of the wigwams standing, as before remarked, on the site of the present house of Shaker worship. He was soon followed by Chase Sargent, Daniel Hibbard, and Benjamin Barnes, with his five sons, wife, and daugh- ters. There came also Valentine Straw too, near the site of the Shaker mill, and at the south end of Shaker Hill came and settled Ebenezer and Thomas Russell. About the same time several families settled about Bunganut Pond at Mast Camp, who soon became Merry Dancers, and united with the others above named.
Besides the Coffins, who arrived in 1764 and 1765, there came in the latter year Daniel Giles, a native of Plaistow, New Hampshire, who tarried one year on his way in San-
11
ford, and then settled a quarter of a mile north of Coffin's wigwam on the bank of the brook near the potash factory, subsequently established. His son, named Stephen, was the first male child born in Alfred ; a female child was born among the Coffins a few months previous. Deacon Giles's wife died in 1774, which was the first death of an adult in Alfred. The first two-story house was built by said Giles. Daniel Hibbard, as before stated, succeeded Daniel McDaniels in the Noble house ; he was accidentally killed by Daniel Lary in felling a tree, on the hill north- east of the late Col. Lewis'; his widow, Ruth Hibbard, taught a school in the Ezekiel Eastman house, with her daughter Dolly, and then moved to the Barneses on Sha- ker Hill; she married David Barnes ; his daughter mar- ried a son of Deacon Stevens ; the Barnes family came from York, first to the John Knight house north of the late John Sayward's, and were succeeded by Joshua Conant, John Knight, and Mr. Yeaton; the Barneses moved from the foot of Shaker Hill to the top of it, where they joined · the Shakers.
Simon Nowell moved from York 1770, and erected the saw-mill three-quarters of a mile north from Col. Lewis's ; he was succeeded by James Hill, having moved to Shaker Hill.
John Knight came from Kittery Shore, near Portsmouth ; he purchased land of Isaac Coffin, where Alonzo Leavitt lives ; he built a barn and resided in one portion of it, and entertained travellers with whom he acquired the name of " Barn Knight ;" at one time religious meetings were held in it, which were much disturbed by the Merry Dancers ; he moved to the Ilill, now Yeaton's, and was in 1801 succeeded by Dr. Hall, and since by General Thomas and Alonzo Leavitt.
Samuel Whitten, who married a Poindexter, and Hum- phrey Whitten, who married a Lassel, came from Cape Porpoise and settled in Back Street and were succeeded by numerous children; their father came from Salisbury, Massachusetts.
Matthew Lassel, near George W. Came's, was succeeded by Benjamin Whitten.
John Kilham, a shoemaker and gardener, came from Danvers ; he was brother of Dr. Daniel Kilham, a senator
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in the legislature ; his wife was a Dodge, a relative of the elder Mrs. Nathaniel Conant.
Samuel Cluff came from Kittery Point and resided in Back Street near a bend in the road, and was succeeded by his son James and Rev. James Ferguson ; he was pro- moted from a captain to a major.
Paul Webber came from Cape Neddock, in York ; he was a soldier in the Revolution, and subsequently was hired on the farm of the widow of Samuel Friend, who became his wife ; he built the house now occupied by George W. Came, and about the year 1795 erected the large house at the village, occupied by the late Joseph Sayward ; for many years he kept a hotel and grocery store ; he commanded the militia company as successor to Major Cluff; he afterwards, in 1808, returned to the present house of Mr. Came and died there, leaving one son named Paul, who occupied the house built by Joseph Avery.
Jotham Wilson came from Wells and resided many years near Mr. Came's house, recently occupied by young Mr. Ferguson, and was succeeded by Thos. Lord.
Gideon Stone settled in Back Street and moved to the Gore. He was succeeded by John Plummer, who came from Somersworth. His son John Plummer represented the town in the legislature. The house is now occupied by Chas. H. Fernald.
Eastman Hutchins came from Arundel and settled at the north end of Back Street, where he was succeeded by Abiel and Geo. B. Farnum. Hutchins was a sergeant in the Revolutionary War, in the company of which Tobias Lord was lieutenant. He served as town clerk and select- man. He died without issue.
Levi Hutchins, cousin of Eastman, came from Cape Por- poise and was also a soldier in the Revolutionary army. He resided near John Plummer's.
Joseph Avery came from Cape Porpoise. He was the son of Joseph, who came there from Kittery in 1714, and lost seven children out of eleven with throat distemper. Mr. Avery was a selectman many years ; a blacksmithı, and moved to Shapleigh and died there.
Samuel Dorman, an old bachelor, came from Boxford in 1769. He was born in 1716 and died 1804. He entered
13
upon a strip of land as a squatter, extending from the middle Mousam branch to the eastern. He sold the east- ern portion of this strip to Goodrich, and resided himself on the west portion, which he sold in strips to William Parsons. The old brick school-house made the northwest corner of Dorman's or Goodrich's lot sold, to Joshua Knight, who gave the lot on which the school-house stood. Along the north side of this lot towards the new bridge, ran the Pickwacket Road, crossing the river a little below the new bridge, so called, which is 100 rods from Mr. Came's.
Tobias Lord, son of Capt. T., was born in Wells. Was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary army under Capt. Lit- tlefield, and was in Col. Storer's regiment at the taking of Burgoyne in 1777. He died in Kennebunk, 1808.
Morgan Lewis arrived in 1772. His wife was sister of Benjamin Tripe, who helped build Conant's Mill. He came from the north parish of York and settled near where his son, Col. Daniel Lewis, lived. There came with him Jo- seph Welch, Benjamin Lord, Sr., and a Mr. McIntire. After the war several of Mr. Lewis's old neighbors came, viz., William and Theodore Linscott, three Traftons, Benjamin, John, Jeremiah, their mother and two sisters, Mrs. John and Ebenezer Sayward. These settled in what is called York Street. Mr. Lewis was lieutenant of a York company when the war broke out, and marched to Cambridge, and from there to Bunker Hill to cover the retreat of the exhausted soldiers under Prescott. His captain never joined the company, and he was promoted to the rank of captain and major. He purchased a place north of Farnum's tan- yard and placed Col. Joel Allen upon it as tenant, who afterwards moved to the Mast Road, so called. Mr. Lewis's son Jeremiah lived there awhile, and was succeeded by John and Joshua Conant, and Roswell and Nathaniel Far- num.
Benjamin Trafton was a sergeant in the Revolutionary army. He was in the battles of Bunker Hill and Mon- month, and was in the retreat under General Lee.
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