USA > Maine > Oxford County > Buckfield > A history of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900 > Part 16
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Mr. Atwood on getting settled in New York City found em- ployment in an old established dry goods commission house where he remained several years. He then changed to another firm in the same line of business for a shorter period when he accepted the position of cashier in the office of the United States Mutual Accident Association and for some time after was ac- tively interested in building up that institution. In 1885 he or- ganized the Preferred Accident Association which in 1893 was reincorporated as a stock company. How well this company suc- ceeded is shown by the fact that it is the largest in the world, doing exclusively a personal accident business. From being founder of the company he has been secretary and general man- ager and is now president and the largest stockholder. Its splen- did standing to-day is chiefly his work and to him more than any one living or dead is due the present methods of conducting acci- dent insurance business. He originated the preferred and com- bination policies and he has probably done more to popularize ac- cident insurance than all others.
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In 1895 Mr. Atwood purchased a tract of land in Southern Florida, which he cleared up and planted to various fruits, chief among them being the pomelo or grapefruit as it is popularly called. His pomelo grove is one of the finest in the world. Here he spends several months of the winter season.
At Northland, his beautiful country seat near New York City, Mr. Atwood has a 200-acre farm, where fine blooded horses are bred. He is also extensively interested in shipping and is the principal owner of several vessels plying between New York and foreign ports. Mr. Atwood is a member of numerous clubs and has a fine faculty of making and retaining friends. He is estimable in all his social relations and in every instinct of his nature a gentleman.
Mr. Atwood married July 11, 1881, Miss Carrie B. Hutchings of Portland, Me., and they have had two children, Helen Mary, born in New York City, May 24, 1882, died Sept. 19, 1893; Kimball C., Jr., born Clifton, New Jersey, Nov. 10, 1892, now (1915) a student in Columbia College.
GEORGE M. ATWOOD.
George M. Atwood was born in Buckfield, Oct. 6, 1860. Son of William H. and Helen M. Atwood. Educated at Hebron Academy and Columbia College Law School. Married Anna, daughter of Hon. Elbridge G. Harlow, of Dixfield, Me., April 5, 1886-a lady of rare accomplishments and business ability. Member of firm of Atwood & Forbes, publishers of The Oxford Democrat since 1885. Admitted to the Oxford Bar in October, 1885. County Treasurer of Oxford County front 1889 to 1915. Treasurer of South Paris Savings Bank since 1900. One of the promoters and director of Paris Trust Company since its organ- ization in 1908. Trustee of Hebron Academy and vice-presi- dent and director of the Atwood Grape Fruit Company of New York. Mr. Atwood built the first telephone line into Buckfield in 1894 connecting with long distance lines of the New England Tel. & Tel. Co., at Norway. The line was used through to Boston for the first time on July 2, 1894. Has two sons: William Elbridge Atwood, a graduate of Bowdoin College in 1910 and now Treasurer of Hebron Academy and Raymond Loring Atwood, a graduate of Hebron in 1914 and entering col-
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Charles B. Atwood and Wife
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Four Generations of Charles B. Atwood's Family Chas. B. Atwood, 82; Fred H. Atwood, 46; Helen Atwood Lyon, 24; Fred Atwood Lyon, 3
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lege in 1915. William Elbridge Atwood (son of the above) married Viola M. Dixon of Portland and has one son, William Elbridge Atwood, Jr., born June 18, 1914.
CILARLES B. ATWOOD.
Charles B. Atwood, son of Nathan and Ruth II. Rogers At- wood was born in Buckfield, April 9, 1825. The story of his life reads like a romance. In his 12th year he went to sea as a cabin boy on board of a whaling vessel which was wrecked on the Chilian coast of South America in December, 1838. Fortunately young Atwood escaped with his life and was taken on board of another ship bound for Fall River, Mass. This vessel was also shipwrecked near Montauk Point, Long Island, with the loss of nearly all the souls on board. Atwood was one of the persons saved and reached home in the summer of 1839. Strange as it may seem after being twice shipwrecked on his first voyage at sea, this experience did not cure him of a sea-faring life. In 1841 he shipped again as a harpooner on a whaling vessel of New Bedford, Mass., under Captain Horton in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He was gone 20 months but soon returned to the sea and made several voyages into different parts of the globe-one of which was into the African Congo region. His last voyage was made with Captain Horton to Cuba as second mate. Returning home to Buckfield, he engaged in business with his uncle, Ephraim Atwood. In 1851 he went to the gold fields of California but did not remain there long. For two years during the Civil War he was in trade in Chicago and after- wards for several years in Portland, Me., but in 1884 he resumed business at Buckfield Village which he continued with his young- est son, Edwin F. Atwood, born in 1866, as partner up to about the time of his death. Mr. Atwood married Aug. 20, 1867, Miss Emily D., daughter of Joshua Irish, Esq. She was born in Buckfield, June 27, 1827. They had several children who died young. A daughter, Sarah E., married John E. Moore, station agent at Buckfield. She has deceased. Mr. Atwood made a success of his business life and left a handsome competence as the fruits of his career. He was a man of sterling worth and high character and was a useful citizen in the community in which he lived. He died Oct. 6, 1907.
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FRED H. ATWOOD.
Fred H. Atwood, the only other chill of Charles B. Atwood, who lived to grow up, was born in Buckfield, July 25, 1861. His education was acquired in the public schools of Buckfield, Port- land and Auburn and Smith's Business College of Lewiston. His business career commenced as messenger of the American Express Company on the P. & O. R. R. from Portland to Fabyans, N. H. After five years with the Express Company he returned to Buckfield and engaged in trade with his father till 1895 when he moved to Rumford Falls and started in the retail grocery business. Three years after he was appointed post- master there which position he has held by successive re-appoint- ment. In politics he is a republican and a Universalist in religion. He married Aug. 12, 1882, Margaret, daughter of Elijah and Lucy A. Turner of Summer and has three children, (1) Helen F., born in Portland, Dec. II, 1883, married Newman C. Lyon. He died at Rumford Falls, April, 1905. They had one child, Fred Atwood Lyon, born Aug. 2, 1904: (2) Lucy E., born December, 1885 and (3) Charles R., born October, 1891.
HERMON C. BUMPUS, PH.D., LL.D.
Hermon Carey Bumpus is a descendant of Edward Bumpus who came in the Fortune with the second detachment of the Pil- grims. He was born in Buckfield, May 5, 1862. His parents were Laurin A. and Abbie A. ( Eaton ) Bumpus. His great-grand- father, William Bumpus, served in the Massachusetts Line in the Revolutionary War. He married Hannah Barrows at Plympton, Mass., Feb. 10. 1780 and died in Hebron, Me., Jan. 7, 1813. She survived him 33 years. Dea. Alden Bumpus, their third child, was born in Hebron, June 9, 1786. He married Polly, oldest daughter of Samuel Crafts, a soldier in the War for Independ- ence from Bridgewater, Mass., and his wife, Anna Packard. They were the parents of Laurin A. Bumpus.
The subject of this sketch attended the school at Hebron Academy and later took courses at higher institutions of learn- ing and his subsequent life has been devoted to educational and literary attainments and pursuits. He received his degree of Ph.B., at Brown University in 1884, his Ph.D., at Clark Uni-
Thomas Chase
Roscoe G. Chase
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versity in 1891, Sc. D., at Tufts College in 1905 and LL. D., at Clark, 1909; member faculty of pure sciences at Columbia since 1905; member board Mass. Biol. Lab .; Brooklyn Institute Arts and Sciences since 1902; Fellow A. A. A. S., New York Acad- cmy of Sciences, etc., etc., etc. ; author of various works on bio- logical subjects and Natural Science. He is now President of Tufts College. In December, 1886, he married Miss L. Ellen Nightingale of Dorchester, Mass.
HON. THOMAS CHASE.
Thomas Chase, son of Rev. Nathaniel and Jemima ( Haskell) Chase was born in Buckfield, June 5, 1808. As a young man he showed great interest in acquiring an education and early espoused the cause of temperance and moral reform. He be- came one of the noted teachers of this section of the state. He married Miss Esther M. Daggett and raised a large family of children, all worthy of their excellent ancestry. Mr. Chase was selected by his parents to care for them in their old age and have the old homestead. This duty he and his good wife faithfully performed.
On the break up of parties in the fifties, Mr. Chase assisted in the formation of the republican party and became one of its prin- cipal leaders. He was its first representative in the Legislature from Buckfield. This was in 1855. He was elected several times as one of the board of selectmen, officiating as chairman in 1861 and to other town offices. Mr. Chase was elected State Senator in 1865 and died while a member of that body, March 13, 1866. His death was deeply lamented by all who knew him.
ROSCOE G. CHASE.
Roscoe G. Chase. the oldest son and second child of Hon. Thomas and Esther M. (Daggett ) Chase, was born in Buckfield, Nov. 3. 1837. On the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted in Co. K, 13th Regiment, Maine Volunteers.
This organization was in Gen. Benj. F. Butler's Expedition which went to Louisiana. The 13th Maine participated in the capture of the forts on the Mississippi river below New Orleans, but Commodore D. G. Farragut had run his warships past them
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and took the city. Mr. Chase contracted disease in that hot climate and was discharged for disability.
In November, 1865, he married Miss Ellen E. Gerrish of Sumner. They had a daughter, Lila G., born in Buckfield, April 3. 1867, who died May 2, 1871. The family had moved to Au- burn but after a stay there of about three years Mr. Chase settled in Geneva, New York, where he has since resided. His son, Or- ville Gerrish, was born there, May 26, 1873. He married Miss Helen Stothoff and they had three children. He died July, 1914. Mr. Chase on going to Geneva engaged in the nursery business, which under his supervision as the principal member of the firm or company has become one of the largest and most reliable dealers in the country of nursery stock.
CHARLES CHASE.
Charles Chase, the second son and fourth child of Hon. Thomas and Esther M. ( Daggett) Chase was born in Buckfield, July 18, 1841. On attaining his majority the War of the Rebel- lion having broken out he enlisted August 4, 1862, in Co. D, 23d Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers and was killed at Cold Harbor, Va. Charles Chase, as a young man and a soldier, as might be expected from his training and ancestry was one of the most upright and promising of youths. No better training could any boy receive and what ancestry is more to be prized than Pilgrim and Puritan stock and sires who fought to establish English rule in America and the Independence of this Land of Liberty? The love of home and country is one of the highest and best characteristics of human nature. This noble and manly youth risked all and made the greatest sacrifice possible-gave his life that our country and its free institutions might endure. He and others like him who fell in that great conflict, did not die in vain. The Union was preserved and slavery abolished through their valor and sacrifice of their precious lives.
Our country to-day for what they did is the first, the free- est and the best upon the earth, and will soon be the greatest and most powerful. A grateful people will never forget what the Northern Soldiers did and will keep their memory green through all time and annually decorate their graves with flowers and honor them as no others are honored.
Charles Chase
George H. Chase
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The following lines were written by Mrs. Abbie Chase Hol- brook. It was reported after the battle that her brother was among the missing. It was subsequently ascertained that he was killed :
IN MEMORIAM
Here on fair slopes the warriors lie
Beneath their shades of green ;
Earth clasps them close, the summer sky
Doth o'er them brooding lean.
These well beloved, these martyred dead,
Who sleep each in his hard won bed.
But winds that stir the blossoms fair
Above each war-scarred breast,
May fan no love-wreathed garland where My soldier takes his rest. His far lost grave fore'er shall miss Love's tender touch and longing kiss.
No solemn dirge may reach the blue Of skies that arch his head ;
No tears the untrimmed turf bedew
Above him rudely spread.
There. only sound the wild bees' hum
And songs of birds, that unscared, come
To perch and trill above his feet, And winds that shrilly sweep ;
And there, maybe, some wild flower sweet Will through the grasses creep,
And softly lay its blushing face Against my soldier's burial place.
For some, the pageantry of grief,
The pomp of funeral trains; For him, but rustling grass and leaf With nature's careless strains,
While Love, that sought his place of rest, Turns, grieving, from its hopeless quest.
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Nay, heart, where'er came deathi's surprise, He needs not dirge nor prayer ; As sweet his sleep 'neath alien skies As though his own bent there. What matters to the pulseless clay, The tribute that the living pay?
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But take the lessons of his deeds
Nor drown it in your tears ;
Nor fame, nor years, the true heart needs That God's great summons hears.
High purpose in achievement wrought,
Then his white soul to heaven upcaught.
So haloed, stands this brave young life
Against war's background dread,
Who gave his bosom to the strife Nor spared its tide of red.
Had longest years brought sweeter death,
More glorious hours for his last breath !
GEORGE H. CHASE
George H. Chase, son of Hon. Thomas and Esther M. ( Dag- gett) Chase, was born in Buckfield on the old Chase homestead, the settling lot of his grandfather, May 5, 1844. He married, Sept. 24, 1865, Miss Miranda M. Morton of South Paris. Three sons were born to them: Charles 11., born at South Paris. Feb. 17, 1868, married June, 1891, Miss Alzada Chisholm of Malden, Mass., and they have one son born in 1892; George Morton Chase born at Auburn, Me., Dec. 18, 1873, married Nov. 2, 1898, Miss Anna Mckeon of Malden, and they have one son, Richard, born in 1904: Harry Chase, the third son, born in Malden, March 6, 1879, died unmarried in September, 1892.
Mr. Chase after his marriage, spent two years in South Paris, then removed to Auburn and engaged in the nursery busi- ness with his brothers. In 1874 he settled in Malden, Mass., where he has since resided. His wife died there March 7, 1901 and in September, 1903, he married Mrs. Amelia Bradford Harding of Denver, Colorado. She died Sept. 8, 1913.
Mr. Chase has been one of the most energetic, enterprising and successful of business men. The firm of Geo. H. Chase & Co., of which he is the principal member, is connected with R. G. Chase & Co., of Geneva, N. Y., dealers in nursery stock.
HOWARD A. CHASE.
Howard A. Chase, son of Hon. Thomas and Esther M. (Daggett ) Chase, was born in Buckfield, Oct. 15, 1846. He fol- lowed his oldest brother to Geneva, New York and went into the
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
nursery business with him. He married, Nov. 23, 1871, Miss Mary E. Gibbs of Geneva. They removed to Philadelphia, Pa., where they now reside. They have had five children: Howard G., born April 7, 1873: Mary Esther, born Feb. 4. 1875 ; Charles Thomas, born Oct. 27, 1876; Alice E., born 1878 and Annie A., born 1880. The two first named were born in Geneva and the others in Philadelphia.
WILLIAM D. CHASE.
William D. Chase, son of Hon. Thomas and Esther MI. ( Dag- gett ) Chase was born in Buckfield. Aug. 26, 1852. He married, Aug. 15, 1877, Miss Lizzie C. Withington of Lawrence, Mass. They have had one child, Ethel, born Augusta. Me., April 16, 1879. Mr. Chase is a man of literary ability and a writer of note for the press. He was one of the editors of Chase's Chronicle dur- ing the rise and fall of the greenback crusade. He settled in Auburn.
HOMER N. CHASE.
Homer N. Chase, the youngest son of Hon. Thomas and Esther M. (Daggett) Chase was born in Buckfield, Sept. 30. 1855. He settled in Aubarn, Me., where he now resides. He married Miss Emma F., daughter of Col. Charles S. Emerson of the 20th Maine Regiment in the Civil War. They have two children : Emma F., who married Robert C. Chase of Chase, Alabama, and Thomas E. Chase, who resides in Auburn.
Mr. Chase early became interested in the nursery business with his brothers and has built up a large and successful trade in Maine under the firm name of Homer N. Chase & Co. Its sup- plies of stock are obtained from the nurseries of R. G. Chase & Co., at Geneva, New York.
HON. JOIIN LEWIS CHILDS.
It is the dream of the human race to find in the higher life a place lovely and beautiful beyond description and far exceed- ing anything the imagination has pictured of the locality from which the fabled Adam and Eve were driven. But it has been the rare good fortune of only a very few to live in a locality in
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any way approaching what we conceive the earthly paradise to have been. John Lewis Childs. however, is one of that num- ber, and the floral paradise where he resides was the creation of his own genius.
His parents were Stephen and Lydia A. (Chandler) Childs of Turner, where the father was born in 1807. He was the grandson of Dr. Daniel Childs who settled there in early times and was the first physician to practice his profession in the neighboring plantation of Bucktown. The family of Stephen Childs moved to a farm in Jay where the son, John Lewis, was born May 13, 1856. In 1867 Stephen Childs removed to Buck- field which he made his home till his death in 1884. His wife survived him for a few years. They had raised a large family of children.
The subject of this sketch principally acquired his education in the village schools, but having from early boyhood developed a passionate taste for flowers, instead of taking a college course and entering one of the learned professions, he determined to de- vote his life to their cultivation, and to dealing in them as a business. How well he chose is seen in his present circum- stances and surroundings. After he had fully determined what to do, with excellent judgment, he selected a tract on Long Isl- and, that he might be near to the New York City market and he purchased it. The land then was little more than a dreary waste, but the young man from way "Down East" in Buckfield saw in it great possibilities and went to work to carry out his plans and make the place, as it is in fact to-day, a veritable Garden of Eden. As might be supposed, there were periods of discouragements and threatened failures but he persevered and finally wrought upon the soil, the reality of the picture he had formed in his mind. His "Floral Park" of 300 acres or more, as it is named, is now one of the beauty spots of earth.
Around the home of Mr. Childs has grown up a village of handsome buildings, neat, pretty, homelike cottages with well kept streets lighted with electricity, church, school and hotel and a system of water works constructed by Mr. Childs, who has been the author and promoter of it all.
His private residence is in the center of a tract of ten acres dotted with beds of rare cacti, choice shrubbery and magnificent displays of all conceivable designs artistically formed with
John Lewis Childs
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Floral Park
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foliage plants. The loveliness of the plots of flowers of every kind and color is surpassing description and must be seen to be appreciated. The business has grown to immense propor- tions. He employs an army of laborers and runs his own print- ing plant where hundreds of thousands of advertising circulars and labels for flower and garden seeds are printed and a maga- zine called the Mayflower is published.
The products of this tract with another of 900 acres named Flowerfield and the many acres of greenhouses under glass are sent to nearly every important country on earth-there being es- pecially a large trade with Australia and New Zealand. Individ- ual customers number over half a million yearly. Thousands of letters are received and sent out per day and it requires many stenographers and typewriters to attend to the correspondence, while some fifty or more young ladies are constantly booking and filling orders and a small army of boys and girls are needed to pack and prepare the seeds for shipment. Financially, Mr. Childs has succeeded far beyond the wildest fancies and desires of his boyhood. Twenty-five years ago he was said to have ac- cumulated a fortune of $1,500,000.
Mr. Childs has been prominent in the politics of his adopted state and has always favored the interests of the people against corrupt boss rule. From being chairman of the republican coun. ty committee, he was chosen a member of the state committee and was twice elected to the senate of the New York Legislature from a democratic district, usually good for 2000 majority and was twice a candidate for Congress, running far ahead of his party ticket. He is known as an authority on ornithology and possesses the finest private library in the world on North Amer- ican Natural History and has the largest private collection in ex- istence of mounted North American birds, together with their nests and eggs, but the world in general knows him as "John Lewis Childs, the Florist." He was married in 1886 to Miss Caroline Goldsmith of New York and they have four children. She is a charming and accomplished lady, a writer of stories. sketches of travel abroad and a prominent and well-known club woman.
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ALFRED COLE.
Alfred Cole, the youngest son of Lemuel, Jr., and Lydia (Lucas) Cole, was born in Hartford, Me., May 16, 1843. He passed his boyhood on the farm, attending the district school of his native town, the high school at Canton and other places. In 1861, he moved with his father's family to Buckfield village, where he resided till his death, March 13, 1913. Owing to ill health he was prevented from pursuing his studies at college but continued a course at home, acquiring an ardent taste for class- ical literature which he always cultivated. Mr. Cole was a writer of good prose and poetry. His productions have appeared in the Portland Transcript and various other papers and magazines and were widely read and admired. His rank is very high among the writers of his native state.
He had long service as an official of the town, was five years on its board of selectmen, twenty-seven years town clerk and a member of its school board for many years, Notary Public and a Justice of the Peace. He was Postmaster for nearly a quarter of a century, holding through changes of administration without any efforts made to displace him which attests his efficiency and great popularity. Mr. Cole was long identified with Free Masonry, having been secretary of the local lodge, thirty-four years. He was a member of several historical societies, was much interested in local history and was one of the compilers of this work. He was especially instrumental in securing and pro- moting the Zadoc Long Free Library, the gift of Hon. John D. Long and was chairman of its board of trustees. He passed away after a long and wasting sickness, March 13, 1913, deeply lamented by all who knew him. The following is from Governor Long's tribute to his memory which appeared in the Oxford Dem- ocrat of March 18, 1913:
"The death of Alfred Cole, though anticipated in view of his long illness, is a shock to this community and to the large circle of his friends and admirers outside of Buckfield. He was one of its most prominent citizens, beloved and respected, and for many years its postmaster. His literary culture was broad and pure. He had great facility in prose and poetry. Many of his verses have appeared in public print, always breathing an ex- quisite refinement of spirit and full of those touches of nature,
Alfred Cole
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of the idealization of rural scenery and of the tender affiliations of our old New England life, which appeal to the heart."
After mention of the great labor of years in collecting ma- terial for a history of Buckfield and the literary ability Mr. Cole had brought to the work, Mr. Long well says: "But his best memorial will be in the hearts of his friends."
DEA. WHITNEY CUMMINGS.
Dea. Whitney Cummings came from Sumner to Buckfield with his family in 1863 and resided here till his death. His parents were Oliver and Phebe (Churchill) Cummings. The father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, as was also his grandfather, Capt. Oliver Cummings of Dunstable.
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