USA > Maine > Oxford County > Buckfield > A history of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900 > Part 24
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HON. NATHANIEL HOWE.
Nathaniel Howe, called by his enemies "Gouge" Howe, was born in Hillsboro, N. H., in 1776. He was the son of Otis and Lucy (Goodale) Howe of llenniker, N. H., and settled in the practice of his profession at Paris Hill in iSo8. For two or three years he had an office at Buckfield village on the northern side of the river on the Hartford road and owned two pieces of land there and on one of them was his office. He also kept open his office on Paris Hill. His commission as Justice of the Peace in 1811 gives his residence as Buckfield. He soon afterwards moved to Bridgton, where he resided for about ten years, then he removed to South Waterford village where he died January 19, 1829. At the time of his death, he was a member of the
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Maine Senate and also postmaster at South Waterford, a position which he had held for several years. He was a man of much legal ability. Largely through his efforts special pleading in our courts was abolished.
On three occasions he was the 4th of July orator in Paris, once in Buckfield and once in Bridgton. The extracts from his speeches printed in one of the leading journals ot the time fully justify the high eulogiums paid him by the editor.
SAMUEL F. BROWN, ESO.
Samuel F. Brown was one of the most popular and respected of the lawyers who have practiced their profession in Buckfield. He was born at Sterling, Mass., in AApril, 1784. For several years during his early youth he was a clerk in a Boston store. When he became of age he made a tour of many of the prominent cities of the United States and spent some time at Charleston. S. C., where an acquaintance advised him to study law. He acted upon that advice and soon began reading law in the office of Judge Mitchell at East Bridgewater. Mass. In ISI4 he came to Buckfield and opened a law office in the store of John Loring, esq. He appears from the first to have had the support and influence of the leading men of the town and was elected to the offices of town clerk and selectman and appointed postmaster, a position which he held for about twenty years.
In 1817 he married Jane, daughter of Dominicus and Jane (Warren ) Record, and built an office for himself on the lot where the law office of Fred R. Dyer now stands. His wife was well educated for those times and was possessed of considerable prop- erty, which she inherited from her father's estate.
Mr. Brown was not a brilliant lawyer, but he was industrious and painstaking and in drawing conveyances, settling estates and disputes between neighbors, proved to be an ideal practitioner and magistrate. From the first, he took a prominent part in temperance movements and was generally selected as secretary of the organizations which he had assisted in formning. He was always an opponent of slavery and advocated its abolition- largely influenced by what he had seen of the institution in the South.
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The first Sabbath school in Buckfield was founded principally through his efforts, and he was its superintendent for many years. He also organized a Sunday School in the DeCoster neighborhood in Hebron, then and for many years thereafter called "Sodom." For several years he was a contributor to the Oxford Observer.
In 1850 he sold his real estate in Buckfield to America Farrar and moved to Bangor where he died March 7, 1861 in the 77th year of his age. Judge Washburn thus wrote of him: "He was an honest, fair and honorable practitioner, much respected and beloved by the Bar and his neighbors and clients." S. C. An- drews, Esq., once said of him that he was one of the best men he ever knew.
HON. VIRGIL D. PARRIS.
Virgil D. Parris was born in Buckfield, Feb. IS, 1807. His parents were Capt. Josiah and Experience ( Lowden) Parris. He came of a Revolutionary Patriot family, both his father and grand- father having served in the War for American Independence. He attended the home Grammar School, fitted for college at Hebron Academy and graduated at Union College, New York, in the class of 1827, being the first native of the town to receive a college education. He then began the study of the law first in of- fice of Samuel F. Brown and later with Judge Nicholas Emery of Portland. He attended a Law School in Massachusetts and was admitted to the Oxford Bar at the June term 1830 of the court an opened an office in his native village, being the first one born in Buckfield to practice law here.
Mr. Parris early developed an aptitude for politics and soon became one of the most astute and able leaders of his party in Maine. He organized the first Jackson club in the State at Buck- field when he was but twenty years old and the next year he cast his first Presidential vote for "Old Hickory," as Gen. Andrew Jackson was called by his supporters, who was elected. Maine. liowever, excepting the Portland district. was carried for John Quincy Adams by a vote of 20.773 to 13.927 for Jackson. The town of Buckfield which had cast a unanimous vote for Adams for President in 1824 went for Jackson in 1828 by a vote of 188 to 69. This result indicates the popularity of Virgil D. Parris in his home town and his success in inducing the people to follow his
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leadership. The whole Oxford district had gone for Adams, however, by a vote of 3265 to 2093 for Jackson. This political condition was soon to change. From this time, Mr. Parris rap- idly rose to political prominence and influence. In 1831 he was clected assistant secretary of the Maine Senate. The next year he was elected to represent the Buckfield district in the Legis- lature and for five years thereafter was annually re-elected. ln 1838 he was elected to Congress to fill the vacancy in that body caused by the death of his brother-in-law, Hon. Timothy J. Carter of Paris and was re-elected. In 1842 and 1843 he was a Senator in the Maine Legislature and during part of the latter year served as president of that body and for a short period acted as Governor of the State. Ile might have been elected Governor of Maine in 1846 but having been appointed United States Marshal for the District of Maine in 1844 which position he held for four years, he gave his influence in favor of John W. Dana of Fryeburg and he was nominated and elected.
In 1852 Mr. Parris was a delegate to the national convention of the democratic party which nominated Gen. Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire for President and much of the credit for his selection was due to Mr. Parris' efforts. About this time, he moved with his family to Paris Hill, which he made his home to his death. In 1853 he was appointed Special Mail Agent for New England and in 1856 store keeper at the Kittery, Me., Navy Yard which position he held when his party was thrown out of power in the nation in 1861. Mr. Parris was the originator of the Buck- field Branch Railroad and was the first president of the company organized to build it.
For many years he was the principal leader of his party in county and state. He was an honest, bold and straightforward man of great energy of character and of unimpeachable integrity and was always free to state his convictions and fearless in declar- ing them and he regarded with scorn and contempt those who were politically as unstable as water, or who would be all things to all men for office. He was a born leader of men and the aged always had in him a defender. The old Revolutionary Soldiers of Buckfield regarded him as their special champion and he held all who took part in the War for Independence in the greatest esteem and veneration. For the young, too, he ever had a pleasant word of cheer and encouragement.
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The writer recalls when a mere lad that he and an older brother once accosted Mr. Parris while he was at work in his garden near the roadside to inquire the way to North Paris where we were going on some errand. It will never be forgotten how kindly he spoke to us and the directions he gave. Everything about our trip has been forgotten except our seeing and talking with Mr. Parris. The secret of his influence and power over men has never been difficult to understand. In 1833 he married Miss Columbia, daughter of Capt. Samuel and Polla ( Freeland) Raw- son of Paris Hill. When Captain Rawson died his estate was the largest up to that time which had ever been settled in the Oxford County Probate Court. His wife was one of the remarkable women of Paris. She lived to be nearly 9; years old. It was a noted family. Four of the daughters married men of prominence, two being Congressmen and one a General in the Civil War. Mr. Parris died at his home on Paris Hill, June 13. 1874. His widow survives him (1915) in the 102d year of her age, with all her mental faculties unimpaired-a very intelligent and a most re- markable lady.
WILLIAM B. BENNETT, ESQ.
William Bridgham Bennett, son of John and Lucy ( Bridg- ham) Bennett and grandson of Nathaniel and Hannah ( Babson) Bennett, was born at South Paris, Aug. 28, 1810. His mother was a sister of Dr. Wm. Bridgham. William's father having died, the widow with her children consisting of three small boys, in 1813 moved to Buckfield where she supported her family with what assistance she received from her brother, by teaching school. At the age of ten, William went to live in the family of Judge Samuel Parris of Hebron and afterwards with his uncle, Dr. Thomas Bridgham of Leeds. In 1824 he began an apprenticeship to learn the cabinet maker's trade with Capt. James Jewett in Buckfield village and was with him three years. He finally went to Waterville where he attended the college fitting school and taught school winters. In the Autumn of 1838 he began reading law in the office of Hon. V. D. Parris at Buckfield. Two years later having passed the examination by the Bar Committee consist- ing of Levi Whitman, Reuel Washburn and Samuel F. Brown, he was admitted to practice.
1
Col. Jacob W. Browne
Sullivan C. Andrews
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Mr. Bennett purchased the law library of Mr. Parris and opened an office at Buckfield. He was appointed postmaster that year but the next year the administration having changed he was succeeded in this office by Samuel F. Brown. In 1841 he was ad- mitted to practice law in the United States District Court at Port- land and was appointed commissioner in bankruptcy. In 1848 he removed to Mechanic Falls and later to Avon. He finally settled in Durham where he died Jan. 19, 1887. Mr. Bennett married Mary Hawkes and had two children, Charles, lives in Portland, unmarried. He is a dealer in patent medicines. Ada married a Marriner, for many years a letter carrier and resides also in Portland.
COL. JACOB W. BROWNE.
Jacob Wardwell Browne was born in Albany, Dec. 2, 1822. In 1846 he entered Bowdoin College and the next year with E. P. Hinds as principal he helped establish the Norway Liberal Insti- tute of which institution he was assistant teacher. For two years he taught mathematics and the languages at Westbrook Sem- inary. Mr. Browne read law in the office of Hon. Elbridge Gerry at Waterford, teaching for several terms in the meantime in the high school at Windham. In 1851 he was admitted to the Bar in this county and the following year opened an office at Buckfield where he lived for several years, taking a prominent part in local and political affairs. For two years he was the village postmas- ter. In 1859 he married Mrs. Margaret Bisbee, daughter of Capt. James Spaulding. Before the breaking out of the war in 1861 he moved to Earlsville, Illinois, where he resided to his death in October, 1892.
In whatever he became interested, Mr. Browne was always a leader. He was a large contributor of both prose and poetry to the press. His son, O'Neil Browne, Esq., has inherited many of the prominent characteristics of his father and is one of the ablest and most influential leaders of his party in Illinois.
HON. SULLIVAN C. ANDREWS.
The Andrews families of New England are descendants of Bishop Lancelot Andrews, D.D., an eminent English divine, son of Thomas of the Suffolk Andrews branch, who came to America in 1630 and settled at Taunton. Bishop Andrews was born in
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London in 1555. He became an author of note, one of the trans- lators of the Bible, a preacher of wonderful power and eloquence and one of the most distinguished scholars of his age. He died Sept. 25, 1626. David, a grandson of Thomas, born in Taunton, Mass., May 23, 1736, married Naoma Briggs. Their oldest child, Edward, was born Dec. 20, 1767. He married Elizabeth, daugh- ter of John Nevens of Poland and settled in Paris. Hon. Charles Andrews, their youngest child, was Clerk of the Courts and Member of Congress; Alfred, their fifth child, born March 9, 1800, married Eliza Cushman. They were the parents of Honor- able Sullivan C. Andrews who was born on Paris Hill, June 18, 1825. He received an academic education and began reading law in the office of Benj. C. Cummings, Esq., in Paris in 1843. He graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1846 and was admitted the same year to the Bar in Cumberland County. The next year was spent in the office of his uncle, Charles Andrews, then Clerk of the Courts. In May, 1847, he opened a law office in Buckfield where he practiced his profession and engaged in various kinds of business for 26 years.
In January, 1855, he married Brittania C. Coolidge of Port- land. While at Buckfield, he was repeatedly elected to town office and served a term as attorney for the county and as a member of the Legislature. For many years he was a director in the Buck- field Railroad Company. In 1864, he ran as a candidate for Con- gress, but was defeated as his party was then in a large minority. He moved to Portland in 1873 and several years later to Cam- bridge, Mass., where he died Nov. 10, 1889 from Bright's dis- ease, while holding the office of special examiner of the Pension Department.
Mr. Andrews was a business lawyer and he took great pride in being so called. He was a man of courtly manners and digni- fied bearing, a true friend and a generous enemy. Though aris- tocratic in his tastes, he was thoroughly democratic in his inter- course with men.
Children : Thirza, an accomplished lady, married Rev. H. B. Smith, residence Mechanic Falls .; Alfred Coolidge Andrews born in Buckfield, July 11, 1873. He graduated at Boston Uni- versity Law School. Admitted to the Oxford Bar in 1897 and practiced law for a time at Mechanic Falls.
George D. Bisbee
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THOMAS J. BRIDGHAM, ESQ.
Thomas Jefferson Bridgham, son of Thomas of Hebron was porn there June 20, 1833. His early education was such as could be acquired at the district school on Brighton Hill in that town. At fifteen years of age he began attending Hebron . Academy where he fitted for Waterville College which institution he en- tered in 1853. After his college course he began reading law in the office of S. C. Andrews at Buckfield and was admitted to the Oxford County Bar in 1857. He opened an office in the village where he remained four years in the practice of his profession. In 1859 he married Miss Susan Hayford of Canton. In 1861 Mr. Bridgham moved to Waterford, where he resided for four years. On account of failing health he returned to Buckfield, dying here May 20, 1866.
HON. GEORGE D. BISBEE.
One of the most astute and able lawyers and politicians who have ever resided in Buckfield is George Dana Bisbee. His par- ents were George Washington and Mary B. (Howe) Bisbee. He comes of Revolutionary and Puritan stock and was born in Hart- ford, Maine, July 9, 1841. He received his education in the com- mon and high schools of the vicinity where he lived and began reading law in the office of Randall & Winter at Dixfield.
The breaking out of the Civil War in 1861 found him still a law student and less than 20 years old. The next year he as- sisted in organizing a company of volunteers which became Co. C. of the 16th Regiment, Maine Infantry, and he was appointed to the very responsible position of orderly sergeant.
His first battle was at Fredericksburg, Va., on the 13th of December, 1862, where the regiment was hotly engaged and lost heavily. Sergeant Bisbee received such a severe wound in the left arm that the surgeons insisted on its amputation but he would on no account permit it and the arm was saved though it has never healed. He was promoted to second lieutenant and with his wounded arm in a sling rejoined his company in time to par- ticipate in the disastrous battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 1-3, 1863, the regiment making a forced march of 25 miles to reach the position assigned it and was one of the organizations selected to cover the retreat of the army across the Rappahannock. His
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third battle was at Gettysburg, Pa., July 1, 1863, where the gal- lant men of the 16th Maine were ordered to advance northwest of the town and hold their position at all hazards to enable the surviving heroes of the First Corps to take a new position on Cemetery Ridge. Like Leonidas and his immortal 300 Spartans at Thermopyle they knew the order meant death or capture, but they executed the movement quickly and occupied the position designated.
Lieut. Bisbee's company carried the colors as the Regiment went forward "into the jaws of death and the mouth of hell." They stopped the enemy for a brief period --- precious moments for what was left of the First Corps, the most of whom got away, but cut down by shot and shell and surrounded by an enemy flushed with victory, there was nothing for Bisbee and his com- patriots but to surrender. Here took place an act for which their praises will long be sung. They would not give up their Hag and as it went to the earth at Lieut. Bisbee's suggestion it was stripped from its standard and hastily torn into pieces of which each man preserved one to keep as a precious relic of his service.
Lieut. Bisbee was confined in several Southern prisons for eighteen months when he was paroled and exchanged. He joined his regiment in time to participate in the engagement which resulted in the Surrender of Lee's Army at Appomattox. On returning home he took up his law studies and was admitted to the Oxford bar in December, 1865, his mind having gained in his war college course a grasp of principles of justice and equity that no law school could possibly instill. He opened a law office in Buckfield, in January, 1866, and continued there in practice to 1892, when he removed to Rumford Falls, where he is now (1915) senior member of the law firm of Bisbee & Parker. He is a member of the bar of the supreme court of the United States. Mr. Bisbee is recognized as one of the foremost business lawyers in the state. No man in the county has ever so long retained his hold upon the management of affairs and this is due not merely to his ability, sagacity and shrewdness but also to his integrity and of his faithfully keeping his engagements. In the manage- ment of causes in court he is especially effective. His knowledge of everyday men and things, his thoroughly democratic bearing and his plain, hard common sense make him very successful with
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juries and particularly good as adviser-as counsel before legis- lative bodies and in getting results in everything he undertakes. Hon. Charles W. Walton. one of the most eminent justices of the supreme court of this state, once during the trial of a case where he was presiding, said to the members of the bar present that Mr. Bisbee's twenty minutes argument for his client was a model. His best piece of legislative work was the law he was instru- mental in getting passed to rescue the Buckfield Railroad from the unfortunate condition in which it was left by the Smith man- agement which greatly surprised the old stagers in legislative pro- ceedings. For this Mr. Bisbee was highly complimented by Hon. James W. Bradbury, a former United States Senator.
Mr. Bisbee has served as State's Attorney for Oxford County : been both Representative and Senator in the Legislature, United States Marshal for the District of Maine: State Bank Examiner and as a member of Gov. Win. T. Cobb's Council in 1905-07. In politics he is a Republican. He is a strong advocate of temper- ance and a member of the Baptist Church at Rumford Falls. His business interests, independent of his professional and polit- ical connections, include the presidency of the Rumford Falls Trust Company, in the organization of which he took a promi- nent part and is also a director and attorney for the Portland and Rumford Falls Railroad Co. and connected with several other local and business enterprises. Mr. Bisbee was made chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hebron Academy in 1907 and is now president of that institution, having served as vice-president for several years. He married, July 8, 1866, Anna Louise, daughter of Hon. Isaac N. Stanley of Dixfield and their children are: Stanley and Mary Louise, wife of Mr. Everett R. Josselyn of the firm of Brown & Josselyn of Portland, wholesale flour dealers.
CHARLES F. WHITMAN, ESQ.
Charles F. Whitman was the third native of Backfield to open a law office in the village. He was born Feb. 6, 1848 in the southern part of the town on the farm where his great-grand- father, Jacob Whitman, settled after his service in the Con- tinental Army. On his mother's side he is descended from Abi- jah Buck for whom the town was named and from Micah Foster of Pembroke, a Massachusetts Minute man in the War for Inde- pendence. On both sides, he is descended from seven of that im-
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mortal band who signed the "Compact of Government" in the cabin of the Mayflower. Eleven of his ancestors of both sexes, among whom were Elder Wm. Brewster, "Chief of the Pilgrims," William Mullens, Francis Cooke, John Alden and John Howland came in the Mayflower ; two, one of whom was the courtly Gov. Thomas Prince in the Fortune and ten, among whom were George Morton and his son, Nathaniel, afterwards the Secretary of the Colony for many years and author of the New England Memorial came in the Ann and Little James. And it is a remarkable fact that the three romantic courtships, among the Pilgrims in these voyages over sea-all resulting in marriages-were of his ancestors.
Mr. Whitman fitted for college at Hebron Academy and the Bates Latin School, but instead of taking a college course, as at first intended, he entered the office of Hon. S. C. Andrews and began the study of the law, and while pursuing these studies, taught the high school in the village for several terms. In Sep- tember, 1868, when not quite twenty-one, he was admitted to the Bar in this county and having married Miss Mary A. Dinsmore of Norway, daughter of Ansel and Judith C. (Morse) Dinsmore, moved to Mechanic Falls the next year and opened a law office. He met with excellent success but in 1871 he returned to Buck- field and had his office in the one formerly occupied by Hon. John D. Long. In February, 1873, he moved to Norway, where he has since resided.
For many years he was connected with the schools in various positions and has never lost his interest in them. He was the originator of the Norway Public Library and solicited the first subscriptions for buying books. Mr. Whitman has from boy- hood been interested in the cause of Temperance and all moral reforms. He delights to take part in the political speaking cam- paigns and the exercises of Memorial Day. Through his efforts the Norway Municipal Court was established in 1885 and he was appointed its first judge and served ten years, then resigned to become Clerk of the Courts, which position he held for twenty years. Mr. Whitman has been a large contributor to the press, written many sketches and short stories, devoted much time to genealogical and historical research, is a member of the Whit- man, Packard and Alden Associations and one of the authors of this history.
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Oscar H. Hersey
Capt. Thomas S. Bridgham
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HON. OSCAR H. HERSEY.
A successful practitioner of the law here was Oscar Henry Hersey born at Freeport, Me., April 9, 1852. His father was Rev. Levi Hersey, a Free Will Baptist clergyman. Mr. Hersey is a graduate of Litchfield Academy in this state. In his nine- teenth year he moved with his father to Buckfield and, in 1875, began reading law in the office of Hon. Geo. D. Bisbee. Ile was admitted to practice in March, 1877, and opened an office hiere. He acquired a great reputation and was successful in building up a good business in the courts of Oxford, Androscoggin and Cum- berland Counties.
Mr. Hersey was elected attorney for this county in 1886 and served two terms. He was later elected Representative and Sen- ator to the Legislature. For some years, while at Buckfield, he was a partner of Hon. Geo. D. Bisbee, under the firm name of Bisbee & Hersey. When Mr. Bisbee moved to Rumford in 1894, the partnership was dissolved. In 1899 Mr. Hersey moved to Portland and with Judge Enoch Foster, one of the brightest of legal minds, opened an office under the firm name of Foster & Hersey. Mr. Hersey was admitted to practice in the District and Circuit courts of the United States. He is a sharp and efficient business man as well as a lawyer. When Charles Forster, who had been a large manufacturer of toothpicks in Buckfield and other places died, Mr. Hersey was appointed according to the terms of his will Trustee to carry on the extensive business Mr. Forster had built up. He now resides in Phillips. In 1879 he married Ida A., daughter of Charles H. and Cynthia ( Ilarris) Berry. She is a descendant of Dea. William Berry, one of the early settlers in Buckfield. They have three children: Augustus M., born Oct. 30, 1881 ; Caroline B., born April 16, 1883 : Arvilla M., born May 12, 1892.
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