USA > Maine > York County > Parsonsfield > A history of the first century of the town of Parsonsfield, Maine > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
CHAPTER VIII.
RAMBLES ABOUT TOWN.
IT is our purpose in this chapter to give a brief outline of the location of families in different sections of Parsonsfield, with occasional running comments on persons and things not elsewhere mentioned.
We learn from unquestioned documents that Thomas Parsons, Esq., the original proprietor, was a resident of Effingham as late as August 14, 1784, and of Parsonsfield (then Parsonstown), January, 1785. The first frame house built in town and the oldest now inhabited, was erected by him and finished during the season of 1784. The farm on which this building was erected is now owned and occupied as a sum- mer residence, by James W. Cook of Boston, Mass., who married a great granddaughter of said Parsons. He has remodeled the house, erected commodious additions and capacious outbuildings.
About a mile south of this, upon a hill stands the residence of Har- vey Moore, Esq. The graves of the fathers and mothers are not for- gotten, but their home has been forsaken.
All adown the slope from Ricker's Mountain to New Hampshire line the Doe families occupied the land. A few of other names, related by marriage, were found here and there. John, Jr., the first deacon of the Congregational church, was a tanner, most of the others followed farm- ing.
Nearer the pond John Ames, from New Market, N. H., settled before the town was incorporated. Later, two of his sons, Marston and Dan- iel. They increased in land, cattle and money, but one generation after another lacked a quiver full of children. Their farms have recently passed to men of other names.
Down by the sandy shore two generations of the Tuck family tilled the soil, but they too are gone.
Three Marston brothers made openings near the southwest corner of the town. Their children pitched new tents along our southern bor- der, but, with one exception, strangers dwell in all these homes.
233
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
East of Ricker's mountain, extending down to the highway from Middle Road to Maplewood, a block of lots in the second and third ranges was given by Esquire Parsons to three of his sons, and occupied by them some fifty years or more. Their neighbors on the north were Samuel Garland and Samuel Dutch. On the south resided Dudley Page, John Sanborn and Israel Hodsdon, and on the east, Nathan Wig- gin, Isaac Emery and Noah Wedgewood.
Along the Whale's Back, half a dozen cellars and half that number of graveyards mark the locality where once the Quint families had homes. Adjoining the Quints on the east was, and now is, the Benson neighborhood, where dwelt several families of that name. Across the valley from Bensons, Moses Mighel's commenced, then sold to Aaron Goodwin, who was with Paul Jones in his notable sea fight by moon- light.
East, beyond a vacant lot, is the farm, but not the house, where the first white child was born. According to family and town records, Joseph, son of Eben Moore, was born January 17, 1777. His father claimed that, by usage, the child was entitled to a lot of land.
Turning from Newfield and coming up the South Road a mile or more, the places where Samuel Pease and his two sons first built may be seen. The younger Samuel was a Drum-Major in the army. The Burnham house was erected in 1799; the Burbank house early in the century, which have till the present been occupied by them and their descendants. Here the road to East Parsonsfield branches off. Joseph Pease sold to Major Paul Burnham about 1795. North of Burnham's is the farm once known as the Fairbank's home. Capt. James Morri- son lived toward the west. A minister once asked the captain if he was afraid of death. Springing to his feet, the old soldier replied : "Afraid! I afraid! why, sir, I was at Bunker Hill, Brandywine and through the Jarsey's."
West of Morrison's, John Lougee, of the second generation, ran a tannery from young manhood to old age. Tanning hides on shares was a common custom. Then the shoemaker with his kit went from house to house working by the day.
Next, we find the old homesteads of Elisha Piper, Levi Howe, the blacksmith, George Bickford, Major Zebulon Pease, the old trapper,
234
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
and Enoch Hale, the cabinet-maker. The Free Baptist meeting-house was opposite Mr. Hale's.
Turning toward the middle road, we pass the farms where Dudley Hilton and Jesse Wedgewood early felled the forest, to the hill settled by the Moulton's, and still occupied by their descendants.
On the brook, south of the road traveled, there have been three saw- mills within the memory of man. Bickford's is yet operated. Two or three stores have been opened at South Parsonsfield for brief periods. A post-office was established here, 1831, George Hilton, Postmaster. He held the office till 1883.
It is one mile or more from the Moulton hill to Middle Road village. Job Colcord settled here before the incorporation of the town and opened a tavern. The parish records of 1790 say the meeting-house was between the dwelling houses of Bradstreet Wiggin and John Brown. No mention is made of other families. Town-meetings were held at Wiggin's and Colcord's till the meeting-house was finished, 1795; then at the meeting-house till the erection of the present town house, about 1832.
Lot number 51, in the third range, was set apart for the use of the ministry. In 1790, the parish exchanged it for the lot and buildings Brown owned at the Middle Road. This was known as the parsonage till the death of Mr. Rolfe. The parsonage house was built 1795. After Mr. Rolfe's death in 1817, Mary, his widow, returned to Massachusetts. The parsonage house and land lying on the eastern side of the highway and extending from land of Richard Lord, on the south, to land of Daniel Philbrick, on the north, reserving one acre, occupied as a bury- ing ground, was sold to Andrew Pease by the Congregational Society.
Under date of July 12, 1802, Nicholas Emery, Esquire, says he has posted a notice for a parish meeting at his office and at the store of Samuel Dalton. Benjamin. brother of Samuel, succeeded him in trade. Samuel Cushman and Rufus McIntire followed Judge Emery. Doctor James Bradbury and Gilman L. Bennett have been the physicians residing here. The mechanics have been Josiah Hannaford, Francis S. Grace, John Morrill, Lorenzo Redman, Hiram Billings, C. E. Weeman and others.
Half a mile west of the village, Walter and Enoch Neal lifted their
235
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
axes against the thick trees, where John and Luther Neal, of the third generation, yet own and occupy. On the road branching toward West Parsonsfield, a Baptist meeting-house was standing, 1796. Beyond was the Dearborn mill, first built by Josiah and Asa Pease. Josiah dwelt half-way up the long hill, while Asa looked down from the sum- mit. Here, on this hill, James Fogg, Captain Lemuel Miller, Rufus and Isaac Nason and John G. Lombard, have since lived. Bearing to the right is an out-of-the-way farm, where Moulton Smart raised two smart doctors.
Returning to the Middle Road by way of Trueworthy D. Palmer's and his son, Joshua D., and another pioneer, we climb the steep hill, and view the spot where the domicile of Caleb Burbank stood many years, later owned by Deacon John Lord and the Anderson- brothers. Half-way down the hill, past Albert R. Leavitt's, the former home of Doctor David W. Clark, is the farm bought by Josiah Colcord, but not since sold. Around the Emerson schoolhouse several houses were erected, which have ceased to be.
At South River, Joseph Granville built mills, which were rebuilt by George Lord, near the close of the last century. Later on, his son Samuel, added a small factory, in which he carded and spun wool, wove and dressed cloth by water power, for the neighboring farmers. The home of Colonel David L. Hobbs, so many years selectman, was near Effingham.
In returning from Lord's Mills to the Emerson schoolhouse, the neighborhood settled and still occupied by the Chase family is at the left. From the schoolhouse, the ascent to the highlands is up, past the old homes of William Sanborn, Joseph Huckins, Solomon Kenison, Edmund Chase, Samuel Knapp, who, with his two sons, finished many of the older houses yet inhabited, then past James Champion's and another at the top of the hill, once known as Hunter's Hill, because there was a common camp there, in which hunters and trappers sought shelter, rest and companionship, before the ax-men made war on the shady forest. Wishing them plenty of game and sure shots, we will go down to the top of Merrill's hill, and view the field where Colonel Jonathan Kinsman-then living there-assembled the first regiment of soldiers for General Muster. Center square is a mile east, so, turn-
236
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
ing south, let us go down the slope of this divide, past the farm of John Bennett, the third generation of that name residing there, since Samuel Dalton, senior's, past Joseph Wedgewood's to Middle Road village, and without delay turn eastward to take a look at residences along the old Middle 'Road.
The discontinued Corson road runs close to the base of Cedar moun- tain, beneath whose shelter half a dozen families found protection from the fierce western winds. Among them, Taylor Page and Elder Went- worth Lord. Several orchards and miles of stone wall mark their places of abode as well as the hardy character of these denizens. In this solitude we would gladly stop to meditate, but must pursue our way up and down the frequent hills.
Upon the first, William Moulton found a resting place, while Stephen Merrill crowned the second one with a modest dwelling. In the valley, Joseph Boothby tilled the land, and Andrew Welch traded in cattle. A side road, at the corner of which stood the Welch meeting-house, takes us up past the homes of Messrs. Deacon Rand, John Lord and George and John Perkins, to ruins on an elevated plateau, once the residence of William Frost. John and James Cram secured the next eminence, having the Cartland "Friends " for neighbors on the north.
Johnson's hill and the willow cane of John Fenderson, grandfather of Ivory, which grew to a majestic tree, attract attention before reach- ing the Parsons' neighborhood. Bordering on Limerick and Cornish, there are three or four lots and gores, which Thomas Parsons, junior, received from his father. Turning north, through and by these par- cels, the original home-place of William Fenderson is seen toward Randall's mountain. Thence past the homes of John Fenderson, Joseph Wilson (first occupied by Thomas Parsons, 3d), and Chase Boothby, the veteran school teacher, to the summit of the next hill, and the village of East Parsonsfield (or Weeks' Corner) is just in front.
Between Middle Road village and East Parsonsfield, a distance of five miles, there is a superabundance of rocks all along the route, yet there is no section of the town more productive, no soil better adapted to any and every crop.
Keeping in mind that the object of these rambles is to note the loca- tion chosen by early settlers, yet a few facts respecting the business and growth of villages are in place.
237
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
Samuel Lougee was the pioneer at East Parsonsfield. Elder Weeks became his neighbor some five years later. Noah and Eliphalet Weeks were taxed in 1794. Samuel and Joseph Perry paid a property tax that year, but no poll tax till 1797. The name of Archelaus Pray first occurs 1799, while that of Thomas Pendexter, the first of that name, is not found till 1806, and the name of Samuel Eastman, 1809. Several other families came into this vicinity, who did not remain many years. The five here named intermarried, and have held most of the ground.
Noah Weeks was the prominent merchant for many years. Follow- ing him were: Richardson, Thomas Parsons, 3d, John Goddard, John McArthur, James Weeks, Simeon Folsom, Nathaniel Pendexter, Joseph Pray, Moses R. Brackett, Isaac and Nathaniel Brackett, Simeon D. Mudgett, Cyrus E. Bean, J. F. Dearborn, Jeremiah Bullock, G. J. Pen- dexter, Joseph Ridlon, Jonathan Devereux, A. O. Smart, N. Pease, Ridlon Brothers, Jerome W. Cole, Timothy A. Pendexter and C. O. Nute & Sons. About forty families reside in the village.
After remarking that the Perrys took up farms on the road leading to North Parsonsfield, and the Pendexters and Eastmans east of them, we will travel west to Little Hampton, so-called, for the reason that the first residents emigrated from Hampton, N. H. The family names of Dearborn, Johnson, Towle and Brackett have all these years been associated with this locality. A short tramp brings us to the north road again, near the homes of Jacob Dearborn and Samuel Foss. Here, also, of old, lived James Remick and Gilman Lougee, on which farm Gilman Lougee, of the third generation, now resides, and down under the hill David Mudgett, after whom "Mudgett Pond" was named. Stopping at Mr. John Henry Foss' to taste the fruit of that apple-tree John Lougee brought from Gilmanton on horseback more than a hun- dred years ago, and then ascending a gentle rise, past Mr. Bartlett's, we reach the primitive homesteads of Edward and John Fox. Descend- ing the hill, we arrive at the homes of Captain Joseph Merrill and his son Hardy, and just below, that of Andrew McChapman and his son George F. The spot where Samuel Allen wrought at blacksmithing is halfway down the hill. Crossing the brook, on our left once stood the Potash works of Jacob Schagel, where our great-grandmothers procured leaven for their bread, superior to burnt corn-cobs.
238
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
The neighborhood known as North Parsonsfield is a broad, straight street, more than one mile in length, rather than a compact village. It numbers about forty families. There is a cluster of houses and stores near the eastern limit, and Parsonsfield Seminary on the hill, one mile away, near the other extreme.
Starting at the public cemetery, within which scores of white stones mark the resting-place of fathers, mothers and children, to the third and fourth generation, nearly opposite to which, John Libby estab- lished a home about 1780, for a few years, we go northward. The Freewill meeting-house' occupied the ground between the two stores. Joseph Mulloy was in trade opposite, soon after the year 1800. The first frame-house, built by Lot Wedgewood, stands at the corner of the roads. About 1801, the society bought the farm and built the house now standing for Elder Buzzell. Eben and Joseph Blazo built on the lot opposite Elder Buzzell's, about 1796. Samuel Dalton had a store. opposite Wadleigh's blacksmith shop.
The home of John Allen was below Dr. Sweat's. Also the homes of Colonel Simon J. Whitten and, farther. down, that of General James Thomas. Amos Blazo, the earliest emigrant locating in this section of the town, built several rods west of the Porter road, but later in life lived on the corner east of that highway. Following the Porter road a short distance, we pass the Academy, and the field in which the Cen- tennial exercises were held; remarking that John Burbank deeded the Piper farm to Isaac Felch in 1815, and that Thomas Thompson sold the Merrill farm to Samuel Allen (now owned by Robert Merrill) at about the same date. The farm beyond has been owned by Benjamin Bickford, Philip Paine, John Merrill and Simon Brown. Returning to Blazo's, and facing westward, we note the spot in the sharp triangle between the ways, where Jonathan Towle first settled, learn that the house on the hill to our left belonged for three generations to the Thurston family, now owned by the Leavitts, that, in olden days, James Smith had a home near the Hobbs' bridge and a clothing-mill on South river, and that Colonel David L. Hobbs took up the flat near the state line.
By cutting across lots, the Huntress neighborhood, in the extreme northwest corner of the town, is reached. It is within the gore that
239
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
was sold to Patrick Tracy, and held by his heirs till about 1815. Pro- ceeding over the hill and down the river road, we pass the homes of Thomas C. Huntress, Pratt brothers, Charles Bennett and the ruins of a log-house, which was erected in the last century. Before reaching the Porter road, we come to the ruins of the homes of John Stacy and Richard Devereaux. Once on the main road, at O. B. Churchill's, and facing north, the homesteads of James Smith and Ichabod Churchill, since occupied by Major Thomas Churchill and his son Nathaniel H., are in view.
Leaving Porter bridge, over which the horse of Dr. Moses Sweat once crossed on a stringer without wakening his rider, on our left we will turn down the gore road, seeking more information. The locality was first settled by Elijah and Samuel Fox. In process of time, George Kezar settled three or four of his children along the road. It is probable that the old hunter remained in the woods, where his old camp was pitched. None of the family ever lived at Kezar Falls, or owned property there.
Eastward from the Kezar settlement, there is a swell of fine farming land. It was not brought under cultivation until the early years of the present century. The name of Ebenezer Foss first appears on the tax list of 1800. That of Benning Parker in 1804. Thomas Edgecomb in 1805, while the names of George Newbegin, Jacob and Moses Banks are added in 1807. The descendants of these pioneers still hold most of the hill. The Great Ossipee river is a mile to the north. Kezar Falls, said to have been so named from the fact that hunter Kezar here had a sort of foot-bridge from rock to rock, is an unrivaled water power. Within seventy years, a smart village has grown up near the Falls, of which more is said in another place.
Taking the Cornish road, there was a carding-mill near the corner of the town about 1812. On the road from Cornish to North Parsons- field, the records say Daniel Chick brought his family in 1798; Eben Gould, 1796; Elisha Wadleigh, 1799; Daniel Elliot, 1792; Henry Boothby was early on Bickford's hill and Samuel Chapman here, 1792.
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
PART III.
PERSONAL SKETCHES.
HONORABLE James W. Bradbury, in his oration, Horace Piper, Esquire in "Schools of Parsonsfield," Doctor Joseph Ricker on " College Graduates," P. W. McIntire on " Lawyers of Parsonsfield," the paper on " Physicians of Parsonsfield," and H. G. O. Smith in " Part II" of this History have made mention of many of the former and present resi- dents of the town, and in this part it is proposed to treat briefly of others. In this we have been aided largely by contributions from other sources, to whom we have endeavored to give due credit. Of those in town who have furnished valuable contributions, especial mention should be made of Mr. Joseph Parsons, Mr. John Pray, Mr. William K. Doe, Mr. Gilman Lougee, Mr. Eben Foss, Mr. O. B. Churchill and Mr. Ivory Fenderson, besides many unmentioned names to whom we are largely indebted. To all those referred to in the preface and here mentioned, as well as to the very many interested ones whose efforts are appreciated, but whose names are omitted, we acknowledge our obligations and express our gratitude.
THOMAS PARSONS, ESQUIRE.
The original proprietor of this town, and he from whom it took its name was Thomas Parsons. At this late date, no one is found who remembers him with distinctness, and we regret to say that but little of him can be learned on which to make a sketch of his life.
The town has been signally blessed in the high character of her sons and daughters, and the honorable and gratifying record they have made. Much of this is due to the high standing and character of Thomas Parsons. Of ancestry direct from the aristocracy of England traced back to Sir Humphrey, Lord Mayor of London, in 1740 and
24I
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
1731, thence to Sir John, who held the same office in 1704, thence to Sir Thomas of Great Milton, who received the honor of knight- hood from Charles First in 1634, to whom was granted a coat-of- arms, retained in the Parsons family in the United States, as well as by the descendants of Sir Thomas in London, and by a branch of the family that settled in Barbadoes ; and thence back to John Par- sons, who was Mayor in Hereford in the county of Herefordshire, in 1481; and then in the United States he comes down from Joseph Parsons, of Springfield, Massachusetts, called Cornet Joseph, who was a resident of that place as early as 1636, for on July fifteenth of that year his name appears as a witness to the deed from the Indians of lands of that place and vicinity, and who died in Springfield, March 25, 1684 ; through his eldest son Joseph junior, a man in active and extensive business, and in political and military life ; through his eldest son Joseph, 3d, who was a collegian and clergyman, dying at Salsbury in 1738, at the age of sixty-eight years ; through his eldest son Joseph, 4th, also a collegian and clergyman, dying in 1765 in Braintree, Mas- sachusetts, to himself, the fourth son of this latter Joseph, 4th, and Elizabeth (Usher) Parsons.
Such a line of ancestry could but give character to the man, and in settling the township he called around him, in accordance with a nat- ural law, those congenial to him and to each other. He was a man of activity, broad in his views, incisive, fixed and determined, with large executive abilities, extreme hospitality and far-reaching circumspec- tion. He was quite liberally educated, as is evidenced by his writings, where he employed very clear and concise language and wrote with a bold, plain and firm hand.
He was born September 18, 1735, in Bradford, Massachusetts, was twice married, first to Anna Poor, of Andover, Massachusetts, who died May 24, 1783, aged forty-four years, and second, to Lucy Brad- bury, of Saco, who died November 10, 1811, surviving her husband but three months. By his first wife he had nine children, and by his second, ten, making a family of nineteen children.
The township of land was granted to Mr. Parsons, on the fifth of August, 1771, by the proprietors claiming it under the will of Mrs. Bridget Phillips, and under his direction surveyed by Joseph Cram,
16
242
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
Esquire, of Exeter, New Hampshire, in the autumn of the same year. Mr. Parsons became very soon a resident of Leavittstown, New Hamp- shire, now Effingham, residing very near the northwestern border of Parsonsfield. Here he remained until 1784. The town records of Leavittstown, or Effingham, show that he was moderator of the town- meeting in March, 1784. But he had erected a dwelling-house in Par- sonsfield and become a resident there prior to August, 1785, for at that time he was chosen moderator and chairman of the first Board of Select- men of the newly-incorporated town.
The records show that he was actively engaged in the business affairs of the town until 1802. In religious views and profession, like his ancestors, he was a Congregationalist. His remains lie in the cemetery on the old homestead by the side of those of his wives and several of his children. The inscription on the plain, unpretending slab, runs thus : "In memory of Thomas Parsons, who departed this life August 10, 1811, aged 76 years.
"Behold fond man, see here thy pictured life, Thy flowery spring, thy summer's ardent strength; The sober autumn fading into age, And pale concluding winter comes at last, And shuts the scene."
THOMAS PARSONS, JUNIOR,
Eldest son of Thomas and Anna (Poor) Parsons, was born at South- ampton, Massachusetts, February 8, 1759. Married Hannah Foster, of Limerick, then Sullivan's Town, in 1778, and moved to the south- eastern portion of Parsonsfield, where he owned about one thousand acres of land, his residence being the farm now owned by Daniel Piper and Joseph Parsons. His wife died March 5, 1784, and he married Miss Abigail Drake, of Effingham. By his first wife he had three children, Thomas, Enoch Poor and Ann. Of his family there are and have been very many. His eldest son, Thomas, was born April 26, 1779, and married Anna Lougee and settled on the farm now owned by Joseph Wilson, later moved to East Parsonsfield and thence moved to Canada.
Enoch Poor, the second son, born April 2, 1781, married Betsey Burnham, November 10, 1800, lived on the home-farm, joined the
1.
GED. H. WALKER & CO. BOSTON
Thor3. Pensons
CAPI THOMAS BRADBURY PARSONS.
243
HISTORY OF PARSONSFIELD.
society of Friends, with whom he remained during life, dying Febru- ary 6, 1860.
Thomas Parsons, junior, was killed by the falling of a tree, December 23, 1788, and then followed another son of the proprietor, Thomas B. Parsons.
CAPTAIN THOMAS BRADBURY PARSONS,
The twelfth child of Thomas, and third by his second wife Lucy Brad- bury, was born in Parsonsfield, February 11, 1789. Of his early edu- cational advantages we can only form some idea, by the facts that appear in his later life, His ancestry is traced at some length in the sketch of the life of his father, Thomas Parsons, Esquire, to which the reader is referred. How early he commenced his career as a seafaring man is not known to the writer, but in 1808, at the age of nineteen years, he performed one of the most noble, gallant and daring acts in the records of history. Senator James W. Bradbury, in speaking in the United States Senate in 1848, upon a bill giving a small arrear of pension to Mr. Parsons on this point, said : "It was one that, if he had been a Roman citizen, would have entitled him to a civic crown, nay, to seven, for he saved the lives of seven American seaman, at the imminent hazard of his own, and Rome conferred the civic crown on him who saved the life of a Roman citizen."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.