USA > Maine > York County > Parsonsfield > A history of the first century of the town of Parsonsfield, Maine > Part 28
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In 1852, Mr. Bradbury introduced a bill to indemnify Maine and Massachusetts for land conveyed to settlers this side the new boundary line under the treaty of Washington. He made a labored investiga- tion of the whole subject, and delivered a clear, convincing speech in favor of the bill, which received a passage. It was subsequently passed by the House and became a law.
He also secured the passage of a bill for the payment to Maine of interest on money advanced by her in 1839-40, for military expenses incurred in the "Aroostook War." It was likewise through his efforts that the first appropriation was made by Congress for improving the navigation of the Kennebec River.
Mr. Bradbury (as the columns of the Congressional Globe will show) was an active and efficient member during his entire term of service in the Senate, looking carefully after the interests of his State and of the country. He was a ready debater and good speaker, who presented the strong points of a subject skillfully and with great clearness and
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force. He declined to be a candidate for re-election, and, at the close of his official service, resumed the practice of the law.
As a citizen, Mr. Bradbury has ever taken an active interest in all public enterprises, and has been ready to give time and money to the advancement of those calculated to benefit the city of his adoption or the State at large.
Mr. Bradbury, ever since his graduation, has kept up his interest in Bowdoin College-his latest act of service to that institution being in connection with the Dummer will case, settled a few months since. He was elected a member of the Board of Overseers in 1847, and a member of the Board of Trustees in 1861. In 1876, on the retirement of Judge Shepley, he was chosen chairman of the Committee on Finance, and has held the office to the present time. He received, in 1872, the honorary degree of LL. D. from the college.
He has been an active member of the Maine Historical Society since 1842, and was elected Corresponding Secretary in 1859 and President in 1874. He has been continued in office by annual elections from that date, and is now the only survivor of the forty-nine corporators. In 1846, he was influential in obtaining from the Legislature a grant of half a township of land for the society, which has been the means of placing it on a sound financial footing. He has also been an exemplary and useful member of the Congregational Church of Augusta, for more than thirty years, taking a deep interest, not only in the affairs of his own denomination, but also in the general progress of religion without reference to creeds.
Mr. Bradbury married Miss Eliza Ann Smith, daughter of Thomas W. Smith, Esquire, a prosperous merchant of Augusta, November 25, 1834. Mrs. Bradbury was an excellent woman, affectionate, cheerful, full of life and energy, and possessed of great executive ability-a model wife, mother and member of society. She died suddenly January 29, 1879, greatly lamented by her family and friends. Four children were the fruit of this marriage, Henry Westbrook, James Ware, junior, Thomas Westbrook Smith and Charles. Thomas W. died May 11, 1868, and James W. junior, September 21, 1876,-both in the prime of life and full of promise. Henry W. died June 10, 1884, leaving a wife and two children, one of whom has since died. These successive bereave-
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ments have left Mr. Bradbury with only one surviving son, Mr. Charles Bradbury, of Boston, and one surviving grandchild, the remaining daughter of Henry W.
ALBION P. BENTON.
Prominent among the active and enterprising citizens of Parsonsfield, from 1865 till his death December 11, 1886, was Albion P. Benton. He was born in Denmark, Maine, August 28, 1816, of a grand New England family, celebrated for heroism, patriotism and uncommon intellectual endowments. His grandfather, Doctor Joseph Benton, was a relative of the late distinguished statesman Colonel Thomas H. Ben- ton, of Missouri, and will be remembered by our eldest citizens as one of the most successful and celebrated physicians of his generation, who, having been called some fifty years ago to New Hampshire, in an epi- demic of fearful and fatal nature, arrested its ravages, cured every patient and on his return remarked, in his dry, peculiar humor, that he had "driven death through the Notch of the White Mountains and put up the bars." His five sons, Nathaniel S., Joseph D., Charles, Stephen P. and Alfred, the father of Albion P., all served in the War of 1812. Nathaniel S. and Charles became members of Congress, the latter also a judge. Reared amid scenes of hardship, toil and deprivation, incident to that early period, Albion P. Benton early developed those qualities of industry, economy, sagacity and self-reliance that became such prom- inent characteristics in his long and useful career. Inheriting nothing but his remarkable physical and mental powers, he was a self-made man ; his quick, acute mind grasped, as if by intuition, the salient points of an enterprise, and obstacles that would have discouraged an ordinary man were swept away by the might of his restless, resistless energy. He was honorable and truthful in his dealings, courteous, but frank and straightforward, and the certainty that attended his words, deeds and principles became an important element in his character. Usefulness was the leading idea of his life, and his example and advice, based on ripe experience and good sense, were exceedingly valuable.
In early life, he entered the primeval forest in Hiram, cleared a farm, built a home, and in 1843 he married Miss Sarah Wadsworth, of Hiram, a lady in every respect a worthy helpmeet. She died in Par-
A.P. BENTON.
HOMESTEAD OF THE LATE A.P. BENTON.
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sonsfield, December 13, 1875. Of their ten children, eight survive, and have an honorable record in business and educational circles in two continents and five states of the Union. Mr. Benton passed two years in California, in 1853-54-55, meeting with good success.
At the close of the war of 1861-65, the village of Kezar Falls was in a dull, lethargic state, business at a low ebb, and the rising generation was removing to other places ; a syndicate of gentlemen purchased the old dilapidated saw-mill and its site, and offered it to him if he would erect a new mill and settle in the town. He saw the golden oppor- tunity, accepted the offer, and on October 20, 1865, the mill was set in operation, inaugurating a new era and heralding a grander day for the beautiful village, which has never ceased to feel the impetus of his enterprise.
On April 15, 1877, he married Miss Mary S. Pillsbury, of Parsons- field, who survives him. In 1868, he bought the Thomas Edgecomb farm, which he greatly improved, erecting a fine and commodious stand of buildings, as may be seen by the engraving. Here he resided in the evening of his life, enjoying a competency, honored by his towns- men, to whom he was ever just and obliging, and tenderly beloved by his family and friends, to whom he was ever kind, loyal and devoted, leaving them the legacy of a good example and a good name.
JOHN AMES,
From Newmarket, New Hampshire, came to Parsonsfield in 1787 and settled near " Province Pond." Here he reared a family of four sons, Samuel, John, Marston and Daniel. The two eldest left town, the two youngest settled in town, Marston on the home place and Daniel near by. Daniel died leaving no issue. Marston married Mary Manning, and reared a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters. One daughter married Titcomb Wentworth, of Newfield, and their only son John T. Wentworth occupies now the original Ames place in Par- sonsfield. Another daughter married John 'Sutton, of Parsonsfield. The youngest daughter married John Towne, of West Parsonsfield, one of the best farmers of our town and one who, by untiring effort, strict integrity and application of enlightened reason and research makes his business a success.
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The two youngest sons, Daniel and Zimri, have for the past thirty years been residents of Illinois. The two oldest, John M., who will receive notice further on, and Marston, junior, have until of late resided here. They were always among the most successful agriculturalists and stock-raisers of York County. Since the death of John M., the other brother, Marston, junior, has sold out his entire property in this region, and removed with his sister Mrs. Sutton to Illinois, leaving only one of the immediate family, Mrs. Towne, and none of the name as residents of our town.
JOHN MANNING AMES. .
Son of Marston and Mary (Manning) Ames, was born in Parsons- field, April 10, 1816, and died at the same home, April 10,. 1885. He was educated at the common school and Parsonsfield Seminary, and at an early age commenced teaching winter schools, which he continued to do for quite a number of years, in Ossipee and Hamp- ton, New Hampshire, and Parsonsfield, Sanford and other towns in York County, Maine; his efforts in this direction, always being success- ful. He was a very energetic and successful business man. In 1855, he, having made purchase of quite a number of land warrants, went West to locate them and spent one year in traveling through the west- ern states. However, he located but a few, making sale of the larger part. The half-section which he purchased proved a good investment, and later on he made several visits to the West and invested quite largely and advantageously in real estate in Illinois, where two of his brothers reside. He, in company with his brother Marston, was during this time and up to the date of his death extensively engaged in agri- cultural pursuits and in buying and selling cattle, horses and sheep. To this business he devoted most of the time from 1867 to 1883, when failing health rendered him unable to perform the labor. He was a prominent Republican in the town and county, always decided and outspoken, but enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his associates as was evidenced from the fact that in this Democratic town he held the various offices of trust, and in 1862 was a member of the Legisla- ture. He had a wide acquaintance with men and a varied experience, and although sharp and incisive he was yet sympathetic and kind, to
GEO. H. WALKER & CO. BOSTON
I'm Amis
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GEO. H. WALKER & CO. LITH, BOSTON
WM. D. DIXON.
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those whom he deemed worthy, dispensing of his bounty, in a quiet and unostentatious manner, quite liberally. He was never married. . His friendships were very pronounced, and in his business transactions he was honorable and trusty, a good neighbor and a most worthy citi- zen and townsman.
WILLIAM DENNETT DIXON,
Son of John and Lydia Dixon, was the youngest of a family of seven children, and was born at Lebanon, Maine, March 25, 1802. His advantages for the acquirement of an education were small, being restricted to the district-school and early life, for at the age of sixteen years we find him employed learning the trade of harness making with John'D. Buzzell, of North Parsonsfield. After serving his time with Mr. Buzzell, he went to Amesbury, Massachusetts, and worked in the employ of Colonel Bailey and Patten Sargent. This was when a day's work meant from twelve to fourteen hours' labor, and yet, with that energy and enterprise that ever characterized the man, he worked one winter over time, and earned enough stitching thoroughbraces to pur- chase him a suit of broadcloth with overcoat, boots and silk hat. Bailey and Sargent were dealers in carriages, and they discovered in young Dixon that energy and push, combined with an intuitive knowl- edge of human nature, which would make for them a valuable sales- man, and they therefore furnished him with a team, and sent him across the country with a load of carriages for sale. It is said of him that on this trip he made two discoveries, acting upon which they became the basis of his future financial success ; one was, that he could sell more carriages than any other agent, and the other was, that there was "money in it." Therefore he determined to purchase his carriages and reap the benefits of the sales. He followed this business for eight years, his route being the border counties of Maine and New Hamp- shire, and his sales averaging more than eight thousand dollars a year. His business capacity and circumspection were evidenced in the fact that, though he sold much on trust, he has frequently been heard to remark that he never lost a cent in bad bills, not even a lashing strap.
He married in 1832, Miss Mary A. Dearborn, daughter of Captain Jacob Dearborn, and settled at North Parsonsfield, where he died
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April 16, 1875. They had two daughters, Mary A., who married Thomas S. Churchill, of Parsonsfield, and Ellen L., the wife of Jeremiah Bullock, of Kezar Falls, Maine. Mrs. Dixon died October 30, 1878, and Mrs. Churchill, December 30 of the same year, leaving Mrs. Bul- Bullock the only survivor of the family.
The traits of character which have been alluded to as prominent in the make-up of Mr. Dixon, were very pronounced during life. He was a great financier and accumulated much property. As a business man he was careful and exacting, as a friend, kind and generous, a liberal provider, an obliging neighbor and a good citizen.
THE PEASES IN PARSONSFIELD.
The Parsonsfield Peases trace their ancestry to Nathaniel Pease who died in the town of New Market, New Hampshire, in 1748. The writer has been unable to learn the given name of his father or his final place of settlement and death, though it is stated on the authority of Mr. Mark Pease, a grandson of Nathaniel Pease, that his great- grandfather came from Martha's Vineyard, and was killed by hostile Indians while at work in his corn-field.
Be that as it may, Nathaniel Pease was a carpenter and a purchaser of land, and settled in New Market when a part of Exeter, where he died October 20, 1748. He therefore represents the first generation of New Hampshire Peases.
Nathaniel Pease had thirteen children, the second of whom, Deacon Samuel Pease (he having been a deacon in the Congregational Church at New Market), came to Parsonsfield, October 1, 1777. The writer has in his possession* the original deed given by Thomas Parsons, esquire, to Deacon Samuel Pease. This deed is dated Septemter 26, 1777, and contains the following: "I, Thos. Parsons, of Leavitt's Town, in consideration of the sum of Thirty Nine pound Law11 money, to me in Hand before the Delivery hereof well and Truely Paid by .Samuel Pees of New Market, in the County of Rockingham, yeoman, the Receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge have Released and Quit Claim . unto him, the said Samuel Pees, . . . all the Right
*The writer is under great obligation to Mr. H. G. O. Smith, of North Parsonsfield, for loaning him i'many valuable, original papers relative to the New Hampshire Peases.
GEO. M.WALKER & CO. BOSTON
Nebulon Pease
HON. ZEBULON PEASE.
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and Title Share of, in and unto a Certain Lot of land numbered Twenty Third in the second Range of lots in a Certain Tract of Land about Six miles sqr. commonly Called Parsons Town situate in the County of York in the State of Massachusetts Bay. Between the Rivers of Great and Little Ossipee, which Right and Title I Derived from the Proprie- tors of Major Nicholas Shapleigh's Claim by Virtue of their Grant to me dated at Berwick, December, 1774."
Deacon Pease moved his family to his new home in November, 1779. He was the eleventh of the original settlers of Parsonsfield. He died in 1805. Of his eight children, only two, Samuel and Joseph, settled near their father. Major Samuel Pease was born March 10, 1754, and settled in the orchard of the present Town farm. He was a drum- major in the Revolutionary War. In a " Revolutionary Claim," before the writer, he is inscribed on the pension list at the rate of eight dollars per month. He died September 7, 1834. He had six children, only one of whom, John, settled in Parsonsfield.
JOSEPH PEASE, brother of Major Samuel, was born November 12, 1735; married Dolly Clark and settled in Parsonsfield. About 1781, he removed to the settlement at Exeter, Maine. He was a member of the first Board of Selectmen in 1811, and died in 1826. His daughter Sarah married Nathaniel Barker, of Exeter, Maine, and was the mother of the Honorable Lewis Barker of Bangor, Maine, and the late David Barker, the poet.
The next Pease, in point of time, to settle in Parsonsfield was ZEBU- LON PEASE, eldest son of Nathaniel and Lucy (Page) Pease, of New Market, New Hampshire, and first cousin of Major Samuel Pease, of Parsonsfield. His children were: Nathaniel, born November 26, 1786; Andrew, born May 13, 1788; Betsey, born September 24, 1791 ; Martha, born January 20, 1794; and Zebulon, born September 21, 1795.
Major Zebulon was fresh from the ranks of the Revolution, and was among the earliest settlers of Parsonsfield, being on the ground as early as 1783 or '84, while the name was yet Parsonstown. From. his family sprang most all, if not quite, of the Peases who have had any permanent connection with the growth of the town; and from this one family probably have descended more persons than lived in Parsonsfield when it was incorporated.
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ASA PEASE, brother of the preceding, was born July 18, 1769 ; mar- ried Sally Parsons, October 23, 1791, and settled in Parsonsfield. He had nine children, but as none of them settled in Parsonsfield their names are omitted here. Asa Pease came from New Market and set- tled on Lombard's hill before the incorporation of the town. He was the high buck of early times. A ready wit, a born poet and comic actor, he was the life of public gatherings. He gave names to many buildings, among others, Rolfe's meeting-house. He would walk up a rafter to the ridge-pole, stand on his head, drink a glass of grog, announce the name in poetry, then on his way down turn a somersault.
Pease was at a log-rolling. Bent on mischief, he laid a bet that he would crawl through a hollow log one minute quicker than any one present. He went through but when his opponent was only half- through, Pease gave the log a push that sent it rolling down the steep hill. The man was drawn out apparently dead, but he revived and was found uninjured.
JOSIAH PEASE, brother of the preceding, married Nancy Parsons and first settled in Parsonsfield, but sometime before 1812 removed to New- fane, New York. He had eight children.
The first representative of the fourth generation to settle in Parsons- field, (and probably the first Pease born in Parsonsfield after its incor- poration,) was Deacon JOHN PEASE, eldest son of Major Samuel and Comfort Pease. He was born March 21, 1786; married first, Sally Wiggin, January, 1811; and second, Hannah Mason, September 5, 1827. He died March 13, 1853. Deacon Pease is still well remem- bered by some of the residents of Parsonsfield.
NATHANIEL PEASE (grandfather of the writer), eldest son of Zebulon and Mary (Burleigh) Pease, and second cousin of Deacon John Pease, was born November 26, 1786. He was, therefore, the junior of Deacon Pease by only about eight months. He married Olive Towne, March 21, 1816, and settled in Parsonsfield, where he died January 25, 1863.
His youngest brother, ZEBULON PEASE, JUNIOR, whose portrait here appears, was a man of marked ability. He married Miss Mary Pease, of New Market, and moved to Freedom, New Hampshire, where his active life was passed. They reared a family of three children, Nar- cissa, Edwin and Albion. (The youngest died in early manhood.
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Edwin married Miss Harriet, daughter of Gardner Smart, of Parsons- field, was engaged in mercantile business for some years at Freedom, then moved to Conway and died there in 1879. He was a man of ability and a prominent politician in Carroll County, serving in both branches of the Legislature. He left one son Ned, now resident in St. Louis, Missouri. Narcissa married Burleigh Pease, Esquire, of Parsons- field, and they have resided for many years in Bangor, Maine). Mr. Pease was for many years engaged in mercantile business in Freedom, and also quite largely in agricultural pursuits. He was a man who occupied a prominent position in the town, serving in various offices, and twice as Representative. He was also twice elected to the Senate of New Hampshire, and was during the administration of Governor Jared Williams, a member of his Council.
He was a very successful financier, a business man of integrity and uprightness, a townsman respected and esteemed, and a husband and father beloved and honored.
BURLEIGH PEASE was born at South Parsonsfield, August 13, 1823. After remaining on the farm till the age of twenty, and having no advantages of education except a few weeks of the winter school (such as it was), he fitted himself for college, and was graduated from Colby University in the class of 1851. He studied law with the Honorable Nathan Clifford, of Portland, Maine, was admitted to the bar, and opened a law-office in Bangor, where he practiced a short time very successfully. But being wedded to the profession of teaching, which he had so successfully practiced during the winters of his preparatory and college course, he relinquished the law and returned to teaching in the public schools of Bangor, where he now lives. Here his faculty for organizing and disciplining large schools was recognized by the uniting of school after school and grade after grade, until, in the last years of his labor, his school numbered eight hundred and fifty pupils with seventeen assistant teachers. He was connected with the public schools of Bangor a quarter of a century, and served in the City Coun- cil two years. November 18, 1855, he married Narcissa, the only daughter of the late Honorable Zebulon Pease, of Freedom, New Hampshire.
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ELISHA PIPER
Was one of the early settlers of Parsonsfield. He was born in Strat- ham, New Hampshire, June 17, 1746. At an early age he married Sarah Barker, and after living in Stratham a few years, he purchased a farm in Wakefield, New Hampshire, not far from Province Pond, and moved there with his family about 1772. He lived there between eight and nine years, but the farm proving frosty, he resolved to sell, and purchase in some other locality. He directed his course to the new town of Parsonsfield, or Parsonstown, as it was then called. A short time was occupied in prospecting for a farm in the fall season of 1778, and during that time, he amused himself about a week in hunting with George Kezar, a famous hunter, who then resided in the north part of the town. A farm was soon selected, and he first purchased lot No. 25, in the second range, of Benjamin Hilton, of Parsonstown, for one hundred and twenty-five pounds,* the deed being dated Novem- ber 5, 1778, and on this lot he settled. He subsequently purchased four other lots-lot No. 171, in the tenth range, of Alpheus Spring, of Kittery, for five pounds, deed dated November 28, 1785; lot No. 51, in the third range, of John Brown, of Parsonsfield, for five hundred dollars, deed dated May 13, 1790; lot No. 13, in the first range, which was a tax sale, for six shillings and two pence, deed dated June 27, 1791; lot No. 88, in the fifth range, of Chase Wiggin of Stratham, . New Hampshire, for forty-five pounds, deed dated February 15, 1793.
In June, 1779, the next year after his first purchase, he came over from Wakefield to Parsonsfield, built him a log camp, covered with hemlock bark, and felled several acres of trees. He then returned to his family in Wakefield, and in March of the next year, 1780, went back to Parsonsfield. As there were no roads passable for teams at that season of the year, he hauled his camp furniture, consisting of a bed and a few cooking-utensils, on a hand-sled over Ricker's Mountain on the crust. Before the season arrived for burning the trees felled the previous season, he was employed in preparing materials for build - ing a log-house for his family. In May he burned the felled trees, and planted the ground with corn and such other crops as he would need for the support of his family the next winter. His planting was all *A pound was worth at that time about three dollars, thirty-three and one-third cents.
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completed before the nineteenth of May, and on that day, which was the famous Dark Day* of 1780, he was helping bis neighbor, Mr. George Bickford, finish planting his corn. After his crops were har- vested, and his log-house completed, he returned to Wakefield again to move his family, consisting of his wife and six small children. He moved with an ox-team on the snow, late in the year 1780, probably in December, as the day is represented as having been extremely cold- the coldest of that winter.
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