USA > Maine > York County > Parsonsfield > A history of the first century of the town of Parsonsfield, Maine > Part 8
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AMOS TUCK
Is a name that deserves honorable mention in this connection. Born in 1810, and like most of the then boys of the town, held to service on the paternal acres until nearly grown to manhood, he began to feel within him a hungry craving for larger attainments in knowledge and a wider sphere of activity. Accordingly, at the age of seventeen, he left home, and for the benefit of both purse and brain, devoted himself alternately to school teaching and study. At the age of twenty-one he entered Dartmouth College, and graduated therefrom with signal honor in 1835. He then resumed teaching, devoting, however, such considerable intervals as he could spare from school duties to the reading of law. This he continued for nearly three years, when he resigned as Principal of the academy in Hampton, N. H., and entered the law office of Hon. James Bell, of Exeter, in the same state. Having completed his preliminary law studies, he formed a co-partnership with Mr. Bell in December, 1838, which was only ter- minated by his election to Congress in 1847, nine years thereafter. Meanwhile, however, he served one year as a member of the Legislature of his own state. His Congressional career of six years was alike honorable to himself and satis- factory to his constituents. In 1853 he cea sed to represent his district in the National councils, and resumed the practice of law.
As a member of the "Peace Congress " which sat in Washington on the eve of the rebellion, he was made chairman of the committee of the Northern members of that body to present to the slave power. the ultimatum of the free states. In 1860 he was an active member of the convention that nom inated Abraham Lin- coln to the highest office in the land. In 1861, he was appointed Naval Officer in Boston, and re-appointed in 1865. During the remaining years of his life he was engaged in extensive business operations, that took him to Europe more han once or twice.
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He was a Trustee of Dartmouth College, of Phillips Exeter Academy, of the Robinson Female Seminary, and of other Institutions of learning. He died very suddenly, December 11, 1879.
It was a just as well as graceful tribute that Mr. Tuck's pastor paid to his memory in a discourse immediately subsequent to his decease. Did time allow, it would be pleasant to repeat in this presence, the calm, chaste, and thoughtful estimate of his life and character as thus delineated in the presence of his sor- rowing fellow-townsmen. Suffice it to say that it was such a portraiture as any one must have anticipated who knew the subject of it in the early flush of man- hood, but had never met him afterward. Of such sons, their native town may well be proud.
THOMAS PARSONS EMERSON,
Another grandson of Thomas Parsons, the original proprietor of the town, was born in 1809, and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1836. After teaching for some time in Virginia, he pursued theological study in Lane Seminary, Ohio, and was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian church. He labored in the pastorate for a limited period, and then accepted an appointment as a home mis- sionary, a sphere of toil to which he gave himself earnestly and successfully for thirty years. "In his manifold ministrations he rode many thousands of miles, once declaring that his most effective sermons were thought out on horseback, as he drove from church to church. He thus labored in four or five contiguous states. In 1870 he was commissioned for service in Kansas, but soon after reaching his field of labor his health failed, and he returned to the home he had left, and died in November of that year. His self-denying spirit and his earnest devotion, as already stated, led him to choose his field of effort among feeble and destitute churches, thus seeking not his own honor, but the honor of Him whom he served."
WILLIAM B. WEDGWOOD,
Like many others who in the end have made their influence widely felt, was an orphaned and penniless boy. He was born and reared in Parsonsfield. His adopted home, though wholesome as to its moral and religious tone, brought with it manifold toils. But in the face of whatever obstacles lay in his path, he forced his way onward and upward until, in 1832, he found himself sufficiently advanced in preparatory studies to be admitted to Waterville College, now Colby University, where he remained' during the larger part of the course. He how- ever left toward its close, and entered the University of New York City, where he graduated in 1836. After teaching two years, he read law under the tuition of eminent jurists, and in 1841 was admitted to practice at the New York bar.
In connection with his early practice he gave much time and thought to the dissemination of a better knowledge of our institutions and laws among the masses of the people. To this end he prepared a work on the constitution and
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laws of New York, which sold to the extent of one hundred thousand copies, and more. With the same object in view, he also got up a series of popular debates, in which Horace Greeley, J. L. O'Sullivan, George Cheever, and Sam- uel Hanson Cox were the principal disputants. In 1845 he visited England, and while in London was invited to deliver a lecture, which attracted favorable notice in high quarters. His subject was Slavery in the United States. In 1846 he returned to New York and to his chosen profession, and was engaged in many of the most important suits of that day.
The initial steps toward the establishment of a Law School in connection with the New York University, were instituted by Prof. Wedgwood, and when, at length, the school was founded, he was placed at its head. He was also largely instrumental a few years later in founding the National University at Washing- ton, of which he became Vice-Chancellor, the President of the United States being, ex-officio, Chancellor. To this institution he gave his services for the space of nine years. In 1860 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Rutger's College, N. J.
In 1867 Prof. Wedgwood brought out his work on the Government and Laws of the United States, and in 1883 a further work on Civil Service Reform. He moreover took a deep and practical interest in the War of the Rebellion, the emancipation of slaves, and, indeed, in all the great crises through which the country has passed since he came upon the stage of action. His course of life has brought him into contact with many great men and great questions, and it is pleasant to note that his aims and instincts appear always to have been on the side of right. To educate the masses of the people, and so raise them to a higher plane of intelligence and virtue, is a work that may well challenge the best efforts of the best minds of which this country or any country can boast.
[Prof. Wedgwood died in Parsonsfield a few months before the above sketch reached the hands of the printer.]
MOSES MIGHELS SMART
Graduated from Waterville College, now Colby University, in 1836, from the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1839, and from the Central Medical College, Syracuse, N. Y., in 1850. He also read law, and in 1843 was admitted to the York County bar in this state. He, however, studied law and medicine, as sci- ences, and not with a view to the practice of either of them as a profession. He supplemented his theological studies at Bangor, with a post-graduate course of one year at Andover, and in 1840 took charge of the Freewill Baptist Biblical School, then just established, and remained in charge of it for nine years. Dur- ing that period the school was located, successively, at Parsonsfield, Me., Lowell, Mass., and Whitestown, N. Y., and was the first theological school ever founded by the denomination.
Since 1849, Dr. Smart has been engaged in teaching, and writing Biblical works. Besides his " Biblical Doctrine," published in 1843, he has in manuscript
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"A Chronological History from the Creation of the World to the Present Cen- tury," a work on " Moral Philosophy," and " Elements of Hebrew, consisting of Grammar, Reader, and Lexicon." Verily such a life, now far into the seventies, must have been one of scrupulous, earnest, and incessant toil. From the exam- ples already adduced, who will venture the assertion that college-bred men do not belong to the laboring classes ?
[Dr. Smart died at his home in Whitestown, N. Y., October 2, 1885, aged sev- enty-three years.]
ZENAS PAINE WENTWORTH
Was an alumnus of Dartmouth, of the class of 1836. Immediately upon the completion of his law studies he opened an office, and commenced practice in Houlton, the shire town of Aroostook County. His physical constitution was far from strong, but he was a man of standing and influence in his adopted town and county, serving for a time as Trial Justice, and afterward as Judge of Pro- bate, until the state of his health compelled him to resign. He was born in 1809, and was never married. In 1864, Judge Wentworth, physically enfeebled, and unfitted for professional service, returned to the old homestead in this town, where he died September 2, of that year.
MOSES ERASTUS SWEAT
Is an alumnus of Bowdoin, and a member of the class of '37. To say that he is a worthy son of a worthy sire, is eulogy so high that one feels like uttering it with bated breath, especially in the presence of its subject. For those of us who remember the father, know well what such a declaration must include. Nevertheless the remark would readily find justification in the facts of the case. Upon the completion of his novitiate as a medical student in 1840, Dr. Sweat settled in Limington, and practiced his profession there until 1862, a period of twenty-two years. He then returned to the old homestead where he was born, and reared, and fitted for his life-work, and where he has since been in constant practice, going out and in before the people, after what sort, they well know. Besides holding sundry town offices, he has once represented his district in the State Legislature.
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LORENZO DE M. SWEAT,
A brother and classmate of the above, has been notably prominent in both private and public life. After his graduation from college, he read law with Hon. Rufus McIntire, availed himself of the advantages of the Harvard Law School, completed his legal studies with Howard and Osgood in Portland, and was admitted to the Cumberland bar in 1840. After spending a year or so in New Orleans - a portion of it in the office of the late distinguished Pierre Soulé, he returned to Portland, where he has continued to reside to the present time. In 1861 and 1862 he was a member of the Maine Senate, and in the latter year
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was elected to represent his district at Washington, and served with zeal and ability through the thirty-eighth Congress. To all the wealth of privilege ac- corded him by the fickle goddess, have been added the liberalizing and refining influences of foreign travel. To an exceptional extent, his lines have fallen to him in pleasant places.
ISAAC NEWTON FELCH
Was born in December, 1815, and graduated from Bowdoin in 1838. He soon established himself in Belfast, where at first he engaged in commercial business, but afterward studied law, and was admitted to the Waldo bar in 1843. He, however, did not practice his profession extensively, but was more especially known as deputy collector of customs, and publisher and editor of the Waldo Signal. He also repeatedly served as a member of the State Legislature. In 1855 he removed to Portland, and took editorial charge of the Evening Courier. His last years were spent in Gorham and Hollis. He died at the latter place in 1870.
HORACE PIPER
Was born in 1810, and graduated from Bowdoin in 1838. His life has been a very busy one. For several years before entering upon the higher courses of study, he gave himself largely and successfully to the teaching of district schools. Immediately upon his graduation he took charge of Limerick Academy, and remained at its head for six years, when he became Principal of the Biddeford High School. Here he labored continuously, and to good purpose, ten years more. Simultaneously with these labors, he was a member, for York County, of the Board of Education of the State of Maine for three years, from 1846 to 1849, and held Teachers' Institutes, one term of two weeks each year, which were largely attended by the teachers of the county. In all, his career as teacher covered a period of about twenty years. He then went to Washington, where he was for nine years in the service of the government. While there he pur- sued a regular course of legal study, and graduated from the National Univer- sity, thus taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He, however, pursued the study as a science, and not with the purpose of practicing law as a profession. He has never published any books in his own name, but was associated with Dr. Salem Town for about two years in the preparation of his Progressive Series of Readers, consisting of six books. He also assisted Mr. Benjamin Greenlief, the distinguished mathematician, about six months in the revision of his Common School Arithmetic. He moreover prepared a copious index for forty of the Annual Reports of the Agricultural Department at Washington, besides furnish- ing many original articles for the same. And yet there are people not a few who are accustomed to think that men of letters are, as a matter of course, men of leisure!
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GEORGE WASHINGTON BENSON
Graduated at Dartmouth in 1841, and died in Lawrence, Mass., in 1859, at the age of forty-three. He was a fine scholar, and a young man of excellent moral character. To an attractive presence he added other qualities that made him a general favorite. He chose the law for his profession, and opened an office in Lawrence in 1844. His prospects for a long and successful career were flatter- ing. Besides being City Clerk, he was representative for one or more years to the General Court of his adopted state. But in the midst of his successes he was stricken with apoplexy, or some kindred malady, and died almost instanta- neously. His loss was deeply felt by the general public, as well as by a very wide circle of sorrow-stricken friends.
JOSEPH GARLAND
Was born August 12, 1811, and was graduated from Bowdoin in 1841, and from the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1844. Entering at once upon the work of the Christian Ministry, he served the Congregationalist church of Woolwich in this state three years, a church in Sandwich, Mass., six years, and a church in Bristol, N. H., six years. He also exercised his ministry in Acton, Mass., and Charleston, N. H. Since then, disease, combined with other severe afflictions, has interfered with his labors to a considerable extent. He has, however, served many churches as stated supply, and many schools as superintending committee or supervisor. He is the youngest and only survivor of six brothers, of whom David, who died in Winslow a few months since, at the age of ninety-one, was the eldest. Educationally and religiously, the family will be remembered by many present as having been conspicuously prominent.
CHARLES HENRY EMERSON,
A brother of Thomas P. Emerson, was born in 1818. On leaving college in 1846, he taught a few months, and then commenced a course of legal studies, which he completed in Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1850. He, however, abandoned the practice of the profession in no long time, and took a course of theology at Andover. After laboring two years as a missionary in Washington County, in this state, he was ordained as pastor of the Congrega- tionalist churches in Lee and Springfield, where he exercised his calling with zeal and diligence fourteen years. In 1880 he had been eight years pastor in Creighton, Neb., and for all the writer knows to the contrary, may hold that relation still. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Parsons, the original pro- prietor of the town.
BURLEIGH PEASE
Is an alumnus of Colby, and graduated in 1851. He is best known as a vet- eran school teacher. Bangor, his adopted city, early put him in charge of one of her public schools, and he continued in her service, with little pause, for
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many years. Indeed, the vigor and strength of his life have been given to this calling. The length of his service is the best evidence that he had made himself necessary to the position, or, in other words, that he had achieved substantial success. He gave up the work a few years ago, since which, though continuing to reside in the city, he has addicted himself somewhat to agricultural pursuits.
WILLIAM DANIEL KNAPP,
Only son of Daniel and Betsey (Neal) Knapp, was born in this town, October 17, 1830. In addition to the privileges of the district school, he took two terms at Parsonsfield Seminary, and one term at a select school in his neighborhood. In 1844 his father established a home in Conway, N. H. This brought the son within reach of the South Conway Academy, where he prosecuted his studies, and in due time found his way to Dartmouth College, at which he graduated in 1855. In the meanwhile he taught school in Conway, Jackson, and Tamworth, N. H., and in Newbury, Ipswich, Ashby, and Groton, Mass. On leaving col- lege, he was Principal of Lebanon Academy, Me., until December, 1856, when he commenced reading law with Messrs. Wells & Eastman, at Great Falls, N. H., and was admitted to the bar at Alfred, York County, Maine, September 22, 1858. In the last-named year he taught one term in the Freewill Baptist Insti- tution, at New Hampton, N. H. Like many another son of Parsonsfield, he accomplished the difficult task of paying his own way through college, and to the initial stage of his chosen profession. To the practice of law, varied by sun- dry official trusts, he has devoted his life hitherto. Great Falls, N. H., is his chosen place of residence.
He was School Commissioner for Strafford County in 1860 and 1861, and Sec- retary of the New Hampshire Board of Education in 1861 and 1862. He was also a member of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1870 and 1871, and in addi- tion to serving his town as selectman, he has been its Treasurer since 1866, and as if all these official trusts were not enough, he was appointed Police Judge at Great Falls in 1869, a position he still holds.
Among his college classmates were ex-Governor Dingley of Lewiston, Judge Field of Boston, Judge Allen of New Hampshire, and Judge Clark of the Su- preme Court of Wisconsin.
This record of Judge Knapp is only another illustration of what so many boys from the " hill country " have achieved in the way of hard-earned and honora- ble distinction.
MALCOLM MCINTIRE,
Son of Hon. Rufus McIntire, was born in 1835. Graduating at Bowdoin in 1857, he was Principal for one year of the Seminary in this town. He then had charge of the Academy in Owensboro, Kentucky, until the War of the Rebell- ion, as in so many cases, brought the school to a sudden close. After serving for some years, first in the provost marshal's office, and afterward as assistant
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collector of internal revenue for the county, he removed to Hartford of the same state, and opened an academy for boys. Remaining here until 1880, he returned to Owensboro, and became deputy collector of internal revenue.
CYRUS FOGG BRACKETT,
Grandson of the venerable Elder Wentworth Lord, was born June, 1833, and graduated at Bowdoin in 1859. He was Principal of Limerick Academy the first year after leaving college, and for two succeeding years taught mathematics and natural science in the New Hampton Seminary, N. H. He took his medical degree from Harvard, in 1863, and was immediately called to a tutorship in Bow- doin College, and for ten years held professorships of natural science, chemistry, geology, zoology and physics, and during the last year of service lectured to the Medical School on " Medical Jurisprudence." Of his eminence in the depart- ment to which he has devoted himself, his fellow-townsmen may well- be proud. To say that he successfully occupied the chair previously filled by Parker Cleve- land and Paul Chadbourne, is high eulogy indeed, but in no wise exceeds the truth. In 1873 Prof. Brackett was called to the Henry professorship of physics in Princeton College, New Jersey, a position which he still holds.
It is understood that the scientific world is quite largely indebted to his pen, as well as to his oral instructions.
OLIVER LIBBEY
Was born in Parsonsfield, June, 1835, and graduated at Bowdoin in 1859. After leaving college he taught in Bloomington, Ill., and Sheboygan, Wis. After reading law at the east, he returned west, and settled in his profession at Green Bay, Wis., where, it is understood, he still resides. In addition to his law prac- tice he has charge of an Insurance Agency.
WILLIAM RICKER THOMPSON
Took his Bachelor's degree at Colby, in 1863, and his Master's degree in 1866. After being two years Principal of the High School in Hallowell, he pursued the full course of theological study at Newton, Mass., and upon his graduation in 1868 was ordained as a minister of the Gospel, and became pastor of the Bap- tist church in Brighton, Mass. After some three years of service, his health became so impaired as to unfit him for the labors of the pastorate. He accord- ingly spent the next four years in business pursuits, preaching meanwhile on the Sabbath, as he was able. His health having become measurably restored, in 1875 he resumed the pastorate, and has continued to exercise its functions to the present time. His places of labor have been Fayville and Townsend, Mass., and New Ipswich, N. H., where he now resides. In addition to his pastoral labors, he has been repeatedly chosen to responsible municipal offices by his adopted town.
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HORACE RUNDLETTE CHENEY
Was born in this town October 29, 1844, graduated from Bowdoin in 1863, and became Tutor in Bates College, just then chartered as such, and of which his father, Dr. O. B. Cheney, was then, and is now, the honored President. He remained in this position three years, during which he founded the Library of the college, and was its first Librarian. After graduating from the Harvard Law School, he entered upon practice in Boston, was Assistant District Attor- ney of Suffolk County several years, was tendered the position of Attorney- General of Massachusetts, and at the time of his death had a large practice, being one of the prominent lawyers of the Suffolk bar. He died of consump- tion, December 13, 1876.
MELVILLE COX TOWLE
Was born in Parsonsfield, September 14, 1835. He graduated at Harvard Uni- versity in 1865, and at the Medical School of the same Institution in 1870. He was an exceptionally fine scholar, and as a practitioner in Haverhill, Mass., during his short but brilliant career, he was without a superior. Only five years was vouchsafed him for the prosecution of his chosen profession. He died of pneumonia, December 20, 1875. The sudden ending of such a life was a bitter disappointment to his wide circle of friends, and a grave loss to his adopted city, and to the profession, of which he gave promise of becoming a distinguished ornament.
JOHN HOLMES RAND
Graduated at Bates in 1867, being a member of the first class sent out by that college. He immediately became Professor of Mathematics at New Hampton Institution, N. H., where he remained until 1876, when he was elected to the chair of Mathematics in his own college, a position he still holds. Reliable tes- timony assigns him high rank in his department, and exemplary devotion to its duties.
ISAIAH F. PRAY,
One of the only two, it is believed, of the whole list not natives of the town, was born in South Berwick, December 11, 1845, but afterward resided in Parsonsfield most of the time until 1866, when he matriculated at Bates, but graduated from Dartmouth in 1870. After teaching one year, he gave himself to the study of medicine, and took his degree from the University of New York in 1874. After serving for a limited time as House Surgeon on the staff of a Woman's Hospital, he entered upon private practice in the city of New York, which he is still pursuing. But along with this practice, and incidental to it, he responded suc- cessively to the call of two public Dispensaries of the city, holding to one the relation of House Physician, and to the other that of House Surgeon. It will hence be seen that the claims made upon him by his profession must be very exacting as well as absorbing.
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EDWIN JAMES CRAM,
The eldest son of Nathan B. and Elizabeth (Tarbox) Cram, was born October 17, 1846. After the customary attendance upon district schools, he completed his preparation for college at Limerick Academy and Westbrook Seminary, and matriculated at Bowdoin in 1869. At his graduation in 1873 he had well earned his Bachelor's degree, and his Master's degree followed three years later. He commenced teaching common schools at seventeen, a calling which he followed at intervals every year up to the close of his college course. In 1874, after being at the head of the Winthrop High School two terms, he was elected Principal of the Kennebunk High School, and held the position for seven years. He then commenced reading law with Strout, Gage & Strout, Portland, and after three years' study was admitted to the Cumberland bar, April, 1884, and in June of the same year opened an office in Biddeford. A good measure of success has attended him in his chosen profession. In December, 1884, he was appointed Recorder of the Biddeford Municipal Court, a position that he still holds (1887). His temperance habits are beyond question, having never used either liquor or tobacco in any form.
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