USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Cumberland County, Maine > Part 18
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Ephraim Lawrence, Jr., father of David, was born in Groton, Mass., April 9, 1793, and came to Maine with his parents in 1802. He was reared to agricultural pursuits, and, when a young man, settled on a farm in West Gray, where he resided for several years, and later purchased the farm now occupied by his son David. He conducted farming prosperously, and also engaged in lumbering; and he con- tinued to pursue these industries nearly up to the time of his death, which took place Sep- tember 20, 1874. His energy and capacity as a farmer and business man were of a high order; and he occupied a prominent position among the leading men of the town, holding the office of Selectman for several years, and serving as a Republican member of the legis- lature of 1860. He was also a Justice of the Peace for many years, and during his life settled many estates and did a large amount of business pertaining to that office. He was pre-eminently a self-made man, having at- tended school but six weeks; but by hard study nights and spare moments he acquired a fair business education. He was especially noted for his genial and charitable disposition, and was a friend to all. His wife, Fanny Small, who died on November 25, 1861, was born in
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Gray, January 25, 1796, and was the daughter of Isaac and Susan (Hobbs) Small. Her grandparents were among the earliest settlers in Gray, and her parents were natives of the town where they were lifelong residents.
Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Lawrence, Jr., were the parents of fourteen children, namely : Sarah, who married William G. Orne; Susan, who married A. H. Purrington; James; Charlotte, who married John Maxwell; David, the subject of this sketch; Nathaniel S., now living in Portland, Me. ; Charles, who died in early manhood; Cyrene, who married J. G. Skillings; Mary F., who married Isaac Libby ; Henry S., a resident and for many years a prominent business man of Boston; Lucy A., who resides with her brother David; Amanda, who married Hugh Smith ; and two others who died in infancy. Of this large family only David, Nathaniel S., Henry S., and Lucy A. are now living.
David Lawrence acquired his education in the common schools of his native town. When twenty-one years of age, he learned the trade of a brickmaker in the village of Yarmouth ; and he followed that occupation in Portland and in Lewiston, Me., for several years. After his marriage he moved to the homestead in Gray, where he engaged in farming until 1862; and in September of that year he en- listed as a corporal in Company C, Twenty- fifth Regiment Maine Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Fessenden, for service in the Civil War. His regiment did not take part in any engagement, but was detailed to guard the Long Bridge at Washington, and afterward to do picket duty at Chantilly, near Centreville, Va. Corporal Lawrence was promoted to the rank of Sergeant ; and he received his discharge in Portland, July 10, 1863, after which he re- turned to Gray, and resumed farming. He has improved his property to a considerable extent, having at the present time one of the best farms in town. He makes a specialty of cul- tivating grain and hay, but has devoted some attention to stock-raising. He has applied himself diligently to his occupation, and his prosperity is due to energy and perseverance and good management. He is a Republican in politics, but takes no active part in public affairs beyond casting his vote. He is a com-
rade of George F. Shepley Post, No. 78, Grand Army of the Republic, of Gray.
In 1848 Mr. Lawrence was married to Amanda M. Whitney, who was born in the town of Cumberland, November 2, 1824. Her father, Perez Whitney, who was a shoemaker by trade, formerly resided in the eastern part of Maine, but moved to Cumberland, where he passed the rest of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence have had eleven children, as fol- lows: Charles H., who married Elizabeth Knight, of Gray, and now resides in Cumber- land, Me .; Helen M., who lives at the parental home; Cora Etta, who married Fred Adams, and resides at Cumberland Centre ; Walter Scott, who has passed from earth ; Harry L., who married Ada Mountfort, of Cumberland, and resides in West Gray, where he carries on the business of a stone-cutter and marble-worker; Alice M., also departed ;. Herman H., who assists his father on the farm; and four others who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence are members of the Universalist parish at Gray Corner.
APTAIN BENJAMIN J. WILLARD is an old and esteemed resident of Portland, who has followed the sea for many years, and now is in busi- ness as pilot and stevedore at 117 Commercial Street. He was born at Salmon's Cove, Cape Elizabeth, October 30, 1828, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Graffam) Willard.
The Willard family, it is said, settled in Sussex, England, in the time of Edward III., having come from Caen, Normandy, where the name was called Villard. A younger branch settled later in the south-easterly part of Kent, within a few miles of the borders of Sussex, and held an estate in the hundred of Branchley and Horsmonden. There lived and died the direct ancestor of Captain Willard, Richard Willard, whose son, Major Simon Willard, was the pioneer of the family in this country. Richard Willard died in February, 1616; and his third wife died in the same month on the twenty-fifth day. Richard Wil- lard was the father of ten children, seven of whom survived him. His son Simon was born in Horsmonden in 1605.
BENJAMIN J. WILLARD.
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" The Willard Memoir," by Joseph Willard, Esq., contains an interesting description of the village, given by a descendant of Simon in the seventh generation, who visited the place in 1850. The church, which is two miles dis- tant from the village, and quite on one side of the parish, is a neat Gothic edifice of stone. Its age is not known, but the style of the architecture is that of five hundred years ago; and just at the entrance, in the floor of the principal aisle, is a tablet to the dead, bearing the date 1587. In this church Simon Willard was baptized; and his American descendant read with much interest in the parchment register, in Old English characters, the record of the baptism, which runs thus: "A. D. 1605. The vijth day of April, Simon Willard, sonne of Richard Willard, was christened. Edward Alchine, Rector." Near the church is a magnificent oak, of which the townspeople are justly proud. The trunk is thirty feet in cir- cumference at the base, and fully twenty feet near the branches. This tree is known to be fully three hundred years old, and is, un- doubtedly, many years older.
From this quiet village, mantled with the mellowing mists of bygone centuries, Simon Willard, with his wife and family, started out in the first part of the seventeenth century for the almost unpeopled shores of the New World. He landed in Boston in 1634, and soon estab- lished a home in Cambridge, later locating in Concord, of which town he was one of the founders. He was a man of ample means, and lived in some style, making use of the family coat-of-arms, a copy of which is to be found in the American Heraldic Historical Rooms; and he was thirty-five years a member of the General Court of the colony. Major Simon Willard died in Charlestown, April 24, 1676, in the seventy-second year of his age.
Samuel Willard, the father of Captain Ben- jamin J., followed the sea for a livelihood. He was for many years a fisherman, and died at his post in his seventieth year, rupturing a blood-vessel in his head while killing a hali- but. He was the father of eleven children; namely, Samuel, William, Enoch, Benjamin J., Charles, Henry, James, Mary, Elizabeth, Charity, and Susan. Mary is yet living, in her eighty-third year.
Benjamin J. Willard received his education in the public schools of his native place. When a boy, he began to take part in the fishing business carried on by his father, and, when he reached his majority, went to sea with his brother, with whom he was associated two years. He then became master of the schooner " Jerome " plying between Portland and Phila- delphia, and in 1853 settled in Portland as pilot and stevedore. Captain Willard has a good memory, and relates in an inimitable manner many interesting incidents which have come under his personal observation. He tells how, in 1826 or 1827, the first hard coal was brought from Philadelphia to Portland by Captain John Wait, stored in a hogshead lashed on the quarter-deck of his vessel. He brought also an open-grate stove in which to burn it; and, when he was ready to start the fire, the neighbors from far and near gathered to see the "rocks" burn. The next year he brought several stoves for his neighbors and sixty tons of coal. In 1853, when Captain Willard began to discharge coal at the Port- land wharves, only eleven thousand tons came to the city ; and in 1894 nearly seven hundred thousand tons were discharged at the wharves. As a pilot, Captain Willard has taken personal part in events of historic moment. He guided the ship "Hero" in 1860, when she came to Portland for the Prince of Wales and suite; and he piloted the steamship "Monarch " into Portland Harbor in 1870, when that vessel brought the remains of George Peabody, the great benefactor of American education. Space failing here to relate all that might be written of Captain Willard, the reader is re- ferred to an interesting autobiographical work which the Captain himself has recently com- pleted, entitled "The Life History and Ad- ventures of Captain B. J. Willard."
Captain Willard has been twice married. His first wife was Lois Goold, his second Henrietta Gardiner, both now deceased. He has no children by either union.
In politics Captain Willard is a Republican. He has resided in Portland for forty-two years, and is well known and highly esteemed among the old residents and very popular with the younger generation. He also has a cottage on Peak's Island, that beautiful summer resort,
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where he enjoys his hours of well-carned leisure.
ARLAN M. RAYMOND, a repre- sentative business man of Westbrook, Me., who is developing one of the best residential portions of the city, was born in Charlestown, Mass., February 5, 1842, son of Samuel T. and Elizabeth (An- drews) Raymond. His paternal grandfather, John T. Raymond, was a native of Lyman, York County, Me. He was a farmer by occu- pation, and passed his whole life in Lyman. Politically, he was an old-time Democrat ; and in religious belief he was a Congregationalist. He married, and reared five children, all of whom have passed from the scenes of earth.
Samuel T. Raymond was born in Lyman, Me., and there grew to manhood. At nine- teen years of age he left home, and found em- ployment in a brickyard in Boston, but soon became a clerk in a grocery store in Charles- town, Mass., working with one employer five years. The next five years he was there en- gaged in the grocery business for himself. Returning then to Maine, he bought the farm on which his son, Harlan M., now lives. Three or four years after making this purchase Samuel T. Raymond engaged in the grocery business as successor to Benjamin Harris at Cumberland Mills, and for four or five years successfully managed both the store and his share of the farm. He then became associated with George and Lewis P. Warren and Joseph Walker in the grain trade in Saccarappa (now Westbrook) ; but about five years later he dis- posed of his interest in that business, and, purchasing his brother's share in the farm, he devoted the rest of his life to agriculture. He was an enterprising man, always on the alert for profitable investments. During the war. he furnished large quantities of beef for the army, killing on an average one hundred ani- mals per week; and he built a number of houses in Cumberland Mills to rent. Politi- cally, he favored the Democratic party. He was well advanced in Masonry, belonging to Portland Commandery, Knights Templars, No. 9, of Portland. He died in 1876, at the age of sixty-two. His wife, formerly Eliza-
beth Andrews, of Charlestown, Mass., died April 20, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel T. Raymond attended the Congregational church in Westbrook. Three children were born to them, two of whom are living: Harlan M., the subject of this sketch; and Addie M., wife of H. W. Gage, of Portland, Mc.
Harlan M. Raymond received his carly education in the schools of Westbrook, and afterward took a two years' course at Gorham Academy and one year at Fryeburg, Me. He worked for a while on the Raymond farm, and managed a milk route between Westbrook and Portland for three years. Then, entering the establishment of J. Winslow Jones, of West- brook, he learned to make cans for putting up corn and other garden products; and, when his term of apprenticeship was completed, he be- canie a regular employee, retaining his connec- tion with the concern some eight years. At. the end of that time he entered the employ of the Portland Packing Company of Westbrook, with whom also he remained eight years. After the death of his father he took charge of the home farm; and in the fall of that year he again renewed his connection with the Port- land Packing Company, acting as superintend- . ent for four years, and at the same time raising quantities of hay and sweet corn on his farm.
A Democrat like his father, Mr. Raymond was esteemed by members of both parties ; and in September, 1884, he was appointed Post- master at Cumberland Mills. Closing up his other business, he gave his whole attention to the duties of his office till April, 1889, when he returned to his farm. His property origi- nally comprised one hundred acres; but he has cut it up into house lots, some of which he has sold, and has made several new streets, includ- ing State, Raymond, and Pearl Streets and Warren Avenue. He has reserved about forty acres of intervale and twenty acres of pasture land.
In April, 1865, Mr. Raymond was united in marriage with Hattie Swan, daughter of Philip and Abbie Swan, of Brownfield, Me. Mrs. Raymond's paternal grandfather, Will- iam Swan, who was a native of Bethel, Me., was a Drum-major in the Revolutionary army. Eight children have brightened the wedded life of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond, seven of whom are
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living : King, who is in the drug business at Westbrook; S. J., in the Warren Mills in this city; and William W., Frank E., Herbert, Richard G., and Minnie, all yet with their parents, the three last named attending school.
Mr. Raymond belongs to a number of fra- ternal organizations, including Temple Lodge, A. F. & A. M., No. 86; Eagle Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, of Westbrook; St. Albans Commandery, Knights Templars, No. 8, of Portland, Me. ; Pequacket Tribe, No. 16, of Red Men, of Westbrook; and Westbrook Com- mandery, No. 289, of the Order of the Golden Cross. With his wife and family he attends the Universalist church.
ARESHA S. SPEAR, a prominent business man of Standish, Me., was born in this town September 10, 1856. He is a son of Eli A. Spear, who after many years of industrial activity is now living in retirement.
Mr. Spear's grandfather, William Spear, fol- lowed his trade of a cabinet-maker in Standish a large part of his life, and in addition owned a farm, which he managed successfully. He worked hard at his trade, having little machin- cry to help him. Among other things then made by hand were coffins, which were made to order after the death of a person. William Spear made the first hearse used in this vicin- ity, building it on a dead axle. He married Rebecca Ayer; and of their six children five are now living, namely : Eli A. ; Louisa, wife of Isaac T. Boothby, of this town, who has three children - Cyrus, Sarah L., and Frank M. ; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Gardner, who first married William Lec, by whom she had two children - George and Frederick ; Frank, whose wife,, Sarah Fabyan, of Portland, died, leaving five children -- George, William, Mary Ellen, Lizzie, and Benjamin; and Marilla, now Mrs. William Dyer, whose first husband, A. Files, died, leaving her four children, two of whom are living - Hattie and Lizzie.
Eli A. Spear engaged in agricultural labors during his earlier years in Standish, but sub- sequently went into the grocery business at North Buxton, continuing about seven years. On moving back to his farm in this town, he
established himself in the undertaking busi- ness, which he carried on successfully until 1879, when he sold out to his son Maresha, with whom he now makes his home. In poli- tics he has ever supported the Republican ticket. To him and his wife, Mary Ann Hamlin, daughter of Jacob Hamlin, of Buxton, nine children were born, eight of whom are living, named as follows: Etta, Augustus, Anna, Ella, James F., Willard W., Maresha S., and Lizzie. Etta Spear, the eldest, has been three times married, and is now a widow. By her first husband, Darius Flood, she had two children, Annie and Emma; and by her third, John Mayo, she has three children - Sadie, Preston, and George. Augustus A. married Sarah Hodgdon, of Ossipee, N. H. ; and they have one child, Lena. Anna, wife. of Andrew Palmer, of Buxton, has two chil- dren - George and Clara. Ella, wife of Alvin E. Fuller, of Steep Falls, has four children - Charles W., William, Jennie, and Edwinna. James F. married Marion Bond, of Standish, and has four children - Fred B., Charles I., Roy, and Risper. Willard W. married Laura Allen, of Westbrook ; and they have four children - Ola, Carroll, Hattie, and Vernie. Lizzie, wife of B. M. Jenness, of Springvale, Me., has one child, Delbert Jen- ness. The mother, who died in 1873, was an active member of the Methodist church, to which her husband belongs.
Maresha S. Spear was brought up and edu- cated in Standish; and, after leaving school, he began working for his father. Intelligent, diligent, and ambitious, in a few years he be- came competent to take entire charge of both the farm and the undertaking business, which he bought of his father in 1879, and has since conducted. With characteristic enterprise, in 1886 he built his present store, and besides his former business took up carriage painting. Succeeding well in his new venture, Mr. Spear the next year added furniture to his stock in trade, and has since put in an assortment of crockery, carpets, wall paper, and other goods kept in a general house-furnishing store, his establishment being well patronized. Mr. Spear is a member of the Methodist church of North Buxton, and politically is a stanch Republican. He is a member of Saco Valley
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Lodge, No. 43, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of West Buxton.
On February 19, 1881, Mr. Spear was united in marriage with Lydia O. Hamlin, daughter of Cotton Hamlin, of this place. They have two children: Arthur G., born March 23, 1883; and Walter M., born May 23, 1886.
EORGE SMITH ROWELL, A.M., editor and manager of the Portland Daily Advertiser, through which he has beeome widely known as a man of superior ability and worth, was born in the town of Hallowell, Me., on March 12, 1846, son of Eliphalet and Ellen (Smith ) Rowell.
Members of the Rowell family appear to have been among the early settlers of Essex County, Massachusetts, the records showing that Thomas Rowell received a grant of land in Salisbury in 1639. Some of this name were among the pioneers of New Hampshire, whence later on certain of the descendants re- moved to Maine, Abijah Rowell, the grand- father of George Smith Rowell, being one of the first to settle in Livermore, Androscoggin County, where he became a successful agri- culturist. He married Miss Sophia Warren, a lineal descendant of the family of which General Joseph Warren, of Bunker Hill fame, was a distinguished representative. Both Mr. and Mrs. Abijah Rowell lived to an advanced age, his death occurring in his ninetieth year, and that of his wife when she was ninety-seven years old.
Their son, Eliphalet Rowell, was born at Livermore in May, 1822. He learned the trade of a printer at Brunswick, Me., and then went to Hallowell, where he began the pub- lication of the Hallowell Gasette, an old es- tablished weekly, prior to the Fremont cam- paign an advocate of Whig principles, and later one of the leading Republican papers of Kennebee County. He continued to publish the Gasette for a quarter of a century, a por- tion of which time it was under the manage- ment of his son; for at the opening of the Civil War he was appointed by President Lincoln as Paymaster in the army, and served in that capacity until the elose of the Rebell-
ion. After his return to Hallowell, Eliphalet Rowell received an appointment as Postmaster under President Johnson, and by reappoint- ments remained in that position for twelve years. For several years he has been Manager and Treasurer of the Maine Industrial School for Girls at Hallowell, Me. He is President of the Hallowell Savings Bank, Judge of the Municipal Courts at that place, and has also served a number of terms in the State legisla- ture. Fraternally, he is a member of John Hubbard Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Hallowell, in which he holds the office of Post Commander; and Rowell Camp, Sons of Veterans, was named in his honor. His wife, whose maiden name was Ellen Smith, was a daughter of Samuel Smith, a sea captain. Eight children were the fruit of their union, although but two now survive, namely: George Smith Rowell, the eldest child; and William W. Rowell, who is now living in Minneapolis, Minn., but was formerly business manager of the Auburn Gasette. Both parents are active and influential members of the Baptist church.
George Smith Rowell acquired his early ed- ucation in the common schools of Hallowell, completing his course of study in the high school. As a boy, he learned the trade of a printer, after which he became an associate editor of the Hallowell Gasette, conducting the paper during his father's absence in the war until his own enlistment in the Twenty-ninth Maine Regiment. In 1865 he entered Colby University in the class of 1869, and took the first two years of the course, after which he accepted a position as associate editor of the Aroostook Pioncer at Presque Isle, Me., con- tinuing with that paper a little over a year. The Aroostook Pioncer then removed its office to Houlton, Me. ; and he purchased an interest in its rival, the Presque Isle Sunrise. This paper, during his connection with it, was, so far as is known to him, the first to put forth the name of General Ulysses S. Grant for the Presidency. In 1868 Mr. Rowell came to Portland, where until 1873 he filled the posi- tion first of foreman, and later of business manager of the Advertiser. He then returned to Presque Isle, and for two years was engaged in the apothecary business, when he again en- tered the office of the Portland Daily Adver-
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tiser as business manager, and held that posi - tion continuously until the death of H. W. Richardson in 1889, since which time he has been the managing editor, the paper being owned by an incorporated company, The State Publishing Association, he holding the eon- trolling stock. It is the leading daily even- ing paper of Portland.
On April 17, 1871, Mr. Rowell was joined in marriage with Miss Lydia E. Gallagher, a daughter of Michael Gallagher, of Presque Isle. Among the numerous fraternal organi- zations, both at Presque Isle and Portland, of which Mr. Rowell is a member, are the fol- lowing: Grand Army of the Republic; Trinity Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Presque Isle, of which he is Past Master; and Mount Vernon Chapter, in which he holds the office of Scribe; the Portland Commandery; Yates
Lodge of Perfection ; Portland Council, Princes of Jerusalem; Dunlap Chapter of Rose Croix; and Maine Consistory, he having taken the thirty-second degree in the Ancient and Aceepted Scottish Rite. He is also con- nected with the Portland Athletic Club, was the first President of Portland Press Club, and is now serving his second term as President of the Maine Press Association, before which he has been called upon to deliver addresses; and he is also a member of the Fraternity Club and the leading literary club of the eity. In 1872 Colby University, Waterville, Me., con- ferred upon him, out of course, the honorary degree of A.M.
ILLARD WOODBURY WOOD- MAN, Principal of the high school in Gorham, Cumberland County, Me., was born in Hebron, in the adjoining county of Oxford, January 18, 1865, son of Mellen and Edith O. (Bearce) Woodman. Mr. Woodman is a direct deseendant, in the ninth generation, of Edward Woodman, who emigrated from England to America on board the ship "James " in April, 1635, and settling at Newbury, Mass., was for a long series of years one of the leading men of the town. From him the line of descent continues di- rectly from father to son, as follows: Edward, son of Edward, the original aneestor in Amer-
ica, to Arehelaus, and from him through Joshua, John, and John, second, to Isaiah Woodman, Mr. Willard W. Woodman's grand- father.
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