USA > Maine > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the state of Maine > Part 22
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mation of the Republican party at the time when his most intimate friend, Hannibal Ham- lin, was a State Senator. He was a strong ad- vocate of the Maine liquor law, which was passed while he was a member of the legislative body. For twenty-one years he was Collector of Internal Revenue.
He married Hannah K. Packard. a daughter of John and Abigail (Waterman) Packard. They became the parents of five children. namely -Ellen E., Thomas M., John D., Adelbert J .. an ! Jesse A. Ellen E., born December 24. 1535. married Charles H. Dean, of China. Me .. by whom she has three children-Harry L .. John T., and Charles A. Thomas M., born March 19. 1842, was appointed a cadet at West Point in 1861. Subsequently, under command of Maior Reno, he took part in General Custer's opera- tions against the Indians. He married Corena Barrett, of Austin, Tex., and settled in Michi- gan, where he died, leaving his widow with three children-Charles, Thomas, and Murrey. Joins D., born October 3, 1843, married Eunice Brooks. of Brattleboro, Vt., and has two children. Julia and Dudley. He is State Inspector of Whea: at the large Pillsbury Mills. Julia. the elfes: child, married Frank Smith, of MinneapoEs. Minn., and has one daughter, Eunice. Jesse A .. born June 3, 1858, is employed as postal ciers by the Maine Central Railroad, on the route between Bangor and Boston. He married Minnie Packard .. They have had eight children. six of whom are living, namely-Nellie. Phyllis. Eunice, Mildred, Maria, and Dudley.
Adelbert J. Tolman was educated in the pub- lie schools of Rockland, and while living on the parental homestead acquired a good knowledge of agriculture. Ho subsequently engaged in farming on his own account, making a specialty of raising vegetables and small fruits. For many years he has taken an active interest in the county fairs, being a leading exhibitor. For three years he was a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and in that period he attended various Farmers' Institutes, at which he spoke on Small Fruits, Market Gardening. and similar subjects, on which he is considered an authority. He has devoted a part of his time to literary work, contributing articles to agricultural magazines and acting as corre-
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spondent for several newspapers. Politically, Mr. Tolman has never swerved from the faith in which he was reared, and is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party. For two years he was a member of the City Council. In 1891 he was nominated as Representative to the State Legislature, but failed to secure the elec- tion. In 1902 he was elected Sheriff of Knox County for a term of two years, being the first Democrat in twenty years to receive a majority vote in the city of Rockland in an election. He carried four of the seven wards in the city, which is considered a Republican stronghold, receiving seven hundred and eighty-four votes against his opponent's seven hundred and sev- enty-seven. Fraternally, he is Past Master of Pleasant Valley Grange, and has served in the highest official position in the Knox Pomona Grange.
On January S, 1875, Mr. Tolman married Lizzie E. Torrey, daughter of the late ex-Sheriff John F. Torrey, of St. George, Me. They have two children, namely: Marietta, born in Rock- land, Me., who married in 1902 Austin J. Moody, of Warren, Me .; and Edward M., also born in Rockland, Me.
IDWARD C. BENSON, agriculturist, of Oakland, Kennebec County, who has resided on his present farm in this town since 1879, was born in Oakland (then a part of the town of Waterville), January 1, 1854, a son of Russell C. and Abigail (Dunbar) Benson. Russell C. Benson, who was born in Buckfield, Me., resided in Oakland for many years, coming here, it is said, in the forties. He followed the occupation of blacksmith. He was a son of Stephen Benson, a native of Maine. His wife Abigail was born in Sharon, Mass. The children of Russell C. and Abigail Benson ` were -Adalaide, George, Herbert, Martha, Sarah, Edward, Cora, and John.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of his native town. Under his father's instructions he acquired a compe- tent knowledge of the blacksmith's trade, and was employed in the manufacture of scythes in Oakland for some years thereafter. Settling on his present farm, which contains one hun-
dred acres, in 1879, he has since given his chief attention to farming and dairying, his dairy stock consisting entirely of Jersey cattle. In this line of industry he has achieved a gratifying success, and has won the respeet of his fellow-citizens as a man of business ability, well versed in agricultural science, and a friend and promoter of the best interests of the town. When not actively employed on his farm, he works in the scythe factory in Oakland. He belongs to Cascade Grange, P. of H., at Oakland, and is a Republican in politics.
Mr. Benson married, first, Carrie Blake, daughter of William P. Blake, of Oakland, of which union there are three children-John W., Leon C., and Alice A. On July 15, 1900, he married for his second wife Mrs. Hattie Brown, widow of Prescott R. Brown, formerly of Tybo, Nev., and a daughter of Daniel F. MeLure, a former resident of Oakland, now deceased. Of this union there are no children. By her first husband Mrs. Benson had two children, Catherine E. and Frank M.
ANIEL LONGFELLOW, of Gardiner, Kennebec County, is a prominent representative of Maine's leading industry, being secretary and treas- urer of the South Gardiner Lumber Company, a flourishing corporation, of which James W. Parker, of Portland, is president and general manager.
Mr. Longfellow was born at Machias, Me., where his great-great-grandfather, Jonathan3 Longfellow, born in 1714, settled in 1765. Jonathan3 was the eldest son of Nathan2 Long- fellow, who married Mary Green, daughter of Jacob Green, of Hampton Falls, N.H .; and Nathan was son of William1 Longfellow, of Newbury, Mass., the immigrant progenitor of the family. Nathan+ Longfellow, son of Jona- than,3 was the father of Isaac,5 born in Machias in 1770, whose son Eris was born in 1797. Eri Longfellow in his day was one of the lead-" ing lumbermen of Machias. He married Jane Stuart, and had a large family of children, one being Daniel, the subject of this sketch.
Daniel Longfellow, after finishing his school-
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ing, was associated with his father in the lumber business until 1873. In 1877, on the establishment of the Bradstreet Lumber Con- pany, of South Gardiner, he entered their em- ploy, and subsequently remained with them up to 1895. In that year this company sold out its plant and business to the South Gardi- ner Lumber Company, a corporation then formed, and which has since carried on the business with eminent success. They are dealers in spruce and pine lumber, clapboards, and cedar shingles, selling the larger part of their product in New York City and doing almost exclusively a wholesale business.
The plant is provided with everything re- quired by a first-class, up-to-date establish- ment, including one band and one rotary saw, shingle, lath, and clapboard machinery, and a box machine, and gives work to about one hundred and twenty-five employees. The long lumber output is about one hundred thou- sand feet per day. Steam power is used in running the machinery, the sawdust and other waste materials produced being utilized as fuel in heating the boilers.
OHN T. BERRY, a veteran business man of Rockland, was born in the nearby town of Thomaston, February 12, 1818, son of Jeremiah and Frances A. (Gregory) Berry. His paternal grandfather, Thomas1 Berry, born about 1745, probably at Falmouth (now Portland), was an officer in the American army during the Revolu- tionary War, and subsequently received a pen- sion from the United States government. He died in Rockland, January 27, 1828. Mar- ried August 15, 1773, to Abigail Coombs, he had by her ten children, of whom the seventh in order of birth was Jeremiah, father of the subject of this sketch.
Jeremiah2 Berry was born in Portland September 8, 1787, and came to Thomaston in 1812. By trade a mason and builder, he erected many fine buildings in Rockland, of which place he was one of the most enter- prising citizens and business men. The Com- mercial Hotel, built by him, afterward came under the management of his sons, John T. and
William G. Jeremiah Berry was active in pub- lic affairs, serving in the city government and in other positions of trust. On April 27. 1815, he married Frances A. Gregory, daugh- ter of Captain John Gregory, of Camden, Me. They had six children-Jeremiah, Jr .. John T .. William G., Hiram G., George W., and Fannie F. Jeremiah Berry died March 11, 1857: his wife Frances died March 24, 1857.
Jeremiah, Jr., born January 23, 1816, died March 25, 1832. William G., born July S. 1820. died March 15, 1858. He married Mary M. Jones, December 25, 1845, and they had ive children, namely: Lizzie, born 1847 (deceased : Ada, born in December, 1849, who died Octo- ber 19, 1851; Albert born in 1851; and Annie. born in 1856. Hiram G., Major-general United States Volunteers, born in 1824, was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va .. in May. 1863. He was survived by his wife. Almira Brown Berry, and a daughter, Lucy F., who married Alfred Snow, of Brooklyn, N.Y .. and has one son, Hiram Snow. Fannie F. Berry married Edward Fosdick, of Brooklyn. N.Y., and had three children-Nellie. Almira. and William B. George W. Berry marrie: Julia Pote, and has two sons, Edward and Hiram.
John T. Berry was educated in his native town of Thomaston. His early years until the age of fourteen were spent on a farm. Afterward he resided with his parents in the Hotel. at the same time learning the mason's trade, which he followed till reaching the age of twenty-three. He was then associated until 1852 with his father and brother William G. in the management of the Commercial Hotel. In 1853 the Hotel was burned, and his father then built on its site the building now known as the Berry Block. For twenty-four years. from 1848 to 1872, Mr. Berry, in connection with others, carried the mail between Rock- land and Bath. For thirteen years. from: 1877 to 1890, he was president of the 'Knox & Lincoln Railroad, which was then soll to the Maine Central. For twenty-six years he was president of the Lime Rock National Bank, and director thirty-four years, and for nine years he was president of the Rockland Savings Bank. His success in life has been
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self-achieved, and the general respect in which he is held by his fellow-townsmen is a recogni- tion of its having been honestly won and well- deserved.
Mr. Berry was married April 25, 1841, to Catherine C. Crockett, who died in 1873. She a daughter of Captain Jonathan and Catherine (Ulmer) Crockett, of Rockland, who were married March 3, 1803. Her father, born in 17SO, ched June 12, 1851. He was a son of Nathaniel Crockett who settled in Vinal Haven, thence removing to Ash Point, South Thomaston. John T. Berry married for his second wife, January 18, 1875, Evelyn Crockett. She died October 7, 1895.
Catherine Ulmer (Mrs. Crockett), born May 10, 1785, the youngest of thirteen children, died January 3, 1863. Her father, Captain John Ulmer, was a native of Germany, born in 1736, who came to Waldoboro, Me., in 1740. Marrying Catherine Ramilly, he removed to what is now Rockland, where he died in August, 1809, at the age of seventy-three. His brothers were Captain Philip M. Ulmer and General George Ulmer. The latter, born 1755, died 1826, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, Major-general of the Sixth Division of the militia, was afterward Sheriff of Hancock County and Senator in the Legislature of Massa- chusetts and Maine.
Mr. and Mrs. John T. Berry were the parents of three children: Frederick H.,4 born in 1845, who married Ella Dow, of Rockland (no issue) ; Clara C., born in 1846, who survives her hus- band, Austin Black, and has three children- John A., Alfred S., and Fred C .; and Charles H., born in 1849, who married Georgianna Emery, of Rockland, and has one child, John T., who married Florence Young, and has one son, Charles.
Austin Black, above mentioned, was born in Danvers, Mass., November 29, 1842, and was a son of Moses and Harriet (Page) Black, his father a native of Danvers. Austin Black married Clara C. Berry in November, 1866, and died May 20, 1901.
John A. Black, son of Austin and Clara C. Black, was born at Rockland in April, 186S. He married Aurie D. Walker, of Indianapolis, Ind., and has no children. Frank Black, sec-
ond son of Austin, died in early childhood. Alfred S. Black, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1875, married October 16, 1895, Grace Ayers, of Rockland, Me., a daugliter of George F. and Harriet (Hosmer) Ayers. He has one child, Doris Louisa, born in Rockland, March 24, 1901. Fred Charles Black, the fourth child of Austin and Clara C. Black, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 18S8.
RTHUR EMERY ANDREWS, a pros- perous and well-known agriculturist of Gardiner, Kennebec County, was born in Monmouth, Me., January 23, 1831. His parents were Arthur and Olive (Welch) Andrews, both natives of Maine, the father born in Wales, Androscoggin County, and the mother in Monmouth, Kennebec County. Mr. Andrews's paternal grandfather was one of the first settlers in Wales, Me., and his ma- ternal grandfather, John Welch, was a pioneer of Monmouth, Me.
Arthur Andrews was a soldier in the Ameri- can army in the War of 1812. After his mar- riage he lived for a number of years in Mon- mouth, removing about 1837 to Gardiner. With his son, Charles H., he was engaged in the forties in the manufacture of sash, doors, and blinds at the reservoir dam. In 1849 their establishment was burned, and after that his son went South. Arthur Andrews died in June, 1875. His wife, Mrs. Olive Welch Andrews, died in 1865.
Arthur Emery Andrews accompanied his parents to Gardiner when a boy of six years, and was here reared to man's estate. After attending the public schools he pursued a course of study at the Litchfield Liberal In- stitute at Litchfield Corners. Since leaving school he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits, owning a good farm of seventy acres, and raising hay, grain, and fruit. He is, and has been for the last twenty-five years, a mem- ber of the Maine State Pomological Society,- which he has served as one of its executive officers, for ten years being chairman of that board. He has also served as a member of the Gardiner City Council and of the Board of Aldermen, and was for five years Street Con-
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missioner of the city. For ten years he was Engineer in the Fire Department. In politics he is independent. During the Civil War Mr. Andrews was appointed by Governor Cony an enrolling officer in the militia. This position he held for one year, doing good service.
Mr. Andrews married January 1, 1862, Caro- line Neal, daughter of the late Joseph Neal, of West Gardiner, Me. Of their four children three survive, namely-Elmer Hollis, Elwin Willis, and Howard Emery. The other child, Greenlief, died at the age of eighteen monthis.
Elmer H. Andrews is a farmer in Gardiner. He married Georgia E. Goodwin, of Gardiner, and has one child. Arthur Emery, born April 10, 1898. Elwin W. Andrews married Ethel Mildred Weymouth. Howard E. Andrews married Eva Winter, of Hallowell, Me. Elwin and Howard are in the clothing business in Hallowell.
ILLIAM BODGE, of Waterville, Ken- nebec County, a veteran of the rail- -way transportation business, re- tired after fifty years of active service, mostly in the employ of the Maine Central Road, is a native of the town of Fayette in the same county. He was born June 30, 1825, the son of John Bodge by his second wife, Mrs. Sally Ford. His mother was a widow when she married John Bodge: her maiden name was Abbott.
According to the family tradition, John Bodge was son of a Benjamin Bodge who came to Maine from Vermont. The History of Kennebec County states that the first set- tler in Fayette was Chase Elkins, in 1781. A list of his early followers in that region, twenty-five or thirty in number, includes the name of Benjamin Bodge.
In vol. ii. of "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution," a Ben- jamin Bodge is recorded as a private in Captain William Knight's Company, Colonel Mitchell's Regiment; Service six days. Company de- tached from First Cumberland County Regi- ment by order of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Noyes to work on forts at Falmouth in No-
vember, 1775. And a Benjamin Bodge, of Amesbury, is stated to have enlisted from that town, and joined Captain Carr's Com- pany, Colonel Wesson's regiment; enlistment eight months, to expire January 10, 1778.
Henry Bodge and wife Elizabeth sold six acres at Kittery, Me., in December, 1672 (York Deeds). He died in 1696, leaving a widow, Rebecca. His children were: Henry, of Charlestown, Mass .; Benjamin, who mar- ried, and had children, baptized in Durham, N.H .; Edward, of Kittery, in 1728; Pris- cilla, who married James Bradeen; Abishag, who married Henry Barnes; and perhaps Eliz- abeth. ("Old Kittery and her Families," by E. S. Stackpole, 1903.)
Wyman's "Estates and Genealogies of Charlestown," Mass., gives some account of Henry Bodge, a ship carpenter, living in that place two hundred years ago, and of three or four generations of his descendants. Henry2 Bodge, of Charlestown (evidently son of Henry of Kittery), married Hannah Swain, daugh- ter of Henry2 Swain and grand-daughter of Jeremie1 Swain, of Reading, Mass. They had a son Benjamin,3 born in 1702; also sons Henry,3 John,3 and Samuel, besides daugh- ters. Benjamin3 Bodge resided in Boston. He had a son Edward and daughters. John3 Bodge, born in 1715, had several sons, one being John4 and another Benjamin,4 baptized in 1746-7, of whom no further account is given. He may have been the Benjamin Bodge who went from Vermont to Fayette, Me.
John Bodge was by trade a potter. He engaged in the manufacture of earthen ware at Fayette. In 1829 he removed with his family to Wayne, in the same county. His first wife, Patty Moulton, was the mother of Moulton Bodge, of Fayette, who died in 1873.
In 1836 William Bodge, a lad of eleven years, went to Fayette to live with Samuel Williams, expecting to learn the blacksmith's trade. For some reason, probably because his strength was insufficient, he was not sent to work at the anvil. After a short stay at Wayne he went to Poland, and engaged to work for a man by the name of Dunn. He was to learn the blacksmith's trade, and to have three
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months' schooling and one hundred dollars at the end of eight years. As for money and schooling lie did not get much of either. After leaving Poland he went to driving a heavy team, hauling coal and iron from North Wayne to Augusta, his wages being twelve dollars a month and board. He continued teaming for eight months. Going to Boston in 1845, he worked for the Eastern Railroad till 1848, when he returned to Maine. In the ensuing year he drove a stage from Augusta to Port- land, his elder brother, Almaren Bodge, being the proprietor of the route.
On September 1, 1849, he entered the em- ploy of the Androscoggin & Kennebec Railroad. He was on the first passenger train that went into Waterville, the date being December 6, 1849. For one year Mr. Bodge was brake- man on a freight train, and after that until 1860 he was baggage-master on a passenger train from Waterville to Danville Junction. From that time till June, 1870, he was con- ductor on a freight train; and from June to December, 1870, he was on the Pullman train running from Bangor to Waterville. Trans- ferred to the through passenger train from Skowhegan to Portland, he served as its pas- senger conductor till 1896, when he was again transferred to the short line between Water- ville, Oakland, and Skowhegan, of which he was conductor up to July 3, 1899, filling out half a century of faithful and honorable ser- vice on the Maine Central Railroad. As he neglected no duty, no accident and no extra expense to the company has ever been charged to his account. For this there was no occa- sion. Conductor Bodge is widely known and ยท held in well-merited esteem by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
He was married July S, 1849, to Martha Freeman Davis, of Poland, Me., and daughter of William A. and Betsey (Trickey) Davis. Three children have been born of this union, namely-Albert Roscoe, William Freeman, and Emma Elizabeth. Of these the only survivor is William Freeman, now ticket agent at Waterville of the Maine Central Railroad. He married Georgia Kimball, of Lewiston, Me., and they have one child, Glendora, born December 6, ISS6.
LBERT NELSON MANTER, a prom- inent citizen of Wayne, Kennebec County, was born in this town, March 7, 1861, son of Silas A. and Alice (Pettingill) Manter. Both his parents were natives of the Pine Tree State, the father born in Wayne, where also his wife, mother of the subject of this sketch, resided for the greater part of her life. Mr. Manter's paternal grand- father, Silas Manter, was also a native of Wayne, and was a son of the first member of the fam- ily to settle on the homestead, which has now been occupied by four generations of the family. Silas A. Manter was a well-known and respected citizen of Wayne in his day. He served the town as Surveyor of Roads and as School Agent, besides carrying on the ancestral farm. In politics he was a Republican and in religion a Baptist, being a inember of the church of that denomination here. His death occurred De- cember 28, 1875. He and his wife Alice had seven children, of whom four now survive, namely-Albert Nelson, Arthur Wilson, Sewall Pettingill, and George Lucius. Arthur is a resident of North Leeds, Sewall resides in Wayne, and George is a resident of Farming- ton, Me. Those deceased are: Charlie Grant, Ellis Allen, and Flora May.
Albert N. Manter, at the early age of four- teen years, had the misfortune to lose his father. Being the eldest child of the family, he was obliged to assume the practical management of the farm. Thus thrown upon his own resources, he soon began to develop a degree of self-re- liance and self-help surprising for one so young, and which early crystallized into the practical capability usually found only in those of ma- turer years. He has successfully carried on the farm, which consists of one hundred and sixty-five acres of well-cultivated land, and has at different times manifested a useful activity in town affairs. He served five years as Select- man, during three of which he was chairman of the board; and he is a member of the Repub-, lican Town Committee of Wayne. He is also a prominent member of Leeds Grange, No. 99, P. of H., and of Pocasset Lodge, A. O. U. W., No. 6, at Wayne. Sturdy, self-reliant, and public-spirited, he commands the respect of his fellow-townsmen.
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R. DAVID ELKINS PARSONS, a well-known physician and surgeon of Oakland, Kennebec County, was born in Cornville, Somerset County, Me., December 3, 1836, a son of David and Beulah (Lancaster) Parsons. He is a grand- son of Samuel Parsons, born in Epping, N.H., in 1779, who removed about 1800 to Corn- ville, Me., where he resided till 1835, the year of his death. Cornet Joseph Parsons, the in- migrant ancestor of the Parsons family, came to America from England some eight or ten years after the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, and in 1635 settled in Springfield, Mass.
Samuel's son, David, born in Cornville, Me., December 16, 1802, was a farmer. He married Beulah Lancaster, of Norridgewock, Me., who was a daughter of David and Sabra (Curtis) Lancaster. David died in Rockford, Ia., De- cember 28, 1881. His. four children were: Sarah Elizabeth, Stephen Decatur, Samuel Sylvester, and David Elkins.
David Elkins Parsons grew up amid the healthful surroundings of a country life that included the best of home influences. He at- tended the common schools during the winter terms, and through his own efforts and perse- verance found himself in a position, when eighteen years old, to enter Bloomfield Acad- emy, where he fitted for Waterville College. Entering the latter institution in 1857, he re- mained there one year. The year following he spent as a teacher in Maryland, and in 1859 he went to Schenectady, N.Y., where he en- tered the Junior Class in Union College, then under the presidency of the celebrated Dr. Nott. Here he remained until a year or more after the breaking out of the Civil War, when young Parsons determined to take voluntary part in the defence of the Union; and accord- ingly, on July 29, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company A, Nineteenth Maine Volunteer Infantry. Not content to serve as a private soldier, he bent all his energies to filling the ranks, and succeeded in enlisting such a num- ber of men. that he was commissioned Second Lieutenant by Governor Washburn, August 25, and went with his regiment to the defence of Washington, where it was assigned to Gor-
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