USA > Maine > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the state of Maine > Part 52
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
The Haynes family of Haverhill, Mass., was founded by Jonathan Haynes, a native of England, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1635, and in 1686 removed with his family from Newbury to a farm about two miles west of Haverhill. In 169S he was killed by the Indians.
Thomas? Haynes, son of Jonathan,1 was the father of Joseph3 Haynes, born in 1715, who was a member of the Provincial Congress of 1774. Joseph3 married Elizabeth Clement in
1734, resided in Haverhill, and reared a large family of children, his third son being Joseph.4 (Corliss Family Record, the Haynes Family. pp. 241, 242.) Joseph' was probably the Jo- seph previously mentioned in this article as Jo- seph Haynes of Haverhill, father of Dennison and grandfather of Dennison Joseph, of Nor- ridgewock.
Dennison Joseph Haynes grew to manhood on his father's farm, and was educated in the district schools of Smithfield and the Norrie- woek High School. He was fond of school work, was known as a good scholar, and for a number of winter terms after completing his course of study as a pupil he engaged in teach- ing. Agriculture, however, has been with him a lifelong pursuit. While a resident of Smith- field, he, like his father, served for some time . as a Selectman and for several years as justice of the peace. His removal to Norridgewock. where he has made his home for more than a quarter of a century, took place in 1867. Since that date he has held the office of Selectman for one year, and served as trial justice of Som- erset County for more than fourteen years. showing himself a capable and useful citizen. He continues to take an intelligent interest in the leading questions of the day and the things that make for social progress. He is an attendant of the Congregational church (Trinitarian) of Norridgewock. Mr. Haynes has been married twice. His first wife, whose maiden name was Philena B. Sawyer, was the daughter of Josiah Sawyer, formerly of Smith- field, Me. She died June 12, 1863, having been the mother of one child, Guy C. Haynes, who was born at Smithfield, June 22, 1856, and is now a farmer and dairyman of Norridgewock. He married Alice E. Force, of Medway, Mass .. March 12, 1884. They have two children: Dennison J., second, born July 6, 1885: and Philena B., born February 11, 1889.
Mr. Haynes married, secondly, September 30. 1865, Mrs. Abbie A. Rowe, widow of Charles Rowe, late of Smithfield, Me., and daughter of David and Mary A. (Parsons) Prescott. for- merly of Lexington, Me. Her father, now (1903 in his eighty-seventh year, is living in Canada. Of his second marriage Mr. Haynes has one son. Herbert Haynes, a druggist, of Providence.
DENNISON J. HAYNES.
309
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
R.I. He married October 17, 1894, Bertha S. Anderson, of Norridgewock, Me. She was born December 22, 1872, in Sierra Valley, Cal. Her parents were from Norridgewock, and her mother was a Loring. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Haynes have three children: Mary E., born September 7, 1895; Rebecca L., born December 19, 1898; and Avis E., born March 17, 1901.
RANK J. HAM, the popular and efficient Sheriff of Kennebec County, is a native of the Pine Tree State, having been born in Canaan, Somerset County, May 30, 1865. The town of Mercer, Somerset County, was the home, if not the birthplace, of John Ham, his grandfather. Mr. Ham's father, John Ham, Jr., was born in Mercer, and resided there until 1866, when he removed to Belgrade, Kennebec County. There he carried on a farm for the rest of his life, which terminated in 1881. He married Narcissa Austin, a native of Belgrade. Her father, Nahum Austin, a soldier of the War of 1812 and an early settler in Belgrade, died in his ninety-ninth year.
Frank J. Ham was reared from infancy to manhood in the town of Belgrade, and he ob- tained his education in the public schools. Brought up to agricultural pursuits, he con- tinued thus employed until 1893, in which year he became clerk .in the store of L. A. Bartlett, a well-known merchant of Belgrade. After remaining in that place for five years, he was made manager of Mr. Bartlett's branch store at Belgrade Lakes. In the meanwhile he had begun to take an interest in local polities, and on attaining his majority had become secretary of the Republican Town Committee of Belgrade. In this position his zeal and industry in advanc- ing the interests of his party commended itself to his political associates, and led to his member- ship in the Republican County Committee, in which he did good work for several years. In September, 1902, he was elected, for a term of two years, to his present position as County Sheriff, for which he has shown himself to be well fitted. For a man, like Mr. Ham, in the prime of life, it would seem not unreason- able to predict still higher honors than any to which he has yet attained; but, whatever
may be his future career, those who know him best will feel sure that the work that falls to him in life will be performed to the best of his ability and with a conscientious sense of responsibility.
Mr. Ham was married January 1, 1898, to Mrs. Jennie Damren, a daughter of John and -- ) Damren, of Belgrade, Me. He has two children, Miles F. and Doris L.
Sheriff Ham is a member of Amon Lodge, No. 95, I. O. O. F., of Oakland, and of Jelthalı Encampment, of the same order, at Augusta, Me.
OHN M. WARD, an experienced and val- ued city officer of Bangor, was born in Bowdoinham, Me., January 28, 1856, son of Joseph and Maria L. (Flanders) Ward. The writer, after careful research, has been unable to trace with absolute certainty the ancestry of this branch of the Ward family in Maine. A Nathaniel Ward is mentioned in local history as a tithing-man in North Yarmouth in 1753, and William, Joseph, and Nehemiah Ward were early settlers in the town of Freeport, Me., which was formerly a part of North Yar- mouth. Though the information in regard to these pioneer Wards is very meagre, a compari- son of dates and circumstances makes it seem probable that the elder Joseph Ward, of Free- port, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.
Joseph Ward, the younger, father of John M. Ward, was a native of Freeport, Me. In early life he began to follow the sea, and at the age of twenty was captain of a sailing vessel, making foreign voyages. In his last voyage he was taken sick with the yellow fever, when approach- ing New Orleans, and died at the age of forty years, soon after reaching port. His wife, whose maiden name was Maria L. Flanders, and who was a widow at the time she became Mrs. Ward, was born in Bowdoinham, Me., in August, 1830. a daughter of Ephraim and Sarah (Whitmore) Flanders. Her paternal grandfather, also named Ephraim Flanders, senior, an early settler of Bowdoinham, where he cleared a farm, came from Massachusetts. By her first husband, a Mr. Otis, Mrs. Ward had one child, a son James. Her ouly child by Captain Ward was John M., whose name begins this sketch. By a third hus-
310
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
band, Abizer Small, whom she married after the death of Captain Ward, she had three chil- dren, of whom there are two now living, Eugene. F. and Cora A. The last named is the wife of Frank McIntosh, of Lisbon Falls, and has four children.
John M. Ward at an early age went to Pitts- field, Me., subsequently attending school at the Maine Central Institute. On his father's death he went to Bangor, Me., where he began to learn the mason's trade. This he followed for some thirty years afterward as a journeyman. He then went into business for himself, and so con- tinued till 1898, in which year he was elected as superintendent of sewers. This position he still holds, he having been elected for six terms in succession. In politics he is a Republican. He served formerly as a member of the Bangor fire department, being on the committee of reorgan- ization at the time of the change from hand to horse-power system. In 1891 and 1892 he served on the lower board of the city government. Since entering into polities Mr. Ward has shown himself to be possessed of the three most valuable qualities of a public official-industry, capacity. and integrity-and has thus gained the confi- dence and respect of his fellow-citizens. He is a member of St. Andrews Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Oriental Lodge, I. O. O. F., of which he is a Past Grand; Katahdin Encampment, of which he is a Past Chief Patriarch: and belongs also to the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Mr. Ward married first Diantha M. Raymond, a native of Wayne, Me. Of this union there were no children. He married second, in 1880, Emma A. Klatt, who was born in Dover, Me., but at that time was a resident of Bangor. Of this second union there are no children now living.
AMUEL STERNS, a prominent busi- ness man of Bangor, was born in Brewer, Me., June 10, 183S. He is a son of the late Charles G. Sterns, and is descended from Isaac Sternes, who, as Bond says in his "Watertown Genealogies," came to America in 1630 in the same ship, as there is reason to believe, with Governor Win- throp and Sir Richard Saltonstall, and settled
in Watertown, near Mount Auburn. The line of descent is Isaac,1 John,2 Lieutenant John,3 Samuel,+ Samuel," Jonathan," Samuel," Charles Gardner," Samuel .?
The name "Stearns," as it is spelled by the majority of the descendants of Isaac of Water- town and of his kinsman, Charles Sternes, who came over later, is said to be "undoubtedly a variation or a corruption of the name Sterne (well known in England) which has been effected in this country. Isaac in his will. 1671. wrote it "Sternes," as above given. Isaac Sternes brought with him his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Barker. She was born in the parish of Nayland, County Suffolk, England, which was also the birthplace of their three children. After residing in Salem for a short time, they - settled with their family in Watertown, Mass. John2 Sternes removed from Watertown to Billerica, Mass., as a pioneer settler of that place. He married first in 1653 Sarah, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Mixer, of Watertown. She died in June, 1656; and he married in December fol- lowing Mary Lothrop. Lieutenant John3 Sterns (or Stearns) was born in Billerica in May, 1654. On September 6, 1676, he married Elizabeth Bigelow, daughter of John and Mary (Warren) Bigelow. She was born June 15, 1657, and died April 18, 1694. In Malden, Mass., on April 22, 1696, he married for his second wife Mrs. Joanna Call Parker, widow of Jacob Parker and daughter of Thomas Call, Jr. Samuel+ Sterns was born January 8, 1693-4, in Billerica, Mass. In 1719 he married Rachel Crosby, who was born April 18, 1695. a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (French) Crosby. He died before 1730, and his widow subsequently became the wife of Thomas Wyman. Samuel' Stearns (or Sterns) was born in Billerica, Mass., June 1, 1726. He married first, October 3, 1749, Elizabeth Hutchinson, who died March 12, 1750. He married second, in September, 1750, Hannah Trask, who was born March 28. 1733, and died December 27, 1801. He died July 23, 1801. They were the parents of twelve children.
Jonathan" Stearns (Sterns) was born in Bil- lerica, Mass., May 9. 1758. On July 1, 1784, he married for his first wife Molly Wright, by whom he had three children. In 1789 Jonathan Stearns separated from his first wife, and mar-
-
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
311
ried again, his second wife, Betsey, bearing him six children. His divorced wife also married again, becoming the wife of a Mr. Davis, of Gouldsboro, Me. After the death of Mr. Davis she came to Brewer, Me., to live with her son, Samuel Sterns, with whom she made her home until his death in 1842. She died in 1847. Sam- uel Sterns was born in Billerica, Mass., in 1785. In the very early part of the nineteenth century he removed to Brewer Village, Me., where he established himself as a tanner and currier, and manufacturer of boots and shoes, at a later period engaging also in the lumber trade and in ship-building. He was very influential, being easily the most prominent man of the town, and was held in the highest respect. In politics he was a Whig and in his religion a Methodist. His death, which occurred in 1842, was deeply deplored. He married Emma C. Billish, of Brookline, Mass., by whom he had ten children. It was his family, it is said, that dropped the a which had been in the name as spelled by several generations, without, however, adopting the second e used by Isaac Sternes.
.
Charles Gardners Sterns was born in Brewer, Me., April 3, 1811. After the death of his father the business was continued by him at what is now South Brewer. He at once be- came prominent as a lumber manufacturer, passing through the several periods of depres- sion with great losses and sufferings by fire and sea, especially at the time of the Civil War, when he lost a great amount, but was able to pay all his obligations, maintaining good credit always. In 1864 he moved to Bangor, and, to- gether with his two sons, Samuel and Ezra L., became one of the principal lumber manufact- urers and timber-land owners, conducting busi- ness under the style of C. G. Sterns & Co., which firm was continued until his death in 1889, when the firm of Sterns Lumber Company was formed by his two sons, Samuel and Ezra L., and the business is now being conducted by them. The name of Charles G. Sterns is known all over New England in lumber trade, and his family have pride in the reputation he obtained as a business man of ability, sound judgment, and honest dealing. On October 5, 1836, he married Margaret Lunt. They roared three children, namely: Samuel, the particular subject
of this sketch; Ezra Lunt, born in Brewer. Me .. December 19, 1841, and married Lucie Hilferty :. and Emma Johnson, wife of Arthur R. Hopkins. of Bangor.
Samuelº Sterns has associated with him his brother, Ezra L., they together forming the Sterns Lumber Company, which is among the most extensive and prosperous lumber manu- facturers and dealers in lumber and in timbe- lands in Maine. On July 15, 1863, he marrie : Louisa Hinks. She died June 17, 1893. leaving two children, namely, Josephine Cutler ani Fannie Louisa. Josephine Cutler! Sterns, borz in Bangor, November 1, 1864, married Decem- ber 28, 1896, Charles Louis Swan, of Stoughton. Mass. They have two children: Channing S .. born March 18, 1898: and Charles Lewis. born August 16, 1899. Fannie Louisa10 Sterns, born April 29, 1868, married December 18. 1594. Harris Osborne Poor, of Boston, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Poor have two children, namely: Sterns, born November 26, 1897; and Louisa Abigail, born August 16, 1899.
ORRISON LIBBY, Representative in the Maine Legislature of 1903 for the towns of Oakland, Readfiel.l. Mt. Vernon, and Rome, all in the northern part of Kennebec County. is a native of Oakland, formerly West Waterville. which was originally included within the cor- porate limits of Winslow. He was born July 5, 1859.
His father, Andrew J. Libby, who was born in West Waterville in 1834, resided for some years in Embden, Somerset County, and while there he served as Selectman, as Road Com- missioner, and as a member of the lower branch of the Maine State Legislature. He was the elder son of John Mayhew Libby, and grand- son of John Libby, who with his father removed from Shapleigh, Me., to Waterville in 1\33. Andrew J. Libby was an extensive farmer in the locality formerly known as West Water- ville. He made a specialty of raising and dealing in fancy and pure bred cattle. He also, in company with his sons, kept a grocery and general merchandise store.
For a number of years he was the president
-
312
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
of the Messalonskec National Bank of Oak- land, and he likewise served as director of the Somerset Railway. He married in November, 1856, Abbie W. Morrison, daughter of David P. Morrison, of Sidney, Me.
.
Morrison Libby, named for his maternal grandfather, was the oldest of four children born to his parents in their farmhouse home. He received a public school education in his native place, and while yet a youth in his teens became a clerk in his father's store, afterward the store of A. J. Libby & Sons. He was thus employed in a subordinate position, familiar- izing himself with the ways of the trade, gaining valuable experience with a first-hand knowledge of commodities and their values, till ISSS, when he established himself in the mercantile busi- ness in which he is engaged at this day in that part of Oakland known as the Upper Mills. Needless to say, as a business man and a citi- zen, he stands high in the esteem and confidence of the community.
For several years he has been a trustee of the Cascade Savings Bank of the town. He was actively interested in the formation of the Oakland Woolen Co., early becoming one of the stockholders thereof. He votes with the Republican party. Fraternally he affili- ates with the Free Masons and the United Workmen, being a member of the Oakland Lodge of each order. He married, in 1899, Julia Whitehouse, of Belgrade.
ENJAMIN W. HARRIMAN, of Kent's Hill, Kennebec County, is a native of Maine, having been born in New Sharon, Franklin County, June 23, 1835, son of Captain James S. and Cynthia (Gould) Harriman. His father was a native of Kingston, N.H., and his mother of New Sharon, Me. Leonard Harriman, the immi- grant progenitor of the family of this name in New England, came from England, a youth of sixteen, in 1638, and settled in Rowley. One of his descendants was Walter Harriman, who became Governor of New Hampshire in 1868. Daniel Gould, the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a soldier in the American army in the War of 1812.
Captain James S. Harriman, who won his title in the State militia, resided for most of his life in New Sharon, where he was engaged in agriculture. He died June 28, 1843. HP and his wife Cynthia had the following children -Daniel G., Benjamin W., Asa, Mary E., Han- nah A., Ellen E. Daniel G., Asa, and Hannah are no longer living.
The first-named son, Daniel G. Harriman. who died January 1, 1899, was for several years a Municipal Court Judge in New York City. and an authority on tariff history and legisla- tion. He was the author of a pamphlet on the tariff, which was printed in large quantities by order of Congress, and widely distributed throughout the United States, and was used by Congressmen very generally as a standard text-book, having much to do with shaping tariff legislation. Mrs. Cynthia Gould Harri- man, daughter of Daniel Gould, died in March. 1881.
Benjamin W. Harriman acquired his elemen- tary education in the public schools of New Sharon, and advanced in knowledge by attend- ance at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill, in the town of Readfield, where he became a resident in 1862. Brought up on his parents farm, he was trained to agricultural pursuits. and for a time in his early manhood devoted himself to farming. Subsequently for some eighteen years he was agent at Readfield for the Eastern Express Company, whose head- quarters were in Boston, Mass. During this period he was also engaged in the fire and life insurance business. For many years he has been a dealer in all kinds of agricultural in .- plements, carriages, and sewing machines, as well as live stock.
A steadfast Republican, Mr. Harriman has been active in local affairs, and has kept in touch with county, State, and national politics. He was for three years a Selectman of Read- field, and for two years of that time chairman of the board; and for twenty years he has served as a member of the Republican Town Committee. He served for four years as Post- master at Kent's Hill under President MeKin- ley's administration. In 1880 he represented the towns of Readfield, Mt. Vernon, and Vienna in. the lower branch of the State Legislature.
313
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
Mr. Harriman married in 1870 Mary Jaques, daughter of the Rev. Parker Jaques, of the Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of this union there are three children -Merle J., Benjamin W., Jr., and Carl R.
Mr. Harriman is a member, trustee, and stew- ard of the Methodist Episcopal church at Kent's Hill. Public-spirited and progressive, he has made himself a force in the community in which he has lived so long, and where he is so generally respected and esteemed. He belongs to Lafayette Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Readfield.
[Mr. Benjamin W. Harriman died in June, 1903, since the preparation of the above article .- ED.]
BRAM BACHELDER, of Oakland, who, under the old firm name of J. Bachelder & Son, carries on the chair manufact- uring business established by his father in 1842, is a nafive of Waterville, Me., born January 14, 1842, a son of Joseph and Hannah T. (Allen) Bachelder. He is therefore just as old as the business of which he is now the head. Both his parents were natives of Kennebec County, Me. Joseph Bachelder carried on the furniture business for a number of years in Waterville and Oakland. He was a prosperous and respected citizen, who achieved success by his own efforts. His death occurred in 1874. He and his wife Hannah were the parents of a large family of children, of whom there are now six survivors, namely, Henry A., George F., Abram, Clara F. (now the widow of Aaron Bickford), Elsie O. (wife of E. A. Penney), and Albert F., all of whom reside in Oakland.
Abram Bachelder acquired his formal edu- cation in public and private schools in Oak- land. He was trained to business life, and in 1869 became a member of the firm of J. Bachelder & Son. Since his father's death he has been sole proprietor of the business, which is now in a flourishing condition, the result of good management and persistent en- terprise. The concern turns out a superior product, and is one of the representative in- dustrial enterprises of Oakland.
listing in August, 1861, in Company E, Seventh Maine Volunteer Infantry, he joined the Army of the Potomac, and subsequently participated with it in the battle of Williamsburg, the seven days' fight before Richmond, the second battle of Bull Run, and the battle of Antietam. In the last named battle he received a wound in the right forearm, and in November, 1562. he was honorably discharged, taking no sub- sequent part in the war. Mr. Bachelder mar- ried first, in 1869, Laura A. Farnham, of St. Albans, Me. She bore him one son, Leon A .. who is now a resident of Oakland. After the death of his first wife, in 1892, Mr. Bachelder married September 1, 1898, Mrs. Florence E. Smiley, of Waterville, widow of Frank O. Smiley and a daughter of Alvin and Margret (Cunningham) Berry, of Burnham, Me.
Mr. Bachelder is a member of Sergeant Wy- man Post, No. 97, G. A. R., of Oakland, which he has served as Commander, and wherein he now holds the office of Sergeant Major. A Free Mason, he belongs to De Molay Command- ery at Skowhegan, Me. He is also a inember of the A. O. U. W. of Oakland; Cascade Grange. P. of H., of Oakland; and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
EORGE B. GOODRICH, a representa- tive and well-known citizen of the town of Clinton, Kennebec County. residing at Brimmer's Mills, has been here settled since 1885. He was born in Canaan, Somerset County, Me., August 24, 1828, his par- ents being Oliver and Mary S. (Bigelow) Good- rich. The father, Oliver Goodrich, was a na- tive of Berwick, Me. He came to Canaan with his parents when a boy, and thence, after a residence of a few years, to Clinton. The mother, whose maiden name was Mary S. Bige- low, was born in Bloomfield, Me., and was a daughter of George and Mary (Clark) Bigelow. Of the children of Oliver Goodrich and his wife Mary four survive, namely: George B., whose name begins this article; Elizabeth G., widow of the late Jonathan Brown, of Clinton: Emily. widow of the late Thomas J. Richards, of Clin- ton; and Mary E., widow of the late E. C.
Mr. Bachelder is a Civil War veteran. En- | Thompson, of Brandon, Vt.
314
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
The paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch was Samuel Goodrich. of Berwick and Canaan, Me., who died in the latter town at the remarkable age of over one hundred and four years, having resided in Canaan over half a century.
George B. Goodrich was reared to man's estate in Clinton. He early acquired a knowl -; edge of agriculture, and has made that his chief occupation up to the present time. He has been very successful, and is now numbered among the prosperous citizens of the town.
Mr. Goodrich married October 1, 1854, Mary A. Goodrich, daughter of Timothy Goodrich, of Canaan, Me., and his wife Elvira. Mrs. Goodrich died April 4, 1902. She, with her husband, was a member of Clinton Grange, P. of H. Mr. Goodrich also belongs to Sebasti- cook Lodge, F. & A. M. In politics he is a Republican.
HARLES LEMUEL HOLBROOK, farmer and horticulturist, well known in the south-western part of Somer- set County, was born in Starks, Me., April 28, 1842, and since 1864 has occupied his present homestead in that town. His father, an octogenarian, residing with him, is also a native of Starks, being a son of John Holbrook, Sr., an early settler. John Holbrook, the younger, was born in 1820. He married in 1841 Esther Childs. of Farmington, Me., a daugh- ter of John Childs and his wife Abigail. She died December 25, 1843.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.