USA > Maine > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the state of Maine > Part 70
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At the end of two years he was honorably discharged on account of illness, and returned to Augusta. After his recovery he resumed his former position in the employ of the Kennebec Manufacturing Company. In 1867, when the mill property was purchased by A. and W. Sprague, of Rhode Island, Captain Cole became superintendent. He continued in that capacity with the Spragues till 18$2, the property then passing into the hands of the Edwards Manufacturing Company, by whom he was still retained as agent until the time of his death, which took place June 18, 1903. His long experience-more than half a century -in the mills had given him thorough ac- quaintance with the business of cotton manu- facture; and his services were highly valued by his employers. Captain Cole was a Free Mason. .
He was married in 1853 to Almira Marson, daughter of Abner Marson, of the town of Stark, Me. Captain and Mrs. Cole were the parents of one child, a son, named Frank Wel- Ington, who is engaged in the real estate busi- ness and also in the Edwards Mills.
Frank Wellington Cole married Nellie Tib- betts, daughter of John Tibbetts, of Augusta, and is the father of two children, Robert and Frank Wellington Cole, Jr.
ERSHOM F. TARBELL, a Grand Army veteran, whose earthly life closed at his home in Benton, Kennebec County, November 23, 1902, was born in Benton, Me., May 19, 1842, son of William and Eliza (Flood) Tarbell. His paternal grandparents were Sam- uel and Betsey (Baker) Tarbell, of Albion, Me. Samuel Tarbell died in Albion, Me., in 1816,
and his widow married Gershom Flagg, of Benton, Me. William Tarbell was born in Albion. He resided for the most part in Ben- ton, where he followed farming. To him and his wife Eliza were born five children-Elizabeth, Gershom F., Harriett, Fannie, and William W.
Gershom F. Tarbell was reared in his native town of Benton, his formal education being confined to the instruction imparted in the common schools of his district. In subsequent years he largely made up for any deficiencies in this respect by practical experience in the affairs of life and by reading such useful books as fell in his way. In the second year of the Civil War Mr. Tarbell, then a youth of twenty, joined the ranks of the nation's defenders, enlisting July 1, 1862, in Company C, Nine- teenth Maine Volunteer Infantry. With this regiment he fought at Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Deep Bottom, Strawberry Plains, Ream's Station, Boyden Road, High Bridge, Farmville, Hatcher's Run, and Dabney's Mills, his rank being that of Corporal. Honorably discharged from the army after three years' service, he returned to Benton and re-entered civil life as an employee in a saw-mill. Later he engaged in agriculture and lumbering. For a number of years he served as a Selectman of Benton, and with the excep- tion of one year was chairman of the board. That his record as a town official was satis- factory is attested by the fact that he was elected to the House of Representatives for the session of 1897 from the towns of Benton, Clinton, and Winslow. In politics a Republi- can, he was an earnest-minded and progressive citizen, one who strove to promote the moral welfare as well as the material interests of the community in which he lived. During the latter years of his life he was administrator for various estates. He belonged to E. P. Pratt Post, G. A. R., at Fairfield, of which he was an ex-Commander.
Mr. Tarbell married June 9, 1SSO, Hannah J. Clark, a native of Albion, Me., and daughter of Lorenzo D. and Hannah T. (Mitchell) Clark. Mrs. Tarbell's father was a native of Freedom, Me., and her mother of Unity, Waldo County. Her paternal grandfather, Samuel Clark, was a soldier in the War of 1812-15.
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SAAC COTTON MERRILL, retired busi -. ness man and farmer of Lewiston, his birthplace, was born June 23. 1838, son of John and Lois (Cotton) Merrill. His father, a native of Bingham, Somerset County, came to Lewiston, and followed farming for some years, later removing to Lisbon, in the same county of Androscoggin, where he died, October, 1883, at the age of seventy-two.
Mr. Merrill's parents had three children: Isaac C., whose name heads this sketch : Albert, now deceased; and William Sylvester. Albert married, and had one child. a daughter Mabel, now Mrs. Smith. William Sylvester married Jane Garcelon, daughter of Daniel Garcelon, of Lewiston, and has one chikl, Lizzie. She is the wife of Merton Ricker, and has two chil- dren, William and Ruth.
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In early manhood, having received his edu- cation in the public schools of Lewiston, and having acquired some practical knowl- edge of business, Mr. Merrill. equipped with a good stock of native energy and resolution, went to Massachusetts, and established - him- self as a dealer in groceries, at first in the city of Salem and later in Lynn. Subse- quently for a period of five years he served as travelling representative of a fruit-tree con- cern, Chase Brothers, of Rochester, N.Y., and travelled through all the States cast of the Mississippi River. During the fifteen years, or about that length of time, after his itiner- ancy he was engaged in the tree industry on his own account, with headquarters at Lewis- ton, dealing in fruit and other trees and employing a number of agents throughout the country. He was successful financially in this undertaking; but owing to the failure of his health he gave it up, and devoted himself to farming. From that pursuit also he has now retired. His home is conveniently and pleas- antly located on the outskirts of the city of Lewiston. He ranks among the leading citi- zens, and enjoys the esteem and good will of the community in which he has lived for so many years. He belongs to the Masonic fra- ternity, being a member of Freeport (Me.) Lodge, A. F. & A. M.
He married, in 1866, Harriet H. Corbett, a native of Lisbon, Me., born September 1,
1836, daughter of Horace and Harriet (Herrick) Corbett. The only child of this union was a son, Horace Corbett Merrill, born in 1871. who died in 1897, in his twenty-sixth year.
Horace Corbett, Mrs. Merrill's father, above named, was born in Milford, Mass., in 1797. He was a descendant in the sixth generation of Robert Corbett, of Weymouth, later of Woodstock, Conn., a soldier in King Philip's War. The line was Robert,1 Dr. John .? Joseph,3 Jesse,+ Ichabod,5 Horace."
Robert1 Corbett married Priscilla, daughter of John2 Rockwood, of Mendon, Mass., and grand-daughter of Richard1 Rockwood, an early settler of Dorchester.
Dr. John Corbett was born in 1683. Joseph Corbett, born in 1712, son of Dr. John and his wife Mehitable, married Deborah Albee. daughter of John and Deborah (Thayer) Albee. Jesse Corbett was born in 1734. Ichabod. born in 1756, son of Jesse by his wife. Mary Woodwell. married September 16, 1779. Olive Lasall (or Lazelle) of Hingham, Mass. Their children were: Truelove; Otis; Pamelia: Leav- itt: Jesse; Nancy: Polly: and Horace, who settled in Lisbon. Me., as noted above.
Harriet Jewett Herrick, who became the wife of Horace Corbett, September 9. 1\35. was born November 28, 1812, the daughter of Henry Herrick and his wife, Martha Cotton. daughter of Joel Thompson, Esq., of Lewiston. Me. Mrs. Corbett's father was of the seventh generation of the family founded in New Eng- land by the immigrant, Henry1 Herrick, who married Editha, daughter of Hugh Laskin. of Salem, Mass. Their son Joseph? was baptized in Salem, August 6, 1645. Joseph,3 son of Joseph2 and his first wife, Sarah, daughter of Richard Leach, of Salem, was born April 2. 1667. Benjamin+ Herrick, born April, 1700. son of Joseph,3 and his wife Elizabeth, married November 27, 1720, Lydia Haywood. Their son, Major Israel Herrick, born in December. 1721, married, second, in 1749, Abigail, daugh- ter of John Kilham, of Boxford, and was the father of Joseph," born in September, 1750, who married October 17, 1775. Merey, daugh- ter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Seales) Preston. Joseph" and Mercy were the parents of Heury? In the first year of the Revolutionary War
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Joel Thompson was Sergeant in Captain J. Curtis's company, and was in service three months, two days-May 15, 1775, to August 1, 1775. For several years he was a Repre- sentative from Lewiston to the General Court. In the State militia he held the rank of Colonel. His wife Martha was a daughter of Thomas and Agnes (Smith) Cotton, her mother having been first married to Mr. Hinkley. The parents of Colonel Joel were Cornelius and Hannah (Smith) Thompson; and his paternal grand- father was James Thompson, of Kittery, Me., who married March 3, 1700, Elizabeth Frye, daughter of Adrian Frye, and removed to New Meadows, Brunswick, Me., in 1727. James Thompson was a son of William Thompson, who, at the time of his death in 1676, owned a house and lands in Kittery, and also land in Dover, N.H. In 1677 James was eleven years old.
Henry Herrick, father of Harriet J., Mrs. Horace Corbett, died July 23, 1816. His widow, Martha, born Thompson, married for her second husband Nathaniel Eames, whose first wife was Lucy Curtis, daughter of Cap- tain James Curtis, of New Meadows, Bruns- wick, Me., who served in the French and Indian War in 1756, and also in the Revolution. The first wife of Captain James Curtis was a daugh- ter of Captain James Thompson. Nathaniel Eames left his wife Martha for a second time a widow (1827). She subsequently married (1843) a third husband, General Jedediah Her- rick, of Hampden, Me. General Herrick died 1849, his widow in 1880, aged eighty-seven years, six months.
OHN WESTON, of Skowhegan, a veteran agriculturist and an old "forty-niner," was born in Skowhegan, Me., March 10, 1824. His parents were Alvin and Abi- gail (Harding) Weston. His paternal grand- father, John Weston, whose name he bears, was a son of Joseph Weston, who came to Maine from Concord, Mass., in 1771 or 1772, and was one of the earliest settlers of this locality. Jo- seph Weston served as a guide along the Kenne- bec River in Arnold's Canadian expedition in the Revolutionary War in the fall of 1775.
The founder of this branch of the Weston family in America was John' Weston, who came to Salem, Mass., from Buckinghamshire, Eng- land, about the year 1644, at thirteen years of age, and in 1652 settled in Reading, Mass., where he married in 1653 Sarah Fitch. From their sons, John,2 Samuel,2 Stephen,2 Thomas,2 deseended four distinct lines of Westons, Joseph above mentioned being of the fourth generation (John,1 John,2 Stephen,3 Joseph+). Joseph Wes- ton married Eunice Farnsworth. As shown by the printed records of Concord, Mass., seven children were born to them in that town, the third being John, whose birth date was July 19, 1758.
Alvin Weston, above named, a native and lifelong resident of Skowhegan, son of John5 Weston, died here in his eighty-fifth year. His wife, Mrs. Abigail Harding Weston, was born in Norridgewock, Me. Their children were: Mary, Clara, Lucretia, John, Isaac H., Alvin, Elizabeth, Daniel Cony, Martha J., William II., Enima and James B. (twins).
John Weston, subject of this article, was edu- cated in the district schools of Skowhegan, and brought up to agricultural work. In the memo- rable year of 1849, soon after the discovery of gold in California, he joined the great throng of adventurers who came from every part of the civilized world to seek the new El Dorado, making the trip to the land of promise in the sailing vessel "James A. Thompson" by way of Cape Horn. They arrived at San Francisco after a voyage of one hundred and eighty-four days from Bath, Me. Mr. Weston directly made his way to the gold fields, where he remained for some seventeen months, engaged in piacer mining. After meeting with fair success, he came home, this time accomplishing the journey in the much shorter time of thirty-five days via the Isthmus of Panama to New York. Since 1851, the year of his return, he has resided in Skowhegan. Here he has a farm of two hun- dred and twenty acres, the flourishing condition of which evidences the capable management and persistent industry of the owner. A man of recognized business ability, Mr. Weston has the confidence of his fellow-townsmen. He is a director in the Second National Bank of Skow- hegan, which position he has held for twenty
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years. He belongs to Somerset Lodge, F. & A. M., and De Molay Commandery, K. T., at Skowhegan. A publie-spirited citizen, he has borne his share of the burden and responsibility of town office, having formerly served two years as Selectman and for five years as town Collector of Taxes. For several years he has been a mem- ber of the Republican Town Committee of Skow- hegan.
On November 23, 1851, soon after his return from California, Mr. Weston married Susan MeIntire, who was born in Skowhegan, Me., April 12, 1826, daughter of Ezra and Clarina P. (Stinchfield) McIntire, of New Gloucester, Me. Mr. and Mrs. Weston have been the par- ents of eight children, of whom six are now living, namely: Lizzie F., who has been teaching more than twenty years in the public schools of Skowhegan; Addie F., who is a trained nurse, located at Lewiston, Me .; Delia, wife of George H. Weston, of Skowhegan; Horace M., a resi- dent of Skowhegan; Nelson W., also of Skow- hegan; and Walter C., who lives in Boston, Mass.
APTAIN THOMAS CLARK, of Augusta, chief clerk in the office of the. Adjutant- General of the State of Maine, was born on the island of Mount Desert, June 2, 1840, son of Eaton and Julia Ann (Bab- son) Clark. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Clark, went to Mount Desert from Sharon, Mass., about the close of the eighteenth or very near the beginning of the nineteenth century, his brother Lewis accompanying him. Nathan Clark was a carpenter by trade, and he built a number of the carly houses on Mount Desert. Sharon, presumably the birthplace of Nathan Clark and his brother, was formerly a part of Stoughton, and at the time was known as Stough- tonham. Nathan Clark of Mount Desert was perhaps the Nathan born at Stoughtonham, as stated in the printed records, July 5, 1780, son of Thomas and Mary Clark.
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Nathan Clark, first named, married Mercy Higgins, of Mount Desert. He lived to be up- ward of sixty years of age. He had six sons, all now deceased.
Eaton Clark, one of the six, born on Mount Desert, February 22, 1812, died February
22, 1874, aged sixty-two years. He was a ship-carpenter and builder, and followed his trade in the town of Tremont on Mount Desert, where he spent the whole of his life. He was active in town affairs, holding different offices, served as Representative in the State Legis- lature one term in the forties. A Republican in politics, he was in the United States revenue service during Lincoln's administration, act- ing as inspector on the coast.
His wife, Julia, was the daughter of Eben and Judith (Somes) Babson, and belonged to a Cape Ann (Massachusetts) family, dating from early colonial times. Eben Babson, father of Mrs. Julia Ann Babson Clark, was, it would seem from existing records, son of John5 Babson, a former merchant in Gloucester and Newbury- port, who, becoming reduced in circumstances, late in life removed to Mount Desert, where he died in March, 1825, age seventy-nine. His wife was Susanna, daughter of the Rev. John Rogers. John' Babson was a descendant in the fifth generation of James1 Babson, a native of England, who came to America in 1637 with his mother, the widow Isabel Babson. The line from James1 continued through Richard," born 1663; John,3 born 1687, who married Hannah Hodgkins; Solomon,4 born 1715, who was father of John,5 born in Gloucester in 1746.
Judith Somes, wife of Eben Babson, is thought to have been a daughter of John Somes and his wife, Judith Richardson. John" was son of Sherman5 Somes, Jr., who came from Gloucester to Mount Desert in 1761, and, building a house the following year, remained there with his family. He was a lineal descendant of Morris1 Somes, born about 1614, an early settler at Gloucester. Timothy? Somes, son of Morris' by his first wife Margery, married in 1672 Jane Stanwood, daughter of Philip Stainwood, or Stanwood, of Gloucester and Amesbury. Tim- othy,3 son of Timothy2 and his wife Jane, mar- ried Elizabeth Robinson, and their son Abra- ham' married Martha Emerson and was the father of Abraham, Jr.," who married Hannah Herrick and settled on Mount Desert nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. Abraham Somes, Jr., was a seafaring man, and for a long period served as a pilot along the New England coast.
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Thomas Clark was educated in the public schools of his native town and the Maine Wes- leyan Seminary at Kent's Hill. Before con- pleting his proposed course of study he enlisted for three years as a private in Company G, Eleventh Maine Regiment of Volunteers, Colonel John C. Caldwell. When his term had expired, he re-enlisted, January 1, 1864, in the field, in the same regiment, and served until the close of the war. He became Sergeant in October, 1861; First Sergeant, April, 1863: Second Lieu- tenant, Company F, July 21, 1864; First Lieu- tenant, Company H, December 17, 1864; and was promoted to be Captain of Company F, May 1, 1865. He was engaged in recruiting in Maine from August 14, 1863, to October 24, same year. From November 1, 1864, to De- cember 31, same year, he had command of Company A. On April 3, when the city of Rich- mond was surrendered to the Union army, Captain Clark's command was among the first to enter the city. He rejoined his regiment at Richmond on its return from Appomattox Court House. The Eleventh Maine was after- ward ordered to the northwestern district of Virginia, and he commanded the subdistrict of Rappahannock until December 4, 1865. He was then appointed Provost Marshal and assistant superintendent of the freedmen for Orange County, Virginia, with headquarters at Orange Court House. That position he held, and there he remained till he was ordered to be mustered out in 1866.
Returning to Tremont, he engaged in mer- cantile and hotel business, served the town as Town Clerk and as one of the School Commit- tee for several years, and was Postmaster at West Tremont. In October, 1877, he removed to South West Harbor, having been appointed Deputy Collector of Customs for the district of Frenchman's Bay in August of that year, with office at South West Harbor. This position he held until he was removed in November, 1SS5, by a Democratic administration. On June 2, 1886, he came to Augusta and assumed the duties of chief clerk in the office of the Ad- jutant-General, where he remains at this day.
He married at Tremont, Mount Desert Island, in September, 1863, Deborah A. Hodgdon, daughter of Mark W. Hodgdon and his wife,
whose maiden name was Savage. Captain and Mrs. Clark have three children-Charles II., Antoinette, and Alice M. Antoinette is the wife of John R. Boardman, of Augusta, and the mother of two children, Alice I. and Marion B.
Captain Clark is a member of the Loyal Legion of the United States; of Seth Williams Post, No. 13, G. A. R., of Augusta, of which he is a Past Commander; and of Lodge No. 77, A. F. & A. M., of Tremont, having held the various chairs up to that of Junior Warden.
EONARD DWIGHT CARVER, Libra- rian of the State Library at Augusta, Me., was born in Lagrange, Penob- scot County, January 26, 1841, son of Cyrus and Mary (Waterhouse) Carver. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Carver, was one of four brothers-William, Thomas, Amos, Nathan-who came with three sisters and their widowed mother to Livermore, Andros- eoggin Country, Me., in 1779, Mrs. Carver being the second settler in that town. The family was originally from Massachusetts. Mrs. Car- ver made the first clearing, and lived for a short time on the farm later occupied by Colonel Hunton. In 1780 William Carver, probably then of age, settled on another lot.
The earliest bearer of this surname in New England was, as is well known, John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth Colony. He died in April, 1621, leaving no children. Less than twenty years after came over Robert1 Carver, who received a grant of land in Marsh- field, Plymouth Colony, in 1638, lived to be eighty-five years of age, and, dying in 1680, was survived by his son John .? He is said to have had other sons. John2 Carver married Millicent Ford, daughter of William Ford, and settled in Duxbury. His eldest son, William" Carver, born, says. Savage, in 1659, lived in Marshfield. He is on record as a centenarian. Witness the following from the Boston Gazette and Country Journal :-
October 20, 1760.
We hear from Marshfield, in the County of Plymouth, that on the 2d. instant died there Mr. William Carver, aged 102 years, who re- tained his reason to the last. He was brother's
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son to the ancient Governor Carver of the Plym- outh Colony, & has left behind him the fifth generation of male issue: in all, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren, ninety six.
It has seemed well to give in full the news- paper story copied from a volume of the Gazette in the Boston Atheneum. It should be added, however, that Savage considers the "relation- ship with the governor not clear. and, indeed. quite improbable." (Sce also New England Historical Genealogical Register, iv.)
Of the parentage and birthplace of the im- migrant Robert Carver nothing is known.
William3 Carver, of Marshfield, son of John,2 married (says Davis) Elizabeth, daughter of John Foster, and had John, William, Josiah, and other children. William,+ also of Marsh- field, married Abigail Branch in 1712. Will- iam Carver, son of William+ and his wife Abi- gail, was eaptain of a schooner that was cast away near the mouth of the Kennebec in 1777. It was his widow, formerly Margaret Kempton, of Marshfield, Mass., who settled in Livermore in 1779. They were married in the spring of 1755. Their children were: Thomas, born Oe- tober 6, 1755: William, August 5, 1757; Branch, October 2, 1759: Zadok, September 16, 1762; Lucy, February 25, 1765: Elizabeth, February 26, 1766: James, February 27, 1768; Mary, December 10, 1769; Amos. August 10, 1772; and Nathan, August 4, 1775.
Nathan6 Carver, son of Captain William5 and Margaret and grandfather of Leonard Dwight Carver, as noted above, married Han- nah, daughter of Deacon James Matthews, of Warren, Me. They had six children-Will- iam, Cyrus, Nathan, Mary, Nancy, and Hannah.
Cyrus Carver, the second son of Nathan, married in 1837 Mary Waterhouse, daughter of John Waterhouse, of Portland. Her father came to Maine with his brother Joseph in 1792, from Barrington, N.H. They were sons of George Waterhouse, of that town, who appears on the Revolutionary War rolls as second lieutenant of a company of New Hampshire militia in the Continental army, December, 1775, and who afterward hold the rank of cap- tain. The ancestral line is traeed back to
Richard' Waterhouse, who was of Boston in 1672, and in 1677 and later years was an in- habitant of Portsmouth, N.H., his name ap- pearing at different dates on various Provincial papers. He was a tanner. He married Sarah Fernald, daughter of Dr. Ronald (or Reginald !! Fernald. His sons were: Richard, Jr .- born in 1674; Samuel2; and Timothy2 Johns Waterhouse, son of Timothy,2 settled in Bar- rington, N.II.
Mr. Carver's maternal grandinother. wife of John Waterhouse, was Elizabeth Jack-2. daughter of Daniel Jackson. The children of Cyrus7 and Mary (Waterhouse) Carver vere: Vesta Perkins, Mahala Gray, Leonard Dwight. Edward Kent, Nancy Elizabeth, John Henry. and Charles William.
Leonard Dwight Carver received a common- school education in his native town, and had nearly completed his preparatory course at Foxcroft Academy when the news came of the fall of Fort Sumter. Quickly responding to the President's call for volunteers issued An !! 15, he enlisted in the Milo Light Artillery Company, which soon became Company D in the Second Maine Infantry, Colonel Clases E. Jameson, of Bangor. This regiment had the honor of being the first from Maine to re- port for duty in Washington, D.C. Its recordi for the next two years was of gallant behavior in eleven hard-fought battles and numerous skirmishes. In every one of these engagements Mr. Carver took part, and several times in general orders he was commended for faitkfui- ness to duty and bravery on the field.
After the first battle of Bull Run he was one of the six men who volunteered to bring into camp their wounded comrades, who had been left lying where they fell. The second was a two years' regiment. Receiving his honor- able discharge in the summer of 1863. Mr. Carver resumed his studies, and, entering Colby University (now College) in the following year. was graduated there in 1868, with the highest honors of his class. During the ensuing six years he taught school in Maine and the West. and after that he studied law in the office of the Hon. Reuben Foster, of Waterville, Me. Admitted to the bar in 1876, he devoted hin- self with success to the practice of his prod-s-
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