USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harrison > Centennial history of Harrison, Maine > Part 36
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I. Elizabeth, b. Feb. 18, 1877.
2. Josephine, b. Dec. 13, 1878; married Nov. 1, 1905.
3. Mary, b. May 30, 1883.
4. Frances, b. Oct. 7, 1888.
FRED FOREST, b. in Harrison, Mar. 15, 1859; educated in the Harrison public school; went West in early life, and married Minnie Warren at Walla Walla, Wash., Oct. 19, 1883. They have one child :
I. Clara G., b. Feb. 7, 1885; married Nov. 19, 1905, John F. Blakemore, civil engineer. They have one child, Maxine, b. Dec., 1907. Fred F. Illsley's pres- ent address is Candle, Alaska; his wife and daugh- ter's family residing in Seattle, Wash.
Jonathan H. Illsley married second, June 26, 1862, Mary Jane, daughter of George Whitfield and Dolly Ann Bar- rows of Otisfield. Their children, born in Harrison:
ANNIE GERTRUDE, b. May 6, 1863; graduated from Bridg- ton Academy, second in class of 1882, and was a teacher in the public schools a number of years. She married Apr. 26, 1886, Andrew Jordan of Harrison; they reside in North Bridgton. Children :
I. Edith Barrows, b. Jan. 15, 1888; graduated from Bridgton Academy, valedictorian, class 1906; is a teacher and student in Gorham Normal School.
2. Mary Helen, b. Jan. 11, 1893.
3. Agnes Baker, b. July 2, 1899.
4. Margaret, b. July 5, 1901.
JUDITH HELEN, b. Dec. 1, 1864; educated in public schools and at Bridgton Academy; is a clerk in the office of the Portland Daily Press.
GEORGE BARROWS, b. June 3, 1868; married June 28, 1905, Lila Francis, daughter of Capt. Andrew B. and Corina (Simmons) Chase of Portland. He is a graduate of Bridgton Academy and of Mass. College of Pharmacy in Boston, and is a manufacturing druggist in the employ of Twitchell, Champlin & Co., of Portland.
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Jonathan Hollis Illsley, whose residence in Harrison for more than - years and his honorable career as a citi- zen and business man are well remembered, was a descend- ant of one of the leading historic families of Portland. His prime ancestor in Maine, was Isaac Illsley, born in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1703, a descendant of William Illsley, born in Newbury, England, in 1608, and emigrated to Newbury in the old Colony in 1634-supposed to have been the ancestor of all the Illsleys in this county, says Willis. Isaac the Falmouth pioneer, was a "joiner by trade," a noted Indian fighter, and was an officer in the expedition against Cape Breton in 1745. He was skilled in the art of building and erected an addition to the meeting-house of the First Parish, in 1759; also a tall spire to that church in 1761. Mr. Illsley received his education in the public schools of Portland and in the old Portland Academy. He early learned the trade of harness making and in early married life was established in a prosperous business at Ellsworth, Maine, where he resided for about twenty years. Here were born his first eight children.
Soon after his removal to Harrison in 1854, he engaged in trade in the building known as the old "Peirce store," now occupied by William H. Bailey; a few years after be- coming the owner of the "Blake store" and the leading merchant of the town. He was by inherent nature and by social training a gentleman, with an instinctive dignity and sense of honor that challenged the respect and won the es- teem of his fellow townsmen and all with whom he came in contact in business or social relations. He was endowed with superior musical gifts and had been a leader in culti- vated musical circles before he came to Harrison. Several of his brothers were many years distinguished professors and teachers of the divine art in New York and other cities. He encouraged the best standards of public and private instruction in music with a liberal hand. He was also a generous supporter of religious work in the churches
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and in promoting the higher education of the schools.
Mr. Illsley sold his store and all his home property in 1880, and removed to Littleton, Massachusetts, where he died in April, 1881.
INGALLS FAMILY.
The ancestor of all of the Ingalls name in this part of the country was Edmund Ingalls, who came from Lin- colnshire, England, with his family in 1629, and settled where the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, now is. Ridlon, in his "Saco Valley Settlements," tells us that "he was a farmer, and took up land in the eastern part of the town- ship, near a small pond, and the place where his house stood has ever since been known to his descendants. * When the town lands were divided in 1638, he and his brother * had 'upland and meadow, one hundred and twenty acres.' He was accidentally drowned in March, 1648, by falling with his horse through the old Saugus bridge, and the General Court paid his family one hundred pounds."
Edmund Ingalls' sixth child was Henry Ingalls, born in England in 1625. His son Francis married Elizabeth Stevens of Andover, Massachusetts, and four of their sons, Isaiah, Phineas, Nathan, and Francis, came to Bridgton, Maine. Isaiah Ingalls, who was the ancestor of the Har- rison branch of the family, was born in Andover, Massa- chusetts, about 1755, and was twice married. He settled first in Rowley, Massachusetts, from which place he and his family came to Bridgton, Maine, about 1780, in com- pany with Col. John Kilburn and others. He was a land surveyor, "and for many years spent a large portion of his time in that employment; was for many years an
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active magistrate; was first town clerk; first captain of militia, and held many offices besides, in town and county. He died in 1830, aged seventy-five years" (Ridlon's Saco Valley). It further appears that Mr. Ingalls had two wives and they bore to him eight children, Stevens, Francis, Isaiah, Amos, Phebe, Esther, Evalina, and Hannibal, all of whom were born in Bridgton, excepting Stevens, who was born in Rowley, Massachusetts.
Though the Ingalls family in Harrison has never been numerous, it has certainly sent out some of the ablest men that were ever residents within our borders. One at least has very nearly reached the topmost round in the ladder of fame, two others who had started on most promising careers were cut down in early life by death, and other descendants from this family have shown marked ability, as will appear in its proper place.
STEVENS INGALLS, son of Isaiah Ingalls, was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, January 22, 1781, and came to Bridgton with his father's family when an infant. When a young man he came to South Harrison -then a part of Bridgton - and broke ground for a farm very near where the Joseph Pitts buildings stood until recently torn down, and built a small log house a few rods to the north of the site of those buildings. On July 2, 1801, he married Rebecca, daughter of Col. John Kilborn of Bridgton, and after a short residence there they moved to Harrison, tak- ing up their residence in his newly constructed house, probably in the spring of 1802. Everything in the vicinity was almost a wilderness then, the only roads being the trails through the woods marked by "blazed," or "spotted" trees.
A small clearing that Mr. Ingalls had previously made was utilized for the crops of the first season, and these pioneers used to relate in after years how they sometimes
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found rattlesnakes in their corn - not very pleasant com- pany to encounter when one was hoeing. This was to the south of and adjoining the "Col. Thomes Farm," which was then nothing but the "primeval forest."
Mr. Ingalls enlarged the borders of his farm as fast as possible, and soon became a thrifty farmer, that being his exclusive occupation. They continued to live in their primitive home for many years, rearing a family of chil- dren, and doing such work as fell to the lot of the pio- neer settlers of a new country - subduing the wilderness, and establishing a productive farm in its place. He en -. larged the borders of his farm, and extended the area of his work to such an extent that when his oldest son was grown to manhood, he gave him a part of it, on which the son built the house which was his home so many years, and which later became the home of the old lady and gentleman. Mr. Ingalls died December 26, 1851, at the age of seventy-four. Mrs. Ingalls outlived him more than twenty-three years, dying on April 29, 1875, at the great age of ninety-four.
MRS. REBECCA INGALLS was a remarkable woman. She was the daughter of Col. John Kilborn of Bridgton, and was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, February 25, 1781, came to Bridgton when an infant, and married Mr. Ingalls when twenty years of age. She came to Harrison when it was a "howling wilderness" in all directions around the little spot that her husband had previously cleared. She shared with her husband all the hardships of pio- neer life, living in a way that no one hereabouts knows anything of, except as they have heard it from the early settlers. She bore to her husband a family of six children, to whom she managed in some way to give a very good education for those days, so that one at least became a successful teacher, and another was for many years a town
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official. In the seventy-five years that she lived in Har- rison she saw many changes, many of which it is wonder- ful to think of coming to pass within the life of one gen- eration. She was a very intelligent woman, and was en- dowed with remarkable mental powers, "retaining her memory to the close of life and conversing with as much interest and animation as a person in the meridian of life." On her ninety-fourth birthday she read a chap- tr in the Bible without the aid of glasses. At the time of her death she was the oldest person in the town. She was the oldest of a family of nine children, and was the last one to die. She was a member of the South Harrison Methodist Church for more than forty-two years.
Stevens and Rebecca (Kilborn) Ingalls had a family of six children as follows :
MARY K., b. Jan. 26, 1803; married Richard Jackson of Naples, Jan. 6, 1822; died Dec. 28, 1841.
EZRA THOMES, b. June 2, 1807; married Louisa Mayberry of Otisfield, Jan. 4, 1836; lived on the home farm, and later, at Harrison Village; had a family of three boys; died Dec. 16, his wife having predeceased him on Nov. 9, 1886.
HULDAH O., b. March 17, 1812; died unmarried, March 9, 1837.
ABIGAIL F. H., b. May 26, 1815; died unmarried, March 3, 1835.
ELIZABETH W., b. Mar. 25, 1819; died unmarried, Dec. 7, 1835.
RUTH A., b. Apr. 4, 1823; married Henry L. Buck, Oct. 20, 1843; settled in Harrison, and is still living on the same farm with her son, Adelbert C .; has had a family of eight children, for whom see "Buck Family."
EZRA THOMES INGALLS, only son of Stevens and Rebecca (Kilborn) Ingalls, was a native of Harrison,
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born June 2, 1807, and was educated in the common schools. He chose the calling of farming, and his father encouraged him to do so by giving him a part of the home farm when he came to manhood, as has already been told, and which was reunited with the original farm later on. The build- ings which he built for a home were on the site of the fine set of farm buildings which have just been erected by J. Howard Randall. He married Louisa Mayberry of Otisfield on January 4, 1836, and took up his residence on his farm, where he continued to reside until 1879, when failing health obliged him to give up work, and he sold the farm to Samuel F. Pitts, whose buildings on the adjoining farm had been destroyed by fire a short time before. He moved to Harrison Village, taking up his residence in a fine set of buildings that his son Melville had erected for his use, in which they spent the remainder of their lives in ease and comfort.
Mr. Ingalls was for many years a prominent man in town, and took an active interest in all public matters. He was very prominent in the South Harrison Methodist Church from early manhood, was one of its officers for many years, and contributed liberally to its support. He held a commission as Justice of the Peace for many years and drew the greater part of the conveyances for the people in a large territory. He continued to hold the commission until he voluntarily gave it up in 1879, on account of failing health, and his removal from South Harrison. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen for ten years, and was the Democratic candidate for Representative to the Legislature from the classed towns of Harrison and Baldwin, running ahead of his ticket with a very strong candidate against him.
Ezra T. Ingalls was a good farmer, and one who made it pay. He was a hard working man, upright and honor- able in all things, and much respected by all who knew
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him. He was a conspicuous figure in South Harrison as long as he was a citizen of that part of the town, and his three children were the most remarkable family of boys that have ever been sent out into the world from this town. Two of them died in early manhood, but not before they had become eminent city physicians, promis- ing to be excelled by none, and the third son has reached so high that he has been seriously talked of as a candidate for the Presidency, and is undoubtedly qualified for the position.
Though Mr. Ingalls was somewhat sedate and sober in appearance, he was really a very social man, a great lover of fun, and was not above loving a good joke, or of sometimes making one himself. He was a man who strove to make men better, and always gave his support to whatever he regarded as being calculated to favor the cause of religion, morality, and right.
The children of Ezra Thomes and Louisa (Mayberry) Ingalls were all born in Harrison, and were as follows :
PASCAL P., b. Oct. 8, 1836; married Araminta Edes of Naples; died in South Boston, Mass., Nov. 2, 1874.
RICHARD M., b. Apr. 3, 1839; was educated in common schools and Bridgton Academy, and then entered Har- vard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1866; settled in East Boston, Mass., where he soon worked up a large and paying practice, and became a physician of considerable prominence. He married Mary Shattuck of East Boston, who bore him two daughters. He con- tracted diphtheria of a patient, and died at his home on Nov. 21, 1877. His widow died in Italy some two years ago, she having gone there to visit one of her daughters.
MELVILLE E., b. Sept. 6, 1842; married Abbie Stimpson of Gray, Me., and now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has four sons and one daughter living, and one daughter has died.
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PASCAL P. INGALLS, oldest son of Ezra T. and Louisa (Mayberry) Ingalls was educated in the common schools, and at Bridgton Academy, after which he studied medicine with Dr. John E. Dunnells, who was then the practicing physician at Harrison Village. He entered the Medical College in Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1860, when about twenty-four years of age, and began the practice of medicine at Casco Village shortly after. In the fall of 1861, he moved to Massachusetts, locating at South Boston. In 1862, he went into the army as Assistant Surgeon in the 17th Maine Regiment, and re- mained about a year, after which he returned to South Boston, and again began his practice. He very readily secured a very large practice, and worked almost night and day for eleven years, becoming one of the most eminent physicians in the city, and accumulating a good property. He was attacked by consumption of which he died Novem- ber 21, 1874, greatly lamented by a very large circle of friends, and was the subject of several very flattering obituary notices in the newspapers, especially in his own home.
His wife was Miss Araminta Edes, daughter of Wil- kinson Edes, Esq., of Naples. They had one daughter, Maude Harriett, who married Dr. William Bryant Small, of Lewiston, and is living in that city. Mrs. Ingalls died several years ago.
MELVILLE E. INGALLS, youngest son of Ezra T. and Louisa (Mayberry) Ingalls, was born in Harrison, September 6, 1842, and has become the most celebrated man that ever went from this town. He obtained his first education in a little country school that was taught in a schoolhouse that at the present day would not be regarded by a progressive farmer as fit to keep his hogs in, but he was an ambitious boy, and made rapid progress, even in the little wood colored schoolhouse, with very
HON. MELVILLE E. INGALLS
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little finish, and hardly large enough to hold a dozen schol- ars. He early showed evidence of more than ordinary ability, and passed from the district school to Bridgton Academy at an early age. He taught school in Harrison and other towns in order to get money to pay his way, as his father was unable to assist him very much.
From Bridgton Academy he entered Bowdoin College, and passed from there to Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1863, when twenty-one years of age, and at once began the practice of law at Gray, Maine, where he became acquainted with Miss Abbie Stimpson, whom he afterward married. He remained at Gray but a short time as a better opening presented itself in Boston, where he entered the law office of Hon. Chas. Levi Wood- bury. His energy and remarkable ability at once pushed him to the front, and at twenty-five years of age we find him a member of the Massachusetts Senate, one writer speaking of him at that time as, "A shining example of what brains combined with energy and perseverance can accomplish."
Mr. Ingalls soon attracted the attention of capitalists interested in railroad lines in the West, and in their interest he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to rehabilitate some companies that had fallen into decay. This seems to have been the business for which he was especially fitted, as his efforts in that direction were crowned with wonderful success. When he went to Cincinnati to take charge of the old Indianapolis, Cincinnati & LaFayette Road, he had very little experience, not much money, but was the pos- sessor of good health, pluck, energy, perseverance, com- mon sense, and a good education, which certainly was a good combination. He went to work with the determi- nation to put the property under his charge on a paying basis if it could possibly be done, and he worked hard both early and late with that end in view. He went into every detail of railroading with the view of learning the
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business thoroughly, and at the age of twenty-eight we find him "started in at railroading" as President of the road, with his headquarters at Cincinnati, and for many years he was practically General Manager, General Freight and Passenger Agent, and Purchasing Agent. It was said of him that he was always ready to learn, always accessible to the humblest employee of the road, and that he knew personally most of the employees from the section men up.
Through various mishaps the old road was in the courts, and Ingalls was appointed receiver, and upon its re-orga- nization in 1880, he was elected as its President, being then the man who was looked to as the saviour of the road. He had a hard fight to bring it out of bankruptcy, and place it upon a paying basis, but it is a matter of rail- road history that his efforts met with wonderful success, and he continues to hold the office of President, which he assumed when the road was in such a precarious condition. He was also President of the Kentucky Central Railroad for several years, and also of the Chesapeake & Ohio from 1888, till within a short time.
As a builder up of railroad property he seems to have developed a faculty which has hardly been equalled in the whole country. When he took charge of the Indian- apolis, Cincinnati & LaFayette Railroad, it was almost a bankrupt concern, but he managed the business so shrewdly that it was soon on a paying basis under the name of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railroad Company. In 1889, this company, the Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis and the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad companies were consolidated under the name of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, and Mr. Ingalls was made the exe- cutive head.
In 1889, Mr. Ingalls took charge of the Chesapeake & Ohio as President, and the condition of the road at the time was so poor that "it was but little more than two
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streaks of rust and a right of way." The earnings of the road were less than $4,000,000 per year, and when he retired from its charge it was earning over $1,000,000 a month. He had not only developed the main lines so as to greatly increase the earning capacity, but branch lines had been built so as to develop new territory; and the company supplied with first-class passenger equipment so that the passenger business increased equally with the freight traf- fic. The whole record of the railroad career of Mr. In- galls is especially interesting as showing his methods and the remarkable energy and ability that were behind them.
Mr. Ingalls' home has for many years been in Cincin- nati, Ohio, where he has a magnificent establishment on Madison Road, Walnut Hills, with extensive and most at- tractive grounds. This home is said to be the scene of many social events, as there are no more charming host and hostess than Mr. and Mrs. Ingalls. He is an excellent after dinner speaker, and is a member of the Queen City Club of Cincinnati, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., and also of the Club of the same name in New York. There is no more public-spirited citizen in Cincinnati than Mr. Ingalls, and many important city improvements are traceable directly to him as their author, and the estab- lishment of the Technical School and Art Museum is largely due to his efforts, influence and aid. He has al- ways been ready to contribute liberally to whatever is likely to advance the interests of, or to beautify the city. Only a few years ago he was given the Democratic nomi- nation for Mayor of the city, but happened to be on "the wrong side of the fence" to be elected, though it is sus- pected by some that he might have succeeded if he had cared enough about the office - or had been able to have devoted the same time and energy to the campaign that he had in the past put into the building up of defunct railroads.
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Mr. Ingalls' remarkable success has not caused him to forget the humble town of his nativity, or the friends of his boyhood. The declining years of his aged parents were made comfortable by a fine residence at the Village pro- vided by the thoughtful son, and furnished with all neces- sary comforts of life. Quite often does he make a "fly- ing trip" to his native town, and when he does so, he meets the citizens, not as a great man who is above the "common herd," but as one who was once a fellow citizen, "poor but honest and ambitious;" and he meets them with a hearty hand clasp and a cheerily spoken word of welcome.
Some three years ago, he and his family went through the town in an automobile party with three large autos. He made a short stop at Harrison Village to attend to some matters of business, and then made a brief visit to the old home, it being the last time that he ever saw the home of his boyhood which has since been demolished to make room for a much more elegant mansion. Thence he went to the home of a near relative at which a good old-fashioned New England dinner was provided for the party, after which they proceeded on their way to the "haunts of fashion." It was characteristic of the man; brief stops, a combination of business with pleasure, and the accom- plishment of a great deal in a short space of time. An account of the trip which appeared in one of the Portland papers speaks thus of the Harrison part of it: "From there the party followed along the Ammonoosuc and down the Saco, and thence across to South Harrison where lives Mrs. Buck, an aunt of Mr. Ingalls, a woman of eighty years who can set the table with the finest of baked beans, doughnuts and custard pie. This was the lunch that the railroad magnate asked for and got, and there are no finer dishes in New England, says he."
His old alma mater, Bridgton Academy, has never been forgotten by him. It was through his munificent donation
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that Ingalls Hall was built and has been maintained in good repair without becoming an "elephant" on the hands of the Trustees. He keeps in constant touch with the school by means of correspondence with some of the officials, and friends and relatives tell of enquiries like this in his let- ters to them: "How does Bridgton Academy get along?" "I have not heard from Bridgton Academy for some time. I wish some one would write me in regard to what it is doing and how it is flourishing." There is always a "warm spot in his heart" for the school of his boyhood, the scenes of many youthful triumphs - for he was a leader even in the days of his youth. He is great- ly interested in the schemes now on foot for the better - ment of the institution, and its friends confidently count on material assistance when the time arrives for the de- velopment of these schemes into fully expanded plans.
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