USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > Centennial history of Norway, Oxford County, Maine, 1786-1886, including an account of the early grants and purchases, sketches of the grantees, early settlers, and prominent residents, etc., with genealogical registers, and an appendix > Part 31
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May 28th, 1840, Dr. George was married at Wiscasset by Rev. Wm. A. Drew, to Ruth, daughter of Joshua Damon, who survives him. Children : -
I. Lucy Cleaves, b. Dresden, February 27, 1841 ; m. Hosea P. Aldrich.
II. Susan Damon, b. St. Stephens, September 19, 1843; m. Fred E. Crockett.
III. Ella Augusta, b. same, October 6, 1848, d. Norway, May 15th, 1858.
IV. Jennie Bowman, b. Westbrook, January 2, 1853, m. Elgin A. Simonds.
WILLIAM H. JEWETT.
Dr. William H. Jewett was born in Sweden, Maine, April 6th, 1848, He was the son of Milton Jewett, who was the son of Ebenezer Jewett, and was born in Waterford in 1814. The father of Ebenezer Jewett was Captain Stephen Jewett, who was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1743, and settled in Waterford in 1790. Milton Jewett was thrice married. His first wife was Harriet Dresser, his second, who was the mother of the subject of this sketch, was Eliza ( Whitcomb) Sanderson, daughter of Abraham Whitcomb, and widow of Stephen Sanderson. Dr. Jewett attended the common schools in his native town, and several terms at Bridgton Academy. He studied medicine with Dr. Calvin E. Evans, and graduated from the Maine Medical School at Brunswick. Soon after his graduation in 1872, he commenced practice in Norway, and met with a good degree of success. He married, January 6th, 1874. Nellie A., daughter of Clark P. and Sarah Elizabeth (Danforth) True. He died in Augusta of acute pneumonia, March 9th, 1880. He was temporarily
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stopping in Augusta during the session of the Legislature, and died at the Central House after a brief sickness. Dr. Jewett made many warm friends in this town, who greatly deplored his early and sudden death.
JONATHAN S. MILLETT.
Dr. Jonathan S. Millett, son of John and Martha (Sawyer) Millett, was born in Norway, October 6th, 1794. His family record will be found with the Millett families in the Genealogical Register. He received such rudiments of an English education as could be obtained at the common schools of Norway, attended a few terms at Hebron Academy, studied medicine and surgery with Dr. Jacob Tewksbury, of Oxford, attended medical lectures at Dartmouth College, and took his medical degree from that institution. After practicing a short time else- where, in 1826 he returned to Norway and commenced the practice here in which he was highly successful. His business extended into all the surrounding towns, and oftentimes he was called in consultation many miles from home. He and Dr. Danforth had most of the busi- ness in Norway, Greenwood, Albany, and Woodstock, and no small amount in Paris, Otisfield, Harrison, Waterford, and in other towns. Dr. Millett was especially skillful in the treatment of chronic diseases, and many notable cures were effected under his treatment, after the cases had been given up by other physicians as hopeless. He had an unusually large number of students for a country practitioner, among whom were Thomas Roberts, Zenas Bartlett, Charles Millett, Jonathan Small, Edwin Green, Nathan Reed, and Joseph N. Pidgin, some of whom became quite eminent. Failing health at length compelled Dr. Millett to give up active work, and he went to live with his children in Harrison, where he died May 5th, 1866.
CLIFFORD L. PIKE.
Dr. Clifford L. Pike is the son of Elias and Hannah ( Howe) Pike, and the fifth in descent from Joseph Pike, an early settler in Waterbor- ough, Maine. He was born in Sweden, Maine, February 21st, 1859, attended school at Bridgton Academy, from which he graduated in 1878. He entered the Maine Medical School in 1879, and graduated in 1881. He also attended a course of lectures at the Portland School for
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Medical Instruction during the season of 1880. He came to Norway in the autumn of 1881, and settled in the practice of his profession. He married April 26th, 1883, Miss Cora F., daughter of John P. Plummer, of Sweden, who was born June 6th, 1860.
FRANK H. TILTON.
Dr. Frank H. Tilton is the son of John and Celia Luce ( Meader) Tilton, and was born at Great Falls, New Hampshire, July 2d, 1856. His father has been a merchant in Nashua, New Hampshire, for the past twenty-five years; his mother was a native of Industry, Maine. Dr. Tilton graduated from the classical department of the Nashua High School, and was also a student at the University of Vermont. He graduated at this institution in June, 1879, as the pupil of Dr. Josiah G. Graves 2d, of Nashua, and came to Norway in July of the same year. He was at first in company with Dr. Evans, and this relation continued for three years, when he went into business on his own account, and is meeting with very good success. He was married at Methuen, Massachusetts, September 22d, 1879, to Fannie Prescott Small, of Lewiston, but formerly of Norway. Children :-
I. Winona Louise, b. June 18, 1880.
II. Celia, b. January 30, 1885.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
THE town of Norway has never been overstocked with members of the legal profession. For many years after the first lawyer came, there was only one in town, and that number, for all practical purposes, appears to have been sufficient. There was nothing of the pettifogger about the early lawyers of Norway. Luther Farrar, of fragrant memory, both as an attorney and man, discouraged litigation, and the successor to his practice, house, and widow, Levi Whitman, followed in his foot- steps. They believed in invoking the law only when it was absolutely necessary. William A. Evans practiced law here in 1832 and 1833, and was also associated with Mr. Goodenow in the newspaper business. He found the practice of law in this peaceful community to be unremunera- tive, and soon sought for more promising fields of labor. Moses B. Bartlett came here from Bethel about the year 1850, and went into practice. He was also, for a short time, connected with the publication of the Norway Advertiser. He went from here to the West. Asa Barton was an attorney-at-law by profession, or as one of his professions, but he never did much business while a resident of this town. In fact, the legal business in Norway for the first half-century, was mostly done by the first two settled lawyers, and very largely by the second comer, Mr. Whitman, as Mr. Farrar deceased quite soon after coming here. For quite a number of years Mr. Whitman and William Wirt Virgin, with his partner, Henry Upton, were the only lawyers in town, the latter doing most of the business, as the former was becoming advanced in years. Since 1870, the population of the village having largely increased, several lawyers have settled here, the Maine Register giving the names of seven. In 1885, under an act of the Legislature, a municipal court was established in Norway, with Charles F. Whitman as Judge. The names of the lawyers now doing business here, are Henry M. Bearce, Charles E. Holt, Charles F. Whitman, Henry Upton, Alfred S. Kimball, Seward S. Stearns, and J. Alfred Roberts. Following
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are brief sketches of the leading practitioners in Norway since the settlement of the town.
HENRY M. BEARCE.
Henry M. Bearce was born in Hebron, and after attending the pub- lic schools he fitted for College at Hebron Academy. He entered Colby University in class of 1863, but left college in 1862, to enter the Twenty-third and subsequently the Thirty-second Maine Regiments as Second Lieutenant. At the explosion of the Burnside mine in front of Petersburgh, he was taken prisoner, and was for some time incarcerated in a rebel prison. He received his diploma from the college in 1865. He read law in the office of Alvah Black, and on being admitted to the Oxford Bar, in 1866, he settled in the practice of law in Norway, in company with C. C. Sanderson, where he has since lived. He has served as postmaster at the village thirteen years, and has been Treas- urer of the Norway Savings Bank, since 1867. He has also been a direc- tor of the Norway National Bank. He has been selectman of Norway and has held other town offices. He has represented the Norway dis- trict in the House of Representatives, and Oxford County in the Senate. Beside the practice of law, he has engaged in real estate transactions, and in other branches of business in which he has been successful. He married Frances Freeland, daughter of Gen. Wm. K. Kimball, of Paris, who deceased a few years after their marriage. (See Genealogical Registers.)
LUTHER FARRAR.
Luther Farrar Esq., was Norway's first attorney-at-law. He came here from Guildhall, Vermont, in 1804. His brother Josiah, the clothier, came the same year, and he had one or more brothers who settled in Waterford. The memory of this man as it comes down to us through the long number of years since his death, is fragrant of good deeds, both in and outside of his profession. Mr. Noyes thus embalms him : "Ever bland and courteous in his deportment and intercourse with all, he was emphatically a peace-maker among his fellow-men. He never encour- aged any frivolous litigation, but endeavored to bring about an amicable adjustment of such difficulties as ought to be settled without legal pro-
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cess." He had a large business, but his health was always feeble. He built the house and office afterward occupied by Levi Whitman. He married Miss Mercy A. Whiting, of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, a most estimable lady, in 1806. He was the first representative from this town to the Massachusetts Legislature having been first elected in 1805, and for the last time in 1809. He and his wife united with the Congre- gational Church, May 19th, 1811. Levi Whitman came to Norway in 18II, and went into partnership with Mr. Farrar in the practice of law. Mr. Farrar's health continued to decline, developing into pulmonary phthisis, and early in the Spring of 1812, he died, much lamented by the community in which he lived, and by the people of the entire county. His widow subsequently became the wife of Levi Whitman.
CHARLES E. HOLT.
Charles E. Holt, son of Joseph and Mehitable (Miller) Holt, was born in Fryeburg, March 11th, 1835. His father, Joseph Holt, was born in Denmark, February 10th, 1812, and his grandfather, William Holt, born in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, June 29th, 1761, married Esther, daughter of Judge Simon Frye, of Fryeburg. Charles E. Holt was educated at Fryeburg and Bridgton Academies, read law with Major David R. Hastings, was admitted, and commenced the practice of law in Denmark in March, 1861. In 1873, he moved to Bethel, and was in company with Samuel F. Gibson. In December, 1875, the partnership was dissolved, and he continued in practice until 1877, when he moved to Norway, and formed a partnership with Alvah Black. In 1883, Mr. Black having deceased, he formed a partnership with A. S. Kimball, which continued until 1885, since which he has practiced by himself. Mr. Holt married, May 26th, 1877, Lavinia B. Ames.
ALFRED S. KIMBALL.
Though only recently a citizen of Norway, Alfred S. Kimball has been prominently connected with the Oxford Bar for several years. He was born in the neighboring town of Waterford, December 20th, 1842, and is the son of Sanders and Jemima (Burnell) Kimball. He was educated at North Bridgton Academy, studied law with the late Thomas J. Bridg- ham, and having been admitted to practice, he settled in Waterford.
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CEO . H . WALKER & CO. LITH. BOSTON
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He has held the principal town offices in Waterford, was Representative to the Legislature in 1874, 1875, and 1876, and County Attorney for 1880, 1881, and 1882. He was also one of the commissioners to inves- tigate the charges of fraudulent voting in Aroostook County, in 1878. He came to Norway where he continues in the practice of law, in 1882. Mr. Kimball was married April 29th, 1866, to Miss Florence A. Hough- ton, of Waterford.
SEWARD S. STEARNS.
Seward Smith Stearns was born in Lovell, Maine, March 11th, 1856. He is the son of Obed Stearns, born in Lovell, February 4th, 1804, and of his wife Eliza Barker, born in Lovell, October 16th, 1813. The father of Obed was Benjamin, who was born September 12th, 1757, came from Billerica, Massachusetts, to Lovell, about the year 1785, and married Susan Frye, of Fryeburg, born January 6th, 1765. Seward S. Stearns fitted for college at Fryeburg Academy, and graduated from Bowdoin College with the class of 1879. He read law with Judge A. Hall Walker, and was admitted to practice in March, 1882. He practiced first in Waterford, and came to Norway in 1883, and is now the law partner of Henry M. Bearce. He is President of the Norway Library Association. He married, February 5th, 1885, Nellie Barker Russell, of Lovell, who was born, December 10th, 1862.
WILLIAM WIRT, VIRGIN.
William Wirt Virgin was the son of Peter C. and Sally ( Keyes) Virgin, and was born in Rumford, September 18th, 1823. His father, the late Peter C. Virgin, a respectable lawyer in Rumford, was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and was the grandson of Ebenezer Virgin, an English emigrant, who was one of the first settlers of Concord. William Wirt Virgin attended the town schools of Rumford, and fitted for college, and Bridgton and Bethel Academies. He graduated from Bowdoin College in the class of 1844, studied law with his father, was admitted to practice at the Oxford Bar in 1847, and established himself in practice in 1848. He remained here twenty-three years. He was a good lawyer, an able advocate, and had a part in most of the important trials in Oxford County for many years. He served as County Attorney
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for three years in 1859-61, and a member of the State Senate in 1865 and in 1866, the last term serving as President. In 1866 he was appointed Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, and re-appointed in 1871. In 1872, he resigned this position, having been appointed by Governor Perham, an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. By re-appointments, he has held the position, except for a brief period, up to the present time.
Judge Virgin was an influential and valuable citizen during his resi- dence in this town. He was leader of the Norway band, Captain of the Norway Light Infantry, and prominent in organizing the village corpo- ration, and the first fire company. When the war of 1861-5 broke out, he was one of the Major-Generals of the Maine militia, to which he had been elected by the Legislature in 1859. He was immediately put upon duty, and assisted in organizing the first Maine regiments for service in the field. In 1862, he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty- third Maine Regiment (nine months), and served in the defences of Washington during the term of the enlistment of the regiment.
As reporter of the court, of which he was subsequently appointed associate justice, he was very popular with the court and bar. He is a clear and forcible writer, and the seven volumes of the Maine Reports, edited by him, may be regarded as models. He also published two volumes of digests. As a judge, he is dignified in his deportment, courteous in his treatment of every one, and his rulings are promptly made, and have generally been sustained by the full bench. For his family records, see Genealogical Registers.
HENRY UPTON.
Henry Upton has always lived in Norway, and for many years has, in various ways, been closely connected with the interests of the town. About the year 1844, he cleared up some land in Albany, with the view of moving upon it and engaging in agriculture, but he sold it to his brother Amos, and was for several years engaged in trade. His health was poor much of the time and his life was seriously threatened for sev- eral years by disease of the lungs. He largely recovered, and is likely to live to a good old age. He taught school more or less winters when his health permitted. He finally, quite late in life, studied law and was
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admitted to the bar, and was for several years, the law partner of Judge William W. Virgin. Being accurate and methodical in his habits and a good scholar, he made an excellent office partner of Judge Virgin. He has had much experience, as a conveyancer, in procuring the govern- ment bounty for soldiers and soldiers' widows and orphans, and as exec- utor and administrator in settling the estates of the deceased. He has served the town in various capacities, more especially as a school officer, has long been a trial justice, and was one of the committee on the pub- lication of the town's history. He married, March 31st, 1847, Harriet F., daughter of John Baker, of Waterford. Their only child, Jennie Irene, an intelligent and accomplished young lady, died unmarried, as shown in Genealogical Registers.
LEVI WHITMAN.
Levi Whitman, Esq., attorney-at-law, so long a resident here, and so intimately connected with our business affairs, was a lineal descend- ant in the sixth generation, from John Whitman, an early settler of Weymouth, a grantee of ancient Bridgewater, and the common ancestor of the Whitman family of New England. Thomas Whitman, the oldest son of the emigrant, born in England about the year 1629, married in 1656, Abigail, daughter of Nicholas Byron, and with his father-in-law, settled in East Bridgewater, where he has had a numerous posterity. Nicholas, son of Thomas, married first, Sarah Vining, of Weymouth, second, Mary Carey, of Bridgewater, and third, Mary Conant. By the third wife he had Josiah, born in 1724, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Ezekiel Smith, of Hingham, in 1747, and his oldest son was Levi, born in 1748, who graduated at Harvard College in 1779, and settled in the ministry at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod. He married for his first wife Sarah, daughter of Capt. Ichabod Thomas, of Pembroke, Mass. ; and had Levi, born January 16th, 1789 (our townsman) ; Sarah, born 1790, mar- ried Hon. Albion K. Parris ; Charles, born 1791, an attorney-at-law in Waterford and Paris, and died in Washington, D. C. ; Josiah, born 1793 ; Ruth, born 1794; Eliza S., born 1797, and Hope, born in 1799. For his second wife he married a Drew, and in his old age he removed to Kingston, where his wife's people resided, and died there in 1838, aged ninety years. Josiah Whitman married a Miss Mclellan, and was a
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Portland merchant ; he was the father of Hon. Ezekiel Whitman, the first Chief Justice of the State of Maine,
Levi Whitman Jr. graduated at Harvard College in 1808, read law with his distinguished cousin, Hon. Ezekiel Whitman, and came to Nor- way in 1811. He formed a co-partnership with our first lawyer, Luther Farrar, Esq., whose lamented death from consumption followed a year later. Mr. Whitman then succeeded to the business which was large, and a few years later, he married Mr. Farrar's widow whose maiden name was Mercy Adams Whiting, born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, Septem- ber 5th, 1784, and who came to Norway in 1806. Mr. Whitman practiced the legal profession here for more than half a century, and had and re- tained the entire confidence of the community during this long period. Mr. Noyes said of him: "Mr. Whitman has always pursued the same peaceful course as his predecessor, by discountenancing all mean and friv- olous litigation." He was a sound lawyer, never took up a case that he did not think had merit in it, and was generally successful. He settled many estates of deceased persons, and wound up the business of not a few persons who had become financially embarrassed. He was a good collector and his collections were always promptly paid over to the par- ties to whom they belonged. Among the last estates which he settled was the large property left by William C. Whitney, whose legal adviser Mr. Whitman was for many years, and who had entire confidence in his ability and business integrity.
Mr. Whitman was a lawyer and something more ; he was a man in the highest sense of the word. He was interested, and an active worker in everything, having for its object the good of the town. He was a pioneer in the temperance movement, and an advocate of total abstinence from the time the cause began to be agitated in the State. A Whig in poli- tics at first, he afterward identified himself with the Free-Soil party and was bitterly opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories. He was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1813, and for three suc- ceeding years. He was elected County Attorney in 1815, and served in that capacity for the long period of eighteen years. This fact is a bet- ter commentary on his ability and integrity as a public officer than any- thing I can write. He was a stalwart in size, a man of commanding presence, gentlemanly in his deportment, kind, courteous and affable
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with all. He occupied the house in the village which his predecessor had occupied, and also the office. When old and left alone by the death of his wife, and his only son and child having moved to Harrison, he went there and spent the last five years of his life. Fearing that he might not be entirely contented with the change, his son and daughter- in-law thoughtfully fitted up a room for him with the same furniture and pictures which he had been in the habit of seeing in his own room in Norway. It was arranged that he should not know of it until he arrived and was shown to his room, and great was his surprise and pleasure to find himself surrounded by familiar objects. He died Octo- ber 2d, 1872, his wife having died December 20th, 1862.
C. F. WHITMAN.
Charles Foster Whitman, son of Joshua E. and Phebe (Foster) Whit- man, was born in Buckfield, February 6th, 1848. His grandfather was Joshua Whitman, who married Catherine Davee, and his great-grand- father, Jacob Whitman, who married Abigail Packard, and was an early settler in Buckfield from Easton, Massachusetts. Charles F. Whitman was educated at the common schools, and at Hebron Academy, securing a good academic education. He studied law, and settled in Norway, where he has since resided. Mr. Whitman was connected with the Oxford Register while that paper was published in Norway, and has been a contributor to the local paper since he severed his connection with the Register. When the Municipal Court was established in Norway, Mr. Whitman was recommended as Judge, and received the appoint- ment. He has been a school officer, and was one of the chief promoters of the Norway Public Library. He is interested in all matters pertain- ing to the welfare of the village and town. Mr. Whitman is a ready writer, and his local contributions to the literature of the late war have been read with great interest.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
PERSONAL NOTICES.
IN this chapter it is proposed to give brief notices of those past and present citizens of Norway, who have distinguished themselves in various ways, but who have not been connected with any of the so- called learned professions. Norway can boast of no pre-eminently distinguished men. No distinguished son of Norway has ever gained renown in the halls of Congress, or as governor of a State; nor does any clergyman of wide reputation, or any lawyer or physician of great ability, claim Norway as the place of his birth, but no town in the State, of equal population, can boast of more respectable citizens, more men of integrity, of business capacity and moral worth, than the town of Norway. Some of them have gained this reputation while residents of the town, while many have achieved it after having left the old home- stead and settled down in other States. Many who have become lead- ing citizens of Norway were born elsewhere, and have developed into strong men in the town of their adoption. It would have been pleasant to have extended these notices to include every son and adopted son of Norway who has achieved success in any department of business, but there have been and are so many of them, that this was impracticable. It would have been peculiarly gratifying to have included in this list many of the early settlers of the town, but the data for such sketches were, in the main, wanting. Many of them were elderly men when they came here, and the closing years of their life in the new town were spent in a struggle for existence. We know they were men of energy, perseverance, and strength of character, or they never would have succeeded as they did. With but little of this world's goods, many of them with large families, and with an unbroken wilderness before them to be subdued, it required great courage to undertake the task, and an iron will and strength, born almost of desperation, to accomplish it. But they were religious men, and trusting implicitly in an over-
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ruling Providence, they toiled and suffered to sustain life, and provide homes for their posterity. Of the goodly town of Norway, now enjoy- ing all the elements of prosperity, and with a future full of promise, they are the founders. We know that the Stevenses, the Hobbses, the Pikes, the Parsonses, the Uptons, the Merrills, the Frosts, the Nobles, the Milletts, the Bennetts, the Fosters, the Bartletts, the Townses, and scores of other families, must have been men of energy, perseverance, and strength of body and mind, to accomplish what they did; Samuel Ames, though following the humble occupation of a miller, was a man of intelligence, and it was a pleasure, after he had passed his ninetieth milestone, to listen to his accounts of the struggles of the early settlers ; Levi Bartlett, who carried on the blacksmith business on an extensive scale, using water-power to drive his hammers, was a valuable acquisi- tion ; Benjamin Witt, the earliest "smithy" in town, left a reputation of honesty, industry, and frugality, as a priceless legacy to his posterity ; Ebenezer Hobbs, Rustfield's third-born child, was a skillful mechanic, and his plows became famous all over the county; the three Rust brothers, Henry, John, and Joseph, sons of the proprietor, brought money with them, and were towers of strength in helping along the new town; two of them were chosen officers of the new county of Oxford; Joshua Smith, the first clerk of the plantation and the town, representative to the General Court, and an early tavern-keeper ; Job Eastman, the first schoolmaster, the faithful town clerk for more than forty consecutive years, the early magistrate, and a peace-maker by nature and practice, who lived to the grand age of ninety-three ; Anthony Bennett, the town's chief military man, the skillful mill- wright, and the strong pillar of the Universalist Church; John Horr and Timothy Stone, two of the founders, and the first deacons of the Congregational Church; all these, and many others who might be named, have shed luster over the new town of Norway, which grows brighter as the years roll on. Their memories should be enshrined in the hearts of a grateful posterity, constituting a monument more durable than marble or granite.
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