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 33
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* Though his father has been dead since October, 1866, the subject of our sketch still retains the "Junior" to his name. He does this because both he and his father were widely known in the literary world, both writing and publishing, at the same time. Hence the "Junior," in his estimation, is too important as a distinguishing patronymic, to be dropped. Further, as he flatly says, "It is my name."
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head of his father's printing-office, which had been removed to Boston. In May, 1846, in company with his younger brother, Samuel T., he started a new paper devoted to temperance, literature, and general news, entitled The Rechabite. This publication was continued little more than a year, when its list was sold to the publisher of the New England Washingtonian, which latter paper Mr. Cobb edited until the summer of 1850, when he received from Mr. F. Gleason, an offer to write for him; and for that concern he continued to write until the close of the year 1855.
In March, 1856, Mr. Cobb received a flattering offer from Robert Bonner, of New York. The offer was accepted, and shortly thereafter a contract was entered into for a term of years ; and from that time to the present, a period of more than thirty years, the contract has remained unbroken. The only book from Mr. Cobb's pen is a memoir of his father, a duodecimo of four hundred and fifty pages, published by the Universalist Publishing House in 1867.
A remark made by Mr. Cobb, not long since, to the writer of this, is worthy of a place here. Said he, in speaking of his relations with his employers, "During the thirty years and little more that I have written exclusively for Mr. Bonner, he has never, by so much as a hint, urged me beyond my own inclination to write ; never has a word of fault find- ing or dissatisfaction passed between us ; and, with regard to remunera- tion, he has paid me far more than he ever engaged to pay me."
While in Norway, Mr. Cobb served on the School Committee for sev- eral years, was chief engineer of the Fire Department, was Captain of the Norway Light Infantry and for five years Master of Oxford Lodge of Masons.
JONATHAN CUMMINGS.
Major Jonathan Cummings was the son of the proprietor of Cum- mings' Purchase and Gore, and was one of the early settlers upon the domain of his father. He was the son of Jonathan and Mary ( East- man ) Cummings, of Andover, and was born February 5th, 1771. He was in Norway at the time the town was incorporated in 1797, and in 1801, he was chosen the first Captain of the Norway militia. He was afterward promoted to be Major of the regiment. Mr. Noyes says of
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him: "He was naturally of an obliging, kind disposition, and very cheerful in his every-day deportment, which caused him to become a favorite with all who became acquainted with him. From the early set- tlement of the town up to near the time of his death, there was probably no man in the place who could exercise so great an influence as Major Cummings." In 1808, he built a church edifice and presented it to the Congregational Church at the center of the town. He cleared land, built mills, and engaged in other enterprises, always employing a large number of hands.
In 1806, he purchased the half-township granted to Phillips Academy, now the south half of the town of Greenwood, and commenced to develop it. To induce settlers to occupy it, he sold the lots at a low price, and took much of his pay in labor and lumber, and in the products of the farms, from which he realized but little money. He purchased the land on credit, and gave back a mortgage to secure the payments, and neglecting to meet his notes and interest, when they became due, he was at length obliged to mortgage his own farm to keep good the security. He soon became hopelessly embarrassed, and the parties who had purchased lands of him, neglecting to take quit-claims of the mort- gagees, became liable to lose their farms, or be obliged to pay for them a second time, which eventually was the case with many of them. Major Cummings bore up under his accumulated burden for a while, but finally his mind became affected, and in an attack of mental derangement, he committed suicide, a first attempt a few months previous having failed. His death occurred in July, 1820, when he was forty-nine years of age. Mr. Noyes says he was only forty-two, but the records show differently. He married Joanna Cobb, of Gray, and had a son, Stephen Jr., who soon left town, and a daughter, Mary Holt, who married Josiah Little, and died early in life. She left two sons and one daughter. The daughter, Elizabeth M. T., born in Lewiston, September 24th, 1823, married George Hutchins, who went to Chicago, and is a successful merchant there. Her son, Edward Little, born June 25th, 1825, married Julia W. Eustis, and resides in Chicago. Her second son, Francis Brown Little, married Maria W, Brooks, and is a prosperous lumber dealer in Chicago; his first wife died in 1884, and he married Mary Prince, daughter of Rev. Uriah Balkham, of Lewiston. The Jonathan
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Cummings family was probably connected remotely with the other Cummings families of this town and of Paris, all having descended from Isaac Cummings, of Topsfield, in 1640, as is supposed.
ADNA C. DENISON.
Hon. Adna C. Denison, whose family record is in its proper place, was born in Burke, Vermont, November 15th, 1815, and when fifteen years of age, entered the store of A. Sanborn and Company, at Sutton. Circumstances soon required him to take entire charge of the business, which was no easy task, as goods from Boston and Portland had to be brought by teams. He continued here until 1842, when he moved to Norway and went into business at Steep Falls, a store having been built for him at the instigation of his brother-in-law, Titus O. Brown Jr. He immediately placed four-horse teams on the road between Norway and Portland. The story of the revolution in trade brought about by the firm of which Mr. Denison was the head, has been told by Mr. Noyes, and will be found in the chapter giving an account of Norway in 1852. Mr. Denison was also largely engaged in supplying contractors on the line of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, having stores in con- nection with his brother-in-law, Clark P. True, E. W. Fyler, J. H. Danforth, and the Gilkeys, at South Paris and Bethel, and at Gorham, and Northumberland, New Hampshire. He also, with others, had a store in Auburn, Maine, similar to the one in Norway. This store did a large business, and contributed much toward the early business pros- perity of that city.
In connection with Dr. Asa Danforth, Mr. Denison purchased the old gun factory at the Falls, put in machinery for the manufacture of paper, and carried on the business there for several years. He also bought the saw-mill at the Falls, and thoroughly repaired it. Finally he removed to the village, and with his brother, Isaac A. Denison, built the large store which is now occupied as a drug store by the widow of A. Oscar Noyes. Here he did a large business, and contributed no small amount to the prosperity of the village and town. From here he removed to Mechanic Falls, where he yet resides. There he has carried on the paper manufacture on an extended scale, and has also had mills at Brunswick and elsewhere. He has also engaged largely in the manu-
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facture of wood pulp at Canton and in other places. He has been one of the most active, energetic, and successful business men in the State, and though his health is somewhat impaired, he is still doing a large business. He served in the State Senate from Androscoggin County, and might have filled other positions, but his business interests have been such that he could not afford to hold office.
WILLIAM FOSTER.
William, son of Nathan Foster, the early settler, was born on the farm at Norway Center, April 5th, 1799, where he died January 26th, 1884. Mr. Foster came of a family which had many of those character- istics that distinguished the early settlers of this town. While a boy, he started out for himself by apprenticing himself to Daniel Town, the veteran blacksmith, where he soon became proficient in the art. Having served his time, he started on foot for Massachusetts, and on his arrival there, he found employment in doing the ironwork in a shipyard. He afterward received an invitation from Mr. Town to return to Norway and go into partnership with him, which he accepted. About the year 1829, he built a shop at Frost's Corner, got married and commenced life in earnest. His industry and thrift resulted in the acquisition of a com- petence which served to render comfortable his later years. In 1844, he gave up the shop and went to farming on the land where he spent the remainder of his life save a few years at South Paris where he moved, that his children might enjoy better educational advantages, and where he served as postmaster. He returned to Norway in 1860. He joined Oxford Lodge of Masons in 1824, and ever had a strong attachment to the Order. By his wife, Calista Wood, of Waterford, he had seven children, four of whom survived him.
WILLIAM FROST 2d.
William Frost 2d was born June 9th, 1812. His ancestors came from England, having emigrated to Massachusetts in colonial times, and had part in the Revolutionary struggles. They were a healthy race of people, his grandfather living eighty-four years, and his grandmother eighty-seven years. His father, Robert Frost, and mother also, attained great age. His parents were of Gorham, Maine, afterward of Oxford,
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WinForster og
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and then of Norway. The settlement in Norway took place in 1802, when Robert Frost, father of William, and three brothers, John, Peter, and William, moved to what is now known as Frost's Hill. Robert Frost begun his clearing on the farm now owned by Roswell Frost, and on this place William was born. A few years after, the family moved to the farm now owned by David Frost. Here William spent his boyhood days, sharing the hard work and the many privations of the family, and having few of the opportunities of the young men of the present day. The summer and winter terms of school lasted no more than eight weeks. The greater number of the winter days were spent at threshing grain with the flail, which often occupied several months, and at cutting away the forests. William at last grew tired of the monotony of farm life, and determined upon learning a trade. He chose that of millwright, serving an apprenticeship with Mr. Timothy H. Hutchinson. He worked at his trade a number of years. He also went to the Aroostook War. After passing his thirtieth year, he was married to Miss Lydia Foster. This was in 1842. About this time he commenced keeping a store at Frost's Corner, giving his name to the place. He continued business there some time, when he bought the farm now owned by Benjamin Tucker, where he resided seven years, and put up the buildings now on the place. In 1851, Mrs. Frost died leaving him with their two little children. In 1853, Mr. Frost was married to Mrs. Mary A. Whitcomb, formerly Harris, a lady of business tact, who influenced very consider- ably his fortune, and also proved a mother most true to his children, having care of their education and every interest. In 1860, Mr. Frost opened a store in Norway, which he kept for six years, meeting with great success. After that he was not in active business on his own account. But he was by no means idle or retired. He was one of the founders of the Norway National Bank, was a director from the begin- ning, and for three years its President. He never neglected a meeting of the bank officers, and was all the while most careful of its manage- ment. He was also a director of the Norway Savings Bank. He served also as a selectman of the town. In all his varied transactions as farmer, mechanic, merchant, and banker, he won the reputation of a man most scrupulously careful of his integrity. He wanted what was due him, and he paid to the penny what he owed. He was a good citizen,
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a useful business man, a sincere friend, and a kind husband and father. He died March 18th, 1882.
BENJAMIN FULLER.
Benjamin Fuller, according to the statement of Mr. Noyes, came here from Middleton, Massachusetts, in 1793, and purchased land on the Cummings Gore, north of the place to which he gave his name of Fuller's Corner, and which it bore until it took the name of Swift's Corner. Mr. Noyes says that in a pecuniary point of view, he was the best off of any of the new settlers. He was energetic and so continued until stricken down by old age. He made three good farms and erected three good sets of buildings. He was also in trade a long time at his Corner. Mr. Elijah Upton, of Bath, who knew Mr. Fuller as well as anybody in town, having spent about ten years of his minority in his family, thus speaks of him. "He was a member of the Orthodox Church, and main- tained a character consistent with church membership. He was also in the temperance reform movement when it was in its infancy, and was quite the opposite of being the popular movement of today. His name stands enrolled among the first who signed a pledge of total abstinence, and a total abstainer he was. As a pioneer who did so much toward making the wild wilderness give place to Fair Norway, his name deserves an honorable place in the town's history." Mr. Fuller died in 1850. He married a sister of Silas Merriam, our early settler of that name, who came at the same time and from the same town as Mr. Fuller. His children were Archelaus, Lydia, Eliza and Silas. Arche- laus, married Eliza Eaton, and soon after died and his widow married Mr. Sumner Frost. A son of Archelaus, Frederick E. Fuller, married Lydia N., daughter of Ira Johnson. Lydia Fuller was for ten years a very suc- cessful summer school teacher ; she died unmarried at the age of twenty- six. Eliza, after years of suffering from a painful disease, died unmar- ried, aged about thirty. Silas lived to old age a bachelor. He acquired considerable property but never made for himself a home. He lived many years in the family of his cousin, Silas Merriam Jr.
Benjamin Fuller, as stated by Mr. Noyes, died at the town farm. In relation to this matter, Mr. Upton writes : "When old age and its infirm- ities came upon him, it found him alone in his otherwise desolate
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Stephan greenleaf.
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homestead. He then arranged with a man to take his property and give him a life maintenance, but disagreements arose, and the contract was transferred to another and again to another. Finally, the contract was assigned to the town, and he went to the poorfarm. His means were ample for his support, amounting to some two hundred dollars a year." Under these circumstances, he could hardly be called a pauper.
STEPHEN GREENLEAF.
Stephen Greenleaf, the pioneer cabinet-maker of Norway and of Oxford County, was the only son and youngest child of Stephen and Emma (Blowers) Greenleaf, was born in Boston, January 22d, 1779. He married in 1804, and settled in North Yarmouth, and the following year came to Norway and engaged in the manufacture of furniture and fine cabinet-work, which occupation he followed for nearly fifty years. He was a first-class workman, and some of the old-styled furniture is still found in the homes of many Norway families. 3 He was an early Uni- versalist, and a sincere believer and doer of the Word. He always lived in strict regard of the Sabbath. While stopping in New Gloucester on one occasion, and finding no religious privileges there, the place being thinly settled, and the meeting far away, he consulted with the people in the vicinity, appointed a meeting at the school-house, and conducted the services himself. This little beginning resulted in the erection of a house of worship, and the establishment of regular meetings in that part of the town. A reference to the military history shows that he served in the war of 1812. For many years he was the village sexton, and he performed the duties of the office with faithfulness and judg- ment. A former intimate acquaintance writes: "I well remember with what solemn and reverent tenderness this sensitive old man watched every movement, that there should be as little as possible to grate upon the feelings of those whose bereavement he felt almost as his own." Mr. Greenleaf died July 4th, 1854.
EBENEZER P. HINDS.
Ebenezer Pierce Hinds, the first Principal of the Norway Liberal Institute, was born in Livermore, Maine, June 30th, 1821, and was the son of Ebenezer and Louisa (Pierce) Hinds. He was also the fifth in
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descent from Rev. Ebenezer Hinds, a Presbyterian minister of Middle- boro, Massachusetts, and the fifth, who from father to son, had borne the same baptismal name. His father was a master-ship-builder, in Pittston, having moved from Middleboro to Livermore in 1801, and subse- quently to Pittston. He was graduated at Colby University ; then Waterville College, in the class of 1844, his class rank being above the average. He taught an Academy in Westbrook in 1845-6, and came to Norway in 1847. From here he went to the Normal Institute at South Paris, where he remained for several years. He then taught in Livermore three years and at the expiration of that time he went to Aroostook. He took up some wild lands in the present town of Presque Isle, still teaching at intervals. He was here when the war broke out in 1861, and August 21st, 1861, he enlisted in the Seventh Maine Infantry, with characteristic modesty, declining a proffered com- mission, preferring to serve in the ranks. He served until 1862, when his health being broken down, he, with others, was sent north in the Steam- er State of Maine. When the steamer arrived at her destination, he was found dead upon the deck. He is supposed to have died August 17th, 1862, though the precise date is not certain. His remains were hastily interred with those of others, at Oak Grove Cemetery, about fifty miles from Philadelphia, in an unmarked and unnumbered grave. Mr. Hinds was a good scholar and an excellent teacher, but he was always eccen- tric and excessively reticent, and his own family were often ignorant of his whereabouts or what he was doing. He died unmarried.
WILLIAM W. HOBBS.
William Whitman, son of William and Catherine (Wetherbee) Hobbs, and grandson of Jeremiah Hobbs, an early settler, was born in Norway, May 28th, 1810. He obtained a good academic education, and spent several years in teaching, for which he had a peculiar aptitude. He taught at Paris Hill, at Augusta, at Andover, and at several other places, always with marked success. While at Andover he made the acquaintance of Sarah F., daughter of Deacon Ezekiel Merrill, whom he subsequently married, and settled down upon a farm in Norway. When the gold fever broke out on the Pacific coast in 1849, a company of which Mr. Hobbs was Captain, crossed the continent to California.
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Uriah Holt
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After two years he returned to Norway, took up his residence upon and greatly improved the homestead farm at Norway Center. He was a member of the board of selectmen in Norway in 1850, and was repre- sentative to the Legislature in 1865. He was for many years a most efficient Deputy Sheriff, and was well known to those attending the courts in Paris. He was appointed to a position in one of the departments in Washington, through the influence of the Maine Delegation in Con- gress, but life at the capital did not agree with him, and after two years' service, he resigned and went into business in Minnesota. He died in 1876. Mr. Hobbs was liberally endowed with both physical and mental powers, and was ever an energetic man and public-spirited citizen.
URIAH HOLT.
Uriah Holt, Esq., was born in Andover, Mass., May 25th, 1775. He was the seventh child of Jacob and Rhoda (Abbot) Holt of Andover, Mass., afterward of Albany, Maine. Uriah Holt and his brother Ste- phen, came to Albany in 1794, built a log house, a barn, and cleared a piece of land, and in the following spring, their parents moved down and occupied the place. After he was twenty-one years of age, Uriah Holt attended Phillips (Andover) Academy, and among other branches, studied navigation, intending to follow the sea. At the solicitation of his family and friends, he abandoned the idea of going to sea, and decided to become a surveyor of land, an occupation at which he found much to do in the region to which his family had removed. He was the first plantation clerk of Oxford, now Albany, in 1802, and served in that capacity one year ; the plantation was incorporated in 1803, and he was elected clerk and served five years. Between 1802 and 1809, he was elected to different offices in Albany, thirty-four times.
Near the close of 1809, Mr. Holt moved to this town where he resided until the close of his advanced, busy, and useful life. He was a first- class surveyor and draughtsman and was much employed by private owners of wild lands and also by the government, his surveys for the purpose of settlements embracing more than one hundred thousand acres of land. He was agent and attorney for Phillips Academy in lotting out and selling their grants of Maine lands, and also of several other parties, some residing in Massachusetts and others in New Hamp-
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shire. He was also much employed in running out townships for the State, in locating county roads, in the correction of erroneous lines and in the establishment of lost ones. While a resident of Norway, he was elected selectman nineteen times and served sixteen years, on three occasions, being obliged to decline on account of press of private busi- ness. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1811, and held the position by reappointment during the remainder of his life. He was elected to the Maine Legislature from Norway in 1825, and served four terms. In 1833, he positively declined being again elected to office in town.
In 1808, Mr. Holt married Hannah, daughter of Captain Benjamin Farnum of Andover, Mass., and the union proved a very happy one. Mrs. Holt was an excellent Christian woman, but she died of consump- tion in 1835, aged 45 years. She was the mother of ten children, an account of whom is contained in genealogical records.
Mr. Holt took an active part in every movement for the good of the town. He was an advocate of temperance and an influential worker in that field, took a deep interest in Sabbath-schools and was long the sup- erintendent of the one in his parish. He was very methodical in his habits, keeping a complete record of all his business transactions. His old age was largely devoted to benevolent objects which he aided both with purse and pen. In 1848, being enfeebled by age and disliking to go into the woods to show people land, he resigned the agency of the trustees of Phillips Academy which he had held for thirty-eight con- secutive years. He died June 21st, 1849, after four days' sickness, in the 75th year of his age. Mr. Noyes who was often associated with Mr. Holt as a surveyor and in town affairs, in noticing his death, remarked that "his family felt the loss severely as well as the neighbor- hood and town. He had been much in town office since he came to Norway and was very correct in any business he undertook."
STEPHEN A. HOLT.
Stephen A. Holt is the son of Uriah and Rhoda ( Abbott) Holt, and was born in Norway, February 13th, 1820. He fitted for college at Phillips Academy, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1846. He immediately entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, and gradu -
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John & Home
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ated in 1849. Early in the following year, he was ordained as pastor of the Congregational Church at Milton, Vermont, and engaged with earnest zeal in the work of the ministry. In two years his health broke down, and he was obliged to engage in other pursuits. He became con- nected with the Boston firm of H. Cutler & Company, and subse- quently a partner. At the end of two years, finding his health in a great measure restored, he decided to continue the business. Within six years he bought out the remaining members of the firm, and became sole proprietor. From 1860 to 1870, he continued the trade in foreign and domestic woods, increasing the business year by year. In 1870, he took in a partner, and the business has since been conducted under the firm name of Holt & Bugbee. He has met with some severe reverses in business, but as a whole, has been prosperous, and the firm is now doing the largest business of any in New England in the same trade. Through the dishonesty of a trusted agent, the firm lost at one time in 1878, over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This was a stagger- ing blow, but the firm persevered, paid off all its indebtedness, and after a hard struggle, regained its former position.
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