USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 12
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Whatever his preeminence may have been in the ownership of cows, Moses Thompson enjoyed the reputation of being Embden's greatest land baron. Other noticeable holdings approximated 500 acres; Moses' acreage figured twice as much.
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His homestead was 200 acres; his interest in the Gray mill lot, after considerable dealing and deeding to which his sons Nathan, John and Christopher were parties, was a little less than 200 acres more. Its location was north of Moses' homestead, from which it was separated only by the pioneer land of Jonathan Stevens. His brother-in-law, John Churchill, lived on the farm near his homestead but in 1820 got into difficulties that resulted in a sheriff sale and Moses eventually bought the property in. Other farms with Kennebec River frontage were at times under his ownership, while to the westward he held several titles, even as far as the Black hill region and near the New Portland line. When Benjamin Pierce in 1829 was consolidating lots for his big farm on Gordon hill, he bought of Moses Thompson a 100 acre tract there that Moses had purchased several years before from Oliver Kane, of Albany, N. Y. In middle Embden he bought as early as 1813 from Paul Cates of Barrington, N. H., - who came to Embden in 1810 and settled three years later in Caratunk - 200 acres, part of which was Lot 48, now known as the Orlando Hooper farm, and another part of which was Lot 12 eastward. His oldest son, Nathan Thompson, later paid the Rhode Island proprietors for their rights in this land and went there to live for a decade or more. He was succeeded there in 1830 by his brother John, who, in the meantime, had been living with his father on the old homestead.
An anecdote of Moses Thompson's activities in buying and selling livestock during the war of 1812-14 has long survived. He was a British sympathizer because otherwise he could not sell his cattle in Canada. When Capt. Fletcher heard of this he hastened up the river as far as The Forks where he intercepted Moses, taking the drove away from him, after which Moses supported the British more vigorously than ever. Just how Capt. Fletcher effected this capture of the stock from such a vigorous man is not related. He was presumably one of the sons of William Fletcher, the pioneer in Norridgewock, Solon and Bingham, and probably was associated with Moses in these livestock ventures.
Moses lived originally in Solon on a farm near the river, now known as the Rice family place. Here Nathan, the first of his
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children, was born. Moses was a first cousin of Benjamin Thompson, Sr., who came from Woolwich, or Wiscasset, to settle in Madison while several of his sons established home- steads in southeast Embden. Moses crossed the Kennebec prior to 1790, first acquiring the farm pre-empted by Nathaniel Martin - although Martin seems to have lived there or in that neigh- borhood for some time afterward - and later buying the Samuel Fling farm that adjoined it on the south. In February of 1790 Moses' second son, Christopher was born on the hill top, where before long Moses began building his tavern, known up and down the Kennebec Valley and for many miles around. Mrs. Adella Moore of Madison, a granddaughter of Col. Christopher, describes the structure as follows :
"It was a square house with an ell. There were entrances to the main house on both the north and the east sides. At the north, one came into a square room, lighted by a window over the door. From this hall one passed to the large kitchen on the right. Near the kitchen was a room where liquors were kept and sold, for the yellow house was a tavern in which the proprietor also had a general store. The liquors were dispensed in those days through a latticed tender that still remains.
"The kitchen had all appointments characteristic of the times. The old dressers were conspicuous along with the big chest; the long settee and the open fireplace equipped with its pots, pans. baker's appliances and the like for open-fire cooking. South of the kitchen were a sleeping room and the pantry. Here, near the kitchen, were doors to the cellar, to the back chambers and to the two front rooms. Each of these had an open fireplace and they were always called the north and south rooms.
"From each of these front rooms there was a door to the east hall, where the winding stairs led to chambers on the second story. These were alike in size and shape with the rooms below them on the first floor. Each had a mantleshelf and the decora- tions of wood were all done by hand. On the east side of the ell was a large piazza extending to the well house, where the water was drawn by a windlass in an old oaken bucket.
"'Northwest from the tavern was the loom house where carding, spinning and weaving of wool and flax were done. A
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one-roofed structure where wood and farming tools were housed, extended from this building to the road. A little farther up the hill on the right was a small building with high front doors- the carriage house. Near to it stood the barn. On the opposite side of the road was the cider mill, with a small barn and a large pig house just south. A large orchard of pears, plums, chest- nuts, grapes and apple trees adjoined.
"The road that led up the hill from the ferry was changed when the railroad was built through the property. Half way up the hill was a new house where in 1823 Reuben Thompson had lived with his wife, Rebecca Hilton of Wiscasset much of the time since their marriage in 1815. They kept the tannery and carried on the leather business for his father. The new house became the house where the ferryman lived for 75 years. Reuben, a tanner by trade, sold all his interest in it and the tan yards to his brother, Nathan, in 1823, except a right to live in the house and on one acre of ground."
The tavern accommodated town meetings occasionally - in 1806 for the annual gathering and in 1814 for a special meeting - but apparently was not convenient to settlers in the western part of the town. Cross roads had not been opened. Moses held town office himself, now and then, beginning with third selectman in 1805, when he was also collector and constable. For several years between 1815 and 1820 he frequently presided as moderator and he had several terms as town treasurer.
While the environment of the tavern has changed considerably since Uncle Moses' day, the interior is well preserved. Most of the outbuildings and the porches have been removed. The woodwork of the living rooms and bed chambers is excellently done. There was a small ballroom on the second floor, which, in the main, is still intact. The entrance doors have been remodeled in recent times. Ansel Stevens, the present owner, a great-grandson of Moses Thompson, has great pride in keeping up the old place and Mrs. Stevens has the house delightfuly fur- nished. The old Thompson burying ground, just south, and on the same eminence with a wonderful view of the Kennebec, is also well maintained. From the mansion one's eye sweeps much
COL. CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON MRS. CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON MRS. NATHAN THOMPSON (Mindwell Michael)
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of the area of farms, where Moses and his nine children resided.
These nine children were five sons - Nathan (1788-1868) native of Solon ; Christopher (1790-1888) ; Reuben (1791-1859) ; Moses, Jr., (1800) and John (1802)- and four daughters - Martha (1793-1877), who married Charles Crymble ; Olive (1796- 1879), the wife of Joseph H. Durrell (1793-1882) ; Fanny (1798-1871), the wife of Jonathan Stevens, Jr .; and Mary (1812-1845), who married William Getchell (1810-1839), of the Anson Getchells. Three daughters died as children. Moses provided homesteads for these sons and daughters when they married, but all of his sons at some time lived on their father's acres, or a subdivision thereof. The homes of his daughters were upon adjacent farms or within a short distance.
Nathan, the oldest - born when his father from Georgetown had been in Solon about four years - became an active man in Embden till the 1840's when he moved to Hudson, Wis. He died at New Richmond in that state not far from the Minnesota line. Nathan came to the old homestead in 1832, the year after his father was drowned. He bought out the interests of his brothers and sisters in that property. But at times he owned considerable other Embden land. His farm prior to the death of his father was Lot 48 (the Hooper place) in middle Embden, to which he added Lot 12 adjacent to it on the east. But this was transferred to James Adams, whose sister, Rachael (1788- 1816), was Nathan's first wife. East of Lot 12 was a long lot with Kennebec River frontage, upon parts of which Eli and Gustavus A. Hawes formerly resided. As Isaac W. Adams, a nephew of Rachael, married in 1861 Nancy E. Hawes and in 1864 Mary A. Hawes, sisters of Eli and Gustavus, there was a kindred ownership at that point of a tier of land from the river westward half-way across the town.
Rachael Thompson had one daughter, Rachael (1815-1818), and Nathan's descendants are entirely through his second wife, Mindwell Michael (1794-1855), whose father, George, was the first Embden settler on the Kennebec. This marriage was made in 1816. Their two daughters and four sons were:
Susan (1817-1889), who in 1843 became the second wife of her cousin, Nicholas Durrell, in succession to Elmira Berry of
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Concord whom he had married five years before. They lived a half-mile south of the Thompson mansion on part of the Jeremiah Chamberlain farm. Randall Durrell lived there still later.
Cyrena (1820), who married in 1845, Albert Tozier of Anson.
Marion (1827), who married in 1849, her cousin Joshua G. Thompson (1820), a son of Col. Christopher, and joined the Embden colony at Hudson, Wis. He was a large and successful farmer in that state. They had a daughter, Ida, who was with 'her mother long after Joshua's death.
Nathan, Jr. (1828-1902), whose wife was Barbara Beal (1832-1910) of Embden, daughter of Zina M. Beal. They had two daughters - Mrs. Jotham Stevens and Mrs. Grant Witham, both of Embden. He lived near the old mansion.
Mindwell (1831), who married Enos Gray of Embden, in 1832 and settled in North Dakota.
Moses (1834-1915), known as "Red Mose" in distinction from "Black Mose" (1832-1898) his first cousin and a son of Col Christopher. The names were given because of the color of their whiskers. "Red Mose" in 1861 married Hannah F. Sylvester (1837-1911), of Solon. Both are buried in the village cemetery there. They lived on the intervale just above the ferry, near Isaac Adams and had two daughters, Angie and Clarabel, the latter Mrs. Frank Eames. Both these daughters died young.
Col. Christopher Thompson lived 98 years and died in Embden. He was a stalwart figure and approximated the career of his pioneer father. Through him and his eight sons have come a major part of the descendants of Moses. Col. Christopher's wife, Annie (1795-1893) whom he married in 1812 was a daughter of Joshua and Hannah (McFadden) Gray. Thus this stock of Embden Thompsons was akin to the Grays and McFaddens down the road.
Early in his career Col. Christopher began acquiring a large farm and also took a vigorous interest in public affairs. Soon after his marriage he made a clearing and built a small house which is the ell of a house Harry Hilton has occupied in recent years. He purchased in February, 1826, of Jeremiah Chamberlain, then of Nobleborough, the latter's interest in the
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John Gray mill lot and within ten years had a homestead of 175 acres. This he sold to Cyrus Boothby for $1,800. He was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge at Solon. During the 1830's when the old-time militia laws for the training of youths was still in force, he became notable in those activities. His first commission, that of lieutenant of cavalry, was issued April 12, 1827, for B Company, first brigade, eighth division. He became captain of that company Sept. 23, 1831, and on Sept. 6, 1834, was a colonel. Likewise, Col. Christopher held many town offices, including town clerk and first selectman of Embden from 1827 to 1839 with the exception of one year. For five years he was collector of customs at Moose River. As a town leader Col. Christopher succeeded to a long service when Benjamin Colby, Jr., in old age was relinquishing supremacy.
His four daughters all married outside Embden. Climena (1813- 1878), the oldest child, was the wife of Jacob Lowell just over the line into Concord, and also of Solon. Irena (1827) was Mrs. Wes- ley T. Patterson of Wisconsin ; Elvira (1829) Mrs. Albert Veasie of Madison. Annie (1834) married as her third husband Rich- ard Hilton, whose first wife was Adeline Thompson her cousin.
Most of the eight sons were taxpayers in Embden. Joel Thompson (1814-1891) married Delana Weymouth, of New Portland. Warren (1815-1857) had a farm just south of his father's. His wife was Maria Ayer (1814) daughter of Stephen Ayer near by. Joshua G. (1821) as stated was a resident of Wisconsin. Albert (1831-1900) with his wife Mary C. Robinson (1831-1889) resided at Anson for 40 years and one of their daughters, Etta Thompson, was Mrs. Melzer A. Eames. Christopher, Jr. (1828-1910), died at Lewiston and Moses (1832-1898), known as "Black Mose," married Jane Moore, and lived in the old Thompson mansion with his father, Col. Christopher, who acquired the property when his brother Nathan went to Wisconsin. Lyman G. (1837) resided at Charlestown, Mass., till he was past 90 years of age. Abial G. (1840), the last of Col. Christopher's children, married Hattie Haskell and made his home at Lewiston.
Grandchildren of Col. Christopher are residents in many states. One of them is Mrs. Adella Veasie Moore of Madison, a
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school teacher in Embden before her marriage. Adeline Hannagan, of the Augusta Trust Company branch at Madison, is also a granddaughter. "Black Mose" had a large Embden family in the Thompson mansion.
"My earliest remembrance is of him and his family in the old mansion," wrote George C. Eames, of Bangor. "I remember well when the Colonel and 'Aunt' Annie passed on. 'Black Mose' and his wife Jane had Frank (1839-1927), Abel, Ella, Maria and Genie (Mrs. Luther Hawes of Skowhegan). The other girls married and live away. Frank and Abel inherited the inclinations of their great-grandfather, "Old Mose," for it was a common sight to see them driving large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep to market when they were only young men. This probably led to the meat business which they established at Skowhegan. Both have died within a few years.
"I used to play around the yellow mansion," continued Mr. Eames, "and I can see those old fashioned rooms now just as Mrs. Adella Veasie Moore describes them. She was my first school teacher. I used to pick up chestnuts under the old trees which I have lately seen still standing, as I passed in a railroad train."
Moses Thompson had planned that his son, John (1802), should care for him and his wife in their old age and on Nov. 22, 1823, when John had become 21 and a few weeks after his marriage to Clarissa Hutchins of New Portland, quitclaimed to him for $300 half of the homestead farm. The deed carried a clause that John should "come into full and complete possession on my decease." Clarissa was the daughter of Eliakim Hutchins (1773) and granddaughter of David W. Hutchins. About ten years after the marriage John Thompson left her with their daughter Harriet (1826) and three sons - Sumner, (1827) John, Jr. (1829) and Elias H. (1831) - and never returned. Clarissa in 1846 married her cousin, James Churchill, whose mother, Mercy (1775), was a sister of Eliakim and resumed residence in New Portland. Her youngest Embden son, Rev. Elias Hutchins Thompson was a Baptist clergyman, like two or three of his Hutchins kinsmen. One of the other sons was drowned and the third went to the new western country.
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Harriet Thompson never married. Shortly after Moses Thompson lost his life in the Kennebec River, John conveyed his equity in the old homestead, as well as in the Hooper farm and in the mill lot property where Col. Christopher had lived, to his brother Nathan and others.
Reuben Thompson, whom the records first disclose as operating his father's tanyard, dropped dead while catching driftwood in the river. He sold in 1823 to his brother Nathan all right in the new house on the farm owned by their father and also "all right in the tan yard, tan house, sheds and tan vats" and after that time appears to have owned little Embden property. He and his wife Rebecca Hilton (1791-1871) of Wiscasset had five daughters. The oldest Orra Wood (1817) was the wife of Capt. William Thompson, Jr., - of Embden and of the Capt. Benjamin Thompson branch - and also had five daughters, one of whom, Mary E. (1849), married Oliver W. Hilton of Solon. Adeline (1823), daughter of Reuben, taught the Dunbar school in 1848 and soon after wedded Richard Hilton of Starks. Her younger sister Frances Ann (1830), mistress of the same school the following year, soon married James Gould and lived at Wiscasset. The remaining sister, Caroline Rebecca, married Sanford Bois Stevens in 1855. He was a highly respected citizen. Moving to Madison in 1864, after his first wife's death, he lived several years with a son, Baldwin Stevens, by a second wife, Mary Spaulding.
Moses Thompson, Jr., namesake of his father, was one of the early Embdenites to venture westward. Moses settled in California. Of his family also was a Moses (1818-1902), even as with the bearded cousins in the families of Nathan and . Christopher Thompson. But this third one had the exceptional name of Moses Mark Christopher Columbus - "Moses M." at home to mark him from "Black Mose" and "Red Mose." While a young man he lived in Embden, later went to California but returned to Maine in 1863. That Moses was a hail fellow, exceed- ingly fond of a jest and is pleasantly remembered. He had an extended career. By profession he became an engineer and surveyor and, for a time was employed in western New York, then helped lay out the Somerset railway and was its first
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station agent at North Anson. He moved to Bingham in 1888 and was postmaster there during the second Cleveland administration.
This Moses Thompson taught at least one term of school in Embden. That was in the No. 6 or Wilson district in 1848. The teacher there in 1846 had been Samantha Moore (1830-1914), daughter of Robert and Dolly (Eames) Moore of Eames Hill in Madison, and in 1847, Samantha by a ceremony that Joshua Gray, justice of the peace, performed became Mrs. Moses Thompson. They were a devoted couple. Mose M. was often quoted by the country folks as asserting : "By. thunder and lightning I love Samantha." After his death she lived at Madison.
Other quaint anecdotes were told of him. One of these related to his purchase of a flannel shirt, as follows: SAMANTHA MOORE THOMPSON "Said I, 'Samantha, you shrink that.' She shrunk it and by gad I stood right there and saw it gather."
Another Mose M. story was about a teamster. Mose M. noted that he had removed his ear laps when the winter weather was severe and inquired the reason. "A man asked me to take a drink," the teamster retorted, "and I didn't hear him."
While living at North Anson, they had a pet coon. When the coon bit Samantha Mose M. laughed about it. But one day the coon bit Mose M. "Now by gad coonie, " he declared, "you die."
Mose M. used to say, "It is no trouble to get a skunk out of the cellar, if you only talk skunk to him." The home folks quoted that, too, as a wise crack.
"Uncle" Moses Thompson's daughters as stated, all had their homes in Embden. Mrs. Charles Crymble (Martha), mother of
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the old-time blacksmith at North Anson, in 1834 was living with her husband just south of the D. K. Williams farm, in a section now abandoned. Their children were Lucius Connor Crymble (1826) who married Elizabeth Morrill of Harmony in 1858; Nelson (1829) who married Affa Getchell the same year; John H. (1830-1905) ; Martha (1832) the wife of Truman Durrell, her cousin; Charles, Jr. (1834-1921), who in 1866 upon his return from the Union Army married Fannie T. Stevens (1841- 1875), of Embden, his cousin and made his residence at North Anson ; and Caldo F. Crymble (1838).
Olive Thompson was the mother of 17 children to Joseph H. Durrell. These became a goodly part of the immediate Thompson neighborhood. His ancestors were from Arundel (Kennebunk- port) but at the time of his marriage in 1816 Joseph had been at Solon. They lived just below the ferry on the cross road toward New Portland. Nicholas (1816), their first born, twice married as stated, had a daughter Marcia (1847), who mar- ried Samuel Pooler, Jr., of Embden. The 16 other Durrell children were: Moses Thompson Durrell (1817) ; John (1819) ; Sophia (1820), Mrs. Silas Hafford of Embden; Mary (1821), Mrs. Parker Hilton of Embden; Randall F. (1822-1916), Aurilla (1824) ; Rosina (1825); Truman (1826); Josephine (1827); Freeman (1828), who married Mary Merrill in 1850; Orrin (1831) ; Joseph S. (1833), whose wife was Abba Melissa Cleve- land, daughter of Jefferson; Daniel (1834) ; Olive; Joel Thomp- son and Benman Durrell. The brothers, Randall and Joseph S., by their marriages with the granddaughters of Luther Cleveland became in-laws of Amos Hutchins and other families on the farther side of the town. Five men of this family - Joseph and his sons, Nicholas, Randall F., Joseph S. and Joel Thompson Durrell - were on the Embden tax lists in 1860.
Fanny Thompson, as the wife of Jonathan Stevens, Jr., mothered her big family almost within the shadow of her father's mansion. It included several well-known men of Embden. Her youngest sister, Mary, was short lived. She and her husband, William Getchell, rest in the old Thompson burying ground. There also lie several more of this early clan
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- Moses, Sr., and his mother who was Mrs. Elms (1741-1823) by a second husband; his wife Mary and her father, Capt. Joseph Churchill. Col. Christopher and his wife with their two sons - Warren and Christopher, Jr. - are buried in the south cemetery at Solon.
Closely associated with the history of the Moses Thompsons is the story of the old-time ferry, at the foot of the hill from the tavern. It was known as "Moses Thompson's landing" when the town was asked at its annual meeting April 2, 1827, to "see what method the town will take to provide for the ferry, Embden's part, near Moses Thompson's landing the present year" and voted that Jonathan Stevens, Jr., Robert Wells and Nathan Thompson "be a committee to negotiate with Solon." This was 13 years before Elijah Grover erected his short lived bridge over the Kennebec across Caratunk Falls. Presumably "Uncle" Moses at first had privately conducted ferryage at that point until the demands became burdensome to him and his neighbors.
After 1827 there was an item in the warrant for the annual meeting, indicating that the town shared the enterprise with Solon. The meeting in 1828 "chose Andrew McFadden, Joseph Durrell and Stephen Ayer to unite with Solon in agreeing with some person to keep the ferry near Moses Thompson for the year ensuing." At the March meeting of 1829 it was voted "that the selectmen be authorized to agree with the selectmen of Solon to build a boat or make other provision as they may think proper for the ferry near Moses Thompson." Stephen Ayer on Jan. 16, 1829, got a town order of $10 "for tending ferry the past year" and March 15, 1829, Capt. Josiah French received a town order of $22.21 "for furnishing ferry boats."
What the outcome was does not appear beyond the town meeting record of March 22, 1830, that Joseph Gray and Joseph Durrell "be a committee to superintend the ferry." The next year Joseph Gray alone was designated by the town to "agree with some suitable person to tend Embden's part of the ferry" and the same action was taken in 1832 and 1833, except that in the latter year Joseph Durrell was named to conduct the
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negotiations. After that the town meeting record failed to mention the ferry.
Because it was used more generally by Embden farmers, the ferry before many years appears to have become largely, if not altogether, an Embden enterprise. J. Whitman Eames, who lived close by, acquired the ferry privilege and operated it for several years before 1860 when he migrated to California to mine gold. There had also been other owners but that year the town assessed Austin Eames, his brother, $600 for ferry property. Probably this was in part, for the ferry house which seems to have been the tanning house when Reuben Thompson was there as tanner. Theophilus Hilton bought the ferry from Austin Eames that same year and by 1869 the valuation had been reduced to $450. He carried on till into the 90's as sole proprietor and sold out to "Jote" Stevens, who still resides there.
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