USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 24
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Elder Benjamin Gould, Jr., (1801) brought a large family of children to the Caswell farm in middle Embden when he sold his place on Gould hill, near Seven Mile Brook to Bowdoin Caswell in the 1850's. His brother, William W. Gould, moved to Concord about the same period, after occupying Lot 131, where Amos Hilton afterward dwelt. Elder Benjamin was a widely known Freewill Baptist preacher. He probably per- formed more marriage ceremonies than any other Embden preacher, not excepting Elder Samuel Savage. His interest extended to town affairs and he held office repeatedly - those of collector and constable, selectman and town agent.
Elder Benjamin was from an old-time Woolwich family that had come from Eliot, near Berwick. His father, Benjamin, Sr., settled in New Portland and then in Embden. The son succeeded him on the farm (Lot 107) that included Gould hill. He also purchased in 1832 a remainder of back Lot 74 and the west half of Lot 132 to the northward, where the older John
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Wentworth afterward was owner. He had many kinsmen in that part of Embden and in New Portland. Although he appears to have been a very active man, he probably succeeded as a minister rather than as a farmer. He was 30 years old when he married Mary Gilkey of Freeman in 1831.
They had five sons, three of whom were Embden teachers, and one daughter, Mary (1849), the youngest of the family. The oldest, Randall (1832), taught in the Greene-Moulton district west of Embden pond in 1853. His brother, Freeman G. (1833), taught in 1854 in the Dunbar district (No. 5), where Elder Benjamin had come to reside. Gorham Parks Gould (1835), a third son named like Gorham Parks McFadden (son of Willard Crockett McFadden) for that Gorham Parks who in 1837 became a candidate for governor of Maine, was master of the same school in 1860, after having taught the Greene-Moulton school in 1852 and the John Gray school (No. 1) also in 1852. Gorham was taxed for 21-2 acres of orchard on the Canada Trail in 1860. By 1864 he owned 160 acres probably Lot 43 and his father owned 100 acres. John Gould (1838) a soldier in the 8th. Maine, was wounded late in the Civil War. The remaining son, George B., was born in 1844. He and his sister Mary (1849) were the two scholars, accredited to Elder Ben- jamin on the tax lists of 1861 and 1862.
There were personal ties between Elder Benjamin Gould and Elder Samuel Savage other than their common calling, for Elder Benjamin's nieces. Mary Ann and Sarah Jane (daughters of William W. Gould), married respectively Christopher Columbus and Nathan, brothers of Elder Samuel. Elder Benjamin's family, however, had inclined strongly toward Methodism, which was the faith of his sister, Mrs. Joseph Walker, Sr. Another Embden brother, Nathaniel Gould, was an active Methodist as was Nathaniel's son, Col. Edmond E. Gould, native of Embden and himself at one time a widely known revivalist. Col. Edmond's career was largely outside of Embden and em- braced a range of activities. Among these was the holding of services for two years in China, Kennebec county, on the Methodist camp ground, where he had organized a Union Camp- meeting Association.
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The career of Elder Benjamin Gould spanned the long period into reconstruction times, by which time he had retired to Free- man, dying on the old Storer farm, now owned by Fred Wey- mouth, a kinsman. He was one of the ablest of the Embden Goulds. His son, Gorham Parks Gould, continued his teaching career, became a high school principal but died while a young man. Some of the family moved to Holliston, Mass. But the Elder's family had all departed by 1870, as had the families of his brothers by which date none of this locally prominent name remained in Embden.
But for reasons of Freewill Baptist environment or otherwise the Methodist faith abounded more in other sections of the town than in Elder Job Hodgdon's neighborhood. The first Methodist class was held with Andrew Wentworth, who resided on Lot No. 142. This was well over toward West Embden and very near to Seven Mile Brook. Andrew's son, Rev. Lewis Wentworth (1823-1900), born in Embden, was a Methodist clergymen at Clinton. Col. Edmond Gould used to relate how preaching services were rare at the old schoolhouse in No. 8 district during his boyhood, whereupon his father, Nathaniel, formed a class of 25 members and held a Methodist class meet- ing in his home for many years. This was on the old Amos Hilton place, where Nathaniel Gould succeeded his brother Wil- liam W. Gould in 1836.
In the winter of 1870, when Nelson Walker, now of Strong, was teaching his second school at "Fort Holbrook," as the schoolhouse near Holbrook corner was sometimes called, Charley Woodcock, a young man from across Seven Mile Brook, came there and held evening meetings for three weeks. A deep interest . was manifested and about thirty claimed conversion. Nelson sat on the platform with Charley during the meetings.
"This was the starting of the Methodist church in Embden," Nelson Walker once stated. "Sylvester Jackson was appointed class leader. I remained in the place until summer and organ- ized a Sabbath School which was well sustained. I was superintendent till I left when Will McKenney took it up. I taught Walter McKenney, his son, to walk."
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And "Fort Holbrook" through almost sixty years has re- tained its double role of schoolhouse and Methodist Church. A large community still worships there, supplied at regular periods by the ordained minister from North Anson. Mrs. Winifred Ware Bodfish, of Palmer, Mass., a native of North Anson, writes of her experience in that connection, as follows :
"I once attended service there with my two children. We were staying at Lake Embden over Sunday. The children thought it was the best service they had ever attended. There was a Sunday School for which we were not in season, then preaching service then a prayer meeting where every one took part. To my surprise both my children followed the example of their elders and gave a testimony. Perhaps that was why they liked it." One of the children was Robert W. Bodfish, graduate of the Harvard Law School and practicing attorney at Springfield, Mass.
But with Elder Job Hodgdon on the Methodist ramparts in northern Embden - long years before these occurrences at "Fort Holbrook"- Rev. Jesse Lee Wilson (1808-1898) was upholding the banner of that church along the Canada Trail through south Embden. He was also a pillar of the little Methodist church at North Anson. Widely known and respected for his high calling, his dignified appearance was in full keeping with the age. Like Elder Hodgdon's father, Rev. Jesse Lee Wilson's father, John, had fought in the Revolutionary army.
The preacher taught school in early life and in line with others of John Wilson's progeny was active in matters of public education. He taught at Athens and while there met Lucy Locke who became his wife. The school knew well the teacher was a-courting as a tale handed down by one of the pupils indicates.
Children in those days had hard candies, rolled in the form of a shell and containing slips that bore a verse or motto. One was found with the following :
Lucy Locket lost her pocket Going to see her sister
When Jesse Lee spry as a flee
Sprang right up and kissed her
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It was too good an opportunity to lose. One youngster, crossing out the "t" in Locket, put the candy on his teacher's desk. That was almost a hundred years ago!
Jesse Lee and Lucy (Locke) Wilson had several children, one of whom was Philander. He resided for some years on the Purington farm near Seven Mile Brook. His wife was Servila Getchell (1840-1908). Their three sons were Elmer, Everett and Owen Wilson. Servila's brother, Sumner Getchell (1836- 1922), married in 1863 Fidelia Wilson, sister of Philander. Sumner Getchell married in 1893 Sarah M. Verrell and resided at Waltham, Mass. He had no children. Allen Wilson, son of Rev. Jesse Lee, kept a clothing store at North Anson and after- wards lived in turn at Portland and Concord, N. H. He married Emma F., daughter of Cyrus Bryant of North Anson. His brother, Charles S. Wilson, died unmarried. His sister, Cora, graduate of Anson Academy and of Kent's Hill Seminary and a successful teacher, became Mrs. Alfred P. Draper of Wayland, Mass. She died several years ago, survived by two children, Gladys and Sumner Draper.
Probably no other Embden preacher left a deeper impression upon the community he served than did Rev. Jesse Lee Wilson. His name was more or less synonomous with Methodism in that section. His children were known in every Embden and Anson household. He retired sometime before his death in 1898 and lived on a little farm rather south of the one his father had carved out of the wilderness, but within the tract that his brother Elijah formerly owned. The town line was its southern boundary but the preacher also had a farm at one time over the line into Anson. There is none of his name left today in the town of his nativity.
There was another old-time elder, Rev. Hosea Washburn, whose home was in Madison on the high ridge east of the Old Point monument but he almost belonged to Embden. He some- times preached there and one of his four daughters, Martha A. (1840-1907), married Cephas Walker of Embden and dwelt with him on a rich farm north of the Anson line and between the Mill stream and the Canada Trail. This was the farm that Edward Emerson of Hallowell, had about 1820 but was better
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known for its ownership by Luther Cleveland and his son James Young Cleveland otherwise Lot No. 72.
Rev. Hosea was a quaint character, about whose forceful preaching many a humorous tale persisted after he was gone. IIe never wrote a sermon and generally selected his text while walking to church on Sunday morning. He ministered many years to the Freewill Baptist church at Madison. Rev. Hosea married Hannah Maxim of Norridgewock in 1816 and she bore him four sons and four daughters. Three of these sons were in the Civil War. The oldest died in a concentration camp near New York City. Leonard Washburn was killed in command of his company at Spottsylvania. Allen, a dare devil, was in the First Maine Cavalry. The other son, George, lived in New Port- land. Three of the daughters married in Madison. Mark Walker and his son, Carleton, former town clerk of New Portland; the late Col. Perley Walker of Kansas and Mrs. Emma F. Clark of Madison are among Rev. Hosea's descendants
Lawyer Albert Ware at North Anson used to tell this story : "Rev. Hosea Washburn, a man of considerable natural ability but unlicensed took as his text: 'Oh Lord Thou knowest that Thou are an austere man, gathering where Thou has not strowed and reaping where Thou has not sown.' He read 'austere' as 'oyster' compared the Lord to a man digging oysters and made a very good sermon of it."
The crude, quaint records of the Lexington-Embden church of near a century ago are still in existence and bespeak the devotion of early worshippers. The church book came into the hands of Mrs. Ephraim C. Tripp and from her passed to a daughter, Mrs. Stella V. Bickford of Auburn. The entries are mostly about the conferences on the second Saturday of each month. These seem to have alternated much of the twenty-years this church existed between Embden schoolhouse (district No. 11, known as the Tripp school) and Lexington schoolhouse.
The society, or church, was an offshoot of the Old Brook Meeting House, or Anson church, and was organized through a committee of the Anson quarterly meeting, where Elder John Lennan, Bro. James Hutchins, Bro. John Paine and Bro. Samuel Stover were chosen "to see if was best to have two churches."
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They met at Lexington Oct. 24, 1839, with Elder Lennan as moderator. It was "voted to divide the church," to call it "Lexington and Embden" and to conduct correspondence be- tween the two bodies every month "by messengers." The right hand of fellowship was extended by Elder Lennan, who also de- livered the charge. Daniel D. Strickland was chosen as church clerk ; Martin Strickland as "deacon on trial."
The record says there were 19 members but the list has more, some of whom were added later. Their "male" names were: Daniel Knowles, David Tripp, Martin Strickland, Daniel D. Strickland, Eben Tripp, Dominicus Burns, Daniel Richardson, William Q. Richardson, Asa Strickland, Nathan Strickland. Oliver Moulton, Richard Tripp, Amos Hall, Jacob Chandler, Samuel M. Keene, Rufus W. Chandler, Albert Taylor, Lewis Chandler, Josiah "Pees" (Pease), Benjamin R. Moulton, Abraham Dow (Doe), Abraham Walker, John Ball, and William Keene.
There was also a list of "female names" as follows: Polly Tripp, Christiana Strickland, Susan Moulton, Sarah W. Moulton, Polly Strickland, Mary Strickland, Joanna Richard- son, Hester Tripp, Arvilla Tripp, Caroline "Leamon" Maryann Strickland, Amy Chandler, "Marygal" D. Burns, Eunice War- ren, Phebe Richardson, Rachel Strickland, Emily Taylor, Isabel Taylor, Elizabeth C. Frederick, Lucy Tripp, Polly Tripp, and Nancy Dow (Doe).
Against several names stand such remarks as "rejected," "excluded," "by letters excluded," "by baptism," "dismissed by letter" and, in two instances (the Does) "joined another church." There are various dates opposite the membership entries, ranging from 1839 to 1858.
Otherwise the church book is devoted to brief records of monthly meetings. The chronicle dated Nov. 14, 1839, reads : "Met at the place appointed for conference and opened the meeting by Reding and singing a hymn and Prayer of God. the Brethren and sisters Complane of Som dark hours but they are striving for victery over thare speritual enimies. Received our brethren from the Embden church Br. Benjamin Moulton Br Joel Foss." The record of the following conference on Dec. 14,
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.. ..
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runs : "Received Br. Oliver Moulton by letter Br. Amos Hall by letter from Anson church. Brethren for messengers to set with Embden church Br. Daniel Knowles, Ebin Tripp."
Apparently "Anson Church" and "Embden church" were used rather carelessly, as both seem at times to have meant the Freewill Baptists on Seven Mile Brook. However, "Embden church" in some instances must have meant brethren of the Lexington-Embden church who resided in northwest Embden. "But fue of the brethren" attended the conference Feb. 8, 1840, at Daniel Richardson's. He lived at Lexington but in 1831 was a resident of Embden. They chose Oliver Moulton and D. D. Strickland to visit Caroline Leeman; for messengers "to set with the Embden church Daniel D. Strickland and Nathan Strickland."
There is repetition of phrases, like those already given, but now and then an exceptional line appears. The conference of March 14, 1840, found "the brethren and sisters low in thare minds But striving for victory over thare speritual enimies." The regime was apparently rigorous for it was voted "that the Members that dont come forwad shal be inquired of. Oliver Moulton Chosen to inquire and in addition to set with the Standing Committee Jonathan F. Moulton, James Young. Daniel D. Strickland to set with Nathan Strickland and wife." At the April meeting it was recorded that one of the sisters had made her confession and "she was forgiven." The record of the July conference of 1840 proceeds: "had a good conference. Bro. Amos Hall confessed his wonderings and the Brothering and sisters forgave him and hope God has." It was also voted 'Oliver Molton to visit and take such maisures as he may find necessary for the benefit of absent members."
The conference voted in 1841 for Elder Samuel D. Millay, then a resident on farm No. 174 South of Hancock pond and hear the Tripp schoolhouse "to take the pastorale care of this hurch." And he continued as pastor and moderator till Aug. 2, 1843. Troubles with erring members continued and one of he sisters was "excluded for disorderly walk." One of the rethren was soon excluded for like cause and a vote was had that members shod not Leve the Meting of Bisness without
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Lieve of the conference." Bro. Oliver Moulton and wife were given "a letter of thare standing" in 1841 which meant that Oliver subsequently a preacher, was not getting along pleasantly
DEACON BENJAMIN R. MOULTON
LOVE (BERRY) MOULTON, HIS WIFE
with the church. Daniel D. Strickland, the church clerk, was chosen that year as treasurer and collector. The monthly conferences by this time were being held largely at his house or at the house of Daniel Richardson. The ceremony of washing the feet was observed, it seems, whenever Elder Millay "tended to the Lord's supper."
"Disorderlay walk in his life and conversations" led to the exclusion late in 1841 of a former offender in the church and there was another committee of inquiry although the clerk wrote that "Love and union prevailed." Along in 1842 Bro. Daniel Knowles and David Tripp had "a difficulty" but the committee reported that it was settled, although at the same meeting it was voted to "exclude David Tripp from the church for disorderly walk and hard speaches against his brethren." There was also a report on Oliver Moulton that "he dont consider himself holden accountable to the church." On Sept. 3, 1842, the conference voted to "exclude Oliver Moulton for ungodly
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conduct." Elder Samuel Millay was still residing with the brethren. Nathan Strickland and wife and Jacob Chandler and wife were receiving visits from the church committee, and it was repeatedly recorded that "the brethren and sisters were rather low in their spirits." But by 1843 when Deacon Martin Strickland became "Standing moderator" with the release of Elder Millay as pastor there was "prospect for a rise in the church. Br. Josiah Pees came forward and related the travel (travail) of his mind. Bro. James Burns likewise." Both were baptized. Other converts were admitted about that time. But the difficulty with David Tripp persisted and a committee from the quarterly meeting was called to consider the merit of his exclusion from the church. Later Solomon Rowe and James Burns were a committee to visit "Bro" David.
If the records be a true index the church activities were waning by 1845. For two years thereafter nothing was written about monthly conferences. Elders Wentworth Hayden, Samuel Stover and Mark Merrill were a committee in 1847 from the quarterly meeting to inquire into the state of the church. They met first at the Lexington schoolhouse Dec. 25, 1847, and then had an "extry" conference four days later at Embden schoolhouse and "reported favorable." The following year there was some reorganization, the church book was examined and David Tripp and wife were received into the church. By this time Daniel Richardson, a staunch supporter in earlier years, found himself under a committee of inquiry. He gave the committee no satisfaction and said "he thought the church beter turn him out."
Elders Wentworth Hayden and Daniel Young were preachers at the church in 1849 but fellowship was withdrawn from Daniel Richardson and wife, James Burns and wife, Charles Strickland and Eunice Richardson for "disorderly walk." The conten- tions would not down and in 1850 another committee from the quarterly meeting came to inquire, headed by Elder Samuel Stover. Joshua Hilton, veteran clerk of the Brook Meeting House, and Humphrey Purington were on this committee. Elder Benjamin Gould soon came to the church to preach and in 1853 Elder Savage came. Under these elders there followed a period
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of religious activity and the Lexington-Embden church seemed more prosperous than ever before. Such elders as James S. Patten, S. Russell and John Spinney preached there on occasion.
The church book has but one entry after 1860. Subsequent history there is largely a matter of conjecture. Certain it is that a few years later many residents of northwest Embden were attending services at Lost Nation schoolhouse in Concord - not so very far away. Then the Concord Corner Church was organized April 7, 1863. Rev. Oliver Moulton - the same Oliver as above - was preaching to a congregation of neighbors and kinsmen. In the Lost Nation fold, presumably, there was less "disorderly walk," less bickering, fewer committees of inquiry. Lost Nation had a choir of three fine singers. Perhaps that made for harmony. Deacon Benjamin Moulton, brother of the preacher and of the same previous affiliation, was one of them. Mrs. Hannah Knowles, and Mrs. Hiram Witham, who was Betsey, daughter of Dr. Edward Savage, Embden's particu- lar Freewill preacher, were the other two. "Fly Round, Fly Round Ye Wheels of Time" was one selection of their inspiring repertoire. The uplift from their Sunday morning hymns and from Rev. Oliver's fervent words are described by the few sur- vivors from that day as of precious memory. Thus Lost Nation's worshippers and Concord Corner, also, gained through what the neighboring church had lost. While the oblivion of a population long departed has crept over the Lexington-Embden Freewill society, let it not be doubted that the church, now forgotten, made for the betterment of that countryside, so that the world was a little richer."
CHAPTER XX
WALKERS A FOUR TOWN CLAN
Three-quarters of a century ago - when Embden seniors of this day were in swaddling clothes - there lived at the tip of Seven Mile Brook community, where the town line intercepts, an aged widow of rare personality. She was a Methodist, of Quaker heritage, staunch but kindly tolerant in her faith. Her environment for fifty years had been sternly Freewill Baptist. Her neighbors and two sons - both church "proprietors" - worshiped at the meeting house across the road from her little cottage and on land of which her husband had long been the owner.
But, although she attended consistently at this tabernacle, once each week till she was past 90, "Aunt Betty" Walker also trudged two miles to North Anson village and there joined in service with her own Methodist people. "Seldom perhaps never," runs an old newspaper chronicle at North Anson, "was her voice silent in the meetings for social worship at which, in sunshine and storm, she was always present." She died in April, 1855, but the same authority states that as late as 1890 "the memory of this aged woman of olden time is still fresh in the minds of a good many people in this and the surrounding towns."
Her husband, Joseph Walker (1761-1818), whom she married in 1786 at Woolwich, preceded her "beyond the flood." Both lie in Sunset Cemetery at North Anson. They were the last of five Walker families to pioneer from Woolwich. Their arrival at Anson was in 1795. Joseph for several preceding years, had owned part of his father's farm and a sawmill on Montsweag stream. His wife, Elizabeth, (1762-1855), came on horseback with four young children, one a babe in arms. They purchased a farm that James McKenney, also from Woolwich, had partly cleared and improved with a log cabin - where Walter McKenney now resides. Hardly a stone's throw away was the old blockhouse and log church used for services till 1808 and
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eventually supplanted by the new meeting house in 1833 a short way north of the river.
Their robust family consisted of four sons and four daughters. Three sons and three daughters married, settled round about, contributed to the establishment of a contented Embden neigh- borhood and lived to green old ages. From Joseph and Elizabeth (Gould) Walker there are now five generations. In their number are a dozen former town officials of Embden, a score of college graduates, writers, educators, business men and one commander of a World War regiment.
The Joseph Walker neighborhood on Seven Mile Brook was of the old-fashioned character. The like of it was not unusual among settlers a century ago but has passed, in modern days, with improved communications. Men and women ventured into the new country by families and neighbors, often, were likewise kin. Marriage ties strengthened neighborhood ties. By reason of the old log meeting house near their domain. the Joseph Walkers for many years were at the center of an inter- family and likewise an inter-town community.
Joseph's younger sister, Elizabeth or Betsy Walker (1765- 1797), in 1789 came up the Kennebec River from Woolwich and became the bride of Capt. Josiah Parker (1764-1857) of East New Portland. Theirs was the first marriage in that town. He lived for more than sixty years on what was later known as the Hiram Weymouth place, but she died while a young woman, and the Captain married Ruth Paine (1774-1814), sister of Rev. William Paine, as his second wife. Prior to the arrival of Captain Parker and his bride, however, Solomon Walker, 3rd, (1766-1821) of Woolwich, son of Andrew (1742-1826) who was Joseph's oldest brother, had become a first settler in New Port- land. He was accompanied by Samuel Gould (1768-1844) also of Woolwich, a brother of Mrs. Joseph Walker. At Woolwich he had been a neighbor.
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