USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 32
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During river driving days on the upper Kennebec the drift of spruce and pine logs over the falls was an interesting spectacle. The depth of water at the foot of the falls and the tremendous force of the current were evidenced by the disappearance of these logs after the plunge over the water precipice. Rising on nd a minute later these logs often lifted half their length above he water then toppled over and floated away. Sometime in the O's two Huggins boys from Concord sitting on the Embden edge were struck by such a log on end, brushed into the seething
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channel and drowned. Great jams of logs forming in the chasm between the banks used to bring throngs of curious people from afar. Before the river drivers arrived to break up a jam with dynamite, it was often easy to cross safely from shore to shore.
From Stillman Stone's day the Caratunk power remained practically idle till December, 1887 when the privilege was bonded to Staunton Day and David T. Mills. The following
STILLMAN STONE HOUSE AND BARN
year after making a survey of numerous mill sites in Maine they purchased the rights on both banks and organized a com- pany to erect a pulp mill. They built a horseshoe dam 150 feet long, costing $50,000 and pinned it with 6,000 feet of stone. Raceways were blasted out of solid rock on both sides of the river but it was decided to have the pulp mill - a structure 190 feet long by 60 feet wide with separate buildings for storehouse, machine shop and business offices - on the Embden shore.
The pulp mill was opened in 1891. Before that date the town at a special meeting on Saturday July 7, 1888, with Phineas Eames moderator, voted unanimously "to exempt from taxation for a term of ten years all mills that may be erected on the
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privilege on the west side of the river at Caratunk Falls." Then on April 31, 1889 the town paid to S. C. Mills and Co. $488.81, it being for labor on the road from the River road to Caratunk Falls. There was recorded on Oct. 16, 1890, with the town clerk by the Moosehead Pulp and Paper Company a deed for a $200,000 bond issue at six per cent interest, payable in gold at the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company in Boston. Day was presi- dent of the company and Mills was treasurer. The papers were executed before Charles F. Johnson, justice of the peace, subsequently United States Senator from
Maine and now a United States Judge.
The enterprise prospered at first and was of great bene- - fit to the town, but in 1898 Day and Mills failed and during February of that year the bondholders took posses- sion with Turner Buswell of Solon acting as superintend- ent. The International Paper Company became owner in 1899 and the following year Joseph S. D. Greene succeed- PRESENT DAY VIEWS BELOW THE FALLS ed Judge Buswell as super- intendent. There were further years of prosperity but the pulp mill was burned down January 31, 1920 and rebuilt. Conditions of manufacture in the paper industry finally worked to such decided disadvantage that the mill ceased to be profitable and was closed. For a long time now it has been idle. The
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property, although unused, has become very valuable and from the town's standpoint is important for its yield in taxes. The company's land, mill. and mill privilege were assessed prior to 1900 at $70,000. The Somerset Railway which first ran its cars into North Anson Nov. 27, 1875, and was extended to Bingham while the mill and dam were under construction, crosses the Kennebec over a modern steel bridge at the brink of the falls.
Several old Embden families are identified with this corner of the town. Among them are the Atwoods. When Benjamin C. Atwood sold his saw mill on Martin stream in 1821 he moved just across the line into Concord where some of his Williams in-laws had their homes. He was well regarded in Embden. The town in 1835 "layed out" a road from his former mill to his land in Concord and the next year permitted his children to attend the school by the mill seat, a privilege accorded to other Concord residents at times. His children and grandchildren made numerous marriages with Embden households. Benjamin F. Atwood in 1834 took Harriet Berry of Embden as his wife and in 1836 Mary Atwood of Concord became Mrs. Nathan Berry of Embden, while in 1841 Jacob W. Atwood married Almyra Berry of Embden. Among Benjamin C. Atwood's descendants were Stillman Atwood and his son, Charles H. T. Atwood, who were respected farmers in Embden just south of the Concord line; Stephen Atwood, who married a daughter of Southard Walker and had a farm just above Caratunk Falls; S. Colby Atwood who wedded Elizabeth Moulton in 1858 and owned the Joseph Greene farm west of the pond and Sarah N. Atwood who in 1863 became Mrs. Eli Hawes of Embden.
Capt. John Walker, Jr., (1793-1868) kept the saw mill he bought of Dr. Edward Savage in 1832 for many years. By various purchases he became a large land holder and prosperous farmer in that section. He first acquired 40 acres in 1826 but had come from Anson to Embden before that date. He paid Oliver and Eliza Kane of Albany, N. Y., $200 in 1831 for 100 acres more which extended from Martin stream to the River road. He sold to Jacob Lowell of Concord in 1833 for $75 a
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quarter interest in his mill, stipulating that Lowell must not use the water to the damage of the grist mill which stood near-by and must pay one-eighth of the expense of the mill's upkeep. Capt. John in 1834 paid Alden Flint of Anson $850 for 144 adjacent acres more with 74 rods of Kennebec River frontage. Capt. John Walker's wife was Cynthia Phillips (1786) and on his father's side he was related to many of the early families. Nathaniel Walker nearly four miles down the River road; Elisha Walker on the Soule tract in West Embden; Solomon Walker and Mrs. Samuel Gould on New Portland hill; Mrs. Samuel Hunnewell and Mrs. James Jewett of Solon were among his numerous first cousins in a half dozen towns. He had an exceptional career as an Embden farmer and frequently held local office. He was school agent in 1830, selectman in 1841 and 1863 ; and was repeatedly chosen as town treasurer and collector of taxes. During a part of the Civil War he collected taxes for eight mills on the dollar, a very low commission.
The Spauldings were a notable family, too, in this neighbor- hood. Timothy Spaulding (1778-1845) was the father of successful sons and daughters and the grandfather of Nathan Weston Spaulding, the California inventor, business man and millionaire. A native of Francestown, N. H., where all of his children were born to his wife Lydia Moore (1782-1838) of Bradford, N. H., Timothy brought his family to Embden in 1832 when he purchased a farm from Caleb Williams. This was just south of Capt. John Walker. Timothy Spaulding and his wife died there.
Timothy was a cousin, three generations removed, of Jonathan Spaulding from Merrimack, N. H., who settled in southeast Embden next to Benjamin Colby, Sr. Jonathan's son Daniel later married Betsey Colby. Timothy was a similarly distant cousin of the brothers Merari Spaulding of Bingham and Joseph Spaulding who resided for a few years in Embden on Lot 14 and had a family of brilliant children in Concord and Caratunk.
Lydia Spaulding (1802-1869), daughter of Timothy and Lydia, married Walter Spaulding (1801-1837), a son of Merari and nephew of Joseph. He had a farm in northeast Anson with
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Kennebec River frontage and was of marked personality. The family resided so near the Embden line that they were almost regarded as an Embden family. As a young man Walter Spaulding was a school teacher. Throughout his life he identified himself with many local activities. He was widely known as a Whig, a Freemason and a Universalist. His eight children were all boys of whom Nathan Weston Spaulding (1829-1903) was the oldest. Nathan, it is recorded, was a carpenter at 13 and became a man of giant stature - six feet three inches tall and weighed 220 pounds. He made his way to Portland in early life, worked there in a factory and then went to Boston. He next moved on to California in 1851 by way of Panama. He married. May 25, 1858, at Campo Seco, Caliveras county, Mary Theresa Clinkinbeard.
A man of tremendous energy, Nathan Spaulding's life in California was very productive. He erected the first quartz mill there and became inter- ested in lumber manufactur- ing, particularly in making saws. He revolutionized the latter business by inventing an adjustible saw tooth. His residence was at Oakland - across the bay from San Fran- cisco. He was mayor of Oak- land for two terms and held many other offices, including assistant treasurer of the United States in charge of the sub-treasury at San Francisco for four years. Senator Le- land Stanford made him trus- tee of Leland Stanford Uni- versity. He died at New NATHAN WESTON SPAULDING Britain, Conn., while on a visit east. He has a son, Walter Spauld- ing at Oakland, and a daughter, Nancy Spaulding Kneass of San Francisco, with a son Ed Kneass in the same city.
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His seven brothers had interesting careers, chiefly in the far west. Charles H. Spaulding (1831) the next brother to Nathan in age went to Australia in 1852 and married Joanna Breen there in 1859. Marcellus Moore Spaulding (1833) went to California but returned to Chicago where he became a resident. Dennis Spaulding (1835-1898) married Mary Ann Snoad of Hastings, England, and emigrated to California in 1856. His widow made her home at Lockport, Ill.
Jerome Spaulding (1836) became a resident of Embden after his marriage Dec. 30, 1861 to Celestia Williams, daughter of Amos. He had been master of the school in the Williams dis- trict (No. 3) the year before and taught there again the winter following his marriage. But Jerome Spaulding had also taught at the Berry school, (No. 4) in 1859 and at (No. 5), the Dunbar school in 1861. He had therefore become a well known teacher in the town by the time he was 25 years old and in 1863 was elected as "superintending school committee" of Embden. The next year (1864) Jerome and his wife followed his brothers to California and settled at San Francisco.
Madison Spaulding (1838), another of the eight brothers, married Louisa Lester at Mansfield, Ohio, in 1867. They lived at Seattle. Addison Spaulding (1838-1860), youngest of the eight, also went to California and died at Monterey.
Lydia Spaulding, the mother of these Anson sons, spent the last years of her life in California. She went there in 1862 and resided with her son, Nathan.
Timothy and Lydia Spaulding of Embden had several other children than this daughter Lydia. Their Timothy Clark Spauld- ing - who came to Embden when 14 years old and ten years later married Helena, the daughter of Ralph and Mercy Wells on a neighboring farm - was long identified with the town. He worked twelve winters in the woods near Moosehead Lake and drove the Kennebec in the spring for 16 years. This Timothy moved his family in 1863 to Berrien Springs, Mich., where he lied. He served that town as highway commissioner and as treasurer. Timothy's brother, Edmund Spaulding (1815-1892), noved to Buchannan, Mich., in the same county. His widow,
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Eleanor H. Quint of Concord by his second marriage, resided at Toronto, Kan.
Abel Warren Spaulding (1823-1890), another son, married in 1846 Cynthia Walker daughter of his father's nearest neigh- bor. They had ten children one of whom, Ada, married Elwin Berry and resided in Concord. Her brother, John Walker Spauld- ing born at Embden in 1854, married Ella Yeaton and went to Portland where he was long engaged in mercantile pursuits. Abel and Cynthia had a son, Abel W., Jr., who married Cora Nye of Fairfield and went there to reside.
Horace Moore Spaulding, a fourth son of Timothy, died un- married in Embden. Timothy Spaulding's five daughters were: Betsey (Mrs. William Curtis) of Leominster, Mass .; Mary (Mrs. Thomas C. Litchfield) of Charlestown, Mass .; Harriet (Mrs. Lewis Litchfield) of Kansas; Sally (Mrs. Thomas Brackett) of Petersborough, N. H., and Nancy (Mrs. Charles Coolidge) of Westminister, Mass.
Merari Spaulding of Bingham (1767-1850) like his brother Joseph of Caratunk is of considerable Embden interest for Merari's daughter, Sarah (1799-1880), was the wife of John Pierce, long a leading farmer on Seven Mile Brook in Embden. Merari as well as many of his kinsmen in that part of Maine, was a carpenter by trade and it was said of him that he could frame a house, a church or a bridge. He served in important of- fices at Bingham and settled the estates of twenty of his neigh- bors. His wife, Betsey, whom he wedded in 1789, was a daugh- ter of Maj. Ephraim Heald, of Temple, N. H. - the Concord hunter, trader and pioneer, whose descendants include Cragins, Grays, Westons, McFaddens and others of the oldest pioneer families in that section.
Merari had a son, Ephraim Spaulding of Anson (1794-1851), who lived a mile or more above North Anson village and near the Embden line. He owned tracts of Embden land near the Kennebec between 1825 and 1830, purchased from the propri- etors. The last of these - near the McFadden farm - he sold in 1830 to James Daggett, the husband of Christina Gray. Eph- raim Spaulding has been described as "a very worthy and es-
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teemed man." During his last illness Maine farmers were much interested in an experiment for the cultivation of winter wheat. When his physician asked him whether he was reconciled to leaving this world, Ephraim replied :
"I think so, but if the Lord is willing I would like to see how the matter of winter wheat turns out."
His sons, Jesse and Tilson Heald Spaulding, are still widely remembered by present day people. His daughter, Mary, was the second wife of Sanford B. Stevens of Embden.
The story of Joseph Spaulding (1769-1836) and his family is an equally interesting one. Like his brother, Merari, he was born at Westminister, Mass., where their father, Joseph, was a "builder of houses, churches and bridges." The son, Joseph, married as his first wife, Sarah Whitman who died at Caratunk in 1816 when 40 years of age and in 1817 he chose a new wife from Wilton. Joseph was a resident of Embden as early as 1809, when he was elected one of the school agents "in the north District in the Middle ward." He was living there three years later when on October 29 he quit-claimed half of his farm to Caleb Jewett and Daniel Steward. His daughter, Dolly (1810-1842), who married Elbridge Gerry Savage (1812-1887) was born there, but her oldest brother, Joseph 3rd, was a native of Westminister, Mass.
After he went to Caratunk Joseph Spaulding prospered. He was justice of the peace there at his death. Of the large family le raised six sons survived him. Alexander and Walter settled it East Oasis, Wis. Dr. Zachariah was graduated at the Bow- loin Medical School and practiced at Bingham. Jonathan harried Harriet Baker and lived at The Forks. His brother, eremiah Smith Spaulding, was postmaster there, also school uperintendent, land and log surveyor, state land agent and gent for the county commissioners. Joseph, perhaps the oldest f the children, married Sophia Chase of Concord in 1824, and fter her death in 1833, her sister, Elvira. He died at Rich- hond, Me., where a son, Joseph Whitman Spaulding, born at aratunk in 1841, resided.
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Col. Joseph W. Spaulding had a conspicuous career as a sol- dier and attorney. He was a resident at various times of Fort Payne, Ala., where he was mayor, and of Melrose and Boston, Mass. He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1868, '70 and '79 and of the Maine Senate in 1871-72. When 21 he was lieutenant of Co. A, 19th. Maine Regiment, which he had been active in organizing. He was a Captain when his com- pany was at Frederick, Md., in 1862, participated in the battle of Gettysburg and commanded a regiment when Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
The roster of old time families in northeast Embden includes also the Withams, Pattens and Boyingtons. The Withams there were from the line of Col. Lemuel Witham (1790), in earlier days a resident in middle Embden and related to the Savage clan, through his wife Abigail, born in 1787 to James and Annah Young Savage of Anson. Col. Lemuel lived at first well towards the crest of Ayer and Atkinson hills in the neighborhood of nu- merous Savage and McFadden in-laws (on Lot 81) and became a townsman of influence. His popularity in militia circles was notable. Beginning in May 6, 1823, as a Captain in the 3rd. Regiment of Infantry, 1st Brigade, 8th. division, he became a major two years later and on Sept. 17, 1828, was commissioned Colonel. Embden town records in chronicling his election to offices carried also his military titles. He had seven terms as selectman during the twenty years before 1850. Later he had a farm near the head of the Embden Pond, in the same neighbor- hood with Ebenezer Witham, his brother, and not far from his son, Hiram (1810), the millman over in Concord. John With- am, a relative, was moderator in 1813 of a special town meet- ing that authorized "the selectmen to commence an action against the town of Augusta or any other town as they should see proper" for the support of a pauper. This was Embden's first lawsuit.
Col. Lemuel's son, Daniel S. (1811), next oldest to Hiram, married Sally Berry in 1832 and was long a resident of the town. He was town meeting moderator in 1853 soon after his marriage to Hannah Adams of Canaan. Another son, William
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(Top left) JOSHUA G. BOYINGTON. JOTHAM WITHAM (Below) PHINEAS EAMES AND GEORGE C. PATTEN
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W., married Martha Ann, daughter of Joseph Boyington of Emb den. They lived in Boston, where a son Melvin Witham (1854) was born. Eliza (1813), an older daughter of the Colonel, mar- ried in 1841 Israel T. Thompson of Embden. Eliza's brother. Jotham G. Witham (1818-1885), married (1) Angeline Clark (1827-1850) of the Clarks on the middle road and (2) in 1852 Cyrena Williams, a daughter of Caleb and lived near the Kenne bec, where his son Grant now resides. "Jote" Witham, like his father Lemuel and like his son, Grant after them, had an active interest in affairs. He, too, had several terms as selectman in 1862, 1872 and 1874. Children by his first wife were Mark (1847) and Manley (1848). Those by his second wife, Cyrena, included Parker (1855), Emma (1858-1878), Dassie (1857), Grant (1861), Lura (1864) and Adah (1865). Manley Witham in 1869 married Amanda Durrell of Embden. Grant, tax collector in 1890 and in recent years first selectman of the town, married (1) Edna Hooper in 1890 and (2) Annie May Thompson, a daughter of Nathan, Jr., and great-granddaughter of Moses, proprietor of the yellow tavern. Grant Witham and his present wife by descent and marriage represent most of the conspicuous pioneers in that corner of Embden. The Withams, of kindred blood, are also numerous in adjacent towns. Leander S. of Concord, son of Hiram, married Achsa Wells, daughter of Embden Ralph. Asa Witham, of Embden in olden days, mar- ried in 1818 Susan Salley of the Madison family; Warren With- am of Concord in 1858 married Sarah W. Foss of Embden; Cal- vin S. Witham of Moscow in 1863 took Rebecca F. Beal of Emb- den, as his wife. Lester C. Witham, farmer and civil engineer living near North Anson, also has Embden connections, but the town's more permanent residents of the Witham name have been largely through Jotham G. and Col. Lemuel. The latter's widow, Abigail, lived with her son and was over 85 years old when she died.
The Pattens of this northeast neighborhood were long in Emb- den and adjacent towns. Benjamin Patten, a Revolutionary veteran at Solon, lived to be over 80 years old. Joseph Patten, who, perhaps, was a son of Benjamin, told Benjamin Colby; Jr.,
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on Nov. 18, 1815, on taking out a license to marry Susannah Metcalf of Anson, that he was a resident of Embden. This Joseph was an Embden tax-payer in 1825 but not long after that year, and the Pattens were chiefly residents of later days after George C. Patten (1840-1917) acquired the Timothy C. Spaulding farm.
George Patten was well regarded in Embden and in 1891, '93, '94, '95 and '96 was town clerk and chairman of the board of selectmen. His first wife was Augusta Nutting (1840-1910) of Norridgewock. They had two sons - George W. who was graduated at Anson Academy in 1886 and is in business at Quincy, Mass., and Ernest E. Patten of Portland. George Pat- ten's second marriage was with Mrs. Catherine (Nutting) Law- rence, a sister of his first wife. They were related to Warren Nutting of Embden and to Mrs. Seth Ayer.
The Boyingtons were frontiersmen in towns of the upper Ken- nebec region. Although closely related to the oldest of Embden families - Grays, Hiltons, Savages and McFaddens - the name has been borne there by comparatively few households. They came from Yorkshire, England to Rowley, Mass., in 1638 and through the generations lived at Newbury, Ipswich and York, but by 1762 were at Wiscasset. Joseph Boyington (1797-1871) was brought by his parents from there when four years old to Mercer. His mother was Betsey Hilton and he married in 1825 Hannah, the daughter of Joshua Gray of Embden. Her grandparents were Capt. John and Elizabeth (Boyington) Gray. Elizabeth was a cousin of Joseph Boyington's father and likewise of the Hiltons in Wiscasset.
Joseph and Hannah Boyington settled at Embden soon after their marriage. They could count their relatives by scores for miles around among well established pioneers. Indeed the Boy- ington, Witham, Gray, McFadden, Ayer, Savage and Williams group of kin in Embden, east of the Canada Trail, was compara- ble in numbers and sterling character with the Cragin, Cleve- land, Pierce, Young group on Seven Mile Brook. And the two groups had contact points, at least, through marriages with Hutchinses, McFaddens, Savages and Ayers.
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There was a goodly family of children, headed by Martha Ann (1825), who, as already told, was the bride in 1848 of Wil- liam Witham, and including George (1827-1858) ; Joshua G. (1830-1885) ; Hannah Elizabeth (1832); Calvin S. (1834), who in 1861 married Minerva Hilton (1843-1866) and in 1928 was living at Bingham at the age of 94 with his youngest sister; El- len M. (1838), who married William Hamblet of Concord ; Edward S. (1839), who lived in Embden with his brother Joshua and never married; Joseph, Jr., (1841) ; Andrew J. (1844) ; Dallas (1846) and Isabel (1853), who in 1882 married Jotham Whitney of Bingham.
After his father, Joshua G. was one of the principal Boying- tons in Embden, having a farm well up toward the Concord line and bounded on either side by the two brooks flowing thence. He married in 1872 Martha A. (Bean) Gould of Jay. Their four children - all born on the old Boyington place - were : Mahlon (1873) who wedded Grace Moulton of Embden, in 1897 and lives at Belfast; Emma (1874-1906) who was Mrs. Charles Webster of Wilton; Rolon (1876) of Bingham, whose wife was Christie McDonald of Boston; Harlon (1878- 1925) whose wife was Flora A. Baker of Bingham.
This line of the Boyingtons has been identified with town affairs for many years. Cal- vin, then a resident of the town, was one of the 22 sure- ties to pay $100 to each of 17 volunteer soldiers in 1862. His brothers - Joshua, Ed- ward and Joseph, Jr., - were subscribers in 1863 to MRS. RUTH B. CROSS Town Clerk bounty orders for nine months' soldiers. Joshua served as col- lector of taxes in 1879 and as selectman in 1882, '83, '84 and '85. Joshua's son, Harlon, was tax collector in 1904, road commis-
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sioner several years, one of the selectmen also for several years and town clerk and first selectman from 1922 till April 27, 1925, when he was drowned in the Kennebec. His daughter, Mrs. Ruth B. Cross, succeeded him as town clerk, the first Embden woman chosen for that position. She has been several times re-elected, besides holding in 1927 the office of town treasurer. Joshua Boyington's widow married in 1890 David Whitney of Embden.
Many Boyingtons have dwelt in Lexington, Solon, New Port- land and other nearby towns. Pioneer Joseph had a brother Josh- ua Gray Boyington, who was one of these. Ellen M. Boyington (1845-1912), a teacher who kept the John Gray school in 1865 near the present railroad station, was a daughter of Bartlett and Susannah (Dutton) Boyington of Lexington.
All these families and not a few other, including the Jacob Williamses of another chapter, formed an important neighbor- hood through considerably more than a century. They fur- nished many immigrants to the new western states but gave with energy and persistent industry toward the development of their home community. The great forests northward and the prox- imity of the Kennebec - down which products of each winter's enterprise were floated to market - proved attractive fields in which the sturdy men of this section of the town competed cred- itably for livelihood. Their early homes were a base from which proceeded much activity that centered in Concord, Bingham and Caratunk and helped in settlements there.
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