USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 33
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So it was that Embden stood as the parent town for many families in the three newer places.
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CHAPTER XXVII
WHERE THE BIG ORCHARD GREW
There is a land of the sky in Embden. Rugged home seekers of more than a century ago must have felt an inspiration as they first trod its fastnesses. Skirting the Concord boundary it caps the Big Pond with scenic charm.
On its western rim looms in long parabola the "Sky Farm"". still wooded - in the midst of a lusty second growth - with scattering trees from Jonathan Fifield Moulton's orchard of long ago. Hancock Pond nestles reposefully in a depression of well rounded hills nearby - two miles from North New Portland, village. Away to the south over a vision of birch, spruce and fir tops the eye rests upon distant roofs in Anson and Madison.
Miniature mountains and valleys undulate eastward in a series, far across to the Boothby acres where the elevation glimpses several mill sites along Martin stream and the pictur- esque Kennebec beyond. Binghamward are Old Bluff and John- son mountain and a broad intervale along the big river. Modern Caratunk, of restricted area in comparison with "Carrytunk Settlement" of ancient days when people there came to eastern and northern Embden for their marrying, lies in the same beautiful direction. A glorious panorama of landscape here in all seasons and moods of weather !
Into this wilderness Eden in the early 1800's came settler folk from along the New Hampshire road down to Dover. There were Moultons from Alton, Barnstead and from Moultonborough near the lakes, Ichabod Foss and brothers from Barrington and Levi Berry - with Grandsire Benjamin, his father, who had served under Arnold at West Point. The Berrys had lived at Rye, Barnstead and Crown Point. The Felkers, too, from the vicinity of Barnstead were in the caravans of colonists who ven- cured toward the northward country and fell with all their might upon the wondrous forest cover. Joseph Felker (1760) an Embden householder of this family was also a veteran of the
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Revolution but he dwelt eastward by the Canada Trail. Isaiah Foss (1756-1850) who moved from Embden to Concord about 1809 was a comrade of Grandsire Benjamin Berry in the West Point campaign. Isaiah and his wife, Mary (1756-1843), rest in a roadside burying ground near Concord corner.
The entrancing picture that lured these newcomers was drawn by earlier pioneers into Embden and Concord. First among them perhaps, was Maj. Ephraim Heald hunter and merchant of the latter town who had migrated thither from Temple, N. H., where he was a dominant character during the Revolution. His neighbors in New Hampshire had been Clevelands, Hutchinses and Cragins who preempted manorial holdings on Seven Mile Brook. After quite a residence at Concord where he had been sated with trophies of moose, bear and beaver and become en- riched from an extensive Indian trade, Maj. Heald quit his two fine intervale lots, across the river from Bingham, known as the Leadbetter property, to spend the remainder of his life at Tem- ple. But the story of his exploits and successes spread and many pioneers followed to Concord and to northern Embden.
The chronicle of 50 ensuing years in that community is epic. The Moultons, Fosses, Berrys and Felkers reared families of robust youngsters. There were occasional recruits from without - the Blagdons (William, Charles and John), the Beans, Burnes, Clarks (Eli, Ebenezer, James and Samuel), the Abraham Does, the Jonathan Cateses, Isaac Smiths, Mullens (Ezra, John and Daniel), the Stricklands, Tripps and Withams. Many of these were from old-home towns along the Dover road and some of them started clearings east as well as west of Big Pond. But nearly all these families had New Hampshire relatives who had settled in Athens, Norridgewock, East Pond Plantation (Smith- field) or other adjacent towns.
The north Embden neighborhood thrived in numbers and in character. The settlers rapidly fought back the forest line, making way for pasturage and tillage. They had yokes of oxen for farm work and soon were building houses and barns as fast as two or three little mills on streams in Concord and Embden could manufacture the lumber - all of which the board of
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assessors in new Embden duly noted with satisfaction. Before the second generation had grown old, the beginnings of a cross town road had been made and a highway started down over Foss hill and south toward North Anson. Two district schools were established near either corner of the pond with a whopping attendance of scholars.
Preachers and teachers of refreshing individuality were rising up in the life of the community. The early schoolhouses there were used constantly for Sunday services of Methodists and Freewill Baptists. A sense of entity was rampant. The people naturally lived much to themselves and were distinctly self- sustaining. At one stage the rural wits styled the region "a nation," a term that embraced adjoining territory in Concord and Embden as well as in Lexington.
When Jonathan Fifield Moulton (1771-1844) established his cabin on the future "Sky Farm" he was accompanied by his wife Lydia Tuttle (1761-1847) and their eight children, all na- tives of New Hampshire. The family Bible of Sarah Sanborn, a granddaughter, said Jonathan Fifield's birthplace was Moul- tonborough but about the time of his marriage he was living at Alton and later seems to have been at Barnstead. Embden Moultons had his wife's maiden name as Lydia Dane, or Dame, but Sarah Sanborn's Bible record has it Tuttle.
Embden documents of the early days speak of him as Deacon Jonathan Fifield Moulton. His precept and example probably were responsible in some part for the religious activity of his family in northwest Embden, where one of his sons became a Freewill Baptist deacon and another a preacher of the same faith. When he settled in Embden he and Foster S. Palmer were alone among the even 90 landholders there who had a middle name. But Palmer, owning 80 acres and a cow, soon moved away, perhaps to Solon. Jonathan was from the famous Moul- ton family of colonial times - kinsman of Brig. Gen. Jonathan Moulton, of Moultonsboro, N. H., and grandson of Col. Jeremiah Moulton of York, the soldier and legislator who commanded the fighting company that exterminated the Rasle community of Indians at Old Point.
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Jonathan had resided ten years in Concord, prior to his ap- pearance in Embden. He was a man of unusual prowess. The countryside used to marvel at a tale of enormous weights he could lift several feet without wincing. He addressed himself vigor- ously - with the aid of his sons - to clearing one of the most desirable lots in all Embden - the above mentioned Sky Farm. His orchard was his pride. At one time it was rated among the very best in Maine. Jonathan Fifield's younger son, Deacon Benjamin Moulton, then a lad in his teens, used to tell his son, B. Frank Moulton, about holding the little apple trees up straight while his father filled the dirt in around them. They also built a barn and developed a promising farm, to which both Jonathan Fifield and his oldest son, Nathaniel Berry Moulton, held the title.
Meanwhile Joseph N. Greene coming from Rhode Island to North Anson as agent of the proprietors of Embden land, moved to an adjacent hill, near where Abraham Mullen lived long aft- erward, and erected a log house. Greene liked the attractive prospect of his Moulton neighbors and in 1833 traded with them for their property. They got the farm where Greene had been living - known as the Bear lot - for their betterments which included the orchard. Jonathan Fifield and four sons - Nathan- iel, Jonathan C., Oliver and Benjamin - lived there and in the immediate vicinity of Embden and Concord many years. One of their homesteads just south of the Concord line, was long owned and occupied first by Deacon Benjamin Moulton and then by Frank Moulton, above mentioned.
The Greene farm, as the original Moulton place, or Sky Farm, was called for some years, has had several owners. Forty years ago it belonged to Colby Atwood, whose wife, Lizzie, was a daughter of Deacon Benjamin and a granddaughter of Jona- than Fifield Moulton. In Colby Atwood's day the orchard was widely known for its cider product, as many an Embden lad of the period will vividly recall. The Carrabasset Stock Farm Company next purchased the place and conducted a big enter- prise in sheep, goats and Belgian hares, for which a barn 100 feet long was erected. Lightning struck this barn a few years ago
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and all the farm buildings were burned. The property is now practically abandoned for agriculture and even the hay, which used to be a valuable crop, is left uncut. Trees of recent plant- ing yield many barrels of McIntosh Red apples when bears from the deep forests northward do not get them. The present own- ers - George Hovey and Ernest P. Barnaby of North Anson - have added a large acreage extending back to Hancock Pond, where several North New Portland people have pretty summer cottages. The land is now chiefly valued for its increasing growth of standing timber and is an important item on the town's tax book for that reason.
Nathaniel Berry Moulton (1796-1880), oldest son of this pio- neer Moulton brood, was a conspicuous man in Embden and Con- cord. He was of giant frame, tall and commanding in stature, of stern appearance, with deep set eyes and shaggy brows. He had a military turn of mind, was captain in the early 1830's of the West Embden militia company, with jurisdiction over all the town west of the Big Pond and of the inlet and outlet there- of, while Capt. Hartley Colby commanded the company from the town's eastern area. In their day these two were the tower- ing military figures at local musters.
Capt. Nathaniel established himself well with posterity. He married three wives. These were Betsey Williamson (1795-1825) of Starks whom he married in 1817; Abigail Marian Williams (1809-1865) a granddaughter of Pioneer Jacob Williams whom he married in 1833; and Miss Philena Mullen, a daughter of Nathan Mullen and his grandniece. The Moulton and Mullen families fought this third marriage fiercely because of the dis- parity of ages. By the first two wives the Captain had respec- tively five and eight children whose descendants are now many score and scattered far.
Sarah (1818), oldest of Capt. Nathaniel's first family, mar- ried James Sanborn and lived at Bristol, N. H., near the Moul- tonborough that cradled her grandfather. Her brothers Warren (1820) and Eri (1824) went to Rochester, N. Y. John William- son Moulton (1821), another brother, married Rhoda Hilton of Embden in 1842 and as his second wife in 1848 Mary Ann Copp,
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a daughter of Amos. He was called "Wimp" Moulton by his Embden neighbors and at one time was a resident on Lot 113 near his Copp in-laws. His children by his first wife included Sarah, who married in California; Augustus and Joseph Orlan- . do, a soldier in the Civil War, who went to Oregon after leaving the army. Newell Moulton (1822), the remaining son of Capt. Nathaniel's first marriage, married Betsey Walton and resided in Minneapolis.
Within sixteen years after his second marriage in 1833 there was another family of five sons and three daughters. Three of these followed their half-sister, Sarah, to Bristol, N. H. They were Abigail E. (1823), who married Samuel Page but subse- quently lived at South Lawrence, whither her sister Esther T. (1839) and husband, William Atwood, of Concord had gone; Nathaniel B., Jr., and Octavia W. (1843) who married (1) Pierce Harlow and (2) John Wilbur. A brother, Philander M. (1841) dwelt at Hampton, N. H., where this branch of the Moul- tons had first settled on coming to America. There was also a brother, Wilfred Moulton (1849), who was twice married.
Nathaniel B. Moulton, Jr., (1845-1896) was well known in his day to Massachusetts and New Hampshire people. His father had moved from Embden to Concord at the time Nathaniel, Jr., was born and the son grew up there but at the age of 16 enlisted in Company K, 24th Maine Volunteers and carried a musket for 11 months. Following the war he went to school at Bristol, N. H., was clerk in the hotel there, married Mabel Heath in 1875 and soon established a variety store at the Granite State capital. After he had been burned out of his store he returned to the hotel business and for eight years was manager of the famous Eagle Hotel at Concord. Later on he owned a store at Somer- ville, Mass. He had one son, Homer Roy Moulton.
Lorenzo H. Moulton (1837-1920) born in Concord and after 1866 a resident of New Portland had an unusually interesting family. His first marriage was with Sarah W. Piper (1841-1862) in 1859 and his second marriage four years later with Charity B. Strickland (1844-1917), the youngest daughter of Otis Strickland of Embden. Of Lorenzo's five children the oldest is Dr. C. A.
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Moulton (1860) of Hartland, a physician and citizen of splendid reputation. Born in Concord he attended the common schools in New Portland, was graduated from Westbrook Seminary and
DR. C. A. MOULTON
LORENZO E. MOULTON
in 1884 obtained his diploma from the Maine Medical school. He has attended postgraduate schools in medicine at Harvard and in New York. He was president in 1823 of the Maine Medical Association. Dr. Moulton is interested in education as a trustee and ex-president of Hartland Academy and as a trus- tee of Maine Central Institute. He is active in child health mat- ters in his section of Maine, and is the founder and principal owner of the Hartland and St. Albans Telephone Company.
The four other children of Lorenzo Moulton were by his sec- ond marriage. Ethel M., the youngest, is Mrs. Eugene L. Wil- liamson who lives on her father's home place in North New Portland. She has five sons and daughters born between 1901 and 1918. Bert H. Moulton lives at Hartland, and is superin- tendent of his brother's telephone company. Carrie E. Moulton is Mrs. Charles Healey, he being the superintendent and she the matron of the Odd Fellows home at Auburn.
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Lorenzo E. Moulton, the remaining son, is one of Maine's prominent educators, for some years principal of Edward Little High School at Auburn. He was graduated at Anson Academy in 1888, at Bates College in 1893 and was principal of Monson Academy for three years, then principal of Rockland High School and superintendent of schools there and at Thomaston till 1909, when chosen for his present position. He was president of Maine Teachers' Association in 1912 and of Maine Associa- tion of Secondary School Principals in 1924.
William Weston Moulton (1835-1898) oldest son of Capt. Nathaniel by Abigail M. Williams (1809-1856) resided in Emb- den near Hancock Pond, reared a large family by his first wife and proved himself an exceptional townsman. His children and more than a score of grandchildren reside mostly in their native county. He married in 1858 Eunice F. Burns (1835- 1887) and to them were born :
Harriet S. (1859), who was Mrs. Alvah B. Wilbur; Eliza E. (1861), who married Frank Atwood of Concord; Addie F. (1863) who married Manley Atwood of Kingfield, a brother of Frank; James S. (1866) called Sanborn Moulton, who married Emily M. Tripp (1868-1899) daughter of Richard Tripp, and lives at North Anson; Octavia H. (1868), who is Mrs. Amos A. Graffte of Moose River ; Francis B. (1870-1911), whose wife was Thyrza Gould; George W. (1873), whose wife was Julia Thomp- son and Eri S. (1875). There was a daughter Hazel (1891- 1901) by a second marriage with Emma Minerva Berry.
Mrs. Graffte is a mainstay in her up-river community. She has been assistant town clerk and treasurer for 33 years; six years chairman of the board of assessors; is now bookkeeper for the road commissioner; teaches school 36 weeks in the year; boards three scholars during the school year and does her own housekeeping for a family that averages four persons. She has a married daughter who was graduated from Smith College and resides near Boston.
Eunice Flye Burns, "Bill" Moulton's first wife, was a daughter of Dominicus and Abigail Burns whose home was at Lexington. She was one of the many granddaughters of Pioneer
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(Top) WILLIAM W. MOULTON
EUNICE (BURNS) MOULTON
(Center) HESTER (LEEMAN) TRIPP EPHRAIM C. TRIPP
LOVE P. (MOULTON) TRIPP
ـكـ وســ
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Francis Burns of Embden. While the Moultons for at least three generations were closely allied by marriage both in New Hampshire and Maine with the Berrys, both these families in this Embden-Concord neighborhood married much with the Burnses and the Williamses. And Embden's land of the sky was thus largely populated by a Moulton-Burns-Berry-Williams clan. Francis Burns, grandson of his namesake pioneer and brother of Eunice Moulton, passed his life on a nearby Embden farm. His wife was a Williams. Sabra Burns, their sister, was the wife of John T. Berry, farmer and noted temperance ad- vocate. Abigail, another sister of Francis and Eunice, married Michael F. Berry. Isaac Burns, uncle of these four, owned a farm westward of the Moultons and Berrys.
Jonathan C. Moulton (1799) was second oldest of the pioneer's sons. In 1819, when hardly more than 20 years old, he owned 100 acres of good Embden land near his father and brothers and seven years later he had two scholars in the district school. His date of marriage with Betsey Berry in September, 1818, shows that he became head of a family considerably before his majority. He was deceased in 1828 and the following year his widow married William Thompson, Sr., of Solon. This Jon- athan C. Moulton had a daughter, Clarissa, and two sons, Jon- athan and Dennis Moulton. Clarissa became Mrs. Lufkin and was the mother of a large family. One of them was Herbert Lufkin of Madrid, Me. Dennis Moulton was an Embden tax- payer in 1850 but married Rosanna Pickard of Phillips, where his daughter, Sarah, now resides. Mrs. Vincent Mason of Rangeley and Herbert Moulton of Winthrop are also descended from the line of Jonathan C. Moulton.
Yet another of Deacon Jonathan Fifield Moulton's sons was Rev. Oliver Moulton (1804-1851). Born at Moultonborough, N. H. - like all his brothers and sisters except one - he lived as a young man in Embden and married in 1826 Susan Foss (1809- 1890) native of Barrington. They took up their residence over the line in Concord, where seven of their nine children were born but in the early 1840's returned to Embden. This minister of the olden times was an exceptional character and his life dis-
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played his versatility. He was a jack at all trades, a school teacher and also a good carpenter before he became a minister. He preached the gospel in many places, conducted funerals and performed marriage ceremonies.
Like his older brother he died in middle life, but he left an interesting young family. A son, Oliver J. Moulton (1834-1917) served in the Fourth Maine Battery during the Civil War and was a respected citizen of Concord. B. Randall Moulton (1842- 1862), his brother, fell in the bloody carnage at Fredericksburg. Ai Moulton (1837-1915), another son of the preacher, possessed for many years the old Isaac Savage farm on the beautiful hill- top adjoining Thaddeus F. Boothby. His talented widow, Mary Ann (Hodgdon) Moulton, survives him. Their children are George of Embden, living on his father's farm; Mrs. Vesta Williams of Jackman; and Mrs. Mahlon Boyington of Belfast.
Rev. Oliver Moulton's daughters were: Susan (1830), who became Mrs. William Ellis of Concord; Lucinda (1832-1917) who was the wife of Archa Mullen, a Civil War soldier, and later married Archa's brother, Daniel; Hannah E. (1839-1886), who was Mrs. Ithamer Eames of Bingham and later of Solon with a daughter and three sons; Rose P. (1851-1928) who be- came Mrs. Edward J. Clark of Concord and North Anson and Laura Mae (1845) the only survivor among the sisters who, as widow of John R. Bicknell, is a resident of Portland. Edward J. Clark's three children are all Anson Academy graduates. They are: Arthur M. Clark of Farmington; Laura N. (Mrs. Ernest Buswell) of North Anson and Susie B. (Mrs. Allen Young) of Augusta.
Mrs. Bicknell at her advanced age remains intellectually alert and active in good works. Among her attainments is that of expert operator of a typewriter which she learned to use after she was 80 years of age. Her extensive interests include a fam- ily of sons and grandchildren. Her husband, a Civil War vet- eran, was almost totally blind in his later years during which time his devoted wife hardly left his side. He died at Portland in 1920. Their sons - all born at Madison - are John C. Bick- nell of Portland; Lester H. Bicknell of Wellesley, Mass .; and
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MAE L. MOULTON BICKNELL SUSAN FOSS MOULTON, Her Mother
Edward A. Bicknell of Portland. Lester Bicknell's son, Ivan E. (1900-1918), enlisted when 17 years old, went across with the first A. E. F. and after being three times seriously wounded and gassed once, was accidently killed a month before the Ar- mistice. He was cited for bravery three times. The American Legion Post at Togus is named for him.
Susan (Foss) Moulton, the minister's wife, was a daughter of Ichabod and Sarah (Rowe) Foss who, too, lived on the Emb- den Pond shore near the Moultons. Ichabod was a brother of Isaac and Francis (1785) Foss, who lived on the east side of the pond, and of Levi Foss of Bingham. They were all sons of Isaiah Foss above mentioned of Barrington whence came so many set- tlers who figure in this chapter. Rev. Joseph Foss of Brighton was probably their uncle. Isaiah Foss enlisted in June, 1775, under Capt. Samuel Hays and served three months at Ports- mouth and vicinity erecting forts. He also had three months as a soldier of the Revolution in the campaign of 1777 against. Burgoyne and another three months in 1780 at West Point at the time of Arnold's desertion.
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Isaac Foss of this numerous Barrington family had his Emb- den residence on the east side of the Canada Trail, immediately opposite the present Sidney Dunbar farm. He sold this for $250 to Samuel Clark, presumably the elder. Isaac and Samuel, Sr., had been boys on adjoining farms in New Hampshire. Francis Foss in 1807 married Lydia Fowler, both at that date of Emb- den ; Levi Foss in 1827 married Caroline Fowler. Notwithstand- ing the difference of 20 years Lydia and Caroline are supposed to have been daughters of that Jonathan Fowler who had been in Embden up to 1810 clearing a place (Lot No. 12) northeast of Isaac Foss and Samuel Clark. This property passed before long to Jonathan Cate and eventually to Moses Thompson and his son, Nathan.
But this was a mile and more away and across the Embden Pond from Ichabod Foss, who had come to town as early as 1804. That was the year the town was incorporated. Ichabod was soon serving as a member of the school committee. He was appar- ently one of the first of the many Barrington colonists to arrive and likely enough was persuasive in bringing the Berry family to Embden and in influencing the Moultons to come over the boundary from Concord. He and Susan Rowe were married at Barrington Nov. 21, 1803. Ichabod Foss by 1835, when he sold out the 156 acres he owned to Daniel Steward, Jr., the Anson trader for $200, had two tracts (Nos. 123 and 128), east and west, that stretched from the shore of the Big Pond, almost over to Hancock Pond. The westernmost tract was south of the Sky Farm. He seems to have built up an attractive place, one fea- ture of which was a splendid orchard from which many of his descendants did eat into succeeding generations.
The earning of a livelihood for himself and his large family in Embden's land of the sky did not hold with Ichabod Foss against allurements of the new Wisconsin country. In 1846 he journeyed thither as did numerous other farmers from various parts of Embden. His son, Joel Foss, and his family with whom Ichabod had been living went also. But among Ichabod's chil- dren that he left behind, were a number who became locally well known. There was a daughter, Emeline Foss, a woman of
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refinement and pleasing personality. She married in 1828 Daniel Knowles of Gilman Pond, a man of sterling character who passed his last years in total blindness. At her death she was living at Abington, Mass., with her daughter Emma Fairbanks. Their son, Daniel, a soldier in the 28th Maine Regiment, settled at North New Portland where he was long a respected merchant and died leaving four sons - Scott, Arthur, Fred and Thomas. Emeline's sister, Betsey, married Abram Burns of Lexington and Embden. Their sister, Sarah, married Alvah Berry of Embden, a Civil War veteran. She was a remarkably preserved woman residing at Skowhegan where she assisted her son, a tailor, till within a few days of her death there at the age of 92 years.
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