USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 34
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Ichabod's sons and grandsons owned land in his vicinity of Embden long after he settled in the west. While one son, Wright Foss, was drowned in Embden Pond, another son, James lived on the ancestral farm after his father went to Wisconsin. He married Sarah, daughter of John Williams. Kinsley Foss, now of North Anson, but for many years a resident on the farm farther north at the head of Embden Pond, where the natural scenery summer and winter is superb, now the Dr. R. Hertberg of Bridgeport, Conn., place, is a son of James and Sarah ("Williams) Foss and one of a family of brothers and sisters that included : Elfin J. Foss (1840-1863), a soldier of the 20th Maine Volunteers, who fell at Little Round Top in the battle of Gettysburg; John W. Foss (1843-1862), a soldier of the 28th Maine Volunteers, who died at New York; Sarah, who married Warren Witham of Concord a son of Ebenezer and Mary (Berry) Witham, and Mortimer Bodwell Foss (1855) who died some years ago at Anson.
Rev. Joseph Foss (1765-1852), brother of Isaiah, came from Barrington about the same time and settled with his family at Brighton, marrying in 1812 Sukey W. Russell "of Million Acres," probably a second wife. He was an ordained Baptist minister for 50 years and is buried at Athens. Uriah L. Foss of Skowhegan and Samuel Foss of Auburn are his grandsons. Susan Foss, who first married William Stiles of a Barrington family and then Francis Bunker of Athens, dying at Harmony
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not long ago at the home of a granddaughter when 104 years old, is said to have been Rev. Joseph's sister.
Even as Capt. Nathaniel B. Moulton was remembered for his martial manners, three wives and sturdy offspring, Deacon Ben- jamin Randall Moulton (1807-1878) youngest of the family and the only one who was a native of Maine, was remembered for his piety and his attractive and capable daughters. He was born in Concord soon after his parents came from New Hampshire and is said to have been the first white native of that town. When 18 years old he was baptized into the Freewill Baptist church by Rev. Leonard Hathaway and when the Lexington-Embden church was organized he became for many years an active mem- ber there. From there he went to the schoolhouse services at the "Lost Nation" in Concord and in 1870 joined the church at Concord corner, of which he was chosen deacon. He was ordained by Rev. Samuel Savage and Elders Merrill, Bucher and Carr.
The Deacon and his wife Love (Berry) Moulton (1807-1888), married in 1827, were a wonderful old couple, an example of domestic happiness and sincere living. When they had been wedded 50 years, the anniversary was observed with notable ceremony, part of which was a special sermon by Rev, Samuel Savage. Their household, north of the Joseph Greene farm, was the last in Embden before the road crossed into Concord. Both lived out their days on that attractive hillside.
Hezekiah Moulton (1827-1854) was their oldest child. He lost his life in a railroad accident in Rhode Island. As a schoolboy in Embden, Hezekiah had Julia H. Albee (Mrs. Lemuel Williams) as his teacher in 1835 and, about the same time, Ruhama Dunlap, daughter of Archa, before she married Parker L. Hilton. Cer- tificates of merit were issued in those days to the school children, declaring under a picture of a farming scene, for example, that Hezekiah Moulton "by punctual attendance, diligence and good behavior merits the approbation of his friends and instructress." On the back of two of these certificates, preserved by the late Mrs. Ephraim C. Tripp, were printed poems. One was entitled "On Death," the other "Advantages of early religion." B.
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Frank Moulton (1848) now of North Anson, was the only other son of Deacon Benjamin's family.
Emily S. Moulton (1829-1904) was first of the deacon's daugh- ters. She became the second wife in 1859 of Richard Tripp of Embden. Her sisters were: Mary F. (1831-1902), who married Stephen W. Corey formerly of Ashburnham, Mass .; Lydia S. (1834-1918), who in 1858 became the second wife of Levi Berry of Embden then of Skowhegan, and died at Abington, Mass., where their son, Walter Berry resides; Elizabeth B. (1839), wife of Colby S. Atwood, the prosperous Embden farmer; Love P. (1845-1923), the wife of Ephraim C. Tripp and Flora A. (1853-1906), wife of Elijah Hodgdon for many years postmaster at West New Portland. The Hodgdons had an only daughter, the wife of Leo Standish of Gardiner, a direct descendant of Miles Standish. The Atwood family, who as young people, lived on the original Sky Farm of their great-grandfather, Jonathan Fifield Moulton, included Myra who is Mrs. Fred King of West New Portland; Fanny, widow of Mortimer Bodwell Foss; Mae, who was Mrs. Byron McIntyre; Emily the wife of Dr. Herman Spear of North Anson; and Buswell and Edmond Atwood who are residents of New Portland.
Love Priscilla Moulton was a school teacher prior to her mar- riage to Ephraim Tripp, and in 1863 taught in District No. 11 where the Tripp families were located. She was a woman of literary inclinations, read extensively and wrote excellent poems.
Jonathan Fifield Moulton's progeny in Embden and surround- ing towns are also numerous through his three daughters, all natives of Barrington, N. H. These were Esther C. (1791-1858), Mrs. John Nutting; Margaret F., called "Peggy" (1793- 1846), who was Mrs. Levi Berry of Embden and the mother of a large family ; and Abigail P. (1796-1868), the wife of Daniel Mullen (1794-1851) of Embden. The Mullens resided chiefly on the west side of Embden Pond in the early days, not far from the Moultons. The children of Daniel and Abigail included Jonathan Mullen of Concord; Daniel, Jr., whose first wife was Nancy Doe; Jane, who was Mrs. Jesse Wentworth; and three brothers, Archa, Thomas J. and Ozias who were Union soldiers.
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There was another brother Benjamin Mullen, whose wife was Sophia Gordon. Archa Mullen married Lucinda, daughter of Rev. Oliver Moulton, but did not return from his second enlist- ment. His widow eventually married Daniel Mullen, Jr., who had become a widower. Ozias Mullen did not marry. He was a clever carpenter and once made a little trunk with a lock and key which he claimed no locksmith could duplicate. This trunk is now owned at Portland as a receptable for treasured papers.
By 1870 the only Embden tax payers remaining of the Mullen family were Joel, who had 125 acres on the east shore of Embden Pond, south of Ayer hill, Abram S. Mullen on the west shore, but somewhat north, and Daniel Mullen. Fifteen years later Joel had vacated his farm and the only tax payers of the name were Abram's son, John, who now has children and grand- children in Embden, and Daniel Mullen, Jr. One daughter of the Embden Mullens resides at Providence.
Daniel Mullen and his wife, Abigail, rest in the old Moulton graveyard on a high knoll that overlooks Embden Pond. It is now in the heart of the forest but can be discerned at the east side of the road by an old iron fence. Within the enclosure also lie Rev. Oliver Moulton and his wife Susan; Deacon Benja- min and his wife with Hezekiah, their son; James and Sarah Foss and their two soldier sons whose remains were brought home from the firing line. Deacon Jonathan Fifield Moulton and his wife Lydia lie there also but in unmarked graves.
Several intimate family anecdotes have been handed down through the generations of the Moulton family. One of these is about Jonathan Fifield Moulton's big orchard. Mrs. Ephraim C. Tripp used to narrate how when her grandfather (Jonathan Fifield Moulton) brought his family to Maine he left behind his oldest daughter, whose married name was Hannah Edgerly. She saved a bag of appleseeds and sent them to her father in Embden. He planted them and thus made the beginning of his orchard.
As Deacon Benjamin Moulton was born after the family came to Maine, he never saw his oldest sister until after he married Love Berry, when they took their wedding trip to New Hamp- shire on horseback. The Deacon's father and mother accom-
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panied them. The story runs that it was a surprise visit. On their arrival Deacon Benjamin rapped and his sister came to the door. She regarded him steadily for a while and then said: "You are my brother, Benjamin." Then seeing the others she exclaimed : "Oh, there's father and mother." A very happy reunion fol- lowed.
Residing in the same corner of Embden, intimate neighbors of the Moultons, were the Tripps and Stricklands. Both in- cluded men and women of individuality and character. Several members of these two families attained more than local reputations. This held par- ticularly of Dr. G. Alston Tripp (1873-1928), who prac- ticed at Worcester, Mass., for thirty-two years. His fame as a specialist in skin diseases and ailments extended over all New England and to New York, but he also had a large medical practice and gained considerable renown as an obstetrician. Dr. Tripp had his own. philosophy of his work and his life. Although recognized as a leading skin specialist in his section of the DR. G. ALSTON TRIPP country, he would accept only comparatively small fees for his professional services. He believed he had reached the pinnacle of his profession when able to perform a service well and be im- mediately available to every class of people.
Born in Embden, the son of Richard H. and Mandana Lawry Tripp, he went to the district school near Hancock Pond, was graduated at Anson Academy, '91, then attended Bowdoin Col- lege and was graduated at the Medical School in '96. He went immediately to the Worcester City Hospital for his interneship, from which time his career was entirely in that city. He main-
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tained his offices, however, in South Worcester and persisted in preferring that to a more central location in the business district. Everybody in South Worcester knew him and he seemed to know everybody and all revered him highly. His wife was Miss Mary I. Schultz. Their three sons are Alston C., Robert H., and Paul W. Tripp. Dr. Tripp had a brother, Harry Tripp, who resides at Portland, Me., and two sisters - Susan of Onset, Mass., and Nellie of Madison.
The first settler of the family in Embden was David Tripp (1791-1862) with his wife Polly (Richardson) Tripp (1793- 1863). Her family included early settlers in adjacent Lexing- ton. Their children were :
Eben (1812) twice married, his first wife having been Arvilla Chandler, his second Mary Hutchins.
Richard (1814-1885), whose first wife was Hester (1811-1859) daughter of Henry and Lydia (Holden) Leeman and whose sec- ond wife was Emily S. Moulton (1829) daughter of Deacon Ben- jamin and Love (Berry) Moulton. Hester Leeman Tripp had the abnormal physical characteristic of one perfectly blue eye and one eye perfectly black.
Hiram (1817) who married Mary Leeman of Embden in 1838. Their children included Freeman Tripp (1840), Samuel Tripp (1842) and Hiram, Jr., (1845). The family of Hiram Tripp had been established several years south of Hancock Pond be- fore the town made a road thither. It is in the records of March 2, 1846, that a road was accepted as laid out by the selectmen, starting at the county road on the west side of Embden Pond, thence passing the residence of Solomon Walker (who afterward moved south into the Soule tract) and to the foot of Hancock Pond to the road leading past Hiram Tripp's to the New Port- land road.
Alvira (1820-1840) whose husband was Daniel Rowe; Viletta (1822-1851) ; David (1826) who married Susan Hutchins; Polly (1828-1851) whose husband was Stephen Brumble; Lucy (1830), whose husband was David Hutchins; William (1832) and Leon- ard Tripp (1834).
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The Embden Tripps are largely through the family of Rich- ard and his two marriages. For more than half a century theirs was an outstanding name. Richard's children by Hester Lee- man were :
Simeon (1835-1864) who enlisted in the 16th Maine Volun- teers and died of starvation in Salisbury prison.
Byron (1836-1862) who went to Wisconsin as a young man, enlisted in the 5th Wisconsin Volunteers and fell at Fredericks- burg.
Sarah J. (1839) who became Mrs. Daniel H. Brown.
Richard H. (1846) a long time resident of Embden and father of Dr. Tripp as above. He was a big, powerful man and used to sell one, one-half, and one-quarter bushel baskets of his own manufacture at the Embden town house on March meeting days.
Daniel (1838) who married Sarah B. Spencer of Embden in 1871 and Flora E. Merrill of New Portland in 1875. He lived west of Black Hill.
Ephraim C. (1845-1918) whose wife was Love P. Moulton.
Esther Maria Tripp (1847-1879).
And by Richard Tripp's marriage with Emily Moulton there were :
Edwin F. (1862) who married Georgietta Strickland in 1884, their two first children having been Lester F. and Minnie L. Tripp; Emily M. (1868-1899), Byron S. (1871) who lives at New Portland and Frank E. Tripp.
Daniel Tripp had one daughter (Lucy) by his first wife. When a small child she went away with her mother to Dakota and always resided there except for occasional visits to Maine. She married Milton Pinkham. They had no children and have been dead many years.
Children of Daniel Tripp and his second wife, Flora Merrill, included Albert, deceased in recent years, who never married; Alice M., who was Mrs. Pearl Fuller of North Jay, Me., where her brother, Alfred, and his wife Cristal D. McClure, also re- sided; and Ethel F. and Clarence Tripp, both of North New Portland and also unmarried. Albert and Clarence Tripp car- ried on quite extensive farm and lumbering operations, that
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Clarence still continues. They were at one time owners of several old time Embden and Lexington farms. Among these were the William W. Moulton farm, the Alden Strickland and Noah Huff places on Lexington Ridge, the Moses Strickland farm, their own old home place where Clarence and Ethel Tripp still reside summers, and the George A. Pierce place near North Village where they live the rest of the year.
Ephraim C. Tripp had a creditable record in the Civil War. He enlisted from Embden when sixteen years old as a substitute in a nine months regiment but served eleven months and later reenlisted in the First Maine Heavy Artillery. Richard H. Tripp, his brother, enlisted with him but was rejected because he had lost the trigger finger of his right hand. Ephraim's ser- vice extended to some of the most severe battles of the war. He was a charter member and at one time commander of the Grand Army Post at North New Portland.
Vestiges of Mrs. Ephraim Tripp's beautiful flower garden still remain in front of the family homestead on an entrancing site that overlooks Embden Pond. This was the place south of the Joseph Greene's, or big Sky Farm. Ephraim's brother, Rich- ard H., resided farther west. Simeon Tripp in 1860 had his house close by Hancock stream where it flows from the pond. Eph- raim and Love Tripp had the following children : Millie A. (1867) Mrs. Mellen H. Berry of North Anson; Adelmont R. (1868-1895) who died in a lumber accident; Percival A. (1870) of North New Portland; Florence E. of Auburn and Stella V. (Mrs. Herbert E. Bickford) also of Auburn. Mrs. Bickford has written considerable poetry, including the beautiful verses "Embden" on a preface page of this volume. In that regard she has inherited talent from her mother.
The Strickland brothers, Otis and Daniel D., were at Embden as early as 1834 occupying farms south of Hancock Pond and in the extreme northwest part of town. Daniel who may have been a son, was living on Lot No. 170, north of that pond ·by 1858 but in 1834, when he seems to have come from Dead River, the elder Daniel gave a deed to Tobias Churchill, Jr., of New Port- land on Lot No. 201, adjoining the New Portland line, and his
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brother Otis was a witness. Both these brothers raised large families and about 1860 the older and younger generations of these two Strickland families well nigh filled the northwest corner of Embden. Otis Strickland was justice of the peace for several years, including 1860, and had a family of seven sons and four daughters as follows :
Lewis (1823) ; Otis, Jr., (1824) ; Martin (1826) ; Moses L. (1830) who married Elizabeth W. Taber of Vassalboro and was a Civil War soldier living on Lot 169 prior to 1863; Martha (1829), Mrs. William Pooler of Skowhegan; Cyrus Boothby (1832) ; Augustus (1834) ; Rufina (1836); Eastman T. (1838); Almira C. (1841) who married Leonard H. Dyer of Embden in 1860; and Charity Boothby Strickland (1844) who became Mrs. Lorenzo H. Moulton in 1863. Otis Strickland was an admirer of Capt. Cyrus Boothby far across Embden Pond as is shown by naming a son for him and a daughter for Capt. Cyrus' wife. When Moses L. Strickland in 1857 was asking the town to allow him a road from near Simeon Tripp's the petition was signed by the following neighbors: Richard Tripp, Daniel Strickland, Daniel D. Strickland, Heth Goodrich, John Young, Simeon Tripp, David Tripp, John Gordon, Benjamin R. Moulton, Au- gustus Strickland and Otis Strickland.
Daniel D. Strickland and his wife, Christiana, were pillars of the Lexington-Embden Freewill Baptist church. Their three sons, Asa (1825) who in 1863 resided on Lot No. 176, Benjamin (1840) and Lee Strickland were Union soldiers. Their other children were: Charles (1827) ; Rachel (1828), Mrs. John Ball, 2nd, of New Portland; Daniel (1831), who married Parmelia C. Gray ; Seba (1835) ; Aurilla (1839) and Abel (1858). Daniel D. Strickland's wife, Christiana, died in 1856 and in 1857 he married Mrs. Susannah J. Gray. After his death Oct. 5, 1864, she resided many years in northwest Embden. Abel Strickland and Otis Strickland (1860) were her sons, half-brothers of Merilla Gray (1851) and W. F. Gray (1853). Seba Strickland wedded in 1859 Sophronia L. Graves of No. 2 and had two chil- dren Frank W. (1861) and Alice M. (1864) in Embden.
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From the lofty outlook of these early Moulton sites Embden Pond was the occasional theater of impressive occurrences. "Standing in the door of my hillside home one day of my early girlhood," wrote Mrs. Bicknell, daughter of Rev. Oliver Moul- ton, "I witnessed a spectacle that was sublimely frightful. A tornado swept through the southern part of Embden, uprooting trees and taking everything in its wake until it struck the pond. There it became a water spout and went the whole length of that expanse (four miles). It looked like the pictures I have seen in the geographies and the noise was terrible."
An incident of later times, but now well nigh forgotten, start- ed in a small cove near the foot of the pond where two girls ventured to bathe. That was before farmhouses had bathtubs. A raft, on which they were playing, drifted beyond their depth and was quickly caught by a brisk wind, so that the raft and its terrified passengers were blown toward the head of the pond. It finally attracted attention of women folks at houses on the commanding hills, so that a rescue party was organized by Ran- dall Moulton and others from a hay field.
An intimate glimpse at the life of the farming people in this part of Embden three-quarters of a century ago is afforded by a letter that Samuel W. Greene wrote at Providence Feb. 21, 1843, to his son Joseph N. Greene, whose farm at that date was bordered by Ichabod Foss on the south and Deacon Benjamin Moulton on the north. It was in answer to a letter that Joseph Greene had written. After expressing regrets that "Adie's health continues unsound (meaning Mrs. Joseph Greene) and that she has no steady help" Samuel Greene continues :
"I observe you are very busy in the woods and I hope you will sharpen the rail timber when you get it home. I hope it may not be your Posts that you are to sharpen; with that kind of Posts I think you have had sufficient trouble already.
I notice you have sold a pair of oxen to Cyrus Grant which I think you could well spare as your stock of oxen is much too great compared with your Cows. I hope you have a winter milk's cow which is a great comfort during the cold season. It is the practice with the best farmers here if they have not one to buy
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a farrow cow for the winter and fat them for beef for the ensu- ing year. I am sorry your potatoes turned out so light. I was not disappointed tho from the appearance of them when I left you; they were badly planted and the ground not sufficiently tilled. No doubt considerable loss was sustained by their being planted so wide apart. Your other crops producted reasonably well and prices, except for oats, were very great compared with ours here."
Mr. Greene wrote to his son in Embden much more in the same strain, with comments about candidates of the suffrage party, the "oppression of taxes in Maine" as compared with Rhode Island and the plans of women in the Embden household about coming to Providence in the spring.
The old records of Embden are fast becoming the only chart to this hardy northwest neighborhood of long ago. The region of Embden, Concord and Lexington that was once a "Nation" long since lapsed into the "Lost Nation." The schoolhouses in the Moulton district and in the Tripp district (at one time known as Nos. 10 and 11), where Moulton, Tripp and Strickland teachers as well as local preachers and deacons flourished yield- ed many years ago to the elements. The Joseph Greene road, north and south, is now in considerable part abandoned. A sign board, not far from Sky Farm, warns the traveler that he pro- ceeds at his own risk. The several Moulton homesteads are marked by cellar holes, or, in a few instances, by roofs that are falling in. The little neighborhood graveyard on a sightly knoll, is covered with a young forest that cuts off the once glorious vista on the pond. Some Moulton kinsmen, however, have recently cleared away the underbrush and straightened up the iron fence, but were unable to locate in the neighborhood the blackened boulder that Jonathan Fifield Moulton once used as the back of his cabin chimney. It was to have been moved to this graveyard to mark the last resting place of the pioneer who planted the largest orchard of Maine in his day and raised a wonderful family.
A furlong northward, athwart the abandoned highway and at the point where it begins, there is a substantial gateway with
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two solid posts of granite and cement. They bear a brass inscrip- tion : "Mountain Heart" and stand near the entrance to Dr. Hertberg's estate. But otherwise this section of north Embden, where the battle for homes and a better opportunity was waged relentlessly is fast reverting to the forest of the ages. In less than another generation the clearings will nearly all have dis- appeared and the region will have become the axeman's Eden. The men and women who lived sternly amid the privations of such a superb scenery will have become barely a memory to the progeny they sent forth to a newer destiny.
CHAPTER XXVIII
FROM UNDER A TRAITOR'S HEEL
Winter caravans to the upper Kennebec in early days in- cluded many veterans of the Revolution. Barrington, having then 3,000 people, was a favorite starting point for these "colonists." It supplied a goodly coterie of families that helped in founding Embden. Something like three families from Bar- rington, or vicinity, were in the Queenstown neighborhood. As many more at least established themselves along the Canada Trail, while northward and westward of middle Embden was still another sturdy band, likewise from Barrington, Barnstead or Durham. For two generations these settlers from the Granite State, who also included a notable group on Seven Mile Brook, kept in close touch with their kin back home, even as divers other Embden families cherished former ties for similar cause with Wiscasset and with Woolwich, whose households were originally in no small part out of Berwick and Massachusetts. The Massachusetts migration stream flowed eastward by way of Newington, Kittery and Berwick and mingled not a little at those points with a like stream from New Hampshire into Maine but the Embden families under discussion here were more strictly New Hampshire families.
Little wonder, therefore, that ancient censuses of early Emb- den bear names like unto those of contemporary years at Wool- wich or that Barrington censuses of 1790 and on with 30 odd families of Foss and quite a half dozen each of Berry, Cates, Felker, Rowe and others had rosters that were duplicated along the Kennebec, on either side of the Canada Trail and in that other Embden community of the land of the sky.
Grandsire Benjamin Berry (1762-1860), as Embden neigh- bors spoke of him in his advanced age, was one of these New Hampshire veterans. Born at Rye Beach of Nathaniel and Judith (Marden) Berry, who had lived at Crown Point, then at Center Harbor and later at Barrington, Benjamin was from one
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