USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 35
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of the very oldest New Hampshire families. He traced his ancestry back to that William Berry who was one of the com- pany John Mason sent in 1631 to settle his New Hampshire grant and became known as William Berry of Strawberry Bank and Sandy Beach.
Benjamin Berry's mature life spanned the long period from the Revolution to the Civil War. Around his pioneer fireside, with its fine western prospect across the head of Embden Pond toward the Moulton cabins in the hills, he was a patriarchal fig- ure. His tale of Revolutionary service was known far and wide. It was identified with his farm and neighborhood. His enlist- ment dated from a July day in 1780 when all that section of the colony had been aroused by an alarm that West Point on the Hudson - a strategic place to the patriot cause - was im- periled by the British forces. Capt. Joshua Foss started forth in Barrington to raise a company. A drummer paraded three times up and down the village. Benjamin Berry, a blacksmith lad of 18 years, was the first to fall in.
The squad, which included Josiah Foss, as well as Isaiah Foss of Embden and Concord, where he became Grandsire Berry's neighbor, was marched away to New York State. At West Point it was assigned to Capt. Moses Leavitt's Company in Col. Thomas Bartlett's regiment and, as Grandsire Benjamin was wont to relate long years afterward, "was placed under the im- mediate command of the traitorous Arnold." The crippled veteran's narrative as written down by those who heard it in the 1840's, continued in this wise :
"We were soon sold - yes sir, sold is the word. I used to draw my ration of beef and salt for three days and put it all in my mouth at once. We thought the supplies were short. After Arnold had escaped to the British lines we had enough to eat. Then we knew Arnold had kept us on short rations so we could not fight if the British came."
When Grandsire Benjamin was very old he applied to the Pension Commissioner at Washington for a pension but, on the ground of insufficient evidence of service, it was denied. The affidavit that he filed in his case was witnessed by Valentine
UP THE POND FROM ROCKY POINT TO GRANDSIRE BERRY'S HILL
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Felker, a brother of Grandsire's daughter-in-law. This affidavit was in the following terms :
"I was wounded by a shot through my knee while in the service after the ever memorable and disgraceful (Sale) sur- render by Arnold to the British. Other troops were ordered to fill our places and we were in the month of October following dismissed (paroled) and sent home as Minute Men. I was never therefore discharged from the service and being never again called for I never joined the army and don't know as I could and therefore never received any compensation for my service nor for the horrible mortification of being transposed by a most atrocious villain. I was ninety years old the 15th of March last (1852) and now pray that the records and returns may be faithfully examined to see if my services can be found anywhere and whether the payment has ever been made to any person - if so it was wrongfully done - and, if found due. to have a proper order given for its payment."
This was addressed to the Commissioner of Pensions. Neigh- bors and other fellow townsmen at various intervals previously had sent papers to Washington in his behalf. His comrad, Josiah Foss, who seems to have settled in Maine, had made an affidavit in 1844 toward establishing the fact of Grandsire's service. But this affidavit had somehow been lost and Joshua Gray of Emb- den, justice of the peace, before whom it had been executed swore to the substance of the original paper and it, too, was forwarded to Washington. Benjamin C. Atwood, Ephraim Dun- lap and Joseph Bean - all living near by - joined in a testi- monial to his character and veracity.
When hope of favorable action before the Pension Commis- sioner was gone, Valentine Felker took the case to Eusebius Weston at Skowhegan, a veteran of the War of 1812, and Mr. Weston, in January, 1856, wrote to Senator Hannibal Hamlin at Washington as follows :
"I send you a novel case of a man I never saw though I am acquainted with his descendants. I hope the singularity of it will incite interest enough to insure a thorough examination,
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though the returns, perhaps, were never made of this squad. There is no Toryism in the old fellow."
That late William M. E. Brown, lawyer of Solon, but of a family that had lived in Embden, wrote to Washington how Grandsire Benjamin, as a soldier, while on the march home from West Point and within three months after his enlistment, had been accidentally shot in the right leg near the knee joint by the discharge of the musket of another soldier, John Hayes; that the accident was at Durham Falls, N. H .; that Benjamin was confined a long time by the wound and that it created a permanent lameness. Lawyer Brown explained that several attempts to place Grandsire Benjamin on the pension roll had failed with the Commissioner of Pensions because of inability to obtain necessary proof on account of the death of all but Joshua Foss who were his associates in the service.
Senator Hamlin introduced a bill to allow Benjamin Berry a pension of $8 a month and to confirm the record of his service. In due time this bill became a law. Apart from the monetary consideration - which was very welcome - the act of Congress proved a great solace to the aged beneficiary. He cherished this token of his youthful patriotism through the four ensuing years while the sun of his long life was slowly sinking westward. His relatives and neighbors listened with veneration to the old man's reminiscencies. One of these was of the day when he saw Wash- ington at West Point after the capture of Andre. Riding among his troops the General rose in his stirrups and shouted : "Men can you fight ?" and was answered by three cheers from the half famished soldiers.
Grandsire Benjamin came to Embden from Barrington in 1817 when 55 years old. His wife was Mary Foss (1766-1824), daughter of George and Abigail (Rand) Foss of "The Ridge" in Barrington. She had a brother called "Gentleman George" because of his elegant manners. Grandsire had probably fol- lowed his trade of blacksmith at Barrington, where his twelve children were born, eight of whom lived to grow up and have families of their own. From Benjamin and Mary and these eight children have probably sprung as large a portion of Emb- [ 1
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den's population, past and present, as from any other pioneer household. They had three sons - Levi, Nathan and Benjamin F. - and five daughters.
George Berry, one of Grandsire's several brothers, probably did not follow him to Maine till a few years later. He was living at Barrington in 1822. George's story and that of his two sons -Samuel and George, Jr., - pertain largely to Concord where this branch of the family chiefly resided. Samuel Berry, however, was at Embden in 1828 at which time he had five scholars. His farm was bounded north by the Concord line. His uncle, Grandsire Benjamin, was his neighbor on the west ; Michael Howard lived on the south; Col. Lemuel Witham who had previously resided on Lot. 81 two miles south was now his neighbor on the east. He lived there till July 2, 1835 when for $200 he sold his 50-acre farm to Daniel Steward, Jr., and Franklin Smith of Anson. Samuel Berry's wife was Mary Howard and their family included three splendid daughters. These were: Susan Jane Berry (1822-1908), born at Barnstead (near Barrington) who married Chandler Savage and died at Bingham; Havillah F. Berry (1829-1898) who was Mrs. Amos Hilton of Embden; and Nancy who married Horace Wells and in 1842 Zachariah Williams.
But the Berry name in Embden has been more numerous from Levi (1787-1858), one of Grandsire Benjamin's oldest sons. When he came into the new country with his father, Levi was a veteran of the second war against Great Britain. For 17 days service during September, 1812, under Capt. Paul Montgomery at Portsmouth, N. H., Congress awarded him 160 acres of land at Ionia, Mich., in 1855. Before Levi came to Embden he had married Margaret (Peggy) F. Moulton (1794-1846), daughter of Jonathan Fifield Moulton. When 30 years old he purchased of Dr. Bezar Bryant at Anson, a 50-acre farm, which was the west half of Lot 89. Benjamin F. Berry, his brother, lived im- mediately east of him on land that Marshall Berry occupied later. Levi and Benjamin were thus adjacent to the Concord line. When Levi purchased his tract of 50 acres, it had a log hut and a small place for sowing rye. This had been cleared by
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Luther Cleveland, Jr., whose father lived in the southern part of the town.
Brother Benjamin F. Berry (1796-1864) - with whom Grandsire resided - and his wife, Sarah (Felker) Berry (1789- 1858) were married in 1821, four years after the family came from Barrington. . They were childless but Sarah's grand- daughter, Sally Williams, by a first marriage lived with them. Benjamin F. Berry in 1831 transferred the lower 25 acres of his holdings to Sally Williams' mother, Roxanna and it became part of the farm long occupied by Roxanna's son-in-law, Francis Burns (1831-1899). The Levi Berry 50-acre parcel of Lot No. 89 adjoining was owned for many years by Levi's son, Michael F. Berry. All these homesteads of Levi and Benjamin Berry and of Francis Burns that were the center of a populous neighborhood for more than a century are still owned by Berry descendants. Upon the death of his first wife, Benjamin F. Berry married Susan Clark, daughter of old Samuel on the Canada Trail.
Nathan Berry - Grandsire's only other son - emigrated to Maine. Marrying Rebecca Noble, he established his rooftree at Brighton, where, like his father, he raised a family of three sons and five daughters. One of his sons, Nathan F. Berry of Brighton, on Dec. 27, 1832, married Hannah Drew of Embden, who had grown up in the family of Ebenezer and Mary (Berry) Witham, his uncle and aunt.
Grandsire's five daughters wedded altogether in the im- mediate neighborhood of Embden and Concord. Alice Berry was the wife of Isaac Smith (1797-1859) of Concord. As a widow, when both were at an advanced age, she married in 1860 Ebenezer Clark of Embden, brother of Benjamin F. Berry's second wife. Mary Berry as the wife of Ebenezer Witham bore him two sons, Albert and Ebenezer, Jr., and three daughters, Susan Berry was the wife of Richard Harlow. Betsey Berry and Love Berry married respectively Jonathan and Benjamin Moulton, brothers of Mrs. Levi Berry. These three marriages of the Moultons and Berrys in one generation apart from previous family marriages in New Hampshire, go far toward explaining
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why the two families hold joint reunions to this day in Embden. One also easily understands why so many of the Foss, Witham, Harlow, Mullen, Savage, Hilton, Walker, Felker, Clark, Wil- liams and Witham descendants qualify for these gatherings.
The spreading branches of Grandsire Benjamin Berry's tree into the third generation are well illustrated through Levi, although Grandsire's son, Nathan, raised quite as prolific a family. The marriage roster of 12 of Levi's 14 children is as follows :
George W. Berry's wife was Lucy Dunlap (1820-1843), daughter of Archa. She lies in the Hodgdon burying ground. They were married in 1840. Abigail Berry married Joel Foss, son of Ichabod, and went with him to Wisconsin. Margaret Ann (1817-1904) became Mrs. Solomon Walker in 1836 and lived all her days in Embden and New Portland. Alvah Berry married Sarah Foss, sister of Joel. Eliza C. Frederic was the first wife and Lydia S. Moulton the second wife of Levi Berry, Jr., of Lexington and Skowhegan. Nathan Berry's wife was Mary Atwood of Concord. Michael F. (1825-1902) married
ABIGAIL (BURNS) BERRY MICHAEL F. BERRY
Abigail Burns (1828-1899) ; John T. (1831-1918) married Sabra Burns (1833-1884) ; William Berry (1826) wedded Lucy An- drews (1826) of Pleasant Ridge. Irene and Lydia M. (1835- 1892) were married to Albert and Abel Churchill, brothers.
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The Churchills were notable in settler annals. Their alliances with two of the Levi Berry daughters produced many children and grandchildren, not a few of whom still reside in Somerset county. Abel and Albert were born at The Forks, elder sons of a large family by Daniel and Caroline (Baker) Churchill of Caratunk. Albert and Irene Churchill occupied farm No. 57, the Lyman Berry place of later years, and had four daughters of whom three are living. Mrs. Fannie Dane Huff, wife of the proprietor of the Huff studio at Skowhegan, is a granddaughter. One of Albert's daughters was Rena Churchill, a popular Emb- den teacher.
Abel and Lydia M. Churchill settled in Union, Waupaca county, Wis., and both died there. Some of their children, however, were born at Embden. One of these, Mrs. Carrie Rice of Waupaca, wrote from there :
"I remember well the morning we started for Wisconsin in August, 1867 and how sad my poor mother was at leaving all her people. Father had just got his feet badly poisoned with ivy and could wear only carpet slippers all the way out here. My brother, Louis Almore Churchill, had died of scarlet fever in May, 1861, and was buried in the family cemetery on Grandpa Berry's old farm. How well do I remember the last time mother visited that grave. It seemed her heart must break. She never ceased to mourn for her first born."
There are many descendants of the Abel Churchills in the west. One of Abel's daughters, Julia, was the wife of Rev. Fred B. Sherwin.
This community of the Berry pioneers was a parent hive that several families held in affectionate regard through two or three generations. They were joined in associations that endured through a prolonged struggle with wilderness conditions and made a noteworthy neighborhood of the young town. The Felker kin, also from Barrington, became settlers in that part of Emb- den and Concord. Sarah Felker, wife of Benjamin F. Berry, was a daughter of Michael (Mike) Felker. His farm was part of Lot 21 over by the Kennebec. He and Mary Floper Felker had nine children two of whom married and settled down in New Hamp-
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shire. The other seven came to Embden with their parents. Most of them made their homes near the Berry neighborhood. These children other than Sarah were:
Valentine Felker whose wife was Susan Park. He resided at Concord and also at Starks. He was active in obtaining a pen- sion for Grandsire Benjamin Berry.
Charles Felker, who was of Embden in 1806 when he married Hannah Foss of the same place. They settled in Concord, having a farm that Chandler Savage occupied afterward.
Joshua Felker, who described himself as of Caratunk in 1809 when he married Nancy, daughter of Isaac Savage of Embden. She was a sister of Jacob Savage, 2nd, a pioneer in Concord. Joshua Felker had a farm near his brother Charles.
Mary Ann Felker (1791-1814) who in 1811 married Mark S. Blunt of Norridgewock, a tailor. Roy Savage of Bingham is a descendant of Mary Ann. Her namesake, probably a cousin, became the bride in 1816 of John Libbee on the Canada Trail.
Margaret Felker, who became Mrs. Joseph Bean. Her husband was an Embden taxpayer in 1820.
Daniel Felker who married Katie Crosby and lived in Con- cord near his brothers. His house was a large, two-story structure of colonial type just above and on the opposite side of the road from where the present Concord corner schoolhouse now stands. Corydon Felker (1832-1920), graduate of Anson Academy and business man of Concord and Solon, was Daniel's son. Philena Felker (Mrs. Thaddeus Boothby) of Embden was Daniel's daughter. Fred and Frank Boynton of New Portland are sons of another of Daniel's daughters. When he was an old man, Daniel Felker moved to Solon.
Joseph Felker on Lot 62 in middle Embden was probably a brother, certainly a kinsman of Mike. David Felker who mar- ried Sophia Jones of Madison in 1817 was a son. This David was appointed as an attorney in 1853 to investigate the matter of his father's Revolutionary War pension and reported that it had all been paid. Col. Lemuel Witham and wife were witnesses in 1823 to a lease Joseph Felker made of his farm to a son Elisha. Probably of the same household was Isaiah Felker who
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long ago kept a variety store at Concord corner. He married in 1840 Sophronia Wells, a sister of Ralph Wells of Embden. Silas Felker was Isaiah's brother and Flavilla (Mrs. William E. Brown, wife of the hotel keeper at North Anson) was his sister. Silas became very well to do and moved to Los Angeles. Isaiah had a son Almond whose widow, Sarah, resided at Pittsfield. Ivan and Leo Felker were their sons. Faustina, a daughter of Isaiah, married Sylvester Healey and always lived on the home farm. Isaiah's sister Mercy, wedded John Gordon and they lived several years on the Ichabod Foss farm.
Other Felkers of Embden were James, who married Jane Holden in 1831; Sarah, who became Mrs. William Smith in 1834; Mary Jane, who was Mrs. Jacob Towne in 1843 and Daniel, who married Martha Gardiner of Palermo in 1844. Most of these probably were of Joseph Felker's household. Daniel and Martha Felker in 1860 lived west of Jackins Brook and north of the Embden station. They had three daughters, one of whom was Mary O. (1846-1928). She married Richard Holden of Jackman. F. R. Holden of Portland is a son. Mrs. Anna Temple of Upton, Mass., and Mrs. Nellie Johnston of Jackman were the other daughters. Guy Holden of New York City and Mrs. Emma Eames of Upton belong to the third generation of this Embden family.
Levi Berry's sons had become of fighting age when the Civil War broke out. They stepped forth with the same spirit their grandfather Benjamin had displayed in following the drummer at Barrington in July, 1780. Alvah, William and Levi, Jr., served in the Union armies. Their nephew, Daniel Kingman Williams, who married Margaret Berry in 1864, was an Embden volunteer.
The robust stock of the elder Levi Berry increased and mul- tiplied at Embden and elsewhere in the third generation from him. It would take much space to enumerate the many latter day households where these sons and daughters are known as useful citizens. One of them is Austin Berry, among Embden's best farmers and a former collector of taxes and road commis- sioner. His father was John T. Berry, the temperance advocate.
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Austin's first cousin, Truman, is a wealthy business man at Whittier, Calif. One of Truman's older brothers, James, re- sided at Eau Claire, Wis. The list of Berry sons and daughters, out of Embden, who have won a measure of success, is a long one.
Forty years ago, or thereabouts, three sons of Levi tilled somewhat neighboring farms near the head of Big Pond. These were Michael F., William and John T. Berry. The latter then resided at Clark corner. These 1 three brothers with their wives and families were in themselves a robust commu- nity. But there were other brothers and sisters in Con- cord and elsewhere. The three Embden brothers with their unusually large fam- ilies were :
Michael F. and Abigail Burns Berry had: Margaret (1847), who was Mrs. Daniel K. Williams; Marshall (1848) ; Ida M. (1851), who was Mrs. Greenleaf Brown ; Dora (1855), who was Mrs. JOHN T. BERRY Temperance Reformer Lewis Hilton; Sarah F. (1858-1927), who was Mrs. Amon Baker; Ellen Cora (1860), who married Frank J. Adams; Aura Ella (1862), who is Mrs. James Murphy on the Kennebec River road; Benjamin M. (1865) ; Mellen H. (1867) ; Bert O. 1869; Sadie; Viola, widow of Harris Williams at North Anson and Lovell M. Berry on the paternal farm.
William (1826) and Lucy Bailey Berry (1826) had: James A. (1847), who went west; Lyman (1849), married Sophronia Burns; Emma Minerva (1851), the second wife of W. W. Moulton; Truman (1853), whose wife was Loiza Holbrook of Embden; Melvin (1856); Granville (1858); Addie (1861) :
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EMBDEN POND FROM GRANDSIRE BERRY'S HILL
Elfin (1863), who lives on his father's farm; and Georgia (1867), who was Mrs. Carroll Caswell.
John T. and Sarbra (Burns) Berry's children were: Michael (1853-1925), whose wife was Ellen Daggett; Llewellyn (1865- 1904), whose wife was Flora Pierce (1859-1903) ; Emma J. (1856-1919) wife of Sylvester Jackson; Austin (1859), whose wife was Emma F. Pierce (1863-1915), a sister of Flora; Mar- cellus (1860-1919) ; Nellie May (1862), who is Mrs. Mason Luce of Lexington; Florence (1865) who is Mrs. Delmont Norton; John T., Jr., (1869) ; and Fred Berry (1870). John T., Jr., and Fred Berry are residents of New Portland. John T. Berry, the elder, following the death of his wife at Lexington, married Widow Sophia Judkins, who had a daughter, Rose. John T. died at Strong.
And thus runs the story of Grandsire Benjamin Berry of the Revolution with its chapter of many human lives continuing into the years that are to come. After his march to West Point in high courage for an encounter with the British foe, after his resentful return because of a traitor's defection and after years of sojourn on one of Embden's beautiful hills he with Mary Foss, who shared his joys and sorrows, passed to their long reward. She died many years in advance of her husband. After her death Freewill Baptist neighbors wanted Grandsire or- dained as deacon. He replied he would not because the Bible
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said a deacon should be the husband of one wife and he had none.
The two are buried in a little yard, now badly overgrown, but close up to the Concord boundary and on a hilltop with a wonderful view down Embden Pond and through the heart of the town.
CHAPTER XXIX
DOORWAYS ALONG THE TRAIL
A galaxy of Embden's most capable men through a century, alike at home and in achievements afar, dwelt by that most ancient of highways thereabouts-the Canada Trail. Adown its shady stretches of woodland, along its uplift into the very sky, present day ramblers enjoy entrancing contrasts of scene over its nearly fifty furlongs of distance.
Time-worn buildings on either side and patches of rocky des- olation analyze into beautiful settings. Colorful forests crowd the edges of silvery areas of water that mirror into the horizon.
Ruts, rocks and jogs galore there were of old in passage here. These the roadmenders have largely removed, but numerous lanes and by-ways, converging into this "Middle Road," were closed long ago and many families that turned in there journeyed out upon the thoroughfares of the wide, wide world never more to return. They are of course locally forgotten.
The beautiful prospect continues here at every turn of the wheel. This is heightened by historic association of the road- way, traveled by Indian and white man when all else for some distance was a pathless forest. It stretches off into Concord, traversing the two farms that Nathan Savage owned and then crossing the mountain. Charles J. Savage, son of Nathan and erstwhile driver of the Concord stage says the Trail from there "ran about two miles in Pleasant Ridge and from there went to Rowe Ponds, continued through Carrying Place Plantation, thence through Bow Town and across Dead River about one mile west of The Forks. From there it appears to have been the main road as now traveled to the Canadian line."
Embden people of later times, unmindful of the procession of interesting persons to and fro, spoke of it more prosaically as "the Middle Road." But the selectmen in their town warrant of March, 1836, alluded to this highway as "the Canada Road, so-called." Thus it was written into the town records on Sep-
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tember 12, of that year, when the town voted "to accept of the road layed out for the benefit of Levi Berry and others from near the head of Embden Pond eastward to the Canada Road," and "also to accept of the road layed out by the selectmen from Capt. Cyrus Boothby's (westward) to the Canada Road."
Foot path, bridal path and finally a full-fledged highway, which in modern times has been better named the Canada Trail, it served a strange procession of human kind. Trappers, scouts, bands of Red Men, adventurers, prospectors, warriors and home seekers made grim and solitary progress along the Kennebec and Chaudiere. Messages from French and English council chambers were sometimes carried over this Canada Trail and struggles for New World advantages were stressed in the traffic. The fate of territory in much of New England was affected.
FROM CYRUS BOOTHBY'S TO THE TRAIL. HIGHWAY OF 1836. MOULTON'S IN DISTANCE ACROSS THE POND
No other part of Embden, perhaps, is historically richer. The Trail, running nearly north and south through the town, chart- ed the farms of Cyrus and Thaddeus Boothby and of Archa Dunlap the Scotch farmer who left his plow to attend to urgent affairs in London, perhaps of a federal character. When he
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