USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 36
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had passed on, there came Christopher Atkinson to the same homestead with sons of marked ability. Only a few steps south, the Trail skirted the home of Moses Ayer and of Seth Ayer the latter with progeny of great business men in Boston. But also with doorways near this roadside at some stage were Elders Job Hodgdon and Benjamin Gould, Jr., the Samuel Clarks with a comprehensive rooftree, the Wellses, Morins, Redmonds, Dun- bars, Carls, Caswells and Salleys. All these were northward, a distinctive neighborhood from the Fahi settlers three miles or so below.
To the peak of the eastward ridge, hard by the Concord line and one range over beyond the Trail came Cyrus Boothby (1791- 1872) from Leeds during September, 1811, seven years after Embden town was organized. With him on his horseback ride up the Kennebec Valley came his wife, Charity Chubbock (1791-1847) a Scotch maiden to whom he had been recently mar- ried. He was of English descent through Boothby residents along the Saco River.
Capt. Cyrus, as he came to be known, from service for five years as an officer in the town militia, located forthwith on land that he and his son, Thaddeus, after him tilled into a large and productive farm. The first winter he spent on the Manson S. Felker lot near the so-called Atwood road, not far from the big river. The following spring he built a log cabin westward across Concord brook and not many rods above where the D. K. Williams buildings used to be.
Then he began to clear away the forest growth and to plant apple trees, before very long erecting buildings for his home- stead a half mile farther up the road.
Meanwhile one of his earliest enterprises was a mill. It greatly advanced his own building plans and was of utility also for the entire community. While Martin stream (Concord brook) rising in Fletcher Mountain, Concord, flowed across the Boothby acres, there was a better power on the Mill stream (At- wood brook) a branch that came out of Old Bluff - across the Kennebec from Bingham - and joined the other brook farther down toward Solon. So Capt. Cyrus harnessed Atwood brook.
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His mill was a little below the point where the old east and west road crossed Atwood brook bridge.
The Boothbys in Embden were never a numerous family. Although Cyrus and Charity were parents of eight children, Thaddeus F. (1822-1894) their second son, who devoted his business talents to exceptional services for his fellow townsmen, had become the only survivor of these children by the late 1850's. Elbridge G. Boothby, born in 1812 when father and mother were still living in the log cabin, died at 36. Parmelia, a sec- ond child born two years later, died when ten years old. A daughter, Louisa H., who, in 1837, married Elijah Grant Stevens, son of Jonathan Stevens, died leaving one son, Cyrus Stevens. He was long a member of his grandfather Boothby's household. Cyrus K., called Cyrus, Jr., born in 1828, lived till 1855. Laur- inda Boothby (1831), the youngest child, never married.
The Boothbys were well-to-do. By constant industry they made their fine farm profitable. Like many other Embden farmers, they prospered during the Civil War. Sheep raising, in which they engaged on a considerable scale, was a good source of revenue. They grew immense crops of barley, corn, hay, wheat and oats. In the summer season Capt. Cyrus afield spindling his corn or looking for the weeds, was a familiar figure to his neighbors.
He became a prominent townsman. In 1837 and '38 he was town agent. He was also a justice of the peace. From 1831 on into 1843 Embden marriage records show him frequently as officiating squire at the ceremony. Sons and daughters of those whom he had joined not infrequently came to Thaddeus like his father a justice of the peace years later, to officiate for them in similar capacity.
Thaddeus Boothby in early life attended Anson Academy and, while a young man, had a bank position at Portland. He re- turned to the farm, as indoor work was too confining. He be- came a well known teacher in Embden and adjoining towns. Although never of robust health and strength, he was much sought after by district agents where scholars were unruly.
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THADDEUS F. BOOTHBY
His active participation in Embden affairs begun in 1857 with his election as third selectman. For over thirty years from that time he was almost continuously in town office. In 1882, because of ill health, he spent the winter in Virginia. At that time he had served Embden as town clerk and first selectman for 21 successive years. He had been several years on the school board. His interest was strong in the education of Embden boys and girls of promise. Some he aided with loans to enable them to go to college. He likewise served as a member of the state legislature.
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After a year or two of rest, he again served the town as clerk and first selectman for six years and for several years thereafter was town treasurer. It was during this period that there came a climax in a long struggle over the town debt of $56,232, in- curred in connection with the building of the Somerset Railway. The road had been constructed only as far as North Anson but Embden was on the verge of bankruptcy because of maturing railroad bonds for which the town years before had voted to become responsible.
Ably assisted by Andrew J. Libby and George L. Eames, Mr. Boothby was the principal factor in reducing by one-half this heavy town debt. They were Embden's three wealthiest farmers. They contributed freely with their money and their influence to reach an amicable adjustment. Through their efforts the Oak- land Bank, of which Mr. Libby, then owner of the O. H. Mac- Fadden farm on River road, was president, that institution in- vested heavily in Embden town orders. These orders, bearing interest but not regarded at that time as particularly good security, were used to pay off the railroad obligations.
One, who was familiar with this transaction at the time, wrote recently regarding it: "Thad Boothby rode day and night for a time conferring with town creditors and hiring money with which to settle their claims. His family was often very anxious when he failed to return before dark because he would some- times have thousands of dollars - it was cash then - in his pockets.
"When the railroad debt had reached such proportions that there was talk how personal property, over and above a certain amount, might be seized by the creditors and applied to their claims, the wealthier farmers drove their stock to pastures in ad- jacent towns and deeded their real estate to non-resident rela- tives. This was in progress at a time when S. E. May's attorney from Lewiston came to Mr. Boothby's house on railroad bond business and remained there over night. The three Embden men, most active in the negotiations, were understood to have cared for their interests in this manner."
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Mr. Boothby prepared a statement for Mr. May on July 10, 1885, which set forth that Embden was willing to meet the obli- gation as fully as it could and that there was no thought of re- pudiation. The town had fought the matter through the courts and lost. A copy of this statement was in the possession of the late Hon. Lyman C. Jewett of South Solon, Mr. Boothby's son- in-law.
"You will see by this statement of the town's financial stand- ing," he declared, "that Embden is poor and not able to pay the whole debt. But the town is willing to pay all it can. The selectmen are authorized to buy bonds at 50 per cent and pay 50 per cent for the coupons due. If you will assist us to buy them we will pay you a fair compensation within the next eight months or have them pledged."
The value of real and personal property in Embden at the time was shown to be $152,981 at a fair valuation with total mortgages on both kinds of property at $46,000. "When the value of real estate, owned by non-residents has been deducted" the statement continued, "we think there is not more than $74,- 000 owned in the town, including the amount exempt from de- tachment." The total liabilities at that time were $65,637.85, most of which was for "railroad debt costs" in the sum above indicated.
The proposed adjustment was finally carried through. The payments were honorably met by a three year assessment long ago. The result was exceptionally creditable for a town com- posed entirely of farmer people. From that time Embden as a town was on the up grade and before many years, in spite of ! many abandoned farms, was becoming the prosperous town it now is.
---- - The Boothby house at the south of the road and across from the pretentious farm buildings of later years is remembered as headquarters and meeting place of Star of The East Lodge, No. 207, Independent Order of Good Templars. This house and other buildings had been supplanted by the 1860's with a very good residence having a kitchen cellar, with a woodshed, carriage house and barns for cattle, horses, hogs, sheep and poultry. As
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a champion of temperance - a term also associated with total abstinence - Thaddeus Boothby was a leading sponsor of the cause in his community. He welcomed the Good Templar's Lodge to the old Boothby house where his father's family had resided. The lodge was also quite a social institution in the town. It met on the second and fourth Saturday evenings of each month. The rooms were slightly remodelled to allow for an alcove in one side of the lodge room where a small elevated platform was placed and shut off by curtains. Here entertain- ments were occasionally given at the close of lodge sessions. These included readings, declamations, tableaux and music. Mary Ann Moulton (Mrs. Ai) took an active part in her usual versatile manner and Grant Witham with his harmonica was never allowed to escape.
The lodge was instituted May 24, 1879, with the following charter members : C. H. T. Atwood, S. H. Atwood, Maggie, Sarah and Georgia Atwood, Frank J. Adams, J. T. Berry, Michael, Ellen, Emma and Florence Berry, T. F. Boothby, Susan N. Boothby, Sabra Berry, Caddie Churchill, Allen Hodgdon and Charles Leadbetter. The membership soon increased to include people from nearly every family in the north of Embden and many from Concord. Alice and Linda Dunbar and Marcellus Berry joined at the second meeting which was held June 7. Charles Ball became a member in the autumn. The records show that Mr. and Mrs. Stillman A. Walker, Mrs. Barzilla Ford, Caroline B. Williams and her son, Charles, all living four or five miles away on the other side of the town, joined on March 19, 1881. The first officers installed were : chief templar, Frank J. Adams; vice templar, Susan Boothby ; secretary, Emma Ber- ry; master, John T. Berry; financial secretary, Charles Lead- better ; treasurer, T. F. Boothby ; outer and inner guards, Allen Hodgdon and Georgia Atwood. The organization endured for years. Those who served as chief templar included : J. T. Berry, Charles E. Ball, Mrs. Susan Boothby, Charles Leadbetter, G. W. Patten, T. F. Boothby, C. H. Atwood, C. L. Williams, Henry Savage, W. H. Savage, Grant Witham, Charles J. Savage, Mont
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Morin, I. L. Albee, George C. Eames, Carroll Caswell, Mahlon Dunbar, Stephen Morin, and Sydney Dunbar.
There was considerable visiting of lodges back and forth be- tween adjacent towns. The books and records, long ago deposit- ed with Grant Witham, tell of an episode on Nov. 12, 1887, when Bingham Lodge had come to visit and witness an installation of officers. The secretary's account of that meeting recites vividly how "we found to our great surprise that all of our lodge prop- erty had been stolen. We took our lamps and search was made but without finding any trace of them and we returned with saddened hearts to our lodge room. Then the question arose, 'What shall we do ?' It was responded to by saying: 'we will fit up and commence anew and work on. Brothers and Sisters, let us take hold and work with a more determined will then ever.' We then went to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Boothby and had a treat that was prepared by members. That night will be re- membered by all who witnessed it. Receipts for the eve-10c."
Mrs. Boothby (the second wife) generally held an office in the lodge and by her motherly interest in the young people en- deared herself to all. Mr. Boothby was nearly always present and gave helpful talks for "the good of the order." Upon his death in 1894, the lodge was moved to the Gustave Hawes place about two miles below, and the meetings continued to be a source of edification and enjoyment to a large community.
In his family relations Thaddeus Boothby was happily placed. He married in 1851 Philena Felker (1830-1874), a daughter of . Daniel of Concord and a granddaughter of Michael Felker of Embden. They had five children of whom three daughters survive. These are : Luella S. (Mrs. Lyman Jewett, of South Solon) ; Carrie L. (Mrs. Charles Plaize, of Hopkinton, Mass.) and Angie (Mrs. Howard H. Steward, of Skowhegan).
Mr. Boothby in 1877 married as his second wife Susan Blunt Leadbetter, widow of Benjamin Leadbetter, who lived . on the intervale farm where Major Ephraim Heald had lived when he was Concord's first settler. She was highly esteemed by Emb- den people. After Mr. Boothby's death she moved to Denver and lived there with Charles Leadbetter, one of her three sons.
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Thus the last of the Boothby clan departed from their long time seat on the high Embden ridge. A few years ago the fine white house and big barns were burned to the ground. The pro- ductive farm of Civil War days like the D. K. Williams place near by and much of the neighborhood is now well overrun. But the creditable careers of Cyrus and Thaddeus over a period of 80 years remain as a splendid family memorial not to be obliter- ated by the encroaching forests.
Up over the big hills and along the Canada Trail to the edge I of Concord came Robert Wells from Lyman not very long after Cyrus Boothby with his wife, Charity, had ridden into town on horseback from Leeds. A native of Wells, seacoast town of Maine, this Robert had raised his family at Lyman not far from the York county seat and for fifteen years was deputy sheriff. He was elected one of the school agents of Embden in 1815 but probably had been on Lot 54 with a fine view over into the Con- cord hills considerably before that date. He occasionally served as moderator at March meetings. He bought his farm of the proprietors in 1819 and lived till Dec. 27, 1927.
From him as the founder of the family there were two gen- erations who had a creditable part in northern and northeastern Embden. The Wells men and women with the Clarks, Morins, Redmonds, Carls and Atkinsons formed a distinctive community. These families intermarried considerably and in that particular were an entity of kin. But they were none the less closely as- sociated with the Dunlaps, Hodgdons, Salleys, Ayers and Cas- wells. Measured by sturdy character and successful careers in business and the professions, this neighborhood stands compa- ison with Seven Mile Brook neighborhood, or with the Tripp- Moulton-Strickland community of the northwest or with the ettlement along the Kennebec.
Ex-Deputy Sheriff Robert Wells and his wife Mary (Little- ield) Wells were accompanied to Embden by two sons. One of hese was Robert, Jr., who married Polly C. Sawtell of Sidney 1830. Their several children were born in the town, probably n Lot 54. The other son was Ralph (1796-1862). He married 1 1820 Mercy Clark (1802) daughter of old Samuel, two miles
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down the Trail. Their farm was over in the Bowen Mills neigh- borhood close to Charles Crymble and Col. Christopher Thomp- son. William Sally also owned a farm there till after 1860 (Lot No. 11). He was Ralph's brother-in-law, having married Mary Wells in 1829. Mary's sister, Belinda, became in 1833 the sec- ond wife of John Williams of Embden, who also lived near. The Wells family spread over into Concord. Abigail Wells (1801) another daughter of Robert, Sr., was the wife of John W. Morin (1803-1895). Her marriage in 1839 was followed the next year by the marriage of her sister Sophronia to Isaiah Felker, the Concord corner trader. Horace Wells, the husband of Nancy Berry, was a son of the younger Robert. Mercy Wells, who mar- ried Foster S. Palmer in 1815, was a sister of this Robert and of Ralph Wells but died as a young woman.
The Morins had an interesting background in Newburyport, Mass. During the war of 1812 Martin Morin was engaged in the marine trade. He and his wife Nancy Ann (Wescott) Morin had one son - the John W., above mentioned - when he sailed away in his ship which was lost at sea with all on board. Widow Nancy married George W. Berry and settled in Concord. John W. Morin, following his marriage to Abigail Wells likewise set- tled in that town. He had one son, J. Williams Morin (1840- 1915). When he was four years old his parents moved to farm No. 51 in middle Embden.
This son became a well educated man and took an active part in affairs. He served in the 28th Maine Volunteers and was made a corporal for gallantry at Gettysburg while in the Signal Corps on another enlistment. He married in 1866 Celestia E. Redmond (1846) of Embden, daughter of John and Lavonia (Boyington) Redmond of Embden. For 20 years he was postmaster at Embden Center, served several terms as su- perintendent of schools and on the board of selectmen. He was justice of the peace and in 1900 and 1910 was census enumerator for Embden, Concord, Pleasant Ridge and Carrying Place. He was also a charter member of the G. A. R. Post at North Anson. Later he moved to the Waterman Hilton farm by the Kennebec and then to Solon where he died.
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Of the Morin children the oldest was Nellie I, who taught school and then married Dr. C. Almon Paul of Solon. She resides there as his widow with her younger sister, Abbie. One of Mrs. Paul's three daughters, Mary E., is a teacher at East Weymouth, Mass. Mrs. Paul's three brothers are M. Lemont Morin of Rice Lake, Wis., Stephen B., long the rural carrier on the Kennebec River road out of North Anson, and Dr. Harry F. Morin a practicing physician at Bath.
J. WILLIAMS MORIN
FREDERIC H. DUNBAR
Ralph and Mercy Wells near the Kennebec raised up capable sons and daughters, some of whom made their homes in the far west. Eunice (1822) the oldest was Mrs. Luke Hilton of Sandy Bay and died at Fairfield. Helena Wells (1824) was married to Timothy G. Spaulding in 1845 and lived in Wisconsin. Mercy (1825) married in 1854 Nason S. Whitcome and dwelt in Cali- fornia. Robert G. Wells (1828-1915) chose for his wife, Jo- sephine Durrell (1828) daughter of Joseph Durrell and a grand- daughter of Moses Thompson. They lived till after 1870 on the Joseph Durrell farm but then went to North Anson. Their
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children include Orrin D. Wells, Franklin W. Wells of North Anson ; Mrs. Allen Dyer of Kingfield and Walter S. Wells of Wilton - all Embden natives. Walter Wells has had an active career as a fruit packer and is a well-to-do business man.
The Robert Wellses at North Anson were cousins of the Jo- seph Atkinsons of the same village. But the Atkinsons, also, were from the same neighborhood in Embden. Statira Wells (1831-1896), daughter of Ralph, was the mother of the Atkin- son children. Her sister Achsa (1838-1918), when the widow of Leander Witham, became Joseph Atkinson's second wife. Susan C. Wells (1829) another daughter who married Calvin Williams of Concord was the mother of Dr. J. Leon Williams of New York. Stilson Wells (1840-1915) who married Olive Dun- ton and died in California, and Mandell Wells (1844) who went to Michigan and married there, were Union soldiers. Stilson en- listed early in the war and was discharged for disability but re- enlisted as soon as he had recovered. He was a sergeant in the 28th. Maine Volunteers.
On the southern slope of the big hills, now fast relapsing to forest, and not far from the two Wells farms, resided Samuel and Mercy Clark from Weld. When they paid the estate of John Innis Clark for the proprietor's rights to Lot 46 (across the Trail from the Dunbar farm) and also paid Isaac Foss for improvements he made there before they came, the Wellses described themselves as of Waterville. The Clark name has not been on the Embden tax-lists for a generation but the neighbor- hood importance of Samuel Clark, Sr., in olden days is indicated by the following statement about his children :
Eli Clark (1795), the oldest, married Anna Sally (1797) in 1818. Two years later he paid Sylvanus H. Brown $100 for improvements the latter had made on Lot 60 (north of the Dun- bar place) but Eli was residing there in 1819. The deed was witnessed by Robert Wells and Ebenezer G. Clark. Eli and his wife went west in 1856. Of their children were two sons, Elhanan and Benjamin and two daughters Lydia and Emily.
Ebenezer G. Clark (1800) in 1821 married Elizabeth Brown (1804) of the same Embden family as Sylvanus Brown.
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William B. (1823-1871), Mercy (1827-1850), who was oftener called Angeline and in 1846 married Jotham Witham; Alvah (1827) ; Mary E. (1828), wife of Ebenezer C. Talcott (1825- 1863) of Embden by their marriage in 1845, and Anna (1832) were children of the Clark-Brown union. As his second help- meet Ebenezer in 1859 married Mrs. Alice (Berry) Smith (1806). He purchased Lot 52 where the northernmost cross road bisects the Canada Trail. This was long known as Clark's corner. Edwin J. Clark now of North Anson, the last of Samuel Clark's male heirs in Maine, lived there in the 1880's with his family and wid- owed mother. Edwin's father was William B. Clark. He mar- ried in 1848 Hannah Carl (1832-1920) of Embden. They moved to Anson in 1861 and he enlisted as a Civil War soldier in 1863. Besides their son, Edwin J. (1852), they had a daughter Laura Jane (1850) who married (1) A. W. Potter of Lewiston and (2) G. H. Robinson of San Francisco. Hannah (Carl) Clark mar- ried (2) Silas Felker of Concord and died at Santa Cruz, Calif.
Mercy Clark (1802) married Ralph Wells as already told and her sister, Nancy Clark (1801) became in 1822 the wife of Robert Crosby (1795) of Embden. They lived east of the Trail below the road into Ephraim Dunlap's. Their son, Sanford Crosby, had succeeded them there in 1860 after taking Harriet F. Robinson as his wife. Among Nancy Clark's other children were Ezra Crosby (1823) who married in 1852 Malissa M. Wil- liams (1836) daughter of John and Belinda (Wells) Williams; Jonathan (1825) and Mercy G. (1830) who in 1851 became the first wife of Justin W. Carl. She died when a young woman and Carl took Cyrena F. Healey of Concord for his second wife. The Carls have lived many years in that part of Embden. John Carl, Oswald Carl and Frank Carl are among the later repre- sentatives of the family. Susan Clark (1799), spinster 'sister, made her home with the Crosbys.
Lois Clark in 1832 married John Cunningham of Strong and in 1832 Samuel Clark, Jr., probably the youngest son, wedded Esther Cleveland (1812), the youngest daughter of Jonathan. Not long after this marriage old Samuel Clark transferred interest in his home farm to his son and namesake with a
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covenant that both parents must be cared for in their old age and their funeral expenses paid. James Adams and Robert Crosby witnessed the deeds. Francis Foss was a neighbor of the Clarks on the east; Job S. Hodgdon on the north and Isaac Salley on the south. Samuel Clark Jr., did not tarry long there- after on the home farm and in 1835 sold the property to Joseph Spaulding of Caratunk, a former resident on the Francis Foss place, and it was soon deeded to his sons Jonathan and Zachariah Spaulding. Zachariah was a physician in Bingham. Samuel, Jr., in July, 1835, purchased from Cyrus Walker of Bangor for $300 land in Industry on the road from West Mills to New Portland. He appears to have returned to Embden in the 1870's when he was an old man.
Rhoda Clark - like Eli, Ebenezer G., Mercy, Nancy, Susan, Lois and Samuel, Jr., one of the children of Samuel and Mercy Clark - married Hiram Salley. They lived a few years in Emb- den before going to New Portland.
Angeline bore two sons, Mark and Manley Witham. The Tal- cotts, north of Moses Ayer, had: Elixa A. (1846), Alvah W. (1851) and Mary C. (1854). The father enlisted in the Fourth Maine Battery in 1861, was a corporal and died in the United States hospital at New York City. This pioneer family of Clarks thus was widely related to settlers of middle Embden and in other parts of the town during the earlier years.
At the end of a lane on the east dwelt the Redmonds. They belonged especially to this neighborhood group. John Redmond, first of his name there, was a native of lower Canada. It is related that while a young man his father said to him: "John, take up your pack and go to Maine. Make the most of yourself there."
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