USA > Maine > Somerset County > Embden > Embden town of yore : olden times and families there and in adjacent towns > Part 8
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His children, natives of Embden, made their mark in JAMES YOUNG CLEVELAND the western country. A son, Horatio Gates Cleveland (1829-1890), lived at Monroe, Wis. He was a lieutenant in the 16th Wisconsin Volunteers and lost an arm at Atlanta in 1864. His brother, Dewitt Clinton Cleve- land (1831-1890), married Viola A. Morey, of Belfast, Me., and after a few years at. Monroe, settled near Creighton, Nebr., "when there was not a native tree in sight." There he devel- oped the "Cleveland farm" of 1,120 acres which became a show place in the prairie country. After his death it was carried on by his widow. Charles Cragin and Edith Marie Cleveland were Dewitt's children. Roger Sherman Cleveland (1843) a third son of James, served in the First Wisconsin Cavalry during the Civil War, was an engineer at Vallejo and raised his children in California. A daughter of James Cleveland, Thankful Black- well (1836) married at Green County, Wis., in 1855 Walter S.
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Wescott, of Wethersfield, N. Y. He was a stockman at Monroe and at Douglas Grove, Nebr.
Elias Cleveland (1805-1874) was likewise an active man. Long after he had passed on, the neighborhood retained the pic- ture of him as a hunchback who drove a mule. It was the only mule many Embden people of that day ever beheld. His wife was Mrs. Mary (Springer) Robbins (1793-1874) of Augusta. They had an interesting family, oldest of whom was Adaline (1831). She married Anthony L. Donohue, of Anson and Emb- den, who, although a farmer, had proficiency in music. There are Embden people of this day, to whom his evening singing schools, where he paraded pointer in hand before a blackboard, remain a pleasant memory. Adaline's sister, Mary (1835-1910), was Mrs. Randall F. Durrell. Near the Mill Stream side of the road and just below the residence of Charles S. Walker, there. used to be a cellar hole that marked one of the several Randall Durrell dwelling places in Embden.
A son of Elias - Jeremiah Springer Cleveland (1832) - was an original member of the 4th battery of Maine Mounted Light Artillery and made a brave record. After his army service he several times journeyed West - once at least to Michigan and once to Wisconsin. His first trip, however, was with his brother Elias to Dakota in 1876 for a year. He was a resident of the town as late as 1880 but after that went west again. "Jerry," as home folks called him, then took employment with a pony express company. Living alone in a cabin in Black Hills, Da- kota, Jerry, "got" an Indian who molested his ponies. By way of revenge the Indians also "got" Jerry. His brother, Elias, Jr., (1836), the youngest son of Elias, Sr., married Alma Hutch- inson, of Embden in 1869 and dwelt on the old James Young Cleveland farm before going to Douglas Grove, Nebr. Six of his children now live at Comstock in the center of that state - George, Charles, Mrs. J. F. Wescott, Mrs. S. T. Stevens whose husband is the postmaster, Mrs. C. E. Granger and Mrs. E. J. Crawford. Mahlon Cleveland, another son, resides at Aurora, Nebr.
Jefferson (1807-1850), like his brother John, died when a young man. His wife, Susan Ann Wasson, of Anson, whom he
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ALMOST A CLEVELANDVILLE
married in 1837, next married Simeon Cleveland, his cousin. Alonzo H. Cleveland (1838), carriage maker of Anson was his son. He also had two daughters - Abby M. (1840) who was Mrs. Joseph Durrell, of Embden, and Ella B. (1846) wife of Allen H. Washburn, of Embden. The two daughters of Luther were splendid women - mothers of highly respected Embden households. Sarah (Mrs. David Stevens) was the older. Abihail (1810-1866) was Mrs. Amos Hutchins.
Pioneer Abel Cleveland, although short lived, raised 11 chil- dren on his long lot, No. 141. Of these Irinda (1807), Mrs. Samuel Walker ; Louisa (1809), Mrs. Alfred Holbrook ; and Ruth (1812), Mrs. Abraham Burns, had many children and grand- children. The Walkers, before going to Brighton had their home on Lot 112, now the Mrs. Willard Cross farm and opposite the Alfred Holbrook farm. Their oldest brother Benjamin (1798- 1870), having married Eliza Russell of Concord in 1822, lived on the little farm that Jesse Wentworth had long ago, but ended his days at Green Bay, Wis. All three were directly east of the Abel homestead.
That property, after a short ownership by Luther 2nd, a mill- wright of Fairfield, passed to Jonas Cleveland (1804-1872) and his wife Susan Savage (1802-1887) who had the western half and to Asher H. (1819-1867) and his wife Lucy McKenney (1821-1887), whose house on the other half was later owned by George W. McKenney, Lucy's brother. Jonas' wife was a first cousin of Rev. Minot J. Savage. The Jonas Cleveland farm was next owned by Jonathan H. Winslow, beginning about 1864 and the buildings were abandoned a half century ago. The row of elms Jonas planted in front of the house are the largest and stateliest in Embden.
Cyrus Cleveland, 2nd, (1831), only son of Jonas that lived to manhood, married Adaline A. Albee (1831-1890). He erected buildings on the Quint farm (No. 102) and five children were born there - Ella M. (1853), Mrs. William H. Andrews; Mary F. (1855), Mrs. Albert R. Daggett; Nellie A. (1858-1907), Mrs. Reuben Farr; Dr. Fred L. Cleveland (1861) of Woonsocket, who married Eva J. Triganne and has two sons, F. Bertram and Harold Albee Cleveland of Woonsocket; and Albert N. (1865) of
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Boston and Providence. Jonas Cleveland had a daughter Irinda (1835-1916), Mrs. Menzer Danforth of North Anson.
Across the Mill Stream on Lot 102 when Cyrus Cleveland's family occupied the farm, the land was overgrown with rasp- berry bushes. Adaline and one of the older Cleveland women were berrying there. "Mother," exclaimed Adaline mischiev- ously, "suppose we should see a bear."
"Phaw, Adaline, you can't scare me," was the reply. But, Lo! Over the fence, near the woods, where the bushes were high and the berries luscious, up rose old Bruin and took a look around. The women ran for their lives and one of them lost her pailful of raspberries. So the tale was told for many, many years to wondering youngsters in that neighborhood.
Asher Cleveland was killed by a falling tree. Of his children was Sarah M., Mrs Jerry Wentworth. Her son, Forrest Went- worth, now lives at Madison. Her younger sister, Georgia A. (1852-1877), was the wife of Horace W. Holbrook, a cousin.
Other children of Abel Cleveland were Cyrus (1814) who set- tled in Sauk County, Wis .: John Quint Cleveland (1816) who lived and died at Freeman and Lois B. (1821) who in 1843 mar- ried Joseph Gordon of New Portland, afterward of Embden.
Capt. Benjamin Cleveland, the remaining pioneer brother, had a son, Benjamin, Jr., (1815), whose wife was Octavia Went- worth (1822), daughter of James L. Wentworth. This couple went to Iowa. One of their daughters Lydia F. (1844) married Sumner F. Wiggins and her sister Hannah B. (1845) married Charles Wiggins. Both families resided at Hardin, Iowa. Ellen A. Cleveland was Mrs. George Savage of Wright County, Iowa. Their brother, Elden S. Cleveland (1849), resided at Jordan, Wis., near his kinsmen of Luther's family. There are many grandchildren of these families in Iowa and adjacent states.
Simeon C. Cleveland (1817-1894), son of Capt. Benjamin, was a friendly character in Embden during his older years, when he had returned from the Australian gold mines. His first wife was Esther Lawrey, of Norridgewock. They had a daughter, Emily M. (1848), who became Mrs. Robert Gratrix, of Anson, and bore a big family, whose members scattered far. Simeon lies in the Jackson burying ground of the Jonathan Cleveland homestead.
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That homestead has now passed entirely out of the family. With the departure of the Jacksons, Mike Malesky, born in Poland, bought the property. He works in coal mines in Vir- ginia but maintains his family on this Embden farm, joining them there whenever he can.
The rise of the Embden Clevelands, embattled, perhaps, even beyond many of their neighbors in subjugating the primeval forests, and their rapid exodus generation by generation for more alluring fields is an outstanding feature in local chronicles. It covers a period of more than a century and savors of the no- madic days when the children of men made a business of moving, fighting, conquering and moving again. Underlying it, of course, was the human motive of the ages in vieing toward a life of better opportunity. The scions of this robust Embden stock of Clevelands, now useful citizens elsewhere, exemplify the unerring instinct of their forbears. Probably no other parent household of early Embden is so largely represented in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska.
CHAPTER VI
SAW LAND FOR HIS SONS
Embden's Christopher Columbus was William Hilton (1731- after 1800) of an ancient English family. His brother and his sons were outstanding men of frontier days in Embden, Solon and Anson. A Lief Erickson there may have been in this local ex- ploration but the romantic character of the story is none the less a resourceful boy of sixteen Berwick and Wiscasset summers. The narrative leads to an incident of Indian warfare of a kind with which numerous Hiltons had become very familiar and car- ries one over the Red Man's long, long trail via the Kennebec and on to Canada.
The Hiltons about 1744 took up land near the Montsweag river, in a neighborhood between Wiscasset and Woolwich where, at one time or another, were a dozen families that had part in Embden history. On July 31, 1747, Ebenezer Hilton with his sons, Joshua and William, and John Boyington, a son- in-law, who had married Sarah Hilton, crossed the Montsweag, put down their muskets and went to work in the field. A band of Indians stole between them and the muskets and thus gained decided advantage. Ebenezer, Joshua and John were killed, after a battle, the intensity of which long had a monument in an old scarred tree at Wiscasset, against which the father Ebenezer was said to have stood at bay and where, after Indians had hacked off both his feet, he fought kneeling.
William alone, then sixteen years old, was spared, but taken prisoner and conveyed up the Kennebec River to Canada and delivered to the French. In the late autumn of 1747 he was back again in Wiscasset, or Woolwich, to recount the thrilling de- tails of his 150-mile journey with the Indians and of his escape by way of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. What a story it would have made next morning had there been modern reporters and mod- ern printing presses in that generation.
An observing lad. William Hilton must have been for it is chronicled that "he noticed the broad intervales on the west side
PRESENT DAY SCENES BY MONTSWEAG STREAM
Ebenezer Hilton's fort was on hill at the top left. His mill was near bridge left center. Middle right and at bottom are a little farther down stream.
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of the Kennebec and was so favorably impressed with them, that thirty years later (1777) he described the places to his sons who came up river as far as what is now Anson, located the intervales and settled them."
This was one of the most thrilling experiences that befell resi- dents of the Montsweag community and was much repeated among the families there and among their sons and daughters on the upper Kennebec. As the tale is told William made his discovery of the intervales on the return journey. It is easy to understand that he could then observe and explore more freely than when tramping northward with his captors. Both coming and going, however, he must have clung close to the river, but he may have proceeded over the high Embden hills along the path that became the Canada Trail. There or along the river he beheld the panorama of undulating landscape, the picturesque islands and the intervale acres where three generations of Mc- Faddens were successive owners.
Sated with adventure William settled down on the farm, where his brothers and father had met their tragic end, and mar- ried Hepzibah Boyington. They had three sons Ebenezer (1753- 1839) and John (1756-1835) who settled in Anson, and William (1759-1846) who settled in Solon. Hepzibah died about 1760 and by a second marriage were Samuel, born in 1761; Joseph, born two years later, who was an early settler in Embden; and Anna, born in 1767, who married John Metcalf of Brookfield (Anson). Samuel Hilton in time occupied the farm of his fa- ther and grandfather. He married Sally Gould, born at Wool- wich in 1759. She was a sister of Samuel Gould, the New Port- land pioneer; of Benjamin Gould, of early Embden; and of Elizabeth Gould Walker, of Anson. William resided with this. son in his declining years. Before his death he made an event- ful visit up the Kennebec to see his sons and daughter and half- brother and to look again upon the country through which the Indians once led him.
William's brother, Joseph, - an uncle of Ebenezer, John, William and Joseph just mentioned - had been with Wolfe at Quebec in the old French War, after which he married Anna Gray, a sister of Capt. John Gray, already living near the river.
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Joseph and his large family, chief of whom in Embden was John (1788-1874) lived on a farm near the Grays. Joseph a few years later went to Temple, in Franklin county.
Among William's sons, who had ventured into the north wil- derness, Ebenezer married Abigail Armstrong and John's wife was Rachel Gray, daughter of Capt. John. During the early months of 1777 these two sons located the intervale near Pat- terson bridge which their father had described to them but soon returned on account of the war. Ebenezer, after some months' service as a soldier, came back with his wife during the winter of 1779, travelling "on an ox sled drawn by a pair of wild steers." She was the first white woman to go into that section and their daughter, Betsey, who married John Patten of Nor- ridgewock and lived at North Anson, was the first white child born there.
Ebenezer's brother, John, a lieutenant in the Revolution, re- turned later and by 1790 had built on the Kennebec avenue road of the present day, one of the first frame houses in North Anson.
Hiltons have lived numerously in Embden through several generations and all of this Wiscasset stock. Several sons of Wil- liam, of Solon, and of John, of Anson, were residents there. Several marriages were made from those two families with Emb- den women. But the two Joseph Hiltons, one a brother of Wil- liam, whom the Indian captured ; the other a son of that William and half-brother of the Solon and Anson settlers, were first in the town. The elder of these had migrated by 1805 and his son, John Hilton (1788-1874), probably returned from Temple, when he purchased Lot 31, southeast of the Fahi and established a family there.
This John married in 1813 Lucinda (1789-1886), daughter of Lieut. Elemuel and Anna (Hilton) Williams of Anson. Lucinda's mother was a niece of John's father. After this mar- riage John Hilton was drafted at Starks for militia service on the Maine Coast in the second war with England and, upon his return was drafted for a second tour to Edgecomb. For a total of 88 days of service he got a grant of 40 acres of land in 1850. He became a resident of Farmers' Grove, Wis., in 1851, which
(TOP LEFT) AMOS HILTON. THEOPHILUS HILTON, McKENNEY HILTON, SARAH (CLEVELAND) HILTON, JOSHUA HILTON, SARAH (HEALD) HILTON.
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was near York in Green county. Lucinda Williams died there. Their oldest son, Daniel, lived with them near Fahi Pond. His first wife whom he married in 1838, was Susan R. Wentworth (1818-1840), oldest daughter of Andrew Wentworth; his second wife was Mary Durrell, daughter of Joseph, who owned the Jeremiah Chamberlain farm. Another son, Parker L. Hilton, married in 1840 Ruhama Dunlap, daughter of Archa. A daugh- ter; F. Amy Hilton (1822-1891), was Mrs. David Lane of Emb- den, and her sister, Polly (1827-1911), was Mrs. Elam Stevens, a noble woman. The two youngest Hilton sons, Gustavus and James T. (1830-1899), married and resided in Wisconsin, the first at Janesville and the other at York. The names of John Hilton, with his sons Daniel and Parker L., were mentioned con- siderably in town meeting records. John, sometimes written "Lieut." John was one of a town committee in 1830 "to locate suitable burying yards to be of no expense to the town."'
Most Hiltons in the three towns at some time had military ser- vice from the French war and the Revolution on. William born in 1782, and Ebenezer, Jr. (1790-1877), the only sons of Eben- ezer, were soldiers in the Aroostook War. Ebenezer, Jr., lived at Anson on his father's farm, but William sold his place by the North Anson trotting park in 1828 and went to Starks, where Benjamin Hilton (1740-1802), their uncle, resided with a large family close to the Anson line. William was a member of North- ern Star Lodge of Freemasons in 1820.
Pioneer John Hilton, of Anson, had a larger roster of sons and daughters than Ebenezer and most of these settled higher on the Kennebec. Elisha (1790-1861) married Phoebe Crosby of Con- cord, where he resided till 1831, and then moved to Sandy Bay. Elias Hilton (1799-1880) and his first wife, Sally Wilson, of Bingham, had the farm in North Anson, taken up by his father. His second wife was Mrs. Alvena Fassett. He spent his last days in Embden near his son, Theophilus H. (1833-1917), the ferryman, while the second wife, Alvena, died in Massachusetts eight years later. Pioneer John had four other sons. John Jr., (1782-1862) went to Cincinnati in 1810, became an enthusiastic advocate of common schools and visited Maine in 1815. He re- turned to Cincinnati in 1816 accompanied by his brother
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Theophilus (1793) who went from there to Alexandria, La. Silas (1797) married Polly Ayer, daughter of Moses, of Embden. William (1802-1881), a farmer, lived near the Kennebec River. He built the house on the west side of the Kennebec avenue road - where his son, Joel (1828-1870), resided - and was toll gatherer at Patterson bridge. Joel's son, Virgil D. Hilton (1856- 1919), was identified with the publication of the Anson Advo- cate and a widely respected citizen.
Of these sons of Pioneer John, the family of Elias was most in Embden. Minerva (1843-1867), daughter of Elias, was Mrs. Calvin Boyington of that town and had a son, Dana, who mi- grated West. Oliver W. (1839-1917) married Mary E. Thomp- son, daughter of Capt. William and went to Gibsonville, Cal- ifornia in 1860. On his return to Solon in 1866 he affiliated there with Keystone Lodge, of which he was tyler for 40 years. He operated a saw mill at Solon on the lower end of Fall brook until a freshet swept it away in 1902.
Theophilus, son of Elias, was known to every resident of Emb- den. His first wife was Fanny Thompson (1835-1880) daugh- ter of Fletcher Thompson. His second wife, whom he married in 1889 was Mrs. Mary E. Hafford, widow of Fletcher Thomp- son, Jr., and daughter of Silas Hafford of Embden. The chil- dren of his first marriage were Hartwell C. (1856), Lewis (1859- 1908), whose wife was Dora M. Berry; and Alice, the widow of Charles Adams, now at Solon village.
Theophilus and his ferry that crossed the Kennebec between Embden and Solon stand out in memory. He began there at 27 years of age, when he purchased the property of Mark Steward, but passed his last days at a farm on the river road. The ferry boat has long gone the way of many other water craft the world over, but Helon Hilton of Somerville, Mass., a cousin of Theophilus and of poetic temperament, commemorated her some years ago with an extended epic. A couple of selected stanzas follow :
Perhaps Theophilus was bluff And had his faults like other humans Altho his hand was hard and rough His heart was tender as a woman's.
1
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The boat had but twelve inches draft And no one knew who did design her. He was as proud of that old craft As though she were an ocean liner.
A charming little house, by a big elm, across a road that verges the river bank, and the faithful Theophilus, emerging promptly on call in sunshine and storm to pilot "that old craft" steadily and majestically athwart the moving current of dark waters, the rattle of the sagging cable in its pulleys and the drop of landing platform on the opposite bank while the wayfarer re- sumed the dusty high road at a trot are pleasant items in the memory picture. Benediction to you, Oh Theophilus, on the eternal shore !
Not so many miles down the river, there was another faithful Hilton sentinel of the long ago. His station may not have been as colorful but he was an exemplar of particular fidelity. He was that William Hilton, above mentioned, uncle of Theophilus and gatherer of tolls at Patterson bridge till the Grim Reaper called him.
The children of Pioneer William Hilton of Solon had quite as conspicuous a place in Embden as those of Pioneer John of An- son. A daughter Mary (1786-1810) was the first wife of John G. Savage, who bought the Caswell farm in middle Embden. A son, Thomas Hilton (1795-1862), was an Embden taxpayer in 1825 and owned land on Seven Mile Brook, close to Deacon Jo- seph Walker. He bought of Widow Dolly Soule March 30, 1829, 20 adjacent acres near Gould Hill for $40. This he sold in 1832 to his older brother, Joshua (1790-1876), whose household since 1820 had been just over the line in Anson. Thomas' wife was Sarah Howes, of Solon. He died at Lewiston. One of his daugh- ters, Anna, (Mrs. George Boucher) also resided there.
Joshua Hilton and his family were greatly beloved during a long period of old. They belong quite as much to Embden as to Anson, not only because their farm was partly in that town but because of friends and activities there. Joshua's wife, whom he married in 1814, was Sarah Heald (1794-1881), daughter of Amos and Sarah (Fletcher) Heald. Thus Joshua's children
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were related through both parents to a half dozen of the oldest families in the county. He was treasurer of the Old Brook Meet- ing House but he resided at the center of that famous neighbor- hood through its most prosperous period. Near him was the Albee homestead, with Rev. Isaac Albee (1766-1861) and his wife Rizpah Dawes, with Rev. Isaac's son, Samuel (1792-1839) and his wife Betsey Walker ; with Samuel's son Benjamin Gould Albee (1822-1889) and his wife Lois Hinkley - a remarkably
MRS. HELEN ALBEE PRINCE AND HER SISTER MRS. GENEVA ALBEE HILTON
interesting group. Other neighbors, too, were sturdy personal- ities of the pioneer period, but the Albee house was a point of rendezvous. Thither came the farmers and their families fre- quently for an evening chat, in those days before there were newspapers, radios and moving pictures.
Mrs. Helen Albee Prince of Sanford, a daughter of Benjamin Albee, recalls those neighborhood gatherings. The "thrillers" were Indian stories then numerous in the Kennebec Valley, a half century after Indians had gone: "Until I was six years old," said Mrs. Prince, "I lived on the old Albee farm where I was born. In our family were my great-great grandfather and great-great grandmother, my grandmother Betsey and father and mother with their children. As a child I would rather sit around with the old folks and listen to them than to play. On the Hilton farm resided Mr. Joshua Hilton ('Uncle Josh' we
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called him). I remember 'Uncle' Lisha Walker, 'Deacon Joe' and 'Aunt' Lovina Walker, 'Aunt' Polly and 'Uncle' Amaziah Getchell - all these and more I remember as seated around the big fireplace in the Albee household, telling tales of the early days. Then, sometimes 'Uncle Billy' Gamage and his sons would come up : perhaps Grandfather Whiting S. Hinkley would drop in and maybe 'Uncle Simmy' Paine would come over from across the river in a boat, his son rowing. Once in a while neighbors from New Portland would appear.
"One of the many stories told before the roaring backlog was regarding an ancestor, on the point of sailing from England for the new country, when a young girl in love with the lad, begged him not to go. Her father, being among those present, was quite shocked at her unlady-like forwardness, declared the only thing left for him to do was to get married, which they proceeded to do.
"There was another story of early days, regarding one of my Albee ancestors, who, when a boy of 16 or 17, was on the way through the woods to mill on horseback. He heard a scream from a log house in the clearing, and, rushing thither, saw an In- dian grasping a long braid of hair on a young girl's head. The boy killed the Indian with his father's flintlock, which he was carrying, and then promptly fainted away.
"The girl's father and mother came running from the field, where they had been hoeing corn, to find the dying Indian and the still unconscious boy. Needless to say he married the maid a few years later.
"I just sat with my ears wide open (mouth, too, probably )," concludes Mrs. Prince, "taking in everything I heard."
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