Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I, Part 39

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I > Part 39

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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with the offer of a commission in the regular ariny, but declined it. In 1869 he became con- nected with the departmental service in Waslı- ington, in the war department until 1874, and afterward from 1876 until 1886, and since that time in the pension office of the interior de- partment, his present position being that of ex- aminer. From 1874 until 1876 he lived in Brooklyn, New York.

Colonel Kinsman is a Republican in all that the name implies, for he shot and fought that way. His first vote was cast for Fremont in 1856. He is a Blue Lodge and Royal Arch Mason, and feels that he owes much to the craft; a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Society of the Army of the Ten- nessee, of the Association of "Crocker's Iowa Brigade," and of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He mar- ried, in Washington, October 19, 1871, Emma Matilda Louisa Richardson, and has four chil- dren : I. Elinor Matilda, born 1872. 2. An- gela Elizabeth, born 1874. 3. Lucretia Beatrice, born 1876, married B. Holly S. Woodford (now dead) and has one child, Beatrice Kins- man Woodford, born 1902. 4. Olive Daf- forne, born 1893. Since 1886 Colonel Kins- man has lived on his farm, situate on the bank of the Northwest Branch of the Potomac in Montgomery county, Maryland, some nine miles from Washington.

The Cutter families of New CUTTER England are descended from English ancestors, and the first persons of that surname of whom there is an authentic record were the Widow Elizabeth Cutter, her two sons and one daughter. These children are said by antiquarians to have been grandchildren of one Cutter, of Newcastle-up- on-Tyne, England, but concerning whom no further information appears to be obtainable. (I) Elizabeth Cutter, widow, with whom our present narrative begins, came to New England about 1640, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 10, 1663-64. In her will she gave her age as eighty-seven years, but as she lived about two years after that instrument was executed she must have been eighty-nine at the time of her death. Three children came with her to this country-Wil- liam, Richard and Barbara. William lived in New England about seventeen years, and then returned to his old home at Newcastle-upon- Tyne, England. Richard is the immigrant an- cestor of those who bear the Cutter surname in America. Barbara, the daughter, married Eli- jah Corlet, the Cambridge schoolmaster. In

the church records of Cambridge the widow Elizabeth is mentioned as "Old Goodwife Cut- ter," and in a statement made by her she says that she was born in a small place, without a church, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne; that she "knew not" the name of her father, who is supposed to have died during her infancy, but her mother sent her, when she was old enough, to Newcastle, where she was placed in a "godly family," and remained about seven years and then became member of another household where religious privileges were less. After the death of her husband she was sent to Cambridge, New England, and "came thither in a time of sickness and through many sad troubles by sea." She had with her in Cambridge a sister or sister-in-law, widow Isabella Wilkinson, who doubtless came from Newcastle.

(II) Richard Cutter, son of Elizabeth, died in Cambridge, June 16, 1693, aged about sev- enty-two years. His was one of the first houses built in that part of Cambridge which ·was called Menotomy, away from the more thickly settled parts of the town, and as a pro- tection against Indian attacks it was provided with "flankers." Two of his sons and two of his stepsons were soldiers of King Philip's war in 1675, and they all took part in the ex- pedition into the country of the Narragan- setts and in the fierce battle which was fought there. Richard Cutter married (first) about 1644, Elizabeth Williams, who died March 5, 1661-62, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Stalham) . Williams. He married (second) February 14, 1662-63, Frances ( Perriman) Amsden, widow of Isaac Amsden. Richard Cutter was a cooper by trade, and there is still in possession of his descendants the small oaken chest in which he kept his clothing while serving his apprenticeship. He was made freeman in 1641, and joined the Artillery Com- pany of Boston in 1643. His children : I.

Elizabeth, born July 15, 1645. 2. Samuel, January 3, 1646-47. 3. Thomas, July 19, 1648. 4. William, February 22, 1649-50. 5. Ger- shom, 1653. 6. Mary, 1657. 7. Nathaniel, December 1, 1663. 8. Rebecca, September 5, 1665. 9. Hepzibah, November 11, 1667. 10. Elizabeth, May 1, 1668-69. II. Hepzibah, August 15, 1671. 12. Sarah, August 31, 1673. 13. Ruhamah, 1678.

(III) William, son of Richard and Eliza- beth (Williams) Cutter, was born in Cam- bridge February 22, 1649-50, and lived in that part of the town called Menotomy, on the banks of the stream flowing from Lexington through Arlington into the Mystic river. He

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received from the estate of his wife's father an acre of land, and there he built his house and dwelt there until 1717, when he deeded the property to his son John. He then moved to the old Rolfe mansion house, which re- mained standing until about 1844. William Cutter was a carpenter by trade, a husband- man and also a miller, owner of considerable land in the town, and evidently a man of prominence. He married Rebecca, daughter of John Rolfe, and both he and his wife were admitted to the church in Cambridge in 1700. Their family Bible is yet in possession of their descendants. Rebecca survived her husband and afterward married, June 23, 1724, John Whitmore, Sr. William and Rebecca ( Rolfe) Cutter had children : I. Elizabeth, born March 5, 1680-81. 2. Richard, November 13, 1682. 3. Mary, January 26, 1684-85. 4. Hannah, May 20, 1688. 5. John, October 15, 1690. 6. Rebecca, January 18, 1692-93. 7. William, 1697. 8. Samuel, June 14, 1700. 9. Sarah, baptized October 18, 1702. IO. Ammi Ru- hamah, baptized May 6, 1705.

(IV) Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Cutter, son of William and Rebecca ( Rolfe) Cutter, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 6, 1705, graduated from Harvard College in 1725, and for a time afterward was a sur- veyor of land. In 1727 he was admitted to communion with the church in Cambridge, and on Sunday, November 10, 1729, as a can- didate, he preached his first sermon at North Yarmouth, Maine; and soon afterward be- came the first settled minister of that town. He continued as spiritual head of the church there until 1735, and then received his letter of dismissal. This was the end of his work in the ministry, but it was not the end of his good works, for his whole life was filled with Christian deeds and acts of moral and physical courage. While living at North Yarmouth he took an active and earnest interest in all pub- lic affairs, and performed much clerical work for the inhabitants of the town, writing wills, deeds and other important papers. In 1741 he was appointed town agent at the general court of Massachusetts, and in 1742 was appointed to superintend the Indian trading house on the Saco river, about nine miles above its mouth. There were three such establishments in_Maine at that time, and they who were appointed to superintend them were selected with particular regard to probity, discretion and character ; and as none of the Indians in the vicinity of the agency at which Mr. Cut- ter was "truck-master" spoke the language of those farther west in New England, he "com-

posed a vocabulary, which yet remains." He was captain of a company in Sir William Pep- perell's expedition for the reduction of Louis- burg, his command being attached to Colonel Jeremiah Moulton's York county regiment. After the fall of that stronghold a detachment of troops was detailed to remain at the for- tress, during the following winter, and Cap- tain Cutter was assigned to the position of chief commandant and surgeon. He died at Louisburg in March, 1746, a victim of the general contagion which prevailed throughout the garrison. On October 13, 1745, he wrote : " 'Tis generally a very sickly, dying time through the country, with the usual nervous or slow fever. We have daily tidings of our people dying at Cape Breton, and of many coming home and dying after arrival." Pre- vious to his dismissal from the church at North Yarmouth, Mr. Cutter married Doro- thy Bradbury, sister of Moses Bradbury, one of the first settlers at North Yarmouth and formerly of Newburyport, Massachusetts. "She possessed much of her husband's activity and enterprise, and a character so exalted that her memory is held in the highest veneration by her descendants to the present time." She bore her husband four children: I. Ammi Ruhamah, born North Yarmouth March 15, 1735; graduated from Harvard College in 1752; studied medicine and afterward became a prominent character in the civil and mili- tary history of the provinces of Maine and New Hampshire. 2. William, born 1737. 3: Samuel, born North Yarmouth, August 7, 1739, died April 27, 1824. 4. Elizabeth, born 1742, died unmarried, 1792.

(V) Captain William Cutter, son of Rev. Ammi Ruhamah and Dorothy ( Bradbury) Cutter, was born in North Yarmouth in 1737, and was killed by a falling tree June 28, 1776. His correspondence with his brother indicates that he had charge of his father's estate, and it is evident that he had much to do with transacting the town's business. He was a farmer and lived in his father's old mansion house ; was captain of militia, select- man of the town, the fourth incumbent of the office of town treasurer, and an excellent citizen. On the day of his death, says one account, accompanied by his sons John and Ammi, both then lads, he proceeded to fell certain trees on his estate, at some distance from his dwelling, on land now (1871) owned by Mr. Russell. While cutting down one tree it unexpectedly fell and crushed him to the ground. After ineffectually attempting his liberation, he directed the boys to run for

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„assistance, but he died before he could be re- lieved from his unfortunate position. Captain Cutter married Mehitable, daughter of An- drew and Zeruiah (Standish) Gray, of North Yarmouth, and a descendant of Captain Myles Standish. Zeruiah Standish was the great- granddaughter of both Myles Standish and John Alden, her father Ebenezer being the son of Alexander Standish, son of Myles, the said Alexander having married a daughter of John Alden. Captain William and Mehitable (Gray) Cutter had eight children : 1. Sarah, born June 30, 1760, died June 14, 1843 ; mar- ried John Davis, died October 29, 1798. 2. Jane, probably twin with Sarah; married (first ) - Gage, (second) Elisha Gard- ner, of Exeter, New Hampshire. 3. Phebe, born June 5, 1764; married, August 25, 1785, Dr. Ammi Ruhamah Mitchell, of North Yar- mouth. 4. John, born 1767; married (first) Elizabeth Bucknam Loring, died July 20, 1821; married (second) Mrs. Mary Jones Bearce. 5. Ammi, born February 2, 1770, died September 18, 1825; married November 13, 1794, Hannah Cushing Greeley. 6. Sam- uel, died North Yarmouth, March 23, 1776, .aged four years. 7. Levi, born May 22, 1774. 8. Captain William, born October, 1776; was a mariner and was lost at sea near Cape Sable about 1815; married (first) Rachel Mitchell, (second) Isabella Babson.

(VI) Levi Cutter, son of Captain William and Mehitable (Gray) Cutter, was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, May 22, 1774, and died in Portland, Maine, March 2, 1856. His father having been killed in 1776 by a falling tree, the family was left largely in care of the mother, a woman of great energy and ability. Her children were all young and were taught at an early age that they must rely upon their own efforts and make their . own way in life. Levi had only the advan- tages of a common school education, and at · the age of fourteen became himself a teacher. As was customary in those days, he had in his · classes pupils of adult age, but he early mani- fested the executive power which so distin- guished his after life, and he was a highly successful teacher. He also was early taught in the Westminster catechism and became so familiar with it that he could repeat the whole of it, question and answer. In 1791 he made a public profession of religion and in the same year united with the First Congrega- tional Church of North Yarmouth. In 1801 he took a letter of dismissal to the Second Congregational Church of Portland, and con- : tinued his membership there until the time of

his death, being for many years a deacon of the church. He began business as a merchant in North Yarmouth, but suffered heavy losses by the "French spoilations prior to 1800." About 1803 he removed to Portland, and for many years engaged in banking and insur- ance business, and still later was a member of the firm of N. & L. Dana & Co. Several years before his death Mr. Cutter retired from active pursuits. From 1838 until the time of his death he was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for For- cign Missions, for many years a member of the board of governors of Bowdoin College, and vice-president of the board. He also was an active member of the old fire department, and in 1834 was elected mayor of Portland, which office he filled six years. In September, 1796, Mr. Cutter married (first) Lucretia Mitchell, who died April 13, 1827, daughter of David and Lucretia (Loring) Mitchell, and sister of Dr. A. R. Mitchell, of North Yar- mouth. He married (second) November 18, 1833, Mrs. Ruth (Kendall) Jenkins, of New- buryport, Massachusetts. She died in April, 1862. Levi Cutter had ten children, all born of his first marriage: I. Lucretia Loring, born North Yarmouth, August 3, 1797, died Clin- ton, Iowa, October 12, 1861 ; married August 10, 1819, Rev. Petrus Stuyvesant Ten Broeck. 2. David Mitchell, born September 9, 1798, died December 16, 1836. 3. Harriet, born February 19, 1800, died March 28, 1863 ; mar- ried July 8, 1835, Joseph Adams, of Salem, Massachusetts. 4. William, born May 15, 1801; married May 29, 1828, Margaret W. Dicks. 5. Angela, born February 16, 1803; married March 9, 1830, John Dafforne Kins- man. (See Kinsman.) 6. Elizabeth Jane, born November 5, 1804, died September 8, 1806. 7. Julia Ann, born August 26, 1806, died December 28, 1830; married, August 31, 1829, Rev. Samuel Cutler. 8. Jane Maria, born May 21, 1808, died September 19, 1848; married September 1, 1832, Oliver B. Dor- rance, of Portland, merchant. 9. Edward Francis, born January 20, 1810; married De- cember 5, 1833, Mary Eliza Mclellan. IO. Delia Swift, born July 15, 1812, died Septem- ber 16, 1865; married July 8, 1835, Joseph Buckminster Gardner.

The now numerous family of McKEEN this name in America, which is descended from Scotch-Irish ancestors who were pioneers in New Hamp- shire and Pennsylvania, has had many rep- resentatives who distinguished themselves in

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war and in peace. Patriotism and executive ability have been and still are marked traits of the McKeens. Few save the local historian realize how narrowly the district of Maine missed becoming the home of the largest por- tion of that remarkable company of Presby- terians who emigrated from Londonderry to Boston in August, 1718. Sixteen or more families who desired to form a separate settle- ment and enjoy the ministrations of their former pastor, Rev. James McGregor, were told by Governor Shute that there was good land in the neighborhood of Casco Bay. They came by ship to Portland in the autumn of that year. An unusually early and severe winter overtook them. Their vessel was frozen in. The hamlet of Falmouth Neck, as it was then called, had not dwellings enough to house them. Their supplies were exhausted and their money was limited. So great was the need that the general court at Boston voted that one hundred bushels of Indian meal be allowed and paid out of the treasury for the poor among these strangers from Ireland. Though they came from Ireland they were not Irish. After James I, on the flight of certain Irish chieftains, had confiscated a large por- tion of the territory of Ulster, he induced by liberal grants of land many of his Scottish subjects to settle in that region. Later in the century the persecutions of the Covenanters by Claverhouse sent many more of the Scot- tish peasantry across to their Presbyterian brethren in the north of Ireland. The de- scendants of these men made up this band of home seekers. Some of them had personal knowledge, it is said, of the hardships of the famous siege of Londonderry, all of them were more or less animated by a desire for the larger civil and religious liberty which they could never expect in a land where the great mass of the population belonged to an- other faith and they themselves were taxed to support ecclesiastical government which they did not approve and would not sanction.

The family and clan name of the McKeans is MacDonald. (See McDonald.) Donald, the progenitor, was a son of Reginald, and grandson of the Somerlad King of the Isles. All descendants of this Donald are called Mac- Donalds ("sons of Donald"). The progenitor of the MacDonalds of Glencoe was John Fraoch, son of Angus Og, Mac Donald, Lord of the Isles of Scotland. who fought with Bruce at Bannockburn. The MacDonalds of Glencoe were locally or patronymically known as MacIans or Maclains, or in its Anglicized form, Mckean. In the Gaelic Ian is John;

Mac means son of. Hence Mckean is equiva- lent to John's son, or Johnson. John Spran- gach, the youngest son of Angus Mor Mac- Donald, Lord of the Isles, and brother of Angus Og, Lord of the Isles, was the ancestor of the MacDonalds of Ardna-murchan, who are also patronymically Mclans or Mckeans. Sprangach signifies, the Bold. The claymores of the McKeans gleamed in all the important battles of Scotland in their day, except Cullo- den. They were first in the battle of Inver- lochy, in 1431, known as the first battle of Inverlochy. The coat-of-arms: argent an eagle displayed gules surmounted of a lymphad (long-fada or galley) sable. In the dexter chief a hand proper, holding a crosslet fitchee azure. Crest and motto, same as MacDonalds of the Isles. The Suaicheantas or badge is also the same, i. e., fraoch gorm, or common heath. Motto: J'ai bonne Esperance. Crest : A raven sable on a rock azure.

(I) William McKean, to whom this family is traced, lived in Argyleshire, Scotland. The name of his wife is unknown.

(II) James, son of William McKean, was born in Argyleshire, and settled in Ballymoney in the county of Antrim, Ireland, about the middle of the seventeenth century. He was devotedly attached to his people, a zealous Protestant and one of that band who made the defense of Londonderry one of the most remarkable events in the history of the British Isles. He had three sons-James, John and William. James is the subject of the next paragraph. John and descendants receive men- tion in this article. William settled in Penn- sylvania, and was the progenitor of a large family. Among his grandsons was Thomas McKean, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and who for nine years was gov- ernor of Pennsylvania.

(III) Prominent in this group of strong and resolute men was James (2) McKeen, the first of the name to step upon the Maine shore. He had signed the memorial presented to Governor Shute by Rev. William Boyd early in the year, and was acting as the agent to select the land for the new settlement. When spring came he and his associates examined the unoccupied land to the eastward and found nothing that was satisfactory. Then they turned westward, and ascending the Merri- mac to Haverhill, heard of a tract some fifteen miles distant known as Nutfield, from the abundance of chestnut, butternut and walnut trees. Here they settled, and in June, 1722, received from Governor Benning Wentworth a charter for the town of Londonderry. Fore-

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most in the list of the sixteen first settlers in this frontier town was James McKeen, who will be hereafter referred to as Justice Mc- Keen, to distinguish him from his father and his son, each of the same name. Tradition says that he spelled it McKean, like the Penn- sylvania family of kindred race, until the issue to him in 1720 of the commission of justice of the peace, which, by a clerical error, re- placed the a with a second e, a form which has since been followed by most of his de- scendants. He was born in Ireland in 1665, and married (first) Janet Cochran, by whom he had, besides several children that died in infancy, two daughters -- Elizabeth and Janet. Elizabeth married, in 1714, James Nesmith, who accompanied his father-in-law to Amer- ica and became a prominent citizen of Lon- donderry and an elder in the church. Janet McKeen married John Cochran, of Windham, New Hampshire, and was the ancestress of Governor Samuel Dinsmoor and Robert Dins- moor, the "Rustic Bard." Justice McKeen married (second) Annis Cargil, sister of Marion Cargil, wife of Rev. James Mac- Gregor. She survived her husband several years, and died highly esteemed, August 8, 1782, in the ninety-fourth year of her age. By this marriage there were nine children : John, Mary, James, Janet, Martha, David, Margaret, Annis and Samuel. The last four are believed to have died without offspring. Of the daughters, Mary married Robert Boyd, and lived in Londonderry; Janet, born De- cember 28, 1721, married William Orr, and had three children; James, born in April, 1719, married Elizabeth Dinsmoor, and lived in Londonderry till the close of the revolution- ary war, when he removed to Corinth, Ver- mont, where he died in 1794, leaving one son, David Mckeen.

Justice McKeen, whose numerous descend- ants have been thus briefly summarized, was a remarkable man. He had already won for himself in the old country the respect and con- fidence of his neighbors, as is evidenced by the duty entrusted to him of selecting a site for settlement. He had acquired in trade a prop- perty which, though not great, enabled him to bring his own family and many of his friends through the trying period of emigra- tion and settlement. His natural ability and intellectual attainments were equal to the task of maintaining the rights of his townsmen against the encroachments almost inevitable in those days of disputed titles. His innate sense of justice led him to join with others in se- curing for the lands of the town a title from

the Indians as well as from King George. The first commissioned officer of the commun- ity, he was also its first representative in the provincial assembly, serving from 1727 till his resignation in 1729. He was repeatedly mod- erator at town meetings, and at his death, November 9, 1756, was honored and lamented as the patriarch of the colony. Perhaps the following oath which as assemblyman he took on the accession of George II to the throne, will indicate as clearly as anything else the difference between his time and ours :

"I, James McKeen, do swear that I do from my heart abhor, detest, abjure as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine and position, that Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope or any authority of the Sce of Rome, may be deposed or murthered by their sub- jects, or any other whatsoever : and I do de- clare that no foreign Prince, Person or Pre- late, State or Potentate, hath or ought to have jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within the realm of Great Britain. So help me God."

"I, James McKeen, do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify and declare in my conscience before God and the world, that our Sovereign Lord, King George the Second, is lawful and rightful King of the realm of Great Britain, and all other his Majesty's Do- minions and countries thereunto belonging ; and I do solemnly and sincerely declare that I do believe in my conscience, that the person pretended to Prince of Wales during the life of the late King James, and since his decease, pretending to be, and taking upon himself the style and title of King of England, by the name of James the Third, King of Great Brit- ain, hath not any right or title whatsoever to the Crown of the realm of Great Britain, or any other of the dominions thereto belonging. And I do renounce, refuse and abjure any al- legiance or obedience to him So help me God."

(IV) John (2), son of Justice James (2) McKeen and his second wife, Annis Cargil, was born April 13, 1714, at Ballymoney, county Antrim, Ireland. He received his education in one of the "two schools for reading and writing" which the settlers in Londonderry at once established before they were able to sup- port that "grammar school kept by some dis- creet person well instructed in the tongues" which every town of over a hundred house- holders was required to maintain. Many of his kin found occupation in keeping these schools, and the reputation of the Scotch-Irish schoolmasters was high. One of them, by the

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I, Part 39

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe Publication date: 1909 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 802

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 802