Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I, Part 52

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 52

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she married Allan W. Hodgman and made her home in Washington where she died. 7. Martha Ann, born June 18, 1820, married John Hall, of Waterborough, and lived for many years in Merrimac, Massachusetts, where her husband was engaged in the car- riage business, and where she died June 25, 1902; children : Sarah, Marshall, James, Frank and Kate. Marshall and Frank served their country in the war of the rebellion ; Frank died while serving as chief of police of his home town. 8. William, born in Buxton, July 9, 1823, died in Biddeford, July 23, 1849. (VII) Gideon Marshall, son of Gideon Tucker, was born in Buxton, May 19, 1829. In 1848-49 he made two voyages to South America; the first with his uncle, Captain Daniel Marshall, on the brig "Margarita," and the second with Captain George Upton on the barque "Oceania," going out of Salem, Massachusetts, on both trips. In 1850 he went to Steep Falls, Maine, where he spent the following eight years chiefly in the employ of the Hobsons and Lords who carried on the lumber business there. In 1858 he went into business for himself, "teaming," between Steep Falls and Portland before the railroad was built. He enlisted, August 14, 1862, in the Sixteenth Maine Regiment of Volunteers, Company F, and served until he was mustered out of service at Washington after Lee's sur- render. He was at some of the principal battles of the rebellion, such as Gettysburg, Petersburg. Fredericksburg, Round Moun- tain. Antietam anl many others. He was pro- moted to wagon master, then to brigade wagon and. forage master. In 1866 he be- came associated with Mark R. Coolbroth in the buying and selling of timber, a connection severed only by the death of Mr. Coolbroth in 1903. In 1874 he bought out the interest of Bradbury Merrill in the A. F. Sanborn Lumber Company, and was a member of that firm until their mill burned in 1877, after which for several years Coolbroth & Tucker manufactured shook at "Moody's Mill" on Watchic brook. In 1886 he bought out the interest of the Samuel Banks heirs, and formed a partnership with Stephen Hobson Cousins (see Cousins VII) under the firm name of Cousins & Tucker. He also by the same transaction became again a member of the A .- F. Sanborn Lumber Company. Cousins & Tucker sold out their interest in this com- pany in 1902. They formed a corporation in 1904 and in 1905 Mr. Tucker sold out his in- terest in same. He conducted business with his son, William M. Tucker, under the firm

name of G. M. Tucker & Son until 1907, when he sold out to the son. Although at this date (1909) practically retired from busi- ness and nearly eighty years of age, he still has considerable timber interests, and is as active mentally and physically as many a man at fifty. He is a staunch Republican in poli- tics, having been for many years a member of the town and county committees, and often a delegate to county and state conventions. He was one of the charter members of Cres- cent Lodge, No. 77, K. of P., of Steep Falls, and a member of Adoniram Lodge, F. and A. M., of Limington since 1857.

He married, November 8, 1857, Ethelinda Hobson, daughter of Sewell and Martha (Buzzell) Hobson (see Hobson VII). Chil- dren: William Marshall, see forward; Mar- tha Hobson, see forward; James Frederick, see forward; John Lord, see forward; Annie Ethelinda, see forward.

(VIII) William Marshall, eldest son of Gideon Marshall Tucker, was born at Steep Falls, December 2, 1858. When twenty-one years of age he went in the spring of 1880 to Nebraska, from there to Dakota, and finally settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he was engaged in the lumber industry until 1897, when he returned to Steep Falls, where he is now engaged in the same business. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the town committee at the present time. He is also an active member of Crescent Lodge, No. 77, K. of P. He married, March 13, 1889, at .Somersworth, New Hampshire, Bertha Lothrop, daughter of John and Lydia (Hanson) Lothrop. She has one sister Myra, who married J. Frank Atwood, of North Sandwich, New Hampshire, and one brother, Daniel J. Lothrop, who is a teacher in Seattle, Washington. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Tucker : I. Ruth Lothrop, born in Minne- apolis, December 19, 1891, is now a student in her junior year at the Maine Central In- stitute, Pittsfield, Maine. 2. Martha Ethe- linda, born Minneapolis, September 15, 1896. 3. Margaret, born Steep Falls, September 6, I90I.

(VIII) Martha Hobson, eldest daughter of Gideon Marshall Tucker, was born in Steep Falls, June 8, 1861. She was educated in the village schools, at Gorham Normal school and Limington Academy. After leaving school she taught for a number of years. She was in- strumental in establishing a public library at Steep Falls, which was opened in February, 1900. She is unmarried and lives in Steep Falls with her parents.

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( VIII) James Frederick, second son of Gideon Marshall Tucker, was born in Steep Falls, October 8, 1865. For twenty years he was a traveling and a local salesman for an eastern firm with his office in Chicago. He is at the present time a broker there. Ile is a Republican in politics, and has been assessor of Lake View district in Chicago. He mar- ried, June 23, 1892, at Janesville, Wisconsin, Fannie Belle Van Kirk, daughter of William T. and Isabelle (Bostwick) Van Kirk, of Janesville. Children: Isabelle, born August 30, 1895, in Chicago; Racine, May 26, 1900, in Chicago.

(VIII) John Lord, third son of Gideon Marshall Tucker, was born March 13, 1868. He received his early education in the schools of his home town, after which he took a busi- ness course at New Hampton College, New Hampshire. He married (first) June 23, 1891, Mabel Newman, daughter of Judge T. H. Newman, of Burlington, Iowa, by whom he had one son, Maurice Newman. Married (second) Genevieve Loud, at Annapolis, Maryland, with whom he now lives in Wash- ington, D. C., where he is in the advertising department of the Washington Star.

(VIII) Annie Ethelinda, second daughter of Gideon Marshall Tucker, was born March 28, 1874, at Steep Falls. She was educated in the village schools and Limington Academy, being graduated from that institution in 1893, after which she taught music at Potter Acad- emy, Sebago, and at home until her marriage, September 15, 1897, to Harry Fowler, son of Dr. William and Maria (Smith) Smith, of Cornish, Maine. Harry Fowler Smith was graduated from the Cornish high school, 1891, and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in 1895 with the degree of Graduate of Phar- macy. He is now manager for the state of Maine for a large wholesale drug firm and lives at Portland, Maine. Children : Hester, born August 4, 1898, Portland; Gideon Tuc- ker, November 15, 1902; Dorothy, December 26, 1903.

LONGFELLOW The family of Long- fellow is of English origin, and its first rep- resentative in America, from whom those of the name are in most cases descended, ap- peared in Massachusetts the latter half of the seventeenth century. The early Longfellows lived in times of trouble, and were farmers and soldiers ; later generations were industrious farmers ; then came those who received college educations and were prominent in teaching

and the law ; and then came one who was the best known and best loved poet of his age and time.

(I) Ensign William Longfellow, the first of the name who came to America, was born in Horsforth, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, Eng- land, and was baptized at Guiseley, October 20, 1650. He came in youth to Massachusetts and settled in Newbury. He was a man of ability and education, but rather improvident in his manner of life, preferring fun and frolic to work and study. As appears from a clause in Henry Sewall's will, dated August 17, 1678, William Longfellow was at that time living at Newbury's Falls. The clause in the will is as follows: "I give & bequeath to my Soune in Law William Longfellow & my daughter Anne his wife, during their natural life, a tract of land with the house on it com- only knowne by the name of the high field, with a parcell of meadow adjoining thereunto containing about seven or eight acres, being on the east side of the ffalls river, bounded on the southwest side with a little brooke & the great river, & the northeast side with a small creeke & stony brooke running into it. Allso an equal part or moyty of my great meadow formerly possessed by Launcelott Granger ; And after their decease to the heires of the said Anne of her body lawfully begot- ten or to be begotten, & for want of said issue to my soune Samuel Sewall, to enjoy to him and his heires for ever." This will was not proved until May 24, 1700, ten years after the death of William Longfellow. Meanwhile the house and land had been conveyed by deed from Henry Sewall to his daughter to Anne

Longfellow. Among the tithingmen ap- pointed May 7, 168(7), was "Mr. Will. Long- fellow." The honorary appellation of Mr. shows his social standing. In a list of the names of persons who took the oath of allegi- ance in Newbury, in 1678, is that of William I687 Longfellow, aged twenty-seven. In William Longfellow returned to England to receive what was due him apparently from the estate of his brother, at which time his father is stated to be "alive and well." After his return to Newbury. William enlisted in the expedition to Quebec, under Sir William Phipps, and was drowned at Anticosti Island, in October, 1690. At that time he was an ensign. In 1739 a township of land on the westerly side of the Merrimack river "and northerly and adjoining to Contoocook," was granted and laid out to the "soldiers in the expedition to Canada, anno 1690," and the heirs of Ensign William Longfellow received

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a share of it. He married, November 10, 1676, in Newbury, Anne, sister of Judge Sam- uel Sewall, and daughter of Henry and Jane (Dummer) Sewall. They had six children : William Stephen (died young), Anne, Steph- en, Elizabeth and Nathan. Mrs. Longfellow married (second) May II, 1692, Henry Short and had six children. She died December 18, 1706.

(II) Lieutenant Stephen, third son of Will- iam and Anne (Sewall) Longfellow, was born in Newbury, September 22, 1685, and died at Newbury Falls ( Byfield Parish) November 16, 1764, aged seventy-nine. He was a lock- smith and blacksmith by trade. He owned and occupied the house and farm at Newbury Falls until his death; January 3, 17II, he bought of his sister Elizabeth all her right and interest "in land given to said Anne, by her father, Henry Sewall, in particular the farm in Newbury known as 'ye high field'"; December 17, 1712, he bought of his brother Nathan all his right and interest in the same property ; January 7, 1715, he bought of John Emery and wife Mehitable, daughter of Anne Longfellow, all her right and interest in the same property; and January 6, 1726, he bought of his half-brother Samuel Short all his interest in the same property. He had a lawsuit with Abraham and Anne (Short) Adams regarding title to the high field; and won the suit. Stephen Longfellow's account book has many interesting entries in it, and his spelling is even more picturesque and var- ied and less in conformity with the present day rules of orthography than that of his contemporaries. His account book now in existence, bears this inscription of ownership : "Stephen Longfellow, his book July 1710." Another similar inscription reads : "Stephen Longfellow, his book coust Sex Shillings and Sexpence." One charge is: "to Day's work my Selfe and 6 oxen and boy 15-" (15 shill- ings). This entry shows he was a large far- mer as well as blacksmith. Another entry is: "1741 William Adams 10 Shep 5 Eues and 5 Wethers Let out fore year for hafe woll and then to return old Stock." The fact that there was slavery in the land appears from en- tries in various ways on the pages of the ac- count book; one is: "Thomas Gage 1714 Bouston one day to plant." Bouston (Bos- ton)- was his Indian slave, who some years later became a fellow member in the Byfield Parish church, according to this entry in Mr. Hale's baptismal record : "Boston, an Indian servant of Lt. Longfellow, November 19, 1727." In his will dated October 13, 1760,

and proved November 26, 1764, he gave to his wife Abigail one-half of the homestead during her life, and to his sons Edward and Samuel, after the payment of certain bequests, all the rest and residue of his estate excepting land adjoining the new plantation in Contoo- cook, New Hampshire. Stephen Longfellow, though a very bad speller, believed in educa- tion so practically as to send a son to college. Stephen Longfellow married Abigail, a daugh- ter of Rev. Edward Thompson, of Marsh- field. She died September 10, 1778, aged eighty-five. They were the parents of nine children : William, Ann, Edward, Sarah, Stephen, . Samuel, Abigail, Elizabeth and Nathan.

(III) Stephen (2), third son of Stephen (I) and Abigail (Thompson) Longfellow, was born in Byfield, Massachusetts, February 7, 1723, and died at Gorham, Maine, May I, I790. He was a bright boy, and was sent to Harvard College where he took his first degree in 1742, and his second in 1745. He taught a school in York, and went from there to Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. The letter from the minister of the town inviting him ran as follows :

"Falmouth, November 5, 1744. "SIR: We need a school-master. Mr. Plaisted advises me of your being at liberty. If you will undertake the service in this place, you may depend upon our being generous and your being satisfied. I wish you'd come as soon as possible, and doubt not but you'll find things to your content.

"Your humble ser't, "THOS. SMITH.

"P. S .- I wrote in the name and with the power of the selectmen of the town. If you can't serve us, pray advise us per first oppor- tunity.'

The salary for the first year was two hun- dred pounds, in depreciated currency. Mr. Longfellow arrived in Falmouth, April II, and opened a school six days afterward; it was probably the grammar school. He con- tinued to be the principal instructor in the town until he was appointed clerk of the court on the division of the county in 1760. He held many important and honorable offices in Portland. He was town clerk twenty-two years ; clerk of the first parish twenty-three years ; clerk of the proprietors of common lands for many years, and was the first to hold the offices of clerk of the judicial courts, and register of probate for the county, which of- fices he held for sixteen years. "His hand- writing in beautiful character, symbolical of

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the purity and excellence of his own moral character, is impressed on all the records of the town and county through many successive years." He lived at the beginning of the revolution, on that part of Fore street which fronted the beach, east of India street; his house was destroyed in the sack of the town by Mowatt, October 18, 1775, when he moved to Gorham, where he died, universally beloved and respected. His favorite reading was his- tory and poetry. He married, October 19, 1749. Tabitha, daughter of Samuel Bragdon, of York, Maine, who died June II, 1777. Their children were: Stephen, Tabitha, Sam- uel, William and Abigail.

(IV) Hon. Stephen (3), eldest son of Stephen (2) and Tabitha (Bragdon) Long- fellow, was born August 13, 1750, in Fal- mouth, and died in Gorham, May 28, 1824, aged seventy-four years. He went to Gor- ham with his father in 1775. He was one of the leading citizens of Gorham ; a man highly honored and esteemed. He held many town offices; was selectman several years; repre- sentative to the general court of Massachu- setts eight years; also senator under Massa- chusetts ; judge of the court of common pleas from 1798 to 1811. He occupied the farm which at one time included the Stephenson farm. The rows of fine elms which border the farm, and are still known as the "Long- fellow Elms," were planted over one hundred years ago, under Judge Longfellow's direc- tion and at his expense, he paying his hired men nine pence (twelve and a half cents) above their wages for every tree which they would set out outside of their working hours. Mr. Longfellow married, December 13, 1773, Patience Young, of York. She died August 12, 1830, aged eighty-four years. They had six children : Tabitha, Stephen, Abigail, Anna,. Catherine, and Samuel.

(V) Hon. Stephen (4), eldest son of Stephen (3) and Patience (Young) Longfel- low, was born in Gorham, March 23, 1776, and died in Portland, August 23, 1849, aged seventy-three years. He entered Harvard College at eighteen years of age, and gradu- ated in the class of 1798. He was admitted to the bar in 1801, practiced law in Portland for many years, and attained great eminence in his profession. He was distinguished not only for his large acquirements, but for his probity and uprightness, and was often called upon to exercise important trusts. He was a member of the Hartford Convention in 1814, and later was elected to congress and served one term. By overtasking his powers in the

practice of his profession he was prostrated by disease. In 1828 he received the degree of LL.D. from Bowdoin College, of which he was a trustee nineteen years. In 1834 he was elected president of the Maine Historical So- ciety. He died highly respected for his in- tegrity, public spirit, hospitality and gener- osity. He married, January 1, 1804, Zilpah Wadsworth, a daughter of General Peleg and Elizabeth ( Bartlett) Wadsworth, of Portland. She was born at Duxbury, Massachusetts, January 6, 1778, and died in Portland, March 12, 1851, aged seventy-three years. General Wadsworth was a descendant of Christopher Wadsworth, the emigrant, of Duxbury, through John, John Jr., and Deacon Peleg, his father. He was a major-general in the revolution, and a member of congress four- teen years, being a much respected and hon- ored citizen of his state. He died at Hiram, Maine, November 12, 1829, aged eighty-one years.

The children of Stephen and Zilpah ( Wads- worth) Longfellow were: Stephen, Henry W., Elizabeth, Anne, Alexander W., Mary, Ellen and Samuel.

(VI) Henry Wadsworth, second son of Stephen (4) and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Long- fellow, was born in Portland, Maine, Febru- ary 27, 1807, and died in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, March 24, 1882, aged seventy-five. His birthplace is at the north corner of Fore and Hancock streets. At the age of fourteen he gave decided indications of poetic taste, and anonymous pieces from his pen were at that time published in a Portland newspaper. In 1821 he entered Bowdoin College, though for the most part, during the first year of his college course, he pursued his studies at home. The class which he entered was noted for the intellectual brilliancy of its members. In it were sons of some of the choicest families of Northern New England; and among them were those who were to achieve a wide repu- tation in the field of letters-Nathaniel Haw- thorne, George B. Cheever, John S. C. Ab- bott, and others at the bar and in political life, conspicuous among whom were Jonathan Cilley and James Ware Bradbury. Mr. Long- fellow graduated second in a class of thirty- seven. His theme on commencement day was "Native Writers." During his college life he contributed to periodicals of the time, and his productions were received with favor as "early blossoms" of a spring of promise. Just at the time that he was going from Bowdoin, the trustees determined to establish a pro- fessorship of modern languages, and not hav-

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ing the means to obtain the services of anyone who was already eminent in this department, they determined to offer the post conditionally to the young graduate of their own college, who had already given proof of character and abilities that would enable him after proper preparation to fill the place satisfactorily. The proposal was accordingly made to him that he should go to Europe for the purpose of fitting himself for this chair, with the understanding that on his return he should receive the ap- pointment of professor. It was a remarkable testimony to the impression that Longfellow had made and to the confidence that he had inspired. Nothing could have been more de- lightful to him than the prospect it opened. It settled the question of his career in accor- dance with the desire of his heart, and his father gladly approved. The study of law which he had entered upon was given up, and in May, 1826, he sailed for Europe. He spent between three and four years in Spain, France, Italy and Germany. With unusual facility in acquiring language, he faithfully and success- fully improved his opportunities, rare at that period, and returned to assume his duties in the college in 1829, accomplished in French, Italian and German, and subsequently added rare familiarity with more northern languages of Europe. In 1835 he accepted the professor- ship of French and Spanish languages and literature and belles lettres at Harvard. Sub- sequently he again went abroad and spent

two years in Denmark. Sweden, Hol- land. Germany, the Tyrol, and Switzer- land. His third visit to Europe was made in 1842. Mr. Longfellow was highly esteemed and much respected as an instructor during the twenty-two years he served in that ca- pacity. In all his years of teaching, he wrote much, his articles in the North American Re- view giving him a very extended reputation. He made translations of various foreign works into English while in Bowdoin, and a still greater number while in Harvard, of which even the names cannot be mentioned in this brief article; and while at Harvard most of his many noted poems appeared. "In 1854 Mr. Longfellow resigned his professor- ship at Harvard" (says the "History of Bow- doin College," from which a large part of this article is extracted), but still continued his residence in Cambridge. In 1837, the historic mansion, the Craigie House; became his home, noted as the headquarters of Washington, and in later years the temporary residence of Presidents Everett and Sparks, Though re-

tired from official duties, it was not to gratify a spirit of self-indulgence. In 1855 appeared what, from its immense circulation, has seemed his most popular as it has been pro- nounced his most original work, "Hiawatha." It was soon translated into German. Follow- ing this came the "Courtship of Miles Stan- dish," 1858; "Tales of a Wayside Inn," 1863; "Flower de Luce," 1867; "The New England Tragedies," 1868; "Dante's Divine Comedy," a translation, 1867; "The Divine Tragedy," 1871; "Christus; a Mystery," 1872; "Three Books of Song." 1872; "Aftermath," 1874; "The Masque of Pandora," 1875. This last contained "Morituri Salutamus," a poem which Mr. Longfellow read at the reunion of his class on the fiftieth anniversary of gradua- tion. This was received with great interest at home, and was regarded in England as not inferior in conception and execution to his best. "Poems of Places," thirty-one volumes appeared between 1876 and 1879; "Keramos, and Other Poems," 1878; "Ultima Thule," 1880; "In the Harbor," 1882, published after the author's death; "Michael Angelo," 1883, printed after the author's death, in the At- lantic Monthly, and afterward in an illustrated volume. "A Complete Edition of Mr. Long- fellow's Poetical and Prose Works," in eleven volumes, was published in 1866. Longfellow's works have been translated into many lan- guages and passed through numerous editions at home and abroad. "Their popularity may be judged by the fact stated by Allibone that in 1857 the sales of them in this country alone had amounted to 325,550. Besides those col- lected in his volumes, many have appeared in periodicals, which have not been thus col- lected. His wide culture and unwearied in- dustry are manifest from their number and variety, the rich thought which they contain, their cosmopolitan character, and the exquisite finish and the melody of versification which mark all the productions of his pen. His translations show unsurpassed facility in transfusing the ideas and spirit of the original, and extraordinary mastery over the rythmati- cal resources of the language. In his own and other lands, and from highest sources, his productions have received most cordial and discriminating commendation." "In 1868 and 1869," says Appleton's "Cyclopedia of Ameri- can Biography," "accompanied by his daugh- ters, he visited Europe for the last time, and enjoyed a delightful stay in England, in Paris, and especially in Italy. Fame and the affec- tion that his poems had awakened for him,

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though personally unknown, in the hearts of many in the Old World not less than in the New, made his visit to Europe a series of honors and pleasures. But he returned home glad to enjoy once more its comparative tran- (mnillity, and to renew the accustomed course of the day. His last years were the fitting close of such a life." No poet was ever more beloved than he; none was ever more worthy of love. The expressions of the feel- ing toward him after death were deep, affect- ing and innumerable. One of the most strik- ing was the placing of his bust in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, in March, 1884. It was the first instance of such an honor being paid to an American poet. His bust stands near the tomb of Chaucer, be- tween the memorials to Cowley and Dry- den.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I, Part 52

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