USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume I > Part 76
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(I) Leonard Weeks, the immigrant, is claimed by tradition to have come from Wells, in Somerset. The parish records of Compton Martin contain the name of Leonard Wyke, baptized 1639, and his brother William about two years earlier, sons of John Wyke, of Moreton, which is in that parish. Nothing more is known of the father of Leonard, nor of the time when Leonard landed in America. His genealogist, Rev. Jacob Chapman, says that his name appears as that of a witness to a bond in York county, Maine, December 6, 1655, and next in the Portsmouth records, June 29, 1656, when he received a grant of eight acres of land in Portsmouth. "When he first went to the part of Portsmouth now called Greenland, he lived one year on a farm owned by Capt. Champernoon." July 5, 1660, he received grants of forty-four acres, of thirty-four acres, and of ten acres of land. In February, 1661, he had settled at Winnicut river, now in Greenland, where he spent the
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remainder of his life, dying in 1707. Much of the land he owned in Greenland has re- mained in the possession of his descendants till the present day. Copies of four deeds made April 23, 1706, and acknowledged May 15, 1706, probably instead of a will, are of record, conveying to his four younger sons Samuel, Joseph, Joshua and Jonathan, his lands, retaining possession himself during his life and making also some provision for the elder son John, and for his wife and three daughters. During the political contest of 1665, respecting the separation of New Hamp- shire from Massachusetts, "Leonard Weeks stood for Massachusetts rather than for the crown." He had trouble with John Hall, and the court records of 1660, 4th Mo. 26," show that "Leonard Weeks, for swearing by God and calling John Hall of Greenland, ould dog, and ould slave, & that he would knock him on the head," was fined "10 shillings for swear- ing, and to have an admonition for his re- viling and threatening speeches, and fees of court, 3, shillings." However, it does not ap- pear that his general standing was bad, but rather that he was a man of character and ability. as he was elected the following year 'one of the selectmen of Portsmouth. After- ward he was constable and for several years sheriff. In 1669 he "was on a committee" with men from Dover and Hampton, "to lay out the highway between Greenland and Bloody Poynt." His seat in the church at Portsmouth was No. 4, in front of the pulpit. Leonard Weeks married, in 1667, Mary, daughter of Deacon Samuel Haines, of Ports- mouth, his neighbor, and after her death he married (second) Elizabeth. The children of Leonard and Mary (Haines) Weeks were : John, Samuel, Joseph, Joshua, Mary, Jon- athan, Margaret and Sarah.
(II) Captain Joshua, fourth son and child of Leonard and Mary (Haines) Weeks, was born June 30, 1674. and died June 13, 1758, aged eighty-four. He married, in Boston, No- vember, 1699, Comfort (sister of Thomas) Hubbard. Her brother was treasurer of Har- vard College, and a wealthy Christian mer- chant of Boston. They resided at the Bay Side, now occupied by their descendants. She died March 20, 1756. Captain Joshua joined the church in May, 1735, at which time he was sixty-one years old. He was offended when his son, Dr. John, became a follower of Whitefield, but it appears from his will that he did not lose confidence in the doctor's abil- ity and honesty. Children of Captain Joshua and Comfort (Hubbard) Weeks, all born in
Greenland : Martha, Joshua, Comfort, Mary, Ichabod, John, Thankful, William, Richard and Margaret.
(III) Dr. John, sixth child and third son of Captain Joshua and Comfort (Hubbard) Weeks, was born in 1716, and died of con- sumption, October 20, 1763, aged forty-seven. He was a physician, and after acquiring all the medical knowledge he could in this coun- try he went to England, where he completed his studies. He practiced ten years in Green- land and vicinity, and then removed to Hamp- ton, where he died. He was an energetic business man, had an extensive practice, owned much land, held the offices of justice of the peace, colonel of a militia regiment, etc. He experienced religion in 1737, became a prominent member of the church, a warm friend to the cause of education, and to the improvement of society. He married (first) November 10, 1737, Martha Wingate, of Hampton, born March 30, 1718, daughter of Major Joshua Wingate. She had ten chil- dren, and died of "violent fever," March 9, 1758, aged forty. He married (second) Eliza- beth -, whom he left a widow with nine children, most of them young. The children of Dr. John and Martha (Wingate) Weeks were: Joshua Wingate, Comfort, Martha, Mary, Sarah, John, William, Ward Cotton, Abigail (died young), and Joanna.
(IV) Captain John (2), sixth child and second son of Dr. John (1) and Martha (Wingate) Weeks, was born in Hampton, February 17, 1749, and died September 10, 1818. It is written of him that he was a zealous patriot, "Was Lieutenant in the rev- olutionary army, a member of the convention that adopted the constitution of New Hamp- shire, several years representative in the legis- lature of New Hampshire, and an influential citizen, wherever he resided." In the Revolu- tionary War Rolls, State Papers of New Hampshire, we find that John Weeks (town not given) was second lieutenant, September, 1776, in Captain Jonathan Robinson's com- pany, enlisted into the service of the American states to reinforce the army at New York; September 23, 1776, John Weeks, of Captain Robinson's company, signs as witness to mark of two soldiers of his company, who receive pay; the name of John Weeks, private, ap- pears on list of members of Tenth company, Colonel Scammel's regiment, 1780, enlisted to fill up the Continental army; also, John Weeks, private, Captain David McGregory's (4th) company, January 15, 1781 ; also John Weeks, Exeter, February 7, 1781, as late of
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Colonel Scammel's company; also John Weeks,~ Ninth company, Colonel Scammel's (3rd) regiment. In the record of town re- cruits, John Weeks is credited to the town of Exeter. In 1783 he left Greenland, spent some years in Lee, and in May, 1787, was settled in the new town, Lancaster, Coos coun- ty. "On his way from Lancaster to Green- land, in 1818, he visited his sister and her children in Tamworth, seeming very cheerful and happy ; but the next morning after he left my father's house," states the writer of the account, "as he was about to get into his car- riage, at Wakefield, he suddenly fell and died from disease of the head. His age was 69 years, 7 months." Another account of Cap- tain John Weeks says: "Dr. Weeks died in 1763, when the subject of this sketch was fourteen years old, leaving what was then con- sidered a large property. Tradition says it was designed that he (John) should follow the profession of his father, and his education was commenced accordingly. But inheriting what seemed to him a fortune, instead of pur- suing his studies and graduating at Harvard, as his older brother had done, he chose to make long tramps for game up the Kennebec, and in other directions. In one of these he is said to have visited, in company with two or three others, the Upper Coos region, when he was but sixteen years old. December 27, 1770, he married Deborah, daughter of James Brackett, of Greenland, who was born Decem- ber 25, 1749. She was an educated lady, and fitted to adorn any station in life. He held a lieutenant's commission in the revolutionary army, and his money was freely spent in the cause of his country. In 1787 he came to Lancaster, made his location of land, and re- turned. In the spring of 1788 he came to Lancaster with his daughter Pattie to keep his house, and his son John Wingate (a boy six years old). They came by the way of Baker's river and the Connecticut, driving their stock. In the fall Mrs. Weeks and the remainder of the family, accompanied by nu- merous relatives and friends who were to settle near them, came through the Notch of the White Mountains. She made the journey on horseback, bringing her youngest child, seven months old, in her lap, and James B., a boy of three years old, riding behind her. The log house Captain Weeks built stood at the top of the bank, about fifty rods easterly of the house occupied by the late William D. Weeks. The farm he then commenced has (except for a brief period) remained in the Weeks family for about one hundred years.
Here in his new home the Captain kept open house and entertained 'right royally' any who came to the settlement; of course he soon be- came poor. He was a man of strong good sense, fair education, of genial presence, and at once took an active part in the affairs of the settlement. In 1788 he was elected by his district, consisting of Lancaster, Northumber- land, Stratford, Dartmouth, Cockburn, Col- burn and Percy, a delegate to the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, and was one of the fifty-seven who voted in the affirma- tive against forty-six in the negative. In 1792 he represented the Coos district in the general court. He represented the district at other times, was often selectman, and generally moderator of the town meetings. He was an active, honest man, and always ready to lend a hand to aid anything that would benefit the town. His wife, who was one of the noble women of her day, died July 5, 1831, aged eighty-two. They had seven children: Mar- tha, Deborah, Elizabeth, John Wingate, James Brackett, Polly Wiggin and Sally Brackett. They all lived to old age, the earliest death being at sixty-six. All the captain's children were prominent persons in the communities in which they lived. One Martha (Mrs. Spaul- ding) died at the age of ninety-nine. Sally (Mrs. Backnam) still lives at the age of ninety-eight. John W. was an officer in the war of 1812, and served with distinction, hav- ing been engaged in nearly all the hard fight- ing on the northern frontier. He was a man of great influence in the northern part of the state, and held most of the offices in the gift of the people, including four years in Con- gress."
(V) James Brackett, fifth child and second son of Captain John (2) and Deborah (Brackett) Weeks, was born June 14, 1784, and died March 19, 1858, in the seventy- fourth year of his age. He was a farmer in Lancaster, and his life contained no features of the striking character that marked the ca- reer of his father. Game was still abundant in that region in his time; and in one year without effort or chase, Mr. Weeks shot fif- teen deer from his farm on the southern slope of Mount Prospect. He was a Universalist in religious faith, and one of the original sub- scribers of the constitution of the First Con- gregational Society of Lancaster. He mar- ried, January 1, 1810, Elizabeth (Betsey) Stanley, born in Lancaster, August 4, 1785, died there December 24, 1854, daughter of Dennis Stanley. In her youth she was very sprightly, and disdained the use of a horse-
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block and was accustomed to mount from the ground by placing her hands on the neck of her horse and springing into her saddle. She was an excellent rider even in advanced agc. Children : James Wingate, Mary Nye, Sarah Stanley, William Dennis, John, Martha Eliza, and Persis Fayette.
(VI) Hon. James Wingate (deceased), eld- est son of James B. and Betsey (Stanley) Wecks, was born in Lancaster, July 15, 18II. He was a farmer, land surveyor, manufac- turer and public official for many years. He owned a farm on the mountain where he made his home. He was a surveyor for some years, and ran more lines in the territory about Lancaster than any other man. When the boundary survey between the United States and Canada was made in 1845, four Lancaster men were called into the service and did very good work during the course of that portion of the survey under the charge of Commissioner Albert Smith, of Portland, Maine, from Hall's Stream to Lake Cham- plain. These men were Hon. James W. Weeks, his brother, John Weeks, John Hub- bard Spaulding; John M. Whipple, and Joel Hemmenway. To James W. Weeks was as- signed the task of making the preliminary surveys and sketches for the topographical map of the entire line, while the other Lan- caster men acted in various capacities as chain carriers, setters of monuments, and using the compass on the topographical work. In his journeys in the forests Mr. Weeks saw many strange sights. In 1844, while engaged in surveys in the extreme northern part of Coos county, near the boundary range, he passed through a "pigeon roost" extending over a two-hours' walk, the trees being full of nests built upon crossed twigs laid upon the branches, the ground literally sprinkled with shells beneath them. In 1856 he laid out the grounds of the Cemetery at Lancaster. In 1840 Mr. Weeks entered into a partnership with Ashbel Pierce, and carried on the manu- facture of wagons and buggies about four years. In early life Mr. Weeks taught school, and his name is among those of the ancient and honored school-masters of his day. Being a man of much intelligence and executive abil- ity, he was often called to fill public positions. In political faith he was a Democrat. In 1853 he was elected judge of probate and served two years; 1873-76 he was a member of the board of county commissioners ; 1893 member State Board of Agriculture; 1850, moderator ; selectman, 1848-61-66-67-69-70-71. Although he was elected to this office, as shown, be-
tween 1861 and 1871, it was not till 1877 that the town offices were generally filled by Demo- crats. December 25, 1848, the White Moun- tain railroad was incorporated, and Mr. Weeks was one of those whose names appear on the charter. The White Mountain Bank was chartered in 1852, and Mr. Weeks was a member of the first board of directors. In 1876 he was made one of the trustees of The Savings Bank of the County of Coos, now The Lancaster Savings Bank, and was its president from 1885 to 1894. He was a firm friend of education, and was president and treasurer of Lancaster Academy. His knowl- edge of and interest in all that pertained to Lancaster made him an invaluable assistant in the preparation of the History of Lancaster, for which he wrote the chapters on "the de- rivation of the names of localities and places in and about Lancaster," and "The domestic life of Lancaster in early times." He was a subscriber to the constitution of "The First Congregational Society of Lancaster," Feb- ruary 13, 1854, and one of its building com- mittee who had charge of erecting its house of worship in 1855. He left a written descrip- tion of the congregation of the old church of which he had personal knowledge from 1820.
James W. Weeks married (first) May 30, 1842, Martha Willard, who died aged thirty- five years, September 5, 1853, daughter of Sol- omon Hemenway, of Lancaster. He married (second) March, 1859, Mary Elizabeth Burns, of Plymouth, who died February 2, 1878, aged fifty-two, daughter of Dr. Robert Burns. His children, all by the first wife, were: George Hemenway, Sarah Wilder, James Wingate and Clara H.
(VII) George Hemenway, eldest child of James W. and Martha W. (Hemenway) Weeks, was born in Lancaster, New Hamp- shire, March 18, 1843. He has been a life- long farmer, residing on his farm in Lancas- ter. He is a Democrat in political faith, but has never held public office. In religious af- filiation he is a Unitarian. He married Martha Belle Remick, of Jefferson, New Hampshire, born June 3, 1843, daughter of John and Eliza R. (Holmes) Remick. They have one child, George H., whose sketch follows.
(VIII) George Hemenway (2) Weeks, only child of George H. (I) and Martha B. (Remick) Weeks, was born in Lancaster, Oc- tober 23, 1867. He was educated in the com- mon schools of Cape Elizabeth (now South Portland), having removed to that town when he was young. After he left school he entered the employ of the Twitchell Champlin Com-
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pany, manufacturers and wholesale grocers of Portland, where he remained nineteen years. April 1, 1906, he accepted an invitation to serve the Fidelity Trust Company, of which he was made secretary, and now holds that po- sition. In politics he follows the pattern of his ancestors, but has a strong tendency to independence, sometimes preferring to vote for a good man on some other ticket. He has been active in public affairs, a local party leader, and was mayor of South Portland, 1905-06-07. He is a member of Hiram Lodge, No. 180, F. and A. M., of South Portland, Greenleaf Royal Arch Chapter, Portland Council, Royal and Select Masters, and Port- land Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, all of Portland.
He married, in South Portland, October 25, 1898, Martha Ella Mountfort, born in Cape Elizabeth, April 15, 1873, daughter of George Curtis and Eliza Shaw (Webster) Mountfort. The children of George H. and Martha E. (Mountfort) Weeks are: Martha Ella, born November 12, 1899; Helen, December 14, 1901 ; George Wingate, December 5, 1904.
(For preceding generation see Leonard Weeks I.) (II) Captain Samuel, second
WEEKS son of Leonard and Mary ( Haines) Weeks, was born De- cember 14, 1670, and died March 26, 1746. He was a farmer and lived on the paternal homestead in Greenland, a man of intelligence, energy, wealth, and influence in the town and in the church. He is said to have built, about 1710, the brick house which gave to his branch of the family the name of "The Brick House Family." to distinguish it from the "Bay Side Family," which descended from his brother Joshua. Captain Weeks married Elinor, daughter of Samuel Haines Tr., of Greenland. She was born August 23, 1675, died Novem- ber 19, 1736; children : Samuel, John, Walter, Matthias, Mary, Elinor and William.
(III) Matthias, son of Captain Samuel and Elinor (Haines) Weeks, was born in 1708. died before October, 1777. In 1760 he sold the land which he had inherited from his father, on the Great Bay, and in 1773 re- moved with his children to Gilmanton, New Hampshire, where the remaining years of his life were passed. He married, about 1735, the Widow Sarah Ford, daughter of John Sanborn, of North Hampton. She died in Gilmanton, December 7, 1779, aged eighty-six years. Children : John, Olive, Matthias, El- inor, Mary, Samuel, Joanna, Benjamin, Noah and Josiah.
(IV) Rev. Samuel, son of Matthias and Sarah (Sanborn-Ford) Weeks, was born in Greenland, New Hampshire, November 21, 1746, died in Parsonsfield, Maine, in June, 1832. In February, 1783, he removed from Gilmanton to Parsonsfield, and soon afterward began preaching there and elsewhere in that vicinity. With the assistance of Elder Randall he organized the church in Parsonsfield in 1785 and continued to preach and cultivate his farm in that town until January, 1793, when on returning to his home from a meeting in Porter he lost his way in the woods and was so severely frozen that he never afterward regained his full health. During the earlier years of his life Elder Weeks was a mechanic, but always of pious mind, he fitted himself for the ministry, and was ordained pastor of the Baptist church at Gilmanton, June 15, 1780. He accepted the teachings of the Free Will Baptist church after his removal to Par- sonsfield. He stood six feet four inches in height, was broad shouldered and possessed a very strong voice ; and indeed he was a power- ful man in every sense and was not wanting in physical courage, as may be inferred from the following anecdote which is related of him: "On his way to meet an appointment in Limerick he came to a bridge upon which two men were standing. They told him to 'go home, for he was no minister, and could not pass.' He quietly turned his horse, but soon returned, bearing aloft a stake, calling out : 'The Lord told me to go to Durgin's and preach. If you attempt me I will split your heads.'" He was permitted to pass without
further molestation. Elder Weeks married (first) Mercy Randlett, and by her had twelve children. Married (second) Mrs. Sarah Barnes, whose family name was Guptail. She bore him one child. His children: I. Noah, born October 25, 1767, died October 30, 1808; married Anna Pendexter. 2. Anna, June 6, 1769. 3. Eliphalet, June 6, 1770. 4. James G., February 22, 1772. 5. John, born Gil- manton, February 21, 1774; married Sarah Huff (Hough). 6. Mary, February 6, 1776, died November, 1786. 7. Susanna, March 23, 1778, died April 19, 1780. 8. Samuel, Feb- ruary 19, 1780, married Mehitable Knight. 9. Ichabod, November 25, 1782, died October 23, 1784. 10. Matthias, March 4, 1785. 11. Levi, February II, 1788. 12. Benjamin, January 24, 1791, died September 4. 1836. 13. (by second wife), Mercy, April 16, 1803.
(V) Eliphalet, son of Rev. Samuel and Mercy (Randlett) Weeks, was born in New- market, New Hampshire, June 6, 1770, died
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May 6, 1838. Hle was a farmer in Parsons- field, but little is known of his family life in that town. He married (first) Susan, daugh- ter of Joseph Perry. She was born in Scar- boro, Maine, 1773, died August 23, 1813. He married (second) in 1814, Martha Kenner- son. Children, all born in Parsonsfield and of his first marriage: I. Joseph, March 17, 1796, married Sally Barker. 2. Anna, Sep- tember 15, 1798, died 1814. 3. James H., February 18, 1801, married Lois Ballard. 4. Rev. Eliphalet, June 4, 1803, died July 24, 1881 ; married Lydia Ballard, of Fryeburg. 5. Samuel, September 23, 1805, married twice and had a large family. 6. Eben E., January 4, 1808, married Susan Willey, of Fryeburg. 7. John.
(VI) John, son of Eliphalet and Susan (Perry) Weeks, was born in Parsonsfield, Maine, October 26, 1810, died in Chatham, New Hampshire, April 22, 1880. He married Mehitable Holmes, born Cornish, Maine, March 27, 1808; children: I. James Holmes, born March 30, 1831, married Lois A. Weeks, of Chatham, and had five children; died in Manchester, New Hampshire, December 12, 1907. 2. Joseph Erastus, July 18, 1833, farm- er of Westbrook, Maine; married Cordelia, daughter of Eliphalet Weeks, and had four children ; died in Westbrook, October 2, 1897. 3. Dr. Stephen Holmes, October 6, 1835. 4. Eliphalet, born Limerick, Maine, January 19, 1837, died young. 5. Athalinda, born Lim- erick, August 10, 1840, died in Oakland, Maine, 1866; married the Rev. J. P. Weeks, of Conway, Maine. 6. Susan, March 18, 1843, married (first) Chase; (second) Al- vin Head. 7. Dr. Albion, October 24, 1845, died in Providence, Rhode Island, February 10, 1887. 8. John, born Chatham, New Hamp- shire, February 24, 1848, died young. 9. John, born Chatham, New Hampshire, August 22, 1856, fitted for Dartmouth College, died in early manhood.
(VII) Dr. Stephen Holmes, son of John and Mehitable (Holmes) Weeks, was born in Cornish, Maine, October 6, 1835. His early education, the same generally afforded the youth of his time, was gained in the district school of the town in which he lived and was supplemented with a studentship at Fryeburg Academy, where he laid the foundation of his subsequent professional education. After leaving the academy he took up the study of medicine at the Portland School for Medical Instruction, later attended upon the lectures of the medical department of Bowdoin Col- lege, and completed his course in the medical
department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in March, 1864, with the degree of M. D. Having come to the degree he settled in Portland and began the general practice of medicine and surgery ; he inclined to specialize in surgery, to which branch he was impelled by every inclination of his nature. As a general practitioner he soon gained an enviable prominence and came to be recognized as one of the leading men of his profession in the state. He was appointed surgeon to the Maine General Hospital on the opening of that splendid institution in 1874, and that event perhaps more than any other marked the beginning of his career as a specialist in surgery, both general and clin- ical, although he continued the practice of general medicine for a few years after that time. In 1876 he was elected to the professor- ship of anatomy in the Medical School of Maine and fulfilled the duties of that position until 1881, when upon the death of Professor Greene he was elected to succeed him in the more important chair of surgery.
In 1880 Dr. Weeks went abroad for further studies in operative surgery and spent nearly a year in the hospitals of London and Edin- burgh, in Great Britain, and of Paris, Berlin and Vienna, in continental Europe. Return- ing to Portland at the end of about ten months he resumed the duties of his chair of general and clinical surgery with renewed energy and confidence, and soon won more than national celebrity by reason of his remarkable success as an operative surgeon and the equally re- markable advances made by him in originating and carrying into practical and successful op- eration new and highly important surgical methods. He was the first surgeon in this country to use an absorbable drainage tube made of arteries ; Dr. Henry G. Beyer, med- ical inspector of the United States navy, orig- inated the idea, and Dr. Weeks was the first to make use of it. He made this the chief subject of an address on the occasion of his becoming a fellow of the American Surgical Association, and his paper found wide circu- lation in all of the leading medical and surgi- cal journals of the country. Some of these tubes may still be seen in the cabinet of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C .; others were presented to the surgical section of the Tenth International Congress in Ber- lin, in 1890.
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