USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II > Part 53
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"Resolved: That in his death, the Irish- American Relief Association loses a dear and valuable friend ; and
"Resolved : That we tender to his daughter, Miss Mary Clapp, our sympathy in this hour of sorrow.
(Signed)
WV. H. Dougherty, Jas. L. Owen, T. E. Coyne, Committee on Resolutions.
"April 8, 1891."
This is one of the families DEARBORN which enjoys the distinction of being among the early colonists and founders of the commonwealth of New Hampshire, whence they spread throughout New England and the United States. The Dearborns have always main- tained the reputation of being an intelligent, energetic and progressive race, and some of them have been persons of distinction.
(I) Godfrey Dearborn, the patriarch of the Dearborn family of the United States, was born about 1600, in England, and Exeter, in the county of Devon, is said to be the place of his nativity. He came to Massachusetts colony about 1638, and died in Hampton, New Hampshire, February 4, 1686. In 1639 Rev. John Wheelwright, with a company of his friends, removed from the colony in Massa-
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chutsetts Bay to Exeter, in the province of New Hampshire, and founded a settlement. Supposing themselves to be out of the juris- diction of any existing company or govern- ment, they formed and signed amongst them- selves a kind of social compact, which bore the signatures of thirty-five persons, of whom Dearborn was one. He seems to have been a man of considerable standing among the colonists, which is proved by his being elected one of the selectmen both of Exeter and Hampton. His farm is said to have been situated within the present limits of the town of Stratham. He had in 1644 a grant of meadowland "on the second run, beyond Mr. Wheelwright's creek, toward Captain Wig- gins." In 1645, in connection with two other persons, he had a grant of meadow "at the head of the Great Cove Creek, about six acres, if it be there to be found." Other land is mentioned as adjoining his "on the east side of the river." In 1648 he was elected one of the "Townsmen" or "Selectmen." Between 1648 and 1650 he removed to Hampton, where he spent the remainder of his life. March 4, 1650, seats in the Hampton meeting-house were assigned to "Goodman and Goodey Dearborn." On his arrival in Hampton, God- frey Dearborn settled at the "West End," so called, on a farm ever since occupied by his descendants. One house, bttilt between 1650 and 1686, is still standing, and constitutes a part of the present dwelling. On his removal to Hampton, Godfrey became a considerable landholder, and of some importance in the af- fairs of the town. In 1670 he had a grant of eighty acres, in addition to the extensive farm which he already possessed in the vicinity of his dwelling. His tax in 1653 was 15s. Iod., and he was one of the selectmen in 1655-63-71. He made his will in 1680. He married (first) in England, but the name of his wife is un- known. She died some time between May 4, 1650, and November 25, 1662, at which date he married Dorothy, widow of Philanon Dal- ton. She died between 1680 and 1696. The children, all by the first wife, were: Henry, Thomas, John, Sarah and two other daughters, whose names are unknown.
(II) Henry, eldest son of Godfrey Dear- born, was born about 1633, in England, and came to this country with his father when about six years old. The record of Hampton states : "Henry Dearborn deceased January ye 18, 1724-5, aged 92 years." He was one of the selectmen of Hampton in 1676 and 1692. He was also a signer of the petition to the king in 1683, usually called "Weare's petition."
He was married January 16, 1666, to Eliza- beth Marrian, born about 1644, died July 6, 1716, aged seventy-two years. She was a daughter of Jolin Marrian, one of the first set- tlers of Hampton. Henry Dearborn's children were: John, Samuel, Elizabeth (died young), Sarah, Abigail, Elizabeth and Henry.
(III) John, eldest child of Henry and Eliza- beth (Marrian) Dearborn, born October 10, 1666, in Hampton, settled in the part of the town now North Hampton. He was married November 4, 1689, to Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel and Deborah (Smith) Batchelder, and great-granddaughter of Rev. Stephen Bachiler, a pioneer of Hampton. She was born December 28, 1667, died November 13, 1736. Their children were: Deborah, Jona- than, Elizabeth, Esther, Joseph, Abigail, Ly- dia, Ruth, Simon and Benjamin.
(IV) Simon, third son of John and Abigail (Batchelder) Dearborn, born July 31, 1706, in North Hampton, passed his life on the pa- ternal homestead. He was married December 5, 1728, to Sarah, daughter of Simon and Hannah Marston, of Hampton. She was a twin of Jonathan Marston, born October 12, 1706, and died June II, 1775. Their children were: Hannah, Abigail, John (died young), Simon, Sarah, John, Ruth, Deborah, Benja- min, Levi and Henry.
(V) Major-General Henry (2), youngest child of Simon and Sarah ( Marston) Dear- born, was born February 23, 1751, at North Hampton, New Hampshire. He received the best education that the schools of New Eng- land afforded, and began and finished his medi- cal education under the instruction of Dr. Hall Jackson, of Portsmouth, who was a distin- guished surgeon in the army of the revolution, and justly celebrated as one of the most able physicians New England has produced. Dr. Henry Dearborn was settled in the practice of his profession at Nottingham-Square, New Hampshire, three years before the beginning of the revolution, and with several gentlemen of the neighborhood employed his leisure hours in military exercises, being convinced that the time was rapidly approaching when the liberties of this country must be either shame- fully surrendered or boldly defended at the point of the sword. This band of associates was determined to be prepared, and equipped themselves for the last resort of freemen. On
the morning of the twentieth of April, 1775, notice by an express was received of the affair of the preceding day at Lexington. He, with about sixty of the inhabitants of the town, as- sembled and made a rapid movement for Cam-
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bridge, where they arrived the next morning at sunrise, having marched a distance of fifty- five miles in less than twenty-four hours. Af- ter remaining several days, there being no im- mediate need of their services, they returned to their homes. It being determined to raise a number of regiments for the common de- fense, Dr. Dearborn was appointed a captain in the first New Hampshire regiment, under the command of Colonel John Stark. Such was his popularity, and the confidence of the public in his bravery and conduct, that in ten days from the time he received his commission he enlisted a full company, and joined the regiment at Bedford on the fifteenth of May. Previous to the battle of Bunker Hill he was engaged in a skirmish on Hog Island, whither he had been sent to prevent the cattle from being carried off by the British, and later took part in an action with an armed vessel near Winnisimit ferry. On the morning of the seventeenth of June information was received that the British were preparing to come out from Boston and storm the works which had been thrown up on Breed's Hill the night be- fore. The regiment to which he was attached was immediately paraded, and marched from Bedford to the scene of the anticipated attack. When it reached Charlestown Neck, two regi- ments were halted in consequence of a heavy enfilading fire thrown across it, of round, bar and chain-shot from the lively frigate and floating batteries anchored in Charles river, and a floating battery lying in the river Mys- tic. Captain Dearborn's company being in front, he marched by the side of Colonel Stark, who, moving with a very deliberate pace, Dear- born suggested to him the propriety of quick- ening the march of the regiment, that it might sooner be relieved from the galling cross-fire of the enemy. With a look peculiar to him- self, he fixed his eyes on Dearborn, and ob- served with perfect composure : "Dearborn, one fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones," and continued to advance in the same cool and collected manner. When the regi- ment arrived at Bunker Hill, the enemy were landing on the shore opposite Copp's Hill. Stark made an animated address to his men, and ordered them to make a rapid movement to the rail fence which ran from the left, and in the rear of the redoubt toward the Mystic river. This redoubt was erected and com- manded by Colonel Prescott. Captain Dear- born was posted upon the right of the regi- ment, which gave him a full and fair view of the whole action, and, being armed with a fusee, fired regularly with his men. In Sep-
tember, 1775, Captain Dearborn volunteered his services and joined the expedition of Ar- nold. up the Kennebec river, and through the wilderness to Quebec. He was permitted to select a company from the New Hampshire regiment for this arduous service. Thirty-two days were employed in traversing the hideous wilderness between the settlements on the Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers, during the inclement months of November and December, in which every hardship and fatigue of which human nature is capable was endured indis- criminately by the officers and troops, and a considerable portion of them starved to death. The last fragment of food in most of the com- panies was consumed, and Dearborn was re- duced to the extremity of dividing his favorite dog among his suffering men. When he reached the Chaudiere he was too exhausted to march farther, and urging his company to leave him, they did so, and he lay ill of a violent fever for ten days, without medicine and with scarcely the necessaries of life. At last he was able to join his company, and led it at the assault on Quebec, December 31, 1775. All of Arnold's corps were killed or made prisoners of war. In May, 1776, he was permitted to return on parole. In March, 1777, he was exchanged and appointed major of the Third New Hampshire, commanded by Alex- ander Scammell, and early in May arrived at Ticonderoga, and after the retreat from Ti- conderoga he made a circuit of more than one hundred and fifty miles and reached Saratoga in time to take a conspicuous part in the cap- ture of the same army and general which had driven them from Ticonderoga. General Gates, in his official report of the battles of Saratoga, mentioned in a particular manner, and especially praised the bravery and good conduct of Dearborn, who was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel. In December, 1777, he was constantly skirmishing and fighting under the eye of Washington, at Germantown. In the battle of Monmouth, his regiment first acted under orders from General Lee, but when the army was thrown into confusion and began to retreat, Washington in person turned the tide and converted defeat into victory, giving or- ders to Dearborn verbally. In the general or- ders of the next day, Washington bestowed the highest commendation upon the brilliant exploits of the New Hampshire regiment, and Colonel Brooks, the adjutant of his division, declared that the gallant conduct of the New Hampshire regiment was the salvation of the arıny and turned the tide from defeat to vic- tory. In 1779 he was at one time in com-
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mand of the forces at New London, and was moving from place to place through Connec- ticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, being in April in command of a brigade, and then accompanied General Sullivan's expedition against the Six Nations of Indians in western New York, and had an active share in the action of the twenty-ninth of August, with the united forces of Tories and Indians, at New- town. In 1780 he was with the main army in New Jersey, and in 1781 was appointed deputy quartermaster-general, with the rank of colo- nel, and served with Washington's army in that capacity in Virginia. He was at the siege of Yorktown, by the combined armies of America and France, and the capture of Lord Cornwallis and his army. In 1782 the New Hampshire line having been reduced to two regiments, were commanded by Colonels George Reid and Henry Dearborn, the latter being stationed at Saratoga. In November Colonel Dearborn joined the main army at Newburgh and remained with it until the peace of 1783. After independence was secured and acknowledged by Great Britain, Colonel Dear- born, with his companions in arms who had survived the fatigues, hardships and dangers of the war, returned to the pursuits of private life, and he could truly say as to property : "I went out full and returned empty." We have seen Colonel Dearborn in more than eight years of war, in sickness and in health, in im- prisonment, in victory and defeat, from Bunker Hill to the surrender of Cornwallis, the same ardent patriot and determined soldier. In camp vigilant, circumspect and intelligent ; in action determined and always pressing into close action with the bayonet, as at Saratoga and at Monmouth, in camp or action, always receiving the approbation of his commanders, whether Sullivan, Gates or Washington. Charles Coffin, in his sketch of the military services of General Dearborn, says : "All com- parisons may be considered in some measure invidious, yet justice requires and truth war- rants the assertion that of all the officers of the gallant New Hampshire line in the Revo- lutionary war, after the deaths of General Poor and Colonel Scammell, Dearborn stood first. The writer is fully aware that Stark, Cilley and Reid were all officers of great merit, but he feels compelled to make the foregoing dec- laration in favor of Colonel Dearborn." In June. 1784, he removed from New Hampshire to the Kennebec river in Maine. In 1787 he was elected by the field officers of several regi- ments a brigadier-general of the militia, and soon after appointed major-general by the leg-
islature of the commonwealth of Massachu- setts. In 1789 he was appointed by Washing- ton United States marshal for Maine. He was elected as a Democrat to the third congress, re-elected to the fourth, serving from 1793 un- til 1797. In 1794 Louis Philippe, afterward King of France, and Talleyrand visited Gen- eral Dearborn at Pittston, remaining several days. In 1801 he was called by President Jef- ferson to preside over the war department, which office he held until 1809. and in that year he was appointed collector of Boston and served in that capacity until he was made senior major-general and assigned to the com- mand of the Northern Department. In this connection the following letter may be of in- terest :
"Washington, January 11, 1812.
"Dear Sir: The Congress has just passed an act, adding twenty odd thousand to the military establishment, it provides for two Major-Generals and five Brigadiers. The im- portance of placing this, and the forces in view, under the best commanders, speaks for itself. Our eyes could not but be turned on such an occasion, to your qualifications and ex- perience, and I wait for your permission only, to name you to the senate for the Senior Ma- jor-General. I hope you will so far suspend all other considerations as not to withhold it and that I shall not only be gratified with this in- formation, as quickly as possible but with an authority to look for your arrival here as soon as you can make it practicable. You will be sensible of all the value of your co-operation on the spot in making the arrangements nec- essary to repair the loss of time which has taken place. All the information we receive urges a vigorous preparation for events. Ac- cept my best respects and most kindly wishes. "James Madison."
January twenty-eighth, his appointment was confirmed, and he left Roxbury the day after he received this news, and at Washington laid out the plans of an active campaign on the northern and northwestern frontier. In per- son, at Albany, he directed the establishment of barracks, depots of arms and provisions and the whole material of war. From there he went to Boston and adopted all the measures possible for putting the garrisons and sea- coasts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massa- chusetts, New Hampshire and Maine in the best posture of defence. It is one of the mis- fortunes incident to our free republican gov- ernment that when war is forced upon us, it finds us unprepared in training and discipline to cope with the veteran officers and soldiers
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of arbitrary governments, which maintain standing armies, and another is that the secre- tary of war and congress, and the public, through the newspapers, each in turn try to take the direction of the war. In the war of 1812 we commenced with a few old revolution- ary soldiers, few of whom had seen service for twenty-five years and then only as colonels. Although Dearborn and his associates had laid out a careful plan, by which Hull was to com- mand independently on the northwestern fron- tier, and Van Rensselaer on the Niagara frontier, and Dearborn on the northeastern frontier, with headquarters at Albany or Sack- ett's Harhor, intending to move down the St. Lawrence, and take Montreal and Quebec, re- peating the unsuccessful experiment of 1776, no sooner had the fight begun than the secre- tary of war began to direct tlie whole ma- chinery at Washington. We had no telegraph system by which organized and co-operative action could at once be secured, and no rail- roads or steamboats, and relied only upon the man and his horse for carrying orders over a frontier of more than two thousand miles. The surrender of our fort and army at De- troit, the destruction of Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, and the massacre of its garrison and the men, women and children who then dwelt near it are too painful to dwell upon, for none of these was Dearborn responsible. The effect of these disasters was to upset all of his plans, but the casualties of the western departments, though they changed his plans, did not curb his energy, and during the winter of 1812-13 he was employed in recruiting and drilling for the next year, and he trained in military tac- tics some of the most magnificent young offi- cers our country has ever produced : Scott, Taylor, Wool, Brady, Ripley, Gaines and others. His expeditious movements in 1813 with the regular army preserved Sackett's Harbor when abandoned by the militia, and rescued our fleet from destruction by the Brit- ish. In April, though so prostrated by illness that he had to be carried from his bed to his horse, he commanded in person at the battle of York, resulting in the first great victory of the war, when we captured the enemy's stores and several gun-boats. Then came the attack upon Niagara, Fort George, and the taking of those strongholds. In the meantime General Lewis, the brother-in-law of John Armstrong, the new secretary of war, was plotting to se- cure the removal of General Dearborn, and during a severe fit of fever he was relieved by orders of the secretary "until his health should be reinstated." By the time the order was re-
ceived, July 14, 1813, the iron constitution of the general had conquered the disease, and he was rapidly convalescing. The indignation of his brilliant staff of officers was great; they immediately met and addressed a letter to him, which, considering the men who wrote it, was quite remarkable. They declared "that in their judgment the circumstances render his contin- uance with the army of the first importance, if not indispensible to the good of the service. The knowledge we possess of your numerous services in the ardent struggles of our glorious revolution, not to speak of more recent events, has given us infinitely higher confidence in your ability to command with energy and ef- fect than we can possibly feel in ourselves or in those who will be placed in stations of in- creased responsibility by your withdrawal from the army. We earnestly entreat you to con- tinue in the command which you have already held, with honor to yourself and country." The following names were signed to the letter : Jolın Parker Boyd, brigadier-general ; M1. Por- ter, colonel light artillery; James Burns, colo- nel Second Regiment Dragoons; H. Brady, colonel Twenty-second Infantry ; C. Pearce, colonel Sixteenth Infantry ; James Miller, colonel Sixth Infantry ; W. Scott, colonel and adjutant-general ; E. Beebe, assistant adjutant- general; H. L. Milton, lieutenant-colonel Eighth Infantry: J. Chrystie, colonel Twenty- second Infantry ; L. P. Preston, lieutenant- colonel Twelfth Infantry ; J. P. Mitchell, lieu- tenant-colonel Third Artillery; J. L. Smith, lieutenant-colonel Twenty-fourth Infantry ; A. Eustis, major Light Artillery; I. A. Posey, major Fifth Infantry; J. H. Huyich, major Thirteenth Infantry; N. Pinkey, major Fifth Regiment ; R. Lucas, major Twenty-third In- fantry ; J. Woodford, major Second Regiment Dragoons : J. Johnson, major Twenty-first In- fantry ; W. Cumming, major Eighth Infantry ; J. E. Wool, major Infantry ; W. Morgan, ma- jor Twelfth Infantry ; B. Forsyth, major Rifle Regiment ; A. M. Malcomb, major Thirteenth Infantry. But General Dearborn did not feel at liberty to remain in command longer, and the secretary of war went to the field of op- erations and undertook the command himself, with great discredit to our arms. General Dearborn demanded a court of inquiry, but when President Madison learned of liis restora- tion to health, he appointed him to command the district of New York, which was the heart of the continent, and was threatened by the British with the fate of Eastport and Wash- ington, and when congress proposed to in- crease the army by three thousand he deter-
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mined to appoint Dearborn general-in-chief of the whole army. General Dearborn did not succeed in securing the court of inquiry he wished, but a general peace was declared in January, a peace which settled the independ- ence of America on a sure footing. General Dearborn immediately retired to the comforts of private life, and resided at the corner of Milk and Hawley streets, Boston, until 1826, with the exception of two years spent in Portugal, where President Monroe had ap- pointed him minister in 1822. In this house he was visited by Lafayette. Daniel Goodwin Junior, in his discourse commemorative of the eightieth anniversary of the occupation of Fort Dearborn and the First Settlement at Chicago, read before the Chicago Historical Society, December 18, 1883, is authority for many of the statements made in this sketch. Hon. John Wentworth said, at a meeting of the Chicago Historical Society: "Having ex- pressed my views elaborately as to the public services of General Dearborn, at the unveiling of the Memorial Tablet, to mark the site of old Fort Dearborn, May 21, 1881, I will say no more of him than that history records no other man who was at the battle of Bunker Hill, the surrenders of Burgoyne and Corn- wallis, and took an active part in the war of 1812." After the revolutionary war, and the organization of the federal government, till 1824, General Dearborn received appointments from four presidents of the United States-all Virginians-Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. In all these important offices, those of marshal of Maine, secretary of war, collector of the port of Boston, commander- in-chief of the army, and foreign minister, he acted with ability, integrity and the most un- sullied reputation as a patriot. He was a mem- ber of the Society of the Cincinnati. June 6, 1829, at his seat, "Brinley Place," Roxbury, Massachusetts, he died, in the seventy-ninth year of his age.
September 22, 1771, he married Mary, daughter of Israel Bartlett, of Nottingham, New Hampshire. She died October 24, 1778, leaving two daughters. He was married ( sec- ond), March 28, 1780, to Dorcas (Osgood) Marble, who died October 17, 1810, leaving one daughter, Julia Caskaline. and a son, Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn. General Henry Dearborn married (third) in 1813 Sarah ( Bowdoin) Bowdoin, widow of his cousin, James Bowdoin, the munificent patron of Bowdoin College. She died in 1826, with- out children. Old Fort Dearborn, Dearborn street in Chicago and Dearborn observatory of
the Chicago University were named in honor of General Dearborn.
(VI) Henry Alexander Scammell, only son of Major-General Henry (2) Dearborn, was born March 3, 1783, at Exeter, New Hamp- shire, and in the following year moved with his father to the town of Pittston, on the Ken- nebec river in Maine. He spent two years at Williams College, Massachusetts, but gradu- ated at William and Mary College of Vir- ginia, after two years spent at that ancient seat of learning. He was intended for the profes- sion of law and began its study in the office of General Mason, at Georgetown, in the Dis- trict of Columbia ; he finished his legal course with Judge Story, who then lived in Salem, and applied for a diplomatic station abroad. Mr. Jefferson said he should have one, and a good one, but advised him against it, saying that no man ought to go to reside for any time abroad until he was forty years old; for he would lose his American tastes and ideas, be- come wedded to foreign manners and institu- tins, and grow incapable of becoming a loyal, useful and contented citizen of the United States. Under this advice, young Dearborn withdrew his request and soon began to prac- tice law in Salem. In 1806 he opened an office in Portland, Maine, but he disliked the pro- fession and very soon relinquished it; he said it obliged him often to take money from peo- ple who stood in the greatest need of it them- selves, and to whom he felt impelled to give something, rather than exact anything from them; he could not bear to get his living in this way. This reason for a change struck every one who knew him as strongly character- istic of him. He was soon appointed to su- perintend the erection of the forts in Portland harbor, and subsequently became an officer in the Boston custom house, where his father was collector. On the father's appointment to the command of the northern army in the sec- ond war with Great Britain, the son was made collector of the port in his stead. In 1812 he had command of the troops in Boston harbor, and he was a member of the state constitu- tional convention of 1822. In 1829 he was removed from the position of collector by President Jackson. In the same year he was chosen representative from Roxbury to the legislature of Massachusetts, and was imme- diately transferred to the executive council. The next year he was senator from Norfolk county, and in 1831 was elected to congress from that district. Having served one term in congress, his constituents acknowledged his usefulness by a public dinner, which he at-
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