USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II > Part 89
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106
( 111) Captain Samuel, fourth son of Jere- miah and Mary (Canney) Tebbets, was born in the latter part of 1666. and died December
9, 1738. He was a deacon in the church, a deputy in the New Hampshire Colonial legis- lature several years, and was also a captain in the French and Indian war. He was a tanner by trade, and had a large tannery at Dover Neck, where the old vats employed by him are still to be seen. He was married, Septem- ber 2, 1686, to Dorothy Tuthill. The date of her death is unknown, but it is certain that he married (second) Rebecca Willy and (third) a woman whose Christian name was Rachel, but her surname has not been pre- served.
(IV) Captain Ichabod ( I), son of Samuel Tebbets, and probably of his first wife, Dor- othy (Tuthill ) Tebbets, was born about 1698, and died between December 30, 1746. and Feb- ruary 25 following, the dates respectively of making and proving his will. He was a farm- er and tanner, and a captain in the French an l Indian wars, as was also his father. In 1777 he was a member of the committee of cor- respondence, inspection and safety in Booth- bay. He enlisted, April 2, 1776, as a private in Captain Davis' company of Colonel Frye's regiment, and served at Boothbay. He was subsequently commissioned the first lieutenant in Captain Elijah Green's company (fifth) of Colonel McCobb's regiment, and he was also a lieutenant in command of a company de- tached as guard of the seacoast in Lincoln, company under Major Lithgow. The name appears on a petition for release from the min- ister's rate, with that of many others who were maintaining a free will Baptist organiza- tion in Boothbay. Ichabod also signed this petition, but this may have been his son. He married (first) Abigail Tibbetts, and (second) May 29, 1729, Patience, daughter of Elder Nock. Children of the first marriage were : Judith, Abigail. Ichabod and Nathaniel. By the second wife he had : James, Rebecca, Anna and Martha.
(V) Nathaniel, second son of Ichabod Tib- betts, and youngest child of his first wife, Abi- gail, was born August 30, 1727, probably in Dover, and settled in Boothbay (then called Townsend ), Maine, about 1759. He was one of the petitioners for the organization of the town of Townsend, January 31. 1764, which was presented to the Massachusetts general court in the same year the town was incor- porated under the name of Boothbay. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Mark and Lydia (Tibbetts) Giles, of Dover. She was born in 1729 and died April 1. 1822, in Booth- bay. No record of Nathaniel's death appears.
957
STATE OF MAINE.
Their children were: Ichabod, Nathaniel, John, Giles, Abigail, Mark, Judith, Rebecca, James, Sarah and ( Polly ) Mary.
(VI) Ichabod (2), eldest child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Giles) Tibbetts, was born De- cember 17, 1749, probably in Dover, New Hampshire, and settled with his father in Boothbay. He enlisted July 13, 1775, for the seacoast defence at Boothbay, and again, April 2, 1776, in Captain Davis' company, the same as his father's, in which he was sergeant, but also served in company of McAllister, in Colo- nel McCobb's regiment. He was married in 1774 to Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Hutchings, of York. She died July 25. 1828. Their children were: John, Abigail, Ichabod, Betsy, Mark, Benjamin, Samuel, Rhoda and Timothy.
(VII) Benjamin, fourth son of Ichabod (2) and Elizabeth ( Hutchings) Tibbetts, was born November 20, 1785, at Boothbay Harbor, and was one of the first settlers of the town of Palermo in Waldo county, where he died in 1885 at the age of one hundred years. Tradi- tion says he was six months over one hundred years of age. He married Sally Crommett, of Boothbay.
(VIII) Benjamin R., son of Benjamin and Sally (Crommett) Tibbetts, was born in 1818, in Liberty, Maine, and is now living at East Palermo in that state. He followed the sea, as a young man, and later settled on the paternal homestead in Palermo. He married Effie Turner, born 1821 in Palermo, and died there in 1901. Their children were: Randall, Jo- seph, Hollis, Woodbury, Wyman T., Andrew J., Benjamin F., Joseph W., Dana, Addie E. The eldest son died while a soldier in the civil war ; the second died young.
(IX) Woodbury, fourth son of Benjamin R. and Effie (Turner) Tibbetts, is a native of Palermo, born 1851. He was educated in the public schools of that town and became a granite cutter, and is now employed in that business, in monumental work. He had taken an active interest in the progress of his home town, has served as chairman of the board of selectmen, filled other town offices, and for twenty-five years or more had held the office of postmaster. In political principle he is a Democrat. He is a member of Rockport Lodge, the Masonic Order, and the Patrons of Husbandry. He was married in June, 1873, to Cynthia Sterns, born in 1857, in Maine, and their children are: Charles R., Raymond Rich- ard, Manly, Merrick S., Fred Allen, Elmer S., Everett S. (twins), and Gladys.
(X) Raymond Richard, second son of
Woodbury and Cynthia ( Sterns) Tibbetts, was born September 11, 1875, in East Palermo, and received his primary education in the pub- lic schools of his native town, and was subse- quently a student at Bridgton Academy and at the Maine Central Institute. He taught school for a time in Washington, D. C., and took up the study of medicine. He entered the Maine Medical School at Brunswick, from which he was graduated in 1901, and spent a part of the following year in the Maine Gen- eral Hospital, as house physician. He began the practice of medicine in Belfast, Maine, in November, 1902, and remained there two years. He subsequently spent six months as register physician in Montana, and opened an office at Bethel, Maine, December 23, 1905. Since that time he has been successfully en- gaged in the practice of his profession at that town. He is a member of the American Med- ical Association, Maine Medical Association, Oxford County Medical Association, Phoenix Lodge, No. 24, A. F. and A. M., of Belfast, Maine; Oxford Chapter, No. 29, R. A. M .; and Bramhall Lodge, Knights of Pythias, Portland, Maine. He was married, January 29, 1901, to Alice, daughter of David and Melissa ( Chadwick) Spratt, of East Palermo. Their children are : Richard Spratt, born May 4, 1903; Eleanor, August 1, 1905; Raymond Woodbury, October 30, 1907.
The name Belcher indicates BELCHER Norman origin for the family, and the Belcher surname is common in English history at least as far back as the reign of Henry VIII. During that reign Edmund Belcher resided in Guildsbor- ough, Northamptonshire, and it is recorded among the list of grants at the time that Ed- mund's son, Alexander Belcher, was placed in lawful possession of the hamlet of Northoft, which included besides the lands a village of nineteen houses. An exodus of adventurous spirits of that name appear to have been di- rected to the New World in the seventeenth century, as we find four immigrants, named re- spectively Jeremy or Jeremiah, Edward, An- drew and Gregory Belcher, in the British province of Massachusetts Bay. Jeremiah Belcher, born 1612, settled in Ipswich, was made a freeman in 1638; Edward, in Boston, where he was made a freeman in 1631 ; An- drew was the ancestor of Governor Belcher. and settled in Sudbury, 1639, Cambridge, 1646, and Gregory, in whom we are interested as the ancestor of the successive generations included in this sketch, who was a settler of Braintree,
958
STATE OF MAINE.
removed to Boston in 1634. It does not ap- pear that these several immigrants were di- rectly related, and each was the progenitor of a distinctive family in America.
(I) Gregory Belcher was an original mem- ber of the first church founded in Braintree, Massachusetts. Ile took the oath administered to those desiring to become freemen in 1640, and in 1645 it is recorded that he was a com- mitteeman "to Lay out the High waye through Dorchester Woods from Branntre Bounds to Roxbury bounds." He resided in Boston Town after 1634 and evidently was a man of im- portance and influence in the early day of the Metropolis of New England. He died in Bos- ton, November 25, 1674, Farmer says June 21, 1659, and his widow, Katherine Belcher, died either in 1679 or 1680. They had eight chil- dren, among whom were: Josiah, born 1631; Samuel, August 24, 1637; Joseph, December 25, 1641.
(II) Josiah, son of Gregory and Elizabeth Belcher, was born in Boston in 1631. He was one of the twenty-eight "Brethren who came off for the First Church in Boston, New Eng- land, and laid the Foundation of the Third church, partly on May 12, 1669, partly on May 16, 1669," according to the register of the Third Church familiarly known as the Old South Church, Boston. He was married, March 3, 1655, to Ranis, daughter of Elder Edward Raynsford, who came in the fleet with Winthrop; was a brother of Lord Chief Jus- . tice Ravnsford, the immediate successor of Sir Mathew Hale; one of the substituted men of the town of Boston and often mentioned in its history, being deacon in the First Church, and with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Ranis, wife of Josiah Belcher, became members of the Third Church in 1674. Raynsford Island, Boston Harbor, which he owned, still preserves the name. Josiah and Ranis ( Raynsford ) Belcher had twelve children; Josiah died in Boston, April 3, 1683, and his widow, October 2, 1691.
(III) Edward, eighth child of Josiah and Ranis (Raynsford ) Belcher, was born in Bos- ton, January 19, 1669. and late in life removed to the town of Stoughton, where he purchased an estate and spent the last years of his life. He died March 16, 1745, and his widow died March 5, 1752. He married Mary Clifford, and they had six children. The youngest of these was named Clifford, his mother's maiden surname.
(IV) Clifford, youngest son of Edward and Mary ( Clifford) Belcher, was married, June 24, 1740, to Mehitable, daughter of Sam-
uel and Sarah (Clap) Bird, and granddaugh- ter of John and Elizabeth ( Williams) Bird, of Dorchester. He inherited his father's es- tate in Stoughton, and greatly added to it, re- siding there up to the time of his death, which occurred April 26, 1773. His widow, who was born in Dorchester, December 8, 1706, died in Stoughton, February 20, 1779.
(V) Supply, sixth child of Clifford and Mehitable (Bird) Belcher, was born in that part of Stoughton now known as Sharon, Massachusetts, March 29. 1751-52. He re- ceived a good English education but did not take up the classics, as he intended to engage in merchandising. He became a merchant in Boston, and on the outbreak of the American revolution returned to Stoughton, where he purchased a large farm and also was the pro- prietor of Belcher's Tavern on the Taunton Road, now the village of South Canton, Mas- sachusetts. Suffering considerable losses, by reason of the long period of war, in which he served under a commission of captain received from General Washington, he migrated in 1785 to the District of Maine and located with his family on the Kennebec river at Hallowell, now Augusta. He lived in Hallowell, 1785-91, and while there was captain of the North Com- pany of Militia. In 1791 he removed his fam- ily to Sandy River township and became a leader among the new settlers, and as agent of the proposed township he went before the general court in Boston and secured an act of incorporation and was elected the first town clerk and justice of the peace. He was the first representative for the town in the general court of Massachusetts, serving in 1798 and again in 1801 and in 1809, being the latter year a colleague of Nathan Cutter, the town having increased so in population as to be entitled to two representatives. He was a se- lectman of the town 1796 and 1797, and was for many years a prominent teacher of the public school. He was skilled in the art of surgery and in administering simple medical remedies, although not a professional or li- censed physician, he was called in cases where no regular physician could be obtained in the new settlement, and continued such service un- til a surgeon and physician settled in the place. He was also an accomplished musician, mem- ber of the Stoughton Musical Society, and was a performer on the violin and composer of a collection of sacred music published as "Har- mony of Maine" (1794), and he became known in musical circles as the "Handel of Maine.". He was the first choir leader in the church in Hallowell. He married, May 2, 1775, Mar-
959
STATE OF MAINE.
garet, daughter of William and Margaret (Johnson) More. Mrs. Belcher was also a musician. Mr. Belcher died in Farmington, Maine, June 9, 1836, and his widow, May 14, 1839, in the eighty-third year of her age. The children of Supply and Margaret ( More) Belcher were: 1. and 2. Abigail Doty and Margaret Doty (twins), born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, May 27, 1776, and both mar- ried and had children. 3. Clifford (q. v.), born in Stoughton, January 17, 1778. 4. Samuel, July 18, 1780. 5. Benjamin More, August 4, 1782. 6. Mchitable, October 17, 1784, died September 20, 1785. 7. Mehitable, born in Augusta, Maine, June 1, 1787, married Joseph Titcomb. 8. Hiram, February 23, 1790. 9. Martha Stovell, born in Farmington, Maine, February 20, 1795, married Thomas Hunter. IO. Betsey, April 6, 1797, died September 27, 1804.
(\'F) Clifford (2), eldest son of Supply and Margaret (More) Belcher, was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, January 17, 1778. He came with his father to the Sandy River Valley, when only thirteen years of age; the journey was made through the wilderness in midwinter, and occupied five days owing to deep snows and bad roads. He assisted his father in cultivating a farm, now the center of the town of Farmington, up to his twenty- first birthday, when he found employment in trade and occasional work on a farm. He ac- quired a large property and possessed superior business tact. He married, January 27, 18II, Deborah Allen, daughter of Rev. Timothy and Sarah Williams Fuller, and granddaughter of Rev. Abraham Williams, of Sandwich, Massa- chusetts. They had six children, and her hus- band died March 15, 1832, when her youngest child was nine years old. She died in Belfast, Maine, March 1, 1865. The children of Clif- ford and Deborah Allen (Fuller) Belcher were: 1. Caroline Williams, born October 18, 1812, married Nehemiah Abbott, a representa- tive in the thirty-fifth United States congress. 2. Samuel (q. v.), born December 8, 1814. 3. Deborah Ann, December 10, 1816, married Captain Charles Gill. 4. Clifford, March 23, 1819, Harvard, A. B., 1837. 5. Abraham Williams Fuller, August 26, 1821. 6. Timothy Fuller, August 3, 1823.
(VII) Samuel, eldest son of Clifford (2) and Deborah Allen (Fuller) Belcher, was born in Farmington, Maine, December 8, 1814. He was educated at Farmington Academy and in law in the offices of his uncle, Hiram Belcher, and was admitted to the Kennebec bar on De- cember 8, 1835, the date on which he reached
his majority. He practiced law in Orono, Maine, for two years, but returned to his na- tive town in 1837, and there opened a law office. He served as town clerk, 1838-40; was postmaster of Farmington, 1840-49: repre- sentative from Farmington in the legislature of Maine, 1840-49-50; clerk of the house of representatives of the state, 1845-48, and speaker of the house, 1849-50; judge of pro- bate of the county of Franklin, 1852-62 and 1879-84; county attorney, 1862-79. He was president of the board of directors of the Sandy River Bank from the time of its organization in 1853 and a trustee of Farmington Academy 1845 up to the time of its becoming the Farm- ington Normal school. He had a large law practice and had a commanding influence in the affairs of the town, always directed for its good. He married, May 9, 1837, Martha Car- oline Hepzibah, eldest daughter of Asa and Caroline ( Williams) Abbott, who was born September 18, 1819. Children: 1. Samuel Clifford (q. v.), born March 20, 1839. 2. Anna Gill, June 21, 1841, died August 23, 1842. 3. Abbott, March 17, 1843. 4. William Fuller, March 13, 1845. 5. Fuller, September 13, 1852, died June 24, 1861. 6. Hamilton Abbott, August 18, 1854. 7. Mary Caroline, July 25, 1856, married James Hayes Waugh. 8. and 9. Twins, May, 1862, both dying in infancy.
(VIII) Samuel Clifford, eldest son and first child of Samuel and Martha C. H. ( Abbott) Belcher, was born in Farmington, Maine, March 20, 1839, the seventh in line of descent from Gregory Belcher, the immigrant. He was prepared for college in his native town, matriculated at Bowdoin College in 1853 at the age of fourteen, and was graduated A. B., 1857. He was preceptor of Foxcroft Acad- emy, 1857-60 ; law student in the office of Hon. Nehemiah Abbott, Belfast, Maine, 1860-61, and on reaching his majority was admitted to the Franklin county bar. He helped raise the Sixteenth Maine Volunteers, and on June 4, 1862, was made captain of Company G of that regiment, which was shortly after his promo- tion sent to the front. He was a participant in the battle of Fredericksburg, where he was slightly wounded, and this service was followed by his leading his company in the battles of the Chancellorsville campaign, and at the ter- rible battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2 and 3, 1863. His regiment covered the retreat of the First Corps in the first day of the battle, and it is well established that the Sixteenth Maine held a position which two regiments had previ- ously been obliged to fall back from on account
960
STATE OF MAINE.
of the terrible onslaught of the Confederates ; and this was done at the cost to the regiment of every man of the gallant Sixteenth Maine save forty, who heroically held their ground until surrounded and thus captured. It was during the performance of this duty that the colors of the regiment were saved from capture by being cut in pieces and distributed to the remnant not killed or captured, and the fa- mous order that accomplished this historical act was given by Captain Belcher while in com- mand of the left wing of the regiment, and he was himself with the remnant taken pris- oner of war. While being marched to Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, Captain Belcher succeeded in making his escape and gained the Federal lines.
On reaching Washington, with no regiment to report to, he was assigned to the staff of General Heintzelman as aide-de-camp, that officer being in command of the Department of Washington, D. C. He joined his regiment November, 1863, and was in the campaign of the Wilderness, and was present at the battles of Mine Run, the Wilderness and Spottsyl- vania, and in the latter engagement he was severely wounded by a bullet which pierced his skull and endangered his brain. He was not relieved of the pressure of the bullet for seventeen days, and not able to rejoin the army in the field until after the surrender. While in the field Governor Coney, on June 1, 1864. in recognition of his services, pro- moted him to the rank of major, and on being honorably discharged in 1865 he returned to Farmington and resumed the practice of law. He was made an overseer of Bowdoin College, a member of the Maine Historical Society, and of the American Bar Association.
General Belcher is past master of the Maine Lodge, A. F. and A. M .; past high priest, Franklin Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; past master of Jephthah Council, and member Pil- grim Commandery, Knights Templar. His service in the army secured for him compan- ionship in the Maine Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He was appointed by Governor Gar- cilon inspector-general on his staff with the rank of brigadier-general. He was the unsuc- cessful Democratic candidate for representa- tive in congress for the second district in 1876 and again in 1878. General Belcher was mar- ried. January 19, 1869, to Ella Olive, daugh- ter of Spalding and Sarah ( Rich) Smith, of Wilton, and their daughter, Frances Spalding, was born in Farmington, November 27, 1869.
Nathaniel Billings, immigrant BILLINGS ancestor, came to this country before 1640 and settled in Concord, Massachusetts, where he was admit- ted a freeman, June 2, 1641. He owned in 1655 seven lots containing fifty-four acres, which was later (1880) owned by Amos Baker. He died August 24, 1673. Children : 1. Nathaniel, had son Daniel, who drew land in right of his father on account of service at Narragansett, in Templeton ( Narragansett No. 6), in 1735. 2. John, mentioned below.
(Il) John ( 1), son of Nathaniel Billings, was born about 1640, died March 31, 1704. He owned six lots in Concord. He married, November 11, 1661, Elizabeth, born June 2, 1643. daughter of John Hastings, who settled in Braintree and removed to Cambridge. Chil- dren, born at Concord: 1. John, October 28, 1662, died October 17, 1688 ; married probably December 31. 1685, Elizabeth Lamson. 2. Na- thaniel, February 14, 1665, died August 27, 1714. 3. Samuel, April 25. 1667, mentioned below. 4. Elizabeth, November 26, 1669. 5. Joseph, September 3, 1672, died December 31, 1690. 6. Mary, January 20, 1674. 7. Sarah, January 15, 1677, married Ebenezer Hunt.
(III) Samuel, son of Jolin ( 1) Billings, was born April 25, 1667, died March 10, 1748- 49. He married, January 13, 1698-99, Mary Barron, who died April 6, 1747, daughter of Ellis and Mary ( Sherman) Barron, of Water- town. Her grandfather, Ellis Barron, mar- ried (first ) Hannah Hawkins, ( second ) Lydia Fairbanks. Her great-grandfather, Ellis Bar- ron, married (first ) Grace -, and (sec- ond) Hannah ( Pope). widow of Timothy Hawkins; he was the immigrant ancestor. Children of Samuel and Mary Billings : I. John, born March 30, 1700, mentioned below. 2. Joseph, June 5, 1702. 3. Mary, August 6, 1704. 4. Samuel, November 18, 1706. 5. Jon- athan, August 3, 1709, married, February 12, 1735, Dorothy Brooks. 6. Timothy, May 13, 1712. 7. Elizabeth, September 9, 1714. 8. James, November 6, 1717. 9. Sarah. March 24, 1719-20, married, June 6, 1744, Ephraim Hubbard. 10. Abigail, June 19, 1724, married, August 6, 1747, Samuel Allen.
(IV) John (2), son of Samuel Billings, was born March 30, 1700, at Concord. He mar- ried Elizabeth Children, born at Con- cord: 1. Mary, September 24, 1727, died No- vember 24. 1740. 2. Lydia, September 17. 1729. 3. John, November 23, 1731, mentioned below. 4. Isaac, January 26, 1733-34. £ 5.
Elizabeth, December 4, 1738.
961
STATE OF MAINE.
(\') John (3), son of John (2) Billings, was born, November 23, 1731, in that part of Concord which was set off as Lincoln, April 19, 1754. He removed to the head of Little Deer Isle, Maine, in 1762. In 1767 he re- moved to Brooksville, Maine, where he lived many years. He was one of the first, if not the first, settlers on Deer Isle, and probably the first settler in that part of Brooksville op- posite Deer Isle. He died just over the line of Brooksville, in Sedgwick, in 1802, and his estate was administered in that year in Han- cock county. He married, in 1752, Hannah Farrar, born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, died in Brooksville, Maine. Children: 1. Benja- min, born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, Decem- ber 12, 1753, resided in Sargentville, Maine ; married Abigail, daughter of Nathan Closson ; died March 23, 1826. 2. John Jr., born in Lincoln, April 14, 1755. mentioned below. 3. Abel, married Betsey Farrar ; resided in Sedg- wick, Maine; was a revolutionary pensioner ; died either October 27, 1833, or December 5, 1832, in Brooksville. 4. Deacon Solomon, married Abigail Eaton ; resided in Brooksville, where he died. 5. Azubah, married John Hooper ; died October, 1825. 6. Timothy, born at Deer Isle, May, 1764, said to have been the first white child born on that island ; married Hannah Wells; died December 6, 1854. 7. Hannah, married Samuel Howard ; died June 10, 1832. 8. Daniel, born in Brooksville, mar- ried Catherine Carter ; died August 29, 1857. 9. Lucy, married Bartholomew Flowers ; died January, 1798. 10. Deacon Isaac, born in Brooksville, married Sally Harding; died in Sedgwick, August 29, 1836.
(V1) John (4), son of Jolin (3) Billings, was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, April 14, 1755, and was killed in the revolution in an engagement with the British at Castine, Au- gust 29, 1779. He married Mary, daughter of Nathan Closson, who owned the farm ad- joining his father's at Deer Isle, Maine. He had a posthumous son, John Jr, mentioned be- low.
(VII) John (5), son of John (4) Billings, was born at Deer Isle, Maine. He received a limited education, going to school but six weeks. He was in the war of 1812. He was a blacksmith by trade, and owned a farm at Brooksville, where he lived a number of years. For a time he resided at that part of New- port, Maine, known as Billings Hill, but sold his farm there and removed to Unity, Waldo county, Maine. His later years were spent at Albion, Maine, where he died at the age of eighty-five. He married Jane Gray. Among
their children was Adoniram J., mentioned be- low.
(VIII) Hon. Adoniram J., M. D., son of John (5) Billings, was born in Newport, Maine, December 3. 1826, died in Freedom, Maine, February 6, 1900. He attended Colby University at Waterville, Maine, and studied medicine at Albany Medical College, Albany, New York, graduating in 1854. He estab- lished himself in Freedom, Maine, where he lived the remainder of his life. He was presi- dent of the Waldo County Medical Society. In the civil war he was surgeon of the Nine- teenth Maine Volunteer Militia ; in 1864 sur- geon of the board of enrollment of the fifth congressional district, and during President l larrison's administration was on the board of examining surgeons for pensions. He was a Republican in politics, and in 1862 and 1868 was representative to the general court, and in 1866 and 1867 state senator. In 1873 he was appointed state inspector of prisons and jails, and he was surgeon-general on Governor Per- ham's staff. He was again state senator in 1897. He was a member of the Dana B. Car- ter Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Masonic fraternity. He belonged to the Congregational church in Freedom. He married (first) Ann E. Clement ; (second) Mrs. Lucinda M. Bellows, of Freedom. Chil- dren, all by first wife: I. Ella B., born Au- gust, 1854, married (first) Charles A. Dor- man ; (second) George H. Sprowle, of Bos- ton. 2. Annie J., married James W. Libby, of Freedom.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.