USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II > Part 91
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was also treasurer of the Androscoggin rail- way and auditor and treasurer of the Maine Central railroad up to the time of his death. He was a member of the I. O. O. F. of Far- mington. He was very helpful along many lines of good work in every town where he lived. His wife, Sarah Adams ( Blake) Lins- cott, of Farmington, was a woman of strong character and of great worth. Their children were: Edgar, Mary, John Jacob, Sarah Blake and Mary Isadore.
(V) John Jacob, son of Joseph Addison and Sarah Adams (Blake) Linscott, was born April 6, 1846, in Phillips. He received a good education in Farmington and was a student at Bowdoin Medical College and Berkshire Medi- cal College, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from which he graduated October 2, 1867. In 1867 he began the practice of medicine in Farming- ton, and has had increasingly good success in his work ever since. His work as representa- tive in the Maine legislature, 1880-82, will long be remembered. In politics he is a Demo- crat. He is a member of Maine Lodge, No. 20, A. F. and A. M., of Farmington ; Frank- lin Chapter. R. A. M .: Jeptha Council; Pil- grim Commandery, K. T .; Maine Consistory ; Kora Temple ; and a thirty-second degree Ma- son. He is a member of Franklin Lodge, No. 58, I. O. O. F., of Farmington, and of the Sandy River Encampment, No. 9. He is a charter member of Alpha Lodge, No. 94. Knights of Pythias, of Farmington. Dr. Linscott was instrumental in installing the water system of Farmington, and was presi- dent of this company. It is thus clearly seen that he is carrying out in the best way the noble spirit and principles of his ancestors, and that. like them, he is ever looking onward to the doing of still more helpful things for all around him. Dr. Linscott married, August 17, 1868, Cynthia Orena Hemingway, born August 27, 1846, in Lowell, Massachusetts, died August, 1903, daughter of Captain Hem- ingway, of Lowell, Massachusetts, but reared by Captain. Webb, of Brunswick, Maine. Their children are: 1. Minnie Blake, born February 26, 1871, in Farmington, married, December 31, 1891, George S. Linscott, of Holton, Kansas, who is president of the First National Bank of Holton, and a fine scholar ; their children are Orena and John S. Shep- herd. 2. Joseph Addison, born March 4, 1875, a fine student and a very successful store- keeper, life insurance agent and broker; he is an Independent in politics and a member of the I. O. O. F. and K. P. of Farmington, and of Mount Abram Lodge, A. F. and A. M.,
No. 203, of Kingfield, Maine: he married, June 14. 1905, Cora Gertrude Churchill, and has a daughter, Phyllis Churchill, born May 22, 1907. 3. John Carroll, born February 9, 1879. died December 12, 1881.
BROOKS The Brooks family is one of the oldest in Massachusetts, and the ancestral home at Med- ford has been occupied for many generations. Governor John Brooks was born there about 1752. The family is less numerous in Maine, but representatives of two of its branches came here in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- turies.
( I) Thomas Brooks came from London, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, where he was admitted freeman, December 7, 1636. He soon moved to Concord, that state, where he was captain, constable and representative for seven years, beginning 1642. In 1657 he purchased of the commissioners for five pounds the right of carrying on the fur trade. In 1660 Captain Brooks and his son-in-law, Timothy Wheeler, bought four hundred acres in Medford. Captain Thomas Brooks married Grace. whose family name is unknown, and they had five children: Joshua, Caleb, Ger- shom, Mary, who married Captain Timothy Wheeler, and Hannah, who married Thomas Fox. Mrs. Grace Brooks died May 12, 1664, and Captain Thomas Brooks died at Concord. Massachusetts, May II, 1667, leaving an es- tate whose inventory amounted to about four hundred and fifty pounds.
(II) Deacon Joshua, the eldest son of Thomas and Grace Brooks, was born in Watertown, 1636, and settled in that part of Concord, Massachusetts, which became the town of Lincoln. He was a tanner by trade, and it is supposed that he sold his paternal estate in Medford to his brother Caleb. He was made a freeman May 26, 1652. He was married October 17, 1653, to Hannah, daugh- ter of Captain Hugh Mason, and they were the parents of Hannah, John, Noah, Grace, Daniel, Thomas, Esther, Elizabeth, Joe and Hugh.
(III) Noah, second son of Deacon Joshua and Hannah ( Mason) Brooks, was born about 1655 in Concord, and died there February 1, 1739. He was known as "Noah of Concord.' He appears on the records in 1684 as a wit- ness to an Indian deed, and was selectman in 1702-04-09. When Acton was set off from Concord, in 1735, his farm was included in the new town, and he was thenceforward a resident of Acton, living to the good age of
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eighty-three years. He was married in 1685 to Dorothy Wright, of Sudbury, Massachu- setts, who was born in 1659-60, and died March 15. 1750, aged ninety years, as appears on her tombstone in Concord. Their children were: Dorothy, Joshua, Ebenezer, Samuel, Benjamin, Mary, Thomas and Elizabeth.
(1\') Deacon Joshua (2), eldest son of Noah and Dorothy ( Wright) Brooks, was born October 14, 1688, in Concord, and re- sided in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He was mar- ried April 24, 1713, to Lydia Wheeler.
(V) Deacon Joshua (3), son of Deacon Joshua (2) and Lydia (Wheeler ) Brooks, probably resided in Concord or Lincoln. He was married in 1745 to Hannah Simons, of the latter town.
(VI) John, fifth son of Deacon Joshua (3) and Hannah (Simons) Brooks, was born May 19, 1771, in Lincoln, and went to that portion of Hallowell. Maine, which is now Augusta, in 1784, being then thirteen years of age. He accompanied his uncle, William Brooks, and remained about one year, re- turning to Massachusetts. On attaining man's estate, he settled in Maine, and entered into partnership with his uncle on the east side of the Kennebec river, where he owned a farm upon which he built a large two-story house, uniform with the pattern of that day. He was married January 31, 1796, to Susan, daughter of Lieutenant Samuel Cony. Late in life he removed to Farmington, where he died February, 1864, aged ninety-three years. His children were: Susan Johnson, Hannah Simons, William Augustus, John Cony, Susan Eliza, Pauline Augusta, Henry Albert, James Lowell, Mary Caroline, Samuel Spencer and Hannah Johnson.
(VII) Samuel Spencer, youngest son of John and Susan (Cony) Brooks, was born March 28, 1821, in Augusta, Maine. He be- came a hardware merchant in that town, de- riving therefrom a lucrative livelihood. He conducted business for the long period of half a century, during which time he won and re- tained an enviable reputation among the busi- ness men of the city for sterling integrity and straightforward transactions, and his steadily increasing patronage was proof sufficient that he paid strict attention to the needs and wishes of his patrons, whom he treated in a most courteous manner. A warm personal friend of James G. Blaine, he was a firm adherent of Republican principles, but gave little per- sonal attention to politics. He was for years one of the pillars of the South Congregational church, of Augusta. He was married, No-
vember 5, 1861, to Mary Caroline Wadsworth, of Augusta, and they were the parents of five children: 1. Albert Wadsworth, see forward. 2. Samuel Cony, born February, 1866, edu- cated in the public schools, Amherst College, from which he graduated in class of 1888, and then entered the Divinity School at Yale Col- lege, remaining one year ; he then went west, establishing Sunday-schools ; he died in 1889. 3. Percy Willis, see forward. 4. Florence, born October 29, 1869, married, June 21, 1894, Robert Treat Whitehouse, of Portland, a sketch of whom appears in this work. 5. Marguerite, born August 29, 1873.
(VIII) Albert Wadsworth, eldest son of Samuel Spencer and Mary Caroline (Wads- worth) Brooks, was born in Augusta, Maine, July 28, 1863. He was educated in the pub- lic schools of Augusta and Amherst College, graduating from the latter in the class of 1885. He at once engaged in the hardware business in Augusta, as a member of the firm of S. S. Brooks & Company, continuing until 1899. He then organized the corporation of Brooks Hardware Company, but later disposed of a portion of his stock, and retired from the active management of the business. In 1901 he engaged in the wholesale grain and flour business as treasurer of the B. F. Parrott Company, in which capacity he is still serving. He has served many years in both branches of the city government, and for fifteen years has been a member of the school board, acting as chairman of the same. He is a Republican in politics. He is a member of Bethlehem Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Cushnoc Chapter, Royal Arch Masons: Al- pha Council, Royal and Select Masters; Trin- ity Commandery, Knights Templar, Maine Consistory, thirty-second degree ; Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Augusta. Mr. Brooks married (first) November 21, 1893, Mary McDaniel, daughter of Gardiner F. and Adelma A. (Saulsbury) McDaniel, of Augusta. One child, Barbara. Mrs. Brooks died June, 1903. Mr. Brooks married (sec- ond) June 16, 1908, Alice Hope Davies, daughter of George F. and Ida H. ( Springer) Davies, of Waterville, Maine.
(VIII) Percy Willis, third son of Samuel Spencer and Mary Caroline (Wadsworth) Brooks, was born December 2, 1868 in Au- gusta, Maine. He attended the public schools of his native place, including the high school, after which he entered Bowdoin College, and was graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1890. For some time after leaving college, he en- gaged in teaching and was principal of the
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high school at Woolwich, Maine. In 1891 he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and entered the office of N. W. Harris & Company, a firm which dealt extensively in bonds and various investment securities. Ten years later, in July, 1901, he became a member of the firm, and this connection continued until October, 1906. Before the termination of his partner- ship he opened an office in Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, which he successfully operated until the spring of 1907. At that time he formed a partnership with others, under the firm name of P. W. Brooks & Company, and established an investment banking house on Broadway, New York City, and is now actively and suc- cessfully prosecuting business as the head of the establishment, Mr. Brooks is a member of the Bowdoin Alumni Association, of New York, the Lawyers Club, of New York, the Larchmont and Corinthian Yacht clubs, of New York. Mr. Brooks was married June 21, 1905, to Mary Morris Marshall, of Youngs- town, Ohio.
COTHREN This is an old Scotch-Irish name which has had many spellings and varied pronun- ciations, and has been borne by many valuable citizens of the United States. Its usual spell- ing appears to be Cochrane. It is varied in many cases by the omission of the final letter and various modifications have heen used. It is derived from two Gaelic words which to- gether signify "battle-cry," and it appears to have first belonged to the great and warlike clan of Campbell, in Scotland. One of its earliest members was closely associated with the varying fortunes of Mary Queen of Scots, and from him the Cothrens of America claim their direct descent. There seem to have been several representatives of the name among the early settlers in New England.
(I) The first known ancestor of this line is William (1) Cochrane (as then spelled), a wealthy manufacturer, who resided in Paisley, Scotland, and removed thence, about 1740, to Plymouth, England.
(II) William (2), son of William (I) Cochrane, came to America when about nine- teen years of age, and took up his residence in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, whence he removed about 1759 to Falmouth, Maine. He married, in Chilmark, November I, 1758, Experience Weeks. As the removal took place soon after that event, their eldest child was born in Falmouth.
(III) David, son of William (2) and Ex- perience (Weeks) Cochrane, born November
I, 1768, in Falmouth, settled· in Farmington, Maine, in the spring of 1795, died in North Carolina, February, 1802. He married, in Falmouth, March 15, 1788, Eunice Backus, who survived him and was married in 1808 to Stephen Dillingham. She died April 1, 1841, at the age of seventy-five years. The chil- dren of David Cochrane and wife were: Keziah, William, Nathaniel and Tamar.
(IV) Captain William (3), elder son of David and Eunice ( Backus) Cochrane, was the first of his line to adopt the present form of the name. He was born October 31, 1791, in Falmouth, and was four years of age wlien he accompanied his parents to Farmington. His childhood and youth were spent amid the scenes of wild pioneer life, and he was sub- jected to the hardships common to all new countries. He followed farming for a liveli- hood, and was pleased with this honorable and independent calling, in which he was highly successful and gained material rewards. He served three months as soldier in the war of 1812, and was later the captain of the local militia. He was a trustee of the Farmington Academy from 1845 until the institution was closed in 1862. To his sons he gave an aca- demic education, and three of them pursued a collegiate course. He married, January 14. 1819, Hannalı Cooper, born February 19, 1798, in Pittston, Maine, died November 29, 1831, in Farmington. He married (second) November 15, 1835, Nancy H., widow of Stephen Titcomb Jr. She died April 19, 1840, and he survived her more than thirty-nine years, dying July 30, 1879. Children: I. William, born November 28, 1819, graduated in the class of 1843 at Bowdoin College. He practiced law at Woodbury, Connecticut, and was the author and publisher of a voluminous history of that town. 2. Charles, born June 16, 1822, graduated in 1849 and settled at Red Bank, New Jersey. 3. Nathaniel, men- tioned below. 4. George Webber, born July 12, 1829. 5. Wesley Roger, born of the sec- ond marriage, December 15, 1837.
(V) Nathaniel, third son of Captain Will- iam (3) and Hannah (Cooper) Cothren, born June 21, 1825, in Farmington, graduated from Bowdoin College in the same class with his elder brother, Charles, in 1849. He taught school a few years, then adopted the profession of the law, and was admitted to the New York bar in December, 1856. For many years he was a successful practitioner in New York city, where he died. He married, April 2, 1854. Elizabeth W. Corliss, of Eatontown, New Jersey, born July 13, 1838.
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(VI) Frank Howard. only child of Nathan- iel and Elizabeth W. ( Corliss) Cothren, born July 10, 1871, in Brooklyn, New York, pre- pared for college at Adelphi Academy. He en- tered Bowdoin College, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1892. He decided to adopt the pro- fession of his father, and with that purpose entered the office of the latter to prepare him- self, and was admitted to the bar in 1894. While at college lie was distinguished as an athlete, and was a member of the football team for three years, 1889-1892. He practiced law in company with his father until the death of the latter, since which time he has been actively engaged independently. He has taken an active interest in political matters, acting with the Republican party, and was a member of the New York state legislature during the years 1903-04. He married, June 29, 1905, Marion Benedict, who is the mother of one child, Frances, born March 3, 1907.
HUSTON This family belongs to the good Scotch-Irish stock which has contributed some of the best blood to the amalgamation of races which makes up our American citizenship. The name is not so common in this country as its allied form of Houston. In fact, the only places in America where men spelling their name Huston were living in the eighteenth century were a few towns in Maine and New Hampshire. We find Samuel Huston on the list of the proprietors of Londonderry, New Hampshire, which was incorporated in the year 1719. It may have been one of his de- scendants, John, born at Dunstable, now Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1773, who moved to Industry, Maine. A Simon Huston, who had a large family and left numerous children and grandchildren, was living at Gorham, Maine, in 1763. It is not known that any of these is related to the family now under con- sideration. The origin of the patronymic is obscure ; possibly it may be connected with the Anglo-Saxon hus, which means house. Among Americans of distinction now bearing the name may be mentioned Henry A. Huston, an expert chemist of Chicago, connected with various educational institutions, who was born at Damariscotta, Maine, in 1858; also Thad Huston, born in Indiana in 1846, who is judge of the superior court in the state of Washing- ton.
(I) The progenitor of the following line was James (1) Huston, born near the end of the seventeenth century, who about the
year 1725 emigrated to this country from Lon- donderry, Ireland, and first settled in Boston. He must have been a man in middle life when he sought the new world, because he brought with him a wife and seven children. If not actually a participant, he was probably famil- iar with the famous siege of Londonderry, Ireland, which took place in 1689. There is a family tradition that the ancestor of James, a native of Cornwall, accompanied Sir Richard de Huston into Ireland, during the reign of Elizabeth, and received for his services a grant of land near Londonderry, where many of the name are still living. After coming to this country, James Huston and his family, induced probably by the liberal offers of Colonel Dun- bar, moved to Pemaquid, Maine, and settled on the banks of the Damariscotta. The place had just then received the name of Walpole from Dunbar. To each family was assigned a city lot of two acres and a farm of forty acres, with a promise of one hundred acres more in due time. The three families of Hus- ton, Jones and Lermond, who had been neigh- bors in Ireland, were the first settlers in the new territory.
When the pioneers passed up the Damaris- cotta, they landed on what is now called the Sugar Loaf, a bare rock, but which at that time was a small island about fifty rods from the shore. A sand-bar that connected the island with the mainland was uncovered at low water, and as the settlers walked over this, and saw such evidence of teeming life at their feet (clams were abundant), some one exclaimed : "Call this an inhospitable shore, where a man has only to dig his meat from the ground over which he walks!" Their first meal was cooked by hanging a pot from the limb of a tree and kindling a fire under it. But if food was plenty, other necessities were not. Before their first rude hut could be finished, a storm came on, and the women and children found protection under the empty hogsheads which had contained their scanty supplies of cooking-utensils and furniture. During the French and Indian wars, beginning in 1745, nearly all of the settlements in that region were broken up, and the settlers that remained lived in a garrison. It is not known how many of the Hustons were killed by the Indians, but some of the Lermond women suf- fered death at the hands of the savages, April 27, 1747. Those who could fled for safety, most of them going to Boston and the neigh- borhood, but at the close of the war, in 1759, nearly all found their way back to their old homesteads in Walpole. In 1811 John Hus-
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ton testified that he was a grandson of the first of the name who came to Walpole, and that he was born in Boston in 1748. He learned from his parents that they came to Walpole the next year, and he himself re- membered living in a garrison. Before he was born, an aunt and grandmother of his were killed by the Indians; but he does not say whether they belonged to his father's or his mother's family. There is every reason to believe that the Hustons suffered all the ter- rors and hardships of pioneer life, and with- out doubt some of their number endured cap- tivity and death.
James Huston married Mary Sloss: chil- dren: I. William, married Nancy Lermond. 2. Robert, married Jane Bell. 3. James (2), whose sketch is given below. 4. Margaret, married William Jones. 5. Jane, married John Stinson. 6. Elizabeth, married a Dodd. One statement says that the Hustons had four daughters, but the names of three only have been preserved. Colonel William Jones, who married Margaret Huston, was a man of con- siderable prominence, and did good service during the revolution. Very early in the war an English ship, the "Rainbow," commanded by Sir George Colyer, came up the Sheeps- cot river, and seized two vessels that were loading with masts and spars for France. Jones demanded that the American vessels should be given up, which was refused, and there was much threatening talk on both sides. The English captain finally saw how de- termined would be the Colonial resistance ; and he gave up the ships and persuaded the Yankees to allow him to leave the river with- out molestation. Colonel Jones represented the town of Bristol in the general court many times, and was a member of the convention of Massachusetts by which the constitution of the United States was adopted. He objected to the latter document because it did not con- tain a more decided acknowledgment of God, and also because it did not require a religious test for candidates for office.
(II) James (2), son of James (I) and Mary (Sloss) Huston, was born in or near Londonderry, Ireland, and when a young child came to this country with his people, about the year 1725. It is not known just what time the family moved to Maine, but James (2) Huston spent the remainder of his life there. and became a prominent citizen of Bristol, the town which sprang up near the mouth of the Damariscotta, where the immi- grants first landed. He was elected to the board of selectmen in 1766, the second year
after the town was incorporated, and he served many subsequent times, the last being in 1797. The date of his death is unknown. He mar- ried Fanny Rodgers, and among their chil- dren was Robert, see forward. His name as one of the three selectmen of Bristol is ap- pended to an address to the provincial congress of the Massachusetts Bay, May 2, 1775, a document which can still be seen on file at the State House in Boston. An extract from it gives some idea of the resources, as well as of the patriotism of the men of Bristol :
"Therefor we would now Inform your Hon- ours that we have Indeavour'd to put ourselves into Military order and Discipline as well as we war Capable. We make out three Com- panys. Each Company consisting of Sixty Training Soldiers Exclusive of Officers, which Officers was Chosen by vote of the Several Companys in ye Trining Field. As to arms the most part of us have Got Guns, but we are in very low Sircumstances in Regard Am- munition, powder especially. We have used Several miens to provide ourSelves with powder but it has hapened to be to no purpose. Therefore if it is passable that your Honours Can point out to us any way of Releff in this particular we shall take it as a very grate favour ; we apprehend that we are very un- safe to be Distitute of ammunition as our Town borders on the Sea we are much ex- posed to our Enemys."
In common with other towns, Bristol was obliged to furnish clothing and food to the soldiers. In a paper dated Bristol, September 28, 1778, and signed by Thomas Johnston and James (2) Huston, we find that the town fur- nished "27 pair of Shoes at 48s. per pair ; 27 Shirts at 47s. a peace ; and 27 pair of Stock- ings at 36s. per pair." The document was ad- dressed to Dummer Sewall, Esquire, of Georgetown, who had evidently thought that the committee were guilty of extravagance, because we find the following apology tacked onto the bill: "We are informed by Mr. His- cock that you think the price very High, but things is so dear that we was obledged to re- turn Sundry articels to the owners again, be- cause we could not come to their price."
(III) Robert, son of James (2) and Fanny (Rodgers) Huston. was born at Bristol, Maine, in 1774, died there in 1858. He had the privilege, rare in this country, of living and dying in the house where he was born. Like most men who live near the shore, he derived some of his income from the sea. He worked at spar-making in ship-building goods, and was a part owner in some of the vessels
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that were built on and sailed down the Damariscotta river. He also carried on the farm which he inherited from his father. He was major of a militia company, the Wash- ingtonian Artillery, which was one of the fa- mous military organizations of that day, and which was an important feature on public occa- sions. Robert Huston married ( first) Sally Huston, born at Bristol, Maine, 1776, died in 1859. Children : Andrew, Joel, whose sketch follows: Thomas, Mary Ann, Robert and Carolinc.
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