USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III > Part 28
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(III) Henry (2), son of Henry (1) Gor- don, was born in Massachusetts, removed with his parents and the other members of their family to Fryeburg, and spent his life there in the employments incident to the time and place.
(IV) Stephen, eldest son of Henry (2) Gordon, was born in Fryeburg, October 10, 1794. He was a farmer, as almost every man was obliged to be in those days, and also did considerable at lumbering in that region which then was covered with some of the finest tim- ber within many miles of the coast. He lived to the age of sixty-nine, and died in Frye- burg, March, 1863. He married Lydia Buf- fington Chase, born in Fryeburg, July 10, 1801, died in Fryeburg, December, 1864, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Spring) Chase. Thomas Chase was a son of Dr. Josiah and Mehitable (Frye) Chase, who was a surgeon in the French and Indian war and served with General Joseph Frye and married his daughter, Mehitable Frye. He practised medicine in Canterbury, New Hampshire, for some years, but moved to Fryeburg, being the second physician in that town, and died there.
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His son, Thomas, married Mary Spring, daughter of Jedediah Spring, of Fryeburg. He was the fourth Thomas Chase from Aquilla Chase, and was born in Canterbury, New Hampshire, and died in Fryeburg, Maine. The children of Stephen and Lydia B. (Chase) Gordon were: Seth Chase, Marshall, William, Samuel Chase, Stephen, and Hannah Stack- pole.
(V) Dr. Seth Chase, eldest son and first child of Stephen and Lydia B. (Chase) Gor- don, was born in Fryeburg, August 17, 1830. He grew up on his father's farm and attended the district school and Fryeburg Academy, where he fitted for college. For several win- ters he taught school in country districts in Fryeburg and adjoining towns. He also taught one year in Evansville, Indiana. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Ira Towle, of Fryeburg. After spending two years in Dr. Towle's office, he took one course of lec- tures at Dartmouth Medical School, and then entered the Maine Medical School at Bruns- wick, where he attended one term, and grad- uated with the class of 1855. He began prac- tice in the town of Gorham, Maine, at Little Falls, in the village of South Windham, where he remained until 1861. In December of that year he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and served with that command in the Department of the Gulf in the Nineteenth Army Corps, in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, until October, 1863, when he was made surgeon of the First Louisiana Volunteer In- fantry (white), which was stationed in the Department of the Gulf. During a part of his term of service he acted as surgeon of the District of La Fourche, on the staff of General Cameron, and was mustered out July 12, 1865, having served nearly four years. Returning to Maine, he settled in Portland, October I, 1865, and has since resided in that city. His four years' experience in surgery in the war gave him training that fitted him to take a leading place in surgical circles, which he has ever since maintained. In 1874 he was appointed surgeon of the Maine General Hos- pital, and is still one of its staff, after a serv- ice of thirty-four years. He is consulting surgeon to the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary, was lecturer on diseases of women in the Portland School of Medical Instruction. He has served as president of the Maine Medical Association, vice-president of the American Medical Association, and president of the sec- tion of obstetrics and diseases of women of the same association. He is a fellow of the
American and of the British Gynecological Society, also of the Boston Gynecological So- ciety and the Detroit Academy of Medicine. Was president of the American Gynecological Society in 1902. He has written much for medical journals and read numerous papers before medical societies, both of this country and of Europe, on surgical subjects. His opinion as an expert in matters surgical and medical has often been required in court, where it has always been a matter of pro- fessional pride with him to give his opinions as he formed them from an understanding of the facts, without regard to the effect they might have on either party to the suit. His place in his profession is a prominent and hon- orable one, and his services and ability have brought him many honors. His attainments and widely extended practice, a practice which for years has covered the state, and much of New England, has made him one of the most useful citizens of the commonwealth. In
politics he is an uncompromising Democrat of the old school-three of his fundamental tenets being: Sound currency, tariff for revenue only, and the largest personal liberty con- sistent with the safety of the community. He has served one year in the Portland common council, and three years as a member of the school committee. His service in these po- sitions was rendered, not in accordance with his wishes, but in performance of what he believed to be his duty to the state. From 1896 to 1900 he was a member of the National Democratic committee of Maine. In 1905 he received from Dartmouth College the honor- ary degree of LL. D. The same year he de- livered the course in gynecology in Dartmouth Medical School. In religious belief he is a Unitarian, and to the church of that faith he gives with such measures as its needs require.
In 1858 Dr. Gordon became a member of Harmony Lodge, Gorham, Maine, Free and Accepted Masons. Since that time he has ad- vanced in the Masonic Order through the fol- lowing organizations: Eagle Royal Arch Chapter, of Westbrook ; Portland Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, of which he is a past commander ; and was also grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Knights Tem- plar, of Maine, and commander of the Maine Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States. The only club of which he is a member is the Cumberland, of which he was president four years. While never an active politician, he has always been ready to aid in support of the principles of the Demo- cratic party, as enunciated above, and much
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against his inclination was the candidate of his party for representative to congress in 1902 in the first congressional district of Maine. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, Maine Historical So- ciety, Portland Natural History Society, Port- land Art Club, director in the Associated Char- ities, and president of the board of trustees of Fryeburg Academy, in which institution he has for many years taken much interest. He has never married.
PERKINS Peter, being one of the twelve Apostles, his name was a fa- vorite one for centuries among Christians. It assumed the form of Pierre in France, whence it found its way into Eng- land, and there took the diminuative form of Perkin. This gradually and naturally became Perkins, and, in time, was bestowed upon or assumed by one as a surname. Many of the name were among the early settlers of New England, and their descendants have borne honorable part in the development of modern civilization in the Western Hemisphere.
(I) John Perkins was born in Newent, Gloucestershire, England, in 1590. On De- cember 1, 1630, he set sail from Bristol in the "Lyon," William Pierce, master, with his wife (Judith Gater), five children and about a dozen other companions. They reached Nan- tasket, February 5, 1631, and settled in Bos- ton. He was the first of that name to come to New England, and was one of the twelve who accompanied John Winthrop Jr. to settle in Ipswich, where he was made freeman May 18, 1631. By another authority he did not move until 1633. On April 3, 1632, "It was ordered" by the general court "that noe pson wtsoever shall shoot at fowle upon Pullen Poynte or Noddles Illeland; but that the sd places shal be reserved for John Perkins to take fowle with nets." Also, November 7, 1632, John and three others were "appointed by the Court to sett downe the bounds be- twixte Dochester and Rocksbury." He at once took a prominent stand among the colo- nists, and in 1636 and for many years after- wards represented Ipswich in the general high court. In 1645 he was appraiser and signed the inventory of the estate of Sarah Dilling- ham. In 1648 and 1652 he served on the grand jury. In March, 1650, "being above the age of sixty he was freed from ordinary training of the court." He made his will (probate office, Salem, Massachusetts), March 28, 1654, and died a few months later, aged sixty-four. His children were: Judith, wife
of William Sergeant; John; Thomas; Eliza- beth, second wife of William Sergeant; Mary, married Thomas Bradbury; Jacob and Lydia. The last became the wife of Henry Bennett, of Ipswich.
(II) Thomas, second son of John and Ju- dith (Gater) Perkins, was born about 1616 in England, and resided in Ipswich and Tops- field, Massachusetts. He was made freeman, 1648, in the former town, and removed to the latter about 1660, dying there May 7, 1686. His will was made December 1I, preceding, and proved on September 10, following his death. He owned Sagamore Hill, in Ipswich, which was probably granted to him by the town. This has an elevation of one hundred and seventy feet in height, surrounded by salt marshes. He exchanged this with his brother John, for a house and lot in the town. He was a deacon of the church in Ipswich and served as selectman in Topsfield in 1676 and tithingman in 1677-78, and was often on com- mittees in the church and town in settling vari- ous matters. The land records show that he bought and sold much property, and he left a fine estate upon his death. He was married in Topsfield, about 1640, to Phoebe, daughter of Zaccheus Gould, of Topsfield. She was born in 1620, and was baptized September 20, 1620, in Hemel Hempstead, England, and was living at the time his will was made. Their children were: John, Phoebe, Zaccheus, Mar- tha, Mary, Elisha, Judith, Thomas and Timo- thy.
(III) John (2), eldest child of Deacon Thomas and Phoebe (Gould) Perkins, was born in 1641 in Ipswich, and resided in Tops- field, where he died May 19, 1668. He mar- ried, November 28, 1666, Deborah Browning. Their only child was Thomas, born 1667-68. He disappears from the Topsfield records after 1685, and there can be little doubt that he is the one next mentioned.
(IV) Thomas (2) Perkins appears soon after attaining his majority in Greenland, New Hampshire, which was then a part of Ports- mouth, residing near the line of Dover and Exeter. In February, 1706, he purchased an estate there for one hundred pounds sterling, consisting of fifty acres of marsh and meadow- land, and resided thereon until 1722. In Feb- ruary of the last-named year he sold his prop- erty for four hundred and fifty pounds ster- ling, his wife Mary signing the deed, and im- mediately thereafter they settled in Old Arundel, now Kennebunkport, Maine. Pre- vious to his removal he had acquired con- siderable land there, lying between the Kenne-
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bunk river and a line running from Backcove, through Great Pond to the sea. This land had been previously mortgaged to Francis Johnson, and there was a contest over its pos- session. The dispute was submitted to arbi- trators who charged fourteen-fifteenths of the land to Captain Perkins, the remainder going to Stephen Harding, who had purchased it from Johnson. Captain Perkins erected a garrison house near Butler's Rocks, and either he or his son was a sentinel in Sergeant Alli- son Brown's company of Indian-fighters, at Arundel, from October 15, 1723, to June 14, 1724, and a sergeant in Lieutenant Brown's company from May 29 to November 19, 1725. His wife was a daughter of John Banfield, of Portsmouth. In 1738 Thomas Perkins and wife transferred to their son John, of Boston, coaster, their right in the estate of John Ban- field, late of Portsmouth. Captain Perkins died about 1741. His children born before he settled in Kennebunkport were: John, Thom- as, Lemuel, Samuel, George, Alverson, Zac- cheus, Mary and Chasey.
(V) Thomas (3), second son of Thomas (2) and Mary Perkins, was born about 1700 and died in Kennebunkport, February 22, 1752. He was a property owner and an in- fluential citizen, and tradition says he was an official surveyor. He commanded a company on the surrender of Louisburg to Sir William Pepperrell, in 1745, and two years later was wrecked in an expedition to Annapolis, Nova Scotia. From March 28, 1748, to June 7, 1749, he was captain of a company of sentinels doing guard-duty to prevent a surprise by the Indians at Arundel. Some of his sons were perhaps of the same company. He married Lydia, daughter of Stephen and Abigail (Lit- tlefield) Harding, of Kennebunkport, who sur- vived him. Notwithstanding this marriage, the contest for property previously mentioned caused an estrangement between the families. Captain Perkins died before April 7, 1752, when administration of his estate was granted to his son Abner. In this document Thomas Perkins is called "gentleman." His children were: Eliphalet, Abner, John, Thomas, George, James and Mary.
(VI) Abner, second son of Thomas (3) and Lydia (Harding) Perkins, was born probably between 1724 and 1730, in Kennebunkport, and died there in 1811. He was a tiller of the soil, and in 1748 served as scout in Captain Jonathan Bean's company, his name appearing on the rolls from May 5 to November 24 of that year. In the following year he was a corporal in the company commanded by his
father and was clerk of the company. In 1757 he was a member of Captain John Fair- field's Arundel company, and during the revo- lution was a member of the town's committee of safety for the year 1777. He married Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Ann (Andrews) Robinson, of the same town. Samuel Robin- son came from Rowley, Massachusetts, about 1730. Abner Perkins' wife was not named in his will, and was probably deceased at the time of its execution, April 30, 1802. This was admitted to probate June 17, 1811. Their chil- dren mentioned in the will were: Daniel, Ab- ner, Jonathan, Stephen, Jacob, Ann and Sarah.
(VII) Stephen, fourth son of Abner and Sarah (Robinson) Perkins, was born July 25, 1765, in Kennebunkport, and died there Au- gust 31, 1833. He was a farmer. He mar- ried, April 22, 1790, Alice Stone, of the same town, daughter of Colonel Jonathan (2) and Phoebe (Downing) Stone, and granddaughter of Jonathan and Hannah (Lovet) Stone, who came to Kennebunkport from Beverly, Massa- chusetts, about 1735. Abner Perkins' elder brother and his sister Ann also married chil- dren of Colonel Jonathan (2) Stone. Alice Stone was born June 29, 1769, and died Jan- mary 14, 1850. Her children were: William, Ann, Ivory, Alice, Stephen, Jonathan, Silas, Phoebe, Clement and Abner.
(VIII) Clement, sixth son of Stephen and Alice (Stone) Perkins, was born March 23, 1807, in Kennebunkport, and made his home there until his death, March 4, 1884. Like many in Maine, of his time in the locality, he went to sea for many years in early life and subsequently settled upon a farm. He was married in 1837 to Mrs. Lucinda (Fairfield) Emery, daughter of Captain William and Mary (King) Fairfield, and widow of Captain Isaac Emery, of Kennebunkport (see Fairfield VI). Their children were : George Clement, William L., Ernestine L., David King and Caroline Amelia.
(IX) George Clement, eldest child of Clen- ent and Lucinda (Fairfield) Perkins, was born August 23, 1839, in Kennebunkport, where he remained until his thirteenth year in attendance on the public schools. He then shipped on board a sailing vessel to New Or- leans, and continued at sea on ships engaged in the European trade. In 1855 he shipped before the mast on the sailing vessel "Gala- tea," bound for San Francisco, where he ar- rived in the autumn of that year. The ex- ceptional opportunities afforded in the new Pacific colony induced him to retire from the sea, and he settled down to business in an in-
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terior town in California. He has been in- terested in many lines of industry, such as farming, merchandising, banking, mining, manufacturc, whalc-fishery and the steamship transportations. With the natural intelligence and honor of the New England typc, he soon took an active part in the conduct of local affairs, and in 1869 was elected a member of the state scnate and occupied that position for eight years. From 1879 to 1883 he was governor of the state of California, and was appointed United States senator, to fill an unexpired term in 1893. He has been four times elected to that position and his present term will expire in March, 1915. He has taken an active part in the commercial and social life of his home state and has served as president of the Merchant's Exchange of San Francisco and of the San Francisco Art Association. He is a director of the Califor- nia Academy of Sciences and several other scientific, benevolent and fraternal organiza- tions. His present residence is at Oakland. On account of distinguished services rendered during the civil war, he was elected a member of the California Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. His activity in the fraternal work of the Masonic order led to his election in 1875 as grand master of the Grand Lodge, F. and A. M., of California, having previously served through the various subordinate positions of grand junior warden, grand warden and deputy grand master. In 1883 he was elected grand commander of the Grand Commandery, Knights Templar, of California, and in the same year was elected grand junior warden of the Grand Encampment of the United States of America. In all of his elections to his present honorable position, he was chosen upon the first ballot, and his distinguished services as a member of the national legisla- ture has fully justified the choice of the people of California, as represented by a Republican majority. On the occasion of the last choice, his election was made uniformly on motion of a Democratic member of the legislature. At the time of his second, third and fourth elec- tions, he was attending to his official duties at the national capitol.
Senator Perkins was married at Maysville, California, May 3, 1864, to Ruth Amelia Parker, daughter of Edward Parker, an Eng- lish excise officer who came to California when the daughter was a child of eight years. He died in Oroville, in 1861, and his widow subsequently married William Hesse. She died May 20, 1881, in San Francisco, leaving
her daughter as sole legatee, and naming Sen- ator Perkins as cxccutor of her will. Mrs. Perkins was born August 21, 1843, in Cork, Ircland, and was christened in the Episcopal church of that city when one year old. Their children: Fanny I., wifc of J. E. Adams; George E .; Susan C. (Mrs. William H. Schmidt) ; Fred K .; Milton G .; Ruth M .; and Gracc Pansy (wife of Cleveland H. Baker, district-attorney of Tonapah, state of Nevada).
(For preceding generations see John Perkins I.)
(II) Jacob, third son of John
PERKINS and Judith (Gatcr) Perkins, was born in England in 1624. He was chosen sergeant of the Ipswich mili- tary company in 1664, and was afterwards known as Sergeant Jacob Perkins. By his father's will he came into possession of the homestcad and lands upon his mother's death. At this place there is a well still known as "Jacob's well." He was a farmer and his name frequently appears in the records of conveyances of farming lands. He died in Ipswich, January 27, 1699-1700, aged seventy- six years. He married (first) Elizabeth (Lovell) about 1648. By her he had nine children. She died February 12, 1685, aged fifty-six. Jacob afterwards married Damaris Robinson, a widow, who survived him.
(III) Jacob (2), second son of Jacob (1) and Elizabeth Perkins, was born August 3, 1662, and died November, 1705. His father Jacob gave him a deed of land (to which a Thomas Lovell was witness, March 7, 1687). December 27, 1684, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Sparks. They had three children. She died April 10, 1692. He mar- ried (second) January 5, 1693, Sarah Tread- well, who was executrix of his will. By her he had five children.
(IV) Jacob (3), first child of Jacob (2) and Elizabeth Perkins, was born February 15, 1685. He went to Cape Neddick, now York, Maine, to reside, and there died. He married (first) Lydia Stover, and had by her three children. He married (second) October 17, 1717, Anna, daughter of Josiah Littlefield, and had by her eight children, three of whom were Elisha, Josiah and Newman.
(V) Josiah, sixth son of Jacob (3) Per- kins, and fifth child of Anna, his wife, was born about 1740, and was a farmer in Wells, Maine. He married Susan Allen, who bore him ten children, two of whom were Jonathan and Jacob.
(VI) Jonathan, third son of Josiah and
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Susan ( Allen) Perkins, born in 1734, at Wells, was a farmer in that town. He removed thence to Conway, New Hampshire, where the births of his last six children are recorded. The first eight were born in Maine. He was married in 1752, at age of eighteen years, to his cousin Lydia, daughter of Newman and Sarah (Sawyer) Perkins, who was born in 1738, and was therefore but fourteen years old at the time of the marriage. She was considered the handsomest bride married in the church at Dover, New Hampshire, and in her old age she resided at Windsor, Maine. At the age of ninety years she read a page in the testament without glasses and died at the age of ninety-six years, at the home of her son Ephraim, in Freedom, Maine. Among their children were: Rebecca, who lived to be one hundred and four years old; Hannah, Martha, Abigail, lived to be over seventy years ; Samuel, John, Joseph and Ephraim.
(VII) Ephraim, son of Jonathan and Lydia (Perkins) Perkins, was born in July, 1787, in Conway, New Hampshire, and for seven years was a sailor upon the sea, visiting many West Indian, South American and European ports, rounding Cape Horn and cruising in the In- dian Ocean. He brought home many beautiful and interesting curios, gathered in these voy- ages. After his marriage he lived at Free- dom, Maine, and died in that place November 18, 1850, at the age of sixty-three years. He was a man of medium height, with black hair and eyes, and was called fine looking. He was married in 1815 at China, Maine, to Mary, eldest of the fourteen children of Thomas and Elizabeth (Hilton) McCurdy. She was born in August, 1797, and died in November, 1860, at Princeton, Minnesota. She was of medium height, with brown hair and handsome blue eyes. They were the parents of seven children : Rebeckah Ann, Henry Franklin, two who died in infancy, Ephraim, Eliza Jane and Aurelia Frances.
(VIII) Aurelia Frances, youngest child of Ephraim and Mary ( McCurdy) Perkins, was born April 6, 1832, in Freedom, Maine, and married, February 14, 1858, Williani Edward Maddocks, of Ellsworth, Maine (See Mad- docks VIII), whom she survives. As a young woman she was called very handsome, having brown hair and eyes and being of medium stature. Her reminiscences of early life are interesting, including, as she observed, the making of the tallow dip and the subse- quent use of the fish-oil lamp, articles known to but few people now living. She is among those who were sent as children to borrow
fire from the neighbors, before the days of lucifer matches. She has been awarded prizes at various fairs for the hand-stitching executed by her, taught in the days before the use of the sewing-machine was general. With her own hands she spun from cotton, which had been brought from the West Indies by her brother, the thread woven by her mother into towels for home use. At the age of seventeen she wove in one day six yards of cloth, which was considered a large amount for a woman to execute in the time. At the age of eighteen she began teaching school, and also taught painting, having inherited an artistic talent, probably from a remote ancestor named Will- iam Hilton, who is buried in Westminster Ab- bey. At the age of eighteen years she united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1857 went west with her widowed mother and brother, intending to teach. There she met and married Mr. Maddocks, as above related, they being the first couple married in Benton county, now Mills, Saco county, Iowa. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Richard Walker, D. D., who composed for the occasion the poem which here follows :
A GOOD WIFE. To be alone, says God's decree, Man is unblessed, from pleasure free- Who can to him life's solace be? A good wife.
Who can console the careworn heart, Shield from pain of adverse dart, And to the brow a smile impart ? A good wife.
Who can illumine the vale of woe, Dry the tears that mournfully flow, And give the eye affection's glow ? A good wife.
Who can make earth's bitt'rest cup sweet, The heart in tender tone to greet. The ills that in it strangely meet? A good wife.
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