Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III, Part 38

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III > Part 38

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lutions per minute. Each dynamo weighed complete 27 short tons, not including the en- gine, which weighed 6, 500 pounds, and were giants for their day. The station continued in successful operation until it was destroyed by fire, January 2, 1890. Other "Jumbo" dyna- moes, built in 1882 and 1883, were in opera- tion in Milan, Italy, until 1900, when they were put out of service after being in use for seventeen years, to give place to dynamos of more modern design and better economy. In February, 1884, Mr. Clarke resigned from the Edison companies to become manager of the Telemeter Company in New York, organized to exploit inventions of his own for electrical apparatus for indicating and recording tem- perature, pressure, height of water in reser- voirs, etc., at any desired distant point. He remained with that company until 1887. The enterprise did not prove a success, although much money was spent upon it. The field that had to be depended upon to make the under- taking a commercial success was the intro- duction of the apparatus for transmitting and recording temperature in refrigeratoring plants of all descriptions; but no metallic thermom- eter, which is the only kind applicable for making an electric contact, could be found or devised that was free from tremor if the in- strument received a mechanical jar, and ab- sence of tremor was essential to give such a firm electric contact as was necessary to in- sure preserving the transmitting thermometer and the distant receiving indicator and re- corder in unison. Application of the apparatus to transmitting and recording the height of water has proved entirely successful, because a large float operating the electric contact can be kept free from tremor in a standpipe with small openings. In 1887 Mr. Clarke became electrical engineer of the Gibson Electric Com- pany in New York, manufacturers of storage batteries, and continued in that capacity for two years. In the fall of 1889 he started in business in New York as consulting electrical and mechanical engineer and patent expert. The principal employment that followed was as patent expert, and he was called upon to testify in several leading litigations over elec- trical patents. Since December 16, 1901, he has been in the employ of the Board of Patent Control, New York City, a directorate com- posed of representatives of the General Elec- tric Company and the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, for managing their mutual patent interests. His duties mainly relate to expert electrical engineering and patent expert matters. Mr. Clarke was a

member of the National Conference of Elec- tricians, held in Philadelphia in 1884, and member of the Board of Examiners at the In- ternational Electrical Exhibition in Philadel- phia, the same year, serving on sections of the board, whose province was to pass upon dynamo-metrical measurements, steam en- gines, electrical conductors and underground conduits. He was also a member of the In- ternational Electrical Congress, held in con- nection with the World's Columbian Exposi- tion, at Chicago, in 1893. He has been a mem- ber of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers since November 2, 1882, and at present is a member of its library committee .. He is a charter member of the American In- stitute of Electrical Engineers, his connecting therewith as associate member dating from April 15, 1884, and as member from January 6, 1885; he has served on its board of man- agers and board of examiners, was chairman of its editing committee, and at present is chairman of the Edison Medal Committee, which awards the gold Edison Medal for "Meritorious Achievement" in electrical sci- ence, electrical engineering and the electrical arts. He is a member of the New York Electrical Society, New York Historical So- ciety, Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, Phi Beta Kappa Alumni of New York, and Bowdoin Alumni Associa- tion of New York. He is, however, domestic in tastes, and typical clublife is not to his liking. He is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church. In politics Mr. Clarke has always been a Republican, but has never been publicly active or held political office. He re- sides in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Mr. Clarke married (first) September 14, 1881, Helen Elizabeth Sparrow, born at Port- land, May 22, 1854, daughter of John and Helen (Stoddard) Sparrow. They were di- vorced at Lincoln county, South Dakota, No- vember 6, 1893. They have one son, John Curtis Clarke, born at East Orange, New Jersey, August 4, 1886. Mr. Sparrow stood in the first rank in the old school of me- chanical engineers, who had, of course, to serve their time as apprentices in the machine- shop. For years he was manager of the old Portland Company Works, makers of marine engines, boilers and locomotives; later in life he was manager and part owner of the Eagle Sugar Refinery, where brown sugars were early made by the centrifugal process. He was one of the pioneers interested in the in- troduction of the beet sugar industry into America.

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Mr. Clarke married (second) September 20, 1894, at Hoboken, New Jersey, Henrietta Mary Augusta Willatowski, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They have two children, both born at Mt. Vernon, New York: Mary Willa- towski Clarke, born September 1, 1896, and Daniel Willatowski Clarke, born September 25, 1898. Mrs. Clarke was born December 7, 1875, at Kiel, the principal naval station first of Prussia and then of the German Empire; and with four sisters was brought by her widowed mother to the home of an uncle in Sioux Falls, sailing from Hamburg May 23, 1886, in the steamship "Westphalia," land- ing at Hoboken, New Jersey, June 6, and ar- riving at Sioux Falls on June 9th. Her, father, Robert Julius Willatowski, born February 22, 1834, at Putzig-bei-Danzig, was a chief en- gineer in the Royal Prussia and later Imperial German navy. His first service was with the military force, beginning October 10, 1855. He began service as engineer in the navy, July 15, 1859, and received his warrant as chief engineer December 1, 1864. Because of disability, by order of the Admiralty, dated October II, 1879, he was retired October 31, after twenty years' continuous naval service. He served on the warships "Arcona," "Ari- adne," "Basilisk," "Elizabeth," "Medusa" and "Vineta"; and was on the "Basilisk" in the sea-fight off Helgoland, May 9, 1864, between the Prussian and Danish navies, where the latter was defeated. He was at one time chief engineer of the Imperial yacht "Hohenzollern," in the reign of Emperor William I. He re- ceived several decorations for distinguished services and bravery. After retiring from the navy he became superintendent of the Neu- werk salt-works at Werl, province of West- phalia, where he died, February 26, 1884, and his remains are buried. Mrs. Clarke's mother, Marie (Heynsohn) Willatowski, comes from ancestry who have lived for generations in Cuxhaven, Germany, at the mouth of the river Elbe, where she was born December 30, 1846. She is now living at Moscow, Idaho.

The accompanying portrait of Mr. Clarke is from a photograph taken April 16, 1903, the fiftieth anniversary of his birth.

The Woodburys originated WOODBURY in southern Devon, Eng- land, and the name has been a very common one in that locality for at least eight centuries. The New England Woodburys are the posterity of John and William Woodbury, brothers, who came from Somersetshire and were among the original

settlers of Salem and Beverly, Massachusetts. Those of the name now residing in Saco are descended from William. John Woodbury, known in local history as the "old planter," emigrated about the year 1624, setted first at Salem and still later in Beverly, where he died in 1644., He was one of the most promi- nent men in the colony, serving as deputy to the general court, and he was among the original members of the Frist Church in Sa- lem. William Woodbury was married at South Petherton, Somersetshire, on the Devon border, January 29, 1616, to Elizabeth Patch, and three of their sons were baptized at Burlescombe, a parish of Devon. About the year 1630 he came to Massachusetts, accom- panied by his family, and joining his brother at Salem, they settled in Beverly upon lands granted them in the immediate vicinity of what is now known as Woodbury's Point. William Woodbury died in Beverly, January 29, 1677, at the age of about eighty-eight years. In his will he mentions his wife Eliza- beth, sons Nicholas, William, Andrew and Hugh, and one daughter, Hannah Haskell.

(I) Captain William Woodbury, a descend- ant of William and Elizabeth (Patch) Wood- bury, is mentioned in the records as William 4, which would indicate that he was a great- grandson of the immigrant. He was a native of Beverly and a shipmaster. During the revolutionary war he commanded a privateer, was captured by the British and held a pris- oner at Halifax for one year. He was noted for his courage and good seamanship. In 1796 he abandoned the sea and, settling in Bridgton, Maine, lived to an advanced age. February 26, 1772, he married Susannah Byles, born November 27, 1753, daughter of Nicholas and Susannah Byles. She bore him two children, Andrew and Susan. The latter, who was born January 12, 1788, became the wife of Benjamin Cleaves and was the grand- mother of Hon. Henry B. Cleaves, late gov- ernor of Maine.

(II) Andrew, son of Captain William and Susannah Woodbury, was born in Beverly, March 18, 1776. When a young man he ac- companied his parents to Bridgton, and about the year 1800 settled in Sweden, Maine, erect- ing the first frame house in that town and becoming a very prosperous farmer. He died in 1858. In 1798 he married Sally Stevens, born in Andover, Massachusetts, 1778, daugh- ter of James Stevens, who at one time owned the entire township of Bridgton. Mrs. Sally Woodbury died at Sweden in 1860. She was the mother of ten children, the last survivor of

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whom, Judge Enoch Woodbury, of Bethel, was living in 1898. The others were: Sally, Susan, Andrew, Martha, Aaron, Esther, Will- iam, Lucy Ann and Harriet.

(III) Aaron, son of Andrew and Sally (Stevens) Woodbury, was born in Sweden. He resided in his native town and died there. He married Sarah and his children were: Roliston, Lincoln, Clinton, Edward, Hattie, Kate and Sarah.

(IV) Roliston, son of Aaron and Sarah Woodbury, was born in Sweden, December, 1838. From the Bridgton Academy he en- tered Bowdoin College, but suspended his studies at the commencement of the great civil strife of 1861-65 in order to enlist in the Fifth Maine Battery, and he served until the close of the war. Instead of returning to Bowdoin he went to the State Normal school at Farm- ington, where after graduating he was re- tained as an instructor, and became assistant principal of that well-known institution. In 1878 he was chosen principal of the State Normal school at Castine, and he continued to serve in that capacity for the remainder of his life, which terminated November 1, 1888. As an educator and as a school director he possessed superabundant qualifications, and his untimely death cut short the usefulness of one of the most efficient preparatory teachers in the state. In politics he acted with the Re- publican party. He was a member of the Con- gregational church, and actively interested in religious work. He was made a Master Mason in the Blue Lodge at Farmington. Bowdoin College conferred upon him the hon- orary degree of Master of Arts. Mr. Wood- bury married, first, Nellie Lovejoy, daughter of Jacob Lovejoy, of Albany, Maine. He married, second, Maria Billings, of Fayette, Maine. He reared three sons: I. Ernest Roliston, see forward. 2. Nelson Lovejoy, now a clerk in the auditing department of the Maine Central railroad. 3. William Billings, graduate of Deering high school and Bowdoin College ; taught at Bucksport (Maine) Semi- nary; principal of Pittsford (Vermont) high school; Hanover (New Hampshire) high school; Farmington (New Hampshire) high school; now principal of the York (Maine) high school.

(V) Professor Ernest Roliston, son of Rolis- ton and Maria ( Billings) Woodbury, was born in Farmington, July 3, 1871. He pursued his preliminary studies in the public schools of Castine, was graduated from the State Normal school in that town in 1889, concluded his collegiate preparations at the Deering (Maine)

high school in 1891, and took his bachelor's degree at Bowdoin with the class of 1895. Being thus well equipped for educational work, he accepted the position of principal of the Fryeburg Academy, which he retained for five years, and in 1900 was called to the Kim- ball Union Academy at Meriden, New Hamp- shire, in a similar capacity, remaining there for a like period. From 1905 to the present time he has been principal of Thornton Acad- emy, Saco. While residing in Meriden he served upon the school board, and also as town auditor. In politics he is a Republican. He is well advanced in the Masonic order, affiliating with Saco Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; York Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Maine Council, Royal and Select Masters, and Bradford Commandery, Knights Templar. He is also a member of the Theta Delta Chi fra- ternity of Bowdoin College. He is a member of the Congregational church.

On August 8, 1898, Professor Woodbury married Fanny Louise Gibson, born in North Conway, New Hampshire, August 21, 1878, daughter of James Lewis and Addie W. (Dow) Gibson (see Gibson, IX). Professor and Mrs. Woodbury have three children : Roliston Gibson, born April 19, 1899. Wen- dell De Witt, August 22, 1901. Dorothea, February, 1903.

GIBSON It has not as yet been definitely determined whether the mother country of the Gibsons was England or Scotland. John Gibson, immi- grant, appeared in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shortly after its settlement. As there is no rec- ord of his arrival in the colony it is impossible to ascertain from whence he came, but as the Scotch did not begin to emigrate as early as the English, it is quite probable that his former home was in England.

(I) John Gibson, born about 1601, probably in England, was in 1634 granted six acres of land in Cambridge (then Newtowne), and he was admitted a freeman there in 1637. If he came to New England with the Rev. Thomas Hooker, as has been supposed, he did not accompany that religious leader to Hartford, as he became a member of the First Church in Cambridge under the pastorship of the Rev. Thomas Shepard and in its early records is referred to as Goodman Gibson. His name is frequently mentioned in the early town rec- ords of Cambridge in a manner which shows that he was a man of prominence, and he died in 1694, aged ninety-three years, leaving for his descendants "as a legacy the escutcheon of

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an honest man." Ilis first wife, whose chris- tian name was Rebecca, died in 1661, and the following year he married Mrs. Jane Prentice, widow of Henry Prentice. His children were : Rebecca, Mary, Martha, John and Samuel.

(11) John (2), fourth child and eldest son of John (I) and Rebecca Gibson, born in Cambridge about 1641, died there October 15, 1679. He served in King Philip's war. In 1668 he married Rebecca Errington, daugh- ter of Abraham and Rebecca (Cutler) Er- rington ; she died in Cambridge, December 4, 1713. Their children were: Rebecca, Mar- tha, Mary and Timothy.

(III) Deacon Timothy, youngest child and only son of John (2) and Rebecca ( Erring- ton) Gibson, was born in Cambridge about 1679. His father died when he was an infant, and prior to his majority he went to reside in Stow, Massachusetts. He later spent some time in Sudbury, but returned to Stow and owned a farm in that part of the town which is now within the limits of Maynard. His death occurred in Stow, July 14, 1757. He married (first) at Concord, 1700, Rebecca Gates, born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, July 23, 1682, daughter of Stephen and Sarah (Woodward) Gates. She died January 21; 1754, and in the ensuing year he married ( sec- ond) Mrs. Submit Taylor, of Sudbury, who died in Stow, January 29, 1759. His children were : Abraham, Timothy, Rebecca, John, Sarah, Samuel, Stephen (died young), Er- rington, Stephen, Isaac, Mary and Reuben.

(IV) Captain Timothy (2), second child of Deacon Timothy (I) and Rebecca (Gates) Gibson, was born in Stow, January 20, 1702. When a young man ( 1725) he located in Groton, Massachusetts, but returned to Stow a few years later and resided there until 1774. In the latter year, when seventy-two years old, he removed to Henniker, New Hampshire, where he signed the "Association Test" in 1776, and he rendered financial aid to the cause of national independence. He died in Henni- ker, January 18, 1782. He married, Decem- ber 29, 1725, Persis Rice, born in Sudbury, January 10, 1706-07, daughter of Jonathan and Anne (Darby) Rice, granddaughter of Joseph and great-granddaughter of Deacon Edmund Rice, an immigrant from England who settled at Sudbury in 1639. Persis died in Henniker, March 22, 1781. She was the mother of nine children: Jonathan, Timothy (died young), Timothy, Persis, Lucy, Abel, John, Joseph and Jacob.

(V) Captain Timothy (3), third child of Captain Timothy (2) and Persis (Rice) Gib-

son, was born in Stow, December 17, 1738. During the French and Indian war, while in his minority, he enlisted in Captain Abijah Hall's company, Colonel Willard's regiment, which joined the expedition to Crown Point in 1759, and he served in the colonial army from May 9 of that'year to January 12, 1760, attain- ing the rank of sergeant. He was afterward known as Captain Gibson, although there is no record of his having been commissioned as such. Settling at Henniker in 1774, he be- came a prominent figure in local and state political affairs, serving as a delegate to the provincial congress held at Exeter in 1775 and also to the convention at Concord in 1788 for the formation of a state government, and in addition to these important services he was a member of the board of selectmen in Hen- niker and represented that town in the New Hampshire legislature. He signed the "As- sociation Test" in 1776 and assisted in pro- curing both money and recruits for the Conti- nental service. In 1798 he removed from Henniker to Brownfield, Maine, settling upon nine hundred acres of land on the west side of the Saco river, and his death occurred in that town January 16, 1814. He was mar- ried in 1773 to Margaret Whitman, born in Stow, January 14, 1755, daughter of "Zecha- riah" and Elizabeth (Gates) Whitman, and a descendant in the fifth generation of John Whitman, an English emigrant, who settled at Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1638, through "Zechariah" (2), John (3), and "Zechariah" (4). Margaret died in Brownfield, June 29, I838. The children of this union were : Martha, Jonathan, Daniel, Timothy, Zacha- riah, Henry, Polly, Robert, Abel, Margaret, Jane and Samuel.

(VI) Lieutenant Robert, sixth son and eighth child of Captain Timothy (3) and Mar- garet (Whitman) Gibson, was born in Hen- niker, August 22, 1787. He served in the second war with Great Britain (1812-15), attaining the rank of first lieutenant by pro- motion, and his commission as such in the Thirty-fourth Regiment United States In- fantry was signed December 27, 1814, by President Madison to date from August 13 of that year. After the close of the war he lo- cated in Bangor, Maine, where he died March 12, 1866. He married, February 12, 1815, Sarah Kast McHard Molineaux, daughter of Robert and Peggy McHard (Kast) Moli- neaux, of Boston, Massachusetts, and Hop- kinton, New Hampshire. Sarah died in Frye- burg, Maine, December 15, 1857. She became the mother of five children: Sarah M., Rob-

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ert M., Maria Emeline, James Molineaux and George Lafayette.

(VII) James Molineaux, second son and fourth child of Lieutenant Robert and Sarah K. M. (Molineaux) Gibson, was born in Brownfield, June 17, 1821. He was a well- known hotel keeper in the White Mountains, and from 1868 to 1878 was proprietor of the Washington House, at North Conway, New Hampshire, formerly carried on by Daniel Eastman, whose daughter he married. Re- moving to Butte county, California, he first carried on a lumber business at Cohasset, and was later engaged in the cultivation of fruit at Pine Creek. October 18, 1854, he married Martha L. Eastman, daughter of Daniel and Martha L. (Chadbourne) Eastman. She was born in North Conway, May 13, 1827. She bore him seven children: James Lewis, George Kast, Charles Edgar, Robert, Daniel Eastman, Helen Maria and Anna Molineaux.

(VIII) James Lewis, eldest child of James M. and Martha L. (Eastman) Gibson, was born in Fryeburg, December 2, 1855. He re- sided in North Conway. January 2, 1877, he married Addie W. Dow, born June 30, 1854, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Chase) Dow. The children of this union are : Fanny Louise, born North Conway, August 21, 1878, and Harvey Dow, born North Conway, March 15, 1882.

(IX) Fanny Louise, eldest child of James Lewis and Addie W. (Dow) Gibson, was married August 8, 1898, to Professor Ernest R. Woodbury, now of Saco (see Woodbury, V). She is a graduate of Fryeburg (Maine) Academy, 1896; attended Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, Massachusetts, 1896-97; Colby College, Waterville, Maine, 1897-98.

PINGREE The name Pingree, which means Green Pine, is an hon- ored one and is of French ori- gin; it was probably taken into England by a Huguenot refugee. Many of the name still reside in France. Alexander Guy Pingree was the discoverer of Pingree's comet, also court librarian ; a bust of him is in the Palace at Versailles. Aaron and Moses Pengry, as they spelled the name, were the first settlers of this cognomen in New England. In the records the name appears as Pengry, Pingry, Pingrew and Pingree.

(I) Moses Pingree, from England, was a freeman in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 164I. "1641, 12th day Ist mo. Barnabas Norton of Ipswich, baker, sold unto Moses Pengry six acres of land within the common fence, Rich-

ard Bisgood on the southeast. 1642 Novem- ber 25, John Tuttell, yeoman, sold to him land lately purchased of Richard Lumpkin, de- ceased. 1646, February 4, William Whitred sold to Moses Pengry, Saltmaker, a dwelling house and lot. Aug. 26, 1652, Richard Sco- field, leather dresser, sold Moses Pengry, yeo- man, a house and land for £17. Nov. 26, 1673, Jacob Foster sold Moses Pengry a half acre house lot on the corner of Summer and Water Sts. On the river bank near the spot now occupied by Glover's coal wharf, Deacon Moses Pengry had his salt pans and works for the manufacture of salt from sea water, as early as 1652. In 1673 he had a ship-yard on the river bank, and in 1676 Edward Ran- dolph wrote to Eng. that ship-building was an extensive industry in Ipswich. Moses also kept an ordinary and dispensed spirit. The records state that Deacon Moses Pengry was nominated as a suitable person, and received his license on Sept. 7, 1658." His name is on the list of voters December 2, 1679, and on "A list of the names of those p'sons that have right of comonage, according to law & order of the Towne," February 13, 1678. Febru- ary 7, 1667, Moses Pengry sold Benedict Pul- cifer "the house and orchard wherein Pulcifer dwells." In 1666 he was one of the signers of the "loyalist petition." Another petition addressed to the King was drawn up by the "Inhabitants of Gloucester, alias Cape Ann, and other places adjacent," and presented to the general court on February 16, 1682. They claimed rightful title to their lands upon the grant of the general court, under the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and their purchase from the natives. This was signed by representatives from Gloucester, Rowley, Newbury and other towns, and by fifteen Ips- wich men, one of whom was Moses Pengry, Sr. Deacon Pengry was selectman, 1661 ; representative, 1665; tithingman, 1677 ; select- man, 1678. He died January 2, 1695, aged eighty-six years. He married Abigail Clem- ent, daughter of the first Robert Clement. She came from London in 1642, and died January 16, 1676.

(II) Aaron, son of Moses and Abigail (Clement) Pingree, was born in 1652, moved to Rowley, 1696, and died there in 1697. He resided on High street, next to John Brown. He was a soldier in King Philip's war, and assigned his wages to Ipswich, but no time of service is specified in any extant records. He married Ann, daughter of John Pickard, of Rowley, who died February 20, 1716.

(III) Job, son of Aaron and Ann ( Pickard)

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Pingree, was born in Ipswich, October 17, 1688, and died April 25, 1785. He married (first) November 1, 1717, Elizabetlı Brockle- bank, who died February 12, 1747; (second) Dorothy Doad, of Topsfield; (third) Mrs. Elizabeth Platts.

(IV) Samuel Eliot, son of Job and Eliza- beth ( Brocklebank) Pingree, was born Janu- ary 12, 1719, and lived in Methuen, where he died at the age of thirty-five. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Ebenezer Carlton.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III, Part 38

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe Publication date: 1909 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 818

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 818