USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume IV > Part 121
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The names Fergus, Mac FERGUSON Fhearghusa, or Ferguson are all really the same. It is derived from fearguchus, meaning wrath- ful, an imperious temper, and implies a hero. The first to bear the name was Fergus, foun- der of the Scottish monarchy, A.D. 498. Clan Ferguson is admitted by historians to be the oldest in Scotland. The route of our Fer- guson to America was via Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia was granted to Sir William Alexander, a Scotchman of Clackmannamshire by James I by patent under the seal of Scotland, and was peopled by Scotch families.
(I) The first Ferguson of the line now un- der consideration was Alexander, who was born in Guysboro, Nova Scotia, and emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He married Priscilla Norris, of Chelsea, Vermont, and had a son Franklin T.
(II) Franklin Theophilus, son of Alexander and Priscilla (Norris) Ferguson, was born in
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Philadelphia in 1850. He was a salesman of soda fountains, and introduced the first soda fountain into Europe at the Vienna Exposi- tion, in April, 1873. He was a Republican in politics, and was clerk in the United States senate chamber in January, 1873, and the same year was appointed consul to Cape De Verde Islands. He married Mary Elizabeth, daugh- ter of James Hewitt, of Nova Scotia. Chil- dren : I. Valerie E., born at Vienna, Austria, and named for the Queen; she married Wil- liam Hopkins, a prominent civil engineer of New York, who had charge of the Boston ele- vated railway and the Boston subway. 2. Edith, who died young. 3. Franklin Archie. Mr. Ferguson died in Boston at the early age of twenty-eight.
(III) Franklin Archie, only son of Frank- lin T. and Mary E. (Hewitt) Ferguson, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, April 2, 1876. He was educated in the city schools of Bos- ton, taking a special course in the Boston Uni- versity Liberal Arts School. Supplementing this liberal training with a professional course in medicine at Boston University, at the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital in Bos- ton, and at the Trull Hospital at Biddeford, Maine, he came to Bath in 1904, and suc- ceeded Dr. Percy W. Roberts. Dr. Ferguson is a member of the American Institution of Homeopathy, the Massachusetts State So- ciety, the Maine State Society, the York and Cumberland County Medical Society, and the Hahnemann Medical Society. In college he be- longed to Alpha Sigma fraternity. He is pros- perous in his profession, very agreeable and companionable, his practice extending over a wide district, and is frequently called into con- sultation by his brother practitioners. He married Maude Cutler, daughter of William P. Faulkner, Hyde Park, Massachusetts, De- cember 19, 1905. Children : Priscilla and Franklin Faulkner.
There is a tradition that the BECKLER American ancestor of the Beckler family of the line proposed to be treated in this place was one of two brothers who came from Germany sometime during the early part of the eigh- teenth century and settled in one of the New England colonies. There is no reason to .question the accuracy of this belief, and the fact that none of the published genealogical references gives an account of the settlement of the ancestor does not disprove the tradi- tion nor affect its creditability in any respect ; but in the absence of any reliable account of
the family in its earlier generations this nar- rative must begin with Philip C. Beckler, whose father is supposed to have come from Massachusetts and settled in Waterboro, Maine, about the time of or soon after the revolutionary war, in which he participated.
(I) Philip C. Beckler was born in Water- boro, Maine, Novembe 22, 1796, died in Leeds, Maine, September 25, 1870. He mar- ried (first) Fanny Otis, born April 25, 1803, died May 9, 1840. Children : Amos Otis, Charles M., Cynthia O., Albion P., Daniel W., George W., Otis O., Frank M .; he married (second) Betsey L. Norris, born December 4, 1808, died January 27, 1885; children: Eliza- beth N., William N., John W., Mary E., Sa- rah A. Four of the brothers were in the civil war: Albion P., Frank M., William N. and John W.
(II) Amos Otis, son of Philip C. and Fanny (Otis) Beckler, was born in New- castle, Maine, March 23, 1823, died July 12, 1889. At an early age his parents settled in Livermore, Maine, where he attended school and worked at farming. From the age of fourteen until twenty-one he worked on a farm at Livermore Centre, Maine, which he afterwards bought and it still remains in the Beckler family. A few years later renting his farm, he removed to Boston, where for many years he was engaged as contracting teamster for the Metropolitan Railroad Com- pany. He married Betsey H. Austin, born March 5, 1824, died September 22, 1902, daughter of John Austin. Children: I. Mary Elizabeth, born September 9, 1845, died No- vember 26, 1907. 2. Martha Loella, born De- cember 18, 1847, who graduated from the Girls' High and Normal School, Boston, in 1867, and taught in that city for seventeen years. 3. Cynthia Maria, born August 29, 1850, also a graduate of the same school in 1869 and taught in Boston until married in 1874. 4. Susan Frances, born January 8, 1852, died February 15, 1903. 5. Elbridge Harlow, born October 16, 1854, see forward. 6. Warren Bigelow, born August 3, 1857. 7. Seth Hayden, born November 5, 1859. 8. Amos Frank, born June 14, 1862, died in in- fancy. 9. Herbert Otis, born March 10, 1865, died in infancy.
(III) Elbridge Harlow, son of Amos Otis and Betsey H. (Austin) Beckler, was born October 16, 1854, died August 26, 1908. While attending Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill, in 1873, he was attracted to the use of surveying instruments by participating in some land surveys undertaken by Professor
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Chase, who was his instructor in mathematics. Selecting the Maine State College as the best institution for the pursuit of this study, he made application for admission in the fall of 1874, and being well advanced in that study was admitted to the junior class at Orono and began at once the study of engineering, grad- uating in 1876 with good standing, for the four years' course, receiving the degree of Civil Engineer. Early in the spring of 1877, after spending some months in teaching, he left the homestead at Livermore Centre, seek- ing a position on railroad construction in Min- nesota. Owing to the slow recovery of busi- ness from the panic of 1873, the following two years were passed with a variety of occu- pations, teaching, farming, surveying and map making. In 1879 he secured employment with the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railway as transitman and assistant engineer, near Fergus Falls, Minnesota. From 1880 to 1885 inclusive, he was employed by the North- ern Pacific Railroad Company, starting out from St. Paul in April to begin surveys, where Glendive, Montana, is now located on the Yellowstone river. The end of the track was sixty miles west of Mandan, North Da- kota, and with nine wagons and thirty-two men they followed the Custer trail of 1876, much of the way in the Yellowstone river, a distance of about two hundred miles. It was then a wild country, and the trip necessitated some hardships, accompanied with possible dangers. Mr. Beckler was fortunately placed under the direction of a very capable division engineer, Mr. T. J. Dodge, and his limited knowledge of railway location was developed to a degree far ahead of the training obtained at college, and at the closing of the surveys about four hundred miles of the railroad had been laid out. Pro- motions came quite rapidly, and before the completion of the Northern Pacific road in 1883 he was in charge of some forty miles of the heaviest construction work, including a tunnel at Bozeman Pass thirty-six hundred and ten feet in length. During this period the construction of an important bridge about six thousand feet in length, making entrance into Duluth, Minnesota, by the Northern Pacific and other roads from Wisconsin across St. Louis Bay, was assigned to his care. He also spent six months in 1884 on the Canadian Pa- cific railway location and construction along the Kicking Horse river, just west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains. In 1886 he undertook making the location for the Mon- tana Central railway, which was the starting
of the Great Northern extension to the Pacific coast. In, 1889 he was appointed chief en- gineer of the work of building to the coast, the work including surveys, construction and operation. There were about one thousand miles of road to build through all the moun- tains from Central Montana to Puget Sound. The work embraced much heavy road cutting, high trestle bridges, long steel spans, and many tunnels. The character of the work is disclosed in the fact that at the present time the road is mentioned as the model for easy grades and curves, and scientific railway con- struction; its adjustment to the country tra- versed having never been equaled. This work closed with the year 1892, and the following year Mr. Beckler moved to Chicago, after having had fourteen years of constant active engineering work, and has since made his res- idence there. After a brief period of rest he engaged with Winston Brothers, railroad con- tractors, and in 1902 a company was incor- porated at Minneapolis, Minnesota, known as Winston Brothers Company, of which Mr. Beckler was a member. The work consists of the building of railways by contract in all parts of the country. Up to the present time the work has carried them into twenty-two states, and they are now engaged in building the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, the fourth of the so-called trans-continental railroads with which Mr. Beckler assisted. Elbridge H. Beckler married, in February, 1880, Mera Rogers, of Richmond, Maine, who bore him four children, three daughters, one of whom is deceased, and a son, also de- ceased.
(III) Warren Bigelow, M.D., son of Amos Otis and Betsey H. (Austin) Beckler, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 3, 1857. His parents returned to Livermore, Maine, soon after his birth, and there he ac- quired his early education, attending the pub- lic schools and Kent's Hill Seminary, where he completed seven terms, intending to enter the University of Maine, where his brother graduated. Tiring of school routine, he worked at home on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, when he went to Boston and entered the employ of an uncle as a bookkeeper. Shortly after this his brother, Elbridge H., then working for the Northern Pacific railroad as transitman, arranged for him to come west and take a position with the same company as leveler, during the season of 1880. In 1881 he was transitman on the Rocky Mountain division and in 1882-83 was assistant engineer in charge of construction.
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In July, 1883, Warren B. Beckler returned to Livermore, and in December of that year went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he, in company with A. T. Pollard, purchased the stock and became proprietors of a drug store at the corner of Eleventh and Locust streets, at the same time pursuing a course at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, from which institution he received his degree of Ph. G. He at once entered Jefferson Med- ical College, still continuing his duties at the drug store, and after a two years' course graduated with the degree of M. D. In 1890 he sold his drug store and again went west, this time to Helena, Montana, as a member of a contracting firm furnishing medical attend- ance to the employees of the Great Northern railroad. In March, 1893, on the completion of the road, he returned to his old home in Livermore, Maine, by way of California, at- tending the World's Fair at Chicago en route. In June, 1894, he located in Auburn and there practiced his profession, remaining to the present time. He is a member of An- droscoggin County Medical Society, Inde- pendent in politics, and prominent in Masonic circles, having taken all the degrees up to and including the thirty-second. Dr. Beckler married, September 30, 1885, in Livermore, Maine, Carrie Emmelia, born March 22, 1860, daughter of William and Cordelia (Kimball) Pollard, and a descendant from William Pol- lard through Thomas, William, Oliver, Oliver, Stephen and William Pollard, and also from the celebrated colonist, John Alden, who mar- ried Priscilla Mullin, through John Bass, Deacon Samuel Bass, Captain Jonathan Bass, Susanna Bass, and Dr. Luther Cary, who married in 1782 Abigail King, and to whom was born Emmelia Cary, who married Ste- phen Pollard. Children of Dr. and Mrs. Beckler: I. Martha C., born June 16, 1886, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 2. Marian, March 9, 1890, in Philadelphia, died August 5, 1891. 3. Warren B., Jr., Auburn, Maine, February 17, 1895.
(III) Seth Hayden, son of Amos Otis and Betsey H. (Austin) Beckler, was born in Livermore, Maine, November 5, 1859. He was educated in the district and high schools of the town, and after the age of twenty-one passed several years in Auburn, Maine, Min- liesota and Montana. He returned to the old homestead farm at Livermore Centre, Maine, in 1888, where he has since resided. He mar- ried Nellie M. True, in 1890, and has a son, Earle Harlow.
(For first generation see Walter Merriman. I.) (II) James, youngest son MERRIMAN of Walter and Elizabeth (Porter) Merryman, was born in 1756, in Harpswell, Maine, and died August 4, 1825, in that town, where he re- sided. For many years he was a seafaring man, and later in life settled upon a farm. He married, December 4, 1777, Hannah Blake, born 1757, in Harpswell, died April 24, 1821, daughter of Jacob and Jenny (Weber) Blake, the last named a daughter of Waitstill and Meribah (Hodges) Weber. Children : John, Hannah, Molly, William, Fanny Mercy, Lydia and Jacob.
(III) John, eldest child of James and Han- nah (Blake) Merriman, was born January 29, 1780, in Harpswell, and resided in that town through life, dying May 28, 1857. He fol- lowed the sea many years, and was captain of a one hundred and twenty ton vessel engaged in the coasting and West Indies trade. This was a large vessel for that day. He was a Congregationalist in religion, and in politics a Whig; but having devoted most of his life to navigation, he took little part in local affairs. He married, December 27, 1804, Elizabeth Stover, born October 2, 1784, died February 29, 1852, in Harpswell, daughter of Alcott and Elizabeth (Allen) Stover of that town. Children : William Asenath, Isaac, George, Abigail, Nathaniel, Alcott Stover, and Albion.
(IV) Alcott Stover, fifth son of John and Elizabeth (Stover) Merriman, was born April 4, 1822, in Harpswell, and died there October 16, 1865. He received the ordinary educa- tion afforded by the public schools of his home town, and early in life went to sea. He con- tinued upon the ocean until the age of forty years, when he went into partnership with his cousin, Sylvester Stover, in building ships. While on the sea he commanded some large vessels, including the "Columbia of the Celes- tial Breeze." Messrs. Merriman and Stover were the first in Maine to build vessels with round stems. At the outbreak of the civil war they had just completed a vessel, and three days after it left port it was captured by the Confederate frigate "Alabama," and burned just outside of Portland harbor. The peculiar circumstance in connection with this was the dream of the negro cook employed on the vessel. The night before it sailed he saw in a vision its capture, and refused to embark. Another vessel in the yard was partially com- pleted at this time and the work upon it was abandoned, owing to the difficulty of securing
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help. Ship carpenters at that time received one dollar per day, and when the vessel was completed at the close of the war, the carpen- ters received a wage of three dollars per day. Mr. Merriman was one of the most promi- nent men of the town of Harpswell. Besides shipbuilding he conducted a general store, and was for many years postmaster. He held most of the principal town offices, and if he felt that he could not give the time to the ful- fillment of the duties of any office, he named the man whom he thought suitable for the po- sition, and his judgment was invariably ap- proved by the electors. He was an enthusiastic Republican, and a staunch member of the Baptist church. He married, November II, 1851, Sarah Jane Curtiss, born April 27, 1830, died December 22, 18-, daughter of Peleg and Jeanette (Jordan) Curtiss. Children : Polly Sprague, Alcott James, John A., and Washingon Irvine.
(V) John A., third son of Alcott S. and Sarah J. (Curtiss) Merriman, was born March 16, 1855, in Harpswell, and was edu- cated in the common school and academy of his native town; also attended the city schools of Portland one year. Soon after attaining man's estate he bought out a general store at Harpswell Center, which he conducted. A year subsequent to this he pursued a special course of study at Bowdoin College, and sub- sequently went to New York, where he was employed as private secretary by W. H. Par- sons, who was at that time one of the largest paper and pulp mill operators in the country. For about twelve years Mr. Merriman contin- ued this engagement, and during the greater part of the time he was manager of the pulp and paper mill at Saugerties, New York, later going to Lisbon, Maine. Rising from this service, he organized with the Jay Paper Com- pany of that town, which he managed for six years. At the end of this time he took up the study of law and was admitted to the Franklin county bar in 1892, and to practice in the United States courts in the succeeding year. He was later admitted to the Andros- coggin bar, and engaged in practice in that county, being now located at Livermore. Mr. Merriman has taken an active part in the po- litical movements of the county, acting with the Republican party, by which he was elected as representative to the last legislature, and is now ( 1908) its nominee for re-election. He is interested in several local institutions, and is active in furthering the interests of the county and his home state, in every proper
direction. He is a member of Farmington Lodge, F. and A. M., and of the local chap- ter of the same fraternity. He is a Methodist in religion. . Mr. Merriman married, Febru- ary 23, 1884, Lydia Augusta, daughter of Jacob Henry and Mary J. (Weber)' Merri- man (q. v.) She was born December 22, 1857, in Harpswell.
(III) Jacob, youngest child of James and Hannah (Blake) Merriman, was born Sep- tember 20, 1793, in Harpswell, where he died July 29, 1866. He married Elizabeth Clark, born in February, 1793, and died July 12, 1883, in Harpswell, daughter of Josiah and Marian (Rodrick) Clark. Their children were: Simon, Charles, Hannah, Lydia, Lu- cinda, Captain Josiah Clark, Jacob Henry and Mercy Ellen.
(IV) Jacob Henry, fourth son of Jacob and Elizabeth Clark Merriman, was born Decem- ber 25, 1832, and died December 25, 1899, in Harpswell, where he was a farmer and a blacksmith. He married (first) May 15, 1855, Mary Jane Weber, born October 18, 1831, died August 7, 1875, daughter of Phineas and Lydia A. (Beals) Weber; (second) January 21, 1883, to Matilda Allen, March 9, 1846, daughter of Elisha Allen. Children of first wife: Frank, Ernest, Lydia Augusta, Mary Ellen, Susy E. and Kate D. There was one daughter of the second wife :
(V) Lydia Augusta, eldest daughter of Jacob Henry and Mary J. (Weber) Merri- man, was born December 2/2, 1857, in Harps- well, and was there married, February 24, 1884, to John A. Merriman, of Harpswell. (See Merriman V.)
The first record of which RUNDLETT we have knowledge of a person of this name in America is that of Charles Runlet, who ap- pears among the early settlers of Exeter, New Hampshire, in the year 1675. The name has been variously spelled Runlet, Rundlet, Rand- let and Rundlett. There is a well settled tra- dition in the Maine branch of the family that the Rundletts were French Huguenots who crossed from Lyons, France, about 1590, and after a sojourn in the south of England some thirty-three years landed at Rye, New Hamp- shire, in 1623. The genealogy of the Rund- lett family in the archives of the New Eng- land Historic-Genealogical Society gives a de- tailed account of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire branches of this family. Na- thaniel Rundlett, grandson of Charles, was
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born in Exeter, New Hampshire, about 1712, and settled in Wiscasset (Pownalboro), Maine, in 1734. He married Mary Mitchell, of Falmouth, in 1737, and from this pair are descended the Maine branch of the Rundlett family that has attained to so much distinc- tion in the state. Two of Nathaniel's sons, Charles and Nathaniel Jr., became large land owners and prominent in the affairs of the town of Wiscasset. They were zealous patri- ots, and were in attendance at town meetings, even before the Declaration of Independence, in support of resolutions which might have cost them their heads or their liberty had the cause of the colonists failed of its fulfillment.
Nathaniel Rundlett Jr. served two enlist- ments in the revolutionary war, and was of the expedition against "Bragaduc." His name appears upon the roll of Massachusetts soldiers at the State House.
With the rise of shipbuilding on the Maine coast the fortunes of this family are particu- larly identified and many a famous ship was launched from its yards. Oakes Rundlett Sr., grandson of Nathaniel, settled at Sheepscot- bridge, and either alone or in company with others built upwards of eighteen sail of ves- sel for the foreign trade. He carried on large operations in lumber in addition to his ship- building. He was famous for his open- handed hospitality, and his large colonial man- sion was seldom without a guest. The dis- tinguished men of the state who visited that section and the representatives of the Mas- sachusetts general court, whose official duties took them into Maine, all found gracious wel- come at this country seat and frequently pro-
longed their stay beyond the demands of their business.
Of his sons, Warren and Oakes inherited the ability of their father. Warren graduated at Bowdoin, and was easily the leader of the Lincoln county bar, when that county em- braced, in addition to its present confines, the counties of Kennebec, Sagadahoc and Knox. Warren Rundlett was a rare wit, and the stories of the days when he rode the circuit still linger in the traditions of court and tav- ern. Oakes Rundlett Jr. settled in Wiscasset, married Mary Tuckerof, that place, and was engaged in shipbuilding.
Captain Gustavus Rundlett, the youngest son, served in the Fourth Maine Regiment during the civil war.
Of Oakes Rundlett's daughters, Nancy married Robert Murray Jr., Clara married Dr. John T. Achorn, Abby married Isaac Jack- son of Plymouth.
Of the present generation of the descend- ants of Oakes Rundlett, Leonard, son of War- ren Rundlett, graduated at Bowdoin, and has been for many years the superintendent of public works of the city of St. Paul. Isaac M. Jackson, son of Abby Rundlett Jackson, is a graduate of Yale, a lawyer, and a resident of Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Dr. John W. Achorn and Edgar O. Achorn Esq., both of Boston, are sons of Clara Rund- lett Achorn, elsewhere mentioned in these col- umns. (See Achorn.)
Captain Richard Rundlett, of Wiscasset, son of Oakes Jr., after retiring from the sea, sat in the Maine senate, and was collector of the port.
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