Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume IV, Part 35

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: 896

USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume IV > Part 35

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City, and in that time organized no less than two hundred and six posts and signed as many charters with his official signature; among these was the celebrated Ransom Post of St. Louis, which had the honor of General Sher- man as commander. The various posts or- ganized by Major Pease comprise a member- ship of over six thousand, and during the years that he was engaged in this work he traveled over fifty thousand miles and sent out over one hundred thousand letters. He was the first man to bear the title of assistant adjutant general of the state of Missouri, and posssibly no man now living has done a greater amount of work in Grand Army of the Republic cir- cles. He is now a member of Post No. 113, of Boston, and has just been elected and in- stalled senior vice-commander of this post. Major Pease married, January 29, 1903, Eliza- beth, daughter of John and Rachel ( McLean) Carroll, of Springfield, Massachusetts.

FIELD This name is an ancient and hon- orable one in England, and can be traced far back of the Conquest. Probably not a dozen families in England can prove so high an antiquity. It was anciently written De la Field or De la Feld, but about the middle of the fourteenth century the spell- ing was changed to Field, or, in some cases, Feild. There is a statement in Symonds' diary that he saw the arms of the Field fam- ily on monuments of knights in Madely church, which were of the thirteenth century. They were: Sable, three garbs argent. These arms, differenced by a chevron, were confirmed to John Field at East Ardsley, in the manor of Wakefield, 1558. They are now on an old house at Crofton, where several of the same family resided in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

(I) Roger del Field was born at Sowerby, England, about 1240. He was descended from Sur Hubertus De la Feld, and the head of the family which settled in counties Lancaster and Kent, England. Children: I. Richard, born about 1276. 2. Thomas, mentioned be- low.

(II) Thomas, son of Roger del Field, was born at Sowerby, about 1278. He was a juror at Sowerby in 1307. He was named in the Wakefield rolls in 1314 and 1322, when he was at Halifax Court. Children: I. John, mentioned below. 2. Adam.

(III) John del Feld, son of Thomas, was born at Sowerby, in 1300. He was named in the Wakefield rolls in 1326-34-36, when he

had land at Sowerby. He had one child, Thomas, mentioned below.

(IV) Thomas, son of John del Feld, was born at Sowerby, in 1330. He married Anna- belle He was a prominent man, his name occurring frequently in the rolls in posi- tions of trust. He had one child, Thomas, mentioned below.

(V) Thomas, son of Thomas del Feld, was born at Sowerby, in 1360. He married Isa- bel -. On March 12, 1429, "Thomas Del Felde de Bolton" made his will, bequeathing to his wife Isabel all his land and tenants "in villa and tertory de Bynglay" for life, the re- mainder to his heirs. He died in 1429. Chil- dren: I. Robert. 2. William, mentioned be- low.

(VI) William Feld, son of Thomas, was born possibly at Bradford, England. He mar- ried Katherine Letters of adminis- tration were granted his widow April 21, 1480. He resided in the parish of Bradford, Eng- land. Children: I. William, mentioned be- low. 2. John.

(VII) William, son of William Feld, was born at Bradford, England, and resided at East Ardsley, England. Children: I. Rich- ard, married Elizabeth 2. Thomas. 3. John, mentioned below.

(VIII) Rev. John Field, son of William Field, was born near Bradford, England, about 1519. He was rector of Cripplesgate, and the author of "A Godly Exhortation by Occasion of the Late Judgment of God Showed at Paris Garden 13 Jan. 1583," a violent at- tack upon theatrical entertainments. He died March 26, 1587-88. Children : I. Theophilus, born January 22, 1574; married Alice

2. John Jr., mentioned below. 3. Nathaniel, born June 13, 1581 ; died young. 4. Nathan- iel, born October 17, 1587; married Anne

(IX) John Field Jr., son of Rev. John Field, was born in Parish St. Giles, London, Eng- land, about 1579. He married, in Boston, England, August 13, 1609, Ellen Hutchinson, and resided there. He died in England. Children: I. Darby, mentioned below. (See Field Genealogy.) 2. Robert, born about 1613; married Mary Stanley. 3. Henry, born about 1611. 4. Richard.

(I) Darby Field, son of John Field, tenth in the English line, and first of his family in America, was born in Boston, England, about 1610. He was called by Winthrop "an Irishman," but tradition says he was born in England, the brother of Robert, son of John

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Field. He came to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1636, and for a short time was with his brother Robert. In 1638 he removed to Exe- ter, New Hampshire, and in 1648 to Dover, where he died in 1649. He was the first Eu- ropean to ascend the White Mountains, which he did with two Indians in 1642. The as- cent occupied eighteen days, and he saw, he said, "more marvelous things than ever any one has seen since." He was one of the earl- iest signers of the Exeter Combination. He was living in 1644 at Oyster River (Durham), New Hampshire, where he was licensed to sell wine. Ambrose Gibbons was appointed ad- ministrator of his estate August 1, 1651, and the widow of Darby Field was taxed at Oys- ter River in 1650. Children: I. Joseph, taxed at Oyster River. 2. Zachariah, mentioned be- low. 3. Sarah. 4. Elizabeth, married January 28, 1663, Stephen Jones, of Dover. 5. Mary, born about 1631 ; married July 15, 1656, Cap- tain John Woodman.

(II) Lieutenant Zachariah, son of Darby Field, was born at Oyster River, and died there before 1716, probably about 1709. He resided at Oyster River. He married there Hannah, daughter of Robert and Ann (Col- cord) Evans. Her mother was daughter of Edward and Ann ( Wadd) Colcord, of Exeter and Hampton, New Hampshire. Hannah Field married (second), Richard Hussey. Children : I. Daniel, born August 9, 1690. 2. Zachary, mentioned below. 3. Stephen, mar- ried Mary King.

(III) Lieutenant Zachary, son of Lieutenant Zachariah Field, was born at Oyster River, January 30, 1686. He received from his father land and dwelling house lying east of the road from Bellamy to Oyster River, and west of John Drew's land. He resided there and died before 1737. He built Field's gar- rison at Oyster River, in 1707, and was a lieutenant. He married Sarah Chil- dren: I. Daniel, born February 17, 1709; married Sarah Haynes. 2. Zacharias, men- tioned below.

(IV) Zacharias, son of Lieutenant Zachary Field, was born at Oyster River, August 9, 1712, and died in 1803. He married, in Fal- mouth, November 9, 1738, Mary Wilson, born August 7, 1718. He resided in Falmouth. Children: I. Daniel, born April 24, 1739; married Lucy Ingersoll. 2. Betty, born May 27, 1741; married October 24, 1762, John Crandal. 3. Zachariah, born June 3, 1743. 4. Obadiah, born July 16, 1745; mentioned below. 5. Joseph, born August 9, 1747. 6. Molly, born December 27, 1749. 7. Benja-

min, born March 5, 1752; died May, 1752. 8. Benjamin, born May 8, 1754 ; married Han- nah Hanson. 9. Lydia, born February 15, 1759. 10. Stephen, born February 15, 1759 (twin).

(V) Obadiah, son of Zacharias Field, was born at Falmouth, Maine, July 16, 1745, and resided there. He married Rachel Harris. Children : I. Amos, married Nancy Hart. 2. Rachel, married, and removed to Ohio. 3. Simeon, married Susan Marston. 4. Zach- ariah, mentioned below.

(VI) Zachariah, son of Obadiah Field, was born at Falmouth, Maine. He resided in Cumberland, Maine, and married there Tabi- tha Lunt, who died there aged eighty. He died aged seventy-six. Children: I. Josiah. 2. Benjamin. 3. Zachariah. 4. Joshua. 5. Jacob. 6. Obadiah. 7. James. 8. Joseph. 9. John, mentioned below.

(VII) John, son of Zachariah Field, was born in Cumberland, Maine, in 1801. He re- moved to St. Albans, Maine, where he cleared a hundred acre farm. He was a Universalist in religion, and a Whig in politics. He died in St. Albans, November 1, 1881, aged eighty years. He married, in Cumberland, Eliza Baker, who died October 1I, 1867, aged sixty- seven years. Children : I. Huldah, born 1812. 2. Zachariah. 3. Josiah, born 1823, died in California, in 1897. 4. Hannah B., born 1824; died 1893. 5. Harriet E., born 1828. 6. El- len, born 1830. 7. John Lunt, mentioned be- low. 8. Caroline. 9. Emily. 10. William.

(VIII) John Lunt, son of John Field, was born in China, Maine, June 7, 1826, and died May 19, 1906, in St. Albans, Maine. He was educated in the public schools of his native town. He worked at farming during his boy- hood. In connection with his farming pur- suits he worked on the construction of the old Aroostook county turnpike. After he re- tired from his business, except farming, he en- gaged in the fire insurance and patent solicit- ing business, in which he continued to the time of his death. In politics Mr. Field was a Republican until the time of the Greenback movement, then of the Greenback and Demo- cratic parties until 1902, when he voted for the re-election of President Roosevelt. He was selectman, collector of taxes, and town treas- urer twenty years in St. Albans. He attended the Universalist church, and was a member of Corinthian Lodge of Free Masons, of Hart- land, and past master of the lodge ; also mem- ber of St. Albans Grange, No. 114, Patrons of Husbandry. He married Sarah Webber Farn- ham, born December 13, 1831, at Sidney,

Non, John. L. Fortier M.D.

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daughter of Simon and Nancy (Linscott) Farnham. Children : Llewellyn C., born May 3, 1852. 2. George Walter, born October 20, 1856; mentioned below. 3. Elmer E., born November 6, 1863.

(IX) George Walter, son of John Lunt Field, was born at St. Albans, October 20, 1856, and was educated in the public schools of that town, Bloomfield Academy of Skow- hegan, where he was a student in 1871 and 1872, and St. Albans Academy at Hartland, where he was graduated in 1879. He studied law in the offices of J. O. Bradbury, of Hart- land, for three years, and was admitted to the Maine bar March 20, 1884. He opened an office and began to practice law in the town of Harmony; Maine, paying one dollar per month rent. After one year he removed to Oakland, where he has since been practicing. Judge Field has not only been prominent in his chosen profession, but in public life. He is a leading Republican of this section; was town treasurer and tax collector of Oakland in 1887 ; was for five years supervisor of schools, and town agent ten years. He represented the town of Oakland in the state legislature in 1899, and was chairman of the library com- mittee, and member also of the committees on salaries and federal relations. He has been justice of the local police court for twenty-one years, having been appointed for three terms of seven years each. He was admitted to practice in the United States circuit court at Portland, September 27, 1898. He is a mem- ber of Amon Lodge No. 95, Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows; attends the Universalist church.

He married, October 2, 1886, Hattie A. Farnham, born December 24, 1869, at New Sharon, daughter of George A. and Mary (Yeaton) Farnham. One of her ancestors, a great-great-grandfather, Rev. Isaac Case, was a centenarian, and celebrated his hundredth birthday by preaching a sermon.

FORTIER French Canadians, as a rule, are destined to play an im- portant part in the history of progress on the North American continent. They love, are proud, and are scrupulously jealous of their language and religion, and al- though they take every means and endeavor to learn the official tongue of their adopted coun- try, the English, and teach it to their chil- dren, they mean to preserve, as the most de- sirable accomplishment, the use among them- selves of the language of France-that happy compound of the Celtic, the Romanic and the

Teutonic elements, which is so equally adapted to the lightest literature and the most pro- found diction of science. From this fact, they do not so willingly and so easily assimilate with other nationalities. This feature gives to their colonies a distinct individuality. Their settlements in Canada, in the Northwest, and everywhere they set foot are fully as prosper- ous and far more picturesque than those of cosmopolitan peoples, while the truest Amer- icanism and love of liberty form an undis- puted and distinguished characteristic of those who have settled among us in the New Eng- land states and in the West.

(I) The subject of this sketch is a descend- ant of Francis Fortier, a native of Saint Henri, Province of Quebec, Canada, who removed to Sainte Marie, Beauce, Province of Quebec, and there a large family of eighteen children were brought up and received the limited edu- cation that could be had in those forlorn days of French educational facilities in Canada. This family included a son, Frederique.

(II) Frederique, son of Francis Fortier, married Esther Wright, and lived at Saint Sylvestre, county of Lothiniere, Province of Quebec. This union was blessed with a fam- ily of thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters, the third child being John L.

(III) John L. (baptized Jean B. Fortier), son of Frederique and Esther (Wright) For- tier, was born in Saint Sylvestre, county of Lothiniere, Province of Quebec, Canada, March 27, 1853. During his early boyhood he had very limited educational advantages. His school attendance was confined to a small isolated country school in his native town, ir- regularly kept, even these poor educational privileges ceased at the time he made his first communion at ten years of age. From that time to the age of fifteen he was obliged to devote most of his time to farm work, having but a month or two during the winter season to attend the meager country school in which, outside of religious teachings, no incentive for serious studying could be found. At the age of fifteen he was forced to devote his entire time to hard manual labor to help his father, who had met with financial reverses so serious as to call for the united efforts of the sons in order to support the large family of thir- teen. Bidding adieu to his parents, to his acquaintances, and all the endearing scenes so attractive to boyhood, he left his native home during his fifteenth year, on July 22, 1868, and found employment at Norton Hills, Ver- mont, in the lumber yards and sawmills at that place. Young Fortier thence went to

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Island Pond, Vermont, Groveton, New Hamp- shire, to Bethel, Maine, working as regularly and diligently as opportunity permitted up to the time he was nineteen years old, when he returned to Norton Mills, Vermont, where he met a highly distinguished and educated fel- low countryman who, discovering in the future doctor no ordinary talents, advised him earn- estly to study, assuring the young man that nature had endowed him for a higher field of usefulness than manual labor for set wages. No sooner had their acquaintance been made than a true and lasting friendship was sealed, and so deeply interested was that noble heart in young Fortier that during two years the tutor devoted his whole evenings to his pupil. Although our student had to labor very hard from five o'clock in the morning to six o'clock in the evening, not one evening during those two years did he fail to be at his post. Part- ing from his devoted friend who had inspired the love of study, he entered in the winter of 1875, during his twenty-second year, the Christian Brothers' College at Sainte Marie, Beauce, Province of Quebec. There his earn- estness to advance led him to sudy unremit- tingly day and night for eight months, steal- ing from his now precious time only a few hours sleep each night. At the end of this term he was obliged to return to the United States and to again take up his labor on the rivers and in the sawmills of New Hampshire. But having once acquired the irresistible de- sire and the right way to study, he rapidly ad- vanced without the aid of teachers. In 1877 he returned to Canada, prepared to enter Sher- brooke College, where he remained six months. Leaving that institution in the spring of 1878, he went to Gorham, New Hampshire, where he studied privately a few months with Rev. N. Charland, and in the fall of the same year he matriculated and entered the Three Rivers Seminary, where he spent one year in the study of the classics. Then the subject of this sketch returned to Gorham, New Hampshire, and resumed for eight months his classical studies with the learned young priest of that place, Rev. N. Charland. In the fall of 1880 he d. cided to apply himself directly to the study of medicine, and made his preliminaries in this new direction in the office of Dr. H. H. Camp- bell, of Waterville, Maine. From there he entered the Maine Medical School at Bruns- wick, in the winter of 1881, attending between terms the Portland School for Medical In- struction, and on June 1, 1883, he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the medi- cal department of Bowdoin College, ranking

among the leaders of the class. Immediately after his graduation Dr. Fortier went to Waterville, Maine, to which city his friend and patron, Rev: N. Charland, had been trans- ferred, and there at once began the practice of his profession. Thus, it will be seen, that this energetic young man, with no other resources than his strong will and persistent ambition, and the laudable desire to become a useful member of society, devoted the principal part of twelve years in the preparation of his life's work. He was thirty years of age when he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Possessing a cheerful disposition, progressive ideas, professional skill, robust health, rare tact, and a love for work, with a full sense of duty, he soon won his way into public favor, gaining the esteem and confidence of the en- tire community.

Dr. Fortier is a member of the Maine Med- ical Association, of the Kennebec Medical As- sociation, and also ex-president of the Water- ville Clinical Society. He has served as city physician of Waterville during nine years with great credit to himself and with satisfaction to his fellow citizens. In that capacity he was especially beloved for his devotion, tender- ness and humane feelings toward the poor, the sick, the aged and the unfortunate.

In 1889 Dr. Fortier was appointed by Bishop Healy, of Portland, to represent the French-Canadian citizens of Maine at the Catholic Congress held in Baltimore, Mary- land, it being the occasion of the one hun- dredth anniversary of the founding of the hierarchy of the Catholic church in the United States. In 1891 Dr. Fortier was a represen- tative of the French-Canadian citizens of Maine at a congress held in Springfield, Mas- sachusetts, and was chairman of the commit- tee on statistics and affairs. For that occa- sion he had made at great sacrifice of time and expense a census of all the citizens of French tongue in his state, and reported to that body that the results of his labors showed a popu- lation in Maine of 87,000 French speaking in- habitants, with sixteen convents having one hundred and forty-eight nuns, teaching both French and English and the Catholic faith to 8,500 boys and girls. It is sadly too well known that in the New England states, that part forming what is called the Ecclesiastical Province of Boston, the Franco-American citi- zens have been and are to-day, in certain places, unjustly treated by some of their su- perior ecclesiastics who give them as pastors, in congregations where they form the immense majority, priests alien to their language, cus-

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toms and aspirations, thus forcing them to sup- port and love as their pastors, priests who do not sympathize with them, nor cannot speak the French language in an intelligible manner, and who, moreover, do not appear disposed to learn it. Not only the laity and faithful among Franco-American citizens have been thus treated, but in many instances good priests who have had the courage to attempt redress in behalf of the unfortunate but faithful ad- herents have become odious to those implac- able, ultra-zealous and too often sadly partial bishops. So incredible and unintelligible is and has been this unprovoked and uncalled-for persecution to those devoted and saintly priests that the biographer will abstain from further comments, leaving to history, posterity and to the development of future events to relate these facts and pass judgment upon them. During 1904, 1905 and 1906 those in- ternal troubles, which it was said had existed for more than twenty-five years with more or less intensity in some parts of the Ecclesiastical Province of Boston, came to a climax in the diocese of Portland, Maine, under Bishop William H. O'Connell, whose methods of quick assimilation differed from the more con- sistent policy of "laisser faire" of his prede- cessors. Fearing with just cause that the complete loss of the French language would be for an immense majority of our French citi- zens the loss of their religion, morals, and consequently of their good and useful citizen- ship, most of all the Franco-American priests, the mass of the people, all of the professional men, the known leaders among our Franco- American citizens, and foremost among them Dr. J. L. Fortier, rose with utmost firmness against such encroachment of their religious rights, guarded both by the civil constitution of state and nation, as well as by the laws, customs and practice of the universal Catholic church.

On March 12th and 13th, 1906, a convention of all the Franco-Americans of Maine was held in Lewiston. A committee was appointed to carry out the desires and resolutions of the convention, which were to assist with all their possible means and true and effective devo- tion our Franco-American clergy in elevating the religious and moral standard of the people intrusted to their care. This permanent com- mittee was invested with the power to ap- point sub-committees in all places where a certain number of Franco-Americans reside, and their combined duties are to preach and encourage naturalization and good citizenship, to request of ecclesiastical authorities, priests

of their tongue and race everywhere in par- ishes where the Franco-Americans form the majority of Catholics, to encourage by every just means the building of Catholic convents and colleges where both the English and the French languages shall be taught upon the same footing, so as to preserve among them- selves and in their families the most desirable of all accomplishments, i. e., speaking correctly the beautiful French language. The Franco- Americans contended, and contend now, that the duality and also the multiplicity of lan- guages is an accomplishment and a refinement that every American citizen should strive to acquire ; for surely the possession of more than one language is not an obstacle to one's loy- alty, patriotism and love for our institutions. This fact has been demonstrated beyond any possible doubt, one instance being the break- ing out of the Spanish-American war, when our Franco-American citizens everywhere in New England were among the first to the front to offer their services to their adoptive country, and they proved to be true, brave, loyal, patri- otic soldiers.

During the winter of 1906, Bishop O'Con- nell, through his own efforts, was appointed co-adjutor of Archbishop Williams, of Bos- ton, with right of succession. This left the see of Portland vacant and opened the doors to new troubles. The Franco-Americans, rep- resenting four-fifths of the entire Catholic pop- ulation of Maine, were disgusted, tired, and irritated by not having their just representa- tion in the affairs of the diocese, and by the more recent ill treatment received at the hands of Bishop O'Connell. Knowing very well also that the Metropolitan and his suffragans would do their utmost to keep in their power the diocese by placing on the vacant episcopal throne of Portland an Irish-American bishop who, it was understood, would foster and carry out their concerted plans of forced assimila- tion, regardless of the great danger of losing many souls to the faith, to the church and to God, it was resolved to no longer remain silent, but to make known to the Pope himself, Pius X, the exact condition of affairs, to ex- pose their griefs, and to solicit of the Holy See their just reclamations. At this decisive hour for the Franco-American Catholics of Maine, all eyes turned to Dr. Fortier as the right man to fulfill such an important mission. He was consequently chosen by the unanimous voice of the "permanent committee." So deeply and earnestly interested was this patriot in the re- ligious welfare of his fellow countrymen that he refused all pecuniary aid from his com-

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patriots, and assumed himself all the expenses of that necessarily expensive mission and voy- age. Dr. Fortier sailed from New York on May 10, 1906, arriving at Rome on the morn- ing of May 23, and remaining there fifty- five days. During his sojourn in the Eternal City, he worked unceasingly for the cause he had so fervently embraced. He adjoined there to himself a learned Roman doctor, the Rev. J. B. Geniesse, D. D., and furnished the greater part of the most important documents to that devoted and erudite priest, who wrote a memoir for the cause, entitled "The Ques- tion of Nationalities and of Languages in the United States of North America, Considered in Its Relations with the Choice of Parish Priests and Bishops. Reasons Showing That a French-Canadian, Instead of an Irish-Amer- ican, Should Be Chosen for the Vacant See of Portland. Memoir Addressed to His Holi- ness Pius X, to the Most Eminent Cardinals and to Their Advisers." Dr. Fortier, while in Rome, had interviews with nearly all the Car- dinals of the Propaganda and presented them with the Memoir and many important private documents. On June 16, 1906, he was re- ceived in private audience by the Pope Pius X. After this devoted son of distant America had made known to His Holiness the object of his mission, and had read his address in behalf of the 87,000 (now 92,000) Franco-American Catholics of the diocese of Portland, the Pope, with the most fatherly kindness, granted him more than an hour of his overtaxed time, lis- tening with his characteristic benignity to every word the petitioner had to say in behalf of his people and regarding the treatment to which the faithful and the priests of French language were subjected in some of the dio- ceses in the New England states. In taking his leave from His Holiness, the Holy Father blessed Dr. Fortier, his family, and all the Franco-Americans scattered in the United States, and promised that henceforth he would make a thorough study of the situation and would see for better administration of justice as soon as time and opportunity would per- mit. During his stay at Rome the doctor made many lasting and valuable friends, both among the laity and the clergy, and he in- terested most of them in the cause he is labor- ing for.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume IV, Part 35

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: 896

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: 896