USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume IV > Part 45
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(VI) Oliver, son of Asa and Sarah (Dun- ton) Travis, was born in 1762, at Waltham, Massachusetts, and died May 8, 1838, at Brownfield, Maine. He was accorded a pen- sion for one year's active service in the revo- lutionary war. He appears on the Massachu- setts revolutionary rolls as private in Captain Joshua Leland's company, enlisted October 12,
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1779, discharged November 10, 1779; this company, under Major Nathaniel Heath, were detached by order of General Hancock for the protection of Boston. He also appears as private in Thomas Brintnall's company, Col- onel Cyprian Howe's regiment, for service at Rhode Island, enlisted August 31, 1780, dis- charged November 1, 1780; he again appears as private in Captain Daniel Bowker's com- pany, Colonel Webb's regiment, enlisted Sep- tember 23, 1781, discharged December 4, 1781, raised for the purpose of reinforcing the 'con- tinental army. His name appears on the tax lists of Deering, New Hampshire, first in 1794, again in 1795-96-97-98, 1800 and 1801, and not thereafter. December II, 1783, he married Milly (Pamelia) Goodwin (on rec- ords as Gooding), born at Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, and died at Brownfield, Maine, in 1842, and they had children as follows: Sam- uel, Annie, Maurice, Martha, Daniel, Maria, and a child who was burned in a house in Waltham, Massachusetts.
(VII) Samuel, eldest son of Oliver and Pamelia (or Milly) (Goodwin) Traverse, was born September 27, 1784, at Waltham, Massa- chusetts, and died July 19, 1840, at Denmark, Maine. He was at Portland, Maine, and en- listed in the war of 1812. He married Judith Trumbull, born April 25, 1777, at Concord, New Hampshire, died at Denmark, Maine, April 10, 1862, a descendant of John Trum- bull (See Trumble), from Newcastle-on-the- Tyne, England, of Roxbury in 1639. Samuel and Judith (Trumbull) Traverse (as this branch of the family spelled the name) had two daughters, Pamelia Goodwin, who mar- ried William F. Davis (see Davis VII), and Sarah E.
CLARK John Clark, the earliest named ancestor, was one of the colony who founded Hartford, and his . name is engraved with the other members on the monument in the cemetery in Hartford, known as the "Ancient Burying Ground." The descendants of John Clark believe that he was identical with John, of Cambridge, Massachu- setts, as was also John, of Hartford, and this is set down as an ascertained fact by the Rev. William S. Porter, a genealogist of great in- dustry and local research. (The Clarks of Saybrook, Connecticut, claim that John of Cambridge, of Hartford and of Saybrook, were identical, and quote the authority of Hin- man. No contemporary record has been found to contain or disprove either theory.) The following account of John Clark and his
progeny is taken from "A Record of the De- scendants of John Clark of Farmington, Con- necticut," compiled by Julius Gay, at the re- quest of Dennis Woodruff Clark Esq., of Port- land, Maine, a descendant in the sixth genera- tion, and published in 1882.
(I) John Clerke, as the name is spelled, took the freeman's oath at the general court of Massachusetts Bay Colony, November 6, 1632. He was one of the forty-two men to whom land was assigned at Newton, now Cambridge, March 29, 1632. Who these forty-two men were in part appears in a state- ment by Winthrop: "The Braintree Company by order of court removed to Newton. These were Mr. Hooker's company." In Page's History of Cambridge it is stated that John Clarke "owned the lot on the easterly corner of Brattle and Mason streets in 1635, which he sold to Edward Winship, and removed to Hartford. Under date of March 1, 1636, is the record of an agreement between the town of Newtown and John Clark by the terms of which he undertakes to make a weir and catch alewives in the Menotomies river and sell "all the alewives he should take" at three shillings six pence per thousand, &c. This is the last record found of him in Newtown.
John Clark was a soldier in the Pequot fight, and must have been in Hartford as early as 1637. On May 1, 1637, the general court at Hartford "ordered that there shall be an of- fensive war against the Pequoitt." After the return of the soldiers from their successful campaign, a tract of land containing from sixty to eighty acres, long known as Soldiers' Field, was divided among them. John Clark was an owner of land in this tract, and there- fore presumably one of the soldiers in the Pequot fight. On March 9, 1641, the town ordered Matthew Marvin to maintain a fence * * "to the corner of John Clark's lot lying in the Soldiers field." At a general meeting of the town held January 14, 1639, it was voted : "Whereas there is some difference in allotments, some having more than is accord- ing to their due proportion, it is therefore ordered that Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Wells, Mr. Warner, John Pratt, Timothy Stanley, John Clark, Joseph Mygatt * * * shall examine the same, and shall have power to appoint every mans portion according as in their judgment shall be just and equal." In February, 1639, John Clark had a fee simple title to a parcel of land on which his dwelling stood in the West Field, containing by estimation four acres, more or less, and eleven other pieces. The house and lot mentioned were sold by
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John Clark to Zachary Field, as appears in the description of lands of the latter recorded January, 1650. Other references to John Clark appear on the town records of Hartford, as follows: September, 1639: "It is ordered that Goodman Scott, Goodman Clark and Goodman Ely shall reserve the common" * "and if Thomas Scott, John Clark and Goodman Ely fail of measuring within the time set, they shall forfeit five shillings." Gen- eral meeting, February 18, 1640-John Clark with eleven others on a committee to divide "the land on the east side of the Great River." January 12, 1642-"There was chosen survey- ors for the year, John Clark and John Wil- cox." John Clark probably removed from Hartford prior to 1655, as his name does not appear in the list of taxpayers in the "mill rates" for the years 1655-66-67, which are preserved. His name is, however, found in the lists of "The proprietors of the undivided lands in Hartford with such of their propor- tions in one division as followeth according to which proportions they paid for the purchase of the said lands," in the years 1665-66-71-72. These divisions of the "undivided lands" were, however, made to non-residents, and even to the heirs of deceased proprietors. In the di- visions of 1674 and 1682 his name ceases to appear. A John Clark, whether the same or not there is no way of determining, was a juror at Hartford, September, 1641, and Oc- tober, 1642; also a deputy, May, 1649. A John Clark had ten children baptized in the First Church of Hartford in 1704-24. John Clark, the ancestor of the family whose gene- alogy is hereafter recorded, was an early set- tler of Farmington, Connecticut; how early does not appear. He had been a resident long enough to have acquired numerous pieces of land when the town registrar made a formal record of them in January, 1657. The names of John Clark and his wife were included in a list of the members of the church in Farm- ington, made March 1, 1680. When they joined is not stated. He was made a freeman in May, 1664; on December 27, 1682, he was chosen to be a chimney viewer by the town; on December 28, 1685, and again on Decem- ber 8, 1690, he was chosen surveyor of high- ways. What offices, if any, he held prior to those dates cannot be known, since the for- mal record of town meetings begins with that of December 27, 1682. His residence with "yeardes and orchardes" was situate on a par- cel of land on High street, containing by esti- mation ten acres. John Clark was the owner of numerous pieces of land, by grant of the
town, and by the divisions of the "Reserved land" among the eighty-four proprietors. His possessions were scattered here and there northward to "a place cittuate within the bounds of ffarmington att a place commonly called and known by the name of Brownson's Nodd, and Lyng northward of said ffarming- ton on the west side of the great River which runneth throw ffarmington Meadows, and is nigh unto Simsbery bounds"; to the south as far as the Great Plain; and eastward and westward to the farthest boundaries of the town. This account of the place where he lived and the lands he owned is about all that can be learned concerning the ancestor of the numerous race. Of his wife or wives not even the names are known. An old family record, taken down long since from the lips of an aged member of the family, states that John Clark came from Scotland, and that his wife was an English lady. The only other mention found of her is in the record of the First Church in Farmington, wherein the Rev. Samuel Hooker enrolls John Clark and his wife as members, on March 1, 1680. John Clark made his will November 21, 1712, and died the next day, and the town clerk made the entry : "John Clark of ffarmington ye aged departed his Natural Life twenty second of November In ye year of or Lord 1712." His children were: John, Matthew, Elizabeth, Re- becca, Mary, Sarah, Martha, Abigail, Hannah, Rachel and Mercy.
(II) Matthew, second son and child of John Clark, was born before 1674. He died September 24, 1751, and left an estate which was inventoried at £3,966 15s 6d, including three hundred and ten acres of land. His will was executed September II, 1751. He mar- ried, about 1704, Ruth, daughter of John and Mary (Howkins) Judd. Their children were: Ruth (died young), Matthew (died young), Mary, John, Ruth, and Matthew.
(III) John (2), fourth child and second son of Matthew and Ruth (Judd) Clark, was born September 1, 1712. He lived on the Stanley Quarter road leading from Farming- ton to New Britain. His residence was with- in the territorial limits of Great Swamp (Ken- sington) parish, but he attended public wor- ship at the old church in Farmington. He married, September 2, 1742, Elizabeth Newell, who was born January 29, 1720, and died February 2, 1791, aged seventy, daughter of Captain John and Elizabeth (Hawley) New- ell. After the death of her husband, June 16, 1782, Elizabeth attended the New Britain Church, and being partially deaf was allowed
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to stand in the pulpit. Their children were: Mercy, Mary, Mervin, Dan, Abel, Ruth, John, Huldah, Elizabeth and Jane.
(IV) Mervin, eldest son and third child of John and Elizabeth (Newell) Clark, was born November 26, 1746, and died August 17, 1825. His christian name is spelled Mervin when written by himself, but by his townsmen was universally spelled Marvin. He was one of the seventy signers to an agreement made September 3, 1774, "to be in readiness and duly equipped with arms and ammunition to proceed to Boston for the relief of our dis- tressed and besieged brethren there." He was actively engaged in the revolution, but in what capacity is not clearly known. He is said to have been at Danbury, Connecticut, when that place was burned by Tryon in April, 1777, and was at one time in the camp at Horse Plains. Uniting with the church in Farming- ton in 1771, he maintained throughout his whole life a most exemplary Christian char- acter. Upright and conscientious in his busi- ness relations, with a scrupulousness rarely seen, he lived to a good old age, beloved by all about him, transmitting to his posterity the memory of numberless kind and loving acts which is to them a most precious inheritance. In extreme old age he was under the illusion that every day was Sunday, and so, spending all his time in the devotional exercise most dear to him, his life passed gently away. He married, January 18, 1773, Sarah Woodruff, who was born June 3, 1748, and died January 5, 1813, daughter of Abraham and Sarah (North ) Woodruff. Their children were: Jemima, Ornan, Abraham, Sarah and Huldah. (V) Abraham, second son and third child of Mervin and Sarah (Woodruff) Clark, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, September 5, 1780, and died in Chicago, Illinois. Febru- ary 21, 1855, aged seventy-five. His child- hood and youth were spent in his birthplace, and here he received the education usual at that time-that of common school. After his marriage he moved into the house with his father, where he remained many years. Dur- ing the great revival which occurred in con- nection with the labors of Dr. Nettleton, he joined the church of which Dr. Noah Porter was pastor. His consistent Christian life through many vicissitudes attests the sincerity of his profession. After his father's death he bought of the other heirs their interest in the house and farm, being ambitious to keep the old homestead undivided. He was active and energetic, and struggled on, even after it be- came evident that, with his growing family,
he could not hold the place. In the fall of 1830 he gave up and removed to New Haven, intending to remain there while his eldest son went through Yale College, and in order to give his younger children better opportunities for education, while residing here he learned that a few families were about to unite for removal to the (then) far west (Illinois), and decided to join the party and seek a new home. In this plan of removal Dr. Leonard Bacon, with whose church he was connected, manifested great interest, and when the fam- ilies, five in number, comprising twenty-three persons, gathered at the house of Mr. Clark one day in the fall of 1831, Dr. Bacon came to bid them good-bye. When the company were all ready to start he proposed prayer, and standing on the door steps surrounded by the several families and their friends assem- bled to take leave of them, he offered prayer, committing them to the care of an ever-pres- ent God, and with God's blessing sent them on their way. The other families with which Mr. Clark journeyed were those of Deacon Chittenden, Mr. Bradley, Mrs. Wilson and two sons, and a young couple named Plant. The party reached Pittsburg on a dark and rainy evening after several weeks of toilsome journeying over the Alleghenies. Here the families having carriages took passage on board a steamer bound down the Ohio and up the Mississippi rivers, while Deacon Chit- tenden, with a farm wagon, took the horses, and, with his eldest son and Mr. Plant, started to make their way across the new states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, to Alton, the place of destination. In the spring the families abandoned their plan of settling near each other, Mr. Plant and wife returning to the east, and Mr. Clark removing to Jacksonville, where he assisted in organizing the First Con- gregational church, his name standing second on the roll. He performed a similar service in two other places where he afterward lived. Buying a farm at Diamond Grove, near Jack- sonville, he began farming with all the en- thusiasm of his younger days, but after a few years gave it up and became steward of Il- linois College, then under the presidency of Edward Beecher. From Jacksonville he re- moved to Rushville, in the same state. Re- maining here but a short time, he followed his eldest son, then a practicing physician, to Iowa, and afterward to Wisconsin, where his second son was engaged in mercantile busi- ness. His next removal was to Chicago with Dr. Holbrook, a son-in-law, his two sons re- moving to California. In the summer of 1854
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he revisited his early home, spending several weeks, and seemed to renew his youth, walk- ing long distances as he visited one and an- other of his old friends, but it was as the last brightening of the flame before it expires. He returned to Chicago, and for a short time en- joyed anew his summer's pleasures in recount- ing them to his family. Soon, however, he began to show signs of exhausted vitality. During the early weeks of winter he sat by the fire, sleeping most of the time, his strength gradually failing, until, with no appearances of disease, he quietly passed away. Mr. Clark's life was eminently a religious one. Of a cheer- ful temperament, he had a store of proverbial and quaint sayings by which he was wont to express a sense of thankfulness for blessings received. His principles were those of the good old Puritan sort. He dared to reverence the Sabbath when few regarded it. He began to be a consistent advocate of temperance while the use of alcoholic drinks was almost universal, and through a long and useful life was a bright example of all that is true and loving and of good report. He married, Feb- ruary 13, 1809, Milicent Washburn, who was born July 23, 1784, in Middletown, Connecti- cut, and died in San Francisco, California, March 9, 1863, in the seventy-ninth year of her age. She was the daughter of Joseph and Ruth (Wetmore) Washburn. The children of this union were: Joseph Washburn (died young), Joseph Washburn, Mary (died young), Mary Wetmore, Dennis Woodruff, Jane Eliza, Anne Louisa (twins), Lucy Ellen and Elnathan Gridley. Lucy Ellen is the only one living at the present time (1908), and now resides at Niles, California.
(VI) Dennis Woodruff, fifth child and third son of Abraham and Milicent (Washburn) Clark, was born in Farmington, Connecticut, May 27, 1819, died at his home on State street, Portland, Maine, April 18, 1904. He obtained a common school education in his native town, and in 1831, when about twelve years of age, he accompanied his father and the remainder of the family to Illinois, hav- ing previously served as a clerk in the book store of Jeremy L. Cross, in New Haven, Connecticut. His first employment after lo- cating in the west was as clerk for merchants in Naples and Jacksonville, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. He left the latter-named city in 1839, and made his first venture in business at Rockingham, Iowa, and the fol- lowing year went to Platteville, Wisconsin, where he engaged in mining and mercantile pursuits until 1852, when he formed a part-
nership with his brother, Dr. Joseph W. Clark, and brother-in-law, Elias Gill, under the firm name of Gill, Clark & Company, for trading in Sacramento, California, and the following two years he spent in that city and San Fran- cisco. Returning to the east in 1854, he lo- cated in Portland, Maine, and engaged in the ice business, continuing in the same for half a century. He conducted the business, which was known as the D. W. Clark Ice Company, alone until 1873, when he admitted Ashbel Chaplin as a partner. They continued for the following nine years, under the name of D. W. Clark & Company, but in 1882 the firm became incorporated under a capital of $300,- 000, under the name of the Clark & Chaplin Ice Company. The company controlled large ice houses on the Kennebec river, and con- ducted a large wholesale business, shipping one year one hundred and fifty thousand tons. In 1893 they sold the wholesale business to the American Ice Company of New York, and formed the D. W. Clark Ice Com- pany, of which Mr. Clark was president. Mr. Clark was also connected with other business enterprises. He was treasurer of the Leeds & Farmington Railroad Com- pany from December, 1869, until it was sold to the Maine Central railroad; for seven years was a director of the Portland & Og- densburg railroad, 1872-79, while the road was being constructed through the mountains and until it was completed and the cars were running through Crawford Notch. In 1873 he was chosen a director, and later in the year president of the Portland Water Company, was president of the Standish Water and Construction Company, and in 1885 was appointed president of the Biddeford and Saco Water Company. At the time of his death he was serving as president of the three last named corporations, and also of the D. W. Clark Ice Company. He was for many years a prominent member of the State Street Congregational Church of Portland, having been instrumental in the building of the same. In politics he was successively a Whig, Free- soiler and Republican, but never accepted or aspired to public office. He was a man of much energy and business capacity, active, clear-sighted and successful, and during his residence of fifty years in the city of Portland won the esteem of the community and en- deared himself in the hearts of his fellowmen. Warm-hearted and generous, he gave freely to deserving charitable enterprises, and dying, left many friends who mourn his loss. Desiring to know more of his ancestry, and to erect a
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memorial to his worthy forbears, he caused a genealogy of the family to be compiled, which was published in 1882, and from which the present account of the family is drawn.
Mr. Clark married, August 22, 1850, Mary Caroline Hubbs, born in Portland, Maine, April 1, 1819, daughter of Captain Alexander and Mary (Lowell) Hubbs. She died August 19, 1898. Their children were: I. Mary Millicent, died 1854. 2. Alexander Hubbs, died 1853. 3. Emma Washburn, born March 26, 1855, married, December 29, 1881, George Washington Percy, of San Francisco, Cal- ifornia, born in Bath, Maine, July 5, 1847; they have four children: Isabella, Arthur, Carmen and Ernest. 4. Isabella Tyler, born November 26, 1857, married Charles C. Har- mon, of the firm of Loring, Short & Harmon, of Portland. 5. Mervin Washburn, the sub- ject of the following paragraph.
(VII) Mervin Washburn, youngest child of Dennis W. and Mary C. (Hubbs) Clark, was born in Portland, Maine, July 27, 1861. He attended the Portland public schools, and later continued his studies in private schools in Portland and elsewhere. At an early age he showed a great liking for business, and ac- cepted a position with Twitchell, Champlin & Company, wholesale dry goods merchants. In 1881, after a short term of service with the aforementioned company, he engaged in the ice business with his father, and from that time to the present (1908) he has given the most energetic efforts to the business, which is exceedingly prosperous. In 1904, after the death of his father, he was elected to the presidency of the company, and has since filled that position with credit and ability. In 1896 in addition to his interest in the ice business, he purchased a slate company in Portland, which he developed and incorporated under the name of the Monson Burmah Slate Company, and of which he was made treasurer and gen- eral manager. They had extensive slate quar- ries at Monson, Maine, and a large manufac- turing plant at Portland, the product of the quarries being shipped to the plant where it was manufactured into such goods as laundry tubs, kitchen sinks, and other sanitary articles. Mr. Clark built up a large business in the use of slate for electric purposes, such as switch boards and other articles, and it increased in volume and importance until 1904, when it was sold to a large Massachusetts slate con- cern. He is a director in the Mercantile Trust Company, and was also connected with other business enterprises in Portland and elsewhere. His attention is devoted wholly to business,
and he finds no time to attend to politics, though he is an unswerving Republican and votes at every election. In religion he is a Congregationalist. He is a member of the Portland Athletic Club, the Portland Country Club, Lincoln Club, Economic Club, Portland Board of Trade, and Merchants' Exchange. He is a member of Ancient Landmark Lodge, No. 17, Free and Accepted Masons ; Mt. Ver- non Royal Arch Chapter; Portland Comman- dery, No. 2, Knights Templar ; Kora Temple, Mystic Shrine; Sons of the American Revolu- tion; and of the Mayflower Society. He is eligible to membership in the Sons of the American Revolution through five lines of an- cestors, and to the Mayflower Society through two lines-Captain Miles Standish and Ste- phen Hopkins.
Mr. Clark married, November 12, 1890, at Bangor, Maine, Antoinette Langdon Paine, born in Farmington, Connecticut, daughter of Professor Levi Leonard and Jeannette (Holmes) Paine, of Bangor. They have one child, Langdon Washburn, born January 9, 1894.
Edward Clark, one of the nu- CLARK merous immigrants of this sur- name who settled in New Eng- land before 1650, was born in England, and was settled in Haverhill, Massachusetts, be- fore 1646. He was a carpenter by trade. In 1652 he was of Kennebunk, Maine. He was a freeman of Massachusetts Bay in 1653, and ten years later removed to Maine province again .. He or a son of the same name, how- ever, took the oath of allegiance November 28, 1677, at Haverhill. He married a daughter of Walter Tibbetts, of Gloucester, Massachu- setts. Another record gives his wife as Dor- cas Bosworth. She may have been a widow, born Tibbetts, or a second wife. Among his children was Joseph, mentioned below. Per- haps others.
(II) Joseph, son of Edward Clark, of Hav- erhill, was born March 6, 1653, in that town. He married, August 18, 1685, Mary Davis. Children, born at Haverhill: 1. Hannah, Oc- tober 29, 1686. 2. Joseph, September 6, 1687. 3. Jonathan, March 25, 1690, died November 20, 1690. 4. Ephraim, August 18, 1694. . 5. Tabitha, December 1, 1696. 6. David, August 21, 1699, mentioned below. 7. Nathaniel.
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