USA > Maine > Hancock County > Blue Hill > Historical sketches of Bluehill, Maine > Part 10
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Mr. Stevens was a blacksmith, having learned the trade from his father. He died of cancer of stomach. His first wife died of consumption. The house still stands and is occupied by James Bettel. There are other houses between it and the Reu- ben Dodge place, but they are modern and not of historic value.
THE DEACON BENJAMIN STEVENS HOUSE and place are on the north side of Main street opposite the Parker's Point road and the next to be described. This house was built by Theodore Stevens, who was born in Andover, Mass., July 12, 1763, and came to Blue Hill in 1791. The exact date of building the house is not known, but is supposed to have been about 1800. Theodore Stevens' wife was Dorcas Os- good, whom he married Oct. 4, 1791. She was born March 21, 1763; died April 27,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
1832; he died May 15, 1820. Their children were as follows:
1. Elizabeth Osgood, born Dec. 8, 1792; married Jonah Holt in 1811 and died, leav- ing no children, Nov. 1847.
2. Edward Varnum, born Oct. 10, 1794; married first Susannah Hinckley, by whom he had six children; second, Mar- garet H. Grindle, no children; he died May 18, 1857.
3. Benjamin, born June 1, 1796; mar- ried Polly, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Fisher, Nov. 11, 1829; she was born Feb. 12 1808; died in 1878. He died May 22, 1873, in his seventy-seventh year. He and his family resided in the old house, which is still owned and occupied by his children. He was a carder of wool and a dresser and fuller of woolen cloths. He was deacon of the Congregational church for many years and a man of piety and high stand- ing. He had six children as follows: viz .:
1. Mary Louisa Mason, born August 15, 1830; married Samuel E. Kimball.
2. Harriet Elizabeth, born Oct. 2, 1832; twice married; first husband, Jeppe Knudson; second, Reuben Morton; now a widow at homestead.
3. Sarah Fisher, born Sept. 25, 1834; married Otis Hinckley; died Oct. 20, 1897.
4. Henry Martyn, born Aug, 22, 1837; resides at the old homestead.
5. Elvina Stevens, born Aug. 20, 1839; died Oct. 25, 1839.
6. Albert Cole, born Sept. 18, 1842; re- sides at the old homestead.
The fourth child of Theodore and Dor- cas Stevens was Lydia Faulkner, born May 22, 1798; married Simeon Parker, Nov. 4, 1818, by whom she had three chil- dren, Simeon, Simeon and Maria, all dying in infancy. She died in 1860. The fifth child was Lucretia, born March 18, 1801; died March 31, 1801. The sixth child was Elvina, born May 7, 1802; married Joseph Hinckley; had one daughter, Lizzie, now dead. She died Oct. 8, 1901. The seventh child was John, born June 12, 1804; married Mary Jane Perkins of Castine. Both are dead; their family rec- ord previously given.
THE NATHAN ELLIS HOUSE
and place next to the one last described was built by Mr. Ellis in the early part of 1800, probably as early as 1810. Nathan Ellis was born in Bellingham, Mass., in
March, 1777. He married first, Mary Bass, Aug. 14, 1801. She died April 10, 1804, leaving one son, Vespasian, born at the Falls, Jan. 11, 1802, who was town clerk many years and died at an advanced age.
Nathan Ellis married, second, Sally Osgood, March 14, 1810. She died Dec. 7, 1814, and he married, third, Dolly B. Newell, Oct. 31, 1818. She was born Sept. 13, 1789; died Feb. 6, 1860. The children of this family were. By first wife :
1. Vespasian, never married, born as above stated.
By second wife:
2. Mary Bass, born March 2, 1811; died July 3, 1851.
3. Nathan, born Nov. 10, 1812; married Susan Gardiner; died at Andover, Mass.
4. Lemuel, born Nov. 29, 1814; married; died in California.
By third wife:
5. Reuben Newell, born Aug. 25, 1819; twice married; died at Somerville, Mass., in 1890.
6. Jonathan, born Nov. 16, 1820; mar- ried; died in California.
7. Edward, born March 1, 1822; died Nov. 5, 1828.
8. Sarah Battell, born Aug. 2, 1828; died in Boston; never married.
9. Elizabeth smith, born April 7, 1826; married F. A. Holt; died in Boston March 16, 1894.
10. Edward Henry, born May 1, 1830; went to California.
Nathan Ellis, head of this family, died April, 1848, aged seventy-one years. He was a member of the legislature, a store keeper, ship owner, many years town clerk, and an exemplary man. There is none of the family residing in the town at this writing, in 1905. After his death and the removal of his children from town, the house was occupied by various parties, the last being Jonah Dodge and family. The place was then purchased by the town as a site for the new town hall erected thereon in 1895.
THE EBEN M. GARLAND HOUSE
opposite the town hall, was built by Mr. Garland in the '40's. He was a shoemaker, and there carried on his trade for a number of years. He was a soldier of the Aroostook war; in 1839, in the Blue Hill
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
company of which Nathan Ellis, jr., was the captain.
Mr. Garland was born at Hampden, Jan. 22, 1820, came to Blue Hill when a lad and married Elvira Gregory, May 27, 1840, daughter of William and Edna Gregory, born Nov. 21, 1822. There were two chil- dren by this marriage:
1. William Albert, born May 16, 1841; died Aug. 6, 1866.
2. Sarah Eliza, born March 28, 1847.
Mrs. Garland died, and the house was sold, Mr. Garland removing from town, but later he returned, purchased the Jo- seph Osgood place, married a second wife, but had no children by her. Both are dead.
THE ANDREW A. AND ABRAHAM FISK
houses and places were next to and adjoin- ing the Garland place, where now stands the Copper and Gold hotel. They were small houses, painted red as the writer remembers them in boyhood. The Fisks were shoemakers, if the writer's memory is correct.
Andrew and Abraham Fisk were broth- ers, but where and when they were born or whence they came to this town there is no date in possession of the writer, or when their houses were built, although they were standing in the earli- est recollections of the writer. Andrew Fisk married March 12, 1827, Almira, daughter of Freeman and Thankful Hardin; she was born Nov. 15, 1802. Their children were:
ยท
1. George Washington, born Sept. 7, 1827; resided in Ellsworth.
2. Andrew Jackson, born Nov. 12, 1828; resided in Boston.
3. Benjamin Franklin, born Jan. 30, 1830.
4. Frederick Lorenzo, born March 10, 1833.
5. James Madison, born Sept. 24, 1834.
6. Rodney, born Sept. 9, 1836.
7. Helen Adelpha, born Nov. 15, 1838; died Oct. 10, 1839.
8. Almira Rebecca, born April 15, 1840; died Aug. 28, 1841.
9. Mary Jane, born Oct. 13, 1842.
10. John Freeman, born May 10, 1847.
Mr. Fisk married Sarah E. Milliken for a second wife, by whom he had
11. Abby Frances, born April 1859.
12. Abraham Allen, born April 15, 1861; died Sept. 27, 1865.
13. A son, born Jan. 16, 1870.
14. A child, born May 1872.
Mr. Fisk, father of this family, died in 1882.
Abraham Fisk married Sarah E. John- son, of Hampden, Sept. 13, 1834, which may indicate that he came from that town to Blue Hill. By that marriage there were four children born to them on the follow- ing dates: Dec. 31, 1835; Feb. 28, 1839; Dec. 17, 1840, and May 24, 1846, but no names for them are entered in the town records. When or where Mr. and Mrs. Fisk died, or when they left the town there is no record.
JEREMIAH T. HOLT PLACE,
The next house and place to the Fisks' is the Jeremiah T. Holt house and place, for many years a tavern named "Trav- ellers Home", with swinging sign sus- pended from a post in front, and for many years the only tavern or hotel in the village.
Jeremiah Thorndike Holt was the second son of Jedediah Holt, and grand- son of Nicholas, who came to the town from Andover in May 1765, settled,at the Falls, and was the first keeper of a public house in the infant settlement. Jeremiah Thorndike Holt was born May 12, 1781; married Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Bailey Osgood, Nov. 24, 1808. She was born Nov. 5, 1789, and died Feb. 4. 1858. He died in April, 1832. The chil- dren of that marriage were:
1. Jeremiah, born Dec. 27, 1810; died Nov. 1, 1816.
2. Julia Ann, born April 2, 1812; mar- ried Samuel S. Smith; died July 22, 1853.
3. Frederic Alex, born Feb. 20, 1814, died Nov. 6, 1814.
4. Jeremiah Thorndike, born May 8, 1817: married Lovinia Darling.
5. Frederic Alex, born Feb 12, 1821; married Elizabeth Ellis; died in Boston. 6. Thomas Jefferson Napoleon, born Nov. 1, 1827; married Clarissa E. Peters.
After the death of the head of this family, his widow carried on "Travellers Home" until the marriage of her young- est son, Thomas Jefferson Napoleon, to Clarissa E. Peters on Aug. 6, 1851. He brought his bride to the home to live, and the house as a tavern ceased. Napoleon,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
as he was known by the people of the town, attended the school at the academy with the writer, and also Miss Peters, who later became his wife. In August, 1901, they celebrated their golden wedding an- niversary, when the writer had the pleas- ure of sending them his congratulations in verse through the mail. Within two years of that date he passed on to the other life beyond the river.
He was a painter by trade, and a pleas- ant friend, as boy and man, to meet and know as the writer knew him. His widow still occupies the old house in summer, but has spent the last two winters in Bos- ton with her only living child, a daughter. She had three children by her marriage:
1 Alice Annetta, born Nov. 7, 1854.
2. Clara Peters, born April 2, 1857; died May 16, 1882.
3. Maud M., born April 17, 1866; died Dec. 12, 1880.
The house, built more than seventy-five years ago, still stands in good repair, as a landmark in the village, and seems good for as many years more as it has already stood.
In that house Dr. Fulton had his home and office for many years, to it he brought his bride when he was married to Miss Abby M. Redman, of Brooksville, Jan. 13, 1849. He "sleeps with his fathers" but she is alive, well and youthful, beyond what would be expected of one of her years.
THE BRICK BLOCK
next to the last described place has been partially described, but not wholly. In it Jonah Holt, its builder, kept his store in the east end of the ground floor, while in the other Frederic A. Holt, his nephew, kept a store and the postoffice. Above, the writer remembers that Lemuel Ellis once resided, and he seems to hear even now the sweet tones of his violin, French horn, and other instruments upon which he played, as he heard them more than sixty years ago. To the residents and visitors in later years the block will be remem- bered as the "Pendleton House", kept as a hotel.
THE JOSEPH OSGOOD HOUSE
and place were the next to the south of the last described. It was an old-fash- ioned, two-story, square-roofed house, minus paint, as early as the writer can re-
member, built by Joseph Osgood about 1800, and occupied by him and family un- til he was old and past his labor, when he was cared for by his nephew, the late John Stevens, esq.
Mr. Osgood was born at Andover, Mass., Oct. 6, 1760; married Hannah Bailey, March 31, 1785. She was born Dec. 19, 1766; died July 10, 1829. He died March 15, 1854, in his ninety-fourth year. He came to Blue Hill shortly after his mar- riage, and there resided up to the time of his death.
He was a brickmaker and mason by trade. He used to say that he could build a brick chimney beginning at the top just as well as beginning at the base, if he could only get the first brick to stay in its place. The chimney in the tide mill, owned by the writer's father, fell down, leaving the top sticking in the roof. Mr. Osgood was sent for to rebuild it, and came, when the writer and his brothers said to him: "Now, Mr. Osgood, you told us in the past that if you could make the first bricks stick you could build a chim- ney at the top and work downwards. Here is a chance for you to try it."
"Ah, boys!" said he, "the bricks must all be new to do that, for you can't make a new brick stick to an old one." And in that way he cleared himself of an awk- ward dilemma in the eyes of the boys. He was a kindly man, with a cheerful story for the young people, who were very fond of him.
THE TOWN LANDING
in front of the Osgood house is where, by vote of the town, Spofford & Robinson es- tablished potash works. The vote of the town Oct. 4, 1790, concerning the same, was as follows:
"Voted, That Messrs. Spofford & Rob- inson shall have the privilege of the land whereon their potash works stand, and such quantity of land adjoining said works as the selectmen and said Spofford & Robinson shall agree upon for twenty years, with the proviso that the Inhabi- tants of the Town shall not incumber to the disadvantage of their business nor shall they incumber any part of said Town landing to the disadvantage of the Inhab- itants of said Town."
Upon that landing many seagoing ves- sels were built in the past, and upon it
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
yearly were piled ready for shipment to western ports in the summer season, hun- dreds and thousands of cords of wood, hemlock bark and other products of farm and forest. In the writer's boyhood it was not uncommon to see from six to a dozen sail of coasting vessels there loading or awaiting turn to load.
THE THOMAS COGGINS HOUSE
next south of the landing and adjoining the Joseph Osgood place, was a two-story structure, with brick ends. It was built about 1831, by Capt. Thomas Coggins, who with his family occupied it until he sold to Joseph Hinckley. Capt. Coggins died in 1858, and his wife March 27, 1860.
Capt. Coggins probably came from Surry to Bluehill, and there married Dec. 30, 1829, Lydia Faulkner (Stevens) Parker, widow of Simeon Parker and daughter of Theodore and Dorcas Stevens, born May 22, 1798. She had three children by her first husband: Simeon, Simeon and Maria, all dying in infancy. Simeon Parker, her first husband, died Feb. 14, 1826, and she married Capt. Coggins as above stated.
Capt. Coggins commanded several Blue- hill vessels, and was considered a capable and enterprising shipmaster of his time. The writer in boyhood knew him by report, but had no special acquaintance with him. He was one of the many who made the town noted, sixty or seventy years ago, for the number, skill and repu- tation of its seamen and master mariners. A chapter upon the lives, characters and achievements of Blue Hill shipmasters would prove instructive and interesting.
The next owner and occupant of the place was Dea. Joseph Hinckley and fam- ily, until his death in 1884, aged eighty- seven years. He was the fourth child of Nehemiah and Edith (Wood) Hinckley, born July 8, 1798; married first Ruby Kim- ball, Aug. 22, 1822. She died Nov. 8, 1836; and he married, second, Elvina Stevens, Nov. 13, 1837. The children of Mr. Hinckley were:
By first wife:
1. Ruby Ann, born Nov. 21, 1822; mar- ried Capt. John Kimball Norton.
2. Joseph Thomas, born Sept. 21, 1824; married, Anna D. Colburn.
3. Edward, born Aug. 13, 1826; married Margaret Jarvis.
4. John Lemuel, born July 8, 1828; removed to California.
5. Almira Rebecca, born Sept. 13, 1830; married Dudley Scammons, of Franklin. Now a widow.
6. Julia Dodge, born March 4, 1833; died Aug. 25, 1853.
7. Wheelock Wesner, born March 20, 1835; married Mary L. Treworgy; he died Jan. 19, 1869.
By second wife:
8. Lizzie Maria, born Oct. 29, 1840, died unmarried a few years ago.
Dea. Hinckley was one of the foremost business men of the town, and also in matters pertaining to the church, of which he was a member. At his death the fol- lowing entry was made upon the records of the Congregational church of the town:
"DEA. JOSEPH HINCKLEY."
"No history of this church would be complete without fitting allusion to the memory of Dea. Joseph Hinckley, who died Nov. 7, 1884, aged eighty-seven years. Mr. Hinckley was a member of this church for nearly fifty years. Of him and his brother Nehemiah, it may well be said that they were for many years the very pillars of the church and society; they loved the church and loved it well.
"Dea. Hinckley was a very liberal man, and to his liberality, activity, energy and zeal the church and society are largely indebted. In the fullness of his years, full of faith and ripe for the reaper, he answered the call: come over; come over, the river of Death to the delights of & brighter and better world."
Mrs. Hinckley and her daughter Lizzie followed him in due time, after which the place was sold to Mr. Hoyt, its present owner and occupant. Mr. Hoyt is a wid- ower, whose deceased wife was the daugh- ter of the late Capt. Isaac Merrill, of this town. Mr. Hoyt was born in Vermont, . but all his active business life has been spent in Boston and vicinity.
THE STEPHEN HOLT HOUSE
and place adjoins the one last described, and was built probably about 1825. Stephen Holt was the fifth son of Jedediab Holt, born May 10, 1788, and died May 16, 1830, of consumption. He married Edy, daughter of Robert and Ruth (Wood) Parker, Nov. 23, 1819. She was born Mar.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
3, 1795; died at Thomaston, Me. They had two children: -
1 .. Charlotte Augusta, born April 13, 1821; married Ephraim Barrett of Thom- aston Oct. 1, 1842, and removed to her husband's home.
2. Sarah Thorndike, born Aug. 18, 1822; died Nov. 18, 1831. 1
After the removal of Mrs. Holt and daughter, the house was occupied by different parties, but finally became the property of Wilford Grindle, the present owner and occupant. 3! THE ROBERT P. EWER HOUSE
opposite the last named, was built by Mr. Ewer about 1840, and occupied by him until he left the town. It has since been owned and occupied by various persons, but is now the property of John M. Snow. Mr. Ewer came to Blue Hill a young man. He was a house carpenter, and built the John Cheever house at the Falls in 1834 or 1835. He married, Sept. 3, 1839, Nancy Fisher, daughter of Joseph W. and Sally (Grindle) Johnson. She was born May 4, 1818. They had children as follows:
[1. Sarah Elizabeth, born Sept. 16, 1839.
2. Mary Porter, born Aug. 12, 1842 ...
3. Lewis Cass, born Sept. 20, 1846.
4. Harriet Ada, born June 13, 1849.
5. Franklin Pierce, born Dec. 29, 1851.
Returning to Main street, north side, one finds a building on the corner of Union street built since the boyhood of the writer, owned and occupied by various persons, the lower part occupied as a store, but of no particular moment from an his- toric point of view.
-
THE ANDREW WITHAM HOUSE .
next east of the above on the corner of Main , and Mill . streets, has a, history worthy of recital. Just when it was built is difficult to determine, but it was prob- ably early in 1800, by Mr. Witham. He was born in Bradford, ; Mass., Nov. 11, 1768; came to Blue Hill a young man; mar- ried, first, Mehitable Kimball, May 9, 1790. She was born Jan. 24, 1770; died Aug. 8, 1800. There were four children by that marriage as follows:
1. Charlotte Kimball, born Sept. 7, 1790; married Capt. Robert Means.
12. John Gibson, born Sept. 18, 1794; died at Port au Prince, May 1812.
3. Mehitable, born Aug. 28, 1798; mar- ried Capt. Stephen Norton.
4. Harriet, born May 4, 1800; died Feb. 8, 1801.
Mr. Witham married second, Molly Parker, Oct. 20, 1801; daughter of Col. Nathan and Molly (Wood) Parker, born May 30, 1770; died July 13, 1830, leaving two children.
5. Ira, born July 19, 1802; married Bet- sey Hinckley; he died 18
6. Otis, born July 9, 1804; died at sea Jan. 12, 1828.
Mr. Witham married third, Mrs. Ann Chadwick, April 12, 1831; she died July 2, 1836.
Andrew Witham represented the town in the legislature of 1831, was a senator from Hancock county, a merchant, a ship- owner and an influential citizen. His pew in the old meeting-house was No. 1.
His one story brick store stood a short distance east of his house, as the writer well remembers, and was built early in the last century. It long ago gave place to one of wood on the same site. He sold, among other things, the old style square sheets of baker's molasses gingerbread, of which boys were fond, and would not likely forget where it could be bought.
"Squire Witham," as he was called by the town's people, was a kindly man to the boys and young people with whom he came in contact, which was reciprocated by them. He died in 1851, aged eighty- three years, respected and lamented by a large circle of relatives and friends.
His house was occupied after his death by his son-in-law, Capt. Stephen Norton, until his decease in 1873, and then by Mr. Smith, the shoe dealer, and wife, and now owned by Mrs. Smith.
Between the Witham store and the mill stream,' there were no buildings in the youth of the writer, but. in later years several were built, and occupied by H. B. Darling, J. A. Gould, B. Morrill, John Stevens, esq., and others, though of little historical significance.
On the opposite side of the street stood the old academy, removed from its origi- nal site in 1833, and changed over into a store, and occupied by Capt William Hop- kins, with other buildings in that row destroyed by fire many years ago. The most important in that row to-day are the Partridge and the J. T. Hinckley stores.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BLUEHILL, MAINE.
THE MILLS BELOW THE BRIDGE,
built in the early settlement of this part of the town, though changed and ' rebuilt from time to time, still stand. Above the bridge the writer remembers the Matthew Ray edge tool shop, the Curtis furniture factory, the Daniel Osgood grist mill, the threshing mill, the Stevens carding and fulling mill, the stave mill, the cooper shop and the site of the George Stevens cotton mill for spinning cotton yarn, above High street, erected in the early part of 1800, one of the early cotton mills of this country. Other mills and ma- chinery not here mentioned may have been run by the waters of this small stream, all of which bear witness to im- portance once attached to this water power in the town's activities. Will they or those of a kindred nature ever be re- vived? It seems to be very doubtful to the citizens of 1905.
All the men, women and children of the early settlers of the town, and even their grandchildren, whose lives and doings we have been considering, "sleep with their fathers" in the burying places of the town or elsewhere, and only a few houses of their building and a few meager records tell the story of their living au- tivities, their loves, their hopes, their hardships, their fears, their joys and their sorrows.
The greater part of those known to the writer in his boyhood have gone "to that bourne from whence no traveler returns", and when he visits his" native town, it is to the cemeteries he directs his steps if he desires to learn of and commune with his thoughts concerning them.
And yet the story of their lives must ever be of interest to the citizens and peo- ple of this town, and especially so' to those who are their descendants. It has been especially so to the writer in gather- ing and noting the facts and incidents narrated in this fragmentary and imper- fect account of them.
He feels a just pride in being descended from the first settlers, in being a native of the town, in sharing the friendships and in being held in remembrance by so many of his native townsmen, whose kindly good will felt and expressed has made his journey through life the sunnier, smoother, easier and happier.
"Breathes there a man with soul so dead That never to himself hath said This is my own, my native land? Nor e'er within his bosom burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wand'ring on a foreign strand?"
FROM THE FOUR CORNERS NEAR THE SITE OF THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE CONTIN- UING MAIN STREET TO THE SEDG- WICK TOWN LINE.
The house on the northwest corner of the four roads was built by Moses John- son, son of Obed and Joanna (Wood) Johnson, about 1840, and occupied by him and his family until their removal from the town to Boston in the '50's of the last century. Moses Johnson was born Feb. 9, 1800; married Rosella Hinckley Nov. 27, 1828, daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Coggins) Hinckley, born June 17, 1804. She died in Boston in 1888. He died in Boston ten or a dozen years before his wife. They had seven children, as follows, viz .:
1. Edward Moses, born Jan. 17, 1830; married Sarah E. Leach.
2. George Henry, born April 14, 1831.
3. Charles Carroll, born April 14, 1833.
4. Francis Howard, born Oct. 10, 1835.
5. Mary Louisa, born Aug. 21, 1838.
6. Clara Elizabeth, born Jan. 21, 1841.
7. Abby, born Nov. 10, 1844.
Mr. Johnson inherited a large part of his father's farm, and was a farmer and an active man. He sold his property in town, removed to Boston, where he was a com- mission merchant for the sale of lumber, wood and eastern products and where he died as above stated.
The house was next owned by Capt. Samuel B. Johnson, nephew of its builder, and son of Robert, son of Obed and Joanna (Wood) Johnson, born Oct. 30, 1812. He married Susan Mary, daughter of Joseph and Susannah (Door) Treworgy, Nov. 20, 1841. She was born Nov. 23, 1820. Capt. Johnson commanded vessels from Blue Hill in the coasting, West Indies and European trades for many years, and was captured and had his vessel burnt by a Confederate cruiser during the war of the Rebellion. He and his wife were well known to the writer, she having been, before her marriage, one of his school teachers in the Tide Mill district. They are both dead, but the date of their death
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