History of Androscoggin County, Maine, Part 83

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Boston, W.A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1050

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James Goff was born in St John, N. B., in 1760, and was impressed at Boston by a British frigate, from which he escaped in the West Indies. He enlisted in the American army in 1776, and was "entitled to wear a medal for seven years' honest service." He married Anna Stubbs, of Falmouth, about 1785, and located first on Goff's hill, in Minot, and later settled between Lake street and Merrill hill. For many years he was "fugleman" in militia trainings and musters. He died aged nearly 99. James Goff, Jr, born in 1797, was a trader in 1821 at Stevens's Mills, in 1823 moved to Goff's Corner and was the leading trader until 1852. In 1824 he bought the land on Court street from Auburn Hall to Main street, and fronting 102 feet on Main street, for $137. He was postmaster for 15 years, and was representative from Minot when Auburn was incorporated and gave the name to the town. He built the residence now occupied by Dana Goff in 1854. In the fire of 1855 he lost six stores and two houses. He became a large owner of property now very valuable, owning a tier of lots on the east side of Goff street, and from the west side of Goff street, north of Court, all the territory over Goff's hill, including Highland avenue, Western promenade, and Lake street. He also owned the south side of Court street from Atwood & Lowell's store to the woods opposite his residence. He died July 15, 1872. His children are Dana, Horace, Julia A. (Mrs A. K. P. Welch), Sewell, and Charles.

Daniel Briggs came from Taunton to New Gloucester in 1777, the same year made a home in Turner. In 1785 Daniel, Jr, (born 1764, died 1839,) came to Minot and took up a 200 acre lot (9 on Bullen's plan). He married, first, Betsey Bradford ; second, in 1817, Mary Milliken. His children settled in Auburn, Turner, Lewiston, and Livermore. They were Charles, Lurana (m. Calvin Gorham), Tiley (m. Abijah Gorham), Betsey (m. Nathan Reynolds), Daniel, Rizpah (m. Galen Jones), Serena, Chandler, Jennet (m. Nathaniel Drake), Roxana (m. Stephen Packard), Hiram C., Ann H. Hiram C. Briggs,

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HISTORY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY.

the sole survivor of the children, married, first, Hannah G. Alden. Children : Benjamin F. and Alden G .; second, Semira Briggs. Children: Daniel, Ansel, Betsey married J. Wesley Ricker. Their children are Daniel Wesley and William Briggs. Mr Ricker is son of Joseph and Eliza (Walker) Ricker, and a descendant from early settlers of Poland. He is a Republican, and has been a member of the common council and of the board of aldermen, and a useful member of the school committee. August 23, 1861, he enlisted in Co. C, 8th Me, and served three years. In 1881 he located upon the farm in East Auburn, and makes a specialty of dairying. In 1890 he made and sold 4,152 pounds of butter. He is lecturer of Auburn Grange, No. 4, P. of H. Benjamin F. Briggs married Sarah, daughter of Harvey and Mary (Johnson) Dillingham. He is prominent in affairs, and, with his son, Frank H., conducts the famous Maple Grove stock farm.

William Briggs, born in 1743, in Massachusetts, came in May, 1797, to East Auburn, bringing $2,000 in silver in a bread trough. He settled on the place now owned by Royal J. Bradbury, and died February 2, 1820. His children were: William, who came here before 1796, and cleared and lived on the city farm. He died June 18, 1855, aged 85. Of his three children, Mrs Hiram C. Briggs is the only survivor; Nathan settled where his son, Darius, lives, and built the brick house in 1826; George has descendants here; John married Esther Allen, died in 1853 aged 68. His farm is now the stock farm of B. F. Briggs; Daniel married Rhoda Larrabee, and succeeded to the home- stead. He died October 29, 1862. He taught the first school in East Auburn, was a Baptist deacon, a Whig, and held many town offices. John Calvin Briggs, the venerable genealogist of East Auburn, is his son.

John Dingley, a blacksmith, came from England in 1637 to Lynn, Mass. Removing to Sandwich on Cape Cod, in 1640 he made his home and was granted a lot of land in Marshfield. Jacob,2 son of John,' had a son, John,3 born 1670, from whom descend the Dingleys of America. John3 m. Sarah Porter, 1702, and had two sons, Jacob4 (born 1703) and John. Jacob4 m. Mary Holmes and had three sons, Abner, Jacob5 (born 1727) and Joseph. Jacob5 m. Desire Phillips and had several children. The oldest son, William,6 (born 1749) m. Sarah Jordan and came about 1773 from Duxbury to Cape Elizabeth. In 1793 he took up a farm on the Androscoggin in the southeast part of Danville and gave his name to Dingley's Ferry. Here he died in September, 1812. His children were Jeremiah, William, Abigail (m. James Jordan), Polly (m. Samuel Wagg), Lucy (m. John Penley ), Esther (m. David Crockett), and Sarah and Susannah (who, in succession, m. Matthias Vickery). Jeremiah7 m. Lucy Garcelon and had ten children: Jordan, Julia (Mrs Socrates Dow), Nelson, James, William. Nancy (Mrs Wm Brewster), Lucy (Mrs Isaac Lambert), Jeremiah, Sarah E., Susan G. (Mrs Cornelius Stackpole). He married in 1837 a second wife, Mrs Secomb Jordan, and moved to Durham.

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He died in Auburn in 1869. Nelson8 (born 1809) married Jane, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Strout) Lambert in 1831 and now resides in Auburn. His sons are Nelson, Jr, and Frank L.

Moses Crafts, of Newton, Mass., in 1630, was the ancestor of the Crafts. A descendant, John Staples Crafts, was a physician in North Bridgewater, and late in life came to Minot, and died May 6, 1816. His sons were Thomas, Samuel, John, Moses, Zibeon, Edward. Edward late in life located in West Auburn, and bequeathed $10,000 to charitable objects. Moses and Zibeon settled at West Auburn, where they lived to old age. Martin, son of Moses, lived in West Auburn and had a large family. Zibeon had sons, Caleb, Zibeon, and Frederic. Their descendants are residents in this section. Moses, son of Martin, died in Auburn in 1887; he was a shoe manufacturer, but for several years had devoted his time to his farm, where he built a fine residence.

Nathan Haskell, of Welsh ancestry, came from Gloucester to New Gloucester in the last half of the eighteenth century. He had 14 children. Nathan, the eldest son, was a farmer in the Merrill Hill school district in Auburn; Harry L. Haskell, of Auburn, is a grandson. Deacon Samuel Haskell settled near Danville Corner, and lived there nearly 50 years. S. F. Haskell and D. W. Verrill, of Auburn, are his grandsons. Isaiah Haskell was born in New Gloucester in 1786. Before 1805 he settled on the Nathan W. Harris farm, where he lived over 50 years. He married, in 1835, Sarah Chandler, born in Yarmouth in 1800. Their son, Joseph C. Haskell, has been in the book and stationery business in Auburn for many years, and has held various official positions.

Capt. Aaron Bird, born in 1756, came from Dorchester, Mass., about 1800, and settled on Bird hill, and built a large two-story, flat-roofed mansion, which stood until 1876. His wife was Joanna Glover, of Marblehead, Mass. Capt. Bird died December 12, 1822. His son, Royal Bird, born in 1799, married Polly Reynolds, a daughter of Deacon Ichabod Reynolds, who, with his wife, Polly (Brett) Reynolds, came from Bridgewater, Mass., and settled on Briggs's hill. Royal settled in Windsor, soon after his marriage, where his children, Charles, Mary Brett (married Phillips Bradford), and Edward W. were born. Becoming hopelessly ill, Royal returned to Auburn, and died March 25, 1827. Col Nathaniel Lowe Ingersoll, born at New Gloucester, May 10, 1790, came to Danville Corner in 1814 and opened a store. He married (1) Anna, daughter of Andrew R. Giddinge. Children : Ann E., Sarah H., Caroline G., Nathaniel L., John H., Hannah. (2) Nancy, daughter of Nathaniel Clark (who came from Limington in 1837, and bought the Giddinge farm). Chil- dren : Abby C. (Mrs Elkanah Walker), Harriet W. (telegraph operator at Danville Junction). Col Ingersoll was postmaster 24 years, representative several terms, selectman, and deputy-sheriff, a Democrat in politics, and an original member of the Danville Congregational Church. He died June 4,

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HISTORY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY.

1870. John H. Ingersoll married Hannah, daughter of George Emerson. Children : Anna, Sarah E., Grace, George E., Adelaide W., Hattie M., Edith M. Mr Ingersoll was a successful teacher, but for several years has been in railroad business. Two of his daughters are successful teachers.

Laban Loring, of Hingham, was the first hatter in the Kennebec valley, and a merchant of Bath for years. In May, 1822, he purchased a farm of 175 acres in Danville, and built the house used for a tavern for many years, and now the residence of David R. Loring. He was a man of influence and a deacon of the Congregational church at Danville Corner. He died, June 20, 1844, aged 77. Children : David R., Samuel P., Lydia, Susan (Mrs Samuel Pickard). David R. Loring was born in Bath, November 22, 1797, followed the sea in his youth, and then came into possession of the homestead. He married, June 11, 1833, Sarah, daughter of Deacon John Hayes, of Yarmouth, a lady of marked amiability and Christian character, who died July 8, 1890, in her 87th year. Mr Loring, although at the venerable age of 94, looks upon the world with a cheerful face, has a kind word for all, and is a much-respected citizen. His children were Charles P., who graduated from Bowdoin in 1859, from a New York medical college in 1862, and located in Providence as a physician. He died in 1877, aged 42 years ; Mary J. married, first, Dr A. B. Foster, a native of Livermore. Dr Foster practiced many years in Providence, where he died in December, 1885. His worthy traits of character, genial disposition, and great professional skill won him lasting friends. About 1875 he purchased a farm in Auburn and passed his summers here. He was the first in this vicinity, and it is said in the state, to introduce ensilage and build a silo. Mrs Foster married, second, in October, 1890, John F. Cobb; Susan, (dec.); Annie S., (dec.).

Col Isaac Allen, son of John Allen, an early settler of Turner [see page 516], located in Auburn early. He married Mary Allen; their son, Fred A. Allen, was born at Auburn Plains, February 20, 1833. He fitted for college at Hebron Academy and attended Maine State Seminary, but, his health failing, he left school and became a farmer and a school teacher and has taught over 50 terms of district and grammar schools, mostly in Auburn and Turner. He is a Democrat, and has been a member of the school committee and board of assessors of Auburn, and two years an alderman from Ward 1. He is a member of the Grange and was elected overseer when only three months a member, was master of his lodge for several years, master of the County Grange two years, and has been secretary of the State Grange since 1885, and secretary of the Patrons' Androscoggin Mutual Fire Insurance Company since its organization. He is postmaster at Auburn Plains. He married Emily, daughter of Capt. John Townsend, May 20, 1859. His son, Wilfred C., is a farmer on the home farm.

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CITY OF AUBURN.

Col Thomas Littlefield was born in Minot, August 15, 1818, and died in Auburn, April 2, 1889. He was clerk and in the lumber business at Stevens Mills until he was of age, and for five years after lived at the old tavern kept by his parents at Littlefield's Corner. Mr Littlefield soon enlisted in the Maine militia and was made ensign in 1838, and rapidly promoted to captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, adjutant, becoming major-general in 1851. His strong common sense, practical judgment, and business ability brought him continuously into public life, where he made an honorable record. He was state senator from Cumberland county in 1851 and 1852; represented Auburn in the legislature several times; was selectman 14 years; was chosen the first mayor of the city in 1869, and also elected in 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1879, and 1880; was assessor, and an overseer of the poor for 19 years ; jailer until 1883 ; deputy sheriff from 1857 to 1872, when he was elected sheriff ; he was four times re-elected, and was instrumental in shaping most of the early measures on which the prosperity of Auburn is founded. Possessing a strong, brusque individuality, with uncommon energy and intense local attachment, Colonel Littlefield was one whose influence will be long felt. His wife, Laura, daughter of Jacob H. and Mary (Goff) Read, and four children survive him.

Robert Martin, who died June 15, 1885, aged 85, was son of John Martin, who came from New Gloucester to Danville in 1809. He taught 54 terms of school, was much in office in Danville, Poland, and Auburn, from 1856 to 1863 was on the State Board of Agriculture, from 1863 to 1869 county com- missioner, from 1878 to 1885 customs officer at Danville Junction. In 1849 he was representative from Poland, and for many years his influence was great in state legislation and county affairs. He was an active Free Mason.

Noel B. Potter, county treasurer, was born in Webster, January 13, 1859. Graduating at the Maine Central Institute at Pittsfield, he became a teacher, and later supervisor of schools in Webster. From 1882 to 1886 he was Governor Robie's private secretary. In 1886 he was elected county treasurer and has held that office by re-elections to the present. He is secretary and treasurer of Androscoggin County Republican Committee, and is an aid-de- camp of Governor Burleigh, with rank of lieutenant-colonel.

John F. Lamb, sheriff, was a soldier in the 13th Maine during the Civil War and has since been prominent in G. A. R. circles. He was a charter member of Kimball Post, Livermore Falls, its second commander, twice a member of the Council of Administration of the Department of Maine, and has been Senior Vice Commander. From 1880 till his election as sheriff in 1888 he resided in Livermore Falls, where he was a trader. He is a "model officer."

Silas Sprague, register of deeds, was born in Greenc in 1826. He attended the common schools and Monmouth Academy, became an eminently successful teacher for many years, represented Greene in 1859 and 1860, and has held his present office by successive re-clections since January 1, 1868.

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HISTORY OF ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

ARA CUSHMAN.

A RA CUSHMAN, son of Ara and Esther (Merrill) Cushman, was born at Woodman hill in Minot, Me, April 30, 1829, and is a descendant in the eighth generation of Robert Cushman, who was prominent in securing the charter for the Plymouth Colony and the charter for the first permanent settlement in Massachusetts Bay colony. Robert came to America in the ship Fortune in 1621, but soon returned to England as agent of the colony, leaving his son Thomas in the care of his "intimate friend," Governor William Bradford. Thomas married Mary Allerton, a passenger on the Mayflower, and on the death of William Brewster was elected one of the elders of the Plymouth church. Springing from such ancestors, and inheriting much of their strength of purpose and individuality of character, it is easy to understand how Ara Cushman won his large success in business and developed the ability and the qualities that have made him an acknowledged authority in financial circles, and a controlling force in so many of the movements that make the progress of the world possible.

Mr Cushman passed his early life on his father's farm in Minot, making the best use of the slender opportunities afforded by the district school for acquiring an education. Later, attendance upon the Lewiston Falls and Gorham academies gave him a taste of and a love for those studies which have occupied so much of his later life, and the mastery of which vindicates the theory that a liberal education is not dependent upon college halls or learned professors, and proves that the work of the student and the attainments of the scholar help rather than embarrass the busiest of busy men. At the age of 19 he taught with acceptance a district school for several terms, and shortly afterward entered upon the work which has been his occupation up to the present time, that of a shoe manufacturer. He was one of the pioneers in Maine in the manufacture of the finer grade of boots and shoes. His primi- tive little shop at, West Minot, if standing, would form a striking contrast to the extensive factories occupied by the Ara Cushman Company of to-day. It was a square-roofed, one-story building, less than twenty feet square, locally known as the "tea-can." For some months he worked alone, cutting his leather and making the shoes which he sold to the retail dealers in Cumber- land and Kennebec counties from the wagon which he drove through the country. Ilis work met with such favor that his business steadily increased till, in 1855, a larger building was required, and it became necessary for Mr Cushman to devote his entire time to the superintendence of a business which employed abont 25 persons. In 1859 he found it necessary to again increase his plant, and erected a large two-story factory which he occupied until 1863,

Ara Grohman

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when the business so modestly begun had outgrown the hamlet in which it had been nurtured, and was transplanted to Auburn, where better facilities for manufacturing and shipping could be found. Here, as Ara Cushman & Co., and later as the incorporated Ara Cushman Company, under the vigilant and intelligent direction of its projector, the business has attained the proud posi- tion of one of the largest manufacturing establishments of its kind in New England and, hence, in the world.

Large as the business has been, and exacting as its claims are upon its principal manager, yet his connection with other enterprises is extensive enough to occupy the entire time and strength of most men. He was one of the founders of the National Shoe and Leather Bank, of Auburn, and has been its president from its organization. He is president of the J. M. Arnold Shoe Company, of Bangor, and a director in the A. H. Berry Shoe Company, of Portland, the Auburn Loan and Building Association, the Auburn Land Company, Auburn Trust Company, beside being president of the Auburn Board of Trade, the Old Ladies' Home, and trustee in institutions too numerous to mention. He gives to all of these not the time that can be culled from his regular work but the attention needed to promote their best interests and highest prosperity.

Mr Cushman has always held to the faith professed by the Universalist denomination, and the erection of the beautiful Elm Street Church in Auburn was largely due to his active beneficence. His relation to other institutions of the church in New England are very intimate and his interest in them is felt to a greater extent than it is seen. Ile was for four years president of the Universalist State Convention, and is one of the largest owners in its denom- inational paper. He is a thorough-going temperance man, and heartily in sympathy with all measures looking toward the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquors. He was president of the Law and Order League during its days of activity, and is always ready to bear his part of the burden placed on the shoulders of .all good citizens by the struggle that virtue wages against vice. He is a Republican in faith, but not a partisan in practice. He accepts the general principles of the party, but reserves the right to refuse to vote for candidates that he knows to be unfit for the position for which the " machine " has named them. Holding and acting upon such views usually excludes such men from offices that are dependent upon popular elections. The esteem in which Mr Cushman is held by his fellow-townsmen cannot be more clearly indicated than by the fact that he represented his city in the state legislature in 1873-4, has been a delegate to many important conventions, and would be elected by a practically unanimous vote to any office in the gift of the city which he would indicate his willingness to accept. Mr Cushman has given much study to the questions that involve the relations that exist between employers and employés. He has written several pamphlets that have

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attracted wide attention and favorable comment by advanced thinkers. Ingen- ious theories are interesting reading to philosophers, but practical demonstra- tions are the things that are demanded by those whose conditions form the problems that are the terror of the monopolist and the burden of the humanitarian capitalist.

The many calls made on Mr Cushman for addresses indicates the esteem in which he is held as a public speaker by the associations and societies with which he is more or less directly connected. His speeches are characterized by close thinking, felicitious diction, and firm grasp of the subject treated. But few laymen can more completely control or more powerfully influence an intelligent audience, when he is stirred by the impressiveness of a great theme. As a presiding officer he has but few peers. As toast-master at banquets he is at his best, and the apt quotation and sparkling wit give that tone and zest to the occasion that only a genius for such duties can yield. He was the first of the shoe manufacturers in New England to adopt a scheme of profit- sharing. Like everything else that he does it was done in his own way, after an exhaustive study of all the conditions by which he was surrounded. To devise a plan that will harmonize all the relations of a capitalist, employer, and employé, and do full justice to each, would be to answer the prayer of all lovers of his kind. To say that Mr Cushman has not accomplished this work is to say that he is human. To say that he has put in successful operation a scheme that ensures to the capital invested a sure return, leaves the manage- ment of the business in the hands of those who have demonstrated their fitness to conduct it, and guarantees to every employé full compensation for all his labor and faithfulness, and makes him such a partner as will render him financially benefited by every dollar that the concern earns, is to state simply an accomplished fact. To make each individual connected with a large manu- facturing establishment feel that he is interested in its welfare, that he is to be helped by its success or injured by its failure ; that his intelligence, integ- rity, and endeavor are necessary elements in the accomplishment of the work that is to be done, is to make men and women of what is, in too many instances, converted into irresponsible machines. He who makes the shop a means of moral and intellectual grace to those who must do its drudgery, has done much to hasten the good time when life shall be worth the living in its largest sense. It is a significant fact and strictly characteristic of the man that Mr Cushman has never been a member of any of the organizations formed by manufacturers to combat the demands of operatives.

The much that Mr Cushman has done for himself indicates to some extent what he is doing for others. He is never too busy to help by his presence, purse, and effort, the Sunday school, the literary club, the library association, the public schools, the social gathering, the temperance meeting, and any and all agencies that help to correct the evil and advance the good in society. A

RESIDENCE OF ARA CUSHMAN, AUBURN, ME.

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room lined with books does not constitute a library. The blind reading of every volume that fills the shelves does not indicate a student. The absorp- tion of all the facts found in all these tomes does not produce a scholar. Mr Cushman has accumulated one of the largest and best selected private libraries in the state, that he might possess the garnered wisdom of the ages; he has studied these volumes that he might become imbued with the spirit that inspired the great thinkers, and they are his greatest source of pleasure because from them he gathers that which feeds the strongest craving of his nature. While his vocation is making shoes, his avocation is the work of the lover of books. Firmly as he believes in the dignity and usefulness of the former, yet vastly more helpful and ennobling does he consider the latter. Great as has been his success in business, still more marked are his attainments in his chosen field. Extended as are his interests in commercial circles, yet more potent has been his influence in impelling those with whom he is associated to make the most of the best that is in them. He has demonstrated that absorbing business cares do not prevent or delay the full development of those qualities and powers which characterize the man of refined sensibilities and broad and rich intelligence. His appreciation of the best in literature is manifest in the apt quotations that spring spontaneously at the slightest suggestion, the hearty relish with which he discusses his favorite authors, and the wholesome influence of the great poets on his estimate of life and its work. When years and their hard experience fail to harden a man, when the end of the third score finds him mellow and believing that the evil in life and nature are to be subdued and that the good is to reign supreme, that the soul and mind are the nobler parts of man, and that to their training our best thoughts and endeavors should be given, do we realize that the springs of such a life must be deeper than sordid desires and selfish hopes. Some one has said of a great journalist what applies with equal force to Mr Cushman, that whatever he says is what he thoroughly believes and every one feels behind what is said or done the throbbing of an honest heart, which has room for every good cause, however unpopular it may be. He believes that life is meant to be cumulative ; that we should go on adding strength to strength, experience to experience, service to service, each succeeding stage contributing its own special accession until old age has become the fruitful harvest of October and not the bleak barrenness of December.

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History of Androscoggin County, Maine, Part 83

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Boston, W.A. Fergusson & co. Number of Pages: 1050

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew, ed
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Boston, W.A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1050