USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 71
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 71
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 71
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In August, 1715, he received orders from Governor Dudley to build a fort at Pejepscot. . It was finished November 25, 1715. His pay was thirty shillings per week, and the proprietors gave him £5, which he was not altogether satisfied with. He was dismissed from Fort George, December 12, 1725, and the next day was commissioned for the garrison at St. George's River. November 28, 1728, he was commissioned a justice of the peace. In 1737 he retired from the military service and removed to Roxbury, where he died.
" He was a man of stern, unbending virtue, a true patriot, and a sincere Christian, upright in the discharge of duty, both to God and man. He served his country faithfully on a dangerous frontier, and was just and kind, yet ever vigilant, in his transactions with the abo- rigines. He was a man of energy and activity, and became possessed of considerable property, as appears from bis will and from many deeds on record." Many of his letters to the governor and his muster- rolls. are in the Massachusetts State archives. We append a fac- simile of his autograph.
form Gyty
GYLES, THOMAS.1
Thomas Gyles resided in Topsham until late in the autumn of 1674, when, on account of the death of his father, and not because he was driven away by the Indians, he went to England with his family. Having obtained possession of his father's property, he returned to New England, probably in the autumn of 1675 or spring of 1676.
From Gyles Memorial.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
He intended returning to Pleasant Point, Topsham, but was prevented by the Indian war then going on. In the summer of 1677 he returned there, but finding the place deserted, he went to Pemaquid.
"He was a man of wealth. . . . He was also a gentleman of great personal worth, of high religious character, a strict, unbending Puri- tan, a careful observer of the Sabbath, faithful and fearless in the dis- charge of all his duties. As a magistrate ' and ruler, who must be a terror to evil-doers, as well as a rewarder of those who do well, he met with much difficulty in enforcing the laws among a people who had long been accustomed to live without restraint."
GYLES, THOMAS.2
Thomas Gyles, the son of the subject of the preceding sketch, was, without doubt, born in Topsham, as Lydia Felt, aged sixty-one, de- posed July 22, 1718, that she lived in his father's family and was there when Thomas was born. He was, so far as can now be determined, the first white child born in Topsham. He escaped from the Indians at the time of his father's death at Pemaquid; and went to Boston, where he probably lived the remainder of his days. At any rate he was a ferry-man there in 1727, and kept a retail store in 1730.
On August 15, 1727, Thomas Gyles, ferry-man, John Gyles, gent., Mary Brewer, widow, and Jonas Webber, lawyer (or sawyer), and Margaret his wife, all of Boston ("Thomas and John are sons, and Mary and Margaret the daughters of Thomas Gyles, late of Pemequid, deceased "), in consideration of sixty acres where their father's house stood in Topsham, and five hundred and fifteen acres on Cathance Point, relinquished to the Pejepscot proprietors their father's right in the neck of land on Muddy River Point, and all other lands of their father in Topsham.
HALEY, PELATIAH.
Pelatiah Haley was born in Kittery, Maine, October 8, 1740. He married Elizabeth Lewis, who was born April 9, 1743, and died Feb- ruary 19, 1836. He was called Captain in consequence of having, for a time, commanded a company of militia. His sister Susannah mar- ried John Merrill, Esquire, of Topsham. Captain Haley moved to Topsham in May, 1769, coming by water.
Captain Haley was in the Indian campaign of 1759 or 1760 ; in the French war, at Lake Champlain and Montreal, under Captain John
1 At Pemaquid.
2 From Gyles Memorial.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
Wentworth, of Kittery. The next year after the capture of Quebec (1760), he was engaged in battle at the taking of the Isle of Aux.1 He was one of the Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary war, for three years. He was also one of the party at the capture of Cap- tain Mowatt, at Falmouth, in May, 1775. He was an orderly corpo- ral in Captain Actor Patten's company in the Bagaduce Expedition in 1779, and was in the attack at the landing of the troops. After the defeat of the Americans he, guided by a compass, penetrated the wil- derness and reached the Sebasticook, where he hired a canoe and thus reached home. He died in Topsham, October 29, 1819.
HALL, PAUL.
Paul Hall was the son of Hate-evil Hall, of Falmouth, now Port- land, and came to Brunswick in the latter part of the last century. He first lived for a while on a farm at Rocky Hill, and in 1798 moved to a house in the village that stood where the Pejepscot Bank is now. He afterward lived on Mason Street. He was at one time largely engaged in the lumbering business, and lost heavily in the great freshet of 1808. The latter part of his life he was a surveyor of lumber. He was a Quaker, an upright, honest man, who expected others to be as honest as he was himself, a good husband, father, and Christian citizen.
He died in April, 1841.
HASEY, BENJAMIN, ESQUIRE.
Benjamin Hasey was a native of Lebanon, Maine. His father, Isaac Hasey, the first minister of that town, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1762. He was settled in Lebanon in 1765, where his son Benjamin was born, July 5, 1771, and was named from an uncle who took his degree from Cambridge in that year. His mother was a daughter of William Owen, of Boston. Mr. Hasey, like his father and uncle, was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1790. Mr. Hasey received his preliminary educa- tion at Dummer Academy, under the tuition of the celebrated Master Moody, and entered college in 1786.
Soon after leaving college, he entered the office of Judge Thacher, in Biddeford, as a student, and was admitted to practice in April, 1794. In June of the same year he established himself at Topsham,
1 So Woodman says in his MSS. We can find no such island. The Isle of Aix, France, was the seat of a naval battle in 1747, but this date is too early.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
where he continued to reside until his death, March 24, 1851, a period of fifty-seven years. a single as well as a singular man.
Mr. Hasey represented his town in the legislature of Massachusetts several years before the separation ; but he had no taste for politics, and he withdrew from all public employment. IIe was, for fifteen years, one of the trustees of Bowdoin College.
Reserved and retired in his habits, he became more so as he left the common highway so much frequented by lawyers and politicians. It was not unnatural that a man of his sensitive nature should have shrunk from scenes which are often contaminated by low intrigues and self- seeking arts. Of the most rigid integrity, regular and quiet in all his modes of thought and action, nothing disturbed him more than the cant of demagogues. As may be supposed, he was strongly conserva- tive ; change was distasteful to him. This may be a reason why he never married. For more than thirty-eight years he boarded in the same family, and for many years occupied the same office, to which he daily resorted until within a few days of his death, in the same manner as when he was in practice. But with all his peculiarities, he was ever to be relied upon ; his word was sacred, his act just, his deportment blameless. As a counsellor, his opinions were sound and much val- ued, and for many years he had an extensive practice in the counties of Lincoln and Cumberland. He rarely appeared as an advocate, his natural diffidence and reserve disqualifying him for any display. Many years before his death he left the active duties of his profession ; the innovations which were taking place in the manners and course of prac- tice at the bar were ill suited to his delicate and conservative feelings. The want of ancient decorum and respect, the absence of forensic courtesy, fretted upon his nerves. The abolishing of special pleading annoyed him, and the revision and codification of the statutes thor- onglily confused his habitual notions of practice, displaced his accus- tomed authorities, and cast him afloat, in his old age, on what seemed a new profession. He lived in the past and believed in it, and strove, as much as mortal could, to keep himself from the degeneracy of mod- ern ideas. Mr. Hasey, at the time of his deatlı, was the oldest sur- viving lawyer in the State ; when he commenced practice the whole number was but seventeen, all of whom he survived except Judge Wilde, who had removed from the State.1
The Honorable Frederic Allen, his contemporary in Lincoln County, has furnished the following well-considered estimate of Mr. Hasey's
1 William Willis's The Law, Courts, and Lawyers of Maine.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
character and standing : " He was well versed in the principles of the common law. His reading was extensive, both legal and miscellane- ous. His memory was tenacious, his habits studious. In his person, though very small in stature, he was of the most perfect formation, and always most neatly attired. He had much good sense, and was a strict adherent to the old Federal party, from whose leading opinions, so long as the party had a distinctive existence, he never wavered, and had little charity for those who did. He was not much employed as an advocate ; he generally argued not over one case a year, and that was done very well. His address to the jury was brief, free from all rep- etition or copious illustration. He left the world in the same appar- ent quietude in which he had lived, leaving a name much honored and a character highly respected." In his religious views he was a Unita- rian.
HASKELL, DEACON JOSHUA.
Deacon Haskell moved to Topsham, August 2, 1818. He had been previously engaged in the lumbering business on the Androscoggin River, and still continued at that occupation. When he first came to town, he resided in the house recently occupied by Sandford A. Perkins. In about six months afterwards he moved on to "the Island," and took up his abode in the Nathaniel Green house, recently occupied by Captain Henry W. Green. At the time of his entering this residence, Mr. Henry Bowman, from Litchfield, moved in and occupied one half of the house. Early in 1819, Messrs. Haskell and Bowman formed a partnership in business and commenced manufacturing lumber, buy- ing logs at the head of the Androscoggin, which they drove down, in the spring of the year, into booms. They rafted and sawed boards, shingles, clapboards, and laths for many years with good success. They finally dissolved partnership, and Mr. Bowman moved to Gardiner, where he died. Deacon Haskell was also engaged in trade. The small residence now occupied by Mrs. Berry, opposite the blacksmith shop of Samuel Jameson, was for some years a store, bearing the sign of Bowman & Haskell.
In 1826 he built the house now occupied by Ebenezer Colby, and moved into it in November of the same year. He afterwards removed to the house on the corner of Main and Elm Streets, where his fam- ily still resides.
He was made deacon of the Free-Will Baptist Church at its first organization.
He was a captain of the Artillery Company for some years, and 48
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
was afterwards chosen major. He served in the war of 1812, having enlisted at the age of eighteen.
Joshua Haskell was a man of enlarged views and a liberal disposi- tion. He was kind-hearted, unselfish, and benevolent. He was a man of the highest integrity of character and was a sincere Christian He possessed a rare humor and was always good-tempered. He invaria- bly looked upon the bright side, and his cheerfulness was undiminished by loss of property or other dispensations of Providence.
HINKLEY, JUDGE AARON.
Aaron Hinkley was one of the noted men of Brunswick in his day. Of his personal appearance and manner nothing is now known, but he is said to have had but one eye. The tradition which accounts for the loss of the other eye is, that a " tame " Indian in the employ of Aaron's father was one day holding him in his lap, and accidentally dropped a live coal from his pipe into the boy's eye, totally destroying the sight.
He was a man of good judgment, and was often engaged in the ser- vice of the town, either on committees or as a selectman. He served in the latter capacity five several years, 1745, 1750, 1755, 1759, 1760. In 1775 he was one of the judges of the Court of Sessions for Lincoln County. When Topsham was incorporated, in 1764, Judge Hinkley was directed to issue his warrant for calling the first town meeting.
In his religious views he was a Congregationalist, and was very severe in his opposition to Presbyterianism. He lived where Ephraim Larrabee resided in 1854.
HINKLEY, DEACON SAMUEL.
Samuel Hinkley was born in Harwich, February 7, 1711. He moved to this State, and in 1729-30 is named as one of several persons asso- ciated together for the purpose of forming the First Church of Bidde- ford. On August 29, 1735, he purchased of James Kent, for one hun- dred and fifteen pounds, thirty-five acres of land in Biddeford. He was chosen a deacon of the church there. Ile soon after, however, moved to Brunswick, and settled at New Meadows. His wife's name has not been ascertained. He was selectman in 1739, 1740, 1741, 1742, and 1743, and a representative in 1747.
HUMPHREYS, GENERAL JOHN C.
John Campbell Humphreys, the son of Lawrence and Frances (Campbell) Humphreys, was born in Georgetown (now Phipsburg) , February 22, 1798.
Nevy Inch your SC Humphreys.
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BIOGRAPHIICAL.
His father afterwards removed to Topsham, and at the age of four- teen John C. entered the store of Jotham Stone, of Brunswick. Active, intelligent, upright, and energetic, he soon won the confidence and esteem of his employer, and before he had attained his majority, Mr. Stone sold his stock to him and Ephraim Brown, and they, as Brown & Humphreys, continued the same business for several years. He afterwards formed a partnership with A. B. Thompson, and for many years the firm of Thompson & Humphreys were largely engaged in lumbering in the woods, and in manufacturing at their mill in the Cove in Brunswick. This connection continued until 1850.
In 1848, General Humphreys, as he was then universally called. bought the Dunning farm, at the Narrows, and transferred his business to that location, building a steam saw-mill and a ship-yard. Here, in connection with his sons John H. and Charles C., he carried on the manufacture of lumber, and from the ship-yard were launched, in suc- cessive years, the ships Ophir, J. C. Humphreys, Singapore, Marengo, and the bark Annie Kimball.
In politics General Humphreys was a Democrat, and he held many offices of importance. He was a senator in the State legislature, high sheriff of Cumberland County for several years, and collector of the port of Bath under President Polk.
As a citizen he interested himself in all that related to public and town affairs. He took an active part in military matters, and rose to the rank of major general of militia. He was chief warden of the fire department of Brunswick for many years.
It was, however, as a Mason that he was probably most widely known throughout the State. He early took a deep interest in the subject of Freemasonry, and was honored with the highest positions of the order in the State. In all his relations as a citizen, politician, Mason, and inan, to use the words of a contemporary, " he sustained a character above reproach."
He married Angeline Whitmore, daughter of John Whitmore, of Bath, December 31, 1823, by whom he had a large family of children, five of whom survived him.
His health, which had always been remarkably robust, failed him in 1864, and he died June 18, 1865, at the age of sixty-seven. He was buried with Masonic ceremonies, and his funeral was attended by a large representation of the Masonic order from different parts of the State. His wife survived him but a short time, and died October 14, 1866, at the age of sixty-four.
756
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
HUNTER, ADAM.
Adam Hunter, a grandson of Captain Adam, and son of James, was named for his grandfather. He enlisted in the army in the Rev- olutionary war, under Captain, afterwards Colonel, John Reed. He was but sixteen years of age at the time. He is said to have been under General John Sullivan when the latter laid waste the country of the Six Nations, about 1778 or 1779. The following traditional account of his capture at that time, and his subsequent escape, is given : -
" Having been sent out on a scouting party, he was taken captive by the Indians. By them he was stripped of all he had, and was left with barely a blanket, or some such slight clothing. In his captivity he was associated with a Dutchman who lived among the Indians and was acquainted with their language. The pappooses, or young Indians, were in the habit of applying pointed splinters of pitch-wood, prick- ing him and tormenting him, and then laughing to see him dodge their mnock assaults. The Dutchman, having been flogged by one of the squaws, resolved to attempt his escape, and communicating his purpose to Hunter, they contrived to quit them, Ilunter carrying his hat full of corn, which they had contrived to secrete for this purpose, and the Dutchman carrying a hatchet. With these slender means of sustenance and defence, after Hunter had been among them about three weeks, they made their escape. Their only food for eight days was the dry corn, about two quarts in quantity, which they took with them. At one time in their wanderings they lost their way, and heard the barking of the Indians' dogs. The Dutchman was for sur- rendering himself again to the Indians; but Hunter, contriving by some excuse to get possession of the hatchet, threatened to split his brains if he attempted to give himself up; and at length they suc- ceeded in reaching the settlements at Harpersfield, New York, where Hunter was supplied with clothes, etc., and again joined the army. At the time of their escape it was in the month of October, and Hunter said there was occasionally to be found some snow in the low lands. Hunter served three years and then returned home."
After his return Adam went to school at Bath. While here, after much persuasion, he went on board a privateer. Some prizes were taken and carried into Salem or Boston, but at length he was cap- tured and carried into Halifax. His father and uncle went to Halifax to obtain his exchange, but before his arrival Adam, with about five hundred other American prisoners, had been put on board a vessel
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
called the Cornwallis, to be conveyed to Boston. The vessel was lost, and Adam was never heard of afterwards. This was in the autumn of 1781.1
HUNTER, JAMES.
The subject of this sketch, a son of Captain Adam Hunter, was one of the selectmen of Topsham in 1767, 1768, 1773, and 1779. He was chosen to this office again in 1780, but declined service. He was on the committee raised in February, 1781, to see to the procuring of seven men for the Continental army. He is styled Major in the town records. His son John, called " Bald-headed John," stated, about 1833, that his father had been a major in the Revolutionary war, and that he was made a colonel about the close of the war, and that his commission was signed by Hancock. Bald-headed John also said that his father was under Colonel North (whom he called Judge North) of Augusta. He said that he had heard his father and the old soldiers speak of Judge North as colonel, in ridicule ; that they used to have a good deal of fun about Colonel North, and that the latter was nicknamed " Jo Bunker."
When his son Adam (see preceding sketch) was carried to Halifax, James Hunter, with his brother Robert, procured two prisoners and went to Halifax to obtain an exchange. He was there detained and imprisoned about a fortnight, it being charged against him that he was a spy. He was liberated, however, and sent home in a schooner, one Captain Powell, master, who landed him at the mouth of the Kennebec River. He reached home about Christmas, 1781.
The father of James Hunter's wife was Thomas Williams, who came from England, February 18, 1717, " when gooseberries were in blow," and reached Boston, April 17, 1717, " when the snow was very deep." He was employed in teaching Latin in Boston, and subsequently removed to the part of Georgetown that is now Bath. It is said that he was a physician, and that he often expressed his regrets at having ever left England.
Colonel Hunter died about 1809, at the age of seventy-four, leaving a family whose posterity are still numerous in town.
KENDALL, ELDER HENRY.
Elder Henry Kendall was born in Sandford, July 3, 1774. He had ten brothers and sisters. When he was ten years old he went to Wells and lived with Captain S. Hatch. When he was about thirteen
1 From Woodman's MS. Notes.
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
years old his father deserted the family, and Henry went to Centre Harbor and was apprenticed to Mr. Marston to learn the tanner's and shoemaker's trade. He received only three months' schooling.
In October, 1801, he began to preach. In 1802 he visited Mt. Vernon, Palermo, Belfast. Hallowell, Litchfield, Bowdoinham, Au- gusta, Bowdoin, Sidney, Bloomfield, and Mercer, preaching in each place, and returned to Litchfield, where he settled. In 1812 he was representative to the legislature from that town. March 18, 1818, he moved to Topsham and bought a farm. He was settled over the Baptist Church in Topsham for about ten years, and ever after made it his home, though he preached as a missionary over almost the entire State. Of his style of preaching but little is known, except that he was noted for the power and compass of his voice. It was once said by Doctor Porter, in reference to Mr. Kendall and one of the other ministers, that he could " stay at hioine and hear Elder Kendall, or go to the Orthodox Church and hear them both." The Baptist vestry was then opposite the present cemetery, and Doctor Porter lived in the Purinton house near.
KING, HONORABLE WILLIAM.
William King, the first governor of the State of Maine, was born in Scarboro', February 9, 1768, and died in Bath, June 17,- 1852.
When nineteen years old a division of his father's property was made, and his share was a yoke of two-year-old steers. With these steers he started east in the spring of the year to seek his fortune. It was cold, but having neither shoes nor stockings, he went barefooted. He stopped at many houses on the way, offering to work for his board. He finally reached Topsham and found employment in a saw-mill. He was industrious and frugal, and in a year and a half had laid by enough to purchase one half a saw, and it was not long before he owned a whole saw, and finally a whole mill. After a while he formed a copartnership with his brother-in-law, Doctor Benjamin Jones Porter, under the name of Porter & King, and opened a store, Mr. King devoting his attention chiefly to his lumber interests, and Doctor Porter assuming control of the store This copartnership existed for some years after Mr. King's removal to Bath, which took place in 1800.
Mr. King was one of the incorporators of the toll-bridge, and also one of the incorporators of the first cotton-mill in Brunswick. After lis removal to Bath he opened a store there. He was also extensively engaged in ship building for many years. Ile was at one time a
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
member of the Massachusetts legislature. In 1811 he was major- general of militia. In 1812 he was president of the Bath Bank.
While in the Massachusetts legislature " he was distinguished by his efforts in behalf of religious freedom, and of securing to original settlers upon wild lands the benefit of their improvements. He was an early and ardent advocate of the separation of Maine from Massa- chusetts, and upon the consummation of that act presided over the Convention which met in 1819 to frame the Constitution of the new State. He was in 1820 elected the first governor of Maine, and after holding office a little more than a year, became one of the United States commissioners for the adjustment of Spanish claims. He also held other offices of importance under the general and State govern- ments, including that of collector of the port of Bath."1 He was the first grand master of the Grand Lodge of Maine Freemasons.
LARRABEE, CAPTAIN BENJAMIN.
Captain Benjamin Larrabee came from Portland, then Falmouth, to assume the command of the fort in Brunswick about 1727. In December of that year he petitioned the General Court of Massachu- setts " for a recompense for services in going from Boston to Bruns- wick, the journey having consumed one month." He lived in the fort for some years, and his children were born there. He afterwards lived at New Meadows, where the house of Andrew Thomas now stands. He was the agent of the Pejepscot proprietors, and before the incorporation of the town he had the principal management of the concerns of the township. In 1735 he superintended the building of the old West Meeting-House, purchasing all the materials, attending to the transportation, etc. He died in 1748 and was buried in the graveyard attached to the fort. There are now no traces of this burying-ground.
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