USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 74
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 74
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 74
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" In May, 1777, being then twenty-one years of age, I went with the army to Fort Ticonderoga, and was there when General Burgoyne came up the lake. Our army, three thousand in number, retreated from this post to Hubbardston, a distance of twenty-four miles, when General Frazer came up in pursuit. I was in the engagement for a quarter of an hour at elose quarters ; and when our army was obliged then to retreat, with a loss of two hundred and fifty men, Colonel Francis, of Beverly, was shot, close behind me, after a gallant defence. I was also present at the battle of Stillwater, when General Frazer attacked Colonel Morgan. The latter was reinforced by our soldiers, and the fight then became general, from two o'clock till dark. The surrender of Burgoyne took place three days after this, on the 17th of October. I also guarded the army's stores at Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1778; and when the British Colonel Monkton was killed, his. body was left in my care.
" I was also a witness of the memorable execution of Major André on the 2d of October, 1780. Our army, under General Patterson, was then stationed at West Point. Having obtained leave of absence, I fell in with the guard who were appointed to attend Major André on that occasion, and thus had an excellent opportunity for witnessing the scene. The events of the day are still as fresh in my memory as those of yesterday. I saw him remove his stock, and prepare himself for his final scene, with as much composure as though attending to his usual employments."
PAGE, DOCTOR JONATHAN.
Doctor Page was born in Conway, New Hampshire, in October, 1777. Ile came to Brunswick in the year 1795, and commenced the practice of medieine in 1800. His praetiee soon became extensive, and con- tinued increasingly so until the sickness which terminated in his death. Among the distinguished men in his profession, he held a highly respectable rank. He was well skilled in the principles and practice of his art, and was considered an eminently judicious and successful practitioner.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
Doctor Page was favorably and conspicuously known in public life. He was for several years a member of the Senate of Massachusetts, before the separation of Maine from that State. When provision was inade for the separation of Maine, and when, in connection with the assumption of rights of self-government, she was required to form a Constitution for herself, he was chosen a member of the convention to whom that important duty was assigned. To such an assembly, whose business it was to establish the fundamental law which should define and secure the rights of succeeding generations, it was no small honor to belong. He was subsequently a member of the Senate of Maine.
Intelligent and active, and ever taking a deep interest in what- ever came under his examination, he could not be for any length of time a member. of any public body without leaving the impress of his character. He was one of the original members of the Maine Medical Society, and for many years a member of the Faculty of the Maine Medical School connected with Bowdoin College. He was also for more than twenty years a member of the Board of Over- seers of the college.
In his private as well as his public and professional relations, he was highly esteemed and beloved, frank, sociable, and open-hearted in his intercourse with his family and friends, ready to say and to do what he thought was right. He died at Brunswick on Friday, November 18, 1842, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.
PATTEN, JOHN.
John Patten came to America, in company with his father, in 1727 ; landed in Boston, and thence came to Saco, Maine, where his father settled. He removed to Topsham about 1750, and settled on a tract of land. about two hundred acres, which was then a wilderness, but is now a fine farm, pleasantly situated in sight of Merrymeeting Bay. He had the character of an honest and industrious man, who was upright in all the walks and relations of life. He was a farmer, and had also the trade of blacksmith, and had a shop on the farm, where he employed a portion of his time, and performed the blacksmith work of the vicin- ity. He was also engaged in the lumber business to a certain extent. and was a proprietor in the Cathance Mill right, and of one sixteenth of the saw-mill and stream. He was somewhat engaged, also, in ship-building and navigation, and he, with John Fulton, Adam Hunter, and William Patten, built the first vessel ever launched
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
above the "Chops," and the second built upon the Kennebec, above Bath. 1
By industry and attention to business, he accumulated considerable property, and was one of the most influential and useful members of society in his day, especially in town and parish matters. He was a man of good appearance, tall and well proportioned, of command- ing presence, active and quick in his movements, kind and affec- tionate to his family, and to all within the circle of his acquaint- ance. He was religious from his youth, having always enjoyed the example and instruction of a pious father, and at the time of his death was a deacon of the Congregational Church in Topsham. Hle was astrict observer of the Sabbath, and a constant attendant upon the services of the day, though residing some miles from the place of public worship. He died. April 7, 1795, aged seventy-seven years.
PATTEN, CAPTAIN ROBERT.
Robert Patten was the eldest son of the subject of the preceding sketch, and came to Topsham with his father while a boy. When about twenty-five years of age he married and settled on a lot of land about a mile from his father's. His farm and residence at that time was in Topsham, but by a change of the boundary line his farm after- wards came within the limits of Bowdoinham.
Mr. Patten was an industrious, hard-working man, possessed of a great amount of perseverance in the accomplishment of whatever he undertook. His chief employment for some time was farming. Besides the management of his farm he built, during his lifetime, a number of vessels, and was always more or less engaged in navigation. In his business concerns, while he met with much success, he also met with many losses. He was interested in six vessels, which were lost in the course of his business life. Of one of these he was sole owner ; of the others, part owner only. Twice he suffered the loss of his dwelling- house by fire. Yet notwithstanding these serious checks to his pros- perity, he succeeded in maintaining himself through life in good cir- cumstances as to property, and died possessed of a considerable estate. The advantages for an education were of course very limited at that period. A few weeks' schooling was all that was enjoyed by the sub- ject of this sketch, when young; yet by his own application, with what aid he received from members of the family, he acquired a decent
1 See Chapter X, p. 331.
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BIOGRAPIIICAL.
education for that day. When about the age of thirty he was chosen captain of a militia company by his fellow-citizens. This country being then under England, his commission was from the king's " Council of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay," and was dated July 1. 1776. just three days before the declaration of our national independence. He was a person of remarkable health. He was never confined a day by sickness for nearly or quite ninety years, never took any medicine during that long period. and retained all his teeth, fair and sound, until within a short time of his death, in his ninety- eighth year.
PACKARD, REVEREND CHARLES.
Reverend Charles Packard, a son of Reverend Doctor Hezekiahı Packard. a graduate and tutor of Harvard College, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, April 12, 1801. The following year his father became pastor of the Congregational Church at Wiscasset, Maine, and there the boy spent his early days and fitted for Bowdoin College. He entered, at the age of twelve, the class which was gradu- ated in 1817, and of which the late Doctor James McKeen was a member.
The next few years were spent in teaching. Later he was a private tutor in the family of Robert H. Gardiner, Esquire, of Gardiner. In the office of Frederick Allen. Esquire, in that town, Mr. Packard began the study of law, finishing his legal course with the Honorable Benjamin Orr, of Brunswick. Admitted to the bar, he opened an office in what is now known as Day's Block, Maine Street. His prac- tice was a remunerative one, and a change of profession later on involved the forsaking of an opportunity for enjoying a very consider- able income. The record of his years as a lawyer shows that the con- scientiousness, clearness, and strength of subsequent professional acts and exercises were but the development of his early characteris- tics. As a pupil of the eminent lawyer, Mr. Orr, he gained broad ideas of the study and practice of the profession, and he did no dis- credit to his teacher.
In 1834 there was a special interest in religion in the town, and together with his intimate friend, Robert P. Dunlap, Mr. Packard turned his thought in a new channel and became a communicant of the church on the hill.
In the full' career of a successful practice, and with a family gath- ered about him in a pleasant home, it was no small thing for him to decide to enter the ministry. But he felt that it was his duty ; and so
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
feeling there was but one thing for him to do : he accordingly deter- mined to begin forthwith a course in theology.
While a citizen of Brunswick Mr. Packard for a few months did editorial work on the Androscoggin Free Press and the Brunswick Journal. After his marriage his residence was in the house on Pleasant Street so long occupied by the late William Baker ; and it was by no means his least title to the name of a good citizen of the town that he planted the magnificent elms on the north side of the street which now ornament the vicinity.
His studies in divinity began at Andover, where he remained one year ; from that place he removed to Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio. Ilis first pastoral charge was at Hamilton, Ohio, but the climate proved so uncongenial to his family that he was forced to resign and return to the East. For the next fifteen years his work was at Lancaster, Mas- sachusetts. For many years one of the school committee of the town, he was devoted to the idea of making the most of the common-school system. In all matters of public reform and morality he was in the front rank. The three years from 1854 to 1857 were passed in Cam- bridge and North Middleboro', Massachusetts, where his record was, " An interesting and able preacher, a most genial Christian and gen- tleman." He entered upon his final pastoral engagement in 1857, with the Second Congregational Church, Biddeford, Maine. There were large accessions to his church. Here, again, he showed himself the good citizen. When he died, there was a great company to lament him. They came from all social and religious divisions of the inhabitants.
The burial was on Monday, February 21, 1864, in Brunswick, in the graveyard on the hill. At the church, Reverend Doctor Adams re- viewed, in his own felicitous, frank, and feeling way, the life of his former parishioner and constant good friend. That address is author- ity for even more eulogism than the writer of this memorial has used. Mr. Packard was a pioneer in the antislavery uprising. He was not ashamed to be called an abolitionist. Good men doubted, tempo- rizers clamored ; but moved by his conscience he would not hold his peace. At a time when to be an abolitionist made a preacher a marked man, he counted professional success (so far as place and profit are concerned) a small thing. He had in him the stuff of which martyrs are made. In his preaching, the habits of the lawyer were manifest. Hle generally used a few notes, and talked as if to a jury. Plain com- mon-sense, Bible phrases, familiar illustrations, simple arguments, were the staple of his discourses, but all was delivered as by authority. Of commanding presence, there was in his voice and whole carriage
1
Bulford's Lith. Boston
Nahum Perkins
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
that which testified to his substantial and uncompromising character. " Without fear and without reproach " is no exaggerated summary of a life which was obedient to duty, faithful to the demands of public and private morality and charity, and which was sustained by " the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope."
PERKINS, MAJOR NAHUM.
Nahum Perkins was born in Sandford, Maine, April 25, 1787, and was one of a family of ten children. He belonged to a very athletic race.] He was brought up to hard work and good habits. He had nothing with which to commence life but good health and his hands.
When a boy, he went to live with a farmer, who, having no children. wished to adopt him and make him his heir ; but he preferred, with his pack on his back and a shilling in his pocket, to seek his own fortune. He came to Topsham in 1807. He at first drove a stage from Port- land to Augusta, then engaged in monthly labor on the land and at the mills, till he accumulated sufficient means to engage in trade and lum- bering. During the prostration of business occasioned by the war of 1812, he returned to the farm and, at considerable expense, repaired the buildings and put it in order ; but upon the revival of business he returned to his cherished pursuits in Topsham. Being of a retiring disposition, he rather avoided than sought public position. He com- manded the battalion in this vicinity in the latter part of 1820, and was for some time member of a general court-martial, convened on the Penobscot. He was a member of the State legislature in 1825, and for three subsequent terms. While there, his store, stock of goods, and account books were all destroyed by fire, causing a large loss of property, and leaving him considerably in debt. So strict was his sense of obligation to his creditors that he turned over to them all his property, even to the family Bible. Such was the regard of the mem- bers of the legislature for him that they presented him with fifteen hundred dollars.
He at one time, with other parties, contracted to build a vessel. When the vessel was partly completed, she took fire on the stocks and was destroyed. The contract with the master builder, who was a poor man, was not made in writing, and the parties were not legally held to him. Major Perkins, however, and one other gentleman concerned, considered themselves morally responsible, and footed the bills.
1 His father, Jabez Perkins, at the age of ninety-six, cut, sharpened, and carried out of the woods on his back, a hundred fence-stakes in one day.
50
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
Major Perkins was a very industrious man. From sixteen to sey- enty-nine he did a man's work, and died of work. He was a generous man. No legitimate charity appealed to him in vain. His generosity was carried to the point of self-denial. His life was filled up with neighborly acts of charity. His home was the centre of a large liber- ality and unstinted benevolence.
In 1840 he made a public profession of religion, uniting with the Congregational Society of Topsham, of which he continued an active and useful member until his death, which occurred in October, 1865.
PERRY, DEACON JOHN.
Mr. Perry was born at Rehoboth, county of Bristol, Massachusetts, December 3, 1772. In 1798 he moved to Brunswick, where he remained until 1833, when he removed to Orono. He was married in 1802 to Jane, daughter of Colonel William Stanwood, of Brunswick, and had seven children. He was the agent of the cotton-mill established in Brunswick in 1812, and was engaged in general trade for many years. He was a justice of the peace, and was a selectman in 1807 and 1808. He was also, it is claimed, the founder of the first Sabbath school in Brunswick.
" As a husband and father he was most devoted, affectionate, and kind. Possessing a warm heart and a mind well stored by extensive reading and close and judicious observation, he was ever an agreeable and instructive companion, and his society always welcome. As a citizen he was active and enterprising, and his example and influence always on the right side. As a neighbor, always kind and obliging, and as cheerful to do good offices as to receive them. In the support and promotion of the moral and benevolent institutions of the day, he was consistent, firm, and liberal. Of the cause of missions, in partic- ular, he was an ardent and devoted friend. He made a public profes- sion of religion in 1811, and united with the Congregational Church in Brunswick. In 1820 he was elected to the office of deacon, and held it until his removal to Orono in 1833. He was chosen to fill the same office at Orono." 1
He died March 18, 1846.
PERRY, WILLIAM S.
The subject of this sketch was a son of Deacon John Perry, of Brunswick. He attended the public schools until he was sixteen years
1 Christian Mirror.
bey try you Miliam & Perry
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BIOGRAPIIICAL.
of age, when he went to work. When he became twenty-one years of age he engaged in the lumber business in Boston. While a resident of Massachusetts he became a director in the Mount Wollaston Bank. in Quincy. In 1870 he returned to Brunswick and bought the prop- erty of Professor Boody, on Maine Street. He was a member of the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College, and a director of the Union National Bank, of Brunswick. He died in Brunswick, April 8, 1873, aged a little more than fifty-six years.
Mr. Perry, though not possessed of a collegiate education, was a good scholar, and was well versed in Latin, French, and mathematics. He was a great reader and fond of historical studies. He was genial and loving in his disposition, upright in business, and interested in the welfare of the town.
PORTER, BENJAMIN JONES, M. D.
Doctor Porter, the son of Major Billy Porter, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, September 20, 1763, and died in Camden, Maine, August 18, 1847. After completing his academical course at Byfield Academy he studied medicine with his uncle, Doctor Jones, a surgeon in the Continental army. He was commissioned as surgeon's mate in Tupper's (Eleventh) Regiment, April 10, 1780, and in H. Jackson's (Fourth) Regiment in 1783. He afterwards practised his profession successively in Scarboro', Westbrook, and Portland.
He settled in Topsham about 1793, and built the house, now destroyed, nearly opposite Alfred White's, and just east of that for- merly occupied by John H. Thompson, Esquire. He went into the lumbering business with William King, afterwards governor of Maine. The firm went by the name of Porter & King. They were also engaged in trade, and their store stood about where Goud's store now is. He engaged but very little in practice after coming to Topsham. Ile afterwards built the house now owned and occupied by Mrs. Susan T. Purinton. He took a prominent part in politics ; was a councillor and senator from Lincoln County, before the separation ; was one of the commissioners to divide the State property of Maine and Massa- chusetts in 1820.
He accumulated considerable property, but sustained severe losses in consequence of the embargo, and also by the freshet on the Andros- coggin River, in 1814. He had the honorary degree of A. M. con- ferred upon him by Bowdoin College in 1809, and was a fellow and treasurer of the college from 1806 to 1815. He removed to Camden in 1829, where he spent the remainder of his life. He is said to have
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HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSIIAM, AND HARPSWELL.
been a man of rare conversational powers and of great suavity of manners.
PURCHASE, THOMAS. (PURCHIS OR PERCHES. )
Thomas Purchase. the first settler in Brunswick, was probably born in England, not far from the year 1576. His widow, in her petition to the Probate Court 1 in 1678, states that he was one hundred and one years old at his death.
Concerning his ancestry nothing whatever is known, and but very little as to his connections. There is no known relationship between him and Reverend Samuel Purchas, author of the " Pilgrimages."
There is, however, reason to suppose that there was a relationship of some kind between Thomas Purchase and Reverend Robert Jor- dan. In a letter from John Winter, whose daughter Jordan subse- quently married, dated Richmond Island, the second of August, 1641, occurs the following paragraph : -
" Heare is on Mr. Robert Jorden a mynister wch hath bin wth vs this 3 monethis weh is a very honest religious man by anything as yett I can find in him, I have not yett agreed wth him for stayinge heare but did refer yt tyll I did heare son word from you we weare long wthout a mynister & weere but in a bad way & so we shall be still iff we have not the word of God taught vnto us somtymes the plantation at pemequid would willingly have him or the[y] desire he might be their on halfe of the yeare & the other half to be heare wth vs I know not how we shall accord uppon yt as yett he hath bin heare in the country this 2 yeares & hath alwaies lived wth Mr. Purchase wch is a kinsman unto him." 2
What this kinship was does not appear, but it was evidently a blood relationship. This fact is of interest, as it connects the Jordans of Brunswick and vicinity with the original owner of the Pejepscot tract.
Thomas Purchase was twice married. His first wife was the Mary Gove 3 whom Sir Christopher Gardiner called his "cousin," and in regard to whose relations with Gardiner there had been some scandal. The marriage occurred about 1631. She died in Boston, January 7, 1656. It is not definitely known that there were any children by this marriage. His second marriage was to Elizabeth Williams. The date
1 Probate Records, Lynn. A copy at Salem.
2 This letter, found among the Trelawney papers, is now in the possession of J. Win- gate Thornton, Esquire.
8 Third Series, Mass. Hist. Coll., 8, p. 320. - Letter of Thomas Wiggin, of Dover, to Emanuel Downing, brother-in-law of Winthrop, in Dover.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
of this marriage cannot be ascertained with certainty ; but it was prob- ably very shortly after the death of his first wife, as in 1678 his son, in his petition with his mother to the Probate Court, calls himself " a young man." If his parents were married one year after the death of the first wife, he could only have been, at the time this petition was presented, twenty-one years of age.
By this second marriage there were five children.1 Of these chil- dren only the names of three have been preserved, viz., Thomas, Jane, and Elizabeth.
Traditionary accounts place the date of Purchase's immigration all the way between 1624 and 1635. The Warumbo deed makes it about 1624 or 1625. Mr. Frederick Kidder, in a letter to the late Rev- erend Edward Ballard, places the date at 1626, and refers to the " Narrative of the Plantation of Massachusetts Colony, 1694, pub- lished by an Old Planter," pages 17 and 18. In Savage's " Genealogical Dictionary " the date is given as 1628, and this date is also given in the deed of John Blaney and Elizabeth. The deed of Eleazer Way, however, gives the date as 1635. Folsom makes it about 1630. In the deposition of John Cozzen, it is stated that he came to Pejepscot in 1628, and that he came from Saco, where Folsom mentions his pres- ence, in 1630.
He probably migrated to this country, very likely coming first to Saco, about the year 1626. There is little doubt but that he came to Pejepscot in 1628. There is conclusive evidence that he was at Pejep- scot prior to the date of the grant of land that was made to him and Way. Probably the four or five years of his early stay in that region caused him to become well acquainted with the value of the tract which he afterwards acquired.
In the proceedings of the Plymouth Council in England, the follow- ing minute is entered : -
" 16 June. 1632. 8 Cat. I. The said Councill graunt certaine, called the River Bishopscott, unto George Way and Thomas Purchase."
The action of this Council in relation to the assignment of the terri- tory in question was also dated June 16, 1632, and is as follows : -
" A Graunt part to George Way and Thomas Purchase of certaine Lands in New England, called the River Bishopscotte, and all that Bounds and Limitts of the Maine Land, adjoining to the said River to extend two inyles : from the said River Northwards four myles, and
1 In 1741 the Pejepscot proprietors reserved seven hundred acres of land for the heirs of Thomas Purchase, i. e., "Elizabeth and her five children by Mr. Purchase, and her son, Samuel Pike."
.
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IIISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
from the house 1 there to the Ocean sea with all other Profitts and Com- modities whatsoever, paying to the King one fifth part of gold and sil- ver oare, and another fifth part to the President and Councill, also paying twelve pense to the said President and Councill for every hun- dred Acres of Ground in use, to the rent-gatherer for the time being, as by the same Graunt may appeare." 2
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