USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 76
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 76
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 76
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He had a fund of humor and ready wit, and was fond of children. He was a member of the Congregational Church for twenty-eight years, and was held in general esteem for his integrity, industry, and kindliness of character. He died December 31, 1868.
ROGERS, HONORABLE GEORGE.
Mr. Rogers was born in Topsham, November 18, 1785. He was a son of Alexander, and the father of the late George A. Rogers. He was educated in the common schools of the town, but made good use of such advantages as he had. He was a man of quick perception and inquiring mind, and steadily advanced with the times in which he lived. He took a warm interest in the public matters of the town and State. He served on the Board of Selectmen of Topsham for four- teen years, between 1836 and 1857. In 1819 he was chosen to repre- sent his town in the legislature, and in 1837 he was elected to the State Senate. In politics he was a Democrat, but he was oftentimes elected to office by the votes of those who affiliated with the opposite party. In his religious views he was a Baptist.
" Although a man of rigid principles and soundness of judgment, his kind and genial manners won for him the respect of all who knew him. In early life he was twice married, but each of his wives died at an early age. Of his family but one son survived him, the late George A. Rogers.
"At nearly fourscore years, after a long and serene evening to a life of usefulness, devoted to the happiness of others, he passed away qui- etly at the old homestead where he had always resided."
ROGERS, GEORGE A.
The subject of this sketch was a native of Topsham. His education was obtained in the common schools and at the Maine Wesleyan Sem-
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inary at Readfield, Maine. At the age of twenty he made a sea-voy- age to New Orleans, and thence to Europe. Receiving so much bene- fit from these voyages, he was tempted to become a sailor, and accord- ingly made one voyage " before the mast." His father discouraged his inclination towards a sea-faring life, and induced him to remain at home and turn his attention to agricultural pursuits.
As a practical farmer, enlightened. and looking into the most essen- tial matters of the business of farming, he did much to promote its interests, both at home and abroad. He was long identified with the interests of the town, serving for many years as a member of the Board of Selectmen. Perhaps no more fitting tribute can be paid to his memory than that found in the recent " Historical Review " of the Sagadahoe County Agricultural Society, - he having been one of its earliest friends, serving in almost every capacity in which he could ren- der valuable assistance.
" He represented the society as a member of the Board of Agricul- ture for a period of seven years, and was one of the most useful mem- bers of that Board. For three years he was president of the Sagada- hoc Society, afterwards he was recording secretary. To the close of his life on earth he was one of the most valuable members of the soci- ety. The society as well as the community needs more such men, - men who work from sincere regard for the interests of others. Possessed of a high moral, as well as a much religious character, Mr. Rogers was a true friend, a sincere and honest man. He served faithfully the com- munity in which he lived ; its interests were his interests, its welfare ever had his watchful care. Well may the society long hold his name in remembrance and honor."
He died June 30, 1874.
ROSS, WILLIAM.
William Ross lived, prior to 1749, at Sheepscot. He afterwards moved to Brunswick, where he built a house, bullet-proof, near the old meeting-house. Prior to his coming to Brunswick, he, with his two sons, John and Robert, was taken captive by the Indians and carried to Canada. He and Robert were soon liberated and returned home. John was such a favorite with the Indians that he was retained. Mr. Ross was subsequently captured again and carried to Quebec. While there he became interested in a young man whom he met at a public place, the resort of those who desired to be exchanged. He volunteered to intercede for his release, inquired his name, and found him to be his son. They effected their release and returned home.
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John was afterwards killed. or died, in war. Mr. Ross was a lame man. His disability was caused in the following manner. On one occasion, while he was engaged in cutting wood west of Mair Brook, he discovered a wounded bear making towards him. He at once com- menced to retreat backwards, defending himself with his axe, but was so unfortunate as to fall back over a log and hurt himself. The bear, unable to get over, reached under the log and bit him in the knee. Mr. Anthony Woodside, who had fired and wounded the bear, finally came up and killed it.
RUTHERFORD, REVEREND ROBERT,
Was a native of Ireland, and a Presbyterian. He came over with Colonel Dunbar, the celebrated surveyor of the king's woods in 1729, and preached at Pemaquid for four or five years. When Dunbar went to Portsmouth in 1734, his house and farm were left in the care of Mr. Rutherford. In 1735 he was employed by the First Parish of Bruns- wick, and continued to preach there till 1742. After this he was engaged for a short time at Georgetown, and probably returned to Pemaquid. From thence, on the marriage of Dunbar's widow with Captain Henderson of St. Georges, he removed to that place. It does not appear that he had a distinct pastoral charge, or that any church was gathered there during his life. He was a man of respectable lit- erary attainments, and bore the character of a pious Orthodox minis- ter. He died in 1756, at the age of sixty-eight years, and was buried at the fort at Saint George's. His wife survived him twenty-three years, and was buried in the same place. They left a family of seven daughters, whose posterity are numerous in the vicinity.1
SKOLFIELD, THOMAS.
Thomas Skolfield was a son of Thomas Skolfield, of England, who was an officer in King William's army in 1690, when King James was driven from Ireland. The son, Thomas, received a liberal education at Dublin University, and shortly after graduating emigrated to Amer- ica with the Orr family early in the last century.
Thomas remained in Boston with the Orr family and taught a Latin school until the Orrs removed to the District of Maine, about the year 1742, when he and Susan came with them.
Thomas married Mary Orr, and settled in Brunswick near where Peter Woodard now lives (1876). He and the Orrs bought about
1 Annals of Warren and Greenleaf' s Ecclesiastical Sketches.
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three hundred and fifty acres of land, on which Thomas Skolfield settled. They paid for the land £85 old tenor. Mr. Skolfield was a very prominent man in town affairs. He was chosen, May 22, 1777, as an officer empowered to receive recognizances. In 1779 he was on the committee to affix the price of commodities sold in the town. He was on many committees to draw up resolutions, etc .. during the Revolutionary war. He was town clerk from 1752 to 1761, and again in 1763 and 1765. He was on the Board of Select- men, and a great part of the time was chairman, for twenty-three years, - from 1744 to 1749, 1752 to 1754, 1756 to 1762, 1765 to 1767, 1772 to 1775, and again in 1782.
His wife died August 1, 1771, aged fifty-seven years. 3 He died January 6, 1796.
SKOLFIELD, GEORGE.
" Master " George Skolfield was born July, 1780, in Harpswell, in an old house standing upon the site of the one now occupied by Mr. George R. Skolfield, his eldest son.
He began to build vessels when about twenty-one years old, and during his lifetime built nearly if not quite sixty vessels, all first-class, of the best quality of material and workmanship. At the time of his death he was one of the wealthiest men in Brunswick, and his wealth was all earned through his own exertions and by his own business ability.
He was kind in his family and to his friends, and of a very hospi- table nature.
" It was the delight of Master George to have the house full, and he was never in better spirits than when his friends fairly overran his rooms. A man of strong impulses, of prejudices, if you will, he never meant to be unjust. He was decided, firm in his convictions, and steruly resolute in the discharge of what he deemed his duty. That duty was done with a singleness of purpose worthy of all imitation. We make no claim to perfection for the deceased ; but we record as the crowning glory of his long and active life, diversified by an intercourse with all classes and manner of men, his passing away, with never a inan to question bis serupulous honesty in all his dealings with his fel- low men."
He died March 13, 1866.
SMYTH, WILLIAM, D. D.
Professor Smyth was born in Pittston, February 2, 1797, and in his childhood his parents removed to Wiscasset, which was his home until about the time of his entering college. At the age of eighteen he
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was bereft of both father and mother, and was left with a young sister and brother, and nothing but kind friends and himself to depend upon. He was for a time elerk for a Wiscasset merchant, but his ambition at that time was to qualify himself to teach sehool, and all his spare time was spent in hard study. He taught school for a few years, at the same time fitting himself for Bowdoin College, the Junior class of which he entered in 1820. Such an example of student-life as was then exhibited is rare and worthy of record. He occupied, with. a townsman and elassmate, Boynton, a room in the building, afterwards burned down, which stood on the site of Mr. Henry C. Martin's residence, opposite the college halls.
As the result of his former hard study, while in college he was eom- pelled to wear a green shade and to study by another's eyes. His room-mate read his lessons to him, he occasionally raising his blinder to glanee for a moment at a mathematical formula or a diagram or a phrase. After getting settled in eollege life his independent, self- denying spirit led him to bring to his side his young brother, and sus- tain both as he might. This self-sacrifieing college student often deprived himself of a dinner for the sake of that brother ; lived day after day on bread and water; not unfrequently did not know one day where the next day's meals were to come from ; and thus, study- ing with the eyes of another, often at his wits' end for support, with that care of the brother upon him part of the time, he soon took the lead of an able elass and held it to the end, graduating with the English valedictory in 1822.
After graduating, Mr. Smyth taught a school for a short time in what used to be ealled President Allen's Academy, and then spent a year in the Andover Seminary.
In 1823 he received an appointment from his Alma Mater as proc- tor and instruetor in Greek ; then became tutor in mathematies and natural philosophy ; and in 1828 he was made professor in full of mathematics and natural philosophy.
The first edition of his algebra, from the press of Mr. Griffin, of this town, appeared in 1830, received warm commendation from Doctor Bowditch, and was adopted as a text-book at Harvard and other insti- tutions. It passed through several editions, and then gave place to two separate works, the elementary and the larger algebra. Then followed an enlarged edition of the trigonometry and its applications to surveying and navigation, and treatises on analytic geometry, and on the calculus, the last being so clearly and satisfactorily developed, and with so much originality, as to receive emphatic approval in high
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quarters, particularly from the late Professor Bache, and constituting. as has been said, quite an era in the means of instruction in this pro- found branch.
When the project of graded schools for the large Central District of Brunswick was proposed, it engaged his earnest co-operation. He was chosen on the Board of Agents successively for seventeen years ; most of the time was chairman, and exercised vigilant supervision of the schools. The amount of labor he performed in securing and per- fecting the system, in building the large brick school-house for which he furnished the working plan, and in general superintendence, few can conceive ; and all with no other remuneration than the conscious- ness of rendering an important public service. He was for many years one of the trustees of the First Parish fund, and for forty years or more an active member of the Congregational Church and Society in Brunswick and a teacher in the Sabbath school. When the present church edifice was erected he was the working member of the building committee, giving important counsel in its plan, even to the framing of the building, and constantly supervising the work. He also furnished the working plans for a spire which, for grace and beauty, was not surpassed.
The last public work of his life was the measures for erecting a Memorial Hall for the college.
One even most conversant with him, and who had most free access to his thoughts, purposes, and plans, can scarcely enumerate the extent of his correspondence on the subject ; his journeyings to and fro from Bangor to New York for subscriptions, his long walks in Brunswick and its neighborhood to obtain contributions, to consult mechanics and contractors, or to engage hands for the work ; his visits to other towns to examine public buildings or to inspect quar- ries of building stone ; or his careful study of architectural designs, sketches, and plans in the college library ; or his personal labor in meditating and drawing plans himself, that architects might readily conceive the idea and object of the proposed structure. For the last two years of his life his mind and thoughts were intent on what he often said was to be his last labor.
Every dollar of the thirty thousand on his subscription book he soli- cited, and he collected nearly twenty thousand of the amount in person.
Professor Smyth was among the first members of the temperance society formed in Brunswick when Reverend Doctor Justin Edwards promulgated and advocated with so much effect the doctrine of total abstinence from intoxicating drinks.
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A debate in the Brunswick Lyceum made of him an anti-slavery man, or rather turned his thoughts to that subject, and inspired a sentiment and opinions which he maintained his life through. He never swerved, - no, not for an hour, - from his allegiance to the cause of human freedom and the rights of man.
Though exposed to reproach and annoyances, to hard specches and harder looks, he was not a man to be deterred from his pur- pose or to quail in whatever he regarded a matter of right, truth, and duty.
His ability as a teacher was never called in question. In explana- tion he was precisc, simple, and clear. He had great power of inspir- ing interest ; his own enthusiasm, which often kindled, especially in certain branches of his department, at the black-board, being communi- cated to his class.
His mind was quick to kindle, and his powers to arousc themselves to scize on some engrossing subject, and while the occasion demanded, he was totus in illis. He was a whole-souled, large-hearted man. Personal interests occupied with him an inferior place. Any real object of philanthropy, of national or of town interest, anything that touched the life of the college, was sure to find one mind and heart ready to respond to its demands.
Of the qualities of his mind no one conversant with him could doubt that his Creator endowed him with a power of intense application, of wide compass and great clearness of thought, of strong grasp of principles, and of exhibiting truth, often massive truth, with great precision and force. He had a peculiar faculty of scizing on the salient points and the fundamental elements of any subject he approached.
One could not but give him the credit of childlike simplicity. He was simple in his tastes, in his manners, and in his desires. Therc was no pretence or affectation in his nature. No charge of insincerity or false-heartedness was ever laid upon him.
The facts of Professor Smyth's life reveal most clearly a singularly self-sacrificing spirit. What reward or remuneration, what personal advantage could he have expected from his labors for schools or for the church or for the Memorial Hall? What self-interest could have prompted him to furnish working plans for school-house or church spire, - or to rise from his bed and go down to the school-house in a drenching storm to see that the rain did not undermine the wall or flood the cellar, - or at midnight, in a driving southeaster, to go over to the church, then in building, to make more fast an ill-secured transept
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window, - or to serve as a tender to the mason who was putting up a chimney in the tower?
His nature was profoundly sympathetic, and he was blessed with a genial, buoyant spirit. He never betrayed a moody or sullen temper. There was in him a vein of fine humor. He enjoyed it in others, and no one could turn a witticism or convey a compliment with more deli- cacy or grace. It remains to bear testimony to Professor Smyth as a Christian man. In this character he left the record of nearly fifty years in his daily life, in the free intercourse of friends, in the social meetings of the church, in college halls, in his relations to public phil- anthropie movements of his time, and in the pulpit of the sanctuary.
Early in life he took his stand as a Christian young man, and became connected with the Congregational Church in Gorham. He seized with the strong grasp of his intellect and heart on what are termed the doctrines of grace. In 1825 he received license from the Cumberland Association, and for several years preached with acceptance in Bruns- wick and neighboring towns. His discourses were marked by weighty thought, clear exhibition of truth, simplicity and vigor of style, and earnest and eloquent enforcement of the motives of the gospel and the issues of life and death. He died April 4, 1868.
The foregoing sketch of this truly remarkable man is condensed from Professor Packard's discourse commemorative of Professor Smyth.
STANWOOD, DAVID.
David Stanwood, son of Ebenezer, was in the expedition to Louis- burg. While the army was there, some twenty or thirty men were desirons of taking boats and crossing to the opposite shore, where they expected to plunder some of the French settlers. They landed with- out molestation, went to one house not far distant, entered it, and brought the plunder to their boats. Not sufficiently satisfied with what they had obtained, they returned, without their guns, and while strip- ping the house still further they were surrounded and taken prisoners by the Indians, who had been on the watch for them. They were at once stripped, and severely tortured with spears. Mr. Stanwood attempted to escape, but a well-directed spear hit him on the shoulder, and so disabled him that he surrendered, and was again submitted to torture. He fled again and was pursued, fired at, and a ball hit him in the arm and broke it. He succeeded, however, in his escape, hid himself until search was over, and when all was quiet, went to the shore opposite the army, and hoisted a handkerchief as a signal. It was seen, and, though fearful of a decoy, so.ne of the inen were at
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length allowed to go over for him, and he was rescued. Another account 1 states that after he escaped the second time he came to a river and was shot while swimming across. His arm was afterwards amputated.
STANWOOD, COLONEL WILLIAM.
William Stanwood was the son of David Stanwood, of Brunswick, and was born in 1752. In his early days he learned the trade of a blacksmith. He entered the Revolutionary army and was in the bat- tles of Monmouth and White Plains. After the war he was made a colonel of the militia. After leaving the army he went to work at his trade, and afterwards engaged in the lumbering business and in ship- building in connection with Captain John Dunlap. He accumulated wealth, and owned three large farms, besides other real estate, but afterwards met with heavy losses in his shipping business. He built and lived in the house now owned by the heirs of the late A. C. Rob- bins, Esquire, on Maine Street. He was a prominent man in Bruns- wick, and was selectman for a number of years, and a representative in 1794 and 1795. He was also a member of the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College. Ile had three wives ; the first was Mary Orr, the second Hannah Thompson, and the third Ruth Thompson. He had eleven children. He died June, 1829.
STETSON, REVEREND SETH.
" Father " Stetson, as he was called, lived until he was seventeen years of age in his native town of Kingston, Massachusetts. He then spent one summer in Bristol, Maine, one in Boston, and two in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He spent his winters during this time at home. He gives the following account of his life in a letter to the Gospel Banner in 1864: -
" Seventy years ago [1794] I first came to Bristol with my master ship-joiner. When free I came again. I wounded my ankle-joint, which laid me up many months, and gave me time to read and pray. Reverend Mr. Riddle invited me to study for the ministry. I kept school in Alna, New Castle, and Bristol, and studied with Reverend Jonathan Ward, of New Milford. I was approbated to preach in the town of Winthrop, at Reverend Mr. Bolden's, by the Lincoln Associ- ation of Congregational ministers.
" I preached two years in Norridgewock and other towns. In 1804
1 Pejepscot Papers.
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I had a call, and was ordained in South Plymouth, Massachusetts, ten miles from my native place. There I preached Hopkinsianism sixteen years. Then for four years I was a Worsterian. Then I became a Universalist, and preached in Charlestown and Salem three years, and in Boston a few months. Then in Brunswick, Bath, and Bowdoinham two years, and ever since all round the State, and in other States. The last year I have not tried to preach.
" I grow deaf, and forgetful of names. My health is good. My wife is eighty-four years old. We have had twelve children. The three youngest only are living in this world."
Mr. Stetson was born in 1776, and died in 1867. He was at his death, therefore, ninety-one years of age, lacking five days. He was at that time the oldest Universalist minister in Maine. From a diary that he left, it appears that he came to Brunswick in a packet to Maquoit (Captain Simpson's) in 1828. He brought with him his wife and five children and household goods, paying for passage and freight, sixteen dollars to Maquoit, and four dollars from the latter place to his house.
Mr. Stetson was well known throughout this entire community, and was much beloved by his parishioners, and esteemed by all for the purity of his life and character.
STONE, COLONEL ALFRED J.
The subject of this sketch was a son of James Stone, and was a native of Topsham. He settled in Brunswick, and lived and died in the dwelling on Mill Street which stands nearly on the site of the old Stone mansion which was erected by Benjamin Stone, the ancestor of the family in Brunswick. It is worthy of mention that the property on and near the corner of Maine and Mill Streets, known as Stone's Corner, has been retained in the family for four generations. Colonel Stone was largely engaged in the lumbering business, owning a mill on the upper dam, and for many years did an extensive business. He was a colonel in the militia, and held various public offices, among them that of postmaster. He was a representative to the legislature in 1836. He was an influential and public-spirited citizen.
SYLVESTER, MARLBOROUGH.
Marlborough Sylvester, of Harpswell, was a son of William Sylves- ter, and was born in Hanover, Massachusetts, in 1753. He was a man prominent in the affairs of the town, and held town offices for many years. He was town clerk from 1794 to 1799, inclusive, and in 1813,
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selectman from 1797 to 1808, inclusive, and in 1815, and representa- tive in 1809.
THOMPSON, GENERAL ABNER B.
Mr. Thompson was born in Middleboro', Massachusetts. September 22, 1797, whence in his youth he moved to Boston, and from that city, in 1817, to Brunswick, where he spent the rest of his life, en- gaged for a long series of years in the active pursuits of mercantile life, manifesting an energy and a directness of application that con- stituted him a marked man among his fellow-men. General Thomp- son from his youth manifested a fondness for military life. As early as 1821 he received an officer's commission and held various positions in the militia, from lieutenant to that of major-general. In February, . 1847, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Regiment, United States Infantry.
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