USA > Maine > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland Co., Maine > Part 104
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GEORGE JOHNSON
was born in the town of Westbrook (now Deering); Nov. 7, 1820. The family descends from James Johnson, who emigrated from Ireland in 1733, and settled in what is now the town of Scarborough or Cape Elizabeth. His occupa- tion was a ferryman over the Spurwink River, afterwards between Old Orchard and Prout's Neck beaches. He died in 1740. His ancestors emigrated from Scotland to Ire- land during the MeGregor war. He had two sons, James and John. James was born in 1690 and died in 1774. His wife's name was Jane, and she lived to be nincty-four years of age. Their children were George, Flora, Eleanor, James, John, and Margaret. Their son John, grandfather to George, was born May 14, 1737 ; died May, 1833, aged ninety-six years. He married Eleanor Lamb, March, 1764. They had ten children. Alexander Johnson, father to George, was their seventh child, born April, 1777; mar- ried Sarah Johnson, daughter of Randall Johnson, who was also a descendant of James Johnson, the line of descent being James, John, Robert, and Randall. Mrs. Johnson was born in Westbrook (now Deering), Feb. 18, 1793. Their children were Jane, born Dec. 4, 1818, wife of John Trickey, a farmer in Westbrook ; George, subject of our sketch; Dorcas, born Dec. 8, 1822, living at the homestead ; and Joseph, born Oct. 7, 1824, married Dec. 22, 1852, Maria Cloyes, of Framingham, Mass., died Nov. 25, 1872. The father died May 13, 1840; the mother, June 3, 1876.
In 1749, James Johnson, great-grandfather to George, settled in Deering, on the place which has since been held in the family. His father built their present residence in 1784. Mr. Johnson has always lived at the old homestead. He received his education in the common schools of his native town. In politics, a Democrat up to the time of the organization of the Republican party, and has since been identified with the latter. He was selectman of the town in 1861 and 1862. A representation of the homestead, with portraits of Mr. Johnson and sister, appear on another page of this work.
WINDHAM.
ORIGIN OF THE TOWN.
ON the 20th of November, 1734, a petition was pre- sented to the General Court of Massachusetts by Abraham Howard and Joseph Blaney, representatives of the town of Marblehead, " shewing that the said town is of very small extent, and the inhabitants more numerous than in most towns in the province, so that they are much straitened in their accommodations, and therefore praying for a tract of land for a township for such persons belonging to the said town of Marblehead as will settle thereon." This petition was granted, and in December, 1735, John Wainwright, John Hobson, and Daniel Epes were appointed a committee
on the part of the House of Representatives, and William Dudley and Ebenezer Barrill on the part of the council, to admit sixty inhabitants of the town of Marblehead to be- come grantees, to lay out the township and the first division of the home-lots.
The conditions of the grant were, that the home-lots should be sixty-three in number, should be laid out in as defensible a manner as convenient, and all future divisions should be in equal proportions. Three of the lots or rights were to be disposed of as follows : one for the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the support of schools. The grantees were to build a dwelling-house eigh-
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IHISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.
teen feet square, and seven-feet posts; to have seven acres of land brought to English grass, and fit for mowing; to settle a learned, orthodox minister ; to build a convenient meeting-house for the public worship of God within five years after their admission ; and each grantee, upon his ad- mission, should pay five pounds to the committee.
The sixty persons specified in the grant, and admitted Jan. 17, 1735, were the following named : Jeremiah Allen, Micah Bowden, Robert Bull, Nathaniel Bartlette, John Bailey, Thomas Bartlette, Nathan Bowen, Franeis Bowden, Jedediah Blaney, Samuel Brunblecom, Jos. Blancy, Thomas Chute, Peter Coleman, Moses Calley, Nathaniel Cogswell, Richard Dana, Benjamin Dodge, Humphrey Devereaux, Nicholas Edgecome, Nathaniel Evans, John Gelton, Thos. Frothingham, Joseph Gallison, Joseph Grilhin, William Goodwin, Robert Hooper, Ebenezer Hawkes, Jr., Abraham Howard, Benjamin Hendley, Edward Holyoke, Joseph Howard, John Homan, Ebenezer Hawkes, Benjamin James, Willam Ingalls, Giles Iremy, Samuel Lee, Joseph Majory, Isaac Maxfield, William Mayberry, John Outton, Robert Paramore, George Pigot, John Palmer, Jonathan Proctor, James Perrimon, James Pierson, John Reed, Richard Reed, Samnel Stacy (3d), James Sbarrar, John Stacy, Ebenezer Stacy, James Skinner, Joseph Swett, Joseph Smithurst, Andrew Tucker, Isaac Turner, Calley Wright, Thomas Wood.
Several of them held a meeting at Marblehead, and ap- pointed Ebenezer Hawkes, Thomas Chute, and William Goodwin a committee, on the part of the grantees, to accom- pany, assist, and advise the committee appointed by the General Court to locate the township and lay out the first division of lots. The committee, with Rowland Houghton, a surveyor, proceeded to the site of Windham, April 19, 1735, and began its location, running out and establishing the home lots according to the terms of the grant, the lots containing ten acres each. They made a plan or map of the same, which was accepted by both branches of the Gen- cral Court, June 7, 1735, and the lands deseribed therein confirmed to the grantees, provided they fulfilled the speci- fied conditions. At a meeting of the committee at Marble- head, June 27, 1735, the 63 home-lots were drawn and disposed of to the proprietors.
The town was called New Marblehead ; as originally laid out it embraced six miles square and 25,600 acres. The first division of home-lots was located on the main road from Westbrook to Raymond, running parallel with and one-half mile from the Presumpscot River, being the first publie road laid out in Windham. They extended from the road back to the river, beginning opposite the dwelling- house now occupied by John Webb, Esq., and terminating a few rods below the dwelling-house of Josiah Elder, thus extending along the road a distance of two miles.
In order to comply as strictly as possible with the terms of the grant in regard to making the settlement defensible, these lots were located with narrow fronts of 10 rods each, so as to bring the houses into nearer proximity with each other, while each lot was hall' a mile long in the other direction. The General Court was induced to make this a condition in all the grants made at that time from their extreme carefulness to protect the settlers from the ravages
of the Indians, to which all the frontier settlements in Maine were exposed for more than a hundred years from the time the first settlements began. The settlements on the coast passed through several successive bloody and destructive Indian wars before settlements were begun in the interior, but no part of the country was safe from the attacks of the savage tomahawk and sealping-knife till Canada was taken from the French, in 1760.
The town. as originally laid out, extended down the Pre- sumpscot River to Saccarappa Falls, and the boundary-line between it and Falmouth (now Westbrook ) was in dispute for a period of twenty seven years. It was finally settled by an act of the General Court, passed Nov. 27, 1761, when the eastern boundary was established as it is at present. The boundary-line between this town and Gray (then New Boston) was also undecided for a considerable time. The claim of the Pejepscot proprietors on the northeast of New Gloucester encroaching upon that town as originally laid out, caused it to crowd upon New Boston, which in turn crowded upon New Marblehead, causing a disturbance which almost resulted in a local war. The difference in dispute was about two miles of territory, which no amount of pushing and jostling could create for the benefit of either town. The difficulty was settled by the proprietors of New Gloucester petitioning the General Court, in 1761, for a committee to run out New Marblehead, New Boston, and New Gloucester, and establish their bounds, which was granted. The com- mittee, in the exercise of its powers, changed the original boundaries of the several towns .*
PREPARATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT.
On the 4th of July, 1735, the grantees, at a meeting in Marblehead, voted that " each home-lot have ten acres more added to it on the other side of the main road at the front of said lots," which were subsequently laid out directly op- posite the home-lots, and corresponding with them in quan- tity and form. The grantees, prior to the commencement of actual settlement, held various meetings, and expended considerable sums of money in the way of improvements. They built a bridge across the Presumpscot River, imme- diately above Saecarappa Falls, and bridges over Inkhorn and Colley Wright's Brooks; they laid out considerable money in opening roads and in preparing the township for the habitation of civilized man, as yet unknown within its wilderness limits. And to have everything in readiness for a fair start in the race of subduing the forest and plant- ing a civilized, well-ordered community, it was proposed by the grantees to build a meeting-house for public worship in advance of the arrival of the first pioneer. Accordingly, on the 9th of June, 1737, a committee was appointed to report a plan for such an edifice. They reported at an adjourned meeting, July 23d, that it was their " opinion that a meeting-house suitable for said township at present . be about forty feet long and thirty feet wide and ten feet high." The report was accepted, and a vote taken to build the meeting-house accordingly.
" Voted, That the meeting-house bo built on the westernmost corner of the ten-acre lot, to be laid out and belonging to the ministerial lot
See history of New Gloucester in this work. Also Isnae Parsons, in Maine Historical Collections.
. .
RESIDENCE OF J. M. WHITE, GREAT FALLS , MAINE.
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TOWN OF WINDHAM,
(house-lot No. 33), and that £120 be assessed on the several rights to defray the expense of building the house."
Who ever heard before of a people taxing their unoccu- pied wilderness land to build a plain temple in the forest in which to worship their Creator? But the ruthless pagans of the forest interfered with their work of Christian devo- tion, claiming the land and menacing the workmen, so that the house was not finished till 1740. This was the first meeting-house built in the town of Windham. It stood a few rods north of the dwelling-house occupied in latter years by Col. Edward Anderson,* the younger.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
The first settlement was begun in this town by Capt. Thomas Chute, July 30, 1737. Mr. Chute was born in 1690, and was therefore a man of forty-seven years of age when he entered the wilderness and began a new home for himself and family. Ile had emigrated to Marblehead, Mass., and in the spring previous to his settlement in Windham had come to Falmouth Neck. Ile was one of the grantees, and drew home-lot No. 12, on which he set- tled, about thirty rods from the Presumpscot River. Ilere the first trees were felled and the first habitation erected within the town,-a rude cabin, such as sheltered most of the early pioneers. This cabin stood on the farm occupied in the third generation by John Chute, a grandson of Capt. Thomas Chute.
We find the following items respecting the Chute family in the records of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths kept by Rev. Peter Thacher Smith, during his pastorate of the First Church of Windham :
Deacon Thomas Chute, died in 1771.
Mary, wife of Thomas Chute, died July 30, 1762, aged seventy years. The brief record adds: "and is greatly lamented not only in her own family, but by all who had any acquaintance with her."
Curtis Chute, married Miriam Carr, March 21, 1754.
CHILDREN.
Ruth, born Jan. 13, 1755.
James, born April 7, 1757.
Josiah, born June 4, 1759.
Thomas, born Feb. 19, 1762.
Curtis Chute admitted to communion March 11, 1753. Killed by lightning June 4, 1767.
BAPTISMS.
Curtis and David, sons of Josiah and Mary Chute, Jan- uary, 1785.
Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Chute, Feb. 24, 1799.
Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mary Chute, June 16, 1799.
Dorcas, daughter of Josiah and Mary Chute, Aug. 4, 1799.
William Mayberry was the second settler in the town. He was also from Marblehead, and one of the grantees.
Ile settled on house-lot No. 27, on the place near the river lately owned by Frederic Smith. We find in the records above referred to the following records of the Mayberrys :
BIRTIIS.
William Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah, Feb. 1, 1744-45.
William Mayberry, ; son of Thomas and Bethiah, April 12, 1746.
John Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah, March 28, 1748.
Sarah Mayberry, daughter of Thomas and Bethiah, July 12,1749.
Thomas Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah, July 17, 1751.
Bethsheba Mayberry, daughter of Thomas and Bethialı, July 14, 1753.
David Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah, March &, 1756.
Charity Mayberry, daughter of John and Elizabeth, August 30, 1755.
BAPTISMS.
Mary Mayberry, daughter of Thomas and Bethiah, Oct. 3, 1762.
Bethsheba Mayberry, daughter of Richard and Martha, Nov, 13, 1763.
John Mayberry, son of William and Jane, April 15, 1761.
Richard Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah.
James Mayberry, son of William and Jane, Sept. 8, 1765.
Anne Mayberry, daughter of Richard and Martha, March, 1766.
Richard Mayberry, son of William and Jane, April S, 1767.
Richard Mayberry, son of Richard and Martha, April 26, 1767.
Margaret Mayberry, daughter of Thomas and Margaret, Dec. 8, 1771.
David Spear Mayberry, son of William, Jr., and Rose, May 10, 1772.
Jenny Mayberry, daughter of William and Jenny, June 14, 1772.
Samuel Mayberry, son of William and Jane, June, 1774.
Robert Mayberry, son of William and Rose, November, 1774.
Josiah Mayberry, son of Thomas, Jr., and Mary, Feb- ruary, 1775.
Edward Mayberry, son of Richard and Martha, Jan- uary, 1776.
Thomas Mayberry, son of William and Rose, July, 1776. Lovina Mayberry, daughter of Thomas and Mary, June, 1780.
Joseph Mayberry, son of David and Jemima, April 13, 1783.
Miriam Mayberry, daughter of Thomas and Mary, April 20,1783.
Martha Mayberry, daughter of William and Rebecca, Oct. 17, 1784.
+ The first William died aged five months, April 26, 1715.
# Smith's Itistory of Windham.
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.
Francis Mayberry, son of Thomas and Mary, January, 1785.
John Mayberry, son of James and Bethsheba, Nov. 18, 1787.
William Mayberry, son of William and Mary, June 16, 1799.
MARRIAGES.
Thomas Mayberry and Mrs. Bethiah Spear, both of Windham, Jan. 17, 1744-45.
Thomas Mayberry and Ann Sweat, Dec. 3, 1767.
William Mayberry and Rose Waldon, Feb. 4, 1768. James Mayberry and Bethsheba Mayberry, Dee. 1, 1785. John Mayberry and Rachel Wilson, Oct. 9, 1788.
DEATHS.
William Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah, April 26, 1745.
John Mayberry, son of Thomas and Bethiah, Aug. 27, 1748, aged five months.
William Mayberry, March 15, 1764.
Anne Mayberry, wife of Thomas, April 6, 1770.
Bethiah Mayberry, wife of Thomas, June 14, 1807.
William Knight, from Marblehead, was one of the first settlers of New Marblehead, now Windham, Me. Married Mary Haskell. Second wife, Ilannah Roberts.
CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE.
William, married Mary Knight.
Joseph, married Lucy Libby. Abigail, married Uriah Nason.
William and Joseph were carried off by the Indians, April 14, 1747, but soon after escaped and returned home. Joseph was again taken April 14, 1756, but escaped and returned in May following.
CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE.
Ruthama, married William Whitmore.
Sarah, married Sargent Shaw. Winthrop, died in the Revolution.
John, married Mercy Gregg.
Betsey, died single. Joanna, married Eliakim Wescott.
William, son of William and Hannah Knight, married Mary Knight, and settled on the homestead of his father, in Windham ; owned, in 1867, by William Silla, Esq.
CHILDREN.
George, married Rebecca Davis. William, married Elizabeth Osgood. Hannah, married Enoch Waite. Eunice, married William Motley. Martha, married Elkanah Harding.
Nathaniel, married Nancy Johnson ; second wife, Han- nah Mugford.
Nathaniel, son of William Knight, settled first on the homestead of his father, in Windham; thence to Otisfield ; thence to Sebago, where he died in 1832, aged fifty-six.
CHILDREN BY FIRST WIFE.
David, died single, aged fifty-six.
Martha, married Thomas Fagan.
Harriet, drowned with her mother, at Little Falls, Wind- ham, Feb. 19, 1807, aged twenty months.
CHILDREN BY SECOND WIFE.
Nancy, married Joseph D. Roberts.
Eunice, died in infancy.
Major W., married Lydia Bean ; second wife, Caroline Jackson ; third wife, Lucy Scribner.
Harrison O., married Susan Weston.
Eunice D., unmarried.
Henry, married Sophia S. Ilicks.
Franklin F., married Eliza Bailey.
Lois G., unmarried.
Mary E., married Stephen Sawyer.
George W., married Hannah Davis.
Henry, son of Nathaniel and Hannah Knight, marricd Sophia S. Ilicks, and settled in Portland.
CHILDREN.
Frances A., married Reuben H. Prince.
Charles Emmons, died in childhood, aged two years.
Mary Isabella, died in childhood.
Ilarriet Olivia.
Edward E., died in childhood.
Carrie Ella.
Harrison Sherman.
The following were heads of families in the first parish of Windham, in 1762 : Abraham Anderson, James Bailey, John Bodge, Thomas Bolton, William Bolton, Eleazer Chase, William Campbell, Thomas Chute, Cortis Chute, Hugh Crague, Nathaniel Evins, William Elder, Isaac Elder, John Farrar, Caleb Graffam, Zernbbabel II unnewell, Eliot Hall, William Knight, William Knight, Jr., Ste- phen Lowell, John Mayberry, William Mayberry, Richard Mayberry, Thomas Mayberry, Thomas Mugford, Stephen Manchester, John Manchester, William Maxfield, Robert Miller, Simon Noyes, John Stevens, William Stinchfield, Joseph Starling, Thomas Trott, Samuel Webb, Eli Webb, Ephraim Winship, Gershom Winship, Micah Walker, Thomas Haskell, of Falmouth, Seth Webb, of Gorham.
We find in this little book of records the following entry :
" Dec. 23, 1750 .- Voted, that Edmund Phinney, some time since being admitted to full communion in this church, be dismissed therc- from to be joined with (or emhodied with) the church speedily to be gathered at a plantation called Gorham Town, near to us. Near the conclusion of the public service the foregoing vote was taken.
" EDMUND FINNY."
Another of the early settlers was Dr. Caleb Rea. IIe was the son of Dr. Caleb Rea, Sr., and was born in Dan- vers, Mass., March 8, 1758. Ile married Sarah White, daughter of Capt. John and Abigail (Blaney) White, of Salem, Oct. 4, 1781, and had children : Thomas, who died in Ohio, in 1860; Sarah (Sally), who married Dr. Jacob Hunt, and died at Stroudwater, in 1870; Mary, who died in Portland, in 1849; Caleb, born April 11, 1790, died Sept. 11, 1849, in Windham ; Aaron Porter, who died in Nashville, Tenn .; Albus, M.D. (first named John White), who died in Portland, 1848.
Dr. Rea was descended from Daniel Rea, of Plymouth (1631). The descendants in the regular line from the
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first Daniel were Joshua, Daniel, Zerubbabel, Dr. Caleb Rea, Sr., and Dr. Caleb Rea, Jr. The latter died at Wind- ham, Dec. 29, 1796, and was buried on his farm, consisting of lot No. 1, in the first division of 100-aere lots. His widow died in 1836. -
Samuel Webb, the first schoolmaster and blacksmith in Windham, was the son of Samuel Webb, a native of London, England, who was poisoned by negroes in Africa. He was born in England on Christmas Day, 1696, and, after emigrating to Rhode Island, learned the blacksmith's trade of one MeIntyre, whose daughter, Mary, he married on Christmas Day, 1718, by whom he had children, Samuel and Thomas. His second wife was Mrs. Bathia Spear, widow of Capt. David Spear, and fifth daughter of John Farrar and Perey his wife, an early settler of Windham. Mrs. Spear was a maiden, a widow, and a mother before she was sixteen years of age. By the latter marriage Mr. Webb had eight children : David, born July 17, 1727, in Wey- mnouth, Mass., married Dorothy Peabody ; Ezekiel ; John ; Seth ; Eli, born at Tiverton, R. I., Nov. 7, 1737 ; James ; Susannah, married William Maxfield, 1753 ;* and Eliza- beth.
In 1744, Samuel Webb moved to Boston, whence he came to Falmouth Neck, then to Saccarappa, and then to Windham. From Windham he moved to Deer Isle, with his son Seth, in 1766. His wife died Nov. 30, 1770, aged sixty-two years. He died Feb. 15, 1785. David Webb, the oldest of his second family of children, lived in Wind- ham at the time he married Dorothy Peabody, of Falmouth, July 25, 1745.1 John, the third son, married Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin and Amy (Pride) Larrabee, of Back Cove, in 1753, and had three sons and four daughters. Eli Webb, after his settlement in Windham, lived on the 100- acre lot No. 1 (afterwards the Red Farm) until 1777, when he moved to lot No. 101 in Gorham, near the Powder Mills. He married Sarah Cloutman, daughter of Edward and Anna Cloutman. She was born near Stroudwater, April 25, 1742, and her father was the Edward Cloutman whom the Indians carried off in 1746. Iler mother after- wards married Abraham Anderson, of Windham. By her first marriage she had Timothy, ancestor of all the Clout- mans in this vicinity, Sarah, above named, and Mary, who was never married.
James Webb lived in Windham, and married Elizabeth Mayberry, Aug. 19, 1762. They had one son and one daughter, who were baptized May 10, 1765, and may have bad other children.
We find a John Webb (whether related to the above or not we do not know), born in 1750, died in Windham, in 1835, aged eighty-five. He married Susannah Sweat, July 27, 1779, and had six children, viz., Thomas, John, Stephen, Polly, Betsey, and Hannah. Thomas married Lydia Bick- ford, and had children ; John married, and lives in Auburn, Me .; Stephen married Mary Padden ; Polly married John Goodell, of Windham, and died, aged eighty, in 1861 ; Betsey married Josiah Freeman, of Windham, who died, aged eighty-seven or eighty-eight ; five children,-Stephen
W., of Windham, Benjamin, of Washington, D. C., Thomas W., of Denmark, Elizabeth, wife of Jonathan Sanborn, of Windham, and Lois, unmarried. Hannah married Isaac Gibbs Walker, of Sacearappa, and died in 1878, leaving three children.
Aaron Silla, son of Benjamin and Judith Silla, of Salis- bury, born in 1746, and died in 1805 ; married Elizabeth Dodge, in Windham, Nov. 3, 1767. She was born in Bev- erly, Mass., in 1743, and died Dec. 8, 1824. Hle was a brother of William Silla, who settled in Gorham, and had a large family. The daughters are married into the Riggs, Bolton, and Cook families.
Col. William Silla is the only descendant bearing the name now residing in Windham. He has been a leading citizen, and has held various town offices. He was born in Gorham in 1800, has been twice married, but has no chil- dren living.
Windham was the birthplace of Hon. John A. Andrew, the famous war Governor of Massachusetts during the late Rebellion. His family was of English origin, descending, in America, from Robert Andrew, who died in Rowley, Mass., in 1668. Governor Andrew was born on the 13th of May, 1818, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1837, studied law in Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. In 1850 he opposed the Fugitive Slave Law. He resided in Boston, where he was the law-partner of Theophilus P. Chandler, Esq. In November, 1860, he was elected the twenty-first Governor of Massachusetts, and in that capacity during the war displayed an ability and patriotism which attracted universal attention. Ile was one of the most brilliant and accomplished statesmen of his time.
Hon. John Anderson, well known as mayor of Portland and member of Congress from this district, was born in Windham. He was son of Abraham and Lucy (Smith) Anderson, and grandson of Abraham Anderson, one of the first settlers.
FIRST SAW-MILL.
At a meeting of the proprietors, held Jan. 19, 1738, a vote was passed granting to Ebenezer Hawkes, William Goodwin, Isaac Turner, and Ebenezer Stacy, all their right to any one of the falls of water on the Presumpscot, with 10 acres of land adjoining, upon condition of their erecting and putting in operation a saw-mill. The mill was accord- ingly built on the falls called Horse-beef, and accepted by the proprietors Dee. 13, 1740. This was the first mill of any kind erected within the limits of the town.t
DIVISION OF THE LANDS.
On the 22d of October, 1740, 63 one-hundred-acre lots were laid out by vote of the proprietors, and constituted the second division of the common lands of the township. By a subsequent vote a third division was made Jan. 26, 1763, consisting of 126 one-hundred-acre lots. A fourth division, including all the remaining common lands, was made into 63 seventy-three-acre lots, Oct. 3, 1801. This last was ac- cepted and confirmed Feb. 16, 1804. In these several divisions each one of the 63 original rights drew 393 acres of land.
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