History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 86

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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The following is a partial list of members, taken from the company's order-book : John K. Chaplin, Newell Gammon, Jacob Chaplin, Jr., Stephen Barker, Jary Green, James W. Chaplin, Thomas F. Perley, Watson Doughty, Major W. Knight, Timothy M. Green, Cyrus Lamb, Iliram Varney, Joshua Brackett, Eleazer Bartlett, Ebenezer Choate, Franeis Kimball, Eli West, Asa Harmon, Daniel Davis, John Lamb, Benjamin Bailey, Daniel D. Ruggles, Jonathan Barker, Joshua Goodridge, James Clark, Joseph F. Gammon, Paul Lord, Albert Gray, William Jackson, Gideon Bean, Frank- lin Leavitt, Hamilton G. King.

Abraham W. Chute was commissioned paymaster of the regiment in 1827.

The last officers were, Captain, J. G. Cannell; Lieutenant, James Chute; Ensign, Albert Gray.

The last order calls on them to assemble "armed and equipped, as the law direets, at James Sanborn's inn, on March 20, 1844."

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

DAVID H. COLE,

son of Edward Cole, was born in Cornish, York Co., Me., Oct. 19, 1808.

Ile received his education in the common school and at the Limerick Academy. At the age of eighteen he married Ruth 11. Eastman, of Cornish. For many years he has been a teacher, and taught school some eighty-four terms, making in all twenty-four years.

LITTLE

Photo, by Lamson.

Davis Hla Cole,

In 1839 he removed to Fryeburg, where he was engaged in teaching and farming. In 1862 he removed to the town of Naples, and continued as a teacher and farmer until 1865, when he removed to the village of Naples, where, the same year, he was appointed postmaster, and continues to hold the position. About this time he began reading law, as did also his sons, Charles and Lyman L. Both sons were admitted to practice before their father. Charles is a lawyer in Washington, D. C., and Lyman L. an attorney in Parkersburg, W. Va. Mr. Cole was admitted to the bar at the age of sixty-two, and is now a lawyer in Naples. In 1850 he was elected justice of the peace, and held the office for twenty-five years. He is an active and earnest promoter of school interests, and was for some time super-

IT TI

EBENEZER CHOATE.

ELIZA CHOATE.

LT TLE

CHIARLES CHOATE.

Photo, by Lamson, Portland.

Ebenezer Choate, born in 1796, in Essex, Essex Co., Mass., came with his parents to Bridgton, Cum- berland Co., Me., in 1800, where he remained until he was twenty years of age. In 1824 he married Eliza Barker, of Bridgton. They have three chil- dren living : Charles, born April 8, 1826; Ruth, born March 12, 1830; and Isaac B., born July 12, 1833.

In 1826, Mr. Choate purchased a farm in Naples, where he carried on farming until age com- pelled him to retire from the active duties of life, and since that time his son Charles has had charge of the homestead.

He was an ardent supporter of the old Whig party, and is now a Republican. Mr. Choate was never very solicitous of political office, and has only been officially connected with town matters as treasurer and collector. He is a man known for his integrity and just dealing, for his sound judgment and correct habits. Charles Choate served in the 25th Regiment of Maine Infantry, Com- pany E, Col. Frank Fessenden commanding, and at the expiration of his term was honorably dis- charged. Isaac B. married Sophia P. Thompson, of Windham, and Ruth was married to David Lar- rabee, of Westbrook,

MRS. L. L. CROCKETT.

L. L. CROCKETT.

( PHOTOS BY CONANT. )

L.L.CROCKETT&SON, MANUFACTURERS OF LUMBER, SHOOK & WOOD BOXES.

RESIDENCE OF L.L. CROCKETT, NAPLES . MAINE.

325

TOWN OF NAPLES.

visor of the school committee. ITis other children are Mary W., Snsan E., Edward R., Hannah J., Wallace D., Corydon L., and Mehitable A.

THE PERLEY FAMILY.

In the year of our Lord 1630 came Allan Perley, from Flintshire, in Wales, to the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was the progenitor of all of his name in America.

In 1776, one of his descendants, Enoch Perley, of Box- ford, Mass., came to the township of Bridgton, in the Province of Maine. There were there before him a dozen families, the first house having been built seven years before.

The journey from Massachusetts was toilsome, and that part of Maine heavily wooded, so we expect to be told that all the early emigrants were hardy, energetic men. Enoch Perley was in many respects a remarkable man, of great activity of mind and body, untiring perseverance, and keen sagacity. Ile was small in stature, with a sharp voice and a quick, emphatic manner of speaking peculiar to himself; always busy, exercising his various occupations of farmer, carpenter, stone-mason, smith, turner, tanner and currier, hunter and fisherman, and withal a man of education for his times. Ile was clerk for the proprietors of Bridgton from the time the records were moved there in 1777 till 1806, when, the land having all been deeded away, they ceased to exist as a corporation. IIe was always called "'Squire Perley,"-is spoken of to this day as "the old 'Squire." He held many of the most important offices in town, and was for many years an acting magistrate; was a man of active benevolence, an earnest member of the church, contributing largely to a fund for the support of the ministry in Bridgton, and shrewdly making his gift upon condition that if a church should ever be formed sonth of the centre of the town it should go there. It has eventually fallen to the church at South Bridgton, much nearer his own farm, which extends to the southern boundary of Bridgton.

The first house built by Enoch Perley, succeeding the log-camp in which he lived a short time, still stands, the oldest frame building in Bridgton, now used as a tool-house, but keeping the swinging steps by which the floor above was reached, and the buttons that fastened back the "turn- up" bedstead. It was soon too small, for in those times every man's house was open to travelers, and no man was turned from this hospitable door. A second one was built, which in the night of the 2d of October, 1780, was destroyed by fire, with the proprietors' records,-an irreparable loss to the historian of those times. Early next morning a passing traveler saw 'Squire Perley hewing a stick of timber in his door-yard : to the question, " What are you doing ?" he replied, " Making a new house," in his own sharp way.

Enoch Perley was a prudent and far-seeing man. While his neighbors were getting rid of their forests with all pos-

sible expedition, he purchased and saved all he was able, and lived to see it make him the richest person in that region. He left the principal part of his property to his two sons, in whose hands it increased in value, and, what is a little remarkable, it has not diminished in the third generation. Ile married Anna Flint, of Boxford, who died before him, he living to the age of eighty years.

SAMUEL F. PERLEY,

fourth son of Thomas Perley, inherited the farm and still lives in the honse built by his father in Bridgton, now Na- ples.

The farm is situated on an eminence with fine views in every direction of the hills and lakes of this beautiful county, and the present owner has spent his life in improv- ing it, notably grafting apple-trees, and an orchard of four hundred pear-trees. lle has always been interested in the improvement of methods of farming in Maine, experiment- ing upon his own farm, and being an active member of the agricultural societies throughout the State, and a trustee of the State Agricultural College at Orone from its founda- tion till 1874, when he resigned on account of ill health.

He has been a member of the Legislature four sessions, was for many years a justice of the peace, and, from his tact and good judgment, possessed of much influence in his own and neighboring towns.

He has been well known as a land surveyor, and, adding a remarkable degree of wood-craft to the technical part of his profession, has been often called upon to settle disputed boundaries. Ile was born in 1817; married first Miss Griswold, of Fryeburg, by whom he has one child ; second, Miss Fitch, of Portland, who has no surviving children.

L. L. CROCKETT,

eldest son of Peter and Mary Crockett, was born in the town of Gorham, Dec. 10, 1815.

His father dying when he was only eleven years of age, he went to live with Daniel Murch, with whom he resided, working on a farm, until he was sixteen years old. During these years he received limited opportunities for obtaining any education from books. He spent four years learning the trade of a tanner, and shoemaking, and, at the age of twenty, began business for himself, as a shoemaker, in the town of Gorham, which business he continued to follow for twenty years. In 1841 he married Mary J. Libby, of Gorham. Of this union were born six children, George E., Sarah C., Charlotte I., Lewis P., Frank W., and Jane A.

Mr. Crockett is a representative farmer in the town of Naples, and since his first start in business lie has been suc- cessful. In politics he is a Republican, and in all local matters he is a promoter of enterprises tending to benefit society and establish educational interests.

NEW GLOUCESTER.

ORIGINAL GRANT OF THE TOWN.

THE town of New Gloucester is ineluded within a line running four miles, one hundred and ninety-eight rods from its southern corner to the county line, seven and a half miles on the county line ; thence due southwest to such point as shall form a right angle and interseet the starting-point. It is bounded on the northeast by Dan- ville and Durham, in Androseoggin Co. ; on the southeast by Pownal and North Yarmouth ; on the southwest by Gray and Raymond ; and on the northwest by Poland, in Androscoggin Co. The grant, comprising a tract equal to six miles square, was made by the General Court of Mas- sachusetts to 60 of the inhabitants of Gloucester, Mass., March 27, 1736, and the lines established by a committee of the General Court, in 1762 .* Three additional shares were reserved for the support of schools, the ministry, and the first settled minister. A portion of the town was laid out and drawn by lot Feb. 17, 1738, and the remainder in 1765, 1767, 1773, and 1790. Four lots were reserved as mill lots, for which the occupants were required to erect mills within two years.

PREPARATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT.

John Willett was sent, soon after the first drawing, to open a cart-road from the point of debarkation on Cousins River to the present village, and construct a bridge across Royal River. To induce settlement, £30 were offered to those who would remain three years, £20 for two years, and £10 for one year settlers. The first clearing was made by Jonas Mason, on the east slope of Harris Hill, west of Stevens' Brook. Other indueements were offered, and in 1744, Capt. Isaae Eveleth eame to advance the interests of the proprietors, and open more roads.

John Megquier, grandfather of Gen. Charles Megquier, came at the age of fifteen, in 1748, and in the summer of that year remained alone in camp with his rifle, watching the oxen, and ready to sound the alarm of " Indians !" while the older ones erossed the river to cut hay from the

natural meadows which were held in common for many years. Twelve miles of roads, 19 bridges, and a saw-mill on Stevens' Brook had been constructed, when the Indians began to menace the frontiers, and the settlers were ordered away by the military authorities for their own safety. In 1752 the ruins were visited by John Roberts with four men under orders to rebuild the saw-mill and bridges, and saw timbers for a meeting-house and fort. Soon after the settlers returned, and in 1753-54, the fort was erected on the high ground, between the village and burying-ground, overlooking and controlling the approach to the mill in the ravine below. The walls were of thick pine timbers pierced with holes for the riflemen, and mounted with two swivel guns. James Proctor, of Woburn, garrisoned the fort with 6 men, 2 of whom were killed, and a third sealped by Indians, during the six years the settlers sought nightly refuge within its walls, or sallied forth in company to work upon their fields while one stood guard over his fellows. Joseph Tyler was captured by Indians in 1755, and after- wards became an interpreter. In 1756 the garrison was received on half-pay by the province of Massachusetts. In 1760 the saw- and grist-mills were completed on Royal River at the Great Falls.

John Stinchfield, David Millett, William Stevens, Hum- phrey Woodbury, Samuel Worthley, Benjamin Hammon, John Megquier, John Stinchfield, Jr., Ilorton Mitchell, Capt. Nathaniel Eveleth, William McLane, and William Stinchfield,-all of whom were born in this country except the first, making in the whole 12 families ; and 8 more had moved into the town before winter came. Col. Isaae Par- sons settled near the village, on the farm now occupied by his great-grandson, Charles P. Haskell, in 1761. John Woodman settled in the valley below, near the bridge.

The proprietors' records were moved from Gloucester, Mass., to New Gloucester, in 1763, and a meeting held in the fort November 22d, when Samuel Merrill was chosen Moderator of the Meeting and Treasurer ; Col. Isaac Par- sons, Clerk ; Jonathan Tyler, Daniel Merrill, William Harris, Committee and Assessors ; Nathaniel Eveleth, Col- lector ; William Harris, Surveyor of Roads.

At the first election, held at the meeting-house, Sept. 17, 1774, Simon Noyes was made Moderator, and the fol- lowing town officers were elected : Nathaniel Eveleth, Town Clerk ; Simon Noyes, Moses Merrill, Samuel Merrill, Select- men and Assessors ; Isaac Parsons, Treasurer ; Abel Davis, Constable and Collector ; Jacob Haskell, Josiah Smith, Micah Walker, Fenee-Viewers; Josiah Smith, Peleg Chandler, Wardens; Moses Merrill, Tithing-Man ; Jacob Haskell, William Harris, Abel Davis, William Row, Sur- veyors of Roads ; Deacon Daniel Merrill, Sealer of Weights and Measures ; Samuel Parsons, Sealer of Leather ; Jere-

* In 1762 there was a difficulty about the boundary, en account of the Pejepseot proprietors on the northeast erewiling down upon New Gloucester. This caused the latter town to crowd down upon Gray, and Gray also upon Windham, so that about two miles of territory was in dispute between the towns, the space being that much too narrow to allow the three towns their required six miles square. The proprietors therefore petitioned the General Court for a committee to be appointed to run out the boundary lines of the towns in such a manner as to settle the dispute. In doing this they could only give New Gloucester four miles and a half and thirty-three rods on the Yarmouth back line, and were obliged to run up the northeast side a northwest-by-north course, instead of a northwest course, until it should contain its required amount of land. This changed the form of the town from a parallelogram of six miles on each side to its present peculiar shape.

326

RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH B. HAMMOND, NEW GLOUCESTER, ME.

327

TOWN OF NEW GLOUCESTER.

miah Thoits, Payn Ellwell, Hog-Reeves. A pound was voted, and each man ordered to make his axle-trees four feet five inches long. A meeting was held September 19th, at which Col. William Allen, William Harris, and Isaac Parsons were elected a committee to meet in Portland to consider " the present alarming situation of public affairs." One-fourth of the men were detached as Minute-Men, April 25, 1775. Two casks of powder, 300 flints, and 200 pounds of lead were voted, and appropriations were made for roads and schools. The ammunition was kept concealed behind the huge sounding-board in the old church. Sep- tember 27th a committee was appointed to inspect the in- habitants to see whether they respect the resolves of Con- gress not to use British goods. On receipt of the news of the battle of Lexington, the people assembled under eall of the selectmen ; the militia were organized by Capt. William Harris, Capt. Isaac Parsons, and David Millett, and 20 men were raised for the army. In May, 1776, Capt. Isaac Parsons left for the war, with a company of 55 men.

In 1787 the old fort was sold for seven bushels of corn. New Gloucester became a half-shire town with Portland in 1792, continuing so until the organization of Oxford County in 1805, when the records were removed to Portland. Courts were held in the old school-house, now the tin shop of Philip C. Coller. The jury-rooms were in the old Bell Tavern, kept by Peleg Chandler, on the opposite corner, since 1782. The old sign is still kept in the village, but there is no hotel in the town. A whipping-post was erected beside the pound near by, and stocks were made, in which some of the community usually spent their Sundays.

In 1824 there were five stores or trading-shops in the town, five taverns, one social library that was established in 1795, and one Masonic Fraternity. Eleven of the youths of the town had received a college education, and many of them an academic. There were three attorneys-at-law, two of them college graduates, one of whom was a justice of the Court of Sessions. Rev. Mr. Foxeroft was the first minister, and officiated till 1802, when Rev. Mr. Moseley became his successor. Mr. Foxcroft died March 9, 1807, at the age of seventy-two years.

In 1824 there were three physicians, one of whom, Timothy Little, M.D., had a high reputation as a surgeon and anatomist. IIe had many students for the medical profession. The place at that time contained one cabinet- maker, tbree painters, four carpenters and joiners, a number of boot and shoe makers, two saddlers, harness-makers, and chaise-trimmers, three blacksmiths, a brass-founder, two tailors, two ehair-makers. There had been one major-gen- eral, three brigadier-generals, and three colonels in town. The inhabitants at that time numbered over 1600, all of whom, except one, were born in the United States, chiefly in Massachusetts. There were then about 240 dwelling- houses in the town, all wood, except two, which were of brick. The town then contained ten school districts, and had a fund the interest of which was sufficient to pay for half the schooling.

The practice of selling the poor was abandoned in 1834, and a town-farm purchased. Fown business was transacted in the old church until 1838, when the old Baptist church was purchased and used for a town-house. The heaviest

business of the town was in the days of courts. mail- coaches, and lumbering, previous to 1830. It now sup- ports a thriving local trade.

Sept. 7, 1874, a centennial celebration was held on the ground of the Old Fort, and an address delivered by Hon. Charles 11. Haskell, of the Portland bar, a great-great- grandson of Jacob Haskell, one of the first settlers of the town. Addresses were also delivered by many natives of New Gloucester who had attained distinction in other States. Five hundred dollars were bequeathed to the town by Ezra Tobie in 1776, the interest of which was to be divided among the town paupers each Thanksgiving-day.

Historic interest centres around the old village beside the Fort of 1754, on the hill, still possessing the house of Capt. Parsons, erected in 1773, and used as a store-room by Charles P. Haskell; the dwelling of Rev. Samuel Fox- croft, the second frame house in town, and in which Col. Joseph E. Foxcroft was born in 1773; the old Foxeroft store ; the Bell Tavern, the court-room ; the old, unpainted town-house; beyond the fort, the single pine-tree where stood the mill, and near by the burying-ground donated by Paul Stevens in 1793. Capt. Parsons, of Revolu- tionary fame, sleeps here by the side of his four wives, his 'own marble headstone, in compliance with his dying in- junctions, " a little higher, thicker, and a little more to the front" than the black slate ones marking their graves on either side. There are, besides, burying-grounds at Gloucester Hill, West Gloucester, and at the east corner of the town, to which most of the early dead have been gathered.

VILLAGES.

NEW GLOUCESTER,

the principal village, contains 42 dwellings, the town-house, school-house, Congregationalist and Baptist churches, and the following business houses :

General stores: I. II. Keith, established in 1848, in company with Sewall Gross; J. W. Mitehell, established in 1879.

Hardware and tin : P. C. Coller, 1875.

Ilarness : William P. Taylor, 1829.

Millinery: Miss Martha Marsh, 1871.

Wagons: John Hancock, J. G. Bennett, 187G.

Blacksmith : Edwin Bean, 1878.

There are two resident physicians : Dr. A. Q. Marshall, 1872; and Dr. John I. Sturgis.

In the valley half a mile distant are the depots of the Grand Trunk and Maine Central Railroads.

UPPER GLOUCESTER,

two miles north, contains 25 dwellings, a fine, large school- house, over which the " Centennial Hall" was erected at the expense of the school district in 1876; the stores of Sewall Gross, established 1855; and George Blake, IS56; Isaae Brown's shoe-shop, Alvin Brown's blacksmith-, and Benjamin Seger's wagon-shop. Near by are the saw-mills of' Allen & Jordan and Alverdo Estez, on land occupied by mills for nearly a century.

The post-offices are West Gloucester, the Shaker settle- ment, Samuel Kendrich, postmaster; Upper Gloucester,

328

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

Sewall Gross, postmaster; New Gloucester, Mrs. Abbie S. Stevens, postmistress.

COBB's is an abandoned station on the Grand Trunk Railway.

Foca's CORNER consists of 16 dwellings and the store of J. F. Pollister, established in 1876.

GLOUCESTER HILL is a hamlet of 20 dwellings near the Free- Will Baptist church. The Maine Central and Grand Trunk Railways pass through the town in nearly parallel routes from north to south.

SHAKER VILLAGE,*

or United Society of Believers, located in the northwest corner of the town of New Gloucester, is deserving of es- pecial notiee, both from the peculiarity of their religious views and the successful experiment of their domestic economy in community life, patterning the first Christian Church as represented in the New Testament, " the multi- tude of them that believed were of one heart, neither said any of them that aught of the things which he pos- sessed was his own, but they had all things in common." (Aets iv. 32.)

Copying from an interesting paper contributed by the Shakers at the centennial anniversary of the town, Sept. 7, 1874, a brief extract of the origin of the Shakers is here presented as an introduction :

" Ann Lee, the founder, was born in Manchester, England, Feb- ruary, 1736, who firstly became a disciple of James and Jane Wardly, Friends or Quakers, who belonged to the sect called the French Proph- ets. In early life, Ann was endowed with uncommonly deep religious feelings, and under their teachings became deeply inspired, and was blessed with many divine gifts, visions, revelations, and prophecies, until it was acknowledged by her elders and the society to which she belonged that she had received greater light and power and a minis- Iration superior to theirs, and instinctively looked to her for counsel, and called her mother, an endearing title which all her faithful fol- lowers repeat with pleasure.

" Her testimony was so sharp, keen, and powerful against the root of human depravity that it aroused the enmity of the wicked, and she and her followers were bitterly persecuted. At one time her persecu- tors led her out into a valley, and attempted to stone her to death ; but, as she declared, she was shielded by the power of God, and they were not able to injure her. Exasperated by failure to accomplish their fiendish designs, they fell into contentions among themselves, and she escaped. At another time she was placed in the stone prison of Man- chester, in a cell so small she could not straiten herself, and there kept fourteen days without food or drink, except once in twenty-four hours a lad by the name of James Whittaker would insert the stein of a pipe through the keyhole of the prison-door, and pour a little wine and milk into the bowl of the pipe; in this way she obtained all the nourishment she received during that time. At the end of the fourteen days the prison-door was opened, with the hope and ex- pectation of finding her dead, but to the surprise of all she walked off as smart and strong as on the day she was put into prison.

" After that she received a revelation to come to America, and on the 19th of May, 1774, she and eight of her followers embarked in a vessel called the 'Maria,' which was condemned us unseaworthy. During the passage, Mother Ano tokl the captain he should not know whereof to accuse them, except it were concerning the law of their God, especially in the manner of their worship, which did prove of- fensive; and when they went forth to praise God in songs and danees, the captain was greatly enraged, and threatened to throw them overboard if they repeated the offense. But she, believing it better to obey God rather than man, again went forth in the sume manner to worship flim; this so enraged the captain that he at- tempted to put his threats into execution. This was in the time of a

storm, and the ship sprung aleak. All hands were called to the pumps. Mother Ann herself and her companions took their turns. The storm was so violent and the leak so bad that the captain turned pale as a corpse, and told them there was no hope of safety, that the ship must go down, and all on board perish ; but Mother Ann said, 'Nay, captain, he of good cheer, not one hair of our heads shall perish ; we shall all land safe in America. I just saw two bright angels of God standing by the mast, from whom freceived this promise.' Immediately a huge wave strack the ship, closing the plank into its place, which had started off and caused the leak ; the storm abated, and after that the captain said to Mother Ann, 'To you we owe the safety of the ship and our lives, henceforth worship God as you please ; you shall not be molested ;' and ever afterwards treated her with great kindness. And, as Mother Ann predicted, they did all land safely in New York, on the 6th of August, 1774. They soon settled in Niskyuna, now Watervliet, N. Y., from whence, in the spring of 1780, their testimony began to spread."

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 86

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780