USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Durham > History of Durham, Maine, with genealogical notes > Part 11
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He married 29 Nov. 1846, Harriet A. dau. of Isaac and Mary (Little) Davis of Portland. Their son, Charles C., is a member of the firm of Loring, Short & Harmon.
JACOB HERRICK, ESQ., son of Rev. Jacob and Sarah (Webster) Herrick, was born in Beverly, Mass., 29 March, 1791. When five years of age he rode on a pillion with his mother to Durham in five days. He entered Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1805, and was for a time a student in Bowdoin College, class of 1810. He married 13 Jan. 1813, Abigail, dau, of Capt. John Scott of Durham. "She was a slight, dark woman, of delicate physique, but of unbounded energy and vivacity, generous, amiable and notably unselfish." Their early married life was spent in Durham, where he was a farmer and Notary Public. In 1845 they moved to Auburn, where "Squire Herrick" was well known as a claim-agent and Justice of the Peace. He was a man of fair complexion and rather portly figure, of marked literary taste, and endowed with a keen sense of humor and a ready wit which made him an admirable raconteur. He died in Auburn 12 June 1864. His widow died in Portland in 1877. For some account of his family see chapter on Genealogy.
WILLIAM HENRY LAMBERT, son of Isaac and Lucy (Dingley) Lambert, was born in Durham 8 Aug. 1843. He fitted for college at Lewiston Falls Academy and graduated at Water- ville College, now Colby University, in 1865. He was admitted to the bar at Augusta in 1867 and to the Mass. bar in 1883, but
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never practiced law. He was successively principal of the high schools at Castine, Augusta, Lewiston and Fall River, Mass. He was Supt. of Schools in Malden, Mass., 1879-84. He returned to Fall River as principal of the high school and died there 4 Nov. 1890. Colby University honored him with the degree of Ph. D. in 1889. He served for a time as Editor of the Maine School Journal, and at the time of his death was President of the Mass. State Teachers' Association. He edited "Memory Gems" and "Robinson Crusoe" for use in schools, and contributed to the New England Journal of Education and other school journals. An editorial in a Fall River paper thus speaks of him :- "Dr. Lambert was held in universal esteem. He had impressed himself indelibly upon the city as a man of high character and conspicuous ability. His pupils had for him the highest respect and the warmest personal regard. It is hardly too much to say that he was facile princeps among the public school teachers of the State. Certainly high educational authority has so regarded him. The inducements which have been brought to bear to secure his services in other cities clearly indicate his professional eminence. He was a man of unfailing courtesy, of broad and generous culture, of noble impulses, and best of all, of established Christian character. His wide and thorough scholarship, his ready tact and deep and genuine sympathy gave him great power as an instructor. His hold on his pupils was remarkable. His quality as a disciplinarian was in keeping with his other qualities. The touch of the hand was velvet, but no one doubted that it was full of nerve and force.
"Just and wise in administration, kindly in heart, desirous to be helpful to all, humane and Christian in spirit, a man whose character lifted the morale of whatever instruction he led, and inspired to higher living whatever pupils were entrusted to his guidance and instruction, his sudden death has spread over the community a universal feeling of grief. The flag which, as head of the school, he so lately received at the hands of the school board, now floating at half mast, and in keeping with it other school flags, fitly typifies the general sense of bereavement and pain."
He married in Waterville, Sept. 1866, Emma F. Otis and left two daughters, Grace E. and Gertrude A.
HON. WILLIAM H. NEWELL.
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BENJAMIN F. NASON was born in Windham 13 March, 1818. His father was John, son of William and Betsey Nason, born in Windham 29 March 1792. His mother was Lavinia, dau. of Benjamin and Sarah (Libby) Weeks, born in Windham 27 June, 1797. They were married in 1817, and moved to Durham in 1819. Jolin Nason died 30 May, 1872; his wife died 17 May 1879. Benjamin F. Nason was educated in the public schools of Durham and in private schools taught at S. W. Bend and West Durham by Joseph Hill, a student from Bowdoin College. He relates that when he was ten years old a kinsman visited his father's house and gave him, for reading a sentence from a book, a dollar with which to buy a Grammar and an Arithmetic. At the age of eighteen he began to teach and continued that profession for twenty-seven years, or thirty-five terms of school. His salary varied from $12 per month at the beginning to $50 per month at the end. He has received about $3000 for teaching and has given a full equivalent to his pupils, many of whom still remember his genial ways and patient efforts for their intellectual improvement. Mr. Nason has also been supervisor of Schools and one of the Selectmen. He interested himself in Town History and collected much material for the present volume.
He married Frances E. Drinkwater, by whom he had three daughters, only one of whom, Mrs. Nettie Merrill of Auburn, is now living. He died at Auburn 20 July 1898.
HON. WILLIAM H. NEWELL, son of Wm. B. and Susannah K. Newell, was born in Durham, April 16, 1854. After pursuing the branches taught in the local schools he attended the Western State Normal School at Farmington, from which he graduated in 1872. Thence he went to the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill, graduating from the Classical Department of this institution in 1876.
During the next six years Mr. Newell was principal of the Grammar School at Brunswick, a position which he filled with a great deal of success at a very trying time.
While engaged in teaching at Brunswick he pursued a wide course of study and general reading at the Bowdoin College library and entered upon the study of the law in the office of Weston Thompson, Esq. While still teaching he was admitted to the Sagadahoc County Bar, at Bath.
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In 1882 he abandoned teaching and removed to Lewiston, where he immediately opened a law office. He formed a co-partnership with Hon. D. J. McGillicuddy and F. X. Belleau, Esq., under the style of Newell, McGillicuddy & Belleau, with offices in Central Block at the corner of Main and Lisbon streets. He soon after withdrew from this concern and associated himself with Wilbur H. Judkins, Esq., as Newell & Judkins.
This partnership lasted until January 1, 1894, when Mr. Newell withdrew and became senior member of the present firm of Newell & Skelton, which is now recognized as one of the leading law firms in Androscoggin County.
He was married to Ida F. Plummer September 20, 1883. They have three children, Augusta Plummer, born March 17, 1887, Gladys Weeks, born October 13, 1890, and Dorothy, born February 2, 1894.
Mr. Newell is a Democrat in politics and, while he has never made politics in any sense a vocation, he has been called upon to fill many public offices. He was auditor of accounts for the City of Lewiston in 1885 and City Solicitor in 1890. In 1890 he was elected County Attorney of Androscoggin County by a large majority in a normally strong Republican county. In the following spring he was elected Mayor of Lewiston and was re-elected in 1892. He has been urged several times since then to accept the nomination at the hands of the business men of the City. In 1898, at the earnest request of the tax payers and representative citizens, he again became a candidate for the mayoralty on a Democratic ticket endorsed by the citizens in general. His great popularity is attested by the fact that he was elected by a majority of almost 400 against a Republican majority of 997 at the preceding election. He is now serving his third term in this important office.
He has also held many important positions of trust outside of politics. He was a delegate from the Maine State Bar Association to the twenty-first annual convention of the American Bar Association at Saratoga in 1898. About a year ago Chief Justice Peters appointed him to membership on the Commission to draft a plan for the annexation of the City of Deering to Portland.
Mr. Newell is largely interested in important business enterprises and is officially connected with numerous.
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WILLIAM B. NEWELL.
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corporations. He is Vice President and a director of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Lewiston, director and clerk of the Rumford Falls and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, director and clerk of the Maine Pulp and Paper Company, and director of the Androscoggin Water Power Company.
He is a member of the Board of Trade and of the local social clubs and organizations. He is an Odd Fellow and a member of all the local Masonic bodies. He is also a member of Kora Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and attended the annual convention of Mystic Shriners at Dallas, Texas, in June 1898, as Supreme Representative from Maine.
As a lawyer Mr. Newell stands among the foremost in the State. Sound, conservative and well grounded in his profession, he enjoys the confidence of the business public in a marked degree. An exceptionally able advocate, keen, incisive and resourceful, he is a terror to an obstinate or prevaricating witness and always makes the hardest fight when the odds are most against him. His reserve power and ability to adapt himself to varying circumstances is often the subject of remark among his associates.
His fidelity to his clients, his strict integrity and his executive ability have brought him much into the management of large estates, and an extensive practice in this line, both in probate and in commercial transactions, testifies very emphatically to his success in his chosen profession.
Generous, hospitable and public spirited in a marked degree, he makes and holds friends without regard to political affiliations or business associations. He is apparently never happier than when assisting some struggling member of his own profes- sion over a difficult point in his case, and the younger attorneys at his Bar all say that no one ever seeks assistance of him in vain, no matter how busy he may be.
WILLIAM B. NEWELL, the eldest son of the Rev. David and Jane Newell, was born in Portland, Me., May 12, 1827. Hc was married to Susannah K. Weeks June 15, 1850. They have two children, Ida E. Newell, born January 12, 1852, who has always resided with him, and William H. Newell, Mayor of Lewiston. Mr. Newell has resided in Durham for more than forty years, during thirty-five of which he has occupied the farm where he now lives at West Durham.
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He secured a good common school education in early life and taught school during the winter seasons for thirty years with unqualified success. He is one of the few surviving representa- tives of those old-fashioned school masters whose work brought them into closest touch with pupils and parents alike, and whose influence, always for truer and higher manhood and womanhood, has borne its fruit in the sterling qualities of their pupils. Few of Durham's citizens have done more to stamp the impress of a noble life upon the lives of her sons and daughters than Mr. Newell.
He has held many town offices, notably those of Town Clerk, member of the Superintending School Committee, member of the Board of Selectmen and Town Treasurer. A fitting tribute to his sense of fairness in all dealings of man with man and to the confidence which his fellow-townsmen have in his honesty and conscientiousness is the fact that they have persisted in choosing him moderator of their annual town meetings for many years.
In politics, he is a Democrat, respected alike by his political friends and opponents. In religion he is a Congregationalist. He is an upright citizen. His word is as good as his bond.
FRED W. NEWELL, son of James and Sarah (Herrick) Newell, was born in Durham 22 Nov. 1865. He fitted for col- lege in part at Freeport High School and graduated at Bates College in 1889, ranking second in a class of twenty-five mem- bers. During his college course he taught terms of school in several towns including Oakland and Monmouth, where he was Principal of the Academy. Immediately after graduation he became Principal of the Boston Asylum and Farm School, a charitable institution with a hundred pupils. After a year he was elected Principal of a school at Pittsfield, N. H., where he remained one year. He was Principal of the Academy at Thet- ford, Vt., 1891-6. He graduated in 1898 from the School of Civil Engineering of Michigan University at Ann Arbor. He married 4 Aug. 1892 Sophia George of Barnstead, N. H. Is now a civil engineer in Ohio.
JOHN DURAN OSGOOD, son of David and Elsie (Duran) Osgood, was born in Durham, Me., June 8, 1819. His grand- father, Nathaniel Osgood, having served as a soldier in the War
Mettre
DR. ALEXANDER M. PARKER.
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of the Revolution, came from Salisbury, Mass., his native place, to Durham about 1790, and was one of the founders of the Osgood family in the latter town.
John D. Osgood attended the public schools of Durham, and in addition to the education thus received, he acquired a well trained mind by his wide reading.
He married, in 1849, Sarah A., daughter of Barzillai Richards of Durham, and settled on the homestead farm on the county road, near the Freeport line, where he resided until the death of his wife, in 1867. He then sold his farm, and for several years had no settled home, but visited other parts of the state and country, spending two or three years in Boston, from which city he went to Raymond, Me., in 1875.
He married Mrs. Emeline Nash of that place, in 1877, and lived there until his death, Aug. 27, 1882.
He served repeatedly as one of the selectmen of Durham and also as representative to the legislature in 1871.
He was a man of sound judgment, very conscientious, and highly respected as a citizen. The honors he received from his townsmen were not of his own seeking.
In 1868 he joined the Methodist Church at West Durham, and was also a member of Acacia Lodge No. 121, F. & A. M.
He sleeps in the little cemetery on the Pownal road, beside the wife of his youth, and with them rest their first born son and their only daughter.
Two sons survive him, both residents of Boston.
ALEXANDER McINTOSH PARKER, M. D., son of Peter and Mercy (McIntosh) Parker, was born in Durham 19 March 1824. He studied medicine with Drs. F. G. Warren of Pownal and N. H. Cary of Durham. He also attended lectures at the Medical Schools of Bowdoin College and of Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1856. He practiced at Dresden, Me., three years. Moved to Morrill's Corner, Deering, in 1859, where he built up a large practice. In 1863 he served as Assistant Surgeon of the First Maine Cavalry in Virginia. Was present at the battles of Brandy Station, Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania and at the siege of Peters- burg. July 15, 1863, he was taken prisoner and confined four months in Libby Prison, Richmond. He was an Odd Fellow
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and Royal Arch Mason. He ranked high socially as well as professionally.
He married (1) 2 July 1848, Mary C. Corbett of Durham ; (2) Eliza A. Sawyer of Portland ; (3) Mrs. Florentine C. Walker, widow of Capt. Joseph Walker of Portland. By second marriage there were two daughters, Carrie Elizabeth, who married Charles E. Clark of Yarmouth, and Alice Mary who married the Rev. W. H. Gould of Dexter, Me. Dr. Parker died 24 Nov. 1897. He is remembered by many friends as a true man and faithful physician.
JOSEPH PLUMMER, son of Henry and Wealthy (Estes) Plummer, was born in Durham 7 Sept. 1834. He lived as a farmer in Durham till 1883. Since that time he has been a miller at Lisbon Falls. He married Marcia Foss of Lisbon and has one daughter, Clara A., who married 13 June 1892 Walter Douglas of Windham.
An episode in his life caused a good deal of newspaper com- ment. At midnight of Aug. 6, 1879, he was awakened, at his home in Durham, by a noise like the slamming of a door. He hastened out and saw two men about ten rods away running across the field. With no clothing but a night-dress and without any weapon he gave chase, shouting to a neighbor for assistance. They pursued the two burglars some distance and finally cap- tured both, finding them armed with revolvers. Frightened by threats of being shot the thieves surrendered. It was found that they had pillaged a number of houses. To burglarize houses in Durham is not half as easy as it once was to stab horses and burn buildings by night. The thieves got their due reward in Auburn jail.
EDWARD PLUMMER, son of Henry and Wealthy. (Estes) Plummer, was born in Durham 4 Jan. 1830. He began his remarkable business career at the age of eighteen, working one ycar in Bath. The next year, 1849, he was owner of a saw and grist mill just below the present bridge at Lisbon Falls, which he operated till 1862. Then he sold out to the Worumbo Co., of which he became a Director and Agent. He superintended the building of the large woolen mill at Lisbon Falls. He was a promoter and director of the Androscoggin Railroad, built in 1861. He organized the Androscoggin Water Power Co. for
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EDWARD PLUMMER.
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JOSEPH PLUMMER.
JACOB H. ROAK.
HON. WILLIAM D. ROAK.
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lumbering in 1875 and has been its Agent ever since. The com- pany has paid five per cent. semi-annual dividends on its capital of $100,000 every year since its organization. Its timber lands in the northern part of Oxford County were sold last August to the Umbagog Pulp Co. of Livermore Falls for $158,000. Mr. Plummer was a prime mover in the building of the Rumford Falls Railroad and also of the pulp mill of Lisbon Falls Fiber Co. He was Representative to the Legislature in 1870. He has a fine residence at Lisbon Falls, Me.
Mr. Plummer married (1) Augusta Taylor of Lisbon, (2) Sarah A. Shaw of Durham. A son, Walter E. married Grace Douglas of Gardiner. Another son, Harry E. married Mary Libby of Lisbon. Both are associated with their father in busi- ness at Lisbon Falls. A daughter, Ida F. married Mayor Newell of Lewiston.
JACOB HERRICK ROAK, son of Martin and Elizabeth (Lawrence) Rourk, was born in Durham 22 March 1806, and died in Auburn 5 July 1886. His father died when he was less than two years of age, and his early life was a struggle. He began his business career at South West Bend as a shoemaker. Later he became associated with Mr. Packard at West Auburn in the wholesale manufacture of boots and shoes. Their business was afterward transferred to Auburn. He may be called the pioneer of all the great shoe-manufacturing that is now carried on in that city. He established the first National Bank in Auburn, where his character and business ability are well known and approved. He is a fine illustration of so many American lads who by industry and perseverance have risen from humble circumstances almost unaided to positions of wealth and public influence.
He married (1) 1833, Mary P. Packard of Auburn; (2) 2 Sept. 1841, Ellen Blake. There were two children by the first marriage and four by the second.
HON. WILLIAM D. ROAK, born 4 Dec. 1820, has spent his life as a successful farmer on the farm occupied by his father. No citizen of Durham has been more useful, respected and hon- ored. He was on the Board of Selectmen in 1855, '56, '58, '67 and '69, the last two years as Chairman. Was Town Clerk in 1879. He served on the School Committee nine years. Was
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Representative to the State Legislature in 1857 and 1858, County Commissioner 1870-76, and State Senator 1883-86. Has been chosen moderator of Town Meetings thirty-two times. Was Jus- tice of the Peace several years. He held some town office forty years continuously, and always without a suspicion of dishonesty or charge of unfaithfulness. He has acted as appraiser of over fifty estates. An ardent lover of his native town he for many years has been collecting historical material, which has been util- ized in this volume. It is probable that no one who ever lived in Durham has been so well versed in its history. He is still alive emphatically. In politics he is unquestionably a Republican ; in religion, a Congregationalist ; in social and business relations a kind, just and helpful man.
ALFRED ROBERTS, son of Oliver and Sophia Roberts, was born in Lisbon 1 July 1838. When five years of age he was bereaved of his father, and his mother with five small children moved to S. W. Bend. When he was eighteen years old the care of the family devolved on him. He learned the trade of a shoe-maker. In Sept. 1861 he entered the Union army. Poor health prevented much active service. Most of his battles were fought with sympathizers with the Rebellion at S. W. Bend. After the war he moved to Portland and was engaged in business. there for the next twenty years as a retail and wholesale shoe- dealer. He dealt also in real estate and acted as broker in exchange of bonds, mortgages and other securities. In the. business of a broker he has continued in his partial retirement at Old Orchard. For the last five years he "has lived at Los Angeles, Cal., where he has fifty acres used in the cultivation of fruit. He has always been an ardent adherent of the Republican party.
MRS. ANNIE J. ROBERTS, wife of Alfred Roberts, was the youngest daughter of Josiah Fitz, late of Lynn, Mass. After twenty-eight years of peaceful, happy married life she passed away 13 May 1898 at Los Angeles, Cal. Her portrait is pre- sented as an offering of love in tribute to the memory of one. whose womanly virtues were recognized by all who knew her. She was a type of those self-forgetful persons who ordinarily are. not found on the pages of history, who lose themselves as a living sacrifice to the happiness and welfare of others, and thus find the
ALFRED ROBERTS.
ANNIE J. (FITZ) ROBERTS.
SAMUEL OWEN STACKPOLE.
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truest value of life. Such realize more pleasure in having an attractive, cheerful, restful home, than monarchs do in founding and extending a kingdom. Their conquests are those of love. Their acquisitions are such as belong to highest character. Modesty, gentleness, sympathy, charity, patience, purity, surely these are more valuable than the riches acquired by scheming industry, more honorable than high political station, more lasting than all other gains. The possession of such qualities of the heart found a great hope of a still happier and nobler state of existence, since no real loss can ever come to a good person. Made perfect through the physical sufferings of her last years she died as peacefully as she had lived.
SAMUEL OWEN STACKPOLE was born in Durham 19 Dec. 1794. He received the homestead of seventy-five acres from his father, giving bond of $1500 for the maintenance of his parents and sister Jane as long as they lived and for the payment of certain amounts to other relatives. The bond obliged him, among other things, to provide for his parents "conveyance to Meeting and for visiting their friends in such manner as has been customary with them." This bond he gave at the age of twenty-two and he faithfully fulfilled it. He added to the home- stead by purchase from time to time, till he owned one hundred and eighty acres. He engaged to some extent in lumbering, built a saw-mill back of his house, and drove many a mast and stick of oak timber to Freeport. When he wanted bricks, he made them on his own farm. Industry and enterprise made him a successful farmer. He refused all offers of public office, though urged to accept several. The title of "Major" was familiarly applied to him, though he would not accept that office when it was offered to him. His hospitality was unlimited. Everybody found a welcome to his home. He brought up four- teen children, but there was always room for lodgers. He was generous to the needy and to every good cause that appealed to him for help. Hence he was an early abolitionist and total abstainer. He united with the Methodist Episcopal church in 1838 and conscientiously and liberally supported it as long as he lived. He drove with his family three miles to meeting every Sunday in the year. No season of the year was too busy for family prayer. He was a friend to many, and therefore had many friends. In person he was six feet tall, straight as an arrow till
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bent by old age and sickness, rather slim than stout, tough and muscular. He slept but little and wanted to be at work all the time. Evenings and when not laboring he was almost always reading some newspaper or good book, especially in old age the Bible. With all his hard work and many cares he retained to the end a warm heart and genial, social ways. He lived seventy- six years on the spot where he was born. Moving to Brunswick in 1872 he did not seem to feel quite at home and was always glad to drive up to Durham. He died in Brunswick 7 April 1876, and was buried about a mile from his Durham home, where rest also his parents, wives and several children.
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