USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Wales > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 28
USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Monmouth > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 28
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That these children might be connected with an event worthy of rehearsal to their posterity, the proud moth- er packed them together like a box of sardines and rocked them in one cradle. William was the youngest of these seven children, and Thomas, one of the second pair of twins. Long after they came to Monmouth, the father of Thomas and William used to gather his grandchildren about his knees in the light of the blaz- ing open fire-place and tell them of this wonderful epi- sode in the life of their parents. And then the little ones snuggled closer to their grandfather's side, and cast furtive glances into the dark corners while they listened to the still more wonderful events which befell his grandfather's wife and children. It seems that the old gentleman's grandfather was a soldier in King Philip's war. On the afternoon of Apr. 10, 1676 "he was employed in casting dressing into his field, accom- panied by his son Samuel, a boy between five and six years old. Looking toward his house, he was surpris- ed at seeing feathers flying about it and other tokens of mischief within. He also heard the screams of his wife. Apprehending that Indians might be there, he hastened home with his gun, and there found two of his family murdered." His wife, Hannah, who only a
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week before had given birth to a child, and Thomas, a twin to the five-year-old son who was with him in the field, were the victims. "On further search it was found that the infant, only a week old, had been slain by the same ruthless hands. The nurse, it appeared, had snatched it up in her arms upon the alarm of dan- ger, and was making her escape to a garrison-house in the vicinity; but so closely was she pursued by the sav- ages, that, finding she could not save herself and the babe too, she let the babe drop, and the Indians des- patched it at once. Mr. Richardson now rallied some of his neighbors ,who went with him in pursuit of the enemy. Following them some time, they espied three Indians sitting on a rock, fired at them, killed one, and drove the others away."*
Thomas and William Richardson married, in Bux- ton and Standish, Mary Ayer and Lydia Ayer respect- ively. William died in 1847, childless. In 1818, Thomas's wife died, leaving a family of six children, one having died in infancy. For a second wife, he mar- ried Mary, daughter of Benjamin Dearborn, who lived at Dearborn's (now Moore's) corner, in Monmouth. Four children came of this union.
Mr. Richardson was a deacon of the church at North Monmouth. His oldest child, Lucy, married Rufus Moody. Aaron, the oldest son, removed to Brunswick, Me., where his children now reside. He was a mill- wright and machinist. Elbridge Gerry, the third child, passed the greater portion of his life in North Anson where he married Sarah Gambage. He returned to his native town, however, and, in the autumn of 1852,
*From Sewell's History of Woburn.
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started on a voyage to California. He died before reaching his destination, leaving a widow and six chil- dren. His youngest son, William G., is a graduate of the Boston Theological Institute and a member of the New England conference of the M. E. church. Nancy, the fourth child, married Moses Frost, and Mary, Ly- man Fairbanks, of Winthrop. Thomas Miller, the old- est child of the second wife, married Bernice Jack, of Litchfield. They removed from Monmouth to Bruns- wick, Me. He died at Pike's Peak, in 1872. The two youngest children were Almatia A. and William Jordan. The former married William A. Lawrence, of Gardiner, and the latter, Amanda Strout, of Wales. He died in California in 1873.
The only son who remained in Monmouth was Jesse Pierce. He was born May 3, 1822, and married Fidelia King of Winthrop. He was selectman in 1888. Of his five children three married and settled in Mon- mouth. Ella M. married Geo. L., son of Samuel O.
King. Millard F. resides on the home place and Wil- fred A., the youngest son, on an adjacent lot.
Thomas and William Richardson had a half brother Jonathan, the son of their father's first wife. He fol- lowed them to Monmouth in 1812. His wife was Mary Thomas, of Stroudwater(now Westbrook), Me. They had seven children, the o.dest of whom, Mary, married Waterman Stanley, of Winthrop. John, the second child, married Mary, daughter of Leonard Orcutt, of Winthrop, and removed to Brunswick, Me., and thence, in 1852, to Lawrence, Mass., where he passed the remain- der of his days. He was a carpenter. Henry married Sally, daughter of Robert Withington and removed to
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Portland; Thomas, Bathsheba Stevens, of Winthrop, and removed to Brunswick; and Jonathan, Ruth Lewis, of Buckfield. They lived in Winthrop and Monmouth. Louisa and Lucy were the youngest of the family. The latter married James Bowdoin Johnson, of Mon- mouth, and the former, Moses Fogg of Wales.
Col. Rufus P. Marston, son of Col. Jonathan Mars- ton, was born Oct. 30, 1807, and married, at the age of twenty-three, Sally Prescott, of Mt. Vernon. The mili- tary honors of his father and grandfather fell to him as by inheritance. In 1841, he was commissioned colo- nel of the regiment of which his father had been the principal officer, having been promoted successively captain, major, and lieut. colonel from the ranks. Like his father, again, he served on the board of selectmen, and for four years he held the office of town treasurer. While following closely the form of his sire in military and civil prominence, he departed widely from him in stature, his large frame giving him a more command- ing presence than that of Col. Jonathan, who was rath- er below the medium in height. Col. Marston was a trustee of the M. E. church, of which he and his wife were devoted and useful members. At about five o'clock in the evening of the 25th of Dec., 1861, he fell through a scuttle from the high beams of his barn, and received injuries from which he died two hours lat. er. He was found in an unconscious state by his son, and before a physician could be summoned, had expired. His wife died July 10, 1890. Of their seven children, four died at an early age. The three who reached mna- turity were Caroline A., David, and Luella F. The first married Dr. C. A. Cochrane, of Winthrop; David
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inarried Anna A., daughter of Daniel W. Gilman, and settled on the home place, and Luella married Ronald McIlroy, of Winthrop.
In 1807 Janics and Joseph Eaton came from New Hampshire and purchased the land afterwards known as the James Sinclair place, now owned by Mrs. Roberts. Their mother was Nancy Nichols of E. Monmouth. James had been a sailor. The father of these boys came from New Hampshire and made his home with them until his decease. He had other children, all of whom, with the exception of Polly, the wife of John Moody, re- iloved to Thomaston after the death of their father.
The same year Nathaniel Whitcher commenced clear- ing the farm occupied by Robert Macomber on Mon- mouth Neck. His first wife was killed by lightning in the month of January. His second wife was Mary Jones. He sold his farm to Isaac Twombley and moved to the Aaron Hinkley place, near Oak Hill, where he died. He was an esteemed citizen and a valuable member of the Free Baptist Church.
Josiah Orcutt was born in North Bridgewater (now Brockton ), Mass., Sept. 14, 1781. His father, Nathan- iel, born in 1746, was of Scotch descent, and was an officer in the war of the Revolution. Josiah married Naomi Chesman, of North Bridgewater, in November, 1806, andthe following spring he and his brother Leon ard came to Maine. Leonard settled in Winthrop, on the farm now owned by Francis Perley, and built the house now in use. Josiah settled near North Mon- mouth, on the farm lately owned by Henry Allen, long known as the "Deacon Blaisdell place." His wife died in 1819, and he married, second, Mrs. Eunice Lambard.
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Mr. Orcutt was a man of good education, a success- ful teacher and a fine penman. He taught school twen- ty-two winters. At the age of twenty-two he was com- missioned Justice of the Peace, an office that lie held. at the time of his death, which occurred Feb. 13, 1849. He was the father of three children: Naomi, who mar- ried Jedediah P. Hopkins, and removed to Peru, Me .; Elizabeth, who married Amasa D. King, of Winthrop, and Josiah Leonard who married Isabel M. Foss, of Winthrop and settled at North Monmouth.,
J. L. Orcutt has been a Justice of the Peace and Trial Justice about thirty-five years, during which he has serv- ed as administrator and executor on many estates. He has taken considerable interest in sabbath school work, and has held the superintendency of the North Mon mouth Union school for a period of over twenty- four years. In musical circles he is a well-known leader, having been a teacher, and a member of the North Mon- mouth choir for more than forty years, three-fourths of which time he has served as chorister. He served four years on the board of selectmen-as chairman of the board during three of the four terms-and has once rep- resented his town in the legislature.
Dea. Thomas Williams came to Monmouth in 1807. He purchased of Capt. Arnold a large section of wild land near the, so called, Lyon district, and started a clearing. While working on this clearing alone in the woods, with a vivid picture of the home he had left ever before his eyes, he would often sit down on a log and weep like a child; but after Dearborn Blake, who, as one bearing the same name had preceded him in the settle- ment, was known as "Newcome Dearborn," came from
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his old New Hampshire home and settled on the Whit- tier place near him, he became more reconciled to his lot. He married Charlotte, daughter of Josiah Brown, of Monmouth. A few years later he left his farm for the one that Dearborn Blake had cleared, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was deacon of the Christ- ian Band Church and an esteemed citizen. From one who knew him well and probably heard the statement from his own lips, we learn that Mr. Williams came near being a victim of the horrible Purrington tragedy that paralyzed the people of Maine about eighty years ago. The circumstances of this homicide may be briefly stated as follows:
At about two o'clock in the morning of the ninth day of July Purrington attacked his sleeping family with an axe, and killed and mangled, in a manner too shock- ing to relate, his wife and six children, wounded two others, and then, with a razor, cut his own throat. Of a family of nine persons, seven were killed. Towards the close of the day preceding the assault, lie sharpen- ed the fatal axe, and Mr. Williams, who, it is said, happened to be at the house, turned the stone to draw out the jagged edge. Purrington's repeated invitations to spend the night with him, Williams refused, not know- ing that his life was dependent on his decision.
Dea. Williams died Dec. 25, 1858. He had four chil- dren, Mary, Rufus, Charles B. and Henry A. Mary married Dea. Daniel S. Whittier, of Monmouth. Rufus married Harriet Newcome and settled in Gardiner, and Charles B. removed to Boston. Henry A. Williams was born May 25, 1829. His early life was spent on the farn1. Soon after he reached his majority, he left
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
the old homestead which it had been his father's design that he should inherit, and engaged in trade at Mon- mouth Center. For a mercantile life he was eminently fitted. Nature had endowed him with a robust con- stitution, which every man who shuts himself within doors should possess, and a genial, humor-loving tem- perament which was calculated to draw men toward him. By an improvement of the opportunities afforded by the local schools, he had secured a good education, had learned to write a fine hand, and had learned well to adapt himself to that indispensable principle of suc- cessful life-method. He had but just begun his career as a trader, when he was offered the position of bag- gage-master on the train running from Portland to Bangor. This position he held two years, when he was placed in charge of the Monmouth station, and this of- fice he retained to the time of his decease.
In 1863 he was appointed by Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, commissioner of the board of enroll- ment for the third congressional district of Maine. This office he held nearly two years, when he resigned, having in company with Col. Charles A. Wing, of Win- throp, purchased the leading hotel of Augusta. On the receipt of his resignation at Washington, the following words of commendation were addressed to him by Hon. James G. Blaine:
House of Representatives.
Washington, D. C. 8th Dec. 1864. My dear Sir :
Your letter advising me of your resignation as Comr. of Enrollment was duly recd.
I trust your change in business will result in an increase of your prosper- ity
It gives me great pleasure to say that your official conduct has been without
-
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stain or blemish and that you leave the position with an enviable reputation for integrity, ability, and zealous loyalty to the Government.
If I can serve you in any way in the future, you must feel yourself free to call on me at any time.
.Very truly etc., J. G. Blaine.
H. A. Williams, Esq.
During his terms of service under the government, and while attending to his duties as proprietor of the Stanley House and the Augusta House at the state capitol, Mr. Williams employed an assistant to take charge of the railroad station and to discharge the du- ties of postmaster, to which office he was appointed Feb. 24, 1859, and again Jan. 15, 1863. He was elect- ed town treasurer in 1878, and served in that capacity four years.
Mr. Williams was married in June, 1871, to Miss Lydia Barker, daughter of Nelson Barker, Esq., of Monmouth. In the disastrous fire of Apr. 19, 1888, he lost the home in which he had taken great pride, and a few weeks lat- ter his mother-in-law, to whom he had been strongly at ached was taken from earth. The weight of these- weeks of sorrow bore heavily upon Mr. Williams, and his natural buoyancy was crushed. On the 22nd day of the following August, while bathing in the surf at Old Orchard, he was stricken with apoplexy, from the effects of which, after lingering several hours in an unconscious condition, he died.
Through accident, a portion of the matter relating to the children of Jonathan Richardson, which should have appeared on page 416, was omitted.
Benjamin, the youngest son, was twice married, first to Ruth P. Graves and second to Clara H. Manning, of Limington, Me. He came to Monmouth with his fath-
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er, but left town after his first marriage, and settled in Andover, Me. After the decease of his first wife, he returned to Monmouth. He subsequently resided for a short time in New Orleans, where he was in the em- ploy of his cousin, a lumber merchant. On his return he purchased the farm at North Monmouth now owned by Elbridge G. Bent, and, later, of Alanson Hall, the farm on which his son, Melvin M. Richardson, now re- sides. He was connected with the Congregational church at Monmouth Center as one of its founders, and was a man who was honored with the confidence of his townsmen. He had two children, Edwin A. and Mel- vin M., both of whom reside in Monmouth.
The first stage which was run in this vicinity was started in Feb., 1806, by Col. T. T. Estabrooke of Brunswick. The route was through "Purgatory" in Litchfield. In January of the following year, John Blake, Meshech Blake, and Levi Moody commenc- ed running the first line of stages from the Kenne- bec river to Portland, by way of Monmouth and New Gloucester. Leaving Hallowell every Monday and Fri- day morning at four o'clock, these stages reached Portland the same evening at seven o'clock. The mails, which previously had been carried on horseback, were now transferred to the stages; but the roughness of the roads led to the abandonment of the latter enterprise, as the cost of new horses to take the places of the worn-out ones exceeded the cash receipts; and the mails were taken to and fro on gigs and on horseback as hereto. fore.
On the second day of May, 1808, a town-meeting was held, at which Lieut. Joseph P. Chandler presided. A
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this convention three roads which had been laid out by the selectmen the previous year were accepted. The first of these was described as "begining on the Range between bovingtens and Simon Marstin's Nine Rods and half from the southerly line between Jona. Mars- tins and Boyingtons at a stake and stones, thence Running North 23 1-2 degrees west 84 Rods thence North 7 degrees west 28 Rods thence North 32 degrees East 27 Rods to the northerly line of lot No. 46 the lot which Bovington now lives on this Road to be the sanie width that the other part is that leads from the Main Rode to this Rode-Excepted May-2-1806". The sec- ond began "at the head line of Willm. Bachelors land at the RodeRunning from the school house near Palti- an Warren's to Ezekiel Arnows thence Running South 25 D. west 16 Rods to the land owned by Joseph Grays the Rode to be on the westerly side of the Courses and to be four Rods wide." The third began "at the end of a log fence near Benja. Waterhouses thence Run- ning south 35 degrees West 344 Rods to Cobbisse Rode to be three rods wide on the East side of the Courses."
It was voted to postpone accepting a fourth road leading from Nathaniel Marston's to the main road, which had been surveyed on the 17th day of April. It was desired by some of the voters that a petition to the General Court, relative to establishing a line between Monmouth and Leeds, be drafted by a committee cliosen at this meeting. This suggestion did not meet with general favor; but at a special meeting called the ensuing November, a committee consisting of Nathan- iel Smith, Joseph Norris and David Marston was chos-
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en to converse with a committee chosen by the town of Leeds, for the purpose of establishing the boundary.
Nehemiah Pierce, Jr. settled this year on the farm now owned by his grandson, Rev. J. E. Pierce, about a mile south of the Center. He came from Bath, Me., where he had resided only one year, having removed there in 1807 from Coventry, Conn. He was the son of Nehemiah Pierce, and was the youngest of six chil- dren, only one of whom survived him. He was born May 10, 1771. On the fourteenth day of April, 1794, he was united in marriage to Clarissa Williams, daughter of Dr. Jesse Williams of Mansfield, Conn. Mr. Pierce was known as one of the most industrious and progress- sive farmers in the state. He was the pioneer of sys- tematic dairying in Maine, and is reputed to have been the most extensive manufacturer of cheese in Eastern New England. His herd of milch cows often number- ed as high as forty or fifty head. Geo. Lewis, a human anomaly who tenanted a small house on Mr. Pierce's farm, boasted that he and "Square Parce" owned more cows than any other two men in Monmouth. The "Square" owned forty, and he, one, making a total of forty-one. Mr. Pierce was a devout and exemplary christian and a strong helper in educational work. As secretary of the board of trustees of Monmouth Academy, when it was classed with the first fitting schools in New England, he became widely known in educational circles, and as president of the Monmouth Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a corporation known as the largest of the kind in the state, he was brought into public notice as a man of extraordinary executive ability, and, in consequence, received appointments to
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many offices of trust from the chief executive, among which was that of state commissioner of public roads. To this position he was well adapted, hav- ing had considerable experience as a road builder, not- ably in constructing the military road from Bangor to Houlton, and the turnpike from Bath to Brunswick, a piece of work which he superintended in 1807. His wife died Jan. 27, 1842, leaving nine children. Two years later he married Nancy Ladd, of Winthrop, Me. He died May 6, 1850.
Mr. Pierce first built the house where Mr. Stewart now lives, and cleared the land about it. On the oppo- site side of the road was the clearing made by Daniel Gilman. Mr. Pierce purchased this clearing with his farm, and in 1825 built the brick house. On the 4th of March-the day that John Q. Adams was inaugu- rated-he opened it to the public with a grand celebra- tion. With raw "West India" for fire-works and the old brass cannon for speaker of the day, the occasion wanted nothing but an exchange of snow-drifts for high thermometer to pass for the Fourth of July.
It is only a matter of justice to state that the liquid fire-works which enlivened this occasion were not fur- nished by Mr. Pierce. To him stands the honor of be- ing Monmouth's first aggresive advocate of temperance. To be a teetotaler in those days involved far more than it does in this age of insipid sentimentality. When Ne- hemiah Pierce boldly said, "I am for temperance and sobriety, and teetotalism is the platform on which I stand," he had no eye open to official contingencies. And had he fostered a scheme for attracting to himself a political constituency, nothing could have been more
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disastrous than the advocacy of those principles of which every political party of the present generation would fain stand as the most faithful exponent. His was the first house raised in town without liquor. When the first broadside was raised, the men paused for the customary treat. It came in the form of coffee-steam- ing hot. The men looked at each other in amazement. Then the leading spirits rounded up their backs and ordered a general strike. Mr. Pierce expostulated. The men were undecided. They liked the man and they liked the anticipated spirits. If they loft the frame, they would incur the displeasure of one whom they profound- ly respected, and to whose good-will they were not in- different ; but if they proceeded with the work, they would establish a precedent which might become local- ly universal. Better nature and the advice of a few lenient ones at last triumphed, and they raised the other broadside. Another installment of hot coffee at this period only served to bring out the heat of their tem- per, and another strike ensued. More arbitration and the addition of some seventeen inches of temperance or- atory overruled the crisis, and the roof went up with- out furthur remonstrance. The house was held open as a public tavern for several years. Near by was the Higgins house, now owned by H. S. Smith, a struct- ure that has undergone no change in the past seventy- five years. After Mr. Higgins's decease, his son, Jesse, exchanged places with Capt. Nicholas Hinkley, and re- moved to Hallowell.
Elias Pierce, a cousin of Nehemiah, who came to Monmouth the same year as the latter, was also a man of considerable ability and enterprise. A tannery
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which he built near the saw mill at East Monmouth was supposed to be the largest in the state. The vats connected with this establishment are still where he placed them, many of them still sound. His house which was taken down a few years ago, stood near the red building near the mill known as "Arnold Mill house." Like others who had attempted to build up industries in that locality, he had hardly got his busi- ness in running order before he was snatched from earth by a quick working decease. The Pierce house was in later years supposed to be haunted. Many w. o lived there were disturbed by weird sounds which were doubtless produced by the imagination. Elder Hinkley finally bought the place and commenced at once a search for the cause of the supernatural dis- turbance. What he found, he would never tell, but he assured the neighbors that nothing would be heard there again. One occupant of this house was Daniel Rand, of wl:om little is known except that he was acci- dentally killed at a shooting match. The grief and faithfulness exhibited by his dog over the dead body of his master on that occasion were a touching manifest- ation of brute intelligence.
Oliver W. Pierce, the oldest son of Hon. Nehemiah Pierce, married Rebecca Carleton and settled near the Wales line on Monmouth Ridge. His wife died in 1824, and he married Mrs. Delia Norris. Although never prominent, and never aspiring to prominence in public affairs, it may truly be said of him, as of Joseph of Arimathea, that "he was a good man and a just." Six of the seven children of his first wife died at a comparatively early age. Capt. Henry Oliver Pierce,
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the oldest son and sole survivor of the family, was born Feb. 7, 1830. At the age of seventeen years, having faithfully improved the superior educational advantages offered by the schools of his native town, he was considered competent to discharge the duties of a district school-master. The spring of 1858 found him in Wautoma, Wis., where he remained six years as teacher in the public schools. £ During two years of this time, he held the office of County Superintendent of Public Schools. From Wautoma he went to Fort
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