USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Wales > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 31
USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Monmouth > History of Monmouth and Wales, V. 1 > Part 31
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Mr. Ranlet was commissioned captain of the artil- lery soon after he came to Monmouth, and was in com- mand of his company at Fore Edgecomb during the last war with England. He was a worthy member, and a trustee, of the M. E. church, and was a citizen who commanded the respect and good-will of his townsmen. His wife died in 1836, and he married the following year, Jemima Mower, of Greene.
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A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT.
He was the father of seven children, three of who ni died in early life. John H. was drowned at the age of eighteen years in the shocking casualty of July 9th, 1851. James N., the oldest son, was a man of extraor- din try physical development. He was six feet and four inches in height, well molded and muscular, and was as attractive in feature as he was remarkable in pro-
portions. When a young man, he traveled for a time with a circus, as a keeper of order; and his commanding figure was as awe-inspiring to the rough crowds that invariably accompany such a troupe as a whole police force. At another tinie in his career, he was engaged in the manufacture of the "silhouettes", or "profiles", that preceded the daguerreotype as an inexpensive pro- cess of reproducing the outlines of one's features on paper and metal. He finally settled down to the trade of a shoe-maker at Topsham, Me., where he died of con- sumption in 1849, leaving one son, James Scott Ranlet, who resides in East Boston. Samuel M. Ranlet, was in the Aroostook War. He died at the age of eighteen. Simon D., a younger brother of James and Samuel M. Ranlet, was a mechanic. He worked for a time for the Whitmans of Winthrop. During the civil war, he en- listed from the town of Monson, and died before York- town.
Elizabeth A. Ranlet, the youngest of the Captain's children, married John W. Goding. She was a sweet singer, and for many years was one of the leading so- pranos in town. Mr Goding came from Acton to Lew- iston in 1854 and thence to Monmouth in 1856. His grandfather, Rev. William Goding, of Watertown, Mass., was one of the earliest Calvinist Baptist preachers of
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
central Maine. He was licensed by the church in Jay in 1800, ordained an evangelist in 1802, and preached in Wayne the most of the time for the four following years. He then removed to Shapleigh, and received the pastoral care of the church now known as the Acton Baptist church in 1807, over which he presided until 1835.
Mr. Goding, soon after his marriage to Miss Ranlet, purchased of her father the farm on Norris Hill. A- bout twelve years later, he sold this place to Rev. Aaron Sanderson, and purchased of Capt. Wm. B. Snell, the Gen. John Chandler stand, near Monmouth Academy. Mrs. Goding died Feb. 28, 1880, and the following au- tumn the home which had been cheered by her bright presence and happy songs was destroyed by fire. Mr. Goding still resides in Monmouth. To his labor, over- sight and tasty skill are due a majority of the improv- ments on the property of the M. E. society at the Cen- ter. He has two sons, the elder of whom, Luther S., resides on the home place. John H., the younger son, is connected with a large grain firm in the west.
Elias Nelson settled in Monmouth in 1809, on land now owned by the Macomber heirs. His house, which was a somewhat remarkable structure for this town, being plastered on the outside in imitation of stucco work, stood on the brow of the hill west of the railroad crossing on the East Monmouth road, and nearly oppo- site the house recently occupied by Mr. Potter. Mr. Nelson united with the Calvanist Baptist Church at East Monmouth, and in 1812 was licensed to preach. In 1814 he was ordained pastor, and continued as such about three years. Later, he had the pastoral care of
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churches in Livermore and Jay. In the latter place he spent many years, and probably ended his life there.
Benjamin Hinkley, a grandson of Judge Aaron Hinkley, of Brunswick, Me., moved from New Mead- ows to Litchfield Corner at an early date. A survey of lots made in 1776 demonstrates that he was there prior to the opening of the Revolution. About 1804 he removed to the Danforth farm on Oak Hill, and thence, four years later, to the farm which he cleared, now owned by Wm. H. Chick,at South Monmouth. Like all the other early settlers in that section of the town, he built his cabin on the east side of the Jocmun- yaw stream, supposing that a highway connecting the Ridge road with the one leading east and west through the Lyon district would be laid out on that side. At this time a line of cabins extended along the bank of the stream for a distance of at least a mile and a half. When the road was finally established several rods west of the stream, Mr. Hinkley and nearly all of the other settlers moved out on their lots and erected houses along the highway. The land along this intervale, which is now considered the best in town, was then thoughit to be all but worthless. The pine stumpage had been purchased by a Gardiner speculator, and his lumbermen had made sad havoc in the forest growth. Fire had followed in the line of their march, and the charred skeletons of the sparse, worthless, hardwood growth stretched their arms in every direction. It was a rough and sterile region. A party of extremely facetious and somewhat inebriated gentlemen driving through dubbed it "the city", and as "the city" this part of the town will probably be
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
known to the end of time. Passing on, these gentle- men found themselves still burdened with an inex- haustible supply of wit. Not so with their liquor. It was gone; and, holding the empty vessel high in the air, one of them shouted the interrogation, "Jng or not?" and, not receiving a reply from his obfuscated companions, smashed it on the hard road beneath. It was the action of "naming" a building; and to these jocular gentlemen it seemed eminently proper that the name "Juggernaut" should thenceforth be applied to that locality. Whether this is a true version of the creation of the appellation which for more than half a century clung to the eastern part of the town, no one of the present generation can positively affirm.
Benj. Hinkley married Esther Sargeant, and had six children. John, his oldest son, was the first person born in Litchfield after that town was incorporated, and the first man who died in Dixfield after its incor- poration as a town. Polly and Isabella married and settled in Monmouth. The latter married John Coombs, whose home was on the farm now owned by Barzillai Walker, and the former, Capt. Isaac Hall, who lived on the place now owned by Mr. Avery, at South Mon- mouth. Aaron, the youngest son, married Charlotte Goodwin, of Durham, Me. He was the father of Oli- ver Hinkley, of Harpswell, Me., who for many years lived on the place now owned by Cyrus Goodwin, and of Silas E. and Charles H. Hinkley, both of whom lost their lives while defending their country during the late war with the South. Benjamin, jun., married Ruth Jackman, the daughter of Richard Jackman, a veteran of the Revolution, who took up the farm now owned by
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A DECADE OF DEVELOPMENT.
W. H. Chick. Not satisfied with the chastisement he had helped to give John Bull the first time that haugh- ty autocrat tampered with American independence, Mr. Jackman enlisted in the war of 1812, leaving his farm to the care of his son-in-law.
The times were hard, and, like all their neighbors, the Hinkleys had to live from "hand to mouth." After a time, intelligence came that a ship-load of corn for the soldiers' families had landed in Bath. There were no horses in the neighborhood, and young Hinkley and his companions walked to Bath and "backed in" a bushel each over roads that would now be considered impass- able.
A little later, he was drafted, and went with his com- pany to Wiscasset. On his return he located on the farm now owned by Frank Carr, which he had taken up four years prior to the opening of the war.
In one of the fires that devastated the tract known as "the city", Mr. Hinkley came near losing his life. He and Francis Hall had been to the river with loads of hemlock bark. On their return, as they came in sight of home, they discovered that the woods at a point be- tween the Lyon school-house and Lewis Lane's were a blazing mass. Tossing high in the air, and leaping from tree to tree, the defiant flames forbade further pro- gress. Leaving Hall to guard the frightened cattle, Mr. Hinkley cautiously worked his way along in the smothering atmosphere to see if there was a possible chance to gain a passage. Soon Hall heard the order, "Start the oxen, and run them for life!" Furiously goading the trembling animals, he plunged forward through the falling fire-brands, and, a moment later,
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
amid the bellowing of the tortured beasts and tle shouts and cheers of the crowd that had gathered on the other side with the expectation of seeing them cre- mated, the two men emerged from the furnace, alive and unharmed.
Mr. Hinkley was the father of eight children, only two of whom remained in Monmouth. Of these, Ruth married William H. Chick and resides on the farm of her grandfather Jackman at South Monmouth, and John married Huldah Chick, a sister of his broth- er-in-law, and settled on the farm now owned by Mrs. Achsa Hall. His wife died at an early age, and he married, second, Hannah F. Day, a sister of Levi Day, of Monmouth. His first wife was the mother of two children, of whom only one, Georgietta, the wife of Lewis Lane, survives. John H. Hinkley, the oldest son of the second wife, married Mary, daughter of Harrison Sawyer, and lives at South Monmouth. Only three others of the six children are living, and two of these reside in Wales.
William E. married Mary Maxwell, and Relief A. married Alden Maxwell, daughter and son, respective- ly, of Daniel Maxwell of Wales.
CHAPTER XIV.
WALES PLANTATION, JUNIOR.
While the incorporation of one half of Wales planta- tion as a separate town drew a distinct line between the two communities, the political relations of the northern and southern districts were but slightly modified. The settlers south of the divisional line had never held any offices in the plantation, and, aside from paying taxes, had taken no part in public affairs. In fact, the sepa- ration was to them a decided benefit. Taxation without representation is as grievous to the community as to the state and nation, and, in some respects, as great a hindrance to growth and development.
As in the days of our country's infancy, the colonies were taxed, not to support colonial institutions and to promote the colonial welfare, but to build up a nation and people from which it received no reciprocal advan- tages, so, in a small degree, the pioneers of the south- ern portion of Wales plantation were, prior to the in- corporation of Monmouth as a separate municipality, taxed to promote the interests of a section of the plan-
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
tation which, in return, granted them neither advan- tages nor favors.
The exact date of the first settlement of the terri- tory now included in the township of Wales cannot be accurately determined. John C. Fogg, esq., of that town, to whom I am indebted for much of the data con- tained in this chapter, is of the opinion that James Ross, of Brunswick, who took up the farm on Sabattis mountain now owned by his descendant, Isaac N. Witherell, was the first settler, and that his advent was not far removed from 1778. On the other hand, Reu- ben Ham, concerning whom much has already been said, was, according to the statement of Dr. James Cochrane, in possession of the farm now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. Beckler,. as early as 1775. The reader is already acquainted with Mr. Ham, but noth- ing has yet been said concerning his family.
Reuben Ham was the father of eight children, only one of whom remained in Wales. Jonathan, the old- est child, temporarily settled on the farm near Mon- mouth Ridge long known as the "Dea. Bela Pierce place", now owned by Eugene Ham, a descendant in the fourth generation from the pioneer. He afterward removed to Ohio. Reuben, jun., found a home for him- self in Fayette, Me., and four others of the family emi- grated to the eastern part of the state. Rhoda, alone, remained unmarried. Thomas, the third son, married Mary, daughter of Daniel Smith. He lived a few years after his marriage on the homestead, but selected for a permanent home the farm on which his son, John C. Ham, now resides. Mr. Ham reared a fam- ily of ten children. The oldest of these was Isaac
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J. C. Ham.
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WALES PLANTATION, JUNIOR.
who married Eleanor Potter and became the father of six children, one of whom, William H., was in 1876 principal of Monmouth Academy. He prepared for college at this academy and the Maine State Seminary, and was graduated from Bates College in 1874. Three years later he was admitted to the Androscoggin bar, and immediately removed to Granville, Il1., where he served as superintendent of schools two years. He subsequently removed to Jackson, Wash., where he now resides. Mr. Ham was married in 1876 to Miss Ida M. Fletcher, of Phippsburg Center, Me. They have six children. Frances, the oldest daughter of Isaac Ham, married John W. Beckler and lives on the old homestead.
Harrison, the second son of Thomas Ham, married Matilda Small and settled in Wales. Hannah married Isaac Jenkins, and Joel, Maria N. Maxwell. He first lived on the "Snell farm," now occupied by Benjamin Jenkins; afterward on the Elijah Potter place, now owned by his son Evander A. Han. Although Joel Ham was primarily a farmer, he was always deeply in- terested in educational work. He obtained a good education for his times, not only at the district schools and Monmouth Academy, but by diligent private study, without which school work is of little value. At the age of eighteen he began to teach ; and from that time until his decease, he taught every winter except two. His services as a teacher were greatly sought on account of his success in governing un- ruly schools. He was frequently elected to town of- fices, and during the session of 1867-8 represented his town in the legislature. From the rank of a
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private he had worked his way up through the suc- cessive official stages of the local militia, and was in command of his company when it was disbanded. While serving as a private, he was called to partici- pate in the bloodless battles of the Aroostook war. Two of his five children have inherited his love of pedagogy. The oldest, Llewellyn S., is a resident teacher of Pana, Ill., and the youngest, Lizzie I., is en- ployed in the public schools of Auburn, Me. Allie MI. married Dr. G. F. Webber, and is located at Walthanı, Mass., Irving T. resides in Medford, Mass. and Evan- der A. lives on the homestead. Perhaps nothing could be said that would more clearly indicate Mr. Ham's standing among his townsmen than the state- ment that from the year 1845, when he was first elect- ed, to 1870, when he filled his last term of office, he was on the board of selectmen nearly one-half of the time.
The next in order of Thomas Ham's children was Ur- sula who married Benj. L. Jewell. Then came Thomas Worcester, John C., Mary J., Charles I. and Emeline S. The latter married O. M. Maxwell. Mary died at the age of twenty-four years; Charles removed to Athens, O., where he now resides, and John settled in Wales, on the most beautiful spot to be found within the limits of the town-ship. The view from his door is one of those en- trancing vistas of undulating hill and sweeping meadow so often described in works of fiction, but seldom seen in Nature. Mr. Ham is an official member of the Baptist church on Monmouth Ridge. He possesses those sterling qualites which have been the natural in- heritance of his kinsmen. His oldest son Eugene E., who lives on the farm contiguous to his father's on the
youro Truly Thomas I Ham
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WALES PLANTATION, JUNIOR.
north, has served three years on the board of selectmen.
Thomas Worcester Ham married Adelia Small, daughter of Hon. Isaac S. Small, of Wales. He resides on the Small homestead. Quiet and unobtrusive, cor- dial, yet always calm and dignified, he is a man who has, in a remarkable degree, gained and retained the confi- dence and good-will of his townsmen. He has served several years as town-clerk, has five times been elected selectman, and has once represented his town in the leg- islature. His oldest daughter, Annie, married Henry S. Marr, of Wales. The youngest daughter, Olive, re- sides with her father. Two sons, Isaac V., and Frank A., both of whom were young men of promise, died in ear- ly manliood.
As has been stated in a previous chapter," Patrick Keenan was doubtless the next immigrant after Reuben Ham and James Ross.
Stephen and John Andrews followed their old neigh- bors from Brunswick in 1788, and took up farms a short distance south of Reuben Ham's. The land that Stephen cleared is now the farm of William Alexander, and John's lot is the property of his grandson, John C. Andrews, who lives on the spot where the ring of the pioneer's axe was first heard. John married Olive Baker, who was, it is supposed, a sister of Ichabod Ba- ker, who came from Brunswick to Wales plantation about thirteen years earlier than Andrews.
Of all the families that were numbered among the founders of the first plantation of Wales, probably none has, through all the decades, borne so large a part in molding the destinies of the two municipalities * Page 47.
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH.
into which this plantation was divided as the Andrews family .* John Andrews was prominent among the pioneers. He was a member of the first board of assessors of the second plantation, and for many years held a leading position in public affairs. His mantle, instead of falling with discriminative favor on some individual, seemed to spread its broad folds over his entire posterity. John, jun., his youngest son, who in- herited the estate, as well as the name, of the pioneer, served his town as selectman and town clerk many years, was twice elected to a seat in the legislature, held for a long term a position on the board of trustees , of Monmouth Academy, was a commissioned officer of the militia, and, in the capacity of justice of the peace, was long recognized as a public mediator and council- lor. He left two daughters and a son. The former, Olive and Archilla, married Alcander Merrill and An drew J. Ricker, respectively, and the latter, John Cal- vert, married Ann M., daughter of Thurston Gilman. and resides, as has been stated, on the homestead.
John, the pioneer, had five daughters, two of whom were the first and second wives of Hon. Isaac S. Small, and four sons, Ichabod B., Otis, Arthur, and John, the latter of whom has already been noticed. Arthur An- drews married Olive Welch, daughter of John Welch, the pioneer, and removed to Gardiner. He had seven children, the youngest of whom is A. E. Andrews of Gardiner, one of the most widely known pomologists of central Maine. Baker and Everett, his two oldest living sons, reside on farms in West Gardiner. Both
*The article prepared by the writer for the state press at the time of the decease of Hon. G. H. Andrews, of Monmouth, was copied largely from this manuscript. which accounts for the similarity of phraseology.
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WALES PLANTATION, JUNIOR.
are men of wonderfully retentive memories, and have rendered valuable assistance in the compilation of this work. Otis Andrews married Rachel Thompson, and located on Monmouth Ridge. His life was the un- eventful one of a farmer; but, though uneventful, it was by no means obscure. In 1831 the honors which are the almost invariable accompaniment of the family name came in the form of a first election to the office of selectman, a position he held on several later occa- sions. He reared a large family of children, only four of whom are now living. Two sons, Otis Wilson and Leonard C., reside on "the Ridge"; the former on the homestead and the latter on an adjoining farm. Both are worthy citizens. The former has been eminent- ly active in municipal affairs. He received his educa- tion at Monmouth Academy, under the instruction of such teachers as Dr. N. T. True, Hon. Wm. B. Snell and Milton Welch. At the age of nineteen years, he began to teach, and for many years-aggregating fif- ty-five terins-was employed at interrupted intervals in this vocation. In addition to his long experience in the common schools, he taught two terms of high school in Wales and was principal of the Fairfield high school three terms. It was not a novice, therefore, that the town honored with fifteen elections to the position of superintending school committee. In 1880 he was further honored by an election to the office of select- man, in which he has been retained twelve years, ten of which have been consecutive terms, and during eleven of which he has been chairman of the board. He was chosen in 1885 to represent Monmouth in the legisla- ture, and served during that session as chairman of
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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH
the board of Education.
Mr. Andrews married Augusta D. Chick, daughter of Levi J. Chick, of South Monmouth. She died in 1866, and he married her sister, Orra D. Chick. Seven years later she died, and he married Marilla V. Dixon, of Wales. He has three sons, all of whom are the children of his first wife. Ernest C., the oldest of the family, married Hattie M. Pierce, daughter of Capt. H. O. Pierce, of Monmouth Ridge, and lives near his father.
Ichabod C. Andrews, the oldest son of the pioneer, married Margaret Fogg, of Wales, and selected for a home the lot adjoining on the south the one on which his brother Otis afterward lived. He, too, received marks of esteem and confidence from his townsmen by being elected selectman and member of the board of trustees of Monmouth Academy. Eight of his ten children lived to marry and rear families. W. Augus- tus, the oldest son, located in Ohio. One of his sons is an eminent attorney of that state, and has been Democratic candidate for Representative to Congress. George Harrison and John Albion were Ichabod An- drews's youngest sons. The latter was twice married, first to Sarah L. Small, of Pownal; second to Delia Brookings, of Pittston. After the death of his first wife, he left Monmouth, and for fourteen years served as principal of the Grammar schools in Augusta, Hal- lowell and Gardiner. He then spent two years on Monmouth Ridge, after which he returned to Gardi- ner and engaged in the boot and shoe trade. His only son, Harry E. Andrews, is on the editorial staff of the Lewiston Journal.
O. W. Andrews
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WALES PLANTATION, JUNIOR.
George Harrison Andrews was born Sep. 9, 1831, and was educated at Monmouth Academy. At the age of nineteen, he began to teach. He was success- ful in his work, and formed many warm attachments which endured after the memory of school-days was al- most obliterated. A little later the first symptoms of the disease against which he ever after maintained a heroic struggle appeared, and for a few years he was a confirmed invalid. At the age of twenty-eight, al- though still in delicate health, he had so far recovered as to engage in trade in a general store at Monmouth Center; and from that time until 1883, when the state of his health compelled him to retire, he was, with the exception of one or two years, actively engaged in business at this village. It is doubtful if any other man in Monmouth was ever identified with the mer- cantile interests of the town for so long an unbroken period.
In all these years he sustained the reputation of a man of unequivocal honesty, and gained the ever in- creasing good-will of his townsmen. While in these days of political chicanery and wire-pulling, official sta- tion is not always a mark of superior ability or of the respect of the populace, the public trusts that Mr. An- drews held with almost unbroken sequence for nearly fifty years were the demonstration of a people's confi- dence and esteem. Soon after he reached his majority, he was elected to the office, of superintending school committee, and was retained on the board ten years. For sixteen years he held the office of town clerk (a longer period than was ever awarded any other incun1- bent) and for six years that of selectman. In 1873 he
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was commissioned postmaster at Monmouth Center, but resigned after a few months. He was treasurer of the Monmouth Mutual Fire Insurance company, in the days when the fame of that corporation reached beyond the limits of the state, and, at the time of his decease, had been a member of the board of trustees of Monmouth Academy twenty-eight years, a large por- tion of which time he was the recognized executive of the institution. At the annual meeting of 1894 he was elected town treasurer, and was again placed in the office in which he began his public service-that of superintending school committee. He was elected Commissioner for Kennebec county in 1879, and, with the exception of one year, had unremittingly served in that capacity. During the years of his incumbency the county court-house was remodeled and enlarged, a work which called for a greater exercise of judgment and executive ability on the part of the county commis- sioners than had been demanded for more than half a cen- tury. As he was chairman of the board of commis- sioners under whose supervision these changes were made, much depended on his competence and able management.
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