USA > Maine > York County > History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 54
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In 1872, Mr. Newcomb visited Eng- land, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Ireland, and again, in 1877, he spent a part of the year in Paris, Switzer- land, and Scotland with his family. He married, Aug. 11, 1858, Mary R., daughter of Samuel and Eliza (Mer- rill) Parcher. Their children are Nellie F., Clara Maud, Angie P., Blanche, Gertrude, Ethel, and Arthur. Of these children Ethel died in in- fancy.
7.LITTLE
4. ROGERS DELL
RESIDENCE OF SIMON NEWCOMB, 16 SOUTH STEET, BIDDEFORD, MAINE.
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CITY OF BIDDEFORD.
planter, took part in the municipal affairs of the colony till 1659. When the line between this town and Cape Por- poise was run, his house was found to be in the latter town. Richard Hitchcock, the sergeant and officer of the train- band, located at Winter Harbor, and a point on the north side of the Pool bore his name for many years. He died about 1671, leaving a wife and several children. Thomas Page was a juror in 1640, after which his name does not appear on the records. George Page-probably a son of Thomas-married Mary Edgecomb in 1664. He was one of the selectmen in 1683, and afterwards. He had two brothers, Sylvester and Christopher. Persons of this name are still residents of the town.
Ambrose Berry is mentioned as a respectable and useful inhabitant for many years; but where his house stood is not precisely known, though an important boundary-line established by the commissioners, in 1659, between Maj. Phillips' land and that left at the disposal of the town, ran near it. The numerous families in this town and seetion of this name are, beyond doubt, descendants of this early settler.
John West is first mentioned in 1638, in connection with a lease from Vines of house and lands adjoining, for the term of one thousand years, subjeet to a yearly rent of 2s. and one capon. Thomas Cole is alluded to as " sometime tenant or occupier of the premises." West removed to Wells about 1659, and died there in 1663. His daughter married Thomas Haley, and to her children, Ann, Lydia, Samuel, and Thomas, he left his estate, to be divided three years after his death, under the direction of William Cole, of Wells. Mr. Haley's descendants are numerous and highly respectable, filling useful and responsible positions in church and town.
Deacon Benjamin Haley was a grandson of Thomas, the old inhabitant, and an architect and builder of meeting- houses. At the commencement of the Indian war of 1745 he removed to Marblehead, and died of fever at Cape Bre- ton, the same year. His son John married a daughter of Capt. John Fairfield, and he removed to Arundel, now Kennebunkport.
Morgan Howell was among the colonists who came out with Vines, and was a man of some force of character. The best preserved records of him are those of the courts of the day, in which he often appeared as a litigant. He settled near Seadlock, and took an active part in the affairs of Cape Porpoise, in which town he was an inhabitant in 1653. Some of the earliest settlers on this side of the river have thus been mentioned, and their location, as far as known, given. Others that follow were some of the most prominent successors.
Peter Hill was a member of Assembly of Lygonia, in 1648. His son Roger was among the freemen in 1653, and was active in town affairs. Ile had eight children, of whom the best known was Deaeon Ebenezer, who was a prominent man for many years. Soon after his marriage, in 1705, he and his wife Abigail were captured by the In- dians, and carried to Canada, where they remained three years. Their eldest son, Ebenezer, was born there, or upon their return; henee, in after-years, he was jocosely called " the Frenchman." Mr. Hill's house was near the head of
Ferry Lane. He died in 1748, aged sixty-nine. His son, Jeremiah, married Mary, daughter of Capt. Daniel Smith, in 1746. ITe held a commission as justice of the peace, and represented the town in the General Court several years. He enlisted a company for a three-years' term of service in the Revolutionary war, and led it to Boston. It joined Col. Vose's regiment at West Point, and was at the capture of Burgoyne, in October, 1777. After a year's service, Capt. Ilill resigned his commission and returned home. In 1779 he was appointed adjutant-general of the State forces sent to the Penobseot River, but died August 12th of that year, aged fifty-six.
Thomas Emery built about 1730, near the lower meeting- house, and married the daughter of Deacon Ebenezer Hill, in 1731. They had six sons,-James, afterwards a deacon, Jonathan, Joshua, Ebenezer, Thomas, and Nathaniel. There were other families in town of this name, whose church tax showed them to be persons of some means. The tax-list of 1738 has upon it the names of Benjamin Emery, who, in 1750, lived in the upper part of the town, near Capt. Bradbury, Thomas Emery, Jonathan Emery, and John Emery.
Roger Spencer was granted a privilege for a saw-mill in 1653, but it is not known that he became a resident of town till 1658, when he and Maj. Pendleton purchased the Neck together. He was to erect the mill before the expiration of the year after the grant was given, which he probably did ; and his, beyond doubt, was the first mill in town. In 1658 he mortgaged one-half of it to Robert Jordan, and the next year one-quarter of it to Thomas Spencer; the latter afterwards became the property of Maj. Phillips. In 1669 he conveyed his remaining fourth to Capt. Thomas Savage, of Boston.
Brian Pendleton, a prominent early settler, purchased, in connection with Roger Spencer, property at Winter Harbor, in 1658, of Mr. Jordan. It consisted of a traet of 200 aeres, now known as Fletcher's Neck. In 1660 Speneer sold his interest to Pendleton, and in 1665 he removed there, and for years it was known as Pendleton's Neck. He was appointed to various eivil and military trusts, particu- larly by the Massachusetts Commissioners, whose side he invariably took in the disputes arising about jurisdiction. He died about 1680, leaving his estate-which was consid- erable-to his wife, son, and grandehildren. His daughter married Rev. Seth Fletcher before 1655, and her only child, Pendleton Fletcher, he adopted as early as 1671. To him he gave the Neek, as far as Booth's mill, and Wood and Gibbins' Islands, with other detached pieces.
Capt. John Gray, commander of Fort Mary in 1720, was a son of Joseph Gray, of London. He married, soon after coming to Winter Harbor, Mrs. Elizabeth Tarbox ; by her he had three daughters, one of whom married James Staples, of this town, in 1755. Abner Sawyer, Sr., mar- ried May, a daughter of James and May Staples, in 1779.
Thomas Gilpatrick,* the aneestor of a numerous family, emigrated from the city of Coleraine, Ireland, with a family of five sons and one daughter, and first settled in Wells. About 1735 he removed to this town, where he died in
* Sometimes spelled Gilpatric.
192
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, MAINE.
1762, aged eighty-eight. He had in all nine sons, some of whom settled in Wells, where descendants still remain. Six of this name entered the Revolutionary army from this town.
In 1737,-Mr. Bachelor Hussey, of Sherburne, Nantucket, bought of Pendleton Fletcher half the Neck, Wood Island, etc., for £1400. He was a Friend, and had descended from Christopher Hussey, who came to New England from Dorking, near London, in 1634, and settled at Lynn, Mass. The year after Mr. Hussey's purchase, he built the house on Fletcher's Neck occupied by his grandson, Christopher. A number of his descendants are still residents here.
Capt. Daniel Smith came to this town from Exeter, and married, 1719, Rebecca Emery, by whom he had ten chil- dren. He kept public-house for a long time, and died about 1750. His widow married Lieut. Nathaniel Ladd, an officer of the English army, who settled in town after his marriage, and continued the business pursued by Capt. Smith. Madam Ladd survived her second husband ten years, and died at the age of eighty-eight, having numbered 144 descendants, 4 of whom were great-grandchildren. The name of Smith will never become extinct.
Peudleton Fletcher took possession of his estates, be- queathed him by his grandfather, about 1680. Subse- quently, in a war with the Indians, in 1698, he and his two sons were taken prisoners, and he died in captivity. One of the sons (Pendleton) returned from captivity, and became a leading man in the affairs of the town. Of the two daughters Mr. Fletcher left, one married Matthew Rob- inson, of Winter Harbor, and the other, Samuel Hatch, of Wells.
Pendleton Fletcher, son of the first Pendleton, was cap- tured by the Indians four different times. He conveyed his property, in 1746, to his sons, John, Joseph, Brian, Pendleton, Seth, and Samuel. His son Pendleton lived on the old estate at the Neck, and died there April 17, 1807, aged one hundred years.
Ralphı Tristram was a freeman in 1655, though he may have settled earlier. He was a worthy and useful towns- man, and died in 1678. He left quite a family of children. A daughter Hannah married Dominicus Jordan, son of Rev. Robert Jordan, and settled at Spurwink, where he was treacherously killed by the Indians, and his family taken captives and carried to Canada. They were after- wards restored, except the youngest, Mary Ann, who re- mained and married a French gentleman, at Trois Rivieres. Samuel, one of the sons, settled in this town about 1717, and from him have descended the numerous families of that name in town.
- Capt. Samuel Jordan died Dec. 20, 1742, aged fifty- eight. He was a man of great enterprise, and was exten- sively engaged in business many years, and no man did more to promote the prosperity and growth of the town than he. His store, near the Pool, was resorted to by the inhabitants from all about for supplies. His home was se- cured against attacks from the Indians by a strong stone wall that surrounded it. In times of peace it was visited by the Indians. On one occasion, it is related, they crept silently into the house, with hostile intentions, but the cap- tain calmly notified a person in a distant part of the house
of their presence, and told him where to find a gun, upon which his sneaking visitors left without delay. While a young man, he was detained a captive several years by the savages, and acquired their language so well as to act in the capacity of an interpreter at conferences between them and the whites. Capt. Jordan married Olive Plaisted, of Berwick, by whom he had seven children,-three sons and four daughters ; three of his daughters married ministers, two of whom lived in this town,-Mr. Morrill, the settled minister, and Mr. Samuel Hill, who in 1754 was repre- sentative of the town. His widow married Rev. Thomas Smith, of Falmouth.
The chief magistrate in Biddeford, after 1742, for many years, was Hon. Rishworth Jordan, who lived in the lower part of the town, in the house afterwards occupied by bis youngest son, R. T. Jordan, Esq. Early in the Revolu- tionary war he was placed upon the beuch of the Court of Common Pleas, of which he became chief justice. He dis- charged his duties with ability and uprightness; was an active and prominent man in town affairs, in which he min- gled for more than fifty years. He was a selectman of the town thirty-five years, and town clerk from 1741 to 1780, -thirty-nine years. He died in 1808, aged eighty-nine. He married Abigail, daughter of Col. Timothy Gerrish, of Kittery, in 1742, by whom he had ten children,-six of whom were daughters. Olive married Dr. Pierce, of Kit- tery, 1765 ; Abigail, William Vaughan, of Portsmouth, 1768; Sarah, Capt. Paul Jenkins, of York, 1769, who settled in Saco, near Pipe-Stave Point, but afterwards known as Junkin's Point; Mary, to Col. Joseph Morrill, 1772, afterwards a resident of Saco; Elizabeth, to Benja- min Nason, Jr., of Saco, 1784; and Jane, to William Shannon, of Dover, 1809.
Lieut. William Phillips, as he was styled, came to this town in 1660. He became largely engaged in lumber- ing. In 1661 he purchased one-quarter of Capt. Spencer's mill, and the next year employed his son-in-law, Capt. John Alden, a son of John Alden, of Miles Standish fame, to build him another, one-quarter of which he con- veyed to him after completion. In 1667 he sold half of Factory Island to Capt. John Bouython for 800 pine- trees, suitable to make merchantable boards. He was an extensive landholder, buying large tracts. of the Indian sagamores, which his descendants inherited. He was a man of much consideration in those times, and great defer- ence was shown him by the people. It is traditional that a man was fined for saying " Maj. Phillips' horse is as lean as an Indian dog." Before 1670, he sold several large tracts, partly lying within his patent. The first, of 1000 acres, bounded south by Swan Pond Creek, and extending one mile on the river, to Richard Hutchinson ; adjoining that, 1500 acres, to Edward Tyng; north of Tyng's, 2000 acres, to Richard Russell, of Charlestown ; and joining Rus- sel's lots, three square miles, to Maj .- Gen. John Leverett. He removed to Boston about the latter part of 1675, and died there in 1683.
CIVIL AFFAIRS OF THE TOWN.
Nothing is known of the administration of town affairs prior to 1653, the date of the submission to Massachusetts,
MI.UTO BY MAKEENNEY.
TIMOTHY SHAW, JR.,
(Timothy,3 Samuel,2 Samuel1), is a descendant in the fourth generation from Samuel Shaw, who married Thankful Garey, and lived in York.
His son, Samuel Shaw, born in York Aug. 7, 1757, married Patience, daughter of John Kingsbury. She was born Jan. 1, 1755, and died in Sanford Sept. 2, 1840, where they settled in 1788, on Shaw's Ridge, in that town. He died June 28, 1840.
Timothy Shaw, son of Samuel, and father of the subject of this notice, born in York March 19, 1783, married Lucy Low Nov. 26, 1807. She was born in Sanford Dec. 20, 1778, and died Jan. 21, 1841. Timothy Shaw, Jr., went to Sanford with his parents when five years of age; was liberally educated ; was a teacher during his early manhood ; was a surveyor of lands ; began trade in Sanford in 1826, which he carried on until 1839. He was selectman for twenty-one years; was State senator in 1839-40, and prior to that time had been a member of the House for several terms. Politically he was identified with the Democratic party, and took an active and influential part in local and State legislation. He died Aug. 20, 1870.
They had two children,-Samuel Madison, born Nov. 26, 1811, a resident of Alfred; and Timothy Shaw, Jr., born in Sanford Oct. 12, 1817.
Mr. Shaw spent his boyhood in school. At the age of seven- teen he became a clerk in his father's store at Sanford Corners, where he remained until 1838. In 1839, having purchased the stock of goods of his father, with Samuel Tripp (Tripp & Shaw), he began trade for himself. This firm continued only one year. He was afterwards a member of the firm of S. B. Emery & Co., at Sanford Corners, for about two years. In 1840 he took the
census of Sanford, and from 1841 to 1845 was deputy sheriff and crier of the court for York County.
In 1845 he was appointed, by Gov. Anderson, county com- missioner to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Daniel Pierce, of Kittery, and was afterwards twice elected to the same office, which he resigned, in 1852, to assume the duties of regis- ter of deeds, to which office he was elected in September of the same year, and removed to Alfred. He held this office for five years ; was renominated in 1857, but defeated at the polls by a small majority.
He was appointed, by Hon. Moses Macdonald, inspector of customs for the district of Portland and Falmouth in March, 1859, and remained in this office until June, 1861, when the administration changed by the election of Abraham Lincoln. He spent the year 1863 in Neponset, Mass., as agent and finan- cial manager for E. S. Howe, an extensive lumber dealer. In Oct. 1865 he removed to Biddeford to assume the duties of treasurer and book-keeper of the Shaw & Clark Sewing Machine Company, which place he retained until 1867. In 1868 he was elected city treasurer and collector, and by re-election held the office until 1872. In June, 1876, he was one of the delegates from the First Congressional District of Maine to the Democratic national convention, at St. Louis, which placed in nomination Hon. Samuel J. Tilden for President, and Thomas A. Hen- dricks for Vice-President. In 1875 Mr. Shaw was elected one of the assessors for the city of Biddeford, and again elected to that office in 1879. He married, June 14, 1837, Elizabeth, daughter of William Emery, of Sanford. Their children are William Greenleaf, Howard Martin, Lucy Elizabeth, Jeremiah Goodwin, and Marcia Annie.
Photo. by E. Il. McKenney.
JAMES AUGUSTUS STROUT, son of Moses and Annie M. (Richardson) Strout, was born in Chat- ham, N. H., Oct. 3, 1842. His father is a car- penter by trade; removed from Chatham to Lowell, Mass., where he remained for fourteen years; then settled in Standish, Me., and subsequently in Bux- ton, where he now resides and carries on farming.
Mrs. Strout is a daughter of David Richardson, a well-known stock dealer and a descendant of one of the first settlers of Boston, Mass. (See Richard- son genealogy.) Their children are James Au- 1 gustus, Aramantha, wife of Marritt I. Paine, of 1 Auburn, Me .; Moses G., George L., Jesse A., and Mary L. James A. received his education in the grammar school in Lowell, and in the Standish Academy, and graduated at Eastman's Commer- cial College, in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In May, 1861, he enlisted from Limington in the 5th Maine Infantry. Was detailed as ward-master of Colum- bia College Hospital, in Washington, D. C., which position he retained for some time, and on account of ill health was honorably discharged from ser-
vice and returned home. Subsequently he re-en- listed in the 16th Maine Infantry. Was detailed as regimental orderly, and afterwards as brigade orderly; served one year and received an honor- able discharge, returning home after spending some four years in Haverhill, Mass., and one year West. In 1870 he came to Biddeford and opened an art store, which he carried on successfully until 1877. In 1876 he purchased the interest of E. S. Frost in the manufacture and business of stamped rug patterns, associated with him as partner Mr. Gerry G. Shaw, and, under the firm-name of E. S. Frost & Co., has very successfully carried on that interest, which they continue in 1879.
Mr. Strout was a member of the board of alder- men for two years, and was elected mayor of the city of Biddeford, in March, 1879.
He married, May 17, 1868, Sarah F., daughter of Marcus Wight, of Brunswick, Me. Her only brother, Marcus, Jr., is a graduate of Bowdoin College, in the class of 1862. They have an only son, James Augustus Strout, Jr.
193
CITY OF BIDDEFORD.
and that at which the oldest existing town records begin. The commissioners, who had full power to arrange all matters, local as well as general, in the province, ordained as follows :
"1. That Saco shall be a township by itself, and always shall be a part of Yorkshire, and shall enjoy protection, equal acts of favor and justice with the rest of the people inhabiting en the south side of the river Piscataqua, or any other within the limits of our jurisdiction, and enjoy the privileges of a town as others of the jurisdiction have and do enjoy, with all ether liberties and privileges within our juris- diction.
"2. That every inhabitant shall have and enjoy all their just prop- erties, titles and interests in the houses and lands which they do possess, whether by grant of the town possession or of the former General Court.
"3. That all the present inhabitants of Saco shall be free men of the county, and having taken the oath of freemen, shall have liberty to give their votes for the election of governor, assistants, and other general officers of the country.
"4. That the said town shall have three men approved by the county courts from year to year, to end small causes, as other town- ships in the jurisdiction have, where no magistrate is, according to law ; and for the present year Mr. Thomas Williams, Robert Booth, and John West are appointed and authorized to end all small causes under 408., according to law. And further, these commissioners, ar any two of them, are and shall be empowered and invested with full power and authority as magistrates te keep the peace, and in all civil causes to grant attachments and executions if need require. Any of the said commissioners have power to examine offenders, to commit to prison, unless bail be given to according to law ; and where these, or any of these shall judge needful, they shall have pewer to bind offenders to the peace nn good behavior. Also any of the com- missioners have power te administer oaths according to law. It is further hereby ordered that, for this present year, Mr. Thomas Wil- liams, Robert Booth, and John West shall be the selectmen to order the prudential affairs of the town of Saco for this year. Lastly, it is granted that the inhabitants of Sace shall be from time to time ex- empted from all public rates, and that they shall always bear their ewn charges of the courts, and arising from among themselves. Ralph Tristram is appointed constable, and William Scadlock clerk ef the writs and grand juryman for this year. Richard Hitchcock is appointed and authorized as a sergeant to exercise the soldiery."
At the first business meeting of the inhabitants under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, July 12, 1653, they made division of marsh-lands under the direction of the selectmen ; the 17th the division was continned.
A graut for the first saw-mill on Saco River was made Sept. 27, 1653, to Roger Spencer, provided it be done within one year, and that the townsmen have boards 12d. cheaper than strangers, and that the townsmen shall have preference of employment when they will work as cheaply as strangers. John Davis, of York, had a similar privi- lege granted, Jan. 17, 1654, with addition of timber- and meadow-land sufficient for his work, about or above the falls, if it is to be had ungranted. He was allowed two and a half years in which to finish the mill, and to employ towns- people in preference to strangers ; to furnish boards 10d. per hundred under current rates ; and he was to set up his forge in Saco, and do work for current prices so long as he is an inhabitant or had a dwelling there.
The first representative to the General Court was Robert Booth, in 1659, and the second, the following year, Richard Hitchcock. In 1675, Capt. Richard Waldron, of Dover, was appointed their deputy to represent them. These were the only times the town was represented at the Massachu- setts General Court during that century. In 1667, under the king's commissioners' government, Brian Pendleton
25
was elected burgess to attend the General Court of the province.
The records of the town continued without interruption till 1676, when they were suspended four years on account of King Philip's war. They were commenced again June 12, 1680, when they open with a report of important ae- cessions to the town. " John Abbot is admitted into the town, and to enjoy town privileges. Humphrey Scamman is accepted into this town, and to enjoy all town liberties. John Abbot is chosen clerk of the town, and to keep the town book." The next year John Abbot, Humphrey Scamman, and Richard Peard were chosen for " townsmen ;" John Leighton, surveyor ; Pendleton Fletcher, constable ; John Bonython, surveyor for the north side of the river ; John Abbot, town clerk. It is impossible, with our lim- ited space, to go entirely through the records, which are repetitions of much the same things from year to year, and of little interest to the general reader.
The inhabitants remained at Winter Harbor during the first Indian war, with the exception of a temporary disper- sion cansed by Jocelyn's capitulation of the garrison at Black Point. Among those who removed from here and did not return was Maj. William Phillips. His house and mill, however, were where Biddeford now stands, and being isolated from the rest of the settlement, except a few tene- ment-houses in the vicinity of his mill, his house was singled out for destruction by the Indians.
John Jocelyn, in his " Voyages," 1672, thus describes the settlement on both sides of the mouth of the Saco River: " About eight or nine miles east of Cape Porpoise is Win- ter Harbor, a noted place for fishers. Here they have many stages. Saco adjoins to this, and both make a scat- tering town of large extent, well stored with cattle, arable land and marshes, and a saw-mill."
We infer from this that the inhabitants were, to a large extent, engaged in fishing and agriculture. The settlement extended from Little River, adjoining Cape Porpoise, to Old Orchard Beach. The last record contained in the old town book shows that a union of the town with Cape Porpoise was ordered by Governor Andros, though for what purpose, and how long it continued, weare not informed. The entry is as follows :
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