USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Leeds > History of the town of Leeds, Androscoggin County, Maine, from its settlement June 10, 1780 > Part 5
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John Allen married May 22, 1890, Adelia C. Hartt, born May 16, 1860, and resides on the parental home farm. They have one son, John H. Gordon, b. July 21, 1894.
Henry G." married Carrie E. Peaslee, b. June 8, 1861, and resides in Wayne. They have issue Ira D., b. in Wayne, Aug. 22, 1885; Ellery W., b. March 8, 1889, and Leland H., b. Nov. 6, 1894.
Viola H.5 married William R. Millett, who was born Dec. 3, 1845. They had one son, William A., born in Leeds July 27, 1874. William R. Millett died Aug. 5, 1875, and Viola H. died Feb. 26, 1896.
Abigail C.4, the next in the list of children of James3, mar- ried John W. Vose Oct. 22, 1846, who was born in Kingfield
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
March 7, 1822. They settled first in Wayne, and later in Win- throp, and had issue John W.5, Jr., b. in Wayne Aug. 15, 1847; Abbie E., b. in Winthrop Aug. 29, 1849; Charles Allen and James Sewall, b. April 1, 1854, and Miney E., b. Jan. 25, 1858.
Abigail C.4 died in Winthrop Nov. 27, 1897, and her husband a few weeks later.
Aramantha P.4, the next in the list of children of James3, mar- ried Simon P. Gray, who was born in Monmouth and settled first in East Livermore and later on the old Herrick place, at Bar- ker's Mills, Lewiston, where she died Aug. 9, 1862. She had two daughters, Augusta Ann5, who died in Lewiston; and Mary5, who married Luville, a son of Harrison Gould and his wife, Sarah Stinchfield. Mary has issue two or more children.
Sewall4, the eleventh child of James3, was engaged in whale fishery. After retiring he spent a few years at home on the farm and married Hannah Raymond, by whom he had a son, Sewall Warren, and a daughter, Nancy Maria. He subsequently went to California, where later his family were removed and now reside. There he has been successfully engaged in mining.
Allen4, the youngest son of James3, was engaged in whale fishery, and later went to California where he accumulated wealth. He was a prominent factor in building and equipping the Street Railway in Portland, Ore. He disappeared several years ago and his people have no further knowledge of him. He was a single man and one much respected by all his acquaintances. He was unlike many, being the only individual who knew his business and attended strictly to it, leaving that of others entirely alone.
FAMILY OF CAPT. SAMUEL AND MARY (KING) STINCHFIELD.
George K., their eldest son, married Jan. 1, 1834, Jane, born Jan. 13, 1810, eldest daughter of Eben and Sarah (Foster) Libby, who was born in Saco, Sept. 6, 1788, and settled in Leeds in 1807. When George was twenty years old his father died and much of the care of the family devolved on him. He was a man of good executive ability which was recognized by his townsmen whose services they sought on their municipal board of selectmen. In 1855 he removed to Fond-du-Lac, Wis., where he died Dec. 4, 1881. His wife died there Oct. 22, 1878, and his mother Jan. 21, 1858. To them were born in Leeds, Me., two children, Sarah Jane and Samuel B. Sarah Jane, b. Nov. 6, 1834, was a young lady of great promise. At the age of eighteen she went into decline. Hoping that a change of location and climate might benefit her, in 1855 her father disposed of his property in Leeds to Samuel P. True and removed to Wisconsin. There she died Sept. 30, 1855.
1
HON. SAMUEL B. STANCHFIELD.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
Samuel B., b. March 17, 1836, received a liberal education in his native State, and accompanied his parents to Wisconsin, where they located on a farm on an eminence just outside the business center of Fond-du-Lac. It is a beautiful location overlooking the town. Mr. Stanchfield is an able, progressive, influential man, appreciated by the people in his section of the State. In public life his services have been in constant demand. In 1874 he was elected town clerk, which office he held for a term of years ; is now entered on his eighteenth year as chairman of town board of Fond- du-Lac ; was five years chairman of county board of supervisors ; serving on his seventeenth year as secretary and treasurer, and six years as president of the Empire and Friendship Insurance Co .; president of the Fond-du-Lac County Agricultural Society two years; president of the Wisconsin Central Stock Growers and Industrial Association three years; was elected to Assembly in 1885 and '86, and in 1888 elected State Senator for four years.
March 18, 1863, he married Ophelia Edgerton, born in Rome, N. Y., Nov. 6, 1837. They have issue three sons, namely : Gan- cello S., George H., and Bartley K.
Gancello S., b. May 31, 1864, is a farmer ; married and has a son and daughter.
George H., b. July 3, 1868, graduated as a civil engineer from the State University, is city engineer of Watertown, Wis. He is married and has two daughters.
Bartley K., b. Oct. 2, 1872, is a graduate of the State Univer- sity as a mechanical engineer in which profession he is actively engaged.
James K.", the second son of Capt. Samuel, a young man of ability and beloved by everybody, by multiplied trouble of deaths and anxiety for the living, suicided March 28, 1838.
Mary Ann3, the eldest daughter of Capt. Samuel, Sept. 28, 1839, married Stephen, a life-long resident of Leeds, a son of the before mentioned Eben and Sarah (Foster) Libby, who was born in that town May 24, 1814. They settled on the farm where Mrs. Libby now resides-a remarkably smart lady, approaching the last decade of a century. They had issue Ebenezer A .. born Nov. 23, 1840, died in New Orleans May 25, 1862; Helen H., b. Aug. 4, 1842 (who married Rev. Aaron Hartt) ; Charles F., b. Dec. 20, 1843 (married Clara Hartt) ; Henrietta B., b. March 10, 1846 (married Clark S. Brewster) ; and Mary Jane5, b. May 6, 1845 (married George S. Buck), died Feb. 13, 1887.
Stephen Libby died in Leeds April 23, 1890.
Samuel4, the fourth child of Capt. Samuel3, was a very prom- ising young man. His death, which occurred July 7, 1834, was a heavy blow to his people. He was held in high esteem by his associates.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
Thomas Bartley4, M.D., the fifth child of Capt. Samuel3, was a graduate of Bowdoin Medical College. He went to Egypt, Wharton County, Texas, where he had a successful and lucra- tive practice. July 4, 1848, he there married Susan Ann, a daughter of Capt. W. J. E. Heard, who commanded a company under General Houston, in April, 1836, at the battle of San Jacinto, which gained the independence of Texas. She was born in Egypt, Texas, Feb. 15, 1832, on the first plantation opened on the Colorado River, in that state. This plantation with its wealth of slaves and stock had a money value of more than two hundred thousand dollars. Here were born to them three children, viz .: Gancello Bartley5, May 6, 1850; Mary V., June 15, 1852; and Olivia Morton, Sept. 5, 1854. In 1858 he took his family to Chapel Hill to educate his children. He was a firm believer in state rights. When the Civil War was instituted he espoused the cause of the South and entered the service in the capacity of surgeon. He died at Chapel Hill, Jan. 9, 1862. By the emancipa- tion proclamation their wealth in slaves was lost, and in October, 1867, yellow fever broke out at Chapel Hill, with which his daughter, Mary V., died on the fifth, the son on the seventh, and his widow and an infant grandchild on the tenth of that month. But one child recovered, Olivia M., who married, Oct. 19, 1870, Richard E. Carter, a prominent lawyer of that state. They had five children, all of whom, together with their mother, have since died, and the family thereby became extinct.
Adelia4, the sixth child of Capt. Samuel3, is a maiden lady, and for a term of years superintended the home of her youngest brother in Massachusetts. She is spending a season with a nephew in Wisconsin.
John K.4, M.D., the seventh in the list, graduated from the Medical Department of Bowdoin College in the Class of 1848. In 1852 he went to Elmira, N. Y., where he continued in active practice until the time of his death. In St. Peter's Church, in the city of New York, June 3, 1852, he and Glovina, a daughter of George Smith, Esq., one of the most prominent citizens of Wayne, Me., were married. His wife was born in Readfield, Me., June 16, 1822. To them were born two sons, John Barry5, March 30, 1855, and George Barclay, May 18, 1859. John Barry was a graduate of Amherst College in the Class of 1876. He is a lawyer and for several years was a law partner of Governor Hill. He is a resident of Elmira, N. Y. He is an able man and has held several important offices in that state. Two terms he served his county in the capacity of district attorney. In 1900 he was the democratic nominee for the office of Governor of New York. His brother, George B., was a student of Princeton College. When near graduation he was attacked with malarial fever and died June 9, 1880. In January, 1883, the parents visited the
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
Pacific coast. In returning they made a stop in Denver, Col., to visit the doctor's brother. There the doctor sickened and died, July II, 1883. His remains were brought to Elmira, N. Y., for interment.
Stephen Decateur4, the eighth child of Capt. Samuel3, after completing his education, went South, where he was engaged for a term of years in teaching. In 1846, he was elected to a Pro- fessorship in Rutherville College, in Texas. On account of illness he was obliged to return to his native State. Recuperated, he studied law and was admitted to the bar at Portland, in 1849. He practiced law one year with Hon. Abram Sanborn, in Bangor. In 1850, he removed to Fond-du-Lac, Wis., where he resided fourteen years in practice, there holding the office of Clerk of Courts, and at the same time edited the "Democratic Press." In 1864 he removed to Elmira, N. Y .; thence to Baltimore, Md., in 1867, and to Boston in 1879. These places proving not congenial to his health in April, 1881, he removed to Denver, Col. There he was engaged for a short time on the State Business Directory. In 1882 he was appointed postmaster, and in November of that year was chosen one of the judges of the city court, both of which offices he held at the time of his death.
In 1856 he married Miss Eveline B. Rice, of Geneva, N. Y. To them were born a son and three daughters, two of whom died in infancy. The son, Edward Everett5, was born October, 1857, and Mary K., --. 1869. Edward Everett is a successful merchant of that city, and has held important offices in its gov- ernment.
Anson Gancello4, the youngest child of Capt. Samuel3, pre- pared for college at the "Maine Wesleyan Seminary," and Mon- mouth Academy, and graduated at Bowdoin College in the Class of 1847. He studied law with Hon. Henry W. Paine at Hallo- well, Me .; was admitted to the Maine bar April 2, 1850, and later to the Circuit and Supreme Courts of the United States. While in Maine, where he was in practice twenty and more years, he was a heavy owner in the Hallowell Granite Quarries. In 1871 he removed to Newton and engaged in practice in Boston, princi- pally in the United States courts, continuing therein until the present time. Single.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
EBEN STINCHFIELD+, (JOIIN3, WILLIAM2, JOHN1).
Eben Stinchfield of the fourth generation was born in Pejep- scot February 7, 1787. In 1809 he married Mary Woodbury, who was born in Pejepscot Sept. 25, 1786. They came to Leeds in 1809 and settled on the lake road, northerly from the dwelling of James3 Stinchfield. They had issue.Susan5, born Sept. 2, 1810; Seth, b. Aug. 30, 1812; Sarah, b. May 12, 1815; Woodbury A., b. July 2, 1817, and Eben, b. Nov. 22, 1820. Susan married Sam- uel P. True, settled where D. P. True now resides, had no issue, and died Jan. 23, 1879.
Seth3, the second child, when he became of age, went into the eastern part of the State where he engaged in lumbering business. He was one of five of the first settlers of the town of Dan- forth, Washington County, Me. He owned the water power and land where the village has been built. He was a prominent factor in building it up; and later was instrumental in giving it railroad connection with the outside world. He married Hannah Hard- ing, by whom he had seventeen children, viz .: Seth6, died in infancy ; Keziah H.6, b. in Danforth Aug. 6, 1837, married Mel- ville S. Springer Nov. 14, 1856, has four children ; Eurania T., b. Nov. 28, 1839, married Edward Russel, of Athens, had six children, second, married Nathan Walls of Lewiston, had one child ; Mary Augusta, b. April 24, 1841, married Edwin W. Vos- mus, of Lewiston, Sept. 13, 1871, has no issue ; Rufus B., b. March 18, 1843, married Lydia Kelley, of Bancroft, has four children; Betsey R., b. March 3, 1845, married D. P. True, of Leeds, has no issue ; Llewellyn A., b. March 27, 1847, married Sept. 29, 1874, Almira Russell, of Athens, had no children: Eben P., b. Nov. 17, 1848, married Allie Marston May 1, 1887, had two chidren ; Eben P., died in Lewiston ; Amaziah P., b. Oct. 2, 1850, married Rose Foss, has four children; Annette, b. April 30, 1852, died Sept.' 3, 1860; Willington, b. March 24, 1854, married Estella Scribner, has no issue; Sarah, b. June 21, 1855, married James M. Moulton, of Wayne, May 3, 1879, has four children; Fred- eric W., b. Aug. 19, 1856; Orilla D., b. Oct. 9, 1858, married Charles S. Merrill, of Auburn, Sept. 29, 1883, has two children ; Thirza M., b. Oct. 21, 1860, died Dec. 20, 1864; Estella M., b. March 27, 1862, married Thomas H. Boothby of Leeds, Novem- ber, 1892, has no issue ; Horace W., b. Oct. 3, 1866, died Sept. 3, 1867. The life of Seth Stinchfield has been one of industry and usefulness. Though his sight and hearing are much impaired, he is a hale and strong old gentleman.
Sarah5, the third child of Eben4, spent several years in Lowell, Mass. She married Harrison, a son of Robert Gould, of Leeds. To them was born a son, Luville, a conductor on the Maine Cen-
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
tral Railroad, with whom she resided in Portland after the decease of her husband. She died in that city Jan. 10, 1901.
Woodbury A.5, the fourth child of Eben4, was a natural mechanic, a man of trades, a valuable and industrious gentleman. He settled in Wayne village where he built several houses. He married Frances Fuller, an estimable lady of that town, Aug. 9, 1851. To them were born Edith Helen6, Nov. 24, 1852, and Florence Mabel6, Jan. 14, 1856. Edith H. studied law and also married a lawyer, Charles E. Conant. They are both in practice and life-long members of the firm. They are in the west. Flor- ence Mabel is also a lawyer of prominence. Woodbury A.5 died in Leeds, in 1881, and was buried in the village cemetery in Wayne.
Eben5, the youngest child of Eben4, married Hannah Lincoln, who was born in Leeds Nov. 5, 1819. To them were born two sons, Lewis D., born in Leeds April II, 1845, married in North Bridgewater, Mass., April 28, 1874, Harriet M. Chessman, b. in South Weymouth, Mar. 10, 1855, resides at Campello, Mass. ; and Eben A. W., b. in Turner March 30, 1848, who married, Jan. 28, 1879, Abbie A. Atwood, b. in Rochester, Mass., Aug. 26, 1861. His residence was at Plymouth, Mass., and his business that of baggage master on the Old Colony Railroad, where he accidentally lost his life.
Eben3 died in Wayne Jan. 22, 1849. His father, Eben4, died in Leeds Jan. 23, 1877, and his mother, Mary (Woodbury), Oct. I, 1852. They were buried in Wayne where many of the Stinch- field family repose. Eben4 Stinchfield had four wives, viz. : Mary Woodbury, of Pejepscot; Diadama Larrabee, of Leeds; Clara Judkins, of East Livermore; Almira Berry, of Leeds. He was a grandson of John, the first born Stinchfield in America, the first man married in the town of New Gloucester, and the eldest brother of Thomas and Rogers Stinchfield, the first settlers of the 'town of Leeds.
THOMAS MILLET AND FAMILY.
The fourth family to settle in Leeds was that of Thomas Millet. The Millet family is one that is very largely identified with Maine and Massachusetts, and it is now numerously repre- sented in various other portions of the United States. It is not- able, however, that the Boston directory records only 34 persons of the name in its two forms-that of Millett being in more common usage-in comparison with the very much greater pro- portion of various other names apparently no less common in the country at large.
The name is an old one in England and is still older in France. In the English record it is variously spelled. Mylet, Mylett,
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
Myllais, Millet, Millett are among the early forms. The name appears in the English records early in the fifteenth century. The differences in spelling do not in the least signify any differ- ences in origin. In England there always has been, and there still is, the greatest freedom as to the spelling of one's name. A person is at liberty to write it as he chooses. Near relatives often have very different forms. All genealogical authorities agree that the name, whatever its existing orthography, was orig- inally the same. In Middlesex there are Mylletts and Millets ; in Hereford there are Myllets; in Cornwall there are Milletts, and on the Island of Jersey the name is spelled Millais. These fami- lies are all of common origin. The two artists, the late Sir John Everett Millais of London, and Mr. Francis Davis Millet, . the American painter, are from the same stock. And in all likeli- hood it would be found that their lines run back to the same French ancestry as that of the famous painter of peasant life, Jean Francois Millet. It has been supposed that the first of the name in England came with William the Conqueror, and that this is indicated by the mural crown in the crest of the arms allowed to John Millet of Hayes Court, Middlesex, in 1616. The first publicly recorded instance of the name in England is that of John Mylet, who came in 1432 as an ambassador from the regent of France, the Duke of Bedford, eldest uncle of Henry Sixth. It is thought that he never returned to his native country. In 1513 one of the secretaries of Henry Eighth was named John Millet. In 1516 the same name appears as that of a clerk of the signet and also as a Letter of Exchequer, probably all the same per- son. Among the earliest mentioned of the family are the Millets of Perivale, Middlesex. Henry Millet is recorded as dying on Feb. 5, 1500. In 1575 another Henry Millet of that place was Lord of the Manor of Cornhill. Though the name is so variously spelled it is noted that there seems to have been endeavored to keep the original spelling on the monuments, in records of pedi- grees and of visitations in the Heralds College. The various branches of the family seem to have radiated from Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, and Surrey. John Millet of Hayes, Middle- sex, was Lord of the Manor there in 1613. In 1616 the "Armes Argent a fess gules between three dragons heads erased vert" was exemplified, that is allowed, to him, with the crest of an arm armed, the hand grasping a dragon's head. Arms of that description are held to represent military distinction in opposi- tion to tyranny, while the crest with the mural crown is some- thing granted for the taking of a walled city.
In Cornwall the Milletts were a prominent family. William Millett was sheriff of Cornwall in 1566. In Marazion and Pen- zance the Milletts were leading people. The mother of Sir Humphrey Davy, whose monument stands in Penzance, was
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
Grace Millett. At Rosavern a branch of the family lived in one house from 1627 to the present time.
The immigrant ancestor of the American Millets, or at least of that branch of the family which immediately concerns this work, was Mr. Thomas Millet, who was born in England in 1605 and who, before emigrating to New England in 1635, married Mary Greenaway, who was born in England in 1606.
Thomas Millet belonged to the Herefordshire branch of the family, his great-grandfather being John Myllet, gentleman, of Redwood, near Leominster. His grandfather, also a John Myllet, lived in Chertsey, Surreyshire, and here his father, Henry Myllet, was born. Henry Myllet was attorney-at-law in Staples Inn, Holborn, and married Joyce, daughter of John Chapman, of Chertsey. Thomas was one of six children and their third son. The immigrant pair came to Dorchester, Mass., bringing with them a son, Thomas, born in England, in 1635. The fact that his wife's father, John Greenaway, had come to Dorchester in the ship Mary and John two years before with his wife and four daughters, was probably the fact that induced Thomas Millet to make his home in the new Bay Colony. With them also came Ursula Greenaway, his wife's sister, and the ship that brought them was the Elizabeth of London. The place where Mr. Thomas Millet was born does not appear. But he brought a certificate of his conformity from the rector of the Church of St. Saviour's in Southworth and was a teacher in the church. He was straightway made a freeman in Dorchester, where he lived until 1655, when he moved to Gloucester, having purchased there all the possessions of William Perkins, a teaching elder of that town. He succeeded Mr. Perkins in his religious office, the exercise of which gave him the right to the rare title of Mr. Though not an ordained minister, he received a salary "not always voluntarily bestowed" we are told. It was probably his function as teaching-elder that carried him to Gloucester and afterwards to Brookfield, for when an ordained minister was settled in the Cape Ann town Mr. Millet went to Brookfield to succeed Mr. Younglove in ministerial duties, though neither was ever ordained. He owned much real estate in Gloucester. When he died does not appear, but his wife entered his estate for probate in 1676. Beside the son born in England they had six other children, all born in Dorchester. It is notable that one of the first of the Bay colonists to visit Maine was John Millet, second son of Mr. Thomas Millet. The York records, August 8, 1661, show that Thomas Booth agrees with Adolphus Maverick to provide sufficient house room for John Millet and his family. But his stay appears to have been short, for in the Gloucester records are mentions of his marriage by Governor Endicott and the birth of seven children.
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HISTORY OF LEEDS
The eldest son, Lieut. Thomas Millet, as he was called, mar- ried Mary Evelith on May 21, 1655, Governor Endicott officiating. This was about the time his father moved to Gloucester. Their wedded life was passed in that town, lasting thirty-two years, the wife dying in June, 1687, leaving no chil- dren. The next year he married Abigail Evelith, widow of his wife's brother, Isaac, and daughter of John Cait. She was his junior by twenty-six years. They were blessed with three sons, Thomas, John, and Nathaniel; the latter dying in infancy. Lieu- tenant or Ensign Millet had land from his father, and in 1707 he purchased the Blynman farm at Kettle Cove. He was a respected citizen and successful farmer, leaving a large estate to his wife and two sons. Thomas Millet sold to his younger brother, John, his share in the farm. He had taken to the sea and was then styled "Captain and mariner." Giving up his seafaring in 1720 he removed to Durham, N. H., where he married Love Bunker and settled on Dover Neck. He was known as the Hon. Thomas Millet and was one of the most distinguished of the family in America. He was a ship-builder, and made several voyages to England and France in his own ships, as master. From those countries he brought fruit trees and originated the once cele- brated "Millet apple," supposed to be a variety of the Normandy pippin. He also visited relatives bearing the family name in both England and France. He held prominent local and state offices and for twenty years was Judge of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
John Millet, the younger brother, who was born April 19, 1692, remained in Gloucester all his life. He married Eunice Babson Dec. 24, 1723. They had nine children. He was an active man, but over-venturesome in his disposition, so that his proneness to speculation proved of much damage to his estate. Much of his property was lost in the Land Bank, and he died poor in 1747. It was with him that the Millet connections with Maine began. In the year 1737 he, with two other Gloucester men, were appointed a committee to lay out lots in the township of New Gloucester, and the next year, in the first distribution of lots, he drew No. 22. In the same year he was chosen to cut and make a good way, twelve feet wide, from North Yarmouth to New Gloucester through the town to the spot selected for a meeting-house.
It is an interesting coincidence that, in the year that the Maine connection originated, Thomas Millet, the seventh child and fourth son, was born Oct. 2, 1737. He lived in Gloucester until after the Revolution, marrying Eunice Parsons on May 29, 1763. Here also four of their six children were born, the other two first seeing the light in New Gloucester, Me. His adventures in the Revolutionary War were of an exceptionally interesting and
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