USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Wayne > History of the town of Wayne, Kennebec County, Maine, from its settlement to 1898 > Part 24
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J. Clark Stinchfield was born in Leeds, Androscoggin Co., Nov. 3, 1843. His great-great-grandfather John was born in Leeds, England, Oct. 12, 1715. He came to this country in 1735, and settled in
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Gloucester, Mass. On the same vessel with him came a young lady, by name, Elizabeth Burns. Her nationality was Scotch. She was a relative of Robert Burns. She was born in the North of Ireland, Dec. 21, 1713. They were married in 1737, and had issue John, born Oct. 23, 1738; William, born Jan. 9, 1741; Elizabeth, born May 18, 1743; James, born July 13, 1745; Thomas, born Dec. 29, 1746, and Rogers, born Oct. 21, 1752. In 1756 he removed his family to New Gloucester. He died in that town Jan. 3, 1783, and his widow Aug. 19, 1795. He and all of his sons were in the Revolu- tionary war. Their fifth child, Thomas?, married Mrs. Paul whose maiden name was Sarah True, born May 6, 1744. Her parents lived in Turner. They had issue Thomas, born Sept. 8, 1768; Sarah, born July 10, 1770; James, born Aug. 10, 1773; Martha, born Nov. 28, 1774; Samuel, born Nov. 6, 1777, and Rebecca, the first white child born in the town of Leeds, Dec. 11, 1780. Thomas and Rogers were the first settlers of Leeds and removed their families from New Glou- cester to that town, then Littleborough, in June, 1780. Thomas died in Leeds, Oct. 25, 1837, and his wife Nov. 18, 1791. Their third child, James, married Hannah Pettingill of Leeds, born in Massachu- setts, Feb. 14, 1786. They had issue John, born Dec. 16, 1802; Isaac, born May 5, 1804; Polly, born Dec. 9, 1805; James, born Sept. 9, 1807 ; Elvira, born June 29, 1809; Joel, born Mar. 4, 1811; Thomas, born Dec. 6, 1812 ; Hannah, born Dec. 25, 1814; Abigail, born Oct. 16, 1817; Aramantha, born Aug. 24, 1819; Sewall, born Mar. 29, 1822; Allen, born April 8, 1825, and Eliza Ann, born Nov. 29, 1830. James died in Leeds, July 28, 1857, and his widow June 19, 1871. Their second child, Isaac, married Abigail L. Knapp, born in Leeds, Mar. 3, 1814. They had issue Isaac, born Oct. 29, 1836; T. Jefferson, born April 6, 1838; Charles K., born Feb. 26, 1840; John Clark, born when above stated; Rose E., born Dec. 6, 1845; Abbie L., born Jan. 3, 1848; S. Wallace, born May 10, 1850; George S., born Nov. 25, 1852, and Ella F., born Nov. 1, 1856. Isaac died in Leeds, Jan. 9, 1878, and his widow in Wayne, Oct. 6, 1884.
His boyhood days were spent on the farm in Leeds. He improved his opportunities of education, those of a district school, one mile distant. At the age of twelve years he entered the high school of this town, attending the spring and fall terms, and closed his school days at Towle Academy, obtaining the necessary funds to defray ex- penses by teaching in winter. July 4, 1863, he married Catharine H.
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Graves, of Wayne, born Nov. 19, 1844. They had issue Minnie Etta, born Jan. 1, 1868, and George Roger, born Jan. 2, 1876. He became a citizen of Wayne, July 5, 1863, and a resident of the village May 8, 1868. Ten years later, Jan. 7, 1878, his wife died. June 13, 1886, he married Henrietta Howard, born in Leeds, Dec. 7, 1853. They had issue Allen Howard, born May 8, 1888. From 1868 to Mar. 20, 1890, he was engaged in the buying and selling of horses, cattle and sheep, at the same time shipping to the Boston Market, and retailing meat, etc., since which time he has been engaged in the hotel business, making a specialty of entertaining summer guests. He is the present proprietor of the Pocasset House.
By reference to the list of civil officers of the town, contained in this work, the faet may be noted that, from 1872 to 1886 he was a public servant for a people, a large majority of whose political preferences, at that time, were not in accord with his views of the issues of the day. He was several times the nominee of the party for representative to the legislature and always run ahead of the ticket ; yet as many times failed of an election. He is interested in the cause of education, the advancement of the young to positions of responsibility and trust, the progress and improvement of the town, the development of its industries and natural resources, prominent in the societies and corporations with which he is connected, and careful and particular in the discharge of the duties imposed on him.
James H. Thorne was borne in Monmouth in 1823, his parents soon after moving to the town of Readfield. At the age of about nine he went to live in the family of Mr. Benj. Davis, a farmer of Readfield, where he lived until he was twenty-one, working as few boys are obliged to work now-a-days. Being ambitious for an education, he supplemented the little schooling allowed him by hard study when time could be obtained, which was after the day's work was done. The thrift of the family in which he lived, forbade the use of candles for evening study. In fact instructions from the head of the family pro- vided that they should always be "blown out" when found lighted for such a purpose. Nothing daunted, the boy collected pine knots, by the uncertain light of which he might pursue his studies. An old schoolmate remembers how at the age of thirteen, he was the proud winner of a prize offered in the "okd yellow school house" in Readfield by that excellent teacher of those days, the late Mr. Washington Hunton.
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As soon as he attained his majority he came to Wayne, where he made his permanent home. In 1848 he married Miss Mary, daughter of Mr. Eben Norris.
Mr. Thorne was a most successful teacher; teaching in Readfield, in the "old yellow school house," also several terms at both Wayne and North Wayne. "He was a progressive teacher," said a former pupil, "and the first that I remember who proved that a successful school could be taught without the use of corporal punishment."
He served as town clerk in Wayne for six years. Was sent as Representative to Augusta the winter of '61 and '62. He dealt largely in cattle in days before the Western markets were sending their pro- duce East.
His wife died in 1858, and three years later a favorite son was drowned in Pocasset Lake. In 1859 he married Mrs. Mary Norris, by whom he had one son, Homer A. In 1865 he married Mrs. Novella Moulton, and for a short time was landlord of the hotel at Wayne. Mr. Thorne died of consumption in 1866. His wife sur- vived him but a short time. His ellest son, Millard, died in Boston in 1886. His surviving children are Mrs. N. T. Milliken and Homer A. of Boston, Eben N. living at Grand Rapids, Mich., and salesman for the firm of Marshall Fields & Co. of Chicago, and Mrs. Alfred John- son of Wayne.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ANNIE LOUISE CARY. BY ONE OF HER FRIENDS.
For five centuries the Feudal System flourished in Europe. Feud- alism was already well established on the Continent when William the Conqueror developed the System in England. William divided Eng- land into 60,000 feudal estates, making each one the property of a Norman Baron. Every estate had its castle, its strong wall battle- mented and turreted, surrounded by a moat. Outside lay the village where dwelt the tenants of the Baron who was Master of the Castle. In the peaceful England of to-day we see little to remind us of those troublous times, when every Feudal Lord thought of his neighbor as his enemy, and spent his life either in seeking triumphs, or in protect- ing himself from conquest.
Here and there we have a fairly well preserved landmark of the period. The White Tower, the largest building among those we call the TOWER OF LONDON, was the castle of King William himself.
ANNIE LOUISE CARY.
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Though used now only as a Museum, the building still retains its warlike appearance, filled with glittering armor and all the curious and horrible instruments of battle employed in mediaeval times. A few miles from London, Rochester Castle, also, still stands; its stately walls covered with vines and flowers, and pigeons the sole occupants of its deserted interior. And again, in Sussex, near the southern coast, the ruins of Arundel Castle attract the traveler, who finds the tenants in this case to be a colony of American owls.
But ruins as well preserved as these are rare. The homes of the 60,000 Norman Barons and their early successors have, for the most part, entirely disappeared. Occasionally, the site of a Feudal Castle can be located by the retention of the name in the neighborhood. The tourist who wanders through Somerset, always visits Glastonbury Abbey and Wells Cathedral. If he should go a few miles southeast from Wells, he would find, just on the borders of Somerset and Dor- setshire, a small village called Castle Cary. No trace of the Castle itself remains, but the very fact of the name surviving in thatof the village, shows that the race long occupied and possessed the land. We know that the Castle was retained by the family for many generations. A valiant race must these Carys have been-a race of conquerors. The title of Knight is not hereditary, is only bestowed for valor, and history records that many, at least six or eight of these gallant Carys were knighted in recognition of their military exploits. On the roll of honor we find the names of Sir George Cary, Sir Edward Cary, Sir Philip Cary, Sir Robert Cary, Sir William Cary and Sir Henry Cary. It was Sir Robert Cary, who, in the fifteenth century, fought and van- quished a famous Knight-Errant of Arragon. This foreign Knight had traveled through many countries, defeating any one who dared to meet him in mortal combat. When he arrived in England his chal- lenge was accepted by Sir Robert Cary, who succeeded in vanquishing this hitherto invincible warrior.
Sir William Cary, a grandson of Sir Robert, married Mary Boleyn, a sister of Anne Boleyn, the most unfortunate of all the unhappy wives of Henry VIII. Sir William's son, Sir Henry, was thus own cousin to Queen Elizabeth, who made a personal friend of him and entrusted him with affairs of state. Sir Henry's son-another Sir Robert-also attained prominence in political affairs, was at Eliza- beth's bedside when she died, and went immediately therefrom to Scotland to personally announce to James I. his accession to the throne.
Before this time, however, several of these illustrious Carys had left
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Somerset, and had gone to live in Torquay on the coast of Devonshire. Torquay is to-day one of the principal watering places in England, and those who visit this resort, never fail to drive to the neighboring village of Babbacombe to see its beautiful bay. Here, in Babba- combe, we again find the name of Cary preserved, for the tourist, if he needs refreshment, must needs seek it in the Cary Arms Inn.
It seems, from all accounts, that not until England's times grew more peaceful, were these Carys content to pursue industrial occupa- tions. In the early part of the seventeenth century some of the Somer- set Carys appear to have been merchants in Bristol. They were still rich and influential people as several of them were educated in France. Three of them are said to have come to America, and one of these three-John Cary by name-was the ancestor of Nelson Howard Cary of Wayne.
Protestantism was born in Germany in the early part of the sixteenth century ; but Protestantism, as it first appeared in England under Henry VIII., was hardly an advance over Roman Catholicism. Eng- land was not prepared for so radical a change in religious thought and practice, and so, at first, the "new" religion was but a compromise between the old and the new. This displeased the more ardent of the reformers, and in the reign of Elizabeth there sprang up a sect called "Puritans",-called so apparently in derision, from their avowed wish to disseminate the "pure" word of God instead of conforming to estab- lished liturgies and promising obedience to Archbishops. These Puritans, like the Knights in armor, were fighters. Though they sought neither to kill nor to conquer, yet it was the same spirit that led the knight to lay his enemy in the dust, that also led the Puritan to rebel against preaching or practicing doctrines or customs of which his conscience disapproved. Some of these Puritans remained in England, for generations struggling against their religious oppressors ; some were exiled to Holland, and some crossed the ocean to seek their freedom in America. The most important member of the little colony that came over in the Mayflower in 1620 was their presiding Elder, William Brewster. He it was who cheered them when their hearts grew faint, and who comforted them through the trials and sufferings they were called upon to endure. It was of "stern stuff" that these Puritans were made. They had the courage of soldiers, the fortitude of martyrs, a perseverance that recognized no obstacle, a steadfastness born only of a rigorous conscience. Well may James Russell Lowell have spoken of their frail ship as the "Hero-weighted Mayflower," and
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well may their descendants, now scattered far and wide through the United States be proud of their renowned ancestry. It is one of the descendants of Elder Brewster himself who concerns us, a ship builder by the name of William R. Stockbridge, who lived at Yarmouth, Maine, in the early part of the present century. A ship builder dur- ing the week, Mr. Stockbridge was on Sundays a dencon in the church, and led the village choir. Two of his daughters, Maria and Marcia, sang in this choir. Very gool singers must Miss Maria and Miss Marcia have been, and it is safe to assume that very attractive young women were they too, for parties of young men were wont to walk on Sunday evenings from Portland to Yarmouth to hear the Stockbridge girls sing. Deacon Stockbridge was ambitious that his daughters should be well educated, and Yarmouth not affording such advantages as he desired for them, he sent them to a very popular Female Semin- ary in Winthrop. An article on "Historical Reminiscences" in the WINTHROP BANNER of November, 1881, says: "The school was very large, attracting young ladies of wealth and refinement from all parts of the State; the scholars filling every home that would or could accom- modate boarders; causing the village, during term-time, to appear as if its inhabitants were almost entirely females." The Stockbridge girls had to seek a boarding place, as did all the other pupils, and they found one in the home of Simeon Cary.
When John Cary, of Somerset, left Bristol in 1634 and came to America, he settled in Bridgewater, Mass., a town a few miles west of Plymouth, and the first town in the interior colonized by the Puritans. The immediate descendants of John Cary lived in Bridgewater for many generations, one of whom, Simeon by name, was a Captain in the French war of 1758, and a Colonel in the war of the Revolution. The Simeon Cary who left Bridgewater and went to live in Maine was a grandson of the Colonel Simeon of Revolutionary fame. He took with him a wife who had remarkable musical gifts and a son who inherited the talents of his mother. This son was Nelson Howard Cary, a fair haired, blue eyed boy, who grew to manhood in his Maine home. He was an ambitious boy too, studying whenever and wherever he had the opportunity, and teaching school in various places to defray the expenses of his education. He chose medicine for his profession, and inusie for a pastime; singing with a rich baritone voice and playing on the violincello. Into this house, where the wife and son of Simeon Cary were singers of no small local repute, came the Stockbridge girls whose voices had long given pleasure to their listeners. It was a veri-
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table little musical community, a happy and congenial family.
Many of the young men in Winthrop were shy and afraid of the rich and fashionable young ladies who attended the Seminary, and avoided instead of seeking their society. Not so with Nelson Cary. Should he, whose ancestors had been knighted for bravery for genera- tions, be afraid to woo and tell his love? And should she, whose an- cestors had been heroes of another sort, enduring trials and hardships for truth's sake, be afraid to confess hers? No! And so he, whose forefathers had, in the west of England, fought so gallantly with the sword, and she, whose forefathers had, with equal valor, in the east of England, fought for conscience sake, declared and acknowledged their affection ; and Nelson Cary and Maria Stockbridge plighted their troth, and were in due time, married.
Dr. and Mrs. Cary were married in 1829. Six children were born to them, but they were not all born in Wayne as the Carys did not move there till 1835. Annie Lonise was the youngest of the family, her birth taking place on the 22d of October, 1842. Dr. Cary attained eminence in his profession, and both he and his wife were admired for their musical and intellectual ability, and loved for their sterling qualities of character.
The following article is written by one of their own townsmen, and appeared in the Boston Transcript in 1877, soon after the death of Dr. Cary.
ANNIE LOUISE CARY.
The picturesque little village of Wayne, in the county of Kennebec, Maine, has the honor of being the birth-place of her whose name heads this sketch. It is situated at the northern extremity of Androscoggin Lake, sixteen miles west of Augusta. Nature has rarely done a better piece of work in the way of a village site that it did in this case. Viewed from the adjacent heights, the village with its surroundings is a scene of surpassing beauty. The lake which it borders, studded with verdure clad islands, the bridged stream cutting it in twain, a steepled church standing sentinel-like at either extremity, the rows of big maples bordering and shading its main street, in combination form a subject of artistic interest. If we may judge from the frequent visits of Miss Cary to the home of her childhood, no doubt in view of its charms she often sings :
"Where 'er I roam, whatever lands to see,
My heart untramelled fondly turns to thee."
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Miss Cary was the daughter of Nelson Howard Cary, M. D., and Maria Stockbridge Cary, now deceased. To both her parents is she indebted under the law of heredity for her gift of song, as also for her vigorous intellectual nature. Beecher, in his lecture on "Success." says that our first provision should be to be well born. Miss Cary seems to have heeded this injunction and demonstrate I its practicability. Dr. Cary possessed natural gifts musical, literary and oratorical, which had they been developed and expanded would have distinguished him in any community. He had a baritone voice of great volume and compass, musical in every tone of its range. Such was his popularity that his contributions of song, or speech, were considered indispensable to every festival or publie gathering in the vicinity. Mrs. Cary, a woman of refinement and intelligence, had enjoyed the advantages of cultivated society. Possessing an excellent voice upon which had been bestowed a fair amount of cultivation, she enjoyed considerable local reputation as a singer. Inheriting from her parents such gifts, with a strong, healthy, physical organization, our great contralto conformed to the first condition of success, she was "well born." The family, of which she was the youngest, consisted of six children, upon all of whom the spirit of song descended in richest abundance. It was a favorite pastime of the neighbors to assemble in front of the doctor's house in pleasant summer evenings and call the family out on the veranda to sing to them. In all her after triumphs Annie never gave more genuine pleasure to her listeners than on these occasions, when she would sing her simple, childish songs. Coming to Boston when about seventeen years of age, her brother to whose house she went to reside, soon obtained for her a position in the choir of the Rowe Street Baptist Church, of which Rev. Baron Stowe was then pastor. From there she went to Dr. Bartol's Church, and then to the "Emmanuel" where she sang until her departure for Europe. The writer was a member of the Rowe Street Church Choir when Miss Cary sang there. He well remembers how thrilling was her voice in its phenomenal richness, volume and depth. A disability which somewhat impeded her progress at first was that of excessive nervousness. This difficulty for a time, operated to dampen slightly the hopes of her friends as to her capacity for dramatic expression. Her father once remarked, "if Annie could so far forget herself, as to acquire the necessary ease and abandon to face an audience, I think she would sing very well." But genius is a wayward child; it rarely acts as we hope or expect, we must be patient and await its moods. The builders are always reject-
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ing the stone destined to become the head of the corner. If there is one thing above others that now distinguishes Miss Cary's singing, it is her power to utter with music's eloquence the mysterious longings that well up from the depths of the human soul-that quality we call expression. At the last Christmas performance of the "Messiah" in Boston Music Hall, in which she sang the contralto solos, that mystic and weird music language drew tears from her audience ere she had completed the opening phrase of her first number.
Intellectually Miss Cary may be considered as of the masculine type ; her conversation and correspondence indicating breadth, insight and discrimination. Her comments upon persons of European royalty betray a capacity for shrewd observation. Carlyle says, there are no classes of faculties, man having but one faculty, viz: intellectual power. He says it was only by accident that Burns wrote verses for his countrymen instead of acting the part of Mirabeau in their councils of state. We may object to this view as applied to the more restricted fields of mental activity, but it probably has a partial basis of truth. The power of musical expression is intellectual power, and that quality, so conspicuous in Miss Cary's interpretations of the great masters of musical compositions, would no doubt have been equally so in other departments of intellectual effort. To her early friends and acquaint- ances, Miss Cary's brilliant career is vividly suggestive of the romantic and fabulous. The history of the early triumphs of musical art in America will have no worthier illustration than her genius affords. This inadequate tribute to one whose artistic merits are fully supple- mented by graces of a warm and generous heart is inspired by the desire to give expression, however feebly, to the feelings of pride and admiration which her childhood acquaintances entertained for her .- JAMES NELSON CLARK, Dorchester, Mass.
It was not strange that all the Cary children showed musical talent. Indeed, it would have been strange if they had not, as it was a direct inheritance on both sides of the family. But it needs more than talent to make one's name and fame in the world. The ability to draw and to mix colors does not make a great painter ; a brain stored with facts and a complete knowledge of grammar are not sufficient to produce an eminent author; and the possession of a fine voice with the ability to read notes does not make a celebrated singer. To succeed in any pro- fession, a vast amount of hard work must be done; so vast that the greater number of the talented ones of the world are appalled and dismayed, and turn back before they have mounted the first step on
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the ladder of fame. The great elements of success are unlimited courage and perseverance. It was a combination of the more remote inheritance of the courage of Sir Robert Cary and the perseverance of William Brewster that was possessed by Annie Louise, which, added to her talent, enabled her to become one of the greatest singers the workl has ever known.
Her early popularity was due entirely to her winning personality and to her marvelous voice; for, in her youth, she had no really valuable instruction. Her voice was as phenomenal in compass as in quality. When she was sixteen, its actual range was three octares and a half ; but doubtless the very high and very low notes were a strain on her voice, and were, in a measure, injurions, for, in her pro- fessional career, she seklom attempted to use them.
Mrs. Cary died in 1850, while Annie was yet a child. The family then moved to Yarmouth and later Annie went to boarding school in Gorham, but she was eighteen before she went out of the state of Maine. Meanwhile, her second brother, Joseph, had married and settled in Boston, and in 1860, the ambitious girl went to spend the winter with him, with the hope of obtaining real vocal instruction. She sang in church during her winter in Boston, but was compelled to return home in the spring when the Civil War broke out, as her brother was one of the first toenlist. The Carys had retained their fighting blood through generations of peace, and three of Dr. Cary's sons went to defend their country. The younger one, (Sam, now living in New York, ) became an officer, and after two years' service in the field, was made a prisoner of war, and spent nearly two years more in southern prisons. Deprived by the war of her Boston home, and having no money with which to pay her board, Miss Cary was forced to give up her musical aspira- tions for a while, and returned to school in Gorham, Maine, to study other branches. But she still longed for the musical instruction, and again she found her way to Boston, this time making her home with friends, and earning her board by helping them in their daily round of domestic duties. Who but a New England woman would have undertaken to obtain an education under such difficulties? Miss Cary procured another church position, sang in the chorus of the Handel and Haydn Society, and took singing lessons. But her ambition was not satisfied. Sitting in her place in the chorus and listening to the artists who rendered the solos in the great Oratorios, she could think of no inferior place for herself. No thought of ever appearing in dramatie performances crossed her mind. The stern Puritan influence
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