Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 109

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892 > Part 109

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George S. Morrill, born in 1837, is the oldest son of Major Jacob Morrill (1799-1879), and grandson of Captain Levi Morrill, who was a blacksmith and farmer, as was his son, Jacob. Dea. Levi Morrill, father of Captain Levi, came from Brentwood, N. H., in 1790, with three brothers. Mr. Morrill is a farmer, and occupies the homestead place with his sister, Mary A.

Phineas Morrill, born in 1830 in Brownville, Me., was a son of Cap- tain Phineas Morrill, who came from Brownville to Readfield in 1847, and was engaged in manufacturing. Mr. Morrill was three and a half years in California, was for several years overseer of the woolen mills here, and after that a farmer and speculator until his death in 1890. He married Elizabeth W., daughter of Enos, and granddaughter of Elijah Fairbanks, of Winthrop. Their children are: Mae (Mrs. Harold E. Martin), Edgar, who died in infancy, and Elmer A.

H. Owen Nickerson, born in 1833, in Waterville, and died in Read- field in 1891, was a son of Hiram and Mary J. (Smith) Nickerson, and grandson of Thomas Nickerson, who came to Maine from Cape Cod, Mass. Mr. Nickerson was a farmer, was two years a member of the state board of agriculture, and was several years an officer in the Ken- nebec County Agricultural Society. The farm where he lived and where his widow now resides was then Captain Dudley Haines home- stead. He married Georgia C., daughter of James and Sophronia (Clough) Packard, and granddaughter of Caleb and Lydia (Ford) Pack- ard. Their children are: Annie A., Arthur S., Walter A. and James O., who died in infancy.

William C. Record, born in 1837, in Hallowell, is a son of Isaac and Martha (Blaisdell) Record. He was in California and Nevada from 1857 until 1877, mining, excepting the last five years, during which he was engaged in the lumber business. He bought a farm on Kents Hill, Readfield, in 1877, and followed farming until 1888, when he bought the grist mill which he now operates. . He married Mrs. Mal- vina Currier, daughter of Samuel Dunn. They have one son, Charles D.

Reuben Russell, born in 1817 in Weld, Me., is a son of Ephraim and Rebecca (Ireland) Russell. He came from Weld to Readfield in 1845, and after three years in the hotel business, bought the farm where he now lives. He married Anna M., daughter of Marmaduke

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Masterman. Their only son, George A., was educated at Kents Hill. He was one year lieutenant of Company F, 21st Maine. He held the office of school supervisor, served one term in the house, and one year in the senate. He was four years postal clerk on the railroad, and four years at Augusta post office. Since 1887 he has been steward of Wilbraham Academy, Wilbraham, Mass. He married Lydia A. Mil- lett, and has one daughter, Lillian F.

Amos A. Sampson, born in Readfield, is the youngest and only survivor of seven children of David F., who was the only son of Luther Sampson, a revolutionary soldier, who came to Readfield from Marshfield, Mass., in 1799. Mr. Sampson owns and occupies the farm where his grandfather settled, and from which he gave the seminary lot. He married Nancy J., daughter of Mark Stevens. Their chil- dren are: M. Etta (Mrs. F. L. Russell), Mary R. (died November 3, 1884), Nellie A. and Lillian A.

Joseph T. Sherburne, born in 1835, is a son of Captain Thomas and Lovina (Fifield) Sherburne, grandson of Job, and great-grand- son of John Sherburne, who died in Readfield in 1789, aged sev- enty-six years, and is buried at Dudleys Plains. Mr. Sherburne is a farmer on a part of the farm settled by his grandfather. His first wife, Mary N., daughter of Randall Currier, died leaving two children: Herbert L. and Maynard C. His second marriage was with Georgia A., daughter of Nathan Porter. They have one daughter, Jennie M.

Llewellyn Sherburne, born in 1845, is the only brother of Joseph T. Sherburne. He owns the old Sherburne homestead and 120 acres of the original farm. He married Sarah A., daughter of Randall Currier, and their children are: Hattie L. and Thomas E.

Gustavus Smith, farmer, born in 1829, is one of eleven children of Carpenter and Reliance (Stone) Smith, and grandson of Matthias Smith, who came from Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and settled on the farm where Gustavus now lives. The latter was in California from 1852 until 1856. He married Lydia A., daughter of Gorham Ladd, who died leaving four children: Eva C., Harry C., Walter G. and Amy E. Mr. Smith served one year in the civil war.

David Stevens, born in 1806, in Loudon, N. H., was the youngest of ten children of John and Martha (Marden) Stevens, and grandson of John Rogers Stevens. Mr. Stevens came from New Hampshire to Wayne, Me., in 1807, with his parents, and his father died there in 1829, aged sixty-seven years. He was a farmer in Wayne until 1861, when he came to Readfield, where he now lives. He married Jeannette Haines, who died in 1890. Their children were: Alfred, Jeannette F. and Charles H., the only survivor, who is a farmer with his father. He married Lottie E. French and has children: Nettie B., Charlotte E., Mary M., Robert (deceased), and Nellie F.

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

Zadock H. Thomas, born in 1844, is one of four children of Seth and Cynthia (Baker) Thomas, grandson of Nathan and Sally (Wat- son) Thomas, and great-grandson of Nathan Thomas, of Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Nathan, jun., came from Massachusetts to Mt. Ver- non, and his son, Seth, came to Readfield in 1849. Zadock H. served eleven months in the late war, in Company K, 3d Maine, and his only brother served in the same regiment and company. He married Sadie E., daughter of Hiram H. and Charlotte S. (Pierce) Hewitt.

HENRY PIERSON TORSEY, LL.D., D.D., was born at East Monmouth, Me., August 7, 1819. His father, John Atkinson Torsey, was the third child of Dr. Gideon Torsey, who came from France as surgeon in the army during the French and Indian war. Dr. Gideon Torsey married and settled in Gilmanton, N. H., whence his son, John A., moved with the New Hampshire colony that settled a large portion of the terri- tory now comprised in the town of Monmouth.

John A. Torsey was a man of extraordinary character and broad range of genius. As a mathematician he had few equals. He was employed by the proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase to run their lines in the southern extremity of the county at that critical period when land surveyors and muskets were often intimately associated. He married a near relative of General Henry Dearborn, of military fame, and from this union came the subject of this sketch.

As might be expected of one in whose veins flowed the blood of the Dearborns crossed with the impulsive temperament of John A. Torsey, he exhibited early signs of great activity. Like his grand- uncle, General Henry Dearborn, for whom he was named, his boy- hood was marked with a great fondness for the natural sports of the day; and unlike any one named in history or tradition, with a greater love for unusual sports of his own invention. Playing ball, wrestling and skating were entertaining enough to make him expert at each, but were rather tame pastimes for a boy who could walk on the ridge- pole of a house on his hands with his heels in the air, and keep his feet on the back of a running horse with the ease of a professional acrobat. However useless these performances may have been, his knowledge of swimming, skating and wrestling served him many a good turn in later years. At least four persons have been saved from drowning by his remarkable agility in the water and on ice.

His school life began in the little " Blaketown " district, at East Monmouth, under the tutelage of that familiar figure in Kennebec politics, Hon. Alanson Starks. At the age of sixteen he entered on a course of study at Monmouth Academy, under the tuition of Nathaniel M. Whitmore, from whom he received his first certificate to teach. Many have been the times, doubtless, when he has hurled anathemas at that proud document. Teaching has been to him, in all his years of success, a constant drag. And no one thing evinces more conclu-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

sively that the element of success was inborn than the fact that while he had gained the reputation (voiced by such men as Rev. Dr. Fulton, of Tremont Temple, and Rev. Dr. Day, of New York) of being the greatest teacher of young men in America, that reputation was won in a vocation that was always distasteful to him in the extreme.

At about the age of seventeen he became converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal church. He was soon licensed to preach, and through the influence of friends was led to take a course at Kents Hill Seminary.

In 1840 he received elder's orders at the hands of Bishop Hedding. One year later he left Kents Hill to take charge of the Normal de- partment in East Greenwich Academy. Rev. Dr. Tefft was then its principal, and under him his college studies were pursued.

In 1842 he returned to the Maine Wesleyan Seminary as assistant to Dr. Stephen Allen. During the same year Doctor Allen resigned, and his assistant, after much persuasion, reluctantly consented to take his place. The condition of the school at that time was lamentable. Only about seventy students were registered; the buildings were all but worthless, and the interest on a debt of $10,000 was threatening to crush out its very existence. So hopeless were the prospects of the institution that the Maine Methodist Conference declined to take it as a gift. With these conditions and nothing but erudition, tact and determination to fall back upon, he began. Carefully considered plans, all the details of which had been previously arranged in his mind, were at once put in operation. In a few months the attendance increased to a degree that was as alarming as the other extreme. Every house on Kents Hill was filled to its greatest capacity, and still the students came. Stage-load after stage-load came bringing dollars to the institution and consternation to the overtaxed principal. Soon every house to the Fayette line was packed to overflowing, and still they came. Such is the history of the growth of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary during the first years of Doctor Torsey's superintendency. Its later history is noticed at page 902.

This institution is largely the embodiment of the genius and in- domitable energy of Henry P. Torsey. For the meager sum of $500 per annum he did the work of four professors, hearing thirteen classes and spending a large portion of his nights in chemical and electrical experiments.

In 1845 Doctor Torsey was married to Emma J., daughter of Rev. Ezekiel Robinson, a prominent member of the Maine Methodist Con- ference. In this relation, as in all other affairs, the doctor chose wisely. Heartily sympathizing with him in all his plans for the de- velopment of the school, and possessing talents and accomplishments which enabled her to assume the superintendency of important de- partment work, Mrs. Torsey's life, like that of her husband, became

H. P. Jorsey

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TOWN OF READFIELD.

utterly merged in the interests of the school, and in thus supplement- ing her husband's plans and labors she enabled him to accomplish that which must have remained a tantalizing theory had he depended on the less efficient and less interested labor of hired auxiliaries. She was not only the preceptress, but she was also at the head of the de- partment of art and of the modern languages. Although she retired from active work in the school room after seventeen years of arduous service, it was during these years that the institution was lifted from its insecure position to the first place among the college preparatory schools of Maine.

Not only was Doctor Torsey fortunate in securing a life companion whose interests and purposes were identical with his own, but as a re- sult of uniting with the Robinson family he secured from it two other able instructors-Rev. F. A. Robinson, Ph.D., a brother of Mrs. Tor- sey's, who was connected with the institution twenty-seven years, and Miss Pronie B. Robinson, who served as principal of the art depart- ment from 1845 to 1879. Professor Robinson had charge of mathe- matics and the ancient languages, and always performed the presi- dent's duties when Doctor Torsey was sick or absent. He was one of the three persons who carried the school to its position of usefulness and power.

At the time of his election to the presidency of the seminary he was reading law with Judge May. How great might have been the honors gained in this profession we can only conjecture, but in any vocation he could not have failed. Doctor Torsey was elected to the state senate in 1855-6, where, as chairman of the committee on educa- tion, he and Judge H. K. Baker had much to do with the drafting and passage of bills which essentially changed the common school laws. In 1865 he absented himself from the school for a time, on account of failing health, and accepted the position of supervising treasury agent for Florida, South Carolina and Georgia, his duties being chiefly related to freedmen's interests. He had previously declined the office of secretary of Montana territory, and the pledge of promotion, the second year, to its governorship. Following this was a tender of the consulship of Valparaiso.

While shut up in a darkened room in Florida, totally blind, he re- ceived a telegram from Senator Hamlin announcing his appointment to the consulship of Beirut. Whether either of these positions would have been accepted, had his physical condition permitted, can only be guessed.

While discharging the duties of supervising treasury agent he had opportunities for gaining large wealth that only a man based on the firmest foundation of principle could have refused. Speculators were picking gold out of the state treasury in almost unlimited quan- tities, and thousands of dollars were placed before the superintendent

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

to secure his connivance. As soon as circumstances would permit he retired from the service; but such was the estimate of his value as a public custodian that he was immediately summoned to Washing- ton and offered $4,000 additional to his salary, if he would return and take charge of the department. "I cannot do it," said he, firmly; " there are now thirteen salaried officials in that department, and I can perform the duties of the whole by working two hours a day." " That is not your business," was the rejoinder; "the government appropriates the salary and demands an incumbent to the office." " I have a conscience," replied the doctor, " and cannot accept emolu- ment without service." Six months after he left the government ser- vice the announcement came: "Your salary for the past six months awaits your order." It was a temptation $2,500 strong. Without hesitation a reply went back to the treasury department: " I have dis- charged no public service in the past six months, no salary is due me, and I shall accept none." Doctor Torsey brought back from the South a sum equivalent to a fair teacher's salary. He brought what was of far greater value-a character unstained in public life.

As a minister of the gospel his promotion would have been rapid and his fame widespread; but he chose to give this promotion and fame to others and to teach them how to use both to the glory of God. It is true he left his work at Kents Hill twice to accept the honors of the Maine senate; but even here he had a duty to perform, and that it was well performed the present system of education bears witness.

But if honors have been unsought, they have not been withheld. Three times he has been elected to represent Maine's largest ecclesi- astical body at the General Conference; and institutions of learning, recognizing his merit and the value of his attainments, have confer- red on him the honorary degrees of LL.D. and D.D.

The secret of his success as a teacher may be concentrated in one word-love. Every pupil in his charge was compelled to feel that the power that held him in check bore toward him more the attitude of a father than of a pedagogue. As a disciplinarian he was strict and exacting, as a parent should be toward the child in whom his loving interest centers. His vigilance over those committed to his care, and the infallible certainty with which he brought to light the hidden things of darkness and meted out justice to the guilty, smack strongly of the sensational detective stories in which our youth delight to revel, and have always excited curiosity, and, for that matter, always will, for here is a subject of methods on which he is provokingly reti- cent; but the students knew and felt that his rules were only neces- sary parts of their education-helps to study.

The winter of 1888-9 Doctor and Mrs. Torsey spent in California, every day of which old Kents Hill students flocked to express with moist eyes and in grateful tones their belief that to his efforts, more

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than to any other influence, they owed the successes and the integrity of their lives. Over and over they told how his work and his love had taken the bad out and put the good into them, and they empha- sized their gratitude by golden presents characteristic of their adopted state.

Doctor Torsey, now in his seventy-third year, active still and vigor- ous in intellect, if not in body, is enjoying the fruitage of his life- work at his pleasant home on Kents Hill, as well as the pains result- ing from his excessive labors will allow. He rejoices when honors come to one and another of his 17,000 pupils, and exclaims, with mer- ited pride, " He is one of my boys."

Thomas J. Townsend, born at Limerick, Me., in 1828, is a son of William and Sophia (Dowle) Townsend, and grandson of Thomas Townsend. He is a farmer, and since 1863 has owned and occupied the farm which was settled in 1767 by Robert Wangh. He married Mary J., daughter of Stephen Abbott. Their children are: Herbert S., Alvin A., Lottie M., Nellie S, and George W., who died.

George Whittier, born in 1824, one of six children of Josiah, 2d, and Sally (White) Whittier, is a farmer where his father and his ma- ternal grandfather lived. In his early life he was three years in Cali- fornia; he has been fifteen years in the meat business, also a carpen- ter and farmer. He married Sarah, daughter of Calvin, and grand- daughter of Isaac Porter. Their children are: Horace P., Charles D., Henry D. and Mary Ellen.

Sullivan S. Willard, born in 1825, in New Sharon, Me., is a son of Nathaniel, grandson of Joseph, and great-grandson of Nathaniel Wil- lard, who was among the early settlers of Industry, Me. His mater- nal grandsire was Benjamin Savage. Mr. Willard came to Readfield in 1872, where he is a carpenter and farmer. His wife, Olive A. Gould, died leaving three children: Frank S., Mellen G. and Angie S.

Josiah Wesley Williams, born in 1853, is the youngest of five chil- dren of Miles, and grandson of John Williams, who came from Wool- wich, Me., to Readfield and bought of Constant Nickerson the place where Mr. Williams now lives, containing 175 acres. Josiah W.'s mother was Abigail Whittier. He married Della F., daughter of James H. Dudley, of Hallowell.

Miles Everett Williams, farmer, born in 1850, is a son of Miles and Abigail (Whittier) Williams. In 1879 he bought the south part of the Samuel,White farm, where he now lives. He married Ellen S., daugh- ter of Samuel, and granddaughter of Benjamin Joy, of Winthrop. They have one son, Walter E., and have lost a son and daughter.

CHAPTER XXXV.

TOWN OF MOUNT VERNON.

Washington Plantation. - Settlement. - Characteristics. - Incorporation .- Pio- neers .- Town House .-- Post Offices .-- Early Mills .-- Traders .- Taverns .- Man- ufactures .- Societies .- Churches .- Cemeteries .- Villages .- Civil Lists .- Personal Paragraphs.

M OUNT VERNON, by its early settlers, who began to come about 1774, and were largely from New Hampshire, was first called Washington Plantation. John Stain, one of the very first, was born in Germany, and came here from Readfield. Nathaniel, Caleb and John Dudley, John Stain, Daniel Gordon, Jonah and John Bean, Nathaniel Ladd, Peltiah Cobb and Reuben Rand are believed to have been the first men who brought their families, and built their houses here. The latter two cleared farms on Bowen hill, and raised corn on land now covered with the second growth maples, some of them two and a half feet through.

It is said that a party of timber hunters from Lewiston came before any white man lived here, and camped one night at West Mount Vernon. Judging they were about that distance from home, they called that stream Thirty-mile river. The next morning they climbed the highest point of land in sight to get a better view of the unbroken forest. One of the party was a Mr. Bowen, and that hill has borne his name from that day to this. Mount Vernon easily takes rank as the equal of any of her sister towns, in original wealth of forest, strength and productiveness of soil, percentage of tillable to total acres, and of income to outlay.

Like its neighbors, it abounds in ponds of infinite variety of situa- tion and size, which add so greatly to the charming surprises and picturesque attractiveness of scenery, for which all the towns in Ken- nebec county are so justly and so widely celebrated. Long, Parker, Crotched, Flying, Greely and Moose are its principal ponds, and Bowen, Currier, Cobbs and McGaffey hills, the latter sometimes called a mountain, are its highest elevations of land.

The act of incorporation by which Mount Vernon was erected into the eightieth township in the province of Maine, was completed June 28, 1792. Levi Page was authorized to call the first town meeting,

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TOWN OF MOUNT VERNON.

which was held in July at the inn of Benjamin Eastman. Solomon Leighton, John Dudley and Paul Blake were elected as the first board of selectmen, and at a subsequent election Nathaniel Dudley was chosen as the first representative to the general court. The first six town meetings were held at the house of Benjamin Eastman, " In- holder," and the next two at Stephen Scribner's inn. The area of the town was 15,000 acres, and its population was about 600. In 1850 its population was 1,479; in 1860, 1,464; in 1870, 1,252; in 1880, 1,171; and in 1890 it numbered 940. In 1870 its valuation was $397,034; in 1880, $393,381; and in 1890 its assessed valuation was $273,283.

It is high praise of any town in Kennebec county to say that the quality of its early settlers was as good as that of its neighbors. Mount Vernon claims this and no more. But a record must be made of the acts of one woman and one man among her pioneers. Mrs. William Whittier every night put food on her table, a light in her window, a log on the fire when the weather was cold, and left her door unbolted with the latch string hanging out-a standing invitation to any tired, belated settler passing in the dead hours of the night, to stop and eat and rest, and go where he chose-the free gift of a grand woman's great heart.

During the memorable cold season of 1816 Theodore Marston had corn to seil. To people who came with the money to pay for it he would say: " You can buy of any one who has it-I must sell my corn to poor people who have no money; I will trust them;" and he did. Such men and women are rare. Their deeds illuminate a whole hori- zon, and ennoble the lives of all subsequent generations.

Some of the earliest and most prominent settlers, the most of them here before 1800, were: Charles Atkins, a Methodist minister near Dunn's Corner; Jonathan Prescott, a surveyor; Levi and David French, Joses Ladd, Solomon Leighton, Theodore Marston, Benjamin and Nathaniel Philbrick, John R. Robinson, John Stephens, Stephen Scribner, Phineas Taylor, Deacon Nathan Thomas, Paul Blake, Samuel Cram, Peter Folsom, John Hovey, Deacon Samuel Thing, Nathaniel Philbrick, Dr. Samuel Quimby, Noah Greeley, Daniel Thing, Reuben Hanscomb, Nathaniel Rice, Nicholas D. Robinson, Caleb Cressey, Reuben Daniels, Samuel S. Gilman and Nathaniel Kent.

The following interesting extracts from the town records are good history: " October 1. 1799. Voted to build a meeting house by sub- scription on condition that a spot of ground can be reasonably pur- chased near Benjamin Eastman's. Voted to choose a committee of five to oversee said business, and that they shall have nothing for their services. Voted, committee as follows: Nathaniel Dudley, Paul Blake, John R. Robinson, Jabez Ladd, Jacob Jewel. Voted, to build said house 50 by 60, and twenty-three feet posts. Said house shall be

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

for town business, and the worship of God. Located on south side of road near Benjamin Eastman's house."

"Said house shall be for the use of the Baptist society and church one-half of every month, and the other half, or as much of it as is not wanted or occupied by other societies." "Voted to raise $250 to build said frame. Voted Captain William Whittier as chairman of the building committee."

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 109

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York, Blake Number of Pages: 1790

Author: Kingsbury, Henry D; Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York, Blake
Number of Pages: 1790