Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 126

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 126

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

After a rest of two years, Mr. Blake and John U. Hubbard formed the firm of Hubbard & Blake, who were large makers of scythes till 1877, when the business was changed to a stock company that built more shops, made axes and hatchets, and sold their plant in 1889 to the American Axe Company.

In 1861 Mr. Blake bought the farm of 175 acres, where he still lives, extending from Ellis lake on the west, to Messalonskee lake on the east-widely noted for beautiful situation and a productive soil. For many years he gave much attention to raising thoroughbred stock, making a specialty of Hereford cattle and Southdown sheep. The rule of his life has always been to produce the best possible results, of the wisdom of which the many medals and first class pre- miums he has won at agricultural fairs are proofs. Mr. Blake has also taken an active interest in the preservation and increase of fish and

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game. He is the president of the North Kennebec Fish and Game Association, which has recently been organized through the efforts of Mr. Blake and W. T. Haines.

In 1850 he was united in marriage with Anguilla Hubbard, of Waterville. Fred E., their oldest child, is a farmer in Sidney, is town clerk and one of the selectmen. Caroline, the second child, died in 1888. Charles J. and William A., the next two, are traders in Oak- land; and Glenni, the fourth, is a farmer with his father. Martha, now Mrs. D. A. Blaisdell, of Oakland ; Alice, deceased, and Tad. L., employed on the Old Colony railroad in Massachusetts, complete the names of their eight children.

Mr. Blake's abilities are recognized, and his services are sought for in various positions of public trust. He served as selectman for eight years, and is a director in the Messalonskee National Bank. His religious sympathies are with the Universalists. He has belonged to the. Masonic order for thirty years, and politically has always been a staunch republican.

Elias A. Bowman, farmer, born in 1847, is a son of George W. and Lydia (Wilbur) Bowman, and grandson of Elias, whose father was Thomas Bowman, jun. Mr. Bowman's maternal grandfather was Caleb Wilbur®, and his ancesters were : Lemuel®, Meshach', Shadrach3, Shadrach2, Samuel Wilbur', who with his wife, Ann Bradford, were admitted as communicants to the First church of Boston December 1, 1633. Mr. Bowman married Ella Newell, who died, leaving one son, Fred A. His present wife is Ida E., daughter of Nahum H. and granddaughter of Caleb Wilbur6. Their children are: Frank B., Edward H., Sadie A. (deceased), Grace M., George H. and Edith M.

Joshua H. B. Bowman, born in 1824, was the youngest of ten children of Elias and Martha Bowman, of Sidney. In 1845 he began to learn the carpenter's trade at Augusta. He afterward went to Ken- tucky, where he was engaged on mill work until 1863, when he came to Oakland, where he is still engaged at his trade, having for several years done the repair work for the Cascade Woolen Mill and Dunn Edge Tool Company. His first wife was Cynthia Hibbard ; his sec- ond, Catharine Higden, and his present wife was Mrs. Sophia A. Richardson. He has one son, Herbert J.

Jackson Cayford, son of John Cayford, was born at Skowhegan in 1829. He was several years a resident of Fairfield, where he ran a threshing machine and was engaged in various other kinds of busi- ness as well as farming. He came to Oakland in 1884, where he en- gaged in the wood and lumber business. He served in the late war in Company H, 19th Maine, from August, 1863, until November of the following year. May 18. 1864, he received a wound that caused the loss of his left arm. He married Lucinda Lewis, who died leaving

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three children: George M., O. C. and Lillian P. His present wife was Aphiah M. Getchell.

George F. Chapman, son of Rufus and Salinda (Baker) Chapman, was born in 1843 at Boothbay, Me. He resided at Liberty, Me., from 1845 until 1862. In July of that year he entered the federal army in Company B, 19th Maine, and served until January 4, 1864, when he came to Oakland, where he has been employed in scythe and axe manufac. ture. Since 1884 he has spent some time in building and placing machinery for axe and scythe manufacturing in other states. He married Aurilla C. Moore. They have one daughter, Myrtie A., and have lost two sons.

Hiram Cornforth, born in 1834, is a son of Robert and Mary A. (Hesketh) Cornforth, and grandson of Robert Cornforth, who came from England before 1800 and settled in Readfield, Me., where he built the first woolen mill and sent to England for help to run it. He was also a drover and cattle buyer, and built the first brick house north of Portland, in Maine. Hiram Cornforth was for six years a scythe maker and has since been a farmer. He is a member of the democratic county committee, and one of the trustees of the North Kennebec Horticultural and Agricultural Society. He married Melora A., daughter of Abram and Charlotte (Marston) Smith, and their children are: Charles E., Nellie E. (deceased), Julia E. (Mrs. Harry B. Robinson) and Lottie M. Mr. Cornforth's father was born in Readfield, Me., in 1805. His wife, Mary Ayers Hesketh, was a daughter of John Hesketh (uncle of the present Sir Thomas Hes- keth) and Margaret (Ayers) Hesketh, daughter of Hodge Ayers, an uncle of the present Earl of Derby.

Moody Crowell, with his brother Isaiah, came from Cape Cod, Mass., to what is now Oakland, and were among the early settlers in the southwest part of the town. Moody married Deborah Webb and was a farmer. Their children were: Betsey, Polly, Nancy, Thomas, Rodney, Elmira and Delilah. Rodney, born 1807, died 1885, married Eliza Shorey, who survives him. Their three sons were: George C. (deceased), Charles M. and Fred P. The two latter are farmers and milkmen and own and occupy the homestead of their father and grandfather. Charles M. married Flora, daughter of Henry Linscott; they lost their only son, Arthur. Fred P. married Mabel Libby.

LUTHER DORR EMERSON, of Oakland, was born in a farmer-fisher- man's cottage by Newtown bay, in Arrowsic, on the 9th of April, 1816. He was the tenth child and only son of Hawley and Rachel (Lennen) Emerson, and grandson of Rev. Ezekiel and Catherine (Dorr) Emer- son. Through his maternal grandmother his ancestry goes back to Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of Boston, and to Edward Raw- son, who was for more than a third of a century the secretary of the

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colony of Massachusetts Bay, and a noted man in the founding of New England.

Rev. Ezekiel Emerson was a native of Uxbridge, Mass., and was possessed of the qualities that wrung a college training from the scant colonial opportunities of a century and a quarter ago, graduating from Princeton College in 1763. Two years later he began his life work in the country bordering the Kennebec-the ancient Sagadahoc, oldest historic ground in New England. In that part of old Georgetown that did not become Arrowsic until 1841 he was settled for life as a Congregationalist minister, the first minister ordained east of the Kennebec. Here he worthily completed a half-century pastorate, closed and sealed by death in 1815.

After ten years of service, the troubles of the revolutionary war became so great that Parson Emerson left his parish for awhile and took his family to Norridgewock, whence he returned to Georgetown at the close of the war, and was pastor of his old church until the close of his life. He may truthfully be said to have founded the present Congregational church of Norridgewock.

His son, Hawley, grew to manhood and became an industrious and thrifty yeoman. He was also the owner and operator of a fulling and carding mill. He received on one of his inventions-a weir for catch- ing fish-a patent signed by President James Monroe, and now in pos- session of the Maine Historical Society. Hawley Emerson married Rachel Lennen, of Georgetown. Of their eleven children, Catherine, the eldest, married William Morse, a shipbuilder and farmer of Bath. Mary married Joseph Tarr, of Georgetown. Rachel married Robert Blake, of Salem, Me. Julia Ann married, first, Laban Lincoln, of Hallowell, and, second, Oliver Talpey, of Hallowell. Margery mar- ried Philander L. Bryant, of Wayne, Me., and Elizabeth married Charles Loring, of Norridgewock. Theodosia became Mrs. Joseph Nash, of Montpelier, Vt. Their only surviving child is Captain Charles E. Nash, of Augusta, Me. Diantha, her twin sister, was never married. Rebecca C. married E. P. Nash, of Montpelier, Vt., and their only surviving child is Caroline, Mrs. George Underwood, of Fayette. Luther D. was Hawley's only son. Nancy, the youngest of the eleven, died single in early womanhood.

Of this large family only Luther D. is living. When about fifteen years old he found in the weir a salmon which weighed 24} pounds. Converse L. Owen, of Bath, paid a dollar a pound for it, and sent it to Boston, where it furnished a grand feast at the Pearl Street House. After his common school days were done, Luther D. packed up and walked seventy miles to old Bloomfield Academy. The next year he attended Farmington Academy, then under Nathaniel Green, a grad- uate of Harvard. School days over, Luther D. went promptly to work, first at Dedham, Mass., in a woolen factory, and next as a clerk

L. D. Emerson

PRINT, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y.

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for about three years in a store at Quincy. In 1840 he returned home, and with his father's family removed to Norridgewock, where the father died, January 6, 1844, leaving upon Luther D., as the only son, the care of the family, and incidentally in a fatherly relation to sev- eral children of deceased sisters, who were early left in a condition of orphanage, and who ever render to " Uncle Luther" a full measure of gratitude and filial affection.

Soon after the family removed to Norridgewock Luther D. came to West Waterville, now Oakland, and entered the scythe factory of S. Hale & Co. This proved to be the business of his life. For three years his special work was in the grinding department, but daily con- tact with the other processes brought him an exact knowledge of all the details of this then rapidly growing industry. In 1844 he engaged in North Wayne with the scythe manufacturer, R. B. Dunn. This service continued for twenty-one years. Most of this time he kept the books for Mr. Dunn, besides keeping an eye on the many points that needed watchful attention. In 1858 the business was extended to West Waterville, at which date Mr. Emerson's permanent residence here commenced.

In 1865 the new firm of Hubbard, Blake & Co. was formed, com- posed of John U. Hubbard, W. P. Blake, L. D. Emerson and Charles Folsom, manufacturers of scythes and axes. In 1870, a new firm, com- posed of L. D. Emerson, Joseph E. Stevens, W. R. Pinkham and George W. Stevens, was organized as Emerson, Stevens & Co., to carry on the same business. About 1885 the present organization, the Emerson & Stevens Manufacturing Company, was formed, and is now known wherever scythes and axes are used.

Mr. Emerson has completed a half century of honorable and profit- able devotion to the work of his life, and is still blessed with strength to continue its successful prosecution. He married in 1855, Dulcina Minerva, daughter of Dea. Reuben Crane, of Fayette. Their children are: Alice M., who lives with her parents, and Walter C. Emerson, a graduate of Colby, and now one of the editors of the Portland Advertiser. He was recently elected to the Maine legisla- ture. This progress in life for a young man thirty-two years old is a creditable record. His wife, Jennette, is a daughter of George Milli- ken, formerly of Waterville.

Luther D. Emerson started in his political career as a radical abolitionist. He voted in 1840 for Martin Van Buren and in 1844 for James G. Birney ; for Fremont in 1856, and has been arrayed ever since in the republican ranks. He holds that the Decalogue should have a place in politics, and although a strong party man he is not oblivious to the mistakes of party leaders and sometimes thinks-like the prophets of old- that he can see disaster and trouble ahead when

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the leaders depart from the high standard which he believes the party should maintain.

He has been a director in the Messalonskee National Bank from its organization, and its president since 1888. He has always been affiliated with the Congregational church, of which so many of his ancestors were distinguished ministers, and is a member of the Maine Historical Society, taking a lively interest in the various subjects to which the labors of that society are devoted. He has a passionate fondness for the spot and the scenes of his boyhood days, and visits every year the ruins of the homesteads of his father and grandfather on the historic island of Arrowsic, where the honored dust of Parson Emerson reposes in peace close by the site of his long since obliter- ated church.

Benjamin F. Folger, youngest son of Elisha and Judith (Starbuck) Folger, was born in Sidney in 1828. His father was master of a whaling vessel of Nantucket, Mass., and in 1825 he came to Sidney, where he was farmer and miller. Mr. Folger is a moulder by trade; he has been employed at various places and has been in manufactur- ing business some. He served on the school board and as selectman in Sidney and has been four years on the school board in Oakland.

Edwin M. Foster, born January 30, 1864, son of Martin A. Foster, of Winthrop, came to Oakland from Winthrop in 1883. He married Mary, daughter of John W. Greeley. He has been paymaster and account- ant of Cascade Woolen Mill since November, 1887, and prior to that was with the Emerson & Stevens Manufacturing Company. Since March, 1891, he has been supervisor of schools, and since 1890 a mem- ber of the republican town committee.

John Wesley Gilman, well known in Maine as a Grand Army man, was born in 1844 in Belgrade. His parents were Jacob and Deborah (Ham) Gilman. He was learning the trade of scythe maker in Oak- land when in August, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, 20th Maine, and was discharged in June, 1865. In the fallof that year he returned to Oakland, where he has since lived, engaging in various business enterprises. In 1884 he was elected chairman of the board of select- men and held the office six consecutive years. He was two years assistant inspector, and one year chief mustering officer, Department of Maine, G. A. R., and is at present one of the council of adminis- tration of that body. He married Sarah B., daughter of Samuel Kimball. She died in 1890. He was for a time local editor and busi- ness manager of the Oakland newspaper already spoken of in Chap- ter X.

Frank L. Given, son of Rev. Lincoln and Lucy A. (Colby) Given, was born in 1859 at Caribou, Me. He came to Oakland in 1878, where he has been employed in axe making. From 1882 until 1890 he did finishing and packing axes for the Dunn Edge Tool Company, and

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since 1890 he has been foreman of their axe shop. He married Florence A., daughter of Charles and Sarah (Hatch) Smiley. Her maternal grandparents are William H. and Betsey (Barrows) Hatch.

George W. Goulding, son of Joseph V. and Frances (Hubbard) Goulding, was born in 1842 at North Wayne. He went to Minnesota in 1854 and in 1861 enlisted in Company E, 1st Minnesota, served in that regiment three years, then served one year in the Hancock Vet- eran Corps, Company E, being discharged as sergeant. Since 1866 he has been one of Oakland's most active business men. He is a promi- nent member of the G. A. R. and also of the Masonic fraternity. He has twice represented his district in the legislature. He married Pauline Holt, of Skowhegan, and has one daughter.

John W. Greeley, born in Mt. Vernon in 1827, is a son of John and Susan (Gilman) Greeley, and grandson of Joseph Greeley, of Readfield. He came from Oakland to Belgrade in 1871 and after five years he began work for the Dunn Edge Tool Company and has been travel- ing salesman and inspector of scythes for that company since that time. He married Martha, daughter of Samuel Bartlett. They have had eleven children: Evelyn, John (deceased), William (deceased), Timothy B. (deceased), Horace W., Susie, Arthur S. (deceased), Mary M., Martha (deceased), Alton (deceased), and Nora B.

Arthur H. Johnson was born in 1827 in Carthage, Me., where he learned the blacksmith's trade. In 1858 he entered the scythe factory of R. B. Dunn at North Wayne, and in 1862 came to Oakland, where he continued thirty years in the employ of the Dunn Edge Tool Com- pany. He married Lucilla Fairbanks in 1854. Their children were: George H., Albert A., Lucy F. and Warren F. Albert A. Johnson was born in 1864 and became a painter. In 1887 he embarked in his present business-merchant tailoring-and the next year married Maggie Conley. Their children have been: Warren A., who died in 1891, and Effie German.

Andrew J. Libby, born in 1834, is the only surviving child of John M. and Louisa (Witham) Libby, and grandson of John Libby. Of the various business enterprises in which Mr. Libby has been engaged farming and stock raising is the principal. He is known as the "Old Ox King " of the state of Maine. He is vice-president of the National Bank of Oakland, one of the trustees of the Maine State fair, repre- sentative for 1891 and 1892, and director of the Somerset Railway. He married Abbie, daughter of David P. Morrison, and their children are: Morrison, Andrew D .. Abbie G. and J. Burt-all married.

Morrison Libby, eldest son of Andrew J. Libby, was born in 1859. He is engaged in a grocery business in the block where his father formerly kept store. He married Mrs. Julia Farnham, daughter of Samuel Whitehouse.

Dea. William Macartney was born in 1808 in Boston, Mass., and

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

died at Oakland in 1891. He came to Maine in 1823, where he learned the clothier's trade. He held various town offices, both in Waterville and Oakland, and in 1873 represented his district in the legislature. He married Betsey, daughter of Ichabod Smith. Their six children were: Mary, Lovisa S., William Henry, and three that died-Caroline E., Cordelia and Octavia M. William Henry, born in 1836, was a scythe maker, from 1860 to 1884. He served in the late war one year in Company B, 21st Maine. He married Ellen M., daughter of Joel Richardson, and their children are: Dwight P. and Mary L. Mr. Macartney has been chairman of the board of selectmen and post- master.

Daniel F. McLure, son of Jacob McLure, was born in 1832 at Skow- hegan. He has been engaged in operating grist mills since 1849. In 1871 he came to Oakland and for fifteen years ran the grist mill for Samuel Blaisdell. In 1886, in company with George H. Danforth, he bought the mill and has run it since that time in connection with the adjoining grocery store. He bought Mr. Danforth's interest in the business in 1889. Mr. McLure is an active member of the order of Odd Fellows.

Daniel E. Manter, retired farmer, born in Madison in 1824, is a son of Daniel (1792-1864) and Lydia (Pratt) Manter, and grandson of David (1763-1820) who came from Martha's Vineyard, Mass., to Wayne, and married Keziah Robbins. They had ten children. Mr. Manter lived in Sidney from 1854 until he came to Oakland in 1887. He married Saphronia F., daughter of Humphrey and granddaughter of Hum- phrey Bailey, who came from Massachusetts and settled in Sidney. Their children are : George W., Alice A., William B. and a daughter that died in infancy.

Reuben Ricker came to Waterville from Berwick, Me. He mar- ried Philena Warren and their children were: Reuben, Ira H., Levi, Philena, Lucy, Sarah, Maria, Harriet, Susan, and Charlotte. Levi, born in 1802, married Mary Ann McPherson, and their children were: Eliza J. (Mrs. C. F. Stevens), Henry A., Alfred G., James F., Lottie P., William H., Sumner, Levi S. and Erastus. Of these only two are liv- ing-Eliza J. and Alfred G. Henry A. and Alfred G. occupied the homestead of their father and since his death in 1862 Alfred G. has carried on the farm. Henry A. died in March, 1892.

Charles K. Sawtelle, born in 1820, died June 1, 1892, was the eldest of four children of Captain Nathan and Hannah (Kimball) Sawtelle, grandson of Nathan, and great-grandson of Moses Sawtelle. He mar- ried Paulena C. Bangs, who died leaving three children: Georgiana, Frank and Sylvanus. His second wife was Elizabeth A. Pursey, who left one son, Henry. His third wife was Mrs. Lizzie C. Lewis, a daughter of Asa Soule. They had one son, Eugene K. Mrs. Sawtelle had one daughter by her former marriage, Mary T. Lewis.

Alver R. Small

PRINT, E, BIERSTADT, N. Y.

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TOWN OF OAKLAND.

Ora M. Sibley, son of Sumner, grandson of Peter, and great grand- son of William Sibley, who came to Pittsfield from England, aboutt 1790, was born at Fairfield, Me., in 1850. Peter Sibley came to Fair- field in 1830, and to Sidney in 1852. He and his son, Sumner, were lumbermen on the Kennebec. The latter married Mary L. Eaton. Ora M., the oldest of their three children, enlisted in the 20th Maine August 27, 1864, and fought at Hatchers Run and Five Forks. After the war he lived three years with Doctor Hill, of Augusta. In 1881 he came to Oakland and in 1886 he married Lizzie Melvin. He is a dealer in horses and the owner of some noted trotters.

MAJOR A. R. SMALL .- The life of every federal soldier who fought in the civil war forms a line, longer or shorter, in the most momentous chapter in the world's history. Who he was and what he did before he joined the army, his character as a soldier, and what he is since his discharge, are the questions whose answers reveal the quality of his metal-whether the ordeal of war wrought it into finer steel or soft- ened it into worthless scrap.

Major Abner R. Small, of Oakland, son of Abner, and grandson of William Small, was one of these soldiers. His father was born in Limington, Me., in 1802, and came to Gardiner about 1824, where he married Mary A. Randall, of German descent, and settled in business as a boot and shoe manufacturer. Hampton D., their eldest child, was born in 1831 and died in 1861; Emilus N., the third son, is now in business in Waterville; Emma S., their only daughter, developed a decided artistic talent, and is now superintendent of the department of drawing and moulding in the public schools of Seattle, Wash .; Ab- ner R., the second child, was born in Gardiner May 1, 1836.

The next year Mr. Small removed with his family to Mt. Vernon, where he continued the manufacture of boots and shoes, and was for several years postmaster. At the age of fifteen Abner R. left home and attended school in the Gardiner Lyceum. He then entered the dry goods store of Parks & Bailey, in Gardiner, working there as a clerk four years. He left there in 1856, and for the next four years took charge of the North Wayne Scythe Company's store in Fayette.

April 25, 1861, the very month the first echo of rebel cannon tingled the nerves of every true American, Abner R. Small enlisted as a private in Company G, 3d Maine Infantry. Before leaving the state, he was made a sergeant by Captain Hesseltine. This regiment proceeded to Washington and was present at the inglorious battle of the first Bull Run-no fault of theirs. It was one of the first three regiments that crossed the Long Bridge to Alexandria, Va. Sergeant Small was then detailed to conduct troops from recruiting stations to the army; in which service he was sergeant major under Major Gardi- ner, of the Augusta recruiting station. In the spring of 1862 Sergeant Small was so effective in the work of organizing the 16th Maine regi-

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ment, that Governor Washburn, to whom he reported daily, promptly recognized and rewarded his services. The adjutant general recapit- ulates his military career from this point as follows:

"In June, 1862, he was commissioned 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant 16th Regiment. In December, 1862, he was assigned to duty as A. D. C. on the staff of 1st Brig. 2d Div. 1st A. C., and while serving as such was complimented with well deserved special mention for dis- tinguished gallantry displayed in the battle of Fredericksburg. In July, 1863, he was appointed A. A. A. Gen. of the same Brigade, and again received special notice in general orders for his brave conduct in the battle of Gettysburg. He also participated in all the battles in in which his regiment was engaged, until taken and held a prisoner from August 18, 1864, to February 22, 1865. Thus he was with the 16th regiment from the time of its organization until its muster out June 5, 1865. It is almost needless to say of Major Small that his rec- ord is one of sterling honor. His military skill and ardor, his devo- tion to the best welfare of his regiment, his lofty and unflagging patriotism, and his conspicuous gallantry, have placed his name on the roll of the most distinguished officers who aided to put down the great rebellion.'

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 126

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