Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 55

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 55

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).

Henry T. Morse, son of Zebulon Morse, was born in China, Me., in 1832. In 1841 the family removed to Augusta. Before he was of age Henry went to work at ship carpentry, first upon the ship Sybil. At twenty he went into the employ of the Somerset railway, helping in building bridges and stations. Later he went into the Kennebec & Portland shops at Augusta. He was then engaged in the trucking business here for about nine years. In 1853 he became a member of the Augusta fire department. He is now chief of this department and has been some twenty-one different years, and he has been city mar-

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

shal since 1885. His wife was Jane E. Taber, of Augusta. Their children are Charles H. and Lottie J.

JAMES W. NORTH .-- Augusta never had a nobler citizen, nor one more loyal to its every interest, or who will be longer remembered, than James W. North. He was uninterruptedly identified with its history for thirty-seven years. As stated at pages 403-4, he began in early manhood the practice of law in his native town, where he had a land inheritance from his parents, both of whom died when he was two years old. He remained at Benton fourteen years, during which time he built a dam across the Sebasticook for grist and saw mills. He found the latter profitable in manufacturing lumber from his own timber lands. But his ancestral ties finally drew him to Augusta, where he also owned parcels of inherited land, that had originally be- longed to his great-grandfather, Gershom Flagg, one of the Plymouth proprietors. Among these were the site of the present North's Block and Meonian Building, the Charles H. Blaisdell farm, and the site of Hotel North. He owned the latter equally with Mrs. Caroline North, a collateral heir, wife of Benjamin Davis.

Mr. North, when a boy, sustained an injury to one knee which compelled the somewhat quiet and physically inactive life which he led, and though not of a strong constitution, his temperate and regular habits resulted in a comparatively long life.

The lumber used in the first North's Block and Meonian Building was cut on Mr. North's Benton land, and after being sawed in his Sebasticook mill, was rafted down the river to Augusta. Hotel North was built in 1877, jointly by Mr. North and the representative of his cousin Caroline, and it is still undivided estate. Mr. North's name, like that of his grandfather, Joseph, occurs many times in the pages of this book. He was a representative in the legislature when Augusta was granted a city charter. He was a leading promoter of the enterprise that first lighted the city with gas in 1853, and he was the clerk and treasurer of the gas lighting companies from that year until 1881, when his son, Dr. James W., succeeded him. He was at one time the president of the First National, and a director of the Granite National banks, of Augusta. He was ever prompt in encour- aging and aiding all enterprises that appeared to be for the prosperity of the city or the welfare of the community. He was an enthusiastic advocate of a railway between Augusta and West Waterville (now Oakland) when such a project was under consideration in 1877; and had his sagacious advice been adopted Augusta would now be a rail- road center, with Wiscasset and the great Canadian Pacific, as two of the termini. Mr. North's religious affiliation was with the Episcopal church, in which he was confirmed April 29, 1855, by Bishop Burgess. Mrs. North, an estimable lady, died September 13, 1876.

The oldest son, Dr. James W. North, was graduated from Bowdoin

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in 1860, with Joseph W. Symonds, John Marshall Brown, W. W. Thomas, jun., and Thomas B. Reed, as classmates. He then entered the Maine Medical School, from which he graduated in 1863. He be- gan practice in Gardiner, and was immediately elected city physician. In September, 1864, he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 107th Regiment of United States Colored Troops, and served under Generals Butler and Ord, on the James river. After the war he re- sumed practice, at first for two years in Augusta, where he was city physician in 1866, and then at Jefferson, Me., where he remained until his return to Augusta in 1875, when he took the now well-known Nordheim Farm in Ward Seven. He was alderman from that ward in 1879 and 1880. He removed from the farm in 1882, to the family mansion on Grove street, which his father built in 1848. He was con- firmed in the Episcopal church in 1879, and is now the treasurer of St. Mark's parish; he was for several years a trustee and the treasurer of St. Catherine's School, and is at present a director of the First Na- tional Bank.

He married, July 17, 1865, Virginie H. Freer, of Hertford, N. C. Their oldest daughter, Martha Jewett (born September 15, 1866), mar- ried September 15, 1887, Dr. W. H. Harris, then of Belfast, who first practiced medicine in Dixfield, but moved to Augusta, in 1890, where he is now in practice. He was elected a member of the superintend- ing school committee in October, 1892. Doctor North has two other children: Caroline, born November 9, 1868, and Roger, now a student, born September 12, 1871. George F., the second son of Hon. James W. North, was for many years the superintendent of the gas light company. He married April 24, 1865, Ellen Robinson, and died Sep- tember 25, 1882, leaving one son, William, now of Peoria, Ill. The third son, Jewett, died in 1863, aged twenty-one years. The fourth and last son, Horace, married Ella M. Damon, of Peabody, Mass. He entered the bookselling and stationery business as a member of the firm of Clapp & North, who published North's History of Augusta. Mr. Clapp soon retired, and in 1884 Horace sold the business to Seymour J. Milliken.

Ex-Mayor North was a man of the utmost probity of character, methodical and punctual in his affairs, and painstaking and scrupulous in every work that he undertook, whether it related to his own private business or to the public service of the city which he loved and which was peculiarly honored by his life and historical labor. [See page 263.]

John B. Norton, born in Mt. Vernon in 1835, is a son of Russell B. Norton, and grandson of Peter Norton, whose parents were early resi- dents of Hallowell, and removed to Readfield, where Peter died, aged ninety-two. Mr. Norton married Sarah T., daughter of William Rob- bins, of Chelsea, and in 1870 came to Augusta, where he is exten-

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sively engaged in the hay business, shipping from 3,000 to 4,000 tons per annum.

Nathaniel Noyes, son of Daniel, grandson of Moses, and great- grandson of Jonathan Noyes, was born in Jefferson, Me., in 1822. In 1843 he went to Boston to work at carpentering. He went to Califor- nia in '49. He built his present residence in Augusta in 1876, and has since operated as carpenter, builder and contractor. His wife was Louisa, daughter of Freeman Cooper, of Whitefield. Their children are: Rockland K., Reuel J. and Eva A. (Mrs. Oscar Dunton).

Benjamin F. Parrott, son of Collins Parrott, was born in Gloucester, Mass., in 1832, came to Augusta in 1847, and was for a time a clerk in the grocery stores of Benjamin Rusk and John McArthur. Afterward he was a clerk for Arnold A. Bittues in the corn and flour business. From 1858 he was in partnership with Henry W. Bradbury in the flour and grain business thirteen years, when Mr. Bradbury retired from the business. Another partnership of thirteen years with John W. Chase followed. In 1886 Mr. Parrott took his son, Arthur F., in the business, and the firm's name became as now, B. F. Parrott & Co. The firm, besides its storehouse in Water street, has the old Bridge mill on Bond brook, where were ground 90,000 bushels of grain in 1891. In 1861 Mr. Parrott married Lizzie H., daughter of William Hunt, of Augusta. She died in 1891. Mr. Parrott is a democrat, and has been a member of the state committee of that party, and in 1888 was candidate for presidential elector.

Joseph Wood Patterson was born in Wiscasset July 2, 1809. He removed to Augusta in 1824 with his father, Captain Samuel Patter- son. He went to New York in 1830, but in 1831 went to Hallowell, and was clerk in a grocery store. In the following year he began a grocery business on Cony street, in Augusta. His wife was Mary Jane Sawyer, of Hallowell. Of their numerous family, but four sur- vive: George, Hannah S. (Mrs. Charles C. Peck), Joseph T. and Ed- ward E., a publisher at Ozark, Mo. Mr. Patterson was selectman of the town of Augusta, and three years mayor of that city, and in vari- ous public and private trusts has lived a long and useful life.

William F. Peva, born in 1837, was a son of Ezekiel Peva, and grandson of Ezekiel Peva, of Windsor. His first wife, Lydia, left one son, Willis E. Peva. His second marriage was with Annie, daughter of Miles Pratt, and granddaughter of Seth Jones Pratt, mentioned below.

Alden W. Philbrook was born in Sidney in 1820, and in Septem- ber, 1840, came to Augusta as clerk with Nason & Hamlen. In the spring of 1846 he became their partner, and was in the firm until 1883, when with W. B. Leighton he formed the present dry goods firm of Philbrook & Leighton.

Horace H. Pierce, born in 1843, is a son of Abel B. Pierce (a

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stone cutter) and grandson of Asa Pierce, who died on Church Hill at the age of eighty-four. His son, Newell, now lives on the same farm. Horace H. is a farmer and live stock dealer. His first wife, Lydia, died in 1889, leaving four children: George E., Viola A., Horace A. and Lee E. In 1891 Mr. Pierce was married to Hattie L. Bean, of North Jay, Me.

Jonathan B. Pinkham, farmer, is a son of Charles Pinkham, a sol- dier of 1812, who subsequently came from Bremen, Me., to Augusta, and married Hannah, daughter of Jonathan, and granddaughter of Jonathan Ballard, the old surveyor who settled at Ballard's Corners in Augusta, corner of River and Belgrade roads. Mr. Pinkham was born in 1821, and married Lucretia C. Dutton, daughter of John, and granddaughter of Jonas Dutton. Their children were named: Martha M., at home; George B., in Idaho; Mary A., Charles N., William H. and Clemmie A. Pinkham.

Henry M. Pishon, born in Sidney, Me., May 28, 1833, was educated in the academies of Vassalboro and Waterville. He was acting en- sign in the U. S. navy during the civil war from 1863 to 1865, chief clerk in the Maine state secretary's office from 1869 to 1873, and again from 1879 to 1880, and was clerk of construction during the building of the post office and court house in Augusta, Me., and since January 21, 1891, has been chief clerk in the treasurer's office, Eastern Branch National Home for D. V. S.

Charles Pratt, born in 1823, is a son of Seth Pratt, formerly of Windsor, who died in Whitefield, and grandson of Seth Jones Pratt, a revolutionary soldier, who came to Windsor about 1790 from Abing- ton Mass., and married Hannah Hunt. In 1855 Charles Pratt married Nancy J. Marson, of Windsor, and came to Augusta. Their children are: Ida A. (Mrs. Robert A. Cony), Cora A. (Mrs. William M. Tomp- kins), Flora M. (Mrs. Frank I. Clark) and Charles Edward, a farmer and machinist.

George A. Prescott, born in 1856, is a son of George H. Prescott, who as a lad came from Massachusetts to Augusta, where he married Edith A., daughter of Benjamin Fields. George A. married Clara M., a daughter of Isaiah M. Sherman, and until 1890 engaged in milk farming on Hatch hill. Their children are: Edith Gertrude and Wal- lace St. C. Prescott. Mr. Sherman's father, George Sherman, formerly of Taunton, lived in China, Me., from 1800 to 1833, when he removed to Church Hill.

Ira H. Randall, born in Stetson Me., in 1847, is a son of Dr. George L. Randall, of Vassalboro, whose father, Dr. Isaac Randall, came from Cape Cod, Mass., to Vassalboro. From 1859 to 1864 he carried the mail at Riverside, Me., and then was at Comer's Commercial College and as bookkeeper in Boston until 1866, when he came to Augusta as clerk for Sturgis & Dailey and their successors until, with Ira D. Stur-

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gis and Thomas Lambard, as equal partners, they formed the Augusta Lumber Company, of which Mr. Randall is manager. He served four years as state representative and since 1890 has been president of the Augusta board of trade. His wife, Adaline M. Webber, a sister of John Chandler Webber, of Augusta, died in 1883, leaving two children: Grace B. and Charlotte A. The present Mrs. Randall is Evangeline M., daughter of John O. Murray, of Windsor. They have children: Faith, Katherine M. and an infant son.

William H. Reid, of the firm of Smith & Reid, bookbinders, was born in St. John, N. B., in 1839. When a boy he learned bookbinding, and has won an enviable reputation as an expert in that business. He was married at St. John to Pamela C. Wood, of Worcester, Mass., and upon his arrival in Augusta, in 1876, he took charge of the bookbind- ery of Smith & Co. In 1880 he purchased a half interest in that firm, becoming the active partner. He is a member of the board of asses- sors, a director in Augusta Loan & Building Association, and has been a member of the city council.

G. A. Robertson, principal of the Augusta Grammar School, was born in Bethel, Me., in 1842, was educated at Gould's Academy, Bethel, and began teaching in 1859. He was principal at Old Town, Searsport and Andover, and in the spring of 1869 came to Augusta as superin- tendent of schools. In the following autumn he proposed a uniform course of study, to cover ten years, for the city schools. To secure this result, he was elected on the school board in 1871 and served until the schools were re-graded.

Nathaniel Robinson, born February 13, 1870, the only son of George M. and Mary Louise (Knowlton) Robinson, and grandson of Captain Nathaniel Robinson, married Hattie, daughter of Ivory L. Ricker, of Waterville. Captain Nathaniel Robinson (1779-1870) was one of the seventeen children of George Robinson, a revolutionary soldier, of Attleboro (1726-1812), and came with his widowed mother, Zipporah (Allen) Robinson, to Hallowell, where she died in 1825.

John Saben was born in 1802, in Brookfield, N. H., where his father, Nathaniel, lived and died. When a lad he went to Nobleboro, Me., and in 1822 came with his wife, Sally Moody, to the farm in Augusta where his oldest son, Nathaniel, now lives. Nathaniel Saben, born in 1821, married Cynthia, daughter of John Merrill, of Windsor, and has nine children: Sarah E. (Mrs. Alexander Ray), John F., Charles F., Ira H., Emma E., Clara A. (Mrs. William H. Frost), Fred L., Ernest E. and M. Linwood. Of these Charles F., born in 1852, married Abbie M. Merrill, who died in 1880, leaving one son, C. Wal- lace Saben.

Lewis Selbing was born in the city of Furth, Bavaria, in 1837, and came to Augusta in 1859. In 1861 he enlisted in Company B., 3d Maine. At the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, he lost an arm,

E. H. W. Smith

PRINT, E. BIERSTADT, N. Y

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and was discharged in November following. In 1882 he became clerk for Weeks & Blanchard, and in 1888 he began his present business as claim attorney by authority of the pension department.

Bradbury C. Shaw, born in 1851, is a son of Joseph A. Shaw, and grandson of Bradbury C. Shaw, a sailor from Massachusetts, who mar- ried Mary, daughter of Savage Bolton, and lived at Bolton Hill. Mrs. Bradbury C. Shaw is Augusta D., daughter of Albert T. Leavitt, and has children: Gracie A., Wallace A., Alfred B. and Ralph. Mr. Shaw's farm .is where Benjamin Moore lived and died, on the Thomaston road in Augusta.

REV. E. H. W. SMITH .- The ancestry of this citizen of Augusta first appears in Kennebec county in 1804, when his grandparents, Joshua and Abigail Smith, from Massachusetts, settled in Monmouth. One of their five children, Eleazer, was born in Middleboro, Mass., in 1788, where John and Thomas Smith, from England, had lived, and where Joshua (1755-1830), the son of one of them, was born. Eleazer Smith became a substantial man in Monmouth, and married Hannah, a daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Delano) Allen. Sarah's father, Seth Delano, from Massachusetts, was an early settler in Readfield. Eleazer and Hannah Smith had four sons and one daughter, the two survivors being Eleazer Hartley Wood Smith, the subject of this article, and his sister, Julia E., now Mrs. John H. Hartford. This son was born in Monmouth February 3, 1812. He learned the trade of bookbinding with Harlow Spaulding, of Augusta, before he reached his majority, and became foreman in the shop. Later he entered into partnership with George S. Carpenter, in the business of bookbinding and book selling, and afterward was in the bookbinding business with his brother-in-law, Mr. Hartford.

Mr. Smith is best known in his native county as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church. Methodism in Maine was less than forty years old when, in 1832, he became a member of that denomina- tion. He was soon made a class leader, and in 1836 was a licensed ex- horter; in 1842 a local preacher, and in 1850 he was ordained a deacon; in 1864 an elder. His principal field of labor has been Augusta and vicinity. He is well known by his earnest work in camp meetings. He was a lay delegate to the Maine conference in Bath in 1884.

Politically, Rev. Mr. Smith has been connected with the whig and republican parties; at an early day was an earnest earnest worker in the anti-slavery movement. He was at one time chaplain of the Bethlehem Lodge of Masons, a member of the Chapter and Council, and is now a Knight Templar. In 1848 he was a member of the Sab- attis Lodge of Odd Fellows. He has also been connected with various temperance societies, including the Franklin Division of the Sons of Temperance.

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His wife, deceased, was Sarah Holmes Haskell, of Livermore. Their only son, Hartley Eugene Smith, married Sarah Louise Jones, and has three children: Frank Eugene, born in May, 1860: Mary Louise, born May, 1862; and Annie Winifred, born in August, 1874. Their third child, Hartley, born in 1868, died in 1870.

In writing of Rev. Mr. Smith for a church publication, Rev. A. S. Ladd says: " He has for many years been a local preacher, a promi- nent business man, and a man of great intelligence." He now resides in Augusta in the enjoyment of a serene old age, the earthly recom- pense of a useful and temperate life, and with the material results of business ability and integrity.

William H. Smith, born in 1820, began in May, 1875, his grocery business at Pettingill's Corners. He was raised on a farm, and worked on the river until 1870, and was then on the Augusta police force five years. His wife was Mary J., daughter of Abel Babcock. Their chil- dren are: Charles F., Lucy S., Henry C., Ella J. and William Arthur, an electrical engineer. Mr. Smith's father, Clark Smith, was a son of Roland Smith, a revolutionary soldier, who lived on the George W. Dudley farm, and married the daughter of Mr. Clark, its former owner.

WILLIAM ROBINSON SMITH, whose career as an editor and publisher has been noticed at page 243, and with whose long identification with the banks of this city the careful reader of the preceding pages is al- ready familiar, was born at Wiscasset, Me., February 24, 1813. His parents were Dudley and Mary (Robinson) Smith, of Sanbornton, N. H., who early in the present century removed to Augusta. In his ninth year he entered the office of John Dorr, publisher of the Lincoln Intelligencer, and began to learn the art of printing. Though he has always been a deep student of modern and ancient literature, his best education was acquired in the printing office, for there he not only became familiar with general literature, but with men of large ideas, and practical business sense.

After selling The Age, in Augusta, 1844, Mr. Smith was engaged in commerce until 1850. That year he was appointed register of probate for Kennebec county, holding the office until 1854, when the State Bank was chartered and he was elected its cashier. In 1864 the affairs of the bank were wound up, and he was chosen cashier of the newly organized First National Bank, of Augusta. This post he held until 1868, when he voluntarily retired, bearing with him not only the thanks of the directors, but a very substantial cash honorarium in recognition of his valuable services. Previous to this event the Augusta Savings Bank had been organized in 1848, Mr. Smith being one of the incorporators, of whom he is the only survivor. In 1857 he was elected treasurer of this bank, and, with the exception of about

Trade with

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three years, held the position until August, 1891, when he resigned to enjoy the surcease from labor he had so richly earned .*

In 1835 Mr. Smith was one of the prime movers in the organiza- tion of the Village school district, was clerk in the district until 1845, and for many years was one of the directors. Since 1851 he has been a trustee of the Cony Female Academy, and is now president of the board. It is said that "every child in the city has a better opportunity for education because Mr. Smith has lived in this community." He was for many years treasurer of the Forest Grove Cemetery, and he has filled a like office for the Lithgow Library and the Howard Be- nevolent Union. On financial questions he has been an acknowledged authority; and is the author of many of those wise provisions in the Maine Statutes that carefully guard the great depositories of the people's wealth.

Mr. Smith married, December 22, 1842, Sarah B. Cochrane, of Ban- gor, and has had four children, one of whom, a son, died in infancy. William Fred, born January 24, 1844, is cashier of the American Ex- press Company, at Portland; George R., born November 11, 1845, is an invalid; and Helen A. (Mrs. Josiah E. Daniell, of Boston), born May 4, 1857, died August 24, 1887.

Robert Stackpole, son of Joseph and Anna (Fletcher) Stackpole, was born in Saco in 1783, came with his parents to Augusta in 1785, married Tabatha Babcock, and died in 1861. He built the house where William B. Hunt now lives, on the river road. He had four sons: Jo- seph B., Samuel B., George W. and Andrew J. His daughter, Almeda E., is now the widow of David Cowan. George W. Stackpole married Mary Jane M., daughter of Benjamin P. Blair, of Pittston, and died in 1889, leaving two sons: George B. and Eugene Stackpole.

HON. JOHN L. STEVENS.+-One of the most distinguished citizens of Kennebec county is John Leavett Stevens, LL.D., who was the son of Captain John and Charlotte (Lyford) Stevens, of Mt. Vernon, where he was born August 1, 1820. He was first a scholar and then a teacher in the common schools; and after graduating at Kents Hill Seminary he took a course of theological study-aided by Rev. Mr. Gunnison, then of Hallowell -- preparatory to entering the ministry. His first *On the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, Mr. Smith was tendered a reception at the Winthrop Street Universalist Vestry, more than 300 persons, representing all religious denominations and many secular organizations, gather- ing to do him honor, and congratulate him on the auspicious event. The senti- ment of the public was fully voiced at this time in the eloquent address made by Joseph A. Homan, who alluded feelingly to Mr. Smith's intimate association with the parish for fifty-five years, during which time he had consecrated his money, labor and love to the cause. At this gathering among Mr. Smith's presents was one from Asylum Lodge of Odd Fellows, of which he has been a prominent member since 1843, and is now a past grand representative.

+ By Capt. Charles E. Nash.

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pastoral settlement was with the Universalist society of New Sharon in 1845; from there he was called to Exeter, N. H., but after a year or two resumed his labors in Maine, first at Norway and later at Bidde- ford.

Mr. Stevens early enlisted in the anti-slavery cause, and after enter- ing the ministry, blended his voice from the platform as well as from the pulpit with those who strove to arouse the public conscience to the iniquity of slaveholding. The great questions of slavery and prohibi- tion which had begun to disintegrate the old parties in Maine de- manded an abler press to expound the principles of the new party which was forming; and Mr. Stevens, at the solicitation of his life- long friend, the then Governor Anson P. Morrill, retired from the pulpit to a wider field of moral usefulness with the pen editorial. He moved to Augusta in the winter of 1855-6 to become editor and pub- lisher of the Kennebec Journal jointly with James G. Blaine. He con- tinued to be the chief editor of that paper until 1869.

Mr. Stevens was elected a representative to the legislatures of 1866 and 1867, and a state senator for the years 1868 and 1869. As a mem- ber of the house in 1867, he introduced a resolve that led directly to the establishing in 1874, under the patronage of the state, of the In- dustrial School for Girls at Hallowell. To his philanthropic impulses, influence and energy was due the inception and founding of that in- stitution-of which he was one of the original trustees. In 1867 Mr. Stevens became the leading spirit-ably seconded by the late Ira D. Sturgis-in the enterprise of inducing the Sprague Manufacturing Company to bring capital to Augusta to more completely develop and utilize the power of the Kennebec dam. He conceived and advised the policy of municipal aid and encouragement under which the Sprague undertaking has grown into the present great plant of the Edwards Company.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 55

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