Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 56

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 56

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In 1869 Mr. Stevens was appointed by President Grant to be United States Minister to Uraguay, whence he sailed with his family and re- sided at Montevideo, the capital. He resigned that position in 1874, and returning home, found pastime and rest largely in literary occu- pation. In 1881 he was appointed by the president to again represent the United States as its minister at a foreign court-this time to re- side at Stockholm. He resigned and returned home after about three years, having in the meantime made an extended tour of Europe. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison to be United States minister resident at Honolulu, where his predecessor in the Kennebec Journal-Luther Severance-had preceded him as commissioner by appointment of President Taylor, in 1850.

Mr. Stevens' residence and travels in South America impressed his fertile and observing mind with the benefits that would accrue to the United States through enlarged commercial relations with the

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states of the Southern continent: and the ideas which he brought home to his countrymen were in due time formulated under the name of reciprocity and adopted as the policy of the government, through the powerful influence of his honored friend and former business partner, Mr. Blaine, as secretary of state. A grand souvenir of Mr. Stevens' residence at Stockholm is his careful, thoughtful, and graphically written History of Gustavus Adolphus-the great Swedish king-a book of 427 pages, and one of the best prose epics in the world of literature. Mr. Stevens' residence at the Sandwich Islands is signalized by his patriotic recommendation to the people of the United States to extend the folds of their flag over those fair Pacific isles.

Mr. Stevens has been an influential member of many state and several national conventions of his party, to which he has rendered great service both as an editor and public speaker. He wields a vigor- ous, versatile and industrious pen, and has written several exceedingly valuable essays which have never been published, but have been read in the lecture hall.

Mr. Stevens was married May 10, 1845 (by his fellow-minister, Rev. William A. Drew) to Mary Lowell, daughter of Captain Daniel and Dorcas (Lowell) Smith, of Loudon Hill, in Hallowell. There were born to them: John Howard, Elizabeth, Grace Louise and Nellie Maria. The first two died in infancy, and were laid in the family lot in the beautiful Hallowell cemetery. Mr. Stevens has been accom- panied by his wife and daughters-Grace and Nellie-at each of the distant legations where he has served. His travels and honors but intensify his love for his Augusta home, where he fondly hopes to spend the last years of his life, which has been eminently successful and a benefaction to his fellow-men.

George E. Stickney, son of Abraham, and grandson of Benjamin Stickney, was born in Augusta in 1844. October 31, 1861, he enlisted with Company F, 11th Maine, and was discharged as non-commis- sioned officer November 18, 1864. He married Delia R., daughter of Eben Wellman, in 1870, and has three children: Harry H., Herbert G. and Bertha J. His father was in Company E, 21st Maine.

William Stone, farmer and milkman, born 1822, married in 1847, Abigail, daughter of Abner Coombs, a millwright, who came in 1832 from Lisbon, and bought of Joseph Ladd the mill now known as Coombs' mill. Abner Coombs was a son of Joshua Coombs, of West Bath, Me. Mr. Stone's father, William, born 1787, married Eleanor, daughter of Samuel Cummings. His father and his grandfather were each named William Stone. The latter, who came from Stough- ton, Mass., and died on the Asa D. Townsend farm, was a soldier, as were his son and grandson, the first and second being officers. William and Abigail Stone have two daughters: Eleanor (Mrs. Charles A. Knowles); and Mary A. (Mrs. Edward W. Knowles), of Manchester.

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IRA D. STURGIS was born November 20, 1814, in the town of Vas- salboro, on the farm which his grandfather and father reclaimed from the wilderness and which Mr. Sturgis owned, greatly enlarged and improved at the time of his death. His grandfather was Edward Sturgis, who came to Maine from Barnstable, Mass., before 1790. This Edward Sturgis was a lineal descendant of Edward Sturgis, the ances- tor of the family in America, who came from England in 1635 and settled in Yarmouth, Barnstable county, Mass.

At the age of twenty-one Mr. Sturgis married Rebecca Russell Goodenow, and by the retirement of his father from business assumed at that early age the direction of all his father's affairs. By the death of his father, not long after, the further care of a large family of sis- ters devolved upon him and was the first necessity which brought into public notice that extraordinary resolution and business tact which so prominently characterized his long and varied career.

At the age of thirty he rebuilt the saw mills on the Seven-mile brook at Riverside, in Vassalboro, and engaged in the manufacture of long and short lumber, and at another point on the same stream built a large factory for the manufacture of doors, blinds, sash and boxes. At this factory were made the first orange and lemon boxes ever ex- ported from the state of Maine. In this enterprise he was associated with James Bridge, who is still living in Augusta. Not fully occupied with these exacting industries, he commenced the building of vessels on the Kennebec river, near Seven-mile brook, very shortly turning out from this shipyard a barque, a brig and two schooners.

When the Augusta Water Power Company built a large saw mill on the dam at Augusta, with gangs and single saws, Mr. Sturgis was in- vited, in consideration of his experience and reputation for energy and business capacity, to occupy them; and accordingly he disposed of his Vassalboro mill properties and entered upon the manufacture of lum- ber at Augusta, continuing until the dam went out. During the busi- ness depression of '56 and '57 Mr. Sturgis suffered losses which would have discouraged a less sanguine and hopeful nature; but with the indomitable spirit which has made him a picturesque and conspicuous figure so many years in the business history of the state, he soon established himself in the lumber business with Colonel John God- dard at St. John, N. B., and for eight years successfully directed one of the largest lumbering operations ever carried on in that locality. Mr. Sturgis directed the cutting of the logs for three mills in Aroos- took county, driving them 250 miles and employing hundreds of men, horses and oxen.

The English lumber market improving immediately upon the fall of Sevastopol at the close of Crimean war, Mr. Sturgis, with customary sagacity, took advantage of this fact, shipping the product of the mills to England. In 1858 he bought a large tract of land on Nicataugh

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river, in Nova Scotia, and built a large saw mill plant, including mills, houses and stores. In 1863 Mr. Sturgis sold out his Eastern lumber- ing interests and returned to Augusta. Without an idle day he bought the old mill on the site of the Augusta Lumber Company's present mill, and which had been abandoned for several years as a profitless enterprise, and immediately converted it into one of the best of modern saw mills.

The late Albert Dailey, of Providence, was an associate with Mr. Sturgis in this enterprise. At that time steam mills on the Kennebec had proved impracticable on account of the cost of creating steam power. Mr. Sturgis inaugurated the system of utilizing sawdust for fuel and carrying it to the furnaces by a labor saving mechanical de- vice. In 1867 ex-Governor William Sprague became interested in the lumber business with Mr. Sturgis and Mr. Dailey. The business was then enlarged by the construction of the steam saw mill at Pittston, afterward owned and managed by Putnam & Closson, and was carried on as a corporation under the name of the Kennebec Land & Lumber Company. This company, with its extensive timber lands, its two modern steam saw mills and one water mill at the east end of the Kennebec dam, was the largest lumbering enterprise ever conducted on the Kennebec river and was entirely the product of Mr. Sturgis' energy and skill.

In connection with the saw mill at Pittston Mr. Sturgis built the first modern improved ice house on the Kennebec river. Up to this time the ice business had been an intermittent one, depending upon a failure of the ice crop West and South. Mr. Sturgis resolved to make the business unintermittent, regular and permanent by establishing branch houses for the distribution of Kennebec ice each year to con- sumers in Southern cities; and with the boldness and promptness with which he executed all his designs, he established houses in Washing- ton, Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston. At a later period, through the Haynes & Dewitt Ice Company, whose extensive plant is at Ice- boro, Mr. Sturgis established ice connections with the cities of Balti- more and Philadelphia. It was through these undertakings that the first ice wagons marked with Kennebec ice appeared in Southern cities. It was at Mr. Sturgis' urgent invitation that Governor William Sprague first came to Augusta to look over the water power; and it was Mr. Sturgis' persuasive enthusiasm more than any other influence that decided Governor Sprague to purchase the power and enlarge the cotton mill.

When the dam went out in 1870 the A. & W. Sprague Manufactur- ing Company, discouraged by fear of a repetition of the disaster, seri- ously contemplated resorting to steam power for the mills then in existence. Foreseeing how disastrous this would be to the permanent prosperity of the city, Mr. Sturgis appealed to Governor Sprague with

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such convincing earnestness and inspired him with such confidence in the possibility of a permanent reestablishment of the dam that Governor Sprague decided to build that dam, which, with other manu- factures, is now driving 100,000 spindles and developing a condition of prosperity hitherto unknown.

When Mr. Sturgis commenced the lumber business here in 1863 there were very few facilities for handling and holding logs on the Kennebec river. There were no permanent and safe deposit booms and every rise of water was watched by millmen with anxiety and alarm. Not a season passed that some logs did not run to sea. It was largely through the determined agitation of the subject of river im- provements by Mr. Sturgis that booms and piers were constructed, so that the lumberman's floating property is considered as stable and secure as any other kind of property. He was especially interested in the establishment of the Five-mile island boom in Vassalboro and the assorting boom in Hallowell, by which the collection and distribu- tion of logs among the several mills was revolutionized and greatly cheapened. The large mills and ice houses at Wiscasset were built under the direction of Mr. Sturgis.

When the steam mill of the Kennebec Land & Lumber Company at Augusta was burned Mr. Sturgis acquired the mill site and rebuilt the mill, with Mr. Lambard and Mr. Randall, under the firm style of Sturgis, Lambard & Co. This company was subsequently incorporated as the Augusta Lumber Company and Mr. Sturgis was chosen presi- dent, which position he held at the time of his death.

In politics Mr. Sturgis was a republican and represented his native town with conspicuous ability in the legislature of 1869. The last ten years of Mr. Sturgis' life were chiefly devoted to the management and improvement of his farm at Vassalboro. During all the temptations of his business life and the diversions and distractions of his eventful career, his heart never failed in its loyalty to that home of his child- hood, where he seemed to be imbued with the very spirit of those an- cestors who had exhausted their lives in first preparing the acres which Mr. Sturgis extended and improved until he made it the largest and best equipped farm in the state.

The issue of Mr. Sturgis' marriage was two sons and two daugh- ters. The eldest, Angie B., became the wife of Professor Thurber, of Boston; Smith, who died at the age of sixteen; Elizabeth, the wife of J. Manchester Haynes; and Horace R., who was the partner of his father in his agricultural and other recent enterprise. Mr. Sturgis' power of physical endurance was phenomenal. He seemed to be tire- less, or if ever wearied, his strength was renewed with but little rest. Even at his great age of seventy-seven years his step was as elastic and his motions as quick as a man of half that age. His mind never knew fatigue; his spirits never lagged; his courage never faltered; his

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hope never grew dim. Life had not dispelled any illusions. He was still a boy, with the faith of a boy.

His nature was most sensitively sympathetic. His temperament was emotional and responded to the slightest touch. His hatred of wrong, his kindly human sympathy, often prompted him to fight the battles of his weaker friends. Mr. Sturgis was a man of very strong convictions, and he always had the courage of his convictions. His judgments and opinions were sudden and intuitive, rather than slow and reflective. His clear mind saw quickly to the end.

Mr. Sturgis possessed in a remarkable degree the quality of social cheerfulness-a quality which rarely ever failed him in public and was always present in his family associations. No business cares and perplexities, no schemes of ambition, no passions, no resentments ever entered the door of his dwelling. For more than fifty-five years of married life he wore in his home manner and countenance the same light of happiness and hope that illuminated his features on his wed- ding morning. In his march of life there was no weariness. He did 'not perish by the wayside. He fell in the middle of the track, still fronting the future.

Reuel Townsend, who came from Sidney to Augusta in 1832, is a son of Dodovah, and grandson of Daniel Townsend, who died in the English service in the French and Indian war. Daniel's father was at Fort Halifax, and with his family ascended the Kennebec in a canoe, and suffered many privations as a pioneer, having for a time to subsist upon acorns and the milk from one young cow. Reuel Townsend married Hepzibah, daughter of Asa Abbott, of Sidney, and raised three sons, who became men of families: Howard A., Asa D. and Theodore B. Townsend. Asa D. married Harriet C., daughter of Doty and Rachel (Prescott) Richards, December 17, 1861. She died in 1891.

E. H. Walker was born in Portland, in 1838. Since he began in life for himself he has always been engaged in railway work, com- mencing with the Grand Trunk. After remaining in the employ of that company five years, he came to the Maine Central as station agent at Vassalboro. In 1870 he came to Augusta for the same com- pany as ticket agent and as operator in superintendent's office. In 1877 he was made passenger and freight agent at Augusta for this company. For the last two years he has filled the position of ticket agent only. In 1860 he married Abbie C. Ingersoll, of Danville Cor- ners, now a part of Auburn, Me.

Sereno S. Webster7 (John O.6, 1778-1828; Nathan®, b. 1747; Nathan“, b. 1715; Nathan3, 1678; Nathan2, 1646, Bradford, Mass .; John1, a free- man of Ipswich in 1635) was born in Salem, Mass., in 1805. He came to Vassalboro in 1806, with his parents, and in 1845, after a clerkship of nine years in Washington, married Mary A. Hayes, of Dover, N. H.

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Their children are: Helen P., Sereno C. and Otis Webster, the drug- gist.

George L. Weeks® (James P.", born 1818; Daniel H.6, 1796-1882; Winthrop6, 1770-1856; Jonathan4, Jonathan3, Samuel", Leonard Weeks1) was born in Vassalboro in 1861, married Hattie J. Whitehouse, daugh- ter of Everett M., and granddaughter of David W. Whitehouse, and has one son, Harold E. Weeks.

Eben Wellman, born in 1836, is a son of James, and grandson of James Wellman, whose father, Jacob, was a son of Abraham, a de- scendant of one of three brothers who came from England, and set- tled in Lynn, Mass., in 1625. Eben married Julia O. Ramsdell, of Randolph. Their children are: Delia R. (Mrs. George E. Stickney), Joseph H. (of Chelsea), and Jeannettie. Mr. Wellman followed the sea from the age of fourteen until 1864. He was two years in the U. S. Navy, signal quartermaster of the U. S. gunboat, Alabama. His father, in the 29th Maine, died in Natchez Hospital September 7, 1864.

Benjamin W. White, youngest son of Charles White, was born in 1848. His grandfather, Charles, of Greenfield, Me., was a son of Charles White, a revolutionary soldier, who came from Peterboro to Greenfield, and lived to the age of 102. Benjamin's father moved from Greenfield to Vassalboro in 1836, and to Bolton Hill about 1847. His farm was settled by Captain Elisha Barrows. Benjamin married Fannie, daughter of John Frost, of Randolph.

SETH COLEMAN WHITEHOUSE was born in Vassalboro in 1820. His father, Daniel Whitehouse, jun., was born in Somersworth, N. H., and came to Maine about the year 1805, with his parents (Daniel and Mar- tha), two brothers (Edmund and Thomas), and two sisters (Hannah and Comfort)-all settling in the same school district in Vassalboro. Daniel, sen., had served in the revolutionary army in Colonel Poor's regiment, and received a pension. Six other Whitehouses-near kins -. men-served in the same war. Two brothers, Thomas and Joseph Whitehouse, settled at Dover, N. H., in 1658, and to them goes back the ancestry of the numerous Whitehouse families of New England. Daniel, jun., served in the war of 1812, and was given a pension. He married Merab Coleman, daughter of Owen and Asenath Worth Cole- man, who removed from Nantucket to Vassalboro in 1800, and settled on a farm that has ever since continued in the Coleman name, and is now owned by Edmund G., a grandson. Owen Coleman was of the fifth generation from Thomas, one of the partners who bought the island of Nantucket of Thomas Mayhew in 1659-moving there from Salisbury in 1660. John Coleman, the son of Thomas, and great- grandfather of Owen, married Joanna Folger, whose sister, Abia, married Josiah, the father of Benjamin Franklin-the latter and. Owen being related as third cousins.

1. 1. Whitehouse

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Seth C., the subject of this sketch, was of a family of nine children, viz .: Daniel, 3d (who died at the age of twenty), David S., Mary D., Owen C., Seth C., Hiempsal, Paul W., Sarah E. and Daniel (now of Augusta). Seth was considered better adapted to a business career than to farming, and so he was allowed to leave home at the age of fifteen, when he entered a store in Vassalboro. After a year he went to New York, and served two years as clerk in the store of his cousin, C. C. Dyer. He returned home and took the benefit of several terms at the Vassalboro Academy, and taught three winter schools. He re- turned to the city of New York in 1842, and engaged as clerk with W. E. Lawrence, dry goods merchant, where he continued four years. His brother, Owen, also served one year in the same store. In 1846 the two brothers came to Augusta, and opened a dry goods store, and did a large and successful business, under the firm name of S. C. & O. C. Whitehouse. In 1855 their brother, Daniel, was admitted to the firm. Seth retired from the business in 1865.

Inheriting some of the spirit of enterprise and love of adventure that was conspicuous in his grandmother's brother, Captain Paul Worth (who in 1791 made the first voyage from Nantucket around Cape Horn for whales, returning with success), Seth sailed from Bath, October 2, 1849, in the bark James A. Thompson, 244 tons. Captain Macy, for a trip around Cape Horn to California, arriving at San Francisco in March, 1850. After spending four months in the gold mines, he started for home via the isthmus, and reached Augusta in September.

Mr. Whitehouse was married in 1852, to Harriet A., daughter of Elisha Hallett, jun., whose father came from Yarmouth, Mass., and settled at Oakland (then West Waterville). Mrs. Whitehouse's father served in the war of 1812, and her grandfather served in the war of the revolution. Both received pensions. Mr. and Mrs. Whitehouse have two children: Edward Lawrence and Harriet Hallett. Edward is a graduate of Harvard University of the class of '74; he is a mem- ber of the Kennebec bar; was the supervisor of schools in Augusta in 1880, and is now in the department of state at Washington.

Mr. and Mrs. Whitehouse became identified with the South Parish of Augusta in 1846, and have been members of that church since 1855, and their daughter Harriet since 1876. Mr. Whitehouse cast his first vote as a member of the whig party, for Henry Clay. He has always been a republican since the party was formed. He was a member of the city government as councilman in 1871-2, and as alderman in 1872-3 and 1873-4. He was assessor in 1875-6 and 1876-7. In the spring of 1884 a large number of his fellow citizens addressed to him the following communication:

"To HON. SETH C. WHITEHOUSE: Dear Sir-The undersigned, re- publican taxpayers of Augusta, hereby request you to become their

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candidate for mayor at the election March 10, 1884, for the following reasons:

"I .- We believe the laws against the liquor traffic should be en- forced as diligently, as sincerely, and as impartially as the other crim- inal laws; and that tenderness toward the rum interest for the sake of its political friendship is wicked, and injurious to morals and public policy, and should be emphatically condemned.

" II .- We believe our municipal government should be conducted on ' business principles, in a business manner, for business purposes;' that it should be carefully administered in the interest of the people by a policy of rational and practical economy and a gradual reduction of our burdensome city debt. We view with anxiety the fact that the appropriations are largely overdrawn, and the debt is increasing in- stead of diminishing at a time when no considerable public improve- ments are being made, although the taxable valuation of the city is not increasing.

" Believing, from your record in the past as a faithful city officer, that if elected to the office of mayor you would seek to carry out the policy above indicated, we earnestly ask your consent to be a candi- date, in an early reply."

Mr. Whitehouse accepted the nomination thus gracefully tendered and was elected mayor, which office he administered with conscien- tious fidelity to his platform and the interests of the city.

David W. Whitney, born in 1817, is a grandson of Nathan and son of Abizah Whitney, who was born in Lisbon in 1794 and located with his family on Church Hill in 1832. He went to New Orleans in 1846 and died there in 1866. David W. Whitney married Philena, daugh- ter of Luther Church. She died leaving one son, John H., and Mr. Whitney married Olena, daughter of Isaac Church, and granddaugh- ter of Samuel and Ruby (Pettengill) Church, and has three children: Benjamin C., of Salem, Mass .; Edwin W. and Alice M., a teacher.

Charles H. Whitten was born in Augusta in 1835, and carried on a blacksmith shop in the city for sixteen years prior to October, 1889. He and his older brother, John F., had a shop as early as 1856. Their father was Rufus Whitten.

THE WILLIAMS FAMILY .- This family name, which must forever frequently recur in every history of this county, first appears in the Kennebec valley in 1779, when Captain Seth Williams, of Welsh ex- traction, emigrated from Stoughton, Mass., to Fort Western. Here Reuel and Daniel, his afterward two most prominent sons, were born -Reuel June 2, 1783, and Daniel November 12, 1795. The brothers studied law and were afterward, for some years, partners in the prac- tice of their profession.

Daniel was selectman of the town of Augusta from 1828 to 1832, inclusive; represented the town in the legislature of 1831; was state treasurer from 1837 to 1840; was appointed judge of probate for Ken- nebec in 1848, retaining the office until 1855; and in 1868 was mayor

South H. Williams.

" OAKTREES"-RESIDENCE OF Mr. JOSEPH H. WILLIAMS, AUGUSTA, ME.

. L ... ..

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of Augusta. He was twice married, his first wife being Mary Saw- telle, of Norridgewock, who bore him four children: Harriet, who be- came the wife of Benjamin A. G. Fuller: Seth, whose military career has been discussed at page 166; Horace, who retains his residence a portion of each year in Augusta; and Mary (Mrs. Newton Edwards). His second wife, Hannah, was the youngest daughter of Judge James Bridge, of Augusta.

Hon. Reuel Williams, the elder of the two brothers, rendered great service and achieved an honorable distinction as a lawyer [page 309]. For nearly half a century he was one of the most prominent and influ- ential men of the state. Few, if any, were better acquainted with its interests and resources, or were more ready to labor to promote the one and develop the other. Beginning with the year 1822, he served in the lower branch of the legislature for four successive terms; then for three years he was returned to the senate, followed immediately, in 1829, by a return to the house for that year. He was appointed commissioner of public buildings in 1831; in 1836 he was chosen one of the electors-at-large of president and vice-president; in 1837 was sent to the United States senate to fill a vacancy, and in 1839 was reëlected for a full term, but the demands of private business com- pelled him to resign in 1843. In 1861 he was appointed by Governor Washburn on a commission to confer with the national government on the defense of the coast of Maine, and an exposure while in the execution of this duty doubtless hastened his death, which occurred July 25, 1862. Mr. Williams received the honorary degree of master of arts from Harvard in 1815 and from Bowdoin in 1820, to which that of doctor of laws was added in 1855. He was for thirty-eight years one of the trustees of the latter college.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 56

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