Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 78

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 78

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).

Ionic Lodge, of Free Masons, No. 136, received a charter in May, 1866, which was surrendered in December, 1881.

Kennebec Council, No. 796, Royal Arcanum, is located at Gardiner. The first regent, G. S. Steward, was succeeded in 1890 by O. M. Blan- chard, with Walter Robinson, secretary.

Warren Division, No. 2, Sons of Temperance, was chartered by the National Division of North America, February 4, 1845, and was organ- ized at Gardiner on the 18th of the same month. The charter mem- bers were: Reuben M. Smiley, Joel H. Snow, Josiah Maxcy, John Berry, jun., Isaac N. Tucker, Dr. Gideon S. Palmer and Edmund Chadwick. R. M. Smiley was its first worthy patriarch; Rev. J. P. Weston, worthy associate; E. A. Chadwick, recording scribe; G. S. Palmer, financial scribe. Doctor Palmer, who was the last surviving charter member, died in Washington, D. C., December 8, 1891. War- ren Division is the oldest temperance organization in the state, and has on its constitution the names of a majority of the leading men in the city in the last forty years. Like all other organizations it has had its ups and downs, and though not now as prosperous as it has some- times been, it has on its rolls upward of ninety members. Though unaggressive in its work, it has always been instrumental of good, illustrating one of the maxims of the order, " That unwavering fidel- ity is a better advocate than violent denunciation." The names of such men as Reuben M. Smiley, Hon. John Berry, Joseph L. Mitchell, and many other well known citizens who were worthy members of it till their deaths, are a sufficient guarantee that it is well worthy the support of all friends of temperance. Ex-Governor Sidney Perham, of Paris, and that well-known apostle of temperance, Rev. D. B. Ran- dall, of Portland, are still members of Warren Division. James D. Moore, who joined Warren Division April 7, 1845, at the time of his

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

death was the oldest member of the order and of the Grand Division in the state.

The Gardiner Reform Club was the parent organization of that body of temperance workers for twenty years known as the reform clubs. Its beginning was announced on a little handbill about eight by twelve inches, saying that there would be a meeting of reformed drinkers at City Hall, Gardiner, on Friday evening, January 19, 1872. A cordial invitation was extended to all " occasional drinkers, con- stant drinkers, hard drinkers, and young men who are tempted to drink. Come and hear what rum has done for us." This call was signed by J. K. Osgood, E. A. Chadwick, William_B. Shaw and M. F. Marbel. This society did a great work for a while, and still holds regular weekly meetings in this city. J. K. Osgood kept his pledge till death, and was always a prominent worker in the organization, of which he was undoubtedly the founder.

Court Robert Emmett, No. 7837, Ancient Order of Forresters of America, was organized in Gardiner May 7, 1890, with fifty charter members-Augustus A. Brann, C. R., and Joseph Esmond, S. C. R.

Gardiner Lodge, No. 9, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted in June, 1874, with fourteen charter members. The first presiding officer was M. S. Wadsworth. In May, 1885, the Odd Fel- lows of Gardiner and vicinity organized Evergreen Encampment, No. 45, which has since prospered. June 11, 1886, Canton Evergreen, No. 12, was organized.

Gardiner Lodge, No. 9, Knights of Pythias, was instituted May 29, 1873, and has always been an honor to the order, having at present 178 active members.

Dirigo Lodge, No. 1, A. O. U. W., instituted in Gardiner, Saturday night, March 15, 1879, was the introduction of this order in the state of Maine. There were twenty charter members, of whom William Wiley was master workman and Gustavus Moore was recorder. The next Monday night the Lodge held its first regular meeting, when G. S. Steward was initiated, the first man who joined the order in the. state of Maine. This Lodge is strong and has 260 members. The successive master workmen have been: William Wiley, Gustavus Moore, G. S. Steward, Richard Plaisted, Smith R. Morrell, Oscar Mc- Causland, John S. Towle, E. Clarence H. Smith, W. D. Clifford, J. R. Peacock, H. L. Edwards, Warren L. Tozier, A. E. Andrews and H. L. Cocker.

In addition to the above the following orders are represented in Gardiner city: Branch 1027, Order of the Iron Hall, E. L. Blake, C. J .; Cobbossee Colony, Pilgrim Fathers, Mrs. H. M. Huntington, governor; Kennebec Commandery, J. A. Berry, N. C .; and Nahumkeag Tribe, I. O. R. M., C. F. Johnson, sachem.

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS.

Arthur E. Andrews, son of Arthur and Olive (Welch) Andrews, and grandson of John Andrews, of Wales, was born in Monmouth in 1831. His maternal grandfather was John Welch, of Monmouth. Arthur E. came to Gardiner in 1837 with his father, who bought the farm where he now lives, which was settled in 1803 by Ichabod Went- worth. Mr. Andrews is a farmer. He was four years street commis- sioner and six years in city council. He is one of the executive offi- cers of the State Pomological Society. He married Caroline Neal. Their children are: Elmer H., Elwin W., Howard E., and one that died, Greanleaf E.

Captain Eleazer W. Atwood, son of Thompson Atwood, was born in 1834, and has been a resident of Gardiner since 1845, where he has been a millwright. He served in the late war from June 5, 1862, to June 5, 1865; was promoted from first lieutenant to captain of Com- pany B, 16th Maine Volunteers, December 4, 1862. He was a member of the city council in 1873, 1874 and 1875, and served as chairman of the committee on paving and sewerage. He has been for eight years a member of the republican county committee and twenty years a member of the city committee. He was postmaster at Gardiner from May, 1890, to May, 1892. He married Lizzie N. Palmer, and has one son, Willis P.

Amos Y. Bartlett, son of Amos and Sophia (Beane) Bartlett, and grandson of Isaac Bartlett, was born at Brentwood, N. H., in 1838, came to South Gardiner in 1870 and bought the farm where he has since been engaged in farming and market gardening. His first wife, Angie C. Gove, died in 1872. They had one daughter, Mabel, who died. His present wife was Martha Purington.

William M. Bartlett, born in Gardiner, September 16, 1855, son of John C. Bartlett, is the great-grandson of William1, and the grandson of William2, of Methuen, Mass., where the house is still standing in which the latter, one of fifteen children, was born in 1775. He be- came a school teacher and married Dolly Merrill, of Durham, Me., from whence they came on horseback and settled on the Brunswick road in Gardiner. Their son, John C., born in 1816, married Lydia S. Robinson, of Durham. In 1849 he went to California. Returning, he went into business in 1851, with B. F. Johnson. Of their six children, William M., one of the four now living, married Carrie Atherton in 1882. They have one child, Ralph. John C. Bartlett, who died in 1882, was senior member of the firm of Bartlett & Dennis, in which William M. now fills his father's place.

Rev. Allen E. Beeman, born in 1855, is the only living child of Fred- erick D. Beeman, a lawyer of Litchfield, Conn. Both were graduates of Yale, the father in 1842, the son in 1877. Frederick D. married

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

Maria A. Brisbane, whose mother was a granddaughter of Alexander Gillon, who came from Rotterdam to Charleston, S. C., in 1754, where he became the first commodore of the American navy, and com- mander of the ship South Carolina. Reverend Beeman, after leaving Yale, studied a year and a half at Oxford. Eng .. and then prepared for the ministry under Bishop Williams at Middletown, Conn., was or- dained in 1880, and came to Gardiner as rector of Christ's Church in 1888. In 1885 he married Sarah C. Carrington, of Farmington, Conn. They have one child, Charles C.

Joseph Booker, son of Jacob and Sarah (Stevens) Booker, and grand- son of Eliphalet Booker, was born in 1819. He is a farmer and has held several city offices. He married Esther, daughter of John K. and Sarah (Cleaves) Niles. Their only son is Burton E.

Timothy Booker, born in 1822, is a son of James and Hannah (Huntington) Booker, and grandson of Eliphalet Booker. He is a farmer. His wife is Lydia A. Booker, sister of Joseph, above. Their children are: Marilla (Mrs. Alonzo Totman), Cynthia J. (Mrs. C. H. Williams), Nellie (Mrs. Martin Peacock), and Morrill (deceased).

Abiud Bradley, born in 1812, in Yarmouth, Mass., is a son of Abiud and Jane (Baxter) Bradley, whose father died on board the prison ship Jersey in the revolutionary war. Mr. Bradley came from Yarmouth in 1817 to Vassalboro, where he lived until 1851, with the exception of twelve years when he was in South Carolina in the shoe business. He was a shoemaker and shoe merchant in Gardiner until 1878. He mar- ried Susan E. Bee, of South Carolina, who died, leaving four children: Margaret (Mrs. Robert M. Brown), Susan A. (Mrs. James H. Sewall), Sarah E. and Jane B. (Mrs. Edwin H. Roberts).

Simon Bradstreet, once governor of Massachusetts, the ancestor of all who bear this name in New England, was born at Horbling, Eng., in 1603, and came to America in 1630 in the Arbela. He married in England, Anna, daughter of Thomas Dudley. Their son, John Brad- street, was born in Andover, July 22, 1652, and died in Topsfield, Mass., January 17, 1717. He married Sarah, daughter of Rev. William Per- kins. Their son, John, born in Topsfield, January 30, 1693, married Rebecca, daughter of John and Sarah (Dickinson) Andrews. Their son, Andrew, born at Windham, Conn., March 28, 1722, married Mary Hill, who died in 1771. His second wife, Joanna Hill, died in Gardi- ner in 1817. He died in Gardiner in 1804. His son, Joseph, born in Biddeford, Me., January 21, 1765, married Ruth Moore. Their son, William, was born in Gardiner, January 13, 1793. He was a ship- builder and owner from 1818 to his death, May 14, 1868. His wife, Abby J., was a daughter of Major Peter Grant, of Farmingdale, a noted shipbuilder and owner. William Walter Bradstreet, son of Wil- liam and Abby J., born in Gardiner in 1817, married Julia S., daughter of Captain James Tarbox, of Gardiner, and granddaughter of Eleazer

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

Tarbox, who came to Gardiner from Biddeford, Me. Their only sur- viving child is Alice (Mrs. H. G. White), whose children are Percy G. and Marion.

Charles Bridge, son of Jeremiah, jun., and Sally (Cox) Bridge, was born at Bowdoin, Me., in 1822, went to Litchfield in 1836, and in 1839 came to Gardiner, where he was employed in lumber manufacturing until 1876. He married Nancy, daughter of Samuel Amee. He is a prominent member and supporter of the Free Baptist church of Gardiner.

Thomas Burnham, born December 5, 1833, is a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Rhodes) Burnham, and grandson of Ebenezer and Abigail (Libby) Burnham. Mr. Burnham is one of eight children, seven of whom are living. He is superintendent of the F. G. Richards farm, where he has been since 1862. He married Mary J., daughter of Gil- more and Abigail (Troop) Blair. Their only daughter is Emma C. (Mrs. H. F. Libby), who has two sons.

David C. and Edgar N. Burr, grocers, are the grandsons of David C. Burr, of Litchfield, a member of the legislature and a man of mark among the early settlers of that town. William F. Burr, his son, mar- ried Mary Neal, of West Gardiner, and settled in Gardiner city, where they became the parents of five children, three girls and two boys. David C. Burr, the elder of the two sons, was born in 1849, and mar- ried Caroline, daughter of William Gowell, of Gardiner, in 1880. Ed- gar N. Burr was born in 1853, and married Anna L., daughter of An- drew Berry, of Gardiner, in 1882.

Henry Payson Closson, the fourth of the six children of George C. and Sarah (Howard) Closson, and grandson of Deacon Nehemiah Clos- son, of Deer Isle, Me., was born in December, 1841. He was brought up a farmer in his native town, enlisted at the age of twenty in the 16th Maine, was at Antietam, lost his health, and was sent home. The next year he entered the navy, where he served till the close of the war. After several years' service as bookkeeper in a lumber business at Fairfield, he came to Randolph in 1882 and became a member of the present firm of Putnam & Closson, saw and planing mill proprie- tors. Henry P. Closson, in 1865, married Ellen U., daughter of Jacob Weymouth, of Fairfield, Me. George C. died in 1881.

Sewall B. Collins, engaged in the grocery business in 1882 on Water street, Gardiner. The first four years he was in partnership with Mr. Wilkins; from May, 1886, to September. 1890, he was sole owner; then the business was discontinued until April, 1891, when the firm of S. B. Collins & Co. was formed, with C. C. Wentworth as partner; February 15, 1892, Mr. Collins bought out Mr. Wentworth, and has since continued the business alone.

Samuel W. Cutts, son of Washington Cutts, of Pittston, was born in 1846. He began in 1862 as engineer of steamboats and continued

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

until 1880, running both stationary and steamer engines. Since 1880 he has been superintendent of the Gardiner Gas & Electric Light Company's works. He married Ellinette, daughter of William Wat- son, of Pittston.

Frederick Danforth, son of Judge Charles Danforth, was born in 1848. After leaving the North Bridgeton Academy he entered Dart- mouth College, graduating in the scientific course in 1870. His studies had all been with special reference to the profession of civil engineer- ing, upon which he immediately entered, choosing railroad engineer- ing as a specialty. After an engagement with the European & North American railway, he established, in 1876, his present office in Gardi- ner, and in 1891 he was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 1880 he married Caroline, daughter of Caleb Stevens, of Randolph. Their four children are: George C., Margaret, Richard S., and Eleanor.

J. Prescott Davis, the photographer, is a native of Corinth, Me. He came to Gardiner in January, 1885, as assistant to G. F. McIntosh, and in September, 1890, bought the studio which H. H. Cochrane had established four years previous.

David Dennis, president of the Merchants National Bank of Gardi- ner, was born in Litchfield in 1836. From Litchfield Academy he taught schools, public and private, eight or nine years, and in 1862 came to Gardiner as clerk for Bartlett, Barstow & Co. The same year he bought out Mr. Nickerson, and two years later Mr. Barstow retired, and the flour, feed and grain firm became Bartlett & Dennis. Mr. Dennis married Mr. Bartlett's daughter, Julia S., and has three chil- dren: Harriet, John B., with Blair & Co., bankers, New York; and Harry Ray. The firm of Bartlett, Dennis & Co. for three years in- cluded George N. Johnson and S. N. Maxcy. Mr. Dennis' father, John, from Ipswich, Mass., settled in Litchfield in 1789, where he married Harriet, daughter of Joseph Sawyer, and for more than thirty years was treasurer of the town.

Fuller Dingley is the son of Parker Dingley, a farmer of Bowdoin- ham, who married Ruth Bates of the same town, where they had chil- dren-William, died young; Betsey; second William; Fuller, born in 1832; James B., and Alvin, who was lost at sea. At the age of seven- teen Fuller came to Gardiner and learned the carpenter's trade. Later, while living in Newport, R. I., he enlisted and served under Burnside; was taken prisoner at Jackson, Miss., in July, 1863, and confined in Libby, Macon, Charleston and Columbia rebel prisons; was sick; ex- changed December, 1864, and came to Gardiner in 1865, where he has been engaged ever since with his brother, James B., in the hardware trade, under the firm name of Dingley Brothers. Fuller Dingley married Mary J. Parkinson, and has two children: Fred B. and Emily G.

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

The firm of Dingley Brothers represents the longest established and the largest coal trade in Gardiner and one of the oldest hardware houses. James Bates Dingley, its founder, whose portrait appears on the following page, was born in Bowdoinham August 27, 1834, and remained on the home farm till the age of seventeen. The next two years he taught school winters and during summers attended the then famous Litchfield Liberal Institute. At the age of twenty he came to Gardiner and entering Seth Wood's hardware store as a clerk he took up what has proved to be the pursuit of his life. After an experience of three years in Gardiner, his employer sent him to manage a store in the same line of trade in Haverhill, Mass., where he remained two years, when Mr. Wood retired from business. Returning to Gardiner in 1859, James B. rented the Wood store and embarked in the hard- ware trade for himself.

In 1865 his brother, Fuller Dingley, returned from the war and joined in the co-partnership that still exists. Closely observant of the needs of the community, James B. had decided that the coal trade, although new, was an inviting field of enterprise. There was no regular dealer. People who used hard coal joined together and bought from 200 to 300 tons per year. The new firm bought a stock and sold about 500 tons the first year. The increase to thirty times that quantity, which this firm alone now sells yearly, is a surprising exhibit.

Dingley Brothers, in 1868, established the Gardiner Spring Com- pany, which they sold in 1870 to the Wentworth Spring Company. They are now the chief owners of the Gardiner Tool Company, which makes axes and ice tools. In 1889 the Dingley Hardware Company was organized, which has charge of that branch of the business, Dingley Brothers still retaining the coal trade. They own a large block of real estate, on which stand their store and the extensive coal sheds that cover the most of what used to be the Grant and the Bradstreet wharves.

From 1873 to 1878, inclusive, J. B. Dingley was a member of the city government, the first three years as an alderman and the last three as mayor. It was during this period that the memorable con- tests over the paving of Main street and the building of the present grammar school were fought and won by the friends of improvement. At that time there was but one good school house in the city, and the condition of Main street in bad weather cannot be depicted.

Mr. Dingley has always been a republican in politics and a Uni- versalist in religious belief. His mother died in 1847 and his father in 1858. He has two grandchildren: Helen O., daughter of John and Emma (Dingley) Bradley, and James R., son of Sidney and Mabel (Dingley) Decker.

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

James B. Dingley, ex-mayor of Gardiner, a son of Parker and Ruth (Bates) Dingley, of Bowdoinham, was born in 1834, the fifth in a family of six children. He came to Gardiner in 1854, entering Seth Wood's hardware store as a clerk. In 1859 Mr. Dingley established in the same store the hardware trade which he and his brother, Fuller, who became a partner in 1865, still conduct. For over twenty-five years they have also been coal dealers. In 1858 James B. married Maria McKenny, of Greene. Their children are: Emma (Mrs. J. A. Bradley, of Worcester, Mass.), Mabel (Mrs. Sidney Decker), Clara (Mrs. Dr. Ben. Turner), and Etta, all except the first now residing in Gardiner.

Martin Esmond was born in Ireland, came to Gardiner from Boston in 1810, and was a merchant on Water street. His wife, Jane, was a daughter of Richard and Margret (Lowry) Stuart. The children of Martin Esmond were: John, born in 1818, died at Montreal in 1834, and Bernard, born in 1820, kept store on Water street until he went to California in 1850. During the war he was sutler to the 16th Maine Volunteers. He was married in 1839 to Mary O'Brien. Their children were: George, Joseph, Elizabeth and John. Elizabeth was married in 1885, to Charles E. Fuller, of Hallowell, and has two children: Tom Scott and Mary E.

William D. Haley, son of Woodbridge Haley, was born in 1852 at Pittston. He has been superintendent of the Haley Ice House since 1873; they were at South Gardiner until 1885, since which time they have owned buildings situated in the town of Richmond. Mr. Haley has a farm of fifty acres at South Gardiner, where he devotes some attention to breeding horses. He married Lucinda Lizette, daughter of James D. Moore. Their two children are: Harry D. and Jose- phine T.

Frederick D. Harmon, son of Humphrey and Sarah (Murry) Har- mon, was born in 1838 at Boston, Mass. He came with his parents to Gardiner in 1841, and settled on the farm where he now lives. He is a farmer, as was his father. He married Hannah K., daughter of Michael and Patience (Knox) Hildreth. Their three sons are: Amasa E., Richard F. and Frederick H.

Andrew J. Hooker, city liquor agent of Gardiner, is a son of Riverius and Hannah (Chaddock) Hooker, of Gardiner, and grandson of Riverius Hooker, of Litchfield, Me., who was a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first minister in Hartford, Conn. Andrew J. Hooker, the fourth of thirteen children, was born in South Lee, Mass., in 1837. came to Gardiner in 1849, and married Harriet Knox, of Bow- doin, in 1859. Their children are: Harry, Fred, Calvin, who died in 1888, at the age of twenty-one, and Gracie. Mr. Hooker served in the civil war as sergeant of Company I, 24th Maine Volunteers. He was chief engineer of the Gardiner Fire Department from 1883 to 1888;

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HISTORY OF KENNEBEC COUNTY.

has been in the city council two years, and is now alderman from the Fourth ward and city liquor agent.

MYRICK HOPKINS (1800-1891) .- For sixty-eight years preceding his death on the 7th of April, 1891, Myrick Hopkins had been a resi- dent of Gardiner, and as a business man had been intimately identi- fied with the material and moral growth of the city. He was of the seventh generation in direct line of descent from Stephen Hopkins1, the Pilgrim, who came in the Mayflower in 1620. Stephen's son, Giles", married Catherine Wheldon in 1639, and their son, Stephen3, born in 1642, resided in Harwich, Mass., where he married Mary Myrick, and thus the name Myrick came into the Hopkins family, and frequently recurs as a Christian name. Joseph Hopkins' was born in 1684; in 1707 he married Mercy Mayo, and their son, Prince Hopkins5, born in 1729, married Patience Snow in 1752 or 1753, and raised seven chil- dren: Seth, Thomas, Sarah, Joseph, Nathaniel, Prince and Elizabeth.

This Prince Hopkins®, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Harwich, Cape Cod, where four generations of his ancestors had lived, September 23, 1769, and married Phebe Morse. He followed the sea as a whaleman until 1804, when, with his wife and five chil- dren, he came up the Kennebec to Hallowell in a sailing packet, whence he made his way by the primitive forest road to New Sharon, and settled on a farm on which they lived-he until his death, July 4, 1854, and she until her death, May 2, 1856. Their ten children- the generation to which Myrick Hopkins belonged-were: Sally (1794- 1869); Joshua (1797-1879); Myrick; Phebe (1803-1875); Eliza, 1806; Lewis, 1808; Prince (1810-1882); Seth (1813-1884); George, 1815; and Betsey, 1818.

Myrick1, the fourth of the ten, was born in Brewster, Mass., Sep- tember 24, 1800; thus he was four years old when with his mother and younger sister on a single horse, they found their way from the Ken- nebec to the New Sharon home, thirty miles distant, where in a log house the next fifteen years of his life were passed. In 1819 he went to Readfield, Me., and in a shoe shop learned the trade upon which he depended to get his start in life. In 1823 he came to Gardiner in the employ of Nutting & Cook, tanners. They did a large business in green hides and wool, in which the good judgment of Mr. Hopkins as their clerk proved very valuable to them. The habits of economy which he had formed on the farm proved valuable to him, and he soon found the firm was his debtor to a considerable amount. The firm be- came insolvent, and in partial settlement with Mr. Hopkins he took the little office and store which they had built in 1826, and in it he continued the business on his own account as long as he lived.

As a buyer and shipper of hides and wool he became known to half the farmers of Kennebec county, and by his undeviating honesty he set a worthy example, and enjoyed to the close of his life in an un-

CITE

THE MYRICK HOPKINS HOMESTEAD,

Highland Avenue, Gardiner, Me.

Myrick Hopkins

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THE CITY OF GARDINER.

usual degree the confidence of the business public. Candor, upright- ness and fairness were foundation principles with him, yet his acquisi- tions confirm the adage that honesty is the best policy as well as the best principle; for in the quiet, almost uneventful life he lived he reached a substantial material result. Nor did he allow his private business to absorb his whole force. When the city government was organized, in 1850, he took a seat as alderman; he served as warden of Christ's Church for many years, and at his death had been a director of the Oakland Bank for more than twenty years. In securing a rail- road for Gardiner he was active and useful; he had been a stockholder in the steamboat line and a director of the Gardiner Bridge Company; and to the end of his days filled up the full measure of the upright citizen and useful man.

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Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine; 1625-1892, Part 78

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