USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume IV > Part 26
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Asa Clapp, son of Abiel Clapp, grandson of Samuel Clapp, great-grandson of Thomas Clapp, who was a son of Thomas Clapp, the founder of the family in America in 1633, was born in Mans- field, Bristol county, Massachusetts, March 15, 1762. The death of his parents when he was but a boy threw him upon his own resources. He se- cured a public school education, and at the age of sixteen years volunteered to substitute for a young man who had been drafted to serve in the Colonial forces under General Sullivan for the expulsion of the British from Rhode Island in 1778. Later he entered the naval service, his
fidelity and intrepidity in action gaining him a promotion to a first lieutenancy, and on one oc- casion he effected the capture of a British vessel mounting eight guns, with a crew three times as large as that of his vessel. With Joseph Peabody, of Salem, he was at Port au Prince, Santo Domingo, during the negro uprising, and they were able to render valuable and timely aid to the white population. During the French blockade in 1793 by England and her allies, when neutral ships were brought into English ports whenever they were suspected of being engaged in French trade, his vessel was captured by Sir Sydney Smith and was carried to England. After a six months' delay his ship was released by a decree of the courts of admiralty and the cargo paid for by the British government, Mr. Clapp managing the entire affair so ably and tactfully that the complete value of the cargo was real- ized by the owners.
He left the sea in 1796, although his business interests until his death were mainly in ships and shipping, his vessels sailing to the ports of Europe, the East and West Indies, and South America. His home and offices were in Portland, and he gained wide reputation as a reliable and highly successful merchant, known for exactness and fairness in all of his dealings wherever his ships carried the flag of his country.
With his permanent establishment in Portland he grew into the life and activity of the commu- nity rapidly, his talents and abilities finding abun- dant opportunity for expression in civic enter- prises, in public office, and in whole-hearted, ear- nest support of the national government during the Second War with Great Britain. His per- sonal fortunes suffered heavily when American shipping was practically driven from the seas, yet he subscribed one-half of his entire resources when the national finances were straitened and used his strong influence in persuading his ac- quaintances to similar sacrifice. He was a sol- dier in the Portland corps organized to protect the city from the fleets which were committing destructive depredations between the Penobscott river and Eastport. His home was open to the officers of the army and navy, who made it a place of general resort, and there enjoyed the most generous of bountiful New England hospi- tality. He was appointed one of the commis- sioners to obtain subscriptions to the United States Bank, to which corporation he was the largest subscriber in Maine. Prior to the separa- tion of Maine and Massachusetts, he was a mem- ber of the Governor's Council of Massachusetts,
Asa Clapp
Just Clapp
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and in 1819 he was one of the delegates to the convention for framing the State Constitution, then for several years representing Portland in the State Legislature.
The Clapp mansion, which has been occupied by the family for three generations, was one of the most imposing and splendidly appointed of the homes of early Portland, and there many of the leading national figures of the day were enter- tained. The following is a news paper record of a reception tendered President Monroe:
The President honored by his presence in the eve- ning a large and elegant party given by the Honorable A. Clapp. About three hundred persons were present. The house was handsomely illuminated in honor of his venerable guest. We feel ourselves incompetent to do justice to the brilliant assemblage of beauty that filled the elegant apartments of our hospitable fellow- townsman. It was a source of regret that Mrs. Clapp was absent on a visit to distant friends, hut our regret would have been much enhanced had not her accom- plished daughters compelled us to forget that anything could be wanting which good taste, ease and graceful- ness of manners could supply. A band of music play- ing through the evening gave a zest to the festivity. At the time the President retired, the younger part of the company had formed a party and were enjoying a dance under the piazza. When it was announced that the President was retiring, the dancers immediately withdrew from the piazza and formed a double line from the door to the gate, through which he passed, and when he reached the gate he was received with three hearty cheers from the large concourse of citizens.
Mr. Clapp was a warm supporter of the Demo- cratic party and received many of its prominent members at his home, President Polk and James Buchanan being there entertained when he was eighty-five years of age.
Mr. Clapp's death occurred in April, 1848, when he was eighty-six years of age. He retained all of his mental alertness and brilliance until the very end of his life and administered his large affairs with vigor and precision, arranging them with such minute care that there were no de- mands outstanding against his estate with the exception of the bill for the daily paper, the sub- scription for which had not yet expired. The flags of all the vessels in the harbor and on the signal staffs of the observatory were appropri- ately placed at half-mast.
Mr. Clapp married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Jacob Quincy, and a descendant of Edmund Quincy, deputy to the first General Court of Mas- sachusetts, in May. 1634; of Colonel Edmund Quincy, deputy for six years to the Massachu- setts General Court, and member of the Council for Safety of the People in 1689; of Judge Ed- mund Quincy, of the Superior Court of Massachu- setts, who was agent to the Court of St. James in 1737. Numbered among her other distin- guished ancestors were: Rev. Henry Flynt, min-
ister at Braintree from 1640 to 1668; Major- General Daniel Gookin, speaker of the Massa- chusetts General Court in 1651; Thomas Willet, first mayor of New York, 1665-67, who was an as- sistant of Plymouth Colony from 1651 to 1654; Evert Jansen Wendell, magistrate of Fort Or- ange in 1660; John Wendell, commissioner of In- dian affairs in New York, 1690; and Johannes Pie- terse Van Brugh, burgomeister of New Amsterdam, 1673-74. Mrs. Asa Clapp was a niece of Dorothy Quincy, who married John Hancock, and a grand- niece of the earlier "Dorothy Q.," immortalized by Oliver Wendell Holmes, her great-great-grand- son. Treasured in the Clapp family for years have been John Hancock's chariot, silver, and other objects of antiquarian and historic inter- est and value. Asa and Elizabeth (Quincy) Clapp were the parents of: Charles and Eliza W., died in childhood; Elizabeth, Francis Billings, Charles Quincy, Mary Jane Gray, and Asa Wil- liam Henry.
Asa William Henry Clapp, son of Asa and Elizabeth (Quincy) Clapp, was born in Portland, March 6, 1805, and died March 22, 1891. Follow- ing his graduation from Norwich Academy, in Vermont, an institution founded by Captain Al- den Partridge, he journeyed through the South and West, combining education with pleasure, and during this trip kept a careful diary, which in- cluded an account of a visit to the Hermitage, General Jackson's home in Tennessee. Upon his return he entered his father's establishment. where he received strict instruction in business principles and dealings. Until 1848 he was ex- tensively engaged in foreign commerce indepen- dently, then becoming his father's assistant in the latter's varied interests. He was associated with his brother, Charles Q. Clapp, in many Portland enterprises, the honor and name of the family safe in their zealous keeping.
In the avenues of business he attained to the respected place of his revered father, and in his public service and his support of civic and phil- anthropic movements he was a successor whose works added fresh lustre to a worthy reputa- tion. The Maine General Hospital, relief funds, charitable and educational institutions all bene- ted by his generous donations which were made almost in absolute secrecy, so little did he care for popular acclaim. Nor did he act only through organized agents. Frequently his was the aid that saved the day for a young business man, or gave another the opportunity to prepare for or to establish himself in a life work. His sympathy was boundless and his friendly impulses rarely
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led him astray. Until his death he served as a director of the Maine General Hospital, the last meetings of the board which he attended being held in his library when he became too feeble to leave his home. He was also a director of the public library.
A lifelong Democrat and intensely interested in public and political affairs, he became one of the leaders of his party in the State. He partici- pated in State and National campaigns with voice and pen, fearlessly and fairly fighting for the candidate supporting the cause he believed right. He attended the National Democratic Con- vention in 1848 at Baltimore, and in 1852 was a delegate-at-large to the convention in that city which nominated Franklin Pierce for president. He preferred that his influence be confined to the support of candidates of merit, but in 1847 it became imperative that he accept personal pref- erence, and he yielded to the persuasion of his friends, becoming the Congressional candidate and filling a seat in the Thirtieth Congress. It is a remarkable tribute to his place in the regard of his fellows that his political opponents went on record in the following resolution :
Resolved: That Asa W. H. Clapp, by his integrity, ability, and undeviating devotion to the cause of Democracy merits the confidence of the Republicans of this Congressional district. The unanimons nomination by him received this day in convention is a sufficient guarantee that he will receive at the polls the undivid- ed support of our constituents for the dignified and responsible station, which as their candidate he is ex- pected to fill, September 13, 1817.
His promotion of the interests of his district particularly in the securing of an appropriation for the purchase of the Exchange building for a customs house and post office, won him the gratitude and commendation of his friends in both parties, the City Council passing resolutions of thanks for his valuable services. The pressure of private affairs forbade his continuance in of- fice, but throughout his entire life he remained in intimate touch with the issues of the day and with the leaders of political thought and action. At the age of eighty-three he journeyed from Craw- ford's, New Hampshire, to cast his ballot for Judge Putnam, gubernatorial nominee.
When death called him from a life of well doing his loss called forth a chorus of regret from the many circles in which he moved and to which his gentle, uplifting influence extended. From business associates, from political collca- gues, from the directorates of institutions he had befriended, and from individuals who valued their friendship and relation with this man of nolle character, came testimonials of love and
respect, addressed to his daughter, Mary J. E. Clapp, who survives him. The following is an extract from the record of a meeting of the direc- tors of the Maine General Hospital, April 4, 1891 :
MEMORIAL
On the 22nd day of March, A. D. 1891, the Honorable A. W. H. Clapp ended a long and useful life. From lis organization until his death he was an active, judicions and generous director and friend of the Maine General Hospital, taking deep interest in its prosperity and contributing to its snecess by wise connsel, by fre- qnent and liberal aid to his resourses, and hy an alinost lavish use of his time and influence in its behal ?. His associates in the direction have been cheered by his unstinted sympathy and strengthened hy his hearty co-operation. They, better than all others, can appreciate the value of his service to the Hos- pital. They feel profoundly their own loss and that of the Hospital in his decease. It is appropriate for this Board, speaking officially, to regard him as was related to the great charity which he so early took into his affection, and so long aided to administer. Bnt they would wrong their own feelings if they passed over in silence the many and striking graces of his character. They hold in reverent remembrance his unfailing kindness, his uniform courtesy, his spotless integrity, and his sense of honor, his sonnd judgment. his devotion to what he esteemed trne and right, his charitable spirit, and his abstinence from censorious speech and unkindly criticism in respect to his fellow- men. Living long in all serenity and dignity, even after he had passed within the limits of old age, he seemed in the later years like a tradition of what was noble and fine in private, social, and public life at an earlier period of the State. The directors rejoice that so large a measure of life was granted to him, and, while they lamented his decease, are comforted by the recollection of his virtnes and by the thought that the example of his life will continue to work for good long after his disappearance from their sight. To all most nearly and keenly touched by this dispensation of Providence the tender sympathy of this Board is afforded.
True Extract (Signed)
Attest: F. R. Barrett. Secretary.
Mr. Clapp married, June 23, 1834, Julia Mar- garetta, only daughter of General Henry Alex- ander Scammell Dearborn, of Roxbury, Massa- chusetts. They were the parents of one daugh- ter, Mary J. E., to whom has fallen the privilege of cherishing and perpetuating the memory of an illustrious ancestry.
JAMES EDWARD DRAKE, the present mayor of Bath, Maine, was born December 9, 1871, in Bath, the son of James Brainerd and Georgiana (Lincoln) Drake. The other members of his father's family are Georgie L., now the wife of Dr. James O'Lincoln, of Bath, and Frederick Ellis Drake, also of Bath.
James E. Drake obtained his education from the grade and high schools of Bath, and having graduated from the latter in 1889, entered Yale University. Serious illness prevented his com- pleting his college work, and he entered into business life, becoming engaged in lumber and
Klu Drake.
Asa Faunas
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insurance work. He became mistant treasurer of the Kennebec Steamboat Company, and treas- urer of the Eastern Steamboat Company. He is now the president of the James B. Drake & Sons' Lumber and Insurance Company, Inc.
Mr. Drake is a member of the Masonic order, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a Republican, and in his religious affiliation is a Congregationalist. He is a member of the Sagadahoc and Colonial clubs, and of the Sagadahoc Board of Fire Underwrit- ers, being president of the latter organization. He is also a director of the First National Bank of Bath. He was elected to the office of mayor of Bath, March, 1918, having been a member of the city government in 1895-97, being at that time the youngest official of the municipality.
Mr. Drake married, July 23, 1913, Eleanor Jane Dickson, of Bath, daughter of Captain George and Mercy (Hodgdon) Dickson, and they have a son, James Edward, Jr., born October 18, 1914.
JOHN ANDREW PETERS-Representative of the Third Maine District in the National House of Representatives, John Andrew Peters entered upon his career as a legislator after an extended period upon the bench of the Municipal Court of Ellsworth, Maine, where he bears worthy reputation in legal and business circles, the scene of his life activity. Mr. Peters is a son of Wil- liam B. and Martha Elizabeth (Chute) Peters, and was born in Ellsworth, Maine, August 13, 1864.
After preparatory education he entered Bow- doin College, and was graduated A.B., with hon- ors, in the class of 1885, winning election to the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. At the comple- tion of a law course he was admitted to the Maine bar in 1887 and in the following year was awarded the Master's degree in Arts by Bowdoin College. He located in legal practice in Ellsworth, becom- ing a member of the law firm of Peters & Crab- tree. Froni 1896 to 1908 Mr. Peters served as judge of the Municipal Court of Ellsworth, de- clining reappointment to this office, and from 1909 to 1913 he was a member of the Maine House of Representatives, filling the Speaker's chair in the last year of his service. He was elected in September, 1913, to fill a vacancy in the National House of Representatives from the Third Maine District, and as the Republican can- didate was re-elected to the Sixty-fourth, Sixty- fifth and Sixty-sixth congresses. Mr. Peters is president of the Union Trust Company, of Ells- worth, the Ellsworth Foundry and Machine
Works, and the Ellsworth Hardwood Company, also serving the Merrill. Trust Company, of Ban- gor, as director. He is a member of the Maine Historical Society, and retains an active interest in his alma mater as a member of the board of overees of Bowdoin College. His club is the Tarratine, of Bangor, Maine.
John Andrew Peters married, November 20, 1889, Mary Frances Cushman, of Ellsworth, Maine.
ASA FAUNCE-The active life of Asa Faunce, which covered a period of three-quarters of a century, was mainly spent in Belfast, Maine, where he was for thirty years a well known and highly respected merchant and for many years an officer of two of the leading financial institu- tions of the city. Mr. Faunce was a descendant of John Faunce, who came to Plymouth, Massa- chusetts, in the ship Ann in 1633, the line tracing through his marriage with Patience Morton to Thomas Faunce, the elder, who married Jean Nelson; to Thomas Faunce, the younger, who married Lydia Barnaby; to James Faunce, who married Thankful Tobey; to Asa (1) Faunce, father of Asa Faunce, of this record. Asa (1) Fannce was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, September 11, 1776, and died in Waterville, Maine, December 10, 1824. He was a cabinet- maker in calling. He married Miriam Burrill, born May 30, 1787, died October 16, 1828, dangh- ter of Ziba and Polly (Chase) Burrill, of Canaan, Massachusetts. They were the parents of: Jane, born August 11, 1807; Angelina, born Jan- nary 17, 1809; Emily, born March 31, 1811; Asa, of whom further; Daniel, born in 1815; and George Burrill, born August 22, 1822.
Asa (2) Faunce, son of Asa (1) and Miriam (Burrill) Faunce, was born in Waterville, Maine, March 12, 1814, and died in Belfast, Maine, August 2, 1889. after a business career long and honorable, spent in busy endeavor, profitable to himself and to his community. After attending the public schools of Belfast he became a clerk in the employ of James P. White, a merchant of that place, in 1835 establishing in independent dealing as a general grocer and continuing in that line with successful result for about thirty years. He was active in the direction of the Bank of Commerce as trustee from 1854 to 1868, filling the position of president from 1857, and in 1869 he was one of the leading factors in the organization of the Belfast Savings Bank, of which he was the first president, serving as such until two years prior to his death, resigning his
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office in 1887. The qualities that had won him prosperity in private enterprise ably safeguarded and advanced the interests of these institutions of which he was so long the head, and he en- joyed the trust and confidence of his fellows to an unusual degree. He was a banker of wise caution and yet so faithfully did he judge human nature that.never was a worthy man or firm re- fused the aid of these institutions, which be- came instruments of wide usefulness in the lo- cality. He was a member of the Club of Thirty and a member of the Unitarian church.
Asa Faunce married, October 8, 1838, Sarah A. Haraden, born in Belfast, Maine, March 18, 1814, died October 11, 1900, daughter of John and Han- nah (Brown) Haraden, and they were the par- ents of: Abbie Haraden, born in 1840, married William Batchelder Swan (see on another page) ; William Asa, born 1843, engaged in real estate deal- ing : Mary Estelle, born 1858, a musician.
HARRISON OTIS HUSSEY-The Husseys of Mars Hill, Aroostook county, Maine, descend from the ancient English family which traces to Hugh Hoese, who came from Normandy with the Conqueror, the name in French being De Hosey, after anglicized to Hussey. The family in New England trace to Christopher Hussey, of Hampton, New Hampshire, who dates from 1530. The family appeared in Maine with Stephen Hussey, of the fourth American generation, who died in Berwick, Maine, May 8, 1770. Harrison O. Hussey, of Mars Hill, is a son of Sylvanus Harlow and Mary (Bnrbush) Hussey, his father a merchant of Mars Hill, Maine, for many years, member of the firm, S. H. Hussey & Sons.
Harrison O. Hussey was born in Houlton, Maine, April 17, 1864. He completed his educa- tion with gradnation from Houlton Academy, and then became interested in mercantile life, and in 1881 became associated with his father and brother in the firm, S. H. Houlton & Sons, of Blaine, Maine, and continues a successful, highly esteemed man of business. In 1914 the business was transferred to Mars Hill, its present location. He is a director of the Houlton Trust Company, a Republican in politics, and prior to coming to Mars Hill had been a selectman of the town of Blaine for sixteen years. He is a member of the Unitarian church and helpful in all good causes.
Mr. Hussey married, in Blaine, a village of Aroostook county, Maine, twenty-six miles from Houlton, Lucy W. Lowell, daughter of Ruel W. and Sarah (Jones) Lowell. Mr. and Mrs. Hussey are the parents of Stutson Harlow, born June
10, 1887; May C., born August 13, 1892; and Mor- ris L., born September 20, 1901.
ERASTUS EUGENE HOLT-There are few subjects more interesting than that of the origin of the family names which have grown so famil- iar to us that we think of them more as perma- nent things than as the results of a growth, which, so far as the northern nations of Europe are concerned, are scarcely older than the second half of the Christian era. Their roots, of course, extend back into an immemorial past, and we find in such primitive forms as the affix "son" or its equivalent in the different languages, attached to the first or Christian name, the origin of one of the largest groups among modern surnames. In the case of the Holt family, which is repre- sented in Maine today by the distinguished gen- tleman whose name heads this sketch, we find what is probably a very ancient derivation in the old meaning of the word "holt," which signified in early English a wood or grove. Doubtless it was from the proximity of his dwelling to some such wood that the early progentor of this family received his original designation which has descended during those many years to these, his modern progeny. Both in England and in America, the Holt family has spread itself pretty universally so that we find today a great many branches bearing the old name, and although in many cases there is no direct connection to be traced between them, this in no way militates against the reasonableness of presuming them to have had a common origin, a presumption which rests upon the opinions of antiquarians and historians and of students of philology and the derivation of names.
One of the most distinguished members of this family in England was Lord Chief Justice Holt, of whom the historian, Macintosh, said: "His name can never be pronounced without veneration as long as wisdom and integrity are revered among men."
The probable founder of the family in this country and certainly of many of its branches, was Nicholas Holt, who sailed in the ship James of London, William Corper, Master, from Sont- hampton, England, abont April 16, 1635, and arrived at Boston on June 3rd following. He was one of the early settlers of Newbury, and later made his home at Andover, where his death occurred Jannary 30, 1685, at the age of onc hun- dred and four years, according to the record, although we have the authority of the historiar Coffin that he was no more than eighty-three
Erastus Sugne Hoch
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years of age. Many of his descendants remained in Andover, but one of them, named Amos, according to Durrie's "Genealogical History, of the Holt Family in the United States," moved to Wilton, New Hampshire, and his son Abel moved from Wilton, New Hampshire, to Weld, Maine. By the same authority it will be found that Abel Holt was of the sixth generation from Nicholas Holt, hence his son, Erastus, was of the seventh, and Erastus Eugene Holt is of the eighth gen- eration. Abel Holt was a farmer. He took a very active interest in public affairs in the town of Weld, Maine, holding during his life a num- ber of town offices. His death occurred there. It was at Weld that he was twice married, and his first wife was Lydia Pratt, by whom he had seven children: Hubbard; Erastus, who is men- tioned below; Abiah, a son who was lost at sea; Otis, Grace, and Isabel. By his second wife he had two children: Whitman, and a daughter, Lois. His son, Erastus Holt, the father of Dr. Erastus Engene Holt of Portland, was born in the month of September, 1818, at Weld, Maine. Like his father, he was a farmer, but he added to this occupation that of the carpenter, and lived for a number of years in the city of Port- land, where he worked at this trade. His death occurred on January 28, 1897, at the age of seventy-nine years. He was married to Miss Lucinda Packard, a daughter of Ephraim and Lydia (Stiles) Packard, and they were the parents of the following children: Artemas C., who met his death in a railroad accident in 1905; Nellie A., who is now Mrs. Franklin Sanborn, and makes her home in Franklin, Massachusetts; Charles Otis, who married Miss Bicknell, of Can- ton, Maine, and who resides in Lewiston; Hen- rietta L., now Mrs. Charles Glover, of Canton, Maine; Emma L., deceased, who married M. T. Hatch, of Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and Eras- tus Eugene Holt.
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