USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Livermore > Notes, historical, descriptive, and personal, of Livermore, in Androscoggin (formerly in Oxford) county, Maine > Part 2
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
Elijah Livermore inherited his father's homestead; was a lieuten- ant in the militia of Massachusetts, and was chosen deacon of the Congregationalist Church in Waltham upon the death of his father. He removed to Livermore in 1779, where he died August 5, 1808. Good sense, integrity, kindness, and a genial humor were traits which most distinctly marked his character. When he died he was mourned as a good man and friend by the people of the town which he had planted with so much care and wisdom. The children of Deacon Livermore were as follows : Abigail, b. November 20, 1758, d. 1817. She married Rev. Elisha Williams, a graduate of Yale College. Mr. Williams moved to Livermore about 1790 and was the first school-master in the town. About 1798 he became pastor of the Baptist Church in Brunswick. He died in Cambridge in 1845. He had eleven children. A daughter, Sophia, married John Appleton, at one time a resident of Portland. William, b. Jan. 9, 1763, d. in Louisiana in 1832. He was bred a merchant in Boston ; traded some time on Roccomeco Point in Jay (now Canton), and afterwards in Hallowell, and was a major of militia. Danforth P. Livermore and the wife of Col. Andrew Masters, of Hallowell, were his children. Hannah, b. Nov. 22, 1764, d. Jan., 1785. Isaac, b. May 7, 1768, d. Oct., 1820; was bred a merchant in Boston; was in trade a short time in Hallowell, Maine, and then settled in Liver- more as a farmer, and where he was a justice of the peace. His children were Hannah, b. 1796, d. 1836; Granville Putnam, b. 1798, now of St. Joseph, Missouri; Eliza, b. 1801; Elijah, b. 1804; Hora- tio Gates, b. 1807, a prominent citizen of San Francisco; Abigail Williams, Alma Louisa, and Julia Snow. Sarah, b. Dec. 7, 1770, married Robert Pierpont, of Roxbury, and d. Feb. 19, 1847. He lived on the old Livermore farm, and died Dec. 9, 1811, at the age of forty- two years. His children were Hannah, b. 1797, d. 1819; Robert, b. 1798, a resident of Livermore; George Washington, b. Jan. 17, 1800, a resident of Livermore Falls; Elijah, b. 1803, d. 1818; Charles Henry, b. 1801, d. very suddenly at Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 6, 1850; John Murdock, b. 1808, d. 1818. Anna, b. April 6, 1775, married Dec. 14, 1797, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, to whom reference will be made hereafter. Samuel, the youngest child, was born April 6, 1778, married Lura Chase, daughter of Thomas Chase. He died Nov. 26, 1823. He was quite frequently a town officer, and at several times represented the town in the Massachusetts legislature. Bet- sey, his oldest child, was b. in 1803, d. 1822; Emery, his only son,
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
was born Feb. 18, 1809, and after residing in Bangor for several years moved to St. Joseph, Mo .; Lura, the youngest child, born Oct. 25, 1815, married Levi B. Young, of Livermore.
WIDOW - CARVER was the second settler. She had seven children, William, James, Amos, and Nathan, and three daughters, one of whom married Cutting Clark, one John Winter, and one was unmarried. The family was originally from Duxbury, and William settled in 1780 on the lot now occupied as a farm by George Gibbs, son of John Gibbs. Mrs. Carver made the first clearing and lived for a short time on the farm where Col. Lewis Hunton now lives.
JOSIAH WYER, the third settler and fifth with a family, was born in Watertown in 1749 and moved to Livermore, or Port Royal, as it was then called, in 1779. He married Rebecca Brackett, of Fal- mouth, Me., in 1782. He died July 7, 1827. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, an orderly sergeant, and was in the battle at Bunker Hill. He was buried with military honors. Mr. Wyer re- sided on the road leading towards North Turner Bridge from the old Methodist meeting-house, on the farm now occupied by Amos Beckler. His widow died June 18, 1836. Their children were Nancy, b. Oct. 1, 1786, who married Nathaniel Soper, and d. Sept. 29, 1871. She was the first female child born in the town. Her husband, who survives her, came from Pembroke, Mass., in 1806. He is now (1874) eighty-seven years old. Isaac, b. May 23, 1788, d. in the East Indies. William, b. Mar. 30, 1790, married Lucy Baker, and d. in Livermore Dec. 30, 1858. He was a volunteer in the war of 1812, and his son Otis was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion. Betsey, b. April 30, 1791, married David Brickett. Sally, b. Sept. 7, 1792, married Thomas Haskell, d. in Livermore. Nathaniel, b. April 19, 1794, d. in Livermore. Rebekah, b. Sept. 30, 1795, married Job Haskell, d. in East Livermore. George, b. April 2, 1800, d. in Livermore. Charles, b. Oct. 26, 1804, married Sopho- nia Shaw.
ELISHA SMITH came from Martha's Vineyard about 1780, and pur- chased and lived on the lot afterwards owned by Rev. Thomas Wy- man.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
SAMUEL BENJAMIN* was born at Watertown, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Feb. 5, 1753. At the breaking out of the difficulties with the mother country, in the spring of 1775, he joined the company of Captain Daniel Whiting, of which he was the first sergeant. He was at the combat of Lexington, on the ever-mem- orable morning of the 19th of April, 1775, where the first blood was shed in the great struggle for Independence. He was also at the battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June, 1775, and at Monmouth, Yorktown, and many other battles of lesser note in the Revolution. His whole term of service was seven years, three months, and twenty-one days, and it is doubtful if there was any man in the Revolution who was in more battles, or saw more or harder service. The following declaration of Lieutenant Benjamin, made for the purpose of obtaining a pension, contains a full statement of his ser- vice :
"I, Samuel Benjamin, a resident citizen of the United States of America, an inhabitant of Livermore, in the County of Oxford, and State of Massachusetts, on oath declare, that from the battle of Lex- ington, April 19, 1775, in which I was engaged, I was in the Conti- nental service in the Revolutionary war, without ever leaving said service, even so much as one day, until the 6th day of August, A. D. 1782. I served the eight months' service in 1775 at Cambridge, in said State; in 1776, as soon as the British left Boston, we marched to Ticonderoga, where my year's service expired ; and, on the 1st of January, 1777, I received from John Hancock, President of the Con- tinental Congress, an ensign's commission, which is hereunto an- nexed, and continued to serve under said commission in Captain Ebenezer Cleaveland's company, Colonel Michael Jackson's regi- ment, in the Massachusetts line, in the army of the United Colonies, on the Continental establishments, until I received a commission of lieutenant, dated Oct. 7, 1777, under which commission I served in the same company abovesaid (which company was now, and had been some months previous, commanded by Captain Silas Pierce, in consequence of the resignation of said Captain Cleaveland) until the
*Mr. Benjamin was a descendant, in the fifth generation, of John Benjamin, who arrived in the ship Lion, Sept. 16, 1632, and was admitted freeman the subsequent November; was a pro- prietor of Cambridge and perhaps first settled there. If so, it was only for a short time, as his house, with goods to the amount of £100, was burnt in Watertown April 7, 1636. Gov. Win- throp designates him as " Mr. Benjamin," and in 1642 he had the largest homestall in Water- town. He died June 14, 1645 .- Bond's Genealogies.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
6th day of August, A. D. 1782, when I had liberty to leave the ser- vice-a certificate of which, signed by Colonel Michael Jackson, is also hereunto annexed. My commission of lieutenant I sent to Washington last winter, and have it not in my power. I was in the battle at Lexington abovesaid before I engaged as a Continental soldier; and afterwards was in the battle of Monmouth, and at the taking of Cornwallis, and numerous other battles of less magnitude. I left the service at West Point, as will appear from the annexed certificate.
SAMUEL BENJAMIN."
This is the certificate above referred to :
"This may certify that Lieutenant Samuel Benjamin, of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, has retired from present service, in consequence of a resolve of congress, passed the 23d of April, 1782, and is thereby entitled to half pay during life, by a resolve of con- gress, passed the 3d and 21st of October, 1780.
Given under my hand, in garrison, West Point, this 6th day of August, 1782.
M. JACKSON, Colonel Eighth Massachusetts Regiment."
Lieutenant Benjamin was married to Tabitha Livermore, of Wal- tham, Mass., by the Rev. Jacob Cushing, pastor of the Church of Christ, in Waltham, on the 16th day of January, 1782. She was the sister of the venerable Nathaniel Livermore, who is now living (1858) in Cambridge, Mass., at the advanced age of eighty-three years; and was a relative of Dea. Elijah Livermore, the common an- cestor being Samuel Livermore, of Watertown, who died Dec. 5, 1690.
In the fall of 1782, Lieutenant Benjamin made a trip to the Dis- trict of Maine, for the purpose of selecting a location for his future home. On the 10th day of October, 1782, he bought of Dea. Elijah Livermore, " of Liverton "* (now Livermore), " Cumberland County, Massachusetts," a tract of about one hundred and twenty acres of land, bounded as follows: "Southerly on land owned by Josiah Nor- cross, easterly by Long Pond (so called), northerly on the last divis- ion and another pond, westerly on said pond and lot No. 55."
On the next day, Benjamin executed a mortgage to Livermore of the said tract, to secure the payment of the consideration, viz. : twenty-five bushels of corn, and twenty-five bushels of rye, in twen-
*This name, given to the township by Maj. Thomas Fish, did not permanently supplant that by which it had been generally known-Port Royal.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
ty-six months, and the same amount of corn and rye in three years and two months. The consideration expressed in the deed was thirty pounds.
In October, 1796, Benjamin bought of Otis Robinson the property at Gibbs' Mills, now so called. In December, 1797, he bought part of lot 11, on the east side of the Androscoggin River (now East Liv- ermore), of Nathaniel Dailey; and in 1799 he bought the other part of the said lot from Daniel Stevens. He lived on this place until the time of his death, on the 14th day of April, 1824. He was the fourth settler, with a family, in the town of Livermore. He first oc- cupied a log cabin, built by Major Thomas Fish, a Revolutionary officer, at what has ever since been known as the "Fish Meadow." This was in March, 1783.
The remains of Lieutenant Benjamin were buried in the quiet lit- tle country burying-ground, on the western bank of the Androscog- gin River, at what is known as the "Intervale." He was buried with military honors, and a modest and appropriate monument marks his last resting place, upon which is the following inscription :
" This monument is erected to the memory of Lieutenant Samuel Benja- min, who died April 14, 1824, in the seventy-first year of his age; an officer of the American Revolution, who fought in the sacred cause of his country and the rights of mankind, from the ever-memorable morning of the 19th of April, 1775, to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, on the 19th day of October, 1781, and from thence to the close of that sanguinary war, which es- tablished the freedom and independence of the United States, and gave to them a distinguished rank among the nations of the earth."
The widow of Lieutenant Benjamin, born June 27, 1757, died June 20, 1837, at the residence of her son, Colonel Billy Benjamin, of Livermore. He left ten children, seven of whom are now (1858) living in Maine.
The foregoing notice of Lieutenant Benjamin is copied from a pamphlet containing extracts from a journal which he kept while in the war.
He was frequently in town office; was one of the selectmen from 1801 to 1805, inclusive. His children were Billy, Samuel, Nathaniel, Betsey, Polly and Martha (twins), David, Charles, Elisha, Ruth. Billy, b. March 13, 1785, d. March 31, 1849, was the second male child born in town. He married Phebe Wellington, whose family came from Lincoln, Mass. He was a man of military bearing and
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
tastes, and was a colonel in the State militia. His residence was on the Intervale. Samuel, b. Sept. 7, 1786, d. April 27, 1871, learnt a cabinet maker's trade and established the business in Winthrop. He married Olivia Metcalf, by whom he had twelve children, of whom eight are now living. Nathaniel, b. May 16, 1788, d. Dec. 19, 1867, married Betsey Chase, by whom he had seven children, six of whom are living. Betsey, b. Dec. 29, 1790, married Samuel Morrison, of Livermore. She died Dec. 9, 1860. They had five children. Polly, b. Oct. 2, 1792, married Samuel Ames, of Liver- more. They had six children, of whom three are living in 1874. Mr. Ames moved to Sebec, in the County of Penobscot, now in Piscataquis County, before 1827. He went in a few years to Her- mon near Bangor, and was for one year a representative of the class, in which Hermon was embraced, in the State legislature. He died in IIermon April 7, 1862. He was born May 11, 1789. His widow survived him till March 6, 1865, when she died at the age of seventy- three years. Martha (or Patty), twin of Polly, b. Oct. 4, 1792, mar- ried Israel Washburn, March 30, 1812, d. May 6, 1861. David, b. June 3, 1794, married Catherine Stanwood, of Brunswick, and re- sides on the "old Benjamin farm," and where once was Benjamin's Ferry. They have had five children, three of whom are living. Charles, b. Aug. 2, 1795, married Lucy Chase, and was a cabinet maker on the Intervale, in Livermore. He died May 10, 1834. She survived him several years. They left Betsey, who married John M. Benjamin, Esq., of Winthrop. Elisha, b. Oct. 10, 1797, went South and died in New Orleans, December, 1852, at the age of fifty- five years. Ruth married Jonathan Lovejoy. They had five chil- dren, one of whom-Samuel B. M. Lovejoy- was a lieutenant in the civil war. She was b. May 20, 1797, and d. Feb. 3, 1869. Two children survive her, Elisha B., whose home is in Livermore, and Charles B., a resident of Portland.
REUBEN WING came from Harwich, Mass., and married a daughter of Elisha Smith. He died in 1861 on the farmn on which he had lived for more than sixty-five years. He was a good man and much respected.
CUTTING CLARK was a brother of Hannah Clark, Dea. Livermore's first wife. He lived on the northerly part of Fuller's Hill. He
3
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
came from Waltham soon after the settlement of Livermore. He was born Feb. 24, 1754, and lived to an advanced age. He was a man of fertile imagination, and a famous hunter in his day. His de- vice for preserving the lite of an Indian boy, who was with him on a hunting expedition, from the severity of the cold, is among the traditions of the town, and was at once unique and effective.
JABEZ DELANO, who married Grace, daughter of Daniel Dailey, took up the Major Fish improvement at the Meadow, having pre- viously lived on the east side of the river, on the place now occupied by Col. Lewis Hunton, and also having tended for a time Dea. Liver- more's grist-mill at the Falls. He was a man of religious emotions, subject to backslidings and renewals in matters of faith. His broth- er, ZEBEDEE, planted himself on the farm afterwards owned and oc- cupied by Thomas Chase, and the same now owned by the town. He was a Baptist minister and moved to Lebanon, York County. Another brother, JAMES, settled on the farm now owned by David Rich. His sons, Calvin, Abel, and Leonard, settled in Livermore. With these was a fourth brother, EBENEZER, who lived in the west- erly part of the town, beyond the farm of Isaac Hamlin, and had a large family of boys-James, Jesse, John, Preston, William, Rufus, Lewis, and Levi; the daughters were Nancy, Hannah, and Huldah. The Delanos came from Winthrop.
JOHN WALKER, whose wife was a sister of Dea. Gibbs, was one of the first settlers, and lived where Gilbert Hathaway (who came from Freetown, Mass.,) afterwards lived and died. Walker was one of Arnold's men in the expedition by the Kennebec River to Quebec in 1775. He was the father of Colonel Dexter Walker, and of Elijah, Levi, and Rufus Walker.
DANIEL DAILEY settled on the farm on the east side of the river, now owned by Col. Lewis Hunton. He was in town at a very early date.
NATHANIEL DAILEY (son of Daniel) was among the first settlers in Livermore. He cleared the farm on the east side of the river afterwards owned by Lieut. Benjamin, and on which David Benja- min now lives.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
NEZER DAILEY (son of Daniel) settled on the west side of the river below the Falls. He owned, at one time, the mills built by Dea. Livermore at Brettun's; sold them and moved onto a farm above North Turner Bridge. His son, Warren, lived in the same neighborhood, and had a stammering speech which, while it ob- structed, gave peculiar effect to his recitals of the successes and disasters associated with the "crow hunts" to which he gave much of his time. His father had a second wife who, for some reason, failed to enjoy the devotional exercises of her husband, which were often tedious and always loud, but which she and her step-son, Warren, were enjoined to attend. As soon after Mr Dailey had commenced his morning prayer as was safe his wife would quietly leave the room. When this practice was discovered, the husband, to prevent her going out, locked the door; but the pre- caution was unavailing, for the wife escaped through the window. When the husband perceived how completely the old lady had flanked him, his expressions of annoyance and vexation were scarce- ly in harmony with those which had so lately fallen from his lips, nor were they softened by the advice which his son took occasion to give him : "D-daddy," said Warren, "you should w-w-watch as well as pray." .
PELATIAH GIBBS came from Milford, Worcester County, before 1789, and took up the farm where Ebenezer Hinds afterwards lived ; was often in town office, and was a deacon of the Baptist Church. He moved to Jay (now Canton). Cupt. Jacob Gibbs, John Gibbs, and Frank Gibbs, of Livermore, intelligent men and excellent citi- zens, were his sons. Capt. Gibbs had a large family of daughters. These families are well and honorably represented in the town at the present time.
ABIAL TURNER was born in Scituate, Mass., and came to Liver- more to reside with his son John. He was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. Abial, John, and Ephraim, his sons, were early set- tlers in Livermore. John had a large family and died in Livermore.
ELIJAH FISHER was born June 17, 1758, in Norton, Mass. He was in Livermore in 1789, and settled on a farm on the old highway adjoining, and south of, the Strickland farm. He was a soldier of
·
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
excellent reputation in the war of the Revolution and was a member of " Washington's Life Guard," under Capt. Caleb Gibbs. At the age of seventeen, on his birthday, he was in the battle of Bunker Hill, and remained in the service for nearly six years. He received a pension for many years before his death, which occurred in Liver- more in January, 1842. He was a sincere and devoted Baptist. Dea. Fisher's wife was Jerusha Keene, of Taunton, Mass. She died in June, 1840. They had eight children, of whom Grinfill, b. 1795, Sally, b. 1798, Priscilla, b. 1801, and Salome, b. 1806, are (1874) living.
DAVID LEARNED came to Livermore about the year 1790. He was from Oxford, Mass., and a son of Gen. Ebenezer Learned, an of- ficer in the Revolutionary war. Gen. Ebenezer Learned was one of the proprietors of this town, in which David and a brother, Haines, had lots. David's lot was that now occupied by Capt. Otis Pray and Israel Washburn. Haines' lot was on the east side of the river. Haines was in Shay's rebellion, and did not come to Maine until sev- eral years after David. David was the first trader in town. Rev. Paul Coffin, in his Missionary Journal for 1800, says that he sold goods that summer "to the amount of $500.00." It was not far from this time that he built the saw-mill at the outlet of Bartlett's Pond. He was a brigadier-general in the Massachusetts Militia, and the first sheriff of Oxford County, as his nearest neighbor, Dr. Ham- lin, was the first clerk of the courts for the county. At the election succeeding the incorporation of the town he was chosen one of the selectmen, and was a representative in the legislature in 1800 and 1801. He sold the southerly part of the farm upon which he first settled to Col. Bartholomew Woodbury, of Sutton, Mass., and the northerly part to Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, and built on an adjoining lot a fine house, at the time remarkable as having the largest panes of window glass of any house in the county. When Artemas Leonard bought Dr. Hamlin's place in 1805, he (Leonard) removed the store which had been built by Gen. Learned to the spot near the Hamlin house, on which it stood till after 1830, and occupied it till 1809. when he sold it to Israel Washburn. Gen. Learned died in 1811, , aged forty-four years, on a voyage from New Orleans to Boston. He was an intelligent man and of easy manners. Mr. Coffin, in the journal of his tour in 1798, has this entry : " Visited David
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
Learned's family, and being unwell spent the day with this pleasant and serious couple ; gave them instruction and Hemmenway's ser- mon."
Gen. Learned gave the name Oxford to the county upon its incor- poration, in honor of the town of his birth. His widow, Mary (Hurd) Learned, died in Livermore, Jan. 14, 1863, at the advanced age of ninety-seven years and four months. She retained her facul- ties to the time of her death, and to the very last took a deep interest in the fortunes of the Union cause. Her ardent wish that she might live to see its triumph was not granted. Their children were Maria, Samuel, Charles D., and Eliza.
Maria married Publius R. R. Pray, who had removed to Liver- more with his brothers, Ephraim and Otis, about 1810. He after- wards studied law in the State of New York with Hon. Samuel Nel- son, late Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and settled in Pearlington, Miss., where he became an eminent jurist. He was one of the Judges of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, and published the Revised Statutes of the State in 1836. He died Jan. 11, 1840. Samuel went South nearly half a century ago, and of his history little is known. Charles D. is a lawyer in Mississippi. Eliza died unmarried, in Livermore, June 17, 1870. Mrs. Learned had a brother (William Hurd) who made a farm and built a house at the head of Bartlett's Pond, but who remained in town only a few years.
THOMAS CHASE moved to Livermore September, 1790. He was born in Tisbury (Martha's Vineyard) Sept. 30, 1755, died in Liver- more, April, 1844. He married Desire Luce, March 8, 1781. She died in 1851. In early life he was a sailor and was with John Paul Jones. He was an intelligent man and of the strictest integrity. A correspondent of the Bangor Whig visited Mr. Chase when the lat- ter was eighty-eight years of age. From his letter the following extract is made : "He delights to tell the history of his early life, to relate the story of liis numerous adventures and sufferings. But it is when he comes to speak of Paul Jones and his daring exploits; when he is describing, it may be, the engagement between the Rich- ard and the Serapis, that his eye kindles and sparkles, and his voice, broken and almost inaudible before, becomes strong and clear, and he is ready to shoulder his crutch and show how ships were taken seventy years ago.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
The outlines of his story, as near as I can recollect, are as follows : A privateer came to the Vineyard in the early days of the Revolu- tion for the purpose of engaging a number of men to go out cruising on the coast. Chase and about a dozen other young men joined the ship. After they had sailed they were, for the first time, informed that their destination was the coast of England. At this intelligence they were " a good deal struck up," though there were a few who were not displeased with the idea of going abroad, and among this number was Chase, who had a love of adventure and a strong desire to see foreign countries.
They had not been long on the English coast before they discov- ered a British man-of-war much too strong and powerful for them. As they were not discovered for some time they hoped to escape, but this hope was not fulfilled, and they were finally captured. In a few days the prisoners were put into another ship, and were in three different ships in the course of four months, in one of which their sufferings were very great, it having on board over fourteen hundred souls-men, women, and children, French and Americans. The ship was foul, the prisoners were dirty, many were sick, and large num- bers died. At last the American prisoners were landed at Plymouth, England, and carried before two justices and a clerk and arraigned for treason. Witnesses were examined and they were told that they would be committed to "Mill Prison on suspicion of treason against his most Gracious Majesty, George the Third, and would there await their trial or his Majesty's most gracious pardon." They were committed to this famous (or infamous) prison and kept there twenty-three months, during which time they underwent almost in- credible privations and sufferings. At the end of twenty-three months (two years and a quarter after they were made prisoners) they were exchanged for British prisoners and sent to France, and were landed at a small town about ten miles below Nantes. Here they found a recruiting ship and were persuaded to enlist for the purpose of filling the crews required for the squadron then fitting out at L'Orient for John Paul Jones.
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