USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Livermore > Notes, historical, descriptive, and personal, of Livermore, in Androscoggin (formerly in Oxford) county, Maine > Part 4
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
38
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
County, and member of the executive council of the State and of the legislature from Bangor, in which city he resides. Lee, b. July 14, 1806, was a colonel in the Maine militia, State senator, and county commissioner for Androscoggin County. He was colonel of the Eighth Regiment Maine Volunteers in the late civil war. Colonel Strickland was a resident of Livermore and one of the directors of the Androscoggin Valley Railroad Company. He died in the autumn of 1873, leaving three sons, Drs. Isaac Strickland, of Ban- gor, and Charles L. Strickland, of Charlottetown, P. E. Island ; and Augustus Strickland, of Livermore.
NATHANIEL PERLEY, EsQ., was a native of Gray, and a son of the Rev. Samuel Perley. He settled in the last century in the south part of the town, near the Turner line. He was a justice of the peace for many years. He died in 1844. Three of his children are living, Nathaniel, in Illinois, Ulmer, in Livermore, and Maria, who married Samuel Fernald, also in Livermore.
SIMEON HOWARD moved from Sutton, Mass. He had a farm near the old Methodist meeting-house. It is now owned by Mrs. J. W. Bigelow. He was a thrifty man, and built a large house and exten- sive out-buildings. He died in 1840.
ABRAM, JOHN, and ISAAC FULLER came from Harwich, Mass., to Winthrop, and in 1795 moved to Livermore. ABRAM settled near the Ferry, on the east side of the river, where he lived many years, but about 1833 went to Lagrange, Penobscot County, where several of his sons had already gone.
JOHN owned the mills north of the Intervale, called Fuller's Mills. He died in Livermore, 1829, at the age of eighty-five.
ISAAC kept the Ferry at the Intervale for many years. He died March 28, 1851, eighty-two years old. He was a Revolutionary soldier.
CAPT. PETER HAINES was born in Gilmanton, N. H., in 1766, and moved from Readfield in 1796 and settled on the east side of the Androscoggin River, where he had a large and good farm. He was a selectman of the town for several years and held many other of. fices. He died November, 1843. He raised a family of fourteen
39
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
children, ten of whom are now living. His sister, Joanna, married Daniel Evans, father of the late Hon. George Evans, LL. D. The history of the family of Capt. Haines is more immediately connected with that of East Livermore, where his sons, Francis F., Sullivan, and Columbus, now reside ; a daughter was the first wife of the Rev. George Bates.
ASA BARTLETT, a native of Holden, Mass., came from that town to Livermore before 1800. He lived on the farm on the northerly shore of Bartlett's Pond, now owned by Charles Fuller. He moved to Harmony, Piscataquis County, and died there in 1839. His wid- ow, Hannah (Fuller) Bartlett, died in 1861. Of his children, Ozias, Nathan, Cyrus, and Cyrena are living. Ozias and Cyrus in Harmo- ny, Nathan in Livermore, and Cyrena in Sidney, Kennebec County. The saw-mill built by Gen. Learned at the outlet of Bartlett's Pond was managed by Mr. Bartlett for many years.
About the beginning of the century Col. Bartholomew Woodbury came from Sutton, and purchased the farm on which Capt. Otis Pray now lives. With him, or soon afterwards, came Thomas and David Rich. Col. Woodbury returned to Massachusetts after a resi- dence of a few years in Livermore, but the Riches remained perma- nently and were excellent citizens.
JACOB BEMIS moved to Livermore from Sutton, Mass., very early in the present century. His wife, a sister of the late Simeon How- ard, is now living (on the farm where her husband settled seventy years ago), at the great age of ninety-two years, in the enjoyment of good health. She reads the public journals and takes a lively in- terest in what is going on in the world around her. Mr. Bemis died July 20, 1858.
JESSE KIDDER, from Oxford, Mass., was in Livermore as early as 1802. He owned the farm now the property of John White, Esq., with whom his widow, in the one hundred and third year of her age, has her home.
JOHN BIGELOW moved from Worcester in the same year. His sons, Andrew, John Warren, Howard, and Leander, were all good farmers and settled in the town. John Warren, born July 15, 1807,
40
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
married Osca, second daughter of Dr. Benjamin Bradford, and died Feb. 26, 1856. He was an intelligent, enterprising man and a good citizen. He left several children.
GEORGE CHANDLER was born in Duxbury, Mass., Sept. 6, 1782, and died in Livermore, after a residence in it of nearly seventy years, Aug. 20, 1871. He was a quiet man, well informed, and of the stanchest integrity. He lived for many years on the farm now owned by James M. Philoon, son of JAMES PHILOON, a native of the county of Armah, Ireland, who came to Livermore in 1817 from Abington, Mass. The latter died in 1845. His widow, Christiania (Burrell), died in 1859. His third son, Gridley Thaxter, is a pros- perous farmer in Livermore. John, the second son, lives in Massa- chusetts.
IRA THOMPSON was born at Middleboro, Mass., Aug. 3, 1780, and his wife, Sophia Drew, was born at Kingston, Mass., Oct. 15, 1782. He settled in Livermore in March, 1803, on one of the best farms in town, on which he resided until his death, Feb. 13, 1857. It was near the Corner, or North Livermore. His wife died June 29, 1856. They had eleven children, all of whom are living, viz .: Ira D., a farmer in Livermore; Susan D., who married Rev. Charles Miller ; Elbridge G., now of Foxcroft; Clarinda M., wife of John Monroe ; Arad, a prominent citizen of Bangor; Boadicea L.,* who married, first, Abner S. Aldrich, and afterwards George W. Pierpont; Eras- tus, a shoe manufacturer in Hopkinton, Mass .; Abby S., who married the Hon. Joseph S. Monroe; Job D., who lives on the old farm ; Charles O., a merchant of Chicago, and Mary, wife of William Wyman, of Livermore.
Mr. Thompson was captain of the north militia company in 1816, and a representative in legislature in 1820. For more than thirty years he was a deacon of the First Baptist Church.
NAPHTALI COFFIN was born in Wiscasset, April 16, 1776, and came to Livermore in the summer of 1799. He owned the farm near the Fish Meadow where Capt. Hezekiah Atwood lived for many years. His children were William, Nancy, Stephen, Warren, Sally, Elbridge G., Louisa, Lorenzo B., Calvin, Angela, Charles
*Boadicea died in the fall of 1873.
41
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
R., Abby Vesta, twelve in all. He died at Livermore Falls Oct. 4, 1870, one of the numerous company of Livermore men and women who have passed the boundary of four score years and ten.
DEA. BENJAMIN TRUE was a farmer and much respected.
COL. JOSIAH HOBBS resided near the Turner line on a good farm. It was in the immediate neighborhood of Elder Norton's meeting- house. He was a well informed man, much respected, and not un- frequently in town office.
DANIEL BRIGGS had a productive farm on Butter Hill, the same once owned by CAPT. SAMUEL PUMPELLY. Pumpelly, or Pilley as he was familiarly called, was a man of strong mind and great mother wit; but he suffered from a feeling, which prevailed to some extent among his acquaintances, that his principles were upon a lower plane than his natural gifts. When a boy, living in Turner (from which town he moved to Livermore and to which he afterwards returned) Dr. Dix and party, proprietors of the present town of Dixfield, ar- rived at Major Leavitt's inn en route to their township. They had traveled so far in carriages, but from the condition of the roads were here obliged to take saddles, and several were wanted. Pumpelly, a lad of a dozen years, passed the entire night in hunting for saddles and bringing them to the tavern, and his services were recognized by the doctor, as he was about to depart in the morning, by his placing in the boy's hand a piece of silver coin known in those days as a fourpence ha'penny, worth six and a quarter cents. Pilley eyed it sharply as the doctor moved away, when he called to him in a loud voice to " come back and get his change."
For many years after the organization of the new county the ses- sions of the courts at Paris were largely attended, the custom being for everybody who could spare the time and afford the expense, to visit Paris court week. Pilley, who was a sort of pettifogger, was always in attendance. The throng of people was so great that the boarding houses were crowded with guests who, as a rule, were lodged two in a bed. But Pilley, who was of most exaggerated obesity, ob- structed this practice, so far as he was concerned himself, by sleeping without his shirt. Three hundred pounds avoirdupois, in this form, was not apt to attract a bed-fellow. Hiram Briggs, who married Bethia, daughter of Capt. Otis Pray, a good farmer, owns this farm.
42
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
BENJAMIN WINSLOW, from Freetown, Bristol County, was here very early in this century. He had a large farm between the Corner and the Jay line.
PEREZ ELLIS, from Raynham, in the same county, first settled on the farm near the Corner afterward owned and occupied so long by Dea. Ira Thompson.
Besides these there were in town James Timberlake, from Rayn- ham, farmer and teamster on the south road; Capt. John Leavitt, from Rochester, Mass., farmer and drover and a prominent citizen ; Solomon Edes and Capt. Charles J. Baker, whose farms were near that of Mr. Bigelow ; Isaac Fuller, whose farm was on the souther- ly slope of Fuller's Hill and next adjoining that now owned by John Sanders ; Ichabod Boothby, for many years a stage-driver between Portland and Boston, whose house was in the Perley neighborhood ; Thomas and Hezekiah Bryant, whose farms were in the same neighborhood ; Isaac Hamlin, half brother of Dr. Cyrus, who lived under the shadow of Hamlin's Hill, or Mount Sier, as it was chris- tened by Thomas Coolridge, jr .; Samuel Beals and David S. Whit- man, on the west road; Elisha Chenery, whose house was above the Corner; Deacon John Elliot and William Thompson, who lived in the north part of the town; Rufus Hewett, from Raynham, whose farm was on the south road; James Walker, a good farmer, on the road from the Corner to Hillman's Ferry, and others, to refer to whom would occupy more space than the limits set to these notes will admit, who moved to this town and became residents therein in the earlier days of its history.
Notices of other early settlers (and, in a few instances, fuller sketches of persons mentioned in this place) will be found in subse- quent chapters. Undoubtedly, many persons and families, of whom some record ought to be preserved, have been overlooked in the preparation of these notes. For such omissions, want of recollection, and failure of persons who could do so to furnish the necessary in- formation, must be pleaded in explanation and excuse.
43
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
CHAPTER IV.
INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS. BUSINESS. COURSE OF POPULATION.
THE leading interest of this town, as of the great majority of the country towns in the State, is agriculture. There are in it many good farms and relatively few poor ones; yet there are no great farms, none of extraordinary extent or productiveness, and no farm- ers of large wealth. There are, however, many farmers who are " well-to-do," and who, in earlier times, would have been called rich. If there is not great wealth, there is but little poverty. The valua- tion of the town in 1870 was $524,260.00. This, in a population of less than 1,500, when the basis of such valuation is understood, and when it is remembered that this aggregate includes no overgrown estates, indicates a thriving and independent community-such a community as is the strength and hope of a country like ours.
Of the facilities that have been provided, and the trades and oc- cupations that have been supplied, for the wants and convenience of the town, a brief account will now be given, with notices of some of the more prominent individuals who have been connected with them, so far as the space that can be spared for the purpose will per- mit.
MILLS.
The first mills in town were a saw-mill and grist-mill, erected by Dea. Livermore, as early, probably, as 1782 or 1783, near the outlet of Long Pond. The mills were afterwards known as Gibbs' mills. He sold them to Otis Robinson ; Robinson sold one-half to Henry Bond, who reconveyed to Robinson; Robinson then sold the whole to Lieut. Samuel Benjamin; Benjamin sold to Nathaniel Dailey ; Dailey to James Parker; Parker to Eli Putnam; Putnam to Thomas Rich, and Rich to Jacob Gibbs, by whose name they have been known for half a century.
Mills at the Falls, on the east side of the river, were erected two
44
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
years afterwards by Dea. Livermore and sold to Thomas Davis ; Davis sold them to William Chenery and Dwight Stone. A saw- mill, fulling-mill, and carding-mill were erected by John Fuller, above the Intervale, on the Gibbs' mills stream, in 1812, and subse- quently a grist-mill. A saw-mill was built by Gen. Learned, over seventy years ago, at the outlet of Bartlett's Pond. A fulling-mill and saw-mill were erected in 1804, by Joseph Horsley, on Bog Brook, a mile from its entrance into the stream that issues from Brettun's Pond. This mill attracted custom from a great distance. Mills were built by Dea. Livermore at the outlet of this pond. He sold them to Capt. Henry Sawtelle; Sawtelle sold them to Nezer Dailey, and Dailey to William H. Brettun, who owned them for many years. At this place, now known as Livermore Village, but formerly called " Brettun's Mills," are two saw-mills, a grist-mill, and other machinery moved by water power; and a large mill with steam power, which is used in various manufactures, has recently been built by Theodore Russell, a gentleman of enterprise and busi- ness activity. About 1830 there was considerable excitement in this neighborhood on the subject of hemp growing, and a large mill for the preparation of hemp for the market was built at the Falls, on the west side of the river, by F. F. Haines, Esq., and others. But owing to the exhausting effect of the crop upon the land, and the want of remunerative sales, the business was continued but a few years, and the mill was converted to other uses. There was, many years ago, a saw-mill in the north-west corner of the town, near the Canton line.
CARPENTERS.
DAVID MORSE was a carpenter and house joiner, but did several kinds of work beside. He was from Sherburne, Mass., and was among the early settlers in Livermore. He moved to Lexington, Somerset County, many years ago, where he was a justice of the peace. He was a man of great ingenuity. His terms were "six shillings a day for joiner work, seven shillings for mason work, and eight shillings for mill work." Jonathan Morse, the blacksmith, was his brother. His residence was in the south part of the town, on the old main road, near his brother. Col. Elias Morse, also a car- penter, was his son. The place is now owned by Ira D. Thompson and Lysander Fernald. There were carpenters and joiners in town
45
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
before Mr. Morse, as there were several during his time, and have been many since.
Before him were THOMAS WING, who was, also, a mill-wright, and ISAIAH KEITH.
EBENEZER HINDS, JR., came after him and did a good deal of work here in the early part of the century. He was from Freetown, Mass., where he was born Oct. 14, 1775, and arrived in Livermore in July, 1801. He had twelve children, viz .: Ebenezer, Salome, Gil- bert, Amy, Maria, Hannah, Leonard, Clarissa, Albert, Elbridge P., and Elbridge C., all of whom except Elbridge P., who died in in- fancy, are now (1873) living. He gave the first Republican vote cast in the town.
NATHANIEL SOPER, ABNER HOLMAN, and SAMUEL P. HOLMAN were much employed as carpenters and joiners, as was OBEDEDOM BROWN, who possessed something of the humor of Artemus Ward, to whom he was uncle. In face, and particularly in expression, he bore a strong resemblance to Charles Dickens, the novelist.
SAMUEL BOOTHBY, from Woolwich, and ALFRED PARKER, who was born in Minot in 1788, were carpenters. Mr. Parker married Ruth Pray and had several children. He came to Livermore with his father, who remained in town but a few years, in 1800. His residence is in the Gibbs' neighborhood. His son, Publius, was an artist of considerable repute.
ZEBEDEE ROSE, from Dighton, Mass., who had at one period of his life followed the seas, was a carpenter. He was an early settler, and his home was in the neighborhood of Gibbs' Mills. He married the widow of Henry Bond and had five children, of whom Zebedee, George, and Charles are now residents of Livermore.
APOLLOS JONES, from Taunton, who married a sister of Thomas Chase, the elder, and had a family of fifteen children, was a carpen- ter and lived on the northerly slope of the Fuller Hill.
SAMUEL HERSEY, whose wife was a sister of Mrs. Isaac Livermore, was a carpenter. He moved from Roxbury. Several of his sons are living in this State. Simeon is a trader in Hallowell; Isaac resides in Livermore, and his son, Artemas, who married a daughter of the late Hon. Jairus S. Keith, of Oxford, is a physician of good repute in that town.
46
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
MASONS.
It has already been stated that David Morse worked sometimes as a mason, but this was not his trade or leading employment. PETER HUMPHREY, a native of Oxford, Mass., was the first mason by trade who resided in the town. He came about 1800 and died in a few years. He was a good workman, and first settled on "Butter Hill," and next cleared up the farm where George Chandler lived for many years. His son, John Humphrey, a very intelligent and promising young man, who after his father's death went to live with his uncle, Jesse Kidder, was killed by the falling of a tree while at work in the woods about the year 1828. His widow long survived him.
There have been quite a number of masons living in town since the death of Mr. Humphrey.
BLACKSMITHS.
OTIS ROBINSON was the first blacksmith in town. He became owner of the mills as before related. He sold them, was ordained a Baptist clergyman, and moved to Shapleigh, York County, and from Shapleigh to Salisbury, N. H. Rev. Paul Coffin refers to him in his "missionary tour " in 1800.
CAPT. JONATHAN MORSE was among the earliest blacksmiths who came to Livermore. He seems to have been an old settler when Mr. Coffin first visited the town. He preached at his house and em- ployed him in the line of his trade; he speaks of him as "my friend Morse, the excellent blacksmith." He had great celebrity as a shoer of horses and oxen. His first wife was killed by the fall of his brother's house Aug. 15, 1799. In the summer of 1824 he was thrown from his wagon, near the store of Mr. Washburn, and both his legs were broken. He came from Sherburne, Mass., and died Oct. 30, 1848.
DAVID READ, of Attleborough, Mass., was in Livermore in 1793, and in that year assisted in the organization of the first Baptist Church. He was a blacksmith and had a shop at the Corner. He died in Livermore in April, 1870, at the age of ninety-four. Mr. Read, soon after Dr. Hamlin came to Livermore, pursued, under his instruction, for some time, the study of medicine; but, notwith- standing a strong predilection for this profession, he finally aban- doned the purpose of making this profession his life employment, and returned to his trade as a blacksmith, which he followed until the
47
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
infirmities of age compelled him to give it up. Stillman Read, a much respected citizen, and recently a trader at the Falls, is his son.
DEA. WILLIAM SANDERS had a blacksmith's shop in the southerly part of the town, but he moved to Gibbs' Mills and worked at his trade there for many years.
NATHAN BARTLETT, son of Asa, has been engaged in the trade of a blacksmith, at his shop near Sander's Corner, for half a century.
JEREMIAH BEAN was a well-known blacksmith at the Corner forty years ago.
JAMES H. PUTNAM was a blacksmith, largely employed by Sarson Chase, jr., the carriage and sleigh maker, whose shop was near the old Learned mansion.
EBENEZER PRAY, a brother of Capt. Otis Pray, carried on this trade for a few years in the shop that had been occupied by Putnam. He removed to Worcester, Mass., a quarter of a century ago.
TANNERS.
COL. JESSE STONE was very early in Livermore and carried on the business of tanning at North Livermore, where also he kept for many years a tavern. He came from Ward, Mass .; was born Nov. 11, 1765, and died Feb. 28, 1857. He was a selectman as early as 1802 and frequently afterwards; was a justice of the peace and postmaster at the North Livermore office. Of his sons, Dwight, William, and Matthew Merry are living. William was a graduate of Bowdoin College and studied law in Hallowell with the Hon. Peleg Sprague, commenced business at West Prospect (now Sears- port), and then moved to the State of Mississippi. Dwight resides in Massachusetts, and Matthew M. at Livermore Falls.
CAPTAIN ALPHEUS KENDALL (recently deceased at Dexter, Me.,) built the second tannery in town. It was near the outlet of Bart- lett's Pond. He was an excellent workman, and a high-toned man. He was captain of the Livermore company of cavalry. His only surviving son, Stedman, lives in Dexter.
JOHN SMITH moved from Brentwood, N. H., in 1816, and estab- lished himself on the west side of the river, near the Falls, as a tanner. The business has been large and profitable .. Mr. Smith's wife, Mary Sanborn, died in November, 1869. He is a man of en- terprise and was greatly instrumental in effecting the construction of the Androscoggin Railroad.
48
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
CALEB SMITH, son of the former, carries on the tanning business in the old yard of his father, and like his father is a useful and enter- prising citizen. He is the present representative of Livermore in the State legislature.
SADDLER.
CAPT. SIMEON WATERS, a native of Sutton, Mass., was by trade a saddler. He settled in Livermore March 16, 1802, and commenced work at his trade. He soon became a farmer, also, and provided himself with one of the largest and best farms in the town, situated on the southerly side of the hill which has been known sometimes as Lovewell's, sometimes as Waters', Hill. He was the second capt- ain of the Livermore company of cavalry; was elected a representa- tive from Livermore in the legislature of Massachusetts in 1806, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1812, 1814, 1815, 1816, and 1818. He served fre- quently as a town officer. He survived his wife (Betsey Marble) many years, dying March 27, 1866, aged ninety-four years and ten months. His surviving children are Clarendon, who lives on the old farm; Brooksa and Almira, who reside in Livermore, on the old Learned place; Cordelia, who married Rev. Peter Hassinger, and is settled in Abington, Illinois; Abigail, wife of Bela T. Bicknell, of Bath, Me .; Simeon, who lives in Kansas, and Emeretta, a teacher in St. Louis, Mo.
SHOEMAKERS.
SYLVESTER NORTON and DEA. SARSON CHASE were among the first shoemakers in town. Norton's shop was near the Corner, and Chase had a shop on his farm, on the northerly slope of Lovewell's Hill. Mr. Chase's children were Jane, who married Isaac Haskell, of New Gloucester; Mayhew,* who was a shoemaker and now lives at the Falls; Sarson, now employed at the navy yard in Charles- town, and Mary, who married Charles Howard.
JOHN SANDERS, whose shop was near Monroe's, was a man of great capacity for doing work. Of his children now living John is a prosperous farmer and owns the large farm formerly held by Capt. Daniel Coolidge; Emeline married William Poole and lives on the Capt. Baker farm in Livermore. IRA TOWLE worked with Sanders.
*Mr. Chase died February, 1874.
49
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
SAMUEL HARMON and THOMAS LORD, a pensioner of the war of 1812, were in this business. It is now carried on quite extensively for the trade at the village. SUMNER SOULE & Co. employ in it (1873) one hundred hands, and S. V. YOUNG twenty.
MILL-WRIGHTS.
THOMAS WING was the first mill-wright in town and lived at Brettun's Mills.
EPHRAIM and OTIS PRAY came from Oxford, Mass., in 1810, and were extensively engaged as mill-wrights in Livermore and the neighboring towns, and were superior workmen. Their brother, Publius R. R., was an apprentice with them a short time. Otis was a captain of the Livermore cavalry company, and became a farmer. He is now living at a ripe old age on the farm which he has occu- pied for more than sixty years .* He married Bethia Weeks, of Wayne, and after her decease, her sister, Eliza Weeks, who survives him. His son, Albert C. Pray, who was in the civil war and has been a repre- sentative to the State legislature, lives on the same farm. Another son, Otis Arkwright, is a successful business man in Minneapolis. His brother, Ephraim, died many years ago. A daughter, Rosetta, married Chandler, and lives in Bridgwater, Me. Drusilla, the second daughter, married Getchell, and lives in Minnesota, and Bethia, the youngest, is the wife of Hiram Briggs, of Livermore.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.