USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine > Part 73
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Benjamin and Stephen, sons of the elder John, were respect- able merchants before the revolution ; Benjamin died in Fal- mouth, to which place he had removed; both of them left children, some of whom in each branch are now surviving.
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Waldo. The Waldo family had great influence in the affairs of our town forty years previous to the revolution. General Samuel Waldo, the first of the name who took special interest in our affairs, was son of Jonathan Waldo, a wealthy merchant of Boston, and was born in England in 1696. His father was a large owner of land in Maine, including a portion of the Waldo patent, all which he bequeatlied to his son Samuel, and died May 26, 1731. In May of the same year, Waldo and Thomas Westbrook, with several others, were admitted by the Proprietors of Falmouth to an interest in the common lands, and from that time to his death, which took place suddenly in a fit on the Penobscot river, May 23, 1759, he was busy in the purchase and settlement of his lands in Maine. In 1731, he purchased of the Proprietors of Falmouth eight hund- red acres at Stroudwater ; in 1732 he bought all the interest of Silvanus Davis, an ancient proprietor in the common lands, and made numerous other purchases here which gave him a very extensive domain. In 1752 he went to Scotland, and in 1753 he sent his son Samuel to Germany, to procure emigrants for the settlement of the Waldo patent; he was the first to commence the manufacture of lime in Thomaston, which in the early process was shipped to Boston in hogsheads. He commanded a regiment and distinguished himself in the cap- ture of Louisburg, and in 1747 he was appointed by Masssa- chusetts at the head of an expedition against Crown Point. In the midst of a brilliant career, and of an active and useful life, he was suddenly cut down, to the great loss and regret of the communities of Maine and Massachusetts. He left two sons, Samuel and Francis; and two daughters, Lucy, married to Isaac Winslow of Roxbury, who, I think, was the ancestor of the United States naval commander, that has recently dis- tinguished himself by sinking the pirate ship Alabama ; and Hannah, married to Thomas Flucker, who were the parents of Lucy, the wife of General Knox. General Waldo was a man of commanding presence, tall, stout, and of dark complexion.
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He was an accomplished gentleman, active and intelligent, im- proved by foreign travel, having crossed the Atlantic fifteen times.
Both of his sons settled in Portland ; of Francis I have spoken frequently in preceding pages. Samuel was born in Boston in 1721, graduated at Harvard College in 1743, and immedi- ately after came to Portland and was elected in 1744, represen- tative to the General Court. In 1753 he went to Germany and procured a large number of emigrants for the Waldo patent, whose descendants now largely and happily occupy that and surrounding territory. In August, 1760, he married Olive Grizzell of Boston, who died within the year, and in Decem- ber, 1761, he married Sarah Erving, daughter of the Hon. John Erving of Boston. His first wife addressed the following note to Rev. Mr. Smith. "Falmouth, October 25, 1760. Rev. Sir: Having for sometime past been communicants in the church, whereof Dr. Sewall is pastor, we would hereby signify our desire to join with your church in partaking of the divine institution of the Lord's Supper. We are, Rev, Sir, Yours etc., Grizzell Waldo, Mary Oliver." He had by his second wife, four sons and one daughter, viz., Sally, born November 30, 1762; Samuel, March 4, 1764; John Erving, August 28, 1765; Lucy, August 10, 1766 ; Francis ; all born in Falmouth, and Ralph born in Boston, after his father's death. His widow re- turned to Boston and died in Middletown, Connecticut, in October, 1817. Mr. Waldo lived in a house which stood on Middle street, next below the house of Judge Freeman, now called the "Freeman House." He was representative of the town seven years, first in 1744, when he was but twenty-three years old, and again from 1757 to 1761, and in 1764 and 1765. He was appointed in 1760 the first judge of Probate of the county and held the office at the time of his death, which took place at the age of forty-nine.
His eldest son, Samuel, was the only one of the family who came back to Portland ; he returned and engaged in business
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here until his death, October 19, 1798, at the age of thirty-four years. He lived in the house which stands on the north-cast corner of Temple and Congress streets, opposite the stone church. His wife was Sarah Tyng, by whom he had three sons and one daughter, viz., Samuel, Francis, William, and Sally, none of whom, we believe, are living. His widow in 1804 married Salmon Chase, the distinguished lawyer, for her sec- ond husband ; he left her a second time a widow, August 10, 1806, with one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Dr. Howard of Boston, and died in 1864. The Waldo name does not now exist here.
Wallon. Two distinct families of this name lived here ; the first, Peter, was among the early settlers ; he received a grant of a house lot in 1720, and as he had the title of Mr. applied to him, I infer he was a man of some consequence. He was town and parish clerk, a joiner by trade, and worked on the old meeting-house, which stood on the corner of Middle and India streets. He died March 28, 1733, aged forty-two, with- out issue or relatives. His widow, Mary, married Joseph Pitman of Falmouth. The next comer of the name, was Mark, who was born in the Isle of Shoals, June 1, 1770, and came here 1784. He was by trade a joiner, and was brought up by Judge Sewall of York. He was a grandson of the Rev. Mr. Tucke of the Isle of Shoals, a useful minister who died in 1773. In January, 1796, Mr. Walton married Ann, a daugh- ter of Hugh Barbour, one of our early settlers, who dying No- vember 3, 1798, he married in 1800 her sister Hannah, who died in 1803, and in 1805 he married Sally Newman. He died November 24, 1858, at the age of eighty-six, an honest man, intelligent and faithful. His children by his first wife were, Henry, and John Tucke, named for his grandfather, both living, the latter is well known in our city and vicinity as the eloquent advocate of temperance. Two sons were also the issue of the second marriage, Joseph Barbour and Moses N., both dead and have no issue. By the third wife he left four
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children, viz., Ann ; Hannah, the widow of the late William Capen; Mark, lately deceased ; William, living in Cape Eliza- beth, and Charles P., in Gardiner.
Watts, Dr. Edward, was son of Samuel Watts of Chelsea, who was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Massachu- setts from 1748 to 1770, when he died. Edward was a sur- geon and physician, in which capacity he was stationed at Fort Pownal in 1759, under Brigadier Preble, from which he wrote to Mr. Longfellow, June 7, that he expected to sail for Casco by the first of July. On the 22d of May, 1765, he married Mary, a daughter of Thomas Oxnard of Boston and sister of Thomas and Edward Oxnard, and the same year came to Fal- mouth, where he opened an apothecary shop, and practiced his profession, having for competitors the younger Dr. Coffin and Dr. John Lowther, a new-comer from England. He soon after built the three-story wooden house on Middle street, which was then the largest and most conspicuous in town; the front yard extending to the street and surrounded by a handsome fence. The house may still be seen, altered, but not improved, on Lime street, opposite the Post-office, and occupied as a tav- ern. In 1773, Dr. Watts purchased a tract of five acres of land now in the heart of the city, extending from Congress to Spring street, and from near Center street to near Oak street. He opened Brown street through it, which was called first, Watts lane, and then Beaver street, and also caused Free street to be opened through his land, which was first called Wind- mill lane, because it led to the Windmill which stood on the rocky hill now occupied by the Anderson house. He parceled this tract out in house lots, after the revolution, and it is now held under his title.
Dr. Watts died suddenly at Wells, as he was on his return from Boston, June 9, 1799; and his widow died suddenly Jan- uary 19, 1812, at the age of seventy. Their children were Thomas Oxnard, born March 6, 1776, died July, 1790; Edward, May 11, 1768, sailed as master of a vessel, and never was
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heard from ; Sarah, born June 9, 1770, married Jonas Clark, then a trader in Portland, but who soon after moved to Ken- nebunk and was collector of the customs in 1800, and judge of Probate of York county from 1818 to 1828; she died No- vember 5, 1842. George, born July 20, 1775, lost at sea. John Osborne, April 5, 1777, a trader in Portland, married Nabby Cheney of Boston in 1800, and died December 29, 1802. Francis, born January 21, 1780, died in Boston, April 6, 1845, was the father of Francis O. Watts, a respected lawyer in Bos- ton, lately deceased. Polly, born December 4, 1782, married Captain John L. Lewis of Portland and died May 8, 1844. Lucy, who married Tilly M. Munroe, a trader in Portland, was the last survivor of the family.
The sister of Judge Samuel Watts, married Dr. Danforth, the eminent and eccentric physician of Boston.
Weeks, William, was admitted an inhabitant December 14, 1727, on paying ten pounds. He lived first on Chebeag Island, but moved to town in 1744, and lived in the fields near where High street passes, where he died in 1749 or 1750. His chil- dren were William, Lemuel, Abigail, Esther, and Ann; Will- iam married Rebecca Tuttle in 1749; Lemuel married Peggy Gooding, a daughter of James Gooding, in 1750 ; Ann married Enoch Moody in 1750; Esther married Stephen Woodman in 1752, and died without issue ; and Abigail married Benjamin Mussey. Lemuel left three sons, viz., Lemuel, James, and Joseph ; and two daughters, Elizabeth, married to Jonathan Bryant in 1771, and Sarah, married to Daniel Freeman in 1789. The issue of Ann, Abigail, Lemuel, Joseph, and Eliza- beth are now living among us.
Wheeler, Henry, came from Charlestown, Massachusetts, and was admitted an inhabitant of Falmouth in 1729, and was probably married at that time; his wife Sarah died in 1736, aged forty-one. He married for his second wife, Mary, the widow of John East in 1736, and occupied the house which had formerly been East's, in India street. He was by trade a
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blacksmith, and a very active and useful man in the affairs of the town ; was many years justice of the peace, town treasurer in 1733 and 1734, and one of the selectmen five years. He died in 1750 in the fifty-eighth year of his age, leaving one son, Henry. His widow married for her third husband, James Gooding in 1753, and died in 1778. Henry, his son, married Mary Gooding, January 3, 1764, who died the next year, and in 1767 he married Mary Lane. Henry, the son of the second Henry, married Mary, a daughter of Major David Bradish, by whom he had one son, named Henry, and three daughters. His male descendants of the name are all dead ; one of his great-granddaughters married Henry Ilsley, Jr., and died in 1864 ; another married Elbridge G. Waterhouse, and both had issue ; a third is unmarried. His granddaughter Elizabeth, daughter of the second Henry, died February, 1864, aged eigh- ty-four, having been three times married, viz., to Cummings, Berry, and Rice.
Winslow, James, was a heel-maker, and came from the old colony before 1728. He was the first person who joined the Quakers in this town and carried all his family with him. His will made in 1765 was proved in 1773 ; his children were Nathan, Benjamin, James, and Job. Job, son of James Wins- low, married Margaret Barbour and had three children, viz., Lorana, married to Daniel Hall; Ruth, married to Hatevil Hall ; the third daughter married David Torrey, 1738.
Nathan, son of Nathan, and grandson of James, was born March 27, O. S., 1743 ; he was a large land speculator and clerk of the Proprietors of Falmouth many years, and their last clerk; he died in 1826.
Winslow, Nathaniel, was among our first settlers, and in 1719 was one of a committee to lay out lots on the Neck ; lie had a grant of an acre lot in 1728, near the fountain in Spring street, which he conveyed the same year to James Winslow. We cannot trace him later than that time, and believe that there are no persons in town who claim descent from him. All
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of the name now. among us derive their origin from James Winslow.
Wiswall, Enoch, was admitted an inhabitant on the payment of ten pounds, August 27, 1727, and had a house lot granted him in the upper end of Fore street, on which he lived, and the same year a three acre lot. He was son of Enoch Wiswall of Dorchester, and with his brother William eame from that place. William also lived on Fore street, on the spot after- ward occupied by his son-in-law, Daniel Brazier. He was drowned December 19, 1794, aged sixty-three. His children were, Elizabeth, born in 1758, married Joseph McKenney ; Enoch, married Jenny Hoit, and died in 1811; William, mar ried Sally Thomes in 1785 ; John, married Polly Hill, and died in 1803 ; Oliver, married Hannah McKenney ; Dorcas, mar- ried Daniel Brazier, December 30, 1788 ; Polly, married, first, Abner McDonald in 1781, second, William Johnson, March 18, 1802; and Elizabeth, who was the last survivor of the children.
Woodbury, Joshua, was admitted an inhabitant December 14, 1727, on the payment of ten pounds to the town treasury ; he settled at Cape Elizabeth. He descended from John Wood- bury, who came from Somersetshire, in England, to Cape Ann, to form a fishing establishment there with Roger Conant, in 1624 ; and who afterward moved to Beverly, and died in 1641. His son Humphrey settled in Beverly, and had a son Humphrey and several other children. It is from John that all of the name in this part of the country descended. Joshua, the first settler here, was married when he came; he died in 1749, leav- ing a widow Sarah, and sons Joshua, Peter, and John, and daughters Mary, married to Jonathan Lovitt in 1736; Mehita- ble to John Robinson, 1738; Sarah to Daniel Sawyer, 1739; and Ann. His son Joshua married Mary Cobb in 1737 ; Peter married Hannah White, a daughter of John White, in 1752. Israel Woodbury married Ann, another daughter of John White ; and Andrew Crockett married Abigail, another daughter
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of that old settler at Cape Elizabeth, who was son of the Rev. John White, of Gloucester, Cape Ann, and born in Gloucester, in 1704, admitted an inhabitant of Falmouth in 1728. Mem- bers of the White family were settled in Cape Elizabeth pre- vious to the second Indian war, in which one of them was killed. John White was settled near Simonton's cove, and his property there was divided among his children. William White, another son of Rev. John, came with his brother John to Falmouth, married Christian Simonton in 1736, and died leaving seven children. The Simonton, White, and Woodbury property, lay about the cove; part of it was sold to the Thrashers, Benjamin and Ebenezer, and on part of it Fort Preble is erected. Capt. William Woodbury, who died in this city, April 29, 1861, in the ninetieth year of his age, was son of Israel Woodbury, above named, and Ann White, and was consequently great-grandson of the Rev. John White. Capt. Woodbury was born in Cape Elizabeth, October 2, 1772, and as were most of the Cape Elizabeth boys, was brought up at sea. He was for many years one of the most able and suc- cessful shipmasters out of this port. Honest, temperate, faithful, and determined, he pursued his occupation steadily and prudently for the best interest of his employers, and then retired from the sea with a capital sufficient to conduct com- mercial enterprises. He was of that noble company of ship- masters, who, well seasoned and disciplined on the ocean, took in sail and moored in safe anchorage at home - the Tuckers, Freemans, Crabtrees, Greeleys, Merrills, Musseys, Mountforts, Weekses, Choates, McLellans ; and adorned their mercantile lives by the same good qualities which had advanced them in their early profession. Capt. Woodbury was the prime mover in establishing a marine railway here in 1826, which for thir- ty years proved a most successful enterprise. He was also twenty-seven years president of the Merchants Bank. In private life and in every capacity, he was upright, fearless, and honest. In 1798 he married Mary, a daughter of Capt. Wm.
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Hoole, who came here from Boston previous to the revolution, with whom he lived happily for sixty-three years, and who survives him. By her he had one son, William W., a merchant and now president of the Ocean Insurance Co., and five daughters, one married to Mr. Mitchell, of North Yarmouth, who are both dead, leaving one son ; one married Daniel F. Emery of this city ; another married Joseph W. Woodbury ; and two daughters unmarried.
Woodman. Two of this name came from Newbury, prior to the revolution. Stephen, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Longfellow Woodman, was born in Newbury, February 23, 1728. His mother was a daughter of William Longfellow and Anne Sewall, born 1688, married to Woodman, March 1, 1711. Stephen, their son, married in 1752, Esther, a daughter of William Weeks, and died without issue, January 23, 1790. Benjamin, the other early settler was son of David Woodman, of Newbury, and grandson of Benjamin and Elizabeth Long- fellow Woodman. He was a trader on Fore street. Benjamin married Mary Freeman, February 25, 1781, and died April 20, 1789, leaving one son, John, who will be remembered by our inhabitants forty years ago, as an admirable singer, and a genial man. He was afterward cashier of the bank at East- port, where he died in 1832, aged fifty, unmarried.
Correction. After my notice of Joseph Noyes, son of Josiah, on page 827, had passed through the press, I received some facts which enable me to correct that article. Joseph Noyes was born September 14, 1740, and was three times married ; his first wife was Anne Moody, of Newbury, to whom he was married by Rev. Mr. Smith, in 1763 ; she died within a year. of the marriage, and left no issue. His second wife was the widow Stickney, by whom he had two children, Jacob and Anne, as mentioned. His third wife was Elizabeth Turell, of Boston, by whom he had Betsey, married to Capt. William Lowell, and died September 19, 1858, aged seventy-eight ; and
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Josiah, who was lost at sea in 1810, at the age of twenty-eight. She died in Boston in 1815.
Josiah, the father of Joseph, had thirteen children, viz., Hannah, born October 28, 1738, died in childhood. Joseph, September 14, 1740 ; Mary, March 15, 1743, married to Capt. Paul Ellis, killed at the battle of Monmouth, 1778, second, Col. Isaac Parsons, of New Gloucester; Cutting and Benjamin, twins, February 27, 1745, Benjamin died young ; Oliver, Sep- tember 27, 1747, died young ; Jane, June 28, 1749, married, first, Daniel Hutchinson, second, Moses Merrill, of Falmouth ; Hannah, December 2, 1751, married, first, Joseph Quinby, second, Amos Lunt ; Eunice, October 26, 1753, married to Col. James Lunt ; Ann, October 12, 1755 ; Josiah, September 20, 1757 ; Moses, November 16, 1759; Thomas, February 4, 1762, married to Margaret Sutherland. Most of the above sons, and sons-in-law, were active participators in the war of the revolution.
I accidentally omitted from my catalogue of authors and writers, page 752, who had been residents in Portland, the names of Rev. Isaac Weston, Dr. Isaac Ray, and Rev. William B. Hayden.
Mr. Weston was a native of Plymouth, Mass., and was born January 14, 1787. He came to Portland in 1802, and became a clerk for the elder Charles Rogers, and afterward for Robert Boyd. From these positions he engaged in school teaching, first as an assistant at the academy, then as a teacher in town and private schools. In 1816 he commenced the study of divinity with Dr. Payson, and was licensed to preach in July, 1817. From that time to the present, he has been a faithful, devoted minister of the gospel, devoting his leisure hours in · the preparation of essays, interesting reminiscences, and the publication of a biography of his beloved teacher and guide in religious inquiry, the Rev. Dr. Payson. In 1810 he married Mary, a daughter of John and Mary Emmons of this town, by
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whom he had several children, of whom it may be sufficient to say that Edward P. Weston, the present able superintendent of the common schools, and editor of the "Northern Monthly" is one.
Dr. Isaac Ray, was a native of Beverly, Mass., he received his medical degree at Bowdoin, in 1827, and the honorary degree of A. M., from the same institution. He established himself in the practice of his profession at Eastport and Port- land, from which he was drawn in 1841, on the resignation of Dr. Knapp, to the charge of the Maine Asylum for the Insane. Here he distinguished himself so much by his clear insight into the causes of insanity, and his judicious treatment and suggestions, that he was sought by the founders of the Butler Asylum, at Providence, to be its first superintendent, and was sent abroad to inform himself in the most approved modes of constructing and managing such institutions. His able report on that occasion and his numerous other reports both at Au- gusta and Providence, have placed him at the head of profes- sional men in this country on that speciality. The work which first brought him into notice was his treatise on Medical Juris- prudence, a work which has ever since been of standard author- ity in our courts. His last work was a beautiful duodecimo volume on "Mental Hygiene," in which the important subject is treated both in a scientific and popular manner. As a writer, he is perspicuous, intelligent, and forcible. He married Abigail, a daughter of the late John Frothingham, of Portland, by whom he has a son, who, traveling in his own footsteps, has become his assistant at the Butler Asylum.
Rev. Wm. B. Hayden, from a trader in New York has be- come an acceptable preacher in the Swedenborgian, or New Jerusalem Church. He has published several treatises on theological subjects connected with his denominational prefer- ences, which have given him a wide reputation as a sound thinker and clear writer. A further notice of him may be . found in our previous pages.
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Extinct names in Portland. I have been strongly impressed by the fact of the large number of families and names which in the brief period of our history have entirely disappeared from our community. And as I have examined the annals of older countries, the same fact is observable. The proverb among the aristocracy of England is, that fifty miles from London, a family will last a hundred years, at one hundred miles, two hundred years, and so on. All the English duke- doms created before the reign of Charles II. are gone, except Norfolk and Somerset. The House of Lords in 1863, could not claim among its members a single male descendant of any one of the barons chosen to enforce Magna Charta, nor any one who fought at Agincourt in 1415. Aubrey de Vere, the twentieth Earl of Oxford, died in 1702, and with him the oldest title in Europe after an existence of five hundred and forty- seven years. Among scientific and literary men in England who left no family to perpetuate their names, may be men- tioned Shakspeare, Milton, Bacon, Newton, Pope, Mansfield, Pitt, Fox, Hume, Butler, Locke, Bentham, James Watt, and the late George Stephenson. In our town and neighborhood the catalogue of extinct names is quite large, embracing our earliest settlers, Cleeves, Munjoy, Mitton, Tyng, Cammock, Bonighton of Biddeford, Gorges, Gendall, Jocelyn, Powsland, Macworth, Scottow, Pullen, Phippen, Wakely, Winter, Waldo, Bangs, Crandall, Cotton, East, Hobart, Milk, Mosely, Bowdoin, Boutineau, Freese, Royal, Breton, Seacomb, Felt, Oakman, Scales, Thornton, Collier, Wilmot, Wass, Prichard, Shute, Sandford, Howell, Oliver, Hope, Crabtree, Westbrook, Dupee, George, Homer, Cooper, Cobham, Delano, Bradish, Mayo, Pumery, Cromwell, Irish, Jameson, Jefferds, Bish, Stone, Hurst, Shove, Dunevan, Webber, and many others. The list will undoubtedly surprise those who have not given attention to the subject.
APPENDIX.
No. I.
CLEEVES vs. WINTER.
From the Record of a Court held at Saco in 1640.
THE plaintiffe declareth that for ten years last past or thereaboute he was lawfully seized and in peaceable possession of a certain tract of land lyeing within this provinee, knowne by the name of Spurwink the weh. lott of land of two thousand aeres the plaint. held as his owne inlieritanee by virtue of a pmise made unto him by you Sr. Ferdinando Gorges, being tlien one of the Pattentees unto whom wth the rest of the Pattentees was assigned all the land in New England betweene forty and forty-eight degrees of north latitude, wth the government thereof- wch. pm'ise I was made unto me for my encouragement before my coming into this country in any place unposessed, as is to you well knowne.
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