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STINCHFIELD FAMILY.
The pioneer settles of Leeds were Thomas2
and Rogers2 Stinchfield.
They were hardy sons of John Stinchfield1,
who was born in Leeds, England, Oct. 12, 1715, and
Elizabeth Burns1, born in the north of
Ireland, of Scotch parentage, Dec. 21, 1713.
John1 and Elizabeth1 formed
an acquaintance on shipboard during their passage to
this country in 1735, and two years later were
united in marriage in Gloucester, Mass., at which
port they landed in continued their residence until
1755, when they they landed and continued their
residence until 1755, when they moved, with their
family of six children, to New Gloucester, District
of Maine, a tract of land granted by general court
in 1735, to inhabitants of Gloucester, Mass., from
which it derived its name. The block house to
which John1 moved his family had
been built and prepared by him, as were a few others
by his fellow-pioneers the year previous, and was
located at the base of the northerly portion of
Stinchfield Hill, south-easterly and adjacent to
the old cemetery, southerly from Gloucester Lower
Corner. A stockade was also built just north
of the cemetery in which resort could be taken in
defending the families against attack by Indians.
Still another similar building was erected in which
to corral the cows and goats that fed by day on the
vast meadows of natural grasses that furnished them
winter food as well. For a complete account,
which includes the heroic defence of this little
colony from Indian attacks, from 1754 to 1760, the
reader is referred to the "Maine Historical
Society," which is contemplating the erection of a
granite memorial on the same site, --a facsimile
of the original building, to the memory of John
Stinchfield1, two of his sons, and the
nine others whose names appear in the list of heroes
of those years. The parents of Thomas2
and Rogers2 Stinchfield
passed the remainder of their lives in New
Gloucester. The father died Jan. 3, 1783, and
the mother Aug. 19, 1785. They were buried in
the old cemetery near where they had lived.
Their children were all born in Gloucester, Mass., to
wit: John2, born Oct. 23,
1738; William2, b. Jan. 9, 1741;
Eliz-
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abeth2, b. May 18, 1743; James2,
b. July 13, 1745; Thomas2, b. Dec.
29. 1747; and Rogers2 M. W.,
b. Oct. 13, 1752.
John2 married Mehitable Windship.
This was the first marriage solemnized in New
Gloucester. They resided and died in Danville.
William2 married Mary Bodge,
of Windham, and lived and died in New Glouceser.
Elizabeth2 married Deacon John
Walker, of Gray, and settled there.
James2 married Sarah Parsons,
and resided on the old homestead. Thomas2
married Sarah Paul, nee True, a
daughter of Deacon Benjamin True, one of the
very early settlers of the town of Turner, who went
there from New Gloucester. She was a widow and
the mother of one son (Marshfield Paul), at
the age of twenty-one years. Thomas2
and Sarah were married in New Gloucester Dec.
17, 1765. Rogers2 M. W.
married Sarah Babson, in New Gloucester, in
1773.
If not from choice, necessity required the people of
those times to devote much of their time to the use
of the gun in the extermination of the ferocious
wild beasts of the forest; and to provide their
families with meat, moose, deer, caribou, and other
favorite animals were pursued and taken. Thus
led on, fur-bearing animals were sought for their
money value, and all, combined with a natural
fondness of adventure, brought out many a
full-fledged hunter and trapper who, under other
circumstances, with different surroundings, would
have acquired a like prominence in the higher
pursuits of life. To them we owe much for what
we are and what we enjoy. None but the
bravest, intelligent, independent, ambitious, hardy,
and strong, could have come out to a new, wild
country of such magnitude, with a fixed purpose of
subduing and civilizing it, and effected the
establishment of a government, the equal of which
the sun has never warmed and lighted.
May it be remembered that the children of the early
settlers of this country were reared under
Scriptural teachings, Christian influences, and
moral training. Education was by no means
neglected, schools for the youth being a close
second to churches, where the parents assembled for
mutual instruction. Neither was physical
culture omitted. The gun, the axe, the spade,
and hoe, the scythe, rake, and fork, and the
ever-remaining walls of stone are all evidence of
their efficiency in that important branch of
education.
As a boy, Thomas2, with others whose
parents composed the little colony of New Gloucester
and did their field work in common, was often posted
beside a rock or stump, to watch and give warning of
the approach of Indians; while the parents and elder
boys, with their guns stacked a few rods in advance
of them, did the planting, hoeing, and harvesting.
This became distasteful to him, and as he grew in
years, he often remonstrated with his
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people, presenting his earnest, honest conviction
that man, whether civilized or savage, could best be
conquered and won by kindness, but never by the
prevailing and practiced belief that "there are no
good Indians but dead ones." So firmly was he
established in his faith of Indian manhood, that
honesty and kindness would be met with reciprocity,
not wanting in courage or bravery, with gun in hand
and hunting-knife in his belt as a defense against
the forest animals, tinder-box and flints in his
pockets, he frequently was absent from home for days
in the trackless woods. His first meeting with
Indians was on the west bank of the Androscoggin
River, at the mouth of the "Twenty Mile Stream."
He approached the little encampment unobserved until
he stepped into the small open with the muzzle of
his gun pointing downward, an indication of peace.
His youth, too, may have been an element in his
unmolested admission to their wigwams. The
piercing eye of Sabattis, the chief, detected
no purpose in the youthful Thomas but an open
and honest one, and a friendship was there created
that in future years extended to all the Indian
tribes in the northern part of Maine. Probably
no other white man every enjoyed the full
confidence, which he never betrayed, of so many
Indians as he. To him they gave the name of "Father
Thomas," and his name was known to them
through out the whole land. His services were
sought in all disputes or quarrels of theirs, and
his decisions were invariably received as the
highest order of unwritten law. Exceptions
were never taken nor appeals made, but silent
submission as of right. To this friendship is
the town of Leeds indebted for its first settlers.
Easterly from the railroad crossing, near where the
railroad bridge spans Dead River, distant about
twenty-five rods, formerly the wigwams of
Pocasset and his clan were spread. To this
clearing were they moved from the north-easterly
shore of Pocasset Lake, northerly of where Jennings
stream empties its waters. How long that land
had been under Indian cultivation is unknown, but
the fact that it was a permanent, fixed village,
might indicate that many crops had been there
harvested. It was a favorite place of the red
men but as an inducement to Thomas2
to settle in their midst, Sabattis presented
it to him and removed his village to a spot about
twenty rods north of that now occupied by the
Francis George house, owned by D. P.
True.
In the spring of 1779 Thomas and his younger
brother, Rogers, came up the Androscoggin and
Dead Rivers in a dug out loaded with farm
implements, camp utensils and stores to found homes
with none but Indian friends and neighbors.
After spading the ground and planting the seeds
their attention and labor was given to the building
of a log or block house, which they located where
the wigwam of Sabattis had stood and many
times been shared by Thomas while on hunting
expeditions.
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This was the first permanent structure planted on
the forest lands now included within the boundary
lines of the town of Leeds. On the opposite
bank of Dead River, westerly from the county road,
they then built a second block-house, for Rogers2.
This completed they returned, as they had come, to
their families in New Gloucester. In the time
of harvest they came again, erected hovels, secured
their crops, buried their potatoes in the ground and
were gone. Another visit was made on the March
crust, and this time a goat was led in, followed by
three others, and constituted the primitive domestic
animals of the town. The stock of camp
utensils was also replenished by means of loaded
sleds drawn by these men, whose strength and
endurance were unbounded. A goodly amount of
venison was secured and ried, and quantities of
maple sugar and molasses made and stored for future
consumption. These homes prepared - humble and
unpretentious though they were - early in June,
these brothers returned to New Gloucester for their
wives and children. On the tenth day of that
month, one of warmth and sunshine, a party composed
of two ladies, five men, two young men, and nine
children, with five horses on which were packed the
ladies, five children, and their belongings, started
out from New Gloucester. They followed a
narrow, bushedpout path to the Androscoggin River.
Here their course turned to the north along its west
bank to the Little Androscoggin, which they forded.
On a small plat of grass, the only cleared spot that
marked their pathway, just below Lewiston Falls,
long since utilized for building lots in the city of
Auburn, they halted to lunch. On the opposite
side of the river three or four houses were seen,
probably those of Paul Hildreth,
David Pettengill, Lawrence J.
Harris, Asa Varnum, or others of
the early settlers of Lewiston. Remounted,
they proceeded up the river, on a trail made by
families who had recently settled in Turner, to the
mouth of the Twenty-Mile Stream, where they arrived
at mid-afternoon. Here Thomas2
and Rogers2 had each left a
dug-out canoe while en route to New Gloucester.
From the backs of the horses the ladies and children
were transferred to the canoes and landed on the
opposite bank of the river. Under the care and
guidance of Rogers2 they made the
remainder of the distance, about four forest miles,
on foot; arriving at the log-house on the south bank
of Dead River ere the sunset. The three men
and five horses, whose services were of great aid in
making the journey of the ladies and children less
fatiguing, returned to New Gloucester that night.
The baggage was transferred to the canoes, one
manned by Thomas2 and Thomas2,
Jr., a lad of twelve years, and the other by
his step-son, Marshfield Paul, and the
other young man, and conveyed up the Androscoggin
and down Dead River to their destination, where they
arrived the following day. Thus runs the
narrative of the primitive set-
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EBEN STINCHFIELD4
(JOHN3, WILLIAM2,
JOHN1)
Eben Stinchfield of the fourth generation was
born in Pejepscot Feb. 7, 1787. In 1809 he
married Mary Woodbury, who was born in
Pejepscot Sept. 25, 1786. They came to Leeds
in 1809 and settled on the lake road, northerly from
the dwelling of James3 Stinchfield.
They had issue Susan5, born
Sept. 2, 1810; Seth, b. Aug. 30, 1812;
Sarah, b. May 12, 1815; Woodbury A., b.
July 2, 1817, and Eben, b. Nov. 22, 1820.
Susan married Samuel P. True, settled
where D. P. True now resides, had no issue,
and died Jan. 23, 1879.
Seth3?,
the second child, when he became of age, went into
the eastern part of the State where he engaged in
lumbering business. He was one of five of the
first settlers of the town of Danforth, Washington
County, Me. He owned the water power and land
where the village has been built. He was a
prominent factor in building it up; and later was
instrumental in giving it railroad connection with
the outside world. He married Hannah
Harding, by whom he had seventeen children, viz.:
Seth6, died in infancy; Keziah H.6
in Danforth Aug. 6, 1837, married Melville S.
Springer Nov. 14, 1856, has four children;
Eurania T., b. Nov. 28, 1839, married Edward
Russel, of Athens, had six children,
second, married Nathan Walls of
Lewiston, had one child; Mary Augusta,
b. April 24, 1841, married Edwin W. Vosmus,
of Lewiston, Sept. 13 , 1871, has no issue; Rufus
B., b. Mar. 18, 1843 , married Lydia
Kelley, of Bancroft, has four children;
Betsey R., b. Mar. 3, 1845, married D. P.
True, of Leeds, has no issue; Llewellyn A.,
b. Mar. 27, 1847, married Sept. 29, 1874, Almira
Russell, of Athens, had no children; Eben
P., b. Nov. 17, 1848, married Allie
Marston May 1, 1887, had two chidren;
Eben P., died in Lewiston; Amaziah P., b.
Oct. 2, 1850, married Rose Foss, has four
children; Annette, b. Apr. 30, 1852, died
Sept. 3, 1860; Willington, b. Mar. 24, 1854,
married Estella Scribner, has no
issue; Sarah, b. June 21, 1855, married
James M. Moulton, of Wayne, May 3, 1879, has
four children; Frederic W., b. Aug. 19, 1856;
Orilla D., b. Oct. 9, 1858, married
Charles S. Merrill, of Auburn, Sept. 29, 1883,
has two children; Thirza M., b. Oct. 21,
1860, died Dec. 20, 1864; Estella M., b. Mar.
27, 1862, married Thomas H. Boothby of Leeds,
November, 1892, has no issue; Horace W., b.
Oct. 3, 1866, died Sept. 3, 1867. The life of
Seth Stinchfield has been one of
industry and usefulness. Though his sight and
hearing are much impaired, he is a hale and strong
old gentleman.
Sarah5,
the third child of Eben4, spent
several years in Lowell, Mass. She married
Harrison, a son of Robert Gould,
of Leeds. To them was born a son, Luville,
a conductor on the Maine Cen-
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tral Railroad, with whom she resided in Portland
after the decease of her husband. She died in
that city Jan. 10, 1901.
Woodbury A.5, the fourth child
of Eben4 , was a natural mechanic,
a man of trades, a valuable and industrious
gentleman. He settled in Wayne village where
he built several houses. He married Frances
Fuller, an estimable lady of that town, Aug. 9,
1851. To them were born Edith Helen6,
Nov. 24, 1852, and Florence Mabel6, Jan. 14,
1856. Edith H. studied law and also
married a lawyer, Charles E. Conant.
They are both in practice and life-long members of
the firm. They are in the west.
Florence Mabel is also a lawyer of prominence.
Woodbury A.5 died in Leeds, in
1881, and was buried in the village cemetery in
Wayne.
Eben5, the youngest child of Eben4,
married Hannah Lincoln, who was born in Leeds
Nov. 6, 1819. To them were born two sons,
Lewis D., born in Leeds Apr. 11, 1845, married
in North Bridgewater, Mass., Apr. 28, 1874,
Harriet M. Chessman, b. in South Weymouth, Mar.
10, 1855, resides at Campello, Mass.; and Eben A.
W., b. in Turner Mar. 30, 1848, who married,
Jan. 28, 1879, Abbie A. Atwood, b. in
Rochester, Mass., Aug. 26, 1861. His residence
was at Plymouth, Mass., and his business that of
baggage master on the Old Colony Railroad, where he
accidentally lost his life.
Eben5 died in Wayne Jan. 22, 1849.
His father, Eben4, died in Leeds Jan. 23,
1877, and his mother, Mary (Woodbury), Oct.
1, 1852. They were buried in Wayne where many
of the Stinchfield family repose.
Eben4 Stinchfield had four wives, viz.:
Mary Woodbury, of Pejepscot; Diadama
Larrabee, of Leeds; Clara Judkins, of
East Livermore; Almira Berry, of Leeds.
He was a grandson of John, the first born
Stinchfield in America, the first man married in
the town of New Gloucester, and the eldest brother
of Thomas and Rogers Stinchfield, the first
settlers of the town of Leeds. |
