1

westerly one on his map, and therefore began his clearing near Pleasant Pond on or near what was later the Charles Buck place. After he had got started he climbed the hill near by, and seeing another pond in the east, became aprehensive he had made a mistake. He spent several days investigating; but there were no settlers within many miles, and he had no means of satisfying his doubts. He therefore returned to Dunstable; and did not come back until he had married and had one or two children. He thus missed being the earliest settler in the town.

While he was making his clearing in the center of the town and building a cabin, his wife and children boarded in a house which is now the ell of the Col. White place in Buckfield. He passed Sundays with his family, and kept run, of the days by cutting notches in a stick. Once he forgot to do so and worked all day Sunday; and his conscience was much troubled that he had allowed his private interests to make him careless enough to violate a duty.

I know little of my grandfather beyond the fact that he was a prosperous farmer, and fond of music. At the age of sixteen he was a drummer-boy in his father's company; and when he became a man sang tenor, and played the bass-viol. I think he played in parson Sewall's church. My grandmother had one of those high soprano voices known as counter; and when the children were young enough to sing alto, he, by means of his bass-viol, made up a family quartet.

By his first wife, Betsy Bailey, he had two child-. ren, Sibyl and Oliver.

SIBYL, married Zadoc Bosworth of Sumner,. and left five children. Several of her descendants are still living.

OLIVER, died many years ago in New York city. He married Polly Churchill, (a sister of his 'father's second wife), and had seven children, three of whom, Lawrence P., Harriet, and Mehitable, lived to marry. Of these Lawrence P. was a piano manufacturer in New

1

York city, and when he had accumulated a competency he became a presbyterian minister, and was a man of high character and great thoughtfulness. He married Rebeckah Doremus, and had three daughters. His widow is now living in New York with her unmarried daughters, Henrietta and Sarah. The third daughter, Harriet, is wife of Dr. Chamberlain, has children, and lives in Springfield, Mass.

Harriet, (twin sister of Lawrence P.), married Aretas Damon of Sumner, has no children, and is now a widow living in

Buckfield.

Mehitable, married Merritt F. Damon of Sum-" ner, is living, and has several children.

For his second wife my grandfather married, Feb. I, 1804, Phoebe Churchill, daughter of Andrew Churchill of Sumner, who with five of his sons were Revolutionary soldiers. She in her latter years lived

!

with my father, and was well known in the community as "Aunt Phoebe". She died at an advanced age. By her husband she had three children, Betsy Bailey, Larnard, and Whitney.

BETSY BAILEY, born Dec. 3, 1804, and died at the age of twelve.

LARNARD, born Aug. 13, 1806, and died in Sumner in 1884. He was a farmer, miller, and Free-will Baptist preacher, was very eccentric, and noted for droll, original, and unexpected sayings. His attachment to his brother Whitney, and indeed to all his relatives was very strong. He married Nancy White, who is still living in Sumner at a very advanced age. They had three children who lived to grow up, as follows :Julia Ann, married Caleb Thomas of Hartford, and died leaving a large family of children. Mr. Thomas is still living.

Marilla, lived with her mother and died unmarried. She was a noble, self-sacrificing

woman.

James Larnard, married Clara Washburn of
Sumner, and has two daughters.

WHITNEY,(Oliver's second son by Phoebe Church-
ill), was born Dec. 18, 1808, and died in
Buckfield, March 4, 1881. He was a farm-
er, beginning on his father's place, later at
West Sumner, and afterwards at Buckfield,
At various dates he also owned and run all
the different mills at West Sumner. He
was for
many years deacon of the Baptist
church, and held various town and other

offices. He married Mary Hart Prentiss, daughter of Henry Prentiss of North Paris. She was a school-teacher of local note, was a great reader of good books, with a great memory, and an acceptable. writer both of prose and verse for several newspapers. She took much interest in young people, to whom she had the gift of imparting something of her own inspiration and ambition. Both she and her husband are buried in the cemetery at North Paris. They had three children, Isabella, Prentiss, and Mellen, the last of whom died in childhood.

Isabella, was born in the old Oliver Cummings house April 15, 1834, and married. Joseph S. Ingraham, an apothecary in Bangor, Maine, son of Rev. John S. Ingraham of Augusta. She is a widow, and has a summer place on Paris Hill.' She has two children, the elder of whom, Paulina, is unmarried and lives with her mother. The second daugh-/ ter Mary, is wife of Albert E. Davies, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Prentiss, was born in West Sumner, Sept. 10, 1840. Owing to a theory of his mother that every man should have a trade,.he worked three years between the ages of fourteen and seventeen at printing in the Oxford Democrat office. He then began fitting for college under Free-. land Howe and at Hebron Acadamy,, and later took a two-years course at Phillips Acadamy, Exeter, N. H. He

graduated from Harvard College in 1864. The following year he acted as principal of the Portland High School, and began the study of law in the office of Nathan Webb, now U. S. District Judge for Maine. In the fall of, 1865 he entered Harvard Law School. While there, owing to some sudden changes among college professors, he was unexpectedly appointed Tutor in Latin, and had charge of the Sophomore Class in that department until the winter of 1870, when he entered a law office in Boston, having previously graduated at the Harvard Law School. In the summer of 1870 he was admitted to the Boston bar, and commenced practice. In 1874 he was appointed chief assistant to the U. S. Attorney in Boston, and until 1880 had almost exclusive charge of the law business of the government in that important district. In the years 1881, 1882, 1883, he represented the great business ward of the city in the Common Council, and in 1884 and 1885 in the Legislature. In 1885 he was elected president of the Cambridge Railroad, and held that office until 1887 when the company was consolidated with the other Boston Street-railways as the West End company. He then became Vice-president of the new company, and so continued until in 1897 it was leased to the Boston Elevated Railway; and since has been advisory counsel of the last