A HISTORY OF EAST OXFORD, MAINE
by Mildred Lane Kendall, Janet Hamlin Owen Provencher, and John Lawrence Haldane
copyright 2002, Grand Memories Publications
PART II
"Horse and Buggy Days"
Now to go back to East Oxford and see about the runaway slave affair, at about the time the Civil War broke out. A Negro being questioned about who befriended him, and the place where he lived, he replied: "The man’s name is Paine. He lived on the top of a spur of the East Oxford Hills, and from his farm overlooking a forest could be seen a valley through which flowed a small river and through it also ran a carriage road and a railroad. A small village (Welchville probably) could be seen a short distance to the north of the farm. (This description answers exactly to the farm where Abijah S. Paine lived during and before the Civil War; so there can be little or no question that this was the farm and man. It lies in the southern part of the town and county of Oxford). Mr Paine has long since been dead and also his children, but he has a number of descendants in the towns of Oxford, Paris, Norway, Greenwood and perhaps other Oxford County towns, to say nothing of some settled in Northern Androscoggin County towns.
"The slavery question was a live issue then. Slavery was a Southern sin, and did not touch us very closely; yet those who strove against it were mostly Northerners – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ was written in Brunswick, Maine."
The Underground Railroad was a term designed to cover the paths of run-away slaves. A man willing to assist in such a scheme was called an agent of the underground railway, and there were such in Oxford County. Men did not openly proclaim themselves as agents, for it was an underhanded thing, and to take part in it was a criminal proceeding; and yet some of our so called, most law abiding citizens did take part, and they are remembered and respected for these acts.
Since Mell Andrews (brother to Loved) is the only one to have given Mildred any of his history, I’ll branch out a bit from East Oxford in order to bring him into the picture.
His words are: "I, Mell Andrews, first remember of living on the hill at Greene, Maine, and going to school at the little schoolhouse under the hill, not far from Quaker Ridge, where my uncle Edwin Andrews lived. He lived at the Richmond Homestead, where their first 2 children (Annie – 1861 and Mary – 1863) were born. My parents lived a while at North Leeds, called "Slab City" (about 5 or 6 miles from Greene), where the Quakers were in Greene. We moved back to Greene again Chris Gorham used to live near, and often visited us. It was his place that Edwin (my uncle) moved into in 1865. My father Lloyd moved to Leeds again, a different place in the town. I can’t remember whether "Vidi" (Elvira) my sister was born at Leeds or later at East Oxford. I do remember that I was about 12 years old or older, and walked behind the team (hayrack of goods drawn by 2 horses with several cows leading behind, through Turner, Buckfield, West Minot and Old Oxford Road," (Past Nathanie Rowes and Chipmans). It was one year after Verona Chipman Farris had died, so Joe Farris must have married Minnie Hackett (1871). We moved onto the Perkins farm, where my mother Angeline Perkins was brought up. After grandfather Perkins died, grandmother went to Boston to live with her daughter, Clara Perkins, who never married. The farm became know as the Lloyd Andrews place. Since I was 15 years old when I attend the Red School House in East Oxford (1874), Charlie Paine and Alice Paine had High School studies at the other schoolhouse beyond where Rawson Holmes lived. Louisa Holmes had graduated from there."
Mell Andrews was 23 years old and played for dances and social gatherings everywhere. Dances were held in the neighborhood when Aunt Maidie was 12 or 13 years old. Charles and Emma had social gatherings in their home at which all the young people of the neighborhood gathered, played games and had very good times. At one of these gatherings, Mel played the accordion for them to dance.
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ROWE PIONEERS
John Rowe, our ancestor, came to Cape Ann in 1651 (from England) and settled on the "Farms" before 1652. His son, John had been born in England, as also his brother Hugh Rowe. John lives on "The Farms" and had 2 wives and 13 children. His first wife, Mary Dickinson, died after having 9 children. His 2nd wife, Sarah Redington had 4 children, but some kind of sickness must have been contagious and killed 4 children and John Rowe himself, in 1700 (during the months of Aug., Sept., and Oct.) Only one of his second wife’s children survived and she was the youngest (Rebecca, age 6).
John’s son, Samuel had 3 sons, whom went to New Gloucester, Maine in 1763.
The first record kept in New Gloucester, Maine was of Zebulon’s son, Zebulon, Jr., whom married Prudence (Ellery, we think). They were published in 1775. They had 12 children, all born at New Gloucester, Cumberland, Maine. Of course, Maine was not then considered a State, but counties were organized soon afterwards.
Zebulon, 3rd, married Judith Eveleth of New Gloucester. They were published 27 Jul 1811. They had one child born there before moving to Minot, Maine in 1815.
Our story here really starts when Zebulon came to Minot with Judith before the birth and death of their 2nd child. They moved in the spring and Nathaniel died when 3 days old – 6 May 1814. They had 11 children and lost only this one. The next boy (4th child) was named Nathaniel. The custom in those days was to name the next child of the same sex, the same as the one who had died. This "Nathanie" was our ancestor, born 19 Jan 1818 at Minot, Maine. He was deaf and dumb, (as they then called it) also their 7th child was deaf and dumb also. (Rev. Samuel Rowe)
Being amongst the earlier settlers at Minot, our "Nathanie" learned the trade of Tanner, shoemaker, cobbler, etc., and farmer. Probably Zebulon (his dad) had to do all these things also, as most Pioneers did in those days.
The Rowe Homestead was centrally located in East Oxford, about 4 miles from West Minot, 4 miles from Mechanic Falls, about 4 miles from Oxford Village, and maybe the same from Buckfield; about 6 miles to South Paris. It was a very large farm of 260 acres of land, a 2½ story building and barn large enough for 17 cows, young stock extra, and about 6 horses. Charles and Sam owned 400 acres of land, but only 260 acres were located in one lot in East Oxford. (I think the wooded lot that Frank Paine later bought is part of it.)
Nathaniel Rowe and Esther Lane Chipman’s children
Allura married John Chase about 1881 (after his first wife died, and they lived a while at her mothers’ place. (John was a brother to Ella Chase who married Ed Paine.)
The Paines had lived across the field from the Rowe’s and it is not surprising that they fell in love. (Emma Paine and Charles Rowe) (Rose Ann Paine and Sam Rowe), Charles was 24 years old that summer.
Charles Rowe and Emma Paine were married in August 1880, and had 3 children.
Rose Ann and Emma were good pals, even though Rose Ann was 7 years younger, probably because Emma missed Alice so much. Rose Ann was only 16 years old, but as soon as she married Sam Rowe the following year, 1881 (and after Ben was born to Charles and Emma) the 2 brothers bought the Austin Nelson place and went into partnership.
Charles and Sam owned the largest dairy business in the town and were very prosperous. Charles became President of the Milk Association and also was elected to the office of Selectman of Oxford.
This is what happened to Charles when he went to Church one Sunday. He thought he would be generous and put a bill into the contribution box, since he hadn’t been to church regularly. The Minister prayed for the generous person who had contributed $20.00 to the plate. Reaching into his pocket, Charles found that he had put the wrong bill into the plate!
It was July 16, 1890 that Emma died of quick consumption. While the funeral was taking place, the children, Ben, Annie and Win, were playing in the attic with their double cousin, Alice (8 yrs), Eva, Mabel Rowe (14yrs.) and Walter Rowe (3yrs), Win, the youngest, fell where there was no railing. The stairs were steep and he was knocked almost unconscious. For a while they thought there would be a double funeral. Esther Lane Chipman Rowe was living there with her sons. She was deaf and dumb, but when she saw "Win" fall into the watering trough, she rescued him just in time. He lived to become the father of 16 children. In fact, he and his wonderful wife, Madge Turner, have kept the Rowe genealogy increasing at a rapid pace.
After Emma died, it was nearly a year before Charles married a widow, Mrs. Emily Pearson Cooper from So. Paris. He had known her before he married Emma. Emily had a daughter, named Eva Madelle Cooper, who was just one year younger than Annie. So, that gave Annie a sister for companionship. About 4 years later a boy was born to Charles and Emily. Elmer Albert Rowe, b 16 Dec 1893. He was a half brother to Ben, Annie, Win and Eva.
Probably, Sam Rowe bought the Lloyd Andrews place soon after Charles married Emily Cooper. After that Charles had to hire help on the farm.
Oct 15 1896, at Welchville, Maine, Esther Lane Chipman Rowe married a widower, her first husband’s brother, Rev Samuel Rowe, who had lost his first wife fourteen years before. He had married Sophia Kendall, who had been 15 years his senior. Rev. Mr. Haynes married them at Bellow Falls, Vt., 28 Nov 1849 when he was 25 years old. He was deaf and dumb and met her while training for the ministry.
After Rev Samuel and Esther lived a while at Charles Rowe’s, they moved to the road going to West Minot, where John Chase and Allura later lived. He died there 8 Feb 1898, only 16 months after their marriage. She lived almost 10 years after his death. He left his Bible with a lot of Rowe genealogy in it, which he had gathered. His nephew Sam had the Bible before it got burned and Mel was lucky enough to copy from it, before it was destroyed. They had heard that money or an estate in England awaited whoever could trace their genealogy and claim it as rightfully theirs. There was just one missing name in the link to prevent him from getting the estate. The complete genealogy was found at Bath, Maine at the library. The tradition was that two Rowe brothers, settled at New Gloucester and one went down east or New Brunswick way. Uncle Jack boarded one winter at the C. C. Rowe place and died there the spring of 1897. He must have gone there after he got his pension about the time Esther married Rev. Samuel, when she was about 69 years old.
Abijah Paine and Rebecca Soule Paine lived near C. C. Rowe, on the corner. They lost their first girl, Lillian, in 1888. On 3 Jun 1901 they lost their youngest girl, Rena, who was then a teacher. She died of hemorrhages. They were sad from losing both girls, so when Dan Paine married his 2nd wife, Mrs. Sadie Smith Lowe, whom had had 6 children by Charles Wesley Lowe, (she was divorced) they let Abijah and Rebecca take the youngest girl, Ida Bessie Lowe, to bring up. Bessie was born 2 Jan 1898, at Buckfield, Maine, so was about 7 years old when they took her in 1905. Dan and Sadie went to Minot to live, where Elsie and Edie were born, and then to Greenwood, where Alice Eva and Bertha were born. They moved back to East Oxford about 1920.
After Rebecca’s death, 28 26 Aug 1912,
Abijah M. Paine sold his place to his nephew, (Abner"s son) Frank. This was
the same year Ernest ran away to live with his own mother, (near Brownfield or
Albany). This was not long before Frank’s wife, Rosie, died Dec 1914.
Mildred can remember of her mother and herself visiting that place, just before Aunt Rebecca died. Bessie must have been 15 years old, or maybe younger. They treated her on cookies. Abijah died 8 Jun 1914 at C. C. Rowe’s, upstairs. He went to live with them after Aunt Rebecca died. He died with gangrene of the legs, less than 2 years after her death. Bessie was not quite 16 years old when she married Albert Soule 12 Dec 1913. He was quite a bit older than she, and may have been related to Rebecca. George Albert Soule and Bessie lived on the road between Welchville and Mechanic Falls, near the railroad track.
Daniel Paine (son of Abner and Diana) married Minnie Evans and had two sons.
Frank (Dan’s brother) and Rosie, took Ernest. Minnie’s divorce did not go through until about 1904 or 1905. Ernest had supposed that his Uncle Frank had adopted him, but found out that papers were not fully made out when he was 1 ½ years old, 1897. He was married at the age of 18 (15 Feb 1913) to Hattie Grover, b. Stoneham, Maine. I believe they had 16 children.
Alton Franklin Paine married Lois Littlefield. Elsie, (1st daughter of Daniel and Sadie) married Elmer Rowe 13 Dec 1922 (half-brother to Annie Rowe Lane.). Edward Montrose Paine b. 29 Jan 1907 married Beatrice May Young, b. 1908 at Oxford, Maine, daughter of Lewis and Lilly Young. Alice married Claude Young (brother of Beatrice, Edward’s wife). Eva married Edwin Davis of Otisfield. Bertha married Fred Johnson 31 Aug 1929, now residing in East Oxford.
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Frank Almon Paine was born 10 May 1868 in East Oxford. He died 18 Dec 1926. He married 1st Rose Andrews, Jun 1888. She died Dec 1914. He married 2nd Eva Madelle Cooper, b 24 Aug 1884, So. Paris, Maine. They were married Sep 1915. Frank and Eva had 6 children.
The day of the wedding Theda picked daisies most of the day and helped decorate the parlor.
This was before grandpa Rowe was gored by his bull and made an invalid for many years. Auntie and Frank went to live in their new home (where Abijah and Rebecca used to live) nearby.
Rose Anna Paine (dau of Abner and Diana) married 1st Samuel Sherman Rowe, 25 Jan 1882. They had children. After the children were grown, she divorced him and married Lovell Oldham. On 20 Aug 1928, she divorced Lovell, and remarried Samuel – her first husband. Their children were:
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Eva Mabel Paine (Aunt Maidie) b. 27 Dec.1870, married Benjamin Frank Elwell, 26 Oct 1891. She died 19 Feb 1952. They had 8 children:
Bernard died a young man in a hunting accident. Fern was handicapped and was cared for by her mother for many years.
Benjamin Franklin Elwell and Eva Mable Paine ("Aunt Maidie")
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Dianne Ellen Andrews Paine died 9 Apr 1901 at East Oxford, Maine. Addie, her youngest child, was then 23 years old. (This was Janet Hamlin Owen Provencher’s grandmother). Addie married Clarence Carleton Cummings when she was 19 years old. He died of Tuberculosis about a year and a half later. He was buried at Mechanic Falls. Eight years later, Addie married Leslie Kilbreth, 25 Apr 1906, in Mechanic Falls, Maine. They later moved to East Oxford, where their daughter Edna May Kilbreth (Janet’s mother) was born, 24 Sep 1908. They then moved to Winthrop, Maine. Edna says: "Mama was living in the house halfway down the hill, (Loved’s old place and built up again) from Aunt Rose Rowe’s which later burned down." So she kept house for her father Abner for some years.
When Addie was 12 years old she liked to go to the Town Farm, which was located there in East Oxford and help with the housework. At that time it was the town poor house; later it was discontinued as a poor house and in 1925 was rented out to Henry and Ada Hamlin, whose son, Dana Married Edna, Addie’s daughter.
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John Chipman came over on the ship called, "Friendship" and arrived 14 July 1637. (This was 17 years after the Mayflower came with William Brewster). He married Hope Howland, 1646, at Plymouth, Mass. He was 32 and she was 17 years of age. Her parents were living at Plymouth, but her grandparents both died the first winter after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Mass, 1621. (Her mother, Elizabeth Tilley was left an orphan when 14 years old, and lived with the Howland family. John Howland married Elizabeth when he was 31 years of age and she was 18. They had a large family of 10 children.
We are descended through (1) John Chipman and Hope Howland, (2) Samuel Chipman and Sarah Cobb, (3) Seth Chipman and Priscilla Bradford (gr. Gr. Dau. to Gov William Bradford), (4) Benjamin Chipman and Hannah Wadsworth, (5) William Chipman and Esther Lane of New Gloucester, Maine.
William Chipman was born at Kingston, Plymouth, Mass., 14 Aug 1764. He died 30 Mar 1849. He married first Esther Lane, born 1766 in New Gloucester, Maine; she died 12 Jan 1823, East Oxford. He next married Jane Sampson, after 1823, in East Oxford. She was of Turner, Maine. Jane died 12 Jun 1833, Oxford, Maine. He was 10 years old when his father Benjamin Chipman brought the family to North Yarmouth, Maine. They proceeded to New Gloucester, which was as far inland as civilization went at that time. In Apr 1779 his father took up a claim in the Southern part of "Bakerstown" now called Poland. He was the first settler in South Poland, Maine, and a pioneer settler of that town. Hannah Wadsworth Chipman was a sister of Capt Benjamin Wadsworth of Duxbury, Mass., and a cousin to Gen Peleg Wadsworth.
Children by Esther:
Children by Jane:
Charles William Chipman and Allura L. Pumpilly
Allura was b. 12 Mar 1798, Turner, Maine, the daughter of Samuel Pumpilly and Sarah True. She died 24 Jan 1867, East Oxford, Maine.
Children:
Esther became deaf and dumb as a girl after she had scarlet fever and Canker-rash. Her parents sent her to a school in Connecticut where she was taught to talk with her hands, facial expressions, etc., so she probably did not go to the "Red School House" after her sickness. This was before schooling was compulsory. She was 28 years of age when she married Nathanie Rowe, who was 38 years of age and also deaf and dumb.
We would like to conclude this history of Annie Rowe Lane’s ancestors and immediate family with an account of her own words.
Annie Rowe writes:
Alice, Ben and I drove back and forth to Oxford High School, even in rough weather. The following year, my stepsister and Eva, (my double cousin who later died) my cousin George Farris and Win, my brother, got a 3 room rent and boarded ourselves and went to school. First at the ministers, once at Martins, and later at Kay--- next door to the school. Alice and I had a room over Jones Store. When Alice stopped going, I worked my board at Mary Halls. About this time Ben graduated from Hebron Academy, 1900. Win graduated from Oxford High School later and started at Orono. He found that he needed a Post Graduate Course, so he went to Hebron. Ben went to Orono and studied Electrical Engineering the year after I got married. I married Percy Edwin Lane, May 28, 1904, on my birthday, at home, amongst a host of friends and relatives and neighbors. Percy had been a conductor on lines through Sabattus, Lewiston, Auburn, Mechanic Falls, etc. We spent our honeymoon on a trip to Lewiston visiting Ferd and Florence Stevens, our relatives. We went to Webster, Androscoggin County and lived with Edwin and Sarah Ellen Andrews, my husband’s grandparents who had brought him up. I taught Ricker school there. Before May, we moved to East Oxford and Mildred Thornton Lane was born there in the same room I had been born in, 8 May 1905. She was named after a great baseball player (Gr. Uncle, my marriage to Percy), Miller Thornton. His first name was Walter and Percy had planned for a boy and wanted the name to be Walter. For a year Percy worked in partnership with my dad. (Chas. C. Rowe). They had a large dairy herd to care for, a cream route to Poland Spring and afterwards milk was delivered to Oxford Depot, to be sent by train. Elmer Rowe became father’s helper. In 1906 Percy was made foreman over Miss Holmes hired men. She was a well-to-do neighbor with white hair who lived at the Northern end of East Oxford near school No 6 that the Paine children had attended a while. We lived with her for several years. Edwin Andrews Lane, my first son, was born there, 10 August 1906. Miss Holmes wanted us to stay there always, but my husband was ambitious, so he purchased a large farm called "White Farm" in Bowdoin, Sagadahoc County (about 30 miles distant, but only 6 miles from his old home in Webster)."
Percy and Annie had 7 children:
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A Reunion was held 15 June 1947, at the Red School House and Mildred Lane read the first part of The History of East Oxford at that time.
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It might be interesting to note that Cora Bell Grant Morris, mother to Beth Morris Berry, a member of the ALMGO and a relative to the family, once taught school at the Little Red School House, sometime between 1885 and 1888, between sessions at Gorham Normal School. Cora boarded with Charles Rowe.
At one time Beth’s mother crushed her right hand in the machine at the Oxford Woolen Mill and Dr. Hershey refused to doctor her. The two men carried her to him, unconscious, grabbed something and forced him to take care of it and threatened to ride him out of town, and tar and feather him. (They didn’t do it.)
One more item of interest especially to those whom he taught, Rev Albert C. Libby, who kindly consented to print the original history for us, was a teacher at the Little Red School House in East Oxford in 1939 and 1940, for a salary of $16.00 per week.
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More Chapters:
Comments, corrections, and inquiries are welcome. You may contact John Haldane at: FatherJohn@grandmemories.com
www.grandmemories.com or http://grandmemories.homestead.com/