Present At Statehood - Porter, Maine

At the time Maine gained statehood, two of the three original settlers were counted in the 1820 census, brothers Meshach and Stephen Libby, along with their families.  Their father John and his wife had died previously, both in 1804.

In an address given by John’s great, great grandson on the fourth of July, 1910 and reprinted in the 7/14/1910 issue of the Ossipee Valley Weekly, Levi Cook gave the locations of the settlers’ original settlements as follows,

In 1792 Meshach sold his original settlement to another early settler, David Moulton, and bought the home of his brother, Stephen, shown as T.C. Libby on the 1875 map of Porter below.  After having disposed of his farm, Stephen bought several tracts of land adjacent to his original lot and established himself on the northern slope of Libby Hill where he and his family resided for many years.  None of these homes exist today.

The census of 1820 recorded only two people in the Meshach Libby household:  One male over 45 (Meshach, aged 70) and one female over 45 (Meshach’s second wife, Hannah Cram Elkins).  Meshach and his first wife, Deborah Ely who died in 1795,  had 6 children, 4 of whom were born before the move to Porter (daughters Sarah, Mary, and Elsy who came with them to Porter and a son, Meshach Jr. who came to Porterfield in 1793 but did not settle permanently).  Two more children were added to the family after their move to Porter, daughters Elizabeth and Eunice.  Elizabeth was the first female child of European descent born within Porter sometime between 1781 and 1786.  She died in childhood and was buried upon the border of her father’s farm.  Meshach died in March 1829 and is interred in a family plot located on what is now known as the Mason Road (the north to south road noted by red arrow above).  Within the cemetery are markers of quarried stone with no inscriptions for Meshach and 10 of his family members, presumably including his wives and some of his children.

 

          Brother Stephen was much more prolific when it came to populating the growing Town of Porter, fathering 19 children in all, 16 of whom grew up to marry and make their own contributions to the census.  Single when he initially came to Porter and built his cabin, Stephen returned to Pittsfield soon thereafter and married Mary Knowles.  Their first child, James, was born in Pittsfield on June 5, 1784.  By April 1786 they had settled in Porter where their second son, Daniel, was the first male child of European descent born in Porter.  Nine more children were born to Stephen and Mary before her death in October of 1816.  They were:

Josiah, born and died 1788;

Mary, born 1789;

Jemima, born 1791;

Stephen Jr, born 1793;

Sally, born 1795;

John, born 1797;

David, born 1799;

Aphia, born 1800; and

Olive, born 1802

 

          In January 1817 Stephen took as his second wife Nancy Mathews who was 25 years his junior.  This union produced a daughter, Lydia, born in 1817.  Nancy died soon thereafter in January of 1818 at age 30.   Two months later Stephen married her sister, Sally, age 25.  Together they had 7 children:

          A son who died in infancy;

         Daniel, born 1821 and named to honor Stephen’s earlier born son, Daniel,  who died in 1818;

          Albion, born 1823;

          Nancy;

          William T., born 1827;

          Thomas, born 1827 and died 1828; and

          Gideon, born 1830.

 

          When the 1820 census was conducted Stephen’s family consisted of 3 males (one 10-15 years old, one 16-25 years old and one 45+ years old) and 4 females (one less than 10, two 16-25 years old and one 26-44 years old).  No doubt the two oldest people are Stephen and Sally and the girls are probably Lydia, Olive and Aphia, but the identity of the two younger males are harder to determine.

 There is no doubt that Stephen was a very industrious man.  He built one of the first mills in the town on the brook about half a mile above the upper Spectacle Pond in 1805 which did a thriving business for many years.  He owned large tracts of timber and took an active part in the construction of the Old Porter Meetinghouse which was, according to the History of Porter by William Teg,  dedicated in 1820, the year of Maine statehood, though not completed until 1824.  Note the location of the “townhouse” relative to the Libby dwellings marked by the black arrow on the 1875 map above.  The west to east road from the townhouse to the residences is now known as Town Pound Road and is only maintained on either end. 

          In his book, Teg relates an “eyewitness” account of Elias Gould (1815-1910) as passed down through the ages to Levi Libby Cook (1866-1939), great great grandson of Stephen, from whom Teg got this story.  

Old Porter Meeting House - photograph by George French, 1953

61 years of age Stephen Libby may have been but he was still in the prime of his life – he had a much younger wife and would still father four more children though already a grandfather.  He would, in fact, live to the age of 92.   He is interred in what is known as the French-Gilman Cemetery located on the Gilman Road (marked with a green arrow on the map above) along with his third wife, Sally Mathews Libby, who died 1866.  Stephen’s first two wives are buried in the Moulton Cemetery on Libby Hill (off Mason Road noted by the yellow arrow on the map above).  The old stone on the left is broken and lies against the rock wall having been replaced by a new stone on the right.

PRESENT AT STATEHOOD – PARSONSFIELD, MAINE

One of those 2,355 residents of Parsonsfield counted in the 1820 census, the year in which Maine gained statehood, was Ichabod Churchill.  Born in Newmarket, NH in 1764 he purchased this farm about 1797 and moved his family to Parsonsfield where he became a prosperous farmer.

He and his first wife, Elizabeth Doe, had six children (Nicholas, Betsey, John, Thomas, Mary and Nancy).  His wife died in 1809 and he married Leah Allen in 1810.  His third son, Thomas, continued on the farm after Ichabod’s death in 1855 and was the owner when this map was drawn.  The arrow shows the location of the T. Churchill home at the top of a hill on what is now called North Road (Route 160).  Though no longer owned by the Churchill family the impressive farm remains today, easily recognized by the large barn.

 

The December 26, 1885 issue of “The Oxford County Record”, a newspaper published at Kezar Falls, has a sketch of “Father Churchill”.  Some 30 years after his death his memory lived on. 

ANECDOTES OF FATHER CHURCHILL

________

            Editor Record:  Your Cornish correspondent asks for reminiscences of Father Churchill.  I send a few which give an idea of the character of the man.

            Ichabod Churchill came to Parsonsfield as early as 1798, and cleared and lived on the farm now owned by his grandson, Nathaniel.  He was a pushing, prosperous farmer, kind and benevolent, and was noted for his peculiar religious opinions and practices.  Believing himself under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, he obeyed every impulse promptly, without consulting reason.  Yet there was method in his vagaries.

            Being at a Quarterly Meeting he, with several others, was invited out to dinner.  One brother monopolized the time talking of himself and his good deeds.  Suddenly Father Churchill fell upon his knees and cried out:  “O Lord, take away brother G________’s pride and give him as much humility as he has got self-righteousness.

            A rich man was sick unto death, Mr. Churchill visited him and prayed that the good Lord would forgive him without requiring him to restore four-fold what he had wrongfully taken, for said he, “Thou knowest it would make a very poor man of him, and he could not do it.”

            In a neighboring town there was a bitter church quarrel, into which most of the members had been drawn.  A meeting had been called to investigate matters.  That day Mr. Churchill was hoeing in his field.  He threw aside his hoe and without coat, vest, or a word of explanation, started for the place of meeting.  Stopping in the entry he listened a while to the confused clashing of angry tongues within; then bursting the door he screamed:  “Fire! Fire!” “Fire!” “Where?” was the inquiry that came from all.  “Right here,” was his reply.  “This room is full of hell-fire and if you don’t stop this quarrelling you will all be burnt up!”  So saying he turned and left.

                                                                                                                                    H.G.O. Smith

                                                N. Parsonsfield, Dec. 16, ‘85

This rock-strewn view looking north on Churchill Hill toward Porter Village shows the ancestral homestead on the right at the top of the hill.  A portion of the family cemetery where Ichabod is interred can be seen just below the house. 

Perhaps it was this scene which prompted Ichabod’s great, great, great grandson Charles C. Churchill (1927 - 2016) to write his poem “Of Walls and Men”.