The Clockmaker: James Cary, Jr.

Not long after the Revolutionary War, James Cary, Sr. and his wife moved from Boston to Brunswick. There James Cary, Sr. became the town's first gunsmith--a vital role in the young town. He and his wife lived in a house at the corner of Maine and Mason Streets, where their son, James Cary, Jr., was born on July 22, 1790.

James Cary, Jr. photographed at the age of 72 in 1862. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# OH 1726.15.b.

In 1805, when he was just 15 year old, James Jr. served as an apprentice to Robert Eastman in Belfast, Maine. With Eastman, and possibly another clock-maker named Bisbee, Cary learned the trade of making clocks. A year later, Eastman moved to Brunswick and there Cary later became his partner, forming the business Eastman & Cary. Wheeler & Wheeler states that in 1809, when Cary was just 19, he bought out Eastman's share of the business and owned the clock-making enterprise outright. Interestingly, at first Cary ran his Brunswick business out of the same house he was born in, at the corner of Maine and Mason Streets. He remained at this location even after the building burned down in 1853, rebuilding on the site and working there until his death in 1865.

The face of a grandfather clock made by James Cary, now in the collection of the Pejepscot Historical Society (acc# OH 620). Above the number "6" on the dial you can see Cary's signature (click the photo to see a larger image).

On July 16, 1816, Cary married Mary Oakman, from Pittston, Maine. Around 1826 the couple had a house built at 11 Federal Street. Though Mary and James had 3 daughters and 2 sons together, only 2 daughters--Mary Ann & Hannah Elizabeth--survived to adulthood.

Outside of Brunswick, James Cary Jr.'s fame stemmed from one of his students--Aaron L. Dennison. In 1830, Dennison (1812-1895), the son of Col. Andrew Dennison, studied clock-making under Cary and was later extremely successful as a jeweler in Boston. Dennison invented machines to standardize the production of gears and introduced the idea of interchangeable parts to pocket watches, earning him the title "father of American mass-production watch-making."

A pocket watch (right) and accompanying case (left) made by James Cary, Jr. from the Pejepscot Historical Society collection (acc# OH 729). Inside the watch case is James Cary's label--click the image for a larger view.

Cary, however, should not be defined by his role in Aaron Dennison's life. Indeed, Cary was one of Brunswick's most prominent citizens. In business, he never limited himself to clock-making, and also took on the titles gunsmith (like his father), goldsmith and silversmith. Cary even sold medicine out of his shop. He was also very involved in the local community, serving as a member of the local Masonic fraternity and as vice-president of both the Nucleus Club and the Brunswick & Topsham Athenaeum. Cary attended the First Parish Church with his wife and was, like many of his neighbors, at first a Whig and later a Republican.

The grave of James Cary, Jr. in Pine Grove Cemetery, located in the second row from the right.

James Cary, Jr. died in Brunswick on August 25, 1865 at the age of 75. Though his obituary does not list a cause of death, it does state that "for a man of his years, borne down by disease, he was one of the most remarkable we ever knew." Clearly, James Cary left a mark on Brunswick that ran far beyond any of the accomplishments of Aaron Dennison.

Sources:
Booker, Ira P. "James Cary." Collections of the Pejepscot Historical Society, vol. 1, part 1. Lewiston: Journal Office, 1889.
"Constitution, Rules and Orders, By-Laws and Library regulations of the Nucleus Club." Brunswick: Griffin, 1830. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2009.343.
"Dennison, Aaron Lufkin." National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, Inc. website.
Historic Preservation Survey card for 11 Federal Street. Pejepscot Historical Society.
Morgan, Calvin E. "James Cary Jr." Revised 2007. From the Pejepscot Historical Society collection, acc# 2009.233.
Tenney, A.G. Obituary of James Cary, Jr. Brunswick Telegraph. 1 September 1865.
Wheeler, George Augustus & Henry Warren. History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1878.

Dorothy "Aunt Dolly" Giddings

Of the 119 people who had their biographies printed in Wheeler & Wheeler's 1878 book History of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell, Dorothy Giddings has the distinction of being the only woman. What did Dorothy--or "Dolly" as she was usually known--do to leave such an impression on the town?*

Dolly was born in Exeter, New Hampshire in January 1785, the second of the five children of Gen. Nathaniel Giddings (1760-?) and Anna Folsom (1762-1794). Through her mother, Dolly was related to Sarah Ann Folsom, the first wife of Rev. George E. Adams and the adoptive mother of Fanny Chamberlain. It appears that Dolly's father died while she was still young, because she was later sent to live with her grandfather and after that her uncle, Rev. Rowland, a pastor of the First Congregational Church in Exeter. In 1812 at the age of 27, Dolly first came to Brunswick and lived with Captain Richard Toppan, a relative of hers by marriage. For the next three years, she opened a private school and later lived with Bowdoin College President Jesse Appleton and his family. In 1815, Dolly left Brunswick to live with her sister Polly Bailey in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where she continued to teach.

In 1818 Dolly Giddings returned to Maine, but in a most challenging manner. Thanks to funds from an unidentified "Boston gentleman", Dolly decided to open up and teach at a mission near Foxcroft and Brownville, Maine. There, she lived in a crude log cabin without a door, while teaching the youth of the area and even acting as a nurse to the sick, "exert[ing] her skill in the knowledge of disease" (Wheeler & Wheeler, 744). Once, when poverty in the area became overwhelming, Dolly travelled 250 miles on horseback to solicit help from her friends, returning to Foxcroft & Brownville with desperately needed supplies.

The Dr. Alfred Mitchell house, which stands at the corner of Park Row and Green Streets at the site of Dolly Gidding's first store in Brunswick, which she operated with her sister Harriet Boardman. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2008.93.

Dolly was finally torn away from the Maine wilderness when she heard that her sister in Newburyport was dying. Never able to turn away from someone in need of help, in 1824 Dolly went to Massachusetts to be by Polly's side. After this, Dolly moved back to Brunswick with her other married sister, Harriet Boardman, where the two opened up a millinery store on the corner of Green Street and Park Row. About five years later the sisters relocated their store to the corner of Maine and Mason Streets. Eventually, Harriet opened up a store of her own in the Dunlap Block (the same space later occupied by B.G. Dennison) and Dolly moved across the street to the corner of Maine and O'Brien (now Cumberland) Streets. She lived and worked at this location until her death.

Advertisement for a sale at Dolly Gidding's store, dated June 19, 1840. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# OH.1412.

Wheeler and Wheeler's biography of Dolly describes her Maine & O'Brien Street store: "Her stock was always large and of superior quality, and comprised not only of millinery goods, but almost every conceivable article of feminine apparel. Her counters and shelves were piled promiscuously with all sorts of articles and apparently in the greatest disorder, yet she could always quickly find any desired article, no matter how deeply it might be covered with other things." (588) John Furbish, another contemporary of Dolly's, described her store as a "land mark" (sic). Dolly also spent each of her last 46 years deeply involved with the Sunday School at the First Parish Church. Her renowned kindness and generosity led to her home being a known sanctuary for the poor and the ill.

The gravestone of Dorthy "Dolly" Giddings, located near the back of the sixth row from the right.

Dolly Giddings died on October 31, 1870 at age 85. Prof. Alpheus Spring Packard supplied the eulogy at Dolly's service at the First Parish Church, which was reprinted in her obituary in the Brunswick Telegraph. Packard ended his speech by saying "It needed not these statements to show that one departed friend was a woman of no common mould. Energy, decision, determination, a deep foundation of benevolence, strong individuality of character, were unmistakably revealing themselves in her daily life".

*This question really should be, "What didn't the hundreds of other women who had lived in Brunswick up until 1878 do to not deserve their biographies printed in the book?"

Sources:
Chapman, Jacob. A Genealogy of the Folsom Family: John Folsom and His Descendents, 1615-1882. Concord, N.H.: The Republican Press Assoication, 1882.

Furbish, John. Facts About Brunswick, Maine. Curtis Memorial Library website.

Tenney, A.G. Dorothy Gidding's obituary. Brunswick Telegraph. 11 November 1870.

Wheeler, George Augustus & Henry Warren. History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1878.

Phebe Ann Jacobs, Freed Slave

Phebe Ann Jacobs was born a slave on the Beverwyck plantation in 1785. She wasn't born in Virginia, in Georgia, or one of the Carolinas. Phebe wasn't born in the South at all, but Morris County, New Jersey. Phebe was probably the daughter* of the farm workers and domestic slaves who were brought from the Danish West Indies to America by the plantation's owner, General Lucas von Beverhoudt. While she was still a young girl, Phebe became the servant of Maria Malleville Wheelock.

First page of Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs, by Phebe Lord Upham. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, pamphlet 227.

By 1817, Phebe had joined a church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, beginning her life-long devotion to Christianity. Maria, the granddaughter of Dartmouth College founder Eleazar Wheelock, married William Allen and, in 1820, Jacobs and the Allen family moved to Brunswick. There, William Allen became the third president of Bowdoin College. In 1823, Phebe and Maria joined the First Parish Church. Just five years later, Maria Allen died, drastically changing Phebe's future. It seems she may have stayed on in the Allen household until William Allen resigned the presidency and moved in 1839, when Phebe became independent.

Though it is unclear exactly when she became free--one source says the Wheelocks paid for her freedom when they first bought her--they may have felt pressure to free her once they moved her to New England, where abolitionist sentiments were more popular. Either way, when the Allens left Brunswick, Phebe bought a small house of her own, earning money as a laundress and seamstress for Bowdoin College students and faculty.

Phebe is remembered best for her pious nature. She studied her Bible religiously and and was a staple at prayer meetings and church services. Phebe's religious devotion was commemorated after her death in Phebe Lord Upham's pamphlet Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs, published by the American Tract Society.

The grave of Phebe Ann Jacobs, which reads: "Born a slave. For about 40 years a faithful friend in the families of Pres. Wheelock and Pres. Allen. An eminent Christian beloved and honored. Died, Feb. 27, 1850, Aet. 64."
Phebe is buried in the Allen family plot near the front of the second row from the right.

Phebe Ann Jacobs died on February 28, 1850, and is described in Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs:

"The next morning Phebe's body was found in her bed, cold and lifeless; her eyes calmly closed, the mouth shut, her hands placed by her side, her candle burnt out, her Testament and spectacles by the bedside, the door of her house unbolted; no smoke ascended from her cottage, and Phebe was not--God took her." (page 7)

"The wife of [Rev. George E. Adams] died the same night with Phebe, and perhaps at the same hour of the night...To die with Phebe was a privilege; and the pastor remarked on this occasion, that if his wife had been permitted to choose a companion to accompany her through the 'dark valley,' and into the open portals of heaven, she would have chosen Phebe." (page 8, emphasis in original)

Phebe's funeral was attended by Brunswick's most prominent citizens, and the Allen family even traveled from 200 miles away to pay their respects to their former servent. Her service was held in the First Parish Church, the church she held so close to her heart. Professor Alpheus Spring Packard, Dr. Lincoln, and former governor Robert Pinckney Dunlap helped carry her coffin to Pine Grove Cemetery, where she lays today.

*Phebe had a brother and sister, Peggy and John.

Learn more about the Beverwyck plantation here.

Sources:
Price, H.H. & Gerald E. Talbot, eds. Maine's Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People. Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury Publishers, 2006.
"Story of Phebe Jacobs." The Lewiston Daily Sun. 2 May 1923.
Upham, Phebe Lord. Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs. American Tract Society, no. 536. Pejepscot Historical Society, pamphlet 227.

Many thanks to the indispensable Barbara Desmarais for sharing her Phebe expertise with me!

Phebe & Thomas C. Upham: the Rabble Rousers

Phebe Lord, the woman who would become one of the greatest thorns in the side of her Congregational minister, was born on March 20, 1804 to Nathaniel Lord and Phebe Walker. When Phebe was 8, her family moved to Kennebunkport, where her father was known as the richest man in the county.

Shortly before her marriage to Thomas C. Upham, her family’s wealth afforded Phebe a trip to New York City, where she was painted by the renowned American artist Gilbert Stuart. Stuart, who had painted the Founding Fathers and thus earned the title “The Father of American Portraiture”, was 70 at the time and afflicted with partial paralysis. Yet he was reportedly so enamored with the beautiful Phebe that he had longed for the opportunity to paint her. The resulting portrait now finds it home among many other Stuart portraits at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. But Gilbert Stuart was not the only person who had fallen in love with Phebe Lord.

Engraving of Thomas C. Upham from a daguerrotype, by J.C. Buttre. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# OH 1972.a.

Phebe’s future husband, Thomas C. Upham, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire on January 30, 1799 to a state congressman. He earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Dartmouth (1818 and 1821, respectively) after preparing for college at Gilmantown Academy. After Dartmouth, he studied theology and became a pastor in Rochester, New Hampshire, where his family had relocated while he was a boy. After serving his parish for just 1 year, Upham earned a position at Bowdoin College as the college’s first professor of Mental & Moral Philosophy, a subject he would teach until he left the school in 1867. One year after joining the college faculty, Thomas C. Upham married Phebe Lord on May 18, 1825.

At Bowdoin, Upham was known as “one of the greatest detectives on the faculty”, able to sniff out a student’s mischievousness. Though he was noted for being painfully shy, during his lifetime Upham was able to raise for than $70,000 for the school (approximately $1 million today, adjusted for inflation). He also wrote the enormously successful book Mental Philosophy, which went though 57 editions in just 73 years.

The Upham family home at 179 Park Row, circa 1870. The building, which was probably designed by Samuel Melcher III, is now the local Elks Lodge. When it was built in 1817 it was one of the town's costliest houses to construct. Note the terraced lawn, which still exists today. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# OH 2153.1

One of the Upham’s greatest claims to fame was his role in persuading Calvin Stowe to join the Bowdoin faculty. Stowe brought along his wife, Harriet Beecher, who instantly befriended Phebe. After Harriet’s ill-fated arrival in Brunswick (for more information, see the blog post about William Smyth), Phebe lent Harriet bedding, helped arrange for a housekeeper and showed her around Brunswick. It was while sitting in the Upham family pew (#23) at the First Parish Church that, in March of 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe had a vision which inspired her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Uphams passionately believed that slavery should be abolished. The Uphams, like William Smyth, used their home as a stop on the Underground Railroad for escaping slaves. Harriet Beecher Stowe herself records that she sent an escaping slave to the Uphams, who fed, sheltered, and gave the slave money. Thomas C. Upham was a proponent of the “Back-To-Africa”, or colonization, movement. He believed that American slaves should be returned to African countries like Liberia. Upham served as the vice president of the American Colonization Society and even contributed an impressive $1,000 to the cause (approximately $14,000 today).

Like we have seen in so many of his contemporaries, however, Thomas C. Upham did not limit himself to one cause. He was a supporter of temperance and was among the first people to sign the Brunswick temperance pledge. Upham also opposed capital punishment, which was not abolished in Maine until after his death. Thomas C. Upham was also a strong supporter of the peace movement, a belief he had developed during the War of 1812. He supported the cause for peace by serving as the vice president of the American Peace Society and publishing many works championing peace under the pseudonym “Perier”.

Thomas C. Upham appears to best known for his role in helping to legitimize the holiness movement.* Followers in the holiness movement believe that though the body was corruptible, it was possible to attain full salvation while on earth. Around 1839 Upham became the first man to attend the meetings of Phoebe Palmer, an early practitioner of the movement. Impressed by what he learned, he helped popularize the movement, which some historian argue influenced the structure of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But it appears that Upham did not stumble upon Phoebe Palmer by himself—rather, it was his wife Phebe who urged him to visit a meeting.

Rev. George E. Adams of the First Parish Church, who often butted heads with Phebe Upham. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc#1726.1e.

Like her husband, Phebe Upham was passionately devoted to what she believed in. An outspoken woman herself, Phebe balked at the rule preventing women from speaking in church meetings. Thanks to the fact that Rev. George Adams, the adoptive father of Frances Caroline Adams Chamberlain and pastor of the First Parish Church, kept an exhaustive journal, we know that Phebe would often visit Adams to argue her case. She would apparently often charge into the reverend’s study unannounced and uninvited and engage Adams in heated arguments over the rule.

In addition to her feminist causes, Phebe was also a writer. She wrote a booklet about the life of Phebe Ann Jacobs, a freed slave living in Brunswick, for the American Tract Society. Several scholars have noted parallels between his booklet and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and believe the booklet also inspired Stowe. Phebe accomplished all of this while raising her 6 adopted children (4 boys and 2 girls) at the Upham home at 179 Park Row.

Thomas C. Upham left Bowdoin College in 1867 and he and Phebe relocated to her hometown of Kennebunkport. In 1872, while visiting his brother in New York City, Thomas suffered a stroke. He died on April 2 and his body was brought back to Brunswick. His funeral was held in the First Parish Church on April 4, 5 years to the day of Prof. William Smyth’s death—in recognition of this fact, both services featured the same song, “Who Are These in Bright Array”. Prof. Alpheus Spring Packard presided over the service.

Phebe continued to live out her life in New York City, often visiting her children. She died there peacefully on March 18, 1882. A Brunswick newspaper describes her death:
“On Saturday the servant took up a lunch to Mrs. Upham’s room, finding her seated, and apparently as well as usual. Two hours later the servant went to her room, to found the tea spilled upon the carpet, the lunch untasted, and Mrs. Upham seated in her chair with her head reclining to one side; a closer observation showed that she was dead, having passed away in that interval of two hours, with no eye to watch her, but evidently without a struggle” (Tenney, Phebe Upham’s obituary, 2).

The Upham monument in Pine Grove Cemetery, located just past the grave of Parker Cleaveland. Though only Thomas's dates and initials are inscribed on the stone, newspaper articles indicate that Phebe is buried here as well. Her obituary in the March 24, 1882 Brunswick Telegraph ends "She has come back at last, and rests beneath our whispering pines in the lot in our village cemetery, where rest the remains of her husband."

*The Salvation Army began as a result of the holiness movement.

Sources:
Calhoun, Charles C. A Small College in Maine: Two Hundred Years of Bowdoin. Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1993.
Cheetham, Mark. Facts and Legends Concerning the Underground Railroad in Topsham and Brunswick Maine website.
Fuchs, Alfred H. “The Psychology of Thomas Upham.” Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology, Vol. 4. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2000.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1912.
Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1912.
“Old College Professors: Reminiscences of Famous Educators and Told by an Augusta Citizen”. Brunswick Telegraph. No date, circa 1880. Pejepscot Historical Society Research Files.
Packard, Alpheus Spring. Address on the Life and Character of Thomas C. Upham, D.D. Brunswick: Joseph Griffin, 1873.
“Phoebe [sic] Upham Had Role in Writing of Famous Book”. Lewiston Evening Journal Magazine. 10 November 1973.
Tenney, A.G. “Death of Professor Thomas C. Upham.” Brunswick Telegraph. 5 April 1872.
Tenney, A.G. “Funeral of Prof. Upham.” Brunswick Telegraph. 12 April 1872.
Tenney, A.G. Phebe Upham’s obituary. Brunswick Telegraph. 24 March 1882.
Wheeler, George Augustus & Henry Warren. History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1878.

Frances Adams Chamberlain: Death & Funeral

Below are three transcribed newspaper articles: Fanny Chamberlain’s obituary, an article about her funeral, and the beautiful eulogy given by Rev. E.B. Mason at her service.

Fanny Chamberlain’s obituary, as printed in the

October 20, 1905 issue of The Brunswick Record

DEATH OF MRS. CHAMBERLAIN

Mrs. Frances (Adams) Chamberlain, wife of Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, passed away on Wednesday night at her home in this town. She was about 80 years of age. They had been looking forward to the celebration of their golden wedding in December next. She was the daughter of Asher Adams, one of the old Boston merchants, and Amelia Wyllys of Hartford, Conn., whose home was the old Wyllys mansion of Charter Oaks fame. She was a lineal descendant of Mabel Harlakenden, known as “the Princess of New England,” being in fact of the blood royal. She was a member of the family, regarded as an adopted daughter, of her cousin, Rev. Dr. George E. Adams, pastor of the First Parish church in Brunswick. She was a rare and gifted woman, and had opportunities in life to be active in wide and varied spheres. During her husband’s governorship of Maine and presidency of Bowdoin College, her generous hospitalities and especially her personal interest of a large number of young men, students of the college, she endeared herself to many who cherish the memory with grateful affection. Mrs. Chamberlain lost her eye-sight several years ago, and has since suffered very greatly from a combination of diseases, which she had borne with admirable patience. She will be widely missed and deeply mourned. She leaves a son, Harold Wyllys Chamberlain of Brunswick, and a daughter, Mrs. Horace G. Allen of Boston.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 2:30 p.m., at her late home on Maine street.

Photo of the First Parish Church, taken during the brief period between 1848 and 1866 when the church had a spire. The spire was blown off in a windstorm and fell onto Maine Street--no one was injured. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2008.383.3.b.

Description of Fanny’s funeral, from the

October 23, 1905 Lewiston Daily Evening Journal

TRIBUTES TO MRS. CHAMBERLAIN, BRUNSWICK, ME., Oct. 24 (Special).—Saturday the funeral of Mrs. J.L. Chamberlain was held in Brunswick. Only family and intimate friends attended the prayers at the house at half after two in the afternoon.

From the home the remains were carried to the Congregational church where the funeral service was held. The officiating clergymen was Dr. Mason, who was a pastor of the college church for over forty years and he was assisted by the present pastor, Rev. Mr. Jump, who offered the opening and closing prayers.

“Sun of My Soul,” one of Mrs. Chamberlain’s favorite songs, was given at the beginning of the service, and at the close the organist played magnificently, “The Land of the Leal.”

Mrs. Chamberlain passed away on Wednesday night. Only the Sunday previous she went for a drive. On Monday it was noticed that she wad suffering from a cold and on Tuesday she was much worse. This hastened her death, the indirect cause of which, no doubt, was the injury to her hip, received last August as the result of a fall.

Besides her husband, Mrs. Chamberlain is survived by two children, Mrs. Horace Allen of Boston and Mr. Harold Wyllys Chamberlain of Brunswick and three littler grand-children, all the daughters of Mrs. Allen.

Mrs. Chamberlain, who was seventy-seven years of age [sic; she was actually 80], has been totally blind for the past five years and for several years previous to that, was partially blind. Her husband and son have been especially devoted to her during her years of affliction. Even after her blindness Mrs. Chamberlain played beautifully upon the piano and not only from memory for she also improvised.

In speaking of her a friends said: “Mrs. Chamberlain had a fund of funny stories and of quaint sayings. She was young and bright in spirit, even to her last. She was cultured and intellectual and an artist in painting as well as in music. But better than all her versatile talents was her dear, true strong, loving heart.”

One of her dearest friends spoke to the Journal reporter of Mrs. Chamberlain’s wonderful faculty of entertaining a large company of people easily and with no apparent effort, making everyone feel that he was a part of the happy circle.

It will be remembered that Mrs. Chamberlain, who was formerly Miss Fannie Adams, was adopted by her father’s brother, Dr. Adams of Brunswick, when but a child. The officiating clergyman at the funeral services told the story of her life in a series of word pictures, the first of which described the beautiful little girl with her great, observant brown eyes, as she came up the aisle of the old white church, on the first Sunday after the adoption by Dr. and Mrs. Adams.

He carried her through her girlhood to young womanhood when she had the care of the singing in the church and played the organ for eight years. Then he told how she became interested in a young man in the college and later gave her heart to him and the scene of her marriage which was solemnized by her adopted father, was pictures. Then he described her as a mother and never, said he, was there a more devoted mother than she. Then he pictures the time when her husband was made governor of the State and “this same little Fannie Adams” performed the duties she was called upon to perform with such marked ability and acceptability.

Then to the time Mr. Chamberlain was made president of Bowdoin College when she was still “the same little Fannie Adams,” and the students came to her with their joys and sorrows, wrong doings and love affairs. Whatever happened, she always took the part of the student, being almost a mother to them.

Then he told of her blindness when he came with faltering step up the aisle of the church, leaning upon the arm of her husband and followed by her son, and then, sweetest of all, of her last years.

Colored postcard showing the interior of the First Parish Church. The Chamberlain family sat in pew #64. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1982.97.418.6.

Rev. E.B. Mason’s eulogy, printed in the

October 27, 1905 issue of The Brunswick Record

MRS. CHAMBERLAIN’S FUNERAL

Eloquent Tribute Made by Rev. Dr. E.B. Mason in the Congregational Church

It is the prerogative of man, as an intelligent being, with memory and imagination, to banish the present and recall the past; to summon before him the faces and forms of things and persons that were long ago, and live over again the experiences of other times. We can blot out in a moment the town as it is, with trolley cars, new buildings and dwelling houses; the splendid structures on Bowdoin College campus, the Science and Art buildings, Hubbard hall and even Memorial hall, and see in place of them a quaint beautiful New England village with its simple life and scholarly ways.

It is on a Sunday morning. The “past rises before us like a dream.” We are in the old church which once stood on the sire of the present edifice. We see a square prim New England meeting house, with galleries around three sides, and windows screened by green blinds. Outside the streets are quiet and empty, save for the people on their way to morning service. The door opens and a father mother and little girl softly enter the sacred place. Little Fanny Adams has come from her home in Boston, to live with her cousin George, who loves children, and longs to have one in his house. The little girl grew up, listened to her adopted father, your honored pastor, Dr. Adams, preaching Sabbath after Sabbath, and became a part of Brunswick life.

Years have passed away, this impressive church, which always deeply affected her, has risen on the site of the old meeting house, and each Sabbath morning, there is seated at the organ, a young woman who loves music, and knows how to lead the congregation in its public and solemn worship. Soft strains breathe forth or swell into loud triumphant chords, while the people sit and reverently wait for the uttered words of prayer praise and religious instruction. Once more Fanny Adams is taking her part in the church life, and for years continues to render this important service to the congregation.

Among the members of the choir, and for a time leader of the choir, is a young man between whom and the organist grows a beautiful friendship, which ripens into warm deep love, and which we know now was to last for half a century.

A third picture rises before is like a vision. It is a wedding. The bride and groom walk slowly up the aisle, and stand before this altar while the solemn words are spoken, which make them husband and wife. The picture is easily filled out. All its details come back. We see the throng of friends, and hear the thrilling organ notes, and the full melodious voice of the minister, as he recited the impressive and touching marriage service. Fanny Adams again goes out of the church, and this time as the bride of the young man who helped her in the singing of the choir.

Forty or more years elapse, and we are in the Congregational church, on almost any Sunday evening, when the door slowly opens and three persons carefully enter; a father, a mother, and a son. They move cautiously down the aisle, at almost a creeping pace, and we soon see that the mother is totally blind. A devoted son and husband support her at every step, and seat themselves by her side. She sits motionless during the service, and at its close smiles brightly on friends who stop with a word of greeting, before being led back to the other side of the street, and the home made as comfortable as love can make it, but always in darkness. Those who fill in the events between four scenes described, can rehearse the story of a strong useful and beautiful life.

I have not alluded to other incidents outside this building, her experiences in the war, the days in Augusta as governor’s wife, with receptions and social obligations; nor the college life when her husband was president of Bowdoin College, and students gathered in their home, or came to her with their troubles and questions for sympathy and direction; for the home life which is too sacred for strangers to meddle with; nor her regretted inability to unite with the church, because of a scrupulous conscience which could not assent to propositions beyond comprehension.

Enough, however has been said, and we turn from the days of yore to the ‘Land o’ the leal.’ We forget the past, and summon the future. Memory gives place to vision. It is not a new life but the same life enriched and enlarged, which is projected on into scenes of indescribable brightness and grandeur.

Immortality is an experience like love, or marriage, or any other part of the life lived by reasonable beings. It is not a deduction, for arguments crumble to pieces and fall like a house of cars, but it is an experience, an achievement, an attainment. Some accomplish immortality in this world, and are already passed from death unto life, but others, perhaps most people, learn its meaning, and feel its power only in the world to come. They move on into brightness, while we watch the departing glow. It is an experience not of the body, which moulders away and disappears in the corruption of the grave; it is an experience not of the mind, for learning never comes to a knowledge of God, or eternal life, but it is an experience of the spirit, of the human spirit, blended with the Divine Spirit, and becoming a part of the imperishable. While everything is an experience of God, either a walk in the morning, a song sung from the heart, a piece played on the organ, a friend met in the darkness, yet the supreme experience is the experience of love and immortality with the Eternal Father. That little Fanny Adams, who appeared one Sunday morning in this church seventy or more years ago, who later played your organ, was married before your altar, and worshipped here on Sunday evenings with her husband and son, has gone into the bright and glorious life and light which is immortality and joy and peace. Old and tried friends have brought in for the last time her mortal body, and will lay it in the grave, but her spirit, with its music, and brilliant gifts, and memories of the past, and treasures gathered in this world, has gone to God who gave it, and will abide with Him forever.

The services were held on Saturday afternoon in the Congregational church, and were conducted by Rev. H.A. Jump, assisted by Dr. E.B. Mason.

The singing was by a quartet of Bowdoin students.

The bearers were Prof. Franklin C. Robinson, Capt. Lemuel H. Stover, James W. Crawford, Prof. Henry Johnson, Prof. William A. Houghton and Emery A. Crawford. Interment was at Pine Grove Cemetery.

Frances Adams Chamberlain, Accomplished Artist

Frances "Fanny" Caroline Adams Chamberlain, pictured here in an undated photo from the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1984.122.1

Joshua L. Chamberlain’s grave lies next to that of his wife, Frances “Fanny” Caroline Adams Chamberlain, an accomplished painter and musician. Fanny was born on August 12, 1825 in Boston, Massachusetts to Ashur and Amelia Wyllys Adams. Because her father was 48 when she was born (at that time an age more appropriately fit for Fanny’s grandfather than father), and was suffering financially to support his other children, by the time Fanny turned 4 her parents decided to move her to Brunswick. There, Fanny was raised by her cousin, Rev. George Adams of the First Parish Church, and his wife Sarah Ann Folsom. The couple, who had no children, also adopted Anna Davis, who was very close in age to Fanny. It was not until she was 12 that Fanny wrote to her birth parents in Boston, a fact that author Diane Monroe Smith believes indicates Ashur & Amelia’s “complete surrender” of Fanny to Rev. George & Sarah (Smith, 5).

Rev. George E. Adams (1801-1875), Fanny's cousin & adoptive father.
From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc # OH.1726.1.e.

Fanny displayed her artistic aptitude at a very young age. Her organ instructor, Henry S. Edwards of Portland, was considered the best in Maine. Fanny was also instructed in art by her older (blood) sister, Catherine, and loved poetry and literature. By 1850 she was painting in her own studio in Portland while taking vocal lessons from a Professor Crouch (it is unknown if any of her paintings still exist). Fanny was also firm in her beliefs, frustrating her adoptive father by never officially joining the Congregational First Parish Church, though she would play the organ and sing during services there. Joshua L. Chamberlain, who had noticed Fanny at church and at various Brunswick literary events, began courting the 25-year-old woman in 1850, while Chamberlain was a student at Bowdoin College. In 1851, the pair directed the church choir together, and by October they were engaged.

During the couple’s engagement (while Chamberlain was studying at the Bangor Theological Seminary), Fanny stayed active. Not content to simply wait in Brunswick for Joshua to return, in April 1852 she traveled to New York to study music with her new uncle, George Frederick Root, who composed a slew of famous Civil War songs including “Battle Cry of Freedom” (Fanny’s adoptive mother, Sarah Ann Folsom, died in 1850, and Rev. George married Helen Root in 1851). Fanny even relocated briefly to Milledgeville, Georgia, where she taught voice at school for girls, played the organ at a Presbyterian church and gave piano lessons.

Fanny's Brunswick home on Maine Street, pictured here circa 1871-1876. Photo by A.O. Reed. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1978.10.b.

After Chamberlain’s graduation from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1855, Fanny and Joshua were married at the First Parish Church on December 7, 1855 by Rev. George Adams. Beginning in 1857, the couple lived in what is now the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum at 226 Maine Street in Brunswick, the home they shared for more than 50 years. On October 16, 1856 Fanny gave birth to the couple’s first child, Grace “Daisy” Dupee Chamberlain. The couple would go on to have 4 more children: an unnamed infant son born 3 months premature who lived just a few hours after being born on November 19, 1857; Harold Wyllys, born October 10, 1858; Emily Stelle, born sometime in May, 1860 and died at age 4 months on September 23; Gertrude Loraine, born on January 16, 1865 and died on August 17 at the age of 7 months. All of Fanny & Joshua’s children are buried with them in Pine Grove Cemetery, though their unnamed son has no grave marker.

Footstone of Emily & Gertrude, the two young Chamberlain daughters who did not live to see their first birthday.

Fanny’s relationship with Joshua had many ups and downs over their 50-year marriage. By 1868, long absences were straining their marriage as Chamberlain worked in Augusta as the governor while Fanny maintained the Brunswick home. On November 20, 1868, Joshua wrote an angry letter to Fanny, complaining that she had been telling people he abused her and that she was seeking a divorce. Interestingly, the letter seems to suggest that Joshua was more upset that Fanny was telling people that he was abusing her than by the actual allegation: “Mr[.] Johnson says this is doing immense harm, whether the fact is so or not, & the bitter enemies who now assail me on public grounds, will soon get hold of this & will ruin me.” (Joshua L. Chamberlain, quoted in Smith, 195). In the letter, Joshua suggested a separation, and the couple lived apart for several months. By the time Chamberlain became president of Bowdoin College in 1871, Fanny & Joshua had reconciled, and with Chamberlain spending more time at home the couple began sharing their lives together again.

Fanny's gravestone, featuring her epitaph and date of death. Joshua's (not pictured) is directly beside it on the left.

By 1893, Fanny—who had always suffered from eye pains—had gone completely blind in her right eye. Six years later, Fanny had completely lost her sight and her health quickly began deteriorating. She died on the night of October 18, 1905 at home, her husband rushing to her side from Portland. After a service held at her Maine Street home attended by friends and family, Fanny was buried on October 21 in Pine Grove Cemetery with her three pre-deceased children. Her gravestone bears the simple epitaph “Unveiled”.

Sources:
"Death of Mrs. Chamberlain". The Brunswick Record. 20 October 1905.
Smith, Diane Monroe. Fanny & Joshua: The Enigmatic Lives of Frances Caroline Adams and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1999.
"Tributes to Mrs. Chamberlain, Brunswick, Me." Lewiston Daily Evening Journal. 23 October 1905.
Trulock, Alice Rains. In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain & the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992.