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.

Rev. Jesse & Elizabeth Appleton: Parents of a First Lady

Continuing past the grave of the Bowdoin’s first president, Joseph McKeen, a visitor to Pine Grove Cemetery comes upon several members of the Appleton family. The Appletons—Rev. Jesse, his wife Elizabeth, and their children—would have a long and lasting impression upon the college, beginning with Jesse’s inauguration as the second president after McKeen’s death in 1807.

Engraving of Rev. Jesse Appleton from Wheeler & Wheeler's History of Brunswick.

Jesse was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, on November 17, 1772, the son of a farmer. Thanks to the help of a brother, Jesse was able to pay his way through school, eventually graduating—like Joseph McKeen did—from Dartmouth, in 1792. Then, like McKeen, he spent several years both teaching and studying theology before ultimately settling in Hampton, New Hampshire as the pastor of the local Congregational Church, where he was ordained in February of 1797. Jesse’s initial salary included 90£, the keep of his horse, and 20£ worth of food. In 1800 he married Elizabeth Means (born 1799) of Amherst, New Hampshire, the daughter of the wealthy Colonel Robert and Mary (McGregor). The couple would go on to have six children who survived to adulthood.

Jesse spent ten years preaching in Hampton, publishing frequently and garnering quite a reputation as a theologian. He was particularly involved in the Second Great Awakening and believed that anyone could achieve salvation. After Joseph McKeen’s death in July, Jesse was elected in September, 1807 as the college’s next president, and was inaugurated in December.

Jesse’s presidency is characterized by his strict work ethic, which some historians argue is directly responsible for his death. Jesse would often stay up late into the night and then awake at 4 a.m., gaining only 3 or 4 hours of sleep. A tall, thin man, he would also regularly skip meals, so as to have more time to complete his work. Opinions on the effectiveness of Appleton’s presidency seem mixed; some argue that he was quite successful at alleviating the college’s financial issues, while others, such as Louis C. Hatch, complain that Jesse was “anxious over-much” (Hatch, 38) and was too negative and fearful. Despite these accusations, Jesse’s reported final words are full of hope: “God has taken care of the college, and God will take care of the college” (quoted in Hatch, 41). Jesse Appleton died on November 12, 1819, probably of tuberculosis, just 5 days short of his 47th birthday.

Jesse Appleton's grave. The Latin inscription is very worn; an English translation can be found here.

The college, once again, paid for the burial of their president. As another memorial to Jesse, Appleton Hall was named after him in 1847. After her husband’s death, Elizabeth moved her family back to New Hampshire and lived with her brother, Robert. Frances, her second eldest, would eventually marry Bowdon College professor Alpheus Spring Packard in 1827 before her early death in June 1839 at age 25—she, too, is laid to rest in Pine Grove. The most famous of the Appleton children—Jane, the third eldest—would later marry Franklin Pierce on November 19, 1834. Coincidentally, the couple met in New Hampshire though Pierce entered Bowdoin College the year after the Appleton family left it. Franklin Pierce would later go on to become the 14th President of the United States, apparently much to Jane’s chagrin.

Elizabeth Means Appleton's grave. Jesse's grave can be seen directly to its left.

Elizabeth died on October 29, 1844 and was laid to rest next to her husband. Her monument is a gorgeous urn, a common symbol for death. Inscribed on the south side of the base is Revelation 14:13: “I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”

Sources:
Bowdoin College. "Agency History/Biographical Note". George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives website.
Calhoun, Charles C. A Small College in Maine: Two Hundred Years of Bowdoin. Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1993.
Cleaveland, Nehemiah. History of Bowdoin College, with Biographical Sketches of its Graduates. Boston: James Ripley Osgood & Company, 1882.
Hatch, Louis C. The History of Bowdoin College. Portland, Maine: Loring, Short & Harmon, 1927.
Johnson, Allen ed. “Rev. Jesse Appleton: Nov. 17, 1772 - Nov. 12, 1819” Dictionary of American Biography. 1928.
Tardiff, Olive. “Jane Appleton Pierce.” Lane Memorial Library website. 11 June 2009.
Venzke, Jane Walter & Craig Paul. “The President’s Wife, Jane Means Appleton Pierce: A Woman of Her Time.” Historical New Hampshire website.
Wheeler, George Augustus & Henry Warren. History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1878.

Pine Grove Cemetery: An Introduction to the Dead

Pine Grove Cemetery, located just off Bath Road & Pine Street in Brunswick, Maine, is arguably the region’s most prominent cemetery. Men & women who have impacted the history of the United States, Maine and Brunswick all lay buried beneath the towering pines which lend the cemetery its name. Among these dead are a Civil War hero, Maine’s most famous botanist, a physician who developed vital forensic tests, the parents of a First Lady, two Maine governors, a slew of Bowdoin College presidents & professors (including the “Father of American Mineralogy”), librarians, Revolutionary War veterans, a former slave, sea captains, and the state’s first printer.

The cemetery is located on land which once belonged to Bowdoin College, which sits directly next to it. In 1821 Bowdoin’s trustees deeded the land to Pine Grove’s first proprietors, Robert Eastman, Nahum Houghton, Abner Bourne “and their associates, heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns”. The two acres were given with the stipulation that the college could take back the land if it were not used as a burying ground.

Painting of Bowdoin College, circa 1825. From the Pejepscot Historical Society collection, acc# 1992.112.84.

But there was no need for the college to worry about the fate of the land. In 1825 the cemetery land was cleared “carefully and selectively” as Teresa M. Flanagan, author of Mourning on the Pejepscot puts it, “not stripped clean as it had been for early town burial grounds.” Though this was six years before Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston—“America’s first garden cemetery”—Pine Grove Cemetery might qualify as a part of the rural cemetery or “cemetery beautiful” movement if not for its location. Rural cemeteries were carefully landscaped and designed, intended to serve as parks do for communities today. Yet, unlike Pine Grove, rural cemeteries were intentionally placed on the outskirts of cities & towns where there was more room for expansion and the grounds were more rolling and picturesque. Pine Grove Cemetery is where it is because it was closer to Brunswick’s population center.

Before the 1820s, the town’s most prominent graveyard—the old First Parish Church Burying Ground—was located next to the meetinghouse on the 12 rod road (now Maine Street). When the church moved closer to downtown Brunswick (its current location) a new cemetery, closer to First Parish Church, was needed. The college stepped in, providing the land for the graveyard. Not only did the town’s most prominent cemetery move from the old First Parish Church Burying Ground to Pine Grove Cemetery, a few of the dead did as well. Bowdoin College’s first two presidents, Joseph McKeen and Jesse Appleton, had each died before Pine Grove Cemetery was established. After the new cemetery was laid out, the remains of both men were relocated to the new cemetery to rest on the land that had once belonged to the college they presided over.

Nearing its 200th birthday, Pine Grove Cemetery continues to hold an important place in Brunswick's past, present and future. According to a 2005 survey by Mark & Donald Cheetham, there are 2,491 marker stones in the cemetery and the earliest death recorded on a gravestone is 1794 (the same year Bowdoin College was founded). Yet, despite its age, the cemetery is active and continues to serve as the final resting place of the area's residents.

Sources:
Cheetham, Donald & Mark. Pine Grove Cemetery, Bath Road, Brunswick, Maine, volumes 1 & 2 (Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2006.7.1 & 2006.7.2), 2005.
Flanagan, Teresa M. Mourning on the Pejepscot. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1992.
Hatch, Louis C. The History of Bowdoin College. Portland, Maine: Loring, Short & Harmon, 1927.
Wheeler, George Augustus & Henry Warren. History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1878.