Interesting Epitaphs

What can a gravestone tell you? Besides the obvious--date of birth, date of death and the deceased's name--all sorts of interesting information can be discovered.

This is certainly true for many of the graves in Pine Grove Cemetery. James Herbert Fuller's grave tells us that he died in Brunswick on January 29, 1856 at the age of 7 years and 9 months. But it also tells us his last words: "I never shall be weary, not ever shed a tear, nor ever know a sorrow, nor ever feel a fear." Do you know any seven-year-old who could be so poignant?

The gravestone of James Herbert Fuller, which can be found in the second row from the right. James' last words are now partially buried, as his gravestone appears to be settling into the ground.

Unlike Fuller, Lois Cook Bartlett lived a long life, from 1768 to 1857, when she died at the age of 89. Her grave celebrates this, listing the names of her daughter, granddaughter, great-grandaughter and great, great grandson. Her (rather confusing!) epitaph reads: "Arise daughter and go to thy daughter for thy daughter's daughter has a son. Five generations were present at her burial."

A gravestone can also teach us how someone earned their living. The Skolfields were obviously a seafaring family--each member died in a different part of the country. In 1826 at the age of 39, Captain Samuel Skolfield died at Old Point Comfort, Virginia. His son, Captain Curtis, died at Salilla River in Georgia in 1852 at the age of 28. Another of Samuel's sons, Reed, died "at sea" on Christmas Eve, 1834 at the age of 18.

The seafaring Minot family was an extremely well-traveled group. Captain John Minot died in Lubec, Maine in 1825 at the age of 58. His oldest son John died in the Bahamas in 1840, his middle son Henry died in Mobile, Alabama in 1842 and his youngest son George died on the coast of Africa in 1832. Stranger still, John and his son Henry died on the exact same day--February 7--17 years apart.

Perhaps most interesting of all, a gravestone can tell of how someone died. By far, the most common cause of death listed on the graves in Pine Grove is drowning. Frederic W. Humphreys, son of John C. Humphreys, died on November 18, 1848 at the age of 12 years, 9 months. He had fallen through the ice while skating. His epitaph reads: "It is better to die endeavoring to give life than to die attempting to take life."

Edward Clarence Metcalf did not drown, but water did indirectly cause his death. Metcalf died at the age of 23 in 1880. His epitaph reads: "Died of Malarial Fever contracted in the performance of arduous duty as engineer in charge of the sewerage of Memphis." Fun fact! According to at least one estimate, half of all the people who have ever lived on earth were killed by malaria, a mosquito-borne parasite.

The small gravestone of Lizzie Parker, who is buried in the third row from the right.

Of all the causes of death listed on the graves at Pine Grove, however, Lizzie Parker's stands out. The daughter of John M. and Elizabeth K. Parker, Lizzie was just 1 year and 9 months old when she died. Her epitaph reads: "Poisoned by eating 19 percussion caps."

The next time you travel past a cemetery, consider exploring it. Local cemeteries are a wealth of information, teaching us how our ancestors lived, worked and died.

For more interesting New England epitaphs, click here.

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.

Special thanks to Barbara Desmarais, who told me about Edward Metcalf's grave, and whose knowledge has been indispensable in creating this blog.

Matilda & Julia Dennison Built a Family Business Out of Paper Boxes

Julia Dennison was born on January 31, 1826, the 8th child of Colonel Andrew Dennison and his wife Lydia Lufkin. Two years later on November 22, 1828, their next child—Matilda—was born. Both Julia and Matilda were probably born in the family home on Everett Street in Brunswick.

Photograph of Matilda Dennison Swift, a key figure in the Dennison Manufacturing Company. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1977.35.5.

Not much is known about the youth of these two women. Julia attended school until she was at least 14—a report card of hers, now in the collection of the Pejepscot Historical Society, attests to this. It was around this time that both Julia and Matilda became involved in what would later be the family business. Their brother, Aaron, a Boston watchmaker, enlisted his sisters and father to make paper boxes for him to sell his watches in. Their father would cut the paper, and Julia and Matilda and assemble the boxes, folding and pasting them together. Julia is sometimes given credit as making the first Dennison box, marking the beginning of what would eventually become the largest box company in the United States.

Almost immediately, the business became a complete success, and Colonel Andrew was able to hire someone to help the family produce their boxes. In 1847, Algernon Hinkson was hired and began working at the box “factory” in a room on the second floor of the Dennison home. Apparently a romance began between Algernon and Julia, and the couple were married that year. The couple had one child, Ann Julia, born on September 12, 1847. Sadly, Julia died in March 28, 1848 of unspecified causes. Matilda adopted the then 5 month old Ann and raised her.

The gravestone of Julia Dennison, who is buried near her father, Andrew. Julia was just 22 when she died.

Following Julia’s death, Matilda was the only Dennison woman who worked in the family business. On July 27, 1855 she married George H. Swift, an artist. In 1863, she was put in charge of a new Brunswick Dennison factory, and chose the Day Block as its location. There, she oversaw the production of J.J. Brown brooch boxes. Algernon Hinkson, Julia’s widower, managed the cutting room.

The Day Block, a building located on the north corner of Maine and Mason Streets in Brunswick. Just across Mason Street (and out of frame) stood the Mason Street Universalist Church, which Matilda was involved in. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1993.22.71.834.

Matilda was renown for her craftsmanship and the quality of her work later set the high standards of the Dennison Manufacturing Company. Her husband George, who had long been sickly, died in 1893. Matilda continued to live as a prominent member of the community and philanthropist. After the Mason Street Church on Maine Street burned in 1884, Matilda had the melted remains of the church’s bell—which her father had helped the church obtain—recast into a new bell. That bell now hangs at the Unitarian-Universalist Church on the corner of Pleasant and Middle Streets. Her generous spirit was not limited to people, though. Matilda had a soft spot in her heart for animals, and even raised a lame robin once, teaching it to whistle. She died on April 22, 1902 at the age of 73, after rightfully earning the nickname “Matilda Greatheart.”

Top: The Swift - Chandler Monument. Matilda Dennison Swift is buried here, at the front of the 8th row from the right, with her husband.

Bottom: Matilda's footstone.

Sources:
Dennison Beginnings: 1840-1878. Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2003.12.
Dennison Manufacturing Company. Fifty Years, 1844-1894. New York: Charles F. Bloom, 1894. Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2009.172.
“In Memoriam.” The Brunswick Telegraph. 14 May 1902.
Leighton, Brian. “The Dennison Manufacturing Company: Its Beginning and Progress.” University of Maine, 1976. Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1978.59.
Rogers, Grace M. The Dennison Family of North Yarmouth and Freeport, Maine. Exeter, NH: 1906.

Colonel Andrew Dennison & the Paper Boxes

Colonel Andrew Dennison was, quite literally, the father of the Dennison Manufacturing Company. He was born in Freeport on February 22, 1786. In 1807 he married Lydia Lufkin (1788-1848), who was also from Freeport. Andrew was a cobbler, and after the birth of their first 4 children, Lydia and Andrew moved to Topsham in either 1816 or 1817 so that Andrew could practice his trade. In 1824, they relocated across the river to Brunswick. The couple would go on to have an astonishing 10 children together (there are some sources which say they actually had 15 children, but I found no evidence to support this).

The only known image of Colonel Andrew Dennison. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc#1993.22.71.179.

Not surprisingly, Andrew often had a difficult time earning enough money to support his large family. He served as a sergeant of a regiment stationed at Fort Preble during the War of 1812. Yet he did not earn his title until he became a colonel of the Maine state militia. Andrew also served as the Deputy Sheriff of Cumberland County and tried at his hand at farming and local politics, with little success. In the early 1840s Andrew considered moving out of Brunswick to try his luck elsewhere, but ultimately decided to stay put.

Then, Andrew’s oldest son (and his third child) Aaron, a Boston watchmaker, enlisted his Brunswick family to make boxes for him in the fall of 1844. Aaron was so unimpressed with the quality of the jewelry boxes he had been receiving from overseas, he decided to have his family make them for him. The story goes that Aaron would travel to New York, purchase the box-making supplies, sent them to Brunswick where Andrew and his daughters Julia and Matilda would assemble them, and then the finished product would be shipped back to Aaron, who in turn would use and sell them to other jewelers.

The Dennison home on Everett Street in Brunswick, where the first boxes were produced. The home served as the main "factory" from 1844 to 1851. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1993.22.70.788.

The boxes became popular almost immediately. The family began producing them in a room in the second floor of their house, with Andrew cutting the plasterboard by hand at his cobbler’s bench and Julia and Matilda folding and pasting them together. Eventually, Andrew got fed up with the slow process of cutting the boxes by hand and designed a machine to do it for him. The result was the first box cutting machine ever made, which was utilized by the company for many years thereafter.

At first, the Dennison box company was shared by Andrew, Aaron and Andrew’s 3rd oldest son (his sixth born child), Eliphalet, who was more commonly known as E.W. By 1850, Aaron had decided to focus on his watch-making and decided to sell his portion of the business to his brother E.W. With this development, E.W. and his father began to butt heads over issues such as box quality and price, and Aaron was often forced to serve as a mediator between the two. At one point, Andrew even threatened to take the business away from E.W.

In 1850, E.W. wanted to move production of the boxes from Brunswick to Roxbury, Massachusetts, but Andrew balked at this proposition. E.W. eventually conceded. By this time, the company had moved their factory from the Dennison homestead to the second floor of the Poland Block building on Maine Street, where the company employed about 30 people. By 1855, Andrew had had enough bickering with E.W., and decided to sell his portion of the company to E.W. on February 1 for $8,000, with an additional $1,000. The Dennison Manufacturing Company would eventually become the largest box company in the United States and would branch out to make many other products. In 1990, the company merged with Avery to become Avery Dennison, a leading producer of office supplies.

The gravestone of Colonel Andrew Dennison, located 5 lots from the back in the first row on the right.

Freshly retired and no longer worried about money, Andrew lived out the rest of his life in leisure. After Lydia died in 1848 he remarried and traveled often. His obituary describes him as an early supporter of the causes of temperance and anti-slavery. One of Andrew's greatest passions, however, was time keeping—perhaps where his son Aaron got his passion for watches. He actively campaigned for accurate time keeping in Brunswick, and helped procure the town clock and bell at the Mason Street Church. In addition, he frequently visited the college sundial to ensure that his own watch was correct. In his last years, Andrew apparently was still quite active in mind and body. After a brief unidentified illness, he died on July 3, 1869 at the age of 83, as, according to John Furbish, one of the town’s oldest citizens.

Sources:
Andrew Dennison’s obituary. Brunswick Telegraph. 9 July 1869.
Dennison Beginnings: 1840-1878. Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2003.12.
Dennison Manufacturing Company. Fifty Years, 1844-1894. New York: Charles F. Bloom, 1894. Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 2009.172.
Furbish, John. Facts About Brunswick, Maine. Curtis Memorial Library website.
Leighton, Brian. “The Dennison Manufacturing Company: Its Beginning and Progress.” University of Maine, 1976. Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1978.59.
Rogers, Grace M. The Dennison Family of North Yarmouth and Freeport, Maine. Exeter, NH: 1906.
Wheeler, George Augustus & Henry Warren. History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1878.

Henry Leland Chapman of Old Bowdoin

A photo of Henry Leland Chapman, Bowdoin College professor. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# OH 1951.d.

Henry Leland Chapman was born in Bethel on July 26, 1845 to Elbridge and Delinda Twitchell Kimball Chapman. When he was still a boy, his family moved to Portland, and he attended Gould’s Academy and Gorham Seminary before college. He entered Bowdoin College in 1862.

As a student, Chapman excelled in sports and English. For three years he was a pitcher for “the college nine” (the baseball team) and also rowed in with crew. Chapman also served as class poet for both his freshman and senior years, and was the senior editor of The Bugle, Bowdoin’s yearbook. He was also a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and graduated in 1866 with Phi Beta Kappa honors.

Chapman’s most popular contribution to Bowdoin College has to do with Ivy Day, a tradition which continues to be celebrated by students. The first Ivy Day was held on October 26, 1865, when the junior class planted ivy near the chapel. Chapman is usually credited with instituting this tradition, and he served as odist on the fateful day. Ivy Day traditions later included the awarding of a mirror to the most handsome student and a wooden spoon to the most popular student. (Learn more about the history of Ivy Day here.)

After graduating with his Bachelor’s degree, Chapman continued his studies at Bangor Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1869 with a Master’s degree. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a position at Bowdoin as a tutor in Latin and Mathematics, becoming a full profess in 1872. As a professor, he taught Latin for 3 years before turning to his true passion, English literature, which he taught until his death. On August 21, 1870, he married Emma Caroline Smith from Gorham. The couple lived at 79 Federal Street, which is now owned by the college. Emma died on June 14, 1892.

Chapman's home at 79 Federal Street, one of the oldest home on the street. The house, built circa 1790, was originally located on Maquoit Street, but was moved to its present location by David Stanwood in 1821. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# OH 1830.a.

As a Bowdoin professor, Henry Leland Chapman has a mixed legacy. His obituary celebrates his excellent memory, stating that “frequently in the course of his lectures he would stop and recite poem after poem from the works of Burns, Byron, Scott, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning”. However, Chapman became quite unpopular when he fought against the practice of hazing—many students and even some faculty members were strongly in favor of the ridiculous tradition. Least progressive of his teaching methods was what college historian Louis C. Hatch calls Chapman’s requirement of “a strict adherence to the text-book” by his students (Hatch, 177). Rather than encouraging students to think for themselves, Chapman preferred that they recite the thoughts of their textbook’s author.

Despite any faults he may have had, Chapman was always loyal to his alma mater. After the resignation of Joshua L. Chamberlain, Chapman assisted Alpheus Spring Packard with the duties of interim president. After Packard’s death, Chapman carried on alone as Dean of the College. He was even considered for the position of college president, but the board ultimately decided to hire someone more progressive—they would ultimately choose William DeWitt Hyde.

Chapman's signature from an agreement allowing the relocation of the President's House to its present location as number 85 at the corner of Bath Road and Federal Street. The President's House was originally located at 77 Federal Street, but in 1874 Peleg Chandler, the son-in-law of Parker Cleaveland, wanted it moved so his gardens at 75 Federal Street would receive more sunlight. Chandler signed the agreement with Chapman, allowing the President's House to move through Chapman's backyard to the location it now sits. From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1991.71.3.

Besides his involvement in Bowdoin College, Chapman was a key figure in many state organizations. He served as a trustee for the Maine Missionary Society, Bangor Theological Seminary, State Normal Schools, and the Bible Society of Maine and served as vice president of the Maine Historical Society. Chapman was also a key figure in Brunswick. He was the official poet for the 150th anniversary of Brunswick, was a founding member of the Pejepscot Historical Society and later served as its president, was a charter member of the Public Library Association and of the Village Improvement Association.

At the age of 66, Chapman’s health began to decline. In January 1912, he broke his arm in a fall and was housebound until the following June. A year later, Chapman became ill with what his obituary reported as Bright’s disease, an affliction of the kidneys. He died on February 24, 1913 at 2:30am. Town officials attended his funeral and all stores and businesses were closed to mourn the man who had become so intricately linked with Brunswick.

Henry Leland Chapman's gravestone, located one plot over from that of Henry Hill Boody.

Sources:
“Death of Prof. Chapman.” Brunswick Times. 28 February 1913.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1912.
Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1912.
Hatch, Louis C. The History of Bowdoin College. Portland, Maine: Loring, Short & Harmon, 1927.
Shipman, William D. The Early Architecture of Bowdoin College and Brunswick, Maine. J.H. French & Son: 1985.

“Thus Perish Our Hopes”: The Dead of Bowdoin College

The gravestone of Aretus H. Chase. Chase is buried in the first row on the right, just before the granite-curbed Booker family plot.

As we have already seen, many Bowdoin College presidents and professors have been buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, but many of the school’s students rest there as well.

There are many former students buried in Pine Grove Cemetery who wished to permanently memorialize their connection to their alma mater. Winfield S. Hutchinson, for example, lived to be 66, and despite the fact that he graduated from Harvard Law School and was a lawyer for over 35 years, his gravestone only mentions that he was a member of the Bowdoin College class of 1867. Brothers George Sidney (1835-1861) and Nathaniel H. Whitmore (1833-1871) have their class years inscribed on their tombstones as 1856 and 1854, respectively. Morrill M. Tozier lived to be 67 and worked as a newspaper reporter before holding several different positions in the federal government has a gravestone which has only the dates of his birth, death, and the words “Bowdoin College, Class of 1932, Magna Cum Laude”.

The footstone of Morrill Tozier, located in the front of the fifth row from the right.

While there were people like Tozier, the Whitmores and Hutchinson who chose to forever honor their enrollment at Bowdoin College on their gravestones, there are others buried in Pine Grove whose young lives were cut so short that they were defined by nothing but their years at Bowdoin. Jonathan Ela, whose gravestone mentions that he was a sophomore at Bowdoin when he died in 1830 at age 29, has an epitaph which reads: “He was preparing to serve God on earth: God took him to serve him in heaven.”

In many cases, the deceased’s classmates assisted in paying for a gravestone and plot. Bowdoin College junior William O’Brien died in 1856 at age 21, and his stone bears the words: “This stone is erected by his classmates as a testimonial of affectionate regard. Even so them also which sleep with Jesus shall God bring with him.” 27 year old Aretus H. Chase of the Maine Medical School at Bowdoin died in 1833 and now lies beneath a gravestone which reads: “To know him was to love him. Erected by his classmates.”

One of the most touching of these Bowdoin College student epitaphs reads in full: “WILLIAM CURTIS Jr., member of the senior class of Bowdoin College, distinguished scholar, and not less beloved as a friend. Died July 2, 1826, aged 20. His afflicted classmates erect this monument in his memory. Thus perish our hopes.”

The gravestone of William Curtis, Jr., who is buried in the second row from the right.

Perhaps it is best that a dead Bowdoin student’s classmates no longer are responsible for arranging for a burial. One gravestone in Pine Grove Cemetery reads:

“HENRY RAND of the Freshman Class, Bowdoin College: died Aug. 12, 1830: aged 19 years. An orphan and friendless, he sought the path of learning with a zeal that neither sickness nor poverty could subdue. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity.”

The gravestone of Henry Rand laying on the ground. Jonathan Ela is buried next to him, and Aretus H. Chase is one grave over from Ela.

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.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1912.
Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1912.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine: A Biographical Record of Alumni and Officers, 1900-1975. Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1978.

Henry Hill Boody, Brunswick’s First Millionaire?

Henry Hill Boody's gravestone, which sits one lot over from the Upham's plot. Despite his wealth, Boody opted for a simple stone bearing only his name and the dates of his birth and death, which closely matches the style of his wife's gravestone.

Henry Hill Boody was born on November 8, 1816 in Jackson, Maine, the fourth son of John H. and Patience Redman. He studied at Bangor Classical School before entering Bowdoin College, where he was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and Athenaen Society before graduating in 1842. Boody’s age at the time of his graduation—26—allowed him to immediately become a tutor in Greek at his alma mater, reportedly the first time in the college’s history a graduate had immediately become an employee of the college. Boody would eventually become professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, teaching as a professor of the college from 1845 to 1854.

1854 was a busy year for Henry Hill Boody. In May, Boody was in Washington D.C. and witnessed the effect the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act had on politics. He was so disheartened with the responses of Whigs and Democrats (the two major political parties oat the time) to the evils of slavery that when Boody returned home to Maine he contacted General Samuel Fessenden. Together, the two organized the Maine Republican party, earning Boody the title “Father of the Republican Party in Maine.” Maine’s Republican party would soon produce Hannibal Hamlin, who served as Abraham Lincoln’s vice president (interestingly, Lincoln and Hamlin did not meet until after their election in 1860!).

Later on in 1854, Boody decided to leave his post as a Bowdoin professor. Boody cited as being overworked—and thus overworking his students—as his reason for leaving, but he may have also been keen to become more involved in politics and business. Strangely, his obituary states that he left his teaching position due to “throat trouble”. Almost immediately after Bowdoin, Boody was elected to the Maine state senate in the fall of 1854. He continued his political career for a short time, eventually serving as Brunswick’s representative in the state legislature, and after deciding not to run for congress (despite being urged to do so by his friends) Boody made yet another career change.

Boody, who had long held an interest in business, later moved to New York City to pursue his interests further. He gradually expanded his investments and involvement in railroad, beginning with the Chicago, Fond du Lac & St. Paul Railroad in the 1850s, of which he was later made the director and financial agent. Boody’s business sense, including his belief that railroads should consolidate rather than compete, led his involvement in many other railroad companies such as the Chicago & Galena Union Railroad, the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and the Pennsylvania, Slatington & New England Gauge Railroad. In fact, the first subscription for stock in the Union Pacific Railroad was made in his New York City office and Boody is cited as being at least in part responsible for the laying of 2,000 to 3,000 miles of railroad track in the United States. His investments led Boody to become a millionaire—possibly the first person who had lived in Brunswick ever to do so.

Boody eventually moved into banking as well, founding Boody, McLellan & Company, where his nephew, David A. Boody, worked for him (David A. Boody later became the 23rd mayor of Brooklyn). Yet Boody never turned his back on Brunswick or his alma mater. From 1864 to 1871 he served as a trustee of Bowdoin College. He married Brunswick native Charlotte Mellen Newman (born on July 23, 1823 and daughter of a Bowdoin professor) on September 3, 1846. When Charlotte died her in Brunswick on February 5, 1876, Boody had her buried in Pine Grove Cemetery. Neither of the couple’s two children—Henry Phillips and Caroline Kent—outlived their father, both dying before the age of 25. Boody spent the last few summers of his life in Brunswick, though he appears to never have completely retired.

Henry Hill Boody died of pneumonia at his adopted daughter’s home on Maine Street in Brunswick on September 10, 1912. He was just a few months shy of his 96 birthday, and at the time of his death was the oldest living graduate of Bowdoin. Today, his mark on Brunswick persists in two major forms. Boody Street, near Bowdoin College, bears his name. Boody was responsible for laying the street out and planting the elms which once dotted it, and in 1853 the town adopted the name for the street in Boody’s honor. On the corner of Boody and Maine Streets, however, stands Henry Hill Boody’s most prominent legacy: a gorgeous wooden Gothic “stick-style” home often called “the most interesting house” in Brunswick. The home, which was built for Boody in 1849 by Philadelphia architect Gervase Wheeler, is not to be missed by those interested in architecture.

Photo of the Boody-Johnson House at 256 Maine Street, taken by Richard Cheek. Though it is impossible to see in this black and white photo, according to the Historic Preservation Survey of the building: "The sand color of the exterior paint is probably very similar to the original which was a mixture of paint and fire sand, intended to resemble the stone of medieval Gothic architecture." From the Pejepscot Historical Society, acc# 1992.112.70.

Apparently, the house took a great financial toll on Boody. On March 2, 1850, Boody sent a letter to his mother explaining why he had failed to send her the $5 he had promised her:

“You may perhaps wonder very much that with a salary of a thousand dollars, I am so pinched for money, but I can explain the whole mystery in a few words. Last year I built a house which I expected would cost me $2,500. It actually cost me $5,000, independent of the land, for which I paid $1,000. This money I was obliged to hire [borrow], and in these times it is not easy to hire money except at very high rates of interest.”

In 1892, the house came into the possession of Bowdoin Professor Henry Johnson, whose daughter eventually donated the building—now known as the Boody-Johnson House—to Bowdoin College. Today, the house is used as the residence of the college dean.

Nota bene: Despite Boody's wealth and long life, I was unable to find any images of him in the Pejepscot Historical Society collection or on the internet. However, there is reportedly a portrait of him hanging in the Boody-Johnson House.

Sources:
Cleaveland, Nehemiah. History of Bowdoin College, with Biographical Sketches of its Graduates. Boston: James Ripley Osgood & Company, 1882.
“Death of Prof. H.H. Boody”. Brunswick Record. 13 September 1912.
General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1912.
Brunswick: Bowdoin College, 1912.
Hatch, Louis C. The History of Bowdoin College. Portland, Maine: Loring, Short & Harmon, 1927.
Historic Preservation Survey of the Johnson-Boody House. 14 May 1975. Pejepscot Historical Society.
Little, George Thomas, ed. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Vol. 1. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1909.
The Official Railway List. 1892.
Shipman, William D. The Early Architecture of Bowdoin College and Brunswick, Maine. J.H. French & Son: 1985.
Weyrauch, Martin H., ed. The Pictorial History of Brooklyn Issued by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. New York: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1916.
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 & 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.