The Remarkable Orsamus Edson Nute (1820-1907), 2nd GGF

This is the story of an extraordinary, selfless man who endured tragedy and hardship with resilience and courage that would make proud our Nute forebears. It’s as though he called on the strength of all the Nute generations beginning with 18 year-old James who crossed the Atlantic in 1631. At the relatively old age of 44, he took his family out of backwoods Maine and re-invented himself, a farmer who made a fortune in Boston that allowed him to comfortably care for his large family even into their adulthood. His regard for and love of learning led him to teach the children of Woodstock and send his own children to institutions of higher learning, including our great-grandfather who graduated from M.I.T. in 1885. This is the story of Orsamus Edson Nute.

Orsamus Nute (1820-1907)

2nd GGF Orsamus Nute was born in the spring of 1820 in Poland, Maine, the second child and oldest son of Samuel Nute and Betsey Fickett. Orsamus was just a toddler, if that, when his parents moved the family from the Poland farm to Woodstock, Maine, bringing Grandma Rebecca Wentworth along with them.

Before Woodstock. Orsamus’ father, 3rd GGF Samuel, bought the Poland property from his father, Josiah, for $400 but the1814 deed gives little clue to its location in Poland, “a certain piece of land bounded as follows, beginning at the southeasterly corner of lot No. 4 in the second division of lots in said Poland, thence running southeast to the southeast corner of said lot, thence from there two bounds on two lines each extending northwest until it shall contain fifty acres of land, including the roads that now run through said land.”

Six years later, Samuel bought land in Woodstock from his father-in-law, 3rd GGF Jonathan Fickett, perhaps as Jonathan was on hard times. Jonathan’s property in Poland where he had been for 20 years foreclosed in 1819 for failure to pay taxes. Jonathan and family possibly remained in a cabin on the farm after sale to Samuel. Having left the large extended family on Nute’s Ridge, his father dying in 1820, and being an only child, Samuel had no other extended family to help him with clearing and working the Woodstock farm. Samuel’s father, Josiah, may have been ill even when he sold the Poland land to young Samuel, leaving Samuel to do most of the work on that farm. Equally puzzling was why Josiah sold the land to Samuel, his only son, rather than bequeathing it to his only heir. 

One thought is that 22 year-old Samuel moved to Poland on his own and Josiah and Rebecca remained behind in Falmouth until Josiah died in 1820. A bit of support for this alternative is a later deed that identifies Josiah as still being of Falmouth. 

Who's related to who

Move to Woodstock. Samuel married 3rd GGM Betsey Fickett of Poland in 1816 and they had two children over the next four years. Orsamus was but an infant when the young family removed to the hilltop farm on Twitchell Road in Woodstock sometime in 1820.

Samuel and Betsey had two more children in Woodstock, spaced two years apart like the others. Two years later, in 1826, Betsey died leaving Samuel with four young children. Orsamus was but six years old. His grandma living in the home, 56 year-old Rebecca Wentworth, died two years later. 

A step-mother, 34 year-old Polly Davis, entered the family in 1827. Her dad was 5th GGF Aaron Davis and granddad 6th GGF Zebulon Davis, both Revolution veterans.

Like his father, Orsamus was hard-working and resourceful. Lapham’s 1882 History of Woodstock describes him,

Orsamus Nute, born in this town, received his education mostly in the common schools. He was naturally a good scholar, and early became an instructor of the school of his town. He was also a good farmer, and successfully cultivated the old homestead of his father for many years. He filled the office of Selectman and Superintending School Committee, but, being always a Democrat, he could not be elected to any office where party principles were involved.

Marriage to Emmy Ann Stevens. In 1843, Orsamus married 21 year-old Emmy Ann Stevens, daughter of Joseph, also a farmer, from nearby Norway.

Children of Orsamus and Emmy Ann

Samuel Ambrose, b. 1844, died unmarried in Woodstock in 1864, age 20

Mary Elizabeth, b. 1845, m. Willis Tappan Emery, a solicitor, in Boston in 1873, d. 1914 in Boston, uterine cancer, buried in Sanford, Maine

Ellen Maria, b. 1849, m. 1) George Leavitt in Boston, 2) Luther Covington, clergyman in Boston and moved to Seattle, Washington where she died in 1924

Ruth Anna, b. 1852, died unmarried in Boston in 1880, age 28, rheumatic valve heart disease

Emma Frances, b. 1856, died Dec 1857 in Woodstock, age 19 months

The 1850 census shows Orsamus and Emmy Ann living on the farm with Samuel, age 58, and Polly (Samuel’s second wife) as well as the first three children of Orsamus and Emmy. The farm appears to belong to Samuel.

In 1854, Orsamus served as administrator for the insolvency of his father-in law, Jonathan Fickett’s estate on behalf of the widow, 3rd GGM Betsey Bryant Fickett, and her 15 year-old daughter. Indeed, Jonathan remained in debt until his death, leaving Betsey having to ask the court for enough money on which she and her daughter could live.

Orsamus’ dad, Samuel, died in 1855, leaving him the Woodstock hilltop farm. The following year a daughter was born, and Orsamus was instrumental in erection of the a Woodstock church conjointly built by the Methodists and Free Baptists. Orsamus was Methodist.

Photo courtesy of Woodstock Historical Society

Life was good for the 36 year-old Orsamus in 1856. He was the owner of a nice hilltop farm. He taught school and was active in the community. He and Emmy Ann had four young children. Then tragedy begins to strike. Nineteen month-old Emma Frances died in December 1857 and wife Emma died in July 1860 at age 38.

Marriage to 3rd GGM Lovina Dunn Davis. Life seems to get back on track when the 41 year-old Orsamus marries 25 year-old Lovina Dunn Davis 10 months after wife Emma’s death. Lovina was a teacher in Woodstock, the granddaughter of 4th GGF Aaron Davis, Jr. and niece of Orsamus’ stepmother, Polly Davis, who raised Orsamus from age seven.

Orsamus and Lovina soon started their family with the birth of Henry Orsamus in 1862 and our GGF Joseph Edson in 1863. Tragedy struck again with the death of Orsamus’ oldest son, Samuel Ambrose, at age 20 in June 1864.

It seems enough was enough for Orsamus who suffered repeated losses on the hilltop farm, starting with the death of his mother at age six, followed by the deaths of his father in 1855, young daughter in 1857, wife in 1860, and eldest son in 1864.

Very possibly, 20 year-old Samuel Ambrose had been ill for a while and death expected as Orsamus picked up his family, sold the farm, and moved everyone, including step-mom Polly, to Boston within a few months. What a bold move for a 44 year-old who had known only farm life in a backwater Maine town in the mid-1800s! The same could be said for Lovina who had a household of the three offspring from Orsamus' first marriage, two very young children from Orsamus, and was pregnant with the third. Polly, who was also Lovina's aunt, died in Boston in 1873.

By moving the entire family, no more Nutes of the Josiah-Samuel-Orsamus line were left in Woodstock or, indeed, in Maine at all.

Children of Orsamus and Lovina Dunn Davis

Henry Orsamus Nute, b. 1862 in Woodstock, m. Ella J. Ford, died 1924 in Manhattan; attended Boston University School of Law and became a drug merchant with an apothecary in Boston.

JOSEPH Edson Nute, b. 1863 in Woodstock, m. Harriet Gove Wilkins in Boston, d. 1949 in South Dartmouth, MA, graduated M.I.T. in mechanical engineering, head of Fall River Gas Works Company for most of his career.

Edith Rivers Nute, b. 1865 in Boston, m. Clement Milton Hammond, journalist and associate editor of Boston Globe, whom she divorced. She lived with her half-sister Ellen Maria in Seattle and worked as a stenographer until her later life when she went to Ramapo, New York, to live with a sister, Mabel Lavina. They were both chicken farmers; d. 1934 in Monsey, NY.

Ernest Nute, b. 1867, d. 1868 in Boston, inflammation of brain, age eight months

Frank Earnest Nute, b. 1869, d. 1870  in Boston, age 11 months, buried in Nute-Stevens cemetery

Mabel Lavina Nute, b. 1871 in Boston, graduated with a B.A. from Smith College in Monsey, NY, and was to be at Boston University Medical School in 1898-1899. In the 1900 census, Mabel is living in Boston with her father, unmarried. In the 1910 census, she owns a farm in Ramapo, NY, still single with a servant and three hired men. This is evidently the chicken farm above, and where Orsamus spent the last couple years of his life.

A second successful career for Orsamus. What possessed Orsamus the farmer to bring his family to Boston is anyone’s guess. In the 1865 Massachusetts census a year after he arrived in Boston, his occupation is listed as a street sprinkler. Orsamus started with a street watering cart whose important task was to water the graveled streets of Boston, to wet down the mess of horse shit which would otherwise dry, turn to dust, and aerosolize - not to mention what it would do to the gown hems of the Victorian ladies.

From this humble business beginning, Orsamus built a lucrative and prosperous water sprinkler contracting business that would go the way of dinosaurs with the advent of cars. In the 1870 census, 50 year-old Orsamus lists his occupation as street contractor with a business called Nute and Billings and an office at E. Dedham and W. Albany Streets.

The great fire of 1872 in Boston must have caused a fright as it burned within blocks of his business building. The fire is still ranked as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history, consuming 65 acres of downtown Boston and 800 businesses and warehouses. 

By 1872, Orsamus was living at the prestigious address of 335 Columbus Avenue in Boston.

335 Columbus Street, Boston, the corner five-story townhouse that belonged to Orsamus

An 1873 Boston Business Directory lists Orsamus’ middle initial as E, perhaps a clue to the origin of Edson as a middle name in the family. The Edson middle name was passed down another four generations to Joseph Edson Nute, Raymond Edson Nute Sr., Jr., and III.

Orsamus owned most of a block on Dorr Street in 1873. In 1889, his son Henry and son-in-law, Willis Emery, joined him in a project to “drive 12 piles on the northerly side of the sea wall in Charles River, at the foot of Hereford Street in the city of Boston…for the support of a water tank.”

Tragedy revisited Orsamus and Lovina in 1868 with the death of an eight month-old son and 1870 with the death of an 11 month-old son. A little over ten years later in December 1880 he lost his 28 year-old daughter Ruth Anna from rheumatic heart disease and wife Lovina, 40, from pericarditis within two weeks of each other.

Home invasion robbery. The Boston Globe reported two "notorious and successful burglars" were arraigned and pleaded guilty to breaking and entering the 335 Columbus Avenue address at nighttime and stealing silverware and clothing. One was sentenced to 3 years prison and the other to 6 years.

Business reversals. All was not smooth sailing for Orsamus in Boston. He declared insolvency in 1875 and bankruptcy in 1894. A tenant renting the 335 Columbus Avenue building had fitted the ground floor as a drug store, but was probated as insane in 1899, and the family filed to restrain the Nutes (Orsamus and Henry O.) from foreclosing and evicting him. The Nutes were apparently successful as Henry O. is listed in the 1902 Boston directory as running a drug merchant business out of the 335 Columbus Avenue address himself.

Another marriage. Censuses show Orsamus usually had one to two servants living in the 335 Columbus Avenue home with whatever kids needed a home. He married again in 1890 at age 69 to widow Lydia Beal Collamore Smith, age 45, but 72 year old Orsamus was no longer at the 335 Columbus Avenue address. The 1900 census shows Lydia living in a boarding house and no longer with Orsamus. 

The last years. The marriage relationship with Lydia seems to have been brief. Boston directories show 72 year-old Orsamus living with daughter Mary Elizabeth as early as 1892, and the 1900 census shows 80 year-old Orsamus living at 32 Yarmouth in Boston with Mary Elizabeth; her husband, Willis Emery, Orsamus' former business partner; Orsamus' divorced daughter, Edith; and unmarried daughter, Mabel. Mabel was supposed to have entered Boston University Medical School in 1898, but the census does not show she is either a student or working.

Sometime between 1900 and 1905, daughters Edith and Mabel moved to Ramapo, New York, where Mabel bought a chicken farm. It is noteworthy that Mabel was living at her chicken farm in Ramapo within seven years of graduating from Smith College seven miles away.

 A 1901 Boston directory lists Orsamus as “removed to Woodstock.” His son, Henry Orsamus, is using the 335 Columbus building, probably the ground floor, for his pharmacy. An August 1902 Fall River Daily Evening News article reported "the family of Joseph E. Nute recreating at South Paris, Maine." A reasonable assumption could be they went to visit 80 year-old Orsamus who returned to his hometown to live with family, probably his sister Mary Jane Billings and her daughter, Ladusca Wing. The relationship must have been close as Mary Jane had named one of her sons after Orsamus.

Mary Jane died in 1904, and by 1905 Orsamus is living with daughters Edith and Mabel in the hamlet of Viola, part of Ramapo, New York, where he died in 1907, age 87, with interstitial nephritis. The year after Orsamus died, Edith and Mabel went on holiday by steamship to Panama. Edith died in 1934, age 69, and Mabel, the baby of the family, in 1956 at age 84.

Not surprisingly, Orsamus maintained ties with Woodstock after leaving for Boston. He had a lifetime of friends in Woodstock, and was a local boy made good. His photo was featured in the 1882 History of Woodstock by Latham.

Burial in Woodstock. Orsamus’ and Lovina’s strong ties to Woodstock are manifest in their decisions to be buried in the family cemetery on the farm rather than in Boston, and to bring their three deceased children back to Woodstock for burial.

Nute Obelisk and 12 foot stones at Nute-Stevens cemetery in Woodstock

Family member names inscribed on obelisk, many poorly legible

Sometime before his death, Orsamus arranged for an obelisk to be erected in the Woodstock Nute-Stevens cemetery. One side of the monument lists his name and those of his two wives, Emma and Lovina, with birth and death dates. Another side lists names that are mostly illegible, but one is the name of his grandmother, Rebecca Wentworth. From either side of the monument is a line of 12 small foot stones with initials of family members buried here: Samuel, Betsey, Polly, Rebecca, Orsamus, Emma, Lovina, Emma F, Samuel A, Ernest, Frankie E, and Ruth A. The latter three died in Boston and must have been brought back to Woodstock for internment with their father and mother. 

Current house on Nute farm at end of Twitchell Road

We are fortunate to have the original form completed by Orsamus in his own handwriting at the request of GGF Joseph Nute when he was working on the Nute Genealogy. A copy of the Nute Genealogy is at the New Hampshire Historical Society and I have a copy. Joseph's papers from his work on the Genealogy with Percy Nute and Orsamus' granddaughter, Amy Emery, were donated to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society in Boston.

Woodstock: Our Davis Family, Colonial to Civil War Era

Our Colonial Davises in Gloucester

Our Maine Davis line first showed up in the colonies in 1638 some 30 miles north of Boston at Ipswich, Massachusetts when John Davis appeared in an Ipswich court, perhaps to take his freeman’s oath. 

His actual arrival is speculative, but all agree he came from England during the period of the Great Migration of Puritans (1620-1640). Religious motivation for immigration is highly probable given that his sons and many of the subsequent generations have biblical names, every family seeming to have an Aaron, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, and Mary. All Davises in Gloucester were descendants of John until 1700 when various other Davises came into the area.

Our Davis families lived in Gloucester, nearby Ipswich, and Attleborough, Massachusetts for 4 generations before making the leap to Bakerstown Plantation - now Poland, Maine - and then to Woodstock. 

The Davises and Days were among the 50 settlers living in the Gloucester area in 1650 where the Town Green is now a traffic rotary on Mass Rt 128.  Our Haskells, Browns, Brays and Tybotts arrived in the latter half of the century. They were mainly farmers, leaving it to the next generations to take advantage of fishing and commerce. As the little community grew and spread, in 1718 a Second Parish Church was established to make Sunday meeting attendance easier and it is here Davis births and marriages can be found. 

John¹ Davis  (Abt 1608, England - 1680 Ipswich)  was a young man about 27-30 years old when he came to New England. The date and ship of his immigration is unknown, but likely mid-1630’s.

Ipswich was a Puritan settlement started in 1634 by John Winthrop, son of the Governor John Winthrop of the Winthrop Fleet which brought over thousands of colonists.

Some speculate our John Davis was a follower of Rev. Richard Blinman who brought members of his Welsh congregation to the small fishing village of Marshfield in 1640 and within a year moved to Ipswich, just on the border of Gloucester. Review of NEHGS papers of Rev. Blinman’s congregation, however, does not mention a Davis.

John may have married Alice (1612-1682), identified as Newman, in England before immigration as no Newman families are found in the early settlers of Gloucester. They had two sons who survived to adulthood, James and our 9th GGF Jacob; the daughters are unknown.  

John made a living as a shoemaker and town herdsman with land in both Ipswich and Gloucester. He may also have been a house builder as a record in 1640 shows he was hired as a “joiner” to build a new house for another individual.

John bought a house, barn, orchard, and land near Walker’s Creek in Gloucester in 1656. He was a selectman of Gloucester for several years, twice a constable, and lieutenant of the military company.  In later years, he returned to Ipswich where he died in 1680, age 72.

Jacob² Davis (1640-1685) was born and raised in Gloucester, but lived off and on between Gloucester and Ipswich. He married Elizabeth Bennett (1641-1685)  of Gloucester in 1661 at age 21 and the following year received a grant of land at the head of Long Cove in Gloucester. In 1682 Jacob “and others have the liberty of the stream at the head of Little River to set up a sawmill.”

Jacob may have been a potter as well as a farmer and sawmill owner.

Elizabeth’s parents were both English immigrants who arrived by the 1630’s. She and Jacob had 8 children over a span of 22 years, all born in Gloucester - Jacob (our 8th GGF), Elizabeth, Susanna, Moses, Mary, and Aaron; two sons named John died in infancy.

Jacob was drafted in the town’s quota for King Phillip’s War in 1675, but most draftees hired substitutes to do the actual soldiering.

Jacob and Elizabeth both died young in 1685, age 45 and 44 respectively, seven months apart, most likely from infectious causes. They left six children age 18 and under; only our GGF Jacob Jr. was over 18 and may have had to assume responsibility for some of the children. An article in NEGHR shows at least one of the children, Joseph, 11 years old when their parents died, was placed under the guardianship of brother Moses for the first two years until guardianship was transferred to an uncle. Jacob Sr. left an estate that included a house, upland and meadow, cart yoke, half of a sloop and four canoes, cattle, sheep and swine, and gun, cutlass and belt, so he and Elizabeth had worked hard and done well before their early death.

Jacob³ Davis (1663-1717) was 22 years old when his parents died. Two years later he married Mary Haskell from a nearby farm. He carried on his father’s mill in Gloucester, and also lived back and forth between Gloucester and Ipswich.

Mary’s grandfather - our 9th GGF- William Haskell, immigrated about age 20 from Charlton Musgrove, Somerset, England to Beverly, MA, with his mother, stepfather, and two brothers in 1635.  He was a mariner and fisherman who moved his family to Gloucester in 1645 and purchased land on the west side of Walker’s Creek. Son, William Haskell, Jr., inherited the family farm, but was also a fisherman and owned saw and grist mills in what is now Rockport, MA. He married Mary Walker from a neighboring farm and our Mary Haskell was the first of their 9 children. Both William Sr. and William Jr. left considerable estate. The family home built in the mid 1600’s is on the National Register of Historic Homes and operates as a bed and breakfast.

William Haskell House, Gloucester
built c. 1700

Jacob³ and Mary married in 1687 in Gloucester and had 8 children. Their first, a son Jacob, died soon after birth. The second son, Captain Moses Davis, was a mariner who moved to Rowley, Massachusetts. Third son, William, had the tragic loss of three children within a week’s time in the winter of 1729, very likely from an influenza epidemic. Fifth son, Joseph, apprenticed to a cabinet maker and became a well known furniture maker in Boston.

Jacob acquired land at the head of Little River and built a house and mill by 1712. The house has been variously occupied as a hostel, tavern, home of a descendant of Gloucester slaves, now restored and serves as a homeless shelter. This house is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jacob Davis House, Gloucester, 1712

Jacob died age 53 in the winter of 1717, a year of severe influenza epidemic in New England. Mary experienced a lifetime of losses, including a brother who died when she was 13, a son when she was 20, two sisters within 5 days when she was 22, another son when she was 35, death of her father when she was 40, her mother at 47, husband at 48, and a brother at 49. Mary remarried to Ezekiel Woodward with whom Jacob had done business in Gloucester but she, too, died two years later at age 53, leaving 7 minor children, including Aaron⁴.

Aaron⁴ Davis (1704 - abt 1743), 4th son of Jacob³ and our 7th GGF, was born while Jacob and Mary were living in Ipswich. Aaron was 12 years old when his father died.

In 1725, 21 year-old Aaron married 19 year old Phebe Day (1706-1791), descended from the Day settlers of Gloucester. By 1728, the family was living in Attleboro, documented by a sale of land Aaron and his brothers inherited from their father, and by the birth location of their 7 children. Attleboro is a fair distance from Gloucester, about 80 miles south, due west from Plymouth, just north of Fall River. 

Like his father, Aaron⁴ died young at age 39 in Attleboro. Phebe lived to be 71 years, acquiring another three husbands along the way - Benjamin Hoppin, Nehemiah Ward, and John Hoppin - the last when she was 70 years old. 

Phebe married second husband, mariner Benjamin Hoppin, in 1745 and had a son, also Benjamin Hoppin. The elder Benjamin was lost at sea soon after. She died in Providence, RI, in 1791 as Phebe Hoppin. 

The Davis family moves to Poland

Captain Zebulon⁵ Davis (1733-1820), the eldest son of Aaron⁴ and Phebe, was 9 years old at his father’s death. His mother remarried in Attleborough in 1745 and Zebulon’s guardianship was assigned by Essex County court in 1748 to Abner Day (cordswainer), Ezekial Woodward (shoreman), both of Gloucester, and Joseph Marshall of Ipswich. Ezekial's son, Davis Woodward, also moved to Poland Maine, and the Day family were early settlers of New Gloucester, Maine (not to be confused with Gloucester, MA) as well as a pioneering family of Woodstock.

Several of Aaron and Phebe’s children may have been taken into Gloucester families as Zebulon’s brother, Aaron, was living in Gloucester at the time of the Revolution and fought at Bunker Hill with a company of Essex men, “by the rail fence, in the thick of fight all day covered only by scattering trees, they poured the most destructive volleys on the enemy.” Zebulon’s youngest brother, Timothy, was a shipmaster who drowned in the Little River in 1769 at age 27 when his boat upset.

Apprenticed into sea faring families, Zebulon took up the mariner’s life. At 18, he married Mary Bray (1730 - ) from the Gloucester Bray family in the Second Parish and their 7 children were all born in Gloucester.

Sometime between 1768 and 1776, Captain Zebulon gave up the sea and moved his family to Bakerstown Plantation, Maine, a wilderness at the time. Two sons remained behind in Gloucester - Eliphalet who was successful in trading and commerce, and Zebulon Jr.  Young Zebulon Jr. served in the Revolution in 1776 while still in Gloucester, and soon after removed to Bakerstown Plantation in the Minot area with a fellow soldier. 

The area of Bakerstown Plantation that is now Poland began to settle in 1767, and at the 1790 census there were still only 7 permanent settlers here. One of these 7 families was Zebulon’s. 

The whole of Bakerstown Plantation had 217 households in the 1790 census. Bakerstown was incorporated in 1795 as Poland, but various towns were set off over the next 100 years, including Minot, Mechanic Falls, and part of Auburn. The entire area of Bakerstown/Poland was in Cumberland County until it became part of Androscoggin County in 1854. 

On July 21, 1776, Zebulon and 21 other male Bakerstown settlers signed an agreement setting up a town militia to serve in the American Revolution. 

History of Poland states Zebulon Sr. was held prisoner and endured suffering and hardship confined at Halifax by the British, but corroborating evidence is not available. He was a Captain in the Bakerstown Company of militia assigned to Isaac Parsons’ nearby New Gloucester regiment from at least 1781-1786. That he was in the militia or naval service and captured in these intervening years is likely, but not documented other than in the history of Poland. He died in 1820 before Revolution pensions were available to other than disabled Revolution veterans.

Three sons, Zebulon, Eliphalet, and our 6th GGF, Aaron, also served in the Revolution.  Zebulon Jr. served 9 months as a drummer in 1776, assigned to protect the Gloucester coast. He married the same year, and moved to Minot, ME. Eliphalet served 3 years from 1777-1780. Aaron was in the Bakerstown militia of which his father was Captain.

First wife Mary died sometime after the birth of her last child in 1766 and 1779. Zebulon married second time around 1779, widow Hannah Sawyer Marble, and started a second family of an additional 3 children.

The 1790 census shows Zebulon, 2 males under 16, and 2 free white females living in Bakerstown Plantation.

Zebulon and Mary’s children

• Zebulon, Jr. (1753-1838) married Tryphosa Herrick in Gloucester as soon as he finished his Revolution service, and moved to Minot, Maine. They had 7 children, all born in Bakerstown Plantation (Minot), one of whom was named Zebulon (1785 - ). His son, Benjamin, served in the War of 1812.

• Moses (1755-1841), moved to New Gloucester, then to Bakertown, lived on Pigeon Hill (Mechanic Falls) and married Olive Bodwell at age 24. They had two children, but she died within a couple years. At age 33, he married 15 year old Deborah Marble from nearby New Gloucester, Maine, and they had an additional 9 children.

• Eliphalet (1756-1804) was born, raised, and died in Gloucester. He served as a drummer in the Revolution, but subsequently enlisted in the Continental Army and rose to the rank of General according to History of Gloucester. Eliphalet settled in Harbor Parish of Gloucester where he kept a shop and engaged in foreign commerce. He married 16 year old Hannah Somes at age 23, and they had at least 8 children.

• Aaron⁶ Davis (1757-1837), our 5th GGF, married Thankful Strout.

• Molle  “Mary Polly” Davis (1761-1820) married Joshua Dunn of Bakerstown who served in the Revolution. Joshua enlisted at Falmouth in 1776 as a 15 year old and served in New York City at the time Washington lost to the British. Joshua and Molle were married in 1783 by Isaac Parsons in nearby New Gloucester under whom Molle’s father served in the Revolution. Joshua gave the name of “The Empire” to the area of Poland in which he lived. He was described as  “possessing a fine physique, and a noted wit and practical joker.” Molle and Joshua had 8 children born in Poland over a period of 19 years. She died at age 43, three years after the birth of her last child.

• William (1763-1845) was born in Gloucester and still a child when the family moved to Poland. In 1786, he married step-sister Hannah Marble, a skilled midwife, and they had 5 children, one of whom was named Zebulon. William lived on Pigeon Hill, but moved in with his father and stepmother/mother-in-law in 1791 when he was 28 years old. He built another house on the property the following year to accommodate the large family. William had 4 young children; step-mother Hannah Sawyer Marble and father Zebulon had 3 young children.  Total = 11 people. Needed a bigger house!

Altogether, Zebulon Sr. and Mary had 48 grandchildren. Among these were five Pollys, four each Williams, Eliphalets, and Benjamins; and two each Aarons and Zebulons, almost all of whom lived in the Poland, Minot, Woodstock area. Imagine Christmas.

Zebulon died in Poland in 1820, age 87. What a life!

And on to Woodstock . . .

Aaron⁶ Davis (1757-1837), fourth son of Zebulon and Mary, was born and lived in Gloucester until his early teens when Zebulon moved the family to Bakerstown Plantation. Aaron married Thankful Strout (1757-1825) in 1784, both age 27. Thankful was from the prominent seafaring Strout family of Gloucester. Even starting their family at relatively late ages, Aaron and Thankful managed to have 11 children over a period of 22 years. According to Lapham’s Woodstock history, all were born in Poland, I verified the births in early vital records of Poland as Thankful’s age of 50 at the last birth is unusual.

Aaron signed the 1776 Bakerstown Agreement establishing a militia and served as a private in the regiment commanded by his father, Zebulon. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors indicates he was on the disastrous Penobscot expedition of 1779.

Aaron and Thankful's children

• Hannah (1785-1860), married farmer William Faunce of Paris in 1804 in Hebron, ME, died age 75, in Oxford, ME; 11 children.

• Aaron⁷, Jr.,  (1786-1870), our 4th GGF married Lucinda Oraing Brooks.

• Thankful (1788-1863), married lumberman Robert Stockman; at least 2 children.

• Sally (1791-1885), married farmer Seth Curtis, sergeant in War of 1812; they lived in Woodstock until his later years, then moved to Paris; 4 children.

• *Polly (1792-1873), married Samuel Nute; 3rd step-great aunt to the Nute family; see below.

• Phebe (1795-1835), died age 40, unmarried, likely lived with Aaron and Thankful as an “old maid.”

• Benjamin (1797-1870), married Ruhamah Chase; 9 children.

• Eliphalet (1799-), married Lydia Lurvey; children and death date unknown.

• Eliza (1801-), married Richard Lurvey who was a representative to the state legislature in 1836.

• Nehemiah Strout Davis (1804-1832), never married, died in Woodstock a age 28. His estate was appraised by brothers-in law, Seth Curtis and Samuel Nute, and consisted of $260, a bridle, a 3 year old colt, and wearing apparel.

• Julia Marie (1807-1887), married Benjamin Stephens (1807-1890), son of our 4th GGP’s Captain Samuel Stephens and Emma Swan, and brother to Jane Stephens, our 3rd GGM who married Joseph Davis, son of Julia’s brother and our GGF Aaron⁷. 

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*Polly Davis ( 1792-1873): Polly, was the 2nd wife of our 3GGF Samuel Nute (1792-1855). Samuel’s first wife died at a young age, leaving him 4 young children; a year later he married Polly who was also in her mid-30’s and she raised the children - including our Orsamus - but they had no children of their own. Samuel died in Woodstock at age 62, and in 1860 she was living with Orsamus and his first wife, Emma Stevens. Emma died in 1860, and Orsamus took a second wife, Lovena Dunn Davis, our 2nd great-grandmother and grand daughter of Aaron⁵ Davis, Polly’s father. That is to say, Polly was the great-aunt of Lovina. In any event, Orsamus and Lovina took Polly with them when they moved to Boston in 1862 and she died there at age 73, outliving Samuel by 18 years. Pretty confusing, eh?

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Davis memorial in Curtis Hill Cemetery, Woodstock
Aaron Davis and wife Thankful Strout

Thankful died age 68 in 1825, leaving Aaron a widower for 12 years. Aaron applied for and was granted a Revolution pension in 1832, age 72, and died five years later. They are both buried in Curtis Hill Cemetery, a beautiful little cemetery on a hill overlooking Woodstock.

Aaron Davis⁷ (1786-1870), like the rest of his sibs, was born in Poland, and we know he was living in Woodstock by 1811 as his son, Joseph, was born here. As a private in the War of 1812, he was ordered to the defense of Portland in September 1814. History of Poland notes Aaron Jr. was in Woodstock before his father who arrived by 1815, and both Aarons were at a Woodstock town meeting in 1815.

Aaron married Lucinda Oraing Brooks, daughter of our 5th GGP’s Dr. Peter Brooks and Betsey Bryant, before 1809. They had 11 children between the years 1809 - 1830. Lucinda died in 1839 at the age of 52, and Aaron married 43 year old Eliza Dudley in 1843. 

Aaron's and Lucinda’s children:

• Cynthia (1809-1887) married shoemaker Alexander Bryant, grandson of our 5th GGF Solomon Bryant, and they had 11 children.

• Joseph Davis⁸ (1811-1886), our 3rd GGF, married Jane Stephens (1812-1893).

• Stephen Denning Davis (1813-1864) was a boot  maker in Ashland, MA, three times married per record at his third marriage. His first wife, Abigail, was “injured at a tent meeting in the rage of Millerism in 1843. During the meeting someone threw a hemlock knot at the minister and it struck Mrs. Davis. The injury finally resulted in her death ,” per Libby notes. He moved the family to Ashland, Massachusetts where he died age 51 from a “canker rash” and scarlet fever.

• Charles Brooks (1815 - 1884), farmer, married Harriet Nute (1818-1899), daughter of our 3rd GGP’s Samuel Nute and Betsey Fickett. They had 6 children. Charles and Harriet were living in Woodstock through the 1870 census. By 1880 they were living in Paris and are both buried in South Paris.

• Phebe (1817 - after 1855) married Joseph Cotton and had 4 children.

• Lorenzo (1820 - 1902), a farmer, married Eleanor Packard in Woodstock. She died from tuberculosis while they were living in Ashland, MA, in 1856. He married second Laura Upton in Ashland, MA, in 1857 and returned to live in Woodstock. He died from a stroke at age 84 in Auburn, ME. 

• Betsey (1821 - 1898) married shoemaker Aaron Thurlow and they lived in Paris. She died in Mechanic Falls with heart disease in 1898.

• Thankful (1823 - ) has left no footprints.

• Aaron (1825-1870), married Lucy Fickett; died age 44 from consumption within a month of his father’s death and his land was sold at auction to pay debts. Lucy took up nursing and lived with her mother in Paris to support herself and her daughter.

• Seth C. (1828 - 1902), carpenter and farmer, married Almira Herrick; died age 73 in Auburn, ME, from “gastric catarrh,” stomach gastritis, perhaps a bleeding ulcer.

• Lucinda ( 1830 -) lived with her father until his death in 1870. Two years later at age 50, she married 80 year old farmer, Jeremiah Curtis, from Rumford.

According to  the 1850 census, 62 yr old Aaron, 50 yr old Eliza, 27 yr old Betsey, 25 yr old Aaron, 23 yr old Seth, and 20 yr old Lucinda Davis are living in the family home. Son, Joseph, is living on the farm next door. Eliza died before 1854 when intentions to marry third wife Nancy H. Stephens of Paris were published, likely a widow so we do not know her birth surname. In any event, the 1860 census shows Aaron is a 74 year old “gentleman” living with only 65 yr old Nancy. Aaron died in Woodstock, age 84, in March 1870 from a stroke and his son, 40 year old Aaron, died from tuberculosis the following month.

Aaron Davis Jr. and wife Lucinda

Nute Stephens Cemetery, Woodstock

In the background is the Nute obelisk and row of Nute headstones

Joseph⁸ Davis (1811-1886), our 3rd GGF and oldest son of Aaron and Lucinda, grew up on the Davis farm in South Woodstock and married Jane Stephens, daughter of Captain Samuel Stephens and Emma Swan. Joseph was a farmer and had a saw mill with his brother, Seth, on a brook in Woodstock. Joseph and Jane had 5 children, all born in Woodstock, and the oldest married into our Nute line. 

Joseph's and Jane's children

• Lovina⁹ Dunn Davis (1835-1880) married Orsamus Nute.

• Joseph Henry (1837-1908) enlisted in the Maine 23rd Infantry Regiment in 1862 and went with his regiment to Washington during the Civil War, assigned to guarding the forts of the upper Potomac, but never under fire. He married Juliett Irish and lived out his years in Woodstock as a farmer until 71 years of age.

• Antonett Davis (1839-1922) married Charles Chase and lived in Paris where he was a farmer.

• Jane Lurvey Davis (1842 -) was 18 years old living at home in 1860 but left no further footprints.

• William Stephens Davis (1847-1922), farmer, married Georgianna Irish. He died age 74 with influenza and parkinsonism.

Joseph Davis and Jane Robbins Stephens are both buried in South Woodstock Cemetery

South Woodstock Cemetery

Twenty five year-old Lovina⁹ married 41 year-old Orsamus Nute (1820-1907), a widower with 5 children, in 1861. In the 1860 census she was living at home with her parents, working as a teacher, and this may have been her connection to Orsamus, also a teacher in Woodstock. Lovina and Orsamus had another 6 children, including our GGF Joseph¹⁰ Nute. The first two, including Joseph, were born in Woodstock. The last four were born in Boston but two of these did not survive infancy. She died with pericarditis at age 45. Lovina and Orsamus are both buried in the Nute Stephens cemetery in Woodstock. 

Nute momument and markers
Nute-Stephens Cemetery
Woodstock, Maine

Even though Lovina died in Boston and Orsamus in Monsey, New York, they both came home to Woodstock to be buried. Orsamus made his fortune in Boston and built an obelisk memorial for the Nute family in the Nute Stephens Cemetery. Along with Orsamus are buried,

Samuel Nute (1792-1855), his father

Betsey Fickett (1794-1826), Samuel’s first wife

Polly Davis (1792-1873), Samuel’s second wife and daughter of Aaron⁷ Davis, Jr.

Rebecca Wentworth (1765-1828), Samuel’s mother and Orsamus’ grandmother

Emma Stephens, (1822-1860), Orsamus’ first wife

Lovina⁹ Dunn Davis( 1835-1880) Orsamus’ second wife

Children of Orsamus and 1st wife Emma

     Emma F, died in infancy, 1857

     Samuel, died age 20, 1864

     Ruth Anna, unmarried, died in 1880, age 28, in Boston 

Children of Orsamus and Lovina

     Ernest, died in infancy, 1868

     Frankie, died in infancy, 1870

We have two hundred fifty years of history with our American Davis family, through wars, hard times, huge families, tragic losses, all with that New England work and survival ethic to become the hardy "stock" of Woodstock. They funneled from Gloucester, up through Maine and into the wilderness, and finally returning to "civilization" in Boston.

Woodstock: The Remarkable Captain Samuel Stephens, Mayflower descendant and son of a Revolutionary

 Captain Samuel Stephens and Emma Swan, our 4th great-grandparents, were relative latecomers to Woodstock with their arrival in Woodstock around 1815.

Samuel Stephens in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Samuel was born to Edward Stephens and Mayflower descendant Phoebe Harlow in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

Birth and death records are not available for Samuel but his gravestone indicates he died at age 90 in 1856, which puts his birth at about 1766. A 1913 SAR application by a great-grandson, Harold Ellsworth Stevens, MD, in Lewiston, ME, gives a birth date of September 16, 1768, but the source of that date is unclear unless from family records. Indeed, the Revolutionary War pension application of his brother, William, makes reference to a family Bible with birth dates.

Both parents were in their 40's when Samuel was born, the 9th of ten children. Three of the 10 died young - a brother at age 3 before Samuel was born, and two sisters at ages 21 and 27.

Samuel grew up in a revolutionary age and family. When but eight years old, his father and three brothers marched with a Plympton military company to nearby Marshfield on April 19, 1775, the day of the Lexington alarm. While surrounding areas were revolutionary bent, Marshfield was a hotbed of Loyalists. Brother William spent 7 months in the young colonial Navy on the brigantine Hazard in 1777-78.

Samuel had several losses before he turned 22 with the death of an older sister in 1786, his mother in 1787, father in 1788, and another sister in 1791.

The earliest record of Samuel occurs with his 1788 marriage to a young woman from the neighboring farm, Desire Harlow, just months after his father’s death. Their first child, Samuel Jr., was born 7 months after the marriage. They had another two children by 1798, the year Samuel purchased a lot in Paris, Maine.

Samuel is again mentioned in his father’s probate papers in 1789. Although his father owned significant land in the Plympton/Plymouth/Marshfield area, he died insolvent and his land was sold off to his sons and sons-in-law to cover his debts. A small, but nice parcel at Hobbs Hole went to 21 year-old Samuel, perhaps made possible with money from the his new wife’s family. Farming soil in Plymouth was acidic, porous, and downright poor for farming except for a few patches, one of these being Hobbs Hole, “a 15 minute walk from Burial Hill in Plymouth.” Even with a workable piece of land, Samuel’s attention turned to other opportunities in the expanding colonies.

Samuel and Desire in Paris (great name for a movie)

Still a young man at age 31, Samuel and Desire and children joined a host of others migrating from the Plymouth, Plympton, and Marshfield areas to inland Maine in the years after the Revolution. Samuel’s brother, Sylvanus, became an early resident of nearby Sumner although it’s not clear when he arrived.

We know Samuel purchased the 100 acre “Center lot” in Paris, Maine, in 1798, from Lemuel Perham and the family finally traveled the 188 miles from Plymouth to Woodstock in 1800. Tragically, Desire died in 1801, leaving Samuel with three young children. Samuel married our 4th great-grandmother, Emma Swan, the following year.

Emma’s father, William Swan, a Revolution soldier who fought at Bunker Hill, moved his family to Paris by 1790 and was an early settler of Woodstock by 1802, about the time Emma married our Samuel in Paris.

Samuel had another six children with second wife Emma. Desire must still have been on his mind as their first child was named Jesse Harlow Stephens. One of their children, Oren, died young, perhaps only two years old.

Samuel took an active role in the early Paris community. He and another Paris resident, Nicholas Smith, built a grist mill on Smith Brook. He was on the committee to build a Baptist Church in the town, treasurer for the town 1803-04, and selectman/assessor in 1806 and 1810. He cast musket balls to arm the town's War of 1812 militia.

Samuel and Emma in Woodstock

By 1815, Samuel once more moved his family, this time to Woodstock and - again - he was a prominent member in the community. He was a Selectman in 1817 and Overseer of the Poor in 1818. At a town meeting in 1817, “old Mrs. Lucy Swan was set up at auction and struck off to Samuel Stephens at $1.09/week.” The town handled their old folk in those days by auctioning off care to the lowest bidder. Old Lucy, indeed, was Emma’s mother, our 5th GGM; she died the following year. 

After moving to Woodstock, Samuel bought a grist mill afterwards known as the Captain Stephens Mill, and businesses built up around the area, including a blacksmith shop, hotel, and a circus ground. Stephens Mills was the business center of Woodstock for several years. The unreliable water source allowed the mill to operate only intermittently and it was dismantled in 1834.  

Woodstock Corner about 1830, from Woodstock Chamber of Commerce

Samuel and Emma built a beautiful home that was the last of the original Stephens Mills settlement when it burned down in 1968.

Captain Samuel Stephens house, built in 1815, photo in 1955, from Stephens Mills website

School areas were redistricted in 1820 and Samuel's farm was in the First district along with the Swan and Bryant families, also grandparent ancestors.

Samuel served two terms in the Maine legislature, elected in 1827 and 1831 to represent Woodstock which meant trips to Portland until the state capital was moved to Augusta in 1832. In 1845, he voted with the minority in favor of liquor licenses in Woodstock.  Most of the town, including another GGF Orsamus Nute, voted for prohibition.

Samuel's oldest son, also Samuel, died tragically at age 43, crushed in a mill accident in Woodstock in 1832, and wife Emma died 4 years later, leaving Samuel a widower for the next twenty years. His oldest son by Emma, Jesse Harlow Stephens, a Methodist minister, hung himself in 1843, reportedly influenced by Millerism.*

*William Miller developed a national following for preaching the Second Coming of Christ would occur sometime in 1843.

In 1850, eighty-two year old Samuel was living with Sam Jr.'s widow and 36 year-old spinster daughter, Mary. He died in 1856 at the age of 90.

Samuel was a "highly respected citizen," clearly involved in the community and did well for himself, particularly given his father's insolvency and no inheritance from the family.  In addition to his property and home, probate inventory showed he had two cows, 10 sheep, a ton of hay, and 5 bushels of potatoes and turnips each, among other sundry things. One of the appraisers of his estate was our Orsamus Nute.

Samuel's family:                                                                                                                                   

Desire Harlow, 1st wife, died in Paris, age 32

• Samuel Stephens, Jr. (1789-1832), private, War of 1812; m. Mayflower descendant Elizabeth Doten; killed in mill accident at age 43, 2 children.
• Captain Eleazer Stephens (1792-1852), War of 1812 Navy veteran; m. Nancy Stevens, 5 children.
• Desire Stephens (1798-1869), m. Artemus Felt, 8 children.

Emma Swan, 2nd wife, died in Woodstock, age 66

• Jesse Harlow Stephens (1802-1843), m. Abigail Lurvey, 5 children; Methodist minister, hanged himself at age 41. 
• Benjamin Stephens (1807-1890), m. Julia Maria Davis; 5 children; son Orin became a doctor.
• Orin Stephens (1809 - ), died young, possibly in 1811.
• Jane Stephens (1812-1893), m. Joseph Davis; 5 children; daughter Lovina Dunn Davis married our Orsamus Nute.
• Mary Stephens (1815 - died after 1870), unmarried, lived with father until he died, then on the "town farm."

In total, Captain Samuel had 30 grandchildren.

Samuel, Emma, and Samuel Jr. are buried in Curtis Hill Cemetery. Many other Stephens are buried in the Nute-Stephens cemetery, including son Benjamin and his family, and there appears to have been a close connection between the Nute and Stephens families.

The Mystery of Captain Samuel Stephens 

Paris and Woodstock town histories often refer to Samuel as Captain Stephens even when the rank of other Revolution veterans in these towns is rarely mentioned. The source of Samuel's captainship is not documented from the Revolution, nor is he listed as one of the Paris men training for the War of 1812.

The Woodstock Samuel Stephens has been generally accepted as a Revolution privateer:

• From Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors: Samuel Stevens, Gloucester. Descriptive list of officers and crew of the ship “America” (privateer), commanded by Captain John Somes, sworn to in Suffolk Co., June 8, 1780; age 14 yrs; stature 3’10 “; residence Gloucester.
• Maine Veterans Cemetery Records documents the same information under his name, associating the information with our Samuel’s gravestone, and citing Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors as the source information.
• His gravestone has an American Revolution veteran marker.
• Stephens Mills website sources the Woodstock Samuel Stephens as this young Gloucester teen.

Here are the problems with this claim:

• There is no doubt our Samuel is from Plymouth, and not Gloucester. Paris and Woodstock town histories refer to Samuel as being from Plymouth, he married a young woman from the Plymouth Harlow family, he is listed in the Plymouth Edward Stephens probate papers, and brother Sylvanus from Plymouth lived in nearby Sumner.
• Gloucester had an extensive Stevens family headed by William Stevens, famed as a master ship carpenter in the 1600s, and rampant with Samuel named offspring. They spell their name Stevens, whereas our Plymouth family were Stephens.
• If his gravestone is correct, Samuel would have been 12 and not 14 years old at the time this young sailor took to sea harassing the British.
• The Gloucester teen was 3’10” tall and would have had to grow another 12” to be out of the category of dwarfism. American Revolution men were tall, averaging three inches taller than the British soldiers. An average American adult male would have been 5’8” in those days, about an inch less than the contemporary American male. If we extrapolate to 14 year old boys of that era, an average Revolution era 14 yr old boy would be about 5’3 1/2”. A 3’10” fourteen year old sailor would have stood out, so much so that the stat got put into the listing in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors.

In order for our Woodstock Samuel to be the Gloucester teen privateer, he would have had to make his way 75 miles north from Plymouth to Gloucester by age 14, back to Plymouth before age 20 to impregnate and marry the Plymouth Desire Harlow, and grow another two feet.

More likely, the connection between the Woodstock Captain Samuel Stephens and Gloucester privateer is incorrect. Quite possibly, our Samuel attained his Captainship post-Revolution in the local militia, following the footsteps of his Revolution father and brothers, rising up the ranks as he seemed to do most of his life. Even more likely, he was in the seafaring business in Plymouth as many in the area were wont with poor farming quality in the area. He was set with the family house on the property at Hobbs Hole and until age 30 captained his own boat. This would explain why he continued to use the title Captain in later life when other Revolution veterans in the Woodstock/Paris did not. As in, aye, aye Captain.

Next up, The Stephens family before Woodstock . . .

Sources:
The Old Village of Woodstock, Maine, 1808-1840-50, Woodstock Chamber of Commerce.

A History of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900.
History of Woodstock, Me. : with family sketches and an appendix, William Berry Lapham, 1882.

History of Paris, Maine, from its settlement to 1880, William Berry Lapham, 1884.
History of the town of Gloucester, Cape Ann : including the town of Rockport, Babson, 1860.

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War
Woodstock Cemeteries, compiled  by Joyce Howe

Stephens Mills webside, http://www.stephensmills.net/