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 AMES IRISH 
 
 I '7 -7:6 — 1863 
 
 
 

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GENERAL JAMES IKISII 
 
A SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 GENERAL JAMES IRISH 
 
 OF GORHAM, ME. 
 
 i 77 6 — i 863 
 
 BY 
 
 LYNDON OAK 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LEE & SHEPARD 
 
 1 898 
 
?*1 
 
 3081.3 
 
 
TO THE 
 
 DESCENDANTS OF GENERAL JAMES IRISH AND 
 HIS WIFE REBECCA CHADBOURNE 
 
 THIS SHORT SKETCH 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE writer of the following brief sketch of the 
 life of a former citizen of Gorham has been 
 aided by Williamson's History of Maine and Judge 
 Godfrey's Annals of Bangor. But he is mainly 
 indebted to the diary of the subject of the sketch, 
 which briefly alludes to some of the more important 
 facts in his eventful life. 
 
 Garland, Me., January, 1898. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 General James Irish Frontispiece ^ 
 
 Honorable Lyndon Oak 9 " 
 
 Mary Gorham Phinney 38 ^ 
 
 Group (Wife and Daughters or General 
 
 Irish) 58 
 
 Group (General Irish and his Sons) . . 59 
 
LYNDON OAK 
 
A BRIEF SKETCH 
 
 GENEALOGY AND PERSONAL HISTORY 
 
 OF GENERAL JAMES IRISH, OF 
 
 GORHAM, ME. 
 
 A BUSY LIFE. 
 
 /^\ ENERAL IRISH was born in Gorham, Me., 
 VX Aug. 18 of the memorable year of 1776, 
 and he carried "the spirit of seventy-six" through 
 a long and eventful life. 
 
 His grandfather, James Irish, 1 emigrated from 
 England about the year 1711, and settled in 
 Falmouth, now Portland, Me. In 1738 he 
 moved his family to the township now known as 
 the town of Gorham, which was then an almost 
 unbroken wilderness, the first opening therein 
 having been made only two years earlier. He 
 had at that time seven children, five sons and two 
 daughters. One of the sons was James Irish, Jr., 2 
 who was born at Falmouth, Jan. 21, 1736. 
 James Irish, Jr., was the father of Gen. James 
 Irish, 3 the subject of this sketch. 
 
On the maternal side the ancestry of General 
 Irish is traced through three generations of John 
 Phinneys to the John Phinney 1 who emigrated to 
 America about the year 1638, and became a mem- 
 ber of the Plymouth Colony. His son, John Phin- 
 ney, 2 was born at Plymouth in 1638. He married 
 Mary Rogers,* a granddaughter of Thomas Rogers, 
 who came to America in the " Mayflower " in 
 1620. 
 
 About the year 1662 John Phinney : moved to 
 Barnstable, Mass., where John Phinney, 3 after- 
 wards known as Deacon John Phinney, was born. 
 John Phinney, 4 son of Deacon John Phinney, was 
 also born in Barnstable, April 8, 1695. 
 
 He became widely known as Capt. John Phin- 
 ney, and was the first settler of the town of Gor- 
 ham ; he married Martha Coleman and had a large 
 family of children, one of whom was Mary Gorham 
 Phinney, the first white child born in Gorham. 
 The date of her birth was Aug. 24, 1736; she 
 married James Irish, Jr., March 10, 1756, and 
 became the mother of a large family, the youngest 
 of whom was James Irish, known in manhood's 
 years as Gen. James Irish. General Irish was the 
 seventh generation on his mother's side from 
 Thomas Rogers of "Mayflower" memory, through 
 Capt. John Phinney, who was a direct descendant 
 of Mary Rogers, granddaughter of Thomas Rogers. 
 
 * At the date of the marriage of John Phinney ■ there were living in the 
 Colony of Massachusetts three persons of the name of Mary Rogers. Author- 
 ities differ as to whether John Phinney 2 married the granddaughter of John 
 Rogers, or another Mary Rogers. 
 
 10 
 
The ancestry of General Irish was of the heroic 
 type. The first John Phinney was a man of the 
 Puritan stamp, and shared with the Puritans the 
 privations and hardships incident to life in a new 
 country. 
 
 John Phinney 2 was a soldier in King Philip's 
 war, which opened in 1675. and which was one of 
 the most desperate and sanguinary wars known in 
 the annals of Indian warfare. 
 
 In the year 1724-5 General Irish's grand- 
 father, James Irish, 1 was a sergeant in a military 
 company which was sent to the Penobscot river 
 and bay under the famous Indian fighter, Col. 
 Thomas Westbrook. 
 
 In the month of May, 1736, accompanied by 
 his son Edmund, fourteen years of age, and 
 equipped with those essential factors of advancing 
 civilization, the gun and the axe, together with a 
 few days' supply of provisions, Capt. John Phin- 
 ney (the 4th John) made his way from his home 
 in Falmouth up the Presumscot river in a canoe 
 to township " Narragansett Number Seven." 
 
 The township had been given to the soldiers of 
 King Philip's war and their heirs, as supplement- 
 ary compensation for their heroic services in that 
 memorable war. Preparations for a few days' 
 stay having been hastily made, the sturdy blows 
 of the ambitious son, Edmund, sent the first tree 
 quivering to the ground ; this was the beginning 
 of the first opening in the hitherto unbroken 
 
 forest of the township. 
 
 n 
 
Later in the season Captain Phinney built a 
 small cabin into which he moved his f amity. By 
 this act he earned the distinction of having been 
 the first settler of the fine old town of Gorham. 
 It was in this little cabin that Mary Gorham Phin- 
 ney was born. 
 
 Captain Phinney was a man of marked per- 
 sonal characteristics : he possessed great muscular 
 strength and power of endurance, and a courage 
 in which there was no element of fear. Sudden 
 exigencies of the most serious character did not 
 disturb him. His military experiences and his 
 tact in dealing with the Indians, whether peaceful 
 or on the warpath, rendered his presence in the 
 township a perpetual benediction. His counsels 
 were of great service to his neighbors in the com- 
 mon affairs of pioneer life, and were especially 
 valuable in seasons of difficulty and peril. 
 
 His family bore the toil, privations, and discom- 
 forts incident to pioneer life, severe though they 
 were, with cheerful fortitude ; if, sometimes, they 
 were scantily fed and clothed and the better days 
 they hoped for were slow in coming, they still 
 maintained their habitual equanimity. 
 
 Other families had from year to year followed 
 the Phinney family into the township, until 1745, 
 when the little colony numbered eighteen families. 
 There had been living in the township also as 
 many or more Indians than whites. 
 
 At this juncture the fifth Indian war opened. 
 The parties to it were the French, whose strong- 
 
 12 
 
holds were in Canada, and their allies the Indians, 
 on one side, and the English on the other. At 
 the near approach of this war the Indians quietly 
 withdrew from the colony to Canada. 
 
 During the nine years intervening between the 
 settlement of the township and the opening of 
 the war the whites and the Indians had been on 
 friendly terms ; the white and Indian children 
 had roamed through the forests and had engaged 
 in youthful pastimes together without fear or re- 
 straint. 
 
 This condition of affairs had come to an abrupt 
 termination. The Indians had become hostile and 
 bloodthirsty, and were ready to return and destroy 
 their old neighbors, whose first duty now was to 
 provide for the protection of their own lives. 
 Under the lead of Captain Phinney a fort was 
 built early in the spring of 1745. Nine of the 
 eighteen families repaired to the fort for protec- 
 tion; eight families went to distant towns for 
 safety; and one family, embracing the father, 
 mother, and five children, who took the risk of 
 remaining away from the fort one day too long, 
 against the earnest remonstrances of Captain Phin- 
 ney, were all murdered save the mother, who was 
 carried captive to Canada, enduring indescribable 
 hardships on the way. The nine families who 
 went into the fort were obliged to remain in their 
 pent-up quarters through four weary, slow-mov- 
 ing years, continually on the watch to be in readi- 
 ness to repel the attacks of their relentless foes. 
 
 13 
 
Through the three following years the inhabitants 
 fled to the fort whenever threatened by a renewal 
 of hostilities. 
 
 John Irish, an uncle of General Irish, was in 
 the expedition that captured Louisburg in 1745, 
 a place so well adapted both by its site and elabo- 
 rate fortifications to repel attacks that it had been 
 known as the Gibraltar of America. 
 
 In the year 1777 General Irish's father was 
 summoned to service in the Revolutionary war. 
 The support of a large family of children now de- 
 volved upon the mother, the Mary Gorham Phinney 
 of earlier times. She was equal to the emergency ; 
 obtaining cotton from a Falmouth merchant, she 
 spun and wove it by hand and returned it, receiv- 
 ing in payment the difference in value between the 
 manufactured article and the raw material. In 
 making the exchanges she rode to and from Fal- 
 mouth, now Portland, a distance of fourteen miles 
 each way, on horseback, over a road that would fill 
 the women of the present day with dismay. 
 
 In 1779 General Irish's brother, William, was 
 in the expedition that was sent to Penobscot bay 
 to aid in the defence of Castine and other places 
 in the vicinity against a threatened attack by the 
 English. The American forces suffered a disas- 
 trous and mortifying defeat. 
 
 There was a great scarcity of provisions in 1780, 
 and the General's mother allowanced the members 
 of her own family, that she might administer to 
 the wants of her neighbors. 
 
 14 
 
When six years of age General Irish attended 
 school for a very brief time, taught by an old 
 Englishman, Jonathan Greene ; this was his first 
 experience in the school-room. 
 
 In 1786 he attended a short school in his father's 
 house, and later in " Benjamin Brown's old corn 
 house." And thus, from year to year, when a 
 teacher could be secured, and a corner in some shed, 
 house, or barn could be obtained, he. with the 
 neighbors' children, attended school, where the 
 simplest rudiments of education were imperfectly 
 taught. 
 
 When ten years of age he became an interested 
 listener to the conversations he heard and a reader 
 of articles in a newspaper of the times relating to 
 political matters, including the administrations of 
 Governors Hancock and Bowdoin, the French dep- 
 redations upon American commerce, and Shay's 
 rebellion. The story of Shay's rebellion made a 
 strong impression upon him in consequence of his 
 seeing some of the participators in it on their 
 return to their homes after it had collapsed. 
 
 In 1788 he attended school at Gorham village, 
 taught by Thomas Kinnard, " a celebrated teacher 
 of children, who taught from Thomas DilwortKs 
 Spelling Book." While felling a tree about this time 
 he inflicted a wound upon his ankle which com- 
 pelled him to abstain from labor for several months. 
 In relating this incident he said : " . . . but as 
 Deacon Austin Alden taught school in my father's 
 house, I improved this little opportunity." 
 
 15 
 
He subsequently attended school at the village, 
 taught by Salmon Chase, who was afterwards an 
 attorney at Portland. Mr. Chase was an uncle of 
 the celebrated statesman, Salmon Portland Chase. 
 He says of Messrs. Alden and Chase : " They were 
 praying schoolmasters." 
 
 In the winter of 1790 he attended a school 
 taught by Sylvanus Davis in four private dwell- 
 ings successively. This arrangement gave the 
 children of the scattered households a much longer 
 term of school, and at the same time equalized the 
 burden of travel. 
 
 About this time he began to manifest a desire to 
 cultivate the art of singing. Years earlier he had 
 stood by his mother's loom and caught from her 
 lips the airs of the old-time hymn-tunes which she 
 loved to sing. Persuading some of his school- 
 mates to join him, they hired Abial Briggs to 
 teach a singing-school for their mutual benefit. 
 Money being almost unknown to the common 
 people at that time, they paid their teacher in 
 pork and meal, the currency of the times. 
 
 When he had reached the age of fifteen years 
 his brothers and sisters, with a single exception, 
 had left the parental roof. He had enjoyed an 
 uninterrupted flow of excellent health from his 
 earliest years. He was now strong, confident, 
 resolute, and ambitious, and possessed capabilities 
 much in advance of his years. His father was a 
 man of kind impulses and generous hospitality. 
 These traits were abused by a class of shiftless and 
 
 16 
 
intemperate townsmen, and b} r persons of the same 
 character from other towns, travelling to and from 
 market. The peace and welfare of the family 
 demanded the elimination of such abuse from the 
 daily routine of the family experience. To the 
 father this task was distasteful ; the son, though 
 a boy in years, but a man in size and muscular 
 development, believed himself equal to the emer- 
 gency. An Irishman who had occupied a spare 
 room under the parental roof for some time had 
 become an annoyance to the entire family ; refus- 
 ing to vacate at the request of the father, he went 
 out somewhat abruptly by the free use of the well- 
 developed muscle of the son. The father had been 
 accustomed to entertain men who passed to and 
 from market free of cost. The return for such 
 hospitality was, sometimes, abuse by intoxicated 
 men ; the son relieved the household from such 
 annoyances. 
 
 At the request of the father, and with the 
 approval of the mother, he took upon himself the 
 entire management of the farm. He was at this 
 time fifteen years of age. Provisions were scarce 
 and high. His sister, Mrs. Whitney, was burned 
 out, and with an insane husband and five children 
 sought and obtained the shelter of the old home. 
 This added largely to his burdens. 
 
 In the year 1792, in addition to his regular 
 farm work, he joined three brothers in the pur- 
 chase of a mill-site and the erection of a saw-mill. 
 Here he had the misfortune to lose the forefinger 
 
 17 
 
of the left hand, but lost only one-half day's work 
 in consequence of the accident. 
 
 In the years 1793 and 1794 he continued to 
 pursue the farming and lumbering business ; these 
 were years of severe toil with small returns. 
 
 In 1795 he sold his interest in the mill property 
 and engaged in more congenial pursuits. He pur- 
 chased books and applied himself to study with 
 the purpose of fitting himself to teach during the 
 autumn and winter months. His first effort at 
 teaching was at Buxton, and his pay five dollars 
 per month ; it was a small beginning, but the first 
 step towards more lucrative employment. 
 
 In 1796 he was clerk in a store in his native 
 town for seven months. 
 
 In 1797 the Congregational church and society 
 built a meeting-house, the raising of the frame of 
 which was attended with a disastrous accident. 
 When one of the broad sides had been raised to 
 some distance from the ground the men who were 
 lifting lost control of it, and it fell back, killing 
 Nathaniel Bowman, the highly-esteemed village 
 physician ; James Tryon received injuries from 
 which he died the next day. James Irish, the 
 father of General Irish, was at first believed to be 
 killed, but although severely injured he afterwards 
 recovered. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one years General Irish 
 was appointed orderly sergeant in Capt. Na- 
 thaniel Warren's company of militia, which was 
 his first military appointment. His regular busi- 
 
 16 
 
ness was now farming in summer and teaching in 
 autumn and winter. 
 
 In 1798 General Irish was married to Rebecca 
 Chadbourne, a daughter of Silas Chadbourne, of 
 Berwick, Me. Later in the year he with his wife 
 united with the Congregational church, of which 
 Rev. Caleb Jewitt was pastor. The following 
 winter he taught school in his own town. The 
 year 1799 was passed in farming and teaching. 
 
 In the year 1800 an incident occurred which 
 led to a broader field of labor. Having engaged 
 a school for the winter, he hired an old sailor to 
 take care of his stock and prepare wood for his 
 fires ; the presence of the sailor in the family gave 
 him an opportunity to learn the theory of naviga- 
 tion, which he gladly embraced. This was fol- 
 lowed by the study of geometry, trigonometry, 
 and kindred branches. His services were now 
 sought as an instructor in mathematics. He soon 
 became a practical surveyor, and was employed in 
 his own and neighboring towns to run lines and 
 survey lands. The money he earned as surveyor 
 enabled him to enlarge and improve his buildings 
 and farm. 
 
 In the winter of 1801 he taught school in 
 Buxton. 
 
 In 1802 he was employed by Col. Lothrop 
 Lewis and Josiah Alden to survey the Isle au 
 Haut into lots for settlers. The surveying party 
 made the passage to the island on a craft of the 
 rudest description, of which one Captain Arey 
 
 19 
 
" was captain, cook, and all hands." General 
 Irish describes the stay at the island as very 
 enjoyable. A variety of fish, fresh from the 
 water, entered largely into the food supply. Fa- 
 vored by fine weather and surrounded by beauti- 
 ful scenery, the days glided swiftly by. At the 
 completion of their work the party returned as 
 they had come. 
 
 In 1803 General Irish moved his sister, Mrs. 
 Whitney, into the house he had built for her, to 
 take the place of the one that had been burned a 
 few years earlier. 
 
 In 1804 he added to his landed estate by the 
 purchase of one hundred acres of land in the town 
 of Standish. He made additional improvements 
 on his buildings, and planted ornamental trees. 
 
 In 1805 his time was occupied in farming, 
 teaching, surveying lands, and running lines. He 
 enlarged his landed estate by the purchase of forty 
 acres of land. 
 
 In 1806 the Gorham Academy building was 
 constructed. General Irish contributed to the 
 building fund and surveyed the half township of 
 land which had been granted to the academy by 
 the Legislature of Massachusetts ; this half town- 
 ship was situated in what is now the town of 
 Woodstock, in Oxford county. 
 
 In 1807 General Irish was commissioned by the 
 land commissioners of Massachusetts to locate and 
 survey a half township of land in what is now 
 known as Aroostook county, which had been 
 
 20 
 
granted to Limerick Academy by the Legislature 
 of Massachusetts. The execution of this work 
 required a long and tedious journey. He rode 
 from his home in Gorham on horseback, over 
 roads of the rudest construction, to Eddington 
 Bend on the Penobscot river. Leaving his horse 
 at this place, he hired two men to take him up 
 the river in a canoe to the mouth of the Matta- 
 wamkeag river, thence up the Mattawamkeag to 
 the Baskahegan river, down the Baskahegan to 
 and across Schoodic lake, thence through Eel 
 lake and river to the St. John, and up the lat- 
 ter river to Woodstock. From this point the 
 party went on foot through the woods to what is 
 now Houlton, where they arrived about midnight. 
 Here they found three families, the Houlton, 
 Cook, and Putnam families, and a carpenter by 
 the name of Cary. Trying to obtain admittance 
 to the house of Mr. Houlton, they were at first 
 repulsed, the family believing that it was a com- 
 pany of strolling Indians that were disturbing 
 their slumbers. They soon discovered their mis- 
 take and hastened to apologize to the tired sur- 
 veying party, and to bid them welcome to the 
 shelter of their humble cabin. 
 
 Obtaining a supply of bread and raw meat, the 
 next morning General Irish and his companions 
 proceeded to the locality of their labors, the pres- 
 ent town of New Limerick. When the dinner 
 hour confronted them, they found, to their great 
 disgust, that their appliances for kindling a fire 
 
 21 
 
had become so much impaired as to be useless. 
 They were, therefore, compelled to sit down to 
 bread and raw meat, which was their bill of fare 
 through the week required to complete the survey. 
 They passed the chilly October nights without the 
 comfort of a fire. Upon the completion of the 
 survey they returned home as they had come. 
 
 In 1808 General Irish employed his time in 
 farming, surveying, and teaching. He was com- 
 missioned as major in the third regiment of the 
 militia, also a justice of the peace. He mentions 
 in his journal, as occurrences of the year, the 
 depressing effects of the Embargo Act upon busi- 
 ness ; the murder of Paul Chadwick, a brother 
 surveyor, while surveying lands in what is now 
 Windsor, Me. ; the intense excitement that fol- 
 lowed this terrible crime ; and the execution in 
 Portland of Drew for the murder of a Mr. Parker, 
 a former scholar of his. 
 
 General Irish passed the year 1809 in the pur- 
 suit of his usual occupations. He congratulates 
 himself upon the good condition of his buildings 
 and farm. 
 
 The year 1810 brought changes in his affairs. 
 Having a large and growing family to support, 
 he sold the old homestead that had so long 
 sheltered his father and mother, brothers and 
 sisters, and himself from infancy to manhood, and 
 purchased another farm of larger area, where he 
 moved his family on May 1, 1810. The sale of the 
 old homestead was to Seth Hersey, of Hingham, 
 
Mass. The price paid was three thousand dollars, 
 a large price for a farm in that vicinity at that 
 time. He added to the acreage of the new farm 
 by the purchase of more land. He entered with 
 characteristic energy upon such changes and im- 
 provements as were needed to put the buildings 
 and farm in good condition. 
 
 But events of graver significance came in at 
 this juncture to disturb the regular current of his 
 experiences. 
 
 The war with Great Britain, presaged by the 
 embargo of 1808 and the non-intercourse policy 
 of the government in 1809, now began to cast its 
 ominous shadows over the country. General 
 Irish's official relations to the military organiza- 
 tions of his vicinity imposed duties upon him that 
 engrossed much of his time. In addition to duties 
 of a military character, he was commissioned to 
 make the usual decennial enumeration of the 
 inhabitants of the five towns in Cumberland 
 county. He was also employed by certain mer- 
 chants of Portland to attend the session of the 
 Legislature at Boston, to aid in effecting legislation 
 which they desired. 
 
 In 1811 General Irish made extensive repairs 
 upon the building she had purchased a year earlier, 
 and improvements upon his farm and orchards. 
 He was appointed deputy sheriff and jailor of the 
 county of Cumberland, but the pressure of other 
 duties led him to resign those offices after having 
 held them for a brief term. He was commissioned 
 
 23 
 
lieutenant-colonel of the militia by the governor 
 of Massachusetts. 
 
 In September of 1812, war with Great Britain 
 having been declared, General Irish called out the 
 troops belonging to the second brigade of the 
 twelfth division of the militia of Maine for a two 
 days' drill and review. The near approach of the 
 war which had been so long threatened had greatly 
 excited the people, and vast crowds from surround- 
 ing towns assembled to witness the review. The 
 officer whose duty it was to take command of the 
 troops on that occasion failing to appear, General 
 Irish performed that duty. 
 
 It was an unusual spectacle. The war-spirit ran 
 hio-h. The fine appearance and soldierly bearing 
 of the troops called out the plaudits of the multi- 
 tude. 
 
 Shortly after General Irish received a more 
 signal recognition of the success of the review — 
 promotion to the rank of brigadier-general by the 
 governor of Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1813 General Irish was appointed assessor 
 of the direct tax levied upon the county of Cum- 
 berland to aid in the prosecution of the war. 
 Establishing an office in Portland, he appointed an 
 assistant in each town in the county. 
 
 In 1814 General Irish's duties as assessor, the 
 oversight of his farm, and his response to calls for 
 his services as surveyor engrossed his time during 
 the early part of the year. Later in the year more 
 exciting duties demanded his attention. In Sep- 
 
 24 
 
teniber a threatened invasion of Portland by the 
 British alarmed its citizens, many of whom had 
 moved their most valuable effects into neighboring 
 towns for safe keeping. The officer upon whom 
 the citizens relied to call the troops together to 
 protect the town refusing to perform that duty, a 
 messenger was sent to Gorham by the committee 
 of safety to invoke his immediate presence in town. 
 The messenger found the General in the field at 
 work with his aged father. Like General Putnam 
 of Revolutionary fame he left his work and re- 
 paired to the house, where he made hasty prepara- 
 tions to respond to the summons. This accom- 
 plished, he took hasty leave of his tearful family, 
 and mounting his horse started on his hurried 
 ride. The parting message of his aged mother, 
 Mary Gorham Phinney, was : " Don't be a coward, 
 James, don't be a coward ; do your duty like a 
 man." Reaching Portland, he called on his supe- 
 rior officer for orders to call out his brigade. This 
 officer, belonging to the political party which 
 opposed the war, refused to grant the desired 
 authority. Backed by popular sentiment, General 
 Irish promptly issued orders for calling the troops 
 into Portland, and in thirty-six hours the full 
 brigade of twenty-five hundred men was in camp 
 at that place. 
 
 The alarm and anxiety that pervaded Portland 
 had reached the neighboring towns, and upon the 
 arrival of the troops great crowds of people flocked 
 to town. The march of the brigade through the 
 
 25 
 
streets, with General Irish and staff at its head, 
 called forth the most lively enthusiasm. Loud 
 cheers came from the crowded streets, from the 
 windows of houses and roofs of the buildings. 
 The apprehended invasion having happily failed 
 of realization, the larger part of the troops was 
 dismissed at the end of twenty days. 
 
 Soon after these occurrences General Irish was 
 summoned before a court of inquiry to answer to 
 the charge of insubordination based upon the act 
 of calling out the troops without due authority. 
 At the close of a brief examination he was honor- 
 ably acquitted. 
 
 He was again appointed principal assessor for 
 his district this year. 
 
 In 1815, the war having been terminated, Gen- 
 eral Irish returned to his usual occupations. His 
 frequent calls to the discharge of duties of a public 
 nature led to his abandonment of the business of 
 teaching, which had occupied a portion of his time 
 yearly for twenty years. 
 
 In 1816 General Irish was detailed to sit upon 
 a court of inquiry for the trial of General Blake, 
 charged with cowardice at the battle of Hampden 
 two years earlier. 
 
 Major-Gene ral Sewall, of Augusta, and Brigadier- 
 Generals Irish, of Gorham, and Payson, of Wis- 
 casset, composed the court, which was held at the 
 old city hall in Bangor. The trial occupied thirty 
 days. General Blake was acquitted of the charge 
 preferred against him. 
 
 26 
 
Later the same year he sat on a court of 
 inquiry at the same place, before which was 
 arraigned, at the instigation of General Blake, 
 three of his subordinate officers. While in attend- 
 ance at this court the death of his venerated 
 father occurred. He was also afflicted later in 
 the year by the death of an infant son. 
 
 The year 1816 has been aptly characterized as 
 " the year without a summer." The crops were 
 disastrously affected throughout New England by 
 oft-recurring and destructive frosts. General Irish 
 shared light crops with his neighbors. In 1817 
 the sun seemed to have regained its power and 
 the soil its fertility, and the General rejoiced at 
 the abundance of his crops. 
 
 In 1818 he was appointed surveyor of public 
 lands, subject to the direction of Col. Lothrop 
 Lewis, of Gorham, who was surveyor-general of 
 Maine lands by virtue of a commission from the 
 State of Massachusetts. In pursuance of his duties 
 under this appointment General Irish surveyed 
 townships into lots on both sides of the Penobscot 
 river above Eddington to Mattenawcook, including 
 Oldtown, Milford, Passadumkeag, Bradley, and 
 Greenbush. He spent considerable time in the 
 survey of roads in Cumberland county for the 
 Court of Sessions, and run the famous military 
 road to Canada for Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1819 he represented Cumberland county in 
 the Senate of Massachusetts ; it was at this session 
 of the Legislature that the act was passed providing 
 
 27 
 
for the separation of the province of Maine from 
 the State of Massachusetts. 
 
 By virtue of this act Maine became an inde- 
 pendent State in 1820. General Irish was chosen 
 one of the delegates from Gorham to attend the 
 convention which was called to prepare a constitu- 
 tion for the new State. This convention assembled 
 at Portland, Oct. 11, 1820, and in due time pre- 
 pared a constitution which was subsequently 
 adopted by the people. 
 
 The province of Maine having thus become an 
 independent State, no political event was ever 
 more clearly foreshadowed than that the Hon. 
 Wm. King would be its first governor. He had 
 long been in public life, was a man of marked 
 ability, unswerving integrity, and of irreproach- 
 able character. Moreover, he had been the most 
 prominent leader in the movement to make the 
 province of Maine an independent State. 
 
 Sharing the belief that Mr. King would be the 
 governor of the new State, General Irish, in a 
 characteristic communication, made application 
 to be appointed surveyor-general of the public 
 lands ; also one of the commissioners for the 
 division of the lands held in common by Massa- 
 chusetts and Maine. This communication was 
 recently found among the papers of Governor 
 King and sent to Ex-Governor Frederic Robie, 
 who had been a townsman and neighbor of the 
 General. Assuming that the prospective governor 
 would desire to know something of the personal 
 
 28 
 
history of those he might call to fill responsible 
 positions, he gave in the communication referred 
 to a pretty full account of his early life, includ- 
 ing his meagre opportunities for obtaining an 
 education, his experience in teaching, in running 
 lines and surveying lands, his explorations of 
 lands in central and northern Maine, his sitting 
 upon courts martial for the trial of certain officers 
 charged with neglect of duty in the late war, and 
 of his own arraignment before such a court upon 
 the charge of calling out his brigade for the de- 
 fence of Portland without due authority. He 
 suggested to the prospective governor that one of 
 the three commissioners to be appointed might 
 reasonably be expected to swing his pack and give 
 his personal attention to the work of surveying 
 lands. 
 
 This formal application bore date March 13, 
 1820, and read in part as follows : 
 
 Dear Sir : I congratulate you that, at last, the independ- 
 ence of Maine is made certain. It is equally certain, if 
 your life is spared (which God grant) , you will take com- 
 mand. I have thought it a duty I owed my family, without 
 much ceremony or disguise, to make known to you my 
 wishes, and I shall have done. Supposing you would always 
 wish to know the circumstances and standing of those you 
 bring forward, I have, in a very plain way, named a few 
 particulars of my life. I now say plainly and honestly I 
 want to be appointed one of the commissioners for dividing 
 the lands, and also surveyor-general, who might keep the 
 Land Office. This you might at first think is asking too 
 much, but I think the surveyor-general might also keep the 
 
 29 
 
Laud Office with very little assistance. I can declare before 
 God that T do not ask these favors to gratify any improper 
 wishes, but that I might be enabled suitably to educate a 
 numerous family, and, at the same time, be useful to my 
 country. I rest assured that you will do me justice. I 
 would thank you barely to acknowledge the receipt of this. 
 
 I am respectfully yours, 
 
 James Irish. 
 To Hon. Wm. King. 
 
 A little more than two weeks later Mr. King 
 was elected governor with but little opposition. 
 When, however, he came to the appointment of 
 surveyor-general, for reasons which he regarded 
 as imperative he bestowed this office upon another 
 applicant, the Hon. Lothrop Lewis, who also 
 was a citizen of Gorham. Colonel Lewis had held 
 the office of surveyor-general of lands in the 
 province of Maine under the government of Massa- 
 chusetts for several years before the Act of Sep- 
 aration. Moreover, he was a man of ability, of 
 fine personal qualities, large experience in public 
 affairs, and had left a good business record. He 
 was an uncle of the famous orator, S. S. Prentiss. 
 
 General Irish had performed much service for 
 the State under the direction of Colonel Lewis 
 before Maine became an independent State, and 
 continued such service until the death of the 
 latter, two years later. 
 
 In 1820 General Irish was commissioned by the 
 governor to go to what is now Aroostook county 
 upon a tour of exploration and observation. This 
 
 30 
 
proved a laborious and dangerous service, inas- 
 much as his route led him over the deep snows of 
 that region, and upon the ice of streams and rivers 
 weakened by March and April suns. He prepared 
 a plan of the roads in Cumberland count}' under 
 the direction of the county authorities, and was 
 commissioned by the United States government 
 to make the decennial enumeration of the inhabi- 
 tants of several towns of the same county. In 
 1821 he served in the lower branch of the Legis- 
 lature, being the first on the list of representatives 
 to that body from the town of Gorham. He was 
 also commissioned justice of the peace and quorum. 
 
 In 1822 he continued the survey of public 
 lands under the direction of Colonel Lewis. He 
 was this year a prominent candidate of his party for 
 the nomination of representative to Congress, but 
 failed in a close vote. Upon the death of Colonel 
 Lewis, Oct. 9, 1822, he succeeded that gentleman 
 in the management of the public lands under the 
 policy which had been inaugurated at the organ- 
 ization of the State government. In 1823 his 
 extensive farming business, together with a good 
 share of business for the public, kept him very 
 busy. 
 
 At the opening of the year 1824 the manage- 
 ment of the public lands had become a subject of 
 absorbing interest in the minds of the leading men 
 of the State. There were large areas of land 
 belonging to the State covered with magnificent 
 growths of timber, and threaded by streams upon 
 
 31 
 
which it could be floated to the mills upon the 
 Penobscot, Maine's largest river, and manufactured 
 into various descriptions of lumber, and then 
 floated to tide-waters ready for distribution to the 
 markets of the world. If this timber could be 
 preserved for the benefit of the State it had an 
 immense prospective value. But previous to the 
 Act of Separation the policy of Massachusetts had 
 been very lenient towards a class of inhabitants 
 who believed that the timber on the public lands 
 was lawful plunder, and that if they failed to get 
 their share they were not living up to their legiti- 
 mate privileges. For this reason these lands had 
 annually been divested of large quantities of valu- 
 able timber. It was deemed important to arrest 
 this practice of plundering. There were also 
 large tracts of farming land belonging to the 
 State which was equal in quality to the best lands 
 of New England. It was believed that a well- 
 defined and liberal policy would attract settlers to 
 these lands. 
 
 Influenced by these considerations, the Legislat- 
 ure of 1824, early in its session, passed an act to 
 promote the sale and settlement of public lands. 
 
 The following sections of this act are reprinted 
 to show the great responsibilities placed upon the 
 land agent : 
 
 Land agent s ECT . io. Be it further enacted, That the Gov- 
 appointed; ernor, with the advice of Council, be and hereby is 
 bis powers authorized to appoint and commission some discreet 
 and duties. ^^ suitable person, as agent to superintend and 
 
 32 
 
manage the sale and settlement of the public land ; 
 and it shall be the duty of said agent to survey or 
 cause to be surveyed the townships aforesaid, or 
 such of them as, in his judgment, circumstances may, 
 from time to time, require. And such agent is 
 hereby empowered to make contracts and execute 
 deeds in behalf of the State according to the pro- 
 visions of this Act ; to receive all money and securi- 
 ties accruing to the State from the sale of land, 
 timber or grass belonging thereto ; and he shall pay 
 in to the Treasurer of the State for the time being, all 
 money by him received within six months from the 
 time he shall receive the same ; and said agent is 
 hereby empowered, and it shall be his duty to sell 
 at public auction or private sale all grass growing 
 on the public land from year to year ; to take all 
 suitable measures for the preservation of the timber 
 and grass standing or growing thereon, and to pros- 
 ecute in behalf of the State for all trespasses which 
 have been or may be made on the same ; and to 
 seize and sell at public auction all kinds of lumber 
 or grass cut by trespassers, first giving timely notice 
 of such sale. 
 
 Sect. 11. Be it further enacted, That it shall be Agent to 
 the duty of said agent to keep correct plans of all ^^0 laDS 
 surveys made as aforesaid, and to transmit copies transmit 
 thereof, and of all field notes, to the office of the c ° pie8 f 
 
 thereof and 
 
 Secretary of State as soon as may be after such of field notes 
 surveys shall have been made ; and he shall give his t0 offlce of 
 
 J & Secretary of 
 
 personal attendance to all the duties appertaining to state. 
 his office as far as practicable ; and he shall have 
 power to employ such assistants from time to time 
 as he may need, to aid him to carry into effect the 
 provisions of this Act, for whose conduct he shall be To employ 
 responsible ; and he shall render a fair account of a831B 
 all his doings to the Legislature annually, and shall 
 receive such compensation for his services as may 
 
 33 
 
be deemed just and equitable ; aud he shall give 
 bond to the Treasurer of the State, for the time 
 being, with sufficient surety or sureties, to the satis- 
 To give faction of the G-overnor and Council, in the sum of 
 $10,000, for the faithful performance of his duties. 
 Persons not Sect. 12. Be it further enacted, That no person 
 t bea* 51101 SDa ^ ^ e appointed or continued agent for the pur- 
 pointed or poses aforesaid, who is or may be concerned directly 
 continued Qr j n( jirectly in the lumber business, nor shall said 
 
 agents. •' 
 
 agent be concerned directly or indirectly in any pur- 
 chase of said public land. (Appi'oved Feb. 25, 
 1824.) 
 
 Under the provisions of this act General Irish 
 was appointed land agent, being the first on the 
 list of State land agents in Maine. An exami- 
 nation of the act will show the great responsi- 
 bilities he assumed in accepting this appointment. 
 Yet he accepted it in a spirit of courage and con- 
 fidence. Although at this time he was nearing 
 his fiftieth year, the hardships of his earlier years 
 had impaired neither his health nor powers of 
 endurance. He was ready for the work before 
 him. In the spirit of the suggestion made to 
 Mr. King four years earlier he opened an office 
 in Portland, placed a clerk therein, and upon the 
 opening of the season " swung his pack " and 
 plunged into the forests, where he conducted in 
 person the running of the exterior lines of town- 
 ships and the dividing of townships into lots. 
 
 In 1825 General Irish's duties as land agent 
 brought him face to face with grave responsibili- 
 ties. The boundary line between Maine and New 
 
 34 
 
Brunswick had not, at that time, been definitely 
 settled. It was, therefore, impossible to determine 
 where the jurisdiction of Maine terminated and 
 that of New Brunswick began. Fifteen years 
 later this uncertainty came near involving the 
 United States in a war with Great Britain. The 
 fine region of country known as the Madawaska 
 region, in the vicinity of our north-eastern boun- 
 dary, was claimed both by Maine and New Bruns- 
 wick. The government of Maine, believing that 
 citizens of New Brunswick were despoiling this 
 region of its most valuable timber, ordered the 
 land agent to go at once to the disputed territory 
 and take possession of it. Early in the autumn of 
 1825 General Irish, accompanied by Hon. Geo. 
 R. Coffin, land agent of Massachusetts, proceeded 
 to execute this order. Upon their arrival at the 
 theatre of operations they made investigation rel- 
 ative to the amount of timber that had been cut 
 upon the Aroostook and Madawaska rivers by 
 authority of the government of New Brunswick. 
 They posted notices of their readiness to give 
 deeds to settlers upon the river St. John, who 
 were in possession of one hundred acres of land, 
 upon easy terms. In his report to the Legislat- 
 ure General Irish said that they found upon the 
 St. John two hundred and twenty-two houses, 
 with an aggregate population of about 2,000. 
 He described the people as being civil, industrious, 
 and hospitable, and as deserving the fostering care 
 of the government. "Many of these people," he 
 
 35 
 
said, " had grants of their lands from New Bruns- 
 wick, upon the titles of which they placed but little 
 value." Among them were many direct descend- 
 ants of the ill-fated Acadians, the story of whose 
 peaceful lives of happy contentment and subsequent 
 brutal treatment by the English is so pathetically 
 told in Longfellow's " Evangeline." 
 
 The story of the burning of the dwellings of 
 their ancestors, of the destruction of their herds 
 and flocks and crops, and of their dispersion 
 to colonies widely separated from each other so 
 that they might never again congregate on the 
 site of the old ancestral homes, and of the terrible 
 sufferings that followed, had been handed down 
 from family to family, filling the hearts of succes- 
 sive generations with unquenchable hatred of the 
 English and of English rule. Bancroft, America's 
 historian, says — "I know not if the annals of 
 the human race bear the record of sorrows so 
 wantonly inflicted, so bitter and perennial, as fell 
 upon the French inhabitants of Acadia." It is not 
 strange that a people whose ancestors had suffered 
 so much at the hands of the English were eager to 
 accept the protection of the American flag. 
 
 The transactions of the land agents upon the 
 disputed territory led to much ill-feeling between 
 the two governments. One of the largest pur- 
 chasers of land, a Mr. Baker, was shortly after 
 arrested and committed to jail by New Brunswick 
 officers. The charges preferred against him were 
 that he had forbidden the carrying of the British 
 
mail across land to which he had no valid title, 
 that he had hoisted the United States flag thereon in 
 defiance of British claims, and that he had sought 
 to engage a party in an ancient British settlement 
 to transfer the possession thereof to the United 
 States. A demand for the release of Mr. Baker 
 was followed by a conference between the Ameri- 
 can Secretary of State, Hon. Henry Clay, and the 
 acting British Minister, Hon. Charles R. Vaughn. 
 Mr. Baker was afterwards released on bail. 
 
 There was another serious source of trouble in 
 the management of the public lands. Encouraged 
 by the lax public sentiment of the times, many per- 
 sons had been actively engaged every winter in 
 despoiling the forests in the vicinity of the Mata- 
 wamkeag and Baskahegan rivers, and at other 
 points, of their most valuable timber. 
 
 The land agent had been instructed to protect 
 the timber lands. In pursuance of instructions 
 agents were sent to ascertain the extent of the 
 spoliations of these lands, and the names of the 
 despoilers. These agents were met by men in the 
 guise of Indians who threatened them with death 
 unless they took themselves away without unnec- 
 essary delay. They were therefore unable to give 
 more than a partial report relating to the purpose 
 of their expedition. A sheriff and posse were 
 then sent to arrest the plunderers and seize their 
 implements. This attempt was unsuccessful. The 
 difficulty of dealing with the plunderers was greatly 
 enhanced by the misplaced sympathy and encour- 
 
agement they received from prominent men out- 
 side their own ranks, some of whom profited by 
 these illicit operations. The contest was now as- 
 suming a serious aspect, but the plunderers soon 
 learned that there were " blows to take as well as 
 blows to give." 
 
 There were large quantities of grass upon the 
 public lands which had been cut late in sum- 
 mer by the plunderers, to be used in furtherance of 
 their unlawful business. Massachusetts had, at 
 that time, a joint interest with Maine in these 
 lands. By concert of action of the land agents 
 of the two States the hay was burned upon the 
 ground where it was cut. This blow was as severe 
 as it was unexpected, and had the effect to diminish 
 largely illicit lumbering. 
 
 In 1825 General Irish removed his family from 
 the farm he had owned in a remote section of the 
 town to the village of Gorham, where better 
 educational opportunities awaited his large family 
 of children. This year was made memorable, 
 also, by the death of his aged mother, to whom he 
 was bound by the most tender affection. She was 
 the Mary Gorham Phinney of pioneer memory, 
 the first-born of Gorham' s fair daughters. What 
 heroic spirits and the memory of what heroic 
 deeds are summoned from the shadowy past by 
 the magic of her name ! She was a direct descend- 
 ant of the old Puritan, John Phinney, — the first 
 John, who early joined the historic Plymouth 
 Colony, from which emanated the best civilization 
 
 38 
 
MARY GORHAM 1'IIIXNEV 
 
 First white child born in Gorham, .Maine 
 1736-1825 
 
the world has known. She was the great-grand- 
 daughter of John Phinney, the second John, 
 one of the little band of soldiers who, in 1675, 
 fought the Indians in King Philip's war, one 
 of the most sanguinary and relentless wars 
 known to Indian warfare in New England. She 
 was the granddaughter of the third of this name. 
 Deacon John Phinney, who was an honored 
 church official. She was the daughter of Capt. 
 John Phinney, the first settler of the fine old 
 town of Gorham, where his large experience 
 and sterling virtues were constant benedictions 
 to his neighbors and townsmen in the early 
 years of hardship, privation, and peril. Her 
 great-grandmother, the wife of the second John 
 Phinney, was a descendant of Thomas Rogers, 
 who came to America in the "Mayflower." Her 
 brother, Edmund Phinney, was a colonel in the 
 war of the Revolution, and his regiment was 
 the first to enter Boston after its evacuation by 
 the British. Her husband's father was a soldier 
 in the expedition against the eastern Indians in 
 1724. An uncle of her husband, John Irish, was 
 at the siege of Louisburg in 1745. Her husband 
 was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, also in 
 the war of 1812. Her inherited traits were sup- 
 plemented by a wide, varied, and remarkable per- 
 sonal experience. 
 
 She was born in the shades of the " forest pri- 
 meval," unbroken save by the little opening made 
 a few weeks earlier by the sturdy blows of her 
 
 39 
 
father and stalwart brother Edmund, where rested 
 the little cabin which sheltered them from the 
 rains of summer and the snows of winter, and 
 where her little brother John planted the first hill 
 of corn ever planted by white hands within the 
 limits of the present town of Gorham. The play- 
 mates of her childhood, outside her own family, 
 were the children of Indian parents, with whom 
 she ran after the squirrels, rabbits, and smaller 
 animals that frisked about her forest home, with 
 childish delight, and avoided the larger animals 
 that were a terror to older people. When she 
 was nine years old the Indian neighbors, whom 
 her parents had warmed and fed, became hostile 
 and blood-thirsty through machinations of French 
 settlers in Canada. 
 
 With several families her parents sought the 
 protection of the fort which the prudent foresight 
 of her father, Capt. John Phinney, had caused to 
 be built. Here for four years she lived, taking 
 her turn in the watch box to give the alarm in 
 case an Indian scout was prowling around, or there 
 were any visible signs of danger. She assisted in 
 moulding bullets and making cartridges, and in 
 performing the drudgery of the life they were liv- 
 ing. During the three years following the cessa- 
 tion of active hostilities the little colony lived in 
 constant fear, and the fort continued to be their 
 refuge whenever there was danger of a renewal of 
 attack. Early in the war of the Revolution her 
 husband was summoned to the service of his coun- 
 
 40 
 
try. During his absence she supported her family 
 by spinning and weaving by hand and selling the 
 products of her toil at Portland, fourteen miles 
 distant from her home, whither she carried them 
 over frightful roads on horseback, returning with 
 a fresh supply of raw material for the wheel and 
 loom. While Mrs. Irish was a woman of the 
 heroic type, she possessed the kindlier instincts of 
 her sex in large measure. 
 
 She was always ready to lend a helping hand to 
 neighbors less fortunate than herself, and was 
 characterized by a generous hospitality. To 
 friends and neighbors overtaken by severe misfort- 
 une her door was always open. In a year of 
 unusual scarcity of food, although her own larder 
 was not overstocked, she put her children on allow- 
 ance, that she might relieve the hunger of her 
 neighbors' children. 
 
 She lived an exemplary Christian life and bore 
 to life's end the love and esteem of all who had 
 enjoyed her acquaintance. Her death, at almost 
 eighty-nine years of age, carried sadness into the 
 households of the whole town. 
 
 The experiences of General Irish in 1826 and 
 1827 were, in their main features and purposes, a 
 continuation of those of the preceding year. He 
 passed his summers and autumns in the explora- 
 tion of streams, rivers, and lands over a large area 
 of north-eastern Maine. He was still compelled 
 to resist inroads upon the timber lands belonging 
 to the State. The discharge of this duty subjected 
 
 41 
 
him to persona] annoyances and peril. The 
 burning of the hay the preceding year by his 
 direction and that of the land agent of Massachu- 
 setts, to cripple the operations of plunderers, was 
 made the occasion for the most bitter denunciation. 
 It was alleged by his enemies, an allegation 
 utterly without foundation, that the destructive 
 fires that raged in territory now embraced in the 
 counties of Penobscot and Piscataquis had their 
 origin in the fires that burned the plunderers' hay 
 more than a month earlier. 
 
 In 1828 he was reappointed to the land agency. 
 He had at that date been engaged in the dis- 
 charge of arduous and exacting duties connected 
 with the public lands for an uninterrupted period 
 of ten years — two years for the State of Massa- 
 chusetts before the Act of Separation, and eight 
 years for his native State. Much of this time was 
 spent in the depths of the forests of north-eastern 
 Maine, exploring streams and rivers, running lines, 
 surveying townships and dividing them into lots, 
 and in efforts to protect the public lands from 
 spoliation by misguided men, who were ready to 
 improve their own fortunes by robbing the State. 
 
 The faithful discharge of these duties subjected 
 him to exposure, hardships, privations, personal 
 peril, and separation from his family, to which he 
 was tenderly attached. Moreover, he had matured 
 and partially executed plans for establishing in- 
 dustries within his own village requiring his pres- 
 ence at home. For these and other reasons he 
 
 42 
 
resigned the land agency in the latter part of the 
 year 1828, and devoted himself to the development 
 of personal plans. He had long cherished a strong 
 desire that his children, as they became of age to 
 act for themselves, should establish homes near 
 the parental homestead. Four years earlier he 
 had hired of Moses Clark a small tannery which 
 occupied the site of the present extensive establish- 
 ment of the Messrs. Hinckley, and had purchased 
 a small stock of hides. His oldest son, Isaac C. 
 Irish, who had nearly finished a term of apprentice- 
 ship with a Mr. Owen of Portland, had been called 
 home to take charge of the business. This had 
 increased from year to year, and in 1828 it had 
 become an extensive business for the times. A 
 larger building was constructed for the accommoda- 
 tion of this growing business in 1828. He erected 
 another building this year to accommodate various 
 manufacturing industries which came within the 
 range of his plans. He was this year appointed 
 associate-justice of the Court of Sessions in Cumber- 
 land county. In 1829 he put into the building 
 erected the preceding year two bark-mills, a full- 
 ing-mill, a circular saw, a turning-lathe, polishing, 
 carding, and shearing machines, and machinery 
 for the manufacture of starch. Much to the sur- 
 prise of hitherto incredulous neighbors and towns- 
 men, this machinery was all moved by a wheel 
 twenty-five feet in diameter upon which water was 
 thrown from an artificial pond, supplied by several 
 brooks that he had diverted from their natural 
 
 43 
 
channels. In 1830 he visited New York and 
 Albany to acquaint himself with improved proc- 
 esses of tanning leather. He built a house this 
 year for his son Isaac. 
 
 From his earliest business years to 1831 his had 
 been a life of successful effort. He now found 
 himself approaching the outer circles of a vortex 
 which, a little later, engulfed many a worthy 
 and hitherto successful business man of Maine. 
 In 1831 his losses from insolvent debtors began 
 and increased from year to year. He met with a 
 severe domestic affliction this same year. His 
 home was invaded by a great sorrow. The wife 
 of his early manhood, the companion, comforter, 
 and counsellor of his maturer years, was removed 
 by death. 
 
 Mrs. Irish was a woman of rare excellence, and 
 for more than thirty years the sunshine of her 
 presence had blessed a happy home. Although 
 many eventful years have elapsed since the occur- 
 rence of this sorrowful bereavement, remembrances 
 of her estimable qualities are still tenderly cher- 
 ished in the hearts of her surviving children. In 
 the large concourse of sympathizing friends who 
 were present at the last sad rites there were no 
 more sincere mourners, outside the grief-stricken 
 household, than her poorer neighbors, to whom 
 her kindly offices had been a constant benediction. 
 
 In 1832 General Irish placed additional machin- 
 ery in his factory, and did a more extensive tan- 
 ning business than ever before. In 1833 he con- 
 
 44 
 
fined his efforts to lines of business already estab- 
 lished. He did something at running lines, sur- 
 veying lands, and kindred employments. He built 
 a double tenement house which was afterwards 
 occupied by relatives. In 1834 he was appointed 
 a commissioner of internal improvements under a 
 then recent legislative act. This act was repealed 
 at the following session of the Legislature. He 
 commenced on a small scale the manufacture of 
 carpets, a business which afterwards became an 
 important industry. On account of a rise in the 
 price of potatoes the manufacture of starch was 
 abandoned. 
 
 In 1835 he purchased a very valuable township 
 of land known as the Brassua township. He 
 built a factory this year for the accommodation 
 of the carpet business. In 1836 he purchased an 
 interest in three townships of land. He received an 
 appointment at the hands of the governor of the 
 State to accompany General Wool, of the United 
 States army, to the Madawaska region, and aid 
 him in the selection of sites for military posts, 
 with reference to the possible outcome of trouble 
 from the "north-eastern boundary dispute." In 
 1837 he carried on a lumbering operation in the 
 Brassua township, which resulted in a good degree 
 of success. In 1838, by appointment of the gov- 
 ernor, he was one of three commissioners to trace 
 a section of the line which at that time separated 
 Maine from New Brunswick. The other com- 
 missioners were John G. Deane and Milford P. 
 
 45 
 
Norton. In 1839 General Irish continued in the 
 lumbering business and the manufacture of carpets, 
 but he abandoned several other branches which 
 had become unprofitable. His business in 1840 
 was a continuation of that of 1839. In 1841 he 
 relinquished the carpet business, but continued 
 lumbering through this and the following year. 
 Fresh losses had come through the failure of 
 parties indebted to him. The aggregate of his 
 losses had become large. He had made earnest 
 and persistent efforts to retrieve his fortunes, but 
 was unsuccessful. He was now face to face with 
 the stern necessity of surrendering the fruits of 
 long-continued and honorable toil, of giving up 
 fondly-cherished plans, and of surrendering prop- 
 erty which, could he have retained, would have 
 left him an ample fortune. This turn in the 
 current of his affairs came to him with crushing 
 force. His inability to meet his obligations to his 
 creditors was followed by a depression of spirit 
 from which he never recovered. In 1845 General 
 Irish was appointed postmaster at Gorham vil- 
 lage — a position he held for a term of four years. 
 In 1846 two deeply afflictive events came into 
 his personal experience : the death of a favorite 
 daughter-in-law, Mrs. Isaac C. Irish, a woman of 
 great excellence of character, and his son, James 
 H. Irish, a young man whose fine personal qualities 
 had made him a favorite of a wide circle of ac- 
 quaintances. He had been fitting himself for the 
 practice of medicine, a profession for which he was 
 
 46 
 
believed to have had an especial aptitude. General 
 Irish was now seventy years of age, but his long 
 companionship with privation, hardship, and toil 
 had failed to impair his health or constitution. 
 There was still useful labor awaiting his hands, 
 which, nothing loth, he entered upon. The York 
 and Cumberland railroad was projected about this 
 time. There was preliminary work to be provided 
 for, which he was well qualified to execute, and he 
 was employed in the interests of this road. In 
 July, 1846, he obtained a charter for the road from 
 the Legislature, which was then in session. He 
 indicated the route which was adopted. On Sept. 
 7, 1846, the persons named in the legislative act 
 met at Alfred and organized by the choice of Gen- 
 eral Irish as clerk. In October he conducted the 
 corporation over the route of the prospective road, 
 and in November and December following he made 
 the preliminary survey. This accomplished, nearly 
 a year was spent in negotiations with other railroad 
 companies. On July 20, 1848, the corporation 
 met and perfected their organization and chose a 
 board of directors, who, on the 27th of July, met 
 and elected General Irish clerk. The ceremony of 
 breaking ground as a public announcement that the 
 work of construction was to be entered upon at 
 once occurred Sept. 4, 1848. On Nov. 15, 1849, 
 his official relations to the York and Cumberland 
 railroad, now known as the Portland & Rochester 
 railroad, terminated. He had now held some pub- 
 lic position through a period of nearly fifty years. 
 
 47 
 
In the line of military promotion he had held 
 almost every position, from the lowest to that of 
 brigadier-general in the militia of Maine. Among 
 the civil offices he had held by election or appoint- 
 ment was that of senator in the Massachusetts 
 Legislature before the separation of the province 
 of Maine from that State. He was a member of the 
 convention that framed the constitution of Maine, 
 was first on the list of representatives from Gor- 
 ham to the Maine Legislature, was twice elected 
 to the land agency of Maine, was appointed to 
 accompany General Wool to the north-eastern 
 boundary of Maine to aid him in the selection of 
 sites for military posts, and was appointed on a com- 
 mission to trace the line of the north-eastern boun- 
 dary of Maine. At the termination of General 
 Irish's services for the railroad company, in 1849, 
 he had reached the age of seventy-three years. 
 He then retired from active business pursuits. 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 General Irish was a man of striking personal 
 presence. He was of full average height, erect in 
 figure, of good proportions, and of dignified bear- 
 ing. He was the personification of robust manhood. 
 He inherited from his ancestors a physical consti- 
 tution upon which the exposures and hardships of 
 a half century had made no perceptible impression. 
 The exacting toil of the farm and mill, the expos- 
 ures and hardships of life in the wilderness, far 
 from the abodes of civilization, in exploration of 
 
 48 
 
lakes and rivers, and in locating and surveying 
 townships, had failed to interrupt the flow of health 
 that had characterized his youth and early man- 
 hood. He had never had occasion for the aid of 
 a physician until after he had passed the limit of 
 four-score years, nor had he allowed a year to 
 pass without leaving on record an expression of 
 devout thankfulness for a continuation of health 
 and strength. 
 
 General Irish was endowed with good powers 
 of mind and a large measure of common-sense. 
 Although he had received less school instruc- 
 tion in his whole life than now falls to the lot 
 of the average child of ten years, yet by his 
 strength of intellect and force of will he quali- 
 fied himself to fill many important and respon- 
 sible public positions with honor to himself and 
 usefulness to the public. 
 
 General Irish's religious beliefs were of the Puri- 
 tanic type. He was a strict observer of the Sab- 
 bath and its ordinances, and was always faithful 
 to his church obligations. On each return of the 
 sacred day he called his children, to whom he was 
 most tenderly attached, around him for religious 
 instruction. In creed he was Congregationalist. 
 
 He cherished a profound respect for the stern 
 virtues of his ancestors, and was earnestly patri- 
 otic. He was a friend of education, and for many 
 years was a trustee of Gorham Seminary in the 
 period of its greatest prosperity. 
 
 In politics General Irish was a Democrat through 
 
 49 
 
his earlier manhood. In 1840 he supported the 
 candidate of the Whig party, Gen. Wm. H. Har- 
 rison, for the presidency. Soon after he joined 
 the political party that opposed the extension of 
 slavery. Upon the organization of the Republican 
 party he entered its ranks. He was a public- 
 spirited citizen. In the early years of its state- 
 hood no citizen of Maine was more largely influ- 
 ential than he in impressing its citizens with an 
 adequate conception of the value of its timber 
 lands, and of the importance of protecting them 
 from spoliation. 
 
 He was interested in the prosperity of his native 
 town. Before his retirement from the land office 
 he had matured plans for the establishment of 
 industries in the village of his residence which 
 would give employment to numbers of people and 
 promote the growth of the town. 
 
 But the financial disasters which, a few years 
 later, arrested so many business enterprises in the 
 State prevented the execution of his plans. He 
 planted with his own hands many of the shade- 
 trees that adorn the streets of Gorham village, 
 affording its citizens grateful protection from the 
 heats of summer. 
 
 From the age of sixteen years, for almost a half 
 century, General Irish's life had been character- 
 ized by continuous and earnest business activity. 
 In 1850, having reached the age of seventy-four 
 years, he retired from active business pursuits. 
 His earlier manhood had been blessed with unin- 
 
 50 
 
terrupted prosperity, and his honorable ambitions 
 had been gratified. But his business misfortunes, 
 which culminated in 1840, had made a radical 
 change in the current of his experience. He had 
 never recovered from the depression of spirit that 
 resulted from his financial reverses. Yet his 
 strong constitution withstood the shock, and he 
 was favored for some years with a continuation of 
 good health. After giving up business pursuits 
 he passed much of his time in the several families 
 of his children, towards whom the strong attach- 
 ments of earlier years had never waned. Such 
 visits were to him a great solace, and to his children 
 seasons of much enjoyment. But not many years 
 had passed before his strong constitution began to 
 yield to the pressure of advancing years. Remem- 
 brances of former financial misfortunes ati' ected his 
 health unfavorably. He was also much disturbed 
 by occasional reverses to the loyal arms in the war 
 of the Rebellion. 
 
 A few months before his death he said to his 
 minister, the Rev. Mr. Strong, " I have no strong 
 desire for a continuance of life," but added with 
 much earnestness, " I do want to live to see the 
 close of this dreadful war." His patriotic instincts 
 forsook him only at the end of life. At the open- 
 ing of the year 1863 it became apparent that the 
 eventful life which had spanned the entire interval 
 that separated the Revolutionary war from the 
 war of the Rebellion was near its close. On the 
 morning of the last Sabbath in March, 1863, Gen- 
 
 si 
 
eral Irish occupied his accustomed seat in church. 
 On his return home at the close of the services he 
 complained of feeling unwell. A physician was 
 called and medicine administered, but he grew 
 more feeble as the days moved on. Tender and 
 unwearied attention from his children arrested the 
 progress of disease for a brief space. Rallying a 
 little, he walked out on the street to the little garden 
 plot which in his later years he had cared for with 
 a devotion akin to a woman's devotion to an only 
 child, and upon whose swelling buds and opening- 
 blossoms his eyes had often rested with delight, 
 but now for the last time. 
 
 Disease soon resumed its sway and he failed 
 rapidly until the end came. On June 30, 1863, 
 at the age of eighty-six years, ten months, and 
 twelve days, he passed within the veil that sepa- 
 rates this from the better life. 
 
 52 
 
A partial list of the descendants of James Irish, 1 
 who emigrated from England about the year 1711, 
 and settled at Falmouth (now Portland), Me. In 
 1738 he moved to Narragansett No. Seven (now 
 Gorham), Me., where he died at the age of about 
 fifty years. 
 
 He had six children, John, 2 Joseph, 2 Thomas, 2 
 James, Jr., 2 William, 2 and Miriam. 2 John, Thomas, 
 and James, Jr., settled in Gorham ; Joseph and 
 William in Buckfield ; and Miriam, who married 
 Gamaliel Pote, in Falmouth. 
 
 John 2 had six children, born between 1746 and 
 1760. 
 
 Thomas' 2 had ten children, Susanna, 3 Isaac, 3 
 Benjamin, 3 Jacob, 3 Amy, 3 Abigail, 3 Gamaliel, 3 
 Deliverence, 3 Mary, 3 and Elizabeth. 3 He died in 
 1832 at the age of ninety-eight years and eight 
 months. Amy 3 married Samuel Burnell, of Bald- 
 win. She lived to the age of ninety-one years. 
 
 William 2 married Mary McCollister. Their 
 children were Thomas, 3 Edmund, 3 Margery, 
 Dorcas, 3 Miriam, 3 and Sylvanus. 3 
 
 JAMES, Jr., 2 b. Falmouth, Jan. 28, 1736 ; d. Gor- 
 ham, April 1, 1816. 
 m. 1756, Mary Gorham Phinney, b. Gorham, 
 Aug. 24, 1736 ; d. May 13, 1825. Lived 
 in Gorham and had nine children : 
 
 53 
 
1. Stephen, 3 b. March 24, 1757 ; d. April 7, 1841. 
 
 m. Anna Bangs, b. 1757 ; d. Sept., 1846, 
 
 and had : 
 1. Mehitible ; 4 2. Martha ; 4 3. Patience ; 4 
 4. Daniel ; 4 5. Dorcas ; 4 6. James. 4 
 
 2. William, 3 b. March 12, 1759 ; d. April 30, 
 
 1815. 
 m. Sarah March, b. 1759 ; d. 1849. Had 
 
 only one child : 
 1. Phebe. 4 
 
 3. Martha, 3 b. Aug. 28, 1761 ; d. Nov. 10, 1836. 
 
 m. Stephen Whitney, b. 1758; d. 1848. 
 Eight children : 
 
 1. Mary; 4 2. Sally; 4 3. Patty; 4 4. 
 Miriam ; 4 5. William ; 4 6. Stephen ; 4 
 7. Ebenezer; 4 8. Patience. 4 
 
 4. Ebenezer, 3 b. April 5, 1763 ; d. Jan. 7, 1851. 
 
 m. Martha Morton, d. at the age of 68. 
 
 Five children : 
 1. Sally; 4 2. Nancy; 4 3. Martha; 4 
 4. Stephen ; 4 5. Dolly. 4 
 
 5. Obadiah, 3 b. July 17, 1765; d. April 17, 
 
 1852. 
 m. Mary Dean, b. 1766 ; d. 1853. Five 
 
 children : 
 1. William; 4 2. Polly; 4 3. Deane ; 4 
 4. Desire ; 4 5. John. 4 
 
 6. Mary, 3 b. June 24, 1767 ; d. March 6, 1846. 
 
 m. Timothy Bacon, b. 1762; d. 1849. 
 Nine children : 
 
 54 
 
1. Stephen; 4 2. Martha; 4 3. Sally; 4 
 4. Nancy ; 4 5. James ; 4 6. Timothy ; 4 
 7. Jonathan; 4 8. Gardiner; 4 9. 
 Catharine. 4 
 
 7. Patience, 3 b. Jan. 31, 1770 ; d. Dec. 31, 1854. 
 
 m. John Davis, b. 1761 ; d. 1845. Nine 
 children : 
 
 1. Sally; 4 2. Thankful; 4 3. James; 4 
 4. Rebecca; 4 5. Temperance; 4 
 6. Martha ; 4 7. Mary ; 4 8. Solomon ; 4 
 9. Cyrus. 4 
 
 8. Samuel, 3 b. April 8, 1772; d. Sept. 25, 
 
 1825. 
 m. Martha Blake, b. 1775 ; d. August, 
 1858. 
 
 9. James, 3 b. Aug. 18, 1776; d. June 30, 
 
 1863. Youngest son of James Irish, Jr., 
 and Mary Gorham Phinney, known in 
 manhood's years as Gen. James Irish. 
 
 The brothers and sisters of General Irish grew 
 to manhood and womanhood, and like their ances- 
 tors they were a robust and long-lived people. 
 
 The average age of those nine brothers and sis- 
 ters was seventy-seven years ; two of the brothers 
 died prematurely from accidental causes at the 
 ages of fifty-three and fifty-six respectively. Elim- 
 inating these figures from the calculations, the 
 result will show for the remaining seven an average 
 age of eighty-three and three-sevenths years. 
 
 The aggregate of the ages of husbands and 
 
 55 
 
wives of these nine brothers and sisters, omitting 
 the age of a single individual who died at fifty- 
 three, will reveal the extraordinary average of 
 eighty-five years. General Irish had forty-three 
 nephews and nieces on his father's side. 
 
 Rebecca Chadbourne, who married Gen. James 
 Irish, was of English descent. 
 
 Capt. John Mason, an associate of Fernando 
 Gorges in the proprietorship of certain lands in 
 the present States of New Hampshire and Maine, 
 landed a company of emigrants at Strawberry 
 Beach, now Portsmouth, N.H., on July 4, 1631. 
 
 Soon afterwards he established a colony at 
 Newichawanock, now South Berwick, York 
 County, Me. Wm. Chadbourne and two sons, 
 Win., Jr., and Humphrey, joined this colony, the 
 agency of which was soon after given to Hum- 
 phrey, who held it until the death of Captain 
 Mason. 
 
 In 1643 Humphrey purchased a large tract of 
 land of the Indian sachem, Rowles, at Quamphe- 
 gan. He married Lucia, the daughter of Mrs. 
 Catherine Treworgie. 
 
 In 1667 he died, leaving three sons and four 
 daughters, and a large property in lands in what is 
 now North and South Berwick and Spruce Creek. 
 The eldest son took the name of Humphrey from 
 his father. 
 
 This second Humphrey died in 1694, leaving 
 at least five children, three sons and two daughters- 
 One of these sons, William, was born about 1683. 
 
 56 
 
At his death he left eleven children, the second of 
 whom was Humphrey, afterwards known as Elder 
 Humphrey Chadbourne. Judge Benj . Chadbourne, 
 a man of note in the history of Berwick and 
 adjoining towns, was a brother of Elder Humphrey 
 Chadbourne. The latter was born in 1716. He 
 married Phebe Hobbs, of Somersworth, N.H., 
 and left eleven children. Silas, the fifth child of 
 this marriage, was boru in Berwick Aug. 8, 1752. 
 A short time previous to the beginning of the 
 war of the Revolution he worked as a tailor in the 
 town of Gorham, where he married Abigail Crock- 
 ett. One of the ten children of this marriage was 
 Rebecca Chadbourne, who was born April 9, 1780. 
 
 57 
 
ISAAC CHADBOURNE 
 THADDEUS I'OMKOY 
 
 MARSHALL 
 GEN. JAMES IKISll 
 
 FRAKCIS OSGOOD 
 JAMES IIENKY 
 
SOPHRONIA 
 
 ABAGAIL 
 
 REBECCA CHADBOURNE 
 
 -MARY GORHAM 
 REBECCA CHADBOURNE 
 
 (Mother) 
 
 AUALINE 
 MARTHA 
 ELIZABETH 
 
FAMILY RECORDS 
 
 OP 
 
 GENERAL JAMES IRISH AND HIS 
 DESCENDANTS. 
 
 * JAMES IRISH/ b. Aug. 18, 1776 ; d. June 
 30, 1863. 
 
 m. (1.) Sept. 2, 1798, Rebecca Chadbourne, b. 
 Berwick, Me., April 9, 1780 ; d. Oct. 5, 
 1831 ; daughter of Silas Chadbourne, a 
 Revolutionary soldier. 
 (2.) Oct. 15, 1832, Louisa Mason, b. Mass., 
 Aug. 5, 1789; d. Hallowell, Me., Oct. 3, 
 1881. Lived in Gorham, Me., and had 
 thirteen children : 
 I. SOPHRONIA, 2 b. Gorham, Sept. 5, 1799; 
 d. March 31, 1886. 
 m. (1.) Nov. 28, 1821, Henry Frost, b. 
 
 1798 ; d. July 13, 1827. 
 (2.) Sept. 23, 1829, John Wingate, b. 
 
 April 28, 1799 ; d. Sept. 21, 1858. 
 Had two children by first husband, by 
 second, eight : 
 
 * Note. — General Irish was of the third generation of Irishes from 
 the emigrant James Irish, and through his mother the seventh genera- 
 tion from the Pilgrim John Rogers, hut as the purpose here is to give 
 his descendants only, it was deemed best to number the generations 
 from him as the first. 
 
 59 
 
1. Elizabeth, 3 b. Gorham, Aug. 4, 1822 ; 
 
 d. May 6, 1848. 
 m. Feb. 25, 1845, Theophilus Waterhouse, 
 of Standish, Me. 
 
 2. Caroline C., 3 b. Gorham, Aug. 17, 1824. 
 
 3. Rebecca I., 3 b. Oct. 30, 1830; d. Aug. 
 
 14, 1853. 
 
 4. Salome S., 3 b. March 4, 1833. 
 
 m. (1.) July 1, 1852, George J. Prentiss, 
 
 d. June 25, 1864. 
 (2.) Jan. 6, 1877, George W. Newbeyin. 
 1. Helen Rebecca, 4 ' b. June 7, 1853; d. 
 June, 1856. 
 
 5. Heney F. 3 (twin), b. Feb. 28, 1835 ; d. 
 
 California, Nov. 28, 1865. 
 
 6. James I. 3 (twin), b. Feb. 28, 1835; d. 
 
 Feb. 21, 1836. 
 
 7. James I., 3 b. June 4, 1837. 
 
 m. May 18, 1870, Helen Frances Edge- 
 comb, b. Nov. 8, 1838, and bad : 
 1. Frank Elmer, 4 - b. Jan. 3, 1872. 
 
 m. Jan. 25, 1893, Helen May Buck- 
 ner, b. Boston, Sept. 12, 1871, and 
 had : 
 (a.) Muriel, 5 b. April 23, 1895. 
 (6.) Marjorie, 5 b. June 17, 1896. 
 
 8. Mary Gorham, 3 b. March 13, 1840. 
 
 9. Ellen S., 3 b. April 2, 1843. 
 
 10. John Phinney, 3 b. March 7, 1846 ; d. 
 Aug. 15, 1849. 
 
 6U 
 
II. MARY GORHAM/ 2 b. Gorham, July 3, 
 1801 ; d. Oct. 31, 1856. 
 m. Nov. 26, 1822, Peter Paine, b. Stan- 
 dish, Jan. 27, 1795; d. May 12, 1872. 
 Lived in Standish, and had : 
 
 1. Sarah Leavitt, 3 b. May 9, 1824 ; d. Oct. 
 
 5, 1852. 
 m. Sept. 17, 1846, Ellis B. Usher, of 
 Hollis, and had : 
 
 1. Gershom <7., 4 b. April 23, 1848. 
 
 2. Willard E.* b. Jan. 29, 1850 ; d. Oct. 
 
 18, 1853. 
 
 3. Sarah P., 4 b. May 23, 1852 ; d. Sept. 
 
 11, 1853. 
 
 2. Henry Frost, 3 b. June 12, 1826 ; d. July 
 
 14, 1870. 
 m. June 23, 1846, Mary B. Wells, and 
 had : 
 
 1. Mary M., 4 b. Saco, Jan. 11, 1847. 
 
 2. Mien P., 4 b. Buxton, Jan. 8, 1849 ; d. 
 
 March 7, 1849. 
 
 3. Frank J., 4 b. Portland, March 16, 1850 ; 
 
 d. Aug. 6, 1882. 
 
 4. Henrietta, 4, b. Madison, Wis., March 2, 
 
 1859. 
 
 3. James Irish, 3 b. May 28, 1831. 
 
 m., Nov. 17, 1853, Emiline Hopkinson. 
 
 4. Margaret Haskell, 3 b. June 11, 1834. 
 m. April 29, 1860, Orin Wescott, b. Gor- 
 ham, Nov. 12, 1826 ; d. Sept. 27, 1891, 
 and had : 
 
 61 
 
1. Jonah iV b. Feb. 2, 1861. 
 
 2. A. Lincoln* b. May 26, 1865. 
 
 3. Alvin S. 4 b. June 6, 1868. 
 
 4. Peter W. 4 b. April 10, 1870. 
 
 5. George H. 4 b. Feb. 29, 1872 ; d. Jan. 
 
 2, 1880. 
 
 5. Josiah, 3 b. Jan. 24, 1836 ; d. Dec. 30, 1860. 
 
 6. Marrett Ingalls, 3 b. April 20, 1840. 
 
 m. June 12, 1864, Aramantha Strout, b. 
 Lowell, Mass., June 13, 1846, and had : 
 
 1. Mary Gorham 4 b. Standish, Aug. 28, 
 
 1869. 
 m. Jan. 1, 1894, Robt. H. Hoseason. 
 
 2. Charles I. 4 b. Auburn, April 25, 1873 ; 
 
 d. March 26, 1879. 
 III. ISAAC CHADBOURNE, 2 b. Gorham, Nov. 
 29, 1803 ; d. Portland, Jan. 12, 1887. 
 m. Sept. 5, 1830, Maria March, b. Gorham, 
 Jan. 21, 1809 ; d. Feb. 21, 1846. Lived 
 in Gorham, and had : 
 
 1. Frances Maria, 3 b. Sept. 19, 1831 ; d. 
 
 Dec. 24, 1886. 
 
 2. Harriet Rubery, 3 b. Nov. 13, 1833. 
 
 m. June 12, 1866, Henry P. Lord, of 
 Portland ; d. March 22, 1868. 
 
 3. Caroline Augusta, 3 b. June 10, 1837 ; 
 
 d. April 4, 1864. 
 m. Dec. 23, 1862, Samuel B. Conly, and 
 
 had : 
 1. Caroline Marion 4 b. Boston, Feb. 22, 
 1864 ; d. Jan. 26, 1866. 
 
 6? 
 
IV. ABIGAIL, 2 b. Gorham, Aug. 14, 1806 ; d. 
 June 22, 1873. 
 m. Dec. 15, 1830, Cornelius Waters, b. 
 Goffstown, N.H., Nov. 17, 1795; d. 
 Jan. 26, 1880. Lived in Gorham, and 
 had : 
 
 1. Rebecca Irish, 3 b. Sept. 23, 1831 ; d. Feb. 
 
 1, 1882. 
 
 2. Mary Louisa, 3 b. Sept. 10, 1833. 
 
 m. June 15, 1858, Samuel Thurston, b. 
 Winthrop, Aug. 14, 1825, and had : 
 
 1. Ida Louisa, 4 ' b. Portland, Feb. 4, 1861. 
 m. Sept. 25, 1883, John H. Gerrish, 
 
 b. Portland, Oct. 13, 1858, and had : 
 
 (a) Louise Waters, 5 b. Portland, Aug. 
 
 22, 1884. 
 
 (b) Herbert Thurston, 5 b. Portland, 
 
 July 6, 1886. 
 
 (c) Alice Small, 5 b. Medford, April 7, 
 
 1888. 
 
 (d) Mildred Gardner, 5 b. Medford, Jan. 
 
 2, 1890 ; d. Sept. 30, 1890. 
 
 (e) Maurice Sylvester, 5 b. Medford, 
 
 Nov. 30, 1891. 
 (/) Ruth Merrill, 5 b. Medford, Sept. 18, 
 
 1893. 
 (g) John Jordan, 5 b. Medford, Oct. 20, 
 
 1895. 
 
 2. Henry Lyndon, 4 ' b. May 19, 1866. 
 
 m. June, 1890, Rosa Leona Wetzler, b. 
 Portland, Sept. 28, 1865, and had : 
 
 63 
 
(a) Herbert Leon, 5 b. Aug. 10, 1891. 
 
 (b) Roland Wetzler, 5 b. Feb. 13, 1895. 
 
 3. Ella Waters, 4 b. July 26, 1868. 
 
 4. David Cornelius,* b. April 11, 1870. 
 
 5. Harriet Elisabeth? b. Feb. 14, 1874. 
 m. Jan. 5, 1897, Ernest Linwood Small, 
 
 b. May 4, 1872. 
 
 3. Abigail Coedelia, 3 b. June 13, 1837; d. 
 
 Nov. 26, 1877. 
 
 4. James Cornelius, 3 b. May 9, 1840 ; d. 
 
 June 30, 1870. 
 
 5. Reuel Williams, 3 b. Oct. 31, 1842. 
 
 m. June 24, 1868, Emily A. Bentley, b. 
 
 Boston, Oct. 6, 1844, and had : 
 1. Herbert Bentley, 4, b. Somerville, Mass., 
 Sept. 12, 1870. 
 
 6. Anna Gardner, 3 b. Dec. 6, 1851. 
 
 V. MARTHA, 2 b. Gorham, July 15, 1808; 
 d. Portland, July 22, 1884. 
 m. Nov. 21, 1833, Bryce M. Edwards, b. 
 Gorham, March 25, 1800; d. West- 
 brook, April 15, 1871. Lived in West- 
 brook, and had : 
 
 1. Lewis Warren, 3 b. Aug. 28, 1834. 
 
 m. (1.) Oct. 15, 1862, Mary Elizabeth 
 Brown, b. Westbrook, Aug. 20, 1836 ; 
 d. Dec. 5, 1875. 
 
 (2.) Oct. 31, 1888, Harriet E. Raymond, 
 b. Westbrook, Oct. 15, 1845. 
 
 2. Adeline Marrett, 3 b. July 8, 1836 ; d. 
 
 Mechanic Falls, April 24, 1876. 
 
 64 
 
in. June 26, 1859, D. N. McCann, b. 
 Poland, Me., Feb. 28, 1828, and had : 
 
 1. Frank Howard? b. Feb. 26, 1863. 
 
 m. June 28, 1893, Arabelle Hall, b. 
 Rockland, Me., Feb. 20, 1861. 
 
 2. Carrie Adelaide? b. July 4, 1866. 
 
 3. Catharine Barker, 3 b. Nov. 30, 1837. 
 m. Jan. 5, 1864, Fred'k Proctor, b. West- 
 brook, and had : 
 
 1. Gertrude L.? b. Westbrook, Sept. 25, 
 1864. 
 
 4. Bryce McLellan, 3 b. Sept. 25, 1839. 
 
 m. Jan. 5, 1864, Henrietta Libby, b. Gor- 
 ham, April 3, 1843 ; d. Portland, April 
 25, 1896, and had: 
 
 1. George Cole, 4 b. Westbrook, Jan. 25, 
 
 1866. 
 
 2. William Dean? b. Westbrook, Aug. 3, 
 
 1868; d. May 30, 1870. 
 
 3. Louise Libby? b. Westbrook, May 20, 
 
 1870. 
 
 4. Marion McLellan? b. Portland, Feb. 
 
 27, 1879. 
 
 5. Abbie Maria, 3 b. Oct. 5, 1842 ; d. June 
 
 4, 1886. 
 m. (1.) May 14, 1868, Lieut. Wm. W. 
 
 Dean, U.S.A. 
 (2.) Jan. 15, 1877, Capt. Francis E. 
 
 Cummings, of Portland. 
 
 6. Martha McLellan, 3 b. Sept. 2, 1844 ; d. 
 
 May 5, 1846. 
 
 65. 
 
VI. ADALINE, 2 b. Gorham, Sept. 26, 1810. 
 
 m. Dec. 6, 1832, Wm. Marrett, b. Standish, 
 Sept. 5, 1804 ; d. Oct. 3, 1860. Lived 
 in Westbrook, and had : 
 1. Mary Mussey, 3 b. Sept. 22, 1834; d. 
 Jan. 27, 1877. 
 m. Aug. 29, 1863, Fabius M. Ray, b. 
 Windham, Me., March 30, 1837, and 
 had : 
 
 1. Sarah Adeline , 4 b. Westbrook, June 14, 
 
 1866. 
 
 2. William Caleb* b. Westbrook, May 16, 
 
 1871. 
 VII. FRANCIS OSGOOD, 2 b. Gorham, Sept. 22, 
 1812 ; d. Brooklyn, N.Y., Dec. 16, 1894. 
 m. Jan. 11, 1847, Caroline Elizabeth 
 Atwood, b. Worcester, Mass., May 1, 
 1819 ; d. Brooklyn, N.Y., May 17, 1866, 
 and had : 
 
 1. Anna Lamb, 3 b. Boston, Mass., July 17, 
 
 1848; d. Brooklyn, N.Y.. Jan. 27, 
 1886. 
 
 2. Frank Atwood, 3 b. Maiden, Mass., Aug. 
 
 7, 1850. 
 m. June 27, 1882, Eleanor Stephens, 
 
 b. New York, March 13, 1851, and had : 
 1. Marion Eleanor* b. Brooklyn, Feb. 
 21, 1886 ;d. Feb. 18, 1891. 
 
 3. Clarence Chadbourne, 3 b. Chelsea, Mass., 
 
 Dec. 10, 1855. 
 m. Jan. 11, 1879, Elizabeth J. Cook, 
 
 66 
 
b. London, Ont., June 20, 1858, and 
 had : 
 
 1. Caroline Elizabeth* b. Brooklyn, 
 
 N.Y., Dec. 19, 1879; d. July 24, 
 1880. 
 
 2. Alice Frances* b. Brooklyn, N.Y., 
 
 June 13, 1881. 
 
 3. Gertrude Margaret* b. Brooklyn, N.Y., 
 
 Sept. 21, 1886. 
 
 4. Mildred Eose*h. Brooklyn, N.Y., July 
 
 13, 1890. 
 
 5. Elizabeth Atwood* b. Brooklyn, N.Y., 
 
 Dec. 14, 1894. 
 VIII. MARSHALL. 2 b. Gorham, Sept. 9, 1814 ; d. 
 
 June 28, 1885. 
 m. (1.) Oct. 26, 1846, Martha Fogg, b. 
 
 Gorham, Aug. 19, 1816; d. Oct. 25, 
 
 1872. 
 (2.) Dec. 19, 1877, Mary T. McLellan, 
 
 b. Cornish, Me., April 9, 1832; d. 
 
 Westbrook, Sept. 9, 1894. Lived in 
 
 Gorham, and had : 
 
 1. Edwin M., 3 b. June 11, 1848. 
 
 m. July 23, 1873, Mary C. Sperry, b. Ann 
 
 Arbor, Mich., and had : 
 1. Emma Gertrude* b. Kalamazoo, Mich., 
 Sept. 4, 1874. 
 
 2. Maria M., 3 b. Jan. 24, 1850. 
 
 3. William Marshall, 3 b. March 27, 1855 ; 
 
 d. Jan. 28, 1885. 
 
IX. JAMES, 2 b. Gorham, June 9, 1816 ; d. June 
 
 20, 1816. 
 X. REBECCA CHADBOURNE, 2 b. Gorham, 
 Sept. 21, 1817. 
 m. Sept. 21, 1846, Lyndon Oak, b. Bosca- 
 wen, N.H., Sept. 21, 1816. Lived in 
 Garland, Me., and had : 
 
 1. James Hastings, 3 b. Oct. 4, 1849. 
 
 m. May 10, 1874, Adella Estelle Johnson, 
 b. Garland, December, 1856 ; d. Had 
 eight children : 
 
 1. Lyndon Johnson, 41 b. Garland, March 
 
 18, 1875. 
 
 2. Walter Charles, 4 ' b. Garland, May 30, 
 
 1878. 
 
 3. Harry Wallace 4 b. Caribou, May 15, 
 
 1880. 
 
 4. Marion Rebecca 4 b. Presque Isle, April 
 
 30, 1882. 
 
 5. Bay 4 b. Presque Isle, d. July 12, 1885. 
 
 6. Noah Johnson 4 b. Presque Isle, June 
 
 1, 1889. 
 
 7. Mary 4 b. Presque Isle, Jan. 8, 1891. 
 
 8. Edson L. 4 b. Presque Isle, Feb. 21, 
 
 1892. 
 
 2. John Marshall, 3 b. June 16, 1851. 
 
 m. Jan. 11, 1882, Jennie F. West, b. Ban- 
 gor, Sept. 1, 1855. 
 
 3. Grace Elizabeth, 3 b. June 1, 1858. 
 
 m. June 22, 1891, Jacob Parker, b. Mon- 
 roe, Me. 
 
 68 
 
XI. ELIZABETH, 2 b. Gorham, July 29, 1819; 
 
 d. Philadelphia, July 1, 1896. 
 m. Dec. 1, 1841, John McArthur, b. Lim- 
 ington, Me., May 13, 1806 ; d. Au- 
 gusta, Sept. 8, 1870, and had : 
 1. Marion Elizabeth, 3 b. Brooks, Me., Aug. 
 5, 1844. 
 m. Jan. 4, 1872, Charles F. Moore, b. 
 Augusta, Dec. 29, 1835, and had : 
 
 1. Elizabeth McArthur,* b. Washington, 
 
 D.C., Nov. 22, 1876; d. July 11, 
 1877. 
 
 2. Marion McArthur,* b. Washington, 
 
 D.C., Nov. 20, 1878 ; d. Aug. 16, 
 1879. 
 
 3. Malcolm McArthur,* b. Washington, 
 
 D.C., Feb. 8, 1880. 
 
 4. Walter Charles, 4 b. Washington, D.C., 
 
 Oct. 9, 1883. 
 
 XII. JAMES HENRY, 2 b. Gorham, March 11, 
 
 1823 ; d. May 18, 1846. 
 XIII. THADDEUS POMROY, 2 b. Gorham, Nov. 
 25, 1824. 
 
 m. (1.) Nov. 29, 1848, Ellen A. Davis, b. 
 Standish, Me., Feb. 14, 1827 ; d. Gor- 
 ham, Oct. 20, 1869. 
 
 (2.) Nov. 23, 1870, Lucy J. Rice, b. Ash- 
 
 burnham, Mass., April 6, 1830. Had 
 
 three children, all born in Garland, Me. : 
 
 1. Elizabeth Roulliet, 3 b. Sept. 8, 1849 ; 
 
 d. March 6, 1865. 
 
 69 
 
2. James Henry, 3 b. Nov. 24, 1852. 
 
 m. Nov. 25, 1880, Jimia H. Sanborn, b. 
 Rochester, N.H., Oct. 23, 1857, and 
 had : 
 
 1. Philip James? b. Gorham, Dec. 11, 
 
 1881. 
 
 2. Forest a Neil? b. Gorham, Jan. 8, 1885. 
 
 3. Hazel Marguerite? b. Gorham, April 
 
 2, 1886. 
 
 4. Chester King? b. Gorham, Aug. 28, 
 
 1887 ; d. Dec. 4, 1887. 
 
 5. Junia Hobbs? b. Gorham, Jan. 19, 
 
 1889. 
 
 6. Ellen Davis? b. Gorham, July 1, 1890 ; 
 
 d. Feb. 29, 1892. 
 
 7. Christine? b. Gorham, Nov. 21, 1891. 
 
 8. Robert Jasper? b. Rochester, Dec. 11, 
 
 1897. 
 
 3. Fred Davis, 3 b. April 10, 1857. 
 
 70 
 
) 
 
 Addition- 3 ! Data for 
 "A Sketch of the life of Gen. James 
 Irish of C-orham, Me. 
 
 Page 54. 
 r 1 
 
 by Mrs. William Howes 
 North Andover, Mass. 
 May, 1928. 
 
- 
 
 1 . 
 
2 
 
 On P. 54 the name of Asa is omitted from the 
 list of children of Obadiah and ;,ary Irish. 
 
 "Proof that Asa was the second son or Obadiah 
 and Mary Irish may oe found in obadiah Irish's 
 old family bible now in the possession of 
 Howard Irish 01 Sebago, Maine (P.O. Hillside, 
 Me.) 
 
 Photostatic cooie^ of this bible are with 
 the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Depend- 
 ents, at 9 Walnut Street, Boston, Mass., filed 
 with the membership papers of Mrs, William 
 Howes, State number 3174. 
 
 The "History of G-orham, Me." by Mc Lei Ian, 
 13 . 584 states that Obadiah Irish married Mary 
 ~)eane Jan. 7, 1790 and moved to Ossinee. 
 
 The "History of Maine" by Williamson", P. 554 
 states that the town of Limj-ngton, :.le. was 
 called Ossipee nnor to Feb. 9, 1792, when the 
 town was incorporated. 
 
 1 he following is a cony o1 a statement oy 
 Mrs. Annette (Douglass) Babb, granddaughter 
 of Obadiah and l.Iary irish, sworn to before a 
 Notary. 
 
"I was bora Nov, 24, 1840 in Sebago, Me. 
 My father was born Sent. 21, 1810 in Limington 
 and my mother, Casiah Irish (but -vis generally 
 Icno'-vn as Oesire) Tr ?as born °ept. £0, 1809 in 
 Limington. They were married April 1, 1835. 
 
 My mother had a brother Asa, who was born 
 1793 m Limington, and who married Patience 
 Rankin. Obadiah and Mary (Dean) Irish i7 >ere 
 the parents of Isa, also my grandparents, ^ho 
 live^ and died at the home ot A si Irish on 
 Tiger TT ill, which "?ir across the woods from my 
 father's home en Peaked Ift # , Sebago, 
 
 I can remember Uncle Asa and '.unt Patience 
 well, as grandfather and grandmother lived 
 with them. Uncle William was an elder brother 
 of Uncle Asa's, I was married to James J. 
 £abb June 7, 1862, and I have lived in Sebago, 
 3 [e . my entire lif e . " 
 ( q eal 3igned*-Mrs. Annette Babb. 
 
 Sebago, He. ^ara "'itch. 
 
 7 "otary Public. Nov. 5, 1927, 
 
 r 'hi^ statement is with th membership papers 
 of Mrs, William TT o-ves, State No. 3174 at the 
 
4 
 ass. Mayflower rooms, 9 Walnut St., Boston, 
 also a cony of the grave stone records of Asa 
 Irish and Patience, his wife, showing that Asa 
 was born in 1197) and that Patience, his wife, 
 was born in 1795. These graves are in Sebago , 
 Maine. 
 
 ^he children of Asa and Patience (Rankin) 
 Irish were Dominicus, Mary, Thankful, Nancy, 
 Martha, Elizabeth, Asa, Susan, Sophronia and 
 Charles. 
 
 
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