Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

STOCKBRIDGE This name was very early implanted in Eastern Massachusetts and has been continuously represented in that colony and the state and has numerous representatives scattered over the country. It was early identified with the state of Maine, and its bearers have usually been found as worthy and desirable citizens of the communities in which they live. The name is of English origin as are most of those first planted in New England. The family has been noted for its identification with military affairs, and for its musical and literary abilities. Many of them were skilful not only as vocalists but as instrumental performers. One of the best known teachers of music in Portland for many years was Mr. Will Stockbridge, still pleasantly remembered by many. The mother of Anna Lousie Cary, the famous contralto singer, was a Stockbridge. In literary fields, various members of the family have achieved distinction. Among these may be mentioned Dr. John Calvin Stockbridge, of Providence. One of these, the wife of Professor Thomas Rich, of Bates Theological Seminary, Lewiston, was a frequent contributor to periodical literature and published many books mainly of purely literary nature. Her nephew, George H. Stockbridge, has also been a contributor to the New England Magazine, Harpers and Belford's magazines, and otheres, and is the author of a work published in 1891, entitled "Balder the Poet," which has received very favorable mention from many men of high literary taste. (I) John (1) Stockbridge was among the passengers in the ship "Blessing," which came from England to Massachusetts in 1635. At that time his age was twenty-seven years, and he was accompanied by his wife, Ann, aged twenty-one years, and a son, Charles. The wife became a member of the church at Scituate, Mass. July 16, 1637. John Stockbridge was a wheelwright, and settled in Scituate very soon after his arrival. His wife Ann died before 1643, and in that year he married the Widow Elizabeth Sloan, and his third wife was Mary _____. She survived him, and was married, April 8, 1660, to Daniel Herrick. John Stockbridge's will was dated Sept. 4, 1657, and proven on the thirteenth of the following month, which indicates the time of his demise. At that time he was a resident of Boston. Besides the sons who came with him from England, he had a daughter Hannah, baptized Sept. 24, 1637, and Elizabeth, July 10, 1642. She probably did not live long, as Elizabeth, the daughter of the second wife was born in 1644; Sarah, 1645; and Esther, 1647. The third wife bore him one daughter, Mary. (II) Charles, eldest child of John and Ann Stockbridge, was aged one year when the family came from England to America in 1635. He was a wheelwright and resided in Boston. His wife's name was Abigail, and they were the parents of: Charles (died young); Abigail, Charles, Sarah, Thomas, Elizabeth, Joseph, Benjamin and Samuel. He resided part of the time in Charlestown and in Scituate, and died in 1683. His widow subsequently became the wife of Amos Turner. (III) Benjamin (1), fifth son of Charles and Abigail Stockbridge, was born Oct. 9, 1677, and resided upon the paternal homestead in Scituate, Mass. He was married in 1701 to Mary Tilden, but a complete record of their children is not found. (IV) Dr. Benjamin (2), son of Benjamin (1) and Mary (Tilden) Stockbridge, was born in 1704, in the Stockbridge mansion at Scituate. He married Ruth Otis, daughter of Job Otis, and resided in his native town. He had two sons who survived to rear families, namely: Benjamin and Micah. He was prepared as a physician under the instruction of Dr. Bulfinch, of Boston, and was the second regular practitioner to settle in Scituate. He is mentioned in history, as "an enlightened benefactor of mankind," and taught many students in medicine. His practice was widely extended, and he was frequently called in consultation over a region reaching from Falmouth to Worcester and Ipswich. He was a man of wit and good taste, accomplished in literature and gifted in music. (V) Micah, second surviving son of Dr. Benjamin and Ruth (Otis) Stockbridge, was born 1734-35, and resided in Hanover, Mass. He married Lydia Winslow, a descendant of Governor Josiah Winslow, being, according to tradition, a daughter of John Winslow, whose father was Isaac. Children: Micah, John and Keziah. (VI) John (2), second son of Micah and Lydia (Winslow) Stockbridge, was born Aug. 17, 1757, in Pembroke, Mass., and died in Byron, Maine, Aug. 23, 1820. He was a soldier in the revolution, serving seven years and five months, enlisting at the age of seventeen years, returning to his native place after the struggle. He was married March 9, 1786, to Mary Dillingham, also a native of Hanover, who died at Byron, 1841. She was a daughter of Capt. Samuel Dillingham, of Hanover. Soon after his marriage he removed to Freeport, Maine, where he taught school and was also interested in ship-building with his two brothers who had preceded him. He finally settled down to farming, and in 1801 removed to Dixfield, Maine, where he engaged in that occupation during the summer and continued to teach school and was often employed by the state of Massachusetts to survey lands in the wilds of Maine. During these labors he found a location which very much pleased him, in the remote region then known as township No. 8 at Swift river. Here he passed the remaining years of his life. Sons: John, William and Edward. Daughters: Polly and Mary. (VII) John (3), eldest son of John (2) and Mary (Dillingham) Stockbridge, born Aug. 11, 1787, at Freeport, died at Byron, Nov. 25, 1855. He was fourteen years of age when his father left Freeport, and was at that time fitted for college, but the change in the life of the family prevented his fulfilling a strong desire to devote himself to books, and, like his father, he became a farmer. A community soon grew up in the new town upon Swift river, and became known as Byron. John Stockbridge was a man of great influence in all the region. In that primitive locality there were few men of education and he was called upon to do much of the business of the region. He was made trial justice of the peace under William King, and held the office nearly all his life. For many years he was first selectman of the town, was also its treasurer, and much of the time clerk. Because of the lack of any settled clergyman, he performed the marriage ceremony for a large part of the sons and daughteres of his townsmen for many years. The Baptist church was early organized in the town, and for thirty years he was is clerk, and for a long period of time was a member of Blazing Star Lodge, A. F. and A. M. He is described as a modest, man, possessed of great charm in conversation, and tradition still tells of his wonderful tenor voice and musical talent. He was a skillful player on the violincello and was a teacher of both instrumental and vocal classes. He was married at Turner, Maine, in 1809, to Ann Leavitt, born March 30, 1787, of that town, died at Auburn, Maine, Feb. 19, 1870. Children: Lebbeus, Abijah William, Sarah, Olive, John Calvin, Mary Ann, Caroline Webster, Joseph Townsend and Columbus Americus. (VIII) John Calvin, third son of John (3) and Ann (Leavitt) Stockbridge, was born Feb. 12, 1812, in Byron, and was for a great part of his life a farmer and man of affairs. He inherited the military spirit of his ancestry, and his descendant still preserves his commission dated July 15, 1837, his ensign in Company H. of the First Regiment, Second Brigade, Sixth Division of the militia of the state of maine, to take rank from the seventeenth day of June preceding. He received an honorable discharge in the same rank Oct. 28, 1841. During this service he was at Augusta with his regiment, to take part in what was expected to be a war betwen England and the United States over the boundary line between Maine and Canada. The dispute was settled by arbitration, and there was no military action in the matter. The episode is known in history as Madawaska war. Mr. Stockbridge was possessed of excellent musical ability, and while residing at Canton Point, Maine, it was his custom to gather about him a number of people for the singing of hymns on Sunday evenings; being better equipped musically than the others, he was naturally the leading spirit of these meetings. He died July 21, 1865. He was married in 1834 to Bernice Austin, born June 17, 1817, in Canton, Maine, died in St. Louis, Missouri, March 8, 1891, daughter of Abiathar and Susannah (Harlow) Austin, the latter a daughter of Willam and Susanna (Young) Harlow, of Buckfield, Maine. Susanna Harlow (Young) Austin was a native of that town and died in Byron, Sept. 8, 1853. William Austin was a native of Canton, a son of Peter Austin who was a native of Methuen, Mass., and his wife, Mehitable (Gage) Austin, who died in Phillips, Maine, Oct. 4, 1873. Children: John Abiathar, Virgil Demetrius, Victoria Bernice, Winfield Scott, Napoleon Bonaparte, Eudora Josephine, George Herbert and a daughter who died in infancy. The second and fourth sons were soldiers in the civil war, the former being an adjutant of the second District of Columbia volunteers, and the latter a lieutenant in the same regiment. He was afterwards a soldier in the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth New York Regiment, which was engaged in the assault on Fort Fisher in Genearl Butler's company. At that time Napoleon B. Stockbridge received a severe wound from which he suffered all the remainder of his life, until he died in 1906, in Lewiston, Maine. (IX) George Herbert, youngest son of John Calvin and Bernice (Austin) Stockbridge, was born Dec. 28, 1852, in Mexico, Maine, near the junction of the Swift and Androscoggin rivers. He attended the Lewiston high school, and Maine State Seminary, and entered Bates College, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1872. Three years later his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. For some years he engaged in teaching, and was connected with the high school at Eastport for four years and also with the Richmond high school and Lyndon Academy at Lyndon Center, Vermont. He passed the years from 1876 to 1879 as a student at Leipsic University in Germany, his leading ambition being at that time to prepare hismelf for a literary career. From 1879 to 1880 he was a tutor at Amherst Collee, and subsequently became assistant professor of Latin and German at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. In 1881 he took a position in the U. S. patent office at Washington, where he continued until 1884. For the next two years he engaged in the practice of patent law, making a specialty of cases in the U. S. patent office, and since 1886 has been engaged in this profession in New York City. He is a life member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. For the past ten years his labors before the patent office have been used in the interests of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company and the Cooper-Hewitt Electric Company. He married, in Washington 1884, Elizabeth Reyburn, daughter of Dr. Reyburn, who was one of the physicians in attendance upon the martyred President Garfield. She removed with him to New York and died there April, 1891, leaving no issue. He married (second) Sept. 25, 1895, at Washington, Louise Adele von Rodenstein, of German parentage. They have a daughter, Dorothy Bernice, born June 28, 1896, and another daughter, Marion Elizabeth, born two years later, died at the age of three years.