I was recently asked to do some research of the Small family in Scarborough, in particular James Frances Small (1835-___). I, of course, went to the Surnames files and looked for the Small file. The first thing I found was “The Small Family in America.” I saw that it was published by the Maine Historical Society and figured it may very well be available on line. Sure enough, the article in our files was a copy of the “Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society,” Vol IV – 1893, Pages 359-403: The Small Family in America. I didn’t find anything there about James Frances Small, but it is a great Small reference.
Next I encountered the 1910 book, Descendants of Edward Small of New England, and the Allied Families, with Tracings of English Ancestry by Lora Altine Woodbury Underhill. Again, not helpful in my search for James Frances Small.
The third document appeared to be interesting. It is “The Smalls of Scarborough” by Augustus K. Small. A note at the end of the old typewritten pages says, “This material was lent to me by Pauline Huston, Sept. 1955.” The document does not have an accession number nor does it indicate who typed the material. (Presumably Augustus Kilborn Small) There is a stamp at the bottom of the first page which says, “copied from Scarborough Historical Museum.”
The 1940 US Census indicated Augustus K. Small, living with his wife, Abbie, and cousin Pauline Huston were living in Portland. Augustus was 77 in 1940, and Pauline was 55. So, Pauline would have been about 70 when she passed this material to an unknown individual. A reasonably exhaustive search was unsuccessful finding this material or references to it on line, so I’m presenting it here. The original (typed) document was scanned into a PDF then the PDF was OCRed to create both a searchable PDF and this Word Document. The PDF is as typed with the underlying OCR intact, without change. This Word version has been lightly edited, mostly correcting spacing issues caused by the OCR process (bom to born, etc.) and non-standard punctuation (no spaces after commas). I hope it can help other people with their Small research.[i]
The Smalls in Scarborough (By Augustus K. Small)
Samuel Small, first of the name in the Town, was born in Kittery, April 17, 1700. In that Town, when he was about sixteen years of age, he married Anna Hatch and soon after removed to Scarborough. He was Chosen town clerk in 1725 and was the first deacon of the church at Black Point, which was founded in 172&.
Samuel’s father’s name was also Samuel, born in 1666,and his mother was Elizabeth, daughter of James Heard of Kittery, and widow of James Chadbourne.
Elizabeth’s brother, James Heard, was killed by the Indians. Samuel Small had a sister, Elizabeth, who was older, and one brother, Joseph, who was younger than himself. Elizabeth married John Pugsley. The Pugsleys now live in Cornish.
The brother, Joseph, lived at Stroudwater. His house still stands nearly opposite the site of ’’Harrow House,” Thomas Westbrook’s Garrison.
Samuel’s grandfather was the Francis Small whose name occurs so frequently in the early records of this vicinity. Francis was born in England in 1620, and came to America in or about the year 1632 with his father, whose- name was Edward. Francis’s wife’s name was Elizabeth, and her maiden name is thought to have been Leighton. Their children were:
1st. Edward 4th Benjamin
2d. Francis 5th Daniel, lived at Truro.
3d Samuel, born 1666 in Kittery The Pilgrim monument at
Provincetown stands on land
owned by Daniel’s Descendants.
6th Elizabeth
Francis Small was styled “fisherman of Casco Bay” in some of the ancient records, and afterwards was known as “the great land owner.” In I64S he resided in Dover, New Hampshire. In 1657 he lived in Falmouth, Maine, and was the first to sign the submission of Maine to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The meeting for this was held in Rev. Robert Jordan’s house at Spurwink. Grandmother, Elizabeth Jordan Small, was a descendant of Rev. Robert’s son, Jeremiah. In 1663 Francis was attorney for Falmouth in the governmental troubles of the times.
He was at Cape Small Point for a time, and the place took its name from him.
He received his name from his famous kinsman, Captain Francis Champernown.
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The Smalls In Scarborough
He bought extensive tracts of land from the Indians. In 1657 he purchased a large tract near Portland, called Capisic, or Capisis, of an Indian chief named Skitterygussett. In 1663 he bought twenty miles square (256000 acres) in the Ossipee Valley region. A part of this has since been divided into the towns of Limington, Limerick, Newfield, Parsonsfield, and Cornish. Some of this land remained in the family possession to the present time, a period of 272 years.
The Indian deed conveying this land to Francis Small is still in Existence and in the possession of Lauriston Ward Small of Brooklyn, N.Y. who was born in Limington. In 1940 it is owned by 4da Small Moore of Chicago, at whose expense the Small Genealogy was published. Lauriston Small claimed that no family of Europeans in America has owned land so long as this, that was acquired from the Indians. A few families in Virginia have holdings acquired earlier than this, but it had been owned by other whites before they possessed it.
Francis’s grandson, the Samuel first mentioned in this article, the first of the name to live in Scarborough, represents the fourth generation in America. To Samuel, together with Zebulon Trickey and Moses Hanscom, were granted by the Proprietors of Scarborough ten acres on the south and twenty on the east side of the Nonesuch River in 1720. Also to Samuel Small and Moses Hanscom in 1773 were granted 104 acres, of which Samuel gave 40 acres of the easterly end to his son John. A part of the latter tract is now in the possession of Kate Small.
The children of Samuel Small were:
1st. Samuel, born 1713
2d. Anna ” 1719 married Josiah Libby, who died in 1734 and was
buried in the Black Point Cemetery. Anna was buried in the
Dunstan Cemetery but her inscription is on the back of he
husband’s stone at Black Point. Her second husband was a
Milliken.
3d. Capt. John, born 1722(shot for a bear) His descendants compiled genealogy.
4th. Joshua, The Tanner (went to Limington)
5th.Elizabeth married James Harmon
6th Sarah born 1729
7th Benjamin born 1731
8th James born 1736 (supposed to have died young)
9th Mary born 1733
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The Smalls In Scarborough
Samuel Small was a prominent figure in Scarborough history for many years. His house stood opposite the burying yard at Black Point a little to the south of it. He was town clerk from 1727 to 1779, 52 years, excepting one year, 1775,when he was absent from home, probably attending to matters in connection with the coming war. His house is supposed to have been the one destroyed by fire in l897. It was sometimes known as the “Robinson House,” and was last owned by Haswell Skillin, who afterward built another house a few feet south of the old one. This latter is now owned by Gregory Bimson, a florist. In 1768 Samuel and his wife Anna, deeded their real estate in Scarborough to their grandson,”Benjamin, who was their son Samuel’s son, for a Maintenance.
The Sunday after the Battle of Lexington, a courier came tearing along the road in Scarborough to the church. He hurriedly informed the people just coming from the service of the march of the British regulars from Boston to destroy the arms and ammunition which the patriots had stored at Concord. There was the wildest excitement, and after the afternoon sermon, which was of a patriotic character, all the men went to the residence of Deacon Small, who lived nearly opposite the church, and listened to addresses by Deacon Small and others. Then and there they decided to meet at Deacon Small’s house at daybreak the next morning to begin their long weary march to the camp of the American Army at Cambridge. At Dunstan they were joined by another company under the command of Capt. John Rice; and nearly a year later these same companies were the first to enter Boston, after the evacuation of the British, and were greatly admired for their “noble and military bearing.”
This Deacon Samuel Small’s son, Samuel, Jr. born in 1718, married Dorothy Hubbard, a great aunt of John Hubbard, Governor of Maine in IS50 and for whom Hubbard Hall at Bowdoin College was named. Their children were:
1st Abigail born 1742 married John Meserve died 1830 (lived at Beech Ridge).
As a girl she lived with her aunt, Anna Hubbard Tompson, wife of William
Tompson, first minister of Scarborough church, and witnessed his will.
2d Benjamin born 1744 married Phebe Plummer went to Limington
3d Sarah born 1746
4th Samuel born 1748
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The Smalls In Scarborough
5th Francis born 1751
6th Martha born 1752 married Philemon Libby went to Limington
7th Dorothy born 1755 died young
8th Capt. James born 1757 our ancestor
9th William born 1759
10th Dorothy (again) born 1752 married Dominicus Libby in 1781,died 1846
She was called “Great Dolly Small”, being a very large women, She
killed a half grown bear with an ax at her home, when her husband was
away. Winthrop J. Small of Westbrook possesses her mother, Dorothy
Hubbard’s bible. Although she lived in the Small homestead, she never
went to Prout’s Neck or Higgins Beach.
11th Anna born 1766 probably the first child born in our house at Scarborough married Charles Fogg.
Samuel Jr. who like his father was a deacon died in 1791.His stone may be found in Black Point Cemetery. His wife, Dorothy, died at the home of her son, Capt. James in 1811, aged 89 years. When Capt. James built his house in 1808,she was carried from the old house to the new in an armchair, being too infirm to walk. This house built in 1808 is now the Sylvester house.
Samuel Jr. lived for some years in a log house in a small clearing now known as the fox-burrow in what is Edwin Sylvester’s pasture. This land passed out of the Small ownership in 1883 or 1884.The log house stood nearly half a mile southwest of the Sylvester house at Beech Hill. Joshua Small, brother of Samuel Jr. lived very near the spot where the Sylvester house stands. He was a tanner and his tann-pitts may still be found near the brook west of the site of the house. Capt. John owned land between Samuel’s and Joshua’s and presumably lived on it, as there are two cellars on the land; the first one toward Beech Hill has always been called the Haskins cellar, and the other the “Gilford cellar”. As Capt. John’s widow married Benjamin Haskins and had one daughter, Sally, who married John Gilford Jr. it is thought that Capt. John lived on his land between his two brothers.
Capt. John was twice married; first to Sarah Atkins, widow of Paul Atkins, and second to Mary McKenny. His children were:
1st John 5th Henry
2d Edward 6th Daniel
3d Zaccheus 7th Rachel
4th Francis 8th Dorcar or Donas
Dorcas was born after her father’s death in 1762
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The Smalls In Scarborough
Henry, the fifth child, served three years in the Revolutionary War, and went to Limington to live in 1787.John’s map of grants by the “Proprietors of Scarborough” is preserved in the Maine Historical Society. A copy is in the Small Family Books by Lora Underhill. Capt. John was an officer in the English army, and was at Louisburg. He was also a land surveyor and civil engineer, and made several important surveys now on record at Alfred and Portland. While surveying for a military road from the waters of the Kennebec to Quebec in 1762,he was accidentally shot by a comrade who took him for a bear. The comrade name was Howard, and he afterward became insane because of the accident, and died at Fort Western, Augusta.
Capt. John’s brother, Joshua, the tanner, married ‘Susannah Kennard. Their daughter, Sarah, married Rev. John Tompson of Standish, son of William Tompson, first minister of Scarborough. Their son, Samuel, was born in 1766,was Mrs. Store Libby’s father. He was called “Squire Tompson.”. Joshua and Sussanah also had one son Joshua, born in 1760. Joshua Sr. went to Limington to live in 1773 or 1775,and in 1775 sold his land and buildings on Beech Hill in Scarborough to Samuel Jr. Samuel Jr. died in 1791 at the age of seventy-four, and both he and his wife who died in 1811 are buried in Scarborough. Her inscription is on the back of his head-stone.
Samuel Jr. son of Samuel and Anna bought land in 1764. Before this, he had built a log house where he did, supposing that a road to the beach would be laid out by it. Later he built his second, a frame house, which is still standing. This house built in 1764 5 or 1766 is now owned by the writer of this article and stands just as it was originally built, as far as dimensions go. The successive owners of this house are:
1st Samuel Small Jr. builder 4th Darius Small
2d Capt. James Small 5th Augustus K. Small
3d David Small (five owners in 174 years).
The house went from father to son, until Darius, who died unmarried, left it to his nephew, Augustus. I know of no house in Scarborough or Portland owned by
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The Smalls In Scarborough
the one family for so long a period, although there may be such. The original Higgins house at the beach, now (1940) gone, and replaced by a second one, was actually older than ours. It stood first where the parsonage now is, at the head of the Fogg Road, and was moved to the beach more than a century ago.
The plans of the rooms in the Small homestead remains unchanged. The timber are massive, and of the choicest old white pine and white oak. Many of them are eight by twelve, and grew in the front field between the house and the Spurwink Road. At first there were but two windows on the south side, one on either side of the front door. In 1852, there were two added, making four on the south side.
Nathaniel Hibbard, a nephew to Grandmother Small, did the carpenter work in 1852,when the house was clapboarded and a new floor laid in the kitchen. The original chimney was a catted chimney made of juniper poles and blue clay above the roof, and was replaced by the present one in 1072 or about that time during David’s ownership, which began in 1012.The first porch or ell, which stood on the north side, was replaced by a second one about the year 1022.In 1097 the second one was taken away and a third one was erected in its stead.
The second one was somewhat larger than the first, and the last one is one foot longer than the second, but the same width. The last one was largely constructed of old material from the second porch; the north wall being the old floor boards, and the two ends from the old wall boards. The outside door of the first two porches was in the western end, as the barns were north of the house in the orchard, or rather on the ledge back of the orchard, and across the road. The one across the road is still standing, and was moved to Capt. James’s new house on Beech Hill in 1000.The new barn was built by Darius Small, my father, Reuben Small furnishing part of the money, which he had earned in the gold mines of California in 1049.This bam stands on a line with the house, and about eighty feet east of it. Some of the boards and plank of hemlock of which it is built were sawed in Limington. Bradford, eldest son of Capt. Reuben Libby, and Tristram Jordan hewed the frame, and William, son of
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The Smalls In Scarborough
Ebenezer Gickett of Cape Elizabeth, had charge of the carpenter work.
The wood house was built about the year 1845,and the hog-sty about 1860.Th barn has been twice shingled, the last time in 1891.The eastern end of the house was shingled at first with hand-shaved pine shingles, which were replaced by cedar ones in 1890. The original shingles lasted 125 years. Some of the original clapboards on the house are still to be seen on the north side inside the porch. The house was last shingled and painted in 1889. The new windows in the house, which were the third ones were put in in 1884,and the blinds were hung at about that time. The old rough stone steps at the front door we re take away in 1897. The old dressers in the northeast comer of the kitchen were removed in 1882. They were very ancient in appearance with scroll ends. The roof of the house was newly boarded when the repairs were made in 1852. The stairway used to lead out of the kitchen, the door at the left of the fireplace being the stairway door. This two-board door is supposed to have been first used in the log cabin. Now the stairs have simply been turned around and occupy the same floor space as formerly. In 1853 the first wall paper was hung in the house. lt was green and white landscape paper, put onto the fore room. Some of it is still on the wall under the other paper on the south wall at the top of the left hand side of the window nearest the road. Mary Kilborn, Randall Leighton’s wife, put on this paper. This room and the little bedroom off it were the first rooms to be plastered. When the Kilborns came here in 1782 (Ivory Kilborn and his first wife) Hannah Pickard, related to the Whittier family of Haverhill, but we are descended from the second wife, whose name was Sally Larrabee from Rowley, Massachusetts, they were entertained in these two rooms for a few days while waiting for their household goods, which came by shallop or small schooner. Owing to a storm, the boat did not arrive until nearly a week after the owners did, who came on horseback. It was thought that the vessel had been lost, but each night the anxious couple would go to the turn in the road to watch for the boat until it finally appeared. Seventy years
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The Smalls In Scarborough
after this occurrence, the two families were united by marriage of Reuben Small and Deborah Kilborn.
In mentioning the repairs in the house, I omitted to speak of the new shelves in the dairy, which were put in in l883. None of the original windows is now in existence, the last one being the small one over the door, having been removed in l884. The present front door with six carved panes, diamond pattern, is the fourth one, and was brought from the old Newman House in Deering in 1898. Many of the original inside doors are still in use; the one to the left of the fireplace in the kitchen, the one leading from the kitchen to the middle back room, the one between the kitchen and the back entry, the one between the back entry and the porch, and the one in the dairy. The dents to be seen on the door between the bedrooms were made by grandmother, Elizabeth Small’s cane, with which she knocked when in need of attention during an illness she had in 1876, she being then 91 years old. This sickness was so alarming that it was thought she could live but a few days. She said she believed she might recover, if she could have water to drink from the “Winter Spring”, named for her uncle, Winter Jordan, This spring is across the river on the bank nearly down to the river’s mouth, and was the spring which supplied the family when she was a girl, she having been brought up on the old ”Jordan Plantation”, where Rev. Robert ,her direct ancestor lived. The water was procured for her, and she soon recovered, firmly believing that the water had wrought the cure. When a girl, she brought water from this spring (about a quarter of a mile) using a shoulder yoke and two pails.
The two beams on the north wall of the middle back room, which used to project into the room, were partially cut by father Reuben Small, when he was a young man. The tops of these beams are left and cased in with boards. The two bedrooms were painted dark green by him at this time. This paint remained until 1880 when it was covered with white. The middle back room was finished first with vertical sheathing walls. In old times the kitchen or living room
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The Smalls In Scarborough
was painted red, and the floors were kept sanded. The floor in the foreroom was painted yellow, and considered quite elegant at that.
The kitchen ceiling remained unplastered for many years, as is evident from the sooty hue of the chamber flooring near the fireplace. The third ceiling of plaster was removed about 1930.It now presents the same appearance as that of the kitchen at Sudbury in “The Wayside Inn”.
The elms that overshadow the house are some of the oldest and most beautiful in the town. The two in the front yard on the left of the well path were probably set out by Samuel Small Jr. The three large ones on the line of the road in front of the house were planted by David Small about the year 1800. The tall graceful one near the well sweep was planted by Reuben Small. Four of these superb trees in the front yard are gone now 1940. They were long regarded by artists as the finest group of ancient elms in the region. The fourth elm south of the house on the street line was put there by Darius Small, the fifth by my grandfather, John Kilborn, the sixth by William P. Small, son of Nathaniel, who lived here several years with his uncle, Darius. William Small is buried in Black Point Cemetery. The large elm next the house on the north side was planted by Artemas, son of David Small. The next six north of this were set out by Darius, and the next three, the last of which stands in the comer of the field where the pasture fence comes to the road near the pond, were planted in 1$9& by the writer and his niece, Marian K. Stimson. The young willow that stands about 150 feet east of the bam, where the field and pasture fences meet, I planted there in the year 1900. This is a scion from a willow that stands near the “Deering Mansion” in Portland, and which was brought from the island of St. Helena by the poet, Bryant, and presented to the Deering family. The parent willow at St. Helena stood at Napoleon’s grave. In the house is a Scotch Ivy that is a slip of one which old Dr. Wood of Portland brought from Dryburgh Abbey, Scotland, where Sir Walter Scott is buried.
The Abbey is a ruin, and the Ivy covers the old walls and the poet’s grave.
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The Smalls In Scarborough
The maple tree in front of the barn, I brought from the eastern pasture and planted there, my wife holding the trunk while I fixed the roots in position and filled in the earth.
The front fence that extended from the southwest comer of the house to the soap-rock near the well was removed about 1886.The gate at which the front yard was entered was at the first tree south of the house. It is gone now, but one hinge may still be seen in the trunk of the tree.
The only articles of furniture existing today in my possession that were used when the house was built, are an old pine bowfat, or movable comer closet made in 1750, that stood in the front room in the 18th century, and a black arm rocking chair with the date 1766 on the head rest. These two articles belonged to Samuel Small Jr. When Capt. James built the new house on Beech Hill in 1808, he carried the rest of the family household effects away with him. This old rocking chair has been repaired recently, and five kinds of wood were found in its construction. The seat and all below it except the rockers are the original; the rockers and back are new. The pine bureau -with the brass handles, in the middle back room, was made in the house by a carpenter about 1812 for Elizabeth, wife of David Small.
There are three persons who lived in the homestead, who have attained great age. vis. Dorothy, wife of Samuel Jr. aged 89. Capt. James, aged 88, and Elizabeth, widow of David Small, aged 93 years.
Capt. James Small, son of Samuel Jr. and Dorothy, was born in 1757 and died Feb.17,1845 while on a visit to his daughter, Mary who married Joshua Libby and lived in Scarborough between Oak Hill and Coal Kiln Corner. Capt. James was married Dec.10, 1732 to Mary Fogg, daughter of Col. Reuben Fogg. She belonged to a family that lived in a curb, or gambrel roofed house (still standing).
It has a brick wall between boarding and lathing, supposedly for protection against Indians. The west chamber has a semicircular ceiling. This house is on the top of a hill, and is the third one west of Spurwink Bridge on the River
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The Smalls In Scarborough
Road. The farm was afterward owned for many years by William Stanford. Now his grandson owns it.
Capt. James went from the old Small homestead in 1778 to serve in the Revolutionary War, and remained in service until the end of the war (five years).
He was present at Burgoyne’s surrender, and was much ashamed of his ragged uniform on that occasion. He might have thought how little the British would be likely to pride themselves on the superiority or their trappings in the hour of their defeat. He was a Revolutionary pensioner, and was one of the veterans to whom Webster spoke at the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument. After his wife died, her niece, Polly Fogg kept house for him. His wife’s name was Mary, born Nov.24,1757 and died May 22,1834. The children of Capt. James and Mary were:
1st Dorothy born Sept. 29, 1783 married James Marr of Cape Elizabeth d. Feb. 15, 1834.
2d David born March 27,1735,married Elizabeth Jordan of Cape
Elizabeth died July 26,1826 by drowning in Casco Bay.
3d Margaret born Dec. 4,1787 died unmarried Jan. 14,1830.
4th Samuel born June 13,1739 had three sons who were all clergymen and
preached in the central part of Maine.
5th James Jr. born Dec. 29,1790 married Catherine dau. of Abner Fogg of Scar.
died May 24,1853.
6th Mary born Apr. 30,1793 married Joshua Libby in 1815 was left a widow
with nine children died Nov.15,1849.
7th Sarah born July 5,1795 married Benjamin Sweetser (who was drowned in
a boat with my grandfather in 1826) died Dec.22, 1823.
8th John Hubbard born July 5, 1797 married Louisa Merrill great aunt to
Thomas B. Reed, lived many years in Brownfield, surviving wife and
eight children, died in Scar. April 3,1882 at George Mitchell’s on
Oakman’s Island in Spurwink River; buried in Black Point Cemetery in
one of three graves next back of Storer Libby’s lot.
9th Reuben born May 30,1799 died June 11,1841, by being drowned in the
Kennebec River at Bath while bathing. He worked in the shipyard
there my father was named for him.
10th Benjamin born Oct.19,1801.He was a cabinet maker and grandfather of
Dr. Richard Small of Portland.
The oldest child, Dorothy was called “Little Dolly Small”.
After Capt. James Small died in 1845 his son Capt. James Jr. who was Captain of the State Militia, continued to reside at his home, and at his death his son Henry inherited that part of the farm on which the house stood. Henry died without issue in 1883. His brother, Deacon James F. Small born 1836, died 1917, who lived between the two old houses, was the only one left of his family. He had two sons and a daughter, After Henry’s death in 1333, the house built by
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The Smalls In Scarborough
Capt. James in l808 was bought by the Sylvesters, who still live there.
Deacon James served as deacon of Black Point for forty years. Often interim between pastorates and at other times as well, when a clergyman was not available, he would conduct the meetings, and, if unable to attend church, would conduct a service at home during the hour of that at the meeting house. He also had daily family prayers and grace before meals.
David Small, son of Capt. James and Mary, was born in 1785, married Elizabeth daughter of Nathaniel and Dorothy Jordan of Cape Elizabeth, and had seven children as follows:
1st Darius, born July 13,l809; died unmarried Feb. l3,l882.
2d Damaris, born Aug. 22, 1811, married George Libby of Scar, who was a brother to Joshua Libby who married her aunt, Mary Small. Damaris and George lived at Blackstrap, Falmouth and had thirteen children named as follows:
David, Elizabeth, Emily, James, Darius, George (Darius and George died in the Civil War; one in the Battle of the Wilderness the other in Rebel Prison), Reuben and Emeretta who died young, Mary, Reuben(second), Catharine, Wilbur, and Albert. Of these David has grandchildren living, who are among the descendants of the first family in America in the eleventh generation. David married Abbie Wiggin. He has been dead many years. None of his three children is living. His widow married for her second husband a Bartlett. Elizabeth married Sewell Bailey, and has never had any family. Emily married an Allen, and left two sons. James is a widower with one son. Mary left one son. Reuben has a wife but no family. Catharine is a widow without children. Wilbur lives in the homestead in Falmouth and has two children. Albert died when a young man, leaving a wife. Damaris the mother died Jan. 17,1879.
3d. Artemas, born July 24,1814, married Susanna, daughter of Elliot Jordan of Cape Elizabeth, died April 16,1863, buried in Kittery, Maine. He was a mariner and later employed in Kittery Navy Yard. He was short, dark-skinned and stout, weighing over 200 pounds, and had jet black eyes and hair. His children:
-
- 1st. Chelsea, died when a young man of yellow fever.
- 2d. Charles, married Eleanor Patterson of Portland but had no children
- 3d. Frank, lived for a time with Shakers at Alfred.
- 4th. Adda, a daughter who lived and died at Alfred with Shakers.
- 5th. Annette, married George Huntress, left one son who is married and has one child.
- 6th. James, unmarried, lives in Montana on a ranch. After going west he changed his name to James Foss.
- 7th.Josephine,married an Allen,and lives in Lynn but has no children.
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4th. Nathaniel, born Jan.17, 1817, died in Machias, Maine in 1863 or 64. He married Margaret Barter of Machias, and is buried there. He was a mariner and had children as follows:
- 1st. Everett,married Laura Clarke of Chelmsford, Mass. and has a family.
- 2d. William P. died unmarried in Scar, in 1884, buried in Black Point Cemetery just back of Storer Libby’s lot.
- 3d. James, died unmarried buried beside William P. He died in 1874 at John Kilbourne’s. Later Mr. Kilbourne married the widowed mother in 1865.
- 4th. A son who died young.
- 5th. Antoinette, married James Sampson of Chelmsford, and has two daughters, Blanche and Florence.
- 6th. Nathaniel Jr. the youngest child, is married and lives in Boston or vicinity. He has one daughter.
5th. James, born May 18,1819, died in l850. He was a mariner, married Eliza Jane, daughter of Elliot Jordan of Cape Elizabeth, and has two sons, Everett and Howard. Howard was born in 1850 and is now living in Charlestown, Mass, and has a family. Everett lives in Gardiner, Maine I think.
6th.Catharine,born Dec. 24,1821,in the old Samuel Small Jr. house in which she always lived, dying there Feb.19,1882, aged sixty years. She never married. I think she is the only person who ever spent an entire lifetime in this house, although it has always been owned by the family 174 years. Catharine was very short of stature, a tireless worker, and possessed a remarkable memory. The writer is indebted to her for many of the facts herein recorded.
Aunt Abbie Huston’s name was Abigail Stephenson Kilborn, When she was born in 1848 (her mother then being 47 years old), her aunt Mary Kilbourne Rice of Gorham asked if she might name her. She named her for her intimate friend and neighbor, Abby Longfellow Stephenson, who was an aunt to Henry W. Longfellow, who was born in the Stephenson house in Portland before the family went to Gorham. The Stephensons were on a protracted voyage, and the Longfellows were living in their home when the poet was born in 1807. Aunt Abbie Huston was the tenth and last child of her parents. One of the children, born in 1342, died at birth. Grandfather Kilboume’s second marriage was in 1865. By this marriage there was one child, Ivory, who is living 1941.He was born the day of the great fire in Portland, July 4, 1866. His mother was Margaret Barter of Machias. Her first husband was a brother to my father Nathaniel Small, by whom she had five
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The Smalls In Scarborough
children: Everett, James, Antoinette, William and Nathaniel. James and William never married. None of James Kilborn’s sons ever married.
7th. Reuben, seventh child of David and Elizabeth, was born Feb. 10, 1824. He followed the sea when a very young man, as did all his brothers except Darius, who lived at home with Catharine and the mother. In 1849 he went to California around Cape Horn in a sailing vessel. On this trip he met Ashley Faulkner, whom he greatly admired, and named his oldest son for him. Reuben was in California two or more years. When he resumed home, he married Deborah Webster Kilborn in 1852. He returned to California in the same year and remained another year or more, and was successfully engaged in trading in a mining town, Brandy City. During his second absence from home, his oldest child, Ashley was born at the Kilborn homestead, Spurwink. He realized several thousand dollars in his two ventures. After he came home from his second stay in California, he was in the boot and shoe business in Boston for one year. In 1854 he bought a farm near Pride’s Corner, Westbrook, where his second child, Mary W. was born. In 1856 he sold this place at a good profit, and purchased the old Kilborn homestead in Scarborough, where he had lived for a short time. From Scarborough he went to Duck Pond, now Highland Lake, Westbrook, and bought the store of Royal Leighton in 1858, in which he afterward traded until his death Nov. 3, 1868 of paralysis. Deborah, his wife died the same year Mar. 10, of acute heart disease.
During these ten years the last two children were born, Augustus and Reuben. Reuben, the father was a small man about five feet four or five inches tall, weighing about 140 pounds. He had a heavy dark beard and was very strong and remarkably quick motioned. He was kind hearted and generous, and had many friends.
His children were as follows:
- 1st Ashley Faulkner, born April 15, 1853; married Emma L. Durgin. Their children are Mollie Sewall, Winthrop Jordan, Edward Durgin, Bessie Faulkner, Reginald Thornton.
- 2d. Mary Webster, born Oct. 9, 1855; married Hiram C. Stimson of Gray Dec. 25, 1878. Their children were Virginia Webster, died in 1880 aged 10 months, Marion Kilborn, born 1883, Caroline Stuart, born 1884.
- 3d. Augustus Kilborn, born in Westbrook Nov. 10, 1862; married Abbie Louise Newman Sept,4,1889. Their children were Louise, born and died Sept. 8, 1899.
- 4th. Reuben Jr. born June 15, 1866; married Annie Small, who was a descendant of
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The Smalls In Scarborough
Francis Small, line of Daniel; died April 26, 1917. Their children were Francis, born 1896 died 1904.
David Small was drowned in Casco Bay July 26, l826, at the age of forty-one. An eighth child was born to his wife Elizabeth a month or two after his death it lived only a few hours. The particulars of David’s death will never be known. He, with two other men, Benjamin Sweetsir, who married his sister, Sarah, and a man whose name was Tompson, started from Portland in the morning to go down among the islands fishing, excepting to return that night to the city. They were never seen or heard from. Their boat was found a few days later on one of the islands, bottom side up. Tompson was subject to fits, and some though he might of been seized with one, and in the excitement consequent, the boat was capsized. David’s wife, Elizabeth came to Portland for him that night, waited until nine o’clock, and rode home to Scarborough alone after that time. She was a remarkable woman. I remember her well, being six[ii] years of age when she died. She was fourteen years of age when Washington died. She was very short, measuring something less than five feet, and always plump of figure, and exceedingly straight. When in young womanhood and middle life, she was wonderfully spry and active. She lived a widow 53 years; brought up her own children, several of her grandchildren, and two other children, both boys, who were no kin to her. My grandfather Kilborn has told me that, until old age came to her, she always disdained climbing a fence, but would put her hands on the top rail and clear it at a bound. When she walked to church, the children were obliged to run to keep up with her. She was invaluable in sickness, and always present at the birth of children in the vicinity. Her ninety-first birthday was celebrated by walking half a mile with me to the Kilborn house to spend the day. We went across the field, and the stepping stones in the wall on the lower road she mounted with considerable of her characteristic agility. She never walked any distance after this, but rode out several times. She was an untiring worker and wanted everyone else to follow her example. She was always worrying lest the farm work should drag. Usually by the middle of March she would begin to fret about the planting, declaring that she knew ’’there would
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The Smalls In Scarborough
not be a seed put into the ground until August.” Then by the first of June her anxiety would commence in regard to the hay crop. ”I’ll wager there won’t be a lock of hay cut ‘til its white”, was her expression. In summer time when during sudden showers the men would come from the field to the house for shelter, she would watch at the front door, and long before the rain ceased, thrust out her hand and declare that it ’’didn’t rain a drop”. She thought it criminal for one to be unemployed even for an hour. Her disgust of lazy persons and pleasure seekers was very pronounced. Surely the average women in those good old days found little time for ’’gadding about,” as she expressed it. I am told by a grandson of “Great Dolly Small” (Capt. Jame’s sister) that he had heard her say that she never had been to Higgins Beach or Prouts Neck in her life. Although she was brought up at the ols Samuel Small Jr. house, so near the former place. I doubt if Elizabeth ever went to those places many times.
The Homestead, as it is now owned by me, consists of several parcels of land purchased at different times. The lot on which the house stands and the front field was bought in 1764. The eastern pasture was purchased of Nathaniel Rand in 1782? The small hill near the stepping stone in the southeast corner of the front field is still called Rand’ s Hill. What I own south of or below the Spurwink River Road was bought by Darius and Artemas Small of Abner Fogg, Jr. in 1832. This was owned by Abraham Tyler previously, and before that a Johnson. I have a small black trunk that probably belonged in the Tyler family with the letters S.T. on the lid in brass nails. Tyler bought the land of Robert Johnson, and it is known as the Johnson Lot. This land is that leased by Henry Jocelyn to George Bartlett in l663. The lease is preserved in the History of Scarborough, Appendix C. About 40 years ago, there were eleven skeletons dug up a few rods east of the northeast comer of this Fogg Lot, as it is still called. These skeletons were found in the field then owned by the by the Kilbourns, near the road, while excavating for earth with which to build a ditch fence. This earth wall may still be seen. The persons buried
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The Smalls In Scarborough
here are supposed to have been victims of an Indian massacre, as an iron tomahawk was found among the bones. The shallow graves indicate hasty burial.
The western pasture in the northwest comer of the Spurwink and Beech Hill Roads was owned in 1764 by Timothy Prout, for whom Prout’s Neck is named. How or when our family acquired it I am unable to determine. John Gilford lived at the turn of the road on this land. He was a fisherman and had only a small patch of land in the comer I think. His house was here as late as 1812 as is determined by a deed from James to David Small that year. There are several cellars to be found on the farm besides the Gilford cellar. The fishermen who lived along the shore and who held only small parcels of land by deed or life-lease had houses on these spots. Neighborhood tradition has preserved the names of some of these, like Hollis and McKenney. Other names are determined by deeds on record, viz. George Bartlett, Nathaniel Rand, John Gilford, Andrew Heffer and “Old Maddiver”. After the fishermen came the farmers, who swallowed up these small holdings, so that now there are not so many houses as in the earlier days.
The spring on the line of fence between my land and land belonging to the Capt. Reuben Libby estate was protected by a section of an old pine dug-out canoe, which is believed to have been placed there by the Indians. This dug- out is still preserved at the homestead. This spring is on the edge of the marsh, and during high runs of tide is filled with salt water. One half of this section of the canoe was carried away by the tide of 1902.
———– Small Genealogy.———-
First Small in America Edward from Bideford, England County Devon-Elizabeth
| Born |
1620 |
Francis |
Elizabeth Leighton |
| |
1666 |
Samuel |
Elizabeth Heard |
| First in |
1700 |
Samuel |
Anna Hatch |
| Scarborough |
1718 |
Samuel Esq. |
Dorothy Hubbard |
| Our Ancestor |
1757 |
Capt. James |
Mary Fogg |
| |
1785 |
David |
Elizabeth Jordan |
| |
1824 |
Reuben |
Deborah Kilbourn |
| |
1853 |
Ashley |
Emma Durgin |
(This material was lent to me by Pauline Huston,Sept.1955.)
The complete OCRed PDF if available at: The Smalls in Scarborough by Augustus K. Small-OCR
Endnotes
[i] By the way, I found no references to James Francis Small, born 1835, in this document.
[ii] This says “six” years of age, however the story goes on to describe her years into her nineties. The “six” should be either “ninety-six” or, possibly, “one hundred six.”
