Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/172

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND
129

the Revolutionary War. From Captain Solomon and his wife Miriam the line continued through their son Andrew and his wife, Damaris Cross; Solomon and wife, Tabitha Card; John and wife, Martha Jones; to their son William, named above as the father of Mrs. Stanley.

Captain Solomon Walker died in Woolwich (formerly Pownalborough) Me., July 21, 1789, aged sixty-nine years. As stated on his tombstone, he was born in Berwick, Me. He is supposed to have been the son of John Walker, who commanded the blockhouse in Berwick at the time of the Indian hostilities.

In the State archives of Massachusetts (in the Revolutionary Rolls) Solomon Walker appears in a list of officers of the Massachusetts militia as Captain in the Eleventh Company of the First Lincoln County Regiment, commissioned July 1, 1776 (book, "Militia, Officers, etc.," vol. xxviii.).

Chosen by company and accepted by council, September 16, 1776. Company made up from Woolwich and Pownalborough companies (Massachusetts Muster and Pay Rolls, vol. xliii.). In service (as Captain) at taking of mast ship in Sheepscott River, September 10-12, 1777 ("Sea-coast Defence," Muster Rolls, vol. xxxvii.). Also Captain of a company in Colonel Joseph Prime's regiment, under Brigadier-general Wadsworth. Enlisted April 28, 1780; discharged December 6, 1780; service, seven months nine days ("Service at Eastern Ports," "Various Service," vol. xxiv.).

Solomon Walker also appears in a regimental return dated Georgetown, November 19, 1779, made by Lieutenant Colonel Dummer Sewall, of Colonel Samuel McCobb's (Lincoln County) regiment, as Captain Eleventh Company, commissioned- September 17, 1776. Residence, Woolwich.

Mrs. Stanley's mother, Mary D. Witham before marriage, was a daughter of William Witham and his wife, Abigail Woodman, and on the maternal side, grand-daughter of John Woodman, Jr., whose father, John Woodman, was one of the earliest settlers of New Gloucester, Me., going there from Kingston, N.H., early in the sixth decade of the eighteenth century. The elder John Woodman, John, was a descendant in the fifth generation of Edward Woodman, who settled at Newbury, Mass., in 1635, and who served as Deputy to the General Court in 1636 and three later years. The line continued through Edward; Deacon Archelaus; Joshua, born in 1708, who married Eunice Sawyer, of Newbury, and removed to Kingston, N.H., about the year 1736; to their son John, born in 1740, who married Sarah Page, of Salisbury, Mass., and removed, as above noted, to New Gloucester, Me. John Woodman, Jr., or John, son of John^ and his wife Sarah, was born in New Gloucester in 1767. He was married three times, and had eighteen children. His daughter Abigail, born in 1801, was married to William Witham in September, 1819.

Augusta M. Walker (Mrs. Stanley) received her education in the public school, being graduated- from the high school of her native town and later attending the State Normal School at Farmington. For several years following she was a successful teacher. On New Yearns Day, 1870, she was married to Francis Edgar Stanley, and went to Auburn, Me., to reside. Mr. Stanley, who is an inventor, has been for the greater part of his business life associated with his twin brother, Freelan Oscar Stanley. The Stanley Brothers' dry plates in photography and the Stanley automobiles have a world-wide reputation, and the men behind these are not only powers because of their wealth, but by reason of their long years of business integrity. After seventeen years' residence in Auburn, Me., Mr. and Mrs. Stanley removed to Newton, Mass., where they still live. They have two daughters, Blanche May and Emily Frances, and one son, R4j,ymond Walker, a promising lad yet in school.

Blanche May Stanley was married October 15, 1903, to Edward Merihew Hallett. They reside in Newton.

Emily Frances Stanley was married April 8, 1896, to Prescott Warren, of Cambridge, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Warren reside in Newton. They have two daughters: Margery, born in 1897; and Frances Augusta, born in 1900.

Mrs. Stanley has travelled extensively, both in her own country and abroad. She takes an active interest in the educational, patriotic, and philanthropic movements of the day. The