The Portland daily press., 1897-07-29


When the regiment of Col. Edmund
Phinney was ordered to march to Cam
bridge in June. 1775, the Provincial Con-
gress directed, June 2Sth. that there be
raised in Cumberland county five COM
panles, of fifty men each, to be stationed,
as agreed upon by the comm ittee ap-
feet in height, slender, athletic, dark
pointed by each town, upon the seacoast
these companies were to be raised at Fal-
mouth, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough,
North Yarmouth, Harpswell and Bruins
wick
The following companies were raised
and went into this service in July, and
served about six months. The rolls have
a been published in the. PRESS. Capt.
Joseph Noyes's Company March 2, 1895;
Capt. Samuel Knights Company May
1s, 1896; Capt David Strout's Company
Feb. 90, 1895; Capt. James Curtis's Com
pany July 81. 1897 and Capt. Nathaniel
Larrabees Company now published. 1t
is not certain that Capt. James Curtis S
Company went to make up the five, but
if so this will account for the two hun
dred and fifty men that James Sullivan
wrote were in the service on the seacoast
the latter part of November.
The name of James Sullivan calls at
tention to one of Maine's most famous
families. The father of the family, John
(or Owen) Sullivan, left Ireland because
his mother forbade his marrying the girl
of his choice, as she was not of an equal
family, although no objection was made
| to her. His mother never heard from him
after his departure from home. On the
voyage over he was attracted to little
girl, then nine years of age, named Mar
gerry Brown, whom he befriended and
brought up as his own child. He arrived
at York, Me-, about 1923, and about 1875
married Margery, then young lady of
great personal beauty, who was about
twenty-one and he about twenty years
older. They soon after moved to Ber-
wick, where he bought farm. When he
first arrived he feigned ignorance to dis
guise his poverty, but later he wrote a
letter to Parson Moody in seven different
languages.
John Sullivan was man of education,
and became the schoolmaster at Berwick.
He was always called "Master Sullivan, -
but surrounded himself with more or less
mystery during his life. He said he had
''four countesses to his mother and grand
mother, which has proved true Owen
Sullivan was probably his name in Ire.
| ovxI Io of ;,,&
benevolence and hospitality. He is said
''to have been indolent, accord ing to the
standard of his contemporaries, but to
have been always reading, and a Dlan o1
great wit and natural power of mind. y
John and Margery lived their lives in
known. Who can name their critics.
| Master Sullivan was a man about six
hair, black eyes and had forid complex
ion. He was erect and well proportioned,
and in religion was Catholic. He died
in 1896, at the great age of 105 years, re-
tanning his great love for books to the
| last.
| Margery Brown made him good wife.
She did not always take kindly to her
husbands efforts to inspire in her taste
for knowledge, but was sensible. Sarah
| Orne Jewett, a native of Berwick, wrote
of her that she Twas a woman of quick
temper, but great tenderness of heart.
| Margery Sullivan-the small, beautiful
energetic, courageous woman who worked
in the fields, SO that her thoughtful and
studious husband might not be obliged to
do it, who drove a COW some thirty miles
| through the woods to her son" (James)
at Biddeford. She nursed the neighbors
when they were ill and quarrelled with
them horribly when they were well, who
gloried in her sons careers, boasting that
she never did anything contrary to the
will of her husband. He was her father
in age, her master in knowledge, and hel
husband by marriage" She also boasted
that she had dropped corn many a day
with two governors, a judge in her arms
and q general on her back She died in
1901, aged 81 years, They were burned or
their farm, but the family buryine
ground was destroyed by the laying oui
of a road, and what could be found Of
their ashes wasd removed to Durham, N
H., and placed in the lot of their children
John and Mary, where the monument
erected by James was put up.
The family of John and Margery Sui
ivan was very remarkable one. The
children were Benjamin, who was al
officer in the British navy, and was lost
at sea before the Revolutionary war
Daniel, born about 173S was captain in
the Revolution, and was at Bagaduce il
ITO. He lived at Waukeag Point il
Sullivan, Me-, and on a stormy night il
February, 1871, Capt. Henry Mowat wen1
in the frigate Allegiance, surrounded his
house with his men, and captured him
They fired his buildings and turned his
wife and children out into the snow, they
barely escaping with their lives. He was
carried to Castine, when he refused to
take the oath of allegiance to the King
and then was sent to Halifax, and from
there to New York, where he was put OF
the Jersey prison ship, where he remained
six months and was then exchanged. He
died on his way home victim of cruel
ty. This was the same Mowat that de
stroyed Falmouth in ITS, and this act il
further proof of his malice Daniel Sui
livan was one of those sterling patriots Of
eastern Maine, and his name is perpet
uated in the name of the town.
The next child was Gen. John Sullivan
who happened to be born at Sumerswortf
N, H., opposite Berwick, in 174O, but was
raised in Maine. He studied law at Ports
mouth, N. H, and lived at Durham, N
| Fl 1nYandar Scam xuooe otuIoni