The Republican journal., 1897-05-13

Facts About the SewalI Family.
Called out by the Burn ng of the House at Burling.
ton.
To THE EDITOR OF THE SPRINGFIELD
REPUBLICAN: The burning of the old Sc
wall house at Burlington and your note
of it in Sundays issue has more than a
passing interest for me, and also for some
others in Springfield. Sarah Sewall, a
great granddaughter of the famous Salem
witch judge, was born in 1881, and in
1850 was married in Georgetown to Simon
Crosby, who was born in Billerca in 1925.
She was sister of the famous professor
of Hebrew at Harvard college, Stephen
Sewall, who graduated there in 1861, and
died in Cambridge in 1904. She was aunt
to Rev. lothian Sewall, the well known
missionary, and to Rev. Samuel Sewall.
The old church record of Georgetown
says: Simon Crosby and Sarah. wife of
Simon Crosby, admitted to We church
June s, 1906" In 1918 they went to
what is now Bangor, Me-, and settled on
the south line of the township. Previous
to that they had lived in Woolwich, on
the kennebec river, and nine of their 10
children were born in Woolwich. John
H. Crosby, a grandson, and now an aged
man, has his residence on part of the an
cestral acres, the only instance in Bangor
where a descendant occupies the original
lot of his ancestors.
1t may be loted as an instance of hered-
ity that Gov. William D. Williamson says
Mrs. Crosby was remarkably sedate,
sensible and godly woman" One of
their sons was Gen. John Crosby of the
Revolutionary war. He was the greatest
merchant, ship builder and ship owner
on the Penobscot river. He was also an
officer in the war of 1872, and rendered
himself particularly obnoxious to the
British. He made money, kept a retinue
OF servants, and lived in princely fashion
for those days. His character was I'M
blemished, and he was a man of great
piety; he loved pure religion, and he and
his sons were deacons in the same church
at the same time. He was the father of
II children; the sons were all distinguish
ed for their piety and excellent lives, and
the daughters nearly all married men of
education and learning in Bangor and
Hampden. Miss Helen Emery, employed
in Mayor Dickinson office, is a great
granddaughter of Gen. Crosby, her grand
mother, the wife OF Col. Daniel Emery of
Hampden, being his youngest daughter.
Sarah Sewall, the youngest daughter of
Simon and Sarah Crosby, married in 1893
John Brown, Jr of Belfast, and my moth
er, Harriet Sewall Brown, was their
youngest daughter. The strain of loyal
blood which had for generations distin-
guished the Sewals and made them
martyrs in tie cause of patriotism,
religion and education, evidently was
not lacking in my grandmother. When
she was very young, scarcely 90 she mar
ried Jonathan Nesmith of Belfast; he
only lived six months, and two years
later she married John Brown, who
was a widower with four small chill
dren. Their first child, named Sewall,
died in 1902, Is months old, and three
days later is recorded the death of the
little posthumous son of jonathan Mes
NTH, born six months after his young
fathers death. After that eight chill
dren were born to John and Sarah Brown,
including twins. She was woman of re-
finement and education, descended
from a long line Of judges, min
listers and educators, but tradition
says she bore cheerfully and uncomp-
lainingly the narrow life of a farmer S
wife in an isolated locality. Widowed
before she was mother, she then took
upon herself the care of four motherless
children, whose ages ranged from three to
eight years, rearing them with her own
fatherless infant, and her step daughters,
when they were aged women, would refer
tenderly to one who was to them all that
an own mother could have been. When her
Oldest children, John and Sarah, were II
years of age, and the remaining six rang
ed down to the tender age Of three, a
strange disease broke out in the spalsely-
settled coast town which baff1ed the skill
(?) of the local practitioner poor man
living near the shore had picked up some
clothing, which had washed ashore, and
being of a thrifty turn, he took the arti-
Giles home, his wife washed them, and he
wore them. In 10 days or Whereabouts,
she was attacked with a mysterious dis
ease. Anxious to do good, my grand
mother tenderly cared for her, as did my
aunts, who were very young girls. Not
until the terrible scourge had ravaged the
neighborhood was the nature of it dis
covered, and precautions taken to pre-
vent its spread. My poor grandmother
was one of the first victims, and was
accorded the midnight burial in a pas
ture, the fate of small pox victims in
une carry part OF tne century. Wlillam-
son in his history of Belfast speaks
of there being then "a great rush for
vaccination but is is hardly pro-
bable that the medical fraternity of Bel
fast knew much about Jenner's discov-
cry at that time. The younger children
were innoculated with the small pox virus
between the shoulders and had the disease
in greatly modified form. Sarah Sewall' S
eight children grew up beautiful and good,
her four sons were all men of education,
probity, and high standing. They were
all members of the Congregational church,
and lived and died consistent Christian
men. Her four daughters were all school
teachers until they married, and were
beautiful, dignified Christian characters.