Peleg WADSWORTH

Family History: New England Families #2 (V) General Peleg (2) Wadsworth, son of Deacon Peleg (1) Wadsworth, was born at Duxbury, May 6, 1748. He graduated at Harvard College in 1769, at the age of twenty-one, and became a school teacher at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He removed to Kingston, Maine, in 1774. He was an active patriot, member of the committee of correspondence of Plymouth in 1774, and captain of minute-men. He was an aide to General Ward in 1776, adjutant general of Massachusetts in 1778, and commanded the troops on the coast of Maine. He was captured by the British at Thomaston, when he had only a small guard and overpowered by numbers, after being taken by surprise. Four months later he and another prisoner managed to escape. He resided in Massachusetts for several years, but in 1784 returned to Maine and built the first brick house in Portland in that year. This house was afterward occupied by Stephen Longfellow, who married his daughter. He was engaged in trade and active in public affairs. He was senator of Massachusetts in 1792, and congressman from the Maine district for seven terms, 1793 to 1807. He bought seven thousand five hundred acres of land in what is now Hiram, Maine, between Saco and Ossipee rivers at twelve and one-half cents an acre, and in 1795 his son, Charles Lee Wadsworth, settled on this tract. In 1800 General Wadsworth built a house, the largest ever built in Hiram, and removed there to live Jan 1, 1807. He was surveyor, selectman six years, treasurer twelve years and magistrate many years, often arbiter in disputes. He established a free school in the town house in his eightieth year and himself rode horseback through the village to invite the children to attend. He died in 1849, over a hundred years old. His epitaph reads: "He was a Patriot, a Philanthropist and a Christian." He married (???). Children: Alexander Scammell, born May 4, 1774, died August 28, 1775; Charles Lee, mentioned below; Zilpa, born Jan 6, 1778, married Stephen Longfellow (parents of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet); Elizabeth, born at Boston, Sep 21, 1779; John, born at Plymouth, Sep 1, 1781, a lawyer, graduate of Harvard; Lucia, at Plymouth, Jun 12, 1783; Lieutenant Henry, at Falmouth, Jun 21, 1785; George, Jan 6, 1788, died at Philadelphia, April 8, 1816; Colonel Alexander Scammell, May 7, 1790, at Portand; Samuel Bartlett, Sep, 1791; Peleg, Oct 10, 1793, died Jan 17, 1875.

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