[NI1890]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 224
Samuel Bicknell was a successful farmer and breeder of fine cattle, horses and sheep in Skowhegan, and was a man held in high esteem in Maine as one of the earth's noblemen.
In his last year he gave attention to orcharding and to small fruits.
He died at his farm home, and burried with his wife, Mary, in Skowhegan, Maine.
[NI1901]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 52
John was not named in the division of the estate ?
[NI1923]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 108
He was in the Bank's division in Louisiana, and died on his way home from there.
[NI1936]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 110
John Newton Noyes, who married Betsey Bicknell, was born in Abington, MA.
In his early life he was a farmer, but from overwork he became unable to continue on the farm, and in 1858 he moved into the village, where he built himself a house.
Soon after he began working in Boston, and became acquainted with Amos Lawrence and other philanthropists, forming the Emigrant Aid Society.
He was sent by them to look after their interests in Kansas, making his first trip about 1863.
This work became so important that in 1868 he moved his family to Lawrence, Kan., where he established a real estate and insurance btisiness, and remained until his death.
In Abington he was Town Clerk or Selectman for a long time.
He was a prominent member of the Congregational Church both in Abington and in Lawrence.
He was rigidly upright in all his relations with his fellow men and was loved and respected by all.
[NI1982]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 416
Henry G. was a carriage painter of the firm of Wales & Bicknell, Belfast, Maine.
[NI1995]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 416
George Edward removed from Belfast, Maine, to Meriden, Connecticut, in 1880.
He was secretary, treasurer and general manager of The Meriden Machine Tool Co. ;
President of the Meriden Permanent Building and Loan Association, then the largest co-operative bank in the State, and was Past Master of Meriden Lodge, No. 77 A.F. & A.M.
He was elected from the city of Meriden to the House of Representatives of Connecticut in 1901-2-3-4, amd to the Senate of the State from his senatorial district in 1905-6.
Politics, a Republican. He was chairman of the Committee on Banks and Banking for a portion of the time he was in the Legislature.
[NI2025]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 226
James was a well-to-do farmer, owning a farm of two hundred acres, on which he was born, and which he cultivated for twenty-six years, until his death in 1895.
His son, Edmund, said of his father:
"He was always a farmer, exceedingly industrious and thoroughly honest. I was with him for twenty-six years, and am proud to say that I never discovered in him a dishonest act. He was one of the few farmers who could not be tempted to 'deacon' his produce in preparing it for market. His sincerity and honesty will ever remain in my memory as truly admirable.
The same compliment is due of my mother, She was a daughter of William Pitcher, of Belfast, Maine, whose large family of girls and boys were all school teachers, and all lived such lives as cause us to be proud to call them our own."
[NI2029]
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From T. W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 370
James spent his early life on the farm at Belmont, until, at the age of twenty-five, becoming tired of farm life, he left Maine for a clerkship in a Boston clothing store, and after six months' experience in learning the salesman's art, he set up a clothing store, "a little ten-footer," in Lawrence, MA.
Here he worked hard for three years before the business became large enough to require the aid of his brother, Edmund, who, at the age of twenty-six, had decided not to be a granger.
About 1852, the little clothing house of James Bicknell, Jr., took on larger proportions, more goods, and the firm name of Bicknell Brothers.
Success followed success, and larger stores followed until in the Autumn of 1879, Blcknell Brothers opened in Lawrence one of the largest and best appointed clothing houses in New England, outside of Boston.
The Bicknell firm felt a justifiable pride in the fact that it had never borrowed a dollar to pay for a bill of goods, and that it had never paid for a bill of merchandise with a promissory note.
With success, came reasonable and well used wealth, and the honorable names of the house of Bicknell Brothers, of Lawrence, MA., will long outlive its enterprising founders.
[NI2035]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 370,371 & 372
Edmund Bicknell is a typical Bicknell of "The Down East" type, and in his business life at Lawrence, MA., in partnership with his older brother, James, he well illustrated what the Bicknells can do when they set out. Edmund had a good home on the farm at Belmont, with a good father and mother to make farm and home life interesting, but Edmund did not take to farm life any more joyfully than did his brother, James. What Edmund has to say about his early life is interesting reading, and it is inserted here, in part, to show some other boy how he got on.
He writes:
"I inherited his (Brother Jatmes') stock
of discontent, which, added to my own, (for I had then been
wearing long trousers a good spell), made me a discontented
farmer of no small proportions. We both stuck to the farm
until old enough to vote in town meeting.
"The liberality of our parents, coupled with our own dis-
taste for unprofitable manual labor, enabled us to so far educate
ourselves as to squeeze through an examination for a country
pedagogue. A vacation in our case meant work, and, boys, you
can be sure we didn't listen with delight to the sound of the
'no session' bell. An opportunity to go to school was a 'snap.'
"In connection with the farm was what was known as a
'cooper's' shop, in which were made lime and mackerel barrels.
This was our muscle-developing headquarters between hoeing
and haying, to prevent undue hilarity. It was a sort of substi-
tute for modern baseball and football, which were not then
included in our list of amusements. Thus the last years of our
time before leaving home were divided, in summer between
farming and coopering, and in winter between coopering and
pedagoguing. When my senior partner left home I grasped the
coopering in earnest. To get my stock from first hands, and to
drive the middle man out of business, I bought my lumber on
the stump, cut and drew it to the mill in winter, where it was
sawed into staves and headings. The barrel stock thus pre-
pared in winter was made into barrels and marketed during the
spring and summer months. The market for lime barrels was
Rockland, Me., a distance of twenty-two miles. One of the bright
features of barrel-making was the custom of working in the
shop as many hours as the sun would furnish light, and drawing
the barrels to market in the night time. This custom was estab-
lished because the profits of the business, working sixteen hours
a day, were too small for the accumulation of a circus fund. In
those days, a young 'man in the country with no circus fund was
not allowed to occupy any position in aristocratic society."
This is not the whole of the story, but this much will suffice
to show that the boys of Edmund's land and day, were made
of good stuff to fight and overcome in the struggle of young
manhood.
Three years after James left home, our younger brother, then
twenty-six, left home for Lawrence, MA., where his brother
had opened his little clothing shop. Edmund says that at that
time he couldn't tell the difference between a seven-dollar broad-
cloth and a printed satinet that sells for thirty-seven and a half
cents a yard. Slowly and steadily the business of Bicknell
Brothers grew, until in 1879, they conducted the largest clothing
house in New England, outside of Boston. And these were the
Bicknell boys from the old Belmont farm in Maine.
Edmund Bicknell was not only a successful business man, but
also did a fine piece of work as an editor and author in
Ralph's Scrap Book, containing his writings and illustrated stories
of travel, published in memory of his son Ralph.
Ralph Edmund was a brilliant boy and young man, and in
his youth showed remarkable literary ability as well as artistic
talent. He was "a bright particular flower" of good promise,
and the memorial volume is a tribute to Ralph's "purity, bril-
liancy and manliness." Mr. Bicknell has made a work of great
beauty as well as value, and is a book in the highest style of the
printer's art, beautifully illustrated. In it he has published a
large amount of Ralph's writings in prose and verse. The book
is a quarto, bound in leather, 452 pp., and expresses, so far as it
may, the idealism of the talented son as interpreted, through
thought and material, by most devoted parents.
[NI2069]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 227
Benjamin Bicknell served six months in the Civil War, in the 139th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer infantry;
Held the office of Corporation Clerk at Lamoille, Illinois, 1874-1878;
Was a watchmaker by trade
[NI2071]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 227
He was a United States musician at Cairo, Illinois, six months;
was a clerk in Union Station, St. louis, Missouri.
[NI2083]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 228
James T Bicknell was a bookbinder by trade, and in 1847 kept a bookstore in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
He was a soldier in the Civil War, in the Twenty-second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, and lost an arm in service.
He was subsequently a letter carrier in Bostson.
[NI2093]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 229
Joseph was a cabinet maker with business at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, in 1880.
He was deeply interested in our family and its history, and with his whole family took a deep and active interest in the meetings and work of the Bicknell Family Association.
He contributed a short poem at the excercises of the Family Reunion at East Weymouth, Massachusetts, Sept 22 1880, which is printed on page 87 of the pamphlet of that meeting.
The first stanza reads:
" In sixteen hundred thirty-five or that time near
Our grandfather's grandfather settled here
We know not for certain, but believe 'tis the spot
Where our grandfather's grandfather built him his cot "
[NI2135]
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From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 55 & 56
LUKE Bicknell served with distinction in the Revolutionary
War, as appears by the Records of Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the service.
LUKE Bicknell, Abington, MA., Private; Capt. William
Reed's company, Col. John Bailey's regiment, which marched
on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service, eight days.
Also Corporal, Capt. Reed's company, Gen. Thomas's regiment, muster
roll dated Aug. I, 1775; service, three months, one week and five days;
Also company return dated Roxhury, Oct. 6, 1775.
Also Capt. Edward Cobb's company, Col. Edward Mitchell's regiment;
"marched to "The Farms" at Braintree March 4, 1776; service, five days.
Also Sergeant, Capt. Nathan Snow's company, Col.
Mitchell's regiment, Gen. Cushing's brigade; marched to
Bristol, R. I., under Col. Christopher Dyer, Dec. 9, 1776, on alarm; service, sixteen days.
Also Sergeant-Major, Capt. James Allen's
company, Major Eliphalet Cary's regiment; pay roll for twenty-
three days' service at Rhode Island, dated April 19, 1777; stationed at Bristol, R. I.
Bicknell, LUKE, Adjutant, Col. John Robinson's regiment;
muster roll made up from July 1, 1777, to Dec. 18, 1777, dated
North Kingstown; commissioned June 27, 1777.
Also Col. Thomas Carpenter's regiment; enlisted Aug.11, 1778;
discharged Sept.11, 1778; service, one month and one day,
on expedition to Rhode Island.
Also list of officers from Plymouth County, detached to reinforce
Continental Army for three months, agreeable
to resolve of June 22, 1780; commissioned July 27, 1780; service,
three months and twenty-five days; enlistment, three months;
regiment raised to reinforce Continental Army; roll dated Scituate.
Bicknell LUKE Adjutant, Col. Jacob's regiment; enlisted
July 10, 1780; discharged Oct. 13, 1780; service, three months
and five days at Rhode Island; enlistment,.three months.
Bicknell LUKE Captain, Lieut.-Col. Enoch Putnam's (Plymouth
County) regiment; enlisted Aug. 1, 1781; discharged Dec. 8,
1781 ; service, four months and twenty days; enlistment, three
months; regiment raised to join army under General Washington
at West Point, New York; reported served as Brigade Major
from Oct.11, 1781, to Dec. 8, 1781, one month and twenty-eight
days.
Luke Bicknell was one of the first officers of the Abington
Artillery; was a Representative of Abington in the Massachusetts
Legislature, 1792; Assessor, 1785; was a Justice of the Peace
and Town Clerk of the town for twenty-nine years, holding the
latter office, with the exception of one year, from 1785 to the day
of his death, which occurred Aug.22, 1814.
He died on the farm on which he was born.
He bore the military title of Colonel.
Mr. Bicknell and his wife, Olive, were worthy and active
members of the Centre Church (Congregational) at Abington,
MA.; he was clerk of the church from 1812-1815. His will,
dated Oct.14, 1813, was probated Dec. 5, 1814. Gives his wife,
Olive, "all the improvement of my real and personal property for
her life, or so long as she remains my widow." Gives to daughters,
Elizabeth and Rachel, their marriage outfit, "which I call $100."
Gives to daughter, Rebecca, such an outfit as her sisters had.
Gives to son, William, $5O, to be paid within six months
after decease or marriage of widow.
Gives all real and personal estate, except as before, to be
equally divided between my sons, Nathaniel, Noah, Luke and James.
Gives to grandson, William,son of William Bicknell, deceased,
the same right as the four sons above named.
Names Nathaniel and Noah executors. Noah declines.
Witnesses, Samuel Norton, Mary Norton and Hannah Norton.
INVENT0RY.
Homestead, about ten acres, with buildings $2,000.00
Thirty-two and one-half acres pasture, $1,083.33; seven
acres of meadow, $205 $1,288.33
Forty cords of wood standing in Bridgewater $80.00
Pew on lower floor of meeting house, Abington $35.00
Personal: Household furnicture $236.84
Stock, Hay and tools $224.30
Wearing apparel, $44.25; books, $6 $50.25
Total $3,914.72
[NI2139]
[Usa.ftw]
From T.W. Bicknell's 1913 genealogy book page 118
Nathaniel was Captain of the Abington Artillery in 1810.
Voted at the election in Bath, Maine, in 1871, being then in his ninety-fith year.