Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

WEEKS The name of Weeks is very common in the counties of Devonshire and Somersetshire, England. Examination of the parish records of Wells, Chew Magua, and Compton Martin, in Somerset, between 1573 and 1680, show many entries of this name which is variously spelled Week, Weeks, Wick, Wyke, Wickes, Weekse, &c. All or nearly all of this cognomen in Maine are descended from Leonard Weeks of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (I) Leonard Weeks, the immigrant, is claimed by tradition to have come from Wells, in Somerset. The parish records of Compton Martin contain the name of Leonard Wyke, baptized 1639, and his brother William about two years earlier, sons of John Wyke, of Moreton, which is in that parish. Nothing more is known of the father of Leonard, nor of the time when leonard landed in America. His genealogist, Rev. Jacob Chapman, says that his name appears as that of a witness to a bond in York county, Maine, Dec. 6, 1655, and next in the Portsmouth records, June 29, 1656, when he received a grant of eight acres of land in Portsmouth. "When he first went to the part of Portsmouth now called Greenland, he lived one year on a farm owned by Capt. Champernoon." July 5, 1660, he received grants of forty-four acres, of thirty-four acres, and of ten acres of land. In Feb., 1661, he had settled at Winnicut river, now in Greenland, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1707. Much of the land he owned in Greenland has remained in the possession of his descendants till the present day. Copies of four deeds made April 23, 1706, and acknowledged May 15, 1706, probably instead of a will, are of record, conveying to his four younger sons Samuel, Joseph, Joshua and Jonathan, his lands, retaining possession himself during his life and making also some provision for the elder son John, and for his wife and three daugthers. During the political contest of 1665, respecting the separation of New Hampshire from Massachusetts, "Leonard Weeks stood for Massachusetts rather than for the crown." He had trouble with John Hall, and the court records of 1660, 4th Mo. 26," show that "Leonard Weeks, for swearing by God and calling John Hall of Greenland, ould dog, and ould slave, & that he would knock him on the head," was fined "10 shillings for swearing, and to have an admonition for his reviling and threatening speeches, and fees of court, 3, shillings." However, it does not appear that his general standing was bad, but rather that he was a man of character and ability, as he was elected the following year one of the selecemen of Portsmouth. Afterward he was constable and for several years sheriff. In 1669 he "was on a committee" with men from Dover and Hampton, "to lay out the highway between Greenland and Bloody Poynt." His seat in the church at Portsmouth was No. 4, in front of the pulpit. Leonard Weeks married, in 1667, Mary, daughter of Deacon Samuel Haines, of Portsmouth, his neighbor, and after her death he married (second) Elizabeth. Children of 1st wife: John, Samuel, Joseph, Joshua, Mary, Jonathan, Margaret and Sarah. (II) Captain Joshua, fourth son of Leonard and Mary (Haines) Weeks, was born June 30, 1674, and died June 13, 1758, aged eighty-four. He married, in Boston, Nov., 1669, Comfort (sister of Thomas) Hubbard. Her brother was treasurer of Harvard College, and a wealthy Christian merchant of Boston. They resided at the Bay Side, now occupied by their descendants. She died March 20, 1756. Captain Joshua joined the church in May, 1735, at which time he was sixty-one years old. He was offended when his son, Dr. John, became a follower of Whitefield, but it appears from his will that he did not lose confidence in the doctor's ability and honesty. Children, all b. in Greenland: Martha, Joshua, Comfort, Mary, Ichabod, John, Thankful, William, Richard and Margaret. (III) Dr. John, sixth child and third son of Capt. Joshua and Comfort (Hubbard) Weeks, was born in 1716, and died of consumption Oct. 20, 1763, aged forty-seven. He was a physician, and after acquiring all the medical knowledge he could in this country he went to England, where he completed his studies. He practiced ten years in Greenland and vicinity, and then removed to Hampton, where he died. He was an energetic business man, had an extensive practice, owned much land, held the offices of justice of the peace, colonel of a militia regiment, etc. He experienced religion in 1737, became a prominent member of the church, a warm friend to the cause of education, and to the improvement of society. He married (first) Nov. 10, 1737, Martha Wingate, of Hampton, born March 30, 1718, daughter of Major Joshua Wingate. She had ten children, and died of "violent fever," March 9, 1758, aged forty. He married (second) Elizabeth ____, whom he left a widow with nine children, most of them young. Children of 1st wife: Joshua Wingate, Comfort, Martha, Mary, Sarah, John, William, Ward Cotton, Abigail (died young), and Joanna. (IV) Captain John (2), sixth child and second son of Dr. John (1) and Martha (Wingate) Weeks, was born in Hampton, Feb. 17, 1749, and died Sept. 10, 1818. It is written of him that he was a zealous patriot. "Was Lieutenant in the revolutionary army, a member of the convention that adopted the constitution of New Hampshire, several years representative in the legislature of New Hampshire, and an influential citizen, wherever he resided." In the Revolutionary War Rolls, State Papers of New Hampshire, we find that John Weeks (town not given) was second lieutenant, Sept. 1776, in Captain Jonathan Robinson's company, enlisted into the service of the American states to reinforce the army at New York; Sept. 23, 1776, John Weeks, of Capt. Robinson's company, signs as witness to mark of two soldiers of his company, who receive pay; the name of John Weeks, private, appears on list of members of Tenth company, Colonel Scammel's regiment, 1780, enlisted to fill up the Continental army; also, John Weeks, private, Capt. David McGregory's (4th) company, Jan. 15, 1781; also John Weeks, Exeter. Feb. 7, 1781, as late of Colonel Scammel's company; also John Weeks, Ninth company, Colonel Scammel's (3rd) regiment. In the record of town recruits, John Weeks is credited to the town of Exeter. In 1783 he left Greenland, spent some time in Lee, and in May, 1787, was settled in the new town Lancaster, Coos county. "On his way from Lancaster to Greenland, in 1818, he visited his siter and her children in Tamworth, seeming very cheerful and happy; but the next morning after he left my father's house," states the writer of the account, "as he was about to get into his carriage, at Wakefield, he suddenly feel and died form disease of the head. His age was 69 years, 7 months." Another account of Captain John Weeks says: "Dr. Weeks died in 1763, when the subject of this sketch was fourteen years old, leaving what was then considered a large property. Tradition says it was designed that he (John) should follow the profession of his father, and his education was commenced accordingly. But inheriting what seemed to him a fortune, instead of pursuing his studies and graduating at Harvard, as his older brother had done, he chose to make long tramps for game up the Kennebec, and in other directions. In one of these he is said to have visited, in company with two or three others, the Upper Coos region, when he was but sixteen years old. Dec. 27, 1770, he married Deborah, daughter of James Brackett, of Greenland, who was born Dec. 25, 1749. She was an educated lady, and fitted to adorn any station in life. He held a lieutenant's commission in the revolutionary army, and his money was freely spent in the cause of his country. In 1787 he came to Lancaster, made his location of land, and returned. In the spring in 1788 he came to Lancaster with his daughter Pattie to keep his house, and his son John Wingate (a boy six years old). They came by way of Baker's river and the Connecticut, driving their stock. In the fall Mrs. Weeks and the remainder of the family, accompanied by numerous relatives and friends who were to settle near them, came through the Notch of the White Mountains. She made the journey on horseback, bringing her youngest child, seven months old, in her lap, and James B., a boy of three years old, riding behind her. The log house Capt. Weeks built stood at the top of the bank, about fifty rods easterly of the house occupied by the late William D. Weeks. The farm he then commenced has (except for a brief period) remained in the Weeks family for about one hundred years. Here in his new home the Captain kept open house and entertained 'right royally' any who came to the settlement; of course he soon became poor. He was a man of strong good sense, fair education, of genial presence, and at once took an active part in the affairs of the settlement. In 1788 he was elected by his district, consisting of Lancaster, Northumberland, Stratford, Dartmouth, Cockburn, Colburn and Percy, a delegate to the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, and was one of the fifty-seven who voted in the affirmative against forty-six in the negative. In 1792 he represented the Coos district in the general court. He represented the district at other times, was often selectman, and generally moderator of the town meetings. He was an active, honest man, and always ready to lend a hand to aid anything that would benefit the town. His wife, who was one of the noble women of her day, died July 5, 1831, aged eighty-two. Children: Martha, Deborah, Elizabeth, John Wingate, James Brackett, Polly Wiggin and Sally Brackett. They all lived to old age, the earliest death being at sixty-six. All the captain's children were prominent persons in the communities in which they lived. One Martha (Mrs. Spaulding) died at the age of ninety-nine. Sally (Mrs. Backnam) still lives at the age of ninety-eight. John W. was an officer in the war of 1812, and served with distinction, having been engaged in nearly all the hard fighting on the northern frontier. He was a man of great influence in the northern part of the state, and held most of the offices in the gift of the people, including four years in Congress." (V) James Brackett, fifth child and second son of Captain John (2) and Deborah (Brackett) Weeks, was born June 14, 1784, and died March 19, 1858, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was a farmer in Lancaster, and his life contained no features of the striking character that marked the career of his father. Game was still abundant in that region in his time; and in one year, without effort or chase, Mr. Weeks shot fifteen deer from his farm on the southern slope of Mount Prospect. He was a Universalist in religious faith, and one of the original subscribers of the constitution of the First Congregational Society of Lancaster. He married Jan. 1, 1810, Elizabeth (Betsey) Stanley, born in Lancaster Aug. 4, 1785, died there Dec. 24, 1854, daughter of Dennis Stanley. In her youth she was very springtly, and disdained the use of a horse-block and was accustomed to mount from the ground by placing her hands on the neck of her horse and springing into her saddle. She was an excellent rider even in advanced age. Children: James Wingate, Mary Nye, Sarah Stanley, William Dennis, John, Martha Eliza, and Persis Fayette. (VI) Hon. James Wingate (deceased), eldest son of James B. and Betsey (Stanley) Weeks, was born in Lancaster, July 15, 1811. He was a farmer, land surveyor, manufacturer and public official for many years. He owned a farm on the mountain where he made his home. He was a surveyor for some years, and ran more lines in the territory about Lancaster than any other man. When the boundary servey between the United States and Canada was made in 1845, four Lancaster men were called into the service and did very good work during the course of that portion of the suvey under the charge of Commisioner Albert Smith, of Portland, Maine, from Hall's Stream to Lake Champlain. These men were Hon. James W. Weeks, his brother, John Weeks, John Hubbard Spaulding, John M. Whipple, and Joel Hemmenway. To James W. Weeks was assigned the task of making the prelimineary surveys and sketches for the topographical map of the entire line, while the other Lancaster men acted in various capacities as chain carriers, setters of monuments, and using the compass on the topographical work. In his journeys in the forests Mr. Weeks saw many strange sights. In 1844, while engaged in surveys in the extreme northern part of Coos county, near the boundary range, he passed through a "pigeon roost" extending over a two-hours walk, the trees being full of nests built upon crossed twigs laid upon the branches, the ground lieterally sprinkled with shells beneath them. In 1856 he laid out the grounds of the Cemetery at Lancaster. In 1840 Mr. Weeks entered into a partnership with Ashbel Pierce, and carried on the manufacture of wagons and buggies about four years. In early life Mr. Weeks taught school, and his name is among those of the ancient and honored school-masters of his day. Being a man of much intelligence and executive ability, he was often called to fill public positions. In political faith he was a Democrat. In 1853 he was elected judge of probate and served two years; 1873-76 he was a member of the board on county commissioners; 1893 member State Board of Agriculture; 1850, moderator; selectman, 1848=61-66-67-679-70-71. Although he was elected to this office, as shown, between 1861 and 1871, it was not till 1877 that the town offices were generally filled by Democrats. Dec. 25, 1848, the White Mountain railroad was incorporated, and Mr. Weeks was one of those whose names appear on the charter. The White Mountain Bank was chartered in 1852, and Mr. Weeks was a member of the first board of directors. In 1876 he was made one of the trustees of The Savings Bank of the County of Coos, now The Lancaster Savings Bank, and was its president from 1885 to 1894. He was a firm frield of education, and was president and treasurer of Lancaster Academy. His knowledge of and interest in all that pretained to Lancaster made him an invaluable assistant in the preparation of the History of Lancaster, for which he wrote the chapters on "the derivation of the names of localities and places in and about Lancaster," and "The domestic life of Lancaster in early times." He was a subscriber to the constitution of "The First Congregational Society of Lancaster," Feb. 13, 1854, and one of its building committee who had charge of erecting its house of worship in 1855. He left a written description of the congregation of the old church of which he had personal knowledge from 1820. James W. Weeks married (first) May 30, 1842, Martha Willard, who died aged thirtyfive years, Sept. 5, 1853, dau. of Solomon Hemenway, of Lancaster. He married (second) March, 1859, Mary Elizabeth Burns, of Plymouth, who died Feb. 2, 1878, aged fifty-two, dau. of Dr. Robert Burns. Children, all by 1st wife: George Hemenway, Sarah Wilder, James Wingate and Clara H. (VII) George Hemenway, eldest child of James W. and Martha W. (Hemenway) Weeks, was born in Lancaster, N. H., March 18, 1843. He has been a life-long farmer, residing on his farm in Lancaster. He is a Democrat in political faith, but has never held public office. In religious affiliation he is a Unitarian. He married Martha Belle Remick, of Jefferson, N. H., born June 3, 1843, daughter of John and Eliza R. (Holmes) Remick. Child: George H., whose sketch follows. (VIII) George Hemenway (2) Weeks, only child of George H. (1) and Martha B. (Remick) Weeks, was born in Lancaster, Oct. 23, 1867. He was educated in the common schools of Cape Elizabeth (now South Portland), having removed to that town when he was young. After he left school he entered the employ of the Twitchell Champlin Company, manufacturers and wholesale grocers of Portland, where he remained nineteen years. April 1, 1906, he accepted an invitation to serve the Fidelity Trust Company, of which he was made secretary, and now holds that position. In politics he follows the pattern of his ancestors, but has a strong tendency to independence, sometimes preferring to vote for a good man on some other ticket. He has been active in public affairs, a local party leader, and was mayor of South Portland, 1905-06-07. He is a member of Hiram Lodge, No. 180, F. and A. M., of South Portland, Greenleaf Royal Arch Chapter, Portland Council, Royal and Select Masters, and Portland Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar, all of Portland. He married in South Portland, Oct. 25, 1898, Martha Ella Mountfort, born in Cape Elizabeth, April 15, 1873, daughter of George Curtis and Eliza Shaw (Webster) Mountfort. Children: Martha Ella, born Nov. 12, 1899. Helen, born Dec. 14, 1901. George Wingate, born Dec. 5, 1904. WEEKS (For preceding generation see Leonard Weeks I). (II) Captain Samuel, second son of Leonard and Mary (Haines) Weeks, was born Dec. 14, 1670, and died March 26, 1746. He was a farmer and lived on the paternal homestead in Greenland, a man of intelligence, energy, wealth, and influence in the town and in the church. He is said to have built, about 1710, the brick house which gave to his branch of the family the name of "The Brick House Family," to distinguish it from the "Bay Side Family," which descended from his brother Joshua. Captain Weeks married Elinor, daughter of Samuel Haines Jr., of Greenland. She was born Aug. 23, 1675, died Nov. 19, 1736. Children: Samuel, John, Walter, Matthias, Mary, Elinor and William. (III) Matthias, son of Capt. Samuel and Elinor (Haines) Weeks, was born in 1708, died before Oct., 1777. In 1760 he sold the land which he had inherited from his father, on the Great Bay, and in 1773 removed with his children to Gilmanton, N. H., where the remaining years of his life were passed. He married, about 1735, the Widow Sarah Ford, daughter of John Sanborn, of North Hampton. She died in Gilmanton, Dec. 7, 1779, aged eighty-six years. Children: John, Olive, Matthias, Elinor, Mary, Samuel, Joanna, Benjamin, Noah and Josiah. (IV) Rev. Samuel, son of Matthias and Sarah (Sanborn-Ford) Weeks, was born in Greeland, N. H. Nov. 21, 1746, died in Parsonsfield, Maine, in June, 1832. In Feb., 1783, he removed from Gilmanton to Parsonsfield, and soon afterward began preaching there and elsewhere in that vicinity. With the assistance of Elder Randall he organized the church in Parsonsfield in 1785 and continued to preach and cultivate his farm in that town until Jan., 1793, when on returning to his home from a meeting in Porter he lost his way in the woods and was so severly frozen that he never afterward regained his health. During the earlier years of his life Elder Weeks was a mechanic, but always of pious mind, he fitted himself for the ministry, and was ordained pastor of the Baptist church at Gilmanton, June 15, 1780. He accepted the teachings of the Free Will Baptist church after his removal to Parsonsfield. He stood six feet four inches in height, was broad shouldered and possessed a very strong voice; and indeed he was a powerful man in every sense and was not wanting in physical courage, as may be inferred from the following anecdote which is related of him: "On his way to meet an appointment in Limerick he came to a bridge upon which two men were standing. They told him to 'go home, for he was no minister, and could not pass.' He quietly turned his horse, but soon returned, bearing aloft a stake, calling out: 'The Lord told me to go to Durgin's and preach. If you attempt me I will split your heads.'" He was permitted to pass without further molestation. Elder Weeks married (first) Mercy Randlett, and by her had twelve children. Married (second) Mrs. Sarah Barnes, whose family name was Guptail. She bore him one child. Children: 1. Noah, born Oct. 25, 1767, died Oct. 30, 1808; married Anna Pendexter. 2. Anna, born June 6, 1769. 3. Eliphalet, born June 6, 1770. 4. James G., born Feb. 22, 1772. 5. John, born Gilmanton, Feb. 21, 1774; married Sarah Huff (Hough). 6. Mary, born Feb. 6, 1776, died Nov., 1786. 7. Susanna, born March 23, 1778, died April 19, 1780. 8. Samuel, born Feb. 19, 1780, married Mehitable Knight. 9. Ichabod, born Nov. 25, 1782, died Oct. 23, 1784. 10. Matthias, born March 4, 1785. 11. Levi, born Feb. 11, 1788. 12. Benjamin, born Jan. 24, 1791, died Sept. 4, 1836. 13. (by 2d wife) Mercy, born April 16, 1803. (V) Eliphalet, son of Rev. Samuel and Mercy (Randlett) Weeks, was born in Newmarket, N. H., June 6, 1770, died May 6, 1838. He was a farmer in Parsonsfield, but little is known of his family life in that town. He married (first) Susan, daughter of Joseph Perry. She was born in Scarboro, Maine, 1773, died Aug. 23, 1813. He married (second) in 1814, Martha Kennerson. Children, all 1st wife, b. in Parsonsfield: 1. Joseph, born March 17, 1796, married Sally Barker. 2. Anna, born Sept. 15, 1798, died 1814. 3. James H., born Feb. 18, 1801, married Lois Ballard. 4. Rev. Eliphalet, born June 4, 1803, died July 24, 1881; married Lydia Ballarad, of Fryeburg. 5. Samuel, born Sept. 23, 1805, married twice and had a large family. 6. Eben E., born Jan. 4, 1808, married Susan Willey, of Fryeburg. 7. John, see below. (VI) John, son of Eliphalet and Susan (Perry) Weeks, was born in Parsonsfield, Maine, Oct. 26, 1810, died in Chatham, N. H., April 22, 1880. He married Mehitable Holmes, born Cornish, Maine, March 27, 1808. Children: 1. James Holmes, born March 30, 1831, married Lois A. Weeks, of Chatham, and had five children; died in Manchester, N. H., Dec. 12, 1907. 2. Joseph Erastus, born July 18, 1833, farmer of Westbrook, Maine; married Cordelia, dau. of Eliphalet Weeks, and had four children; died in Wesbrook Oct. 2, 1897. 3. Dr. Stephen Holmes, born Oct. 6, 1835. 4. Eliphalet, born Limerick, Maine, Jan. 19, 1837, died young. 5. Athalinda, born Limerick, Aug. 10, 1840, died in Oakland, Maine, 1866; married the Rev. J. P. Weeks, of Conway, Maine. 6. Susan, born March 18, 1843, married (first) ____ Chase; (second) Alvin Head. 7. Dr. Albion, born Oct. 24, 1845, died in Providence, R. I., Feb. 10, 1887. 8. John, born Chatham, N. H., Feb. 24, 1848, died young. 9. John, born Chatham, N. H., Aug. 22, 1856, fitted for Dartmouth College, died in early manhood. (VII) Dr. Stephen Holmes, son of John and Mehitable (Holmes) Weeks, was born in Cornish, Maine, Oct. 6, 1835. His early education, the same generally afforded the youth of his time, was gained in the district school of the town in which he lived and was supplemented with a studentship at Fryeburg Academy, where he laid the foundation of his subsequent professional education. After leaving the academy he took up the study of medicine at the Portland School for Medical Instruction, later attended upon the lectures of the medical department of Bowdoin College, and completed his course in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in March, 1864, with the degree of M. D. Having come to the degree he settled in Portland and began the general practice of medicine and surgery; he inclined to specialize in surgery, to which branch he was impelled by every inclination of his nature. As a general practitioner he soon gained an enviable prominence and came to be recognized as one of the leading men of his profession in the state. He was appointed surgeon to the Maine General Hospital on the opening of that splendid institution in 1874, and that event perhaps more than any other marked the beginning of his career as a specialist in surgery, both general and clinical, although he continued the practice of general medicine for a few years after that time. In 1876 he was elected to the professorship of anatomy in the Medical School of Maine and fulfilled the duties of that position until 1881, when upon the death of Professor Greene he was elected to succeed him in the more important chair of surgery. In 1880 Dr. Weeks went abroad for further studies in operative surgery and spent nearly a year in the hospitals of London and Edinburgh, in Great Britain, and of Paris, Berlin and Vienna, in continental Europe. Returning to Portland at the end of about ten months he resumed the duties of his chair of general and clinical surgery with renewed energy and confidence, and soon won more than national celebrity by reason of his remarkable success as an operative surgeon and the equally remarkable advances made by him in originating and carrying into practical and successful operation new and highly important surgical methods. He was the first surgeon in this country to use an absorable drainage tube made of arteries; Dr. Henry G. Beyer, medical inspector of the U. S. navy, originated the idea, and Dr. Weeks was the first to make use of it. He made this the chief subject of an address on the occasion of his becoming a fellow of the American Surgical Association, and his paper found wide circulation in all of the leading medical and surgical journals of the country. Some of these tubes may still be seen in the cabinet of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D.C.; others were presented to the surgical section of the Tenth International Congress in Berlin in 1890. In 1889 Dr. Weeks received the honorary degree of artium magister from Bowdoin College. In 1890 he again went abroad as a delegate to the International Medical Congress in Berlin and during his stay in Europe spent three months in German hospitals and also in hospitals in Paris and London. He is a member of the American Medical Association, member and ex-president of the Maine State Medical Society, a fellow of the American Surgical Association, and fellow of the American Academy of Medicine. For many years he has been a valuable contributor to the literature of his profession, his papers on subjects pertaining to surgery. His addresses and monographs are published in the Transactions of the American Medical Association, the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, the Transactions of the American Surgical Association, the Transactions of the Ninth International Medical Congress, Washington, D.C., 1887, and the Transactions of the Tenth International Medical Congress, Berlin, 1890. He is a member of the Society of Colonial wars. In 1905 he received the degree of LL.D. from Amherst College. In the winter of 1906 he spent some time in Egypt, where he had an opportunity to study tropical diseases in the hospitals of Alexandria and Cairo. In 1882, when Robert Koch discovered the tuberclo bacilli, he became deeply interested in the subject of tuberculosis and since then ha been an earnest worker in the campaign against the terrible scourge. He is a member of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, was a member of the Sixth Triennial International Congress on Tuberculosis, and presented a paper on tuberculosis of the hip-joint to the surgical and orthopedic sections of the Congress. He is one of the trustees of the Maine Sanitorium Association. He was one of the corporators of the Maine Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis organized in 1908 and was its first president. He has been for many years a member of the State Street Congregational Church in Portland, Maine. Dr. Weeks married, in March, 1864, Mary A., daughter of the Rev. Paul C. Richmond, of Fryeburg, Maine. Child: Marion Richmond Weeks, born in Portland, 1870. WEEKS Without doubt the following line is descended from Leonard Weeks, who settled in Greenland, New Hampshire in 1656, and is ancestor of most of the name in that part of the country. The connecting links, however, cannot be supplied. (I) William Weeks was born about 1745, and died at Gorham, Maine, in 1790-91. He probably came to Gorham from Cape Elizabeth, where his wife's people lived. It has been impossible to find out much about this man with certainty, for the name of William Weeks was quite common along the coast about this tiem. He may have been the William Weeks, of Kittery, who served in the revolution, but this is doubtful. About 1770 William Weeks married Dorcas Dyer, daughter of John and Mary (Strout) Dyer, of Cape Elizabeth. John Dyer, about 1760, inherited from the estate of his wife's father, Christopher Strout, a hundred and thirty acres of land in Gorham. This tract he subsequently divided among his children, giving to William Weeks, who had married his daughter Dorcas, a lot of twenty-four acres. Children: Benjamin, whose sketch follows. Mary, born in Gorham, Sept. 30, 1774, married Joseph Burnell Jan. 7, 1790. Mrs. Dorcas (Dyer) Weeks married her second husband, George Meserve, of Scarborough, Dec. 8, 1791. (II) Benjamin, only son of William and Dorcas (Dyer) Weeks, was born at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, March 17, 1771, and died at Durham, Nov. 25, 1850. He lived for some years at Gorham and moved to Durham in 1818, settling near the stone mill. The seven children, with the exception of the eldest, who was born at Scarboro, were all born in Gorham. On June 20, 1790, Benjamin Weeks married Sarah or Sally Libby, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Libby, of Scarboro. She died June 1, 1858, lacking but fifteen days of ninety years. Children: 1. William, born Oct. 25, 1790, married Sophia Knight. 2. Dorothy, born Feb. 25, 1793, died unmarried. 3. Lavinia, born June 27, 1797, married John Nason. 4. Benjamin, born Nov. 1, 1799, married Charlotte M. Knight, of Westbrook. 5. Joseph, married (first) Esther Libby, (second) Maria Plummer, (third) Margaret M. Nichols. 6. Louisa, married Elisha Turner. 7. Howe, whose sketch follows. (III) Howe, fourth and youngest son of Benjamin and Sarah (Libby) Weeks, was born at Gorham, Maine, April 28, 1812, and died at Auburn, that state, March 1, 1895. At the age of six years he moved with his people to Durham, where he served an apprenticeship with John A. Briggs, a contractor for dams and bridges. Howe Weeks helped build the old toll bridge between Lewiston and Auburn, also the first log dam on the Androscoggin at Lewiston, and the Lincoln Mill. From 1840 to 1846 he was in partnership with Daniel Wood in a general store on lower Main street, Lewiston. In 1858 he moved to Auburn, and was for several years engaged in the manufacture of shoes with A. C. Pray. Mr. Weeks served on the board of selectmen at Lewiston, and was tax collector in Auburn for several years. He was clerk of the toll bridge corporation, and was a director of the Lewiston Falls Bank, and one of the promoters of the Lewiston and Auburn railroad, connecting with the Grand Trunk. Mr. Weeks was a lifelong Democrat, and never missed casting his ballot at election till the one preceding his death. He was an attendant of the Universalist church. In 1839 Howe Weeks married his first wife, Sarah Daggett, who died Nov. 5, 1847, leaving no children. In May, 1850, he married his second wife, Pamela Haskell Stetson, daughter of Elisha (2) and Laura (Bradford) Stetson, who was born at Auburn, Feb. 10, 1826, died April 5, 1904. Children: Flora L., born April 4, 1852, died Feb. 27, 1869. William H., whose sketch follows. (IV) William Howard, only son of Howe and Pamela Haskell (Stetson) Weeks, was born at Lewiston, Maine, Aug. 19, 1858, and educated in the public schools of Auburn. While attending school he obtained a hand press and began printing cards for his friends. At the age of sixteen he left his studies and began the foundation of his present large printing business. This undertaking gradually developed from a hand press to a shop employing about a dozen hands and printing everything from posters to illustrated magazines. Mr. Weeks is a Democrat in politics, an attendant of the Universalist church, a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Grange, and both the Auburn and Lewiston boards of trade. On Sept. 20, 1881, William Howard Weeks married Ellula E. Merrow, daughter of George F. and Louisa (Bryant) Merrow. Child: Amy Louise, born Jan. 29, 1891, now (1908) a student at the Edward Little high school.