Cumberland County, Maine - Captain Benjamin J. Willard ********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: C. Wendland SilverDrusilla@aol.com Copyright © 2005 by C. Wendland Caitlin's Gold Award Project, Girl Scouts USA, Rio Grande Girl Scout Council, El Paso, Texas ********************************************************************** Biography Captain Benjamin J. Willard Biographical Review Cumberland County, Maine Boston Biographical Review Publishing Company 1896 Page 130-134 Captain Benjamin J. Willard is an old and esteemed resident of Portland, who has followed the sea for many years, and now is in business as pilot and stevedore at 117 Commercial Street. He was born at Salmon's Cove, Cape Elizabeth, October 30, 1828, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Graffam) Willard. The Willard family, it is said, settled in Sussex, England, in the time of Edward III, having come from Caen, Normandy, where the name was called Villard. A younger branch settled later in the south-easterly part of Kent, within a few miles of the borders of Sussex, and held an estate in the hundred of Branchley and Horsmonden. There lived and died the direct ancestor of Captain Willard, Richard Willard, whose son, Major Simon Willard, was the pioneer of the family in this country. Richard Willard died in February, 1616; and his third wife died in the same month on the twenty-fifth day. Richard Willard was the father of ten children, seven of whom survived him. His son Simon was born in Horsmonden in 1605. "The Willard Memoir," by Joseph Willard, Esq., contains an interesting description of the village, given by a descendant of Simon in the seventh generation, who visited the place in 1850. The church, which is two miles distant from the village, and quite on one side of the parish, is a neat Gothic edifice of stone. Its age is not known, but the style of the architecture is that of five hundred years ago; and just at the entrance, in the floor of the principal aisle, is a tablet to the dead, bearing the date 1587. In this church Simon Willard was baptized; and his American descendant read with much interest in the parchment register, in Old English characters, the record of the baptism, which runs thus: "A. D. 1605. The vijth day of April, Simon Willard, sonne of Richard Willard, was christened. Edward Alchine, Rector." Near the church is a magnificent oak, of which the townspeople are justly proud. The trunk is thirty feet in circumference at the base, and fully twenty feet near the branches. This tree is known to be fully three hundred years old, and is, undoubtedly, many years older. >From this quiet village, mantled with the mellowing mists of bygone centuries, Simon Willard, with his wife and family, started out in the first part of the seventeenth century for the almost unpeopled shores of the New World. He landed in Boston in 1634, and soon established a home in Cambridge, later locating in Concord, of which town he was one of the founders. He was a man of ample means, and lived in some style, making use of the family coat-of-arms, a copy of which is to be found in the American Heraldic Historical Rooms; and he was thirty-five years a member of the General Court of the colony. Major Simon Willard died in Charlestown, April 24, 1676, in the seventy-second year of his age. Samuel Willard, the father of Captain Benjamin J., followed the sea for a livelihood. He was for many years a fisherman, and died at his post in his seventieth year, rupturing a blood-vessel in his head while killing a halibut. He was the father of eleven children; namely, Samuel, William, Enoch, Benjamin J., Charles, Henry, James, Mary, Elizabeth, Charity, and Susan. Mary is yet living, in her eighty-third year. Benjamin J. Willard received his education in the public schools of his native place. When a boy, he began to take part in the fishing business carried on by his father, and, when he reached his majority, went to sea with his brother, with whom he was associated two years. He then became master of the schooner "Jerome" plying between Portland and Philadelphia, and in 1853 settled in Portland as pilot and stevedore. Captain Willard has a good memory, and relates in an inimitable manner many interesting incidents which have come under his personal observation. He tells how, in 1826 or 1827, the first hard coal was brought from Philadelphia to Portland by Captain John Wait, stored in a hogshead lashed on the quarter-deck of his vessel. He brought also an open-grate stove in which to burn it; and, when he was ready to start the fire, the neighbors from far and near gathered to see the "rocks" burn. The next year he brought several stoves for his neighbors and sixty tons of coal. In 1853, when Captain Willard began to discharge coal at the Portland wharves, only eleven thousand tons came to the city; and in 1894 nearly seven hundred thousand tons were discharged at the wharves. As a pilot, Captain Willard has taken personal part in events of historic moment. He guided the ship "Hero" in 1860, when she came to Portland for the Prince of Wales and suite; and he piloted the steamship "Monarch" into Portland Harbor in 1870, when that vessel brought the remains of George Peabody, the great benefactor of American education. Space failing here to relate all that might be written of Captain Willard, the reader is referred to an interesting autobiographical work which the Captain himself has recently completed, entitled "The Life History and Adventures of Captain B. J. Willard." Captain Willard has been twice married. His first wife was Lois Goold, his second Henrietta Gardiner, both now deceased. He has no children by either union. In politics Captain Willard is a Republican. He has resided in Portland for forty-two years, and is well known and highly esteemed among the old residents and very popular with the younger generation. He also has a cottage on Peak's Island, that beautiful summer resort, where he enjoys his hours of well-earned leisure.