Cumberland County, Maine - Abel Heald Harriman
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Biography
Abel Heald Harriman
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 391-392


Abel Heald Harriman, a resident of the village of Bridgton, is a native of
Lovell, Oxford County, born May 14, 1844. His father, Asa B. Harriman, was born,
it is supposed, in Chatham, N.H. Very little is known of the ancestral history
beyond the fact that Asa was a little lad when he lost his father, who was
accidentally killed by a falling tree. He was reared on a farm. After his
removal to this State he bought land in Lovell, on which he cleared a homestead,
and resided until his death, at the age of seventy-two years. His wife, formerly
Amanda Heald, was a lifelong resident of Lovell, where her death occurred when
she was but fifty-four years old.

Abel H. Harriman entered the army when eighteen years of age for service in the
Civil War. He enlisted in Company D, Sixteenth Maine Volunteer Infantry, which
was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. With his gallant comrades he took an
active part in the memorable battle of Fredericksburg, at which one-half of the
men in his regiment were killed, wounded, or captured, he being fortunate enough
to escape unscathed. Mr. Harriman was subsequently detached as one of the
headquarter guards of the First Corps. He performed this duty until the spring
of 1864, when he was transferred to the ambulance corps as stretcher-bearer. In
this capacity he was present, and assisted in removing the killed and wounded
from the field, after the battles of the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Spottsylvania,
North Anna, Chickahominy, Sand Hill, and the various engagements before
Petersburg. In April, 1865, being then the driver of an ambulance wagon, he was
present at the closing scenes of the campaign. He was at Appomattox when Lee
surrendered, and afterward participated in the Grand Review at Washington. From
Washington be returned home, receiving his discharge at Augusta, June 14, 1865.

After visiting his friends and home in Lovell for a month, Mr. Harriman went to
Massachusetts. Here he was for a time employed in a shoe factory at Halifax and
engaged in lumbering in Brockton. Having passed three years in the old Bay
State, he returned once more to Lovell, bought an interest in a sawmill, and was
for several years thereafter occupied in the manufacture and sale of lumber and
wood. In 1877 he settled in Bridgton, which has since been his home.

Mr. Harriman has been twice married. His first marriage was contracted in 1868,
with Mary Bass, a native of Wilton, this State. She bore him two children -
Linwood A. and Adelia I. The latter died when but four years old. The mother's
death occurred in 1883. Two years later he married Miss Mary J. Lewis, who was
born in New Brunswick, and reared in Bridgton. Socially, Mr. Harriman is
connected with Farragut Post, No. 27, Grand Army of the Republic; Cumberland
Lodge, No. 30, and Mount Pleasant Encampment, No. 14, Independent Order of Odd
Fellows; the Rebecca Lodge; Highland Lodge, No. 10, Knights of Pythias; and
Oriental Lodge, No. 13, A. F. &. A. M.