Cumberland County, Maine - Rev. Benjamin F. Pritchard
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Biography
Rev. Benjamin F. Pritchard
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 59-60


Rev. Benjamin F. Pritchard, for many years one of the most popular and
successful preachers of the Free-will Baptist denomination, has in recent years
been engaged in the real estate and brokerage business, but in the mean time has
also done a good deal of evangelistic work. A native of Blackstone, Mass., he
was born August 26, 1833, son of Benjamin and Lillas (Bowen) Prichard (name
formerly spelled without the "t"). His father was born in 1802 in Marblehead,
Mass., and attained the venerable age of eighty-five years, being long employed
as an overseer in a cotton-mill. The mother was a native of the town of Foster,
R.I.; and she also saw many days on earth, dying in 1891, aged eighty-nine
years. They were the parents of four children, namely: Mary Ann, born in 1829;
Mary Eliza, born March 12, 1831; Benjamin F.; and James W., born September 20,
1836.

Benjamin F. Pritchard acquired his early education in the schools of Providence,
R.I., and vicinity, being graduated from the North Providence High School. He
then began his active career as a teacher in the schools of South Killingly,
Conn., where he was engaged in the winter of 1857 and 1858. There in the spring
of the latter year, on March 14, he married one of his pupils, Celie L.,
daughter of Jesse and Martha (Gibson) Handall. The only child of this union was
a daughter, Harriet Eudora, born December 24, 1858, who became the wife of
Ernest W. Arnold, of Providence, R.I., and is now well known in the literary
world as a writer of merit, many of her poems being published in the Portland
Transcript and other leading journals.

After his marriage Mr. Pritchard continued teaching, being in Greenwich, R.I.,
for nearly four years; and while there he was superintendent of the schools of
the town, and also served as Justice of the Peace, his commission being signed
by William Sprague, Rhode Island's war governor. During all this time Mr.
Pritchard was studying for the ministry, and had become a licensed preacher. In
May, 1862, he received a call to become pastor of the church at Farnumsville,
Grafton, Mass., being ordained to the ministry in the following month, in the
Roger Williams Free Baptist Church at Providence. He met with great success in
his pastoral work, remaining at Farnumsville about three years, when, on account
of his wife's failing health, he left that locality, by the advice of her
physician coming to Maine. Here Mr. Pritchard accepted a call to the churches of
Unity and Thorndike in Waldo County. In 1866 he made another change, going to
Pittsfield, N.H., where he had charge of the Free Baptist Church for about a
year. Mrs. Pritchard's health being still in a precarious condition, he sought
the seashore, taking under his pastoral charge the Free Baptist Church of Cape
Elizabeth, where he resided twelve years, preaching the first half of the time
there, and the other six years at the Bay Side Parish. While living at Cape
Elizabeth, Mr. Pritchard was unanimously elected Town Clerk. For three years he
was a member of the School Board, and for six years was Crier of the Superior
Court of Cumberland County in Portland.

In 1879 Mr. Pritchard removed to this city, where he embarked in his present
business, which he has since prosperously carried on. During the years of his
pastorates he officiated at hundreds of baptisms, marriages, and funerals, often
going long distances in order to do so; and he was selected to preach the sermon
at almost all of the quarterly and yearly meetings of his denomination that he
attended. He is connected by membership with many social organizations,
belonging to the Masons; the Knights of Pythias; the Sons of America; the White
Men; the Guards of Liberty; the Grand Division, Sons of Temperance; and the
Grand Lodge of Independent Order of Good Templars.

The death of his first wife, Mrs. Celie H. Pritchard, occurred on July 14, 1883,
after his removal to Portland, her body being taken to South Killingly, Conn.,
and interred in the family burying-ground. On November 12, 1885, Mr. Pritchard
was again married to Alice C., daughter of Charles and Catherine (Wadleigh)
Howe, of Monticello, Aroostook County. Their only child, Harold Kenneth Howe
Pritchard, was born January 26, 1888, and is the life of their pleasant home at
75 Quebec Street. Mr. Pritchard has been very successful both as a preacher and
as a business man, being genial, warm-hearted, and sympathetic, and possessing
good executive ability. He is largely self-educated, reading intelligently and
retaining all important facts. He is a great lover of good poetry, which he
quotes fluently and with excellent effect.