Henry Small

Henry purchased in 1786 from his uncle, Samuel Small, a trct of one hundred acres of land at Limington, Maine. The spot, later known as the "first farm west of Shaving Hill", he bought in the spring of 1787, for his wife and four children. Their earliest shelter was an old hunting camp. He built a log house. He was unfortunate with his houses, as the road was made through the north end of his farm instead of the south as had been expected. His first frame house, the cellar of which is now the family tomb, was built upon it. When the road was later changed o the southward, he erected another house where he lived to the end of his life. To Henry and his descendants the town of Limington is largely indebted for its growth and prosperity. He was the town constable in 1796 and afterward contributed liberally toward the support of schools.

The proper name of the burial ground is unknown. However the oldest member of the Small family was buried at the burial ground with Henry and his wife, Elizabeth Dam. His mother, Mary McKenney, wife of Major John Small, was the oldest burial at the site. Many years later the old cellar was made into a crypt for the Small descendants. two of Henry's sons, with their in-laws were responsible for the creation of the burial ground and when completed, they gathered their dead into this final resting place. The land has been in the family since 1668 and can never be sold. The last burial noted in the tomb was 1888, The original burial place is unknown whether it was a family plot or part of a larger cemetery.

   At the age of five years, Henry's father (Major John Small), whom he well remembered all his life, was shot and thereafter such training as he received was at the hands of his beautiful and fairy born mother.

   Henry Small enlisted while residing in Scarborough, Maine. He was a Private under Captain Dunn & Colonel Phinney in Massachusetts. Attached is the original document listing his military history.

   Henry returned home after serving 8 months in the Revolutionary War.

   Henry reinlisted as a Private under Captain Crockers & Colonel Mitchell in Falmouth, now Portland, Maine. Henry fought in the Battle of Rhode Island.  Henry served for 1 year in the Revolutionary War & returned home.      Henry reinlisted & served under Captain Wm. North & Colonel Henry Jackson in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served to after 1779 with this company.

  He was married by Rev. Thomas Lancaster at the First Church in Scarborough, Maine. The witnesses were Robert B. Caverly (Clerk) & Thomas Jameson. Attached is an affidavit to their marriage in order for Elizabeth to apply for Henry Small's pension.      Henry received a furlough from the military in July 1778 & married Elizabeth.  He returned to duty after marrying Elizabeth.

   In April 1787,Henry went to Limington,ME,to which place his uncles Samuel Small & Joshua Small had already gone some little time before,& made a farm on the land which his great-great-grandfather bought from the Indians in 1668.  Henry's new life in the wilderness was a hard one.   First,a few acres of trees were felled & that was called a cut-down & rolled into bi piles.                                                                                       Fire was then applied to the piles,& that was called pile burning.

   Occasionally Henry Small made a trip to Portland and brought home a back-load of salt fish and some other like dainties, whereupon they reveled in luxurious eating for a time. 

   In later years of Henry’s life,although fairies,witches & ghosts were all gone,yet there were many occult things to be looked after,as for instance,pigs must be slaughtered on the increase of the moon,else the pork will shrink in cooking.

   After the wilderness hardships had passed away, Henry’s long life was one of peaceful and prosperous happiness.      Henry Small applied for his Pension on July 8, 1818. His pension was approved & his Certificate of Pension was number 13,768. He received $8 per month pension.     Henry Small's Pension was suspended on July 20, 1820 on account of property in 1820.     Henry Small owned 90 acres of land – 1 home, 1 yoke oxen, 1 yoke steers, 3 cows, 1 heifer, 15 sheep, 2 hogs, 1 plough, farming utensils, household furniture. Henry owed $100.

   Henry Small was a farmer, but in 1820 was no longer able to farm because of "rheumatism."

   Henry Small died from cancer of the stomach. June 5, 1849, both Henry & his wife Elizabeth were removed to the family tomb, which had been the cellar of their first frame house.

   On June 5, 1849 the body of Henry Small was disinterred in the field where he had been buried and removed to the new Small Thompson Tomb on Shaving Hill Road, Limington, York County, Maine.

After the wilderness hardships had passed away, Henry’s long life was one of peaceful and prosperous happiness. He had the most pleasant house in town, his income was ample for all his simple wants, his whimsical brother Daniel Small his life-long and faithful friend, Harvey Libby, his cousins and nearly all of his children, were living near him, some of whom he saw daily.

Although the possessor of such rigid integrity that all the wealth of the Vanderbilts could not tempt him from the straight line of right, yet his leading characteristic was industry. With him to work was pleasure, to be idle was pain. Not long before his death he asked his sons to cut an ash tree, from which he would make a half-bushel measure, but they ignored the request upon the assumption that he was too weak for such an undertaking. He coaxed his good-natured grandson, Sewall Thompson, to cut it, and he made the measure and gave it to Sewall, and that sterling good fellow preserved it all his life as the last work of the most industrious Small in America.

At the age of five years, Henry's father (Major John Small), whom he well remembered all his life, was shot and thereafter such training as he received was at the hands of his beautiful and fairy born mother.

Henry Small enlisted in the Revolutionary War while residing in Scarborough, Maine. He was a Private under Captain Dunn & Colonel Phinney in Massachusetts. Attached is the original document listing his military history.

War of the Revolution (1775 - 1783) Maine gave to the struggle for independence six thousand men. And when it was over, one thousand of her sons had sacrificed their lives and the burden of debt that fell upon her was greater in proportion to her wealth and population that her share in the cost of the Civil War. The news of the battle of Lexington reached York on the evening of the same day. The next morning a company of sixty men, fully equipped with arms, ammunition and food, were marching to Boston. The first company was followed in a few days by men from the entire province, even as far east as Machias. Falmouth, now Portland, was bombarded and utterly destroyed by a British fleet, October 18, 1775, and the territory from the Kennebec to the eastern boundary was frequently invaded and suffered numerous attacks at different points. A Maine regiment was present at the battle of Bunker Hill. On June 12, 1775, the patriots of Machias fought "the Lexington of the seas," in which the Margaretta was captured and "the British flag was struck for the first time on the ocean to Americians." Eleven hundred men from Maine were with Washington at Valley Forge, a tenth of the entire force. At the siege of Boston practically every able-bodied man in western Maine was present. An old letter in the Massachusetts archives states that during the siege, when an urgent call was made for additional volunteers, they got the reply from Falmouth, "Every man who can leave home is gone or going to Cambridge. They must draw upon this part of the province for women instead of men, and for knives and forks instead of arms." Maine men were at Quebec with Arnold, also at Ticonderoga, Long Island, Stillwater, Saratoga, and the surrender of Borgoyne, at Monmouth and at Yorktown. The daring fishermen of our coast served in the Continental Navy and were with John Paul Jones. It is pleasant to remember that when Washington rode down the lines one day to thank the troops whose valor had turned the tide of a desperate battle, and exclaimed with uncovered head "God bless the Massachusetts line!" he spoke to the Third Division -- men from the counties of York and Cumberland.

He finished his tour of duty & returned home to Scarborough, Maine after serving 8 months in the war.

Henry reinlisted as a Private under Captain Crockers & Colonel Mitchell in Falmouth, now Portland, Maine. Henry fought in the Battle of Rhode Island. Henry served for 1 year in the Revolutionary War & returned home.

Henry reinlisted & served under Captain Wm. North & Colonel Henry Jackson in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served to after 1779 with this company.

Henry received a furlough from the military in July 1778 & married Elizabeth. He returned to duty after marrying Elizabeth. .
In April 1787,Henry went to Limington,ME, to which place his uncles Samuel Small & Joshua Small had already gone some little time before, & made a farm on the land which his great-great-grandfather bought from the Indians in 1668.

Henry's new life in the wilderness was a hard one.First,a few acres of trees were felled & that was called a cut-down & rolled into bi piles.Fire was then applied to the piles,& that was called pile burning.

In the later years of Henry’s life, although fairies and witches were all gone and ghosts were but rarely seen, yet there were many occult things to be looked after, as for instance, pigs must be slaughtered on the increase of the moon, else the pork will shrink in cooking. Good judges of such matters wisely declared that a three hundred pound pig, slaughtered on a growing moon, would make as much food for the table as a three hundred and fifty pounder slaughtered on a waning moon…a sage decision which the peppery major (Major Daniel Small) even in the church itself between meetings hotly pronounced “cussed nonsense.” Calves and babies must be weaned at a certain stage of the moon, else they would bleat and cry. Soap must be made when the moon neared its full, else it “wouldn’t come.” Any piece of work begun on Friday ended disastrously. To be followed by a strange dog was a sign of future plenty. If a dog howled, some one who heard him would soon die. When a member of the family died the beehives must be draped in sable immediately, else the offended bees would go away. If a boy killed a frog the cows would give bloody milk. That whim was hard on the boys, for when a cow became ill and gave bloody milk, the parents assumed that a frog had been put to death, and however stoutly the boys might deny the crime, every one of them was soundly whipped; partly for killing the frog, but mainly for lying about it. A wide pumpkin vine in the field was herald of woe. If the corn husks were thick the moon over the right shoulder would bring good luck. Over the left shoulder, bad luck, etc.

After the wilderness hardships had passed away, Henry’s long life was one of peaceful and prosperous happiness. He had the most pleasant house in town, his income was ample for all his simple wants, his whimsical brother Daniel Small his life-long and faithful friend, Harvey Libby, his cousins and nearly all of his children, were living near him, some of whom he saw daily.

Although the possessor of such rigid integrity that all the wealth of the Vanderbilts could not tempt him from the straight line of right, yet his leading characteristic was industry. With him to work was pleasure, to be idle was pain. Not long before his death he asked his sons to cut an ash tree, from which he would make a half-bushel measure, but they ignored the request upon the assumption that he was too weak for such an undertaking. He coaxed his good-natured grandson, Sewall Thompson, to cut it, and he made the measure and gave it to Sewall, and that sterling good fellow preserved it all his life as the last work of the most industrious Small in America.

Henry Small applied for his Pension on July 8, 1818. His pension was approved & his Certificate of Pension was number 13,768. He received $8 per month pension. Attached is a copy of the original document. Henry Small's Pension was suspended on July 20, 1820 on account of property in 1820.

Henry Small was a farmer, but in 1820 was no longer able to farm because of "rheumatism."

Henry Small's wife Elizabeth was in the process of applying for his pension in 1831. The Maine Land Agent requested a copy of the Certificate of Pension.

On June 5, 1849 the body of Henry Small was disinterred in the field where he had been buried and removed to the new Small Thompson Tomb on Shaving Hill Road, Limington, York County, Maine.
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Town Roads of Limington , Maine Shaving Hill Road Near the site of the old shop is a cellar hole, where once was the house that Robert Cousins and later his son Benjamin E. Cousins lived in before it burned in 1905. To the right next to the stone wall is an old winding road that went up on Thompsons Hill and known as “Dundee,” and was the site of the once famous Dundee picnics where reunions of the Small family were held annually. Half way up one passes the Small family tomb where such people as Henry Small, the old settler, and his son in law, William Thompson are intombed. The tomb is enclosed within a four acre lo that is a trifle less wide from east to west and is part of what is known as “Dundee.” It was named by Henry Small because of its extreme rockiness. This land where the tomb is located was owned by the Small family since 1668 when Limington and five other towns were purchased by Francis Small. In 1917 Harold Emery purchased by auction all of the Thompson property and the four acre lot from the Thompson heirs. It is still owned by the Emery family. The old Thompson place gone well before my time, once stood on the hill overlooking a broad area, where now only a cellar hole and grown trees can be found of this rich historical area. Much folk lore of the Small family and Dundee area is preserved in the writings of Lauriston Ward Small, son of Humphrey and Sarah (Libby) Small and grandson of Henry Small who settled there in 1787. L.W. Small used to write fo the Eastern Argus, a Portland newspaper, and placed many of his local stories in his weekly column. He also wrote a history of the Small family and placed it in one of the publications of the Maine Historical Society. (page 52-53).

“ Town Roads of Limington, Maine” from the Robert Taylor Collection, Reprinted by The Limington Historical Society, March 2004

Henry Small was a little unfortunate in the matter of houses. The road was made through the north end of his farm instead of the south as had been expected, whereupon he built a new house at the road, the cellar of which is now the family tomb. Later, the road was changed a little to the southward, whereupon he built another and the present house, wherein he spent the remaining years of his life. He planted the beautiful and now venerable elms which make the place so attractive, and altogether, he made his home the most pleasurable to the eye between the villages of Limington and Limerick.

Henry Small was followed to Limington by his younger brother, Daniel Small, universally known as “the major”, who selected the adjoining farm westward; and also by Mr. Harvey Libby, who selected the farm adjoining the major’s. These three sturdy men were boys together in Scarborough; were in the Revolution together; and while yet quite young, went up to Limington, and there resided on adjoining farms all the remaining years of their long lives. From their infancy to their graves, the days were few wherein they saw not each other. They were earnest Federalists and Whigs in politics; Congregationalists in religion; and in like accord upon all questions of importance. In that one thing if in no other, their lives were a beautiful poem. Henry Small had twelve children, Mr. (Harvey) Libby had thirteen, and the major (Daniel Small) had fourteen; and the three families constituted a neighborhood in and of themselves known as “Shaving Hill.” As seen with the eyes of our more formal age, they were as one great family. They were interested in each other, they ran in and out of each other’s houses as freely as their own, they assisted each other in their work, they borrowed and lent, and what one knew, all knew.

“ The Small Family In America” by Lauriston Ward Small, The New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA, October 1893