WASHBURN FAMILY. This name is derived from two simple words—wash, which imples a swift current of a stream, and burne (or bourne), signifying a "brook or small stream. It has been said of this family, whose origin is in England, carrying a coat-of-arms, that the posterity of John Washburn, who was the first emigrant to locate in New England in 1632, "will seldom find occasion to blush upon looking back upon the past lives of those from whom they have descended. Fortunate indeed, may the generations now in being, esteem themselves, if they can be sure to bequeath to their posterity an equal source of felicitation."
In this illustrious family have beoi found some of our nation's greatest characters, in public and private life, including great lawyers, statesmen and
military men in all of the American wars. Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Wisconsin have each had governors from this Washburn family, and three brothers served as congressmen from three states at the same time, and all with much ability. Authors and college graduates may be found to a score or more, who have left their impress upon the world. As manufacturers, they have excelled, and wherever, wire goods and wire fencing are known, there is found the name Washburn as being pioneers in this line.
(I) John Washburn, the original immigrant, who settled at Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1632, married Margery , and by her was born a son named John, of Bridgewater, who married in 1645 Eliza Mitchell. His father was secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he, with his two sons, John and Philip, were able to bear arms in 1643. The immigrant and his son John were among the original fifty-four persons who became proprietors of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1645. They bought the lands of the old Sachem Massasoit, for seven coats of one and a half yards each, nine hatchets, eight hoes, twenty knives, four moose skins, ten and a half yards of cotton cloth. The transfer was signed by Miles Standish, Samuel Nash and Constant Southworth.
(II) John Washburn was born in England, 1621, and his brother Philip at the same place in 1624. He died unmarried. John (II) and his wife Eliza Mitchell had these children: John, married Rebecca Lepham; Thomas, married (first) Abigail Leonard and (second) Deliverance Packard; Joseph, married Hannah Latham; Samuel, married Deborah Packard; Jonathan, married Mary Vaughan; Benjamin, died on the Phipps expedition to Canada ; Mary, married Samuel Kingsley; Elizabeth, married (first) James Howard and (second) Edward Sealy; Jane, married William Orcutt ; James, married Mary Bowden; Sarah, married John Ames.
(III) Samuel Washburn, son of John (2), called "Sergeant," was born in 1651 at Duxbury, Massachusetts. He married Deborah Packard, by whom he had six children, including Israel.
(IV) Israel Washburn, born at Bridgewater, 1684, married Waitstill Sumner in 1708, and had four children—one named Israel.
(V) Israel Washburn, who settled at Raynham, was born August II, 1718, and married Leah Fobes. He was committeeman of "Inspection and Safety" and captain of a train band, 1774, and served a short time in the revolutionary war. His son was Israel.
(VI) Israel Wahburn. son of Israel Washburn (5), was born in 1755, and married a Miss King in 1783. He served in the revolution and was at the Lexington alarm. He served in the general court and was a member of the constitutional convention. He talked but little and made but one speech in public life. He died at Raynham, 1841. Of his ten children Israel (VII) was one.
(VII) Israel Washburn, son of Israel (6). was born at Raynham, Massachusetts, November 18, 1784, died at Livermore. Maine, September i. 1876. He went to Maine in 1806 and taught school for a time and then engaged in ship and boat building. He removed to Livermore in 1809 and bought a farm, store and goods, and continued in trade until 1829. This farm was later and is still known as the "Norlands." He represented his "district of Maine" before it had been set off from Massachusetts, which was in 1820. He served in 1815, 1816, 1818 and 1819. Toward the end of his life he was afflicted by blindness and his friends used to read the news to him,, of which he never tired. He was great in cheerfulness, rivaled Lincoln in story-telling and could remember events well. It is said he could name all congressmen and give the district to which they belonged, when he himself had three sons in congress.
His noble son, Hon. Elihu B., of Illinois fame, wrote from Paris, when Minister to France, as follows:
"This is the eighty-sixth birthday of my father. All hail to the glorious, great hearted, great headed, noble old man! In truth, the noblest Roman of them alL How intelligent, how kind, how genial, how hospitable, how true!"
This same worthy son had carved on his father's monument at death, "He was a kind father and an honest man." Passers by. to-day, may see this in the cemetery overlooking the family place, "The Norlands."
(VIII) Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, the only member who still clung to the final "e" on his name, was the son of Israel (7), born at Livermore, Maine, September 23, 1816, and died at Chicago, Illinois, October ?2, 1887, aged seventy-one years. In his early manhood, he taught school for ten dollars per month and "boarded round." In 1836 he entered Kents Hill Seminary, and in 1839 the Cambridge Law School. In 1840 he moved to Illinois, practicing law at Galena. In 1852 he was elected to a seat in congress, continuing sixteen years, and upon retirement was known as the "Watch Dog of the U. S. Treasury" and also as "Father of the House." He swore into office Schuyler Colfax and James G. Blaine as speakers. To him and William Seward alone did Abraham Lincoln confide the secret of the running of his train from Philadelphia to Washington, March, 1861, when Washburne had the telegraph wires cut, fearing trouble would ensue en route. Both Seward and Washburne agreed to meet him at the depot in Washington, but Washburne was the only friend who did in fact meet him. He was a constituent and admirer of General Grant, who owed to him promotion to high office. In 1869 Grant offered him a place in his cabinet as secretary of state, which he soon resigned and accepted the office of Minister to France, and was there during the trying days of the siege and commune, coincident with the Franco-Prussian war. He remained there nearly nine years, and longer than any predecessor. During the Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, he was chairman of the house committee.
He married in 1845, Adele Gratiot, granddaughter of Stephen Hemstead, of Connecticut, a soldier of the revolutionary war. She died March, 1887, aged sixty, her husband only surviving her until October 22. Their son, Gratiot Washburne, was graduated from the Highland Military Academy of Worcester and from the Naval Academy at Newport, Rhode Island. He was secretary of the United States legation under his father in France, and was one of four upon whom the French government bestowed the Cross of Legion of Honor for services performed during the siege of Paris. He was secretary of the American Exposition at London in 1886, and died suddenly in Kentucky.
(.VIII) Governor Israel Washburn, son of Israel (7), was born at Livermore, Maine, June 6, 1813. He was admitted to the bar in 1823. He was in the legislature in 1842 and congressman from Maine in the thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth United States congresses He was first a Whig and later a Republican. He was elected governor of Maine in 1860, and Lincoln made him collector of the port of Portland in 1863. He was a literary man and also lectured much. He married (first) Mary M. Webster and (second) Robina Naper Brown, of Boston, in 1876.
He died May 12, 1883, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His son Israel was an officer in the Sixteenth Maine Regiment during the civil war period.
