- Thursday, August 19, 1875
Page 1, Columns 6-7
Local Reminiscences
By Rev. J. S. Swift
Chapter XXV
The Col. Lemuel Bursley
The death of Col Bursley, on the 11th of July, at his residence at Farmington Falls, has been announced in the CHRONICLE, but some additional reminiscences of a citizen who has led a life as useful and exemplary as was his, ought t be made a matter of permanent record.
Mr. Bursley belonged to a worthy family. His father, Lemuel Bursley, sen., was among the early pioneers who located their future homes on the banks of the Sandy river. He selected a lot on the western side of the river, about a mild and a half above Farmington Falls, and cleared the farm and erected the buildings on the place which was, we believe, occupied by Mr. J. Allen at the date at which the County Map was published. He came from Barnstable, Mass., - was a carpenter by trade, became a successful farmer, and on his farm successfully trained a large family of children, and led a useful, exemplary and religious life, till increased age induced him to sell his farm, accept the care of his son, Col. Bursley, and remove to the Falls. Eleven out of thirteen children of the Bursley family lived to become heads of families, and all led honorable and useful lives. - Silas settled on a farm in Guilford; Barnabas followed the occupation of a carriage maker in Sangersville; John, who with Col. Bursley, were the only sons who located permanently in Franklin county, died on his farm in Chesterville, something more than a year since, and Benjamin located himself in Minnesota, as a carpenter. Of the sisters of Col. Bursley, Eliza was married to Mr. I Bailey of Dorchester, Mass.; Mary, to Rev. E. G. Page, well known as a Free Baptist minister throughout this section of the State; Abby died at Farmington Falls in 1874, following shortly after the death of her husband, Mr. Barlow Dyer, long one of the most respected citizens of New Sharon, but who had, in the years of declining age, retired to Farmington Falls; Savina (sic) was married to a Mr. Adams of Dorchester, Mass.; Martha to a Mr. Gove, a shipbuilder of Boston, and Lurena to Wm. Shaw, a Boston merchant.
This brief introduction of one of the pioneer families of Farmington prepares the way for a more particular allusion to the late Col. Lemuel Bursley, with whom we had a more or less intimate acquaintance running through a period of nearly thirty years.
During his minority Mr. Bursley assisted in managing the homestead farm, and perfected the joiner’s trade, in which occupation he became conspicuous as more than ordinarily skilful (sic) workman. Some thirty-eight years ago (1837), having previously married Miss Sophronia Haskell, of New Gloucester, who now survives him, he permanently located himself at Farmington Falls, in the house he made the neat and tasteful residence in which he died. He subsequently built the house now occupied by Mrs. Andrew Croswell, on the lot adjoining on the south, for the accommodation of his parents, and in which they spent their declining years. His reputation as a skilful (sic) mechanic sometimes called him away from home for temporary periods, and once he was induced, by the late Judge Sherburne, to go as far as Minnesota to erect a fancy residence. Some twelve years of the earlier part of the period of his residence at the Falls he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, gaining the confidence of the community by his gentlemanly demeanor, and accommodating habits as a retail trader. The confidence the community gave him the rank of Captain of cavalry in the militia, and subsequently elevated him t the rank of Colonel. In the years 1846 and 1847 he faithfully and crepitably (sic) represented Franklin in the Senate of our State. In the facilities for education he possessed no advantages over his youthful contemporaries among the farmers of Franklin, but either then or subsequently, or in both periods, he better improved the advantages he did possess, and he became a thorough English scholar, a not forward or ostentatious, but an agreeable speaker, and well versed in historical and general, and particularly in political literature. He set the example of systematic diligence in business before the whole community, and to those more intimate with his domestic habits he was known to be equally systematic and persevering as a student. He read much, and read for instruction - not for mere amusement. During many years of his life we knew him as an active politician, but one conspicuous for the gentlemanly deference which he habitually manifested to all who differed from him. Whatever political friends or political opponents might say or think of the intrinsic character of his political convictions, all knew that he could not be induced to swerve from those convictions for emolument, or the sake of being on the popular side.
In a momentary examination, a few days since, of the valuable library which is among the legacies left to his family we could not avoid being forcibly struck with the fact that the selection was so characteristic of the man, or with the suggestion that the judicious selection of the library may have had much to do with the tastes and character of the man.
But we must not bring this sketch to a close without a reference to the character of Col. Bursley in a more important point of view, a view rendered important by the power by which his example will he is dead, and by the way in which his works, in common with those of others who “die in the Lord,” will follow, according to the teachings of Revelation in everlasting fruitage. The question now to ask is not whether he ought not to have done more, or whether the writer or reader might not heretofore have done much more for the general good than we have. He was very far from claiming what all who intimately knew him will unhesitatingly concede, that he was preeminently a philanthropic, public-spirited man. But such he was. Not merely in the common relations of life, but religiously. He was not a fanatic, a wild enthusiast, or in any regard a bigot- but he was a Christian. We do not know that he ever allied himself to any church organization. He was nominally a Restorationist, but he was a praying man and lived and died under the sway of the regenerated emotions which are the salvation of fallen humanity, He publicly confessed Christ by the example of profound respect for the teachings and institutions of Christianity. He died in an unwavering trust in God, and faith in a glorious immortality. Knowing that the messenger from the unseen world was approaching he set his business and household relations in order, selected the hymns, and suggested other arrangements for his funeral, and waited calmly through the fading eclipse of earthly light for the moment of the nursing of celestial light upon the enfranchised soul.
Though flaming no merely denominational fraternity with the late Col. Bursley, the writer of this sketch claims the privilege of recording his convictions in the language of warm and positive expression. For in the death of Mr. B. he has lost a friend and supporter- an assistant in his life work. He ever contributed his share pecuniarily in support of the institutions of the sanctuary; he was an efficient teacher in the Sabbath School while his health and other circumstances permitted, and preached - regardless of the paltry excuses which too many of his remaining neighbors render on account of weather, etc. - each succeeding Sabbath while health permitted - by his punctual and attentive presence in his pew. For years he thus preached by the sanctioning utterances of his presence, and for many years he assisted his pastor, though of a different denominational name, in the oral utterances of sanctuary. Yes, often has the anticipation that Col. B. was to be one of the few unfailing listeners imparted vigor to the guidance of the pen in preparations of the study, and the fulfillment of the expectation has as often inspired additional help in using orally the studied words of the gospel teaching. On whom within the radiance of Farmington Falls shall mantle one of Franklin’s worthiest citizens fall? Who by following in the track of his example will prepare the way for some recorder of reminiscences to do equal, though imperfect justice to his memory?
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The Stanwood Family
1809 - 1875 (66 years)
