Page 24 - John Anderson

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was about 1676, at Watertown, Maine. John1 Anderson is the first
Scottish-Irish emigrant ancestor of the family. I have included
superscript numbers in the following discussion indicating the
generation following the first family settler. John1 Anderson married
Rebecca Waite July 16, 1706. Abraham2 Anderson was born to John
and Rebecca August 18, 1708, the second born of 4 children.

Very little is known of Abraham2 Anderson until he appears in
research at the new township of New Marblehead, now Windham,
Maine. He settled in 1740 among the first of the settlers in the
township. The farm which he cleared from three large acreages was
much improved and was near the center of the settlement. The
Anderson farm has always been one of the best in Windham, Maine.

The original farm has descended from father to son in the family,
always enlarged and improved. Abraham2 Anderson married
Bethshua Farr prior to 1732 and five children were born to them
between then and her death at age 39, on July 4, 1751. Abraham2
Anderson married his second wife, Mrs. Ann Collins Cloutman, the
following year. Mrs. Ann (Collins), widow of Edward Cloutman, who
was taken prisoner by the Indians during their attack on Gorham,
Maine, April 19, 1746. He later drowned, with a Mr. Dunbar, while
attempting to escape from captivity the next year. At the time, The Old
Province Fort was built on then Anderson owned lot 33 and was used
by local settlers to escape growing Indian raids. During the summer of
1754, when the French and Indian War broke out, the settlers were
compelled to take refuge in their fort and leave the various farms they
had worked so hard to prepare. Any land cultivation had to be done
under the protection of armed guards. The French and Indian War
(1754 – 1763) was the last of four major colonial wars between the
British, the French, and their Native American allies for control of
North America.

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