History of Orrington, (Penobscot County) Maine United States of America

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Biographies:

Benjamin Franklin Mudge, scientist, was born in Orrington, Maine, Aug. 11, 1817; son of James and Ruth (Atwell) Mudge; grandson of Enoch and Lydia (Ingalls) Mudge, and a descendant from Thomas and Marie Mudge. Thomas Mudge was born in Devonshire, England, 1624; arrived in America shortly after 1640, and settled in Malden, Mass. His parents removed to Lynn, Mass., when he was an infant, and he attended the public school and Wilbraham academy. He was graduated at Wesleyan university A.B. and B.S. in 1840. He studied law in Lynn, 1843-44, and was admitted to the bar in 1844, practising in Lynn, 1844-59. He was married in 1846 to Mary Eusebia A. Beckford of Lynn, who with two sons and one daughter survived him. He was associate justice of the police court, 1850-59; mayor of Lynn, 1850; member of state temperance committee, 1854-60, and chemist to oil refineries in Chelsea, Mass., and Cloverport, Ky., 1860-61. He removed to Quindoro, Kan., in 1861; was appointed state geologist in 1864, and was professor of natural science in the State Agricultural college, Manhattan, Kansas, 1865-73. He was president of the State Teachers association, 1867; president of the Kansas Natural History society, 1868-79; lecturer in geology, State university, Lawrence, Kan., 1873-79, and made various geological explorations alone and with D.C. Marsh of Yale college for the State Board of Agriculture. The first known toothed bird was discovered by him and presented to Yale college. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The members of the State Academy of Science, of which he was chief founder and president, erected a monument to his memory in Manhattan, Kan. He is the author of: First Annual Report of the Geology of Kansas (1866); Notes on the Tertiary and Cretaceous Periods of Kansas (1877), and contributions to the Ladies' Repository, American Journal of Science and Arts, Transactions of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, Report U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey and the Kansas City Review of Science and Industry. He died in Manhattan, Kan., Nov. 21, 1879.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Zachariah Atwell Mudge, author, was born in Orrinton, Maine, July 2, 1813; son of James and Ruth (Atwell) Mudge. He taught school at Topsfield, 1832-34, at Lynn, 1834-35; entered Wesleyan university in 1835, but left in April, 1837, and taught in private families in Mississippi and as principal of the male department, Woodville academy, 1837-40. He was ordained in 1839 and joined the New England conference, 1840, his itinerancy being confined to eastern Massachusetts, 1840-88. He edited Guide to Holiness, 1858-62. He was married in 1842 to Caroline Williams Goodridge of Boston, Mass. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Wesleyan in 1882. He is the author of over forty Sunday-school books (1847-1880), including: The Easy Lesson Book for Infant Scholars, of which over 100,000 copies were sold, and of Sketches of Mission Life among the Indians of Oregon (1854); The Christian Statesman (1865); Witch Hill (1870); Arctic Heroes (1874); North Pole Voyages (1875); History of Suffolk County, Mass. (1874); Fur Clad Adventurers (1880). He died at Westboro, Mass., June 15, 1888.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor