The Dressers of Scarborough Maine

WILBUR FISKE DRESSER
(ABOUT 1900)

The Dresser Road in rural western Scarborough is about 8/10 of a mile long, and was home to the historical Dresser family (originally from Rowley, Massachusetts) for over 150 years, from about 1735 to 1891.

The earliest record of the road being named Dresser Road that I have found to date would be a property deed dated July 1875 to Dominicus Libby from the Estate of Silas Harmon (Book 422, Page 233 of Registry of Deeds), where it makes reference to "New Road - called Dresser Road".  The 1871 Town Map of Scarboro hadn't featured this road at all, so I believe the road was created and so named at some point in between these four years.  

A history of the Dressers of Scarborough:

Around 1735, Nathaniel Dresser (1683-1749) migrated north from Rowley, Mass with his wife Elizabeth (1689-1736) and his son Richard Dresser (1713-1783) to the fertile farmlands of Scarborough.  Elizabeth died shortly after arriving.  Nathaniel was killed by an Indian on Scottow's Hill near the home of Leonard Libby.  Neighbor David Libby killed the Indian that did the deed. Nathaniel is reputed by the Scarborough Historical Society to have been the last person killed by Indians in Scarborough (American Indian Wars: A Chronology of Confrontations Between Native Peoples, copyright McFarland, Jun 8, 2015, written by Michael L. Nunnally).

The same year that Nathaniel died, his son Richard married Mindwell Munson of Scarborough.  They had six children, most of whom moved to neighboring Buxton:

-Mary Dresser married neighbor Elijah Libby, but she died young, and had no descendants.

-Mindwell Dresser married neighbor Elijah Libby after her sister died.  No descendants there, either.

-Richard Dresser moved to neighboring Gorham and married Temperance Hamblin.  They settled in Buxton with two sons, Joseph and Richard, Jr.

-Mark Dresser moved to Buxton, married Nancy Holbrook, and had twelve children. 

-Paul Dresser also moved to Buxton, and married Sally Holbrook (sister to Nancy!), and had at least eleven children.  Paul's son, Alfred Metcalfe Dresser (1807-1870) married his first cousin Martha Andrews Dresser (Mark's daughter).  This meant that Martha and Alfred were double cousins.

-Wentworth Dresser (1762-1842) was the only one in his immediate family to remain in Scarborough.  He fought in the Revolution (Private, Captain Roger Libby’s Company; joined 1 October 1779; discharged 23 October 1779; service with detachment of Cumberland County Militia under Nathaniel Jordan, Esq., at the Eastward. (Vol IV, p. 969, Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors in the War of the Revolution).  He married Sophia Holbrook (sister to Nancy and Sally, mentioned above).  They managed the farm on Dresser Road.  They had eight children, all but one whom relocated to other parts of Maine:

1. Daniel Dresser moved to Saco, and married Sarah Libby of that town.  Their only child, Ira Dresser, relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio.

2. Sarah Dresser-Dewey-Smith also moved to Saco, and had four children with two husbands (both from Vermont).

3.  Ira Dresser married Nancy Smart and also moved to Saco, where they had eight children. Ira was a clothier at Saco Clothing Store, according to this ad from 1856.

4.  Robert Dresser married Sophia Rose and moved to Portland, where they had nine children.

5. Lydia Dresser married John Blake and moved to Portland, where they had five children.

6.  Israel Dresser married Elizabeth Banks and moved to Castine, and later Brewer, Maine, and had well over a dozen children.

7. Joseph Wentworth Dresser married Eunice Deering (daughter to Samuel Deering of Gorham).  They had five children and relocated to Kansas around 1855.

8. Josiah C. Dresser (1816-1868) was the youngest child of Wentworth, and the only descendant of the Scarborough Dressers to remain in Scarborough.  He kept the Dresser Road farm going until his death in 1868.  He married Lydia W. Junkins, and had three children in Scarborough:

-Emma Dresser (1853-1872) died young at age 19.

MELVILLE DRESSER

-Melville Dresser (1851-1885) married Ella Smith, and remained in Scarborough, but had no children.

-Wilbur Fiske Dresser (1848-1925), pictured above, kept the Dresser Road farm going after the death of his father.  He married his neighbor Sarah Eliza McLaughlin (part of the Scotch-Irish clan that migrated to Cumberland County and were early county founders).

SARAH MCLAUGHLIN-DRESSER
(abt 1899)

Additional photos of Wilbur and Sarah from around 1912, courtesy of the Dresser Family:

Wilbur expanded the farm's business around 1893, and got into dealing hay, straw, ashes and bale ties.  He kept an office at 12 Moulton Street in Portland for some time, and was also named Postmaster of West Scarborough in 1888.  The following year, his mother Lydia deeded him the entire Dresser properties in Scarborough before she herself passed in 1896.

By 1896, Wilbur expanded his business enterprises into real estate, and became a successful broker in Scarborough and all around Greater Portland.  His company, W.F. Dresser & Sons was then located at 80 Exchange Street.  This company managed the purchase, sale and mortgage of a variety of Cumberland County properties from after the Civil War through to the end of the Depression.

80 EXCHANGE STREET
(OFFICES OF W.F. DRESSER)
BEHIND 'FOX BLOCK' (WHICH IS NOW 'TOMMY'S PARK')
(1924)

80 EXCHANGE STREET
(2012)

In 1896, Wilbur also happened to be the Administrator to the Will of my 2nd great grandmother, Sarah Jane Temm, four years after her death.  In 1920, he also sold some land on Gorham Road to her son, John Henry Temm, who was my great grandfather.

By 1891, Wilbur had started selling off his land assets in Scarborough to others.  That year he deeded the Dresser farm to George Wolfe, and in 1897 he deeded neighboring property to Florence Bennett.  He left Scarborough during that time, but still handled many land deals there for several years.  Wilbur's exodus from Scarborough around 1891 marks the end of a long era of Dressers living in the Town.

By the 1900 Census he and his family were living on Atlantic Street in South Portland, and then he was living on his Payne Road property in South Portland for 1910, when they had a live-in servant, Eugene Foye.  

To be closer to his burgeoning real estate business, Wilbur moved the family to Portland just prior to the 1920 Census, to their new home at 1181 Congress Street in the Libbytown district.  The house was razed many years later to make way for the 295 Overpass and ramps.

1181 CONGRESS STREET
(1924)

Below is a brief account of Wilbur's five children:

IRA DRESSER
(abt 1885)

1.  Ira Hunt Dresser (1879-1957) worked as a farmer, then trucking and moving, and later as a building nurse, was a member of the Stroudwater Grange, and lived on Outer Congress Street in Libbytown, Portland with his wife Mildred Grover.  No children.  I learned from town historians that when they married in 1908, Mildred did NOT want to live in rural Scarborough, so the land that Ira had possession of on Dresser Road he had to sell off, and move to Portland, where his wife would be happier.

WILLIAM WATSON DRESSER
(abt 1890)

WILLIAM WATSON DRESSER
(about 1915)

WILLIAM WATSON DRESSER
(about 1929)

2.  William Watson Dresser (1881-1946) became president of W.F. Dresser & Sons upon Wilbur's retirement.  In 1915, William was elected as exalted ruler of BPOE Lodge 188 in Portland.  His brother Perley followed him ten years later.  In 1917, William married Edith Skillin of Portland, but she died five years later, bearing him no children.  William kept the business going until his own death, at which time he was merely a lodger and widower living on Neal Street, and running the business out of 22 Monument Square starting in 1940.

PERLEY CHASE DRESSER
(ABOUT 1920)

3.  Perley Chase Dresser (1885-1960) also lived in Portland, and was treasurer of W.F. Dresser & Sons.  He married Alice Barbour, and had no children.  When his brother William died, he ran the family brokerage business until his own death in 1960, which signaled the end of the family real estate business, which had begun around 1895.  In 1925, Perley was elected exalted ruler of BPOE Lodge 188 in Portland, as his brother had before him, but held the post for over 25 years.

LEON WENTWORTH DRESSER
(ABOUT 1930)

4.  Leon Wentworth Dresser (1894-1967) also lived in Portland, and worked as a bank teller at Chapman National Bank.  He later was a partner in Millett Fish & Dresser (later Millett Rittenhouse & Dresser).  He and Phyllis Trefethen of South Portland (pictured below with Helen) married in 1916, just before Leon got drafted into WWI.  When Leon returned from the War, they had only one child, Richard W. Dresser (1924-1973), who married Mary Norbeck Libby (1925-after 1991), was drafted and served in WWII, moved to Boston around 1949 to attend business school at Boston University, but then got drafted into the Korea Conflict, made it to the rank of Captain, and resided in Wenham, MA until his death.  Richard & Mary had two children, Tom and Jane.  Leon & Phyllis lived in South Portland until their deaths.

HELEN MAY McDONALD (nee Dresser)
(about 1929)

HELEN DRESSER & PHYLLIS DRESSER
about 1972

5. Helen May Dresser (1902-1996) married William Rogers McDonald, Jr. and had a daughter named Ruth Ada McDonald Roberts (1932-2009) (who had children and grandchildren of her own).  McDonald's father, William, Sr., ran a successful sardine factory in Ferry Village on the South Portland Waterfront.

Most of the old Scarborough Dresser family is buried in Dunstan Cemetery in Scarborough.  While only two of Wilbur's children (Leon and Helen) bore him any descendants, there are no living Dresser descendants in Scarborough.  Their presence in Scarborough lasted from around 1735-1899, and the road they lived on is still named for them to this day.

The McLaughlins of Scarborough

McLaughlin Farm
Western side of Beech Ridge Road
Near Johnson Road
(Temm Property since 1930s)
Scarborough, ME

Robert McLaughlin Jr. was a farmer on the Beech Ridge Road in Scarborough, whose family lived on this property from about 1740-1914, and who were early founders of Cumberland County.  He was listed as Scarborough's member of the State House of Representatives in 1855.  He is referred to hereafter in this article as "Robert Jr."

Robert Jr. and his wife, Eleanor, had two children, Sarah Jane and William, and three grandchildren through William.  The entire family living on the McLaughlin Homestead, according to available census records are listed below (and written in boldface when they are known to have been buried at the family graveyard on their homestead):

Below is a list of McLaughlins buried at the McLaughlin Graveyard on 100 Beech Ridge Road:

• Robert McLaughlin, Jr. (1784-1871)
• Eleanor H. Clements-McLaughlin (1792-1863), Robert's wife
• Sarah Jane McLaughlin (1828-1848), Robert's daughter
• William McLaughlin (1829-1880), Robert's son (referred to elsewhere in this document as "William 1829")
• Catherine Mitchell-McLaughlin (1834-1908) (William 1829's wife).  When William died, she moved in with her daughter, at 223 Payne Road South Portland, where she died.
• Eliza A. Mitchell (1825-1895) (Catherine's sister) was a tailoress.  She died a spinster in Saco, having lived with the Carpenter, Lord (at the "Saco House"), Foss and Stevenson families as a boarder.
• Betsey E. McLaughlin (1855-1870), daughter of William 1829 and Catherine.  She died as a teenager

Below is a list of McLaughlins buried at DUNSTAN Cemetery in Scarborough (whom it is believed were buried elsewhere first, and removed to Dunstan - unclear where there original burial location was, but they all died prior to the burials at the family cemetery on Beech Ridge Road, so it's unlikely this was the original location) - also included here are headstone notes from Ron Romano, Portland Historian and Author:

• William McLaughlin (1706-1782) the main patriarch of these McLaughlins (referred to in this article as "William 1706") [William’s stone features the smallest rising sun I've found in the Bartlett Adams collection, made by Alpheus Cary c. 1805-1807. It is featured in my book about Bartlett on pages 146-147.  So this is clearly backdated.  He was probably buried in the back yard with a piece of field stone in 1782… since no stone shop was around then. Then, over 2 decades later, the family got him a professionally carved marker from the Adams shop.]
• Sarah Jameson-McLaughlin (1715-1818), wife to William 1706 [Sarah’s stone is unusual for its lack of decoration.  Just lettering — by Bartlett Adams himself, carved around 1825 - 1828 (it is his classic later lettering style from the mid 1820s to his death in 1828)]
• Robert McLaughlin Sr. (1752-1823), son to William and Sarah, and father to the Robert Jr. listed at the top (referred to in this article as "Robert Sr.") [Robert’s stone is a match to Sarah’s — undecorated but lettered by Adams around 1825 - 1828. Given their identical unusual appearance i think the family had them both made at the same time.]
• Martha Johnson-McLaughlin (1760-1851), wife to Robert Sr. [Martha’s stone is post-Adams and i don’t know the carver, but it is special since it is what we call a purple slate. These were produced in our area only from about 1840 to 1860 and are typically undecorated and with a square top and deeply incised letters.]
• Nancy McLaughlin (1784-1805), daughter to Robert Sr. and Martha, who died before her 21st birthday [Nancy’s stone is another of Alpheus Cary’s.  He was in the shop 1805 to 1807 and this one fits perfectly within that range as Nancy died 1805.  My guess is the family got her stone and William’s at the same time (from the same carver, at the same shop). And while Nancy got a very simple pinwheel design, the family chose the rising sun for the patriarch William]
• William McLaughlin (1789-1837) Robert Jr.'s brother (referred to elsewhere in this document as "William 1789")
• Agnes Hasty-McLaughlin (1796-1884) William 1789's wife

Other McLaughlins of Scarborough:

• Martha McLaughlin (1791-??), Robert Jr.'s sister, unwed
• Mary McLaughlin (1797-???), Robert Jr.'s sister, unwed
• James McLaughlin (1819-1895) William 1789's son, a carpenter who relocated to New Jersey.
• Charles McLaughlin (1827-1886) William 1789's son - buried at Evergreen Cemetery.  Charles was a successful grocer, and started up Charles McLaughlin & Company grocers.

CHARLES MCLAUGHLIN
(1827-1886)

CHARLES MCLAUGHLIN & CO
STORE ON CENTRAL STREET
ABOUT 1880
This firm began business on Commercial Street, No. 163,
near the head of Union Wharf, removed to No. 84 (Thomas
Block ) in 1860, where they remained until December, 1879,
when they removed to the large and spacious store on Central
Street (head of Central Wharf).

William 1829 took over the farm from his father Robert.  He and his wife Catherine had four children:

• Betsey E. McLaughlin (1855-1870), buried at the family lot mentioned above.
• Sarah Eliza McLaughlin (1859-1917) married in 1878 to real estate broker Wilbur Fiske Dresser (1848-1924), of the Scarborough Dressers (who had been in Scarborough since the Revolution, and have a public road named after them), and in particular, son to Josiah Dresser of Scarborough (1816-1868).  As an aside, Wilbur was executor of the Estate of my 2nd great grandmother, Sarah Jane Temm.  Wilbur his wife Sarah Eliza moved to Payne Road, in South Portland, after the McLaughlin homestead was no longer with the family (around 1890), and they took Sarah's widowed mother Catherine with them.  They had five children:  Ira, William, Perley, Leon and Helen.  Leon and Helen each had children.  Richard W. Dresser (1925-1973) was son to Leon, and Ruth McDonald-Roberts (1932-2009) was daughter to Helen.  Each of these descendants had children of their own.  In later years, after Sarah died of uterine cancer, Wilbur lived as a widower with his son Perley in Portland, before retiring to Scarborough, where he died.  Most of this family is buried at Dunstan Cemetery in Scarborough.
• Katie M. McLaughlin (1868-1943) worked as a stenographer.  She married Capt. Fred Phillips of Portland in 1899.  She quitclaimed her interest in the McLaughlin estate to her sister Sarah in 1901.  She and Fred lived in Portland for the rest of their lives, and are buried at Dunstan.
• Ada McLaughlin (1869-bef 1880)

KATIE MCLAUGHLIN
circa 1878

SARAH MCLAUGHLIN
circa 1878

To dig back into Robert Jr.'s roots, I will take from the e-book History of Cumberland County published 1880 by W. Woodford Clayton, where there is a brief history of the McLaughlins from Beech Ridge (going back to Ireland).  Here is the excerpt pertaining to their time in Scarborough (which contains  information which appears to be at odds with some records I've found - below I've bracketed where I object to certain information publshed):

William and Robert McLaughlin, brothers, of the stock of the Luster McLaughlins, emigrated in the same vessel to this country, and settled in Scarborough, then virtually, so far as the Indians were concerned, a frontier town.  William was born in 1706; his wife, Sarah Jameson, was born in Plymouth, Mass., in 1715, and died in Scarborough, Jan. 21, 1818. [Robert was never married.] William and Robert cleared the farm on Beech Ridge, in Scarborough, now owned and occupied by his great-grandson, Robert McLaughlin. This family, like the other settlers of Scarborough, had their share of  trouble from the Indians, who, both in their own interest and in that of the French, made many incursions into the town. In those days the alarms of danger were frequent enough; the McLaughlins were obliged many a time to leave their home and seek security with the garrison on Scottow's Hill; and it was not until the peace of 1763 that they were finally safe from the depredations of the savages.

William McLaughlin was a town warden in 1777. He died in 1782. His son Robert, born in Scarborough, July 18, 1752, died May 8, 1823; his wife, Martha Johnson, was born Feb. 16, 1761, and died at Monmouth, Me., June 9, 1851. [Missing Robert Jr. 1784-1871] They had three sons and six daughters. Betsey, the eldest, married Edward Sargent, of Bangor; Sally and Nancy were never married ; Catharine married Henry Vanschaick Cumston, of Scarborough, afterwards of Monmouth; William; James; Dionysia married Wiggins Hill, of Bangor; Ruth married Joseph Hasty, of Standish ; Charles was never married ; James went to Bangor, operated in real estate, became quite wealthy, and died there Oct. 14, 1872, at the age of eighty-two ; his wife was Almira Tilton, of Scarborough. Charles, the youngest of the family, settled in Louisiana and became a large planter ; he died Dec. 19, 1835, in his thirty-eighth year. William took to farming like his ancestors, and was known as a man of good judgment, of strict integrity, and correct habits. He married Agnes Hasty (whose mother, Rachel Deane, was a niece of Parson Deane), by whom he had three sons, James, Robert, and Charles; he died at Scarborough, April 11, 1837.  Of these sons, Robert resides upon the old homestead, which has thus been in his family for four successive generations, about a hundred and thirty years.

Now, the Robert underlined above is cousin to Robert Jr. of this article.  He kept the farm of his father (William born 1789) going until his own death in 1912.  This farm was nearby to the other McLaughlin property, owned by William's brother (Robert born 1784).  Robert Jr. of this article has been omitted from this 1880 publication entirely.  I've added him in above in brackets.

According to a series of typewritten sheets of research found at the Scarborough Historical Society written by a member of the Tilton family (the "Tilton Papers"):

William [the immigrant] and his wife Sarah suffered very much from the fear of the Indians, though never attacked by them.  They often had to leave their house and go to the garrison on Scottow's Hill.  Mrs. McLaughlin feared very much at one time that her young child might by its cries betray her to the Indians, the child having died she then thought its death was a punishment for her wicked fears.  Axes and all farming tools had to be carried into the house at night to secure them from the Indians.  A sister of Mrs. McLaughlin married John Porterfield who was saved by her dog from being taken by the Indians when she went in the spring for water.

Now also according to the Tilton Papers, a brother of Robert Jr. was one James McLaughlin of Bangor, who, after retiring from his law firm, Hill & McLaughlin, became a devoted gardener and founder of the McLaughlin Plum in the 1840s.  James and his horticultural creation are also mentioned in The Fruits of America, published 1856.

According to p. 187 of the Jamesons in America, published 1901, a Robert McLaughlin of Scarborough married Hannah McKenney, born 1739, daughter to Margaret Jameson.  Given the age, this Robert MAY have been a son to the Robert who was brother to William who emigrated from Northern Ireland with him.  I've bracketed the notion above that Robert never married.  I don't think there were any other Robert McLaughlins of marrying age in Scarborough in the 1750s.  I feel quite confident this is a son to this Robert.

I've compiled a family tree, using available records, with the assumption that my theories are correct (click to enlarge).  I've highlighted in yellow the people who are buried at McLaughlin Graveyard, and in green are people I have located in Dunstan Cemetery in Scarborough.

McLaughlin House
100 Beech Ridge Road (at the end of Dresser Road)
Scarborough Maine

McLaughlin House
100 Beech Ridge Road (at the end of Dresser Road)
Scarborough Maine
Owned by:
Robert McLaughlin (1784-1871)
his son William McLaughlin (1829-1880)
and his daughter Sarah McLaughlin Dresser (1859-1917)
(note, the writing in pencil at the top "OE Woodbury, 179 Lincoln Street, S. Portland"
refers to the photo studio, not the residence shown)

As for the property owned by William McLaughlin (born 1829, son to Robert born 1784, and first cousin to the Robert mentioned above) (see pictures above)...

In 1902, Sarah McLaughlin-Dresser (William's daughter) sold this 100 Beech Ridge Road property to Thomas Lessard, with a deed restriction for a burial ground to remain on the property, reading as follows:

Reserving, however, the Burying Ground on said farm with sufficient room to build and maintain suitable fence around the same with right to enter at any and all times to repair fence or for any other purpose.

The McLaughlin Property went through several hands afterwards:  Benjamin Shaw, Harriette Harmon, Bridget Sheehy, and finally in 1935 to Bill Temm, Sr. of the Temm family, which family had once owned the farmland across Beech Ridge Road back in 1864.  The property was divided up for Bill's heirs, but in 1998 the land that carried the deed restriction for the cemetery described it as such:

Reserving, however, to the Scarborough Historical Society, as well as the heirs of those buried therein, the right to access the old burial ground on the above-described property, said burial ground and right of access being more fully described in a deed recorded in the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds in Book 727, Page 169.

This small graveyard for the McLaughlins who lived and thrived there is maintained with much care by the current property owners, the heirs of Bill Temm, Sr., even as of the recent edit to this post in 2022.

Only seven members of this family have gravestones here (the names are in bold above), but as you can tell from the photos below, there is quite a bit of space where more unmarked graves might lie, and one would assume they may likely be the remainder of the McLaughlins who lived on Robert's homestead...