Dates

• Existence: 1779 - 1864

Biographical Note

Timothy Fletcher was born on May 9, 1779 in Acton, Massachusetts. When he was just twenty-days old, his father died and he was bound out to a farmer for the rest of his minority. In 1792, Fletcher left Massachusetts for New York City to search for his long lost brother named Daniel. Fletcher made most of the trip alone and on foot, covering about fifty miles a day till he reached Bridgeport, Connecticut; from there, he sailed to New York.

In 1803, Fletcher moved to Lincolnville, Maine, where he would spend the rest of his life. In that same year, he took up a teaching job, bought a farm, and married Mary L. Brown, a Maine native. The couple had several children together. Throughout his life, Fletcher was known as an upright man and stout Christian, faithful to the Fletcher family’s puritan roots. When Fletcher was eighty-five, he wrote in his journal that he was, “[still] not too old to hate rum and slavery.” He died on August 21, 1864.

Due to his role as a teacher, Fletcher may have been involved in the educational case, Fletcher vs. Lincolnville (1841) that reached the Maine Supreme Court. The case concerned the posting of meeting notices. Its outcome required that notices be posted at both Lincolnville’s grist mill and schoolhouse within a reasonable time period before a meeting’s date. Additionally, the ruling decided that if an agent of a district was chosen by a group of assembled qualified voters, the appointment could only be valid if the meeting was announced legally.

Citation:

Fletcher, Edward H. Fletcher Genealogy: an Account of the Descendants of Robert Fletcher of Concord, Mass. Boston: Printed for the Author, by A. Mudge & Son, 1871. Print.

Citation:

"History of Lincolnville, Maine." Town & County Histories of Maine. History at Ray's Place, 2009. Web. 01 Nov. 2010. http://history.rays-place.com/me/lincolnville-me.htm

Citation:

Maine. Dept. of Education, and Maine. Office of State Commissioner. Thirty-Fifth Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Common Schools State of Maine. Augusta: Burleigh & Flynt, 1889. The University of Michigan. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

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