Greenleaf, Moses (17 October 1777–20 March 1834), mapmaker, writer, and promoter of the state of Maine, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of Moses Greenleaf, a ship carpenter and a lieutenant in the American Revolution, and Lydia Parsons. In 1790 Greenleaf moved with his family to New Gloucester in the district of Maine, where his parents became farmers. From 1799 to 1806 he operated a general store, first in New Gloucester for three years, then in Poland, Kenduskeag, and Bangor. In 1805 he married Persis Poor; they had four children. One year after his marriage Greenleaf purchased from William Dodd of Boston a quarter interest in a township to be carved from Maine “wild lands” he had purchased from Massachusetts. Greenleaf agreed to manage the joint property (later incorporated as Williamsburg) and to settle forty families there by 1812. Greenleaf spent part of the winter of 1807 in Boston, where he promoted his new property and the separation of Maine from Massachusetts while the General Court was in session there. Although an ardent Federalist, he opposed the majority of his party on the issue of separation....
Article
Greenleaf, Moses (1777-1834), mapmaker, writer, and promoter of the state of Maine
Olive Hoogenboom
Article
Peerson, Cleng (17 May 1782 or 1783–16 December 1865), "the father of Norwegian immigration"
Odd S. Lovoll
Peerson, Cleng (17 May 1782 or 1783–16 December 1865), "the father of Norwegian immigration", “the father of Norwegian immigration,” was born Kleng Pedersen in the parish of Tysvær—north of the coastal city of Stavanger—in Rogaland County, Norway, on the Hesthammer farm, the son of Peder Larsen and Inger Sivertsdatter, renters of Hesthammer, an ecclesiastical possession. Information about Peerson’s childhood is sparse. An attestation of confirmation is dated in November 1800, making him seventeen or eighteen years old at that time. The relatively high age for this religious rite of passage within the Norwegian Lutheran State Church has suggested to some historians that already at that young age he had revealed a rebellious spirit against the state church, causing the parish minister to delay his confirmation. In his youth he went to sea. It was the beginning of a life as a wanderer and adventurer. He had a quick mind, and visiting England, France, and Germany, he gained some facility in their languages....
Article
White, Elijah (1806-1879), medical missionary, federal agent, and proponent of westward emigration
Carol Kammen
White, Elijah (03 April 1806–03 April 1879), medical missionary, federal agent, and proponent of westward emigration, was born in Havana, now Montour Falls, New York, the son of the Reverend Alward White and Clara Pierce. His father and uncles were Methodist Episcopal itinerant preachers, and as a youth White was an activist in the local Methodist congregation, being especially interested in temperance. He became a doctor, possibly having studied in Syracuse. He married Sarepta Caroline Rhoode sometime before 1835....
