[Editor’s Note: This sketch of Dr.
True was read by Dr. Lapham before the Maine Historical Society, 17
March 1892.]
Dr. Nathaniel Tuckerman True was born in that part of old North
Yarmouth, which is now part of the town of Pownal, March 15,
1812. He was a lineal descendant of the Henry True, who was at
Salem, Mass. in 1644; [he] married a daughter of John Pike and settled
at Salisbury. Dr. True’s ancestors include some of the most
distinguished Puritan families in New England, such as Wheelwright,
Pike, Bradbury and Stevens. His great grandfather, Jonathan True,
was one of the early settlers in North Yarmouth, and the second settler
in that part of the old town which was first set off as Freeport and
subsequently as Pownal. The grandfather of Dr. True, also
Jonathan, was born in North Yarmouth, April 30, 1758, and left nine
children, one of whom John True, born August 7, 1785, married November
30, 1810, Mary, daughter of Abijah Hatch. These latter were the
parents of the subject of this notice. The Trues of North
Yarmouth were substantial citizens, noted for strength of mind and
character, noted also for industry and worldly thrift. Dr. True
was inured to labor upon his father’s farm in Pownal, attending the
brief terms of the town school, which were all the educational
facilities the town afforded. He early developed a love for
books, and while at home with his father, all his spare funds were
devoted to the increase of his library, and much of his spare time to
the study of his literary treasures. He was also a close student
of nature, and every natural object, whether animate or inanimate, had
in him a close observer and intelligent investigator.
Not until he was twenty years of age, did Dr. True decide upon pursing
a collegiate course of study. He then became a student of Dr.
Joseph Sherman, then principal of North Yarmouth Academy, and in two
years entered the freshman class at Bowdoin College. Pecuniary
reasons, and the fact that he was becoming of that age when it was
important for him to enter upon a profession, induced him to leave
college at the end of two years. This in after years was a source
of great regret, and was, without doubt, the great mistake of his
life. [He decided] upon the medical profession, not because he
thought it most congenial to his tastes, but because it would better
enable him to pursue the collateral studies of botany, chemistry,
mineralogy, geology and natural history, of all which he was
passionately fond, than any of the learned professions. While
pursuing his medical studies, he engaged more or less in teaching, in
order to provide himself with means, and met with marked success.
In 1835, he opened a high school at Bethel Hill, and was there two
terms in each year, until he received his degree of doctor of medicine
from the Maine Medical School in 1840, when he practiced for a short
time in Durham. But he soon found the practice of medicine to be
widely different from its study, and that while he had a fondness for
the one, he had neither the taste nor aptitude for the other. So
after two or three years in general practice of a profession in which
he soon found he lacked the essential elements of success, he laid
aside his drugs and his instruments, and adopted teaching as his life
pursuit. Gould’s Academy situated at Bethel Hill, where he had
successfully taught a
number of terms of high school, was established and put in operation,
while Dr. True was engaged in the study of medicine and in practice,
and when he decided to abandon the medical profession, he engaged with
the trustees of Monmouth Academy to take charge of that institution,
and remained in charge, meeting with marked success for several
years. But the trustees of Gould’s Academy and the people of
Bethel Hill kept in remembrance the success that Dr. True [had] as a
high school teacher, and as soon as an opportunity was afforded they
invited him to take charge of their academy—a position which he
readily accepted, for he had become greatly attached to the people and
the place. It was in 1847 that Dr. True returned to Bethel,
intending to make the place his future home. The academy enjoyed
its greatest success in the years immediately following the return of
Dr. True. The building was literally packed with pupils during
the spring and fall terms, while many pursued their studies at their
rooms, and only came into the academy long enough to recite.
Dr. True remained in charge of Gould’s Academy until the trustees
decided that new methods should be introduced and an infusion of
younger blood, to put them into operation. After this, he opened
the Highland School for boys which continued for four years, and then,
while his family continued to reside at Bethel, Dr. True had a
professorship in a normal school in western New York, and also taught
terms of school at Gorham and Milan in New Hampshire. He was the
editor of The Bethel Courier,
the only newspaper ever published in Bethel, for about two years, and
it was in the columns of this paper that appeared his chapters on the
early history of Bethel. He served on the school board of Bethel
for several years, and one year as supervisor of schools for Oxford
County. At the death of Dr. Ezekiel Holmes in 1865, Dr. True was
invited to take charge of the agricultural department of that paper,
which he accepted and successfully filled for four years. He was
also an efficient member of the Maine Board of Agriculture. He
wrote much upon the subject of agriculture and horticulture, and was
the founder of, and the leading spirit, in the Bethel Farmer’s
Club. He was a constant contributor to the columns of the Oxford Democrat, Portland Transcript and Lewiston Journal, and wrote upon a
great variety of topics.
Dr. True instructed his students at Bethel not only in theory but in
practice, and it was his delight to take his spring and summer classes
in botany through the fields, pastures and woods, gathering and
classifying the various wild flowers in their season, or his pupils
interested in mineralogy and geology to the summit of Paradise Hill,
and sometimes even to the tops of surrounding mountains, where he
pointed out and described diluvial markings and other signs of glacial
action, and gathered minerals of various kinds. His influence was
felt throughout the town and county, and was elevating in its effects
more especially upon the public schools.
Dr. True’s studies embraced a very wide range, and he was able to
impart instruction in almost every department of useful
knowledge. They embraced languages, both ancient, including
Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and modern including French, Spanish, Italian
and German, the natural sciences, practical surveying and engineering,
scientific agriculture, navigation, astronomy, and the higher
mathematics. If he failed in anything, it was in his effort to
cover too much ground, so to speak, for no man can hope to be
proficient in everything, and the usual result where a person tries to
be proficient in everything is that he will be profound in
nothing. Dr. True was interested in historical and antiquarian
research which induced him to seek membership in the Maine Historical
Society. Though not a resident of Bethel until his mature
manhood, he soon became and continued to be until his death, the
historical man of the town. At the time of the centennial
celebration, he was selected as the historian of the occasion, and
later at the centennial of the Indian raid into Bethel, he was called
upon to act in the same capacity.
Dr. True was a ready and fluent speaker, and when instructing his
classes or lecturing before larger audiences upon geology and kindred
subjects, he always addressed his hearers in a familiar and off-hand
manner, making himself easily understood. He was [an] authority
upon the botany, mineralogy and geology of northern Oxford County, and
also upon the history, language and customs of the Abenaki
Indians. He was enthusiastic in the schoolroom, and had the happy
faculty of inspiring his pupils with the same spirit. Among his
pupils were the ablest men and women that ever went from Bethel, and
not a few of them have achieved national reputations. His school
was well-patronized by the people of Portland, and several of the
members of this Society, who have been under the instruction of Dr.
True, can testify to his efficiency as a teacher. His last active
work in 1883 was a resumption of his old employment at Litchfield
Academy. There he was stricken with paralysis from which he never
recovered, and returning to Bethel, he lingered for a year and more,
gradually becoming more feeble in mind and body until he passed
away. [He died May 24, 1887.] Dr. True received the
honorary degree of master of arts
from Waterville College [now Colby] in 1812, and the same from Bowdoin
in 1868. He had been president of the Maine Board of Education,
corresponding member of the Portland Society of Natural History, of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the
Wisconsin Historical Society. Save his magazine and newspaper
articles, none of the writings of Dr. True were ever published.
He left more or less manuscript, but none of it in form to be
printed. His papers upon the language of the Abenaki Indians were
disposed of by the family for a small sum and carried to
Massachusetts. Dr. True was a professor of religion, and the time
of his death, one of the deacons of the first Congregational church in
Bethel.
Dr. True was married August 9, 1836, to Ruth Ann, daughter of Aaron and
Rebecca (Marston) Winslow of Westbrook. By this marriage, he had
five children, three of whom died young. The surviving daughter,
Mary Hatch True, has achieved a wide reputation as a teacher of deaf
mutes.
For [his] second wife, Dr. True married September 19, 1849, Susanna
Webber, daughter of Eben and Mary (Barnard) Stevens of Sweden,
Maine. By this marriage, there are two daughters and one son, all
of whom with their mother survive. The son, John Preston True, a
young man of great promise, fills an important position in the
publishing house of Houghton, Mifflin and Company of Boston.
