The Tabor Family

The following information in regard to this large and respectable family was mainly obtained from Thomas Tabor, since deceased, and from his son, Lorenzo Tabor, Esq., now living in Adrian, Mich.

Stephen Tabor and his wife, whose maiden name was Comfort Parker, emigrated to this town of Bradford in the autumn of 1798, bringing with them eleven children, to whom three more were added after their coming, all of the same mother, and what is very remarkable the whole fourteen lived to be over thirty years of age. All, with their families, have now disappeared from this town, and only two sons and two daughters of the original family are now, June, 1874, supposed to be living. Mr. Stephen Tabor removed his family from New Bedford, Mass., and settled on a good farm, or rather on a lot which he and his sons converted into a good farm, on Goshen road, about one mile and a half from Bradford village, the same farm which is now owned and occupied by Capt. Preston Chamberlin. Mr. Tabor died there, Aug. 10, 1852, at the age of 80, and Mrs. Tabor, his wife, died Aug. 23, 1837, in her 79th year.   Their children were.

1 Mary was born March 27, 1767, and died Jan. 10, 1847, in the 70th year of her age.

2 Ruby, born Sept. 7, 1778, married Ezekiel Sawyer, and died leaving a family (see the Sawyers) March 24, 1813, in her 35th year.

3 Rebecca, born Aug. 2, 1780; married Thomas Highlands, and died July 22, 1852, aged 72, nearly; left a family.

4 Jeremiah, born April 22, 1782; married Dorothy Drew, settled on Indian stream, in the Northwest part of New Hampshire, and died there March 31, 1843, aged 61, nearly.

5 Phebe, born Aug. 1784; married Thomas Whipple, and died Aug. 17,1823, aged 39 years. Thomas Whipple was M. D., and also a Member of Congress. 

6 Thomas Tabor, born May 13, 1786; married Abigail Drew, of Corinth, who died Sept. 24, 1861, aged 69 years, 5 months and 4 days. Mr. Tabor died at Hudson, Michigan, Feb. 27, 1863, in the 77th year of his age. Of him and his family see further notice, hereafter. 

7 Paul Tabor, born Aug. 12, 1788; married Waity Whipple, and is at this writing living in health and mental vigor near Adrian, Michigan, with his wife. 

8 Sarah, born March 12,1791; married Daniel Drew, of Corinth, and at this date is living still in health and activity, at Prairie Du Lac, Sauk county, Wisconsin. 

9 Stephen Tabor, born March 11,1793 ; married Sarah Wilson, daughter of James W., the globe maker, and died March 27, 1823, aged 30 years and 16 days. 

10 Anna, born Feb. 11, 1795, married Lewis Masqueier, lived with him at Green Point, King's Co., N. Y., and died Sept. 13, 1873, in her 78th year. 

11 Mercy, born Dec. 16,1796; married John H. Kimball, of Bradford, and died Aug. 25, 1833, in her 37th year.   See Kimball family.

12 Elisha P. Tabor, born Feb. 26,1799 ; married Hannah Kent, and at this writing is living at Prairie Du Lac, Wisconsin.

13 Patience, born March, 1801; a successful teacher still living, single.

14 Isaac W. Tabor, born November 11, 1804; by profession an attorney-at-law; married; established himself in business at Houlton, Aroostook Co., Maine; represented that town in the State Legislature, and died there Jan. 23, 1859, in his 55th year.

Of the children of these numerous members of the original Tabor family we have not been furnished with any account, except in the case of Thomas and his wife, Abigail Drew, who had six sons and three daughters, all natives of Bradford, namely.

1 Lorenzo Tabor, born February 23,1815. His early education, pursued for some years in good district schools, was finished at Bradford Academy. He commenced the study of law with Seth Austin, Esq., of this town, and completed the requisite course in the office of Elijah Farr, attorney-at-law, at Wells River, Vt., and by Orange County Court was duly admitted to the bar in 1838. In May, 1839, he married Miss Maria, daughter of Thomas Ormsby, of this town, and with her set out to seek a home in the West. They seem to have been most happily united, and have lived for many years in prosperity at Adrian, Michigan. They have had three beautiful sons, all removed from them by the stroke of death, in their boyhood.   Esquire Tabor has been not only successful in his professional business, and accumulated a competency with which, unlike many others, he seems to be satisfied, and disposed to be liberal; but has also gained the reputation of a capable, upright, and trustworthy man, and as such has been in various ways honored. On the late occasion of his resignation of the office of an Alderman of Adrian, the City Council passed resolutions highly applauding " the rare ability, honesty of purpose, and the strictest integrity," ever manifested by him in the discharge of his official duties, and their regret that, for reasons made public by him, he should have seen fit to resign. 

2 Philander Tabor, the next brother of the last named, born November 15, 1816, is at this date living in Independence, Iowa.

3 Ruby, born July 1, 1818, married Henry Ames, with whom she lives in Adrian.

4 Stephen, born January 22, 1820, died August 12, 1867.

5 Phebe Jane, born July 31, 1824, lives near her brother Lorenzo.

6 Lavalette, born September 24, 1826, is largely and successfully engaged in mercantile business at Prairie Du Lac, Wisconsin.

7 Mercy Helen, born November 22, 1828, married S. S. Wilkinson, a lawyer, and lives in Jefferson, Green County, Iowa, in good circumstances. 

8 Thomas Byron, born September 29, 1830, died February 19, 1849, in his nineteenth year. 

9 Another son, Walter W., born August 11, 1833, died in his fifth year.

Thomas Tabor, Esq., had a love for the beautiful in nature, and by the way-sides, near their residence in Bradford, set out those rows of maples, now so large and flourishing and attractive to every passer by. He set them in the spring of 1830, so that they have now been growing there for forty-four years.   He was a trustee of Bradford Academy for several years, and to him, mainly, is the institution indebted for the beautiful maples which adorn its grounds. He set them there in the spring of 1831. Mr. Tabor removed to Michigan in 1837 ; and in 1860 wrote to me, "Here are many trees growing, that may perpetuate a name that otherwise might become extinct."

In the same letter he gave the following account of his experience in regard to the business of making whiskey:

" Not far from the year 1810, my brother Jeremiah and I, the two oldest sons, both zealous members of the Freewill Baptist church, built a distillery on the Tabor farm, and engaged largely in making whiskey from potatoes, which we followed for near fifteen years, raising from one thousand to four thousand bushels of potatoes yearly, and buying as many more. This was the most successful establishment of the kind for many miles around, and no doubt did more real injury in the circle of its influence than the proprietors have been, or ever will be, able to atone for by a long life of humble repentance and earnest efforts to do good. This business finally fell into my hands, and I verily thought with myself that I could make and sell whiskey, and at the same time please God, pray to Him acceptably and be a blessing to the world.  In this state of mind I attended a temperance lecture at the village, the first I ever attended, not far from the year 1825. In this meeting the dreadful and inexcusable sin of making, selling, or drinking, alcoholic liquors as a beverage was so forcibly brought home to my conscience that I felt, with David, that I had sinned; and was among the first to come forward and sign the pledge of total abstinence, which I have faithfully kept for now thirty-five years, and intend to keep till I die. The distillery went to the bugs."

It was probably in 1826 that Mr. Tabor's conversion occurred ; as it was then that our earnest temperance effort was commenced. And, though the fact is not stated by him, it was said at the time that the horrible murder of a woman at Haverhill, N. H., by her drunken husband, under the maddening influence of some of Mr. Tabor's whiskey, was with him an urgent motive to break off at once, and forever, from the business in which he had been engaged.  He was ever after an earnest advocate of total abstinence.  Esqr. Tabor was a very sensible and kind-hearted man, and, withal, quite poetically inclined. Some specimens of his poetry may be seen, with other Bradford productions of that sort, in the last chapter of this book.  Biographie Index

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