PDF page 20, printed page 12

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Scan of page 20 of the 1906 Oak family register
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12
OAK—OAKS—OAKES
Captain Jonathan Oaks, for so he wrote the name in later
life,
being the
first of the family to change the form—was the most
enterprising and successful of the brothers.
He was a land-owner
in Westboro, 1738-9; was dismissed with wife from the Marlboro
church, 1741
; a "housewright" of Bolton, 1744; and a resident of
Stow,
1745-9.
Then he sold his possessions
in those towns and
bought for £1600 a farm of 112 acres on Bare Hill (or Oak Hill as
it was also called from the large trees there growing)
in Harvard.
Here he built a house—largely from materials taken from other
buildings torn down by him
in the practice of his
craft—which
was still standing in good repair in
1896, owned by Andrew Mc-
Neff.
In
1750-70 he
is named frequently
in various records of
town
and
church—though
apparently
not
a
church
member;
served
as
juryman,
constable,
tithingman,
surveyor
of
hoops,
highway surveyor, and tax
collector.
From about 1766 he was
known
colloquially and
in
official records
as "Captain," having
doubtless been chosen captain of the training band.
This would
indicate service in the French-Indian wars
; indeed the family tra-
dition, several times appearing
in print—is that he fought with
Wolf
at Quebec, and was employed
to make
the
fallen
hero's
coffin.
There
is no reason to doubt that this was founded on his
own statement and
is true; but no official record of his military
service has been found by diligent research.
There has been a
prevalent
idea that he was
given, or promised,
a
large reward
by the British government; and whenever in the early years any
Oaks changed his residence so as to be lost track of by a portion
of the family he was generally supposed to have somehow appro-
priated more than his share of the bounty and gone to dwell
in
some very distant part of the world.
In 1771 Capt, Oaks sold his
Harvard property for £440 and obtained from the Kennebec Pur-
chase Company a grant of land in Canaan, Maine, settling there
with his family in 1772.
His land was part of the site of the pres-
ent city of Skowhegan, including an island in the Kennebec river
that
still bears his name.
He was thus one of the
first settlers
;
and his son William was probably the
first child born in Show-
hegan.
Though the owner of much land and a man trusted by
everybody, yet having provided for many children
at their mar-
riage and the Continental currency being worthless, he was hard
pressed for money
in Revolutionary times, as were his heirs for
some time after his death
; his estate being appraised at only £219.
Moreover for several years before his death he was totally blind,
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