Person Page - 571

He was Shreveport's first mayor. Whilst in office, he was killed in a duel by John Willson. The encounter took place on January 6, 1840, across the line in Elysian Fields,Texas, supposedly over a liquor ordinance but probably over an affair with Willson's wife. Joiner, G.D., Wicked Shreveport.

John Oscar Bagot Sewall, 86, formerly of Peterborough, passed away at Pleasant View Center in Concord, NH on February 21, 2022. He was born in Peterborough on January 3, 1936, the son of Oscar and Barbara (Bagot) Sewall.
John was a 1958 graduate of West Point Academy and earned his BA and MA at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and rowed crew in the 107th (1961) famous boat race between Oxford and Cambridge. John continued with a distinguished military career, serving in the United States Army for 33 years where he worked with NATO. During his military career he earned several medals and awards including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, two Legion of Merit Awards, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Purple Heart Award. He retired as a Major General in 1991. After his retirement, he continued a life of service in the Balkans helping Bosnia and Croatia to construct ministries of defense. He had a strong desire for world peace and was intent on doing his part to improve international relations.
John had a fierce love for his family and friends. He enjoyed meeting people and attending social functions. After his retirement, he enjoyed watching sports, mostly football. He will be missed by those he encountered and influenced throughout his life.
John is survived by his wife Martha (Biesanz) Sewall; his son Michael Sewall along with his children Nathan, Sophie, and Maria; his daughter Susan Sewall along with her children Starr and Skye and their children Giana and Zion; his stepson Brian Gorges along with his wife Susan and their children, Phoebe, Molly and Josie. John will also be missed by many close friends.
A graveside service, with full military honors, will be held on Friday May 27, 2022 at 11:00am at Dublin Town Cemetery, Dublin, NH.⁴

In 1850, John Smith Sewall graduated from Bowdoin College, Portland, Maine. To pay off college debts, he enlisted in the United States Navy. After basic training, the Navy assigned him to the USS Saratoga as a captain's clerk. Sewall wrote that sea duty meant "two years of waltzing to and fro and flitting up and down the coast" making stops in Manila, the Madjicosima Islands, Macao, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The Saratoga joined the East Asia Squadron and followed Commodore Perry to Japan in 1853-54, as one of the infamous "Black Ships."
Several years after returning to the United States, Sewall was ordained a Congregational minister. In 1859, he was appointed pastor in Wenham, Massachusetts, where he stayed until 1867. Sewall continued to serve the U.S. military as Chaplain to the 8th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War.
In the late 1860s, Sewall pursued a career in academia. From 1875 to 1903, he was a professor at his alma mater, Bowdoin. He finished his career at Bangor Theological Seminary as a professor of Homiletics, the art of preaching.
Half a century after his return from Japan, in 1905, Sewall wrote The Logbook of the Captain's Clerk: Adventures in the China Seas, to recount his experiences during the Japan expedition. He is also the author of a half dozen books and a number of essays ranging from theology to history.⁶

"A lawyer of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, popular in his own day as a verse-writer. His verse is for the most part forgotten, but his song, War and Washington, is yet remembered . . . ." (Oscar Fay Adams, A Dictionary of American Authors, 337 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899))

"Sewall, Jonathan Mitchell . . . lawyer and occasional poet, was born in Salem, Mass., and reared in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was a grand-nephew of Samuel Sewall the diarist. His parents died during his early childhood and he was adopted by a bachelor uncle, Stephen Sewall, chief justice of Massachusetts, who died when Jonathan was twelve years old. Young Sewall is reputed to have been a student at Harvard, although there are no official records of this or any other schooling. After clerking in a store, he studied law in a Portsmouth office, was admitted to the bar, and appointed register of probate for Grafton County, New Hampshire, but it is not known that he ever took office.

He practiced law in Portsmouth until his death, and took a prominent part in the civic and literary life of the town. He became well-know as a Revolutionary War poet, and besides achieving a local reputation for appropriate epitaphs, composed a number of laudatory poems to Washington - notably, his Eulogy on the Late General Washington, published in 1800." (Stanley J. Kunitz & Howard Haycraft (eds.), American Authors 1600-1900: A Biographical Dictionary of American Literature, 683 (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1938))

Sewall studied law under Judge John Pickering of Portsmouth. He is reputed to have been "an extremely modest man", and many of his writings were printed anonymously. Principal among these anonymous productions are a Fourth of July oration, delivered in Portsmouth in 1788, and later printed at the request of the citizens (this was the first Independence Day oration delivered at Portsmouth); and The Versification of Washington Farewell Address, published in 1798. He wrote many epigrams, epilogues, and poems of a political cast, besides his patriotic lyrics. He also wrote paraphrases of Ossian and an Eulogy on George Washington, delivered at St. John's Church, Portsmouth, Dec. 31, 1799. His Miscellaneous Poems with Specimens from the Author's Manuscript Version of the Poems of Ossian, was published in 1801. He was a noted wit and much sought after for his social qualities. It is said that his last years were darkened by intemperance. In politics he was a federalist. Nothing can be learned of his immediate family, except that a daughter survived him. It is said that his talents became eclipsed and his days shortened by an appetite for drink.

Poetry:
Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, Verses occasioned by reading the answer of the president of the United-States, to the House of Representatives, requesting certain papers relative to the treaty with Great-Britain (Boston: (s.n.): Printed in the year 1797)
___________________, A versification of President Washington's excellent farewell-address, to the citizens of the United States (Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Printed and sold by Charles Peirce, at the Columbian bookstore, no.5, Daniel-Street, 1798)
__________________, Eulogy on the Late General Washington (Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Printed by William Treadwell, 1800) ("pronounced at St. John's Church, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, 31st December, 1799. At the request of the inhabitants") (28 pp.)
__________________, Miscellaneous Poems: With several specimens from the author's manuscript version of the Poems of Ossian (Portsmouth: William Treadwell, & Co., 1801)
Songs:
Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, "Gen. Washington: a new favourite song, at the American camp: To the tune of the British grenadiers" (United States: s.n., 1776?) (1 sheet) ("A New song: to the tune of "British grenadiers." Boston: Sold (by Thomas and John Fleet) at the Bible and Heart in Cornhill, (1776)) (1 broadside)("A favorite song at the Columbian Camp, in the late glorious and victorious struggle for liberty," Printed and sold at the Printing Office in Salem: by Ezekiel Russell, 1776) (broadside).
___________________, "Songs for the celebration of American independence, 1806," (1806) (1 sheet)
Oration:
Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, An Oration, delivered at Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, on the fourth of July, 1788: being the anniversary of American independence. / By one of the inhabitants (Portsmouth (New Hampshire.): Printed by George Jerry Osborne, for the subscribers, 1788)
Writings:
Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, A Parody on Some of the Most Striking Passages in a Late Pamphlet, entitled "A letter to a Federalist" (Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Printed at the Oracle Press, 1805) (Vernon H. Quincey, Esq. (pseud.))
Bibliography:
A.M. Payson & A. Laighton, "The Poets of Portsmouth," Portfolio (June 25, 1808.)

Held office in 1718 Artillery Company; 1720 Clerk, Artillery Company; 1726 1st sergeant, Artillery Company as well as various town offices

He was a carpenter and builder in his early life and then engaged as an owner and builder in navigation at Hunnewell's Point, Maine which is now Popham Beach, where he resided for several years. He occupied what is known as the " White House", a conspicuous building, which was always painted white. He was a man of magisterial prominence, presiding at town meetings, and was a ready speaker. In 1816 he removed to Farmington, Maine where the remainder of his life was spent in farming. "He was a gentleman of the Old School, of a strong personality, and of great integrity of character, traits which were prominent in all the Sewalls."
A contract for the removal of Joseph Sewall to Farmington, reads "Farmington, Maine, April 23, 1816. This day Nathan Bacchus and Joseph Sewall agree that the said Nathan shall convey in his stagecoach the family of the said Joseph Sewall, consisting of three grown females, and three children together with 250 pounds of baggage from Hallowell, Maine to Farmington, Maine via the house of Elizabeth Luce, for the sum of nine dollars. The said Sewall shall be with his family at Hallowell Maine as soon as may be after the first Monday of May, next, and the said Nathan shall take him there as aforesaid on the Saturday morning following."
Joseph Sewall cleared his farm at Farmington and erected good buildings thereon.
Other accounts simply describe him as a shipbuilder in Bath who lost all his property in the embargo and war of 1812.³

He attended Old Town schools; graduated from the Holderness School, Plymouth, N. H., in 1939, and Bowdoin College, class of 1943. Bowdoin awarded Sewall an Honorary DCL in 1980. His college career was interrupted in the summer of 1942 by training as an aerial navigator with the Air Transport Command. He flew many trips to the far Arctic and Greenland ferrying supplies and personnel. Given a direct commission into U.S. Naval Aviation in 1943, he continued flying the North Atlantic in Squadron VR-1 until his honorable discharge in 1946 as lieutenant junior grade.
Returning to Old Town he joined the family firm in surveying and timberland management, where he served as president/CEO until 1996 when he became chairman until his retirement in 2002. The James W. Sewall Co. had about 10 employees in 1946 and had grown to 175 when Sewall retired. Drawing upon his experience as an aviator, Sewall moved the company from land-based surveying to using aircraft for aerial photography and surveying. He also established branch offices in Alaska, Canada and Ireland.
Not content to focus solely upon business, Sewall spent 25 years in elective office - nine years on Old Town City Council and 16 as state senator for Penobscot County. He served as president of the Maine Senate from 1975 to 1982, four terms, the longest serving Republican senate president in Maine history. His colleagues in Augusta regarded Sewall as a gentleman and remarkable leader.
Sewall served on the board of directors of J. H. Wyman Co., Fraser Paper, Katahdin Plywood, Merchants National Bank, Merrill Trust Co., Merrill Merchants Bank and for 30 years, Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. He was a former vestryman and senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church, Old Town; director of Old Town-Orono YMCA; trustee of Eastern Maine Medical Center; and trustee of the Maine Community Foundation and Castine Historical Society. President George H. W. Bush appointed him a commissioner of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission. He was also appointed to the Merchant Marine and Defense Commission by Presidents Reagan and Bush. Sewall served on the board of Maine Maritime Academy for 20 years and as its chair for 16 years. He logged more than 10,000 hours as a pilot and navigator, holding commercial pilot licenses for multi-engine land and sea-planes, he was an accomplished bush and mapping pilot.
An enthusiastic fly-fisherman, he built and operated Millbrook Farm on the Upsalquitch River, Robinsonville, New Brunswick, an Atlantic salmon camp. Being "in camp" with Sewall was ever a delight for the twinkle in his eye as he tightened his drag stimulating his chosen topic of conversation. Of his many friendships, none meant more to him than those built at Millbrook. Sewall was a member of Penobscot Valley Country Club, Castine Golf and Tennis Club, Center Harbor Yacht Club, the Tennis and Racquet Club of Boston, Upsalquitch Salmon Club and the Aero Club of New England. He was also a member of the Masons and Rotary International. Among many interests, Sewall was a golfer, tennis player, sailor, fly-fisherman, bird hunter and avid reader of 17th to 21st century history.
Sewall was predeceased by his parents; wife, Hilda (Wheelwright); son, Joseph W; and four siblings. He is survived by son, David T; daughter, Abigail; granddaughter, Elizabeth; sister, Elizabeth Gary; cousin, Louise Moody; nephew, James Page; great-nieces, Alexandra and Hanna; former daughter-in-law, Elizabeth; as well as his dear friend and companion, Meredith K. Hashey. Bangor Daily News, December 2, 2011.⁶

Sewall Joseph, D.D. was the son of the Hon. Samuel Sewall, Esq. chief justice of the province. He [entered the Boston Latin School in 1696] and graduated at Harvard College, 1707, and was ordained as colleague with the Rev. Mr. Pemberton, pastor of the Old South Church, Sept. 16, 1713. For many years he continued to preach to this people, who were edified, instructed and comforted by his labours. He was a man who seemed to breathe the air of heaven, while he was here upon earth; he delighted in the work of the ministry; and when he grew venerable for his age, as well as his piety, he was regarded as the father of the clergy. The rising generation looked upon him with reverence, and all classes of people felt a respect for his name. He was a genuine disciple of the famous John Calvin. He dwelt upon the great articles of the Christian faith in preaching and conversation; and dreaded the propagation of any opinions in this country, which were contrary to the principles of our fathers. Hence he was no friend to free inquiries, or to any discussion of theological opinions, which were held true by the first reformers. His advice to students in divinity was, to read the Bible always with a comment, such as Mr. Henry's, or Archbishop Usher's, and to make themselves acquainted with the work of his great predecessor, Mr. Willard, whose body of divinity was then in great repute. Though he so often preached the doctrines of the gospel, yet he never entered into any curious speculations; his object was to impress upon people what they should believe, and how they must live to be eternally happy. His sermons were pathetick [emotional], and the pious strains of his prayers, as well as preaching, excited serious attention, and made a devout assembly. His character was uniform, and the observation has often been made, if he entered into company something serious or good dropt from his lips. "His very presence banished away every thing of levity, and solemnized the minds of all those who were with him." He received the degree of doctor of divinity from the university of Glasgow, in the year 1731; and was appointed a corresponding member of "the society in Scotland for promoting Christian knowledge." He was also appointed one of the commissioners, by the Hon. corporation in London, "for the propagation of the gospel in New England, and parts adjacent." Although Dr. Sewall was more remarkable for his piety than his learning, yet he was a friend to literature, and endeavored all in his power to promote the interest and reputation of the college. He was a very good classical scholar. He could write handsomely in Latin when he was an old man, and had read many authors in that language. Most of the works of the great divines of the preceding century were written in Latin, as it was a kind of universal language among the literati of Europe. In the year 1724, upon the decease of Mr. Leveret, Dr. Sewall was chosen to succeed him as president of Harvard College, which honourable station he did not see fit to accept. In 1728, upon Dr. Colman's resignation, he was chosen a fellow of the corporation, and he faithfully discharged the duties of this office, till the year 1765. His donation to the college of money to be appropriated to indigent scholars, has been of considerable use. He gave this during his life, and was among the first to repair the loss of the library, when Harvard Hall was consumed by fire, by making a present of many valuable books. This devout man also gave much alms to the people. He possessed an estate beyond any of his brethren; but he always devoted a tenth part of his income to pious and charitable uses. It pleased the Lord of life to bless him with health, as well as other means of enjoyment. He lived to a good old age; and preached to his people the evening he had arrived at fourscore years. The next Sabbath he was seized with a paralytical complaint, which confined him some months, and he died, June 27th, 1769, in the 81st year of his age.
The Dr. published a number of funeral sermons. One on the death of Wait Winthrop, Esq. 1717 ; King George 1st, 1727; on Pres. Wadsworth, 1737; on Sec'y. Willard, 1756. He printed likewise the election sermon, 1724; and a discourse on Rev. v. 11, 12, 1745. Eliot: Biographical Dictionary of New England, p. 422.⁸