Birth record in Franklin Plantation records lists “Jefferson Andrews.”

1850 USC for Franklin Plantation lists “Jefferson Andrews” as living with Washington Andrews (brother), James (brother), Arvilla (sister), next door to Peres, Abigail, and “Greenlief” Andrews, his parents and oldest brother.

Perez, Jeff’s father, is listed on a reconstructed page in the old Greenwood records; the page also lists Perez’s children, a list that includes “Jeff” Andrews’s [supposed] full name: Thomas Jefferson.

Listed as “Jefferson Andrews” in 1860 USC for Franklin Plantation, and at this time is unmarried.

1870 USC for Sumner lists household:
T. J. Andrews ae. 34 farmer
Mary ae. 65 b. Vermont (this is “Polly”)
Peres ae. 73 b. Mass.

Death record (on Ancestry.com) lists name as “T. Jefferson Andrews” and lists cause of death as “multiple sclerosis/general debility.” This document lists his father’s name as “Peris Andrews” born in “Mass.” and his mother’s name as “Abigail Keene” born in “Buckfield, ME.”

Update: 4/18/12:
From Biographical Review: This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Oxford and Franklin Counties, Maine. Biographical Review Publishing Company: Boston, 1897, 546.

“Thomas Jefferson Andrews, one of the largest fruit-growers in Sumner, Oxford County, was born on his farm, August 12, 1836, son of Peres and Abigail (Keen) Andrews. Peres, who was born in Boston, Mass., son of Darius Andrews, settled on this farm about the year 1810. At that time the district was a wilderness and a favorite haunt of bears. Erecting a log cabin, he made a clearing, established a home, and lived here in prosperity until his death on Sept. 17, 1889, at the age of ninety-seven years [he was actually 92]. He was twice married and reared five children. The latter were: Greenleaf, now deceased; Washington, a resident of Sumner; James, also deceased; Arvilla, the wife of Addison Bowker, of Sumner; and Thomas Jefferson. In politics he was a Democrat, in religious belief a Baptist. 

Thomas Jefferson Andrews has lived on this farm since the day of his birth. He was educated in the district school near his home, and was brought up familiarized with farm work and practical horticulture. For several years now he has been engaged in general farming and fruit-growing and he has been remarkably successful. He has about three thousand fruit trees. Of apples alone he cultivates a great variety, including the Baldwin, the Ben Davis, the King, the Northern Spy, the [Roxbury] Russet, and the Rhode Island Greening. His apple crop averages three hundred barrels, though he has gathered as much as one thousand barrels in a year. His plum orchard contains three hundred trees, and the crop averages forty bushels. The maples growing on his land have yielded one hundred and fifty gallons of syrup in a season and three hundred pounds of sugar. He owns in all about one thousand acres of land, wild and cultivated. The estate is a veritable garden of nature, where miniature lakes nestle in the hollows, bosky dells and rocky fastnesses afford retreats for wild deer and the fox, which are still to be found here. 

Mr. Andrews was married December 30, 1877 to Mary E. Canwell, who was born in Franklin Plantation. Her parents, William W. and Jane R. (Murch) Canwell are now living in Sumner. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews have four children, namely: Chester G., born February 5, 1881; Leland J., born May 8, 1883; Edith May, born September 25, 1886; and Millie J. born September 14, 1891. In political matters Mr. Andrews favors the Republican party. In religious belief he is liberal, while his wife is an Adventist. He is one of the oldest citizens in this part of the town, and is widely known and respected.”

From the article “W. Sumner, Part 2,” column 4 Oxford County Advertiser, 28 Sept. 1888
“Your correspondent thinks he never saw so much and handsome fruit upon the apple trees in the part of town as this year. T. J. Andrews has the best and largest orchard in Sumner. If one doesn’t believe it now, he will be looking over the orchard. Mr. Andrews says he shall put out 500 trees next spring. He says, “if he doesn’t find fruit trees in Heaven, it will not be Heaven to him.”

Robert Martin adds: “Jeff was renowned as having the best and largest orchard in Sumner. Many apples were put in barrels and shipped to England. One popular variety was “Ben Davis,” which took longer to ripen, and by the time the apples reached England they were ripened and ready to eat. He also grew peaches.”

Keith Huntress, in his article “The Passing of Redding, Maine” (New England Quarterly, 20:2 [Jun 1947]), notes: “One farmer, John Andrews, planted a large orchard of good apple trees. Just before 1900 he was shipping hundreds of barrels of apples to England” (249). This can only have been Thomas Jefferson “Jeff” Andrews. Huntress further states, “There is one main reason for the passing of Redding. There was not enough there, either in comfort or prospects, to keep people at the hard old pioneering grind after the days of the pioneers were over. The soil was thin, and it grew thinner. The timber was cut off, and the second growth will hardly pay the cost of cutting. John Andrews’s orchard had to meet competition from New York, Ohio, Michigan. He was too far from the railroad, and his trees suffered in temperatures thirty below zero; he could not, at the last, afford to spray them” (249-250).

Bob Martin told KCA in 2012 that the orchard still exists but is now on overgrown land in the Redding section of Sumner.

Update: 27 Sep. 2014:
A deed in Vol. 305, pg. 551 in Oxford County Deeds indicates that on 14 Jan. 1911, (Grammie) Edith M. (Andrews) Cole, and her brothers Chester and Leland, and their respective spouses, SOLD in this case, Edith’s share of the T.J. Andrews land to her cousin James W. Andrews (son of T.J.’s brother George Washington Andrews) and James’s wife Annie E. (Canwell) Andrews?  In January of 1911? T. J. Andrews died in March of 1910.  This would explain how the orchard and property left our (immediate) family. 

Maine Families, Book Three: Perham, Pratt, Fogg, Nelson, Williams
Harold C. Perham
Published privately, 1975
p. 205-207

“North Sumner-Redding, and Baseball—by Hubert E. Redding 

I was born on Oct. 21, 1896 in the part of the Town of Sumner, Maine known today as Redding, but in years past was known as Farrar’s Mills and sometimes as North Sumner. The name of Redding as a community arose from the services of my paternal grandmother, Isabel Holman Redding who kept the first Post Office in this part of the town. There was neither wages nor rent paid for this service during the years she was post-mistress in her own home. The original “boxes” in which mail was deposited, according to the proper name and box, is still in existence in the custody of one of her grand-children, Vernon Redding of Sumner.

At one time, about the year 1900, there was considerable activity in this area. Besides dwellings, there were three active lumber mills, one post office, and one store. Entertainment of public nature was made possible by the public school building which was often used for public programs and one or two dance halls which did a thriving business at one time, also there was a popular ball field.

On one sunny afternoon in the late fall, probably before Thanksgiving, I recall spending a week-end at home and starting to walk from Redding to West Peru by way of the so-called “Notch Road” that wound its way up the hilly pasture of Thomas Jefferson Andrews, who at one time owned more land than anyone else in town. I continued on over the Barnet Thorne Farm, along the road which was still discernable and then into the valley between Black and Speckled Mountains. I next passed by several old farms which were recently vacated but still showed evidence of farming by the cleared land including fields, pasture, stone walls, fences, etc. I continued on down the grade to Dickvale and into West Peru.

The above named Thomas Jefferson Andrews whom everyone knew as “Jeff” married Mary Canwell of the Canwell pioneer family of Maine. Thus there is a connection between the Canwell and Redding families dating back three or four generations and repeating history by the marriage of Mary Canwell Andrews’s grandson, Chester J. Cole, to Verna F. Redding, great-granddaughter of John Redding.

The old “Notch Road” is gone and the lumbering industry with modern equipment, including the bull dozer, has obliterated the old roads and land marks. The old farms on which pioneering men and women toiled to overcome the elements and fickle nature, are no more discernable. No one could ever mistrust going through the woods today, that nature has taken over the farms and that once there were beautiful crops and happy children in this primeval forest of today. Thus the work of the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century continues to depopulate our farms.

One of the favorite kinds of recreation in Redding in the early part of this century was baseball. Hunting and fishing came in second and third from the time haying was over, usually some time in August, until almost snow fall in autumn. Almost every male played baseball sometime and about every female was a fan. For the size of the community, the participation and enthusiasm was disproportionate. Not only was a team fielded, but there were plenty of subs. And of course they had suits. For weeks and weeks the big question was not, should the team have ball suits, but what should be the color? Finally a unanimous decision was made for the color Red, and so it was—bright red pants, fully padded and quilted according to the custom, with matching shirt, cap, and stockings! What a sight on the field: They were a spectacle and attracted attention everywhere. For years afterwards, some ball players would show up somewhere with a part or maybe a whole uniform. They were rugged, and I doubt if they ever wore out.
It would not be surprising if some of these original red suits are still in existence. My sister Verna remembers well the Red Baseball Suit my father, George Redding, wore in his Ball Playing days. Also, my brother Harlan remembers these olden days in Redding when Father wore his red baseball suit. 

A few years later, circa 1914-1921, there was a friendly competition between the Redding baseball team and the So. Woodstock ball team. Nearly every Sunday from late July to November, a whole ball club would hike over the old Common Road to Woodstock or vice versa to Redding as the games alternated between the two communities. The old Common Road passed by the old farms known as the Tom Heath place, Dr. Greene Farm, Lunt Place, etc. Today these farms are forests.”

The book also includes a(n easily found) map of Sumner from 1880 that shows “J Andrews” living at the END of Andrews Road, not at the Redding Rd. end—the WOODS end. I wonder if that old road that we didn’t dare go further down at the end of Andrews Road is part of this “Notch Road”? The Barnet Thorne Farm that Hubert mentions is off Abbott’s Pond Rd. (according to the aforementioned 1880 map), so one could basically take a bee-line from Redding to Peru “through the woods.” I wonder if this road constitutes any of the “jeep trails” that Bruce rides in back of Tim’s place.

In the book of Oxford County maps from 1858, P. Andrews (Peres) is living at the end of the “Andrews Rd.”

OK—confirmation as of 14 May 2016: Yes: the old house at the end of Andrews road was the old T. J. Andrews homestead, now owned by the Paradis family. The original house was torn down, but I have pictures sent to me by the Paradis family and others that are preserved in a binder at the Increase Robinson Library in Sumner. After Jeff’s death in 1910, his children sold the property to 1st cousin James “Wallace” Andrews and his wife Annie. Later, the property was bought by Willard Noble Munroe, later Carl Marston (Hence the Marston Lodge sign in the pictures of the old house) and finally to the Paradis family.

The Paradis family further stated that the orchards were down the hill in the valley below the house. Some of the land has been filled in up to the level of the road. On Google Maps, this is the flat area to the right of the end of Andrews Road (where we parked for the walk).

The Paradis family graciously let us walk the old road. This is the old “Notch Road” described by Harlan Redding in the Harold Perham book. Kathrine and David Cole, Thomas Cochran, and Debbie Wallace Gilbert trekked up the ridge and across to Abbot Pond. Recent logging has created a wide road near the pond, and a gate indicates the entrance. We didn’t see where the jeep trail (indicated on the map) continued to Dickvale/Peru (it may have been closer to the pond; we didn’t see any remains of the Barnet Thorne homestead, either), but Kathrine might try to access the road from the Dickvale side at some point. The road is still well defined and once over the ridge easily traveled. There are several fine old stone walls in the early going.

Monique Paradis Kady also sent photographs of an old carved markerstone up somewhere on the trail (we didn’t see it). It is marked FP on one side, which would seem to indicate a boundary marker for Franklin Plantation. On the other, the dates 1880, 1902, 1916.

I found two obituary notices in the Oxford Democrat March 15, 1910 and March 22, 1910.

March 15, 1910, Pg. [3].
“In Redding, March 12, T. J. Andrews, aged about 76 years.”

March 22, 1910, Pg. [2].
“Three deaths occured in town within a few hours recently. Mrs. Lydia Alley at East Sumner, U. M. Beckler at Sumner, T. J. Andrews at Redding. The first two named sustained paralytic shocks and lived but a few hours after. Mr. Andrews had been failing for sometime. He was quite an orchardist and raised hundreds of barrels of apples annually. Mr. Beckler had been in trade at Sumner but had sold out to Percy Redding recently.”

KCA also found the outlet of “Notch Road” on the Peru side, on the back side of Concord Pond on Dickvale Rd., not far from the cemetery where the “Child” or Dickvale Rd. Cemetery is, where the Canwells, including Peres’s sister Philena, are buried. Note: Philena’s stone, which KCA and David Cole found in the early 2000s is now gone (sunken or stolen?). Could Darius and any of his wives be buried on this side of Franklin Plantation as well?

For description of various apple varieties, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apple_cultivars

List of children in old Sumner records, image 309/311.

Update: DNA is indicating that Jeff Andrews fathered a daughter, Josephine Lillian (Haines) Wing by an Eveline (Haines)(Wing) Weaver. She was placed into the family of Augustus F. Wing in Franklin Plantation prior to Jeff’s marriage to Mary Evelyn Canwell in 1877.