ELIAS GOVE ~ IMMANUEL, PRINCE of PEACE

Elias Gove, once described as “the most picturesque man in Maine” was a well known character in Lewiston and Auburn for the last 20 of his 85 years, but his notoriety began in his hometown – Readfield. By the time he died in March 1894 he had been long termed “Immanuel, Prince of Peace.” According to a Lewiston Evening Journal news article following Gove’s death he was known for his “strange garb and peculiar but harmless and kindly idiosyncrasy. Few people who ever came to Lewiston had failed to catch a glimpse of him.”

 

Reportedly, as a young, energetic and capable young man Gove worked on his father's farm which he described as 140 acres - most of it under cultivation - and the best in Readfield. He further claimed that when a young man working on his father's farm his blood became overheated and he was unable to do hard work after that for three years. One wonders if this was the beginning of Gove’s eccentricity.

According to the news article “One of Gove’s first speeches in public was at Kent's Hill, while still a young man. He was attending some sort of entertainment in the village and suddenly rose to address the audience. The speech he gave was characteristic for him during which he proclaimed himself to be “Immanuel, the Prince of Peace.” He was apparently well received for it is said he was heard in public frequently after that. During those years Gove, who was a Methodist, is said to have had acquaintance with many clergymen and missionaries.

Mr. Gove removed to Turner, Maine, where in 1837 he married Miss Betsey Bradford, daughter of Asa Bradford, Esq. Elias and Betsey Bradford Gove lived together for more than twenty years on a little farm near the Asa Bradford homestead. They had a son, George, who died as a young adult and it is said the Gove’s separated soon after due to Mr. Gove's declining mental stability. Mrs. Gove returned to her father's home. It is not known where Elias Gove resided between 1860 - 1870, but we do know that in August of 1865 he was in Readfield.[i]

 

In reading the transcription of a nineteenth century diary by Mary Davis Dyar I found two entries in which she referred to Mr. Gove. In August of 1865 Mary traveled here from Massachusetts to visit her Davis cousins on Sturtevant Hill Road. On August 10th she wrote “After we left the supper table a strange man came to the door. His name was Gove (cousin Benjamin was acquainted with him.) He came for his supper I suppose. So after we got up from the table they fixed it for him. He said grace aloud, and as he sat there I had a good chance to look at him. He had a little pinched face… and piercing, crazy looking eyes. His reddish brown beard reached down as far as it would grow, halfway down his shirt bosom, if he had one on. His hair was his crowning glory – of a reddish black color, it rose shaggily above his forehead, and hung in long masses down his neck and shoulders. His body was small, and his legs rather spindly, covered with what seemed to be silk pants. He had a white cambric handkerchief folded across his breast, and an embroidered handkerchief stuck within…He was either crazy or half-witted, and by his talk he made me laugh… In his conversation he would ramble off and on about the second-coming and Universalism.” As he spoke he “looked around the room at each one of us and nodding his head weighed down his hairy load…” On August 25, 1865 Mary returned to her home in Massachusetts via the train. Upon her arrival at Readfield Depot she saw Gove and again made mention of him in her diary. Gove’s behavior and appearance impressed Mary enough that she gave more space to him in her journal than many other Readfield folks with whom she had far more encounters.

Elias Gove Jr. was living in Lewiston in 1870 (per U.S. Census) and it appears, by the names of those living in the same household, that it was a boarding house. To further corroborate this, the previously mentioned news article reported that Gove first appeared in Lewiston about 1874. In U.S. Cities Directories he is listed 1880-1891 as living in three Lewiston locations - the Marston House, Lincoln House and Riverside House. Of note - in 1881, Lewiston Mayor Mandeville T. Ludden and the Aldermen, who under an 1878 law had become Overseers of the Poor, recommended construction of an additional wing to the Poor House with the possibility of housing some of Lewiston’s residents then at the Maine Insane Asylum at Augusta, for “they would be kept at one half the cost now paid, and be just as well cared for”. The City did construct a large brick annex with thirty-eight rooms in 1881. The Overseers believed, “In the upper story there can be provided, at small expense, rooms for those insane persons who are quiet and easily controlled, now supported by the city at the State Insane Hospital.[ii]” According to the Lewiston Evening Journal Gove was odd but manageable. It seems feasible, given the information we have gathered thus far, that he could easily have been one of the “insane persons” referred to in this citation and had spent time in the Maine Insane Asylum in Augusta sometime in the 1860’s and / or 1870’s.

 

Reportedly Elias Gove continued – until his death - to be very peculiar, wore unusual clothing, and was easily excitable but harmless. He was additionally described as being “very kindly at heart.” He died in Auburn in 1894 – presumably at the Poor Farm which was located on what is now the Central Maine Community College campus. It is not known, at this time where he was buried.

(c) 2013 All Rights Reserved by Dale Potter-Clark

 

 

Post Note: Elias Gove, Jr. was rediscovered by Maine historian and author David Colby Young (in 2001) who revived an old Lewiston newspaper article and a 1969 radio broadcast that gave lively accounts of the old man. Luckily David shared his find with me. Soon after, I read the Mary Davis Dyar diaries and a new piece was added to the puzzle. The self-proclaimed ‘Emanuel, Prince of Peace” has suddenly regained new life over 100 years after his death.  According to some sources Gove proclaimed for years that he would never die. He never said in what form his immortality would exist, but perhaps now we know.

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[i] Elias Gove Jr. was living in Turner at the time of the 1850 and 1860 US Census’ but by 1870 he was living in Lewiston. Perhaps he returned to live with family as well for a time in the 1860’s? Could it be possible that his reason for moving to Lewiston was when his mother, Betsey, went west to Kansas in the early 1860’s and no other family members would take him in?

[ii]  www.rootsweb.com/~meandrhs  accessed 11/15/2012

 

Sources:
1.            Androscoggin County Historical Society Web Site: www.rootsweb.com/meandrhs  accessed 11/13-15/2012
2.            Diary of Mary Eleanor Davis Dyar transcribed and self published by Susan Davis Hanson 1999
3.            To Those Who Led the Way: VRs of Readfield, Kennebec, ME by Dale Potter Clark; self-published 2009