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Gc 974.102 So47d 1893847
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
2
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01093 0334
A HISTORY OF SOLON
FALL BROOK Solon Village
1
A HISTORY OF SOLON, MAINE
By
ISAAC ("Bunky") FRANKLIN DAVIS, JR. B. A. Rollins College, 1960 /
saac Bunchy" Da "Bunky"
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (History)
Division of Graduate Study
University of Maine
Orono
August, 1962
1893847
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to acknowledge his indebted- ness to the following people: Miss Sarah B. Young for much assistance on the Methodist Church History; Miss Evelyn Butts for information on the history of the Congregational Church; Mr. Harrison L. Davis, whose short history of Solon was really the impetus for this work, in addition to being an important source; the author's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Davis, Sr. for access to old town reports and other helpful in- formation too numerous to mention; Mrs. Charlotte Burbank, Librarian in Solon, for making all material in the library available; Glenn Foss, Town Clerk, for making town records available; Dr. Robert M. York, the author's faculty adviser, whose assistance in interpretation, choice of style, and sources was of great assistance; and to all others who have in any way made this work a reality.
Sincere thanks to Rep. Raymond Faucher for spon- soring a bill in the Legislature for the State Library to purchase 150 copies of this history.
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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
3
PREFACE
6
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
7
INDIAN HISTORY
10
Later Kennebec Valley Indians
12
EARLY HISTORY
17
Boundaries
17
Land Grants
18
Early Settlers
21
INCORPORATION AND GOVERNMENT HISTORY 26
CHURCH HISTORY
32
Methodist Church 32
Congregational Church 37
South Solon Church
41
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION
44
Stage Coach 45
Ferry Boat and Other Forms of Transportation 48
Post Office 49
Other Developments 50
4
ECONOMIC HISTORY
51
Merchants
51
Manufacturing
52
PROFESSIONAL MEN
55
Physicians
55
Dentist
56
Lawyer
56
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY
57
Secondary Educational History
60
OTHER HISTORICAL ITEMS
64
Military Matters
64
Organizations
66
Newspapers
68
Cemeteries
69
Library History
70
BIBLIOGRAPHY 72
5
PREFACE
The object of this work is to present and interpret the historical progress of the town of Solon, Maine. This will be done by bringing up to date the social, political, and economic history of the town.
There have been limitations as to the amount of materials available, due to lack of well-kept records, absence of earlier historians, and deterioration of valu- able historical papers.
It is the author's humblest wish that this work might in some future day prove to be of some assist- ance or impetus to further research and writings in this area of the state of Maine.
6
History of the Town of Solon
Geographical Location
Solon lies in the southern part of Somerset County, sixty-five miles south of the Canadian border and thirty miles north of Fairfield, the southern most town in the county. Solon is bounded on the north by Bing- ham, on the east by Brighton and Athens, south by Cornville and Madison, and on the west by Embden at the Kennebec River. The center of the village is lo- cated one mile east of the Kennebec River at an altitude of four hundred and seven feet above sea level. Park- man Hill, near the center of town, and French Hill, slightly east of the village, are the highest elevations of land in town rising well over seven hundred feet above sea level. In the northeastern part of town lie many small ponds. These include Wentworth Pond, with an area of three quarters of one mile; Rowell Pond, Baker Pond, and Iron Bound Pond all with areas of less than one half square mile. Another pond not wide- ly known is Lost Pond, located near the Kennebec River in the western part of town. This seems to be the only area in town where the pitcher plant grows. Tra- dition has it that the Indians that frequented this area used this plant for drinking utensils.
The soil of Solon is sandy loam in parts and gravel- ly loam in others, but with rich land along the Kenne- bec River. The surface of the land is uneven, varied chiefly by terraces at different levels.
The principal streams of the town are Micheal Stream and Fall Brook, which have supported many small lumber and grist mills along their banks. Micheal Stream originates in a bog at the foot of Parkman Hill and flows to the Kennebec River, crossing Route 201 a mile and a half south of the village. Fall Brook origi- nates at a spring in the back part of Bingham and winds its way through Solon Village to the Kennebec River.
7
The Kennebec River flows along the western boun- dary of the town. About one mile above the village is located Caratunk Falls, one of the passages most dread- ed by lumbermen and the one crossed by Colonel Bene- dict Arnold's expedition of 1,100 men to Quebec in 1775. From the journals which were kept by some of the members of Arnold's expedition we get many com- ments on the falls at Solon. Most of the journals de- scribed the falls as being around fifteen feet in height and the water rapid. The riflemen of the expedition reached Caratunk Falls on October 4, 1775. The falls had a pitch of fifteen feet, but the portage was only fifty rods, though very rough.1
The rear guard, under Maj. Return J. Meigs, reached the falls on October 7, 1775. He describes the river here as "confined between two rocks, not more than 40 rods wide, which lie in piles 40 rods in length on each side of the river. These rocks are polished curi- ously in some places, by the swift running of the water. The carrying-place here is 433 paces in length".2 The rear guard stayed all day of October 8 at "Carratuncus" as it rained all day.3 At this site today stands the Cen- tral Maine Power Company's hydroelectric Power Plant.
There are two main highway arteries which pass through Solon. One is highway 201 which enters Solon from the south and is the main highway to Quebec City. The other is Route 201A, which enters Solon from the west coming through the towns of North Anson and Embden and terminates at Solon vil- lage.
Solon village is located near Fall Brook within a
1 Codman, John, Arnold's Expedition to Quebec, The MacMillan Co., New York, 1902, p. 52.
2 Meigs, Maj. Return J., Journal of the Expedition Against Quebec, pri- vately printed by Charles Bushnell in New York, 1864, p. 13.
3 Ibid., p. 14.
8
mile and a half of the Northern boundary of the town. South Solon, as it is known to natives of Solon, is the area southeast of the village sprawling out into many farms, today, just as it did a hundred years ago. It was this area that was deeded to William Spaulding, a Bos- ton proprietor in 1792 and became known as Spauld- ingtown. 4
4 Davis, Harrison L., "History of the Town of Solon", 1936, p. 9. (Not published )
9
INDIAN HISTORY
Before the white man's appearance in Maine history the area which was to become Solon was a vast river wilderness. Waterfalls at Skowhegan and Augusta, which were nearly impassable, separated the upper Ken- nebec from the few settlements below in the seven- teenth century. The Kennebec-Dead River Trail was the age-old Indian route through the land. In the sev- enteenth century it became the adopted, though diffi- cult, route for the French Jesuit missionaries who trav- eled south to the Kennebec. It was in 1646 that Father Gabriel Druilletes was sent to the Kennebec to found a mission among the Indians of this area. Leaving Sill- ery, Quebec on August 29, 1646, with several Indian guides he proceeded to the Indian village of Norridge- wock on the Kennebec by canoe and portage. From Norridgewock he moved down river to Cushnoc (Au- gusta), the site of the Pilgrim trading post and fort. Here he struck up a life-long friendship with John Winslow, Commandant of the post. From Augusta he continued his journey to the sea - the first white man ever known to have traveled overland from Quebec and down the length of the Kennebec to the Maine sea- coast. 5
Father Druillettes lived among the Indians of the Kennebec at intervening periods between 1646 and 1656. From 1660 to 1680 the Catholic missions on the Kennebec were abandoned due to rivalry with the English at the time. By 1688 the Bigot brothers, Vin- cent and Jacques, had built a chapel at Narantsouac (Norridgewock) and were resuming the work of Dru- illettes. In 1694 the mission at Norridgewock came un- der the leadership of Sebastian Rasle.6
The Kennebec came to be the mode of travel for the English fishermen and fur traders, who before 1700,
5 Gowing, Peter G., The Jesuits in Maine, Orono, 1955 (A Master's Thesis ) pp. 53-56.
6 Gowing, Ibid., pp. 62-68.
10
had established trading posts as far north on the river as Cushnoc (Augusta) .7 As early as 1626 the New Ply- mouth settlers began to trade with the Kennebec In- dians. That year a shallop loaded with corn passed up the river, and returned with 700 pounds of beaver skins and other furs.8
Who were the original inhabitants of this Kenne- bec River wilderness? The oldest Indian culture of the area, according to archeologists, was that of the Red Paint Indian. These Indians lived around the thir- teenth and fourteenth centuries according to the latest historical interpretations. Until recently, it was thought that the Red Paint Indians lived many cen- turies before the Indians of the seventeenth century. But excavations in Bucksport and Ellsworth show that they were the direct ancestors of the historic In- dians, and not significantly different from them.9
The Red Paint Indians got their name from the fact that all their burials were made with a ranging amount of red or yellow ochre. This red iron oxide, or ochre, is the earthy variety of powdered homatite.1º Some of the burials contained as much as half a bushel of this red or yellow iron oxide in a single grave. Almost with- out exception the Red Paint burial grounds were lo- cated on sandy or gravelly knolls where digging was easy, and usually near navigable bodies of water.11 This would lead one to believe that they used the rivers and lakes for much of their livelihood.
7 Hanson, J. W., History of Gardiner, Pittston, and West Gardiner, Gardiner, 1852, p. 37.
8 Ibid., p. 31.
9 Maine Writers Research Club, Maine Indians in History and Legend, Portland, 1952, p. 138. (Article written by Mabel Gould Demers).
10 Moorehead, Warren K., The Red Paint People of Maine, (Reprinted from the American Anthropologist, Vol. 15, No. 1, Jan .- March, 1913), p. 40.
11 Writers Research Club, Op. cit., p. 138.
11
According to John Dolan of Solon, an amateur col- lector of Indian relics in and around Solon and a rea- sonably reliable source, there has never been found any spears small enough to be classified as arrows. It is his belief, from his findings that the bow and arrow had not yet been adopted by these Indians. Mr. Dolan has also found firestones, rough axes, and slate spears be- lieved to have been used by the Red Paint Indians. These relics were found by him at a Red Paint burial ground about seventy-five yards from the shore of the Kennebec River on a knoll between Solon and Bing- ham.
This brief description of the Red Paint Indians rep- resents present thinking, but it is quite possible that fu- ture excavations will give new and different interpreta- tions.
Later Kennebec Valley Indians
The successors to the Red Paint Indians were those of the Algonquin Nation. All the Indians of Maine be- longed to this nation. The Abnakis and Etechamins occupied the present limits of Maine. The Etechemins dwelt from the Penobscot River eastward, and the Ab- nakis from New Hampshire to the Penobscot. The Abnakis group was divided into four smaller tribes: the Sokokis, on the Saco River; the Anesagunticooks, on the Androscoggin River; the Wawenoes, east of Merrymeeting Bay; and the Kennebecs, from Merry- meeting Bay to Moosehead Lake, on both sides of the Kennebec River. The Kennebecs were subdivided into the Cushnocs at Augusta, Tacconnets at Waterville, and the Norridgewocks at Old Point, located between the present towns of Madison and Norridgewock.12
12 Hanson, Op. cit., pp. 13-14.
Leger, Sister Mary C., The Catholic Indian Missions in Maine, Wash- ington, D. C., 1929.
Starbird, Charles H., The Indians of the Androscoggin Valley, Lewis- ton, 1928.
12
There can be very little doubt that the Norridge- wocks from Old Point frequented the area of what is now Solon for game, fish, and probably for cultivation of the fertile soils along the Kennebec River. Even then Solon was a haven for the hunter and fisherman! Proof that Indians visited this area is shown by the many petroglyphics that, even today, may be found on the ledges that jut out into the Kennebec River just be- low the present site of the Solon-Embden Bridge. More proof comes from the numerous arrowheads and other Indian relics found in the fields along the Kennebec by the aforementioned John Dolan. So it is quite prob- able that the Norridgewocks were spearing salmon at Caratunk Falls and raising corn in the nearby fertile fields long before the Europeans sailed upon the Kenne- bec.
The Kennebec Indians were not fixed in their settle- ments. They made long hunting and fishing trips trav- eling the length of the Kennebec in their birch-bark canoes and on foot, whole villages and tribes moving. "The wigwams of their 'happy' villages were to be seen wherever salmon and shad abounded, and wild game was plenty".13 Groups of these Kennebec Indians traveled as far north as Mt. Kineo, which was the main source for their flint supply. This particular type of flint is so distinguished from the ordinary flint, that scientists can easily recognize arrowheads, spearheads, or other implements that come from this source.14 The distance from Solon to Mt. Kineo is over eighty miles. These same Indians traveled to the coast to escape the hot summer weather and mosquitoes, living on shell fish and the fresh-caught salt water fish. Others of the tribe cultivated crops inland, and gathered the fall har- vest of nuts and killed flocks of ducks, geese, and other wild fowl on their flights south for the winter.15
13 Hanson, Ibid., p. 16 (The author wonders if they all were happy).
14 Writers Research Club, Op. cit., p. 1 (article written by Mable R. Holt. )
15 Dolan, John, (an article on Indians for Solon Sesquicentennial) p. 9.
13
There is no record or tradition of any Indian settle- ment within the town limits of Solon, although there have been found many camping places littered with the debris and broken artifacts of the Indians periodic stays near Caratunk Falls.16
The quality of the pottery fragments found tell us that the Kennebec Indians were not as skilled in this art as their Western fellow-Americans. John Dolan has found "around these old camp grounds, broken spears, pottery, beads, flint knives, hide scrapers and fleshers, fish scalers, sinew fleshers, hide softeners, hoes, spades, axes, and tomahawks".17
The Kennebec Indians were quite fond of smoking. According to Clarence Day's History of Maine Agri- culture tobacco was the only crop which the Indian male helped his squaw and children in cultivating. This crop he "considered his own special crop".18 They made their pipes from clay and pipe stones, a soft type of stone that was easy to work. The Indians of the Kennebec raised other crops as well. To quote from Samuel de Champlain, who spent the winter of 1604- 05 at St. Croix Island, "We saw there many (fields of) squashes, pumpkins, corn, and tobacco, which they likewise cultivate". 19
The burial grounds of the Kennebec Indians are in and around the same general areas as the Red Paint Indians. According to John Dolan "the graves were covered by a large bonfire to destroy all scent in order that the body would not be dug up by wolves. It is
16 Information from John Dolan who has in his possession many of these Indian relics found by himself in and around the town of Solon.
17 Dolan, John, "Indians of Solon", (an article written for the Solon Sesquicentennial. )
18 Day, Clarance A., A History of Maine Agriculture; 1604-1860, Univ. Press, Orono, 1954, pp. 19-20.
19 Voyages of Samuel deChamplain (ed. by W. I. Grant) New York, 1907, pp. 58-59.
14
not known if our Maine Indians were sun worshipers or not, but a great many of the burials were made fac- ing the East, or the rising sun."2º
Sebastian Rasle, the Jesuit missionary to the Nor- ridgewock Indians for over a quarter of a century, gives the following description of them:
Their cabins were made by planting a center pole and covering it with bark; the fire in the middle on the ground, and their beds and chairs were mats made of reeds, spread upon the earth. The men dressed in the skins of animals or in loose robes of red or blue cloth, and the women wore a mantle, reaching to the middle of the leg, very gracefully arranged with a light covering thrown over the head and falling to the feet, and stockings from the knee to the ankle. Their mocca- sins were of deerskins. In the winter they wore snow- shoes, without which they could not subsist. They were tall, powerful and active, with teeth whiter than ivory. Their only ornaments were beads made of shell, white and black, so arranged in belts and the like as to repre- sent different figures with great beauty. Their children were regarded with the greatest affection and the utmost respect was manifest toward the aged. Their skill with the bow was great; even children could shoot with as- tonishing accuracy. They ate with great irregularity; feasted upon the best one day and famished the next. Tobacco was used by all and esteemed the greatest lux- ury. They were less barbarous than other tribes.21
Why did the Indians disappear shortly after the coming of the white man? In the first place, the Indian population of the Upper Kennebec was not very large.
20 Dolan, Op. cit., p. 11.
21 As quoted in Whitney, S. H., The Kennebec Valley, Augusta, 1887. pp, 7-8.
15
The major reasons for the near extinction of the In- dians of this area was the outbreak of war between the English and Indians in 1675, and great amount of malnutrition and starvation among the Indian tribes. 22 The war between the French and Indians on one side, and the English on the other, was only the first of six wars fought between them for domination of the northern section of the United States: The first was King Philips War (1675-1685), second was King Wil- liams War (1688-1699), then Queen Anne's War (1703-13), Lovewell's War (1722-1725), King George's War (1745-47), and finally the French and Indian War (1755-1760).23
The Indians looked to the French to assume control of the territory of the Upper Kennebec, but their hopes were destined to be destroyed during Lovewell's War by the English, who attacked and destroyed the village of Norridgewock and massacred Father Rasle in Au- gust of 1724.24
22 Hanson, Op. cit., p. 31.
23 Hanson, Ibid., pp. 29-30 (as taken from footnote of Williamson's His- tory of Maine. )
24 Hanson, Ibid., pp. 69-71.
16
Boundaries, Land Grants, Early Settlers and Later Immigrants
Boundaries
By the latter half of the seventeenth century the land east of the Kennebec River was claimed by both the French and the English.
Even before the domination of the English in this territory, King Charles of England in 1665 gave to his brother, the Duke of York later James II, King of England, all the territory between the Atlantic Ocean and the St. John River, and in breadth extending from the mouth of the Kennebec to the St. Croix River. This section was known as the Sagadahoc Territory.25 This was really an encroachment on the Kennebec Patent of 1629 to William Bradford, which had as its northern boundary the southern boundary of the town of An- son.26 Solon lies in the second tier of townships north of the Kennebec Patent and is the first range south of the Bingham Purchase.27 After the Revolutionary War General Knox bought one million acres of land on the upper Kennebec from the state of Massachusetts. Some years later, having secured the Waldo Patent through his marriage, he sold his contract for the one million acres to William Bingham, a Philadelphia business- man.
In 1691 the colony of Plymouth, the Province of
25 Whitney, S. H., Op. cit., pp. 34-35.
26 Ibid., p. 35.
27 Lincoln, Mary P., "A Historical Background of Solon" (for Sesqui- centennial Celebration ).
17
Maine, the Territory of Sagadahoc with one county of York (Solon was within this territory), and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were all incorporated into the Royal Province of Massachusetts Bay under the charter of William and Mary.28
In 1760 the counties of Cumberland and Lincoln were taken from York County, and separately incor- porated. The area which was later to become the town of Solon was then in Lincoln County. Solon was with- in the county of Kennebec from 1799 to 1809, when Somerset County was separated from Kennebec County.29
Land Grants
Many of the early settlers of Solon came from the towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The author has consulted a few of the town histories of some of these towns and partially answered the ques- tion as to why these people, or their ancestors, came to Solon.
Before the Revolutionary War the boundary line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was in question. Massachusetts figured that the best way to guarantee this area for the future was to repopulate. Thereupon townships were surveyed and sold, or giv- en, to groups of men. Township number one in this line was given in 1735 to sixty men from Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts.3º Names on this deed that became familiar in and around Solon were Stevens, Rowell, Sargent, Bernard, Flanders, and Ordway.
28 Whitney, Op. cit., p. 35.
29 Coburn, Louise, Skowhegan on the Kennebec, Skowhegan, p. 13.
30 Butler, Caleb, The History of the Town of Groton, Boston, 1883, p. 59.
18
Royal decision in 1740 declared this grant null and void. By 1749 this area was granted to Captain John Mason from New Hampshire. In the meantime the Salisbury and Amesbury group decided to have Cap- tain Barnard and Nehemiah Ordway petition the Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts for grant of another town- ship. The General Court of Massachusetts granted the proprietors what was to be one half of the Solon town- ship and the same portion of the Poland township.31 This grant was not enacted until the 1790's, so the grant went to either relatives or benefactors of the ori- ginal proprietors. This so-called Barnard Grant in- cluded 11,520 acres.
This, in part, explains why so many of the early settlers in the area came from Salisbury and Amesbury. Among these were Joseph Maynard, Josiah and Moses French, Benjamin Merrill, Asa Buswell, Samuel and Moses Eaton, Enoch Jackman, and Mathew Sanborn. 32 It probably explains, also, the reason why the Rowells, Pierces, and Halls came from New Hampshire.
In 1741, when the division line was run between New Hampshire and Massachusetts it was found that a part of Groton was in New Hampshire.33 Among the original proprietors of Groton are found such names as Longley, Davis, Tarbell, Green, Hall, and Prescott. The proprietors petitioned the General Court of Mas- sachusetts for a new grant. The court granted them an area of land in the Berkshires, but this area was involved in a boundary dispute with New York. One half of this grant was lost when the final line was
31 Ibid., pp. 60-61.
32 Lincoln, Op. cit., p. 15.
33 Butler, Op. cit., p. 60.
19
established. Consequently James Prescott, brother of Colonel William Prescott who was in charge of the American troops at Bunker Hill, petitioned the Gen- eral Court on behalf of the Groton proprietors and re- ceived a grant of seven thousand acres on the south side of what is now Solon. This land was eventually granted to Thomas Spaulding - hence the early name of Spauldingtown for the southern part of town. Spaulding came from that part of Groton which is now Pepperell.34 Many of Solon's early settlers from this area were veterans of the Revolutionary War, and "supposed" to be friends of James Prescott, and had perhaps fought for Colonel William Prescott at Bunker Hill.
In 1792 the Massachusetts General Court granted to Palmer Gardner, forty-five hundred acres of land in Sagadahoc Territory, second range, first township north of the Kennebec Patent, and bounded on the south by the land granted to Thomas Spaulding.35
The public lots, plus 4,500 acres in the Gardner Grant, 7,000 acres in the Spaulding Grant, 11,520 acres in the Barnard Grant made a total of 23,020 acres, 36 or within 20 acres of being one township six miles square. Benjamin Poor surveyed and lotted the northern part of town into eighty-acre lots in 1792; Daniel Stewart likewise in the same year surveyed and lotted the southern part into 160-acre lots. Both men ran their range lines west to east, each range being one half mile wide.37
34 Butler, Ibid., pp. 60-62.
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