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AHISTORY
of the Town of
MAINE
James berry Vickery,JI !!
Gc 974.102 Un3v 1166945
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01091 8636
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofu00vick
A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF UNITY, MAINE
People travel through this to Penobscot very often. It is even now a throughfare. What a beautiful seat of merchants and farmers it will soon be. (PAUL COFFIN, FROM HIS DIARY, OCTOBER, 1796)
This town is favorably situated to make a good im- pression on the traveller who passes through on the way from Bangor to Augusta. The village is very pleasantly situated and the good farms and farm houses stretching along the road indicate temporal prosperity. MAINE FARMER, FEBRUARY 29, 1840.
Unity to our mind is the garden of Waldo County .. . Unity village is the largest and finest inland town in the county. A look of freshness and neatness pleasing to see ... everywhere fine farm houses with everything of neatness and care. REPUBLICAN JOURNAL, SEPT. 26, 1851.
A HISTORY of the Town of UNITY, MAINE By
James Berry Vickery, III Member of the Maine Historical Society and Essex Institute
GEORGE BILISTENE
FALMOUTH PUBLISHING HOUSE MANCHESTER, MAINE
COPYRIGHT. 1954 BY JAMES BERRY VICKERY, III
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 54-7444
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PREFACE
1166945
Local history has for many people a fascinating appeal and it is gratifying that in recent years it has received due recognition as a valuable source of social history. It is in our local towns that many of our distinctive American qualities have developed, especially those places long associated with the frontier. It is from the sturdy spirit of the settlers that we partially receive our traits of resourcefulness, independence, self-reliance, adaptability, inquisitiveness, and other out- standing characteristics which have become a part of our American heritage. It is hoped that this study of a town, old in American tra- ditions, will contribute another chapter in the local history of the State of Maine.
Space does not permit coverage of all phases of Unity's long history. This work, as often with local histories, is incomplete. There is greater emphasis upon nineteenth century history than the present. Judgment of the present can wait until proper perspective can enable us to evaluate these years.
The writing of this history has afforded me great pleasure. I almost regret that it is finished. Every scrap of evidence known to me has been read and examined. Attics have been scoured for old letters; papers for items of local interest. A chapter might be devoted to the vanishing attic, for these treasure houses are the archives of the local history. Elderly persons have been interviewed and their memories jogged for vivid recollections of old times. My reminiscences of "Aunt Ruth and Aunt May", of Miss Lois Varney are already a part of my store of treasured memories. To these persons I owe a debt of grati- tude not only for their eagerness to help, but for their inspiration to go ahead with so great a task. There are scores to whom I owe thanks for their patient replies to my endless questions and to my request "to look in the attic", or who have placed books and records at my disposal. Among those to whom I am most indebted are Mrs. E. D. Chase, Mrs. Mary Blair, Miss Henrietta Connor, Mrs. Ralph Law- rence, Mrs. Mary P. Noyes, Miss Mabel Bacon, Mrs. Jennie Frost, Miss Olive Gould, Mrs. Henry Tweedie, Miss Vivian Taber, Mr. E. T. Whitehouse, and Dr. S. Stillman Berry, who have helped immeas- urably toward the compilation of this history. Also to the town clerks of Unity and adjoining towns I extend my thanks for their permis- sion to allow me to examine the town records, especially Mrs. Edith Frost Stevens, whose knowledge of Unity history has been most help- ful. There are many who have passed away since I began assembling material and who offered their generous assistance including Mr. E.
7.50
Goodspe
B. Hunt, James E. Kelley, Frank Mussey, Benjamin Fogg, George W. Varney, Ruth M. Berry, Mary E. Cook, Lois A. Varney, Mrs. Etta Varney and several others.
In the writing of this history I express my appreciation to Dr. Rob- ert York of the Department of History and Government, University of Maine, whose advice and assistance have been invaluable. Also thanks are due to the members of the staff of the University of Maine Library, who have been most cooperative while I have occupied car- rel number four in the stacks.
Many data have come to light in response to my interest in Unity's past, yet it is regretted that within the last few years many valuable sources of information have been unwittingly destroyed. It is also unfortunate that many people regard old letters, usually a mine of information, as confidential. Seldom do these musty papers reveal anything of a private nature that is detrimental either to the writer or to others. Such letters often are too valuable to be consigned to the fire or stuffed in a trunk. It is hoped, through the reading of local history, that new interest in town affairs is aroused and that many items destined for the fire or dump will be preserved for the future his- torian.
This book was written as a partial fulfillment for attaining a mas- ter's degree from the University of Maine, Orono. Four new chapters have been added to the original thesis. The thesis was entitled Chap- ters in the History of Unity, Maine and was written at Orono during the winter of 1950. Special permission was graciously granted to the author by the University to publish this history.
Also I wish to show my appreciation to Miss Marion Rowe and Miss Marie Estes of the Maine Historical Society for their generous assistance.
I wish to thank Charles Scribner's Sons for permission to quote from The History of the United States During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson by Henry Adams; and Houghton Mifflin Co. for permission to quote from Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes.
Five of my paternal ancestors were among the first settlers of Unity. This inheritance, combined with a keen interest in the past, has led me to the study of the history of this town. It is my wish that this study will serve as a reminder to the generations of Unity descendants of their splendid heritage.
JAMES BERRY VICKERY, III
CONTENTS
Chapter
Page
I. THE BEGINNING 3
II. THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS 10
III. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE SETTLERS AND PROPRIETORS 37
IV. LIFE, TIMES AND INCORPORATION
44
V. CHURCH HISTORY 54
The Methodist 63
Unity Union Church
68
Free-will Baptist Church 72 The Friends' Church 74 80
VI. SCHOOLS IN UNITY
VII. MILITARY HISTORY
101
VIII. TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
118
IX. INDUSTRIES OF UNITY
126
146 X. THE NORTH WALDO AGRICULTURE SOCIETY Unity Park Association 155
XI. TAVERNS, HOTELS AND INNKEEPERS 158
XII. WINDEMERE PARK 162
XIII. FIRES 168
XIV. THE BELFAST AND MOOSEHEAD LAKE RAILROAD 172
177
XVI. SOCIAL CLUBS, ORGANIZATIONS AND LODGES
186
XVII. UNITY SINCE 1900 195 211
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX A
216
APPENDIX B
217
APPENDIX C 218
APPENDIX D 219
222 227
APPENDIX F
228
APPENDIX H
228
APPENDIX I
229
APPENDIX J
232
APPENDIX K
234
APPENDIX L
235
APPENDIX M 239
INDEX
251
XV. THE CALL OF THE WEST
APPENDIX E
APPENDIX G
A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF UNITY, MAINE
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNING
DURING ITS MORE than one hundred and fifty years of history, Unity has remained a small town like many others seen from Kittery to Fort Kent. Anyone who is familiar with our New England towns knows them for their elm-shaded streets; the dominating church steeple; the cluster of houses, called the village, often situated on a meandering stream; the outlying farmhouses connected by an ell and sheds to a large barn, and between the farm houses, the rolling fields, or the pastures neatly fenced. These were the creation of a hardy, vigorous people. This is the essence of New England. Unity is such a town.
The town was the first political creation of our New England fore- fathers. In this sense local history cannot be ignored. The heritage of our modern society springs from the foundation of the past. A detailed history of a town must, however, cover besides the political, the economic and social developments from the first migrations. There- fore let us determine some of the social and economic factors which contributed to or motivated the settlement and growth of the several settlements which appeared soon after the year 1760 in the District of Maine.
From the days of the Pilgrims and the Puritans to the last years of the nineteenth century, the frontier was an ever present force in American history. Everywhere prior to settlement the land was cov- ered by a dense forest, except for meadows here and there along the seacoast or the intervales on the banks of streams. Naturally enough the first settlements started from the seashore and gradually, as the need for land persisted, the white man spread inland. In this history we are primarily interested in the settlement of rural Maine rather than in the mighty westward expansion of pioneers over the Appala- chians.
For nearly two hundred years Maine remained untouched by set- tlers except for a small fringe of settlements along the coast, concen- trated almost entirely in the southwest corner of the State. The rea- sons for this retarded settlement are not hard to discover. The wooded terrain comes very close to the sea, thereby making penetra- tion of the interior extremely difficult. In early colonial days Maine was remote from the original settlements, and with the slow means of
4
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
transportation most of Maine remained quite inaccessible. Far into the colonial period the best means of communication was by boat, and because Maine rivers frequently had waterfalls, inland navigation was impossible to any great distance.1 Then, also, we must consider the lure of the abundant fishing grounds extending from Cape Cod to Newfoundland which offered a source of wealth greater than toil- some labor on the rocky soil of New England.2 However, the greatest impediment to the settlement of Maine was the hostile French and Indians. The settlement of interior Maine did not commence until the bloody French and Indian Wars had ended. Consequently only a few pioneers before 1760, more courageous than the majority, got far from the seacoast towns.
While the French occupied Quebec and the valley of the Missis- sippi, the English inhabitants were confined to the Atlantic coastal plain, and any penetration into the French domain brought blood- shed. In 1758 the English made an all-out effort to wrest control of the North American continent from the French. The decisive bat- tle of Quebec in 1759 was a triumph of British arms, and the French surrendered, by the terms of the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, their entire colonial empire on the North American continent. Indeed, the French defeat was very significant to thousands of English-speaking colonists scattered through the towns of Massachusetts, New Hamp- shire, and the coastal towns of Maine. Now the vast interior could be settled without the impending horror of the tomahawk and the blood-curdling war whoop of a marauding party of Indians.
Unity's history parallels the development of the United States, since it was only a year or two before the battle at Concord that the first settlers arrived. The early settlers were born as subjects of Great Brit- ain; therefore, many of them had fought in the colonial militia against the French and Indians, accustoming them to the brutalities of the frontier. However, these pioneers preferred the axe and the plow to the rifle.
This history thus begins in the solitude of the wilderness. Two hundred years ago in the District of Maine a great expanse of unin- habited land stretched hundreds of miles inland from the sea. Within the territory which today comprises the town of Unity, there were great stands of timber. There were giant white pines dwarfing the hemlocks and spruces, as well as an abundance of the hard woods - of maple, elm, beech, and birch. There was not only a large quantity of timber for the future saw mills, but also good soils which attracted the more permanent farmer. In 1770 all this land was untouched, only awaiting the proper time for clearance and settlement. Then suddenly a flood of settlers came to this region like a conquering army.
1. James Truslow Adams, The Founding of New England, Boston, 1930, p. 61.
2. Ibid., p. 11.
5
THE BEGINNING
It was a world of candlelight. It was almost entirely a time of limited rural economy. The Maine eighteenth century pioneer was accustomed to the homespun and the homemade tools. His clothes, his implements, and his food were almost wholly manufactured by himself or in his locality. In the first years of settlement only trails or a path marked by the blaze of a woodsman's axe spotted the way for travelers. Transportation was by foot or horseback over rough, uncomfortable trails.
The people who settled the town of Unity were almost wholly of English Puritan or Pilgrim stock from the old colony. They were descendants of the sturdy English yeomanry with a few strains of Scotch-Irish mixed in. Most of the inhabitants descended from the early Puritans or Pilgrims, who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth. The Chase family of Unity traces to William Chase, who was among the company that landed with Governor Winthrop in Boston in 1630. The Bartletts were an old Plymouth family, who had resided in Plymouth since Robert Bartlett arrived there in the ship, "Ann" in 1623. Others were seamen or came from the lusty fisher folk who moved out on Cape Cod. The Hopkins, Harding, Vickery, Knowles, Higgins, and Bacon families all derive from the seacoast towns of Chatham, Eastham, Orleans, or Truro on the Cape. Other first settlers had their origin in Massachusetts towns like Salisbury, Rowley, Newbury, Concord, and Lunenburg, which already cramped with a rapidly growing population, sent forth their sons to the Maine wilderness. From New Hampshire and southern Maine a Scotch-Irish strain contributes names like Melvin, Douglas, Far- well, and St. Clair.
For a generation the colonies had flaunted their independence in the face of the mother country, but it was during the last ten years before the final break that the colonial New Englanders revealed their objections and discontent to the acts of an obstinate British Parlia- ment. As it happened, the liberal thought which dominated the eighteenth century combined with the isolation of the pioneer coin- cided in making the frontiersman an unusually uninhibited and inde- pendent individual. The frontiersman of the United States was guided by the instincts of self-preservation; consequently, this made him into a very self-reliant and aggressive person. This fact coupled with the philosophy of equality existing then, could not help but mold a rugged individualist. Reared in the tradition of a calvinistic theology, and with the meagerness of a poor economy, the average settler in the District of Maine during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was a man of resourcefulness and industry, thrift and cour- age, independence and stubbornness. He disliked oppression or regu- lation. He was godly, but because his life was often austere and hard, he thought nothing of taking liberally of rum or hard cider. His rural, isolated life made his manner coarse and crude. A few could read and
6
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
write, but many were wholly illiterate.3 The settler of the latter half of the eighteenth century received only a slight schooling, subjected to nothing more than the rudiments of reading and writing. Often times his writing ability consisted of only scribbling his signature. These characteristics were to help immeasurably in winning the battle of the wilderness. Though the settlers were seldom able to read or write, they were persons of vision. They toiled long hours not only in order to improve their own lot, but to make a better life for their children. As soon as they had established their homes, they saw to it that schools and churches were erected in their communities. Henry Adams writes, "It was not for the love of ease did men plunge into the wilderness.4 Or again Adams writes concerning the ambitions of the Scotch-Irish pioneer immigrants who peopled the frontier, "for every stroke of the axe and hoe made him a capitalist and made a gentle- man out of his children."
Few settlers at the time Unity was founded came to seek refuge from religious persecution. They sought out the District of Maine primarily for the sake of trade and agriculture. "Men came to Maine not so much to find a free atmosphere of religious faith, as an oppor- tunity to better their worldly fortunes."5 In the cramped confines of the older towns the fourth and fifth generation Americans became restless. The tingle for adventure and the desire to obtain indepen- dence in the possession of land, caused countless numbers to try their fortunes in the Maine wilderness. They were, indeed, a strong, hardy stock, or at least those that survived the blasts of common contagious epidemics of small pox, diphtheria, or "spotted fever." Certainly they were a courageous group that endured the exacting toil and deprivations which they found here in the primeval state. Here in the lonely wilderness these people fought for an even more wretched existence than fighting the Indian. The livelihood which they eked from the soil was a bare subsistence that came only after hours of crushing fatigue. They were likewise men and women having strong moral fibre and having a deep faith in God.
II
Unity is bounded on the north by Lake Winnecook, and the towns of Burnham and Troy; on the east by Thorndike and Knox; on the south by Freedom and Albion; and on the west, by Albion and Unity Plantation. Unity lies on the western slope of the height of land which divides the Penobscot from the Kennebec valleys, and its drainage is into the Kennebec River. The surface of the town is a rolling
3. Francis Parkman, A Half Century of Conflict. Boston, 1892, Vol. I. p. 40.
4. Henry Adams, A History of the United States During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson, New York, I, p. 160.
5. Hugh D. Mclellan, The History of Gorham, Maine, Portland, 1903, p. 11.
7
THE BEGINNING
upland covered by a good soil which overlies primitive rock. The most prominent feature of the town is a large esker, locally called a "horseback," which runs from the town of Burnham across the north- east corner of Unity. "It swings about the south end of the pond and at Unity village expands into a delta which was deposited in the sea. This section consists chiefly of sand with interstratified clay layers. This delta grows shallow up the valley of Sandy Stream, and the esker reappears, following up the Sandy and Half-Moon valleys in another smaller delta of fine sand."6
There are no high hills in the town as there are in Dixmont and Knox. The highest point in Unity appears in south Unity where the land reaches only a little more than six hundred feet. The land west of the lake and its outlet is called the "prairie," formerly called a wooded plain. In the early days excellent marsh hay grew here, and the farmers always cut it for their cattle. In the southwestern part of the town there is considerable swamp or bog land. The largest of the bogs is called Kanokolus Bog, after an Indian that used to live there .? One stream having several brooks and tributaries flows through the town. This is Sandy Stream, a slow, meandering riverlet which has its origin in Freedom. Half-Moon Stream which flows through Knox, and Thorndike enters Sandy Stream at Farwell's Mills. The Bacon Brook, which rises in Kanokolus Bog flows through the central part of town and enters Sandy Stream a few rods below the site of the Connor Mill. Beavers once had a dam at the foot of the bog on this brook. The Mussey Brook has its source in the south part of town and flows across the old Mussey, Varney, and Vickery farms and then flows into Sandy Stream. The Bither Brook, formerly Mitchell Stream, flows through a swampy terrain in the northern part of Unity and flows directly into Winnecook Lake. In the spring of the year smelts still migrate upstream in this brook. Fish were once plentiful in the brooks and streams, but today the angler gets poor reward for his pains. Unity Pond, or Winnecook Lake as it is properly named now, lies at the northern end of Unity. The lake is about three miles long and is from a mile to two and one-half miles in width. There are a few sandy beaches, but for the most part ledges and rocks appear along the shores. The waters of the lake flow from the outlet into Twenty-five Mile Stream which flows into the Sebasticook.
In the town's early history the land was covered by a great black forest growth interspersed here and there by hardwoods.8 These giant trees of the forest towering high in the air have entirely been
6. H. Walter Leavitt and Edward H. Perkins, Bulletin No. 30, A Survey of Road Materials and Glacial Geology of Maine, Technology Experiment Station, Orono, 1935, University of Maine Studies, Vol. I, Part I, p. 273. Also see Part II.
7. An early map called it "Kanocklus's Great Bog." Hayden the surveyor called it Knockwallis or Kernocklus.
8. J. W. Lang, "Survey of Waldo County," Agriculture of Maine, Augusta, 1873, p. 246.
8
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
cut away. These trees were often hundreds of years old and more than a dozen feet across the butt. In 1934 James E. Kelley of Boston wrote to me, that he had seen in his boyhood some of these old stumps. Of such enormity were these pine stumps that it was told that a yoke of oxen could often times be driven on top of them and turned around.ยบ It was one of these tall, straight pines marked with the broad arrow, which was cut about 1814, hauled to the Sebasticook River, where it was floated downriver to become one of the masts of the frigate, "Constitution."10 By 1830 the fine stands of timber were exhausted by the rapacious lumberman, who cut them as fast as pos- sible, and the settlers who burned thousands of feet of lumber clear- ing the land. By this date several saw mills which once flourished here disappeared.
Throughout its history Unity has remained a rural, agricultural community. The livelihood of its people depends almost wholly upon farming or connected industries. It was the fertile land which attrac- ted the settler, for after the woodsman had disappeared, there re- mained the rich soil which brought the permanent settler.
III
By the time Unity was settled there were very few Indians in these parts. They had been exterminated by the wars, died from epidemic, or moved elsewhere. Earlier, the tribes along the Kennebec and the Penobscot were to be feared, but after the terrible French and Indian wars, they ceased to be a menace. There were no known Indian vil- lages here, although there is a tradition of an Indian cemetery near the outlet of the pond. It would appear that this area was a hunting ground frequented by Indians only during certain seasons of the year. Material evidence of Indian artifacts are seldom found.11 Though few in numbers, the aborigine occasionally made an appearance or paid friendly visits. One day when Stephen Chase had gone on foot to Winslow to buy salt, his wife. Hannah, was startled by a noise. She looked out of her cabin window and saw eleven Indians, ten fully grown and one child. Not knowing what to do, she invited them inside and offered them food, even though her own larder was scarcely enough for her own family. Somehow while they were in the process of devouring their food, the little Indian upset the dyepot, on which he was sitting, and its contents spilled on the floor. In the close confines of the cabin the unpleasant smell from the dyepot was too
9. Letter from James E. Kelley of Boston to the author, January 1934.
10. James R. Taber, History of Unity, Augusta, 1916, p. 87.
11. The only authentic Indian artifact known found in Unity is in possession of the author. Several other stone relics are known to have been found here, but are of dubious authenticity. The one in the author's possession was found in August, 1948 in a gravel mound near the mouth of Bither Brook. Lloyd Tozier possesses a fine Indian arrow- head found on the horseback.
9
THE BEGINNING
much, and all of the Indians fled making sounds of displeasure at the little fellow, as they departed.12
As late as 1850 an Indian lived on "Swan Hill just below Frank Kelley's in a hollow pine stump with his son. The son went around begging and repeating the following, 'Dad's Sam and I'm Sam, Junior. I was eight years old last November. Just see! My fingers growed together.' "13
Taber is the source that many of the old roads were originally Indian trails through the forest. If such trails existed, and they prob- ably did, it is quite likely that the settlers used them. Fannie Hardy Eckstrom, an authority on Maine Indians, wrote that the Sebasti- cook (Sebesteguk) was a main highway of original travel, and the principal route over which the French missionaries communicated with their establishments.14 Thus, the settlers were undoubtedly familiar with the general routes of travel followed by the Indians.
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