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Gc 974.102 B51b 1893851
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01083 7471
E
Bingham
SESQUICENTENNIAL
HISTORY
PHOTO COURTESY OF MORNING SENTINEL MANAGER HOWARD N. GRAY
1812
- 1962
BINGHAM Me.
SESQUICENTENNIAL
HISTORY
1812 - 1962
by THE HISTORY COMMITTEE of the BINGHAM SESQUICENTENNIAL
1962
THE SKOWHEGAN PRESS SKOWHEGAN, MAINE
Table of Contents
Act of Incorporation .
4
First Town Meeting
5
Early Settlers On The River
6
Goodrich Hill
15
Eastern Settlement
19
Poem - New England Heritage
2I
William Bingham
23
Copy of Petition for Incorporation
25
Town Records
27
Schools
3I
Churches
38
Post Offices
46
Stagehouses and Inns
48 52.
Militia
Veterans
54
Cemeteries
58 62 66
Stores Through 150 Years
·
.
.
Industries
.
.
.
72 80
Physicians
.
.
.
.
Chamber of Commerce
84
Social Organizations
·
.
.
.
86
Bingham Union Library
99
Bingham Water District
IOI
Poem - The Bridge
.
.
. 104
Bingham Fire Department
·
.
.
106
Bingham Centennial
.
.
109
.
·
.
Transportation
.
.
.
.
.
.
·
.
.
.
Illustrations: . ..
Pages 7, 13, 14, 18, 22, 30, 33, 36, 37, 41, 48, 53, 57, 59, 62, 65, 67, 73, 78, 81, 85, 89, 98.
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.
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1893851
Sources of Information Used in this History:
Town records.
Papers written by Jabez Hill in 1875.
Notes of T. F. Houghton in 1884.
Notes of E. W. Moore during his lifetime.
Notes of Lizzie Gilman McQuilken.
Notes written by Sydney T. Goodrich in 1912.
Other sources include old diaries, scrapbooks, records of the Churches, Library, the Bingham Water District and the Bingham Fire Department, and for the schools, the town reports.
3
Gomwealth of Massachusetts
In the year of our and one thousand eight hundred
An Act to establish the town of. Bingham. Section 1st be it macher by the Senate and. House of Representatives in General Count assembled and by the authority of the same, that the Township Number one in thegerst change of Townships within the Bingham purchase in the Country of Somerset, de and hereby is, incorporated and established as a Town by the name of Bingham within the following described Boundaries viz. Bounded south by the Town of Soton, Bast by number two in range aforesaid, North by number one in the second Range east of chinabeck Kefer. And the Inhabitants of the said town of Bengha are hereby vester with all the powers and privileges and subjected If the like duties and requisitions of other Town according to the Constitution and Laws of the Commonwest. Section 2. And be it further enacted that any further of the Peace for the Country of Somerest is hereby an- - thorused when application thereyou to issue a warrant directe is a freeholder and inhabitants of the saw town of Bingham requiring him & notify and warm the "There of to meet at such convenient time and filar infabitanti
1 as shall be appointed in sai warrant for the chains of whoficers as Jonens are by Law empowered and and required to choose at their annual townmeetings: In the House of Representation keby. S. 1812. This Bill having had three several ratings, Past to be anact.
In Senate Feb. 5. 1812. This Bill Lo Biff the Ripley. Speaker. Trading hast to he enacted. Samuel Dana President
Council Chamber 6. Jeb. 1812. approved &. Levoy. Secretary's Oficer in trus Copy attest Benjamin Homans Servita 10 March 1812.5
Bingham 9. June 1812 atone topy ation Enham Wood Jornal.
First Town Meeting.
Somerset for.
i:11:hermana the within last and also is the petition to me directed I have helt a legal meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Kinghas it which the following officers were chosen vix.
Explain Wood Jamin Clark.
Ephraim Wood Atmen Baker and Select Men. Ofer Withan
Joshina Goodridge Janin Trinsure. Ephraim Wood. Abrir Baker and Assessors. Ofer Willson
Washington M'tative Constable and Collector. who agreed & collect for 3 per cent. Daniel Fostevand? Feni viewers. Daniel Williams'S
Washington M In time Stephen Partin Jonathan Bosworth q Hog Keres :
fra Bourg
Luther Moore and John Juskin Edward How's. John Goodridge.
and Surveyors of timber Calvin Ferrer Daniel Foster. Ambert Stafford and
Highway Juneyour
Johna Goodreader.fr Joshua Goodridge
Daniel Churchalan 2. Sythingmin.
Calvin Server Levi Goodridge and David Smith
I hereby certify that the above Officers were duly Chosen and Swar before me as the Law direito. Caleb Jeffet Justin Venus,
Bingham 9. Jan 18.12. I have tofing Ogihr wood Town Clerk
The Early Settlers on the River
T IS WELL IN THE YEAR of 1962, the anniversary of our town's in- corporation, when our National Government has sent its astronauts. into outer space to circle the earth three times and to return safely in a few hours; when we sit in our homes and share our President's. press conferences by TV, or with his wife in the wonders of India; when we eat our breakfast in Boston and our dinner in San Francisco; when a half-million-dollar High School, which Bingham and neigh- boring towns have built, adorns the hill cleared by an early settler; for us to pause and to turn back the pages of our town's records, and of our families; to think about the men and women who came here by spotted trail, bridal path, up the river in canoes or bateaux to an unbroken wilderness where they carved out homes for themselves and founded a town which they could pass on to their children and to us. Bingham is a town of which we may be proud. Old and young can say, "This is my home-town, and I love it." I
The men who settled this valley were not mere wanderers or adventurers. They were like all men who have achieved have been. They had come from the older, more cultured towns of Massachusetts with a definite purpose. Life was a serious business with them. War with the mother country was just over, a new nation had been born and was stretching itself as a newborn child must do to grow. It must be fed, clothed and housed. The young government was not ready to do much for its children. Poor it was as money and currency were concerned, but rich in lands. Land was the one thing more than all else to be desired. A great undeveloped continent lay around them and to the northeast the forest-covered province of Maine from which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hoped to receive great revenue to pay her own debts incurred in the war. Men who had followed Arnold to Quebec had returned with reports of a beautiful fertile valley of the Kennebec. Various means had been used to induce people to take up lands and settle-and so the trek began.
Some of the men came at first without their families, waiting until they had made a clearing and built cabins before they moved their families. Others brought their families with them.
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Small settlements had been founded on the way up. At Hallowell and Waterville were older ones, and at Canaan and Norridgewock were more recent ones.
It was from Norridgewock that the first settlers came to this place, then called Carrytunk, from the falls at Solon, and including all the land from the northern boundary of Solon to the forks of the river. Tradition and all historical accounts point to William Fletcher as the first white man to take up land in what is now the town of Bingham (in 1784), and to him goes the honor of being the first settler. Following closely, possibly the same year, was a young man, Ephraim Wood, also from Norridgewock.
WILLIAM FLETCHER
William Fletcher, Bingham's first settler, was born in Concord, Massachusetts. He married Sarah Frost of Westford, Massachusetts in 1764. Four of their eight children were born before coming to Maine. They came to Canaan in 1771 and to Norridgewock in 1773. They were in Norridgewock when Arnold went up through. Their children born there were Sarah, Asa, Polly and Lucy.
He took an active part in the affairs of the settlement at Norridge- wock. It is thought that he may have taken lands up here some time before moving the family. The land which he cleared here was in what is now the upper part of Bingham Village-lots 17 and 18 on the Philip Bullin map. He built a mill on the banks of the Austin Stream. In 1795, he sold a part of the land, or Lot 17, to Levi Good-
ABEL PARLIN PLACE - House Built by Steven Parlin Photo taken about 1900
7
rich, son of Joshua Goodrich. After his death, his son, Asa, occupied the farm for a time. Then it was sold to Levi G. Fletcher, a nephew, who built a home on what is now a part of Walter Harwood's prop- erty. The store now occupied by Clayton Andrews was also on this lot. The old house was moved off to a lot on the lower end of Baker Street some years ago, and part of it is occupied by Leon Roberts.
Most of the stores and business blocks of Bingham are located on the land which William Fletcher cleared as well as some of its homes. The farmland passed from the Fletchers to Sewall Baker, to his son Edwin Baker and to Albert Murray. Murray Street, running east out to Bingham Heights, Baker Street, Preble Street, and Whitney Street are a part of the Fletcher land.
He died in 1806 and is buried in the village cemetery with his wife.
EPHRAIM WOOD
Ephraim Wood, one of the first two white men to take up land in this town, was the son of Oliver and Lucy Hosmer Wood, who came to Norridgewock in 1773.
Ephraim was born in Concord, Massachusetts, November 19, 1759. He appears to have been an educated young man and has been referred to as teaching up and down the river, and sometimes exchang- ing teaching for farming. He came here and took up land about 1784 on what is now the intervale farm of Guy Herron, and land owned by the late Emil Fecteau. In 1799, he married Lephie Goodrich, the daughter of Joshua Goodrich, who had settled the next place but one above his.
Through the years he became one of Bingham's most useful and respected citizens. He was one of the group who formed the Con- gregational Church in 1805, and served as one of its deacons and its clerk for many years. He was one of the signers of the petition for the incorporation of the town, and at its organization was its first selectman and town clerk, which office he held for eleven years. His records stand today a credit to himself and to the town. Wherever we have found him he has proved to be an intelligent, educated, and Christian man-a man whom the town may be proud to remember as one of its founders and his descendants glad to call him an ancestor.
He died August 12, 1841. His wife died December 12 of the same year. They rest in our village cemetery.
The names of their children are recorded in the town records by his own hand. They were: Lydia, b. Oct. 16, 1800; Lucy, b. June 17, 1803; Lois, b. Aug. 27, 1805; Aseneth, b. Feb. 16, 1808; Sarah, b. June 24, 1810; Samuel, b. Feb. 28. 1814; Mary and Martha, twins, b. Sept. 25, 1817.
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JOSHUA GOODRICH
Joshua Goodrich, or Capt'n Goodrich as he was sometimes called, was one of the first six settlers of this place. He was born in Lunen- burg, Massachusetts, August 10, 1846, the son of Joshua and Lydia Sterns Goodrich. He married Elizabeth Phelps of Fitchburg in 1769.
Their first child was born and died in Lunenburg. They moved to Fitchburg where the next five children were born. In 1780, they moved to Canaan or Bloomfield and lived there about eight years. Three more children were born there and one died. In 1888 or 89, they moved to this town where their youngest child, Benjamine, was born, and remained here the rest of their lives. Joshua served in the war of the Revolution. He was always active in public affairs. He was one of the leaders in bringing about the incorporation of the town. The first town meeting was held in his house and he was the first town treasurer. He gave to the town the first land for a cemetery where the old slate slabs mark the graves of the early settlers. He built a saw- and gristmill on the Mill Brook which was in use for many years. The first schoolhouse was built on his land in front of the cemetery. He died in December 1815. His wife outlived him for many years. She was often referred to as having a marked religious influence in the community and was instrumental in organizing the first Church. She died in March 1840. They both rest in the old part of the cemetery, with many of their children and grandchildren buried near them.
Their children were: Phineas, born and died in Lunenburg; Elizabeth b. 1773; Lephie and Levi, twins b. 1774; Joshua b. 1776; John b. 1778, all in Fitchburg; Abijah b. 1781; Lydia b. 1783; David b. 1785. These last three were born in Canaan. Benjamine was born in 1799 in Bingham. All but Benjamine settled in Bingham except Abijah who moved to Concord in 1830, and Benjamine who went early to The Forks, where he was a first settler.
SILAS PARLIN
Silas Parlin, who was one of the first six settlers from Norridge- wock, came about 1788 or 1789. He was living in Norridgewock at the time of its incorporation in 1789. He probably retained his resi- dence there until his place here was ready for his family. He settled first on Lot 12, between Ephraim Wood's and Joshua Goodrich's places. He sold this place about 1805 to Edward Howes who seems to have come here from Cape Cod. Parlin afterward settled the place where Dr. Blunt lived later, according to E. W. Moore's notes. The place where he first settled was later known as the Whipple place and is now the Maplewood Springs, the summer place owned by Stanton Beane.
9
Silas Parlin was born in Concord, Massachusetts the son of John and Margaret MacCollo Parlin, in 1760. He was a Revolutionary War soldier and came to Maine after the war was over. He married Lydia Wood, daughter of Oliver Wood of Norridgewock and sister of Ephraim Wood, in 1781. She was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1762.
Their children were Silas Jr. and Abel, who were born in Con- cord, Massachusetts, and Lucy, Stephen and Alpha born in Norridge- wock.
Silas Parlin was a great hunter, and tradition has it that Parlin Pond was named for him.
His wife died in Bingham in 1820, and he died in 1828.
DANIEL FOSTER
Daniel Foster settled on No. 14 lot, next above that of Joshua Goodrich on the river. From the records of Temple, New Hampshire, Daniel Foster is mentioned as the son of Joshua Foster, a carpenter, who had come to that town from Boxwood with three children. Daniel was born in 1759. He married Dorcas Fletcher, daughter of William Fletcher. They had no children. He came to Carrytunk in 1800. His name is listed on the Titcomb map of 1890 as owning a lot on the Concord side.
His name appears with the signers of the petition for organiza- tion March 23rd, 1812. Among the first officers his name appears with Daniel Williams as fence viewers and with Amherst Spafford and Joshua Goodrich Jr. as highway surveyors.
He died in 1832. His widow lived on in the same place for many years. She is referred to in a Church missive as "living in the same place opposite the schoolhouse." She gave Levi G. Fletcher a deed to the lot for the old Meeting House for $50.00 in 1836. In June 1837, Mary Fletcher, et al, gave a quit claim deed to the Bingham Free Meeting House Society.
On August 9, 1843, Dorcas Foster gave a deed to Charles B. Foster of The Forks, presumably to the farm on which she lived. Dorcas Foster died in 1847 and is buried beside her husband in Bingham Village Cemetery.
The place where they lived has since been owned and occupied by Thomas Wiggin, Charles Bray, Orrison Gordon and the present owner, Mrs. Henry Cooley.
EPHRAIM HEALD - PETERBOROUG
Ephraim Heald was one of Bingham's first six settlers. Just when he came here is uncertain. He came from Peterboro, New Hampshire, and to distinguish him from Major Ephraim Heald who settled on what is now the Cool place in Concord, he was nicknamed "Peterboro Heald." The name in both families came to be called Hale, probably
IO
from mis-pronounciation. He settled on the farm afterward owned by Chandler Baker and later by James O'Hara. The land is now included in Rollins Street and James Street. He is said to have built the first framed house in Bingham. It stood back from Main Street as it runs now, but on the road which at first followed nearer the river. It sat for many years just below the place known as The Yellow Bowl. It was known to earlier generations as the "Hale House," later the "Bill Moore House." It was at one time owned by Frank Hunnewell, who rented it. It was last owned by Mrs. Grace Rollins, then proprietor of The Yellow Bowl, who had it taken down.
Ephraim Heald was one of the signers of the petition for incor- poration and of the signers for the first warrant for the town meeting.
According to the town records, Ephraim Heald was born October 28, 1774. His wife Polly (Mary Ireland) was born March 8, 1782. Their children were Rachel, Polly, Daniel, Ephraim, Betsey, William, Nancy and Harrison.
Ephraim Heald died December 14, 1834, and his wife Polly died January 3, 1861. They are buried in the Village Cemetery.
EZEKIEL CHASE
Ezekiel Chase, whose name appears among the first settlers both on the Samuel Titcomb map of 1790 and the Philip Bullin map of 1800, has been listed as Captain Ezekiel Chase and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a brother to Roger Chase who settled on the west side of the river in what is now Concord at an early date.
Ezekiel Chase left this section in 1802 and took up land on the Piscataquis River, and was the first settler in Sebec, where he moved his family. He had a brother, Abel, who went there with him.
A story is told in "Maine Place Names" of Roger Chase of Carry- tunk who went to Sebec in 1804 and built and installed a sawmill and a gristmill on the river for his brothers. From this mill the first boards were sawed and the first grist was ground on the Piscataquis River. Roger returned to the Kennebec Valley.
DANIEL CHURCHILL
Daniel Churchill, who has been listed among the first six settlers, came from Norridgewock. He was here before 1800 and settled on the lot next above that of Daniel Foster-lot No. 15, Philip Bullin map. He was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Churchill, who also came. He married Lucy, daughter of William Fletcher. They had several children. A son, Daniel, married Caroline Baker, daughter of Brown Baker, who moved west. A daughter, Hanner, married David McIntire. Daniel's widow was living with them between 1850 and 1870. Another daughter married Shurtliff Smith.
Daniel Churchill was one of the signers for the incorporation of
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the town. His name is listed with that of Joshua Goodrich and Aaron Rice as tything men at the first election of officers.
He died January 2, 1850. The farm he settled was later owned by Nathan Baker, who married Lydia Wood, daughter of Ephraim Wood. After Nathan Baker's death, this place was sold to John Owens, Sr., and has been known as the Owens place.
REVEREND OBED WILSON
Obed Wilson was one of Bingham's early settlers who distin- guished himself in several ways. He was the son of Oliver and Sarah Harwood Wilson of Starks. He was born there October 15, 1778. He was married to Christina Gray, daughter of Capt. John and Elizabeth Boyington Gray of Embden. They came to Bingham in 1802 and cleared a lot in the southern part of the town next but one to the Solon line. Here in the forest he made a home for his wife and two small children.
In 1805, he became converted and felt that he was called to preach the Gospel. This was a test. He had but a meager amount of formal education but he had a thirst for knowledge, a good mind and a good amount of natural ability. After consulting with his wife and much prayer he made his decision, and in 1806 he preached his first sermon. He had no formal pastorate but went wherever he saw a need. And for many years he worked his farm during the week and preached somewhere each Sunday. The people listened to him gladly. He was of the Methodist denomination and was ordained an Elder in 1828. When the Union Church was built in Bingham in 1836, he preached the dedicatory sermon and when the Union Church was built in Solon the following year he was chosen to preach the sermon there. A Bowdoin graduate who heard both sermons is re- ported to have said "in natural ability he stood head and shoulder above those around him."
But he also found other ways of serving his fellowmen and com- munity. His name was among the signers of the petition for the incorporation of the town in 1811, and when the call for organiza- tion came his name was on that petition. At the first town meeting he was chosen one of the selectmen, which office he held for some years. He also served for several years on the school committee.
He was a member of the Convention of 1820 and 1821 which formed the Constitution of the State, and served as a representative to the first Legislature after Maine became a State. He served both in the Legislature and the Senate several times; the last time in the winter of 1835 and 1836.
Mindful of his own limited opportunities, he was deeply inter- ested in all institutions of learning. He was one of the founders of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kents Hill, and one of its overseers
I2
until his death. Three of his sons were educated there. One of his sons was sent to Waterville College (Colby) where he died at the age of twenty-three.
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THE OBED WILSON HOUSE
One of Bingham's oldest houses-on Route 201-recently the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wilmont Doyle. Built by Obed Wilson who came from Starks in 1802, cleared the land and erected a cabin and later built this house.
His wife, Christina, died in December 1834. He was married to his second wife, Mrs. Martha Cox of Hallowell, in 1837. He moved to Skowhegan that fall where he was pastor of the small Church at that time. He died in November 1840. He and his wife Christina are buried in the Pierce Cemetery not far from the home which he had cleared for them and his family in Bingham.
They were the parents of fourteen children: Joshua Grey Wilson, Daniel, Obed Jr., who died in Waterville, Christina, Betsey, Sally, Sussana, Betty, Oliver, Martha, Susan, John M., Horace Brown, and Obed J. Wilson.
The home of Obed Wilson still stands, and is one of the oldest houses in the town. It passed from him to his son, Daniel, who twice married-first to Hannah Baker, daughter of Brown Baker, by whom he had two daughters. After the death of Hannah, he was married to Mary (Polly) Goodrich, daughter of Levi Goodrich. They had thirteen children, including two pair of twins born one year and two days apart. Of this family, Sarah Wilson, who married Joseph Merrill,
13
remained in the old home and cared for her mother, Polly, who died in 1898 at the age of ninety-four years. Sarah's son, Melville, married Hattie Joyce and they remained on the farm. They had one daughter when Melville died. The farm changed hands soon after.
The late Wilmont Doyle and his wife Etta bought this farm in 1922, and lived there until his death in 1960. It has been sold to their granddaughter and husband, Norma and Dale Miller.
- MRS. ELIZABETH G. JORDAN
Home of Pickard and Elizabeth Goodrich.
14
Goodrich Hill Road
TOSHUA GOODRICH, JR., THE FIRST SETTLER of the name to come to this region, came about 1790 and settled on the farm now known as the Taylor farm. His son, Joshua III, married Betsey Robbins of Skowhegan and settled on the next farm on the east. Someone had been there before him, made a small clearing and built a log house, but did not gain title to the land. When they were married he pro- posed going there at once and start housekeeping in the log house, but Betsey ruled otherwise, saying that she never had lived in a log house and did not intend to do so now, neither for him nor any other man. The result was that they lived with his father's family while the frame house was being built, reputedly for a year and one day. As their first child was born there June 26, 1802, it is quite possible that they moved to their new home later in that year.
The frame house which Joshua built for his bride is still standing and forms part of the shed connected to the present house. One room in the old house was used for school purposes for many years and was always referred to as the "school room." The present house was built about 1825. Simon Piper was employed as carpenter.
The grist- and sawmills on Jackson Brook, locally known as Mill Brook, were built on land which was part of the farm owned by Joshua Jr., although operated for a long time by Joshua III. The grist- mill stood below the bridge which now crosses the brook. The last timbers of the dam and part of the foundation of the mill disappeared in a freshet about 1900. The sawmill was a few rods upstream.
On October 7, 1815, Joshua IV, oldest son of Joshua III, aged thirteen years, was accidently killed in the gristmill. He was playing in the mill and fell under the water wheel. It is a family tradition that grief over this event hastened the death of his grandfather which occurred December 20 of the same year.
No record has been found as to when the use of these mills was discontinued, but as subscriptions were taken in 1836 to build the mills on Austin Stream, it was probably some time before this date. In his will, Joshua, Jr. mentions the fact that the dam at the sawmill was out of repair. He left his farm, the gristmill and one-half interest in the sawmill to his sons, Abiiah and Benjamin, the other half interest in the gristmill to his son, Levi.
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