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Gc 974.102 Or6d 1653118
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Please check map in back pocket after each use ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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THE ORONO SESQUICENTENNIAL PROGRAM
Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Incorporation of Orono
JUNE 14 - 15 - 16 1806 - 1956
Thursday, June 14
5:45 P.M .- Sesquicentennial Banquet (High School Gym- nasium)
8:15 P.M .- Historical Pageant, THIS IS YOUR TOWN, a dramatic portrayal of the history of Orono, written, directed, and produced by Herschel Bricker ( Uni- versity Memorial Gymnasium )
Friday, June 15
9:00 A.M. to Noon-Orono Reunion (Community House ) 9:00 A.M. to Noon-"Orono in Pictures" and historical dis- plays (Community House)
9:00 A.M. to Noon-"Let's Talk About Orono's History," with Barbara Dunn Hitchner (Community House )
9:00 A.M. to Noon-Tours of Orono-bus tours of Orono with narrators describing historical points of interest (Buses will leave from Town Hall)
9:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M .- Open Houses and Gardens (for details, see note at end of program)
1:00 P.M .- Children's Program (High School Athletic Field)
2:30 P.M .- Laying of the Cornerstone of the New Elemen- tary School
3:00 P.M .- Sesquicentennial Musical Program, presenting several of Orono's musical artists (Town Hall)
8:15 P.M .- Pageant, THIS IS YOUR TOWN (University Memorial Gymnasium )
9:00 P.M .- 11:45 P.M .- Dance (High School)
Saturday, June 16
9:00 A.M. to Noon-Same program as Friday, June 15
1:00 P.M .- Indian Ceremonies (Webster Park)
2:00 P.M .- Sesquicentennial Parade
3:30-5:30 P.M. # Concert by Orono High School Band (High School Grounds)
Outdoor Woodsmen Exhibition - log rolling, wood cutting, canoe tilting (Nickerson Pool)
¢ Fire Department Exhibition and Games (High School Athletic Field)
5:30-8:00 P.M .- Log Drivers' Supper (High School Athletic Field)
6:00 P.M. * Beard Growing Contest-judging and award- ing of prizes (at Log Drivers' Supper )
* Reunion of Orono's undefeated and untied High School Football Team of 1932 8:15 P.M .- Pageant, THIS IS YOUR TOWN (University Memorial Gymnasium )
SPECIAL EVENTS
STORE WINDOW DISPLAYS - The windows of Orono's stores will be decorated with things from the past.
COLORED SLIDES OF THE SESQUICENTENNIAL EVENTS - Each of the major events of the Sesquicentennial, as well as scenes from the pageant, will be recorded on colored film, and slides will be made available to those who want to buy them.
NAMESAKE TOWNS - Messages from Orono, Minnesota, Orono, Michigan, and Orono, Ontario, will be read at the Sesquicentennial Banquet.
INDIAN AND SESQUICENTENNIAL SOUVENIRS - Products of the Penobscot Indians and ceramic tiles by Mrs. Milton McGorrill will be on sale during the celebration.
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OPEN HOUSES AND GARDENS
Several of Orono's historical homes and outstanding gardens will be open to the public during the Orono Sesquicentennial. Admission to these homes and gardens will be by program-ticket only. These programs can be obtained at the LaBeau TV Center in Orono from June 4 on, or at the American Legion corner and at the Community House on Friday and Saturday, June 15 and 16.
The following homes will be open:
The Wilfrid J. Comeau Home-115 Main Street The Gould-Buffum Home-149 Main Street The Norman R. Ness Home-91 Bennoch Road The William J. Sweetser Home-109 Main Street The Roy V. Weldon Home-120 Main Street The Bride's House ( Modern )-Fernwood Avenue
The gardens of the following residences will be open:
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Corbett-21 College Heights Mr. and Mrs. E. Reeve Hitchner-51 Bennoch Road Mr. and Mrs. Louis Ibbotson-10 University Place Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Kirshen-14 University Place Mr. and Mrs. Lewis H. Niven-6 University Place Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Nutting-17 College Heights Mr. and Mrs. B. R. Speicher-12 University Place Mrs. Marian Sweetman-16 University Place
ORONO'S OLDEST RESIDENTS
The citizens of Orono listed below will be honored at the Sesquicentennial Banquet. All of them were born in Orono and are living in Orono now. Each is more than eighty years old. Ella Dall Louis H. King William H. King Anna I. Doyle
Isabel R. Dunn
Victoria Dwyer Belle A. Hall
Ellen M. Kirk Charles Perry
Ethel P. Weeks
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THE ORONO SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE
Barbara Dunn Hitchner
Gerald J. Grady
Co-Chairmen
Vina Adams
Roswell P. Bates
Charles E. Crossland
Albert K. Gardner
Abe Goldsmith
George Gonyer
Kenneth V. Goodman
Frank B. Harlow
Joseph R. LaBeau
Melva Littlefield
Lutie Longfellow
Mildred "Brownie" Schrumpf
Robert P. Shay
WITH SINCERE THANKS
The Orono Sesquicentennial program has been made possible by the cooperation and assistance of hundreds of Orono residents. Their participation has been with the finest of community spirit and civic pride. The Sesquicentennial committee wishes to ex- tend its sincere appreciation to each and every person who helped to make the program a success. Public recognition of each would be difficult, but the committee wishes to give special thanks to those listed below who made major contributions. In several cases an entire event has been sponsored by an Orono organiza- tion. It is the hope of the committee that this splendid com- munity endeavor is in itself a partial reward for their contribu- tion.
Banquet - Mildred "Brownie" Schrumpf and Charles Crossland Parade - Orono American Legion
Log Drivers' Picnic - Orono-Old Town Kiwanis
Children's Program - Orono Junior Chamber of Commerce
Open Houses and Gardens - W.S.C.S. of the Methodist Church
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Tours of Orono - High School Debating Team
Musical Program - Mrs. Irwin Douglas, Mrs. John Klein, Mrs. Jonathan Biscoe
Store Window Displays - Orono Daughters of the American Revolution
Beard Growing Contest - Kenneth V. Goodman
Colored Slides of Sesquicentennial - Kenneth Miles
Historical Exhibits - Joseph Plamondon
Tickets - Frank Harlow, Melva Littlefield
Publicity - Howard Keyo, Mrs. Carl Flynn, George Gonyer, Ed- ward Guernsey, Charles Perry, Mrs. Seymour Ryckman, Walter Schurman
Traffic Control - Orono Regular and Auxiliary Police
Fire Equipment Display - Orono Fire Department
Medical Attention - Joseph LaBeau
Map of Orono - Orono League of Women Voters
Orono Reunion - Coffee by Orono Woman's Club
Brochure Advertising - John Luebbers, Claude Chittick, Herbert Spencer, Frederick Burpee, Edward Ross, Roger Sabin
Pageant Artists - Philip Brockway, Mrs. Howard Nichols, Mrs. Ashley Campbell, Miss Frances Clapp, Mrs. Dorothy Queen, Mrs. Christine Abbott, Fred E. Round
Those Who Opened Their Homes and Gardens
The Coordinators from Each Orono Organization
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"Monument Square" with Civil War veterans on parade. About 1900.
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"Monument Square" today.
Historical Sketch of the Town Of Orono
By Clarence A. Day
CHAPTER I
Pioneer Days
Maine abounds in Indian place names from Monhegan to Madawaska and from the Piscataqua to Passamaquoddy. There are Indian names for lakes, rivers, mountains, and towns; but only one town preserves in its name the memory of an Indian himself. That town is Orono, named for Joseph Orono who was a famous chief of the Penobscot tribe in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Chief Orono had lived within the original limits of the pres- ent town of Orono for many years before the coming of the first white pioneers, and was only recently dead when the town was incorporated and named for him. The white inhabitants knew him well; and by his ability, fairness, and kindly conduct he had earned their affection and respect.
Orono was an outspoken advocate of peace between the two races. A talk that he once made, as reported by Judge William D. Williamson, reveals his thinking in this regard. "To kill will not bring the dead to life. The crime of a few never sprinkles blood on all. Strike the murderers. Let the rest be quiet. Peace is the voice of the Great Spirit. Everyone is blessed under its wings. Everything withers in war. Indians arc killed. Squaws starve. Nothing is gained, not plunder, not glory. Englishmen are now too many. Let the hatchet be buried. Smoke the calumet once more. Strive for peace. Exact a recompense by treaty for the wrongs done us. None! Ay: Then fight 'em."
During the war of the Revolution, Orono was firmly at-
tached to the American cause and held his tribesmen on the side of the colonies. To him and to Colonel John Allan, of Machias, superintendent of the Eastern Indians, more than to any other two men, belongs the credit for keeping the Indians loyal and for saving Eastern Maine to the United States.
Joseph Orono was not a full-blooded Indian. He had blue eyes, a fair complexion, and hair of an auburn tinge that in his old age became perfectly white. The early settlers believed that he had been captured by the Indians as a child and adopted into the tribe. Orono himself once said that his father was French and his mother half French and half Indian, but did not name his parents. General Henry Knox, who knew him well, wrote that the chief was "half Indian and half French of the Castine breed." Williamson said that he was "a reputed descendant of Baron de Castine by an Indian wife." He also declared that Orono was honest, temperate, and industrious, and remarkable for his forethought and wisdom. Joseph Orono died in 1801 at the reputed age of one hundred and thirteen years.
Orono had been settled for thirty-two years before it became a town. The first settlement was made in what is now Orono village by Joshua Eayres (or Ayers) and Jeremiah Colburn. Both brought their families and Colburn built his log cabin near what is now Mill Street while Eayres located on or near what is now Myrtle Street. Together they built the same year "half a mill" near the mouth of the Stillwater, which was later finished by themselves and others. Esther, daughter of Joshua Eayres, was the first white child born in Orono. She married William McPheters and was a lifelong resident of the town. The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named in her honor.
The next settler was John Marsh, the "Interpreter." He first came with Colburn and Eayres in 1774, went on to Canada, and served as "linguister" with Arnold's army before Quebec. Later he married Colburn's daughter Sarah and cleared a farm near the present location of the northern end of the highway bridge across the Stillwater. Descendants of these original families are still living in Orono although they do not bear the original names.
John Marsh was intimate with the Indians and often served
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as their interpreter when they had business with white officials. He secured from them a grant of the island on which he lived and which has since been called Marsh Island. This large island lies between the Stillwater and the Penobscot Rivers. The Still- water is really a part of the Penobscot. It leaves the main river a short distance above Old Town and joins it again at Orono. Marsh Island contains about five thousand acres, and on it are lo- cated that part of Orono known as Webster, the University of Maine, the University forest, part of Stillwater village and the city of Old Town proper.
Among the pioneers in Orono in or before 1800 besides those already named were Abram Tourtelotte, 1781; Samuel White, 1784; Daniel Jameson, about 1785; Robert, John, Joshua, and Joseph Treat; Joseph Page, Antoine Lachance, and Abram Freese; David Read, Joseph Inman, and Andrew Webster; Francis Wyman, Archibald McPheters, and William Duggans; and Ard Godfrey and George Ring. As late as 1800 there were but seventy- seven inhabitants.
Several place names were used in the area before it was called Orono. For a long time the Penobscot Indians had a camping ground, or perhaps a small village, at that part of the present village bounded by the Stillwater, the Penobscot, and the upper waters of the Basin. Many stone and other relics were found there by the early settlers. The Indian name for this camp- ing ground is unknown, but Ayers Rips nearby was called Arum- sunkhungan, or more accurately, according to Mrs. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, our best authority on Indian names, "Nalum-sunk- hungan, alewife fishing place below the cutlet" of the Stillwater. The name, by extension, came to be applied to the surrounding area including Marsh Island. The Indians called John Marsh's farm on the island near the bridge Pem-skud-ck, "the extensive burned place," or clearing, or farm.
The Stillwater River they called Skit-i-kuk, which was their usual term for deadwater on a stream. The English seem to have first called the river, Deadwater. Owen Madden, a school- master in Orono and Bangor in the pioneer days, is credited with having changed the name to Stillwater because he thought the word had a more agreeable sound. Orono village was once called
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Stillwater, and later Lower Stillwater, to distinguish it from the present village of Stillwater, then called Upper Stillwater.
As to the earlier names for the town itself, Mrs. Hannah W. Rogers tells us that the area included in both Orono and Old Town of the present day was organized in 1790 as a plantation and named Cobentown after the Colburn family, and that in 1800 the name of the plantation was changed to Stillwater.
March 12, 1806, the General Court of Massachusetts passed "An Act to incorporate the Plantation heretofore called Stillwater, in the County of Hancock, into a Town by the name of Orono." Williamson wrote in his History of Maine: "It is the 162d town in the State of Maine; taking its name from a distinguished chief of the Tarratine (Penobscot ) tribe, whose friendship to the cause of American liberties gave him an elevated place in the public esti- mation." The town when incorporated included all of the pres- ent town of Orono and also all of the present city of Old Town except about two thousand acres along its northern border. Indian Island, the principal village of the Penobscots, was within the limits of the new town, although the town had no jurisdiction over it. The population at the time of incorporation was small but growing. The United States Census gives 77 persons in 1800 and 351 in 1810.
The first town meeting after incorporation was held at the home of Captain David Read in Stillwater (Orono), April 7, 1806. Officers elected were Aaron Bliss, town clerk; Richard Winslow, Moses Averill, and John Read, selectmen; Andrew Webster, treasurer; and Ard Godfrey, collector and constable. The voters raised $75 for town charges and $1,000 for roads to be paid in work, but nothing for schools. The town also voted to build three pounds for stray animals and to fence the ceme- tery. "Having made these provisions to prevent the straying of cattle and the dead," remarked Governor Washburn, "they seemed to have thought it reasonable to let the children run at large."
The next year, 1807, the town voted $200 for contingent ex- penses, $200 for schools, $50 for a minister, and $1,000 in labor for roads. Thereafter money was voted each year for schools, al- though usually much less than for roads up to the time of the division of the town in 1840. This however seems to have been
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the only time that money was voted for the support of the min- istry.
Orono grew very slowly before 1820. The population that year was 415, only 64 more than it had been in 1810. Induce- ments for growth were small. The lumber business was still in its infancy, agriculture was still of the homemaker type, and the tide of immigration was slow in ascending the Penobscot Valley.
Events connected with the War of 1812 with the British also retarded the growth of the river towns. The coasting trade was destroyed by the British naval vessels and the lumbermen were deprived of their markets. Depredations along the coast kept the people fearful and disturbed. Then in 1814 came the series of events that culminated in the Battle of Hampden and the capture of Bangor by the enemy.
September 1, 1814, a British fleet took possession of the American garrison at Castine without meeting with the least re- sistance. Part of the fleet then proceeded up the Penobscot to Marsh Bay, where they landed several hundred troops and then advanced up the river. General John Blake, of Brewer, hastily ordered the militia from the neighboring towns to assemble at Hampden to repel the expected attack. Among the companies that responded was one from Orono with Captain Ebenezer Webster in command.
The Battle of Hampden was brief and inglorious. The raw militia fired and fled almost at the first onslaught of the trained English soldiers. Bangor was captured and nearly two hundred of her citizens were taken prisoners and placed on parole. Stores and dwelling houses were plundered and public buildings were taken over by the enemy. The British seized the shipping in the river and threatened to burn several vessels still on the stocks in the shipyards. Finally the selectmen of Bangor gave a bond for $30,000 to prevent the burning of these vessels as they believed that such a fire would surely spread and consume the whole town. Thereupon the British commanders gave written assurance that no more private property in Bangor or Orono would be disturbed except that on the river. The next day they burned part of the ships that were afloat and departed, taking the remainder down river with them and leaving destruction and desolation behind.
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Excitement in Orono was intense and a town meeting was held to see what should be done. The democratic process had full sway as shown by the following vote: "That we choose a committee to make enquiry and find out the intentions of the British towards the inhabitants of this town, and if it appears to them that they intend to invade this town, to report the same to the inhabitants, and also to have authority to call the inhabitants together at the shortest possible notice, to determine what method shall be taken for the preservation of the persons and property of said town." Ebenezer Webster, William Colburn, Jr., and Samuel White were chosen as the committee to carry out the pro- visions of the vote. There is no record that they ever made a report, probably because they soon learned of the agreement al- ready made at Bangor.
"During all of this period," (before 1815) said Governor Washburn at the centennial celebration in 1874, "the Stillwater River was crossed by a ferry, and it was not until several years later that a bridge was built over it. The schools were of the most primitive kind, and religious services were held in school rooms and dwelling houses - chiefly by the Methodists. There was neither lawyer nor doctor living in the town at this time. The first school house was built in 1815, and was near where the late Samuel White lived on Pleasant Street. It was afterward burned." The first tavern in town was opened by Perez Graves in 1812.
This period in the history of Orono may be summarized somewhat as follows. The first settlement was made in 1774 but the community grew very slowly for the first quarter century. For the next twenty years growth was still slow but somewhat more rapid than heretofore. However, throughout the whole time until 1820 when Maine became a state, the plantation and town had neither doctor, lawyer, nor settled minister. There were no churches or church buildings. Roads were little better than trails and most dwellings were of the humbler sort. There were a few small sawmills but no industry other than lumbering. On the brighter side, the town was gradually acquiring enterprising citi- zens, rapid development of the lumber industry was just ahead in the future, and the town was about to enter upon an era of sub- stantial growth.
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CHAPTER II Rapid Growth And The Great Land Speculation
Orono grew rapidly between 1820 and 1830, and in the mid- dle thirties it experienced the largest increase in population in a short time in all its history. During the score of years between 1820 and 1840 Orono acquired doctors, lawyers, ministers, and merchants; school houses and churches; grist, carding, and fulling mills; bridges, a railroad, a canal, and a bank; numerous saw- mills, a cantdog factory, and an iron factory; a village corpora- tion and a poorhouse. Orono also passed through that fantastic period of boom and bust known in Maine as the Great Land Speculation.
The first physician in Orono, perhaps, was Dr. Daniel J. Perley, who afterward practiced in Bangor. The next was Dr. Stevens who came from China before 1826 but who soon died of consumption. Dr. Varney Putnamn was here for a short time be- fore 1830. During the thirties at least six doctors practiced here for longer or shorter periods. They were Daniel McRuer, who came about 1830, Elihu Baxter, John Ricker, R. W. Wood, William H. Allen, and Sumner Laughton. None appears to have remained long.
The first lawyers in Orono were Jeremiah Perley, author of The Maine Justice, and Jonas Cutting. The latter came in 1826. Later he moved to Bangor and still later he served as a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Maine, 1854-1875. A little later came Frederick A. Fuller, Thomas J. Goodwin, and John H. Hilliard. Fuller remained until 1844. His son, Melville Weston Fuller, who spent his early boyhood in Orono, served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1888 to 1910.
During the boom years of the middle thirties several lawyers located here, including Henry E. Prentiss, later mayor of Bangor, Aaron Woodman, Samuel Belcher, Nathan Weston, Thomas J.
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Copeland, Nathaniel Wilson, and Israel Washburn, Jr. Mr. Wil- son remained in Orono until his death in 1892. He was one of the early trustees of the Maine State College of Agriculture and Me- chanic Arts, now the University of Maine.
Israel Washburn, Jr., was Orono's most distinguished citizen during the nineteenth century. Born in 1813, he studied law with his uncle, Ruel Washburn, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. He came to Orono the same year. Seven years later he married Mary Maud Webster, daughter of Colonel Ebenezer Webster, and thus became connected with one of the oldest and most influential families in the town. He took an active part in town affairs and was one of the founders and a leading member of the Universalist Church.
Israel Washburn was elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives in 1850 as a Whig, but later became one of the Republican leaders in that body. At one time three broth- ers in the Washburn family were representatives in Congress - Israel from Maine, Elihu from Illinois, and Cadwallader from Wis- consin.
Washburn resigned his seat in the House of Representa- tives in 1861 to become Governor of Maine during the first two years of the Civil War. He served two terms, 1861-1863, but re- fused a third term. In 1863 President Lincoln appointed him Collector of Customs for the Port of Portland, and he soon re- moved from Orono to that city where he lived for the remain- der of his life. He died in 1883. Readers of this sketch are in- debted to Governor Washburn because much of the information it contains about the early history of the town is taken from his "Historical Address" delivered at the dedication of the then new town hall on the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town.
The history of the Orono churches will be found in another chapter. Sufficient to say here that both the Congregationalists and the Methodists organized church societies and built houses of worship during the period under discussion. To quote from Governor Washburn: "The Methodist church, raised August 22, 1833, was built by David Balkham, and was dedicated in June 1834. The Congregationalist church - Hugh Read and Israel
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Brown builders - was erected in 1833 and dedicated in the spring of 1834." Two new schoolhouses were built about the same time, one of brick on Marsh Island and one of wood on Ben- noch Street and later moved to Main Street near the location of the present Church of Universal Fellowship.
The first bridge over the Stillwater was a toll bridge built in 1826 by John Bennoch, of Orono, and Thomas A. Hill and Mark Trafton, of Bangor. It was swept away by ice in a spring freshet, April 1, 1831, but was replaced by a new bridge the same year. The town of Orono bought this bridge and made it a free bridge in 1889. In 1912 it was replaced by an iron bridge which was succeeded by the present bridge a few years ago. During the de- pression that followed the land speculation bubble: "While the people had little to do, Asa W. Babcock, Esq., and Captain Samuel Moore worked up a movement for a free bridge, and pushed it with such earnestness and enthusiasm that the bridge was erected and made ready for travel in a few months." This bridge across the Stillwater was located near the site of the pres- ent railroad bridge and was a great convenience to the people in that part of the town until it fell some years afterward.
"The second railroad to be operated in New England," says Edward E. Chase in his Maine Railroads, "was the Bangor and
- Piscataquis Canal and Railroad, opened between Bangor and Old Town in 1836." The Bangor and Old Town Railroad, chartered in 1832, had built bridges and graded a portion of the right of way, but had stopped construction because of a defect in the charter. The rival company then bought the franchise and built the road on another location. The railroad ran from Bangor through Upper Stillwater to Old Town and was used principally to convey manufactured lumber from the mills to the wharves in Bangor for ocean shipment. General Samuel Veazie, one of the biggest lumbermen on the river, bought the road in 1854 and operated it until his death in 1868. Two years later the Veazie heirs sold it to the European and North American Railroad and it was discontinued. It ran the whole width of the present town of Orono.
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