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Gc 974.102 W14s v.2 1242894
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01091 8693
History of Old Broad Bay and Waldoboro
VOLUME I THE COLONIAL AND FEDERAL PERIODS
VOLUME II
THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
History of Old Broad Bay and Waldoboro
by JASPER JACOB STAHL
VOLUME TWO
The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
The Bond Wheelwright Company Portland, Maine
COPYRIGHT, 1956, BY JASPER J . STAHL Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 56-5858
All rights in this book are reserved For information address the author in care of the publishers: The Bond Wheelwright Company 335 Forest Avenue, Portland 5 Maine
In Canada: Burns & McEachern 12 Grenville Street, Toronto 5
Manufactured in the United States of America by BOOK CRAFTSMEN ASSOCIATES, NEW YORK
1242894
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
XXVI THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT INDUSTRY 1
Shipbuilding in the town begun by the Germans. The Ulmer yard. Influx of Puritan shipbuilders and artisans. Business activity of Squire Thomas. Turner's yard. New trade routes opened. List of early Waldoborough vessels. Disastrous effect on shipping of European strife. Captain George D. Smouse. Scope of his business. His will. His Span- ish-American son, Nicholas. Death of Captain Smouse. "Pathetic letter" of Chapin Sampson. In- fluence of Captain George D. Smouse on the town's economy.
XXVII THE GERMAN PROTESTANT SOCIETY
17
The incorporation of the Society. Its organization. Its procedure in handling its affairs. Apostasy of Jacob Ludwig. The Rev. Ritz. His death in 1810. Settlement with Mrs. Ritz. Church music. Struc- tural improvement. Social features of the Sabbath. Religious strife. Support of the church and pastor. Managing of the Society's affairs inept. Sale of church lands. Fiscal problems of the Society. Lan- guage difficulties. The Rev. John Starman. De- cline of the church. Language issue an insistent one. Mr. Starman yields. Conditions continue to worsen. Appeal to the New York Synod. Visit to the town of the Rev. Dr. Pohlmann of Albany. Dr. Pohlmann's narrative. The Church disbands. Death of Mr. Starman. Factors in the decline of the Lutheran Church. Ministry of Dr. Samuel Trexler.
XXVIII THE MAKING OF THE VILLAGE
44
Analysis of the Census of 1800. The village a Puri- tan institution. The two competing business cen- ters. Slaigo center crippled by the reversals of Squire Thomas. Conditions at the head of tide. Village carved from head-tide farms of William Wagner, David Holzapfel, Matthias Römele, John Ulmer, and Martin Reiser. Development of west side. Disposition of Barnard and Sproul tracts on the east side. Increase in Puritan population. Analysis of the Census of 1810. The larger families.
XXIX ANNALS OF THE EARLY CENTURY
The second epidemic of smallpox. Methods of handling the disease. Roads, early bridges, estrays-
58
V
Casaer - 25.00 (2val)
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PAGE
their marking and impounding. The town house. The powder house. Miscellaneous annals. Changes in the village area. Newcomers - the Hovey fam- ily, Dr. John Manning, Payne Elwell, the Farring- tons, the Gays, the Gleasons, the Standish family, "Dr." Wing. Some marriages of this decade. In- sect pests and weather. Singing schools. Taxes. Protest of Payne Elwell. Waste of natural re- sources. Bastardy and pauperism. Wolf hunts. Prevailing fashions and modes of living.
XXX THE RISE OF PARTISANSHIP
81
Political indifference of the Germans. Apathy in elections. Sporadic representation in the General Court. Federalist bias. Rise of partisan feeling in New England. Harsh law governing treatment of debtors. No redress from Legislatures. Growth of party interest in the town. Disfranchisement of local voters. Effect of European developments. Grip of local Federalist on electorate of the town. Aim of party to control local governments. Aims of the Federalist junto in Waldoborough. Isaac Gardner Reed takes up residence in the town. The Reed Mansion. Mr. Reed's political philos- ophy. A comparison with political sentiment in neighboring towns. Attitude of Germans on state- hood for Maine. Waldoboro in the statehood convention. Federalists go down to defeat. Col. Reed and the state seal. Mr. Gorham Parks set- tles in the town. The last sigh of local Federal- ism. Col. Reed becomes postmaster. Local squab- ble over postmastership. Charles Samson strikes back. A political mix-up in Waldoboro. Realign- ment of parties in the town.
XXXI THE SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN
104
Traitorous attitude of the local Federalists. Euro- pean background of the war. Jefferson places an embargo on American shipping. Federalists de- mand its repeal. Subsequent attitudes and policy of the party. Non-participation in the struggle. Britain finally starts seizure of New England ves- sels. War comes to Waldoboro waters. Doings of Commodore Samuel Tucker. The feat of Peter Light. The Boxer and the Enterprise. Blockade from Eastport to the Mississippi. The town girds for defense. Report of Committee of Defense. The Committee of Safety. Waldoboro men in Dartmoor prison. March to the defense of Cam- den. Boom times. Smuggling. Convention of the Third Congressional District in Waldoboro. Its resolutions analyzed. The defeat at New Orleans and peace.
XXXII THE VILLAGE SQUIRES 122
The town becomes class conscious. Social devel- opment under English leadership. Names of local leaders. Their contribution to the life of the town.
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Homes and mode of life of the squires. Develop- ment of the genteel tradition. The rebuilding of the town. Col. Reed's household and mode of life. Social life among the gentry. Living standards of the first families imitated by the middle class. Status of the back-district folk. Their poverty re- vealed in the will of Phebe Andru. Light shed by pension records in Washington. Exploitation of the poor by the village squires. Attitudes on money matters. Method of exploitation. Varying attitudes of the squires to such abuses. Episode in Black- town. Hatreds thus engendered survive for a cen- tury and retard the development of the town. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT DAYS 140
XXXIII
Prosperity and growth based upon shipbuilding. Comparison of wealth and population with other towns in county and state. Comparison of ship tonnage in customs districts. Ownership of shares in vessels. Effects of European conditions and of War of 1812. Early yards on the river. Architec- ture, size, and rig of early Waldoboro vessels. Sources of building materials. Construction and launchings. Names of early shipbuilders. The man- ning of local vessels. Early Waldoboro vessels at sea. The Waldoboro-Boston trade. The brig Roxanna and her captain.
XXXIV THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH
152
The Congregational Church in the Province of Maine. Congregationalism in Waldoboro. Its early organization. Pastorate of the Rev. John R. Cut- ting. Relations with the German Society. Minis- try of the Rev. David M. Mitchell. The erec- tion of the "old North Church." Effect in the town of the rise of Unitarianism in Boston. Con- flict with the First Universalist Society. The Uni- versalists prevail over the more orthodox Breth- ren. Col. Reed descants on the death of an Uni- versalist. The Rev. Mitchell seeks a revival. List of pastors. Repairs on the church. Its power declines. It tries a pastor for heresy. The last pastor. The end of the Established Church in the town.
XXXV AMID THE ENCIRCLING GLOOM
172
Education under the dominance of the Germans. The district system. The building of school- houses. Record of a typical district meeting. Cur- riculum of the district school. The School Com- mittee. Appropriation of monies for education. Germans and English split on educational prog- ress. Action by the village people. School laws of the state in 1820. Names of early teachers. How the agent system functioned in District No. 3. Private schools in the town. Discord between the School Board and districts. Revelations of the first reports of the School Board, 1847-1850. Report of the Rev. John Dodge's committee. Petty graft
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disclosed. The Teachers' Institute. The Report of 1850. Summary.
XXXVI THE RISE OF THE SECTS 188
Attitude of the Established Church to the newer sects in the town. Early Baptist movement in Maine. Records of the first Baptists in Waldo- boro. Their development in the town. Ordination of the Rev. Samuel Chism. The effects of a fu- neral sermon. The pastorate of the Rev. Joseph Wilson. The church is erected. Church discipline. Finances and Sunday services. Subsequent pasto- rates. Changes in the church building. Heresies. Baptists disapprove of a changing world. The Rev. James Graham. List of pastors. The church in the twentieth century. The early Methodists. The cir- cuit riders in the back-districts. Early preachers. The Methodists break into the village. They build a church. The roll of pastors. The town's churches in the present.
XXXVII
ANNALS OF THE 20'S AND 30'S
212
Analysis of the census records of 1820. Assessor's schedule for year 1822. The town's economy. Some of the later Puritan arrivals - George Allen, Bela B. Haskell, Alfred Hovey, John Bulfinch, John Balch, Ezra B. French, Doctors Elijah A. Daggett and Hiram Bliss, Parker McCobb, Alex- ander Young. Military musters. Sketch of old Muster Days. Details of the last muster of the "associated towns." The passion for litigation in these years. Miscellaneous aspects of local life. Concerning the salvation of souls in the town. The practice of indenture. Analysis of the census records of 1830. Deaths of Jacob Ludwig and Dr. Benjamin Brown. Longevity of the founding fa- thers. Transportation in these decades. The Lin- coln Patriot. The first bank and fire company in the town. Small details of social life. Colonel Reed in the Post Office.
XXXVIII THE RESURGENCE OF MORALS
236
Many Puritan institutions a natural reaction to their life of discipline and toil. Tavern life and hard liquor a mode of escape from such a life. The tavern - a social necessity as well as a legal requirement. Regulation of taverns. Early Waldo- boro taverns - Sampson's and McGuyer's. Tav- ern of "Aunt Polly Klaus." Description of these taverns. Their main source of revenue. The drinks of the period. The general store as a center of social life. The Barnard Tavern. The early stage driver. Feyler's Tavern. "Aunt Lydia's Tavern." Abuses of the liquor traffic lead to a resurgence of morality. Action by the town with moderation as its goal. Liquor forbidden to the poor. The state acts. Conditions in Waldoboro revealed in reports
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PAGE
of the Temperance Society. Mob action against tipplers. Passage of a Prohibition Law in 1846. Warfare between the drys and the wets. Ordi- nances of Deacon Kennedy backed by a police force. How the desired end came.
XXXIX THE GREAT DAYS 253
Economic factors leading to the Great Days. Lo- cation of the shipyards on the river. The major builders of these years. Joseph Clark. Economic life of the middle class and the poor. Local ship captains. Relations of the builders with their Bos- ton agent. Personal glimpses of the activities in local yards. The loss and tragedies of Waldoboro vessels. Voyage of the ship Alfred Storer in 1856. The clipper ships. The Black Ball liners. Medium- clippers built in Waldoboro. Edwin Achorn. Did he build extreme clippers? End of the clipper era. XL ANNALS OF THE GREAT DAYS
274
Population growth (1840-1860). German language still used. Infiltration of English families - the Tarrs, Philbrooks, Samuel Jackson, Alden Jack- son, the Oakes, Dr. Robie and Governor Marble. Control of local affairs vested in the English. The pauper problem. Military musters. The new town house. Finances. First Board of Health. Heresies in the church. Ascension Day. Waldoboro aspires to become the shire town. The fire of 1846. "Jane Ann" views the scene in a newsy letter. The Waldoboro Village Corporation. The fire of 1854. The new village. The race to El Dorado starts in the town. Death takes its toll - William Sproul, Payne Elwell, Joshua Head, John Currier, Capt. Charles Miller, Col. Isaac G. Reed, George Demuth, Mary Barnard, Rev. John W. Starman, James Hovey, Captain John Stahl, Charles Heav- ener, Charles Razor, Albion P. Oakes, Conrad Heyer. The Heyer funeral. The telegraph. War with Mexico. The iron foundry. Steam appears on the river. Last of the military musters. Pros- perity of the town. Miscellaneous data from these decades.
XLI THE CLIMAX OF PARTISANSHIP
305
Waldoboro always conservative politically. Col. Reed's Federalist machine. Young Isaac Reed and his political dominance. Formation of new parties in the nation. The character of conservative par- tisanship. The Cilley episode. Isaac Reed holds the balance of power in state politics from time of Jackson to the Civil War. Town out of line with other towns in county and state. The rise of the slavery issue. Death of the Whig Party. Reed's campaigns for the governorship. He be- comes a Democrat. Rise of the Republican Party in the town. Jefferson Davis visits Waldoboro. The election of 1860. Isaac Reed's methods of deal-
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ing with his political foes. The Corcoran episode. Reed, a politico of his period, reviews his life. His career one of frustration.
XLII THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES
The Abolition movement in Waldoboro. The underground route. The Copperheads. The town's initial reaction to the war. State election of 1861 reveals strength of local, anti-war sentiment. New Orleans newspaper comments on "black Repub- licans" in Waldoboro, Maine. Testimony of George W. Singer and of the Bath Times and Sentinel on Copperheads. Activities for the rais- ing of troop levies. Record of the Twentieth Maine Regiment. Death of Charles Keizer at Laurel Hill. Lag in volunteering met by bounties. Record of Company A 21st Maine. Diary of Ser- geant William H. P. Wyman bearing on the Red River campaign. State election of 1862. Reaction in the town to the Conscription Act of 1863. Ac- tivities of the local women. State election of 1863. Isaac Reed takes the measure of James G. Blaine. The town faces major debt. Prominent local citi- zens hire substitutes to do their draft service. The local voters overwhelm President Lincoln in the election of 1864. Reaction in the town to the end of the war. Death of President Lincoln. Conditions in the town following the war. Its last survivor. ANNALS OF THE 1860'S AND 1870's
321
XLIII
The decline of the town. Longevity of old-timers. Death of John H. Kennedy. The "breaking out" of roads after heavy snows. The era of "tramps." Dogs become a controversial issue in the town. The role of the Reed machine in the politics of these decades. Rise of S. S. Marble to political leadership. The coming of the railroad. The town faces an economic crisis in the 1870's. The devel- opment of small industries and their ultimate ex- tinction. The fish weirs on the lower Medomak. The town turns to agriculture. Samuel L. Miller founds The Lincoln County News. Death thins the ranks of the town's great leaders. Varied as- pects of the village back-district feud. The cen- tennial celebration of 1873. Events of the first cen- tenary of American independence. Repairs and improvements in the churches. History of certain houses in the town. Decline of bitterness in party politics. Miscellaneous happenings in the town. SUNSET YEARS
XLIV
The rise of steam. Its effect on the local economy. Fluctuating activity in the shipyards. Fate of the American Eagle. Largest vessels built on the Medomak in the period of decline. Quarters on the Mable Clark - her career. The careers of the Gold Hunter, the Alexander McNeil, the Carrie Clark, the Isaac Reed, the Willie Reed, the Emily
348
376
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Reed. The story of the Governor Ames. Brief re- vival of shipbuilding in 1900. The construction of the Palmer Fleet. The revival of shipbuilding in 1942.
XLV EDUCATIONAL ANARCHY
389
Education in the town in the mid-nineteenth cen- tury. The status quo of 1851. Reports of school committees of 1852 and 1856. Stirrings in District No. 6. The new "Brick Schoolhouse." Reports of the committees of 1857 and 1859. Bela B. Haskell, the first Supervisor of Schools. Conditions in the war years. Review of schools in 1872. The Lin- coln County News comments on conditions in 1875. The "Free High School." E. R. Benner be- comes Supervisor in 1875. His reports. John J. Bulfinch takes over and relinquishes supervision. The grim jest of the "Free High Schools." Minor developments under Mr. Bulfinch. The row in District No. 6, in 1887. Dr. J. True Sanborn as Supervisor clashes with the town. Jane Brummit tells of the "Free High School" in its earliest days. The first graduating class.
XLVI THE END OF THE CENTURY
409
Deaths of the leading men of the Great Days - George D. Smouse, Isaac Reed, Alfred Storer, Capt. Andrew Storer, Atherton W. Clark, Bela B. and Elzira Sproul Haskell, William Fish, John Bulfinch, "Dr." Wing, Edwin Achorn, George Allen, Capt. Harvey H. Lovell, Capt. Herman Kopperholdt, Daniel Castner, Augustus Welt, Francis M. Eveleth, Samuel Jackson, Allen Hall. Notes on certain houses. The laying out of Marble Avenue. Miscellaneous data. The political com- plexion of the town. The Nobleboro Camp Meet- ing. Launching of the George Curtis. Murder in the village. Conservative trends in the town. Fire devastates the village. The War with Spain. The shoe industry in the town. The "Pants" Factory. The Waldoboro Packing Company. The quarry boom. Fate of the smaller industries.
XLVII THE LIGHT BREAKS
430
The status of education in the town in the twen- tieth century. The schools under superintend- ents. Appropriations for education in the early century. The question of a "school union" is broached. The first school union comes in 1915. Agitation for a new high school building. The movement for consolidation. "The Last Day of School" in one of the old districts - narrative of Hugh J. Anderson Simmons. The new high school is built. It is dedicated. Modernization of the school system begins in 1937 under the super- visorship of A. D. Gray. The new philosophy. The new program. Road-blocks. Fire in the "Old Brick." The bequest of George G. Genthner. The
xi
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XLVIII
end of A. D. Gray's administration. Earl M. Spear succeeds Mr. Gray. Conditions in the present. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
445
Conditions in the town in 1900. Destruction of the main business block by fire. Water, lights, and hydrants in the village. The revival of the shoe industry. Miscellaneous happenings. The ad- vent of the automobile. Colonization by the Finns. The Lincoln County News ceases publication. The celebration of July Fourth, 1912. The town in the First World War. Waldoboro casualties. Charles Castner Lilly. Records of Waldoboro men in the war. The town celebrates the peace. The Public Library comes into being. The town slowly modernizes under a sluggish economy. The political face of Waldoboro changes.
XLIX THE DECADES OF REBIRTH 463
Economic life of the town at its lowest ebb. The "Broken Shaft." The "Great Depression" in Waldoboro. The "run" on the local bank. It re- organizes to meet requirements of the Federal administration. Default on tax payments. Effects of the depression on the town. Maynard Genth- ner founds the Waldoboro Press. The building of the Waldo Theater in 1936. Fate of the pound and the old Court House. The Medomak National Bank comes to the end of its days. The begin- ning of the Second World War. The war pattern in the town. Waldoboro men and women in the armed services. Effect on the town of this war service. Pres. Roosevelt passes through the town. The abortive bi-centennial celebration. The end of shipbuilding in the town. Miscellaneous events of these decades. The town becomes Republican. Frederick G. Payne of Waldoboro becomes Gov- ernor of Maine. The civic revolution of 1949. The water issue. Cyclic rhythm of forces control- ling the town's history.
L IN THE YEAR 1950
487
Chapter an evaluation of the economic, social, educational, religious, and cultural life of the town in the year 1950. The town's economy. The clam and activities associated with it. Lobsters and smelts. Agriculture - blueberries, poultry, and its allied activities. The tourist trade. Medomak Farms, Slaigo Ledges, Quiner's and Moody's. Braided rugs. Perry Greene and his Chinooks. Bragg, Prock and Burkett. Sauerkraut and staves. Pearl buttons. Economic leadership. Newcomers and old-timers. The town as a trading center. Planning ahead. Cultural lag. Social life of the town. Shifts in social emphasis. Social life at its highest level. The bourgeois level and below. The neutrals. Dante's evaluation of this group. Educa- tion in the town. Forces making against good child
xii
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training. A comparison of 1950 with 1900. Evi- dence of progress and promise. Religious life in the town. Church attendance. Churches, dead and dying. The more recent sects. The Church in part responsible for its own weakness. Obverse possi- bilities. Other causes of weakness of religious life. The Church schools. Differences in belief not a challenge to combat. Cultural life. Culture an elu- sive essence. Culture, national and local. An at- tempt to define personal culture. Lack of cul- tural influences in the town. Agencies making for a more cultured life - the intellectual class, the library, the Waldo Theater, the world of nature. Concluding observations.
SUPPLEMENT: THE MAKERS OF THE PRESENT 519
APPENDICES
535
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE OLD SMOUSE HOUSE
9
THE TOWN LANDING
54
TOWN POWDER HOUSE
66
COLONEL ISAAC GARDNER REED
facing
110
THE BRIG Roxanna
facing
142
CAPTAIN JOSEPH MILLER
facing
142
THE MAIL COACH
facing
143
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
157
VILLAGE BAPTIST CHURCH
195
THE OLD TOWN POUND
215
GENERAL HENRY KENNEDY
facing
270
JOSEPH CLARK
facing
271
JAMES HOVEY
297
THE HONORABLE ISAAC REED
facing
302
AUGUSTUS WELT
facing
303
JOHN H. KENNEDY
323
SCHOONER Gov. Ames
facing
384
AN OLD KNOX AND LINCOLN TRAIN
facing
385
BELA B. AND ELIZA SPROUL HASKELL
395
ALFRED STORER
410
ALVRA D. GRAY
facing
444
THE UNION BLOCK
facing
445
FREDERICK G. PAYNE
facing
492
JASPER JACOB STAHL
facing
524
XV
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
XXVI
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT INDUSTRY
God performed no miracle on New England soil. He gave the sea. Stark necessity made seamen of would-be planters.
SAMUEL E. MORISON
HE SETTLEMENT AT OLD BROAD BAY was in its beginnings an isolated community. Vast stretches of forest blocked its contact westward with a settled world. Not until the period of the Revo- lution did the first man make his way through on horseback to Boston, and another century was to elapse before overland trans- portation of goods became a reality. There was only one way out, the sea. In this simple economic and geographic fact rested from the beginning the germ of the town's greatest days. The early settlers had seen the fleet of coasters coming for their cordwood and lumber; the Province sloops bringing supplies during the long years of war; the sea itself feeding them in the dark days when other sources of food failed.
No sooner were the hard days past when the more thrifty and imaginative of the settlers began to wonder why their trans- portation and trade should be an exclusive source of revenue for outsiders. Already there was everything at hand for the creation of a great industry. First there was the need, growing, imperative, and inviting; secondly there were unlimited sources of oak, spruce, and pine stretching back from the coast and river into a great virgin timberland of seemingly unending forest; there was also a population, toughened and resolute, seasoned by decades of strug- gle, in whom courage functioned and vitality welled with a pris- tine freshness. The making of ships and the sailing of ships was a simple and inevitable development.
A complete story of the beginning of this industry and its development in the eighteenth century will never be written. Much of the evidence has disappeared forever. The records of our own Custom House were destroyed in the great Waldoborough fires, as were those of Falmouth, our nearest port of registry prior to 1784 when the Wiscasset Custom House was established. Conse-
2
HISTORY OF OLD BROAD BAY AND WALDOBORO
quently the story of the building, manning, and sailing of the early vessels can only be pieced out from those scraps of evidence which have outlasted the destroying hand of time.
Shipbuilding in Waldoborough was definitely begun by the Germans. The period from 1760 to 1770 had been one of expansion and increasing economic well-being among the more aggressive of these people. Some of the more thrifty, such as John Ulmer, Charles Leissner, Andrew Schenck, and Puritan Colonel William Farnsworth had become small-scale capitalists with an eye ever on the alert for the main chance, and in ships there was one right at hand. Among the original settlers there were many carpenters, William Wagner, Fred Kinsel, John Kinsel, John Genthner, An- drew Waltz, George Heavener, and others. There were also black- smiths for the iron work, Joseph Weber, John George Gross, Willibaldus Castner, and a goodly number more. The carpenters, to be sure, were housewrights, but for nearly thirty years they had been building small boats for local use and thereby had mas- tered some of the basic knowledge and experience of shipbuilding. Consequently the groundwork for this industry was laid early in the simple needs of the settlers.
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