USA > Maine > Androscoggin County > Livermore > Notes, historical, descriptive, and personal, of Livermore, in Androscoggin (formerly in Oxford) county, Maine > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01088 2865
e
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014
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NOTES,
HISTORICAL, DESCRIPTIVE, AND PERSONAL,
OF -
LIVERMORE,
IN
ANDROSCOGGIN (FORMERLY IN OXFORD) COUNTY,
MAINE.
geral washburn,
Morals and happiness will always be nearest to perfection in small communities, where functionaries are appointed by as numerous a body as can be brought together of the in- dustrious and intelligent .- WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.
PORTLAND: PUBLISHED BY BAILEY & NOYES. 1874.
B. THURSTON & COMPANY, PRINTERS, PORTLAND.
1462226
CONTENTS.
EARLY HISTORY,
CHAPTER I.
5
CHAPTER II.
TOPOGRAPHY, SOIL, AND PRODUCTS,
.
13
CHAPTER III.
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES,
15
CHAPTER IV.
INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS-BUSINESS-COURSE OF POPULATION,
.
43
CHAPTER V.
AFFAIRS POLITICAL, MUNICIPAL, AND MILITARY,
57
CHAPTER VI.
MATTERS RELIGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL,
64
CHAPTER VII.
CONCERNING LAWYERS AND DOCTORS,
·
·
- 76
CHAPTER VIII.
NOTES MISCELLANEOUS,
.
.
86
CHAPTER IX.
CONTRIBUTIONS-REMINISCENCES, .
.
96
CHAPTER X.
THE STORY OF THOMAS FISH-1782-BY ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN,
118
APPENDIX,
125
CHAPTER I.
EARLY HISTORY.
THE town of Livermore is in Androscoggin County, twenty miles north of Lewiston, fifty from Portland, and twenty-five west of Augusta. Before the incorporation of Androscoggin it was in Ox- ford County. The township previous to, and for some time after, its settlement was generally known as Port Royal, from the fact that it was granted for services rendered in the reduction of Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in the early part of the eighteenth century.
Previous to January 15, 1735, many petitions were presented to the Great and General Court in Assembly for His Majesty's Prov- ince of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, by towns and individu- als for grants of land for services and losses in the French and Indian wars. Grants were made on certain conditions in response to these petitions. There were to be sixty proprietors, to each of whom, as well as to the first and second settled ministers and the schools, a lot was to be assigned. Among the petitions was that of Nathaniel Harris, Esq., to whom, with others, was granted township No. 2, " on the east side and next adjoining Connecticut River," as a gratuity for services in reducing Port Royal. The names of the original sixty proprietors are given, together with the number of the lot assigned to each, three lots being left for ministers and schools. November 24, 1736, the Great and General Court authorized Nathaniel Harris to call the proprietors together, and he notified them to meet at the house of Isaac Baldwin, innholder, Friday, Jan- uary 28, 1737. A regular record of the proceedings of the proprietors was kept till November 1, 1743, when a meeting held at Weston was adjourned to the succeeding May on account of the " rumor of war with France, and the winter season approaching." There is no record of a later meeting till 1750, in which year there were three meetings, the last being held at the house of Mrs. Mary Leonard, innholder, Watertown, September 26th. No further entry is made till May 23, 1770, when a meeting was held at Mr. Samuel Harrington's, in Waltham. At this meeting the question was put "to know the
2
6
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
minds of the proprietors if they would pursue their claim on the equity of Port Royal," and it was carried. The same meeting chose a committee of three, consisting of Maj. Livermore, Dr. Leonard Williams, and George Babcock, to petition the General Court to ob- tain another grant.
The General Court, which assembled October 29, 1770, was peti- tioned accordingly, the petitioners setting out the facts in regard to the loss of title to township No. 2, by reason of its having been thrown into the State of New Hampshire by a survey which had been made subsequent to the original grant. June 11, 1771, the General Court passed a resolve granting the prayer of the petition- ers, and to the original grantees, their assigns or legal representa- tives, their heirs and assigns, a township of the contents of six and three-quarters square miles, in some of the unappropriated lands in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, to the eastward of Saco River, and adjoining some former grant, on the condition that the proprie- tors settle sixty families in said town in seven years, build a house for the public worship of God, settle a learned Protestant minister and lay out one sixty-fourth part for the first settled minister, one sixty-fourth part for the ministry, one sixty-fourth part for the use of schools, and one sixty-fourth part for the use of Harvard College. August 9, 1771, Samuel Livermore and Leonard Williams, by virtue of the powers of the grant, sent Elijah Livermore and Elisha Har- rington on an exploring expedition to select the land, instructing them "to take a boat and pilot at Brunswick Falls and proceed up the river as far as Rocky-Mico." A township of land lying on both sides of the Androscoggin River adjoining Sylvester township (now Turner) was selected. It contained 30,220 acres, the southeasterly portion of which was afterwards set off to the towns of Leeds and Wayne.
Meetings of the proprietors were thereafter held regularly. At a meeting at the house of Samuel Livermore, in Waltham, June 17, 1772, Lieut. Elijah Livermore, Capt. Ebenezer Learned, and Mr. Richard Woodward were chosen a committee to run the lines around the township and divide the intervale on the west side of the river into sixty-one shares and lay out sixty-one one hundred acre lots on the west side of the river, viz., one for each proprietor, and one for the first settled minister. At a meeting held at the house of Samuel Livermore, in Waltham, November 11, 1772, the above committee made their report, but did not divide the intervale, it not being suffi-
7
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
ciently extensive to be divided in conformity to instructions. They had, however, run out lines of the town, and of sixty lots, being in their opinion the best in the town, lot No. 37 was allotted for public use. They reported that there was a failure in the quantity of land, and a committee was appointed to present a petition for a further grant. It was voted to open a horse-way to Sylvestertown and a cart-way to Pondtown (now Winthrop) ; but February 24, 1773, it was voted to make the former a cart-way also, and Elijah Livermore, Ebenezer Learned, and Thomas Fish were appointed to perform this service, and were instructed to have the above roads cleared by the last of October of that year. At a meeting held November 3, 1773, it being stated that Samuel Livermore, the moderator and a member of the prudential committee, was dead, and that Nathaniel Liver- more had resigned as a member of the prudential committee, Leon- ard Williams, Esq., Dea. Elijah Livermore (heretofore mentioned as Lieut. Livermore), and Mr. Elisha Harrington were chosen a com- mittee to "manage the prudentials of said proprietary." The ac- counts of Dea. Elijah Livermore and Thomas Fish for clearing roads to the town were presented and allowed. That of the former was £40 10s. 11d., of the latter £31 2s. 7d. Thomas Fish was appointed to prosecute trespassers, and a committee was appointed to lay out the remainder of the town.
June 29, 1774, Leonard Williams, Elijah Livermore, and Elisha Harrington were made a committee to cause a saw and grist-mill to be erected in the township. A meeting was held October 12, 1774, and adjourned to May, 1775, concerning which the following entry appears on the records :
" The distressing war with Great Britain breaking out April 19, 1775, and all being obliged to resist the enemy, the place to which the meeting was adjourned being so near the theatre of action pre- vented any meeting whatever."
No meeting was held till January 17, 1779. It was in this year that Dea. Livermore came to Livermore and established his home therein. Mrs. Carver, Josiah Wyer, and Elisha Smith came about the same time. Josiah Norcross joined them soon afterwards. This first year was disturbed by the unfriendly attitude of the Indians at Roccomeco, but no actual harm was done by them, and the appre- hensions of the new settlers may have been occasioned by the do- mestic strifes that were raging among the natives, rather than by
8
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
hostility to the whites; for soon afterwards the Indians were and ever continued to be in amicable relations with the settlers, and were frequent visitors at the house of Dea. Livermore.
It was during this condition of affairs that an Indian judgment, combining justice and punishment, was recorded. An Indian at Roccomeco had killed another of the same tribe, who left a squaw of infirm health and a cripple. The murderer was arrested, tried by his tribe, found guilty, and sentenced to support and care for and wait upon the widow of the slain Indian so long as she should live. Vice-President Hamlin has often heard his mother-a daughter of Dea. Livermore-say that she had many a time seen the Indian car- rying the woman on his back or hauling her on a hand sled. The last of the Roccomeco Indians known in this section was Pierpole, who died at Lake Umbagog more than half a century ago.
Major Thomas Fish, before referred to, followed Dea. Livermore to the new settlement within a year or two. He was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and was a representative of one of the origi- nal proprietors of township No. 2 on the Connecticut River. He was a widower, but was engaged to be married to a young woman in Winthrop by the name of Betsey Marrow. Returning from a visit to her in January, 1782, he was overtaken by a severe snow storm and perished, near a large elm tree on the intervale at the foot of the hill, on the top of which Dea. Livermore resided. His remains were taken to Winthrop and buried with military hon- ors. His lot was at the place known as "Fish Meadow."
August 29, 1781, a committee was appointed to confer with a committee of Phipps' Canada (now Jay), respecting building a mill to accommodate both townships. June 19, 1782, £60 and the mill lot (so called) and the island in the river against the same were granted to build a mill on the brook leading from Livermore and Stinchfield Ponds ;* and Elijah Livermore was agreed with to erect the mill.
September 4, 1793, it was voted to build a meeting-house fifty feet by forty on lot No. 36, 1st division, east end, and near the centre of the township north and south, and £50 was granted therefor. It was also voted to lay out a road from Turner to Phipps' Canada, from Dea. True's, over Lovewell's Hill, and running between the ponds to the north line of the town.
*Now known as Long and Round Ponds.
9
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
The following entries among others appear on the records of the proprietors after the incorporation of the town: June, 1797, Gen. Hull, Esquire Badlew, Leonard Williams, Moses Stone, and Edward Hastings were appointed a committee to sell the individual lands, all or a part. June 20, 1799, the records say a meeting was called for this day, but that no person appeared. There is no record of any subsequent meeting.
The fourth settler with a family was Lieut. Samuel Benjamin, in March, 1783. In 1789 the heads of families were Dea. Elijah Liver- more, William Carver, Elisha Smith, Samuel Benjamin, John Walk- er, Josiah Wyer, James Delano, Reuben Wing, John Monk, Otis Robinson, Cutting Clark, Ebenezer Fisher, Pelatiah Gibbs, Daniel Holman, - Graves, Nathaniel Dailey, and - Randall.
The first male child born in town was a son of Josiah Norcross, and was named Elijah Livermore Norcross. The first female child was Nancy, daughter of Josiah Wyer. Norcross probably resided on the northerly side of Lovewell's Hill, on the place afterwards owned by Sarson Chase. A deed from Dea. Livermore to Lieut. Samuel Benjamin, dated October 10, 1782, describes the land con- veyed as bounded "southerly on land owned by Josiah Norcross, easterly on Long Pond (so-called), northerly on the east division and another pond, westerly on said pond and lot No. 55."
The town was incorporated by the legislature of Massachusetts by act passed February 28, 1795, and approved by Samuel Adams, governor. The meeting for organization was held at the house of Dea. Elijah Livermore, April 13, 1795, when Elisha Williams was chosen moderator; Samuel Hillman, clerk and treasurer; David Learned, Sylvanus Boardman, and Pelatiah Gibbs, selectmen. A collector was chosen to "collect for eight pence on the pound." James Norton, Elisha Smith, William Lindsay, David Morse, Samu- el Sawin, Reuben Wing, and Abraham Fuller were elected survey- ors of roads; Thomas Chase, David Morse, and Elijah Stevens, surveyors of lumber; Ransom Norton, sealer of weights and meas- ures; Thomas Chase and Isaac Lovewell, fence viewers; Elijah Stevens and Abijah Monroe, hog reaves, and James Delano, pound keeper. On the tenth of the following August, Elisha Williams, Samuel Benjamin, and Ransom Norton were appointed a committee to divide the town into school districts. It was voted at this meet-
10
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE,
ing " to run the roads straight from one end to the other as the land will admit, without any regard to individuals." That this vote was literally complied with will not probably be disputed by any one who has visited the town.
At the first annual meeting held in the town for State officers, April 4, 1796, all the votes cast, forty in number, were given for Increase Sumner for governor. At the meeting to choose an elector for president, vice-president, and a representative in congress, No- vember 7, 1797, "the inhabitants of twenty-one years of age and resident in the town for the space of one year next preceding, hav- ing a freehold estate within the town of the annual income of three pounds, or of any other estate of the value of sixty pounds," gave Stephen Longfellow, for elector, eighteen votes, and John K. Smith one vote; fourteen votes, and all that were cast, were given for Peleg Wadsworth for representative in congress.
The question of a separation of Maine from Massachusetts seems to have been mooted about this time, and at a town meeting held May 10, 1797, all the votes thrown (twenty-two) were for separation.
The next year a vote was passed giving consent to a division of the town by which the " east side of the river would be set off into a town by itself." The town was finally divided and East Liver- more incorporated by the legislature of Maine in 1843. Dea. Elijah Livermore was the first representative from the town in the legisla- ture of the Commonwealth. He was elected unanimously May 9, 1799.
The town was fortunate in having for its founder a man so able and so wise, of so much financial strength and weight of character as Dea. Livermore. He was truly the father of the town, and his name is held in honor and veneration by its people. And he was fortunate in the character of the most of his associate proprietors and co-workers.
Under the influence of such men the settlers, who were carly at- tracted to the town, were generally men of good character and of some pecuniary ability. Few towns in the State probably owe more to the character of the first settlers than this town. Many of them had been officers or soldiers in the war of the Revolution, and were active, earnest men, bent upon making their way in the world. The greater portion of them came from the neighborhood of Boston ; Cambridge, Watertown, and Waltham contributing the largest quotas ; a goodly number came from Martha's Vineyard, and many
11
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
from Worcester and Bristol counties. The settlers from the vicinity of Boston were familiar with gardening and fruit raising, and so it happened that at an early day the town became celebrated for the quantity and quality of its grafted fruit. From Bristol and Worces- ter counties came the men and women whose descendants have made the town known in the markets of the State and of Boston for its excellent cheese.
It was understood that the materials for a pretty full account of the early history of the town had been collected, and perhaps pre- pared for publication, by the Hon. Elijah L. Hamlin, of Bangor. But it is to be regretted that no such history, or evidence of prepa- ration towards it, has been found among Mr. Hamlin's papers. The following letter from Dr. Henry Bond, of Philadelphia, to the late president of the Maine Historical Society, will be read in this con- nection with interest. Dr. Bond was an eminent physician and the author of The Genealogies and History of Watertown, an able and elaborate work.
PHILADELPHIA, May, 1858.
WILLIAM WILLIS, EsQ.
Dear Sir .- I spent my boyhood in Livermore, Maine, and lived a part of the time, between the death of the last of my parents and going abroad to pre- pare for entering college, in the family of Dea. Elijah Livermore, the first set- tler and the chief proprietor of that town. Although I have been absent so long-now more than fifty years-I remember the place of my childhood with an affectionate interest and still entertain a grateful and most respectful re- membrance of the worthy deacon. He was the elder brother of the Hon. Samuel Livermore, chief justice and U. S. Senator of New Hampshire (as you may see in Watertown Family Memorials, p. 346, etc.). I have in the mean time frequently visited the scenes and the friends of my childhood, and I have of late repeatedly urged a venerable friend there to collect the materials for the history of that town before it is too late. This worthy friend, Dr. Benja- min Bradford, now on the shady side of seventy, has collected some materials, but he now feels so sensibly the infirmities of age that he is unable to pursue it. He informs me that the papers of Dea. Elijah Livermore have passed into the hands of his grandson, Hon. Elijah Livermore Hamlin, of Bangor. From what I remember of Dea. Livermore I should expect that his papers might be copious, throwing much light upon the planting and early history of that town. Mr. Hamlin is a native of Livermore and a man of liberal education, and having many of the materials in his hands I would hope that he will readily consent to furnish for your Historical Collections an account of the planting and the early history of Livermore. Dr. Bradford has told me that he will cheerfully render such aid as may be in his power. He has been town treasurer forty-five years! This is remarkable in these times when rotation in
12
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
office is so very generally prevalent, especially in the Northern States. My object at this time is to recommend to you to write, and invite, and urge Mr. Hamlin to prepare for you a history of Livermore. It is a good inland country town, furnishing no stirring incidents or illustrious characters to charm the world, but a paper might be prepared that would deserve a place in your Collections, and that would be perused with interest by many readers.
Very respectfully yours,
HENRY BOND, 246 South 8th Street.
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
CHAPTER II.
TOPOGRAPHY, SOIL, AND PRODUCTS.
SITUATED upon the middle ground between the hills of Oxford and the rolling lands of Kennebec, the township partakes in about equal proportions of the characteristics of both. It has high hills like Hamlin's (or Mount Sier), Fuller's, and Waters' or Lovewell's, from which extensive views are obtained-grand, as the eye turns towards the White Mountains and the mountains of the northwest; beautiful, as it rests upon the quiet landscapes that extend to the confines of Casco Bay on the south, and to the Megunticook Mount- ains, whose bases are washed by the waters of Penobscot Bay, on the southeast.
The town, without being rough, is picturesque. It was when first settled heavily wooded, principally with pine, hemlock, maple, beech, birch, and oak. The original growth, however, has been nearly all cut off; but the area of second growth is rather increasing than diminishing. There are in the town many noble elms, and upon the farm formerly owned by Isaac Livermore there is, or was recently, a fine row of chestnut trees.
While in large portions of the town the land is more or less rocky, there are considerable sections quite free from stones and where the soil is of a sandy loam, as in the immediate valley of the Androscoggin, and in the neighborhood of the village. The river in its course along the eastern boundary of the town is broken by falls or rapids in three places, to wit, at a point near the south line of Jay, at Roccomeco, and at the Rips, so called, in "Tollawalla." It has several fertile and beautiful islands, varying in size from five to twenty acres. At Strickland's Ferry (near the lower end of Tollawal- la) is a view of surpassing beauty, which has been photographed by Capt. George W. Brown, of Portland, who has taken several other views in the town, and with great success; among them that of the residence of Dea. Livermore, erected more than eighty years ago. He has also taken a photographic picture from a very fine oil paint-
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HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
ing of the Norlands by his brother, H. B. Brown, the well-known Portland artist-especially distinguished as a marine painter-for Elihu B. Washburne, the American Minister to France. It has been forwarded to Paris, where it is greatly admired. The copy forms one of the illustrations of this volume.
The soil is generally strong and productive, and there is scarcely an acre of what may be called waste land within the town. Requir- ing more labor in cultivation than the lands in the valleys of the Kennebec and Penobscot, it yields equal returns to the labor of the farmer. Apples and the products of the dairy are among the more noticeable sources of income, while Indian corn and potatoes are crops which will average with those of other towns in this part of the State. In 1800 Rev. Paul Coffin, of whose visits to Liver- more mention will be made hereafter, says, " A Mr. Bemis raised two hundred bushels of rye, and his corn is believed to be five hun- dred bushels." He adds, "Dea. Livermore had a most thrifty and bearing orchard." In Mr. Coffin's journal for 1798, under date of September, he says, " Went to Dea. Livermore's and put up at that good house. He and son have about fifty excellent cattle, many sheep, horses, and an orchard. Their house is large and high, of four rooms and two chimneys. They have four barns and many sheds."
There are four ponds in the town. Round and Long in the north- erly part, and separated by a few rods only from each other; Bart- lett's, near the centre, and Brettun's, in the southwesterly quarter of the town. There are several streams, none of them large, but two of them severally furnish a fair supply of water in ordinary seasons for grist and saw-mills, and (in their day) furnished it for carding and clothing mills. There are, however, excellent powers on the westerly side of the Androscoggin River, one at Livermore Falls, and another a short distance above. These powers are as yet unem- ployed.
15
HISTORY OF LIVERMORE.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY SETTLERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.
THE sketches of early settlers and their families, which can be given, must be brief, and limited, as a rule, to those who were in the town before the date of its incorporation.
The first settler and principal proprietor of the town, and in whose honor it was named, was, as has been already stated, ELIJAH LIVERMORE,* who was born in Waltham, Mass., March 4, 1730-1. He was the son of Samuel Livermore, a prominent citizen of that town, and who had for a long time (we are told in Bond's Genealo- gies) "the greatest share of the municipal business of the town." He was selectman from 1743 to 1764; representative from 1745 to 1763, and town clerk and treasurer twenty-six years. Elijah was an elder brother of the Hon. Samuel Livermore, who was born 1732, and graduated at Nassau Hall in 1752, settled in Holderness, N. H., about 1780, and of whom Bond gives the following record: "He studied law with Judge Trowbridge and was made King's attorney- general for New Hampshire by Governor Wentworth in 1769. Soon after the breaking out of the Revolution he was made the State attorney-general; was several times delegate to the Conti- nental Congress, and was made chief justice of the State 1782; was member of the convention for adopting the Federal constitution, upon the adoption of which he was elected representative to con- gress ; at the end of two years he was elected United States sena- tor, which office he held nine years until he resigned in 1800." The Hon. Samuel Livermore was the father of Edward St. Loe and Arthur Livermore, both of whom were judges of the supreme court of New Hampshire, and members of congress.
*John Livermore, probably the ancestor of all the Livermores in the United States, em- barked at Ipswich, England, for New England in April, 1634, then aged twenty-eight, in the Francis, Jolin Cutting, master. He was admitted freeman May 6, 1635, and was in Watertown as early as 1642. He was repeatedly a selectman and held other offices of trust. He was by trade a potter. His parentage has not been conclusively ascertained; but there is reason to suppose that he came from Little Thurloe, county of Suffolk .- Bond's Genealogies.
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