USA > Maine > Oxford County > Buckfield > A history of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900 > Part 29
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James H. DeCoster and Charles H. Prince went into the hardware business a few years before the war under the firm
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View From Loring's Hill
Farrar's Hotel
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"What you doing, father, with your pencil!
Making a picture of Mr. having's house , & field , v store , & the building. this side. Look out the window, my san, v you will see it. (Gazing carneetly sometime)"Father, Ican't see it" Don't you see uncle Lucius house "the hill " the trees & the stores this way ? ."yes, I saw thana, but I don't see the picture." No, this is the picture which I'am making on paper? - well what I min are standing on the bridge "One is Moving, D. Parris. He is just can't home from the Legislature " Who is loading that horse by Bridgham's store ! That's My America Farrar who keeps the finest horses. Whe is riding up le M' loring's Train andde Lucias. He has brought him a new horse.
Pencil picture of Brex que village in 2000 Long 1840
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
name of DeCoster & Prince. They were very popular and did a good business.
Moses B. Thomes occupied the Loring store as a dealer in dry goods and groceries. Caleb Cushman was a dealer in dry goods. Ephraim Atwood & Sons kept the largest stock of dry goods and groceries and also medicines and did a heavy busi- ness. Charles B. Atwood was a very popular trader in the mill store. Atwood & Morrill in the store near the bridge also did a large business.
The lawyers were Sullivan C. Andrews and T. Jefferson Bridgham. Seth Sampson of Turner also did quite a law busi- ness here in courts of Justices of the Peace. John D. Long and Timothy Andrews were law students. The physicians were William Bridgham, his son, William P. Bridgham and Charles D. Bradbury. Hon. Noah Prince usually tried such causes as were brought before magistrates.
Gov. Long writes that at the time in his boyhood when the railroad was built to Buckfield, it gave a great impetus to the vil- lage life. The population increased. Young men came in. So- cial life was stimulated. Among other things a military company was raised. Dr. R. B. Jennings, the dentist, an active man, whose long ringlets are remembered, was captain. The number of privates was large and Ximenes Philbrick was lieutenant and afterwards captain. The bright scarlet coats and nodding head- gear and serried ranks made a great impression and gave to the muster field on the south of the cross road that runs from the North Hill road to the Turner road, a very animated and pic- turesque appearance. Of course a Brass Band had been organ- ized by Ike MacDonald, a mason, who had recently moved into town from Lowell, Massachusetts, and who also took part in theatricals in the old town house. A teacher, named Robbins from Lowell came and drilled the band. Jim MacDonald was leader and he and two other members, Henry C. Long, and Del- phinus Harlow afterwards became leaders of military bands in the Union army during the Civil War. Moses Thomes played a cornet called a "cornopeon," and the governor says that he can still hear across the river in the quiet atmosphere of summer eve- ning the notes of that cornopeon as "Mose," sitting on the door- steps of the house on Hebron street close to the railroad crossing, practiced, not always successfully, the music of his part.
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
The amusements then were somewhat different from now. In the winter the boys slid down hill from the old school house at the top and coasted over the bridge at the risk of running into somebody or something in the square. It was thus that Carroll Loring ran into Mr. Don Daggett, the well-known hatter and Major Loring. Carroll's father, had to pay damages. This was a traditional warning to all the rest of us.
Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July were the leading holi- days. On the latter, Capt. Josiah Parris every year at sunrise came to his outer door and fired the old King's arm which he had carried in the Revolutionary War. The flag floated out from over "Bridgham's store" on the southeast corner of the bridge. If there was a "celebration," it was often a Temperance proces- sion and a speech in the grove. Christmas was not observed. The old Puritan prejudices against the observance of the day had resulted in its lack of recognition. New Year's Day brought gifts but in no such profusion as now and there was usually a ball in the village or in some neighboring village. Fast Day was a holiday. Usually on that day Loring Hill had become bare of snow and, if so, there was a game of round ball on it.
The Village Square, where now stands the round iron water tank was often a lively scene. Baseball and "Nines" did not then exist. But round ball was played, sides being chosen by two players putting alternate hands on the bat (or as we called it the cat stick), the one first reaching the top having the first choice. The ball was not hard but soft and a player was put out either by being caught out as now, or by being struck by the ball thrown at him when running for a base, or as we then said a gool, mean- ing goal. It was a soft ball, compared with now, but it some- times stung pretty smartly.
In this square, too, on Saturdays were the wrestling matches, now no more. Saturday afternoon the village was full. Teams came in from miles around. Every shed and hitching place and roadside near the village were occupied. Purchases were made at the stores and all sorts of produce and other articles brought in for barter by the farmnes and their wives. Politics and religion and horses were discussed. A great crowded ring was formed on the square and in that the wrestlers contended, the vanquished bringing in from the crowd some one to meet the victor. Some distinguished reputations were made. There was Deck Record,
Buckfield Village, High Street
Buckfield Village, Elm Street
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
who was as elastic as an eel; Mec Benson who was reckoned among the best and tall Fred Berry whose famous "swinging trip" laid low every contestant.
How it all comes back! Of what concern was then the whole world outside, when in that little village, to our boyish minds, were accumulated and centered all the interests, all the delights, all the glories of life.
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
CHAPTER XXVII.
LATER EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
In 1822, efforts were made to establish an institution of learn- ing where pupils might obtain a higher education than the com- mon schools afforded and several of the leading citizens of the town petitioned the Legislature of the State to incorporate such an institution under the name of "The Buckfield Grammar School." The petition was favorably received and acted upon. The incorporators were :
Samuel F. Brown Wm. Bridgham, jr. William Campbell William Cole John Loring
Thomas Long Josiah Parris
John Warren
Eliphalet Packard
They were appointed trustees of the school. The Act states "That there be and hereby is established in the town of Buckfield, in the county of Oxford, a school by the name of the Buckfield Grammar School for the purpose of promoting piety, virtue and the education of youth, in the several branches of literature as the trustees hereafter may direct. It became a law, June 30, 1822.
We think that the petitioners made a mistake. Though, to all intents and purposes, it was a high school in everything but the name, it should have been denominated an academy and meas- ures taken to establish it on a firm foundation. Paris and Nor- way did not take action in the matter of establishing academies till more than 25 years afterwards. The Grammar School, how- ever, started auspiciously. Rev. William Pidgin, grandfather of the present business manager of the Lewiston Journal, was en- gaged as preceptor. A large number of students from Buckfield and neighboring towns attended and the school attained quite a reputation. A large number was graduated. Many of them became in after years very successful school teachers. Among the students were Israel Washburn, afterwards governor of Maine; George F. Emery, afterwards clerk of the district court of the United States and Stephen D. Hutchinson, register of deeds.
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
The following is a list of the Buckfield students in 1841 :
Charles Atwood
Zadoc Long, Jr.
Albion P. Bonney
Charles A. Parsons
Josiah K. Bonney
J. Greenleaf Record
Wm. P. Bridgham
Frederic A. Spaulding
Wm. L. Cole
Ozen Spaulding
Aurelius V. Cole
Wm. F. Spaulding
Wm. E. Comstock
Nathaniel T. Shaw
William Daggett
Mary Ann Brown
Oscar F. Gardner
Maria L. Cole
Chandler Hutchinson
Adelia B. Comstock
Mark Hutchinson
Columbia Gardner
John C. Hutchinson
Brittania Gardner
John L. Jewett
Chloe Hathaway
Ralph C. Jewett
Julia D. Long
Alpheus A. Keen
Persis S. Long
John A. Lovell
Jennette Loring
Geo. W. Long
Sarah L. Prince
C. Carroll Loring
Sarah J. Perry
Efforts were made that year to have the school incorporated and an act was passed by the Legislature which was approved March 3, 1842 establishing "The Buckfield High School and Ly- ceum." The following were named by the act as trustees :
Samuel F. Brown
Virgil D. Parris
Zadoc Long
Samuel B. Perry
Lucius Long
Wm. W. Comstock
Valentine Ripley
Cyrus Cole
Rodney Chaffin
Ephraim Atwood
Addison G. Cole
James Bonney
Ira Gardner
Albert D. White
James Jewett
Of the educational interests of that period, Governor Long writes :
"Moses Emery, about 1820, kept an academy in the building afterwards burned, which stood on the northwest corner of the village bridge, where is now the store of W. C. Allen. Pupils came from other towns, among them Julia Temple Davis from New Gloucester, who became the wife of Zadoc Long.
About 1840, a very creditable movement was made to estab- lish a permanent .Buckfield High School and Lyceum.' A large and commodious building was erected on the east side of the road to Paris, where the house of Mr. - Tuttle now stands. It had a spacious school room in the rear. In front, between the two entrances was a good-sized room with capacious shelves for apparatus for natural philosophy, chemistry and electricity. There is still extant a printed catalogue (18.41) of this school and
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
lyceum. From that it appears that the 'Directors' were Zadoc Long, Samuel F. Brown, W. W. Comstock, William Cole and James Jewett. The Instructors were Rev. Cyril Pearl, principal teacher in Natural Sciences and Mental and Moral Philosophy ; Mr. Joseph C. Richardson, A.B., afterwards replaced on his re- tirement by Mr. Wm. H. Hayford, teacher in Languages and Mathematics, and Miss Emeline Smith, the spring term, and Miss Phebe P. Richardson, the fall term. Some of the pupils acted as assistants. The Catalogue shows 105 male and 56 female pupils. Of these 101 were from various other towns, some at a good distance, such as Bangor, Bath, Bowdoinham, New Gloucester, Rumford, Andover, Livermore, etc. These pupils boarded at the houses of the leading citizens. It is very interesting to read the names in the catalogue and to think of men and women, whom we have known in their old age, then in the very freshness of youth. Tuition was $3.00 a term, or $4.00 if covering higher branches. Board in good families, from $1.25 to $1.50 a week.
The Catalogue states that the design was ( Ist) to qualify teachers for common school, (2nd) to encourage regard for productive industry, (3rd) to extend a knowledge of the resources and interests of Maine, and (4th) to prepare pupils for the relations and duties of common life. Is there a better design to-day for the higher education? The Evening Lyceum was devoted to discussion of methods of education, general extemporaneous debate and the reading of original articles. There was a cabinet of geological and mineral specimens, and a library of several hundred volumes was accessible.
One is struck with the worthily ambitious and large spirit of this institution. It suggests at once the element of culture that then animated Buckfield's leading citizens. It also suggests the active and progressive character of Cyril Pearl, the principal. He is now forgotten, but he was a man of very energetic tem- perament, who evidently had the idea of founding a permament educational institute and of concentrating in it the whole range of intellectual culture .. He may have undertaken more than he could effect, and as there was no financial fund or other resource than tuition fees, and as the community was hardly large enough to sustain this enterprise, it soon reached its climax. Mr. Pearl, who perhaps was of a restless nature,
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
sought new fields, the schoolhouse was now and then used for a term or two for a private school, taught by occasional teachers, but later, about 1849, was sold to Hiram Hall, a trader in the village, who converted it into the present dwelling house."
When the project of building the railroad was started, it absorbed the great attention and efforts of the leading citizens of the village and town, and while other towns were establish- ing academies or high schools, the educational interests of Buck- field were much neglected.
The railroad was built. A great sum of the people's money was sunk in the enterprise (estimated to have been over $100,000). It paralyzed, to a great extent, their efforts in other directions, and the favorable opportunity for establishing a higher institution of learning on a firm basis had passed.
Other towns had got the start and done this, yet a school where higher branches have been taught, fitting the student for a business or clerical life or for school teaching, has ever since been maintained.
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BUCKFIELD IN THE REBELLION.
The social and political developments of Buckfield, during the twenty years preceding the War of the Rebellion, were reflective of the progressive spirit of the country at large, varied with local characteristics and coloring. It was an era of transition from the old order of things, inherited from Colonial days and under which our National Federation had been con- stituted, to broader levels of public advancement and higher conceptions of human rights. The great questions of public interest, growing out of slavery in the States and its extension in the Territories, were then indelibly tracing their historic impressions upon the whole country; and from the continued agitation and controversies of that period were evolved political creeds that meant more than party name, that stood out in bold relief, with burning issues and convictions in touch with the throes of humanity.
For many years slavery had been a prolific source of unrest and disturbance aniong the people, and, as time had a:lvanced, expanding the national wealth and population, the agitation of this question had steadily increased, resulting in many acts of violence and drawing a sharp sectional line between the North- ern and Southern portions of the country. To relieve the ten- sion between the forces in radical opposition many Congres- sional measures had been enacted, compromises had been adopted and court decisions had been rendered, but these had generally proved obnoxious to the people of the North and been regarded as under the domination of slave-holding interests.
Prominent among these measures were the Missouri Com- promise in 1820. the celebrated Dred Scott case and the Fugitive Slave laws, with their thrilling associations of escaping negroes and "Underground Railway." The acrimonious discussions of these measures in Congress and in the press, associated with the story of blood and outrage in Kansas, the assault on Charles Sumner, the frequent acts of mob violence, and many other turbulent events in various parts of the country, coming in rapid succession, kept the public mind in a fever of excitement
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
till the raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, Va., in 1859, which brought the country almost to the verge of that impend- ing conflict of arms, which no mortal power could avert.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency, and, notwithstanding his conciliatory inaugural. his election was taken by the South as a pretext for dissolution of the Union. Soon after, eleven Southern States, led by South Carolina, declared for secession, uniting under a central government as the Confederate States of America.
During these historic years every community, however small and obscure, was keenly alive to the progress of public events. The people of Buckfield, at an early day, became deeply inter- ested in the great National controversy, the agitation of which enlisted their radical sympathies and gradually revolutionized their political creeds. There were ardent followers of Garrison and his co-workers, who were ever ready to wage controversial warfare and who gloried in the name of Abolitionist. On the other hand were men of large influence and political following. who spared neither argument nor ridicule to counteract the so-called heresy. To them slavery was an institution protected by law and under divine sanction and too deeply rooted in the social system of the country to be overthrown. The periodical literature of the day teemed with sensational reports and passional reviews of public affairs; and these features of the weekly newspapers were eagerly read and discussed in every household. No book was more widely read than Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852, which elicited the warmest commendation and the most scathing and violent criticisms. Under the guise of fiction its pathetic story stirred the sympathies of the people in their homes more deeply than any other publication and exercised a notable influence on the political situation.
The potent influences, that were molding public sentiment in those days, gradually wrought perceptible changes in the political atmosphere of Buckfield, obscuring old issues and evolving from their disintegration doctrines of public policy in vital touch with passing events. The Presidential votes of the town afford a suggestive exponent of this change :
In 1852 Franklin Pierce, Democrat, received two hundred and six votes against forty for Winfield Scott, Whig, and sixty
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
for John P. Hale, Free-Soiler: in 1856 Buchanan, Democrat, received one hundred and seventy-four votes against two hundred and twenty-one for John C. Fremont, Republican, and in 1860 Abraham Lincoln, Republican, received two hundred and fifteen votes against one hundred and forty-one for Stephen A. Douglass, Northern Democrat, and sixteen for John C. Breckenridge, Southern Democrat.
Such was the political complexion of Buckfield on the eve of the war, but when the tocsin of actual war sounded and the whole country was profoundly moved with the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, with few exceptions, all party differences vanished, and this town became one of the little centres of most intense excitement. People from sur- rounding towns flocked to the village, gathering in anxious groups in shops, stores and streets, eagerly discussing the startling situation and awaiting further news from the scene of disturbance. The community was stirred as never before with national pride and patriotic sentiments. War, which all had vaguely anticipated, had actually come, though few dreamed of its subsequent magnitude and stern, uncompromising nature.
The subsequent call of the President for troops and the startling events associated with it roused the whole North and fired this community with a spirit of martial enthusiasm, inspir- ing our people with a vivid sense of loyalty and devotion to the Nation. They were ready for action and organization. Public meetings were at once called in the old Union Chapel, which became the Faneuil Hall of Buckfield. These meetings usually filled the house to its utmost capacity, and are now recalled as among the most emphatic expressions of public feeling in the history of the town. Under the enthusiasm of these occasions young and middle aged men pressed forward to enlist, old men offered their services for camp and hospital, business men offered contributions of money and staid citizens became impas- sioned orators, while the old house rang with cheers and patriotic songs.
After so many years of uninterrupted peace the beginning of active hostilities found the country poorly prepared for the emergency of war. Bitt Maine was fortunate in an able Gov- ernor, Israel Washburn, Jr., and his efficient assistant, Adjutant General John L. Hodsdon. A special session of the Legislature
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
was convened to consider the demands of the situation, at which an act approved April 25th, 1861, was passed which provided for raising ten regiments of volunteers for a service of two years. To this call the people of Buckfield responded with a tender of a full company. The company was soon enlisted and organized, and the village streets daily echoed to the tramp of marching men. William H. Bridgham and Alphonzo F. Warren, then mere boys, both of whom later served as musicians in the army, played the fife and drum, and James H. Keyou, a former Portland militiaman, was drill-master. The election of the company officers, after an active canvass, was the occa- sion of considerable excitement and much bitterness of feeling. Isaac H. McDonald was unanimously elected captain, but the office of first lieutenant was hotly contested between John E. Bryant, principal of the village high school, and John P. Swasey of Canton. Swasey won the election and Bryant was chosen second lieutenant ; but, in a vehement speech, he immediately declined to serve under Swasey. But the history of this com- pany was of short duration. The declination of the govern- ment to receive at that time more men from Maine for less than a service of three years, caused its disbandment, and most of its members scattered into other military organizations. several enlisting in the 5th and 8th Regiments. Another full company was recruited in Buckfield for nine months' service in 1862, under Captain Charles H. Prince, which included thirty Buckfield men. The company was mustered in as Co. C, 23d Regiment, Sept. 29, 1862, and mustered out at Portland, July 15, 1863, having lost one member by discharge for disability and two by death. The company was employed in detail and guard duty in the vicinity of Washington, Harpers Ferry, and other places. It represented the largest number of soldiers from Buckfield in any one organization. The next largest bodies were seventeen men in the 20th Regiment in 1862, and twenty in the 5th Mounted Battery in 1864.
The long continuance of the war called for a vast number of men and immense expenditure of money, which severely taxed the resources of the country ; but the demands upon the Town of Buckfield were promptly and generously met. Its various quotas of soldiers, under the successive calls of the President, were promptly filled with volunteers, excepting that
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HISTORY OF BUCKFIELD
of 1863, when a draft was ordered. However, only one drafted man, James MI. Chesley, appeared in the service from Buckfield. He was a good soldier, and the town voted him a bounty, as in case of volunteers. Two other drafted men, William W. Atwood and Richard S. Dorman, paid commutation fees of three hundred dollars each, and the following business men of the town individually contributed to the support of the war by furnishing substitutes: Nahum Moore, Charles H. Berry, George D. Hutchinson and Josiah W. Whitten.
During the progress of the war many town meetings were held to make provisions for filling quotas and appropriations for bounties, aid to soldiers' families and other expenses per- taining to military service. These meetings were always largely attended and money was freely and enthusiastically appropriated in support of the war. Besides various and considerable appro- priations for enlistment expenses and aid to families of soldiers, the outlay of the town for bounties was as follows :
To three years' volunteers in 1862, 1,800
To nine months' volunteers in 1862, 3,333
To three years' volunteers in 1863, 8,904
To drafted men in 1863, 300
To volunteers in 1864-5, 17,850
Total, $32,187
The liberality of the town is shown in the equalization of bounties among towns by the State under an act of the Leg- islature. approved March 7, 1868, which returned to Buckfield the sum of $7,266.66, as its equitable excess paid for bounties, viz. :
53 men, 3 years' service, $5,300.00
man, 2 years' service. 66.66
33 men, 1 year's service, 1,100.00
32 men, 9 months' service, 800.00
In addition to the liberal provisions of the town the people were in constant activity in auxiliary work. Frequent meetings were held, and many entertainments were given by the ladies for the benefit of the sons of the town, who were enduring the hardships of army life, and the hearts of many soldier boys. in the field and hospital, were cheered and comforted by contribu- tions of sacks, blankets and other needed supplies that went out
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