USA > Maine > Oxford County > Buckfield > A history of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900 > Part 4
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Samuel Taylor from Pembroke, settled in the township prior to Jan. 1, 1784. His lot was west of Jacob Whitman's on the Hebron town line. His habitation was built within a very few rods of Whitman's, and both families used water from the same spring. Taylor had served in both the old French and Indian
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War and the Revolution and was well along in years when he came to the township. He appears to have been the wit and Thymster of the original settlers. Some of his sayings were very witty, while others "bit like a serpent and stung like an adder." A story is told of him about an adventure which he had with James Rider's wife, who was believed by many people to be a witch. A man named Keen averred that she had once asked him for one of two partridges, which he had shot. He told her that he had no more than his own family wanted. She immediately pronounced a curse upon him and told him that he would never be able to shoot another bird. He said that he had tried several times to do so, but could not bring down the game-no doubt the effect of her words upon his nerves. Taylor, however, had no faith in her supernatural powers. It is related that, while making a journey on horseback, he had to put up for the night at Rider's house. He was urged to make a rhyme for the family. Though reluctant at first, he finally consented, with the proviso that half of it should be given that night, and the other half in the morning before he went away. The first half of his rhyme ran thus : "The children of Israel wanted bread and the Lord gave them manna;" after he had mounted his horse to depart the next morning, he was reminded that the rhyme had not been com- pleted. He promptly finished it as follows: "Jeems Rider wanted a wife and the devil sent him Hannah." She started for him with uplifted broom and eyes blazing with wrath, but he put spurs to his horse and was soon out of sight and hearing.
Daniel Packard from Bridgewater, first settled in what proved to be, after the lines were run, the town of Hebron. While there his daughter, Betsey, was born-the first female child in the township. He afterwards selected a lot north of Taylor's on which he built a log house, where he moved his family before January 1, 1784.
The others who acquired settling lots here prior to that date of whom no mention has been made, are David Warren, Joel Rich, Ezra Brown, John Irish, Joseph Irish, Jonathan Roberts, Joseph Roberts, Jr., Caleb Young and Jonah Forbes.
David Warren settled west of Jonathan Record's towards the pond, and adjoining Gershom Davis', which proved to be on the same lot as Record. He came from the vicinity of Falmouth and had served for a period in the Continental Army. It is not
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known what relationship, if any, he was to John Warren. He appears to have been an able man. After residing in Buckfield many years, he removed to Hartford, where he was a selectman, deputy sheriff and a representative to the General Court.
Joel Rich from Gorham, Me., settled on what in recent years has been known as the Lowell farm. He, too, had been a soldier in the Continental Army. He was the son of Lemuel and Eliz- abeth (Harding) Rich who came from Truro, Mass., to Gorham in 1762. They had a large family of children, among whom was Joel, born about 1757. He married Elizabeth Cates. Rich sold his settling lot to James Manwell in 1795 and removed to Brooks or vicinity.
Ezra Brown of Windham, a brother of Amos, had a settling lot in Bucktown. No mention is made of him in the earlier transactions relating to the purchase and settlement of the town- ship. He was a prominent citizen in his town of Windham as early as 1783 when he was elected one of the selectmen, a posi- tion he held for many consecutive years. For this reason lie could not have been a resident of Bucktown for the same period. yet he had a settling lot, No. 35, in the southeast part of the town, which we think he must have acquired by purchase and probably from Asa Thurlo. He was afterward taxed as a non-resident for land in the eastern part of the town for several years. Ezra Brown was elected as a representative to the General Court from Windham, where he died in 1826, "aged 76."
John Irish, the oldest son of James Irish, the American an- cestor who came from England about 1710 and settled at Fal- mouth, now Portland, was born there April 13, 1724. He, with his wife, Sarah, settled in Gorham, Me., about 1750. Fourteen years later "he owned 50 acres of land in the back part of that town on a cross road." John Irish saw much service as a scout in the Indian wars. He was a member of Capt. Dominicus Jor- dan's "Snowshoe" company in the early part of 1744. He par- ticipated in the siege of Louisburg when it was captured by the colonial troops. In Capt. John Phinney's company he served as Sergeant in 1759. John Irish was in the Continental forces at the surrender of Quebec. His children were all grown up prior to his taking up a settler's lot near his son-in-law, John Buck, on North Hill in Bucktown in 1783. The family seems to have alternately lived in Bucktown and Gorham. In 1789 "in the 14th
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year of American Independence" he sold his settling lot to John Buck for £60.
Joseph Irish of Gorham, a brother of John, senior, born April 12, 1728, was a soldier in the old French and Indian War and the War for Independence. He married Hannah Doane in 1753. His family had all grown up prior to his settling in Bucktown. His lot, which adjoined the Turner town line, he sold to his son, Ebenezer Irish, in 1802. There is no mention of his name on the census lists of 1800. We find under the record of the offspring of Ebenezer Irish and his wife, Bathsheba, this entry: "Mr. Joseph Irish, died April 14, 1808." His name disappeared from the tax lists of the town in 1801.
Jonathan Roberts, who settled at what was afterwards called "Federal Corner," was born in New Hampshire about 1746. He was probably a descendant of Thomas Roberts, who came from England with his wife, Rebecca, and settled in Dover, N. H., in 1633, and was colonial governor for a short time. This Thomas had two sons, one of whom was the sheriff who whipped the Quakers out of town "at the cart tail." The father, becoming converted to that faith, afterwards arose in church and asked the pardon of God for having such a son. It is said that the poet Whittier was a descendant of this sheriff. Many of this family name adopted the Quaker faith. Jonathan Roberts married, in 1768, Elizabeth Webb of Windham. He enlisted in the Conti- nental Army and is said to have been at Bunker Hill. Jonathan appears to have been a man of considerable ability and a leading citizen of his section of the town.
Joseph Roberts, Jr., a nephew of Jonathan Roberts, was born in Brentwood, N. H., Feb. 6, 1750. He was the oldest son of Joseph and Hannah (Young) Roberts. He enlisted at Cape Elizabeth, May 15, 1775, in the Continental service, having run away for that purpose. His father went to take him back home, but was persuaded to enter the army himself. Both are said to have been at Bunker Hill, where they fought at the "rail fence." The son was at Copps Hill, when the British were forced to evac- uate Boston. He was at Fort George and Fort Edward, and also in the Penobscot Expedition. His service, at different periods, extended through five years. He settled on a lot, on what is now the road from Federal Corner to the Chase neighborhood.
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In 1818 he was granted a pension of $8, but was dropped from the rolls in 1820. He was restored by act of June 7, 1832, at $76.66 per year, commencing March 4, 1831. He married Esther Hamlin in 1777 and settled in Bucktown before Jan. I, 1784. In 1799. he went to Washington Plantation, now Brooks, Me., and was the first settler in that township. He built the first mill there, was a natural mechanic and manufactured bowls, mortars, etc. Some of his dishes are still preserved among his descendants. Mr. Roberts was promised 500 acres of land from Gen. Knox for building the mill, but he never obtained the land. He was industrious, frugal, upright, moral, and a Christian man. He was twice married. By his first wife he had 12 children and 12 more by his second wife. His grandchildren numbered 157. He died in Brooks, Jan. 10, 1843, aged nearly 87.
Caleb Young from Windham was also a Revolutionary soldier. He may have been a brother of Joshua. The two names are sug- gestive of the two great leaders of the hosts of Israel at an im- portant period of Jewish history. Caleb settled on what was known, thirty years ago, as the Ozias DeCoster farm. Joshua's lot was on Sylvester township line in the southeastern part of the town. It is related of Caleb that, at one time, he endeavored to cross, with a yoke of oxen, the bridge below the village which from a recent freshet had become unsafe. His cattle broke through and he quickly cut them loose from the load and, with great difficulty, saved them and himself by swimming ashore. The tradition is that the town authorities made him pay damages for breaking through the bridge.
Jonah Forbes, of Easton, Mass., was born in the year 1741. He was one of the "Minute Men" and served in the Continental Army and was at the battle of Monmouth. He settled in Buck- town about 1783 on Lot No. 8, East Division. He was 79 years old in 1820, when he made an affidavit in the Court of Common Pleas, relating to his property, which was then required of those pensioned under the Act of 1818. Tradition says that when he came home from the war he had a large quantity of Continental money and wore an officer's cap. He was a powerfully built man.
The men whose names have been mentioned in the foregoing pages, as acquiring settling lots of 100 acres free, prior to Jan. 1, 1784, were forty-seven in number. Their lots were not laid out and numbered till long after they had made their clearing's and
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erected habitations. By an entry in Abijah Buck's diary, it ap- pears that this work was completed in 1789. It must have been a difficult problem, in some cases, to run out the exact number of acres required for each lot and include in it the settler's im- provements. In two instances, the proprietors "found" two set- tlers on the same lot. In other words, they could not make a satisfactory division, so they added enough from contiguous land belonging to the proprietors, to contain 200 acres, and left the settlers to make the division themselves. The work of laying out the lots appears to have been done as well as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances.
The chief interest in the early history of the town must cen- ter in these 47 settlers and their families, for they must be re- garded as the founders of the town. How they lived and what they accomplished, we shall endeavor, as far as possible, to relate.
Twelve (and if we count Daniel Crockett and Asa Thurlo, fourteen) of them, disposed of their settling lots and went else- where. One died before the deed of his lot was executed. Of the remaining number who passed the last years of their lives here, one lived to be over 104, three others over 90, nine others over 80, and five others over 70 years of age. Eight served in the old French and Indian War. Thirty-two are known to have been in the Continental Army. Their service represented all the important engagements in those great contests, from Braddock's defeat to the capture of Quebec, and from Bunker Hill to York- town. On fields of blood they served their country well. In peace, they founded a model little commonwealth. Honor and glory to their memories, evermore.
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CHAPTER V.
PIONEER LIFE.
What would we not give for a glimpse of any one of the clear- ings of these early settlers, with its log house and other primitive structures-the father, busy at his labor of "junking," planting, or harvesting; the mother hard at work at the loom, and the children playing about the door?
We may well conceive that, after the period of their greatest privations, and prosperous days had come, gatherings at certain places in each little neighborhood, on the long winter evenings, were frequent, with the great open fireplace piled high with the blazing logs and sending its cheerful heat and light into every corner. If at Thomas Allen's, they would perhaps be listening to his songs or stories of adventure and life in old England.
If at Abijah Buck's, of stories of the Indians and incidents of his army life in the French and Indian War. Mrs. Rebecca Tyler, Mrs. Buck's mother, must have told, many times, the story of Hannah Dustin's escape from the Indians, who were carrying her away into captivity. It was related to Rev. Paul Coffin, in 1800, when on a missionary tour among the towns in this section.
What is more probable at Benjamin Spaulding's, than that hunting exploits and incidents of the chase were often discussed ?
We know pretty accurately, from the many stories which have come down to us, what the gatherings were in the Whitman neighborhood. All were old Revolutionary soldiers and all, ex- cept one, serious and stern men. Samuel Taylor was given to the making of rhymes and to levity. And "Aunt Betty" Pack- ard, too! What could she not tell of her native land, her voyage to America, and life in the army? We may well conceive that the stores and blacksmith shops drew together the men and older boys, who discussed the affairs of the township, state and nation.
Many a candidate for town office was selected in Lemuel Crooker's store. The project of laying out a county road from the southeast part of the town to "Jay Point" was started in Will- iam Lowell's store. At a later period, Larnard Swallow's black- smith shop in the northwest part of the town was a noted place for the town politicians of his section.
And what solemn gatherings their religious meetings must have been! They were a God-fearing people, and the Bible,
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their great book of the law. Before the mills were built, the early settlers had to go to New Gloucester, or to Blake's Mills, now Turner village, to get their corn and grain ground They went for several years to the former place for such articles as salt and molasses, and often, while carrying home on their backs, their bags of corn meal or rye, they would have in either hand a jug of molasses and a box or bag of salt. The long journey was by spotted trees.
One writing of the methods pursued by the early pioneers in this part of the state says :
"The common course of proceeding with beginners was first to cut down the trees on five or six acres of land the first year, burn the ground over the next spring, plant with corn and build a log house. Then cut down more trees, move the family in be- fore harvest and live for a year, principally on corn meal food and such meat as the gun and fishing pole furnished. The third year, besides corn, raise wheat and beans and build a small barn. The fourth year raise hay and rye. By this time, the settler was in a way to live comfortably. After living in a log house for seven years, if he prospered, he would be able to build a frame house and be called an old settler. All who had nothing better than a log house were, by custom, bound to give a new settler two weeks' accommodation and board when moving in."
No particular method was adopted in Buckfield. In every section there were places where new settlers were accustomed to go and stay, not for two, only, but for many weeks until lots were selected and suitable habitations constructed. There were several such havens of refuge in the southern part of the town.
Elias Taylor, before mentioned, for a large part of his life, resided in the town of Hebron, which he at one time represented in the legislature of the state, but, during his old age, he came back to Buckfield to live and die. He delighted to tell about see- ing, when a boy, the new settlers with their families as they came into town, and particularly, of Joseph Lothrop and his fam- ily from Bridgewater, Mass. They were made welcome at Jacob Whitman's. One of the daughters became his wife. The early settlers were noted for their hospitality. They delighted to see the new comers moving in and did everything they could to make them comfortable while their new homes were being prepared for occupancy.
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Although of a later period, the following from the diary of an Oxford County settler will be of interest, as it shows the man- ner of "getting on" in the early days:
Mar. 23d Arrived with my family at iny house. Hauled two loads of goods and returned to Minot.
Mar. 24th
Set out from Minot with any two hogs.
Mar. 25th Arrived home. My brother moved from my house to his own.
Mar. 26th Got 23 bushels corn from a neighbor and sent 3 bushel to mill.
Mar. 27th At work on my house.
Mar. 30th Made 22 sap troughs.
Mar. 3Ist
Made plank to finish out my floor.
April Ist Set one glass window. Began to catch sap.
April 3d Set another glass window.
April 4th Bot. 4 bush. corn.
April 5th Bot. peck of wheat and one of rye and carried them to mill.
April 6th Began junking my felled trees. (Junking is cut- ting off logs from fallen trees of such lengths as to be easily handled and rolled together in piles for burning.) We received the first visit from women.
April 7th Junking.
April 8th Fast day.
April 10th
Snow storm, II inches fell.
April 13th Lopping limbs among my burnt trees.
April 14th Junking and piling the rest of the week.
April 22d Burned the brush around my house.
April 28th and 29th Felling trees for my neighbors.
May 3d Set fire to our opening and had quite a good burn.
May 4th Piling brands.
May 13th
Rain storm. It had been very dry. Made a table.
May 24th Bot. a bushel seed corn.
June Ist Planting.
June 12th Finished planting corn.
June 15th Fencing the opening.
June 16th At work for a neighbor for a pig.
June 17th and 18th Felling trees.
June 2Ist Brot. my cow and calf from father's.
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June 22nd Making cow yard and pig pen. June 29th and 30th Felling trees. July 5th Had a neighbor work for me telling trees and paid him in pork.
July 12th Hoeing corn.
July 14th Finished felling trees.
July 17th Finished hoeing corn.
July 25th Went to New Gloucester.
July 29th Digging a water spring.
July 30th and 31st Unwell.
Aug. 5th Laid the foundation for my chimney.
Ang. 6th Peeled bark for a chamber floor.
Aug. 10th Went to a lecture at Mr. Hutchinson's.
April 30th Went to mill.
Sept. Ist Weeding my corn.
Sept. 5th Went to meeting at Mr. Whitman's.
Sept. 6th Began falling trees to lay over the season.
Sept. 8th Went to mill.
Sept. 12th Sunday. Went to meeting. Heard Deacon
Packard and old Mr. Whitman.
Sept. 21st Began cutting stalks.
Oct. 5th and 6th Digging and covering cellar drain.
Oct. 7th Digging potatoes. Had 40 bushels. Put them in cellar.
Oct. 9th Banking up house.
Oct. 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Gathering corn.
Oct. 18th At work in cellar.
Oct. 19th, 20th and 21st Gathering pumpkins
Oct. 22d Went to mill and had first new corn ground.
Oct. 27th Went to meeting and heard Mr. Tripp.
Oct. 28th Went to two neighbors and brot. home two kittens.
Nov. 2d Finished gathering corn-raised about 60 bushels. Nov. 4th, 5th and 6th At work in my cellar.
Nov. 9th and roth Building air oven.
Nov. IIth Baked in it.
Nov. 14th Sunday.
Nov. 18th Got a number of trees at Mr. Packard's and set them out. Nov. 15th At work on chimney.
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Nov. roth Went to Minot.
Dec. Ist to 4th At work on the road.
Dec. 6th Killed my two hogs. They weighed about 450 lbs.
Dec. 12th
Sunday. Went to meeting.
Dec. 13th
Topped out chimney.
Dec. 14th
Dec. 16th Went to mill.
Hauling barn logs.
Dec. 17th
Severe cold morning.
Dec. 18th Weather moderates.
Dec. 20th to 25th At work on barn.
Dec. 27th Hauled in my loom.
The log houses of the early settlers at first generally con- sisted of one room below, which served for kitchen. dining-room and sleeping room ; and one above this, reached by a ladder where the children slept and where the ears of corn were often piled after husking. The roofs of the houses were made of strips of hemlock bark, or of pine, or cedar. The doors were of hewed plank, hung on wooden hinges and fastened by a large wooden latch on the inside. A stout hempen cord was attached to the latch and ran through a hole to the outside. At night and in times of alarms, this string was drawn in, thus preventing any one on the outside from opening the door. A stout hardwood bar could be fixed across the door to make it further secure. It was the boast of some, however, that the latch strings to their doors were always out.
There were no glass windows for several years after the first settlers came. Oiled paper supplied the place of glass when the houses were built, places being left in the walls for the introduc- tion of light. The oiled paper was fixed over these apertures. Pieces of wood, hewed to the right dimensions, were placed in slides to cover these places at night or in stormy and cold weather. The foundations for chimneys were of stone cemented with clay. From the second floor the walls were constructed of sticks of split wood laid "cob fashion" and the spaces between were filled with clay or mud. The floor when not of hewed plank was the bare ground made smooth and hard by the con- stant tread of feet and kept neat and clean by the housewife's broom made from twigs or of ash wood pounded into strips of the right length. The great fireplaces were among the best
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features of these habitations. They were built to take in large sticks. Stones of the right size and shape were placed on each side for the great "back log" and the "forestick" between which the fire was made. Chairs, bottomed with basket stuff, for the older members of the family and visitors, and wooden stools for the younger ones furnished the seats. Over the fireplace hung the old flint-lock gun, a very essential thing in those days. Within the fireplace hung the crane to hold the pots and kettles in which food was cooked by boiling, while nearby, on the wall, shelves were constructed for the tin, pewter and wooden ware, close to which hung the knife-basket. In this room, also, was the spinning wheel and often the loom. The clothing of the first settlers was made from flax and wool. Every settler had his field of flax. The instrument to dress it and make it into cloth every family possessed. Sheep, as well as pigs and cows, were among the first essential domestic animals.
To prepare the flax and wool for making into cloth, with ev- erything else to do, made every habitation a hive of industry. A shoemaker, called a cordwainer, went around from house to house and made or mended the shoes and boots for the family. The road between one settler's home and another's was a path cut through the forest and called a bridle road. As the country became more settled, trees were cut down, stumps and rocks re- moved, low places filled up and streams bridged. Sunday was observed as a sacred day and meetings were helil at the larger houses and most convenient places, where all the people old and young in the vicinity were expected to be present unless sickness or infirmity prevented. Lay preachers or those gifted in ex- hortation and prayer conducted the services. The necessity for schooling was very early felt but it is probable that for many years for one to master the "three R's. 'Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic," was considered tantamount to having acquired a liberal education.
It is customary in modern times to speak of the life of the early settlers as one of hardships and afflictions and devoid of comfort. We do not share in this view. For the first few years doubtless this was true but starting, as the most of them did, with but few of this world's goods and possessions, they went into the wilderness with the hope that by industry and frugality they would acquire not only homes but a competence. And in
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the acquiring of these, there is little doubt that they enjoyed a degree of happiness fully equal to that of the people of the town to-day. From all that we can learn it had been bruited abroad that the tract of country, embraced in what is now the town of Buckfield, was the poor man's Canaan and poor men came in great numbers. A few after staying awhile went away to other localities. Some were disappointed, as might have been ex- pected, and left the township without doing much in the way of bettering their condition. But others came, like the Pilgrimis, with no thought of turning back. They determined to pass the rest of their days here and accomplish what they could. They succeeded, some more than others-as will always be the case-the result of which is the good old town with its many happy homes and its intelligent and moral people and which has been the mother of so many able and eminent men.
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