USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > A history of Norway, Maine : from the earliest settlement to the close of the year 1922 > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
1856
The elections this year in Maine went strongly republican, revers- ing the result of the previous year. In Norway, Hannibal Hamlin, re- publican, who was elected Governor, had 256 votes; Samuel Wells, democrat, 223; George F. Patten, whig, 10. Norway had always been
155
HISTORY OF NORWAY
a federal or whig town, but now it became republican which it con- tinued to be for many years .- The notable death this year was that of Dea. John Horr at nearly 90.
1857
Deaths of old people: Nov. 1, Daniel Town, 70; November 13, Amos Ordway, 83; Dec. 18, Solomon Millett, 88.
1858
On the question of licensing an agent to sell spirituous liquors, the town voted at the annual meeting, 1 for, to 158 against the propo- sition .- Henry W. Millett was chosen representative to the Legisla- ture .- Deaths: Jan. 5, Charlotte (Churchill) Barrows, 90; March 26, Esther Bartlett, 83; Oct., Phebe Pratt, 63; Dec. 28, Simon Noble, 61.
1859
At the annual town meeting, the selectmen were instructed to dis- pose of the military stores belonging to Norway .- Three lots from Paris were annexed to the southeastern part of Norway. Paris re- sisted and attempted to get the annexed territory restored. The con- troversy was fought out in the Legislature for two or three sessions .- Jonathan S. Millett, who was returning home from the gold diggings in California, died on the passage to New York, at the age of 31 .- Deaths: Jan. 7, Henry Hayden, 72; Aug. 1, Mrs. Sarah D. (Penley) Crockett, 40; Sept., Lewis Crockett, 64; Dec. 6, Wm. Clark Whitney, 94.
1860
The elections this year were carried by the republicans in state and nation. Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States and Israel Washburn, Jr., Governor of Maine. Several South- ern States seceded before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated,. March 4, 1861 .- The annexed territory from Paris was joined to the village school district by vote of the town .- Deaths: Feb. 8, Mercy P. Jordan, 76; James M. Buck, 76; March 23, James Flint, 82.
1861
War between the North and South began by the attack upon Fort Sumter by the Rebels on the 12th of April. One company of three months men was raised in Norway for service at the front. Five hun- dred dollars was appropriated at a special town meeting for the aid of the families who should enlist in Co. G, 1st Maine Infantry Vols. Three hundred dollars was voted at another special meeting held in November .- A monument was set in Pine Grove Cemetery to mark the grave of Rev. Thomas Barnes, the first Universalist preacher in Maine, whose remains had been removed from Poland and reinterred here .- John S. Henley, born in Norway, a grandson of John Henley the pioneer, died at the Relay House, Md., Dec. 8, at the age of 23. He was a soldier in the Norway Co. G, 10th Maine, from Otisfield.
156
HISTORY OF NORWAY
1862
At a special town meeting in April, $500 was appropriated to aid soldiers' families. At another special town meeting, resolutions of a very patriotic character, drafted by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., were passed, and the town voted to pay $55 for every soldier who enlisted in the cause of his country, and appropriated $1,155 for the purpose. At another special meeting held in August, it was voted to pay $100 to every soldier who should enlist on the quota of Norway and a com- mittee of ten was selected to procure enlistments. Two companies were raised composed in part of Norway men-one for the 17th Maine and the other for the 23rd Maine Regiment. A company had been recruited for the 14th Maine, largely composed of Norway men, in December of the previous year .- Deaths: March 10, Simeon Noble, 71; March 19, George W. Verrill, 51.
1863
At the annual town meeting $500 was appropriated to aid sol- diers' families. At a special meeting in November it was voted to pay each soldier who should enlist on the quota of Norway the sum of $200 .- Deaths : March 9, Isaac Bolster, 66; April 22, John Bird, 88; June 3, Henry Rust, 80; July 15, William Pingree, 75; Dec. 4, Olive Stevens, 91; Dec. 31, James P. Shedd, born in Norway, Co. C, 5th Maine, on quota of Greenwood, 27.
1864
At a special meeting in August, Charles C. Sanderson and Henry Tucker were selected to procure recruits for the army, their compen- sation to be $25 for each man so secured .- The vote on the constitu- tional amendment, submitted to the people, giving soldiers and sailors in the service of the government the right to vote, was for the propo- sition 245, against, 172 .- At a special meeting in December it was voted to pay $100 for each volunteer on Norway's quota to serve on the coast for one year. It was decided to raise by loan $6000 for bounties to volunteers for filling Norway's quota under the last call of the President .- Norway paid in bounties during the war, $22,066 .- 42 .- The citizens of the town contributed for the U. S. Sanitary and U. S. Christian Commissions and Hospitals, besides private contribu- tions, $2,475. The town furnished aid to 117 families of 322 persons, $4,197.75 during the war .- Prior to the call for volunteers Oct. 17, 1863, Norway furnished 140 men. In that and following calls 108 or their equivalent. Total, 248 .- A serious affray occurred at a lyceum at the Norway Liberal Institute on the evening of April 15, in which J. Penley Packard, one of the students, was seriously injured .- Addison E. Verrill was chosen Professor of Zoology at Yale Uni- versity in August.
1865
Two thousand dollars was appropriated at the annual town meet- ing to pay part of the war indebtedness .- It was later voted to exempt from taxation all manufacturing establishments erected and operated within three years .- The selectmen were instructed to revalue the real estate in town .- The following were some of the heavy taxpayers this
157
HISTORY OF NORWAY
year : Ezra F. Beal $174, Sumner Burnham $102.54, James Bennett $104.52, Horatio G. Cole $109.86, Cyrus Cobb $142.08, Isaac A. Deni- son $114, George F. Evans $186.09, William Foster $133.14, John L. Horne $121.25, E. Austin Holmes $172.14, John H. Millett $110.82, Mixer and Watson $100.80, Solomon I. Millett $139.32, Joel Millett $104.34, Claude A. Noyes $109.26, George G. Ordway $172.80, Luther F. Pike $104.22, William C. Pearce $127.14, Mark P. Smith $127.38, Benjamin Tucker $124, Deborah Whitney $215.46 .- Measures were taken during the latter part of the year, to establish a National Bank here .- Dr. George P. Jones began the practice of dentistry in the vil- lage .- The war had closed by the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, April 9. The surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to Gen. William T. Sher- man, and Gen. Richard Taylor to General E. R. S. Canby, followed. There was great rejoicing over the dawn of peace, but Northern hearts were greatly saddened at President Lincoln's assassination, on the evening of April 14, at Ford's Theater, Washington, D. C.
1866
Six thousand dollars was appropriated at the annual town meet- ing, towards extinguishment of the town debt .- The Norway Savings Bank was chartered in February. The stockholders chose Rev. N. Gunnison, President; John Whitmarsh, Vice-President; Henry Upton, Secretary; Lee Mixer, Treasurer; C. C. Sanderson, Ezra F. Beal, Horatio G. Cole, Ceylon Watson, Isaac Denison, Robert Noyes and Thomas G. Goodwin, Trustees .- The old foundry building at Steep Falls was burned April 14 .- Capt. Jonathan Blake purchased the old mill and water power privilege at Steep Falls .- Captains Whitmarsh and Jordan, late of the 29th Maine Regt., became proprietors of the Elm House in April .- Henry M. Bearce from Hebron, late of the 32d Maine, taken prisoner at the Mine Explosion at Petersburg, Va., be- gan the practice of law here with C. C. Sanderson .- Charles Thomp- son, who was a brother-in-law of and had served in the Union Army with Gen. George L. Beal, died here Oct. 5, at the age of 29.
1867
Two thousand dollars was appropriated for the extinguishment of the town debt .- Concert Hall under the Universalist church was leased for ten years by the town to hold its future meetings in .- On the liquor question submitted to the people by the Legislature, the vote stood: for prohibition 64, for license 21 .- Capt. Wm. W. Whit- marsh became sole owner of the Elm House hotel in January .- The Norway Savings Bank was broken into and robbed of money, notes, bonds and other valuable papers, on the night of Sept. 21. An account of the burglary is given elsewhere .- Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., removed to Hyde Park, Mass., in the autumn.
1868
A vote passed at the annual town meeting to reimburse the town treasurer for loss sustained by him for $400 of the town's funds he had on deposit when the Savings Bank was robbed .- Upon the resolve, submitted to the people by the Legislature, whether the towns and
158
HISTORY OF NORWAY
cities should be reimbursed for sums expended for war purposes, the vote was: for, 1, against, 282. At the March term of the Supreme Judicial Court at Paris, one of the burglars of the Norway Savings Bank, Truman F. Young, was tried, convicted and sentenced to the State's prison for nine years .- A Savings Bank building was built and finished for occupancy during the preceding late autumn and early winter .- The soldiers' graves were decorated with appropriate cere- monies May 30 .- The new Masonic hall was dedicated June 3d .- Mrs. Lucinda Judkins died Nov. 28, aged 95.
1869
The roof of the Methodist Chapel in the northwest part of the town, fell in from weight of snow upon it, Feb. 21. A religious meeting had been held there but a very short time before the affair occurred .- A new military company was organized with the following officers: Captain, George L. Beal; First Lieut., William W. Whit- marsh; Sec. Lieut., Henry R. Millett .- There was a great freshet in October which did much damage .- The ice went out of the lake, May 4 .- On Decoration Day, addresses were made by Col. Wm. K. Kim- ball of Paris, of the 12th Maine, and Col. Wm. Wirt Virgin of the 23rd Maine .- Deaths: Feb. 28, Maj. Henry W. Millett, postmaster, about 70; Aug. 13, Miss Joanna Pike, 81; Oct. 3, Dr. Willard C. George, 57; Oct. 31, Jeremiah Hobbs, son of Amos Hobbs, the pioneer, at 85.
1870
Albert G. and John Parsons completed their flouring mill early in the year .- A committee consisting of Col. Wm. Wirt Virgin and oth- ers was selected at a town meeting to examine into and report upon John L. Horne's claim for damages against the town on account of the freshet in October of the previous year .- A cloudburst in the northwest part of the town Aug. 16, did considerable damage to crops, buildings, fences and trees .- An earthquake was felt Oct. 20 .- Wm. E. Goodenow, who had resided here for many years, re- moved in the autumn to Kansas.
1871
The improvements made by Ezra F. Beal on the Beal's Hotel and the mills and machinery on Crooked River called Holden's Mills, were exempted from taxation by the town for ten years .- The Norway Paper Mfg. Co. began business in June at Steep Falls .- There was a big celebration in Norway, Independence Day. A fine military parade, reading of the Declaration of Independence, music, and speeches by Hon. Wm. P. Frye and Gen. James A. Hall, formerly Captain of the 2d Maine Battery which did signal service at Gettysburg-both very eloquent speakers, were features of the day's celebration .- Grasshop- pers were so numerous this year as to do great damage to vegeta- tion .- The Beal's Hotel was opened for public patronage in July .- Notable deaths this year were those of Horatio G. Cole, Aug. 29, at the age of 69, and Ezra F. Beal, Dec. 19, in his 75th year .- Otther deaths were: May 14, Peter Kimball, 78; Aug. 26, John Need- ham of Bethel, 80; Sept. 27, Joshua Damon, 87.
159
HISTORY OF NORWAY
1872
At a special town meeting held Nov. 9, it was voted to appropriate not exceeding $10,000 to build a shoe factory for the purpose of estab- lishing a shoe business industry in the village. Henry C. Reed, C. W. Ryerson, Isaac A. Denison, John L. Horne, A. A. Pottle, Frank A. Danforth, Wm. Frost, 3d, Geo. L. Beal, Jonathan Blake, John Gerry, Ansel Dinsmore, Freeland Howe, Albert Sanborn and Geo. W. Russell, were chosen as a committee to make a contract with B. F. Spinney & Co. of Lynn, Mass., to transfer its plant to Norway, and to superin- tend the construction of the factory. All this was done. The factory was built on side street leading from Main to Beal St .- The Nor- way National Bank was chartered in February. Its board of direc- tors were Sumner Burnham, Isaac A. Denison, Freeland Howe, George G. Phelps and H. C. Little. Sumner Burnham was chosen president and Arthur E. Denison, cashier .- Gen. Geo. L. Beal was appointed by President Grant, U. S. Pension Agent at Portland .- Arthur E. Deni- son gave the memorial address Decoration Day .- George J. Ordway, a former Norway resident, died in Boston, Mass., Oct. 12, at 61. His remains were brought here for burial .- Other deaths: June 16, Solomon Millett, 79; Aug., Widow Lydia (Chase) Barton, in Minne- apolis, Minn .; Dec. 1, John Witt, 80.
1873
Provision was made by the town for the payment of the judgment John L. Horne had obtained against the town for damage in the great freshet of 1869. It amounted to $2,200, including interest and costs. The claim might have been settled for less than a quarter of that sum at first .- The B. F. Spinney & Co., shoe manufacturers of Lynn, Mass., with Ivers L. Witherell as superintendent, located here in the summer. The factory was built by contract with Moses Houghton at a cost of $8,000 .- A charter for a branch railroad from South Paris to Norway was granted by the Legislature in February; nothing was accomplished under it .- C. F. Whitman from Buckfield settled here in February in the practice of the law.
1874
The check list was used for the first time in the selection of town officers. Charles W. Ryerson, Wm. H. Whitcomb and Ansel Dins- more were chosen selectmen and C. F. Whitman, school supervisor. It was the beginning of a long service in connection with the public schools .- The town lines were perambulated this year .- A lodge of Good Templars was formed here by Fred E. Shaw of the Oxford Democrat, May 6th. It was called Pine Grove Lodge, No. 350. Rev. L. H. Tabor was chosen Chief Templar; M. Addie Denison, Vice- Templar; Charles G. Blake, Secretary, and F. M. Houguhton, Treas- urer. The minor officers were Mary Haskell, Winifred Evans, Lizzie Akers, Fred E. Drake, Fred H. Gibson, Clara Hayden, Etta Hough- ton, Thomas G. Goodwin and Herbert Hillier.
1875
Wm. H. Whitcomb was elected chairman of the selectmen .- The Norway Reform Club was organized in April with the following offi- cers : President, David Knapp; Vice-Presidents, Sam'l Thompson,
160
HISTORY OF NORWAY
James A. O'Connor and Geo. W. Locke; E. B. Whitehouse, Rec. Sec., and F. W. Howe, Fin. Sec. In the course of the year the club secured some 200 members. A Ladies' Aid Society was organized in connection with the club which rendered great assistance .- Pine Lodge of Good Templars surrendered its charter in December. The interest in the temperance work was almost wholly absorbed by the Reform Club.
161
HISTORY OF NORWAY .
CHAPTER XXIV.
ANNEXATION OF TRACT FROM PARIS.
If one will examine the map of the town of Norway he will see that its eastern line near the southern end is not straight but makes a considerable bend to the east. A part of Norway village is in the tract inclosed by this bent line, which was once a part of the town of Paris. It is a portion of lots six, seven and eight in the first range of lots in Paris, and Norway people owned so much of the land in them and it would be so much more convenient at that period for those who built upon it to belong to Norway Village than to South Paris, that a movement was started in 1858 to have an act passed by the Legislature annexing the three lots named to Norway.
Old Maj. Henry W. Millett, one of the sharpest and shrewdest political managers Norway ever had, was elected as Norway's repre- sentative to the Legislature that year. He had served as sheriff of the county of Oxford as a whig and had joined the new republican party and was high in its councils. The Paris representative was no match for Major Millett in an affair of that kind.
Besides, the question on its merits appeared to favor Norway's side. Paris about 20 years before had obtained from Buckfield five lots on its northeastern corner, on the ground of its greater con- venience to the people there, and this kind of a plea always has had a sympathetic interest in the legislature whenever it has been made. The petition was signed by Titus O. Brown and others. Mr. Brown was in business at the Steep Falls and his dwelling house was very near the line between the two towns and quite a portion of his land at least was in Paris.
The matter coming to the attention of Paris, its leading men did not look upon the project with favor and they opposed it. A special meeting was called in February, 1859, and resolutions were passed against it and a committee was chosen to oppose it in the legislature. An act for the annexation of these lots to Norway passed the senate, when Paris seems to have made more strenuous efforts in opposition, but to no purpose, for it also passed the house and was signed by the Governor. The next year the efforts of Paris to reopen the con- troversy and recover the lots taken away was turned down but the following year (1861) Paris put up such a fight that a part of the tract was restored.
The part of the tract reannexed to Paris is described as follows : "All that part of lots numbered six, seven and eight in the first range, in Paris, before the set-off in 1859, which lies easterly and southerly of the following described line: Beginning in the northerly line of said lot No. 8 and at the center of the old Rumford Road, so called; thence following said center southerly till it intersects the road from South Paris to Norway; thence in a straight line through the grounds of the Oxford County Agricultural Society to the southeasterly corner thereof; thence in a straight line to the northeasterly corner of Titus O. Brown's homestead farm; thence to the easterly line of said farm on the Little Androscoggin River; thence by said river westerly to the original line between Paris and Norway."
162
HISTORY OF NORWAY
Paris people were elated at the final outcome of the controversy. Norway people, though not satisfied, deemed it best to let the matter rest as the legislature had settled it.
In 1859, the Norway Pine Grove Cemetery Association had been organized by citizens of Norway and a cemetery located on the tract over which the controversy was waged, and when the matter was finally settled, it left this place of burial in Paris (which people from abroad ascertaining without knowing the circumstances, wonder why it should so be). It has, however, been treated in the matter of burials as located in Norway, which is not strictly according to the general laws on the subject. And it has been suggested that the legislature should be applied to, to cure any defect that may exist.
An incident of the controversy is worthy of reproduction here: During the hottest part of the fight, a citizen of Paris was suspected of sympathizing with Norway. He was a dealer in gravestones and monuments and was not over-popular with his townspeople-in fact pretty generally disliked. He was opinionated and disagreeable and few cared to try to influence him, as being a waste of time. But there was one man, however, who had recently built one of the finest resi- dences in that village, on which he had been obliged to place a mortgage for a time. He thought it might do some good to see and have a talk with the suspected individual and did so. He found that the matter was worse than had been represented, and was told that at that stage of the controversy to get back the lost tract after a ceme- tery had been established upon it, was in effect an attempt to steal a grave-yard, which he decidedly opposed. The other became excited at this turn in the conversation and with some heat exclaimed: "Where do you live, sir, in Paris or Norway?" "Where do I live, Mr. Hersey, do you say? I live right down there," pointing to a little unpretentious building. "There is no bay window on it, there is no cupola on it and there is no mortgage on it, Mr. Hersey." It is need- less to state that this abruptly closed the conference.
163
HISTORY OF NORWAY
CHAPTER XXV.
THE RACE FOR THE RAILROAD.
About 1840, the project of connecting the cities of Montreal and Quebec in the St. Lawrence valley, with Portland or Boston by a railroad, for a winter port from which steamers would run to Liver- pool, England, began to be agitated, and as soon as it was determined to build the road there sprang up a rivalry between the two American cities, as to which should secure the New England terminus.
If it had been desirable or practical to construct the road on sub- stantially an air line, from Montreal to an American seaport, there is little doubt that Boston would have been selected, but it had been determined by the Canadian projectors, to build the road to Richmond, P. Q., as the best place where the branch road from Quebec could be connected with the main line to either Boston or Portland as might afterwards be determined.
Portland business men, seeing the great desirability of obtaining the winter port of the Canadian cities by securing the New England terminus of the railroad, in 1844, sent Judge Wm. P. Preble and Josiah S. Little to Montreal to represent the city's interest in the mat- ter. They set forth to the Canadians, the great natural advantages that Portland had over Boston; that it had a splendid deep and land- locked harbor, for an open winter seaport; that its docking facilities were superior; that the piers and wharfing required could be obtained at much less cost than in Boston harbor; that Portland was 100 miles at least nearer Liverpool, and that the city, its business men, and men along the line of the projected road, would take a large amount of stock in it and help build it in the states. They made a very favorable impression upon the Canadian projectors, as they reported. A company was chartered by an Act of the Legislature the following winter under the name of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad Company, to build the road in American territory. This of course was dependent upon Portland being selected by the Canadian interests as the New England terminus. It showed, however, that Portland's representatives were able to have their pledges performed. Over $55,000 in stock had been subscribed in Norway and Paris alone.
In September the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad Company was organized. Ezra F. Beal of Norway and Thomas Crocker of Paris Hill were members of the Board of Directors.
And here it may briefly be stated, that when it was finally decided to build the road through this section, Mr. Beal wanted it to be laid through Norway, while Mr. Crocker desired the line to run on the east side of the Little Androscoggin and along the base of Paris Hill. A compromise was made, and it was constructed on the west side of the river. Had Mr. Crocker's wishes prevailed, South Paris in all human probability would not now be the county seat.
The point upon which the New England terminus of the road finally turned, was which city could be the quicker reached from Montreal. The Portland managers proposed at the suggestion of Grosvenor G. Waterhouse, an old stage driver from Oxford county to Portland, to put the controversy to a practical test. This was for
164
HISTORY OF NORWAY
each city to select a driver or drivers, with a horse and sleigh in win- ter time and go over the proposed routes-each driver starting from his city at the same time-the one who reached his destination first, to decide the question at issue without further controversy. This was agreed to by the managers for Boston.
The Portlanders of course, selected Waterhouse who "was one of the most popular knights of the road who ever drove a stage coach out of the Forest City," to make the trip. He was at that time the owner of a stage line from Paris Hill through Norway to Portland. He has thus been described: "Waterhouse was a large framed and fine looking man of florid complexion and distinguished appearance. Seated on a Concord coach with his team of four or six horses, on the gallop, cracking his whip as he rode up to the public houses and post offices on his route, he was always the center of interest and the admiration of all beholders." No better man could have been selected for the race and at once he began organizing for victory. He went over the line from Portland to Montreal and arranged for changes of horses at different places. The first change out of Portland was to be at Gray Corner, then Ricker Hill, Welchville, Norway Center, Green- wood City, Bethel Hill, Upton, Dixville Notch, Colebrook, N. H., Canaan, Vt., and several other places beeyond, where fresh horses were to be exchanged for the exhausted ones.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.