USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > A history of Norway, Maine : from the earliest settlement to the close of the year 1922 > Part 2
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HISTORY OF NORWAY
for the improvements made, before he could drive the settler away, or be compelled to take a fair value for the land as it was prior to its occupancy. A jury in a suit brought by the owner against the settler, for possession of the premises was to determine these values.
This law was strenuously opposed by the large landholders and speculators, and they asserted that the courts would declare the act unconstitutional, if any suit came to final decision, but if no such suit was brought or decision made, the law would be repealed when the Federalists came again into power. A suit involving the consti- tutionality of the law did go to the full court, which decided that the act was constitutional, and though the Federalists afterwards came into power, the law was never repealed-too many cases of high- handed abuses had come to light and the law being very popular, among the masses, it was deemed prudent for political reasons to let it remain on the statute books.
Its beneficial effects were beyond all calculation, and did very much to alleviate great wrong and injustice.
The disreputable name of "squatters" has often been applied to the early settlers. This is very unjust, for there could be no trespass or wrongful occupancy, where persons were induced or encouraged to settle and make improvements upon lands, to which it was expected, by the parties in interest, that they would subsequently acquire title. Mere squatters and trespassers, are not the kind of men who lay the foundation of communities, towns and commonwealths. The Ste- venses, the Hobbses, the Parsonses, the Pikes, the Bennetts, Benjamin Herring, Benjamin Witt, George Lessley and Samuel Ames, were not of that class. All of them before coming here, stood well and were respected in the places where they lived. Capt. Henry Rust depended upon them and such men as they were, to do their part in building up his plantation and the future town to follow it. Several of them were related to him, and he knew before their coming, their capacity and worth. That they came, by his request and inducement, clearly appears. How well he calculated and how well the earliest settlers per- formed their part towards establishing communities which developed into a prosperous town, the future pages of this work will show. This history at least will do them substantial justice, for besides living lives above reproacli, they founded a little commonwealth, which for over an hundred years, has had the reputation at home and abroad of being one of the most enterprising and thrifty towns in Maine.
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HISTORY OF NORWAY
CHAPTER III.
RUST TRACT PURCHASED
AND
FIRST LOTS FOR SETTLEMENT SELECTED.
From very early times, hunting parties from Massachusetts and New Hampshire were accustomed to come into the region drained by the Little Androscoggin River and its tributaries for the fur- bearing animals in which it abounded. For many years after the fall of Quebec in 1759 when the fear of Indian attacks had virtually ceased, this section of Maine continued to draw numerous hunting parties to it.
Tradition states that such parties from New Gloucester and Gray after the close of the Revolutionary War, were accustomed to come into the region now comprising the town of Norway. Their leader was James Stinchfield of New Gloucester, a noted man of that town and "a mighty hunter who understood woodcraft and the Indian method of warfare."
He had moved into the township of New Gloucester with his father's family in 1753, and assisted in building the block-house there the following year. In May, 1755, on learning that Capt. Jonathan Snow had been killed by the Indians near the falls which later' bore his name, in what is now the town of Paris, he, then a young man full of energy and daring, raised a party of hunters and went to the place where Captain Snow was killed and buried his remains which had been horribly mutilated by the savages. Stinchfield became during many hunting excursions, thoroughly acquainted with every part of this section and acquired such a reputation as a great hunter that it has survived the lapse of time.
At the period following the close of the War of the Revolution, the splendid growth of the maple and other hard wood trees, with the occasional tracts of large pine and other black growth, which ran up straight for many feet without limbs or underbrush, gave unmis- takable evidence that this particular section had a very fertile soil and was eminently fit for settlement.
From the evidence obtained it is clear that James Stinchfield had determined to buy the tract, afterwards called Rustfield, and settle the families of the Stevens brothers, the Hobbses and others upon it, and some measures were taken by him towards that end. From tra- dition we learn of his leading parties hither for the double purpose of hunting and spying out the land for settlement. And we find it afterward called even in public documents, "Stinchfield's Grant" or "Rust's or Stinchfield's Grant." Just why he didn't carry out his original purpose to purchase and settle it, is not clear at this day, but that he gave it up to Capt. Henry Rust is very certain. The tract was not large enough taken alone for a township and there were no other lands to be obtained except what Jonathan Cummings after- wards purchased, then supposed in part at least to belong to it. But
25
HISTORY OF NORWAY
even with this added, it was not large enough for a township. Town- ships to purchasers were granted on more favorable terms than small tracts. But whatever the cause, James Stinchfield changed his pur- pose and Captain Rust bought it, and at once did everything possible to settle the tract and develop it, and for this purpose made use of Stinchfield and the men he had already succeeded in interesting in his project. Probably for some time after, Stinchfield acted as his agent which may account for his name being connected with the tract. The author of this history wrote to the Secretary of State at Boston in June, 1906, to ascertain whether there had been any grant of land in this region to James Stinchfield and received the following reply :
"Boston, Mass., June 28, 1906.
C. F. Whitman, Esq.,
Norway, Maine.
Dear Sir:
Your favor of the 26th inst. was duly received, stating that in the grant to Jonathan Cummings of a certain tract of land in Cumberland County in 1788, the southern boundary is given as the northern line of Rust and Stinchfield's grants, and asking whether or not, any record appears here of a grant to a James Stinch- field, between 1783 and 1789. The deed of Jonathan Cummings recorded here, gives the southern boundary as the north line of "Rust's or Stinchfield's grant so called," which would make it seem that one grant, not two distinct ones, was referred to. The fact that no reference to a deed, having been given to any individual bearing the surname of Stinchfield gives further weight to such a supposition. An examination was made of certain files, in the State's collection, relating to Eastern lands, in the hope of finding some direct allusion to the Stinchfield in question, as purchasing or wishing to purchase land, but the only reference found to the name, was in an agreement made with Jonathan Cummings, as to the purchase of land, in Cumberland County, bearing date April 21, 1788, but which was afterward can- celled, in which mention is made of "land sold to Rust or Stinchfield."
In the Maps and Plans Collection, which forms a part of the Mass. Archives, is a plan, bearing the title: "Rust or Stinchfield Grant, taken from Mr. Rust's plan No. 5, 1788." It would seem probable therefore, that Rust must in some way have superseded Stinchfield in the purchase of the land lying south of the Cummings tract.
Yours Respectfully,
Wm. M. Olin, Secretary."
This would appear to establish in connection with tradition that James Stinchfield had at one period, a purpose of acquiring a tract of land here, upon which parties from Gray and New Gloucester were to settle, and for some reason gave it over to Capt. Henry Rust who had been induced to purchase and carry out the project. We find that Stinchfield when the tract was run out, assisted in the survey. What- ever view may be taken of the matter of James Stinchfield's interest, it shows a close relation between him and Captain Rust and the first settlers, and refutes the idea, if any refutation was necessary, that the latter were squatters or trepassers.
The first comers here intended to settle on the Rust tract and deal with him, in paying for their lots and acquiring their titles to their holdings.
Jeremiah Hobbs, who located on State's land afterwards the Cum- mings Purchase, according to all accounts, supposed that he had settled on the Rust tract, and Nathaniel Stevens' case was like Hobbs'. We positively know that Peter Everett, who had also settled on that tract near the boundary line, thinking it was on the Rust purchase, was assigned another lot by Captain Rust in the southwest part of his tract, to which Everett's habitation was moved. This indicates
26
HISTORY OF NORWAY
that Everett in locating as and where he did had previously made arrangements for his first lot and settlement with Captain Rust.
There is no doubt that similar arrangements for occupancy and payment for their lots were made by him or his agents with all the settlers prior to such occupancy.
Capt. Henry Rust obtained his title to the tract, February 7, 1787, but the bargain had been made the previous year, presumably after it had been decided that James Stinchfield should give up his interest to Captain Rust, who was to acquire title to the tract as soon as the General Court met and authorized the purchase. The men relied upon to first settle upon it, when it was finally decided that Rust would buy, began to make their plans and arrangements for coming hither. And William and John Parsons, nephews of Captain Henry Rust, then residents of New Gloucester, came to the tract in June, 1786, selected their lots, built a rude camp, felled a few trees and then returned to their homes. They did so little in felling trees that it indicates haste in the selection of their lots, probably lest other parties might secure them. It might also indicate that they thought it best not to do too much of this work till it was absolutely certain that the project would not fail. The lot of William Parsons was on the westerly side of the old county road laid out in 1796 from Green- wood line through the center of the town and over the hill into Oxford. The road over Pike's Hill from what is now the village ran into it opposite William Parsons' land; John Parsons' lot adjoined a part of William's on the east-the old county road being afterwards laid out between their farms. The first tree cut on either of the lots-the first one for a clearing in what is now the town of Norway- was a large hemlock, on the lot of John Parsons; a portion of its stump and roots on that account was sacredly preserved by Mr. Par- sons and his son who resided on the place, as long as the old gentle- man lived.
John Parsons, son of William and Sarah (Rust) Parsons, was born in Gloucester, Mass., March 1, 1762. He was three times mar- ried, and raised a large family of children. He was an industrious and valuable citizen. He died in 1847.
Dea. William Parsons was born in Gloucester, Mass., Aug. 16, 1759. He was a Revolutionary soldier. He married Abigail, daugh- ter of Capt. John Millett. He served for a period as one of the plan- tation assessors. For many years he was a deacon of the Baptist church society. Mr. Parsons was a worthy citizen and an exemplary member of the church. He died Jan. 8, 1845.
The parties from Gray who intended to settle upon Captain Rust's tract came here in the autumn of 1786, and besides selecting their lots, built a log camp, and got out considerable material for the con- struction of their habitations, and felled trees for their clearings, preparatory to their occupancy the following spring. Tradition states that the names of these pioneers were Joseph and Jonas Stevens, Amos and Jeremiah Hobbs and George Lessley, and that they were here at that time, some two months or more.
The camp was built on the lot selected by Joseph Stevens and the first tree cut for its construction, was a large white birch, whose stump was left high enough from the ground to constitute one corner
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HISTORY OF NORWAY
of the camp. A piece of the bark of this tree was preserved by Simon Stevens, son of Joseph Stevens, for many years and till it was destroyed when his house was burned.
Besides their other labors these hardy pioneers constructed a dug- out from a large pine log, for use on the lake, in place of a boat. It was of great service to them for several years after. Their lots were located as follows and extended to the lake and were intended to contain about 140 acres each.
The lot of Jeremiah Hobbs was east of the present Congregation- al Church, on what is now the Wyman place at Norway Center. The lot of Jonas Stevens, the Fred Grover farm; Joseph Stevens selected the lot next south, now the Charles F. Boober farm; Amos Hobbs' lot was next on the south-known for many years as the James Crockett place and George Lessley's was southwest on the present Benjamin Tucker farm, on the westerly side of the old county road, as afterwards laid out and built. Probably all their habitations were erected near springs of water.
Joel, Jonas, Joseph and Nathaniel Stevens who settled here were sons of Jonas Stevens who came from Townsend, Mass., and settled in Gray, where he passed the remainder of his days. He and his sons had served in the War for American Independence. Joseph, the ablest of the brothers, was born in November, 1753. He married Elizabeth Hobbs, a sister of Amos and Jeremiah. He was the leader and foremost man of the pioneers. When the town was incorporated he was chosen one of the selectmen and assessors and was re-elected the following year. He kept a public house for many years. By in- dustrious toil he cleared and brought to fertility a fine farm. He died in August, 1830, aged 77. Jonas Stevens, born about 1750, married Mary Crandall. He was pensioned for service in the War of the Revolution. He died February 9, 1833, "aged 84, of palsy." He had stated in an affidavit made in court at Paris, Feb. 28, 1821 that his age was 70, and that his wife was 70.
Jeremiah Hobbs, born in Hopkinton, Mass., June 14, 1747, married Anna Fowler. They had a family of nine children-eight of whom were born before coming here. He was one of the petitioners for the incorporation of the First Congregational Church Society. His son William was the second trader in Norway-beginning business at the Center in 1802-and his grandson, William Whitman Hobbs, was one of the most prominent men in town of his day, and was deputy sheriff and representative to the Legislature. Jeremiah Hobbs died June 14, 1814. His wife died in 1824, aged about 78.
Amos Hobbs, born in Hopkinton in 1761, was a Revolutionary soldier, serving in the disastrous Penobscot Expedition of 1779 from Gray. The farm he wrought from the wilderness was kept in the family descendants for more than 125 years. His wife was Lucy Robinson, who died in 1848, aged 89. He died June 5, 1839, aged 78.
The time and place of the birth of George Lessley, or what con- nection, if any, he was to the other settlers he came with, are un- known. He served a time in the Revolution in the "30th Mass. Regt. of Foot" in the Siege of Boston, from Gray. He died in 1800 and left a widow and children of which two sons are mentioned-Amasa. and William, who thereafter resided on the home place till 1809 or a little
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HISTORY OF NORWAY
later, but finally sold out and went away. The fact that Dea. William Parsons named one of his sons George Lessley, for Mr. Less- ley, the year following his death, indicates his standing and moral worth, and it may be, connection or relationship with the Parsonses. He was probably buried in the cemetery on Pike's Hill. Of no other family of the early settlers, is there so little known.
And here it may be stated as bearing upon the question of the financial standing of the first settlers, that as soon as the Rust tract had been surveyed and lotted which was completed by December, 1789, by Samuel Titcomb; Joseph Stevens, John Parsons, Nathan Noble, William Parsons, Dudley Pike and Samuel Ames, obtained the deeds to their lots. Jonathan Abbott, then of Andover, "millwright" and James Stinchfield of New Gloucester, also received theirs. Titcomb witnessed Noble's deed executed December 7th. Joseph Stevens' and John Parsons' were dated also on that day. Abbott's was executed on the 4th of December-the others on the 9th of the same month. The size of these settlers' lots, is also noteworthy.
John Parsons bought 246 acres, William Parsons 317, Dudley Pike 289, (James Stinchfield 234), Joseph Stevens 134, Jonas Stevens 137, Joel Stevens 100, Amos Hobbs 133, George Lessley 107, Benjamin Witt 110, and Nathan Noble 112. Squatters and irresponsibles do not look ahead to becoming large landholders or prosperous farmers. Deeds could not well have been given till their farms were lotted. The settlers would not have waited three years for this, and would have gone elsewhere.
It has been said that Captain Rust sold lots to the early settlers at fifty cents an acre. The records show that this statement is an error. He paid at the rate of thirty-seven and a half cents an acre, reckoning $5.00 to the pound. Money in those times was stated in pounds, shillings and pence. In no case among the records of those examined by the writer did Captain Rust sell any land for less than twice what he paid for it. Joseph and Jonas Stevens paid just about that price for their lots. But Captain Rust's relatives, the Parsons brothers, paid about 75 cents an acre, and Benjamin Witt, another relative, for the lot afterwards the Crockett farm, paid about one dollar per acre, and sold soon after for three dollars. Dudley Pike paid about the same per acre as Witt. Benjamin Herring appears to have paid the highest price for his land of any of the earliest settlers-$175.00 for 104 acres. Captain Rust must have realized a fortune for those times, from his purchase.
1
Surveyi'd Deumber 1787 By Samuel Fitcomb
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Nº 2
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ger. 86066
A 80
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Nº5 OD
Nº 8
Jonas flevens & Nº 19
OD
Joseph Stevens 1. 20
O Nº 45
0 Nº 44
Find Nº 43
Nº12 PO
amos Hobbs Nº21
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col
Nº14 D
George Lefoly nº 22
Nº 16
Nathan Notes NZ 3
Damned D95
80 Nº 28
Juok029 Dicker
SLOGnog uf
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James Maniffield
1004
John Millet
C1.65 Erg
Shepardfield
Great Pinyfreew afree now?
Nº40
Nº42
Magnetic meridian
Scale 200 rods to an Inch
1195
mys myof
Jaw VD Malls grist
29
HISTORY OF NORWAY
Cable yfr & ... Nº 4
Waterford
aum
Nº10 OD
30
HISTORY OF NORWAY
CHAPTER IV.
THE COMING OF THE FIRST SETTLERS' FAMILIES.
There has been some needless confusion about the year when the first settlers' families came. There can be no question, that it was in 1787. It is stated in both the former histories of Norway that Sarah Stevens, daughter of Jonas Stevens, born Oct. 17, 1787, was the first white child born in Norway, and this statement has been unquestioned in the Stevens' and Hobbs' families as well as in all other families of the old settlers. We have another fact which taken in connection with it must settle beyond controversy, the year that the first families came.
Robinson Hobbs was the third child of Amos and Lucy (Robinson) Hobbs and was born February 27, 1787. Had the settlers' families come the year previous, Robinson Hobbs would have received the honor of being the first child born in the little settlement, but such a claim was never made. David Noyes, who it must be presumed obtained his information from some of the first settlers themselves, states in his history that the wife of Amos Hobbs, while waiting at what was afterwards called Ames' Point for the boat or dug-out which was to take her and the children across the pond that "she then had an infant in her arms born the March previous-(the infant was Robinson Hobbs)." This was in June as the historian states, while the families of Joseph Stevens and George Lessley had come in April or May of the same year.
In the early spring of 1787, the first pioneer families were brought into what is now South Paris, and into Oxford, then with Hebron, called Shepardsfield, and the settlers came to their lots to erect and prepare habitations for their occupancy. David Noyes in his his- tory states: "And from such accounts as the writer can gather, Joseph Stevens built a small frame house early in the spring of 1787, six- teen feet by twenty; he split out pine rift clapboards, and clapboarded on the studs and long shingled the roof, built a stone fireplace, high enough on which to lay a wooden mantel-piece, and after a short time topped out the chimney by what used to be called catting; that is by laying up split sticks, cob-house fashion, in clay mortar mixed with straw, chopped fine, to make it adhere more strongly to the sticks. After getting fairly into their new settlement the other four, (George Lessley, Amos Hobbs, Jeremiah Hobbs and Nathaniel Ste- vens) built themselves houses of the same size and construction. They split out basswood plank and hewed them for a floor."
. It should not be presumed that any one of the pioneers alone did all the work of building his own habitation. They worked together, and when one house was ready for occupancy another was com- menced, and in this way the habitations for all were constructed.
After the house of Joseph Stevens was built, he moved his family from William Stowell's in Paris, where they had temporarily been stopping, to their new home in the wilderness. "Aunt Betty," as she was afterwards called in the settlement, had three of their four children with her-Daniel, Amy and Apphia. The other child, Jonas,
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HISTORY OF NORWAY
was left till the following year with his grandparents in Gray. The family came on foot by a spotted line, crossing the meadow brook on the trunk or limbs of a fallen tree, and thence to the ridge just above the present boat houses, and to the point of land projecting into what is now the bog,-afterwards called Ames' Point, which they reached late in the afternoon. Here the dugout had been left. At that time the gravel filling for the road to the later Crockett bridge, had not been made, and what is now the bog was then a part of the main pond. When Mr. Stevens had reached the western shore with his little family it was cloudy and dark and he was unable to find the landing and path to his habitation, and they had to stay all night in the woods. Fortunately the weather was not cold or the ground wet or damp and the family passed a more comfortable night than might be supposed at that season of the year. There were no insects to trouble them. Earlier in the season it would have been frosty, and later the black flies and mosquitoes would have rendered sleep impossible. Just what shelter Mr. Stevens was able to provide for his wife and little ones does not appear. We can imagine that hem- lock boughs under the branches of some evergreen tree for shelter, furnished a good bed. We know that it was beside the trunk of a pine tree, which had blown down and perhaps near the roots of this tree the trunk was high enough to place some boughs that were broken or cut from trees near at hand and thus to provide some shel- ter. But what we know about that matter is what Mrs. Stevens after- wards told David Noyes. She said that they stayed through the night by a great fallen pine tree and that she had a grand night's sleep, and was very thankful when the family reached their future home the next morning.
The next day the family of George Lessley was moved into Mr. Stevens' house. How many it consisted of does not appear, nor is there any incident of their coming that has come down to us.
In June following as related, Amos Hobbs' family moved into the same house, "making three families in one house sixteen feet by twenty," David Noyes states. He did not take account of the camp built the autumn before which five men for weeks had occupied and which must have been of great convenience in housing so many till other habitations were built.
It appears from David Noyes' narrative, that "in the intermediate time between the moving in of Joseph Stevens and Amos Hobbs, Jonas Stevens in the fore part of May came in with his family, in about the same manner; and Jeremiah Hobbs moved his family in, in Septem- ber following." Then the families in their order of coming into the little settlement were: Joseph Stevens', first; George Lessley's, sec- ond; Jonas Stevens', third; Amos Hobbs', fourth, and Jeremiah Hobbs', fifth. And it is presumed that a habitation-the second in the settlement-for Jonas Stevens' had been built prior to his coming, into which his family moved, as no mention is made of their going even temporarily to Joseph Stevens' house.
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