USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > A history of Norway, Maine : from the earliest settlement to the close of the year 1922 > Part 5
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In 1804, Aaron Wilkins ran out a lot for Jacob Tubbs, the settler on the height of land in the vicinity of the end of the town road, and an agreement was made then or before for the conveyance by Lee to Tubbs of 200 acres for $1200, to be paid in one, two and three years, Tubbs giving his notes, and Lee giving a bond to convey the lot to Tubbs upon payment of the notes. Lee stated in a petition to the General Court, May 20, 1808, that Tubbs had paid and that he had
ARTHUR LEE AMERICAN COMMISSIONER TO GREAT BRITAIN
contracted with a citizen of Massachusetts to convey the remainder of the tract to him, but a doubt as to the validity of the execution of the will having arisen, he asked that a special act be passed permitting the will to pass the grant to him. The Legislature refused to grant. the petition, concluding no doubt which is a general principle of law that whatever the instrument under the law of the locality where it is made is a legal document anywhere in the world. Lee also stated in his petition, which is very important for us to note, that he had "de- voted his care and attention to the preservation and improvement of the said estate," and had "also employed agents for these purposes," and had "paid such taxes as have been imposed thereon." This peti- tion was made without doubt at the instigation of the citizen (Edward Little, presumably) to whom Lee had contracted to convey the rest of the grant after Jacob Tubbs had received his deed. We may fairly conclude that at that time all the settlers on the tract except Tubbs were in possession of their lots under leases as tenants, and had been for some years-how many is a matter of conjecture.
Matters in the grant went on much the same as before-Tubbs holding under his bond, for a conveyance after his notes were paid.
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Finally on the 7th day of May, 1810, two years at least after he was entitled to receive it, Tubbs obtained his indenture of conveyance from Francis Lightfoot Lee. In February (25th), 1812, for $5000, Francis Lightfoot Lee sold the remaining part of the grant by quit claim deed to Ludwell Lee, without any reservations of the settlers' holdings, and three days after Ludwell Lee and his wife, Eliza Lee, conveyed the same by warranty deed to Edward Little of Newbury- port, Mass., for $9000-covenanting to warrant and defend the same against the claims of their heirs, and also of all persons claiming under Arthur Lee and his heirs. In this conveyance, the tenants on the tract were protected in their leases for that year.
These two deeds coming so near together and from such terms as they contained, we may reasonably assume to be a part of one trans- action whereby Edward Little, for some reason not now apparent, could obtain what he considered a better title than by a conveyance from Francis Lightfoot Lee, and was willing to pay $4000 more for it; yet Tubbs' title from Lightfoot Lee stood the test of time and was never questioned.
It will be noted that the settlers were holding under yearly leases- a very poor and uncertain tenure and one not conducive to much im- provements, particularly respecting habitations.
After Edward Little came into possession, he sold to the tenants the lots they were occupying, taking back mortgages for the same amount generally, as the purchase price. From this time there was general improvement in the settlers' conditions. They repaired their habitations or built new, and extended their clearings. New settlers moved in and took up lots, and after some years, this portion of the town became quite prosperous, but it was many years before it had recovered from the blighting effect of its tenancy period.
Surprise has been expressed that the General Court's committee did not lay out the grant to Lee of what aferwards became Rust's purchase on which there were several good water powers. The grant to Lee was not located till late in the autumn of 1785, and before that date, James Stinchfield and perhaps Captain Rust had already begun negotiations for the tract that the latter afterward obtained.
The first settler according to tradition on the Lee's Grant was William Gardner, in 1791, who was in No. 4 (Paris) when the United States census was taken in 1790, and had come into Rustfield that year and built a house on the northeasterly corner of what is now Main and Whitman streets in Norway Village. He selected a lot for a habitation on the hill north of the Anthony and Nathaniel Bennett lots. It was reached from the mills by a path or trail up what is now Pleasant Street and across the swamp and over the ridge and up the hill to the Gardner opening. We do not know how long he lived there. The grant nor the people upon it could be taxed prior to 1807. No tax list contains William Gardner's name. And we know in general, that the family didn't prosper and that two of the daughters, Nancy and Betty, died on the town farm.
Daniel Knight, originally from Gray, was the second settler on the grant. It may well be inferred from his connection with Gardner, as elsewhere related, that they planned to take up adjoining lots there at the same time, and did so. After living a few years on this lot, he
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sold his interest or improvements to Jeremiah Witham from New Gloucester, and went to live on a lot on the North Pond-later the Moses Parsons place-where he was living as a tenant of Francis Lightfoot Lee, when Edward Little purchased the grant. Little gave Knight a deed of the lot, January 1, 1813-presumably when his lease had expired-for $412, and took back a mortgage for the same sum. Six years after, not having met his payments, Knight recon- veyed to Little and went to live on a lot on what has since been called "Crockett Ridge"-which his grandson, William Knight, paid for-where he lived the remaining years of his life. Daniel Knight was born about 1760. He served in the Revolution during the latter part of the war and was pensioned under the Act of Congress of March 18, 1818. He married Sarah Dolly of Gray. Daniel Knight always cherished with pride the old gun he had carried .in the war. After he was pensioned he dressed in "buff and blue" whenever he went away from home. When in the village he was always an object of much interest and curiosity from his erect carriage, soldierly ap- pearance and manner of dress. From the Pension Department at Washington, D. C., the writer ascertained that he died January 31, 1853, aged 93. He was probably buried on Pike's Hill in an un- marked grave beside his wife who died December 20, 1836, aged 76, and was buried there. It has been related elsewhere how Daniel Cary attempted to make a settlement on the grant in 1791, and his untimely end. The story need not be repeated here.
Isaac Cummings from Gray appears to have succeeded William Gardner in his possession of the lot on Lee's Grant, which Gardner had taken up. Just at what time this was, is uncertain. He lived there a few years and sold his improvements to Capt. Josiah Bartlett, and went to live with his son in that part of the grant which was afterwards and still is known as the Millett neighborhood.
Isaac Cummings was one of the founders of the Universalist Church society. He had served as a fifer in the Revolution and was born in Gray, November 22, 1758. His wife was Elizabeth Bryant. They had fourteen children and at the time of their deaths-his, October 1, 1842, and hers, February 3, 1843-they had 103 grand- children and 57 great grand-children. Both are buried at West Poland, where they probably died, at their daughter's.
Capt. Josiah Bartlett, who succeeded Isaac Cummings, had settled on the tract before the incorporation of the town. He was there on the 3rd day of April, 1796, when he made a certificate as one of the inhabitants of Lee's Grant, that he had received notice of the petition for the incorporation of a town from the tracts of Rustfield, Lee's Grant, Cunimings Purchase and the Waterford Three Tiers.
He was without question, the most prominent and the ablest of the residents of the section where he lived. Captain Bartlett had served a short period in the Revolution, was a descendant of the Pilgrims, and was born in Plymouth, Mass., in 1753. He obtained his title of Captain from his service in the merchant marine and had made sev- eral voyages to the West Indies. Leaving the sea, he turned his at- tention to acquiring a farm and came to Maine with his family and selected the ridge north of Nathaniel Bennett's on the Lee's Grant as before mentioned, as a desirable place to locate. He had married
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Martha Holmes, and probably all or nearly all of their nine children were born prior to their coming here. Captain Bartlett was of medium height, and well formed. He was somewhat reserved unless aroused, when he was prompt to resent, what he considered an insult, or an injury.
It is related that one day on his way home from the Mills, he met his nearest neighbor south of his place, near the school house, then located on the ridge west of the swamp. The Captain was on horseback and had a grist of meal which had been ground, and some groceries he had purchased, and was carrying home to his family. The neighbor was on foot. He was a federalist like nearly all of the influential men of that period and set in his views on political and religious subjects, while Captain Bartlett was a republican. He had purchased his lot of Captain Rust, the proprietor, and paid for it, and he didn't look with favor upon one who was occupying land upon which he had no legal rights. They got into a discussion on some political question of the day, and as is often the case, after a heated argument in which neither convinced the other, descended to person- alities, and Captain Bartlett was accused of being a "squatter." He replied that he had only taken the place of another by buying his im- provements; had made, during his own occupancy, the premises more valuable, and was ready to make a fair settlement when the rightful owner came to demand it. The controversy became very animated and hot, and charges of one kind and another flew thick and fast back and forth between the disputants. While gesticulating ex- citedly, the federalist advanced towards his republican neighbor, who taking it for granted that he intended to strike him, and willing and eager to meet the expected attack, leaped quickly from his horse, which, startled at the sudden movement, kicked up its heels and started off upon the run for the barn, some quarter of a mile dis- tant. The bag of meal, and groceries, which included a jug of molasses, were shaken off and strewn by the wayside. This unex- pected turn to the affair, caused Captain Bartlett to suddenly change his purpose and he ran to gather up what of the articles had not been destroyed. His neighbor, too, was as anxious and as active as him- self to save what was possible. Fortunately little damage was done, save the cracking of the jug containing the molasses. The solicitude of his neighbor to secure the things without injury, turned away the Captain's wrath, and pulling from his pocket a flask of spirits which he had procured at the Mills, offered a drink to his antagonist with this remark: "Neighbor, it is foolish for you and me to quarrel. We have had nothing whatever to do about making the laws, and precious little with their enforcement. Let us drink and be friends." "With all my heart, Captain," replied the other. "It is well that your run- away horse has prevented our coming to blows, and I am glad your family will lose nothing by our hasty and inconsiderate controversy. I drink to your health and our continued friendship as neighbors." And thereupon over a bottle of New England rum, their friendship was renewed, and it was never afterwards shaken. Each had realized in this altercation of words, that there was a limit beyond which it was unsafe to go, if he would avoid serious consequences. It isn't
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often that, as in this instance, a quarrel is settled over a bottle of liquor, but very frequently, one has originated in that way.
It is uncertain just at what time Captain Bartlett died. His son, Malachi, sold the place on which they had lived, to Daniel Smith in 1824, and removed into the eastern part of Maine. He undoubtedly died before 1820. There is no mention of him in Mrs. Mercy A. Whitman's record of deaths, which was commenced in 1820. The fol- lowing item apparently refers to Captain Bartlett's widow: (1822) "May 7, Widow Bartlett, 65, apoplexy." Probably both were buried on Pike's Hill. Graves unmarked.
Jacob Tubbs came here about 1795 from Hebron, and settled on what is now the Albert Richardson place. His dealings with the owner of the tract have been fully set forth in the first part of this chapter. He was a Revolutionary soldier. His wife was Jemima Churchill. They had six children-all born before they came here. The oldest, Jacob Jr., died in the War of 1812. Charles, the second son, married Lydia Churchill, and died July 12, 1849, aged 68. Angier, the third son, born Jan. 18, 1785, married Philena Packard, and lived to be aged. Samuel the youngest son, born in 1793, mar- ried Mary Pool. They removed to Abbot, Maine. They had only one child, a daughter, who died, unmarried. Jacob Tubbs went with his son, Samuel, to Abbot and died there.
Joshua Pool, the post rider, was a soldier of the Revolution and a settler on the Lee's Grant in 1797. He was born in Bridgewater in 1762, was the son of Joshua Pool, who died at E. Bridgewater in 1822, aged 88. His wife was Lucinda, daughter of Thomas Latham. They had a family of fourteen children. Three moved to Abbot and two to Monson. Several settled in Greenwood and Woodstock. The lot on which he lived here appears to have been the one that Daniel Cary was occupying, near the now four corners, at the time he was drowned. His second son, Thomas Pool, Jr., who married the daughter of Isaac Cobb before mentioned, then a settler on the same lot with Joshua Pool and his successor in occupancy, died in Abbot, Me., in 1883, at the age of 96. This fixes the date of his birth-the only one in the family which can any more than be approximated- as in the year 1787. Isaac Cobb received a deed of this lot, being the southerly half of Lot 28, for the consideration named of $510, October 9, 1812. He appears not to have paid for it, and removed elsewhere. How long the joint occupancy of Pool and Cobb lasted, there is no means of knowing. Pool became a post rider for a few years, and then or later, made his permanent home in Greenwood till his death, August 23, 1844, at the age of 82. The principal interest in his history centers in the period of his life as a post rider. One of the most traveled routes into Greenwood in those times from Norway Village, was through the Lee's Grant, over what in later years and is now called Upton Ridge, and it passed Pool's place wherever it was. There is a tradition that Pool was a maker of almanacs, which he sold to patrons on his post route. He rode horseback and carried the mail in saddle bags. In all probability he was only a dealer in the almanacs he carried for sale at about the beginning of a new year. But from the stories which have come down to us, he was quite intelligent, a close observer of the planets and different phases
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of the moon-then much more than now supposed to have great in- fluence over human affairs,-and growth of plants, and watched so closely all atmospheric changes that it was generally believed he was able not only to predict the changes in the weather but also to fore- tell the coming of disasters and calamities. His advice and counsel were sought on every hand which he skilfully used for his own advan- tage.
There was one of the settlers it appears, however, who had no faith in even the almanac dealer's weather predictions. The story runs, that one morning in haying time, this weather prophet, soon after starting out on his post route, noticed a farmer in his door-yard, anxiously gazing at the somewhat clouded heavens, as if in doubt whether it was going to rain or shine.
"My good man," said he, "are you in doubt about the weather?" "Certainly I am," was the reply. The other went on: "The Good Book says, he who observes the winds will not sow, and the clouds, shall not reap. It will break up before noon and the sun will be out." Thereupon he chirruped to his horse and rode off at a gallop. Soon missing something he had dropped, he turned and rode back to look for it, whereupon seeing the farmer he had accosted a short time be- fore busily preparing for the hayfield, remarked: "Ah, my friend, I see you have taken my advice, and are getting ready to go into your field and cut down more grass."
"Yes, by the Great George Washington, I am about to go into my hay field," retorted the farmer with some asperity, "not to cut down more grass, but to get in what hay is bunched up, for I have noticed that when you predict fair weather, it generally rains."
What response the post rider and weather phophet made to this has not come down to us. The late Rollin Towne, who had heard the story related many times by old residents in his section of the town, in his boyhood, told it to the writer, and laughed heartily as he fur- ther said that the farmer saved his hay from getting wet, for a big shower came up in the afternoon, during which the rain fell in torrents.
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CHAPTER IX.
PIONEER PERIOD OF THE WATERFORD THREE TIERS.
In 1735, the General Court of Massachusetts granted to John Whitman and others, sufferers in the Indian wars, a township six miles square to be laid out, in unappropriated lands of the Common- wealth, between the Connecticut and Merrimac Rivers. After con- siderable expense in efforts to settle the township, making roads, erecting mills etc., it was ascertained that the grant was within the boundaries of New Hampshire, and in 1774, John Gardner and others representing the first grantees, obtained a township of the same size in the District of Maine, in lieu of the former grant. The tract when surveyed was laid out in York and Cumberland counties, and after- wards received the name of Waterford Plantation. The line from a point on Bridgton township ran, "N. & W. on a true course as far as the utmost limits of the Province," which would divide Waterford Plantation on nearly the westerly line of the Waterford three tiers of lots which Norway obtained. And we find that when the United States census of 1790 was taken, two lists of the settlers in the plan- tation were sent to Washington, one by the York enumerator and the other by the enumerator for Cumberland county. These lists were not exactly alike. The first had the names of 31 heads of families and the last 36. There are eight names in the Cumberland county list not in the York county list and the latter had three not in the other. The enumerators seem not to have been governed by county lines (if they really knew them), but each apparently took all the heads of families in the whole plantation.
It may be said here that the original titles to the settlers lots were derived from the grantees of 1774.
It was provided in the act creating the grant that the grantees should settle 30 families in the township within six years, "lay out 1/64 part for the use of the first settled minister, 1/64 part for a grammar school, and 1/64 part for Harvard College."
The inhabitants of the plantation when about to petition the Legislature to be incorporated as a town, got into a controversy over the location of the meeting house which was also to be its town house, and to get it where the majority wanted it, they hit upon the plan that the three eastern ranges or tiers of lots should be annexed to the Cummings Purchase. Phinehas Whitney, one of the settlers on the Three Tiers, opposed the scheme but Asa Case, Benjamin Flint, Darius Holt and Lemuel Shedd were apparently willing to have the tract so disposed of and this plan finally prevailed and the three ranges became a part of the town of Norway.
It was provided in the act, incorporating the town of Norway, that Waterford, which had a few days before been incorporated as a town, should be entitled to four-fifths of all the public lots on the Three Tiers. There were four public lots on this tract. Lot 15, Range 14 was a ministerial lot. It afterwards sold for $51. Lot 9, Range 16, was a school lot, and two were college lots.
It would seem but simple justice as Waterford had thrown away three ranges of lots, that it should not have had any benefit from
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the public lots, on this tract, but that the people settling on it should have had it for the purpose of maintaining a place of worship and schools, but unfortunately, justice and equity did not and does not always rule in such matters.
According to tradition, Lemuel Shedd and Jonathan Stickney from Lunenburg, were the first settlers on the tract afterwards called the Waterford Three Tiers. They began felling trees for their clear- ings in 1788. They came into the plantation by way of Bridgton, and no doubt dealt with some of the proprietors for the purchase of their lots. As stated elsewhere they were there without families when the census was taken in 1790, and Stickney was regarded as the princi- pal one of the two men, probably from the fact of Shedd staying with him and perhaps he may have been older. Shedd was a Revolution- ary soldier and probably Stickney was too, for all of military age --- from 16 to 45, unless incapacitated, served either in the militia or army or both. Stickney exchanged his lot in June, 1793, with Benja- min Flint, who had become a settler on the tract the year before, and after a time went elsewhere.
Phinehas Whitney in 1789, came from Harvard and settled on the tract west of Lemuel Shedd's lot. He, no doubt, came as Shedd and Stickney had done, dealing with some of the proprietors-perhaps those then living in the plantation, Dr. Stephen Cummings, clerk of the grantees, Eli Longley, and John Chamberlain. If I am not in error, Shedd obtained his deed from Chamberlain.
We have not the date of Lemuel Shedd's birth, but he was about 30 years of age when he came to Maine. He was "accidentally killed" in 1818, while assisting in the raising of the frame to a house for his son, and was buried in a burying lot near his farm on the westerly side of the road leading over Merrill Hill into Albany. On his gravestone it states that he died at 60 years of age.
Phinehas Whitney was born about 1748, and married Keziah
He served in the Revolutionary War, and was at Bunker Hill. He lived and died on the farm he had wrought from the wil- derness, and was buried on Merrill Hill. His death took place in June, 1830, "aged 82." His wife died June 26, 1827, of "old age."
Benjamin Flint, born in Reading, October 21, 1769, married Eliza- beth Merrill. He settled first in the south-west part of the tract, which section since Sylvanus Cobb, Jr.'s time, has been known as "Yagger"-a name quite likely to be lasting. He afterwards ex- changed lot with Jonathan Stickney. The date of his death is un- known. His wife died October 11, 1836, "aged 70."
In 1792 or 1793, Jonathan Holman began a settlement on this tract east of the lot Benjamin Flint first took up. He was there a few years, then sold out to Asa Lovejoy and went away.
Asa Lovejoy from Andover, born about 1750, married Sarah Frye of the same town. They had eleven children. He was a Minute Man, and a soldier in the War of the Revolution. His wife died in 1817, and he married a second wife and had one child. He died in Bethel in 1835.
Asa Case's family was moved from Middleton to the Cummings Purchase, as we have seen by Benjamin Fuller, in an ox-cart, in 1793. He soon after selected a lot on the Waterford Three Tiers, on which
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he settled. He was a soldier in the Revolution. He died in 1797. His wife died July 29, 1825, "aged 90."
Joseph Dale, who had come to the Cummings Purchase to work for Benjamin Fuller and Silas Merriam, after a short time selected a lot for a settlement on the Waterford Three Tiers and married Phebe Martin of Andover. The place was on the old road from Norway Center into the southwest section of the tract. That part of this way west of the Waterford road, was discontinued when the present road into "Yagger" was built. The outlines of the old road are still plainly to be seen. Joseph Dale was a soldier in the War of 1812 and contracted a disease while in the service from which he died at home after his discharge in 1814, leaving a widow and several
small children. It is presumable that she obtained a pension to help her in bringing up her family. She appears from what has come down to us, to have been a very capable woman.
Darius Holt was a settler on the Waterford Three Tiers in 1795. His biographical sketch appears elsewhere.
Joel Frost from Tewksbury, was here as a settler in the vicinity of what is now the Chapel on the Three Tiers, in 1796, and probably came here the year before. He had no known relationship with the Frosts who settled on "Phillips Gore," now the southwest part of Norway. He was born August 1, 1773. His wife was Susannah Fowler, born about 1776. They had twelve children. He was living when the census was taken in 1850, aged 77. She died April 25, 1840, "aged 64."
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