USA > Maine > Oxford County > Norway > A history of Norway, Maine : from the earliest settlement to the close of the year 1922 > Part 8
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It was essential to have near the mills, a place where a few such articles as salt and molasses could be procured, and one James Kettle (a suggestive name surely), was induced to open a place for trade. A room in the house of Samuel Ames was assigned him for his busi- ness. How long he stayed is uncertain. His name is not on the Rustfield Plantation tax list of 1794, indicating that he had gone away before that time.
It is probable that Captain Rust built the "saw mill" house about 1792. He appears to have put into it a stock of goods that year and engaged William Reed to sell them out as his clerk.
David Noyes' History states: "William Reed was the next trader, and commenced trade in a little house, formerly called the saw-mill house, which stood about south of, or opposite the saw mill and near where Cowen's cabin once stood. He traded here a few years and probably commenced about 1792. After some years he built a two- story store (about 1798), where he traded for many years."
William Reed's name is not on any tax list prior to 1797, and it is stated in the Centennial History that he became a new settler here that year. These statements seem to require some explanation. Wil- liam Reed was born in Danvers, November 3, 1775, and was not twenty-one by several years when he first came here in 1792, hardly old enough to commence business for himself. There can be little question that he then acted as Captain Rust's clerk. It is said that he was the son of Daniel Reed, yet he signed his name as William Reed, Jr. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Jedediah Cobb of Gray. They had 10 children, six of whom grew up and had families of their own. Mr. Reed built his two-story store and house, the present Robert Noyes block, about 1798. When the Post Office was estab- lished here in 1801, his was the best place for it and he was appointed Postmaster, a position he held for 40 years. Mr. Reed was the first trader of importance in the village and town and did a considerable business for those times and was considered wealthy. William Reed was a man of capacity and of unimpeachable integrity. He died two days after the 73rd anniversary of his birth, November 5, 1848.
Levi Bartlett from Plymouth, where he was born in 1772, pur- chased of Captain Rust, in September, 1794, the right to use water
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on the south side of the stream between the two bridges, to operate a trip-hammer by water power, and built a blacksmith shop. He built a house near, which he afterwards enlarged to a two-story structure where he lived till his death in 1818. Lee Mixer later owned it and died there. Mr. Bartlett married Polly, daughter of Ichabod and Mary (Gorham) Tinkham. They had three children. His wife died and he married Abigail Gorham. They had one child who died when 16 years old.
Joshua Crockett, originally from Gorham, came here from that part of Hebron which is now Oxford, in 1795, and was in the Rust house when the plantation tax was assessed the next year. He was born in Windham, June 4, 1765. In 1799, he bought of Benjamin Witt the place afterwards known as the Crockett farm. His wife was Sarah Hamblen, born March 31, 1767. They had nine children, and eight lived to have families. He died October 11, 1819. She died September 8, 1844.
William Beal, born in York in 1770, was a shoemaker. He mar- ried Jerusha Fluent and came here in time to be taxed in 1797. He took charge of the saw mill which he continued to run for many years-succeeding one John Eaton, the successor of Cowen. Both William Beal and his wife were living here when the census was taken in 1850. His age was then given as 79 and hers as 74.
Reuben Hubbard from Paris was here to be taxed in 1796. He was building a house in the village that year. He soon returned to Paris.
Soon after this time, a Samuel Smith built a two-story house, on the site of the one where Stephen B. Cummings now lives. Increase Robinson afterwards bought the place and lived there a number of years.
It has been attempted to trace the owners of the houses built by William Gardner and Reuben Hubbard.
The Cumberland County records mention no conveyance to or from William Gardner. Luther Farrar, our first lawyer, was the owner shortly after he settled here in 1804, and Increase Robinson of the Hubbard house soon after he came, about 1806. The two lots on which these houses were built are situated on the corners made by the junction of Main and Whitman streets.
Bailey Bodwell came to Norway, probably in 1799, for his name was not on the direct tax list of 1798, but was on the town tax list of 1800. He built a two-story house on the site of the James O. Crooker hardware store and erected a cloth dressing establishment, on the water power privilege now owned by C. B. Cummings & Sons, in the rear of Stone's Drug Store. He later sold and built at Steep Falls a two-story building in which he carried on the same business. He lived in a part of the building. Bodwell built the first saw mill at Steep Falls, and Joseph Rust the first grist mill there.
Bailey Bodwell was born in Methuen, December 9, 1777. His wife, Nancy, was born in Westbrook in 1779. They had nine children. He was elected Captain of the first South Norway Company, organ- ized in 1809. He raised a company for service in the War of 1812- 15. Captain Bailey Bodwell died in Portland, September 25, 1856, and was buried in Stoneham.
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Benjamin Tucker, then a young unmarried man of 24, came here from Worcester, about 1800. His coming savored of the romantic. On his way over Pike's Hill to Rust's Mills, he stopped at the well of John Pike, to get a nice cool drink of water. Pike's oldest daughter, Mary, a lass of fourteen, stood in the doorway. She brought a drink- ing vessel at the stranger's request, and assisted him to draw the water from the well. Pike's Hill has ever been noted for its excellent water and of this well in particular. Tucker was struck with the beauty of this young girl and afterwards made many journeys up the hill from the village to see her. They were married some three years after, when he had become well established in the saddlery and har- ness business. He built a house on the site of the present Tubbs' store on Main street. His harness shop was east of the house near the brook. His farm covered many acres in the vicinity. The har- ness business has been followed without a break, by his descendants to the present time. Benjamin Tucker and his wife had fifteen chil- dren. He died in 1857. She survived him two years.
Stephen Greenleaf was the pioneer cabinet maker in the village. He was born in Boston in January, 1779. He married Mary Savery of Plymouth in 1803, and came here from North Yarmouth in 1805 and engaged in the manufacture of furniture and fine cabinet work, a business he carried on for over fifty years. His house was on the site of the present Hatch house, and his cabinet-shop on what is now the corner of Main Street and Greenleaf Avenue, named for him. He served as sexton of Rustfield Cemetery for many years. No bet- ter man ever lived in Norway. He died July 4, 1854.
A little after 1800, Captain Henry Rust started the tanning busi- ness on the stream below Bodwell's clothing works, under the man- agement of William Reed. Jacob Frost, Jr., afterwards took charge of the business and he was succeeded in 1804 or 1805, by Joseph Shackley who lived in the "tan-yard house." (This structure painted white and owned by George A. Cole, was burned in the great fire of 1894.) The tan-yard was in the rear of the present Opera House.
Joshua Smith moved from his farm to the Mills in 1804. He afterwards sold the farm to Joseph Bradbury. He built a carpenter shop and dwelling, in a part of which was a store, on the site of the Elm House property, which was afterwards enlarged and opened as a public house. His barn was on the opposite side of the road where the present Bartlett store and Hathaway block are situated.
The village for the period ending with 1800, does not appear to have kept pace with the growth of the rest of the town. And for this period, there was no lawyer or settled physician at the Mills.
The Universalist church, the first in town, was built in 1801, on the site of the present one. And the first school-house in the village was built where the present upper primary school-house stands, in 1805.
It is uncertain who the first physician in the village was or when or where he came from. A number are stated by the first town his- torian as coming here but none are definitely located in the village before the coming of Dr. Asa Danforth in 1821. But there was a Dr. (John S.) Case about 1802, who came into the village and after- wards opened a public house in the Samuel Smith house which he run
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for a short time. Increase Robinson from New Hampshire, came here about 1806, and bought the place. (Dr. Case "did not act the physician much while here," says the first history.)
The first lawyer to settle here was Luther Farrar from Vermont. He came in 1804 and bought the lot of Captain Rust on which the William Gardner house stood, which he enlarged shortly after. He built a lawyer's office near his house, on his lot, which he and his successor, Levi Whitman, occupied for over 50 years. It is (1917) the front part of the present Louis Brooks Store.
When Henry and Joseph Rust, sons of the proprietor of Rustfield, both sea captains (as was their brother John who came later), settled in the village, they began the erection of buildings on their lots. In his journal, Joseph Rust mentions work being done on them in 1803. The former built a house where the present Noyes Drug Store is situated and a barn on the site of the Isaac A. Denison house. The cow yard was on the Dr. B. F. Bradbury lot-the big elm being in what was once one of its corners. Joseph Rust built in the corner made by what is now Main and Pleasant Streets, and later a house was erected back of Main Street, connecting with the other buildings in which Capt. John Rust (who had the mills at the head of the vil- lage, on the settlement of his father's estate) lived to his death.
The following pen picture of Norway Village about 1800, by David Noyes in 1852, is worthy of reproduction here:
"Half a century ago our beautiful village consisted of a rude corn-mill, a saw-mill, a blacksmith's shop, and one store, where was kept for sale, rum, molasses, sugar (mostly maple), a little tea and coffee, tobacco, salt, salt-fish and a few other groceries; a little calico (oftentimes purchased by the pattern, say six yards to a pattern in those days), a little India cotton shirting and sheeting, a bag of cotton-wool as it was then called, and other little etceteras to make up an assortment; and was finally a pretty good store for that day. There was no school-house in the village at that time and but two in the whole town. Houses small, poor, few and far between with here and there a barn."
He stated in another part of his history that when he came to Norway, February 12, 1804, "there were three two-story buildings in the village, viz: the Reed store, the old house recently occupied by Ichabod Bartlett (the one built by Bailey Bodwell), and the old Samuel Smith house. There were a few other houses in the village but mostly small and poor." This was undoubtedly the order in which they (the two-story structures) were built. The Rust house on the hill, was undoubtedly the first, though not then regarded as in the village. The John Deering house, now owned by George L. Noyes, was being built in 1804.
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CHAPTER XV.
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
Three of the Revolutionary soldiers who settled in Norway, Jacob Frost, Phinehas Whitney and Amos Upton, were in the battle of Bunker Hill. As that engagement had such an influence on the con- duct of the war on both sides, it has been thought proper to place in Part II of this work, Captain Henry Dearborn's account of the battle and a criticism of Sir William Howe's conduct in prosecuting the war on the part of the British Government. Captain Dearborn set- tled in Maine after the war and was General-in-Chief of the army during the administration of President James Madison, and Secretary of War in Thomas Jefferson's cabinet. These two publications made in the early part of the last century are the best account of the battle of Bunker Hill and the explanation of Sir William Howe's prosecu- tion of the war for the subjugation of the English colonies, which the writer has ever seen, and are worthy of preservation.
Lemuel Shedd, a "body guard" of General Washington, left a brief account of his carrying dispatches from the Commander-in-Chief to General Horatio Gates during the campaign ending in the surrender of General John Burgoyne and his British Army of Invasion on the 17th day of October, 1777. Joseph Gammon left a statement of his and John Lombard's experience in their tramp through the forest, home to Gorham from Castine, in the summer of 1779. No ac- count of Amos Upton's experience at Bunker Hill or elsewhere has come down to us.
None of the other sixty Revolutionary soldiers who settled in Norway, have left anything so far as can now be ascertained, of their lives in the old Continental Army except the brief mention that Samuel Ames was one of the men who beat the drum at the Surren- der of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga.
Jacob Frost's experience was the most thrilling of all. At Bunker Hill, he was wounded by a musket ball, in the hip, taken prisoner and with several others carried to Halifax, where he was kept in a dungeon for several months. While yet very lame he with three fellow-prisoners, planned a way to escape, by removing a stone and digging out under the wall of their prison. This they effected one night without discovery, but one of their number being too large to get through the opening, had to be left behind. Frost and the other two made their way into the woods and as soon as daylight began to appear, concealed themselves as best they could till darkness again came to cover their flight. Frost was still too lame to make much headway, but his companions proving true and faithful friends, helped him along, often carrying him on their backs. During the first day he lay concealed under a large tree, which the wind had blown down, being covered up in the leaves by his companions.
In the morning after their departure from the prison, they were missed, search was immediately made and some of those in pursuit of the fugitives, going along on their trail stopped to rest on the trunk of the very tree under which Frost was concealed, and he heard them talking over the manner of their escape and probable capture.
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The relief he experienced on their departure can better be imagined than described. On the approach of night, the prisoners resumed their flight. They were not retaken and after many weary weeks of wandering, suffering from hunger and indescribable hardships, they reached their own country and homes. How they crossed the Bay of Fundy, or whether they made a detour of it has not come down to us. It seems on the whole a very remarkable escape. The British bullet Frost had in his hip, was extracted a few years before his death in 1839. It had been in his flesh for over 50 years.
Phinehas Whitney, just as the last of the American troops were leaving the redoubt on Bunker Hill, shot a British officer, who prob- ably was Major John Pitcairn, who on the 19th of April, 1775, at Lexington, had ordered his men to fire on the Americans, thus be- ginning the war, which resulted in the Independence of the Colonies. Whitney, many times after settling in Norway, stated that the officer shouted to his men as they mounted the breastworks: "Pass on, my boys. The fort's our own." These are almost the same words said by British authorities that Major Pitcairn uttered, just as he fell. Whitney, "clubbing his musket," managed to escape.
The incident in Lemuel Shedd's carrying General Washington's message to General Gates, which is of sufficient interest to be men- tioned here, is that he was pursued and would have been captured, and probably hung as a spy, had he not abandoned his jaded horse and hid himself under a shelving rock or ledge, over which a stream of water ran. He managed to reach the headquarters of General Gates and deliver his message before the battle took place.
Stephen Curtis was a private in Captain Thomas Grant's com- pany of Colonel John Glover's regiment, from Marblehead, which took charge of the transportation of Washington's Army across the Dela- ware and from Long Island in the face of the enemy in 1776. No incident of his army life, however, has come down to us.
Joseph Gammon left an account of his and John Lombard's tramp home to Gorham through the woods, on the disastrous failure of the expedition against Castine (Bagaduce) in 1779. Seven others from Gorham and Gray, who were afterwards early settlers in Nor- way, were also in that expedition, but nothing relating to how these seven reached their homes has come down to us. On the breaking up of the expedition through the cowardice and incompetence of Com- modore Saltonstall of Connecticut, and the destruction of the Ameri- can fleet by the marines to prevent the vessels from falling into the hands of the enemy, the soldiers with the exception of four compa- nies which were collected by General Peleg Wadsworth, and marched to Camden, were told by their officers to separate into small squads and make their way to their homes as best they could with Indians as guides. Gammon and Lombard chose to go by themselves. With others they had jumped from the transport they were on, the day be- fore they began their long tramp, into the Penobscot, from fear of being captured by the British, and swam ashore without their guns or any rations. To travel from an hundred to an hundred and fifty miles, through a trackless forest, subsisting on berries and roots, with an occasional meal of raw flesh from small animals and birds, which they were fortunate enough to kill; wading and swimming streams,
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plunging through swamps and miry places, in summer was a very serious undertaking even for old hunters, skilled in woodcraft. After a tramp of about three weeks they reached their homes in Gorham. Their clothes were in tatters; their feet nearly naked and covered with blisters; their flesh lacerated and bruised; but with a joy in their hearts that is indescribable.
(Service only in part in most cases.)
SAMUEL AMES; Haverhill. 9th Mass. Served as Samuel Buck. Beat the drum at the Surrender of Gen. John Burgoyne's Army at Saratoga. Died March 19, 1852, aged 93. Buried in Rustfield Cemetery.
EPHRAIM BARROWS; Plympton. Received a pension. Came here from Hebron about 1829. Died May 30, 1838, in his 77th year. Buried in Rustfield Cemetery.
JOSIAH BARTLETT; Plymouth. Capt. Jesse Harlow's Co. Service 7 days. Afterwards a sea captain. Date of death unknown. Probably buried on Pike's Hill. Unmarked grave.
WILLIAM BARTLETT; Plymouth. Capt. Thomas Poor's Co. Lived near Norway Lake. Died December 4, 1814, aged 70. Buried in Norway Center Cemetery.
DANIEL BECKLER; German. Came here from Waldoboro. Served two years in Col. Hunt's Regiment. Removed to Greenwood and died there. U. S. government marker procured by author.
ASA CASE; Middleton. Capt. Asa Prince's Co. Col. John Merrifield's Regiment. Service three months, four days. Died before direct tax of 1798 was assessed. Buried in Shedd burying ground.
EBENEZER COBB; Middleboro. Pensioned under certificate No. 5611. Died May 9, 1826. Buried on Pike's Hill. Gravestone.
ISAAC COBB; Middleboro. In Rhode Island expedition of 1780. Re- moved to Abbot, Me., and died there.
WILLIAM CHURCHILL; came here from Buckfield, about 1817, to live in his daughter's (Mrs. Rebecca Churchill's) family. Date of death unknown. Buried on Elm Hill in Paris. Unmarked grave. ELISHA CUMMINGS; Gray. Capt. Richard Maybury's Co., Col. Eben- ezer Francis' Regiment. Siege of Boston 1775-6. Died in Green- wood, Oct. 18, 1827, aged 72. Buried in Richardson Hollow bury- ing ground.
ISAAC CUMMINGS; Gray. Drummer, Capt. Nathan Merrill's Co. Col. Jonathan Mitchell's Regiment. Penobscot Expedition, 1779. Fifer in other companies. Died October 1, 1842. Buried at West Poland.
NOAH CURTIS; Pembroke. Service in 1775-6-7. Came to Norway about 1797. Lived on the Lee's Grant. He had died or removed before direct tax of 1816 was assessed. Place of burial un- known. (Woodstock or Paris.)
STEPHEN CURTIS; Middleton. Served in Col. Glover's Regiment which manned the boats that carried Washington's Army across the Delaware. Also ferried the army across the river from Long Island. Pensioned under certificate No. 6761. Came to Norway about 1800 and lived in family of Mrs. Huldah (Curtis)
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Case. Died April 2, 1830, aged 75. Buried in Shedd burying ground in unmarked grave.
CAPTAIN JOHN DAVIS; served probably under Gen. John Stark in New Hampshire. Came to Norway about 1813. Died in 1818. Wife died in 1820. Buried in Rustfield Cemetery. On grave stone it states that he was characterized by patriotism, philanthropy and integrity.
ASA DUNHAM; Plympton. Capt. Jesse Harlow's Co. Service on the Hudson River, 1778. Also other service. In Captain Bailey Bodwell's Norway Company, War of 1812-15, and died at Bur- lington, Vt., Oct. 13, 1813, and buried there.
NATHAN FOSTER; Tewksbury. Captain Caleb Town's Co. Service 6 months, 6 days. Died February 5, 1836. Buried in Norway Center Cemetery.
ENOCH FROST; Gorham. Sergeant Major, Col. Jonathan Mitchell's Regiment. Penobscot Expedition, 1779. Also Corporal, Captain Hart Williams' Company, Col. E. Phinney's 31st Regiment of Foot. Was also member of Gorham Committee of Safety. Came to Norway in 1812, to live in family of daughter, Mrs. Samuel Lord. Died June, 1813. Buried on Frost Hill. Grave marked by government stone procured by author.
WILLIAM FROST; Gorham. Commissary for troops in defense of Falmouth, now Portland, when the place was burnt by the British in October, 1775. Born in 1744. Died March 12, 1826, aged 83. Buried on Frost Hill.
JACOB FROST; Tewksbury. Wounded and taken prisoner at Bunker Hill. Carried to Halifax, N. S. Escaped from prison. Died June 28, 1839. Buried at Norway Center.
DAVID GORHAM; Plymouth or Middleboro. Corporal, Captain John Russell's Co., one month, three days. Died May 29, 1834. Buried on Pike's Hill.
JOSEPH GAMMON; Gorham. Captain Alexander McLellan's Com- pany. Colonel Jonathan Mitchell's Regiment. Penobscot Expe- dition, 1779. Died December 28, 1852, aged 94 years, 5 months. Buried on Pike's Hill. Gravestone, error on same as to his age. MOSES GAMMON; Gorham. Sergeant in Captain Joseph Brown's Company. Colonel Timothy Bigelow's Regiment at Valley Forge. Pensioner under certificate No. 7989. Died on Allen Hill, Oxford, May 16, 1835, aged about 85.
SAMUEL GODDING; Captain Moses Dunston's Company. Colonel George Reed's Regiment. New Hampshire Line on the Continental Es- tablishment. Pensioned, certificate No. 5753. Came to Norway about 1798, and lived near the Hobbs Pond. Joined the Shakers at Sabbathday Pond, New Gloucester, and died there.
JOHN GREELEY; Gorham. Captain Wentworth Stuart's Company. Colonel Edmund Phinney's 31st Regiment of Foot, Siege of Bos- ton, 1775. Lived near Frost Hill. Name perpetuated in Greeley Brook. Died in Oxford, May 1, 1817, aged 65.
JOHN HENLEY; Reading. Captain Philip Thomas' Company, 10th Regiment Massachusetts Line on the Continental Establish- ment. Enlisted December 27, 1776; discharged December 23, 1779. Died in Portland about 1836, aged 77.
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BENJAMIN HERRING; Cape Ann. Captain Isaac Parsons' Company. Col. Prince's Regiment. Died February 3, 1843, aged 81. Buried on Pike's Hill.
AMOS HOBBS; Hopkinton. Enlisted from Gray in Captain Nathan Merrill's Company. Colonel Jonathan Mitchell's Regiment. Penobscot Expedition, 1779. Died June 5, 1839, aged 78. Buried at Norway Center.
DARIUS HOLT; Andover. Captain White's Company. Colonel Rufus Putnam's Regiment at Valley Forge, and was at the Storming of Stony Point. Pensioned, certificate No. 9997. He died in August, 1854, aged 89. Last of the Norway Revolutionary Sol- diers. Buried at Norway Center.
JACOB HOWE; Rowley. Captain Turner's Company. Colonel Henry Jackson's Regiment. Pensioned, certificate No. 5617. Died in Paris, January 30, 1830. Buried in Pine Grove Cemetery.
DANIEL KNIGHT; Gray. Served several enlistments during latter part of the war. Pensioned, certificate No. 7889. Lived on Crockett Ridge. Died January 31, 1853, aged 93. Buried on Pike's Hill in unmarked grave.
GEORGE LESSLEY; Gray. Captain Richard Maybury's Co., Colonel Ebenezer Francis' Regiment. Siege of Boston, 1775-6. Died about 1800. Probably buried on Pike's Hill in unmarked grave.
JOHN LOMBARD; Gorham. . Captain Alex. Mclellan's Company. Penobscot Expedition, 1779. Died in Norway, July 31, 1853, aged 89. . Buried at Otisfield Gore. Gravestone.
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