USA > Maine > Waldo County > Unity > A history of the Town of Unity, Maine > Part 16
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
On the fourth of July 1814 James Connor made an agreement with Lemuel Bartlett to build a dam and mill across Sandy Stream. Bart- lett evidently owned the water right on the stream.
The legal paper drawn up between them read in part:
Articles of an agreement between James Connor, Jr., and Lemuel Bartlett, Esq. concerning building mills and mill dam on Sandy Stream, so-called in said Unity below the bridge where the road now passes; the said James Connor, Jr. is to build a dam acrost (sic) said stream sufficient for a mill to grind corn and grain and other macians (sic)
8. The statement that Henry Farwell built the first grist mill and first saw mill found in Edmund Murch's History of Unity is not accur- ate. Pattee should be credited with this, however after 1802 Henry Farwell helped manage the mills.
9. Taber, History of Unity, p. 25.
10. Town valuation book, 1827.
11. Kennebec County Deeds, Registry Deeds Office, Augusta, Vol. VI, p. 238.
12. Isaac Mitchell built a large two-story house in 1812. The same house passed to the Elisha Bither family, and is now owned by James B. Vickery. It is still evident where the mill and dam were located to- day.
13. Ebenezer Pattee's and Isaac Mitchell's preceding Connor's.
14. James Connor Papers: James Connor elected Colonel of the Regiment of Infantry.
129
INDUSTRIES OF UNITY
and is to build one fulling mill and one carding machian (sic) ; and is to own them and have water for them in preference to any other mill or machine that may be erected on or near said dam; and if the said James Connor, Jr. am to build the holl (sic) of said dam free of all expense to the said Lemuel Bartlett other than for the privileges of the mill and machine above mentioned and the said Lemuel Bartlett is to have and own one-half of the said dam and privileges for building or setting any kind of mills or machines on or near said dam except the mill and machians (sic) above mentioned ... no mills to be built on or near said dam under one year from the above date except the full- ing mill and carding machine ... and the said Bartlett is not to come into possession until one year from the above or within date and not then without he has a mind to.15
Lemuel Bartlett James Connor, Jr.
Lemuel Bartlett never "had a mind" to build a mill; however, he retained his interest in the Connor mill until 1831, when Connor be- came full owner.16 In 1850 Connor's mill was described as having three stones, two bolts and one cleanser.17 Besides his two sons, Simon and James, Col. Connor usually employed one man who lived in the mill. Agricultural reports estimated that Connor handled about eight thousand bushels of wheat, corn, rye, and other grain a year.18 This mill never passed out of the Connor family. Simon Connor super- vised the business after his father's death and then his sons, Simon and Harry Connor, operated it until its services were obsolete. As late as 1930 the old mill was in fair condition. The heavy rains of March 1936, brought a freshet causing the stream to overflow its banks. The broken ice and great volumes of water carried away the dam as well as the mill.
In 1826 there were probably four grist mills in Unity and as many saw mills. Joshua Sinclair and his sons, George W. and Jefferson, owned both types of mills situated on Sandy Stream "on the prairie," on the site where later W. H. J. Moulton built his saw mill. The Sin- clairs sold their interests to Samuel Hall about 1838, and the mills were burned some years later.19
In 1826 Robert and Nathaniel Carll operated a saw mill with Thomas and James Fowler, but James sold his interest to Thomas in 1828 leaving him with one-half ownership. However, their mill business was discontinued by 1836.
Levi Bacon built a dam in 1827 or 1828 on the Bacon brook a few rods south of the bridge near Arthur Bagley's. Bacon ran his mill for several years. Also Levi Bacon possessed a brickyard on the brook20 and manufactured bricks.
15. James Connor Papers, Document dated July 4, 1816.
16. The mill probably was erected in 1815, or not later than 1816.
17. Census of Maine, 1850, Unity Bureau of Health and Welfare, Department of Vital Statistics, Augusta, Maine. Industrial figures stated in 1850 census report.
18. Ibid.
19. Taber, History of Unity, p. 27.
20. The bricks for the Chase house where A. R. Curtis lives were made by Levi Bacon.
130
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
During the eighteen twenties and thirties potash was manufactured in considerable quantity. Farmers desired the land and burned thou- sands of feet of hardwood. "Connected with both lumbering and the frontier was the process of making potash for which hardwood logs were used. The farmer usually accomplished a double objective; the clearing of his lands and the manufacture of a salable product."21 In 1830 Hezekiah Winslow owned a store buying ashes for the manu- facture of potash. Elijah Winslow and Allen Taber also produced potash.22
Amos Jr., Thomas and Isaac Watts Jones, brothers, shared owner- ship of a saw mill on the east side of Sandy Stream at Farwell's Mills. Their rights derived from their father's mill.
In late February 1840 when two members of the staff of the "Maine Farmer" made an excursion through Maine, one of them wrote of a "grist mill at some distance from the village, which is spoken as a very superior one having two run of Burrh23 and two of granite, with three bolts; from one of which the canel or middlings is carried back to the stone by a conductor and ground and bolted a second time, so that the bushel of wheat thus ground yields some five or six more pounds of flour than by the common method of bolting. Another improvement is the conducting of the meal across the room in a revolving screw, so that it is cooled before bolting and the quantity and quality are supposed to be improved by the proc- ess."2
This description fits the Samuel Hall's grist mill, which at this time was one of the finest mills in town. Hall possessed three mills, evidently two saw mills, and one grist mill in 1840 valued at thirteen hundred dollars.25 In 1838 Hall and Otis Dunbar, partners, took over the Sinclair establishment, but Hall was alone two years later. These mills burned about 1857. In 1859 Eben Thompson had a saw mill on this same site. Thompson operated "grist, saw, shingle, clap- board, picket and lath mills, all on one dam."26 It is possible that in 1874 these mills burned.27 Thompson sold his mill privilege to W. H. J. Moulton who built and operated a saw mill on this location for many years.
21. Wood, Lumbering in Maine, p. 181.
22. Allen Taber also made potash from the wood ashes bought from the farmers. At this time a bushel of wood ashes brought seven cents; house ashes ten cents. For an article on potash manufacture see Maine Farmer for July 11, 1834, pp. 204-205.
23. Burrh a French imported stone used in milling.
24. Maine Farmer, February 29, 1840, Winthrop "Excursion in Maine", p. 61. This was undoubtedly Samuel Hall's grist mill referred by Taber as a "fine" one. The other two grist mills in town were of lesser proportion.
25. Unity Valuation Book, 1840.
26. Walter Wells, The Water Power of Maine, Augusta, 1869, p. 479.
27. Maine Register of 1875 does not list Thompson's Mills. Taber states that. these mills were burned and rebuilt, but he is not clear when or by whom they were rebuilt.
131
INDUSTRIES OF UNITY
SHIRLEY'S MILLS
About 1830 or 1831 James Shirley moved to Unity from Belfast. About 1840 he built a saw mill and dam on Sandy Stream about a mile upstream from the village. (The dam crossed the stream on Fred Ward's farm.) Shirley manufactured lumber products and shingles. His waterpower turned three saws which were in operation about five months out of the year. His annual production of lum- ber amounted to approximately two hundred thousand feet of boards, and seventy-five thousand feet of shingles.28 He employed two men when his mill was in operation. James Shirley continued the business until his death in 1857. After Shirley's death, the mills burned, and about 1860 Clark Trafton erected a saw mill on the same spot, and then it was taken over by Ira Trafton. This mill burned in 1877; another one was built, but this, too, burned, in November 1882.
There were many small saw and shingle mills, but space does not warrant that all of them be mentioned. James Fowler in the 1850's owned a saw mill; Ezra Fisher operated another about the same time. During the last seventy-five years the following saw mills were oper- ating.
BITHER'S MILL
James S. Bither bought in 1873 a "nice but small" water power of "Lumber" Small who conducted a saw mill on the so-called Bither Brook. This mill burned in 1875 and Bither erected another on the same site. Bither manufactured shingles and lumber products. He supplemented his waterpower with a steam engine and put in a rotary mill. This business continued until after the turn of the century.
ATWOOD M. NEWELL'S MILL
About 1872 A. M. Newell built a wood products mill located on the pond. For a time he and a man named Wiggin worked together. In 1875 Newell was putting out shingles and staves. During the win- ter Newell's men got out enough lumber to manufacture "one hun- dred and fifty thousand shingles, twelve thousand staves, twenty-five thousand cheese boxes, one hundred tons of excelsior besides two hun- dred cords of white birch which is sawed into spools. They also have a lot of white ash lumber which they design making into drag rakes."29 Newell had a market for cheese boxes in Unity as well as in Waldo county, then undergoing a cheese manufacturing craze. Newell shipped his cheese boxes, ready for assembly.
THE UNITY TANNERY
The prevalence of hemlock in Maine was largely responsible for the flourishing tannery industries which sprang up in the beginning of the nineteenth century. A strip heavily forested with. hemlock
28. Census of 1850.
29. Maine Farmer, April 24, 1875.
132
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
from sixty to two hundred miles wide extending across southern and central Maine comprised the tanning region. This area became dot- ted with tanneries, large and small, concentrating chiefly in the Se- basticook Valley.80 This district, including Albion, Burnham, China, Canaan, Detroit, Hartland, Newport, Plymouth and Unity, flourished from 1830 to 1850. As early as 1810 there were two hundred tan- neries in Maine handling more than fifty-five thousand hides. Waldo county in 1840 had twenty-six tanneries employing seventy-one men, and representing a capital investment of $52,425.31
The first of the tanning industries were neighborhood accommoda- tions rather than any highly industrial concerns hiring large numbers of men. Often a local tannery was operated solely by the owner, or seldom by more than two or three men. However, outside capital be- came interested and in the 1830's larger tanneries developed. Hem- lock bark was ground up from which an extract was made and the hides soaked in the strong solution of it. Naturally this necessitated large quantities of bark which were at hand. As the hemlock trees were cut off, the bark became exceedingly scarce and tanning became unprofitable. After 1840 there was a gradual decline in the number of tanneries in business. By the beginning of the Civil War many of them were permanently closed.32
The first enterprise of this sort in Unity was financed by David Pingree of Salem, who in 1836 supplied the capital for building a tan- nery.33 Ebenezer Larrabee supervised the construction of the tannery, which was built on land purchased of Jesse Whitmore. The Pingree tannery was located on the bank of Sandy Stream ap- proximately behind Harding's garage and Warren Spinney's house. The tannery, itself, covered about three-fourths of an acre including the bark sheds; the entire amount of taxable property covered seven acres extending from the bridge to the old Gerrish blacksmith's shop on which were located the tannery, three dwelling houses, bark sheds, store, and other buildings. When the tannery was ready, Eben Lar- rabee of Vassalboro managed the business, but Larrabee died in 1838, and in 1839 Edward Southwick of Augusta purchased this property at public auction held in Unity village. Southwick sold it to Thomas Snell in 1839 for $15,000.
Between 1836 and 1840 it is estimated that five hundred hides were annually converted into sole leather, consuming about one thousand cords of bark.34 The correspondent of the Maine Farmer wrote in late winter of 1840 that "This year they are securing about two thou- sand cords with design of doubling the amount of leather." A good
30. Wood, Lumbering in Maine, p. 182.
31. Annual Report of Bureau of Industries and Labor Statistics,
"The Tannery Industry", Augusta, 1896, p. 54. The average capital invested per tannery jumped from $400. in 1810 to $1,447. in 1840.
32. In 1860 there were one hundred and forty-four for the entire state and in 1890 only fifty-one remained.
33. Murch, History of Unity, p. 15.
34. Maine Farmer, February 29, 1840, p. 61.
133
INDUSTRIES OF UNITY
sized steam engine provided the power for the machine for grinding bark and rolling leather. At this time it appears the tannery was just getting fully established, for the correspondent wrote, "It is supposed that ten men will tan about ten thousand hides a year."
Ten years later the Unity tannery was operating on a much larger scale. The hopes of 1840 were more than realized. The statistics of th 1850 census reveal that the tannery produced yearly about one hundred tons of hides valued at ten thousand dollars; and used two thousand five hundred cords of bark costing seven thousand five hun- dred dollars, and burned one thousand two hundred cords of wood at a dollar a cord. Snell employed fifteen workers costing an average of three hundred and seventy-five dollars per month. This tannery's annual production was given as one hundred fifty tons of sole leather valued at thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars. Snell evidently had a profitable business.35 In 1851 fresh hides brought four cents a pound supplied by the farmers situated in Unity and adjoining towns.36 The tanned leather sold for about fifteen cents a pound or three hundred dollars a ton.
While the source of bark lasted and remained cheap, the tannery carried on a good business. However, in the middle of the eighteen fifties the prospects already looked unfavorable. Snell died in 1857, and the Unity tannery closed at that time or shortly before. The busi- ness never revived. The buildings fell into disrepair, and on rather good authority it was stated that the ruins were set afire by a few young men celebrating a Union victory during the Civil War.37
There was another fair-sized tannery conducted by George Randlett in south Unity. In the early eighteen forties Randlett bought of Jo- seph Larrabee, John Sears and Samuel Hadley the saw mill and card- ing mill located about one quarter of a mile from Freedom village. About 1845 George Randlett erected a tannery on this site which passed out of business a few years after the Snell tannery. Randlett produced about fifty tons of sole leather annually, and according to Taber's account, Randlett manufactured boots and shoes as well as leather.38 The Randlett tannery consumed nine hundred cords of bark and one hundred fifty cords of wood annually. The wood cost him a dollar a cord, and the bark about three dollars and thirty cents per cord. He employed four men at twenty dollars a month. The tannery and store were sold in 1872 to James D. Lamson of Freedom,
35. In 1841 Snell and Co. were taxed sixty-two dollars and fifty cents for real estate. Murch's History also corroborates these figures. "It is estimated that this tannery turned out from one hundred to one hundred and fifty tons of leather annually."
36. Ms. Vickery Papers. Sale of Hides. Bill of Sales, 1851 made out by James Banks.
37. Conversation with Frank Mussey to the author, August 1938.
38. Taber, History of Unity, p. 143.
Map of Waldo county, 1859, The Business Directory of this map lists Randlett as "manufacturer of leather, merchant, dealer in lumber, West India goods, dry goods, millinery."
134
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
but the tannery was at that time discontinued and was burned some years later. For a time James Banks and Silver Greenleaf, tanners and curriers, managed their own individual tanning business, but their enterprises were small and of brief duration.
While the tanneries were flourishing every year the town elected sealers of leather whose duty it was to stamp the hides and check the amount of leather produced. The town elected the official "sealers of leather" during the span of tanning activity, the first ones being chosen in 1842 and final ones in 1867.39 They were all men connected with the business.
In the eighteen fifties during the peak of the tannery prosperity several boot and shoe businesses appeared in Unity. William Wood- sum conducted a kid shoe factory in Unity for a brief time. All the shoes were made by hand, employing three men at sixty dollars a month, and two women at sixteen dollars making boots and shoes. Woodsum manufactured annually twenty-five hundred pairs of shoes,40 valued at one thousand and seven hundred dollars.
James Merrick opened a boot and shoe business soon after 1840, but moved to Veazie about 1852. His production in 1850 was seven hundred pairs of boots; twelve hundred pairs of shoes comprising a twenty-seven hundred dollar business. He must have employed about the same number of men as Woodsum.
Both Merrick and Woodson left Unity, leaving Bryant Moore about 1855 the only shoe manufacturer in the town. Moore had come here as a shoemaker about 1835. He was an unstable character and never did very well, leaving Unity in the sixties. The shoemakers grad- ually disappeared, and the large shoe-making factories supplanted the small town shops.
Luther Mitchell owned a harness and saddle shop. For over a half century (1840-1895), Mitchell made about seventy-five harnesses each year.41 He employed two men and used some twelve hundred pounds of harness leather a year.
Shoemakers at different times were Daniel and Otis Starkey, Na- thaniel Rice, Lewis Thompson, who all lived in the last half of the nineteenth century. Gustavus B. Broad manufactured harnesses also, while Charles E. Collar made harnesses and trunks.
FULLING AND CARDING MILLS
The first wool carding and cloth dressing mill in Unity was built by Richard Cornforth. The Cornforths were an English family of Yorkshire who came to the United States settling first in Readfield about 1794. Soon after 1810 Richard and Robert Cornforth settled
39. In 1842 Samuel S. Collar and Joseph Wiggin; subsequent seal- ers of leather were George Randlett chosen in 1849; Silver Greenleaf, Thomas Snell, James Banks, and Hiram Bryant.
40. Census of Maine, 1850.
41. Census of 1850.
135
INDUSTRIES OF UNITY
in Unity.12 Within a short time the Cornforth brothers brought ma- chinery for fulling and carding cloth from Readfield (machinery sup- posedly brought from England) and established their mill opposite Henry Farwell's saw mill on Sandy Stream. Though Taber furnishes 1810 as the date the mill was erected, a deed written in 1814 shows that the mill was not yet in operation.
This indenture of two parts made and concluded the twenty-third of May 1815 between Robert Cornforth of Readfield and Richard Corn- forth of Unity ... and Ebenezer Pattee and Henry Farwell .. . wit- nesseth that the said Robert Cornforth and Richard Cornforth for and in consideration of one seventy-five dollars paid by said Ebenezer Pattee and Henry Farwell a certain parcel of land ... containing fifty-four and three-quarters acres with all privileges ... saying and reserving all excepting to said Robert and Richard Cornforth the right and privi- lege of erecting and forever maintaining two carding machines, a nap- ping machine, and a shearing machine and a fulling mill on said prem- ises which are to stand between the grist mill and the brow of the saw mill as now erected on said stream; together with the right of erecting and forever maintaining a tight flume from said machine or fulling mill to the dam . . . 43
Both parties entered into an interesting agreement regarding the use of water held by the dam which supplied all mills. They agreed,
. and whenever there shall not be sufficient water for the use of the grist mill and machine or fulling mill, the said Cornforths shall take and use water for twelve hours and then shut their dam tight and said Pattee and Farwell shall take and use water for twelve hours for their grist mill and so alternately until there shall be a supply for both .. .
By 1825 Cornforth entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Benjamin F. Nickerson, but in 1836 sold his share to Nickerson. Ben- jamin F. Nickerson and Hall Scribner continued in the cloth busi- ness, but when the Scribners decided to go to California the entire business was sold to Abner Young.44
Abner Young took over the double carding machine, picker, and fulling mill. According to figures furnished in 1850 Young's mill handled ten thousand pounds of wool45 making it into bolts of cloth. Also Young's mill wove an average of three thousand yards of dressed cloth.
By the year 1855 Benjamin R. Stevens had bought the mill and used the carding machine and bolted a small amount of cloth, but his business was not large. Stevens also had the old grist mill formerly operated by Henry Farwell. Benjamin and Otis Stevens worked the mill a while, but though by 1890 the mill was still standing, it was in a dilapidated condition.
42. Murch, History of Unity, p. 12. The year 1810 is given as the date of Cornforth's arrival in Unity. He is not listed in 1810 census.
43. Kennebec Deeds, Registry of Deeds Office, Augusta, Vol. XVIII, p. 561.
44. Benjamin F. Nickerson about the same time moved to New Lim- erick.
45. Census of 1850.
46. James Connor Papers.
Unity Valuation Book, 1827. In 1826 Connor assessed for one-half a mill; in 1827 for one carding and fulling mill.
136
A HISTORY OF UNITY, MAINE
About 1815 James Connor erected a carding and fulling mill on the opposite end of the dam from his grist mill.46 It is not altogether clear whether Connor invested money with another person, or built a mill and mortgaged it. An existing deed between Richard Clay of Gardiner and Upham Cram and Rufus Soule of Unity indicates that Connor interested Richard Clay in backing the mill by a loan. In 1820 Clay transferred his interests to Soule and Cram.
I, Richard Clay ... hereby assign and transfer to said Soule and Cram all my interest in and all the earnings of a certain clothing mill situated in said Unity which have accrued in said mill during the time which said mill has been occupied and improved by Joseph H. Hill, being from the fall of 1815 to spring of 1819 consisting in account and notes now in possession of James Connor, Jr. of said Unity .. .
In June 1820 the obligation of the foregoing deed was transferred and conveyed to James Connor. At any rate Connor operated a cloth- ing mill similar to Cornforth's for a number of years. Sometime in the late forties the mill was swept away in a freshet.47
CARRIAGE MAKERS AND FOUNDRIES
About 1838 Thomas B. Hussey of Unity built a small iron foundry situated in south Unity on Sandy Stream.48 After a few years he enlarged his foundry and started manufacturing plows, cultivators and other farming tools, employing three men.49 Hussey used about twenty-five tons of iron a year in casting out his farm machinery. One of his account books shows that he had an extensive business and furnished farmers all over the state with plows, harrows, and cul- tivators.50 It was estimated he manufactured about two hundred plows in 1850 which were sold for twenty dollars apiece. Hussey made cast- ings of all kinds, especially plow points.
This foundry continued operating through the eighteen sixties and seventies, then Hussey's son, John O. Hussey, branched into making cooking stoves.
Figures from the first annual report on Maine industry printed in 1873 showed Thomas B. Hussey and Son, using seventy-five tons of old iron or pig iron, turned out two hundred plow bearers, two hun- dred pairs of handles, and two hundred plows. At this time the Hus- seys employed four extra men whose wages averaged nine dollars a week. The foundry then operated ten months out of the year.51 The son, John O., manufactured chiefly stoves, making about two hun- dred and fifty a year. In 1883 the younger Hussey enlarged his plant
47. Taber, History of Unity, p. 26.
48. The foundry was located on south side of the stream near the bridge below the Walter Hurd place.
49. Murch, History of Unity, p. 15.
50. Thomas B. Hussey's account book for 1860's 1870's in posses- sion of the author.
51. The Wealth and Industry of Maine, 1873, prepared by William S. Whitman, Augusta, 1873, pp. 220-221.
137
INDUSTRIES OF UNITY
only to have it destroyed by fire within a year. The foundry was never rebuilt.
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.