USA > Maine > Knox County > Union > A history of the town of Union, in the county of Lincoln, Maine : to the middle of the nineteenth century, with a family register of the settlers before the year 1800, and of their descendants > Part 2
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6
GEOGRAPHY.
little soil, that it is doubtful whether trees, if planted, could now be made to live.
CRAWFORD'S POND, situated in the south-easterly part of Union and in Warren, is 150 rods wide where it is crossed by the line which divides the towns. It derives its name from John Crawford, a native of Stirling in Scotland, who lived about a quarter of a mile above the village in Warren. Col. Samuel Waldo, son of the Brigadier-General, gave to the Scotch settlers the use of all the meadows in the vici- nity, which had not been previously laid out for the inhabitants of Warren. Crawford took the meadow on the east side of the pond which bears his name. Having cleared a sled-road to it about the year 1764, he went to Thomaston, made application to Waldo for the meadow, and called for a bowl of punch on the occasion. Waldo took a draught "To Crawford's Meadow," and told him that it should thenceforth bear that name,1
SOIL.
· By competent judges, the soil of Union is considered as good as that of Farmington and Winthrop, which are generally regarded as the best farming towns in the State. Some persons think it superior. For many years after the settlement, there was early in summer a luxuriance of vegetation and a beauty un- surpassed in the county. The primitive soil had not been worn. It consisted of leaves and vegetable mould, which had been accumulating for centuries. Perhaps one of the richest spots in town is on the north side of Crawford's River, near the outlet. It is said to be the only place where any corn ripened in the cold season of 1816. Immense quantities of alewives had been carted on for manure, the situation was warm, there was a good crop, and the inhabitants went to the owner to procure the corn for seed the next year.
1 D. Dické, of Warren.
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CLIMATE.
CLIMATE.
Of course there is no essential difference between the climate of Union and that of Maine in general. The warm season commonly begins two or three weeks later, and the cold weather a little earlier, than in Mas- sachusetts. In an old account-book1 of Matthias Hawes are various memoranda ; and, to gratify those who are curious to make comparisons between the weather many years ago and at the present time, the following are extracted : - "1780, March 5. Mode- rate weather, and wind southwardly. The ponds begin to break up at the edges. April 16. The first of our going down the river by water. April 23. The river is almost broke up. 1781, Nov. 9. The first snow this fall. 1782, June 7. A frost which killed some of our sauce. Sept. 1. Last week a light frost. Sept. 12. The first frost this fall. Oct. 31. The first snow. Nov. 17. A slight snow on the ground. 1783, April 2. The river open so as to pass with a float. 1784, April 17. The snow almost gone in open land. The pond broken up at the edges. 1785, April 2. Snow three feet deep. 1786, April 2. Snow came knee deep. Last Sunday the river open so as to pass down to Mr. Philip Robbins's. At that time the snow almost gone in open lands."
Josiah Robbins harvested rye in July, 1786. The crop was raised on new burnt ground, south and east of the Old Burying Ground. It was protected by the forest on the summit of the hill, and the sun poured its rays into the blackened field. But it was the only time that Robbins or any man has ever been able to do it in July.
Governor Sullivan writes in 1794, for the " Collec- tions of the Massachusetts Historical Society," vol. iv. : " The prevailing winds, during the winter season, are from the north-west. Snows generally fall on a level to the depth of three or four feet. Frosts are fre-
1 For the loan and free use of this book, the writer is indebted to the kindness of Mr. Noyes P. Hawes, of California.
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GEOGRAPHY.
quently discoverable in September, and in October ice in considerable quantities is made. The snow and ice generally lie till April, when the sun is so high as to melt and carry it away. ... In July and August, the heat is oftentimes more intense than in Boston ; but the evenings and mornings are much cooler."
Gen. Knox, in his " Advertisement of Land for Sale," dated June 15, 1799, says: " The ground is generally covered with snow from the middle of De- cember to the last of March. . .. Although the spring season may be rather later, the winters do not set in earlier than at Boston."
Samuel Hills1 wrote: " 28 January, 1797, rain the first time since November 22d, being sixty-seven days, and very cold, there being but three days that it thawed out of the sun. . . . Oct. 26, 1827. Seven-tree Pond crossed on the ice, believed to be the earliest for forty years past. . . . Pond open between the Eyes, 15 March, 1828. Pond open down to David Robbins, 1 April, 1828. Seven- tree Pond free of ice on the 4th, if not on the 5th."
Forty yoke of oxen hauled a one and a half story dwelling-house from the Colonel Hawes Place across Seven-tree Pond on the ice to the hill south of South Union, April 4, 1844. The pond broke up three days afterward. The circumstance that the ice was so strong, and continued so late in the season, was a sub- ject of much remark. Some of the old inhabitants did not recollect that it had ever occurred before. Once in the present century, the winter set in on the 23d of November.
It is generally thought that there has been consider- able change in the climate since the first settlement. The wind, since the hills have been laid bare, may be as bleak, and the snows nearly as deep, as they were seventy-five years ago; but, since the forests have
1 As Samuel Hills kept a journal, and made copious notes during his lifetime respecting nearly all the important events in town, it is greatly regretted that they were not preserved. Most of his papers were placed in a garret to which children had access, and all except a few fragments of interleaved almanaes were destroyed.
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FRESHETS.
been cleared and the land cultivated, the average tem- perature, it is said, has become milder. Snows are less frequent ; and, instead of remaining on the ground as formerly, and making good sledding for months in succession, their duration is uncertain. In some win- ters, but little snow falls, sometimes hardly enough to enable the farmer to do by sledding the work appro- priate to the season ; though, early in January, 1851, the snow on an average was about two and a half feet deep. The fathers of the town speak in strong language of the severity of the early winters. As, however, a series of metereological observations has never been made here, the truth as to change of cli- mate cannot be settled by incontestable data. It is not known that there are in existence any memoranda of consequence on the subject, except those which have been given; and they are very incomplete and unsatisfactory.
FRESHETS.
In the spring of 1832, the town was visited by heavy rains. " From the 18th of July to the 10th of June, we had not one fair day. The sun would appear but for an hour or two in the middle of the day, when it appeared at all; and then it would be obscured by thick clouds. Most of the days during this time, it was not seen : when it did shine, it produced but little effect, being obstructed by fog and broken clouds. On the 19th, 20th, and 21st days of May, it rained. On the 20th (Sunday and Sunday night), it fell in cataracts. The rain was terrible: it came down as though the ' windows of heaven were opened.' Our roads were like rivers, and the natural rivers overflowed their banks like the Nile. There were bayous or sluices which carried off the water from the main channel of the river into the valleys. The view at Bachelor's Bridge was awfully grand. The face of the earth looked as if the fountains of the great deep were broken up. An avalanche slipped off the mountain near our powder-house, in a south-west direction,
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GEOGRAPHY.
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carrying rocks with it weighing several tons. A rivu- let of running water followed after. In this town the water was higher than ever it was known to be before by our oldest inhabitants. There was a ferry-boat plying over the lowlands between Waldoborough and Warren. Great damages have been sustained in this country from the loss of bridges, mills, &c. In this town, two principal bridges over the St. George's River have been carried away, together with one saw-mill, one bark-mill, the old factory, and several other buildings, great and small. Many of our farmers have ploughed up their cornfields, and sowed them with barley and oats. Now the season seems to be favorable for all things, except corn." 1
On the east side of the stone dam at the Middle Bridge was a saw-mill, and over it a machine-shop. The bulkhead of the flume, being rotten, gave way ; and, consequently, the lower end of the saw-mill tipped down. The dam was washed off, and the stones were deposited a short distance below in the eddy, the bot- tom of which previously could not be reached with a long pike-pole. The roof of the saw-mill having been tipped under the bridge, it carried it off on its back, stopped with it about thirty rods below, and laid it across the fence on the line between Robbins and Gillmor. The saw-mill and machine-shop went twenty- five or thirty rods further, and landed near the pine- tree on Robbins's corn-land. So quietly were they carried down, that the chimney and bricks in the machine-shop were undisturbed, and the gouges and chisels lay on the turning-lathe, ready for use.
During this freshet, the water crowded into the Robbins Meadow. Little's Meadow, at the head of Seven-tree Pond, was also flooded. The water pressed so hard from the Robbins Meadow, that a little dig- ging, perhaps fifteen minutes', would have opened a passage across the road, where it was stopped mainly by the dirt crowded out of the ruts. Thus, from
1 Dr. Sibley's Letter, June 14, 1832.
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HAIL AND FROGS.
Bachelor's Mills to the head of Seven-tree Pond, a new channel for the river might have been opened nearly in the course of the canal.
HAIL AND FROGS.
" July 21, 1820, there was a tremendous shower of hail at Sennebec. A few large ragged pieces of ice fell at my house. Hail fell during two hours, and it was thought by some that it would have been a foot deep, if it had not melted on the ground. The crop of corn is entirely destroyed. Grain, potatoes, and other articles much injured. Ninety squares of glass were broken in Esquire M'Lean's house, and as many more in Lemuel Lincoln's house. Yesterday morn- ing, the pastures on the east side of Appleton Ridge appeared white with ice, when viewed by the inhabi- tants of the town of Hope. Last night, a man told me that he dug down through the hail where it had rolled in a heap under the fence near Andrew Such- fort's (thirty hours after it had fallen), and found it ten inches deep. I have my information from the suf- ferers ; but I think some allowance ought to be made for their injured feelings.
" August 6th. Seventy-two hours after the hail, I visited the place to see the ruins. I passed from Sen- nebec Pond to Appleton Ridge, where the hail had made the greatest havoc. The whole face of nature was changed. The verdure of the fields was taken away, and the earth appeared as though it had been covered several days with snow. The corn, grain, beans, peas, and garden vegetables, were totally destroyed, and there was but a small hope of potatoes. The people were gathering up their [corn ?] and mow- ing their wheat for fodder. A place was shown to me by the inhabitants where the hail had drifted by wind and rain to the top of a wall, and was supposed to have been four feet deep. It was not all melted. I saw a drift of hail in another place six inches deep, and ten or fifteen feet long on the north side of a wall, and have been told that it remained two or three days
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GEOGRAPHY.
longer before it was melted. Much glass was broken. Some herds of cattle fled to the woods, and whole broods of young geese and turkeys were killed. The hailstones were shaped like a small watch, with the addition of what appeared to be small round hail- stones congealed to the edges of the larger ones. The circumference of one stone that had been measured was 53 inches.
" No sooner was the hail dissolved than the frogs appeared. They were like the grasshoppers for multi- tude. Various were the conjectures of the people about their origin. Some supposed that they fell from the clouds with the hail. Others accounted for them different ways; but their origin is now clearly ascer- tained to have been a mill-pond in Cedar Swamp, west of Appleton Ridge. An old Quaker told me that he was at the mill-pond, piling up boards, about the first of July, and that the shore was covered with small frogs, hatched the present year ; that the largest of them left the water first, and that the smaller ones followed after; that they travelled west of the pond into the wilderness, and east of the pond towards St. George's River. The frogs that took an easterly direction had to pass about half a mile through the woods (where they covered the ground) to the west end of the grass fields on Appleton Ridge. When they entered the cleared land, they fed on grasshoppers, and appeared to travel faster than in the woods.
" The old Quaker said he liked to have them come, as they did no harm at all, but evidently thinned off the grasshoppers where they went. These frogs pursued uniformly the course in which they set out. One man observed that they could not be whipped back again toward their mill-pond. On the 1st instant I was on Appleton Ridge. The inhabitants have had a plantation meeting, and chosen a committee to ap- prize the damage done by the hail, and intend to apply to the neighboring towns, or to the Legislature of the State, for means of subsistence through the winter. They have sown much turnip-seed and some buck-
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LIGHTNING.
wheat in their corn-fields. The potatoes are sprouting up, and give hopes of a small crop. The apples which had not been beaten from the trees by the hail were so bruised on the upper side, that that side had ceased to grow; while the other side grew as fast as though there had been no hail. There was not a mess of green sauce to be had in all the neighborhood. I saw the frogs. They appeared to be pursuing an easterly course, and had progressed to within about fifty rods of St. George's River, where I saw many of them hopping on the west side of a wall, by which they had been obstructed in their course. They were green and speckled, and of a small size. Yesterday, a man told me that their number was greatly diminished. He supposed they had died." 1
LIGHTNING.
June 29, 1815. During a terrific thunder shower in the morning, James Lermond, aged about forty, living in the house with his brother William, at the east part of the town, was killed by lightning. Being at work on the highway, he went home to get shelter. After hanging up his hat, he stood at a table, with his face towards the window. The lightning came down the stud of the window about as low as his breast, then leaped to his breast, passed down his body, made a hole through the floor, and threw him backwards towards the fire. The ashes were scattered over his face. He was killed instantly. By the same stroke of lightning, the front door and the studs were thrown out, and the mouldings above and the window were thrown in. Glass in the several windows around the house was broken out. A stud from the west side was carried across the chamber, and hurled several rods through a window on the east side. The second story of the house was torn in pieces. The lightning ran in every direction. From careful observations, it was evident that its course had often been upward.
" August 8, 1819. Four weeks ago, we had a fright-
1 Letter of Dr. J. Sibley.
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GEOGRAPHY.
ful tempest. The lightning struck a large barn be- longing to Ephraim Boggs, in Warren1 (half a mile south of Moses Morse's), and burnt it to the ground. The same day the lightning struck a balm-of-Gilead tree near Moses Morse's house, and a stump in his fence, which it set on fire. William Hart's barn was also struck at the same time, and Mr. Metcalf's2 cow- yard fence. The next Saturday after Mr. Boggs's barn was burnt, he had another barn of the same size on the same ground finished, doors all swinging; and I am told that thirty men dined together on the barn- floor. The old barn had in it about ten tons of old hay. The new barn was built almost entirely by charity.
" Last Sunday, we had another shower; the light- ning burnt Noah Rice's barn, containing much hay. Obadiah Morse's barn, with forty tons of hay, was set on fire by the lightning; but the fire was extin- guished.3 The same day, lightning struck in many places elsewhere. Last Monday, our people were all in motion, declaring that they would do equal to what Warren had done. Teams driving through all the town with timber and lumber for Capt. Rice. Wed- nesday, phoenix-like, the barn began to rise from the ashes, and before night it was covered with boards. It is very large, and makes a fine appearance. "I am told it contains ten tons of hay, which has been given to Capt. Rice.
" P. S. Aug. 9. Alas! this is not all. Yesterday, the lightning visited us again, and burnt a barn filled with hay for Lemuel Wentworth,2 struck Christopher New- bit's house,2 and killed a child belonging to Jotham Davis.
" Within four weeks, I have seen three large barns with much hay burnt to the ground by lightning ; and the fire in another barn kindled by lightning has been
1 Near Union line. 2 In Hope.
3 Mr. Morse hastened to the barn, rolled up the hay, and trod on it, and thus smothered the fire ; but his hands were badly burnt.
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LIGHTNING.
extinguished, and a child killed, and all within three miles of the place where this is written.
" Lemuel Wentworth had a load of hay on his wagon to carry to Capt. Rice, when his barn was burnt. It stood in the old barn; new barn burnt. Hay unloaded."
" On Sunday morning, May 25, 1823, at 5 o'clock, a chimney in the dwelling-house of Jason Ware was struck by lightning. The chimney and house were injured, and a brick was removed from the hearth. Mrs. Ware and a son, though sitting one in each corner of the fireplace, were not hurt. Mr. Ware, being in the act of placing a backlog, was struck on the head with the fluid, which burnt and broke the thick woollen coat on his right shoulder and arm, destroying the principal part of the sleeve above the elbow, setting on fire his cotton shirt, burning his flan- nel waistcoat, ripping both seams in the leg of the boot, and breaking and burning the foot of it. His hair and eyebrows were singed; and the injury, which was of the compound nature of a bruise and a burn, extended down the right side of the neck, over the shoulder and arm, and down the thigh, leg, and foot [ and perforated his boot near the heel ]. He fell in- stantly, and was apparently dead. Cold water was thrown into his face [ friction was resorted to ], and he exhibited signs of life. He was then held erect, and cold water poured upon him profusely. Applications of poultices, and subsequently of plasters, were made to the wounded parts ; and shortly the skin, which to a considerable extent was entirely dead and black, was removed in large pieces. In a fortnight he was able to walk, and in a reasonable time recovered a comfort- able state of health, though not so good as before. The shock appeared to add something to the infirmi- ties of age.
" The same stroke of lightning tore a large timber from the roof of the barn of Matthias Hawes, about 25 rods distant; while several cattle in the stall below did not receive any injury. Some persons said they
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GEOGRAPHY.
perceived, both at the house and the barn, a strong smell of brimstone; others compared it to gunpow- der." 1
Aug. 25, 1840. The lightning struck the store of Henry Fossett, in the north-west part of the town. Robert Rokes, of Appleton, sitting on the counter, was killed. On a bench below him, which was placed along against the counter, sat, on one side of him, John Rokes, of Hope. He was stunned, and so injured that he did not recover for many weeks. On the same bench, but on the other side of Robert Rokes, sat Jacob Sibley, leaning forward. He was stunned, and carried home in a wagon. His burns were so deep, that he did not become even tolerably well till the fol- lowing spring; and the state of his physical system, and the large scars and ridges, which resemble the twists in ropes, make it obvious that the effects will be seriously felt through life. Thomas Fossett and Robert Pease were stunned, and slightly injured, but shortly reco- vered. Paul Lincoln was stunned, and so seriously injured, that for some time his life was despaired of; but after some months he recovered. Henry Fossett, the only person in the store who was not hurt, and but for whose escape the store and all the persons in it would undoubtedly have been burnt, was behind the counter at the time, and threw out the cotton batting which had been ignited. The wounds would not have been so deep, if, amid the confusion, water had been thrown upon the clothes, which continued to burn for a long time after the sufferers were struck down.
HEALTH AND LONGEVITY.
" People never die in Union" was the remark of a native of Thomaston ; and probably there are not many towns in Maine, in which the deaths are fewer or the sickness less, in proportion to the number of inhabi- tants. This, however, like other towns, has had sea- sons of extensive mortality. In 1792-3, the throat
1 Dr. J. Sibley's Letters.
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HEALTH AND LONGEVITY.
distemper, as it was commonly called, carried off a very large number of the children, and spread a general mourning through the small population. In 1826 the dysentery was very prevalent and fatal.
Consumption, too, has called off one after another from some families, till but very few members remain to mourn over the departed. In such cases, it is not unnatural for those who are fast wasting away, eagerly to adopt any suggestion for relief from the destroyer. Accordingly, in 1832 and 1833, a few persons put in practice the proverb, that the burning of the lungs of relatives who died of consumption would cure that disease in the living. One body was exhumed several months after death, and the vital parts were burned near the grave, which was in the Old Burying Ground. The theory seemed to be, that the disease, being a family disease, would thus be burned out or extermi- nated. But death still claimed the fair and the beau- tiful as his own.
Some idea of the general healthfulness of the place may be formed from the following memoranda by the Rev. Mr. True, which purport to notice all the deaths in town, inclusive of infants, for the several years to which they relate : -
1807
11
1813
1819
1825
18
1808
5
1814
1820
1826
25
1809
7
1815
11
1821
1827
9
1810
6
1816
11
1822
13 17
1828
21
1811
10
1817
1823
1829
16
1812
7
1818
9 3 9 9
1824
6 8 16 6
1830
22
When the census was taken in 1830, there were 17 males and 16 females above 70 years of age; and in 1840 there were 15 males and 24 females. In 1835 there were 26 or more persons who were as much as 75 years of age. It is thought that the oldest person who has died in town was the widow Abigail Messer, probably 99.
Without attempting an analysis of the causes of the healthfulness of the place, it may be observed, the
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GEOGRAPHY.
water is in general uncommonly pure. The relative position of the hills and valleys favors a brisk circula- tion of air through all parts of the town, and particu- larly in the direction of north and south. Though the elevations are not mountainous, there is comparatively little low ground ; and the fog, which lies in the valleys and along the river almost every morning in summer, while it favors vegetation, is not found to produce debility or disease. The agricultural employments of the inhabitants are highly conducive to vigor and strength. Indolence and luxury are almost unknown. Men, women, and children wear the hue of health. From thirty to forty years ago, it was a common remark of strangers, that there was more female beauty in Union than in any other town in the county or State. The fresh countenance, the clear or brilliant eye, the natural, uncompressed form, were testimonials to the generally good habits and customs of the people, as well as to the healthfulness of the town.
SCENERY.
It would be unjust to the town not to allude to its scenery. By some visitors, at the season of the year when the earth is in its richest attire, it is said to be the most beautiful which they have ever beheld. Hills and valleys, ponds and streams, the romantic and the picturesque, are combined in the prospects. On a bright June morning, a ride in almost any direction affords a rich enjoyment to people of taste and ad- mirers of nature. One person might be pleased to leave the beaten road, and stroll along the river below the bridge at South Union, and watch the water tum- bling over and among the rocks overhung with bushes, and threading its way down to the pond. Another, of a more pensive turn, might stand by the large rock in the Old Burying Ground. On all sides are graves. There sleep the fathers and the mothers of the town, at rest from worldly anxiety, suffering, and toil. Around them are gathered many of their children and children's children. On the east lies a placid lake. To the
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