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 35
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
together. The game killed by each one was counted, according to the principles before laid down. The company which was victorious sat down with the other to a supper, the expense of which was paid by the vanquished. Sometimes, instead of joining in com- panies, the hunters paired off against each other, and the man who came at night with the least game paid for his rival's supper.1 Game, however, is now scarce, and the old hunters are nearly all gone.
CHAPTER LI.
ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY. (Concluded.)
Fish Laws. - Salmon. - Alewives. - Fish-hawks and Eagles. - Eels. - Smelts. - Trout and Pickerel. - Other Fish.
FISH LAWS.
JULY 7, 1786, after the inhabitants here had made a movement to obtain an Act of Incorporation, and about three months before the Act was passed, the Legislature made a law "to prevent the destruction, and to regulate the catching, of the fish called salmon, shad, and alewives, in the Kennebec," and several other rivers, including the St. George's .. No obstructions were to be built, or to be continued, which would prevent the fish from going up to the lakes and ponds
1 This kind of enjoyment suggests another, which sometimes was had sixty or seventy years ago, though it was not common. A man had wood to be sledded, or corn to be gathered or to be husked. He procured as much liquor as he thought would be necessary, prepared a supper, and invited his neighbors to the Bee. They came and assisted him in the afternoon. After the supper, the more genteel and the bet- ter dressed would go into the room, and dance with the young women ; while those who were somewhat ragged, or wanted courage to enter, would at the same time be dancing the double-shuffle in the entry or around the door, to the same music which was sung to the dancers within the house.
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FISH.
to cast their spawn, between April 20 and June 10, annually. The owners of all dams were required to open sufficient sluice-ways and passages, at their own expense, for the fish to go through. During the same period, no persons were allowed to catch them " at any other time than between sunrise on Monday and sun- set on Thursday in each week," or at any time to " set any seine, pot, or other machine, for the purpose of taking any ... within two rods of any sluice or passage- way;" and no seine or net was to extend at any time more than one-third across the stream. It was or- dered that the Act be read in town-meetings, in the month of March or April, annually. Every town and plantation was required to choose a committee to see it enforced, and to prosecute offenders. " Any person so chosen," who should " refuse to serve," unless he were elected to some other office, incurred a penalty of forty shillings. It was in accordance with this Act that fish-wardens were first chosen, at the first regular meeting after the town-organization. They were then denominated "a committee to take care that the fish should not be stopped contrary to law, the year ensuing."
FISH.
SALMON1 remained in ponds and deep places in the river during the summer. In the fall, when the autumnal rains came, they went up the river, and cast their spawn in large holes, which they made in the sand at the bottom of the stream. From the upper and the lower end of the little island at the bottom of the eddy below the Middle Bridge, John Butler extended to the western shore two wears, the lower one having in it an eel-pot for the fish to pass through. From the water between the wears he would not unfre- quently, in the morning, take out two or three large salmon2 with a pitchfork. Between the years 1790 and
1 Salmo salar. - Lin. The scientific names have been furnished by the eminent ichthyologist, Horatio Robinson Storer, of Boston.
2 Nathaniel Robbins, Esq.
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
1800, Royal Grinnell, with pitchforks, took from half a barrel to a barrel of them in a hole in the river opposite to his house in the summer;1 but they were not so good as if the weather had been cool. About the year 1790, Josiah Robbins, with Philip Robbins, Amariah Mero, and Rufus Gillmor, made a salmon-net, and set it off Gillmor's land below the bridge, and in one year took more than two thousand pounds of salmon, which were salted for winter. About the years 1803 or 1804, when mills were first erected at the Middle Bridge, the workmen killed these fish with axes and carpenters' tools. They were plenty, and furnished an important and luxurious means of subsistence to the early set- tlers. They disappeared many years ago.
ALEWIVES 2 are numerous. Formerly the best places for them were near Taylor's Mills and Hills' Mills. The object in choosing fish-wardens in 1823, after neglecting it for some time, was to prevent the boys from taking the fish, as they had done for several years, at Crawford's River. In the morning, the ale- wives would pass up to the falls ; and, being prevented from going further, they would all return in the course of the afternoon. By putting a rack across the river, ten or twelve rods from its mouth, the boys were enabled before night to take all that had gone up. William Gleason, Esq., observed that, if the fish were allowed to go down, a little time intervened before others came. The conclusion was, that they went off in search of another stream, and were followed by one or two of the shoals near them. In one, two, or three days, would be seen a few stragglers or pioneers, appa- rently part of a shoal. If these were caught, others would come, and finally the whole shoal, and the shoal be followed by others.
Soon after casting their spawn, multitudes of ale- wives, seeking a passage to the ocean, may be seen above the dam at Warren. Those which are nearest cddy round, a few each time dropping over, till finally
1 Lyceum Lecture.
2 Alosa tyrannus. - Dekay.
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FISH.
the whole shoal, with a rush, goes over, tail first. The young go down later ; and, when they arrive at Warren, being about three, and a half inches long, and of a suitable size for bait, they are vexed and driven in all directions by eels. The eels are also seen to lie quietly in the grass at the bottom of the water, and dart their heads up from time to time, and take as many as they want from the millions with which the river is crowded. Many years ago, when the only way of carrying boards down the St. George's was by rafting, so many would be killed by getting between them, that the boards would be slippery. When the old canal was used, the posts at the locking would be made greasy by the grinding of them.
FISH-HAWKS AND EAGLES. - With the return of alewives in the spring was that of fish-hawks and eagles. Col. Herman Hawes says he has seen the white-headed eagle, more than fifty times, sitting on a dry tree on Seven-tree Island, watching the fish-hawks to rob them. A fish-hawk would come sailing along, stop in the air, suspend himself with easy flappings at a moderate height, select his prey, then plunge into the water, and, if successful, bring up a fish, shake himself, and think to bear away the prize to his nest. The white-headed eagle, improperly called the bald eagle, in the mean time being on the watch, would start and swiftly pursue him. After many trials, find- ing he could not escape, he would drop the fish. In an instant the eagle would close his wings, follow it down, and commonly seize it before it struck the ground, or he would pick it up, and, pirate-like, bear it off. Once a fish-hawk in Union dived into the water, brought up a fish, flapped his wings, and attempted to fly, but failed and was carried down., He rose again, and made another attempt, but was again drawn beneath the water, and seen no more.
EELS1 are not popular; and, as the streams and ponds are favorable to their multiplication, they are
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1 Anguilla Bostoniensis. - Dekay.
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
numerous. Thirty or forty years ago, one or two bush- els might sometimes be caught in an eel-pot placed over-night at an opening in Bachelor's dam. More recently, for about two months, beginning with the early part of August when they are passing down the river, the wash-box of the factory at South Union is found to contain from a peck to a bushel every morn- ing. When the water is so high that the waste-gate is opened, none are caught. The fish pass into the flume, and are carried into the wash-box by the water, which rushes so furiously into it through a four-inch aperture, that they cannot re-ascend. This is their only passage down ; as, during this season, but little if any water runs over the dam.
The question naturally arises, How do these fish go up? Every year when the water is low, in July, it is found that the dam needs gravelling in several places. Did the eels work their way up by removing the gravel ? Small eels have been seen two feet out of water on the side of a wet flume, apparently en- deavoring to ascend St. George's River. It has been intimated that there appeared to be something like a glutinous property on the fish, and that it aided them somewhat in adhering to a wet board or timber, when not immersed in water. When the boys were in the practice of catching alewives in wooden racks at South Union, experience taught them to remove the alewives at night; for eels would frequently reach up and eat them in the box, though it was at least five inches above the surface of the water.
When the young go down the river, they sometimes collect in large numbers at the dams ; and so bent are they on effecting a passage to the ocean, that they are not unfrequently found with their tails inextricably wedged into the cracks between the planks.
SMELTS. - William Gleason, Esq., says that, in the fall of 1823, part of the wing-dam of the paper-mill, where the factory at South Union now stands, together with a quantity of stove-wood, was carried off by a freshet. After the snow-water had gone, in the spring
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FISH. 1
of 1824, the proprietors of the paper-mill went down the stream to pick it up. There had been a heavy north-west wind the preceding evening; and, while collecting their wood, they found among it, near and at the mouth of Crawford's River, a few dead smelts. Although there were known to be smelts in the lake in Hope, it had not occurred to any one that they were also in Union. Mr. Gleason, inferring from their being found on the bank of the river that there must be some in the river and in Crawford's Pond, immedi- ately made a small net, and was the first person who caught any in town.
When these fish appear in Seven-tree Pond, which is immediately after the snow-water is gone, they are dipped up in nets just at dusk, at the " height of flowage ;" that is, where the level and comparatively calm water of the pond makes a small breaker with Crawford's River as they meet. These fish, it is said, are long and slim, and differ from the salt-water smelts. Many are caught in the wash-box of the factory, when the snow-water ceases to run ; and this seems to prove, that at that time they go down instead of going up. In September, for the last four or five years, bushels of smelts, lying in windrows, have been found dead along the south-east side of the long island in Crawford's Pond, and on the south-west shore of the pond. As a south-east wind wafts them into Crawford's River, it is a natural inference, that the mortality prevails in the southerly part of the pond.
TROUT' AND PICKEREL.2 -There was formerly a . tolerably good supply of trout, and in Crawford's Pond they were plenty ; but there was not a pickerel in St. George's River or its tributaries. During the five or six years when the boys caught alewives at Crawford's River, they took with them so many trout that they were nearly exterminated from that river and the pond above. A contribution was raised afterward ; and, in March 1827 or 1828, John F. Hart and Marcus
1 Salmo fontinalis. - Mitchill.
2 Esox reticulatus. - Le Sueur.
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
Gillmor made two journeys to Whitefield to obtain pickerel. 1 Having prepared a box with holes in the top to admit air, they succeeded, by changing the water two or three times on the journeys, in bringing alive and slipping into the water under the ice, just below the Lower Bridge, eleven of them. Nine, at the same time, were put into Sunnybec Pond, and nine into Crawford's Pond. The expectation of a favorable result was not very sanguine. There was, however, an understanding that there should not be any fishing for pickerel before the expiration of four or five years. In the fifth year, it was found that they had so multiplied as to be caught in large numbers in the ponds. In a few years, they were found in every pond on St. George's River, and in the tributary streams, and in the ponds in Waldoborough. The small fish on which they feed were so plenty, never having been disturbed by them, that they rioted in unwonted luxury. Some of them weighed five or six pounds, though their aver- age weight at the present time is from eight ounces to one pound. They have nearly exterminated the trout.
Besides the fish mentioned are others, which are common in Maine. Among them are the white perch, ? yellow perch,3 roach or cousin-trout, 4 bream or flatside,5 pout,6 sucker,7 &c., the number of some of which has been greatly diminished in consequence of the voracity of their unwelcome intruders, the pick- erel.
1 In 1797 there were pickerel in all the eastern tributaries of Kennebec River, but none in the western. Between the years 1810 and 1820, the Hon. Robert II. Gardiner employed a man to procure some from Nahumkeag. Seven were put into the Cobbessecontee above his mills, and now pickerel are abundant in the streams and ponds which make that river.
2 Labrax mucronatus. - Cuvier.
3 Perca flavescens. - Cuvier.
4 Leuciscus pulchellus. - Storer.
5 Pomotis vulgaris. - Cuvier.
6 Pimelodus catus. - Lin.
7 Catostomus Bostonienses. - Le Sueur.
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CONCLUSION.
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CHAPTER LII.
CONCLUSION.
Design. - Sources of Information. - Changes since the Settlement. - Possibilities and Responsibilities.
THE narrative and statistical portion of this history is now concluded. The preparation of it has required much more time and labor than was anticipated. As historical facts cannot be "manufactured to order," and Union is far behind many other towns in the number and variety of topics of general interest, it was at first thought impossible to eke out any thing more than a pamphlet. But materials, such as they were, accumulated; and the result is a volume, de- signed rather for the inhabitants and the descendants of the early settlers, and for a few friends, than for the public or "the snarling, hungry horde of curs called
' The Critics.' " 1 Accordingly, to some persons it will seem open to the objections of too great minuteness of detail, and of occasional violations of good taste.
Though accuracy and completeness have been par- ticularly attended to, it is obvious that there must be errors and omissions. The writing and printing have been done where the town-records and the inhabitants of Union could not be easily consulted. The infor- mation has been taken from a very great variety of sources. Much reliance has been placed on the state- ments of Messrs. Phinehas Butler and Jessa Robbins, in relation to what occurred among the earliest set- tlers. Constant use has been made of contributions by Nathaniel Robbins, Esq., and his son Augustus C. Rob- bins, Esq .; and to the former of them, for verification, nearly all the manuscript was read, in the winter before his decease. It is hardly necessary to state, that the
1 Page 236, note.
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CONCLUSION.
letters, lyceum-lectures, and oral communications of Dr. Jonathan Sibley have been of great value in rela- tion to events of the nineteenth century, and have furnished many of the incidents of an earlier date. The most important source of information, however, is the town-records. The loan of these was voted to the writer, " on condition that he give to the clerk, for the benefit of the town, a receipt for the same to be returned in one year, or pay the sum of forty dollars as a forfeiture on failure to return the same in one year or sooner, if wanted." After a few months, they were needed for consultation, and it was necessary to restore them. More information probably would have been obtained from the clerk's office, but for a barba- rous act, about the year 1837, by which "all the use- less papers," so called, were destroyed. In addition to the sources mentioned are many others, for which credit is often given in the narrative.
A town-history ought to be just and truthful. The bad as well as the good should be told. Though some undesirable occurrences have been recorded, it may be said with truth, that Union contains an indus- trious, thriving population, and will not suffer in comparison with a majority of other country-towns. Extreme want is not known. Abject degradation and beggary do not, as in cities, dwell side by side with luxury and extravagance. Though there are not probably six persons worth ten thousand dollars each, there is hardly a man who is not in comfortable cir- cumstances. There are but few towns in the county, or even in the State, where the property is so equally divided. A consequence is, that there is no aristocracy of wealth or of family. Every man is a monarch, and independent. At the same time every man is a sub- ject, and amenable to his equals. Upon all a kind Providence has showered down gifts with a lavish hand. The hills and the valleys, the woods, the streams, the soil, the water-privileges, the treasures yet unearthed, the health of the people, show that here are elements of thrift, contentment, and happiness.
427
GENERAL REMARKS.
The age of the nation and the age of the town are nearly the same. The first family moved here in 1776, the year of the declaration of the Independence of the United States. Four of the oldest settlers are yet living. Mrs. Mero, now of Cape Elizabeth, and Mrs. Dunton, of Hope, were then children. Messrs. Phinehas Butler, of Thomaston, now ninety-three years of age, and Jessa Robbins, the oldest person in Union, being ninety-two, were among the first to wield the axe, and break in upon the wilderness and solitude which reigned where rich fields and beautiful landscapes now meet the eye at every turn. Their lives cover more than the entire period of the existence of the town and the nation. When they came here, thirteen little colonies, containing three millions of inhabitants, were beginning an almost hopeless, but, as it proved, a successful struggle against the oppression and the military and naval force of one of the most powerful nations of the Old World. Since that time, the Fede- ral Constitution has been formed and adopted; the French Revolutions, the career of Bonaparte, the war of 1812, and the Mexican War, have become historical facts. Empires have risen and fallen, thrones have been overturned, science and art have drawn from' nature her concealed treasures, steam has been applied to ships and harnessed to cars, and made to do man's bidding, and the telegraph with winged words to out- strip the lightning. The thirteen little colonies have become thirty-one states, containing twenty-three millions of souls, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and their intellectual and moral power is so formidable, that the monarchs of Europe, with their hundreds of thousands of troops always armed and on duty in all their cities and villages, are in awe of a people which has not a military police in a single city in the Union.
The little colony which was begun here three quar- ters of a century since with one family has become one of the little republics which constitute the great republic of the United States. It is continually send-
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CONCLUSION.
· ing abroad influences, which, though almost impercep- tible, are nevertheless affecting in some degree the destinies of the nation. No individual lives here or · elsewhere, however humble, virtuous, or vicious, whose influence is not far more extensive than he imagines. The eloquence and power which waken into life the energies of a people, perhaps are first discovered when opposing iniquity and misrule, or pleading in behalf of justice, virtue, humanity, in a quiet country-town. Men are often surprised at the discovery of talents, of which they were utterly unconscious, till a dire ne- cessity or pressing emergency drew them out. Possi- bly from the colony planted on the shores of Seven-tree Pond may spring up for mankind a reformer, whose good deeds shall create a reverence for the spot where he was born. The time has been when people would smile, if directed for benefactors of their race to such unpromising youths as Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther begging bread, George Washington surveying land in the wilderness, Andrew Jackson a servant-boy, Benjamin Franklin assisting his father in making candles for a living, or Noah Worcester in humble but honorable poverty pounding on his lap- stone. A casual remark overheard by a boy has sometimes awakened ambition and talent which have changed his destiny, and made him a blessing to mankind. So it may be here under genial influences. No man can foresee the important consequences which may result from his one vote at town-meeting, or even from an apparently insignificant word or act in his intercourse with his child, his neighbor, or society. If you wish the town to present attractions for intelli- gent strangers to settle among you, and your children to become men and women, and to do something for the improvement of the world, you must liberally and zealously encourage public worship, common- school education, temperance, integrity, piety.
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429
FAMILY REGISTER.
THE following notices pertain to residents before the year 1800, and to their families and descendants. Be- fore deciding hastily that dates are incorrect, it should be considered that a gravestone, a family Bible, and a town-record, may contain three different dates of the same birth or death, and that a private memorandum made at the time is generally preferable to either. A common and almost unaccountable error on records and gravestones is the confounding of the years a per- son lived with the year of his age when he died; it being stated, for instance, that a man died in his forty- second year, when it is meant he was forty-two years old, and was in his forty-third year.
EXPLANATIONS. - The names of parents are printed in small capitals. The names of the children or second generation are distinguished by the Roman numerals I. II. III. &c. and the common Roman letters ; of the grandchildren or third generation, by the Arabic numerals 1, 2, 3, &c. and italics ; and of the great-grandchildren or fourth gene- ration, by the Arabic letters (1), (2), (3), &c. enclosed in parentheses, followed by names having spaced letters. The names of children are placed immediately after those of their parents. The descendants of females are placed under the husband, when he is a descendant of an early settler; otherwise they follow their mother.
ABBREVIATIONS. - b. born; br. brother ; c. childless ; ch. children ; d. died; dr. daughter ; f. father ; h. husband; m. married; p. parents ; r. residence ; s. son ; u. unmarried; w. wife. A date preceded by the letter t. indicates the year when a man's name first appears on a tax- bill, and may be of value in determining the time of his coming to reside. The earliest tax-bill is for 1791; the next, for 1793.
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FAMILY REGISTER.
ADAMS, JOEL, Captain, son of Peter Adams, was born at Franklin, Mass., July 21, 1753; and died, according to the family records, Oct. 22, but gravestone Oct. 23, 1830. In the Christian Adyocate, vol. v., No. 18, it is stated that he came in the twenty-sixth year of his age, when there were but three families in Stirlington. In 1781 he married Je- mima, or Mima, who died Jan. 1, 1844, dr. of Philip Rob- bins ; had-I. Polly, b. Feb. 28, 1782; m. Rev. Cornelius Irish, Dec. 5, 1804. - II. Peter, b. Jan. 19, 1784; d. Dec. 21, 1793. - III. Jacob Smith, b. Jan. 14, 1786 ; m. Abi- gail Heald, who d .; residence, Lincolnville. - IV. Emma, b. Aug. 12, 1787; m. Jeremiah Stubbs, Sept. 16, 1808; ch. 1. Peter Adams, b. April 4, 1809; m. Rachel Col- lins ; r. Appleton. 2. Mercy Ann, b. Nov. 19, 1811. 3. Alfred Adams, b. April 29, 1815; d. about 1824. 4. Olive Daggett, b. Aug. 2, 1817; m. a Hart, of Appleton. 5. Jemima Jane, m. William Lincoln, of Appleton. 6. Joel Adams, d. 7. Sarah Maria, m. a Collins, of Appleton. - V. Alford, b. Aug. 9, 1789. - VI. Mima, b. June 22, 1791 ; m. her cousin Ebenezer Ward Adams; b. at Franklin, Mass., July 23, 1787, son of Ward Adams, of Franklin, and Olivia Daggett, of Wrentham; had 1. Ward, tailor, b. July 4, 1812; m. Martha O. Gordon, of Augusta, and has (1). Martha M.S .; (2). Wesley F .; (3), Olivia C .; (4). Elverton W. 2. Calvin Metcalf, b. Dec. 21, 1813; d. Oct. 5, 1839. 3. John Martial, b. April 22, 1815 ; d. Aug. 1, 1815. 4. James Orson, b. Oct. 24, 1816. 5. Olivia Dag- gett, b. June 8, 1818. 6. Aldres Addison, b. Feb. 9, 1820; m. Eveline Kilgore, of Waterford; r. Norway. 7. True Page, b. Dec. 26, 1821, a Methodist preacher. 8. Alfred Smith, b. Dec. 5, 1823, a Methodist preacher, tailor ; m. Aroline Davis, of Unity. 9. Esther Ann, b. June 18, 1826. 10. Maryan Day, b. April 25, 1828. 11. A son, b. June 3, 1829; d. June 3, 1829. - VII. James, b. Jan. 15, 1794 ; m. Caroline Eddy, of Exeter. - VIII. Esther, b. June 25, 1796 ; m., 1822, Rev. True Page, Methodist minister, who d. in Union, Sept. 4, 1838. - IX. Joel, b. Jan. 30, 1800, a Methodist preacher ; m. Jane Hunt, of Readfield; r. Friend- ship. - X. Ruth, b. Jan. 9, 1804.
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