USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Holden > Brewer, Orrington, Holden, Eddington : history and families > Part 11
USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Eddington > Brewer, Orrington, Holden, Eddington : history and families > Part 11
USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Orrington > Brewer, Orrington, Holden, Eddington : history and families > Part 11
USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Brewer > Brewer, Orrington, Holden, Eddington : history and families > Part 11
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 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
At about this time the following notice was posted near the town house. Starred words are intentionally misspelled as they were in the original. "Taken up by the Lubershed" a large horse Dark Chesnut* colored with Black maine* and tail with the rear fore foot a little turned in, the ower* is requested to call, pay charge, and take him away."
Men using broad-rimmed wheels on their wagons or carts were rewarded by having their taxes abated for one year. Ap- parently the wear and tear on the roads was so much less that it was worth the while of the town to do this. The regulations stated that the wheels should not be less than five inches in width for ox wagons or carts, and not less than four and one-half inches for horse wagons.
One early method of transportation which is practically extinct today was the jigger. These were used for general hauling, cordwood, spars and masts, and heavy stone on the farms. They had two wheels on each axle which was straight. The long body was constructed of timbers, with cross pieces to which planks were fastened lengthwise. This body was suspended from the rear axle in two places, one on each side, and from the front axle directly in the middle to allow the front axle to swing; thus making it possible for the jigger to turn or change its course.
The hayrack was another familiar sight. This was mounted on the axles and stringers of a high wagon and was made on sills and end pieces into which were set small poles about one inch in diameter and four feet high, and these were set in turn into the top rails. In the front of the rack directly in the center was a tall pole called the "rein stake" on which the driver fastened the reins when he was building the load of loose hay pitched on by the men on the ground.
The first mention of winter care for the roads was made in 1836 when the town voted that the surveyors of highways should
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keep the roads broken out during the winter. Men who worked on clearing the roads were to receive one dollar per day for their services. This was to come out of the next year's tax. The surveyors were directed to purchase a machine for breaking out the roads.
In 1839, the road leading from the County Road to the Bangor Bridge was accepted. It is difficult to place the roads from the brief descriptions given. This might be State Street from the junction of Wilson Street to the bridge.
Miss Alice Farrington at one time said that her family had the pleasure of giving the town three streets. Lincoln, Silk, and Harlow Street are all part of the old Chamberlain Farm.
During the period from 1850 to 1860 there were very few driving horses kept for that particular purpose. However there were a large number of 'utility' horses.
The Church Street bog was drained in 1870 and the Pierce Road was laid out the same year. In 1876-7, concrete sidewalks were built at a cost of $33.40. The record does not state the location of that sidewalk and we should judge it was not very extensive due to the extremely low cost.
At one meeting it was recommended that Fling Street be continued to Burr Street to give outlets to School, Spring, Maple, and Burr and to furnish a back route to the cemetery. This was not accepted, but we have often thought it would be a good idea.
The first mention of street lights was made in 1877 when it is stated that Globe Gas lights were installed as street lights. Later, in 1889, kerosene globe lights were introduced for light- ing the streets. There were thirty-two of these located as fol- lows: nineteen on Main Street, one on Holyoke Street, one on Washington Street, two on State Street, two on Center Street, one on Parker Street, two on Union Street, two on Wilson Street, and two on Elm Street. The total cost of lighting for the year was $227.27 and the cost per lamp was $9.00.
An improved road machine, purchased in the early part of 1889 did a great deal for the betterment of the roads. The cost of this equipment was $265.00.
From a description of the roads of Brewer in 1882 we find that there was one leading highway intersecting the town con-
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tinuously along its entire length. This was called the River Road. It ran about seven miles from one corner of the town to the other, following the Penobscot River all the way. The three major settlements; Brewer Village, the larger cluster around the Brewer Post-Office, and the hamlet of North Brewer, were all on this road. About a mile below the bridge over the river was the cemetery and a little farther above it one of the public schools, both located on the River Road.
Several short roads, the Green Point Road was prominent among them, connected the highways that ran across the town. Four of these cross roads lay about a mile apart. One ran from Brewer Village into Holden, with a branch just out of the Village running into Orrington. This was the Wiswell Road. Another started from the Brewer Post-Office, with three branches, connecting with the wagon bridge over the river and points a little above and below it, straight across to Holden, whence it passed into Dedham, Hancock County. Another road across the town diverged from the middle of the three branches mentioned above, and crossed the town farther to the northeast. Near the point where it crossed Felt's Brook, a cross-road connected it with the other road from the Brewer Post-Office and a quarter of a mile beyond the brook another connected it with the road from North Brewer southward across the town, and ran a half mile beyond it. Near the intersection of the last two roads mentioned another school house was located. On the roads and waters there were a number of mills, brickyards, and other small factories. The Bangor & Bucksport Railroad entered the town from the railway bridge at the Brewer Post-Office and ran near the river, but on the land side of the River Road for about three miles, going through Brewer Village and running into Orrington.
In 1864, a charter was granted for a Bangor-Brewer street railway. However, this line was never built. It is interesting to note that if it had been carried through we should have had horse cars. In 1889, some business men in Bangor started the first electric street railroad, the "trolley cars". This was the first in Maine and one of the first in the United States. A note in the records for September 14, 1914, states that at that time we had "complete street car connection with Bangor after continued agitation along this line for fourteen years", and in 1915 twenty minute car service to Bangor was established. While reading
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newspaper records for the first few months for the year 1900 we found mention of the street cars running to Brewer. Appar- ently in the winter time the service was subject to frequent interruptions, due to the severity of the storms and the difficulty encountered in snow removal. Bus service replaced the street cars in March, 1941.
In 1890, thirteen arc lights were furnished the city by the Electric Light Company, for the remainder of the municipal year at the rate of $75 per year. These were to burn all night and every night. The problem of finding someone to take care of the globe lights had been a difficult one and for six or seven weeks previous to the contracting for electric lights there had not been any street lights at all in the city.
The largest single expense for the street department in the year 1890 was the purchase of one pair of horses and harnesses for $500.00.
Wilson Street had been recorded as a town road about 1793. After this it was listed as a county road and later discontinued as such. Finally it appeared as a city street and was so listed in 1893.
The trees along our streets have always added much to the beauty of our city; and it is with saddened hearts that we have watched the passing of so many of them. That the trees were given consideration in the early days of street and sidewalk construction is shown in the following: "Again the trees which are of large growth, were found to be particularly in the line of obstruction and by vote of the council it was not clearly advised to remove them sound cautious judgment should be exercised in all cases before they fall under the official axe, and the humble little citizen living in his cottage by the wayside should receive as much consideration as the more pretentious cit- izen with all his wealth and influence." The origin of at least some of the trees is shown in the statement that the Helferty Elms were planted by Major Helferty between Union and Church Street on North Main Street.
As has been shown various types of lights were tried for the purpose of lighting the streets of the city. None of them had proved to be entirely satisfactory. In 1899, three incandescent lights were installed for trial and by 1919 there were 117 incandescent lights, thirty-two candle-power, at a cost of $20
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per year; and three arc lights at a cost of $50 per year. In 1947 a survey was made to determine what improvement could be made in the street lighting system without too much expense, and in 1948, a new type of light was installed on eight foot brackets along State Street from North Main to the Auditorium and along Main Street from Allen Street to the Orrington line.
The Eastern Manufacturing Company in 1900, offered gravel - for the hauling for use in street construction and repairs. The city took advantage of this offer and nine hundred and twenty- four loads were hauled.
The purchase of a stone crusher in 1905, to be used for work on the streets, had its reverberations two years later in a state- ment by the Mayor C. H. Small, "The city is the owner of a rock crusher which has been lying idle during the past year. It lies down on the city gravel bank, with a barrel over its smoke-stack. A crusher without a roller is like a cart without a horse."
There is no further reference to this piece of apparatus until 1936 when we find that the stone crusher was set on a per- manent foundation at the gravel bank. It was used to provide the aggregate for all bituminous and concrete construction in graded sizes as required and used much material which had been previously discarded as valueless.
In 1908-9 we saw the beginning of macadamized road in the city. Three hundred and seventy-five feet were built beginning at Center Street and later this was continued one thousand three hundred and ten feet to Brimmer Street under the State Road provisions.
Before hard surfaced roads became another of the improve- ments which we take for granted today, one of the interesting sights of the city was the regular passing of the street sprinkler. This equipment was drawn by two horses and had sort of revolving wheels in the back which threw out water to the sides of the streets to keep the dust from blowing. But time marches on and the street sprinklers have joined the ranks of the ice harvests and ship building in the annals of our past. In 1905 the city purchased the street sprinkler from Mr. Mullen, who had previously sprinkled the streets by contract, and in 1912 a street sprinkling district was tried out.
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An item which would scarcely receive notice in a report of today was certainly worthy of attention in 1914 - an arrest for reckless driving of an automobile. Charles E. Lunt was City Marshal at that time.
In 1920 the separate departments of highways and streets, sidewalks, and bridges, combined under one head because it was handled by one committee, and placed under the direct super- vision of the street commissioner. The highway department is responsible for the maintenance of all streets, roads, bridges, sewers, sidewalks, catch basins, and other facilities under the jurisdiction of the city. This department does all the snow plow- ing on roads, streets, and sidewalks; sands icy streets and walks; and hauls away the snow from the business streets and public buildings. In connection with the latter part of the department's responsibilities a snow loader was purchased in 1946 to provide a more efficient and economical method of removing snow from the business sections.
Disaster hit the highway department in January, 1946, when the department building and garage were destroyed by fire. Also destroyed was all the equipment which had been housed for the night. Little or no new equipment was obtainable at that time and the work had to be carried on with such as could be hired or borrowed. A large measure of credit for the condition of our streets that winter went to the officers and civilian employees of Dow Air Force Base for the whole-hearted manner in which they did the greater part of the snow plowing for Brewer for the remainder of the winter. To replace the building lost, an old storehouse on the river bank back of the Dirigo School was repaired and used for highway headquarters. A work center is a necessity for this department since all maintenance of highway equipment is cared for by the department mechanics in the city's own shop which has facilities for welding and like jobs. All equipment is painted highway orange with city seal for identification.
The City Planning Commission, in 1946, laid out and con- structed streets in the area situated at the eastern end of Wash- ington Street in order to provide space for future building. The program called for the erection of one hundred houses at once and more to follow. At this time Green Acres was born. In 1948 gravel sidewalks with tar surfaces were built in Green Acres.
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A full time city engineer was employed for the first time in 1948. With this action the practice of hiring outside engineering firms to locate street lines, design sewers, and do such jobs, was abandoned. The engineer carries on this work and also acts as building inspector with much better results and at less expense to the city.
Two safety islands were placed in the streets in 1948, one in Penobscot Square and the other at the corner of North Main and Center Street. The latter has since been removed. The former, together with traffic lanes on State Street and the Brewer end of the bridge, as well as traffic lights, provide more orderly movement of traffic and safety for pedestrians in crossing the street at this point.
Our highway department is not without ingenuity, as in 1949 the mechanics of the department built a vacuum leaf loader in the city garage. This piece of equipment reduced the cost of picking up leaves by over fifty percent and gave much faster service. In 1951 it was revised and rebuilt for still better service.
Brewer at present is in a period of fast growth. Many more streets have been laid out in Green Acres and many more homes built in that area. The region along and about Parkway South is in a state of constant change. In this respect Brewer is surely, "Growing Places."
BRIDGES
Before bridges spanned the majestic Penobscot and connected the two cities of Bangor and Brewer; indeed before the white man came, and with him advancing methods of civilization which developed the former hunting grounds of the Indian, these same red men traversed the waters in their canoes of birch bark. The first white men in this area employed the Indian and his canoes to make river crossings possible.
Probably one of the most unusual methods of transportation was that invented by a traveling Methodist clergyman, Joshua Hall, in 1794. Since his traveling was done on horseback and he found it necessary to cross rivers in accomplishing his circuit, he lashed two canoes together. He placed the hind legs of his horse in one canoe and the front legs in the other and started out. The horse was facing down stream. Sometimes this method proved successful; but at other times both the horse and his
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master found themselves enjoying a surprise swim down the stream.
A dam was erected across the main channel of the river by the Penobscot Boom Company in 1826. The sluiceway was sixty feet wide allowing for passage of rafts which were used a great deal on the river at that time.
The Bangor Bridge Company, under their act of incorporation, took preliminary steps for building a bridge to connect Bangor and Brewer in 1831. It was fortunate that the actual building did not get under way that year for on April 1, 1831, there was a great freshet in the river. Following a heavy fall of rain on March 30, the ice was broken in the streams above Bangor, and came down the river with great force. On the night of the 31st prospects began to be alarming. Below the town the ice had jammed causing the river to rise. It threatened to overflow the business part of Bangor. The jam gave way, however, and the water subsided. It was estimated that at least one million shingles, besides other kinds of lumber, were swept off the wharves and lost. Six bridges in this area were torn apart by the ice floes. At this time the center arch of the Kenduskeag bridge was torn out.
Construction of a covered wooden toll bridge, following a design called Town's Patent Lattice Plan, began in 1832. This construction work brought many Irish laborers to the area. It is said that the fights that followed between the woodsmen, laborers, and sailors kept the Bangor police very busy; but they were such fights as would "gladden the heart of any true-born Irishman!"
The bridge was four hundred forty feet long and was con- structed at a cost of $40,000. It was completed in 1833, and served as an artery of traffic between Bangor and Brewer until 1846, when disaster struck. The winter had been an exceptionally cold one and the bed of the river except for the channel seemed to have become an almost solid body of ice. With the coming of warmer weather the river began to break up for thirty or more miles above Bangor and Brewer, while for about twelve miles below it continued to be firmly bound in ice. This ice formed a dam and the water behind it was similar to a very large reservoir. At various places on the river there were ice jams. The worst of these was about twelve miles above Brewer
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where there were some of the largest and most important saw mills. These mills were washed from their foundations and swept down the river as the jams gave way.
The moving blocks of ice together with the debris from the river above was thrown against the piers of the bridge which held for a time. This gave the people a little more time to move their belongings to higher ground. Stores and homes along the river were evacuated.
At midnight the bells of the churches in the city were rung to announce that the ice was giving away. The streets were crowded with people, who rushed to the river banks to witness the excit- ing event. When the ice mass finally started it immediately tore out the center section of the bridge. The jam passed on to High Head, but at the narrows it stopped and the water began to roll back on the two cities. In Bangor the business section was flooded; and in Brewer it was necessary to desert the low sections for some time. The people had to move with great speed to escape the rapidly rising water; but no lives were lost. A family living at the point between Brewer Village and the river were alarmed by the approach of high water, and started for higher land. There were several women in the group. Before they could gain the higher land the water was up to their arm pits. They finally reached what was then an island and were compelled to remain there for the night. Twenty women and children fled to a schoolhouse, but they found they could not return and they had to go back to the hills and remain there until the water subsided. Many bridges, houses, mills, and much lumber were washed out to sea. The loss was estimated at about $200,000.00.
The Bangor Bridge Company rebuilt the covered toll bridge at a cost of $31,000. This time it was built under a design known as the Howe's Improved Patent of the Truss Plan.
For the following fifty-six years the bridge lived an uneventful existence. Daily the artery of life between the two cities passed over it. It was accepted, as most of our blessings are, without thought. The charter issued to the Bangor Bridge Company in 1846 expired in 1896 and the state issued them a new charter, stating that they would be allowed to charge toll until such time as the cities of Bangor and Brewer or either of them purchased the bridge. It has been said that the bridge paid for
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itself in toll many times over. In 1873, a railroad bridge was built for the Bangor & Bucksport Railroad. This was located at the east of the other one. The first railroad bridge was also a covered one. In 1889, there were two separate lines of rail- road running through the city. The bridge for pedestrians and vehicular traffic was still toll, but negotiations were underway for the purchase of the property and the franchise.
Then on one March day in 1902, the old Penobscot decided that things had been quiet around this area long enough and a little excitement should be provided. So the deep laids plans of the river began to form. Papers all over New England had been telling for several days about floods throughout the north- eastern states. Then, on a Thursday in that month of March, the ice which had jammed above the bridge began to break up. The concensus of opinion was that the jam would break and flow down; but it held for about four hours, then at nine o'clock it broke and smashed first against the Maine Central Railroad Bridge and tore out the center of that. It then hit the toll bridge and tore out its middle section. We quote a newspaper reporter of that day who said, "It was an astonishing and un- forgettable sight to see the wreckage moving down on the river amid the ice." Ice crashed against the wharves and carried away much valuable stock.
A Bangor-Brewer Bridge Company was formed. The middle section was replaced with a span of steel. An odd contrast was formed between the metal section and the wooden spans on each end. It was at that time that the toll was removed and the bridge became free. Bangor and Brewer paid proportionately for the bridge.
For about nine years, the mongrel bridge, half wood and half steel, served the people of the two communities. Then in the report of 1910-11 we find the following statement by Mayor Victor H. Mutty: "Through the efforts of our representative to the Legislature, Hon. Patrick Dunn; Hon. C. J. Hutchings, city solicitor; and the cooperation of public spirited citizens; together with the cooperation of the City of Bangor, a bridge bill has been finally passed that will, in my opinion, assure us within a short time of a new bridge across the river."
On October 28, 1911, the work on the new bridge was com- pleted as far as possible. An innovation in paving the surface
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was the use of treated wood paving blocks instead of wooden planking. The men who served on the bridge committee were Bangor Mayor, Charles W. Mullen; Brewer Mayor, Victor H. Mutty; Councilmen Frank A. Thatcher and John E. Kelley; and Alderman George H. Kratzenburg. Joseph T. Mullen was super- intendent on the job; and J. Edward Sullivan was secretary of the special committee. In February, 1912, the six hundred fifty- eight foot span was approved and accepted by E. E. Greenwood of Skowhegan, engineer on the job.
Years passed, and due to the inventiveness and the spirit of progress of the American people, the transportation problem became a very large headache. For many years the people of both cities were discussing one possible solution to the problem in the form of another bridge across the Penobscot. Finally the day came when representatives from both the Bangor and Brewer Chambers of Commerce met with members of the State Highway Commission. Following this meeting a number of hearings were held to determine the opinions of the citizens with regard to the bridge. At long last during the 94th Legislature a resolution authorized the Maine State Highway Commission to conduct a study to find whether or not such a bridge would be feasible. Loren Thompson of Brewer, a member of the Legislature at that time, introduced the legislation which ultimately resulted in the survey. Mr. Thompson was an active supporter of the bridge question from its earliest discussion and he bent all his efforts toward the fight for the passage of the bill. After his term of office in Augusta was over, he returned to Brewer and worked on the problem from the local angle.
Bids for the construction of the new bridge were opened in Augusta, April 29, 1953. The contract was awarded Robert A. Verrier Construction Company of Portland. Ground was broken on Tuesday, May 12, in an informal ceremony which was attended by the legislators concerned, city officials, and repre- sentatives of the construction company and of the consulting engineers, Harrington and Cortelyou of Kansas City.
Construction was completed in time to meet the contract date in spite of many problems, which ranged from strikes to hurri- canes. There were strikes by the steel workers and also in the cement industry. An excessive amount of unfavorable weather also cut short the construction time. Hurricane Carol did her
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