USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harrison > Centennial history of Harrison, Maine > Part 5
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THE PIONEER WOMEN OF OTISFIELD AND HARRISON.
We know that the men who did the most to redeem this territory from its primitive wildness were brave, resolute, and sturdy of body and limb. So were generally their wives and daughters. There are several authentic accounts of the exploits of the pioneer mothers of Otisfield and Harrison that witness to their readiness to cope with any difficulties incident to the undeveloped condition of the country. Mrs. Relief Nutting Moors, wife of Major Jona- than Moors, a soldier of the Revolution, who settled on Otisfield Hill after 1780, made three several trips from Otisfield to Groton, Mass., on horseback, during her married life. On the first trip she carried her one year old son, who would have been the first white child born in town, had not Mrs. Moors been carried by an ox-team to Gray before the birth of her child, for lack of a woman nurse at home.
Another instance showing the fortitude and determination of our fore-mothers, was that of Mrs. Eunice Whiting Ray, who made at least one journey on horseback through
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the wilderness from Otisfield to Wrentham, Mass., for the purpose of visiting relatives and friends at her native home. O! but the pioneer women, for all their resoluteness and courage, were often very homesick, and pined and longed for their kindred, and for the homes of their childhood.
MEN PROMINENT IN RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL MATTERS.
It is a pleasure to remember the worthy men who have, in the past, stood in their allotted places as ministers of the truth, and representatives of the Church of God. I have no particular denomination in mind, but refer to the great Protestant aggregation of Christians with kindred beliefs; of identical purposes; the reclamation of the wicked and the sinner to holy living, and the upholding of the gospel standard set forth in the New Testament. Are not their names, and the memory of their lives precious to us who have survived them, and live to recount the graces, and virtues, and saving influences, for which their pastoral labors were conspicuous in moral effect?
Some of them were men of considerable learning and culture in special lines. I remember one, who was not only an eloquent and impressive preacher of the Word, but was a man of fine education, and served the town for years as a Superintendent of the Public Schools. I refer to the Rev. Cyril Pearl, the graceful and fervid preacher, the intelligent lecturer, and advocate of high attainments in science and art, the man of progressive ideals in every- thing for the betterment of his fellow beings.
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There were others. Of those later champions of higher public education, I can think of several whose zeal and conscientious devotion to the work appointed to them as Supervisors of our schools are historic in our annals. Among them were David Frost, Obadiah Cook, Esq., Dr. S. L. Weston, Dr. H. H. Cole, Wm. M. Brooks, Rev. A. W. Taylor, Rev. L. W. Raymond, Alphonso Moulton, and others equally deserving of mention. To these men, and to those friends of common education who sustained them in the furthering of their advanced ideals, we award a well deserved meed of praise.
MERCANTILE : - A GREAT COUNTRY STORE.
The first man to "keep store" in town is said to have been Capt. Benjamin Foster. His store was located in South Harrison, near the residence of the owner.
With the increase of population in the western section of the town arose the necessity for the establishment of grocery and variety stores, and for years after the first of the century several persons engaged in merchandising at "Harrison Flat," as this village was called for many years. Up to 1840, and for some years after, the largest store and greatest variety of goods were kept by the firm of G. & F. Blake, sons of Grinfill Blake, Esq. It was indeed a great emporium of business in "the forties," employing quite a number of clerks.
It was the custom of the Blakes to purchase a large stock of standard groceries and flour in the autumn to carry them through the long winter, and by this foresight
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they were prepared to take the trade of the large number of well-to-do farmers from upper New Hampshire, and, I think, from beyond the Connecticut River, who brought their big load of hogs and dairy products, and other things from the farm, formerly carried to Portland. Thus it was for several winters preceding the extension of the Atlantic & St. Lawrence R. R. to Bethel, and northward. Many persons present can remember how the village hotel used to be crowded by the up-country farmers, and what a thriving prospect was given to the village by its becoming a market for a prosperous portion of country on the upper Androscoggin and Connecticut Rivers. Thus, for several years the Blake store was rivaling, in the magnitude of its operations, many of the leading city stores.
It was conspicuous for the large number of signs displayed upon the great front of the store. "Farmer's Head- quarters," in letters two feet or more in height, and lesser announcements, with the firm name several times inter- spersed in the pretentious medley of trade catchwords, made the Blake store front an example of the surpassing genius and enterprise of the men who were catering to the neces- sities and tastes of so large a community of patrons. There was no doubt that G. & F. Blake kept that store, and that it was the place where everything could be obtained at a low price.
A gentleman residing in Bridgton, who was formerly well known to many of my elderly hearers, and who had worked on the new extension of the store about 1840, was traveling through the village on the stage one day. While the mail was being changed at the post-office he entered the store and walked around, gazing in affected amazement at the
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immense variety and quantity of merchandise around him. Coming across a young clerk he asked: "Look here, young man; please tell me who keeps this store?" "Why, this is G. & F. Blake's store," replied the young man, "what can I do for you?" He was almost vexed with the man's ap- parent stupidity, with the firm name emblazoned so re- peatedly on the outside of the store. "Oh!" exclaimed the stranger, "I don't want to buy anything; I didn't see any sign, and I thought I'd just ask whose store it was." When the Blakes heard about the inquisitive visitor, and found out who he was, they were intensely amused that their store had been made a butt for one of Hiram Baston's jokes.
Contemporary with the Blakes as local merchants were Johnson Warren, George F. Foster, L. C. Nelson, and possibly others. But the Blake store, after the retirement of Grenfill Blake, still retained its leadership under Francis Blake, Silas Blake, J. H. Illsley, Marshall Jordan, M. Jor- dan & Son; and now the sons of Marshall Jordan, under the firm name of Jordan Brothers, are keeping up the ancient mart of trade as near as the exigencies of the pres- ent time demand.
Of those who have been leading merchants during the last forty years, Thomas R. Sampson, T. R. Sampson & Son, and after the death of Mr. Thomas Sampson, Howard L. Sampson, partner and successor of his father, have been very prominent. Their store was the same erected in the forties by Johnson Warren, opposite the old steamboat land- ing. Other general traders since 1860 have been Josiah Monroe, Monroe & Walker, Evans A. Kneeland, Bailey & Wiggin, and F. H. Ricker.
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MANUFACTURING AND MECHANICAL INDUSTRIES.
Harrison has long been distinguished as the seat of im- portant manufacturing industries. From the operation of the saw mill for making common rough lumber for building purposes, and the grist mill for grinding the corn and grain of the farmers, built by James Sampson about 1800, the factories and shops for the manufacture of many kinds of wood and iron work have been numerous, and several of the most conspicuous are still in active operation.
The most important industrial operation for about fifty years was the wire factory, started about 1834 by Blake & Washburn, afterwards carried on by Charles Farley, Farley & Tolman, and, for the longest and most successful period, by the firm of P. Tolman & Co., consisting of Philander Tolman, Franklin Walker, and John W. Caswell. Under the able and vigorous management of this firm a new and large extension was erected, and the business was much enlarged, requiring the employment of a large number of skilled workmen. The amount of business of the wire factory for nearly forty years, and the amount of money disbursed by its operations, were the means of considerable increase in the town's population and wealth. The wire factory ceased to exist in 1887.
In 1891 the business of chair-making was established here, and occupied the vacated wire factory buildings. It has grown to be a flourishing industry, and, under its present proprietor, Mr. Charles S. Whitney, has acquired extended fame for the excellent quality of its products, which have a sale in the best metropolitan markets.
Away back - so it seems - before the year 1850, after the retirement of Mr. David R. Morse and J. V. R. Kil-
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born from the old blacksmith shop at the corner leading to this beautiful lake, came from Oxford Mr. Timothy H. Ricker and his son, Sherburn H., and commenced the black- smithing business in the old Morse shop .* It was at a time when Harrison was experiencing a boom. The exigencies of trade and travel had caused the building and launching of the Steamer "Fawn" at North Bridgton, and the "old tav- ern," occupied for years by Mr. Lewis Smith, well known as "Deacon Smith," was, under the proprietorship of John Dawes, Esq., extended to twice its original size. But I am talking about the Rickers, who were, after Luther Carman, the pioneers of one of the most substantial industries ever established in this town. I refer to the celebrated foundry and machine works of T. H. Ricker & Sons, now owned and conducted by Messrs. C. F. & A. P. Ricker, former partners in, and now successors to, the firm that existed previous to the death of the senior partner, Mr. T. H. Ricker.
The superior mechanical genius of the Caswell family of this town has been well illustrated and exploited in several lines of industry in this village. Besides the well known ability of Mr. John W. Caswell in promoting the success of the wire business, the career of Mr. Newell N. Caswell as an "all around" mechanic in many lines of con- struction of water power machinery, and his indomitable energy as owner and operator of various mills, are familiar to many present. He was a worker, and after his decease a few years ago, his son Mr. Hollis H. Caswell, who in- herits much of his father's genius for mechanics, continued the business left by him, and enlarged it into many new lines,
*This statement is a mistake. Mr. Ricker did not work at black- smithing.
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but the great amount of business done by him at his general store and his grain mill, has obliged him to entirely abandon the mechanical branches of his business, as far as mills and manufacturing establishments are concerned.
(Since this address was delivered, Mr. Caswell has sold the old mill buildings, and they have been torn down and hauled away, thus removing one of the old landmarks from Harrison Village. They were sold to Mr. Lester M. Went- worth, and were used in the erection of a shop on the bank of Bear River, near the bridge on the North Bridgton road. In the place of this old mill Mr. Caswell has since erected an addition to his grain mill, made necessary by his in- creasing business and which adds much to the capacity and convenience of the mill.)
WHAT WAS HAPPENING ABOUT 1805.
It was a memorable period of the world's history in which Harrison was admitted to the sisterhood of Maine towns. It was in the midst of events that caused kings to tremble with fear, and empires to totter upon their foundations. It was a very perilous period in the early history of our nation, and when events were occurring that convulsed our country with sorrow and indignation, as well as with re- joicing and glorification. It was amidst a succession of political conspiracies for extending the power of rival European monarchies. Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, and George III, King of England, were employing all the resources of their governments to defeat each other in warlike operations on land and sea. It was the day of
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William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, friend of America in Coun- cils of state, and of Lord Nelson, the great admiral, who destroyed the formidable fleet of France in the famous battle of Trafalgar on October 21st, 1805.
It was the day of wonderful inventions of labor-saving machinery in woolen and cotton manufacturing, through the genius of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton and Cart- wright in spinning and weaving, and of Watt in the dis- covery of steam power and its application to manufacturing machinery and to marine navigation. It was the day of remarkable improvement in the making of iron and steel, the building of canals, and the introduction of improved methods of agriculture. It was the day of the spread of common school education and the establishment of higher courses of culture for American youth, and of implanting and fostering in their minds those ideas of liberty and in- dependence of foreign influence which were the theme of the address of the Father of his country in bidding farewell to the scenes and responsibilities of his public life. In short, it was in the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, the most conspicuous of all the centuries in the advance- ment of mankind in religion, in science, in invention, in education, in commercial extension, and in all that pertains to the development of our race towards a better order in government, and in promoting the arts of peace.
In 1805 the first administration of Thomas Jefferson came to a close, and his inauguration to a second term was celebrated. This event was consummated amid a succession of some of the greatest national events that have been ac- complished by the pre-eminent genius and resolute diplomacy of our Presidents and ministers of state. During the ad-
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ministration of Jefferson the great Northwestern territory was added to the national domain. That transaction is known in our history as the "Louisiana Purchase," and is the most notable triumph of peaceful arbitration and treaty- making between our own and a foreign government.
In the month of May, 1804, was commenced the famous exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark from the Mis- sissippi River to the Pacific Ocean and return in two years and four months, during which perilous traversing of the mysterious wilds of the West the General Court of Massa- chusetts was giving kindly answer to a petition of a few humble citizens in the great Eastern district, and - Harrison was born into the happy community of Maine towns.
At this very period our government was exercising its little navy in an effort to subdue and punish several of the Barbary States of Northern Africa for unprincipled and piratical practices of warfare, and for treacherous methods of statescraft in dealing with international problems. In 1803 occurred the gallant exploit of Lieut. Decatur in en- tering the harbor of Tripoli and destroying the warship Philadelphia, which had been captured by a Tripolitan naval force, and lay in the harbor with her guns shotted and primed. We can appreciate the exultant feeling experi- enced by our countrymen at the success of our youthful navy, and of their pride in the valor of that brilliant officer and his gallant compatriots.
That was one of the most trying periods of our history, when our government was engaged in taking account of its military and naval resources, and getting settled in its proper place as a rising nation among the great nations, and in the management of its foreign relations. Napoleon Bona-
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parte, who, as Emperor of France, authorized the sale of the Louisiana territory to our government, is reported in history to have declared: "The day may come when the cession of Louisiana to the United States shall render the Americans too powerful for the Continent of Europe."
If you question the relevancy of my brief allusion to the important national events mentioned, I can only say: I feel that we may well be proud of the fact that in the midst of some of the most remarkable crises of our early national history, Harrison was ushered into corporate existence, and a peaceful procession of hardy emigrants was coming from the mother State and planting happy homesteads in the virgin lands of our territory, where democratic liberty might flourish untrammeled by the restraints of older po- litical systems. Thus we may conceive that our fathers, a hundred years ago, commenced to develop their ideas of organized political life where we are now assembled to commemorate their deeds and their characters as virtuous and patriotic citizens.
CONCLUSION.
Dear Friends : - As we meet after so many years of separation it is natural to recur to the former times when we were in the spring and summer-time of our lives. Perhaps we dream of our "lost youth," and wish that we were young again. A contributor to the National Tribune, the Soldier's paper of Washington, thus describes the emotions so com- mon in our hearts :
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"Oh! dewy morning of youth and hope, What should we do without memory of you? What should we do as we dimly grope Through this after time, Through this fading prime;
What should we do without memory of you?
Why look backward as though for the dawn? Wherefore these fears, these unbidden tears? Why seek we the light of a sun now gone? Alas! we know 'Tis your afterglow ;
Your reflection shining across the years.
But how we treasure those arrows of light! Let them shine on if their day-spring be gone; Let them delude us, they postpone the night ; How they deceive ! We could almost believe
We were present again at the glorious dawn.
Should we grow old thus haunted by Youth ? Must we regret? Must we forget? Is not illusion here better than truth? Can we not seem As young as we dream, And, instead of the shadow, keep the substance yet ?"
In similar strains of poesy have Longfellow, and a Flor- ence Percy, sung of their heart longing for their "lost youth." It is the responsive echo of a universal yearning for the sweetest and best years of our lives.
I am thinking of the happy family circles of the past ; of the beautiful faces and forms of the loved and honored youth who faded from our sight, and fell in the prime of
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early life. We see their names on the white headstones with renewed pangs of sorrow. And the dear little buds of our groups - their loving voices and little caressing hands, those vanished hands !
"Dear little hands, I miss them so! All through the day wherever I go - All through the night, how lonely it seems, For no little hands wake me out of my dreams. * * * * And now my forehead is wrinkled with care, Thinking of little hands once resting there ; But I know, in a happier, more heavenly clime, Dear little hands, I will clasp you sometime."
I ask your indulgence, friends, for this allusion to the distressful events so frequent and numerous in the history of every neighborhood of our town. As parents we never cease to realize the pain and pathos, which, in our ex- periences have made us wish we might have died to save the loved ones from the grave.
"We wind our life about another life, We hold it closer, dearer than our own ; Anon it faints and falls in deadly strife, Leaving us stunned, and stricken, and alone ; But ah! we do not die with those we mourn. This also can be borne.
Behold, we live through all things; famine, thirst, Bereavement, pain ; all grief and misery ; All woe and sorrow; life inflicts its worst On soul and body ; but we cannot die, Though we be sick, and tired, and faint, and worn; . Lo! all things can be borne."
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In this coming to the place so recently my home; where more than half of my mature life has been spent; the birthplace of my children; where many of the strongest ties of friendship have been formed and still exist; I am strongly impressed with the many changes I observe on every hand. I see them in the personalities of my friends, I notice them in the bright verdure of the fields, in the beautiful arrangements of the gardens and lawns surround- ing the homesteads of the town, in the evidence on every hand of the culture and refinement pertaining to the econo- mies of domestic life. It speaks of prosperity, of emula- tion of the best examples of municipal and domestic im- provements. It points to an age of advancement in edu- cation, social and political progress toward the highest ideals in the future of this community. Such observation of the upward trend of public and private conditions of life compel me to declare a newer and stronger affinity and veneration for the things so intimately related to my past years of residence here. "No place like home," is the refrain chanted by every reverent lover of his birth- place, and of the spot where his memories of school, church, and early associations are most prone to center.
We think, as we look backward, and live over again the short span of time since our birth, and consider the near approach of the end of us who have witnessed the events of three-quarters, or more, of the history of our town, that we have but little, if anything, to do, or to meditate upon, but to bid adieu to life and its activities; yield up our fondness for the plotting and the striving for increase of store, and for enhancement of worldly goods; and deny ourselves of the associations which inspire us with renewal
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of anticipation, and a resurgence of enthusiasm and in- tellectual ambition.
But should we thus give up, dear friends, to the almost universal idea that we are ever too old or too infirm to be of little, or no, use in our respective spheres of life?
Dr. O. W. Holmes, who died a few years ago at the age of eighty-five, wrote late in life these inspiring lines :
" 'Tis yet high day, thy staff resume, And fight fresh battle for the truth;
For what is age but life's full bloom, A riper, more transcendent youth ? A weight of gold
Is never old ;
Streams broader grow as downward rolled.
At sixty-two life has begun ; At seventy-three begins once more ;
Fly swifter as thou near'st the sun, And brighter shine at eighty-four. At ninety-five Should thou arrive, Still wait on God, and work and thrive."
Yet the solemn truth remains that the future holds for each one either a guerdon of gladness and joy, or of sadness and sorrow. How we wish that we could see into the future of our lives, and know the secret of the fate that awaits us !
Mrs. Caroline F. Frye, the beloved and gifted wife of our Senator Frye, thus gave utterance to this yearning for knowledge of the future:
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"In the days that are to be, O, dear Father, tell to me What shall come! Shall there be light As the sunshine clear and bright, Full of joy, unmixed with care, And, with heart as free as air, Shall I never burden feel? Oh! to me my days reveal! *
Hark! I hear a voice so low Whisper, 'seek not thou to know All the future, blind to thee With its hidden mystery.
Day by day shall be unsealed, And to thee shall be revealed Whether they be full of light, Or as dark as darkest night; In each one trust thou in me, - As thy days thy strength shall be'."
We have given our thoughts today, and for many days, to memories and traditions of the century that has expired. We have contemplated the lives and fortunes, the virtues and examples of our fathers and mothers of this goodly town and its larger community. We now step upon the threshold of a new century; a century bright with promise of peace and prosperity to all mankind. Perhaps not at once will the blessing of peace come to all, for as long as human slavery and oppression exists there will be war. But a long stride toward a reign of peace is being witnessed in these very days.
To whom are the expectations of greater enlargement of our national power, and of opportunities for elevating
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the masses of mankind in the scale of civilization, of the greatest moment and value? Is it not to the youth, to the boys and girls of today, very soon to be the statesmen and governors of our country? For I do not forget, nor desire to ignore, the imminent probabilities of the speedy acces- sion of the American woman to her rightful sphere and position as a citizen, with the elective franchise in her hand, her right of self-government, and arbiter of her own civic destiny. And when I contemplate the surrender to the women of our country of a privilege wrongfully withheld for so many years, I congratulate every citizen on the bril- liant era at hand when the ranks of American citizen voters will be enlarged by the mustering in of so large a body of cultured, thoughtful, conscientious, and conservative Ameri- cans. Yes, to the boys and girls alike of this time I com- mend the thoughts of the poet, looking down through the vista of the future.
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